Matthew 5:8 | Want to See God?

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Fork, North Dakota.

Pray that the Lord will work in our hearts this morning as we look at the Gospel of Matthew in chapter 5.

In a few moments, we are going to be directing our hearts' attention to the Lord's table, to communion, to receiving the emblems that represent the shed blood of Christ and his broken body, broken on the cross for us.

So as we work towards that, I think it's very appropriate for us to consider for a few moments Matthew chapter 5 and verse 8, as we continue our walk through what we call the Beatitudes, the beginning of the Lord Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

So this morning I just want to focus for our time together in God's Word in Matthew chapter 5, verse 8.

Matthew 5:8

Jesus says, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

A couple of weeks ago, the Ardmore, Oklahoma newspaper printed a neat article praising these medical kits that were being provided by a nonprofit organization to local police departments for their canine units.

You might consider it something like a first aid kit for dogs.

Important equipment, I think, for dogs that face every kind of criminal danger.

The article stated that the kit had saved the life of one canine unit in Utah that very week after a particular dog had been shot in the neck twice.

So you can see the importance of those units being distributed.

Holly Cripps is the individual who began the program along with her chief, her husband, who was the police chief, she said of these canine units, they don't live very long.

And I believe that's because they're so pure in their heart, they don't need a lot of time to get it right.

I think I understand what she means by saying that the canines are pure in their heart.

But it seems to be quite distant from what Jesus meant, don't you think?

Even further from that, though, is the Irish author Iris Murdoch's conviction.

He said, in a quote, the bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man.

Other forms of transport grow daily nightmarish.

Only the bicycle remains pure in heart.

End quote.

Now, some of you may be more inclined to agree with Mr.

Murdoch than others.

But regardless, I hope you understand intuitively that neither of those instances illustrates Jesus' meaning.

Blessed are the pure in heart.

So what does Jesus mean?

Who are the pure in heart?

What does pure in heart mean?

As we begin to think about those questions, we need to remember here at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus is not giving us directions for how to live.

He's not telling us, go from this place and do this and live in this kind of way.

He's not providing a list of do's or don'ts for living in his kingdom.

And he's not telling us how to get into his kingdom.

It's not that at all.

Jesus is describing the people whom he has already caused to be a part of his kingdom.

These beatitudes, that's what the blessings are often referred to if you are unfamiliar with that term.

These blessings belong to those who have already come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and begun to follow him.

To put another way, the blessings belong to those who are already in, already in the kingdom.

I need to pause there for a moment and speak very bluntly for a minute.

There's a pretty good chance that some of you here this morning are not Christians.

Maybe you're searching for what's right for you.

Maybe you've been invited by a friend for Father's Day, or maybe you're just chucking us out.

Glad you're here.

You're welcome to join us.

But let me tell you, if you have not believed in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and begun to follow him, you are missing out on some tremendous blessings.

If you are a Christian, make sure that you're not abusing these blessings.

That you're not taking advantage of your standing in Christ to live life in your own way under the guise of following Jesus.

So at the beginning of this, Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven, that's a term for Jesus' kingdom, the place where he rules, where he's the king.

His kingdom in verse 3 belongs to those who are poor in spirit.

That's folks who are so spiritually poor that they come to the king with nothing.

We have nothing.

We have nothing to offer him.

Nothing but a request for his grace and his mercy to be poured out on us.

And so they come mourning.

They mourn because they recognize that in their poverty they have nothing but sin.

And so they're mourning over that.

And as they come to him, poor in spirit, mourning over their sin, the king comforts them.

And in their humility and their in their meekness before Christ, they crave the righteousness that comes from Christ the King.

They come to him in that way.

And he satisfies their need because the righteousness of Christ is then given to him.

Those who have received such mercy from the King are changed people.

They're so changed by the grace of the King that they begin to show his mercy to others.

In fact, Jesus purifies the hearts of those who belong to him.

What does it mean to be purified?

Well, Jesus used a word here from which our English word catharsis is derived.

In that time it basically meant clean.

For example, you might remember that after Jesus died on the cross, Joseph of Arimathea came and took his body down from the cross in order to bury it.

Well, here's how Matthew describes that event in Matthew chapter 27, verse 59.

Matthew 27:59

He says, And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean, a catharsis linen shroud.

So basically, pure means clean, like clothes out of the washing machine.

Pure or clean is the opposite of dirty, the opposite of soiled, of stained.

Blessed are the clean, Jesus says.

Christians are clean.

Because they are clean, they will see God, which is a promised blessing.

Now I hope we don't have to mention this, but I will just in case.

We're not talking about clean clothes.

Most of you look pretty nice today.

You dressed up for Father's Day.

Good job.

But this isn't about what you wear to church on Sunday morning.

