But secondly, in verse 4, "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted."
Blessed are they that mourn.
There is a time to mourn.
Ecclesiastes tells us to everything there's a purpose, to everything there is a season,
and a time to every purpose under heaven, and there's a time to laugh, but there's a
time to mourn.
We shouldn't go through life only jovial, laughing, having a good time.
There are times of mourning that are important.
Flip over, keep your finger in Matthew 5 because that's where we're going to stay, but flip
over to Ecclesiastes chapter 7.
Ecclesiastes chapter 7, and I'll read for you from James 4 verse 8.
It says, "Draw an eye to God and He will draw an eye to you.
Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded."
Watch this.
"Be afflicted and mourn and weep."
This is what God is telling us.
He's telling us, "Be afflicted, mourn and weep.
Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness.
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up."
Basically, in our modern vernacular, God's saying, "Wipe that smile off your face."
As every parent has said to their child at one time or another, "Wipe that stupid smile
off your face."
Right?
Who's had your parents tell you that at some point?
Probably everybody.
I know I've said it.
We've all said it.
And it's all been said unto us.
Okay?
"Wipe that smile off.
Quit smiling.
Get that smile off your face."
You know, "Hey!
Hey!
Let your laughter be turned to mourning.
Let your joy be turned to heaviness."
The Bible tells you, "Nope, it's just rah-rah, fun-fun, ha-ha.
Everything's a joke.
Everything's fun."
No, there's a virtue of godly sorrow.
Godly sorrow, work of repentance and the salvation not to be repented of, the Bible says.
And so sorrow has its place.
He's telling people that are sinful people, "Cleanse your hands, you sinners.
Purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Be afflicted and mourn and weep.
Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness.
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He shall lift you up."
Look at Ecclesiastes number seven.
Verse two, "It's better to go to the house of mourning, a.k.a.
Faithfulward Baptist Church," no, I'm just kidding, "than to go to the house of feasting."
How's that for a church name?
House of mourning Baptist Church.
I don't think it would be very popular.
You'll say, "Man, that sounds like a downer, depressing.
Let me go to fun, fun, party, joy Baptist Church."
But it's actually better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting.
You know, sometimes you need to go to a place where maybe you hear some preaching that might
make you sad, get you down, whatever.
But you know what?
The Bible explains it.
I don't want to steal my own thunder here.
Let's keep reading.
It says, "It's better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting,
for that is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to his heart."
You know what he's saying?
You're going to end up there anyway.
Did you catch that?
The Bible is so great.
"It's better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for that's
the end of all men."
I mean, everybody's going there.
"And the living will lay it to his heart."
Okay, look, the people who say, "Oh, forget the house of mourning.
Forget that church that preaches hard against sin, doom and gloom, fire and brimstone, negative,
it's a downer, hateful, whatever."
They want to go down to the fun, fun, fun party church.
Guess what?
They're going to end up crying.
What did he say?
"Woe unto you that laugh."
Why?
Because you're going to weep.
"Woe unto you that instead of being in church on Sunday morning, you're out on Saturday
night, dancing and partying and getting drunk."
Hey, oh believe me, you're going to do the weeping.
I'd rather schedule my suffering.
I'd rather plan to weep.
I would rather schedule a time and say, you know what, hey, I'm going to go and I'm going
to go through the sadness, the sorrow, the mourning, the weeping.
I'm going to work and study God's word and get the sin out of my life.
Do the right things.
I'd rather schedule my hunger.
Look, because you're going to go through pain and sorrow anyway if you're just fun, fun,
party, party.
Think about it.
Why?
Because the consequences of sin are going to catch up with you and then it's going to
be a lot of mourning.
Or what about the person who won't even get saved?
What about the person who just won't even listen to the gospel, doesn't even get saved?
Where are they going to end up?
They're going to end up in hell.
And you know what?
There's going to be weeping and gnashing of teeth and they might have had a lot of laughs
in their lifetime, but when they get to hell, it's not going to matter how many times they
laughed or how much fun they had, is it?
