Blessed Are the Pure in Heart

Happy Sabbath! And you know, I could do what a meal did there.

In about a million years. You know, it'd take a while, but I'd have to learn a little bit about guitars and stuff like that. What are these things, a meal? These things right here. Oh, strings! That is, you know, the little dials on the thing. You know, you'd have to learn, of course, I know a little bit about it, but not much. But perfect message. You know, we had a wonderful feast over in Hawaii. We had, you know, a little over 500 people that were over there. We pretty much filled the auditorium. I'm not sure we could have handled 600 over there in the auditorium. It was just packed. You know, people really... actually, the ushers had to actually do their job.

You know how sometimes you come in, you've got all these chairs, you can sit in... Well, the ushers had to say, how many are in your party? You know, I think we can find some place for you to sit here. You know, so it was tough sometimes. Had a really good turnout for Mr. Kubik's, you know, message on the Sabbath, and that went very, very well. Very powerful message. I hope that you were all able to hear it. It'd be worth hearing it again, actually. Very, very powerful. Very needed, very much so.

One of the highlights for us at the feast is always seeing our family, if they're able to go, you know, to Hawaii. This year, Stephen and Melanie were able to go over and, you know, bringing, of course, Joseph and Alan. Joseph, unless he's almost four, I believe, and Alan is 18 months. And we just had really a lot of fun. We went on a train trip with them, and it's amazing the excitement that little kids have just traveling on a train through the rainforest of Hawaii on Kauai.

And Kauai, by the way, is what you think of when you think about going to the tropical island. The only thing they didn't have there was Tarzan swinging through the vines. But one thing I really enjoy doing, you know, when we go, you know, into the feast and when we have our grandchildren there, is you just like to just be around them, to spend time with them. I remember when our boys were growing, it had to remind me of when our boys were growing up, Sean and Stephen and Jonathan.

And I was talking to my oldest son last night, and I said, you remember how I taught you to say the word hippopotamus? He said, you tickled me until I said it. And it really does work. Have you ever tried to... you can teach kids things just really fast. You could just tickle them. And, you know, so they learned the word... they learned very big words. I think that we even worked on supercalifragia, whatever that word is, and got them to say that.

We were able to get, you know, that... what is that? The Walt Disney word, supercalifragia? If you say it enough, there's another part to that. But anyway, I forgot what it was, and somebody needed to tickle me, I guess. But I remember, too, when we would get home after going to church, very often the boys, of course, wanted to wrestle. And I remember with all of our boys, I always put them in the Chinese... what I call the Chinese torture trap.

And, of course, when you're like six or seven, you can't get out of it. And, of course, I had to let them out. It was a pretzel hold, you know. You lock your arms around there... I mean, your arms around them, and you lock your legs around them, and they can't move. And then also, they loved the tickling hand. You know, I'll show you what it is if you'd like afterwards. But the tickling hand was, when I get home, the hand, you know, the tickling hand, I had no control over it.

And, you know, I would say, oh no, the tickling hand! And, you know, they'd run through the house running from the tickling hand.

And I kind of smiled on the way down because I remembered that. And I thought, wouldn't it have been funny if the tickling hand had turned on me and turned to me and started, you know, tickling me all over? Save me from the tickling hand! You know, that would have been good. I didn't think of that, though, until coming down here today. But little kids are just a tremendous opportunity, especially grandchildren. You know, like they say, you can send them home afterwards, but children are bundles of appetites. And when they smile, it's like they light up the room. They light up, you know, it's like a little light bulb going off.

