The Sixth Beatitude

The Sixth Beatitude

(No. 3159)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 1909.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, APRIL
27, 1873.

"Blessed aire the pure in heart: for they shall see God." Matthew 5:8.

[In the year 1873, Mr. Spurgeon delivered what he called "a series of
sententious homilies" on the Beatitudes. After an introductory
discourse upon the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes as a whole,
he intended to preach upon each one separately, but either illness or
some other special reason prevented him from fully carrying out this
purpose. There are, however, eight Sermons upon the Beatitudes–See
Sermons #422, Volume 7–THE PEACEMAKER; #2103, Volume 35–THE HUNGER
AND THIRST WHICH ARE BLESSED; #3155, Volume 55–THE BEATITUDES; #3156,
Volume 55–THE FIRST BEATITUDE; #3065, Volume 53–THE THIRD BEATITUDE;
#3157, Volume 55– THE FOURTH BEATITUDE; #3158,.]

IT was a peculiarity of the great Apostle and High Priest of our
profession, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, that His teaching was
continually aimed at the hearts of men. Other teachers had been content
with outward moral reformation, but He sought the source of all the
evil, that He might cleanse the spring from which all sinful thoughts,
words and actions come. He insisted over and over again that until the
heart was pure, the life would never be clean. The memorable Sermon
upon the Mount, from which our text is taken, begins with the
benediction, "Blessed are the poor in spirit," for Christ was dealing
with men's spirits–with their inner and spiritual nature. He did this
more or less in all the Beatitudes and this one strikes the very center
of the target as He says not, "Blessed are the pure in language, or the
pure in action," much less, "Blessed are the pure in ceremonies, or in
raiment, or in food," but "Blessed are the pure in heart" O Beloved,
whatever so-called "religion" may recognize as its adherent, a man
whose heart is impure, the religion of Jesus Christ will not do so! His
message to all men is still, "You must be born-again." That is to say,
the inner nature must be Divinely renewed or else you cannot enter or
even see that Kingdom of God which Christ came to set up in this world.
If your actions should appear to be pure, yet if the motive at the back
of those actions should be impure, that will nullify them all! If your
language should be chaste, yet if your heart is reveling in fowl
imaginations, you stand before God not according to your words, but
according to your desires–according to the set of the current of your
affections, your real inward likes and dislikes–you shall be judged by
Him. Externalpurity is all that man asks at our hands, "for man looks
on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart"–and the
promises and blessings of the Covenant of Grace belong to those who are
made pure in heart–and to no one else.

In speaking upon our text, I want to slow you, first, that impurity of
heart is the cause of spiritual blindness. And secondly, that the
purification of the heart admits us to a most glorious sight–"the pure
in heart shall see God." Then I shall have to show you, in the third
place, that the purification of the heart is a Divine operation which
cannot be performed by ourselves, or by any human method–it must be
worked by Him who is the thrice-holy Lord God of Sabaoth!

I. First, then, I have to remark that IMPURITY OF HEART IS THE CAUSE OF
SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS–the cause of a very large part, if not of all of
it.

A man who is intoxicated cannot see clearly. His vision is often
distorted or doubled. But there are other cups, besides those which
intoxicate, which prevent the mental eyes from having clear sight. And
he who has once drunk deeply of those cups will become spiritually
blind, and others, in proportion as they imbibe the noxious draughts,
will be unable to see afar off.

There are moral beauties and immoral horrors which certain men cannot
see because they are impure in heart Take, for instance, the covetous
man, and you will soon see that there is no other dust that blinds so
completely as gold dust. There is a trade which many regard as bad from
top to bottom, but if it pays the man who is engaged in it, and he is
of a

