Let me pray for the reading and preaching of God's word.
Heavenly Father,
who dares to approach your throne
without purity of heart?
Lord, this is such a
such a big and profound truth
that we are wrestling with this morning
and I desperately need your help, Lord.
Show us how to be pure in heart
because we want to see you.
We want to see you, Lord.
Amen.
Give us ears to hear
and eyes to see
that we might behold
the glory of God
in the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
It's in his precious name we now pray.
Amen.
Please stand and if you are able to honor God
as we read from his word,
I will read verses 1 to 12,
but I'll be focusing only in on verse 8 for the sermon.
Seeing the crowd,
he went up on the mountainside.
And when he sat down,
his disciples came to him.
And he opened his mouth
and taught them, saying,
Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted
for righteousness' sake,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when others revile you
and persecute you
and utter all kinds of evil against you
falsely on my account.
Rejoice and be glad,
for your reward is great in heaven.
For so they persecuted the prophets
who were before you.
This is God's holy and authoritative word.
Please be seated.
Amen.
It is not an exaggeration to say
that to see God
is the sum and goal of all religion.
One of the most influential philosophers
of Western civilization
was a 13th century pastor
named Thomas Aquinas.
And he writes in his book,
Summa Contra Gentiles.
Now the ultimate end of man
and of every intellectual substance
is called felicity or happiness.
Because this is what every intellectual substance
desires as an ultimate end
and for its own sake alone.
Therefore,
the ultimate happiness and felicity
of every intellectual substance
is to know God.
And so it is said in Matthew 5, 8,
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God.
And in John 17, verse 3,
This is eternal life,
that they may know thee,
the only true God.
The ultimate end of man,
the purpose of man,
is to know God and to see God.
That is our ultimate salvation and glory.
But how can we,
as human beings,
sinful human beings,
attain that ultimate end?
Who is sufficient for such things?
That's the subject of the sixth beatitude.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God.
Who gets to see God?
The pure in heart.
And that's my main point this morning.
Those with undivided hearts
shall see God with unveiled faces.
We're going to first talk about the condition
that we must be pure in heart.
And then we're going to talk about the solution,
which is to have a new heart.
And then third,
we're going to talk about the promise of seeing God.
Purity of heart is the condition for seeing God
because God is holy
and can admit no evil or sin into his presence.
It says in Habakkuk 1, verse 13,
that God is of purer eyes than to see evil
and cannot look at wrong.
Our God is holy, holy, holy.
Thrice holy.
As holy as he can possibly be.
He's the consuming fire
who consumes sinners with everlasting burnings,
it says in Deuteronomy 4, 24.
For this reason,
only the pure in heart can see God.
We read from Psalm 24 for our call to worship this morning.
Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
In other words,
who gets to see God?
Who can go enter into his presence
and stand in his presence and behold him?
And this was the answer.
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to what is false
and does not swear deceitfully.
The pure in heart get to enter God's presence.
But what does it mean to be pure in heart?
In order to understand that,
let's first consider what the heart means
and then secondly, what purity means.
The fact that this beatitude emphasizes the heart
really cuts through all the fluff of religion.
Jesus is getting to the heart of spirituality.
It doesn't say blessed are the pure in appearance.
Blessed are those who are pure on the outside.
It says blessed are the pure in heart,
those who are pure on the inside.
The heart doesn't refer to the physical organ
that pumps blood,
but to the inner center of a person.
It encompasses what we might otherwise think of
as the heart, the mind, and the soul or the spirit.
When we speak of the heart in English,
we often mean the emotional center of a person,
the seed of our emotions,
our faculty of feeling.
The heart does include our emotions.
For example, Deuteronomy 28, verse 47 says
that we ought to serve the Lord our God
with joyfulness and gladness of heart.
The heart is where we feel joyfulness and gladness.
So it does include our feelings, the heart.
But it is not less than that,
but it's also more than that.
It's more than our feelings.
It includes what we would normally call the mind.
The seed of our thoughts, the intentions,
the moral intentions, our will.
For example, in Hebrews 4.12,
it says that the word of God
discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Later in Matthew 9.4, Jesus says to the scribes,
why do you think evil in your hearts?
The heart thinks.
It has thoughts.
This is why the terms heart and mind
are often used interchangeably in Scripture.
In 1 Chronicles 12.38,
acting with a whole heart
is in parallel with acting with a single mind.
They're one and the same thing.
