======================================================================== A PURE HEART by Keith Malcomson ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon emphasizes the journey of a Christian's heart for God, starting with the purity experienced at salvation, the ongoing sanctification process of purifying the heart through faith and beholding Christ, and the ultimate glorification where believers will see God face to face and be transformed into His likeness. Topics: "Purity of Heart", "Transformation in Christ" Scripture References: Matthew 5:8, Psalm 139:23, Mark 9:24, John 14:1, 2 Corinthians 3:18, 1 Corinthians 13:12, 1 John 3:2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon emphasizes the journey of a Christian's heart for God, starting with the purity experienced at salvation, the ongoing sanctification process of purifying the heart through faith and beholding Christ, and the ultimate glorification where believers will see God face to face and be transformed into His likeness. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I want to take you here this morning to Matthew chapter 5 and if you know your Bible you already know what the message is and the subject and something of the title. If I just say Matthew chapter 5, I would hope at least some of you, if some of you don't know I'm very, very worried about this church, but I had hoped if you knew your Bible then you'd know immediately when I say Matthew 5 where we're going. We are actually dealing in these Sunday mornings with a heart for God and we're looking at what does this heart look like that is for God, God's heart for us and the heart that God is searching for are going to bring forth in the church. The thing that is very precious to him, do you know really it's not your outward works that he's interested in, it's your heart that he desires and also Jesus says where your heart is, sorry, where your treasure is, there is your heart or where you put your treasure, the most precious things in your mind, that's where your heart is. You see, I know where all of your hearts in this room are. It's where you put your focus and your attention and your money and your time and your thoughts and affects your motive. If I spend a little bit of time with you, I'll begin to understand where your heart is because your words reveal it and your actions reveal it and your attitude reveals it and your hobbies reveal it. All of that reveals where your heart actually is. Your lifestyle reveals where your heart is because your heart actually is situated where your treasure is. The question is, is Jesus your treasure? Is heaven above? I mean, spiritual things, are they your treasure? Because then that's where your heart is. So if you find someone who's very earthly, earthbound, I know their heart is in this world, that's where it is. And I'm going to have to hold myself back because I feel like I'm overflowing here and that's not natural or out of the mind or out of the soul. I just know God obviously wants to speak, I really believe that. My message this morning, we've already dealt with a broken and a contrite heart, a humble heart and a God-fearing heart. But my message, part five, a pure heart. Reading from Matthew 5, verse 8, just one short verse here that we're going to read and this is my text. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Let's pray together. Father, I do thank you for the word of God. It's so precious to us. My God, we'd be so lost, so confused, so messed up. Lord God, we'd be dead in our graves. We'd be out of our minds. We would have messed up marriages. We would have destroyed our lives. We would have destroyed every friendship and relationship. We would have driven ourselves into the grave if it wasn't for your loving kindness and your goodness and your mercy towards us. And Lord God, we pray that you purify our hearts this morning. Lord God, make us to fall in love with Jesus Christ all the more. Let our love towards him abound and exceed our present imagination. I pray this morning, stir up holy love out of a pure heart that we might love Christ among another with a pure heart. Lord God, we call upon you. Lord God, this morning with a pure heart. And Lord God, we're asking that you sanctify us because we do want to see you. We want to see you in the affairs of life. We want to see you in our life. We want to see you in our church. We want to see you in our city. We want to see you high and lifted up. We want to see you exalted above cancer. We want to see your name exalted above sin and drugs and degradation. My God, we want to see you as you truly are and all of your glory and your power. And my God, we know according to the word of God, we can only have a clear vision of you. We can only truly see you and perceive you if our heart is pure and our hands are clean. My God, be merciful unto us this morning. Lord God, that you bring forth a heart within us individually. And as a church, that you bring forth a pure heart in the midst of us here. Because if we have a pure heart, we know that we shall see God in his glory. And we long for that, that the curtain of heaven would be pulled aside and we would see you enthroned in majesty and power and glory and splendor. We bow the knee this morning. And we ask that you be very gracious, O God, through the word of God this morning in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Amen. A pure heart. Remember what I said. I'm only talking about one heart, but different aspects of that one heart that God is looking for. Do you know right now God is searching every home, every individual, every family in this city right now. The Spirit of God is searching every town and village in Ireland, every little community. He doesn't miss a little shack of a house or a great mansion of a house. He doesn't miss any. He doesn't miss the man on the streets. Nobody does he miss searching for a certain kind of heart. He is looking, searching, moving back and forth. That's what the Bible tells us. The Spirit of God goes to and through in all of the earth, actually looking for a heart because he goes, if only I can find such a heart, I will show my power. I will reveal myself. I will open up who I am. I will manifest my glory. But can he find such a heart? That is the issue. Look for this verse in a minute as we open this up. It says, blessed are the pure in heart. This word blessed is used nine times here in Matthew 5, nine times. And it's the Lord Jesus preaching this. This has been called the Sermon on the Mount. One of the longest messages in the Bible or one of the two longest in the Bible. And here as he speaks and begins to open this up nine times, he talks about those who are blessed. He's talking about a particular kind of person. Everyone isn't blessed in this room. Everyone isn't blessed in this city. Oh, there's people out there have lots of money and they say, aren't I blessed? No, not really. There's people in this city have a large house and no mortgage and they say, aren't I blessed? No, that didn't get on the list, I'm afraid. There's