8. Sermon on the Mount Secrets - Who will see God?

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. (Matthew 5:8)

The Greek word for pure means to be free from corrupt desire, sin, guilt and from being false.  It means to be sincere, genuine, and blameless.

In Jesus, we are already all of the above, but what about our actions and attitudes? What does God see? Purity is more powerfully manifested in man’s heart attitude rather than in deeds or outward appearance. A man may appear lovely and very Christian, but in his heart he may seek only self-satisfaction in terms of power, money, etc.

The word “pure” does not refer to an absence of sin as much as it does to corruptness or falseness versus sincerity and genuineness. If the attitude of our heart is pure, we show God that He is everything to us, that we love Him and need Him to overcome our weaknesses. We have no hidden agendas or selfish ambitions. God can trust us enough to reveal Himself to us in spite of the fact that we still battle with the flesh and sin.

Abraham, the father of our faith, for example, was a coward, and he acted “impurely” on a number of occasions. He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress (Genesis 16:4). Although Sarah (due to a lack of faith) gave Hagar to Abraham as his wife, he should never have taken her. The cause of his behaviour was his lack of faith in God’s promise. He’s the father of the faith. Where is the faith? 

God, however, in his mercy, love, and faithfulness, met with Abraham: “But God said to him, ‘Do not be so distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. I will make the son of the maidservant into a nation also, because he is your offspring’” (Genesis 21:12, 13).

In another example, Abraham feared Abimelech and lied: “And there Abraham said of his wife Sarah, ‘She is my sister.’ Then Abimelech king of Gerar sent for Sarah and took her” (Genesis 20:2).

This is indisputable proof of Abraham’s cowardice. Nevertheless, God said to Abimelech: “Now return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all yours will die” (Genesis 20:7).

After what Abraham did, God still considered him a prophet. Why? It was because God saw the purity in his heart—a heart after God. The Lord was not bothered about Abraham’s moment of weakness or the momentary faltering of his faith. We see this attitude of God in 2 Corinthians 12:9: “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’” To the Lord, Abraham’s heart attitude, which only He could see, was all that counted. When God called on him, he acted in obedience, because this great Lover of his asked it of him. Abraham’s own comfort did not matter. He had to please God. That is what made his attitude pure and caused him to be called the father of faith in spite of his weaknesses.

In the same way, we can look into the lives of Jacob, David, and other fallible men who saw God in spite of their alleged impurity. Jacob, being a deceiver, saw God and lived. “So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, ‘It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared’” (Genesis 32:30). In spite of the sinful behavior of these men of God, He still moved through them in His power.

So, if we don’t need to be sinless in order to be pure, what do we need? “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).

Purity is a heart after God. Purity is not so much being pure from sins, because Jesus’ blood cleansed us from all unrighteousness so that God does not see our sins. No, purity is being pure from other gods: idols that steal the time, energy and resources belonging to God. A pure attitude says, “Lord, I love You with all that is in me—my time, energy, desires, ambitions, and resources. I realize I can’t be hypocritical about my sin. Just use me according to Your purposes so that Your will can be done.” Of course we would not desire to sin on purpose and would need to confess and repent the moment we sin.

Paul asked the Lord to remove the thorn in his flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7-9). According to Paul, it was a messenger of Satan (a demon) tormenting him. The thorn probably was the temptation to do the things he did not want to do, and not doing the things that he wanted to do (Romans 7:15). The Lord replied that His grace (the same grace He exercised with Abraham and others) was sufficient for Paul.

Did that make Paul ineffective, an impure person unable to see God? No, it simply kept him from becoming conceited as he states in 2 Corinthians 12:7. He still received a lot of revelation through his “face to face” meetings with the Lord. Our sinful state should keep us humble, dependent on God’s grace, allowing Him to use us mightily just as we are so that He might get the glory. If we focus on our sins and as a result do not move in obedience to God in His power, we are under condemnation, and it renders us ineffective.

If we are pure in our attitude toward God, abstaining from other gods, of whom Mammon (materialism) is one of the strongest these days, God will reveal Himself to us. We will therefore “see God” as our passage under discussion states, in other words be so focused that we see what He reveals to us. Then we will be effective servants looking after others.

The accuser of the brethren, Satan, will attempt to hold our sins against us, making us ineffective through guilt and condemnation. We then spend so much time feeling guilty and trying to be pure that we never get productive. We must recognize that in Christ all our sins are forgiven and we must focus on that which the Lord expects from us.

Does this mean that we can sin as much as we want, since God always forgives all our sin? Paul said in Romans 5:20-6:2: “The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?”

If your heart is right with God and you are in right standing with Him (righteousness), making your attitude right (pure), you will not want to sin. God will reveal himself to you.

Even if we stumble repeatedly, if we then confess our sins, “He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Even then, He will still reveal himself to us. On occasion, the Lord has withheld His anointing temporarily until I recognize my sins and confess them. Then He again abundantly showered the anointing on me. I have heard anointed speakers testifying of the same.

I have also heard of pastors who fell into sin, totally backslidden, but God stayed faithful regarding their anointing. In one case, a drunken pastor prayed for healing, and the sick person was healed. If God has to wait until we are sinless before He uses us, nothing will ever happen in the Kingdom of God. We, therefore, must not hinder God’s work by condemning ourselves because of our sins and weaknesses. “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

For children and adults who are prepared to learn in a childlike way.