Let us turn to that portion of
scripture that we read in the New Testament, in the Gospel
according to St. Matthew. In Matthew chapter 5,
and our text is found in the Beatitudes, verse 8, Blessed
are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Matthew chapter
5, verse 8, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see
God." And I want us to consider with the Lord's help this expression,
the pure in heart. What we have here, of course,
is the opening part of what we know as that familiar passage
called the Sermon on the Mount that runs from chapter 5 through
chapter 6 and concludes at the end of chapter 7. Three chapters
in which we have recorded that remarkable sermon that was preached
by the Lord Jesus Christ. And these are very much gospel
words. How discriminating is the ministry
of our Lord Jesus. He sees the multitudes, we're
told. But it is in particular the disciples
that the Lord is addressing himself to in this sermon. The opening words of this fifth
chapter, And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain, and
when he was set, his disciples came unto him, and he opened
his mouth, and taught them. These are words that are being
addressed to a particular people. They're gospel words and here
certainly in the opening part of the sermon we have a delineation
of the character of those who are the true followers of the
Lord Jesus Christ. We have a description of that
person who is blessed in these Beatitudes from verse 3 right
through to verse 12 the opening part of the sermon and that you're
probably aware that the word that we have rendered in our
authorized version as blessed is really the Greek word for
happy and in fact it's a plural it's the happinesses of this
character that are being set before us. Reminds us of that
lovely little book, some of you may well be aware of it, by Lachlan
Mackenzie of Lough Caron, Minister in the Church of Scotland in
the 18th century, which is entitled The Happy Man. It's a description
of the happy man and certainly Mackenzie himself knew something
of that happiness that belongs to those who are truly the children
of God. So here, as I've said, we have
a description of that man who is truly happy. That can only
be the believer. The Lord God has made man for
himself, remember. He made man in his image. He
created man after his likeness. and in the language of the Westminster
Shorter Catechism man's chief end is to glorify God and to
enjoy him man is made to enjoy God and there is nothing short
of God that can really satisfy the souls of men and women so
here we have the the happy man and now we have to look to ourselves
and examine ourselves is this description applicable to us? What are we told concerning these
particular people? Well, we see in verse 3, they
are little more than poor beggars. Who are we? Those who have to
beg mercy of the Lord. Beg the Lord for everything.
They are poor beggars. But not only that, there are
those who are mourners. What is it that causes them to
mourn? It's that realization of their
sinnership, how they feel it. How they are made to mourn because
of it. How they come to God with humility. There are those who are spoken
of in verse 5 as the meek. And surely meekness is that that
is closely associated with the spirit of lowliness of mind. Moses was the meekest man on
the face of the earth. There's nothing weak in meekness.
Though it's associated with that humility that the Lord himself
delights in. He puts down the proud and he
exalts the humble ones. This is the character then that
we're having described by the Lord himself. They are such as
are hungry. They have an appetite. And it's
a spiritual appetite. They hunger and they thirst,
says the Lord after righteousness, and they are such as shall be
filled. They are those who know something
of the mercy of God. They are merciful themselves.
We're not to imagine that Mercy is the ground upon which
they obtain mercy when Christ says in verse 7, Blessed are
the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. It's not that they
are receiving mercy as a reward because they are merciful. People
know quite the opposite. They are merciful because the
Lord has dealt with them in the way of mercy. They can identify
with that publican of whom the Lord speaks in Luke 18. who goes
to the temple together with the Pharisee at the hour of prayer. And what a prayer is that of
the publican, so different to that of the Pharisee. Or the
Pharisee prays thus with himself. Really his prayer goes no further
than himself. All he does is congratulate himself. He's not as other men are. He's
not like this wretched publican. He does so much for the Lord.
