A Blessed Paradox (Matthew 5:1-12)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.480 --> 00:00:05.719 Our scripture reading this morning is the same as it was last week. Matthew 2 00:00:05.799 --> 00:00:12.070 Chapter Five, verses one to twelve. Matthew Five, verses one to twelve. 3 00:00:12.070 --> 00:00:16.829 Will be looking again at the beatitudes. Today we have the second beatitude. 4 00:00:16.910 --> 00:00:20.949 So whenever I preach on the beatitudes, I figured we'd read the whole 5 00:00:21.109 --> 00:00:27.660 thing, for it hangs together. The Gospel according to Saint Matthew, beginning 6 00:00:27.699 --> 00:00:32.020 in chapter five and the first verse. This is the word of the Lord 7 00:00:32.020 --> 00:00:36.729 and seeing the multitudes, he went up on a mountain and when he was 8 00:00:36.810 --> 00:00:41.170 seated, his disciples came to him. Then he opened his mouth and taught 9 00:00:41.210 --> 00:00:45.729 them, saying blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom 10 00:00:45.770 --> 00:00:50.479 of Heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 11 00:00:51.320 --> 00:00:56.039 Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those 12 00:00:56.119 --> 00:01:00.840 who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are 13 00:01:00.880 --> 00:01:06.549 the Merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, 14 00:01:06.989 --> 00:01:11.510 for they shall see God. Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they shall 15 00:01:11.549 --> 00:01:17.230 be called the sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for Righteousness 16 00:01:17.269 --> 00:01:21.140 Sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are you when they 17 00:01:21.219 --> 00:01:25.219 revile and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely. For 18 00:01:25.379 --> 00:01:30.379 my sake, rejoice and be exceedingly let Gret Lad for great is your reward 19 00:01:30.459 --> 00:01:36.689 in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Thus 20 00:01:36.769 --> 00:01:40.250 far this reading of God's holy word, the grass withers in the flower fades, 21 00:01:40.329 --> 00:01:49.280 but the word of our Lord endears forever. Please be seated well. 22 00:01:52.079 --> 00:01:59.920 Last week we began our study of the introduction to Jesus's greatest recorded sermon, 23 00:02:00.200 --> 00:02:05.069 the sermon on the Mount and we saw that he begins his great sermon with 24 00:02:05.150 --> 00:02:12.710 these eight beatitudes, these eight statements that immediately grab our attention. Jesus tells 25 00:02:12.750 --> 00:02:15.939 us that the blessed people, that is, as we saw last week, 26 00:02:15.979 --> 00:02:22.460 the happy people, even the supremely happy people, the blessed people are the 27 00:02:22.539 --> 00:02:25.900 people who are poor in spirit, who are mournful, who are meek, 28 00:02:27.580 --> 00:02:34.409 who are starving, even those who are persecuted. Jesus here begins his greatest 29 00:02:34.490 --> 00:02:40.449 sermon ever with some of the most absurd and seemingly ridiculous statements that he ever 30 00:02:40.490 --> 00:02:46.840 uttered. And he does this because he wants to grab our attention and get 31 00:02:46.879 --> 00:02:51.520 us to see something. He wants us to see in this sermon that the 32 00:02:51.599 --> 00:02:57.840 way that we think about life, goodness, the way we think about righteousness, 33 00:02:58.240 --> 00:03:01.590 obedience, in fact the way we think about most every aspect of our 34 00:03:01.750 --> 00:03:09.270 lives, is backwards by nature. Jesus preaches a sermon to us here that 35 00:03:09.550 --> 00:03:15.500 he wants to change to the way that we look and think about our lives. 