We're continuing our study in
Luke chapter 6. We've been in verse 21 here,
and we're going to finish that up today. And our last time,
it's been several weeks back, but our last time we were together,
blessed are ye that hunger now, for ye shall be filled. And today's
lesson concerns the last half of that verse. Blessed are ye
that weep now, for ye shall laugh. And in Matthew's account, it's
described as mourning. Blessed are those that mourn. And we want to look at that spiritual
application of that and the understanding of that in this second part of
Luke 6, verse 21, because it's brought to us in a spiritual
manner from the Lord Himself. In the physical sense, there's
many things in the world that might result in our weeping or
mourning, again, as it's related to Matthew, and laughing here
in the spiritual sense is not really referring to something
humorous. And both of these aspects through
the Word of God cut much more deeply to the dividing of soul
and spirit. As Norm and I were discussing
this morning that it's something that once experienced There really
isn't any need to describe it, and to one that hasn't experienced
it, there's hardly anything you can say that could be made to
describe it. In Hebrews 4, 12 says, the Word
of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged
sword piercing, even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and
the joints and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart. And that's truly what this part
of this scripture has to deal with, the heart. And when we've been discussing in
previous lessons that the old heart is desperately wicked and
the old heart is against God. And all these wonderful blessings
that come to us on the old dead heart, they just fall on it and
just kind of bounce off because they can't be taken in. And I
appreciated what, inside your bulletin today, there's a paragraph
by J. C. Philpott that describes kind
of this this sense that you get when the Lord gives you a new
heart, a heart that can have a view of grace. So let's look
at this. Firstly, to weep described here
is to sob or wail aloud. Now it says, blessed are ye that
weep now. for you shall laugh, to sob or
wail out over what? What is it that, there's many
things as we describe physically that make us weep, you know,
things that bring sadness into our life or misfortune or tragedies,
but there's nothing that makes us weep or sob or
wail aloud so greatly as the spirit revealing to us, as Hawker
said, the plague of our own heart and the realization of sin. And it's nothing less than that
Spirit of God revealing our nature to us and what's required to
make us whole again. It's an unpleasant thing when
the Lord reveals to us that our heart is desperately wicked and
that our heart is against God. But you know, no sooner does
He reveal that to us than He comforts us with the remedy. And I was thinking that, you
know, there's no better representation of this. There's a couple of
things that we find in Luke a little bit further on in chapter eight.
We're told of that publican that went down to the temple and the Pharisee and the public.
And that Pharisee, he had all the
things that we find recorded here a little bit later in verse
24 Well, I'm glad I'm not like other
men. Everybody speaks well of me because
I do all these things. I tithe and I pray and I fast
and men speak well of me because of that and I'm rich. He had all these self-righteous
things, but the publicans. Have mercy on me. He smote on
his breast. That's the weeping. He smote
on his breast. His heart that had been revealed
to him that it was at the plague of sin, it was dead. And he said,
God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And then the Lord says that man
went down to his house justified. And that's what we find in the
scriptures. And then we find the same thing
further on in Luke, I think in the 18th chapter, where the thief
on the cross. He was made to understand his
guilt. He said, we deserve what we're
getting. This man has done nothing amiss.
And then he said, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy
kingdom. And so he was brought to this
sense of the plague of his own heart and his guilt before God,
but he hardly got that out of his mouth before the Lord said,
today thou shalt be with me in paradise. So this This weeping
or mourning turned into laughing. And this word laughing is not
like we laugh at a joke or something humorous. It's a laughing that
is a sign of joy. That's what that word means.
It's a sign of joy or satisfaction. It's a sign of relief. And this The Lord here in Luke's
Gospel account is only really relating to us the same Gospel
which by the Spirit of God was related in the Old Testament.
And we find this principle in a lot of places in the Old Testament.
I've got some examples here from the Psalms and the Prophets that
we'll look at. We'll try not to spend too much
extra time here today, and Nancy has provided a birthday pumpkin
device for us, for our birthday person here today, who's now
a lot older than he was yesterday. So let's look at a few examples
of this issue of weeping being turned to laughing or joy and
satisfaction, this relief as it were, and not forgetting that
the external application is needed for this to happen. And it's very, very clearly amplified
in these texts, and it's God who affects these sweeping changes
in us. causes us in our old state where
our heart is dead, doesn't really see sin as a serious issue, doesn't
really see sin as a problem, doesn't really see sin as something
that we can't take care of ourself. We were talking this morning
about how man can rationalize things to justify behavior and sin. When Lance was here, we were
talking that in our rational senses, We say,
well, I didn't do so good yesterday, but today, I'm going to do better.
