Senior Pastor Mark Stafford
Redeeming the Heart
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
The first thing we learn in this beatitude is that Jesus is concerned with the heart. It’s not enough to polish the outside of our lives. Listen to what He says about the Pharisees in Matthew 23:25-26:
25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
Jesus never aims to simply clean up our manners. His intentions are to transform our hearts. Take this statistic for example:
40.8% of all children born in American right now are born to unwed mothers. That’s four in ten! Almost half of the next generation of children will be brought up without a father in the home. All babies born out of wedlock are born as a result of fornication. Obviously, fornication is a sin the Bible tells us to avoid (for good reason).
If every baby in American was born to a two-parent home, would that be enough to make Jesus satisfied? Would that improved statistic in itself indicate a change of heart? NO, it wouldn’t. We can do the right thing and still be sinfully sick in the heart. Jesus is not looking for better statistics or a culture that is all buttoned up. Jesus is concerned about the heart.
In Matthew 5, verses 27-28, Jesus gives us His perspective on the heart of sin. He says,
“27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
The heart is what you are – Matthew 23:35-36, Matthew 5:27-28
American’s often think of the heart as the seat of emotions. To the Hebrew, the heart also involved a person’s intellect and will. The heart symbolized the inner person with that person’s many functions. AND… it is the heart that is the source of most of our trouble.
Your heart is critical to Jesus – Matthew 15:18-19
Over in Matthew 15, verse 18-19, Jesus says, “18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this [the heart] defiles a person. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.”
Who we are, in the deep recesses of our hearts, is what Jesus cares about the most. He cares nothing about how we polish up the outsides of our lives. He is interested in your heart – in who you really are.
Jesus didn’t come to help you have better etiquette or to cure you of some bad habits. He came into the world because our hearts where so dirty and broken that we needed to be completely purified.
A pure heart has a single desire – 1 John 1:7. Matthew 6:22-24, James 4:4,8, Jeremiah 32:39
The Greek word (katharos) translated “pure” has two basic meanings. It means “clean” and “unmixed.” Our English word cathartic come from this Greek word. In the medical field, a cathartic agent is something a doctor uses to clean out the physical system. In other words, it’s a powerful laxative. It’s something that cleans out the filth!
That creates a mental image of what Jesus is referring to when He calls for a purging of our sin. Being pure in heart is a spiritual catharsis that purges our sin. It spiritually cleans out the filth, 1 John 1:7 puts it this way, “…if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”
The word “katharos” (or pure) takes on the second meaning as well. Being pure in heart involves being unmixed in our desires as well as being purged of sin. Being “unmixed” is like:
- Gold that is pure and free of impurities
- Wheat that has had the chaff removed
It is a singleness of heart as opposed to a duplicity of heart or a divided heart. A double minded person has mixed desires. Being ‘impure in heart’ could be compared to a married women who has a husband and a boyfriend on the side. Her heart would be mixed between the 2 men. She would be “impure in heart.”
Spiritual speaking, a person who is double-minded or mixed or “impure in heart,” claims to follow Jesus while still loving a few favorite sins on the side.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives several examples of double-mindedness. In Matthew 6, He warns us of the danger of trying to serve both God and Money. He begins with an illustration of the body.
Matthew 6:22-23 says, “22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”
Jesus now uses this illustration of our eyes and our bodies to apply more broadly to human relationships:
“24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
No person can ever hope to see God if their affections are torn between God and the world. Our relationship with God is based on a love for God. For our heart to love anything over our love for God is to commit spiritual adultery.
Does that seem overstated? It’s the exact term James uses. James 4:4 says, “4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
Then a couple verses later, James offers the cure for spiritual adultery. James 4:8 says, “8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”
When the beatitude speaks of ‘purity of heart,’ it is referring to a full and total allegiance to God. It is a single-minded pursuit. The prophet Jeremiah put it this way, “39 I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them.”[1]
Jesus comes to us this morning say says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Seeing God is the great goal of being pure. It is the highest blessing possible for humans to receive. We can see Him who is the Source, the Support and the End of all things. Nothing is higher than God, so seeing God is the greatest joy we can experience. Let me touch on just a couple aspects of what it means to see God.
