Beatitudes 9: Those Who Mourn 4

December 29, 2006

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4)

We have been looking at the happiness and joy of those who mourn. While the world would do virtually anything (but deny self) to keep people from mourning, it is actually the teaching of Christ that a biblical mourning is conducive to true joy and happiness. This is so backwards to the world that it will not listen to teaching like this. However, it is in perfect harmony with the character of God and of Christ as He lived on earth. We might also remember the book of Ecclesiastes on this as well: “The mind of the wise is in the house of mourning, while the mind of fools is in the house of pleasure” (7:4).

This week we will look at spiritual activities that the Bible links with mourning. We could also say that these activities cannot be done at times and in certain important ways without mourning. The Bible links prayer, repentance, fasting, seeking God, and reflecting or meditating on sin with mourning. Now try to imagine a believer being happy apart from prayer and seeking God. It is simply impossible, yet mourning is necessary for those activities at important times in the life of the believer. There are times that prayer without mourning is simply words thrown above our heads. There are times that if we are fasting without mourning we are simply going hungry. There are times when we say we are seeking God without true mourning, we are simply seeking God for selfish purposes.

Zechariah 12:10 sets out how mourning is linked with prayer: “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.” Notice that the Spirit of grace and supplication (form of prayer) is given so that (the purpose of it) they will mourn and weep bitterly. Nehemiah 1:4 tells us how mourning and praying with fasting go together: “When I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.” If the love of God and His glory are at the center of what we do, there will be times when we weep and mourn while we fast and pray. The state of the Church is something that the church needs to turn from its programs and begin to ask God for hearts that mourn and weep for the Church. Nehemiah was weeping and mourning over the state of the walls at Jerusalem, so surely we should weep and mourn over the state of the Church today.

Sorrow is a type of mourning and is linked with true repentance. “I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. 10 For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death” (II Corinthians 7:9-10). A true sorrow that is moved by love leads to true repentance, but a false type of sorrow (selfish) leads to a repentance that is repented of. It takes a true sorrow or mourning to repent from the heart.

We have seen how fasting is linked with mourning. “So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes” (Daniel 9:3). “In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a message was revealed to Daniel, who was named Belteshazzar; and the message was true and one of great conflict, but he understood the message and had an understanding of the vision. 2 In those days, I, Daniel, had been mourning for three entire weeks. 3 I did not eat any tasty food, nor did meat or wine enter my mouth, nor did I use any ointment at all until the entire three weeks were completed” (Dan 10:1-3). In these verses we see that mourning, fasting, and seeking God are linked together. Fasting is not some sort of spiritual activity that one does because it makes one spiritual, but because it is a biblically prescribed way of seeking God when done from the heart. Fasting is not done in order to get something from God; it is done in order to seek God Himself.

We must be very careful at this point or we will become like the Pharisees who hired mourners and went around mourning when they fasted in order to obtain attention. A true mourning has the proper heart which is a heart that mourns because of the dishonor done to God and because the heart seeks God and His glory above all things. We can see how fasting can become what is known as a spiritual discipline and so people discipline themselves to fast. However, that is a worthless activity if it is not done out of a mourning heart that is seeking for God Himself. When people fast in an effort to become more spiritual and to wrest things from God, they are turning it into a work. True fasting must be joined with true mourning which arises from a true love for God and His glory.

I think, then, that it should be clear where mourning fits in with fasting and seeking God. It is a mourning heart that has sorrow for what it or others have done in dishonoring God or perhaps mourns and has sorrow for the state of the Church. It is the mourning heart that is needed in order to fast in a way where fasting is really a way of seeking God. The mourning heart mourns because its Beloved is not fully present and is not being honored and glorified as it should be. Without the heart that loves so much that it mourns, fasting is done for selfish purposes and seeking God is really seeking God for selfish purposes. Mourning is utterly necessary for these things to be truly done.

“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “Return to Me with all your heart, And with fasting, weeping and mourning” (Joel 2:12). Here the Lord teaches us how to return to Himself. He tells us to return to Him with all of our heart. Okay, but that is easy to say and impossible to do apart from His grace. He tells us that we return to Him with “fasting, weeping, and mourning.” There is the prescription for the modern Church as well, but how opposite that is with the positive thinking, self-esteem, and prosperity teaching. It is even more at odds with the crowds that teach that men are little gods and that we influence reality by our positive words. God Himself teaches us to return to Himself with fasting and mourning. There is no easy way to do this; it must be grace in the heart that works these things in the heart. We cannot work up true mourning; it must come from a heart of love for God.

But, one might say, that is the Old Testament and is not the positive message of the New Testament. Fine, but listen to James: “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you” (4:8-10). Again the subject matter is drawing near to God. That is done by cleansing the hands and purifying the heart. How is that done? By being miserable, mourning, weeping, letting your laughter be turned into mourning, and by humbling self in the presence of the Lord. Indeed we are to have joy in the Lord, but this verse needs to be heard as well. It is not just a worked up joy, or just any joy, but it is a joy in the Lord. True joy in the Lord comes when He exalts the person and that will only happen when it is preceded by mourning and weeping.

