Pure in Heart — Anton Bosch

The Beatitudes and the Promise of Seeing God

And we've been dealing with the Beatitudes, Matthew chapter 5, And seeing the multitudes, he went up on a mountain, and when he was seated, his disciples came to him. Then he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

So we're dealing with the sixth one, which is in verse 8 this morning. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. And the environment in which Jesus presents these Beatitudes is obviously in the environment of the Pharisaical kind of religion, which the Jews were involved in at the time.

Jesus Confronts External Religion

And you'll see that in the same chapter Jesus says, You have heard it said of all. In other words, the tradition says that this is the law, and then they've obviously added to the law, but he says, I say to you.

And so Jesus focuses on the heart, not on the outward. In Matthew chapter 23, the passage which we looked at last week, I think, as well, but I want to just go back to that. Matthew chapter 23, and from verse 23.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithes of mint and anise and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone.

And so they were doing the external things. They were paying the tithes. They were counting the number of leaves of the herbs that they picked in the garden. But the inward things, the spiritual things, justice and mercy and faith, these were not the external things, but the state of heart.

He says, These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone. Blind guides, you strain out gnat and swallow a camel. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.

Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.

Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. And so it's against this background that Jesus now says, Blessed are the pure in heart, not blessed are the pure in actions.

Now, in his teaching here he says, These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone. And so we can't say, Well, my heart is right and so my actions don't matter. Obviously that doesn't work either.

But the outward holy living needs changed heart. That's what Jesus is emphasizing. They were emphasizing the fact that as long as you had a legalistic set of rules and everybody did everything the right way and everybody obeyed the rules and obeyed the law, then they were okay.

Jesus says, No, it's no good changing the outside if the inside hasn't been changed. And so he says, Blessed are the pure in heart. Blessed are the pure in heart. And so the change needs to happen on the inside.

Purity Begins in the Heart

And obviously he addresses the heart, which really is the control center for my emotions and my mind and my will. The real me, so to speak. That which constitutes my desires and my character, my personality.

There is where purity needs to be. The scripture says that he desires purity on the inward parts. In the inward parts. And you know, it's easy to fool men into being righteous on the outside and doing all the right things and keeping all the rules and appearing to be holy on the outside.

And yet on the inside, the real issues of the heart have not been dealt with. And are still not changed. In Matthew 15, he says, Out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.

All of these things begin in the heart. And even in Galatians, you'll find that when he lists the deeds of the flesh, you'll find that these are things that proceed from the heart. They begin on the inside.

They don't begin on the outside. And so it's the heart that needs to be changed. It's the heart that's the issue. And it's the heart that Jesus deals with here. And the problem also is that we look at ourselves and we invariably find somebody who is worse off than we are.

And we compare ourselves by that person. And so you remember there was the Pharisee who came to pray. And there was the sinner. And he says, I thank you God that I'm not like other men. Especially not like this man.

And so we look around and we say, well I thank you Lord that I'm not like so and so, that I'm not like that person. And so our standard invariably is the worst amongst us. And so we look at the person who seems to be furthest from God and we say, well thank you God, I'm better than that person is and so I must be alright.

And yet Jesus sets the standard also in Matthew chapter 5. And remember that's all part of the same message that he presents in the end of chapter 5 verse 48. He says, this is the standard. Therefore he says, you shall be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

You should be perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect. And so Jesus says the standard is not other men. And being able to say, well I'm better than that person. I'm a little bit more patient than that person.

I'm a little bit more long suffering. I'm a bit more loving. I'm a bit more merciful. Or whatever it is than somebody else. He says the standard is the Father. And so we need to be perfect even as our Father is perfect.

And of course immediately the response comes and we say, but we can never achieve that. And then there are those who say, well you know he's speaking about my position in Christ. And so when God looks at me in Christ, I'm perfect.

I'm justified and I'm made righteous in Jesus Christ. And so that doesn't matter. But we must remember that there are different areas in which this needs to happen. First of all, as we've said judiciously in terms of the law, God has justified us.

And he said he has made us perfect. And there are many other areas. But the other area that we want to focus on is the practical aspect of the outliving of my life. The practical aspect of perfection is not real.

It's not there in our hearts. It's not there in our lives. We have to admit that. And yet we want to fool ourselves in saying, well because I've been justified, therefore it doesn't matter. No, it does matter.

