Preached at Cornerstone Church in Cascade, IA on August 31, 2014.
Turn with me to Matthew 7:1-6. Today we are going to examine what I believe to be the most misunderstood, misused and abused sections in the Bible. This is a section that the world loves to throw around, especially in the face of Christians. Now as we read this section we must remind ourselves that these are the words of Jesus Christ himself. Jesus is the leader of our Church, he is the Son of the Living God, everything he says is true and everything he says we must obey. So as with all scripture we desire this text to equip us so that we can accomplish the work of God in a way that pleases Him. So with that said, let us read our text, pray that God would guide us to His truth, and study God’s Word.
Now before I get into the Bible, I want to first make a logical argument. When someone who has just been confronted for their sin, throws Matthew 7 back in your face, they are effectively violating their own terms. They have become a hypocrite. For what they are doing is judging your judgment. Do you follow? By their attempts to avoid your accusation, by accusing you of sin by judgment, they have effectively created their own noose. They are now standing in judgment over you. So perhaps you should respond back to them, don’t judge me for judging you. Now the question before us becomes, is this what Jesus intended? Is this what Jesus was trying to create, a perpetual, never-ending “don’t judge me” argument? Obviously not. So let’s first start by understanding what this section does not say. When Jesus says, “Judge not, that you be not judged” he does not mean to avoid discussions about sin. Nor does he mean for us not to evaluate people and their sinfulness. This is obvious by Jesus’ own statements in this section.
For those who have been with us since we began this journey, you have heard me say multiple times that Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount could also be titled the Sermon on the Heart. For every topic that Jesus addresses is an attempt to address the condition of our sinful hearts and our need for Jesus to perform heart surgery on us, so as to be able to fulfill these radical commands of Christ. In doing this, throughout the sermon, Jesus continuously stacks his teachings up against the teaching and the behavior of the Scribes and the Pharisees. The Scribes and Pharisees were the religious leaders of that day. He does this in the beginning of the Sermon of the Mount by saying,
So as we begin chapter 7, Jesus is not changing the back drop of his teaching. He is still stacking up his teachings of against the teachings of the Scribes and Pharisees. Therefore, when Jesus says, “Judge not, that you be not judged” he is speaking to how the religious leaders wrongly go about addressing sin. So the question is how was their judgment wrong? It is wrong the same way they were wrong about everything else. They way they addressed sin in people’s lives was based, not on the righteousness of God, but on the righteousness of man. The scribes and the Pharisees were judging self-righteously. In our text, Jesus gives us an illustration to help us understand the wrong form of judgment.
They did everything they could and more to give the appearance that they were holy. They worked hard to follow every rule and every tradition to a “T” and they believed that if they worked hard enough then God would bless them. They focused all their attention on cleaning up their lives on the outside. Listen to what Jesus says about them later in Matthew 23.
The bottom line is that we are saved by grace and we stand in grace. When we recognize that we are not God, and we are saved by grace alone, we are transferred from darkness to light, and we have eyes to see. The log comes out. And only when this happens are we able to help our brothers and sisters with sin in their lives. Until we have confessed our sins and abide in the grace of Jesus Christ, we are utterly useless. If we stand in judgment as God over the sins of others we do more damage then good. But if we humbly walk as sinners saved by grace, healing can begin with our brothers and sisters, for we can given them what helped us, Jesus Christ. I believe the Apostle Paul is a fantastic picture of this right judgment. For those who don’t know Paul was a Pharisee. He called himself a “Hebrew of Hebrews.” When Jesus called the Pharisees hypocrites, he was speaking of Paul. Eventually Paul was captured by the grace of God. Listen to how Paul addresses the most sinful Church in the Bible, the Church in Corinth.
When you confront someone about sin in their life, the driving force behind it must be loving, not Lording. This does not mean that we avoid the sin discussion. If you love them, you will confront them. It means that when we see something in their eye that is bringing them to tears, we should come up along side them and weep, and mourn for them, not as their god, but as their brother and sister.
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Preached at Cornerstone Church in Cascade, IA on Mary 11, 2014.
Turn with me to Matthew 5:38-48. Today we are turning our attention back to the Sermon on the Mount. Prior to Easter, we were examining the words of Jesus' famous sermon verse by verse. I have to admit, as much as I loved to preach the explicit Gospel over the last three weeks, I have missed finding the deeps treasures in Matthew 5-7. In our text today, Jesus shows us what Kingdom love looks like. We will very quickly see that this love Jesus is describing is foreign, or alien, in this fallen and broken world. We will see that this love is a radical love. So as always, let us read our text, pray that God would open our hearts, and then allow God to mold us into Christ-likeness.