We need to learn from Ezra how we are to behave toward God for our own sin and the sins of others. Ezra 10:1 Now while Ezra was praying and making confession, weeping and prostrating himself before the house of God, a very large assembly, men, women and children, gathered to him from Israel; for the people wept bitterly. 2 Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, said to Ezra, “We have been unfaithful to our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land; yet now there is hope for Israel in spite of this.
6 Then Ezra rose from before the house of God and went into the chamber of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib. Although he went there, he did not eat bread nor drink water, for he was mourning over the unfaithfulness of the exiles” (Ezra 10:1-2, 6). In this passage we see that Ezra was praying and in that prayer he confessed sin. While making that confession he was weeping and the people wept bitterly. In other words, they were mourning for sin. In verse 6 we see that he was mourning for the sin of other people. Imagine that he was appalled and mourning for the sin of others! Would it be to God that people would have a heart like that in our day. Oh for a people that would mourn for their own sins, the sins of others, the sins of the nation, and especially the sins of the Church.

Without drawing this out any longer, surely it is obvious that mourning is important to major and important aspects of the Christian life and Church. Mourning is at the heart of certain types of prayer, of fasting, of repentance, of seeking God, and of how we deal with our sin and the sins of others. On the other hand, as I have tried to show in previous weeks, without mourning that is no true joy. Can we imagine that a person would have joy as a Christian if s/he did not pray, repent, or seek God? Yet can we imagine a person that did not have true joy that had the spirit of true prayer, repentance, and of seeking God? I think the Bible leaves us with an uncomfortable tension. We must seek to be a true mourner in order to have true blessedness and joy. If we seek the joy apart from a heart that truly mourns, we will not have true joy. That is backwards according to the world, and yet it is the way that God works in the hearts of those that He gives the joy of knowing Him. It is also the way that He works in hearts when He is preparing those hearts for revival. Revival will not visit our nation and church until we have hearts that love God enough to mourn over sin which is against Him and His glory.

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Edwards, Resolution 30

December 27, 2006

“Resolved, to strive to my utmost every week to be brought higher in religion, and to a higher exercise of grace, than I was the week before.” (Resolution 30)

Colossians 1:10 – so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

2 Thessalonians 1:3 – We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, as is only fitting, because your faith is greatly enlarged, and the love of each one of you toward one another grows ever greater;

I Peter 2:2 – like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation,

2 Peter 3:18 – but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

The Scriptures are clear that believers are to grow spiritually. There are many ways that the believers can gauge their growth. Edwards wanted to strive to have visible growth each week. He wanted to have a greater or higher exercise of grace than he did the week before. In one sense sanctification is really spiritual growth. In another sense the believer is to die to self more and more and be filled with more of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit. Believers are to grow in at least the following ways:

1. Their knowledge of God and to grow in knowing God
2. Their faith is to be enlarged
3. Their love toward other believers is to grow
4. They are to grow in respect to salvation
5. They are to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

But how do believers know that they are growing in grace? Are they to pursue sin so that grace may abound? As Paul said, “may it never be.” So many think of grace in terms of sin alone which really relates to forgiveness alone. But we must learn to think of grace as that which strengthens believers in walk by grace. It is this grace in the believer that strengthens the believer to live to the glory of God. In reality it is another way of speaking of the life and strength of Christ in the believer.

Philippians 4:13 – I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

John 15:4 – “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.

2 Corinthians 12:9 – And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

Colossians 1:29 – For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.

One way to measure grace is to learn to know our own hearts. Where does our strength to live and work come from? Do we find strength in the grace that flows through our own weakness and death to self? Do we find that there is something that cannot be explained in us apart from the grace of God? Growing in grace is the opposite of growing in self-confidence, it is growing in weakness to self so that all that we do is moved and strengthened by grace. Growing in grace is really the life of Christ in us that is growing and exerting itself in and through our spiritual inability and weakness of self. That is why Paul said that he was crucified with Christ and that it was no longer he that lived but that Christ lived in him (Gal 2:20). Christ lives in His people by grace.

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Edwards, Resolution 29

December 25, 2006

“Resolved, never to count that a prayer, nor to let that pass as a prayer or as a petition of a prayer, which is so made that I cannot hope that God will answer it; nor that as a confession, which I cannot hope God will accept.” (Resolution 29)

The matter of true prayer is something that has been largely forgotten in the modern day. The reasons for that are quite simple. Man has turned from a God-centered way of living and praying to focus on himself. Rather than prayer being that which conforms man to God and His will, prayer is now thought of to be a way to get God to conform to man and man’s will. This is simply hideously backward and even blasphemous. If man is to love God with all of his being, then prayer must be an expression of love for God and His glory. After all, in reality prayer is a lifting up the desires of the heart to God and also a communing with God. Jesus instructed us how to pray by giving an outline of prayer. The first petition in the so-called “Lord’s Prayer” is for God’s name to be treated with reverence and awe, and even glorified.

In the above resolution Edwards resolved not to even count as a prayer or as a petition of a prayer which was made where he would have no hope that God would answer it. One might object that of course no one would pray if they thought God would not answer it. But I think that objection misses the real point of the resolution, though it might serve to illuminate the real issue. True prayer must be offered up in faith. Faith must have a true object or it is not real faith. In Scripture prayer is to be offered for the glory of God and in the name of Jesus which really amount to the same thing. I think, then, that what Edwards is saying is that he was done with self-centered prayer and was going to focus on prayer based on faith and that would truly be for the glory of God.

We must also notice that Edwards distinguishes between prayer and petition of prayer. Prayer includes more than just asking for things, it is mainly a way man is to have communion with God. Prayer also includes praise and confession. Man is not to praise God in order to make God feel better about Himself, nor is God a needy Being that longs for man to praise Him. But when man praises God in truth and from the heart man is enabled to share in the love God has within the Trinity. In this way God is communicating His glory and love to man. In this way man is enabled to discover the mind of God in that God is communicating Himself to man in prayer.

