blessed to be pure

Blessed to be Pure

Sermon on mount #5

Matthew 5:1-11

February 1, 2026

Have you ever heard the saying, “everyone has their price?” Lately I have been watching a show called Beast Games. To sum it up, it is a series of games that are designed as psychological experiments to see the limits to which a person will stay loyal, trusting or compassionate to their fellow man/woman for money. It epitomizes 1 Timothy 6 “for it is the love of money that leads to all sorts of evil.” The show demonstrates the darkness of the heart and how it is bent for self-gain and preservation.

The grand prize is $5 million dollars for only one person through a series of mini games. The last man standing gets the $. The games to eliminate people are designed to have the people work as teams. So, people would make connections and friendships to survive to the next round. But, in this last game I watched, it proved the adage, “everyone has their price.”

The game was simple. Each team of five friends would select a captain. The team captain would climb to the top of a tower where there was a button that the captain could push. There was a total of 5 teams. On a giant TV screen there was a number that was growing by $1000 increments. At any time the team captain could push their button and that captain would get whatever number was on that screen. But, if they did that, they would eliminate their entire team, that is except for the captain, he would survive to the next round.

So, the captain can not only get the $ but they can eliminate 4 competitors for the grand prize but betray friends to do it. You learn quick that man’s idea of purity is conditional. I’ll tell you at the end if someone pushed the button and for how much.

The reason I like this show is that it is the best experiment and demonstration on the limitations of purity within the human heart. Some on the game would eliminate and betray at a drop of a hat while others give off the illusion that they would never betray a friend. In reality, none of them are pure. None have truly pure intentions. In the world that we live in, purity of heart is the greatest prize that we could ever desire. The reason is not money, fame or reputation. Purity is the access point to seeing the face of GOD.

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Now, before I begin, I need to pause and offer a point of correction from last week. After listening to my message, I found that as I talked about the attributes of God. I told you that God takes great delight or pleasure in His attributes of mercy, love, forgiveness, long suffering and grace.

Where I was incorrect was that I said that He takes delight in His wrath. I want to be very careful to clarify. Ezekiel 33:11 “11 Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die…” It does not make Him happy to punish. He must punish sin as being the just Judge that He is.

God delights in His mercy, grace and forgiveness, longsuffering and is glorified in those attributes. He is also glorified in His judgement and administration of His justice. He takes no delight in the destruction of the wicked and wants them to repent. Thank you for your patience as I clarified that from last week.

Now we push on to see what purity of heart means and how do I get it. The fact is that we must be pure in heart, or we don’t see the LORD or even more specially, He does not see us. I am hoping that by the time we are done today, you ask yourself, “am I truly pure in heart or am I pretending?” Has God done a work that has transformed my life?

Let’s first set the context. Matthew records Jesus’s words that are directed to those who are learners and followers. Verse 1 says, “when he sat down, his disciples came to him.” It is key to get that point. It was the people who had ears to hear, or hyper hear that came to hear Him. Meaning, those that didn’t just hear in their mechanical ears but heard with their hearts and have been given the HS. These that hear are moved to obedience to the law out of love for the law Giver.

Now, there were those in the crowd who heard and did not respond. These were the sceptics, enemies and the curious. They left unchanged and unaffected. Unfortunately, they are represented even in this room. My prayer is that all of us have ears to hear and respond in careful obedience.

1.             What is pure in heart?

There is more going on than what I have presented. I want you to get your feet dusty for a minute and transport your mind back in time and put yourself on that mountain side. The people were being told, taught, and forced to adhere to an ideal of purity that was quite impossible.

For them, their teachers and authorities oppressed them with an expectation of purity that was not just extreme, but oppressive in nature. They added an additional 700 laws all the while ignoring God’s command in Deut 4:2 to NOT add anything to the law.The pharisees used these rules and laws to paint a picture of perfection all the while the heart of the person was in torment and decay.

Their major flaw was a misunderstanding, that turned to rejection of the law and the law giver. They were only concerned with outward appearances, external conformity. Remember Jesus is teaching us that Christianity is a religion of the heart and when we embrace the intent of the law, external conformity (obedience) is the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.

As Jesus taught on the mountain, He shows us that God has His definition of purity and it is not man’s. Like I said in my intro, man’s concept of purity is conditional. God’s is not.