grasping disposition, it will be almost impossible to convince him that
it is an evil trade! You will usually find that the covetous man sees
no charm in generosity. He thinks that the liberal man, if he is not
actually a fool, is so near akin to one that he might very easily be
mistaken for one. He himself admires that which can be most easily
grasped–and the more of it that he can secure, the better is he
pleased. The skinning of flints and the oppression of the poor are
occupations in which he takes delight! If he has performed a dirty
trick in which he has sacrificed every principle of honor, yet if it
has turned out to his own advantage, he says to himself, "That was a
clever stroke!" And if he should meet with another of his own kind, he
and his fellow would chuckle over the transaction and say how
beautifully they had done it. It would be useless for me to attempt to
reason with an avaricious man–to show him the beauty of
liberality–but, on the other hand, I would not think of wasting my
time in trying to get a fair opinion from him as to the justice of
anything which he knew to be remunerative. You know that some years ago
there was a great fight in the United States over the question of
slavery. Who were the gentlemen in England who took the side of the
slave-owners? Why, mostly Liverpool men who did so because slavery paid
them! If it had not done so, they would have condemned it. And I
daresay that those of us who condemned it, did so the more readily
because it did not pay us! Men can see very clearly where there is
nothing to be lost either way, but if it comes to the a matter of gain,
the heart being impure, the eyes cannot see straight! There are
innumerable things that a man cannot see if he holds a sovereign over
each of his eyes–he cannot even see the sun then–and if he keeps the
gold over his eyes, he will become blind. The pure in heart can see.
But when covetousness gets into the heart, it makes the eyes dim or
blind.

Take another sin–the sin of oppression. There are men who tell us that
in their opinion, the persons who are in the highest positions in life
are the very beauty and glory of the nation–and that poor people ought
to be kept in their proper places because they were created on purpose
so that "the nobility" might be sustained in their exalted position,
and that other highly respectable persons might also gather to
themselves any quantity of wealth. As to the idea of men needing more
money for their services, it ought not to be encouraged for a single
moment, so these gentlemen say! And if the poor needlewoman toils and
starves on the few pence she can earn, you must not say a word about
it–there are "the laws of political economy" that govern all such
cases–so she must be ground between the wheels that abound in this age
of machinery and nobody ought to interfere in the matter. Of course, an
oppressor cannot or will not see the evil of oppression. If you put
before him a case of injustice which is as plain as the nose on his
face, he cannot see it because he has always been under the delusion
that he was sent into the world with a whip in his hand to drive other
people about, for he is the one great somebody and other people are
poor nobodies, only fit to creep under his huge legs and humbly ask his
leave to live. In this way, oppression, if it gets into the heart,
completely blinds the eyes and perverts the judgment of the oppressor.

The same remark is true concerning lasciviousness. I have often
noticed, when men have railed at religion and reviled the holy Word of
God, that their lives have been impure. Seldom, if ever, have I met
with a case in which my judgment has deceived me with regard to the
lives of men who have spoken against holy things. I remember preaching,
once, in a country town just about harvest time–and in commenting on
the fact that some farmers would not let the poor have any gleanings
from their fields–I said I thought there were some who were so mean
that if they could rake their fields with a small tooth comb they would
do so. Thereupon a farmer marched noisily out of the place in
anger–and when he was asked why he was so wrathful, he answered, with
the greatest simplicity, "Because I always rake my fields twice." Of
course, he could not perceive any particular pleasure in caring for the
poor and neither could he submit with a good conscience to the rebuke
that came home to him so pointedly! And when men speak against the
Gospel, it is almost always because the Gospel speaks against them. The
Gospel has found them out–it has charged them with the guilt of their
sins and has arrested them! It has come to them like a policeman with
his dark lantern and turned the bull's eye full upon their iniquity
and, therefore, it is that they are so indignant. They would not be
living as they are if they could see themselves as God sees them–they
would not be able to continue in their filthiness, corrupting others as
well as ruining themselves if they could really see! And as these evil
things get into the heart, they are certain to blind the eyes.

The same thing may be said with regard to spiritual Truth as well as
moral Truth. We frequently meet with persons who say that they cannot
understand the Gospel of Christ. At the bottom, in nine cases out of
ten, I believe that it is their sin which prevents their understanding
it. For instance, last Lord's-Day evening, [See Sermon #3154, Volume
55–concerning the

FORBEARANCE OF GOD.] I tried to preach to you upon the claims of

God and sought to show you what right He has to us. There may have been
some of my hearers who said, "We do not recognize the claims of God to
us." If any one of you talks like that, it is because your heart is not
right in the sight of God, for if you were able to judge righteously,
you would see that the highest claims in all the world are those of the
Creator upon His creatures and you would at once say, "I recognize that
He who has created has the right to govern– that He should be Master
and Lord who is both greatest and best–and that He should be Lawgiver
who is Infallibly wise and just, and always kind and good." When men
practically say, "We would not cheat or rob our fellow men, but as for
God, what does it matter how we treat Him?" The reason is that they are
unjust in heart and their so called justice to their fellow men is only
because their motto is, "honesty is the best policy," and they are not
really just in heart, or else they would at once admit the just claims
of the Most High.

