Go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5. Tonight we are going to be looking at the comfort of mourning. The comfort of mourning. We have been About three weeks or so, we've been looking at the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew chapter 5, and we'll be in the Sermon on the Mount for most of the rest of this year, for the next four months or so. We're going to be going verse by verse, studying this message by Jesus Christ Himself on the Mount to His disciples, to His followers, and this is something that is very important for each one of us. I encourage you to give your undivided attention to this, that you may grow, that you may be more like Christ. And if you don't know Christ, that you would know Him as Savior. And looking at the entirety of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is not saying things that just anyone can do. At first glance, you may assume the ease of following these things because of the reward and its face value, The simplicity of it is what? When the world looks at this passage, if you look down at chapter five, starting in verse three, what is the first word of verse three all the way through verse 11? What is the first word? Blessed. So what is the reward of following the sayings of Jesus? This world says, simply so it is what? What is it? Happiness. The world says that the sayings of Jesus, if you follow them, you will be happy. And from face value, when you look at these words of these verses, it seems fairly attainable, does it not? In that time, Jews had reduced righteousness to mere ceremonialism. Follow a set of laws and righteousness will be applied to you. The people hearing the sayings of Jesus could have misconstrued its meaning had they not known the speaker, Jesus Christ himself, and the speaker of those words. Jesus came to fulfill what the law cannot do, and these people, some of them understood it, some of them did not. Jesus here is speaking to those who do understand. When you compare the sayings of Jesus, the one who gave all to pay the price that the law could never pay, when you compare those sayings to the set of standards the Jews had followed, it is therefore easier to see that the one who trusts in Jesus alone for salvation is not attaining happiness by their own measure. So when the world looks at this, they may say, the sayings of Jesus, the end all goal is happiness. You may understand, though, as you understand that Jesus is the author behind these words that is not attaining happiness in your own measure, in your own strength, but by the application of your salvation to your daily life. It is the understanding of Jesus saving you from your sins, and you put on the spiritual disciplines, the beatitudes, you act this way, be this way. The follower of Jesus does these things, and when the follower of Jesus does these things because he loves Jesus first and foremost, he has happiness. He has something that this world does not fully understand. He has joy. The first look at Matthew 5, verse 4 strikes oddity. Look down at Matthew 5, starting in verse 4. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Why would Jesus say that the one who mourns will find comfort? The world analyzes this verse and altogether, if they had the opportunity to do this, they would throw it out. If the world had a say in anything, they would take Matthew chapter five and the 48 verses that are in that chapter, and that chapter would have much less than 48 verses. Because a lot of these things take effort on our part to deny ourselves and to recognize that there is a higher power. World philosophy could be boiled down to the idea that if something requires me to consider my troubles, get rid of it. Throw it out. You could say this. The world would say this. Sweep your troubles under the rug and forget about it. Seek pleasure. Drawn yourself in it. For by doing so, you don't have to give attention to the troubles of life. That's how the world would react to this. The world would say, any trouble that you have, just throw it under the rug. Don't worry about it. Don't mourn. Don't be concerned about bad choices that you've made. Just drown yourself in pleasure, and then you don't have to worry about it. And many of us in this room either have, currently do, or may struggle with that. So this message is for every person in this room. The world is trying to pressure each one of us to say that living for Jesus is not worth it. And living for yourself and the pleasures of this world offers is worth it. We're gonna see again, once again tonight, that true understanding of the gospel and Jesus saving us from sin, when you study these things and you put on these attitudes, That is where true happiness comes. So, Matthew 5.4 reflects three big ideas. If you want to write this down, you can. They go with each point. It reflects forgiveness, it reflects the Holy Spirit, and it reflects salvation. As we navigate the passage, keep in mind that the forgiven are led by the Spirit into a lifestyle of humility. The forgiven are led into a lifestyle of humility based on the Spirit. That which brings freedom requires humility. Now, you may look around you, and you may see the way