Chapter 14

Matthew 5:6: For they shall be filled.

Showing that the spiritual hunger shall be satisfied.

I proceed now to the second part of the text, a promise annexed: They shall be filled. A Christian's fighting with sin is not like one that beats the air (1 Corinthians 9:26), and his hungering after righteousness is not like one that sucks in only air. Blessed are they that hunger, for they shall be filled.

Those that hunger after righteousness shall be filled; God never bids us seek him in vain. Here is a honeycomb dropping into the mouths of the hungry: they shall be filled. Luke 1:53: He has filled the hungry with good things. Psalm 107:9: He satisfies the longing soul. God will not let us lose our longing. Here is the excellency of righteousness above all things; a man may hunger after the world, and not be filled. The world is fading, not filling; cast three worlds into the heart, yet the heart is not full. But righteousness is a filling thing; indeed it so fills as it satisfies. A man may be filled, and not satisfied; a sinner may take his fill of sin, but that is a sad filling, it is far from satisfaction. Proverbs 14:14: The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways. He shall have his belly full of sin, he shall have enough of it. But this is not a filling to satisfaction; this is such a filling as the damned in hell have — they shall be full of the fury of the Lord. But he that hungers after righteousness shall be satisfyingly filled. Jeremiah 31:14: My people shall be satisfied with goodness. Psalm 63:5: My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow. Joseph first opened the mouths of the sacks, and then filled them with grain (Genesis 42:25). So God first opens the mouth of the soul with desire, and then fills it with good things (Psalm 81:10). For the illustration of this, consider these three things.

First, that God can fill the hungry soul. Second, why he fills the hungry soul. Third, how he fills the hungry soul.

First, that God can fill the hungry soul; he is called a fountain (Psalm 36:9): With you is the fountain of life. The cistern may be empty, and cannot fill us; creatures are often broken cisterns (Jeremiah 2:13). But the fountain is filling; God is a fountain. If we bring the vessels of our desires to this fountain, he is able to fill them. The fullness in God is, first, an infinite fullness. Though he fills us, and the angels who have larger capacities to receive, yet he has never the less himself — as the sun, though it shines, has never the less light. Luke 8:46: I perceive that virtue has gone out of me. Though God lets virtue go out of him, yet he has never the less. The fullness of the creature is limited; it rises just to such a degree and proportion. But God's fullness is infinite; as it has its splendor, so its abundance — it knows neither bounds nor bottom.

Second, it is a constant fullness; the fullness of the creature is a mutable fullness — it ebbs and changes. I could (says one) have helped you, but now my estate is low. The blossoms of the fig tree are soon blown off; creatures cannot do for us what once they could. But God is a constant fullness (Psalm 102:27): You are the same. God can never be exhausted; his fullness is overflowing and ever-flowing. Then surely it is good to draw near to God (Psalm 73:28). It is good bringing our vessels to this spring-head; it is a never-failing goodness.

Second, why God fills the hungry soul. The reasons are:

First, God will fill the hungry soul out of his tender compassion. He knows else the spirit would fail before him, and the soul which he has made (Isaiah 57:16). If the hungry man is not satisfied with food, he dies. God has more compassion than to suffer a hungry soul to be famished. When the multitude had nothing to eat, Christ was moved with compassion, and wrought a miracle for their supply (Matthew 15:32). Much more will he have compassion on such as hunger and thirst after righteousness. When a poor sinner sees himself almost starved in his sins — as the prodigal among his husks — and begins to hunger after Christ, saying, There is bread enough in my Father's house, God will then out of his infinite compassions bring forth the fatted calf, and refresh this soul with the provisions of the gospel. The melting of God's compassions toward a hungry sinner! Hosea 11:8: My heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled. We cannot see a poor creature at the door ready to perish with hunger, but our hearts begin to relent and we afford them some relief. And will the Father of mercies let a poor soul that hungers after the blessings of the gospel go away without an alms of free grace? No, he will not, he cannot. Let the hungry sinner think thus: Though I am full of wants, yet my God is full of compassion.

