Blessed Are the Pure in Heart
Matthew 5:8
This morning, we come to the sixth of the eight beatitudes that we find in Jesus’ Sermon on The Mount. In it, Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
Remember that we have seen that these beatitudes are characteristics of a true disciple of Jesus. He is teaching the initial and ongoing attitudes of those who are a part of the Kingdom of heaven. The first three showed us our great need for the grace of God. We must come to God recognizing our spiritual poverty; mourning over our sin that placed us in that wretched condition; and coming in meekness and humility. Those whose hearts have been prepared like this will ‘hunger’ and ‘thirst’ after a righteousness that they do not possess. And Jesus promises that righteousness is exactly what they will receive. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6).
That’s the turning point in The Beatitudes; when God, in great grace, gives us the righteousness we hunger and thirst after through Jesus Christ. God justifies us, giving us the righteousness of Christ by faith in His life, death and resurrection. Then we begin to practically live in the righteousness of Christ as those who have been transformed by God’s grace. We will continue to exhibit those first four attitudes in our daily life with Christ and we will then also begin to evidence the last four attitudes as a fruit our justification.
Now that we have been given the righteousness of Christ, the fifth beatitude showed that we will be merciful because we have received God’s mercy. And today we will see that. We are to live pure lives that fully conform to our pure standing and ultimate hope before God. Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.” Let’s consider this beatitude by, first, asking . . .
1. What does it mean to be pure in heart?
In the Bible, the “heart” was more than just the organ that pumps our blood and also more than the seat of our emotions and affections. Most often when the Bible speaks of the heart, it speaks of the whole center of one’s life—physically, spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and morally. The heart was considered to be the fountain out of which everything about a man or a woman pours forth. For that reason, the Bible teaches that the heart is crucial. Solomon writes, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life” (Prov. 4:23).
To the scribes and Pharisees, who were concerned about ceremonial hand washing and outward religious appearance, Jesus said, “Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man” (Matthew 15:11). Jesus explained this to His disciples saying, “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man.” (Matthew 15:18-20). That is why Jesus said, “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34) and “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things” (Matthew 12:35). Behavior is birthed in the heart—good and evil.
Jesus speaks of the heart as the whole fountainhead of a man’s life. The heart is the whole inner person that expresses itself in every other aspect of a person’s life. In His teachings, Jesus repeatedly focused on the heart, the inner person, rather than just the outward appearance. Later in this same sermon, Jesus will teach “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matt. 5:27-28). The heart is so precious in the sight of God that it is not to be defiled with thoughts or desires for sin. Again, Jesus says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” What we desire, what we love, is an indication of the condition of our hearts. In Matthew 13:19 Jesus says that the word of the kingdom is “sown in the heart.” In Matthew 15:8 Jesus quotes from Isaiah prophesying about the hypocrites, “These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me.” In Matthew 18:35 Jesus says we must forgive from the heart. In Matthew 22:37 Jesus states the greatest commandment, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”
The heart is the real issue with God. The Bible tells us, “. . . The LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7). Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure in heart . . .”; because that’s what God is concerned about most – your heart!
What does it mean to be pure?
The term “pure” is the Greek word from which we get “catharsis,” which means a cleansing of the mind or emotions. Scholars suggest that the word basically has two meanings. First, it means “to make pure by cleansing from dirt, filth, or contamination” and was most often used to describe metals that had been refined by fire until they were free from impurities. It was also used for soiled clothes that had been washed clean, and of grain that had been carefully sifted to remove all impurities. Thus it would mean a heart that is morally cleansed and free of the corruption of sin and guilt.
Second, it refers to being “unmixed, unadulterated” thus having no double allegiance. In his commentary on this passage, Warren Wiersbe writes that the “basic idea is that of integrity, singleness of heart, as opposed to duplicity, or a divided heart.” Jesus said it this way in Matthew 6:24: “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Jesus wants us to be single-minded in the depth of our being. James 1:8 teaches that the double-minded person is unstable in all his ways.
So a person with a pure heart is one who has a single-minded devotion to the Lord God and a life that is cleansed and free from all sin.