So the heart encompasses what we would think of
as the heart and the mind,
and also in Scripture,
what we might think of as the soul or the spirit.
Proverbs 24.12 says that God weighs the heart of man
and that he also keeps watch over his soul.
Proverbs 16.2 says,
all the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes,
but the Lord weighs the spirit.
Almost identical proverb in Proverbs 21.2,
it says, every way of a man is right in his own eyes,
but the Lord weighs the heart.
Interchangeably used.
Over and over again,
the Bible mentions heart and soul together,
not to refer to two separate, distinct faculties,
but to refer to the whole unified inner person.
Heart and soul.
I am with you, heart and soul,
meaning I am with you as a whole being.
In summary then,
the heart is the emotional and mental
and spiritual center of a person.
It is the inward fountain
from which flows everything in life.
All our thoughts, all our actions,
all our attitudes,
all our affections and desires
are downstream from our heart.
This is why it is erroneous to think
that emotional care and soul care
are separate, unrelated, disparate issues.
Both of them have to do with the heart.
This is why it is unbiblical
to think of mental health
and spiritual health
as discrete, non-overlapping categories.
Apart from a small fraction of issues
that are primarily neurological
and can be traced to its origin in the brain,
most mental health issues
are actually matters of the mind,
the soul, and the heart.
They are spiritual matters
that the Bible addresses.
From Genesis to Revelation,
the Bible focuses relentlessly on the heart.
And in the Sermon on the Mount,
Jesus focuses relentlessly on the human heart.
In Matthew 5, 28,
Jesus says that not only a man
who commits physical adultery with a woman
that is not his wife,
but also a man who looks at a woman lustfully
commits adultery with her in his heart.
That raises the bar of obedience, doesn't it?
You see, if what matters is purity of heart,
not just purity of appearance,
purity on the outside,
then the mentality that,
well, as long as I don't have extramarital sex
or as long as I don't have premarital sex,
then I'm in the clear, is wrong.
Refusing to cross that clear line in the sand
that the Bible draws
is the bare minimum of obedience.
A man who has been married to his wife
for 40 years without ever sleeping
with another woman
can actually be a serial adulterer
who has committed adulteries
100 times over in his heart
by looking at porn regularly.
Maybe you don't look at porn.
But you have wandering eyes.
Lustful glances at passersby.
Maybe you don't scroll through porn,
but you scroll through
those suggestive photos of influencers
on Instagram.
If what matters is not outward purity,
but inward purity,
then these things that nobody else sees,
these things that nobody else condemns you for,
matter.
Because they betray an impure heart.
This is why Jesus condemns the scribes and the Pharisees
in Matthew 23, 25 to 27.
Woe to you, hypocrites!
For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate,
but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
First clean the inside of the cup and the plate,
then the outside also may be clean.
For you are like whitewashed tombs,
which outwardly appear beautiful,
but within are full of dead people's bones
and all uncleanness.
True purity is from the inside out,
not outside in.
This is a revolutionary truth.
Again, in Matthew 6, 19 to 24,
Jesus speaks of the heart
when warning against the alluring power of money
in our lives.
He says,
no one can serve two masters.
Either he will love the one or hate the other,
or he'll hate the one and love the other.
You cannot serve both God and money.
So he says,
because of that,
he enjoins us to choose our treasure carefully.
He says,
for where your treasure is,
there your heart will be also.
If you treasure money and the things of earth,
then you will perish along with your money.
But if you treasure righteousness
and the things of heaven,
then you will have eternal rewards in heaven.
What matters is,
where is your heart?
Where is your heart this morning?
What do you treasure with your heart?
Because you can be a billionaire
who has donated a million dollars
to a good cause,
even to a church,
but still be an idolater of the heart
who worships money.
Likewise, you can be a poor widow
who gives two small copper coins
as an offering to God,
which is the equivalent of not quite even
two measly dollars.
And yet Jesus said of that poor widow
in Mark 12, 43, 44,
truly I say to you,
this poor widow has put in more
than all those who are contributing
to the offering box.
For they all contributed out of their abundance,
but she out of her poverty
has put in everything she had,
all she had to live on.
What kind of math is this?
It's the mathematics of the heart.
What matters is the heart.
In Matthew 15, 10 to 20,
the Pharisees and the scribes challenge Jesus,
saying that your disciples
don't wash their hands before they eat.
They don't go through the Jewish ritual cleansing
before they eat.
