Matthew 5:8 "Blessed are the Pure in Heart"

1:04We're doing our best to humble ourselves before God and to learn to mourn and to mourn with others. We're seeking to hunger and thirst for righteousness and to learn to be merciful to those who need it. And at some level, all of these Beatitudes give us confidence. When we see ourselves hearing and believing and trying to practice these things, it gives us confidence that. We belong to God, that we are citizens of his heavenly kingdom. But then we come to today's beatitude, Matthew 5:8.

1:43Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. And we think, oh boy. The word pure means not mixed or adulterated with any other substance free of contamination. Not mixed or adulterated with any other substance free of contamination. The word pure has a very binary connotation. Things are either pure or impure. You don't say that something is mostly pure, like that liquid is mostly pure. It's 99% water and 1% cyanide. You don't say that sort of thing.

2:30And when it comes to our hearts, we're all very aware of the impurities in them. I can't see into your heart, and you can't see into mine, but we are all acquainted with our own hearts at whatever level. And God knows them perfectly. Look at Psalm 139. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. So, if the pure in heart are the ones who are going to see God, we feel like, how's that going to happen? I'm never going to see God if that's the case.

3:16And so, friends, we must remember: Jesus said that he did not come to condemn the world, but to save it. And if that's the case, he did not say anything to drive us to despair. We are not meant to read this beatitude and feel hopeless. So, this morning, I want to help us strive to understand and apply this beatitude by answering three questions: Who are the pure in heart? Why should we pursue purity? And how can we pursue purity?

3:58So, let's start with that first question: who are the pure in heart? Well, if you're familiar with the Bible, you know that Scripture teaches that no one is born with a pure heart. Look at Psalm 51. David laments, Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Jeremiah says this in chapter 17: The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Who can understand it? Look at Proverbs 20. Who can say, I have made my heart pure? I am clean from my sin.

4:40Recently, I was listening to a podcast about the founding fathers and how many of them were very serious about pursuing virtue. And Benjamin Franklin was perhaps the most serious about this. You may have learned this in school. He had 13 virtues, a list of 13 virtues, and for a season in his life, every night before he went to bed, he graded himself on how he did that day on that list of virtues. But after some time, he gave up the practice because it was too discouraging. Each night, he was putting X's next to so many different virtues, temperance, chastity, humility, because unless you're grading yourself on a very steep curve, you're not going to get a perfect score any day of the week on those virtues. Proverbs 20 is spot on.

5:36Who can say that they've made their heart pure, that they are clean from their sin? No one. Now, for people like Benjamin Franklin, who was not a professing Christian, getting a bunch of X's each night is frustrating, but it's not devastating. Because for Ben Franklin, he's just trying to become a better person. That's all. He's just trying to be a more moral, more virtuous guy. But for people like the vast majority of us in the room today who believe that the Bible is God's word, then failing in those areas are not simple character flaws or shortcomings.

6:19They're not little frustrations on the road to becoming a better person. No, they are sins. They are failures to meet God's perfect standard of righteousness. And look at what the Bible has to say about that. Look at James 2. For whoever keeps the whole law, but fails in one point, has become guilty of all of it. Look at Galatians 3. For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them.

7:03Look what Jesus said in Matthew 5. You, therefore, must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. So, friends, if we manage to keep the whole law but fail at one point, the scripture says that we have become guilty of all of it. Because the lawgiver standard, God's standard, is perfection. Good intent. Are not enough. Good effort is not enough. The Bible says that it is perfection or nothing. And we have all fallen short, woefully short of perfection. We have not loved God every day of our lives with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

7:50We have not loved our neighbor as we have loved ourselves. So what can be done? We can't purify our own hearts, and even if we could, that wouldn't make up for all of the sins that we've already committed in this life. And so what this tells us is we need two things from God. We need forgiveness, and we need new hearts. In the book of Jeremiah, which we studied this past year, when God speaks about the new covenant that he's going to make with his people, he says, I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sins no more. I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sins no more. That is promised in the new covenant, the new covenant that Christ is going to initiate.

8:38And then look at Ezekiel 36. Look at this promise about the new covenant. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove your. Heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

9:14In these passages, God promises to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. He promises to forgive us and then to take out our old hearts of stone and give us new ones. This is referred to as the new birth or being born again. In John chapter 3, this Pharisee named Nicodemus comes to Jesus, and Jesus tells him that he's got to be born again in order to see the kingdom of God. And Nicodemus is very confused by this. He doesn't understand how a person could possibly be born a second time. Look how Jesus responds to him in John 3.

9:54Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. Why do you think that Jesus tells Nicodemus that we need to be born of water and the Spirit? This has confused Christians for a long time, and a lot of Christians have thought that maybe this means you've got to be baptized and you've got to receive the Holy Spirit sometime later in your life. Your experience in order to be saved.

