The title of today's sermon is
Pure in Heart. What does it mean to be pure
in heart? Now, the word pure in scripture,
as far as I can see in the New Testament, it's translated in
three different words. One of them is the word clean. We see this in Revelation chapter
19. I'm just going to read these to you. You don't have to go
to them. But look at the way that this is translated, because
this helps us to see the meaning of the word pure. In Revelation
chapter 19, it says this in verse 8, And to her was granted that
she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the
fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. That's Revelation
19.8. Clean is the same word translated in Matthew 5.8 as
pure. So the word has to do with being
clean. What's clean in Revelation 19.8
is the linen given to the church, the covering, the clothing. And
that clothing is the righteousness of the saints, which is the righteousness
God gave them, the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. That
is absolutely clean without spot. And then there's other places
where it's translated as clean, such as in John 15.3, where Jesus
told his disciples, you are clean by the word which I have spoken
to you. And in Matthew 27, Joseph wrapped Jesus' body in a clean
linen, a washed clean linen. So that teaches us that the word
pure means very clean. And in Revelation 21, the word
also is translated as clear. In Revelation 21 and 18, it says
this, that in the building of the temple, or the city, there
was a wall. The building of the wall of it
was of jasper, and the city, the city of God, was pure gold,
like unto clear glass. Now, it's breathtaking to imagine
an entire city being of pure gold. But in heaven, as I was
younger, I thought that that literally meant pure gold. It
doesn't. Gold is something that's earthly. What is in heaven has to be spiritual. And this is speaking of the people
of God. The people of God are the city. God dwells in them.
There's absolutely no tarnish on them. It can't be tarnished.
It says it's clear. It's like clear glass. Clear
glass, gold, those two things just don't seem to quite go together.
A translucent gold. We try to imagine it, and without
getting into that, just see that the word pure here is translated
as something extremely clear and pure and clean. And this
is the way it's used in Matthew chapter 5, 8. Jesus says, blessed
are the pure in heart. Now, if you are like me, when
you read that and you hear that the pure in heart are blessed
and we understand that we have to be pure as clean and clear
as described in Revelation, that it gives you a cause for great
concern because you know that there is something in your heart
that is not clean and not pure. In fact, look with me at a couple
of verses. These are going to be familiar,
probably, for the most part. But look at Genesis chapter 6, where the heart is spoken of,
the heart of man. Genesis 6 and verse 5, it says,
At this time in history, God saw that the wickedness of man
was great in the earth. And that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Now it was for this reason that
God destroyed the earth in a flood. Every imagination of the thoughts
of his heart was only evil continually. And so after the flood, the Lord
said that man was sinful and that he wasn't going to be changed
by the flood. And so God promised he wouldn't
curse the earth anymore with the flood because it says in
Genesis 8 verse 21, The Lord smelled a sweet savor, and the
Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground anymore
for man's sake, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his
youth. That's Genesis 8.21. So in both
of these verses you see that man's heart is the place where
he thinks. As a man thinketh in his heart,
so is he, it says in the scripture. What we think is what we are.
And God says what we think is an imagination that's full of
evil. And that evil is a continual
evil. Let me read to you from Mark,
chapter 7. these well-known words of the
Lord. He says in Mark 7 20, Jesus said to the disciples, that which
cometh out of the man, that defileth a man. For from within, out of
the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications,
murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness,
an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these things,
all these evil things come from within and defile the man." It's
interesting. What defiles us comes from within
us. How many times have you heard
psychologists or somebody say that if we could just be in a
good environment, then things would be better, but that's not
the case. If you were to be put in an anechoic chamber with no
sound, no light, and no influences, your heart would bubble out as
thoughts of iniquity. That's the way we are, out of
the heart of man. It's not anyone's fault, but
man's own fault. Jeremiah 17.9 says, is deceitful above all things."
