Blessed are the Pure in Heart

[!NOTE] Primary Scripture Reading: 1 Peter 2:9-12

I. The beatitudes emphasize a transformation in the life of an individual and the evidence of transformation in how the person relates to others

A. Poor in spirit: Not full of oneself but desiring to be filled with God’s goodness

B. Mourning: Mourning for sins and the separation from God and desiring to be reconciled to Him

C. Meek : Humility; using our power to glorify God and edify others instead of exalting self

D. Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness: Desire to be right with God and live a righteous life

E. Next week we will discuss the last two character beatitudes

1. Merciful: Showing mercy to others because he has received undeserved and abundant mercy from God
2. Peacemaker: One who desires to live in harmony with God and fellow men, even seeking good for his enemies

F. In this lesson we are going to focus on being pure in heart so we may see God

II. Definitions

A. “pure”

1. Defined by an absence of impurities
2. Greek scholars define it as clean, free from mixture with anything that would corrupt or defile
3. Purity is achieved by removing things that defile to leave what is clean and good.
4. Purified water is filtered of impurities so it will taste good and not sicken us.

B. “in heart”

1. In the inward being; the source of our being from which our attitudes, speech, and actions proceed.
   • Matthew 12:33-37
   • Mark 7:20-23 - Out of the heart comes that which defiles
2. Being pure in heart means that we focus on cleaning the depths of our being even though no one but God can see our heart.
3. Some people are concerned with what other people think instead of purity within.
   • Matthew 23: 25-28 – Hypocritical Pharisees were concerned with putting on a good show instead of being good within
   • We strive for purity, not because we want the favorable judgment of others but to be holy like God and reflect His glory in our life, 1 Peter 1:14-16
4. Purity must be a priority for the Christian, Hebrews 12:14

III. Challenges to purity in an ungodly world

A. Entertainment

1. In all ages, entertainment has been a challenge to Christians because the entertainment industry is filled with people who reject the morality of the scripture and often create their works to ridicule and undermine faith and morality—we ignore this fact at our own spiritual peril.
2. Like rain on rocks, the constant exposure can erode our stance on Bible-based morality and teach us how to be immoral.
3. Sadly, this filth has also filled the houses of Christians with unrighteousness and immorality and they opened the door to let it in.
   • If you peek in your neighbor’s window while they are having sexual relations it is a crime, if you go to an adult theater to watch it is pornography, if it is in a popular movie it is acceptable entertainment.
   • Some do not want to appear odd or out of touch with what everyone is watching. Others do not want to appear prudish. Others desire the sensuality dipping their toes into the pool of immorality without jumping in the deep end.
4. Jeremiah 6:15 – in Jeremiah’s time, God lamented those who forgot how to blush
   • I have heard Christians say things like “I can watch nudity, immoral storylines, or hear foul language and it does not affect me.”
   • What does such a statement really say?

Does it say we have become Super Christian upon whom evil bounces off like bullets off of the chest of Superman?

Does it say we have we become calloused and unmoved by the evil around us?

• Do we really think we can feed ourselves disgraceful language and images and not be affected? Think again – Proverbs 6:27-28

1. Why do we have to occupy so much of our time with these things?
   • Are we so saturated with the knowledge of God and His word and have we done so much work in His kingdom that we can spend endless hours every day in mindless and immoral entertainments?
   • Are we so afraid of not knowing what is going on in the latest TV shows and movies that we have to immerse ourselves in these things?
   • 1 Timothy 4:11-16 – Paul told Timothy to immerse himself in godly things; to let them consume him and his time so that he would be saved and he would save others.
2. The first century Christians consciously avoided the immoral entertainments so they would not pollute themselves and could give attention to godly things.
   • Tertullian (195 AD): Regarding the entertainment of the theater (Paraphrase by David Bercot, Heretics p.31): “The father who carefully protects and guards his virgin daughter’s ears from every polluting word takes her to the theater himself, exposing her to all its vile language and attitudes. How can it be right to look at the things that are wrong to do? How can those things which defile a man when they go out of his mouth not defile him when going in through his eyes and ears?”
   • Lactantius - Prominent Roman rhetoric teacher (260-330) Regarding the entertainment of his day (Paraphrase by David Bercot, Heretics p.31): “I am inclined to think that the corrupting influence of the stage is even worse [than the senseless bloodlust of the arena -rfd]. The subjects of comedies are the deflowering of virgins or the loves of prostitutes…Similarly the tragedies parade before the eyes [of the audience] the murder of parents and acts of incest committed by wicked kings… Is the art of the mimes any better? They teach adultery by acting it out. How do we expect our young people to respond when they see that these things are practiced without shame and that everyone eagerly watches?

