Well, we continue in our studies in the Beatitudes, these special statements our Lord makes and on which he pronounces a blessedness, that there is a spiritual happiness for those who qualify in these words that we have here, who fulfil the conditions that we read. what conditions that they are. When non-Christians say well they like the Beatitudes, they like the Sermon on the Mount. Well, they really ought to be careful what it is that they say they're liking, because these things are not easy, and they're not actually accessible to the human heart left to its own devices. We may like what it says, but to try and do what it says, well, that's another matter entirely. Showing mercy, or as we have today, and we started this last week, having purity in heart. Well, who among us is that? And it is really only Christian living as a Christian who can be these things. This is only for those born again of the Spirit and who now love the law and who now agree with it and see in it something wonderful. Because who fulfills the most part all of this, the best, is the Lord Jesus. This is Christlikeness. This is holiness that we're talking about here. And while the world may say, well, it likes these things, what a noble statement. Well, they are noble statements. More noble people among non-Christians may kind of feel stirred and moved by it. But to do it, who will find that with them? To fulfill those things, well, who can accomplish that? And that's where we, if we're Christians today and with a new nature, we're new creatures, well, actually, we're in a much better position to hear these things, not only agree with them, but be in the process of being sanctified away from the old nature, which fights against these things, and move more and more towards what our new nature is already saying to us, what the Word of God and the Spirit, appealing to us, are saying to us. Which brings us again today to The second consideration, we had our first consideration, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God, verse eight of Matthew five. And we saw that, that purity is to be something that is absolutely at the core of who we are. Purity, that while our Lord has been speaking about some of our qualities, nature of our approach to God, our self-evaluation, what it is that we should be hungering for, how it is that we must be Christ-like, but how much purity speaks to the most fundamental of qualities that should be distinctive of us in the very heart of who we are and oh what complex people we can be. and how we can be one thing one moment and another thing another moment. And sometimes we go through life almost oblivious to the fact, but God would have us to resolve and to actually be living according to the core identity of who we should be as Christians, which is people governed by the word of God, governed therefore by the Holy Spirit and moving away from everything that speaks down that, everything that is not that, in order to be more and more like our Lord Jesus. And purity, therefore, is a good summary of what's looked for in the very heart of our being. Single-minded, undivided hearts. We saw last time that it speaks to us being straightforward, plain. Red of all, not kind of working out something else here, not our minds on manoeuvres, that you're looking at us but the cogs are whirring somewhere and we're thinking something else, something perhaps negative there about the person we're speaking to, some other sort of scheme that's happening. Being plain, straightforward, being honest, And we saw last time, we dwelt upon this at length because what a critical subject it always has been, not just now, but always has matters to do with sexuality, sexual behavior and such things. We had to look at that subject there and applied some of those principles to that, being pure in respect of how we treat people at that level and where it's appropriate, what isn't appropriate, with whom it's not appropriate, and how we might express things that are not appropriate. And in short, we're looking here, how we treat people. How we treat people. You can think here, first of all, of other people, but I'm going to expand that as we go on, but how we look upon them, how we treat them, what's going on in our minds. Are they objects? Not much of that in our sexual culture, as a matter of fact. Are they objects? Objects for our pleasure, for some fulfilment of some base desire for power, say. or some desire for status, some position to be well thought of. Are people there as a means to an end? That is not being pure if they are. Self-gratification will lead us to be devious toward people, quite cruel toward people, deceitful toward people, manipulative of people. And none of those things correspond with what God is looking for from his people to have at the very core of their being, purity. So my first heading, taking this up a little bit further, treating people with respect. Treating people with respect. and how we should, because each and every one, whether they're Christians or not, whether they're out there avowed atheists or promoting some non-biblical sexuality or not, they are made in the image of God. And we have to relay this with all sympathy to those who insist there is no God. And we say, yes, we have to insist there is, because you're actually made in his image, and the fact that you can reason, and the fact that you can present your explanations and your particular positions, the fact you have that intelligence, at least to get that far, is proof actually you're made in the image of God, and you may be using what God has given you there to fight against God, but you can't get out of that bind. You and I, whoever we are, we're made in the image of God. And so to disrespect somebody, to deal with them in a way that kind of depersons them, kind of reduces them to an object, is actually to disrespect God. God actually is generous to unthankful people. God