Our Bible reading is from Matthew's Gospel chapter 5 today. Matthew's Gospel chapter 5 and we'll begin our reading at verse 1 of the chapter. Matthew chapter 5 and the verse number 1. And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain, and when he was set, his disciples came on to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven. were so persecuted, they the prophets which were before you. And we'll end our reading just there at the end of verse 12. A short reading today. Let's just seek the Lord in prayer and ask God to help us as we bring the word. Let's pray. Our loving Father, we do thank thee for the worship that has ascended to thee today already in this place. Worship via song, via prayer, the giving of tithe and offering. Now as we come to worship thee in the hearing of thy word, we pray for the help and for the assistance of God the Holy Spirit, fully aware that we need his help, fully aware, O God, that if men and women, young people, boys and girls are to benefit and profit From the preaching of the word today then we need the assistance, the help of God, the Holy Spirit. His ministry among us is what we beseech thee for, this is what we long and desire for today, that the Lord would take the word and apply it to every heart and every waiting soul. So come, shut out the world. Shut us in to God, we pray. May we know a sense of Thy presence. Meet with our waiting hearts, we ask of Thee. May we see something of our Lord and Savior, even as we minister in the Word today. God grant it, we ask of Thee. Bring great glory to Thy name throughout this entire day, we pray. Let this be a high day within the Church of Jesus Christ, across the province, a day when the Spring tide comes in, we ask of thee. We're aware, O God, that the tide is very much out. But we thank thee that it only takes a moment for the tide to turn. Lord, we pray that we might come to that very moment. We think of what the psalmist spoke about, a set time to visit Zion. Let this be the day, O God, that has been decreed by God, the set day where there is a turning of our hearts back to thee, and a turning of hearts that are estranged from God unto thee. We pray this in Jesus' most precious and worthy name. Amen. Over the last two Lord's Days, we have been thinking about all of the benefits that flow from beholding our God. as we come to understand, albeit in a limited way, who our God is and what our God is like. Such an understanding will generate and cultivate within our lives comfort, humility, worship, faith and trust, gladness and service within our lives. As Lord's Day we did end, with the thought of the transformational effect that takes place within our lives as we behold our God. We thought about those words there within scripture, with an open face, beholding as at last the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. By beholding our God, we are transformed into His image. We take on His likeness. And surely, that ought to be the desire of every believing child of God today, that we become like our Savior, that we represent Him in this community, that we are His impression, or we have upon our lives His very impression. There are a number of questions that we want to think about today. As we come to behold our God, the first question I believe that we need to ask is, can a man behold God? Can a man, can a woman behold God? I ask that question because of some passages of Scripture, some statements within Scripture that we come across. I'm thinking about words such as those that we find in Exodus chapter 30 in the verse 20. And he said, thou canst not see my face, God is speaking here, for there shall no man see me and live. Over in Judges 13 verse 22 we read, And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God. John 1 verse 18, No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. And then over in 1 John 4 verse 12, No man hath seen God at any time. And so we ask the question, can we really behold our God? Can we really see our God? Well, I believe that each of those statements that I've mentioned must be seen in the context of beholding God the Father and beholding Him in a full and in a complete manner and in a complete way. Remember the statement that the Savior said over there in John chapter 4 to the woman of Samaria? when he met her at the well, he said, God is a spirit. And being a spirit being, God is invisible to the natural eye. He is without bodily parts, and yet though he is a spirit, God is very much real. To behold the full, unveiled, unclouded, unembodied glory of Jehovah would horrify and overwhelm man with its ineffable brightness. And thus, we read these statements, no man has seen God. No man can see God at any time. If you go into the Old Testament, you'll know that God As he manifest himself to those people there within the Old Testament, he did so through the medium of objects upon which the eye could look upon without any pain and upon which the mind could contemplate without any fear. Whether he was veiled within a cloud or embodied within a burning bush, God