They Shall See God 1983

From Matthew chapter 5, verse 8, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. For three and a half years, Jesus went about preaching the kingdom of God, performing signs of the kingdom, calling people to repent and enter the kingdom. And he put everything he had into it.

And when he was finished, hanging on that cross, Jesus had very, very, very little to show for his efforts. The cities which had seen his mighty works did not repent. None of them repented at the preaching of Jonah.

Sodom and Gomorrah would have been on their faces if they had seen what those people saw. Bethsaida, Capernaum, Jerusalem were like stone, unmoved. As Jesus was hanging on that cross, dying, even his own disciples had forsaken him and fled and were now watching this thing from a distance.

Except for perhaps the apostle, undoubtedly the apostle John, hanging close to the cross with a few brokenhearted and weeping and faithful women. There was no organization. There was no money in the bank.

Jesus had written no books. So what little there was left as he hung on that cross, died with him when he died. And that was it.

On the third day, Jesus appeared alive to his disciples. And appearing alive to his disciples, gave to them the one thing that made the difference. Vision.

Seeing Jesus alive from the dead, they were seeing something which did not belong to this age or world. They were seeing something which normally the natural eye was unable to see. They were seeing the glory of God.

50 days after the resurrection, from the right hand of the father's throne, Jesus poured out the gift of the Holy Spirit on the gathered believers. And again, gave to them the one thing that made the difference. Vision.

Reading from Acts chapter 2, verse 17, which is a quote from the book of Joel in the Old Testament. And in the last days, it shall be God declares that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams. Vision.

These people now were moving out into the streets of Jerusalem with a powerful message. They were able to give utterance to this message because it was the utterance of a glory which they had now seen with their eyes. And so you could say that Jesus' death on the cross, his resurrection, the outpouring of the spirit, worked together to give to these people the one necessary thing, the thing that made the difference.

Vision. Now, it could be said that after having seen glory, these people were able to do things they could never do before. And this also applies to us.

But first, we have to see this. Put it this way. The difference between a life of endless stagnation and a life of purpose is vision.

Without vision, we stagnate. With vision, if we walk in our vision, we live. All of us, without exception, are like a people who grew up in a prison.

As far back as we can remember, we've been in this prison. And time and time again, we try to break out of this prison, which is self, sin. And every time we try to break out, we get caught, beat up, wounded, thrown back in our cell.

So after a few tries at trying to escape self and sin, we finally just give up. What's the use? There's no way out. I might as well settle myself down and become acclimated to this prison I'm in.

And so we line ourselves with trinkets, get ourselves a little TV, a radio, a few books, and pretend that this is all there is, and try to forget that there's anything better on the outside. One day, a stranger comes to visit us. He pulls out of his briefcase a photograph of a house down by the ocean and some friendly cases.

And he says, that's your home. Those are your friends and your loved ones. That's where you belong.

You don't belong in this prison. Get out of here. And by means of this vision given to us, we become courageous and strong with a strength we never had, and we break out of the prison, and we never go back.

Amen. Where there is no vision, the people perish. Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint.

And where there is no glory, the people sink down in despair. Reading from Ephesians chapter 1, verse 15 again. For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom, and revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, that you may know what are the riches of the glorious inheritance he has given to his saints, and that you may know what is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe, according to the working of his great might, which he accomplished in Christ when he raised him from the dead and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places.

Paul is saying, I'm praying that you may have vision, that God will open your eyes, and he prays this knowing that God will do it if these people desire it, if they come toward God with a pure heart. This idea that only certain gifted people can have vision is a myth. In this age of the new covenant in which we now live, vision is offered to anybody who's poor in spirit, anybody who hungers and thirsts after righteousness, anybody who longs for God.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Reading from Isaiah chapter six, verse one, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Isaiah saw the Lord in the year that King Uzziah died.

Why the year that King Uzziah died? Because in the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah became poor in spirit. Isaiah became pure in heart. The death of King Uzziah shook Isaiah, drove him to the end of himself, brought him to the place where he despaired of ever finding fulfillment in anything his eyes could see or his hands could touch.

Now Isaiah wants only God, just give me God, that's all I want. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Reading on in Isaiah six, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.

Above him stood the seraphim, each had six wings, with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. One called to another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory, even if nobody sees it, it's there. And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.

And I said, woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphim to me, having in his hand a burning coal, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.

And he touched my mouth and said, behold, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away, and your sin is forgiven. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send, who will go for us? Then I said, here am I, send me. And he said, go and say to this people, hear and hear, but do not understand, see and see, but do not perceive.

Isaiah saw the Lord in the temple. Now, he wasn't the only one in the temple. Lots of people were in the temple then.

