Well, it's a bit of an interesting Sunday morning because half of me is not here today. And some of you know what I mean. My wife, Anna, is still recovering from the delivery of our fifth child. So we appreciate all of your prayers and all those of you who have even just helped with the meals and things, such a blessing to have a family in Christ that can bond together in needy times like this. So I told somebody too recently, you know, this is not the first rodeo for us. This is like number five, but maybe I'm just getting older, but it seems like this one was really hard. So, but we're adjusting and I, you know, we just can't thank God enough that mom and baby Olivia are doing well. So that's a tremendous act of God's grace. So if you would please turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5. This morning we're continuing our study that we began back in the spring, the Sermon on the Mount. We've had, of course, some interruptions with some special speakers and such coming in. But this is, if you'll remember, a series on Christian counterculture. We might call it that because Jesus is here giving his disciples a Christian manifesto that is a public declaration of what his people, his kingdom citizens are to look like, how kingdom citizens are to live in a fallen world. And it is very counter-cultural. Many of Jesus' statements we have already seen in the Beatitudes run counter to the way that people around us think. Thus far we've seen where our world says, blessed are the rich and self-sufficient, those who don't need anything, including God. Jesus says in verse three, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Where our world says, blessed are those who have escaped their guilt and can laugh off their sin. Laugh away their guilt. Jesus has said in verse four, blessed are those who mourn those who mourn their sin, for they shall be comforted where our world says blessed are those who are strong, powerful, dominant, who submit to no one. Jesus has said blessed are the meek. That is not those who are weak, but those who submit their strength to God. He says they are the ones who will inherit the earth. where our world says, blessed are those who are filled with this life's pleasures so that they don't hunger or thirst for anything beyond this present life. They don't even need to think about God. Jesus said, verse six, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Their driving desire in life is to please God. And he says they will be satisfied. Where our world says, blessed are those who get even and who see their enemies cringing before them. Jesus has said in verse seven, blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. Everything here is very counter cultural. And this morning we will be studying verse eight. Matthew chapter 5 verse 8, let's read our text. Jesus said, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Let's pray before we dive in here. Our father, we ask that you would bring us near to your heart as we now study the words of your precious son. We ask that you would Help us to understand the importance of a pure heart. Give us a sense of urgency to be clean in your sight. Increase our desire to see you, to behold you, even now spiritually and both eternally and forever. We ask that you would speak through your servant, that you would glorify yourself even by sanctifying us, by drawing us more out of the desires and sin of this world. and by shaping us more into the image of your dear son. And Father, we do ask if there would be anybody who would be outside your fold, they are not yet made alive by your spirit, we ask that you would use the preaching of your word to convict their heart and to draw them to salvation in Christ. In Jesus' name, amen. A recent Gallup poll surveyed Americans on their greatest concerns facing our country today. The poll indicated that immigration topped out as the greatest concern, followed by poor leadership, poor leadership or problems in the government, followed by concerns about the economy with inflation and rising costs of living. I don't think any of these things are going to change anytime soon. And I think for what's going on in the news and recent events, I think some of this is just heightened. Some of the insecurities that Americans have about the future is at an all-time high. And these answers don't surprise us that people have these concerns that are financial or economic or physical in nature because all around us we hear people complaining about such things. We even hear it in the church. We hear people complaining about politics and the economy and so forth. These are certainly legitimate concerns. I mean, these may certainly be legitimate concerns, but it should be obvious that our world doesn't tend to get too excited about the two things that Jesus is going to particularly mention in our text this morning. Our society isn't really eager to learn how to be pure of heart. That just seems so irrelevant to good health and economic success and having a good life. After all, our culture says, who can judge my heart to begin with? And neither is our society really interested in seeing God. That's the other thing in Jesus' beatitude. that these