I need to find that perfection and that purity of heart, not just in the way that God sees me, but in the way that the world sees me, in the way that the church sees me, and in the way I see myself. It needs to find an outworking in my life.

And this is the area that we struggle in. And so that purity of heart needs to find a practical outward demonstration. And it needs to come from a change of heart. And we can never achieve that on our own.

And that's part of the Beatitudes. And it begins with poverty of spirit, beginning to recognize that I don't have what it takes to become perfect like God. I don't have what it takes to have His kind of purity.

That's the beginning of it. But we'll speak a bit more just now about how do we achieve that. But it begins by recognizing that I can't achieve it. I need Him to bring it about in my life. I need Him to change me.

I need Him to make me conform to the image of His Son. And so the standard is 100%. In 1 Peter chapter 1, Peter also emphasizes the fact that this needs to be an inward holiness. 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 14.

Holiness in Conduct and Love

And there's another scripture in Peter I want you to have a look at as well. 1 Peter 1 verse 14. As obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts as in your ignorance. So he says don't just allow yourselves to run riot.

Don't allow your flesh to control you. Don't be conformed as you were before to the things of the world. Remember Paul said very much the same in Romans chapter 12, being not conformed to this world. And so don't allow the world to set the standard of holiness in your life.

And the problem is that I believe that to a large extent the world has set the standard of holiness to the church today. And so because the world is so morally bankrupt and the church is only slightly better than that, we feel we're alright.

And so as the iniquity of the world has increased over the years, the iniquity in the church has increased. And we've just stayed a little bit ahead of the world and we're quite happy with that. And he says no, don't allow your conduct to be shaped by the world.

And the fact that the world does something doesn't mean that we can do something. The fact that the world lives in a particular way, feels in a particular way, thinks in a particular way, does not mean that the church must go down that same route.

And it's amazing how many things that were unacceptable amongst Christians 20, 50, 100, 200 years ago are now perfectly acceptable amongst Christians. Why? Because the world has had its impact upon the church.

And so our conduct has been shaped by the world. But he says, Obedient children, not conforming yourselves to your former lusts as in your ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.

In all your conduct. And we were reminded in the breaking of bread a few weeks ago that there are two aspects of holiness. The one aspect where we are separated to God, separated from the world, but there's another aspect in which we are cleansed.

And this is the context in which we are speaking this morning. Purity. Speaking of cleansing. The Greek word, decatharsis, from which we get the English word, catharsis. We speak about when someone has been through a cleansing experience, a catharsis.

He says we need to be holy, not just separated, but cleansed in all of our conduct. Even as our Father is holy. An area that's not covered by that. And so, because he speaks about whether it's outside the home, whether it's in the church, outside the church.

Whether it's in what I do with my hands, what I do with my eyes, what I do with my ears, what I do with my mind. Every area of my life, every aspect of my conduct needs to be holy, even as my Father is holy.

And then in verse 22, 1 Peter 1 verse 22, he says, Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit, in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart.

Love one another through the Spirit, in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart. And so, not only must my actions be changed, not only must all of my conduct be holy, but my relationships must be based on purity.

My relationships must be based on purity. And so, there's need for us to love the brethren, or to love one another, fervently with a pure heart. With a pure heart. And so, that deals with, and purity, many times when the scripture speaks about purity in the New Testament, it also seems to speak about singleness, or not having two or three, but being single-minded.

And so, loving Him with all of our heart, not loving other things at the same time. And so, here he is speaking about loving one another with a pure heart, with a sincere heart, with not two motives, not with a double-minded approach.

And we'll speak about double-mindedness in a moment. And so, the need for fervent love for one another, not just tolerating one another, but a fervent love for one another. Now, that's quite a challenge.

And so, we need to love one another fervently, and it needs to be with a pure heart. With a pure motive. With no ulterior motives. With no hidden agenda. With no other purpose. But simply that we may love one another the same way as He loved us.

And so, there needs to be love in our actions. There needs to be purity in our actions. There needs to be purity in our motives. There needs to be purity in our love. And there in 1 Timothy chapter 1, there needs to be purity in our speech.

Pure-Hearted Teaching and Edifying Speech

1 Timothy 1 verse 3 to 6. 1 Timothy 1 verse 3 to 6. Now, the purpose of the command is to love from a pure heart. You'll see again Paul's writing to Timothy the same thing that Peter wrote. To love from a pure heart.