That means that compared to everything else is deceitful, but it's characterized
more than anything by this. It's deceitful. Jeremiah 17,
9. The heart is deceitful above
all things, desperately wicked. Who can know it? So that's our
heart by nature. So how is it that Jesus can say,
blessed are the pure in heart? Is there anyone who has a pure
heart? Well, in Ecclesiastes, I'm just
giving you some of these verses because I enjoy seeing several
scriptures on a topic. It says in Ecclesiastes 7.20,
there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth
not. That's just one of many verses
we could turn to that are just like that. There's not a just
man on earth that doeth good and sinneth not. And Job in chapter
9, Job chapter 9 says this about himself. He says in verse 21,
Though I were perfect, yet I would not know my soul, I would despise
my life. This is one thing, hold on, it
says, Verse 20, If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall
condemn me. If I say I am perfect, it shall
also prove me false, though I were perfect, or that's what I think
I was. Yet would I not know my soul,
I would despise my life. So Job is saying here that he
himself, according to his own admission, is not perfect. And
how many times have you read of the saints in scripture who
you admire and yet you see in their lives things that are obviously
gross sins? Think of Noah right after the
flood. Something happened. He got drunk in his tent. And
his sons had to back up and cover him with clothes because he was
naked in his tent. Noah? He found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. You'd think that he was spared
from the destruction of the earth in water, that something better
would come of him. Or think about Abraham. How many
things did Abraham do wrong? Even after he believed, he exposed
his wife to terrible danger because he was afraid for his own life
twice. And so, and before the Lord called
him, he was in the land of idol worshipers. So Abraham was, he
was a sinner just like the rest of us. He understood he was only
justified by the grace of God and not by his own works. Or
think of David. And we don't even have to talk
about David. Just mentioning his name drags all of his sin
into our minds. We think, how could you be called
a man after God's own heart when you have that kind of sin? Or
remember Daniel in Daniel chapter 9, how he confesses his own sins
and the sins of Israel in any number. Or Isaiah, who said when
he saw the Lord in chapter 6 of Isaiah, he said, Woe is me, I'm
undone. I'm a man of unclean lips, and
I dwell among a people of unclean lips. And so all these men, and
then even into the New Testament, the time would fail us, but there's
Peter who denied the Lord, denied the Lord. And he said, when he
saw the Lord Jesus, he said, depart from me, Lord, I'm a sinful
man. And what about our favorite apostle, the Apostle Paul, who
says, Wretched man that I am. All these teach us that the heart
of man is what God says it is. It's evil by nature. Our heart
is evil. It's deceitful above all things.
It's out of our heart that comes all these evils. And we can't
do anything about it. Solomon said this in 1 Kings
8.38, if you wanted to look at that. Solomon said that if a
man... In fact, let's read this. It's
a famous verse, and I take comfort in this. That Solomon was the
wisest man on earth. It wasn't hid from him what man
was like. He says in 1 Kings 8 and verse 37, he's praying
to God, he says, if there be in the land famine, If there
be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be caterpillar,
or if their enemy besieged them in the land of their cities,
whatsoever plague, or whatsoever sickness there be, what prayer
and supplication so ever be made by any man, or by all thy people
Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart?"
He talks about all these plagues and he realizes, wait a minute,
what about the plague of our heart? when we pray and he spread
forth our hands and he says oh lord then here in heaven so This
problem of the heart isn't a new problem. It didn't start with
Paul. Solomon understood it. Noah understood it. Abraham understood
it. David understood it. These men
all understood it. Daniel understood it. All the
saints of old are just examples of how our hearts are what they
are. And it's a sad thing. And how
can Jesus say, your heart, if it's pure, you can see God. Look
at one more verse on this subject. Look at Proverbs chapter 20.
This is the last one. What can we do about this heart
of ours? What can we do? He says in Proverbs
chapter 20, in verse 9, Who can say, I have made my heart
clean? I am pure from my sin. Who can
say that? Of course nobody can say it,
otherwise it's a rhetorical question. No one can say that. No one can
say, I've made my heart clean. And yet we find this strange
verse. Look over in James chapter 8. James is one of those preachers
where you're always worried when he preaches because he's going
to say something that rattles your cage. But look at James
chapter 4. He says this. In James 4, verse
8, he says, Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you.
Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Immediately, like I said, you
hear that sermon and you just go, what do I do now? My heart is so, it's just desperately
wicked. I don't even think, I can't understand
it. And I find this propensity in my own heart to be so evil,
out of my own heart. People don't have to suggest
things. It comes from me. Evil thoughts, hatreds, envies,
lusts, and all kinds of things just bubble up out of it. How
could James say this? Well, the reason, this is just
what the Bible does. We're responsible for our own
wickedness. just because your heart is evil
you don't get a free pass just because you can't change your
own heart you don't get a free pass like it says in Proverbs
29 20 verse 9 you can't make your heart clean and James says
that we need to purify your heart you double minded so what he's
saying here is he's bringing the focus of attention of guilt
on us and then he's also bringing us to that point where we have
to admit that our heart is corrupt, but he brings us not only to
that, but in giving us this commandment to purify our hearts, he's also
bringing right in front of our face the fact that you can't
do it. And it brings us to, it shuts
us up. It shuts us up. So we, just like
in Romans 3, he says, there's by the deeds of the law, no flesh
shall be justified in his sight. And by what you do, you can't
change your heart. You can't fix it. In fact, look
at a couple of verses on this line. How can you have a clean
heart? How can you have a pure heart, a clear heart? Because
that's what the word pure means. Clean, pure before God. Look
at John chapter 3. Remember the promise? The pure
in heart see God. The pure in heart will see God.
But John chapter 3, Jesus tells Nicodemus, He said, except a
man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Unless
you're born again, you can't see the kingdom of God. Jesus
says, unless you have a pure heart. If you have a pure heart,
He says, you're blessed because you will see God. Jesus says,
but if you aren't born again, you can't see the kingdom of
God. Look, verse 5 says the same thing, only more intense. Jesus
said, Verily, verily, I say to you, except a man be born of
water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Not only can't see it, he can't enter it. So this requires the
work of God. The new birth is the work of
God. Look at Ezekiel chapter 36. I'm just taking you through
this progression so that we will appreciate the grace of God,
and we will do what all of us ought to do, which is to come
to God for this heart that only He can give to us. Ezekiel 36
and verse 26 says this, The promise of the New Covenant,
verse 25, ?Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you
shall be clean from all your filthiness, and from all your
idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give
you, and a new spirit will I put within you. And I will take away
the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of
flesh.? There it is. How do we receive this heart
that's not defiled? How can our heart that's naturally
a fountain of iniquity, a cesspool of iniquity, how can that heart
be changed? Well, first of all, your heart
can't be changed. God has to give you a new heart.
You see this in Ezekiel 36, 26? The way your heart is purified
is God gives you a new heart. And that new heart is going to
be a clean heart. It's going to be a heart created
by God. And so, here we are now. We want to see God, do we not?
What is it to see God? Well, we'll get into that more
detail next week, but to see God has got to be the ultimate
thing, to see God. We think about seeing God, what
do we imagine? We imagine some bright light
and intensity, we don't even know what to put behind that
picture, do we? But there's something tangible to it, something we
can define, we can get a sense of it at least. But this is,
as it says in Revelation 22, 4, they shall see His face. This
is the ultimate blessing that God gives to His people, to see
God. And yet this blessing cannot
be obtained except we have a pure heart. So how can I ever receive
a blessing when my heart is naturally corrupt? God has to give us this
heart. He has to give this heart to
us. But what is the essence of this heart? What is this heart
that God gives to us? How do I know I have a new heart? Well, look at Psalm 51. Psalm 51, because the truth of
the matter that we cannot clean our own heart up, we can't clean
up our own heart, and the fact that God has to give us a new
heart and create it in us, was understood by David. And he says
this in Psalm 51, verse 10. He says, Psalm 51 10. Create in me a clean
heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Do you see
that? Here is David praying. And what is he praying? He's
asking God for a new heart. A clean heart. Now that's a promise, isn't it? Whenever God puts a prayer in
scripture from another saint or somebody, he tells us what
to pray. Do you see the magnitude of that
blessing? That God would give us a prayer
to pray? Create in me a clean heart, oh God. Why would God
give us a prayer to pray? because he intends to answer
it. I mean, that's my understanding. I don't know about you, but if
God has given me a promise of something I can come and ask,
Him for. I want to avail myself of that. I want to receive all the blessings
God has. Don't you? Do you want everything
God has? God has given us all blessings
in Christ Jesus. I want those blessings. But God
always works in us to cause us to ask Him for what He intends
to give us because He gives it to us through asking. Jesus says
you have not because you ask not. remember what he said to
the woman at the well if you knew the gift of God and who
it is that says to you give me to drink then you would have
asked him and he would have given you living water and here we
have a magnificent blessed promise here in this prayer that David
utters and notice the context the context is not a righteous
man the context is a man who was completely guilty, openly