The great central Doctrine of the Atonement can never be fully
appreciated until a man's heart is rectified. You have probably often
heard such remarks as these, "I don't see why there should be any
recompense made to God for sin. Why could He not forgive transgression
at once and have done with it? What need is there of a substitutionary
Sacrifice?" Ah, Sir! If you had ever felt the weight of sin upon your
conscience. If you had ever learned to loathe the very thought of evil.
If you had been brokenhearted because you have been so terribly defiled
by sin, you would feel that the Atonement was not only required by God,
but that it was also required by your own sense of justice! And instead
of rebelling against the Doctrine of Vicarious Sacrifice, you would
open your heart to it and cry, "That is precisely what I need!" The
purest-hearted people who have ever lived are those who have rejoiced
to see God's righteous Law vindicated and magnified by Christ's death
upon the Cross as the Substitute for all who believe in Him, so that
while God's mercy is displayed in matchless majesty, intense
satisfaction is felt that there could be a way of reconciliation by
which every attribute of God should derive honor and glory–and yet
poor lost sinners should be lifted up into the high and honorable
position of children of God! The pure in heart see no difficulty in the
Atonement–all the difficulties concerning it arise from the lack of
purity there.

The same may be said of the equally important Truth of Regeneration.
The impure in heart cannot see any need of being born-again. They say,
"We admit that we are not quite all that we should be, but we can
easily be made all right. As to the talk about a new creation, we do
not see any need of that. We have made a few mistakes which will be
rectified by experience. And there have been some errors of life which
we trust may be condoned by future watchfulness and care." But if the
unrenewed man's heart were pure, he would see that his nature has been
an evil thing from the beginning and he would realize that thoughts of
evil as naturally rise in us as sparks do from a fire! And he would
feel that it would be a dreadful thing that such a nature as that
should remain unchanged. He would see within his heart jealousies,
murders, rebellions and evils of every kind–and his heart would cry
out to be delivered from itself. But just because his heart is impure,
he does not see his own impurity and does not and will not confess his
need to be made a new creature in Christ Jesus. But as for you who are
pure in heart, what do you now think of your old nature? Is it not the
heavy burden that you continually carry about with you? Is not the
plague of your own heart the worst plague under Heaven? Do you not feel
that the very tendency to sin is a constant grief to you and that if
you could but get rid of it altogether, your Heaven would have begun
below? So it is the pure in heart who see the Doctrine of
Regeneration–and those who see it not, see it not because they are
impurein heart.

The same remark is true concerning the glorious Character of our
blessed Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. Who has ever found fault with
that except men with bat's eyes? There have been unconverted men who
have been struck with the beauty and purity of Christ's life, but the
pure in heart are enamored of it. They feel that it is more than a
human life, that it is Divine and that God Himself is revealed in the
Person of Jesus Christ, His Son. If any man does not see the Lord Jesus
Christ to be thus superlatively lovely, it is because he is, himself,
not purified in heart, for if he were, he would recognize in Him the
mirror of all perfection and would rejoice to do reverence to Him. But,
alas, it is still true that, as it is with moral matters, so is it with
that which is spiritual and, therefore, the great Truths of the Gospel
cannot be perceived by those whose heart is impure!

There is one form of impurity which, beyond all others, seems to blind
the eyes to spiritual Truth, and that is duplicity of heart. A man who
is simple-minded, honest, sincere, childlike, is the man who enters the
Kingdom of Heaven when its door is opened to him. The things of the
Kingdom are hidden from the double-minded and the deceitful, but they
are plainly revealed to the babes in Grace–the simple-hearted,
transparent people who wear their heart upon their sleeve. It is quite
certain that the hypocrite will never see God while he continues in his
hypocrisy. In fact, he is so blind that he cannot see anything, and
certainly cannot see himself as he really is in God's sight! The man
who is quite satisfied with the name of a Christian, without the life
of a Christian will never see God nor anything at all until his eyes
are Divinely opened. What does it matter to anybody else what his
opinion is upon any subject whatever? We would not care to have praise
from the man who is double-minded and who is practically a liar, for
while he is one thing in his heart, he endeavors to pass himself off
for another thing in his life.