Your biggest problem in this world is not your circumstances, it is not your finances, it is not your relationships, it is not your government. The biggest problem that you have in your life is you. You are the problem. Likewise in my life, my biggest problem is me. To use a common phrase, “I am my own worst enemy.” Why can I say this? Why do I feel comfortable pointing the finger? Because the Bible is my source. We have examined these text many, many times.
At the center of all of these versus lie our hearts. At the core of your heart is your self. We are the problem. The question is, what is going on in our hearts when we do the sinful things we do? Yes, we know that we are sinners, and we are separated from God and we are desperately sick spiritually, but what is happening? I think the best verse to explain this is James 4:1.
Another word for what James 4 is describing is entitlement. We believe we are entitled to stuff. We believe we are entitled to comfort. We believe that we are entitled to respect. We believe we are entitled to honor. We believe we are entitled to respect. In fact, we don't just think we are entitled to all these things, we demand it. When we don't receive these things we are upset. We are offended. We kick and scream and complain and retaliate. It is as if we are spoiled little Kings and Queens yelling, “Off with their heads.” And this is the problem that Jesus is addressing in our passages today. It is the problem of self. It is the problem of self-centered-entitlement. It is the problem of the world. Now that we know what problem Jesus is addressing, let us now take step back and understand who Jesus is preaching to. Let's start by looking at verse 45.
These descriptions are not description of the citizens of the world, they are descriptions of citizens of the Kingdom of God. Jesus is preaching not to those who dwell in the dominion of darkness, but who dwell in the dominion of the Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, and make no mistake, these two groups of people live differently, or at least should live differently. There should be something very distinct about followers of Jesus. What is interesting about these two groups of people, those who are worldly and those who are children of God, is that geographically they live in the same physical territory. The Kingdoms simultaneously coexist. For example, this sermon was for the disciples, yet on that mountain that day there stood both believers and unbelievers. There was a mix, and this is is still true today. This reality is all part of God's plan.
The response stands at a stark contrast to the initial action: turn the other cheek, give him your cloak as well, go with him two miles, give your money away. These responses are night and day different from the evil response. They are almost the opposite. Explicitly, Jesus tells us that we are not to resist the evil. We are suppose to accept what is dished out. And if that was not enough, not only do we have to not resist the evil that is dished out, we are to love and pray for the people who dish it.
What is crucial for us to understand is that Jesus is not asking his disciples to do something that he is not willing to do. This is exactly the life of Jesus when he walked the earth. He is the ultimate example of this lifestyle. His own town rejected him and attempted to throw him off a cliff, but he did not retaliate. He was mocked by Herod, Pilate, Roman guards, the Sanhedrin, and he opened not his mouth. With holes in his hands and feet, thorns in his brow, his flesh torn open, slowly suffocating on a cross, he prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” How wild is that? Jesus was praying for the people who, not only struck him on the right cheek, but who were accomplices to his murder. This is radical love. This is love that the world does not have. This is love that is blinding as compared to the darkness of revenge, and this is their King of the Kingdom. I love that we have a King who fearlessly leads the way. He does not sit back and tell us to do something that he has not already done. He is a King who rides into battle, leading the charge. He loved to the fullest, even unto death. This love is a love that the world had never seen. It is a scandalous love. It is an explosive love. It is a radical love, and it is the love that our King wants us to have filling our hearts. How? How can we display the same radical love as our King. How is it possible to be like Christ? There is only one way, we must be born of God.
Verse 8 goes so far as to say that if you don't have love, then you don't know God. And we are not talking about intellectual know, but intimate know. Meaning that if you don't love, then you are not his child. It is impossible to be God's child without having love. Being born of God and loving as Christ loved are inseparable. So this begs the question, how do we become born of God? We must deny ourselves and trust Christ.
