well i invite you to turn to matthew chapter 5 we return today to our study in the beatitudes we come to in verse 8 the beatitude of being pure in heart so i'll read again the first 11 verses and we have really just two more after this to consider let's give our attention this morning to the word of the lord seeing the crowds he went up on the mountain and when he sat down his disciples came to him and he opened his mouth and taught them saying blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy our text blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see god blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of god blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you there will end the reading of god's word well today we come to uh one of the most important beatitudes in light of the many challenges that we face i think in our times and the things that we have witnessed and the evils that we have seen have you ever asked the question why are we in this place that we're in where so much evil is running rampant and so much disobedience so much as the psalmist says hatred of the law of god so that it brings me to cry out rivers of waters because of the hatred of you oh lord what really has brought us here have we ever thought about something like that have we ever thought about what has brought us to this place in this time why has there been such a demise and fall of culture and society so quickly what really has brought about the end of christendom such an important question what really has brought about the end of christendom this place where we are could it be that too much of christianity in america was phony and that we offered because of a phony approach to god little by way of influencing the culture to desire what we have could it be i suggest that we have come to the one beatitude that helps us most with that particular issue and it is this the blessedness of purity of heart is remarkably absent in our day not merely in society but also in the church churches in america and generally right now are not growing they are shrinking at surprising rates and it's probably not going to get better most evangelicals have decided to not attend church anymore on sunday it's not even important so what is the root cause of the place that we are in well i suggest that this might be a real help to us today and understanding that today and i want to say this up front my intro is not to discourage because it's kind of a discouraging intro so far but it is to challenge us in the escondido urc and it is to challenge believers because I do believe Jesus' ultimate intention here is to encourage the true believer in a blessedness that they have been given. To understand and expose, especially looking at salt and light in the earth, what is true and what is false. What is real and authentic in contrast with what is false religion. What is pure and what is false. That's what he's doing here, which provides us a great contrast. And Jesus takes us through one of the deep problems of history, a long perennial problem, one of the most important to one of the most important solutions, I believe, to revitalize and renew Christianity, which is a big claim. And that's what we're considering today. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. What a statement. I confess that one mere sermon on this remarkable little statement by our Lord doesn't seem to do justice to what's really being said here. But we should give ourselves in these few minutes to try to understand this and appreciate what Jesus is saying to us because the implications of this blessedness are profound. I feel like a great scene is before us today of the Lord is capturing for us to consider the blessedness of true religion. true religion a religion that god loves i want to consider here the problem then first of the hypocritical religion that he's exposing the place of true religion and finally the promise of a religion that is blessed of god so again we're looking at the problem of hypocritical the place of true and the promise of a religion that's blessed i've made the case that the center of the beatitudes here in our study is blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied if that is correct i think to this point we can see a structure here where the first three beatitudes correspond to the three that follow after that sinner beatitude so think of the beginning beatitude blessed are the poor in spirit corresponds to blessed are the merciful today blessed are those who mourn corresponds to ours today blessed are the pure in heart and then blessed are the meek corresponds to blessed are the peacemakers so there's a structure here with the final beatitude which stands out i think is the most an offset as the most profound of all but that connection to blessed are those who mourn is important if we can see a structure here that it took us to when we consider that beatitude deep sadness of our sin and misery in this life that often results sin, misery, sorrow, death all these things that cause great sorrow and the Lord is promising to comfort us those who mourn in the blessedness to see properly His assessment of things. But it's in this way that we were addressing an inward religion blessed are those who mourn there's some there's an inward dynamic about that and it's important then to think in this particular beatitude of what jesus is reacting to what is jesus reacting to ultimately in the beatitudes it's this it's the religion of the pharisees it's the religion of the pharisees if you get that you're going to appreciate the Beatitudes all the more specifically as to what Jesus is doing what was their problem it was phony it was fake it was the best religion man could give from the natural heart so we're looking at in this sense the visible kingdom and we're seeing what man creates in their own religion to try to establish themselves before God to inherit the earth and you cannot read the gospels