sinful, and that wasn't a small thing. It wasn't just a little
lie. It was murder. It was adultery. It was hypocrisy. At the highest level, the more
prominent and more wide scope your responsibility, the more
prominent your position and the wider scope your responsibility,
the more serious your crime. Isn't it true? If you're the
president, And you publicly sin, then your sin is worse than if
you're just a child. You're more culpable. David was
the king. The king committed murder. The
king committed adultery. The king covered it up and hid
it in hypocrisy. And now the king is on his knees
before God and he's asking God, create in me a clean heart. What
does that do for you as a sinner? Does it not give you encouragement
that you can go to God, even though you're guilty, even though
your heart is corrupt and not pure, and ask God to give you
what you need? I find that to be a great blessing,
a great blessing. Lord, give me this heart, create
it in me, and renew a right spirit within me. Look back at verse
7 of Psalm 51, verse 7. In fact, let's read the first
10 verses of Psalm 51. He says in verse 1, "'Have mercy
upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness.'" He always
prays according to God's goodness. What a prayer. "'According unto
the multitude of Thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.'" That's such a bold thing to say,
isn't it? That is so bold, to come to God
as guilty as David was, and he says, blot out my transgressions. There's so much that we could
say about this. Number one, he's going to say
it in verse four, but look at what he says there. He says,
against thee and thee only have I sinned. David went to God guilty
and praying and asking God to blot out his transgressions because
his sin was against God. If I sinned against my wife,
then I go to my wife and I ask her to forgive me. Don't you?
And so, he went to God because his sin was against God. Not
only was it against God, but only God can remove sin. My wife
might forgive me, but she can't remove my sin. But God can. And so He doesn't just ask for
forgiveness. He says, blot it out. In God's book of accounting,
blot it out so it's not there anymore. And He says, wash me. Wash me truly from mine iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions
and my sin is ever before me. You can feel the pain of it,
can't you? When the guilt of your sin comes upon you, and
you don't even feel like you can even dare open your mouth
in prayer, then you feel what David was feeling here. My sin
is ever before me. And he says in Psalm 32, while
I kept silence, my bones waxed old within me. I became like
a person who's so old they can't even get up and down. I just
ache all over because the guilt of my sin, so foolish was I. He says in verse 4, 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. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me. Not only did David acknowledge
the guilt of his sin, But he acknowledged the condition of
his nature. His heart was impure. His heart was guilty. It was
deceitful. It was full of murders and adulteries, just like Jesus
said. 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. What is he talking about here?
He's talking about the fact that God is interested, He's concerned
with the way we think, the way we look at life, the way we understand
ourselves, the way we see Him. That's what He's concerned with.
Everything we do is going to bubble up out of that. The way
you think about one another is the way you'll treat them. If
you treat someone without forgiveness, if you treat them with hatred,
it's because that's the way you think. It comes out of you. you
do what you are and you say what's in your heart and David knew
that and so he says God desires truth in the inward parts and
in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom and the
wisdom he's speaking about here is the wisdom about how God can
take away our sin and cleanse our heart and that's what this
psalm has to do with he says Verse 7, Purge me with hyssop,
and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter
than snow. Now, only the Spirit of God could
teach a man that God can cleanse us from our sin. So that our
sin is no more. So that God looks at us as spotless
as the driven snow. And just as white and pure and
clean, like we read in Revelation, the linen given to the saints
is clean and white. And the city is pure gold, clear
as glass. That's the way God does. When
God cleans us, we are clean. Clean, so clean. What does He
mean, purge me with hyssop? Well, in the Old Testament, they
would use hyssop. We read about it in Hebrews 9,
where they would dip the hyssop in the blood and then sprinkle
it on the people. And that signified the cleansing
of the people from their sins with the blood. Because without
shedding of blood, there's no remission. Remission is the blotting
out of the account. It's paying the debt and remitting
it so that the sin is no longer there on the record of God's
just accounting. And David is saying, purge me. In other words, make an atonement
for me. Make satisfaction to justice
for my sins. Remove them from me. In Leviticus
16, he says it this way on the Day of Atonement. Look at this
verse because if you, I do this, I'm not suggesting you do. Some
people never do, but I like to actually draw lines around verses
in the Bible so that when I see them, they'll stand out. So, you might want to underline
this verse or not, but I have it underlined. Leviticus 16.30. For on that day shall the priest
make an atonement for you. One day One priest making the
atonement for the people to cleanse you that you may be clean from
all your sins before the Lord. Clean from all your sins, not
just a few, but some. Luke, would you push the temperature
up a couple of notches there? Oh, does it say you can't do
it? Oh, sorry. But the blessing here is that
on the Day of Atonement, the high priest would go into the
holiest of all, and he would sprinkle the blood of the goat.
