This Sermon explores Jesus’ words on the blessing that comes when we mourn as a result of viewing our sin and the comfort that God gives through Jesus.
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The Comfort of Sorrow
Matthew 5:4
Thesis: The poison of sin causes mourning, but truth and antidote of the Gospel brings comfort and thus the blessing
Intro
The text that Jesus gives us is one that is not one that we would naturally understand on our own. It strikes against the foundation of the very world in which we live. Yet, he is bringing fourth light into dark world. Life to dead world. We must listen and learn from Him. Tune our ears in closer to what He is saying.
It is only a natural outcome then, if Jesus declaring light among a dark world is controversial. He is going to give us advice, that you will never hear from your local counselor. If heard by the average person would be offended at His advice. I suppose that even some here today will be disgusted at His advice.
What He is saying is simple yet profound. He is recommending that all of us, would be happier if we were to mourn. Let me clarify, He is saying that we would be much happier if we were to view ourselves as we truly are, miserable and sinful wretches, before an almighty God. Does that sound like any advice that you’ve heard recently? What about advice that you’ve given?
Just imagine going to your doctor telling him of everything that you’ve got going on wrong in your life, all the ways that people wrong you. How there are so many things don’t go well for you and how you need some hope in this life. Your doctor then takes a long pause, with his hand under his chin, thinking deeply. Expecting pure gold to come from his mouth, your greeted with the advice, that Jesus gives here. “You know”, he says, “I’ve got just the thing for you, works great, every time. You need to cry. But not just a simple stream of tears, but to pour for a great river of sorrow. To cry out in your distress and weep as one who has lost a child.”, He Pauses. “Then, he says cheerfully, you will be comforted”
Let’s get into the text
Context
Now here we have Jesus, presenting the worlds greatest recorded sermon. Boldly declaring truths before that the world has not heard. Showering light in a dark world as a flood would quench the dry parched ground of a desert. Much of what Jesus does in this sermon is magnify the law of the Old Testament. He cleanses sinful misunderstanding of the Law by clarifying points where sin had muddied it. Not to change the law, but to sharpen it’s edge that had been dulled by the rust of legalism.
Now Jesus gives us a list of blessings about 8 in all that describe attributes of a blessed person. You can see this in that each of these blessings are connected with a reason by the use of the word “for”. For example:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
But not only that, the type of blessing that we are talking about, can also be translated “Happy”, but it’s not the type of happiness that we think of, it’s a much deeper happiness. Take for example the first beatitude, the result of being poor in spirit wouldn’t just put a smile on your face. It would lift your soul up to heaven, you receive the very kingdom of God.
Note also, that these are characteristics, which seem to be contrary to the worldly idea of happiness. Being poor in spirit isn’t what any life coach would tell you is a good idea if you want to be happy. Rather they would tell you that is the very thing you should avoid. Hence we have a large number of americans on anti depressants.
Mourning
Now what does Jesus mean with this idea of mourning? What is He talking about? Most basically put, He is speaking of sorrow. A real deep, painful sorrow. I feel a need to press this point because, we hide sorrow and mourning. The idea that anybody would endorse this type sorrow almost seems wrong. Its the type of sorrow that Abraham had when he mourned and wept over Sarah (Genesis 23:2), Jacob, mourning for Joseph,
Genesis 37:
33 And he identified it and said, “It is my son’s robe. A fierce animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces.”
34 Then Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days.
35 All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, “No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” Thus his father wept for him.
Now we can see that it’s a blinding, intoxicating sorrow. I do not know if some of you have experience a great sorrow. The death of a loved one, someone close, the sharpness rebuke, the loss something dear to us. It is dreadfully painful. It’s the type of pain that makes food tasteless, color disappear, the joy of life seemingly sucked out. All thoughts are consuming by an agonizing pain, that make us feel that we are living in some cruel horror movie. Mourning shatters a person into what seems ten thousand pieces. To be sunk at the bottom of an ocean of sorrow seeing no way out.
So what then does Jesus thinking that produces this sorrow? Is it at any time I’m sorrowful or experience mourning that He is referring to? Does He intend to champion and some lost art of joy and grief recovery that we are negligent of? Certainly not, Jesus is striking at the core of an important doctrine found throughout scripture: the sorrow of sin.
Now how can we come to this conclusion? Well, we need to again examine the context and try to determine the meaning that Jesus gives us. We see that in the previous beatitude, Jesus is commending those who are poor in Spirit. Those who view their spiritual life as utterly bankrupt, who see that the cost for even one sin, is complete spiritual bankruptcy. The one who is Poor in spirit sees that he is sinful and without hope in himself. Carrying this idea into mourning, we get a better picture, that the one who recognizes his sins and is convinced of his guilt will be broken into mourning.
