Blessed are the Pure in Heart

Coming to church won't give you spiritual sight. Going to Bible studies won't give you spiritual sight. Dr. Tony Evans says nothing you do on the outside can really change you on the inside. Because spiritual sight has to do with the condition of the heart, not the location of the pew.

This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. The old saying goes, two heads are better than one. But today, Dr. Evans explains the dangers of being double-minded.

as he takes us to Matthew chapter 5, verse 8. Let's join him. This is a specific blessing given to a specific group of Christ followers. He says, if you want to see God, You want to see his work. You want to see his power.

You want to see his provision. You want to see his transformation. You want to see his deliverance. You want to see his victory. You want to see him?

for yourself. Then you are going to have to be Pure of heart, he says. You're going to have to have a heart. That is unmixed. Undivided.

Undefiled as the basis of that. Spiritually Purity of heart came to mean singleness of devotion. To not be Disconnected. from God by allowing something else to defile the relationship. If you and I are going to see God at another level, Experience God at a deeper level.

Relate to God in a more intimate way. Personal level. Then there must be the pursuit of purity of heart. When you came to Christ, you were given a new heart. That's part of the new covenant.

I will give you a new heart. You got a heart transplant. God didn't do with your physical heart. That comes later in your new body. He gave you a new spiritual heart, and he placed it in the core of your soul.

But that heart only works as it was designed to work if it gets hot healthy. things coming through it. It must be pure. That is, if you want to see God.

Now, if you don't want to see God, then that's a whole nother ball game. because then you won't be worried about the defects. Or the junk. that is put in. To the stream that flows to the intellect, emotions, and the will, pumped by this spiritual pump called the heart.

You won't care about that. One of the validations of your salvation. One of the ways you know you're saved. Of course, the foundational way is The promise of God: those who believe on Jesus Christ shall be saved. But in terms of the subjective experiential side, Is that Yeah.

You hate the stuff you enjoy. In other words, the things that are displeasing to God that you enjoy, you hate that you enjoy them. Why? Because the heart wants something else. You know, you know, you.

It's sort of like knowing you got a bad heart, you can't take any more sugar, but you love dessert. But you hate that you love it. Because you know it's not good for your heart. That's why Paul said, oh wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

He said, The things I don't want to do, I'm doing them. And all I can see is I messed up. Go up from the floor up. He says, because the things I don't want to do, I'm doing. He says, the me that lives down in here with a good heart.

doesn't want to do the stuff I love doing. Anybody know about that conflict? It is the conflict of the person. Because they have a new heart, wants to please God, but because they live in this sinful flesh. It wants to be gratified and the war takes place.

It's not because you don't have a good heart. It's because a good heart is not receiving. Pure material. that will allow it to Pump and flow. As it was designed.

And so Blessed are the pure in heart. That is, who are undivided. Unmixed. Undiluted. That is?

who have a singleness of devotion Godward. But let's look for a moment at the payoff. What do you get? for having a pure heart. He says they shall see God.

The pure the heart, Get. The clearer God becomes For many of us, God is merely an idea, a concept, a philosophy, a thought, and a theology. Not an experiential reality. And even though we're taking in data, taking in information, we don't see God for ourselves. That is, we do not have an intimate experience with him, the experience that 1 John talks about.

We do not know him enough to touch him in the spiritual realm. We have not yet learned to. Watch this. Comprehend him with spiritual eyes. Seeing God means perceiving.

and sensing his reality. I I love this one. Moses said, I want to see you. God says, that's a great request, Moses, but... Not a smart one.

No man can see my face and live.

So to see my face means you're ready to die. Because to be able to look on all my glory. Would be like walking into a nuclear reactor. It would consume you. You cannot see my faith and live.

But I like the fact that you want to see me.

So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna hide you. In the cleft of the rock. I'm going to put you in between these rocks. And then I'm a Shh, whisk by.

Now I'm gonna come by so fast. You won't be able to see my face. But I am going to let you see my back. I'm going to let you see the Hebrew says, my hinder parts.

So I'm gonna go. You won't see my face. But you will see the afterglow like an airplane that's been through the air, and the exhaust is left behind. You're going to see my hinderpart.

