reading this morning in the New Testament is James 4, 1-9 and that will be followed then by our text Matthew 5, 1-12. So James 4, 1-9. I think in quite different contexts here James warns careless attenders to put off their sin What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly. You suspend it on your passions. You adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose that it is to no purpose that the scripture says, he yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us, but he gives more grace. Therefore it says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched, and mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. And then to humbled disciples, those humbled by the gospel and humbled before the king, he says in Matthew chapter five, one to 12 on page 962, these words. Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Amen. And our text this morning is that verse four, we'll say it together. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. And so I've entitled this sermon, Happy Heartache. Happy Heartache. Pursuit of pleasure, of hedonistic happiness is one of, if not the biggest idol of our time, age, and day. People just want to have fun, fun, fun. Everything has to be fun. And even in church life, you see it in flyers, We have lots of fun for the kids. Whether or not that's a good idea, I'm not sure. But I'm just saying that the spirit of the age does alter at least how we portray our clubs. It has to be fun. Otherwise, no one will come. Talk of death is muted. We can understand that. Death is painful. Having fun is praised, celebrated, danced about and lauded. Pain is drowned and dulled by addictions to humour, leisure, music, sport, sex, drugs, food and drink. So we can all have fun and lots of fun. That's the spirit of our age. By contrast, Jesus' followers here in Matthew 5, verse four, put on mourning garb. And sorrow is high on their priority character trait list. Blessed, he says, are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. for they shall be comforted. The first apparent contradiction of these Beatitudes is that spiritual poverty enriches you and makes you eternally wealthy. That's to be the envy of the world to come at least. And the second kingdom paradox here, the apparent contradiction paradox, is that if we're to be truly happy, we must know something of heartache in a spiritual sense again. So I'm going to look at three things. The first point's a bit shorter, and the second and third are slightly longer. Firstly, mourning confused. Secondly, mourning explained and thirdly, mourning rewarded. Firstly, mourning confused. What does Jesus mean? For those who are grieving, or have been grieved, unknown, great personal and close relational loss, where the silver cord, as Solomon speaks of it in Ecclesiastes, has been traumatically severed You'll recognise right at once that Christ can't be possibly talking simply about what most regard as mourning and natural grief because it's not a blessing. I'm not saying it can't lead to blessing. Solomon also counsels Instead of going to parties, we should attend morning houses because it makes us think of our mortality and frailty. But in and of itself, grief is not a blessing. In fact, it's one of the consequences of the curse of death that came through sin. Jesus can't possibly mean that it's simply good and blessed to grieve. Grief in scripture can be deep, dramatic, intense, and inconsolable. Those who have witnessed or seen footage of or attended Eastern funeral rites in those cultures of Palestine and the like will have noticed the kind of thing goes on. There's ripping of coats, there's wearing in biblical times at least of sackcloth, there's heaping dust upon the heads, there's wailing and prostration of self on the ground. Such is the grief that strikes the heart, a painful loss. Whereas in the West, we're just given a pat on the shoulder and told to go on. Jesus does not mean natural, physical, even hysterical, but spiritual grief. He's talking about mourning of a spiritual nature. You'll maybe recall in Genesis 50, I think it is, how Egypt wept for 40 days for their feeder leader, Joseph, who gave them bread in Egypt. those seven years of famine that afflicted the land. Remember how the whole world came to Joseph and he sold the grain for the land. who maybe have seen recently how the UK lamented the Queen, the passing of the Queen. A friend of mine from little school and big school came across just for a few days unexpectedly and we sat and watched the funeral. I wept physically. I couldn't control the tears. at the loss of this stately figure who had been such an integral part of our lives in the UK. The people held her in great and high affection. Judah mourned the passing of Josiah It may be that some of the laments we have in Lamentations were occasioned by Josiah or incorporated, certainly the form of lament. this great outpouring of grief in a godly way, which allows you to express true godly feelings, but keeps it in check. That's one of the functions of the book of lamentations that Jeremiah penned. You'll remember how, when the brothers sold Joseph into slavery to the Ishmaelite traders, and he was carted off on a camelback, and it must have been a bumpy ride before he became a slave. Lifted from the pit, and the garment soaked in blood, and presented to the father, and his father, Jacob, could not be consoled. Such was his grief. Trauma, pain and anguish may turn so to God, but Esau-like sobs, Judas-style remorse who went and hung himself. He was mourning, in a sense, for what he had done. Deep regret or temporary