THE SECRET OF HAPPINESS PART FOUR

Matt 5:8

Good morning CBC Family, as we come to our third week of isolation.

Hope everyone is doing well during this time under His grace. I miss you being here and I hope you feel the same way. The elders and I got together this week to talk and pray about what’s going on and unfortunately we will continue to do things this way until the Department Of Health say otherwise for the sake of one another and those around us.

This is time we need to look past our desires and aspirations of what we should and should not be doing.

This is time for all of us to think of others, over our own interests or plans.

This is a time for us to be saturating our free time in His Word and prayer; for one another, the Camp, DVBS. But also for; our hospitals, the medical staff, our government and for lost souls to come to Christ through the gospel.

This is a time for us to be praying that the church would have spiritual discernment; as false teachers take advantage of frightened people whether on TV or on the internet, and that they would be exposed for the charlatans they are.

This is a time for us to be a walking churches towards our children, spouses, neighbors (from a distant of course) as you interact with people at the store or in passing or getting your mail.

This is time for Christ to be exalted, as you put into practice what the Scripture says about your life in Christ.

This is a time not to be discouraged, but encouraged, that we can still communicate to one another and functions as families growing in His grace.

This is time to really love one another, your church, your pastor and our missionaries, as we wait patiently for God to give us the sustaining grace for a season like this.

As the Apostle Paul said “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.” 2 Cor 1:3-7

So…. let’s comfort one another and those who are frighten with the truth of the Gospel; as God does His work in and through us as we press on for His glory and our good.

  

Let’s pray as we open His Word to speak into our hearts this morning.Turn in your Bibles to Matthew 5:8

  

This statement that Jesus makes here is a pinnacle statement that cuts to the very core of our being. This is at the very center of the gospel, because apart from this you will not see God. But I don’t want to get ahead of myself this morning; so, let’s break this verse down and understand what Jesus is saying here.

As with all the others, this beatitude fits in sequentially with the others. Again as a reminder for all of us! “Those who have come to see their sinful state for what it is, they are the poor in spirit. They have mourned over their sins, been brought to the humility of recognizing their own inability to do anything about it and have this hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God and were consequently filled, as they received the bountiful mercy of God.”

Who are the Pure in Heart?

It’s those who realize they have an impure heart to begin with. And they mourn about as they seek God and His Word to rest in His grace to receive mercy. It’s those who have been brought to the point of being saved, which means their sins were washed away and they have been made pure. Jesus said this to the disciples, “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, do you wash my feet?" Jesus answered him, "What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand." Peter said to him, "You shall never wash my feet." Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no share with me." Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!" Jesus said to him, "The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you." For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, "Not all of you are clean." John 13:3-11

  

Here is the problem as we approach this passage! In our culture, we often refer to the heart as the center of emotion, and we refer to the mind as the center of intellect. But in the Hebrew culture, the heart referred to “everything”. The heart was the very center of one’s personality. It was the center of the emotions, as well as the mind. The heart is what you are, in the secrecy of your thoughts, and feeling, when nobody knows but God.

John Piper said “What you are at the invisible root matters as much to God as what you are at the visible branch.”

The “Heart” is the core of the Gospel, because the Gospel is concerned about the heart. Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matt 6:21. The same is true in the Old Testament as well; there is a great concern about the heart. Jeremiah wrote, “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.” Jer 32:39. David said, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10. Solomon wrote, “Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.  Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” Prov 3:3-5

  

The heart is at the center of Jesus’ teaching, and throughout the Scriptures going all the way back to when God confronted Adam, “But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?" And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself." He said, "Who told you that you were naked?” Genesis 3:9-11. What we really need to see here this morning is that Jesus emphasis “the Heart” and not the head.

“Blessed are the pure in heart”

What Jesus is saying is not an intellectual exercise. This isn’t a matter of doctrine, understanding or our intellect. 

It’s the condition of the heart!

Now with me saying that; let me say this, “Doctrine is vital and crucial, understanding is very important, and Intellect is essential as well. But what Jesus is addressing here goes deeper than our doctrinal positon, our understanding and our intellect.

