Mourning yet Happy!

Tonight we're going to be looking at verse 4, Matthew chapter 5 and at verse 4.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

We read through from the beginning of the chapter as far as verse 4.

Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up on the mountain.

When he sat down, his disciples came to him.

And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying,

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

And so on, Beatitudes as we call them.

These verses in Matthew's Gospel as part of, or the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount.

Verses which I think if you're my age you probably learned them in school.

As was the practice at the time.

But sadly that's no longer, at least commonly, the practice.

However, the verses are very easy to remember.

But there are verses which, as you very well know, are extremely challenging.

And at first sight, some of them, such as this one, might even seem self-contradictory.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

How can you speak at the same time of someone or people who are mourning, actively mourning,

and at the same time say they are blessed, or even happier, which is part of the meaning of that word blessed.

Not happy in a worldly sense, but happy in a spiritual sense.

And it's as you go on through the Beatitudes that you then really realize that what Jesus was speaking about

were spiritual qualities or spiritual exercises.

He doesn't just speak about the poor.

In verse 3, he says,

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

And so it's obvious from these few verses themselves, hunger and thirst for righteousness,

that he's talking about spiritual things.

He's talking about spiritual appetite.

Talking about spiritual movements of our hearts.

Our spiritual vision.

Our spiritual mourning.

Our spiritual regard of those who are in need of our assistance.

All of these things really are very much the practicalities of a Christian life,

but they stem from the condition of our heart, the condition of our souls.

And that inner spirit, that inner condition is really emphasized there throughout these Beatitudes then.

And you can take that to this verse, verse 4.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

And as we're saying that this is primarily a spiritual thing,

it doesn't obviously mean that mourning in the usual sense of it is something that never carries any blessing with it.

That's not what we conclude from it.

But this spiritual mourning, which we'll try and bring out in its meaning in a few moments,

this spiritual mourning is something that is assured of comfort.

And not just comfort sometime or other after it,

but very often and almost always comfort along with it or alongside it.

If you actually ask how that is so in the Christian life,

well, we'll hopefully see that as we go through it.

And in fact, it is an indicator of a work of grace in your heart

or a mark of grace in your heart or in our hearts

if we can actually follow these in a spiritual fashion.

If you can have some experience or insight of what it is to mourn spiritually,

then you have an idea as to what it is to hunger and thirst for righteousness

and to be a meek who will inherit the earth and so on.

They're all connected with the reality of sin.

They are all connected in some way or other with the reality and the workings of sin.

Because in this one, blessed are those who mourn,

that reality of sin is behind the spiritual mourning with which we are familiar as Christians.

That the Lord was directing the disciples here to consider their blessedness

when they were able to mourn spiritually

in every way in which that mourning is appropriate

and in which we find a benefit from it.

It's true for the individual, it's true for our society,

it's true for our world, it's true for the church at large.

That when we come to experience these beatitudes working

or worked out through in our lives,

then we know the blessings and the features of the blessedness

that's actually mentioned along with them.

So what is this mourning that Jesus spoke of here?

Blessed are those who mourn.

Well, the first thing to say is that it's the very opposite of worldly thinking.

Worldliness and the ways of the world does not fit mourning into its package of what is necessary,

what it is thought important.

None of that enters into the thinking or the actions of worldliness.

The world and its thinking and the culture around us in its worldliness

actually lives for pleasure.

It lives for self-satisfaction.

It lives for entertainment.

It lives for the workings of sin.

It lives all too often in the seeds of debauchery.

And it lives in such a way as is opposed willingly to holiness

and to the things that God says ought to characterize our lives as human beings.

The world has no place for the doctrine of sin.

No place for teaching on the fallenness of man.

The world will say,

how can you say that I am fallen, that I am degenerate,

that I am actually in some need of being put back together

and lifted up and set on a platform of righteousness?

I'm quite happy the way I am.

I'm a master of my own life.

Why should you seek that I would change from what I want to be

and what I want to continue to be?

You see, there's not even an evidence there of any desire to think otherwise

than in those sinful, worldly, ungodly ways.

