I Will Give You Something To Cry About - [Matthew 5:4]

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The world loves a good time 31 flavors
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Baskin Robbins, I can think of 31 flavors of excitement Exhilaration joy and laughter where the world just wants to Have fun to think of the old song by Sheryl Crow.
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All I want to do is have some what? fun Pack up your troubles forget your troubles drowned out your troubles
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It is party time the American dream life liberty and the pursuit of happiness
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D .a. Carson said the summum bonum of life becomes a good time and The immediate goal is the next high the world does not like mourners mourners are like wet blankets
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In our world mourners are to be pitied shunned Turned away from who wants people that mourn
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Big boys, don't cry. I wonder what God thinks about grieving and mourning.
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I wonder what God thinks about sorrow and grief Our tears a part of repentance is
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God pleased with crying Does God approve mourning? In our culture of laughter pleasure and entertainment, is there a place where we should mourn are we commanded to mourn?
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The poet Edward Young said it is impious for a good man to be sad Some saints of old have said many things about crying and weeping and they've put a high value on those things
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St. Bernard called tears the wine of angels He went on to say the tears of the penitent are sweeter than all worldly joy
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Chrysostom the great preacher Called tears the sponge to wipe off sin
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He said the sweetest wine is that which comes out of the winepress of the eyes Jerome said that prayer inclines
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God to show mercy But tears compel him he calls morning a plank after a shipwreck
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But what about God? It's one thing the world says this Saints say that what does God say about mourning?
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Do you know the Bible says blessed are those who mourn Would you turn your
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Bibles to Matthew chapter 5 and we want to look at this second beatitude today called By me at least the morning beatitude blessed are those who mourn for they and they alone shall be
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Comforted our Kent Hughes calls this passage.
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Good morning with the you in the morning. I Like that I had to make up my own and so my working title all week was
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I'll give you something to cry about What every dad says throughout the generations my dad used to say that there is a time
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To cry there is a time to weep for both unbeliever and believer and we want to examine that today
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And it will be a perfect seeker sensitive sermon to just draw in the crowds This will be a sermon that you won't hear at a lot of churches and I don't claim to be great and therefore preaching it
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But we believe in this church that we pick a book and we preach through it Verse by verse word by word clause by clause because we want to know what
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God says And we don't want to know just half of it the good part We want to know everything because the
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Bible says that scripture is adequate and it equips us and it lets us know Everything we need to know, you know, there's nothing not recorded in Scripture.
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That's a double negative I know but there's nothing not recorded in Scripture that you need to know Positively everything you need to know is found in Scripture Everything pertaining to the way you live your life and the way you act towards the thrice.
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Holy God who created you And I love it because I sometimes need sermons that just turn everything upside down rather right side up biblical
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Mourning look at Matthew 5 for again.
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Blessed are those who mourn and they shall be Comforted.
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I Almost say say la and receive that in Psalms Selah Dwight Pentecost says that means stop and let that sink in Blessed are those who mourn
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Stop and let that sink in blessed John Stott says here's the beatitude happy are the unhappy How about that for a paradox?
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One man called the paradox truth standing on its head calling for attention The paradox of the blessed approval by God for mourners
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Don't get me started but I'm thinking about the laughing revival in South Africa about five to ten years ago where somehow
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God was Showing everybody his blessings and his goodness and they would all laugh
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It almost sounds stupid or illogical But this is tied directly to the last beatitude and it flows perfectly in the right order and we'll look at that today
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Remember in Matthew chapter 5 verse 1 our setting when Jesus saw the crowds He went up on the mountain after he sat down and typical rabbinical style teaching something very important The rabbis would sit his disciples came to him some believers of God some hangers -on
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Some Pharisees followers of Pharisees a variety of different people there and he's going to talk about what it means to enter into the kingdom
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Jesus is the king Here's my realm and though you might want me to tell you how to get rid of the
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Romans and how we could get rid Of the army here and rescue Jerusalem back for God I'm going to tell you about a spiritual kingdom and let me tell you how you get into this kingdom and With a
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Hebrew idiom in verse 2 he opened his mouth Not only would that means with authority, but also an intimacy he opened his mouth
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Began to teach them saying There are five places in the gospel of Matthew where Jesus does a lot of healing and he does a lot of ministry and then he teaches
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Five times were at the climax of his ministry. He says something. It's almost like he's saying the gospel writer
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Matthew was saying Jesus is going to heal and he's going to feed the poor and he's going to be with the children and he does that all
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To build himself a platform or a pulpit to preach from He's going to show that he's love incarnate and then he's going to put in that posture
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Excuse me an exclamation point at the end to say but what I'm going to say is most important For instance in chapters, you don't have to go there
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But the instructions to the 12 in chapter 10 ends in chapter 11 when it says Jesus had finished giving these instructions
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He then preached He gives the parables in chapter 13. Then it says when
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Jesus had finished these parables he departed and so we see this a lot in Matthew Jesus teaches at the end of Doing all kinds of gospel ministry and the same thing here with the
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Sermon on the Mount chapters 2 chapter 3 chapter 4 the kingdom of God is coming John the
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Baptist is proclaiming that truth now the Climax is Jesus is going to say something. How many people think the
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Sermon on the Mount is a sermon? Well, you're much smarter than most liberal theologians They just think this is come kind of patchwork piecemeal thing here saying they're saying everywhere saying saying and then all of a sudden
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It's in the gospel. This is a sermon and now I get with great pleasure to preach.