It's not about whether you bathed last night or this morning.

It's not about whether or not you smell good.

Because you can look clean but still be dirty.

Can't you?

I guarantee it's true.

I've been outside doing some work in the yard a few times since the snow melted a week ago.

A couple of those times I didn't get dirty.

As in, I didn't get my clothes dirty.

My shirt and my pants, they looked fine.

But man, did I stink.

I smelled sweaty and outdoorsy.

You know what I mean?

My appearance was was clean, but when you got below the appearance, I was truly dirty.

I was not pure.

That's important because there's a particular group of people in the New Testament times that looked very, very clean.

In every every outward way, in every appearance, they looked clean.

In fact, they made it their duty to appear as perfectly clean and as perfectly put together as possible as evidence of their purity.

Interestingly, in Matthew 23, Jesus jumps all over that group of people, the Pharisees.

He pronounces seven woes, seven judgments on that group of people.

Listen carefully to the fifth woe, the fifth judgment.

This is Matthew 23, beginning in verse 25.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.

Interesting word to choose.

For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but the inside is full of greed and self-indulgence.

You blind Pharisee.

First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

Now we see why Jesus qualifies it, doesn't it, don't we?

Blessed are the pure in the heart.

Last week we had the privilege of observing a public statement, a public acknowledgement of trust in Christ through baptism.

But Peter tells us in the books that he wrote that while baptism is an identification with Christ, it doesn't do much but wash the dirt off your body.

It's all it can do.

It's not powerful, it's not effective to do anything.

It just cleans you.

It doesn't change the heart.

Being a consistent church attender, while it might encourage everyone around you, doesn't do anything to clean your heart.

Being a kind and generous kind of person who impacts everyone around you so that someone will say in your obituary that you are pure in heart isn't what Jesus is talking about.

When the Bible says a person's heart, they're not talking about a biological, medical, or physiological term.

It's not an organ that's being referenced.

No, it's everything that we cannot see.

It's a physical reality, it's something that is true, but it's an immaterial part of us.

In fact, walk with me through Matthew just to see how Matthew uses this term.

He uses it quite a lot.

Look over at chapter 6 and verse 21.

Jesus says, Don't lay out for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal, but lay out for yourselves treasures in heaven.

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

He's saying, Listen, put your heart in heaven while you're here on earth.

Well, that obviously is not talking about an organ that lives within us, is it?

Chapter 9 of Matthew, verse 4.

Jesus, knowing their thoughts, that is some of the scribes, said, Why do you think evil in your hearts?

So Jesus references the heart as a place where we consider things, where we think about things, where we where we analyze things.

Again, chapter 12, verse 34.

Again, this is speaking to the Pharisees.

He says, You brood of vipers, you pit of snakes.

How can you speak good when you are evil?

For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

So somehow our mouth is connected to our hearts.

And whatever's going on inside of us is what ends up coming out.

I hope you're beginning to get a sense of what Jesus means when he says, Blessed are the pure in heart.

It's not an organ, it's something that is within us, it's who we are, it's what makes us who we are.

Chapter 13.

Chapter 13, verse 15.

This people's heart has grown dull.

He's quoting Isaiah here.

With their ears they can barely hear, with their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.

So we understand spiritual truths with our hearts.

Look down at verse 19.

When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.

So when somebody communicates the gospel to you or to someone else, that seed is being planted in their hearts.

It's a spiritual reality.

Chapter 15.

Chapter 15 and verse 8.

This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

In other words, you can be in church every single Sunday, pouring out your heart and worship to God, but have your heart still far from God.

It's amazing reality.

Again, verse 18 of chapter 15, what we've already read, out of the mouth proceeds something from the heart.

That's what defines a person.

So who you are in your heart is who you really are as an individual.

Chapter 18, verse 35.

So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.

From your heart.

Two more.

Chapter 19, verse 8.

Speaking of divorce, he said to them, Because of your hardness of heart, Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.

So our hearts can get hard.

Our spiritual lives, what makes us who we are, can get hardened and resistant to who and what God has to say.

Chapter 22.

This will be the last one.

Chapter 22.

This is the one you might know the best of all of them.

Verse 37.

Jesus said to the Pharisees, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart.

And all your soul.

With all your mind.

There is a problem with our hearts.

And it's a problem that we've had from birth.

Our hearts are dirty.

They're not clean.

They are impure from sin.

Origin of Alexandria, one of the church fathers from the mid-200s A.D., said, quote, every sin stains the soul.

End quote.

Now we're not talking here about how impure.

That's not the point.

It's not how dirty are you, because even the slightest impurity before an infinitely pure God is an infinite impurity.

We're all tainted, even the best among us.

Dr.

Martin Lloyd Jones was a medical doctor who left his profession to become a pastor early in the last century.