We must lay down our lives, so that we can save our lives. We must die to self and live for Christ. When we stop living for ourselves, we will stop acting like the world and stop feel entitled. No longer will there be fighting and quarreling, because it takes two to tango. If one person refuses, the fight is short lived. When Jesus becomes you greatest treasure, someone stealing your coat is insignificant. A guy by the name of George Muller, who was a mighty follower of Christ said this: “There was a day when I died, utterly died, died to George Muller and his opinions, preferences, tastes and will; died to the world its approval or censure, died to the approval or blame of my brethren and friends and since then I have studied only to show myself approved unto God.” If you get a chance do some study on George Muller. This man wreaked of love. This is what people don't get. People love to proclaim love, and hold up peace signs, and sing songs like “We are the World,” and “All We Need is Love” yet they don't get it. Love is not something that is manufactured by jingles and ad campaigns. Love is not something that can be conjured up in a sinners heart. The heart is desperately sick. No matter how hard you try to love, you can't. The only way this world is filled with love is through repenting and placing your faith in Christ Jesus. Love is a fruit of abiding in the vine of Jesus Christ. So what happens when people start to love like Jesus loved? Simple, hearts are changed. When we live like Christ and radically love those who are unlovable, mountains are moved and sinners become saints. Why? Because when the citizens of the Kingdom of God act like their King, the world is coming into contact with the King himself. And it is the love of Christ that can break hearts of stone. I can't recall what book I read this story from, but it moved me. There was a young man in a village who became a Christian. As you can expect he was full of joy and excitement and he wanted to share the Gospel with his family and his village. He went to his village and began to share the message of Jesus Christ with them. The immediately began to beat him. The beat him so bad that they knocked him out and drug him outside the village. He awoke and thought to himself he must have wrongly shared the Gospel or perhaps they just misunderstood, so he went back to them and shared the Gospel again. They did the same thing. They beat him up and drug him outside the village again. Once again, he woke up and went back a third time to share Christ. They began to beat him again, and then they stopped and they began to cry, for they recognized that whatever had captured his heart and gave him the radical love that compelled him to come back over and over again, must be worth listening to, so they did, and his entire village was saved. Why? Because of the love of Christ that dwelled in his heart and was poured out onto the lives of his family and friends. Have you done something like that? Could you do something like that? What if all of us lived a life as radical as that young mans? What do you think would happen? Revival is what would happen. If we denied ourselves and followed Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit then hearts would break and people would not only hear the Gospel, but they would see the Gospel. They would not be able to deny the evidence that the God of radical love dwells in our hearts. So let us commit to follow Christ. Let us die to self and live for Christ. Let us lay down our entitlements and be filled with the love of Jesus Christ and let us live like him.
Preached at Cornerstone Church in Cascade, IA on April 20, 2014.
Today, we are celebrating the most important event in history, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. There is nothing that compares to the depth in our heart and the reach in the world of the eternal impact of this historical fact. Jesus' death and resurrection is the pinnacle of the display of God's glory, and perfectly and completely addresses our greatest need in this life. With that said, some of your hearts are hard to this reality. You are numb to God and you are numb to His Son. Some of you who sit here today, could care less about what happened to a 33 year old teacher 2000 years ago on a small little hill outside of an old town dusty town 6000 miles away away from Cascade. Perhaps the only reason you are here today is because we have a breakfast, or perhaps Easter is your one and only time that you make an appearance in a Church, or perhaps you family drug you here. And to be honest, I don't care why you came, but I do care that you are here, in this moment, to hear the Gospel. If what I just said describes you, then know this, I wrote this sermon for you. You are the one that was in my mind when I searched for just the right passage to preach from this Sunday. You are the one that I was praying for without knowing your name. You are the one that played the devil's advocate in my mind as I considered each word. It was you. I have been longing for this moment to preach to you the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and my purpose is to proclaim the Gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit and break your hard heart and cause you to see the beauty of the gift that is Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection! So with that said, let us read our passage for today, pray that God would move powerfully in this moment and then let the power of the Gospel echo off these walls.
Today I am going to answer, God willing, two questions. First, what is the Gospel and second, why is it the most important thing. First, lets start with the word “gospel.” The word gospel has taken on a lot of different meanings over the years: Gospel books, Gospel music, the gospel truth. What are we saying when we use this word? The word Gospel in the original Greek is euangelion. The word euangelion is best translated to good news. What is important to remember is that the word euangelion was not first used in the context of the Bible. It was a word used in conversations by regular people prior to its use in the Bible. It was a word used in society that was adopted by Jesus, then the disciples and apostles, and then the Church and it is of course all over scripture. So this begs the question how was this word Gospel used in conversations prior to its adoption. Euangelion was a familiar word in that day in age. It was a word that was commonly used in the context of war. It was used to announce a victory, or to announce the ushering in of a time of peace and security. For example, picture a war that has waged on for years and years. Every family, community, and person has been affected by brokenness, casualties, and death. This war is like a weight that presses down on you day after day. Now picture one morning you are awakened by the cry of a messenger running through the town and at the top of his lungs yelling “Euangelion! Euangelion! The war is over!” In that moment those sweet words would wash over you like a spring rain. Giving you hope, giving you new life, giving you joy. This is the the thrust of the word euangelion, and this was the word chosen by God to announce the coming of His Son. With that said, what is so good about the good news? To answer this question, we need to first understand the bad news, and to do that we must start at the beginning. “In the beginning God created.” These are the first words written in the Bible. This statement tells us that God is the Creator of all things, but it doesn't tell us why. Why did God create the heavens, and the earth, and humanity. What was in the mind of God prior to him Speaking creation into existence? If you have read the Bible from cover to cover, the answer is overwhelmingly clear. There is one theme that runs through every verse, chapter, and book of the Bible is that everything exists to glorify God. Everything. This is God’s purpose in creating, to display His glory.
