Alright, Matthew chapter 5. I
titled our lesson this morning, Blessed Are They That Mourn.
Now, you remember we looked at this, began to look at the Beatitudes
last week and the word blessed that the Lord used, blessed are
the poor in spirit, blessed are they that mourn. That word blessed
means supremely blessed or supremely happy. So in the Beatitudes,
the Lord's not telling us how to be saved. trying to make yourself
poor in spirit, you have to make yourself mourn in order to be
saved. He's not telling us how to be
saved in the gratitude. Salvation comes through faith
in Christ. The Lord's also not telling us how to live. He isn't
telling us what a believer ought to be. What he's telling us is
what the believer already is, what the believer is by God's
grace. This is what the Savior has made his people and he's
pronouncing the blessing. the blessings that he's given
his people. Now, the people who are blessed of God are not the
people that we naturally would think are blessed. And that stands
out very much in our text this morning. Blessed are they that
mourn, for they should be comforted. You know, we think blessed are
the happy people, don't we? Blessed are the people who are
married. But God says, blessed are they that mourn. Now, the
promise of comfort to the brokenhearted, he promises, The word mourn here
means broken hearted. It means to wail and to grieve.
You know, we're not just talking about, you know, being sad. Like, you know, we just had days
where you're sad or you just, you know, you don't even know
why. It's just a bad air day. That's not what we're talking
about here. We're talking about being broken hearted. And nobody
here would choose to be broken hearted. None of us would. But
God says those are the people who are blessed. Now the promise
of comfort to the broken hearted does not apply to every kind
of mourning. There is a mourning that's not
blessed because it's a sinful thing. Remember Jonah, he went
down there to Nineveh preaching that God's gonna destroy him
and God was merciful and Jonah pouted. Remember he sat there
under the gourd and the gourd was shielding from the sun and
the gourd withered and Jonah mourned. Well, now God's not
going to comfort that. That's silly. That's childish.
It's faithless. It's sinful. And God's not going
to comfort that kind of mourning. God dealt with Jonah. He said,
Jonah, what do you think? You think I shouldn't spare these people?
What are you mourning for? That's a sinful kind of mourning. And
then there's a mourning that's natural. You know, we mourn over
the death of a loved one, don't we? And the Lord does comfort
the hearts of his people in those times of loss. I'm not saying
the Lord doesn't comfort his people. He does come. He promises he'll comfort the
hearts of his people. And we just, we adjust. We adjust
to a new normal. We adjust to the fact that loved
one's not there. He's not with us anymore. But
we're not comforted in this sense. We're not comforted in the sense
that we forget about the pain of losing that beloved husband
or beloved wife or beloved child. We grieve in a sense, you know,
forever. I've got a very dear friend who
was married when he and his wife were married. They were very,
very young, probably 18, 19 years old. And she was the love of
his life. And about 20 years ago, she died. And he told me recently, if it
ever quits hurting, I'll tell you. He's comforted, but the
pain of that loss has just not gone away. But the mourning that
our Lord promises to comfort, the mourning He promises to completely
comfort is mourning over sin. That's what the Lord's talking
about here. And I want to give you five reasons that those who
mourn over their sin are blessed of God. That is a blessing of
God. Number one, people who mourn
over their sin are blessed because that's the only people God comforted.
Now turn back to Zachariah chapter 12. Mourning over sin is mourning
as a result of grace in the heart. The only way we're ever going
to mourn over sin is if God gives us grace in the heart. And mourning
over sin is a result of seeing Christ crucified for sin. In
Zechariah chapter 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 and they shall look upon me whom they
have pierced and they shall mourn. They'll 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. The true mourning
over sin is not just being sorry for the consequences of sin.
I feel sorry for the consequences of sin in my body. I feel sorry
for sickness and pain and sorrow. I feel sorry for those things.
I wish that they weren't so, but that's not mourning over
sin. People who are in hell right now are suffering for sin. They're suffering the consequences
of sin, but that's not mourning over sin. It's just being sorry
for the consequences. Mourning over sin is grieving
and wailing. Remember, that's why I told you
the word means grieving and wailing. It's mourning over sin itself. Not the effects of it, not the
consequences of it, but over sin itself. Sin is rebellion
against a holy and good God. We ought to mourn over that.
