Clean On The Inside Series

Living in the Father’s Favor: Clean on the Inside

Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Intro: The machine that usually did the job was broken. And so they hired a man to paint lines on a newly resurfaced portion of a remote highway. The first day he painted 9 miles, and the supervisor, impressed by such an effort, told him he would hire him full time and give him a big raise if he kept up that pace for the next few days. But the next day he was able to paint only 5 miles. On the following day he did only one mile, then the next day a half a mile. The supervisor fired him but asked what had happened. "It isn’t my fault," the man muttered as he walked away shaking his head, "I just kept getting further and further away from the can."

-We’re talking about being pure in heart today. As we strive to be pure in heart before God, we need to remember that He is our source and that He will go with us everywhere we need to go. The supply of our purity can only be maintained by a living relationship with Jesus. Whenever we allow distance between ourselves and the Lord, we lose the ability to remain pure, and we might find ourselves shaking our heads and muttering how it isn’t our fault that we are so miserable.

-Just to show how we might get it right in some areas, but fall apart in others, Chuck Swindoll in "Growing Deep in the Christian Life," writes about a man who bought fried chicken dinners for himself and his date one afternoon. The attendant at the fast food outlet, however, unintentionally gave him the proceeds from the day’s business - a bag of money (much of it cash) instead of fried chicken.

-"After driving to their picnic site," Swindoll writes, "the two of them sat down to enjoy some chicken. They discovered a whole lot more than chicken - over $800! Now many people would have kept the money, and bought themselves a lunch much nicer than KFC!

-But this man did something unusual. He quickly put the money back into the sack, got into his car and drove all the way back to KFC. Mr. Clean got out, walked in, and became an instant hero.

-"By then, the manager was frantic. The guy with the bag of money looked the manager in the eye and said, ’I want you to know I came by to get a couple of chicken dinners and wound up with all this money here.’

-"Well, the manager was thrilled to death. He said, ’Let me call the newspaper. I’m gonna have your picture put in the local newspaper. You’re one of the most honest men I’ve ever heard of.’

-"To which the man quickly responded, ’Oh, no. No, no - don’t do that!’ Then he leaned closer and whispered, ’You see, the woman I’m with is not my wife.’”

-Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God. The main truth today is this:

Prop: As we learn to honor God through purity, our ability to see Him will increase.

Interrogative: What does it mean to be pure in heart and how do we get there?

TS: Let’s look at some of the basics of a pure heart so we can find out what Jesus meant when He said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

I. The Reality of a Pure Heart

-The Greek word that is used in Mt. 5:8 is katharos. This is the same word where we get our English term catharsis, which is a psychology term that means to be free from guilt. This Greek term was often used in reference to describe metals that were refined. The metals were melted down & had the impurities removed to create nothing but pure metal.

-Katharos– Pure, clean or clear. Katharos was used to describe soiled clothes that had been washed clean. It was used to describe grain and flour that had been carefully sifted and cleansed of all impurities. And it was used when describing milk or wine that had not been mixed or adulterated with water or some other liquid.

Six Kinds of Purity – John F. MacArthur

1.) Divine Purity: Essential quality of God Himself and found only in God.

2.) Created Purity: When God originally created all things they were in a state of absolute purity. This was prior to the Fall of Adam and Eve

3.) Positional Purity: When we accept Christ as our Savior, we gain the purity of his position and are seen through His divine purity

4.) Actual Purity: This is granted in the new nature of the believer. We are made into a new creation, the old is gone and the new has come