Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Blessed are they that Mourn Matthew 5:4
Dec 6th, 2016
Weekly Bible StudyArt Sadlier
Categories: Commentary;Exhortation;Book Study

Blessed are they that Mourn (Or Happy are the Sad)

“Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Verse 4).

Outline       1 – The Facts of Sorrow 

                   2 – The Kinds of Sorrow

                   3 – The Solution for Sorrow

1 – The Facts of Sorrow. Someone has said, “This life is but a vale of tears.” Most of us know what it means to weep the hot tears of a broken heart. Job said, “Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.” We can count on that in this life.

How many people on this globe have stood before an open grave this week and poured out tears of sorrow? How many people on this globe have this week learned that they have a dreaded terminal illness? How many marriages that began in love and joy and excitement and happiness, have this week been terminated in sorrow and bitterness? How many people this week lost property, possessions and jobs, and they grope today in sorrow and despair?

David knew what sorrow was when he said, “My heart is sore pained within me: and the terrors of death are fallen upon me.” David was facing a period of rejection and persecution sorrow and fear and despair had come into his life. These things are at some time a part of everyman’s life. All men at times face disappointments and tragedy.

Notice how David responds to his sorrow.

“And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! For then would I fly away, and be at rest. Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness” (Psalm 55:6-7). David’s reaction here is typical of the reaction of all men. The natural desire of every person is to escape pain and sorrow and suffering.

The whole of our society is structured to escape from sorrow. We see this in the pleasure madness, the drugs, the alcoholism, the endless entertainment, and the endless sports. These are all expressions of the world’s desire to avoid mourning and sorrow and pain. They are a distraction from the realities of life. Job said, “Man that is born of woman is of few days, and full of sorrow.”

There are different kinds of sorrow. The Bible tells us about different kinds of sorrow.

1 - There is what we might call “general sorrow” or the sorrows of life.

There is the sorrow of bereavement. In John 11, when Lazarus died, Jesus met Mary and Martha and others weeping and mourning over his death. Notice, Jesus wept with them. How painful bereavement can be, and yet we must all face it.

There is the sorrow of discouragement. In Second Timothy, we find Timothy’s tears coursing down his cheeks, because of discouragement and defeat. He had been faithful, but he was discouraged. Have you ever gotten alone and wept and said, “I’m a failure?”

There are the tears of anxiety and concern. We see Jesus weeping tears of sorrow and concern as he stands on the Mount of Olives overlooking Jerusalem. He knows that if they do not respond to Him and repent, both they and the city will be destroyed. We see Jeremiah 500 years earlier weeping the same tears over the Jews and their city. Jeremiah 9:1, “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!”

Oh, that we could look over our cities, and our churches, and our lives, and weep for our sin and indifference!

There are the tears of devotion. In Luke 7 we see a woman breaking a very expensive box of perfume on Jesus. Then out of her love for Him she begins to wash His feet with her tears and wipe them with her hair.

There are the tears of loneliness. Most of us have been there. The loss of a lifelong companion brings a depth of loneliness that cannot be measured. Rejection by family or friends brings grief of heart that cuts deep into the soul. Sometimes we can feel lonely in the midst of a crowd of people. Loneliness is an experience, to greater or lesser degree, that is common to all of us.

There are the tears of unrequited love. The tears of unrequited love can torment the heart and soul. This is an experience that is not uncommon to all of us at some point in our lives. It may be a lover, a spouse, or family member.

2 – The sorrow of the tears of lust for illegitimate things.

Ahab wept and mourned and was full of sorrow because he wanted Nabob’s vineyard. Amnon wept and mourned until he became sick, because he wanted to defile his own sister, Tamar. Don’t press your nose against the store window and sorrow for something you can’t have. Also, in this category is excessive, extended mourning over the loss of a loved one, mourning that never ends. It is self-centered and it is sin. We must learn to accept the will of God.

3 – The sorrow that is overdone because of guilt.

David failed to discipline and raise Absalom correctly. Eventually Absalom rebelled against his father and drove him off the throne and would have killed him. When it a came time to defeat the rebels, David instructed his men in 2 Samuel 18:5, “And the king commanded Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom. And all the people heard when the king gave all the captains charge concerning Absalom.”

When David was told that Absalom was dead he wept. Verse 33, “And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept: and as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!”

His love was admirable, but his idea was foolish. Who would want Absalom to rule Israel? Not God. Not the people. David was full of guilt for being a poor father; he had raised Absalom very badly. At one point David refused to speak to his son for 18 months.

David’s mourning over Absalom was so intense and extreme that his soldiers were ashamed that they had won and saved David’s life. 2 Samuel 19:4-6, “But the king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, O my son Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son! And Joab came into the house to the king, and said, Thou hast shamed this day the faces of all thy servants, which this day have saved thy life, and the lives of thy sons and of thy daughters, and the lives of thy wives, and the lives of thy concubines;
In that thou lovest thine enemies, and hatest thy friends. For thou hast declared this day, that thou regardest neither princes nor servants: for this day I perceive, that if Absalom had lived, and all we had died this day, then it had pleased thee well.” This was a perverted sorrow.

4 – The sorrow of regret, remorse, and repentance.

This type of sorrow comes in two categories. 2 Corinthians 7:10, “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.”

A – There is the “sorrow of the world.” This is a sorrow for sin that is not acceptable to God. You can weep and cry with this type of sorrow and you will never have forgiveness for your sin. And you will never find relief from guilt. Notice the result of this kind of sorrow, “The sorrow of the world worketh death.”

This kind of sorrow produces tears over the consequences of sin, but not a turning away from sin. It is selfish sorrow that weeps because it cannot have what it desires.

B – There is a “godly sorrow.” This kind of sorrow, leads to tears, and mourning and leads to a changed life. It leads to a turning away from sin. We see it in verse 11, “For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.” See how it changed their lives.

This is the kind of sorrow that Jesus is talking about in Matthew 5:4. It involves grieving over our sin because it has offended a Holy God.

Finally we have the solution for sorrow.

The beatitude began by referring to spiritual bankruptcy and knowing it. Verse 3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Now in verse 4, because you are spiritually bankrupt, your emotions take over and mourn that bankruptcy.

Remember the example in Luke 18:10-14, “Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”

One man lacked the realization of his spiritual poverty, while the other realized his condition before God.

“Mourn” in the Greek = “Penthed.” This is the strongest of nine Greek words for mourning. It is the deepest heart-felt grief, generally reserved for mourning over the death of a loved one. It carries with it the idea of deep, inner agony. This kind of sorrow, this kind of mourning is an integral part of repentance. It is the emotional response to the realization of the way in which our sin has hurt or offended a Holy God. God hates sin! God loves man! Nothing hurts God the way man’s sin does! In fact it may be that man’s sin is the only thing that hurts God. We see Jesus weeping a number of times in the gospels. Each time it is traced to man’s sin, including the sin of unbelief.

There is a work that God performs in the hearts of men, a work that only God’s Spirit does. It is the work of convincing men of sin. Men and women cannot be saved apart from the conviction of sin which is the work of the Holy Spirit.

My unsaved friend, if you sense no conviction of sin, you are not a candidate for salvation at this time. Your great need is to come to understand your sinfulness in the eyes of God. Jesus said, "I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish" (luke 13:3).

Happy are they that mourn.