Friday, November 8, 2013

Sermon on the Mount...series...Blessed are the Pure in Heart

The Sermon on the Mount by Carl Heinrich Bloch   


Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.
Matthew 5:8

Let's start this study with what the 1828 Webster's dictionary has to say about the word pure:

PURE, a. [L. purus.]
1. Separate from all heterogeneous or extraneous matter; clear; free from mixture; as pure water; pure clay; pure sand; pure air; pure silver of gold. Pure wine is very scare.


2. Free from moral defilement; without spot; not sullied or tarnished; incorrupt; undebased by moral turpitude; holy.




Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil. Hab.1. Prov.20.


3. Genuine; real; true; incorrupt; unadulterated; as pure religion. James 1.


4. Unmixed; separate from any other subject or from every thing foreign; as pure mathematics.


5. Free from guilt; guiltless; innocent.




No hand of strife is pure, but that which wins.


6. Not vitiated with improper or corrupt words or phrases; as a pure style of discourse or composition

7. Disinterested; as pure benevolence.

8. Chaste; as a pure virgin.

9. Free from vice or moral turpitude. Tit.1.
 
10. Ceremonially clean; unpolluted. Ezra 6.
  11. Free from any thing improper; as, his motives are pure.
  12. Mere; absolute; that and that only; unconnected with any thing else; as a pure villain. He did that from pure compassion, or pure good nature.
 PURE, v.t. To purify; to cleanse. [Not in use.]
 
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Now that is a tall order for sure.

On our own we can not have a pure heart, it is just not within our power. But there is Good New - we have help.

Jesus told His disciples that it was to their advantage that He go away.  " ...for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you." John 16:7

Who is this helper?
The Holy Spirit which is also a divine member of the Trinity.

    Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 
Matthew 28:19

The Holy Spirit does many things.

When we have given our hearts to Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit dwells in us.

 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?    
1 Corinthians 3:16

      the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 
John 14:17
 
The Holy Spirit guides us into all truth:

    However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.
John 16:13

The Holy Spirit will transform us:

    But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.   
2 Corinthians 3:18

It is by this transformation that we can have purity of heart.


"But the words of Jesus, "Blessed are the pure in heart," have a deeper meaning--not merely pure in the sense in which the world understands purity, free from that which is sensual, pure from lust, but true in the hidden purposes and motives of the soul, free from pride and self-seeking, humble, unselfish, childlike."  MOB pg. 25

If you would like to check out what else my book "Thoughts from the Mount of Blessings" has to say click on link.












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