Let us turn to God's Word and
we turn to the Gospel according to Matthew. In Matthew chapter
5, our text is found at verse 4. Amongst the attitudes in Matthew
chapter 5 and verse 4, Blessed are they that mourn for they
shall be comforted. Part of course of the Sermon
on the Mount we're told in the opening verse of the chapter
seeing the multitudes he went up into a mountain and when he
was set his disciples came unto him and he opened his mouth and
taught them and then we have the Sermon through chapters 5,
6 and 7 and here he begins with what we refer to as the Beatitudes. It's not dissimilar really to
that portion that we read in Luke chapter 6 but it's not the
same incident that is being recorded by Luke because the circumstances
there are clearly somewhat different. We're told in Luke 6 verse 17,
He came down with them and stood in the plain and the company
of His disciples and the great multitude of people out of all
Judea and Jerusalem from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon which
came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases. Not the Sermon
on the Mount, but the Sermon in the Plain. But the content
is very similar in each case. And there, in verse 21 of Luke
chapter 6, we have what we might consider to be the counterpart
of our text tonight. He says, Blessed are ye that
weep now for ye shall laugh. And here in the text, blessed
are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Let us consider
then this particular verse, this part of the ministry of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And I divide what I want to say
tonight into two basic sections. First of all, to say something
with regards to this weeping, this mournful weeping. The word is mourn here in our
text, but it's weep there in Luke 6.21. and then having considered
the mournful weeping to look at the manifold comforts that
are ministered to such characters. First of all then, those who
are mournful and weeping, what sort of mourning is it? that
is being spoken of. Blessed are they that mourn,
we would often use the word of course, particularly in regard
to those who have lost a dear one, lost a loved one, those
who mourn the death of someone in the family or mourn the death
of a friend. There is in that sense a natural
mourning amongst the children of men. How people are sad, not
just religious people, not just professed Christians, but people
in general are saddened, they are grief-stricken, and they
mourn when they lose a loved one. Well, is that the sort of
character that is being spoken of? Are we to understand the
words in that very general sense. But of course, as always, we
have to take account of the context in which the words are being
spoken. And what do we see here? As Christ pronounces these various
blessings, He is really addressing in particular His own disciples. He is teaching them. and describing
to them what real blessing is, what it is to be truly happy
because the word that is used throughout and rendered blessed
here in our authorised version has the basic meaning of happy
and it's a plural happinesses or blessednesses But what are those who know such
blessings? What is the mourning that they
are experiencing? As I've said, when we look at
the context we can learn something more concerning these particular
characters. In the previous verse, he says,
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. Now, It's true that all people
are spiritually poor. When we come into this world,
we're those who are dead in trespasses and in sins. It matters not who
your parents are. They might be the most gracious,
godly parents anyone could wish for, and yet the child that is
born does not partake of the grace that is in the parent.
The grace of God is sovereign. The child is born dead in trespasses
and in sins. In that sense, all people, as
they come into the world, are spiritually poor. And we see
how that's so emphasized in scripture. what solemn descriptions we have
concerning the natural state of men and women. We have it
there, of course, in the Psalms, in Psalm 14, and the words are
repeated also in Psalm 53. And then when we come to the
New Testament, we see how the Apostle Paul takes up those words
of the Psalmist in Romans chapter 3, verse 10, following Paul writes,
as it is written, and he's speaking of those two Psalms as it is
written there is non-righteous no, not one, there is none that
understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God, they
are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable,
there is none that doeth good, no, not one, their throat is
an open sepulcher, with their tongues they have used deceit,
the poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of
cursing and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood,
destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace
have they not known. There is no fear of God before
their eyes." Twice in the Psalms, Psalm 14, Psalm 53, and then
again there in Romans chapter 3 we have those solemn words,
and we know that there's no idle word here. As Solomites, friends,
that is the condition of all. They are spiritually poor. There
is nothing good in them. But, there are those, of course,
who are also poor in spirit. And there's a difference, a difference
between being spiritually poor and being one who is poor in
spirit. And it is these who are poor
in spirit that are spoken of in the verse previous to our
text. What is it to be poor in spirit? It's to feel one's spiritual
poverty. All are sinners in God's sight
there are, but few so in their own, says Joseph Hart. And in
that sense, a sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made
him so. He has a sense of his spiritual
poverty. He has a real understanding of
his sinful unworthiness. And he is brought to acknowledge
it. Isn't that what we see in the Apostle Paul? He cries out,
O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? So different to what he would
say when he was a Pharisee. As a Pharisee, like all the Pharisees,
he was the most self-righteous man. And he could boast. and
he could boast of a glorious pedigree, could he not? Remember