those at the university who are going, I've got straight A's and I'm the top of my class and I'm a high flyer. Aren't I blessed? That didn't get on the list. Do you see what Jesus begins to talk about in these nine clear statements? He's talking about a particular kind of person who is truly blessed of God. He gives all the information of what a blessed person looks like. The word blessed here means happiness in its simplest form to be really genuinely happy. We think of happiness as a result of circumstance. Good things happen, you're happy. Bad things happen, you're sad. That isn't what the word blessed means. To be happy is to be satisfied in Christ. It is a joy in Christ. It is a happiness where you could be crying tears with a broken heart and yet at the same time be blessed of God and be happy in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we see here, it can mean happiness. It means spiritual prosperity, not worldly prosperity. It means that you are an envied one. If you're blessed of God, if you have these nine statements true of you, you're to be envied this morning. I envy you. You ought to envy me if I am a blessed person. People out in the world who are sinners ought to look at us and say, I envy you because of your spiritual life, not because of your money and your intelligence and your church building, but we envy you because you are a blessed people and it's very obvious that God is blessing you. Notice in this verse that God ties together happiness with holiness. He said blessed and pure. So he always puts the blessing of God together with a pure heart. Who are these blessed? Never think that the blessing of God means that you're not happy. It is a happy person. And please don't let the devil tell you if you're holy, if you're a pure person, if you're sanctified, that you're doer, as the Scots say, and you only wear black and you don't even enjoy yourself. That could not be further from the truth. Do you realize that those that are pure in heart are the happiest people on the earth, according to Jesus? Do you realize if you're not pure in heart here this morning, you're not happy? You cannot enjoy that. And even as a Christian, if you're there letting lots of things in your heart and ignoring them and there's things in your mind and things in your words and you don't put things right, as a Christian, you're not happy this morning. You're a miserable so-and-so. And you know it from your Christian life. If you neglect time with the Lord, fellowship with him, time in his word, time praying and communion with him, do you know what? You become a miserable person. You don't have that glow of happiness. Whereas I could be going through the darkest trials of my life and I'm happy, I am blessed. You see, those who are truly holy, they are happy. And these two things are tied together, blessing and heart purity, happiness and holiness. Never, never separate them. There is a clear message here about a pure heart. Blessed are those who have a pure heart. Is your heart pure here this morning? Is your heart purified? I'm not saying, do you do all the right things? Go to all the meetings, give your money, take up the Lord's table, being baptized in water. And I'm not asking that. I'm saying, is your heart pure this morning? Because all of the blessings of God are literally tied into that. Look back at verse four and it shows how spiritual all these are. Blessed are those who mourn. Do you know how we use that verse normally? We say, blessed is he that mourns. Oh, they had someone die in their family. They're crying over their loved one. They're mourning. God's going to comfort them. Blessed are those that mourn. I want to tell you, if you lose a lost one, you're not very happy about it. Do you know what the mourning here that it is actually talking about in verse four? Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted. We think the comfort is the comfort of comforting someone about a lost one. Whoever told you that? That is an interpretation of that text. Do you know what the mourning is actually about? Look at verse six. It talks about hunger. It's a spiritual hunger for righteousness. Do you know what the mourning of verse four is about? Not crying tears over a lost one. This mourning is mourning over an impure heart. It's mourning over sin in your life. It's talking about a blessed man. If you mourn over the sin in your life, you're very blessed of God. I'm not saying you're sinless here and you've never sinned and you don't fail. What I'm saying here is that those who are blessed when they sin, if they sin against God. Do you know what? They mourn over that sin. They are grieved. They're heart-stricken. They beat their breasts. They thump their thigh. They say, oh God, like what brother Paul shared at the Lord's table. Blessed are they that mourn. Do you realize unless you mourn over your spiritual condition, you will never have a pure heart? And so Jesus says, the blessing of God is on these things. Do you mourn over your sin? Then I'll comfort you. Are you there broken saying, oh God, my sin. I've sinned against you. I've neglected spiritual things. I've let myself get cold. That is mourning. That's the mourning he's speaking about here. And you know what he says? I'll comfort you. I'll wash you in the blood of the lamb. I'll forgive you. I'll encourage you. I'll restore you. And you know what he leads you to is a purity of heart. Blessed are the pure in heart. Now when he says the pure in heart, he's saying a heart that is pure. This isn't an outward thing. This is a real internal thing. You know what the heart is? It's the center of your being. It's the inward heart of the man. He's not talking about the outward. Do you see how God wants to get right inside you? He wants a pure heart. He doesn't want just your tongue to be pure and your hands to be pure and for you to be morally upright. Oh, I don't drink and I don't smoke and I don't go to the pub and I don't do all those bad things and I'm not sleeping around. I'm pure. Whoever told you that that alone was purity? Do you realize purity is a pure heart? You're not pure if your motive, your heart, your inward man, your thoughts, that's where purity is tested. And you know what? If you have a pure heart, you will be blessed of God. You're very happy. You're very successful. You are very rich this morning if you have that. Now when he talks about a pure heart, this word pure in the Greek can mean two distinct different things. The first thing that the word pure can mean is clean. Your heart is clean. Clean from all trash, stain. Your heart is sanctified or the word sanctified means holy as well. Your heart is washed from sin. You have no present conscious awareness of guilt or condemnation or failure. You know your heart is clean. The stain is removed. There is no impurity there in your heart. That's what it means to have a pure heart. There's an absence of impurity and a beautiful purity of the presence of God. That's the first meaning. The second meaning of this word pure in the Greek, it doesn't mean