In the Beatitudes, this series of eight or nine statements with which the Sermon on the Mount begins, Jesus paints a portrait. It's a word picture that depicts the citizen of the kingdom of God. Here is what characterizes one who has been regenerated by the spirit of God. who has been engrafted into God the Son and who has been adopted by God the Father. These are otherworldly attributes that run counter to the ideals of our society because they reflect the perfect person. The one who is created in the image and the likeness of God himself. The world does not know such a person because the world does not know God. Does not know the one who represents perfect humanity. the Lord Jesus Christ. And that, as far as the Beatitudes goes, is perhaps most obviously true with regard to this sixth Beatitude. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. To have a heart that is pure grants access into the presence of the living God, to behold him in all of his perfection. in all of his glory. It begins with the heart. When we think of the heart, we think of the emotions. The heart as a symbol is the symbol of love. But there's more to emotion than love. We can have our hearts filled with joy. Our hearts can also be moved with fear. Grief resides in our hearts, as does desire, by which we are motivated to reach out for and to take. Yes, the emotions certainly are part of what we are to understand when we think of the heart. But if that's where we limit it, then we're falling very far short of the way that the Bible presents to us the understanding of the heart. It encompasses far more than the emotions. For example, it includes the conscience. in the second chapter of the book of Acts on the day of Pentecost. Peter moved by the Spirit of God preached to the crowds who had gathered there in Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost and he preached to them about the Lord Jesus Christ and about the plans and purposes of God revealed by the prophets coming to their fulfilment and climax in the person of Jesus Christ. This man who just a few weeks earlier they had taken and they had placed before Pilate handing him over to that wicked man and working upon him to manipulate him to put him to death on the cross. that this one who was the fulfillment of all of their desires, all of their hopes, all of their ambitions in the Messiah, they had put to death. And we're told in verse 37 that they were cut to the heart They were smitten in their consciences. Their very being was telling them that what they had done was so, so wrong. When previously they thought it was so, so right. Their conscience smote them. but it's depicted as them being cut to the heart. A sword has pierced their hearts, has thrust them through in the very core of their being so that they now feel the guilt that they never felt before. They now saw their sins as they'd never seen them before. they confess their guilt before the Apostles and they appeal to them what must we do given the truth given the reality given the guilt given our blood-stained hands and our guilty consciences for they were cut to the heart the heart encompasses our ability to understand. Paul writing to the church in Corinth in 2nd Corinthians speaks of the Jews as people who didn't understand and he uses imagery that they would have been familiar with from the Old Testament of the Israelites in the wilderness before Moses who had to cover his face because there was glory shining, the reflected glory of God with whom he had met on the mountain shining from his face they they asked him to veil his face and what Paul says in 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 15 is yes to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. They don't understand that's what Paul is saying they don't understand the law of Moses, they don't understand what he was teaching the people of his generation, the signs and the shadows and the types that he presented to them that was pointing forward to a saviour who was to come. There's a veil over, not their minds as we would say, but over their hearts. And so it's from in the heart that we think, it's in the heart that we understand, it's in the heart that we plan and purpose. And God testifying to the kind of hearts that people had in the days of Noah, looking upon mankind, said in Genesis chapter 6 and in verse 5, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Their thoughts, their intentions, their plans were only evil continually. But we see it resting in the heart. That's where it begins. That's where it starts. So whether it's emotions, love, joy, fear, grief, desire, whether it's conscience, whether it's understanding, our thoughts, our intentions, these all, according to the scriptures, are associated with the heart. And therefore it is with the heart that we have faith. Paul wrote to the church in Rome, In Romans chapter 10, speaking about the need for faith, he says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. and then later in the New Testament in the book of Hebrews and in chapter 3 in verse 12 we have something of the counterpoint to that where the writer warning of the temptation of those who he's writing to to to depart from what they had received of the Gospel. He says, take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. So it is, it is in our hearts. that we believe. It is in our hearts that faith grows and is fruitful to lay hold of the promises of God in Jesus Christ that we might have salvation. So we see then the richness of what is involved when