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WEEKLY
Volume 4 Number 19
4 October 2009
A Pure Heart
(Message delivered by Rev Hien Nguyen at the
Worship Service, 2:00 pm, Oct 4, 09)
Text: Matt 5:8
Two weeks ago Brisbane had a dust
storm. Although it was not as serious as the dust storm in Sydney, we
felt uncomfortable as the air was polluted and our houses and cars were
dirty with a layer of dust. We had to spend our time and energy in doing
a lot of cleaning. It is sad that Lot chose to live in Sodom, a sinful
city full of evils and wickedness, but his heart was not comfortable,
and “vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that
righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his
righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds” (2 Peter
2:7-8). Spiritually speaking, we are also living in this sinful world
full of deceits, lies, immorality, ungodliness, crimes and apostasy,
etc. but do you and I feel uncomfortable? Do we seek the cleansing from
the Lord, His Word and Jesus’ blood? Do we desire to have a pure heart
and carefully keep it clean to enjoy God’s blessings?
God’s Blessings for the Pure in
Heart
Be Able to See God:
Our Lord Jesus preaches, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for
they shall see God” (Matt 5:8). The Greek term for “pure” is
katharós, which means, “Clean or pure in a spiritual sense from
the pollution and guilt of sin, sincere, upright, void of evil” (Zodhiates).
God is holy, and the curtain of sin has covered human eyes from seeing
the holy God. Many saw Jesus Christ in His days, heard God’s Word
preached or taught directly from His mouth and witnessed His miracles,
but not many could recognize and acknowledge that Jesus is God! Their
physical eyes saw Him but their hearts were blinded! Many nowadays still
challenge, “If I see God, I shall believe.” How can they see God with
their sinful, corrupt, depraved and wicked heart? However, with a pure
heart cleansed by Jesus’ blood, our spiritual eyes may see the Lord,
“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb 12:2)
and we shall see Him physically when He comes back again, “this same
Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like
manner as ye have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11) and
“Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see
the Lord” (Heb 12:14).
Be Like Jesus:
Jesus is holy and pure, if we have a pure heart and keep it pure, we
shall be like Him, “when he shall appear, we shall be like him;
for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope
in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure” (1 John 3:3-4).
Be Able to Stand before the holy God
and Receive His Blessing and Righteousness:
“Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in
his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart;
who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He
shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God
of his salvation” (Ps 24:3-5), and “Truly
God is good to
Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart”
(Ps 73:1).
Be Used by the Lord:
God is holy and He will use clean vessels for His holy work, “If a
man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto
honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto
every good work” (2 Tim 2:21).
Do you and I really want to see God,
to be like Him, to stand before Him and to be used by Him? Then we must
have a clean and pure heart. How can we have a clean and pure heart?
How to Have a Pure Heart
New Creation in Christ:
As human heart is “deceitful above all things, and desperately
wicked” (Jer 17:9) and “For from within, out of the heart of men,
proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts,
covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye,
blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within,
and defile the man.” (Mark 7:21-23), and “unto them that are
defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and
conscience is defiled” (Titus 1:15). Then, “Who can say, I have
made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?” (Prov 20:9), and
“how can he be clean that is born of a woman?” (Job 25:4).
Therefore, you and I must have a clean heart created by the Lord, our
Creator and Maker, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a
right spirit within me” (Ps 51:1). There is no other way. People
in this world acknowledge their sins and try to cover their sins by good
works, religious rituals or practices, but they fail to see their sinful
and dirty heart! Like the Pharisees, they only keep themselves clean
outwardly, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye
make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they
are full of extortion and excess… Even so ye also outwardly
appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and
iniquity” (Matt 23:25, 28). For those who are compromising and
tolerant to sins and worldliness, they cannot be clean and pure before
the Lord, “For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world
through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are
again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them
than the beginning… The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the
sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire” (2 Peter 2:20,
22). It is worst for those who are in spiritual darkness and unable to
see their unclean heart, “There is a generation that are pure in
their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness” (Prov
30:12). Dear friends, you and I must have a pure heart so that we may
have pure minds, pure motives, and pure consciences to love purity and
holiness and to hate sin and uncleanness. There is no other way.
Be Cleansed by the Lord:
Acknowledging our unclean heart, we have to come to the Lord Himself to
be cleansed by Him, “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you,
and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your
idols, will I cleanse you” (Ezek 36:25). No one can make you
and me clean and pure except our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Sadly,
many still go and confess their sins to their religious leaders for
forgiveness! No one can forgive our sins but God, so “If we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9), and “Purge me with
hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow”
(Ps 51:7). Praise the Lord!
