Purity in Heart

beginning and final definitions. Norm and I visited South Africa once and had the opportunity of going through a gold mine. Afterwards, they brought you into a small room, and we had the opportunity to hear how they extracted the gold, how they refined the gold, and the final product. And for the final product, they had a bar of gold. Now, this wasn't these little ounce or two pieces of gold. This was a bar of gold, probably 18 inches long, and it was quite thick at the base, and then it sort of tapered up toward the top. It wasn't exactly in a very point at the top. I forget how much this thing weighed, but it weighed quite a bit. You could pick it up, and it was quite heavy. Now, if you could reach over with your fingers and pick that bar of gold up, they would give it to you. Now, nobody ever picked it up because it was just too heavy, and you didn't have that much strength in your fingers to be able to do so. But it was very interesting to hear how they refined the gold, extracted the gold, and obtained, eventually, almost a hundred percent pure metal. Today, in this country, refining gold is a very big business. People send in their old jewelry, their teeth, their coins, anything that they might come up with. They're weighed, and then they're sent back money for how much the gold is. These companies meld it down, repackage the gold, sell it for a considerable amount of profit. They've got quite a business going with that. Now, there's a concept in the New Testament that ties in with this process of refining. But it's an approach and an attitude and a way of being that God is looking for in all of His children. In many scriptures in the Bible, they show us how God wants us to be, what He wants our attitude to be, what He wants our approach to be, what He wants us to be as an individual. And God is looking for this in His children.

And there is a New Testament word in the Greek that describes this. It is the Greek word katharos. K-A-T-H-A-R-O-S. Katharos.

And the word means to be pure or to be clean. Pure or clean. Or as one of the lexicons says, it pertains to being clean or free of adulterating matter. Clean and pure.

Now, what is adulterating matter? Adulterating matter is dirt, anything that is not the pure metal. You want to get rid of it. This word is generally translated as pure or clean in the New Testament.

In the dictionary, the word pure means basically what it does in the Greek. Not mixed or adulterated with any other substance or materials. Also, pure bread of any animal or plant, unmixed in origin or descent. So it hasn't been mixed up. It's the pure, genuine thing. Innocent or morally good.

How pure are you as an individual? How pure are you in your attitude, in your heart, in your approach? How pure are we collectively as a church and as a people?

In Matthew 5 and verse 8, we have an interesting scripture, one of the beatitudes that Jesus Christ gave. Matthew chapter 5 and verse 8.

When he made this statement, blessed are the pure in heart. So talking about those who are pure in their heart, why? For they shall see God, that's why. So if you want to see God, you have to be pure in heart. And the word here means to be clean or pure in a spiritual sense from the pollutions and or guilt of sin.

Now when you begin to read in some of the commentaries, let me quote to you from the commentary of the Greek text, titled, A Gospel of Matthew. And what they have to say about this verse, the word pure here is talking about being sincere, upright, void of evil.

So when God looks at us, can he say that we are void of evil? Are we upright? Are we truly sincere? Purity of heart, as with other qualities, means that we are not oppressive. We don't give in to deprivation.

A specific tie, when you read this scripture, it specifically ties in with Psalm 24. You can just jot Psalm 24 down. Because in verse 3 through 4 it talks about a pure heart as one of the conditions for anyone who wants to ascend up to the hill of the Lord, which means to go up into the temple of God to be able to see God. And it's part of those who were seeking the face of God, as you read in this chapter.

Purity of heart, when the Bible talks about having a pure heart, and this is what we're looking at here today, connotes integrity and stands opposite to deviousness.

A person who has a pure heart is not a devious person. Is not a deceitful person. Is not one who takes advantage of other people, tricks of the people. There is a purity of heart when the motive's behind your actions, what you do, even if what you do isn't always good. It could be bad. But your actions can stand up under scrutiny. If you've ever been asked by somebody, why did you do that? And you'll tell them, well, I did it because. And they say, I don't believe you. Or I don't think that's why you did it. And you're trying maybe to justify your motives. You're trying to justify why you did what you did. Why did you hit me in the face? Or why did you kick me? Or why didn't you do such and such? And instead of saying, oh, I just forgot, or I shouldn't have done that, whatever it might be. We try to come up with some excuse. And a lot of times that does not stand up under scrutiny, does it? And we've seen this with our children as they grow up. Children will grow up and sometimes you'll ask them why they did something. And they'll give you the biggest cock in Bull's story. They'll tell you anything and everything about why they did what they did. And it's not why they did it. They're trying to hide it. The heart, when you talk about the heart of a person, you're looking at the very core of an individual.