Jesus says, blessed are the pure in heart. And it's because of all of this that the compiler of Proverbs in chapter 4 and verse 23 gives us that memorable instruction and says, keep your heart with all vigilance for from it flow the springs of life. If the heart is the seat of our emotions, of our conscience, of our understanding, of our thoughts and intentions, of our faith, then the heart must be guarded. The heart must be kept. The heart must be looked after. For if the heart is polluted, If the heart is corrupted, if the heart is poisoned, then everything that flows out of it, like a spring of water, will be polluted. It'll be corrupted, it'll be poisoned. And this is the heart of which Jesus speaks. And there's a problem, of course, isn't there? Jesus speaks of this problem of the heart when to the Pharisees in Matthew chapter 15. He doesn't hold back with the words that he says to them in verse 19. Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. He's saying this is what your hearts are like, you Pharisees, you hypocrites. They're corrupt. They're defiled. And all of these different things are gushing out of their hearts. And yet, these people, these Pharisees, were actually among the most righteous people in Judea. Jesus elsewhere says that our righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees, not because the Pharisees had no righteousness, but because they were known for their righteousness. The problem was it was all on the outside. and outward righteousness. You know, lots of people are outwardly upright. Lots of people are outwardly pure, moral. They don't murder. They don't commit adultery. They're not sexually immoral. They don't steal. They don't lie. They don't even slander. They are, to all outward appearances, good people. You know them. You see them in your places of work, among your neighbours. your friend's circle, you know these people. There's nothing that you can hold against them. They're outwardly upright, even pure and good. But Jesus, Jesus is pointing deeper than the surface, isn't he? he's asking us to look beyond outward appearances for as God told Samuel, man looks on the outward appearance but God looks on the heart, God sees deeper, God examines, God searches hearts, God wants to know What are you really like in the core of your being? When you don't have to put on a show, when no one is watching, what are you really like? What goes on in that mind of yours? What is going on, to use the biblical language, that heart of yours. The heart is the issue, Jesus will illustrate it later in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 22 he says, I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother is liable to judgment, not just those who murder, but those who are angry have, as it were, committed murder in their hearts. He puts it even more explicitly in verse 28. I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. So the outward appearance may be upright and pure and good and the inward reality is corrupt. It's poisoned, it's impure. And Jesus is telling us that it is the pure in heart who shall see God. Can anyone see God? For we must confess that though no one else around us may know, the thoughts of our hearts are all too often evil. There's pollution there. There's corruption there. Jesus says, you need to be pure in heart. So what is this purity of heart then? Well, I think we naturally think in terms of cleanliness when we think of something being pure. And that is the common way that we see it depicted for us in the scriptures. For example, in Matthew chapter 23, Speaking about the Pharisees again, another woe upon the Pharisees in verse 25 and 26, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. Here there is a washing, here there is a cleaning. And Jesus is using this metaphorically, of course, of the lives of the Pharisees. He's saying they're all clean on the outside, but inside they're dirty. Inside there's greed, inside there's self-indulgence, inside there's corruption. You need to clean inside the cup and the plates. If you get inside to clean it, the whole will be clean. That's the idea then of cleansing that we find dominates this word and its interpretation through the New Testament. When it's applied then to the heart, it's speaking about a heart that is unsoiled, a heart that is without spot. a heart that is unblemished, it's unstained, it's not a dirty heart. It carries ultimately the idea of innocence. Paul actually uses this word to denote innocence when in Acts chapter 20, speaking to the elders in Ephesus, he says in verse 26, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. That word innocent in the Greek is the same word that is translated as clean. or as pure, I am pure, I am clean, I am innocent of the blood of all, Paul is testifying. In his first letter to Timothy, 1 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 9 he says, concerning deacons and their qualifications, they must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. Clear is the same word. It's a clean conscience. It's a pure conscience. It's a conscience that is undefiled, unspoiled, unspotted. So this idea of cleanliness of heart, carries the thought of being innocent or clear that no accusation can be brought against this person not only in terms of their outward appearance but no accusation can be brought against this person because their heart is pure and clean. But how does one ever get there? How can anyone claim to have a pure heart, a clean heart, an innocent heart, one whose emotions are