Hello and welcome to Wisdom for the Heart, the Bible teaching ministry of Stephen Davie. Stephen is the President of Wisdom International and he's been teaching God's Word for over four decades. to learn more or to access Stephen's articles, books, daily devotionals, and more. Visit WisdomOnline dot org. There's a link in the show notes.
Now here's Stephen. Mercy, one author wrote, is simply seeing a man without food and giving him food. Mercy is seeing a person begging for love and giving them love. Mercy is seeing someone lonely and giving them company. Mercy is not in feeling their need, it is in meeting their need.
That's true mercy. But the world doesn't really buy this idea. In Christ's day and in our day, happiness is having people. Bow to our knees. The world says, whenever you are in control, when you have people at your mercy, And you're happy.
He was born in eighteen ninety seven. In a tiny Farming community in western Pennsylvania. One night as a teenager, in fact, he was 17 years of age. while walking home from his job at the Tire store. He overheard a street preacher.
who was preaching nearby, say If you don't know how to be saved, Just call on God.
Well, when he got home, He climbed into the attic. Where he could be alone. And called out to God. for salvation. Five years after his conversion, he took his first pastorate in West Virginia.
He never had any formal training, although he would become an incredible student of. of the word He would be a great teacher of Christian principles. He entered the ministry. making him about twenty two years of age, after forty years of Faithful service, authoring numerous books, pastoring several churches, receiving two honorary doctorates. Leading as editor a national magazine, producing countless articles with a pen.
Laced with his own wit and a bit of sarcasm and a load of spiritual insight. He finally finished his race. His name was Aydin Wilson Tozer. better known as A W tozer. His books Among them the knowledge of the holy and the pursuit of God.
are now considered across denominational lines as Christian classics. Though loved by many, he definitely stood for the gospel. In fact, in an era where liberalism swept into mainline Protestantism in the early and mid-1900s, Tozer wrote these words: We are not diplomats. But prophets. And our message is not a compromise, it is not It is an ultimatum.
Tozer further challenged the average American church that grew stale over time. He would. He would write these words: One characteristic that marks the average church today is a lack of anticipation. When Christians meet, they do not expect anything unusual to happen. Consequently, Only the usual happens.
And that usual is as predictable as the setting of the sun. We need today a fresh spirit of anticipation that springs out of the promises of God as we come together with childlike faith. More than anything, A.W. Tozer had the ability to challenge the believer to dig into the word. He wrote this: We must not select a few favorite passages.
To the exclusion of others. Nothing less than a whole Bible can make a whole Christian. He compared on one occasion the Bible to a wristwatch. and with a touch of sarcasm he wrote If God gives you a watch, are you honoring Him by asking Him what time it is? or by consulting the watch.
I recently finished reading again. His little book, The Knowledge of the Holy. And for those of you who've read his books, you know that even though his most favored books centered on theology, Tozer had an unusual ability to challenge the Christian with the truth of believing. Theology was not enough. In fact, it was dangerous unless we lived it and obeyed it.
Listen to what he once reminded an audience. He reminded them of this truth when he said, The devil is a better theologian than any of us. Yet He remains the devil. Interesting thought. On one occasion AW Tozer preached through the Beatitudes.
And he made the comment that if you turned these eight beatitudes inside out, you would know exactly how the world works. Thought.
So I sort of took that challenge. Which is still true fifty years after he said it. And I turned these Beatitudes. inside out and paraphrase them. In verse 3, the world would say, Happy are those who can say, I've got it made.
Jesus Christ says, Happy are those who recognize they haven't got a chance. Verse 4. The world says, Happy are those who never have to cry about anything. Jesus Christ says, Happy are those who never stop crying over sin. Verse 5.
The world says, Happy are those who know how to climb the ladder. Jesus Christ says, Happy are those who voluntarily come in last. Verse 6. The world says Happy are those who stuff themselves with the things of life. Jesus Christ says.
Happy are those who are starving. for something beyond this life. Verse 7, the world would say, Blessed are those who never need help or a handout. Jesus Christ says, Blessed are those who are ready. ever ready to lend a hand.
