Sermon: "Blessed are the Pure in Heart" (Matthew 5:8) | Purity in the Bible

Well, please open your Bible to Matthew Chapter 5 and verse 8 where we come to this sixth beatitude. Blessed are the

pure

in

heart

because they will see God. I have to tell you that I have had a sense of wonder as I have meditated on the Scriptures. and preparing the message for this weekend, which I hope feels somewhat real as we dive into these wonderful words of Jesus today, think about it Christ speaks of us seeing God, they will see God, the Scriptures speak of a day when if you are a Christian believer you will see him face to face can you even begin to imagine how wonderful it is to behold him as the Eternal Living God before whom the angels themselves cover their faces? you will see, says Jesus and then God speaks to us today about a

pure

heart

now there is something a heart that thinks the right thing a heart that feels the good and loves the good uh a heart that desires the best I I I read this Sixth Beatitude and I have to tell you that my first reaction when I read it is that what Jesus describes here seems absolutely impossible I don't know if that's your reaction but that's my first reaction when I read it and I consider it

purity

of heart now I would be very surprised if there was someone in this congregation today when you read these words

purity

of heart if your immediate reaction is to say that's me I don't think you're saying no that's not what I'm saying when when Jesus says

blessed

are the poor in spirit it's not difficult to say that's me when when he talks about knowing that no you have what it takes before God I say that's me um when he says

blessed

are those who mourn uh it's not difficult for us by the grace of God to get to the place where' We're seeing our sins, we're aware of our flaws, we're mourning them. , we say it's me, but when we get to this beatitude that we are seeing, today, when Jesus says, blessed are the pure in heart, not me.

I find myself saying it's me and I don't expect you either and then Jesus talks about seeing God now, that sounds when you read it like something that's quite impossible and you remember that in the Old Testament Moses wanted this, he wanted to see. the glory of God says now oh God Show me Your Glory don't you remember what God said to Moses go and hide yourself in a rock and my presence the glory of my presence will pass away and Moses I will let you see what I could describe as perhaps the embers of the glory of God but God says to Moses Exodus chapter 33 and verse 20 you cannot see my face because man will not see me and will live for that over and over again in the Old Testament if there was any visible representation of God, the person who She saw that she was absolutely terrified and quite certain that she would die immediately, and yet Jesus says here blessed are the pure in heart because they will see God now simply by meditating on their apparent impossibility. two things: purity of heart and seeing God must surely make us realize in a new way what a great Savior Jesus Christ is, that he must make these two things possible, that he must speak to ordinary people like us today about these things and he is not saying them. to mock us he does not come with something that is beyond the reality we can experience he comes to us as the Redeemer he comes to us as the savior he comes to us as the Savior he has for us wonderful and wonderful gifts in his hands that in Christ a sinner with all the baggage of sinful habits that remain in our thoughts and in our feelings and in our desires that a sinner in Christ can become pure of heart that is what he is offering before us and more than In Christ a forgiven, washed, cleansed and renewed sinner should be able to see God and instead of retreating into an eternal hell he should be able to walk towards eternal joy and Jesus Christ is able to do this, he is able to give. this and this is what he is talking about today he can purify your heart he can make the Light shine in your heart to give you the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ this is how I find my first reaction When reading this beatitude I mean well, this seems impossible and then my second reaction is to say well, now Jesus Christ is telling me this and if I could take hold of everything that Jesus Christ promises here, I would truly be blessed and that is true. of you no matter how far you felt from God when you came here for this service today now again we have two weekends to immerse ourselves in everything that Jesus Christ tells us here and following our usual pattern we are going to focus on uh what he has. calling us here, the life that he calls us to follow and then next week, God willing, we will return a second time and see how we can pursue these things that Christ speaks about here, so our focus today is what is this? purity of Heart that Jesus speaks of I want to start simply and this will encourage you, I'm sure, by reminding you that purity of heart is not purity of heart, friends, it does not mean that you never have a bad one I thought uh that should be a great relief for you you will say oh oh good that at least we have taken a step in the direction of Hope why do I say that simply for this reason the apostle John says of all Christian believers if we say that we are without sin we Christians deceive ourselves in this life until the very entrance of Heaven we are sinners to the last sinner in the recovery process and if purity of heart meant that you never had a bad thought or never did something wrong in your mind or in your heart, then clearly this would be a blessing that no Christian could ever receive, no Christian could ever attain, and it would make no sense for Jesus to ever give the six beatitudes and for Christ not to uphold them. these things to mock us, uh, the sixth beatitude, purity of heart doesn't mean that you somehow get to a place where you never have a bad thought, aw pink puts it very well, as do many other writers on this great theme, says purity. of the heart is not the sinlessness of life that is a very important distinction uh we are not talking about some kind of perfection here that is beyond the reach of the Christian uh in this life in fact it is important to remember that the Bible speaks of purity in different ways and it is important for our understanding of the Christian Life to be able to distinguish them let me give you three ways in which the Bible speaks of purity or Holiness um the first would be there is simply a purity or a Holiness that only ever belongs to God alone uh think in this in the presence of God angels who have never sinned Angels who are holy Angels themselves are holy in the presence of God even the holy angels cover their faces in the immediate presence of the invisible God and say holy holy holy is the Lord God Almighty oh the angels are holy themselves but the word holy is not big enough for them to express the difference even between their created Holiness and the Eternal Holiness of God and that is why they say it in triplicate holy holy holy and it is understood that in throughout the Bible there is the Lord God Almighty, he is in the parable of his Holiness, he is not like the angels in that sense, he is a Holiness of another type, the Angels reflect as created creatures the Holiness that belongs only to God and to all eternity. will be true for us as a redeemed people we will reflect his Holiness as the moon reflects the sun, it is the Sun that has light in itself and the light of Holiness is his alone and whatever Hool Holiness is in US comes only from him uh, so holiness is used in that sense of the incomparable glory of God, it is used in another sense in relation to the Purity or Holiness that will be ours in heaven if you are a Christian believer 1 John chapter 3 and verse two when Christ seems to we will be like him when we see him as he is, we will see more of this next time, but it is fascinating in the Bible how often there is this connection between Purity and seeing that we will be like him when we see him blessed are the pure in heart because you will see God, we will follow that connection through the will of God next week, but what I want to see at this point is that simply in the presence of Jesus you will have a Holiness.

