What I have Learned About Having a Pure Heart
Matthew 5:8
February 3, 2019 AM
Pastor Craig Ledbetter
Bible Baptist Church, Ballincollig, Cork, Ireland
I. Introduction (Matthew 5:1-8; Proverbs 30:12)
A. Our culture is drenched in sin – saturated in rebellion against God and His ways
B. What our culture honours is the opposite of what is actually good and healthy for us
1. It honours evil, murder, selfishness, anger, getting revenge, and experiencing everything sinful possible, as long as it doesn’t get you killed!
2. It mocks marriage, and honesty and innocence and most of all… purity
3. Pro 30:12 There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness.
C. And then there is Satan. The world, and especially Satan strives to overwhelm our emotions with guilt, and then try and convince us that guilt is wrong to have – creating the greatest psychopathic generation to have ever existed since Sodom and Gomorrah!
D. But there is, or at least used to be, a hunger, a yearning deep within every heart of every person to be clean on the inside
1. Hey, We demand it of just about every area of our lives except our heart
a. We demand the water we drink to be pure
b. We expect it of the hospitals we end up in when in need of surgery
c. Of our foods we eat
d. Of the air that we breathe
e. You do know that to open up a human body in surgery, requires a level of cleanness that cannot be obtained in a normal house or kitchen?
f. To produce the food you regularly eat, requires unbelievable cleanliness
2. What happened with our desire to be clean IN OUR HEARTS? In our thoughts? In our imaginations?
3. It used to be that TV and radio programmes were by law required to be CLEAN so that all ages could enjoy the media
4. NOW – nothing is enjoyable unless it is constantly building to something sexual, or something terrifying, or something shameful, or something deadly!
E. To top it all off, God put in each and every human ever born a desire to see the ultimate sight – to see God!
1. Believe me - Everyone will stand before God one day and see Him as He IS
2. But most will not be on good terms
3. Let’s PRAY!
II. So far, We Have Learned FIVE of the eight beatitudes – eight principles of life in the kingdom of God
A. Blessed are the poor in spirit
B. Blessed are they that mourn
C. Blessed are the meek
D. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness…
E. Blessed are the merciful
F. This morning we will take a look at… Blessed are the pure in heart…
G. Each of them honours a way of life from a kingdom perspective instead of a normal, natural way; and each promises the believer a great reward for living God’s way
III. Message
A. It is VERY Important to Have a Pure Heart (Mat 23:25-28)
1. It is priceless – can’t put a price on having a pure heart
a. Undefiled, unashamed, soft, sensitive in the very centre of our soul
b. The very centre of everything you feel
c. Without a pure heart…
1) Love will only ever be LUST
2) Patience will only be short
3) Suffering will be unbearable
4) And your Christianity will only be an outward show
2. The world’s culture seeks all the wrong things…
a. Not cleanness, but pleasure only
b. Not gentleness but hardness
c. Not service towards others, but pride in self
d. Not softness, but numbness and apathy
e. Not truth, but a constant cover-up of the growing amount of sin in our hearts
f. Fewer and fewer people are even able to be honest about their own sins – they have been so hardened (Heb 3:13) But exhort (URGE, PROD, ENCOURAGE) one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. AND THAT INCLUDES CHRISTIANS!
3. Today, our world / our culture is DEFILED – filthy in almost every way
a. It seeks to educate children at a younger and younger age about almost every detail about sex and reproduction and abortion and incest and bestiality and gender identity confusion!
b. Our society & government does not wish to protect anything except the right to sin
c. Basically NOTHING is pure anymore – not even in churches (Tit 1:15) Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.
4. What does DEFILED mean again? Spoiled, Stained, Ruined, Polluted, Dirty
a. Like dropping your buttered toast, butter-side-down onto the floor
b. Like stepping on your freshly clean white shirt with muddy shoes
c. Like a fly dropping right down into your freshly poured cup of coffee
d. 2Pe 2:14 Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling (TRICKING) unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children
e. Jas 4:4 Ye (CHRISTIAN) adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
f. Jas 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners (SPEAKING TO CHRISTIANS); and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
g. So that’s why today’s churches are full of laser light shows, and rock music and hipster preachers and swinging worship leaders instead of hard-hitting, unpopular Bible preaching MEN who do not fear upsetting people when speaking about SIN!
