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Upside Down Living: The Pure in heart
The document discusses the concept of having a pure heart in a spiritual context, emphasizing that a pure heart is undivided, clean, and integral. It outlines seven practices to promote purity of heart, including belief, confession, immersion in scripture, worship, prayer for purity, perseverance, and anticipation of spiritual transformation. The text incorporates various biblical references and quotes from theologians to support its points.
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Upside Down Living: The Pure in heart
- 1.
- 2. Matthew 5:8 Blessed arethe pure in heart, for they shall see God.
- 3. First Point A PureHeart is an Undivided Heart
- 4. Καθαρος/ Katharos Clear ofadmixture, clean, pure, unalloyed, single.
- 5. James 4 8 Drawnear to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
- 6.
- 7.
- 8. Matthew 6:22 (KJV) Thelight of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
- 9. Matthew 6:23 (KJV) Butif thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
- 10. Søren Kierkegaard “Purity of heart isto will one thing.”
- 11. Proverbs 11:20 (NLT) TheLORD hates people with twisted hearts, but he delights in those that have integrity.
- 12. Second Point A PureHeart is a Clean Heart
- 13. 1 John 1:9 Ifwe confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
- 14. A Praying Agnostic “Notsure either why these individuals are often brought into my path but hope for him that he gets it. I can look in his eyes and see how broken he is and though agnostic, I pray that he gets it.”
- 15. Titus 3 4 Butwhen the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,
- 16. Titus 3 5 hesaved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,
- 17. Third Point 7 Practicesthat Promote Purity of Heart.
- 18. Colin Smith The practice of trustingJesus Christ to save you. 1. Believe
- 19. James 1 6 Butlet him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.
- 20. James 1 7 Forthat person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
- 21. Colin Smith The practice of namingand opposing particular sins in your life. 2. Confess
- 22. 1 John 1:9 Ifwe confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
- 23. Colin Smith The practice of immersingyourself in the Word of God. 3. Obey
- 24. John 17:17 Sanctify themin the truth; your word is truth.
- 25. Colin Smith The practice of gazingon the glory of God. 4. Worship
- 26. 2 Corinthians 3:18 Andwe all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
- 27. “Worship may bethe most under- appreciated means of God’s grace in all of the Christian church.” Colin Smith
- 28. Colin Smith The process of prayingfor purity. 5. Ask
- 29. Psalm 51:10 Create inme a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
- 30. Thomas Watson “Most menpray more often for full purses than pure hearts.”
- 31. Colin Smith The practice of gettingup when you have fallen down. 6. Persevere
- 32. Micah 7:8 Rejoice notover me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me.
- 33. Colin Smith The practice of knowingwho you are and rejoicing in what you will be. 7.Anticipate
- 34. 1 John 3 2Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
- 35. 1 John 3 3And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
- 36. Colin Smith “Some people make progressin the Christian life, while others just become an older version of themselves.”
Editor's Notes
- #2 Good morning. Today we will be looking at the sixth of Jesus’ 8 beatitudes. I have described them as rungs on a ladder. The journey towards Christ-likeness begins with poverty of spirit – acknowledging that we are powerless to change ourselves and humbly seeking God’s grace to become more like Jesus. We then saw that an important next step was mourning – especially mourning over our sinfulness. Instead of dismissing our sin and explaining it away, we view our sin the way that God does… as a cancer that needs to be cut out. We then looked at meekness and saw that meekness is not weakness, it is strength under control. Meekness is typified by Jesus who was both omnipotent and nailed to a cross. The next rung on the ladder was hungering and thirsting for righteousness. It is the hunger that propels us to seek God’s kingdom first. Then, last week we looked at being merciful. Together we saw that mercy is undeserved and that when we truly understand how undeserving we are, but how badly we need God’s mercy, it will motivate us to do two things… talk to Jesus about unsaved people and talk to unsaved people about Jesus. Evangelism flows out of a sense of being recipients of God’s mercy. This week we move onto the sixth beatitude… Jesus’ blessing to the pure in heart. I want to begin with an absolutely bizarre story. I won’t furnish many details… the broader strokes will do. Yesterday, as I was listening to the radio in the car, I heard a news story that I had missed. It was several months old. It was the story about Mark “Chris” Sevier. Mark is one of the growing number of people who have developed an addiction to internet pornography. There is nothing unique in that story. Every second, $3,075.64 is spent on pornography. Every second 28,258 people are viewing pornography. Every second, 372 people are typing adult search terms. Every day there are 116,000 requests for child pornography and there are 100,000 websites offering it to them. 25% of the total requests made on internet engines is a pornographic search… that is 68million per day. 42.7% of internet users view pornography and download 1.5 billion peer to peer downloads per month. What is more unique is that Mr. Sevier has unsuccessfully sued the State of Florida and is currently suing the State of Texas for the right to marry the laptop computer that contains his pornography. These words are part of his legal argument.
