Intro
We are in a study of the Beatitudes with an interest in how to position ourselves to be revived and enter into his purposes more fully. Last week we began talking about the sixth beatitude. It is recorded in Matthew 5:8: “Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.”i That is our text for today.
In the previous message, we explored what it means to be pure in heart. We were delighted to learn that it does not mean sinless perfection.ii If it did, we would all be disqualified. But through the cross God has provided for our daily cleansing so that we can enjoy fellowship with him. First John 1:7 assures us that “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.” And 1 John 1:9 affirms that promise: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” A pure heart does not mean sinless perfection.
But a pure heart is an honest, sincere heart. It is honest about personal sin. It is quick to acknowledge transgression. It is honest about the need for God’s grace each and every day. It is not hypocritical in its relationships to God and others. Honesty and sincerity are essential characteristics of a pure heart.
Going a little deeper into the subject, we found a pure heart to be an undivided heart.iii Later in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus used the metaphor of the eye to teach this necessity. In Matthew 6:22 he said, “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light” (KJV). The eye in this verse is equivalent to the heart in our text. “To ‘set the heart’ and to ‘fix the eye’ on something are synonyms.”iv The pure heart is single in its purpose and focus. It is undivided in its loyalty to the Lord. That does not mean there are no struggles with temptation. It does mean that the sincere desire of the heart is to please the Lord. The double-minded person tries to love God and the world at the same time.v But the pure heart is without alloy. It is unmixed and unadulterated. Pure gold is 100% gold. When all is said and done, the pure heart is turned toward God. The pure in heart have set their affection on the Lord. Just as a compass will ultimately point north, regardless of the ups and downs of life, the pure in heart keep coming back to God because the eye is fixed on the Lord and his will.vi So to be pure in heart means to sincerely live to please the Lord.
Today we will complete our study of this beatitude by talking about the reward that comes to the pure in heart and the way to cultivate purity in our own hearts.
I. The REWARD promised: “For they shall see God.”
What an amazing possibility. People drive halfway across America to see the Grand Canyon. It is an inspiring sight. But seeing the Grand Canyon pales in comparison to seeing the Creator of the Grand Canyon, the one who is in fact Creator of the whole universe. To see God! Have you pondered the significance of that prospect? “Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.”
This promise will be fully realized at the Resurrection of the Just. The Apostle John writes, “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). And Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:12, “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (KJV).
Do you live in anticipation of that hope? When the trials of life bear down on you, do you encourage yourself in the prospect of seeing the Lord face to face someday? Have you ever sung that old hymn, “When We See Christ”? The chorus says:
“It will be worth it all, when we see Jesus;
Life’s trials will seem so small, when we see Christ:
One glimpse of His dear face, all sorrow will erase,
So bravely run the race till we see Christ.”vii
There is coming a day when the promise of our text will be fulfilled without limitation.
The anticipation of that glorious event has an effect on the soul. First John 3:3 says, “And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” The pure in heart expect to see God at the coming of Christ. And that hope motivates them to pursue purity.
The pure in heart will not only see God in eternity, but they see him in this life as well.viii
They see him because they are looking for him. The wicked do not want to see God. They don’t even want to admit that he exists.ix But the pure in heart seek his face and find him.x They find him as they worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:24).
They see him through his creation. Romans 1:20: “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.” They see him in the stars above and in the flowers of the field. For the pure in heart, the songbird declares God’s glory, and the snow-capped mountains reveal his majesty. In these ways they are only seeing through a glass darkly, but they are seeing God behind every blade of grass.
The pure in heart open their Bibles and see God. They see his love and mercy in every promise. They see his faithfulness in every story. They see his wisdom in every precept. God has revealed himself in Scripture, and they find him there.
They see God in history. They see his influence in the events that turn the destiny of nations. They see his hand in bringing the Jews back to their homeland. In a more personal way, they see God in the daily events of their own lives. The benevolence that comes to them from their Heavenly Father is not dismissed a mere fate or good luck. They know every good gift comes from above.xi
There are even times when God reveals himself through dreams and visions. Isaiah saw the Lord in a vision. Paul saw the Lord on the Road to Damascus.xii Even in this life, Moses saw him who is invisible (Heb. 11:27). His vision of God inspired him to press through every obstacle.