And then Jesus teaches his disciples,
it is not what goes into the mouth
that defiles a person,
but what comes out of the mouth
that defiles a person.
Do you not see?
Whatever goes into the mouth
passes into the stomach and is expelled.
But what comes out of the mouth
proceeds from the heart,
and this defiles a person.
For out of the heart comes evil thoughts,
murder, adultery,
sexual immorality,
theft,
false witness,
slander.
These are what defile a person,
but to eat with unwashed hands
does not defile anyone.
Again, it's not what comes from outside in,
but things that come from the inside out
that either defile or purify us.
This is important for us,
and I'm hammering it home,
because when we sin and when we fail,
it's our automatic impulse
to blame other things that are on the outside.
If it weren't for those people,
I wouldn't have acted that way.
If it weren't these circumstances,
then I would not be this way.
And that's one of the persistent delusions
of the modern age,
that all the problems that we face
are outside problems,
problems external to us,
when in reality,
the root problem of it all
is inside of us humans.
This is why the historical practice
of Christian asceticism and monasticism,
though well-intentioned,
are very misguided.
They thought that,
well, this world is full of temptations and sins,
so if I withdraw myself from this
and isolate myself
and go into a monastery,
or if I withdraw myself
and go into the desert,
into the wilderness,
then there I shall be clean,
and there I shall be pure in heart.
The problem is that impurity is in here,
and you take it with you wherever you go.
That's why James 1.14 says,
each person is tempted
when he is lured and enticed
by his own desire,
the desire of the heart.
Here's my obligatory
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones quote.
He says,
the terrible, tragic fallacy
of the last hundred years
has been to think
that all man's troubles
are due to his environment,
and that to change the man,
you have nothing to do
but to change his environment.
That 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 to put man in a perfect environment
cannot solve his problems.
No, no.
It is out of the heart
that these things arise.
Having defined heart,
let's not consider
what it means to be pure in heart.
Psalm 24, verse 4
defined someone with a pure heart
as the person
who does not lift up his soul
to what is false
and who does not swear deceitfully.
Lifting up one's soul
to something
is the Hebrew idiom for worship.
So someone who is pure in heart
worships the true God only
and worships no other gods
and no idols.
And likewise,
a pure in heart
is someone who does not
swear deceitfully.
Whenever he makes an oath
according to the name of God,
the God who is truth,
whose word is truth,
they keep all their oaths.
They do not swear deceitfully.
There is no authority
or fear or desire or pressure
that can make them
renege on the promises
that they made to God
because they serve God alone.
To be pure in heart
is to worship God alone.
That's why, in fact,
the greatest commandment
is to love God
with all our hearts.
Look at Deuteronomy 6, 45.
It begins with,
Hear, O Israel,
the Lord our God,
the Lord is one.
And then it proceeds
to the commandment,
You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart.
Those two things,
that declaration of,
that confession of faith,
that God is one,
the Lord is one,
is directly and intimately related
to the command
to love God
with all your heart.
Because if there are
multiple gods
and multiple lords,
then our hearts
would rightly be divided.
They would have to be divided.
If you have multiple masters,
then your allegiance
has to be split.
However, if the Lord is one,
then your worship
and your devotion
and your obedience
must be single.
We must love him
with all of our hearts,
not just part of it.
The unrivaled God
demands and deserves
undivided worship.
That's why David prays
in Psalm 86, verse 11,
Unite my heart
to fear your name.
The New International Version
translates it this way,
Give me an undivided heart
that I may fear your name.
It's a beautiful image.
To summarize then,
to have a pure heart,
is to have an undivided heart.
James 4, 8 confirms this,
Draw near to God
and he will draw near to you.
Cleanse your hands,
you sinners,
and purify your hearts,
you double-minded.
What happens
when sinners
purify their hearts?
They go from being double-minded
to being single-minded.
Instead of being of two minds
and two wills,
instead of having a mixture
of what God wants
and what I want
and what they want,
the pure in heart
have one mind.
They have a single purpose.
They have an undivided heart
that desires to please God.
That's why 19th century
Danish philosopher,
who was a believer,
Soren Kierkegaard,
hit the nail on the head
when he wrote the book
entitled,
Purity of Heart
is to Will One Thing.
To Will One Thing.
And that one thing
must be God.
The purity of heart
is to will,
to desire,
to trust,
and to love,
and to worship
the only true God.
That's what it means
to be pure in heart.