And one of the obvious qualities, I don't think I have to prove this to you, is their innocence. Little children are just so innocent and so pure. They don't even know enough to have a fear of danger. They don't really have a fear of some of the things that you and I have, you know, over a period of time, you know, I'm almost getting inoculated by it, and you're afraid of different things. But they're so innocent and they're so pure. And you know, this is one of the qualities missing in we adults being pure. You know, purity, that word purity. I'm not going to have you turn to it, but in Matthew 5 verse 8, when Christ was talking about the the Beatitudes, He said, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. They're going to see God. Blessed are the pure in heart. And that Greek word there, by the way, for the word pure, is katharos, and it means pure, just pure. It means clean. You know, somebody really clean. It's like little babies are so clean in heart, and oftentimes mom has scrubbed them all up, and they're even clean on the outside. But, you know, they can get dirty, of course, but takes a little time for them, Lauren, how to do that. But, you know, also the word katharos means clear. So pure, clean, and clear. Blessed are those that are pure, clean, and clear in heart, for they shall see God. They're going to have the ones, they're going to be the ones that are going to have the opportunity to spend eternity in the presence of Jesus Christ, in the presence of the Father, and the holy angels for all eternity. And so, in light of that, brethren, I want to talk about, and the remainder of this message this morning, is are you striving, are you really working at, brethren, being a person of a pure, and a clean, and a clear heart? Are you working at that?

You know, are you keeping yourself unspotted from the world and the society that we live in out here?

Barnes notes, by the way, says this about this bad beatitude about blessed are the pure in heart. He says, that is, whose minds, motives, and principles are pure, who seek not only to have the external actions correct, but who desire the holy in the heart, pure and holy in the heart, and who are so. In other words, this is who they are. This is what they are. There used to be a little shirt that was out, you know, and you know, on the front of it, it says, what you see is what you get.

And unfortunately, oftentimes, that's what people did get from us, don't they? What's on the outside? They don't really get what's on the inside. You know, you may be the most loving, wonderful person, but it may not be conveyed from the outside. But, you know, Barnes' Notes goes on to say, man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. You know, God looks inside of us on our hearts.

Now, brother, what does it mean, though, to be pure in heart? What does it mean? What exactly does it mean? I want you to listen to a story here, a short story, that maybe give you a better definition of what we're talking about here, pure in heart. After a violent storm one night, a large tree, which over the years had become a very stately giant in the forest, was found lying across the pathway in the park.

Nothing but a splintered stump was left. Hoesher examination showed it was rotten. It says at its core. And, of course, the reason is because insects, termites, had eaten away at the heart of the tree. This big, stately tree, impressive on the outside, but the termites had eaten the inside, the heart, of that tree, so it collapsed and fell across the pathway. The rottenness in the tree did not occur overnight, though. But it began when the first insect nested in the bark of that tree. I hope you can see the analogy here. It begins when the first insect nested in the bark of that tree. And, carnal human nature, brethren, sin is like that. When we are forgiven, brethren, we must make a choice to turn from, you know, with our whole heart to battle against sin so that we can maintain pure hearts. In other words, brethren, the message, I think, of such a story as this, is to guard your heart. That's your core. And, you know, sooner or later, all mankind is going to collapse because of what's in the heart. Most will collapse because of that. They will fall sway to the problems of the future. So guard your inner core, your heart, brethren. Be pure of heart. Now, again, what does it mean to be pure of heart? Let me give you a few points here. I'm going to give some verses I won't turn to, but you should be very familiar with some of them that I'm going to refer to, but just to remind you again what the Bible tells us.

But somebody who is pure of heart, brethren, looks to one master. Looks to one master. Let's go to Matthew 6 over here. Matthew 6 and down in verse 24.

Matthew 6 and verse 24. It says, No one can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. It says, You cannot serve God and mammon. So, again, you can't have two masters. Now, interestingly, the world does that, doesn't it? You think about that. That's what the world does. Everybody in the world does that. It has more than one master, in fact. That's why the problems are in the world. Some claim to be looking to God or looking to Jesus Christ in their lives, but we know they don't really do it. If they did, they changed the way they lived. They began to read this book and begin to practice what this book says. But they are sitting on the picket fence, as it were, and they've been doing it for 6,000 years. And mighty uncomfortable, even so, for 6,000 years, they've been sitting on that pointed picket fence. You know, but people, I guess, have learned to live with their discomfort. And they've learned to live with their consciences, which have more than likely become seared so much, sometimes they don't even perceive the wrong that they're doing. So the world, again, is following, sometimes, more than two masters. They might be money, it might be, you know, their version of what Christ is or God is, their interpretation of the Bible, you know. In other words, they can have what they, you might think, you know, would have to get some sort of spiritual value out of it. But somehow, that's even not pure. But let's do this stuff in verse 22, because before Christ said this in verse 24, this is what he said in verse 22. He said, the lamp of the body is the eye. It's there, for your eye is good.

