Tonight as we look together into
the Word of God, I want to address a very vital subject in our Christian
lives, and that is the condition of your heart. I want you to
take your Bibles and turn with me to the gospel according to
Matthew, Matthew chapter 5. And tonight I want us to look
at verse 8. I want to read verses 1 through
8 and set the context. work our way just by reading
this passage to verse 8. The title of this message is,
The Promise of a Pure Heart. And I desire for each and every
one of us tonight that God would use this message to sift through
our hearts and to purify our hearts as the water washes us
and cleanses us and sets us apart from the defilements of the Word. May God do this in each of our
lives tonight. I want to begin reading in verse
1, Matthew chapter 5, beginning in verse 1, but my eye is on
verse 8. When Jesus saw the crowds, He
went up on the mountain and after He sat down, His disciples came
to Him. He opened His mouth and began
to teach them, saying, and what follows now is the greatest sermon
that has ever been preached by the greatest preacher who ever
walked the face of the earth. This is Jesus Christ, the Sermon
on the Mount, and there's never been a sermon that's had an introduction
like this sermon. There's never been a sermon that
had a more positive introduction than this sermon. And there's
never been a sermon that had a more heart-searching lead-in
than what our Lord says now in the verses that follow. Verse
3, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. Blessed are those who mourn,
for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the gentle, for they
shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger
and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy." And
now here is our text for tonight. Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God. The most amazing engine in the
entire world is located inside your chest cavity. It is the
human heart. And this astounding machine weighs
less than a pound and is only about the size of two Yet your
heart is pounding and pumping blood to your entire body at
an astounding rate. Your heart is beating fast and
furiously about 70 times per minute. It is beating about 100,000
times per day. About 35 million times in a year. And given an average life span,
your heart will beat almost 3 billion times. They give a tennis ball
a hard squeeze, and that is the same amount of force that your
heart is exerting to pump blood to your entire body. Even when
you are resting the muscles of your heart, it is still working
twice as hard as the leg muscles of a person who is sprinting.
Your body has about six quarts of blood which circulates through
you three times every minute. Your beating heart creates enough
pressure to squirt blood a distance of 30 feet out of your body. In an average lifespan, your
heart pumps about one million barrels of blood, enough to fill
more than three super tankers. There is no more amazing engine
in the entire world than that engine that is inside your chest
cavity that is pumping life to you and is sustaining your life,
it is your human heart. But what is even more amazing
is your spiritual heart. It is with the heart that you
know God. It is with the heart that you
make the most important decisions in your life. It is with your
heart that you find life direction. Your heart determines, we could
say, your destiny. Your heart is where you think.
Your heart is where you feel. Your heart is where you decide.
The real you is not what we see on the outside. The real you
is who you are on the inside, inside your heart. Solomon said,
as a man thinks in his heart. So is he. The sum and substance
of your spiritual life is what is going on inside your spiritual
life, inside your spiritual heart. Solomon said, watch over your
heart for from it flows the issues of life. There is nothing more
important in your spiritual life than your heart. And Moses said,
you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart. And Jesus said, this is the greatest
commandment. You shall love the Lord your
God with all of your heart. That's how important your spiritual
heart is, and it is pumping life into your entire being, and it
is the essence of what your spiritual life is. Luke writes that being
under conviction of sin is being pierced to the heart. Now Paul
wrote that the Holy Spirit searches the hearts. Now Paul writes that
true worship involves making melody Not with your lips, but
with your heart. Paul and all of the writers of
Scripture speak with one voice that the heart is of supreme
importance in your spiritual life. Your spiritual life is
whatever you are in your heart, no more, no less. And the outside
of your life is simply the result of what's going on in your heart. As you watch over your heart,
you are able to watch over the entirety of your spiritual life. And that's why I'm drawn to verse
8 here, which is the sixth beatitude, which focuses upon the heart. You have a heart, a spiritual
heart. Jesus says in verse 8, blessed
are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Those who are
pure in heart see God. Those who are not pure in heart
do not see God and will never see God. That is why it is so
critically important that your heart be pure. It is with the
heart that we see the invisible. It is with the heart that we
know the unknowable. It is with our heart that we
see God. So tonight, I want us to look
carefully at verse 8, and I want us to break it out and to think
this through, and I trust that tonight God will minister to
your heart. I have five headings that I want
to set before you tonight as we look at this verse. Number
one, I want you to see the priority of the heart. And what Jesus
prioritizes in this beatitude is the heart, but what Jesus
prioritizes in all of the beatitudes is the heart. The heart is the
inner spiritual condition of your life. Throughout the Scripture,
the heart represents the entire inner person. A heart in the
Bible really is the composite of your mind, of your emotions
and affections, and your will. All of that is a part of your
heart. Your heart is the seat of your
intellect. meaning that the very thoughts
and reasonings within you take place within your heart. And certainly the heart is the
seat of your affections and emotions, and it includes the desires and
the cravings of a person. That's within your heart. And
certainly the heart is the seat of your volition where your decisions
are made. In Scripture, the heart includes
all three. Your heart is the center of your
being. It is your innermost person.