One glimpse of the Lord will stir your desire to see him even more clearly. Moses had seen the Lord at the burning bush. But in Exodus 33:18 he asks God to show him his glory. His heart cried out for a greater revelation of God. “Please, show me your glory.” That’s the kind of prayer God delights in answering. In his mortal state, Moses could not see God fully.xiii But God granted a fuller revelation of himself. In Exodus 33:19-23 God said to him, “‘I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” 20 But He said, ‘You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.’ 21 And the Lord said, ‘Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. 22 So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. 23 Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.’” What a privilege it was for Moses. Moses was a man with a pure heart, and he saw the Lord even in this life.
It is the pure in heart who see God. When Jesus rose from the dead, he did not appear to the high and mighty of this world. He did not appear to Caesar or Caesar’s Senate. He appeared to the pure in heart. He appeared to Mary Magdalene, and John, and Peter. This is the reward to those seeking him out of a pure heart. Revival comes to those who are pure in heart. Revival does not come to the religious hypocrite. Revival comes to those who sincerely seek him. God looks on the heart. And when he finds people who are sincere in their longing to know him, he shows himself to them.xiv
Seeing God has a transforming effect on the beholder. It takes the person from one level of purity to the next. Second Corinthians 3:18 says, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” To really see God is to love him. To see him as he is, captures the heart with all its affections. It deepens the desire for greater intimacy. Other desires lose their appeal in the light of his glory. This is a key to personal transformation.
The pure in heart see God.xv Then the vision of God motivates them toward greater purity. The closer you get to God, the more clearly you see your own impurity.xvi And that begins a process of asking and receiving. We ask that those impurities be removed, and God answers our prayer. He takes us through a refining process that makes the heart even more pure. Job said, “When he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10 RSV).xvii Someone might say, “Oh no, I don’t want any trials.” But when your trials are ordered of the Lord, they purify your soul. They work together for your good.xviii Nothing is more important than this preparation of your soul for eternity. The process continues throughout life. The removal of each impurity brings clearer vision. As Jesus taught in Matthew 7:5, the beam is our own eye must be removed if we are to see clearly to help others.xix
So, the pure in heart will see God when Christ returns. They will see him face to face without any obstruction. That is the ultimate fulfillment of our text. But even in this life, the pure in heart see God. And those revelations take them from one level of purity into even greater purity. And as the heart is purified the vision of God becomes clearer.
II. The Application of the text to our own lives: How can we cultivate purity of heart?
1.Keep developing the qualities in the previous beatitudes.
There is a progression in these beatitudes so that each new one builds on the previous ones. The first beatitude, poor in spirit, is the essential beginning point. To be poor in spirit is to recognize your own spiritual poverty apart from Christ. It is to abandon self-reliance so that you put your trust in Christ: in his provision of righteousness through the cross and in your dependence upon his grace every day of your life. The opposite of poor in spirit is self-sufficiency which includes self-righteousness. Jesus said to his followers in John 15:5, “without Me you can do nothing.” This faith in Christ, rather than self, is essential for your initial experience of salvation. But it is the way you must operate as a believer through your journey in this life. It is foundational to everything else.
Peter used a similar progression in his instruction to believers in his second epistle. In 2 Peter 1:1 he addresses the letter “To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.” The instruction is to those who have already received Christ as their Savior. It is to those who are relying on the righteousness of God provided through Christ. “To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.” Does that description fit you? Have you put your faith in Christ?
Then Peter calls believers to a progression consistent with what Jesus taught in the Beatitudes. In 2 Peter 1:5-7 he writes, “But also for this very reason [because God has supplied the grace to do this], giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.” Here again, faith is the foundation for spiritual growth. All that follows is a development toward love. Peter’s steps have a different emphasis than what we have in the Beatitudes. He is looking at the growth from a little different angel. But notice the idea of progression in spiritual growth and the need for diligence: “giving all diligence, add to your faith.” Are you doing that?
Why do some Christians make rapid progress, and others make very little progress over many years? A major reason for the difference is whether that believer is “giving all diligence” to the issue of spiritual growth. The inner man must be nurtured through intimacy with God and fellowship with believers. The seed of righteousness must be watered and refreshed in the Holy Spirit. Newborn babes in Christ must desire the sincere milk of the word and grow in grace by feeding on the word.xx It doesn’t just happen through time alone. We are to actively pursue spiritual growth. We are to give “all diligence” to our spiritual development.