So you're going to see enough that you can handle. Which is why when you go to heaven, parenthesis. you're going to need a glorified body. Because you're going to need a body that can handle what you're getting ready to look at. Because the body you have now Can't handle.

Seeing God face to face. But back to my man Mo. Mo is in the cleft of the rock. He did the cuff to the rock and The glory of the Lord passes by, leaving this exhaust. of God's hinder pot.

Well, what difference did it make? that he saw the back of God. Real interesting. Because when Moses sees the back of God. He picks up a pencil.

Picks up a notepad. And writes: In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was our form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the spirit of God hoofed over the waters. Because Moses, who wrote the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, wasn't alive. When he wrote Genesis, he wasn't there to see it, but because he saw God, he could look back and see what God was doing, and he could record it. When you see God.

He shows you what he's doing. He can show you what your yesterday was. How are you gonna use your yesterday to make a better tomorrow if you ever see God? He saw God. He says Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

The psalmist says in Psalm 66:18, if we regard iniquity in our hearts, he will not hear us. Psalm 73, verse 1, God is good to those who are pure in heart. What? And Hebrews 12, 14 says, Pursue sanctification without which no one will see God. He thought about seeing God.

That is the real experience of God working, operating, moving, directing, leading, governing, guiding, flipping, flapping your life. You will see Him for yourself and not another. See, we need to get to the place where I see God for me and you see God for you. And you don't have to come to me to see God for you because you can see him. For yourself?

That's what the blessing is. Wouldn't it be wonderful? See, many of us would say, boy, I wish I was back there in Jesus' day when I can see Jesus.

Well, God is offering you that. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. You will see the reality of God operating in life, in history. In you. That's the blessing.

You remember Elisha? He's out there and he was being surrounded by the army to go to attack his house. and his servant was all scared. And the servant said, Well, get out of here. We got to run.

They're going to get us. Elijah prayed, Lord, open his eyes. The Bible says God moved the cataract from his eyes. And he saw a myriad of angels with swords of fire circling the house. In other words, Elijah was saying, ain't nothing gonna happen here.

Not today. Because there's something invisible you can't see. You want to see God. And by the way, you want to hang around other people who can see God. Because you don't want to be limited to what you can see.

With your physical five senses. You don't want to be limited to that because you will be limited. Because people are limited. Circumstances are limited. Only God is unlimited.

So you want to see God. But to do that, he says. You must be pure of heart. To see God for yourself. That is to comprehend him.

operating in and through. your own life. When Dr. Evans returns in just a moment, He'll talk more about how we can become pure of heart. First, though, I want to tell you about our current featured resource, Tony's inspirational teaching series, How to Be Truly Blessed.

This 10-message collection unpacks what Jesus meant in the Beatitudes, helping you discover what it really looks like to live under God's favor. Along with it, we'll send you Dr. Evans' devotional book, Praying Through the Names of Jesus. In it, you'll explore the many titles Scripture uses to describe the Lord, each one offering insight into His character, His power. and the way he relates to us.

You'll also find guided prayers and room to journal your own reflections. giving you a fresh way to experience God personally.

Now this special offer is only available for a limited time, so don't wait. Make your request on line when you visit Tony Evans dot org, or reach out to our Resource Center any time of the day or night, at one eight hundred eight hundred thirty two twenty two. That's one eight hundred eight hundred three two two two. I'll repeat our contact information for you after Tony brings us the second part of today's lesson. Let's listen.

If I want to see God and I need to be pure in heart, how do I become pure in heart so that I get to see God? What? That means purity of heart must become a passion. Turn to James 4. Verse 1, what is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you?

It's not the source, your pleasure, that wage war in your members. You lust and do not have, you commit murder, you're envious and cannot obtain.

So you fight and quarrel and you have not because you ask not, or you ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. Your adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?

Okay, now let's stop right there. The way you know. that you are not pure of heart. Is you live with evil attitudes. Notice how he starts this section off.

You're quarreling, you're cussing, you're fussing, you're fighting, you're trying to make stuff happen. Why? Because you're so far from God, you can't see what God's doing.

So you feel like you gotta make it happen yourself.

So you're fighting all the time. You're arguing all the time.

