Blessed are the pure in heart

Good evening, we have made it to the 6th beatitude in our study of the beatitudes. We have been learning that these attitudes build one upon another, we have seen the roots of a blessed life: poor in spirit, mourning over sin, meekness which leads to a life beginning to have a desire a hunger and thirst for righhteousness, which causes us to be in a position to meet Jesus Christ the author of life itself.

He satifies this hunger Himself and then as you experience the life giving power of Christ and the mercy that He extends to you, you then begin to cultivate the first fruit mentioned here which is mercy. Its hard to experience the mercy of God and not want to give it away. Now we come to this 6th beatitude which says “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God”.

Think about what was just said: Christ speaks about us seeing God.... THEY SHALL SEE GOD.

Scripture speaks about a day when if you are a christian you will see Him face to face, can you even begin to imagine that? To behold Him, the eternal living God before whom even the angels fall on their faces, you will see SEE HIM. Then God speaks to us today about a pure heart, now theres something, a heart that thinks what is right, a hear that feels what is good and loves what is good. A heart that desires what is best, I read this 6th beatitude and I have to tell you that my first reaction as I read it is this: what Jesus describes here seems absolutely impossible.

PURITY OF HEART?

Now I would be very suprised if there was anyone in this room tonight when you read these words your immediate reaction is to say .... thats me!!

When Jesus says blessed are the poor in Spirit it is not as hard to say thats me, we He speaks of knowing you dont have what it takes before God I am right there and I say yep thats me! When He says blessed are those who mourn, I think yes that is also me, by the grace of God I am always mourning it seems over failures in my life, mourning ways I have fallen short of Gods best. We says thats me!

But when we come to this one BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART, I dont find myself saying this is me and I dont think you all are thinking this about yourselves either. Then JEsus speaks about seeing God! That seems impossible as well, you remember in the OT when Moses wanted this he wanted to see the glory of God he says “OH GOD SHOW ME YOUR GLORY!!”

DO you remember what happened?

God says to Moses, “You go and hide yourself in a rock, and the glory of my presence will pass by”

Exodus 33:

Exodus 33:20 NKJV

But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.”

Thats why over and over again in the Ot if there was any visible representaiton of God Himself the person who saw it was absolutley terrified and quite sure that they would die. Yet Jesus says:

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.

Now just thinking about this, the impossibility of these two things purity of heart and seeing God has to make us realize in a fresh way what a great savior Jesus is. WHy would Jesus the King of Kings make these two things possible for ordinary people like you and me?

He is not saying this to mock us, he does not come with something that cannot become a reality, He comes to us as the redeemer, as the savior, and the rescuer. He hold amazing gifts in His hands, that in CHrist a sinner, with all the baggage of sinful habits that are left in our thought life and our feelings and desires. that a sinner in Christ can become pure in heart…that is what He is holding out in His hand to us.

That a born again believer of Jesus Christ who has been washed by the blood of the lamb sould be able to see God and instead of sinking backward into the old impure ways should have the ability to walk forward into everlasting joy. Jesus Christ is able to do this and able to give this us. He can purify your heart, He can shine the light into your heart and give you the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

However far away from God you feel right now, with one look from above the Lord can purify and cleanse your heart once again.

WHAT IS JESUS CALLING US TO?

What is purity of heart?

Let’s think about what purity of heart is not...

Purity of heart does not mean that you never have a bad thought, why do I say this? THe apostle John says of all CHristian believers:

1 John 1:8 NKJV

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

Christians in this world even on the way to Heaven itself are sinners to the last, sinners in the process of recovery and if purity of heart meant that you never have a bad thought or never did a wrong thing, in your mind or in your heart then clearly this would be a blessing that no Christian could ever attain and there would be no point in Jesus even giving this beatitude. This does not mean that you somehow come to a place where you never have a bad thought.

A.W. Pink describes this well:

“Purity of heart is NOT sinlessness of life”

Were not talking about your being perfect, it is important to remember that the Bible speaks of purity in different ways, and it is important that we distinguish them. Let me give you 3 ways the Bible speaks about purity or about holiness:

THERE IS A PURITY OR HOLINESS THAT BELONGS TO GOD ALONE

Isaiah

Isaiah 6:3 ESV

And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”

In the presence of God, angels who have never sinned, angels who themselves are “holy” angels. They are holy, in the presence of God even “holy” angels are covering their faces, in the presence of the living God and they say: HOLY, HOLY< HOLY is the Lord God almighty, well the angels are holy in and of themselves but the word Holy is not big enough to describe the difference between their created holiness and God’s eternal holiness, and you see this throughout the Bible HE IS UNMATCHED, HE IS INCOMPREHESNIBLE, HE IS ALTOGETHER DIFFERENT.