36 00:03:15.659 --> 00:03:22.180 And that's because Jesus wants us to have a kingdom mindset. He wants 37 00:03:22.219 --> 00:03:27.729 us to look at the world with kingdom glasses, and that's because he wants 38 00:03:27.810 --> 00:03:31.490 us to be faithful citizens of his kingdom. And to do that, if 39 00:03:31.569 --> 00:03:37.729 we're going to be faithful citizens of Jesus's kingdom, we have to have Jesus's 40 00:03:37.810 --> 00:03:45.000 kingdom worldview. And so he begins this sermon with these eight beatitudes that describe 41 00:03:45.159 --> 00:03:50.840 to us a process. It's a process of heart and thought change the citizens 42 00:03:50.879 --> 00:03:55.750 of Jesus's kingdom go through as they grow in grace with him. And last 43 00:03:55.830 --> 00:04:01.870 week we saw that the foundational be attitude, the beattitude that's the foundation to 44 00:04:02.030 --> 00:04:06.789 all the others, is that we ought to be poor in spirit. He 45 00:04:06.909 --> 00:04:15.579 says supremely happy are the spiritually destitute. And now this week he says to 46 00:04:15.740 --> 00:04:21.019 us, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. And 47 00:04:21.139 --> 00:04:25.569 I'd like us to look at this in three parts. First, I'd like 48 00:04:25.730 --> 00:04:30.889 us to see that happy are the sad. Second, I'd like us to 49 00:04:31.009 --> 00:04:35.930 see what morning is and third, I'd like us to see the comfort of 50 00:04:35.970 --> 00:04:41.720 the Gospel. So happier the sad, what morning is and the Comfort of 51 00:04:41.879 --> 00:04:45.879 the Gospel. And so as we come to this be attitude this morning, 52 00:04:45.959 --> 00:04:49.240 the first thing that we ought to notice is that if we thought that last 53 00:04:49.360 --> 00:04:58.550 week's beatitude was backwards, this one's really does seem to be nonsensical. Jesus 54 00:04:58.629 --> 00:05:03.149 says, bless it are those who mourn, or, very literally, happy 55 00:05:03.189 --> 00:05:10.860 are the sad. You stop and think about that, happy are the sad. 56 00:05:11.899 --> 00:05:16.420 How could that possibly make sense? Now I've said that these beatitudes run 57 00:05:16.620 --> 00:05:20.769 contrary to the grain of how we tend to think, but this one isn't 58 00:05:20.889 --> 00:05:28.689 just odd, it seems downright contradictory. It is a paradox. Right, 59 00:05:29.050 --> 00:05:34.129 happy are the sad. Jesus is saying something here that is contradictory, or 60 00:05:34.170 --> 00:05:43.360 so it would seem. But we know that Jesus is God, not me. 61 00:05:44.079 --> 00:05:49.470 God is God and I am not, and therefore Jesus defines what makes 62 00:05:49.550 --> 00:05:56.269 sense and what doesn't make sense, and therefore there must be some way that 63 00:05:56.389 --> 00:06:01.990 this statement does make sense. But what can that be? Well, I 64 00:06:02.029 --> 00:06:05.579 would submit that if Jesus is right here, and of course we know that 65 00:06:05.699 --> 00:06:11.860 he is, then it would seem that it is we who need to change 66 00:06:12.019 --> 00:06:17.019 our definitions of these words here. And, as I said last week, 67 00:06:17.060 --> 00:06:23.730 we tend to have this idea, or certain ideas, of what will make 68 00:06:23.810 --> 00:06:29.370 us happy in life. We think that favorable things make us happy. We 69 00:06:29.610 --> 00:06:33.279 think that the stuff that we longingly gaze at through the shop window or the 70 00:06:33.439 --> 00:06:40.279 Internet browser will make us happy. We think that getting what we want, 71 00:06:41.399 --> 00:06:46.589 what we think is good in life, will make us happy. Every one 72 00:06:46.709 --> 00:06:54.269 of US imagines certain circumstances or relationships and so on that would make us happy, 73 00:06:54.550 --> 00:06:59.269 and we tell ourselves that because either we have or do not have these 74 00:06:59.430 --> 00:07:03.300 things, or because things go my way or don't go my way, then 75 00:07:03.300 --> 00:07:12.220 therefore I'm happy or sad. But again, according to the logic of the 76 00:07:12.300 --> 00:07:17.170 beattitudes. That just is not so. Solomon says that there is a way 77 00:07:17.329 --> 00:07:21.529 that seems right to a man, but in the end it's the way of 78 00:07:21.649 --> 00:07:29.290 death. Jesus tells us here that the sad folks are, in reality the 79 00:07:29.490 --> 00:07:34.600 happy folks in Luke. Jesus says, woe to you who laugh now, 