Turn back in your Bibles to the
Gospel of Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5. I want to continue today with what
I've been calling a profile of the blessed. We hear so many people speak
of being blessed, and even this week I saw a license plate on
the front of a car, and that's all it said was blessed. But we continue this morning
with the second statement that Christ gives concerning this
profile of the blessed, these characteristics of those who
are truly blessed. And as I said last week, He is
alone the profiler. He alone can tell us just exactly
who is really blessed. And what he says here is so contrary
to our nature, and so contrary to our logic and to the world's
thinking, because what he says is blessed, and those he says
are blessed, we would not naturally think them to be so. As I said,
that word blessed means something like happy, truly happy. So if you'll look with me at
the second statement this morning, which is found in verse 4, it
is along the same line as what he says in verse 3. But here
he says, blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are they that mourn. What is mourning? Well, it is
sadness. and sorrow and grief. But I think what our Lord is
saying here is close akin to the wisdom that He enabled Solomon
to speak with in Ecclesiastes 7. He said, 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,
and the living will lay it to his heart." And then a few verses
later he said this, the heart of the wise is in the house of
mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth, of
human laughter and levity. But this mourning that Christ
is talking about here is not the mourning of the world. It is not that mourning that
is common to all people. As a matter of fact, the Scriptures
distinguish and set apart and identify two kinds of mourning
or two kinds of sorrow. Hold your place here and turn
over to II Corinthians and the seventh chapter and listen to
what Paul says concerning the effect that his preaching, or
a letter that he had written, had taken upon many of these
Corinthian people. He says in verse 9, he says,
Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed
to repentance. For you were made sorry after
a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing."
Paul is saying that his letter was not to bring to them any
natural sorrow. But he says, for godly sorrow
worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of, but the
sorrow of this world worketh this. In other words, the ends
of these two different kinds of sorrow or mourning are very
different. And he says that this godly sorrow
or godly mourning, he says, is a sorrowing or working to repentance,
to salvation, not to be repented of, But the sorrow of the world
simply works and ends up in death. You see, this mourning that Christ
is talking about here, like the associated comfort with it, is
due to a work of grace in the heart by the Spirit of God. And it is brought about when
He enables us with the eye of faith which He alone can give
to behold Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now, there is no doubt
that sorrow of some kind and mourning of some kind can be
brought about by the telling of sad stories and things of
this nature. But this morning, as I said,
is the work of the Spirit of God alone. We cannot produce
this in ourselves. And it is exactly as was prophesied
through the prophet Zachariah when he said, And I will pour
upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
the spirit of grace and of supplications. And they shall look upon me whom
they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth
for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one
that is in bitterness for his firstborn. And what he's talking
about here is this spirit-wrought mourning which is simply over
a conviction which he brings in the matter of our sins. In other words, this is a mourning
over sin. It is a spiritual mourning, and
it is not simply a mourning over the consequences of sin. That's the kind of mourning that
Paul says, worketh death. And sometimes it is mistaken
for what Christ is talking about here, but it is simply a mourning
over the fact that sins have broken up families, or that sin
has destroyed one's health, or sin has brought about the squandering
of one's wealth. It's a sorrowing over the consequences
of sin. But this morning is over the
fact that our sin is against God. One is born out of nothing
but natural fear, and the other is born out of this love which
is wrought in the heart by the Spirit of God in the fact that
our sins and our offenses are against God. That's what David
cried out. He said in his words in Psalm
51, against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil
in thy sight. And my friends, we never know
enough about sin. We never have any real sense
of what sin is. until God the Spirit brings us
to see that sin is awful because it is against God. Let me read you some words that
old Robert Hawker said. He said, the repentance for the
consequence of sin goes no further than as it dreads the punishment. He says the repentance for the
cause of sin becomes the continued gracious sorrow of the heart. In other words, a sorrow which
is simply for the consequences of sin. A sorrow may be that
we will wind up in hell because of our sin, or sin has broken
our family, or destroyed our health, or brought about great
difficulties in our life. That is not this morning. Christ says, blessed are they
that mourn in this spiritual sins, because this mourning or
this weeping is an evidence or a mark or a characteristic that