- #3 Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. This verse contains both the greatest challenge and the greatest reward. What greater reward than to see God? What greater challenge than to live with true purity of heart? But what exactly does it mean to have a pure heart? Does it mean to live with sinless perfection? Does it mean that we never have a bad thought? If that is the standard, then clearly none of us have a shot… not one of us will see God. Let’s see if we can make sense of this beatitude.
- #4 First Point A Pure Heart is an Undivided Heart
- #5 The Greek word for pure in our text is Καθαρος. It means clear of admixture, clear, pure, unalloyed, single. It was often used by refiners of metal. Once the dross and other impurities were removed, the metal was katharos… it was pure and unadulterated. This combining of the notions of cleansing and purification of heart is found in James 4. James is confronting the Christian community or worldliness and exhorts them with these words:
- #6 In James 4:8 we read: 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. There is a poetic parallel structure in this verse. Cleansing and Purifying are here synonymous words. They are like remedies. The second pair are that which is in need of correction: sin, which is also described as double-mindedness. This double-mindedness is the same word James uses to describe the unstable man in James chapter 1. It literally means a two-souled man. We don’t speak of people being two-souled. However, there is a word in our language that expresses this contrast between the divided and undivided heart… integrity. Purity of heart is integrity. Integrity comes from the word integer. An integer is a whole number. It is not split into pieces.
- #7 104 years ago the world’s first unsinkable ship sank. It’s interesting that the engineers never said that the Titanic was unsinkable. That claim came from the marketers of the shipping line. The design of the Titanic was, however, intended to make it hard to sink. There were 16 separate compartments separated by water-tight bulkheads. The intent was that any two compartments could fill, but the ship would remain afloat. The most recent evidence is that the actual breach in Titanic’s hull was not nearly as long as the gash. The actual opening in the hull was about the size of your refrigerator. So how did the great ship sink? The red lines tell the story. The compartments did not go up all the way. So the water began spilling over the top of the adjacent compartment. As the ship began to list, the spillage accelerated. Once the fourth compartment filled, Titanic was doomed.
- #8 Here is a picture of a doomed life. A life lacking integrity is compartmentalized. I have my friends. Then, I have my church friends. That is not a problem, unless I am one way with my school or work friends and entirely different with my church friends. I have my religious beliefs and I have my political beliefs. My religious beliefs tell me that life is sacred. My political beliefs tell me that choice is more sacred than life. I keep them separate. I make sure to keep my vices and my sex life as far away from my religion as possible… especially if my religion is Christianity. Hinduism… not so much of a problem. But Christianity will really impose some major limitations. Notice how I drew the bulkheads. They never go quite to the top. They never really do. That is the problem with a compartmentalized life… each section ultimately bleeds into the others and what is left is inconsistent and adulterated.
- #9 I rarely quote from the King James Bible, but here is a verse where the King James best captures the meaning of the text. Later in His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus returns to this idea of integrity. In Matthew 6:22 he says: The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. What is the single eye? It is the same as the pure heart. This is another image of integrity. It is an eye with a singular focus. It fills the entire body with light because it does not allow darkness to be mixed in. Last year, when the vitreous fluid sac pulled away from the walls of my left eye, my eye ceased to be a single unit. It’s now a part inside a part. The remains of what pulled away are large floaters that cast moving shadows. I have a Matthew 6:22 eye and a Matthew 6:23 eye…
- #10 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! Yep… one single eye and one evil eye. It’s a living illustration of how integrity is better than compartmentalization. My left eye is much freer than my right. All kinds of stuff gets to go wherever it wants. My right eye is not nearly so free, but it transmits light so much more clearly. The limitations of faith enable light to flood your soul. Jesus doesn’t want to just bleed into all the compartments in your life… he wants to remove those bulkheads so that you can be the same in any and every setting.
- #11 The Danish philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard, said that “Purity of heart is to will one thing.”
- #12 Proverbs 11:20 (NLT) The LORD hates people with twisted hearts, but he delights in those that have integrity.