how when he writes to the Philippians, he tells them something of it. There in Philippians chapter
3, verse 4, though I might also have confidence in the flesh,
he says, if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might
trust in the flesh, I more circumcise the ape, die, of the stock of
Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as
touching the law a Pharisee, and he was a son of a Pharisee
also, concerning zilch, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness
which is in the law, blameless. All he could make is boast of
many things, so he thought, when he was a Pharisee, a self-righteous
man, but then he learned the truth concerning himself. He was made to feel the wretchedness
of his true condition. He was a sinner. Oh, wretched
man that I am. Who shall deliver me, he says,
from the body of this death? All to be poor, you see. Poor
in spirit. And the word that we have here
in verse 3 literally means to be beggarly. To be beggarly. It has the basic meaning of crouching
or cowering. It's the posture of one who is
begging. The beggar poor at mercy's door
lies such a wretch as I, thou knowest my need is great indeed. Lord, hear me when I cry. That's the language of Samuel
Medley, is it not, in the hymn. That's the beggar you see. Now
he comes to plead and to implore. And likewise I say when we take
account of the context we see it's the same sort of character
as we have in verse 3 that we meet again in the words of our
text here in verse 4. This mourner is a spiritual mourner. This is that man who is grieved
over his sins and he feels his life to be such a wretched life.
There is nothing that he has that he can bring to God, nothing
that he can make mention of that would in any way commend him
to God. He is all unclean and he mourns
over the sad condition of his fallen nature. I know that in
me that is in my flesh there dwelleth no good thing says the
Apostle Paul there in Romans chapter 7. How did he know it?
How did he know that in himself there was nothing of any good?
He learned it in many ways from that law which he thought when
he was a Pharisee he thought he understood it for well. He
could say as a Pharisee touching the righteousness which is of
the law that he was blameless. but he didn't understand it he
didn't understand it till the Lord took him in hand till the
Lord instructed him till the Lord applied that law to his
conscience and then it was different he saw that the law is holy and
the commandment is holy and just and good there's nothing wrong
with the law but when a man is brought to measure himself beside
that law and that's what that mansoul of Tarsus was brought
to. We know that the law is spiritual,
he says. It's a spiritual law, but I am
carnal, sold on the sea. And so, he sees so much in himself
that causes him to mourn. He doesn't really measure up
to that holy and good Lord of God. He falls so far short of
the glory of God. O friends, to be that man, to
be one who is made to mourn over his sinnership, to be grieved
when God begins to show us ourselves, when we have some right understanding
of the holy law of God, that it's a spiritual law. We've said
it many times before, even in this sermon, doesn't Christ begin
to unfold the true nature of that law? You remember how he
goes on to speak in the following verses? And he speaks of those who are
angry and they have no just cause for their anger. They are angry
with the brother. What does Christ say? They are
guilty of murdering the man. Do we have it here at verse 21,
do we not? you have heard that it was said
by them of all time they shall not kill and whosoever shall
kill shall be in danger of the judgment but I say unto you that
whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger
of the judgment and whosoever shall say to his brother Raka
that is thine fellow as the margin says shall be in danger of the
council but whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger
of hell fire and then he goes on. What does he say at verse
27? You have heard that it was said
by them of all time, Thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say
unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her,
committeth adultery with her already in his heart. And if I write, I offend thee,
pluck it out and cast it from thee. For it is profitable for
thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy
whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend
thee, cut it off and cast it from thee. For it is profitable
for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy
whole body should be cast into hell." Oh, the Lord is instructing
His disciples, is He not? As we are told here at the beginning
of the chapter. when he was set his disciples
came unto him and he opened his mouth and he taught them he is
teaching them the true nature of the Lord of God that it doesn't
just have to do with actions it has to do with the attitude
of a man's heart it has to do with his thoughts and with his
feelings and what is the heart of man? oh it's desperately wicked
and it's full of every manner of evil. And when God shows us
that, friends, if God is pleased to do such a thing for us, does
He not make us to be those that mourn and weep over our sins? Or the wretchedness of the sinner's
heart? But you know, the strange thing
is that the real awful nature of our sins is seen principally
in the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ, is it not? Remember
the words of Zechariah chapter 12 and verse 10, They shall look
upon me whom they have pierced, it says, and they shall mourn
for him, as one mourneth for her only son, and be in bitterness
for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. It's that
sight of the Lord Jesus Christ that brings bitterness and mourning
into the soul. That is the source of real repentance,
evangelical repentance. Law and terrors do but harden
all the while they work alone, but a sense of blood-bought pardon
soon dissolves the heart of stone. How true it is, friends, When
we come presently to the table of the Lord and we partake of
those blessed elements that speak to us of His broken body, of
His shed blood, are we not there made to feel what we are as sinners?