Second, God will fill the hungry that he may fulfill his word. Psalm 107:9; Jeremiah 41:14; Luke 6:21: Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be filled. Isaiah 44:3: I will pour water upon him that is thirsty; I will pour my Spirit upon your seed. Has the Lord spoken, and shall it not come to pass? Promises are obligatory; if God has passed a promise, he cannot go back. You that hunger after righteousness have God engaged for you; he has, to speak reverently, pawned his truth for you. As his compassions fail not (Lamentations 3:22), so he will not suffer his faithfulness to fail (Psalm 89:33). If the hungry soul should not be filled, the promise should not be fulfilled.

Third, God will fill the hungry soul, because he himself has excited and stirred up this hunger. He plants holy desires in us — and will he not satisfy those desires which he himself has wrought in us? As in case of prayer, when God prepares the heart to pray, he prepares his ear to hear (Psalm 17:1). So in case of spiritual hunger, when God prepares the heart to hunger, he will prepare his hand to fill. It is not rational to imagine that God should deny to satisfy that hunger which he himself has caused. Nature does nothing in vain; should the Lord inflame the desire after righteousness, and not fill it, he might seem to do something in vain.

Fourth, God will fill the hungry, from those sweet relations he stands in to them — they are his children. We cannot deny our children when they are hungry; we will rather spare from ourselves. Luke 11:13: When one born of God shall come and say, Father, I hunger, give me Christ; Father, I thirst, refresh me with the living streams of your Spirit — can God deny? Does God hear the raven when it cries, and will he not hear the righteous when they cry? When the earth opens its mouth and thirsts, God satisfies it (Psalm 65:9-10). Does the Lord satisfy the thirsty earth with showers, and will he not satisfy the thirsty soul with grace?

Fifth, God will satisfy the hungry, because the hungry soul is most thankful for mercy. When the restless desire has been drawn out after God, and God fills it, how thankful is a Christian! The Lord loves to bestow his mercy where he may have most praise; we delight to give to those who are thankful. Musicians love to play where there is the best sound; God loves to bestow his mercies where he may hear of them again. The hungry soul sets the crown of praise upon the head of free grace (Psalm 50:23): Whoever offers praise glorifies me.

Third, how God fills the hungry soul.

Answer: There is a threefold filling.

First, with grace. Second, with peace. Third, with bliss.

First, God fills the hungry soul with grace; grace is filling, because suitable to the soul. Stephen was full of the Holy Ghost (Acts 7:55). This fullness of grace is in respect of parts, not of degrees. There is something of every grace, though not perfection in any grace.

Second, God fills the hungry soul with peace (Romans 15:13): The God of hope fill you with joy and peace. This flows from Christ. Israel had honey out of the rock; this honey of peace comes out of the Rock Christ. John 16, last verse: That in me you might have peace. So filling is this peace that it sets the soul a-longing after heaven; this cluster of grapes quickens the appetite and pursuit after the full crop.

Third, God fills the hungry soul with bliss; glory is a filling thing. Psalm 17, last verse: When I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness. When a Christian awakes out of the sleep of death, then he shall be satisfied, having the glorious beams of God's image shining upon him. Then shall the soul be filled to the brim. The glory of heaven is so sweet that the soul shall still thirst; yet so infinite that it shall be filled.

Those who drink of you, O Christ, refreshed by the sweet stream, shall thirst no more — and yet shall thirst still.

Use. What an encouragement this is to hunger after righteousness! Such shall be filled. God charges us to fill the hungry (Isaiah 58:10). He blames those who do not fill the hungry (Isaiah 32:6). And do we think he will be slack in that which he blames us for not doing? Come with hungerings after Christ, and be assured of satisfaction. God keeps open house for hungry sinners; he invites his guests and bids them come without money (Isaiah 55:1-2). God's nature inclines him, and his promise obliges him to fill the hungry. Consider: why did Christ receive the Spirit without measure (John 3:34)? It was not for himself; he was infinitely full before. But he was filled with the holy unction for this end — that he might distill his grace upon the hungry soul. Are you ignorant? Christ was filled with wisdom that he might teach you. Are you polluted? Christ was filled with grace that he might cleanse you. Shall not the soul then come to Christ, who was filled on purpose to fill the hungry? We love to knock at a rich man's door. In our Father's house there is bread enough. Come with desire, and you shall go away with comfort; you shall have the virtues of Christ's blood, the influences of his Spirit, the communications of his love.

