Let's look at the next one, verse eight, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see
God."
This is the seventh out of eight Beatitudes, so I'm almost done here.
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."
Let's start out by talking about literally seeing God, first of all, and then we'll talk
about figuratively seeing God.
So "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."
Well the pure heart, listen to Acts 15, 8, "And God which knoweth the hearts, bear them
witness, giving them the Holy Ghost even as he did unto us, and put no difference between
us and them, purifying their hearts by faith."
Did you get that?
Acts 15, 9, "Curifying their hearts by faith."
Well that makes sense, if our heart is purified by faith, "Blessed are the pure in heart,
they shall see God."
If you get saved by putting your faith in Christ, you're going to go to heaven, you're
going to see God.
Amen.
So he says, "Blessed are the pure in heart, they shall see God."
The Bible also says in 2 Timothy 2, 22, "Flee also youthful lusts but follow righteousness,
faith, charity, peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart."
Calling on the Lord out of a pure heart, he's talking about with people that are saved,
right?
So, those that call on the Lord out of a pure heart, those that purify their hearts by faith,
they're going to see God.
But not only that, when we think of a pure heart, we're talking about a sincere heart.
Sincere and pure are two words that are very closely related, okay?
A sincere heart is the one that actually humbly realizes they're a sinner, that Christ is
their only hope and calls out to Christ, poor in spirit, right?
So what about figuratively seeing God?
So that's literally going to heaven and seeing God, but often when the Bible says see, it
means to perceive, understand.
The Bible talks about how through faith we see that which is invisible, through the eyes
of faith, right?
And even today in our modern vernacular if someone explains something to us we will often
say I see, I see.
What does that mean?
I understand.
So when the Bible says blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God, this has
to do with actually understanding God, perceiving God, comprehending God, understanding where
He's coming from.
And the thing about that is that if we're out there with a rotten heart and a rotten
lifestyle we're not going to be close to God, we're not going to see God, figuratively speaking.
So a good verse on this is James 4-8, "Draw nigh to God and He'll draw nigh to you, cleanse
your hangy sinners and purify your hearts, you double-minded."
Purify your hearts, you double-minded, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God,
right?
Cleanse your hangy sinners, purify your hearts, you double-minded, okay?
That's going to help you draw nigh to God and see God.
Figuratively speaking.
You know, if you want to understand the Bible, you've got to be a doer of the work, the Bible
says.
If you want to understand the Bible, you've got to purify your heart, you've got to be
a person who's sincere, you've got to open the Bible sincerely wanting to know the truth,
and you have to love God, obey God, do the work, then God's going to open up the scripture
to you.
Okay, so that's the blessed are the pure in heart, they shall see God figuratively.