Sunday, February 24, 2013
am
PURER IN HEART (1)
Introduction
The Sermon on the Mount begins with what we describe as the
beatitudes. Jesus began
this great sermon with a list of 8 qualities that describe how we draw
closer to God. One of the
beatitudes says, “Blessed are the
pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matt. 5:8)
Today I want to begin a study dealing with purity of heart in the
life of a Christian.
As Christians, we continually have it impressed upon our minds
that our service to God must not only be based upon following His
commands, but it must also come from proper motives.
For many us, the challenge we face in striving to live godly
lives is a pure heart. It is
with that in mind that this year I have decided to focus on purifying
our heart. It will be a
recurring theme in lessons presented.
One might ask how much the Bible actually has to say about
purity of heart. In this
study we will consider a number of subjects related to the Christian’s
heart including:
·
What is the Christian’s
heart? What does it mean to
be pure?
·
The pure heart in the
Bible – we will examine passages that discuss the pure heart
·
God’s part in purifying
the heart – He is the ultimate source of purity
·
Biblical examples of
pure and impure hearts
·
The qualities of a pure
heart - honesty, sincerity, purposed, virtuous, single-minded,
unpolluted, discipline, focus, humility, love, etc.
·
The polluted heart – the
antithesis of the pure heart.
What are some things that pollute the heart? Including an
examination of the effect of media, words, materialism, poor attitudes,
lust, hypocrisy, the teachings of men (false doctrine), etc.
·
How can we purify our
hearts? Sanctification,
focus, repentance, prayer, etc.
·
Maintaining a pure heart
– reaching forward, forgetting the past, keeping busy, reverence, etc.
·
Purity throughout our
lifetime – as youth, the working years, middle age, the golden years,
etc.
·
The pure heart in every
aspect of our life – our conversation, conduct, relationships, work,
worship, homes, etc.
·
Purity in the Lord’s
Church
·
The purity of God’s word
·
Challenges to
maintaining a pure heart – the conscience, dealing with doubt and guilt,
sincerity & ignorance, temptations, forgiveness, overcoming the world,
patience, spiritual boredom
·
The rewards of a pure
heart – hope, a good conscience, fellowship with God, answered prayers,
God’s blessings, etc.
a.
The heart of the Christian is at the foundation of everything we do.
When we speak of the heart, we are obviously not speaking of the blood
pump in our chest. Though I
believe that was used as an analogy because of its importance and how we
know the heart delivers life sustaining nutrients to every part of the
body. The heart we are
concerned about is the inner person, the seat of our intellect,
emotions, attitudes, thoughts and will.
We can do things the right way, but if we do not have a pure heart, our
conduct is vain. Consider as
an example how a lack of love renders our faith useless (1 Cor. 13:1-3)
It is my hope that through this study we will better understand the
heart of a Christian as it ought to be.
This will be the focus of our lesson next week.
b.
Our need to be close to God (a relationship) calls for a pure heart.
Matt. 5:8 says that the pure in heart shall see God.
Psalm 15:1-2 describes the one who may abide in the presence of
God. He walks uprightly,
works righteousness and speaks truth in his heart.
Psa. 24:3-5 also bears this out.
Often we read in scripture of God or Christ dwelling in us.
Is He not entitled to a pure temple?
In fact we shall see that He demands it.
In Ephesians 3:17 Paul speaks of Christ dwelling in your hearts
through faith. Also Rom.
8:11 speaks of the Spirit dwelling in you.
c.
The heart has a direct bearing on how we treat each other as brethren.
It is my hope that this study will help us draw closer to one
another. 1 Peter 1:22 speaks
of our need to love one another from a pure heart.
d.
If we truly desire to win others to Christ, it will begin with purity of
heart.
Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount that we are the salt of
the earth and the light of the world (Matt. 5:13-16).
The way we influence the world correlates to our heart.
Are we doing anything at all?
If so, are we merely going through the motions or is our heart
into it?
e.
A pure heart will cause us to live in such a way that we will influence
our environment for good – whether it be our community, the work place, our homes or
the church – we need purity of heart.
f.
A pure heart is also an important element in our security as Christians.
We can be surer of our salvation and have a clear conscience.
In fact, when we stand before God in judgment, He will look at
our hearts - Psa. 7:9, Prov. 17:3, Jer. 17:10,
1 Thess. 2:4 says that God, “tests the hearts.”
g.
It is with such things in mind that I begin this study and commend it to
each of us.
a.
The subject of purity is
something frequently addressed in scripture, and so is the heart.
We will address both of these in greater detail beginning in our
next lesson. However,
included in these texts
are numerous passages of scripture that directly mention the pure
heart or make a clear allusion to such.
As we begin our study let us notice some of these.
b.
The Pure heart:
i.
Psa. 24:3-5, “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.”
ii.
Psa. 73:1,
“Truly God is good to Israel, To
such as are pure in heart.”
In this verse we find that while Israel was God’s chosen nation,
yet HE still expected purity of heart in their service.
iii.
Proverbs 22:11, “He who loves
purity of heart And has grace
on his lips, The king will be his friend.”
Solomon observes yet another axiom of mankind – the pure in heart
are usually the ones to be trusted and even desired when trust is
needed.
iv.
Matt. 5:8,
“Blessed are the
pure in heart, For they shall see God.”
This is the verse we began with.
Jesus declares that he who is pure in heart is the one who will
see God. He will see God for
who He is and when this life is over, he is the one who will spend
eternity with Him.
v.
1 Tim. 1:5,
“Now the purpose of the
commandment is love from a pure
heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith,” In this
passage Paul is counseling Timothy as he remains in Ephesus.
His task is to charge the brethren to not quarrel and to seek to
build each other up. That
leads to our verse.
vi.
2 Tim. 2:22. “Flee also youthful lusts; but
pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord
out of a pure heart.”
While Paul is challenging Timothy to avoid situations that lead
to lust, he describes the types of qualities that one ought to pursue.
These will preserve one from “youthful lusts” but they also are
descriptive of those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
vii.
1 Pet. 1:22,
“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.”
Peter’s challenge is for brethren to love each other with proper
motives. These will emanate
from the pure heart, including “fervent love.”
viii.
James 4:8,
“Draw near to God and He will draw
near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and
purify your hearts, you double-minded.”
Here James challenges brethren to behave (see vs. 1-6).
In vs. 8 you find the solution or formula – Draw near to God,
cleanse your hand and purify your hearts.
We will have much more to say about this in the future.
ix.
Acts 15:9,
“and made no distinction between
us and them, purifying their
hearts by faith.” In
this passage where Peter is explain the conversion of Cornelius and his
household he notes how their faith (obedient) resulted in purified
hearts.
c.
Other verses also speak
to this heart using other terms
i.
Psalm 51:10,
“Create in me a
clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
ii.
Prov. 20:9,
“Who can say, “I have made
my heart clean, I am pure
from my sin”? Solomon
notes that when it comes to a clean heart, we need help.
In our studies we will address
this as we examine our God and purity.
iii.
1 Pet. 3:15,
“But
sanctify the Lord God in your
heart, and be ready…
iv.
Heb. 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.”
v.
1 Thess. 3:12-13, “And may the Lord make you
increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to
you, so that He may establish
your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.”
vi.
In future lesson we will
discuss some of these texts in greater details.
And thus we begin our study of purity of heart in the life of
a Christian. AS we have seen
in this lesson, God expects us to have a pure heart.
May such be a priority in our lives.
And may this study provoke each of us (and I will begin with
myself) to examine our hearts, make correction where needed and live
with a more secure hope because our heart is right with God.
It is with this in mind that I humbly present this study.