As we're seated together, I'll turn your attention to Matthew chapter five and to verse four. I'm hoping that by God's help to preach through the Beatitudes. And so we come this morning to Matthew five and verse four, our text, which says, blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted. We might say that one of the reasons that we have for mourning in the church today is that we have lost the concept of godly mourning and that we don't understand how it could be that a Christian, a disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that's who he is describing in the Beatitudes, the character of disciples, we've lost an understanding of how it could be or why it should be that disciples should be mourners. And that in and of itself is a very sad loss because there's a great promise addressed specifically to mourners. But if there's reason for mourning, there's reason for comfort. We have the living and active word of God, which is always infallible in doctrine, and in directing us in our practice and in ordering our hearts. We have the word of God to direct us today concerning this godly morning. I say godly morning because not every kind of morning is blessed, but godly morning, which our savior pronounces a promise to, a promise of comfort. And so as we proceed this morning, I want to first remove a hindrance to godly morning, Secondly, give some marks of the godly mourner, and then thirdly, to apply comfort to the godly mourner. So first, let me seek to remove a hindrance to godly mourning. We may find that there's a tendency to limit the application of this beatitude. In one direction, we might find the idea that it only applies to the unconverted, that the person who's never known the grace of God is one who mourns, but then once he's converted and he trusts in Christ, then he doesn't mourn anymore in any sense. And it's true that there's a wonderful transition to joy upon conversion, joy and peace in believing. But is it really right to limit it simply to the unbeliever? In fact, it's the opposite. The one whom our Lord is here describing is a disciple of his. The one whom our Lord is describing is merciful, pure in heart, a peacemaker, persecuted for righteousness sake. It is most properly the disciple, the believer that our Lord is describing as a mourner. Now, there may be another way that the beatitude is limited. It may be said, stated or not, that the disciple only mourns over the miseries of this life, and he doesn't in any sense mourn over his sin. The unspoken thought here is that if we truly know the grace of God, then we would have nothing to do with mourning over our sins. That would be a graceless and unbelieving posture to be mourning. It would proceed from a spirit of legal bondage for the believer to mourn in view of his sins. Never would that would be the idea. Now, there may be two sides to this problem. On the one hand, we have in our day a tendency towards what we could call hyper grace. which really sadly reduces the gospel, which presents a small gospel, which says the only thing you should ever think about is the fact that you are justified by faith alone. You're a justified person. And the whole Christian life consists purely in meditating on the fact that you are a justified person. Well, would that we all thought day and night about the fact, if we're trusting in Christ, that we're justified people. Would that we lived upon that high and heavenly meat and drink more constantly. But is it right to say that that's all that's there in the gospel. Is there not in the Bible a gospel of justification and of sanctification? A savior who not only justifies but also throughout this life sanctifies. Is it not right for the believer in the working out of sanctification as God works within him? Are there not reasons why he mourns May he not hear the word of the apostle who says that he that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly. May not a justified person rejoice that he's justified and live on the heights of the mountaintops because he's perfectly righteous in Christ alone. And yet at the same time, say, my works have been smaller than they should have been and might have been, and mourn over that and repent and grow. You see, if we have a reduced gospel, which only speaks of justification, we may have little place or less place for godly mourning. And then on the other hand, There is such a thing as an ungracious mourning. So we may have friends who say, oh, for the believer to mourn, and even to mourn over his sin, that would partake of a spirit of legal bondage, and it would be unchristian. Now it's true that there is such a thing as graceless mourning. and I would warn you away from that. So in order to remove this hindrance, let me seek to show you how godly morning is consistent with the grace of God. So in godly morning, the grace of God is the first thing and the last thing. The grace of God is the beginning and the end. So in godly mourning, we have David saying in Psalm 119, rivers of waters run down mine eyes because they do not keep thy law. Now what mercenary or what mere slave ever shed tears because his master was being disobeyed? Oh, it grieves me that my master is not honored, but I'm only serving him for money. or because I'm in bondage as his slave. No, to mourn when God's law is broken speaks of love. I love God. I love his holiness. I love his perfection in all his attributes, his righteousness. I love him because he first loved me. I'm not treated as a mere slave or mercenary. I'm like the servant in Exodus 21 who has his opportunity to go free. And he says, no, I love my master. And his ear is bored through. and he remains a willing servant all his life. That's the believer's relationship to God. And so he mourns that anyone else or himself would in any way injure the glory and reputation of God or trample upon his law. It's a mourning that proceeds from love. And so the grace of God is the beginning