Blessed are the pure in heart :: Matthew 5:8

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That being said, if you would, please open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 5. Many of you are familiar that with the sermon series that we're going through we've called

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Upside Down. We're going through the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus is completely flipping the script.

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The world is pursuing after happiness. It is searching for truth and direction in life and Jesus is speaking in the eight beatitudes, really kicking off the

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Sermon on the Mount. He's telling us the exact opposite of what the world is doing.

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The world is trying to reach after happiness and cannot seem to ever find it.

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And that is because the world does not have a proper relationship with God Almighty.

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As we've been seeing these eight decorations of the beatitudes, these are the blessed man and woman that already have a right relationship with God.

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And from that we see that the beatitudes just show us the character that flows from that right relationship.

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And so through this eight -week sermon series, we've been analyzing the beatitudes. But each week

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I want us to read all of them holistically together. I want us to see how the beatitudes stack on one another and logically flow from the preceding one.

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So let's look at Matthew chapter 5 starting at verse 3 all the way through verse 12.

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Jesus says, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

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Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

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Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

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Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

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Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

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Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

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Let's go again to our Lord and prayer. Lord, I pray that you would bless this time as we dig into your word.

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Lord, I pray that you would send your spirit to illuminate hearts and minds. God, that you give us ears to hear.

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God, please give us wisdom. Lord, I pray that you would increase and Lord that I would decrease and it would be your truth that shines forth and would edify your people.

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We pray these things in your name Jesus. Amen. So this morning we are to the sixth of the 8

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Beatitudes. Look back with me at verse 8 where we read Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see

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God. Now a couple weeks ago I wanted to bring up an important point about the

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Greek structure and I mentioned what was called the definite article. That is the word the in front of pure.

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Blessed are the pure in heart. The reason why this is a big deal is because the definite article wants to focus on something very, very particular.

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Forget everything else and focus in on this one thing. And the definite article is right before the pure in heart.

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And so what Jesus is saying, the pure in heart, they and they alone possess a very unique quality and this quality refers to holiness.

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And so that's going to be a major point this morning that the pure in heart, they are holy. Happy are the holy.

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Blessed. They have true happiness with God and we see this overpouring in their lives with how they interact with other people.

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So keep that in your mind. Happy are the holy. And so that phrase the pure in heart could be rendered clear or clean in heart.

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That word for pure means to be unmixed, blameless, unstained from guilt.

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And the point is the heart has undergone some radical transformation. Jesus is really focusing in on the heart.

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And I was trying to think of illustrations to show you what pure and clean really mean. Think about how gold and metal can go into a furnace, right?

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It has impurities, it has dirt in it, but what does the flame do, right? It purifies the precious metal.

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It burns up the impurities and then it comes out refined, right? That's what those, the blessed man and woman, we have been refined.

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We have been radically transformed from the heart. And this illustration also works with plants and vines and I thought, you know,

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I'm gonna have to check with Miss Karen to make sure I got my facts straight on this. She's a herbalist. And so I had a good time talking with her about this.

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But the same idea for purification, being purified is also cleansed in terms of a vine being cleansed by pruning so that it can bear more fruit.

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So I want to invite you to turn with me to John chapter 15. This is where Jesus declares that he is the vine.

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He says, I am the vine and you are the branches. Here Jesus uses this imagery of being purified or cleansed, this process of holiness that believers undergo.

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And so I want us to look starting at verse 1. John chapter 15 verse 1 says,

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Jesus says, I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit.

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Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine.

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Neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine. You are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him he it is that bears much fruit for apart from me you can do nothing.

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So if you would look back with me at verse 2 where Jesus says every branch that does bear fruit he prunes.

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Now for those of us who are truly in Jesus Christ by saving faith we are those that the

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Father has given to the Son and we have had the Holy Spirit come into our life and transform our heart and we will bear the fruit of regeneration.

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The Holy Spirit changes our heart to see our sin and for us to see our need of a

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Savior and so this is an aspect of the fruit of the Spirit. We will bear some fruit because of the

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Spirit's work in our life and when you hear the fruit of the Spirit you should be thinking about love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self -control.

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So this is that cleansing purifying process of being made holy. The Holy Spirit indwells us and compels us to manifest these things in our life in some way or another.

