Joy and Gladness for Mourning Souls

Next Part Joy and Gladness for Mourning Souls 2

"To appoint unto those who mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified." Isaiah 61:3

In speaking this morning upon the testimony of Jesus Christ, of the way in which that testimony is received, and how those who received it set to their seal that God was true, I might have quoted, had they occurred to my mind, these striking words of the Lord Jesus Christ, for it is from his lips that they proceed. This is evident not only from the general bearing of the chapter, but also from the express declaration of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. You will remember that on one occasion, soon after he had entered upon his ministry, he came to Nazareth and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath Day, and stood up to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Elijah. And he opened the book at the place where it was written, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me" (Lk.4:18). Then follows the passage which I have just read. And then sitting down to expound the Scriptures, according to his custom, he added, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears" (Lk.4:21). Now, how could that Scripture be fulfilled in their ears, unless he was the Person whose office it was to comfort all who mourn, and do the whole of that blessed work which is here spoken of?

In looking at these words, I shall, with God's blessing, attempt to show–
I. The character of the spiritual mourner, for it is who is here spoken of.
II. The sweet and blessed promises which God has given to the spiritual mourner.
III. The glory which redounds to God thereby.

I. The character of the spiritual mourner, for it is who is here spoken of. Now, as if to guard us from viewing these words in too general a sense, the Lord has limited their meaning in the next verse--"To appoint unto those who mourn in Zion." The promise, therefore, is not to those who mourn generally, but to those who mourn specially; not to those who are in heaviness and sorrow from mere worldly trouble, but to those characters who, as under the teaching of God, are mourners in Zion. No one can be a mourner in Zion unless he is a partaker of grace, regenerated, and quickened into divine life by the operation of the blessed Spirit on the heart. Wherever, then, grace takes possession of a man's heart, raising up in him a life that never can die, it makes him a spiritual mourner. Until this work is wrought in the soul, it has no place in the promises, no situation marked out for it in the Word of God, nor is it in a suitable state to receive the consolations of the gospel.

But I would not limit the mourners here spoken of to spiritual mourners only; for if I were to draw that very narrow line, how many trials, sufferings and sorrows, I should pass by, and thus almost say that such troubles needed no divine consolations. Therefore, though I limit the mourners to the mourners in Zion, I do not limit Zion's mourning to spiritual mourning, but I take in all those subjects of trial and grief which God alone by his Spirit and grace can comfort in, and support under.

As, then, the Lord has promised that he will comfort all who mourn, every spiritual mourner who has a case of trouble and sorrow, has an interest in this promise. But apart from the varied sources of temporal distress that God's children often so keenly feel, more keenly and deeply than worldly people, as possessing more tender and exquisite feelings, they have troubles peculiar to themselves, which make them emphatic mourners in Zion. These have an inward grief, a heart sore, that makes them go burdened, and that sometimes heavily, all the day long. Wherever there are real convictions of sin, a true wound made in the conscience by the Spirit of God, there will, there must, be mourning.

SIN is a thing so vile in itself; an object that God so essentially and eternally hates; a matter that lay with such burdensome weight and power upon Jesus; and was such a source of intense grief and distress to the darling Son of God, when it bowed down his sacred body and soul in the garden of Gethsemane, and pressed him down well-near into hell upon the cross, that every saint of God who has it opened up in his conscience by a true spiritual conviction, must become a spiritual mourner.

