Blessed are the Pure in Heart (Part 2)
The Four Gospels • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 40:58
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· 8 viewsMorning 20 August 23
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You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me. In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?
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For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.
Sermon
Sermon
God Desires the Heart
My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.
God is not satisfied with surface religion
Nor is he merely concerned with one facet or another of the believer’s life, such as his thoughts, words or actions.
God cannot be fobbed off with warm feelings, religious thoughts, ecclesiastical rituals or outward morality.
God requires from each one of his people total submission of the heart.
He demands allegiance and obedience at every point though, as the eighteenth-century preacher Charles Bridges helpfully adds, ‘The command of authority is an invitation of love.’
Jesus’s teaching was radically different from the Pharasees
The taught about strict observance of hundreds of rules and regulations, focused on the outward apprearance
Rediculous rules like:
You could move a new lamp on the sabbath but not an old one
On the Sabbeth, someone with a sore throat could swallow liquid to ease the discomfort but not allowed to gargle
Modern example: Refridgerator could be used only if it did not have light when door openned as would cause electricity suppliers to work on the Sabbeth
They largely irgnores spiritual issues
Jesus would often rebuke the pharasees...
“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. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
God’s primary concern is the heart
People often concentrate too often on the mechanisms of religion, rather than their heart
It is right for a professing Christian to read the Bible and to pray, but what about your heart?
It is right to meet with God’s people in public worship, but what about your heart?
The Beatitudes for Today The Divine Cardiologist
God is more concerned about the state of your heart than he is about your health, your bank balance, your business, your family, your ‘Christian work’, your church-attendance record, your giving to charitable causes, or anything else.
The Beatitudes for Today The Divine Cardiologist
As Martyn Lloyd-Jones rightly says, ‘The Christian faith is ultimately not only a matter of doctrine or understanding or of intellect, it is a condition of the heart.’ In the light of this, no right thinking person can fail to face up to one all-important question: ‘Is my heart right with God?’
Pure but Imperfect
Pure but Imperfect
Pure (Greek katharos) -
root of english “Catharsis” meaning “purgation of the digestive system”
or in psychiatry “relieving of fears by bringing them to the surface of a person’s consciousness”
Kartharos was used in context of the time...
soiled clothing which had been washed clean
grain from which all chaff had been removed
metal without any trace of alloy
a man with all his bills and taxes paid
Used in scripture...
And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud
Clean
The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass.
Pure
Paul was leaving Ephesian elders for the last time....
Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.
Innocent
since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.)
Clean
By saying what he did, Jesus not only abolished the ancient ceremonial rules and declared them obsolete, but focused his hearers’ attention on the need for inner cleanliness.
When considering the meaning of pure of heart (purity) we must acknoweldge
it does not mean perfection
false teachers have claimed “sinless perfection” with “sinful nature removed at conversion”
the finest believe who ever lived were still sinners
If a wise man has an argument with a fool, the fool only rages and laughs, and there is no quiet.
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Apostle John: saw the greatest of visions from Jesus
I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.
Apostle Paul: Sin just kept revealing its ugly head
No one can claim to be sinless...
The Beatitudes for Today Pure but Imperfect
A W Pink rightly says: ‘One of the most conclusive evidences that we do possess a pure heart is to be conscious of and burdened with the impurity which still indwells us.’
Conviction of sin and purity of heart are not incompatible.
The gospel promises are not to those who think they are perfect, but to those who grieve over their imperfections, and long to be holy.
Knowing this we can consider what “Pure of Heart” means.
Pure of Heart: Sincerity
Pure of Heart: Sincerity
Nothing made Jesus angrier than self-rightous posturing
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt:
Prayer of the tax collector & pharasee
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Pharasee’s taught external purity
Jewish piety was giving, praying and fasting
Jesus stood against their hypocrisy...
“Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
such behaviour would appeal to man, but it has no sway with God
It hides moral corruption, spiritual apathy, and deadly formalism
Hypocisy is nothing better than skin deep holiness
Hypocrites....
They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.
False piety example: refusing to call people liars
hypocrites are liars
hypocrite are those who say you must NOT do something, then do it theselves (or visa versa)
Jesus’ repeatedly called out people for being hypocrites
These are the strongest words in scripture and we must not dare to ignore them
Anyone who claims to be a Christian but lives an unbelievers life is a hyprocrite
Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,
If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
Hyocrites....
And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
Sincerety is the opposite of Hypocrisy
Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.
The pure in heart are the same inwardly as they are outwardly
Same in private as in public
Not sinless but sincere
So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
Pure heart: worships, prays, gives, serves and witnesses for Christ, and seeks to live in obedience to God’s Word, not because these things are expected of them, but because they have no wish to do otherwise.
A friend of John Blanchard used to say that a hypocrite was someone who let his light so shine before men that nobody could tell what was going on behind.
The Beatitudes for Today ‘To Will One Thing’
John Calvin reminds us, ‘The Lord first of all wants sincerity in his service, simplicity of heart without guile and falsehood.’
Pure of Heart: Integrity
Pure of Heart: Integrity
Purity of heart demands biblical integrity both in belief and behaviour
As the pure of heart grow in grace they rincreasingly recognise ...
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
The challenge: Society promotes relativism (rejection of absolutes), compromise, permissiveness (freedom of behaviour) and situational ethics
Purity of heart means relentlessly seeking to bring every area of life into conformity with God’s Word and Will
Paul instructs ...
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
The Christian’s mind (what he thinks), feet (where he goes), eyes (what he sees) and hands (what he does) are all to be ‘instruments of righteousness’.
This is not a burden to the one who is ‘pure in heart’
Thomas Watson ( 2 slides)
The Beatitudes for Today Instruments of Righteousness
Thomas Watson’s words, ‘A pure heart breathes after purity. If God should stretch out the golden sceptre and say to him, “Ask and it shall be given thee, to the half of the kingdom”, he would say, “Lord, a pure heart.” ’
Beatitudes for today - John Blanchard - Example of Augistine
The Beatitudes for Today Instruments of Righteousness
The difference between a pure and an impure heart is well illustrated in the testimony of Augustine. In his Confessions he tells how, as a young man struggling with his emerging sexuality, he prayed, ‘Give me chastity and continency, only not yet’. He confessed to being afraid that God would answer him immediately, whereas at that time he wanted his lust ‘satisfied rather than extinguished’. He was at least being honest in his prayer, but as an unbeliever he was far from pure in heart. Augustine was eventually converted when in his early thirties, and the language of his prayer changed dramatically: ‘Power of my soul, enter into it, and fit it for thee, that thou mightest have and hold it without spot or wrinkle.’ Augustine was still not perfect, but his heart was pure.
David expresses his guilt over the affair with Bathsheba, and the death of her husband
Give ear to my words, O Lord; consider my groaning. Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray.
Adultery and murder were not the only burdens crushing David as he pleaded with God for mercy. Discontent, ingratitude, covetousness, hardness of heart, selfishness, pride, worldliness and unbelief were also on the record against him, and he pleads with God for complete forgiveness.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
David was not concerned merely with getting relief from his guilt. He longed to have the wellspring of his thoughts, words and actions purged and sanctified. Merely to pray for forgiveness would have shown an impure heart, one wanting not to get rid of sin but just of sin’s consequences. He longed for inner purity.
The contemporary Christian should have his prayer on their lips ...
Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!
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Doxology