one has been born of God. It is a fact that our sin is
such Now in our sight, since God has
revealed to us what it is in the light of who He is, that
this new life given is just like a newborn baby that weeps. And a baby does not weep in order
to get life. But a baby weeps when they are
born as an evidence and a sign that they have life. And that's the way this mourning
is. In other words, we mourn that
sin is all that we are. We mourn that it taints everything
we do. We mourn that it is not only
against God as He is, but it is also against His very goodness
and His mercy and His grace. We mourn because it is against
light. It's not against ignorance. Our
sin is against life. It's against God's revealed truth
if in no other way in the very creation that He has brought
about. And we are just exactly in that
case that the Bible describes until such a hour as He brings
us to see this when He said, fools make a mock at sin. I remember reading where somebody
described sin in this way. They said sin is just simply
too much appetite and too little digestion. Sin is something that
religion and religious people have brought to bear on the minds
and consciences of men and women over the ages. Something that
need not even be concerned with at all. But if there's one thing that
this book speaks against and talks about in as clear a way
as could possibly be, it is the matter of sin. Somebody said we can talk about
sin being big or sin being little, but the truth of the matter is
all sin is big because there is no little God to sin against. And as Paul says that this morning
and this godly sorrow, when wrought in the heart of a sinner by the
Spirit of God, he says it works repentance. In other words, the
very gift of repentance, when he gives us that gift of repentance,
It brings us to this godly sorrow concerning our sin, and we repent
of our sin. And the Bible says that our repentance
is toward God. That's what it refers to, repentance
toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And what we're
brought to do is we're brought to mourn over what we once thought
God to be. We're brought to mourn over what
we now see was nothing except utter idolatry. We mourn over
our old false ideas of God. We mourn over our old actions
which we did even in the name of God. Listen to what the Apostle Paul
says. He says, I was before a blasphemer. I was before a persecutor and
injurious, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in
unbelief. In other words, he brings his
people, every one of them, to mourn over the very notions and
ideas and thoughts that they once had that a holy God would
ever receive their sinful persons or could ever bless their ungodly
works. No way. No way. And we're brought to mourn over
what we once thought was our one reason to rejoice. We're brought to mourn over what
we once thought was our very own righteousness, and we mourn
and repent over that which we once thought would recommend
us to God. Hold your place here in Matthew
5 and turn over to Philippians chapter 3. Here is a kind of mourning as
it is expressed by the Apostle Paul in the remembrance of what
he was and in the remembrance now of what God in grace has
made him to be. Look down in verse He says, for we are the circumcision
which worship God in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh. And what follows is a man's words
who has been saved by the grace of God, and who now has been
brought to mourn of the very things that he once rejoiced
in. Look at verse 4. He says, though
I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man
thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh,
more. Circumcised the eighth day of
the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the
Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee concerning zeal,
persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in
the law, blameless, but what things were gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all
things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do
count them but dung, that I might win Christ, and be found in Him,
not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith." Paul said, I mourn now over that which I
once rejoiced in, that which I thought would recommend me
to God." He said, now I'm brought to a man who's sad over the very
things that I was once glad over. Christ said, blessed are they
that mourn. an old preacher by the name of
J.C. Philpott. He said, there is many
a weeping time for God's children, and if there be one frame of
mind in soul experience more to be coveted than another, it
is to be weeping at Jesus' feet. He said we have two instances
of the Lord's manifesting Himself to those who were weeping. One to the woman which was a
sinner, who stood behind Him and washed His feet with her
tears. The other was to Mary Magdalene,
who stood without the sepulchre weeping. And oh, how different
is the weeping, chastened spirit of a living soul from the hardened,
seared presumption of a proud professor. How different are
the feelings of a broken-hearted child of God from the lightness,
the frivolity, the emptiness, and the worldliness of hundreds
who stand in a profession of religion. How different is a
morning saint weeping in his solitary corner over his base-backed
slidings from a reckless professor who justifies himself in every
action, who thinks sin a light thing, and who, however inconsistently
he acts, never feels his conscience wounded thereby. He said there's
a big difference. And that's what our Lord is saying.
