If you would open up your Bibles to Matthew chapter 5, we started a series in the Beatitudes.
It's on page 962 of your Pew Bible, and I'm going to read the Beatitudes right now.
We're going to focus on Matthew 5 verse 4 this morning.
Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him,
just like we're coming to him this morning.
And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying,
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
May God bless the hearing of God's words.
Amen.
Any Charlie Brown fans in the room?
Whoa, we got some amens?
Good.
We all know that Charlie Brown is a glutton for punishment.
And regularly what will happen when Charlie Brown is on the receiving end of something that doesn't work out,
he will lament, and he will say,
Good grief.
And we all know what it's expressing.
It's all, you know, he's expressing kind of like disappointment in his circumstances.
But then when you look about, when you actually think about those two words, good grief,
you're like, what?
This is like a contradiction in terms.
It's an oxymoron.
What grief is good?
When we think about grief or mourning,
we're thinking about a deep sadness over the loss of something good.
Whether it's a job,
or your health,
or the strain of a relationship,
or even the death of a loved one.
When we think about mourning,
we're thinking about the loss,
sadness over the loss of something good.
Last week, we started this series in the Beatitudes,
just to remind ourselves what it means to be a kingdom citizen living here in the fall of 2024.
And last week, I walked you through the Beatitudes,
and one of the points I made is that all eight of these Beatitudes,
they are, it's like a kingdom profile.
It's a character profile of someone who has been brought into the kingdom of heaven,
into the kingdom of the beloved son.
So all eight,
we're to take as,
to mark each of us,
every Christian,
is to be marked by these character traits.
And today, we're looking at the character trait of mourning.
Blessed are those who mourn.
This mourning is a godly grief.
This mourning that Jesus is talking about is lamenting over sin.
Sin against God.
When you're spiritually bankrupt,
when you are poor in spirit,
you will grieve sin.
Citizens of the kingdom,
they grieve what grieves God.
We have a whole new value system.
Now, I don't know if you realized this when you became a Christian.
But when you became a Christian,
you opened yourself up to a whole new kind of grief.
A godly grief over sin.
Sin against God.
Because your whole life has shifted
from orbiting yourself
to orbiting the living God.
So this morning,
as we look at this beatitude,
we're going to see two parts of it.
Our good grief,
blessed are those who mourn,
and God's promised comfort,
for they shall be comforted.
The question before us this morning is,
not if you mourn.
We all mourn.
We all grieve.
We're living in a sin-riddled world.
The question is,
do you grieve what grieves God?
And is there anything in you today
that is grieving,
offending the living God?
Charlie Brown.
Turns out there is a good grief.
It's called godly grief.
And let's look at it.
Blessed are those who mourn.
That word blessed
shows up a number of times
in the Beatitudes,
nine times all the way through verse 11.
And it's Jesus announcing blessing
on all those people
who are demonstrating
these character traits
because they have been delivered
from the domain of darkness
and transferred into his kingdom,
the kingdom of the beloved son.
These are people who have received
God's transforming grace
and have been moved
under the saving reign of Jesus.
Jesus.
These are graced people.
These blessings.
This is God's goodness
to these people
who have received
the new covenant blessing
of being in Christ.
And so what I want you to help you understand
is when we read
blessed are those who mourn,
this mourner
in chapter 5 verse 4
is a kingdom citizen.
They are grieved
over what grieves God.
And what I want to try
to convince you of this morning
is this.
For you, Christian,
that's normal.
It's normal
for kingdom citizens
to grieve that which grieves God.
It's normal.
So these blessed ones
are those who've been graced by God,
who've been brought into his kingdom,
who share God's heart,
particularly when it comes to sin.
Sin in them
and sin outside of them.
So what kind of mourning
is this exactly?
What are we talking about here?
Well, last week we saw
blessed are the poor in spirit
and that poor in spirit,
you're poor in spirit
in relationship to God.
And it carries down
into verse 4.
That we are mourning something,
we're grieving something,
we're lamenting something
in relationship to God.