only to be clean. See, there's some people say, oh, I've been forgiven. God's washed me in the blood. It's his work. I'm clean. But that's only one side of the coin. If you separate these two things, I'm explaining about purity. You'll have problems. What is the second meaning of this word pure? It means to be unmixed. If you have a pure heart, your heart is unmixed. It means to have a single heart, not duplicate. Remember like what we said last week, not two hearts, not double hearted. So a pure heart is a single heart, not a double heart, not a heart that's divided, trying to live for the world and trying to live for God. You cannot do that. It is a heart without folds. Nothing is hidden. This heart, this pure heart is single-minded. It has a single eye upon the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the inward man of the heart. It is free from all hypocrisy. You know what hypocrisy is, is that you play a game to people and then go and live another life and you're not bothered about it. You have your Sunday come to church front and then you've got your at home front. You know, as soon as I get home, I'm going to put on trousers that you will never see me and I'm going to put a t-shirt on with holes. I love that t-shirt and those trousers. They're my best friends. I've nearly... Candice keeps trying to throw them in the bin. They've got holes in them. I like them. They're my sit around home. Wouldn't wear them in here. That can be a hypocrite when it's in the spiritual life. You see, to have a pure heart, it means free from hypocrisy, free from outward show. It means that you have an integrity of heart, a sincerity of heart, or a transparency of heart. My heart is open. It's got nothing to do with being quiet or extrovert. Not about that. Just to be clear and open. It means that you, with a single eye, have a focus, an absorption, a concentration on God himself. God does more than wash away your sins. See why it's two meanings here. Means to be clean, to be washed, to be made right. But it also means to have this certain kind of defined heart. It's two sides of the same one coin, a pure heart. You see, if you just say, oh, it means to have a clean heart and have been washed. You could be born again saying, hey, I'm forgiven and I have a pure heart. And yet you've got attitudes and thoughts and actions and words undealt with and you're not dealing with them. You just say, oh, forgive me, Lord. And you carry on like a good Catholic. Go and say your confession to the Lord Jesus and then just live the same way. What difference to Catholicism is there in that? And you think they're wrong and point the finger at them. Actually, you're in a worse condition if you do that. Far worse than any Catholic in this city because you know better. And so these two things have to go together. God does not merely wash away sin to give you a pure heart. He puts within you a new heart that wants to focus wholly upon God. That is a pure heart. It's not not doing sinful things. A pure heart is being consumed with the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you do this, you're gonna see God. The word used here is katharos. And in the Greek, I love the Greek and the Hebrew because they have word pictures and individual words or statements. It's beautiful. And so the word katharos mean impurity. It means to clear from shame, to clear your heart from all guilt. To have no charge against you. No pollutions in your heart. That's what it means. It's a bit like diluting milk with water. And if any of yous haven't grown up on a farm and didn't live 40 years ago drinking milk, you've been duped, I'm gonna tell you. Because that thing you go into a shop and get and you think is milk. I wanna assure you, if you were a proper drink, milk drinker, that is not milk. It's pure water. It doesn't even taste like milk. You know, now I've grown accustomed over years of drinking the milk out of the shops. I used to jump over the wall with a little crate to fill up 12 pints, I think sometimes twice a day from the next door farm. Pure, unmixed milk. And so an impure heart is a mixture. Oh, it has lots of good things there. It has a desire for God. It is a desire to read the Bible. It wants to be in church on Sunday. But it's a mixed heart. You could be born again and yet you've got a mixed heart. It's like milk being tempered down. In classical Greek, this word katharos, it describes a river. Whose flow was clear and open. That's the picture in the Greek. To have a pure heart is this free flowing, clean river flowing out without hindrance. It's also used of a army. In ancient Greek, amongst the Roman soldiers, they used to talk about an army being katharos or pure. Imagine all those rough army soldiers drinking, running after women. And yet there would be certain, all of the soldiers weren't katharos. Didn't mean they didn't drink. They used it to mean these are dedicated soldiers. See a lot of soldiers there are part timers. They don't want to die. They don't want to go to war. They're in it for the benefits and the fame. That's why they are there. They're in it for the pay packet. But they don't want to die on a battlefield. Death, definitely not. And this word katharos used to be used of a certain realm of soldiers within the legion who were not rebellious. They were very loyal. They were committed and absolutely focused on the command of their general. There's another way this word was used in the ancient Greek. It was used of metal that had been refined until there were no impurities in that metal. It went in the fire. Fire burnt to make it pure. And it became katharos. Now we would still know there's gold in there even if there's impurities. But you need the fire to bring it and make it to be katharos. It's a remarkable thing. And so we see here in this verse we are dealing with blessed are the pure in heart. That purity of heart is one of the most precious things in the Bible. And you know in today's church purity is really holiness. But it means more than to be doing holy things and not doing sinful things. Some people think that's what holiness is. That's what they think it is. Oh, but I don't go and drink. I'd never get drunk. I might be tempted to do some time, but I'd never do that. And I'm not going to sleep around with someone I'm not married with. So I'm holy. Actually, you could do all those things and be impure in your heart. God is after a pure heart that you could be clothed in morality. I mean dress from the top of your head to the soles of your feet and yet you're on your way to hell. You can meet someone down the time who keeps all the 10 commandments, tells everyone else to keep the 10 commandments and yet they're on their way to hell because their heart isn't pure before God. God deals with the heart. The Bible actually commands us be holy for I am holy. That's what God says. This isn't an option. Holiness is a vital part of your Christianity. The blood saves you, but holiness proves that you're a real Christian. Someone who does not walk right proves that they're not saved or born again or right with God. If you don't want to flee sin and flee the holiness and purity, there's something wrong with your experience. There's something really detrimentally wrong here. In Matthew chapter 5 and 20, Jesus actually talks about the Pharisees. He says, for I say unto you that except your righteousness, speaking about the church, your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. Ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. See, if you in this church, you say, oh, the Pharisees were saved by law. We are saved by grace. That's not what this verse says. This verse says, see you Christians, if your righteousness, how you live your holiness is not better than those old Pharisees that were meticulous about holiness, outward holiness. What did they focus on? The outward, tithing all of the little seeds, very faithful, keeping the Sabbath, dressing right, doing everything right. Jesus says, if your righteousness doesn't exceed them, you won't get in the kingdom of heaven. What do you think? Grace gives you a way out. So poor Pharisees, they had to be stringent and everything, but there's an easier way for us. Do you see the deception that comes into the church? Psalm 45, 13, given a description of the bride of Christ, says that she is glorious within, all glorious within. What a beautiful statement about her. You see, I'm asking you this morning, is your heart, whether you're unsaved or whether you're saved this morning, can I ask, is there unforgiveness in your heart? Is there hardness? Are you ignorant of the Bible? You could be a Christian and you're ignorant of the Bible. You don't even spend time in the Bible. You've got an impure heart. You can't excuse that. It's got nothing to do with education. I failed all my exams. You could have unbelief in your heart and you go, sure, that's okay. Lord, give me more faith and you go on. You see, in this verse, the heart is the focus of this purity. It is the heart, the inner person, the center of your life. The issue of the heart, as a preacher once said, the issue of the heart is the heart of the issue. That's the real issue here. Going right to the heart of the matter. It's your heart. The Pharisees were caught up in outward righteousness, the outside. Remember how Jesus accused them, you want to make the pot all clean, but it's rotten inside. You want to whitewash the sepulcher, but it's filled with dead men's bones. You're actually consumed with the word of God. You spend all of your time in religion and morality. I mean, these men, they knew the word of God. They were hyper on morality. You can't do this and you have to do that and you can't do this on that day and you shouldn't be doing that and you shouldn't be wearing that and you shouldn't. You know what Jesus said? Jesus pulled back the cover and said, you have dead men's bones in you. You're on your way to hell. Your purity is an outward purity, but it's not of the heart and yet God is after the heart. He's not after the head. You could be moral in your head. You could know all the right things. You can correct everyone else with your head. That's not right. You shouldn't do that. This is what the Bible says and yet your heart is impure. You see, you could have good conduct. You could have good morals. You could have good ethics and yet you do not have a pure heart. Your heart is defiled and in fact, it needs real heart surgery done to it and look at the blessing. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. They will see God. That means if your heart isn't pure, you don't see God this morning. Do you know there's people in this room can't see God? Saved and unsaved. What do I mean see God? I don't mean in a vision or a dream or physically. There is an ability to see God but only the pure in heart can see him. If your heart isn't pure, it blinds your eyes to him. Also in things, you don't see God in things. You don't see God in certain situations or in certain persons. We've had people come into this church and they think they're only dealing with Malcolmson. They think, oh, good message, Malcolmson and they think they're dealing with a man. You're not dealing with a man. I don't stand here as a man. I'm actually a servant of God and I know it's the word of God being preached and in fact, it affects me before and during and after. Sometimes I preach and I go to bed at night and I can't sleep at night because these things are dealing with me and it goes over and over and over and over again. Do you think I'm merely a teacher and standing up here and just spouting out a message for you this morning? No way, absolutely not. You see, the pure in heart shall see God. It means to have an inward open heart, a heart that has spiritual eyes and those spiritual eyes perceive God, comprehend God, grasp God, attain an awareness and an understanding of God's actions and all things. You can have two Christians in the same situation and they see God differently. One of them sees God in it, the other doesn't see God in it. So one is going, where is he? The other one is saying, thank you, Lord, in the very same situation. There is an experience of God purifying the heart that opens up your eyes of faith to see him clearly. We may see him to different degrees. All of us in this room have different eyesight. Some of you need glasses. Some of you are pretending you don't need glasses. Won't mention any names. And there's others who definitely don't need glasses. Same with your hearing. I can, if I'm studying away, I can hear something way, way down the road and then Candice can come up and put a cup of tea on the table. I haven't even noticed she's done it and five minutes later go, where'd that cup of tea come from? I had my attention elsewhere. But our eyes are all different. So spiritually, our eyes all have different extents of perception depending on the purity of the heart. Do you see God this morning? It depends on the purity of your heart. Seeing him who's invisible. Yes, we see through a glass darkly. And one day we're going to see him face to face. Can I ask, is your window dirty this morning? We see through a glass darkly. How dirty is your window that actually darkens your view of God? You know, there's Christians who are satisfied in looking through a window where they can barely see any movement of God and they're satisfied. Try cleaning the thing. While you're on earth, you'll never see fully clearly. It'll always be through a shade, a darkness. You see him here, you see him there. See him everywhere. You can hardly find the Scarlet Pimpernel. I'm telling you, sometimes you go, I can't explain God any more than when I first met him. There's so much I've got to learn about this God. It's remarkable. And so we see the Bible talks about blessed are they that are pure in heart for they shall see God. Let me give you three points here concerning the pure in heart seeing God in three different ways. The first way is seeing God in salvation. The second way is seeing God in sanctification. The third way is seeing God in glorification. Take those