5. This beatitude is extremely serious!
a. Everyone one day WILL stand before God
1) Rom 14:11,12 For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.
2) THAT will be a day folks!
b. Some of us are really looking forward to seeing God
1) Tit 2:13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ
2) But that is because I take THAT MEETING seriously! (Heb 12:14) Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
c. But not everyone is going to see God on good terms
1) Joh 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
2) Rev 20:11,12 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
3) Rev 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
B. So, What is Wrong With Our Heart? (Jeremiah 17:9)
1. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
2. It is Deceitful
a. It will lie to you – every time – “I’m in love” no you’re not! You are in HEAT!
b. It is not wrong what I am doing – REALLY? Why are you doing it in the dark and without permission?
c. Jas 1:14,15 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
3. It is Defiled – ruined – Polluted by sin in all of us (no exceptions) – wicked
4. It is Desperately Wicked – not just a little, but DESPERATELY (Mar 7:20-23)
a. Look at that list – and it is only a partial list…
1) Evil thoughts - continually
2) Adulteries – physically, emotionally, and spiritually
3) Fornications – that includes homosexuality and lesbianism and LGBTQ
4) Murders – come from the heart – called pre-meditated
5) Thefts
6) Covetousness – constantly having to having something more to be happy
7) Wickedness
8) Deceit
9) Lasciviousness - lust
10) An evil eye – showing hatred and despisement of others
11) Blasphemy – against God
12) Pride
13) Foolishness – living like there is no God
b. All of the above are like seeds in our hearts, ready to blossom if we just water them
c. And we are USED to all of the above today! Numb towards just about everything sinful – not just tolerating sin, but applauding it and seeking it!
1) Women USED to blush about how they dressed, and what was being promoted about their bodies
2) Now people think it is “immoral” to walk away from a good filthy joke, or an opportunity to kiss, or to miss a good modern film!
3) Men used to be gentlemen and worry about what they were talking about and what they were allowing their minds to think about! Not anymore!
4) But now, 12 year olds are struggling with 500 images of naked people in their head from the internet that they will NEVER be able to get rid of for the rest of their lives!
5. But God CAN wash and cleanse and clean up wicked sinful defiled hearts!
a. Isa 1:18 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.
b. Heb 10:9-14 Then said he (JESUS), Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man (JESUS), after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
c. Hebrews 10:17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
d. IF ONLY PEOPLE WANTED TO BE CLEAN ON THE INSIDE!
C. What is a Pure Heart? Three things:
1. Your HEART is the source of your emotions and the reasoning behind them
a. The centre of your soul
b. The source of your affections and passions: It is what loves, has joy, feels grief, gets angry, shows courage, and has pleasure
c. But a heart is not just feelings – it is the record of those feelings and the reasoning behind those feelings
d. It is our conscience
e. And a pure heart is something that is clean, clear and protected
2. A Clean Conscience
a. Not perfect – not that you have never sinned, but a heart that has been cleaned and purified from sin!
b. Cleaned up from all the evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness!
c. Listen to Paul, 1Tim 3:9 Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.
d. 2Ti 1:3 I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day;
e. THANK GOD ANYONE CAN GET A CLEAN CONSCIENCE
3. A Clear Conscience
a. A clear path between a person and God – who can see every nook and cranny
1) Nothing between a person and God
2) No dominating sin
3) No reoccurring anger or bitter feelings
4) No haunting worries about skeletons coming out of the closet someday – all under the blood of Jesus Christ, and in the past!