You're looking at your core, your innermost being. That place from which we feel, we think, and we determine our actions. And so when the Bible talks about being pure of heart, it's talking about a person in his very core, his very being.

Is being pure and wholesome. So it says, the context of deprivation and oppression, the temptation for the kind of integrity involved here, and the lapses are huge. In other words, it's easy to lapse into things that are not right. It is so much easier to serve one's own interest by hiding behind a false front.

Do we ever put on a false front in front of people? Do we ever pretend to be a certain way or to do certain things when, in actuality, that's not the way we are at all? What about the Pharisees who would blow trumpets to draw attention to themselves, and they would kick a coin into a poor person's basket?

And you may be any other time, they never think of that poor person, but they wanted people to think of them in a certain way. And all of us are human, and we all want others to have a good opinion of us. And yet, so often, we hide behind a front and we pretend to be a certain way.

Another aspect of having a pure heart, purity of heart, may be considered the opposite of hypocrisy. Hypocrisy, where you're pretending to be one thing and you're not, is the opposite of having a pure heart.

In that sense, it denotes a freedom from the base and selfish ends, and the whole of our transactions, and our dealing with God and with mankind, that we're not trying to play a part.

Strange as it can be, or may seem, even then the duties of religion itself may be performed for unworthy motives. Many people who seem to be very religious, their motives are not correct. Their base motivation, desires are not always right. Pride sometimes motivates people. Self-righteousness, self-complacency, may lie at the foundation of those very services whereby we pretend to honor God. It may render them not only worthless, but in God's sight, useless.

That when we do it, to impress others. How often do people do things to impress others? Out of pride, out of vanity. Our conduct also towards man may be spurious and yet be full of dissimulation and craft.

It is no uncommon thing, as all who are conversant with the world know, to see men under the guise of friendship, aiming only at the advancement of their own interests. How often do people in the business world put their arm around you and tell you how much they like you or appreciate you while they're trying to stab you in the back, or they're trying to take advantage of you.

Or, you know, they're wanting you to do something. And so, you know, God is very much aware of that. Purity may also be understood in the opposition to uncleanness. You find that this scripture in the Bible, Matthew 5 and verse 8, is one place in the New Testament where purity is predication of the heart. It is something that the Bible very clearly shows is a heart problem. And in this case, you find that it stands for the whole of the interstate, thought and will, as well as emotions. Now, why am I taking so much time going over this? Because I want us to understand, when I'm talking about purity of heart, that it encompasses so much more than what the average individual stops and thinks about. In a psychological sense, the seat of man's collective energies, the focus of personal life, the seat of rational, as well as the emotional elements in human life, hence that wherein lies the moral and religious conditions of the man in our heart. So, this beatitude leads us to purity at the very center of our whole being. It has to do with who you are, what you are, how you think, how you respond, deals with your emotions, deals with your motives, and deals with everything that there is about you. To have a pure heart is to be pure throughout your whole being, to be pure in whatever you do. Let's go over to Titus 1, verse 15. With all of this as a background, Titus 1, verse 15. Now, it's amazing in studying into this topic. I've only skimmed the surface here. There's so much more that could be stated on this, but let's notice in verse 15 here of Titus, chapter 1. It says, Now, the word defiled here in the Greek means morally filthy. You'll find that there are people in society today who are so morally corrupt in their thinking and their reasoning that everything they think about is directed in a wrong direction or a devious direction or a filthy direction. What about people in pornography, wrong sex? You can begin to think about when you look at the moral climate in our nation and some of the sins that the Bible describes, the reason why our nation is going to be punished. You begin to see how people can become defiled, that their very minds can become defiled. I hadn't written this tab, but hold your place here. Let's go back to Romans, chapter 1, because I think Romans, chapter 1 describes exactly what I'm talking about here. Romans, chapter 1. God is talking here in chapter 1 about how man has turned his back on God. Even when they knew God, they didn't honor him as God. Even when they could look into the heavens and see the truth of God existed, they still didn't acknowledge him, so they worshipped the creation more than the Creator. As a result of this, verse 24, therefore God also gave them up to what? Have a pure heart, pure mind, clean mind. No, God gave them up to uncleanness in the lust of their hearts. So notice what uncleanness deals with, the lust of the hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator. Verse 26, for this reason God gave them up to vile passions. And then he goes on to describe this in verse 28, And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, so when people give up God as the basis of their knowledge and their understanding in His Word, it says they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind. Not a pure mind, not a clean mind, not one that is unadulterated, but a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting. And being filled with all unrighteousness and sexual immorality and wickedness and covetousness and maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-minded, they are whispers, backbiters.