Blessed are the pure in heart.
But this presents us
with a big problem.
Because our hearts
do not will
one thing.
At least not on our own.
There's a similar beatitude
to this in the Old Testament
in Jeremiah 17, 8.
It says,
Blessed is the man
who trusts in the Lord.
That's the man
who's pure in heart.
Blessed in the man
who trusts in the Lord.
And that's contrasted
with this statement
of this curse.
Cursed is the man
who trusts in man.
To be pure in heart,
you must trust in God
and not in man.
Unfortunately,
Jeremiah 17
is given in the context
of denouncing
the idolatry
of God's people.
And it spells out
the reality
that the sin
of God's people
are written,
and it says,
written with a pen of iron,
with a point of diamond,
it is engraved
on the tablet
of their heart.
Sin is indelibly
engraved
on the hearts
of God's people
with the point
of diamond,
it says.
And it says,
going on
in chapter 17,
verse 9 to 10
of Jeremiah,
it describes
the default condition
of the human heart.
And it says this,
the heart is deceitful
above all things
and desperately sick.
Who can understand it?
I, the Lord,
search the heart
and test the mind
to give every man
according to his ways,
according to the fruit
of his deeds.
The heart
of a sinful man
by default
is divided
and defiled.
It's deceitful.
We have other allegiances.
We have run
after other gods.
It's as if
the human heart
as worship ADD
can't focus
on one thing,
distracted
and divided.
So much so
that we deceive ourselves.
It says,
our hearts
are deceitful.
Who can understand it?
Our own hearts
deceive us.
So who can understand
and know the heart?
Only the God
who searches the heart
and tests the mind.
This is why
Proverbs 20,
verse 9
asks a rhetorical question.
Who can say,
I have made my heart pure.
I am clean
from my sin.
Who can say that?
How many of you
in this room
can say that?
I have made my heart pure.
No one,
not a single person
in the world
can say that.
because no one
is perfectly pure in heart.
No one
in all of
history,
among all of humanity,
except for Jesus.
And Jesus is the solution
to our problem.
He gives us
a new heart.
To a people
who are despairing
of their deceitful,
desperately sick hearts,
God makes a wonderful promise
in Jeremiah 31-32.
He says,
Behold,
the days are coming,
declares the Lord,
when I will make
a new covenant
with the house of Israel
and the house of Judah.
I will put my law
within them
and I will write it
on their hearts
and they shall be
my people
and I will be their God.
I will give them
one heart
and one way
that they may fear me
forever
for their own good
and the good of their children
after them.
God promises
that one day
he will give
his people
a single heart,
one heart
that will worship
the one true God
and he,
instead of our sins
being in them
being engraved
with a point of diamond
on our hearts,
he says he will
inscribe with the finger
of God
his law
onto our hearts
so we obey him
from the heart.
Ezekiel 11-19-20
echoes this promise,
and 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
that they may walk
in my statutes
and keep my rules
and obey them
and they shall be
my people
and I will be
their God.
How can it be
that an idolatrous people
will be the Lord's people
and the holy God
will be their God
and Lord
only if they can have
a single heart,
one heart,
heart of flesh.
This is what we read
about in
the assurance of pardon
from Ezekiel 36,
same promise.
God says,
I will sprinkle you
with clean water
and you shall be clean
from all your uncleannesses
and from all your idols
I will cleanse you
and I will give you
a new heart
and a new spirit
I will put within you.
He will remove
the heart of stone
and give us
a heart of flesh.
When is this promise
fulfilled
and how is this promise
fulfilled?
Has it already been
fulfilled?
Is it soon to be fulfilled?
The author of Hebrews
in Hebrews 10
makes the case
that this promise
has already been fulfilled
in the atoning sacrifice
of Jesus Christ
and in the subsequent gift
of the Holy Spirit
that Jesus sends
after his death,
resurrection,
and ascension to heaven.
He cites Jeremiah 21's promise
that I just read
a short while ago.
He cites it in Hebrews 10
of the new covenant
and how God will write
his law on our hearts
and then he says
that that promise
is fulfilled by Jesus
in verses 19-22
of Hebrews 10.