5) No constant lust for something other than a walk with God
b. Do you want to know WHY you don’t like praying or reading your Bible, or being in church more than Sunday mornings??? BECAUSE YOU ARE A WICKED, SELFISH SIN-LOVING WRETCH that desperately needs to be cleansed!
c. If you WERE clean on the inside:
1) Your communication with God would be clear – no static
2) Your Bible reading would be thrilling – not distractions
3) Your time with other believers would be precious
4) Your faith and Christian life would be true instead of only a show
4. A Protected Conscience
a. A clean and clear human heart does not exist in nature
b. Our nature left to itself is dirty, filthy, dusty, selfish, self-serving, destructive
c. A clean heart, a pure heart is something that must be maintained AND protected
d. Because it is very fragile! It can be ruined with just one image, one bad friend!
D. A Pure Heart Is Fragile
1. There are two areas of your life to be worried about
a. Your Standing before God – Are you “In Christ” or still in your sins?
1) If you have been born again you are perfectly washed, and sanctified at repentance and conversion! A one-time cleansing of your sin-record
2) It happened the moment you repented of your sin and believed the Gospel (Act 15:8,9) And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.
3) It is based upon Christ’s work on their behalf - the finished work of the Cross.
4) Rom 8:33,34 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
5) My sins have been paid-for, and forgiven and I have been justified in the sight of God!
b. Your day-to-day Living is still sinful - Born again Christian hearts still get dirty/defiled just in day to day living – and they need to be constantly washed and cleansed and repented of on a practical level
1) OUR WORDS NEED CONSTANT CLEANING Jas 3:6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.
2) OUR HANDS AND FACE AND FEET NEED APOLOGIES 2Cor 7:1 Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
3) OUR LUSTS NEED REPENTING OF Mat 5:27,28 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
2. Does anyone realise that CHRISTIANS can become Defiled? Ruined? Unusable?
a. Polluted - soiled – stained – scarred – ruined – stinking on the inside
b. Heb 12:15 Looking diligently (PAYING VERY CLOSE ATTENTION TO YOUR HEART) lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be DEFILED
c. Like a brilliant white shirt or dress, smudged! Once stained, it really is never the same
d. Innocence-lost is NOTHING to be proud of
e. But STAYING clean from sinful actions and NOT using filthy words and NOT knowing what is going on in the bedrooms of just about every deviant in the country is a GREAT thing!
3. Satan cannot ruin our salvation – that is God’s gift to believers that is undefiled
4. But he can and does ruin our thoughts and feelings and actions and reactions, making us constantly feel guilty and ashamed and defeated!
a. Sometimes just by tempting us
b. Sometimes by defeating us
c. And always by accusing us (Rev 12:10) And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
5. No wonder so many Christians give up trying to follow Jesus… Satan won’t let them rest in GOD’S grace!
E. A Pure Heart is Supposed to be Normal – Not Rare
1. Jesus speaks of purity as something normal amongst His people
a. Just as normal as all the other beatitudes…
b. Being empty before God, humble, soft, meek, mournful, hungry for righteousness
c. Those are all normal attitudes and ways of living in the kingdom
2. So should it be normal amongst Christians to:
a. Never touch a drop of cursed alcohol – never!
b. Never smoke a cancer stick of tobacco
c. Never watch a film with men or women undressing and seeing nakedness
d. Remain virgins until the wedding night
e. Never using filthy four letter words – SHAME ON YOU WHEN YOU DO THAT
f. It should be NORMAL for us as Bible believing Christians to be PURE and CLEAN in how we speak and how we dress and how we think
g. It should be normal for Christians to be WEIRD by remaining IGNORANT of all the sin that is going on in the world around us
1) Rom 16:19 For your obedience is come abroad unto all men. I am glad therefore on your behalf: but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil. WHAT? Simpletons about how wicked people are? That would be so good!
2) Rom 2:15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world
3) Luke 10:3 Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves.
