Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program. I'm glad
you could join us today. And if you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm preaching a series through the first part
of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter five, entitled
Truly Blessed of God. Who are the ones who are truly
blessed of God? And of course, we're talking
about the Beatitudes here. Last week, I dealt with verse
three, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven. talking about sinners saved by
the grace of God who've been convicted of sin by the Holy
Spirit to know their spiritual poverty and admit that if God
were to judge them based upon their best efforts to obey Him,
they would be condemned and eternally damned. But those who are poor
in spirit are driven by the Holy Spirit to Christ for the riches
of the kingdom of heaven. They are true citizens of the
kingdom of heaven. It says in verse three, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. Not the earth, but the kingdom
of heaven. And the kingdom of heaven has the riches of God's
grace, of God's glory that we find in Christ. It's the kingdom
of righteousness. The king who is Christ rules
with a righteous scepter. So those who are members of this
kingdom, citizens of this kingdom, are righteous in him. They know
they have no righteousness in themselves and they admit to
that. They're poor in spirit. But they have a righteousness
in Christ. And that poverty of spirit is
the confession of sin. I'm a sinner. And if the Lord
would mark iniquities, I wouldn't stand. But here's the point.
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justifies. It's God who declared me not
guilty. It's God who declared me righteous.
And how could God do that and still be just in doing that?
How could he show a sinner like me mercy? and still be a just
God? He has to be both. A righteous
judge as well as a loving father. A king who rules in righteousness
and yet who is merciful and gracious. Now how can God do that and still
be just? There's only one way and that's
by His grace. through the blood and the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I stand in this kingdom. I have
the full rights and title to citizenship in the kingdom of
heaven because of what Christ accomplished on Calvary in his
obedience unto death, where he died, was buried, and arose the
third day. We have the resurrection life
of Christ as citizens of the kingdom. Now in verse four, we
come to another. statement of blessedness. It
says, blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Now remember, this blessed does not necessarily mean they're
happy. And I believe this verse four shows that. How can you
be happy and mourn at the same time? Well, there is a sense
in which believers can do that. For example, we rejoice in Christ
Jesus. The Bible says that. In fact,
it tells us to have joy, joy and peace in believing. In other
words, my joy and my peace with God is in believing that Christ
is my hope. Christ is my assurance. Christ
is my forgiveness, the forgiveness of all my sins. comes through
Christ, His blood alone. I stand before God justified,
I'm not guilty, I'm righteous, in Christ, by the grace of God.
For as sin reigned unto death, grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ, our Lord. And in Christ, I have
a treasure and inheritance that's incorruptible, reserved for me
in heaven. I cannot lose it because it's
all depending upon what Christ has accomplished. And he's now,
as he died, he was buried, he arose again the third day, he's
now ascended unto the Father, ever living to make intercession
for his people. And he won't let us go. So there's
joy in that. But what about this mourning?
It says here, blessed, verse four, blessed are they that mourn,
for they shall be comforted. What do they mourn? You know
what mourning is. Back in the old days when somebody died,
they would hire mourners who would come and sorrow and cry
over the dead. But we know mourning. We've had
moments of joy. We've had moments of sadness.
And what kind of mourning is this for true believers? And
that's who he's talking about now. He's not talking about the
world. I mentioned last week this whole sermon, the Sermon
on the Mount. is given, the Lord is correcting, one of the things
he's doing, one of the main things he's doing, he's correcting the
wrong teachings of the Pharisees who had taught the people that
they could be saved, that they could be right with God based
upon their law keeping, keeping the law of Moses, and that was
a lie. That's not what, the law of Moses was never given as a
means of salvation. The law of Moses was given as
a way of God showing man, those who were under it, their sinfulness
and their depravity and the impossibility of being saved based upon their
law keeping. We read last week in Galatians
3 and verse 10, cursed is everyone. that continue, if not in all
things, which are written in the book of the law. It starts
out, as many as are of the curse of the law, or of the works of
the law, are under the curse. Do you realize that if you're
trying to be saved in the way of works, to establish a righteousness
of your own, you're under a curse? Now, you may be happy in what
you're doing. Most people are. But the reality
is you're under a curse. So the law of Moses was given
to expose their sin, their depravity, the impossibility of salvation
by worse. And so when we talk about blessed
are they who mourn, the first thing that God the Holy Spirit
brings the people of God to mourn over is that depravity. What he does, he shows us, he
convicts us of sin. to show us that without Christ,
we're nothing. We don't have any righteousness
of our own. There's none righteous, no, not one. There's none that
doeth good. There's none that seeketh after
God. And sinners cannot be justified, saved, blessed of God by their
works. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. I'm a sinner and nothing at all. And again, if God were to judge
me based upon my best efforts to keep the law, I'd be condemned
forever, even right now. All of that. And God the Holy
Spirit brings the elect of God, the sheep of Christ, sinners
whom God chose and gave to Christ, He brings them to mourn over
that sin. But He doesn't leave them there.