who are pure of heart will see God. But you know, most people in our culture, they're not at all concerned about seeing God. They don't give much thought to that. I have had people tell me what they would tell God if they saw him. And it's immediately clear that they're not very interested in seeing God at all. So what Jesus is saying here in Matthew 5, 8, the idea that true happiness and blessing is not found in physical economic security, all the things that people in America are typically looking for, but in purity of heart toward God. This is a very counter-cultural concept for us in our society. And what's interesting is that even back in first century Galilee, where Jesus was preaching to these Jews in his original audience, this was still a counter-cultural message. It's so ironic because the people in Jesus' original audience were by far religious people. They were people that were all about religious purity and this idea of seeing God. But Jesus' statement was still countercultural to them because the purity of heart that Christ here commands goes far beyond any kind of ceremonial, religious, external purity. It is something that even the most religious elites in his time, namely the Pharisees, were quite lacking in. And so, Jesus is saying here, if we are ever to dwell in the blessed presence of God, we are going to need something far deeper than religious zeal or religious conformity to be blessed, to have God's favor on your life, to be truly and eternally happy. You must be one of the pure of heart that Jesus is here describing. And given the context of this sermon, everything we've been seeing, Jesus has just said, the real weight of this beatitude here is that you cannot be a true disciple of Jesus Christ without a pure heart. You cannot be a true Christian in the biblical sense of that term without purity of heart. This is another quality indispensable to true Christianity. This purity is necessary for any of us to even enter into the kingdom of God and see the Lord as we would desire to see him. Now, we'll just be examining two questions in this brief text. First, what does Jesus mean by the pure of heart? And secondly, what does Jesus mean by they shall see God? So first of all, What does Jesus mean by the pure of heart? We need a fresh biblical understanding of purity, purity of heart. And in order to grasp what Jesus means and who exactly he's talking about here, there are three truths to understand. Three truths we must grasp about the pure of heart from scripture. First, the pure of heart, according to the Bible, the pure of heart are those who God considers morally pure. Now it's been said that cleanliness is next to godliness. And whatever we think about godliness, we all value cleanliness. I think you'll find that people that have no respect for God, no regard for Jesus Christ, most people have regard for cleanliness. The other day when it was like 100 degrees, I got the kids some ice cream cones at Baskin Robbins and I warned them. I said, be careful now, be careful. that the ice cream may fall off the cone. Don't let the ice cream fall off the cone. You know where I'm going with this. And I handed out four cones and I was reaching for my wallet. And that's when I heard something plop behind me. And I immediately knew I would be getting another cone. And, you know, I'm just going to be honest with you. My first instinct was just to pick the ice cream up off the floor. and to stick it right back on that cone and say, here you go, Matthew. This ain't going to kill you. But, you know, I didn't do that. I didn't do that. We got another comb. But my point is, to one degree or another, most of us Americans have a high regard for cleanliness or purity. That is, none of us wants to walk around in dirty clothes. None of us wants to sleep in a dirty bed. None of us wants to eat off a dirty dish or have someone run around or dwell in with dirty mud cover shoes. None of us wants to eat something even so good and sweet as ice cream that has touched the floor. Because we believe it is contaminated, it is defiled, it is impure. Whatever we think of godliness, pretty much all of us value cleanliness, don't we? But the cleanliness or the purity that Jesus speaks of in this beatitude is a moral quality. The Greek word that Jesus uses here, the Greek word in Matthew 5, 8 is katharos. It is translated here pure. It was often used to describe a state of moral purity. The very fact that the word katharos in our text describes the heart, the pure of heart should tip us off. Jesus is here talking about a moral purity. And if you'll just mention to somebody in our society again, just typically, your average passerby, if you will mention to them the need for moral purity in the public domain, at least many people will look at you and they'll be like looking at you, giving that look that like, what are you, a 17th century Puritan or something? I mean, moral purity, come on, that sounds so religious, that's so abstract, that's so historic. Others will insist on pretending that we can judge matters of moral purity, but we can do so without God. We don't need God, we don't need the Bible to be moral or to judge moral matters. But Jesus and his