And God says, on that day, the priest would actually make an
atonement for you. And the atonement meant this.
The effect of the atonement meant this. That you would be clean
from all your sins before the Lord. clean before men is one thing
but clean before God himself God sees everything as it is
and he's saying here that by the blood of the atonement God
would receive full compensation to His justice for the wrong
that those sins had been committed against Him. And having received
from the blood satisfaction to His law and His justice, He's
saying, there's no more sin. It's blotted out. You're clean. And so He would pronounce them
to be clean because He received to the satisfaction of God Himself
a perfect compensation, a full remittance. And so when David
says, purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean, wash me and
I shall be whiter than snow, this is the wisdom he's saying,
make me to know wisdom. How God can remove sin. How can he do this? How can God
be just and justify the ungodly? It's through the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so he says, he's asking God,
purge me, is a request by David that God would remove his sins
because a satisfaction for them had been made. Atonement. Atone
for me. Remove my sins. Make amends for
my sins, Lord. And he takes that request to
God because only God could do that. And the sin was against
him. And so he comes to the Lord,
and he's teaching us this. And then he says, and we know
that this is only by the blood of Jesus. So he says, hide thy
face from my sins. I'm sorry, I'm reading back in
Psalm 51. He says, And verse 8, "...make
me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast
broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and
blot out mine iniquities." And here's the verse, "...create
in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me."
Create a heart in me that's clean and renew a right spirit within
me. You see when we How does God
how does he do this? Well, he he talked about atonement
in verse 7 But now he's talking about our heart his own heart
being clean and his own spirit being renewed So we need to understand
how does God actually purify our hearts? we know he's got
to give us a new heart and We know that the heart He gives
us is a new heart, it's clean. He says right here, create it
in me. But how does He do this? Look
at Acts chapter 15. Acts chapter 15, the question
came up, what about circumcision? Should we circumcise the Gentiles
who profess to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? And in verse
8 of Acts chapter 15, it says, In fact, I'll read from verse
6. And the apostles and elders came
together to consider this matter. And when there had been much
disputing, Peter rose up and said to them, Men and brethren,
you know how that a good while ago God made a choice among us
that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel
and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts,
bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost. Even as He did
us. God knows their hearts. That's
what He's saying. And yet He gave them the Holy
Ghost. Well, wait a minute. If God gave them the Holy Ghost,
and He knows their heart, what does that say about what God
thinks about their heart? Well, just hold your finger there,
but in Psalm 101, God says this about those with a wicked heart. He says in Psalm 101, verse 4,
He says, A froward heart shall depart
from me. I shall not know a wicked person."
A froward, that means a proud heart. I will not, I will not
know that wicked person. So if God knows the hearts and
yet He gives them His Holy Spirit, He's saying their heart is pure,
their heart is clean. But how did this cleanliness
of heart come about? He says, He goes on in verse
9. And Peter says, and God put no difference between us and
them, between us Jews and them Gentiles. purifying their hearts
by faith. Oh, I see. So if they have a
clean heart, somehow their hearts got clean, and how that happened
was it was by faith. How did their hearts get pure?
