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[0:00] So we've started a series recently here, and we need to welcome Keith and Donna back. We can't ignore the fact that they've come back after deserting us for the winter and living down in Florida.

[0:16] Well, welcome back. Our series that we're into, I guess week number four now, Living Distinctively as Members of the Kingdom of Christ, those who are disciples of Jesus Christ, we do.

[0:30] We do live distinctively different from those who are not members of the Kingdom of Christ. Those who aren't members of the Kingdom of Christ are members of Satan's domain of darkness, as we see in Colossians chapter 1.

[0:49] And we all were members of that Kingdom at one time, but by repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, we were rescued, brought out of that domain of darkness, transferred over, as it says in that verse, into the Kingdom of the Son He loves.

[1:07] The work that God the Father has done through the Holy Spirit, by faith in Jesus Christ, rescued out of that domain of darkness, and again, transferred into the Kingdom of Christ.

[1:19] So once we've entered that Kingdom of Christ, that Kingdom of Heaven, we learn a whole new way of life. Everything's different now.

[1:31] We're part of a new Kingdom with a new ruler, and that ruler being Jesus Christ. And as members of that new Kingdom, we now live to please Him, He who is our King, our Lord.

[1:45] And we see this in a variety of verses in the Scriptures, some that I've sought to memorize, so that I stay on track in my day, and I'm reminded by the Spirit of God at times, now wait a minute, you know, think about what you're doing here, does that fit the purpose of a person who is a member of the Kingdom of Christ?

[2:09] 1 Corinthians 10.31, most of you probably know that one. Whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God, the glory of our King, Jesus Christ.

[2:22] 2 Corinthians 5.9, another verse that emphasizes my new purpose, that fits my new way of life, and my new position in the Kingdom of God.

[2:32] Whether we're at home, meaning whether we're at home in this body, while we're in this world, or away, whether we are dead, our bodies in the ground, our spirit has gone up, soul's gone up to be with Christ.

[2:47] So whether we're at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him. Another good purpose verse. Another one, that same chapter, verse 15, and He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who for their sake died and was raised.

[3:09] And then in Peter's letter to those scattered abroad, he said, But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

[3:28] So if you don't have any of those purpose verses memorized, make that your goal to hide some of those verses away in your heart, your mind. The Spirit of God will use that to help you as you move through your day and those temptations come.

[3:44] And you'll be reminded of, Hey, I'm a member of the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Christ, and as such I have a new purpose. So we live for a new elevated purpose.

[3:58] While we're in this world. And while we wait for Jesus Christ to come again. And living out that purpose manifests itself really in a distinctly different way of life than what is manifested, as we've learned in the past, by the majority of people in the world that are not followers of Jesus Christ.

[4:18] We are in the minority in this world. But that doesn't mean we live any less for the King and His glory. It just means that we shine with a greater brilliance while we're in the world.

[4:32] In fact, Paul wrote that to the believers in Philippi. And he was reminding them of the importance of living distinctly different lives. They live for a new purpose.

[4:43] Interesting, as you read these different epistles, it usually comes up in the epistle people need reminders of who they are and how they are to live in the culture and the world in which they are a minority as members of the Kingdom of Christ.

[4:59] So a lot of things don't change. It's still our situation today. And Paul was reminding the believers there, only let your manner of life be worthy of the Gospel of Christ.

[5:12] Now this is where men, you need to be good listeners to your wives because Carol told me this information from the study they're doing on Wednesday night. And I thought, oh man, that's interesting. Be good listeners, men.

[5:25] The Greek word translated manner of life or conduct means properly to administer the state, to live as a citizen, to conduct oneself according to the laws and customs of the state.

[5:38] So the people Paul was writing to, they were familiar with the meaning of that word as citizens of Rome. They were supposed to conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the Roman Empire.

[5:53] Well, Paul's writing to these people and helping them understand, that might be all well and good, but your identity is connected and associated with something that's far greater than this Roman Empire.

[6:10] And it's this whole matter of the Kingdom of Christ, the Gospel. And now he's trying to help them understand that they need to see their higher calling as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven.

[6:24] Your manner of life, the way you live, should reflect what is true of one who is a member or citizen of the Kingdom of Christ. It should magnify or correspond to the glory of Jesus Christ and that of the Gospel.

[6:40] And so, this is a glory beyond this world, as I said, beyond this Roman Empire. And now your life, you're not conforming to things of this world that might be considered of great value.

