Blessed are the Pure in Heart

Matthew 5:8 "Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God."

The beauty of the small group home Bible Study is that each individual brings to the discussion their personal life experiences to share and learn from, along with the Word of God and the lesson taught. The blessing of the "Body of Christ". The list of Beatitudes seems simple and appropriately religious on the surface. But as we have seen, the reality Jesus describes in the Beatitudes isn’t about outward, self-imposed religiosity. A Pastor friend of mine once preached that if you put a suit on a pig, though they clean up well, it is still a pig and wants to get back into the mud. Meaning that we need to have our heart changed, but how? The Lord’s words call us to a radical, supernatural life; a life that can be lived only through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. These are the ones who are blessed of God, but we are not to seek the blessing. We are to seek the Blessor, who transforms the heart of the Believer, and the blessings come as a natural consequence. Is being pure in heart just a matter if being a “good” person? What does the “Good Book” say?

Matthew 19:17, Mark 10:8 & Luke 18:19 So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is “good” but One, that is God.” Romans 3:10-12 “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.” John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” If this is the condition of mankind without Christ, what does that say about the state of the heart?

We seem to be so “hard wired” into our flesh-minded thinking that we can clean up our act of the outside and put on a suit, so to speak, and think that we are okay, but that is not what the verses just before say. We have to realize that we need a “pure heart”, but the question is. How do we get a pure heart? We’ve learned that sin has separated us from our just & holy Creator God. Jesus said: “We must be born again.” – born anew, born from above. The regeneration of the human spirit then can see and receive, with spiritual discernment, the kingdom of God and understand. 1 Corinthians 2:14 The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Salvation restoration opens the door.

Ezekiel 36:26-27 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the 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. This is the “born again” transformed heart of the Believer that opens our eyes to the truth of God in His word, Will & Way for our lives. A new heart that does change the outside, but changes the inside; the way that we see, hear and think, by aligning our will and desires with His. Jeremiah 31:33 Says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. The Holy Spirit of God is given to live within our heart as a Counselor for us (John 14:15-18). But Galatians 5:17 tells “For the flesh (the desires of the fallen sin nature) lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.” So, because of this battle within, that wages against our heart, having been cleansed from an evil conscience by the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, how do we stay pure and not being stained all over again? Sanctification.

Galatians 5:16 & 24-25 "I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" Hebrews 10:22 "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." Ephesians 5:25-26 (Love), just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word. John 8:31-32 Then Jesus said to those who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 17:17 Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” To sanctify is the action of setting apart something as holy and sacred. Set apart from sin and the God-rejecting world, by God, for God’s purposes, holy and blameless. God’s Word, found in the Holy Scriptures of the Bible, is truth.

This is an on-going process for the Christian walk, as the flesh desires of the sin nature tempts and lures the mind, will and emotions by the self-centered senses, pride, pleasure and greed. Matthew 26:41 & Mark 14:38 - Jesus instructs us: “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." And in 1 John 1:9, we are told, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." To confess means “to say the same thing, to speak the same word.” In other words, confessing our sins means agreeing with God that what we have done is sin. Sin is “missing the mark” and “hitting a different mark”. The emphasis is not on the missing, therefore, but on the “Mark”. The “Mark” is God’s standards; His loving commandments, laws, ordinances, statutes, teachings for our life, aligned with His perfect Will & Way, through His holy Word. Read, study, think about and live by the truth in the Bible daily. Keep your eye on the target!

Psalm 24:1-6 The earth is the LORD’s, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein. For He has founded it upon the seas, And established it upon the waters. Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessing from the LORD, And righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him, Who seek Your face. Jeremiah 29:13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. In Matthew 7:7-8 & Luke 11:9-10, Jesus said: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened."

Psalm 37:3-5 Trust in the LORD, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. Blessed are the pure in heart.
In Christ, Brian