“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8)
We will continue to think in terms of the heart and what it means to have a pure heart. Two weeks ago we looked at what a pseudo-pure heart was and then last week we looked at what a pure heart really is. This week we want to look at what must be done to obtain a pure heart. In the next week or two we will look at why the pure in heart are blessed. The text tells us that the pure in heart are blessed for they shall see God. That should be the primary motivation for people to desire pure hearts. Without it they will not see God.
As we saw previously human beings are born dead in sin and with hearts that are totally depraved. Matthew 15:19 tells us the root of the issue: “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.” Genesis 6:5 shows us the reason that the LORD sent the great judgment of the flood: “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Proverbs 16:2 tells us that it is not just what we think, desire and do: “All the ways of a man are clean in his own sight, but the LORD weighs the motives.”
With the above Scriptures in mind, we must see that man cannot simply decide to have a pure heart. Many will read verses like those above and simply think that they can become pure by suppressing evil thoughts and desires and trying to focus on good things. They have surely missed the point if they arrive at that conclusion. The verses above should remove all hope from man that he can do this work himself. He must see that God is not just condemning the actions, but He is condemning the actions and the heart that the actions flow from. We must learn to look at those texts as condemning the heart primarily and the actions as a way of condemning the heart. The heart is the issue and not just the actions. So if we have some behavior modification where the actions are changed, the heart can still be just as rotten to the core as it was before. A man’s ways can be clean in his own sight, but we must never forget that the motives and intents of the heart are judged as well.
We must come face to face with the issue that the heart needs to be changed. If a person is unconverted, that person does not just need to behave better, that person needs a new heart. There can be no pure heart as long as there is not a new heart. There is no pure heart as long as the old heart and nature are the ones that we have received from Adam. The unregenerate person must see that it is that new heart that he needs. A person’s sin flows from a sinful heart, so good works must have a new heart to flow from. The works that flow from the sinful heart will all be sinful because the spring is polluted. The heart must be changed in order that what comes from that heart will not be totally polluted.
But at this point we are dealing primarily with believers. In one sense the instructions are the same as unbelievers, though they would come in a different way. The heart of the unbeliever is a heart that is full of pride and self-love. From that spring of pride and self-love man sets up an independence from God and a self-righteousness. What must be done is that man must recognize what is going on within his heart and seek the Lord for grace to break him from his sinful heart. When a person becomes a believer that person is not instantly a perfect person. In fact, no one becomes sinless in this life. So we must all battle and strive in order to have an increasingly pure heart.
The believer must begin to focus on his or her heart and its intents and motives. When the believer begins to understand that the motives and intents are naked and open before the Lord, then the process of seeking a pure heart begins. It is only when we understand the nature of our pride and self that we can begin to understand what a pure heart is and what is required to obtain it. We must also look with faith into that which is unseen by the eyes of the body and know that our hearts are before God in the brightest of light and He sees them perfectly. “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). “But You know me, O LORD; You see me; And You examine my heart’s attitude toward You” (Jeremiah 12:3).
On the one hand, the religious sacrifices of the wicked are an abomination to God. Yet they are even more wicked when the intent is evil (Proverbs 21:7). On the other hand, we are told to serve the Lord with our whole heart and with a willing mind because God “searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts” (I Chronicles 28:9). No believer will ever please God without a thorough searching of intents and motives of the heart. No believer can please God without a heart that is seeking the glory of God out of love for God in the intents and motives. The heart is the issue and the heart is the issue in terms of true purity.
A pure heart will only be pure when the heart is broken of its sinful intents and motives. We must learn to discern between what we do out of love for God and what we do out of love for self. When we serve self, we are serving an idol as much as if we bowed down before a statue. In fact, the only reason people bow down to statues is out of self-love. They want the idol to serve them in some way. Christianity is treated in that way by what is seemingly a vast majority of people in our day. When Christianity is nothing more than how to live a good life, how to obtain morality, and other things that we want, it is really nothing more than the idolatry of the self. There is nothing that cannot be done within Christianity that cannot come from a heart of self-love except a pure love for God. But even there pride will delude a soul into believing that it loves God. Self-love and pride blinds the soul to reality.
Until we begin to grasp the depths of our pride and self-love all that we do (even in the name of Christ) will be done out of our pride and our self-love. It would appear that most things and most ministries are in fact based on things of self. We are told to serve God because it is best for us. We are told to do something for God because of what He will do for us. It can also be put in the most orthodox of ways. However, the Greatest Commandment is to love God with all of our being. Until what we do flows from a heart that loves God instead of self our hearts will be full of idolatry and certainly not pure. It is not love for God simply to love Him for the benefits given to self whether real or perceived. We must love God for who He is and sometimes He sends trials upon us that a selfish heart cannot bear, though a heart that loves God grows to see His glory in it.
All of what we do must flow from a love for God and be moved by His grace in the heart. If we do something that is good and yet is not out of love for Him, that is done in our own strength and is setting up pride and self-righteousness. In Philippians 1:17 Paul speaks of preachers who preached for the wrong reasons: “the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment.” These men were preaching Christ, but they were doing so out of selfish ambition. We can see the same thing today. There are denominational ladders to climb, meetings to attend where we want to appear good, comparison of churches, or perhaps ways to build the resume. That is not doing ministry out of love for God, but it is doing it out of love for self. Surely we can see how a minister that preaches and ministers from selfish motives is arrogant and proud and is not serving the living God. That man is nothing more than a vile idolater.
It is easy to see this in ministers, but can you see that in yourself? Have you examined your heart lately? How many things do you do simply for the sake of impressing others or to obtain honor in some way from others? If you can begin to see that, then the path for a pure heart is set out for you. You must see that you must be broken from self-love and self-righteousness in order for your heart to have true intents and motives that are moved out of love for God. You must begin to do battle with yourself if you are to have a pure heart and see God. If you do not battle self, then self is what will fill your vision and you will be blinded to the sight of God.
But there must be a word or two of warning. For you to be truly broken from self, you must also be broken from the idea that you can break self from self. We can strive to be broken from self on the basis of the strength of self. That is very deceitful and will lead to a false humility. What you must do is to know that you must be broken from self and yet that you cannot do it. You simply must begin to see each event as from the hand of God and sink into the nothingness of the creature before its Creator. Pray to see each event and trial as from the Lord and know that self cannot deal with it. Why is that? For God has not made us with the strength and love within ourselves to handle these things. He has made us to be empty vessels that He works those things in us by grace.
All that comes from a pure heart is motivated by love for Him and its intent is for His glory. For a heart to flow forth with love is for the heart to be the home of the living God and for Him to work His character in it. That heart is a heart that is not bowed down to self and does not love God for the sake of self. The pure heart does good works in order that the glory of God may shine forth from it, and not in order to show or prove its own self-righteousness. The pure heart is pure because God shines forth from it. The impure heart has nothing but self that flows from it. To have a pure heart, self-love must die and the love of God must flow from the heart.
God Loves... Himself 
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