of godly mourning. And it's also the end of godly morning. Why would God be pleased with mourners? Is there anything in the Ten Commandments and the moral law that says God commands you to mourn? Or is there anything in mourning? So here is a person weeping over his sin and the miseries that flow from sin. And he's low. and crushed. Is there anything in that? Well, would the judge, the judge has the criminal come before him and the criminal mourns that he's committed the crime. Does the judge say, well, because I'm a righteous judge, I will acquit you because you're mourning. No. You see, God is pleased with mourning. A broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Why does God not despise a broken and contrite heart? Because he's gracious. Because he's gracious. He accepts that which has no merit in and of itself. He's pleased with the crushed spirit because he's gracious. And so godly mourning begins. and ends with the grace of God. We could also say godly mourning begins and ends with the Lord Jesus Christ because he is that great prophet who came in the fullness of time preaching what? Repent and believe in the gospel. He is the prince and savior by God's right hand exalted for to give repentance to Israel and the remission of sins, Acts chapter five. Christ is the prophet who preaches repentance. He is first in godly sorrow and he is last in godly sorrow. Because what does godly sorrow do? What effect does it have? It drives the godly mourner to the Lord Jesus Christ. The godly mourner has his heart broken and contrite. And what does he say? I'll stay away. I'll stay far from the Lord Jesus Christ. No, he says, I've heard it said of him that the bruised reed he will not break and the smoldering flax he will not quench. And this is what I am in my godly sorrow for my sin. I am a bruised reed, but I have heard that there is a God man mediator who is gentle enough to receive such a bruised read as me, and therefore I go to him. So Christ is last in godly sorrow, first and last. And we could say the comforter, the Holy Ghost is first and last in godly sorrow. You'll remember John chapter 16. where our Lord Jesus Christ is promising that it is for their advantage, for our advantage, that he go away. If he would not go away, the comforter would not come. And what does he say that the comforter would do? That he, the comforter, will reprove the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. You say, that's strange work for a comforter to do, to reprove, to convict, to be the king's sharp arrow in the heart, to bring the knowledge of sin. But yes, the comforter first convicts. It's as if the plow goes into the crusted up fallow soil to break it up in order that the seed may be sown. The Holy Spirit comes and works conviction so that he might have an open door to bring comfort, a wide field for that vast array of gospel comfort, which it is his office to bring home all the way to the soul. Zechariah chapter 12, he prophesied. Zechariah 12.10, the Lord would pour upon the house of Israel a spirit of grace and supplication, and they would look on him whom they pierced and mourn for him. It is a spirit of grace that brings men to mourn over a Messiah pierced by their sins. And so the Holy Ghost, the comforter is first and last in godly morning. Now, that may equip you to some small extent to get over this hurdle that perhaps we all feel that it would somehow be sub Christian for one to mourn specifically. for a Christian to mourn over his sin. We may all agree the Christian can mourn over the miseries of this life. But I would submit that we need to get over the hindrance and that it is the doctrine of the Bible, as we've seen from both Testaments, that is a characteristic of the godly, that in its proper place, they mourn. So first, we've sought to remove a hindrance to godly mourning. But secondly, let's seek to give some marks of the godly mourner. And I have four, four marks of a godly mourner. How do we distinguish that this godly mourning which the Lord Jesus blesses from other kinds of mourning that he does not bless? For instance, there's weeping and gnashing of teeth in hell. And the Lord Jesus does not pronounce that a blessed kind of morning. What is the morning that he blesses? Well, the first mark of a godly mourner is that he worships as he mourns. Job chapter one is the paramount example of it. Then Job arose and rent his mantle and shaved his head and fell down upon the ground and worshiped. This is when he is heard of the death of his children. He takes all the gestures of mourning, tearing his clothes, falling on the ground, and he worships God. He says, Naked came I out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. It's the same with Aaron when he witnesses the death of his two sons. And Moses says that the Lord will be sanctified and those who draw near to him. And the scripture says, and Aaron held his peace. He did not speak against the Lord or chafe or rage. He bowed, he bent, he submitted unto God. And in true mourning, there is a submission unto God. Mourning by its character is a going down, a going down into the dust. And we all know, we know our hearts and we know, sadly, that instead of going down into the dust, at times our spirit has risen up in anger and proud demands and debated with God and questioned his ways and found fault with the Almighty. But true mourning is a going down in utter humility before God, a closing of the mouth like Aaron, holding one's peace before him. And you see, that's only what's appropriate. In our afflictions, more than at any other time, we're made to feel our creatureliness. We are creatures who feel pain and we have changeable flesh and blood, tender feeling, feeble frames. And we should let the Lord be God in our morning and take our place in the dust. Morning is a true going low before God. Godly mourner worships as he mourns. Second mark of a godly mourner, a godly mourner mourns over