The Beatitudes 2015 Summer Sermon Series
“Contrition is Different than Confession” Matt.5.4 (3 of 9)
June 21, 2015 CFBC Chester, IL Dr. Mike Fogerson, Speaker
A Jesus’ Kingdom is organized differently that worldly kingdoms; In His Kingdom wealth, power & authority are not important.
1 People in Heaven’s Kingdom seek different blessings, benefits and have different attitudes.
a The beatitudes are the attitudes that Christians are to posses, seek to have & show in their lives.
aa Upon casual reading the Beatitudes, the gateway to the Sermon on the Mount, seem paradoxical.
bb To be blessed you must poor in spirit, to be comforted you have to mourn, to be satisfied you must be hungry & thirsty, etc.,
b When we first look at the Beatitudes they seem to take the wind out of sails, stagger like we’ve been hit by a professional boxer.
aa So we consider them to be unobtainable, out-our-reach, lofty set of ideals to strive for . . . but not to be considered seriously.
bb In turn, we’ve compromised the seriousness, urgency, Jesus’ command to live out the beatitudes.
cc Poor in Spirit, Mourn, gentle, hunger & thirst for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, persecuted, insulted. . . have became optional because they’re too arduous, laborious to achieve daily.
c Jesus has not called us to be successful, flourish; He has called us to be obedient.
2 Last week we learned that Jesus demands us to know how “poor, wretched, weak, incapable, destitute, beggar-like, crippled” our inner-man truly is. “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”
a Being poor in spirit has nothing to do with money, possessions, good behavior, self-righteousness or right living.
aa We’re quadriplegic beggars totally unable to do anything for our own souls.
bb Our souls have been infected with original sin, a terminal disease that cannot be treated with money or going to church. . .it is only treated when we come to Christ as poor beggars, fully aware that we bring Him nothing in exchange for the cure.
cc We have nothing He needs, wants: nothing to bargain heaven with. . . we’re nothing, in fact, worst than most! Chief sinners, everyone else in this room is better than I am.
b Humility, was the word we used, and if you think your humble . . . your not.
B To enter the Kingdom you don’t run, you crawl into the Kingdom, fully aware that your spirit is poor.
1 You have been convinced of the fact that your soul/inner man is worthless, broken, . . .poor. (It’s called conviction.)
a Conviction is not the end of entering the Kingdom of Heaven.
b “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Matt. 5.4
aa Being poor in spirit allows us to agree (confess) with God concerning the depravity/poorness/helplessness of our own souls.
bb Mourning means to grieve the loss/death of a friend, inner grief.
2 We mourn over the loss of our righteousness, innocense, self-respect.
a It’s not the sorrow of bereavement, but the sorrow of repentance.
b It’s one thing to acknowledge you’re nothing/nobody —it’s another thing to grieve/mourn over it.
aa Confession is one thing, contrition is another.
bb The Christian life isn’t all laughs & joy.
c Too many people walk an aisle, sign the card, get baptized in water, baptized in the Holy Spirit, filled with the Holy Spirit and now I’ve got to have this smile on my face all the time. (Wrong)
aa The truth is that we still sin, still are just as helpless.
bb There are such things as Christian tears and most of us shed far too few of them.
3 Salvation comes by repentance, by mourning.
a If you’ve been “saved” and never have had a bankrupt spirit, mourning of your spirit . . . you’re still lost because the only way in, get comfort is to mourn/repent.
aa The NT never talks about walking an aisle, signing a card as proof your saved.
bb It always asks for proof/evidence of repentance.
b Repentance (mourning) isn’t self-pity, it’s being different since Jesus came to live in your heart.
C In our world that pushes pleasure, success, happiness, is there anything more contrasting than a spirit of mourning?
1 Jesus wants us to feel bad about our sin, the consequences of sin, corruption of sin on the world/our souls, devastation & disgrace as a result of sin.
a We are so “poor in spirit” that we see the root cause of our poverty, the root of our problem and we hate it!
b We grieve over it. . . the “it” is sin.
