BLESSED ARE THEY THAT MOURN
MATTHEW 5:4
“Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.”
“Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.”
Introduction:
This is not a carnal mourning as in the loss of a loved one or a friend, but rather, a spiritual mourning. This is mourning over what sin has done and is doing in our lives and the lives of others about us.
Sin is a plague and we need to wash away the spot it leaves with the tears of repentance. We are talking about Christians that have fallen into sin and seemingly don’t know what to do about it. “Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost?” Ananias was asked by Peter in Acts 5:3. Satan is always looking for opportunity to foul up the lives of God’s people and many times he does his work with great success.
That gives occasion for some gospel mourning as taught here in this passage of Scripture. Let’s examine what Jesus means when He says to “mourn.”
I. MOURNING BECAUSE OF SIN.
A. Our sin, Ezekiel 7:16, “But they that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity.”
1. The necessity of confessing our sin daily to the Lord, 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
2. The necessity of having communion with our Savior on a regular basis.
a. Breaking the yoke of relationships with unbelievers, 2 Corinthians 6:14, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?” Ephesians 5:11, “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.”
b. Applying the remedy of the Word of God to our sin problems brings us back into fellowship with the Lord restoring communion, 1 John 1:6-7, “If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 7-But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
B. The pollution of sin causes the wrong kind of mourning.
1. Mourning because there is no blessing in unpardoned sin, Psalm 32:1, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.”
2. Mourning that is deceitful. Saul looked like a mourner.
a. He was sometimes among the prophets, 1 Samuel 10:12, “And one of the same place answered and said, But who is their father? Therefore it became a proverb, Is Saul also among the prophets?”
b. He seemed to be among the penitents, 1 Samuel 15:24, “And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.”
c. Saul did not really have shame for his disobedience, but he did seek honor, 1 Samuel 15:30, “Then he said, I have sinned: yet honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD thy God.”
d. Ezra expressed real shame and repentance for the sins of Israel, Ezra 9:6, “And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens.”
3. Mourning that is forced by God’s judgments as in the case of Cain, is not gospel mourning, Genesis 4:13, “And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear.”
a. His punishment troubled him more than his sin.
b. To mourn for fear of hell is like a thief that weeps for the penalty rather than the offence.
c. “The tears of the wicked are forced by the fire of affliction.” Thomas Watson.
II. THE RIGHT G0SPEL MOURNING.
A. Gospel mourning is free and spontaneous as in the case of Mary Magdalene, Luke 7:37-38, “And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, 38-And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.”
B. Gospel mourning is spiritual.
1. We mourn for sin more than for suffering.
a. David cried out, Psalm 51:2-3, “Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 3-For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.”
b. The Prodigal son, Luke 15:18-19, “I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, 19-And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.”
2. Sin is an act of hostility and enmity against God.
a. Sin not only make us unlike God, but contrary to God, Leviticus 26:40, “If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me;”
b. Sin insults and resists the Holy Spirit, Acts 7:51, “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.”
1) Sin is contrary to God’s nature.
2) Sin is contrary to God’s will.
3) Sin does all it can to spite God. The Hebrew word for “sin” means “rebellion.”
4) The sinner fights against God, Acts 5:39, “But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.”
3. Sin is the highest ingratitude. Thomas Watson said that it is “a kicking against the breasts of mercy. God sent His Son to redeem us, His Spirit to comfort us. We sin against the blood of Christ, the grace of the Spirit and shall we not mourn?” Zechariah 13:6, “And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.”
a. Ingratitude stains our sins indelibly “crimson,” Isaiah 1:18, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
b. Only the blood of Jesus Christ is capable of washing that sin away, Psalm 103:12, “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.”
CONCLUSION
Luke 6:21b says, “Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh.” God would have all men to repent of their sins, Acts 17:30, “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:” You see, repentance is not just for the lost, but also for the believer who has offended his heavenly Father.
The believer should be mourning for his sin on a daily basis, confessing it to his Lord that he might be cleansed, 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”