Blessed Are The Pure in Heart, For They Will See God

 

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. What is a pure heart? Does it mean that we must have not one iota of “bad stuff” in our heart? No! Otherwise, no one could meet this requirement! God describes the human heart, shaped by Adam’s sin DNA, as deceitful above all things. (Jeremiah 17:9)  Ouch! Our All-Knowing God also informs us that we are not able in our humanity to fully escape the effects of that damage; Psalm 51:5 tells us that we, like God’s servant David, are born with sinful hearts. Even as babies we cannot have pure hearts!

Do you know the Abraham of scripture, whom God called out of the land of the Chaldeans to become the father of a nation that would be called Israel? Guess what – he messed up. Yep, he messed up kind of big time; his heart chose not to wait on God and instead chose to go where God said not to go. He temporarily stepped out of God’s will, the consequences of which fell hard on him and his nuclear family, and even continue through to our times and actually impacts us! Despite his serious disobedience in that instance, though, God would still come to call him friend! Similarly, those disciples who were considered close to Jesus, his traveling buddies so to speak – who even set aside their regular work and income, and personal schedules to follow Him all throughout Judea, parts of Samaria and Galilee for three years, even they had issues. Some of them were doubters, some had a militant edge, a number of them by their actions told Jesus, “I’m out!” when He was arrested. Still, Jesus would call them His friends – and Jesus does not pick friends willy-nilly! And look at what the apostle Paul says about himself, he who is considered one of the great apostles, faithfully carrying out God’s will to spread the Gospel to the Gentiles, risking his life to do it, so that even to this day, we are experiencing the benefits of Paul’s faithful evangelism: this faithful person who, in God’s grace, saw Divine things that no one else in scripture experienced in that way -- even he struggled with sin!)

So, then, how is it that these faithful persons can be said to have “pure hearts” and see the God of their salvation, the God of promise? How is such a thing possible? It is only through Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins – His death on the cross, a single act – that could make it possible. Jesus’ sacrifice – the Blood He shed for us – had the power of canceling our sin debt, wiping out the condemnation of our souls and protecting us from the wrath of God, because He, Jesus, would cover, i.e., take the guilt of all our sins on Himself. His sacrifice not only liberated us from the body of sin, as Paul calls it, but also opened up the way to God for us, to “see” God as He reveals Himself in His Word, when we repent and accept the invitation contained in the Gospel to believe Jesus is our Lord and Savior. It is possible because when we allow Christ’s blood to “operationalize” in us, when we surrender our hearts – i.e., our wills and presumed right to be boss of our souls, the Holy Spirit, placed in us by God, cleanses or takes away the power of sin in believers’ lives. Then, when we submit to His cleansing work, our hearts will be shaped and trained in righteousness. We will be able to “see” God with spiritual eyes as noted above and experience Him in ways that persons without the Holy Spirit cannot (Psalm 51:1-2,10-12; Romans 6:9-11,17-19; Galatians 5:16-17,19-25; Ephesians 1:3-19). The Holy Spirit enables us to choose obedience – both to repent of sins we know we committed, and those that the Spirit has to reveal to us; to seek and do those things that please God. The process to make us pure before God is called sanctification[1] , which begins at the moment of salvation, and continues throughout our earthly lives until we look like Christ. So how else does the Holy Spirit cleanse and purify our hearts? He works in us through the Holy Word of God, prayer, and circumstances – along with faithful believers in community – to gradually ‘knock off the dirt’ of a life once controlled by a sinful nature. He motivates us to live a clean, moral life, to be “living sacrifices”, and to pursue God’s will in our lives. A pure heart is a heart like Christ’s. This world and our sin nature makes keeping our hearts pure hard work. We must work and submit to what the Spirit is doing for us per above in shaping us like Christ - that’s the purity God seeks. Nothing else this world has is going to shape our hearts in a way that pleases God! If we are to be living sacrifices to God, then our hearts are to be a temple to God. The pure in heart delights in all things God and seeks above all things to please Him. (Psalm 1:1-3; 37:4; 112:1; Ephesians 5:8-10)

For they shall see God. Can we see God with our natural eye? No – no one can. So why does the scripture say that if we live purely before God that we will see Him? Well, the answer to that question is two-fold. First: As the Holy Spirit begins changing us to be like Christ, as our hearts grow in obedience to Him, we begin to spiritually “see” God through Christ and how He has revealed the Father in scripture.  We see Him spiritually by faith as we grow closer to Him. As we continue submitted to God, we will come to see the image of God in others and in the glory of God. As noted in Ephesians 1 above, we are adopted by God as His children at the time of our salvation; the child can see his/her Father!! Secondly:  When we are ‘translated’, that is, when God exchanges our human form for one that is incorruptible, we will be able to gaze on the full beauty of the Lord our God, we shall see Him face-to-face and fall at His feet in worship! For only the pure in heart will gain the heavenly kingdom of God and see Him.  