without missing this problem Jesus was exposing it everywhere I mean that's where you have to see what Jesus is doing in this beatitude really corresponds to what he did elsewhere to expose a stunning problem remember what he said to the pharisees one day You are those who seek to justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. You haven't pulled the wool over his eyes. The biggest problem of the Pharisees was a merely external religion. One that Jesus designated as the tradition of the elders and fathers. so that their entire approach to God was just external. This goes all the way back to the prophets. It's so pulled out and confronted everywhere along the way. Think of Isaiah 1. As you open up the book of Isaiah, listen to what the prophet is reacting to. You'll get it, I think. What is the multitude of your sacrifices? What are they to me? I've had more than enough of burnt offerings. of rams and of the fat of fatted animals i have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats when you come to appear before me who has asked this of you this trampling of my court stop bringing meaningless offerings hear it your incense is detestable to me new moon sabbaths and convocations i can't bear your worthless assemblies your new moon feasts and your appointed festivals i hate with all my being it's one translation has they become a burden to me your worship has i'm weary of bearing them when you spread out your hands in prayer i hide my eyes from you even when you offer many prayers i'm not listening wow what in the world could bring somebody there to have that kind of response from the lord think of jesus woe to you scribes and pharisees hypocrites you cleanse the outside of the cup and of the plate but inside you are full of extortion and rapacity you blind pharisee you cleanse the inside of the cup and of the plate that the outside also may be clean. No, he says first cleanse the inside of the cup and the plate that the outside may be clean. So you notice there, again, internal, external. It was stony religion. It was stony religion. This was something everywhere condemned in Scripture. Think of Samuel. Man looks outward, but God looks where? The heart. It was mere outward conformity. Think again of Jesus and his disciples when they were criticized for what? Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus in Jerusalem and asked, why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands before they eat. let me say this has been in my time in ministry a great concern for our approach to god mere outward conformity that draws near to god but what does jesus say with the lips but the heart is far from him it's a deep problem beloved jesus is addressing everywhere and it's a problem most profoundly evident in those raised in long-standing traditions of the church something that becomes merely practiced externally think about this problem for us raised in the faith now let me before i say all this let me qualify tradition's not bad when it's biblical tradition is very good but tradition becomes dangerous when you're putting your trust in tradition we may be here today only because of the tradition of the elders and of the family and of the fathers understand that i'm not attacking tradition but when it's merely something done because it's our culture that's what jesus is reacting against big time in our case we could call it in the danger of cultural calvinism there's a huge danger jesus is reacting against it's what he was reacting to to nicodemus let's just say that nicodemus was someone who grew up in the reformed church And Nicodemus was raised in the Reformed Church. And Nicodemus had believing parents who were very committed to the faith and very devoted to the faith. And they went to the Reformed Church and he was brought up from the beginning being catechized in the faith. And he went to Calvin and then he went off to Dort, maybe Calvin, and he followed the tradition of the family and of the elders. He never broke family expectations. And then he gets married. And he has children, and he repeats the cycle. He follows the same path. He begins to have children of his own. He puts them in the Christian school. He's devoted to the Christian school. He's in line. And his connection with the kingdom of God has always been merely external. He follows the same cultural expectations, which are good. All of the duties that are done are merely external. Especially the worship of God. Which has really become a burden in their life. He's only there because He has to be. He's only there because He has to be. To please the tradition of the fathers. But there's no heart in it. In fact, there's no real conviction of truth in the tradition. In the culture, of course. The culture, yes. The church, no. It's vitally missing. Something inward is absent. He may serve in various capacities. We may look at him and say, wow, look at the good, upstanding member. He's moral. Could anything ever be wrong with such a person? They'd never miss the Christmas service, of course. Never miss the events expected of him. But something's vitally absent. You know what I'm describing? Me. Me. That was me. I was Nicodemus. Nicodemus said, Jesus, you must be born from above. You have no life in your dead heart. You need the washing of the heart and regeneration to be made alive because I see you're trying to pull the wool you may convince dad and mom and family and tradition and all that you haven't pulled the wool over God's eyes and the most shocking thing about it is he was a teacher in his realm didn't know this life had to be given to the heart and even though he had all the blessings of the tradition raised with believing parents Christian this, Christian that Christian school this, Christian that. The religion he practiced never reached the internal life. Worship was merely outward. In fact, if you asked him, he was never happy with formal worship. They wanted something more exciting all the