It is the fountain out of which everything is flowing in your
life. Everything is being pumped out
of your heart. So I want to say again, your
heart, where your heart is, is the greatest measure of where
your life is. This is the repeated priority
in these Beatitudes. If you would look back at verse
3, let's just work our way through these Beatitudes just to underscore
the priority of the heart. Jesus prioritizes your heart. You and I must prioritize our
heart tonight in our Christian lives. In verse 3, Jesus says,
blessed are the poor in Christ. Spirit. Spirit, small s. That is a synonymous term for
the heart. It refers to your inner person. In the second beatitude in verse
4, to mourn is an inner heart condition. Blessed are those
who mourn. You mourn with your heart. In
verse 5, he says, blessed are the gentle, it is within your
heart that you are meek. And in verse 6, he says, blessed
are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. That is a
heart hunger. That is a heart thirst. And so coming now to verse 8,
we see that the entire emphasis that Jesus is making is upon
the spiritual condition of the heart. Jesus is after your heart. Jesus desires that your heart
be right. And if your heart is right, your
life will be right. The heart is like the root of
a tree. If the root is right, the fruit
will be right. The heart is like the rudder
of a ship that controls the direction of the entire vessel. The heart
is like the fountain out of which the entire body of water flows. And Jesus emphasized the attitude
of the heart from which our actions and our words are flowing. In other words, Jesus put character
even before conduct. He put the being of our heart
before the behavior of our lives. Jesus plumbed deep below the
surface with these words. Jesus is not content with mere
behavior modification. Jesus is not content with mere
moralism. Jesus is after our hearts that
our hearts be pure. And this is perfectly consistent
with the Bible. Let's just take one example in
the Bible. Let's take David. You remember
when it came time for Saul to choose a king...or Samuel to
choose a king to follow Saul? And all of these good-looking,
handsome sons of Jesse. were lined up in front of Samuel
and they were tall, dark, and handsome. And God said, do not
look at his appearance or the height of his statue because
I have rejected him. For God sees not as man sees,
for man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at
The heart, that's what God sees. It's always been this way with
God. God is looking for men and women
whose hearts are right before Him. David distinguished himself
as a man after God's own heart, within his own heart. David wrote
in Psalm 9 verse 1. I will give thanks to the Lord
with all my heart." David was all in in his heart in worshiping
God. In Psalm 19 verse 14, David writes,
let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be
acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer. David
wrote in Psalm 26 and verse 2, examine me, O Lord, and try me
and test my mind and my heart. Again and again and again we
see the emphasis is upon the heart, first and foremost. The behavior is important to
God. And the choices of obedience
are very important to God. But they are secondary to the
rudder that is turning the decisions of our life. They are in our
heart. David said in Psalm 51 verse
10, creating me a clean heart, O God. In Psalm 57 verse 7, my
heart is steadfast. O God, my heart is steadfast. True religion in the Kingdom
of God is a heart religion. And what a contrast this was
in the day of Christ as He spoke these words where there was a
religion of the Pharisees. The Pharisees emphasized the
external. the outward appearance, the external
facade, the religious routine, the ritual and the activity. The Pharisees entirely bypassed
the heart and tried to look hyper-spiritual on the outside, but on the inside,
there was nothing of any spiritual reality going on within them. Jesus said of the Pharisees,
this people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far
from Me. The only true religion is a heart
religion. Given that this is so, I want
to ask you tonight, where is your heart? How are you doing
in your spiritual life in your heart? Because what you are on
the inside in your heart is really the measure of what God is doing
in your life. Second, not only the priority
of the heart, that's very clear in verse 8. But second, I want