He wrote a book on the Sermon on the Mount.

Listen to what he says here.

It's so good, so good.

He says, the terrible, tragic fallacy of the last hundred years, that was written 75 years ago.

Still true, though.

The tragic fallacy has been to think that all of our troubles are due to our environment.

And that to change the person, you have nothing to do but to change his environment.

This is a tragic fallacy.

It overlooks the fact that it was in paradise that man fell.

It was in a perfect environment that he first went wrong.

So put a man in a perfect environment and you cannot solve his problems.

No, no, it is out of the heart that things arise.

Take any problem in life, anything that leads to wretchedness, find out its cause, and you will always discover that it comes from the heart somewhere, from some unworthy desire in somebody, in an individual, in a group, or in a nation.

All our troubles arise out of this human heart.

So he goes on to talk about learning and intellect, not being able to solve our problems, and he finishes with this.

Our tragic failure to realize this is responsible for the state of the world at this moment.

The trouble is in the heart.

And the heart is desperately wicked and deceitful.

That is the problem.

That's why.

When Moses wanted to see God's glory, God told him, You cannot see my face.

For no man shall see me and live.

Now that's an apparent problem, isn't it?

Moses was told, You can't see my face.

Then Jesus says, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Sounds like a contradiction, doesn't it?

So what do we do with that?

Well, instead of just saying that the Bible contradicts itself, let's think through the problem for a moment.

First, let's grasp the context of what was said to Moses.

In Exodus 33, Moses is on the mountaintop with God, and he asks to see God's glory.

He wanted to see the visible, unrestrained, unmasked glory of a holy God.

A sinful man, an impure man, a dirty man in his heart, desired to encounter the unconstrained magnificence of the eternal God.

And God said, No, Moses, my glory would kill you.

But there were instances where people encountered, even saw God.

One of those is in Genesis chapter 32.

Genesis 32 · chapter mention

Jacob wrestled with God.

After that wrestling match, Jacob renamed that place to Peniel, the face of God, saying, For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.

So what's the deal?

How can it be one way in Genesis, but an opposite way in Exodus?

And then Jesus says to us, You can see God.

What's the deal?

Well, the difference between Genesis and Exodus is the glory of God.

With Jacob, God constrained his glory.

He hid it by taking human form in order to wrestle with Jacob.

It's much like the incarnation, where the Lord Jesus took on the form of a man and sort of constrained his glory.

Jacob saw God, but not in all of his unrestrained glory.

Moses encountered God's presence, seeing his back, as God said, so as to not die because of the glory of God.

But Jesus doesn't say you can't see God's face.

Nor does he say you can't see God's glory.

He simply says, You will see God.

There are no restrictions there.

So why the difference from the Old Testament?

It's the heart.

It's the qualification.

Blessed are the pure in heart.

It's that inner being of a person that makes the difference.

Not the physical organ that pumps blood throughout your body, but what it is that makes you you.

That's the problem.

Blessed are the pure in heart for They shall see God.

I want to show you something.

Jesus didn't say anything new.

David wrote a song, and we know it as Psalm 24.

Psalm 24.

I want you to see what David wrote in this song in Psalm 24.

This is what he wrote, beginning in verse 3 of that song.

He said, Who shall ascend the hill of Yahweh?

And who shall stand in his holy place?

I want you to pause there for a moment and note.

That implies seeing God.

If you are in the presence of God, if you are ascending the hill where his throne sits and you are standing in his holy presence, you are seeing God.

So David's asking, who can do that?

Who is capable of that?

Who is allowed to do that?

And he continues on and he answers the question for us.

The one who has clean hands and a pure heart.

Who doesn't lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.

That one will receive a blessing from Yahweh and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

You see, the qualification for seeing God has always been the same.

To see God requires perfect purity.

But as we've already seen, we can't achieve that.

It makes Jesus' blessing seem almost impossible.

But it's not.

Watch how this happens.

Watch how this happens.

A blessing is possible, how seeing God is possible.

We begin with David again in Psalm 51.

David has sinned before God and he comes and he prays to him create in me a clean heart, O God.

And renew a right spirit within me.

There's this humility that comes before God and says, I'm dirty.

I'm impure.

I can't do it.

I need you to do a creative work in me.

Start something new.

Later, one of the prophets, Jeremiah, would speak prophetically, foretelling the future of what God would do.

And he says in Jeremiah chapter 31, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares Yahweh.

Jeremiah 31 · chapter mention

I will put my law within them, I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.

What a promise.

Your hearts didn't have my law written on it.

I communicated to you, but it didn't go anywhere but skin deep.

The day is going to come when I'm going to write it on your heart.

I'm going to put it deeper within you, in your very hearts.

That's what David was praying for.