Edwards also resolves not to offer up a confession which he cannot hope that God will hear. This is another fascinating point to think about. Why would God not hear a confession of sin? When David confessed his sin he confessed his sin in such a way that he confessed that God was just in whatever He would do to him (Psa 51:4). We can also note from Psalms 25:11 and 79:9 other proper aspects of confession from a God-centered perspective.
For Your name’s sake, O LORD, Pardon my iniquity, for it is great” (Psalm 25:11). “Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name; And deliver us and forgive our sins for Your name’s sake” (Psalm 79:9).

It should always be noted that sin has far more negative value than man has value. While that is a rather awkward way of putting it, the point should be clear. Sin is so enormously evil that man has no way of making up for that sin and has nothing in himself that would make him worthy to be forgiven. When man sees how great his sin really is, he can only ask for it to be forgiven in accordance with truth for the sake of God’s great name. The only basis man has to confess sin is for the glory of God.

All sin is against God and can only be forgiven for the sake of His name. Confession for sin must always realize that sin is against God and as such it is a far greater wrong than we can imagine. It is not just some little wrong done to a finite human being, it is against God. So for a confession to be according to truth, it must see and confess its wrong as against God. Once that is understood, it should be clear that the only basis to ask for forgiveness is for the glory of His name in Christ. Could it be that the vast amount of prayer, confession, and asking for forgiveness are so man-centered that they have utterly no hope of being answered? Could it be that man-centered prayers are so obnoxious to God that even the best prayers from a man-centered perspective are as vile and filthy rags? Could it be that man is so focused on himself that his self-centered prayers show his enmity to the glory of God more than anything else? Could it be that in our prayers for our self-centered things that we are actually committing idolatry in what we think is our holiest of duties rather than loving God in them? How we need Christ to be our Redeemer and a propitiation for our best works, even our religious duties.

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Edwards, Resolution 28

December 23, 2006

“Resolved, to study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly, and frequently that I may find, and plainly perceive myself to grow in the knowledge of them.” (Resolution 28)

This shows a great love and reverence for the Word and the God who breathed them, but also reminds us of David in the Psalms. This also reminds us of Ezra: “For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the LORD and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel” (7:10). Ezra was a man that had set his heart to study the law of the LORD. This is exactly what Edwards did in his resolution. The terms “steadily, constantly, and frequently” refer to a heart that has been set to study God’s Word. However, it is far more than just an intellectual perception that Edwards and Ezra wanted. They also wanted to practice the Word. In fact, those with a greater practice have a greater understanding of the Word. For example, “if anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself” (John 7:17). The study and practice of the Word is what leads to true understanding. This is also true in the medical profession. No one is allowed to practice medicine after he or she has read through a few books. That is why a doctor is usually part of a practice.

“Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching. 14 Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery. 15 Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress will be evident to all” (I Timothy 4:13-15). Here the text tells us what instructions Paul gave to Timothy. He told him to take pains with these things (referring back to the reading, exhortation and teaching of Scripture) so that his progress would be evident to all. Edwards wanted the progress to be noticed by himself even if no one else did.

A resolution or at least a commitment to this should be the desire of every true believer in Christ. Coming to know Scripture is not like studying a novel or even a book of history, but the study of Scripture is an act of engaging God when one has the right perspective. As Edwards says in his sermon on A Divine and Supernatural light, “Indeed a person cannot have spiritual light without the Word. But that don’t argue, that the Word properly causes that light. The mind can’t see the excellency of any doctrine, unless that doctrine be first in the mind; but the seeing the excellency of the doctrine may be immediately from the Spirit of God; though the conveying of the doctrine or proposition itself may be by the Word.” We also know that the Scriptures are called the “sword of the Spirit” (Eph 6:17), are breathed forth by the Spirit (II Timothy 3:16; Acts 1:16), and also the instrument of regeneration (James 1:18). The Word of God is, according to the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, “the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience.”

If all the statements from the above paragraph are true, then each believer should give him or herself to the study of the Word of God. There is nothing more vital than that. The Word of God is that which the Spirit uses to bring light, to regenerate, and is the only sufficient and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. In other words, people need to hear the Word of God to be saved. People need to hear the Word of God in order to see and believe Christ. People need to understand the Word of God in order to obey Him. While this resolution of Edwards may seem extreme to many, it really should be normal for believers. Is it normal for you?

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Edwards, Resolution 24

December 21, 2006

“Resolved, whenever I do any conspicuously evil action, to trace it back till I come to the original cause; and then both carefully endeavor to do so no more, and to fight and pray with all my might against the original of it.” (Resolution 24)

Here we have the opposite of Resolution 23 in one sense, though the desire is the same. In 23 we saw that Edwards wanted to trace his actions to the root to be sure that they were for the glory of God. Here he wants to trace his evil actions to the root in order to discover any cause that he might do away with. Both are founded in a love for God and a desire to please Him in all things.

First, this would take a sensitive conscience. For a man like Edwards, who was known for his piety and godliness, to notice his own actions as evil, it would take a lot of sensitivity to God for this to happen. This type of activity is not for the cold of heart or for those who have no zeal for God, but this is truly for those who desire to seek God with all of their being. This type of thing is not carried out by timid souls who are satisfied with being lukewarm.

