This sermon is from the series THINGS JESUS TAUGHT US and was preached on Sunday, September 29, 2013 at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Cherry Log, Georgia by Pastor Paul Mims.
Matthew 5:8 Is anyone pure? Charles Swindoll in “Growing Deep in the Christian Life,” writes about a man who bought fried chicken dinners for himself and his date late one afternoon. The attendant at the fast food outlet, however, inadvertently gave him the proceeds from the day’s business – a bag of money (much of it cash) instead of fried chicken. “After driving to their picnic site,” Swindoll writes, “the two of them sat down to enjoy some chicken. They discovered a whole lot more than chicken – over $800. Now many people would have kept the money, and bought themselves a lunch much nicer than KFC. But this man did something unusual. He quickly put the money back into the car and drove all the way back. Mr. Clean got out, walked in, and became an instant hero. “By then, the manager was frantic. The guy with the bag of money looked the manager in the eye and said, ’I want you to know I came by to get a couple of chicken dinners and wound up with all this money here.’ “Well, the manager was thrilled to death. He said, ’Let me call the newspaper. I’m gonna have your picture put in the local newspaper. You’re one of the most honest men I’ve ever heard of.’ “To which the man quickly responded, ’Oh, no. No, no – don’t do that’ Then he leaned closer and whispered, ’You see, the woman I’m with is not my wife.”

We can be pure in some things and not in others. We come today to a teaching of Jesus that I feel very inadequate to discuss. It is such an awesome thing to try to comprehend what Jesus was meaning in this Beatitude. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

The “heart” is used in scripture as a metaphor that means the inner person, the emotions, the center of our motives, the base of our attitudes, the focal point of our personality. There was a time when men did not know where the seat of the personality really was. But that is not really important because “heart” in scripture is a metaphor anyway. There are several majestic truths in this saying of our Lord.

I. THE CHRISTIAN FAITH IS ULTIMATELY A CONDITION OF OUR HEARTS IN RELATION TO GOD.

We have to interpret these deep concepts of scripture by scripture. Let’s begin by looking at some Old Testament teachings about the heart. Proverbs 4:23: “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” The ancient biblical writers knew that there was a center within a human being through which God could relate to us. Down deep within our personality is a center that controls our lives. Moses wrote of it in Genesis 6:5: “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.”

That is the record of Genesis – that the center of man’s being is deeply diseased and has something so wrong within it that it cannot be patched up, nor just improved, but must be totally made new. It is out of this control center that man’s deeds have produced a wickedness on the earth in the midst of which you and I live today. The very inclination of the thoughts of his heart was evil all the time – not just off and on, not just at certain periods of a man’s life, but the control center is infected with the disease of the sin it constantly produces in a person’s life.

Look at Psalm 51. Here is a man’s struggle with his own heart. He is King David of Israel. He grievously sinned against God in the murder of Uriah and in his defilement of Bathsheba. But he knew what God wanted. Look at verse 6: “Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; teach me wisdom in the inmost place.” In verse 10 he prays; “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Once we see God and have seen the magnitude of our sin, we desire to be free of it. Asaph, the leader of the great choir of Israel wrote in Psalm 73:1: “Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.”

Jeremiah, a prophet of the Babylonian exile wrote in 17:9: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.”

Look at what Jesus said about the heart as he quoted from Isaiah in Matthew 15:7-9: “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. The worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.” And in verses 18-19 of the same chapter: “But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart and these make a man unclean. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.”

The seat of all human troubles then is the heart. John Wesley wrote:

Oh, for a heart to praise my God; A heart from sin set free,
A heart that always feels Thy blood, So freely shed for me.
A heart in every thought renewed, And full of love divine;
Perfect and right and pure and good; A copy, Lord, of Thine.

II. WHEN OUR HEARTS ARE CLEANSED WE CAN SEE GOD.

What does “seeing God” mean? It means that the believer alone in the earth, of all people, is the only one who can see God in the sense that Jesus was talking about.

The person whose heart has been cleansed can see God in CREATION. One of the big dilemmas of our educational system is “Did God create all that is?” For us it is not even a question. But for one of our great scientists, like the late Carl Sagan, said as he studied the majesty of the universe, “I don’t see God anywhere.” I loved to watch his scientific television programs and felt so sorry for him that he could see so much and yet be so blind. Who can look at the vastness of the universes and think, “Well, this just happened of its own accord?”

Psalm 19:1-6: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”

In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat.”

The study of mathematics shows that there is an order to life. The study of biology reveals the glorious world of cells. The study of chemistry makes it clear that the elements of life are in a vital balance. The unbeliever refuses to see God as the creator of it all.