Be Cleansed by Jesus Christ’s Blood:
“And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and
without shedding of blood is no remission” (Heb 9:22). That is
why the Lord Jesus Christ had to offer Himself as a blood-shedding
sacrifice to take away our sins and His blood is always powerful to
cleanse us, “the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from
all sin” (1 John 1:7) and “Wherefore Jesus also, that he
might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without
the gate” (Heb 13:12). Christ’s blood is able to cleanse not only
our hearts but also our corrupt minds, our evil consciences, and our
sinful deeds, “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance
of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience,
and our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb 10:22), and “through
sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood
of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:2). Only by Jesus Christ’s blood can we
approach the holy God, “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to
enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus” (Heb 10:19). And
only by Jesus Christ’s blood can we overcome Satan’s accusation, “for
the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our
God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb,
and by the word of their testimony” (Rev 12:10-11) Praise the Lord
and His precious blood!
Be Cleansed by God’s Word and Our
Obedience to God’s Word:
We have our part to purify ourselves and keep ourselves clean. God’s
Word is holy, clean and pure, “The words of the LORD are pure words”
(Ps 12:6; cf. 19:8; 119:140), and “Every word of God is pure”
(Prov 30:12), and God’s Word is the “Holy Scriptures” (Rom 1:2; 2
Tim 3:15). Then, we have to read God’s Word and obey God’s Word to enjoy
the cleansing by His Word, “Now ye are clean through the word
which I have spoken unto you” (John 15:3) and “That he might
sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word”
(Eph 5:26). The Holy Spirit uses God’s Word to show us and convict us of
our shortcomings, our sins, our unrighteousness, our transgressions and
our iniquities so that we may come to the Lord Jesus Christ, our High
Priest, for the cleansing by His blood and His Word. God’s Word is truth
and with our obedience and submission to God’s truth, we are cleansed
and sanctified, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is
truth” (John 17:17), and “Seeing ye have purified your
souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit” (1 Peter 1:22).
Then, those who are not obedient and submissive to God’s Word cannot be
clean or pure!
Be Ye Separate!
As God is holy, He commands you and me to separate ourselves from sins,
worldliness, unbelief, and wrong doctrines, “Wherefore come out from
among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not
the unclean thing; and I will receive you” (2 Cor 6:17). We
cannot be clean in dirty and polluted environment. We cannot tempt God
or abuse Jesus Christ’s blood by our compromise and tolerance to sins,
wrong doctrines and worldliness. The wisdom from above is “first
pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of
mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy”
(James 3:18). It is foolish to let us be contaminated or defiled by
worldly pleasures, ungodly products (movies, books, articles, music) or
ungodly friends, “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt
good manners” (1 Cor 15:33), and “Lay hands suddenly on no
man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure”
(1 Tim 5:22).
Walk in God’s Light:
In darkness we cannot see our dirt, uncleanness or stains, and we can
sit on a dirty chair or step
on dung without awareness. In spiritual darkness, we can neither see our
sins, uncleanness, unrighteousness or the spiritually unclean
environment around us. To keep our hearts pure and clean, we have to
walk in God’s holy presence or in His Light and Truth, “But if we
walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one
with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from
all sin” (1 John 1:7). Walking in God’s light with a clean heart and
pure conscience, we can pray to God and love our brethren and do the
right things, “call on the Lord out of a pure heart” (2 Tim
2:22), and “Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience”
(1 Tim 3:9), and “love one another with a pure heart fervently”
(1 Peter 1:22).
Keep on Being Cleansed:
Only when we walk in God’s holy
presence, we shall appreciate Jesus Christ’s precious blood, which is
able to keep on cleansing us from all sin, unrighteousness, and
defilement, “the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth
(keeps cleansing) us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). We
have to take a shower and wash our clothes more often to keep ourselves
clean. How about our spiritual robes? They do need to be washed always
until our Lord Jesus comes, “These are they which came out of great
tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the
blood of the Lamb… And to her was granted that she should be arrayed
in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness
of saints” (Rev 7:14; 19:8)
Conclusion
Dear friends, do you and I want to see
God, stand before Him, be used by Him and be like our Saviour Jesus
Christ? May God create in us a clean heart and keep it clean and pure
always in Jesus’ blood and His pure Word.
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