80 00:07:35.600 --> 00:07:43.240 for you shall mourn and weep. So it seems that scripture says that what 81 00:07:43.439 --> 00:07:48.069 makes us happy is pretty much the opposite of what we think makes us happy, 82 00:07:49.470 --> 00:07:54.189 and in fact that we see in the Bible that God tells us that 83 00:07:54.230 --> 00:08:03.060 almost all the time, almost all the time, the route to happiness and 84 00:08:03.300 --> 00:08:09.860 joy in life is not through some rosy parade of good times that we hope 85 00:08:09.980 --> 00:08:15.250 for, but rather the route to happiness in life is through the very bowels 86 00:08:15.370 --> 00:08:20.490 of the Valley of the shadow of death. And though we don't like to 87 00:08:20.610 --> 00:08:26.009 think like this, though we really hate it, according to the old man 88 00:08:26.370 --> 00:08:31.319 the flesh, very often our lie in our lives. The very best thing 89 00:08:31.560 --> 00:08:35.879 that can happen to us is to be crushed low. I found in my 90 00:08:37.039 --> 00:08:41.909 life that the greatest blessing God's ever given me is to be utterly and completely 91 00:08:41.950 --> 00:08:48.789 humiliated at my own hand. God blesses us through his rod of iron and 92 00:08:50.509 --> 00:08:54.940 through his letting us be racked with unspeakable grief. And that is because happiness, 93 00:08:56.820 --> 00:09:01.779 from a gospel perspective, true abiding happiness, the joy of the Holy 94 00:09:01.899 --> 00:09:11.769 Spirit, so often comes through not in spite of sorrow. In Ecclesiastic Solomon 95 00:09:11.929 --> 00:09:18.169 says God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to a man who is good in 96 00:09:18.289 --> 00:09:26.200 his sight. Solomon says that wisdom and knowledge come hand in hand with joy 97 00:09:26.279 --> 00:09:35.600 or happiness. But in that very same book of the Bible Solomon says that 98 00:09:35.759 --> 00:09:41.149 in much wisdom is much grief, and he who increases in knowledge increases in 99 00:09:41.429 --> 00:09:48.029 sorrow. Now that's a conundrum, isn't it? But the resolution to this 100 00:09:48.149 --> 00:09:56.220 seeming contradiction is this. It was through the sufferings and sorrows of his life 101 00:09:56.340 --> 00:10:01.659 that Solomon became the wise man that we think of when we think of him. 102 00:10:03.419 --> 00:10:07.370 But lest we think that Solomon was some miserable fellow, I want you 103 00:10:07.409 --> 00:10:09.730 to notice what, or pay attention, we just read it a couple of 104 00:10:09.809 --> 00:10:15.769 minutes ago, to what the Apostle James tells us. He says that it 105 00:10:15.929 --> 00:10:22.559 is through this growth in wisdom and suffering and grief that one becomes happy. 106 00:10:22.600 --> 00:10:28.639 He said lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning 107 00:10:28.720 --> 00:10:37.629 and your joy to gloom. Now I'm pretty sure that whenever any of us 108 00:10:37.629 --> 00:10:43.950 read that our first response is to say right, that doesn't sound very good, 109 00:10:45.070 --> 00:10:50.379 does it? But then James said something else. He tells us what 110 00:10:50.620 --> 00:10:58.659 the fruit of mourning and lamentation and gloom is. He says humble yourself in 111 00:10:58.740 --> 00:11:07.490 the side of the Lord and what he will lift you up? He will 112 00:11:07.370 --> 00:11:13.610 lift you up. You See, the pattern of scripture is that when we 113 00:11:13.809 --> 00:11:20.360 go through these wisdom inducing trials and miseries in life, God will bless the 114 00:11:20.480 --> 00:11:26.559 man who is poor in spirit, the spiritually destitute mourner. He will bless 115 00:11:26.679 --> 00:11:35.870 that person by lifting him up to the very heights of joy through that process. 