The Mourners

Those who know me know that I really enjoy laughing and having a good time.

I like encouraging people and making them feel good.

However, as we get into this morning’s message, I want to remind you that there are times when we need to slow down, quiet our hearts, and focus on serious issues.

This morning is one of those mornings.

Every year, we like to take a Sunday in January to remember that God is the author of life.

We join with other churches across the nation who are doing so today in what is called, “Sanctity of Human Life Sunday.”

That long string of words means that we believe every human being, from the moment of conception through eternity, is created with a unique dignity, worth and value.

We believe that every life should be preserved, regardless of age, stage, or development.

We choose this Sunday to remember it because this is the closest Sunday to the historic Supreme Court decision of Roe v Wade, which legalized abortion in the United States.

Let me say clearly: we as a church believe that abortion is a sin. Life begins at conception, and to end that life voluntarily is a denial of the fundamental sanctity of human life.

There are many ways in which we do not appropriately value the dignity of every life, including issues like racial injustice, sex trafficking, and more, but abortion is a unique issue.

Abortion denies the value of the life of the child to the point of feeling justified in ending that life, which runs contrary to what God has clearly revealed in his word.

This morning, we take time to mourn the decision made my millions in this country to terminate pregnancies.

We are also taking time to pray for those who are striving to inform women and men about the value of life and encourage them to choose to parent their children.

We partner with the Pregnancy Resource Center of the New River Valley, who seeks to expand the kingdom of God as they promote a culture of life in the New River Valley through rescuing the unborn, providing medical and spiritual care, and sharing the good news about Jesus.

If you want to support the work God is doing through this incredible ministry, please pick up and fill a baby bottle with change, dollar bills, or checks by way of donation. Those resources go to help reach women who are at risk of terminating their pregnancy and help them to not only choose life for their baby but find life for their souls through a relationship with Christ.

Would you join me now in praying for the PRC?

<Pray>

So, what does that have to do with our passage for today?

Today, we are continuing our study of the Sermon on the Mount, and it is going to pick up with this theme of mourning.

Go ahead and open your Bible to two different places: (p. 858), and (p. 487)

As Jesus is outlining the expectations of his kingdom, he has started by giving us a series of statements outlining what leads to a blessed life.

We call these the Beatitudes, and we looked at the first one last week.

We saw that that the way to a blessed life is by first acknowledging that we are spiritually poor and cannot earn our way into the kingdom of God.

Apart from that understanding, we will not be saved or become citizens of his kingdom, because we will live like it all depends on us.

As we saw last week, we inherit the kingdom when we forfeit our own.

God

That leads us to the next Beatitude, found in .

Read it with me...

Again, this doesn’t seem right, does it? How can those who mourn find joy?

I want to be careful how we approach this, because unfortunately, it may not primarily mean what many of us have taken it to mean.

Whenever we look at any passage of Scripture, we always need to read it in context to help understand what is being said.

There is plenty of cause for mourning in our world. We have a number of church families who have been impacted by the loss of someone close to them over the last few weeks. Death, disease, and loss certainly are cause for mourning, and rightly so. There is absolutely nothing wrong about our hearts aching over loss.

However, grief and mourning are universal experiences - everyone who has ever lived has experienced them, not just believers who are citizens of the kingdom of God.

We know that one day, there will be no more mourning or crying or pain, when Jesus’ kingdom is fully established on earth.

Yet, in this verse, Jesus is talking about a comfort now that is only reserved for those who know and follow Christ.

So what is he talking about?

However, given the context, I bel

Jesus is addressing a certain kind of mourning, and he promises that those who mourn over this will be comforted, both in this life and the next.

Those who will be comforted are the ones who mourn over sin.

This follows right on the heels of the awareness that we are spiritually poor apart from Christ’s work and desperately need him.

The first beatitude was the recognition that we are so far from what God created us to be.

The second speaks of allowing that reality to break our hearts as we mourn over sin.

I believe that mourning is directed at least three different ways.

The first and primary way our mourning is directed is...

1) The presence of sin in our lives.

That is why, instead of multiple points to the message this morning, I want you to walk away with only one: A blessed life begins with mourning over your own sin.