It goes to the very core of

our being, our person.

What Jesus addresses here is much more than head knowledge or external conduct. The term “Heart” is the epicenter of your person. This includes the mind, the will and it includes the heart. You can say, “It’s the total man or woman.” This isn’t something that is merely surface level Christianity; this is at the very core of the gospel of your new birth.

Why is the heart so important?

The heart is the seat of all our troubles. “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person.” Matt 15:19-20. We live in a society that has always blames…. the conditions, the time we live in, the environment, the powers to be, the weather; and anything and everything that is outside of us. But we forget! 

Where did man first fall?

Answer! Paradise, a place that God said it was “Good” But I will go one step further to say it was a place that had no sin, “And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” Gen 2:11. Perfect, pure creations of God, in an environment that was perfect and pure.

Where did David fall to write one of the most

beautiful Psalms of repentance?

He first fell in his heart from the King’s rooftop. 2 Sam 11:2-3. It begins in the heart as this twisted and tragic story unfolds; it wasn’t Bathsheba’s fault, it wasn’t Uriah’s fault. It was the very core of David’s person….his heart. Why was David a man after God’s own heart?Because he knew he was a sinner and needed a new one that only God could give.

Where did you fall?

It wasn’t the environment, the circumstances of life, or the people around you. Now! Those things might have some influence in your life, but our sin and impure heart begins at the core of our person. Adam and Eve fell in a perfect environment. David fell when he was at the peak of His kingship. And just like them, we fell at the moment our hearts desired it. It’s out of the heart these things arise in one’s life.

Martyn Lloyd Jones said, “Take any problem in life, anything that leads to wretchedness, find out its cause, and you will always discover that it comes from the heart.

All trouble arises from the heart, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? "I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds." Jeremiah 17:9-10

Man’s intellect or education is never going to solve His problems.

These things don’t make

you, “a good man or woman”

Because a highly smart and educated man can be extremely wicked because the heart is deceitful above all things. Jesus peels back all the falsehoods we come up with, and He cuts deep to the core of your heart. This is the problem every single person has before a holy and transcendent God.

So what is the solution to the heart?

Jesus says it here, “Approved are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” (v8) “Pure” has two meanings

First! It means without “hypocrisy; it gives the meaning of singleness. Jesus said in this sermon "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 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!” Matt 6:19-23. Its steady, directed to one object. In the KJV “To be "single eyed" means to realize that God is all there is and takes up all space. Pureness of heart corresponds to “singleness” it’s without folds. This gives us the understanding it has nothing to hide, its sincere, single-minded, its single- eyed devotion.

David penned these words, “For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God. Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name. I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever.” Psalm 86:10-12

Being pure in heart involves having a singleness of heart toward God. A pure heart has no hypocrisy, no hidden motives. The pure heart is marked by transparency and an uncompromising desire to please God in all things. It is more than an external purity of behavior; it is an internal purity of soul. God is the one who purifies the heart, and the instrument with which He cleans it is faith that he gives us through His redemptive work. It’s that person who hungers and thirsts for righteousness.

The problem we face is our divided heart,

many times we are not “single-minded”

What do I mean?

One part of us loves God deeply; wants to worship, read His Word, pray without ceasing, love others as He loved us, and to live our lives a sweet smelling aroma to Him. And the other part of us wants to go to war and crush the other half, because we have other plans today. Remember what Paul said, “For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.” Romans 7:22-25. This is the battle we face as children of God, but the pure in heart is something that isn’t divided, but singular. Our lives are to be singular spiritually, focusing on Him and only Him, “

“Teach me your way, O Lord” Psalm 86:11

That is, the present emergency. Show me what would You would have me to do, so that I may obtain Your favor and gracious help.

Second! It cares the meaning of “cleansed” or, “without defilement.” We read in Rev 21:27, “But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.” In Rev 22:14 we read, “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.” Rev 22:14-15. This statement that Jesus makes brings comfort and eternal hope, because we know what He did to make this happen in the Gospel.

See! The pure in heart means to be 

like Jesus Christ, Himself.

