Mat 5:8; The Pure Heart Has Undivided Devotion.

Wednesday April 24, 2024

Review.

The good man out of his good treasure brings forth good (Luk 6:45).

Where your treasure is there is your heart (Luk 12:34).

The pure heart has rid himself or herself of lies that claim religion, God’s person, morality, relationships, self, purpose, and will are anything else than what they are (2Ti 2:20-26).

The pure heart is unified to purpose only to glorify God.

The pure heart is ready to serve others in mercy and it further purified every time he or she does so.

Psa 86:11-13

Teach me Your way, O Lord;

I will walk in Your truth;

Unite my heart to fear Your name.

12 I will give thanks to You, O Lord my God, with all my heart,

And will glorify Your name forever.

13 For Your lovingkindness toward me is great,

And You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.

Purity is a united heart, united unto the will and glory of God. We all battle with division of heart. A major problem with believers is a divided heart.

One part of me wants to know God and worship God and please God; but another part wants something else. You recall Paul’s struggle with this very thing in Rom 7.

Rom 7:16-17

But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. 17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.

Psa 86:11, unite my heart to fear Your name.

Being pure in heart is being like the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to have an undivided love which regards God as our highest good, and which is concerned only with His plans as we love Him with all our heart. This goal is only achieved through repeated study of the Bible and obediently living according to the way of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

We submit to the authority of our Father and learn and do what He wills. It means that we should live for the glory of God in every respect and that it should be the supreme desire of our life.

What is necessary before I can see God? Holiness. A pure heart, an unmixed condition of being.

We can therefore see God in everything. What we see is not defined, physical, spiritual, mental; the face of God, the hand of God, footprints, fingerprints? Whatever works for you. The reality is that you will know it when you see Him.

Go and see for yourself.

If we see Christ, we have seen the Father.

Joh 5:37-38; 6:46; 8:38; 14:7-10; 20:26-29

We are concerned with time, but it will be nothing compared to what we will see when seeing God in eternity. But there is something about time that is not in eternity, and this seems to affect something of our eternity.

“There are a variety of things we will be able to do better in heaven than we can possibly do on earth. These include music, prayer, fellowship, worship, and the study of general and special revelation. But we tend to overlook the one thing we will not be able to do in heaven that we can do on earth - serve those who are in desperate need. When we leave this planet we will never again have the privilege of sharing the gospel and serving the lost.” [Kenneth Boa, Conformed to His Image]

Heb 12:14-16

Pursue peace [peacemakers] with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. 15 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; 16 that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau,

Heb 12:14 is much better understood in the context from chapter 10:

Heb 10 (one true sacrifice that cleanses us).

Heb 11 (faith is the evidence of things “not seen”).

Heb 12 (fixing our eyes and not losing heart, discipline because we’re all going to try and do this our own way … Esau sells his birthright - can this also be a reference to the believer selling out) … and then grace and invitation by God - NJ not Mt. Zion) … and then

“sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.”

See His glory in Joh 17:22f.; 1Co 3:18.

If you or I set aside this privilege of seeing God in time for anything else, we’re idiots and rightfully should we loose reward in time and eternity.