116 00:11:37.149 --> 00:11:41.070 But how on Earth does he do that? When we're going through it, 117 00:11:41.190 --> 00:11:45.389 it doesn't seem like it's possible. So how does he do that? 118 00:11:45.830 --> 00:11:50.019 Well, he does it when we start to build our happiness on the right 119 00:11:50.100 --> 00:11:58.259 foundation. He does it when we really are poor in spirit, when we 120 00:11:58.460 --> 00:12:03.529 no longer look for happiness in the things of life but in the daily hand 121 00:12:03.610 --> 00:12:11.529 out that comes from our father in heaven, but more specifically, I believe 122 00:12:11.570 --> 00:12:16.720 he stays it. When we understand what true godly mourning is, and if 123 00:12:16.759 --> 00:12:20.720 we're to understand what godly mourning is, first of all we need to understand 124 00:12:22.120 --> 00:12:28.759 what we mean when we talk about mourning in a biblical sense. Now you 125 00:12:28.840 --> 00:12:31.950 know you're in a Presbyterian church, I think, when the minister starts to 126 00:12:31.990 --> 00:12:35.590 quoting Greek every sermon that he preaches. But if you look in the Greek 127 00:12:35.669 --> 00:12:43.470 New Testament, there four main words that are used for mourning. The first 128 00:12:43.549 --> 00:12:50.980 of those is simple sadness, just weeping, crying. Another one refers to 129 00:12:52.340 --> 00:13:01.769 wailing or lamentation, when you're crying out in sadness. The third word refers 130 00:13:01.850 --> 00:13:09.169 to mourning that's manifested in lamentation, as well as some external show of mourning, 131 00:13:09.610 --> 00:13:15.840 you know, when you're crying out and beating your breast. But the 132 00:13:15.879 --> 00:13:18.679 word that Jesus uses here in his sermon on the mount is far more extreme 133 00:13:18.759 --> 00:13:24.320 than any of these. He uses a word that means this to grieve with 134 00:13:24.440 --> 00:13:31.269 a grief which so takes possession of the whole being that it cannot be hid. 135 00:13:33.669 --> 00:13:39.590 It is a grief that consumes a person. So what Jesus is describing 136 00:13:39.669 --> 00:13:45.419 here when he says blessed are those who mourn? He's describing a great, 137 00:13:46.259 --> 00:13:54.419 wrenching, ongoing, agonizing grief. It's a continual grief. That's the word 138 00:13:54.500 --> 00:14:01.570 that he uses here. And what is it that we mourn for like this? 139 00:14:03.730 --> 00:14:07.529 Well, if you ask the psychologists in the psychiatrist they'll tell you that 140 00:14:07.570 --> 00:14:16.639 all mourning involves loss. All mourning involves the loss of something, and it 141 00:14:16.720 --> 00:14:20.840 can be something great or small. It's relative to your own self. It 142 00:14:20.960 --> 00:14:24.990 could be the loss of a child or it could be the loss of a 143 00:14:24.029 --> 00:14:30.190 dream. It could be the loss of a job or the loss of one's 144 00:14:30.309 --> 00:14:33.350 youth. It could be the loss of a friendship or the loss of the 145 00:14:33.470 --> 00:14:39.820 good old days. It really doesn't matter what it is. But all mourning, 146 00:14:39.860 --> 00:14:46.460 all grief, involves laws and it also involves a process. Typically, 147 00:14:46.740 --> 00:14:50.379 when we mourn, most all the time, there is first a sense of 148 00:14:50.659 --> 00:14:54.809 disbelief. Right we say, this hasn't really happened, this, this, 149 00:14:56.809 --> 00:15:03.370 this can't have happened, this cannot be the case. We start with disbelief, 150 00:15:03.250 --> 00:15:07.759 but that disbelief quickly turns into anger of some sort and it can be 151 00:15:07.840 --> 00:15:20.080 a towering rage or it can just be a simmering sense of disquiet. And 152 00:15:20.200 --> 00:15:22.870 then, after the disbelief, in the anger, there's some sort of resignation 153 00:15:22.950 --> 00:15:30.549 in that resignation takes one of two forms. Either it can become a bitter, 154 00:15:30.789 --> 00:15:39.139 depressed, self pitying, angry resignation, or it can be a resignation 155 00:15:39.580 --> 00:15:46.620 of acceptance, comfort and joy. And how we react at this point of 156 00:15:46.740 --> 00:15:52.289 the grieving process all depends upon what kind of mourning we're going through, whether 157 00:15:52.330 --> 00:16:00.889 we're going through godly or ungodly mourning. Corinthians Chapter Seven says this Godly sorrow 