could then be approached. He could approach the creature. And thank God, the creature could approach God with humble confidence. And therefore, whenever we read this statement that no man can see God at any time, it really refers to no man ever having been given a full comprehension of God. Now, although no man has ever seen God in a complete or full manner, yet the Bible makes it clear that there are those who did behold God. I'm thinking about Isaiah over there in Isaiah chapter 6 who saw the Lord high and lifted up within the temple. I think about John there on the Isle of Patmos. He beheld a vision of the glorified Christ there on that isle in which he had been exiled to. Why would God have encouraged the prophet Isaiah to say unto the cities of Judah over there in Isaiah 40 to behold your God if such a thing was not possible? And so if we can behold our God, and I believe that we can, we must ask then another question, who is able to behold God? Who is able to behold their God? And that's what we want to think about today. Who it is that is able to behold our God? Well, in the first place, before we think about who is able to behold God, I want you to think first of all with me, who it is that cannot behold God? Who it is that cannot behold God? Can all men, can all women see or behold their God? Well, it's very evident as you converse with society at large and those on sea of masses who live around us that the answer to that question is no, because the sinner The unconverted person, the one who is devoid of saving grace, cannot comprehend or see God. The natural things, these things, the things of God, do not come to the mind or to the understanding of natural man. They cannot perceive God in their understanding. And all you have to do is to speak to an unseated person and you'll come to that conclusion very quickly, that they cannot see comprehend or understand God. Such people look at creation, they look at its astonishing, they look at its meticulous design, and they come to the conclusion that such was created by a Lord bang some billions of years ago, and yet they do not see God in it, they do not see God's handiwork. The fall in the Garden of Eden when mankind fell into sin affected every faculty of mankind, including his spiritual sight. Sin had, in effect, it had the effect of putting out man's eyes, spiritually speaking. And as a result, mankind became blind to God so that they could no longer see God's revelation of himself within creation. We're told that Satan continues to play a part within that blindness, because we read in 2 Corinthians 4, in the verse 4, that he has blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel, who is the image of God, should shine on to them. And so the mind, the hearts, the eyes of unbelievers are blinded in such a way that they perceive no beauty in the gospel. They see no spiritual beauty or glory in the whole plan and in the whole scheme of God's redemption. Such ones would declare about God the Son that there is no beauty in Him, that they would desire Him. Wonder today, is that your state? Wonder today, is that your case? As you look into this world of wondrous design, is it the case that you fail to see God's handiwork in any part of it? While the preacher would encourage you to look to Christ for salvation, to see Him by the eye of faith as that substitute there dying for your sins and taking the punishment that was your due, you cannot see it. You would even say to an unsaved loved one, an unsaved friend, I just can't see it. Maybe you've said that. I just cannot see it. Sinner, your difficulty is that sin has put out your eyes so that you cannot see. Sin has a blinding effect upon the soul, so that there is no attraction to spiritual things. There's nothing about Christ that appeals to the unconverted. There's no comprehension on that person's part to what lies before them if they remain in their sin. They just cannot see. What you need today is for God to give you sight. To give you spiritual sight, to touch your eyes, spiritually speaking, so that you might see. To give you a sight. A sight of what? First of all, you need a sight of your own sinfulness. You need to see your sin as being exceeding sinful in the sight of God. And then having seen yourself for who you are, a sinner condemned, hell bound, and fully deserving so, having seen that, then you need to get a glimpse, a sight, a view of your God. You need to get a view of Christ and His work for you on the cross of Calvary, that work that deals fully and completely with sin. When that happens, when you get a view of yourself and then when you get a view of Jesus Christ and what He has done, thank God those views will cause you to flee to the Son of God and be saved from your sin. I suppose the testimony of every Christian mirrors the testimony of that blind man that we meet there in the record of John chapter 9. Christ touched his eyes And he's questioned by his accusers and his questioners all different kinds of questions. Who this individual was that touched his eyes, what he had