Are we not made to feel so much ashamed when we think of the
month that has now passed and the multitude of sins that we've
been guilty of? Are we those who come as mourners?
mourning over our sins, mourning after the Lord Jesus Christ who
is the Saviour of sinners. Remember what we're told in that parable of the prodigal
son when he's brought to his senses and he comes back to his
father, what does he say? I have sinned against heaven. and before thee. I've sinned
against heaven, I've sinned in thy sight. I'm not worthy to
be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants."
It's similar to that that we have of course in David's great
penitential psalm. We just sang from the opening
part of Psalm 51 in the metrical version. What a psalm it is. And now David there is confessing
his sins. And what sins they were Bathsheba,
her husband Uriah. Here was David, he was guilty,
he was an adulterer, he was a murderer. He was certainly implicated in
the death of Uriah, the Hittite. And there he comes before God. Oh thank God for the faithful
dealings of the Prophet Nathan with him when he comes to him
and he comes with God's Word and with God's Word it's as if
Nathan is fingering the very conscience of the king how bold
he was, this is the king and yet he says to David, David thou
art the man thou art the man David and thou David is struck
to his very heart I acknowledge my transgressions he says and
my sin is ever before me against thee thee only have I sinned
and done this evil in thy sight These are the mourners that are
being spoken of here in our text. Blessed are they that mourn,
such mourners as these, who know something of the terrible reality
of their sin, and they see it not only in the light of that
Lord of God which is holy and just and good, but they see it
so much when they consider the sufferings of the Lord Jesus
Christ. who is the great sin bearer, my lips with shame, my
sins confess, against thy law, against thy grace. That's how
Watts puts it in his paraphrase of Psalm 51. It's against law,
but it's also against grace. And how awful to sin against
the grace of God. How terrible that those of us
who profess the name of our Lord Jesus Christ should ever commit
a sin, and yet we are full of it. Oh shame upon us! Do we mourn over it? Do we mourn
over it? But then, here is the grace of
God, Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. And so in the second place, let
us consider something of the manifold comforts the manifold
comforts I say where sin abounds grace does much more abound now
I mention three particular areas of comfort here first of all
there is the comfort of grace is there not or the comfort of
grace to be a true mourner we must know the grace of God as
I said at the outset there is a natural mourning and doubtless we've experienced
that in our lives we've been saddened at the death of a dear
one it's brought tears to our eyes that awful sense of loss but to be a spiritual mourner
just as to be truly poor in spirit that is the evidence of the grace
of God that's a mark of God's grace
when we feel sin for what it is that's a mark of the ministry
of the Holy Spirit is it not? remember how the Lord Jesus speaks
of his of his ministry when he has come, says Christ, he will
reprove or the Margin says he will convince the world of sin
and of righteousness and of judgment. Well how he does it you see.
But having convinced of sin and that's part of his office in
the Covenant the reprover of sinners, but having done that,
he then comes as that one who will lead that poor convicted
sinner to the Lord Jesus Christ. Can God bless thy sinner train
to Calvary, where the Lamb was slain, and with us there abide? Let us, our Lord Redeemer, meet
with poor, his pierced hands and feet. and view His wounded
side. That's the ministry of the Spirit,
is it not? To conduct us to Calvary. That place where the Lord Jesus
Christ bore in His own person that terrible penalty that was
the desert of the sinner. For having loved His own which
were in the world. How He loved them. He loved them
unto the end. He loved them to all that bitterness
of the cross. would offer the Spirit Himself
to conduct us. Isn't that the purpose of the
Holy Supper of the Lord? Do we desire that the Spirit
Himself might come as we sit at the table and conduct us to
Calvary where the Lamb was slain and abide with us there and enable
us to view that sad scene of Christ in all His sufferings.