And it goes on and on and on. So you can tie that in with Titus 1 and verse 15. So you and I, brethren, if we are pure, we look on things as pure. And we can, you know, you should be able to, a man should be able to look at a woman and not always, or not, we shouldn't use the term always, not have impure thoughts towards all women. But there are men whose minds are so corrupted that all they can think of is perverse thoughts. Same thing about almost anything that you want to delineate. So people can become defiled, their minds and their consciences can become defiled. You and I have come out of this society. We have this world as our background.

And Satan the devil is out there broadcasting 24 hours a day. The world is out there, and it is a constant magnet that is out there to try to attract us, to go in a way that is unclean, impure, defiled and debased.

Now back in Titus again, Titus 1 and verse 16. They profess to know God, Titus 1.16. They profess to know God. Now, what does the Bible tell us that it means to know God? 1 John 2.4, He who says he knows Him and keeps not his commandments is a liar. So they profess they know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient and disqualified for every good work.

So brethren, it is important for us to be pure. God is looking for a pure heart in His servants. He's looking for a pure heart in you and in me. One that is true, one that is honest, one that has been cleansed, one that is upright, one whose motives are correct, whose thoughts and ideas are clean, not dirty, not filthy, not in the gutter, but above board.

Hebrews 10, beginning in verse 19, also addresses this and speaks to this topic. Hebrews 10, verse 19, Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus through Christ's sacrifice, we have the opportunity to enter into the very throne room of God in heaven, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh.

Having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near, notice, with a true heart. We should draw near to God when we approach God and when we pray to God, we come before Him with a true heart, in full assurance of faith. And notice, how is this possible? We are having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.

So we may have had an evil conscience, evil thoughts, wrong motives in the past, but we've been sprinkled. We've had Christ's sacrifice apply. From an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

So you and I have our bodies washed with the Word of God, God's Spirit. The word pure here, again, is kotharos, in the Greek, and it means clean or pure, unspoiled and unadulterated. Now, with that in mind, in 2 Timothy chapter 1, the Apostle Paul, in 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 3, showed that his approach to God followed exactly what he wrote about here. 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 3, I thank God whom I serve, with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day.

So he served God with a pure conscience. The term signifies that one's conscience is of rightness before God. It's not wrongness or doing what's wrong, but he did what was pure in sight of God. It is used here in the sense of a clean or better or a clear conscience.

Whereas Paul, when he approached God, had a clear conscience. How often do we come to God with guilt? Well, generally every time we have to repent, don't we? And how often is that? Well, every day. We come before God and we know that we've sinned. Now, guilt leads us to repent. But what he's talking about here is not the fact that we as Christians sin, and therefore we come before God and we ask God to forgive us, but that our consciences are clear.

That you come before God and you know that you've been tithing. You know you've been keeping the Sabbath. You know you've been praying. You know you've been studying. You know you've been trying to do good. You know you've been trying to serve and to help other people. But you realize you fall short of those things. So Paul came before God with a clear conscience and a good conscience before God. Paul was simply saying that he was seeking to live according to the demands that God placed upon him as a Christian and as an apostle.

He was striving to do what the Word of God said to do. He was not playing the hypocrite. He was not being deceitful. He was not trying to pull the wool over God's eyes, which you can't do anyway. But he was honest and truthful with God. Now in thinking about that, let's notice in 1 John chapter 3 and verse 18.

1 John chapter 3 and verse 18, where John wrote a section here that applies, I think, with this. John writes, Let us not love in word or in tongue, but indeed and in truth.

