Mathew 5:1-12 vs.4 - Title: Blessed Are They That Mourn

[Guest]

The following was written from notes that I took on Steve's intro lecture to the Beatitudes. Again, I hope that I did not butcher Steve's teaching, and that others will find this as usefull as I did in my own life. Feel free to use this in anyway you want. Also any comments or corrects would be welcome as well. I think this outline is a bit better than others, but still not the easiest to follow.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Blessed Are They That Mourn
Date: 2006-11-19 pm (Part 1), 2006-11-26pm (Part 2)
Text: Mathew 5:1-12 vs.4 (Luke 6:21, 25)

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.
11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

My text is verse 4.
Mat. 5:4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

(Part 1)

Intro:
Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch draughtsman and painter, classified as a Post-Impressionist. His paintings and drawings include some of the world's best known, most popular and most expensive pieces. His fame grew steadily after his first exhibit in 1880, and has continued well beyond his death. He painted many masterpieces, including the portrait known as, "On the Threshold of Eternity" in 1890. This portrait is of a man sitting in front of a fireplace, so overtaken with depression, he can't even hold his head up. He sits in a chair, hunched over, and holding his head in his clenched fists. Unfortunately this portrait reflects much of Van Gogh own life.

He was born in 1853, to a Dutch reformed minister and his wife. At a very young age, his artistic talent became known, and by the time he was twenty, he was making more than his father, with his art work. But he soon lost his job, but began to grow in religious fervor. So much so that for a short time became an assistant to a Methodist minister in England. He began studying theology under his Uncle, but when he failed at his studies, he abandoned them. He returned to live with his parents for a short time, but after a quarrel with his father he left agian. Soon after he began to dabble in immorality, but abandoned it, probably due the pressure of his religious family. Driven by loneliness, he moved back to his parents for sometime. Through the rest of his life, he lived very sparsely, and mostly on the generosity of his brother Theo. He spent most of the rest of his life in and out of clinics or in the care of a Physician, due to depression that many contribute to his lack of recognition in his own genius as a painter. Van Gogh's depression began deepening and on July 27th 1890, not long after painting "On the Threshold of Eternity", he walked into a field and shot himself with a revolver in the chest. He didn't realize that he was fatally wounded, so he walked back to the Inn where died 2 days later. His devoted brother quickly rushed to his side and reported that his last words were "(the) sadness will last forever". (Note 3 & 4)


Throughout this talk, I'm going to be mentioning the Church. I want you to realize that I'm talking about the church at large, but we should also keep in mind our own little Church. A I've studied this passage of Scripture, the Holy Spirit has been teaching me, and helping me, as Peter put it I Peter 3:18, to "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." I want to share with you some of what He's been teaching me, praying that it will benefit you as much as has me.

As always I would also encourage you to not take what I or anyone else says as the final authority, but "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." (2 Timothy 2:15) I'm sure that someone will disagree with some or all that I'm about to say, but that's fine, we are all at different parts of our Christian walk, and have many things to learn. I've thought about many of these things for quite some time, and I can say that I don't have all the answers, but I do believe that as Paul put it, that the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth, if we will allow him

Lets jump right into the second of the beatitudes.

There are some slight differences in the accounts in Matthew and Luke. Luke's wording is slightly different, and may or may not be a parallel of that in Matthew. Likewise the reward is slightly different, laughing for those that mourn. For the most part we are going to be focusing on Matthew.

For a bit of review, or preface, for those who may not have been here for some of the previous times I've spoken on the Beatitudes. Blessed most often said to have the meaning of happy. It's not the only meaning, and doesn't exhaust the meaning of this word in the Greek. But generally speaking, if you look in a Greek-English dictionary or lexicon, you will find the English word that is usualy used to translate this word is happy.

Just like the first beatitude, "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.", we have what looks like another contradictory statement by Jesus. Normally people weep or mourn because they are sad, not because they are happy. I'm sure that some of you have experience the mix-up of emotions where you don't know if you should cry or laugh when you are happy. What about the sadness in the life of Vincent van Gogh? I'm not sure that any of these seem to be what Jesus was referring to, when he said "Blessed are they that mourn."


--------------------------- Optional---------------------------
In Luke we can see that it emphasis that it is those that weep now, as opposed to what will happen latter. You are happy because that though you are weeping now, you will laugh at a latter time. You can take comfort in the fact that the weeping is temporarily. Psalm 30:5 "For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." Jesus is promising that those that weep now will rejoice, or as Mathew put it, he speaks specifically of being comforted.
--------------------------- End Optional---------------------------


I. Mourning in the Modern Church
A. Mourning, Depression, and responsibility.
Mourning doesn't seem be one of the more fashionable of Christian traits in the modern church. Being sad is something that people avoid at all costs. In fact if they find that happiness is too elusive, they will go to a psychiatrist and get an antidepressant drug. People like to be happy, and in our society people seem to think that the have some inailiable right to be happy. We are told that depression is a milady or illness that affects a great number of people. Some statistics say that in excess of 26% (note 2) of people in the America suffer from occasional depression. This would mean that this is a great crisis. Depression is hard to define, and I'm not sure that I always know what it means, and sometimes it seems like the psychiatrist don't know either. If someone is so unhappy that they can't function, such that they can't get out of bed or go to work, then that is considered to be a mental health problem. I would like for us to consider that in some, but not all cases, it may well be a spiritual problem. This is a hopeful diagnosis. A spiritual problem can be remedied.