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I think the greatest sermon of all time preaching Jesus's sermon It's gonna be good
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Not because it's my sermon, but it's Christ's We have here in the Sermon on the Mount chapters 5 6 & 7 of Matthew the first gospel
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The entrance requirements to his kingdom And the first thing we're gonna come away with is we can't do it.
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The requirements are too high We can't attain it a Romans chapter 5 says unbelievers are helpless
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They can't do this and he's forcing them to look to God. He's not forcing them to take the most
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Maybe blasphemous statement in all the world that people thinks in the Bible God helps those who help themselves
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That is the epitome of blasphemy God helps the helpless God sent his son because we couldn't rescue ourselves.
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We couldn't deliver ourselves. We couldn't save ourselves. We need mercy. We need grace And the master preacher here
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Jesus shows here's how you get into the kingdom And by the way, if you're in here's how you live and it's a portrait of one word and that word is repentance
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When I go to places and preach I expect the congregation to do something What do you expect
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John the Baptist? Would think that the people would do when they heard his message Repent for the kingdom of God is a hand.
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How about Jesus when Jesus delivered this message? Here's how you get in the kingdom What do you think? He was thinking they should do the godly response would be what?
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Yeah It's gonna be shocking today and almost paradoxical that the desired response of the sermon by Jesus is going to be biblical
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Mourning we're at the second beatitude. Let's review the first one back to verse three, please the attitude number one
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Blessed are approved is a better way to translate. It's certainly not happy Blessed are approved by God are the poor in spirit
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For theirs and theirs alone is the kingdom of heaven poor in spirit means dependent on someone else spiritually bankrupt
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I could put it this way spiritually emaciated People that are so desperate that they'll do anything because they know they have nothing
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I thought about that I thought if I was ever so poor, I couldn't feed my children. Would I steal to feed my children?
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Having no spiritual resources in this particular case Crushed Crouching lacking spiritual worth
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Jesus said you want to come into my kingdom. You want to go to heaven? Here's what where it all starts.
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You need to realize you're spiritually bankrupt, and I'm the one who has all the riches You need to turn your back on yourself
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I'm okay. You're okay. I'm not okay. Nobody else is okay, but standing before God I only realize myself is not okay, and I need to turn to God Those kind of people are blessed
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What's the opposite for blessed by the way or approved of God? What's the opposite word for those that think they have something good in them as an unbeliever?
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Whoa cursed The blessed ones say the prides gone the shams gone the veneers gone
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I remember when I was a kid and it would do woodworking we put shellac on things The kind of the shellac of self -righteousness is gone
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You just take the kind of the wood plane and you just scrape it off with the Word of God and you say God You know my heart you made me.
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I've fallen in Adam, and I'm dust And in the culture that we live in of self -sufficiency credit cards
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We aren't Realizing that we're so in debt that we would cry out to God, but there's and there's alone is the kingdom of God It's funny this week.