A little bit later, a prophet Ezekiel would say, Of God, I will give them one heart and a new spirit I will put within them.

I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh.

What a promise.

It's exactly what David prayed for.

He says, God, I can't do it.

And so God says, Don't worry, I will.

The time is coming when I am going to do this.

I'm going to take out of you the heart that cannot respond to me, the heart that is impure, the heart that is dirty, and I'm going to give you a new one.

That's what the Apostle Paul praises in Romans chapter 6.

Romans 6 · chapter mention

He says, Thanks be to God that you who are once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart.

There's a change there.

Become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching that you are committed to.

How does that happen?

He tells us a little bit later in Romans chapter 10.

Romans 10 · chapter mention

What does it say?

The word is near you.

It is in your mouth and in your heart.

That is the word of faith that we proclaim.

Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

For it's with the heart, not the organ, who you are on the inside, who you are that really makes you, you.

For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Now, we've seen then there's a problem of needing a new heart, and God has said, I'm going to promise that, I'm going to do that, and I'm going to do it in such a way that my word is going to be written on your heart so that it comes from within you.

Remember what Jesus said, out of the heart a man speaks.

So we want that inside of us.

And so we now hear in Romans chapter 10 that through faith, through belief in our hearts, God saves us.

Romans 10 · chapter mention

Now look at 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 6.

2 Corinthians 4:6

For God, who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus.

He begins to shine in our hearts so that we might see God.

How do we see God?

How has Jesus come to be a part of that?

We see that in Ephesians chapter 3, where Christ dwells in our hearts.

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

Are you seeing how God does all of this, taking an impure, a dirty heart and making it into a place where God Himself and all of His holiness can reside?

That's why the writer of the Hebrews sums it up by saying, Let us draw near with a true heart.

In full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

He said, Listen, we can come now to the throne with purity.

Do you see?

Do you see?

God does what you cannot do.

No matter how hard I try, I cannot cleanse my heart enough to be admitted into the presence of God to see him.

I cannot ascend the hill of Yahweh to stand in his holy presence.

I cannot do it.

But God does what I cannot do when I trust in Jesus.

He recreates hearts.

He performs heart surgery, removing hearts that are dead and stony and impure, and giving hearts that are tuned to him, hearts that are clean because he's purified them so that he might dwell within us.

That's why, in faith, Job, that old righteous believer in God, exhibited amazing, trusting faith.

Hear Job speak.

He said, I know that my Redeemer lives.

And at the last he will stand upon the earth.

And after my skin has been thus destroyed, remember at this point he's had boils all over his body, and his skin is just rotting off of his being.

After my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall what?

See God.

And then he clarifies it whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold and not another.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Remember that Jesus is describing those who are in his kingdom, those who have been granted citizenship through faith in him.

Blessed, Jesus said.

There's a unique and wonderful blessing of purity for those who have come to trust in Jesus and been purified by God Himself.

There's likely a partial fulfillment of this blessing even now.

Many many today and in all ages cannot see Jesus for who he truly is.

Some look at Jesus and say, Oh, yeah, there's a good teacher.

Oh, there's a very righteous man.

But many cannot see him as Lord.

Matthew chapter 13.

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

Verse 16, Jesus has just said that people's hearts are dull and that they can't see.

And so he says to his disciples, But blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear.

If you have come to trust in Jesus and you can see him through the pages of Scripture as who he really is, as God the Son taking on human form to die a death so that he might redeem you, you are seeing God in a unique way.

Right now, you are experiencing that blessing.

Those with eyes of faith are able to see Christ in a unique way through the pages of Scripture.

But as we close, let me show you one more passage, the ultimate fulfillment of this blessing at a yet future time.

And this comes from Revelation chapter 22.

Revelation 22 · chapter mention

Here, John is describing for us walking through God's city, called the heavenly Jerusalem.

And he describes walking through the middle of the city, and he describes what the streets are like and what he's seeing and what our housing is like.

And he says in verse 3, no longer will there be anything accursed there.

But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him, and they will see his face.

Coming to him mourning over your sin and trusting in the king and saying, I need you.

When that's genuine and authentic, Jesus says, Let me give you a pure heart.

Let me give you a pure heart.

So that you can see me in part now, but one day the clouds are going to be taken away.

And you will see.

Let's pray together.

Lord Jesus, we come and we bow before you.

Desiring this blessing.

This amazing blessing to see you, to see God.

To know who you are in truth.

To know what you've done for us.

May we all see you in this way and may you soon return so we might see you face to face, to have have Job's anticipation realized in us.

In the meantime, Lord Jesus, we come and we prepare to see you through through reminders of your shed blood for us.

Through reminders of your body broken for us.

May we see you in a new and amazing and wonderful way.

As we trust in you.com.