You see, the blessed not only mourn over their sins, but they
mourn over their continued sinfulness. They mourn over their indwelling
sin. They continually mourn. Isn't that what Paul is saying
in Romans 7? He says, O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Here is the man who was saying,
oftentimes, I know that in me, that is, in my flesh dwelleth
no good thing. You see, the truth is, the Lord's
believing people could be described as the happiest, most miserable
people in this world. Because this is what he says
in Isaiah 57, For thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabits
eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy
place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit,
to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the
contrite ones." Who are they described as? The
broken and the contrite ones. They're not like this bunch of
religious people who are on what I call sometimes a hallelujah
hayride to heaven, they think. They're walking around all the
time talking about how blessed they are. They know nothing about
the conviction of their sin in their hearts. They know nothing
about the character of God. They know nothing about why Jesus
Christ really hung on that cross and that the matter of sin is
right at the center of all that He came to do and to die for. But the Lord's people, they're
found mourning over their own coldness and their continued
indifference. and their constant ignorance,
and their often unfaithfulness, and their proneness to wonder,
and their very unbelief. That's what that man said, Lord,
I believe, but help thou my unbelief. They mourn, the blessed mourn
over how this very world in which they live dishonors their God. They mourn especially of how
the religious world misrepresents Him and how the world glorifies
themselves rather than Him and portrays Him as weak and helpless
and just the very opposite of His Word. You know it's an amazing thing
that one of the things that grieves me more than anything is to hear people talking about
Jesus. That's right. One of the things
that absolutely breaks my heart, causes me grief, makes me want
to run somewhere and just break down in tears, is when men and
women, for the most part in our day, start talking about somebody
they call Jesus. You say, why is that? Because
I know He's not the one that's described in Scripture. I know
that there is no way that he could be the Son of God. They
speak of him in his weakness. They talk about him trying. They talk about him in a way
that they have his hands bound and his purpose thwarted and
his glory diminished, being allowed only to do what they can allow
him to do. They make him a failure. They
say he did something to make something possible. I heard a
man praying before a sports event on TV yesterday. And he talked about how God was
all-powerful. I thought, boy, now this is beginning
to sound good. And then he talked about how
God is all-knowing, knowing everything. And then he talked about how
he came in order to make a way possible. He reduced him to a beggar. In Ezekiel, the prophet is led
by the Spirit of God to say, And the Lord said unto him, Go
through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem,
and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that
cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof." They mourn over what goes on
in this world with regard to God. They mourn in the sin that
He says is sin that is not only excused but magnified. And then the Lord's blessed people,
they mourn over the divisions and the schisms and the strife
that sometimes occurs even among the Lord's people. They mourn. that brethren are
sometimes found to be in disagreement with brethren. They mourn that
fellowships are broken. They mourn that brethren are
estranged one from another. They don't count it as an ordinary. They mourn over it. And I'll
tell you something else they mourn over. They mourn over the
very afflictions and trials and tribulations and sorrows of all
their brethren in Christ. Because that's what he said.
He said, mourn with them. Cry with those that cry. Suffer
with those who have sufferings. Enter in with the tribulations
of those who have tribulations. There are mourning people. He
says, blessed are they that mourn. But then he says something else
for to notice also. He said, for they shall be comforted. And that doesn't even hardly
sound logical at all to us. He says, "...blessed are they
that mourn, for they shall be comforted." Now, you think about
this. This is an absolute, sure promise
of Christ. Now, everybody says they like
to have the comfort of Christ, but they don't want to be found
among that firstborn. Blessed are they that mourn,
for they shall be comforted. Comforted. You see, the blessed mourn, but
they are also comforted of God. On the same page oftentimes,
in the same verse, in this same book, where the Lord's people
are described on the one hand as poor in spirit and also as
they that mourn. He said, they're the ones that
are going to be comforted. They're the ones that God's going to
comfort. In Isaiah, he says, "...for the Lord shall comfort
Zion, He will comfort all her waste places, and He will make
her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of
the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found
therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody. You see, Zion, which is the church,
is described as having two sounds coming up out of it. The sound
of weeping and also the sound of singing.
The sound of crying and the sound of rejoicing. Again, in Isaiah,
he says, as one whom his mother comforted, so will I comfort
you, and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. It seems like nobody can comfort
you like your mother can comfort you. And that's how he describes his
comfort. You see, First of all, the Lord's
blessed who are mourners, they are comforted by the gospel of
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. You think about this. They mourn
over their sins. They mourn over their sinfulness. So what in the world could ever
be of comfort to those who have sinned in the sight of God who
says that He must punish sin? The gospel. The gospel of the
crucified Christ. Because that's described as glad
tidings to sin. The gospel is a comfort to those
that Christ died for, because He died for the ungodly. He came to seek and to save the
lost. You see, the problem is that
men in their blindness, they refuse to take to themselves
the very character that God says that He will bless. You say, are you a sinner? Well,
no, not really, not like so and so. That's like saying, are you thirsty? And I'm standing there with a
glass full of water in my hand. No, I don't fit that character. But those that mourn over sin,
they're comforted of God in the gospel. Let me read you some
verses in Isaiah 40. This is what God commands of
all of His servants. In Isaiah 40, in that first verse,
look at what He says. He says, Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith your God. You see, there is not a preacher
who can, and let me add this, there's not one of God's preachers
who would find themselves able to say anything that could produce the kind of mourning that Christ
is talking about. They try to scare men and women
out of hell, they say. No. That won't work. In other words,
if I stood up here week after week and I just blasted you over
every imaginable sin, you'd be harder in the end than
you would be when I began. If I just talked all the time
about what you're not to do, if I took everything that people
in religion make to be sin, If I blasted you for drinking a
glass of wine, or if I blasted you for watching a movie, or
if I blasted you for going to a sporting event or something
like that, that would make some of you happy.
You know which ones? The ones that hadn't done it. That's right. That's why religion
builds such self-righteous Pharisees. It makes us proud that we don't
do those things. It doesn't make us more. Why? Because there is no sin
in the doing of any of those things. The problem's not in the things.