From a good conscience and from sincere faith. From which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk. And so you'll see that he speaks here about verse 4, giving heed to fables. Fables are stories.

And many teachers of the word, many Christian teachers are teaching fables today. Stories that are not the truth. That are not contained within the word of God. And endless genealogies. Arguments about where came God his wife.

And all sorts of other arguments about the scriptures. And disputes. Rather than God the edification which is in faith. And then you'll see that he comes back to this theme in verse 6. In fact it goes right through both of Paul's letters to Timothy.

Verse 6. From which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk. Desiring to be teachers of the law. Understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm. And so you'll see that he's dealing with the issue of talk.

And of what we teach and what we say. And he says that if our teaching and what we say is not sound. Here are the reasons. Because they have strayed from love from a pure heart. And from a sincere and from a good conscience.

And from sincere faith. Those three things are essential if we're going to be teaching the truth. If we're going to be teaching the truth and not be turned aside to fables. And to endless genealogies and all of those things.

First of all there needs to be love from a pure heart. Love from a pure heart. If I have love from a pure heart. I will not teach you things that are not edifying. I will not teach you things that are not true and that are not right.

And then the second thing from a good conscience. And so we need to stand before God with a clear conscience. Remember that in giving an account one day. We will give an account for every idle word that we have spoken.

Now I need to stand before God. And each one of us needs to be able to stand before God with a good conscience. Knowing that he has been witness to all of our conversations. Knowing that he has been witness to everything we have taught.

That he has been witness to everything that we have said. And that all of these things have not been fables, endless genealogies, disputes. These sorts of things. But that they have been to building up.

And so if that is present. So a pure heart. A good conscience. And a sincere faith. A sincere faith. Believing the truth. If those things are present. Then my speech will be the right kind of speech. But one of those is the need to have a pure heart.

In 2 Timothy chapter 2. Paul says that this is essential for fellowship. Purity in heart is essential for fellowship. And we have looked at this verse before. But he says in verse 22. 2 Timothy 2 .22.

Flee also youthful lusts. But pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace. With those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. And so we need to be pursuing these spiritual things. We need to be chasing after.

Not the things of the world. As we have been encouraged this morning. Because they will be consumed. They are of no value whatsoever. And so we must not turn to the things. We must not chase after the things of the world.

They are empty. Flee youthful lusts. But pursue righteousness, love, faith and peace. With those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. And so he says. Don't chase the outward things. Chase the inward things.

But don't do it on your own. Do it with those who call upon the Lord. Out of a pure heart. And so we need to encourage one another. To pursue righteousness, faith, love and so on. And we need to do that amongst those who are calling upon the Lord.

Out of a pure heart. So he is suggesting that there are others who are calling upon the Lord. But not out of a pure heart. You say. Well is that possible? That people call upon the Lord. But not out of a pure heart.

Yes. People call out of the Lord. Because they think he is going to make them rich. Others call upon the Lord. Because they are scared they are going to go to hell. Others call upon the Lord. Because they suppose godliness may be a means of gain.

And so on and so forth. And so there are many reasons why people call upon the Lord. Except out of a pure heart. But he says that we need to support one another. And call upon the Lord out of a pure heart.

Singleness of Heart Instead of Double-Mindedness

Now in James chapter 4. James deals as you may remember. With the issue of double mindedness. Of having two minds. And having two hearts. Loving God and loving the world. And remember that also in the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus says no man can serve two masters. Either he will love one and despise the other. Or he will despise one and love the other. And so we cannot love two gods at the same time. We can only love one master.

We can only serve one master at the same time. And this is the problem. Is that part of purity of heart is this concept of singleness of heart. Of not having two hearts. Not having one heart for God and one heart for the world.

Of loving the things of God and the things of the world at the same time. This was the problem with Israel. Israel served God but also served Baal. Solomon you remember he served God. But he also served the God of Egypt.

Or the gods of Egypt. And the many other gods that were around there. And this is the biggest problem. Is not that we don't love God. It's that we love other things at the same time. At the same level.

And so it's not that we don't serve. Many people are serving God today. But they're also trying to serve the world. They're also trying to serve their own pleasures. They're also trying to serve mammon.

They're trying to serve all sorts of things at the same time. And this is the issue. And so right from the beginning in the book of Deuteronomy and also in Leviticus. You find the laws that deal with mixture.

And so you were not allowed to in-span an ox and a horse at the same time. You were not allowed to wear different kinds of thread on your body at the same time. You were not allowed to sow different kinds of seed.