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Brother Keith a couple weeks ago mentioned that there will be times in our flesh that we will fight against the work of the

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Spirit. We will quench or grieve the Spirit in disobedience against the work of the

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Spirit, but what does our Heavenly Father do when we do that? He doesn't just leave us to ruin in our sin by ourself, right?

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But He intervenes in our life. He prunes us. He disciplines us as a loving

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Father. Hebrews chapter 12 says, For the Lord disciplines the one He loves and chastises every son whom

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He receives. And so let me draw your attention to verse 3 because this is what directly relates to our beatitude this morning.

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Jesus says, Already you are clean or pure because of the word

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I have spoken to you. This is an incredible statement because it's by the living, breathing, powerful

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Word of God in connection with the work of the Spirit that transforms us.

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It cleanses us and purifies our entire lives, right? It's this process of sanctification.

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And so I really wanted to key on this word clean because it's once again the same

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Greek word that we get for pure back in the beatitudes, but John only uses this word four times in his gospel.

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And we just looked at it back in verse 3. So I want to show you the other three times. It's really closely connected.

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Turn back in your Bible just a couple pages to John chapter 13. I want us to get a full -orbed understanding of what clean to be purified, understand this transforming work of the

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Spirit. And if you're familiar with John chapter 13, this is the chapter where Jesus washes the disciples feet the night before His crucifixion.

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And we learn so many things like Jesus models perfect humility, how we ought to serve one another in love.

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But what's really interesting that I want to draw your attention to is I want to see how the Apostle Peter responds in this particular context.

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Look with me in verse 6. Jesus is just about to wash Peter's feet and then Peter says,

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Lord, do you wash my feet? Jesus answered him, what I'm doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.

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Peter said, you shall never wash my feet. And Jesus said to him, if I do not wash you, you have no share with me.

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Now you got to think in this moment Peter's like, shouldn't have said that, got that really strong healthy rebuke that we all need from time to time.

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And it was funny because last week if you were here, Pastor Scott, he mentioned that the Apostle Peter is known as the

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Apostle with the foot -shaped mouth. He is constantly just saying what's ever on his mind with no filter and then what happens?

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He gets rebuked almost promptly. But I think in this moment we can learn a good principle here because how often do we say things out of line?

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How many times do we say something and we need rebuking, right? We should be like Peter after we realize that we've been rebuked and called out.

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We should be willing to repent and change even when another brother or sister points out sin in our life.

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So at least Peter models that well. Look with me at verse 9.

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Simon Peter said to him, Lord do not wash my feet only but also my hands and my head.

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So I love that. He's totally changed in his tune now, right? He's like give me a whole bath if that's what you need.

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But Jesus says to him, the one who has bathed does not need to wash except for his feet, but is completely clean.

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There's that word again. And you are clean, but not every one of you. For he knew who was to betray him.

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That's why he said not all of you are clean. And so here in this passage we see that word clean three times and we looked at the fourth time in John chapter 15.

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And so it's verse 10 in this passage that really connects back to our beatitude this morning.

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Look with me again. Jesus says the one who has bathed does not need to wash except for his feet, but is completely clean.

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So Jesus is talking about two different concepts here. There is in one sense. You're already clean.

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You're washed. You are justified. You have your sins forgiven, right?

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And then there's another aspect where we need an ongoing cleansing and this refers to sanctification.

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And so justification, I really want you to make note of that word because Pastor Nathan and I want you to understand the differences between justification and sanctification and also how they're so closely related.

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Justification is a one -time act where the Holy Spirit has regenerated you and you have responded because of the

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Spirit's work in repentance and faith. And now you live your whole life on this new trajectory of sanctification, being set apart, being conformed more and more into the image of Christ, looking less like the things of the world.

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So the imagery Jesus is saying you are completely clean and it's because of the cleansing work that he is about to accomplish on the cross of Calvary.

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You have to understand that Jesus's atonement pays in full the complete punishment for sin.

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That's why we can be cleansed when we repent and look to the Savior in faith. We are cleansed.

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We are justified. We are completely forgiven. But then we have to understand what

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Jesus means when he says, except for his feet. I love the imagery of saying, look, you're completely cleansed.

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But there is this idea of us needing to clean off our feet from time to time. This is pointing to that sanctification process.

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Think about it. We walk around in this sin -ruled world, right?