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I said to Gracie I'm saying to the whole family if I were God I would Do such and such and then
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Gracie you don't go for that in our house the four -year -olds got better theology It was just a teaching tool if I were
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God I wouldn't be merciful if I were God and somebody offended me I just smash him Gracie said if you were
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God daddy You're not God like that was a blasphemous statement if I was
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God. I kind of say compared to everybody else. You're just fine Everybody's out promoting the higher life who would ever think of promoting the lowly life
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The abject spiritual poverty life can you imagine? Here's the first step if you will to say you know
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I'm an unbeliever, and I want to go to heaven when I die Acknowledge that you contain nothing Good to offer
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God boy, that just seems strange Yet Isaiah 66 to to this man.
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I will look says God even to him that is poor and of a contrite what spirit
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But it requires more than just intellectually saying I've apprehended that I'm not offering anything to God But it's more than that and so now we move from the first beatitude of intellectual apprehension to emotionally
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Dealing with that very subject, so let's go to be attitude number two God requires something more than an intellectual appreciation that we are bankrupt
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Confession yes God I agree and now comes the contrition now comes the logical counterpart to knowing something in your mind
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And that's experiencing it with your soul, and now we're going to be emotionally grieved the attitude number two verse four blessed
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Are those who mourn? For they shall be comforted this builds on and it's connected to the last beatitude
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And this is an ongoing it's called the present participle in Greek It means it just blessed is the one who's mourning and who's always mourning his life is a lifestyle of mourning
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There are nine words in the New Testament for mourning and grief and lamenting Do you think this is the harshest loudest?
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Wailing over someone who might be dead or do you think this is the least significant word for mourning?
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You might guess that Jesus uses the word. That's the most extreme word for mourning in all the
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Bible Trent says to grieve with the grief which so possesses the soul being of the person that cannot be hid
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I Remember my mom's funeral and even Virginia Rose funeral this week.
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I tried to hold back my tears, and I just could not stop I Could not hold back my tears because of grief, but remember this is not temporal this is not losing a loved one
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There's a that's a good grief But this is realizing. I'm Helpless before God.
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I have nothing good of my own, and this is a mourning over personal sin a Wailing it's the kind of Spiritual counterpart to the
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Old Testament when Jacob thought his son Joseph was killed by a wild animal And today, what are we here's what
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I? Tend to be I'm too busy to think about these things rush rush rush here.
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We go there. We go No time for reflection no time for thinking. What must I have been before God as an unbeliever?
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Now to help us define this a little bit more let me for the outline today Give you several aspects of mourning so you can understand it better so here comes the outline
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Will help us understand this and face it Several aspects of biblical mourning number one you biblically mourn when you see sin for what it is
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You biblically mourn when you see your own sin for what it is and that would be what?
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High -handed treason against a thrice. Holy God now.
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It's true. We might mourn if we lose all our money Ahab mourned over Naboth's vineyard
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Pharaoh was mourning because he had let the children of Israel go When we lose a loved one we mourn in 1885
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Scottish missionary John Payton went to New Hebrides now Vanity and what happened to him is
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Memorable three months after arriving on the island of Tanna his wife died one week later his infant son died
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And he was mourning he said let those who have ever passed through any similar darkness as of midnight feel for me
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As for all others, it would be more than vain to try to paint my sorrows, but for Jesus and his fellowship
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I would have gone mad and died The whole time every night sleeping on those two graves because he didn't want the cannibals to dig them up and eat them but here
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It's not mourning over a loved one's loss It's mourning over our own sin.
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I almost sound like a cave dweller even talking about that You come to church to feel good. Don't you? No, you come to church to hear the truth of God What should make us feel good?
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This is spiritual mourning. You know what Luther did when he nailed those 95 thesis to the
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Wittenberg Church 95 statements this is the statement number one How about this when our
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Lord and Master Jesus Christ said repent he called for the entire life of believers to be of one repentance biblical mourning repentance
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Should we repent? If we're not even to blame after all, I've got a syndrome you can't blame me.
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I got an addiction. I have a Disease, you don't know my heredity.
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I've got an Italian temper I'm not Italian, but sometimes I wish it was it's my environment.
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You know, my dad spanked me when I was a kid That's why I am I had a bunch of Twinkies before I killed that guy.
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Don't be angry my lord You know how prone these people are to evil They said make God so we'll go before us this fellow
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Moses who brought us out of Egypt. I don't know what happened to him. I Told him whoever's any gold jewelry take it off.
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They gave me this gold I threw it in the fire and out came this calf in such a society of past the buck
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I'm gonna call it something very technical. You want to listen carefully if you're taking notes past the buck ology
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Here Jesus is saying you have sinned you made you do it That's right from James chapter 1 verse 14.