Mixed seed in the field at the same time. Cleanliness. He doesn't want things to be mixed. And James deals with this issue because this is really a big problem for us as Christians. In verse 8 of James chapter 4 he says, Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. In other words, cleanse out those things that don't belong there. Cleanse out the other things that share space.

That share time. That share energy in your life. That have become God's. And that you have elevated to the same level as God. That you may become single of heart. That you may become pure of heart. And so you'll remember that the disciples in the book of Acts, it says that they broke their bread with simplicity.

Some translations use that word simplicity. But other translations use the word with singleness of heart. And so when they came together to break bread, there was one purpose. And that was to focus upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

They had one heart and one mind. And that was to know the Lord Jesus in all of His fullness. And all of who He is and who He represents. And that's the biggest problem that all of us battle with today.

Is the issue of double-mindedness. That yes, we love God, but we love other things as well. We serve God, but we serve other things as well. And James says we need to cleanse our hearts. Purify our hearts.

And not be double-minded. That we may be single-minded. That we may be focused upon Him. That we may set our hearts upon Him. And I think it's David in the Psalms that speaks about the fact that he has set his heart upon God.

That he might have that relationship with God. That we may single-mindedly set ourselves upon the things of God. When we look at the people in the world. How that they single-mindedly chase money. Or single-mindedly chase achievement in sport.

Or whatever they're chasing. Everything else falls by the wayside. Everything else becomes of less importance. Just that they may fulfill and achieve that goal that they've set before themselves. And yet as Christians we seem to find Christianity as something that is just an as-well thing.

And so we have all of these interests that we have. And our sports. And our jobs. And our hobbies. And all of these things. And amongst those things we have Christianity. Now Jesus needs to become our all in all.

Pursuing Holiness Through Obedience

We need to set our hearts and our minds single-mindedly upon Him. That He may become our everything. That He may become our all in all. Now the question is obviously how do we achieve this holiness? How do we get this purity?

And some just give up. And they say well you know we just can't unless God does it. I can't do anything. And so they just wait for God to somehow do something miraculously for them. And they just continue serving the world.

They continue living a half-hearted Christian life. Saying well I can't do it. God's got to do it. And so let me wait for something to happen. And obviously that won't happen. Because we have clear instruction that we need to pursue holiness.

We need to. It's something that I need to do. Something that God needs to do. But I need to do it with Him. And so we need to be working together. As in every other area of our Christian lives. We can't just sit and wait for God to do everything for me.

But in fact He's asking me to respond to Him. He's showing me things in His Word. And He's asking me to be obedient to Him. He empowers through His Spirit. But if I'm just going to sit there and say well I'm waiting for Him to do everything for me.

And so in the meantime I do nothing until He somehow just changes me. It's never going to happen. There are some who say well there's nothing that I can do. So I've just got to sit back and wait for it to happen.

Of course we can overemphasize the other end. In which I'm working out and trying for myself to achieve these things without the help of God. And of course that's going to fail as well. And so what I need to do is I need to work together with Him.

And as He highlights things in my life He will empower me to deal with them. And then I need to deal with them. And I need to move on to the next area. And He'll highlight the next area. And He'll empower me to deal with that thing.

And so we need to work together with God as we go through the process. And so as we've said the first step in the process of achieving this holiness is to understand my weakness. To understand that I can't do it.

That I am poor. That I am wretched. That I'm blind. That I need Him to change me. I need His holiness. I think that there are too many Christians who are just satisfied with the level of purity that they have.

They say well this is what God has given me. That's all that's necessary. Or some say well I'm justified and so I'm fine. And yet the book of Psalms says, sorry Proverbs 20 verse 9 says that who can say I am pure from sin?

Who can say I am pure from sin? And obviously none of us can say that. And so we need to first of all understand our need. We need to say Lord yes I'm better than I was but I'm not where I need to be yet.

Yes Lord there are many areas that I've been able by your grace and that you've been able to work in my life in the various ways that you've worked. But Lord there are other areas that still need to be resolved.

There are still other areas that need to be sorted out. There are other areas that need to be cleaned. And so it needs to begin with honesty. It needs to begin with an honest look with ourselves. Now we're dealing with the heart and remember the problem with our heart is that it is deceitful.

And so it tells us we're okay when we're not okay. It says that we're fine when in fact we're not fine. And so we need to begin by understanding our poverty, seeing ourselves the way that God sees us.