always pure? Whether in love, or in joy, in fear, or in grief, in all of the desires of their heart that they are pure, How can anyone always and consistently have a pure conscience, a clear conscience, a conscience that when it is brought into the light of the truth of God's word, never strikes us, never convicts us, because there's nothing there of which to convict. How can it be that anyone can ever have such a heart that when they come to the Word of God it is always open, without any kind of veil. So that our interpretation and our application of God's instructions to us is always true and it is always complete. Can anyone have such a heart where all of their thoughts are pure and uncorrupted? Where all of their intentions, all of their plans, all of their ambitions, all of their goals are good and perfect and honorable and praiseworthy? God exalting how how can we have such a heart such a pure heart for without such a pure heart we can never come to God we can never see God and yet Jesus is saying there are such people He's describing such people in these beatitudes. Blessed are they, these people who are pure in heart. Well, this purity comes from Christ himself. He is the one who is able to make our hearts pure. There is no one else who is able to do so. We ourselves cannot get into our hearts and scrub it clean. We can't do it. With all the resolve that we may muster we will not be able to get into every cranny and every crevice of our hearts until it is utterly and perfectly pure and clean. And yet Jesus says to his disciples as he washes their feet, He says to them, the one who has bathed does not need to wash except for his feet, but is completely clean. And he says, you are clean. Now he's not saying that they all took a bath that morning. Perhaps they did, but that's not what he's saying. Because he then immediately goes on to say, but not every one of you. And John tells us why he said that. For he knew who was to betray him. That was why he said. not all of you are clean. So we know that Jesus isn't talking about physical cleanliness even though he has physically got down on his hands and feet and gone through to each of his disciples and he's washed their feet clean and in that context he is saying The one who has bathed doesn't need to wash except for his feet but is completely clean and you are clean. He's not talking about their bodies. He's talking about their hearts. For there was one who was not clean because his heart was not pure. His heart was defiled. And even though they all looked at each other on that night, When Jesus said one of you is going to betray me, none of them knew who it was. They were asking, is it I? Every one of them felt with uncertainty their own heart's deceptiveness. No one looking around that table at the men who were gathered there could point the finger at Judas Iscariot and say, he's the one, he's the one who isn't clean. But Jesus knew, for God searches the heart and he saw all of the defilement within But my point is that he looked at all of the others and he said, you're clean. You're clean. How, how could they be clean? In chapter 15 and verse three, we have echoes of this statement. It's the same evening. It's in a sense the same conversation that he's having with his disciples. And he says to them, already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Okay, so now we're beginning to see this cleanliness of heart has something to do with Jesus Christ and his word. that there is something to do with the teaching of Jesus that enables the heart to be purified, to be made clean. That it is through Jesus Christ that these disciples of his, barring Judas Iscariot, who by this time has left their assembly, have been made clean. And then we can turn to Ephesians, where in chapter 5 and verse 26, Paul represents Christ as a husband to his bride, the church, that is those who have been called by the Spirit of God and brought to faith in him. And Paul says in chapter 5 verse 25, Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the wood, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. So this word that makes the heart pure is presented to us as a kind of washing, a washing that takes place that removes the dirt and the uncleanness of our hearts. When Paul writes to Titus in Titus chapter 2 and in verse 3. Our Saviour appeared, and he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. produces new life. That's what regeneration means. To be born again. To be given new life. It is a washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. So now we understand that the Spirit brings the Word of Christ and uses it to wash our hearts and make us pure. In Revelation chapter 7, in verse 14, John has been given a vision of a multitude of people who are clothed in white robes and he's asked where do they come from? He doesn't know the answer and the angel says, these are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. So the washing of the word by the spirit that purifies our hearts is connected with the death of Christ upon the cross in which he shed his blood for the forgiveness of our sins. It is as though our hearts are taken and they are plunged in the pure and perfect blood of Christ and they're washed clean of all defilement, of all pollution, of all poison, of all dirt. This is what it means to be pure in heart, to be innocent and undefiled before a God who searches the heart. But we need to go deeper. We need to go further. For while certainly the dominant idea is that of cleanliness and in that sense