[6:56] No, no. Now your life is to conform to something that is greater, that has a greater glory. And that's the glory of the Gospel. Live distinctively different, and let your life be elevated to that level of glory that is seen in the person of Jesus Christ and the Gospel.

[7:20] Wow, I hope you're feeling elevated this morning. Elevated to this new life. And because that's the perspective we need to have when it comes to being followers of Jesus Christ.

[7:32] We are not lower citizens as even in the book of 1 Peter was being communicated to them. And Peter's helping them understand, no, no, no, no.

[7:43] You're a chosen people. You're a royal priesthood. You're a people belonging to God. And so the same idea here in the book of Philippians. The beauty of the Gospel in the Kingdom of Christ should be reflected in the beauty of your transformed and transforming life in Christ.

[8:05] Christ. So again, we're to live in such a way that our daily life and our words and actions truly conform to the standard of the Kingdom of Heaven. Even though we're living in a world that rejects all that truth.

[8:20] Even as Paul wrote again to another set of believers, Romans 12.2, don't be conformed to this world. Don't let yourselves be pressed into the mold of this world's standards and how they respond and live their daily lives.

[8:39] No, live transformed lives by the renewing of our minds. And of course, we learn these new standards for the Kingdom in the document that the King has provided for us.

[8:53] The Scriptures, the Bible. God made it and preserved it for us so that we would know those standards and be able to put them into practice wherever we live in this world at the standard that holds true wherever we travel and wherever we live.

[9:12] And that's what Jesus was teaching His disciples on the mountainside that we read about in Matthew 5, which is where we're focusing these days in our series.

[9:24] And that's what he's seeking to help us learn and understand this morning. Jeremy got us started last week in this section called the Beatitudes, Matthew 5, 1 and through 3.

[9:38] 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.

[9:51] Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. So you put yourself in that scenario there, that scene, they were on the mountainside.

[10:02] When we took a trip to Israel, they took us to what they thought was maybe the area in which it would have taken place. And indeed, it was a beautiful area and helped me put myself there.

[10:13] What must it have been like for Jesus to sit down there with all those people there ready to hear that Him calling His disciples unto Himself. And there were those there that probably weren't His disciples.

[10:28] But they needed to hear that message as well. But in particular, His disciples needed to hear this truth. And He starts each one of these Beatitudes with blessed, happy, blissful, that inward contentment that isn't dependent on outward circumstances.

[10:49] That should get their attention, right? Blessed, it should get our attention. We all want that happy, blissful life not dependent on outward circumstances.

[11:01] We don't wake up in the morning hoping that we'll have a bad day. You know, I hope I go out to the car and the car won't start or hope the boss is in a grumpy mood again today or hope my computer crashes and I lose all my data and have to say, oh, we want the opposite.

[11:21] We want the car to start, we want, oh, the boss, oh, he's in a great mood today. My day is just great and so on and so forth. That's the way we want to be. We want that blissful life.

[11:33] We want to have that inward contentment that isn't dependent on outward circumstances or other people that we come in contact with through our day.

[11:46] And Jesus is bringing that message to his disciples. the way to possess and experience that kind of life. In fact, that's the kind of life that God provided Adam and Eve in the beginning.

[12:03] Certainly blissful. Outward circumstances were just great. There was no problems at that time. They were the ones that brought about the devastating crash to their blissful lives as that's usually the case today as well.

[12:22] When we respond wrongly to circumstances or other people. But now, in Matthew 5, we read about God, Jesus, once again, showing people the way back to the blissful life.

[12:39] that's just the way God is. He's the one who looks with compassion upon people and moves in their direction certainly in the incarnation and coming but then also verbally with the message that they need to hear.

[12:56] I want to show you the way back to that which was lost in the rebellion and in your rebellion really against God and His counsel for life and right relationship with Him, with yourself and with each other and the rest of creation.

[13:17] That's what the message that God and Jesus Christ is bringing to the people. And as He brought this whole sermon beyond the Beatitudes, it's interesting to see how He ends it up in chapter 7.

[13:34] He tells them that those who hear His message and recognize the truth of it and sincerely acknowledge Him as Lord and become doers of the Word, that which He taught, which He was starting here and where we're at in the Beatitudes and follows it up with much more and the conclusion of the matter is, listen, you've heard a lot of information in the Sermon on the Mount but now I want you to understand that the individual that not only hears but also becomes a doer of what I've taught you and now we pick it up in Matthew 7, well that person will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

[14:21] The rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew and beat on that house but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock. Again, the understanding His life isn't dependent on outward circumstances because His foundation for life, that which He builds His outward actions, His thoughts, is founded on the principles of the King and that brings stability to the individual in His life.