We ought to grieve and wail over that. Sin is a display of my
sin nature. And I ought to grieve over that.
I've got a sin nature that hates God. I ought to grieve over that. Now, mourning is what we do when
we can't make the situation any better. When we're out of options,
that's when we're more. We have a dear loved one who
is sick. Well, we can still pray for them,
can't we? We still feel like there could be some hope they'll
get better. We can sit by their bedside and try to ease their
discomfort. We still have some hope. We can
still enjoy some time with that loved one. Even if they may be
in and out of consciousness, we can still enjoy some time
with them. Those times are precious to us. We hang on to them. But when
that loved one dies, when they take their last breath, there's
nothing left to do. We can't do anything. We can't
do anything to bring them back. We can't do anything to affect
them anymore. And all that's left is for us to mourn. We mourn. We can't spend another
second with them. We can't enjoy any more time
with them. There's nothing that we can do. No amount of praying
and weeping and wailing. Nothing we can do will bring
them back. And all that's left to do, because we don't have
any other option, is to mourn. Well, I'll tell you when we mourn
over sin. True mourning over sin is when
we mourn because there's nothing we can do to get rid of it. There's nothing we can do to
pay for it. There's nothing we can do to take it back. We are
helpless before God and the only option we have is to mourn. Cry
out for mercy and mourn. And the only place that I'll
mourn like that, the only place that I can see, I don't have
any ability to get rid of my sin. The only place I'll see
that is at Calvary. The only place I'll ever mourn
over sin is when I see what it took for God to put it away.
That's when I'll mourn over sin. If God had to crucify His Son
to put sin away, that makes it obvious to me, I can't do anything
to put it away. I'll mourn over sin. I love what
Wayne said in his prayer. Ask the Lord to show us Christ.
If we see Christ, then we'll see how vile we are. The same
thing is true at Calvary. If God will let me see Christ
at Calvary, then I'm going to see how heinous sin is. Then
I'm going to see how hopeless I am to put my sin away. and
I'll mourn. And God says he'll comfort those
people. Those people who mourn over their
sin, God promises he'll comfort them. And you know how he'll
comfort them? In the very same place he made
them mourn over their sin. At Calvary, look there at Zechariah
13 verse 1. 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. This is how, turn
over to John chapter 16. See, God causes his people to
mourn when we see Christ crucified. But seeing Christ crucified for
our sin is also the way that God comforts the hearts of his
people. We see the blood shed for our
sin and know it's been put away in his blood. And the very thing
that caused our mourning will be turned into the thing that
gives us comfort. Look here at John 16 verse 20.
This is what the Lord tells his disciples. 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. The very thing that caused your
sorrow will be the thing that's turned into your joy. A woman,
when she is in travail, has sorrow because her hour has come. But
as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no
more the anguish. for joy that a man is born into
the world. The very thing that was causing
her so much sorrow and pain is what gave her so much joy. Janet
told me yesterday about being in labor and being pregnant and
just, oh, it was hard. She had big babies. Made it hard
for her to breathe. Couldn't sleep. She couldn't
do anything. And she just kept telling herself, it's worth it
for the baby. It's worth it for the baby. God's gonna give me
a baby. It's worth it. It's worth it. Well, the very thing that
caused your sorrow, pain, discomfort is what caused you joy. That's
what the Lord is saying here. And he says, verse 22, that's
the example he uses. And he says, and ye now therefore
have sorrow, but I will see you again. You're going to have sorrow
when you see me go away, but you're going to have joy when
you see me again. And your heart shall rejoice and your joy. God's
going to comfort you by seeing the Lord Jesus Christ. And that
joy no man can take from you. So you're going to mourn over
what your sin cost the Savior. We see that's that's the only
place we can see what sin really is. But we're going to be comforted
in seeing Christ crucified. It's his sacrifice that puts
away our sin. It's seeing his sacrifice that
comforts us and knowing sin's paid for. And, you know, for
the believer, the believer is actually comforted more. The
more the Lord is pleased to show us our sin, the more we'll be
comforted. And I tell you why that's so.