4) We have too many SNAKES in Christianity instead of innocent lambs
F. A Pure Heart is Rewarded – Jesus says it is WORTH Staying Pure
1. You are already blessed “Blessed ARE the pure in heart…”
a. You are better off – truly – than everyone around you that is chin deep in the most God-awful sins imaginable
b. Most people carry such wicked images and memories around in their head for ever now
c. They can’t lay down and just go to sleep because of guilt, because of worry
d. But a Christian that is clean in their heart of hearts, is blessed beyond measure – easily happy, and contented with simple things and simple pleasures
1) Your marriage will be BETTER than Hollywood wants you to believe
2) Your sleep will be better
3) Your money will go further
4) Your children will rise up and call you BLESSED and not curse you
e. YOU have a great future – godliness is a blessed way to live!
2. You will be used of God for GOOD
a. Sin in us keeps God from being able to use us for His purpose
b. Just like a cup that is not washed – you wouldn’t grab it out of the sink and just give it to a guest, WOULD YOU?
c. Would you send your children off to school with dirty unwashed clothes and unwashed faces?
d. You shouldn’t head off to work stinking like a waste bin – you “probably” won’t be used for good things
e. But a clean record WILL get you hired by the Army, and by the Garda and by the head-hunters looking for a CEO of their company!
f. Same is true in Christianity – God uses clean vessels – clean lives
g. Satan used sinful!
h. You chose who gets to use your life every day!
3. And because of salvation, forgiveness, cleansing, you will get the greatest reward ever imaginable – you will get to see God
a. It is the ultimate wish
b. To see the infinite Creator, the Almighty God of heaven and earth
c. And not be burnt to a crisp
d. Job 19:26,27 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.
e. Psa 17:15 As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.
f. 1Jn 3:2,3 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. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
G. How to Get and KEEP a Pure Heart
1. At the beginning of this message, Jesus told the Pharisees to make the INSIDE clean
2. And then He told them and us HOW
3. Draw near to God (James 4:8) Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
4. Read and hear and believe and obey the words of Jesus (John 15:3)
a. John 15:3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
b. Wow! That is simply powerful!
5. Believe the Blood will cleanse your sinful thoughts and lusts
a. Heb 9:13,14 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
b. 1Jn 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
c. 1Jn 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
6. Be Careful with what you do with your eyes, ears, hands, imaginations, desires, free time…
a. FLEE THINGS YOU ENJOY THAT ARE WRONG 2Ti 2:22 Flee also youthful lusts:
b. FOLLOW/SEEK GOOD THINGS …but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
c. PURGE BAD INFLUENCES – like stupid music, risky TV and films, ungodly friends
d. PUT CONSTRAINTS / LIMITS ON WHAT YOU ALLOW YOURSELF to DO, to IMAGINE, and to SAY
1) Php 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
2) Psa 101:3 I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.
e. KEEP YOURSELF UNSPOTTED – STAY THAT WAY! James 1:27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
IV.Invitation
A. It is VERY Important to Have a Pure Heart
1. Everyone one day will stand before God
2. Some of us are really looking forward to seeing God
3. But not everyone is going to see God on good terms
B. How is YOUR Heart?
1. Deceitful
2. Defiled
3. Desperately Wicked
4. Probably!!!
C. A Pure Heart Is Something VERY Fragile
1. Dear Christian, your place “In Christ” is perfect - washed, sanctified, clean!
2. But we get defiled just in Day to day living – needing to be constantly washed and cleansed and repented of
3. Satan cannot ruin your salvation – that is a gift from God that is undefiled
4. But he can and does ruin our thoughts and feelings and actions and reactions, making us constantly feel guilty and ashamed
D. A Pure Heart is Supposed to be Normal – Not Rare
E. Having a Pure Heart is Rewarded – It is WORTH Staying Pure
1. You are already blessed
2. And because of salvation, forgiveness, cleansing, you will get the greatest reward ever imaginable – you will get to see God
F. Do any of you yearn to be clean?
1. Like David did? Psa 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
2. 2Co 7:1 Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
G. Do you remember How?
1. By Drawing Near to God.
2. By Reading and hearing and believing and obeying the words of Jesus
3. By Believing the Blood will cleanse your sinful thoughts and lusts
4. By Being Careful with what you allow yourself to do