--------------------------- Optional---------------------------
When you tell someone that their Anxiety and bouts with depression have spiritual roots and that they don't need chemical solutions, usually people will say that you are being heartless, insensitive and unsympathetic. But it is actually good news to find out that unhappiness may have a spiritual root, rather than a chemical, biological, or genetic root. Psychiatrist are always trying to prove that it has one of those, but which they have not successfully shown, all though they affirm that it does have one of these roots in many cases. If you do have a genetic, or biological problem that causes you to be down and depressed all the time, then you are essentially hopeless. You can only manage your problem, but you can't really cure it. You can use drugs, and they drugs are uppers, called anti-depressants, with side effects that often damage your health. They sometimes have paradoxical effects as well, where an anti-depressants make people more depressed, and people have even committed suicide on anti-depressants. I'm pretty sure that this isn't God's solution to the problem. Certainly God has a better solution than that, for sadness and depression.

If we say that that their sadness is due to a spiritual problem, that is a hopeful diagnoses. A spiritual problem can be remedied. You are not just stuck with some genetic predisposition of depression. Yet many people don't want to hear that their problem is a spiritual problem that we are dealing with. Why don't people want to hear this? Its because it requires them to take responsibility for their situation. If I'm not functioning well in life, emotionally or otherwise as long as I can convince myself that it is a problem that God built into me, or wired into me, what is a genetic or biological thing, then obviously I can not be held responsible. If the problem is spiritual, then the solution lies in our lap. If we don't obtain a solution, we can't blame anyone but ourselves.

I have only studied this a little, but it is very interesting to look at the way the studies of depression are conducted. The appear to be less than scientific in many ways, and are not as impressive as one would expect. There are some that say that general sadness can be address as a spiritual need, but when you start talking about clinical depression, that's a different story, b ecause it is a medical issue. That is really begging the question, or assuming what is being explored. Is it really a medical problem? It is hard to say, but what we do know is that there are states of bio-chemistry, for example hormonal states, that do cause mood changes. The question is weather or not this is a mental health problem.

Lets look at some ways that depression can be triggered. For example, if we react wrongly to the following list of triggers, we can encourage a state of depression.
- A significant loss
- rejection from someone that matters
- extended joblessness
- extended health problems

Any one of these things can trigger depression, but it isn't necessarily the only response. It could probably be said that those who don't know Christ, are less aware of what to do, about what do to with these things, than the unbelievers of generation or two ago. For example in during the "Great Depression", there was a great trigger for depression, and many of the people that went through it, didn't get half as depressed as half of our current population is because they are prospering. I sure is a strange generation that we have. The judgment of some is that we are a strange anemic, weak, flabby, generation.

It seems strange how a genetic disease of depression has arisen, which never existed before in the world. People in the past had to just learn to cope with problems. They had to learn to get out of bed when they didn't feel like it. It isn't uncommon for people in the work place to call in sick and not to come in, because their dog died. They just couldn't motivate themselves or function, they were having a bad day.

This isn't the kind of sorrow that is blessed. Not all sorrow is blessed. If you are mourning because you are feeling sorrow for yourself, or you have suffered some loss that you would have preferred not to have suffered, join the human race. Going into a spiral of depression, to the point where you can't pull yourself out without chemicals seems a bit unnecessary and inexcusable. There are probably people in a group of any size that are taking medication for depression. The point of this is not to say things that are mean, or hurtful, but to say things that are helpful, and Biblically based.

Why should we believe these things, when a PHD in psychology and psychiatry say that these drugs are necessary? More than likely you can find just as many PhDs in psychology or psychiatry that say you don't need the drugs. How can this be science, when every expert can come up with a different opinion? It isn't much like real science where all the experts do the same experiments and get the same results and have the same opinion.

I just read an article on a study of different depression drugs (2) and it indicated that some people went through as many as 4 different drugs, before they found one that worked. On top of that, the more drugs they tried, the higher percentage of likelihood they had of relapsing. I sure would want to find a more hopeful solution than that.

The point here is not to argue about this, but to point out that our society has decided that depression and sadness are intolerable. So much so that if I'm suffering great sadness, that I need to stay home and sleep it off, and I can't function. In fact, no one should expect me to function when I'm feeling this low, and maybe I need some drugs, like Valium.

Consider these things about people even when they were feeling very low or depressed:
- Sorrow is a part of life
- Human beings since the time of the fall have
-- had do their ordinary work
-- had to raise their families
-- had to be congenial
-- had to be mature and adults
--------------------------- End Optional---------------------------

The Bible indicates that we have resources that are not available outside of God. We have resources to make sorrow not only tolerable, but constructive. Jesus' statement was, "Blessed are They That Mourn". So certainly Sorrow isn't the ultimate disaster. It seems that being sad, can be extremely right headed, and can be extremely helpful. A person that will not be sad, when there is much to be sad about, is really out of touch with reality and is probably incapable of growing spiritually in the ways that God has for us to grow. God does not have in mind for use to waste our sorrows. He wants us to exploit our sorrows for spiritual progress.


B. The Sad Religion
There has been in the minds of some that Christianity is a morose religion, that Christians never have any fun. It's unlikely that this opinion of Christians arose in the modern church, since it seems to be obsessed with nothing else but having fun. But a generation or two ago, and for some time, probably the Victorian trappings that still remained in many people's the perception of the church, but weren't really there. Many people outside the church thought that Christianity teaches a sad, never smile, never enjoy life, spoil sport, never have any fun, kind of life. One that obviously wouldn't attract very many people.

C. The Overzealous Reaction
In reaction to this idea that misery is next to Godliness attitude that some that imagine is Christianity, that there is an overreaction on the part of many modern Christians to show the world that Christianity isn't all about miserable, that Christianity isn't sadness. To show that you can that you can have fun as a Christian.