Today, I'm going to keep the law. Today, I'm starting today. But we never think, well, what
do I do with everything that happened yesterday? What do I
do with everything that I failed in the day before? What do I
do with all the failures that I've had my entire? It just doesn't
start today. And when we've been regenerated,
we find that The Lord has graciously taken care of all those sins
from yesterday and the day before, and all those sins that we'll
no doubt commit in the days to come because we're still in this
old flesh. And that it's Him that causes
our weeping to be turned into laughing. So let's look at a
couple of things in the Psalms to start with. Let's turn to
Psalm 28. We're just going to read one
verse from Psalm 28, verse 7. Where the psalmist writes, the
Lord, and we might, in my text here, in my notes, I've put that
in, magnified that in bold, underlined, capitalized print, the Lord.
The Lord is my strength and my shield. My heart trusted in Him. And then another thing, the next
few words are so important. And He says, and I am helped. Therefore, because of the two
things that we've underlined and highlighted here, the Lord,
who is His strength and shield, and the Lord by whom He is helped,
He says, therefore, my heart greatly rejoiceth, and with my
song I will praise him. And that's the essence of what
we're looking at today. He says, blessed are those that
weep, for they shall laugh. Blessed are those that have been
brought to a sense that the Lord is their strength. The Lord has
taken care of their issues. The Lord is their shield. They
trust in him and we're helped. Our problem is, is resolved,
our problem is taken care of. Therefore, our hearts rejoice. When we think of it in terms
of, well, today I'm going to do better, or today I'm going
to do some good to overcome the things that I did yesterday,
we know that that doesn't really resolve anything, and there's
no help in that, there's no rejoicing in that, because we know that
we can undo that in the next heartbeat. It's only because the Lord changes
not. It's only because the Lord is
faithful and takes care of these issues and helps us. Therefore,
we rejoice and we're happy and we're satisfied and we have joy.
And more directly in Psalm, let's turn a few pages ahead to Psalm
30. And we see the direct action
that God takes in the hearts of His people here. And there's an interesting word
that is used here in describing the active and effectual work
of God. It's the word turn. And it gives us the understanding
of to turn about or to change or to restore, to return as it
were to a former state. In Psalm 30 verse 11 it says, for me my mourning into dancing. Thou has put off my sackcloth
and girded me with gladness. What an exchange. And again,
as it were in that J.C. Philpott paragraph, that the
Lord no sooner reveals the plague
of our heart to us, but He reveals the remedy that it's taken care
of. In verse 12 of Psalm 30, it says,
"...to the end that my glory may sing praise to Thee, and
not be silent, O Lord my God, I will give thanks unto Thee
forever." It's something that we know that He has done and
He has taken care of. If we had all eternity, we could
never express enough thanks and rejoicing to cover that. Then
the next Psalm that we're going to look at is in Psalm 126. And
this activity of God, is expressed as turned again. This phrase is used some 952
times in the Old Testament. It means to turn back. Again,
it's God who effectually does the turning. for which we, when
brought to understanding, give Him the praise. Because it's
He that has done it and not we ourselves. In Psalm 126, verses
1-6, when the Lord turned again, the captivity of Zion. A picture of the church. We were
like them that dream. Isn't that a wonderful phraseology
of a metaphor for what the Lord does for the church? They view, they're in captivity,
they're in bondage to sin, and when the Lord turns that again,
it's like a dream. It's so wonderful. They just view it as a dream. Then was our mouth. filled with
laughter, and our tongue was singing. Then said they among
the heathen, the Lord hath done great things for them. The Lord
hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad. Turn again
our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south. They that
sow in tears shall reap in joy. And he that goeth forth and weepeth,
bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
bringing his sheaves with him." And of course that's been made
into a famous evangelistic hymn. But I think the sense of it is
that When the Lord causes us to go forth with weeping and
bearing this precious knowledge of regeneration in us, we'll
have rejoicing because we've been redeemed, we've been taken
care of, we've been saved. And this sheaves that we bring
along with us is praise for God for what he has done in our life.
