God is concerned with
the inside of us.
Psalm 42:1 (NASB)
As the deer pants for
the water brooks,
So my soul pants for You, O God.
So my soul pants for You, O God.
Matthew 5 (NASB)
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God.
God can change us from the inside out.
Ezekiel 36:26 (NASB)
26 Moreover, I (God) will give you a new
heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of
stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
Notice the progression of Jesus's Beattitudes.
1. Poor in Spirit means recognizing the desperation of our human
condition without Jesus (Matthew 5:3).
2. Mourning means grieving over our sins while accepting
Jesus's death on the cross for us (Matthew 5:4).
3. Meekness means to surrender to Jesus's Lordship
(Matthew 5:5).
4. Hungering and thirsting for
righteousness means to maintain constant intimacy with Jesus
(Matthew 5:6).
5. Being merciful means to be the hands and feet of
Jesus by acts of His mercy to others (Matthew 5:7).
6. Pure in heart means to have purity of motives as we seek Jesus with our entire beings (Matthew 5:8).
Here are some verses to help us to better understand this.
Psalm
51:6 (NASB)
6 Behold, You (God) desire truth in
the innermost being,
And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.
Psalm
51:10 (NASB)
Create in me a clean
heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Psalm
73:1 (NASB)
Surely God
is good to Israel,
To those who are pure in heart!
To those who are pure in heart!
Matthew 5:20 (NASB)
20 “For I say to you that unless
your righteousness surpasses that of
the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
The scribes and the Pharisees had an external appearance of knowing
God, but not an internal one.
Matthew 23:27 (NASB)
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like
whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside
they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.
Jeremiah
17 (NKJV)
9 “The heart is deceitful
above all things,
And desperately wicked;
Who can know it?
And desperately wicked;
Who can know it?
10 “I, the Lord, search the heart,
I test the mind,
Even to give to each man according to his ways,
According to the results of his deeds.
I test the mind,
Even to give to each man according to his ways,
According to the results of his deeds.
Proverbs
23:7 (NASB)
7 For as he thinks within himself, so he is.
Genesis 6:5 (NASB)
Matthew 9:4 (NASB)
4 And Jesus knowing their thoughts
said, “Why are you
thinking evil in your hearts?
Do we
comply to God on the outside, but rebel on the inside?
Proverbs
28:9 (NASB)
9 He who turns away his ear from
listening to the law,
Even his prayer is an abomination.
Even his prayer is an abomination.
You are
blessed when you are pure in heart. It means unmixed. The problem
with sin is not the world around us, but the worldliness inside of us.
Psalm 119:1,2 (NASB)
How blessed are those whose way
is blameless,
Who walk
in the law of the Lord.
2 How blessed are those who observe His testimonies,
Who seek Him with all their heart.
Who seek Him with all their heart.
The result
of having a pure heart is the ability to see God at work in our lives.
Purity is
the attribute that makes God's actions apparent to us.
Only by having a pure heart allows you to ever see God for who He
truly is.
John 14 (NASB)
7 If you had known Me (Jesus), you
would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and
have seen Him.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me,
Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
When we see God the Son then we
see God His Father.
No one can
have a pure heart without a relationship with Jesus Christ.
It's because the work of Jesus Christ on the cross makes us pure.
Being right
with God is not us trying to be made right with God by our actions.
It's Jesus
working within us making us pure in heart which flows out into our actions.
John 1:18 (NASB)
18 No one has seen God
at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He
has explained Him.
1 Peter 1:8 (NASB)
8 and though you have not seen
Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him,
you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.
Psalm
66:18 (NASB)
18 If I regard wickedness in my heart,
The Lord will not hear;
The Lord will not hear;
The reason
that we don't see God is because we haven't surrendered our hearts to Jesus.
Isaiah 1:18 (NASB)
“Come now, and let us reason
together,”
Says the Lord,
“Though your sins are as scarlet,
They will be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They will be like wool.
Says the Lord,
“Though your sins are as scarlet,
They will be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They will be like wool.
Romans 10:13 (NASB)
13 for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Darryl Craft, Whitesburg Baptist Church
http://www.whitesburgbaptist.org/sermons/the-secrets-for-seeing-god/
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