If you would open your Bibles
back with me to Genesis chapter 50. Do you want to check on that
or you're not worried? Okay. I titled the message this evening
a very serious subject, but something I think it's good for us to look
at. Grief and mourning. I won't reread this whole passage
in Genesis 50. just a few minutes ago, but Jacob
has died. His family is gonna spend a good
bit of time mourning the death of their father, their grandfather.
The Egyptians respected Joseph and Jacob probably too so much. They joined them in mourning
for Jacob for 70 days. In the end, many of the Egyptians,
all the elders and it seems like all the important people of the
government, they all joined this funeral procession. to go with
Joseph, take his father back to Canaan and bury him there
in the cave that Abraham had bought in Mamre. Now that was
one long funeral procession, don't you reckon? We've had funerals
where we've gone out to Rose Hill Cemetery, and if I'm preaching
the funeral, I'm one of the first ones there to park and get out
and look. And man, I'll see cars all the way back up 13th Street
up the hill, you know, just waiting to come into the cemetery. I
said, well, that's a lot of folks. This was one long funeral procession
that they had. And looks to me like it's all
out of respect for Joseph. And after they crossed Jordan
into Canaan, Joseph had everybody stop again. And they mourned
again for seven days. And the word mourn that Moses
uses here means to weep and wail, to weep and wail. This family
was truly mourning and their friends were mourning with them.
Now that tells me that it is entirely appropriate for us to
mourn our loved ones after they die. Scripture tells us Abraham
mourned for Sarah. Saints here mourned for Jacob. The whole nation of Israel mourned
for 30 days after Moses died. David lamented the deaths of
Saul and Jonathan. So all that tells me is just
fine. Whether something we should do
is we should mourn the loss of those that we love. Now that
being said, there is such a thing as excessive mourning. We shouldn't
do that. Joab had to go tell King David
after Absalom had died, but Israel won this great victory. Joab
had to go tell the king, now your mourning is excessive. This
has got to stop. Jonah mourned over the withered
gourd. Remember that? He mourned over
the withered gourd. He wasn't thankful God spared
all these people, you know, in Nineveh. He mourned over the
withered gourd. Now that's just sinful and childish,
and that's all there is to it. Now that kind of mourning, God's
not going to comfort. But the lives of believers are
going to be marked with a lot of mourning. And I thought it
would be very good for us to look at this subject tonight
on grief and mourning. Now, you know, we only truly
mourn. I mean, I'm not talking about
just being sad because something didn't go our way. We only truly
mourn when there's nothing that we can do to change the situation.
You know, if we have a loved one who's sick, but they're still
alive, they're still breathing, we don't mourn yet because we
got some hope the situation might change. We got some hope that
they might recover. Maybe the Lord will heal them. We pray
and ask the Lord to heal them. We pray and ask the Lord to send
doctors and nurses. Maybe they'll recover. So while
they're sick, we're not mourning. But when that loved one dies,
we mourn. Because there's not one thing
we can do to change the situation. We can't bring them back and
spend even 30 more seconds with them. Not one more second with
them. completely helpless to bring them back to life and be
with them anymore. So we mourn. That's what mourning
is. And I know this about believers.
This is something every believer does. Mourn. Mourn. And the Word of God gives
us comfort in our mourning. That's why I read that passage
of the Beatitudes to open the service where the Savior said,
blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted. Not
some of them will be comforted, not maybe they'll be comforted.
They shall be comforted. And the Savior says they're blessed.
Now, the last time you mourned, did you feel really blessed?
But the Savior says they're blessed. And the word he uses, blessed
there, means supremely blessed. They're supremely happy, those
who mourn. Now, in the Beatitudes, the Lord
is describing He's not telling us what to do in order to be
saved. The salvation comes from faith
in Christ, not how we act. In the Beatitudes, the Lord's
not telling us what believers ought to be, not how we ought
to try to act. He's telling us what a believer
already is. By God's grace, this is what
God has made his people to be. And the Savior pronounced blessings
on his people that are given to them. And this is what he
promises to those who mourn over sin, and what the Lord's primarily,
almost exclusively there talking about is mourning over sin, but
this is what he promises. Those who mourn over their sin,
they shall be comforted. They shall be, without any question.