There was a popular Television evangelist in the 70's that had as one of the trade marks of his ministry, the saying that "It's fun to be saved." He had a lot of fun, he actually ran off from his wife with another woman, if can call that having fun. He may have thought he knew to have fun, but weather or not he was saved is another question.

There are people that want to get out the message that it's fun to follow Jesus. Interestingly enough, the Bible doesn't even have the word fun in it. It doesn't say that fun is wrong, nor does it say that fun is right. Fun really seems to be a non-issue in the Bible, yet it seems to be the ultimate issue in our modern culture. The modern culture spends millions upon millions of dollars on fun and entertainment, and the modern American Church is being sucked right along.

This is probably why the modern church doesn't know much about the blessedness about of which Jesus spoke, the blessedness of mourning. Its an unfashionable Christian trait today. There seems to be a desire to attract the unbeliever through entertainment, humor, joviality, shallowness, and superficiality, by the modern Christian church. The attitude of some churches, is that going to church should be just as fun as it is to go to a concert, or a drama, or wherever you go for fun. Its not that there is anything wrong with these activities, but Christianity is more than fun. Unfortunately, these churches have adopted this philosophy of wining the unbeliever by showing that church can be entertaining and fun. They defend a superficiality and joviality that offends none and is suppose to attract everyone.

D. Joy of the Lord
People often use the scriptures about the Joy of the Lord as their defense of this philosophy. They point out that Joy is one of the fruits of the Spirit, and that Jesus said that he gave his joy unto his disciples (my joy I give unto you, I say these things that my joy might be in you). Joy is a Biblical concept, but it is a mistake to fuse joy with fun or levity.

I'm not trying to be spoil sport, because I suppose that I have as much fun as anyone else, depending on what you mean by fun. If you mean enjoyment, or enjoying life. I'm sure that there are some that enjoy life more than I do, but I really do enjoy my life. I'm not saying that everything is perfect, and that I wouldn't mind if some things a bit different, but I try not to let these things become the center of my life, and destroy the enjoyment of the life that God has given to me.
1. I enjoy my family.
2. I enjoy what I do.
3. I enjoy Jesus.
4. I enjoy life.
I've come to realize that we shouldn't equate Christian joy with, fun, or levity, which is lightheartedness, or lightness in general. Yet there is this tendency by many in the modern church to cover over anything that is sad, sorrowful or depressing in Christianity, and concentrate only on those things which are fun. If everyone is having fun, then we can say that everyone has the joy of the Lord. Having fun isn't the same thing as having the joy of the Lord.


I. Defective Doctrines
Not only has modern culture diminished a real sense of morning, but another reason that mourning isn't very common in the modern church, is due to some of the defective sense or doctrine of sin that has arisen.
A. What Is Sin?
So the question that so often comes up, What is sin?
1. Clinical or technically we would say that sin is the violation of God's command, or breaking the law.
2. I don't want to discount this, because that is what the Bible says, but I also want us to look at sin from a relational point of view. I think that so often we fail to look at God as a real person. One with who each of us should have, or can have a relationship. If we look at sin this way, we could say that sin is an affront to a loving God, who is deeply hurt and grieved at it. An affront on a God that has done everything that He can do to extend himself in mercy and grace to man. When man sins, he rebels, and as it were spits in the face of God. He offends and grieves that God. If we look at sin this way, I think it is safe to say that many modern Christians do not have a very heavy sense of sin.

--------------------------- Optional---------------------------
Let's look at quite a few scriptures that I've come to think are relate to what Jesus said in our text, Blessed are they that mourn. Hopefully this will help to remedy this defective view of sin in the Church. It seems that there are some institutionalized doctrines of sin, that sort of keep us from ever being really sorry about it, or very mournful over it.
--------------------------- End Optional---------------------------

I want to look at some of the defective doctrines that have invaded the church, and which I believe have diminished the sense of mourning or heaviness that Jesus Spoke of in our text.

B. Doctrine of Grace Equals License (Greasy Grace Doctrine)
There is the grace equals license doctrine, sometimes called the greasy grace doctrine. This doctrine says that if you are saved by grace, you have license to do what ever you want, that sin is no big deal. In the Old Testament it is thought that people go to hell for sin, but now we are saved by grace, and we can get away with it. This doctrine teaches that sin is no big deal, because we are not saved by works, or by keeping the law, or by avoiding sin, we are saved by grace. It is a true statement to say that we are saved by grace, but it is a wrong conclusion to draw from it. It is true that we are not saved by keeping his law, we are not saved by our works, and we are not saved by avoiding sin, but we are saved by grace. But the question is, To what are we saved? We are saved to Holiness. We are saved to walk in that grace that "Teaches us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;" as Paul put it in Titus 2:12. That is what grace teaches us. That is a different grace than teach us licentiousness, or a license to sin doctrine. There are many churches that either teach this doctrine outright, or at least infer or convey the idea that we are saved or sanctified by grace, so lets now worry about behaving well, about weather we are pleasing to God with our lives.

