The Heart that Sees God

Matthew 5:8 and the Question of Seeing God

Hope that was on the video. We have a task before us tonight to continue in the Beatitudes. We're looking at Matthew chapter 5 and verse 8. Jesus is pronouncing blessings. He's telling us who it is, who are the blessed.

I think about as we approach this Beatitude tonight, I think about the conversations we so often have.

Have you seen this movie?

Do you remember what happened in this movie? Have you seen this episode of whatever show it may be?

Have you seen the Grand Canyon?

Have you seen the Rockies? Have you seen the Christmas lights at Garvin Gardens or whatever it may be? We have so many conversations that start out with that question. Have you seen? But the question I want us to begin tonight with is the one related to our text.

Have you seen God? Jesus says, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. We're going to consider the heart tonight that sees God. Would you stand with me and honor the reading of God's Word?

Most famous sermon ever preached, not this sermon, the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus says in its introduction, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Father, thank you for this wonderful text.

We tremble before it. If we know there are warnings in your Bible about those who see God, we would be obliterated. And yet, what a strange and mysterious and wonderful and awe-inspiring text that Jesus brings before our hearts and minds tonight.

Oh, how foolish we are to be captivated by so many lesser things, so many created things that we let draw our minds and hearts away. And yet, here we are, the promise tonight of the pure in heart,.

That they shall see God.

I pray that we would be convicted and encouraged and challenged and comforted as only your Holy Spirit can do by such a text. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. These pronouncements of blessings are in the present, the state.

The idea that Jesus is communicating here is that really it's the opposite of what the world thinks of the ones who are blessed. We've said before that we have a curtain, we're pulling back the curtain, we're seeing in some instances what it looks like to be born again.

And so we have began this beatitude last time, and we talked about the problem of impure hearts. And we said the impure hearts are dead, delinquent, and deceptive. That is, they're unfeeling towards the things of God.

They're dead, they have no taste for the things of God. They're delinquent, they're not merely immobile, but they're rebellious against God and His Word. And they're deceptive in the sense that if you ask anyone, do you have an impure heart, what are they going to say?

They're going to say, no, God knows my heart. And then we said the beauty of a regenerate heart. We said that a pure heart, first of all, has been wounded, it's been convicted of sin. It's been opened like God opened Lydia's heart, and then it's been replaced.

And the heart that the Christian has, has new affections, we have new loves, new desires. We now taste the things of God and enjoy them. We have new attitudes, new motivations. We have new actions, we live this out.

And we have a new aim, that is, we pursue Christ and His glory. And so now our third point, and that will be tonight's sermon. The heart that sees God. Blessed are the pure in heart. Now listen to this promise.

For they shall see God.

Seeing God Now by Faith

What a glorious promise. And I'm going to divide this into two sections. The pure in heart will see God now. And secondly, the pure in heart will see God forever. So first, the pure in heart will see God now.

Now what do I mean by that? Well, we're going to use some Puritan help here. Thomas Watson says that we can see God in this life, that is, spiritually, by the eye of faith. Faith sees God's glorious attributes in the looking glass of His Word.

Faith beholds Him showing forth through the lattice of His ordinances. The pure in heart see God in this life. They see God now through the eyes of faith. Jeremiah Burroughs writes, to see God means to know Him through the eyes of understanding and to experience His presence.

Seeing God in Scripture. Seeing God is used in Scripture to denote knowing and experiencing God. They shall see God in this world, and the cleaner their hearts become, the more they will perceive God.

We see God, as it were, spiritually speaking. Alright, that's not all the promise of the text, okay? But when we're going to get to that in just a moment, a few minutes, but I'm starting out now to say that the pure in heart see God now, spiritually speaking, through the eyes of faith.

Now, let me offer to you something that you may have not considered before. Since the Christian life is seeing God by faith, since this is a spiritual seeing, first and foremost now, and not physical, hear me out.

We should not make physical images of God. Because the life that the Christian lives now is not of sight, but by faith. So, the second commandment, don't make graven images, that's still in play here.

Too often, this is violated by well-meaning Christians. They, not in a desire to be disobedient, they're not actively thinking, most Christians I know of, they're not actively thinking, I want to break the second commandment, I don't want to think about faith, I want to think about sight, and they put up images of Jesus.

There's a few problems with this, I'm just going to list three. The first is, in relation to our text, this replaces the spiritual eyes of faith with the physical eyes of our body. But we won't see God in this life with our physical eyes.

