The Kingdom Manifesto - 6

The Kingdom Manifesto – 6

God Blesses the Pure in Heart

Introduction

What makes something pure? Something is pure when it is undefiled, unblemished, uncontaminated. We take some forms of purity very seriously...an entire department of the federal government, known as the Food and Drug Administration, is charged with monitoring and protecting the purity of what we eat. However, their standards for purity might need to be purified.

-Apple Butter - if the mold count is 12% or more, if it averages 4 rodent hairs per 100 grams, or if it averages 5 or more whole insects per 100 grams, the FDA will pull it from the shelves. Otherwise, it goes right onto the biscuits.

-Coffee Beans - if an average of 10% or more are insect-infested or if there is one live insect in each of two or more containers, they get pulled. A live insect in one container is ok, but two is just offensive.

--Hot Dogs - ok, we really don’t want to know.

TS - If anything is really good, we long for it to exist in its pure form...pure gold, pure milk chocolate. Nothing else mixed in. It is truly undefiled. It is what it claims to be.

Matthew 5:8 - God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.

Our first inclination tends to be to define purity in terms of action. We see this when we talk about sexual purity. Purity is defined by what we do, or in this case, by what we don’t do. Purity seems to be about doing the right things and not doing the wrong things.

But Jesus didn’t say that God blesses those whose actions are pure (though that’s true), but that he blesses those whose HEARTS are pure. Those who lived undefiled, with an unmixed heart.

In the Bible, the heart is the seat of a person’s will, personality...essentially, the heart is the essence of who a person is.

Proverbs 4:23 - Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

Life is all about the heart. And to have purity in heart is the harder work. It is much easier to be pure in action. And this is what religious people tend to usually focus on.

World religions have this in common. With the exception of Christianity, world religions basically say this - be good and god(s) will love you and bless you.

This is also why it is easy for Christians to gravitate toward legalism. We focus on the actions, the outside of someone. This is what got the Pharisees in trouble with Jesus.

Matthew 23:25-28 - “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence! You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too. “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity.

Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.

It is not enough to focus on the action. We must focus primarily on who we are, not what we do. That is because what we do flows from who we are.

Mark 7:20-23 - And then he added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you. For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.”

The heart is the problem. Actions are wrong because the heart is wrong. We can do right things and still be the wrong kind of people. We can look outwardly clean and still be filthy on the inside.

With this beatitude, Jesus calls us to a life of integrity - a life where our hearts and our actions match up. A life of integrity is one that is integrated. The pure in heart are those who are on the inside what they claim to be on the outside.

Remember, the Sermon on the Mount is written concerning God’s kingdom people. As kingdom people we ought to exhibit consistency, unmixed hearts. Those who are God’s kingdom people are to be all about God and his kingdom.

Matthew 6:33 - Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

A purity of focus and devotion. This idea shows up in a couple different places in the New Testament.

In Philippians 3, Paul has just spent much time talking about the fact that our good actions do not make us right with God. He lists his spiritual resume and it is beyond impressive. Then he calls it garbage, declaring it as worthless when compared to knowing Jesus. And the only way to know Jesus is through faith, not by our good works.

Philippians 3:12-14 - I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

Now that Jesus has saved me, my life’s ambition, direction is toward one thing...growth in my knowledge of Jesus Christ and the life he has called me to live.

James writes about that when troubles come our way, we need to be asking God for wisdom in how to deal with them rightly. But he offers this warning for when we ask...

James 1:6-8 - But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.

The NLT gets the intent of the translation right about this person with divided loyalties. Some translations call this person “double-minded”. Author John Bunyan called them “Mr. Facing-Both-Ways.” Someone who wants God, but then wants the world. Wants to be generous but then goes to greed. Someone who wants Jesus in their life but trusts in their own righteousness. Back and forth. Back and forth. Like a wave on the sea, driven by the wind. Unstable. Undependable.

Jesus calls us to single-minded focus. Make life about one thing. His Kingdom. Soren Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher, wrote his famous book, “Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing.” God blesses those whose hearts are pure.

When someone lives this way, it reveals itself in their lifestyles. It is not that actions are unimportant, but that they come after the heart, not before. When someone is pure in heart, living with focus alone on God and his kingdom, it reveals itself in their moral purity.

Now they chase after God and the things that give life.

Pure in heart shows up as honesty in conversations.

Pure in heart shows up as faithfulness in marriage.

Pure in heart shows up as integrity in the workplace.

Pure in heart shows up as evangelism to our neighbors.

Pure in heart shows up as service to those around us.

Notice the order of the beatitudes.

Poverty of spirit - Mercy

Mourn - Pure in Heart

Humble

Hunger/Thirst for Justice

Just as spiritual poverty relates to mercy, mourning relates to being pure in heart. If someone is in mourning over their brokenness and the brokenness in the lives of those around them due to their sin, they separate from that sin. They want nothing to do with it. They see that it leads to death, so they chase what gives life.

Notice the great promise attached to this one...God blesses the pure in heart, for they will see God. I think this promise has ramifications now and for eternity.

Now - when we say that God seems distant or that I cannot find him in my life’s circumstances, I would submit that the majority of the time it is because he has not been the top priority of my life, and now I find it difficult to find him. He isn’t hiding, I’ve been double-minded.

But when we place God and his kingdom first, we tend to see God everywhere. We see his hand in our life’s activities. We see his will clearly.

Romans 12:1-2 - And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Only when we place ourselves on the altar and have our life be a sacrifice for God, only when we allow him to transform us, THEN we will know God’s will.

Forever - They will see God. That is the promise of the Bible...those who have trusted in Jesus and placed him first are those who are rewarded with being with him forever.

Trust me, if you are not pure in heart, the last person you want to see is God. You don’t want to have to stand in front of him and tell him that you dismissed him and his kingdom as if they did not matter.

Conclusion

But that is exactly what we all will do...stand before God. For those of you who are not pure in heart you will have to stand before God. Here is God’s word to you...

James 4:8 - Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.

Here is what you need to know - you can’t purify your heart on your own. Your heart is bad.

Jeremiah 17:9 - “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?

Only one knows, and that is God himself. The purifying of hearts is his job. King David recognized that.

Psalm 51:10 - Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me.

Your heart is bad, and you need a new one. Thankfully, that is what God promises at salvation.

Ezekiel 36:26 - And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.