So here, this idea of mourning and mourning in respect to sin

and mourning over sin is absolutely foreign to the ways of the world.

And I'm sure you and I will have to say, most of us will have to say,

it was really something that we didn't want to find true of ourselves.

We didn't see where on earth this could fit into any sensible human life or practice,

what benefit it could be to us to think that what we were doing in our sinful lifestyle

was actually wrong.

How was it wrong?

Why should it be wrong?

Who was going to tell me that it was wrong?

Well, here is the Lord.

And remember, it's disciples that he's speaking to.

He's not speaking here to the world.

He's speaking to his disciples.

And so when you take all of these Beatitudes together

and you realize that it really, in a sense,

summarizes most of the most important features of a Christian, of a believing life,

that's when you begin to see how important they are, how foundational they are,

but also how difficult, how impossible they are without the grace of God.

And as the grace of God works in our lives,

so we find that these things actually come to the fore in what we want ourselves to be.

You don't want to go around anymore thinking that mourning over sin has no place in your life.

You don't want to go along with the idea that because you're now a Christian,

mourning over sin is no longer relevant,

as if sin had suddenly disappeared, even though it is now forgiven sin.

Nowhere do you find in the Bible, in Paul's teachings, for example,

nowhere do you find him saying for a moment that being forgiven your sin means

you no longer have to wrestle or fight with sin.

You know, if he had said that, or if the Bible said that,

or if we thought that the Bible meant that,

we would actually be despairing because we find in our lives that sin is very much a feature,

even though it's forgiven, it's still a powerful force.

And that's why you come daily to God to seek his help in overcoming it

and doing what Romans says,

mortifying, put to death the deeds of the body.

And it reminds us that even as the people of the church, as the people of God,

it's very easy to lose sight of those features of the Christian life

that are the most difficult to talk about, the most difficult to preach on,

the most difficult to accept for ourselves, such as,

blessed are those who mourn.

A recent survey in America apparently found that 65% of people who call themselves evangelicals in the USA

did not believe in the doctrine of original sin.

65% of people who say they're evangelical Christians,

they don't believe in the doctrine of original sin.

In other words, they don't believe that we're born sinners.

Now, we actually come into the world already in our hearts twisted against God.

And, of course, the Bible tells us otherwise,

that we are conceived in iniquity and in sin

and come into the world already as sinners in need of forgiveness and cleansing and acceptance with God.

We need a doctrine of sin that fits with the teaching of the Bible.

We need a doctrine of ourselves as human beings

into which we can find and place the doctrine of sin as the Bible does.

Aren't you glad tonight that God has shown you what you're like?

That God has shown you the workings of sin so that you will come to Christ for cleansing?

That you will believe that Christ alone is able to deal with such a person as you are

with your own inward and my own inward corruption?

We need this doctrine of mourning over sin,

the doctrine of sin over which we mourn,

in order that our life, as we'll see, will develop properly.

Because otherwise, if you leave this out of your life,

if you leave this as if it were no longer relevant for a Christian to mourn

in the spiritual sense,

you're going to have a very lopsided view of life.

You're going to have a very lopsided way of living the Christian life.

And there will be some very obvious omissions in your progress as a Christian.

Think of the example of Jesus himself.

Of course, Jesus had no sin of his own.

And it's all the more remarkable that you find him mourning over sin.

That you find him coming at times to be described in the Gospels

as deeply moved in his spirit and even weeping

in circumstances in which he himself found himself faced with the sinfulness,

with the rejection of the world of his offer, of his preaching, of his person.

Think, for example, of John chapter 11 and at verse 33 and verse 38.

John 11 · chapter mention

We've referred to this at other times in other contexts,

but you remember that's when Jesus came to the grave,

the sepulcher of Lazarus in John chapter 11.

John 11 · chapter mention

And you see there at verse 33 where Jesus came,

having spoken with his sister

and given that wonderful confession of himself as the resurrection and the life.

And now when Mary came to where he was and saw him,

she fell at his feet and said to him,

Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

When Jesus saw her weeping

and the Jews who had come with her also weeping,

he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.

And he said, where have you laid him?

They said to him, Lord, come and see.

