4/12/08
Pure in Heart
Blessed are the pure in heart,
For they shall see God. Matthew 5:8
On a dark and lonely alley
sat a man in his forties. A man who life
was full of sorrows; a ruined life, from his perspective. No dignified person or person of means—no
decent person would even think of talking to him. He had burned his
bridges long ago. He had played his last
hand. His was now a life stripped of
anything worthwhile. Only an occasional
stray cat crossed his path; only the passing shadow of a sea gull overhead
dared come in contact with him now.
And as he sat there all
alone, wreaking of alcohol, in clothes dirtier than the ground on which he sat,
the thought occurred to him that maybe, perhaps, just possibly there might be
one last thing he might offer this cruel world before his end. His thoughts returned to His childhood days,
and specifically the few, scattered times he attended Sunday school. He remembered how good it felt to be doing
something nice for someone else.
Almost without thinking he
quietly picked up the crumpled paper bag with the empty beer bottle in it,
laying next to him. He slowly stood up
to his feet, and spotting a larger plastic bag in the alley, he made for it,
scooped it up, and then proceeded to fill it with debris and garbage up and
down the alley-way.
He did this, with a
half-smile on his face, for about forty minutes, when he noticed that the bag
was full.
He stood there, motionless;
speechless.
It felt good again. It felt good to rid the alley of filth and
trash. It felt good make something
clean; better; dignified; different.
There was nothing he could do
about his life, he knew that much. But
he helped the alley. And it felt good.
It was right about this time
that angel from throne of God came swiftly to where this man was standing in
the alley. Though unseen, the angel
whispered these words in the man’s ears:
The Lord sees you here
right now. He understands your pain,
your misery, your discontent, your failures, your sadness. He has reminded you that although you can
clean up an alley, you cannot do a thing about the depravity of your own
heart. Only God can make you clean. Only His Spirit can purify.
________________
Something similar happened to
Abraham ben Ahzad while listening to Jesus on the grassy hillside. It was when Jesus spoke these words:
Blessed are the pure in heart,
For they shall see God. Matthew 5:8
When Jesus spoke those words,
it was like Abraham stood frozen in time and space. Life sort of stopped, right then and
there. He was suddenly aware of God’s
presence.
Have you ever felt that
way? Like life just stopped momentarily,
and all the noise, and confusion, and shuffling all around you just drifted
away, and there you were with eyes wide open and ears tuned to God’s voice? Like God was trying to tell you something?
Well, that’s what it was like
for Abraham ben Ahzad. He heard nothing
else but those words: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
All at once he understood
that this Jesus—this Teacher—knew him through and through, and that as Jesus
looked at him, he could not hide, nor did he want to. He was found out. He was seen for who he was. He had spent his entire life trying to appear
good and holy and just and righteous.
And he had done a pretty good job, because most folks thought he was
righteous (except for the people he mistreated and snubbed, of course).
All at once Abraham knows
with certainty that all of this, this, “holy stuff” is a façade; that God sees
right into his heart, and that his heart is dirty,
and in need of cleansing.
Ever felt like that?
It’s good to feel like
that! It means that the Spirit of God is
speaking to you.
Abraham thought to himself, in the midst of this
divine episode, that he really wanted to see God, and that it would be a
tragedy if he weren’t able to see God someday.
An
Abraham
ben Ahzad, my son. You have fooled many
people, but you haven’t fooled Me. I know your
heart,
and it is the habitation of demons. Your
pretended righteousness is disgusting to Me.
You are
in
need of cleansing, my Son. I have
numbered your days. Unless you surrender
your life to Me, you
will
never see Me. I alone can change
you. I alone can heal you. I have plans for you, Abraham ben
Ahzad. I love you, My son. It is purity of heart you need. I will give it to you today, if you are
willing.
I will let you know at the
end of this message what happened with brother Abraham ben Ahzad. Stay tuned ....
