Do you hunger and thirst for righteousness?

Jeff Pollard explains in this video that among Christians today, there is often a lack of those who hunger for holiness. This stems from a false gospel that is preached. Holiness arises from a heart made new by the power of the Holy Spirit. When we have a repentant heart, we hunger and thirst for righteousness. There is a desire for holiness.

All too often, people become "saved" after they accept a promise of a "quick fix" that will prevent them from going to Hell. Yet, there is no understanding of their desperate need of Christ and no brokenness. Modern Christianity is largely self-content. There is little hunger and thirsting for righteousness. The Gospel is not preached and approached this way throughout Scripture. Rather, a true believer realizes that he is not how God desires for him to be. He longs and desires to obey and be like Christ.

Matthew 5:6 (NKJV) - "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled."

When I see modern Christianity, one of the things that breaks my heart is that there seems to be no hunger for holiness. And that stems, I believe, from the anemic gospel that is preached. In fact, I would say In some venues, it's indeed a false gospel. Holiness arises from a heart made new by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount said, Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness.

When we have a heart that is indeed lowly, When we see a repentant heart, we see a heart that is hungering and thirsting for righteousness. There's a desire for holiness. Modern Christianity has been given this quick fix. Here's your fire insurance policy. You don't want to go to hell?

Here, have Jesus and that will keep you from going to hell. But the gospel is not preached that way. I believe in hell, I preach the doctrine of hell, but the gospel is not approached that way in the Scriptures. And so what we generally end up finding then with easy believe-ism is a notion that, yeah, I believe in Jesus and all this too. You know, the world is mine, and now I'm off to heaven.

I don't want to doubt it. I'm not saved by my works. And they go on. There has been no understanding of their desperate need of Christ, and so there's no brokenness. They've not been brought to a place of understanding their poverty of spirit.

And until we reach that, then we realize, I can't be what God wants me to be. I want to be what God wants me to be, but I don't know how. I don't seem to have the power. I long to be like Jesus. I long to obey Him.

You see, those are beginning to sound like signs of life. Modern Christianity is self-content, smug. You don't see much of a hunger for righteousness, a hunger and a thirsting for true holiness that grieves me beyond words. So I would say that's one of the first things that strikes me. And it doesn't matter whether it's Reformed circles or anybody else, it is rare to find what the Scriptures say plainly.

Sure, it says, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. But the passage goes on to tell us that they went down to the jailer's house and they preached Christ. And there was clearly some sign of conversion. They took them, They baptized them, and they went on to walk with the Lord. So I must go back to Titus chapter 2.

The grace of God that brings salvation hath appeared, teaching us that. This is God's glorious work in the heart of the human soul, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly. It is God's school. We are His children and His kindergarten. He begins to teach us to despise what he despises and to love what he loves.

I don't see that in many Christians.