The church has to have grace in many situations. This true, we have to have grace, because without grace, none of us would be saved.
1. What ever happened to doing what it right in the sight of God?
2. Aren't people suppose to be zealous for good works, according to Paul?
3. Isn't there something in the job description of those that are saved by grace, that we are suppose to do what's pleasing in the sight of God?
4. To do what is right in the sight of God?
We may not hear this often enough, and because of it the impression is that since we are saved by grace, sin is more less inconsequential once we pass over that saved or sanctified point. Once we pass over that line that is called saved or sanctified by grace. This doctrine teaches that sin is very important before we reach that point, because it's going to send us to hell, but that same entity that God found so offensive, suddenly He doesn't find it offensive anymore. The same behavior that he sent his son to die for, to remedied it, suddenly it is no longer offensive to Him, just because I stepped over some invisible line into a category called saved by grace.
But I want us to consider this. God doesn't change, I'm suppose to change. When I'm saved by grace, that's suppose to change me. The principle way that that change is seen, is that I'm zealous for obedience, zealous for pleasing God, and I hate sin like God does. But the Church has taught doctrines that minimize the magnitude of sin, and it seems that in many cases, that has eliminated much of the mourning of which Jesus is speaking

C. Doctrine of Unconditional Security of the Believer
Another doctrine that has eliminated mourning in the Church, is the doctrine of unconditional security of the believer. This doctrine teaches the idea that Christians are saved unconditionally when the Bible everywhere associates salvation with those that believe and repent. Some people say that can't be a condition, or you are saving yourself. I think its clear that meeting a condition isn't the same thing as saving yourself. Meeting a condition is simple that, meeting a condition. If you do not meet His conditions, he will not save you. If you do not believe, you will not be saved, if you do not repent, you will not be saved. I'm sure that most if not all of us are aware that there are conflict of theological camps over this issue. My position that I believe is well documented throughout the scripture, as opposed to the other position, which has to search for a handful of ambiguous verses, which can be understood differently than they would like to apply them. If you look at the whole of scripture, you will see that it is those who believe that are saved. There are conditions. Those who stop believing, those who depart from the faith are not saved.

This idea says that people come forward at an alter call, they say a sinners prayer and forever after that they are unconditionally secure. This, unlike true 5 point Calvinism, has not really encouraged the holy living that one might wish it would. Calvinism is not what I'm critiquing here, but I know that they would disagree with me too, but for different reasons. True Calvinism teaches that you know you are elect because you persevere in holiness. Therefore if a man is a five point Calvinist, he has motivation to avoid sin to prove to himself that he is of the elect, because this is the only way that he will know that he is of the elect. What I'm talking about here is the unconditional salvation teaching that says it doesn't matter if you are living in sin or holiness, it doesn't matter because you are saved by grace and you are unconditionally secure, and you can't really undo what God has done. This doctrine implies that salvation is not really a relationship with God that must be maintained, like a relationship with anyone, but that it is a transactional thing that happens one time and you are in. Once you have your ticket, you've safe, and no one or no thing can take your ticket, and by no means could you ever loose it. You don't have to have anymore dealing with God at all.

This is the kind of theology hurts the church. It deprives the church of any grounds for mourning as Jesus spoke of the blessedness of mourning. The whole idea of a non-judgmental grandfatherly God. The Bible calls God a Father, not a Grandfather.
1. So what are the differences between a Father and a Grandfather?
Grandfathers have finished raising their children and they just want to enjoy them. Sometimes a grandfather can chuckle at the little naughty things that children, because he knows it isn't his problem. God is never called a grandfather in scripture, he is called a father. Every where in scripture, a father is described as one who directs his children, he disciplines their disobedience and is an authoritarian figure. God is always described as an authoritarian figure. He is loving, compassionate, and merciful, but he is still judgmental. He judges sin. He judges thoughts. Jesus said in Matthew 12:36 "That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment" But this judgmental God has somehow been dismissed from most of the theology of the modern church. He been replaced with a non-judgment, indulgent and friendly god, who when we sin just says that we should do better than that next time. Maybe we need to read our Bibles a little more. The idea of a God of judgment seems foreign to many Christians today, but if you read the prophets, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and others, you will see that God is a God of judgment. He is a God of holiness, and it is taught in scripture that he enforces holiness.

D. The doctrine that a Christian can not sin.
I believe that another doctrine that diminishes the modern church's sense of mourning, has arisen to counter the previous 2 doctrines that we looked at, the doctrine of greasy grace, and unconditional security of the believer. This doctrine that I'm referring to, is the doctrine that a Christian can not sin. It was probably well intentioned, but has swung the pendulum to far to the other side. I'm not here to say that a Christian has to sin, to borrow the colloquialism, every day, in word thought an deed. To be honest I'm not sure that there are any other ways to sin. But I've also seen people write off things that to seem clearly labeled as sin, as a mistake or poor judgment. Things that if someone who was not in the church would say or do it would be consider a sin. Again I ask, does God change? Is something that God found so offensive before we were a Christian, suddenly something that He doesn't find it offensive anymore. I think that the Apostle John explains it very plainly in 1st John 1, when he says "If" we sin we have an advocate with the Father. This is not saying that we have to sin, but if we do sin then we do have an advocate. I'm not here to tell you exactly at what point sin breaks our fellowship with God. Only He can answer that, but we should be ready to mourn over sin, as God mourns over sin.

These and probably other defective doctrines have lead to a diminished and defective sense of sin, and a defective doctrine of sin in the modern church. Sin is treaded as if it is something that we can play around with, as if God really isn't that offended. God really isn't that angry as sin, as the Bible says he is. That the wrath of the lamb, depicted in Revelation, is really a misnomer, because lambs do not get angry. If this is true, then why does Revelation depict everyone, the free man, the kings, the slaves, all hiding under rocks and in caves, saying hide us from the wrath of the lamb? There is a judgmental God, but the modern church has lost site of him in many cases. Thus there isn't the sense of sin that leads to the Godly sorrow that Jesus is speaking of in Mathew 5:4.

--------------------------- Optional---------------------------
Lets stop here for now, and next week well look at happy sorrow vs. unhappy sorrow. Godly Sorrow vs. ungodly sorrow, things that God grieves over, how we can develop a proper sense of mourning and the comfort of hope.


We will talk more about this next week, but I want each of us to ask God to help us to develop a sense of mourning not only over the sin that may be in our own life, but for the sin in the world around us. It is so easy to become desensitized to the sin and evil around us, because it so prevalent.