 

Explore

·       Has anyone experienced this: the water company (in my area it is the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, aka WSSC) is doing work on your street and needs to shut the water off for several hours (yikes! But it happens). When they have completed their work, they notify the residents in the area that for the next several hours they should boil their water. Why do you think that is? What could happen if you choose not to follow that recommendation?

·       Again, the foregoing discussion is a lot of meat to chew on. As you go through it, what part(s) stand out for you in a way that you had not thought of before?

·       Lastly, an audit: When we consider the purity that we are called to,  

o   what do we allow into our hearts – the “throne” God’s temple, for a temple is a place where God is worshiped? What kind of media and gaming do we participate in? Does it honor God and His character? Does what we read and what we view with our eyes honor God and His moral standards for us?

o   See our bodies as God sees them – as sacred. Sacred things are treated modestly and honorably. Does how we intentionally dress or not dress, exposing certain body parts – does it honor God? That is, when a person looks at how we dress or expose certain body parts, does it draw him/her toward Christ so that our outsides reflect who we are to be in Christ?

o   Does our conduct toward one another align with God’s Word?

o   What is worship? Do we worship God daily? 

o   The big question is: Do we really want to see God?

Bonus: Let Praises Rise - Trey McLaughlin & SOZ; Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord - Michael W. Smith

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[1] Sanctification: a process of being transformed into Christ’s image by the work of the Holy Spirit in you. He directs you into the things of Christ - His words, His character, His lifestyle; when we submit to His work in us, not only will we see His transforming power in us and over us, but also will the angels in heaven, and the world around us. Sanctification is a life-long process -- beginning at the time of our salvation until we are raised up by Christ to be with Him.

The Mystery of Salvation

Romans 10:9 “…if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”                                    

Ephesians 1:3-5 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,  just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.”

Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”                       

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The Mystery of Salvation. At first glance, these scriptures appear at odds with one another. Yet when we consider the work of the Holy Spirit, His deliberate involvement in our lives before we have fully formed or have been fully informed, it makes sense – yet it is still a Divine mystery. John 16 tells us that the Helper, the Holy Spirit, will convict the world of sin and of righteousness, and that when He comes, He will guide those predestined by God into all truth, speaking on the authority of the Father. Through God the Holy Spirit’s work in us as the truth speaker, and the author of the gospel of our salvation, we are sanctified – set apart for God’s use. (2 Peter 1:21; John 17)

By God’s plan, the Holy Spirit convicts our hearts (that is, those who God has predestined for salvation) and makes us ready to receive the gospel of truth, the gospel of our salvation (Romans 1:16). And by His grace implants the seed of faith within us and moves in such a way that we can declare with our mouths, or the better word, confess with our mouths Christ as Savior and Lord, since we are regretting our sinful lives and desire to repent or turn around from that life. Part of the mystery is that with each individual who has been saved, there is a uniqueness in each instance of salvation. We don’t all experience that moment of salvation at the same age, in the same place or circumstance, etc. Salvation does not result from a confirmation or catechism class, or even a baptism, but by God’s will. Otherwise, it is a human intervention or effort -- not God -- doing the saving. And, yet, in His grace and goodness, He allows us to choose or affirm what He has worked in us. He allows us to covenant with Him. In the very best sense, we put ‘skin in the game’, that is, we surrender ourselves to His sovereignty and Lordship over us in our confession. We are allowed to make ourselves a living sacrifice to God, based on the work of the Cross – Christ’s sacrifice that covers us. (Romans 12:1; Ephesians 2:15-17)

The greatest mystery in salvation is that God has chosen us – as the Spirit has Paul write so well at Ephesians 2, we who “were dead in [our] transgressions and sins,  in which [we] used to live when [we] followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.  All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.” I cannot comprehend that, but accept by faith what He has done in me, what He has done in all of us whom He has called. A great mystery, indeed.