You see the Spirit doesn't just convict He also comes to reveal
Christ. He shall not speak of himself,
says Christ. He's God. He's equal to the Father. He's equal to the Son. But here
is the covenant you see. And what is His ministry in the
covenant? He shall not speak of himself, says Christ. He shall
take of mine. That's His ministry. He takes
of the things of Christ. He shall take of mine and shall
show it unto you. He shall testify of me. That's the Spirit's ministry.
Nor does He not come as the Spirit of Christ. Who is the one who
sheds abroad the Spirit? We have it here in Acts chapter
2. It's Christ being by the right hand of God exalted, having received
of the Father the promise of the Spirit. He has shed forth
this which ye now see and hear, says the Apostle Peter in his
preaching. He is the Spirit of Christ. And
that's the comfort of Christ. He ministers Christ. He ministers
Christ. And so the mourning is not natural
mourning, it's spiritual mourning. Here is the comfort of Christ.
Then we have, do we not, the comfort of the Gospel. Or the
comforts of the Gospel. Blessed are the poor in spirit,
it says in verse 3. for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven." Now remember what we read later when John the Baptist
is in prison and John is beset by doubts as to whether or not
Jesus of Nazareth is really the true Messiah. He sends his disciples
onto Jesus to ask. Do you remember the answer that
the Lord gives? There in chapter 11, verse 4,
Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John again
these things which ye do hear and see. The blind received their
sight, and the lame walked, the lepers a cleanse, the deaf hear,
the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached
to them, and blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in mind.
Here We have it. This is the mark of Christ's
ministry that the poor have the gospel preached to them. Oh,
it's a gospel for the poor. It was the same, was it not,
in the synagogue at Nazareth after Christ? returned from the
wilderness after those 40 days of temptations. He returns in
the power of the Spirit, he goes into the synagogue. We read it
there in Luke chapter 4, it's the Sabbath day, that was his
practice to go to the synagogue, and the minister there gives
him the book of the prophet Isaiah, and he turns to those words of
Isaiah chapter 61. And it's similar words, is it
not? The poor have the gospel preached unto them. The poor
have the gospel preached unto them. And here you see it's the
same in verse 4, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit
the earth. All these meek ones. Look at
what we read back in the book of the prophet Isaiah there in
the 40th chapter of Isaiah. Comfort ye Comfort ye my people,
saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned. Here is the message of the Gospel.
What is the message of the Gospel? It's comfort. It's comfort, and
here we have it in the text. They shall be comforted. Oh, it's a comfortable Gospel,
is it not? It speaks to us of the pardon
of sins. It speaks to us of how that bitter
thing which sin is, is to be ended. The Lord Jesus Christ
Himself has come and He has vanquished sin and vanquished Satan. Oh, the Lord Jesus Christ is
that One who comforts His people. he comforts them in the gospel
we're told that whatsoever things were written for time were written
for our learning that way through patience it says and comfort
of the scriptures comfort of the scriptures what
comfort there is for the poor mourner when he comes to some
understanding of the good news of the gospel or the comforts
of the Gospel. How can we define it? It's the
promise of God. Isn't that what the Gospel is,
really? God's promise, but not only God's promise, it's that
promise that is confirmed by an oath. And God gave promise
to Abram because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself. He magnifies his word above all
his name, When he takes an oath upon himself, if his word fails,
he fails. This is the Gospel. It's promise. All the promises of God in the
Lord Jesus Christ, they're all Yay and Amen, they're all confirmed
by an oath. Not only so, they're all sealed
with blood. All the Festator has died. That's
what we come to remember, is it not? What is the cup? It's the cup
of the New Testament or the New Covenant says Christ, in my name. Well this is all the Gospel and
what comforts there are in the Gospel. Remember what the Apostle
says there, we just referred to those words in the sixth chapter
of Hebrews concerning God's dealings with Abraham when he gave promise
and confirmed it by an oath. But what does Paul say, verse
18, that by two immutable things. What are these unchanging, these
immutable things? It's the promise and it's the
oath. By two immutable things in which it was impossible for
God to lie, we might have a strong consolation. You have fled for
refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. A strong consolation. Now the word that we have there
That word consolation, it is from exactly the same root as
we have here in our text comforting. It's the same word really. Here
is the blessing that God pronounces upon those who are spiritual
mourners. They shall be comforted, they
shall enjoy all the consolations of the gospel. Oh, it's for them,
just as it's for those who are poor in spirit. The poor have
the Gospel preached to them. These mourners, oh, they receive
the comforts and the consolations of the Gospel. The comfort of Christ, the comfort
of the Gospel, but then also, of course, in the third place,
there's the comfort of God Himself. There's that ministry, we've
already intimated something of it, there's that blessed ministry
of the Holy Spirit. And you know how in those three
chapters in John from chapter 14 following the Lord Jesus speaks
of the coming of the Spirit, I will pray the Father and He
will give you another comforter. that He may abide with you forever. And again you see it's the same
word or from the same root as the word that we have here in
our text, the word comforted. The Spirit comes and He is God. He is God. And this day in which
we're living this gospel day, is it not the blessed day of
the Spirit of God? And how we need Him, or how we
need the Spirit of God. You see the sinner's heart is
so hard, it's so dead, that all Christ's great work here upon
the earth would be in vain. except the Spirit come and reveal
that Gospel to us. Have you ever thought like that?