--------------------------- End Optional---------------------------

















(Part 2)
--------------------------- Optional---------------------------
Last week we talked about some things that have hindered the modern church from having a right sense of mourning.
1. The modern culture's lean towards fun and frivolity
2. Some Defective doctrines
a. Doctrine of Grace Equals License (Greasy Grace Doctrine)
b. Doctrine of Unconditional Security of the Believer
c. The doctrine that a Christian can not sin.

--------------------------- End Optional---------------------------


II. Happy Sorrow vs. unhappy sorrow.
Now lets Talk about happy verses unhappy sorrow. Not all sorrow has an attachment of comfort to it. The Apostle Paul made this very clear in his statement 2 Corinthians. 7:10. I'm jumping into the middle of Paul's discussion, but I don't think that we will be doing any injustice to the verse. I would encourage you to look at it a bit more closely when you get a chance. 2 Corinthians 7:10 "For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death." The key phrase here is a "Repentance to salvation". God doesn't lead you to salvation first, no, we must repent first and that leads to salvation. Salvation is the result of repenting, and not vice versa.

A. Godly Sorrow
Godly sorrow produces repentance to salvation, not to be regretted. This means that you do not have any regrets about having a Godly sorrow. It is a sorrow worth having, because it leads to repentance when necessary, but the sorrow of the world, leads to death. It seems that Paul is speaking of spiritual death, but in some cases having a wrong kind of sorrow can actually lead to suicide as well. Since Paul's point seems to be to be a contrast, with salvation on one side, and thus would spiritual death on the other.
A godly sorrow is not to be regretted or avoided. Our culture does not distinguish between godly and ungodly sorrow. As we talked about a little before, our modern culture says that all kinds of sorrow is to be avoided, because we are to be happy people, or people that are at least trying to always be happy. Likewise some would have us to believe it would be a bad thing if the church were to portray anything other than a happy face to the world. Maybe we should replace the cross with a big happy face behind the pulpit, because in many cases there is no cross, but just a big happy face. That is not the Christianity of the Bible. The scripture requires repentance, and repentance is produced by a godly sorrow. That is the sorrow that Jesus seems to be speaking of in Mathew.

B. Worldly Sorrow
There are other kinds of sorrow, and as Paul mentions worldly sorrow, lets take a look at it. You can mistake worldly sorrow for godly sorrow. Worldly sorrow is one form or another of self-pity. Self-pity many not always look alike, but it all about self. What is worldliness? It is self-centeredness. I sorrow because of what I am going through. I'm sorrowful because of what I've
experienced. I'm sorrowful of what I've been deprived of. I'm sorrowful because my rights were violated. I'm sorrow because of me, me, my, my, I, I. My wife doesn't satisfy me, my children don't respect me, my job doesn't promote me, my church doesn't recognize my gifts. Certainly all the sorrow that unbelievers have and unfortunately too much of the sorrow in the church is all centered around self. It is self-sorrow, or self-pity.

**Suffering the consequences of our own sins should be accepted as a justice, not to be regretted, because God chastens his children. Who he loves, he chastens. () If we were to judge ourselves, we would not be judged, but he chastens us so that we will not be condemned with the world. 1 Corinthians

I think that God does us a favor and judges us for our sins now, so we that we don't have to be judged later. The consequences that come upon us in our lives are simply the results of our sinning. We often go into debt because we are not content. The Bible says wherewith having food and clothing, let us there with be content. We aren't obedient and we go into debt because we have to live beyond our means. Suddenly we have to financial disasters, and that is very depressing. Well, what do we expect, when we bring it on ourselves. We spend all our time nurturing carnal tastes. (Carnal means worldly or things of the flesh). That's not to say that everyone that is mourning, or suffering is being judged for a problem, but rather that we often don't want to admit that our own choices have led us to our current situation.
1. How do we cultivate worldly desires
- One of the most prominent ways we cultivate carnal or worldly desires is through our entertainment or leisure time. During these times I've found it easy to lower my guard. It may be through the read books, listen to stories or watch stories that affirm desires for lusts, violence, alcohol, and on and on.
- Maybe its the people we associate with that affirm these things.
- Or the places we go.
What ever it may be, when we find ourselves in trouble, we wonder why this is happening to us, when all along, we've set ourselves up for these times of testing. Really its just the natural results of our own choices. It may be seen in those cases, that the consequences are God's chastening us. Lately I've been realizing that it's God's chastening of me that helps me to grow. There are many times that God has been gracious and I've not suffered for something wrong that I did. But we must be weary for as we are warned in Ecclesiastes 8:11 "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." In other words we could say that because that God doesn't instantly chasten us, then we get encouraged in a sinful way. Yet when things finally come down, we suddenly feel bummed out because this is happening to us.

I have found this illustration by Bible teacher Steve Gregg, very thought provoking.
Lets say that there is a policeman sitting at a certain intersection everyday, and you go speeding by 10 or 20 miles over the speed limit. The first time, you went by, and didn't notice him until it was to late, you were terrified, but when you looked in the mirror and he didn't come after you. The next day you forgot again and shudder as you go by, but he doesn't come after me. After while you realize that he isn't going to come after you, so day after day he doesn't pull you over, and you just wave and go on. Then after the 20th or so time, he turns on his light and comes after you and pulls you over and gives you a big ticket. He walks up you say "That doesn't seems fair, you've never done this before. I've always done this way, and you've never punished me before".

