We have been working our way through the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount. And again, just for a brief review, the Sermon on the Mount is not about us in our own self-righteousness trying to keep all of the law. It is actually a way in which Jesus in this sermon, in this discourse, is once again revealing our sinfulness and our inability to keep the law, the law pointing to God's holy standard that we cannot keep, the law being a schoolmaster, a teacher, pointing us to Christ. And once again, in this sermon, Jesus is giving the gospel, both at the very beginning and at the end of this sermon. And we looked at those aspects of the gospel in particularly, really all of the Beatitudes, but particularly in verses three and four, Looked at, 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. And then tonight we'll look at verse number eight, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. We see that we must begin with a poverty of spirit, being poor in spirit, begging for God's salvation, for his mercy, or else we will not enter into or see the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn. We're to mourn over our sins. We're to mourn to the point of repentance and then to continue in that mourning, understanding that we are sinners saved by grace and that we need to grow in our Christ likeness, in our progressive sanctification. The meek being those who are humble, strength of character, strong in conviction and in character and integrity, but humble. and gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness. And evidence of a truly saved individual is a hungering and a thirsting after righteousness." Just as a baby, as the paddocks, as the dowels are finding out very clearly right now, the babies have needs. And one of those great needs is when they get hungry, They let you know. And there is a evidence of life, of growth, of development when they hunger and they thirst. So it should be spiritually. We as believers, an evidence of our conversion, of being born again, is hungering and thirsting after righteousness, but we continue in that growth. We want to have a greater hunger and a greater thirst for the Lord, for knowledge of him, for Christ's likeness. And then the merciful, we talked about this last week, and how mercy, its basic definition is God not giving to us what we deserve. And having received mercy, we then extend mercy. We can be a forgiving and a merciful people because we have received great mercy. We have been forgiven much. But then we come to verse eight, blessed, are the pure in heart. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Well, we begin by looking at pure. Three kinds of purity. First of all, positional purity. But we have to pause and look, first of all, at the fact that we are unclean. We are sinners by birth, by nature, and by our choices. So as we talk about purity, we have to begin with the bad news about our lack of purity. I know that there are a lot of teachings, false religions that are out there. This has even come up, interestingly, one of the conservative commentators that I enjoyed listening to, he's a religious man, unsaved, but he even brought this point up that among a lot of liberal, if you wanna use that particular political side of the aisle, a lot of them, it's not just on the liberal side of the aisle, but he mentioned how a lot of the liberalism in our culture comes from this idea that man is inherently good. that there is somewhere deep down inside a goodness, even if it's not right there on the surface, it's at least maybe somewhere deep down, and it's all these evil people that are corrupting all of these good people. So we gotta get rid of all of the bad people that are corrupting all the good people, but I thought everybody was good. So how did all these bad people that you don't like get bad? Well, that was the environment that was caused by other bad people. Well, how did those bad people become bad if there's an inherent goodness? You know what I'm saying? And he was bringing out the contradiction there. But that idea is in false religion. False religion everywhere teaches that man is basically good. Or there is such a inner goodness that he or she just has to tap into that somehow, some way. There's a store in the mall, I've mentioned this before, but it's just a couple doors down from where Kelly works at Hallmark, and they think that to find your goodness is to do some sort of palm reading. to breathe in some weird smells that sometimes emanate from that store. They have lots of weird looking rocks and stones and necklaces and jewelry and paintings inside that store. I can't remember the name of it, but they think that if you walk in there and you touch the stones, you say the right things, you get your palm read, you breathe in certain aromas, that your goodness is just going to come out, I guess. It's scary to think. But what's really scary is how wicked we really are, how unclean we really are. Romans 3 and verse 9, what then, are we better than they? No, in no wise, for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, they are all Under sin for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's Romans 3 in verse 23 Galatians 3 in verse 22, but the scripture hath concluded all under sin Psalm 58 in verse 3 the wicked are estranged from the womb they go astray as soon as they be born speaking lies Isaiah 1 verses 5 and 6 why should