Second, this would again take a person that is willing to take the Word of God over the conclusions of pride and self-love. To get at the real cause of a sinful action absolutely requires a heart that is willing to face up to its own depravity. Self-love and pride hides behind many mirrors. In fact, by definition pride is hard to overcome because it hides the true state of the heart by the exaltation of self. Self-love operates by judging all things by what is best for self. However, if pride and self-love do hide the real root of sin from us, then we can turn from external acts of evil and never really turn from the root of sin. If the real issue is hidden from us, then if we decide to fight sin we will not really be fighting with the real sin at all.

As a way of practice, let us think of a fictional character we will call “Aaron.” Let us say that Aaron was driving down the road one day and realized that he was coveting another person’s car. Now what is he to do? He can simply stop the appearance of coveting that car and say that he has repented. But what was going on in his heart to covet the other person’s car? We have to ask those types of questions to get at the real issues. We know that he would not have been content with his own car to be coveting another person’s car. His pride and self-love would be telling him that he deserved a car like that. His pride might have told him that the other person did not deserve a car like that and ask why God gave that lowly sinner such a car. It is also true that his heart could not have been in the process of loving God with all of his being when he was coveting the car.

To boil it all down, the real issue behind coveting has to do with Aaron’s heart toward God. Perhaps he was not walking with God or perhaps he had grown cold toward God. Perhaps he had drifted toward duties rather than love for God. It might be that he was looking toward duties and rituals rather than grace. He might have drifted from God by neglecting the Word and prayer. He might have been trying to be religious or self-righteous rather than to love God from the heart. Perhaps he was trying to impress people more than God in his daily life as well as his religious life. But we must all know that we are “Aaron” when it comes to our sin. We must be utterly ruthless with our hearts in order to pursue God in honesty and love.

When we find a root of sin in our external behavior, we must learn to fight it properly. We cannot fight the outward sin unless we recognize the root issue of the heart in it. To fight sin in the heart is far different than fighting the externals of sin. Coveting must be cut off at the root or it will just turn to another form of coveting. Coveting is simply selfishness desiring things for selfish reasons, though it may mask itself in religious garb. The only cure for coveting is contentment with God and love for God and our neighbor. In other words, as the title of a famous sermon by Thomas Chalmers, “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection,” we must love God and others as a way of turning from sin in the heart. We must desire our affections to be lifted to God in order for them to be removed from ourselves. The problem with coveting is not the outward things as such; it is a heart that loves God too little. Therefore, to fight sin in the heart is to pursue God and pray for more and more of His love in the heart so that we can love Him enough to turn from the sins of the heart.

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Beatitudes 8: Those Who Mourn 3

December 21, 2006

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4)

We have been looking at mourning and how it is that those who mourn are blessed. You may think that this is a terrible subject to speak of since we should be telling people how to have joy in God. However, if Jesus is right and not those that say things like that, in dealing with the subject of mourning we are moving people toward a true and biblical joy. After all, the text tells us with no real degree of ambiguity that those who mourn are the ones that are blessed (happy, inner joy). Then the text tells us the main reason for that and it is this: “for they shall be comforted.” Another way to put that would be that only those who mourn will be comforted and therefore blessed or truly happy. In order to pursue true joy, therefore, we must teach people about true mourning.

The world pursues joy and happiness in all manner of activities and ways. It hates any sort of sadness and thinks sadness is a form of depression. This means that when the world hears of a person being sad or mourning it thinks that people are depressed. So the world rushes to cheer that person up with all sorts of positive thinking and light activities. In doing that, however, it just might be crushing any true joy that a person may have. Scripture speaks of people mourning and being broken over their sin. This is a natural result of a person coming to the stark realization of his or her poverty of spirit. The drive to make everyone outwardly light and happy in and out of the church has had terrible results in the spiritual realm of people. People must learn to truly mourn over their own sin and the glory of God or they will not have true joy.

Our text tells us that those who mourn will be comforted. So we must learn to mourn in such a way that it is only God and His balm that is applied to the soul that will comfort us. What keeps us from mourning in a biblical way? The world sees this as ridiculous (happy are those who mourn) and thinks mourning should be avoided at all cost. In fact, it is setup to avoid pain and mourning. For example, the entertainment industry is thriving in its efforts to help us keep our minds off of mourning and hell. To the degree, then, that the church has bought into the entertainment model is to the same degree that the church is opposed to true mourning and true joy. This text demonstrates that there is a real problem in the Church because it has been caught up with entertainment just like the world except that it is termed “Christian.”

The world is seemingly nothing but a variety of entertainment these days. We have movies, music, television, computers, video games, bars, novels, and the list goes on and on. The world seems set up to keep people entertained so that they will not have to think of the looming danger and reality of eternity. If once a person begins to think of eternity and others see him or her as depressed, the entertainment industry is thrust at that person in an effort to get him or her out of depression. However, what that does is bring many people out of a serious thinking about eternity and reality and gives them the opiate of entertainment which is a great form of delusion. While it has been said that religion is the opiate of the masses, the truth of the matter is that entertainment in our day has become that which dulls the mind and the soul to eternal things and reality. It is the opiate of the masses.

But is the Church any better? Sure, we may say, it is far better. But to what degree is it better? If our services are set up to keep people happy and not bored, what are we saying? If we desire quality music and entertaining preaching, though we would use different words, aren’t we going down that same path and in reality the worldly model of entertainment has entered in? If we lighten up the preaching, though we say we are making it more relevant, aren’t we really being more entertaining? If the preaching is filled with stories and jokes, then we are focused on entertainment. If our children programs and youth programs are meant to entertain or be funny and light over all, can we say that the entertainment model has not been brought into the Church?

