February 18, 2025 • 26 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Keeping your mind pure in today's depraved world is like
trying to stay clean while swimming through a swamp, virtually
impossible to do on your own. Today, on turning point,
doctor David Jeremiah offers some proven pointers for maintaining a
clean mind even in the midst of a corrupt culture
(00:25):
from his series on the Beatitudes. Here's David to introduce
today's message, happy are the Holy?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
As soon as you say the word holy in the
ears of some people, they shun what's going to happen next.
They don't feel like there are candidates for holiness and
it's way beyond them. It's a goal too high to
be achieved. And yet the Bible says, listen to this,
be ye holy, for I am holy. I don't think
(00:54):
we can escape holiness by just deciding we don't want
to talk about it, because it's one of the clear
commandments of the Old Mighty God through Jesus Christ, to
be holy as he is. And holiness is not a negative,
it's a positive. It's a wonderful truth to develop and
when we discover what it means and how it works,
(01:14):
it truly does bring happiness to us. So today, on
turning point. We're going to talk about happy are the Holy? Hey,
don't forget. You can get the study guide for this
series on how to be Happy according to Jesus, recently
updated and ready for your use. This study guide takes
through every one of the lessons that we teach during
(01:34):
the month of February and gives you all the details,
a condensed version of the lesson, all of the places
that you need to look in the scripture, additional material
and quotes. The study guide is being used across the
country for small group material and it's a wonderful way
to study the Bible together with your friends. Find out
(01:55):
about it at David Jeremiah dot org, where you will
get all the information about this study guide all of
our resource material. Right now, it's time to get back
to the study of the Bible. Matthew, Chapter five and
verse eight, Happy are the Holy. Several years ago I
was preaching on the subject of purity on Turning Point,
(02:20):
and after the program aired a few days later, I
got a letter in the mail. It was from a
very distressed young man. I kept the letter because it
spoke so poignantly of the struggles so many have these days.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
With this issue of purity of heart.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
He wrote, Dear Pastor Jeremiah, I was sitting here in
my room, contemplating going out and having a beer and
maybe looking at a porno flick or whatever the night
might bring. As I was getting ready to go out,
I turned on the radio and your program was on.
I listened with great interest as you uncovered my life story.
(02:59):
It seems almost as if you received your sermon from
the files in my mind. Deep down, as I search myself,
I know I am doing wrong. I at times feel
guilty about the things I do. I cannot honestly say
that I enjoy getting drunk or enjoy subjecting myself to
the filth that is associated with.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
The sex market.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
From time to time, I find myself getting up in
the middle of an ex movie out of sheer disgust
over what I see on the screen. I am a
happily married man, and I have three beautiful children. I
know my wife would flip if she knew what I do.
When I am away from home, I feel so dirty,
and I hope somehow you can make sense out of
(03:42):
what I've said. I have turned my back on God,
and sometimes I feel as though he has given up
on me. You spoke of being saved. How do you
really know tonight? I sit here with tears in my eyes,
and I don't know why. Please help me if you can.
(04:02):
And I remember I shed some tears when I read
that letter because I felt the hurt in that person's life,
and I know that he represents a lot of folks
who have struggled and hurt as he does. I never
answered a letter so carefully as I answered that one,
with the encouragement of God's word to let him know
(04:23):
there is hope and there is help, and you don't
have to live your life the way he was living his.
The problem he had, you see, was he was looking
for happiness in all the wrong places. And he had
been searching long enough now to discover that he was
on a call to zac and it was taking him nowhere.
In fact, if you heard the letter, you heard him
(04:45):
say twice that he hadn't found joy, that he wasn't
enjoying it. In fact, he was miserable. All the things
that somebody told him were going to make him happy,
we're destroying his very life. And then comes Jesus, and
Jesus says, blessed are the pure in heart, for they
(05:06):
will see God. And I have to tell you it
sounds strange to us the saying of our Lord. We
have been talking about all these sayings. We begin by
saying that the humble are happy. And then we said, no,
not only are the humble happy, the hurting are happy.
That sounds like an oxymoron if I ever heard one.
(05:29):
And then we said, those who are harnessed in the
power that they have, those who are meet they're happy.
And then we said, the people who were hungry and
thirst after righteousness, they're happy. We said, blessed are the
merciful or the helpers, they're happy. And today Jesus said,
blessed are the holy, for they shall see God. And
(05:54):
I have to ask, as we begin today what he
was talking about? What is purity? When he says blessed
are the pure in heart? What was he talking about? Well,
Webster defines purity like this. Webster says, purity is freedom
from foreign mixtures of matter, cleanness, freedom from foulness or dirt.
The word in the text of the Greek language that
(06:16):
is translated here in Matthew is a very interesting Greek word.
