Title: The Pure In Heart
Text: Matt 5:8
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Introduction:
- What does it mean to be pure in heart?
- To be pure in heart means a person who has been delivered from sin’s power by God’s grace and now strive without deceit to please and glorify God and to be like Him.
- Listen to this story that gives greater definition to pure in heart:
After a violent storm one night, a large tree, which over the years had become a stately giant, was found lying across the pathway in a park. Nothing but a splintered stump was left. Closer examination showed that is was rotten at the core because thousands of tiny insects had eaten away at its heart. The weakness of that tree was not brought on by the sudden storm; it began the very moment the first insect nested within its bark. With the Holy Spirit’s help, let’s be very careful to guard our purity.
- The pure in heart seek to have the same attitude of heart that God has, a love of righteousness and a hatred of evil
- Hebrews 1:9 says, “You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.”
- You see it’s not enough to love righteousness only, but you must hate evil also.
- Our example is Jesus Christ who loved righteousness and hated evil.
- Isa 11:5 says, “Righteousness will be His belt and faithfulness the sash around His waist.”
- Jesus was faithful and righteous to His Father while on earth. Thus it was the basis for God’s anointing of His Son.
- Now in the same way, our anointing will come only as we identify with our Master’s attitude toward righteousness and evil.
- So the pure in heart, the heart being are mind, will, and emotions is in tune with the heart of God.
- I Sam 13:14 says, “But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after His own Heart and appointed him leader of His people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.”
Transition:
- So now we know what it means to have a pure heart, by loving righteousness and hating evil.
- Therefore the unsaved man cannot have a pure heart as long as he rejects the Lord Jesus as Savior. Acts 4:12 says, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
- The things of God are foolishness to the unsaved. I Cor 2:14 says, “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
- The Bible also says in Jer 17:9 that the natural or unregenerate “heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked”
- So the question is this morning who are the pure in Heart?
- How do I know that I am living the pure in heart life?
- What does the pure in heart look like in people?
- I want to give you some points to look at that are found in God’s Word to help us live the pure in heart life.
Point 1: They Have Room For Only One Master
Matt 6:24 says, “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.”
- A person striving to serve the Lord with not be a person who says they are Christian but living a life contrary to the Word of God. That by definition is a hypocrite.
- A pure in heart person isn’t living the double standard life. They are a person who is thirsting for more of God.
- Meaning wanting to be more like Him and what the Word says.
- A pure in heart person has a newly created heart. II Cor 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
- David said in Psalm 51:10, “Create in me a clean heart, O God”
- Listen to this story of a person who is not pure in heart:
He made free use of Christian vocabulary. He talked about the blessing of the Almighty and the Christian confessions which would become the pillars of the new government. He assumed the earnestness of a man weighed down by historic responsibility. He handed out pious stories to the press, especially to the church papers. He showed his tattered Bible and declared that he drew the strength for his great work from it as scores of pious people welcomed him as a man sent from God. Indeed, Adolf Hitler was a master of outward religiosity--with no inward reality!
- So in order for us as Christians to be pure in heart, we need worship the one true God. And we do that not be outward appearance, but rather changing on the inside.
- To the Christian the old way of thinking, doing things etc are passed away.
- To the Christian we need to be crying out to God and saying create in me a clean heart.
- To the Christian we need to serve the one and true living God and His name is Jesus.
- Another way the Christian can see if they are pure in heart is....
Point 2: They Confess And Forsake All Known Sin
Proverbs 28:13 says, “He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.”
Dr. Ralph Sockman writes about an experience he had while standing on the edge of Niagra Falls one clear, cold March day. Wrapped in white winter garments, the falls glistened in the bright sun. As some birds swooped down to snatch a drink from the clear water, Sockman’s companion told how he had seen birds carried over the edge of the precipice. As they dipped down for a drink, tiny droplets of ice would form on their wings. As they returned for additional drinks more ice would weigh down their bodies until they couldn’t rise above the cascading waters. Flapping their wings, the birds would suddenly drop over the falls.
- That’s what sin does to Christians.
- If we will not confess and forsake all known sin, we will be like that bird, thinking that we can keep sin, play with sin, drink from sin without it harming us.
- It may not harm us immediately but one day the burden of sin will be to much to bear and it will destroy us spiritually.
- My encouragement to you this morning, confess your sin to God and forsake and you will prosper.
- The pure in heart never try to hide there sin. Psalm 32:5 says, “I acknowledged my sin to You. And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” And You forgave the iniquity of my sin.”