A purity that is like pure gold, there will be no trace of sin when you are in the presence of Jesus in you, on you or around you, it will be glorious, but thirdly, there is a purity or holiness that we are called to seek. now and that's what Jesus is talking about here in Matthew Chapter 5 and verse 8 when he says blessed are the pure in heart because they will see God. Thomas Watson, who I quoted often in this series, describes this as Purity in an evangelical sense, which is his phrase and he says this that the Purity of the Christian in this life is rather like gold mixed with dross in heaven it will be pure gold your Purity but right now it is uh there is real gold but it is gold mixed with dross there is Purity but your your life is linked to the flesh there is a mixture that is within it and he says and I quote this mixture God calls Purity in an evangelical sense and Then he adds a phrase that I hope doesn't offend anyone here, he says how a face can be said to be fair, that it has some freckles.

See, you see what he's saying there with that simple little image and then he adds this and I paraphrase it here where there is a longing for Purity and where there is a hatred towards there he says that impurity is purity of heart in the gospel sense, so Purity of heart does not mean sinless life, we are not talking about some kind of perfection that is beyond any believer in this world, what does it mean what is this purity of heart two things we must understand first a pure heart is an undivided heart and second a pure heart is a clean heart an undivided heart a clean heart these are the two things that are our focus today that I want you to think with me so when Jesus says blessed are the pure in heart I want you to think about the blessing of a whole heart when Jesus says blessed are the pure in heart we can understand his meaning because it is the meaning of the word pure at the root that a man or woman is blessed when their heart is simple when it is whole when it is united when it is one when it is undivided now our Lord Jesus returns to this theme a little later in the gospel of Matthew in The Sermon on the Mount Matthew chapter 6 and verse 22 translated in different ways in different versions.