158 00:16:02.090 --> 00:16:07.080 produces repentance, leading to salvation, not to be regretted, but the sorrow 159 00:16:07.120 --> 00:16:15.399 of the world produces death. They're two kinds of sorrow or mourning. Either 160 00:16:15.799 --> 00:16:21.309 Godly sorrow that leads to salvation, that is to a closer walk with God, 161 00:16:22.629 --> 00:16:29.909 or an ungodly sorrow that leads us to death. So this raises another 162 00:16:29.950 --> 00:16:37.419 question. How can we know which kind of mourning we're going through? Well, 163 00:16:37.139 --> 00:16:42.220 each kind has a different root. The root of ungodly sorrow is a 164 00:16:42.460 --> 00:16:49.250 frustration with not getting what I want. The man who is not poor in 165 00:16:49.409 --> 00:16:55.970 spirit remember he thinks he deserves something and when he doesn't get it, he 166 00:16:56.289 --> 00:17:00.919 mourns for the loss of what he wanted for himself. And the symptom of 167 00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:08.039 ungodly mourning is first an inability or an unwillingness to let go of it. 168 00:17:11.359 --> 00:17:15.950 When we mourn in an ungodly fashion, we're clinging to the memory of what 169 00:17:15.430 --> 00:17:22.750 was or what could have been. We cling to it with despair or anger 170 00:17:22.069 --> 00:17:30.900 or bitterness toward God or some people or just circumstances in general. For instance, 171 00:17:30.980 --> 00:17:37.339 I've seen someone have an ungodly mourning by being bitter for years at someone 172 00:17:37.500 --> 00:17:45.930 just for dinging up his new car. or it could also be a doubt 173 00:17:45.970 --> 00:17:53.170 God's goodness because you're dying or because a loved one is or because they have 174 00:17:53.450 --> 00:18:02.200 died. And the chief symptom of ungodly mourning is that it does not point 175 00:18:02.279 --> 00:18:07.480 you to the goodness of God. In Christ ungodly mourning doesn't point you to 176 00:18:07.640 --> 00:18:12.589 the comfort of the Gospel, but rather it points you to selfishness and selfpity. 177 00:18:12.950 --> 00:18:19.869 And Paul says that this kind of mourning leads to death. But in 178 00:18:21.309 --> 00:18:25.789 in that passage and Second Corinthians that I quoted from, Paul says that we 179 00:18:25.910 --> 00:18:30.500 need to repent of this sort of mourning. And the way to repent of 180 00:18:30.660 --> 00:18:40.140 ungodly mourning to know what godly morning is. And Godly morning comes from a 181 00:18:40.339 --> 00:18:45.730 very different rout than does ungodly mourning. And if we're to mourn in a 182 00:18:45.809 --> 00:18:52.529 godly fashion, we have to change the way we think about our losses in 183 00:18:52.650 --> 00:19:00.559 life. Now, when we mourn in Christ we don't mourn the loss of 184 00:19:00.720 --> 00:19:07.519 what I want, but rather we mourn the loss of Eden. Let me 185 00:19:07.599 --> 00:19:14.750 say that again. WHEN WE MOURN IN CHRIST WE mourn not for the loss 186 00:19:14.829 --> 00:19:21.910 of what I want, but for the laws of Eden. What do I 187 00:19:22.029 --> 00:19:27.059 mean by that? Well, godly mourning is a morning over sin and over 188 00:19:27.220 --> 00:19:33.299 sins effects on me, on others and on the world, because, you 189 00:19:33.420 --> 00:19:40.809 see, sin isn't just something that you or I do. Sin is a 190 00:19:41.089 --> 00:19:47.009 power. Sin Is a cosmic state of affairs, as it were, that 191 00:19:47.170 --> 00:19:52.279 has come to pass because of the fall from grace. Sin is a power 192 00:19:52.519 --> 00:19:57.559 that has corrupted and laid waste to the whole world, and it's effects are 193 00:19:57.599 --> 00:20:04.839 awful. And it is good, very good, to weep over sin and 194 00:20:06.160 --> 00:20:10.029 the fall, because when we do that we find that we weep with Christ, 195 00:20:11.990 --> 00:20:15.150 and Jesus gives a great example of how to do that. You remember 196 00:20:15.190 --> 00:20:19.829 when his friend Lazarus died in John, Chapter Eleven, and they bring Jesus 197 00:20:21.069 --> 00:20:25.339 