Your whole body will be full of light. That makes sense, doesn't it? If your eye is good, in other words, what proceeds from the eye is good, then your whole body is good.

But if your eye is bad, he's talking again about a spiritual concept here, by the way, your whole body is full of darkness. If, therefore, the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness? How great is it? It might be, again, like that big, stately tree, you know, with the termites in it that eventually fell, collapsed. Is this us, brethren, for the future? Sometimes you wonder. You wonder what the future is going to be for some who seem to never get it. And I know all of us, of course, in the same boat, we all have the human nature, don't we? We're fighting. We're all striving to overcome. We're all trying to fall on God's mercy with those things that we do not overcome. But he then says, no man can serve two masters. So either we're going to serve the way of God, which is light, or the way of darkness. There are only two ways. You know, there are only two ways. I think, you know, Bob Dylan wrote a song about you're going to you're going to serve somebody. I forget how the song goes off the top of my head. A meal probably remember it, perhaps, but maybe not. I don't know. Bob Dylan is getting me an old guy. But, you know, I never much liked Bob Dylan's singing, but he did have some good words sometimes. But he talked about how you're going to serve somebody. And I'm not sure he uses the word slave, but he might use it even in that song the word slave. I haven't heard it in a long time.

But again, brethren, we can't serve more than one master. And, you know, James wrote that a double minded man, in other words, if he got more than one master, a double minded man or person is unstable in all his ways. He doesn't say, you know, that he's just unstable and a little off. He's unstable in all of his ways. So this is important, brethren, to be the pure heart have one master, one master. And we know that master should be Jesus Christ. A Christian, brother, should be led by pure heart. And they don't, they're not double minded. And they don't lead a double life. And the double life I'm talking about is not, you know, whether you're, you know, on the side, you're Spider-Man here, or Batman. I'm talking about living contrary to God's way. And you know what I'm talking about. In other words, they've let the old way go. They've let the old way of life that they had go. We cannot be, brethren, double minded as God's people. In 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17, you might want to write it down to remember, to refer to it. It says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. All things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.

And David, King David, you know, when he prayed, remember after he'd sinned with Joshua, and he really crashed spiritually, as it were. David said, created me a clean heart, a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. So that's a thing, brethren, about leadership. David was one of the finest leaders that Israel ever had. Now, David made a lot of big mistakes. I've told you before, brethren, that let's not mistake the fact that David was a very righteous man. Yes, he sinned big, but you know what? He repented big, too. And if you want to read about his repentance, look at Psalm 51. He turned around his life. He said, God, I know you don't want physical sacrifices, like the sacrifices of bulls and goats, but you want a changed attitude in me. And David delivered it, brethren, with the help of God.

But a leader, brethren, and that's what we're going to be. We came away from the Feast of Tabernacles. We were taught that we are going to be leaders in the future and the world tomorrow. And we can't resist that calling because that's what God's called us all for. Now, God hasn't called anyone here just to save them. We're called for a purpose. We're called to be leaders for the future. But a leader must have a singleness of heart and be clean-hearted and pure heart.

This leader, by the way, I'm going to talk about now, made use of Christianity as he was, you know, running for the office that he was going to eventually have and dominate. He spoke of Christianity piously.

And he told spiritual stories. He told spiritual stories when he spoke to the press, the media, and even showed his well-worn Bible. And he spoke to scores of people of how much strength, personal strength, he had derived from the Bible, the lessons of the Bible. And, you know, some people, when he came along, some people thought he was a man that was sent from God. But Adolf Hitler was only masterful at using Christianity on an outward basis, because there was no inward conviction. You know, because, as you know, he ended up responsible for the extermination of six million Jews, you know, in World War II time. I think that's a perfect example, rather than of outwardly trying to profess one thing, but inwardly being full of termites. And he came down, didn't he? Very powerfully he came down. And, of course, there have been other years that have been like that as well. But a pure-hearted person, brethren, can not be double-minded or triple-minded or whatever it is. We have to be single in our thoughts. A pure-hearted person looks to one master. Here's another thing that really ties into what the first message was talking about, about the wisdom that comes from the Proverbs. You know, the proverb that says this, it says, the fear of God is to hate evil. Well, brethren, the next point, if we're going to be pure of heart, brethren, we must hate evil and love righteousness. How much, brethren, do you hate evil? How much does it incense you to see it in the world, in the society, and all around you?