It's the word catharis. It is the word from which
we get our word catharsis when a medical person uses
a cathartic. It is an agent that is used to
cleanse a wound or an infected areas so that it
is pure.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
It is a cleansing agent.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
You live in the world of psychology and psychiatry. You
go to a psychologist or a psychiatrist and they may
say that you had a catharsis. What that means is
that while you were there talking to this counselor, you
told him everything that was down in your soul, and
there was a cleansing of the soul. You got it
all out, cleansed your soul of the things that were
(07:02):
troubling you. It is a word that is very poignant
in the Scripture to speak of purity. But Jesus is
not just talking about any kind of purity. He says,
blessed are the pure of heart. What does it mean
to be pure in one's heart? Well, if you've ever
read the words of Jesus very carefully, you know that
(07:23):
he was not into the outward purity that so caused
the Pharisees to rival in all of their glory. Jesus
went after the Pharisees. In fact, I don't know if
you remember this, but on one occasion he told them
they were like a bunch of sepulchers that were painted
all white on the outside, but inside they were full
of dead men's bones. He never did have any trouble
(07:45):
getting to the point, our Lord. He always seemed to
be able to say what he wanted to say. But
Jesus is not talking about the outward kind of purity
that we so often parade in front of our peers,
and we do it better on Sunday than perhaps any
of the day of the week. Well, everybody to believe
that we're okay, that we're clean, that we're pure. Jesus
is not talking about outward purity. He says, blessed are
(08:06):
the pure in their heart. And when he's talking about
the heart, what does he mean. Is he talking about
that organ that beats within your breast, pumping blood throughout
your system. I remember when we first had heart transplants.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Do you remember that you would not believe.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
The people that would come to me and say, Pastor Jeremiah,
what if a person who is an unbeliever has a
heart transplant and his heart is placed in a believer,
does that person have to get saved again. I wanted
to say, have I been so long with you and
you do not know these things. It's not your heart,
(08:49):
the organ that pumps your blood. In fact, it's not
even your emotions, which often you hear taught. When the
Greek writers wanted to talk about the emotions talked.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
About the belly. They used words that were visceral.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
But in the Greek language, when the heart is used
in the way that Jesus used it, it's a reference
to the thinking process, to the mind. Blessed are the
pure in their minds, in their thinking process, for they
shall see God. It is what the Proverbs is talking
about in Proverbs twenty three, verse seven, when it says
as a man thinketh in his heart, there you have
(09:27):
the heart thinking. As the man thinketh in his heart,
so is he. Or another verse from Proverbs, verse twenty
three of chapter four says, watch over your heart with
all diligence, for from it flows the spring of life.
The Old Testament writers and the New Testament writers agree
(09:50):
that it is in the mind, sometimes referred to as
the heart, that purity resides or impurity resides, and Jesus
his comment here in the fifth Chapter of Matthew is
Happy are those who have purity in their heart, for
they shall see God. One of my favorite stories of
(10:11):
the Old Testament is the story of David. I've preached
all through his life and I'd love to go back
and do it again. What a rich and wonderful story
in the life of this man. But you remember how
David became the king of Israel. His predecessor was a
man by the name of Saul, who was the first
king in Israel. And Saul got selected as king in
a rather strange way. He was the tallest man in Israel.
(10:33):
I think that was one of the things that got
him elected. He just stuck out, you know, he stood
up above everyone. And the Bible tells us that Saul
was tall, dark and handsome, but he wasn't much else.
In fact, after he got to be king and got
in a position of power, it became evident that while
he was outwardly okay, he had some really deep inward problems.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
He was disobedient to the Lord.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
On one occasion, when he couldn't get his way, he
took over the role of the priest, which he should
not have done. He even consulted with a witch because
he couldn't get an answer. And one day God had
had it with him, tall, dark and handsome or not.
He was finished. God said, I'm not going to put
up with this anymore, and you're not going to be
king anymore, and none of your sons will ever sit
(11:15):
on the throne in Israel. I'm going to get me
a new king. And the scripture says it this way.
The Lord sought out for himself a man after his
own heart, and he went and got David. And several
times in the story of David's life you have this
comment that David was a man after the heart of God.
(11:38):
His thoughts were the thoughts of God. And how do
we know that he wrote him down. They're in his
journal called the Book of Psalms. And we can tell
how intimately he loved God. Was he perfect to know?
But he had a heart for God. Blessed are the
pure in their heart, for they shall see God. I'm
(11:59):
want to talk to you for a few moments about
three kinds of purity that the Bible teaches. The first
kind of purity is what we might call perfect purity.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Now, if it's pure, it's pure.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
But I want to talk to you about perfect purity,
because the Bible says, and I get so excited when
I think about this. The Bible says, there is coming
a day when everyone who has put their trust in
Jesus Christ is going to go to be with him.
And I don't know if you ever thought of this
verse in this way, but listen to what the Scripture
says in Firs. John three and verse two. We shall
(12:35):
be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
Do you know that one day, men and women, every
one of us here who know Jesus Christ in a
personal way, no matter who we are, how long we've
been Christians, how difficult our life has been, when we
go to be with the Lord and we are glorified,
we are going to be as holy as Jesus Christ is.