The pure in heart can see God in HISTORY. In 1630, the colonists in New England signed a “Compact” which stated; “We all have come into these parts of America with one and the same end, namely to advance the Kingdom of the Lord, Jesus Christ.” These colonists sought to incorporate the principles of Christianity into every element of society, into both their civil, and political, institutions, in their endeavor to permeate the influence of their belief in God into every area of their lives, and the lives of others.
Patrick Henry, who was greatly influenced by the preaching of George Whitfield, the great British evangelist said: “It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians, not by religions, but by the gospel of Jesus Christ.” God’s hand upon our nation has allowed us to build the greatest economy and democracy in the history of the world. And where are we today? We have allowed the atheists and others to remove God from our public life and we are witnessing the favor of God being removed from our nation.

The pure in heart can see God working in their PERSONAL LIVES. As various vicissitudes of our lives come about, we can say, “God did this for me. God brought this about. God was with me. God helped me through this. God provided for me.” The unbeliever looks at life and says, “It was by chance or it was just coincidence.” But we have the assurance of Romans 8:28 which says in the Greek tenses: “And we know that God is now working all things together for the good of those who love him and serve him.” Ray Pritchard asks: “Is Paul saying, “Whatever happens is good”? No. Is he saying that suffering and evil and tragedy are good? No. Is he saying everything will work out if we just have enough faith? No. Is he saying that we will understand why God allowed tragedy to come? No. God is actively at work in your life! What, then, is he saying? He is erecting a sign over the unexplainable mysteries of life, a sign that reads, “Quiet – God at work.” How? We’re not always sure. To what end? Good, and not evil. That’s what Romans 8:28 is saying.”

Scripture promises that the pure in heart will see God IN THE NEXT LIFE. Paul makes it clear that such sight cannot come until death, when believers enter God’s presence. It is God alone who “has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see” (1 Tim. 6:16). But one day — at the appearing of Jesus Christ — Paul says we will see that which our sin and humanity currently prevents us from seeing (6:14–15).

In I John 3:2-3, John tells us, “Dear friends, now we are the children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.”

Finally, anyone who becomes a believer can see God in SALVATION. “In 1978, Azar came to the United States for an education. She planned to return to her native Iran, but political upheaval in that nation denied that. So Azar, a Muslim, remained in America, and worked very hard to be successful.

“When you have to make it in another country, you also focus on needing to be somebody. I wanted to do the best and not just settle for anything,” she says.

Azar worked as hard to be a good Muslim, as she did to be a financial planner. She believed her good deeds would earn her a place in heaven. But after years of ceremonial washing and prayers five times a day, she grew tired of the routine.

“All of a sudden, I realized I was standing there covered and I didn’t know what I was saying. Was I talking to God? I felt like this couldn’t be it. This can’t be what God wants from me.”

For 21 years, Azar had little to do with her Islamic faith. Then some Iranian friends invited her to a meeting.
“Honestly, I’d never heard of Iranians who were Muslims and then Christians. I said, ‘What?”
Still, Azar was intrigued and agreed to meet these people.

“For the first time, I saw Iranians who were Muslims and had become Christians. They were singing to God and worshipping. I thought that it was so interesting that they were so free.”

But more than that, Azar was dissatisfied with her life. Even though she had all the trappings of success, something was missing.

“I was working six or seven days a week. I was so driven. What was the purpose?”

Azar thought about the Christian meeting she attended. Soon, she went to another to find out more. There she listened intently to what was being said.

One Christian at the meeting said, “Who here knows that they’re going to heaven?”

“Well, as a Muslim you don’t know if you go to heaven or not, because God is going to review your past, and it depends on how much good you’ve done. He decides. I wouldn’t know. So few people raised their hands and I thought, ‘How do you know?’ ”

What Azar heard was the salvation message of the cross. She didn’t understand and wanted an explanation.

“After the meeting, I went to him and said, ‘What do you mean Jesus died for me? I wasn’t there. I die for my own sins.’ ”

Again and again, she begged God to show her the truth.

“As I was talking to God, I said, ‘I have no reason to change. I was Muslim, You were good to me, and I have no reason to change. But if You have any reason, You show me a sign.’ ”

“I saw a person right in front of me, and his face was right where my face was. I could see his whole body. Gradually he opened his eyes, and they were like two little suns. They got brighter and brighter and started shining on my face.”

She recognized that the person she saw was Jesus and prayed to accept Him as her Lord and Savior.
“I felt a way I’d never felt before. I felt like tons of weight was off my shoulders. I was so light and so happy. It was so unusual, so different,” she says.

Through her faith in Jesus Christ, Azar has found purpose in life. Since then, she’s been involved in her church and serves in a South Florida jail ministry. Today, she glows as she speaks. She knows the truth that set her free.

“It’s just incredible, it’s incredible. Before, I tried to do it on my own. I tried so hard to please God, to be good, and didn’t know that I’d go to heaven. But now it’s Him. Jesus came down for me, and He’s changing me every day.” (From Exciting Stories of Salvation CBN).

PRAISE BE TO HIS NAME!