Look at verse four again. Blessed are they that mourn,
for they shall be comforted. Now, how are they going to be
comforted? Well, look over at the book of
John, chapter 16. And I wanna show you something
here. You know, a lot of people, they
talk about Holy Spirit conviction, and that's what this verse, in
essence, is talking about, being convicted by the Spirit. And
I want you to know something. Holy Spirit conviction is not
simply emotion or emotionalism. Now, don't get me wrong, it may
make you emotional. A lot of that has to do with
a person's personality. God using that for his glory.
But what is Holy Spirit conviction? Well, look here, Christ, he's
talking to his disciples here in John 16. And he begins by
talking about his death on the cross. Look at verse seven. He
says, nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is expedient for
you that I go away. Now that word expedient means
it is necessary. It's something that has to be
done. It was something that he was obligated to do. Now why
was he obligated to do it? Because before the foundation
of the world, God chose a people, gave them to him, and he willingly
agreed to be their surety. Now you know what a surety is?
That's one who pays the debt of another. So all the sin debt
of all of God's chosen people was laid upon his shoulders.
He became accountable for it. And in order to do that, he had
to come to this earth and take into union with himself, his
deity, a perfect sinless humanity. He had to be God with us. The word made flesh to dwell
among us, God-man. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. That's who Jesus Christ is, God-man. And in order to do the work of
assurity, to pay the sin debt for his people, He had to substitute
Himself in their place as the sacrifice, as the offering, the
sin bearer. He was made sin, Christ who knew
no sin for us. And he did that in order that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. The sins of his
people were a charge to him and his righteousness is charged
to them. Now in order to accomplish that redemption and ensure the
salvation and final glory of all for whom he died, was buried
and rose the third day, what did he have to do? He said, it's
expedient, necessary for you that I go away. He had to go
away. In other words, he couldn't stay there with them on this
earth. He was there for a while, but
he told them, I've got to go away. Now, where is away? Where
was he going to? Well, he was going to Jerusalem,
and he was going to be arrested. He was going to be tried, falsely
convicted by men, you see, and he had to go to the cross. He
had to die. He had to be buried. and then
he had to be raised again the third day, and then he had to
ascend unto his father, and he lives forever there, lives ever
to make intercession for his people, had to go away. Now he's
coming again the second time, that's the second coming of Christ,
but he had to go away. Now listen to what he says in
verse seven of John 16. He says, nevertheless, I tell
you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away. Now listen,
for if I go not away, the comforter will not come unto you. But if
I depart, I will send him unto you. If I go not away, the comforter. Now the comforter. Christ himself
is a comforter. And this word comforter is literally
advocate. 1 John 2 talks about the advocate
of God's people all over the world, Jew and Gentile, believers,
Jew and Gentile, is Jesus Christ the righteous. But here, you
know who he's talking about? Well, we know it by verse eight. He says, look at it, and when
he has come, the Comforter, he will reprove or convince or convict
the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. He's talking
about the Holy Spirit. And he says that down in verse
13, how be it when he, the Spirit of truth is come, he'll guide
you in all truth. Now Christ is the comforter.
How does he comfort his people? Through another comforter of
the same kind who is God, God the Holy Spirit, Christ is God
the Son, The Holy Spirit is God the Holy Spirit. There's God
the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, that's the Trinity.