Formalism, too, will never see God, for formalism always looks to the
shell and never gets to the kernel. Formalism licks the bone, but never
gets to the marrow. It heaps to itself ceremonies, mostly of its own
invention, and when it has attended to these, it flatters itself that
all is well, though the heart itself still lusts after sin. The widow's
house is being devoured even at the very time when the Pharisee is
making long prayers in the synagogue or at the corners of the streets.
Such a man cannot see God! There is a kind of reading of the Scriptures
which will never lead a man to see God. He opens the Bible, not to see
what is there, but to see what he can find to back up his own views and
opinions. If the texts he needs are not there, he will twist others
round till he, somehow or other, gets them on his side. But he will
only believe as much as agrees with his own preconceived notions! He
would like to mold the Bible, like a cake of wax, to any shape he
pleases, so, of course, he cannot see the Truth and he does not want to
see it.

The crafty man, too, never sees God. I am afraid for no man as much as
for the crafty, the man whose guiding star is "policy." I have seen
rough sailors converted to God and blasphemers, harlots and great
sinners of almost all kinds brought to the Savior and saved by His
Grace. And very often they have told the honest truth about their sins
and have blurted out the sad truth in every outspoken fashion. And when
they have been converted, I have often thought that they were like the
good ground of which our Savior spoke–with an honest and good heart in
spite of all their badness. But as for the men of snake-like nature,
who say to you, when you talk to them about religion, "Yes, yes," but
do not mean it at all–the men who are never to be trusted–Mr.
Smooth-Tongue, Mr. Facing-Both-Ways, Mr. By-Ends, Mr. Fair-Speech and
all that class of people–God Himself never seems to do anything but
let them alone! And as far as my observation goes, His Grace seldom
seems to come to these double-minded men and women who are unstable in
all their ways. These are the people who never see God.

It has been remarked by a very excellent writer, that our Lord probably
alluded to this fact in the verse which forms our text. In Oriental
countries the king is seldom to be seen. He lives in retirement and to
get an interview with him is a matter of great difficulty. And there
are all sorts of plots and plans, and intrigues and, perhaps, the use
of backstairs influence. But in that way a man may at last get to see
the king. But Jesus Christ says, in effect, "That is not the way to see
God." No. No one ever gets to Him by craftiness, by plotting, planning
and scheming–but the simple-minded man who goes humbly to Him, just as
he is, and says, "My God, I desire to see You. I am guilty and I
confess my sin, and plead with You for Your dear Son's sake, to forgive
me." He it is who sees God.

I think there are some Christians who never see God as well as others
do–I mean some Brothers and Sisters who, from their peculiar
constitution, seem naturally of a questioning spirit. They are
generally puzzled about some doctrinal point or other and their time is
mostly taken up with answering objections and removing doubts. Perhaps
some poor humble country woman who sits in the aisle and who knows, as
Cowper says, nothing more than that her Bible is true, and that God
always keep His promises, sees a great deal more of God than the
learned and quibbling Brother who vexes himself about foolish questions
to no profit.

I remember telling you of a minister, who, calling on a sick woman,
desired to leave a text with her for her private meditation. So,
opening her old Bible, he turned to a certain passage which he found
that she had marked with the letter P. "What does that P mean, my
Sister?" he asked. "That means precious, Sir. I found that text very
precious to my soul on more than one special occasion." He looked for
another promise, and against this he found in the margin T and P. "And
what do these letters mean, my good Sister?" They mean tried and
proved, Sir, for I tried that promise in my greatest distress and
proved it to be true. And then I put that mark against it so that the
next time I was in trouble, I might be sure that that promise was still
true." The Bible is scored all over with those Ts and Ps by generation
after generation of Believers who have tested the promises of God and
proved them to be true!. May you and I, Beloved, be among those who
have thus tried and proved this precious Book!