you to note the purity of the heart. As Jesus prioritized the
heart, He called for purity in the depths of one's innermost
being. Look at verse 8 again, He says,
blessed are the pure in heart. The meaning of pure here comes
from a Greek word, katharos, from which we derive the English
word catharsis, which means to cleanse of all filth and dirt,
to make pure, or to make clean. And Jesus is calling for a heart
that is made clean from the inward contaminations of the world and
of our own sinful flesh. In fact, this word for pure was
used of raw metals that were being refined when all the impurities
were removed. They would be put into the smeltering
process and subjected to extreme heat so that there would be a
separation of the false alloys from the pure metal and then
the false alloys would come to the surface and they would be
skimmed off the top and they would be removed and what would
remain was a pure metal. This is the very word that Jesus
is using here. And what Jesus is requiring of
those in His Kingdom is that our hearts be unmixed with contamination,
that our hearts be unadulterated with that which is impure and
unclean from the world around us and from the flesh within
us. When the inner heart is pure,
the outer life will be pure. Again, the Pharisees entirely
bypassed the purity of the heart and focused on the outward religious
facade and appearance. While we're in Matthew 5, if
you would, look at verse 21. As Jesus now, the great expositor
of the Law, now exegetes and exposits the true meaning of
the Law. This is not a new interpretation,
this is the original true interpretation of the Law, the Ten Commandments
as Moses gave them. And in verse 21, Jesus said,
you have heard that the ancients were told, you shall not commit
murder. Now the Pharisees thought that
they were right with God simply because they did not have blood
on their hands from having actually taken the life of another person,
so they assumed that their life was pure before God and that
their heart would be right, though they gave no attention to the
heart. And so in verse 22, Jesus said, but I say to you, and when
Jesus says that, He is giving the correct, original interpretation
of the law of God, but I say to you that everyone who is angry
with his brother, shall be guilty before the court. And whoever
says to his brother, you good-for-nothing shall be guilty before the supreme
court." Now, stop right there. Please note, first there is a
heart full of anger. And Jesus says that anger, wrong
anger in the heart is murder before God. And out of the heart
then flows the words that we give. And in the middle of verse
22, when he says, and whoever says to his brother, these words
are flowing out of an angry heart. These words are being pumped
out of a bitter, foul heart. Whoever says to his brother,
you good for nothing, shall be guilty before the Supreme Court.
And whoever says, you fool, this is what's coming out of an angry
heart, shall be guilty enough to go into fiery hell. Do you see what Jesus is calling
for here? It's not enough that there is
an external keeping of the Law, it begins with the heart. And
if the heart is not right towards God, it is as though the outward
life has broken these commandments. In verse 27, Jesus said, you
have heard that it was said. you shall not commit murder."
And the Pharisees thought that their lives were acceptable before
God because they had not entered into an illicit sexual relationship
physically. But the reality was, the lust
and the immorality within their own heart was impure before God. And so Jesus said in verse 28,
but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust,
there's the heart, for her has already committed adultery with
her in his heart. Do you understand tonight that
Jesus not only sees your behavior, He sees through your behavior,
He looks with 20-20 spiritual vision into the depths of your
heart and my heart, and what the Lord requires of us is purity
of heart. Later in Matthew chapter 23 and
in verse 27, Jesus addresses the Pharisees in this excoriating
chapter in which Jesus unveils the hypocrisy of the pseudo-spiritualism
of the Pharisees and in verse 27, Jesus says, woe to you, scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites. Now when Jesus says, woe, it's
not like a man on a horse going, woe. The word woe here means
cursed, judged under God. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites. You know what a hypocrite was?