Not Jesus; but offspring’s of His divine power and grace, “And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.” 1 John 3:23-24

Following after the Godman who never, sinned, was perfect and spotless in everything He did. This means undivided love to God and seeing Him as our highest good. What does that look like? And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Matt 22:38-39. This means every single part of us, at the very core of our person. “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.”

Martyn Lloyd Jones said, “This is the most sanctifying statement in Holy Scripture. Why would Martyn Lloyd Jones say that? Because of what the Hebrew writer wrote, “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” Heb 12:14. What Jesus says in His sermon speaks volumes, approved are the pure in heart for they shall see God.

  

What is necessary before I can see God?

Holiness! A holiness that comes from a pure heart, that is given to you and me through the gospel of His love. This doesn’t happen through religiosity or moral conditioning. It doesn’t come though your intellect or external righteousness.

“It comes by seeing ourselves as poor, someone who mourns over sin, humble, hungering and thirsting from a merciful, pure heat, for His redemptive work in our lives.”

Nothing less than a whole person in Christ, can ever see God. Not hot or cold, not half-light and half-darkness, it’s the pure in heart through the gospel. See we need to understand no man or woman can cleanse their own hearts. As Proverb 20:9 says “Who can say, "I have made my heart pure; I am clean from my sin"? The answer to that is No one! So the logical question then is, “Who can?” Jesus said this in Matthew 19:26, “But Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

Matthew Poole wrote, “If men indeed were left all to themselves, none would be saved; just as the leopard cannot change his spots; but God can bring men to heaven by the mighty power of his grace: he can change a rich man’s heart, and take it off from too much love of riches, and make him to despise his wealth, and to put his trust in the living God; or a poor man’s heart, and make him also poor in spirit and rich in grace.”

  

What Is It To Be Pure In Heart?

I think David penned it very clearly when He wrote about the Risen King. “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. He will receive blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation.” 

Psalm 24:3-5

James, half-brother of Jesus said, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” James 4:8-10

Jesus said, “And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Matt 22:37

What Is It To See God?

Ephesians 4:17-18 it says, “Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.”

The pure in heart have had their eyes opened; they can walk in the light as He is in the light and have fellowship with God and with one another. They are able to see God in that they see His Spirit moving in the so called circumstances of life. They see His will being unfolded in their lives; they see His hand of provision in their everyday experience, they are perceptive to His ways, they are discerning of His heart and understanding when it comes to His word. They are able to see God because He lives in them through His Spirit and He reveals Himself to them in new ways every day. They see God as He lives His life through them. You see, the pure in heart will see God because they are living life, filled with His Holy Spirit.

Listen carefully! If you have been washed in the blood of Jesus, if you have been made new in Him, filled with the Holy Spirit, you will certainly see God. To see God is to be awestruck by His glory and to be comforted by His grace.See! It’s not trying to clean yourself up, and make yourself presentable for God to allow you to come in. When we do these things it usually ends up worse than it began. It’s God alone! Who can give you a pure heart and we can thank God that he has promised that to us through the gospel. The Spirit/Helper, is the one who came to convict and cleanse our blackened hearts to be pure and holy though Christ’s death and resurrection.

Remember the promise Jesus said to His disciples? “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. John 16:13. The Gospel creates a clean heart of single-mindedness, so that we press on for His glory and our good. Remember what Jesus is doing for you right now! “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” Phil 1:6.

Rest in this truth….. But for this to make sense in one’s life,

you have to be adopted first though the gospel. This world is passing away and everything in it; and people are scared and living in fear of tomorrow.

The virus, your present ongoing sickness is the

least of a person’s worry. It’s God!

The greatest problem is the heart and the question of “Do I want to see God? For you and me, we can’t wait soon enough to see Him face to face, but for many it’s going to be the worst eternity of their lives.

We who are in Christ love and look forward to being with Him but until that day approaches we are to…. Walk in singleness of mind focusing our attention, worries, burdens, sorrows, hurts, joys, peace of mind, on Him fully and completely. We know how easily our hearts can become divided, so we proceed with caution with a poor, meek thirsting heart, longing to see God from a pure heart..