- #13 Second Point A Pure Heart is a Clean Heart I can’t overstate the importance of this second point. And the reason is very clear and proven throughout history. Adolf Hitler had one heart and he willed one thing. He willed to wipe out the Jews and other groups which he deemed to be infecting the blood of the fatherland. He willed to build a Germany that was one people and he dedicated all his talents and energy to this one thing. He had a pure heart. But before you boo me like Sanders supporters at the DNC this week, hear me out. Adolf Hitler had a pure heart, but it was not clean. He was purely evil. This Greek word “katharos” holds two vital meanings, unmixed and clean. We have no such word in our language that can do this double duty. It is the perfect word to describe the kind of hearts that God is looking for… hearts that are both single and clean. Listen to these words spoken by the apostle John.
- #14 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Notice that there is something we must do and something that only God can do. We must confess our sins. It is critical that we see that we are not called to defeat our sins in our own strength, thereby proving ourselves to God and becoming worthy of His blessing. If you are trying to manage your own sins and hope to someday earn God’s respect and favor, you are going to sink as badly as the Titanic. We are not capable of managing our sins. We will never tame our sin nature this side of eternity. But we can confess our sins. That means that we agree with God. We agree that our sins are serious. We agree that they break our fellowship with God. We agree that they break his heart. And we agree that we need God’s help to get rid of them. But notice what only God can do. He can forgive us. Jesus forgave sinners, and the self-righteous Pharisees accused Him of blasphemy. They had a proper view of sin, but an improper view of salvation. They knew the penalty of sin, but they failed to grasp the remedy for sin because they did not recognize that the one before them was the Savior, the one person capable of cleansing their hearts and extending God’s forgiveness. Jesus accomplished all that His Father required of Him. He fulfilled all of God’s righteous demands and left nothing undone. But there is a very key problem. Colin Smith articulated the problem so well. This question he asked had me thinking all week.
- #15 This week I was reading a post from a childhood friend on Facebook. He describe an encounter with a hardened alcoholic who was a customer. The man was his age and his ethnicity. They had lots of superficial similarities, but this man had this major problem and he didn’t see that alcohol was ruining his life. My friend then made this statement. It was sincere and heartfelt and contained a huge inconsistency: “Not sure either why theses individuals are often brought into my path but hope for him that he gets it. I can look in his eyes and see how broken he is and though agnostic, I pray that he gets it.” This friend and I were confirmed in the same Catholic parish. I became an evangelical and I now learned that he became an agnostic. My heart sank, but I must admit I was also a bit confused. I haven’t met too many praying agnostics. It’s inconsistent, isn’t it? But, you know, when it comes to receiving God’s forgiveness, we’re inconsistent. We pray for God to forgive us and cleanse us. But we are agnostic when it comes to really believing that God can change us. Not sure that he can’t… not sure that he can. Or perhaps our agnosticism is more like this. Knowing He can, but not sure He will. There is a part of us that down deep believes that there are certain sins that have too deep a hold on us and we don’t believe that will ever change. Yet God’s word tells us over and over again that Jesus can and will cleanse us. Listen to these words written by the Apostle Paul to his disciple and co-worker Titus:
- #16 4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,
- #17 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, Maybe you can’t believe in your own will-power. That’s O.K. I wouldn’t put my faith in that. But can you believe in Jesus’ mercy? Can you believe in His ability to make a heart clean? And can you believe that He wants to cleanse you? Until you believe in His love and His mercy, you will remain agnostic concerning the likelihood of ever experiencing real change in your life.
- #18 Let’s move on to one final thought this morning. Here is where we are going to get real practical. Jesus tells us that those who are pure in heart will see God. I want to see God. And I know that you want that too. I would like to share 7 practices that promote purity of heart. And once again, I want to give credit to Pastor Colin Smith for these excellent steps. Please understand, my goal is not to dazzle you with my own ideas. I want to share God’s truth. And when I find someone who captures those truths well, I am all too willing to share their thoughts with you and hope that they will challenge you the way that I have been challenged this week.
- #19 Believe: The practice of trusting Jesus Christ to save you. Believing is the practice of trusting Jesus Christ to change you. Look with me at James 1, verses 6-7:
- #20 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.
- #21 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; Remember, I shared with you about the two-souled man who lacked integrity. Here he is again. The person who does not believe in Jesus heart and might to save them is two-souled and lacks stability. Believing in Jesus’ desire and ability to save you helps you to develop a pure heart.
- #22 2. Confess: The practice of naming and opposing particular sins in your life.