Therefore, brothers,
since we have a confidence
to enter the holy places
by the blood of Jesus,
by the new and living way
that he opened for us
through the curtain
that is through his flesh,
and since we have
a great priest
over the house of God,
let us draw near
with a true heart
in full assurance of faith,
with our hearts
sprinkled clean
from an evil conscience
and our bodies
washed with pure water.
by offering himself
as the once-for-all
atoning sacrifice
for our sins
on the cross
and dying
in the stead of sinners
and by shedding
his own blood
which cleanses us
of all of our sins,
he, Jesus,
then enters
into the holy of holies,
the most holy place
in the heavenly temple
before God
and there serves
as our great high priest
and our advocate
and our intercessor
so that we can
be assured
that our cleanses,
that our conscience
is cleansed,
that our hearts
are purified.
I've often run
into people,
Christians,
who persist
in their thinking
that
and relate more
to the description
of Jeremiah 17,
my heart is
deceitful
and desperately sick
and then they forget
the spiritual reality
that they have received
new hearts.
I know I'm quoting
a lot of scripture
but I'm going to give you
a few more
because I want to
demonstrate this
conclusively
not on my own authority
but on the authority
of scripture
that this promise
really has been
fulfilled for
every single
believer
in Christ.
Acts 15, 9
has God
made no distinction
between Jews
and Gentiles
having cleansed
their hearts
by faith?
That's happened already.
He has cleansed
our hearts
by faith.
Purified
through faith
in Jesus Christ.
Romans 6,
verse 17
Thanks be to God
that you who
were once
slaves of sin
have become
obedient from
the heart
to the standard
of teaching
to which you
were committed.
Here's the difference
between the Pharisee
and the Christian.
Here's the difference
between people
of the law
and the people
of the gospel,
the people
of the spirit.
We do not
merely obey God
outwardly
but inwardly.
We are not
merely obedient
out of fear
with the external
enforcement
of God's law
but we are
obedient from
the heart
because we
have a new
heart.
After all,
didn't Jesus
assure us
in John 7,
38-39,
whoever believes
in me
as the scripture
has said,
out of his
heart
will flow
rivers of
living water.
Now this
he said about
the spirit
whom those
who believed
in him
were to receive.
After Jesus'
death,
resurrection,
and ascension,
he sends
the Holy Spirit
to us
into our hearts
to make
our hearts
flow with
rivers of
living water.
That has
happened to
us.
1 Peter 1,
22-25,
having purified
your souls
by your
obedience to
the truth
for a sincere
brotherly love,
love one another
earnestly from
a pure heart
since you
have been
born again
not of
perishable
seed but
of imperishable
through the
living and
abiding
word of God
and this
word is the
good news
that was
preached to
you.
How do
our souls
get purified?
How do we
get pure
hearts?
By our
obedience,
but it's not
what you think,
not our
obedience to
the law,
our obedience
to the truth.
And what is
this truth?
It says
the living
and abiding
word of God.
What is the
living and
abiding
word of God?
It tells us
the good news
that was preached
to you,
the gospel
of Jesus
Christ.
That Jesus
died as the
atoning
sacrifice for
our sins
on the
cross so
that sinners
with
adulterated
and defiled
and divided
hearts can be
clean and
can be pure,
can be
forgiven,
and be pure
in hearts so
they can enter
into the kingdom
of God and
stand up in the
presence of God
and see God
in his glory.
The gospel,
it's the gospel
that gives us
pure hearts.
So in John 15
3, Jesus says
already you are
clean,
already you are
pure because of
the word that I
have spoken to
you.
You can think
of it this way.
I'll share two
and I'll just
explain why
then.
If I have a
new heart,
if I have a
new spirit,
why is there
still sin in
my life?
Why do I
still wrestle
and struggle
with my sinful
flesh?
You can think
of it this way.
When you
graft a
plant,
an unhealthy
plant that
is prone to
disease and
death,
and you
cut it off
and you
graft it
into a
more solid
rootstock,
a healthy
rootstock,
and when
you graft
the plant
in that
way,
it grows
healthy.
It doesn't
succumb,
it's not
susceptible
to the
same
diseases
that
plant
in its
native
form
is
when it's
grafted
into that
rootstock.
That's what
God has done
for us
in Jesus.
He takes
dead
branches
and he
grafts us
into the
healthy
rootstock
of the
vine of
Jesus
Christ.
He says
I am
the vine,
you are
the branches,
abide in
me and
then you
will bear
fruit.
already we
are new,
already we
have new
life,
already we
have a
new heart.
But just
as it
takes some
time for
that newly
grafted
plant to
start to
derive life
more and
more from
that source,
it takes
us some
time.
