Simple Faith

Bill Henry: Who put Jesus on the cross? It was you and me. Here's Pastor Bill Henry. Horrified and grieved. That should be our hearts, knowing that we put Jesus on the cross, the Son of God.

Embarrassed by our pride, embarrassed by our rebellion, grieved about our rebellion against He who created us. And since this grief over our sin will be an outward expression, people will see and hear us as we mourn over our sin.

Meaning in other words, to me, that they're going to see a change in our lives.

Bill Henry: Shortly before he passed away, Elvis Presley was asked by a reporter, are you happy? His reply was simply, I'm lonely.

Today on Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry, we continue our series in the Sermon on the Mount with another message based on the first 12 verses of Matthew chapter five, also known as the Beatitudes. These are the Blessed Are statements from Jesus, and they can also be translated Happy Are. And as we will soon see, God's prescription for happiness is very different than the world's.

With the second Beatitude, Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Here's Pastor Bill Henry in Matthew chapter five, verse four.

Bill Henry: Let's open our Bibles, please, to Matthew chapter five, as we continue our verse-by-verse study this morning in the Sermon on the Mount. We're currently in the section called the Beatitudes.

So Matthew chapter five, verse four, today, it says, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. So as we come to continue our series, you'll remember a few weeks ago, in the introduction that we saw that it was to the disciples of Jesus, as he went up on the mountain and they came to him, that he is teaching. So again, this is a teaching for the disciples of Christ, not just a general teaching for the world.

And it's most important that we understand that Jesus is speaking to his disciples. Now today would be those who have been born again of the spirit of God. As we are saved by grace, we are saved by grace unto good works. And here in, you know, it's kind of a double-edged sword as we'll see later on in Matthew chapters five, six and seven. He describes to the unbeliever, or those who are simply trying to be religious, the life that they can in no way live. But to the believer in Jesus Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit of God, he describes the life that we will be living as a result of our salvation in Jesus Christ.

So these teachings again are for those who have been born again of the Spirit of God, and he's the one who empowers us and changes us to live in this manner, to bear these fruits, in keeping with our repentance. We remind you, though, as one commentator said, and this is very important, you'll probably hear me say this several times throughout this study. One commentator said this, the Sermon on the Mount did not give a constitution for the kingdom, nor does it present the way of salvation.

The sermon shows how a person who is in a right relationship with God should conduct his life. In other words, the sermon doesn't teach us, quote unquote, how to be a Christian, because we are born again into Christianity. But it teaches us how we will live, how we will talk, how we will act as Christians. And that we are to put this into effect in our lives by the power of the Holy Spirit. Again, we're not saved because we do these things, but we do these things because we are saved.

Amen. Amen. So notice again, it starts out, Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed again here in the Greek is the Greek word, Makarios, and you know, not Macarena for those who are getting ready to dance. Makarios. It means blessed, happy. Oh, how happy, possessing the favor of God. Remember, Zodiatis, the Greek scholar says it's the state of being marked by the fullness of God.

Oh, how happy. And it goes deeper than happiness. I don't even think that's the correct word. Oh, how joyful. And that's more the Greek word there. So those who are blessed here, those who are joyful, are those who have the kingdom of God now living within their hearts. And that is what makes them happy. They're in a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ. That is what brings them peace now.

It's not, oh, I became a Christian, and now everything is just hunky dory in my life. Everything's going wonderful. Because as you come to Christ, you realize that all of a sudden, the things that were bad before, they're still bad. But the beauty of it is, now you have Jesus there to go through these things with, to direct us now by His word, and to empower us by His Holy Spirit. Forgiven at the cross.

So again, this doesn't mean a simple happiness, you know, from the happenstances of our life. This is a blessedness, a deep happiness or abiding joy, that basically comes from a deep relationship with God and knowing that we have been saved in Christ Jesus. Oh, how blessed we are.

So, now, if you'll remember last time, it was basically blessed are those who are poor in spirit. And so we talked about what it meant last time to be poor in spirit. And so, you know, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. To be poor in spirit, basically means that we, you know, as the new living says, those who are poor in spirit, are poor and realize their need for him.

To become poor in spirit is the start of the relationship with Jesus Christ. It's not acknowledging or realizing, oh, God really loves me. He really, really loves me. It's not even finding out about the grace of God for the first time or other things. No, it is about realizing our need for salvation. And that is becoming poor in spirit. To be saved by Jesus from our sins, we first need to admit that we are lost in our sins.

That as we sang a moment ago, we were we were enslaved to our sins. And that means we have to become poor in spirit, to humble ourselves, that we admit that our righteous acts are nothing but filthy rags before a pure and holy God. Just as the prophet Isaiah came to that place, if you remember when we studied it last time, he stood before the throne of God and said in Isaiah 6:5, "Woe is me for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts."

That is the Christian. That is our life as we come before God, even today. I don't know what it is about some of us, and it's just our flesh, right? But we love to stand before the throne of God and start to tell him what to do. Lord, I think you should do this, or I think you should do that, or and we start to, even as Christians, we can come to that place and say, whoa is me. I'm undone. I'm a man. I'm a woman of unclean lips, and I I dwell in the midst of people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the king. The Lord of Hosts.