And verse 8. The world would say, Happy are those whose private perversion is never revealed. Jesus Christ would say, Happy are those whose private purity and is a daily Resolution. Let's take a closer look at Verse seven Blessed are The Merciful For they shall receive Mercy.
Now, before we find out what Christ is saying, we need to understand what He isn't saying. Two things he is not saying. It could lead you to confusion. First, Jesus Christ is not saying, if you show mercy to others, you will receive mercy from others. In return, have you found that to be true?
If that were so, the most merciful man to ever walked the planet would have been given mercy by the mob. Instead, he was given a rugged cross, right? David showed mercy to King Saul. Twice, David could have taken the life of this cruel and vindictive, paranoid king who threw spears at him, trying to pin him to the wall, and who for years tried to hunt David down to kill him so he wouldn't take the throne of Israel, even though God had promised it to him. On one occasion, if you've studied his life, you know how in the middle of the night, while Saul and his men were sleeping in the open, David crept up and cut a piece away from Saul's cloak when he could have cut.
Saul's throat. David showed Mercy. Saul drew more. Vindictive. It's possible to show mercy to people who turn their back on you.
who in response reject you. Treat you badly.
So the Lord is not saying if you show mercy to others, you'll have people giving you mercy in return. Secondly, Jesus is not saying, if you show mercy to other people, you will earn mercy from God. At face value, that may Seeing what it says, unless you study the. Through the analogy of Scripture, comparing scripture with scripture, and we discover that we do not earn mercy. By extending mercy.
Salvation from God is not merited.
However, salvation from God is received, and receiving mercy from God is our present tense experience and our future tense experience. Paul told Titus that Christ saved us according to His mercy, Titus 3, verse 5. In Ephesians 2, verse 4, Paul writes that God has saved us being rich in mercy. In other words, it's impossible to be saved without the mercy of God. And salvation is unmerited, it is the gift of God.
Here's what I believe is happening. This beatitude has more to do with our relationship with other people. Than with God. I believe you could understand the Lord to be saying this: since you are people who have. And will receive the mercy of of God Prove it.
By showing mercy. to other people. In other words, one of the distinctives of Christianity ought to be the demonstration of mercy, not only from God to us, but through us To others, Showing mercy to others is not a condition to receiving mercy from God. It is proof. That we have Showing mercy is evidence that we have received.
God's mercy. I think this is. Behind the Apostle John's text. When he asked the Christian student, If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need, Yet closes his heart against him, literally has no mercy on him. How can the love of God be in him?
1 John 3, 17. We don't earn the love of God. But how can we claim to have the love of God and be unloving? How can we claim to have received the mercy of God and be unmerciful? Jesus Christ says, You want to be truly happy?
Then demonstrate to others what you've received and will yet receive. Mercy. From God. You have to understand as well. that the world of Christ did not admire mercy.
The Romans admired power and justice and might. The philosophers of Christ's day even called mercy, and I quote from one of them, a disease of the soul. While in India I was moved. By the masses of people who were considered untouchables. The lowest caste in this Hindu culture.
and children would run after us. offering us cheap plastic necklaces for whatever a change we could give them We would drive by corners and there would be women carrying babies on their hips. begging their lives filled with unspeakable difficulty and sorrow. And no Mercy. Anywhere.
Their religion taught them that these people had simply Reincarnated as untouchable simply because of the fact they'd lived evil lives. And what they were experiencing was what they deserved. Interesting, I met a Christian woman. They're in India who Had gone among the people in her area inviting elementary age girls from the untouchable caste. to a school that she created.
She dressed them in clean uniforms, and And then in a public bathroom. that she had scrubbed clean, Sat them in tidy rows, and every day taught these girls. their education. That's mercy. What would motivate anybody to give anybody mercy?
The fact that we have received mercy. From God. Mercy, one author wrote, is simply seeing a man without food and giving him food. Mercy is seeing a person begging for love and giving them love. Mercy is seeing someone lonely and giving them company.