Jesus wept.

So the Jews said, see how he loved him.

Then Jesus, deeply moved again,

came to the tomb.

What is all that indicating?

It's indicating far more than that Jesus was with these two sisters,

sharing in that grief.

He was.

He was with them.

He was beside them.

He spoke to one of them.

He stood alongside of Mary.

No question of whether or not he was sympathetic,

whether he was filled with a sense of their need

and was there to support them.

That is absolutely true.

But the main thing in these verses that we've read

is that he was moved and deeply agitated in his spirit

over the fact that there was a human being in that sepulcher who was dead.

He was mourning over the wages of sin,

as he saw it in that grave that was holding the body of Lazarus,

which was returning to corruption.

He was mourning over the fact that the human beings

that he had created in the beginning,

let's remember Jesus, the Son of God,

was very much involved in the creation

and in the creation of human beings as well.

And he was seeing that that wonderful creation

and that creature,

that human being that he had created,

is now lying in the throes and in the grip of death.

Why?

Because he became a sinner.

And a sinner who needs to face and pay the wages of sin,

which is death.

That's why Jesus wept.

That's why he was sorrowful.

Because he saw, as nobody else can see,

how awful a thing sin is.

What a tragedy it is for a human being

who's become a sinner,

having created wholly by God.

And you find the same thing,

or similarly in Luke chapter 19,

Luke 19 · chapter mention

and verses 41 to 44,

where you find Jesus coming to Jerusalem,

and as he beheld the city,

he wept over it.

Why did he weep over the city?

Because he was clearly aware and seeing

and experiencing their sin of rejecting him.

Their sin of casting him out, as it were.

And refusing to acknowledge him

as in any way relevant to their needs as human beings.

The rejection of him as their saviour.

He was mourning over the nature of sin.

He was mourning over the effects of sin.

And that's where this text takes you and me as well.

That we too have to mourn

as we become familiar with the nature of sin,

the kind of thing that sin is,

the kind of thing that sin has done

and is doing to human lives,

the kind of thing that sees the effects of sin,

even in that world out there,

in this community that we live in.

The effects of sin and the workings of sin

are all too obvious.

When you open your eyes,

I know we can't go beyond our own hearts.

It's there.

That's where we begin.

That's where we start the process of thinking

seriously about what sin is

and what sin has done.

But then as you work out from that

and see the world in which we live,

what does it actually do for us?

What effect does it have on us?

Are we becoming immune to it?

Are we so used to it

that we no longer hear the noise of sinfulness?

It's possible.

It can become used to even such things

as God regards us debauched

and sinful and twisted and wrong.

Just in these very days,

you'll find celebrities

accused of serious wrongdoings.

I'm not going to go into details

as they're very obvious already

in the media reports.

But you look at the number of followers

such people have on social media,

eight million followers

of somebody who lives that debauched sort of life.

What is that saying about our world?

It's saying certainly that our world

is in its nature sinful,

but it's saying here is something to weep over.

Here is something to build into our prayers

and into our weepings as Jesus did with his.

It's not become so familiar with the world out there

that we fail really to give it

the notice that we require to give it.

Because if we do,

then we ourselves

will to some extent

cease to mourn over our own sins

as well as those of the world.

In other words,

what we're saying is

it's actually a mark of godliness

to mourn over sin

in the way in which we're describing

and which the Bible means

mourning in this context,

mourning over sin

and in respect and relation to sin.

It's a mark of godliness.

It's not a mark of

somehow or other being

so

constrained by

something that you just see

as a very negative view of the world.

It's a mark of godliness.

Think of how Jeremiah, for example,

who is known, of course,

in many ways

as the weeping prophet.

Well, when Jeremiah was speaking

or thinking of

the sinfulness of his own age,

you see how he began chapter 9,

for example,

what you have in chapter 9,

my joy is,

chapter 80,

he's saying,

my joy is gone.

Grief is upon me.

My heart is sick within me.

Behold the cry of the daughter of my people.

That's his people.

From the length and breadth of the land.

Is the Lord not in Zion?

Is her king not in her?

Why have they provoked me to anger

with their carved images,

with their foreign idols?