Here are two objections made against this.

Objection 1, from the carnal man: I have hungered after righteousness, yet am not filled.

Answer, first: You say you hunger, and are not satisfied; perhaps God is not satisfied with your hunger. You have opened your mouth wide, but have not opened your ear. When God has called you to family prayer and mortification of sin, you have like the deaf adder stopped your ear against God (Zechariah 7:11). No wonder then that you have not that comfortable filling as you desire. Though you have opened your mouth, yet you have stopped your ear. The child that will not hear his parent is made to do penance by fasting.

Second, perhaps you thirst as much after a temptation as after righteousness. At a Sacrament you seem inflamed with desire after Christ; but the next temptation that comes, whether to drunkenness or unchastity, you fall in and close with the temptation. Satan does but beckon to you, and you come; you open faster to the tempter than to Christ. And do you wonder that you are not filled with the fat things of God's house?

Third, perhaps you hunger more after the world than after righteousness. The young man in the gospel would have Christ, but the world lay nearer his heart than Christ. Hypocrites pant more after the dust of the earth than the water of life. Israel had no manna while their dough lasted; such as feed immoderately upon the dough of earthly things must not expect to be filled with manna from heaven. If your money is your god, never look to receive another God in the Sacrament.

Objection 2, from the godly man: I have had genuine desires after God, but am not filled.

Answer, first: You may have a filling of grace, though not of comfort. If God does not fill you with gladness, yet with goodness (Psalm 107:9). Look into your heart, and see the distillations of the Spirit; the dew may fall, though the honeycomb does not yet drop.

Second, wait a while, and you shall be filled. The gospel is a spiritual banquet, feasting the soul with grace and comfort. None eat of this banquet but such as wait at the table. Isaiah 25:6, 9: In this mountain shall the Lord of Hosts make to all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines well refined; and it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God, we have waited for him; we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation. Spiritual mercies are not only worth desiring, but worth waiting for.

Third, if God should not fill his people to satisfaction here, yet they shall be filled in heaven; the vessels of their desires shall be filled, as those water jars at Cana (John 2), up to the brim.

Matthew 5:6: "For they shall be filled."

Showing that spiritual hunger will be satisfied.

I turn now to the second part of the verse, which contains a promise: they shall be filled. A Christian's battle with sin is not like a man swinging at air (1 Corinthians 9:26), and his hunger for righteousness is not like breathing in empty air. Blessed are those who hunger, for they shall be filled.

Those who hunger for righteousness will be filled. God never tells us to seek Him in vain. Here is a honeycomb dropping into the mouths of the hungry: they shall be filled. Luke 1:53: "He has filled the hungry with good things." Psalm 107:9: "He has satisfied the thirsty soul." God will not allow our longing to go unanswered. This shows one great advantage righteousness has over everything else: a person can hunger after the world without ever being filled. The world disappoints — it does not fill. You could pour three worlds into the human heart and it would still be empty. But righteousness is filling — and not only filling, but satisfying. A person can be filled without being satisfied. A sinner may have his fill of sin, but that is a bitter kind of fullness, far from satisfaction. Proverbs 14:14: "A backslider in heart will have his fill of his own ways." He will get all the sin he could want — more than enough. But this is not a satisfying fullness. It is the kind of fullness the condemned have in hell — full of the fury of God. But the person who hungers for righteousness will be filled to complete satisfaction. Jeremiah 31:14: "My people will be satisfied with My goodness." Psalm 63:5: "My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness." Joseph first opened the mouths of the sacks, then filled them with grain (Genesis 42:25). God does the same — He first opens the soul's mouth with desire, then fills it with good things (Psalm 81:10). To understand this more fully, consider three things.

First, that God can fill the hungry soul. Second, why He fills the hungry soul. Third, how He fills the hungry soul.

First, God can fill the hungry soul. He is called a fountain (Psalm 36:9): "For with You is the fountain of life." A cistern may run dry and cannot satisfy us. Created things are often cracked cisterns (Jeremiah 2:13). But the fountain is ever full. God is a fountain. If we bring the vessels of our desire to this fountain, He is able to fill them. The fullness in God is, first, infinite. Though He fills us — and the angels, who have far greater capacity — He is never diminished, just as the sun, however brightly it shines, loses none of its light. Luke 8:46: "I was aware that power had gone out of Me." Though power goes out from Him, He has no less. The fullness of any created thing has limits — it rises only to a certain level. But God's fullness is infinite. It has both splendor and abundance — without boundary or bottom.