And herein lies our problem, doesn’t it? The Bible teaches us that, because of the sin of our first parents in the Garden of Eden, we are all born into the human family with hearts that that are unclean in the sight of God. The individual sins that we commit are simply expressions of the corruption that is already resident in our hearts. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?” And the next verse gives the answer, “I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.” (Jer. 17:10). We all have wicked hearts and God knows us completely. Genesis 6:5 says, “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Gen 6:5).
Romans 1 tells us that, because of our sinful rebellion against the God who made us, our “foolish hearts” are “darkened” (Rom. 1:21). Paul writes that “… in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God” (Rom. 2:5). Hebrews speaks of ” an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God,” a heart that is “hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:12-13). Psalm 66:18 says, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear.”
But here is the good news. God has a cure for an impure heart. He is able to cleanse our hearts, even to give us a new heart. In Ezekiel 36 the LORD says,
. . . I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take your heart of stone out of your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.” (Ezek. 36:25-27).
God Himself cleanses our hearts, gives us a new heart and spirit, one that will desire to walk in His ways. This is a cleansing that every single human being desperately needs. No one can clean their own hearts. God must do it. And He does to everyone who trusts in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, “purifying their hearts by faith” (Acts 15:9). Hebrews 9:13-14 says, “For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Peter writes, “Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart,” (1 Pet. 1:22). I hope you have experienced this cleansing of the heart through faith. It is yours only by trusting in what Jesus Christ did on the cross.
That initial cleansing of the heart is an act of God’s grace that He performs on us once—when we place our trust in Jesus Christ. He washes all of the guilt of our sins away from us. This is our positional sanctification. But God does not stop there. He also works in us an ongoing cleansing, progressive sanctification. This is a cleansing of the heart in which, as we mature in our walk with Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God progressively removes from our hearts the sin and divided loyalties that get in the way of our devotion to Jesus Christ.
Jesus told His disciples, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes [and here, He uses the same word that can be translated “cleans”], that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you” (John 15:1-3). Do you see it? There’s an initial, positional, cleansing of the heart (“You are already clean“); and there is a subsequent, progressive cleansing (“every branch that bears fruit He prunes“).
Every day, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we need this progressive cleansing. Our hearts have been washed absolutely clean by the blood of Jesus Christ. But so long as we live in the midst of this sin-saturated world, we find that the world around us often presses against us with its sinful values and priorities; and we find that we often stumble and fall. We are like people who have fully bathed, but who still need to wash the world’s dirt off our feet at the end of the day (John 13:8-10). Or, as we grow ever closer to the Lord Jesus, we find that there are still sinful habits and practices from our former life of sin that still need to be washed. Every day, we need to follow the example of King David, and pray the prayer that he prayed;
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting (Psalm 139:23-24).
So, there’s a “positional” cleansing of the heart, and there’s a “progressive” cleansing that follows after it. And finally the Bible also promises an ultimate “perfect” cleansing. It’s Jesus’ intention that we enjoy eternal fellowship with Him in heavenly glory without any of the contaminating effects of sin whatsoever. Paul wrote that Christ loved the church, “. . . and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:25-27). He wrote to the Colossian believers and said, “And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight . . .” (Col. 1:21-22). Jude also, at the end of his tiny New Testament letter, promises that this is our destiny in Christ; “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy . . .” (Jude 24).
Those of us who have been granted a “positional” cleansing of the heart by faith in Jesus Christ, and who faithfully submit ourselves to a life-long “progressive” cleansing by the Father and through the ministry of the indwelling Holy Spirit, can rest assured of “perfect” cleansing when our life on earth is over. Then, we will be made to stand before God in glory – without any sin, without any blemish, and without any imperfection. What a great thing it is that we have to look forward to! No wonder Jesus ways, “Blessed are the pure in heart . . .”
let me remind you of what the apostle John has written:
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3:1-2).
And note carefully how John calls us to apply the truth of that great hope in practical action: “And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:3).
And that leads us, finally, to consider a final question . . .
2. What blessing is promised to the pure in heart?
Jesus gives a promise that thrills the heart of any man or woman who is truly pure of heart, “. . . For they shall see God.”