They didn't see anything but the temple. So is Isaiah hallucinating? No, Isaiah is seeing beyond the visible. He is seeing the reality beyond reality.

He is seeing the glory of God because God is giving him vision. And when this vision is over, Isaiah is a new man. Now, everything that was given to Isaiah in this vision is now offered to us.

Jesus, the Lamb, because of his death and resurrection, makes this possible, tears through that veil that separates us from the Father, rips it apart, causes light to shine over the mercy seat, brings us into the presence of God and forms us into a new people. When Moses saw the vision, he became a new man. When Ezekiel saw the vision by the river Kibar, he became a new man.

When Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up, he became a new man. And so will we become new men and women. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

At the end of the road, they will see him face to face. But even now on our journey, they will see him by means of vision, which God will give. And if today, this hour, we draw near with a pure heart, a heart just wants him, we will have vision.

Vision. Vision is to have our eyes open. In the year the King Isaiah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and his train filled the temple.

And I said, woe is me, for I am lost. For I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes had seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

With the natural eye, we see the walls, the windows, the ceiling, and the floor. But with the inner eye, we see glory, and we fall on our face. But do we want to have that vision? See, are we willing that the glory of God should so invade our lives that that glory shakes us down to our roots? Are we willing to pay the price of seeing the hand of God at work in our daily life so that we now begin to see people in a totally different way? And we begin to see heaven, and we begin to see hell, and we see glory, and we see horror, and we see ourselves as we are, stripped and naked and undone and in utter need of God.

If you want vision, you can have it. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Want it bad enough, you'll get it.

Vision also, secondly, is to have our mouth and our heart made clean. And I said, woe is me, for I am lost. For I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.

For my eyes have seen the king, the lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphim to me, having in his hand a burning coal, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said, behold, this has touched your lips.

Your guilt is taken away, and your sin is forgiven. Fire for the sin-sick mouth. And who of us doesn't have one? Blood for the sin-sick heart.

And who of us doesn't have one? The minute Isaiah confessed what he saw when the light came on for him, I'm undone. Woe is me. God saw to it that he experienced cleansing.

And the minute you and I, seeing what we are in the light of God and pulling down our defenses and giving up this idea of forever giving excuses for ourselves before God and man, and we begin to cry out and call for his forgiveness and his mercy, not only does the angel come and touch our mouths with a burning coal, the lamb of God himself comes to us, touches our hearts with his blood. And says, son, daughter, be of good cheer. Your sins are forgiven.

You want cleansing? You can have it if you want it with a pure heart. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Vision means that our ears are open.

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send? Who will go for us? I heard the voice of the Lord. They tell us it's a scientific fact that people who wear glasses hear better when their glasses are on. Could be, but it's an absolute fact of the kingdom that our ears begin to hear the voice of the Lord with clarity when our eyes and our hearts worship that glory.

First, Moses saw the burning bush, then he heard the voice of the Lord. First, Ezekiel saw the glory of God by the river Kibar, then he heard the voice of the Lord. First, the disciples saw Jesus risen and alive from the dead.

Then they heard words that utterly changed that. Want to really hear God speak? You can. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God and see God's glory.

The ear opens and begins to understand and know the things he said and how they apply right down where we are. Finally, vision means that our tongue is set free. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send? Who will go for us? Then I said, here am I. Send me.

And he said, go and say to this people here and here, but do not understand. See and see, but do not perceive. At this point, Isaiah becomes a prophet, a man who speaks for God.

And what was given to Isaiah then is given to the body of Christ now, to anyone who wants this, who is open to it, who desires to be of use to God with a pure heart. Acts chapter two, verse one, when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.

And there appeared to them tongues as a fire distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance. And after this, they no longer hide behind the walls of that room.

They're out in the city and they're out in the world and they speak with boldness and their word is alive because they've seen glory. And they can give utterance to that. You want to speak with boldness? You want a bold tongue? You can have it.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. And the more clearly we see the glory of God, the more perfectly we can give utterance to that glory. And the more powerfully our utterance to that glory turns people to that glory.

Boils down again to the pure heart. How badly do we want this? Reading from Ephesians one once more for this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. But you can have something more.

Do you want it? That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you. What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints? What is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe according to the working of his great might, which he accomplished in Christ when he raised him from the dead and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places? Do we want a spirit of wisdom and revelation? Do we really want the eyes of our hearts enlightened so that we know what is our hope? What are the riches of the inheritance he gives to his saints? And what awesome and powerful things he does by means of his spirit in us? Do we want vision to the point we're willing to pay the price of the disruption that vision will bring to our lives? Then let's purify our hearts and draw near, and ask, and seek, and not even as we eat his body and drink his blood.

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