BEATITUDES SERIES:
WE MIX A LOT
MATTHEW 5:8
#Beatitudes
INTRODUCTION… https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/the-purest-of-them-all/
Today we are focusing on Matthew 5:8 (turn there if you like) which introduces the idea of “pure.” I was thinking about the word “pure” and “purity” and wondered where the purest water on the earth is located. Apparently, according to several articles I read, I would not want to find the purest water on the planet and drink it because it would kill me.
Pure water can kill you. I had no idea! Stripping water down to an ultrapure state makes it unfit for human consumption. In the world of electronics, manufacturers remove all of the minerals, dissolved gas and dirt particles from water. The result is called ultrapure water, and they use it to clean tiny, sensitive equipment like semiconductors, which are found in computer microchips.
Here is the science of how it kills you… Water molecules have a slight negative charge, which means they’re good at dissolving or pulling other molecules apart. When water is in an ultrapure state, it’s a “super cleaner,” sucking out the tiniest specks of dirt. If you were to drink ultra-pure water, it would literally drink you back. The moment it came through your lips, it would start leaching valuable minerals from your saliva. Drink too much, and ultrapure water would leach you dead.
I had no idea!
The kind of purity we are going to talk about today does not lead to death, but rather really does lead to life. Good life in God. Life in Christ.
READ Matthew 5:8 (ESV)
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
A SCRIPTURE JOURNEY
As we begin today, I want us to take a journey through the Scripture. I would like you to do something specific as you listen. As you are listening, please be aware of what you are thinking and how you are feeling. After I read through these verses and thinking about Matthew 5:8, I had a specific emotion. I have put all the specific Bible passages in the sermon notes so please don’t feel like you will miss something. Again, as we are on this Scripture journey, I want you to please listen, think, and be aware of your emotions… because I will be sharing mine.
COMMENTARY … NAC Matthew by Craig L. Blomberg, page 100
I would like to read you a short selection from a commentary I have on my shelf. It is a commentary on the Gospel of Matthew and is specifically about the verse we are looking at today.
READ Matthew 5:8 (ESV)
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
“5:8 Purity in heart refers to moral uprightness and not just ritual cleanliness… what Jesus requires of His disciples is a life-style characterized by pleasing God. The ‘pure in heart’ exhibit a single-minded devotion to God that stems from the internal cleansing created by following Jesus. Holiness is a prerequisite for entering God’s presence. The pure in heart pass this test, so they will see God and experience intimate fellowship with Him. This Beatitude closely parallels Psalm 24:3-4.”
Just so we are all on the same page, let’s look up Psalm 24:3-5, since it is mentioned in the commentary. That passage must be mentioned there for a reason.
READ Psalm 24:3–5 (ESV)
“Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in His holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. 5 He will receive blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation.”
Psalm 24 expands on this idea of purity and seeing God in a very real way… standing in God’s Holy Place! In this passage in Psalms, clean hands are part of purity of heart. A soul completely undivided to God is pure of heart. I believe an undivided soul seems to be an important idea. I would agree that Psalm 24:3-5 and Matthew 5:8 are talking about the very same thing, but are using different words to describe it.
That passage in Psalms led me to read verses that talk about holiness. “Holy” is mentioned in Psalm 24. “Holy” means “set apart for God’s use.” The idea is that when something is God’s, it is not used for anything else or divided up to be used for anything else. Something dedicated to God is for God only. That is what makes it “holy.” I read some verses on holiness in the Old Testament:
READ Leviticus 20:26 (ESV)
You shall be holy to Me, for I the LORD am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be Mine.
We can find verses just like that in Leviticus 11:45, Leviticus 19:2, Leviticus 20:7, Leviticus 21:8, Deuteronomy 23:14, and 1 Peter 1:15-16. When something is holy and dedicated to God, it is His. His alone. As believers, we belong to God. We are His. We are to lift our souls only to Him because we are His.
Then there is 1 Thessalonians 4:7:
READ 1 Thessalonians 4:7 (ESV)
For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.