Well its that way with God sometimes. We live in disobedience and disobedience and disobedience and God doesn't execute judgment against the evil work speedily, and we think we are going to get away with it. Then when if finally comes down on us, it's in a very depressing form. If we would just look as say that this can only be the results of my own choices. If I hadn't made this wrong choice and that wrong choice or maybe that one a while back then this wouldn't have happen to me. I'm here because of my own sins, and there is nothing for me to be sorry about here, because whom the Lord loves, he chastens. I should be glad that God doesn't let me get away with this forever. Any sorrow that I feel about things that I've brought on myself, is certainly a worldly sorrow. If we get bitter about such things, sows that we are not broken or humble, as we talked about in the first beatitude, Blessed are the poor in Spirit. It means that we are no broken in the sense that we should be broken. (We shall see what that means.)

Often the worldly sorrow that is prevalent in the modern church is the sorrow of a spoiled brat not accustom to hearing the word NO. There are things that happen to people on a daily basis in the 3rd world, and they don't complain. It hasn't even occurred to them to complain because that is all that they have ever known. They've never had running water in their houses, they've never had lights on, they've never had the power go out, because they've never had the power go on. They never have clean water to drink. They've never had an easy life. Yet if we were forced to be in their circumstances for a single day, we would complain about it. Not because any of our rights are being violated, but because we are spoiled and soft. We've had everything handed to us on a silver platter and then let something be denied us. Let something be just beyond our reach, and we go into deep depression and self-pity. The question is, "What should people do in that situation instead of self-pity?" "Have we ever heard of being thankful?" "Have we ever heard of being grateful?" I'm sure you've heard this before, but I think it bears repeating. A person said that I complained about having no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet. I complained about having no gloves, until I met a man who had no hands. If I don't have shoe and it's cold out, certainly I have grounds to be upset. Unless I meet a man who has no shoes or feet. We are spoiled, and a spoiled child can't be placated. A spoiled child, not only gets everything he wants, but thinks he deserves everything he wants. Let something be withheld from him, and he feels a deep injustice has been done, he spirals into deep sorrow and bitterness. That is the sorrow of the world.

--------------------------- Optional---------------------------
Ammnon in 2 Samuel 13. The kings son, a pampered young brat to be sure. He had a half-sister that he was infatuated with, but he couldn't have her. Its about the only thing in the kingdom that he couldn't have, and it says that he became sick with depression, because he couldn't have this girl. Because he was too closely related, and he couldn't marry her. This is a guy that had been pampered so much he didn't know that sometimes no was the right answer. Ammon was a son of David, and David was a very indulgent father. Actually too much indulgent. The Bible says that he had a son named Adonija that he never said no to him, that he never even questioned him and said, why have you do this. That son turned out bad too.
--------------------------- End Optional---------------------------

C. Persecution
The is also another sorrow that Christians feel and that is the sorrow brought on by the hardships of persecution. When Jesus said in the Luke passage, Blessed are you who weep now, you shall laugh. It may be construed that he was speaking to those that were socially downcast. To those that were in an underdog position. Those that were persecuted or exploited by their richer counter parts in society. It doesn't seem that this is what Jesus is talking about here, nor in Luke. There is a separate beatitude for those that are persecuted, with has a different blessing or promise that is given to them.

As was mentioned before, I believe that the sorrow that Jesus is speaking of here, when he says blessed are those that mourn, is mourning over our own sins, and the sins of the world. A sorrow that enters into God's own grief over sin. God does become grieved, and once in a while people become sensitive enough to sense how grieved God is, and how guilty they are of bringing that grief upon him and it breaks their heart. This broken spirit, this broken heart, is the kind of mourning that is blessed, and for which Jesus promises a comfort. Not only over my own sin, but over the sins of the world in general.

1. There is that sorrow that comes from not accepting the righteous discipline of the Lord. Godly Sorrow
2. There is that sorrow that comes from just being plain spoiled and becoming wimpy and winy and becoming incapable of enduring any kind of deprivation at all, any kind of denials. Worldly Sorrow


III. Things that God is grieved over, that we should grieve over too.
Now that we have discussed in a general sense, what causes God to grieve, I want to look a bit more closely at some of the things that the Bible says has cause God to grieve. Sorrow that is blessed is sorrow that God has, because he is the blessed God. The sorrow that he has is certainly not sorrow of the world, it certainly isn't self-pity its not whiney, it's not just depression. It is sorrow that is legitimately sad.

A. God does have grief (Looking at God as a relational being)
Some people do not realize that God is an emotional God. With many people, God is just a theological construct. He is just so many doctrines strung together that they have learned in their theology. In their thinking, he isn't really a person, yet they would acknowledge he is a person, because it is part of their theology. Its one thing to acknowledge as a theological proposition that there is a personal God, but it is another thing to apprehend God personally as a person. Seeing God as a person, with which we can have a relationship is the norm of the Christian life in the Bible. It's a relationship in which we become acquainted with God, and learn that in many respects God is a person not like us, but much like us in some areas. We were made in his image after all. Part of that image is that we are emotional beings and rational beings. We are not just rational beings, we are emotional too. It could probably be said that animals are not rational or emotional, at any level that could approach called being in the image of God. Animals do seem to think a little and to have some feelings or emotion, but man is on a plain so far above the animals he is in a category by himself, as one made in the image of God.

God is a rational and emotional God. Throughout the scripture, we read of God's emotions, he will rejoice over them with Joy. It talks about his anger, and his love. Love is not only an emotion, but it is certainly an emotion as well. The Bible also speaks of his grief. It speaks of his grief very early on. In Gen 6:6 before the flood it says that man was corrupted on the earth, and it says that it grieved him at his heart. It says that he repented that he had made man, and it grieved him at his heart. It grieved God's heart to see sin like that.