that the world lives, the way that the world acts, and you may even see the way that some other believers act. When they seek to portray freedom, How often is freedom expressed? Is it expressed in humility or in other attitudes? How is freedom often expressed by people around you, both saved and unsaved? How do they express their desire to be free? Is it in humility? What is it, Mr. Daniel? My life, my choice, my freedom. And it is pride. We're going to see biblically that that which brings freedom requires humility, a complete contrast to the way that the world would act and react. The previous verse, verse 3, says poor in spirit. We learn that it's not in reference to those who are physically poor, but spiritually humble. Likewise, this verse, blessed are those who mourn, references a spirituality, the spiritual application, not the mere moral perspective of life and death, or gain and loss. One might mourn over the death of a loved one, but this verse brings greater depth to it, a greater spiritual inference. My mic just died, so you're gonna have to give your undivided attention here. It's gonna be loud up there no matter what, okay? So here is our first point for tonight. The basis of comfort is forgiveness. The basis of comfort is forgiveness. Or, that point before, repentance. The one who knows Jesus is convinced that living free requires something of himself. He makes his life habit to live by fact, not by feeling. Therefore, he is assured that believers are free from the guilt of sin. You can be assured of the fact that the believer is freed from the guilt of sin. The beginning point of a believer's life comes when? When does the beginning of a believer's life happen? Where does it happen? Simply said. Salvation. Now we could go into all the specifics of the theology of it, but a believer's life starts at salvation. Salvation in what? From what? To what? You all tell me. Speak up real loud. Yes, ma'am. Yes. And before knowing Jesus Christ as Savior, you are dead in your trespasses and sin. And when you know Jesus, and when you come to what the word I'm using, salvation, you become alive in Jesus Christ. You are, maybe the word you've heard is, the word you've heard is born again. You are brought into life into Jesus Christ. The believer comes to life at salvation, and he makes the practice of his life thereafter a repetition of that once and forever salvation. Day after day after day, that person remembers their salvation, and they live out their salvation, and thereby they're convinced that they can be free from the guilt of sin if they're living for Jesus Christ alone. We obtain mercy by the Father through Jesus Christ. Listen to 2 Corinthians 4.1. Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not. I plead with each one of you, do not lose heart because you've received grace and mercy from God. You are no longer under the grips of sin. You can live for the God who saved you to be free from guilt of sin. I want to put a song in front of you that many of you might know. It's called Free From Guilt and Free From Sin. Let me read it to you. Dark, the stain I cannot hide. Stain of sin, my guilt to prove. Guilt my own and foolish pride. Pride, the reason for my sin. Light of God came shining down. Son of God, my soul to win. laid aside his heavenly crown, paid the price for all my sin, paid the price for all my sin, washed me in the Savior's blood, make me pure without within, cleansed my heart and set me free, free from guilt and free from sin, free from guilt and free from sin. Love of God that lights my way, love displayed on Calvary. Lamb of God, my soul to save. What did he do? gave His life to set me free. Then you have the chorus that comes again. Because of Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone, taking the wrath of the Father on the cross for you, you can live a life of freedom. And a life of freedom requires humility, recognizing that Jesus alone saves, and that life of freedom gives you hope, and it gives you a reason to live. Now, because of the freedom that we have in Christ, believers have changed lives. Not only do we have hope that we are free from the guilt of sin, but we can live a life that is different than the world. This world is running after every pleasure they can to push away the feeling of guilt. Not only do we have the freedom of guilt because of Jesus Christ, now when we commit sin, we should feel guilty for it. Why is that? Because Jesus died for that sin. And we just offended God, we hurt God. And our relationship with Him is hurt because of that choice. We chose something over Him. So yes, I want to be careful that point A there, you understand that we can be free from the guilt of sin. And we should be free from the guilt of sin because we say no to sin over and over again. But when we commit sin, we should feel that guilt and make it right with God. Secondly, believers have changed lives. The believer finds that repentance leads not only to eternal salvation. And young kids, three, four, five, six-year-old kids, when they start understanding the gospel of Jesus Christ, what is the main motivation for coming to Jesus and salvation? What would you say is the motivation of