This is a godly sorrow
over sin.
That word sin
tends to take a bum rap
in our culture today.
Dismissive.
Biblically speaking,
it means missing the mark.
Imagine
an Olympic archer
pulling back the string,
releasing an arrow
at the target,
and that arrow
just missing the bullseye
by two centimeters.
That's missing the mark.
If they miss the mark
by two feet,
it's missing the mark.
What sin is,
is missing the mark
of God's character
in His command.
It's not believing Him
or obeying Him.
And biblically speaking,
everyone sins.
For all have sinned
and fall short
of the glory of God.
For all have missed the mark
and come up short
of God's perfection.
Sin is a human problem.
And I just want to remind you
when talking about sin,
that sin,
just one,
will condemn you
to an eternal punishment
apart from God.
Because when we sin,
we sin against
an eternal,
holy,
and just God.
for the wages of sin
is death,
eternal death,
God's wrath
for eternity.
Sin is serious business
in God's sight.
I want to ask you
just to evaluate yourself.
have you recently
given thought
to how offensive
and grievous
your sin is to God?
Let me point to a couple things
that will help that.
Think about sin's punishment,
which I just referenced.
in John 3, 36,
we read this,
whoever believes in the Son
has eternal life,
whoever does not obey the Son
shall not see life,
but the wrath of God
remains on him.
When you think about
the punishment of sin
being God's eternal,
just,
tormenting wrath,
it should make you think
sin is serious business
in God's sight.
But,
and then when you think
of sin's solution
that God provided,
John 3, 16,
for God so loved the world
that he gave his only Son
that whoever believes in him
shall not experience
the eternal wrath of God,
but have eternal life.
When you think
that what God did
in order to rescue sinners
from their sin against him,
that he became a man,
that he lived a perfect life,
that he died on the cross
and bore God's wrath
for all of our sin,
for anyone who would believe,
so that there's no more wrath.
And then he was raised
from the dead.
What is this
that God would do
such a thing for sinners?
It's getting at
the seriousness of sin.
Let me try to push this home
a little bit more.
Imagine with me.
Do you know right now
on the seventh floor
of the Museum of Modern Art
in New York City,
there is Van Gogh's
Starry Night?
Do you know what I'm talking about?
Do you know what the painting
I'm talking about?
It's a masterpiece
worth millions.
Let's say that
the Museum of Modern Art
calls up the Salvati's
and they're like,
hey, Mike and Jenny,
do you want to hang Starry Night
in your living room
for a little bit?
And we're like,
yeah, sure, okay, yeah.
So they bring it on,
we hang it in our living room
and then I invite everybody
from our church
to come take a look
at Starry Night.
So you come over
on a Saturday morning,
but you stop off
at Oliver's
on your way here
to our house
and you pick up
your favorite jelly donut
with raspberry jelly.
You walk into our house,
you walk up to Starry Night
with your donut in hand,
you're like,
hmm, yes, yes, yes,
it's just speaking to me,
yes, yes, yes.
You take a bite
of your donut
and it squirts
raspberry jelly
all over Starry Night.
You're like, oops.
You kind of sneak your way
into the kitchen,
you grab some paper towels,
you come back to Starry Night
and you proceed
to wipe your raspberry jelly
all into Starry Night.
Everybody in the room
who knows Starry Night's value,
it's a masterpiece,
they are mourning
and grieving, right?
Because you've just
utterly defaced
something of incredible
worth and beauty.
What makes that act
so grievous
is not your jelly.
It's the work of art.
When we sin against God,
our little jelly squirts,
we're sinning
against the most glorious,
treasured being
in all of creation.
Listen.
Brothers and sisters,
our problem is not
that we take sin
too seriously.
We don't take it
seriously enough.
And that has everything
to do
with how we think
about God.
We have a man-centered
view of God,
of our sin,
a man-centered view
of our sin.
And what we need
is a God-centered view.
He's the masterpiece,
the treasure
above all else.