ye be stricken anymore? Ye will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick and the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Not a pretty picture. that our sin is like a infected sore. Isaiah 64 in verse six, but we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. And then we have read from Ephesians 2 before, but once again, and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, for by grace are ye saved. Skipping down to verse 11, wherefore remember, that ye, being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world, but now in Christ Jesus. Ye who sometimes were afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. And then down in verse 19 of Ephesians 2, now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. That's a description. I know there's sprinkled in there some of the truths of who we are in Christ, but we see a description in those passages of what we are as unclean sinners, as condemned as enemies and aliens, all those descriptions. So we have a problem. How is there the blessing to the pure in heart if we are unclean by birth and by choice? There's a problem here, so there has to be a cleansing. The only way that that cleansing takes place is to be made clean by the blood of Jesus Christ. So we have another set of scriptures that I wanna read to us that speak to of our cleansing in Christ, the righteousness that we have in Christ as we repent of our sins and put our full faith and trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins, who paid the penalty for our sins and who rose again. And only as we are clothed in his righteousness can we be clean. Can our hearts be clean? Can we truly be pure in heart? Isaiah 1 verse 16 and down through verse 18. Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do well, seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the followless, plead for the widow. Those all sound like works righteousness, but that's not what Isaiah is saying. He's saying those are all the things that you should be doing and you're not. Because what needs to happen is in verse 18. Come now. And let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. How do we get a clean heart? By being cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ, through repentance of our sins, putting our full faith and trust in him and him alone for our salvation. Coming to the Lord, Our sins are as scarlet, but they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be. as wool. Romans 3, in verse 22, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all of them that believe, for there is no difference, whom God has sent forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness. that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Romans four and verse three, for what saith the scripture, Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward, not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith, Faith in Christ is counted for righteousness. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 17, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new. Verse 21, for he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Galatians 3, in verse number six, even as Abraham believed God and it was accounted unto him for righteousness. Philippians 3, in verse nine, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. And then we look ahead to Revelation 4, in verse number four. In round about the throne were four and 20 seats. And upon the seats, I saw four and 20 elders. Many Bible scholars believe this is representative of the church. I saw four and 20 elders sitting clothed in white raiment, and they had on their heads crowns of gold. And then Revelation seven and verse nine, after this I beheld and lo a great multitude which no man could number of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues stood before the throne and before the lamb clothed with white robes and palms in their hands. These passages, these are not exhaustive, but they speak to the fact that we are unclean. sinners by birth, by nature, by choice, but we can be clean in Christ, cleansed of our sins, forgiven, clothed in white raiment, clothed in the righteousness of Christ, declared righteous, justified, but only through repentance of our sins, faith and trust in Jesus Christ and his finished work on the cross and his resurrection. So a second kind of purity is practical purity. Once saved, there is what we call progressive sanctification, becoming practically what we already are positionally in Christ. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. We have been saved to serve, to sacrifice, to be sanctified. Sanctified, yes, clothed in Christ, made pure in hearts through our repentance and faith, through salvation by faith alone in Christ alone, but then there is that progressive sanctification. We talk about that on Sunday mornings as we have been working through the book of Joshua, as we see the analogy, so to speak, Israel's conquest of Canaan and how it mirrors the Christian life. And we could talk about Romans 7 again, and that constant conflict and tension, not doing what we know we should be doing, and then doing things that we know we shouldn't do. But we see this practical aspect of purity. Also in 1 Peter 1, 1 Peter 1, in verses 14 through 16, As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former loss in your ignorance, but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation because it is written, be holy for I am holy. And then there's the future aspect of purity. We call that glorification where Only those who have trusted Christ as their Savior clothed in His righteousness with those white raiments will stand in the presence of God without sin. No more flesh, no more world, no more devil. Sin removed. The old man is gone. In 1 Corinthians 13 and verse number 12 speaks to this. 1 Corinthians 13. In verse number 12, I want to get there, because I want to read these verses, because they are so important. For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then shall I know, even as also I am known. There's going to be a day where we're going to have relationships with each other in heaven, and there's going to be no more sin. There's gonna be no more of that anger and that bitterness and that discord and that, well, I know what you did 13 years ago and what you said, none of that. Our kids are gonna be perfect. I'm certainly hoping and praying that they're with us in heaven, right? But we're gonna have perfect children. We're gonna have perfect, I know we won't be married and given in marriage in heaven, but a perfect spouse. And some of our spouses are saying right now, I can't wait for that day. Because some of us are struggling, right? Just think about it, all those relationships, perfect. All the saints who have gone before us, and as we look forward to the day of the rapture and caught up together, dead in Christ and alive in Christ, caught up together, that great resurrection day, and then we look forward, of course, to the judgment seat of Christ, and no more sin. None of that we shall know even as we are known. And then we go on in chapter 15 of first Corinthians and verses 52 and 53. First Corinthians 1552 and 53 in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality. Eternally now in the presence of God without sin. That is incredible. We have times where people maybe behave for a little while and then the next day comes and they're not so well behaved or the situation, that's all gone. perfection in heaven for eternity, for those who are clothed in Christ's righteousness, made pure by the blood of Jesus Christ, having turned from their sin and turned to Christ and saving faith. 1 John 3, in verse number two, we read in this verse, beloved now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him. as he is. Great truths about purity, positional, practical, and future. But then let's look at pure in hearts and let's break down this word hearts. We get the word cardiologist, cardio. This is the word from the Greek language, the original language that is translated hearts here in our Bibles. The heart is the inner man, including the mind, the will, and the emotions. It is the master control center of our life. Proverbs 4 and verse 23 tells us, keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. It is the source of our thoughts and our inner desires. Ultimately, it is only God who truly knows the deepest recesses of our hearts. We may reveal certain things. People can pick up on certain actions and desires and get an idea. We get to know each other. I mean, we talk about this. We joke around. We would joke around sometimes at school. about teachers having eyes in the back of their heads, and parents have those too. It's something that just happens when you become a parent, all of a sudden you get eyes in the back of your head. What are we saying? We know the class so well, we know our kids so well, our spouses even know us very well. People who we are spending the most time with, that we love the most, they know us, don't they? And sometimes husbands and wives, they'll finish each other's sentences. because they or they come to the table to talk about something and they already know what each other are thinking. Those are wonderful moments when you're in the midst of a big decision or you're trying to think through something and you sit down and you begin to talk and it's like, well, we were already on the same page. We just had to talk about it. Those are wonderful things. But as well as people might know us and loved ones might know us, who really knows us? Ultimately, God does. God does. He knows those deep inner recesses of our hearts. That is The hearts, again, originally sinful, deceitful, and desperately wicked, Jeremiah 17 in verse nine, but even after salvation, still plagued by the old man, as we read in these passages, Galatians 6, 5, Matthew 15, 19, and Romans 7. It is the place where salvation is experienced. For with the mouth, confession is made into salvation, but it is with the heart that man believeth unto righteousness. And it is where service, I went too far, didn't I? It is where service must originate. Ephesians six and verse number six, doing the will of God from the heart. So we see the hearts in all of these principles. But then let's also see tonight an aspect of pure in heart by looking at this word pure. The word pure is the word in the original language catharsis or catharos. We get the word catharsis or cathartic in our modern English, but it's catharos. It means to cleanse from filth, unmixed, without hypocrisy. Psalm 119 in verses nine through 11, 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. So even with a pure heart positionally saved, we know that there is still that progressive sanctification. There's still that plague of the old man that affects our heart. We know that the heart is still deceitful and desperately wicked. So we have to check our hearts, guard our hearts, We have to keep our hearts with all diligence, as we just talked about, for out of them are the issues of life. So that means that this sin can plague our hearts. That's why we must cleanse our hearts on a consistent and regular basis, keeping short sin accounts with God. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Search me, O God. We need to be praying that consistently. We need to have that confession as 1 John 1 9 talks about on a regular consistent basis because our hearts still can deceive us. I like how one person put it years ago. I had a book and a professor and it just kind of really helped me understand and we sometimes refer to the conscience and the conscience is not to be our guide. I don't care what Was it Pinocchio, Jiminy Cricket? The conscience is not to be our guide because the conscience can still be misinformed. The conscience can still appeal to the sinful flesh. So I like how someone talked about the conscience being like a room with a whole bunch of books or containers. Maybe not the best illustration, but it really helped me. And the conscience is looking for the right source of information to be able to determine as our inner moral compass. This maybe helps us understand a little bit about the hearts. But if there's not biblical truth and the room isn't clean with the word of God, first of all, the conscience is not gonna be right if we're unsaved. But for the saved individual, using the illustration of a room like a library, the room needs to be clean. We don't want to be blowing the dust off the books trying to find the one that informs the conscience correctly with the truth. No, the room needs to be clean and the books on the front of the shelf that are the most easy to access should be the truths, the principles, the commands, the principles, the promises of the word of God so that our conscience is informed by the truth, by the word of God. And that is, in a sense, a picture, if it helps at all, with the heart. So that means our heart should be one of integrity, of singleness of devotion to the Lord, of strong moral character. Matthew 6, verses 9 through 13, talks about the devotion, the desire, the direction of our life, as the eye reveals the direction and gives, in a sense, a window to the soul Where are we pointed? What's the direction of our life? What drives and motivates our hearts? Lots of things get onto the altar of our heart and become idols if we're not careful. Lots of drives and motives and desires that aren't from the Lord. That's why we have to constantly check our hearts and inform our hearts and cleanse our hearts and confess our sin. But we are told in Matthew 22 in verse 37 to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Psalm 57 in verse seven, we read that David's heart was fixed and was true. In Daniel chapter number one, Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king's meats. The purpose of our heart has to be set before we enter the place of temptation. Eric is in basic training right now. Why are they putting him through what seems like torture? Many of you, some of you have been in basic training. I remember Dr. Bob III talking about Bible college being a form of basic training for the Christian. That has stuck with me through the years. Why? Preparation. Preparation. We are to be prepared. Our heart is to be purposed before we get into the place of temptation. Before we get into the battle, the soldiers are prepared so they know when they get into battle, there is a already, there is a plan. There is a strategy. There's a response and they want it to be second nature. I go back to a sports illustration with coaches. who drill and drill and drill and drill, play after play. I hated sometimes the full court press drills that we would do in basketball practice. Me being the short, slow kid that I was, as much as I was competitive and loved to play, I was the kid that they loved to put the six foot three kid and put him with his 10 foot wingspan and try to get me in the corner after the ball came across half court. And the coach would say, don't box yourself into the corner. The half court line and the sideline are now your enemy. And they put the 6 foot 3, 6 foot 4 dude right there. And as soon as the ball comes across, if I caught it, I had to know what I was going to do with the ball. Because if I hesitated, he was right there. And I'm stuck in that corner on a full court press drill, looking like an idiot. Prepared, we wanna go over that drill over and over and over. So when it came game time and the ball came to me, I knew what to do with it. So I didn't turn the ball over. We are so ill prepared I think sometimes as believers for this wicked world. Little discernment, little preparation, compromising, falling apart, caving under the pressure many times because our heart isn't purposed, our heart isn't fixed and true. Sincerity with purity. The pure heart not mixed with any hypocrisy, falsehood, dishonesty, or deception. This is how the world operates today. Look at what just has been in the news this week. Some of the politicians and celebrities and music artists, I hesitate to use the word artist. Look at the scandals. They were deceivers and liars. There's debauchery going on that now is becoming public knowledge. It's