You see, for the one who has truly seen the king, the Lord of hosts, that pride disappears and and you just become a shaking. You're a John and in Revelation chapter one, you just fall down in fear before God. And I don't believe that we can come to salvation simply by understanding the goodness or kindness of God. I believe that we come to salvation by or we we don't come to salvation simply by accepting the grace or love of God. I do not believe this because this is not what we hear preached in the word of God.

Nor what we see lived out in the New Testament church. We come to God, we come to Jesus when we realize what wretched sinners we are. Not once did Peter preach, "Hey, God really loves you Jewish people. You need to know this. You just don't get it." No, he pointed out their sin. Same with Stephen, same with Paul, and called them them to repentance.

Now, it is by grace that we are then saved through faith in Jesus Christ. And it is God's wondrous grace and his mercy that saves us and keeps us. Praise God. But what leads us there, and I believe, keeps us there, it's not like that we're we're kept by our whatever, but when you're once you become a Christian, you're humbled before God. And that that is being poor in spirit.

And so, notice it goes from being poor in spirit, in the second one here in verse four, blessed are those who mourn. Now, these are those who have a godly sorrow over their sin. They will then mourn over their sin. Again, as we said a moment ago, it starts with the humbling of our of ourselves before God, an acknowledgment of our sinful state, even now staying in that place.

Because we're still in that in our flesh, as Christians, we're still sinners before a just and holy God. And that should lead us all to great humility and to be mourning over our sin. Blessed are those who mourn. Now, remember, since Jesus here is speaking here in the Sermon on the Mount about spiritual things with his disciples. This means that he is then not talking about those who mourn the death of a loved one. That's not what this is saying, even though you'll hear this many times at funerals and other things.

You know, but that is not what this is specifically talking about. This is in fact, talking about those who mourn over their sinfulness and they will be comforted. Now, let me give a side note, if I may. It is a spiritual truth that God will comfort believers when they do lose a loved one. We need to understand this. Psalm 147:3. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Second Corinthians 1:3-4.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. And then Romans chapter 12, we're also told this in verse 15, rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep, sharing others' grief in the amplified.

So God does comfort those who have lost a loved one, but again, that's not what this is talking about. You know, it's interesting, again, in the amplified, let's read verse four in the amplified. It says, "Blessed and enviable happy, excuse me, enviably happy, with an experience with a happiness produced by the experience of God's favor, and especially conditioned by the revelation of his matchless grace, are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted."

Now, to mourn here, in the Greek, is pantheo. It means to mourn, to wail, or to lament. It's interesting, Zodiatis said, it's an outward expression of grief. Now, a lot of us here in America, it's an interesting thing. We we're kind of, I think I call I think we're kind of oddballs when it comes to our emotions a lot of times. You go to a lot of other countries and and if they're celebrating a wedding, you go to Italy and they're just, you know, dancing around and they're celebrating and this and that and you go to Israel and they're they're lamenting or they're they're wow, they're just like crying out loud.

They're tearing their garments, you know, but America, we're just like, yeah, I'm happy. Good to be here. Good to be at this wedding. Oh, I'm sad. Yes, I'm sad. A little you know, and we're we're a lot of us just hold our feelings in. And and yet here, notice, it's interesting the word mourn here isn't an inward expression where you hold it in, it's an outward expression of grief.

Now, why do I bring this up? Because I think in my Bill Henry's translation, it says, blessed are those who show an outward expression of grief over their sin, for they shall be comforted. In other words, I think because this is to be an outward expression, it doesn't mean we're going around, weeping all over and just, you know, become a basket case. But it does mean that others will see our poorness in spirit. Others will see the mourning of our sin. What's wrong with you, Bill?

Oh, man, I'm I just I I found out I'm just I'm a sinner. And I'm and I'm I'm I'm just lost. And I'm grieving and I'll cry. Even now when we we sing certain songs of praise, it should bring us to that place. Oh, Lord, I remember when I first got saved and tears come to our eyes. Even now when we sin against our loved ones or others, we should have that time sometimes just again to mourn over that sin. I can't believe I just reacted that way.

It's a sad thing today within the church. How sin has just become almost accepted. And I I think it's because of the push back against, you know, we had this whole legalistic and this and that, and all of a sudden back in the sixties, into the seventies and eighties, there's this whole push now of grace. And for me, coming out of the Catholic Church, this grace was like a just a cold water, just cool water, it's quenching my soul.

But I also noticed that there's a lot of people who went so far this way that now they basically laugh and ignore it sins in their own lives. Even people here today. People watching or listening, for whatever reason, the sins in our lives don't make us mourn any longer. And I believe that is because of the culture that we're living in. Oh, do it your way, have it your way, it doesn't matter. So many churches the same way.

But it does matter. We should still be those who are mourning over our sins and keeping us in that humble position before God. As we see our utter poorness of spirit, our desperate spiritual need, and we see the grotesqueness of our sins towards God. We understand that our sins, your sins and my sins, crucified Jesus Christ.