Don't just talk about it. Do it, he said. For if our hearts, well, verse 19, for by this we know that we are of the truth and have assured our hearts before him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. And whatever we ask, we receive from him because we keep his commandments. So why would our hearts be condemning us, or in context, because we are not keeping the commandments?

We know that we're compromising with something, or we're letting down with something. If we are, we need to repent of that, get in step with God, and do what he tells us, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. Our hearts condemn us when we know that we're doing wrong, and in this sense, when we know that we're not keeping, abiding by, living by the commandments that God gives to us. Now, in 1 Timothy 3, verse 9, and we read here in verse 9, it talks about a deacon.

The qualifications for a deacon, for greater service in the church, in verse 8, it says, Likewise, deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money, holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience, so that they are able to hold the mystery, the hidden truths of the Bible, of the faith, of the teachings of the Bible, the Scriptures, of the plan of God with a pure conscience. So the deacon's moral self-conscience, with that, he lives according to the ethical demands revealed by faith that he holds.

Words are belief. When God calls you, he opens your mind to understand the truth, to understand the Bible. And so you begin to understand and live by this. So whatever is revealed to you, this verse is saying, here in verse 9, that he holds to those mysteries with a clear conscience, a pure conscience, because he is doing what he knows to do. I've said on several occasions, it's better to know one thing and do it and know a hundred and do half of it, because God will hold you accountable for what you know. So what we know, we need to be doing. And so the demands that we have on us, on our conscience, on what we should be doing, is revealed here. Turn back to chapter 1. Actually, cross the page here in my Bible. Chapter 1, verse 18. 1st Timothy 1, verse 18. This charge I commit to you, Son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, having faith and a good conscience. Notice, he says, so Timothy had faith and he had a good conscience, a clean, pure, clear conscience, which some having rejected. So there were some in the church who had turned their back on this, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck, of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. So he was told to have faith and to have a good conscience. So, brethren, that's something that all of us need to ask ourselves. Do we have a good conscience before God, a clear conscience? Turn back to verse 3, the same chapter, 1st Timothy chapter 1, verse 3. And you'll notice there was a charge given to Timothy. He says, as I urged you, when I went into Macedonia, remain in Ephesus, that you may charge some, or that you may command some. So he was to charge them, or command them, that they teach no other doctrine. So what? Paul, Timothy, and those true servants of God had been teaching them, that that's what they were to teach. Nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes, rather than godly edification, which is in faith. Now, the purpose of the commandment, in other words, the purpose of this charge, this commandment, is what? Well, love from a pure heart. Now, notice he's talking about the purpose of the charge that he gave to him, not to teach any other doctrine, it knew anything else. The purpose of this is so that they would have love. Now, love, it's expressed here in three different ways. Love from a pure heart. The love of God will flow out of a pure heart. A heart that is corrupt, a heart that is defiled, debased, the love of God is not going to flow out of that heart. So, is love from a pure heart and from a good conscience?

So, that's number two. And from sincere faith, number three. So, all three of those elements there, pure heart, good conscience, sincere love are mentioned. Now, the word purpose here in verse 5 is the Greek word teleos. Many are familiar with this word. It has the meaning of a goal or outcome towards which something is directed. The goal of Christian instruction, our charge, is love that is manifested in a Christian's life through the three channels that I mentioned. Pure heart, good conscience, sincere faith. Can love flow from an unpure heart? Well, there are people who maybe they're not converted. Can they love their wives? Well, sure they can. Can they love their children? Sure they can. Can they love their neighbor? Yes. But that's love on what level? That's love on the human level. That's what Mr. Armstrong used to talk about, the self-love that we might have. Godly love, which is a gift from God, can only come from God. And it works in a heart that is pure. So God's desire is that we have a pure heart.

Let's go on here in verse 6 of this chapter. We read verse 5 and 6, It says, From which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm. But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this, that the law is not made for the righteous person, but for the lawless, insubordinate, the ungodly, and the sinners, the unholy and profane, and that he goes on to list a number of these.

So the Bible, I think, indicates that all of us have a struggle of really reaching that goal. We all fall short, we all fall down, and we're constantly trying to have a right heart before God. Let's notice some examples in the Bible of different ones who did not. And we'll start with a classic one in John 13.