The word literally means in the original language, one who puts
on a mask. It refers to one who would go
onto a Greek theater stage and put on a mask and play a part
and pretend to be someone who they really are not, to play
the role. to look very much in keeping
with the script that has been given. And then when the play
is over, that one would take the mask off and go back to being
their real self. They were just play acting for
the moment on the stage. And that is the very word for
hypocrite. It is one who knows how to play
the game of religion and to say the right words and to go to
the right places and to do the right things and to look very
fastidious on the outside and to give the appearance of being
the height of religiosity, but in reality, it's all a mask. It's just covering up the impurity
of their heart, as Jesus calls them, hypocrites. In reality,
who they are is not the mask, who they are is what they are
on the inside of their hearts. So look at verse 27, woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees. hypocrites, for you are like
whitewashed tombs." Now, a whitewashed tomb is one that has been scrubbed
on the outside. It's been painted on the outside. It is a tomb that sparkles in
the sunlight and as one approaches a whitewashed tomb, you are impressed
with the dignity of whoever it is that is buried inside this
whitewashed tomb. which on the outside appears
beautiful. But inside, this is where Jesus
puts His finger. This is what Jesus prioritizes
of all men and all women He says, but inside they, referring to
the Pharisees, are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. They're just like a whitewashed
tomb on the outside that looks so religious, so beautiful. But on the inside, they are a
brood of vipers. On the inside, there is all kinds
of moral filth and depravity. So verse 28, Jesus said in Matthew
23, so you too outwardly appear righteous to men. Jesus is addressing
the Pharisees here. You too outwardly appear righteous
to men. You know, real preaching is when
you get to the you. And Jesus has gotten to the you. And Jesus now is bringing the
message home. Jesus now is laying it at the
front doorsteps of their lives. There is no mistaking how Jesus
is applying the Scripture now in their lives. So you too outwardly
appear righteous to men, but inwardly, on the inside, the
reality of what's going on in your life. You are full of hypocrisy
and lawlessness. How easy it is just to whitewash
the outside of our spiritual lives, just to show up at the
right religious activity. to say the right words, to use
the right vocabulary. But Jesus is cautioning that
the reality of the heart is the true measure of one's life. Jesus is calling for a pure heart. And I want to say to every one
of us here tonight, and I want to begin with myself, I want
to get to the you. I want to get to the me. I want
to get to all of us. What Jesus is prioritizing and
what Jesus is mandating and what Jesus is requiring is that our
hearts, our minds, our souls, our spirits, our innermost being,
He is calling for a pristine religion of the heart. He is
requiring personal holiness beginning on the inside. And what legalism
is? is emphasizing the external and
not requiring the internal. But Jesus is the counter-legalist. He begins with the heart, and
He cuts through the facade, and with piercing words, He requires
that the heart be pure. Now this leads third to the problem
of the heart. We've thought about the purity
of the heart and the priority of the heart. But third, the
problem of the heart. For Jesus to say what He does
here clearly implies that not every heart is pure. The heart
of the human problem is the problem of the human heart. And we all
have a heart problem. We all have sin in our heart. Whether you're unconverted and
dominated by a heart of sin, or whether we are converted and
have received a new heart, yet there still remains the flesh
within us. No matter who we are or where
we are here tonight, we are a gathering of people who have a heart problem. That is apparent, come back to
Matthew chapter 5, that is apparent even from the beginning of the
first beatitude. Notice how Jesus begins in Matthew
5 and verse 3, He immediately gives the diagnosis of the fatal
heart problem. Jesus says in verse 3, blessed
are the poor in spirit. This word poor is a word that
refers to one who is desperately poor, one who is reduced to the
role of a beggar, one who has no spiritual capital with which
to commend themselves towards God, one who can only stand in
the corner and be too ashamed to look into the eyes of people
as they pass by. and extend an empty hand and
require the mercy of another to put into that hand what they
do not possess because they are bankrupt spiritually in this
analogy. And so what Jesus is saying at
the very outset is that there is a poverty of spirit. And where
there is a poverty of spirit, there is a pollution of spirit. This inner heart condition is
that which plagues every one of us here tonight. In Ecclesiastes
8 and verse 11, 8-11, it says, the hearts of the sons of men,
the hearts of the sons of men, all inclusive, are given fully
to do evil. In Ecclesiastes 9 and verse 3
we read, the hearts of the sons of men are made full of evil
and insanity is in their hearts. Jeremiah 17 verse 9, the heart
is deceitful above all else and is desperately sick. The entire human race has suffered
from a desperate heart problem and it is the indwelling sin. Isaiah 1 verse 5 says, the whole
head is sick, the whole heart is faint. From the sole of the
foot even to the head, there is nothing sound in it. So much so that Jesus said in
Mark 7, 21, for from within, out of the heart of men proceed
the evil thoughts. Fornications, thefts, murderers,
murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting, wickedness, as well
as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness,
all these evil things proceed from within and defile the man. That is Jesus' diagnosis. of our hearts. We have a heart
problem. I want to say it again, the heart
of the human problem is the problem of the human heart. This is the
problem of every unbeliever. It is the problem of every believer.