Although our hearts grieve over the impacts of sin around us, we have to start with our own hearts if we are going to live the way God has called us to live.

We are going to try to look at it from a few different angles to get a clear picture, but it is all to help us see the weightiness of our own sin.

For you and I to know and experience the comfort of God, we must first be willing to feel the weight of our own sin.

If that’s going to happen, though, we first need a clear understanding of what sin is.

Sometimes, we are tempted to think that sin is just the big bad things that pretty much everyone agrees are wrong.

Very few would argue that it is okay to walk into someone’s house and take something that doesn’t belong to you, or murder someone in cold blood.

If that’s all sin is, the noticeable bad things, then most of us would be off the hook.

However, sin goes much deeper than that.

Theologian Wayne Grudem has defined sin this way:

“Sin is any failure to conform to the moral law of God in act, attitude, or nature.” (Wayne Grudem)

[1]

Practically speaking, that means sin is anything we do that goes against God’s law or his character. It is the bad things we do, but it is also the good things we should do but don’t. Not only that, as we will see later on in the Sermon on the Mount, our thoughts can be sinful, just like our actions!

In case that isn’t clear enough, let’s look at a quick list some of the things the Bible says are sin. These are pulled from a list that comes from Life Action Ministries. The full list contains over 75 sins, but let’s just hit some of the highlights…<show slide>

How are we doing now?

If we are honest, we have to acknowledge that we have a tremendous amount of sin in our own hearts and lives.

In fact, the longer we walk with God, the greater our awareness becomes of just how sinful our hearts are.

When we contrast that with the goodness of God, this should break our hearts!

Think about all God has done for you.

First, the fact that he created the universe at all is an expression of his love for us! One of the first realities expressed when creation is complete is that it is good, because it was created by a good God.

He gives us life, even though you and I push him away and do what we want instead of what he says is right.

Even though we were separated from him by our choice, Jesus took our sin upon himself and bore the punishment we deserved. What could possibly be a greater picture of the goodness of God than him dying in our place?

Listen: it was our sin that killed Jesus. He knew it, he could have stopped it, but instead, he chose to take that sin to the cross and die.

The goodness of God in contrast with our sin should break our hearts!

That is why James wrote,

James 4:9 CSB

Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

There is a time and a place where we need to feel the weight of our sin; to look into the dark corners of our hearts and shudder at what we find lurking there.

I am not saying that we should go back and relive all of our failures, but we must reach the point where we mourn over the sin in our own hearts before we can be comforted.

Perhaps the clearest biblical example of this is King David.

He was a man who loved God intently, yet he made a series of sinful choices that led to dire consequences.

He saw a married woman bathing and slept with her while her husband was at war.

She got pregnant, and David tried to cover his sin, but her husband was too noble a man to give David the excuse he was looking for.

When that didn’t work, David gave orders for the husband put into the worst part of a battle and had the other troops fall back, leaving him alone to die.

David had lusted, committed adultery, lied, and had one of his best warriors murdered to try to cover his tracks.

Eventually, God used a prophet named Nathan to confront David about his sin, and David wrote the words of as a prayer of confession.

However, he may also have written out of that same experience, looking back and reflecting.

Keep your finger in , but flip over and look through with me.

We will come back to verses 1-2 in a moment, but pick up in verses 3-4.

David said that God’s hand was heavy on him. The weight of his in was so heavy that it drained him of all his strength.

The spiritual and emotional strain of hiding his sin was even causing him physical pain and problems.

Listen carefully to what I am about to say: The Bible makes it clear that sickness and disorders and diseases are not always a result of sin or a spiritual issue. However, I worry that we are too quick to dismiss that sin has an impact on our physical body.

It is more obvious with certain sins. For instance, someone who disregard’s God’s commands to avoid drunkenness will deal with the physical effects of a hangover. Go that way long enough, and eventually you will deal with cirrhosis of the liver.

However, other sins may have physical effects that don’t have a direct connection to the action.

There was nothing about David’s adultery or murdering Uriah that would have made his bones brittle and left him without strength.

Yet God pursued David

As he hid his sin, though, it took a physical toll.

Is it possible that the same is true of you? Are you hiding your own sin, or refusing to acknowledge what God is saying? Could that be the source of some of the physical pain you are in?