It was the shepherd-king
David who answered his own question when he said:
Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD?
Or who may stand in His
holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who has not lifted up his
soul to an idol,
Nor sworn deceitfully.
He shall receive blessing from the LORD,
And righteousness from
the God of his salvation.
Psalm
24:3-5
David declares that only
those with clean hands and pure hearts will stand in God’s presence, on His
holy hill! That’s a sobering thought,
isn’t it.
Raise your hand if you want
to receive a blessing from God, and one day stand in His presence on His holy
hill. What a delight that will be. Nothing compares.
It is clear that the Lord is
after purity in our lives. Take a look
at this paragraph from the delightful book, Desire
of Ages:
The merciful shall find
mercy, and the pure in heart shall see God. Every impure thought defiles the soul, impairs the moral sense, and
tends to obliterate the impressions of the Holy Spirit. It dims the spiritual
vision, so that men cannot behold God. The Lord may and does forgive the
repenting sinner; but though forgiven, the soul
is marred. All impurity of speech or of thought must be shunned by him who
would have clear discernment of spiritual truth. Desire
of Ages, 202
Impure thoughts. We aren’t always aware when we’re having
them. But notice how destructive impure
thoughts are:
Every impure thought . . .
Defiles the soul
Impairs the moral sense
Obliterates the impressions of the Holy Spirit
Dims the spiritual vision
(can’t see God)
Mars the soul
All that . . . from one
single impure thought! No wonder God is
so concerned about it! He knows how damaging
our thought world can be to our spiritual life!
To our very existence! No wonder
He wants to heal us and make us pure.
It’s very important for us to
guard our thought world. The Bibles
says, “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” Proverbs 23:7. Our thoughts determine our actions. Thoughts are powerful! We usually end up doing or acting on what
we’re thinking. At the very least, we
are affected emotionally/mentally in our frame of mind and attitude by what we
allow ourselves to ponder.
It’s easy to take it lightly,
and allow a lustful thought or vengeful thought here and there. The problem is, those “here-and-there”
thoughts add up to real trouble! It adds
up to a pattern, which becomes a routine, which becomes a habit, and now it’s
part of our character!
No wonder Job declared, “I
made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl.” Job 31:1.
Now, Job was under scrutiny—in the midst of tremendous suffering and
loss. He was trying to remember the ways
he had lived right before God. He was
very much aware that God sees all, when he continued, “Does he not see my ways
and count my every step?” Job 31:4
Job had already made that
covenant—that agreement—ahead of time, with his eyes, that if they should start
to see a pretty gal, he would turn from the sight, and not sit there and
gawk! That’s what it means! He already made that decision ahead of time.
Not a bad idea for those of
us in the 21st century.
But
the words of Christ cover more than freedom from sensual impurity, more than
freedom from that ceremonial defilement which the Jews so rigorously shunned. Selfishness prevents us from beholding God.
The self-seeking spirit judges of God as altogether such a one as itself. Until
we have renounced this, we cannot understand Him who is love. Only the unselfish heart, the humble and
trustful spirit, shall see God as "merciful and gracious, long-suffering,
and abundant in goodness and truth." Ex. 34:6. Desire
of Ages, 202
Only the unselfish, humble,
trustful person will see God as merciful, gracious, long-suffering, abundant in
goodness and truth. When we are open to
the Father, and let Him come into our lives and start His cleansing process, we
experience forgiveness and healing. This
is why we can understand who God is—a gracious, merciful, patient Father. Because we’ve tasted of His goodness
firsthand.
The reason Abraham ben Ahzad
was so struck with a sense of his own guilt and need was that Jesus was
near. When Jesus is near you, you see
how sinful you really are, and how holy He is.
You are faced with a choice: to allow Jesus to cleanse you, or to walk
away from Him, and refuse cleansing.
In the time of John the
Baptist, Christ was about to appear as the revealer of the character of God.