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You made yourself sin now own up to it. I sinned
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I Personally sinned It's not a crime against the society. I have sinned
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And that's what Jesus wants, especially these people have been taught by the Pharisees. It's all external.
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I've obeyed all these things I've I've tithed some seed. I've done all these external things.
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I pray more than even what the law requires I fast more than what the law requires and Jesus saying it's on the inside that's why
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Luther calls morning a rare herb a Rare herb he said many have tears to shed for other things, but have none to spare for their sins
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There are many murmurs, but few mourners Yet the
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Bible says we're blessed if we say we've sinned and we mourn about it Would you turn to Isaiah chapter 6 for a moment, please?
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You know the passage, but I think it's good to go there Because when we mourn we don't want to say compared to my spouse compared to the society compared to other
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Christians I'm mourning over sin, but we want to compare ourselves to God and that will give us the appropriate response
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Isaiah chapter 6 called a major prophet in the Old Testament By the way, if you don't know where it is
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May I suggest you just look at the table of contents at the front of your Bible look for our say Isaiah and look it up There was a time where I did not know where the book of Isaiah was
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How about you? Absolutely, and if you're visiting or you're new say well,
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I don't really want to turn to Isaiah. I don't know where that is I'm just glad you want to know You'll learn Isaiah chapter 6 where we confront
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God and his holiness This is so good for the culture today the culture today says we want
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Jesus as our buddy But that kind of whole transcendent. He's over us. He's different.
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He's an alien. He's so different for me that I'm just Undone we don't do this much and Isaiah one of the best depictions in all the scripture of God's holiness
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Isaiah 6 1 in the year of King Uzziah's death I Saw the
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Lord sitting on a throne look at this vision lofty Exalted if you've ever seen throne rooms of the ancient east
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They're small and everything leads to that throne and that throne is up and it's high and people come in and you already just look
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At it and you say everything's coming here and thrones were were where judgment was dispensed
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And he's coming to the throne room of God lofty exalted and the train of his robe was filling the temple
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Seraphim stood above him each having six wings to cover his face with two he covered his feet with two
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He flew and he called out to another and said one called out to another if you're a
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Jew. Here's what you do emphasis bold highlight yellow
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But they wouldn't do that They would repeat something three times or they would repeat one word with two other synonyms
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And he could have said holy set apart different, but here he says holy
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Holy holy God is sacred God is different As the theological journals would tell you that which is holy is not only distinct from the profane
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But in opposition to it as well God is not just different But the ones who are different from him because of sin he's against them
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What was the response? Here's a God who's against sin and sinners and he punishes them and hates them.
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Well, that's amazing to even say There's a response verse 4 and the foundations of the thresholds
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Trembled at the voice of him who called out while the temple was filling with smoke Then he said
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Woe is me. I'm ruined.
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I'm undone. Here's the picture of God. Here's the picture of Isaiah While the temple was filling with smoke all this was happening for I am a man of unclean lips
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And I live among the people of unclean lips. I mean, this is the Prophet of God knew before the Holy God That he was polluted
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Charles Coulson got saved and here was his Salvation experience with his own words quote that night when
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I Sat alone at my car my own sin Not just dirty politics, but the hatred and evil so deep within me
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Was thrust before my eyes forcefully and painfully For the first time in my life.
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I felt unclean and worst of all I could not escape In the moments of clarity.
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I found myself driven irresistibly into the arms of the Living God That's what's happening here.
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We'll get to the comfort in just a moment, but we're told these things for a reason So they drive us like goads
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They drive us like spurs on a cowboy's saddle to a place and that place isn't a place now.
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It's a person God himself We're to mourn when we see
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God unbelievers need to mourn There's a great book that I was told to read once a year and I said
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I'm gonna get that book I've only read at one time, but I should read it again. It's by Ralph of any an old Puritan. It's called the plague of plagues
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Sin John Gershner was
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R. C. Sproul's mentor and Gershner is now with the Lord and Gershner always had kind of a gruff
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Direct approach and Gershner said this about unsaved people of which he knew he was
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One and then saved by the grace of God Said you know rats That's aren't too bad
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God created rats to act like rats and then their rat like rat behaviors
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They do very well. God said act like a rat and guess what they do they act like rats and Then he said, you know unbelievers
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Are worse than rats? People didn't like that. How can unbelievers be worse than rats?