But even in this lifetime, we see the fun party crowd brought to their knees over and
over again.
I'd rather get on my knees on purpose.
I'd rather schedule a time on my knees than to have God have to bring me to my knees.
You understand the difference?
It's like people say, oh, you know, and I'm just bringing this up because we just did
that big endurance thing yesterday where we're out biking for 50 miles and people are running
and hiking and everything else.
You know, you might look at that and say, oh, how is that fun?
That sounds painful.
That sounds like suffering.
But you know what, woe unto you that are sedentary now, you know.
Hear me out, folks.
You think to yourself, oh man, that sounds, you know what's even more painful?
Open heart surgery.
You know, oh man, that sounds painful.
You know, going out and exercising, you know what's even more painful?
Not exercising.
All the disease that you're going to get, all the bad health that you're going to get.
Think about it.
Say, oh man, that food, that healthy food, it doesn't taste that good.
Yeah, but woe unto you that want to party in your mouth every meal because you're going
to have a pretty bad taste in your mouth when you're eating hospital food.
That stuff's nasty.
You know what I'm saying?
Look, the point is schedule your suffering.
You know, you go out and you exercise and you schedule that suffering and then you'll
laugh later when you're feeling good from the effects of a healthy lifestyle, right?
So that's kind of a carnal example, but spiritually speaking we can see that examples abound.
You go out and enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season and then you weep and suffer
and mourn and you end up a failure.
You know, I'd rather suffer, bite the bullet, go through some hard things, do some hard
things in my life and then spend the rest of my life enjoying and then spend all eternity
enjoying than to have all the fun, fun, fun when I'm a teenager and in my 20s and then
the rest of my life suffer from the consequences of those stupid decisions.
Think about that.
See when some people are out drinking and partying and fornicating, other people are
seeking the Lord.
Other people down at the house of mourning on their knees.
Guess what, both people are going to end up on their knees, but I'd rather be on my knees
in front of God's altar than to be on my knees in a toilet in a dirty bar bathroom.
You're going to end up on your knees either way, folks.
I'd rather end up on my knees because I chose to be on my knees praying to the Lord God
than on my knees because I'm puking up a bunch of alcohol and I'm on my knees in whatever
the horrible situation.
So anyway, I've got to move on for the sake of time, but let's keep reading this.
This is a great passage.
It'd be easy to spend the whole sermon in Ecclesiastes 7, but I've got to get through
all this.
So, "sorrow is better than laughter," it says in verse 3, "for by the sadness of the countenance,
the heart is made better."
Suffering makes you a better person.
Sorrow and sadness make you a better person.
That's why you're blessed if you mourn.
Why?
You're blessed if you mourn because it makes you a better person, and blessed are they
that mourn because they shall be comforted.
God's going to comfort your mourning, God's going to wipe away your tears, and the end
is going to be peace.
The end is going to be blessedness.
The end is going to be good.
Then he says this in verse four, "The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but
the heart of fools is in the house of mirth."
Mirth is just joy, partying, having a good time, laughter, things like that.
Verse five, "It's better to hear the rebuke of the wise, aka Bible preaching, than for
a man to hear the song of fools, aka all the music on the radio."
Right?
I mean, and what are people listening to today?
When they're driving down their own car, often they're going to be listening to all the world's
music.
That's the song of fools.
Other people pop in some Bible preaching, and what are they listening to?
The rebuke of the wise.
Oh, it's so negative.
I'd rather listen to this joyful, uplifting stuff.
Well, you know what?
I want to have joy, too.
We all want to be happy.
We all want to have joy.
But you know what, the Bible teaches the way up is down.
And that seems counterintuitive, but the way up is down, right?
You humble yourself, you go down, and then God lifts you up, right?
The world says, hey, just climb that ladder, you know, just go up, up, up.
Just lift yourself up.
Get yourself up.
No, no, get down, and God will lift you up.
That's what the Bible's teaching.
So it's better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools.
back to Matthew chapter five.