So God makes everything for His Glory, for his name, for his honor, but here is the problem. We don’t do it. We don’t give him glory, we don’t honor him, we don’t appreciate him, we don’t thank Him, we don’t love Him. Instead, we reject Him. We ignore him. We manipulate him. We even use his name and his son’s name as a cuss word. Listen to Romans 1:19-23.
I am always surprised when people, especially parents, don’t personally feel the problem of ungratefulness towards God. This is one reason I think God designed families. Families, I believe, are a type, or a shadow, or a pointer to a greater reality. How many moms have spent hours in the kitchen cooking, just to have her children rush to the table and gobble down everything and run off to get back to their games without once saying “thank you.” This is exactly what we do when we breath, eat, move, hear, see, speak without ever thanking God. There is not a thing on this planet that he is not ultimately responsible for. However, we all take it for granted. In our hearts, God might as well be dead to us. Another word for this rebellion is Sin. Often we think of sin as a specific act. Such as telling a lie, or cheating on our spouse. But sin is really more than the act. It is a state of being. It is a condition. We are not sinners because we sin. We sin because we are sinners. Do you see the difference? Think of a tree. It is not an apple tree because it grows apples. Instead, it grows apple because it an apple tree. Likewise, a thorn tree is not a thorn tree because it has thorns. It has thorns because it is a thorn tree. Do you get it? This is humanities situation, this is the state of the world, its condition, its sickness. Everyone has been infected with the disease of sin. Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” There is that word glory again. Every person has inherited it, and the source goes all the way back to the first people ever to live, Adam and Eve. Adam sinned in the garden of Eden, and everything changed. From that point every single person that has ever existed on this planet is born with the spiritual DNA of sin. We are natural born sinners.
I see this in my job all the time as a prosecutor. When people are sinned against, they want their pound of flesh. When someone is found not guilty, and everyone knows they got away with it, something in our heart cries “No!”. Where does this universal desire for justice come from? It comes from God. We are created in his image. As his image bearers we have similar attributes. The existence of justice, morality, can only be attributed to a sovereign designer who has planted it in our hearts. This does not come from chaos. It is not something that evolves. The scary part is that the punishment for our rebellion against God must match the crime. When we sin against an infinitely holy, sovereign, and gracious God, our punishment must also be infinitely harsh. This is justice 101. This is eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth stuff. This is what we demand in the public square. Think of it this way, if you spit in your bosses face, you will get fired. If you spit in a police officer’s face, you will get arrested. If you spit in a judges face, you will spend a month or more in jail. Now think about spitting into the face of the infinite God of the Universe. Should not the punishment match? Well, it does. This is what we call Hell. Hell is the name of the place that God carries out his eternal and just punishment for sinners. Jesus speaks of it more than anyone, and it is a shame that Hell is not spoken of more often, especially at Easter, for it is everyone’s guaranteed destiny, apart from the sovereign grace of God. Which brings us back to our text for today.
The reason that Jesus came to earth was to die on the cross. This was the entire point of the Son of God, taking on flesh. He came to die, and not to just die, but to die for sin, and not just to die for sin, but to die for your sin. You! Every single person in this room, Jesus died for you. He died for your rebellion, your rejection, your lying, your lusting, your gluttony, your slothfulness, your pride, and your hunger for money and power. His death had a purpose, a beautiful and wonderful purpose. Not only did his death have a purpose, but it was according to God’s plan. We are told that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. What does that mean? Turn with me to Isaiah 53. This passage in Isaiah was written 700 years before Jesus was born. Listen for Jesus in this text.