(12:55):
That's perfect holiness, ultimate sanctification. That's purity. Well, you say, pastor,
that's great. That's some more of your pie in the sky,
by and by theology.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
And I love that. It's a wonderful thing to look
forward to. But I'm living down here.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Now.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
What do I do?
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Well, let me talk to you about a second kind
of purity. I'll call this positional purity. You see the
problem we have is that the Bible says, in order
for us to see God, we have to be pure.
And what is the standard? You know what Jesus said,
be therefore holy, even as I am holy? How can
I be like that? I cannot be holy like he
(13:36):
is holy. If he doesn't do something to fix that problem,
I will never see God.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
And I'm not alone.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
The whole world is like that, for all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. And one
day God said, I know what I'll do. I'll solve
that problem. And he looked around heaven for some one
who could do it, and he chose his only son,
the Lord Jesus, who was absolutely perfectly holy. He sent
(14:09):
him to this world, embodied him in the flesh, had
him walk upon this earth through his adult life to
prove what a holy man does when he lives his
holy life. And then one day, in obedience to his father,
he went to a cruel Roman cross, and hanging between
heaven and earth, he died in payment for all of
our sin, and the greatest exchange the world has ever
(14:32):
known took place. I cannot fathom it, even though I
have studied it for years. God, through his son took
my sin upon himself, and in exchange for my sin,
he gave me his righteousness.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
He put a cloak over David.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Jeremiah, and that cloak is the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
It covers all of my failures and my flaws, so
that now when God looks at me, be holy. Even
as I am holy, he sees the holy Son of God,
and I am pure in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
(15:11):
Whenever I tell that story to people who don't know
the Lord, and they don't rush right up and say,
how do I get in on this, I always feel
like I must not have told it right. That is
the greatest good news I've ever heard in my life
because it takes me off the tram. It gets me
out of the pressure of trying to measure up to
(15:33):
a standard that is absolutely impossible for me. And in
the righteousness of Jesus Christ, I am accepted. That's positional purity,
just as righteous as Jesus Christ, because He's given me
his righteousness. That's what the Book of Romans is all about.
(15:54):
But those are two theological truths. That's not where the
issue is, is it. The issue is in the third
kind of purity. It's the issue of practical purity, trying
to live every day in this world so that I'm
living up to the standard of who I am in Christ.
Somebody told me a long time ago that sanctification is
(16:17):
simply living in practice what you already are in position.
Here's Jesus Christ saying, Jeremiah, you're holy in me. Now
I want you to live like you're holy in me.
I like this this part. Here's tough.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
You know, we live in a world that's pretty dirty.
Not easy to be holy in this world, is it.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
I don't know if you've ever read any of his writings,
but Robert Folgum is one of my favorite writers, and
he's got a wonderful book out in which he talks
about an occasion when he went to speak at a
graduation exercise in his own point way. He stood up
in front of these graduating seniors and he said, how
many of you would like to be an adult? Every
single kid raised their hand. He said, well, let me
(17:00):
tell you what adults do. They clean the sink strainer,
they plunge out the toilet, They clean up babies, They
wipe running noses, they clean up the floor when the
baby throws strained spinach. They clean ovens and grease traps
and roasting pans. They empty the kiddie box and scrape.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Up after the dog.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
They carry out the garbage, They pump out the bilges.
They bury dead pets when they get run over in
the street. How many of you want to be an adult?
He said, No takers. Well, you know you'd probably laugh
at that, but every adult here knows what we're talking about.
You don't ever get the kids to do that stuff.
You know, you always get stuck with it yourself. What
do you mean you want me to clean up the mess?
(17:40):
But you know, what he was talking about is kind
of like what it is to be a person.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
In the world today.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
You know, you're just dealing with dirty stuff all the time.
How do you deal with it? How do you deal
with the issue of practical holiness? How can I be
pure in my life that I can see God?
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Well, you know, I'd like.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
To take a few moments and talk about some practical things,
and they're going to be a little bit maybe naive
to some of you, But I know this is an
issue with a lot of folks. It's an issue with
a lot of you men It's an issue that a
lot of people struggle with, and I think there's some
help in the Word of God that we don't want
to pass over quickly. How can I, as a person
(18:26):
who wants to be pure, live a pure life in
the world in which I live today? I like to
suggest two or three things. Number one, I love what
the Book of Job tells us in Job chapter thirty one,
in verse one, where we're told that Job made a
covenant with his eyes. He made a covenant with his eyes.
(18:47):
What a wonderful suggestion. It's sort of like this, you say, eyes,
you and me have to talk. We have to make
an agreement. I want to make a covenant with you eyes.
We're not going to look at stuff we shouldn't look at,
because you see, the eyes are the windows of the soul.
It's through the eyegate that impurity enters into the soul.
