Matthew 5, verse 8. The Lord Jesus Christ speaking
to the multitude says, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they
shall see God. Happy are the pure in heart. Now, what is a pure heart? It's sometimes helpful to understand
a word in Scripture to find that same word used in another Scripture
where there is an opposite used alongside that word. And that
way you can see what the opposite is and it'll help you understand
what that word means. I'll show you a case. Turn to
Titus chapter 1 verse 15. Titus chapter 1 verse 15. Keep your place in Matthew chapter
5. Well, you don't really have to. But hold your place in Titus
for a minute. Titus chapter 1. It's right before
Hebrews. Titus chapter 1 verse 15. Unto the pure all things are
pure, but unto them that are defiled That's opposite of pure,
is defilement. Unto them that are defiled and
unbelieving, that's the opposite of pure. Unbelieving is nothing
pure, but even their mind and conscience is defiled. Their
mind and the conscience and the heart, same thing we're talking
about here. Their mind and conscience is
defiled, is polluted, is corrupt. Now that's the natural state,
that's the natural born condition. of everybody born in Adam, everyone
born of the first birth, is they have a defiled conscience, mind,
heart. They're defiled. Now, what is
a pure heart? A pure heart is one that's been
washed of all defilement, all pollution, that is clean. and it's been purified through
faith in Christ. That's a pure heart. How does
a sinner get this pure heart? How do you get this pure heart? Now, are you still there in Titus?
Look at chapter 3. Titus 3, verse 5. Not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us by
the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. So, a sinner's heart is washed
in regeneration by the Holy Spirit. This has to take place first.
There has to be a new heart given, a new spirit within. And this spirit is said to be
a washing of regeneration. Now, a sinner's heart and his
conscience is washed, it's purged by the blood Christ now turn
with me to Hebrews Hebrews And chapter Chapter 9 There was a there was
a purification process during the
days of Moses given by God to foreshadow what Christ would
do. And this purification process
was through a red heifer that was a spotless heifer that they
took and they killed this spotless calf and they mixed with it water
and hyssop and some other things and they, whenever a person was
found unclean, the defilement comes by sin. And throughout
the scriptures, defilement, they could be unclean by Everything,
anything and everything. There was nothing that when you
read the law that talks about defilement, you come away thinking,
well, what is it that wouldn't defile them? And the answer is
nothing. Everything they came in contact
with defiled them. They were defiled if they were
plowing and there was a grave and they didn't even know the
grave was there and they went over it, they were defiled. If they were in
a tent sleeping and somebody died in the same house they were
in, they were defiled. If they tried to bury somebody
who had died, they were defiled. They were coming in contact constantly
with death. Now that's what we are, is death. And we're in constant contact
with death. Even the man that's born of God
is in constant contact with death. That's why this purging and this
cleansing, it's not a one-time thing. It's a continual purging
and cleansing. Because we're continually defiled
by our own flesh. And it's a continual purging.
But look now here with me at Hebrews 9 verse 14. How much
more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit
offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause
he is the mediator of the New Testament. that by means of death
for the redemption of the transgressions that were in the first testament,
they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
But you see that purging your conscience from dead works to
serve the living God? Now look over at Hebrews 10.
Hebrews 10 in verse 2. Now, if those sacrifices would
have taken away their sin, then would they have ceased to be
offered because that the worshipers, once purged, should have had
no more conscience of sins. Now, let me ask you something.
When your conscience is purged, you that know the Lord, when
your conscience has been purged by the blood of Christ, does
that mean that you don't feel the guilt of your sin anymore?