Perhaps the most helpful passage to help us understand this is 2 Cor 7:9-10 :
“9 As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.
10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.”
James 4:8 – “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.”
What I want to show you here is that Paul connects sin with grief with repentance. That sin under conviction produces sorrow and sorrow with the spirit of grace produces repentance
The poison of sin and the need mourn over it
So the question that we must examine, is why is it that sin is worth mourning over?
We will look at three reasons why would ought to and need to mourn over sin: First we will look at the foulness of sin, second the stench of sin in the nostrils of God and thirdly that we ourselves are worth mourning over
Foulness of sin
What is sin? To give it the most simple definition, it means to miss the mark. It has been likened to an archery term, where God is the bullseye and we shoot our arrow and miss the mark. While at first glance it appears that this is a simple or minor thing. However, what we must recognize is that God is that perfect mark, He himself is the standard by which we must be weighed. To miss the standard of His righteousness is to fail completely.
Consider it this way, if God is the perfect standard, the bullseye, and our best shot falls short and I wanted to take my measuring tape to see what the distance from where God is to where I am, I could not gather enough measuring tape in all the world to measure that distance. The distance from God to any sinner is a infinite distance.
Examples
Now what does sin produce? Why is it so foul? Sin in another since brings death. It’s like a plague that consumes and rots everything that God has created to be good. Sin adds death to our words, death in our conversations, death in our relationships, death in our marriages, death in our hearts and death towards our lives. Death death death!
Imagine souls swimming in a river of death, bathing in it’s corruption, splashing in evil as a child plays in water, drinking it down, corrupting their flesh, heart and mind, blinding their eyes becoming unable to see any light at all.
It causes the wisest of men to become fools. Imagine if I had a glass jar, sin would call it good fun to remove my shoes, throw the glass on the ground, dance on it and wear a smile and pretend that I all the better for committing my foolish act.
Fruits of Sin:
It rots the mind – lies plague the mind soon becoming irrational
Romans 1:21 “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools”
With the pursuit of sin comes the increase of foolishness. Because God has created and structured the world in such an order, to run against and away from God is only to flee in to chaos and disorder.
It deceives
“they exchanged the truth about God for a lie” – Romans 1:25
Hebrews 3:13 “But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”
As with Satan in the garden, sin is deceptive. Outwardly it “drip[s] honey, and [its(her)] speech is smoother than oil, 4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.” It makes it’s behold believe good, the lying to a spouse, the small theft at work, the gentle manipulation of a friend, the exploitation of loved one. It makes Hitler believe, that he was doing “gods” will in the slaughter of the Jews. The execution of Jesus something that God wanted.
It makes you love evil
2 Thessalonians 2:12 “who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness”
Ephesians 4:19 “They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.”
For the one who continues in sin, they will grow in their love for it. As man sins, his heart becomes more callous to it, desiring to be pricked again by sin, he will reach for more of it. He becomes greedy in his pursuit. What was once unthinkable to a man is now accepted. Gradually a man will love what he once hated.
Sin will blind you into calling evil good and good evil, you will use darkness for light, and light for darkness, call sweet bitter and bitter sweet.
It destroys what is beautiful – perversion
Imagine that I had an art gallery of some of the most beautiful paintings that have even been painted. Top names like Rembrandt, Picasso, Monet, Devinci etc. Each painting worth hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars. I then thought it would be a good idea, to try and improve upon them. Unfortunately for these paintings, I’m not a good artist, and each one now looks like some odd mix between Mickey Mouse, kindergarten art, and stick figures. We would say I have ruined the paintings and completely destroyed them of their value!
This is the very thing that sin does to the things that God has created. It destroys what was beautiful and replaces it with ugliness. Where God created marriages, sin creates a divorce. Where God has given us a mouth to bless with, man uses it to curse.
It’s stench in the nostrils of God
Why does God hate sin?
To rightly understand the reason that sin is so foul, we must understand it in the face of God and who He is. Sin by it’s very nature is anti God. He is perfect and anything that is not perfect is completely different and unlike Him.
As darkness is opposite of light, so is sin opposite of God.
“Sin turns all God’s grace into wantonness; it is the dare of his justice, the rape of his mercy, the jeer of his patience, the slight of his power, and the contempt of his love” – Bunyan
What does God do to sinners?
Sin cries out for God’s justice
Sinners are not casual victims of a cruel and merciless deity. They are criminals against a just God. It is because of there sin that God has targeted them.
He says:
Isaiah 13:11 – I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless. 12 I will make people more rare than fine gold
What God says is certain
What I find most disturbing about a text like that is the certainty of it. If you or I declare that we will do something, there exists many possibilities that it may not be done. We may lack the resources, foresight, or ability to carry it out. But this is not true with God. When He says that “I will punish the world for it’s iniquity”, we can be certain it will come to pass. Be then certain that God will not let the evil of sin go unnoticed. He has made His declaration of war, He as aimed His bow upon the wicked, only now does His patience restrain until that fearful day.