(19:10):
And do you remember the little chorus we used to
sing when we were growing up in Sunday School. It
goes like this, Oh, be careful, little eyes, what you see,
Oh be careful, little eyes. What you see for your
father up above is looking down in love.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
So be careful, little eyes.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
What you see whenever I would hear that, I wasn't
sure he was looking down in love, but I knew
he was looking down. You know, purity is not something
that will happen in our lives as Christians, without a strategy,
without a purpose. It's surprising to me how many of
(19:48):
God's people have fallen into the trap of believing that
they can bring into the windows of their soul any
of the garbage of this world and not be affected
by it.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
They think that the sophisticated.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
That they're cool, that they can handle it, they can
sort it out. But the windows of the soul don't
have a filter. The windows of the soul take in
whatever anybody else's eyes take in, and it has an
impact and effect upon a person's life. And I just
need to tell you. You can talk about being pure
if you want to, but if you really mean business,
(20:21):
you're going to make a covenant with your eyes, and
you're going to say, by the grace of God, I'm
not going to watch some stuff and read some stuff
and look at some stuff that maybe the rest of
the world looks at because I know it will have
an impact on my life. Make a covenant with your eyes.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Number two consecrate your mind.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Paul urged the Romans to present their bodies as a
living sacrifice. We know that part, but do you remember
the next part? He says, We're to do that by
the renewing of our mind. The Bible warns us to
keep our hearts pure, for out of the heart are
the issues of life. Are thinking determines our character. The
battle is in the mind. It's not in the heart
(21:06):
that's the visceral part of man as we often think
of it.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
It's in the mind.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
And you have to determine to consecrate your mind, for
from within out of the heart of man proceed evil
thoughts and adulteries and fornications, and murderers and thefts, and
covetousness and wickedness, and on and on. The list goes
in Mark seven, the mind is the battle ground upon
which every moral and spiritual battle is fought. As far
(21:34):
back as Noah in the Old Testament, this has been true,
for when God saw the great wickedness of Noah's day,
he perceived that every intent of the thoughts of man's
heart was only evil. Continually, your mind, consecrate your mind,
you say, well, Pastor Jeremiah how do I do that? Well,
(21:55):
let me give you the third thing, which is a
good way to do that. And this is going to
sound like a foreign language to this world. This used
to be pretty common among us as Christians in another generation,
but in this generation.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
It is really like a foreign language.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
So you know, I'm really serious about this, and I
want to tell you here's the third thing.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Commit yourself to Bible memory. What's that? Well, you'd take
the Bible and you read a verse, and after you get.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Done reading it several times, you see if you can
say it back out loud without looking at the Bible,
and then you do it again. Then you put your
Bible away and you think I can say that verse
without reading it.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
That's Bible memory.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
When I was a young person, there was an organization
called the Bible Memory Association, and I was enrolled in
that as a young person. And we used to get
a book and it had the Bible Memory verses in
and we'd have to memorize those Bible verses and then
every week we had a listener. You'd go and you'd
recite your verses to the listener and they'd check to
see whether or not you set them right. And you know,
(22:56):
you think that's wrote and that's the old classical way
of learning, And no, but he does that anymore. Except
I got to tell you those are the verses I
still remember. I'll never forget them. They are etched in
my young soul, and they'll be with me all my life.
And I'm not just giving you some homespun counsel about
the importance of memory. That's exactly what the Bible says.
(23:18):
Listen to this, wherewith all shall a young man cleanse
his way by taking heed? Thereunto thy word Psalm one
hundred and nineteen says, thy word have I hid in
my heart? What's the rest of a class that I
might not sin against thee? You see, the problem with
life and the problem with the battle for purity is
(23:40):
you never know when the attack is going to come.
And that's absolutely true. We have to prepare ourselves and
lay down a bed of holiness that is really powerful,
so that when the enemy comes with his temptations will
be so out of perspective for us, we will initially
(24:03):
immediately recognize it and move away from it. More about
holiness tomorrow, as we continue our discussion here on turning
point of how to be happy according to Jesus. Our
resource for the month of February is a wonderful new
publication from Turning Point called The Twelve Habits of Truly
(24:25):
Happy Christians. And this one hundred and seventy six page
book is available to you for a gift of any
amount to Turning Point. When you ask for this resource,
we'll send it to you right away. Send your gift
and say please send me the Twelve Habits book, and
we'll do it. I think you'll be as intrigued by
this as I have been and want to study it
(24:47):
and make it available to your friends.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
See you tomorrow. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
For more information on Doctor Jeremiah series How to Be
Happy Accord to Jesus, please visit our website, where we
also offer two freeways to help you stay connected, our
monthly magazine Turning Points, and our daily email devotional Sign
up today at Davidjeremiah dot org, slash radio. That's Davidjeremiah
dot org slash Radio, or call us at eight hundred
(25:18):
ninety four seven nineteen ninety three ask for your copy
of David's valuable book, Twelve Habits of Truly Happy Christians
with Jesus Prescription for Happiness. It's yours for a gift
of any amount. You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study
Bible in the English Standard, New International, and New King
James versions, complete with notes and articles from doctor Jeremiah's
(25:39):
decades of study. Get all the details when you visit
our website. David Jeremiah dot org. Slash Radio. This is
David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we continue how
to be Happy according to Jesus. On Turning Point with
doctor David Jeremiah
Keeping your mind pure in today's depraved world is like
trying to stay clean while swimming through a swamp, virtually
impossible to do on your own. Today, on turning point,
doctor David Jeremiah offers some proven pointers for maintaining a
clean mind even in the midst of a corrupt culture
(00:25):
from his series on the Beatitudes. Here's David to introduce
today's message, happy are the Holy?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
As soon as you say the word holy in the
ears of some people, they shun what's going to happen next.
