Turning Tears into Telescopes | Part 1

The Bible says there's a time we've done all that we can do to keep ourselves from feeling but in reality, condition does not dictate character. Jesus himself was a man of sorrows, and he is the one who teaches us how to turn our tears into telescopes. If you have your Bible, turn to Matthew chapter 5 and look at verse 4 as Adrian Rogers begins this insightful message, turning tears into telescopes. We're in a series of messages on the Sermon on the Mount. These are wonderful, wonderful passages of Scripture. We call them the Beatitudes. They are not platitudes.

They are so contrary to what the world would say. And the one that we have today is perhaps one of the strangest sentences in all of the Bible. I'll read them all and then come back to our Beatitude for today. And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain. And when he was set, his disciples came unto him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. But note especially now verse 4, Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Now, may I say that the world would never say this. The world would never say, Blessed are they that mourn.

The world would say just the opposite. Blessed are those who never have to cry. Blessed are those who never mourn. We have an idea that if we could go through life without ever crying, without any sorrow, without any pain, without any heartache, without any moan and groan, it would be wonderful, but not so. I walked a mile with pleasure.

She chattered all the way, but left me none the wiser for all she had to say. I walked a mile with sorrow, not a word, said she, but oh, the things I learned from sorrow when sorrow walked with me. Blessed, blessed, Jesus says, are they that mourn. Now, again, I want to say the people of this world would say if we could just arrange conditions where we never have any sorrow, never have any pain, never have any hurt, then we could just change men. If we can change conditions, we can change character, but that isn't what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches just the opposite, and I want to remind you that man fell in a perfect environment.

It was the Garden of Eden. You couldn't have a better environment than that that man fell in, but the world gets it so backward. The world puts the emphasis on condition. God puts the emphasis on character, on what you are, not what you have. Now, He doesn't say blessed are those that have popularity, those who have position, those who have personality, those who have possessions, those who have power.

I can show you people who have all of these things and are perfectly, exquisitely miserable. Jesus doesn't say blessed are those who have certain things, but blessed are those who are certain things, and here's second in the list. Blessed are they that mourn.

Now, I want to make something clear here, however. Jesus is not talking about the moaners. He's not talking about the miserable, the melancholy, the sad sacks, the crybabies of this world. He's not talking about the moaners.

We all know those. They're drinking constantly from the intoxicating cup of self-pity. Their favorite hymn is, Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen, and the only pleasure they get in life is singing it to you. You don't dare ask them how they feel because you'll get an organ recital.

They will tell you exactly how they feel. Now, that's not what Jesus Christ is talking about here. He's not talking about the sadnesses of life and the sorrows of life per se. The word here, blessed are they that mourn, is the deepest word for sorrow. It's the word for the grief that you feel at the graveside of a loved one. It's a strong word, a word for lament. I think it's described in Psalm 34 in verse 18. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, of a broken heart, and he saves such that be of a contrite spirit. That's what he's talking about, my dear friend. May I put it to you bluntly?

May I ask you a question? Jesus was a man of sorrows. The most poignant verse in all of the Bible, I think, the shortest in our English Bible is this, Jesus wept. Do the things that break the heart of Jesus break yours?

That's the question. Do the things that break the heart of Jesus, do they break yours? Blessed are they that mourn. We have a dry-eyed church in a hell-bent world. One of the things that we have learned not to do is to mourn. So many of our church services are filled with cheerleader enthusiasm.

I'm not talking against joy. My dear friend, the Bible says there's a time to laugh and there is a time to weep. So far as our nation is concerned, I believe it's time for America to be on her face before God. This, my dear friend, is a time to weep, and the best thing you can say about the mourners to begin with is at least they have the sensitivity to feel that the hearts are touched. It's out of vogue to mourn.

It's out of vogue to weep. We've done all that we can do to keep ourselves from feeling any pain. We have our psychologists who will numb our neuroses. We have our counselors who will absolve us of all guilt. We have our doctors to sedate our pain.

We have our insurance agents to take away our worries. And even at death, we have the mortuary to somehow try to beautify death for us. And he says, blessed, blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Now, we can talk about different kinds of mourning, but I believe as I study the passage of Scripture, Jesus here is talking about those who primarily mourn over sin.

That's an old-fashioned word, too, isn't it? Those who mourn over sin, theirs, and the sin of humanity. Because, you see, Jesus began this way, blessed are the poor in spirit, those who see that morally, spiritually, they are bankrupt on the side of a righteous and a holy God. And when a person sees that, what follows that, ipso facto, what follows that? When we see our bankruptcy, then it brings our brokenness, bankruptcy and brokenness. When we see that we are spiritually bankrupt, in our hands we have nothing to offer to God, but that even our righteousness is as filthy rags in the sight of a righteous and a holy God. It is then that we mourn. With that in mind, I want us to think of three basic things that I find here in verse 4. First of all, I want you to see the guilt, the guilt that convicts us, the guilt that causes us to mourn. Many of us come to church quite satisfied with ourselves. As a matter of fact, some of us have the idea that we've done God a wild favor by getting here.