miseries. So the fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery. And oftentimes it's the miseries that we feel first and mourn over first and The godly mourner does mourn over the miseries of this life. In fact, I would say the godly mourn over the miseries of this life more than the world does. Now, does the world truly, in the truest sense, mourn before God over miseries? Certainly we find examples of hardened cynicism, of despairing hopelessness, We might turn on the news and find the newscaster saying, 200 people died in Indonesia from an earthquake. And then there's a commercial with a little happy jingle selling who knows what that flashes next. Is that mourning? We may find in the world naive sentiments that we can make the world better if we only try hard and believe in each other. Is that mourning? No, really, it's only the child of God who sees things the way they truly are. It's the child of God who knows that God made man holy and happy, that our first parents lived in a world of bliss, and they had communion with God, and they had no pain, no suffering, and until they sinned, no death. And it's the godly who mourns over how far man has fallen. I think when we read these horrific accounts in the newspaper of death and so on, it's appropriate. We should feel affected by them. We find our Lord Jesus when he went to Lazarus's tomb, knowing that he would raise Lazarus from the dead. The Holy Ghost points out in that shortest verse of scripture, Jesus wept. And then when, before, when Saul and Jonathan are killed by the enemies of the Lord's people, who is it that is most sensitive to that public calamity that has taken place? It's David. It's the godly man. Though Saul personally was his enemy, he has a tender heart to mourn for the real calamity that has come upon Israel and the death of Israel's king. He says, the beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places, how are the mighty fallen? The godly man is more sensitive to the miseries of this life. A ship might carry a ballast in its hull in order to keep it steady. And the godly man goes around through this world with a knowledge of the wisdom that Solomon learned, that vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Everything under the sun is vanity. And so he has ballast in his ship. And when other people are running up to giddy heights of frothy, insubstantial mirth, the godly are sober. Now, just imagine you're present on an occasion when your employer has gathered everyone around to announce an unexpected bonus being given to all the employees and everyone else erupts in cheers. And what do you think? You think, praise God, that's a good provision. I'm happy for my family, I'm happy for my coworkers. Praise God, God is so good and generous. And you know another thought you might have? You might almost be ready to cry. Because you think of those tens and scores of people around you. for whom money is the greatest reason ever to cheer. And you think, how do they know that they will live to enjoy their money? Don't they know that the money will be spent so quickly and the joy will be gone before the day is over almost, and they'll be worried about how much will be taken out in taxes and so on, and the things that they buy will break. So you're glad. Praise God. That's good. Praise God, you say. But you see, you're a godly mourner. And you know that life is so brief. And you know that the things of this life are so full of vanity. You have the ballast in your ship. Now, You're a godly mourner. So does that make you austere towards the people around you? And you say, oh, how foolish they are that they got so excited over money. No, you see, the godly mourner is the most compassionate person. Because when someone who is suffering comes, someone who's not riding on the heights of the good things of this life, but someone who is in pain. The godly are the most welcoming. The godly mourner doesn't push other mourners away and say, I don't want to be reminded of the fallenness of this world. The godly mourner is compassionate as our Lord was, that man of sorrows, to draw in other mourners, to hold them close, to weep with them. So the godly mourner mourns over misery. Also, the godly mourner mourns over sin. This is what we've I've said somewhat already concerning. He mourns over his sin and the sin of others. This is what keeps him from rising in anger against a God who can who afflicts because he knows, as we spoke before, Job worshiping God in his morning. So the godly mourner knows that whatever his affliction, it is lighter than what sins deserve. He knows that mankind by their fall lost communion with God are under his wrath and curse and so made liable to all miseries in this life to death itself and to the pains of hell forever. And so none of us experience all miseries in this life. What we experience is less than that. And so we're able by considering our own sinfulness to have the ballast in our ship. and to be sober and steady. So the godly mourner mourns over sin. Paul continued to do that throughout his life in his first epistle to Timothy, chapter one, where he calls himself as a converted person who served the Lord for quite a number of years. It's not his first. Timothy is not his first epistle, and he there calls himself a blasphemer and an insolent opponent and the chief of sinners. You see, he's still kept low and humble by the knowledge of his sin. So the godly mourner considers his actual transgressions and he considers the root. He considers his original sin, the guilt of Adam imputed to him and the corruption of his nature. The godly mourner considers both his sins of commission, and I think with a special tenderness, he thinks about his sins of omission. The time wasted, the opportunities not improved, the duties done half-heartedly, the lukewarm love for the Savior, the things left out. He mourns over this. He thinks about the aggravations of his sin. He thinks, I