You put Jesus on the cross. I put Jesus on the cross, and our hearts are then moved to mourn over our sin, to show an outward expression of the grief within our hearts over our own sin. Oh, it's easy to be horrified over other people's sins. Amen. Look at those buzzards out there. I can't believe this.

One commentator put it this way, said, "The man who truly mourns because of his sinful state and condition is a man who is going to repent. He indeed actually is already repenting already. And the man or woman who truly repents is a result of the work of the Holy Spirit upon them, is someone who is certain to be led to the Lord Jesus Christ. Having seen their utter sinfulness and hope hopelessness, they look for a savior and they find him in Christ. No one can truly know Jesus as his personal savior and redeemer unless they first of all, have known what it is to mourn over their sin. It is only the one who cries out, 'Oh, wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me?' Who can go on to say, 'I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.'"

You know, horrified and grieved, that should be our hearts, knowing that we put Jesus on the cross, the Son of God. Embarrassed by our pride, embarrassed by our rebellion, grieved about our rebellion against He who created us. And since this grief over our sin will be an outward expression, people will see and hear us as we mourn over our sin. Meaning in other words, to me, that they're going to see a change in our lives.

They're going to see God changing us. They're going to hear a change in our words, the words that we use, how we speak to people. There are a lot of people here, they love to tear people down within their families. Tear people down within the church. And they think it's all right. Their words like fire starting up, as James talked about, and they have no thoughts. They'll tear down their wives, their husbands, their children, their parents.

Look, guys and girls, those are sins that are not acceptable before God, however acceptable you think they may be. You see, there there's going to be a change in us when we're mourning over our sins. Those sins with which once we once embraced and celebrated, now we scorn and we mourn over them, which is the exact opposite, by the way, of what the world does, right? The world basically says, be prideful over your sins, embrace your sins, ignore your sins.

You see, before Christ, we either ignored our sins or we celebrated our sins. When Jesus gave this same sermon, the Sermon on the Mount again, he would go from town to town, giving a lot of the same sermons. In the Gospel of Luke, it was a different occasion, it was a different sermon, but it was pretty much the same thing. He added something there that was quite significant. In Luke chapter six, 25, he said this as well, along with blessed are those who mourn, you shall be comforted.

He said in Luke 6:25, "Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep." And today we see within the world so many who are laughing over their sin. They they should be mourning over their sin. Again, even many within the church, even some here today, watching today or listening at home. We should be mourning over these sins, but we're either again embracing them and celebrating and ignoring them.

We should be mourning over them, not laughing at them, as some will do. Because one day, their pride will be turned upside down and they shall mourn and weep over their sin. As I said a moment ago, there are many today, even who profess to be Christians who do not mourn over their sins even now. Even though they know better, you might be sitting here today. You're you're you're so callous, so hard to your sins, that you've you've done them over the years, it doesn't matter to you anymore.

You know, I know I did this when I was a mom or a dad and and I I know I shouldn't have maybe, you know, but it's it's all past. It's under the bridge. Maybe it isn't under the bridge for your children, your grandchildren, whoever. Maybe you need to go back to them again and say, you know what, I'm really sorry for this what I did. You know, it's interesting how how many times I've had people come and sit for counseling and one of the others committed adultery on the other.

And at first the one who committed adultery, oh, I'm so sorry. I'm just so sorry. Please forgive me. And two weeks later, it's like, hey, it's been two weeks. You should have already forgiven me. Do you see that there's not a genuine mourning over that sin? If that was me, I'd be mourning, I should be mourning. I'm not going to say in pride that I would be. But I should be mourning the rest of my life over that sin.

Yes, I will find forgiveness. But also, I can't take back the hurt that that caused other people. And we need to understand this. We we're there's no room in the life of a Christian for pride or even forgetfulness. Now again, there are many who don't mourn over their sin, and I'm not just talking about the sexual perversions coming into the church, being embraced and celebrated by the church, those sins which should be mourned over and yet are celebrated.

But also those sins we tend to ignore here within the church, pride, outbursts of wrath and anger, gossip, slander, lack of love, greed, love of self, pornography, fornication, worship of the American dream, and on and on it goes, these things that we just kind of ignore. There's a perfect example of this in First Corinthians chapter five. First Corinthians chapter five, where they should be mourning, but they weren't.

It says, "It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you. And such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles that a man has his father's wife. And you are puffed up and have not rather mourned that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you." They should have been mourning over that sin. Here a fellow sleeping with his stepmom, fornicating, committing adultery.

Not even seen he said within the Gentiles. Yet the church there probably saying, oh, it's all covered by love. Oh, it's all covered by grace. They were boasting about it. They were ignoring it. And yet Paul says here, they should have been mourning over it so that they might have taken it away from their midst. You see, the Christians there should not have been there, they should not have been boldly and proudly embracing this sin.

And so too, this is how we should be over sin today. There's not enough teaching about sin today. Amen. Amen.

Bill Henry: Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. That's the Beatitude we're looking at right now here on Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry. Pastor Bill will have the second half of this message next time. It is our sincere hope and prayer that you've been blessed by the words you've heard today from Pastor Bill. If you would like to share today's message with someone, it's available on our website to either watch or listen, and you can actually download an audio MP3.

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