Because the more a believer sees his sin, the more he has to look
to Christ. And the more we look to Christ,
the more we see Christ, the more our hearts will be comforted.
The more I see, I can't do anything about my sin, but Christ put
it away, the more I'll be comforted. Those are the only people who
will be comforted, who mourn over their sin. All right, number
two, turn over to Isaiah 61. People who mourn over their sin
are blessed of God because those are the only people that Christ
came to comfort. Isaiah 61 is the text that our
Lord chose for his first recorded public message. He read this
passage and he told them this day is a scripture fulfilled
in your ears. Isaiah 61 verse one. The spirit of the Lord God is
upon me. because Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto
the meek. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted. The Lord
came to comfort the broken hearted. The broken hearted, remember,
are the only people who mourn and Christ comforts the broken
hearted by giving them a new heart. Then he says, verse one,
he came to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening
of the prison to them that are bound. Christ came to comfort
the broken hearted prisoner. He can't do anything to set himself
free. There he is stuck in misery in
that prison, the prison of sin, the bondage of our sin nature,
the prison of the law. The law cannot let us go till
justice is satisfied and we can't satisfy it. Nothing we can do
to get ourselves free from this prison. And Christ comforts that
prisoner by taking the place of that prisoner and setting
them free. Verse two, he says, he came to proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord. Now what he's talking about there
is the year of Jubilee. And Christ comes to comfort that
slave who sold himself into slavery. He's got a debt he cannot pay.
And Christ came to set that slave free by paying his debt for him.
Christ comforts those who lost everything in Adam by giving
them everything in himself. He comforts those who work, work,
work, work, work, work, work, work, work, and still can't please
God. He comforts them by giving them rest in Him, by His finished
work of redemption. See, that's what happened in
the year of Jubilee. All slaves were set free. Christ
came to set the slave free by paying their debt. In the year
of Jubilee, everything a family had lost was restored to them
for nothing, for free. And the year of Jubilee, they
had a whole year of rest. That's what Christ came, how
he comes to comfort his people by fulfilling that year of Jubilee
in their hearts. Then he says the rest of verse
two, in the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that
mourn. Christ came to comfort all those
who mourn under the vengeance of God against their sin. You
know how he does it? By revealing himself as their
substitute. took their place under the vengeance
of God. Christ was made sin for his people,
and the father poured out the fullness of his vengeance upon
sin upon his son so that his people could have peace with
God. To know that Christ has set me free from the vengeance
of God against my sin, that comforts the heart. Verse three, he says,
to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty
for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise
for heaviness, or 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 because they're naked and ugly in Adam. He comforts
them by clothing him in his righteousness. He comforts them by making them
beautiful in his beauty, which he put upon them. He comforts
them by anointing them with the Holy Spirit, who is the Comforter. He comforts them by revealing
His glory to them. See, that's why God did all this,
that He might be glorified. And the key to this is He does
it through the preaching of the Gospel. He does it through the
preaching of Christ. Back up in verse 1, He said,
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because He has sent me
to preach, to preach good tidings to the meek. And that brings
me to my third point. People who mourn over their sin
are blessed because they are the only people affected by the
preaching of the gospel. I look back in Isaiah chapter
40. People who mourn over their sin are blessed because they
are the only people whose heart is affected by the gospel. Isaiah 40 verse one. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God. All right, preacher, God's commanded
you to go out and comfort his people. What are you going to
preach to comfort the hearts of God's people? How are you
going to comfort them? Are you going to tell them, well,
now don't worry. Everything will be okay. It'll
all be okay. Well, you better not tell them
that, because that might not be true. You're so worried, you're
just worrying yourself sick about a loved one? We don't know if
it's going to be OK. The Lord may be pleased to heal
your loved one. He may not, too. I don't know.
If they don't die now, they're going to die someday. I can't
tell you all you're not going to have to suffer that. I can't
tell you you're going to get over all your aches and pains
and sorrows of this life, as long as you're in this flesh,
you're going to have those things. I know the Lord can deliver you
from the mouth of the lion. I know that. I know the Lord
can deliver you from the fiery furnace. But what I don't know
is if he's going to be pleased to do it. I can't tell you this
is all going to be okay. So how do you comfort the hearts
of God's people? One way. There's only one way
to comfort the hearts of God's people. It's by preaching Christ
to them. You see, the Spirit doesn't leave
us to wonder what to preach. He says, comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, sayeth your God, and here's how you do it. Speak
ye comfortably. Speak to the heart to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her, your warfare's accomplished, the war's over.