2 I’m saved, born again, washed in the blood, justified, I’m done, right? Wrong.
a Rom. 7, Paul talks about the problem he had with sin
Romans 7:17-18 (NASB) 17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.
aa But he saved and never had to deal with sin again, right?
bb 20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. Romans 7:20 (NASB)
b Righteousness & sin are fighting,
aa Romans 7:21-24 (NASB) 21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. 22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
bb Paul wrestling with sin was not a one & done deal.
cc Romans 7:25 (NASB) 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.
c He fought sin his life everyday until he saw Jesus face to face . . . in other words, until the day he died.
aa 1 John 1:9-10 (NASB) 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.
bb “Confess our sins” is a continually confessing act.
cc If we are the ones continually confessing our sins, we give evidence of being the ones who are being forgiven, we are the forgiven ones, the subjects of the kingdom, the children of the King, sons of God, are characterized by constant confession of sin
dd In Matt.5.4, the verb “mourn” is a present tense continuous action.
D If we understood that we are take sin seriously, understand its destructive nature it would interfere with our parties, drinking, carousing, web searches, what we did, where we went, what we said, what we thought . . .we’d be a lot more serious, somber, sensitive to sin, & we’d mourn much more.
1 We mourn also because there are certain pleasures we are supposed to deny ourselves that others can enjoy.
a While others may indulge in immorality, gluttony, drunkenness, and the worship of money, living it up, enjoying the party, we are required to deny ourselves these things.
aa There’s no use in saying these things aren’t pleasurable . . . sin is fun or people wouldn’t do it.
bb “. . . rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.” -Heb. 11.25.
cc Each time a child of God says ‘no’ to sin there is an emotional price that he/she pays. They suffer, groan.
b We are called to deny ourselves things that otherwise may be legitimate. Why? For the sake of the gospel.
aa We give up our rights & liberties for the Christ’s sake.
bb We give away money that we could have kept, time that we could have spent persuing leisure pursuits.
cc Self-denial is an essential element of Christian discipleship: “If anyone wishes to come after Me. Let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lost it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it.” -Matt.6.24,25
2 To be a Christian is to practice self-denial for Christ’s sake.
a It is our ‘ambition’ to be ‘pleasing to Him” (2 Cor. 5.9).
2 Corinthians 5:9 (NASB) 9 Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.
b We live now no longer for ourselves ‘but for Him who died and rose again’ on our behalf (2 Cor. 5.15).
2 Corinthians 5:15 (NASB) 15 and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.
c Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.
Conclusion:
A Have you ever wondered why cutting onions makes you cry?
1 When you cut an onion, you break cells, releasing their contents.
a Amino acid sulfoxides form sulfenic acids.
aa Enzymes that were kept separate now are free to mix with the sulfenic acids to produce propanethiol S-oxide, a volatile sulfur compound that wafts upward toward your eyes.
bb This gas reacts with the water in your tears to form sulfuric acid.
cc The sulfuric acid burns, stimulating your eyes to release more tears to wash the irritant away.
b Of weeping with an onion, 17th century British minister, Rev. William Secker, says: Some have tears enough for their outward losses, but none for their inward lusts; they can mourn for the evil that sin brings, but not for the sin which brings the evil. Pharaoh more lamented the hard strokes which were upon him, than the hard heart that was within him. Esau mourned not because he sold the birth-right, which was his sin, but because he lost the blessing, which was his punishment. This is like weeping with an onion, the eye sheds tears because it smarts.
2 For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There's no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death" (2 Corinthians 7:10b, NLT).
B How do you know if you are truly mourners?
1 What do you feel about sin?
a Do you let it pass? Take pleasure in it?
b Maybe it’s a failure in our thinking? Dishonesty? Lust? Gossip? Greed?
c You mourn over personal/private sin & the sin that’s in the world.
2 Do you sense God’s forgiveness?
a Do you have the peace, happiness, comfort that only comes to those who are forgiven?
b Blessed are those that mourn for they shall be comforted!
c Your not blessed because you mourn, mourners are blessed because they get comforted (read ‘forgiven’).
aa If you don’t mourn, you don’t get comforted.
bb Confession is not contrition!
cc Our lives are a continuous act of repentance & contrition.
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Mike Fogerson