is generous to unrighteous and evil people. The sun shines upon them. The rain falls on their gardens. We often have to remind ourselves of that fact. And smiling providences greet their way. They can be in the right place at the right time. And ah, what favor can come to them? Do they thank God for it? No. Does it occur to them to thank God for it? Well, maybe somewhere in their conscience, but they don't go through with it. And that is how God is so, so generous and he treats them as people who have needs and families and need daily bread and he takes it upon himself to provide them with those things even though he knows they're not going to thank him and they may to their dying day remain opposed to him. Well if that is how God treats people and we might say with respect then that is how we should treat people because they're real creatures, just as you, I hope. Think of yourself as having dignity as a human being, that you are a person that is worthy of respect, that we then extend that same attitude toward others. that they're not sort of reduced to one-dimensional beings, that they're all this and all that. How people love to demonize people, how they love to awful them, monster them, make them the other, and all of this kind of stuff that you read about. And sadly, it's true, people do generalize in ways that are really very ugly and very wrong, very unhelpful, and are hugely, hugely disrespectful, vilifying, insulting, using people there to feel better about ourselves, to feel we're some superior people in some way. That is not how God treats people and deals with them, deals with us as people that he can reason with and speak with, that he can deal with and entreat and implore. He looks upon us not in some sort of naive way, I'll come to that a little bit more in a minute there, not in a naive way, he knows us, It's better than we know ourselves. And he can analyze our sin better than we can. Sin stops us being very good analysts of sin. It disguises, it hides, it tries to flatter us. Well, God is not flattered. He knows our hearts. And still he sends the rain and the sun. Still the earth revolves around the sun and all things continue as they do to this day. Now I say it, it's not to deny that people can be wicked, as not to deny that people in their behavior toward us may be treating us in exactly the way that I've just been describing, vilifying us and insulting us and treating us not with respect, not as human beings, with three dimensions, if you will, with feelings and with our own struggles and our own pressures that at times lead us to behave in a suboptimal way, shall we say. But they may still not hear that. And we are just one dimensional. They don't like us. They hate us. You can think of people. I can think of people who relate to me in that way. They don't like you. And that is that. And all they're looking for there is whatever damage they can do, whatever difficulty they can bring. Some people are so hardened in that, that they wouldn't even occur to them to do some kindness to you. Yeah, they exist. They exist, and we have to accept that they're trying to wrong us and manipulate us and bully us and intimidate us to have some end, to score some points at our expense. And sometimes it may require of us impurity of heart to confront people like that and to challenge them about their behavior. but almost in defense of what purity is, and in a hope that we might be able to win people out of such a narrow, ugly, hate-filled focus, that we can actually persuade them not to be that, because actually it's not in their best interest to be that. They're just storing up wrath for the day of wrath. They are simply making themselves there, more and more standing out to God, to be humbled. and to be brought into some difficult providences, to have something come that will cause further inner disintegration, something like that. And so we are trying actually to win people. And sometimes you can't win anybody by saying nothing. You have to say something. And at first, maybe never actually, they may appreciate what you've said, what you've done. They may never appreciate it. And we have to then live with that and deal with our own disappointments and whatever anger might rise up within us. But we are looking to win people, not destroy them, not out of vengeance act against them. That's not to be pure at all. So we always have to be watchful of ourselves, that what we're going to say, if we are going to challenge somebody's behavior, that we haven't got the proverbial plank in our own eye as we try to remove the speck from somebody else's. And the language of our Lord is beautifully exaggerated there to make the point. But yes, we don't want to be guilty of the very things that we are seeing in others. And we always look at our own behavior and our own attitudes and repent of those things we know against ourselves in that way. where we feel that the Lord is speaking to you and to me. And then with our motives a little clearer, a little purer, with our behavior a little better modulated, moderated, in order to make a good approach, not the wrong approach. Sure, we can act as best we can with the light we have, with the help that we have from God, and still the person isn't one. Our Lord knew much of that, confronting Pharisees, No great change amongst them, Annas and Caiaphas. No great change amongst them, the Sanhedrin, who were there, tasked, not with hearing a case, but to find him guilty, so that they could have him put to death. Well, they didn't listen there, did they, for the most part. But our Lord still spoke, and still confronted, and he, of course, out of the purest of intentions, and of the purest motives, Sometimes purity of heart and its exercise and its pursuit means we say nothing. It means there are times when we say nothing. When we allow some personal slight to go past, to overlook an offence, to say nothing and