But apart from the weight of distressing convictions in the first work of grace on the soul when this mourning first begins, look at a child of God all through his course, to the day when he receives his immortal crown; take him all through the wilderness, from the moment that life divine enters his soul until the end of his days when the waves of Jordan are in sight, and he passes through its floods into the realms of bliss, he will be more or less a spiritual mourner on account of the evil that dwells in him. No, the more that he knows of his heart, the longer he walks in the divine life, and the more that sin is opened up to him as seen in the light of God's countenance, the more will he be a spiritual mourner. Sometimes he will mourn over the evils of his heart, that his lusts and corruptions are so strong, and he so weak against them; sometimes over the temptations that Satan has laid for his feet, in which he has been entangled, and by which he has been cast down; sometimes over the absence of God, and that he finds so little access to his blessed Majesty. Sometimes he will mourn as feeling how little grace he has; at another time he will grieve over his shortcomings and inability to realize that vital godliness in his soul which is stamped by the approbation of God as coming from himself. Sometimes he will mourn over his backslidings; how he has been tangled in and given way to his lusts; how he has been overcome by his temper; how he has murmured and fretted against God's dealings with him, so as at times to have been almost ready to break forth into cursing, commit suicide, or do something desperate.

As these and a thousand other evils are felt in a man's heart, they make him mourn, and as the text speaks, have ashes for his covering. He mourns also over his lack of fruitfulness--and that he cannot be, do, or say what he would. He has strong desires to adorn the doctrine of God in all things, to have spirituality of mind and a tender conscience; and to lead a life of faith, prayer, and watchfulness. But he is obliged to confess with the apostle, "For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing." (Rom.7:19). For his mind is often, very often, doing the exact contrary. All these things, combined with Satan's powerful temptations, and his many misgivings on account of the hidings of God's face from him on account of his sins, with his thorough inability to cast off the burdens that press him down, sink him very low.

And when he cannot realize any manifestations of God's love, and all is dark and desolate, he seems as if he never knew anything aright, and is ready to cut himself off as a hypocrite or a dead professor. In addition to all this, he may have also to experience persecution for the truth's sake from those, perhaps, near and dear to him; so that it is not one, but many sorrows, that he has to wade through, so as at times to make him, in his feelings, of all men most miserable.

1. But the Lord, speaking of this mourner, has given certain definite MARKS by which he may be more clearly and distinctly known. He speaks, for instance, of "ashes" in connection with this spiritual mourner, for he has promised to give him "beauty for ashes." To understand this allusion, we must see what is the scriptural meaning of that emblem. In ancient times ashes were an outward token of mourning, much as black clothes are so with us. But they convey also a sense of deep humiliation. Job in his affliction sat down among the ashes. Sackcloth and ashes are often coupled in Scripture, as marks of mourning, as Job speaks, "I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:6). When Tamar suffered dishonor from her brother, she tore her clothes and put ashes on her head, as an outward mark of mourning for her degradation and humiliation.

There is much significance in the emblem. Ashes are but the burnt remnant and dark residue of what was once bright and fair. Thus ashes, as spoken of in connection with the spiritual mourner, imply that what was once fair and beautiful in his eyes, when consumed in the furnace are but a dark, miserable remnant. The spreading of ashes over the crown of his head seems to imply that the spiritual mourner could not take a place too low, that he would hide his face in the dust, and spread over himself and all his once boasted glory, the present felt humiliation of his soul before God, that he is in his own sight a miserable wretch, a sinner indeed.

2. Another mark which the Lord gives of the spiritual mourner in Zion, is that he is clothed with the spirit of HEAVINESS. There is something very expressive in this figure. Heaviness of heart is compared to a huge cloak or outer garment, which not only covers him all round, but rests upon him with a weight that depresses his spirit down to the dust. How many things there are to produce in a believing soul a spirit of heaviness! Some of God's people seem almost constitutionally disposed to dejection of mind, gloomy sensations and dismal apprehensions, both in providence and in grace. Dark, gloomy clouds continually pass over their mind, and Satan helping forward their distress, holds up before their eyes a thousand evils that may never come to pass, yet are as much dreaded as if they were real, and even more painfully felt. This mental depression clothes them as with a garment which closes in on every side, hampering every movement with its seemingly inextricable folds.