But one of the hardest things for us to do is to really see that we have anything to weep over, that we have anything to mourn over. And these beatitudes, these attitudes that ought to be, are really the text for the sermon. And so you find the sermon illustrated in the rest of the Sermon on the Mount as Jesus gives the beatitudes.

And I want you to see some illustrations of what He's talking about. Some of the things that convicts us. Well, first of all, there's the deceiving power of sin.

Look in chapter 5, verses 21 and 22. You have heard that it hath been said of them of old time, thou shalt not kill, and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. Now, most of us have a little list of dos and don'ts. I do this and I do this and I don't do this and I don't do that. And you know, that little list of dos and don'ts can just lead to abominable pride in our lives. I have some don'ts that you don't have.

There's some things that you do that I don't do. But you see, what Jesus does is just to rip the veneer off of all of that, and Jesus gets down to the heart of the matter. And when Jesus sees anger in God's ledger, he writes down murder.

Because, you see, is that reservoir of rage that is there that nobody else can see, but God sees. Look, if you will, in chapter 5, in verse 27, he goes on to say here, You have heard that it hath been said of them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. God doesn't see as man sees.

Man looks on the outward appearance. God looks on the heart. You're reading one of those lascivious magazines, lusting. God writes down adultery. You say, I've never committed adultery. God says, maybe not in your mind.

But you've got a lot to mourn over, my dear friend. You know, rules and regulations, do's and don'ts won't make you one whit more like the Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul was a proud Pharisee. He kept all of the Ten Commandments outwardly, except one of them. He said, I was doing fine. I had my little list of commandments.

He said, I was checking them off. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. I've never done that. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. I wouldn't think of it. Don't make any graven images.

No, sir, not me. This is the Sabbath day to keep it holy. I always do. Honor your father and mother.

Oh, indeed, I have done that. Don't commit adultery. Wouldn't dream of committing adultery. No, sirree. Don't steal. Not me. Don't kill. Oh, no. He said, I was doing fine. I was sailing along. But he said, then I came to one commandment and it wiped me out.

Do you know which one it was? It was the one commandment I've never heard anybody else ever confess they were guilty of. Thou shalt not covet. Thou shalt not covet. Let me give it to you.

Put it in your margin. Romans chapter 7 and verse 7. What shall I say then? Is the law sin? God forbid, yea, I had not known sin but by the law, for I had not known lust except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.

The word lust here means desire. Paul said, yes, I've never stolen anything. Yes, I've never killed anybody. Yes, I've never committed adultery. But I can never say I never wanted to.

I can not say I never wanted to. He said, I had not known this except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. What do we have to weep over, my dear friend? First of all, there is the deceptive power of sin. Many of us dare realize how deceitfully wicked our hearts are.

Our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. That's what God's Word says. But not only the deceptive power of sin, but, my dear friend, the defiling power of sin. Look, if you will, in verses 29 and 30 of this same chapter. And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee, for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee, for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

Now, folks, you're going to have to admit that's stout preaching. What's he saying? What does the eye speak of? What with our eye we're able to behold beauty? The eyes speak of the pleasurable things of life. What does the hand speak of? With the hand we grasp and hold things. That speaks of the profitable things of life.

That's what he's talking about here, I believe. The pleasurable things and the precious things. The things that we can see and the things that we can hold. Do you know what sin does? Sin takes these things and it perverts them. The beautiful things, the precious things.

The things that we behold and the things that we hold. Sin has a way of perverting these things. And may I tell you, the devil is a pervert. The devil has no raw materials. He takes the good things of God and he perverts them.

But now watch. There is the deceiving power of sin. There's the defiling power of sin. There's the destroying power of sin. Look at it.

Continue to read. Look in verse 30 here. And he said, If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee, for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. Now, what is Jesus Christ teaching? Is Jesus Christ telling you, my dear friend, is he telling you that if you want to go to heaven, cut off your right hand, pluck out your right eye? Well, that's not what he's saying. What is Jesus Christ saying? He's saying, my dear friend, it is better to be a maimed saint on your way to heaven than to be a healthy sinner on your way to hell.

That's what he's saying. He's not saying that cutting off your hand is going to get you to heaven. Plucking out your eye is not going to get you to heaven. Christ died for those sins. But I'm telling you, my dear friend, it would be better for you to go limping into heaven than it would be for you to go dancing into hell.