Well, what's the problem? He tells you the problem. He says you become a friend to the world. Remember, pure is undiluted, unmixed. Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Now, he's writing to Christians in the book of James. He's talking about it's possible to be saved and to be God's enemy. It's possible to be on your way to heaven and God not wanting to talk to you on earth. Why? because of the world.

Now, what do we mean by the world? The world is a system that leaves God out. You're worldly because God is not a part of the equation. He's not a part of the mental equation, the emotional equation, or the choice equation. He's a part of the church equation.

But when it comes to my soul's way of living, God has to mix it up with the world. But pure means unmixed.

So the moment that you bring the world into the equation of the inner man, you have contaminated the soul and you're pumping impure things through the heart and the impure heart can't see God.

So once God sees that the heart is being compromised by the introduction of the world that leaves God out, God is nowhere to be found. The Bible has a word for this. It's called double-mindedness. He's going to say that. Look with me to verse five.

Or do you think that the scripture speaks to no purpose? He jealously desires the spirit which he has made to dwell in us. He wants us all to himself. But he gives greater grace. Therefore, it says, God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

Submit, therefore, to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and here it is: purify your hearts, you double-minded. Double two, mind thinking. thinking two ways at the same time.

You got your Bible in one hand and the world in another hand, and you're saying, can't we all get along? The moment you say that. It says you no longer have, you have now, you're not only not God's friend, you are now his enemy. And you resist enemies. You don't hang out with enemies.

You don't fellowship with enemies. Because you're opposed to his purposes. You're opposed to his will. You're pumping things that the hot, The new heart can't use. Through the soul.

God says, no, I must resist that. You can't see me. Instead, subject yourself to God in your emotions, your intellect, and your will. Then resist the devil. Don't flip that.

Don't say resist the devil, then submit to God. No, you start in the wrong place. Come under God's authority, and now you have the right to resist the devil.

Well, how does this work? If you flip over a couple of pages to 1 John 1. Verse 5: This is the message we've heard from him and announced to you that God is light in him. There is no darkness. Sin and God are irreconcilable.

If we say we have fellowship with him, me and God are close. and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. Notice something. Notice when Jesus is cleansing us of all sin.

when we're walking in the light. A lot of people misread that. They think if I'm walking in the light, then I don't have any sin. Uh-uh. That's not what it says.

It says, when you're walking in the light, God cleanses us of our sin.

So evidently, in the light, sin is located. I can give you an illustration from 3:30 this morning. I got up at 3.30 this morning. And when I got up at 3:30 this morning, I decided not to turn on the light. I got a light right on my nightstand.

I decided not to turn on the light. You know why? Because I know my room. I know my bedroom. I know where things are.

I don't need the light.

Okay, so I figured I could make my own way. in darkness.

So I didn't turn on the light. In the middle of the floor.

Well, some shoes I left out from last night. I don't know how many times I've been told, don't put your shoes up. I have my shoes in the middle of the floor. But I didn't have the light.

So I couldn't see the shoes. That way in the middle of the floor.

So as far as I was concerned, There were no shoes. in the middle of the floor, and I was all right. Could that ball? I knew where I was. I knew how many steps it took before I had to turn right.

I know my room, been living there. for a lot of years so i know but i didn't have light As I tried to pick myself up off the floor at three o'clock this morning. Stumbling, tripping, and doing James Brown all over the carpet. Because I tripped over my shoes. I was reminded that when things are dark.

You don't see things as they really are. You think you're okay when you're not okay. You think you're fine when you're not fine. You think you know what you're doing when you don't know what you're doing. All because you're doing your thing in the dark.

Yeah. But when you turn the light, see, if I would have just turned the light on. I wouldn't have had to go through all them issues. I wouldn't have had to face all those problems because the light would have revealed.

Something's wrong in the middle of the floor. The light. Would it not said Nothing's wrong. The light would have said something's wrong. And because the light said something is wrong, it would have given me options to pick it up, to go around it, to jump over it.

Why? Because the light would have revealed it. One of the ways you know you are pure of heart. It's not that you don't see anything, it's that you see things that you now know have to be addressed. By what he says, the grace of God.

He says he giveth more. Grace. What is this grace? It's a force. It's a force to pump.