Cry to her that her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received
of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. And here's how
you comfort the hearts of God's people. Pointing to Christ. Oh, if they just see Christ. The heart's comforted. The situation of the flesh will
be unchanged, but the heart will be comforted. Nothing comforts
the heart of a believer like knowing the war's over. Christ, the captain of our salvation,
has won the war. He is the mighty, victorious,
conquering Savior, and we have peace with God in Him. The war's
over. Nothing comforts the heart of a believer like hearing that
God has pardoned all of our sin in the blood of God. Now, that
comforts the hearts of God's people. Nothing comforts the
hearts of God's people like hearing, we have received of the Lord
double. Double for all of our sin. The
blood of Christ is greater than all of our sin. It cleanses from
all sin. God's grace is always greater
than our sin. But I don't really think that's
what this double means. I'll tell you what I'm confident
this double means. You and I have sinned in Adam.
Two things happened when we sinned in Adam. Number one, we were
made guilty in Adam, weren't we? When Adam sinned, we sinned.
Our guilt before God is our guilt in our representative, Adam.
Adam made us guilty. But Adam did something else.
Adam made us sinners, didn't he? Why do we sin today? Why is it we have a sin nature
today? Because we received Adam's nature. We received the nature
of our father, Adam. So Adam made us guilty and he
made us sinners. He gave us a sin nature. We've
got a problem of guilt, but we've also got a problem of nature.
God's elect have received double, the double cure in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Christ, first of all, by his
sacrifice, justified his people. He made Him not guilty. He took
their guilt away by paying for it with His blood. And here's
the double cure. Christ, with that same sacrifice,
the blood of His sacrifice, the blood and the water that flowed
from His wounded side, He sanctified His people. He made them holy. He gave them a holy nature in
the new birth. And that nature can never sin.
That nature can never make us guilty and defile us again. That's
the double cure. Sin's paid for and I'm given
a new nature. Now, the only people whose heart
is going to be comforted by that message, by that preaching of
Christ, is people whose heart mourns over sin. That's the only
people who are going to be affected by that. They're comforted in
hearing there's nothing that they can do about their sin,
but that's all right. Christ has done it all. He took
it away. And it's done through the preaching
of the gospel. Look back in Ecclesiastes. Chapter seven. Ecclesiastes chapter seven. Verse one. A good name is better
than precious ointment and the day of death than the day of
one's birth. Now we got that backwards, don't
we? And in this flesh, we can't help
but have it backwards. When a baby is born, We rejoice,
don't we? Oh, we're so happy that baby's
born. And we cry our eyes out for the death of a loved one.
But God says the day of one's death is better than the day
of one's birth. It is if they know Christ, isn't
it? It is if they know Christ. If they know Christ, the day
of their birth on this earth is the start of a painful journey
of sorrow and a trail of tears. That's what the day one's birth
begins. a trail of tears, but the day of a believer's death
is a day of eternal glory. All right, verse two, it's 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. Sorrow is better than laughter,
for by the sadness of the countenance, the heart is made better. You,
Remember when the Lord told his disciples, the world's going
to rejoice and you're going to weep. But they're going to sorrow,
he said. I'm going to turn your sorrow
into joy, but they're going to have eternal sorrow. It's better
to go to the house of mourning. The house of mourning is the
house of repentance over sin. There is not going to be any
salvation without mourning first, without the painful, sorrowful
experience of repentance first. In verse four he says, the heart
of the wise is in the house of mourning. The heart of the wise
stays in this house of mourning over sin. But the heart of fools
is in the house of mirth. This preaching of happiness and
cheerfulness and everything's wonderful in the world, that's
a house of mirth. It's better to be in the house
of mourning than being at foolishness. The rest of the night, foolishness,
it's a mirage. And he says, verse five, it's
better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear
the song of fools. Now this rebuke of the wise,
that is the rebuke of the gospel. Part of the preacher's job is
to rebuke. Remember Paul told Timothy that?
