Intro
We are studying the Beatitudes with an interest in how to position ourselves for revival. What attitudes of heart are conducive to experiencing more of God’s grace and participating in what he is doing. The Beatitudes provide insight for participating in the kingdom of God because this is the way God’s kingdom operates. Whether it is in revival or not, this is the way the followers of Christ are to function. We have already examined the first five beatitudes. Today we will consider the sixth. It is recorded in Matthew 5:8: “Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.”i
Like the other beatitudes, the text naturally lends itself to three areas of inquiry.
1. The Quality being addressed: “Pure in heart.”
2. The Reward being promised: “For they shall see God.”
3. The Application of the text to our own lives: How we can we cultivate purity of heart in our own lives?
We will only have time today for the first inquiry.
Of all the beatitudes, I find this one the most intimidating. Who can read “Blessed are the pure in heart”; then say, “That’s me. I am pure in heart”? To be upright and honorable before men is one thing. We all should live godly lives. An elder must be above reproach.ii But purity of heart addresses our deepest thoughts and motives.iii I know my own internal struggles and temptations that people can’t see.iv Just reading our text alerts me to refinements needed in my internal soul. What would the verdict be if my soul were fully exposed by the white-hot gaze of God’s holiness today? What flaws would appear if all the thoughts and intents of my heart were unveiled? Would there be a flicker of envy toward those more successful than me? Would there me some hidden desire for unwarranted recognition? No doubt, the verdict would be: “This heart needs more refinement. This man is far from perfect in all his inner desires and motives.” Purity of heart is not only concerned with the “what” issues of life. It reaches down to questions of “why.” What is really motivating the action?
God brings us through experiences that expose the motives of the heart. There is the person serving diligently in the church. He works hard. But nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to appreciate the sacrifices he is making. Some even criticize him. So, he stops serving. The experience has revealed the true motives of the heart. The person who lives for the glory of God does not pull back under such circumstances. The person who is doing the work as unto the Lord is satisfied with God’s approval alone. Yes, it is nice to be appreciated by others. But we do not serve for the praises of men. We labor for the approval of one.v The experience surfaces the heart problem so that the person can address the flawed motive and enjoy a greater level of inner purity. God brings us through trials that refine the heart, removing the alloy of compromised motives.vi
Job was above reproach before men. Job 1:1 says he was, “blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil.” But his trial exposed self-righteousness in his heart that even he didn’t know was there.vii God leads us through experiences that expose to us what he already sees. Thankfully, God does not show us our need all at once. Like pealing an onion, he exposes the need for more purity one layer at a time so that we advance from one level of purity to the next.viii
Are you pure in heart? Am I pure in heart? We tread lightly into the subject hoping we qualify; longing to be pure in heart; but suspecting we might not be. This is why we urgently need to know what Jesus had in mind when he used the phrase pure in heart. We will therefore pursue that question extensively. Without a sound understanding of that, we cannot benefit from the text. We will either set the standard so low that we complacently rest in unwarranted self-satisfaction, or we set it so high that we forsake the pursuit as futile. So, look with me at the quality being addressed: “Pure in heart.”
I. The CONTEXT in which Jesus introduced the Beatitudes is instructive.
When John the Baptist and Jesus began their ministries, the religious system of Judaism had become superficial and ritualistic. From Malachi to Matthew there had been 400 years of divine silence. Israel had the law of Moses. They had the revelation given to the prophets prior to that time. But God had not spoken to them for 400 years. They had lost the glory of his presence. As a result, their religion had become dry, routine, and mechanical.
When any movement goes into spiritual decline, the emphasis shifts from core issues of the heart to superficial duties of religion. The religious leaders of Jesus’s day were busy with religious activities. Religion was a big part of their lives. But they did not enjoy relational communion with God. They were drawing near to God with their mouths; but their hears were far from him.ix The Beatitudes confronted that condition head on. This beatitude in particular challenges the status quo. “Blessed are the pure in heart.” Like the first beatitude that explicitly addresses the inner condition, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” this beatitude brings all the focus on the inner man.