II. Our second remark was that THE PURIFICATION OF THE HEART ADMITS US
TO A MOST GLORIOUS SIGHT–"The pure in heart shall see God"

What does that mean? It means many things. I will briefly mention some
of them. First, the man whose heart is pure, will be able to see God in
Nature. When his heart is clean, he will hear God's footfall everywhere
in the garden of the earth in the cool of the day. He will hear God's
voice in the tempest, sounding in peal on peal from the tops of the
mountains. He will behold the Lord walking on the great and mighty
waters, or see Him in every leaf that trembles in the breeze. Once get
the heart right and then God can be seen everywhere! To an impure
heart, God cannot be seen anywhere, but to a pure heart God is to be
seen everywhere–in the deepest caverns of the sea, in the lonely
desert, in every star that gems the brow of midnight!

Further, the pure in heart see God in the Scriptures. Impure minds
cannot see any trace of God in them. They see reasons for doubting
whether Paul wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews, they doubt the
canonicity of the Gospel according to John–and that is about all that
they ever see in the Bible. But the pure in heart see God on every page
of this blessed Book. As they read it devoutly and prayerfully, they
bless the Lord that He has been so graciously pleased to reveal Himself
to them by His Spirit and that He has given them the opportunity and
the desire to enjoy the Revelation of His holy will.

Besides that, the pure in heart see God in His Church. The impure in
heart cannot see Him there at all. To them, the Church of God is
nothing but conglomeration of divided sects. And looking upon these
sects, they can see nothing but faults, failures and imperfections. It
should always be remembered that every man sees that which is according
to his own nature. When the vulture soars in the sky, he sees the
carrion wherever it may be. And when the dove on silver wings mounts up
to the azure, she sees the clean winnowed corn wherever it may be. The
lion sees his prey in the forest and the lamb sees its food in the
grassy meadow. Unclean hearts see little or nothing of good among God's
people, but the pure in heart see God in His Church and rejoice to meet
Him there!

But seeing God means much more than perceiving traces of Him in Nature,
in the Scriptures and in His Church–it means that the pure in heart
begin to discern something of God's true Character. Any man who is
caught in a thunderstorm and who hears the crash of the thunder and
sees what havoc the lightning flashes work, perceives that God is
mighty. If he is not so foolish as to be an atheist, he says, "How
terrible is this God of the lightning and the thunder!" But to perceive
that God is eternally just and yet infinitely tender–and that He is
sternly severe and yet immeasurably gracious, and to see the various
attributes of the Deity all blending into one another as the colors of
the rainbow make one harmonious and beautiful whole–this is reserved
for the man whose eyes have been first washed in the blood of Jesus,
and then anointed with heavenly eye salve by the Holy Spirit! It is
only such a man who sees that God is always and altogether good and who
admires Him under every aspect, seeing that all His attributes are
beautifully blended and balanced, and that each one sheds additional
splendor upon all the rest. The pure in heart shall in that sense see
God, for they shall appreciate His attributes and understand His
Character as the ungodly never can.

But, more than that, they shall be admitted into His fellowship. When
you hear some people talk about there being no God and no spiritual
things, and so on, you need not be at all concerned at what they say,
for they are not in a position to warrant them in speaking about the
matter! For instance, an ungodly man says, "I do not believe there is a
God, for I never saw Him." I do not doubt the truth of what you say,
but when I tell you that I have seen Him, you have no more right to
doubt my word than I have to doubt yours! One day at an hotel dinner
table, I was talking with a Brother minister about certain spiritual
things, when a gentleman who sat opposite to us, and who had a table
napkin tucked under his chin, and a face that indicated his fondness
for wine, made this remark, "I have been in this world for 60 years and
I have never yet been conscious of anything spiritual." We did not say
what we thought, but we thought it was very likely that what he said
was perfectly true–and there are a great many more people in the world
who might say the same as he did! But that only proved that he was not
conscious of anything spiritual–not that others were not conscious of
it! There are plenty of other people who can say, "We are conscious of
spiritual things. We have been, by God's Presence among us, moved,
bowed, carried forward and cast down, and then lifted up into joy and
happiness, and peace–and our experiences are as true phenomena, at
least to us, as any phenomena under Heaven! And we are not to be beaten
out of our beliefs, for they are supported by innumerable undoubted
experiences." "He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High
shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." "But there is no such
secret place," one says, "and no such shadow." How do you know that? If
someone else comes and says, "Ah, but I am dwelling in that secret
place and abiding under that shadow," what will you say to him? You may
call him a fool if you like, but that does not prove that he is
one–though it may prove that youare one, for he is as honest a man as
you are–and as worthy to be believed as you are.