disgusting. There's no purity of heart there. That should be the furthest thing from a believer. I was disappointed today, or no, Friday morning I woke up and one of my favorite preachers on YouTube when I was checking social media and stuff on Friday morning, up popped a video with one of my favorite preachers who I've heard through the years, and I followed his account on Instagram. He had to resign from his church because of an inappropriate relationship with a woman. There was a, somewhere along the line, there was a defilement of his heart. It was no longer pure. And we're still waiting on some of the details, how long this has been going on, how long was he living in hypocrisy. It's so important, this pure in heart. So what are the characteristics? To try to summarize this, what are the characteristics of the pure in heart? Well, first of all, an inner repulsion to sin. You know that there is something spiritually sick, this goes back again to the mournful, blessed are they that mourn, but we know there is something spiritually sick when sin doesn't seem to have the effect on us. When the conviction is pushed away or there's a seeming lack of conviction, this is one of the dangers about tolerating sin in our lives because Eventually, we begin to say, oh, I can control it. I can handle it. And then it builds and it builds and it builds. The next thing you know, we've got sinful thought patterns and we have sinful habits and they lead to a road of destruction. There needs to be an inner repulsion to sin. If we're not repulsed by sin, there might be a sickness of the hearts. There might be an impurity of the hearts. We question our motives, why? Why are we doing this thing? Is it really out of love for God, or is it to be seen of men? Is it just to be men-pleasers, or is it truly out of a love for God? The conscience, again, as I mentioned earlier, should be informed by the word of God. The pure in hearts have a pursuit of holiness, first of all, by pursuing the Holy One, not just pursuing holiness for holiness' sake, but a passion for thee, a passion for God. Hungering and thirsting after righteousness by hungering and thirsting after God himself, pursuing the Holy One. Because it's through our relationship with Jesus Christ that there can be sanctification, Christlikeness. It's through our relationship with Him. We don't drum up our own sanctification. We don't drum up our own personal spiritual growth. No, we can only grow spiritually, we can only become more and more Christlike by having a right relationship with God and pursuing Him and knowing Him as Philippians 1, as Paul prayed for the Philippians, that they would know God. and grow in their knowledge of him, and bear fruit for him, and as Paul would write in Philippians 3, that I may know him in the power of his resurrection, fellowship of his sufferings, be made conformable unto his death. Christ is to be preeminent, not just prominent. That means, as pure in heart, that our whole life is oriented around Jesus Christ and our relationship with him. We wanna take Jesus Christ, we wanna put him up on a shelf, so to speak, we wanna put him into the fire extinguisher box, we wanna put him in a place where he's accessible, but only when we really need him. But that's not the way it should be. We have in our solar system, we have a, I'm gonna say it right, heliocentric, the sun is the center, am I saying that right? The sun is the center of the universe. Our planets, our solar system, it revolves around the sun. Our life as believers should be oriented around Jesus Christ. He's not an accessory, he's not an exercise regimen, a diet plan, or an escape hatch, or a fire extinguisher, or a dictionary, or Siri, or Google or some search engine or AI copilot, whatever you want to call it. He is the center of our life and he's not just the center, he is preeminence. He's not just prominent, he's preeminence. That's a rebuke to our hearts because again, we want to put idols. Our hearts get impure and our relationship with God doesn't or our relationship with God, that fellowship is broken, that closeness is broken, and now our, the solar system, the planet of our life is now spinning out of control. It's getting out of place, out of order, and bad things happen. Now God, in the solar system, holds it all together, okay? But what if those planets, those moons, or whatever, got out of order, got out of orbit? Bad things happen. We enjoyed the, Harvest Moon, I guess, the Supermoon. We went out and went to the south side of town and got to a field and we were taking pictures and Jesse got his telescope out and we were enjoying the Harvest Moon, Hunter's Moon, Harvest Moon, Supermoon, I think it was Tuesday night. All that is, how did they even know to predict all that? And how did they even know that everything was gonna be in just that particular time? They were even, we got on the NASA website and they were even saying exactly the times and places and down to the minutes and the eclipse back in April because there's an order, there's an orientation, a rotation, an orbit. What about our lives? Are they oriented around Jesus Christ for the pure in heart? The life is oriented around Jesus Christ. He is preeminent. Characteristics of the pure in heart, inner repulsion to sin, pursuit of holiness, and a pure life. The practical living out of personal holiness because of personal integrity, strong moral character motivated