By faith. Did they clean their heart up
by somehow making a decision for Jesus? That's not what faith
is, by the way. Faith is not a decision. It's
a persuasion God gives to us. Well, look at Titus chapter two. We're gonna get to Hebrews here
in a second here. So as we're moving to the right
in your Bible, Titus chapter two, he says this in verse 14. I get there. H-I-T-U-S. Okay, Titus chapter 2 verse 14,
he says, Jesus our Lord gave himself for us that he might
redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar
people zealous of good works. So what did the Lord do? He gave himself for us. Why did
he give himself for us? That he might redeem us from
all iniquity and purify to himself a peculiar people. And so he
also says a similar thing in Ephesians 5. He says this, that
the Lord Jesus Christ loved the church and gave himself for it
Verse 26 of Ephesians 5, "...that he might sanctify and cleanse
it with the washing of water by the word, to present it to
himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any
such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish."
Without blemish? Holy? Spotless? Without reproof? All these things? They speak
of the work of God in the Lord Jesus Christ, shedding His blood
to wash us from our sins. How is our heart clean? First
of all, the only way that sin can be cleansed from us is by
the blood of atonement. We read that in Leviticus 6,
1630. And it says that in various places,
and I'll take you to some of them in a second. But when He
says, created me a clean heart, the way God does that is He imparts
to us faith. and giving us faith, that faith
looks to what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us, and seeing
what He has done for us in the presence of God, that He has
offered to God His own blood, and that faith teaches us that
what Christ did was satisfaction to God. It was sufficient. God
accepted Him. and He accepted His blood in
full payment for our sins, then God gives us this faith to believe
that. And this faith is a persuasion
that what Christ did was enough. so much so that it causes us
to receive the blessing of peace in our heart. We know that God,
if God is at peace, if God doesn't see our sin, then our sin is
taken care of. If God says there are sins and
iniquities, I'll remember no more, then their sins and iniquities
have been remitted. That's what he's saying. So,
look now at Hebrews chapter 9. And before I read the verses
to you, I just want to give you a quick review of Hebrews in
a particular way, because this really, really helps. Helps me. The book of Hebrews has a theme
to it. A major, major theme to it. What
is that? It's this. Perfection. One of the main themes of the
book of Hebrews is perfection. Something is completed. Something
is made perfect. Something is brought to its intended
end and its fulfillment. That's what the book is about.
And this word that's in the original is translated in various ways,
but in Hebrews 6.1 it says, leaving the principles of the doctrine
of Christ, let us go on into perfection. You see that? Hebrews
6.1. But then over in chapter 7, he
says this in verse 11, Hebrews 7.11, If therefore perfection
were by the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received
the law, what further need was there that another priest should
rise after the order of Melchizedek? So, if perfection came by the
law, then why did we need this other priest, Melchizedek, which
was promised to come after the whole law had been given? And
then over in Hebrews 7, the same chapter, he says this in verse
19, For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in
of a better hope did. And that hope is by, is the way
that we draw nigh to God. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew
5, 8? Blessed are the pure in heart, for what? They shall see
God. And how do you see God? You draw
nigh to him, don't you? And he draws nigh to us. That's
what James said, purify your hearts. you double-minded, and
draw nigh to God." But here he says, the way we draw nigh to
God is not by the old covenant. It made nothing perfect. He tells
us you need to go on to perfection. But the Levitical priesthood
made nothing perfect. But the bringing in of a better
hope did. You see? And then in Hebrews
chapter 10, look at actually verse 9, he says this, Hebrews 9.9 that the old tabernacle
and the old sacrifices and everything to do with that he says the priesthood
he says verse 9 of chapter 9 they were a figure for the time then
present in other words they were just a shadow in which were offered
both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the
service perfect as pertaining to the conscience. So the perfection
in the book of Hebrews, it's admitted that we need to go on,
we need to lay hold of it. But it's also pointed out that
we can't do it through the Old Testament because the Old Testament
required us to do that. The Old Testament required us
to conform to God's law in order that we might have the blessings.
Everyone who conforms perfectly to the law, God would declare
to be just and God would reward with life. But the law couldn't
give life. The law couldn't justify. The
law couldn't make anything perfect. especially as pertaining to the
conscience. Do you see that? Hebrews 9.9,
as pertaining to the conscience, the law couldn't make perfect.
