In times of mourning, we often feel anything but blessed. Yet Jesus singled out the mournful people of God as those who will enjoy His comfort. From his expositional series in the gospel of Matthew, today R.C. Sproul continues to survey the blessings that Christ pronounced in the Beatitudes.
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Meet Today's Teacher:
R.C. Sproul (1939-2017) was known for his ability to winsomely and clearly communicate deep, practical truths from God's Word. He was founder of Ligonier Ministries, first minister of preaching and teaching at Saint Andrew's Chapel, first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine.
Meet the Host:
Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of ministry engagement for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, host of the Ask Ligonier podcast, and a graduate of Presbyterian Theological College in Melbourne, Australia. Nathan joined Ligonier in 2012 and lives in Central Florida with his wife and four children.
Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts
It's not like that some Christians are called to be poor in spirit, and others are called to mourn, others are called to be make. No, these qualities that are to be made manifest in every Christian's life, we are all called to be poor in spirit rather than being self-righteous. We are all called to mourn over our fallenness, and we are all called to manifest maintenance. We began last week looking at what is perhaps the most well-known sermon ever preached. As you'll hear today, even Groucho Marx, the American comedian, could quote from it. But what does this sermon mean for you and me? What do the qualities Jesus described look like in the life of a Christian? This is the Sunday edition of Renewing Your Mind, where each Sunday we feature the preaching ministry of our C. Sproul. Our sermon series in the Beatitudes is from Dr. Sproul's time preaching through the gospel of Matthew. And these sermons formed the basis for his expositional commentary on Matthew's gospel. You can add this hardcover volume to your collection until midnight tonight, when you give a gift of any amount at renewingyourmind.org. While we return now to Jesus' sermon on the Mount, as we consider mourning, meekness, and righteousness, here's Dr. Sproul. Now we'll continue with our study of the Beatitudes as we find them in Matthew chapter 5, and I will be reading from verse 4 through verse 9, and I'd ask the congregation to stand for the reading of the Word of God. 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 filled. Blessed are the mercyful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. I've read through verse 9, but it is my intent this morning to simply look at the text through verse 6. I remind you, as we learned last week, that these are oracles given by our Lord in which He declares the blessing of God on certain types of people. May the blessings that He announces here be our inheritance. Please be seated. Let us pray. Again, our Father, we ask that You would give us understanding of the meaning of these things that Jesus spoke that day, that we may hear them now, as His disciples heard them when they were first spoken. But we ask these things in His name, amen. We begin this morning with the beatitude, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." Somebody speaking cynically to me before the service this morning said, "Well, since the Pittsburgh Steelers lost last night, we won't be hearing anything about them this morning." I says, "You forget that this morning's text is blessed are those who mourn." Most of the commentators who treat this text in the New Testament look at the morning that is in view as a particular type of mourning, and it is so specific that it does not include a broader understanding of mourning. Just as the first beatitude speaks of those who are poor, that is qualified by the term those who are poor in spirit. So scholars assume that when Jesus speaks here of mourning, He's talking about those who are mourning over their sin in broken contrition. I think that element is present, and we will look at that briefly in a moment. But I really think that the application of this is broader than a simple sorrow for sin. I realize that there are many folks in the world who mourn who, if they remain alienated from God, will never receive the comfort that is promised here. So we have to understand that the promise of comfort for those who mourn is not one that is universal. Nevertheless, the note of mourning was something that sounded a deep, discordant note in the lives of the Jewish people in the Old Testament. theirs was often a difficult lot as they suffered oppression from many nations and poverty and disease abounded, and mourning was so integral to their lives that the scriptures of old made this observation, it is better to go to the house of mourning than to spend your time with fools. Herman Melville once observed that until we understand that one grief outweighs a thousand joys, we will never understand what Christianity is trying to make us. Our Lord was known as a man of sorrows, and he