And when we see
our sin against Him,
we will grieve.
We will mourn.
Because we're gaining
His heart.
We need a God-centered
view of our sin.
One of my favorite
preachers and writers
is John Piper.
And he gave a talk
called,
What is Sin?
Listen to what he wrote.
My definition of sinning
is,
sinning is any feeling
or thought
or speech
or action
that comes from
a heart
that does not
treasure God
over all things.
In the bottom of sin,
the root of all sinning
is such a heart,
a heart that prefers
anything above God.
A heart that does not
treasure God
over all persons
and all other things.
What is sin?
Sin is,
follow this,
the glory of God
not honored,
the holiness of God
not reverenced,
the greatness of God
not admired,
the power of God
not praised,
the truth of God
not sought,
the wisdom of God
not esteemed,
the beauty of God
not treasured,
the goodness of God
not savored,
the faithfulness of God
not trusted,
the promises of God
not believed,
the commandments of God
not obeyed,
the justice of God
not respected,
the wrath of God
not feared,
the grace of God
not cherished,
the presence of God
not prized,
the person of God
not loved.
what John Piper does for us
is he helps us think about our sin
against God, the center of all things.
This is a biblical view of our sin.
A God-centered view of our sin.
But what about sin in you?
If you're a Christian in the room,
according to Galatians 5, 16 and 17,
when you were converted,
things got interesting.
Because now you have a conflict of interest
within yourself.
You have your flesh,
the desires of your flesh,
wanting to do sinful things,
and you've got the Holy Spirit of God living in you,
the desires of the Spirit,
wanting to form,
he wants to form in you
good God-glorifying things.
And so there's this conflict within us
did you know, Christian,
that you are simultaneously justified and sinful
at the same time?
Declared righteous in God's sight,
and yet we have a sinful nature?
You know what the question becomes?
Here's the question.
Do you have a godly sorrow
over the pride in you presently?
Over the lust in you?
Over the greed in you?
The gossip?
The hate?
The lack of self-control?
The question becomes,
how does God see these things in you?
How does he feel about these things in you?
Ephesians 4.30 says,
do not grieve the Holy Spirit
who has sealed you for the day of redemption.
Do not grieve him by sinning.
I don't know what's happening in you right now
hearing this.
I hope it goes something like this.
God, would you help me
to see and feel
about my sin in me
the way that you see and feel
about the sin in me?
Would you show me?
Would you grieve me?
Would you burden me?
Would you help me to see
my utter bankruptcy in your sight
so that I can mourn it?
When God lovingly convicts
his sons or daughters of their sins,
you can say,
I am a blessed child of God.
You know why?
Because God,
your heavenly loving Father,
is at work in you
so that you can share
in his blessed holiness.
It is a good thing
that you grieve your sin.
It's a good thing.
And if you're new
to the Christian faith,
I want to help you
set your expectations right.
Because as you grow
as a Christian,
you don't grieve less.
You grieve more.
because you start seeing
the utter effect of sin
in your life.
And as you get to know
your God more and more,
you start realizing,
oh, this sin in me
must be grievous in his sight.
He's so holy and good and just.
And so the reasoning goes,
Christian,
if you're maturing in Christ,
you're not going to be
less grievous of your sin.
You're going to be more
as you become more and more holy.
But what happens
if you don't grieve your sin?
What happens if you don't care?
Well, that probably means
you're not a kingdom.
You're not in the kingdom of Jesus.
And what you need to hear
is that you need to cry out to God
and say, oh God,
would you burden me?
Help me to see my sin.
Take it seriously as you see it
so I can run to Jesus.
Or maybe you are a Christian
not taking their sin seriously.
We've seen that.
We saw that in the book of Judges.
God's people being canonized,
becoming like the world.
When you become like the world,
you're not going to grieve
what grieves God.
You're going to do
what's right in your own eyes.
You're not going to seek
to do what is right
in God's eyes.
And so if you're a Christian
in the room
and you're like,
man, I'm not grieved.
