Matthew chapter 5, as you now
very well know, the Lord is teaching us what the blessed state is. And as you also very well know,
only the Lord Himself can be what He is teaching us to be. The verse that we're going to
focus on this morning is verse eight, which says, Matthew chapter
five, verse eight says, blessed are the pure in heart for they
shall see God. We know that only Christ is pure
in heart. We know that just by reading
that one verse, we can see that only Christ can be what he's
teaching us to be. Men and women read that and we
know they do. They read verses of scripture
like that and they think, oh wow, I need to be more pure in
heart if I want to see God. I need to be more pure in mind. I need to be more pure in body. I need to be more pure if I want
to see God. Well, that's impossible for man. We desire, David said, I'm gonna
be satisfied when I awake with your likeness, but that is impossible
for sinful flesh. Only Christ is pure in heart. And the scriptures made it very
clear that only the pure in heart are going to see God. Turn with
me over to Psalm 24. Psalm 24 verse 3 says, 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, he shall receive the blessing from the Lord. and
righteousness from the God of his salvation. That's what it's
gonna take. That's what it's gonna take.
As we search the scriptures, we're gonna see that Christ is
the only one who will ever fit that description in his own flesh,
in his own deeds. Christ is the only one. Only
Christ was tempted like as we are, yet without sin, only Christ. For the salvation of his people,
Christ was made to be the sin of his people, but he himself
knew no sin, not any. He was the only spotless, perfect,
pure man that ever walked this earth. And that means only he
is worthy to ascend into the hill of the Lord. but in what
he accomplished for his people. You think about what Christ did
for us, what he came down here and accomplished for us. In what
he accomplished, this is what the scripture has to say about
his people in him and in his accomplishment. Turn with me
to 1 Corinthians 6. 1 Corinthians 6 verse 9, it says,
know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom
of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of
themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards,
nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of
God. And such were some of you But you are washed, but you are
sanctified. You are set apart for God's use,
holy use. But you are justified in the
name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God. What he's saying is the blood
of Jesus Christ has cleansed you from all your sin. In Him,
in His payment, in His washing, we are as pure as He is. As He is, so are we in Him. And even though we can't physically
see it yet, you know, we live here in this body of sin. This
is a body of sin, a body of sin, and we can't see it. But in Christ,
God the Father has declared that to be so. And if God the Father
has declared it to be so, it's so. If he says that's the way
it is, that's the way it is. If he says that Christ accomplished
the work that he came here to do in purifying and perfecting
his people, then Christ accomplished the work he came here to do.
in purifying and perfecting His people. That is just so. Go with
me over to 1 John chapter 3. 1 John 3 verse 1 says, Behold,
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we
should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth
us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know
that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall
see him as he is. And every man that hath this
hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. Whosoever
commiteth sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression
of the law. And you know that he was manifested
to take away our sins, and in him is no sin. Verse six says,
whosoever abideth in him sinneth not. Whosoever sinneth hath not
seen him, neither known him. That's a shocking verse, isn't
it? Look at verse nine. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin. For his seed remaineth in him
and he cannot sin because he's born of God. Now, when Christ
removed the sin of his people from them, that's what he accomplished
for them. When he removed it from them,
that's what he accomplished for them. But that's not something
that God's people are able to experience in the flesh. We have
yet to experience that. We're still carrying out the
sins that Christ has removed from us. He removed all of our
sins from the cradle to the grave. And people, they come to know
the truth, they come to know Christ, they come to know salvation,
and they wanna know, why am I still sinning? Here's the reason why.
You haven't made it to the grave yet. Christ came to bear our
sins and take our sins from the cradle to the grave. And you
haven't made it to the grave yet. We're still living out the
sins that He bore, the sins that He took. But His work of redeeming
us from all that is over, it's finished. And in him, that's
how we are right now. Verse two says, beloved, now
are we the sons of God and it does not yet appear what we shall
be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like
him for we'll see him as he is. And as he is, we'll see at that
moment, that's what he's made us to be. As pure as He is, that's how
pure we'll be. That's how pure we are, and that's
how pure we will see ourselves to be in Him. All right, so let
me just recap all that, and then we'll get to the heart of this. Only Christ is worthy to enter
heaven. But we are made worthy in Him. All right? That worthiness is
something that we will experience as soon as our time on this earth
is over. Now, with that being said, there is an evidence of
this pure heart that Christ has created in his people, and I
hope the Lord will let us get ahold of this. I sincerely do. Even though that pureness, blessed
are the pure in heart, Even though that pureness is not physically
seen, there is a physical evidence that it's there. There is a physical
evidence. Go with me back to Matthew 5. Verse 8 says, blessed are the
pure in heart. for they shall see God." The
word pure does mean, it does mean morally clean. It means
free from corruption. It means blameless. It means
innocent. And that's how we stand before
God in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how we stand.