Does it mean that you don't feel a conscious awareness of your
sin and mourn your sin and know that you're a sinner? Doesn't
mean that at all. In fact, you are more aware of
it when you've been cleansed in regeneration and brought to
life in Christ. You're more aware of your sin
than ever before. And you become more and more
aware of it. But, This purging of the conscience
is a purging wherein I am persuaded and confident with full assurance
that I have no sin before God Almighty because of what Christ
did. I have no guilt before God. The law has nothing to say to
me before God. And that is the purging of the
conscience. No matter how the sinner falls
into sin, no matter how the sinner becomes aware and conscious of
his sin, and it's ever before his face. That sinner is always
aware that there is a fountain open for them that God has brought
to mourn over their sin. And knowing that fountain is
open and that we're continually cleansed in the sight of God
before God by Christ's one offering, we continually come to that fountain. And the conscience is cleansed
more and more continually as we behold Christ Jesus the one
who purges us and cleanses us. So this thing starts in regeneration,
wherein we behold that we have been cleansed, we have been washed,
we have no conscience of the guilt of sin, of the dominion
of sin, that sin has no more claim on us, death has no more
claim on us, and we know that from then on. And then as we
come into sin and we become conscious of these sins, we come again
to this fountain. to be cleansed. We come to Christ
to hear the gospel so that our conscience is cleansed and we
walk out knowing I am redeemed. I am bought with a price. I am
His. I am forever His. He won't forsake
me. He won't leave me. He will never
leave me to myself. And that sin that's been plaguing
us and that's been ever with us, that defilement that's in
us, we're purged of it again. We're cleansed of it again as
we see Christ, the fountain. The fountain of cleansing. We
sing that song. There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from
Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose
all their guilty stains. We lose them. They're gone. The
Lord says, I won't remember them anymore. If He won't remember
them, they can't be brought up because He's all-knowing. And if He says, I don't remember
them anymore, they're gone. So we come to this fountain to
be reminded that they are gone and that our conscience is cleansed
from them again. Now, look over at Hebrews 10
verse 20. Now, verse 18 with me. Now where remission
of these is, there is no more offering for sin. You know when
they went into the tabernacle, the first thing they came to
was the altar. That's the first thing we come to is the altar.
That's where Christ put away our sin. That's where He purged
us. That's where He cleansed us was at Calvary. The next thing
they came to was the laver where they washed. that Calvary put away the sin
of His people. And now where remission of these
is, they're gone. And when the Spirit purges our
conscience so that we can enter into this fact that Christ indeed
effectually accomplished the putting away of our sin, there's
no more offering for sin. And that's what we know by the
purging of that conscience and regeneration. Then look at verse
19. Having therefore, brethren, boldness,
liberty, to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new
and living way which He hath consecrated or newly made for
us, through the veil, that is to say His flesh, and having
a high priest over the house of God." Now watch this. Let
us draw near with a true heart, with a pure heart, with a purged
heart, with a heart that is has been purged to know that we have
no sin. That's the liberty. That's the
only thing that keeps a person from coming to Christ is because
of his sin. He won't come because he's not
going to confess it to God, not going to confess it to anybody.
Don't want anybody to know about it. And that keeps that person
from coming to God. But when God has purged the person,
and they know that sin's put away, and you'll be received
of the Father through the blood of Christ, now we come to Him.
Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith,
having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience." You see
that word? We have our hearts sprinkled
from an evil conscience. It's the same. It's the heart.
It's the conscience. It has been sprinkled. We have
it. It's sprinkled from an evil conscience.
And our bodies are washed with pure water. And therefore we
come to this fountain continually. We come to it continually. Because
we ever need to be reminded that it's been washed. We've been
washed. We've been purged. We've been purged. We need to
know that. So we keep coming. Now, and this is the purification
of faith. Look over at Acts 15. Everything
I'm talking to you about is of God. The Spirit regenerates us
so that we behold that we've been purged and our conscience
is washed by the sprinkling of the blood of Christ because of
what He accomplished for us and that blood is applied in the
inner man. And we believe God. We believe
God. We read here then in verse 9. Acts 15 verse 9. Let's read verse
8. God which knoweth the hearts,
bear them witness. These are some folks who believe.
Giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us, and put no
difference between us and them. Now catch this last phrase, what
I want you to see. Purifying their hearts by faith. by faith. Do you remember Martha? Martha is like we are. Martha
is like I am. Martha is like you are. Martha
knew a lot. And so rather than listening
to Christ, rather than listening to the Master, she insisted on
telling the Master what she knew. And she met Him and kept telling
Him, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, And he just had
to stop her and say, Martha, I'm the resurrection. And he
said, if you believe, you'll see. He didn't say, if you can
see, then you'll believe. He said, if you believe, you'll
see. And we can't get those backwards.
God gives faith. And God purifies our hearts by
faith. You know why? We behold that
our sin has been put away. We behold the miracle and the
sign and the wonder of wonders. The grace of God in Christ Jesus. And look what He said to her.