They don't feel like there are candidates for holiness and
it's way beyond them. It's a goal too high to
be achieved. And yet the Bible says, listen to this,
be ye holy, for I am holy. I don't think
(00:54):
we can escape holiness by just deciding we don't want
to talk about it, because it's one of the clear
commandments of the Old Mighty God through Jesus Christ, to
be holy as he is. And holiness is not a negative,
it's a positive. It's a wonderful truth to develop and
when we discover what it means and how it works,
(01:14):
it truly does bring happiness to us. So today, on
turning point. We're going to talk about happy are the Holy? Hey,
don't forget. You can get the study guide for this
series on how to be Happy according to Jesus, recently
updated and ready for your use. This study guide takes
through every one of the lessons that we teach during
(01:34):
the month of February and gives you all the details,
a condensed version of the lesson, all of the places
that you need to look in the scripture, additional material
and quotes. The study guide is being used across the
country for small group material and it's a wonderful way
to study the Bible together with your friends. Find out
(01:55):
about it at David Jeremiah dot org, where you will
get all the information about this study guide all of
our resource material. Right now, it's time to get back
to the study of the Bible. Matthew, Chapter five and
verse eight, Happy are the Holy. Several years ago I
was preaching on the subject of purity on Turning Point,
(02:20):
and after the program aired a few days later, I
got a letter in the mail. It was from a
very distressed young man. I kept the letter because it
spoke so poignantly of the struggles so many have these days.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
With this issue of purity of heart.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
He wrote, Dear Pastor Jeremiah, I was sitting here in
my room, contemplating going out and having a beer and
maybe looking at a porno flick or whatever the night
might bring. As I was getting ready to go out,
I turned on the radio and your program was on.
I listened with great interest as you uncovered my life story.
(02:59):
It seems almost as if you received your sermon from
the files in my mind. Deep down, as I search myself,
I know I am doing wrong. I at times feel
guilty about the things I do. I cannot honestly say
that I enjoy getting drunk or enjoy subjecting myself to
the filth that is associated with.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
The sex market.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
From time to time, I find myself getting up in
the middle of an ex movie out of sheer disgust
over what I see on the screen. I am a
happily married man, and I have three beautiful children. I
know my wife would flip if she knew what I do.
When I am away from home, I feel so dirty,
and I hope somehow you can make sense out of
(03:42):
what I've said. I have turned my back on God,
and sometimes I feel as though he has given up
on me. You spoke of being saved. How do you
really know tonight? I sit here with tears in my eyes,
and I don't know why. Please help me if you can.
(04:02):
And I remember I shed some tears when I read
that letter because I felt the hurt in that person's life,
and I know that he represents a lot of folks
who have struggled and hurt as he does. I never
answered a letter so carefully as I answered that one,
with the encouragement of God's word to let him know
(04:23):
there is hope and there is help, and you don't
have to live your life the way he was living his.
The problem he had, you see, was he was looking
for happiness in all the wrong places. And he had
been searching long enough now to discover that he was
on a call to zac and it was taking him nowhere.
In fact, if you heard the letter, you heard him
(04:45):
say twice that he hadn't found joy, that he wasn't
enjoying it. In fact, he was miserable. All the things
that somebody told him were going to make him happy,
we're destroying his very life. And then comes Jesus, and
Jesus says, blessed are the pure in heart, for they
(05:06):
will see God. And I have to tell you it
sounds strange to us the saying of our Lord. We
have been talking about all these sayings. We begin by
saying that the humble are happy. And then we said, no,
not only are the humble happy, the hurting are happy.
That sounds like an oxymoron if I ever heard one.
(05:29):
And then we said, those who are harnessed in the
power that they have, those who are meet they're happy.
And then we said, the people who were hungry and
thirst after righteousness, they're happy. We said, blessed are the
merciful or the helpers, they're happy. And today Jesus said,
blessed are the holy, for they shall see God. And
(05:54):
I have to ask, as we begin today what he
was talking about? What is purity? When he says blessed
are the pure in heart? What was he talking about? Well,
Webster defines purity like this. Webster says, purity is freedom
from foreign mixtures of matter, cleanness, freedom from foulness or dirt.
The word in the text of the Greek language that
(06:16):
is translated here in Matthew is a very interesting Greek word.