to the tomb where Lazarus was laid and we find the shortest verse in the 198 00:20:25.420 --> 00:20:34.220 entire Bible. It says Jesus wept, but literally John says that Jesus burst 199 00:20:34.259 --> 00:20:40.650 out in tears. It's that third kind of mourning, the crying out, 200 00:20:40.730 --> 00:20:45.569 the beating of the breasts, and John tells us that right before he burst 201 00:20:45.650 --> 00:20:52.559 out in tears and right afterwards it says that Jesus groaned within himself, but 202 00:20:52.720 --> 00:21:00.559 that word really means that Jesus was outraged. When Jesus was faced with the 203 00:21:00.640 --> 00:21:07.269 effects of the fall on his friend Lazarus, Jesus was outraged over what sin 204 00:21:07.470 --> 00:21:15.869 had done and he wept over the pain that sin had brought. He was 205 00:21:17.069 --> 00:21:22.420 outraged at what the falls affects had done to his friend and he mourned the 206 00:21:22.539 --> 00:21:27.940 hurt that it caused those whom he loved. See, the point is, 207 00:21:29.099 --> 00:21:34.970 Jesus hates what our sin and the sins of others and the general effect of 208 00:21:36.049 --> 00:21:45.369 the fall has done to his people and Jesus mourns with us, and the 209 00:21:45.529 --> 00:21:49.920 godly person also mourns the effects of the fall. We mourn over death, 210 00:21:51.599 --> 00:21:56.039 sickness, terrorism, what someone has viciously done to me. We warn. 211 00:21:56.400 --> 00:22:02.750 We mourn over war, natural disasters, job loss his bank failures, broken 212 00:22:02.869 --> 00:22:07.069 relationships, you name it. There's a lot of stuff in this life to 213 00:22:07.309 --> 00:22:15.299 mourn over, but most especially we mourn over our own sin that, the 214 00:22:15.339 --> 00:22:21.619 shorter catechism tells us, makes us liable to all miseries in this life, 215 00:22:22.420 --> 00:22:26.859 to death itself in the pains of hell forever. You see, wo any 216 00:22:27.019 --> 00:22:33.849 mourn in a godly fashion. We mourn the effects of sin, my sin, 217 00:22:33.809 --> 00:22:40.130 the sins of others, the fall which came from the Furt, the 218 00:22:40.250 --> 00:22:45.400 sins of our first parents. To mourn in a godly fashion, you see, 219 00:22:45.519 --> 00:22:49.440 is to stop mourning the loss of what I want. It's to stop 220 00:22:49.559 --> 00:22:53.839 mourning the loss of what I think is best for my life, for the 221 00:22:53.960 --> 00:22:59.789 lives of those around me or the world at large. When we repent of 222 00:22:59.990 --> 00:23:06.349 that selfish mourning, we find that we are liberated to be transformed by the 223 00:23:06.470 --> 00:23:11.029 renewing of our mind, so that we can now mourn over the hurt of 224 00:23:11.349 --> 00:23:19.700 sin and its effects and the penny drops when we become poor in spirit. 225 00:23:22.579 --> 00:23:29.210 Spiritual poverty allows us the freedom to see that my truest need is not what 226 00:23:29.369 --> 00:23:36.289 I want, it's not what I think is best for life, but it 227 00:23:36.529 --> 00:23:41.960 liberates us to see that what is truly best for me is whatever my God 228 00:23:41.200 --> 00:23:48.559 and his omniscience and his one a full sovereign plan knows is best for me 229 00:23:48.680 --> 00:23:56.549 in the long run. To put it very simply, godly mourning trusts Jesus. 230 00:23:59.910 --> 00:24:07.390 Godly mourning trusts Jesus, and that liberates us to receive the comfort of 231 00:24:07.430 --> 00:24:11.700 the Gospel, for with the Lord there is comfort for those who mourn. 232 00:24:12.460 --> 00:24:18.579 Now, a few minutes ago I said that resignation takes one of two forms. 