had enough light to know better than that. God gave me some checks of conscience before I did it, but I plowed over them. I sinned against God himself. I sinned against others. I damaged them temporally or spiritually. Yes, there is a way in which the godly man afflicts himself because of his sin. Now, to use the ship analogy, this is not a cannonball through his ship to sink him into despair. It's a ballast in his ship to keep him humble and low. Fourth, the fourth mark of the godly mourner is that his mourning works repentance. And we're almost now, once we say this, we're almost speaking about the comfort to godly mourners because we're beginning to see the fruit that comes from godly mourning. Godly mourning works repentance. Second Corinthians 710, for godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of. So here's the idea. We either go on in a path of mourning and become increasingly dead to sin, or we go on in a path of sin and become increasingly dead to godly mourning. We will in one direction become more tender and in the other direction become more hardened. And if we're going on in a path of godly morning, we're becoming more sensitive to God and to his glory. to his rights, his righteous claims over our lives. And we're becoming more dead and dead to that sin, which we find increasingly bitter and grievous. So the fruit of godly sorrow is repentance. We're brought in our morning, aren't we, to the place of Romans chapter seven. Not only in godly morning do we say, Oh Lord, remove the guilt of my sin, which we do, but we also say, Oh Lord, break the shackles of my sin. Oh, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death? You see, Paul there in Romans seven is not saying, well, I'm a justified person, so it doesn't bother me that I act according to the old man out of character for a Christian. He says, no, that grieves me. And when will I be delivered? I long to be sinless. I long after the full completion of that salvation that is in Christ. Godly morning works repentance. As we read in Ecclesiastes 7, by the sadness of the countenance, the heart is made better. These are some marks of the godly mourner. Are you a godly mourner? Now this mourning is irksome to the flesh. No one enjoys mourning. But this our Lord describes as part of the character of a disciple. we would say, no one goes to heaven without being in some degree a godly mourner. Do you have this godly sorrow worked in your heart? And God is now calling you unto it. Now in the day of salvation, now when the gospel is being preached, now when we have the breath of life to draw, God is saying, Be wretched and mourn and weep. Repent, have godly sorrow for your sin, and yes, for all the miseries that flow from sin. God is calling you unto godly sorrow. And then there's this, a third thing. I will seek to apply comfort to godly mourners. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Here's a promise. Now, Jeremiah Burroughs says that the main thing that troubles the mourner is that he fears it would be presumptuous for him to take comfort. Now, if there weren't a promise, it would be presumptuous for him to take comfort, but there is a promise. It's a very broad, free, general promise. They shall be comforted. All manner of comfort is promised to the godly mourner. Now here's something that helped me in thinking about it, that the comfort for godly mourners is a true and real comfort, not some figment of the imagination. Think of David. He was a godly mourner for his sin. Psalm 32, Psalm 51. And then Nathan comes to him in 2 Samuel chapter 12 and tells the parable that convicts David's heart. And do you know what we find David doing in the rest of 2 Samuel chapter 12? Well, he spends the night prostrated on the earth to pray for his sick and dying child. He spent seven days fasting. And then when the child dies, what happens? He arises, he anoints himself, he changes his garment, and he eats food. And it surprises everyone, and they remark on it. and he says, he utters those famous words, I shall go, he shall not, I shall not, I'm sorry, I shall go to him, his hope to go to be with his child. So David took comfort and we might say, no, David, mourn for longer. You should never really eat bread again, you sinner, or if you do, you should do it with a sad countenance. It even says there in 2 Samuel 12 that he went and comforted Bathsheba, his wife. And the scripture calls her his wife now. And it says that he went in and lay with her and she bore a son. And they called his name Solomon. And the Lord loved him. And they told Nathan the prophet about it. And Nathan gave the name Jedidiah, beloved of the Lord. So that shameful bed of adultery Now David goes to the same woman who is now his wife, but now his bed with her is an honorable marriage bed, whose fruit and offspring the Lord blesses, and from which comes the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you and I might say, no, you can't do that. You're taking ease too much now to go into Bathsheba as your wife. And why should you have a happy family life with the woman that you drew into adultery and whose husband you murdered by lying? But there was real comfort for a real sinner. And may we, my point in saying all of that is just so that we might take hold of that. This is no figment of the imagination when the Lord Jesus says, Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Real comfort for real sinners. Now, here are some further things to help you grasp hold of that. First, consider the easy terms on which comfort is promised. Our Lord Jesus did not say, Blessed are they who succeed in writing every wrong and repairing every injury they have done, for they shall be comforted that they've succeeded in doing this. He does not say, blessed are they who avenge every sin committed against themselves, for they shall be comforted when they're able to take revenge into their own hands. He does not say, blessed are they