original Jewish audience knew better. They knew that moral purity could never be appreciated apart from the moral lawgiver. Because they knew that God is himself the standard of moral purity. And it's important that we realize what this means. that God is the standard. Jesus will go on at the end of Matthew, chapter five, to make it plain that the standard of morality, the standard of moral purity, the standard of righteousness by which you will be judged is the very one that God himself upholds. It is to be perfect, to be morally upright, even as the God in heaven is morally upright. This is very concerning. Maybe you're acquainted with what we call clean rooms. Have you heard of a clean room? A clean room is a controlled environment that filters pollutants. Filters pollutants like dust, airborne microbes, and aerosol particles to provide the cleanest area possible. Some of you that work in the surgical field are very aware of the need for a sterilized room. You know how important that is to use a sterilized room and sterilized equipment. None of us, whatever our knowledge though, surgeon or not or whatever, or if you're a technician going into a clean room, none of us can simply walk into an operating room or a clean room without very careful preparation. It doesn't matter what our training is, what our knowledge is. It doesn't matter who we are or where we're from or experience. If we walk into a room that is supposed to be sterilized or we walk into a clean room, we, without proper preparation, we contaminate the room with our own physical impurities. And it doesn't matter how prestigious your socioeconomic status, it doesn't matter how accomplished your education, it doesn't matter how religious your upbringing, if you, or you had better be concerned about the subject of moral purity before God for this singular fact. God is pure. God is pure. And when we talk about pure, He's not our idea of pure. He's as pure as pure could be. Morally speaking, God's standard of purity is purer than that of the purest clean room. Habakkuk 1.13 says of God, your eyes are too pure to approve evil and you cannot look on wickedness with favor. Isaiah 6 tells us the angels of God cease not to declare, holy, holy, holy, that is set apart, set apart, set apart. Lord of hosts, God is set apart from all evil, from all impurity. 1 John 1 5 tells us this is the message we have heard from him and announced to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. There's no impurity in the Lord. Not even a shade of it. God is perfectly pure. And humanity's greatest problem then is that we do not share God's purity. We are fundamentally impure. That is, our very inner nature is morally corrupt. And because of our impurity, God has said, no man can see me and live. No man can see me and live. Exodus 33 20. My friend, our sin is a real problem because we are cut off from God. Your sin means you are impure. God is pure. He's not changing. He will forever be pure. That means there is no way that we have to enter God's presence to even see the Lord. We must be made pure. Well, I can imagine someone hearing this beatitude and interpreting the pure of heart to mean, well, it sounds like Jesus is talking about blessed are those with good intentions. Blessed are those who feel, you know, they're just their heart is trying to do the best in life. I think if you pulled most Americans, they would tell you if they believe in heaven and God, it would say, well. People that feel good, that want to do the right thing, they will go to heaven. The people with bad intentions, they might go to the other place if there is one. That's not at all what Jesus is saying here. Just as the phrase poor in spirit in verse three does not describe just any sort of poverty, but it describes a spiritual poverty, a poverty before God in the same way here in verse eight, this purity Jesus is describing is not just any sort of purity. It's a spiritual purity. It's a purity before God. And there's two different senses in which the Bible speaks of sinners being made morally pure before God. In the first sense, we have God making sinners pure in that He declares them righteous. He justifies them in a legal sense. Now, how can God declare a sinner righteous? He can do so and does do so on the basis of Jesus' substitutionary life and death. It's what the Bible calls justification. The entire book of Romans and Galatians are very much devoted to this subject of justification, where God washes away our sin record, our sins that were formerly held against us. He takes them and nails them to Jesus' cross, as it were. Colossians 2.14. So that when God looks at the sinner, he sees instead of the sinner's offenses, he sees the righteousness of his son. This is the first sense that we have of righteousness or being made morally pure. Even in the Old Testament, God promised he would provide a way of ultimately purifying his people by cleansing them from all filthiness. He says in Ezekiel 36, 25, Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you, and I will remove the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. This was God's promise from old, because He knew sinners in any time of history need a pure