It's the word catharis. It is the word from which
we get our word catharsis when a medical person uses
a cathartic. It is an agent that is used to
cleanse a wound or an infected areas so that it
is pure.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
It is a cleansing agent.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
You live in the world of psychology and psychiatry. You
go to a psychologist or a psychiatrist and they may
say that you had a catharsis. What that means is
that while you were there talking to this counselor, you
told him everything that was down in your soul, and
there was a cleansing of the soul. You got it
all out, cleansed your soul of the things that were
(07:02):
troubling you. It is a word that is very poignant
in the Scripture to speak of purity. But Jesus is
not just talking about any kind of purity. He says,
blessed are the pure of heart. What does it mean
to be pure in one's heart? Well, if you've ever
read the words of Jesus very carefully, you know that
(07:23):
he was not into the outward purity that so caused
the Pharisees to rival in all of their glory. Jesus
went after the Pharisees. In fact, I don't know if
you remember this, but on one occasion he told them
they were like a bunch of sepulchers that were painted
all white on the outside, but inside they were full
of dead men's bones. He never did have any trouble
(07:45):
getting to the point, our Lord. He always seemed to
be able to say what he wanted to say. But
Jesus is not talking about the outward kind of purity
that we so often parade in front of our peers,
and we do it better on Sunday than perhaps any
of the day of the week. Well, everybody to believe
that we're okay, that we're clean, that we're pure. Jesus
is not talking about outward purity. He says, blessed are
(08:06):
the pure in their heart. And when he's talking about
the heart, what does he mean. Is he talking about
that organ that beats within your breast, pumping blood throughout
your system. I remember when we first had heart transplants.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Do you remember that you would not believe.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
The people that would come to me and say, Pastor Jeremiah,
what if a person who is an unbeliever has a
heart transplant and his heart is placed in a believer,
does that person have to get saved again. I wanted
to say, have I been so long with you and
you do not know these things. It's not your heart,
(08:49):
the organ that pumps your blood. In fact, it's not
even your emotions, which often you hear taught. When the
Greek writers wanted to talk about the emotions talked.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
About the belly. They used words that were visceral.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
But in the Greek language, when the heart is used
in the way that Jesus used it, it's a reference
to the thinking process, to the mind. Blessed are the
pure in their minds, in their thinking process, for they
shall see God. It is what the Proverbs is talking
about in Proverbs twenty three, verse seven, when it says
as a man thinketh in his heart, there you have
(09:27):
the heart thinking. As the man thinketh in his heart,
so is he. Or another verse from Proverbs, verse twenty
three of chapter four says, watch over your heart with
all diligence, for from it flows the spring of life.
The Old Testament writers and the New Testament writers agree
(09:50):
that it is in the mind, sometimes referred to as
the heart, that purity resides or impurity resides, and Jesus
his comment here in the fifth Chapter of Matthew is
Happy are those who have purity in their heart, for
they shall see God. One of my favorite stories of
(10:11):
the Old Testament is the story of David. I've preached
all through his life and I'd love to go back
and do it again. What a rich and wonderful story
in the life of this man. But you remember how
David became the king of Israel. His predecessor was a
man by the name of Saul, who was the first
king in Israel. And Saul got selected as king in
a rather strange way. He was the tallest man in Israel.
(10:33):
I think that was one of the things that got
him elected. He just stuck out, you know, he stood
up above everyone. And the Bible tells us that Saul
was tall, dark and handsome, but he wasn't much else.
In fact, after he got to be king and got
in a position of power, it became evident that while
he was outwardly okay, he had some really deep inward problems.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
He was disobedient to the Lord.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
On one occasion, when he couldn't get his way, he
took over the role of the priest, which he should
not have done. He even consulted with a witch because
he couldn't get an answer. And one day God had
had it with him, tall, dark and handsome or not.
He was finished. God said, I'm not going to put
up with this anymore, and you're not going to be
king anymore, and none of your sons will ever sit
(11:15):
on the throne in Israel. I'm going to get me
a new king. And the scripture says it this way.
The Lord sought out for himself a man after his
own heart, and he went and got David. And several
times in the story of David's life you have this
comment that David was a man after the heart of God.
(11:38):
His thoughts were the thoughts of God. And how do
we know that he wrote him down. They're in his
journal called the Book of Psalms. And we can tell
how intimately he loved God. Was he perfect to know?
But he had a heart for God. Blessed are the
pure in their heart, for they shall see God. I'm
(11:59):
want to talk to you for a few moments about
three kinds of purity that the Bible teaches. The first
kind of purity is what we might call perfect purity.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Now, if it's pure, it's pure.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
But I want to talk to you about perfect purity,
because the Bible says, and I get so excited when
I think about this. The Bible says, there is coming
a day when everyone who has put their trust in
Jesus Christ is going to go to be with him.
And I don't know if you ever thought of this
verse in this way, but listen to what the Scripture
says in Firs. John three and verse two. We shall
(12:35):
be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
Do you know that one day, men and women, every
one of us here who know Jesus Christ in a
personal way, no matter who we are, how long we've
been Christians, how difficult our life has been, when we
go to be with the Lord and we are glorified,
we are going to be as holy as Jesus Christ is.