Why not ask God to search your heart to see if there is unconfessed sin that is keeping you from living rightly with him?

When he shows it to you, mourn that sin and let it break your heart.

So far, this hasn’t been very fun, has it?

We have seen that we are more sinful than we want to believe, and hopefully, you are feeling the weight of it.

Why do I say “hopefully”? Is it because I like making people miserable?

Not at all.

I hope you are feeling the weight of your sin, because Jesus said that is one of the keys to blessing.

Keep your finger in , but go back to ...

What does Jesus say? Those who mourn will be comforted.

If we are talking about mourning over sin, then the comfort is the amazing comfort we receive when our sins are forgiven.

What do you think is the biggest problem in your life right now? How would you feel if it completely and permanently went away? The debt got paid off, the disease was gone and not coming back, your marriage was in the right place and stronger than ever, you got into the program you were trying so hard to get into; how would that feel?

It would feel amazing, wouldn’t it?

Here’s what we need to understand: our greatest problem isn’t actually our debt or our disease or our dysfunctional relationships. Our greatest need is that we have a debt of sin we cannot overcome on our own. We are spiritually bankrupt and our hearts are so twisted that we could never live up to God’s standards.

Remember that weight of sin we have felt? Jesus came to remove it completely.

Look back at , only this time, let’s start in verse 1-7.

David acknowledged his sin, and God forgave him.

What had been a source of pain and misery became a source of joy and wonder as he realized how gracious God had been to forgive him.

Listen to me: that very same forgiveness is available to you today:

1 John 1:9 CSB

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The moment we cry out for forgiveness, we receive the permanent forgiveness that Jesus secured for us on the cross.

Think about all your sins being written out on a piece of paper, and the punishment for all of them written there as well.

2) The pain our sin has caused others.

3) The power of sin in our world.

In his letter to the church at Colossae, Paul called that our “certificate of debt.” Here’s how he described what Jesus did for us on the cross:

Colossians 2:13–14 CSB

And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all our trespasses. He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.

col 2:

This is the truth that has brought comfort to believers for ages!

It was the truth that comforted David’s heart, although he didn’t yet know how great the sacrifice would be to pay for his sin.

Blessed are those who mourn over their sin, because they will be comforted by the unshakeable, incredible truth that their sins have been forgiven.

The understanding that, by the grace of God and no merit of my own, my sins have been forgiven, should give me and you a joy that impacts even our deepest moments of mourning.

We see that the knowledge that our sins are forgiven is closely tied to our mourning over loss!

This truth

How many of you are familiar with the hymn, “It Is Well”?

It was written by a man named Horatio Spafford. He was a good, godly man who had four daughters. He and his family had been in England, serving God by assisting the great evangelist D.L. Moody. Spafford was caught up doing business, but he sent his wife and four daughters on ahead of them. Halfway across the Atlantic, their ship was struck and all four daughters drowned.

He quickly took a ship to reunite with his grieving wife, and near the location where his daughters were drowned, he began to pen these words:

Amazing Grace—366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions 3. It is Well with My Soul

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll—Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well with my soul.

Tho Satan should buffet, tho trials should come, let this blest assurance control, that Christ hath regarded my helpless estate and shed His own blood for my soul.

And, Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight, the clouds be rolled back as a scroll: The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend, “Even so”—it is well with my soul.

Amazing Grace—366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions 3. It is Well with My Soul

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll—Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well with my soul.

Amazing Grace—366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions 3. It is Well with My Soul

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll—Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well with my soul.

Tho Satan should buffet, tho trials should come, let this blest assurance control, that Christ hath regarded my helpless estate and shed His own blood for my soul.

No matter what took place, even the unthinkable, he could say with unshakeable joy that it was well with his soul.

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

Have you taken an honest look into your life and seen what is there?

Have you wept and mourned over your sin, or have you tried to distract yourself with busyness or TV or your job or your family or your school to hopefully quiet the ache in your heart that won’t go away?

If you want to walk in the blessings of the kingdom of God, then you must mourn for your sin and feel the comfort that Christ brings.

Only then can you find the comfort your heart longs to find.

Endnotes:

[1] Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids: Zondervan (1994). 490.