to be very patient, very guarded, what comes out from our lips, to put a censorship on it, to make sure that what comes out is going to be helpful. And if nothing helpful can be found yet in our hearts, if we're still in a state maybe of agitation, processing something that's been done to us, then often the best counsel is to say nothing. And you know, there are times when it's right to be angry. There are times when it's proper to be angry. And if we weren't angry, there'd be something wrong with us. But anger, not accompanied by grace. Anger that doesn't have righteous anger attached to it is never ever going to lead to anything good. So it may require of us to be sparing in our words, very guarded in what we say, even to the point of saying nothing. Because if we are going to say something, we need to be sure of this, that we're not just out to win an argument here. We're not out just to settle a score here, that we're not just being vengeful here, that that's really what's there and other motives that are sort of there to kind of camouflage and hide and disguise what's really happening, but actually at heart, lock it down to its true nature there, it's actually vengeance that we are about. Best then to say nothing. It requires of us, if we're to be pure, treating people with respect and seeking theirs, we do good to others that they will do good to us. It requires us not to lie, not to lie. Because lying is always there, manipulating other people. People are worthy of hearing the truth. They should be told, spoken to, honestly. No, it doesn't mean therefore you meet a perfect stranger and you start telling them your bank account details and that's my PIN number there, Of course, there are appropriate things to say to people in appropriate contexts, but whoever we're with, we're not looking at them as a means to an end. It's something we need, and in order to get to that place, we have to lie here and conceal the truth, be sparing with it. That famous saying from that child, wasn't it, in Australia, of being economical with the truth. That's not being pure. Because what are we looking for? Well, we're looking for some personal advantage, or we're looking for some personal advantage from somebody close to us. And so we're prepared to sort of tell a story here, present something, not quite the whole truth there, knowing there was something important that if we'd mentioned it, that would kill the case off. And the advantage we were looking for, hoping to gain from others, simply wouldn't accrue. money or power or some status or other, and you and I are the roadblock to it. You and I are the obstacle to achieving it. So we find ourselves at the receiving end, some manipulation or some lie, because we have the means, as it were, to provide what they're looking for. Yet if they knew that what was really going on, they knew they wouldn't give it to us. And so we are deceived and people lie in order to achieve Now then, think of the satraps in Persia, Daniel's time, there was Daniel who was beyond them all, excelling, so trustworthy, so wise, so reliable, and they were jealous of him, and they couldn't find any way to fault him in his work, and so they constructed, didn't they, and they flattered the king, Darius, to pass a decree that nobody for a period of time could pray to any God but to you, oh, wonderful Darius, knowing that Daniel prayed each day three times, turned toward Jerusalem, and would pray. And they thought, that's got him. And to an extent, they were right. They didn't quite foresee what would happen in the lion's den and how they would end up actually in that lion's den themselves. But that was how they were trying to catch him out. So they manipulated the king, deceived him, lied to him, Because when the king learned that he'd actually consigned his most trusted advisor, a person who he looked upon rightly as a man of uprightness and integrity, and had consigned him to the lion's den, well, indeed, that was a sadness to him. And that's why people with power need to be on their guard, because they have resources. They have a say-so that's important and will carry weight. And there are always people looking to sort of manipulate them and try to kind of crank out an answer there to further some scheme of their own and our resources that we have. If we have some responsibilities, we have to be careful of them, good stewards of what lies within our power. It requires us, yes, to understand people and understand ourselves better. that people can go through all of life and not understand who they are, not really fully figure out what it's all about, who they are, and what perhaps they needed to do, perhaps needed to do it back when they were 20 or 30, perhaps needed to do it when they're first converted, but they they travel through life naturally have learnt nothing about themselves, nothing much about other people, and sadly within that not a huge amount more about God either, for God would have us to understand people pretty well. And there's whole books like Proverbs given to understanding people, dealing with people, what you need to watch for, how you need to respond and what's going on here and what's going on in your own heart, my heart, those things are all there. And it's requiring us to understand ourselves better, who we are. the disguises we use. Well, we're very glad now not to be wearing literally masks, but very often we're not wearing a literal mask, but we're wearing something else, and we're presenting as something that we're not, and in a way often without realizing it. We know no better. There's some understanding in our hearts that hasn't dawned on us, and we're still working to some other prospectus. So God would have us understand people better, flesh and blood, and understand ourselves, flesh and blood, that we're not made of wood or made of plaster, plaster saints or something like that. No, we're real