The harvest is past,

the summer is ended,

and we are not saved.

For the wound of the daughter of my people

is my heart wounded.

I mourn,

and dismay has taken hold of me.

Is there no balm in Gilead?

Is there no physician there?

Why then has the health of the daughter of my people

not been restored?

Oh,

that my head were waters,

and my eyes a fountain of tears,

that I might weep day and night

for the slain of the daughter of my people.

There's a prayer for you.

There's a man who is mourning

over the state of things in his own day.

He's not holding back and saying,

well,

they're doing that,

that they're going to pay for that someday.

No,

he's taking it to himself,

and he says,

these are my people.

These are the people that I belong to,

and I must mourn for them

if they don't mourn for themselves.

Go back along to chapter 13.

You'll find a similar emphasis there,

verses 16 and 17 in chapter 13,

where you find him addressing the people this way,

hear and give ear.

Be not proud,

for the Lord has spoken.

Give glory to the Lord your God

before he brings darkness,

before your feet stumble

on the twilight mountains.

And while you look for light,

he turns it into gloom

and makes it deep darkness.

But if you will not listen,

my soul will weep in secret

for your pride.

My eyes will weep bitterly

and run down with tears

because the Lord's flock

has been taken captive.

I can't say that I've myself

been in that state of mind recently

where I found profound thinking

on my part of the state of the world,

of the needs of the world,

of the sinfulness of those around us,

or even looking into my own heart

so that like Jeremiah,

I could say,

Lord,

my eyes are shedding tears

when I see the state of things.

Blessed are those

who mourn,

who mourn

as part of their godly.

And of course,

when you go

into the likes of the book of Psalms,

you'll find it all over the book of Psalms,

these references to the psalmist's own

weeping,

to his sorrow,

to his Psalm 102,

for example.

You think he's beginning there

talking about how deeply moved he is,

how bitter he is in his soul,

the wrenchings of his soul,

and you think he's talking there

about his own sinfulness,

surely,

or something like that.

Well, he's not leaving that out of it,

but as the psalm goes on,

you begin to realize

he's talking about Zion

and the state of Zion.

And even though the light of day

and of promise

breaks in upon his soul,

and he says,

you will yet have mercy upon Zion.

You will come to hear

the prayers of the afflicted.

You will rebuild Zion.

That's preceded by his mourning,

by his discomfort,

by his coming to remember his people

as he mourns with them.

And the chapter we read

in 2 Corinthians,

what's that about?

Well, it's about a report

that came to the Apostle Paul

as a report came back

by Titus.

And Titus brought a report

about the Corinthians

that really gladdened

the Apostle's heart.

You see, the Apostle had written

a letter to them

in very, very strong terms.

We don't have that letter.

Some think it was

1 Corinthians,

but I think it was another letter

which doesn't belong

in the Scriptures.

but he says,

this is how I was comforted

in you,

by you,

as he told us

of your longing,

your mourning,

your zeal for me,

so that I rejoice still more.

For even if I made you

grieve with my letter,

I do not regret it,

though I did regret it.

For I see that that letter

grieved you,

though only for a while.

As it is,

I rejoice not because

you are grieved,

but because you are grieved

into repenting.

For you felt a godly grief,

so that you suffered

no loss through us.

And then there's

this wonderful text.

For godly grief

produces a repentance

that leads to salvation

without regret,

whereas worldly grief

produces death.

See, there's the difference

between the Christian,

between the believer

and the person

who has absolutely

no sense of purpose

in grief of any kind.

blessed are those

who mourn,

those who actually come

to mourn either

over their own sins

or the sins of the society

they belong to,

such as Jeremiah was,

such as the apostle was

with that letter.

He was concerned

for a time

after he sent that letter,

before Titus returned

with a report

on how the Corinthians

had received that letter,

he was concerned

somehow perhaps

maybe that that letter

had been counterproductive.

Maybe he had gone too far,

maybe he had used words

that were too strong,

too critical.

Then when Titus came back,

he realized,

no, that's not the case.

Yes, I made you weep,

I made you grieve,

I said some very harsh things,

some very hard things

you needed to know,

but I rejoice

that that led

to your repentance.