THis is holiness which is much greater and the angels since they were created by Him only reflect the holiness of the one who made them. Thats going to be true of us, as redeemed people we reflect His holiness as the moon refelcts the sun! The moon has not light in and of itself but merely reflects the glory of the sun. ANY HOLINESS IN US COMES FROM HIM ALONE

So holiness in that sense is used of the incomparable glory of God alone.

Its another way

THERE IS A PURITY OR HOLINESS THAT WILL BE OURS IN HEAVEN

1 John 3:2 NKJV

Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

WE WILL BE LIKE HIM WHEN WE SEE HIM!

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God

Simply in the presence of Jesus you will have a purity like pure gold. There will be no traces of sin on you or in you or around you!It will be beautiful!

THERE IS A HOLINESS OR PURITY THAT WE ARE CALLED TO PURSUE

Matthew 5:8 ESV

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Thomas Watson describes this this way:

“Purity in a gospel sense”

“THe Christians purity is like gold mixed with dross” In Heaven you will be like pure gold, but right now it is gold but it is mixed with dross, there is purity but your life is mixed up in the flesh.

“This purity is purity in a gospel sense” and then he adds a phrase “as a face that is said to be fare but has some freckles in it”

Where there is a longing for purity, and where there is a loathing of impurity there indeed is purity of heart in a gospel sense.

for example:

I LONG TO BE SINLESS, MY DEEPEST DESIRE TO IS TO LIVE PERFECTLY BEFORE GOD, I PRESS TOWARDS IT, I STRIVE AFTER IT, but I always come up short. This creates within me a longing for Heaven a day in which all of my imperfections will be burned away by His love and mercy and I will be completely whole. In our world today we have this mindset that sounds a little something like this, “I am going to sin, it is pointless to strive after something that I cannot attain, therefore I am ONLY thankful for the grace but have no intentions to try to live Godly because in my mind because it seems unattainable.

There is no purity in this line of thinking because it allows sin to be an option that must be tolerated rather than a cancer to be cured. Two things to grasp

A pure heart is a heart that is undivided

A pure heart is a heart that is made clean

When Jesus says blessed are the pure in heart, I want you to think about THE BLESSING OF AN UNDIVIDED HEART. When JEsus says blessed are the pure in heart, what he means is that when a man or woman has a pure heart they are blessed when their heart is singular in focus. When it is united, when it one, when it is whole.

Matthew 6:22 KJV 1900

The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

If your eye is focused dedicated in one direction, the ESV says if your eye be healthy, the NIV says if your eye be good. The basic idea of the word here is wholness or health. But the translation here in the KJV is best because it gives us this idea of going after one thing , if your eye be single, if your focued like a runner on one point and your directed in your effort of going there, this is a position in which you are blessed.

SOREN KIERKEGAARD- Purity of heart is to will one thing

That is exactly what our Lord Jesus is speaking of here, He says blessed is the person who WILLS ONE THING FROM THE HEART. So the opposite of a pure heart is a divided heart.

You rember ELijah standing on MT. Carmel and he says to the people: “How long are you going to carry on limping between two different opinions, if the Lord be God follow Him, if Baal be god follow him. You see the point of his question: how long are you going to go on trying to profess faith in Jesus CHrist and comprimise with the world at the same time. How loing will you go on stretching yourself out like that, you can never be blessed if your life is this way.

John Bunyan in his book the pilgrims progress created a character that he called Mr. facing both ways

Thats the problem with a divided heart you become Mr. facing both ways. How long are you going to go on playing around with the same sins? Of never quite giving yourself to them completely but never quite giving yourself to Christ completely either… your limping between two opinions. YOUR NOT BLESSED YOUR DIVIDED

Purity is to will one thing thats where youll find blessing.

James 4:8 NKJV

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Here is mr. facing both ways again

James said earlier the doubleminded man is unsatable in all of his or her ways. So what is the unstable person supposed to do?

YOU GOTTA PURIFY YOUR HEART

Well how do we purify our heart, you have to have a singular focus clear out the other junk that distracts you and look only to Christ and His purposes!

THE PERFECT SINGULAR FOCUS

Philippians

Paul says that he does not think that he has already been made perfect, but heres what I do: ONE THING I DO, (that’s purity of heart) forgetting what is behind and straining forward to what is ahead I press on toward the high calling to lay hold of it, through which Christ has laid hold of me.

ONE THING I DO

When Jesus says blessed is the pure in heart He is saying blessed is the person whose heart is undivided. You ould come to a place in your life right now before the sermon even ends of saying I am done being Mr/Mrs facing both ways. I am done I am done with this divided heart

Psalm 86:11 NKJV

Teach me Your way, O Lord; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name.

MAKE IT ONE MAKE IT FOCUSED