His prayer is no prayer at all, but then, when we read of that
publican, he stands afar off, he cannot lift up his eyes to
heaven, he smites upon his breast, and he cries out, God be merciful
to me, the sinner, it says. But literally, God be merciful
to me, THE sinner. The definite article is there,
in the Scriptures. He feels himself to be THE sinner. Like Paul, the chief of all the
sinners, and he stands in need of mercy. This is the character
then that we have set before us. He needs to know the pardon
of his sins, to taste something of the mercies of God. And then, what do we read in
the words that I announced as our text? Again, something more
concerning this particular person. Blessed are the pure in heart. for they shall see God. Now the gospel must reach the
heart of men. Has the gospel reached your hearts? Have you been made to feel something
of what the gospel really is? It is in the heart of men that
the root of all man's problems are to be found. And we're told
that quite early on in Scripture. We only have to read a few chapters
in the book of Genesis. And then we come to those words
at the beginning of chapter 6. God saw that the wickedness of
man was great in the earth and every imagination of the thought
of his heart. That's a wonderful Hebraism.
Every imagination of the thought of his heart was evil continually. Oh, what a solemn description
is that that we have of man, so soon after God had created
all things and pronounced His creation to be very good. And yet the consequence of man's
awful rebellion and disobedience, the world is filled with wicked
men. Man's heart, deceitful above
all things, it says in Jeremiah. and desperately wicked. Who can
know it? Well, the Lord knows it. Oh,
the Lord knows it and how important the heart is. The wise man tells
us in the book of Proverbs, keep thy heart with all diligence
for out of it are the issues of life. Friends, what are our
hearts? As we come tonight on to God's
Word and this particular Word these words that fell from the
lips of Him who is the Prince of all the preachers, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Blessed, happen are the pure
in heart for they shall see God. It's only those who are pure
in heart that can know God, that can see God. If we're not pure
in heart we'll never know Him, we'll never see Him. We'll have
no place there in heaven unless with those who are such as the
Lord is describing here in the text. We're going back to what
we read there in the Book of Psalms. The words of David in
Psalm 24, He asks who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord or
he shall stand in his holy place, that's heaven, the hill of the
Lord, Zion is a wonderful type of heaven and who's going to
go there and be there? He that hath clean hands, it
says, and a pure heart. who hath not lifted up his soul
unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully, he shall receive blessing from
the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation." How
important the question is then concerning the state of our hearts.
Are our hearts pure hearts? Well, let us seek to examine
something of what a pure heart is, and I want to divide what
I'm going to say into two basic parts. A negative and then a
positive. Firstly, a negative. What a pure heart is not. A pure heart is not to be confused
with what men call sinless perfection. That is not a pure heart. There
have been some who have claimed to attain that state of sinless
perfection. But we cannot have that sort
of a heart, free from all sinful thoughts, free from every wicked
attitude, every ungodly inclination. and every unholy desire. Can
we really have a heart all together like that? Surely experience,
the experiences of those who are the Lord's children tell
again such an idea that it is ever possible to attain the state
of sinless perfection. The Apostle Paul certainly didn't
know it. You only have to read Romans
chapter 7 to discover that. Experience says that sinless
perfection is not the pure heart but also scripture testifies
against such an idea. Think firstly then of the believers
experience. Now there are some who imagine
that they are free from sin and that man Paul that we just made
some reference to who writes under the inspiration of the
Spirit of God there in Romans chapter 7 he once imagined that
he had attained that state of sinless perfection and he says
as much there in Philippians chapter 3 touching the righteousness
which is of the Law, he said he was blameless. The Law couldn't
condemn him. He stood a blameless man, a holy
man, a sinless man before the Law of God. But there of course
in Philippians chapter 3 and verse 6 he is speaking of himself
previous to his conversion. speaking of himself when he was
a pharisee and the son of a pharisee and was so proud of his pedigree
why he was a Hebrew of the Hebrews he was a man of the tribe of
Benjamin he was such a self-righteous
man really and that is the spirit of those who say that
they have attained that state of sinless perfection, it's pharisaism
it's pharisaism they only think in terms of the externals and
surely it would have been true in the case of Saul of Tarsus
that he was a law keeper with regards to his outward life he
was not a murderer, he was not a an adulterer he was keeping
all the commandments of God outwardly and as he says when we read in
Romans chapter 7 the particular commandment that really found
him out was the 10th commandment they shall not covet and before
that commandment he was brought to see that his heart was full
of covetousness evil desire concupiscence is the word that we have in It's
a strange word in many respects, but what a word it is. We find
there in Romans chapter 7, his heart was full of it, full of
all evil desire. He didn't have a pure heart,
although he imagined that he was living a blameless life.
