The Beatitude Summer Sermon Series
Take another PEACE of My Pure Heart (Pt. 1)
Matt. 5.8
8/2/15 CFBC, Chester, IL Dr. Mike Fogerson, Speaker
A Matthew 5:3-8 (NASB) 3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5 "Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. 6 "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
1 A kingdom person fulfills all of these attitudes.
a There isn’t and picking, choosing.
aa (1) poor in spirit (v.3)
bb (2) mourn (v.4
cc (3) gentle (v.5)
dd (4) hunger & thirst for righteousness (v.6)
ee (5) merciful (v.7)
ff (6) pure in heart (v.8)
gg (7) peacemakers (v.9) (next week’s message)
b Once you get v. 3 (poor in spirit), the rest come pouring out by a beautiful work of the Holy Spirit.
2 These first six beatitudes are in a pattern, each flows out of the last one mentioned.
a Being merciful flows out of hunger/thirsting, which flows out of gentleness, which flows out of mourning, which flows out of being poor in spirit.
b You begin with a beggars spirit, and out comes mourning over sin. . .
aa You see your self as the chief sinner you become humble/meek before God
bb At that point we cry out to God for righteousness.
cc God acts and you find His mercy & a pure heart.
2 There is an intricate pattern to the beatitudes.
a 1 & 5: (Poor in Spirit & Merciful): (Poor in spirit (v.3) and fits with being merciful to others (v.7). (You know your nothing so you can reach out in mercy to others.
b 2 & 6: (Mourning & pure in heart) those who grieve over the penalty/power sin are going to seek a heart that is pure, free from sin.
c 3 & 7 (gentle and peacemakers) If we realize that we are dead in Christ, no need to defend our reputation, we will be peacemakers)
aa We will look in-depth at what being a peacemaker next week.
bb Before we become peacemakers we others, we must first come to peace with God through a pure heart.
B “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” v.9
1 Kierkegaard: “Purity of heart is to will one thing.”
a Heart in Scripture usually has to do with your personality, your thinking process, cognition, and not your emotions (Not, “I love you with my whole heart.”)
aa The emotions in Scripture are usually symbolized by your stomach, midsection. When the Jew expressed his feelings is was in terms of what his stomach felt like. (It makes my stomach turn or I’ve got butterflies in my stomach.)
bb The heart was more often linked to the mind, thinking.
cc It means the inner man with many functions, the “master control” of your life.
b Pure in the language of the bible means to be cleansed from filth, iniquity, free from sin.
aa It means authentic, simple, wholly itself & true.
bb Pure H2o is all water-no chlorine/fluoride; pure gold is unalloyed.
cc What Jesus was really saying was, “I desire to bless the person who has a heart that is unmixed in its devotion and motivation. Pure motives from a pure heart.”
2 Jesus’ listeners had given up trying to keep the full law of God, and they thought if I could just keep then God would be pleased.
a This explains the exchange Jesus had with a lawyer in Matt. 22.
aa Matthew 22:36-38 (NASB) 36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?"37 And He said to him, " 'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' 38 "This is the great and foremost commandment.
bb The Pharisees and the people just gave up on trying to do EVERYTHING God wanted them to do.
b The Pharisees developed a highly ridged set of rules for people to follow in order to please God.
aa That’s exactly what the people needed, NOT.
bb But the thought was if we followed man made rules that seem religious, right, holy. . . at least we’ll have a clean conscious. We’re trying, right?
cc Jesus didn’t come so we’d have a clean conscious, He came to give us pure hearts.
dd But, this brings up a very interesting question: How can enter God’s kingdom when I can’t keep God’s law?
3 This beatitude more than any other gives us the answer, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they (they alone) shall see God.”
a It’s not those who go to temple, offer sacrifices, sing in the choir, go to Sunday School, got their name on a hymnal . . . it’s not gained by any achievement we can get on our own.
aa We tend to measure ourselves by comparing ourselves to other people. (Ethics, morality, character, goodness.)
bb All you have to do is find somebody worse than you, and you’re OK.
b God didn’t tell us to better than (or like) other people.
aa Matt. 5.48, “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect.”
bb Boom! That’s our standard of purity.
cc Who enters the kingdom? Goes to heaven? Enters His presence? Blessed? Only the pure of heart. (How do we become pure in heart?)
dd We can get so concerned about doing good things for goodness sake that forget about doing it for God. (Thomas Watson: Morality can drown a man as fast as vice. A vessel may sink with gold or with dung.”