The pure in heart, brethren, love righteousness and they hate evil. And, in fact, that's a definition of what the fear of God is, which we were supposed to learn about when we went off to the feast. Hopefully we got there. It may took a little while to get into the feast spirit, because it's almost like, you know, it's like you're coming from Sada Gomorrah and you're going into this little vacuum for eight days. You know, and, you know, it is quite a shock. It takes a while for people to begin to get into the feast spirit. I think that's why it's always good to get there, you know, try to get there at enough times the day before so that you can, you get ready for what's going to be presented for the feast.

But, you know, we as God's people, you know, need to get into that feast spirit and keep in it for the whole year. Hopefully we begin to polish up a little bit. You know, we hear this sermon, we hear this sermon at, we begin to sort of knock off some of the rough edges, see things we need to do that may not have seen before, or our minds are renewed of what we already do. And we redouble our efforts to begin to do those things which are pleasing in the sight of God. You know, Jesus Christ himself was probably, well, I know we could say absolutely, the most pure-hearted human being that ever walked the face of the earth. Pure-hearted, pristine, clear-hearted. He was untainted by the world, and he never sinned one time his entire life. That's how pure he was. He never committed the sin, he never entertained the sin, and he put it out if anything tried to get in his mind. He was clean, and he was clear, and he was pure. I'm not going to go to Hebrews 1 verse 9, but it says that Jesus Christ loved righteousness and he hated evil. And this is why he was qualified to become the Son, to be the Son of God. You know, he loved righteousness and he hated evil. He is, by the way, our paragon. He is our perfect example of who we should be following. Brethren, the Bible says that if we are like him, we're going to see him as he is. You know, blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. We read that, didn't we? Matthew 5, 8, at the very beginning. Blessed are pure in heart, for they will see God. And, brethren, if we are purifying ourselves, as I think the next verse 3 or 4 in that passage, after it talks about us seeing God, you know, in fact it says that he who knows these things is purifying himself.

He's striving to get pure, to be pure. And, of course, the only way we can do that is with God's help.

Over in Isaiah 11, verse 5, it says that Jesus Christ, speaking of Jesus Christ, it says, righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist. You see, not enough just to be righteous, but faithful. Faithful to God in all things. You know, how would your spiritual life be described, brethren? Is it like this?

Or is it like this? You know, it's like you ever see them do a graph. Well, he may be headed up. We're not sure. You got this dip here, and you got that up there, and a dip. The idea, brethren, is that we go like this. When it comes to the graph, of what it looks like for us, we're improving each day of our lives. Striving more and more become like Jesus Christ. So righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist. Jesus was faithful, brethren, and he was righteous to his Father so that he could be the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God. Now, this does not describe the mind of men normally, the hearts of men normally. This is not what we do, is it?

You know, without repentance, brethren, and having a great desire to change and overcome, we just don't have a prayer. None of us do. Unless we repent, unless we turn from our wrong and begin to go God's way, we do not have a chance. Frankly, we're, of all people, most miserable. You know, if you're living in a world that's betwitched in between, brethren, you're in the very worst possible position. Because you're not going to have a, you're going to have a hard time surviving the world to come because, you know, either make the free good or make it bad, you know, because if we're not going the way that's good, and we don't have our heart focused on that, brethren, we're not pressing toward that, you know, we'll be the most vulnerable if we're sort of betwitched in between. Now, Satan will take advantage of that. He really will. Because that's a weakness in us. But our strength comes if we are putting our whole heart into something. That's why it says, do what you do with your mind. Do it wholeheartedly. Seek God with your whole heart. You want God on your side? See, if we're betwixt and between, we're striving on the one hand to obey God. On the other hand, we're playing pussies with the world.