◦ There is tribulation and distress Romans 2
◦ Will God let His enemies prevail against Him?
- Passive wrath of abandonment Romans 1:18
You are covered in sin
In you
We are born with a fallen nature. Spiritually dead, children of wrath, inherited with nature from Adam. There is not anything that we do that is not colored with sin. How we ought to mourn, that such an evil dwells inside of us! Polluting our thoughts, deceiving our minds to believe in lies, committing acts of sin against our fellow man and God.
In everything that you do, it’s corrupted with sin (Gen 6:5, Romans 3:10-18). Scripture
Comes out of you
Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Many would say that they do not do evil things. That their mere circumstances are the real cause of their sinful actions. But the real reason that we do bad things, is because we are bad people.
Mark 7:21 “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.”
Mourn
Sin is such an enemy, a deceiver, a cancer within you it needs to be mourned.
If death being such a grievous thing as to cause deep sorrow and pain, how much more then should the tree be loathed than the fruit of that tree? Death is the fruit of sin and sin is the tree of death.
My friends do you see the tragedy of your state? That such a vileness dwells within you? For all the things that the world mourns over, ought sin to be at the very foremost of the list? It is sin who damns, it is sin who rapes, it is sin who kills, it is sin who lies, it is sin who corrupts. Is there any more dangerous thing to be played with that the blackness of sin and yet, we still see no cause to mourn?
Paul exclaims Romans 7:24 – “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
Imagery of a being chained to a dead man. A means of punishment
Lam 1:14 – “My transgressions were bound into a yoke; by his hand they were fastened together; they were set upon my neck; he caused my strength to fail; the Lord gave me into the hands of those whom I cannot withstand.”
Imagine pulling a yoke around your neck trying to pull it up a great hill. You seem not to be making progress, you lose your footing and the cart begins to pull you down the hill to destruction
Gen 6:6 – It is no mystery that God Himself when he looked upon the wickedness of the earth was Himself grieved at the sinfulness of man. So then must those who desire to be God like grieve upon sin as well.
The right relationship to sin
The truth is that there is a right and a wrong relationship to sin. In our natural state, we love sin and do not mourn it’s presence. Why would the natural man? When he has in abundance the sin that he so loves and delights in? There is a perfect relationship between the two, sin brings forth its desire which is agreeable to our natural state and thus when we give birth to the desire, which then produces death. They desire the chains and bondage of sin than the yoke of Christ.
It is only those who hate sin, who will mourn over it’s presence. Those who hate sin, view it as grotesque, unfit to be friendly with it. They realize, what they are, sinners before God, having committed what it shameful. It is these who express the true morning of sin. They truly understand the grievous nature of sin, they weep and howl aloud for their sin. How could they have made such friends with darkness?
Miracle of Sorrow
There is a great change in the one who has wept and mourned over his sin. It is the miracle of being born again. Where once man had a stony dead heart, he now has been given a real heart of flesh. He has become a new creature.
Imagine this great surgery, where God takes out this dead lifeless heart of a man and replaces it with a new one that lives to God and His glory. This man who was once dead comes to life. He opens His eyes and beholds new things. He see things that he has never seen before. His mind becomes alive, thinking true and rational thoughts of God and truth. His ears open up and understand Gods word in a way he never has before. His heart that once loved and cherished sin, now is sickened and repulsed by its very presence. It now loves God and begins to desire Him more and more and becomes closer and closer to His own heart.
The result is that this new heart is grieved by sin, in the very same way that God is grieved by sin.
Sorrow for the offense done to God
The key in sorrow for sin is understanding the that the wrong we have done is against God.
“It is sorrow for the offense rather than for the punishment. God’s law has been infringed, his love abused. This melts the soul in tears” – Thomas Watson
With our new heart we view sin as an offense done unto God, an insult to the one that we love! For example, if I were to insult my wife whom I love dearly and see that she was hurt by why I had said, can you truly say that I love her if I did not have remorse for what I had said. I would be ashamed of my actions and wish they had never been done.
What was Judas when his sin had found him out? He was sorrowful yes, but not for the wrong against God, but because his actions resulted in the condemnation of an innocent man.
- The cure and cleansing of the Gospel
They shall be comforted
Oh the joy of the comfort to be described. The bliss of resting upon Him whom we have pierced.
Having discussed some of the causes of this sorrow, we will now begin to look at the blessedness of this comfort and where it comes from.
What is this comfort? `
A true comfort
This comfort that is given is not a comfort of a pillow or the softness of a bed. But given our context, it is talking about the true comforting from the sorrow of sin. What can put to rest a guilty conscience? Or what can stop up the flow of tears? After all we have grieved God greatly over our sin. Should we not forever morn in the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth?