said to him, what he had done for him. And he tells us over there in John chapter 9, he speaks to them, I don't understand and I cannot answer all your questions, I paraphrase. But this one thing I know, Whereas I was blind, now I see. You know, once I was blind. I was blinded by my own self-righteousness. As a sinner, I was blinded to my own sinfulness. I was blinded to my own condemnation. I was blinded to the beauty that there is in Christ. I was blinded to all the blessings that were in the gospel of Jesus Christ. But thank God there came a moment, a time, a day in my life, When my eyes were opened, the veil was lifted, God gave me sight, and once I was blind, but now I can see. John Newton penned those familiar words as a testimony to his own conversion within that hymn, Amazing Grace. Amazing Grace, the hymn writer said, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. I wonder, have you seen Christ? Have you beheld Him in all of His glory, in all of His saving work on your behalf, sinner? Oh, that today you'll get a glimpse of Christ, that you would see your Redeemer today, because the unconverted cannot see God. They cannot behold God. May God be then pleased today. And it is my prayer. Young man, it's my prayer for you that God would remove the spiritual blindness that has settled upon your heart and mind and soul, and that today God would give you a saving glimpse of Christ in the gospel, enabling you for the very first time to behold your God. But having thought about who cannot behold God, I want you to think about with me in the second place who it is that can behold God, who can see God. Well, from our reading today in Matthew chapter 5, we can say, first of all, the first people that can behold their God are the people who are pure in heart. With the words of Christ in verse 8 of Matthew chapter 5, blessed are the pure in heart, for they, for they shall see God. Let me say that a person who has an unbelieving heart is not pure in heart. A person, a Christian who has a covetous heart is certainly not one who has a pure heart. A self-righteous heart is not a pure heart. A divided heart is not a pure heart. A sin-excusing heart is not a pure heart. The pure in heart are those whose heart has been cleansed by the blood of Christ and has been changed by the Spirit of God. I say that because the natural state of man's heart is in a state of impurity. The heart of man is described as being desperately wicked by Jeremiah. It is described as the fountainhead of all that is offensive and all that is repugnant to God, therefore a radical. And I say it, a supernatural, radical, comprehensive change must take place within the heart, whereby the sinful biasness of the human heart is reversed and the disposition of that heart is now inclined towards God and righteousness and holiness. Ezekiel speaks of such things in these terms. at taking away of a stony heart and giving a heart of flesh, or giving a new heart and putting within us a new spirit. That's what must occur if we are ever to see God. Now there is much in our world today, brethren and sisters, that would want to bring our hearts, the hearts of the Christian, into an impure state. cause our hearts to be brought into a state of impurity. I think of the television, I think of the printed press, I think of the internet, the world wide web, I think of Hollywood's movies, I think of smartphones to name but a few. Because the devil certainly doesn't want the Christian to see God. He doesn't want the believer to get a sight of their God. He doesn't want them to behold their God, because in seeing Him, they'll love Him. In seeing Him, they'll worship Him. In seeing Him, they'll gladly serve Him. And seeing Him, they will even suffer for Him. And so the devil is constantly and militantly engaged in attempting to lure the Christian into sin that will cause the heart that was once pure now to become tainted by sin. I wonder, has that happened this week in your life? Something you beheld has caused that heart of yours to become impure. Today you seek cleansing in the precious blood of Christ, because knowing then that only the pure in heart can see or behold God, how does a person who lives in this world with all of Satan's temptations and allurements, how does a person attain to this requirement of a pure heart? What steps, what practical steps can we take to ensure that our hearts remain pure, that will enable us then to behold or see our God more clearly in His Word. Let me give you a number of helps today. You desire to be pure in heart? You desire to see God? These, I believe, will help you in the maintaining of a pure heart. Firstly, stay in the Word of God. Stay in the Word of God. In Psalm 119, in the verse 140, we read these words, very pure. Therefore thy servant loveth it." That very pure word he has already spoken off within that great chapter, because the question is asked, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Psalm 119 verses 9 and 11. This very pure word has a purifying effect upon the heart of his reader. Christ said as