We don't have the world support, neither do we have God's support, you know. So hopefully, though, we see the value of having God's support, God's favor. You know, I've really tried over the years to really hammer that into our children's minds. You want God's favor. You want His blessing. You want His direction. You know, God has never been, He's never disappointed, uh, Joan and me in our lives. God has blessed us so much. He really has. In so, so many ways, He's given us so much. And of course, we don't believe we're deserving of what God has given to us. And I know He's blessed many of you in your lives as well.

And yes, we do fall down. You know, sometimes we have the dips, you know, in our lives. But hopefully, our trajectory is upward. You know, we're trying to head in the right direction.

In Jeremiah 17, verse 9, let's go over to turn to this particular verse. Jeremiah 17, over here, it really does give some insight. You know, I focused in on this yesterday as I was working on this message, but, uh, and on Thursday as well. But, uh, in, in Jeremiah 17, down in verse 7, it says, blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord. You know, our reliance is on God and whose hope is in the Lord. It isn't hope in mankind.

I mean, look at what is happening, brethren, in the world today.

How secure do you feel right now? I mean, how secure do you feel that if we had a problem with Ebola right here in Oakland, how secure do you feel that the government would take care of it? Again, I, I'm sure they would do what they could do, but if it was rampaging through the United States, there's only so much they can do. Provide you a comfortable way to die, maybe.

Maybe we wouldn't die on the streets, you know, as they are doing right now in Liberia. In some of those African countries in Western Africa.

But how much, how much do you depend on the world to take care of you? You know, the greatest lie that is ever told is when somebody comes and says, I'm from the government, I'm here to help you.

No, they're not here to help you there, frankly. And again, by that I'm not saying we should not, again, pray for the government, but mainly rather than that we would pray that we would have peace. Pray that God would, would allow us to have free concourse to, to preach the gospel. And we really do hope to have a great atmosphere to live in.

But generally, the government's job is not to necessarily come and help us so much, but to tax us. And I found that out, by the way, when I did a project one time. My wife and I built a car wash, a self-service car wash, many, a number of years ago. And, and I, I had to borrow some money from the Small Business Administration. And, and so anyway, we, we did that, borrowed money. Little, Little Van, did I know that they made me actually hire somebody to dispense the money. And that cost me about, I think, $1,100 bucks.

That's when I figured out that the government's job is to create cottage industries.

And it keeps people in business. And the people, by the way, that I had to hire to do it, didn't watch out for us. It was God who was watching out for us. But, but they let money go, by the way, that on that, on a job that we were doing, they let money go that, frankly, I wouldn't have done it. But you know who was liable when they did? I was liable. And if it wasn't for God to be with us, and to deliver us, we would have been in a heap of trouble. God really blessed us in ways, like I say, that, you know, just, you look back on it, you really are thankful for what God does. But, but notice, but if we trust in God, bless are we, if we trust in Him. But notice verse 8. And it says, And he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes, and its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit. And then he says here, you know, so this is what a righteous person has if he trusts in God. But verse 9, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.

Who can know it? In the world, people don't know it, do they?

Don't most people think, well, I'm a pretty good person.

I mentioned about Adolf Hitler. I imagine Adolf Hitler thought he was a pretty good person.

Have you ever met anybody that didn't think they were a pretty good person? You can talk to anybody in the prison system. Just about. They all think they're pretty good people.

You know, I spoke one time with a man who was a murderer.

You know, he just didn't see what he had done.

Sometimes people just don't see it, brethren. They just don't see it. Well, brethren, who can know it without God's help to see us? To help us see it, brethren, who can know it? Only those who God opens their mind to see it. And that's what needed to happen to some of these people that I've talked to over the years.

And going on here, it says in verse 10, I, the Eternal, search the heart. I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. So God wants to see what the heart is. Is your heart my heart? Is it pure before God? Do we have a single list of mind following our God, of trusting in God, having faith in God in our lives? Because that's what boils right down to it. God looks on the heart of a man, like he looked on the heart of Job. And remember what God said to Satan when Satan came. Have you considered my servant Job how he is upright and he's blameless and he shuns evil?

By the way, the Darby Bible says about this word shunned, he abstained from evil. The Young's literal translation says he turns aside from evil.

The Bible in basic English says he keeps himself far from evil. He keeps himself away from evil. But does that describe you and me?

You know, sometimes I've told people over the years, you know, you ought to avoid, we should avoid even the appearance of evil. That's what the Bible says.