three terms. Salvation is the born again experience. It's the beginning. Sanctification is that work of holiness all through your entire Christian life. It never stops. If you stop pursuing holiness, something's gone wrong with you. You're backslidden. Then third of all, glorification means you've been perfected. Your body, your soul, your spirit. Jesus has come or you've died. Do you know on the day you die, you're glorified. Death is an enemy. Death breaks the heart. Death is a part of the fall. But what happens at that time isn't glorification. I'm actually going to gain in death. I will be glorified. I'll be so sorry to see the back of you honestly. But you know what? I will enter into immediate presence, not by faith, not by spirit, but I will literally, it says to be absent from the bodies, to be presence with the Lord. That's what glorification is. Let's look at these for a moment. Number one, seeing God in salvation. The pure in heart see God. But this first point, seeing God in salvation, it says in 2 Corinthians 4-3, but if our gospel be hid, if you don't share it, if you hide it, keep it to yourself. If we as a church don't evangelize, if our gospel be hid, if we keep it behind four doors and say, bring the sinners in Lord, when all the time he's told you multiple times, go out to where they are. Whoever sits in the middle of dry land with a fishing rod saying, Lord, help me to catch a fish. One hour, two hours, three hours. Lord, I have all the fish. A fish is just about to jump all this distance and catch onto my hook. I have the faith. There'd be a few people there and hit you over the head and say, catch yourself on. And they say, you know what? You need to go to a river or a pond or somewhere where there's fish. You can pray and believe all you want and all the fish are hopping, but not where you are. You go fishing where the fish are. That's where you fish. Anyway, look what he says here. He says, if our gospel be hidden, it is hidden from them that are lost. They are lost, going to hell. They're in sin. And whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of them, which believe not. So notice what it means to be blind as a sinner. You do not believe. Oh yes, you can believe with your mind. You can believe with the outward, but with your heart, you do not believe that Jesus Christ has died for you and washed away your sin. And it says here that in whom the God of this world, Satan or the devil has blinded the mind. Do you realize everyone out there who doesn't believe the devil has blinded their minds? Their eyes are blind. They can't see God. They actually spiritually cannot see God. Why is that? The devil has blinded their eyes. There is a spiritual power that will stop you seeing God. You see, on the day you see God by faith, you're going to be utterly transformed, seeing God in salvation. And so it says here, lest, and why does the devil blind minds and eyes? Lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God should shine onto them. He doesn't want this light to shine in. You know, people used to mock us in the church and go, oh, have you saw the light? That's what they used to say about born again Christians. They couldn't have been more right. Yes, I have seen the light. On that day, the light shone into my life and I saw everything clearly. Do you know four and a half years old, suddenly in a second, I saw God. Not with the physical eye. I saw him alive. He was so real. He became alive. He became my best friend. I saw God because the light was switched on and the devil's power was broken. It says that the devil has blinded the minds. That means to harden, to petrify, frozen hard, to obscure so that you can't see God. Sinners don't see God. You talk about salvation and the new birth and miracles and God moving in your life. And the sinners, they're going, I haven't got a clue what you're talking about. Oh, I understand religion. I understand morality. Well, what do you mean? Should I just keep the 10 commandments? No, no, no, no. You need to see God. You need to be born again. And then just after this in verse six, for God who commanded the light to shine in darkness, to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The only cure for a blind man is to, for the light of God to shine into their heart. If they're not changed, it means God has not spoken into their heart. Do you know, I had an experience when I got born again, God spoke right into my heart and I was filled with light. This is what seeing God in salvation. When you experience true salvation, you really do see God. And again, I have to say, not a dream, not a vision, not something visible with the eye, not something physical and literal. I mean, the whole heart becomes pure. Do you realize that's why you see God on the day you get saved? That's why you suddenly go, you perceive him. You see him in everything. The entire world changes to your perspective. Why? Because your eyes begin to see God. Do you know why that is? Your heart has just been purified. God has purified your heart. On the day you get saved, God purifies your heart. You don't need to work into this. You don't need to sort out all of your life to become this. On the day you get born again, do you know what God does? He cleanses your heart. He gives you a pure heart, a single heart, a focused heart. He gives you a holy heart. You begin with that. You can't blemish it, but that's where you begin. Jesus said in John chapter 9, 39, for judgment I am coming to the world that they which see not might see. You see, that's the reason he came. He's not talking about physical eyes. He did heal blind people. But he's not talking about that here. He says, I came into the world so that blind eyes might see and that they which see might be made blind. Jesus told the Pharisees, and this is what he said to them. Do you know immediately as soon as he said this, Pharisees spoke up and said, are you saying we're blind? These moral, religious, they got the message. If the cap fits, wear it. Didn't miss his mark. And Jesus, oh no, I'm not talking about you. Because if your eyes had been blind, there wouldn't be any guilt. But he says, the problem is your eyes were open. You could see the law. You did understand these things. But the judgment is your eyes are going to be closed and you'll never get in the kingdom of God with all of your knowledge. Do you know there's a whole teach in the Bible about God blinding certain people that they'll never be able to see God again. What a terrible, you need to reject. It's not sinners he does that to. It's not the repentant and those broken and those that feel they can't get free from drugs or from prostitution. He never said it to them. He said it to religious Pharisees. He said, we're healed. We don't need a doctor. I'm righteous. I'm okay. I'm moral. It's always those people Jesus speaks to. Never to the sinner in the streets. If you don't confess you're a sinner, there's no hope for you. Remember the apostle Paul on the road to Damascus. He's a religious Pharisee and he's going to Damascus