Well, is it because
you've just been canonized?
And that's something
to repent of.
God, forgive me
for living according
to the world's values,
not yours.
Brothers and sisters,
this is our good grief
of being a kingdom citizen.
We're sharing in God's heart
towards sin in us
and outside of us.
This is normal,
brothers and sisters.
This is normal
for those in the kingdom.
But I want to move now
from our good grief
to God's comforting promise.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for theirs is the kingdom.
Oops, for theirs,
for they shall be comforted.
Amen.
Time out.
I forgot something.
And it's important.
Before we move on
to the promised comfort,
which I think a lot of you
want to move on to right now,
I need you to help you
think about something.
I want to introduce you
to the idea of lament.
C.S. Lewis
has written
a commentary on the Psalms.
I was given this
by a friend this past week.
And C.S. Lewis writes,
I think we delight to praise
what we enjoy
because the praise
not merely expresses
but completes the enjoyment.
It is its appointed
consummation.
So when we in the congregation
are gathered
and we're dwelling upon
these glorious truths of God,
we're just delighting it,
we're enjoying it,
that it's not complete
until we sing
his praises together.
Then it's complete.
You see my point?
See what he's writing?
Applied to mourning
of sin.
Applied to
godly grief.
The appointed
consummation
of godly grief
when you're seeing
sin in you
or outside of you
is what the Bible
calls lament.
It brings closure.
It brings expression.
And it's always
in the minor key.
It's not always
fun to sing.
It's not always
fun to speak
because it's a sadness.
In your Bibles
there are different
kinds of laments.
There's personal lament.
Psalm 13.
Psalm 51.
When
David sins
adultery
with Bathsheba
then kills
her husband Uriah
to cover it up.
He writes
Psalm 51
and in verse 4
he says
in this lament
to God
against you
God
and you alone
have I sinned.
That's a God
centered view
of his sin
operating.
And that's
a personal lament.
And so personal lament
is giving expression
to godly grief.
It contains confession.
But you're expressing
your sorrow
over your grief
for what you've done
in God's eyes.
Not only is there
personal lament
there is corporate lament.
And just as a
point of reference
would you just write
if you're taking notes
Ezra chapter 9
and 10.
Take a look at that.
God's people
are intermarrying
Ezra
one of the leaders
of God's people
he actually
prays a prayer
of lament
not for his sin
but for the people's sin
and then the people
join in
in chapter 10
and there's all this
weeping going on
do you know
what that means?
It's corporate
lament
for their sin.
And then there's
the Jesus lament.
in Luke 19
Jesus has just
entered Jerusalem
and we read this
and when he drew near
and saw the city
he wept over it
saying
would that you
even you
had known on this day
the things that make
for peace
but now they are
hidden from your eyes
the things that make
for peace
Jesus was referring
to himself
they didn't recognize him
for the days
will come upon you
when your enemies
will set up a barricade
around you
and surround you
and hem you in
on every side
and tear you down
to the ground
you and your children
within you
and they will not
leave one stone
upon another
in you
because you did not
know the time
of your visitation
Jesus is lamenting
over Jerusalem
that he has come
and they don't
recognize him
and now salvation
is going to pass them by
and judgment's
going to come.