time. Because again, it's not about truth. It's about external. It's just external. It's just external. It's just external. All because it was expected of him in doing the things of tradition he thought he was okay with God. He's a good person. You know there's going to be many people in hell like this? Many people? Do you see what Jesus is reacting to? You draw near to me with your mouths but your hearts are far from God. That's far deeper than what I like about worship externally. It's what Paul was describing when he said God is after a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly nor is circumcision mere outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who's one where inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart by the spirit, not by the written code, not by the letter. Such a person's praise is not from other people, but from God because he's looking internally. It's real. what if we could see the problem create a society with perfect outward conformity today we could coerce everyone into perfect outward conformity what if we could do that and let's imagine a society where there was no sexual immorality we were able to axe it off all sexual morality and people achieve this standard in the culture that was externally cut off from all forms of sexual immorality here's the socking thing jesus says in this beatitude it would never be enough just to have outward compliance never be enough if we simply created a perfect outward life and everyone looked at us and thought there's the good moral person and they do everything right you know and look at their involvement and all that they do in the kingdom look at them here we get to the beatitude today jesus cares deeply about what's inward in us and what's true on the inside it's really important and what does he know it's not external righteousness that makes you acceptable before God. Because it's precisely out of the heart that there is, said Jesus, proceeding out of that heart all kinds of bad stuff. Murder, adultery, fornications, theft, uncleanness, blasphemy. These all proceed from out of the heart, right? That's why it would be wrong to come to church then and paint the picture that inwardly of heart, I'm great and put on the show outwardly that I'm great. You don't have to do that anymore. I'd love to see a place where we come and we're open about our sins and put our hands around our brothers and sisters and pray for them. Matter of fact, if any of you want to pray after church, I'll pray with you. So we come to a question of what is this blessedness that Jesus is describing? Blessed are the pure in heart. for they shall see god what's he talking about well most certainly when we believe the gospel he grants and credits to us the satisfaction of christ there's no that's a beautiful truth and justification i think that includes that here but i don't i'm not convinced he's speaking in the sense of justification here he's speaking of a correlation between what we do outwardly as flowing from a washed heart the heart is the center of who we are it's the center of what makes you who you are it's the intellect it's the wills the affections it's everything about you he's expressing that whatever we do outwardly blessed are the pure in heart is coming from a heart that's honest that's true see why i said at the beginning what if we had this in society it's not fake it's not wearing a mask romans 2 let your love be without masks i think it's all psalm 24 again who may ascend the mountain of the lord who may stand in his holy place the one who has clean hands and a pure heart who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god what he's saying there is what he's saying there simply what's on the inside is true it's not a lie now that is not saying we are perfect in heart in this life that is not saying that we don't continue to struggle with sin of course we do sure when you're justified you are acquitted you have the righteous purity of Christ imputed to you as if you've never sinned or been a sinner. That is fundamentally true about justification by faith alone. But in the life of sanctification, nor are we saying that you're perfect in heart. Jesus is not saying that. He's not just merely speaking of justification terms. What he's talking about here is he's talking about honesty before him, integrity before him, which is what the Pharisees never did, you whitewashed tombs. Remember? When Isaiah pressed the people with this problem, he said, let's reason together, says the Lord, though your sins are like scarlet. I'll cleanse you from the heart. I'll make your hearts. I'll wash them. Jesus showcased true religion along the way, everywhere he went to help us with this. Remember the widow and her two mites? How could you not go there? What a great little account. Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put in, and he watched the crowd put their money in the temple. Can you imagine it? Everyone look. Here's my check. The rich threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins worth only a few cents. Calling his disciples. This is just powerful stuff. Jesus said to him, look at that. Look right there. See that? Truly, truly, I say to you, This poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They gave out of their wealth. But she out of her poverty, you know, what that means is out of the abundance of her heart, she gave. She gave all she had to live on. I see what's true in you and what's false. She put it in from the heart. The meaning of pure in heart can be taken two ways. Most importantly, it means pure in heart are those who are without hypocrisy in this life. In other words, they're not unregenerate. They're regenerate and they're true. They're true in the inward man. They have that born again. They're washed by the Spirit. And that's the second part here. Purity means hearts that are cleansed. The word here means cleanse. So taken together, he's speaking of washed hearts