What is our comfort? Where is our hope?
The man of sorrows
The answer my friends, is the man of sorrows, He who was well aquatinted with grief. As it is written: Isaiah 53:4 – “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;” The only reason we can overcome our sorrow and our grief is to see that Jesus is the one who took it from us and placed it upon Himself. He that did suffer in our place did take all of the great sorrow of sin. Imagine all of the sorrow for sin, every tear that has been shed, be it as large as an ocean, Christ was able to bear it
It is Christ who said on His way to the cross: Matthew 26:38: “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death”
But it is Christ who puts an end to all of our sorrow. That our ever tear may be wiped away by his grace. That like a dark cloudy day, they light of Christ and His Gospel may pierce through the darkness and bring light and joy unto us. For “every sin on Him was laid”
Tears of Hope
Now our tears are not an endless despair
Repentance
Repentance is the bridge from the Sorrow of sin to the Comfort of Christ. You can never cross over in to the comfort, unless you cross that bridge. Repentance is essentially a turning away from sin, a forsaking of the old way. For when you have sorrow of sin, how can it be relieved unless you flee from it?
Imagine if a man had a piece of wood that was stuck into his arm. Seized in great pain, he would not find relief if he were just to agonize over it and shed many tears. Only when it is removed will he find any comfort from the pain.
The tears of sorrow water the seeds of repentance and repentance when it grows up reaches out for Christ. [imagery of a vine] For unless one despises the sin he commits, he will certainly not turn from it. Augustine, “He truly bewails the sins he has committed, who never commits the sins he has bewailed”
False repentance and sorrow
To clarity a few false ditches, there are those who would believe themselves to have repented, yet find no blessing even though they have sought it with tears. There is a false repentance, someone who mourns the results and effect of their sin, but they do not mourn the sin itself. As a drunkard has sorrow when he is hungover, bewailing his condition, he does not bewail the sin itself. He only wishes in his heart he could have more liquor without the adverse effects. So to sinners when their sin in brought to the light, they are sorrowful only for the shame and consequences it brings. But Oh, how they wish they could continue to hide it in secret and continue to chase and delight themselves in is evil.
There is a false humility. People believe that they have done a mighty good and saintly act when they dig up and express any sorrow that they have. They believe themselves more godly for shedding tears. Thomas Watson said it like this:
“They go to their tears, when they should go to Christ’s blood. It is a kind of idolatry to make our tears the ground of our comfort. Mourning is not meritorious. It is the way to joy, not the cause. Jacob got the blessing in the garments of his elder brother. True comfort flows out of Christ’s pierced side. Our tears are stained, until they are washed in the blood of Christ. ‘In me you will have peace’ (John 16:33).”
Conclusion on repentance
Only the one who sorrows over his sin will run away from it to Christ, for He is the only comfort. The same way those who have sickness seek out a doctor, so those who are afflicted with sorrow over there sin will seek out Jesus. Any affliction that leads you to Christ, can only conclude as a blessing
The Blessing of Comfort
Why then is it a blessing to be comforted? There are at least two ideas of comfort in mind here: A comfort from sin and the comfort of heaven
Comfort from sin
Now that Jesus has taken our sin and our sorrow. When we view the horror of our sin before God, see that we are shameful and naked before Him, we are grieved. But now through Christ all of our sin, filthiness is done away with. We are reconciled with God, our relationship is restored. Now all of our sin we no longer have to fear, for Christ has taken it from us. Christ has thrown himself in the fires of God’s wrath to appease Him on our behalf.
There is a certain cleansing that happens when a man grieves over his sin. He has dealt with it, he has seen and understood its evil effects. He has dig down into the depths of his soul and see the horrors that lye there. He does not need to hide from the truth, he has sinned, but Christ has paid its penalty. There is no fear of God. Christ has been the antidote for the poison of sin. We have received the Holy Spirit who is our comforter.
What great comfort does the one have who has left his life of sin! Where before he played with the dangers and hazards of sin, now he delights in loving God and obeying Him.
Future comfort
When we are brought before God in heaven, there will be endless comfort. Revelation 21:4 “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Such wonderful truth. Such sweet promises. A day shall come when we who are in Christ shall be in heaven with Him, seeing His glory. He will remove every tear, sorrow and pain! Oh the joys to be had! The longings that it bring. When on earth all we seem to find everywhere is death and sorrow at last at last will come that day when they are gone!
The only tears that can remain are tears of joy! Sorrow no more no more no more! It will be so Christ has said it!
For Christ has taken us from our sorrowful state and will bring us into His heavenly kingdom, where no eye has seen no ear has heard what He has in store for those that love Him!
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