Mercy is not in feeling their need, it is in meeting their need. That's true mercy. But the world doesn't really buy this idea. In Christ's day and in our day, happiness is having people. Bow to our knees.
The world says, whenever you are in control, when you have people at your mercy, Then you're happy.
So Joseph was really living it up then, right, in Genesis 42, where his brothers came along to Egypt in need of food, and now they are bowing before this. Young ruler, not realizing that he is their brother, they'd sold into slavery. Joseph now had them at his mercy. And he gave them mercy. That, ladies and gentlemen, is undeniable proof that God's mercy had impacted.
Joseph's heart. long before. You want true happiness? Show mercy. You want to be truly unhappy?
Don't show mercy. Be stingy with people. Let everybody know that those people down the street or You know, across the street or in the newspaper, they're getting what they deserve. Talk like that in the living room. To your children.
Show no mercy. While you're at it. You might study the life of Joseph Stalin. Stalin means Steel. This Russian premier One of the most powerful men on the planet had millions of people at his mercy, and he showed no mercy.
This man of steel thou had seven bedrooms. Each of them would be closed at night as tightly as a safe. for fear Of being assassinated. He feared that those he led with his steel boot would be Might show him the same mercy. He even employed, I read, a servant.
full time to do nothing more than monitor and guard his tea bags.
So terrified. There's a happy man for you. He's on top of the world. The truth is, his servant who watched over his tea bags probably enjoyed his tea more than Stalin ever. or could.
Solomon put it this way: the merciful man ultimately does himself. Good. The cruel man only hurts. himself. Proverbs eleven seventeen.
There is mercy in forgiveness, isn't there? There is mercy when You withhold what someone deserves? When you refuse to get revenge, Even when that person is At your mercy? And you can hurt them or Humiliate them? Or Ignore them.
Mercy is the imitation, then, of Christ. Who is merciful in his salvation. The hymn writer put it this way, You'll recognize these lyrics. by God's word at last my sin I learned. Then I trembled at the law I'd spurned, till my guilty soul, imploring, turned.
to Calvary. And what happened? Mercy there was great. Mercy was great. And grace was free.
Pardon there was multiplied to me There my burdened soul found liberty Where? at Calvary. The one who shows the guilty mercy reveals the truth that he has received the mercy of Christ in his past. He is experiencing it in his present. He will experience the mercy of God in his eternal future.
You could say it this way: happy are happy. The helpful. Jesus Christ goes on to deliver Another upside-down backward counterculture truth on how to Find happiness. How to put away the me attitudes and discover the be attitudes. You remember the word be attitude simply means true, genuine.
Happiness. Look at verse 8. Blessed are the pure in heart. For they shall see God. Happy are the holy.
Blessed are the pure in heart. You study the scriptures and discover. The fact that there is positional purity and practical. Purity. Positional purity is the work that God does for Christians.
Practical purity is the work Christians do. For God. Positional purity is really another term for Justification. We are justified. We are declared pure.
We are declared righteous or right. By the work of God for us at salvation. Paul wrote in Romans chapter 3, 23 and 24, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified, declared pure before God. Right with God by grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Positional purity is the easy part.
That is from our perspective. On our side of the equation, because God accomplished everything.
So that we could be positionally. Pure. Practical purity is the hard part, isn't it? You struggled with that today. And so did I.
This is our responsibility. This is what we are and do. For God. And you notice in this text that the emphasis is not on the hands. But the heart.
Our hands are related to mercy. Our heart is related to purity. Mercy is an external activity. Purity is an internal quality By the way, whenever the Bible talks about the heart, It is talking about the center of the personality. In the Bible, the heart is the mind.
The emotions and what? And the will The heart refers then to what makes you who you really are. Jesus Christ said, out of the overflow of the heart, The mouth speaks. Matthew 12, 34.
Solomon wrote, As a man thinks in his where? Heart.
So is he. That's who he really is. That's the real him. The real her. What they're thinking in their heart.