233 00:24:18.619 --> 00:24:26.170 It can either become bitter, depressed, angry resignation, or it can 234 00:24:26.210 --> 00:24:32.130 be a resignation of acceptance, comfort and thus joy. So I want to 235 00:24:32.170 --> 00:24:36.210 read y'all something. It's a paragraph from a book that I found to be 236 00:24:36.410 --> 00:24:41.720 profound and I think it well describes this godly form of mourning. Listen, 237 00:24:44.759 --> 00:24:49.440 acceptance is the answer to all of my problems. Today, when I am 238 00:24:49.559 --> 00:24:55.150 disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing or situation, 239 00:24:55.470 --> 00:25:00.470 some fact of my life unacceptable to me, and I can find no 240 00:25:00.710 --> 00:25:06.549 serenity until I accept that person, place, thing or situation as being exactly 241 00:25:06.670 --> 00:25:11.980 the way it's supposed to be at this moment. Nothing, absolutely nothing, 242 00:25:11.019 --> 00:25:15.660 happens in God's world by mistake. Until I could accept my loss, I 243 00:25:15.779 --> 00:25:21.930 could not be happy. Unless I accept my life completely on life's terms, 244 00:25:22.009 --> 00:25:26.690 I cannot be happy. I need to concentrate not so much on what needs 245 00:25:26.730 --> 00:25:30.569 to be changed in the world as on what needs to be changed in me 246 00:25:30.769 --> 00:25:38.480 and in my attitudes. When we find this kind of acceptance and mourn with 247 00:25:38.640 --> 00:25:45.640 the Gospel, we really do find God's comfort, and that is because all 248 00:25:45.960 --> 00:25:53.349 losses that cause us to mourn are there to serve to remind Christians of the 249 00:25:53.470 --> 00:26:00.950 Gospel. When we mourn over the losses and hurts of this life, we, 250 00:26:00.309 --> 00:26:07.579 as Christians, have the hope of the Gospel. As we go through 251 00:26:07.619 --> 00:26:14.579 them, we remember that through Jesus is loss, through Jesus is suffering. 252 00:26:14.700 --> 00:26:19.569 He gave us all things, most especially, he gives us his covenant promises. 253 00:26:21.930 --> 00:26:26.609 When we remember that sin and its effects and the fall are not God's 254 00:26:26.730 --> 00:26:33.880 intention for us or for the world, our mourning becomes a constant reminder of 255 00:26:33.920 --> 00:26:41.759 our need for God and the promise that he is swiftly bringing to fruition, 256 00:26:42.039 --> 00:26:52.589 and that draws us into his gospel hope. You see, mourning ultimately makes 257 00:26:52.630 --> 00:26:57.670 us happy because when we are poor in spirit, mourning drives us to the 258 00:26:57.910 --> 00:27:07.339 Gospel. Losses and mourning in life they'll either drive you to selfishness, hardheartedness 259 00:27:07.420 --> 00:27:14.180 and misery or, through the acceptance only the poor in spirit have, they 260 00:27:14.220 --> 00:27:18.170 drive you to Christ and to the comfort and happiness that his covenant promises bring. 261 00:27:19.369 --> 00:27:23.569 And when Jesus says that those who mourn shall be comforted, he's telling 262 00:27:23.730 --> 00:27:27.529 us about the work of the Holy Spirit, isn't he? This isn't just 263 00:27:27.690 --> 00:27:32.440 some pie in the sky and the by and by promise. He's telling us 264 00:27:32.519 --> 00:27:37.000 of the work of the Holy Spirit. And so when loss is come and 265 00:27:37.119 --> 00:27:45.990 when mourning comes in their wake, the Holy Spirit himself reminds us, either 266 00:27:45.109 --> 00:27:51.269 directly through a word to our hearts or through scripture, or through a sermon 267 00:27:51.309 --> 00:27:55.349 or a song, or through the encouragement of a brother and sister in Christ. 268 00:27:55.789 --> 00:28:00.500 Somehow the Holy Spirit reminds us of the hope and the Comfort of the 269 00:28:00.619 --> 00:28:07.299 Gospel, and that hope begins as we see that scripture tells us quite plainly 270 00:28:08.980 --> 00:28:18.490 that Christians will will suffer. This isn't something contrary to God's will for us 271 00:28:18.609 --> 00:28:23.289 in this time. Scripture tells us that Christians will suffer. That Prosperity Gospel, 272 00:28:23.369 --> 00:28:26.920 that health and wealth stuff, that is a damnable heresy from the pit 273 00:28:27.000 --> 00:28:33.519 of Hell, because sorrows will come to us. But if we hold onto 274 00:28:33.599 --> 00:28:38.079 the Gospel, we are prepared, because God has given us his promises beforehand. 