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We walk around, we get up and we interact with other people that are sinners. We are constantly combating the desires of our flesh and the work of Satan, right?

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So we need our feet cleaned. We need God to intervene in our life and to discipline us.

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And I believe that only the pure in heart, we understand that we are spiritually content with God in all things in our life because he has worked a changed heart in us.

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We have been made right with God and we desire to walk with the Savior. We are truly blessed and we are truly happy.

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And I want you to remember, happy are the holy. And before we move on to this, I want to touch on the

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Apostle Peter one more time here. Because we see that he is a work in progress, do we not?

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He is the Apostle with the foot -shaped mouth, but we see that the Holy Spirit is also working on him.

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We see that God is beginning that good work in Peter and he's not going to leave him, but he's going to continue to carry him along.

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The Spirit will sanctify him through his word. And so Peter is no longer saying, you shall never wash my feet.

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He said that once in the past, but he learned his lesson. He's growing. And I want you to hear more sanctified

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Peter in the beginning of his first epistle. Peter says, having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love.

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Love one another earnestly from a pure heart. Does that sound familiar? Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God.

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When we are walking with the Savior, empowered by the Spirit, we desire holiness.

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We desire to be holy as God is holy. So if you would turn back with me to Matthew chapter five, verse eight.

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Hopefully we have a better understanding of the word pure. It can mean clean. It's a work that has been started by the

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Holy Spirit, and he will see it to fruition. Jesus says, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see

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God. Now the word heart, I really think Jesus is emphasizing this word here because he is directly rebuking the

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Pharisees. They were not concerned with the heart. They were externed with their external works and their appearance.

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So Jesus is emphasizing the heart because it also, that's what it all boils down to.

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God sees the heart of man. God tests the heart. Are good works important?

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Absolutely. But what's the motivation behind doing the good works? That's what

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God is intently looking at. And so Jesus is emphasizing that. And before the

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Holy Spirit transforms our heart, we have to understand that man's heart is totally wicked, evil and depraved.

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I wanted to read a small scripture with you to really illustrate this back in Genesis chapter six, we read,

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The Lord saw the wickedness of man, that it was great on the earth and every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

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Yeah, but Jeremiah, that was before the flood. It's different now. No, it's not. We see this confirmed in the gospel accounts.

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We see this in the New Testament epistles. Man's heart is bent on evil. Man is not good seeking after God.

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That's why we need a purified heart, one that has been totally transformed by the work of the spirit with new desires to grow in holiness, spending time in the word, spending time with the saints.

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What I think is almost ironic is even though man's heart is set on evil and wickedness, man still wants to show off his religiosity, show off his legalism and how good he can appear before other people.

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Who does that sound like? As we've been studying through the sermon on the mountain, it sounds like the

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Pharisees, doesn't it? Right. So I want you to understand, even though man is wicked and evil, he can still appear to have it all together in his religion.

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And so when Jesus is referencing the heart, he is totally rebuking the Pharisees legalistic motivations.

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And so I want to just highlight a few verses here in the sermon on the Mount where we can see that Jesus is constantly driving this back to the heart.

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Matthew five, twenty eight. Jesus says, but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

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The Pharisees said, as long as we don't actually do the action of the seventh commandment not to commit adultery, then we're good.

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We've not committed that sin. But Jesus, he's not he's not elevating the

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Mosaic law. He's not inventing new commandments, but he's correctly interpreting the purpose of the law's intent.

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He says no sin is so much deeper than just our actions and the things that we do. It actually stems from the heart.

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And what we see that the heart will overflow and give evidence of what's truly inside.

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Jesus says it's not enough to maintain physical purity alone, but the one must we must also guard from engaging unfaithfulness from our heart and mind.

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He's driving it back to the heart level. Matthew six, twenty one. Jesus says, for wherever your treasure is there, your heart will be also the last chapter of the

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Sermon on the Mount. Jesus says you will recognize them by their fruits. But Jeremiah doesn't say heart there.

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Well, later in Matthew's gospel, it's an identical context. Matthew says, Jesus says, for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

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And so what's true on the inside will manifest itself and reveal itself through what we say and what we do.

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The big point here is Jesus is emphasizing the heart and rebuking the

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Pharisees and their system of religiosity. The Pharisees championed their knowledge of the

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Torah, the first five books of the law. And they really they really cared a lot about their outer appearance and how they look towards others.