It is the problem of every family. It is the problem of every society. It is the problem of every school.
It is the problem of every institution. It is the problem of every nation. All problems in the world are
ultimately traced back to this problem of the human heart. Now I'm so glad the Bible does
not leave it here. Because the Bible says that we
can have a pure heart and that we must do that which would promote
a pure heart. And so fourth, I want to set
before you the purifying of the heart. If my heart is unclean
and impure, and Jesus prioritizes a pure heart. then how can my
heart become pure? The answer is only God ultimately
can purify the heart. Now I want to talk first about
salvation and then sanctification. First, salvation or the new birth. When we are born again from above,
God performs a heart transplant. That old, dirty, foul heart that
once was so polluted and so evil within us, God takes that old
heart out, a heart of stone, and He puts within us a heart
of flesh. Years ago when I pastored in
Arkansas, I had in my church a physician who had studied under
Koolian DeBakey down in Houston. And it was his goal to perform
the first heart transplant in the state of Arkansas. And the time came when there
was a man who needed a new heart and there was someone who had
died on the east coast. And they sent a helicopter to
where that person was at that hospital, and they took this
heart out of the chest cavity of this person who had died.
They kept it alive, put it in a box, rushed it to the airport,
flew it across the country, There at our airport, they were waiting
with an ambulance to receive this heart and they rushed it
to the hospital and there this man in our church was ready with
this person laid out on the operating table, ready to open up the chest
cavity and to take this other heart and to place it now into
the chest cavity and to make the right connections And then
suddenly, there was blood pumping throughout this person's body
and it was a successful heart transplant, the very first in
the state of Arkansas. That is what God does only a
million times, a million times, a million greater. in that He
takes us who are dead in trespasses and sins. We have no spiritual
life in us. We are laid out on the operating
table as it is. without life and we are spiritually
dead. And in the miracle of regeneration,
in the miracle of the new birth, God opens up our chest cavity
and He removes our old heart of stone. It's stone because
it has...it's hardened towards God. It has no life, there is
no pulse, there is no heartbeat. There is no affection for God,
no desire for God, only a hardened heart towards God. And God removes
that old, hardened heart and sets it aside. And then He takes
a new heart. It is a pure heart. It is a clean
heart. And God cleanses out the chest
cavity and places within our soul a brand new heart. It is a heart of flesh. It is
a heart that is alive. It is a heart that has a pulse
for God and love for God and affection for God. And the old
things are passed away. And behold, new things have come
because we are a new creature in Christ. And it is this new
heart that has pure motives and pure desires and pure love for
God. So the purifying of the heart
is God has to throw away our old heart of stone and God must
now give us a new heart that comes down from above that does
not originate with us. It is a supernatural, sovereign
work of God's grace. That is why God says in Ezekiel
36 and verse 25, then I will sprinkle clean water on you. That is to purify and to cleanse. And you will be clean. I will
cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all of your idols. Moreover,
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you,
and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give
you a heart of flesh," meaning one that is alive unto God. I
will put My Spirit, capital S, within you. and cause you to
walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My
ordinances." What a glorious thing it is to be birthed into
the Kingdom of God and to receive a clean heart and a pure heart
before God. This is the purifying of the
heart in salvation and in regeneration. But let's think of it in sanctification. Because this new, pure, clean
heart is put within my flesh. And I still have old, sinful
desires. They are no longer dominant,
but they nevertheless are there. And the things that I don't want
to do, I do. And the things that I do, I don't
want to do, Romans chapter 7. And Ephesians 4 says, the old
man is being corrupted. And so, we must take measures
to keep this new pure heart clean before God as we are surrounded
by the world, as we have temptations before us, as we have the lust