and he's absolutely frothing at the mouth. He's going to kill Christians. He is driven. And you know what? He kept all the 10 commandments. He kept the Sabbath and he honored his parents. He'd done all of these things and all of the other commandments. He is an outwardly moral man. He doesn't lie. He won't steal from you. All of those things. And yet he's going to kill Christians. He thinks he's serving God. And you know what happened? Jesus appeared to him. It was a light brighter and above the sun and it blinded him and he fell to the ground. And Jesus speaks and says, why are you persecuting me, Saul of Tarsus? And you know what happened to him? He says, Lord, and his eyes were opened. Do you know the friends with him? They heard and seen something, but they weren't changed. People can come in now to meetings and they go, they can have feelings and experience. Go, did you hear that? Did you have a feeling? But they may not see Christ. You could have spiritual experiences and it's because Christ is there. And yet you don't see the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul saw Jesus, that he was a sinner, that he'd been sinning against God, that his life was impure, his heart was impure. This is one of the most moral men of that generation. And in one second, seeing Christ, he goes, oh God. And he's purified. His heart actually gets purified, not through religion and tradition, but through one experience of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Acts 26, 18, when Christ comes to commission Paul to go and preach, listen to what he says. This is commission. Go, open their blind eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God and that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them, which are sanctified by faith that is in me. You need to go open their eyes through preaching the gospel. Why? So they'll become sanctified and pure. If their eyes open, they'll be sanctified. They'll be holy. They'll be born again. Their lives will be entirely radically changed. Now notice this, what it says. In Titus chapter 2, 14, Jesus, who gave himself for us on the cross, that he might redeem us or purchase us from all of our iniquity. And purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works. Do good works come first? No, they come after. You need a pure heart. You need a heart that sees God. And the born again experience, when you get saved, you go, I see God. Do you know I've seen Calvary? It was 2000 years ago. But I want to show you all through the years I have sat and I have looked back to Calvary with eyes of faith. I beheld my master die and suffer and my sin laid upon him. And I would have went to hell without that. And with those eyes of faith, I'm not imagining. I'm not trying to visualize. That's new age. What I'm doing is believe in the word of God and out of belief, I can't help but look with faith back to Calvary. And it is so real. It affects me right now. He died for me. He suffered for me. My sins were laid on him at Calvary. You see, my eyes are open, but it comes out of a pure heart. It's a pure heart that will see Christ crucified. It's a pure heart that sees Christ creating the earth. It's a pure heart that sees now Jesus coming in all of his glory. It hasn't happened yet. Yet it impacts my entire life. It's dramatic. In Acts chapter 10, 15, and the voice that speak unto him again the second time, what God has cleansed, that shall not thou call common. Remember with Peter, he had a vision. And in this vision, there was a blanket, a sheet let down with all of these unclean animals. He's a good Jew. He's an Orthodox Jew. He's never had a pig and he doesn't eat anything. He doesn't eat your black pudding. There's blood in it. I've never eaten a black pudding in my life. Never will. I must be partly a good Jew or something. But Peter says, I can't eat this. The Lord said, eat it. He says, I can't eat it. I've never eaten it. I'm a good Jew. Here he is an apostle. And the Lord says again, eat it. Do you know what it was? There's a revelation because there's about to knock on his door Gentiles who want to know Jesus. And he actually thinks they're unclean. And God is saying, eat. Don't call unclean what I call clean. And those men come knocking on the door saying an angel appeared to us, told us to come to this address and ask for a man called Peter. And he's going to come and preach to our family. He says, yes, Lord. I'm going to go preach the gospel in that home. And you know, listen to what it says concerning that home. In Acts chapter 15, 9, speaking about the Gentiles who had come in, put no difference between them and us. God didn't make any difference between Jew and Gentile. None whatsoever. Purifying their hearts by faith. Do you realize when you believe in Christ, your heart is totally purified. Do you realize the Gentiles got in not by keeping the law that didn't get them into the new covenant. It was by faith their hearts were purified. And when they looked to Jesus and their eyes were open and they believed on him and said, you did die for us. You did suffer. You bore our sin away. Immediately, their hearts were purified. You see, this purifying of the heart is a work of God. It is the blood of Jesus purifies your heart. You can't earn this. You don't deserve it. God is going to wipe the slate clean. You can start all over again. You're free. He'll heal your heart. He'll break every bondage. This is how you start the Christian life. Seeing God in salvation. A man who's really saved has seen God and it changes his whole view of the world. Second of all, seeing God in sanctification. Sanctification begins at salvation, not before. This work of holiness of life begins at the point you're saved and it'll carry on through your life. If you think you're merely purified at salvation, listen very closely to what I'm about to say. This is where some Christians get in trouble. Their heart's purified by faith at the beginning of their walk. It's clear. It's sincere. It's open. It's gone. There's no blemish there. They start in happiness. Blessed is the man who has a pure heart. They're enjoying this. Then a year, two years, three years, 10 years, 20 years. Things come in and attitudes and bad habits. Do you know what happens? It begins to obscure seeing God. They're saved and not sanctified. They're saved and stuck, stuck in a rut. They're not going to move on. And don't think that's just something of our day. Paul's speaking to the Hebrews. He said, some of yous ought to be teachers. Instead, you need mommy's bottle feet. You need the breast. You used to be teachers. Now we have to teach you A, say after me, A, B, C. You ought to be teaching everyone in the church. Do you know you can lose maturity? And so if when someone initially gets saved, they have it all, it's given them freely. They start with a clean sheet. There's nothing to obscure. But do you know what? Things can so come in that you are, I wish I could remember all those statements of Brother Clendenin, a thingy and a whatever. He had the best of expressions. But