John 13, verse 9. John 13, 9. This is a Passover service. Christ is changing the symbols of the Passover. He institutes the foot washing service here. He said, I'm going to wash your feet. And Simon said to him, Lord, not my feet only. You might remember Peter said, no, you won't. And Christ said, well, if I don't wash your feet, then you don't have any part with me. So Simon said, well, wash my hands, you know, head, everything. And Jesus said to him, He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not all of you. Now, who was not clean at that Passover service? Judas. Judas Iscarrat betrayed Christ. Judas is sitting there. He eats a Passover dinner with Jesus Christ. He's there when the foot washing service is instituted. And in his heart, he's already planned to betray Christ. So he's sitting there, partaking all of the symbols. He's going through the motions. And yet, in his heart of hearts, he's going to betray Jesus Christ. The other disciples ate the meal in the right attitude. They disputed among themselves who were going to be the greatest. But as far as their attitude, Christ said, You're clean, but Judas was not. Here we have a classic example to show. Here's a group of men, handpicked by Christ, who were going to be used by him, and Judas betrays him. And Jesus Christ knew full well what he was up to. You remember, in Proverbs 30 and verse 12, I won't go back and read that. I'll just quote it to you. Proverbs 30 and verse 12 says, There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, and yet is not washed from all of its filthiness. So you find that there are those who believe that they're pure before God, but they're not cleansed or washed. It's easy to justify ourselves, our actions. We all do it. The hardest thing in the world for a person to do is to admit that he or she has been wrong. To admit, well, you're right, I'm wrong. That just seems to be very difficult for us to admit. In the NIV translation of Proverbs 16 and verse 2, we also read, All a man's ways may seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the Lord. So even though people might think, well, I'm doing this out of the right motive, God is the one who weighs the motives. So we need to realize that God is the one who looks at our hearts, sees what we're doing, sees what we're thinking, and he is the one who weighs, is this good or is this bad? Is this right? Is this wrong? Is there some subtlety here that this person is being deceitful about? God knows our motives. If you remember, the Bible states that the heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Jeremiah 17.9. So the Bible clearly shows that man left to his natural state, his normal state, that the human heart is deceitful, is desperately wicked, and yet human beings, even among the unconverted, will justify themselves so that they can live with themselves. I mean, how can you live with yourself if you're doing something that's despicable to other people? Well, you have to justify it. They were bad anyway. They deserved it. So we will justify, people justify in society what they do. But in Luke 11, verse 37, we come to one of the favorites here in the New Testament. If you want to pick on somebody, the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

Luke 11, verse 37, says, As he spoke, a certain Pharisee asked him to dine with him. So he went and he sat down to eat. Well, you know, great. Pharisee invites him over. He goes. He sits down at the table. But guess what? He forgot to wash up to the elbows. He didn't wash. And, verse 38, when the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that he had not first washed before dinner.

Not just a matter of washing your hands. They ceremonially washed up to the elbows before they ate. Then the Lord said to him, Now you Pharisees make the outside of the cup and the dish clean. But your inward part is full of greed and wickedness. Now, which one is God more interested in? The outward or the inward? Well, God's interested in the inward. And if the inward part is clean, the outward will get taken care of also.

But he says, you Pharisees, you make the outside of the cup and the dish clean. You appear on demand to be clean, to be pure, to be religious, to be wholesome. You fast. You pray. Everybody sees. Everybody knows you're doing this. He says, Foolish ones, did not he who made the outside make the inside also?

So he says, but rather give alms of such things as you have, than indeed all things are clean to you. Now, what does that mean? That all things would be clean to you. Well, you see that inward these men who were supposed to be so religious, so righteous, were full of greed and wickedness. Now, another translation here of verse 40 says, but give what is in your cups and plates. Give of your produce the blessings you have to the poor.

Or literally, it means as charity, and everything will be clean for you. Now, there are two or three possibilities of how this could be translated. Quoting from one of the commentaries, says, Luke 11.41, Cothoros, may be rendered in some languages as pure in the eyes of God, or even right in the eyes of God. Or accordingly, it may be necessary to render this word, in similar contexts, as acceptable to God, or good in God's eyes, or good as God thinks.