that are no longer full of that kind of fake hypocrisy because they've seen the need for Christ who has loved them and washed them and given himself for them. Remember David when he sinned with Bathsheba? Murdered Uriah, committed this sin. He was effectively living a lie for nine months because they had a baby together. where he probably came up to worship and went through the motions, was living in adultery. That's a lie. That's phony. That's fake. Oh, but he did his solemn acts of worship and he made sure everyone saw a tradition of the elders. Remember when Nathan came to him? Couldn't even see it. Nathan tells the parable and says, of the man. What did he ask of the Lord in Psalm 51? Create in me a what, O Lord? Clean heart. And then he said, you love truth in the inward parts. That's where God wants truth in your life that kind of religion is what god jesus is after and then it changes your view of worship you're not saying oh it's sunday night what a bore i'm gonna watch tv while the pastor's talking on human sexuality you need that in this culture because we are from the inside washed from the inside out this is what paul said in acts 15 when he's talking about the gentiles God who knows the heart showed that he accepted them the Gentiles by giving them the Holy Spirit to them just as he did to us listen to this he did not discriminate between us and them for he purified their hearts by faith those hearts are pure by faith just like us when we are purified by faith and trusting Christ and believing the gospel when we rest in Christ this is what Christ loves not hypocritical religion that puts on the dress clothes but and inwardly refuses him or just does what they have to do so that they'll please mom or dad or the tradition of the father whatever it might be that has got to go God sees it you see why I said we might really affect society how much we've been criticized for being phony and hypocritical. This is what it looks like. This is what creates people who don't want to come. They're the righteous, not the sinners. Well, you might restrain people, restrain sin in society by the law. The law has that effect of restraining sin. But what people need most to see is truth in the inward parts. When society is affected by a church of people who have been changed like this, they're going to make a bigger difference in the world, I assure you. With this blessedness, Jesus attaches a promise to close this today. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. I don't think that's merely future. i think it's aimed at the future i don't think that's merely future i believe jesus is encouraging us that when we have come to him with a broken and contrite heart being honest about our lives confessing our sins receiving a washing from him he does not despise us in the present and he conforms that faith especially with the confirms it especially with the sacrament that we are strengthened by seeing God now by faith. Assured of His presence. Assured of His promises that we enjoy who are walking internally washed with the Lord. We enjoy a blessedness in this life that people don't. But He also promises the beatific vision. This is the blessedness of the pure heart that God gives to His people that on that day what is held out for us is we shall see Him as He is. You're going to gaze your resurrected eyes on the resurrected Savior and enjoy Him forever in a place of no more sin or sorrow or sadness. So when He has washed away all our sins now by the blood of Christ and He has forgiven us and cleansed our hearts, He has held out for us the promise that eye has not seen nor ear heard nor entered in the heart of man the things that God's prepared for those who love Him. a love He's blessed us with that is sincere, attached with the promise we shall soon see God. So we should come to worship before the all-seeing eyes of the Lord, not hypocritically, which I think is the ultimate test. If you have no true heart and you are here for the tradition of the fathers and the elders, you need to be warned. There's a judgment coming for this. But believe in Jesus. Come to Him and ask for a cleansed heart. He said He won't refuse you. Be cleansed. Be washed. Be born again by the Spirit. Come then, as Hebrews says, let us draw near to God in worship with a sincere heart and with full assurance that faith brings. Having our hearts, listen, sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. He'll wash you. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess for he who promised is faithful. And that's the encouragement today. You don't have to wear masks. We're all great sinners. And that's how great your Savior is. God will cover you and God will wash you. And then you will become, as he is seeking. What did Jesus say he's seeking? Worshippers to worship him in what? Spirit and in truth. That's what we're getting at here. Blessed are the pure in heart, says Jesus, for they shall see God. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, help us, for that is a searching sermon that searches me first and foremost as the preacher for how much we have tried to cover our sins and hide our lives and give you external scraps merely to try to justify ourselves before others. And we are confronted deeply here with the blessedness that you give us of being true in heart, sincere in heart. Thank you for regeneration. Thank you for washing. Thank you that a true Jew is one inwardly whose circumcision is not by the letter, but by the Spirit, whose praise is not of men but of God. So circumcise our hearts, O Lord. May we be true and not false, for it's been a great problem beginning with all of us. And we repent of that today. It's not our suit and ties that cover us ultimately, but it's the righteousness of Christ. And thank You, O Lord, may we be like David. Cleanse us and create a pure and clean heart within us for You love truth in the inward parts. May that be true of all of us. In Jesus' name, amen.