Good morning. Good morning. It's a delight to see everyone here. And I see a lot of visitors here too, I was gonna name them, but there's enough that I don't think I will, because I don't wanna miss anybody. But if you're visiting us this morning, We are very happy to have you here. And we hope you... If you're from out of state, you enjoy our Balm the Indiana weather. But if you we're here yesterday, you know better. So I guess, how do they say it? If you... If you're coming in Indiana, and if you don't like the weather, just wait a, it'll change. Glad you're here. We are here to worship the Lord. We've already worship. Before we pray, I wanna I just point out a verse of the song we just sang. And it's actually the verse we skipped, but it's 1 that I've noticed many times when we sung this song. It says I thank the more that all our joy is touched with pain. Are you thankful that your joy is touched with pain? That shadows fall on brightest hours. That thorn remain. So that Earth's bliss may be our guide and not our chain. We enjoy the goodness of life. We enjoy all those things that are pleasant and yet, this... The 1 who wrote the song, thanked God. That there is a touch of pain in some of those joys and reminds us that this isn't it. This isn't the final destination there's something more coming. Let's pray. Father, as we come into your presence this morning, we are so grateful for your mercy, your love, your compassion, Lord. Your mercy are new every morning. They don't fail. And we come recognizing our own our own need. And without your presence, first of all, in this place, but also within us, Lord, we have... We really have no chance of meeting you And so we just, are grateful Lord for your gift of the holy spirit, and we pray that as we look at the word this morning that the holy spirit within us, Lord would illuminate that truth. And we pray that in response, Lord, we would surrender more of ourselves to you this morning. Thank you for everyone who could be here, pray for those who are traveling or not with us this morning. My you be with them. I pray for brother Kendall as he preach at Cornerstone Chapel and Elk carter this morning. Would you bless their meeting? Lord for the congregation and beliefs, s nic, and everywhere where your people are gathered. Might you receive honor glory through Jesus name, we pray. Amen. I've been preaching a series on the beat attitudes, and I plan to continue that this morning, if you're not from here. If you love, like, turn your bibles to Matthew chapter 5, you're looking at the first number of verses there this morning. This is the beginning of the Sermon on the mount. We've been discussing the beat attitudes and In a sense, they are maybe a template for what life in the kingdom is like. We've looked at some of them in detail and There's a part of me at times that wonders, should I take so much time on each 1, But I think they matter. I think they're important. And this morning, I'd like to maybe draw some correlations between each of them. I don't know if if Jesus intended it to be that way. But as I studied it, and I saw some of the connections between these, it helped me understand maybe in a fuller sense, what Jesus was trying to teach. If you are, unable to look at your bible. You can also look up here on the screen this morning. We're gonna be reading versus, I think my heading says, 1 through 5. It's actually 1 through 8. So join with me. And if you have a Bible it's... Oh, be reading out of the King James this morning. Let's read this together. And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain, And when he was set, his disciples came unto 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 they that mourn for they shall become Thank you for reading that this morning. Blessed are the pure and heart for the they shall see God is the focus well, 1 this morning. And As we look back over the the first number that we've had. This morning, I wanna help us maybe think through a little bit how the first 3 what did the first 3 beat lead us to? And I think as I as I see it laid out here, the first 3 beat attitudes, should hopefully bring us to a deep awareness of our need. For example, the first 1, blessed are the poor and spirit. We talked about poor and spirit, to be poor in spirit is to have a consciousness of our deep need and our poverty before God. We realized that before God, we bring nothing of merit. We don't come with a a list of our credentials and say, God, here's here's who I am you fill in the rest. Now we come with poverty of spirit, recognizing without Christ, we have nothing. And as you see, as I lay these out here in a sense that's they're kind of building blocks. Climbing amount as it were. So the second 1 is blessed are they who mourn for they shall be comforted morning, is a sorrow for our sinful, a sorrow for the way we have violated god and disobey him and rebelled against him. And that leads us to a third 1, which is meek, meekness. Blessed are the meek for shall inherit the earth that says, to be meek is to have an accurate understanding of myself. It's to see myself the way God actually sees me. Not the way I think I am, but to be meek is to see myself in a true sense. How God sees me. I understand the nature of selfish ness, my selfish nature, I realized that I am ego centric, it's all about