who unsay every idle word that they've spoken and recapture every missed opportunity, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are those who make up for all their wrongs by penance. No, blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Now, mourning, that's no great achievement. That is emptiness and weakness in itself, but here the Savior is promising with divine authority that this empty, trembling, weak, nothing of a mourner is the very one whom God is going to comfort. Do you know how God says right at the end, in the last chapter of Isaiah, but this is the one to whom I will look, to him that is humble and of a contrite spirit and that trembleth at my word. God's eye notices the mourner. God is near to the mourner. The Lord is nigh to them that are of a broken heart and a contrite spirit. You see, that's a God of grace speaking. You've done nothing to make up for your wrongs. But I see that you, by my own grace, your heart has become broken over your sin and the miseries that flow from sin. And in my grace, I condescend to promise to bless the one who mourns. Those are easy terms. That's a God of grace. Easy terms on which comfort is promised, but also the timely season in which comfort is promised. He says, blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted. It's a promise of future comfort. Now it is a comfort that believers enjoy already now by faith. So faith is the spiritual spy that goes over into Canaan. and brings back a large cluster of grapes. By faith, the believer already enjoys future things. So in no way do we deny that. But our Lord is saying that the greatest comfort for mourners is yet to come. The time of greatest comfort isn't even here yet. And so the godly mourner may say, well, like Asaph in Psalm 73, I see the wicked who are prospering. There's no bands in their death. They're fat and well-fed and secure. And here I'm a mourner. And God has given me, oh, this conscience that afflicts me when I sin. And I'm humbled all the time. And I weep more as I see my sin more deeply. And just give me some relief, we may think. But your best things are yet to come. You see, this is how God treats his children, to give them a short time of mourning now, and an eternity of perfect comfort and joy in the future. That's not how God treated the rich man in the parable. God gave to the rich man a brief period of enjoyment of his temporal things, and then an eternity of torment in hell without a drop of water to relieve him. God, that's how God treats the ones whom he casts off and leaves in their sins. He says, all right, be happy, now's your time, 70 or 80 years, and then you go to hell if you do not repent. Now, God treats his children differently. And with a tender heart, as the father of mercies and the God of all comforts, and with a high priest, who is able to be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Our God lays it before us and says, to be a disciple of Christ, you will walk in a way of mourning. A compassionate God who knows our frame has laid that out for us, but he's measured it out for only a brief time. No, you won't, you won't be able to be lifted up in the frothy mirth of this world, but I have an eternity of comfort for you. Your best things are yet to come. Your comfort will come when it truly counts in an eternity future. So we want to consider the timely season in which comfort is promised. But thirdly, we want to consider the Savior by whom comfort is promised. It is fitting that the Lord Jesus Christ should be the one to promise this. that he who was called a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief should be the one to say, blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. The one who truly felt the miseries of this life and wept at Lazarus's tomb. The one whose cries and tears in Gethsemane, at the anticipation of bearing all the sins of his people, rang out in the place of the olive press. It is Christ who can say this and not say it lightly. Christ who knows sorrows and grief and Christ who promises comfort. It is Christ who went all the way to the cross in order to secure this. It is Christ who not only said this, but who went all the way to Calvary in order to dry up the sources of grief, who went to Calvary in order to make satisfaction to the justice of God that your sins had injured so that God might be reconciled to you. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who shed his precious blood in order to redeem your soul, your soul, which is so deformed by your sin that you mourn over it. But the Lord Jesus shall make it whole. The Lord Jesus who rose from the dead to break the bonds of death, so that you who've mourned over death will know him who has the keys of death and Hades and he himself shall apply the comfort. Towards that widow of Nain, do you know how he saw her and he had compassion on her and he said unto her, weep not. So he shall say to the soul of all his own who have been godly mourners in this life, weep not. Come, you blessed of my father, inherit the foundation prepared for you from the beginning of the world. May God give grace. to each one of us to come unto the Savior that he may teach us not a legal morning that partakes of a spirit of bondage, not a bitter, angry morning that rises up against God, but a true and lowly, gracious morning to come to him to be taught that and to come to him to be comforted. May God help us in that. Would you stand with me as we pray? Oh Lord, our God and our Father in heaven. We bless thee for our Lord Jesus Christ, our great prophet at whose feet we. We trust we have sat now for this precious season. We ask that these things may be deeply impressed on our soul and far be it from us to be proud that we've learned something about mourning, but rather grant us to be those who are true practitioners of the godly mourner and true heirs of the comfort that is promised. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.