But it's amazing how much people trust themselves when they are around evil. Ah, no, it didn't bother me. Yes, it does. It bothers us, brethren. And all of us here, frankly, are bothered by the evil that we're... because we're living right in the midst of it here in the society. You can't get away from it. You know, you'd have to move out in the middle of the ocean. I used to have a member in Alabama who was on the island of Kwajalein, out in the middle of the ocean. You know, this is where they launch missiles and they fire them, and so forth. But out in the middle of the ocean, you could go to Kwajalein, brethren, it would be there, too. Maybe more so. Because, you know, when people are stranded out in the middle of the ocean, what are they going to do? Probably drink and do things they shouldn't be doing. But in other things today... But, you know, again, the key, the pure heart, pure in heart, brethren, love righteousness and they hate evil. We ought to be like Job who kept himself far from sin, far from evil. Next, brethren, another point here. Pure-hearted people are putting away the old man. You know, in the Proverbs, Solomon wrote, He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. Who's a perfect example of that particular proverb? What do you think? Who do you think Solomon learned that from? What is his dad? His dad committed sin with his mother.

Remember when all the things he tried to cover up? He didn't prosper, did he? And it was very costly, not only for him, it was costly for Israel as a whole. But pure-hearted people are not trying to cover their sins. And by that, I don't mean we're publicly broadcasting our sins, but we're confessing them to God. We're trying to forsake them. We're trying to overcome them to fall on the mercy of God. Let's go to Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4. By the way, that scripture in Proverbs is Proverbs 28 verse 13. He who covers his sins will not prosper. But in Ephesians 4 over here, let's go this over here, Ephesians chapter 4.

In verse 17, he says, And this I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk. Though those are non-Christians, in other words, in the futility of their mind. That's what the world is. Like I said, there are big twists in between, two ways of thinking, two masters, oftentimes more than two masters. The futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, even that understanding they have is darkened. Being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart. Who being past feeling, their minds have been seared, in some cases, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. And it says, But you have not so learned Christ. This is not God's way.

If indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Christ, in Jesus, that you put off concerning your former conduct the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lust. So we've got to put it off, brethren, as God's people. Put off the old man. Get rid of the old man. David, by the way, was a man after God's own heart. Like you said, he may have sinned, and you've got it all written up right here in the book. And then right next to your sin and my sin. By the way, how'd you like to have your sin and my sin? I don't want mine written up in here. I don't want people to be reading about the mistakes Jim Hutt made 10 billion years from now.

You know, they may actually think you actually are perfect otherwise, but no, I think they would figure out. I think we figured out with David that David wasn't perfect, and none of us are going to be perfect. And I guess if God decides to write us up, brethren, it'll be for our good, ultimately. Especially if we repent as God's people. Let's go to Psalm 32. I want to show you, brethren, why David was a man after God's own heart. Psalm 32 over here.

32 and just verse 1 through 7.

And I don't think that's what I want. Oh, that's Job. No wonder it didn't look right.

No, that's just the first mistake I've made today. So I hope you know I'm joking.

Some people say, first mistake I made was getting up.

Sometimes, you know, people get up in the morning and, you know, they run to the curtains and they, you know, rip open the curtains, the sunshine comes in and they say, Oh, Lord, it's morning. Just elated and happy. Some people, when they get up, they crawl on their hands and their fingers, and they break the, you know, the light end and they say, Oh, Lord, it's morning. So there's a difference. Sometimes it might be better not to get up if you have bad days. But my wife, by the way, has always been the kind of person who gets up in the morning. She's very cheerful. Me, it takes a little bit. You know, give me a couple hours in the shower, you know, in a little something, eat in the morning, get rubbed up, and about noontime, noontime. I'm just kidding, kidding about that. But I'm not like she is. Psalm 32. It says, Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered, blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. Blessed is that man. There's no deceitfulness like a little baby, you know, a little child. There's no deceitfulness. Literally with them is what you see is what you get. What's on the inside is going to come out. They let you know. They let you know.