I'm going to quote here the old King James Version which translates that verse this way the light of the body is the eye and if your eye is single note that word your whole body will be full of light if your eye is single if it is focused or dedicated in One Direction an object the uh ESV uh says here if your eye is healthy uh The New International Version says if your eye is good uh, the basic idea of ​​the word here is the idea of ​​wholeness or the idea of ​​Health, but I think that the old King James Version is very, very useful here because it brings up this idea of ​​pursuing one thing if you're single if you're focused like a runner on one point and you're directed and you're unified in your effort to get there um that's actually uh a position in which you are blessed um the Danish philosopher uh sorin kard who you may have heard of is often cited in connection with this beatitude.

He wrote an entire book under this title. Purity of heart is wanting a thing that is kard and that is exactly what our Lord Jesus is talking about here. He says blessed is the person he loves. a heart thing um, so the opposite of a pure heart is a divided heart. Remember Elijah standing on Mount Carmel and saying to the people, how long are you going to keep hobbling between two different opinions if the Lord is God? him, if B is God, follow him, etc., etc., you see the point of his question, we expressed it today in terms of our new testament, how long are you going to continue trying to embrace faith in Jesus Christ and commit yourself to the world at the same time, how long will you keep stretching like this?

You can never be blessed while you are so divided because there is no purity of heart, there is no one eye, John Bunan in his wonderful book Pilgrims Progress, created a character he called Mr. Looking both ways now you see, that's the problem with a divided heart Mr. looking both ways, how long are you going to continue in this position of playing with the same sins of never fully surrendering yourself to them but never fully surrendering yourself? to Christ completely, or you are hobbling between two opinions and you are not blessed, you are divided, purity of heart says Kart is wanting one thing, that is where you will find blessing, so it is very interesting, you see this theme runs throughout the Bible .

When you go to James chapter 4 and verse 8, you read the apostle James saying this, purify your hearts, you who are double-minded, now you see the point, here is the double-minded person, the Lord, who looks both ways and , uh, James says he said earlier in his letter that the double-minded person is unstable in all his ways and so what is the unstable person, the double-minded person, to do? You have to purify your heart and what does it mean to purify your heart well to have a pure heart is to be simple in your approach, one eye to want one thing, so if you want to comment on what it means to have a pure heart, you can't do better than Philippians 3:12-14, remember that.

Paul starts there in verse 12 saying that he does not believe that he has already been perfected, so a pure part of the heartIt is not being perfected. None of us are there. The apostle Paul was not there. You are not there. Me too. I am certainly not there I am not already made perfect but this is what I do Paul says remember remember this one thing I do one thing I do that is purity of heart forget what is behind the past and strive for what is ahead I move forward towards The goal for which Jesus Christ has taken hold of me is purity of heart, one thing I do not do, I am already perfect, one thing I do, that is purity of heart, and when Jesus says blessed are the pure in heart, he is saying blessed is the person whose heart is undivided and that you could reach a place in this very service even right now, before the

sermon

is over.

He was saying I'm done being. fail both ways I'm done being wrong both ways I'm done with this divided heart and I want to give you a scripture so you can pray your prayer today it's wonderful uh mark it Psalm 86 and verse 11 where the psalmist prays this teach me your way, oh Lord, that I may walk in your truth and then mark this, unite my heart, do you see that is purity, unite my heart, make it one, make it unique, make it focused to fear your name, so here it is ? the psalmist and if I can put it in our most contemporary type of language what he is saying is something like this here is this heart oh God and it is everywhere now United please make me get out of this position of compromise in my life and in Effectiveness in which I am simply not experiencing your blessing and you take me to the place where with the Apostle Paul I can say one thing that I do I go after Jesus Christ forgetting what is behind I am no longer perfect but I am going to focus on this which is the purity of heart, not the sinlessness of life, but the unity of purpose, the blessing of an undivided heart, what do you know of that?

Can you see how blessed you would be if your heart was one you could finish with? Mr. looking both ways secondly and there are two parts to the meaning of purity of heart, the first is the blessing of an undivided heart, the second, the blessing of a clean heart now, when you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Faith forms the bond of a saint. Union in which Jesus Christ becomes yours and you become his, you are, as the Bible says, in Christ and Christ is in you, that is what it means to be a Christian and in that Union that is formed by the bond of Faith between a Believer and Christ Christ. pour out multiple gifts from God in the life of that believer.