reform do not bless. That's not what Jesus is talking about here. So this should caution us against giving false comfort at funerals. I suspect that generally speaking, when a minister stands up at a funeral service, particularly where there's a large number of unbelievers, present or maybe it's a pagan funeral and says, blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. He's not actually speaking truthfully or faithfully or knowledgeably. That's not, it may apply to Christians. but I suspect usually it doesn't apply to the particular situation. So we've got to be careful the kind of comfort we offer to those who are grieving, so as we don't give false hope to people, so that they'll seek the true hope as it is found in the King who's teaching us and speaking to us here. And if you're seeking God's blessing, and presumably, if you're at church this morning, you're seeking God's blessing, just be sure that you're not tricked into a morning counterfeit of worldly, ungodly sorrow. Remember, Esau, when he couldn't obtain the blessing and the birthright, Hebrews tells us he sobbed and he sobbed and he sobbed. He sobbed and he sobbed and he sobbed, but he wasn't saved. So these things in themselves, natural grief is not a sign of grace in the heart, which is the key thing. Broken in a contrite heart, oh Lord, we read in Psalm 51, is the thing that God accepts. There's a little book, maybe you can get it sometime. I'm doing an advert for Banner of Truth this morning. The Acceptable Sacrifice by the author of Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan. It's a little Puritan paperback and it deals with this verse. It's a broken and a contrite heart. Moses says, I think it's Moses, rend your hearts and not your garments. So we mustn't mix up emotion with genuine conversion. The second thing then, positively, if we're not too confused, mourning, mourning, confused, positively mourning, explained. As I've already indicated, true godly grief is sorrow over sin, wherever it is found. Whether we find it in our own hearts as sinners, or as saints, or in society at large. It's sorrow over sin. It's true of every genuine, authentically, by grace saved believer in Jesus, of every disciple of Christ. Christ is describing not only those who are pure in spirit who have been convicted, but those who mourn and have been converted. There seems to be a logical sequence and progression here of Christian experience, which he's describing in the attitudes as we move through there. So, You, if you're a Christian this morning, to a greater or lesser degree or extent, will know what it is to sincerely mourn the pride, the pollution, the power, the penalty, and ultimately the presence of sin in all its acts and effects. No, whatever sin there is, there'll be something within you which draws back and is hurt by it. That's what Jesus means when he says, blessed are those who mourn. Let me give you some examples to try and give you a sense of this and impress it upon your heart. These, in a sense, are Christian basics which we all should know but can easily forget. Or think about superficially and not let them sink in so that they change our lives and increasingly transform us by the grace of God as they come home and take nest, like the big nest I saw in the tree above our heads yesterday. It's important that these verses come home to roost. A bit like the prophet Isaiah, who had a brief visionary glimpse of the incandescent, flaming holiness of God, which the seraphim proclaimed, and was undone by his own sins of speech. And he cried out with a sense of his sin, woe is me for I am ruined. He thought he was finished. How could he stand in view of what he said in the presence of God? Or like scheming, callous, adulterous, homicidal David, who in Psalm 51 was forced to admit his certain sinfulness began to take shape the moment he was conceived in embryonic form. sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Sin is an early start and a great growth. Or like the Jews prayed as we sang with candor about their sin, who could stand if God marked it? If God tallied it up, and held that against us. It's not that God forgets it. He can't forget it. He knows all things. But it was charged against us. Well, I'm going to be the first one to sit down this morning for who could stand. In Psalm 104, the psalmist celebrates God's perfect provision for the whole of creation and ends by saying, take all sin and sinners away from this because it's spoiling it. You see, he's mourning over sin. or in Psalm 19, David has been celebrating God's glory in creation, God's excellent glory in scripture, and then he says, what about me? Lord, forgive my hidden faults. I can't even begin to chart or count how great they are. Who can know his hidden faults? Or looking around in Psalm 119, the psalmist has tears which form rivers down his cheeks and carve grand canyons of grief on his countenance. For your law is not obeyed. See what Jesus means. Blessed are those who mourn what mourning involves. Or pull. who's charting the struggle of the Christian with sin in Romans chapter 7. And he cries out in despair at the indwelling and besetting sin that he falls into, though he hates and doesn't want to do it, that it's right there with him when he wants to do good and says, who will deliver me from this body of flesh? That's the holy apostle, Paul, who gave up everything and suffered incredible amounts to speak the good news of God's grace. He's mourning over his slow progress in Christ's likeness. Someone has written, I think it was William Cooper, I hate the sins that made