For a church to desire true happiness in the members it must seek to make them mourn. I know that sounds utterly ridiculous and even heretical in certain circles, but do we believe the words of Christ or not? If only those who mourn are truly blessed and happy, then a church that loves the people will pray and teach in such a way that it leads the people to mourn. If we truly desire the true spiritual good of the people in the church, we will not be interested in positive thinking as such and we will want to throw the entertainment back to the pit. We must preach and teach in ways that our people will learn to mourn so that they will truly be happy. Of course they must learn what to mourn over and to have a heart of true love for God.
A second reason that we do not mourn is simply because some are too intellectual in the worldly sense. Christianity is approached from the intellectual point of view and when a person gains some information about a doctrine or truth that is thought to suffice. Another point is that even if we teach that the intellect is not enough the heart is so deceptive it tricks us into thinking that if we have had some experience relating to that bit of information or doctrine that we have had enough. Receiving a doctrine in the brain alone is not enough to make us mourn in truth. The Holy Spirit alone can drive the truth into the depths of our hearts and open our minds and souls to the reality of the great truths of Christianity. The truth of a doctrine must be seen how it relates to God and how people are to respond from the inner man to it. Christianity is a life that comes from the heart and is not a façade. Christianity is more than just an intellectual system; it is having the very life of God in the soul of man. This is far more than an intellectual challenge of game, it is life itself.

A third reason that we do not mourn flows from the fourth reason (see below). Between the two we will call both of them the main reason. We do not mourn because we do not love God enough. We either do not love God at all or we do not love Him enough. Either way we have little of no affection for God. If we don’t love Him then we will not mourn for the way people speak His name and go on to treat His name. We will mourn when our political party loses or when our sports teams lose, but we won’t mourn when the name of God is abused. This shows that our hearts do not love God more than our politics and our sports. Some will spend much time mourning over the moral or social ills in our nation or world and yet that mourning is not over how the name of God is being abused and ridiculed in the entertainment industry and the media.

We mourn over the things we love. We mourn when what we love is spoken ill of. We get down if our name is despised or dragged in the mud, but we desire to be socially acceptable when the name of God is blasphemed. We are horrified if something bad happens in the church and it goes public because we don’t want our church to be spoken of in a derogatory manner. However, where is our love for God and His honor? It honors God when church discipline is carried out in certain circumstances, but when we don’t do that because we don’t want things to be known and the church to be spoken of in a certain manner, we show that it is not God’s name that we love.

A fourth reason that we do not mourn is because we have no sense of God’s majesty. We have been deceived into thinking that if we run the church and keep certain doctrines, then we are doing God’s work. Others think that if the numbers are high and they give to missions, they are doing God’s work. In reality, no work for God is being done if it is not done out of a love for His glory and majesty. When the church becomes more of an institution than a place where God is exalted, then formalism and ritualism are being done no matter whether it is an entertainment model or a liturgical one. When God’s majesty is gone, the music can be contemporary, rock, country, or hymns and it will all be nothing but ritual in one form or another. No mourning for His glory will be done.

A fifth reason is that we have no true desires for His glory and kingdom. This reason flows from a love for God and a sense of His majesty. All that we do in the church apart from love for God and a sense of His majesty is just work to keep the institution going and perhaps to keep people busy in the church so that they will think that they are serving God. It is important to many people to think that they are serving God so that they can deceive themselves into thinking that they are Christians and good people. As long as the church is not seeking the glory of God and the advancement of His kingdom in reality out of a love for Him and His majesty, it is deceiving the people that are in it and keeping them from true Christianity.

How does this all relate to mourning? It shows several things that are related to mourning and why those that mourn are blessed. Next week I intend to show several essential Christian practices that are inextricably intertwined with true mourning. But for the moment I hope that it is clear that a mourning heart is at odds with the entertainment model of church. Churches in that model are in effect destroying what it takes to be truly happy. Churches that do not teach what true love for God is and how utterly glorious He is and focus on practical things (so-called), are really destroying what it takes to truly mourn and therefore true joy. True joy and happiness must come from God and come from the work of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5:22ff). Those who mourn in truth are those that have finished with the world and desire their joy from the very working of God in their souls. Those who love God desire His glory and kingdom in this world more than their own happiness. When that happens, God blesses those people with Himself and comforts them with the joy that the world knows nothing of.

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Edwards, Resolution 23

December 19, 2006

“Resolved, frequently to take some deliberate action that seems most unlikely to be done, for the glory of God, and trace it back to the original intention, designs, and ends of it; and if I find it not to be for God’s glory, to repute it as a breach of the 4th resolution.” (Resolution 23)

The language of this resolution sounds a bit funny at first, but after several readings and some deliberation it becomes clear. Here is a man that wanted to check on his heart to see what it was really like. He didn’t just want to do this every now and then, but he wanted to do this frequently. In other words, he was going to check his heart on a frequent basis to ensure that it was not growing hard or indifferent to God. What he was going to do was take some of the things that he did deliberately and check his intentions and goals in it. If we are interested in the truth about ourselves, we will check the hardest things. So it is not just some action or affection that happened suddenly, but a deliberate action.