- The pure in heart confess and forsake there sin before the Lord and Him only. Not a statue or a person, but to God.
- For He alone is the only one that can forgive your soul and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Nobody else can do that but God alone.
- The pure in heart are not happy when they sin. When Christians sin, they repent and seek forgiveness from God. Psalm 51:1-4 says, “Have mercy upon me, O God. According to Your loving kindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight, that You may be found just when You speak and blameless when You judge.”
- David sought forgiveness from God and Him alone.
- The question is this morning, are you enjoying sin? To the point that you won’t confess it to God and change.
- God wants you to be clean and pursue a pure heart before Him. Don’t be deceived by the attractiveness of sin. Listen to this story, again it’s about the falls and birds but very interesting:
Several years ago our family visited Niagara Falls. It was spring, and ice was rushing down the river. As I viewed the large blocks of ice flowing toward the falls, I could see that there were carcasses of dead fish embedded in the ice. Gulls by the score were riding down the river feeding on the fish. As they came to the brink of the falls, their wings would go out, and they would escape from the falls. I watched one gull which seemed to delay and wondered when it would leave. It was engrossed in the carcass of a fish, and when it finally came to the brink of the falls, out went its powerful wings. The bird flapped and flapped and even lifted the ice out of the water, and I thought it would escape. But it had delayed too long so that its claws had frozen into the ice. The weight of the ice was too great, and the gull plunged into the abyss.
- We need God’s help to live for Him, but also we need to strive to be pure in heart.
- And a Christian that is striving to be pure in heart will confess and forsake all known sin.
Lastly a Christian can see if they are pure in heart by.....
Point 3: They Are Spiritually Minded - They Have The Mind Of Christ
I Cor 2:15-16 says, “But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.”
- Is it your passion and drive in life to have the mind of Christ?
- Now to have the mind of Christ means knowing His will and His redemptive plan and purpose (Vs 9-10)
- It means appraising and seeing things the way God sees them, valuing things the way He values them, loving what He loves and hating what He hates.
- It means understanding God’s holiness and sins awfulness.
- Therefore, receiving the Spirit and following the Spirit cause the believer’s values and world view to become radically different from the ways and wisdom of this age.
- You see the pure in heart beat to a different drum then the world beats to.
- And if we want to beat to the same drum as the world, because it’s more comfortable, convenient, or friendly, we don’t have the mind of Christ and we need to grow.
- I preached a sermon on developing a biblical world view.
- I said in that sermon that a biblical world view is living out your moral and values according to the Word of God. That takes a life time to achieve and grow in, but if the believer is not striving to do this, they will not grow in the mind of Christ.
- And a pure in heart person, wants to grow in the area of the mind of Christ.
The Greeks had a race in their Olympic games that was unique. The winner was not the runner who finished first. It was the runner who finished with his torch still lit. I want to run all the way with the flame of my torch still lit for Him.
- You can’t finish the race as a Christian with your torch still lit if you are not renewing your mind and making it like Christ.
- If you are a Christian this morning you need to renew your mind in the area of your marriage, workplace, your school, your health, your finances, your time, your relationships, etc.
- We are not perfect and we will never be perfect, but we need to be striving in the area of change. Change to be more like Jesus everyday.
Conclusion:
- This morning if you are Christian and are wondering if you are pure in heart, here’s how you can tell:
1. Room For Only One God, And His Name is Jesus Christ.
2. We Confess And Forsake All Known Sin.
3. We Are Striving To Be Spiritually Minded. We Are Developing The Mind Of Christ.
- This is how we know we are pure in heart, when we are striving in these 3 areas of our lives.
- Now the Bible says if we do this, we will see God. What does that mean?
- To see God means to be His child and to dwell in His presence, both now and in the future kingdom. Exodus 33:11 says, “The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the ten.”
- I want you to see two things here:
A. God considered Moses to be a close friend with whom he could talk face to face
- Moses had developed a pure heart before the Lord but was not always perfect.
B. Joshua not only faithfully served Moses, but he also diligently developed a personal communion with God.
- My point is this morning as I conclude is this, to be pure in heart is to be a person that strives to be more like God everyday, (Moses). But understand it needs to be developed and strived for or sought after, (Joshua).
- I encourage you to be all that God wants you to be, but to do that we must be a people that are pure in heart, for then we will see God and experience his presence, power and mercy.
Lets Pray!!!