a four or five, six-year-old kid when they come to Jesus and salvation? Mr. Fante. Fear of death and separation from God, fear of hell. That is a big word. And when hell is explained, It was a fearful thing. Apart from knowing Jesus as Savior, how many of you would have fear of hell? We don't have to have the fear of hell, though, because Jesus died for us, and we are eternally secure in the hand of the Father. No one can take us out. But apart from salvation that leads to eternal, excuse me, repentance leads not only to eternal salvation, but the continual relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in us. And because of that, we have changed lives. And we're gonna see that in point two. I want to show you something here on the screen, and it's coming up in about just at two months. Two months and one day from now, we have what we celebrate around the United States and around the world is Martin Luther. What did Martin Luther do? What did he do? The 95 Theses, okay? He put it where? What did he do? on the door of the Catholic church. Okay. And he put it on there. And his saying was this for all those who can't be there. And for all those who will be there to hear this, these are the 95 biblical reasons why indulgences are sinful. Why trying to pay the way for your loved ones who already died to get into heaven, why paying for yourself to get into heaven is wrong biblically, and he took a stand in the early 1500s. Listen to this. Out of love for the truth and from desire to elucidate it, the Reverend Father Martin Luther, Master of Arts in Sacred Theology. What if I introduced myself every time like that to you all? An ordinary lecturer therein at Wittenberg intends to defend the following statements and to dispute on them in that place. Therefore, he asks that all those who cannot be present and dispute with them orally shall do so in their absence by letter. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen." So he says this, if you can't be there, bring on the fight written, okay? Bring it on. He is ready. What is the foundation of the first thing that he writes? Thesis number one, when our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, repent, he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance. Our lives can be changed and have been changed by a one-time repentance and acknowledgement of Jesus Christ as Savior, but that recognition that Jesus Christ saves from sin means that when we do sin, what do we do? We repent for that sin and we make it right. Why? Because we don't want to offend God. We don't want to hurt our relationship with the Father. So what do we say here? Jesus makes all the difference. We don't need to live with the fear that we may be able to buy our way out of hell. What if we couldn't buy our way out? That was a fear that many people face. What if I couldn't pay enough money to get out of hell. Martin Luther concludes these theses with the following, his 95th thesis. And thus, being confident of entering into heaven through many tribulations rather than through the false security of peace. The false security of peace that if I pay my way, if I give enough money to the church, I may have access to eternity with God. I may have the ability to spend eternity with God himself. May we be convinced that true comfort starts with humility. And that humility leads to salvation. And that salvation leads to peace. True, ultimate, everlasting peace. Not something that you can make up. So, what does a believer look like? A believer has salvation. Through humility, a believer has peace, and that brings about a changed life. A changed life. So, the forgiven, the truly guilt-free believer, is not alone. We're gonna see once more that in the comfort of mourning, as we look to the understanding of what these words mean, we're gonna see and point to this. The reality of comfort is ever-present. The reality of comfort is ever-present. And you can write even on the side, the reality of comfort is the ever-present Holy Spirit. The ever-present Holy Spirit. Who is the Holy Spirit? He is the one who comes alongside. Comforted means this, it comes from the root word paraclete, which is the same word used for the Holy Spirit, our comforter. I want you to understand something very clearly here. I'm gonna give an illustration so that it is understood very clearly by all of us. God's comfort is relational. God's comfort is relational. When I was a sophomore in college, I really got into photography, really enjoyed photography. At the time, I had a rinky-dink phone. And I went to, I think it was Best Buy, and I bought one of those cameras that some of you take to camp, those cameras that are $50, $60, $70, cheap, easy ones, a little LCD screen, probably not even that, like cheap screen. That's what I had. I started realizing, I'm not going to get good pictures of this. The lighting is terrible. It's just horrible. How many of you enjoy photography? Now you have phones, and you can take awesome pictures on your phone. Well, I really wanted a nice camera. I was about to travel for Bob Jones University. So when Black Friday came around of 2011, I had saved up about $650, $700, and I thought, I'm going to get a