Some years ago, a lawyer in America attended a religious meeting where
he heard about a dozen persons relating their Christian experience. He
sat with his pencil in his hand and jotted down their evidence as they
gave it. At last he said to himself, "If I had a case in court, I
should like to have these persons in the witness box, for I should feel
that if I had their evidence on my side, I should gain the case." Then
he thought, "Well, I have ridiculed these people as fanatics, yet I
would like their evidence in court upon other matters. They have
nothing to gain by what they have been saying, so I ought to believe
that what they have said is true." And the lawyer was simple enough, or
rather, wise enough–and pure enough in heart–to look at the matter
rightly! And so he also came to see the Truth of God and to see God.
Many of us could testify, if this were the time to do so, that there is
such a thing as fellowship with God even here on earth, but men can
enjoy it only in proportion as they give up their love of sin. They
cannot talk with God after they have been talking filthiness. They
cannot speak with God as a man speaks with his friend if they are
accustomed to meet companions in the alehouse and delight to mingle
with the ungodly who gather there. The pure in heart may see God and do
see Him– not with the natural eyes, and far from us is such a carnal
idea as that–but with their inner spiritual eyes they see the great
God who is Spirit! And they have spiritual, but very real communion
with the Most High.

The expression, "They shall see God," may mean something else. As I
have already said, those who saw Oriental mo-narchs were generally
considered to be highly-privileged persons. There were certain
ministers of State who had the right to go in and see the king whenever
they chose to do so. And the pure in heart have just such a right given
to them to go in and see their King at all times. In Christ Jesus they
have boldness and access with confidence in coming to the Throne of the
heavenly Grace. Being cleansed by the precious blood of Jesus, they
have become the ministers, that is, the servantsof God, and He employs
them as His ambassadors and sends them on high and honorable errands
for Him–and they may see Him whenever their business for Him entitles
them to an audience with Him!

And, lastly, the time shall come when those who have thus seen God on
earth shall see Him face to face in Heaven. Oh, the splendor of that
vision! It is useless for me to attempt to talk about it. Possibly
within a week some of us will know more about it than all the divines
on earth could tell us. 'Tis but a thin veil that parts us from Glory!
It may be rent asunder at any moment and then at once–

"Far from a world of grief and sin, With God eternally shut in"– the
pure in heart shall fully understand what it is to see God/May that be
your portion, Beloved, and mine, also, forever and ever!

III. Now, lastly, and very briefly, I have to remind you that THIS
PURIFICATION OF THE HEART IS A DIVINE

WORK.

And believe me when I tell you that it is never an unnecessary work. No
man (except the Man, Christ Jesus), was ever born with a pure heart.
All have sinned, all need to be cleansed–there is none good–no, not
one!

Let me also assure you that this work was never performed by any
ceremony. Men may say what they please, but no application of water
ever made a man's heart any better! Some tell us that in baptism, by
which they mean baby sprinkling, as a rule, they regenerate and make
members of Christ, children of God and inheritors of the Kingdom of
Heaven! But those who are sprinkled are no better than other people.
They grow up in just the same way as others. The whole ceremony is
useless and worse than that, for it is clean contrary to the example
and teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ! No aqueous applications, no
outward ceremonies can ever affect the heart!

Neither can the heart be purified by any process of outward
reformation. The attempt has often been made to work from the outside
to the inside, but it cannot be done–you might as well try to give a
living heart to a marble statue by working upon the outside of it with
a mallet and chisel! To make a sinner pure in heart is as great a
miracle as if God were to make that marble statue live and breathe and
walk!

The heart can only be purified by God's Holy Spirit. He must come upon
us and overshadow us. And when He thus comes to us, then is our heart
changed, but never before that. When the Spirit of God thus comes to
us, He cleanses the

soul. To follow the line of our Savior's teaching in the Chapter before
us–by showing us our spiritual poverty– "Blessed are the poor in
spirit." That is the first work of God's Grace–to make us feel that we
are poor, that we are nothing, that we are undeserving, ill-deserving,
Hell-deserving sinners! As the Spirit of God proceeds with His work,
the next thing that He does is to make us mourn–"Blessed are they that
mourn." We mourn to think that we should have sinned as we have done.
We mourn after our God. We mourn after pardon. And then the great
process that effectually cleanses the heart is the application of the
water and the blood which flowed from the pierced side of Christ upon
the Cross. Here it is, O Sinners, that you will find a double cure from
the guilt and from the power of sin! When faith looks to the bleeding
Savior, it sees in Him not merely pardon for the past, but the putting
away of the sinfulness of the present! The angel said to Joseph, before
Christ was born, "You shall call His name, Jesus, for He shall save His
people from their sins."