Two Aspects of Seeing God:
#1 Seeing God means to be comforted by His grace in His presence, Psalm 27:7-9
All throughout the Psalms, the writers are crying out for God not to hide His face from His people. For example, Psalm 27:7-9 says:
“7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;
be gracious to me and answer me!
8 You have said, “Seek my face.”
My heart says to you,
“Your face, Lord, do I seek.”
9 Hide not your face from me.
Turn not your servant away in anger,
O you who have been my help.
Cast me not off; forsake me not,
O God of my salvation!”
“Hide not your face from me” means the same thing as “be gracious to me.” It means that seeing the face of God is a sweet and comforting experience.
- When God shows up, His people are helped.
- If He turns away, we are distressed.
We want to be in His presence. We want God to show up in our lives. In the end, God’s people want to see God in all His glory.
#2 Seeing God is to be awestruck by His glory – Rev. 21:23
Whenever I see a fabulous sunrise or sunset or I look out on the Red Rocks, I get a little glimpse of God’s glory. We understand a little bit about God from what He’s made.
There will come a day when God Himself will dwell among us. His glory will no longer be inferred from lightening, Red Rocks, stars, and ocean waves. Instead, our experience of Him will be direct. Describing the New Jerusalem, John says (in Rev 21:23), “the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.”
The reward of ‘seeing God,’ at the very least, implies being comforted by God’s grace in His presence and being awestruck by a direct experience of His glory. We will experience God’s presence in part now and fully in the age to come if we are “pure in heart.” This morning, I want to spend all the time we have left answering one very important question: How do I Get a Pure Heart?
APPLICATION: How do I Get a Pure Heart?
So how do we move from being “double-minded” to being “pure in heart?”
The whole process begins when the Spirit of God finds us – Romans 5:8
He finds us with hearts unfit for eternal life in the kingdom of God. In our state of utter unworthiness, He show us our sin. He shines a light into our hearts so that we might see our desperate state. This revealing of sin is a gift of His grace. If we didn’t know that we were dying without hope, we might not look for a Savior.
The Spirit’s light reveals that our condition is far worse than we originally thought. We aren’t just sick: the disease is terminal. There is no reversing the process. Sin has wreaked havoc on our soul and the destruction is so total and complete that no level of good deeds could ever repair the damage. It reminds me of a nice car in a bad accident…
This is a picture of a Florida man who wrecked his Lamborghini so severely that the entire front end came off. He had owned the car for less than a week. He only suffered minor injuries, but the damage to the car is so severe that it would be best to replace the car.
Just like foolish driving can wreck a car beyond repair, sin damages our souls beyond repair. The light of the Spirit reveals how far we are from fixing ourselves. Without Jesus, we are a wreck. We are destined for destruction, totaled beyond restoration. Our sin rightly invites God’s wrath upon us. Without Jesus, we’re existing in a spiritual junkyard.
When we see the total depravity of our spiritual condition without Jesus, we are faced with some choices:
- We can ignore what the spirit has revealed. In arrogance, we can assume that we are still good enough to see God even if we’ve sinned a little.
- We can try to polish up our lives. Through effort, good works, and religious ceremonies, we can try to shine up our spiritual lives to make us look good enough to see God. (This is like putting Turtle wax on a wrecked car – hoping no one will notice the damage)
- We can reject the Spirit altogether and try to find God outside of the Bible in a false pursuit.
But there are some who reject all these choices. They see their spiritual condition without Jesus and cry out for help. They realize their need for a Savior and they ask Jesus to save their souls. Romans 5:8 says that “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Christ died for us. He was destroyed instead of us. He faced the full force of the wrath of God so we didn’t have to.
Receive the gift freely offered to you by God – Romans 10:9
If you are hearing this message, God is offering you the gift right now!