Healthy Lives, Healthy Hearts

What is the condition of your hearts –your physical hearts? What does your health lifestyle look like? This isn’t a trivial question! As the Pastor’s sermon on January 27 iterated, our health condition can either add pleasure or angst to our lives. Did you know that the Bible has a lot to say about being careful of our physical health?* 

I was reading health news and learned that heart disease is not a respecter of persons at any age. That is why we are always being told to drink a whole lot of water – 64 oz. at least per day (I get a failing grade on this most days!). Why we are told to eat a fiber-rich diet (even desserts!) – but be sure to drink a lot of water or otherwise you set yourself up! Why we are told to keep our cholesterol low and avoid a diet of fried foods and foods that have a high fat, sugar, and sodium content – without a doubt too much fast food and pre-processed food slows our health. Exercise at least 3 days a week. Avoid alcohol (youth and young adults particularly) and avoid smoking anything – including vaping. Getting proper rest – I saw a report recently which shows getting proper rest is more challenging nowadays with all the digital distractions that research has shown to actually make us more tired due to how the light affects our brains and robs us of necessary sleep. Believe it or not, our surroundings and sometimes the folks we hang with can impact our health or health perspectives particularly if the friendships are toxic, or we subscribe to a negative lifestyle they may practice. And the list could go on.  

We especially know – perhaps more than our non-Christian colleagues, that as Christians, our bodies are not perfect due to the damaging effects of sin we inherited from Adam, and that there is nothing we can do to make them perfect or impervious to sin’s effects. Each new generation feels its detrimental impact more than the previous one. That is why we as humans are prone to sickness of some kind – and the kinds seem to never end, why we have to have vaccinations or inoculations to help us ward off viruses that do harm, why we take vitamins and supplements because the food we eat lacks all the complete nutrition we need, and our lifestyles are demanding. Sometimes the environments in which we live can contain toxic elements that impact our health. (Think Flint, Michigan) We go to the doctor to get a checkup to make sure all the parts are working, or to learn of those which are not so that they can be treated. And be reminded again about how to best take care of our bodies, especially our hearts. 

  

Yet, even when we take care of ourselves, because of Adam’s original sin, which I refer to as ‘sin DNA’, we can develop health problems due to contagions in the environment, or something in our family’s genes that no one knew about. Including heart disease. As a result of the thousands of years of sin’s damaging impact on our bodies, heart disease leading to heart attack or stroke continues to outpace cancer as a leading cause of death from disease; however, cancer is not that far behind. Various cancers plague humankind. Almost everyone knows someone who has had to deal with some kind of cancer or even pre-cancer conditions. And you don’t have to have exceedingly bad habits to contract it – as noted above, sometimes it just shows up. 

Did you know that in the Bible there is a scripture passage that tells about how our bodies are impacted by Adam’s ‘sin DNA’? While it is illustrating natural aging, it is indicative of how our body parts can fail at any age. It’s found in Ecclesiastes 12. The speaker of wisdom uses symbolism to describe the age/wear/health loss process. At verses 6 and 7, he speaks concerning the heart: the pitcher be broken at the fountain – which refers to the vena cava which returns blood back to the right ventricle of the heart, and the wheel broken at the cistern or the great aorta which receives the blood from the left ventricle of the heart. Being broken means that they have ceased to function properly. Per the examples at the link below, the brokenness can occur at any age.  

This information is not meant to frighten you or, like someone I know does, make you think that every twitch, itch, or pain is an indication that you have some kind of terminal disease! Rather, this is meant to serve just the opposite, to encourage us to be practical about our health and become intentional about being the healthiest we can be. Christians have an extra incentive to take care of their bodies, because for those who have been saved and who have made Jesus Lord of their life, their bodies become a temple of God the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)  

On Friday, February 1, 2019 the American Heart Association invited people to wear red in support of women’s heart health, and to check up on their own heart health. 

*Here are some other Bible passages about caring for our health: 

Proverbs 4:20-22 – advice of the Proverb teller 

Proverbs 17:22 – cheerful heart 

Proverbs 16:24 – words and attitude 

Ecclesiastes 11:10 – anxiety can impact us 

Proverbs 20:1 – deception of alcohol 

Proverbs 14:30 (NLT) – stress and envy   

Psalms 38:3-8 (NLT) – pursuing and maintaining a strong moral core vital to health 

Proverbs 12:25 (NAS) – impact of anxiety and stress 

3 John 1:2 (NIV) – the impact of a positive, Christ-like friend 

Psalm 28:7 (NIV) – praising God is good for one’s health!! 

Daniel 1:3-16 – impact of a healthy diet 

Proverbs 23:29-35 – impact of drinking 

1 Corinthians 9:24-27 – physical exercise and self-control in diet, activity, and what we rest our eyes upon are practices of a healthy lifestyle 

  

https://www.acsh.org/news/2012/10/12/should-all-young-athletes-get-screened-for-heart-condition-2   

https://www.acsh.org/news/2016/02/18/heart-attacks-can-strike-young-adults-so-know-the-signs 

   

https://www.cardiosmart.org/Heart-Basics/CVD-Stats   https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/Teenagers-and-healthy-eating - excerpt from an Australian government publication on health 

https://www.healthline.com/health/stress/effects-on-body#1   

https://www.aafp.org/afp/2018/0601/p721.html