His very presence would make manifest to men their sin. Only as they were willing to be purged from sin could
they enter into fellowship with Him. Only the pure in heart could abide in His presence. Desire
of Ages, 108
Here we see that . . .
Pure in heart = Willing to be purged from sin
When we allow Jesus to
cleanse and purify us, we are then enabled to abide in God’s presence. We could never abide in the presence of a
holy God while still filthy and full of sin.
Jesus needs to cleanse us with the purifying fire of His Holy Spirit. We can then stand with Jesus before the
Father, in full assurance of faith.
You know, the devil surely
does not want us to undergo this cleansing process with Jesus. No way.
He wants to keep us occupied and distracted—whatever it takes—so that we
will still be in our sins at the very end of time. Look at this:
Satan is now using every
device in this sealing time, to keep the minds of God’s people from the present
truth, and to cause them to waver. I saw a covering that God was drawing over
his people to protect them in the time of trouble; and every soul that was decided on the truth, and was pure in
heart, was to be covered with the covering of Almighty God. A
Sketch of the Experience and Views of Ellen G. White, 25
What we learn from this is that
. . .
Pure in heart = Decided on the truth
During the time of trouble
that is just before us, we will need to be covered with the protective covering
of Almighty God. It will be a time of
extreme confusion, pressure, danger, and catastrophe. The only way we will make it is with the
presence of our God sustaining and protecting us. But in order to have the covering of God we
must be pure in heart, and decided on the truth. We must be willing to die rather than sin
against our God, or act in a way that is contrary to His truth.
In summary:
Pure in heart = Willing to be purged from sin ...... (abide in His
presence)
Pure in heart = Decided on the truth ...... (covered with
Almighty God)
The Lord wants so much to
cleanse us and make us new! He wants to
shelter us in the coming storm! But we
so often are careless in our upkeep and health and lifestyle. We live in
Here’s a sobering thought:
I saw that God would not acknowledge an untidy and
unclean person as a Christian. His frown was upon such. Our
souls, bodies, and spirits are to be presented blameless by Jesus
to His Father, and unless we are clean
in person and pure in
heart, we cannot be presented blameless to God. . . . The Early Years, 291
Our God is a God of order and
decency. His ways tend toward
health. His words are words of
life. The salvation process is a
cooperation between us and our Savior, Jesus Christ. We daily read His words and talk to Him in
prayer. We daily give Him permission to
remove anything He wants from our lives or lifestyles, if it is hurting us or
leading us away from God. Jesus then
takes what we surrender to Him, and He replaces it with something much better.
This is a cooperation; a
blessed cooperation. It is through this
process that we are clean in person and pure in heart, on a daily basis. Jesus presents us to the Father as blameless. We haven’t arrived, and we aren’t done
growing spiritually yet. But we are
holding nothing back from Jesus in our lives.
When this is our attitude and our song of life, the perfection of Jesus
makes up for our deficiencies in our characters. He presents us as holy before the Father, and
the Father gladly accepts us in His Son.
What a wonderful plan of
redemption and restoration the Lord has given to us!
Raise your hand if you are
saying Yes to Jesus this morning—Yes to His cleansing, purifying work in your
life. Praise God.
If you’re wondering what
became of Abraham ben Ahzad, in his Theophany on the grassy hillside, I’ll tell
you.
Abraham was struck to the
core of his being with the wake-up call the angel brought him. He realized his great need of a Savior, tears
welled up in his formerly pharisaical eyes, and deep repentance filled his
soul.
Abraham knew that his
righteousness was like filthy rags, and that there was nothing good in
him. He longed for the purity that Jesus
offered. He had always been longing for
peace—real peace. Now the peace of
Christ flooded His heart. And as Jesus
looked at him from His vantage point, Jesus knew that something wonderful had
just occurred for Abraham.
Jesus smiled at him, while
continuing to speak, as if to say . . .
Welcome home, My
son! I’ve been waiting for you . . .