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And so I want to talk about these two extremes for just a moment. The Pharisees had a lot of knowledge, number one.

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And so on the surface, this can seem like a really good thing. The Bible tells us to read the word, to know the word, to understand correct theology and to contend for sound doctrine.

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But what if we have this knowledge that never actually makes it to our hearts?

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Right. If we only have a mechanical interest in the word of God only, these types of people in churches usually are a curse.

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They usually think that they're better than everybody else. Why is that? Because they are functionally Pharisees.

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And so I want you to understand that having knowledge is a wonderful thing. The Bible tells us to have knowledge, to grow in the grace and knowledge of our

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Lord Jesus Christ. But it can't stay in the head. It has to actually move to our hearts.

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The Pharisees abused this. They also abused certain people's giftings to appear beautiful on the outside.

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But scripture tells us inwardly they just wanted praise from men. So that's number two. The affair, the

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Pharisees had the ability to appear beautiful on the outside. And I think this is unfortunate because you have some people that have an artistic eye.

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They're able to, you know, have that flair and make things look really nice. But what's the heart motivation?

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It always comes back to the heart issue. Some people had these giftings. Right. And who is the gift giver?

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But God himself. Right. So we have to check our hearts. Are we wanting people to look at the things that we do, how we look like to get praise for them, or we wanting to point them back to glorify

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God? If we're not constantly checking our heart, then we will fall into this pharisaical trap.

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And so Jesus, probably one of the hardest rebukes that he ever gave in scripture, comes from Matthew 23 to the

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Pharisees. He says, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs which outwardly appear beautiful, but from within are full of dead man's bones and uncleanliness.

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You also appear outwardly to be righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

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Is that you this morning? Are you somebody that wants to appear intellectual before other people to wow them with your speech?

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Are you somebody that cares a lot about how you look in your appearance to receive praise from them and extending that principle?

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Are you someone that's been gifted to be able to design big structures, to be able to put really nice crafts together?

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What's the heart motivation? Are you wanting praise from other people or are you wanting to point back to the gift giver himself?

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Now, it's unfair that I ask these questions, because do you know the answer to that question? It's a yes.

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We've all fallen short at this point. If you say, oh, I don't do that. You're a

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Pharisee. The Pharisees said that because we are all sinners. We all are in the same boat together, right?

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That's why we have to constantly look at our heart, see the wickedness that's there and continue to pray that God would continue to transform us.

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We have this sin nature that must be mortified, that must be crushed. I just want to tell you that I struggle with these things every day.

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I've been in those situations where I've wanted to win an argument for just the sake of being right.

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I see some hands going up there, too. And that's sinful, right? I'm wanting just to appear that I know a lot of stuff, but that is vain.

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Right. I pray that in those moments I would be rebuked by my brothers and sisters.

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Right. When you hear that pride creeping out, we need that accountability in our lives. But I praise

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God for his abounding, steadfast love, grace and mercy.

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He is still working on me through the power of the spirit. He is still molding me and sanctifying me day by day to be more into the image of Christ.

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And if you are in Christ, that is your story as well. And so the key to all of this is having our hearts set on Jesus Christ.

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He alone is perfect. And we are following after him. I believe that's the only way we can have a proper balance of these things.

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If we have really good gifts and abilities, we must use that to point other people to the gift giver himself.

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And I think about more sanctified Peter, right? He's he's he was growing in his walk as well.

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The last thing that he said in his second epistle was this. Grow in the grace and the knowledge of our

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Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.

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Amen. I love that because I don't want you to hear mishear me and think, well, knowledge just puffs up only and it's not important anymore.

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Well, I have all these artistic abilities, but I don't want to give people the wrong impression. Some doesn't know.

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We do all of these things to give God glory. Knowledge is so important, but it has to move to the heart.

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And that will affect how we when we leave this building, when we leave and go into the world, it'll affect how we actually treat people.

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But the motive, the motivating factor is to always glorify

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God. So let's look back at Matthew chapter five, verse eight. As you see, the kind of the flow that we do this, we take it phrase by phrase.

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We even sometimes take it word by word. Jesus is blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see

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God. Now, if you're very familiar with what the scripture teaches, this should be a very staggering statement.

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The pure in heart are going to see God. How is that possible? Didn't God say to Moses, you cannot see my face for a man shall not see me and live.