me. So to be meek is to understand that's who I am. So as you see this progression, It's a path towards seeing ourselves so that we can receive Christ, ultimately. If we are not poor in spirit, If we never come to that place of mourning over sin. If we are not meek and have not understood our true nature, why would we ever come to Christ for change? Why would we ever come to him and say III need help. So as you as you see this progression. I think Jesus is laying out a template of of that moving towards something that we need that... So it's more on the side of the awareness. And the fourth 1, you could maybe say is kind of the pinnacle. What is the fourth 1? Blessed are they which to hunger and thirst apt righteousness for they shall be filled. We already covered that 1. But now we find... We actually find an answer for that that need that we just talked about in the first 3. As we understand who we are before God, God has now given us a way to satisfy that need. And so hopefully, if we are poor in spirit, if we've mourn If we are a meek, there's something in us that once there's a void there that wants to be filled. We want Christ. We want more of him. And as we discussed this 1 in the past, that hunger and first thirst for righteousness, it promises that we will be filled, But yet, we are continually filled and the capacity for Christ grows, and we want more and we hunger and thirst more. And so it's not simply a 1 time filling, but we find that that our our life, our walk with God is 1 of ever expanding filling. By him as we grow. So in a sense, this is the answer. 2 man's need is we can be filled after we hunger and thirst after righteousness, which can only come through Jesus Christ. But now let's look at the next 3 beat after that. So as we've sent our, we have awareness of our need, we find the solution which is Christ, let's look at the next 1. The 1 I talked about several weeks ago was blessed or the mer for they obtained mercy. As you see the descending orders. It's kinda like you're on the backside of the mountain. And this is just illustrate. Okay? I'm not, I don't know if Jesus has intended to be said this way, but it helps me understand. So awareness of need Christ fills. Now there is the cup... There's the ability to show mercy because I have been shown mercy. So he says blessed are the mer full for they shall obtain mercy. And, last time, I think I kinda of failed to... I talked a little bit about the difference between grace and mercy because sometimes I think we we talk about those terms interchangeably. But the idea of mercy was more the idea of that we have a compassion for for people who are maybe experiencing the consequences of sin. Alright. Mercy doesn't overlook sin, but it has compassion for those who are broken. And so even even those who maybe have been mistreated. Can show mercy in return because they realize I was shown mercy. Now Grace then is is slightly different. Great God's grace to us is not god saying, well, it's fine. I know you were sinful, but I'll overlook it. It it's deeper than that. If you look it up, I think it's in strong. Grace is defined as the divine influence upon the heart, and its effect or its reflection in the life. So it's it's god acting upon us, not against our will, but as we surrender, his grace that divine influence on the heart is what draws us to him. Jesus said said no 1 can come to the father unless the father draws him. So that's part of God's grace is that divine influence on the heart. And, even you can trace that back in the first 3 beat attitudes that moving more towards Christ, that poverty and that beginning to see who we are. In a sense, that's that seed had... That's been planted, that holy spirit. Is beginning to to come alive in us in showing us our need and what we need to do about it. So as Christ has filled us and now we have mercy, that's possible because of Christ in us. And then the 1 we look at this morning is blessed are the pure and heart. I'm gonna put the the the next 1 too because I wanna show you kind of that that trajectory. We're not gonna talk about peace makers. But these 3 clearly seem to follow that filling. Of Christ. We've been filled by Christ. Now we are able to show mercy. Now we are we have found the ability to be pure and heart. Because no amount of personal cleansing will ever change you. You you can never do enough good to to erase sin in your life. You can't fully purify yourself. Now we'll talk about some of those scriptures later because it does say purify your heart. So how do we how do we handle that if Christ does the work, but we have an obligation in it. What what does that look like? So you see that. Mer full, pure heart and then peace makers. All a result, of that work within us. Another writer helped me see this connection here. And I don't wanna make too much of it, but I, again, I I think it helps us see that before and after picture. So if you look at the first 3 beat attitudes, The first 1 was, poor and spirit of those first 3, and then you get to that solution which was the hunger and thirst and being filled. So poor and Spirit, writer makes the observation, you could not... He he connects being poor in spirit to being mer. In other words, when Jesus says, blessed are the mer, that could never have happened, had you not, first of all seen yourself as