Sin destroys. And I want to say that Jesus Christ is the one who taught more about hell than any other person in the Bible. Never lampoon a preacher as a hellfire preacher because what you're doing is ridiculing the Son of God. Jesus Christ had more to say about hell than any other preacher in the Word of God, Jesus Christ, who was infinite love. There is a hell.

Hell is real. Jesus was compassionate. It was the compassionate Christ who talked about cutting off your hand and plucking out your eye.

It was Jesus Christ who spoke here in the Sermon on the Mount. He spoke, dear friend, of the deceiving power of sin. It's in the heart of the defiling power of the sin, of the destroying power of sin. And when you really see that, and I can't make you see it, all I can do is preach it.

I pray God, the Holy Spirit of God will make you see it. But when that touches your heart and when that gets out of your head down into your heart, when you realize it was your sin that nailed Jesus Christ to the cross, your sin's the nails that held him there, your hard heart, the hammer that drove those nails, when you see that sin is an affront to a righteous and a holy God, when you see that sin deceives, it defiles, it destroys, then you'll understand why Jesus said, blessed are they that mourn. But I want you to see the second thing, not only the guilt that convicts us, but I want you to see the grief, the grief that consumes us. Again, I want you to know that the word here for grief is not an ordinary word. There are many words for sorrow in the Bible. This is the deepest, the most poignant word for sorrow.

It means to lament, to be consumed with grief. And again, I want to say this is the missing note in the modern church. Many people are baptized pagans.

They have united with churches like they join country clubs, but they have never been broken over their sin. Let me give you a verse that you need to ponder on. It's a verse that perhaps you need to read over and over again. 2 Corinthians chapter 7 and verse 10. 2 Corinthians 7 and verse 10, for godly sorrow worketh repentance.

That's the missing note. Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. There are two kinds of sorrow, my dear friend, and Jesus here is talking about godly sorrow. Blessed are they that mourn. Now, what's the difference between godly sorrow and the sorrow of the world? Listen to the verse again. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of. That is, once you get saved, you don't repent of that.

You're glad. But the sorrow of the world worketh death. Now, what is godly sorrow? It is not mere regret. Many of us have done things that we regret, and we are sorry. I mean, when I was a child, I did many things I regretted when my dad found out about it. We had a pump room. He took me out there, and he never whipped me on an empty stomach.

He always turned me over, and that's where he whipped me. I regretted it, sorely regretted it. But that's not godly sorrow. It's not regret or not remorse. Now, regret is primarily in the mind. Remorse goes past the mind to the heart, but that, my dear friend, is not godly sorrow. Remorse. As a matter of fact, remorse without repentance can be a dangerous, dangerous thing.

Regret is primarily in the mind. Remorse is in the mind and in the heart. But remorse, my dear friend, compared to repentance, remorse is a dead-end street. Repentance is a highway. Remorse looks at the sin and its consequences. Repentance looks beyond the sin to Calvary. A person filled with remorse is one who loves his sins and hates himself at the same time.

Have you ever seen anyone like that? He loves his sin, but he hates himself because he can't quit. That's remorse. A person who has repented is a person who hates his sin because he loves his Savior.

That's the difference. No, we have many people who've waltzed down our churches with regret, and others have come with remorse. Well, thank God for those who have come with repentance. Have you come to that place of repentance in your life today?

Remorse looks at the sin and its consequences, but repentance looks beyond the sin to Calvary. If you have questions about who Jesus is, about what he did for you on the cross, and how to receive that forgiveness, go to our Discover Jesus page at lwf.org slash radio. You'll find resources and materials that will answer questions you have about how to place your faith fully in Jesus. Again, go to lwf.org slash radio and click Discover Jesus. Now, if you'd like to order a copy of today's message, you can call us at 1-877-LOVEGOD and mention the title, Turning Tears Into Telescopes.

You'll receive the entire lesson, which we haven't had time for today. This message is also part of the insightful Sermon on the Mount series, The Keys to the Kingdom. For the complete collection, all eight powerful messages, call that number 1-877-LOVEGOD to order, or go online to lwf.org slash radio.

Or you can write us at Love Worth Finding, Box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183. We're so glad you decided to tune in and study God's Word with us. Are you experiencing pain in your life?

Have you repented of your sins and grieved over your rebellion against God? Remember, as Adrian Rogers said, the world puts emphasis on condition. God puts emphasis on character. Make sure you join us tomorrow for part two of Turning Tears Into Telescopes, right here on Love Worth Finding. Recently, a listener reached out on Facebook and said this about the messages of Adrian Rogers, authentic and strong, so precious in this day and age.

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