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John's gospel says God is spirit. That means that God is immaterial. How are we going to see something that's not physical that we can actually see with our physical eye?

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John one 18 says no one has ever seen God. The only God who is at the father's side, he has made him known.

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So we got to take a step back and ask the question, in what sense are the pure in heart able to see

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God? I think that's the proper way of looking at it, because to the Christian, we see

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God in everything. We possess the eye of faith. We see

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God in nature. We see God in all events of history. We see God in the sense of knowing him, feeling that he is near and we are encouraged by his presence.

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So as I was looking for different ways to kind of illustrate this, I kept finding myself going back to Hebrews chapter 11, the

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Great Hall of Faith, and the adults are studying through this. I'm like, ah, this is perfect because these men and women model for us what it looks like to know

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God and to see him in their lives. Hebrews 11 verse one begins by saying, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen.

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This is basically giving us a definition of what faith is. Faith is deep trust that comes from within our hearts, our very inner being.

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It is faith that is able to understand that the entire world hangs. The entire world hangs in the creator's hand.

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Faith is able to look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen and eternal.

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Hebrews chapter 11, we see that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, men and women that have walked by faith and not by sign.

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And so I want to look at just one person here in Hebrews chapter 11, and it's Moses. Hebrews 11 verse 27.

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We see that Moses is a wonderful example of an individual who is pure in heart, holy, and as a result, he was able to see

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God. Verse 27 says, by faith, he, Moses, left

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Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.

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Now, this is interesting, because I really think this is what strongly connects to our beatitude this morning, seeing the one who is invisible.

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Now, some commentators kind of grapple over what's being talked about because didn't Moses see

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God in some way with his physical eye in the burning bush that happened later in Exodus 33?

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Moses was in the cleft of a rock and he saw a glimpse of God when he passed by it, right?

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I don't think those examples are what the author of Hebrews has in mind here.

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Rather, Moses walked by faith. That's the whole context, right? And as he was walking by faith, he was able to see him who is invisible.

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And I actually think verse 26 gives us some more key insight to why it's talking about this relational knowledge, walking in relationship with God.

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That's the sense of seeing him. Look with me at verse 26, we may have it posted, where Moses considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.

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I've always thought this was very interesting because Moses lived centuries before our

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Lord took on flesh and dwelt among us. So how was he able to consider the reproach of Christ in any manner?

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Well, he identified his sufferings with the people of God, and he understood of the coming anointed one, the coming savior that was still promised to come, and he rested in that.

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Right. So you see that this seeing the invisible God is trusting in him and walking with him day by day as we suffer and go through persecution in this life.

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Moses was looking to that eternal reward reward. And so that's the same principles that we take to when we go through the hurts and pains of this life.

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What do we do? We rest in Christ. We see him who is invisible. We see the

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Lord working holiness into our lives. And Moses modeled that perfectly.

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No, no shot. But that's OK. We even see with the apostle Peter, we are all works in progress.

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We share in his holiness because he is the one at work in our lives. And that will produce a fruit, the peaceful fruit of righteousness as we interact with other people in our life.

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And so I'm wanting you to see the connection between the pure and heart being holy and its holiness that allows us to see

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God relationally. And the writer of Hebrews mentions this in Hebrews chapter 12.

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Just briefly, he says, strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the

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Lord. So holiness, it really comes down to being holy as God is holy.

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Can we do that by our good works? No shot. Jesus was the one that was perfectly holy and righteousness.

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But by faith, if we trust in him and rest in him, then we can be declared right.

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We can actually be declared holy. And then we desire to live our life in obedience to what

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God has revealed to us. So as we are winding down, we're heading in that direction.

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We're not quite there yet, but we're winding down. We see God here and now relationally through his word, by the indwelling of the

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Holy Spirit and the gathering together of the saints. That's how we see God here and now.

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But we still have a future fulfillment of seeing God, don't we? The apostle

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Paul in first Corinthians 13 says, for now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.

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Think about our context on earth here and now, even though we are walking with the Lord relationally, even though we are growing in holiness, we possess the all sufficient word of God and the indwelling

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Holy Spirit. But think about it. We are mere children in our spiritual development, and we have such a small perspective on God's glory and his purposes in the world.

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So here and now on earth, we truly do see through a dark glass mirror.