And that's what godly sorrow

always does.

Godly sorrow

always leads

leads to something positive,

something to do with life.

Whereas,

as Paul put it,

the sorrow of the world

worketh death.

There is no purpose,

no life about it,

no meaningfulness.

It's just sorrow.

It's just a prelude

to death forever.

So be thankful tonight

that God has shown you

something

of the spiritual mourning

that's so important

in our lives.

And that he says,

for your assurance,

blessed are those

who mourn.

And when you come to

be before God,

and when you pray to God,

and when you lament

before God,

Lord,

why am I still

so conscious

of these sins

that I confessed

to you previously?

Why am I still

so aware

of the fact

they are still with me?

And they're still

grievous to me.

Why can't I get rid

of them?

And the Lord

turns to you

and say,

blessed are those

who mourn,

for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are those

who,

with a sense

of their own sinfulness,

bring things to me

so that I can

comfort them.

And that's the second thing

in the text,

that's the other half of it.

We have to keep it balanced,

of course.

Blessed are those

who mourn,

for they shall be comforted.

And here's the strange thing.

Strange,

but not strange

to the Christian.

Strange to the person

who doesn't know the Lord

or has not been converted

and hasn't come

to experience what it is

to live by faith in Christ.

This is a strange thing,

isn't it?

That you find

a person

who is mourning

in this sense

is actually really happy.

I don't mean happiness

with the glibness

or the frivolity

of the world's happiness.

But the happiness

that comes from

the contentment of heart

that knows

in Christ for you

everything is well.

It is well,

it is well

with my soul,

as one N. Wright

had put it,

even though he had lost

most of his family

in a tragedy at sea.

It is well

with my soul.

And the path

to happiness

and the actual experience

of happiness,

and again,

it's a thing which

even we ourselves

as Christians

can't fully understand

at this point,

but it's because

you know

of this mourning

that you appreciate

the happiness

that a Christian life

contains.

If you didn't have

this mourning over sin,

your happiness

would be a different kind.

It would be a worldly happiness.

But because this is

a proper spiritual mourning,

the word blessed

is attached to it.

Jesus is saying,

you're in a very happy place.

You're in a very,

in a very,

a comforting position

when you can say

that the mourning

with which you mourn

over sin seriously

is something

that God calls blessed.

The path to happiness

begins

at the point of mourning.

In other words,

put it in other words,

you cannot experience

the happiness,

the blessedness

of which this verse speaks,

or the blessedness

in any way

in which the Bible speaks it,

if you simply leave aside

the mourning

as no longer relevant.

It just doesn't

fit together,

does it?

But here,

this mourning,

this is promised,

this comfort,

they shall be comforted.

And we don't actually

need to think about

comfort

in when this world

is over,

when you get to heaven,

when you're on the other side,

when you're with the Lord.

Of course that's comfort.

And of course

there is no sorrow

then at all.

There is no mourning

whatsoever.

But the blessedness

and the comfort

doesn't begin then,

it begins here.

It begins in the heart

that knows what it is

to mourn,

but also knows

what it is to rejoice

at the same time

in Christ.

As you mourn

over your sins,

you give thanks to God

that he has forgiven

these sins.

And that his word

assures you

when he has forgiven

your sins,

they are covered.

They will never again

condemn you.

There's something

to be happy

and something

to say that

it belongs

to your blessedness

even though

you're still conscious

of the workings

of sin

that you need

to confess

to God every day.

So what it's saying

is we can only

appreciate our joy

because it's connected

with this godly mourning,

this godly sorrow.

And whatever

modern theology

might tell you,

never actually

give place

to the thought

that says,

mourning over sin,

that's puritanish,

that belongs

to an age

that's past.

That's no relevance

now today

as we understand

things.

We've come such

a long way

in understanding

human psychology,

come such a long way

some theologians

will tell you

in understanding

the Bible,

what lies behind

the letters

and the books

of the Bible.

If they had known

the things

that we know today,

you wouldn't have

a verse like that,

blessed are those

who mourn.