Now look over at Ecclesiastes chapter seven. I want you to
look at several scriptures tonight on this subject of mourning and
grief. Now there's not a person here
that would say, I'd like to be mourning all the time. I can't
wait till the next time something happens that's gonna make me
mourn. But do you know mourning is good for us? It's good for
us. I wouldn't think that if it wasn't
found in God's word. Look here at Ecclesiastes 7,
verse two. It's better to go to the house
of mourning than to go to the house of feasting. For that's
the end of all men. and the living will lay it to
his heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by the sadness
of the countenance, the heart is made better. The heart of
the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in
the house of mirth. Now Solomon here is talking about
going to the house of mourning after the death of a loved one.
We go to the funeral home and pay our respects and see the
family. And Solomon says mourning, after the death of a loved one,
being with those who are mourning, there's the body lying in the
casket. Thinking about this matter of life and death, Solomon says
that's better for us than going to a big party where everybody's
laughing all the time. I'll tell you why he says that.
Because the house of mourning will remind us, the living, he
said, will take this to heart. That's gonna be me one day soon,
lying in that casket. And knowing that will make me
seek Christ. It'll make me seek a Savior.
It'll make me seek one who can give me righteousness. It'll
make me seek one who can forgive my sins. And if we seek Christ,
the Scripture tells us we'll find Him. Well, if I find Christ,
I'm going to be comforted, aren't I? I'm going to be comforted
because my sin is forgiven. That's a whole lot better than
going to a party and just laughing and laughing and laughing and
laughing my way to the grave ignoring all these serious subjects
of life and death. True sorrow is better. True mourning is better than
all this laughing all the time. And you all who know me, now
I'm not saying don't ever laugh. I mean, I love to laugh. I just,
I mean, humor is, I just love it. But in its place, true mourning
over our sin leads us to repentance. It causes us to turn to Christ. Because we're mourning, there's
nothing we can do about it. So we're forced to go to Christ
because he's the only helper we have. He's the only friend
we have. So in the house of mourning,
here's why the house of mourning is better than the house of laughter.
You find forgiveness for your sins there. See, there can't
be any salvation without mourning over our sins first. You're still
there in Ecclesiastes 7, look at verse 5. It's better to hear
the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools. Now the song of fools is much
more entertaining than hearing the rebuke of the wise, but the
rebuke of the wise is better for us. Part of the gospel preacher's
job, who we hope has a little bit of wisdom at least, is to
rebuke. Paul told Timothy, you rebuke,
you exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. Do you know the
only people who will ever hear the rebuke of the gospel? It's
somebody who's mourning over their sin. They'll hear the correction
of the gospel and they'll turn to Christ. So mourning is good
for us. Now I know that runs against
every fiber of our natural being, but it's so, mourning is good
for us. And even though we just read
that, this is still what's in our mind, isn't it? How can mourning
and sorrow How can heartbreak, I mean your heart is broken because
there's nothing you can do to change the situation. How can
that possibly be good for me? Let me give you five reasons
that I found in the word of God. First look at Zechariah chapter
12. The only people who mourn over
their, excuse me, the only people God will comfort are people who
mourn over their sins. And do you know mourning over
sin, do you know that's an effect of grace in the heart? Mourning
over sin, true mourning over sin. Now I'm not talking about
just being sorry that I got caught. I'm talking about true mourning
over sin. That's a result of seeing Christ crucified. And
if you see Christ crucified by faith, God's been gracious to
you. Look at Zechariah 12 verse 10. And I will pour upon the house
of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace
and of supplications. Now when God pours the spirit
of grace on a person, this is what they'll do. They shall look
upon me whom they 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. Now true mourning
over sin, it's not just being sorry for the consequences of
sin. You know, I'm real sorry. that
I feel pain and sickness and sorrow. All those things are
the consequences of sin. But that's not mourning over
sin. People who are in hell, they're suffering, but that's
not mourning. That's just the consequence of
sin. They're just suffering the consequence. That's not mourning.
Mourning over sin, it's grieving and wailing. That's the word,
grieving and wailing over sin itself. Sin is rebellion against
the Holy God, against God who's done nothing but good for me,
and it's my sin. I'm not talking about somebody
else's sin, the sin of people I see out in the world. This
is my sin. Sin is a display of my sin nature, a nature that's
against God. Now remember, we only mourn if
there's nothing we can do about the situation. We can't do anything
to make the situation different. We can't improve the situation
at all. We mourn the loss of a loved one because we can't
bring him back to life. Well, sin causes the believer
mourning. There is not one thing we can
do to take our sin away. We can't make our sin less. We
can't improve ourselves in God's sight. We can't make ourselves
less sinful. We are helpless before God in
this matter of having our sin taken away. So we cry out for
mercy because we're mourning. And I tell you, the only place
I really see what my sin is, it's at Calvary. Mourning over
sin always involves seeing Christ crucified. When I see what it
took for God to put my sin away, now I start to get some idea
what sin really is. The father who loved his son
eternally, who before creation was daily the delight of his
father, The father slaughtered his son to pay for the sin of
his people. That's what it took. And that's
what causes us to mourn, to see what my sin cost the Savior. And you know, God comforts His
people in the very same place He made them to mourn. He comforts
them the very same place He made them to mourn. It's by seeing
Christ crucified and the blood that He shed. Look down at chapter
13, verse 1. In that day, in this day of mourning,
I mean, this is true mourning going on. In that day, there
should be a fountain open to the house of David and to the
inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. It's the blood. It's the blood.