nice DSLR camera. Now, it wasn't mirrorless, for those of you that know cameras. I couldn't afford that. Those are like $2,000 to $3,000 for the base package. So I bought myself a Canon T3i. I thought I was awesome. It came with a 25 to 75 lens, and it came with a 75 to 300. If you know anything about cameras, that is awesome. The 300 was my favorite, because you could do this, and when you zoomed it in, the lens was this long. It was awesome. Now, looking back at that camera, my phone can take almost better pictures than that camera could. It may have been user error, probably my part. On the trip that I traveled for Bob Jones for 16 weeks, I have at least 1,000 pictures per album, and I have about five or six albums. I took so many pictures, and I have some really fun pictures. I look back and I realize I'm not a very good photographer, even though I enjoy taking pictures. That camera brought me a lot of joy. I still look back at the pictures from that time. Each time I was done taking pictures, guess what I did? I just took my camera. And I just tossed it in the bag and I zipped it up halfway and there I went. Is that what I did? No? Very carefully unzipped the bag so I wouldn't mess up the zipper. I would open it up and move everything out of the way. I'd make sure that the cover was on the lens. And then when I took the lens off that the cover was on the camera itself. And I would slide the lens down in there, just right where it's supposed to be. I'd slide the camera right down in there, make sure that nothing's in the way of being able to scratch the camera itself or the lens. I would zip up that bag, and I would put it somewhere safe. I wouldn't put it on the floor. I wouldn't put it on the edge of the counter. I was very careful with it. It was precious to me. Brought me a lot of joy. And I took very good care of it. But the comfort it provided me, the enjoyment and the comfort it provided me was temporal. Though it was enjoyable, it was temporal. It was limited in its capacity to give anything beyond high quality photos. That's what its limitation was. And you may be able to think of an illustration right now in your own personal life where you have something that you really enjoy and brings you a lot of happiness and maybe comfort in the midst of hardship. But that thing, that object, maybe even that person can only give so much. In contrast, the Spirit is not temporal. The Spirit, the Holy Spirit is not fleeting. He is with me at all times of every day and I can have a relationship with Him. He comes alongside me in a way that no one else or nothing else can do. The Spirit personally binds up our wounds and consoles our hurts. That is the Holy Spirit that you have, or maybe that tonight you could have. So the one who comes alongside is the Spirit, and He is not temporal, but eternal. But secondly, the one who comforts immediately. The Spirit is the one who comforts immediately. True happiness is found in a right response, and that right response, often for each one of us, is repentance. And that's why this verse says, blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. The right response sometimes to walking in the Spirit is saying, I have done wrong, I repent. And the Spirit doesn't just slowly come along and join you. Think of this illustration. You have someone who wants to get in shape. I know many of you in this room really enjoy going to the gym, or working out, or doing some sort of exercise, you like a certain sport. There's a guy here in town, his name is John, and about four years ago, I was not friends with him on Facebook, but he's friends with a lot of people that I know, and he was probably about 400, 450 pounds, I don't know exactly where he started, and he started a two-year journey. And in two years, he documented all along the way, He lost over 200 pounds. John was dedicated and he saw progress along the way. The Spirit does not work that way. The Spirit doesn't just show up in little increments and by the end of a long period, now the Spirit is really present. The Spirit is there immediately. I can immediately know the power of the Spirit at any time. Listen to Acts 1.8. But you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you. At the moment of salvation, we are indwelt by the Spirit, and that Spirit does not walk away. that Spirit is ever present within us. As we, as believers, as humble believers, as dependent believers, we find true freedom in the Spirit that indwells us. My inadequacies are not based on God's inabilities, but often my misunderstandings of the unchangeable truths of God. My inadequacies, my shortcomings are not based on God and something that He is unable to do, but often on my misunderstanding of how He never changes. So my inadequacies are what? My shortcomings are what? It is often a misunderstanding of who God is in His Word. So what is that saying to each one of us tonight? If you really want to understand Matthew 5, verse 4, and what it means, and not just what the world would look at it and say, if you want to be happy, then mourn. If you want to understand the deep truths about God, what are you supposed to do? Understand the unchangeable truth of God. Be in the