I've entitled this message, Blessed
Are They That Mourn. Now that doesn't make a lot of
sense, does it? Blessed are they that mourn. And I would not say
happy are they that mourn, for they're not happy. But they are blessed, blessed
of God. highly favored of God. They would not be mourning were
they not highly favored and blessed of God. Blessed are they that
mourn. Now this is obviously not speaking
of all mourning. Read in Revelation chapter 18
of the Merchants who mourned over the destruction of Babylon. They mourned with a great mourning,
but it wasn't this kind of mourning. They were mourning over what
they perceived they had lost because of the destruction of
Babylon. The word mourning in our text
is the word that's usually associated with mourning over death. Have you ever mourned the death
of a loved one? Of course you have. While they
were alive, you had some hope maybe the Lord would raise them
up. But once they're dead, all you can do is mourn. All hope
is gone that they might be delivered. Now, how is that synonymous with
mourning over sin? Well, when you mourn over sin,
you're mourning over sin the same way you mourn over a death.
There's nothing you can do to make it go away. And you mourn. And you hate it. You're not indifferent
to it. You're not apathetic about it.
You mourn over your sin. And this is something that goes
on all the time in a believer's life. David put it this way,
my sin is ever before me. And as long as we're in this
life, our sin will be ever before us. You know, when Matt was reading
that passage in Revelation chapter seven, and he said, there'll
be no more hungering and no more thirsting in heaven, but here
there's continual hungering and thirsting after righteousness.
Blessed are they that mourn. The mourning that goes on here
sometimes is mingled with bitterness and anger. I've seen people who
became angry over the death of a loved one and even bitter in
their mourning. Now that's not a state of blessedness.
Resentment, mourning over circumstances. Oh, things are so bad. That's
not the mourning the scripture is talking about or the mourning
and embarrassment and humiliation of being exposed or caught in
your sin, or somebody finds out about it and you mourn and you're
embarrassed and you're humiliated. That's not the mourning spoken
of in our text. Blessed are they that mourn. Now this mourning is born out
of being poor in spirit. If you and I are poor in spirit,
and that's God's favor, that's God's grace, you don't have anything
to recommend you to God. You have Christ, but you have
nothing else, nothing that comes from you. If you're poor in spirit,
you will mourn over your sin. And this is a state of blessedness.
It's being the recipient of God's favor. If you want to understand
what mourning over sin is, read Romans chapter seven. That's
the healthy state of a believer. That is what mourning over sin
is. Read that. It's the experience
of mourning over sin. Now I want to look at a passage
in Psalm 38, if you'll turn with me there. I want to use this as the psalm
that expresses mourning over sin, because David said in verse
6 of Psalm 38, I'm troubled. I'm bowed down greatly. I go
mourning. There's the word. I go mourning
all the day long. Now, first and foremost, This
is a psalm of Christ from the cross. He is the only one who
ever mourned as he ought to mourn. You realize that your mourning
falls short, doesn't it? There's too much hardness in
it. You mourn over your lack of mourning. You think you ought
to mourn more, and indeed you should. The only one who practiced
the true mourning of sin that there is is Jesus Christ, because
my sin actually became his sin. and he mourned over it. Now somebody
says, did he commit a sin? Of course he didn't. He's incapable
of committing a sin. He never committed a sin, but
he bore our sins to this extent as we read this. Now we're going
to look at these as the words of Christ from the cross, but
these are also the words of David mourning over his sin. And if you're a believer, you're
going to enter in to this psalm. Let's read this psalm together.
O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath, neither
chasten me in thy hot displeasure. For thine arrows stick fast in
me, and thy hand presseth me sore. There is no soundness in
my flesh because of thine anger. Neither is there any rest in
my bones because of my sin. Now that's how truly the Lord
owned our sins. He called it my sin. And David and me and you call
it my sin. What he says in verse four, for
mine iniquities are gone over mine head. I'm drowning and going
under as an heavy burden. They're too heavy for me. My
wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness. I'm
troubled. I am bowed down greatly, I go
mourning all the day long, for my loins are filled with a loathsome
disease, and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and
sore broken, I have roared by reason of the disquietness of
my heart. Lord, all my desire is before
thee, and my groaning is not hid from thee. My heart panteth. My strength faileth me, as for
the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me. You know, the
Lord had complete darkness on the cross, and you know what
it is to feel like you don't have any light. That's what David
feels at this time. He says, my lovers and my friends
stand aloof from my sore, and my kinsmen stand afar off. They
don't want to be around me. They also that seek after my
life lay snares for me. And they that seek my heart speak
mischievous things and imagine deceits all the day long. But
I as a deaf man heard not. And I was as a dumb man that
opened not his mouth. Thus I was a man that heareth
not and whose mouth are no reproofs. You know, that stopped me when
I was thinking about this. If I'm ready to censor people
and correct them, there's not much mourning going on with me.