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Because God has made people He made Adam perfect and Eve perfect and he made them to be image bearers and he made them to worship him and glorify him and sing praises to him and be obedient and show love to him and then they act like the exact opposite and so Gershner to set the analogy up says
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People who want to defy God are worse than rats because they're made for a purpose and they don't do it
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Thomas Watson said Israel took their jewels and earrings and made a golden calf of them The sinner takes the jewels of God's mercies and makes use of them to sin
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Sins against gospel love are worse in some sense than the sins of the devil's for they never had an offer of grace tender to them
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That's why Paul says I'm what Roman chapter 7 wretched man that I am Shocked and stunned this week when
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I read an article in the Chicago Sun Times of some years ago by F Rosner And he compared the sins of two congressmen both for both for illicit relations with 17 year olds
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Congressman, I don't even need to read the names of the congressman But they both were censured by the White House by the House of Representatives and here's what
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Rosner observed quote being censured is the only thing man number one and man number two have in common the nation got a glimmer of their
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Philosophical differences when man number one admitted tearfully to his district then to the full house that he quote broke the laws of God and man casting a vote for his own censure
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Facing the house the speaker announced the tally man to in contrast Acknowledged he was gay in the dramatic speech to the house then defended the relationship with the page as quote mutual and voluntary end quote
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He noted that he abided by the age of consent He said the relationship didn't warrant the quote attention or action and quote of the house
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He voted present on the censure and heard the verdict from the speaker with his back to the house
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What a great picture of what God would have the unbeliever to do Versus what the unbeliever would do left to himself
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Would you turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 7 and let's keep expanding this still under the point 1 of Biblical mourning see sin for what it is 2nd
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Corinthians chapter 7 I want to make clear that mourning is not just being sad about something. It's not simply confession
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It's not simply a Judas like I'm caught there are ramifications and there are consequences
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But there is a godly sorrow that leads to something that must be there for biblical mourning to occur
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And again at the moment, I'm still in the context of entrance into the kingdom for unbelievers
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There's a place for Christians in mourning and then houses of mourning, but we're gonna get there in a minute right now
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It's almost well. I'm trying to mirror Christ's sermon as he tells people Here's how you get into the kingdom, and so it's both.
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It's unbeliever oriented 2nd Corinthians chapter 7 verses 8 9 and 10
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Paul is Standing up for his apostleship And he he goes into this discourse here in verse 8 of 2nd
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Corinthians 7 for I caused you sorrow by my letter I do not regret it though I did regret it for I see that the letter caused you sorrow the only for a while.
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I hate to make you sad But I'm glad why I now rejoice verse 9
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Not that you are made sorrowful, but that you are made sorrowful to the point of what? Repentance it's not enough to be sorry about something
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For you were made sorrowful according to the will of God the kind of sorrowful Mourning that God wants is the kind that leads you to something repentance
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So that you might not suffer loss in anything through us For the sorrow that is according to the will of God there it is again for repetition
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Produces a repentance without regret leading to what? Salvation but the sorrow of the world produces death and didn't
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Judas know it let's turn over to Luke chapter 7
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We're skipping around a little bit, but let me show you another aspect of this repentance this Mourning before God seen sin for what it is still under point one
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I want to show you that oftentimes this morning Results in tears it results in crying and this is a great picture of this beatitude because the context is salvation and the
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Context is mourning and the context is sorrow that leads to repentance biblical mourning
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One man said tears cannot be put to better use and don't we get to experience that in Luke 7 one of the great pictures
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Of God working in the life of a person to submit to the Lord Jesus Christ Now one of the
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Pharisees was requesting Jesus Luke 7 36 to dine with him and he entered the
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Pharisees house and reclined at the table Jesus of course was concerned for sinners, and now he's talking to one of the
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Pharisees, and there was a woman in the city Who was a what? Sinner now when we use the word sinner we go.