Word. Walk. with Him, and the Spirit, who is continually with you, will guide you to truth. I can receive immediate comfort from the Spirit by a relationship of confidence in His ever-present nature. Much of life's hardships boil down to the fact that I misunderstand or misapply the truth of God. May the truth of the ever-present, immediate help of the Spirit motivate me to humble reliance on the great comforter. I hope that is true for you. Trials come, trials go. Who I look to in those trials determines my response before, in, and after those hardships. Say that one more time. Who I look to in trials determines my response before a trial comes the next time, while I'm in the next trial, and after that trial. Who are you looking to? The Spirit indwells you. The great Comforter is there. The believer understands forgiveness and seeks to live by a complete dependence on the Spirit. That is points one and two. Maybe tonight you are here and you don't have the assurance of eternal forgiveness. I want to challenge each one of you that the joy of comfort is restrictive. The joy of comfort truly has restrictions. The idea of speaking of comfort amidst hardships brings chills down your back because you can't imagine life without hardship. You're like, life without hardship? That would be awesome. I would love that. I would love to never have tension in my life. You walk through each day feeling like you're walking on eggshells, trying to keep everything from breaking and falling apart. Maybe you feel as though you have no room to go anywhere. I want you to understand this. The gospel by its nature is restrictive. What do I mean by that? There's only one way to salvation. It doesn't give you the option to live life however you want while expecting a positive outcome to the decisions of your life. You can live this life devoid of God, but you can't enter the next life and expect a positive outcome without God. And I want to be clear, the next one is not life. The next one is truly death over and over and over again. You can either be born again or you can die twice. Death of not knowing Jesus in this life, and the death of eternal separation from Him. So, what does the Gospel require? If the Gospel is restrictive, the Gospel requires regeneration, salvation, being born again, knowing Jesus as Savior. That is a requirement before you can actually know Jesus and growth in Him. The Gospel requires regeneration before sanctification. The prodigal son understood his position and came to his father seeking forgiveness and restoration. Listen to Luke 15 verses 18 through 20. I will arise and go to my father and say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee. I am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants. He rose and came to his father. When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him. compassion on him and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. As Martin Luther understood salvation to come through faith in Jesus Christ alone, may we ever be convinced that our efforts to live our own in our own strength will always fail. The prodigal son tried over and over for months to live on his own, to give his own definition for what is true, what is right, and what is good. And he came to the end of himself and realized, I can't do this on my own. The story of the prodigal son, you know what it's supposed to do? It's supposed to point you back to the fact that you are the prodigal. and that Jesus is the Father and He can save you from your sins. And He doesn't just stand there waiting for you. He is running towards you. He is pursuing you. And if you don't know Jesus as Savior, He wants to save you from your sin. He wants you to know that eternal life comes through Him and Him alone. And when you become regenerated, when you become saved, at that point, you begin to grow into the likeness of Christ. Repentance brings about salvation. we must first know that Jesus Christ saves, both eternally and now. His shed blood brings about a changed life and eternity. When we understand this, what do we do? We mourn. We weep over our sin. When you understand that Jesus Christ came to this earth, gave up the glories of heaven to live a life by example, and not just that, He died, and he died the death of a criminal. But then he didn't stay in the grave. Three days later, he rose from the grave, and then he stayed on this earth for 40 days, and he sent the disciples, and he sent them on a mission, and we're on a mission, and now, where is he? On the right hand of God. That is the Jesus that I worship. And if I offend him by one sin, it should bring me to tears. And that's why he says, blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Those that understand that their sin, their transgression, hurts their relationship with God, they mourn over it, and the Spirit comforts them and reminds them, you are in the Father. When we understand this, we mourn and we weep over our sin. We weep over the sins of others. We weep over the darkness of this world that is so prominent. When we understand the darkness of this world, the light of Jesus becomes brighter and this world becomes dim. So if we understand this, And we