David said, I can't even reprove anybody. I am so overcome with
my iniquities that go over my head. Verse 15, for in thee,
O Lord, do I hope. Thou wilt hear, O Lord, my God,
for I said, hear me. lest otherwise they should rejoice
over me. When my foot slippeth, they magnify
themselves against me. For I am ready to halt. And my sorrow is continually
before me. Blessed are they that mourn.
For I will declare mine iniquity. I will be sorry for my sin. Now,
I love to think of these as the words of the Lord. They're my
words. They're your words. I declare my iniquity. I confess
my iniquity. I'm sorry for my sin, but have
I ever confessed my iniquity as it ought to be confessed?
No. There's always been a lack of sincerity on my part. There's
always been a lack of sorrow upon my part. But here, the only
one who knew sin much more intimately than we do when he
was made sin because we're so hard-hearted. Oh, his holy soul being made sin. He says, I'll declare mine iniquity. I'll be sorry for my sin, but
mine enemies are lively and living. They're strong and they that
hate me wrongfully are multiplied. They also that render evil for
good are mine adversaries because I follow the thing that good
is. Forsake me not, O Lord, O my God, be not far from me. Make
haste to help me, O Lord, of my salvation. Now that is mourning over sin. Blessed are they that mourn. God's favor is upon you. God's
blessing is upon you, blessed are they that mourn. Now would you turn with me to
Zechariah chapter 12. Zechariah is the second to the
last book in the Old Testament. Zechariah chapter 12. Verse 10. Now here's where mourning comes
from. If you wanna know why you mourn, here's why. Verse 10,
and I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants
of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications. That supplications
means needing and asking for divine favor. When he pours his
spirit of grace on you, you're gonna start asking for his grace.
And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced and they shall
mourn for him. Now there's no mourning for sin
apart from the cross of Jesus Christ. There's no understanding
of sin apart from the cross of Jesus Christ. Now this is something
an unbeliever never does. He has no idea what it is to
mourn over sin. Oh, he might mourn over the consequences
of sin. He might mourn over the trouble
sin has brought into his life. But he never mourns over sin
by seeing Jesus Christ and Him crucified. You know, it's only
in the light of the cross that I see what sin is in the first
place. Sin is so evil that when the spotless Lamb of God took
it upon Himself and drank that cup and was made sin, God, His
Father, killed Him. That's how bad sin is. and you
don't have any understanding, I don't have any understanding
of sin apart from seeing what Christ had to do to put it away
and to make it not to be. That is mourning over sin. Now, let's go on reading. And
I will pour, verse 10, and I will pour upon the house of David
and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplications
and they shall look upon me whom they've pierced And they shall
mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be
in bitterness for him as one that is in the bitterness for
his firstborn. This mourning is like mourning over the death
of your firstborn. In that day shall there be a
great mourning in Jerusalem. That day when he's poured out
the spirit of grace and supplications. In that day there shall be a
great mourning in Jerusalem as the mourning of Hadad, Rimen
in the valley of Migadon, which is talking about when Josiah
died and the mourning that took place in Jerusalem at that time.
Now, I want us to pay attention to the word apart. Verse 12,
and the land shall mourn every family apart by themselves, individually. The family of the house of David,
apart. And their wives, apart. The family of the house of Nathan,
apart. And their wives, apart. The family of the house of Levi,
apart. And their wives, apart. The family
of Shemai, apart. And their wives, apart. All the
families that remain, every family, apart. And their wives, apart. Now, When you mourn over your
sin, it's something you do by yourself. You're not doing it
with somebody else. David said, my sin is ever before
me. This is done apart. If you're
making a big public display of it, I don't believe it's sincere.
This is something that is done apart, not letting everybody
know how, like the man disfiguring his face, fasting, so everybody
will know how he is, whatever he's going through. No, this
is done apart. This is something done only between
you and the Lord. And it's continual. If you're
not mourning, you're in bad shape. This is the blessing of His grace.