The whole process of salvation may be briefly explained thus. The
Spirit of God finds us with foul heart and He comes and throws a Divine
Light into us so that we see that we are foul. Then He shows us that
being sinners, we deserve to endure God's wrath and we realize that we
do. Then He says to us, "But that wrath was borne by Jesus Christ for
you." He opens our eyes and we see that "Christ died for us"–in our
place! We look to Him, we believe that He died as our Substitute and we
trust ourselves with Him. Then we know that our sins are forgiven us
for His name's sake and the cry of pardoned sin goes through us with
such a thrill as we never felt before! And the next moment the forgiven
sinner cries, "Now that I am saved, now that I am pardoned, my Lord
Jesus Christ, I will be Your servant forever! I will put to death the
sins that put You to death and if You will give me the strength to do
so, I will serve You as long as I live!" The current of the man's soul
ran before towards evil, but the moment that he finds that Jesus Christ
died for him and that his sins are forgiven him for Christ's sake, the
whole stream of his soul rushes in the other direction towards that
which is right! And though he still has a struggle against his old
nature, yet from that day forth the man is pure in heart–that is to
say, his heart loves purity, his heart seeks after holiness, his heart
pines after perfection.

Now he is the man who sees God, loves God, delights in God, longs to be
like God and eagerly anticipates the time when he shall be with God and
see Him face to face. That is the process of purification–may you all
enjoy it through the effectual working of the Holy Spirit! If you are
willing to have it, it is freely proclaimed to you. If you truly desire
the new heart and the right spirit, they will be graciously given to
you! There is no need for you to try to fit yourselves to receive them.
God is able to work them in you this very hour! He who will wake the
dead with one blast of the resurrection trumpet can change your nature
with the mere volition of His gracious mind! He can, while you sit in
this house, create in you a new heart, renew a right spirit within you
and send you out as different a man from what you were when you came in
as if you were a new-born child! The power of the Holy Spirit to renew
the human heart is boundless! "Oh," says one, "would that He would
renew my heart, that He would change my nature!" If that is your
heart's desire, send up that prayer to Heaven right now! Let not the
wish die in your soul, but turn it into a prayer and then breathe it
out unto God and listen to what God has to say to you. It is
this–"Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord: though your
sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are
red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Or this– "Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved"–saved from your love of
sin, saved from your old habits and so completely saved that you shall
become one of the pure in heart who see God!

But perhaps you ask, "What is it to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?"
It is to trust Him, to rely upon Him. Oh, that we could all rely upon
Jesus Christ now! Oh, that that troubled young man over there could
come and trust in Jesus! You will never get rid of your troubles till
you do! But, dear Friend, you may be rid of them this very moment if
you will but believe in Jesus! Yes, though you have struggled in vain
against your evil habits, though you have wrestled with them sternly
and resolved, and re-resolved, only to be defeated by your giant sins
and your horrible passions, there is One who can conquer all your sins
for you! There is One who is stronger than Hercules, who can strangle
the hydra of your lust, kill the lion of your passions and cleanse the
Augean stable of your evil nature by turning the great rivers of blood
and water of His atoning Sacrifice right through your soul! He can make
and keep you pure within! Oh, look to Him! He hung upon the Cross,
accursed of men, and God made Him to be sin for us, though He knew no
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He was
condemned to die as our Sin-Offering that we might live forever in the
love of God. Trust Him, trust Him! He has risen from the dead and gone
up into His Glory, and He is at the right hand of God pleading for
transgressors. Trust Him! You can never perish if you trust Him, but
you shall live with ten thousand times ten thousand more who have all
been saved by Grace, to sing of a mighty Savior able to save to the
uttermost all them that come unto God by Him!

God grant that you may all be thus saved, that so you may be among the
pure in heart who shall see God and never leave off seeing Him. And He
shall have all the Glory! Amen and Amen!