These spiritual mourners, then, are the people for whom the Lord has a special regard. These are they whom the Lord Jesus Christ was anointed by the Holy Spirit to comfort. This brings us to our second point, which is to show–

II. The sweet and blessed PROMISES which God has given to the spiritual mourner. He is specially appointed for those who mourn in Zion, and he was anointed for the express purpose of giving unto them "beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." All this, be it observed, is of divine appointment. We never can lay too much stress on God's appointments as the great Ruler, Director, and Controller of all things. We must not look on the varied events that are ever taking place in this world as a mere matter of chance, a confused medley, as though these multitudinous circumstances were all thrown like marbles into a bag, and thrown out without any order or arrangement.

God is a God of order. In the natural world, the world of creation, all is in order. In the spiritual world, the world of grace, all is in order; and in the providential world, the world of providence, all is order also. To our mind, indeed, all often seems disorder. But this arises from our ignorance, and not seeing the whole as one definitely arranged plan. This God holds in his hands. If you were to see a weaver working at a loom, and saw nothing but the threads and needles jumping up in continual motion, you would see nothing but confusion, nor could you form the slightest conception of the pattern which was being worked. But when the whole was completed, and the silk taken off the roller, then you would see a pattern arranged in beautiful order, every thread concurring to form one harmonious design. But all this was known beforehand by the artist who designed the pattern, and every arrangement was made in strict subservience to it.

But if this is the case as to Gods appointments in providence, how much more is it true of his glorious designs in grace. Every trial and temptation, affliction and sorrow, are but the result of a definite plan in the eternal mind. Yet to us how often all seems confusion! This confusion is not so much in the things themselves, as in our mind. Job surrounded by trouble cried out, "I am full of confusion" (Job 10:15). Yet we can see in reading his history that all his trials were working toward an appointed end. So every trial, exercise, temptation or affliction, which has ever lain, or ever will lie, in your path, if you are a child of God, has been marked out by infinite, unerring wisdom.

Is not the commonest road laid out according to a definite plan, and does not the surveyor when he lays it out put every mile-stone in its proper place? So, does not the Lord lay out beforehand the road in which his people should walk? And does he not put a trial here and a sorrow there, an affliction at this turning and a cross at that corner, but each definitely laid in infinite wisdom, to bring the traveler safe home to Zion?

But as the Lord has appointed the mourning, and heaviness, and ashes, so has he appointed the Lord Jesus Christ, that he may administer consolation to the spiritual mourners. And do you not think that when God in his infinite wisdom chose his own dear Son, he selected one who was fit for the work? Who else was fit for it? For the mourners in Zion have temptations and sorrows which need a support and consolation which the Son of God alone can give; no man, no minister, no, not even an angel from heaven without special commission for that purpose, could comfort them, because they need an Almighty deliverer; and their troubles being chiefly spiritual, they need spiritual relief to reach the root of the case, so as to make the remedy adequate to the malady.

When God, then, in his infinite wisdom appointed his dear Son to comfort all who mourn, he appointed one able to do the work; not only one whose heart and affections were engaged in it, not only one willing, but strong to do it, having in his glorious Person the infinite strength and power of Godhead. Therefore the Lord said, "I have laid help upon one who is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people" (Psalm.89:19). He came, then in God's appointed time, and the Holy Spirit rested on him without measure, and anointed him to preach these good tidings; "to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound" (verse 1).

Both his appointment to the office, and the fulfillment of it, are alike of grace. The creature has no standing here, nor do I read a single word about their merit or their good works. They mourn, it is true; but God sees no merit in tears, no merit in mourning, no merit in suffering, no merit in sorrow. Were their eyes a fountain of tears, it could not wash one sin away. If, then, the Lord looks with pity on these mourners, it is all of his grace.

His eyes are fixed on their trials, and his heart sympathizes with their temptations; for he himself in the days of his flesh was similarly tempted, and he has a fellow-feeling with them in all their afflictions, for he too was "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief" (Isa.53:3). But not only does he pity. Pity without help is but cold work. He therefore helps as well as pities.

Next Part Joy and Gladness for Mourning Souls 2

Back to J. C. Philpot Sermons