When the Spirit of God reveals the plague of our own heart to
us and then gives us the comfort of His own Son, it's such a relief
that it just seems like a dream. And many that have experienced
this, we were saying this morning, to them that have experienced
it, there's no explanation that's necessary. But to them that haven't
experienced, there's no explanation that's possible. But we note
these parallels to our text in Luke 6.21, blessed are they that
weep now for they shall laugh, they shall rejoice and be satisfied. Because God has turned again
our captivity. He's freed us from bondage. He's released us from the prison
of this bondage to sin. You know, I was thinking back
from our lessons in Luke chapter 1. verse 17 regarding Elijah. He's referred to as Elisha there
in Luke. Elisha the Tishbite, Elijah the
Turner. Remember our lesson then that
what was the message that he would bring And that came from
Isaiah chapter 40, verse one through five. Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith your God. Speak comfortably to Jerusalem
and cry to 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. The voice of him that crieth
in the wilderness, prepare you the way of the Lord, make straight
in the desert a highway for our God." Referring there to John. Every valley shall be exalted,
every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked
shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. And the glory
of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. Comfort ye, comfort
ye." Well, if you need comfort, that speaks to the condition
that you're in this morning, this weeping condition that you've
been put in by God, by the Spirit of God revealing. your sin nature. This message, this gospel of
this comforting, says, would turn many children of Israel
to the Lord their God. And as stated in what we just
read in Psalm 126, turn again the captivity of Zion, of the
church. The great thing which he has
done is redeem the church from their sins through the death
of his own son. Nothing less than his own life. Their warfare is accomplished.
through the work and person of Christ the Lord. Their iniquities
are pardoned. They're more than pardoned. They've
been paid double the required amount. And this turning requires
a superimposition. It means something laid on top
over something else, turning around and causing it to be turned
around and reversed. This condition. They shall be
turned from idols to the one true God through faith, that
total reliance on Christ for salvation. And when we were studying
that, we read these Scriptures from 1 Thessalonians 1. And we were discussing this morning
about this idol worship that he's been going through in our
message later this morning. And there's no greater idol than
our own free will that we worship. We cling to that. We won't let
go of it. And we worship it. Knowing, brethren, beloved, your
election of God, This work of God from eternity for our gospel
came not unto you in word only. And it tells us that the Lord
sends the gospel to his elect. And it comes also not in word
only, but in power and in the Holy Ghost and much assurance.
this assurance that tells us that our weeping has been turned
into laughter. As you know what manner of men
we were among you for your sake, and you became followers of us
and of the Lord, having received the Word in much affliction with
joy in the Holy Ghost. And we'll kind of look at this
a little bit later because he said, as we go through Luke here,
he says in verse 22, he says, blessed are you when men shall
hate you and when they shall separate you from their company
and shall reproach you and cast out your name as evil for the
son of man's sake. When you receive the gospel,
it's just so against the nature of man that they're repulsed
by it. And naturally, they have a revulsion
for you that believe that. And when we preach the gospel
in truth, there's affliction there because people reject that. and religious folks are the worst
at adding that affliction to you it seems. He says, you were
examples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. For
from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia
and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God were
to spread broad so that we need not speak anything. For they
themselves show us what manner of entering in we had unto you
and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and
true God. Turn from your own worship of
your own self-righteousness, your own free will, your own
self-righteousness, to serve the true and the living God,
and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the
dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come." Boy,
that's cause for rejoicing. That's cause for joy. That's
cause for laughter. John came in the spirit and power
of Elijah, the Tishbite, the Turner. And again, that name
meant a returning. It's a word that
means recourse. And when you look that up in
Webster's, it means to get back on To re means to do something
over and course is a direction or a path and recourse means
to get back on that. It also has a patriarchal or
relating to one's fatherland application there. So his name
means getting us a correction back to the true course, back
to God. So we might think of him as that
the one that by the Gospel turned many people back to the Lord
their God from their idols. He says, I will send you Elijah
the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day
of the Lord, and he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to
the children and the heart of the children to their fathers,
lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. He spent a lot
of his life declaring the truth of God to a people caught up
that free will, that false religion and idols. And again, that term
that we found in Psalm 126, turn again, the captivity of the church used some 952 times. It's a vital part of the gospel
that God turns us again. And it variously gives us the sense
of, I always went through there and 952 times was a lot too many
for me to look each application up, but I looked up a bunch in
a few verses to kind of give us a sense of what that means.
And it's used a lot in Genesis, And in Genesis, we find in chapter
14, verse 16, it gives us the sense of something or someone
brought back again. brought back or brought again.