Jesus, who was God in human form, also knew grief. The Bible says that he was acquainted with sorrows, and knew grief. The scripture also talks about entering into a fellowship with Christ, through his sufferings. The sorrow that is a blessedness, is a sorrow that draws us into an experience of God himself, where we fellowship with him in his own grief over sin. Grief is the inevitable result of spiritual sensitivity.

B. The result of ignoring grief, or not having proper grief over sin
If you don't have grief over sin sometimes, then you are not as spiritually sensitive as you should be. You have become spiritually numb. If you can sin and sin and sin and sin and feel no grief, then you are spiritually numb. I think that it would even be safe to say that if you can be entertained by movies, books, tapes, plays, computer games, or any other form of entertainment that depicts sin, again and again and not be grieved, then you are spiritually numb or in the process of developing spiritual calluses. Unfortunately, it seems that spiritual numbness or calluses is a very common thing in our modern culture.

How do we develop spiritual calluses? It seems to me that you develop them much the same way that you develop physical calluses.
1. How does a physical callus develop? For example a person that plays the guitar may find that when they start playing, it hurts their fingers. But after time, the skin becomes thick and hard, and you can't feel anything. For a guitarist, having a callus if the desirable result.

2. Unfortunately the same thing can happen spiritually. The Bible says that he that being oft reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedied. This means that he does not surrender or repent when God reproves and reproves, is hardening his heart, or developing calluses. Using imagery from Revelation, we see Jesus as he stands at the door and he knocks and he knocks and he knocks and the door doesn't open. The door doesn't stay the same, it develops spiritual calluses and we become numb. Spiritual numbness is one of the scariest things that can happen to a person.

Romans 1 is about those that just started out not loving the truth, but suppressing it in their hearts. So God begins to turn them over to their own lusts. They go in those lusts for a while, and then he turns them over to perversion. They continue in perversion so much that he turns them over to a reprobate mind. A reprobate mind is a mind that can no longer feel any
sensitivity about Good and Evil. It is a totally caules conscience. It is what a psychologist (whom are seldom quoted authoritatively) would call a sociopath. But really this is a spiritual condition and we do not need to give it a psychological name. It is called a reprobate mind in scripture, and to put it succinctly you do not want to get there.

3. Self-Checkup
If you begin to feel your heart harden towards sin, less inclination to repent, less eagerness to say you are sorry over your sin, less sadness and sorrow over sin. You are developing calluses, and those calluses can become inenarrable, and you can become reprobate. I certainly recommend that you avoid that at all cost. If you have spiritual sensitivity then grief is going to be an inevitable accompaniment.

C. Things we should grieve over
What are things that should cause grief in our lives?
1. Sin in your own life, your own sin.
First we need to grieve of any sin that may be in our own lives. James 4:8-9 "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness." If there is sin in your life, it should cause you to mourn. You should cleans your hands, and turn your laughter to mourning, lamenting and weeping. I guess the way that I look at this is if I had a sin in my life that was habitual that I could not overcome and I could not weep over. I would stop crying out to God to help me stop sinning and start crying out to God that he would help me to weep. I would cry out to him to help me start feeling conviction over it again. You can't stop your sin for the right reasons, unless you are convicted. If you are not convicted, then cry out to God for the mercy of grief.

If there is sin in your life, you should cry out for a spirit of supplication and repentance to be poured out up on you; a spirit that will help you to feel sorrow, so that you can feel the reality of the weightiness of own crimes against God. I think that Paul demonstrated that he felt this way Romans 7:24 when he said, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Here he is saying that I know the right thing to do, but I keep doing the wrong thing, I am wretched.

There is a story in Luke 7:36-50 about a woman who came where Jesus was eating, and she was weeping and started washing Jesus' feet with her tears, and drying them with her hair. She was a sinful woman, notoriously sinful in the town. The Pharisee that was the host was critical of Jesus for letting such a sinful woman to touch him. But Jesus said that her sins which are many are forgiven, for she loved much. If you do not love much, you have no sensitivity about your sins. She knew her sinful state, do we?

2. The Sins of our the society.
We should also grieve over the sins of our society. Blessed are those who mourn, there is a comforting word for them. The one who is not sensitive about his own sins, or the sins of others, the sins of a society, does not receive that blessedness. God expects us to share in his grief about the sins of society in general. Not just our own sins. Once we have straighten out our own accounts with God, and draw near to him. We can continue to develop our spiritual sensitivity, and we will find out that he is sad about many of things going on in the world.

There is a vision that Ezekiel had in chapter 9, where Ezekiel saw 6 slaughter angels with weapons in their hands, and another with an ink horn. The one with the ink horn was told to go throughout Jerusalem and put a mark on the forehead of everyone who mourned and sighed and cried over the sins and the abominations done in Jerusalem. After that the 6 angels with slaughter weapons in their hands were sent to kill everyone that didn't have a mark on their forehead. Obviously God sided with those that mourned in that case. And what were they mourning over? Not just their own sins, but the sins of the Nation. That whole chapter, 9, is taken up with the vision. In verse 4 of chapter 9 is says (Ezekiel 9:4) "And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof." It was those that mourned with God were saved.

Lot, as compromised as we often regard him to be, according to 2 Peter 2, had the spiritual sensitivity to be grieved over the sins of his fellow citizens of Sodom. In 2 Peter 2:7-8 "And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: 8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)" Lot was vexed at what he saw in Sodom and Gomorrah, but what about you? Have you ceased to be vexed? Can you watch a television program or read a book that contains sexual immorality, rebellion and blasphemies against God, or see people living a life totally devoid of any concern for God, and not be vexed anymore? I think its safe to say that you have gotten numb, or are well on your way. You are beyond mourning, and you have got to get back there again. You've got to become shocked again. You've got to be come vexed again, or else you do not have the heard of God, near yours, and you need it there.