So, the happy then are those who diligently and passionately desire purity in their heart, which means purity in their mind. Purity in their emotions. purity in their will. Purity in what they think. Purity in what they decide.
Purity in how they allow themselves. To feel. Purity is from the word catharas, which means or refers to integrity. It is akin to the Latin word. castus, which gives us our English word.
Chaste Notice the promise in the text: Blessed are the pure in heart. Here it is, for they shall see God. The tense of that verb is future continuous tense. One author paraphrased the text to read it this way, then: Happy are those who pursue purity in their mind, emotions, and will, because they will continually be seeing God for themselves. In other words, They will see like none other the hand of God at work.
How? We as believers. As we walk with God and as we commune with God in the purity of our heart, see His hand in creation. We see it in creation, we see it in circumstances, we see His hand in culture. God is at work.
And the pure in heart are privileged. to see it. Warren Wearsby put it this way: spiritual sight leads to spiritual Insight. We see him at work. Thoreau was once asked if he wanted to read the newspaper, and he responded that he had.
Read one once already. I like this perspective better. John Wesley once said that he read the newspaper to see what God was doing. in his world. Do you think of it that way?
Do you look at it that way? Can you look at your world with that perspective?
Well, the best way to see the hand of God at work in your own life and in the lives of Of others and in the life of your world is a heart that continually asks God, and this is the daily pursuit of purity, like David who prayed, Create in me a clean heart, O Lord. God. It's another way of saying, Lord, I want to see you at work. in every possible way Blessed are those who can see with their heart. Not a bad translation.
And those with pure hearts He promises. Those who passionately pursue Private purity. This is in your heart. Nobody sees. Nobody knows but God.
Mercy, everybody sees it. You can have an impure heart and be merciful. Pure heart, God knows. God sees. Pursue that, and you will see the work of God in your world, in your life, in circumstances, in other people's lives as well.
It will demand and require this resolution To pray with David, created me daily, today, this moment. A clean Heart. Before the Hubble Space Telescope was launched. It had experienced a number of delays. It was supposed to launch.
I think it was in Seventy-three It launched in 80. This amazing telescope orbits the Earth three hundred and sixty miles up. races around our globe. once every ninety seven minutes. It can peer into space.
and it can see, as it were, seven Billion Light years Away. But there was trouble early on before it was launched, and the delay lasted. Seven years The lens Had been manufactured. But now it needed to be protected while everything else was completed. And a place was found where the lens could be stored, a sterile, clean cell in the Lockheed facility in Sunnyvale.
California at a cost of $8 million a month. You thought your rent was bad, okay? This is what this cost. I found it fascinating. that scientists Understood.
That the best way To see the heavens. is through a clean Land Believers. to catch it. Pursue a pure heart. Recognize that the best way to see the activity of the God of heaven.
is with a clean heart. A. W. Tozer. Said it this way.
You can see God from anywhere. if your heart is set to love him. And obey him. By the way, let me wrap up by just saying a few more words about this gentleman. He lived what he preached.
He was both helpful. And wholly. He was committed to it, passionate about it. He and his wife. If you can imagine this, plus their seven children never owned a family vehicle.
They use public transportation. When they needed to go anywhere, he And then Tozer gave away. most of their money. He wrote these convicting words. To me and to us all, I quote It will cost something.
to walk carefully and slowly. in the parade of the ages while excited men of time Rush about. confusing motion. with progress. But to walk slowly carefully.
will pay off. in the long run. It's another way of saying, listen. Whatever you do, don't give your ear to what the world says about happiness. Listen to what Jesus Christ says.
The world has it all turned inside out. Jesus Christ really straightens it all out. The Christian, in effect, ladies and gentlemen, is someone who has given Jesus Christ. The final word. The last word.
And what does he say in these two principles? Show mercy. Pursue purity, and that, no matter what the world says, is the path. The true Genuine. Happiness.
That was Stephen Davey, and this is Wisdom for the Heart, a production of Wisdom International. Learn more at wisdomonline. org.