much. He said as much that in John 15 in the verse 3, now are ye clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. By the reading and by then the practicing and the obeying of the Scripture, by washing, we would say, in the liver of God's Word, the Christian's heart is therefore purified from all that contaminates and stains the heart. The Word of God will sanctify, will purify your heart. So let me ask you, this week, were you in the Word? Did you read the Scriptures? Were you found studying the Word of God for yourself? Did you take time sometime through the day to take down the Word of God and read the Scriptures? Not read a devotional, not read a Christian novel, not read Spurgeon or some other thing, not even read the little devotionals that we hand out, although they are beneficial, but actually read the Word of God. The Word of God. It is an amazing thing to think. that there are some of God's people and they do not read the Bible. They will read about the Bible and about what someone has said about the Bible, but they actually do not read the Bible themselves. And then they find themselves in defeat because of sin. The Word of God will have a sanctifying influence upon your life, and if it does nothing else, it'll take up your time from viewing other things that you shouldn't be looking at. It'll buy up your time. Oh, that we would then redeem our time. And so the first help, to have a heart that is pure, stay in the word of God. The second thing that you can do, practically, that will assist you in keeping your heart pure, is seek daily the infilling of the Holy Ghost. Seek daily the infilling of the Holy Ghost. I, for a few moments, think about the various things. The Holy Spirit is compared to within the Scriptures. He is compared to fire. Fire. In the day of Pentecost, in Acts chapter 2, we read that tongues of fire set upon the disciples in the upper room, and they were, we read, they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. And when we think about fire, fire has certainly a purifying nature to it. It is fire that refines, it is fire that makes clean metals. It is the fire that causes the dross to be separated from the precious metal. And in a similar way, when the Spirit of God comes and fills our lives, the Spirit of God within the heart will refine the heart and thank God will sanctify the heart. He'll burn up the dross of sin. He'll burn up the dross of sin. He will cause the heart to be kept pure. Think of another way in which the Spirit of God is depicted in the Bible. He is depicted as water. Lord Jesus Christ said in the last day of the feast, John 7, verses 38 and 39, he that believeth on me as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water, but this speak he of the Spirit. which they that believed on him should receive. He's speaking about the Spirit under the imagery of water, and surely water has a purifying effect. We wash our hands in water. And once the Spirit of God comes into the heart, he washes the filthiness from off it, making it pure and fit for God to dwell in. As the child of God is then filled and controlled more and more by the Holy Spirit, I believe that that person will be drawn away from that which would pollute the heart. And it will bring that individual into a, and instead will bring that person closer to Christ, and cause that heart to be kept pure. So child of God, I would encourage you to seek God for the infilling of the spirit, to help you in your school, to help you in your place of employment, to seek daily His infilling, praying the prayer that Christ gave us there in Luke 11 verse 13, if ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him. Do you want a pure heart? Seek the unfilling of the Spirit daily. There's a third way. There's a third thing that you can do that will garrison your heart and will keep your heart pure, and that is to supplicate and pray. To supplicate and pray. What did the Psalmist David pray over there in Psalm 51 verse 10? He says, create in me a clean heart, O God. Create in me a clean heart, knowing that He himself was unable to create a pure, a clean heart by his own efforts. As Thomas, he just threw the matter over to the Lord in prayer. Lord, do what I cannot do. Keep my heart pure. We all know how futile our own efforts are in trying to keep our own hearts pure. But thank God we can throw the matter over to God in prayer. Thank God by his grace and his spirit, he can enable us to have hearts that are pure and clean. To help in keeping your heart pure, you can separate yourself from all ungodly associations. You can separate yourself from all ungodly associations. Now that does not mean that you are to hide yourself away from the world like a hermit and have no interaction with the ungodly. But it does mean that you are to be careful, so careful, in whom you form friendships and relationships with. If you want to have a heart that is pure, well, then you associate with people whose hearts are pure. Now, you may ask the question, well, how then do I know that a person is pure in