Then I thought about the word “pure” and what it is attached to in the rest of Scripture. In Matthew 5:8 the phrase is “pure in heart.” Most of the times “pure” is used in the Old Testament it is describing the word “gold” as God is instructing about tabernacle or temple furnishings. This makes complete sense because something that is pure is without impurities. Something, like gold, when it is pure has no other compound or mineral or metal with it… it is just gold. Only gold. God’s furnishings are pure right down to how they are made.
There are other places “pure” is used in the Bible.. The word “right” and “upright” and “righteous” are used with “pure” in Job 4 (4:17) and 8 (8:6) and 15 (15:14). The word “pure” is used in Philippians and is used with words like “blameless” (1:10) and “honorable,” “just,” “lovely,” “commendable,” and “excellent” in Philippians 4:8.
SUMMARY
So what do we get after all of that Scripture? I know that was quite a lot and I am going to hope that you are not lost or asleep. This is important because when we think about purity and being “pure in heart” there is a complication. We are going to talk about that complication in a moment. So what do we get after all of that Scripture?
Pure is the same as holy. Someone who is pure in heart is holy in heart.
Pure is the same as morally righteous. Someone who is morally righteous is a perfect saint.
Pure is the same as undivided. Someone who is completely undivided has absolutely no idols.
READ Matthew 5:8 (ESV)
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
COMPLICATION: WE MIX A LOT
At the end of that journey through Scripture, I hope you know some of your thoughts and some emotions you are feeling. I have one feeling that I would like to describe for you and I am hoping that we all end up on the same page or at least close. It is a feeling I have. I think we all have it now and again when talking about purity, holiness, being blameless, uprightness, and righteousness.
The feeling? Inadequacy.
I don’t know if “inadequacy” is a feeling you had as well as we went through those Scriptures. I don’t feel like I am adequately pure in heart in order to see God. I do not think I am worthy to ascend His holy hill and stand in His presence. I have attitude problems. Daily. I know I am God’s and that I belong to Him, but I do not always act like it. Do you? I’m saved, but my spirituality is messy because I sin. I have chosen to have Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior, but sometimes I am ugly on the inside and sometimes that ugliness leaks outside to my words and actions. When I think of “pure,” I think of something that is quite constant and firm and never changing. I am all over the place.
I hope you understand what Jesus meant when He says “pure in heart.” He means that we have completely undivided set-apart loyalty for God and that God is always the number 1 priority. He means that we are set apart for God’s use and our loyalty is completely for Him. He means that our faith is in Him and nothing else. I imagine the word “perfection” also goes along with this and none of us is perfect.
Why do we sometimes feel that way? We mix a lot.
You and I mix a lot of different attitudes, supposed truths, and personal hang-ups with our faith. Here are some examples of what I mean by that:
* We adopt political views on a moral issue like abortion and vote a particular way when God is clear on the topic of life.
* We adopt political views on a moral issue like immigration and vote a particular way when God is clear on the topic of strangers and foreigners in the land.
* We let how we were raised dictate a belief about racial issues even though the Bible is quite clear that anger or mistreatment over skin color has absolutely no place in God’s Kingdom.
* We date who we want to date get our cues on the steps of deepening a romantic relationship from our culture when God states clearly some things are for marriage only.
* We date who we want to date and love who we want to love when God states clearly believers shouldn’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers.
* We let personal feelings or a close relationship cloud our view of homosexuality and how we interpret the Bible even though the Bible is plainly clear on the issue of same sex attraction.
* We spend our time at the lake or at sporting events and create a habit of not worshipping and God slides down the scale of what is most important because we do all things on Sunday.
* We watch too much TV and so our view of God and our thoughts on proper doctrine are mixed with fiction, new age thought, and atheist garbage and we are not as strong in our faith as we could be.
* We rely on ourselves for material wealth and only give God a cursory thumbs up when we think about how we got where we are at.
You see it is possible to mix political views, personal traditions, lessons our parents taught us, feelings, relationships, habits, different priorities, entertainment, and self and so many other elements with our faith and what we end up with is something not pure. We end up messy. We end up impure.
We end up with an impure heart that allows us to drift from God the Father.
We end up with impure faith that leads us away from Christ.
We end up mixing so much with our beliefs that we cannot hear the voice of the Holy Spirit.