10:33But based on what we just read from Ezekiel 36, what Jesus is saying is he is referring back to this promise about the new covenant, that God is going to be the one who's going to sprinkle clean water on us and put within us a new heart and a new spirit. You see, we're all born with impure hearts. And everything that we think and we say and we do flows out of those impure hearts. And so we need forgiveness and we need new hearts. That's the very thing that God promised through Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and this is what God accomplished through Jesus. He was born to live a life of perfect obedience and perfect righteousness in your place and mine.

11:21James said that if we keep the whole law but fail at one point, we're guilty of all of it. But friends, we've broken all of the law. Jesus, by contrast, never broke any of God's commandments. From the moment he was born till the moment he died on the cross, he never sinned. And then on the third day, he was raised from the dead so that all who trust in him are forgiven and granted eternal life. This is what Jesus came to do.

11:48God draws us to Christ through the Holy Spirit. And when we trust in him, we receive forgiveness and that new heart. And so, friends, what this means. Is that when we believe in Jesus, we become pure in heart. And Jesus promises that the pure in heart shall see God. Paul said that now we see in a mirror dimly, but one day we're going to see him face. John the Apostle writes in Revelation that one day we will see his face.

12:25So the pure in heart are going to see God one day in the new heavens and the new earth. Every believer here has that promise. We will see God. But friends, that brings up a very good question. If we are, in fact, pure in heart in God's eyes the moment we believe in Jesus, if we are going to see him one day, then what is the point of pursuing purity today? Why should we pursue purity? I mean, Ben Franklin showed us it's not possible to become pure on our own efforts. The Bible affirms that those who trust in Christ already have pure hearts. So why should we pursue purity?

13:12Well, all throughout the Bible, there are many commands to pursue purity or holiness. Take a look at a few of these. Look at Hebrews 12. Strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Look at James 4. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Look at 1 Peter 1. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy.

14:05Okay, so we are supposed to be holy. We're supposed to be pure in everything that we do, because without holiness, we cannot see the Lord. We are commanded to purify our hearts and draw near to God, but why? If we're going to see God one day, because we already have pure hearts through faith in Christ, what is the point of pursuing purity now? Friends, we purify ourselves so that we can see God today, not just one day in the future. Those who love God want to see him today.

14:47Because when you love someone, you don't want to wait to see them. Over the years, we've had a number of men and women who have served in the military, who at various points in their military Service were deployed overseas. And thankfully, these days, we have the technology so that when those men and women are serving overseas, they can see and hear and talk to their family members. That's an awesome thing. Now, imagine if a soldier sent a message to their family saying, Next Tuesday night, I'm free for a Zoom call.

15:27Imagine that the family replied, Oh, that's okay. We'll see you in nine months when you get home. Of course, they're not going to say that. Nothing in their control is going to keep them from seeing and talking to their soldier because they love them. They don't want to wait nine months to see them and talk to them. So imagine someone saying that they love God, and the Bible says there is a way for them to see God today, and they say, nah, that's okay. I'll just see him in heaven.

16:12Look at 1 John 3. He writes, Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him because we shall see Him. As he is. Listen to this. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Brothers and sisters, if we hope in God, we will seek to purify ourselves as he is pure. The reason that we pursue purity, the reason that we strive for holiness, the reason that we cleanse our hands and purify our hearts, the reason that we seek to be holy in all of our conduct is so that we can see God today.

17:07Jesus said, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. We are not content to wait the rest of our lives on this earth to see God. We love Him and we want to see Him today. And the way we see Him today is by pursuing purity, because the pure in heart are the ones who see God. So let's now answer that third and final question: How do we pursue purity? First, guard your way with the Word.

17:45Guard your way with the Word. Look on the screen at Psalm 119. How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to the word. To your word. With my whole heart I seek you. Let me not wander from your commandments. I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. According to many researchers, my generation, the millennials, could be called the self-improvement generation. While books on self-improvement existed before 1980, roughly the start of my generation, thousands upon thousands of self-help books have been written in the past 40-plus years.

18:37And because of that, many of us in my generation and other generations around us are convinced that with the right techniques, the right tools, the right hacks, we can master any part of our lives. And for a lot of things, that's true. But friends, it's not true with sin. Sin cannot be mastered with techniques, and that's why most New Year's resolutions that have something to do with sin fail by February. Because we know we should be pure, we want to be pure, so we try to life hack our way to purity, but it doesn't work that way. What does the psalmist say? How can we keep our way pure?

19:30By guarding it according to your word. So it's God's word, not techniques, not tools, not life hacks. That's the way that we're going to keep our way pure. And the psalmist even tells us how to do it. If we can put Psalm 119 back on the screen, take a look at this again. We seek God as He has revealed Himself in His Word, and we store up His Word in our hearts. So, in other words, we read the Word, we study and meditate on the Word, and we memorize the Word. We store it up in our hearts.