Jesus weeps
and pronounces this
lament
how many
don't show your hands
but how many
in this room
have friends
and family
we love
that at present
have rejected
Jesus
they have not seen
the time of his
visitation as of yet
and so God's wrath
hangs over them
my friends
don't hate them
grieve them
grieve
what is happening
there's another
lament
in Psalm 119
136
where the
psalmist says
I cry
streams
of tears
because
this people
does not
obey your
commandments
so brothers
and sisters
when we
become aware
of the murdering
of image bearers
in the womb
and we
know
the command
thou shall not
murder
we grieve
that
because it grieves
God
when we see
men marrying
men
and women
marrying women
we grieve
that
because that's
not God's
design
one man
one woman
for life
under God
when we
see the
confusion
of biological
men
thinking that
they're women
and biological
women thinking
confused that
they're men
that's not
God's will
and design
we grieve
that confusion
and chaos
and cry out
to God
when a hurricane
like Helena
rips through
our nation
when tornadoes
and floods
and forest fires
wreak havoc
and bring death
and we see
sin's
distorting effect
on God's
created order
we grieve
that
it's not the way
it's supposed to be
God's sovereign
over all these
things
we lament
it
oh God
have mercy
Thomas Watson
Puritan
said this
till sin
be bitter
Christ
will not
be
sweet
and the way
that you learn
to grieve
your sin
is to grieve
it in light
of who
God
is
and you learn
to lament
you learn
to lament
now to the
promised comfort
we fly
blessed are those
who mourn
what a glorious
promise
for they shall
be comforted
glorious promise
when you
are grieving
your sin
when you
are grieving
the sins
of those
around you
the sins
of our culture
the sin
affected
created order
when we're
grieving
these things
take heart
be comforted
there's a promise
promise
says
don't you want
to know
this is a
comfort from
God
brothers and
sisters
in our
grieving
when we
grieve
what God
grieves
we are
comforted
by God's
promise
and I
hope you
see in
this
passage
in verse
4
for they
shall be
comforted
is a
future
promise
let me
aim you
at this
future
promise
in
Revelation
chapter
21
Zach
made
reference
it
this past
week
in the
word of
encouragement
let me
read it
to you
be
encouraged
grievous
ones
mourners
of the
kingdom
be
encouraged
then I
saw a
new heaven
and a
new earth
for the
first heaven
and the
first earth
had passed
away and
the sea
was no
more
and I
saw the
holy city
new
Jerusalem
coming down
out of
heaven
from God
prepared
as a
bride
adorned
for her
husband
and I
heard a
loud voice
from the
throne
saying
what are
you
saying
what's
going to
be
said
behold
the
dwelling
place of
God
is with
man
he
will
dwell
with
them
and they
will be
his
people
and God
himself
will be
with them
as their
God
he
will wipe
every tear
from their
eyes
and death
shall be
no more
neither
there shall
be
mourning
nor crying
nor pain
anymore
for the
former things
have passed
away
we have
a promise
of a new
heavens
and a new
earth
and with
the new
heavens
and the new
earth
comes a
new
reality
there's no
more mourning
no more
crying
no more
pain
do you
know why
there's
no more
sin
not even
in you
you'll have
a new
resurrected
body
none of
that
no more
but that's
not the
best part
it's like
the gospel
the goodness
of the gospel
is God
look who
it is
it's God
himself
wiping away
the tears
from your
face
it's his
presence
when faith
turns to
sight
we see
him
face
to face
we will
be in
his
presence
we will
hear his
audible
voice
we will
smell
him
and be
with him
are you
mourning
sin
oh
be comforted
by that
promise
we're one
day closer
my friends
do you know
what that's
called
that's
called
hope
is this
forward
looking
faith
in the
future
fulfillment
of God's
promise
that's
hope
and when
we are
grieving
our sin
against
God
we need
that kind
of hope
and he
gives it
that's a
comfort from
God
that's a
future
promise
friends
that's the
text
let me give
you a
present
promise
Jesus
at the
end of
the
great
commission
says
go make
disciples
and he
closes it
with a
promise
he says
lo I am
with you
always
even to
the end
of the
age
so not
only is
God's
promised
future
his
presence
God's
promise
now
is his
presence
and he
manifests
his presence
to us
right now
not
physically