Remember what “blessed” means. It is makarus (fortunate). The people of the kingdom of God ARE blessed to be poor in spirit, mourn, meek and because of that, hunger and thirst for righteousness and thus they have and are the beatitudes of action.

God’s people ARE pure in heart. PURE: (katharos). adj. clean, pure.Describes something genuine or clean, and a morally pure or innocent person.

Those with a genuinely pure and clean heart only come from the understanding of beatitude of 1,2,3,4,5 and now 6. All of these ARE (present tense) the describing characteristics of the child of God. These all are not something that we get to in the future, rather we have now that we are IN Christ.

Remember that the crowd and people of the time were being force fed the expectation of legal perfection. The pharisees were placing on the people over 700 laws that were crushing to the people of Christ’s time. They knew that they could never manage such a load under the law externally.

So, when He says, “pure in heart” Jesus is describing a much different idea of purity. While the religious leaders were consumed with the outward appearance, Jesus says, “PURE OF HEART.” The problem of appearance is still alive today. Many of us are more concerned with how we look than what is going on inside. The lesson applies to each of us in this room.

In Matthew 15:8,9 Jesus quotes Isaiah when He says “8 ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men”

The key is that they were consumed with the outward where God looks to the heart. That is why God gives His people a NEW heart at their new birth. It is a heart that is pure, soft and not resistant to His expectation of purity.

Christ gives the child of God a new heart that is driven to obedience rather than their old rebellion. He is establishing a heart religion that is solely given by Him. This is so important for us to understand. We cannot birth ourselves, we cannot will it, we can’t over educate it, can’t fabricate it, we can’t demand it, we can’t pay for it, we can’t force it, and we cannot expect it. The heart that God expects is given by His Grace Alone.

When Nicodemus, the teacher of the Jews, comes to Jesus at night, Jesus gets to the real question Nicodemus was asking before Nicodemus even asks it. In John 3:2:

“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God”

Christ answers the main question, you need a new heart not a new ideology/or more religion. Nicodemus asks, “what do you mean?” and Jesus answers:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit”

The religious leaders were consumed with external and mental understanding of the law all the while ignoring what was going on in the heart. In contrast, the LORD is concerned with the INTENT of the Law. Ladies and gentlemen, the Law shows us that we are need of a heart change.

The law shows us that we are NOT pure. The heart of the Law is to point you and I to the cross. It is a schoolteacher/tutor to lead us to Christ so that we may be justified by faith. But now that we live under faith, we are no longer under the schoolteacher (Gal 3:24-25). This is why Jesus offers us the sermon on the mount to show the intent of the Law and how we can’t keep it.

When we see that we are poor in spirit (bankrupt in sin) we mourn and weep over that condition. Because we understand our poor spirit, we are meek. When we are poor, mournful and meek, we are desperate for His righteousness. When we are righteous, we recognize that we have been forgiven much and we too will forgive much. And now, when we forgive much, we recognize the expectation of purity in heart!

When we are pure in heart, we are happy to perform the intent of the Law. And when the intent of the Law is performed from the heart that the Lord gives, then the LORD is pleased. This new heart changes your passions, drives, affections and thus it is a heart that GOD is pleased with!

You may ask, how is He so pleased with this new heart? Well this is the heart that HE has given the believer that is an abode of HIS Spirit. Galatians 4:6 says

6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

It’s no wonder that He loves this kind of pure heart because it contains HIS Spirit. When He looks at the child of God’s heart, He sees His Spirit directing it’s purity and it’s desire. Blessed are you who are pure in spirit, for His Spirit is in you! Don’t you know that your bodies are a temple of the HS?

The beauty of this is that HE does not destroy the personality of the believer. You are still you just acting like you were designed to act.

Hear me please, this process is the entire purpose of redemption. It is God bringing back creation to what God placed in the garden. This is God redeeming one soul at a time through the work of the Spirit in the heart of the believer. We are not being sanctified just for fire insurance, but we are being sanctified for a purpose/work and to serve a living God.

2.             What do the pure in heart see?

See: horaō: pay attention to; understand; visit; experience-

That concept of seeing God is not isolated to just our passage. 1 John 3:2 and 3 “when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.” Or 1 Corinthians 13 “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but than face to face.”