So he's saying that if you do this, then God may, you may be acceptable to God. God may look down on you and think of you as doing what's right, what's good, and what is acceptable. So he's saying you need to be able to take up what you have and do good deeds towards others. And I won't go into the rest of this here, because there is a little longer account of it over here in Matthew 23.

So let's go over to Matthew 23, beginning in verse 25. Matthew 23, 25, says, Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites, you pretenders, that's what a hypocrite is, a play actor. For you clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are full of extortions and self-indulgence, inside full of disobedience and unrighteousness and extortions. Blind Pharisees first cleanse the outside of the cup.

The word cleanse there means to clean or free from filth. So first cleanse the inside of the cup. Now the question is, how do we clean the inside? The outside is easier to clean, isn't it? You can impress people. You can come to church. You can dress up. You can sing. You can work crews. You can do all kinds of things. And people can think that, hey, you're with it. But it's the inside. He says, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish. That the outside of them may be clean also.

So we want to eventually come to the...and understand how do we cleanse the inside? Woe to you, scribes, you Pharisees, you hypocrites, for you are like white-washing tombs, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Have you ever been in a house where somebody...I think it's a mental...I know it's a mental disorder...

never takes out of their house anything that's ever come into the house? My wife and I have. We've been in several of those. And we knew one sweet little widow...actually, there were two of them in Pittsburgh who were that way. Everything for 25 or 30 years was in that house. Every paper, every can, every wrapper, every newspaper, every sack, anything. And started upstairs, and every room was filled. And they went out this room and that room and the hallway and down the steps.

And when you'd go in the house, you had this little path that you would go between. And you could come up to that house, you could look at it, and you'd think, beautiful house, well maintained outside, and it looks just like any other house in the neighborhood. Probably has beautiful furniture. Actually, once we got all the trash out, there was beautiful furniture there. But nobody had seen it for decades. And you have a situation that to me is very analogous to what Jesus Christ is talking about here.

The outside looks nice, looks beautiful. The yard was cut, the porch looked nice, the house was painted, good roof, and all of that. But inside, it was terrible. In fact, one lady in the basement, her sewer had broken, and there were rats, gas, sewer smell, anything and everything you could think of. It was just terrible. But this is what Jesus Christ is talking about here. The outside appears okay.

The actions, everything looks good outwardly, but inside, uncleanliness. And then he goes on to say, So what is God interested in? He's interested in how we are inside. In Matthew 15, you might remember the story here. This is where Christ did explain about washing. Matthew 15, verse 7, So it's possible to be religious. Now the Pharisees, Sadducees, were some of the most religious people on the face of the earth. While they didn't cut their hairs, they wore certain outfits, they did all kinds of things to appear righteous.

But God says, Now notice verse 11. Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man, what you eat, but what comes out of the mouth, that defiles a man, what you say, your words. That is what defiles a man. Verse 17, And they defile a man. For out of the heart, notice what proceeds out of the heart, proceeds evil faults. Murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.

These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashing hands does not defile a man. So these are the things that we have to be careful about. What we say, what we write, what we think comes from our heart. It is not just automatic writing that takes place or automatic speech, but something we've thought about. These are what defiles a man. The inner being of a person is the source or agent of thought or behavior. A person's inner self, the inner being within the self. Now, the Greek word katharos has dual meaning of being pure or clean. Both of them are implied.

I asked the question earlier, how is our heart cleaned up? Well, 1 John chapter 1 verse 7 tells us. 1 John chapter 1 and verse 7. If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin, so that our sins are cleansed.

I think it was Isaiah who said, Though our sins be as scarlet, that they shall be as white as snow, that our sins can be like blood, but once they're forgiven, they can be cleaned up. And so he cleanses us from all sins. Now, if we say we have no sins, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So if we want our sins to be cleansed, our wrong motives to be cleaned away, it is Christ's sacrifice that cleanses us from all sins, from all wrongdoings, from what we've done in the past.

Then you and I are to live according to the standards and the values that God gives to us. Our hearts, our minds, our motives must change. We are to be pure in what we do. What does Romans 12, verses 1-2 tell us? That you and I are to be changed. That God changes our heart, and we are to be different. So the first thing we do is to Christ's sacrifice. When we repent, we ask God to forgive us, and that helps to cleanse our heart. But then we must walk, live in a pure state. We have to live and try to be pure in our thoughts, pure in everything we do.