[14:52] So, let happen what happens, they're going to be difficult, they're going to be trying situations, certainly, but my sense of joy, my sense of comfort and peace isn't determined by my outward circumstances because I'm living like the wise man here.

[15:15] And everyone who hears these words of mine but does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell and great was its fall.

[15:29] So, the opposite will be true as well. You've heard me teach you all these things in the Sermon on the Mount. If you want to enjoy the blessedness of what I've taught you, then be like the wise man who built his house upon the rock.

[15:45] Receive it to yourself. Receive me as Lord and what I've taught as truth and put it into practice. Otherwise, if you don't, you can be guaranteed that your life will be like the foolish man who built his house on the sand.

[16:01] And as you move through life, there will be difficulties. And ultimately, at the end of that life, if you still live a life rejecting God and His counsel, that is when the greatest collapse comes forever.

[16:18] Eternally separated from this glorious King and the standards and principles of His kingdom that the wise people will enjoy forever. So, Jesus is the way to this blessed life.

[16:34] In fact, He said, I'm the way. I'm the way. I'm the truth. I'm the life. If that's what you want, this blessedness, here it is. I am what you need.

[16:47] And I'm offering that to you. So, Jesus brings the message of life to those on the mountainside. What a beautiful time that could have been.

[16:58] Of course, they were still not understanding Him as God truly come in the flesh. Probably most of them seeing Him just another teacher. but indeed, He was bringing a very, very different message which seemed counterintuitive to many of them because He's saying blessed, in this case now, as Jeremy started us off, like, blessed are the poor in spirit.

[17:23] What? Now, this must have got their attention as well. Thinking, well, let's not go there. Let's stay with the happy part. Let's stay where you're telling us there's blessing.

[17:35] Well, that's the first paradox Jeremy opened up for us last week. In order for them to know true happiness, this blessedness, they must be poor in spirit.

[17:47] They must understand and acknowledge their true spiritual condition before God apart from Christ. Spiritually destitute, spiritual poverty apart from Jesus Christ.

[17:59] You can't see the glory of God in Jesus without seeing your own sin. Really. The two are connected. Those who see their true spiritual condition and turn to Christ, then theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

[18:17] They're delivered again from that domain of darkness transferred in the kingdom of Christ. Now, that makes sense. Now we're getting back to the part that we like.

[18:29] Blessed are the poor in spirit. Theirs is the kingdom of Christ. That's the connection. The blessedness connection with theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

[18:42] Remember that definition of a paradox I gave. A seemingly absurd and contradictory statement. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Or proposition which when investigated may prove to be well-founded or true.

[18:56] true. Now, in the teaching of Jesus, it's not something that may prove to be well-founded or true. It is well-founded and it is true.

[19:09] blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. So this paradox does make sense to those who have accepted the message from the king, believed it and acted upon it and now are in the reality of now you're a member of the kingdom of heaven.

[19:30] well, now Jesus continues with the next paragraph. That was a long introduction to our lesson for the day.

[19:42] Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. The word mourning that Jesus has used in the Beatitudes is the strongest, most severe of the nine Greek words used for grief in scripture.

[19:57] The word conveys the idea of a deep inner agony, not just an external wailing. I think and I've heard in the past someplace that at times when someone died they would actually hire professional mourners that would come and do the wailing at this individual's funeral procession.

[20:21] We're not looking for professional wailers in regard to our sins, something that is just external without a real heartfelt sense and understanding of the reality of my destitute condition apart from Jesus Christ.

[20:38] Being poor in spirit, the individual has a Holy Spirit generated intellectual understanding of his spiritual depravity apart from Christ, poor in spirit, and out of that awareness there comes a genuine heartfelt emotional mourning mourning of his sin and guilt before God.

[20:58] The mourning truly shows a brokenness of knowing the weight of my sin. There's a godly sorrow and grief over that sin in my life that's become so aware to me by God's spirit and his word.

[21:20] In fact, in Paul's letter to the church in Corinth, he wrote about the difference between godly sorrow and selfish sorrow. In 2 Corinthians 7.10, he said, for godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly sorrow or grief produces death.

[21:41] So worldly sorrow is sorrow that really is more self-focused. it's sorrow because of the consequences that have come. Maybe you've experienced it as a child or you've seen it in your children when they've been caught in the act of something that they shouldn't be doing.