Can you see God? What was the catechism question this morning, you remember? Can you see God? No. But what? He always sees me. So, we don't want to try to outsmart God here. We want to see God with the eyes of faith.

We want to even teach our children. I understand that it's a difficult concept, and it's easier just to put an image in front of our children and say, look, there's God. But no, that's not what we want to teach our children.

We want to teach our children, first and foremost, the pure in heart must behold God with the eyes of faith. Another issue I'll mention is, no matter how one conveys the Lord Jesus, the most beautiful artist, the best artist in the world today, they're going to get it wrong.

Jesus does not look like Aaron Rodgers, the quarterback of, I almost said the Packers, the New York Jets. He doesn't look like the lead singer of Creed. But these are the ways that, like, let me just mention this.

A little bit smaller tonight, Labor Day weekend, I'll go off on a tangent. So, I have a couple of issues with The Chosen or whatever. One issue is, I think it's some of the things that I've heard and read seems to be theologically problematic.

That's number one. Number two, like, that ain't Jesus. And I think it's problematic for us to try to look at that and be like, oh, yeah, but he's just, let me ask you this. What benefit does the church get from watching physical reenactments of Jesus?

What benefit do we get? What is it that you're saying that we need from something like that that we don't have in his work? Do you remember when, in Luke 16, when Abraham is dialoguing with the rich man?

The rich man has gone to Hades, and he's going to Abraham, and he says,.

Listen, no, listen, send someone back from the dead. Send them back from the dead, and my brothers, they'll believe.

And what does Abraham say? You got Moses and the prophets. If you don't believe them, you're not going to believe even if someone comes back from the dead. Now, let me make an application here about movies and shows and stuff that portray the Lord Jesus.

What is it that you think that someone will benefit from that if they don't benefit from the Word of God? If someone rising from the dead won't encourage their faith, if someone rising from the dead won't move them from spiritual death to spiritual life, then why do we think a reenactment of the Lord would do so?

So I think God in his wisdom, obviously I believe God in his wisdom, sent Jesus before paintings were a common thing, before modern photography. To see an image of Jesus tempts us to see Jesus with physical eyes now.

That's not what we're to do. That's not the church's call today. And why would we want to put up a likeness of our Lord that was in error? So let me just give you an example about me. Let's say, what would you think about a picture of me that was grossly distorted?

Like someone brought you a picture. Have you ever seen a caricature? But like a caricature that was just grossly distorted. You'd be like, hey, don't draw one of our pastors like that. Like, that's kind of rude.

That kind of makes us feel like you're disrespecting one of our pastors to draw this funny-looking caricature of him. Well, that's what we do when we're drawing and portraying the Lord. We cannot match his glory, right?

We cannot match his resplendence.

And so consider these things. And I know some people just haven't thought through those, and we need to be patient. We need to be patient and loving with them, and I understand that. But I just want you to consider this point.

This is a tangent, I know. Thirdly, I would just mention that God has told us in the second commandment not to make images. But the overarching point that I'm trying to draw out of the text for just a moment is that we see God now, but not with our physical eyes.

We see God now through the eyes of faith because we've been given a new heart, a heart that now sees God. This is the consistent testimony of Scripture. In Isaiah 40, verse 9, for example, God says, Say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God.

Behold your God. And they were not meant to behold some physical image of God, but they were to behold God with the eyes of faith. So too do believers see God with the eyes of faith. Let me give you another example.

Now, this doesn't talk about eyes, but I'll liken it to other senses that we've been given. So in Psalm 34, 8, David says,.

Oh, taste and see.

What?

That the Lord is good. Now, is he meaning that there's some sort of physical sensation that we are to have upon our taste buds about God? Like, oh, it tastes like lemon or something.

Like, no, that's foolish.

That's not, and none of us have a problem with that, right? We understand that when the Bible says, Taste and see that the Lord is good, it's encouraging us to spiritually taste of God, right? And we even have, maybe if you want to just say, well, let me leave that aside.

I'm not going to go in that direction.

But we have this idea of spiritual tasting of God. So too it's with sight. We spiritually see God. So I'm going to give you five instances whereby the pure in heart see God through the eyes of faith in this life.

First, in conversion. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. I'm arguing that now we see God with faith, with the eyes of faith, now. And we see that, first of all, in conversion. The bride in Song of Solomon talks about finding, a few times in the Song of Solomon, says, I have found Him whom my soul loves.