Second, God's fullness is constant. The fullness of created things shifts and ebbs. "I could have helped you before," someone might say, "but now my resources are low." The fig tree's blossoms are quickly blown away. Created things cannot always do for us what they once could. But God is a constant fullness (Psalm 102:27): "You are the same." God can never be exhausted. His fullness overflows and never stops flowing. How good it is, then, to draw near to God (Psalm 73:28). It is well worth bringing our vessels to this source. It is a goodness that never runs dry.

Second, why does God fill the hungry soul? The reasons are as follows.

First, God fills the hungry soul out of His tender compassion. He knows that otherwise the spirit would fail before Him — the very souls He has made (Isaiah 57:16). If a starving person is not given food, he dies. God is too compassionate to let a hungry soul perish. When the crowd had nothing to eat, Christ was moved with compassion and worked a miracle to provide for them (Matthew 15:32). How much more will He have compassion on those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. When a poor sinner sees himself nearly starving in sin — like the prodigal among his husks — and begins to hunger for Christ, saying, "There is bread enough in my Father's house," God will then out of His infinite compassion bring out the fatted calf and refresh that soul with the provisions of the Gospel. How deeply God's heart moves with compassion toward a hungry sinner! Hosea 11:8: "My heart is turned over within Me, all My compassions are kindled." Even we cannot see a poor creature at our door on the verge of starvation without our hearts softening toward them. Will the Father of mercies let a poor soul that hungers for the blessings of the Gospel leave empty-handed, without a gift of free grace? No — He will not. He cannot. Let the hungry sinner think: Though I am full of needs, my God is full of compassion.

Second, God fills the hungry soul in order to keep His word. Psalm 107:9; Jeremiah 41:14; Luke 6:21: "Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied." Isaiah 44:3: "I will pour out water on the thirsty land... I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring." Has God spoken? Then it will come to pass. Promises are binding. Once God has made a promise, He cannot go back on it. You who hunger for righteousness have God committed to your cause — He has, reverently speaking, staked His very word on your behalf. Just as His compassions never cease (Lamentations 3:22), He will not allow His faithfulness to fail (Psalm 89:33). If the hungry soul were not filled, then the promise would go unfulfilled.

Third, God fills the hungry soul because He Himself stirred up that hunger in the first place. He plants holy desires within us — and will He not then satisfy the very desires He placed there? In prayer, when God prepares the heart to pray, He prepares His ear to hear (Psalm 17:1). In the same way, when God prepares the heart to hunger, He prepares His hand to fill. It would make no sense to imagine God would refuse to satisfy the hunger He Himself created. God does nothing in vain. If He kindles a desire for righteousness and then leaves it unfilled, it would appear that He acted without purpose.

Fourth, God will fill the hungry because of the dear relationship He has with them — they are His children. We cannot turn away our own children when they are hungry. We would sooner take from ourselves to give to them. Luke 11:13: When a child born of God comes saying, Father, I am hungry — give me Christ; Father, I thirst — refresh me with the living streams of Your Spirit — can God refuse? Does God hear the raven when it cries, and will He not hear His own people when they cry? When the earth opens its mouth and thirsts, God satisfies it (Psalm 65:9-10). If God satisfies the thirsty earth with rain, will He not satisfy the thirsty soul with grace?

Fifth, God will satisfy the hungry because the hungry soul is the most grateful for mercy. When a soul has been straining after God in restless longing, and God then fills it, how grateful that Christian becomes! The Lord loves to give His mercy where He will receive the most praise. We ourselves prefer to give to those who are genuinely thankful. Musicians love to play where the acoustics are best. God loves to bestow His gifts where He will hear them praised. The hungry soul places the crown of praise on the head of free grace (Psalm 50:23): "He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me."

Third, how does God fill the hungry soul?

Answer: There are three kinds of filling.

First, with grace. Second, with peace. Third, with glory.