of the flesh within still present. So what must we do to be purifying
our hearts? There are responsibilities that
we have. And I want to set before you
now some responsibilities to maintain a pure heart. God has given you a pure heart
if you're born again without any defilement in it. But we
must maintain this pure heart. Number one, we must wash in the
Word. We must wash in the Word. There
is sanctifying, cleansing, purifying power in the Word of God. Psalm 119 verse 9 says, how can
a young man keep his way pure? How can an old man keep his way
pure? How can a middle-aged woman keep
her way pure? The answer, by keeping it according
to Your Word. Verse 11, Your Word I have treasured
in my heart that I might not sin against You. There is sanctifying
power in the Word of God when it is treasured in our hearts
and it sets us apart from the very sin that would contaminate
us and it gives us supernatural power to resist. How did Jesus
resist the temptation of Satan? It is written. It is written. He knew the Word of God. He had
memorized the Word of God. He was saturated with the Word
of God. And Jesus unsheathed the sword
of the Spirit. And He repelled the advances
of Satan. And so must you and I be washed
in the Word, be strong in the Word of God. Jesus prayed in
John 17, 17, sanctify them in the truth. Your Word is truth. How will you and I progress in
our sanctification and pursue holiness and Christlikeness? It will be by the power of the
Word of God in our lives. John 15, 3, you are already clean
because of the Word which I have spoken to you. Second, not only
wash in the Word, but bathe in the blood. There is power not
only in the Word of God, but there is power in the death of
Christ and in the blood of Christ. As we confess our sins, it cleanses
us from all unrighteousness. First John 1 verse 9, if we confess
our sins. He is faithful and righteous
to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That was true the moment we entered
the kingdom, but according to Matthew 6, we must be continually
confessing our sins to God and acknowledging our sins to God
and there is power in the blood of Christ to cleanse us from
all sin. Third, we must submit to the
Spirit. The Spirit is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit brings
conviction of sin in our lives. The Holy Spirit puts His finger
upon the live nerve in our spiritual lives that must be addressed
and that must be confessed. And with His conviction, He also
grants repentance. And this leads to confession
of sin. The Holy Spirit gives power to
resist temptation. The Holy Spirit gives power to
overcome the world. What, know you not that your
body is the temple of the Holy Spirit of God? You're not your
own, you've been bought with a price, therefore glorify God
in your body. We need the power of the Holy
Spirit to mortify flesh and to put to death those evil desires
within us. And number four, ponder the pure. You will become like what you
set before your eyes. You will become like what you
allow to enter into your ears. You will become like what you
give entrance into your mind. Your heart is like a computer.
Garbage in, garbage out. Truth in, purity out. Philippians 4 verse 8, finally,
brethren. Whatever is true, whatever is
honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is
lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and
if anything worthy of praise dwell on these things." And there
our Lord is telling us that the purity of our heart will be in
part governed by what is coming into our heart, what we set before
our eyes, what we allow into our ears. William Hendrickson,
the great New Testament commentator writes, nothing that is really
worthwhile for believers to ponder and to take into consideration
is omitted from this summarizing phrase. And then Hendrickson
concludes, nothing that is of a contrary nature is the right
food. for our thought. And so, let
us give careful attention to what we are allowing our minds
to dwell upon and upon what we ponder, how this should speak
to what we read, what we hear, what we set before our eyes in
large measure is a governing factor in the purity of our lives. Can a man take a fire into his
bosom and be not burned? And the answer is you play with
fire in your soul and you will be burned for sure. I want to
give you one more important heading right here. Not only ponder the
pure, but run with the righteous. If you are to be pure, then you
need to run and to walk with those who are pure. Like produces
like. Purity breeds purity. First Corinthians 15 verse 33
says, do not be deceived. In other words, you could easily
deceive yourself if you were to stray away from what Paul
was about to say. In other words, don't kid yourself.