The second beatitude pronounces blessing on those who “mourn.” Those who mourn over their own sin develop meekness in their dealings with others. Recognizing their own shortcomings, they hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness to be more fully realized in their own lives. They are merciful toward those who struggle because they know what it is to struggle. As they mourn over sin, they deal with the motives as well as behavior. They pursue purity of heart. As they walk through the fiery trials of life, their heart is purified and refined more fully. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness desire righteousness at the heart level as well as in the behavior.
Each beatitude works toward the development of the next. Being pure in heart is a necessary prerequisite for being a peacemaker. The next beatitude after pure in heart is “the peacemakers.” To be a peacemaker one’s motives and intents must be pure. We must be seeking the highest good for all parties in a conflict. It comes as a bit of surprise that the more we develop all these qualities in the beatitudes, the more we are attacked and persecuted by the ungodly. We might think that the more we are like Jesus, the more popular we would be. But Christ’s holiness did not win him popularity. It provoked anger in ungodly and ended in a crucifixion. Jesus said, “If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:20).
So, the Beatitudes are interrelated. We study each one, but each one is to be pursued in conjunction with the others. The progression is not entirely linear. As a peacemaker, you may be pursing purity of heart at the same time. But each one tends to build from the foundation of the previous beatitudes. Therefore, one way we cultivate purity of heart is to keep working on the previous beatitudes.
Now we continue with the question: How can we cultivate purity of heart in our lives? We should give diligence to this pursuit. What tangible action can be taken.
2. Keep seeking the face of God.
The more you see him, the more you love him and the more you want to be like him. To know the Lord is to love him. We cannot love that which we do not know. This is something we actively do. We are at church today because we want to see God. We sing in our worship: “Open the eyes of my heart, Lord. Open the eyes of my heart. I want to see you. I want to see you.xxi After years of serving Christ, the cry of Paul’s heart in Philippians 3:10 was that he might “know Him.” And in that verse, he linked knowing the Lord with be conformed or personally changed. Make it your life’s pursuit to know the Lord more fully.
3. Do not rebel when God allows trials in your life as a refining process.xxii Trust him through the trial. Persevere. Say with Job, “When he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” In fact, have the courage to pray as David prayed in Psalm 139:23-24: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; 24 And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.” That’s a prayer of faith. You must trust the Lord to pray that prayer. What will God’s search of your heart reveal? How will he lead you so that any wicked way is removed?
4. Keep your eye on the prize. Your Bridegroom will return. And at his coming you will see him as he is. You will delight yourself in his presence. It will be worth it all. He that has this hope, purifies himself, even as he is pure.
5. Stay in the Word. Immerse yourself in Scripture. Ephesians 5:25 talks about Christ’s love for the church and how he “gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word.” Do you see the significance of the word in purifying God’s people? Verse 26 again: “26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word.” Verse 27: “that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.” God will have a pure bride for his Son, and I want to be part of that destiny.
Jesus prayed for us in John 17. In verse 17 he asked the Father to purify us. How? Through truth. Then he added, “Your word is truth.”xxiii It is difficult to make much progress in God without a commitment to read, study, and meditate on the word. Psalm 119:11: “Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.” Verse 9 in that chapter asks, “How can a young man cleanse his way?” Then the answer follows: “By taking heed according to Your word.”
6. Pursue holiness.
God says to his people, “Be holy, for I am holy” (1 Pet. 1:16).
There are two great mistakes people make. One is to try to make themselves holy without God. That produces self-righteousness that is as filthy rags before the Lord. The other mistake is to be passive about one’s sanctification. Since we are saved by grace, some think there is nothing for them to do. But the New Testament commands our whole-hearted participation in the process. When God tells us to “Be holy,” he is telling us to pursue holiness. Hebrews 12:14 ties this pursuit of holiness with seeing the Lord. “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.” Do you want a greater revelation of God? Pursue “holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.” Psalm 24:3 asks the question, “Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place?” The answer comes in the next verse: “He who has clean hands and a pure heart.”
The pursuit of holiness requires effort. In the first phase of our salvation, God gives us a new nature. Our participation is simply to receive it by faith. But the sanctification phase that we are currently in requires a mortifying or putting to death evil desires.xxiv It requires an active nurturing of godly desires. Fredrick Bruner writes, “Purity is not only a gift; all Christians who live in the world know that purity is also a struggle.” Romans 7 vividly describes this struggle. And we all experience it in our own lives.