purity, there's another aspect to this for certainly when Jesus says, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God, he is drawing from the revealed Word of God. He's drawing from the Old Testament Scriptures and from that Psalm that we sang together earlier in our service, Psalm 24, where verses 3 and 4 ask and answer the question, who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? So the image there, the picture there as David sings this psalm is that of Jerusalem and the temple which is on a hill, the Temple Mount. And the temple houses the holy place which is figuratively the dwelling place of God among his people. Who shall ascend that hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? Who shall come into the presence of God? Who will see God? And he answers the question, he who has clean hands and a pure heart who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. Now if you've got another translation it may read something like this whoever does not lift up his soul to idols or whoever does not worship idols In the Hebrew the original word that was translated false in the ESV simply means nothing. Who does not lift up his soul to what is nothing. The idea then is who is not worshipping what is nothing. And what, what consistently through the Old Testament and through the New Testament is presented to us as nothing that people worship? Well I've already hinted by telling you what some of the Bible translations use, they use the word idol. A false god, that is no god, it is nothing. And here is someone who, yes, has clean hands and a pure heart, but who does not lift up his soul to what is nothing. Who, at the end of verse 6, seek the face of the God of Jacob. In other words, Psalm 24 and verse 4 points us beyond cleanliness of heart, to singleness of heart. That doesn't mix and mingle other things and give them place in the heart. Of course, such a mixing and a mingling is an impurity, isn't it? Gold, when it is refined so that it is pure gold, no longer has any alloys. It no longer has anything else mixed in with it. It is pure gold. And a pure heart is an unmixed heart. It only has place for God. God is its goal. God is its aim. To serve and to honour and to magnify God. And Jesus is saying then, that without purity of heart, without cleanliness of heart and without a singleness of heart, We cannot see God. And it is the Holy Spirit applying the work of Christ that cleanses and purifies our hearts and gives us such a taste of God that nothing else will ever satisfy. Nothing else will ever again be able to take his place. Nothing again will be able to take over our affections. Nothing else will ever again be able to be our ultimate goal. With cleanliness of heart and with singleness of devotion, we can come to God. Without them we cannot, we cannot come into the holy place unless we are holy. This is what the writer of Hebrew says in chapter 12 and verse 14, strive for peace with everyone and for holiness without which no one will see the Lord. purity, but also holiness carries this idea of being set apart for a particular use. Those who are pure of heart have been set apart as it were for the service of God and they devote themselves to the service of God. It is these who may see God. But can we see God? Can we really see God? Jesus says so. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. But Paul, Paul perhaps isn't so sure, we might say. To the king of the ages, he says in 1st Timothy chapter 1 and verse 17, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen. The invisible God, how can you see the invisible God? Or chapter 6 of the same letter, verse 16, the Lord, King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. So can we see him? Or can we not? Jesus says yes, Paul seems to say no. Seems to say no. Can we see God? I affirm that we can. We can see God presently. We see God in the Word of God. He is revealed to us in the pages of Scripture. The Apostle Paul giving a defence before King Agrippa in Acts 26 and in verse 18 said, that Jesus had said, I'm sending you to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. I'm sending you to open their eyes and turn them to God. God's Word reveals to us the God who cannot be seen with the eye, but that doesn't mean that he cannot be seen with the understanding. with true knowledge. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4, we've already observed that the Jews had a veil over their hearts that prevented them from knowing Jesus. He says in chapter 4 and verse 4, in their case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord with ourselves as your servants for Jesus sake. For God who said, let light shine out of darkness, has shone into our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We see God through the Word of God as we come to know Jesus Christ. Can we see God? I affirm, yes we can. We see it in creation and providence. We see him rather in creation and providence. We're told by Paul in Romans chapter 1 that the things that are visible make known to us that which is invisible, that is God. And so, though we cannot see him with our physical eyes, we can see him by faith. We come to know him and to have a clear grasp of who this God is and what this God is like. We see him in Providence. We observe his works through history and in our own lives. He touches our lives in such a way that we see him and know him. But while all of that is true, I do think that Jesus is saying more than that. when he says, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Ultimately, Jesus