Where does the Lord look? The Lord seeth not as man seeth. Man looks on the outward appearance. The Lord looketh upon the heart. all the Lord looks upon our hearts
even the Lord Jesus Christ that one who is the gracious Savior
to sinners that one who is now exalted in
heaven and seated at the right hand of God and John sees him
sees Him in all His glory and describes it there in the opening
chapter of the Revelation. And what does He say? As we mentioned
in our prayer earlier, His eye, says John, was a flame of fire. All those eyes burning, searching,
how He sees into the very depths of our souls. If we know anything of real experience,
The experience of the grace of God will be those who are delivered
from any pharisaic spirit. We will not say to another, come
not nigh me, I am holier than thou. We will not think ourselves
to be those who have attained to any state which might be called
sinless perfection. How the Lord speaks against it
here in the course of His earthly ministry. Later in this Gospel,
in chapter 23, Remember how the Lord speaks
those terrible woes against the scribes and the Pharisees. Look at what he says here in
chapter 23, verse 12, "...whosoever shall exalt himself shall be
abased, and neither shall humble himself." shall be exalted. All the Pharisees, the scribes,
they exalted themselves. He says to the Pharisee, I'm
not like other men. I'm so much better than everybody
else. What does the Lord say? There
at verse 25, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For
ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but
within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisees! Cleanse first that which is within
the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean
also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For ye are like unto whited sepulchres,
which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full
of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so, ye also
outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of
hypocrisy and iniquity. Our experience tells us, does
it not, that that, alas, is true of us. God's law. God's law is
a spiritual law. And the Lord Jesus is that one
who, in the course of his preaching, opens up that truth, shows us
something of the breadth and the spirituality of that Holy
Lord of God. Why? He does it here in this
very chapter. If we'd have read on from verse
20, he goes on, verse 21, You have heard that it was said by
them of old time, Thou shalt not kill. And whosoever shall
kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you,
that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall
be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his
brother, Raker, shall be in danger of the counsel. But whosoever
shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Why if
you speak ill of another if you assassinate someone's character
and we do it. And our tongues are so uncontrollable
it seems at times. We do it, we say things. We assassinate
people. We kill them. And this is what
the Lord says is the transgression of the sixth commandment. Thou
shalt not kill, thou shalt do no murder. And then you know
it goes on He speaks also of the seventh commandment, verse
27, you have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou
shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto you that whosoever
looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with
her already in his heart. Who can claim to be innocent?
Oh, our experience. Our experience teaches us quite
clearly to imagine that we've ever attained a state of sinless
perfection. It's not really the pure heart
that the Lord is speaking of, because none of us can do it.
But it's not just the believer's experience. What of the Scriptures?
Well, plainly, it is the Scriptures that contradict the whole notion
of sinless perfection. We sometimes sing that hymn of
John Kent, the hymn 1089, and dear Kent, how he exposes the
fallacy of imagining such a thing as sinless perfection. We sing the words, sinless perfection
we do not the chief of Satan's wiles, do thou, my soul, to Calvary
fly as after sin defiles. Doesn't the Lord teach us constantly
our need of flying to Calvary, flying to the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ for all the cleansing away of our sins? Or with those
who, as Ken says in the opening of that hymn, are just like the
Apostle, soul under sin. Sold on the sin was Paul's complaint,
he felt its galling load, though he by calling was a saint and
rightly taught of God." If we're taught of God, we'll have nothing
to do with the notion of sinless perfection. We'll be those who
look to the Word of God, to the law, to the testimony. If they
speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light
in them. And our God's Word we've already
referred to so many scriptures. that contradict that very idea.