The problem's in us. Christ said it's not what goes
Into your mouth that defiles you, it's what comes out of you
that defiles you. I remember about 30 years ago,
some of you might even remember this, when Brother Henry Mahan
first came to where we used to be and he's preaching. And he's made this statement.
He said, I'd much rather a man sit in the comfort of his home
and drink a beer than to have a hatred, self-righteous
attitude toward somebody else. It's like somebody got killed
almost. Bang! Why is that? Because that strikes right at
the heart of the matter. That sin is in us. It's not in things. It's in us. And the Lord says concerning
the gospel, He said, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, sayeth
your God. speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned. For she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins." You see, I can't bring you the
bad news. I can't make it bad enough. You've
seen it. But when the Spirit of God brings
us to an end of ourselves. To where we see that we're nothing
but wretched and vile and hopeless. That sin is what we are more
than what we do. We do what we do because we are
what we are. That sin is against God. That
God must punish sin. And He brings us to this mourning
which no preacher could ever produce in us. That's when the gospel becomes
comfort. Paul said, this is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. That's a man who mourns because
of what he is, and at the same time, he's comforted in all that
Christ is, and all that he's done. Look over in Isaiah 61. He says, the Spirit of the Lord
is upon me. because the Lord hath anointed
me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He hath sent me to
bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives
and the opening of the 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. Does that sound familiar to you?
That's the very Scripture that Christ read there in the synagogue
at Nazareth, and He said, today this Scripture, this prophecy
is fulfilled in your eyes, in your sight. to appoint them that
mourn in Zion, to give 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." He said, they shall be comforted. And our comfort is none other
than Christ Himself, because He put away our sins when He
bore them in His own body on the tree. And though our sins
were against God, He satisfied every claim that was against
us. He suffered and He died that
God might be to us not only a just God, but also a Savior. And this gospel comfort is applied
to us in our conscience. And we have peace rather than
guilt because Christ made peace by His blood, by the blood of
His cross. That's the comfort of God's people. And God gives to all His people
His Word and His Spirit, who is Himself called the Comforter. Two times the Lord Jesus at least
refers to His Spirit as the Comforter. He says in John 14, But the Comforter,
which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name,
He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your
remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you." How does He comfort us? How does
the Comforter comfort us? Well, he comforts those to whom
Christ sends him by this, by teaching them, by bringing to
their remembrance what Christ has said about who he is and
what he's done. That's right. Because in another
place, he says, when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto
you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceeds
from the Father, he shall testify of me." There's only one thing that will
comfort these mourners. That's when the Spirit of God
takes the very Gospel and Word of God. and comforts. The only thing. And you know,
the thing is, that continues to be the case. They continue
to be comforted. The psalmist said, this is my
comfort in my affliction, for thy word hath quickened me. Paul says, for whatsoever things
were written aforetime were written for our learning that we, through
patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. And not only that, but they are
comforted by God's people. They are comforted by others
who mourn. You see, they may not have everything
in common, but they got this in common. They mourn over their
sin and their sinfulness, and they only find comfort in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And they're comforted by those
of whom it says that He comforts He comforts us in all our tribulation
that we may be able to comfort them which are in trouble by
the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted by God. We have one problem, we have
one trial, we have one sickness, we have one heartache, we have
this and that and the other, and the Lord comforts us in it.
He gives us His Word. Why? to comfort us, but also,
he said, that we might be of comfort when other of our brethren
had the same problems, the same difficulties. And His presence
is our comfort every step of the way in this world, and He
will even comfort His people with the greatest comfort when
they come to the hour of death. He said, Yea, though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou
art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. And though they mourn over what's
going on in this world right now. Their comfort is that God
is working all these things together for their good and His glory. They are comforted in the fact
that the Lord God Omnipotent reigns. And our comfort is that each
tribulation, each trial, each affliction, each event that takes
place in this world is God-sent for this purpose. And He will
give us grace sufficient. Christ said, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament. But the world
shall rejoice, and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall
be turned into joy." He says, weeping may endure for
a night, but joy comes in the morning. The ransomed of the
Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting
joy upon their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." They will be comforted. And when John beholds that great
company in the Revelation, he says, And I heard a great voice
out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with
men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people,
and God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, And there shall be
no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there
be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. Blessed are they that mourn,
for they shall be comforted. Our Father, we pray this day that You might cause Your Word
in the hands of Your Spirit to accomplish both this morning
in Your people and also this comfort. May we be found among those who
fit this profile. May we not view these as conditions
of blessing, but as the character of the blessed. We thank you and pray that you
would bring all honor and glory to yourself. Help us as we go out in this
world in which we live. Give us more grace. Watch over us and protect us.
For we thank you and we pray in Christ's name. Amen.