20:14And so, friends, I encourage you to make a plan to read and study and memorize God's Word. We have free copies of this little book, How Can I Get More Out of My Bible Reading? Almost all of us have asked that question at some point. Pick up a copy of this book before you leave today. If you get on Church Center, you go to the homepage, go down there to where it says, Join our Bible reading plan. That's going to take you to the Dwell app. We pay for a membership at Dwell for everybody here at New Life. Download that app, and it's got literally thousands of Bible reading plans that you can listen to on your way to work, on your way to class, when you've got time at the grocery store, whenever it would be. Next month, Pastor Joshua is going to be releasing our Bible reading and memorization plan for the fall, and I'd encourage you to participate with us. But, friends, if we want to pursue purity, then we've got to guard our way with the word.

21:15Second, how do we pursue purity? Learn to run away. Learn to run away. Look at 2 Timothy 2 on the screen. Paul says, So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. According to Paul, what do people do who call upon the Lord with a pure heart? They flee youthful passions, they run away from them. Now, I realize that the vast majority of you are Texans.

22:07And Texans like to think of themselves as fighters. Our ancestors bid the Mexican army to come and take it and fought to the last man at the Alamo. Texas is the land of guns and knives and American flag t-shirts that say these colors don't run. So that is all well and good. But there's a fine line between bravery and stupidity. Good soldiers do not pick unnecessary fights that they are likely to lose. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Paul says, flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Now, here's what I want you to see. Look at that verse. Paul does not say, fight sexual immorality.

23:17He says, flee it, run away from it. But so many of us, the problem is we're fighting it instead of running away from it. Because in our pride, we think that tonight will be different, and this time I will win the fight when I'm alone with my boyfriend or girlfriend or fiancé at our apartment late at night. We think this time will be different, and when I get on my smartphone with no plan and no real reason for using it, I will avoid looking at images and videos on social media and YouTube and wherever else.

24:00We open up Netflix with nobody watching with us, no accountability, and we say, tonight I will win the fight. I will not click on that video, that movie, that film. So every night, we reenact the Battle of the Alamo, fighting in a noble cause that we are all but guaranteed to lose. Doctors say that the human body is equipped with a fight-or-flight response. And what that means is that according to certain stimuli, you can choose whether to fight or to run. And so, friends, we need to make that choice to run much more often, especially when it comes to sexual temptation. Why do we keep fighting battles that we are all but guaranteed to lose when you can just run away?

24:55We need to do what Paul says and flee. If we want to pursue purity, we need to learn to run away. Third, how do we pursue purity? Say goodbye to bad influences. Say goodbye to bad influences. Look at 1 Corinthians 15. Paul says, do not be deceived. Bad company ruins good morals. Now, why do you think Paul begins this? Verse, a verse about the company we keep with a warning about deception. It's because when it comes to deception, we all think that we will be the exception.

25:48And that is especially true the younger you are. The younger you are, the more likely it is that you are convinced that you will be the exception to the rule. But in many cases, we are just deceiving ourselves. We think that we won't be negatively influenced by close friends who don't share our faith or our values. But over time, what we think and how we think and what we value, it starts to subtly shift. And you oftentimes don't notice it because it's so slow, it's so gradual. But then one day you wake up to find that after a few years in that friend group, you're almost a completely different person.

26:40Or Christians will say, I really like this guy. I really like this girl. They're not a Christian, but I'm hoping that after we start dating, I can lead them to Christ. Now, in pastoral integrity, I must say. To you, I have seen this work. I have seen it work exactly one time in 23 years of following Christ. I married that couple a few years ago. I advised against it. In that case, I was wrong, and I'm happy that I was.

27:20The other 99 times that I have seen this go down, it did not work. Not only did the non-Christian not become a believer, But the Christian in the relationship made compromise after compromise after compromise until they were not following Jesus in any measurable way at all anymore. And that is why I remind people of that first statement there in 1 Corinthians 15, 33. Do not be deceived. Friends, listen to me. You will not be the exception.

27:55In our pursuit of purity, we need to take stock of all of our relationships. Who is in your inner circle? Are they encouraging you in your faith? Are they encouraging you to pursue Jesus and to make disciples? Or are they discouraging you in your faith, pulling you further and further away from the Jesus that you say that you love, from God and his people, and following Christ? Now, you might say to me, but Pastor Allen, are you saying that we shouldn't have non-Christian friends? Are you saying we shouldn't evade? Evangelize?

28:32Definitely not. All of us should be friends, non-Christians at work and in our neighborhoods, on our teams, in our classes. We have to have relationships with non-Christians in order to introduce them to Jesus. But friends, we want to have a positive influence on them. We don't want them to have a negative influence on us. So we need to take stock of our relationships and see if that inner circle is leading us toward Christ or away from Christ. If we want to pursue purity, we've got to say goodbye to bad influences.