C There are basically two kinds of religion: the first kind is where you try and earn your way to heaven, the other is knowing that, “I can’t do it. God did in Christ.”
1 Human achievement is Satan’s lie, convinced people they can earn into heaven in their own strength.
a Everyone who has bought into that lie will be apart of that crowd whom Jesus tells, “Sorry, folks. You don’t qualify to see God.. You’ll never be in My kingdom. It is only for the pure of heart.
b God knew we couldn’t be good enough so He sent Jesus to be good enough for us.
aa He took the sin that was accounted to us and paid all the penalty for ever sin we’ve ever committed.
bb When we put our faith in Jesus, God looks at us, He sees us as pure . . . only through Jesus does He see us that way.
2 There are five kinds of purity: primitive, created, ultimate, positional, and practical.
a Primitive purity: Exists only in God. It’s like light is to the sun and wet is to water.
b Created purity: This is the creation of the purity being before the Fall in Eden. (He created angels and man in purity. . . but both fell.)
c Ultimate purity: This is the catagory of glorification.
aa 1 John 3.2, “ Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.”
bb When we all get to heaven!
d Positional purity: This is the purity we have now, imputed unto us by the righteousness of Christ.
aa When you place your faith in Him, God gives you positional purity.
bb When God looks at a Christian He says, “You are right, absolutely pure in Christ.”
cc Galatians 2:16 (NASB) 16 nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.
dd 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NASB) 21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
e Practical purity: (Hard part) Only God can know primitive purity, Only God can bestow created purity, Someday God will give ultimate purity,
aa Right now, every saint has positional purity.
bb It’s the practical part that give us trouble.
cc 2 Cor. 7.1, “Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in fear of God.” =Practical purity.
dd Living pure before God & men. HE WANTS US TO LIVE AS PURE AS WE POSSIBLY CAN BEFORE HIM.
3 It’s this kind of saint, positionaly pure, who will see God, manifest purity in their lives and in their motives.
a If that is not true, then either the person is not a Christian, or she is living in disobedience.
b Are we going to blow it. Yeep.
aa If we’re going to be tempted to be impure, have impure thoughts, do impure things and impure motives ...Eph. 6, put on the full armor of God. (Preventative.)
bb What if we fail anyway? (1 John 1.9)
cc Every time you face sin and repent, God cleanses you.
Conclusion:
A How do we develop a pure heart?
1 Know you can’t do it on your own.
a Prov. 20.9 asks, “Who can say, "I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from my sin"?
b Acts 15.9 says our sins are cleansed by faith (not works). Faith in what? In the blood of Jesus which cleanses from all our sin. 1 John 1.7
2 You must to be pure of heart.
a Accept what Jesus has already done for you on the cross.
b If you’re already a Christian, purify your heart through the words of Jesus and through prayer.
aa John 15.3, “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.”
bb Stay in the word, stay in prayer and make God the Master control of your life.
c Job asked the same question that man has been asking since the Garden, “Who can make the clean out of the unclean?” (Job.14.4)
aa The answer echoes down through eternity: “God can.”
bb The payout is awesome: You shall see God. (Heaven! Of course, but you don’t have to wait that long.)
cc You will see God in the good, in the bad, and live in the presence of His glory daily.
B My youngest son, Ridge, has a favorite toy that 9 out 10 times he carries in his pocket everywhere he goes. If Ridge misplaces this toy, he will turn the house upside down to find him/ retrace his steps . . . coming & goings to find the toy.
1 Every night this favorite action figure (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) can be found resting beside Ridge in his bed.
a He loves that little figure with a pure 12-year old boys heart.
aa I’ve often felt that I would like to be the “The Rock”, get all that love, attention, concern from Ridge.
bb If there was one thing in the burning house Ridge would go get, rescue, . . . it would be Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
cc We even bought Ridge a spare Rock action figure in case he ever lost the one he has now. (He’s never lost Dwayne for long.)
b “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
aa God wants us to embrace, pay attention to Him, love Him more than any other of our toys.
bb He’s telling us “I want you to want me more than anything/anyone else.”
cc If you lose me along the way, retrace your steps and come back to me.
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