God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and
every imagination of the thought of his heart was evil continually. That heart of man so deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. But listen, listen to
the words of the Lord Jesus himself here in this gospel in chapter
15 And then at verse 19 the Lord
says, Out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,
fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things
which defile a man. but to eat with unwashing hands
defileth not a man. Again, he's having to address
those Pharisees who find fault with his disciples because they're
not indulging in those rituals, those ceremonial washings. They
say they're condemned, they're eating with unwashing hands.
It's not just a matter of hygiene that they're concerned about,
it's rituals. the Lord's disciples were not
following those rituals that the Pharisees said were so important.
But the Lord makes it so clear that it is the matter of the
heart of men. Oh, how externals can be so deceptive. How these scribes and Pharisees
were looked up to as being the most holy of men, the most righteous
of men but you know externals don't always deceive as the Lord
says out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh
really ultimately they betray themselves in the things they
say they're not what they appear to be their hearts are exposed
by the way in which they are so ready to condemn the disciples
of the Lord, or the way in which that Pharisee in the temple speaks
so disparagingly of another man who has come to worship God at
the hour of prayer. The negative then. What a pure
heart is not, nothing to do with any idea of attaining a condition
where we are all together without sin. Nothing to do with the notion
of sinless perfection. But let us turn to what it is,
the positive. The positive. Blessed are the
pure in heart, says Christ, for they shall see God. And there are three positive
marks that I want to mention to you tonight. First of all,
there's a broken heart. That's the Purin heart, it's
a broken heart. Secondly, it's not only a broken
heart, it's a whole heart. Strange, paradoxically, to have
a broken heart and yet at the same time a whole heart. and then finally it is of course
a believing heart these three aspects then that tell us something
of the the pure in heart and we have to look to ourselves
and examine ourselves in the light of these things we have
to know our own hearts remember out of the heart are the issues
of life do we know our hearts this broken heart Oh, this is
what David is brought to in his great penitential psalm. Here
is the man after God's own heart. That's what it says concerning
David. The man after God's own heart. And yet, such a sinner
was David. The whole business. Oh, it's
amazing. We can't really understand it.
David's adultery with Bathsheba. the way in which he wants to
cover his sin and all he does really is compound his sin because
he finishes up not only as an adulterer but also a murderer
when he cannot get the husband Uriah the Hittite to do what
David wants to do he wants Uriah to come and he wants it to appear
that this child that has been conceived in the womb of Bathsheba
is not David but Uriah's But Uriah won't do it, you see.
Of course he doesn't tell Uriah straight what he's about, he
doesn't admit his sin, but he wants Uriah to come and he wants
Uriah to enjoy again the comfort of his bed, but this man wants
to be in the open field with the armies of Israel. So David
sends him back and he's to die in battle. That's
the instruction that's sent to the great commander of the armies
of Israel leave him in the hottest part of the battle withdraw from
him and he'll be killed David is an adulterer, David is a murderer
but then now the faithful prophet comes Nathan and how he tells
David he's the man they want the man David fingers his conscience
and he feels it now, oh how he is brought to a deep sorrow,
a real repentance because of his sins and we have it in the
psalm, that great psalm, psalm 51, against thee, the only of
thy sin decried and on this evil in thy sight and there we see
David's pure heart to be a broken heart he says in verse 17 of
the psalm, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit the broken
and the contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. O friends,
do we know it, brokenness of heart, because of our sins, that's
grieving over our sins, as we have it here at verse 4, blessed
are they that mourn. Lord, do we know anything of
that spiritual mourning, over our sin, how we've offended the
Lord and we want to know His comforts
and we come to Him and we make our confessions Lord, this is
David do we grieve over sin? Paul certainly grieves over his
sin when he feels it as he does there in that seventh chapter
of the epistle to the Romans he wants to do good When I would
do good, he says, evil is present with me. He feels it, this sin
that is bound up in his old nature and he can't be rid of it. It's
like a great body of death and everywhere he goes he carries
it about with him. Who shall deliver me, he cries,
from the body of this death? Or where is the comfort found?