heart if we are going to see God. The New Testament calls this justification where God is washing away our sins, cleansing us, giving us a new heart, a pure heart. But there's another sense in which God makes sinners pure, and that is He sets about progressively transforming the lives of those He has justified. When God adopts a sinner, when God declares a sinner righteous on the merits of His Son Jesus Christ, He's not finished with them, that's just the beginning. He sets to work washing them, cleaning them up, transforming their life progressively to live just like His Son Jesus. We may have been declared innocent, we may have been given a new heart, but we are all still in need of a daily cleansing. Is that not true? Just like we need to continue taking baths, we need to continue cleaning up, we need to continue working against the natural effects of the curse in this world, right? And in the same way, our hearts are in continual need of purifying. And so the New Testament also talks about sanctification. It is the process by which God is sanctifying or making holy His people. And so the pure heart Jesus describes, the pure of heart, Jesus is describing here in our text, are those whom God has given a new heart. And this is evident by the fact that he's continually at work in them. Could we put it this way? They are his children. And they are continually in need of a bath, in need of a washing. But you know what? God doesn't leave his children just to run like the devil and continue to get dirty. He continually washes them and cleans them up and chastises them and does whatever he has to do to get their attention, to keep his children clean. Because God loves his children. Those are the pure of heart. The pure of heart are those who God considers morally pure. That is the weight behind this word pure. But Jesus mentions the pure of heart. And so this, we need to focus on that phrase of heart here. And this raises a second biblical truth we must understand about the pure of heart. Secondly, the pure of heart are those who possess inner purity. Inner purity as opposed to just a vestige of purity. Just the appearance of purity. When scripture speaks of the heart, it's talking about the innermost center of our affections, the innermost part of you that is basically the control center of your life. It's why you do what you do. Biblically speaking, your heart has to do with all that you do. And therefore, the condition of your heart could not be more important. Because whatever controls your heart this morning, it controls you. So it's no surprise the Old Testament often speaks of the need to keep our heart pure. Proverbs 4.23 says, even to the most vigilant, even to the most experienced Christian, let's just say, this goes to all of us, Proverbs 4.23, watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life. Jesus' beatitude takes all this into consideration and it moves beyond just behaviorism, just focusing on the things we do to even turning our attention to the very motives and intent of why we do what we do. Jesus is after the heart that governs all of our behavior and thoughts. Jesus is leading his listeners then beyond the ceremonial purity of the law that the Jews were very familiar with at this time, and he's leading them to pursue a purity that is from within the very heart. Remember that for those Jews listening to Jesus preach the sermon, religious purity or the kind of ceremonial cleanness that is talked about in Leviticus, that was something they learned from as long as they can remember. It was an inseparable part of their life. It had to do with their very diet and their calendar and how they dressed and conducted themselves. And so the Jews were all about being pure, sure. But at the head, you'll remember, of their society, the most religious elites were a sect of people called the Pharisees. Oh, they were very pure in their own eyes. They were very pure in the eyes of everybody in their society. They were the religious elites. They had the most oppressive zeal for righteousness, and this was evident in the way they lived before men. But Christ knew their hearts, just like he knows your heart this morning. Christ knew their hearts, and so he said of them, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees! You are also like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. So you too outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Matthew 23, Jesus says those things. Ouch! Now you know why they hated Jesus so much. Now you know why they wanted to kill him. He exposed what was hidden in the heart. But you see, we all share this natural tendency, like the Pharisees, to obsess over what others think of us. If you know somebody's watching you, you suddenly perk up, you suddenly change your behavior, you suddenly stop the way you're doing, or you stop yourself, what you were gonna say or what you were gonna do. It matters to us intensely what other people around us think, but how much does it matter to us what God knows? That's Jesus' point. We focus on the visible, external, public aspects of our life. And with such an obsession, we may fool everyone around us to believe that we are pure, when all the while we lack the inner purity of heart that Jesus is here describing. But Christ knows. Christ knows. While we look at the outward appearance, the Lord looks on the heart. 