The Word as a Mirror and Means of Cleansing

And then secondly in Ephesians chapter 5 we need to allow the word to have its impact on my life. Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians 5 speaks about marriage. 25 says husbands love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it.

That he might sanctify and cleanse it with a washing of water by the word. And so we are his bride and he is sanctifying and cleansing us with a washing of water by the word. And so the word cleanses us.

And it does it in two ways. First of all by revealing our need. Remember the laver in the Old Testament was made out of the brass looking glasses of the woman which was polished. And so the priest would go to the laver and he would see his reflection.

He would see his need. And he would recognize that he had blood or whatever it was on him and that he needed to wash. And that's the first thing the word of God does is when I read the scriptures I see God's holiness and I see my unholiness.

I see God's perfection and my imperfection. And immediately I recognize my need. But it doesn't just expose me. If the word is only exposing me well that's not the word of God. Because it also provides the solution.

It also provides the answer. How to deal with these things. How to change. How to be cleansed. And so the laver not only revealed the need but it also contained the water at which the priest would then wash himself.

And so there is the revelation and there is the cleansing. The word is not a mystical thing in the sense that if I just read it it's somehow just going to change me and I'm somehow miraculously. No, there's a very practical application.

As I read the scriptures and I see, oh, here chapter 6 verse 1 says children obey your parents. I'm just taking this as an example. Oh, I need to be, if I'm a child, I need to be obedient to my parents.

I need to go and do it. So it's showing me something and I now need to do it. And it often tells me how to do that. And so the word is the thing that cleanses me. So I need to stay in the word. I need to allow the word to speak to me.

And I need to be obedient to the word and that will cleanse me. So the washing of the water by the word. And then the second thing I need to do is I need Galatians chapter 5. One book back. Galatians chapter 5.

Walking in the Spirit

I need to walk in the spirit. Galatians 5 and verse 16. I say then walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the flesh. Walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. And so how do I achieve holiness?

By walking in the spirit. Now walking in the spirit, and I'm not sure that we've ever taught on this here, but it's not an airy fairy kind of altered state of consciousness. This is what some Christians think walking in the spirit means.

It means to be sort of in some other state of mind. To be sort of floating around and somehow I'm in the spirit. That's not what he is speaking about. When you read the parallel passages in Romans 6, 7 and 8, which explains this passage, you'll find that walking in the spirit simply means being obedient to the spirit.

And so there are two voices all the time. The voice of the flesh and the voice of the spirit. The flesh says do this. The spirit says do that. And if I'm going to listen to the flesh, I'm walking in the flesh.

But if I'm going to listen to the spirit and be obedient to the spirit, I'm walking in the spirit. It's as simple as that. It's not very difficult. And so as I listen to the voice of the spirit and am obedient to the voice of the spirit, I'm walking in or after the spirit.

And then he says I will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. It's as simple as that. Why? Because the spirit is never going to tell me to do the wrong thing. The spirit is never going to tell me to do what the flesh wants to do.

It's always going to tell me the right thing. Now we understand that none of us obey the spirit 100%. That's the problem. And so none of us are perfectly holy. But if we were able to, and if we did listen to the spirit, and sometimes we're able to achieve this for two seconds, well for those two seconds we are perfectly holy.

Because I've perfectly listened to the spirit. But then the next moment the flesh says, Ah, you know, you've done so well for those two seconds. And immediately it says you can pat yourself on the back.

And immediately pride enters in. Or whatever. And so it goes. And so all day long I'm listening to the flesh and the spirit and the flesh and the spirit. But the more I listen to the spirit, the more holy I will be.

The more I listen to the flesh, the less holy I will be. And this happens from the first moment I open my eyes to the moment I close my eyes at night. Every thought that enters into my mind, there's two voices all the time.

The flesh and the spirit. And if I'm listening to the spirit, I will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. And so I need to realize my poverty. I need to stay in the word. I need to walk in the spirit. And finally I need to pray.

Prayer for a Clean Heart

I need to pray. And not just pray. Of course I need to spend time with God. But I need to ask Him to make me holy. And in Psalm 51 you remember David prays that great prayer of penance. And he says,. And so I need to ask God to do it for me.

Now sometimes, as we've said, we expect God to miraculously somehow just change me. Somehow it's just going to be different. No, He uses experiences and various things in my life to bring about that holiness.