poor and spirit, having come to a place where you have... You realize you have need yourself. So as that has already happened in you, then being mer is also possible. The other connection between 2 is, the second beat attitude and then number 6, those who mourn and those who are pure and heart. So you can never come to have a pure heart if you haven't seen yourself as having a darkened heart, a sinful heart, having mourn over that. So that process of having mourn over sin and then having been cleansed, gives us the ability to have pure and heart. And then the third beat attitude, blessed are the meek, he connected it to being peace makers. So I think of Moses, the Meek man on earth. Had so many times where he he he should've have could have lashed out at the people he was leading. They were so unfair to him. And yet, that was not the spirit within him. So as he became meek, it's the meek who are able to step into very volatile situations and be peace makers. Most times, a person who is who is very... I'm not sure if aggressive is the right word, but maybe there's still a lot of self there. It's very difficult for them to be peace makers because they have their own self interests. And... But someone who is meek like Jesus, who has that character of Jesus, and by the way, all of these are clearly reflected in Christ. So that's the other thing we look at in these beat attitudes is the these are the character of Christ. But for those who have learned to be meek, they are the ones who are able to be peace makers. So anyway, that illustration is maybe just a way for us to see that progression of awareness of our need, coming to Christ. And once we've come to Christ, he continues to do that work in us where we are able to show mercy to be pure and to be peace makers. So the sermon on the mount that call to live in this new kingdom. Does not come without resources. In other words, we don't read these to say, well, I gotta just do better because you can't. You you need to have that transforming power of Christ in you. So we don't wanna... We don't read the beat attitudes or even the sermon on the mount as as simply a a list of dues that comes without power. We have to have the power of Christ. It's... We are unable to do that. So let's not forget that. Going on here now, we... So we looked this morning, blessed are the pure in heart. Interesting that this the attitude places an emphasis on on the heart and not on the head. It's not a blessing simply on those who have intellectually figured it out or who have got They know all the answers and then and they can spout them off. But it's a blessing on those. If the emphasis is is placed on on the heart. I think I've made the statement similar to this before, but but Christian faith is more than just intellectual or doc understanding. That is needed to bring us to understanding, but that's not an end in itself. You could go to church your whole life. You could grow up in this setting, like, like, all like many of us have here. And know all the right answers and know all the scriptures, and you could even agree that those scriptures are true and still be unchanged. So it's more than simply getting the facts right in your head. To believe is more than that, to believe is to have a trusting faith. It's a faith that we act upon, it's a trusting faith that is in the 1 who has overcome sin and conquer death, and that's Jesus Christ. So an active faith in the 1 who did the work, and that's Christ. Never... Let's never forget that. To merely believe in Jesus as a person and to believe what the bible says about Jesus is not saving faith because the scripture says that even the devils believe. James chapter 2 verse 19, says thou believe us that there is 1 God, thou do us well. The devils also believe and tremble. This is this scripture is in the context when he's talking about faith and works. So to simply have faith without works, he said that's dead. And to believe in God, he says that's good, But, you know the demons also believe in God. In fact, when Jesus was on Earth, the demon spoke to him. They believed in Jesus as well, but it was not it's not for saving faith. Simply a knowledge of him. So instead, we are saved by grace through faith. Already mentioned grace a little bit ago. This is such a key passage here. Ephesians 2 versus 8 through 10. Says for by grace, are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves, It is the gift of God. Not of works lest any man should boast. For we are his work, created in Christ, Jesus unto good works, which God hath before or ordained that we should walk in them. For by grace? Are you saved through faith. Again, grace is the divine influence upon the heart? It is god doing a work in us, but it's through faith. God does not do that work in you if you don't have faith. So many many will come to the judgment day someday, they will have known about Jesus. They will have believed that he is the son of God. But there... It will not have been accompanied by faith. By grace, are you saved through faith. Every single 1 of us must at some point come by faith. To be saved. It's the gift of god. You can't earn it. He said it's not of works. If it was of works, we would have a lot to brag about it, but we don't. By grace through faith. That's this... That's how salvation happens. But there's a further work