All right, let's look at Ecclesiastes
chapter 7, and then we'll go to Matthew chapter 5 and verse
4. Blessed are they that mourn. In Ecclesiastes 7 and verse 2,
you know the theme of the book of Ecclesiastes. Whenever people think of Ecclesiastes,
they think of vanity of vanities. The theme of that book that God,
the Holy Spirit, inspired King Solomon to write, who I believe
was the human instrument of this, is that life without Christ,
life without God, life here on Earth, no matter how you live
it, whether you enjoy it, you relish in it, life without Christ,
life without salvation by God's grace is vanity of vanities. That's what the theme is. And
of course, the preacher, that's what he's
called in Ecclesiastes, he goes through the book describing different
things of work and pleasure, mirth. And this is what this
is about. Look at verse 2 of Ecclesiastes
7. It says, It is better to go to
the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting.
For that is the end of all men." In other words, what he's talking
about is those who do not take life, death, judgment, and eternity
seriously. You know, their whole life is
spent, we're going to have a good time. You know, you remember
that old commercial, that beer commercial that said, you only
have one life to live, grab for all the gusto you can get. You
know, that's the kind of attitude that he's coming against here.
Well, it's better to go to the house of mourning than to do
that. Live your life in enjoyment, but no truth, no God. You work, you labor, and you
enjoy the fruits of that labor, But who was it that put you there,
gave you that brain you've got, gave you that strength you've
got, that power, that drive? Who was it? It was God. You don't
worship Him or seek Him. You see, that's what He's talking
about. So it's better to go to the house
of mourning than to the house of feasting. For this is the
end of all men, and the living will lay it to his heart. Sorrow,
verse 3, look at it. Sorrow is better than laughter,
for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. Verse
four, the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but
the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. All right, now
what does all that mean? Well, turn to Matthew chapter
five. Blessed are they that mourn. It's about every one that I've
read on this passage. I always start it like I put
it here in your lesson. That seems like a contradiction.
Happy are the sad. How does that work? But it's
not a contradiction. The Bible, in God's Word, when
instructing the people of God, often says to us, rejoice always. Rejoice. You remember that song
a couple, three years ago, Don't Worry, Be Happy? You know, that's
not the kind of rejoicing that it's talking about. That's a
flippant kind of joy. And that's a temporary joy too.
But we rejoice, and of course it tells us that we rejoice in
Christ. Now a lot of times the word rejoice,
the way it's translated, is a little bit misleading. For example,
in Philippians chapter 3 and verse 3, which says we are the
circumcision, that's talking about spiritual circumcision,
the new birth, which worship God in spirit and rejoice in
Christ Jesus. The word rejoice there is literally
the word glory as translated in Galatians 6.14, God forbid
that I should glory. In other words, it's boasting. What it is, it's an expression
of confidence. And so it says, we're the circumcision,
we worship God in spirit, we have confidence in Christ. The
confidence of my salvation is in Christ, by the grace of God. And no confidence in the flesh.
But right before that, in the first verse of Philippians 3,
he talks about rejoice. And that's the word rejoice. That's the word that is equated
with happiness. And not just feelings now. This
rejoicing is based upon not, well, so is this mourning. So,
all right, he says, blessed are they that mourn. We read in Ecclesiastes,
it's better to go to the house of mourning. And then he says,
rejoice. Well, which is it? We're Christians
now. Are we happy or are we sad? Well,
he's not describing our personalities here. He's not describing our
feelings. I know believers. I'm just being
honest with you now. I know believers who are downers.
Every time you get around them, it's something negative. How
you feeling? Boy, that's a launch pad for
them, isn't it? Let me tell you. Every ache and
pain they have. And then I know believers who
have the personalities of somebody who's very positive. You enjoy
being around them, you know, that kind of thing. So that's
not what he's talking about here when he says mourn or rejoice. That's not the issue. Most believers
are just like everybody else in there. Sometimes I'm happy,
sometimes I'm sad. Isn't that right? That's the
way it is. And sometimes we don't have any
control over it. But here's what I've got. I want
you to see this. Now, remember he's describing
those who are blessed. That's sinners saved by grace
through Christ. That's number one. You always
have to keep that in mind. That's the standing and the state
of the blessed. We are blessed with salvation.