Not only did he check his deliberate actions, but he wanted to find out those things that were most unlikely to be done for the glory of God. Again we see that he went after the hardest things for himself instead of the easiest. Instead of looking for those thing that he would likely have done for the glory of God, he checked himself on the things that were the most unlikely to be done for the glory of God. Here we see what a man does that is serious about his heart in light of eternity. He does not settle for the obvious and the easy things, but he goes to the depths even in the hard things. It is simply a logical deduction of I Corinthians 10:31. We are to do all for the glory of God and that does not mean the easy things or even most things only, but all things. Whatever we do that is not to the glory of God is sin and we must check our hearts in light of that.

Edwards would take a deliberate action and trace it back to the real reason why he did it. He wanted to know the original intent for the action. Here we see a way to do serious work on our hearts. We must ask what we really intended by what we did, not necessarily what we wanted to intend. We must be brutally honest and trace these things out in our hearts all the while asking God to reveal these things to us. We must understand what Scripture teaches about the heart and how deceitful it is. We must not rest content with what we want to be true of ourselves, but what is actually true of ourselves. To get past the self-deception that the heart always wants to throw up to us, we must pray for light and for insight into our own hearts.

Man will never fully escape pride and self-love in this life. Therefore, man is an enemy to himself and the truth about himself. Pride will always want to put the best foot forward about self and even mask what is really true about ourselves. By definition pride exalts self and so a proud man is not one that is accurate about himself. A person that is not aware of the influence of self-love will make judgments about self and its motives with self-love guiding the examination process. Rather than be deceived and fooled about ourselves by self-love and pride, which wants to see self in the best light and judges self by the worst in other people, we must judge self by Scripture. This is quite clear from Jeremiah 17:9-10: “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it? 10 “I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds.” The heart is so deceitful that it cannot be understood apart from the LORD. He has given us His Word and Spirit for the work.

Let us be very clear about this issue. We must do all that we do to the glory of God or it is sin. We must not give God a general nod and tell ourselves that we have acted for His glory. We must not think that our actions that conform outwardly to the Bible are in reality for the glory of God. No, our motives and intentions must truly desire the glory of God in what we do. The inward man must be moved by love for God. We must search our hearts and do it thoroughly and judge them by Scripture. Whatever is not truly for the glory of God is sin and there is no little sin because there is no little God to sin against.

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Edwards, Resolution 22, Part 2

December 17, 2006

“Resolved, to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness in the other world as I possibly can, with all the power, might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of” (Resolution 22).

Last time I tried to set out that to desire and seek the glory of God for all eternity actually requires man to seek his own happiness in the other world, though that must not be his primary goal. One must recognize that the greatest commandment is to love God with all of my heart, mind, soul, and strength. All that I do must flow from love for God. However, in seeking God with all of my being I find my created purpose and my greatest joy and happiness. But how is one to do that and how does that influence our happiness now?

In order to have true happiness now one must live for true happiness in eternity. All that God has provided for His people now is really but a foretaste of things to come. In order to pursue things in eternity one must pursue them now and for eternity. Eternity must influence what we do now or we spoil both now and eternity. Let us imagine that God desires to express or communicate His glory through human beings. They must begin to love His glory in some way as He loves His glory (be holy as I am holy) in this life so that they can be filled with it for eternity. God expresses or communicates His own glory to and in man in this life but in eternity it will be more fully expressed.

Clearly, then, what we do now has a major influence on our happiness and joy for eternity.

How are we to obtain for ourselves as much happiness in the other world as we possibly can? In one sense we must see that it is not really something we obtain for ourselves, but it is all by grace. We are to pursue these things by the strength that grace gives and not by selfish reasons. The way to pursue eternal joy is to pursue God right now with all that we have at the moment praying for more grace to pursue Him even more. There is no real distinction between seeking God and seeking to glorify His name. We must pray for grace to give us more and more holy desires in order to seek God and His glory more and more.

Another issue here is that of justification. When God justifies a person He has punished Christ for all of that person’s sins so that there is not one sin left for that person to suffer for. When God justifies a person He gives that person a perfect righteousness in Christ so that there is no one iota of righteousness that the person needs to earn to enter heaven and the presence of God. Therefore, as Jesus taught, one cup of cold water given in His name will not lose its reward” (Matthew 10:42). Since heaven has already been fully and perfectly earned on behalf of His people, all that a believer does out of love for God or for His name’s sake will be rewarded. So to pursue eternal happiness is to pursue the glory of God in this world and to do all things for His name’s sake. Believers should be given to good works for the glory of His name (Mat 5:16) but knowing that the glory of the God they love is being displayed and in that the believer is happy.

Let us look at this from another angle. Believers are the temple of God and His glory now. It is not that the believer can do something in his own strength that will draw out the glory of God and put it on display, but it is the grace of God dwelling in the believer that shines through the believer. In this way the believer shares in the divine nature (II Peter 1:4). To seek His glory is to share in His divine life which love and joy are part of. We seek His glory out of love and yet because He is our greatest love His glory displayed is our greatest joy. We are to love His glory in us and delight to see His glory shine through us. When we experience His glory (beauty of His attributes) it brings us great joy because it is sharing in His joy. When we see His glory displayed in the world that delights our soul as well because He is our greatest love.

John 17:26 is key to understanding one aspect of this: “and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” It is in knowing God that the love that Christ was loved with will be in us. We must also remember that eternal life is to know God (John 17:3) and we know that is not apart from His love and joy. The believer must pursue God with the violence that Edwards spoke about so that the believer may experience eternal life both now and in eternity. Eternal life is really Christ Himself and the love He was loved with and the joy He had are found in knowing God. We know God by loving Him and pursuing the delight of His glory, knowing that it will be ever increasing for all eternity. We pursue knowing Him by pursuing His glory which because we love Him we delight to see it displayed.