It's the blood that put our sin away. So see, I mourn when I
see Christ crucified. This is what it costs to put
my sin away. But what comforts me is seeing Christ crucified. If the Son of God was crucified
for me, Gary, my sin's gone. And my heart's comforted. And
here's the thing about believers. The more the Lord is pleased
to reveal our sin to us, the more we're comforted. The more
we're comforted. I used to have a dear friend
who would tell me often Thank you for reminding me what a sinner
I am. Thank you for reminding me what a sinner I am. Because
the more the Lord is pleased to reveal our sin to us, the
more we're comforted. And the reason we're comforted
is, the more I see of my sin, the more I look to Christ. The
more I depend on Christ, and the more comfort I have. The
more I see of His sufficiency, the more comfort that I have.
So it's good for us to mourn. Because the only people God comforts
are those who mourn. All right, number two, look at
Isaiah chapter 61. People who mourn, now they're
a blessed people because those are the people, people who are
mourning, those are the people the Son of God came to comfort. Isaiah 61, verse one. The Spirit of 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
broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives in the opening
of the prison to them that are bound. Christ came to comfort
the broken hearted. Those who are broken hearted,
that's the people who are mourning. And you know how he comforts
the broken hearted? By giving them a new heart. Giving them
a heart that believes him and trusts him. Christ came to comfort
that broken hearted prisoner. He's in the prison house of sin
and there's not one thing he can do about it. There's not
one thing he can do to set himself free. There's not one thing he
can do to satisfy justice. But Christ came to comfort that
poor prisoner by taking his place and setting him free, paying
the price for him. Verse two, remember now this
is the passage that the Lord read and he told him, this day
is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. This is what Christ
came to do, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. and the day
of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn. Now that acceptable
year of the Lord means the year of Jubilee. In the year of Jubilee,
all debts were canceled. All slaves were set free. All
land that was lost because of bad business dealing was all
returned to its original owner. Christ said he came as the year
of Jubilee. He came to comfort that slave.
who's mourning. He sold himself into slavery
because he's got a debt he cannot pay. Christ came to comfort that
slave by setting him free. Christ came to comfort those
who lost everything in Adam. And there's not one thing they
can do to get it back. But Christ came to restore everything to
them only better. Because He restores it in Him.
If Christ just came and restored us back to the state that we
had in Adam, you and me would lose it just as quick as Adam
did. This is restored in Christ. It all depends upon Christ. See,
Adam had an innocence, didn't he? But it was in his hands to
keep it or lose it. God's people have a righteousness,
but it's not in your hands to keep it or lose it. It's in Christ. He came to comfort those who
lost everything in Adam by giving them everything in Him. Christ
came to comfort those who are under the bondage of the law.
They work, they work, they work, they work, they work, and no
matter how much they work, they still can't do enough to please
God. And Christ comes to comfort them,
to give them rest. By showing them, He finished
the work of redemption for them. It is finished, He cried. And
it comforts those who are weary. Christ came to comfort all those
who are mourning under the vengeance of God. Oh, they're sinning. They see their sin. They see
what they deserve. They're mourning because the
vengeance of God is going to fall on them. And you know how
Christ comforts His people, those mourning people? By revealing
Himself. Himself. I'm the substitute that's
taking your place. I'm the Passover lamb that will
be shed so that you can go free. I'm the scapegoat that will take
your sin and be made sin for you and suffer and die so that
you can go free. I'm your righteousness that makes
you righteous and accepted in God's sight. Oh, all God's people
have to do is see Christ. He is everything that I need
and we're comforted. Verse three says that Christ
came to a point under 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. Christ came to comfort those
who mourn. They're sitting in the ash heap,
just like Brother Joe of old, sitting in the ash heap, got
a piece of broken pottery, scraping the boils off his skin. They
mourn because they've lost everything in Adam. They're naked, they're
ugly in Adam. They're naked. They have no hope,
no covering. And Christ comes and covers them
with himself, with his righteousness. He makes them beautiful with
his beauty, which he put upon them. And he tells them all about
it. He tells them all about what
he's done for them by the preaching of Christ. We mourn over our
sin. The best news we ever heard is
the gospel of Christ, who he is and what he's done for his
people. Christ only came to comfort. Those who mourn, that's why mourning
is a blessing. I now look back at Isaiah chapter
40. Here's the third thing, third reason that mourning is good
for us. People who mourn are blessed because they are the
only people who are affected by the gospel. You can preach
and preach and preach and preach to folks. I mean, preach the
truth, preach to them from your heart, Preach to them with compassion. And unless the Lord is pleased
to do something for them, you may as well be talking to that
wall back there. But now you find a sinner who is mourning
over their sin. And you preach that message of
Christ to them. You preach that message of grace to them. You
preach it from the heart. You preach it in compassion.