understand the seriousness of sin and that we should mourn over sin. The brightness of Jesus and who He is shines to us, and the attraction of this world gets further and further away because Jesus shines brighter. The gospel requires regeneration before sanctification, but also the gospel brings about an emotional perspective. I would like to challenge each one of us that the gospel is not just a transaction based on decisions. Our salvation truly brings with it an emotion, an emotion of humility. It's a recognition of this. I cannot do this. I cannot save myself. I need Jesus and Jesus alone. It is poverty of spirit that says, I am undone. And it is the mourning which causes this that makes us to break forth in a form of lamentation which says, woe is me, for I am undone, Isaiah 6.5. Religion, according to the Bible, is neither a set of intellectual convictions nor a bundle of emotional feelings, but a compound of both, a combination of the two, the former giving birth to the latter. An understanding of the convictions of the Spirit and the truth of the Word brings about emotional feelings. It brings about a humility of spirit, which says that Jesus is the only way. Thus, closely to the first two Beatitudes we have here are these two cohere. They work together. The mourners will be comforted. Even now, they get beauty for ashes. The oil for the joy of mourning. The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Sowing in tears, they reap even here in joy. So, the comfort of mourning. I'm going to challenge each person here tonight. I would like to ask that every person bow their head and close their eyes. I want to give just something for you to consider. One of the things that is helpful here is just by the simplicity of me asking for you to bow your head and close your eyes, it just helps remove distractions. I know you're still going to hear the children out there having fun. But this is a way for you to give your undivided attention to what is being said. For those of you here tonight that would say, Jesus is my Savior. He alone saves me from sin. He alone gives me eternity. I challenge you with this. Mourning is and should be ever present in the life of a person who knows Jesus as Savior. As we have received salvation, we are consistent in mourning over our sin. and giving great attention and seriousness to sinfulness against God. As we have received the Spirit, we are comforted and assured that God's unending relationship with us will ever be present. So those of you tonight that know Jesus as Savior, maybe you need to have a renewed seriousness about sin. Maybe you need to consider I have been playing around with the ways of this world. The person who truly understands happiness, blessedness, is a person who understands Jesus is the only way. Everyone, please continue giving your attention. There are some that are playing around. This is not a time for that. This is serious. Sin is serious. I hope that you will take sin seriously and that you will keep a short account with God. What do I mean by that? That every time you sin, you take it seriously and you repent before God. Because when you do that, you're reminded once again, over and over, that the Spirit who indwells you will comfort you. Maybe for someone here tonight, you are convicted of your sin. You see the need to repent and believe and cling to Jesus. You need to give up your ways. You've been trying to figure it out on your own all along. You need to realize, I cannot do this. I need Jesus as Savior. I'm gonna do something we typically don't do here, so sponsors, if you'd be ready. If there's someone here tonight that would say, with all eyes closed, no one's looking, no one is gonna embarrass you, But if you would say, I need to talk to someone. I know Jesus is Savior, and I understand now, once again, I am renewed in my understanding that sin is serious. I need to talk to someone. I need to be encouraged through the Scriptures to make things right before God and before others. And maybe it's the simplicity of you need to talk to someone and they be an encouragement to you for you to understand even more the seriousness of sin and the joy of living a righteous life. Maybe you'll be on the other side of this and you'll say, I don't know Jesus as Savior, and I need to get that right tonight. I cannot wait. I urge you. I plead with you. Don't wait. Today is the day of salvation. Today is the day that you can be assured of your eternity. With every eye closed, every head bowed, if that would be you, if you would say, I need to know Jesus as Savior, or I just need to talk to someone to be encouraged. If you just do me a favor of quietly slipping out of your seat, and coming over to the pool side of the room, not the garage side, but if you just want to talk to someone, just quietly stand up. No one is looking. No one's going to embarrass you. No one's going to talk to you afterward and say, why'd you do that? But if you just quietly stand up, scoot past your friend, the best thing you can do right now is to choose humility. So if you would just quietly stand up, feel free to step out, and someone would be happy to talk with you. I'll give you about 10 seconds. Okay.