1 Samuel 17, 6. And so Christ calls us to consider the purity of heart that God is after, the kind of purity that no one sees but God. Jesus understood, as Psalm 51, 6 indicates, God desires purity in the heart. David said, behold, you desire truth in the innermost being, where God alone sees it. In fact, God desires this purity of heart so much, did you know, that you cannot meet with God, you cannot enter into his holy presence and enjoy holy communion with him apart from purity of heart. When Jesus spoke these words in Matthew 5, 8, it's near certain that he had in mind Psalm 24, where in verse 3 it is said, Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood and is not sworn deceitfully. He, that person with this pure heart, they shall receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. The Scottish evangelist Duncan Campbell once told of how a mighty revival began that shook an entire community for Christ. It's a true story. In November of 1949, a small group of believers on the Isle of Lewis off the coast of Scotland began to pray that God would send a revival to their community. They agreed to spend time in prayer twice a week. This was in the dead of winter. They were meeting in a barn without any way that was unheated. But they began to ask that God would open the floodgates of salvation and pour out salvation upon their land. And this continued for almost a month and a half, Campbell says. And then one night, as they were kneeling there in the barn and pleading with God, a certain young man, a deacon in the church, got up. And he read Psalm 24. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul into vanity nor sworn deceitfully, he shall receive the blessing from the Lord. This young man closed his Bible and said, it seems to me to be so much humbug with us praying here as we are and waiting as we are waiting if we ourselves are not rightly related to God. And then he lifted his hands to heaven, and he said, God, are my hands clean? Is my heart pure? And at that moment, he fell to his knees, and in the words of the minister, they were all gripped with the conviction that God, a God-sent revival must ever be related to holiness and godliness. And Campbell says, when that happened in the barn, the power of God swept through the parish. And an awareness of God gripped the entire community such as not had not happened for over 100 years. And hundreds of people were saved. Yes, God desires to save people. God desires to convict people in our society of sin and draw them to salvation in Jesus Christ. But do we realize this morning, brothers and sisters, that God desires and commands purity of heart, even in our midst, that he wants us first and foremost to have clean hands and a pure heart, that judgment must begin at the house of God. And God knows what is in us. So what about you? Are your hands clean? Is your heart pure? Right now, God commands you to be holy even as he is holy. And this involves a holiness that cuts to the core of our being. Sunday morning Christianity won't do. Surface deep purity will not do. impressing everybody else around you will not do. Christ is calling his disciples to a purity in the innermost being as God sees you. Do you see it? Do you hear the Lord calling or do you do you sense the spirit of God convicting you right now of something in your life? Some area in your life in which you have grieved the Spirit of God, you have quenched the Holy Spirit in your thoughts, in your words, in your actions, in your ambitions. Your life is about you, it's not about the Lord Jesus. Is the Spirit of God convincing you of a need for deeper inner purity, to walk before Him more consistently in holiness? Now you might ask, but how can I know? How can I be sure whether my heart is pure or impure? Well, brothers and sisters, there is a way to know, but are we willing to have it? The pure of heart are those who God considers morally pure and the pure of heart are those who possess inner purity, but a third biblical truth for understanding who Jesus is here describing is this, the pure of heart are those who have singleness of heart, singleness of heart. The essence of purity is singleness. And this is how you can know whether or not your heart is pure before the Lord. Pure gold is gold. We have a mineral that contains just one element. To any extent you mix other elements into that gold, it's no longer pure. And a pure heart is likewise a heart that is reserved for one. It is a heart singularly devoted to one love. That's a pure heart. Scripture nowhere calls God's people to be 50% pure, 75% pure, 90% pure, 95%, 99 point percent, no. Scripture, in the Bible, we see God's only call and command is only ever to 100% absolute purity. He wants all of you. by forsaking all others. James 4.8 says, draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. You see, that is the opposite of a pure heart. It is doubleness, a doubleness of mind, where our heart, our mind is not devoted wholly to God. Kierkegaard was right when he said, purity of heart is to will