The scribes and Pharisees were occupied with the externals. But Jesus begins with the source of man’s sinfulness: a corrupted heart.x They were concerned that the hands be ceremonially washed properly. Jesus insists on a clean heart.
In Matthew 15 the scribes and Pharisees criticized Jesus’s disciples for not following the religious rules for washing prior to the meal. Jesus confronted them for their hypocrisy and then explained spiritual defilement to them. It does not happen through the food that goes into the mouth. It happens by what proceeds from the heart. Matthew 15:16-20: “So Jesus said, ‘Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? 18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. 19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. 20 These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.’” The fountainhead of defilement is the heart.xi All of life’s issues proceed from the heart and the choices that are made within. That’s why Proverbs 4:23 instructs us: “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”
Kardia is the Greek term translated heart in our text. In this context, it refers to the central part of a person: the part of you that thinks, loves, and chooses. In our culture, heart is often a reference to emotion and affection. It includes that. But it includes more. It includes intellect, emotion, and most importantly will. Thayer’s Lexicon says, “it is the fountain and seat of the thoughts, passions, desires, appetites, affections, purposes, [and] endeavors.”xii
II. Corrupted religion focuses on EXTERNALS.
It concentrates on the way things look from the outside. It keeps up appearances and masks the true condition of the heart. It maintains a show of morality and respectability even though the heart is far from God. Even more problematic, the person caught up in religion deceives himself. He strives to deceive others about his true condition. But in the process, he often convinces himself that all is well.xiii He compares himself with other people, rather than the biblical standard, and concludes that he is not so bad after all. He performs rites and rituals and thinks those activities are an adequate substitute for deep repentance and submission to God.xiv Occupied with religious trivial, he overlooks the two great commandments upon which all others depend. The first is to love God how? “With all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind (Matt. 22:37). True Christianity is first and foremost a heart issue. The Pharisees were teaching ritualistic cleansing and external morality. Jesus goes much deeper: “Blessed are the pure in heart.” The priority of the Pharisees was to shine before men. “It has been said that in religious service there are three temptations: the first, the temptation to shine; the second, the temptation to whine; and third, the temptation to recline.”xv The Pharisees had considerable problems with the temptation to shine.
Later in this sermon Jesus provides specific examples of how purity is a heart issue. In Matthew 5:21-22 he said, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.' 22 But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.” The anger in the heart is an issue for the true followers of Christ, not just the behavior that may spill over. In Matthew 5:27-28 Jesus gave a second example. “You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not commit adultery.' 28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Not only the act, but the intent of the heart is a sin issue.
God always has and always will desire truth and integrity in the inner parts: in the heart. David acknowledged this in his prayer of repentance. In Psalm 51:6-7 he prayed, “Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. 7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” Why does man’s religion settle for rituals and external morality? It is something they can do. I can light candles and sprinkle water. But only God can give a pure heart. Only God can change the innermost core of a man. Only God can change him from a self-absorbed fallen creature to an other-oriented person who loves both God and his neighbor.xvi
III. The purity Jesus is talking about in our text comes to us in THREE STAGES.
1. The first stage is called regeneration. At the new birth, God gives us a new nature that is holy like his nature. Without that, all efforts toward biblical purity are futile. “You must be born again.”xvii Regeneration occurs simultaneously with justification. In justification God gives us a legal standing of righteousness in Christ. So, in this sense, every Christian is pure.
2. The second stage is called sanctification. In this stage, God purifies our thinking and our motives so that we live out the righteousness he has for us. In this stage, the mind is renewed according to Romans 12:2 so that we have the right attitude of heart. That’s why Paul gave the exhortation in Philippians 2:5, “Let this mind [attitude] be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”
This is the stage that you and I are in in the development of a pure heart. As Christians, we must apply Matthew 5:8 to our current advancement in purity of heart. If you have not received Christ as your Savior, then that is the first order of business. But if you have been born again, then the application of our text is toward the purifying of our inner motives and thoughts now. The Apostle John is writing to Christians when he says, “And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:3). The followers of Jesus are blessed as they cooperate with God’s process of purifying the heart. The first stage of regeneration is necessary, but the second stage is supremely important as well. It rests on the foundation of the first stage. And it looks forward to the third, final, stage.