You preach it for all your worth and in spite of all your stumbling
and bumbling and things you wish you'd have said different and
things you know you should have said better, that person is going
to be affected by the gospel. They are going to be comforted.
Look at Isaiah chapter 40 verse 1. This is the command to God's
preachers. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God. My people are mourning people.
My people are suffering people. They need comfort. Now you preachers,
you've got to comfort them. Now let me ask you, how are we
going to comfort God's people? Are you just going to go up to
them and tell them, it's going to all be okay? It's all going
to be okay. You know, that may not be true. You know, if they're
mourning over a sickness, that sickness might be what the Lord
used to take their life. I mean, they might die. You can't
tell them it's all going to be all right. You can't tell them, oh,
now don't you worry about your loved ones. It's all gonna be
okay. They might die tomorrow. They might die tonight. You can't
promise them those things. That's not what's gonna come
from it. We're not gonna get over all of our aches and our
pains and our death and our sorrow and our loss as long as we're
in this flesh because this flesh is dying. That's the only true
thing about this flesh. It's dying. It's dying because
of sin. Now, I know that the Lord can
deliver you. I saw Jarius ask Daniel, Daniel
is your God, the God whom you serve, is he able to deliver
you from the lions? Oh, he's able. I have no question
that God's able. But will he be pleased to do
it? I don't have any idea. You just never know what the
Lord's gonna be pleased to do until he does it. Well, then
how are we gonna comfort God's mourning people? I mean, this
mourning is real, this sorrow, this heartache, this pain of
heart is real. How are we gonna comfort the
hearts of God's people? By preaching Christ to them.
Look at verse two. Speak ye comfortably, speak to
the hearts of Jerusalem, and cry unto her, your warfare's
accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. For she hath received
with the Lord's hand double for all of her sin. I tell you, nothing
comforts the heart of a mourning believer. like being reminded
of this, the war's over. I know you're mourning over the
effects of it, but now listen, the war's over. You're mourning
about your sin, you wish you hadn't done that, you wish you
weren't such a sinner, you wish you weren't so guilty. That's true. That's true. But
listen, the war's over. The price has been paid. You've
received of the Lord's hand double for all of your sin. You've received
the blood to justify, and the water which flowed out of his
side to sanctify. You've received the Lord's hand
double. The war's over. Your sin is forgiven because
Christ paid for it by the blood of his cross, by his sacrifice.
You have peace with God. The Lord Jesus Christ made peace
with God by the blood of his cross. Not only is the war over,
you have peace. Peace with God. Nothing comforts
the heart of a believer Like hearing, God has pardoned my
sin for a good reason. Not because he felt sorry for
me, but because the blood of Christ put it away. He's not
gonna change his mind. Nothing comforts the heart of
a believer. Like hearing, no matter how great
my sin is, God's grace is greater than all of our sin. His blood
is greater than all of our sin. We've sinned in Adam, no question
about it. Now, we're not saying we haven't
sinned. We've sinned in Adam. We were made guilty in Adam.
We were made guilty in sinners in Adam. But in Christ, God's
elect are justified. They're made without sin because
he put it away. Christ made his people holy.
He's gonna give them a holy nature in the new birth and that nature
will never sin. It'll never defile us again.
