Only Pure in Heart See God

Our text today is Matthew 5.8, which says, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Just as a setting of this, this is part of the Beatitudes. Jesus delivered this particular sermon on a mountain. As it says in the first verse of chapter 5, the first couple of verses, that He was on a mountain and His disciples came to Him and there was a multitude. So the way that I look at it, the disciples gathered around Jesus. They probably sat at his feet and then below them were a multitude. And Jesus delivers the famous beatitudes, which means the blessedness or the blessings that he bestows upon those who are the meek and the poor in spirit, and those who are persecuted, and all of the things that Jesus says in the Beatitudes. And this is part of a larger sermon, which is the Sermon on the Mount, which ends on Matthew 7, verses 28 to 29. And on verse 28 and 29, It says that the people were astonished at his teaching because it was preached or taught with authority. The first thing I want to do before I get into the verse itself is to say, why were they astonished at Jesus' teaching? They have had great teachers. At this time, there was a Sadducee faction, there were the Pharisees. The Sadducees were sort of the liberals, the Pharisees were the conservatives. There was much infighting between the two. And I assume that they came together from time to time to debate issues and whatever. And they were probably told to compromise, and there were probably some in one camp and some of another camp. their teaching, I don't think, came with much authority. They probably relied on a bunch of commentaries, what predecessors had said who were in that camp or in the other camp, and so they probably took a vote and they said, okay, these are the things that we're going to include in our list of rules. And these are the things we're going to believe. And these are the things that we're not going to believe. Yes, they used scripture, probably. But as Jesus said, they didn't interpret it correctly. And so that's the setting, I think, of the Beatitudes, that the people had never heard in their time, because there was a long period of time between the last prophet and the appearing of John the Baptist and then Jesus. And so that's the teaching they had, the tradition of men. And so Jesus taught with authority and they were astonished at his teaching. The Pharisees, who are the most famous, because Jesus always takes them to task, they only looked on the outside. They looked on the externals. They looked at outside morality. And they probably could say that they kept the Ten Commandments. They probably did because they only looked on the externals. Hard and fast things. So if you didn't murder anyone, you were good there. If you didn't commit adultery, you were good there. Jesus went beyond that because Jesus looked at the heart. And that's the first thing. Jesus looked at the heart. And so when he looks at the heart, he looks at your motives. What is your motive for doing this? And we know that it's much more difficult when we look at our heart than when we try to keep externals. So the first thing I think that Jesus, they were astounded at his teaching because it wasn't an external teaching. Yes, external morality happens, but as a result of a new heart. And that's what we're going to talk about today. The other thing was that Jesus taught with authority. He only said what the Father said. So he spoke God's Word. And he could lay down a command, and it was noticeable that it was from God. In some fashion, that the people were astonished at this, that they saw it as authority. He also had a perfect interpretation of Scripture. I know when we're writing the Constitution, we probably will have some debates on how to interpret something. Jesus didn't have that. problem because he had perfect interpretation of God's Word. And so when he spoke, people listened to what Jesus said. So his basically sermon here is to say that you can't clean up your own life. You can't do this without supernatural power. and that power comes through the Holy Spirit. The source of all evil is in the heart. It must be reformed before you are truly moral. And people have tried to clean up their own act, and they can for a while, I think, but in the long haul, they always revert back to where they were before. And we know that God says that man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. God judges our motive. With that, let me just explain this one verse. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. And I want to do this just in three quick points. And that is the impurity of the heart. is the cause of spiritual blindness. Two, the purification of the heart enables us to see a most glorious sight. And three, purification of the heart is a divine operation. As I looked at this verse, I said, let me just read this in a negative fashion. So I would say that reading this in a negative fashion is cursed, or cursed is the impure in heart, for he shall not see God. So cursed is the impure of heart, for he shall not see God. Why can't the impure heart see God? Well, one, we know because God is spirit. We must worship him in spirit and in truth. Only those born of the Spirit can see him. We can't see God with our physical eyes. We can only see him with spiritual eyes. Secondly, our sins have blinded us so that we cannot see God. Sins like covetousness, wanting more and more, desiring what someone else has. blinds us to see God. Our desire to set the rules. You know, God sets the rules. I know people would say he had to be tolerant in here and there, because that's the way of the world to be tolerant. But when God speaks and he gives a black and white command, he means it. He sets the rules. He sets the rules for morality. He sets the rules for purity. Not us. And yet man always wants to set the rules that this is more pure than God's purity. And that blinds us because God says this is pure. And we say, no, this is pure. This is tolerance. This is goodness. And then we don't see our faults or our sins. And that blinds us so that we cannot see God. We don't call sin, sin. We call it, I made a mistake. My environment caused me to do this. But we don't see sin as God sees it. And even when we see sin, we don't see it in its horribleness, how wretched and terrible it is. And so how can we, with a wretched and a horrible heart, see a pure God? We can't. And then some of us are self-righteous. We think we've achieved purity. And we know that if we think that, that's death because we don't need a savior. So we can't see God if we're self-righteous. And then some of us are wise in our own eyes. I'm reading a book called Redeeming Science. And all truth is God's truth. And in spite of the tremendous evidence of science that there is a God, they deny him because they're the wise of this world. They're the wise ones. And yet God is wise. When they think they're wiser than God, then they can't see God. There are probably many other