He said, Timothy, you reprove and rebuke. You exhort with all
longsuffering and doctrine. The only people who will hear
the rebuke of the gospel are people who are mourning over
their sin. The only people who hear the rebuke of the gospel
and turn to Christ from their idols is people who are mourning
over sin. The only people whose heart will
be affected by the gospel is people who are mourning over
sin. All right, here's the fourth thing. Turn to John chapter 16. People who mourn over their sin
are blessed because they are the only people that God sends
His Spirit to. And the Holy Spirit is the comforter.
The only people he'll come to is people who mourn over their
sin. John 16, verse five. But now I go my way to him that
sent me. And none of you ask me where
the goal is found. But because I've said these things
unto you, sorrow hath filled your hearts. You're mourning.
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It's expedient. Oh, it's a necessary. It's expedient,
urgently expedient 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 unto you. See, God only sends the Holy
Spirit to those who mourn over sin. And the Holy Spirit is the
Comforter. All right, the Holy Spirit comes.
He's going to comfort the hearts of God's people. They're mourning
over sin. How does the Spirit comfort the
hearts of people who mourn over sin? showing them Christ crucified. That's how he does it. That's
why the Lord said, I've got to go away. If I don't go away,
the comforter can't comfort you. He doesn't have any blood to
sprinkle. He doesn't have any blood to apply. He doesn't have
a sacrifice to reveal. I've got to go away. And if I
go away and accomplish the salvation of my people, then the comforter
will come. And he'll comfort your heart
by showing you Christ crucified. It's the spirit that shows us
Our sin is against God. The problem of our sin is this. We won't believe on the Son of
God. Only the Spirit can reveal that.
Like Brother Henry said, until the Spirit comes, you know what
we think? We think the problem with sin is I stole a watermelon.
That's not the problem. The problem is I will not believe
the Lord Jesus Christ. I will not. That's sin. And the Spirit shows us Christ
our righteousness. He shows us Christ crucified,
His obedience to the law, and His sacrifice is the only way
I can be made righteous. I don't have any other, I don't
have any hope in myself. And the Spirit shows us that
the sacrifice of Christ has broken the power of sin over His people.
Verse 9, this is what He, or verse 8, this is what He tells
them. When He's come, when the Spirit has come, the Comforter
has come, this is what He's gonna show. He will reprove the world
of sin, righteousness and of judgment of sin, because they
believe not on me. That's the problem of righteousness,
because I go to my father and you see me no more. That's how
we know Christ's sacrifice accomplished, brought in eternal righteousness,
everlasting righteousness. He was crucified. He was buried.
He rose again. He ascended back to the father.
The father accepted him because he brought in everlasting righteousness.
Verse 11 of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged,
the power of sin is broken over my people. Now I have yet many
things to say unto you, but you can't bear them now. Albeit when
he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he'll guide you into all truth,
for he'll not speak of himself. But whatsoever he shall hear,
that shall he speak, and he'll show you things to come. He shall
glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and show it unto you."
That's how he's going to comfort the hearts of God's people, by
revealing Christ to them. And the only people that God
sends his spirit to comfort are people who mourn over sin. All
right, lastly, look back at Job, the book of Job chapter five.
People who mourn over their sin are blessed because those are
the only people who will be exalted. Job chapter five, verse eight. I would seek unto God, and unto
God would I commit my cause, which doeth great things and
unsearchable. He does 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. The only people that
God's going to exalt to safety, where their sin can't touch them
anymore, where their sin can't harm them, anymore. The only
people that God will exalt to safety and glory around God's
throne are the people who mourn over their sins. God's going
to exalt those people. And if we would, by God's grace,
seek the Lord Jesus Christ, if we'd seek him in his word, if
we'd seek him where he's preached, if we'd seek him among his people,
we're going to be comforted because that's where we're going to see
Christ. That's the sum of all this thing. Where's our comfort
now? It's in Christ. The only place we can be comforted
over the awful, heinous, filthiness of our sin is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And if God will give us the grace
to preach Him, people will see Him and their hearts will be
comforted. Alright, Lord bless you.