First, God fills the hungry soul with grace. Grace is filling because it is perfectly suited to the soul. Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:55). This fullness of grace is fullness in kind, not necessarily in degree. There is something of every grace, even if not perfection in any grace.

Second, God fills the hungry soul with peace (Romans 15:13): "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace." This peace flows from Christ. Israel found honey in the rock. This honey of peace comes from the Rock, Christ. John 16:33: "That in Me you may have peace." This peace is so filling that it makes the soul long for heaven. The cluster of grapes from Canaan whets the appetite and quickens the pursuit of the full harvest.

Third, God fills the hungry soul with glory. Glory is a filling thing. Psalm 17:15: "As for me, I shall behold Your face in righteousness; I will be satisfied with Your likeness when I awake." When a Christian awakens from the sleep of death, he will be satisfied — standing in the radiant beams of God's own image. Then the soul will be filled to the brim. The glory of heaven is so sweet that the soul will still thirst — yet so infinite that it will also be completely filled.

"Those who drink of You, O Christ, refreshed by the sweet stream, shall thirst no more — and yet shall thirst still."

What an encouragement this is to hunger for righteousness! Those who do shall be filled. God commands us to fill the hungry (Isaiah 58:10). He rebukes those who do not fill the hungry (Isaiah 32:6). Do we think He will fail to do the very thing He holds us accountable for neglecting? Come with hunger for Christ, and be confident of satisfaction. God keeps an open house for hungry sinners — He invites His guests and tells them to come without money (Isaiah 55:1-2). God's own nature draws Him to fill the hungry, and His promise binds Him to it. Consider: why did Christ receive the Spirit without measure (John 3:34)? It was not for His own sake — He was already infinitely full. He was filled with the holy anointing precisely so that He might pour grace out on the hungry soul. Are you in the dark? Christ was filled with wisdom so that He might teach you. Are you defiled? Christ was filled with grace so that He might cleanse you. Will the soul not come to Christ, who was filled for the express purpose of filling the hungry? We love to knock at a wealthy person's door. In our Father's house there is more than enough bread. Come with desire, and you will leave with comfort — filled with the benefits of Christ's blood, the work of His Spirit, and the warmth of His love.

Two objections are raised against this.

Objection 1, from the worldly person: I have hungered after righteousness, but I have not been filled.

First answer: You say you hunger but are not satisfied. Perhaps God is not satisfied with your hunger. You have opened your mouth wide, but you have not opened your ear. When God has called you to pray with your family and to put sin to death, you have closed your ear against God like the deaf snake (Zechariah 7:11). No wonder you have not experienced the filling you desire. You have opened your mouth but stopped your ears. A child who refuses to obey a parent is made to go without.

Second, perhaps you crave temptation as eagerly as you crave righteousness. At the Lord's Supper you appear to burn with desire for Christ — but when the next temptation arrives, whether to drunkenness or sexual sin, you give in and welcome it. Satan only has to beckon, and you come running. You open your heart faster to the tempter than to Christ. And you wonder that you are not filled with the rich things of God's house?

Third, perhaps you hunger more after the world than after righteousness. The young man in the Gospel wanted Christ, but the world sat closer to his heart than Christ did. Hypocrites pant more after the dust of the earth than after the water of life. Israel had no manna while their own supplies lasted. Those who feed excessively on earthly things should not expect to be filled with manna from heaven. If money is your god, do not expect to receive another God in the Lord's Supper.

Objection 2, from the sincere Christian: I have had genuine desires after God, but I am not filled.

First answer: You may have a filling of grace even if not of comfort. If God has not filled you with joy, He has filled you with goodness (Psalm 107:9). Look into your heart and see the quiet work of the Spirit. The dew may be falling even when the honeycomb has not yet begun to drip.

Second, wait a little longer, and you will be filled. The Gospel is a spiritual banquet, feasting the soul with grace and comfort. Only those who wait at the table are served. Isaiah 25:6, 9: "The Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain... And it will be said in that day, 'Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us... Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.'" Spiritual mercies are not only worth longing for — they are worth waiting for.

Third, even if God does not fill His people to complete satisfaction in this life, they will be filled in heaven — the vessels of their desire filled as the water jars at Cana were filled (John 2), to the very brim.