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I'm a sinner. You're a sinner When the word sinner is used in the Bible, it's a word of characterization that describes someone's life and job description
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You ever put a resume together? CV or Try to describe yourself with a word
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Here is the word sinner, and this is a low -life kind of sinner. She's most likely a prostitute This is not just oh,
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I'm a I sin therefore. I'm a sinner This is somebody by nature by action by deed by love by desire by exertion by calories everything this person does
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It's all a sinner and nine times out of ten in the Bible the word sinner is used for an unbeliever I can think of only one time and all the
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Bible that sinner is used for a believer This is just not a sinner the point is here's the
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Pharisee male teacher External righteousness, here's the sinner woman female woman female same thing
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Trying to make the point and when she learned that he was reclining at the table in the
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Pharisee's house She brought an alabaster vial of perfume and the way the customs were set up in those days when a teacher a rabbi would come in someone's house and Have an earthquake
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Look at that. I sit here during the
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I moved from California And we had a big earthquake before we left and sometimes I sit and study, and I just heard hear the thunder
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I Think I'm in an earthquake you know I want to move to the center of the room or get underneath some door or something
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And it's just the snow coming off the roof It's good to laugh a little bit because we we almost feel the pressure of all this biblical mourning
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And we're put under it, and you think I just need to take a gasp But in this kind of society she could just come in and she could
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Listen because he was going to talk about things that rabbis would talk about and she so she would be invited to come not by the
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Pharisee but by social tradition And she gets this kind of alabaster flask very soft stone that you would put something precious in this perfume
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Who knows how she even got the money to get the perfume? great humility She wants to visit
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Jesus at his banquet. She knows she's a sinner And she probably knows these people know they do and standing be fine behind him at his feet weeping
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She began to wet his feet with her tears and kept on over and over wiping them
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With the hair of her head and kept kissing over and over and over his feet and anointing them with the perfume
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They would say that typically if you want to show respect you would anoint someone's head with oil or perfume
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Maybe she didn't think she was worthy enough to do that so she started with his feet kissing over and over and over respect affection
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What do you think everybody else did now when the Pharisee would invited him saw this he said to himself get that He said to himself
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This man were a prophet. He would have he would know who what sort of person this woman is who's touching him that she's a sinner
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She's probably a prostitute and Jesus answered. Oh, I didn't I know you didn't talk out loud, but here's my answer
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Simon I have something to say to you And he said say it teacher and the greatest thing about Jesus with the parables
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I love it when he makes them admit that they own His chastening
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So he's gonna get him to admit it a moneylender had two debtors one owed five hundred in air
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I didn't know I was a day's wage year -and -a -half. I owe you a year -and -a -half wages So if you make 50 ,000 a year you owe somebody 75 grand and the other 50 a couple months wages
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And when they were unable to repay he graciously forgave them so which of them will love him more
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Direct proportion to the gravity and number of sins to the love experience by the debt reliever
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Simon answered and said I suppose the one who forgave him more
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Passed the butter And he said to him you have judged correctly turning towards the woman or talk to women
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This kind of context you don't talk to sinners in this kind of context He said to Simon you see this woman
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I Entered your house, and when someone came in the Middle East and entered their your house.
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What should you do for them right away? Hey, their feet are dusty and their sandals and the filth and the dirt you wash their feet
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You are the owner of the house you are the host I Entered your house you gave me no water for my feet
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But she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair You're just having me come over because you're gonna try to trick me you didn't do any of the kind of social manners or customs
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You gave me no kiss verse 45, but she Since the time I came in has not ceased to kiss my feet worship reverence respect
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You did not anoint my head with oil But she is anointed my feet with perfume for this reason
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I say to you still talking to the Pharisee her sins Which are many have been forgiven by the way that translation is a perfect tense in the
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Greek They have been forgiven, and they always will be forgiven what I've done. I've done with perfect finality
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For she loved much, but he who is forgiven little loves little then he said to her your sins have been
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Forgiven those who are reclining at the table with him began to say to themselves Who's this man who even forgives sins and he said to the woman your faith has saved you
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Same perfect tense saved you and has always saved you and then the only kind of real peace that's out
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There is the peace of salvation saving peace go in peace I Love that because it captures the essence of an unbeliever owning their own sins coming to Jesus with tears and Mourning a great illustration of that beatitude
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One man said did Christ bleed for sin and you cannot weep if God's Bible be not filled with tears his bio will be filled with wrath and If you're an unbeliever you need to mourn over your sins
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How do we understand mourning number one you biblically mourn when you see sin for what it really is Number two you need to biblically mourn on earth so that you will not have to eternally mourn in hell
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The second aspect of mourning is I want you to know that you're going to mourn as an unbeliever here on earth
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Or you'll mourn as an unbeliever in hell forever Would you turn to Luke 6 5 and I want to show you the converse to Matthew 5 for same?