That's who Christ is describing. He's describing citizens of the
kingdom of heaven here. Those who are justified, not
guilty before God. Righteous in God's sight through
Christ. And so what he's doing in the
Beatitudes after he lays the foundation of the blessedness
of God's people in Christ by God's grace, then he's describing
the character which evidences their blessedness. He started
off with the poor in spirit, that poverty of spirit. That's
a conviction of sin. And now he says they mourn. Well,
what is this mourning? Win your lesson, here's what
I've got. Mourning describes a believer's conviction of his
own sinfulness in light of the glory of God revealed in Christ.
Now that may sound something like the poor in spirit too,
but you've got to understand these things go together. It's
not like, well, there's a believer over there and he's pouring spirit,
but he's not mourning. And there's a believer over here,
he's mourning, but he's not pouring spirit. No, it's all together.
You're going to find these are characteristics of every true
believer. And they all go together. So
this mourning comes from a realization of our sinfulness. This poverty
of spirit. It's the work of God All right,
just like it all is. It's not our natural disposition. Now listen, and I'm gonna make
this point here in just a moment even more. Everybody mourns,
but not this way. Even unbelievers mourn, don't
they, when they lose loved ones, when they get sick, when they
get bad news? They mourn, we do too. But not
everybody mourns in this way. Because this is the mourning
of the blessed. This is the work of God the Holy
Spirit. This mourning, just like the
poverty of spirit. By nature, we all think we have
more than what we've got. Until the Holy Spirit convinces
us that we have nothing less than nothing. That's poverty
of spirit. Alright? Well, this mourning here, it
comes from that conviction, and it's the work of God the Holy
Spirit in us. And he says, and you've got to
couple it with the reward here. The reward is they shall be comforted.
That's the reward of grace. So how do you know the difference
between the mourning of the cursed and the mourning of the blessed?
Well, here's one key to it. How are they comforted? It's
kind of like that old commercial, where do you find relief? You've got a problem. What's
that problem? It's sin. Now I heard a preacher
last week say on this, he said, it's not mourning over the consequences
of sin, it's mourning over sin itself. Now listen, and let's
be honest, let's not be hypocritical here. Somebody said, oh, I just
hate my sin. I had a preacher tell me that
one. I just hate my sin. I hate it. And I looked at him,
I said, well, you don't hate it enough. Sometimes we don't mourn over
our sin. Sometimes we relish in it. Let's
be honest. We're not going to be hypocrites
here now. Now, think about it. Sometimes we justify. I heard
a preacher say one time that believers never justify their
sin. Oh, yes, we do. Think about when somebody does
you wrongly, treats you unjustly, accuses you. And how do you feel
toward that person? And don't you say, well, I've
got a right to. Don't we assert our rights a lot of times? Well,
that's sinful. Can we say that we hate sin?
Yes, but don't bring that down to feelings and say, well, I
hate it like I ought to. Because sometimes, you ever get
angry? I'll tell you what, that's proof right there that you don't
hate sin enough. Me too. Because if we didn't
hate sin, if we did hate sin like God hated sin, we'd never
get angry in that sense. Somebody said, well, doesn't
God get angry? Yeah, you're not God. Neither am I. His is truly righteous indignation. Do we ever express righteous
indignation? Yes. With the psalmist, I hate
every false way. Every way of salvation that is
preached out there that does not lead a sinner to Christ and
Him alone for salvation, for righteousness, I can tell you
I hate that way. I honestly hate it because I
know what it does. It leads people on the road to
destruction. See what I'm saying? But when
it comes to dealing with people and dealing with myself, my flesh,
I can't say that I always hate sin like I should. But somebody said, well, it's
not just mourning over the... Yes, it is. Because it's by these
consequences of sin that we're continually reminded of what
we are and how weak and pitiful and wretched we are. But here's
the key. Where do we find relief? Where
do we find peace? Your conscience bothers you.
How is the conscience soothed? A lot of people say, well, I
made a profession when I was 12. Well, I'm sure glad of that.
Well, does that soothe your conscience? Or I got baptized. Or I joined
the church. Or I prayed for three hours. What soothes your conscience?
You ever read the stories or seen where the Catholic monks
who are trying to rid themselves of their inner sin and they'll
take a whip and beat their backs? What are they seeking? That conscience. To cut, to soothe that conscience. And they cry and they mourn. But where do they find rest?
You see, he says they shall be comforted. Well, look at this.
Here it is. Now, the Bible calls the Holy Spirit the comforter.