look at this number two, seeing God in sanctification. It says in 2 Corinthians 3, 18. But we all, speaking of Christians, a born again Christian with open face beholding or looking as in a glass or a mirror, the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image of from glory to glory, even by the spirit of the Lord. How do you get the spirit of God to change you as a Christian to become more like Jesus? How are you changed? This verse says you are changed by beholding the Lord Jesus Christ. You're beholding God in Christ or you see God through the Lord Jesus Christ. You actually behold God by looking on the face of Jesus and meditating on him and speaking to him and worshiping him and loving him. That's how you get changed as a Christian. And you know what? If you're not caught up and affectionately setting your eyes on Jesus, looking on to Jesus, the author and the finisher of your faith, how are you gonna reach the end of this? Remember it says, it says work of the spirit of God sanctifying you, changing you. You know why some Christians aren't sanctified? And you know what? An unsanctified Christian's always on dangerous ground because they never quite know is my salvation being real? Because they're not seeing God. The pure in heart aren't gonna doubt. You'll actually have to start going into sin to begin doubting your experience with God. Because it's so real. You see a real Christian does see Jesus. In John chapter three, three, Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. He can't see it. If you're not born again, you don't have open eyes. It says in John 14, seven, if ye had known me, you should have known my father also from henceforth ye know him and have seen him. So Jesus here is saying, you disciples that have followed me, you've seen God. And Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the father and it suffices thus. Jesus said back unto him, have I been so long time with you, Philip? And yet has thou not known me, Philip? He that has seen me has seen the father. And how sayest thou? Show us the father. You want to see the father? You've seen the father if you've seen Christ. You only see the father through Christ. The father isn't any different than Christ. He's a different person, but he's the same God, the same character. If you've seen the love of Christ, you've seen the love of the father. Some people have been abused by their father or they've had a cold father. Their concept of a father is very damaged in this world. I want to tell you, Christ has come to reveal the father is like him. If you see Christ, he is like the father. You've seen the father. And so Christ is always the way. Some people say we need to know the father's heart of God. No, you need to know Christ. They often diminish the person of Christ. I want this spectacular, special revelation in the heart of the father. Then concentrate on Christ. You'll never know the father. To the degree you know the son, you know the father. Have you seen the son? Have you seen Jesus? If you're born again, you do see Jesus. Jesus said it. Every true Christian sees him. Remember in Psalm 139, verse 23, and it's speaking about a believer. Search me, O God. Search my inward parts. Know my heart. Try me. Know my thoughts. And see if there be any wicked way in me. And lead me in the way everlasting. This is a man praying. It wasn't obvious, explicit sins. He's saying, God, you search me. I don't want anything in my heart. This isn't a man blatantly sinning. And then saying, God, forgive me. Oh, no. This is a man who isn't aware of anything in his life. He wants to live for God. But he's saying, O God, search me. Is there pride where I don't see it? Is there arrogance where I don't see it? Is there unforgiveness? I've had unforgiveness. And I'm only being confronted now as a Christian. O God, get this out of my heart. Is there anything in my heart which is sin? I don't want it there. I actually want to be free of it. It says in James 4 very, very clearly about Christians can have a heart that needs purifying. You've got sin in your heart. And you need to repent. And you need to wail. And you need to cry. You say, I can't put tears on. Let me tell you something. The Bible commands you. If you see yourself as God sees you, you are going to wail. You're commanded to wail over your sin. You say, oh, I can't do that. You're a liar. I'd actually rather believe God than you. I've learned some things in my Christian walk. And no matter how convinced you are that you're right about an idea or a perception or a truth, you're absolutely totally wrong if it contradicts this Bible. I don't care how convincing you are. Someone who's been abused as a child and terrible things happen to say, I could never forgive. That's not true. It's not true. I don't know how you do that. It'll take God's grace. But I know the Bible says you have to, and you will. And you will be set free through that. It says in Psalm 24, who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? Who shall stand in his holy place? Talking about a Christian. How are you going to get to stand in the very presence of God? How are you going to get access into the presence of God? What sort of Christian gets in there? He that has clean hands and a pure heart. Don't tell me that a pure heart isn't important. It is. It can hinder you getting into the presence of God. Are you sitting here as a Christian and you're not enjoying time with God? And you're not enjoying the presence of God? And you don't enjoy worshiping God? And you're not enjoying that sense, that conscious awareness of him being with you? Just maybe it's an issue of your heart and hands. Not the music, not the meeting, not the preacher. You see, you'll need to clean your hands and purify your heart if you're going to send that hill. You say, no, I'm born again. I'm washed in the blood. I have free access. I'm under grace. If you have an impure heart, you'll be hindered in entering into the presence of God in a very real way. It says in 2 Timothy 2, 22, There are many verses in the Bible that talk about, here's an example, Psalm 4, 6. Lord, lift up the light of thy countenance upon us. That means his face. Many verses that say that. You're praying saying, Lord, shine your face on me. And you should read all of the promises connected to that. That you will be very glad. You'll be happy. You'll be blessed. You'll have the joy of the Lord. If you experience the countenance, the face of Christ shining upon you. And that can be obscured or you can draw it. Third and finally, and this is going to be brief. Seeing God in glorification. Seeing God in salvation. The pure in heart. A pure new convert immediately sees God. His heart's purified. He sees God. Seeing God in sanctification. A Christian has a lifetime of sanctifying, purifying their heart. I assure you, I'm going to find something in 10 years time. If I was still here. If this old world of ours still is rolling on and we're not caught up. I want to tell you in 10 years time, I'd find something that my heart would be