here in the in the second part of this passage. And it says for we are his work ship. And maybe you can see that in the in the in these beat and maybe even throughout the sermon amount or as you read scripture. He does that saving work. It's a gift to us, but now we become his work ship. I always think of of a guy at his work bench. You know, a craftsman. Someone who's building something... Let's say it's out of wood. And he has an idea of what he wants it to be like, and he starts to carve and to form and and he does all these things, but he's working on this thing until he has a finished product. So you and I are... We're on the work bench of Jesus if you wanna say it that way. We are his work ship, and he's shaping us into the kind of people that are gonna be like him. The kind of people that would actually enjoy eternity. With Christ. If eternity with Christ seems dull to you, then I would suggest you let him change you because only the people of god that had been changed are gonna enjoy eternity with him. Those who reject him will be cursing throughout all eternity, cursing his name even though they will bow their need. We are his work shape. Going back to the heart, blessed are the pure in heart, the heart, is at the center of a person's being in personality. So as we talk about the heart this morning, I believe it's deeper than just emotion or Yeah. At at that level. But it includes... It's the center of who we are. It's our personality. It's the font from which everything else comes, our affection our emotions our will, our mind. When he talks about the heart and scripture, it's our being, that's that's the pure and heart in our whole being. It's the total man that becomes the work of Jesus Christ transforming us more and more into the likeness of himself. The whole man. We don't have our spiritual side over here, and then the rest of us over here, But it's it's all of who we are becomes is being transformed. It's also from the heart that evil comes. There's passage here in Mark chapter 7, verse 20 to 23. This is... I think Jesus saying. And he said, that would come out of the man, that def file the man, that def file at the man. For from within, out of the heart of man proceed evil thoughts, adultery, for nations, murders, theft, cove, wicked to seat, las, and evil eye. Bla me pride, foolish. All these evil things come from within and def defy the man. And I think it was here. If I remember right, he was having a conversation with the ph and they were upset that. I think it was about hand washing or something. And he said that's not what def files a person. He said it's what comes from within it's from what comes out of the heart is where evil comes from. So any trouble that we face in this world today by people, by families, by nations, whatever, wherever trouble and wherever evil comes from. It comes somewhere from an evil heart, That's the source of it. It's like, it's the fountain from which it flows. And so as Christians we realize that as long as we're here on this earth, and we're still in an evil world, we're gonna experience we're gonna experience the effects of that. Evil coming out of the hearts of men. But we want that... We obviously want that to see that change. But the root of prop... Of these problems are of sin evil lies in the heart of someone who has evil plans or desires. So until there's heart change, evil and trouble will persist. That's true of us personally as well. As long as we're struggling with sin and not dealing with sin in our lives that there's gonna be problems because it comes from a heart that Jesus says needs to be pure. So that's talking about the heart. Let's keep going. So the blessing is to those who have a pure heart. Blessed are the pure in heart. I love the definition for purity, that we find in Psalm 86 1. This is, I'm sorry. 86 11. This is a psalm of date... Excuse me, of David. And he says, teach me Way o Lord, I will walk in thy truth, unite my heart to fear thy name. Kinda think there's maybe a him like that in our in our song books. I'm not sure if we ever were saying it, but I think I've seen that title. Unite my heart to fear thy name? That's the prayer of David. What what in the world is he talking about? How does a heart get united? He's not talking about uniting it with other hearts. He's talking about his own, unite my heart to fear thy name. Jesus also talks about the eye being single. It's kind of the same concept. He says, let your I be single. So to to unite my heart has the idea that a heart can be divided. There can be divided affection and loves. So jesus says unite my heart. Let me look briefly here at where Jesus talks about this. He says the light of the body is the eye. If therefore then I be single, Whole body she'll be full of light. But if then I be evil, Whole body she'll be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is Indeed darkness, how great is that darkness? So when Jesus talks about this the lamp of the of the body or the light of the body, it's the eye. That's the source of light. So he says if that I be single, or if it'd be good. If it be pure, your whole body will be full of light, and he gives the contrast to that. So the idea of being single is the same idea of being pure. So when David says unite my heart to fear thy name, I think what he's saying is, let my heart be