Seeing God has a present aspect to it. It is not the physical sight of God in this life that answers this promise, though that promise awaits the future. In some ways we do not have to wait to see God.
In Psalm 19, David said, “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge.” (Psa. 19:1-2). During the 1960’s the United States and Soviet Union embarked on a “space race.” Each sought to outdo the other in the race to be the “first” in putting someone in space, first in orbiting the earth, and first in reaching the moon. In the midst of it there was the Soviet attempt to undermine our confidence in the foundation of our nation, which was ultimately a belief in God as Creator and Sustainer.
It was in this tension that the Soviet cosmonauts left Earth’s atmosphere and entered outer space in search of God. They made no bones about it. They were going to try to put an end to the belief in the existence of God by proving that God did not exist. So they looked from their orbiting vantage point for God; but they did not find Him. So they reported back to the Earth the news that they had searched the heavens but found no sign of God. Therefore the view that God exists, in their thought, was mere fantasy now disproved.
In contrast some American astronauts that were believers saw the glory of God revealed all over the heavens! They read from their orbiting spacecraft, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” One did not see God; the other did. It was not a matter of nationality or political ideology that caused the difference. The Scripture explains it so clearly, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” The condition of the heart dictates one’s sight of God. God will not be seen by an unprepared and impure heart, for such a heart blinds the eyes and understanding from perceiving God, now and in eternity.
David, a man after God’s own heart, even saw God in His imperfect and aging body, as he declared how he was fearfully and wonderfully made (Ps 139:14). Only the pure in heart have this type of sight. They see God even in imperfect things like creation, as it still bears his marks.
Believers also see God in difficult circumstances. We saw this with Joseph. After his father died, his brothers pleaded with him not to treat them harshly. Joseph responded, “As for you, you meant to harm me, but God intended it for a good purpose, so he could preserve the lives of many people, as you can see this day” (Gen 50:20). You can also see this with Job—even after he had lost his family and much of his business—he declared, “The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. May the name of the Lord be blessed!” (Job 1:21). To him, both blessings and trials came from the hand of God. When Stephen was stoned, he saw Christ at the right hand of God—no doubt strengthening him to be the church’s first martyr (Acts 7:56). God works all things to the good of those who love the Lord, including trials (Rom 8:28). Are you seeing his hand in your trials?
Believers see God in acts of worship. The purer our hearts, the more we will see and experience God, as we study God’s Word, pray, fellowship with others, and serve. When our hearts are not pure, we will meditate on Scripture and receive nothing. We will worship and pray, but it’s as if the heavens are shut. We’ll serve, and it will only be a burden. God reveals Himself to those with right hearts.
Psalm 12:6 tells us that “The words of the Lord are pure.” Psalm 119:9 (NASB) says, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.” In John 15:3 Jesus told his disciples, “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.” Ephesians 5:26 tells us that God plans to make his church holy “by the washing of water with the word.” Jesus prays, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” (John 17:17). God works our progressive sanctification through knowing and doing His word.
Seeing God also has a future aspect. Obviously, we will most clearly see God in heaven. 1 Corinthians 13:12 says, “12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.” We will know him, even as he knows us. This is the great hope of believers. Only those whose hearts have been made pure by the blood of Christ will ultimately see God.
In John 17, Jesus prayed for His disciples, “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24). The greatest thrill to the heart of our Savior – the thing that He said He Himself desired – was that we would be with Him in heaven and behold the glory which the Father had given Him from before the foundation of the world.
The Bible tells us, “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (John 1:18). Anything of God the Father that we will ever see comes only through the Son. And as Jesus has said, “All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him” (Matthew 11:27). That’s why He told the apostle Philip, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father . . .” (John 14:9). And so, to be in heaven and forever behold the glory of Jesus that had been given to Him by the Father from before the world began—this will be what it means to “see God”! To forever gaze into the face of the One who loved and gave Himself for us will be our eternal blessedness.
Blessed indeed are we, dear brothers and sisters in Christ – the pure in heart, for we shall see God! Oh how we shall see Him!
And let me ask: How does that prospect impact you today? Doesn’t that motivate you to want to be increasingly pure in the way you live right now? You are going to see God! Are you prepared for that?