I found that it is so easy to develop calluses, and to become numb. I find that I have to call on God to help me restore that sensitivity. Personally I've found that one thing that has helped me in the past, is to fast from something for a while. After doing that, I've found that I can be more objective about evaluating that particular thing. For example, I make a commitment to only read the Bible or spiritual books, or listen to Bible studies or to the Bible on tape for a week or a month. To some this may seem extreme, but God has impressed upon me at times that I'm not going to really miss out on much. What is a week or a month of my time in comparison to the rest of my life, or in comparison to eternity? I'm not saying that you have to do this, but I'm saying that it has helped me to remain focused on him, and maybe you will find it beneficial as well.

In Mark 3:5a it says "And when he (Jesus) had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts". Jesus looked on the Pharisees and grieved over the hardness of their hearts. Jesus has grief over the sins of the Pharisees there. We should be grieved over the sins of our nation, over the sins of the world. God is grieved everyday and we should be as well. If we are not, we are not on the same page as he is.

3. The affects on those that have sinned
We should also be grieved by the affects that come on people because they have sinned. Jeremiah says in 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!"

Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus. What is death? It is the wages of sin. Jesus saw the misery that came to Lazarus sisters and loved ones. And is says that Jesus himself wept, when he saw that. He saw the misery that sin had brought to the world and he wept.

Jesus also wept over Jerusalem in Luke 19:41. I looked over Jerusalem and wept. It wasn't so much because they rejected him. It wasn't self-pity that he had. He wept over them, because he said that your enemies are going to cast a bank around you, and cast your city down and not one stones going to be left standing on one another. They are going to wipe out your children that are with in you. If only you had known this your day, you would have avoided all that. Luke 19:41 "And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,"


IV. For They Shall Be Comforted
But let's not end there. We want to quickly look at the reward of those that develop that proper sense of mourning. For Jesus Said that those that mourn they shall be comforted. There is a comfort from God that is worth having. So much so that having mourned and needing comfort is more valuable than never having mourned and never needing comfort.

A. The comfort of forgiveness.
The comfort of God comes from the forgiveness of sins, certainly. Remember the man that was lowered through the roof by his four friends. The first words out of Jesus Mouth, were, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven. I've got good news for you. Be comforted, your sins are forgiven you. The guy is still laying there, paralyzed from the neck down. Cheer up, there is great comfort, from having your sins forgiven. Psalm 32, where David talks about how happy is the man, who's sins are forgiven against, whom God does not impute sin.
Psalm 32:1-2 "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputed not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile."

B. There is also the comfort of communion with God.
In Psalm 34:18 God is near to the broken heard, and has saved such as a contrite spirit. Of course Paul talked about fellowshipping with Christ, in the fellowship of his sufferings.
Psalm 34:18 "The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit."

C. The comfort of hope.
Although we are weeping now, there is that hope that comes from the promise of God, that we will be delivered. There is a new world coming. There is a new time when Jesus will come, and this corruptible will put on incorruption, and we will not know sin in our members, nor will the world have any left in it either. The New Jerusalem, there will be no sin, no weeping. That is the comfort of hope.


Closing:
In closing I would like us realize that once we have been broken, then we have a sense of sobriety. this doesn't mean we never laugh. If you've ever been around me for any amount of time at all, you will know that I love to joke and to have fun. I don't much like humorless Christians. I find it sad when people that don't see the humor in a situation. There is humor in the world. God made a world full of amusing things. What about a new born baby goat prancing around the field, a new born child taking his first steps, or the faces of certain animals, that are just down right hilarious. I think that God enjoys them and that he intends for us to laugh. The predominate attitude of the believer is not one of laughter. As Jesus said in Luke, blessed are you who mourn now, for you will laugh later. We mourn now because we live in a fallen world that is in rebellion against God, and we have taken the side of God. He is mourning, and we should mourn with him. There should be a sobriety and gravity in us.

Isaiah 52:2-3 says that Jesus was a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief. Interestingly enough, we never read of Jesus laughing in the scripture. I'm sure that he must have done so, at some in his life, but the Bible never bothers to record it, though it does records several times that he wept.

Christians also are commanded to be sober. In 1 Peter, 3 times Peter commands us to be sober.
1 Peter 1:13 "wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;"
1 Peter 4:7 "but the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer."
1 Peter 5:8 "be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:"

Paul also tells old men and young men, old women and young women to be sober and grave in Titus 2:2-8.
Titus 2:2-8 "that the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. (3) the aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; (4) that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, (5) to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of god be not blasphemed. (6) young men likewise exhort to be sober minded. (7) in all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, (8) sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you."

As Solomon put it in Ecclesiastes 3:4 There is "A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;" Don't be afraid to weep when it's appropriate, for those that mourn over sin will be comforted. But remember we can immediately know if we are mourning over our sin because we will receive the comfort of forgiveness, and the comfort of communion with God. I pray that each of us will ask God to help us to develop a right sense of mourning. That we will not end our lives as Vincent Van Gogh, that we spoke about last week, saying that the "(the) sadness will last forever". Rather I pray that we will all be able to hear those wonderful words. (Matthew 25:21b) "Well done, [thou] good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord."


Notes:
* Written from notes taken on Steve Gregg's intro lecture to the Beatitudes.
http://www.thenarrowpath.com

References:
1. For depression relief, try variety of medications (Study: Antidepressants help
most patients if they sample several kinds), 2006 The Associated Press,
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15503920/

2. The Numbers Count: Mental Disorders in America, A fact sheet describing the prevalence of mental disorders in America., 2006 (rev), http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/numbers.cfm

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical_depression

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_van_Gogh