It'll never rack up more sin debt that Christ has got to come
back and pay. He put it away forever. Now that's the message
of the cross. And the only people who are comforted
by hearing that message of what Christ accomplished on the cross
is the heart of people who are mourning over their sin. Aren't
you comforted? There's nothing you can do about
your sin, but Christ has already put it away. Transaction's done. All that's
left now is a shout, it's done. All right, number four, look
at John chapter 16. The people who mourn over their
sin, they're blessed because they're the only people that
the Holy Spirit will comfort. John 16. Verse five. But now I go my way to him that
sent me. And none of you ask of me, whither
goest thou? But because I've said these things
unto you, sorrow filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you
the truth. It's expedient for you. It's
good for you. It's necessary for you that I
go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come unto you. But if I depart, I'll send him,
I'll send the Comforter unto you. And when He's come, when
this Comforter's come, He'll reprove the world of sin, and
of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin, because they believe
not on me. Of righteousness, because I go
to my Father, and you see me no more. Of judgment, because
the Prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say
unto you, but you cannot bear them now. Albeit, when He, the
Spirit of truth, when the Comforter's come, He'll guide you into all
truth, he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall
hear that shall he speak and he will show you things to come
now here's how the comforter operates he shall glorify me
for he shall receive of mine and show it unto you all things
that the father hath are mine therefore said i that he shall
take of mine and shall show it unto you now god the holy spirit
only comes to those who are mourning over sin he's the comforter And
here's how he comforts God's people. It's by showing Christ
to him. I tell you, when we see Christ,
by faith, and we see him as he is, all of our doctrines stray. This thing of approving the word
of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, I understand it
all if I see Christ. If I see Christ and Him crucified.
The way I know I'm a sinner is I see Christ in His holiness.
That's how I know I'm a sinner. I know what righteousness is
when I see Christ. I tell you, I'm not going to
have any problem with this thing and thinking I can establish
my own righteousness by my own works of the law if I've ever
seen Christ. If I see Him, I'll know what
righteousness is, who righteousness is. If the Spirit, the Holy Spirit
shows us Christ, here's what comforted the hearts of God's
people. He has broken the power of sin over His people by suffering
and dying for their sins. He broke the power of sin. Sin
cannot condemn you anymore if Christ already was condemned
for you. The power of sin to damn you is gone if Christ already
died for you. God, the righteous judge, cannot
find you guilty. He cannot. You think, well, God
can do anything He wants. Well, here's one thing God cannot
do. He cannot find you guilty if Christ died for you. He cannot
do it. I'll tell you now, that lets
a person live and die with complete ease. I do not have to worry
about going to face God in judgment if Christ died for me. And the
only person that message will comfort, the only person the
Holy Spirit's gonna apply that message to, comfort them, is
the person who's mourning over sin. The Holy Spirit comforts
everyone who mourns over sin. All right, fifth, look back at
Job chapter five. People who mourn over their sin,
they're blessed. Because you know, people who
mourn are the only people who will be exalted. Job chapter five, verse eight. I would seek unto God, and unto
God will I commit my cause, which doeth great things, and unsearchable,
marvelous things, without number. Who giveth rain upon the earth
and sendeth waters upon the fields to set up on high those that
be low, that those which mourn may be exalted to safety. See, this is what God does. He's
going to set up on high those that be low and those that mourn,
they're going to be exalted to safety. They're going to be exalted
to safety in Christ where nothing can harm them ever again. Their
sin can't touch them. Satan can't charge them with
sin. They're safe from everything because they're in Christ. Everybody that mourns over their
sin is gonna be exalted and they're gonna be exalted for one reason,
Christ put their sin away. That's five points that show
us how the Lord comforts his people who mourn over their sin. The Lord makes us mourn over
our sin. Yeah, we can't do that ourselves.
Remember, it's the spirit of grace and supplication that the Lord
pours upon us to make us mourn over our sin. And then the Lord
comforts us by showing us Christ, by what He's accomplished for
His people. That's folks who mourn over their
sin. Now, what about people who are
like Jacob's family? in the text that we open the
service with. What about those people who are mourning over
their loss and their sorrow and their heartbreak in this life? What about those people? They're
mourning the loss of a beloved father, grandfather, the dear,
dear, dear wife. Man has no idea how he's going
to go on without his wife. He'd been married to her for
50 years. He had no idea. how to live life without her.
That poor woman who's mourning the loss of her husband. She'd
been married to him for 50 years. She had no idea how to go on
without his presence, without all those things that made her
love him. His love, his warmth, his caring, his sense of humor,
maybe his grouchiness, whatever it is, you know, that she's gonna
miss about him. What about them? What about them? Well, I can't give you something
as ironclad as I can about mourning over sin. But I got something
from Scripture for you. Look at Psalm 27. This is the
answer to every problem, whether we know it or not. When you're
heartbroken, and you mourn because there's no way that you can change
your situation. You can't bring your loved one
back to you. You can't change the situation. I'll tell you
what to do. You depend on Christ. Look to
Him and depend upon Him. Psalm 27 verse 10. When my father
and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. He'll
gather me. David here is talking about orphans.