I want to remind you of just three and the relationship between them. This goes right to the heart of what it means to be a Christian and this is important to us. to be clear in our minds and that is why I want us to spend a few moments on it today when Faith unites you in this Bond of a wonderful Union with Jesus Christ a gift that becomes yours is what the Bible calls justification which is a legal term illegal that could be explained simply this way that in Christ God withdraws all charges against you, that is what justification means at its core and think about this, it is very wonderful and it is important to be clear about it while you are living and especially when you are dying.

The reason a Christian enters heaven is not because he or she is sinless The reason a Christian enters heaven is because Christ does not lay his or her sins on him God lays a believer's sin on Jesus' account in whom these sins were judged and punished and atoned for through his sacrifice for our sins on the cross the lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all in Christ your debts before God if you are in Christ have been paid paid in full and because they have been FID in their entirety they will not and therefore cannot be charged to you on the last day this is the spectacular truth of justification Romans chapter 5 and verse one therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ now this is what you must get out of that justification what that means is that a Christian enters heaven in Jesus Christ not only on the basis of Mercy but also on the basis of justice justice why because a just God cannot demand payment for sin that has already been atoned for a just God cannot demand a debt that has already been paid so in a well-known but perhaps not much thought-through verse 1 John 1 and verse 9 says that God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, in other words, our sins.

Salvation is not just a matter of His Mercy. In Christ, it is also a question of His Justice when sins have actually been imputed to Christ, counted as Christ, and have been atoned for by Christ. He is just one of the ways the writer expresses it this way. God cannot demand twice, once from the bleeding hand of my savior and then again from mine, demanding two payments of the same bill is unfair and if the bill has been paid in Christ on the cross it is a matter of justice that when one person is in Christ as well as a matter of Mercy that they enter heaven, that is why this word justification is the basis of the security that is our trust before God in life and in death and especially at the very moment of entering heaven my salvation rests on the character of God who is just and is sealed by the blood of his son Jesus Christ my savior so justification is the first great gift it is a legal transaction that is why you can base trust on it it is a kind of sign sealed and delivered .

In Christ God withdraws all charges against you and that is only the first thing. Here is the second forgiveness, which is just as wonderful but quite different in the way it operates. Forgiveness is relational and we can describe it this way that in Christ God reconciles you to yourself. when God justifies he also forgives and reconciles you to himself in Christ Jesus now again this is a spectacular blessing think of this in relational terms not in legal terms now in relational terms you were once an enemy of God now you are his friend I love that song that I sing often your blood has washed away my sin Jesus thank you the father's wrath completely satisfied Jesus thank you once your enemy now sitting at your table Jesus thank you thank you amazing forgiveness the relational gift of God in Jesus Christ now we look at this last time Did we not address the topic of forgiveness in the fifth beatitude?

Blessed are the merciful and we saw that God forgives when repentance begins. Why, because forgiveness is relational, it is given and received; Otherwise, it is not truly forgiveness. The love we saw may be one. We all know you can love someone and not be loved that's why Jesus says love your enemies when you love your enemies of course it's always one sided because your enemies by definition certainly don't love you so love can be unidirectional but forgiveness in its very nature is relational there are always two parties involved this is what we saw there is one who forgives there is one who is in favor It is forgiven and from that there is a Reconciliation that is formed and forged and this is the gift of God to us in Jesus Christ he forgives all your sins no longer being far from him not only legally able to enter heaven but brought to the knowledge of his love God says to all who are in Christ and what a great promise this is for us all The days of your sins and your iniquities I will remember no more.