one thing. A heart must be devoted to God, to one thing, or it is not pure. And the problem is then we have so many aisles, and we know this, vying for our affection, because we love our comfort. We love our reputation. We love the sensual gratification we get when we satisfy our flesh and we give our flesh what it wants. We love self-promotion and so on. But the pure of heart are those who reject all forms of spiritual adultery because they recognize they must pursue one thing, the Lord Jesus Christ. They must have one love. They must pursue Christ. Purity of heart is a heart singularly devoted to Christ. And I say singleness, not sinlessness, right? There's a difference. None of Christ's disciples has ever lived a sinless life. But as A.W. Pink has rightly said, purity of heart is not sinlessness of life. It is rather singleness of life. To illustrate the difference, consider that no marriage is ever perfect. No marriage is ever sinless. You find any two people in a legitimate marriage, one man, one woman in the holy bond of marriage, and you will find a man and woman who are continually, that is always sinning against each other. They do not have a perfect marriage. But you know what keeps the marriage a marriage? Is that both husband and wife are one. is that covenantally speaking, they are single in heart. Covenantally speaking, there is a singleness of heart. That's a marriage. There is only room for one in your heart, my friend. Jesus says, is your heart pure? Those he's after here, those he's describing, the pure of heart, are those who are single of heart. They are those singularly devoted to the Lord. Jesus will later say in the sermon, no man can serve two masters. He says, either you're going to hate the one and love the other, or you'll be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. So if you think I'm exaggerating here, just look at Jesus. Just read the rest of the sermon. And you could plug in there, instead of wealth, you could put in any alternative. You cannot serve Jesus and blank. What is it? You can't have it both ways. Purity of heart is to will one thing. It is to be devoted to one love, and that love must be the Lord Jesus Christ for the Christian. Jesus said, Blessed are the pure in heart, the single in heart, for they shall see God. We've seen what Jesus means by the pure of heart. But now we must consider what is the significance of seeing God? What does Jesus mean by they shall see God? What is the significance of seeing God? For one thing, Jesus words here have a present spiritual significance. He said, the pure of heart are blessed because they shall see God. And there's a spiritual presence significance to this. This is what Peter, this is why Peter could say to first century Christians undergoing persecution. He could say in first Peter 1.8, though you have not seen him, Christ, you love him. And though you do not see him now, but believe in him, you greatly rejoice with joy and expressible and full of glory. You see, Peter could say, while you don't see him with your own physical eyes, you are even now in a sense beholding his glory through the eyes of faith. There is a sense in which God's children see him now where the world cannot. Just consider how Jesus has called the Pharisees blind. Well, they are not blind physically, but when Jesus calls them blind, he's calling them blind with respect to their own sins. Blind spiritually. And of course, the sin which blinds them to their need for cleansing is the same which blinds them to the gracious God. Who stands ready to save. They don't see it. They don't see it, my friend. You wonder, why does my spouse, why does my neighbor, what is this person at work? Why are they the way they are? Why don't they get it? Paul says that God of this world has blinded the eyes of those that don't believe, lest they would see and believe. They are blind. But what about you? If you have believed on Jesus Christ, excuse me, if you know who the Lord Jesus is, then you now see. Without the spirit of God, sinners, though, lack the capacity for appreciating the things of God. First Corinthians 214. That was once us. But now, by the amazing grace of God, what do we see? I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now, even now, not I go to heaven and then, but now, I see, I see, praise God. Anna Mae Penica was born with cataracts that left her left, that left her blind. 62 years later, in October 1981, Dr. Thomas Pettit of the Jules Stein Eye Institute in Los Angeles removed the cataract from Anna Mae's left eye, from her eye, and for the first time, she could see, as she even passed a driver's test. Mrs. Penica said that everything was so much bigger and brighter than she ever imagined. I mean, imagine not seeing all your life, 62 years. But here's the sad thing. The procedure for correcting Miss Penneke's condition had been in use since the 1940s. That means that she could have been enjoying, at least theoretically, she could have been enjoying 40 years of sight. But during that time, had remained blind all the same. Sadder still. is the fact that so many people in this world are walking around blind to what life is all about, blind to God, walking around this