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Greek word as Jesus gave the sermon on the plane Some think the sermon on the mount and the sermon on the plane are different some think they're the same
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And if I tell you what I believe you're just gonna think about that for the next two minutes So I won't even tell you but they're the same sermon.
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Oh, sorry There could be a plane on a mountain, but it doesn't matter both are true
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Luke 6 25 The converse flip side of the approval and the blessing of God the opposite of the word
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Bless is to curse or woe and look what Jesus said now. I mean here's gentle Jesus loving
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Savior Jesus woe
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Woe means it's an interjection how horrible it will be for you mean that's woe
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Horror disaster Calamity woe to you who are well -fed now for you shall be hungry
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Woe to you who what laugh now for you shall same exact Greek word mourn and weep
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For those who mourn over their own sin now There's blessing and approval for those that don't and say no God you're wrong
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And I'm good, and I don't have to do that there is going to be eternal mourning in hell Can you imagine just trying to think of the first moment of hell?
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Maybe you take Katrina? you take 9 -11 and you take the Holocaust and you just stack as many natural and man -made disasters as you can and just put them all together and Just think well the intensity of that for about a second, and then it's on to the next second of worse
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Let's go to Matthew chapter 8 and let me just give you a kind of a cursory overview And one of the things
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I want to do is I want to see if you're an unbeliever here if you're not a Christian I want you to be so scared of your sins that you have to run to God for mercy
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I Want you to be afraid very afraid When Edwards preached the sermon sinners in the hands of an angry
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God some people said oh You're just preaching to make people afraid of God and their sins Okay So you run to the
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Savior see Jesus is love incarnate
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Jesus is very merciful and gracious most of us here are testimonies of his love But God's holiness does not just make him separate but it makes him the aggressor to punish all those who would try to tarnish his image of being holy and in Matthew alone
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Jesus really lays it out the eternal disaster of denying who
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Christ was The disaster of saying I'm rich in spirit the disaster of saying you think
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I'm gonna cry now man I'm not that bad. Just let's take an overview of Matthew Matthew chapter 8 verse 9 through 12
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I'm gonna take you through about five sections in Matthew just to show you and Urge you to believe now if you're not a
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Christian and by the way if you are a Christian you can be looking back the Whole time thinking God has rescued me from that For I am also a man under authority the man said and soldiers
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Under me and I say to this one go and he goes and another come and he comes I say to my slave do this And he does it context now when
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Jesus heard that he marveled and said to those who are following Truly I say to you. I've not found such great faith with anyone in Israel let alone a
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Roman Roman soldier Gentile I say to you that many will come from the east and recline at the table with Abraham Isaac Jacob in the kingdom of heaven
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But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness in That place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
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You don't mourn now for your sins you will mourn Matthew chapter 13, please let me just give you the second one and without giving you the context
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We'll just jump right in Matthew 13 41 Find it interesting in the book with the
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Sermon on the Mount Matthew 13 41 the Son of Man will send forth his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all stumbling blocks and those who commit lawlessness and Will throw them into the furnace of fire in that place there will be what?
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weeping and gnashing of teeth verse 50 Well, I'll read 49 and 50 so it'll be at the end of the age the angels will come forth and Take out the wicked from among the righteous and will throw them into the furnace of fire in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth
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Matthew chapter 22 verse 12 and 13 Jesus is talking about those who didn't have the proper clothes to get into the kingdom
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They didn't have Christ's righteousness because they have repented and followed the risen Savior Friend Matthew 22 12 how did you come in here without wedding clothes and the man was speechless?
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And the king said of the servants bind him hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth
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Donald Gray Barnhouse is trying to give an illustration that canoes are good for lakes but a canoe is not going to get you across the
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Atlantic Ocean because it's not made for that and God does not use good works and trying to be good and just kind of being sorrow without repentance to the pathway of Salvation know the pathway of salvation is
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I turn my back on myself And all my goodness and all my background admit that I'm a sinner and then beg for the mercy of God Two more let me show you
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Matthew 24 verse 48, please I Was trying to do a beatitude a week, and now it's gonna be attitude every two weeks.