It's a great work that the Lord Jesus Christ did. But how the
Spirit Himself must come and He must reveal it to us. Left
to ourselves, apart from the ministry of the Spirit, we'd
never believe these things. It is the Spirit you see. who
comes as that one who is referred to as the God of all comfort
he is the God of all comfort all the blessings you see that come to these mourners they
know the grace of God they hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ they
know the ministry the gracious workings, the sovereign operations
of the Holy Spirit. That's their portion. How the
Spirit takes the Word and brings the Word and applies the Word.
That's how we're to come under the Word of God. It's not enough,
is it, to sit and to hear and to take the information in. We need something more than that.
What is that? Real religion. Something must
be known and felt. That's the ministry of the Spirit
of God in the heart of the sinner. That's where God establishes
His Kingdom. The Kingdom of God, says Christ,
is within you. And when we mourn over our hearts,
what they are by nature, the sink of sin and iniquity, are
we not made to cry out, can ever God dwell here? And yet that's
what the Spirit does. He comes to reveal Christ in
the heart of the sinner. And then there's a life of God
established in the soul of a sinful man. All the comforts that come
then. Blessed are they that mourn,
for they shall be comforted. And then I said four areas of
comfort. There's not only grace, There's
not only the gospel, there's not only God the Holy Spirit,
there's also that gladness, that happiness that is clearly spoken
of here in the text. Blessed. Look at the opening
words. These are the Beatitudes, are they not? And as we said,
the words more literally is happiness or happinesses. It's a plural,
as we said. Happy are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. What did we read in our reading
in Luke chapter 6 verse 21? Blessed are ye that weep now,
for ye shall laugh. There's weeping and there's laughing. It's a strange paradox, is it
not, of the way of the Christian. What is the experience of the
child of God? It is such a riddle. It is such
a mystery, this life of faith, the paradox of the Christian.
Where does it begin? There must be that repentance,
of course. Where there is a real mourning over sin, Will there
not be that spirit of real repentance? And do you know the significance
of that? How it's such a fundamental change in the man's life? It's
a change of mind, that's the basic meaning of the word, but
there's more than that really. Here is a man whose life has
been turned around and inside out and upside down. It's a strange
life, this Christian life. It's a paradoxical life. Even
this repentance is mourning over sins, nor is it such a dismal
thing as it is by some men. Nay, the sinner may repent and
sing, rejoice, and be ashamed. All we can rejoice, can we not?
Though we are ashamed of our sins, can we not rejoice in all
that the Lord Jesus Christ is? Do we have such desires after
Him? We are told in the Proverbs to
the to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet and the
bitterness of mourning and it is a bitter thing to be a mourner
to be grief stricken over our sins that's a bitter thing and
yet there's sweetness here the Lord in that portion that
we read goes on to say at verse 25 Luke 6.25 Woe unto you that
laugh now for ye shall mourn and weep. All the worlds they
have their portion in this life. All life's there to be enjoyed
to the full. You know the language of the
worldly. You work hard, you play hard. Life's too short to be
mourning. Now Solomon Christ's words is
a woe. Woe unto you that laugh now for
ye shall mourn and weep. Ah, but then, to those that weep
now, that a laugh, that a laugh. Blessed are they that mourn,
for they shall be comforted. O God grant that we might know
then these consolations that come in the Gospel of the grace
of God. These words spoken by Him who
is the prince of all preachers the words of the Lord Jesus Christ
himself he opened his mouth and taught them all that he might
open his mouth and teach us and that we might have ears to hear
all that the Lord Jesus Christ says to us here in his gospel
all the blessedness is the happiness is of those that mourn he says
for they shall be comforted. Amen.