The old prophet Micah in the Old Testament uses a wonderful image given by God and says of God you will throw all our sins into the depths of the sea. Forget listening to an old preacher say and when God casts your sins into the depths of the sea, he puts up a big sign that says don't fish, don't fish, love them, don't bring them back because God kept them and kept them for a while. . and for eternity, then, we are seeing the great gifts of God that are ours in Jesus Christ. We come by faith to this bond of a living union with Jesus and we have seen that there is a dimension to what the Bible calls justification. in which God removes all charges against you in Christ there is a relational dimension to this um that the Bible calls forgiveness in which in Christ God reconciles you to himself um and what I want us to see very, very clearly and it goes to the heart of The sixth beatitude is that there is a personal dimension to this wonderful transformation that comes to the life of a Christian believer when you are in Christ and everything revolves around this great theme of cleansing in Christ.

God washes your heart and washes your life purifying. cleaning washing that's what this sixth beatitude is about right now and you can see for yourself after the service if you want my car is dirty and yours probably is too and it needs a wash and I'm taking it to the car wash on Monday and guess what , next weekend it will be dirty again, right, it's natural for the car on the road to pick up dirt from the road and, uh, I've never seen a car that wasn't this one. It's true, even if your car is very expensive, it still needs to be washed regularly.

No one has ever sold a car on the basis that it only needs to be washed once a year, at least that I know of. Can you reflect on this with you for a moment it's the same with your clothes you see all these clothes that are advertised as not needing iron right you say oh no they don't iron well I'll buy that but you've never seen a shirt that was advertised as not needing ironing right you in the nature of life, so every week I mean there are only two of us in our house here and every week there is a pile of dirty clothes ready to be thrown in the washing machine.

We're not particularly dirty people, but it's the nature of life every week. It produces this pile of dirty clothes that need to be washed every morning. I Wake Up Here is definitive proof of having assimilated into American culture every morning. I get up and get into the shower. Why do I do that? I have not done it. I've been waiting in a swamp at night I haven't been wallowing in the mud I've been lying in a perfectly clean bed I've only been asleep one night but when I wake up what do I feel? I feel like I need to be washed I'm awake from it every day now justification happens once it's legal by definition it's our legal standing before God forgiveness reconciliation happens once when it's in the depths of the sea there's no fishing you can't go back to it again uh even when I sin I am no longer an enemy of God I am a friend of God and I am in the love of God but cleansing is different I need this continuously I never get Beyond the need to purify my heart through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ washes constant cleansing need now we have identified these three dimensions if you will of what becomes ours in Christ when through the bond of Faith we are made one with him and he with us and there is a verse in the Bible that at least touches on all three in one verse and it's worth noting just for this reason just to see them together is 1 John chapter 1 and verse 9 and many of you will know this verse that if we confess our sins he is faithful and that points directly to our justification right there to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all injustice.

Do you see all three are there in the same verse in Christ? What is God doing for the believer? He is justifying you. That is. Why do you stand before him not only on the basis of Mercy but also Justice because your sins have been dealt with in Christ? He forgives, he reconciles, but he doesn't stop there and you haven't understood the gospel if you stop there. It does more than forgive and justify, it cleanses and the three come together, this to use a phrase from the Old Testament, it is the three-stranded rope that is not quickly broken and, as we come to this sixth beatitude that is so important, it is pointing us to the third dimension of God's grace in the life of a believer as we have identified them uh the power of Christ to cleanse John says he is faithful to cleanse that means you can trust him to cleanse he has the ability to purify your heart he has the ability to wash your life and so, by definition, what this is telling us is that faith in Christ boils down to this faith in Christ is confidence in his ability not only to justify, not only to forgive but to cleanse.

I trust him for this. I look to Him for this. I rest in his promise for this through the power of his shed blood. I understand this now, the Jesus in whom I put my trust when I enter into the bond of a living union with him through faith that he can cancel. all the charges that would otherwise condemn me to an eternal hell he is able to reconcile me with God the father, he justifies and forgives, but he does not stop there like Christ in whom I trust, he is able to cleanse the heart that has been left captive. to greed and who has been consumed by lust and who has been held back by pride or any other sinful habit or area of ​​commitment that you may want to add to the list or name from your experience today, now this is where I go With everyone. of this in these last moments and it is this challenge that I have faced not a few but many over the years who call themselves Christians say they are Christians and will tell you that they believe in a Jesus who forgives but they do not believe in a Christ who is able to clean at least when it comes to them and they say something like this well Colin what you have to understand is that I have baggage have you ever heard someone say that by the way you are a personvery strange if you haven't heard anyone say that I have luggage.