Well, don't give

even the slightest

place to that

thought in your heart.

This is Jesus.

This is 100%

accurate

of the words

of Jesus

as he spoke them.

And they will

last for his people

right through

to the end

of the world

in their meaningfulness.

Blessed are those

who mourn.

and of course,

to finish with,

we can say

that they shall be

comforted

most of all

in heaven.

It's a wonderful

thought.

It's something

I can't quite

make the connection

in my mind with,

but there is a connection.

And it's that

the songs

of heaven

would be

much less sweet

if they weren't

preceded

by the songs

of mourning

in this life.

Again,

it's the principle,

you see,

as you know

mourning over sin,

as you know sorrow

as a Christian

in your life,

as you look forward

to the place

where there is no sorrow,

where there is no death,

where there are no partings,

where there is nothing

at all

to cause our tears

to fall

and weep

in sorrow

and in mourning,

that wonderful

experience of heaven

is made all the more

possible and real

by the fact

that you've known

mourning in this life.

And it is those

who have given place

to this particular

doctrine

and to this great truth

about the Christian life

that are more,

or are better positioned,

if you like,

to look forward

to the wonderful comfort

that heaven brings

to us.

They shall be

comforted.

The Bible is full

of that as well.

Romans again,

chapter 8,

where Paul says

that you are saved

in hope,

hope towards

what is to come.

Revelation 21,

Revelation 21:1–4

verses 1 to 4,

speaks about the wonders

of that blessedness

of heaven

where there is no sorrow,

where there are no tears,

but they're all preceded

by a life of mourning

and tears

and sorrow before that.

And perhaps the psalm

that we sang together,

as much as any,

really brings into

our view

the prospect

and the reality

of that wonderful

final comforting

of God,

where the psalm,

as you remember,

speaks about,

even though weeping

may last

for a night,

joy comes

with the mourning.

You may find

your whole life

is blighted

by darkness.

You may find

that the whole

of your life

from beginning to end

will need to be described

as a time of mourning,

a time of tears.

I'm not suggesting

that it will be so

all the time.

but God is assuring you

mourning is coming.

And when mourning comes

and the daylight

of eternity

and blessedness

dawns

and scatters

the darkness,

then we will come

to appreciate

this text

more than we can ever

appreciate it

in this life,

when the comfort

of heaven

is a reality

to us.

Blessed

are those

who mourn.

Whatever it is

today or tonight

that's causing

your own heart pain,

bring it into line

with what Jesus

is saying here.

It may not be sorrow

primarily over

your own sin,

though I'm sure

that's part of

your experience

as it is mine.

It may not be sorrow

over the state

of the world,

though there may be

some of that in it.

Maybe it's sorrow

over something

that's happening

at your work

or something

that's ongoing

in your life,

wherever it is

you work from day to day.

Maybe it's a sorrow

over family.

Maybe it's a sorrow

over your concern

for those related to you,

for friends,

for neighbours,

for immediate family.

It doesn't really matter

because it's all

encapsulated

and summarised

in this wonderful text.

Blessed

are those

who mourn,

for they shall.

be comforted.

Let's pray.

Oh Lord,

our God,

our hearts

need your comfort.

Our lives

in this world

need that comfort

that you alone

are able to give.

Lord,

we thank you

for the reality

of that comfort

which you bring us

to taste off

in this life.

We thank you

that there are

many anticipations

of heaven,

just as there are

many anticipations

of hell

in this life.

But we thank you

especially

for that anticipation

of the comforts

of heaven

that you have

already caused

to begin

in the experience

in the hearts

of your people.

And help us,

Lord,

we pray,

as we come

to mourn

over our own sin,

over the state

of our world.

Help us

to draw

our comfort

from your great

assurance

that we will

be comforted

and that your

comfort is like

no other.

So bless to us

your word,

we pray again

this evening.

Help us to go

forth from here

with a greater

resolve to be

contented,

happy,

vibrant Christians.

And enable us

to communicate

and convey

to the world

that ours is a life

that they ought

to envy

and a life

for which we are glad.

blessed and we pray

these words to us

for Jesus' sake.

Amen.

We're going to conclude now.