275 00:28:38.119 --> 00:28:42.269 And so I want to bring this in for a landing this morning with 276 00:28:42.430 --> 00:28:48.869 just a few of those covenant promises to hold onto. there. These are 277 00:28:48.910 --> 00:28:52.630 some things that I particularly have held on to when I've had great mourning, 278 00:28:53.589 --> 00:29:00.299 when we're faced with our deaths. Paul says this for me, to live 279 00:29:00.380 --> 00:29:06.619 as Christ but to die gain, and I am hard pressed between the two, 280 00:29:06.700 --> 00:29:10.289 having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better, 281 00:29:11.529 --> 00:29:17.210 and sickness and infirmity. But scripture says this. God said to me, 282 00:29:17.410 --> 00:29:22.250 my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect and 283 00:29:22.369 --> 00:29:26.880 weakness. Therefore, most gladly, I would rather boast in my infirmities that 284 00:29:26.960 --> 00:29:32.200 the power of Christ may rest upon me for when I am weak, then 285 00:29:33.240 --> 00:29:40.670 I'm strong. Second Corinthians Chapter Seven. We worry when we're faced with job 286 00:29:40.710 --> 00:29:47.069 laws or calamities or reversals of fortune and so on, but our God is 287 00:29:47.109 --> 00:29:51.430 the one who tells us that he works all things together for good for those 288 00:29:51.470 --> 00:29:55.180 who love him, to those who are called according to his purpose. In 289 00:29:55.220 --> 00:30:03.819 Romans Chapter Eight, we tremble when our loved ones die, but we have 290 00:30:03.059 --> 00:30:11.250 confidence because Paul says this. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We 291 00:30:11.450 --> 00:30:14.930 shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, 292 00:30:15.009 --> 00:30:18.289 in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet 293 00:30:18.329 --> 00:30:23.880 will sound in the dead will be raised, incorruptible and we shall be changed, 294 00:30:25.480 --> 00:30:30.240 for this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality. 295 00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:34.039 So when this corruptible has put on in corruption and this mortal has put 296 00:30:34.119 --> 00:30:38.069 on him mortality, then she'll be brought to pass. It is saying, 297 00:30:38.109 --> 00:30:42.670 Oh death, where or death is swallowed up in victory? Oh death, 298 00:30:42.869 --> 00:30:51.339 where is your sting? Oh Hell, where is your victory? First Corinthians 299 00:30:51.460 --> 00:30:56.940 fifteen, and most especially, we mourned over our own sin. Don'tly, 300 00:30:57.099 --> 00:31:02.019 but in the face of that, we remember Jesus as good news, that 301 00:31:02.140 --> 00:31:07.089 all that we have to do is simply trust Jesus and know that he has 302 00:31:07.170 --> 00:31:14.369 already forgiven us, for he tells us, if we say that we have 303 00:31:14.690 --> 00:31:18.640 no sin, we deceive ourselves in the truth is not in us, but 304 00:31:18.799 --> 00:31:22.720 if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our 305 00:31:22.799 --> 00:31:30.519 sins and decleanse us from all unrighteousness. First John Chapter One. And at 306 00:31:30.559 --> 00:31:33.109 the end of the day we have the promise of revelation, Chapter Twenty one, 307 00:31:34.230 --> 00:31:40.029 where we read that at the end, on that Glorious Day, God 308 00:31:40.109 --> 00:31:44.589 will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death, 309 00:31:45.190 --> 00:31:48.539 nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for 310 00:31:48.660 --> 00:31:53.859 the former things have passed away. Then he who sat on the throne said, 311 00:31:53.980 --> 00:32:04.210 behold, I make all things new. So Cheer Up, Mourner. 312 00:32:05.930 --> 00:32:15.170 Cheer up by embracing our poverty of spirit, by letting our mourning be transformed 313 00:32:15.289 --> 00:32:21.880 through repentance and by holding on to the Gospel. That good news. You 314 00:32:22.160 --> 00:32:30.670 will find that truly, truly, the Lord comforts all those who mourn, 315 00:32:31.990 --> 00:32:37.789 and that is good news. Amen.