A.Many consider the Lord’s “Sermon on the Mount” (Matt. 5-7) to be the greatest sermon ever preached.
1.Certainly, many who were present when the Lord spoke on that day would have agreed, for the Scripture says that “the multitudes were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes” (Matt. 7:28-29).
2.The lessons that our Lord taught then are just as potent now, and all who desire to please God should abide by the Master’s teaching.
B.This sermon began with what we have come to know as the “beatitudes” (Matt. 5:3-12).
1.“Beatitude” is a Latin word that means “happy.”
2.The Lord began each statement of the beatitudes with the word “blessed,” which means “happy” or “fortunate,” and connotes prosperity and a good condition.
3.Therefore, the beatitudes are the Lord’s directions for man to become truly happy.
C.All of the beatitudes relate to the condition of one’s heart, but Christ addressed the subject of the heart directly by saying, “Blessed are pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8).It is this subject that we shall consider presently.
1.What does it mean to be pure in heart?
2.How does one become pure in heart?
3.What is the blessing of being pure in heart?
II.WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE PURE IN HEART?
A.Let us first understand what the heart is.
1.We can define the heart as the center of man’s being.
a.With the heart, man thinks, feels, and makes moral choices.The heart is the source of motivation and direction for all that man says and does.
b.Scripture attributes many things to the heart, such as joy (Psa. 119:111), despair (Deut. 28:65), fear (1Sam. 28:5), anger (Psa. 39:3), knowledge (Deut. 8:5), deceit (Jer. 17:9), etc.
2.Jesus simplified the meaning of the heart by describing it essentially as a storage place.
a.The heart is the place in which to put the things that we value and a place from which to retrieve the things that define who we are.
b.For example, consider the treasure of the heart in Matthew 6:19-21.
i.The word “treasure” means “a place of safe keeping.”The Lord’s advice is to treasure heavenly things rather than earthly things.
ii.Synonymous with this treasure is the heart, “…for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”Therefore, the things that we value the most are treasured (safely stored) within our hearts.
c.Also, consider the things brought forth from the treasure of the heart according to Jesus.
i.Jesus said that a man “speaks out of that which fills the heart” (Matt. 12:34).“That which fills the heart” in verse 34 is the same as a man’s treasure in verse 35 – “The good man out of his good treasure brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings forth what is evil.”
ii.The things that a man does to defile himself come from within the treasure of his heart according to Jesus in Matthew 15:18-20.“For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders” (Matt. 15:19).
3.Through this figure of the heart as a storage place or treasure chest, let us understand that we can only expect to retrieve from the heart that which we put into it.
a.If we believe that we can consume and indulge in evil things and still bring forth that which is good, we are deceiving ourselves.The Lord has said that this cannot be done.
b.Therefore, we must be careful what we put into our hearts.
i.If we want to bring forth good things in what we say and do, then we must put good things into our hearts.
ii.If we value evil things, then we will store them within our hearts as treasure, and we will bring forth only evil things in our words and actions.The result is that the soul will be defiled and lost in sin.
B.Now that we understand what the heart is, let us consider what it means to be pure in heart.
1.The word “pure” means “undefiled” or “uncontaminated.” It indicates not only cleanness, but also unity.
2.Just as a pure substance contains no contaminants, neither does a pure heart.
a.Ivory brand soap used to be advertised as being 99.4% pure, which, by definition, means that it is really impure.For something to be truly pure, it must 100% pure.
b.Likewise, a pure heart must be 100% committed to God.Notice that James gave the instruction to “purify your hearts, you double-minded” for those who were doubting and distrustful of God in James 4:8 (see also James 1:6-8).
3.The Bible uses the term “pure in heart” in the sense of being clean and holy.
a.Notice that a person could be 100% evil in his heart, but this is not purity of the heart (consider the people of Noah’s day, Genesis 6:5).
b.A pure heart is one that is completely clean and holy, spiritually undefiled by wickedness and evil intent.
III.HOW DOES ONE BECOME PURE IN HEART?
A.The heart of man has become polluted with all kinds of defilement.
1.Rather than a treasure chest, we often treat the heart like a trash can, putting in anything and everything that is filthy and defiling.
2.By our own choices, our hearts are made impure through sin, and “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).
3.Realizing this, we must appeal to God for a clean heart with a broken spirit and a contrite heart (Psa. 51:10, 17).
B.Thankfully, God has provided purification through Jesus Christ for the hearts of those who by faith purify themselves in obedience to the truth.
1.This truth is taught in 1Peter 1:22; 1John 3:3; Titus 2:11-14.
2.Let us understand that there are two parts to purification of the heart.
a.God’s part in this purification is to wash us clean of all the defilement of sin and to provide for us the good things to store in our hearts.
b.Our part is to provide the complete commitment to God through Christ and receive those good things of God into our hearts.
c.Thus, our hearts can be pure, completely clean and completely devoted to God.
C.Purity of heart is something that we must strive not only to obtain, but also to maintain.
1.The purified heart can be defiled once again if evil things are brought back into it.
2.Therefore, we must seek to fill the heart with the good things of God, which we can do through the word of God: “Thy word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against Thee” (Psa. 119:11).
IV.WHAT IS THE BLESSING OF BEING PURE IN HEART?
A.The lives of those who are pure in heart are guaranteed by the Lord to be happy and blessed because of one thing: they know that they shall see God.
1.This has bee promised to them, and this hope is the anchor of their souls.Regardless of what they may suffer in life, this hope gives them happiness and blessing.
2.This hope is a treasure to be stored in the heart, and from this treasure those who hope bring forth the same hope for others through the preaching of the gospel of Christ.
B.What joy it shall be to see God!
1.Consider Revelation 22:1-5.The Lord’s bond-servants shall see His face.
2.The joy of this thought is expressed well in the third stanza of the hymn, When We All Get to Heaven:
“Let us then be true and faithful, trusting, serving every day; Just one glimpse of Him in glory will the toils of life repay.”