B. Worldly compromises

1. Spending so much time with the philosophy of the world and materialism we can reflect worldliness more than godliness, polluting our hearts.
2. It is a consensus among many Christians that we have lost the war on immodest dress.
   • Even in the Lord’s assembly men have to guard their eyes from seeing the breasts of their sisters in Christ and too much visual access to what should be covered.
   • I have heard from numerous men over the years that have had to struggle when serving the Lord’s Supper because standing while women are sitting wearing loose blouses or skirts or dresses that became shorter when they sat have drawn their mind from the cross of Jesus.
   • I have talked to Christians who have lamented that they saw more of their brothers and sisters in Christ because of immodest pictures posted on Facebook and other social media sites.
   • 1 Timothy 2:9-10 – our dress, men and women, should profess godliness
3. Ungodly speech
   • I have heard lewd jokes told in the company of Christians, sexual innuendo, and foul language and, at times in my life, have been guilty of it myself.
   • Gossip is a problem with some Christians though condemned often in scriptures
   • Some people lash out in anger and others have a tongue filled with bitterness.
   • There are Christians who argue that it is acceptable to lie, deceive, and cheat at times.
   • Ephesians 5:4-12; Colossians 3:7-10
4. Sexual immorality
   • Christians are getting ensnared with pornography and sexual immorality.
   • Even Christian young people are involving themselves with sexual behavior thinking that if they do not “go all the way” and have sex they are safe.
   • There is a word used in the Bible that describes such activity and its condemnation: “lasciviousness”

Defined as “lustful, indecent bodily movements, unchaste (or impure) handling of males and females”

“unbridled (or unrestrained) sensuality” (King James Dictionary)

• Galatians 5:19; Romans 13:13-14; 1 Peter 4:3
• This activity corrupts the good image the world should see: 2 Peter 2:2

1. These and many more behaviors testify of the challenge Christians have in remaining pure in a filthy world but we must fight the battle and not give in to what we would call “little” sins.
2. S. Lewis: “It does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the light and out into nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed, the safest road to hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft under foot, without sudden turnings, without signposts.”

C. Christians of all ages have faced these challenges because wickedness is found in all ages

1. “All is full of criminality and vice; indeed much more of these is committed than can be remedied by force. A monstrous contest of abandoned wickedness is carried on. The lust of sin increases daily; and shame is daily more and more extinguished. Discarding respect for all that is good and sacred, lust rushes on wherever it will. Vice no longer hides itself. It stalks forth before all eyes. So public has abandoned wickedness become, and so openly does it flame up in the minds of all, that innocence is no longer seldom, but has wholly ceased to exist.” Seneca (speaking of ancient Rome, quoted in Barnes on Ro 1:32)

IV. When we reflect holiness and purity in our lives, we become light houses in a dark dangerous world

A. When the church was first established, the purity and holiness of the Christians distinguished them from the worldly people

B. Aristides – wrote, around the year 125, when Hadrian visited Athens, “Wherefore they do not commit adultery nor fornication, nor bear false witness, nor embezzle what is held in pledge, nor covet what is not theirs. They honour father and mother, and show kindness to those near to them; and whenever they are judges, they judge uprightly. …and their women, O King, are pure as virgins, and their daughters are modest; and their men keep themselves from every unlawful union and from all uncleanness, in the hope of a recompense to come in the other world. “

C. We must be the testimony of purity in an impure world

V. Developing purity

A. Let you mind dwell on good things, Philippians 4:8

1. Let this principle guide your choices of entertainment and leisure activities and encourage you to “redeem the time” to use it mostly for things that help you to be closer to God, more like Jesus, and useful in the kingdom of our Lord.
2. If we fill our mind with good things, it will come out in our lives (out of the treasure of our heart…)
3. I heard of a person who printed this to fill a sheet of paper and posted it by his TV set.

B. Make conscious decisions about what you put in your mind

1. Proverbs 4:23-27 – Guard your heart
2. Remember the children’s songs: “Be careful little eyes what you see…”

C. Make choices in how you speak and act that reflects a pure mind that wants to be holy like God

1. 1 Peter 1:13-19
2. A disciplined life begins with a sober mind.
3. 1 Peter 2:11-12 - As a holy nation we must live as people who are not citizens of this world
4. 2 Corinthians 4:1-2: We have renounced sinful things to live faithfully to God

D. Remember that you have been called to purity and good works

1. Titus 2:11-15: we were called to holy lives
2. Read and meditate on this passage all this week and let it be the guiding statement of your life