you don't
smell him
you don't
hear him
audibly
you're not
feeling he's
kind of hand
wiping away
your tears
he's manifested
in us
by his
Holy Spirit
but there's
more
if right
now
you are
overwhelmed
by your
own
sinfulness
Christian
you're like
I have
not been
wanting
to look
at this
sin trash
in me
because I
don't want
to deal
with it
and I
certainly
don't want
to go
to God
with it
if that's
you
oh I've
got a
promise
for you
God's
word
has a
promise
for you
it's
the promise
of justification
it's
this
promise
that if
you put
your faith
in Jesus
Christ
you have
peace
with God
because he's
declared you
righteous in his
sight
all of
your sin
has been
forgiven
because all
of God's
wrath has
been poured
out on
your sin
so that
there's no
more wrath
there's
therefore
now no
condemnation
no more
wrath for
those who
are in
Christ
Jesus
and not
just that
you have
been imputed
with the
righteousness
of Christ
you stand
before
God
righteous in
his sight
with Christ's
righteousness
and so
you have
hope
that you
can stand
before the
judge
without being
condemned
because of
the finished
work of
Jesus
he's
declared
you
righteous
in his
sight
receive that
promise
live in that
promise
it doesn't
mean you
don't own
your sin
it means you
freely go to
the throne
of grace
with your
sin
what's being
promised
in Matthew
5
4
is the
future
presence
of our
Lord Jesus
in a new
heavens
in a new
earth
when there's
no more
sin
but there's
also the
present
presence
present
promise
he's with
us
our sins
are not
over our
heads
anymore
but there's
coming a
day my
friends
when there's
no more
hurricane
helenas
there's no
more contentious
presidential
elections
there's no
more abortions
there's no
more sexual
sins
there's no
more identity
chaos
there's no
more threat
from creation
itself
because it's
all been
completely
done
with
so now
we
we lament
with
hope
secure
in these
promises
when we
take sin
seriously
because God
takes sin
seriously
we lament
we give
voice to
that
by lamenting
it
but we
also
stand
upon
these
promises
our
good
grief
blessed
are those
who
mourn
God's
promise
comfort
for they
shall be
comforted
as a
Christian
as a
citizen
of Christ's
kingdom
living in
the sin
riddled
world
you will
mourn
the devastation
and offense
of sin
as you
get to
know your
God
and as
you see
your sin
more
accurately
but you
will do
so with
hope
in God's
promises
and be
blessed
he's wiped
away the
penalty of
your sin
and he
will wipe
away every
tear
from your
eye
blessed
are those
who mourn
for they
will be
comforted
this is
no
Charlie Brown
good grief
this is
the grief
the blessed
grief
of a
citizen
of the
kingdom
God in
heaven
Father God
we come
to you
now
and we
come to
you
with honest
hearts
we come
to you
acknowledging
the sin
at work
in us
still
we all
have sinful
natures
still
we grieve
our pride
we grieve
our lust
we grieve
our words
that we
speak
in anger
we grieve
these things
God
we grieve
the way
that instead
of loving
one another
we hate
each other
how we
avoid
each other
we grieve
these things
God
we grieve
the American
church
and how
the American
church
takes you
so lightly
how we
are
infrequently
considering
the glory
of your
name
how we
belittle
you
and how
casual
we are
when it
comes to
you
God
we grieve
this
we
grieve
along the
lines of
Isaiah 520
our culture
which is
calling evil
good and
good evil
we grieve
that
we
we grieve
those who
put darkness
for light
and light
for darkness
who put bitter
for sweet
and sweet
for bitter
oh God
we grieve
this in our
culture
we grieve
this in our
city
we grieve
over the
children who
are traumatized
in the
neighborhoods
around this
building
who are
growing up
in contexts
that are
just so
difficult
we grieve
these things
God
and we
call upon
you to
bring about
a gospel
change
in us
in the
American
church
in the
neighborhoods
surrounding
this building
the people
in our
lives
oh God
would you
use us
to bring
hope
God
we
acknowledge
this
promise
of yours
of a
future
comfort
God
would you
press that
in deep
into our
hearts
we
God
take great
hope
in knowing
Lord Jesus
you are
with us
that we
are justified
would you
press these
things deep
within our
hearts
as we
see our
own
sin
God
we
are
your
mourners
and we
are so
thankful
for your
comfort
and we
pray this
all in
Jesus name
Amen