You see, the believer would be holy. And yet the believer increasingly
feels his need of the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We have it again in one of the hymns. So much theology, so much
good doctrine in the hymn book, is there not? Look at what is
said here in the hymn 780, at verse 8. Jesus' precious blood
Once built, I depend on solely to release and clear my guilt,
but I would be holy. That's the believer. He is totally
dependent upon the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, but he wants
to be a holy man. He wants to be a sanctified man. He wants to be free from his
sins. And yet increasingly he feels
his need of the precious atoning blood of the Lord Jesus, so acutely
aware of what his old nature is. For that which is born of
the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is
Spirit. Now, those are the words of Christ,
of course, when he is speaking of the need of regeneration,
the new birth. That that is born of the Spirit,
that's the new birth. That that is born of the flesh,
that's our natural birth. We're all those who have experienced
a natural birth. But are, have we known the new
birth? Oh, remember friends, you must
be born again. And what is the evidence of it?
Well, these natures, the flesh, yes, Paul, lusteth against the
Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. and these are contrary
one to the other and ye cannot do the thing that ye would but
I would behold it but ye cannot do the thing that ye would and
so we have to cry out with Paul O wretched man that I am who
shall deliver me from the body of this sin I thank God through
Jesus Christ our Lord oh there's the deliverance There's the deliverer
of the Lord Jesus. That's a lovely hymn. I know
we sometimes can be somewhat dismissive of the Wesley brothers. But I do like so much in the
hymns of Charles Wesley. What aspiration or what desire. We see it of course in that lovely
hymn that we just sang, Love Divine or Love Excelling. no telling how striking are those
words in the second verse take away the love of sinning alpha
and omega is that what we have to pray or do you ever pray like
that to the Lord Lord take from me the love of sinning this is
my burden Lord I have such a love for sin and I want to hate sin
It's only the Lord who can deliver us. He has to take away, you
see, the old nature. He has to destroy the old nature.
Thank God we have that promise in the New Covenant. He says,
a new heart also I will give you, and a new spirit I will
put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your
flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. He does it. That's
the new nature. That's what it is to be born again, is to have
a new heart, a believing heart. But now, where we have that,
there's still that grieving over sins. Again, look at the language
that we find in Ezekiel chapter 16, that long chapter. And at
the end it speaks of the covenant. God says, Verse 62, I will establish
my covenant with thee, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord. Oh, it's the language of the
covenant, isn't it? I will, says God. I will, and thou shalt. I will establish my covenant
with thee, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord, that thou
mayest remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth any
more because of thy shame when I am pacified toward thee for
all that thou hast done saith the Lord God or when we come
into that experience of the covenant we spoke of it this morning from
those words in John 17 that experimental union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, there's an eternal union
in the covenant. It was then, in eternity, in
the great purpose of God, that He was pleased to enter into
covenant with Himself, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and a choice
was made, and the choice was in Christ, as we read there in
Ephesians chapter 1. election is in the Lord Jesus
Christ and the people there in the covenant were given to Christ
and He would come in the fullness of the time to redeem them. What
God has purposed, the eternal covenant, must become experimental,
it must be experienced in the sinner's soul. And here we have
it, you see. I will establish my covenant
with thee, says God, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord. How will you know? that thou
mayest remember and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any
more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for
all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God." There is that
grieving over sin, that's brokenness of heart, friends. You have a
broken heart. This is a sacrifice that God
delights in a broken spirit. The broken and the contrite heart
thou will not despise. The pure heart's broken. The
pure heart is also whole. It's a whole heart. Broken over
sin and yet at the same time whole in its desire and its seeking
after God. Oh, let us not come before God
half-heartedly. When we come into God's house,
let us not come half-heartedly. Surely our affections are to
be set, and they are to be set on God, they are to be set on
Christ, set on things that are above, where Christ is, at God's
right hand. God says He shall seek me and
find me, when ye shall search after me with all your heart."