thee mourn and drove me from my breast. Return, sweet messenger of rest. He's grieved the Holy Spirit and he's bothered. Or John Wesley, I think it was, said, Lord, give me a tender heart that trembles at the approach of sin, a godly fear of sin in part. Cleanse and keep me pure within. He never wants to offend God again. Such is his mourning over sin. And I suspect with Wesley, They had maybe said boo to somebody and thought they might be offended, so he requisite the thought that how could he commit this enormous sin? Because he's troubled and the Christians often anxious, they've tarnished their witness to Christ to save them on their broken hearted, how could I have let Christ down in that way? This is something of what it means to mourn our sin. It's to be distraught. I can't say it was distraught, but it was certainly mightily ticked off at the LGBTQ flag at the local Ikea store recently. Why? This is wrong. This is indoctrination of our children and our population. This is wicked. This is evil. Or to see religious pluralism platformed, microphoned and praised while the Christian's insistence on Christ as unique is vilified and persecuted and ostracized and silenced. That grieves us, doesn't it? As believers, or to hear Hinduism, Mormonism, Islam, Catholicism, or Orthodox Judaism, however kind and nice those people might be as neighbours, and good to us in a certain way, these things paraded as truth and as alternative ways to God. Grief. Sorrow, for Jesus said, I am the only way, truth and life. Or hear movie stars blaspheme the name of Christ. You can sometimes watch a movie now, and the only curse word or bad language is the profaning of the name of our Redeemer. I hope that upsets you. We can easily lose that. We can become conditioned. You can be beaten so hard that you just go numb. To pass as I do it, 20 to 10, hopefully not too quickly, on Sabbath morning past the New Milford baseball pitch and the crowds kitted out in their attire to congregate at the Sanctuary of Sport. and how many churches in New Jersey are relatively empty. That should trouble us and grieve us, and grieve us constructively and move us to prayer, I think. To see souls on the broad road to destruction, perishing all around us. I think it's Spurgeon who says, They may go to hell, but it will be over my dead body. Before the unbelieving, unregenerate pagans who are currently outside Christ in Richfield Park and Teaneck and Leonia and New Milford perish in their sins. Let our bodies be piled up, if necessary, to say and warn them that Jesus saves, but if he does not save you, he will be your judge. This is what it is to mourn over sin and its effects and consequences. It's to lament promiscuity, infidelity, and pornography. It's to ache when children insult their parents, or husbands treat wives harshly. And husbands, you cannot think up the next line. It's to think, react, and feel, and weep over our own sins more than the sins of our brothers and sisters. You see the subtle distinction here. You see it was the Pharisees who were experts at missing the pew in their own eyes and spotting the speck of dust in the brother or sister and the pew behind them. mourning over our own sins more than his sin, or what she did, or what they said. You see that? Not because our offences might be greater, but because they're closer. ultimately injury to God's own name than our own harm or danger from sin. It's to live in a world of sin and feel uncomfortable and not at ease and at home. It's to feel like a stranger in this fallen, broken world. It's to experience its censure, its alienation, its reproach, its hostility and misery and be sad. It's totally different from the way the world responds. Conservatism condemns, punish crime, lock them up, Liberals condone. Well, it's not his fault, or, well, it's just how things are. Conservatives condemn. Liberals condone. Christians don't excuse or exclaim shrilly all the time, but weep, pray, serve, and evangelize. Why? Why are you bothered? Why are you troubled? Why do these miniature Grand Canyons sometimes form on your continents? Why does your makeup run with sorrow? Well, it must be because the Holy Spirit is inside us He's made us new, he has bought us by his blood, and therefore we see life through the contact lenses of the man of sorrows. This is Christ in us. And I'll save the next bit for the next point. He never expressly laughed in scripture, at least he's not recorded as laughing in scripture. It's not to say that he didn't laugh, but we're not told he laughed. Why is that? Simply to say that this world was for Christ. Generally speaking, though joy-filled in all circumstances and at the prospect of eternal joys in God's presence, generally speaking, a valley of tears. He wept at the sight of Lazarus's tomb, his friend. He wept, didn't he? He shed a bucket load, we might say, at Zion's rejection of him. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. He's pouring out grief. And at Gethsemane's cup of wrath, which he drank shortly afterwards for us. This world was a trial for our Lord. He mourned sin in this world. What did it cause? The hardness of heart he met. And if his spirit is in you, that's why you mourn. Thirdly, then we see mourning, did it say mourning rewarded? Well, it would be a reward of grace, but a mourning thirdly, consoled. Mourning consoled. Blessed are those who mourn, verse four, for they shall be comforted. Heartbreak, sorrow and grief will not continue interminably or eternally for godly Christian saints. Sin that grieves us is eased by God's comforting grace and the comforts that come with grace and swallowed finally up by the hope of glory. In what way Well, in many ways, we can speak of our Christian comforts this morning, can't we? Without getting comfortable. Those who mourn for sin are promised forgiveness of sin. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. Full atonement cannot be Oh that's a gloomy thing. No! Hallelujah! What a saviour! You see the comfort. Leads to joy, thanksgiving and praise. I'm not saying that Christians are to be long-faced and gloomy all the time. No! They're to be downcast and look to God and be lifted up. There's growth promised in likeness to Christ. The Spirit helps us in our weakness and prays in us with words that cannot be expressed, so that we grow in grace and groan for glory, knowing that nothing will ever separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen to that. That's a comfort. The production of increasing spiritual fruit. Our lives aren't barren, but there's love and joy and peace and so forth. There's power in trial. Joy in the midst of the most harrowing of circumstances as God's secret hand. lifts us up and consoles our heart. The conversion of our foes, how the church must have rejoiced eventually when it came to terms with the conversion of Saul of Damascus or Saul of Tarsus. The persecution was relieved. No longer were they being thrown in prison or put to death. with Saul giving consent. He was a saved man, preaching the Christ he had once hated. And that's a comfort. There's progress of the gospel throughout the world. There's revival of God's cause. Sometimes we're sad when we look at the church and think, can it get any smaller? And we mourn and pray, and then it gets bigger. And we smile and sing and thank God because we're comforted by that. Errors are exposed and destroyed. Evil schemes are thwarted. Sorrowed relationships are healed by the grace of God as peace breaks out instead of war. amongst God's people and the members of Christ. And one day sickness will be brought to an end and death engulfed by life at the resurrecting return of Jesus Christ. How do we obtain this relief? Well, maybe you're a little bit encouraged this morning and relieved as you've heard this sermon, hopefully. but it is by attentively profiting from the means of grace. As we read the word, as we listen to the word, as we pray the word, as we sing the word and exhort one another with the gospel word of encouragement, which comes to us and gives us life and hope in our hearts, joy. And even in the dark valley of the shadow of death, what are we told? The Good Shepherd has a comforting staff to urge and to guide and to lift up and encourage. Even in exile, the Jews were promised, weren't they? Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people. And the good shepherd comes and gathers the lambs in his arm and puts them in the fold of the bosom of his garment and carries them when they're ready to drop and leads them on by his grace. Or in chapter 61 of Prophecy of Isaiah, we read those words. They're familiar words, I think. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives in the opening of the prison, to those who were bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn by the gospel of His grace, to grant those who mourn in Zion What did they get? A glorious headdress, oil of gladness, and decked out with praise. And the garments of mourning and despair were gone, and instead, gladness. This is how the Apostle Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, 8-10. Afflicted in every way but not crushed. Perplexed but not driven to despair. Persecuted but not forsaken. Struck down but not destroyed. Or we could say, mourning but comforted. And he continues in chapter one, or begins in chapter one of 2 Corinthians. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. What is your only hope and comfort? I think it's a Heidelberg Catechism begins, in life and death, my only hope and comfort. All my joys, all my peace, all life that's worth calling life, is in Christ. The Father of mercy is the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our afflictions, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, there's many reasons to mourn, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. That's the joy and peace the gospel gives, which makes the Rastafarian gospel of Bob Marley seem rather hollow. Don't worry, be happy. By contrast, terrifyingly, for those whose portion of thrills and spills is confined to this life, All grins will become grimaces, scowls, howls, wails, an unending, tormenting gnashing of teeth. Because hollow, empty pleasures of sin, sought for a brief time down below, will corrupt, rot and vanish beneath our feet in the pit. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Do you grasp this morning something of what Jesus means by true godly mourning? To what degree are you mourning for your own personal sin, sanctification, slip-ups, the saints, on society? Are you comforted by the Spirit as you receive help and encouragement in your walk for Christ by his word of encouragement in this world of stress? And it is a world of stress, but it's a world of peace in Christ. Are you seeking earthly measures of leisure or strangely at odds with the age of pleasure cruises and crazes. If you mourn over sin in this world with deepening intensity, be comforted this morning. God is at work mightily and savingly in your life. by grace in Christ. Are you rejoicing in Christ for the grief he gives to you that one day he might take it away for good? Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we praise and thank you