Look, everyone will stand before God at the end of this life. But, how do you plan to stand there? With your old heart or with the pure heart that has been born of His Spirit? Those who get 1,2,3,4, 5 and now 6 will be standing before the LORD with the pure heart because it is the heart that He is giving you, pure!

To “see God” is to be brought near to Him because we cannot see an object which is far away from us. But the concept is deeper than that. He also sees us now that we have this new pure heart within us! We will be introduced into intimate proximity to. What a beautiful concept. Our High Priest, Christ brings us to His Father in a personal introduction.

The pure in heart are introduced, usher into, lead and guided into the Holy throne room because of what HE did in our hearts. It is only by the means of His great mercy and grace that our old hearts are exchanged with the PURE heart of new birth that we can be introduced to the King.

RC Sproul “The ultimate goal of the Christian is to see God face to face in heaven.

The Bible tells us at the end of our sanctification is our glorification where all vestigial remnants of sin are removed from our character. It's all gone. No more doubt. No more fear. No more error. No more pain. No more evil. All gone. And we're going to be like Christ. Totally sanctified. For we shall see him as he is in his unveiled splendor and glory…Now, are we going to be able to see him, because first God is going to purify us and glorify us, which makes it possible for us to see him.”

I cannot see Him now because He must first purify my heart. Then at glorification (my death), if I am pure, I see Him because of what He has done in purifying my heart. It is not an issue with my eyes; it is an issue of my heart. That is why we teach that sanctification (becoming more Christ like) is a process. It is a lifelong process and the main goal is to be set free from the power of sin. It is not that we do not ever sin, it is that sin does not hold dominion over our lives.

3.             Are you pure in heart?

This is a simple question but not simple if we think we can do it on our own. We are ONLY pure in heart if we submit to the LORD of the universe as our savior from our poor spirit. If we have the new birth in Christ, by faith, through the purification of His blood, than and only than is the old wicked heart exchanged for one that is pure.

Allow me to speak very clear with you. If you say, yea pastor, I am good. I don’t sin any more and I am all good with team Jesus. I would caution each of us. If we say that we have arrived and purity is 100%, I would caution you.

1 John 1:8 is written to all of us. It says “8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”

Sanctification is a work over the course of the life of the believer. The purpose of sanctification is to overcome the power of sin in our lives. Sin cannot be our defining characteristic of our lives. Unfortunately, there are some that believe that they will arrive at total and complete purity here on this side of the grass. However that is not what 1 John says.

When that is taught, we fall back into the Pharisaical way of life. The result of this train of thought is that I have to give off this facade that I am pure in heart when in fact I am not. I am sad that this has crept into our way of thinking because it leads to being obsessed with the external. I better look the part or someone will see just how bad I really am. That leads to doubting the salvation of our hearts. To believe incorrectly here takes us back to why Jesus is teaching this important lesson.

Sanctification is a process as the believer grows, we do not become sinless here, rather we sin less. We are dominated by His Spirit, not our efforts. That is why Jesus says “Blessed are the pure IN HEART!” He is saying that this is a heart religion, not a show religion.

There are some obvious and clear diagnostic symptoms of that pure heart. a. Do you love what God loves? This is His WORD even when it cuts

b. Do you grieve over hidden sin? Do you really weep because your sin placed Christ on that cross?

c. Do you show mercy when He has shown you such great mercy? Even when it does not seem logical, do you offer mercy?

d. Do you draw closer to God in obedience?

e. Do you love being around the people of God to serve grow and love them? Or is it just a show?

f. Do you love God for who He is? AS His Word presents Him? Or are you satisfied with the blessings instead of the blessing Giver?

Allow me to take you back to my introduction. You would think that a team would select a “pure” captain who would put the needs of the team ahead of their own. The desire of the team is that their representative would not betray them so they could stay in the contest.

Unfortunately, for the heart that is not pure, it has it’s price. When the number on the screen reached 1 million dollars, one of the team captains hit the button causing his entire team to be eliminated. Now, he got the million but his team was sent home.

Ladies and gentlemen, purity is not our purity. Purity is His purity. It is one that will never sell out to a price here on earth. Purity means pure in HIM. It is unwavering, unyielding and completely sold out to see His face.