heart? Well, we know that only God knows the heart and the true condition of every man. Men look in the outward appearance, but God looketh in the heart. But you know, folks, there are signs, indicators, that a person is seeking to have a heart that is pure. Because a person that is pure in heart is marked by sincerity. Sincerity for the things of God. You know, they long after purity. They desire after holiness. That that's the person who's pure in heart. And certainly the one who is pure in heart abhors and avoids all sin. The one who is pure in heart is the one He lives a pure life, one as pure in heart as the one who believes the Bible and obeys the Bible and desires to live by its precepts. That's the one who is pure in heart. Those are the people that you need to form friendships and relationships with. And though it's not an exhaustive list, I believe these four mentioned things will help us to identify who the pure in heart and show us the people that we ought to affiliate with. And I'm not just speaking about young people, I'm speaking about older individuals. You need to look at your friendships. I speak to the adults, you need to look at your friendships, who you associate with. They can have an influence on your own life. And finally, if you are to have a heart that is pure, then you are to subdue your sins in the blood of Christ. Prophet Zechariah spoke about a fountain open for sin and for uncleanness. It is to that fountain that by faith the Christian must fly to. They must fly to in order to have their heart purified from sin's defilement. We all know that we do sin. We all grieve the Spirit as believers. 1 John chapter 1 and chapter 2 reminds us that There is the possibility that the child of God can sin. But if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And in the previous chapter, we're reminded that it is the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, that cleanseth us from all sin. And so to have a pure heart, the only agency that can bring that heart into that purified state, The only means by which we can have our hearts cleansed is by the blood of Christ. And so we are to subdue our sins in the blood of Christ. Thomas Watson said, a soul or a heart steeped in the brinish tears of repentance and bathed in the blood of Christ is made pure, is made pure. Maybe I speak to a believer here today And this week that has now passed, your heart has been stained by sin. Well, can I say, if that be your condition, thank God there is a fountain of blood that's open for you. And so lift yourself out of that pit of despair, and lift yourself out of that pit of self-pity, and get to the blood. confess your sins, submerge yourself by faith therein, be washed and know the restorative power of God within your life. These are the means by which we can have hearts that are pure and thereby, thank God, we will therefore be able then to behold our God by the eye of faith as we find him in the word. And so the one who is pure in heart shall see God. But there is another grouping of people who are able to behold God. And that is the glorified saints. The glorified saints. A full apprehension and sight of our God is yet future for every child of God in this building today. But there are those that we have known. There are those that we have loved who have already come. They have already come to see the King in all of his beauty. and they have come to behold him in answer to the Savior's prayer. Because I read in John chapter 17, the high priestly prayer of Christ, and this is what he prays. Father, I will that they also whom thou has given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou has given me. They behold his glory. Job believed that he would see the Lord. He said, for I know, Job 19, 25, for I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand in the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. Yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another, though mine reins be consumed within me." What a glorious prospect. What a glorious prospect for those of us who remain on this earth that someday we'll see God. And yet, what a glorious reality. for those who have already left this world of sin and sorrow behind. Because for them the veil has been lifted. God has shown himself to them in all of his glory and all of his beauty. A sight that they can now cope with. A sight that they can now manage because they are in their glorified state. There are a number of things that we can say about that sight. the sight of the glorified saints that they're now enjoying, can I say firstly and quickly, it is an unimpeded sight. It is an unimpeded sight. Nothing obstructs the view of the saints who have gone on before, who have passed the veil of death and entered into the presence of the King. Nothing obstructs the view of those saints who now behold their God, while now we look through a glass darkly, just a little bit like those panes of glass at the back of the church. We can see a little, just a little glimpse of cars that are out there and people who walk past. But