Our actions, which means our thoughts, our meditations, our emotions, our words, our deeds, must flow from pure motives, from the right attitude. The inner person, the hidden person, that includes the intellectual, emotional, and spiritual aspects of the inner being, these have to be right with God. And that takes a lifetime of developing that type of an attitude. If you turn back here to 1 Peter 1, verse 22, 1 Peter 1, verse 22, says, The sense you have purified your souls. How? In obeying the truth, that's how. So we purify our souls by obeying the truth. Not just studying the truth, not just memorizing the truth, but by obeying the truth. What is truth? John 17, 17, thy word is truth. It says, Through the Spirit, in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart. So God commands us that we are to love one another, our brothers and God, with a pure heart. Now in Romans 7 and verse 22, Romans 7, 22, I'll just refer to two or three of these Scriptures. The Apostle Paul said, In my inner being I delight in God's law. So inside, in the inner man, he delighted in God's law. 2 Corinthians 4, 16, 2 Corinthians 4, 16, says, If our physical being is decaying, yet the inner being is being renewed day by day. So the inward man is renewed daily. Romans 2, 29, He is a Jew who is one inwardly in the heart.

So in our heart, we become a spiritual convert. In some languages, one of the commentaries brought out, one may refer to this faculty as being the person who stands inside when talking about the heart, that in some languages is translated as the person who is inside. Or the real person, or even the other person. Now what is the Bible called? It says, the new man. The Bible talks about the new man. You and I, the old man, we're to put the old man off. We're to put the new man on. And so you and I are to be a new creature. Another term used in the Bible. New man, new creature, the other person, the real person, the spiritual person, the godly character that God is developing within us. So how does God clean us up? Well, we know we are forgiven. But also Ephesians chapter 5, Ephesians 5 and verse 25, tells us that you and I have an active part in this, likewise. There's something that you and I need to do. Ephesians 5, 25, Husbands, love your wife, just as Christ also loved the church, gave himself for her. Why? Why did Christ do this? That he might sanctify her, set her apart, and cleanse her. So Christ cleanses the church with what? With the washing of the water by the Word. Why is it important to study the Word of God? Because it washes our minds. The filth that is in there helps to get rid of it.

The adulterated wrong attitudes and approaches are eliminated by prayer and Bible study. Then it goes on to say that he might present her, us, the church, to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she should be holy and without blemish. So how is God getting us ready, prepared, getting rid of all the wrinkles and the beautiful dress the bride is wearing that she has, what does the book of Revelation say? Clean linen, which is the righteousness of the saints. You and I are to have clean linen that God is developing in us. We're to have a clean heart, pure heart, before God. So God is in the process of cleansing the church. He's in the process of cleaning us up. The Word of God helps to clean us up. So we have to study that Word of God. It gives us strength, gives us spiritual vitality, spiritual energy, spiritual desire to do what is right, helps us to have the right thinking. We're able to have thoughts in our mind. When you don't study the Word of God, after a while, what you see here influences you the most, is going to dominate and begin to come into our mind. In Matthew chapter 15, we might read this also. Christ reiterated the same thing to His disciples.

I'm not sure that that's the one that I wanted. Let me turn over here. Well, I'll just tell you what it says. Christ said, you are clean because of the Word that I have spoken to you, talking to His disciples.

You and I, brethren, are clean by the words of Christ, by the Word of God. That's what helps to clean us up. Let's finish with Philippians 4 and verse 8. The book of Philippians chapter 4 and verse 8.

The Apostle Paul tells us what should be on our minds, what we should be thinking about, what we should meditate on.

And in verse 8, he says, Meditate on these things. Think along this line. He doesn't say meditate on unclean things, perverse things, the things that the world would have you to meditate on. But all the things that are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of a good report, we are to meditate and to think of these things. Stay away from the filth and the corruption of this world. We're in a constant battle, and we need to do our part to make sure that our hearts are pure before God. So what is the summation of the whole thing?

Well, the Bible very clearly says, Those who have a pure heart will see God.