And that's
what our
present life
of sanctification
is.
we have
a couple
members,
one member
and one
baby in
the church
just recently
go through
heart surgery.
Jenny's
right here
with us
which we
praise God
for.
And we
experience
first hand
that even
when you
repair a
broken
heart,
the heart
doesn't
just
automatically
start,
the body
just doesn't
start automatically
functioning in
a perfectly
healthy way
along with
that fixed
new heart.
It takes
time for
the body
to get
adjusted.
When you
give someone
a heart
transplant
surgery,
they don't
just start
using that
heart right
away,
they're still
on a
ventilator
and they're
on various
catheters
because it
takes time
for the
body to
acclimate
to the
new heart
and for
the blood
to start
pumping
from that
new and
healthy
heart
into the
rest of
the body
to restore
life to
it.
It takes
time for
that to
happen.
Our
flesh in
this life
is still
accustomed
to the
old life.
It still
operates like
it has a
defective
heart sometimes
and it
takes time
for us
to be
weaned
off of
that.
But we
already have
a new
heart.
We already
have a
new spirit.
We are
already
holy.
That's why
we are
called
saints and
we are
being made
holy,
becoming
holy.
Sanctification,
you might even
say,
is becoming
what we
already are
in Christ.
This is
why purity
of heart
is not
a pipe
dream but
a reality
for us.
1 Timothy
1.5,
the aim of
our charge
is love
that issues
from a
pure heart.
2 Timothy
2.22,
so flee
youthful
passions and
pursue
righteousness,
faith,
love,
and peace
along with
those who
call on
the Lord
from a
pure heart.
this is
possible.
And how
do we
become more
and more
pure in
heart?
How do we
work out
the purity
of heart
that's
already
ours
in Jesus
Christ?
Not by
trying to
be pure
in our
own
strength.
Not by
beating
ourselves
up in
the flesh
and trying
to force
ourselves
to be
more
pure.
when we
live
under
the law,
it says
in 2 Corinthians
3,
there's a
veil that
remains over
our faces.
We cannot
see God.
But when
we turn
to Jesus
with unveiled
faces,
we get to
behold the
glory of
God.
It says
in 2 Corinthians
3.18,
and we all
with unveiled
faces beholding
the glory
of the Lord
are being
transformed
into the
same image
from one
degree of
glory to
another.
For this
comes from
the Lord
who is
the Spirit.
And then a
few verses
down,
2 Corinthians
4,
Paul says
that beholding
the glory
of the
Lord is,
once again,
seeing the
light of
the gospel
of the
glory of
Christ.
For God
who said
let light
shine out
of darkness
has shown
in our
hearts
to give
the light
of the
knowledge
of the
glory
of God
in the
face
of Jesus
Christ.
Again and
again,
the answer
from the
scriptures is
the same.
How do we
become pure
in heart?
By letting
the light
of the
gospel of
the glory
of Christ
shine in
our hearts.
By beholding
Jesus Christ,
by believing
in Jesus
Christ,
by abiding
in Jesus
Christ,
the Son of
God who
died for
our sins
to purify
our defiled
and divided
hearts,
to give us
new hearts
by the power
of the Holy
Spirit.
it's
when our
faith in
Jesus Christ
is worked
out in
our lives
that we
become people
with undivided
hearts who
will one
thing.
It's only
when we
see Jesus
in his
true glory
and in
his true
grace
and mercy
that our
hearts are
transformed and
our hearts
are captivated
by him
and we
will one
thing.
To please
him.
19th century
English
pastor J.C.
Ryle puts it
in a much
better way
than I
can.
Zeal in
religion is
a burning
desire to
please God,
to do his
will,
and to
advance his
glory in
the world
in every
possible way.
It is a
desire which
no man feels
by nature,
which the
Spirit puts
into the
heart of
every believer
when he is
converted,
but which
some believers
feel so much
more strongly
than others
that they
alone deserve
to be called
zealous men.
This desire
is so strong
when it really
reigns in a
man that it
impels him to
make any
sacrifice,
to go through
any trouble,
to deny himself
to any amount,
to suffer,
to work,
to labor,
to toil,
to spend
himself and
be spent,
and even to
die if only
he can please
God and
honor Christ.
a zealous
man in
religion is
preeminently
a man of
one thing.
It is not
enough to
say that he
is earnest
and hardy,
uncompromising,
thoroughgoing,
wholehearted,
fervent in
spirit.
