Daily Devotional For Thursday, August 29, 2024

Well, you are getting closer to the weekend. It seems like it was yesterday I wrote last Thursday’s devotional. A week has flown by faster than “The Flash”. We are looking at the most famous and best sermon ever – Jesus’ Sermon On The Mount. Jesus holds nothing back in this sermon. It has all the appearances of those old timer hellfire and damnation sermons I grew up on as a child. Jesus holds nothing back – and though the truth can set us free, the truth can also hurt to hear and hard to apply to our lives.

Ever had a doctor tell you that you need to lose 20-40 pounds or recommend you change your diet? You know that the truth your doctor shares with you is right. It is now a matter of the will to do it when everything in you resists. We are creatures of habit and many times, we have cultivated the wrong habits that have dug their teeth deeply into our lifestyle. 

What we are currently looking at in Matthew 5:3-12, The Beatitudes, course corrections for a wayward life. The blessings Jesus says are possible from doing them do not come from simple changes, but from 180 changes. Each one is similar to being a “Spiritual GPS” leg, correcting, redirecting and keeping us on the right track. We are now looking at Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (NASB).

Pastor and author John MacArthur writes there are actually six (6) kinds of purity:

1. There is primal purity. He says this is the kind that only exists in God. That purity is as essential to God as light is to the sun or wetness is to water.
2. There is created purity. This is the purity that only existed in God’s creation prior to the Fall. God created the angels in purity and He created man in purity. Tragically, some of the angels and all of mankind fell from that purity.
3. There is positional purity. This is the purity we are given the moment we trust Jesus Christ as our Savior. When we trust in Him, God imputes to us Christ’s own purity, Christ’s own righteousness. This is Paul’s point in:
   1.  Romans 4:5, “But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness” (NASB). 
   2. Galatians 2:16, “Nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified” (NASB).
   3. 2 Corinthians 5:21, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (NASB).
   4. Hebrews 9:14, “How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (NASB).
4. There is imputed purity. This is the purity God gives in the nature of a new believer:
   1.  Romans 6:4-5, “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in the newness of life. (5) For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
   2. Romans 8:5-11, “For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.(6) For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, (7) because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, (8) and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (9) However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. (10) If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. (11) But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (NASB).
   3. Colossians 3:9-10, “Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old [b]self with its evil practices, (10)  and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him.
   4. 2 Peter 1:3, “Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence” (NASB). This means there is no justification without sanctification. This is the point of 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (NASB). Therefore, when we sin it is not coming from this imputed purity, but from our flesh (Rom. 7:17, 19-22, 25).
5. There is practical purity. This, of course, is the hard part, the part that does require our supreme effort. Only God possesses or can possess primal purity. Only God can bestow created purity, ultimate purity, positional purity, and actual purity. But practical purity, though it too comes from God, demands our participation in a way that the other kinds of purity do not. 
   1. This is Paul’s point in 2 Corinthians 7:1, “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (NASB).
   2. This is why Peter pleads the way he does in 1 Peter 1:14-16, “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, (15) but like the Holy One who called you, ]be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; (16) because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy” (NASB). This means we are not saved only for some future heavenly purity, but also for a present earthly purity. God wants us pure as we can be and if purity does not characterize our living, we either do not belong to Christ, or we are disobedient to Him. We will have temptations, but God will always provide a way of escape. Look at 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it” (NASB). But if and when we do fall into sin, all we need to do is what 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (NASB).
   3. There is ultimate purity. The perfected purity that God’s redeemed people will experience when they are glorified in His presence. All sins will be totally and permanently washed away and we will be able to do what 1 John 3:2 says, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is” (NASB) – (Source: John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, “Mattew,” p. 207). 

Questions To Consider

1. When it comes to being “pure in heart,” do you tell little “white lies” or exaggerate the truth and thus worry to keep up with these impure truths or statements so people do not discover you are a fibber or a liar? If you do, how do you do this?
2. True purity of heart can only come to those who are saved, redeemed and holy. The end result is you see God. Do you really want to see God on this side of heaven? Why or why not?
3. You were given six different kinds of purity. Which of these have you experienced and are experiencing now? If none, why?
4. Would God say you are a person of integrity and sincerity – no mixed motives? Why or why not?
5. What is the hardest part in doing these Beatitudes and why?

Scripture To Meditate On: 2 Corinthians 7:1, “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (NASB).

Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, there are times I struggle with mixed motives. I want to be pure in my heart. Please help me to live out the imputed purity and practical purity every day of my life. I want to see You God. Please give me a desire to passionately love you with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”

I love you Southside!--Pastor Kelly