"Blessed are the Pure in Heart"

A sermon by Pastor Volkhard Spitzer

Youth Meeting, December 28, 1974

Berlin Jesus Center, Nollendorfplatz 5.

Translated by Bill Price

Part 2

And then if he can get the people, if he can get the Christians to be half-hearted because they're discouraged. One of the devil's most powerful weapons is discouragement. You pray and the answer doesn't come right away. And then that voice comes and says, "There's no point in praying. Nothing will come of it anyway." You've been praying for three months and keeping up the faith. And he says, "You've been praying for three months and nothing has happened?" Just read about men of God and how long they sometimes have had to pray – but God heard them after all. But more often than not it took more than three months. Sometimes it took years. But they simply took God by his word and were faithful and God blessed them.

Or he uses something else. He comes with your weakness and keeps reminding you of your weakness. You fall and then get up and say, "Okay, Jesus, now I'm going to follow you." And at the next corner he's got a trap all set and – whamo! – you land flat on your face and you say, "Oh, man!" And when you get up and say "Oh, man!" that voice comes again and says, "You'll never make it! You'll never make it! Just stay there where you are. Aw, it's no use at all! You've fallen on your face with the same problem for the seventh time now. Just throw in the towel!" The devil's greatest weapon is discouragement.

And the next time that this voice comes and wants to tell you "You'll never make it", or "You can't pray" or whatever, just say: "Devil, get lost! I refuse to listen to your voice! And even if I happen to be a difficult case and need a long time, but I'm going to make it." Keep at it! Shake your fist at him! Okay? The bad thing is when the devil can lead us astray and make us believe that God is not capable. Because if you say "I can't do it any more" you are in reality saying "God can't do it any more," because you're living your life not by your own strength but by God's strength. And that's just what he wants. He wants you to blaspheme God. So don't do it.

You know, the devil is a deceiver, and the worst thing is that the devil deceives himself. The devil has come to a point where he is deceiving himself. He actually believes that he's going to have victory over Jesus Christ. You say, "Well, I don't know if I really believe that." Let me tell you something. Have you ever met someone who lied so much that he believed his own lies? Have you maybe even done this yourself? You say something to yourself so often that you start believing it yourself? How many have experienced this? Aha, quite a few of you! Ha ha. It's the same with the devil. If you keep on using the same lie over and over again, then you have to use another lie to cover that lie, and then another lie to cover the second lie, and then you get all tangled up in a web of lies, and finally you come to the point where you say, "It's a lot simpler if I just believe it myself." Yes, really! Any psychiatrist can tell you that, that if you tell a lie long enough you'll end up believing it yourself. And the devil has been believing for a few centuries that he's going to have victory over Christ. And that's why he fights so desperately. He believes it himself. He believes his own lie. That's why Jesus says, "He is the father of lies." And so he can bring people to the point where they believe him, because he's so convinced about his cause.

But Jesus' promise stands fast, that his kingdom will not be overcome by the gates of hell. The gate of hell, the pillars of hell, the main forces of hell will arise, the Bible says. In reality it's an aggressive form, not a defensive one, that is, not that we go against the gates of hell and they hold their ground or the other way around, but it's a matter of aggression. The devil is going to try to throw his strongest forces against the church of Jesus Christ. That's why we have battles. That's why there's so much trouble here and that's why there are so many people who talk behind your back. And that's why there are so many people who slander and so many people who come up here and raise a big stink, you know. That's all the devil's tactics. He wants to destroy everything. And he tries to do it with threatening letters and midnight phone calls to the pastor and so on and so forth! "I will have victory." And we believe what Jesus says and not what the devil say.

Now what do you think is one of the devil's biggest lies nowadays? If the devil's tactic is to destroy the church of Jesus Christ, and specifically wherever the Church has the most life, that's where he attacks the Spirit-filled Christians. Okay? And when he attacks them, how does he do it? With gross sins, like, for instance, you have to go and see a porno film again? But for some beginners this might work. But with more advanced believers, with more mature Christians, the devil can't use things like that. He has to come up with something else. ["Difficulties?"] Difficulties? I think that if someone is really rooted in Christ, he can overcome difficulties. ["Pride?"] Yes, he can come with pride, or with a very curious lie, he says…["Bible reading?"] That's another one for the beginners! Hey, a mature Christian reads his Bible! Oh yes, now you know if you're mature or not! [Laughter].

He'll say, "You can't live for God without sinning."

"You can't live for God with a pure heart." Has he ever told you that? Me too, me too. He says, "Hey, just take a look around you. It's unreasonable. It's illogical! There's so much sin all around you and there's more and more. And sin is getting thicker and thicker all around and the attacks are getting stronger. You can't live a clean life for God. You can't stand alone. The opposition is too strong. You're going to fall!" The moment that you believe that, he's got you. The moment you believe that, he's got you. The Bible says, "It will be to you according to your faith." Even Jesus said that. "According to your faith it will be with you." He will say to you, "You can't live a clean life for God. It's impossible." Everybody sins, and so I'm just swept along with everyone else, forced to sin over and over again. "You have to sin" is a lie of the devil.