In John 14 and John 16. How does the Holy Spirit comfort
one who is poor in spirit, He leads them one place, one person,
the Lord Jesus Christ for relief. Nowhere else. His blood alone. That's it. I mean nothing else. Nothing in me. Nothing I do,
have done, try to do, plan to do, promise to do. It's all in
Christ. It's all in His blood. It's all
in His righteousness alone that I find relief. There's my comfort. And that's the kind of mourning
and comforting that indicates the blessed of God. Now, if you
can find relief anywhere else, then you better examine yourself,
whether you be in the faith. I don't have any hope, folks,
for salvation from my sin at any stage, to any degree, in
any way, but Christ crucified and risen again. Now, that's
so. I'll come down from this message
today and I'll say, boy, I wish I'd have said that better. I
wish I could have made this point better. And I could let that tear me
up. And I do sorrow over the fact
that I'm not a better preacher, a better husband, a better father,
a better grandfather, a better brother in Christ. I do sorrow
over that. But I can't get any relief in
anything I do or try to. I'm gonna try, I'm gonna study
hard this week. And you know what? Next week
I'm gonna try to bring you the best message I've ever brought. But I can't get any relief there. I just can't do it. Because the
Holy Spirit will not let me. because he's going to drive me
to Christ. The grace of God. I'm a mercy beggar all my life. That's what this morning is all
about. Now, those who are blessed to mourn this way can find no
comfort but in Christ crucified and risen from the dead. His
righteousness alone. And that's the continual state
of my life. And that's called godly sorrow
over sin. Now there are times when I sorrow
over specific things more than others. If I, for example, look
at King David, and I've got referenced here Psalm 51, it's a penitent
psalm. You remember, let's just look
at it just for a minute, Psalm 51. Because it's really a good example
of the mourning that comes. And listen, it comes over the
consequences of sin. Now, you say, well, it's sin
itself, okay? It comes over that too. But you
know King David, you know what this psalm is about. This is
his penitent psalm. over what he had done in committing
adultery with Bathsheba and having her husband murdered. And you
remember, now David went a while before this sorrow really came,
because he was trying to hide it. And you remember God sent
the prophet Nathan, I believe it's recorded in 2 Samuel chapter
12, to confront him. And you remember Nathan told
him the story of a rich man who had many sheep, and then there
was a poor man who had only one sheep. Here's David the king,
the rich man with many sheep, and here's Uriah the Hittite
with one wife. And the rich man connives to
take the one sheep away from that poor man. And David rose
up in anger and he said, this person's going to be punished
for that sin. Justice is going to be done.
And remember what old Nathan the prophet said? You're the
man, David. Boy, thou art the man. And David melted. And then Nathan
said, but you know what happened? Somebody said, well, he shouldn't
have done that. He should have given David step one, step two,
step three. That's what these religious psychologists
would do today. Well, now to do that, you gotta
jump this hurdle. No, he just looked at him, he
said, but God has forgiven your sin. I'm telling you, that is something,
isn't it? Now, did David deserve to be
forgiven? No. Did he earn it? No, he didn't
earn it. And then, then Nathan told him,
he said, but now there are consequences, David. I heard a man tell him,
I preached on that one time, he was here. And a fella told
me, he said, yeah, but David paid for those sins. No, he didn't.
Because there's only one payment for sin, and that's the wages
of sin, and it's death. Christ paid for David's sins.
But there are consequences. He said, your family is going
to be an absolute mess because of what you've done, David. You've
messed up. And even David recognized it.
You remember on his deathbed, he said, although my house be
not, so with God. My house is my family, my kingdom. It's a shambles. But God has
made a covenant with me, ordered in all things insure. Wow, there's
the comfort. This is all my hope and all my
salvation, he said. My soul, and look at this Psalm.
He says in verse one, Psalm 51, have mercy upon me, O God, according
to thy loving kindness. That's grace. David said, I don't
deserve it, don't earn it. According unto the multitude
of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly
from mine iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin, for I
acknowledge my transgressions. My sin is ever before me." And
listen to what David said here. Here's the kind of mourning that
Christ is speaking of in Matthew 5. Against thee, against God. And thee only have I sinned.
This is sin against God. Well, you say, well, David, he
sinned against Uriah the Hittite. Yes, he did. But it's ultimately
against God. Now think about that. And done this evil in thy sight,
that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear
when thou judgest. You know what he's doing there?