I am sorry, but it is hard for me to fathom that there are people who don’t believe in Jesus after seeing a text written 700 years before the death of Christ so on point with the historical reality of Jesus life and death. No one in academia legitimately debates that Jesus died on the cross. The question is never whether he died onteh cross, the question has always been “Why should we care?” Isaiah 53 is why. Listen to the connections:
Not only are we told that Jesus will come and die, but we are told why in Isaiah 53. To bear our griefs, our sorrows, our sins, to pay for our transgressions, to be crushed for our iniquities, he was chastised for our peace. The death of God in the person of Jesus Christ has brought us peace. Do you see it? Peace! Victory! Euangelion! Good news! Humanity has waged war against God, and the only thing that makes sense is Hell. It is where every single one of us deserve to spend eternity. But thanks be to God that he is not only just, but he is also loving. Jesus absorbs the wrath we deserve. Can you see why the Gospel is the most important thing in your life and everyone’s life? Can you see what I am so passionate about proclaiming this message? Everything pales in comparison to this. The bottom line is we have an eternity waiting for us. Everyone in this room will be in one of two places, In God’s presence or Hell. Because of what Jesus Christ did, everyone who places their faith in Jesus as their Lord and Savior will be saved.
Preached at Cornerstone Church in Cascade, IA on March 23, 2014
Turn in your Bibles to Matthew 5:21-26. Today, we continue our journey through Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. As we work through the text today, and every Sunday for that matter, it is important for us to remember that every passage has context; meaning that the Bible is not to be read as random unconnected statements of facts, but that we must read it as it flows from one passage to the next. Today that is doubly true, because we are looking at a portion of text that is within a singular Sermon and it flows out of a statement that Jesus just made. So with that said, let us look read our scripture, pray and then exposit it.
Jesus then goes on to say that for us to get into heaven our righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees. As we saw last Sunday, this creates a problem for us, because Romans 3:10 tells us that, “None is righteous, no not one.” Therefore, we lack righteousness, yet we need righteousness to get into God's Kingdom. As I said, Jesus proclaims that he fulfills the law, therefore He is righteous. Therefore Jesus has what we need, righteousness. And the good news is that Jesus will give us His righteousness, and the way we receive it is through faith in Him.
Having said that, the religious leaders during the times of Jesus, the scribes and the Pharisees, had made a mess of this age old truth. Instead of placing the focus on faith in God, they put the emphasis on faith in good works. And Jesus was calling them out during the Sermon on the Mount when he said:
In the days of Jesus, the Old Testament was written in Hebrew and not many people could read Hebrew because the language of the day was Aramaic. In addition few people had copies of the Old Testament. If you were a commoner, people like you and me, the way you would know the Bible was through teachers. They would orally tell you what the Bible said, but they wouldn't just read it to you, they would teach it. This is why Jesus said, “You have heard…” You can see this same pattern through the rest of Matthew 5, “You have heard, you have heard, you have heard.” What Jesus is referring to is the teaching of the scribes and the Pharisees. The people couldn’t check to see for themselves what the Bible said, they had to trust the Scribes and the Pharisees. The Scribes and the Pharisees were the religious leaders of the Jews. They were the ones who were in charge. The problem with the people not having Bibles is that you cannot trust humanity. As I stated, the scribes and the Pharisees had a made a mess out of God’s Word. They had placed themselves, not under God’s Word, but over it. They manipulated it, changed it, added to it, and subtracted from it and then they went out and taught the people. As you can imagine, Jesus was not happy with them. In fact, Jesus eventually pronounces judgment on them in Matthew 23.
Never trust a person or a Church who doesn’t encourage you to check their teaching against God’s Word. If a Pastor or Priest or some other religious leader tells you to let them worry about what the Bible says, run away as fast as you can. If Sunday morning is all about rituals, and going through the motions and God’s Word is not preeminent, then welcome to Satan’s playground. For Satan loves to twist and distort what God’s Word truly says. He did it in the Garden, he did it in the days of Jesus and he is doing it today, and the main way he does it is by turning our eyes from God and to ourselves. This is exactly what Jesus is rebuking through the rest of Matthew, Chapter 5. The Scribes and Pharisees had turned God’s law into something it was never meant to be. The Scribes and the Pharisees turned God’s Law into a list of things that you did externally in order to earn your way into heaven. They turned God’s law into a mechanical process, teaching that as long as you jumped through the right hoops, you would be accepted by God. Jesus comes and blows the roof off of Satan’s house, and he starts with what we see as the “sinful” human act Murder.
