Matthew 5:8 CSB – Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Matthew 23:25-26 CSB – “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside of it may also become clean.
Pharisees were so focused on the law that they neglected the heart it was supposed to produce.
MAIN POINT: Do we have a single-hearted focus on God?
Leviticus 11:44 CSB – “So you must be holy because I am holy.”
Heart = Totality of the person, both physical and spiritual life.
Jeremiah 17:9 CSB – ‘The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable — who can understand it? ‘
Matthew 15:18-20 CSB – But what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and this defiles a person.19 For from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, slander.20 These are the things that defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile a person.”
Mark 7:21-23 CSB – ‘For from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, evil actions, deceit, self-indulgence, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a person.” ‘
Heart problem = Condition of the heart
Pure = Unmixed or Uncontaminated
John 15:1-4 CSB – “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes, and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me.’
Ezekiel 36:25-28 CSB – ‘I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.’
Hebrews 9:13-15 CSB – For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow, sprinkling those who are defiled, sanctify for the purification of the flesh14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works so that we can serve the living God?15 Therefore, he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance, because a death has taken place for redemption from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
Proverbs 4:23 CSB – Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life.
Three Ways to See God:
- Creation
- Circumstances
- Eternity
Ezekiel 33:10-11 CSB – “Now as for you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, ‘You have said this: “Our transgressions and our sins are heavy on us, and we are wasting away because of them! How then can we survive?”’11 Tell them, ‘As I live — this is the declaration of the Lord GOD — I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked person should turn from his way and live. Repent, repent of your evil ways! Why will you die, house of Israel?’