Do not be deceived. Bad company corrupts good morals. And you will become like those
who you hang out with, those who you spend your time with.
Don't be deceived, there will be a conforming influence. you will begin to pick up their
words. You will begin to go to their
places. You need to be with people in
the norm of your Christian life who love God, who are coming
to the house of God to hear the Word of God, to sing the praises
of God, who are filled with the Spirit of God, who are in pursuit
of the glory of God. And for that influence to be
impressed upon you, if you lay down with With dogs, you're going
to wake up with fleas. You will be influenced by those
who are around you. Proverbs 13 verse 20 says, "'He
who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of
fools will suffer harm.'" And we could add, "'He who walks
with the pure will be pure. There is an incumbent personal
human responsibility that is laid before each one of us if
we are to be pure in heart. We need to wash in the ward,
and bathe in the blood, and submit to the Spirit, and ponder the
pure, and run with the righteous if we are to pursue holiness
and to have a pure heart. Now the last thing that I want
to say is the privilege of the heart. Come back to Matthew 5
and verse 8, and we end on a high note. We end with the glory of
this promise of a pure heart. What is the result of a pure
heart? What is the fruit of a pure heart? There's a twofold fruit, a twofold
result. The first is the first word in
verse 8, blessed. Blessed are the pure in heart. This Greek word makarios refers
to an inward joy, an inward happiness, a contentment, a and inward bliss that in which
we are filled, overflowing with the experiential reality of the
fruit of the Spirit in our life, love, joy, peace in all of the
aspects. This is the privilege of the
pure heart. We are blessed, blessed. But listen. When sin moves in,
and we allow knowing sin to be tolerated in our lives in a pattern
of sin, and it is unconfessed, and it is unrepentant of, and
the Holy Spirit brings conviction, and we push back, and the Word
of God speaks to it, and we look away when that sin moves in. Joy moves out. Sin and happiness
can never coexist in the same heart at the same time. But when
purity moves in, happiness moves back in. And sin is that which
destroys the inner blessedness and the inner peace within the
heart. of inner soul joy. Read Psalm 51 and see how David
felt after his adultery with Bathsheba, his murder of Uriah,
and going a year just running stop signs with God and refusing
to repent, and he cries out, Oh God, restore to me the joy
of my salvation. because joy had left town, and
joy was no longer in his heart because of the unconfessed, unrepentant
of sin in his life. Jesus said, blessed are the pure
in heart. And there's a second fruit that
we see in verse 8. Blessed are the pure in heart.
For they, and the word they is emphatic, meaning they and they
only, they and they alone, they and no one else, for they shall see God. That's pretty good. Who sees
God? Those with a pure heart. You
say, what is the reality of this? But there is a now and a then. And now in our Christian lives,
we see with eyes of faith, and we behold the glory of God as
in a mirror. We behold the greatness of our
God, and we actually know God. and we look upon His majesty,
we don't see Him with physical eyes, we see Him far more clearly. We see Him with spiritual eyes
because we know Him in our heart. Hebrews 12, verse 2, fixing our
eyes on Jesus. The author and perfecter of faith. Isaiah 43, 23, 22, look unto
Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth. To look to God
is a look of faith. And when we look to Him, He gives
us spiritual eyes to see His glory and His majesty and His
greatness. Isaiah 42, 18, look you blind
that you may see. It is only the one who receives
a pure heart in the new birth, sees God by faith in this life. Dead hearts do not see God. Impure
hearts do not see God. But it is those who receive a
heart transplant in regeneration who are given eyes to see and
ears to hear God. Do you see God? Not with physical
eyes, but do you see God with spiritual eyes tonight? Paul prayed for this for the
Ephesians. In Ephesians 1 verse 18, I pray
that the eyes of your heart will be enlightened so that you will
know what is the hope of His calling and what is the riches
of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. It is a pure heart
that sees God now. My eyes have seen the coming
of the Lord. Second, there is a later. The day is coming when those
who have received a pure heart will stand before the Lord, and
we will have a glorified body. and we will have glorified eyes,
and with those glorified eyes we will look upon the throne,
and we will see Him who is seated upon the throne. It is the greatest
blessing known to man." The theologians referred to it as the beatific
vision, to behold the face of the King of kings and the Lord
of lords. Revelation 22 verse 3 says, There
will no longer be any curse and the throne of God and of the
Lamb will be in it. His bondservants will serve Him
and they will see His face. One day you will behold the face
of the Lord Jesus Christ. You love Him now by faith. Peter
says, then you will love Him by sight. First John 3 says,
we shall behold Him, for we shall be made like Him, and we will
see Him just as He is. This is the privilege of the
pure heart. And the one who has an impure
heart will never see God, not in this life, nor in the life
to come. But the one who has a cleansed
and pure heart will have eyes to see what others cannot see."