was acquainted with grief. And so there is a mourning beyond the mourning of sin that is a part of the believer's life even to this day, last Sunday morning. The choir's anthem was the Nunk Demitus, which was the song of Simeon. You recall the aged Simeon went to the temple looking for the Messiah because he was promised that he would not die until he beheld the Lord's Messiah, and when Joseph and Mary brought Jesus to the temple for the dedication of the infant, and Simeon saw the babe, he said, "Now let thy servant depart in peace." For my eyes have seen the salvation of Israel. That's a marvelous, marvelous moment in redemptive history, but there's a clause before Simeon sees the Christ child. And before he sings the Nunk Demitus, he is described not only as an elderly man, but as a man who was just and devout and who was waiting for the consolation of Israel. And if you look at that in your Bible, you would see that the word consolation is capitalized because the term consolation of Israel was a title that the Jews had for the coming Messiah because they looked to the Messiah as their redeemer and as their consolation. We know that the New Testament speaks frequently of the ministry of the Holy Spirit who brings that consolation and drives the tears of God's people. When we lose a loved one, we mourn, but we mourn knowing that that mourning will turn to joy and comfort on the day of resurrection. And so if we're going to qualify this at all, we're going to have to qualify it by saying, "Blessed are the Godly who mourn, for they shall be comforted with respect to every pain that they experience in this world." The experience of comfort on a human level is a priceless experience. I think I've told you before, my boyhood memories of getting hurt playing in the street or suffering insults from my friends and I would have my feelings hurt and in my wounds I would come home crying coming through the back door and my mother would be working in the kitchen and she would have her apron around her waist and I remember her taking the edge of her apron and wiping away my tears. I think of that every time I read the promise of the book of Revelation that in heaven the Lord will wipe away all of our tears once and for all. As comforting as it was to feel the edge of my mother's apron on my cheek, I would cry again. But when the comfort that is promised here in this text is fully accomplished, it will be an everlasting comfort that will be the end of all tears. But finally there is that element of mourning over our sin. In theology we make an important distinction between two types of repentance. There is that repentance that is called attrition and the repentance of attrition may be defined as a repentance that is motivated from a fear of punishment. It is motivated by seeking a ticket out of hell. It's the kind of repentance your children express when their hands are caught in the cookie jar and they say, "Please don't punish me, I won't do it again." That's different from authentic repentance, which is defined by what we call "contrition" and "real repentance of sin" is something that is generated by a profound sorrow from the soul. Where we are as the Roman Catholic prayer of contrition indicates, "hardily sorry for our sins." And when Christ sees the righteous person who is broken by the conviction of God, the Holy Spirit, who reveals to us our sins so that our pillows are wet with our weeping, then we know what true contrition is, from which God promises His comfort. But those who acknowledge their sins in a glib manner simply say to God, "Sorry about that," that would reflect the kind of repentance that Esau had, which was not real. But a truly godly person mourns not only the loss of His loved ones, the loss of His health, but mourns His sin before God. And so when our Lord said, "Blessed are those who mourn," the blessing is not in the mourning. The blessing is in the comfort. We think, again, of the wonderful address that was spoken by the prophet to the children of Israel, where the prophet declared the Word of God, saying, "Comfort ye, comfort ye by people, saith the Lord." Tenderly to Jerusalem, and declare unto her that her warfare is over, for she has received double for all her sins. That's the comfort that we expect to know in part now, but in full at the final day. The next of the Beatitudes is this, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." When I was a boy, I never missed the regular television program called, "You Bet Your Life," starring Groucho Marx. And Groucho would always interview people, and if they said the magic word, the bird would come down with the hundred dollars, and they would win that prize, but one night they interviewed a fellow whose last name was Meek. And Groucho looked at enemies and he says, "Oh, yes," he says, "I understand that you're going to be coming into some significant real estate." And the man said, "What do you mean?" And he says, "Well, doesn't it say, "Blessed are the meek, they will inherit the earth." And I said, "How did Groucho Marx know that that was in the Bible?" But here there is often great