Let me read this to you. Jesus said after He raised Lazarus
from the grave. And she saw Him raise Lazarus
from the grave. Jesus said unto her, said I not
unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the
glory of God. The world has that backwards.
Those that would see a sign, want to see a sign. They want
to see something. They want to see something done
in a person. God said, if you believe, you'll
see His glory. Now, back in our text, it tells
us that, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall seek
God. Charles Spurgeon made this observation. I thought it was
good. He said, the impurity of the heart makes for dim vision. When the heart's not pure, it
makes for dim vision. If you're looking to something
in addition to Christ. Whatever it is. Whatever it is. You're going to defend that something.
You're going to defend it. If you're looking to something
other than to Christ, you're going to defend it because when
you do something for me, cross your eyes. Cross your eyes. I'll do mine so you don't feel
silly. Cross them. See it? Can you see? Everything's
blurry, isn't it? Because you're looking in two
different directions. You're looking in two opposite
directions. But when God purges the heart
and He makes the heart pure, He makes you look in one direction. Now that your eyes are uncrossed,
you see, don't you? You see, don't you? He said,
happy is the man that has a pure heart because he shall see God. We see Him in Christ. We see
God in Christ. We see God in Providence. We see, used to, we just got
mad when things didn't go our way. Used to, we just cussed
God and we just argued against people and we took the sword
in our hand and tried to make something happen ourselves. And
now, God won't allow us to continue in that. God makes us to see
His hand in providence. And we know this, all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
the called according to purpose. And He's working every last minute
detail according to purpose for our good. And we see God in Providence
and what goes on around us. And one day soon, faith and hope
are going to be no more. These are toys. How dare you say faith and hope
is a toy? It's a toy, just like your father
would give you something that's on your level so that you can
understand something about God. Can I show you that? 1 Corinthians
chapter 13 and verse 8. The Corinthians were very carnal. And they were arguing about who
was the best preacher. They were arguing about who had
the best gift of tongues. They were arguing about their
knowledge and what they knew. And all of these things. And listen to what Paul says. Charity never faileth. It doesn't just mean that if
you'll try to love everybody, you'll always be successful.
It means charity won't ever depart. If God has given this pure heart,
there's love there. The love of God is there. It
won't ever go. This purity, this love of heart
will never fail because this is the very essence of a pure
heart. It's what causes us to behold
Christ and fall in love with Him. Read this as it is toward
Christ. Charity never faileth, but whether
there be prophecies, preaching, they shall fail. I'm not going
to be preaching in heaven. And you're not going to be gathering
to hear me preach or any other man preach in heaven. Whether
there be tongues, they shall cease. There will be no need
for differences. There won't be any differences
of languages in heaven. Everybody will speak the language
of Zion. Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. You mean
my knowledge is going to go? The knowledge you have right
now, yeah. It's going to go. For we know in part And we preach
in part. But when that which is perfect
is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. Now
listen to this illustration. When I was a child, I speak as
a child. Right now, I'm a child. And I'm
speaking to you as a child. Before God, right now, if it
wasn't for the intercession of Christ, what I'm saying to you
would sound like a baby that's just learned how to talk. Bunch
of goo-goo and ga-ga. Because I just speak in part.
I just know in part. I speak as a child. I understand
as a child. I thought as a child, he said. But, when I became a man, when
we enter into glory, with Christ. I put away childish things. These things he's talking about
are childish things. They're toys that God's given
us so He can communicate to us that Christ is the end of these
things. We're going to hang on to the
toys? We're going to burn incense to the toys? We're going to worship
the toys? No. We'll put these things away. For now we see through a glass
darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then
shall I know even as also I am known. Now look at this. Now
about of faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is
love. Because when I see Him face to
face, I won't need faith. That's the substance of things
hoped for. That's the evidence of things not seen. When I see
Him face to face, I won't need faith. I'll have Him right in
person. And I won't be hoping for anything.
I'll have the end of my hope. I'll have Him. That's why I love. is the greatest of things. I
will always have that. I'll always have that. It won't
fail. It won't end. It won't end. This is something about this
pureness of heart and those that have it, been blessed by God,
they're happy. They're happy because they see
Christ and the sheer mercies that are in Him. Happy are the
pure in heart, for they shall see God.