He's doing what a blessed mourner does. He's taking sides with
God against himself. How do we do that in our mourning?
It's just like I tell you all the time. Listen, you who are
saved, you know this. You know this to be true. That
if God were to judge you right now, judge me right now based
upon my best, I'd be condemned. That's the kind of mourning that
he's talking about. I still have nothing to recommend
me to God but the Lord Jesus Christ and His righteousness
alone. Right now, he said, I was shapen
in iniquity. Sin did my mother conceive me.
Well, you can read the whole psalm, but look over at verse 16 of Psalm
51. Now, here's the kind of mourning
that Christ is speaking of. Blessed are they who mourn. He
said, for thou desirest not sacrifice. Animal sacrifices wouldn't get
the job done, even though God commands us. All right? Else
would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt
offering. Now, God commanded those things, but what's going
on here, David said, the blood of bulls and goats can never
take away sin, Hebrews chapter 10. Somebody said, well, David, you've
sinned greatly, just go give a sacrifice. That's not going
to do the job. Verse 17, the sacrifices of God
are a broken spirit. Realizing that I don't have any
hope in anything I do. Anything I sacrifice. A broken
and contrite heart. Repentance, that's what that
is. That's what this mourning is, it's repentance. Repentance
of dead works, yes. That's mourning. Oh God, thou
wilt not despise. And so verse 18, do good in thy
good pleasure unto Zion, build thou the walls of Jerusalem,
then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness,
which burnt offering and whole burnt offering, or with burnt
offering and whole burnt, then shall they offer bollocks upon
thine own. You know what that's all about right there? He's showing
how these things are a picture of Christ, upon which ground
God justifies and forgives his people. That's what that's all
about. We'll go back to your lesson
now, Matthew chapter five. We don't always mourn over our
sin as we ought, but mourning over sin does come. There is a sense of continual
mourning. It's a sense of continual repentance
and sorrow. It doesn't always express itself
in our crying and sorrowing all the time. Sometimes it does.
But let me give you this. At the end of this lesson, beginning
at the bottom of page one, I give you four things about this morning. Things to consider from God's
Word. And listen to this. First of
all, in consideration of sin, in the fact that the Holy Spirit
brings us to confess our sins continually and to find no relief
except in the blood of Christ. First John 1 talks about that.
You know, if we say we have no sin, we're lying, make God a
liar, we're a liar. He said, but if we confess our
sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. On what
ground? On the ground of the blood of
Christ. I'll never forget hearing a preacher on television talking
about the forgiveness of sins. And he made this statement. He
said, what is the basis and the condition of God forgiving our
sins? And his answer was repentance.
That's not true. The basis and condition for God
forgiving our sins is the blood of Christ. And you know what? When God the
Holy Spirit implants that in our being, in our hearts, that's
what brings the sinner to repentance. When we realize what God has
done for us, who are so undeserving, who are so, so wretched in ourselves,
that's what brings the mourning in consideration of sin. I have
nothing. by which to plead, nothing to gain God's favor, to be accepted
with God, but Christ's righteousness imputed. That's what I mean by
consideration of our sin. And again, if God were to judge
me at any time, I'm constantly aware of that, are you? If God
were to judge me at any time, he'd damn me. So where's the
comfort in that, okay? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? I wrote an article, I guess it's
not this bulletin, but, oh yeah, it's called Why Preach Election,
in the bulletin there. Listen to the command of God
to believers. to the poor in spirit, to the
mourners. And it's in 2 Peter 1.10, it says, give diligence
to make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things,
you shall never fall. Election is a source of comfort
for God's people. Who shall lay anything to my
charge? Somebody said, well, how do we know we're elect? Do
we believe and rest in Christ? Are we poor in spirit? Are we
mourning over sin in this way? Do we find comfort? only in Christ. That's it. I stand before God
as righteous, not by my works. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth righteousness without works. Romans 4, 6. I have nothing else. I mean,
nothing else now. You say, well, you've preached
in his name. You've cast out demons. No, I haven't, but anybody
who has. You've done many wonderful works.