Behind this teaching of the Pharisees is a different spirit, or intent, then what God intended. The spirit behind the Scribes and the Pharisees was to instruct that you could be good enough to get into heaven, all you had to do was obey externally. This is what we call works based salvation, that your ability to get into heaven rests in your own hands. Jesus comes to reeducate the people and the way he does it is important. Look at verse 22.
And what does the Author of the law say about murder?
How many times have you heard people say that they are going to heaven because they are a good person? When they say this they are thinking like a Pharisee and Scribe. They believe because they have not violated any major civil laws, they are “good.” Because they have never actually acted out their anger by ending someone else's life, the believe that they are good enough to get to heaven. This is just not true. For your thoughts towards another person is enough evidence to make you liable to the hell of fire. The issue is not the level of the offense. The issue is, and has always been, your heart. Think about sickness and symptoms. Symptoms do not determine sickness. Symptoms point to the reality of our sickness. Physical murder is a symptom that you are a sinner, but so is insulting someone. They are symptoms of the same sickness..sin. To end, Jesus then says this:
Do you know what? God detests this form of hallow religion. He is not a God that will be mocked.
What the people needed was Jesus Christ. For what stands in the middle of liable to the hell of fire and loving obedience is Jesus. For when we accept Christ in our lives, and His spirit comes and dwells in our hearts, we no longer go through the motions, we live out faith. We are convicted by the Holy Spirit to obey and we lay down our offering and we go and reconcile ourselves to our brothers. The only way we can do this is by Christ in us. If you are sitting here today at Cornerstone Church and you call yourself a Christian, and there is someone out there that you have sinfully angered, and you think that you being here is the answer, then you don't get it. Sitting in these chairs doesn't save you. Christ saves you. And those who have been saved by Christ, live to reconcile. Reconciliation is your spiritual DNA. So stop fooling yourself, and make things right with your brother, before it is too late. Preached on February 16, 2014 at Cornerstone Church in Cascade, IA
Turn in your Bibles to Matthew 5. We continue are walk through the beatitudes and find ourselves today in verse 8. For those who have not been with us for the last eight weeks, let me say a few words of review before we get started. The Beatitudes are eight statements made by Jesus at the beginning of his famous Sermon on the Mount. The best way to understand the Beatitudes is to see them as a description the character of a true, authentic genuine, Christian. To say it another way, the beatitudes are fruit hanging from a Christian tree. With that said, we are on the 6th beatitude today, so let us get right to it and read our text, ask God to show us His truth, and then examine it.
If that was not enough, not only is it unfathomable to stand is the presence of such greatness, but his presence is also our greatest treasure.
Jesus says that those who will see God are those who are “pure in heart.” Lets start with the heart. What is the heart? This is a common phrase within Christianity. We read about the heart in the Bible, we sing songs about the heart during worship, we pray that God soften hearts, change hearts, and clean hearts. What are we saying when we speak this way? Obviously, when we speak of the heart, we are not talking about the biological heart, we are talking about something more. When we speak of the heart, we are talking about a person’s essence, their core. The heart is a description of the center of who we are and why we do what you do. When we talk about one’s heart, we are talking about the real you. When we talk about our heart we are talking about the force that drives our mind, our emotions, our spirituality, and our actions. This heart of man is a mysterious thing. It is not something that we can see with our eyes. We cannot take it out of our chest and examine it. It is not tangible. However there are two ways that we can know our hearts. First, we listen to our cardiologist, otherwise known as God.
In the context of purity of heart, Jesus is speaking to the singular devotion of your heart. Devotion to whom? God of course.
This is where so many people fall short. Instead of making God everything, they treat Him as an accessory. He is an add on. They spend time with God when it is convenient for them. They may go days and weeks without one thought of Him. They may pray, but only when they have to. The try to read the Bible, but more important things come up, like ESPN or laundry. They try to got to Church, but it is just much work. They would love to do what God requires, if it was easier. Does this sound like a heart devoted to God? Absolutely not! To say one thing and to do another is by definition, hypocrisy. I love how Dietrich Bonhoeffer puts it, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come a die.” To follow Christ, you are to die to self and to live to God. To be a Christian is to have one singular purpose. You are all about His glory, not your comfort. Someone who is pure in heart is someone who entirely sold out God; doing everything that He asks. Purity is perfection. Forty verses later in Matthew 5 Jesus says this:
No, the pure heart takes an act of God. It takes grace. We have found ourselves at this text many times over the last year, hopefully you will see how crucial it is in understanding of God's saving Grace.
Having said that, it is God who does the work, but you must act out the miracle. You are not passive in this transformation. If you sit here today, and your are double minded, and your heart is not pure, do as James states.
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