But listen to the rest of the definitions and we're going to
see this describes a believer who is evidencing in this world,
in this flesh, what Christ has done eternally, spiritually. The word pure goes on to mean
free from what is false. If it's pure, it means honest. It means genuine. It means sincere. Our Lord said, blessed are the
pure in heart, blessed are the honest, blessed are the truthful,
blessed are the sincere. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. They're the ones that are going
to get to see God. Now, what does that look like?
In this flesh, what is a pure heart before God? What is honesty
before God? What is truthfulness before God? What does that look like? Turn
with me over to Psalm 51. Psalm 51 verse 1 says, Have mercy
upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness, according
unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have
I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest
be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest."
That is an honest heart before God. That is truthfulness before
God. Verse five says, behold, I was
shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold,
thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part
thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall
be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter
than snub. That is genuine sincerity. And that's not the hypocrisy
and the lies of man's works before God. That's pure honesty. You
know, men and women, they just, the Lord called them whited sepulchers.
He said, you make yourself look so good on the outside. But on
the inside, he said, you're full of dead men's bones. And that's
what we all are. It's just some of us don't look
that good on the outside. But this is honesty before God. This is absolute pure truthfulness
before God. That Pharisee in the temple in
Luke 18, he was trying to tell God how pure he was. That Pharisee
standing there who walked right up to the front and trying to
tell God how pure he was saying, see, I do this and I don't do
that. I'm pure before you. He was lying
through his teeth. That publican smote upon his
breast, crying, God, be merciful to me. I'm a sinner. And God
said, you're going to see God justified. That's pure honesty. That's truthfulness
before me. That's what I'll accept. God
said, that's what I'll accept. He said, a broken and a contrite
heart I'll hear, a proud one never, but an honest, sincere,
genuine confession of what a sinner truly is before me. He said,
I'll receive that. Turn with me to 1 John 1. First John chapter one. Verse five, it says, this then
is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto
you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. God is honesty. God is sincerity. God is truth. and in him is no lie at all. He's light, there's no darkness
in him. Verse six, if we say that we have fellowship with
him and walk in darkness, lies. We lie and do not the truth. We're not walking in light, we're
walking in darkness and we're lying and not telling the truth. Verse seven, but if we walk in
the light, If we walk in truth and honesty and sincerity as
He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood
of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. We have sin. He's not talking
about sinlessness right here. He's not saying that if you stop
sinning, He's not talking about sinlessness.
He's saying we'll be cleansed from all of our sin. We have
sin. Verse eight, if we say that we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If
we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned,
we make Him a liar and His word is not in us. He said there's
only one confession that's pure. There's only one thing that we
can confess to God about ourselves that is the purity of truth. And it's this. God be merciful
to me. I'm a sinner. That's it. That is a pure, honest
heart before God. A true, honest, pure heart before
God will be the one that claims only Christ's heart to be pure. It'll say, Lord, if I'm going
to confess a pure heart to you, it's Christ alone. It'll be the
heart that claims Christ's heart for His own. If I have a pure
heart, it's only His heart in me. It's only because you took
out that cold, stony, hard heart. You broke that and removed that
and put a heart of flesh in me, which is the heart of Christ
Himself. I plead His heart, His pure heart. That's my only hope
before you. That's my only hope before you. If God has given us that genuine,
sincere heart of truth before Him, we're a blessed people. We're a blessed people. It's
an evidence that we're among the ones who are gonna get to
see Him. And I pray the Lord will give
us that honesty. I pray He will. I pray the Lord
will reveal to us the absolute truth concerning our heart. Blessed are the pure in heart. They're going to see God. You
know, if He does reveal that to us, like we said, I believe
it was last week, if the Lord reveals these things to us, it's
going to be painful. You know, that publican who was
smiting himself, crying, God be merciful to me, that wasn't
a happy moment for that man. But it was a blessed moment for
that man. And I pray the Lord will put
a pure heart in us. Lord, put a pure heart in us.
Reveal to us our sin. Don't you beg God, honestly,
to not let you go through life blind to your own sin. Everybody
thinks, I'm a pretty good person. Everybody thinks that. I'm a
pretty good person. Lord, please bless me. Bless me. Lord, reveal this truth
to me. Reveal my sin to me and then
reveal the Christ who put away my sin. If He'll do that, we'll
be a blessed people. We'll see God. All right.