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Blessed Are Series, Part 2: They That Mourn
October 08, 2006
This sermon was presented before the Load, Kentucky, church of Christ, on October 08, 2006. God comforts those who mourn. Christians mourn sin, and those who are caught in that deceitful web. We rejoice in the hope of eternal salvation. Bernie Parsons
Blessed Are They That Mourn
By Bernie Parsons
Presented to the Load, KY, church of Christ on 10-08-2006
Matthew 5:1: “And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:
2: And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,
3: Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4: Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
5: Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
6: Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
7: Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
8: Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
9: Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
10: Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
During our last sermon, we looked at the topic of “Blessed Are They Poor In Spirit”. Today we consider the next statement, “Blessed Are They That Mourn”.
There are different kinds of mourning. However, in the context, these sayings are couched in the spiritual sense. Therefore, we must ask ourselves as to what is being mourned that brings a blessing from God?
In our last study, we recognized that God desires and rewards a broken heart and a crushed spirit. That is, only when a person is completely submissive to God is that person truly prepared to receive the sayings and wisdom of God.
Joel 2:12: “Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:
13: And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.”
Psalms 51:6: “Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
7: Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8: Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
9: Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
10: Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
11: Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
12: Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
13: Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.”
We know that mourning, by its definition, denotes sadness. Once a person realizes that he or she cannot determine the way of righteousness on their own, only then are they able to accept the direction that God has plotted for them.
Isaiah 55:6: “Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
7: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
9: For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Once the soil of the heart has been prepared to receive the word of God as a seed of righteousness, a realization sets in about the state of the world. The broken of heart and crushed of spirit realize that mankind, in the majority, is living a life of open rebellion against its Creator. With this knowledge comes a particular sadness regarding the state of mankind. Man has lost his way, and needs a Deliverer to show the right way.
What is even sadder is the knowledge that most will likely never see the error of their chaotic, sin-driven lives.
Matthew 7:13: “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:”
The humble servant of God is horrified by the uncaring plunge toward destruction of the unguided sinner. The righteous mourn this misguided venture. In this light, we better understand the meaning of “Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted”.
The word blessed here in these passages is derived from a Greek word that is often interpreted as merely meaning happy. Astute Bible scholars render the meaning as something like, “Awake to righteousness”, or “Get on the path of righteousness”, or some form thereof. In other words, you are happy if you submit to God’s will. If you are on the path to righteousness, then there is peace and joy in your situation. The happiness comes from walking in God’s ways.
This explains the mourning, as I mentioned previously. Once you are walking in God’s ways, you are saddened, or mournful, for the state of those who are lost. Yet, you are comforted with the knowledge that you are in the right way, on the right path.
Malachi 3:13: “Your words have been stout against me, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee?
14: Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?
15: And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.
16: Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.
17: And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
18: Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.”
James captures the essence of what I am talking about in the following passage:
James 4:6: “But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
7: Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8: Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
9: Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
10: Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.”
Sin follows pride, as surely as night follows day. The righteous have no business glorying in the works of darkness. We are not to glory in the things of this world, or the things that we can accomplish here.
1 Corinthians 3:21: “Therefore let no man glory in men.”
2 Corinthians 10:17: “But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”
Rather, our comfort and joy is derived from God lifting us up, after we have humbled ourselves before, accepting His ways, and walking in them.
Sin is to be mourned.
1 Corinthians 5:1: “It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife.
2: And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.”
Apostle Paul mourned for his Jewish brethren who had not believed in Christ.
Romans 9:1: “I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,
2: That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
3: For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:
4: Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;”
Romans 9:31: “But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.
32: Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone;”
Besides mourning our past sins, and the present sins of the world, we also mourn the difficult life that many of us face.
John 16:19: “Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, Do ye enquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me?
20: Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.
21: A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.
22: And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.”
We mourn for lost sinners, and we mourn for family members who die before we do.
1 Thessalonians 4:13: “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
14: For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
15: For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
16: For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
17: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
18: Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”
Our sorrow is turned to joy in the Lord.
2 Corinthians 6:10: “As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.”
1 Peter 1:6: “Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
7: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
8: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
9: Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.”
We mourn for the world of sinners, yet we can realize personal salvation. We mourn for loved ones who have gone on before us, but if they are righteous, we have the hope of seeing them again. We mourn for the hard life that we live here in this world, but rejoice at the hope of salvation and eternal life in God’s beautiful, heavenly world.
Jeremiah 31:10: “Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.
11: For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.
12: Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.
13: Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together: for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.
14: And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the LORD.
15: Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.
16: Thus saith the LORD; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.
17: And there is hope in thine end, saith the LORD, that thy children shall come again to their own border.
18: I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the LORD my God.”
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. As the Hebrew writer says:
Hebrews 4:9: “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.”