Romans 10:9 says, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Those who realize this offer of total forgiveness in the midst of their total depravity experience a thrill they have never experienced before:
- They begin to see God.
- Their hearts begin to be conformed to the image of Jesus.
- They have the hope of seeing and experiencing God face to face for all of eternity future.
Once this gift has been received, the forgiven man or woman naturally desires to avoid the things that brought them so much trouble in the first place and to replace those desires with the pursuit of Jesus.
It makes me think of a heart transplant patient. Let’s say a man spent years in front of the television eating junk food and refusing to exercise. As a result, the man’s heart became weaker and weaker until it was so badly damaged that the doctor said there was no hope. The heart is broken beyond repair. The only hope for the man is a new heart.
As the man is lying in bed, waiting for his heart to finally give out, the phone rings. It’s the heart surgeon. There has been a terrible accident and a young man died, his heart is a perfect match.
So the man rushes to the hospital and they immediately begin surgery. The surgery is a huge success and the man is restored to better health than he ever knew before.
Now in light of the tragedy of his situation before he received the heart and the extreme circumstances surrounding acquiring the donor heart, do you think the man would go right back to watching TV and eating junk food?
I hope not! We would expect the man to start a new life with his new heart. To begin exercising and eating right. Both for his own good and out of respect for the family of the man who gave the heart, we would expect him to avoid the things that put him in such a terrible position in the first place.
Should we have any less expectation for our spiritual lives? The price that was paid for the redemption of our souls was costly beyond explanation. For both our own good and for the glory of the one who gave so much to redeem us, it is appropriate to pursue the blessings associated with obeying the Lord’s commands and to avoid the terrible pitfalls of sin.
A new heart results in a new life – Acts 16:31
You and I will struggle with our old nature for as long as we remain in this fallen and broken world, but when the Savior sets us free from sin, He also creates new passions and desires. He extends to His disciple a new desire for pure heart. That is to say, a person’s heart becomes increasingly devoted to Jesus.
- It seeks after holiness.
- It desires perfection.
- It hates sin.
The person who is pure in heart begins to see God.
- They see God in nature.
- They see God at work in their lives.
- They see God in the Scripture.
When they see God, they grow in a love for God. They long to be like God and that whole process results in a desire to someday be with God face-to-face. This transformation is the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer. If you desire a new, pure heart it is a gift that the Holy Spirit has graciously extended to you.
There is no need to try and make yourself worthy of such a gift. It is a gift to be received, not purchased or earned. God is ready to give you this gift at this very hour if you are willing to receive it. It says in Acts 16:31, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved…” You can be saved from your love of sin, saved from your old habits and so completely saved that you are pure of heart. These pure hearted people will see God.
Some people are confused by the process. They ask, “What exactly is it to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?”
- To believe in Jesus is to trust in Him.
- It is to rely completely on Him and His finished work on the cross instead of relying on our own works.
- It is to stop trying to be good enough in your own efforts and to instead receive a new life from Jesus right now!
So many people spend a lifetime struggling with one sin after another and can’t break free. They resolve again and again to change their ways and clean up their lives only to be defeated after every new resolution.
Jesus can conquer sin for you. He holds the greatest power known to the universe. He can strangle your desire for sin and wipe out your evil nature. He can make you and keep you “pure” within.
Jesus Creates Clean Hearts – 2 Corinthians 5:21, Romans 8:34, Hebrews 7:25
Look to Jesus all of you who desire to have a pure heart! … Look to him if you desire to see God! 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Jesus paid the price for sin in our place in order that we might live forever in the love of God.
Trust Jesus!
- He has risen from the dead and ascended to heaven. Romans 8:34b says, “Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” This Jesus is praying for you even now.
- You will never perish if you trust in him. Hebrews 7:25 says, “…he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”
May God grant all who gather here salvation through the finished work of Christ on the cross so that our spiritual eyes might be opened and we might forever gaze upon the one, true and living God. The “pure in heart” are blessed because they will see God and one day, we will never cease to see God!
[1] Jeremiah 32:39
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