ILLUSTRATION… https://www.theguardian.com/science/2005/jun/14/uknews
I came across a product that I think may help us think about this subject a little bit. The product is called Spray On Mud. It is a can of pressurized mud which can be sprayed on your vehicle to give the appearance that you’ve been off road having fun. Basically it makes you appear you have done something that you have not.
This is a UK product. Like many of the best ideas, spray-on mud was dreamed up over a couple of drinks down at the local pub. "We were in the pub talking about how people drive these huge, pristine vehicles around cities and never have any intention of going near the countryside," said Colin Dowse, a business consultant in Shropshire who markets the product. "With spray-on mud, they can make it look like they've been off-road instead of just driving to the shops and back." The mud is filtered to be pure mud because "People may want to look like they've been off-road, but they certainly don't want any chips or scratches on the paintwork while they're doing the school run," said Mr Dowse.
We will do strange things to make the outsides of our lives project a certain image even though the reality on the inside is something much different. We mix a lot. Our actual insides may not be all that pure even though we spray ourselves with church each week.
READ Matthew 5:8 (ESV)
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
SOLUTION
We are then left with one question: How do we pursue being pure in heart?
I want to be pure in heart. I want to see God. I want to ascend His holy hill. I want to be in His presence. I want God my Father to be proud of me. I want to be a person of character with a pure heart. I want those things so I am thinking that you want them too.
We are then left with one question: How do we pursue being pure in heart?
The first truth we must accept is our inadequacy. This is a complicated thought and I want to express it well. I am not saying that sinning is fine. I am not saying that accepting sinful habits or unholy ways of life is just what we are stuck with. I am not perfect. I sin. You are not perfect. You sin. I became a Christian when I was young. I have done all my shameful hurtful really good sinning after I knew better. Not one of us has earned Jesus dying for us. Not one of us is perfect. Not one of us makes it through a day without sin.
We are then left with one question: How do we pursue being pure in heart?
The second truth we must accept is that we are inadequate to be pure in heart and we are going to need help. We must confess our impurity and understand that Jesus Christ died for those sins in us that make us impure. Those things that separate us from God are the exact things Jesus suffered and died for. Forgiveness and new life is given only by the blood of Jesus.
READ Romans 6:1–4 (ESV)
“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”
A huge part of the process of having a pure heart is trusting in God to do what He does. Yes, we sin and we will trust God to do the purifying. We are inadequate… we can’t do it. God can take our mess and make us pure. He does that. He does that through the blood of Jesus. Trust in the blood of Jesus. Trust in the blood of Jesus. Trust in the blood of Jesus.
We are then left with one question: How do we pursue being pure in heart?
The third truth we can lean into is that the practical path of action towards a pure heart has already been given in the Beatitudes. I always look for something practical in the Scriptures to help guide my mind, emotions, and actions and we have seen it already in what Jesus has taught us in Matthew 5.
We must be poor in spirit before the Lord and accept our sin and confess it. (Matthew 5:3)
We must mourn our sin and impurity to the point that we change. (Matthew 5:4)
We must meekly accept that God’s way is better than our impure way and pursue it. (Matthew 5:5)
We must turn from impurity and hunger and thirst after the pure way God outlines. (Matthew 5:6)
SUMMARY/APPLICATION
I’d like to summarize the thoughts on Matthew 5:8 as we conclude. You and I are messy. We are messy because of our sin and we are impure. We should have a great desire to be pure because those who are pure in heart see God. Those who are holy get to be in God’s presence. We need God’s help to be pure in heart. I challenge us today to move towards purity in heart, but also to accept the gift of purity God gives to us along the way.
PRESENTATION OF THE GOSPEL
You may be here today and you have never trusted in the blood of Jesus. I read from Romans 6 earlier. A few verses down from where I read in Romans 6 says:
READ Romans 6:7–8 (ESV)
For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.
Trusting in the blood of Jesus and being baptized into Him means we are trusting in the death of Jesus to pay for our sins and we then have new life. Jesus’ death sets us free from sin to live with God. Do you need new life? Do you need forgiveness of sins? Do you need a fresh start with God? Trust in the blood of Jesus.
INVITATION AND PRAYER