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Edwards, Resolution 22

December 15, 2006

“Resolved, to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness in the other world as I possibly can, with all the power, might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of” (Resolution 22).

From one point of view this resolution is a crass display of hedonism and utter self-centeredness. Here Edwards almost sounds as if he would fit in with the modern terrorists who use violence to obtain bliss in heaven. However, there is far more here than meets the eye of the modern man who is not used to thinking through things but allows technology and others do that for him.

What does it mean to obtain happiness in the other world? This means that Edwards had an eternal view of things and was focused on doing all in light of that. While it does appear that this statement is self-centered, in the context of Edwardsean theology it is anything but selfish. In fact, this is as God-centered a statement as one could find when seen in its broader context. Remember that his first resolution was: “Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God’s glory and to my own good, profit, and pleasure, in the whole of my duration, without any consideration of the time, whether now or never so many myriads of ages hence. Resolved to do whatever I think to be my duty, and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general. Resolved to do this, whatever difficulties I meet with, how ever so many and how ever so great.” To go along with that, his second resolution was: “Resolved, never to do any manner of thing, whether in soul or body, less or more, but what tends to the glory of God; nor be, nor suffer it, if I can possibly avoid it.”

The fourth resolution shows that he desired what tended to the glory of God and only that. The first resolution shows the link between the glory of God and Edwards’ “own good, profit, and pleasure.” Edwards makes these things clear in his Miscellanies and other writings. If a person is sharing in the life of God, then that person is sharing in the joy that flows between the Father and the Son. If a person is sharing in that life and joy, that person will have and be growing in true pleasure. In other words, the pleasure that a person has in God is really the pleasure of God in Himself that He is sharing with those that are in Christ and that Christ is in. For Edwards to pursue the glory of God is for him to desire to share in the pleasure that God has in Himself.

We must also think through the issue of what it means to glorify God. Does man have the power and ability to exhibit the internal glory of God in and of himself? Rather, it is God that expresses His own internal glory and shines it through Christ to and in man so that His glory would shine through man. In this way, then, the true glory and beauty of God is only seen when He shares His beauty and glory by working it in human beings. In other words, a person that truly desires the glory of God must of necessity desire to enjoy God. It is only when a person is enjoying God and having pleasure in Him that a person is truly sharing in the life of God. It is then that God is working in that person the joy and pleasure He has in His own glory.

We can also capture the picture from one of Edwards’ sermons. In a series of sermons entitled Charity and its Fruits, there is a sermon on Heaven a World of Charity, or Divine Love. In this sermon heaven is pictured as an ocean of love. Each individual develops is or her capacity to receive love on earth. So the greater that our capacity is developed on earth to receive love, the more love that individual receives in heaven. In other words, each believer is taken and dipped into the ocean of divine pleasure and love when in heaven and will be as full of love as the capacity that has been developed will allow. In other words, to pursue the glory of God and even the desire to glorify Him for eternity is to pursue one’s pleasure in God because that is an expression and emanation of the glory of God in and through His people. To have the desire to glorify God both now and in eternity to the maximum degree is to desire that we share in God’s joy and pleasure in Himself both now and in eternity. That is how God glorifies Himself.

Yet Edwards does use the term “violence.” That does not mean that he is going to be violent to other people, but the violence refers to the force and activity on himself that he will be exerting in order to pursue the glory of God. Matthew 11:12 uses the same language: “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force. It is a word that refers to force being exerted. Edwards was referring to himself and the force he was going to use on himself.

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Beatitudes 7: Those Who Mourn 2

December 13, 2006

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4)

Last week we looked at how those that are truly happy are those that mourn. If that statement still bothers you, then perhaps the point has not hit home as it should. Jesus said that the truly blessed (true happiness, inner joy) are those that mourn. Interestingly enough, only those that mourn in this way shall be comforted. So those that mourn in truth are those that have a greater degree of true joy. That may not sound right, but let us remember that Jesus spoke those words. We also have the Word of God speaking from Isaiah 66:10: “Be joyful with Jerusalem and rejoice for her, all you who love her; Be exceedingly glad with her, all you who mourn over her.” Without question this text speaks of people who mourn and are also exceedingly glad.

We should also know that the mourning that is being spoken of here is not the type of mourning that the natural man is able to do. The natural man mourns when he misses a meal, loses some money, or just about anything in which his selfish desires are thwarted. We know that there are types of mourning that are simply sin and nothing but sin: “He said to him, “O son of the king, why are you so depressed morning after morning? Will you not tell me?” Then Amnon said to him, “I am in love with Tamar, the sister of my brother Absalom” (II Samuel 13:4). Here Amnon was depressed or very sad because he could not have physical relations with Tamar. He was, in one sense, mourning over the situation. That type of person is not blessed.

“But Naboth said to Ahab, “The LORD forbid me that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.” 4 So Ahab came into his house sullen and vexed because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him; for he said, “I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.” And he lay down on his bed and turned away his face and ate no food. 5 But Jezebel his wife came to him and said to him, “How is it that your spirit is so sullen that you are not eating food?” (II Kings 21:3-5). Here we have the king of Israel sullen and mourning because he could not have the land and vineyard of another man. He went on to have the man killed. That is not a blessed mourning.