smitten. And I'd go, that's sin. And I'd have to repent of that I was never aware of. You know, new Christians, God doesn't show you all that's in your hearts. He saves you, purifies your heart. And you're so happy to feel for you in a wee bit. Because a wee bit down the road, he's going to start dealing with things. And you go, this is so good. The past six months, I've watched every Christian hit the sixth month point. And it's the bump in the road, boom. And you're going well. And then you hit that bump in the road. There's one person in here many, many years ago, I can remember sitting with. And he hit the bump in the road. And it was, what's gone wrong here? And that point is always a decisive point. Are you going to go on with God? Your first failure or your first struggle or your first time where you don't feel God and you don't hear God and you don't see God and you don't have any feelings anymore. And you go, what's happened? Was it all a dream? Very dangerous time. But this last point, seeing God in glorification. This is either when you die or Jesus comes. Says in 1 Corinthians 13 and 12. For now, for now we see through a glass darkly. There's the apostle Paul speaking. Most gifted teacher, preacher. And he says, we, now we see through, tons spiritually through a glass darkly. But then face to face. Now I know in part, imagine Paul saying that. Most knowledgeable teacher of the word of God. Now I know in part, but then shall I be known even as I am known. This is at the end or in the midst of a teaching from chapter 12 to 14 on the gifts of the spirit. This chapter has been in love. Now he's telling you when the nine gifts of the spirit are going to end. When tongues ceases, when prophecy comes to an end. He's actually talking about that time and he gives us this verse. He says, now we see through a glass darkly. And the gifts are here. But then face to face. Do you know what? As a Christian, you see through the glass very darkly at the minute. You could be a real born again Christian, but you're struggling. Because your vision of him, you're just seeing him. But that won't always be. If you actually see him now and love him and believe in him, do you know a day is coming? If you're only seeing through a glass darkly right now this morning, can I encourage you as we close? To say that very shortly, you're going to see him face to face. I'm about to see him face to face. I'm going to really see him. Not by faith or in a vision or a dream. I'm going to see him. And Paul knows that. He says, now you see through a glass darkly. But then you're going to see him face to face. And when you do, you're going to be changed. It says in 1 John chapter 3 verse 2, Beloved, now are we the sons of God and it does not yet appear what you shall be. Do you know, as I look around this room, you ain't seen nothing yet. We're in the time of sanctification and it has many battles and many difficulties and it has failures at times and disappointments, doesn't it? And you have to get up again and go back to the blood and say, oh God, forgive me and help me in this walk. But can I encourage you? It does not yet appear what we are going to be. I'm going to gather with you one of these days very shortly and you're all going to be changed and I'll recognise you. And we'll hear Hannah go, hallelujah, we made it. And we'll all shout, come on, we'll all shout. Boy, there's a poor bunch this morning. But we know that when he shall appear, when's this going to happen? When he shall appear physically, visibly, literally. If he doesn't do that physically, you're not getting your resurrection body. If he doesn't come physically and bodily, you don't get anything. For we shall see him. When he shall appear, we shall be like him. Why? We're going to be changed in the twinkling of an eye. I'm going to see him face to face. I'm going to be totally changed in one moment. Why is that? For we shall see him as he is. Do you realise the key to glorification is seeing him? And when he comes again, when I see him, immediately I'm going to be changed. That's the key to glorification. It's the key to salvation. It's the key to sanctification. Some of you are struggling with sanctification because you're not looking to Jesus. You are fighting. You're fighting to be holy. And you're fighting to stop sinning. And you're struggling against something to stop it. You're making a big mistake. You're trying to be morally right. That isn't the answer. Put your eyes on Jesus and you're going to be sanctified. You'll get a victory. The secret of holiness is simply looking at him saying, I can't do it. I put my faith in you. I've done it for salvation. I'll do it for sanctification. I'm going to do it for glorification. Do you think I'm going to stand here jumping, trying to go up? Lord, it's not working. I won't be doing that. When he comes in the clouds of heaven, I'm simply going to look. I'll be changed in the twinkling of an eye. And listen to this. If you really believe what I've just said, every man that has this hope in him, purifies himself even as he is pure. There's something about saying, Jesus is coming very soon. I'm going to be glorified. And he is a holy God and a pure God. And if you believe he's coming soon, and that these are the last days, and it's very close even at the door. If you really believe that, not just mentally, educationally, listening to a preacher. If you really believe this, you right now will be purifying yourself, making yourself ready. Let's just stand here as we close. Father, we love you. We bless you. We adore you. We magnify you. What a precious Lord you are. You are our salvation. Lord Jesus, you are our sanctification. You are our glorification. From beginning to end, you're the author and the finisher of our faith. You save us from our sin, and you purify our hearts. You sanctify us by working within us as we gaze upon your face, really looking upon you and seeing you. We're going to meet you one of these days, face to face, literally. What a day that will be when all the battles are behind, all the suffering is behind, all the sinning is behind, every failure is behind. And when I see him, I'm going to know him just as he now knows me perfectly in death. And I'm going to be changed to be like him in a resurrection body, in a new body free from sin, never to sin again, never to fail him. Since we have a victory over sin in the blood of the Lamb of salvation, we can overcome sin now. But there's one day when sin will never have to be fought again. There is coming a day when you'll never grieve him, you'll never fail, you'll never falter, you'll never struggle, you'll never wrestle. It'll all be over, redeemed, standing in the presence of God. And the Bible says on that day, we're going to gaze upon him, behold him, look upon him, admire him as he manifests himself in us. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/K8P76-3Mr9k.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/keith-malcomson/a-pure-heart/ ========================================================================