misunderstanding of what is in view. We have a tendency to think of meekness as a synonym for weakness. We think of the meek as being personified by Casper Milktoast. It seems to describe somebody who lacks a backbone, who has a vacancy of courage in his heart. But that is not at all what is meant by the biblical concept of the meekness is frequently a quality manifested by people who are exceedingly strong. But do not use their strength or their power to crush people or to lay them low. The preeminent model of meekness in Old Testament times was Moses. And yet from another perspective, we would see that that singularly great leader of the Old Testament was one of the most powerful men in human history. But with his strength and with the power that God gave to him, he was always gentle. Still, there was one in the New Testament far stronger than Moses, even our Lord Himself. And yet it was said of Jesus that the bruised reed, He wouldn't break. And you just observe how Jesus dealt with the Pharisees and the scribes. It was asked no quarter and give none. He responded to strength with strength, but when He would find people who were lowly, who were broken by their sin, such as the woman at the well, the woman caught in adultery, Jesus ministered to these people with gentleness. Our Lord Himself was a paragon of meekness. And He is indeed blessed Jesus meek and mild, but no one has ever really mistaken Jesus for someone who was weak or spineless. But the promise that is given to those who are meek is, as even Groucho Marx understood, that they would inherit the earth. Think about that. Your parents die, your spouse dies, you go to see the attorney, the will is read, and you discover the contents of the estate that is left for you because you are an heir and you may be excited to find out that the family home or the family farm will pass into your hands, but in terms of the vastness of this earth, such parcels are small in comparison. But here the inheritance that is read at the reading of the will is the whole earth. And indeed, we are told that we are heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, and all things in this world have been given to Jesus, and He promises that the redemption that He brings is not simply for the sins of people, but He comes to redeem a fallen planet. And at the present time, the whole creation groans together, waiting for the redemption of the sons of God, and the promise again comes that at the consummation of His kingdom, the Lord will usher in a new heaven and a new earth, and that earth will be owned by the meek. But don't you see the pattern here that it's not like that some Christians are called to be poor in spirit and others are called to mourn, others are called to be meek. No, these are attributes or qualities that are to be made manifest in every Christian's life. We are all called to be poor in spirits rather than being self-righteous. We are all called to mourn over our fallenness, and we are all called to manifest this meekness because to us is promised the earth that we will inherit, the comfort that we will be given, and the possession of the kingdom of God. And finally, this morning, we look at verse 6, where Jesus pronounces His blessing and His benediction for those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. You know, again, a lot of the commentators, when they look at this text, say that what Jesus has in mind here are those believers who are passionately searching for the imputation of the righteousness of Christ by which we receive our standing before God. We don't have enough righteousness of our own to get us into heaven, only those who are clothed with the righteousness of Christ, whoever enter into His kingdom. And certainly that is true, but I very much doubt if that's what Jesus had in mind here. It's even though we are justified by faith and not by our works. We are justified unto works. We have been elected by God and received His grace unto righteousness. And even though our righteousness will never justify us, the fruit of our justification is the growing in real righteousness. It says, Luther gave the analogy, we were dead in our sins. God raised us from the dead, and He declared us well while we were still in sin. And that's what justification by faith means, but not only did He give us that declaration, but He gave us the medicine by which we actually do become conformed to the image of Jesus. And every Christian is called to grow up into maturity and in that conformity into righteousness. Now elsewhere in this gospel we're going to be looking again at this quest for righteousness, but we have almost an allergy to it because we tend to link righteousness with self-righteousness, that which the Pharisees displayed, rather than real righteousness. And what real righteousness is simply is doing what is right. And that should be a concern for us and not just a passing concern. The images that are used here are images of hunger and thirst. Remember, this message was given to people who for the most part lived in the desert, who knew what it meant to have such a parched palate that their thirst