3. The third stage is called glorification. In that stage we receive our glorified bodies at the resurrection and our salvation is complete. When our salvation is complete, we will be made holy even as the Lord is holy. We will be sinless.
But as long as we are in these mortal bodies, we are work in process. We are not sinless. First John 1:8 says to Christians, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” The “pure in heart” that Jesus is referring to in Matthew 5:8 is not sinless perfection. If it were, none of us would qualify. But it is aligned with God’s desire that you be pure. It desires perfect purity even though it has not yet fully arrived at the goal. Thomas Watson says, “Where there is a study of purity and a loathing ourselves for our impurity, this is to be ‘pure in heart.’”xviii A pure heart loathes its own impurities. An impure heart loves its sin and has no desire to depart from it. David said in Psalm 66:18, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” (KJV). To regard iniquity is to cherish it with no intention of giving it up.xix But the pure in heart despise their own failings and desire to be free from everything that offends the holiness of God. That does not mean there are no struggles. But it means they hate the sin that so easily besets them, and they cry out from the heart, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” And they discover in that struggle, God hears their cry and is in the process of delivering them. The pure in heart are not yet sinless, but they long to be and live in a pursuit of holiness.xx
IV. So, WHAT IS THE PURITY OF HEART that Jesus expects of his followers in this life?
1. It is an honest and sincere heart. It is not hypocritical in its approach to God. It confesses its
sin, rather than justifying it. Jesus condemned the Pharisees for hypocritically excusing themselves from biblical obligations by developing a religious ritual in its place. For example, in Mark 7:9-13 Jesus confronted their method of sidestepping their God-given obligation to care for aging parents. They developed a tradition in which they freed themselves from God’s commandment by simply saying they had dedicated those resources as a vow to God.xxi In Matthew 23:16-22 Jesus showed the absurdity of their rule that said an oath that referenced the temple was not binding, but an oath referencing the gold in the temple was obligatory. Instead of dealing with the motives of the heart, they simply developed religious traditions that covered the violation. A pure heart deals forthrightly with matters like that. The hypocrite pretends to serve God, but in reality he is simply serving Self and using God for his own ends. He builds his religious system to camouflage his true intentions. But the pure in heart do not justify themselves and do not play religious games of pretention.xxii
2. A pure heart is an undivided heart.xxiii It is undivided in its loyalty and purpose, unadulterated in its nature, and uncompromised in its commitment to God. It stands in contrast to the double-minded person who wants both God and the world.xxiv James 4:8 links double-mindedness with the need to purify the heart. “Cleanse your hands, you sinners,” James writes, “and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”
Later in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus used the metaphor of the eye to call for purity or wholeness of heart. In Matthew 6:22-24 he taught, “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! 24 No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon [money].” Singleness of purpose is characteristic of the pure heart. As Paul said in Philippians 3:13, “This one thing I do” (KJV). The intent of the heart is single.xxv Pleasing God is above all else.xxvi
Thayer’s definition of “pure” (katharos) incorporates both the concept of unmixed and of clean. Thayer says to be pure is to be “free from the admixture or adhesion of anything that soils, adulterates, corrupts.”xxvii When metal is adequately refined it is unalloyed. Other materials have been removed. Pure gold is 100% gold.
3. A pure heart is a clean heart, undefiled by the corruption of this ungodly world system. Peter begins his first epistle talking about the promises of God to believers. He says, “that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (1 Pet. 1:4). There is a corruption in this world; but we can live above it by the grace of God. Peter then tells us to be diligent in the development of our souls. We are to actively pursue a pure heart. In 2 Corinthians 7:1 Paul issues a similar admonition to the believers at Corinth. “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”xxviii
So, to be “pure in heart” in this life does not mean sinless perfection. Even as we walk in the light, even as we live to please the Lord, we still come short of perfection.xxix But God has made provision for us to keep our hearts clean and pure before him. We have this assurance in 1 John 1:7: “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” That promise is affirmed in verse 9: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”xxx By the grace of God, you can have a pure heart and enjoy the reward spoken of in our text.