Being an orphan in that day was almost a death sentence. If you're
an orphan, you don't have parents who can provide for you Raise
you and teach you. There's no social programs. You're
on your own. He's talking about orphans here.
Their parents have left them. They've died. Their parents have
died. This child's all alone. And they mourn. They mourn because
there's nothing they can do to bring their mother or their father
back to them. They've got no means of support.
They've got nobody to love them. And they mourn. But the Lord
says here, they're not all alone. The Lord says, I'm going to take
those mourning orphans up in my arms and I'm going to gather
them. I'm going to gather them to my
bosom. I know this. If a child is crying. And you
take him up and hold him in your bosom, that's going to comfort
him. I've got a. Grandson. You know. He thinks his papa's
his best friend. He's about right. And when he
cries, Janet tells me my arrogance is going to get me one day. But
so far, it hasn't. When he cries, if his papa picks
that child up and holds him to my chest, he stops crying every
time. Now, there's going to come a
day he don't do that. But if Almighty God takes you up in
His arms and hugs you up to his bosom, you're gonna be comforted. You're gonna be comforted. When
you find yourself mourning the loss of that dear loved one, that pain's not gonna go away.
It's not gonna go away. But you pray and you ask the
Lord to do what he promised to do. You call on him and you keep
calling on him. Because look what David says
in verse 14. Now you wait on the Lord. In verse 13 he said,
I'd have fainted. I'd have quit unless I believed
to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Now
you wait on the Lord and you be of good courage. He shall
strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. You call him and you keep calling
on him. He'll comfort your heart. He
will. Look at Psalm 146 verse 9. The Lord preserveth the strangers. He relieveth the fatherless and
widow, but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down. If you
find yourself a mourning, grieving widow, tell you what to do. You
call on the Lord and you ask Him to relieve you, just like
you promised He'd do right here. And just like David said earlier,
you keep calling on Him, He will. The Lord said in Jeremiah 49
verse 11, talking about the fatherless children, I will preserve them
alive, He said, and let your widows trust in Me. Now you trust
Him, you trust Him, He'll comfort your heart. And I want to be real clear and
live in the real world here. I'm not saying the Lord's going
to make you the happy little widow all the time, because that's
not going to happen. You're never going to quit missing
that dear husband who you're one flesh with for so long. Not
going to happen. I have a dear, dear friend whose
wife died over 20 years ago. And he told me one time that
somebody asked him how long it takes. so it doesn't hurt anymore. It's been over 20 years. And
his voice cracked and he had to choke back crying. And he said, if it ever happens,
I'll tell you. You're never going to quit missing
that loved one. But here's what I am saying. The Lord's promised
to comfort your heart. And he's promised to be with
you. It'll be a more special way than
ever before. I know that because that's what God's word says.
You can ask the Lord. To make me truly believe. There's things I know up here
and I need to believe. Lord had made a mistake in my
case. It done wrong with me. Ask the Lord to be with you and
ask him to be the comfort of your heart and he will. He will. I'll give you a real-life example
of that. Some time ago, I called one of our widows to check on
her, see how she was doing. And this is what she told me.
She said, I'm sitting here in my living room with my best friend.
The Lord's with her. The Lord's with her. Just like
He promised He would. And if the Lord's with you, and
you've got a sense of His presence, it's not going to get much better
than that in this life, is it? That'll be some help and benefit
to us the next time we find ourselves mourning. All right, let's bow
together. Our Father, how we thank you
for your word that gives us such rich instruction on all the things that we go
through through this journey here below. And Father, I pray
first and foremost that you'd make each one of us here tonight
to truly mourn over our sin. Make us see the helplessness
and hopelessness of our condition in ourselves. Make us mourn over
sin. And then Father, I pray you'd
comfort our hearts by revealing Christ crucified to us. And Father,
for those who are mourning over all the effects of sin in this
life that weighs so heavily upon us, Father, I pray you'd comfort
them with your presence. Comfort their hearts with your
presence. Give grace that's sufficient for the hour. Father, bless your
word as it's been preached for the glory of Christ our Savior.
For it's in his name and his sake we pray, amen. All right,
Sean.