He only
sees one
thing.
He cares
for one
thing.
He lives
for one
thing.
He is
swallowed up
in one
thing,
and that
one thing
is to
please
God.
whether
he lives
or whether
he dies,
whether he
has health
or whether
he has
sickness,
whether he
is rich
or whether
he is
poor,
whether he
pleases
men or
whether he
gives offense,
whether he
is not
wise or
whether he
is not
foolish,
whether he
gets blame
or whether
he gets
praise,
whether he
gets honor
or whether
he gets
shame.
For all
this,
the zealous
man cares
nothing at
all.
he burns
for one
thing,
and that
one thing
is to
please
God
and to
advance
God's
glory.
If he
is consumed
in the
very burning,
he cares
not for
it.
He is
content.
He feels
that like a
lamp,
he is made
to burn,
and if
consumed
in burning,
he has
but done
the work
for which
God
appointed
him.
when you
see
Jesus
in his
glory,
that's
how you
burn,
and you
will
one
thing.
And the
person who
wills one
thing is
blessed
because God
is so
gracious
to give
him or
to give
her
the one
thing
that he
seeks,
to see
God.
Like all
the promises
in the
Beatitudes,
this promise
has both
present and
future
dimensions.
There is a
sense in
which we
as Christians
presently
see God
by faith.
Hebrews
11,
27
speaks of
how by
faith we
endure as
seeing him
who is
invisible.
By
beholding
the glory
of Jesus
in the
gospel
with unveiled
faces,
we are
in a
real
spiritual
way
seeing
God.
Isn't
that why
Jesus
said
during his
time on
earth in
John 14,
9,
whoever
has seen
me has
seen
the
Father.
Jesus
is the
one who
makes
the Father
known.
And if
you have
seen
Jesus
and if
you
behold
the
light
of his
glory,
then you
have in
a real
spiritual
sense
seen
God
the
Father.
It's
only when
our hearts
are
enlightened,
it says
in Ephesians
1,
18,
that we
can truly
see God.
We can
have hope
and faith
in God.
So this
is a
present
reality
for all
those who
profess faith
in Jesus
now.
Yet there
is also
a sense
in which
we do
not yet
see God.
And it
shall be
fulfilled
in the
future.
That's
where it
says they
shall
see
God.
Because we
see him
in a real
way,
but we do
not yet see
him fully.
We do
not see
him face
to face.
In
Exodus
33,
if you
remember,
Moses,
pleased with
God,
show me
your glory,
and God
amazingly,
he condescends
to grant
him that
request,
says,
yes,
I will
show you
my glory.
I will
make my
glory pass
before you.
But he
says,
you shall
not see
my face,
for no
man shall
see my
face and
live.
Instead,
you may
see my
back as
my glory
passes
by.
There's
this longing,
the cry
that we
see all
throughout
scripture of
sinners who
know that
their sin
hides the
face of
God from
us,
saying,
how long,
oh Lord,
how long
will you
hide your
face from
me?
Because we
cannot see
God face
to face.
even the
angels,
the
seraphim
in Isaiah
6,
it says
they hide
their faces
before God
because they
are not
worthy to
behold him
in his
glory.
That's
why in
this life,
our vision
of God,
our seeing
God is
always mediated
by something
else.
It's always
indirect.
And we
long for
that direct
and immediate
vision of
God.
face to
face.
And we
are promised
that in
1 Corinthians
13,
12,
for now
we see
in a
mirror
dimly,
like seeing
through like
a darkened
wine glass,
you see
something through
that,
you can still
see stuff,
but it's
darkly.
We see
in a mirror
dimly in
the present
age,
but then
in the
future,
face to
face,
now I
know in
part,
then I
shall know
fully even
as I have
been fully
known.
that's
the promise,
that's what
we get to
long for.
And there's
something about
this immediate
and direct
and personal
full access
and seeing
someone face
to face
that we
already know
and experience
in this
life.
Think about
why,
some of you
guys have done
this,
why so many
dedicated fans
of athletes,
artists,
actors,
spend hours
and sometimes
days in
line to
be at a
movie premiere
or a
concert venue
or a
sporting event.
Why do
they do
that?
They look
better on
TV than
in person.
You can
see them
and stare
at them
to your
heart's
content on
TV.
Why do
people do
that?
Because
there's
something
about an
unmediated
encounter
that offers
a sense
of personal
intimacy
and knowledge
and access
that's just
unmatched,
unparalleled
by a
mediated
view
of that
person.