was all consuming, that just one cup of cold water would dramatically improve their condition. It was also given to people who knew what it meant to endure starvation, to go hungry for long periods of time, and a person who is in that state of hunger, just like the person who is crossing the desert and runs out of water and prays every second for the appearance of an oasis, that's the pursuit of that oasis, is the only thing that keeps him going. So the intensity of the thirst and the intensity of the hunger of that type of person is what Jesus says, "should mark our lives." You think of Jonathan Edwards, who was a young man, wrote down the resolutions for the virtues that he sought to achieve in his lifetime and by the grace of God. This man became a model of righteousness at almost the same time. There was another man in colonial America who also sought after righteousness without the aid of God. His name was Benjamin Franklin, and you recall how that Franklin made a list of the virtues that he wanted to manifest in his life, and each day he would examine himself and check off the box to grade whether he had accomplished that righteousness for that past twenty-four hours. He confesses that in the box that was marked humility, when he marked it so many days in a row, he discovered that he was becoming proud of his humility. So even the unregenerate, understand at certain points their failure to achieve real righteousness. Wouldn't that be a wonderful thing to have on your tombstone? He or she was a righteous person. We ought not to despise righteousness as something that belongs only to the self-righteous, but we should love righteousness enough to pursue it intensely as those who hunger and thirst because the promise of God is this. If you hunger for righteousness, you will not be sent away empty. You will receive the bread of life that will feed you for eternity. If you thirst for righteousness, the Son of righteousness will come with living water that will well up in your souls to eternal life. We will be filled. We will be satisfied from these pursuits. That was Arcy Sproul on this Sunday edition of Renewing Your Mind, preaching from Matthew chapter five and the Beatitudes. If you found today's sermon helpful, you can study the Beatitudes at your own pace when you request a copy of Arcy Sproul's commentary on Matthew's gospel. When you give a donation of any amount by clicking the link in the podcast show notes or at renewingyourmind.org in support of this daily outreach which has listeners around the world, we will send you the hardcover edition of Dr. Sproul's Expositional commentary on Matthew. Drowned from his sermon series in Matthew, you will hear his pastoral heart, theological precision and practical application. So before this offer ends at midnight, I encourage you to visit renewingyourmind.org to request your copy and keep building your Arcy Sproul commentary collection. Did you know that last Thursday, July 18 marks the 59th anniversary of Arcy Sproul's ordination? Well, back in 2011, during Ligonier's National Conference, Dr. Sproul reflected on his ordination and the role of the church. Here's what he said. When I was ordained 100 years ago, I was ordained to the teaching ministry and my first call was to be a college professor and then from there to be a seminary professor. And then from there, a life devoted to adult Christian education. And my education was in those paths and it never occurred to me to be a pastor. I had concerns for pastoral life. I didn't think I had what it took to be a pastor. No, I still don't. I'm really not a pastor, I'm a preacher, pretty much at St. Andrews. And yet my ministry and my career, if you call it that, has been widely diverse and done lots of things with writing and radio and conferencing and teaching and so on. But the greatest joy of my life in ministry is being able to be the teaching, preaching pastor at St. Andrews Church where I can be in the same pulpit every Sunday, not running all over the place here, there and everywhere, but to be able to have a flock of people, the same people, and to be involved in expository preaching week in and week out to those people. Because I really believe that the most corrupt institution in the world is the church. And I think the reason for that is it's the most important institution in the world and all of the arrows of Satan are directed against it. But what has to happen in this country and every country is for the church to be the church and for the church to be focused on godly worship and the exposition of the word of God so that the people in the church are being nurtured and fed and become disciples. The Great Commission is not to go to all who ends the earth to make converts, but we are to make disciples teaching them. And that is through preaching the exposition of the content of God's word and the chief vehicle that God himself is ordained for that purpose is the church. Next week we'll continue in the Beatitudes beginning with blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy to join us Sunday here on Renewing Your Mind. [Music] (gentle music)