[22:00] All of a sudden they're crying, Mommy, Daddy, I'm sorry, don't spank me. I don't know that those are tears of real repentance because of the sorrow of their sin, but sorrow of the price they're going to have to pay because of what they've done and spanking or whatever.

[22:17] So God is not looking just for this outward action that is separated from a true heartfelt understanding grief over one's understanding of sin against God.

[22:34] That worldly sorrow, there really is no repentance toward God, whereas a godly sorrow leads to salvation. There's a repentance, a real change of heart because of the individual's understanding of their sin certainly against a holy God.

[22:53] And there is that subjective sense of grief and sorrow. I mean, you've all experienced it. As a Christian, when you know you've done something wrong, the blissful life is not there right at that time.

[23:10] You're experiencing the consequences of your sin, rightfully so. And so, not only in our initial salvation is God calling us to repentance and faith in Christ, we almost hear the call of the gospel again, even as believers, when we sin.

[23:29] Reminding us, listen, the gospel, the truth, Christ, has brought you out of this life, that life, and so now, as this member of the kingdom of Christ, that just has no part in your life.

[23:47] It doesn't reflect the standard of the state of the kingdom of heaven. And so, the Spirit of God within, dwelling within you, is helping you understand the grievousness of that sin, convicting you of your sin.

[24:08] And you can sense that. And so, there's a mourning over that sin that leads us to repentance.

[24:19] What's repentance? Repentance is a confession. It involves that confession of sin. A change of mind, the way we think about what we've done now, but also in a change of action.

[24:32] Now, I'm not going in that direction anymore. Truly, godly sorrow leads to repentance. Biblical repentance is an actual change of mind that leads to a change of action in the way that we respond in those circumstances when we're faced with that again in the future.

[24:49] True repentance means that I'm not going there again. I'm going in a new way. Perfecting holiness out of reverence for God, for Christ.

[25:00] Christ. Well, again, that's not what we see in the world. People apart from Christ, the whole world system in which we live, they really make light of sin.

[25:14] We don't see this biblical mourning over sin in our world. They make movies, television programs, YouTubes, that make light of evil, even elevate evil and sin in a way that it shouldn't be.

[25:30] They pass laws that make sinful behavior legal, trying to make it acceptable to the masses of people. They treat what is immoral as natural.

[25:45] It's normal what you believe is counterintuitive. in those that do experience the guilt of wrongdoing, because unsaved people do experience a sense of wrong in their true guilt, but it's their response to it that isn't right and biblical.

[26:15] It doesn't fit the biblical model of what true mourning over sin is like. Instead, they'll blame others. Adam fell into that. God, you gave me this woman, it's her fault, the snake, look to put the blame.

[26:32] If my boss wasn't that way, I wouldn't be this way when I come home. It's easy to shift the blame onto somebody else. They might give it a different name from what is morally wrong and classify it now as a disease.

[26:49] It's something I've got now. It's a disease and I need some sort of medicine to help me overcome this wrong that something was not wrong.

[27:02] It's a disease. Or they ignore it, deny it as sin and continue on in their sin. They counterbalance it maybe with acts of goodness. They're looking to relieve themselves of this sense of wrong and guilt and the way some people do it is, okay, I'll do good.

[27:21] I'll give money to this charity or I'll go help my neighbor or whatever else you could think of. They might suppress the sad feelings with temporary fix of drugs, excessive alcohol, food, partying.

[27:37] Partying is kind of feeling terrible. I need to go someplace where everything is happy. so let's have a party. Everybody's happy. Okay, I'm happy now.

[27:49] It's all good and it's all fine, no problem until they go home. And I can't be in this constant party situation and the problem's still there.

[28:03] No. Temporary fixes or maybe associate themselves with others who are going to affirm them and what they're doing. and even some people even go to the extreme of suicide.

[28:18] They want relief so bad it seems the only way to get it is to remove themselves from the presence of such terrible feelings through suicide. God's providing a way.

[28:31] God's providing a way and that way is blessed are those who mourn, who mourn biblically, godly sorrow. Well, we see that in David's life.

[28:45] David's mourning after his sin. Listen to him. And you read, most of you know the story, the situation that David had been involved in. His sin with Bathsheba and covering it up.

[28:57] Eventually having her husband killed. I mean, those are extreme sins that we would say. Listen to what David has to say.

[29:08] Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love. He's going through this mourning. He's feeling the sense, the weight of his sin. According to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions.