In conversion, the heart has been opened and granted the eyes of faith. We go from being spiritually blind to now we can see. We turn from sin. We run to Christ for salvation. And we say to Jesus, I have found Him whom my soul loves.

I don't mean that we form a mental image of Christ that is actually ill-advised. I'm talking about a sight of God that is much deeper than the physical sight, whereby the heart sees Him and knows Him and closes with Him through faith, reconciling to the Father through the work of the Son, by the application of that work through the Holy Spirit of God.

The pure in heart sees God in conversion. They move from the terror of the righteous wrath owed us for our sins to the sweet reprieve of the Gospel.

Whereby we see, we're confident that Christ has provided.

A sufficient propitiation for the sins of His people for all, every sinner who calls upon the name of the Lord. The converted heart closes with Christ. We are now united with Christ by faith. The pure in heart sees God in conversion.

Not that we made ourselves pure in heart, right? And then God saves us because we made ourselves pure in heart.

No, no, no.

God purified our blackened, rebellious heart in order that the heart could see the King and run to Him in repentance and faith, appealing to His sovereign mercy. The pure in heart sees God in conversion.

Secondly, the pure in heart sees God in creation. Now, let's be careful here. We're not saying creation is God, but listen to me. The converted see God's glory in creation. We see it, we savor it, we love it.

The heavens, Psalm 19, 1 says, the heavens declare the glory of God.

And the sky above proclaims, preaches His glory.

The heavens declare the glory of God. The redeemed see the beauty of this universe not as an end in and of itself, but as an arrow pointing us to the greatness of God. We read creation as it were. It's kind of like we read the Bible, but the believer reads the Bible, but we also...

I heard Tim Challies say it this way one time. Shout out to a Canadian, Tim Challies. But Tim Challies said God wrote two books, right? God wrote the Bible, but also God wrote creation in the sense that it's general revelation.

But now the believer, we read creation and we see God, we see His glory. Let me give you an example that's coming up. Next spring, say what you want about it.

I'm like, well, it's going to be crazy.

But the eclipse, you know, the eclipse, whatever. But supposedly a lot of people will be around to look at the eclipse. But listen, how should believers think about that? When we see quote-unquote natural phenomenon, we should delight in the glory of God.

When we see a beautiful moon, a beautiful sunrise, beautiful fall leaves, feel a cool breeze on our face as the seasons are changing, beautiful snowfall. Like the believer's response shouldn't be like, boy, I love Mother Nature.

The believer's response is what? Isn't God glorious? Isn't God wonderful? We see God in creation. God is not creation, but we see His glory in creation. Thirdly, we see God in communion. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

I don't simply mean the Lord's Supper. I think that applies. But we see God with the eyes of faith in communion. That is when we commune with Him, when we read His Word like you're reading the Bible.

I see God!

We pray when we commune with His people in the local church, when we participate in corporate worship, when we see and practice the ordinances. And in fact, you want to know, it's like, you would go back to the movie thing, it's like, well, I'm a visual person.

God knows you're a visual person. In fact, God has given you two dramas, as it were, to see His glory in the church. Do you know what these are? Baptism and the Lord's Supper. By the way, that's why the mode of baptism is so important.

It's simply not sprinkling.

It's immersion.

That's what the word baptized means. Because we see an image, as it were, of the crucified, buried, and resurrected Christ, and we see the sinner being crucified, buried, and resurrected with Him. That's what we see in baptism.

In the Lord's Supper, that's what we see. It's important. We see God with the eyes of faith. God has promised to commune with His people. We're not trying to conjure up a certain set of emotions.

That's feelings.

So listen to this carefully. We're not trying to feel God, right? So much as we are communing with Him by faith, right?

Do you feel God?

Sometimes the answer is no. Sometimes our feelings will be off. There are many who would say that they have felt God's presence, but they've never truly communed with Him, right? I know that there are certain traditions in Christianity that they really try to get the feelings going and drive your emotions so that you feel God.

We're not after feeling, right?

Because there are many sometimes who feel forsaken, but by faith they commune with God regularly, having a certainty that comes from faith that our Jesus, our Lord, our King has never left us. Conversion, creation, communion.

Fourthly, contentment. Let's flip over to Philippians 4 for a second. We see God, as it were, in contentment. In Philippians 4, we'll start in verse 10. Philippians 4, verse 10. Paul says, I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, but now at length you have revived your concern for me.

You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I'm speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound.

In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. And then here's the verse. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. So he's not talking about hitting a home run.