It couldn't make perfect, and that's what we need. We need
a conscience that's made perfect. But then he says in verse 11,
Hebrews 9, but Christ, being come in high priest of good things
to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, there's that
word it's all over in Hebrews, not made with hands, that is
to say not of this building, neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by his own blood he entered once into the holy
place having obtained eternal redemption for us. That is such
a promise, such a pronouncement of an accomplishment. Christ
entered heaven with His own blood and actually obtained for us
eternal liberty, the remission of our sins and liberty, freedom
from bondage, and the reward of all of the inheritance that
was promised in the New Covenant. Christ did that by His blood.
And then in verse 13, we're going to read through verse 15. Now
he's making a contrast. If those animal sacrifices would
allow the priest to come in and perform that service, because
it purified their flesh, he says, How much more shall the blood
of Christ Not an animal, not a man, not
an angel, but Christ, who through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself
without spot to God. Every word in here is full of
importance. Christ offered Himself. What
did He offer? Himself. Who did He offer it
to? To God. How did He do that? The Eternal
Spirit. God himself found nothing wrong
with and found full satisfaction in what he did, and he offers
himself to God. God himself offering Christ to
God. And how much more in comparison
to the animal sacrifices in the Old Testament? He says, will
this purge, that means to clean, your conscience from dead works
to serve the living God. You see that? This is what it
means to have a clean heart. When God gives us a clean heart,
He first teaches us the wisdom to know that our sins are only
purged by the blood of Jesus. Hebrews 1.3, by Himself He purged
our sins. Revelation 1.5, unto Him who
loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood. And 1
John 1.7, if we walk in the light as He is in the light, the blood
of Jesus Christ, His own Son, cleanses us from all sin. so
God cleanses his people by the blood of Jesus before him and
he takes away their sins but he brings the news of that to
us by telling us about this in the gospel and the hearing of
it The hearing of it, by the Spirit of God giving us faith
in what Christ has done, is the way He purifies our hearts by
faith. He gives us the Word of the Gospel,
the promise of what Christ has done. In our sin, in our guilt,
and in our corruption, and in our utter helplessness, He causes
us to look away to the Lord Jesus Christ and see what He's done.
And He convinces us, I've received from Him everything required
to purify you and to clean you up from your sins, like David
prayed in Psalm 51. And giving us this faith, it
causes us to receive in our own experience and in our heart the
reality of what actually occurred in heaven. So we see on earth,
even though we see our experiences and what we are, we know ourselves
to be corrupt like David and Peter and all these guys and
Isaiah. I'm corrupt, I'm vile, my lips are unclean, I dwell
in the midst of a people who are unclean. And God says, yet
nevertheless, in heaven, Satisfaction for sin has been made, and God
gives us faith to look at that, and to see that, and receive
that, and to know what's true about us is what God says is
true about us, from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this is the
gift of God. This requires the operation of
God in our heart. We can't produce this faith.
It's a gift, and that's why David prays, Lord, create in me a clean
heart. But wasn't David already a Christian
when he sinned? When he prayed that prayer, wasn't
he already a Christian? Yes, he was. But it teaches us
not only the first time we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, does
it require the sovereign work and power of God to take the
things of Christ and make them ours by faith. But it requires
the same power and the same grace and the same work of God's Spirit
in our hearts as we walk in this life, so that we will constantly
be receiving the cleansing in our conscience based on what
has been accomplished by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I've quoted it, but I want you to turn to 1 John 1, 1 John
1, and we'll see this there in what I tried to quote. It says in 1 John 1, verse 7, In verse 6 he says, "...if we
say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we
lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light,
as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another."
We, ourselves, have fellowship with God, and the blood of Jesus
Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. There's the same
thing as Leviticus 1630, isn't it? The blood of Jesus Christ,
His Son, cleanses us from all sin. But He's talking about not
only our cleansing before the Lord, He's talking about our
cleansing in our walk. You see, there's no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
we don't depend on the flesh, but after the Spirit. We depend
upon what the Spirit of God teaches us concerning Christ. And this
teaching us of what Christ has done for us is the operation
of God giving us faith, like it says in Colossians 2, the
operation of God giving us faith in the Lord Jesus Christ so that
we can receive the cleansing. The Gentiles weren't circumcised.
The circumcision represented a purification of the flesh.
And Peter says, no, no. God the Holy Spirit was given
to them. God saw their hearts, their hearts already pure. Because
God has given them the grace to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and to receive from God the cleansing that He already
performed for them in heaven. And so now look at 1 Peter 1.