[29:20] Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin for I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. You've been there before?

[29:32] When you've hesitated and confeshing and dealing with your sin biblically, it just is there. With you. You just can't get deliverance from that feeling, that sense of guilt because you are guilty.

[29:50] That's what David's explaining here. Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you might be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

[30:04] Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being and you teach wisdom in the secret heart.

[30:17] Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear the joy and the gladness. Let the bones that you broke and rejoice.

[30:30] Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. You see, this is part of the true expression of true mourning over sin. Recognizes, senses the weight of sin, but now is seeing the only deliverance is in God Himself and going humbly to Him, confessing the sin, pleading for His forgiveness, pleading for His acceptance and cleansing of the sin.

[30:58] That's what we're seeing here, what mourning looks like. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Your presence, and take not Your Holy Spirit from me.

[31:11] Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Give me the comfort, the blissful life that I sacrificed in my sin.

[31:24] I mean, that's true mourning, looking to God for the blessedness of life. I mean, He says that again in Psalm 38, for my iniquities have gone over my head like a heavy burden.

[31:40] They're too heavy for me. I'm utterly bowed down and prostrate all the day. I go about mourning. And that's what we're talking about here.

[31:53] That recognition of sin. The people of Nineveh came to that knowledge of their sin against God and also mourned. I mean, Jonah knew these people are sinners.

[32:05] They don't deserve to hear God's message. Destroy them. But the message came to them. The word reached the king of Nineveh and he rose up from its throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, satin ashes.

[32:21] He issued a proclamation published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles. Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water.

[32:31] Let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that's in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish.

[32:47] Really understood very well their destitute condition apart from God and truly what their sinful behavior deserved the judgment of God.

[32:59] Yet here God was coming in mercy and compassion through one of his messengers with a new message of blessed are those who mourn. And they heard that message.

[33:12] And somewhat to Jonah's dismay, they repented. And were blessed in that, comforted.

[33:24] Well, so we can't treat sin lightly. We can't make light of the devastation that sin has caused in our relationship with God, Jesus Christ, even within our own personal lives, individual lives, and our relationships with other people and the rest of the world.

[33:44] Now, when it's seen for what it is and what it does, mourning really is, it's the right response. We're beginning to see the sensibleness of blessed are those who mourn.

[33:55] ungodly sorrow and mourning comes truly from the work of the Spirit of God as the individual sees the holiness of God and His Word.

[34:07] How do I develop? How do I get to this place of mourning? Well, the Spirit of God, and you can be thankful, the Spirit of God is there working in you, convicting you of sin. But, go to the Word.

[34:21] hear those truths of the holiness of God, that you would be sensitive to the sinfulness of sin.

[34:35] See and develop that sense of mourning over sin as you meditate and reflect on the anguish of Jesus on the cross. Now, again, that will hopefully help us keep from making light of sin.

[34:54] That's a big deal. Think of Jesus on the cross. What He did there. What He had to suffer for. Eh, it's not a big deal.

[35:05] It is a big deal. Mourn over it for what we see. It costs Jesus Christ. Why have you forsaken me? That's a huge thing.

[35:16] For the Son of God, in His relationship with the Father, it is a big thing. Something that we should truly mourn over in our lives when we give in to sin.

[35:31] Pray that God would give you a sensitive heart. A heart that's repelled by sin and drawn to Christ and righteousness of Christ. Thomas Watson said, till sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet.

[35:48] Those individuals that genuinely mourn over sin, were not left in that state of mourning and grief and sorrow and despair. Jesus said, they shall be comforted.

[36:01] Okay, that's what we like to be. Enough of the mourning. No, we can't skip the mourning. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

[36:16] well, when sin is handled God's way, there is God's blessing of comfort. But it again, only comes to those with godly sorrow, those who mourn, because it says, they will be comforted.

[36:32] Only they, those who mourn in that way, biblically, as laid out by the God of all compassion, they are the ones who are the recipients of the comfort from God.

[36:54] Like the prodigal son, he mourned over his sin, confessed his sin to his father, and he was blessed in his mourning and repentance. When his father saw him coming, his father ran to him, embraced his son, kissed him, welcomed him home.

[37:10] You think that son wasn't comforted? You know, coming home with his anxious, heart, anxiety. What's going to happen, you know, as I come?

[37:21] Look at everything I've done. I've been a fool, acted a fool, wasted what the father had given to me. But he comes, and this is what he finds from the father.