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We do not get the advantage of seeing the whole picture. But one day we will step into the

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Lord's presence and then we will see him face to face. Our maturity will reach its apex in eternal glory, even though we see by faith now one day that will come a reality.

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And I love singing hymns that point this truth out. It makes me long for that day.

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One hymn writer said, and Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight.

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The clouds be rolled back as a scroll. The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend, even though it is well with my soul.

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I love that because our faith one day will be turned to sight. And if we really take a moment to think about it, this is the most amazing promise truth that we could ever wrap our minds around.

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We have so many problems that surround us every day in this world. But one day we are going to see the

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Lord face to face. If we truly hang on to this promise, it will transform our lives.

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You and I are being prepared to go into the presence of the king of kings. Do you believe that?

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Do you know what we are being prepared for? Do you realize that there is a day coming where you're going to see the blessed

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God face to face, not as a dark colored glass, but truly, tangibly face to face?

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The moment we grasp this, everything else will pale in comparison to enjoying

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God for all eternity in his glorious presence. It's wonderful.

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The apostle John, I could bring in another apostle here real fast. He also encouraged his fellow brothers and sisters with the same truth.

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In first John three, he basically said what the Lord said in the beatitude, and he reversed it. And I thought, why would he reverse the order?

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I thought, you know what? It doesn't matter because we will we long to see God face to face. And we realized that we realized that we desire that purification process.

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John said, beloved, we are God's children now and what we will be has not yet appeared.

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But we know that when he appears, we will be like him because we shall see him as he is.

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And everyone who thus hopes in himself purifies himself as he is pure.

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Do you hear that specific group? Right. Remember, we talked about the pure in heart. He's talking about this group, this group alone, who is pure, the holy.

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They are going to see Christ. Do you agree with me that this is the most significant, significant thing that we could contemplate here in this life?

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And I want to ask you, is this your supreme goal and desire and ambition to see God? Are you preparing yourself for this glorious day?

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But if we're honest, don't we fall short of that? You're probably like me.

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I feel ashamed often how I waste my time day by day with things that don't ultimately matter.

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We struggle with this. That's why we need each other. That's why we need to spend time in God's word.

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We struggle, don't we? But we got to keep pressing forward. In this purification process, we must understand that the devil is warring against us.

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The lusts of our flesh are warring against us, and so is the entire world. So let's unite together.

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Last thought, the Apostle John, we know that he longed to see the face of God.

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One of the very last things that he wrote in the book of Revelation, he said, 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.

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They will see his face and night will be no more. They will need no light, no light of lamp or sun for the

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Lord. God will be their light and they will reign with him forever and ever.

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No unglorified human could ever see God's face and live. But as true citizens of the kingdom of heaven, one day we will see

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God's face without harm because we will be holy. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see

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God. Hope you are encouraged with that this morning. But as we do every

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Lord's Day, I want us to begin to transition to the Lord's Supper here in a moment.

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After we pray, feel free to come over this side where I'll be at. And people over here will have this side prepared.

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But as we come to the Lord's table, I want us to remember all of what

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Christ has done on our behalf. But he paid the full punishment of sin.

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And that's a past reality. But it affects us presently here today. This is such an important time for unity, not only with one another, but with the triune

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God. It's so important. That's why I believe the scripture warns us of actually not coming to the table if we have unrepentant sin in our life.

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What does that look like, Chairman? Well, if you are not sure that you are even in Christ, if you're not sure that you have been saved by the blood of Christ cleansed, then

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I want to implore you do not come to the table. The scripture tells us some have partaken in this unworthy manner and have left sick.

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They have been harmed and some have even died as a result because this is such an important time of unity.

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If there is ongoing sin in your life that you're just having trouble letting go, there's no praying to God, confessing it and praying that he would discipline you as a loving child or or through the body.

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If you're having trouble letting go of sin, please do not come to the table. I don't want you to be discouraged with that because I care about all of you that are here.

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And so if that is you, please, at some point in time, reach out to me or Pastor Nathan so we can come alongside you.

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Right. Go to the Lord together and make these things right in your life. So we talked about that, that past reality of what all

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Christ has done. We are engaging in this future reality presently, but we are also looking forward.

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This is but a foretaste of the marriage supper of the lamb where we will see Jesus face to face.