There's the whole heart, you see. It's whole-hearted seeking
after God. And that whole heart is really
the pure heart. The pure heart is the seeking
heart. Well, we see that there in the
psalm that we read, the question, who shall ascend into the hill
of the Lord, who shall stand in His holy presence? He that
hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul
unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. This, it says, is the generation
of them that seek thy face, O Jacob, or O God of Jacob. These are
the seekers after God. They are whole-hearted. They
have that pure heart. Oh, they have such a desire towards
God Himself. Oh, we are those friends who
do seek Him with all our hearts. Yet you know, to seek Him is
much more than just saying words. we have to do business with him
we have to do business sometimes in in the deep waters where there's that real conviction
of sin and uh... just now we're going
to sing as our concluding praise the hymn three hundred and 10
we'll omit a couple of verses but look at the opening verses
of the hymn the text at the head creating
me a clean heart David's prayer in Psalm 51 he wanted God to
create that clean heart within him Lord when thy spirit descends
to show the badness of our hearts astonished at the amazing view
the soul with horror starts the dungeon opening foul as hell
its loathsome stench emits, and brooding in each secret cell
some hideous monster sits, swarms of ill thoughts their bane diffuse,
proud, envious, false, unclean, and every ransacked corner shows
some unsuspected sin. This is at heart deceitful, above
all things desperately wicked. Our staggering faith gives way
to doubt, our courage yields to fear. Shocked at the sight,
we straight cry out, can ever God dwell here? Or can God dwell
in your heart? And can God dwell in my heart? He does, that's the amazing thing.
That is the amazing thing. He dwells in the high and the
holy place. With him also there is a humble
and a contrite spirit. Who are we those who are so wholehearted? And how is that wholeheartedness
expressed? It's in our prayers. Do we come
with those sighs and cries, that groaning and that moaning before
Him, those wrestlings, those strugglings with Him in prayer,
waiting and waiting in expectation, waiting in hope and in faith. The psalmist, how he knew it,
I waited patiently for the Lord. The margin tells us what it says
literally, in waiting, I waited. In waiting, I waited for the
Lord and He heard my cry and delivered me also out of an horrible
pit. and set my feet upon a rock all
friends to be those who would be such seekers wholehearted
seekers after this God those who would come desiring that
we might be in possession of that clean heart cleansed in
the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ it's a broken heart
It's a whole heart that these characters possess and then it's
finally a believing heart. A believing heart. In Acts 15
we have that great council at Jerusalem concerning the Gentiles
and it said with regards to those Gentile converts that they were
debating about as to whether or not it was necessary to bring
those Christian believers under the yoke and bondage of the Jewish
law? Well, there in Acts 15.9 we read
of purifying their hearts by faith. Oh, that's how the heart
is purified. That's the pure heart, the clean
heart. It's purified by faith. How is it purified by faith?
Well, it's by looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ. And again,
we have it there in that psalm, that 24th psalm that we read
as our Old Testament lesson. It's a messianic psalm. Who is
it describing? It's describing the Lord Jesus
Christ, who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, or who
shall stand in His holy place. He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor
sworn deceitfully. Who is this man that David is
describing? It's the Lord. and it's the Lord
ascending. Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory
shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The
Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up
your heads, O ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting
doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King
of glory? the Lord of hosts. He is the
King of glory. It's Christ who has clean hands
and a pure heart. Oh, we have to look to Him, friends.
We have to look to Him for everything. Who of God is made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption that He that glorieth,
let Him glory in the Lord. It's nothing of ourselves. Nothing
to do then with that awful notion of attaining a state of sinless
perfection. But it's growing in grace and
in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, knowing
Him more because we feel to need Him more and more and more and
more. Blessed are the pure in heart.
All their purity is in Christ, it's all from Christ. Blessed
are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. The Lord bless
His Word to us. Amen.