[37:33] He organized a great celebration, because this my son was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found. I mean, the level of comfort was exceedingly high.

[37:48] It went far, far beyond certainly what the other son thought should happen, but probably what this son who came ever expected. And that's the way it with us.

[37:58] When we come to the father thinking, you know, what will there be? It goes, the comfort that we receive goes far, far, far, beyond anything that we could ever comprehend.

[38:12] I still can't comprehend the ways that God's comfort is going to be and is and is going to be revealed toward me. Wow.

[38:24] The story is communicating the kind of comfort God has in store for those who recognize their great sin and sincerely mourn over it. Turn to Christ for forgiveness and restoration.

[38:39] It's celebration. Even Jesus said in Luke 15. 10, just so I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. So there's a celebration that goes on when a person comes to Christ.

[38:53] David knew that same comfort of mourning and repenting over his sin. Listen to what he said. We already read for you the description of his mourning. Now he also writes to the blessedness of having his sins forgiven.

[39:08] There was a period of time in David's life when he tried to ignore the guilt of his sin and he was miserable in his life. We've read about that.

[39:20] But when he finally admitted his sin and had godly sorrow over it, repented, he knew the comfort from God and this is what he wrote, blessed. There we are again.

[39:32] You want blessed? Let me tell you something of what blessedness is. This is what my life was like when I tried to ignore my sin.

[39:44] Miserable. Once I saw that and turned in mourning, biblical repentance. Now he's using a very, very different term. Blessed. Blissful is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

[40:00] Blessed. You think he's trying to communicate something to us? Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there's no deceit.

[40:11] There's a man who really knew the comfort of God. So those who come to Christ in true faith and repentance, God has comfort in store. He's the God of all comfort, as it says in 2 Corinthians 1.

[40:25] So all, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all involved in this whole matter of comfort, giving comfort to those who mourn. In fact, the Spirit of God is called the Comforter.

[40:37] In John 14. 16, Jesus said, And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another helper, another comforter, be with you forever. Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him.

[40:52] You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. So there's comfort from God, comfort for the present. We can know His comfort now. This is just something, not something for the distant future.

[41:07] This is something that we know now, we can know now from God. Oh, I've got a number of these listed. I might not be able to go through all of them, but comfort through the redemption that we have through Jesus Christ, transferred into the kingdom of Christ, having our sins forgiven.

[41:25] I'm declared a child of God, has an imperishable inheritance, kept in heaven, individual who mourns, being guarded by God's power for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time, can never be separated from God's love, not alone, but part of a great number who are members of the kingdom of Christ, who provide comfort of God to each other, justified by faith.

[41:54] peace with God, no longer slave to sin and Satan, God's working all things together for my transformation, the work he started in me, he'll continue, and chief among them all, knowing Christ.

[42:09] I mean, that's what the apostle Paul held up as great value. And he had many treasures that the culture would have considered this guy's made it.

[42:20] But he said, you can try comforting me with all those things, but now I consider them as refuse. Instead, give me the comfort and the joy of knowing Christ, the fellowship with him, even suffering with him.

[42:40] I mean, that's comfort for the apostle Paul, and that's the comfort for us, and not just now, but the eternal comfort to come. Let me just read one verse here that I got down. Don't let your hearts be troubled, Jesus told his disciples, man, they need some comfort.

[42:58] Believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also.

[43:15] That eternal comfort to come. That place where, well, I guess we won't need any more comfort. Because we'll be with the comforter.

[43:26] We'll be in the place where everything coincides with the kingdom of God. We'll be there. Don't let yourself or the enemy deceive you into thinking that apart from true sincere mourning for your sin, you can have true comfort from God now and in His eternal kingdom that there is to come.

[43:48] No, it only comes through those who mourn. They are the ones that shall be comforted. And Jesus said, and He still says today, come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest.

[44:09] I mean, that can be applicable certainly to the unbeliever. Don't put it off. He spoke on the mountain side. He's speaking today through His Word. Come. Come to Me, and you'll find rest, comfort.

[44:22] Saying it to the believer. Believer, don't let sin rule in your heart and life. Come to Me. Confess your sin. I'll be faithful and just to forgive you and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

[44:33] You'll be blessed. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, what a treasure we have in this.

[44:44] Thank You for letting us know this would seem to be counter intuitive, but makes absolute sense. Father, help us always to see the blessing in right mourning.

[44:59]  We might know Your comfort as we move through this world waiting for Jesus to come again. In His name we pray. Amen. Thank You.