(12:55):
That's perfect holiness, ultimate sanctification. That's purity. Well, you say, pastor,
that's great. That's some more of your pie in the sky,
by and by theology.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
And I love that. It's a wonderful thing to look
forward to. But I'm living down here.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Now.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
What do I do?
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Well, let me talk to you about a second kind
of purity. I'll call this positional purity. You see the
problem we have is that the Bible says, in order
for us to see God, we have to be pure.
And what is the standard? You know what Jesus said,
be therefore holy, even as I am holy? How can
I be like that? I cannot be holy like he
(13:36):
is holy. If he doesn't do something to fix that problem,
I will never see God.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
And I'm not alone.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
The whole world is like that, for all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. And one
day God said, I know what I'll do. I'll solve
that problem. And he looked around heaven for some one
who could do it, and he chose his only son,
the Lord Jesus, who was absolutely perfectly holy. He sent
(14:09):
him to this world, embodied him in the flesh, had
him walk upon this earth through his adult life to
prove what a holy man does when he lives his
holy life. And then one day, in obedience to his father,
he went to a cruel Roman cross, and hanging between
heaven and earth, he died in payment for all of
our sin, and the greatest exchange the world has ever
(14:32):
known took place. I cannot fathom it, even though I
have studied it for years. God, through his son took
my sin upon himself, and in exchange for my sin,
he gave me his righteousness.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
He put a cloak over David.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Jeremiah, and that cloak is the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
It covers all of my failures and my flaws, so
that now when God looks at me, be holy. Even
as I am holy, he sees the holy Son of God,
and I am pure in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
(15:11):
Whenever I tell that story to people who don't know
the Lord, and they don't rush right up and say,
how do I get in on this, I always feel
like I must not have told it right. That is
the greatest good news I've ever heard in my life
because it takes me off the tram. It gets me
out of the pressure of trying to measure up to
(15:33):
a standard that is absolutely impossible for me. And in
the righteousness of Jesus Christ, I am accepted. That's positional purity,
just as righteous as Jesus Christ, because He's given me
his righteousness. That's what the Book of Romans is all about.
(15:54):
But those are two theological truths. That's not where the
issue is, is it. The issue is in the third
kind of purity. It's the issue of practical purity, trying
to live every day in this world so that I'm
living up to the standard of who I am in Christ.
Somebody told me a long time ago that sanctification is
(16:17):
simply living in practice what you already are in position.
Here's Jesus Christ saying, Jeremiah, you're holy in me. Now
I want you to live like you're holy in me.
I like this this part. Here's tough.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
You know, we live in a world that's pretty dirty.
Not easy to be holy in this world, is it.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
I don't know if you've ever read any of his writings,
but Robert Folgum is one of my favorite writers, and
he's got a wonderful book out in which he talks
about an occasion when he went to speak at a
graduation exercise in his own point way. He stood up
in front of these graduating seniors and he said, how
many of you would like to be an adult? Every
single kid raised their hand. He said, well, let me
(17:00):
tell you what adults do. They clean the sink strainer,
they plunge out the toilet, They clean up babies, They
wipe running noses, they clean up the floor when the
baby throws strained spinach. They clean ovens and grease traps
and roasting pans. They empty the kiddie box and scrape.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Up after the dog.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
They carry out the garbage, They pump out the bilges.
They bury dead pets when they get run over in
the street. How many of you want to be an adult?
He said, No takers. Well, you know you'd probably laugh
at that, but every adult here knows what we're talking about.
You don't ever get the kids to do that stuff.
You know, you always get stuck with it yourself. What
do you mean you want me to clean up the mess?
(17:40):
But you know, what he was talking about is kind
of like what it is to be a person.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
In the world today.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
You know, you're just dealing with dirty stuff all the time.
How do you deal with it? How do you deal
with the issue of practical holiness? How can I be
pure in my life that I can see God?
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Well, you know, I'd like.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
To take a few moments and talk about some practical things,
and they're going to be a little bit maybe naive
to some of you, But I know this is an
issue with a lot of folks. It's an issue with
a lot of you men It's an issue that a
lot of people struggle with, and I think there's some
help in the Word of God that we don't want
to pass over quickly. How can I, as a person
(18:26):
who wants to be pure, live a pure life in
the world in which I live today? I like to
suggest two or three things. Number one, I love what
the Book of Job tells us in Job chapter thirty one,
in verse one, where we're told that Job made a
covenant with his eyes. He made a covenant with his eyes.
(18:47):
What a wonderful suggestion. It's sort of like this, you say, eyes,
you and me have to talk. We have to make
an agreement. I want to make a covenant with you eyes.
We're not going to look at stuff we shouldn't look at,
because you see, the eyes are the windows of the soul.
It's through the eyegate that impurity enters into the soul.