world in darkness when the light is available. John 9, 39, Jesus said, I have come into the world that those who do not see may see. The cure for spiritual blindness has arrived. It's presently available in Jesus Christ. That's why Jesus said, I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness. but have the light of life, John 8, 12. Man, I'll tell you what, if that doesn't get you excited as a believer, then you're either not a believer, you're not seeing, or you're just sleeping right now. Because that is exciting, that the Lord gives light, he gives sight to the blind. And now we, by God's grace, who once were lost, once were blind, now we see spiritually, even presently, this beatitude has a present spiritual significance, but even now, because even now we see God's grace all over our lives. We can't help but see him everywhere at work. But more ultimately here, Jesus words have a future eternal significance. Jesus said, blessed are those blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God. And when he says they shall see God, He's talking about also something future and ultimate. The Bible teaches our greatest problem, remember, is that as sinners we're cut off from God. I already mentioned from Exodus 33 how God told Moses, no man can see me and live. You cannot see my face, God told Moses. No man can see me and live. 1 Timothy 6.16 says, God dwells in unapproachable light whom no man has seen or can see. 1 John 4.12 says, no one has seen God at any time. And by the way, the fact that Jesus is himself God and yet was visibly appearing to man on earth in the incarnation does not contradict this truth. Because Jesus in his incarnate presence was veiled. That is, his flesh veiled his glory. But anyway, our obstacle to seeing God is the impurity within our hearts. That's the problem. That is why God must veil his glory. Because we can't live in His glorious, holy presence. We couldn't survive. It is God's mercy to veil Himself from sinners. And yet, it has always been the longing of God's regenerate people, those who have been given a pure heart, to lay eyes on God. We want to see God. We want to see Jesus. We want it to be face to face. Back in the time of Moses, Moses longed to see God. He said, Lord, show me your glory. Job, in Job 19, 26 exclaimed, Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall see God, whom I myself shall behold, and whom my eyes shall see and not another, whom my heart faints within me. David said much of the same thing as Job in Psalm 17, 15. As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness. I will be satisfied with your likeness when I awake. Paul confessed in 1 Corinthians 13, 12. Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. And here, here at the end of the Bible in Revelation 22, 4, is the consummate joy of the redeemed for all of eternity. We read, they, God's redeemed, will see his face. They will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads. This is the glorious hope of all true Christians, to see their God. Do you long to see the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you long to see Him? Would you be ready to see Him today? Or would you need to do some house cleaning? Would you need to make some changes in your life before you stood before the Lord? The Lord already sees you. He knows. Now is the time to allow the Lord to clean our hearts. when Jesus or these scriptures speak of seeing God. I think it's well, I know it's important that we understand this is not merely laying eyes on God as much as we just want to lay eyes on the Lord. You know, that's not simply what this is talking about. Even the wicked will eventually see the Lord coming in power. Revelation 1 7 says, Behold, he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him. No, by saying they shall see God, Jesus means more than just laying eyes on him. He means even being granted entrance into God's blessed unveiled presence. We use this expression in a similar way in English, where when you see your doctor, at least, we don't mean to just, I literally just saw him on the street or in his office. We mean you went to visit him. We mean that you made an appointment and you were granted access. And you didn't just see your doctor, but your doctor saw you and we know what that means. It's not just about seeing God, it's about being granted entrance into his blessed presence. The kind of seeing that the author Hebrews mentions in Hebrews 12, 14, pursue sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. You aren't sanctified, you aren't being sanctified, guess what? You're never gonna enter God's presence. Because all of God's true children are children that He takes care of. And He's washing them, and He's at work in their lives. And the fact that God's people shall one day see God, Jesus says, the pure of heart shall see God can only mean that they will also be transformed to be pure, to be glorified even as God is pure. 1 John 2 and 3 explains that when God's beloved children lay eyes on God, when they see Him, we too. will be like Him because we will see Him just like He is. Wow. The idea of seeing God here is far more than merely laying eyes on Him. It is even the idea of