29:15And then, fourth and finally, how do we pursue purity? Master your mind. Master your mind. Look at Romans 12. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. That by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. The battle for purity is largely won or lost in the mind. And that's why Paul says, don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

29:58Because, friends, if we don't take Action, we will be conformed to this world. We've already seen today that we are born with sinful, impure hearts. So, by nature, we don't think godly thoughts or desire godly things. And the world encourages those sinful thoughts and those sinful desires. So, every hour of the day, we are being shaped by what we watch and what we listen to and what we read. We are being conformed to some standard. That's why, increasingly, in our culture, everybody on the political right and everybody on the political left is looking more and more and more like each other. Because the world says, this is the standard, you must fit this mold.

30:50And if you don't, then you're out. That's why Paul says, do not be conformed to this world. Because that's the default. That's what's going to happen to us if we don't take action. So, how can we be transformed by the renewal of our minds? Look what Paul says in Philippians 4. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

31:31Paul is saying that we must master our minds. We must train ourselves to think about what is true and honorable and just and pure and lovely and commendable. Because listen to me. Our minds are like water. They will flow to the lowest point. That's why we have to master our minds. Instead of allowing the water that is our minds to naturally flow to the lowest point, we've got to redirect it. We've got to channel that flow somewhere else. That's why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10 that we have to take every thought captive to obey Christ. We've got to tell that water to flow elsewhere. And so, friends, have a plan to master your mind. Always have a verse or a section of scripture that you are working to memorize so that when you have that downtime, you can do that instead. There's a great app called Fighter Verse by Desiring God. I've used it for years. I would encourage you to think about using that as well. The Dwell app is awesome for this too. Bring an edifying book everywhere you go so that you are not tempted to scroll aimlessly on your phone when you have a few minutes of downtime, but you have something edifying to read. Got to redirect that water. Don't be content with letting your mind wander. If we want to pursue purity, we've got to master our minds.

33:11Friends, the whole reason that we pursue purity is because we want to see God today. If we love God, we're not content just to see him face to face one day in the future. We want to see him today, now. In John 14, Jesus is with the disciples on the night that he is betrayed, and he tells them that he is the way, the truth, and the life. And then he tells the disciples that they already know the Father, and they've already seen him.

33:40And look at what happens next. John 14, verse 8. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. Jesus said to him, Have I been with you so long and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, show us the Father? Philip expressed not just his own desire, but the desire of all of the disciples, of every disciple who has ever lived. We want to see God. We want to see the Father. And Jesus says, whoever has seen me has seen the Father. To see Jesus is to see the Father because he and the Father are one.

34:31So, Jesus is helping Philip to understand that he's already seen the Father. He's already seen him. So, brothers and sisters, we open this morning by acknowledging that this beatitude, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God, it feels intimidating. It feels like we might not be able to ever see God. But here is the assurance: if you can see Jesus for who he really is, the Son of God and Savior who came to live and die and rise again for you, if you can see Jesus for who he really is, then you are already seeing God.

35:20And if you are seeing God, then according to this beatitude, you are already pure in heart. Your heart of stone has been taken out and removed, and a heart of flesh has been put in its place. You have been born again. That means that you're going to see God clearly face to face one day when we die or when he returns, but that also means that you can see God today more and more clearly as you pursue purity.

35:49And so, let me encourage you to do it: to pursue purity with the goal of seeing God as clearly as possible every day of your life. And if you're here this morning and you're thinking, I know I'm not pure in heart. I know I haven't seen God. I can't see God, but I want to. Then, my friend, look to Jesus Christ. He is the image of the invisible God. He came to seek you and to find you and to save you.

36:29And if you look to him, you will see God because he and the Father are one. And anyone who sees Christ has already seen the Father. Put your faith in him. He'll give you a new heart, new eyes, and new desires, and you will see God. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Let's pray. Oh Father, we do want to see you today. We believe in faith that we will see you face to face one day. In the person of Jesus Christ.

37:36But we want to see you today. You know the war that rages inside of us. We are still battling with the flesh, though we have a new spirit, though you've put a new heart within us. There is still a battle raging inside of us because we are not yet made perfectly pure. Although you look at us and you see purity because of Christ. And so we pray this morning that you would give us strength, that you would give us faith, that you would give us hope to pursue purity so that we can see you. Not just one day, but today.

38:19God, we pray for all those who are here this morning who do not yet know you because they haven't seen Jesus for who he really is. We pray that this morning they would look upon him, the one who was born to live and die and rise again for them. We pray that today would be the day of the new birth for them and that they would see you as well. Thank you for hearing our prayers. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.

38:52Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, Visit us online at newlifecs.net.