He's not talking about financial raise. He's not talking about snap your fingers and I can clean up my room like that or whatever. No, he's talking about being content. He's talking about contentment.

Paul learned contentment. He knew how to have little and not complain. Too many Baptists today don't know not how to complain when their food's a little bit late, right? But he knew how not to complain.

He knew how to have plenty and not become a worshiper of the gift over the giver. He knew how to have little and not gripe. He did all of this because he learned all of this in verse 13 through Christ.

So here's what I'm trying to say. When we are content, our hearts are seen past our circumstances. That's the point of this one. When we are content in Christ, our hearts are looking past our circumstances and they are seeing God.

They are seeing God's providential hand at work. Paul says in 1 Timothy 6 that godliness with contentment is great gain. When we are content, whether our circumstances are good or bad, we are laying hold of Christ.

Why is this great gain? Because we're not prizing stuff or circumstances,.

We're prizing God.

We're beholding God. We behold God with the eyes of faith and conversion, creation, communion, contentment, and finally, commitment. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. So here's what I mean in commitment.

The pure in heart want to see God. The Christian is committed to seeing God. They hunger and thirst for righteousness. They desire to seek the Lord while He may be found. They desire to behold Him, to know Him, to follow Him, to pursue Him.

They hunger and thirst for the things of God. To use a theological category here, I would say that we see God not merely in our conversion, but also in our sanctification. We see Him at work in our own pursuit of holiness.

We understand that He is the one who is at work within us, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

And on our end,.

This causes us to agree with Solomon in Proverbs 4 .23 where he says,.

Keep your heart with all vigilance,.

For from it flow the springs of life.

In other words,.

The fact that it's the pure in heart who see God,.

This text,.

It causes us to desire to keep our hearts with all vigilance.

All the more.

Why?

I don't want wretchedness or sin or the cares of this life in there. Right? Because I want to see God.

Thomas Watson notes,.

The heart must especially be pure because it is the heart which sanctifies all that we do. If the heart is holy, all is holy. Our affection is holy. Our duty is holy. The altar sanctifies the gift, Matthew 23 .19.

The heart is the altar that sanctifies the offering. The Romans kept their springs from being poisoned. The heart is the spring of all our actions. Let us keep this spring from poison. That's Thomas Watson.

Friends, let us keep this spring from poison. It is our desire to keep our hearts from the impurities of this life. We want a heart that is ready and able and willing to delight in our trying God. We make it our pursuit to know God, to fight the defilements of the heart, to mortify sin, to rest in the Gospel, to pursue Christ,.

To worship Christ,.

To see God. Okay, so those are some examples this evening of how we see God with the eyes of faith. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. And my argument is, we see that in part play out now.

We see God with the eyes of faith. We taste God.

We see God.

In conversion, creation,.

Communion,.

Contentment,.

Commitment.

I'm sure there are other ways that you could think through. But now, to the weight of our text, I think lies on the second point. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Not just now, but forever.

Seeing God Forever in Glory

And we move from a time where we see God only with the eyes of faith to where we will see God. Yes, the pure in heart see God with the eyes of faith now. This is a glorious reality. Don't dismiss this reality.

It's wonderful. But what I'm saying is, and what Jesus is teaching in this text, is there's something even greater coming. Now remember this, that God is so pure, so holy, so glorious, that were we to see Him in His fullness in this life, it would simply destroy us.

In the Bible,.

When there are those who see God,.

You say,.

What about this happens in the Bible? Well, it's always in part. Or it's in a vision. Or when Jesus walked on this earth, His resplendent and full glory was kept back. We see a portion of that on the Mount of Transfiguration, but even then.

Remember what God tells Moses in Exodus 33, 20. Man shall not see Me and live. So I do not mean to say that all of Jesus' glory is hidden. Remember what John says in John 1, 14. We have seen His glory.

Glory is the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. Remember what happened. The shepherds came and worshipped Him at His birth. His glory couldn't be hidden. The wise men came and worshipped Him.

It is impossible to fully conceal the glory of the Son. It is impossible to hide the glory of God in creation or in salvation or in His work in the church. But all I'm trying to say right now on this point is we are heading toward a future where we will see the glorified Christ in His resplendent glory, in our glorified bodies with glorified eyes.

Now you just think about that for just a moment. Anything that you see in creation today, number one, it's fallen. Number two, your eyes are fallen. So the best thing that you could see, the most beautiful image that you could see today in the world today.

Is under a curse.

