HF092 - Only the Pure of Heart
To: Hebraic-Foundations@yahoogroups.com
From: "Pastor Buddy Martin" <Bro.Buddy@ChristianChallenge.org>
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 17:51:56 -0500
Subject: Bible Study HF092 - Only the Pure of Heart
Hebraics,
The sermon on the mount is a teaching for disciples. It begins with disciples. It concludes with disciples. One disciple hears and heeds the Word of the Lord. The other disciple hears but does not take the Lord's instructions to heart. Guess which disciple has the fallen house?
This tell us that it is quite possible to be a hearer of the word and not a doer. It is not the hearer who is blessed. It is the doer of the word. But this brings me to something Jesus said in the beatitudes that is crucial to the walk of a disciple. The Lord said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."
Let's find out what this means, and how this relates to the walk of a disciple. This is Bible Study HF092 - Only the Pure of Heart.
The term 'pure' in the Greek has two interchangeable meanings. It speaks of inner moral purity as opposed to outward show. But it also refers to single-mindedness, that is, a heart focused on God and free of deceit. These two meanings go together. [The Greek word is katharos: clear of dirt, clean, spotless, unsoiled.]
Is it possible for a believer to have a soiled heart? Yes, it is possible. Our spirit life can pick up contaminations from the world and from walking in fleshly ways. This is why the apostle said, "Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." (2 Co 7:7)
The second part of what Jesus said is equally important; "They shall see God." Only the pure of heart shall see God. Is the Lord speaking of our appearance in heaven, or is He including something else? If you take a close look at the beatitudes, you will find that they have largely to do with our present life. So 'seeing' God isn't simply about heaven.
Of course we have a promise that one day we will see God as He really is. But that is not the single issue here. The word for 'see', that is, 'horao', also means to see what is being communicated supernaturally, that is, to see, to experience, to know. Horao includes the idea of spiritual perception. Only the pure in heart truly see and know God as He really is. They are able to see God thus because their heart is free of hypocrisy and deceit.
This brings us to a very crucial element in a disciple's life. It has to do with the believer's ability to know and walk with the Lord with a pure heart. If our heart is not pure, our image of God will be distorted. This is basically what it means to be deceived. The deceived person is having spiritual happenings, but the happenings are contaminated, that is, they are not pure.
The Bible is clear on our need to watch over our hearts. The wise man said that the issues of our life began with the heart. We are what our heart is. We will walk in accordance to what is in our heart. If our vision is distorted, we will have life of distortions. Nothing will be clear.
And so we hear, "Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs (issues; forces; determinations) of life." (Prov 4:23)
But this issue of having an impure heart says something else that is crucial for a believer. It leaves room for the demonic to work. This seems to be what happened to Ananias and Sapphira. Together they gave a place for hypocrisy and deceit to work. Next thing Satan has filled their hearts to lie to the Holy Spirit. Out of this came a judgment of death. (Satan doesn't have to be in your heart to fill your heart with a lie. The lie itself fills the heart.)
I realize this is an extreme case, but it should not be taken lightly. Satan is called the 'twisting serpent.' He is very good at twisting things around until a truth is made into a lie, black becomes white, and the person becomes so deceived that truth can no longer be recognized. (But what of the Holy Spirit. We will see this later in the study.)
The apostles were well aware of how Satan works. This is why Paul said, "To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled." (Titus 1:15) In a moment we will see where Paul gets this instruction.
Paul isn't the only one who warns about the issue of defilement of heart and mind. God spoke through the prophets. In one case, He said, "You thought that I was just like you; I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes." (Psa 50:21)
In another place He speaks through the wise man; "You neglected My counsel and did not want My reproof; I will also laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your dread comes." (Pro1:25,26)
But Paul likely gets his thought from a song that David wrote. Listen with your heart. "I was also blameless toward Him, and I kept myself from my iniquity. Therefore the LORD has recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness before His eyes. With the kind You show Yourself kind, with the blameless You show Yourself blameless; with the pure You show Yourself pure, and with the perverted You show Yourself astute." (2 Sam 22:24-27)
Notice David said that with the kind, God shows Himself kind. The same with the blameless and with the pure. But what about the person who has become perverted in mind. God appears to be twisted just as they are.
The word for 'astute' in Hebrew is 'pathal.' It means 'to twist.' The person who is perverted in spirit, has a twisted view of God. The Lord allows this to happen. But the root word for 'astute' carries over into wrestling, and tortuous. The perverted in heart are continually wrestling within themselves. But it is a tortuous journey. Not only are they defiled in conscience, but they attempt to defile those who are around them.
Peter picks up on this in speaking of how some people distort the teachings of Paul. He said, "[In Paul's letters] are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also with the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction." (2 Pet 3:16)
There it is again. The Greek word for distort (strebloo) literally means to twist. Again we see the twisting serpent. The apostle is quite clear in that these distorters are twisting Biblical teachings to their own destruction. The implication is that the 'Liar' that is Satan himself is involved. Jesus calls him the 'father of lies.'
You see this kind of thing with people who want to justify a life style of sin. They need others to accept them as being Christian. The banner they fly is 'God is love and He loves us all. He accepts us as we are.' Sure God is love. But what they are saying is a lie in itself. God does not accept them to continue in their sins.
The Bible speaks to this particular attitude of 'God accepting me.' Notice how former testament begins its closure with, "You have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet you say, 'How have we wearied Him?' In that you say, 'Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He delights in them.'" (Mal 2:17)
Are we getting the message? Only the pure in heart truly know God as He is. Now that we know this, what is to be done? The place to begin is where we are. In our birth from above, we were given a pure heart. The nature of our new heart is of righteousness. In addition to that, God also placed the Holy Spirit in us to help us process life. (This is where the Holy Spirit comes in. A believer can grieve the Spirit with ungodly attitudes.)
What this means in a practical sense is that any believer can know when there is spiritual contamination at work in his life. No true child of God can live a life of deceit or hypocrisy and not know it. For one thing the Holy Spirit will grieve so deeply that the believer must repent. But how about the person who claims to be a believer and yet justifies a continual life of sin. John tells us that it is easy to tell who is really a child of God and who is not.
The apostle said, "Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil ... By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother." (Cf. 1 Jn 3:7-10)
John is not saying that a child of God will never sin or fall into a temptation or even have a temporary relapse. He is saying that no child of God can continue to live in sin as a way of life. It would be like putting a sheep in a pig pen. The stench of the pig pen is unbearable. Thus with the true Christian, sin is contrary to his or her nature. So, anyone who can continue in a life style of sin, justify that sin, and yet claim to be a Christian, is only deceiving himself. This person has a deceived heart.
Paul says, "We know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things." (Rom 2:2)
Let me leave the study with a positive note. David gives us a very intimate portrait of the child of God in all his spiritual make up, and how very deeply God is involved in this child's life, but he also gives us a proper prayer to pray concerning pureness of heart.
I speak of Psalm 139. (You may wish to meditate on it in line with this study.) David concludes this Psalm saying, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way."
The study is open. Feel free to ask questions or make other contributions.
Blessings,
Buddy
Lawrence E. (Buddy) Martin, HF Host
email: Bro.Buddy@ChristianChallenge.org
Web: http://www.christianchallenge.org/
"See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled." (Heb12:15)