In Genesis chapter 20 verse 7, it's someone that's been restored
to a former condition. In Genesis 24, it's someone,
it says, I must, someone I must needs bring back. And in Exodus
chapter 23 verse 4, it's something that is required to be brought
back. gives the sense that it had to
do with the cattle in this case, but they were required to be brought
back. And it's the same word, turn, turn again. And they were
brought back gives you the sense that originally they were in
a different condition. Originally, they were something
other than what they appear to be now because of the fall and
because of sin. In John chapter 17, when the
Lord's praying, He says, I have manifested thy name to the men
which thou gavest me out of the world, thine they were. That
word implies to us that the elect, the church, the sheep, were the
possession of God the Father, and He gave them to the Son to
redeem from their fallen condition. Thine they were, and thou gavest
them me, is what the scripture says. That can't be much clearer
than that. Now they've known that all things
whatsoever thou has given me are of thee and that's only because
it's been revealed to them. For I have given unto them the
words which thou gavest Me, and they have received them, and
have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have
believed that thou didst send Me." Now in their previous condition,
their hearts are dead. They're dead in trespasses and
sins. They can't receive anything.
A dead person can't receive anything. It's only when the Lord changes
that condition, the Lord gives them that new heart. A heart
to know Him, a heart to love Him. I think I was reading Hawker
this morning, and he says, no sooner does the Lord provide
this heart It's the old stony heart that the gospel just kind
of falls on and bounces off of because it's a rock. The new
heart of flesh is soft and can take in the grace and the love
from the Father that formerly it could not. And the more that happens, the
more they say, Hallelujah. What cause for rejoicing? Hallelujah. What cause for joy? Our last
Old Testament reference that we're going to look at today
comes from Isaiah 61. which the Lord Himself again
quoted in a previous lesson in Luke 4, verse 18 where He, remember
when He went into the temple and they handed Him the scroll
and the place where He read was from right here. The Spirit of
God, the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed
me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He has sent me to bind
up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the
opening of prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort
all that mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion. to give
unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the
garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might
be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that
he might be glorified. So all these things that we read
in this the scripture to a point to them that mourn in Zion. Well,
they don't normally mourn their sins of themselves. That is a
condition brought about upon them by the spirit that causes
them to recognize them. And then when they're in that
state, we get beauty for the ashes. The ashes, in the Old Testament,
they wore sackcloth and put ashes on their head as a sign of their
mourning, as a sign of their being turned. And it became largely
just a symbolic religious ceremony that they just did. Well, today
I have to go put my burlap and sprinkle some ashes on me and
do the... What is it, Ash Wednesday, where
they take some ashes and make a little cross on their forehead?
Here's what I've done. But spiritually, it's a much
deeper thing. We get beauty for ashes. the oil of joy for mourning. He exchanges that. He lets us
know our guilt and then says, I paid for it. I paid double
for it. I've removed your sin as far as the east is from the west.
It's buried in the deepest sea. I don't even remember it. the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.
Where we're so burdened down with it and we find out that
we've been saved from it, we give him the praise. We have
the garment of praise So I think those really picture
what's the essence of our scripture today. Blessed are ye that weep
now for you shall laugh, you shall rejoice, you shall be satisfied. He exchanges our weeping, our
heaviness about sin with the joy of knowing that he has paid
for them, that they're not just paid for, they're done away with.
Every day when we're brought to a new
awareness of sin, and that seems to be the case, that
the more we grow in grace, the more we recognize the plague
of our own hearts in sin in this world. And every day, we're brought
again to the joy that they're taken care of. And that's why
it's written in Lamentations. If it wasn't for this, every
day we'd say, well, man, on the way to church today, I sinned
80 or 90 times. I should have been consumed because
of that, but in Lamentations it says, it's the Lord's mercy
that we're not consumed. Because His compassions fail
not. They are new every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness. The
Lord is my portion, saith my soul. Therefore will I hope in
Him. His mercies are new every morning because we need them
new every morning. In 1 John, He wrote, My little
children, these things write I unto you that ye sin not. And
if any man sin not, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous. And every day He applies new
mercies to us. Every day they're taken care
of and we are free of them. With that, we'll end our lesson today, and
we'll have a few more minutes to spend rejoicing with our pastor,
our friend, our brother, who's the big 7-0 today. Blessed are ye that weep now,
for ye shall laugh. So, be free, my friends. Thank you.