- #23 Let me repeat this verse from a few minutes ago and take apply it a bit. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. There is something incredibly important about how we confess our sins. We need to be specific. By not naming our opponent, we can’t win battles. Consider President Obama’s proven unwillingness to name Islamic Terror. We have seen him refer to acts of Islamic terror as workplace violence, gun violence, extremist acts… almost anything but Islamic terror. Many are beginning to criticize this decision for good reason. Naming the enemy is important. When you name the sin in your life, it’s harder to rationalize it or ignore it. That enemy becomes more real to us. Instead of confessing your lack of spiritual discipline, name it… prayerlessness, neglect of God’s word, failure to share your faith. By naming it you define it and God is pleased when we confess our sins specifically.
- #24 A Third practice for promoting purity of heart is obedience. 3. Obey: The practice of immersing yourself in the Word of God.
- #25 John 17:7 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. Sanctification is a fancy word for becoming more holy… becoming more like Jesus. It is a process that starts when you are saved and continues for the rest of your Christian life. But don’t think that steady growth is a guaranteed outcome. We know better. Our spiritual life is a series of ups and downs. But when you chart your spiritual life something becomes very clear. The high points were times where you spent serious time with God… and the low points were those times when you were lax in reading God’s Word and spending time with Him. I know this is true for me. God’s truth comes alive when I am immersed in God’s Word.
- #26 Number 4, worship promotes the purity of our hearts. Worship is the practice of gazing on the glory of God. I love these words by the apostle Paul, as he looks forward to that moment in heaven where we finally gaze on God’s glory:
- #27 2 Corinthians 3:18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. Pastor Colin shared an interesting thought concerning persistent sin… you worshipped your way in. What is sin? To a large degree sin is the process of worshipping God replacements. That’s our form of idolatry. We don’t build gods of stone and wood. But we do worship money, power, popularity, pleasure. It is our worship of these things that leads us into sins like greed, selfishness, vanity and immorality. We worship our way in. How do we get out? We worship our way out! Worship is more than standing up, raising our hands… MAYBE and signing songs. True worship, the kind that Jesus described as worship in spirit and truth, is transformative… It changes us. Pastor Colin said: The more we see God, the more we become pure in heart.
- #28 “Worship may be the most under-appreciated means of God’s grace in all of the Christian church.” Many years ago, you know what Pastors referred to the opening minutes of the service as? Preliminaries. Prayer time… worship… missions reports… testimonies… they were preliminaries. The sermon was the main event. I can’t help but wonder whether God refers to sermons as the anticlimax. What is the climax? What brings Him the most joy and brings us the greatest change of heart? Could it be our time of worship? We are blessed to have such a committed worship team. And it has been a blessing for me as a Dad to sit in the front row and have my daughter be one of the people who leads me into God’s presence. Worship is powerful.
- #29 Number 5. Ask: The process of praying for purity.
- #30 In David’s great penitential psalm, after being nailed between the eyes by Nathan the prophet concerning his grave sins, David asks God for forgiveness: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Listen to these words by the Puritan preacher, Thomas Watson:
- #31 Thomas Watson “Most men pray more often for full purses than pure hearts.” I don’t like that quote. It hits me a bit close to home. When medical bills and car repair bills gang up and shred my budget, I am all too prone to pray for a full wallet. But do I pray for a pure heart. I don’t like this quote, but man do I need this quote. Jesus teaches us that purity of heart is an essential step in living a blessed life. He never says this of money!
- #32 Number 6. Persevere: The practice of getting up when you have fallen down.
- #33 Micah 7:8: Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me. I want you to see one key word in this text. I’ve put it in red letters on the screen. When I fall. Not if I fall. When I fall. Nobody makes uninterrupted progress in the Christian life. You will fall. You will sin. You will doubt. You will screw up. It’s going to happen. Perseverance is that determination to keep getting up. Let’s look at one more way in which we can make real progress towards developing pure hearts.
- #34 7. Anticipate: The practice of knowing who you are and rejoicing in what you will be. Consider John’s words from his first epistle:
- #35 1 John 3:2-3: 2 Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
- #36 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. God has an amazing plan for each one of us. And we can’t begin to comprehend all that lies ahead. We will not always be so undisciplined… so distracted… so inconsistent and so disobedient. A day is coming when Jesus will complete what He has started in your life and my life. And on that day, we will be like him… purified, glorified and holy. It defies the imagination, but its true. That is the destiny of all who truly know Jesus and have sought salvation in Him. I’d like to leave you with one more question. When I listened to Colin Smith in preparation for this sermon, he asked a question. It was so profound that I moved it all around in the sermon. You can do that in powerpoint. It was in the intro… in the first point… the second point… the third point, but finally I decided that this was the last word that I wanted to share with you, and after it we’ll pray.
- #37 “Some people make progress in the Christian life, while others just become an older version of themselves.” Let’s pray.