finding acceptance with Him, being granted entrance into His presence, being transformed so as to share in His very likeness and purity. That is what it means to see God in this unveiled sense. And who will see God? Only the pure of heart. So in our study, we have seen that you cannot be a true disciple. You cannot be a true Christian without purity of heart. Look, my friend, you cannot enter into heaven one day without a pure heart. So you cannot be a true Christian without purity of heart. And I suspect that it may be much easier for us to relate to the first five Beatitudes than to this sixth beatitude. This sixth beatitude, when we come to it, concerning purity of heart, we may be more challenged, we may be more introspective, we may be less sure that we fit the bill. Because in this beatitude, Christ is not merely concerned with what we do, but he's concerned with who and what we are. And we all know for honest that our hearts are so impure. So let me close with two questions. First, how can anyone who is impure ever come to see God? How can we receive a pure heart in the first place? As goes the timeless question in Job 4, 17. Can mankind be just before God? Can a man be pure before his maker? Yes, praise God. 1 John 1, 7 says, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. And so that is the atoning work of God's Son. That is the gospel and message. The reason God entered into this world and took on human flesh was so that He might wash away our sin. And if you have never come to see all your own righteousness as filthy rags in the sight of God, you have never lamented your own unworthiness before God and come to see your desperate need for His cleansing, His pure heart. What are you waiting for? You need a pure heart, or you will never see God. You will never enter into his kingdom. We need to pray, or if that is you, if you have never come to the Lord Jesus in faith, asking him for his cleansing salvation, you need to pray with David, Psalm 51 10, created me a clean heart, oh God. Why would you not do that? What would keep you from praying such to the Lord? Secondly, if we have received a clean heart, how can we maintain a clean heart? How can we maintain purity of heart? Four things briefly, four things you should do. First, get honest with God about your heart. Pour out your heart before the Lord. God knows, but he's waiting for you to confess, that is to say the same thing he knows about yourself, about your heart. So 1 John 1.9, If we confess our sins, that is to God, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Get honest with God about your heart. And secondly, very connected, ask God to forgive your sin and wash you clean. Don't just pour your heart out to God and complain. Tell God what you've done. Tell God about your sins. Be honest with the Lord. Stop disagreeing with the one who is true. Let God be true in every man, a liar. Agree with the Lord and ask him to wash you. As David prayed in Psalm 51, seven, purify me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness. Let the bones which you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. If you would pray that to the Lord, the Lord will clean you. He will do what he has promised on the merits of his son. Thirdly, Spend time regularly studying God's word. Jesus told his disciples, you are clean because of the word which I have spoken to you, John 15 three. God's word is a detergent for cleaning the heart. So keep in the word of God. And finally, give more thought to what you will be in eternity. 1 John 3 tells us that God's beloved children will one day see God, and John says, everyone who has this hope that is on God purifies himself just as God is pure. The more you set your hope on seeing God, you will deter yourself from this life's impurities, from evil, and this hope will transform you. Now, if you have any questions from today's study or you would like any counsel, please see me before you leave. We'd love to speak with you. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this word from our Lord and Savior. What a concise statement and yet how deep and how rich and how powerful. And Father, what great need we have. for the kind of purity that isn't oppressive to everyone around us, but the kind of purity that only you can perform. We need it, every single person here needs it. And God, I pray that where there might be a soul in our midst that has never yet humbled themselves to realize it's not religion, it's not church, it's not their upbringing, it's not their good works, but it is Jesus and Jesus alone. It is his life and death and resurrection that is their only hope of salvation. I pray, Father, there'd be somebody there who's not come to that place. Please, Father, please convict them. Please use your spirit to draw them to the place where they would cry out to you for that first time, for this new heart, this new life. And we pray that they would be washed, they would be born again. And Father, we pray for all your people. We pray that you would clean your children, that you would keep us clean, that you would use this word that was preached today to do a washing work in our lives. And we thank you for it in Jesus' name, amen. Amen.