The Reward being promised is this: “For they shall see God.” We will begin there next week. What an amazing prospect: to see God. What is included in that statement? Does it just mean you will see God in heaven? Or is there something here for us to enjoy in this life? The promise is too precious to simply tack onto the end of this sermon. Next time we will explore the reward and process how we can nurture purity in our own hearts.
You can have a pure heart and reap the benefits. May God stir us to cooperate with his sanctifying program for our lives. “Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God. “
ENDNOTES:
i All Scripture quotes are from the New King James Version unless indicated otherwise.
ii 1 Tim. 3:2, 7; 4:12. Cf. Eph. 4:1; 5:1-2.
iii Heb. 4:12.
iv Cf. 1 Sam. 16:7; 1 Cor. 2:11.
v Cf. Col. 3:23; 2 Cor. 5:9; Matt.6:2, 5,16; 23:5; John 5:44.
vi Cf. 1 Peter 1:7; Mal. 3:3.
vii Cf. Job 31:6; 42:5-6.
viii Cf. 2 Cor. 3:18.
ix “These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me” (Matt. 15:8). Cf. Isa. 29:13.
x Cf. Jer. 17:9. A person’s behavior is a product of the heart condition. Behavior is evidence of the inner condition. But the sin problem must be solved at its source. If the source of a city’s water supply is polluted, every faucet will yield polluted water. To solve the problem, the source must be cleansed.
xi Cf. Mark 7:1-23; Luke11:37-39.
xii Joseph Thayer, Thayer's Greek Lexicon, 1896. Accessed in electronic data base: Biblesoft 2000.
xiii The bend in fallen humanity is to rationalize and justify one’s chosen behaviors. Doing this, people often twist the scriptures to fit their own preferences. Cf. Prov. 30:12; 20; 2 Tim. 3:13.
xiv Cf. Ps. 51:16; Hosea 6:6; Matt. 9:13.23:25-26.
xv Myron S. Augsburger, Matthew, The Communicator’s Commentary, Lloyd J. Ogilvie, ed. (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1982), 65.
xvi Salvation is more than a change in legal status before God (forensic theology). It is that; but it is more. It is transformation from a self-absorbed creature (at the heart level) to an other-oriented creature that loves both God and neighbor. The three persons of the Trinity are eternally other-oriented. Each goes out to the other in love. Cf. Richard W. Tow, Authentic Christianity: Studies in 1 John (Bloomington, IN: WestBow Press, 2019), 250-252. An imbalanced theology from the pulpit often limits believers’ growth because they fail to embrace the crucified life (Gal. 2:20; 2 Cor. 5:15; Matt. 16:24-25).
xvii John 3:7. In this regeneration the human spirit is made alive and joined with the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). Cf. 2 Cor. 5:27.
xviii Thomas Watson, The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12 (London: Banner of Truth, 1971), 171.
xix Cf. 2 Thess. 2:12.
xx Rom. 7:24-25. Cf. Rom. 7:15
xxi Cf. Matt. 15:3-9.
xxii Cf. Ps. 32:2; John 1:47.
xxiii David prayed in Psalm 86:11, “Unite my heart to fear Your name.” The NIV translates it “give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.” And the NLT says, “Grant me purity of heart, that I may honor you.”
xxiv Cf. 1 John 2:15.
xxv In contrast, Israel’s heart became divided as they gave themselves to idolatry (Hosea 10:2).
xxvi In Ps. 86:11 David prayed, “Unite my heart to fear Your name.” Then in the next verse made the commitment: “I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart.”
xxvii Thayer, Joseph. Thayer's Greek Lexicon. 1896. Accessed in electronic data base: Biblesoft 2000.
xxviii The NLT says, “And let us work toward complete purity because we fear God.” The seed of righteousness that was planted in us at the new birth is to grow to full maturity. Our cooperation in that process is necessary.
xxix Cf. Rom. 3:23; Phil. 3:12. We will enjoy sinless perfection in heaven when in a glorified body. In heaven nothing will enter that defiles (Rev. 21:27; 22:14).
xxx See Richard W. Tow, Authentic Christianity: Studies in 1 John (Bloomington, IN: WestBow Press, 2019), 24-38.