is saying, we will come face to face with God. That we will see him. Because one day we will come face to face with Jesus. And if we see Jesus, we see God. When John testified in his Gospel to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ into the world, he said, the Word that is the Son of God became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. Verse 18, no one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the Father's side, he has made him known. We can see God when we see Jesus. Paul writing to the Colossians in chapter 1 and verse 15 said, he, that is Jesus, is the image, that which can be seen, the picture, the representation of the invisible God. He is the firstborn of all creation. By him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for him. He was before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. Not just a little bit of God, a splinter of God that we see in Jesus, but the fullness of God was pleased to dwell in him. He says a similar thing in chapter 2 and verse 9, for in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. So that in seeing Jesus we may see God. Isaiah in chapter 6 and verse 7 of the book that bears his name testifies to an experience that he saw in the year that King Uzziah of Persia died and he saw the glory of God exalted in his temple. And John in John's Gospel chapter 12 and verse 41 tells us that what Isaiah saw was Jesus. For Jesus is the way that we see God. Otherwise we cannot see God. As Paul tells us no one can, has ever seen God, nor can they. They can't see God. the invisible God, the God who doesn't have a body like men. But we can see Jesus. And if we see Jesus, then we see God. John chapter 14 and verse 9. Have I been so long with you? And you still do not know me, Philip? He said. Whoever has seen me, has seen the Father. I and the Father are one. I'm in the Father, the Father is in me. If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. If you've seen me, Jesus says, you have seen God. And so in Revelation, chapter 22 and verse 4 we're told that those who are gathered together in the new heavens and the new earth, in the new Jerusalem, all the citizens of God's kingdom whom Jesus is describing in the Beatitudes, all those and no one else for there will be no accursed thing, no corrupt thing, no impure heart there, all those citizens of the kingdom of Jesus Christ, they will see God's face. They will see God's face. Because earlier he has said, the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, through the middle of the street of the city, also on either side of the river, the Tree of Life, with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of nations. No longer will there be any accursed thing there, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His servants will worship Him. They will see His face." Whose face? The face of? God and of the Lamb. It's all one, you see. It's one throne, singular, with one God on the throne, who we see in the Lamb. We will see his face. And the most remarkable thing of all, as John tells us in 1 John, Chapter 3 and verse 2 is that when we see him, we will be like him. Pure as he is pure. Holy as he is holy. Perfect and complete in him, pure in heart, gazing upon the beauty of our God. Jesus is the only one who is pure in heart. He alone has seen God, John tells us. But those who are engrafted into him, joined with him, brought into union with him and abide in him, share in his purity. His purity is their purity. They are made pure by him and in him. and he reveals God to them. Now it's by faith through his word in creation and in providence then we will see him face to face. We will see God truly and there will be no longer any veil No veil of sin, no veil of unbelief, no veil of misunderstanding. We will see him in all of his glory and all of his holiness and all of his goodness and all of his love and all of his mercy and all of his grace. All that God is will be ours to behold as we look upon the throne of God where our Lamb who has saved us and purified us is seated with all authority and the glory of God that has been his from eternity past and will be his forevermore. This is our God. He is a great God, He is a glorious God, He is a perfect and He is a pure God, He is altogether lovely. We can see Him. You can see him if you will come to him through Jesus Christ to be made pure with the purging of your sins in his death and the renewal of your life in his resurrection. If you will cast yourself upon him and plead with him for mercy, he will renew you in your inner being. He will give you a new heart and he will put his Spirit within you, you will be purified and perfected in Jesus Christ, to love him and to serve him now and forevermore. For those who are pure in heart, they will see God. Let's pray. O God our Father and our Saviour Jesus Christ, help us in our weakness, we pray, to see in Jesus the glory of our God who is so kind and so compassionate, so full of mercy and of love, to send your Son into this world to be a Saviour of sinners, and to take our corrupt and defiled and poisoned hearts, and to give us new hearts, cleansed and purified in the blood of the Lamb, that we may be raised to newness of life in Him, and in Him see God, and walk with God until at last we come face to face with our God never again to be separated but to be bound with him in eternal union. Oh have mercy on us and help us to look to Christ and in him to see your grace and favour we ask in his name and for his glory. Amen.