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I think Matthew 24 48 But if that evil slave says in his heart my master is not coming for a long time
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It begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards The master that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him in an hour when he does not know
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Jesus is coming back when you don't know And he will cut him in pieces and assign him a place of the hypocrites in that place there will be mourning weeping gnashing of teeth it says and then lastly one more chapter ahead
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Matthew chapter 25 continuing in the Olivet discourse Verse 29 for to everyone who has more shall be given and he shall have abundance
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But from the one who does not have even what he does have shall be taken away throw out
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The worthless slave into the outer darkness verse 30 in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth
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When the Son of Man comes in glory verse 31 and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne
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Friends biblical mourning is essential for salvation If you don't mourn over your sins, and if you look back as a
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Christian and say I think I'm a Christian Have you ever mourned over your sins? Christians mourn
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Just in the last couple minutes So for those of us who are Christians we look at this and say to get into the kingdom people have to mourn over their
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Sins to look to the cross and flee to the cross We'll look at the comfort next time, but what do we do as Christians do
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Christians mourn over their sins? Should we you mourn over your sins when you sin? Let me just read you a few verses and I know
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I can convince you Ezra 10 now while Ezra was praying and making confession
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Weeping and prostrating himself before the house of God a very large assembly men and women and children gathered to him from Israel He was weeping over his own sin
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David Brenner said in my morning devotions my soul was exceedingly melted and bitterly mourned over my exceeding sinfulness and vileness
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Christians mourn we're forgiven, but we mourn We mourn over sins in the church 1st
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Corinthians 5 the same word as in Matthew chapter 5 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you and a morality of such a kind doesn't even exist among the
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Gentiles You have become arrogant and have not mourned There's mourning over the nation.
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There's mourning over those who don't fulfill the Word of God There's mourning over false teaching
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Christians mourn is reported that John Bradford the Scholar said that he scarce has a day past where he didn't shed some tears for some sin
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Maybe for the Christian we should meet weep more If this is the sin that we've been forgiven of how could we go relish in it again?
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We have a dog and The dog does dog -like things God created this dog as a dog and she acts like a dog and even though it's gross
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I think it's fitting because it's biblical when that dog eats something that dog's not supposed to eat.
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What does that dog do? The biblical word is vomit
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And then if you're not careful, what does that dog do? seemingly with great glee
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Not humble about it at all. I mean if I was gonna go do that, I'd probably crouch a little bit just with great pride
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Boasting as it were just lapping that up. So I said to the kids
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Like a dog returning to its own one. I hate my sin.
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I Have to be a sinner. I have to be a sinner. I have to be a sinner God has saved me based on the merits of Christ and confirmed by the resurrection How could we go back to what had killed the
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Savior? Unbelievers mourn to get into the kingdom believers who are in the kingdom
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We should still be sad and mourn over sins. I have been convicted this week What's the last time I just broke down not at Cheryl's mother's funeral or my own mom's funeral?
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but I know so much I've been given so much I have a Can't you mourn and the good news is we don't have to come up with our own
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God teaches us truths and now we're going to pray that God would give us soft hearts that mourn over the sins of others
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Who are unbelievers and our own sins too? And then next time we'll look at the positive side of how
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God comforts those with an eternal comfort Who mourn over their sin? Today was the negative side next time will be the positive
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And we will see how God pours as one man says the golden oil of comfort into broken vessels
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Let's pray Lord we thank you for this day Lord it's kind of hard to stop here before we get to the comfort, but we know it's true, and it's a promise and we'll just trust by your spirits providential working that We can just reflect now of The grace and the glory that was found in Christ Jesus to forgive us of every sin past present and future we have been forgiven
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Help us as a Christian body here not to go back and commit sins that You've already paid for and that have so shamed you and defiled us
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Lord Help us to mourn over our sins give us a good clean conscience
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So when we do sin, we're sad we go straight to you to forgive us And Lord we know you're faithful and just you'd never punish
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Jesus and punish us as well Yet Lord we long for that father -son father -daughter relationship of nothing standing in between of us in between us
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And Lord for those today who are not Christians I pray that your spirit would grant his grace and fruit in their lives that they would be drawn
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First to the fact that they are sinful and in our need of your goodness that they would acknowledge that they're an enemy of God That they deserve hell and that then
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Lord you would draw them straight to Calvary, you know Lord as a pastor I'm so thankful that the pastoral epistles are filled with these three words
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God our Savior Lord you're a saving God by nature and you save sinners