It says, When I kept silent, my bones grew old, through my groaning all the day long. For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me. David, of course, sometimes felt God dealing with it. My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Notice how it says, see law, see law, along here. You know what that means? What that means is let that sink in. Let that sink into your mind. What God is trying to say to you, not just to know that David was coming to this, but you and I ought to come to this. Let that sink in. For this cause, everyone who is godly shall pray to you in a time when you may be found. Truly, in a flood of great waters, they shall not come near you. You are my hiding place. You shall preserve me from trouble, and you shall surround me with songs of deliverance. See law. Let that sink in. When we don't hide our sins from God, when we go and we openly confess our sins, and we make a concerted effort to change ourselves, God is with us all the day long. Now, this is why David, by the way, you read here, this is why David was a man after God's own heart. He was real inside and out, and by David, all kings of Israel were majored because of David. It wasn't Saul. It wasn't Jeroboam. If you wanted to measure wickedness, you used Jeroboam. How'd you like to be that kind of yardstick of wickedness? If you wanted a good king who was real on the inside and out, it was David. So, brethren, we as God's people have to be putting away the old man if we're going to be pure of heart, and have that singleness of mind, get rid of the deceit, the repent of sins, and turn from it. You know, it's sad. Sometimes we find people battling with the same problems year after year. You know, 30 years later, people dealing with the same issues that should have been rectified, should have been corrected. That's not God's fault. It's our fault. With God's help, we can change. Also, brethren, the pure and heart are striving to be spiritually minded. You know, those that are pure and heart are striving to be spiritually minded. You know, to be carnally minded, I'm not going to go to it, but in Romans 8, it talks about how to be carnally minded is what? Death. To be spiritually minded is life and peace. You know, Paul wrote this in the first chapter of Titus in verse 15 and 16. He said, "...to the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled, in unbelieving nothing is pure." But even their mind and their conscience are defiled. See, if we're pure hearted, we're not looking at what the minister's saying and saying, yeah, that guy over there needs it. But if we're pure hearted, we're thinking, it's good for me to hear this. I need to hear this. If we're pure hearted, brethren, we're not looking at the pastor and saying, is he talking about me?

You know how people can be sometimes. There have been many times in the years I've been in the ministry where I've had people come up to me and say, was that servant about me?

Oftentimes, there's shock when I said, you bet. It's about me, too. But it's about all of us.

But, you know, it says their minds, their consciences are defiled. But in verse 16, it says, they profess to know God, they say they know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.

Do we know what it means, brethren, to be disqualified for every good work?

You know, opportunities come and opportunities go. If you have opportunities to be used of God, you better make good use of it. Because oftentimes, you know, they're not offered again if you blow it. They're not offered again.

You know, sometimes people obviously do make mistakes, and they come to themselves. But sometimes it's hard for a person to really come to themselves. And God's not going to offer to someone who has disqualified themselves to do good work.

Brethren, we should have a passion and a drive to transform our minds.

And to be spiritually minded means to basically being able to discern good from evil. That's spiritually minded people. And though the difference between right and wrong, to know and value those things that God values, and hates those things that God hates and loves those things that God loves, to be spiritually minded. The pure-in-heart person is growing in the mind of Jesus Christ. I'm not going to go to Philippians 2.5, but growing in the mind of Christ.

And our hearts, brethren, our minds must be different than this world in its way.

We, as God's people, should, in fact, proudly walk to the beat of a different drummer.

This world is walking according to the drumbeat of Satan the Devil. 2 Corinthians 4.4, you know, Satan the Devil is the God of the world. But we, hopefully, are walking to the drumbeat of Jesus Christ.

So there is a story that is told about the Greek Olympian games.

They had a unique race at the games because the runners in this race carried torches.

You know, oftentimes at the Olympics you have one man that's sort of carrying this torch. You know, that in lighting the big torch at the Olympic games. But in this race at the Olympic games the Greeks conducted, each of the runners carried a torch.

And the winner was the runner who finished first with their torch lit.

And, brethren, you think about it, you and I are running a race, as the Bible even tells us.

And we must finish the race with our torches lit.