(19:10):
And do you remember the little chorus we used to
sing when we were growing up in Sunday School. It
goes like this, Oh, be careful, little eyes, what you see,
Oh be careful, little eyes. What you see for your
father up above is looking down in love.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
So be careful, little eyes.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
What you see whenever I would hear that, I wasn't
sure he was looking down in love, but I knew
he was looking down. You know, purity is not something
that will happen in our lives as Christians, without a strategy,
without a purpose. It's surprising to me how many of
(19:48):
God's people have fallen into the trap of believing that
they can bring into the windows of their soul any
of the garbage of this world and not be affected
by it.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
They think that the sophisticated.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
That they're cool, that they can handle it, they can
sort it out. But the windows of the soul don't
have a filter. The windows of the soul take in
whatever anybody else's eyes take in, and it has an
impact and effect upon a person's life. And I just
need to tell you. You can talk about being pure
if you want to, but if you really mean business,
(20:21):
you're going to make a covenant with your eyes, and
you're going to say, by the grace of God, I'm
not going to watch some stuff and read some stuff
and look at some stuff that maybe the rest of
the world looks at because I know it will have
an impact on my life. Make a covenant with your eyes.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Number two consecrate your mind.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Paul urged the Romans to present their bodies as a
living sacrifice. We know that part, but do you remember
the next part? He says, We're to do that by
the renewing of our mind. The Bible warns us to
keep our hearts pure, for out of the heart are
the issues of life. Are thinking determines our character. The
battle is in the mind. It's not in the heart
(21:06):
that's the visceral part of man as we often think
of it.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
It's in the mind.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
And you have to determine to consecrate your mind, for
from within out of the heart of man proceed evil
thoughts and adulteries and fornications, and murderers and thefts, and
covetousness and wickedness, and on and on. The list goes
in Mark seven, the mind is the battle ground upon
which every moral and spiritual battle is fought. As far
(21:34):
back as Noah in the Old Testament, this has been true,
for when God saw the great wickedness of Noah's day,
he perceived that every intent of the thoughts of man's
heart was only evil. Continually, your mind, consecrate your mind,
you say, well, Pastor Jeremiah how do I do that? Well,
(21:55):
let me give you the third thing, which is a
good way to do that. And this is going to
sound like a foreign language to this world. This used
to be pretty common among us as Christians in another generation,
but in this generation.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
It is really like a foreign language.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
So you know, I'm really serious about this, and I
want to tell you here's the third thing.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Commit yourself to Bible memory. What's that? Well, you'd take
the Bible and you read a verse, and after you get.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Done reading it several times, you see if you can
say it back out loud without looking at the Bible,
and then you do it again. Then you put your
Bible away and you think I can say that verse
without reading it.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
That's Bible memory.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
When I was a young person, there was an organization
called the Bible Memory Association, and I was enrolled in
that as a young person. And we used to get
a book and it had the Bible Memory verses in
and we'd have to memorize those Bible verses and then
every week we had a listener. You'd go and you'd
recite your verses to the listener and they'd check to
see whether or not you set them right. And you know,
(22:56):
you think that's wrote and that's the old classical way
of learning, And no, but he does that anymore. Except
I got to tell you those are the verses I
still remember. I'll never forget them. They are etched in
my young soul, and they'll be with me all my life.
And I'm not just giving you some homespun counsel about
the importance of memory. That's exactly what the Bible says.
(23:18):
Listen to this, wherewith all shall a young man cleanse
his way by taking heed? Thereunto thy word Psalm one
hundred and nineteen says, thy word have I hid in
my heart? What's the rest of a class that I
might not sin against thee? You see, the problem with
life and the problem with the battle for purity is
(23:40):
you never know when the attack is going to come.
And that's absolutely true. We have to prepare ourselves and
lay down a bed of holiness that is really powerful,
so that when the enemy comes with his temptations will
be so out of perspective for us, we will initially
(24:03):
immediately recognize it and move away from it. More about
holiness tomorrow, as we continue our discussion here on turning
point of how to be happy according to Jesus. Our
resource for the month of February is a wonderful new
publication from Turning Point called The Twelve Habits of Truly
(24:25):
Happy Christians. And this one hundred and seventy six page
book is available to you for a gift of any
amount to Turning Point. When you ask for this resource,
we'll send it to you right away. Send your gift
and say please send me the Twelve Habits book, and
we'll do it. I think you'll be as intrigued by
this as I have been and want to study it
(24:47):
and make it available to your friends.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
See you tomorrow. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
For more information on Doctor Jeremiah series How to Be
Happy Accord to Jesus, please visit our website, where we
also offer two freeways to help you stay connected, our
monthly magazine Turning Points, and our daily email devotional Sign
up today at Davidjeremiah dot org, slash radio. That's Davidjeremiah
dot org slash Radio, or call us at eight hundred
(25:18):
ninety four seven nineteen ninety three ask for your copy
of David's valuable book, Twelve Habits of Truly Happy Christians
with Jesus Prescription for Happiness. It's yours for a gift
of any amount. You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study
Bible in the English Standard, New International, and New King
James versions, complete with notes and articles from doctor Jeremiah's
(25:39):
decades of study. Get all the details when you visit
our website. David Jeremiah dot org. Slash Radio. This is
David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we continue how
to be Happy according to Jesus. On Turning Point with
doctor David Jeremiah
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