Blessed are they that mourn. Oh, the blessing of God's grace
in being enabled to mourn over your sin. Now, you're mourning
when you see in your heart that you can't make your sin go away.
That's why you're mourning. And you realize the only way
it can be put away is Hebrews 1, 3, when he had by himself,
with no contribution from you, with no help from you, when he
had by himself purged our sins, he sat down at the right hand
of the majesty on high. This morning is apart. David said, The only have I sinned
and done this evil in thy sight. When it says, if we confess our
sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us for our sin. He's
not talking about us doing it together. Let's get together
and confess our sins. No, this is what every believer
does individually. If we before God confess our
sins, What's that mean? To agree with what God says about
our sins. To take sides with God against
ourselves if we confess our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Look in chapter 13 of Zechariah,
verse 1. In that day, this day when I
pour the Spirit of grace and supplications upon the children
of Israel, in that day when they look upon Me whom they've pierced
and mourned, and this mourning is a part, it's individual, it's
not corporate, it's something that I do in my heart before
God. In that day, there shall be a fountain opened. Not closed,
there shall be a fountain opened to the inhabitants of Jerusalem
for sin and for uncleanness. Now, you know, that's where we
get that song. There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners plunge beneath that
flood, lose all their guilty stains. The dying thief rejoiced
to see that fountain in his day. And there may I, though vile
as he, wash all my sins away. E'er since by faith I saw the
stream thy flowing wound supplied, redeeming love has been my theme,
and shall be till I die. When this poor, lispring, stammering
tongue lies silent in the grave, then in a nobler, sweeter song
I'll sing thy power to save. All who are blessed of God mourn
over their sin. I wanna read a passage of scripture
to you from Ecclesiastes chapter seven, verse two. It's better to go to the house
of mourning than to go to the house of feasting.
For that is the end of all men, and the living will lay it also
to his heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by the sadness
of the countenance the heart is made better. The heart of
the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in
the house of mirth." Now, remember the publican? Beating upon his
breast the source of his mourning, an evil heart. Do you know he
had an evil heart? beating on his breast, God, be merciful,
be propitious to me, the sinner. That's mourning over sin. If you wanna know what it is
to mourn over sin, look at this man. But you know the scripture says,
blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. You know how that publican was
comforted? The Lord said, I say unto you,
that man went down to his house justified, without guilt, without
sin, perfectly righteous before God. And that's the end of all
mourners. Everybody that mourns over sin. Don't try to work it up. I need
to mourn more. No, don't try to work it up.
Look to Christ and you'll mourn over sin. That's the key to mourning. Now turn with me to a very familiar
passage of scripture in Isaiah chapter 40. Blessed are they that mourn,
they shall be comforted. Isaiah chapter 40, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your
God. Comfort my people. He doesn't say comfort every
son of Adam. He says, comfort ye, comfort ye. I'm glad he repeated
it, just in case you didn't hear. Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people. Matthew 1, 21, thou shalt call
his name Jesus, for he shall save who? His people from their
sins. Now, who are his people? If I
said the elect, I would be right. If I said the sheep of Christ
for whom He died, I would be right. If I said those who believe,
I'd be right. But do you want to know if you're
one of His people? Are you someone who needs to be saved from your
sins? That's who His people are. They
need to be saved from their sins, because they're dead sure they
can't save themselves from their sins, and they need for Him to
save them from their sins. Lord, save me. That's their prayer. Save me from my sins. That's
what it is to mourn over sin. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God. Speak comfortably. My marginal reading says, speak
to their heart. Now that's talking about the
new heart. If you don't have a new heart,
you can't be comforted by the gospel. This is that heart of
understanding that understands as much as a new heart can who
God is, who they are, and how He saves by His grace. Will,
that's the affections. The gospel is addressed to the
heart. That's the heart that that public
one was beating on his breast. That's the heart he's speaking
of. It's the new heart that understands sin. A natural man can't understand
sin. Somebody that doesn't know the
gospel doesn't understand sin. Oh, they understand bad things
and people do bad things. But there's no understanding
of sin apart from the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's
no mourning over sin apart from looking on him whom they have
pierced. Now he says, come for ye, come
for ye my people. Say, if you're God, speak ye
comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her. Make sure she hears. Now I can't make sure anybody
hears, I can't make myself hear, but what he's saying is, make
sure she hears. Comfort twice, cry unto her. I want this to be heard. Cry unto her that her warfare
is accomplished. That her iniquity is pardoned. for she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. Now he speaks of a warfare. Now that warfare is the warfare
that Paul alludes to in Galatians chapter 5 verse 17 when he says
the lusts, the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit lusts
against the flesh and these are contrary one to another so that
you cannot do the things you would. You would. Never sin again. How's that work for you? You would sin in such a way that
would make everybody in here blush and just turn away from
you, but you can't. The flesh lusts against the Spirit. Now the Spirit's not talking,
that's not talking about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not
in a battle. He wins. This is talking about
the spiritual nature given in the new birth. The flesh, your
old man, lusts against this new man, the spiritual man, the new
man, the Spirit, lusts against the flesh, and these are contrary
one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you
would. Every believer has two natures.