Pursuing holiness requires honesty about any sin in our lives. Martin Lloyd-Jones says, “The only way to have a pure heart is to realize you have an impure heart, and to mourn about it to such an extent that you do that which alone can lead to cleansing a purity.”xxv God does not reveal all the impurities of our heart in one setting. Sanctification is process. We come to God with a pure/sincere heart. But in the light of that encounter, we see impurities that we were unaware of before.xxvi So, we cooperate with the cleansing of that impurity. And the result is a heart that is more refined and purer than before. Holiness is an ongoing quest in this life.
7. Congregate with people who are on this quest for holiness. Just as “evil company corrupts good habits,” so also godly company promotes holiness.”xxvii Proverbs 13:20 states it this way: “He who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will be destroyed.” Choose your friends carefully and stay in church. Hebrews 10:24-25: “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”
8. Ask God to purify your heart. It’s a prayer that he will answer because it is according to his will.xxviii David prayed in Psalm 51:10 “Create in me a clean heart, O God.” It’s an easy prayer
to pray when we consider the benefits of a pure heart. “Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.” Let us conclude by asking for this in our own lives.
ENDNOTES:
i All Scripture quotes are from the New King James Version unless indicated otherwise.
ii Cf. 1 John 1:8.
iii The Greek word haplous means “not complex, easy, used of the eye as not seeing double as when it is diseased.” Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament, 1992 (Iowa Falls, IA: World Bible Publishers, Inc., 1994), 214.
iv “Not infrequently in Scripture the ‘eye’ is equivalent to the ‘heart’. That is, to ‘set the heart’ and to ‘fix the eye’ on something are synonyms. One example may be enough, For Psalm 119. In verse 10 the psalmist writes: ‘With my whole heart I seek thee; let me not wander from thy commandments,’ and in verse 19, ‘I have fixed my eyes on all thy commandments.’” John R. W. Stott, Christian Counter-Culture: The Message of the Sermon on the Mount (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1978), 157.
v Cf. Matt. 6:24; James 1:8.; 1 John 2:15. God promised in Jer. 29:13, “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” The LXE translates it, “with your whole heart.”
vi Cf. John 5:30; 8:50. David was not sinless. There were significant failures in his life. But his heart was fixed on the Lord, so much so that no matter what happened he kept coming back to the Lord as the ultimate desire of his heart.
vii Esther Kerr Rusthoi, “When We See Christ” in Hymns of Glorious Praise (Gospel Publishing House, 1969), 313.
viii The pure in heart are able to see the truth that the ungodly do not discern. David said to God, “In Your light we see light” (Ps. 36:9).
ix Cf. Ps. 53:1; Rom. 1:28.
x Cf. Ps. 27:8; Jer. 29:13.
xi James 1:17.
xii Cf. Isaiah 6; Acts 9.
xiii Cf. 1 Tim. 6:16.
xiv Cf. 2 Chron. 16:9 (NIV).
xv Seeing God is the most practical thing that can happen in our lives. Our concept of God drives every decision we make. It sets the direction of our pursuits. Our value system is shaped by such revelations. Our affections are either low and base, or high and noble based on how we see God. A. W. Tozer insightfully said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” We will only appreciate the value of a pure heart when we understand the transformational power of seeing God.
xvi Cf. Job 42:5-6; Isa. 6:5.
xvii Cf. Mal. 3:3.
xviii Cf. Rom. 8:28-29; 1 Pet. 1:7).
xix Cf. Matt. 7:5. Sin obstructs the vision of God. It blinds the person to God’s presence and his works. To see clearly for ministry, the impurities in the heart (the beam in the eye) must be removed.
xx Cf. 1 Pet. 2:2; 2 Pet. 3:18.
xxi Paul Baloche, “Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord,” Integrity’s Hosanna! Music, 1997.
xxii Mal. 3:3; Heb. 12:5-11; 1 Pet. 4:12; John 15:2.
xxiii Cf. John 15:3; 1 Pet. 1:22.
xxiv Cf. Rom. 8:13; Col. 3:5.
xxv Martin Lloyd-Jones, Studies In the Sermon on the Mount: Two Volumes in One (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1972), 108.
xxvi Cf. Ps. 36:9; Isa. 6:5; 2 Cor. 3:18.
xxvii 1 Cor. 15:33.
xxviii 1 Thess. 4:3.