We must finish the race by allowing God's Spirit to still be very active in us, guiding us, and leading us. Let's do this in Matthew chapter 25 over here, Matthew 25. You know, it's the parable of the ten virgins, the five wise and the five unwise, and how, in fact, the foolish didn't put any oil in their lamps. Now, that's a pretty foolish thing to do if you're going to have light. And, of course, they wanted to borrow oil from those that had oil in their lamps. In verse 8 it says, And the foolish said to the wise, Give us some of your oil, but our lamps are going out. And the wise answered said, Not so, lest there should be not enough for us and you, but go rather to those who sell and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding, and the door was shut. And afterwards the other virgins came also, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. You know, and there's always people. I found this to be the case, brother. There's always people that seem to be a dollar late or a dollar short and a day late. You don't notice that about people? There's some people that are that way. If you have something at 11 o'clock, they'll show up at 11 30. You know, and we oftentimes in the church, we're very patient with people, and we should be. We should be that. But you know, someday that lateness is going to cause us some problems. That's why we try to teach people about being prompt. But here were the five unwise virgins showing up late and trying to pull this thing. Lord, Lord, open to us. See, everybody else had always opened. Everybody else had allowed, you know, for the, you might say, the lethargy there. But notice to me, he answered and said, surely I say to you, I do not know you. Watch therefore, you know, neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. We're running a race, brother, and we got to keep our torches lit. Until the very end. He that endures the end, the same is going to be saved. The Bible says.

I think, I think in reading this, though, in verse 12 here, it really hit me on Thursday when I was looking at this and thinking about it. But surely I say to you, I do not know you. Now, these were people that ostensibly, apparently, were connected with the church. I can only imagine they were like that big tree that had grown up very big. The termites got to the heart and the core of it. That's why Christ says, I'm sorry, I don't know you. I don't know you. Maybe we thought we knew God, we thought we knew Jesus Christ, and we thought he knew us, brethren. But our hearts were not right. And consequently, we weren't prepared. We didn't keep our torches lit until the very end. But God's Spirit was not there. Brethren, you can't finish the race as a Christian without your torch still lit. Unless you're renewing God's Spirit in you, unless the mind of Christ is developing more and more in you. Now, if you and I are Christians, brethren, we need to renew our minds on a continual basis. We need to renew our minds in the area of our marriages. We need to renew our minds in the area of our workplace, in our schools where we may be going, our health, our finances, our time, and our relationships as God's people. Now, we're not perfect. None of us are perfect. It never will be. We'll be working on perfection until Jesus Christ returns, and then we'll be perfected. He'll be doing the perfecting. But we need to be striving, brethren, in this area of change in our lives. And that is to be pure in heart and striving to have a spiritual mind about us, to become more like Jesus Christ every day.

Now, I'm not going to go to it, but in Philippians 4, verse 8, we're admonished, whatsoever is pure, think on these things. And that Hebrew word, by the way, is the Greek word, I mean the Greek word, is hagnos, not Hebrew, but Greek, and it means clean or innocent.

Whatever is innocent, think on those things. Do those things. Let's go to 1 Timothy 1, verses 5 and 6.

So that word, by the way, in the Greek there is hagnos, and it has the connotes innocence.

Now, this Greek word that is used in 1 Timothy over here is the word catharos we mentioned earlier, which means clean, clear, pure, literally, or figuratively. In and out, outside and on the inside. But 1 Timothy, chapter 1, over here, Paul, again, teaching Timothy, conveying these things to us by extension, because we're going to be, again, leaders in the future. But 1 Timothy 1, verse 5, it says, Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart. That's the purpose of the laws of God, brethren, love from a pure heart. If we're keeping God's commandments, living God's way of life, we're going to show love from the pure heart, as God's people. From a good conscience and from sincere faith, from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk. He goes on to describe some of the idle talk that was going on. So, brethren, we are admonished throughout the Bible. You know, we could spend probably a few more hours talking about purity and being pure. But, you know, the little bundle of appetites we had up here, you know, the small children, is what we ought to be shooting for figuratively and spiritually as God's people, literally in our lives. That's what we ought to be shooting for as God's people. Because Christ said, blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. We're going to be right in the presence of God if we're pure of heart. We're going to have this favor. The implication is, brethren, in fact, that we will be God's favorites. Of course, we know the church is going to be the wife of Jesus Christ ever in the presence of God the Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. So, brethren, let's strive as God's people to be pure in heart as little children. Set that example.