You know that. You experience it. That's a scriptural
term. Paul said we're by nature, children
of wrath, even as others. That's the old man. And Peter
said we're partakers of the divine nature. That's the new man. These two, as long as we're in
the flesh, are at odds. And they will be so until we
put down this flesh and we are perfectly conformed to the image
of Jesus Christ in heaven without any even remembering what it
is to have conflict. Now he says, you tell her that
that conflict she's experienced, you've already won. It's accomplished. This is not
something you need to worry about in the sense of thinking you're
going to end up going to hell, because the victory has already
been accomplished. Tell her. Tell her. Cry to her. Say it twice. Comfort, comfort. Her warfare
is accomplished. I love the way the gospel begins
at the ending. It's already accomplished. You're
saved. Your warfare is accomplished. Your iniquity is pardoned. Put away. Blotted out. I love the way the gospel message
doesn't end with the forgiveness of sins. It doesn't say if you
do this and this and that and stop doing this and start doing
that and quit doing that and strip. No, it begins, her iniquity
is pardoned. The full putting away of sin. Four. hath received of the Lord's hand
double for all our sin. Now instead of being punished
for your sin, you're justified from all your sins. Now that's the comfort of the
gospel. And every message, every gospel message is a comforting
message. If I hear a message that doesn't
comfort me, I'm not hearing the gospel. Every gospel message
is a comforting message. That doesn't mean we're not admonished.
That doesn't mean we're not reproved. Of course, all kinds of that's
going on in gospel preaching. But every gospel message, if
it's a gospel message, is a comforting message. If I listen to a message
and I go away thinking, well, I'm lacking something. I'm missing
something. There's something that I don't have that I need
to have. I'm not hearing the gospel. I'm hearing a works message. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God. Now I wanna end by turning to
Genesis chapter 22, because on the very day that I prepared
this message, I read this passage of scripture and it comforted
me so much and I hope it'll do the same for me right now and
for you. Genesis 22, this is what we're
going to. end with. Verse one. And it came to pass. You know, I love that phrase. God purposed it. It came to pass.
You could say that with regard to everything. God purposed it. It came to pass. And it came to pass after these
things that God did tempt Abraham. He tested him. And he said unto him, Abraham, And he said, behold, here am
I. Now, every time Abraham heard his name from heaven, it was
before some kind of trial. And I bet when Abraham heard
his name, he winced. What's getting ready to happen
now? But he responds, behold, here
I am. Verse two, and he said, Take
now thy son, thine only son, Isaac. Wasn't Ishmael his son? God doesn't
acknowledge him to be the child of the flesh where Sarah and
Abraham decided to help God out to make sure the promise comes
to pass. It's not gonna come to pass unless we do our part.
There we have Ishmael. God never acknowledges Ishmael
as a son. Take now thy son, thine only
son, Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of
Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of
the mountains, which I will tell thee of. Now, I want you to think
of that command. Take your son, cut his throat,
quarter him, put him on an altar, and burn him. And Abraham rose up early in
the morning. I kind of feel like he didn't
tell Sarah about this. and saddled his ass, and took
two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and claimed
the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went into the
place of which God had told him. Then on the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and
saw the place afar off." Now how much conflict do you think
Abraham felt during those three days? And he knew that God was going
to raise his boy from the dead. He knew that all along because
God had promised that the Messiah would come through him. He knew
that in obeying God, killing his son, God would raise him
from the dead. But still, how much conflict
did he feel at the thought of killing his son? How much mourning
was he going through? Verse five, and Abraham said
unto his young men, abide ye here with the ash, and I and
the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. Now what I see first of all is
that he knew they were coming again, I and the lad, We're coming
back, but we're going to worship. What is necessary for worship? Sacrifice. There is no worship
of God apart from the sacrifice. He was going to worship. He was going to sacrifice. People say, well, worship of
God is obedience. Listen, I wanna be obedient,
but there's no real reverence for
God there. Oh, my obedience. No, the sacrifice of Christ.