1 Peter 1, it's really brought out here, I think, as well, because
we see the connection here between the purifying that God does in
our hearts by faith and the purifying of the time that it occurs. He
says in 1 Peter 1.21, "...who by him do believe in God." that
raised him from the dead, and gave him glory, that your faith
and hope might be in God." God raised the Lord Jesus, and we
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, because this is what God has
given us. Look at this, verse 22. "...seeing you have purified
your souls in obeying the truth." Through the Spirit unto unfeigned
love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure
heart fervently." How did we purify our souls? In obeying
the truth. What was the truth that we obeyed?
We obeyed the truth that it was the precious blood of Christ
that purges us from our sins, and we believed it. who by him
do believe in God. You can read back from verse
18. In fact, let me read that. For
as much as you know, you were not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received
by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of
Christ as of a lamb, without blemish and without spot. who
verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world,
but was manifest in these last times for you, who by him, Christ,
do you believe in God, that raised him from the dead, and gave him
glory, that your faith and hope might be in God, seeing you have
purified your souls in obeying the truth, in believing the truth,
Believing Christ. Believing God. What He says about
what Jesus did. How we're saved. About our sin
and our corruption and our inability. And yet believing that God in
Christ is the only way we can be purged from our sins. Seeing
and believing that is obeying the truth. He says, Then seeing
you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through
the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you
love one another with a pure heart fervently. But look at
this, verse 23, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but
of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth
forever. In verse 25, the word of the
Lord endures forever, and this is the word which by the gospel
is preached to you. What do we believe? We believe
the Gospel. When do we believe? When we're
born again. We're born again of incorruptible
seed by the Word of God, the Gospel. What do we believe? We
believe the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sins. And
that is the experience. That's the blessing of a new
heart because in that receiving of that gift of God to be able
to have a new heart created in us to believe the truth of the
gospel, to believe Christ, we receive all of the blessings
of forgiveness of sins. There's no greater blessing that
we can know than that our sins have been forgiven us for His
name's sake. And when we believe the truth
as it's been revealed to us, God says that that's the evidence
of a new heart. Because that new heart receives
from God the truth. A new heart believes about itself
what God has said. I'm guilty. I'm corrupt. I can't
change my heart. It believes that. Like Paul says,
the good that I would, I do not. That was the confession of a
pure heart. We would never think that about
ourselves, or never confess it. Who could say, I'm an apostle,
I'm a son of God, of Jesus Christ, who would come from the camp
of the Pharisees and then say, the good that I would, I don't
do. And the evil that I wouldn't do, that's what I do. And I'm
a wretched man. all these things. He says, I'm
sold in sin. And he says, I'm carnal. And
yet, he says, with a mind I myself serve the law of God. Because
God has given him that mind, the mind of Christ, to see that
what Christ has done for us has established pure righteousness
for us. That clean linen, pure and white. And we rest on it. We rest on it. And I want to
continue this with next week, as we look at this next part,
which says, and they shall see God. Because we're going to see.
how it is, again, that we were brought about to have this pure
heart and the blessing of it. And it's absolutely amazing. It's phenomenal. But let's pray. Father, we thank you that even
though our heart is a cesspool, a fountain of filth and iniquity
and shameful, and we're guilty before God and helpless to change,
and deserving of your wrath, and knowing that we stand before
God banished from your presence, not allowed to know you or to
be known of you because of our sin. And yet, you give us this
amazing, immeasurably amazing, unfathomable promise that we
can come to you for this new heart. And how we come, we see
in the text of scripture. We come for the cleansing of
our sins by the blood of Jesus, and looking to Him only, and
trusting Him only, we receive that cleansing. And we find that
we have the Spirit of God in us. giving us sight of our Lord
Jesus Christ, giving us this faith, Lord, how we need daily
to be renewed in the spirit of our mind, to put on the new man
who is renewed in knowledge, and to receive from you the blessings
that are in Christ Jesus because of what He has done, and this
gift of faith you give us to lay hold on Him. Lord, we pray
we would receive from you this blessing. Each one here would
be given this heart to see Christ and Him crucified, and to see
ourselves as the recipients of this amazing grace. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.