people. And so we're always watchful of ourselves, vigilance about the stirrings within our own hearts, vigilance about the words that we use and how we use them, what we're looking for. Why did I say that? What was I looking for in that? How did that just come out? So it requires of us self-watch and all connect up with those things that we are ever and always having to speak to ourselves, repentance. Change, change that. Those words were wrong. Change, repent, come before God. You're looking to do better than that. I'm looking to do better than that. Some impure motive, some willingness to deceive. We check ourselves, we go before God and we regret that and we look to him for strength and power to be pure, not to do that. And so we always, within these things, these beatitudes ask deep, deep questions of us. Oh, no, sorry. Non-Christian folk and atheists. I talk to atheists. Oh, they love this stuff. I don't know why. It's not really much help. It's actually masking us some very, very difficult, very probing questions. And very often people don't like difficult and probing questions. And atheists are often the people who least like difficult and probing questions. They haven't got much to say. But they say it, and loud, and will insult us instead. Well, there we are. Treating people, then, with respect. Purity has so much to do with that. Final heading in this, treating God with respect. Treating God with respect. You might think that that should just be automatic, shouldn't it? That God, as described in the Bible, what a being that he is. Salted, pure himself, one who really dwells in the light inaccessible hid from our eyes. Sent his son, but truly if we've seen him then we've seen the father. So much to see there. We have a lifetime of getting it and understanding him and changing and revising attitudes and then going back and revising them again as if we're seeing him. That's a lot to see there. Or you might think, it's automatic, we treat him with respect. Well, friends, I'm sorry. No, we don't. We don't always treat Him at all with respect. And sometimes people use God for their own ends. They think that He almost is the roadblock between them and great wealth, maybe, or great health, or power, success, some usefulness, some fruitfulness. And that there is God, and He has the resources to change all of that. And so we look to, sadly, manipulate him. We aim to use the right words or say it a bit louder or do something maybe a bit strange in order to leverage out of God the blessings that we think he has and he can then bestow. But we're not treating God there with respect. God is to be honored, loved, for who he is, pure and simple. We love him for who he is, the being that he is. And the being that he is, as the scripture shows us. And in our worship, we are always having to move up, onwards and upwards, higher. We are always having to get nearer and nearer. to being responsive to who he is, not who we'd like him to be, not who other people have told us that he is, but which just does not equate with scripture, but who he is in his terms, in his words, in his way. So God is not there to simply provide our needs. that he has resources, he can make money available, he can make health available. And so we're willing to put up with anything actually that's said about him in order to sort of leverage that, crank that out of him. That is hugely, hugely disrespectful of God. There's a promise you see here that if we're pure in heart, including if we're pure, should we say getting purer, in how we approach Him, how we think about Him, there are promises, we shall see God. That doesn't mean that suddenly you'll have an apparition of the Lord Jesus or suddenly some sort of dazzling appearance will come. No, but here, one day of course, we will see the Lord Jesus and we'll be like He is, but here, the promises are not all just there in heaven. Oh yes, they're all fulfilled to their maximum effect in heaven, but there are promises for us here But you will see God. You'll see Him at work. You will see Him working in nature. You will have eyes to behold what you missed before. You will see Him perhaps at work in yourself. You'll see. It's challenging and it's painful. But it's God and He's at work. And you may have passed years and years and years Very little has happened. But then when God's at work and you see it, there is nothing more exciting, nothing more thrilling, nothing more fulfilling than to see God at work. There it is. You've made your approach to Him. You've gone to Him with the right attitude. And He's taken notes of you and me. And now He's dealing with us there. He's showing us things, revealing to us things, helping us with things. And we're seeing that was God. That was Him. That's got all his signature on it. And we are filled with joy, amazement, peace that we receive from that, comforts and consolations. Oh yes, we're seeing God all right. We're seeing with clearer vision, clearer understanding. And we see impacts of work in others too. Isn't that wonderful, we think? God's doing that in that person's life. And they're telling you, this is what he's done for me. Yeah, that is seeing God. You're seeing him. He's now larger, more real, more there, more present, more all that we read that he is in scripture. But now the page is living because it's living in your experience and it's living in mine. We see it in ourselves and we see it in others. And we value him. Now we move up in our understanding. We see him. with the dignity that he has, and we accord him that dignity, that respect. We honor him, we hallow his name. We change, we're not, oh, I don't know, so careless about him, so thoughtless about him, so trivializing of him. He has a depth and a serious now and a sense of wonder and amazement and joy indeed when we speak of him because something is happening in us. And here's something, we aim actually at the very thing that's