The righteousness of God through the heart or core of the soul. It's not just God giving you stuff. The Bible says you can have the grace of God. Listen to this. In vain.

It means you got medicine on the counter that you're not taking, so you're not healthy. God has got grace flowing through your spiritual veins, but if that grace is not being enacted by recognizing what the light shows, then the blood of Jesus is not cleansing. And if the blood of Jesus is not cleansing, then you can't see God. But when you Identify the unrighteousness because the light lets you see the unrighteousness. That's why David said, Open my eyes, show me where I've gone astray from you, so I can see it.

address it so I can see you. A lot of us ought to be tired of being spiritually blind. Of not being able to see spiritual reality, not being able to see. And look, religion won't give you spiritual sight. I'm going to tell you that now.

Coming to church won't give you spiritual sight. Uh, going to Bible studies won't give you spiritual sight in the sense of seeing God experientially, it'll give you information. It'll give you inspiration. But it won't necessarily give you spiritual sight because spiritual sight has to do with the condition of the heart. not the location of the pew.

Spiritual sight has to do with, look, and look, and when God starts showing you stuff. Because now the heart, bo-boom, ba-boom, ba-boom, ba-boom, is beating in the soul, pumping grace through it, and the grace is removing the plaque. That's blocking the flow, and God starts showing you stuff, you're gonna be able to sleep at night now. Because, see, you can't sleep at night because you're tossing and turning and how am I going to make it? And everything is going wrong.

But when you see what God is doing, When God shows you, well, yeah, I know it doesn't look good, but I'm working some stuff out. I know you're between a rock place, a hard place, Pharaoh's army, and the Red Sea, but chill out because I'm working something out.

Some of you ladies are going to find your mate when you start seeing the Lord.

Some of you married folk are going to be able to change your mate when you start seeing the Lord. Because instead of arguing, fussing, and cussing about personality, you're going to see what God is doing behind the scenes, and you're going to be able to respond. Spiritually. Because you're seeing what God is up to.

Some of us here only eat organic food now. You see, what man will come and do and he'll spray pesticides on the tomatoes and pesticides on the pumpkins and pesticides on the green vegetables and pesticides trying to fix a problem. But when he tries to fix the problem, he's created a new problem. Because the pesticides are full of chemicals that when introduced to the bodies become damaging to the bodies, but when they're organic. In other words, if man would just leave it alone.

And let God do his thing. All of a sudden, it becomes healthy food and healthy drink just because man has been pushed out of the way. What we've allowed man to do is Spray the power. The side of this world on our souls. And we wonder why, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, the heart's not working right.

But if we'll go back to God and stop being double-minded and stop trying to be the world and God, we'll find out God knows what He's doing. He knows how to make that pumpkin big, that watermelon big. He knows how to make those green vegetables. Fresh and healthy. Because he was doing it before you got here.

He'll be doing it after you're gone.

So why don't you let him do his thing? You got to be willing for him to show you what's wrong so you can confess it, repent of it, so he can transform you, so he can let you see, I know what I'm doing. I'm yesterday and tomorrow. Beginning and ends. Alpha and Omega, start and finisher.

I got you covered. You just got to see what I'm up to. Blessed are the pure in heart. For they shall see God. Dr.

Tony Evans, talking about the blessings waiting for us when we get our hearts right with God. And there's actually more to this message than we had time to share today.

So if you'd like to hear the full-length version of the lesson, just visit our website at tonyevans.org and look for the details on the message called Blessed are the Pure in Heart. Better yet, take advantage of our current special offer. For a limited time, when you make a contribution to the alternative, We'll send you Tony's 10-message series, How to Be Truly Blessed. along with his devotional book, Praying Through the Names of Jesus. It's our way of saying thank you for helping us keep this teaching on the air in your community and beyond.

Just visit Tony Evans.org today to make your request. or call our resource center at 1-800-800-3222 where team members are standing by to help 24-7. Once again, that's 1-800-800-0-0-0-0-0- 800-3222. You know, everybody wants to enjoy peace. But how many of us are willing to do what it takes to make peace?

Well, tomorrow, Dr. Evans will talk about the blessings waiting for those who are ready to address the root of conflicts with one another. Be sure to join us for that.