I will give Martin Lloyd-Jones the last word on this as he says
and speaks of seeing God at the end. He says, you're going to
see God. Do you not agree with this, that
this is the biggest, most monumentous, the most tremendous thing that
you can ever be told? Is it your supreme object, desire,
and ambition to see God? If it is, and if you believe
this gospel, you must agree, every man that has this hope
in him purifies himself, even as he is pure. The time is short,
Lord Jones says. You and I have not long to prepare.
The great reception is at hand. In a sense, the ceremonial is
all prepared. You and I are waiting for the
audience with the King. Are you looking forward to it?
Are you preparing yourself for it? Don't feel ashamed at this
moment that you're wasting your time on things that not only
will be of no value to you on that great occasion, but of which
you will be ashamed. And Lloyd-Jones calls upon us
now in this life. to be preparing our hearts and
be purifying our hearts and be seeing God in His greatness now
in this life, knowing that the day is coming when we will stand
before His throne of grace, washed in the blood of the Lamb, glorified
in body and spirit, and we will see God and we will be overwhelmed
and astonished and amazed. As we will see His glory so great
that God will snuff out the sun, there will no longer be the need
for the sun in the universe because the glory of God shining forth
from His face will be brighter than ten thousand suns in the
sky above. Oh what a glorious future we
have. Let us purify our hearts now.
Let us sanctify our hearts and let us pursue those things that
would guard our hearts from the invasion and intrusion of evil.
Let us resist Satan. Let us refuse temptation. Let
us mortify the flesh. Let us guard our eyes. Let us
set a guard over our ears. Let us cultivate personal holiness
and purity within our own souls. And we will see God, not only
in this life, but in the life to come. There is only one way
to see this God in heaven. He is so pure and we are so unpure
in and of ourselves. God is so pure and we are so
corrupt. And there is only one way to
cross this chasm that separates holy God from sinful man, and
that is through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus
was perfectly pure of heart, and He was perfectly pure of
life, and upon that cross, Him who knew no sin. God made to
be sin for us. And in that moment, Christ became
the sin bearer of all those who would call out upon His name. And He shed His blood and made
the only redemption for our sins and with the power of His shed
blood. He takes sinners like you and
me and He washes us clean and presents us faultless before
the throne of God. God says, come, let us reason
together, says the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be white as wool. Come to the fountain that will
wash you clean by the power of the blood of Christ. Come to
Christ by faith, and He will take your life, soiled as it
is. And He will purge you, He will
wash you, He will cleanse you, and He will present you faultless
before the throne of God. And in that day, you will see
God. If you have never believed upon
Jesus Christ, if you've never confessed your sin, I call upon
you tonight. to confess, to repent, to turn
to Christ. He has come not for the righteous,
but for the unrighteous. He's a physician who has come
not for those who are well, but for those who are sick. Tell
Him how sinful you are. He's come to seek and to save
that which is lost. Tell Him how you have ruined
your life. Confess your sin and He will
take you into Himself. The gates of paradise are swung
open tonight to receive sinners by the grace of God. Let us pray. Father in heaven, we thank You
for this promise of the pure heart that those who are pure
in heart will see You one day through Your Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Father, I pray that now in this
life. we would pursue holiness and
godliness that we may see yet more and more of Your glory and
Your greatness with eyes of faith, and then one day with glorified
eyes to behold the infinite majesty of who You are. Father, set this
promise before us in Jesus' name. Amen.