And your eyes beholding it. And the best eyes that exist today, whatever the vision may be, I don't have the ratio. I know 2020 is great, which I don't have been years since I've had that, but I know there's better vision out there.

Even the best vision out there today,.

It's fallen.

We behold unglorified creation with unglorified eyes. But we are heading toward a future.

Where we will see the glorified and resurrected Christ with eyes that have now been glorified in our new bodies like we read from the confession. What a glorious thing. We sing. Can you think about it?

We sing. What a good and gracious King. We proclaim Christ is King. But there will be a day that we see Him with our eyes, not just our hearts,.

Which is now,.

Which we're satisfied with now,.

But not fully in the sense.

That like I need more.

And we're heading to that day. In fact, turn over to Revelation 22 for a moment. Revelation 22, the last chapter of the Bible. Man, I'm so grateful for the Bible. Revelation 22, if you're ever discouraged, just go read the end of the book, right?

Revelation 22, verse 1,. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, brightest crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city, also on either side of the river, the tree of life, with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month.

The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His servants will worship Him. Look at verse 4.

Shame on me for the many times I've read verse 4 and then gone on about my day without stopping to consider. They will see His face. You've had experiences in your life that were life altering. A child being born, maybe a big move, financial decision, something.

You've had experiences that your life changed from those experiences, but this will be an experience like none other. To behold Christ, not merely with the eyes of faith, but now with glorified eyes, we will see, verse 4 says,.

His face.

As 1 John 3, 2 says, we will see Him as He is.

We will see Christ actually with our eyeballs. We'll see Christ and it will be so like.

This debate about images of Christ and all that.

It'll be like,.

Well, that was really dumb.

That we ever even succumbed to trying to look at other images.

Because look at how great and glorious and wonderful Christ actually is as we see Him with our eyes and experience unmatchable.

From anything you've ever experienced.

In this life. It'll, in one sense, literally change you for all eternity. You'll see Christ.

This is why I'm very cautious at times about other things that will happen in heaven. Yes, there will be so many wonderful things. Like you ever been on a trip or you've gotten a present or you took your wife out for dinner and you had this great plan and everything and then it was great,.

It was fun,.

But it was like there was just something lacking.

It was like,.

I wish it had been better. Heaven will not be like that. You will not say, oh man, it's not like my wife gives me a hard time.

She's always like,.

Did you like that? And I'm always like, it's okay. I'm sure in heaven she'll give me the glorified side eye.

She'll be like, you like it? I'll be like, I won't be like,.

Man, it's okay.

It'll be wonderful.

But listen, be careful about the things of heaven that we get excited about. Yes, it'll be so amazing to be reunited with believers who've gone before us. To behold the streets of gold. Man, I want to meet the Apostle Paul.

Boy, you look different than I thought.

To meet Charles Spurgeon.

To learn things.

All of this will be wonderful.

And I do not dare for one instant.

Want to dismiss.

Any of that. It will all be wonderful, but it will be small.

In comparison to this thing.

Namely, seeing Christ. Seeing Christ will be so glorious that it almost seems inappropriate to mention it in the same breath.

As these other things.

It's like saying this,.

Jacob comes to me.

And says, hey brother, I've been blessed.

With a gift card.

To a wonderful steakhouse. Someone blessed me with this and I want to take you out.

To this wonderful steakhouse.

Brother,.

What are you excited about.

At this steakhouse?

And I said, well honestly Jacob, there's going to be forks there.

Won't that be wonderful?

Jacob would be like,.

Sure.

Oh yeah,.

There'll be forks there. I'm glad there'll be forks at the steakhouse. I'll be able to consume the steak with the forks.

Wonderful.

But how silly,.

How small and frivolous compared to the main course.

And I'm saying in heaven, the main course is Christ. We'll feast our eyes on Christ in His glory.

And we'll be able to do so.

How long?

A second?

Like just one second.

Would be wonderful.

But it's not a second,.

Not a minute,.

Not an hour,.

But forever.

Oh Christian,.

Let this greatly encourage you this evening. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.

So when your friends, I know we've gone over a little bit, but when your friends and your family.

Question,.

Why do you care so much.

About the church stuff?

Why do you care so much.

About your Bible.

And your soul.

And evangelism and striving for holiness?

Why do you care about this?

You can tell them, because one day.

I will see God.

And I'll behold Him forever.

What a marvelous promise from the text. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Now I'll close with this. It's a marvelous promise, but let me just say,.