promised. Now we set out with a desire that we, like those men who were there at the Passover, sir, they said, didn't they there, to the disciple, to Philip, that we want to see Jesus. We want to see him, we want to meet him. We want to be among those, with the children, a moment ago there, to meet with him. Well, they got their heart's desire. And if that's our desire, that actually we cannot be satisfied with what we already have, with what we already know, that we're hugely dissatisfied with what we are and the people that we are and how our spiritual life is so impoverished and so, so lacking. and that we feel we're lacking in our vision of him, in how we behold him, how we respond to him, how we conceive of him, that it's too one-dimensional, it's too much what it's always been. And we're not sure that those people who told us this were actually right. So we're seeing more now. And if that desire is there and we're wanting to move on, see more, see him at work in our lives, in other people's lives, well then that I'm sure is a name that we desire to see God, that he will honour. And you'll say take me seriously, take me at my word, then you will see things and you will see perhaps as we were thinking the other Lord's Day evening, exceedingly abundantly above all that you ask or think, you will see those things and they're Therefore is much for us to do as we pray and as we come Sunday by Sunday to worship that our expectations should be great, great expectations. We come to worship a great God worthy of respect and who is able to do very much exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. So we're looking to be pure in our faith, sincere in our love, that we are looking not to use God as a means to an end. So just sort out some problem for us, just solve some outstanding issue. And that's all we think about actually. And God is either there or not there in as much as he is or isn't helping with that particular issue. And that's what God is wanting to do is a much deeper work, a much broader work. within us that will then quite well resolve that issue, that problem, and a host of other problems. Maybe even help you and me from not falling into those problems again. So he's not a means to an end. He's not to be worshipped to be noticed by others. He's not to be honoured because we want other people to see that we're honouring him. We get some sort of sense of well-being or sense of status because look what we're doing, we're worshipping God. I hope we are worshipping God, not ourselves in that. Because there is a question to ask ourselves, is that us? Are we wanting to be noticed by others? Because perhaps you're already anticipating where I would go to tell you about the people who did want to be noticed by others and were full of wonderful language, pious language, but they were wrong. That was the Pharisees. They wanted to be noticed by men. greetings in the marketplaces, all love to be called rabbi there, long prayers there, and of course, they had their tassels long, their phylacteries broad, advertising, look, look how diligent I am, look how holy I am. Well, the Lord has words to say about them, you can read them there in the Bible, there are plenty of them, and many of them begin with the word woe. Woe unto them for all of that, and other things too, that he identified about them. No, it's not so we can be noticed by others. You know, love their places there, places of honor, at the feast and the best seat there in the synagogue, where the Lord had very strong words for them. And he said, they have their reward. They have their reward. The reward is that, the paltry bit of recognition and respect of people in this life, but that'll be it. They'll have nothing in heaven. They won't be in heaven. They'll be in hell with their reflections upon their self-righteousness to go through what the Lord showed them and have eternity to work that lesson out there, but to no profit for them. No improvement, no hope. So as I've said, God is to be understood on his own terms, understood as the Bible reveals him, responded to by us in the way that those in the Bible do, in the book of Psalms or whatever. Oh, that man would give thanks to God for his goodness, indeed. Is that in us? Do we respond like that? That's how God is to be respected and responded to in his own terms, as a person, one God, three persons, his works and his ways, The things he loves, the things he hates. Not our own theology imposed on him or our own choices working away there to sort of screen out parts of the Bible that we find difficult and inconvenient. No, interacting with those, allowing those to shape us and stir us and stimulate and provoke us. God, on his terms, not ours. Then we will serve him, love him, honour him for his own sake, respond to him with diligence, faithfulness, with pure hearts, good consciences, with a transparency. For there is favour resting upon us. There is a promise to all of that, and it's a good promise, and it is, as we've said, that they shall see God. that we actually know him better. To whom much is given, well, there'll be more that is given. If the desire is there for these things and we're penitent and we're conscious and reviewing our ways, then there is more than we can possibly even enumerate that God is prepared to do. More understanding of ourselves, more understanding of him, more clarity, more wonder. more joy, more prayers that are answered. Ah yes, we will. And it's a promise of God's Word. He will see him, see him at work, see what he can do, what we've not in a way allowed him to do, what we've been stopped with our own thoughts and our own theology or somebody else's theology that keeps us hemmed in and imprisoned there. And we have to break out from that, begin to approach him in a way that fits with what purity in a heart looks like. And who knows then what God will show you and me as we get nearer to that. Amen.