The sacrifice, no worship apart from the sacrifice. Verse six,
and Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid
it upon Isaac, his son, and took the fire in his hand and a knife,
and they went both of them together. And I don't have to tell you
that there's someone else that carried the wood for his own
sacrifice up a hill. Do you know, I was actually reading
a book on preaching. This had been years ago. And
the preacher, whoever wrote the book, was warning against trying
to strain the scriptures and get something out of them that's
not there. And he used the example of Genesis
22. He said, this was written for
one purpose, to show the obedience of Abraham. And some people try
to take this and make it a gospel type. You know what I did? I took the book and I threw it
against the wall. I never looked at it again. This is the gospel
so clear? And Abraham took the wood of
the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son, and he took
the fire in his hand and a knife, and they went both of them together.
And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father and said, my father.
And he said, here am I, my son. And he said, behold, the fire
and the wood. But where is the lamb for a burnt
offering? He knew you had to have a lamb
for a burnt offering. And all they had was the fire
and the wood. Where is the lamb? And I tell you what, every sermon
preached without exception ought to be judged by that statement.
Where is the lamb? If he's not there, it wasn't
a gospel message. I don't care what else it was.
Where is the lamb? And I can't imagine how Abraham
would have felt when his son asked him this question. And
look at his answer in verse eight. And Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb
for a burned offering. You can't provide anything. Do
you believe that? You can't provide anything that
he'd accept. God will provide. God will provide for himself.
Now, this is so important. The blood was not so much for
you, but for God. For Him to do something for me,
He had to do something for Himself. And that is what the Lamb of
God is all about. It's God making the way to be
just and justify the ungodly. God had to do something for Himself. And God provided himself as the
lamb. He gave himself for our sins. Comfort. Comfort. I can't provide anything. God didn't provide it. God did
it for himself so he could do something for me. And God provided
himself as the lamb. That's the comfort of the gospel. And they came to the place which
God had told him of, and Abraham built an altar there. It's interesting. You know, Solomon's temple was
built on this same mount, Mount Moriah, some over a thousand
years later. And they came to the place which
God had told him of, and Abraham built an altar there, and laid
the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on
the altar upon the wood. And I have no doubt that Isaac
went through this willingly. The Lord Jesus went through this
willingly. Abraham said, Isaac, God told me to kill you, but
I know God's gonna raise you from the dead. And Isaac said,
yes, father. And he willingly let his father
bind him up just the way the Lord Jesus Christ willingly went
to the cross, knowing he would be raised from the dead. And Abraham stretched forth his
hand and took the knife to slay his son. It had already been
done in his heart. He'd already done it. But now
the physical part, you know, Christ was the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world, but now the physical part. And
Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his
son. And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven
and said, Abraham, Abraham. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the angel of the Lord. He said, here am I. And he said,
lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto
him, for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast
not withheld thy son, thy only son from me. And Abraham lifted
up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him. Not in front of him, behind him. Salvation's behind you. It's
already accomplished. Behold, behind him a ram caught
in a thicket by his horns. The thorn of crowns of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And Abraham went and took the
ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his
son, and Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh. As it's said unto this day, in
the mount of the Lord it shall be seen, he'll see to it. The
Lord will provide. Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord will
provide. And I have no doubt that when
The Lord said, Abraham, rejoice to see my day. And he saw it,
and he was glad. This is what he's talking about. And we rejoice too. While we
mourn over our sin, we rejoice in salvation from sin in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for the
grace, the blessedness to be enabled to mourn in any measure
over our sin. Lord, we feel like our mourning
is nothing as to what it should be. And Lord, how thankful we are
for him who did mourn over sin as it should be mourned over.
And we pray that we might be found in him. But Lord, how we
thank you that you have promised to all who mourn they shall be
comforted. How we thank you for the comfort
of the gospel. Lord, put it in our heart to always ask the question, where's
the lamb? And Lord, let us see the lamb
of your providing. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.