single. Let my heart be pure, united around 1 love, which is a love for God, not these other passions that are pulling against him. If you don't remember anything else from this message, I would encourage you to to go look at that scripture in psalm 86 11, and meditate over that as you as you spend time with God in the next week or so? And just ask, pray that. Unite my heart to fear that name, Lord, can you do that? Can you help me to have a single focused heart that is true to you and is not wrestling with these other passions. I think Paul talks about that in Romans chapter 7. He's he talks about the war between Flesh and spirit. There's a part of me that wants to do this, and neither other part of me wants to do that, and there's just that... There's that warring inside. But we pray that god helped my heart be true. Pure in heart, single in heart. United in heart. I love the concept. Another way to describe a single heart is a heart without hypocrisy. I divided heart wants to know God and worship him, but it also wants something else too. Yes, I wanna worship God, but I also I'm not done maybe with sin or some other things that I wanna have. I thought of, if you've ever taken a jar, and you take... You put water in a jar, what happens if you put oil in the jar as well. Let's say you fill it halfway with water, and you fill it halfway with oil, cooking oil, motor oil, whatever, and you take that jar, put a lid on, and you shake it up real good. And it mixes up real nice. Right? What happens when you set the jar down for a while. It separates. Right? It divides. And I thought of that. That divided heart. It's... It wants to be true. It wants to be It wants to be pure, but it has... It's divided because there's 2 there's 2 elements in there. In a sense that's maybe the way a divided heart can be is a desire and a heart for god, but not fully yielded, not fully saying yes. As we summarize this concept to be pure and heart means that the supreme desire of our life is to live for the glory of god. Our single desire is to know him to love him to serve him. That's what I want. More than anything else, I wanna know God. I wanna serve him. There's kind of a parallel statement in Hebrews, chapter 12 verse 14. He says, follow peace with all men and h us without which no man shall see the lord. So the promise in this attitude was, Blessed are the pure and heart. They will see God. The pure will see God. Here he says, follow a peace with all men in h without which no man shall see the lord. H is very similar as similar concept to purity or to a pure heart. So he says without that, you won't see God. So that's the requirement. So how... In what sense... Excuse me. In what sense will we see God according to this promise? We know throughout the old testament, men like Moses and Abraham, they talked with God. And yet they were not allowed to see the face of God. John says in first John 04:12, No man has seen God at any time. If we love 1 another, god dwell in us and his love is perfect in us. So blessed of the pure heart, they will see God, but then John says no man has seen God at any time, and this is after Jesus has resurrected. It's in first John. So in what sense do we see God? If John says no one's ever seen him, But then Jesus said, if you've seen me, you've seen the father. So what what how do you reconcile all that? I don't quite know how you reconcile all that except, it seems like in in many of these scriptures, there is there is this sense of Maybe it's seeing through a glass dark. There there is a portion we see now, but there's a part that's not yet. There is more to come. So in what sense do we now see God? And I I believe that we see God through the eyes of faith. In the now, we have a vision of God and his work in and around us. As a... If you're a born again believer and you have a consciousness of God, you probably see him in ways that most people don't. You step out on a lovely beautiful morning. Aren't you just aware of God, Wow, Lord. What a day or you you you see it in nature. You see it in... You even look back through history, the events of history. And how things are orchestrated through history, and sometimes these amazing things happen, and you and you think, well only only God could do that or you read the bible and you see the history of God's people, over spans of time where no person could have really seen it until you zoom out way later, and you say, oh, wow. God. So there is a sense where we see God, we have we have a... That we have the the Eye of faith, sees God where maybe others cannot. We also see God in a personal way. You spend time with God. You sense his presence with you when you worship. His near. You're driving down the road. You start to sing. God feels so near. The eyes of faith realize, god's with me. He's here. In that sense, the pure and Heart, they do see God. They sent him. I like this verse in in Hebrews 11. This is the faith chap. Is talk about Moses. It says by faith, he first took Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king. For he endured as seeing him who is invisible. He endured as seeing him God as 1 who is invisible. And I know Moses probably more than anyone talked with God. But it was invisible. But through his eyes of faith, he saw him as 1 who is invisible. So there is a sense that it is it is seeing God through