I have seen things I should never have seen over a long period of years. I've done things I should never have done. Not many people know it, maybe no one knows it, but there have been. an effect on my soul and now this mind thinks in ways that I don't want it to think now this heart feels in twisted ways that I don't want it to feel my thoughts, my feelings, my desires are all messed up there are patterns that are twisted there are patterns of compulsive behavior and these things are in me and I can't imagine they will ever change oh I believe Jesus can forgive me but I don't believe I will ever be different and this is my challenge to you I want you today to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, now you are going to say oh, yes, and I'm going to tell you no, no, no, no, as long as you persist in believing that nothing can be done about the baggage in your mind and in your mind. your heart you still do not believe in the Christ of the Bible you can say that you believe in a Jesus who Forgives I do not doubt that I do not question it all I tell you is this that you still do not believe in the Christ of the Bible, you still do not believe in the Son of God that washes, cleanses and purifies, ruins human hearts and lives and I tell you that Christ offers more than forgiveness and if you could only see this Christ, you would have hope.

You will call his name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins, that means he came to deal with compulsive habits, ingrained patterns of thinking and behavior, he came not only to justify but he came to sanctify, to use the word from the Bible, a town to itself. In other words, not only forgive our sins but also make us holy because without Holiness no one will see the Lord and that is how the Bible speaks and this is where we will return to it next week when we get to the application, it talks about how God Saves Us and how Titus saves us cap 3 and: 5 says it like this he saves us according to his own Mercy by the washing of regeneration what a glorious phrase that is Christ is able to wash your mind he is able to regenerate gives New life new energy New direction new uh inclination new affection to your mind and your heart that's what this salvation is about a new interest a new energy a new life and and when Jesus Christ begins to wash your heart this is what you will have you will discover that you will discover more and more that you begin to hate what you used to love, what used to be so attractive to you, it will become more and more repulsive to you and you will begin to love what you used to hate, had little interest in.

In the Bible you didn't pray much, you were kind of passive and just an observer within the context of worship, but now you will find yourself drawn to these things, you will say: I want more of this, you are changing. because Christ washes your heart he is purifying your heart he is moving it in a new direction he is giving new inclinations he is doing a redemptive work he is washing regeneration in you now here is the last thing that I want to speak today in this last moment to the person you feel that the baggage you carry is so great that the mind and heart have become so twisted that you really can't imagine being whole again and you are listening but you are saying in your mind even now trusting Christ to cleanse me seems beyond.

It's so much more than I can do right now and I'm going to give you a springboard today and here it is, in fact, this is where faith begins, the beginning of faith is right here for you to say this today. It would be a step if I were in Christ and if he were in me I believe that he could cleanse this heart if you feel that you still cannot trust Christ to cleanse you I invite you to at least take this step today believe that he could make your heart clean He has done it for countless people Apostle Paul I mean, can you imagine that heart of that murderer and blasphemer who has done it for others, you can take the step today to say now if I was in Christ and if this Christ who has changed the lives of others was really in me, then I believe that he could cleanse my heart, of course, it would be a miracle, but believe this, if the power by which Jesus rose from the dead came into you, do you then believe that you could become clean, accommodate it in your mind, take some time to go over it, write it down, my heart could be cleansed, I believe if I were in Christ and if he were in me, he could cleanse me, write it down and then write some scriptures. that gives you a basis to believe that Titus 3:5 should be one of them God Saves by the washing of regeneration oh if this happened to me I would be clean Matthew chapter 1 and verse 21 would be another you will call his name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins oh if this Christ saved me from my sins I would truly be set free 1 John 1 19 I will be another God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness I believe that if he cleansed me, in fact I would be clear, resolve this conviction, establish this conclusion in your mind and in your heart, and when my friend has decided that he can do it, take the next step and ask him to do it. for you that is faith that is faith Lord Jesus I have come to believe that if I were in you and if you were in me you could cleanse this heart now come to this twisted mind to this divided heart do your redemptive work wash me cleanse me Purify me through Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior amen.