One God who subsists in three persons. He comforts his people
through another comforter of the same kind who is the Holy
Spirit. You see, spiritual life in the
new birth is the product, the fruit, the result, of the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ imputed, charged, accounted to His people.
That righteousness is the product of His death on the cross, His
obedience unto death. So the Holy Spirit is the Spirit
of life, He's the Spirit of truth, who comes to His people from
Christ, and He convicts them, convinces them. Now this conviction,
We normally think of conviction as being convicted of sin, and
that's part of it. And that's where the mourning
comes in. Blessed are those who mourn. And look at what he says. Look at verse eight again. When
he has come, the Holy Spirit, he will reprove, he will convict
the world. Now, who's the world there? You
know, a lot of people, when they see that word world, they automatically
think, well, that's talking about everybody without exception.
And it's not. In fact, the word world never
speaks of everybody without exception. If you look at the, it has to
be determined by its context. Who is the world here? It's the
world of those who are convicted, convinced of sin and of righteousness
and of judgment. Not everyone is convinced of
that. The world is not, the unbelieving world is not convicted of sin. They think they're righteous.
They think they're good enough to work their way to heaven.
The unbelieving world is not convicted of righteousness. You
see what I'm saying? This is God's people all over
the world, out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation,
Jew and Gentile, who believe, who are convicted by the Spirit. That's what he's talking about.
Holy Spirit conviction. And so he's going to reprove,
convince, convict the world of sin, three things here, of sin,
of righteousness, and of judgment. Now think about this in the context
of those who mourn, but who shall be comforted. Look at verse nine. Of sin, because they believe
not on me. Now, a lot of commentators will
go to that verse and they'll say, well, he convicts us of
the sin of unbelief. Well, that's true. You see, think
of it this way. Think about Saul of Tarsus, Paul
the Apostle. Now before he was converted,
before he was convicted, before he was born again, he thought
that he believed in God. He thought that he was pleasing
God. Remember, he talks about that in Philippians 3. He talked
about how he was circumcised the eighth day. He was a Hebrew
of Hebrews, as touching the law, a Pharisee, obedient. He really believed that. But
when the Holy Spirit came and the person, when Christ came
and through the Holy Spirit convicted Saul of sin because he didn't
believe on Christ, Saul saw that all that time he was an unbeliever.
So it is being convicted of unbelief. Unbelief is the mother of all
sins. Somebody said one time that self-righteousness is the
worst sin. Well maybe, it is. It's the worst
thing that you can stand before God as a self-righteous person. That's being cursed, that's being
condemned. But why are people self-righteous? It's because
they don't believe what God says. What does God say? God says there's
none righteous. No, not one. We don't have a
righteousness. And we can't work one by our
best efforts to obey God. God says that all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God, the wages of sin. God says
that we all deserve death and hell because of our sins. Now, if you don't believe that,
you're self-righteous. But here's what, and that's included
here, of sin, he says, because they believe not on me, they
don't believe on Christ. But here's the essence of it. The Holy Spirit convicts God's
people that without Christ, without his blood to pay for my sins,
without his righteousness to justify me, is nothing but sin,
it's all sin. It's all iniquity. None of it measures up. All of
it is hopeless without Christ. Without His righteousness imputed
to me, I have no righteousness at all. And that's what the Holy
Spirit does. He brings us to mourn over our
situation, mourn over our state. I'm a hopeless, helpless sinner
without Christ. And all that time before I saw
the glory of Christ in Holy Spirit conviction, I was sinning with
a high hand, even in my church going and my baptisms and all
of that. It was all self-righteousness.
It was all unbelief because I didn't know Christ. Oh, I went to church. I went through the motions, but
I wasn't hearing the true gospel. of God's grace. I thought salvation
was conditioned on me. That's self-righteousness, that's
unbelief. But when I saw my true state
before God, having been convinced of sin because I didn't know
the true Christ as the Lord my righteousness. You remember Paul
wrote about that in Romans 10, about his fleshly brethren, the
Jews. He said, they're ignorant of
God's righteousness and going about to establish one of their
own because they have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
of God. And Romans 10 verse four says, for Christ is the end,
the fulfillment, the finishing, the perfection of the law for
righteousness to everyone that believe. So without Christ, there's
nothing but sin for me, even at my best. But now look at verse
10. He convicts of righteousness,
now look at this now, of righteousness, because I go to my Father and
you see me no more. Now here's where the comfort
starts. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. What the Holy Spirit does, He
convicts us of sin in order to show God's people that there
is salvation, there is mercy, there is grace, there is righteousness. There's forgiveness in Christ
all based upon his going to the Father. He went away. Where did he go? He went to the
cross. What did he go there for? To die for my sins. He went to
the cross. Why did he go there? To establish
righteousness as my surety and my substance. There's my comfort.