we're not given the full view. It's not a plain pane of glass. That's what the Apostle Paul is referring to. We look through a glass darkly, but the scriptures go on that in heaven we shall be face to face, face to face. 1 John 3 verse 2 reminds us that we shall see him as he is. In heaven, a clear, unobstructed, unimpeded view will be given to the child of God, of his or her God. Secondly, it is a never-ending sight. It is a sight that will never end. You know why we view the fair sights of earth for only but a brief moment of time and then What happens, our gaze is often taken off to something maybe more glorious, maybe something more beautiful, maybe something more wondrous. We see, maybe we look at the Giant's Causeway and think, could we ever see something more beautiful? And then we go to some other land, we behold maybe the Alps, or maybe we go to the Grand Canyon. And something now more glorious has taken up our view. I tell you, whenever we view our God, whenever we see our God, such will never happen. Our eyes will never behold anything that's more beautiful, more wondrous, more glorious than the sight that we'll get of our Savior. There can be nothing more glorious or beautiful than that which we will behold whenever we see him, and thank God it'll never end. Perpetually we'll gaze upon the face of Christ, and what a soul-ravishing view that will be. For all of eternity we'll behold him. Can I say it will be a satisfying sight? David said in Psalm 17, verse 15, as for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness. That's how we get to behold him, clothed in Christ's righteousness, on the grounds of righteousness, given, imputed, reckoned to us. This is how we behold the face of our God. As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. It will be a satisfying view. Whatever we place before our eyes on this earth, no matter how beautiful, no matter how splendid they may be, it will never truly satisfy the longings of the Christian soul. But one glimpse of Christ, one glimpse of our Redeemer will satisfy every faculty and every fiber of our being. Finally, it will be a gladdening sight. We thought about the sight the disciples were given of the risen Christ, and let me remind you that Christ there, he still was in his veiled glory. We read there in John 20 how they were glad when they saw the Lord in his veiled glory. But what will the gladness be like when Christ has removed the veil and we see him in his unveiled glory? If now, having not seen Him, our hearts are full of joy unspeakable and full of glory, as 1 Peter 1 verse 8 reminds us, if our hearts are presently filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory, what will our hearts be filled with when we eventually do behold Him? Oh, the soul-thrilling rapture when I view His blessed face and the luster of his kindly beaming eye, how my full heart will praise him for his mercy, love, and grace that prepared for me a mansion in the sky. We are told by the psalmist that in his presence is fullness of joy. Could I suggest to you that part of that joy will be the joy of beholding him, just seeing him? when faith gives way to sight, and we see Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. Can I say to those who are unsaved in this house, if you want to have such an unimpeded, never-ending, satisfying, and gladdening sight of your God, then you need to look to Christ here on earth. Because if you do not look to Him on earth, Your eyes, your eyes will be lifted up in hell. And you'll behold, you'll behold the saints of God in Abraham's bosom. But looking then will be a look that's too late. And so you need to look to Christ today. Look to him this very moment. Let it be a look of faith. a look that will save you from your sin. Look and live. Look and live. You'll be saved even today. And for those who are saved, may God help us. May God help us to be pure in heart and earth, seeing him then as he is revealed in his word, so that when we come today or to die, our faith will give way to sight and we shall behold him as he is. May God help us to see him. May God help us to meet the requirement in order for us to see him. May God help us to be pure in heart, because blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. May God bless the word to our hearts today. Let's unite in prayer. Let's seek the Lord. Our loving Father, we do desire to see thee. We do long to behold thee. We long to behold thee in the words as it's preached. We long to behold thee now in the sacrament, the ordinance that we have before us in this table. We desire, O God, to know Christ. in the breaking of bread and in the partaking of wine, desire to see our Lord and Savior, give us a glimpse of Him today. Grant, Heavenly Father, our hearts to be lifted to Christ. And if those in this meeting who knew not the Savior, may they turn their eyes upon Jesus. May they look full in His wonderful face, and then the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. May such a glimpse be given today, for we pray this in Jesus' precious name. Amen.