“So Haman took the robe and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and led him on horseback through the city square, and proclaimed before him, “Thus it shall be done to the man whom the king desires to honor.”12 Then Mordecai returned to the king’s gate. But Haman hurried home, mourning, with his head covered” (Esther 6:11-12). In this text we have Haman who wanted Mordecai dead. The king had Haman honor Mordecai which sent him home mourning. This was nothing but mourning produced by shame, envy, and even hatred. Haman tried to have Mordecai killed. This is not a blessed type of mourning.

With those examples in mind, we can know with certainty that all types of mourning are not blessed. This means that we must look for those types of mourning that are. Without question we should mourn for sin. All sin is against God (Psa 51:4) as David shows us and then he goes on to set out how he mourned. At the end of the Psalm, verse 17, he says this: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” This contrition of heart over sin includes mourning. It is the heart that has lost its strength from self and any other motive not of God and is pulverized and sorrowful over its sin. That is the proper sacrifice to bring God and without a heart like that to some degree He is not pleased.

But lest we think that mourning is something that we can just work up, Ezekiel 24:23 sets out a different story: “‘Your turbans will be on your heads and your shoes on your feet. You will not mourn and you will not weep, but you will rot away in your iniquities and you will groan to one another.” The text shows that mourning was withheld from these people. Mourning is a gift of God. He must grant a soft heart that mourns over spiritual things. Man cannot do this in his own power. God has to give an understanding of sin and the heart to mourn for it. Romans 1:18-32 shows the other side of the issue. God gives some over to hard hearts and what they do is make excuses for sin and go on in other sin. A hard heart does not care about sin and is a judgment of God. A tender heart, on the other hand, is one that is sensitive to sin because it is against God and will mourn.

We have another example from II Chronicles 34:27: “Because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and against its inhabitants, and because you humbled yourself before Me, tore your clothes and wept before Me, I truly have heard you,” declares the LORD.” In this passage we see that God was pleased when king Josiah had a tender heart toward God and tore his clothes (a sign of sorrow and mourning) and wept before the Lord. Here we see that men should mourn for the sins of the nation. From the context of this passage, Josiah knew that the sins of the nation were against God. So we can make the deduction that a truly tender heart will mourn for the sins of others and even a nation.

How much does the Lord love hearts that mourn? Ezra 9 has a fascinating passage on this: “The LORD said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, even through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations which are being committed in its midst.” 5 But to the others He said in my hearing, “Go through the city after him and strike; do not let your eye have pity and do not spare.
6 “Utterly slay old men, young men, maidens, little children, and women, but do not touch any man on whom is the mark; and you shall start from My sanctuary.” So they started with the elders who were before the temple.” What would happen if God struck down all those in the churches of today that did not sigh and grown over the abominations that are being done in the churches? Would we be like Abraham pleading for God to spare the church for just a few? But we should at least take notice that this was not a fake mourning and it was of the heart. This type of mourning was accompanied and marked by sighing and groaning. This points to a deep inner pain. The reason they were to mourn was because of the abominations being committed. But in reality, or at least I think it is rather obvious, they were mourning because the abominations were sins against God.

We can also look at Paul’s teaching on the subject in talking to others and then about himself. “You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst” (I Corinthians 5:2). When we see others sin, instead of allowing the sin to go without comment and instead of being overly harsh and judgmental, we are to mourn over their sin. We then see Paul’s heart at what he would do if the Corinthians did not repent: “I am afraid that when I come again my God may humiliate me before you, and I may mourn over many of those who have sinned in the past and not repented of the impurity, immorality and sensuality which they have practiced (II Cor 12:21). Then as James 4:9 tells us, “Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.”

The Scripture commands us to have joy in the Lord and even to rejoice in all things. However, a heart that loves and has joy in God and its neighbors will mourn over sin. God is the most beautiful and glorious Being that there can possibly be. His people should love Him with all of their beings. So when we understand that all sin is actually acts of hatred toward God and enmity against Him, we should mourn for our greatest love. The desires and prayers of the believer are to glorify God and to see His glory manifested in the world. When we see people hating our Beloved and acting with hostility toward Him which does not manifest His glory as we wish, we should mourn and lament this. It is simply a heart that loves God more than all other things. What would our churches look like if we had people that mourned and wept over the sins of the nation rather than being at war with them? What would our neighbors think if we mourned over their sin rather than attacked them over it? What would people in our churches think if we mourned over sinners within the church rather than angrily condemning them? Indeed we are called to denounce sin and out of love point these things out to people and it is love to point out sin to people if we are concerned about them and God’s glory. If we have no true mourning for their sin, perhaps we don’t have the right love for God and our neighbor when we point their sin out.

I hope that it is obvious at this point that mourning is consistent with the greatest of all joy. True mourning comes from a heart that loves God who is the source of all love and joy. True mourning comes out of a heart that is like Christ when He wept over Jerusalem, and yet He wanted His people to be full of His joy. A true mourning is not selfish and always sad over what self wants or self loses, but instead is a heart that God is working Himself into. The presence of God in the hearts of His people brings a heart that sees things a different way. No longer are sinners seen as enemies, but as people to mourn over because of the harm sin is bringing to them, their nation, and the glory of God. Perhaps in the USA we are just too selfish and lukewarm (at best) to have an inward pang for those that are on their way to hell and over God and His glory as it is attacked over and over. Shall we pass more laws or seek God for hearts that will mourn out of true love? Let us always remember that external morality fits very will with the Pharisees. Their spirit is alive and “well” in our day. Could it be that you are more like a Pharisee than one that mourns like Christ? Seek the Lord for a mourning for spiritual things that is moved by joy.

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