things that blinds us to see God. But the impure in heart will not see God in this life. or an eternity. Except I will say that they won't see God except in terror, in hell. Because when we talk about purity, we always have to talk about the opposite of purity. Or when we talk about purity, and that's the same thing as holiness, and the opposite of holiness is evil. There's hell and there's wrath. And so, we will Not only not see God, but we will experience his eternal wrath. So, in a negative sense, cursed is the impure heart, for he shall not see God. Secondly, the purification of the heart enables us to see a most glorious sight. And what is that most glorious sight? It's God himself. God himself. And I look at this as a progressing type. I mean, it's probably not step one, two, three, and four, but the ultimate is to see God with pure eyes. Let's just, as God starts to work in our hearts, what do we see? I think we see God in nature. When we see the beauty of his creation, as Keith said today, God's holiness and beauty. And that's God is holy. His beauty is his holiness. And when we see the creation, the ocean, the mountains, the beauty of the trees and the flowers, the birds, the animals, the heavens declare the glory, declare the glory of God. And that's when we're starting to see with pure eyes a great God. God and the beauty of his creation. And as I read more and more in science, I see the wisdom and the power of God in biochemistry, where we have things like irreducible complexity, when things come together that are beyond human imagination, the little motors and cells that God has created with rotors and stators and things coming together. We took a look at cosmology, the heavens and the expanding universe and how things have to be on a certain rotation and a certain angle missing by a degree or two destroys life as we know it. How God is so wise and so powerful. We see him in DNA and the information systems that he's created. biological information, the way he transmits chromosomes. We heard of chromosomes. Somebody had a disease today with chromosomes, and we see that God lays out these DNA things which always replicate, and it's just a great, great intelligent designer. And so, when we see the heavens, we see God. Those without God say there is no God, and they have to give an explanation, which is foolishness. And it's absolutely foolishness when you read some of the people that can't refute what's in front of them, but yet they're blinded. And the Bible is true when it says you cannot see God. They can't see God in nature. Next, when God opens our eyes, we can see Jesus in all the Scripture. We can see God. We can see a great God in the scripture and we believe it. We trust that it's true. We trust that every word is true. And if we cannot reconcile one verse with another, we just have to say it both are true. Maybe I'll understand it someday or maybe I won't. But certainly the fault is with me and not with God. But when he opens our eyes, that's the attitude we have. God, your word is true and I trust it. And I trust you completely. And then we see another progression. We see God in the church. How does the world see God's love? He sees it in the church, how we love one another, how we love the world. And so we're building on our eyes as we progress. We see God in his church and in the love. And even more than seeing God in nature, in the Bible and in the church, we see the true character of God and his attributes. We see all of his attributes, not in complementing each other as a whole, not in conflict with each other, but beautiful symmetry in all of what God does. We see his mercy. We see his wrath. We see his grace and we see his justice. We see his wisdom and his power and his love. And all of these attributes can be preceded with the word holy or pure. We see His holy mercy, His holy wrath, His holy grace, His holy justice, His holy wisdom, His holy power, His holy love. The name that God ascribes to Himself more than any other name is holy. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord. That's a superlative in Hebrew for God. He is holy, holy, holy. And He wants us to be holy. And only if we are holy can we see a holy God. And lastly and best, we'll see Him face to face in heaven with absolutely pure eyes. Because see, even when we're born again, we don't have absolutely pure eyes. But when we're in heaven, we will have absolutely pure eyes. and we'll be absolutely able to see God. And I just want to read two quick verses on that. 1 Corinthians 13, 12, which says, For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then, meaning when we meet Him in heaven, but then face to face. Now I know in part but then I shall know Him just as I am known." And then, 1 John 3, 2-3. 1 John 3, 2-3. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure. And so we can see the buildup over here. But the most glorious sight, the sight that awaits us in heaven, is God himself. That's the glorious sight, to behold him as he is. And that is our great hope and our great assurance. And the last part, part three, is the purification of the heart is a divine operation. The heart can only be purified by God's Holy Spirit. You must be born again. The great substitution must take place. Our sins must be transferred to Christ, and His holiness and His purity must be transferred to us. And that's how we can stand before Him as holy. So we need to be both legally pure, which is at the cross, which is justification, and we need to be growing in purity, growing morally. so that we can progress in holiness to see God. I don't know if I'm going to have enough. That pretty much ends it, but I do want to. I think Isaiah. Has. What I've been trying to say, beautifully stated in an actual vision that he has of the Lord God. all the elements when he stands before God he quakes because he sees God's holiness and he's a man of unclean lips what is what does the angel do he takes a coal from the fire and sears his lips and he says now your lips are clean and then God says, the Lord says, whom shall I send and who will go for us? And then Isaiah says, then I said, here am I, send me. So he's been washed in the blood of Jesus. He saw sinfulness. He saw how wretched he was. God touches his lips, purifies him. Now he's ready to begin the journey of holiness. And he says, Here I am. Send me. And the Lord says to him, go and tell this people. And this has to do with blindness and sight. And this is what he tells them. It's sort of, to me, it's anticlimactic, but it's the state of humanity. And this is what God tells him to say. And God said, go and tell this people, keep on hearing, but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears. and understand with their heart, and return and be healed. And the last section just deals with God says, I'm always going to have a remnant though. There are always going to be those who are pure in heart. So, conclude with the verse, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.