the eyes of faith, but there is also gonna be a face to face. You will truly see God someday. Every 1 of us is gonna stand before God and meet him face to face. And if you are found worthy to enter, his kingdom, his eternal kingdom, you're gonna be with him face to face for eternity. In my human mind, I know that, but it almost seems hard to grasp. What would it be like to sit down and see the face of God? And to talk with God. And to know him. He says blessed are the pure in heart, they will see God. The ones who prepared themselves are gonna see him. We get to see him in sense in a sense now, we get to see him at work, but someday we will see him. This is a promise. First John 3 2. Beloved, now are we the sons of god and it does not yet appear what we shall be. We're not quite sure yet what we're gonna be like. But we know that when he show up here, we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. I don't know what that's gonna be like. I just know it's gonna happen. I know that the promises is there even John, the friend of Jesus says, when he shall appear, I don't know what we're gonna be. I don't know how it's gonna look. But when we do appear... When he does appear, he says we shall be like him. We will become like him. Whatever that means, whatever that looks like. For we shall see him as he is. So you can be assured this morning, brothers and sisters. Someday, you will see God. You will face God. You will talk to him. In light of that, magnificent truth, and the knowledge that you are being prepared for an audience with God someday. What do you think about your life choices in light of that? You know, it sober me as I was studying this to consider my life. Am I wasting my life? Am I wasting my time on things that will have no bearing on that meeting with God someday. Or even in a, maybe a more sobering sense, are there things that I would be ashamed of? To take in my meeting before God that day. We still have time to prepare. How do I get a clean heart? I already know that cannot produce a clean heart in my own strength and power. You and I need to join David in his prayer. Psalm 51 his prayer of repentance, created me a clean heart o God and renew right spirit within me. Do the work. God. I need it. Create that clean hard in me. Keep doing that. Keep doing that renewal in me. The only way we can be cleansed is by that work of the holy spirit in us. Paul shared with the Philippians, in Philippians 1 6. He said being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. If if Christ has begun that work in you. If you have placed your trust in him, you are walking with him, he is gonna continue to do the work. Here he says, He's gonna keep doing it and doing it until Jesus Christ comes until you go to meet your lord. He's gonna do that work. Paul had a very confident word to these people regarding that. So it must be the work of the holy spirit inside of you. And inside of me, but we are not passive in this process. God doesn't act upon us and in us against our will. I can't choose to live in the gutter of sin and expect God to change me. I can't make life choices that alienate ate me from God and expect him to keep doing the work against my will. And as I close the message here this morning. And as as we think about that pure heart. Blessed are the pure in heart, they will be the ones who see God. They'll see him in this life. They'll see him in the life to come. What part do I play in making sure that I have a clean heart. And I... My mind was drawn to James, chapter 4 versus 8 through 10. It's a good book to go read is the book of James. Talks about faith. He talks about works. But he talks about our place and our heart in this. Like to just read this as a closing passage this morning. Here's the question. Is your heart pure before God. Is god doing his good work in you. James 4. He says, draw I to God, and he will draw an eye to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinner and purify your hearts. E double minded. Just pause there and just let that soak in a bit. Draw an I have to draw an eye to God and in turn He comes, he makes his home with me. Cleanse your hands you sinner. That's choices we make. Purify your hearts, you double minded. Remember the idea of the single heart, unite my heart, to fear thy name, He says you double minded. Purify your hearts double minded. Do not have double dual affection in your heart. We cannot say I love God. But then have some other God. Just have some other idol. So James says, purify your hearts, you double minded. Unite that heart Unite the heart like Jesus I like like David said. Unite my heart to fear that name. Be afflicted and mourn, and weep let your laughter or be turned to morning and your joy to he, Humble yourselves in the sight of the lord and he shall lift you up, humble yourself in the sight of the Lord. If you're unsure about where you stand with God, the answer is very simple, humble yourself. Come before God. God can show you. I bless you this morning, blessed it are the pure at heart for they shall see God. I hope and pray that is your testimony. I hope and pray that you are seeing God in your daily life and experience as you walk with him. And if you are, we can have the assurance as someday, we will truly see god an eternity and for all eternity. Shall we borrow our heads and pray.