I have nothing to plead but Christ's righteousness. That's it. And
that's the comfort. We have joy and peace, the scripture
says, in believing. That means we have joy and peace
in Christ. Remember it talked about in Hebrews
12 how Christ what suffered the contradiction for the joy that
was set before him. What was that joy? It's the glory
of God in the salvation of his people through Christ. I look
at the second one. In consideration of Christ, we
mourn. Now what I mean by that, we mourn
over our sin in consideration of Christ. And I've got Hebrews
12, 2, that's talking about looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith. It's in consideration of what
he had to go through to put away my sin. Think about that. And
I've got a long list of scriptures there. Psalm 22, Psalm 69. But
I want you to understand something. This is not feeling sorry for
Jesus. No, sir. You know, a lot of times
you'll see people, they'll enact these passion plays and all of
that, and they just stir up the emotions. There was one fella
up in Akron, Ohio, had a big, huge religious organization,
and they were doing that, and he was describing the agony that
Christ went through on the cross, which I don't think we can describe,
by the way. I don't think we have human words
to describe what our Savior suffered on that cross. But he was describing
that, and everybody was crying and emotional, and he made this
statement in the middle of it. He said, oh, he said, if I'd
have been there, I would have tried to stop it. I thought, really? You think that you had any idea
of a notion of stopping what I'm going to preach on this morning
later on, the history, the providence, and the purpose of Almighty God
from eternity, the salvation of his people, No, when I talk
about in consideration of Christ and what it took for him to put
away our sins, I'm not talking about feeling sorry for him.
You remember when the women were crying, he was on his way to
the cross and they cried and he turned around to them, he
said, don't weep for me, weep for yourselves and your children.
What I'm talking about when I say in consideration of Christ mourning
over sin is you think about what he had to go through to put away
our sins That's a serious matter. Sin is not to be made light of. Now, sometimes I know we joke
about sin and stuff, but you know, it's no laughing matter,
really, if you think about it. It was our sins that nailed our
Savior to the cross. I know it pleased the Lord to
bruise him. God's justice had to be satisfied. But think about
what he had to go through. to put away our sins. Now, how
do we derive comfort from that? Well, two ways. Number one, that's
the way it's always been from the beginning. That was determined
and foreordained by God. That's what Peter said. He said,
you've taken with wicked hands, you've crucified and slain the
Lord of glory, but God meant it for good. You did no more
than what God predetermined to be done. And then secondly, In
consideration of what he suffered, look at what came out of it.
Our sins are put away. Our sins are paid for. Righteousness
is established, and we're saved. That's the comfort that comes
out of that. All right, here's number three. In consideration
of our frame, I took that from Psalm 103, where it talks about,
you know, look at my condition. Look at who I am. And I put there,
we are pitiful creatures. Let not the wise man glory in
his wisdom. Let not the strong man glory
in his strength. Let not the rich man glory in
his rich. I didn't write that verse down there. What is that,
Jeremiah 9, I think? Somebody might look it up and
put that in there. Jeremiah 9, 23 and 24, I think
is what it is, but I'm not sure. But anyway, in our natural state,
we're nothing but sinful. Children of wrath even as others,
by nature. But think about this, this is
where the reality and the consequences of our sin and our sinfulness
come play. Listen, do we think we have control
of anything? We don't. You think about a person who
goes through life strong, happy, successful, healthy. And all it takes is one little
minute microscopic little cancer cell to bring them down. Now think about that. That's all. And they can't do
anything about it. We're pitiful creatures, aren't
we? See, we're headed for death. And without Christ, we're perishing. But what does that do? It reminds
us constantly that we have no hope but Christ. You want eternal
life? Look to Christ, who is life. You want acceptance with God?
You want a right relationship with God? Look to Christ for
righteousness. Beg for mercy, that's all we
can do. And then lastly, and this is
one of the main, I didn't put these in order of importance
now. This is all one thing that we all engage in, and this is
a way of mourning. Think about our lost loved ones.
In consideration of our relationship with the world. Paul said, God
forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me. That means
the world is cursed and I unto the world. When God brings a
sinner to see Christ and brings that person into faith in Christ,
it changes our whole relationship with the world. People that we
love, family members who don't believe, They're perishing. That's a point of mourning, isn't
it? Every believer has to put up with that. Paul said, I could
wish myself a curse for my brethren after the flesh. My heart's desire
and prayer for Israel is that they might be saved, for I bear
them record they have a zeal of God, but not according to
knowledge. We mourn. But we're comforted
even in that. How? Well, again, God is a just
God. He's going to do what's right
and it's right for Him to save His people through Christ by
His grace.