by an inner repulsion to sin and a strong pursuit of holiness inside out, knowing, being, and doing. Thomas Watson said it this way, the clock has not only motion within, but the hands move without upon the dial. I know we use mostly digital clocks nowadays. I was disappointed before I left being a school principal, I was disappointed how many kids did not know how to read an analog clock. Big hand, little hand, second hand, some of them were like, what are you talking about? The big hand. points, the little hand, I look at the clock, I'm so glad I learned in kindergarten, I can see that clock and some of you are saying, hurry up. But Thomas Watson is saying, why do the hands on the clock move? Because there's something inside some of those old clocks, some of you might have had one or you know about some of those old antique clocks and the stopwatches and the complexity of all those gears inside. That's what makes the hands move. The personal holiness results in a practical holiness because of the inside, the strong moral character, the inner repulsion to sin, the personal integrity, the strong pursuit of holiness that results then in a practical living out of that personal holiness. We close tonight with seeing God. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. To see God means to possess God, to know him. That begins, of course, with salvation, but it also means that we have a present and also a future aspect of his presence. Of course, the future being heaven, but there's the Holy Spirit who indwells us. We have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit indwells us. There's a present aspect that we know him as our savior. We possess him. But John three in verse number three, what did Jesus say to Nicodemus that night in John three in verse number three? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. James four in verse eight reminds us, draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. John 15, what does Jesus say in John 15? I am the true vine, and my Father is the husband. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. And every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me. He goes on to say, for without me, ye can do nothing. we must remain close to the Lord. The pure in heart maintain a close personal relationship with God. They always want to have a clear, unadulterated vision of God close to him. Again, the illustration of a little kid. I've been lost as a little kid, lost sight of where my mom was, went into panic. What do we want as parents? We want our children, we always want to be able to see them. We want them to be able to, they want to know where we are at. We used to tell the kids at our first house, Indianapolis, you cannot ride your bike past the white mailbox. There was a white mailbox about halfway down the street. Do not ride your bike past the white mailbox. And we would stand there sometimes and we would look and we would watch. And if they got out of our sight, they were in trouble. Did you go past the white mailbox? That was one of the first questions when they came back. We want that clear vision of God close to him, eyes on him, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. And then we look at the future aspect. Revelation 21 in verse three, and I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, behold, The tabernacle of God is with men. The pure in heart, those who have been clothed in his righteousness, pure because positionally they are in Christ, that now is working its way out in a progressive sanctification, looking forward to that future glorification. It is realized in this prophetic passage of Revelation 21 in verse three, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men. And he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself shall be with them and be their God. Psalm 16 in verse 11, thou wilt show me the path of life. In thy presence is fullness of joy. At thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. And I think I went too far. Last verse tonight, Psalm 36 in verse eight. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house, and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. That is the promise. For those who are pure in heart, positionally in Christ, there's these promises of joy, eternal joy, pleasures forevermore, the fatness of thy house, the blessings of thy house, the river of his pleasures, fullness of joy, pleasures forevermore, but most importantly is we're with God. clothed in his righteousness, absent the presence of sin. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. May we be pure people today and forward until God takes us home. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your word, for these truths, for this beatitude. May it be our heart attitude, pure in hearts, of a people of integrity, of strong moral character, with a singleness of heart and vision toward you, desiring from the inner recesses of our heart to please you, to honor you, to glorify your name, to live a holy life that exalts you and who you are as we seek you with all our heart, soul, love you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We pray that, Lord, you will bless your word in our hearts, As we go from this place, wherever you have us working or whatever you have us to do this week, may we have these truths impressed upon our heart and our minds that we might please you. In Jesus' name, amen.