There's my peace. There's my hope. There's my joy.
It's in him. Did he accomplish what he went
there to do? Well, he died, but he didn't
stay dead. He arose the third day, showing
that his people are all justified in him and by his righteousness. And then he ascended unto the
Father. He went to the Father. That means he was accepted. His
offering was accepted. A sweet smelling savor unto God. And he did it on behalf of God's
elect. He did it on behalf of his church.
He gave his life for the church. He did it on behalf of his sheep.
And so when the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin and of righteousness,
He brings us to mourn over our sin, but to be comforted, to
rejoice in Christ, the Lord our righteousness. And then verse
11, of judgment because the prince of this world is judged. Now
what he's talking about there is the casting down of Satan,
the prince of this world, as the accuser of the brethren.
And here's what he means. Judgment. What is a believer's
judgment? When was a believer judged or
when is a believer going to be judged? Judgment at the cross. That's what he's talking about.
That's when Satan was cast down. Read it in John chapter 12. All
the accusations that Satan could hurl at the people of God, they
don't stick, those accusations. Because see, Christ took my sins
and he drank damnation dry. He stands as my substitute. He
stands as my surety, my substitute, my advocate, my intercessor,
my mediator. See, Satan's charges cannot stick
to me because God himself will not charge me with sin. You know,
back here in Matthew five, it's talking about blessed. There's
a beatitude in the Old Testament, Psalm 32 and verse two, or verse
one and two, where David, made this statement. He said, blessed
is the man whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth not iniquity. Paul was led by the Holy Spirit
to expound upon that in Romans four, when he said, blessed is
the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works.
You see, I've already been judged for all my sins in the person
and work of Christ. He paid my penalty. The death
and condemnation that I deserved and that I earned, Christ already
took care of it on the cross. And somebody said, well, don't
we as believers have to give an account before God at the
final judgment? Yes, but you know what the account
of a believer is? Paul wrote about it in Philippians
chapter three. He says, that I may know him
whom Christ, that I may be found in him, not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith or
the faithfulness of Christ. You see, my account is Christ
crucified and risen from the dead. My account is his righteousness. So back here in verse four, blessed
are they that mourn, they shall be comforted. Now, the mourning
doesn't stop with a believer because there is a continual
mourning and a continual comforting for a believer. Well, what do
you mean by that? Well, even as believers, if we're
true believers, if we're sinners saved by grace, we are still
continually plagued with the remaining presence, power, and
contamination of the flesh. Sin, still with us. Only two types of people in this
world, sinners lost in their sins and sinners saved by grace. I often see a sticker on, a bumper
sticker on cars that says that Christians are not perfect, they're
just forgiven. Well, I don't like bumper sticker
religion because it doesn't put anything in the right context,
but here's what we have to understand about that. True Christians,
true believers are certainly not perfect within themselves. In my own mind, in my own affections,
in my own will, I have a new heart that God has given me to
look to Christ. But there is a perfection that
we who are true Christians can claim right now. But it's not
in ourselves. It's not in our works. It's not
in our efforts. It's in Christ. I am perfect
in Him, based on His righteousness imputed. But in myself, I'm still
a sinner. And I've got to fight sin, warfare. And that's a mourning. But I'm
continually driven to Christ by the Holy Spirit for comfort. for my sins daily, and it never
stops, and it won't stop until we leave this life and go to
be with the Lord. We're in a struggle, the warfare
of the flesh and the spirit. We mourn, all who are saved,
we mourn, but we're comforted in Christ. I hope you'll join
us next week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia, 31707. Contact us by
phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through
our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.