So we
already have
this vision
but we
shall have
this vision
fully
1 John 3
2-3
says,
Beloved,
we are
God's
children
now
and what
we will
be
has not
yet
appeared
but we
know that
when he
appears,
when Jesus
returns,
we shall
be like
him
because we
shall see
him
as he
is.
This is the
vision of
God that
was promised
to us when
we were in
Revelation 22,
3-5.
No longer
will there be
anything accursed
but the
throne of
God and
the Lamb
will be
in it
and his
servants
will worship
him.
They will
see his
face
and his
name will
be on their
foreheads
and night
will be
no more.
I think
of it like
back in the
day with
arranged marriages
wives used
to wear
veils.
I know that
people do it
again,
do it nowadays
too because
they think
it looks
good.
It does.
But back
in the day
it had served
a more
practical
function.
You wore
the veil
because the
husband should
not see
your face
especially in
an arranged
marriage until
you're right
about to get
married because
he might
back out
otherwise.
You wear
the veil
and you
wear the
veil.
But imagine
the wife is
beautiful.
Imagine
they're going
and she has
veiled faces.
She has
veil over her
head and
then finally
at the
altar as
you say
the vows
you unveil
and imagine
the ecstasy
of first
time
seeing your
bride or
seeing your
groom through
unveiled
faces.
All that
is good
and all that
is beautiful
and true
in this life
they are
they show us
something of
God.
We see
God in
some real
way in
a spiritual
way by
eyes of
faith but
it is
veiled.
We see
him through
the veil
but that
day we
shall see
face to
face the
one we
have longed
to see
our entire
life.
How many
times have
we hung
our heads
in defeat
in this
life?
Discouraged
by our own
sinfulness
and then
has he
graciously
lifted up
our heads
and pointed
our heads
up to
the cross
where he
made
satisfaction
for our
sins?
How many
times when
our shoulders
were slumped
with the
weight and
the burden
and the
worries of
our
responsibilities
in life
and he
has braced
us up
and strengthened
us and
spoken truth
into our
hearts?
How many
times has he
applied the
balm of
his grace
and mercy
to comfort
our wounded
soul?
how many
times has
he gently
taught us
when we
are going
astray
and corrected
our course
and led
us into
the path
of righteousness?
How many
times has
God defended
us from
the false
accusations
and slander
of the
enemy?
How many
times has
God graciously
provided for
all of our
needs
and fulfilled
our truest
and deepest
desires?
others,
when you
think of
Jesus
and all
that he
means to
you,
do you
not long?
Is this
not the
strongest
desire of
your heart
to see
him?
Charles
Spurgeon,
we own
to none
so much,
we talk
of none
so much,
we hope
and we
think of
none
so much,
at any
rate,
no one
so constantly
thinks of
us.
We have,
I believe,
all of us
who love
his name,
a most
insatiable
wish to
behold
his person,
the thing
for which
I would
pray above
all others
would be
forever to
behold
his face,
forever to
lay my
head upon
his breast,
forever to
know that
I am
his,
forever to
dwell with
him.
I,
one short
glimpse,
one transitory
vision of
his glory,
one brief
glance at
his marred,
but now
exalted and
beaming
countenance,
would repay
almost a
world of
trouble.
But we
are not
promised one
brief transitory
glance,
we are
promised an
eternal vision
of God.
Let me
close with
a couple
stanzas from
this hymn.
Oh, how
the thought
that I
shall know
Jesus who
suffered here
below,
to manifest
God's favor
for me and
for the saints
I love,
both here
and with
himself above,
doth my
renewed
nature move
and that
sweet word
forever.
Forever
to behold
him shine,
forevermore
to call
him mine
and see
him still
before me,
forever on
his face
to gaze
and meet
the full
assembled
rays.
heavenly
father,
I thank
you for
this promise
that we
shall see
you face
to face,
that we
shall see
our savior
Jesus face
to face.
Oh,
God,
we see
you but
in a
mirror dimly
now.
Oh,
but even
that sight
is entrancing
and glorious.
Lord,
we long
for that
day when
we will
see you
face
to face
in the
fullness
of your
glory.
So,
Lord,
thank you
for making
us pure
in heart
in Christ.
Continue
to sanctify
us and
purify
our hearts
that we
may see
more of
you even
in this
life.
In
Jesus' name
we pray.
Amen.