God says, "You can live a clean life." God says, "You can live a clean life." God says, "You don't have to sin." (We're going to get into this a little more later on). God even expects you not to sin. God expects you to have a pure heart. Why do you think God says, "Blessed are those who are pure in heart, for they shall see God"? If God says, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God", then what he's saying is that no one can see God who doesn't have a pure heart. And God doesn't make any demands of us that we can't fulfill. That's only logical. Otherwise God is illogical. God is not fair. God is actually mean if he makes demands of us that we can't meet. Otherwise he's a sadist. Okay? And if God says "You can live a clean life. You can have victory over sin. You can have victory over the devil," then the only thing I can say is, "Hallelujah!" Because that in reality shows how great my God is. If his requests and expectations of me are so great, if his faith in me is so great, then that only shows what a great God I have. Because if God were to say, "You cannot live a clean life. You're always going to sin. The devil is much stronger than you," then in reality he would be saying, "The devil is much stronger than me." Okay? Isn't that logical? For he says, "I am in you." And he who is in you is stronger than he who is in the world. That means that I can live with a pure heart, that I can have the victory. But if that's not the case, then it isn't God's fault but my own fault. We're going to be looking at this a little more, okay?

First of all we should ask what it really means to have a pure heart. That's a word that we are always hearing and saying over and over again. But what does it really mean after all? The tragic thing is that in the youth group and in the church there are so many who hear it so much but it's not applied very much. May God help us to get a new vision of this tonight, a new view of what we can do and what God sets up as the norm, what God expects from us Christians as being only normal. And that we then lead a life that's completely different from how we have been drifting along before.

I said before that nobody will ever leave behing a trail of blessing in his life if he really doesn't have a pure heart, because God won't be able to use him to the extent that he would like to use him. Maybe there's always a little drop here and a drop there – and actually that's the way it really is with us. We have a little victory every now and then and then we rejoice like little children. And then we have another eight days of depression and dragging along for a couple weeks, and then – "Ah, a really neat church meeting! Oh boy, was I ever blessed! Hallelujah!" And at the next corner the devil comes along and says, "Yeah, I've been waiting for you all along! Come over here!" Wham! [Laughter.] And then again, "Oh, I'm all depressed again! The devil's on my heels again!" And then they come to the youth meeting and then the pastor first has to – puff puff puff – pump them all up until they're back to normal again. And then they confess their sins and repent. "Yeah, Jesus, I've sinned again. Ah, now I feel all better again. Now we can have the youth meeting!" And then there's the youth meeting. Everything's okay, and then the next Sunday the pastor says, "What's this? They're all down in the dumps again!" That's the way it shouldn't be.

Do you know the way it should be? When you come in the door, you light up the room. Jesus says, "You are the light of the world." When you come in here the room gets salty, because Jesus says, "You are the salt of the earth." And Jesus says something pretty hard here too. He says that if the salt loses it saltiness, what do you do with it? You throw it out and it gets trampled under foot. You are salt! Everything should taste like you! All you have to do is put just a little salt into the soup and right away it tastes like salt. He says that the whole world should taste like us. That's how strong we should be. You can't hide a light under a bushel basket. It always manages to shine through. And he says that it can't be hidden and that you should let your light shine, and Jesus says that it should be bright everywhere because you're here. And if there's a demonic atmosphere of some sort, then you shouldn't get depressed and say "Oh, it's so dark in here!" But the other guys should be saying, "We're depressed because it's so bright in here!" [Laughter] Yes! That's what I believe.

Not too long ago I heard a story of something that happened in America. In Los Angeles there was a fortune teller, a kind of international medium from the Satan worshipers who was going to give a TV interview. And they knew that at exactly 3 p.m. in Los Angeles she was going to be on TV and be interviewed. It was in the program. And the spirit-filled Christians of the city said, "We're not going to permit this!" And they sent off protest letters and everything, but nothing worked! They have a pluralistic society, and everybody has the right to say what he wants, and so on. And in America the Church of Satan is officially recognized and is even free from paying taxes. They don't have to pay taxes. You can write a check to the Church of Satan and have it deducted from your income taxes. That's how far we have come. That's how far we have come. And this lady gets on the TV. The Christians couldn't prevent it. So then they said, "We're going to fight spiritually." A group got together to pray and fast and on the day right before the broadcast all the spirit-filled Christians from the various denominations came together, like for instance here the ÜGB, and they made a human chain around the TV studio and took their places around the building. Everyone had a predetermined place to be. You here, you there, and so forth, in a circle all around the building. Then this fortune teller, this spiritist came to the microphone: "Hello, ladies and gentlemen" and so forth, and she started. And then the moderator says, "Okay, now, can you tell us the future?" And then she says, "Sure, just hand me my crystal ball." They give her the crystal ball, and she sits down and says "I see… I see…" [Laughter] Outside: "Thank you Jesus, we praise your blood. Oh, hallelujah!!" And "I see… I see… I don't see anything!" Ha ha ha. [Laughter] "Let me see your palm…. Oh, can we do something else, I've prepared myself for this and this and that. I will now tell you… I can't concentrate at all. What's going on here??" And she just went crazy! The whole show was a flop. She went out of the room hanging her head in shame, and the Christians in Los Angeles went home singing, and the show was ruined!

That's the way it should be. Most of the time it's the other way around. "Ooh, the devil" and "Ohh, there's such an oppressive atmosphere here. Aah, for sure there's another demon-possessed person sitting here somewhere." [Laughter] If we are children of light, we should come in and should say "Hallelujah!" I take my seat and say, "Now we're finally going to have a meeting! I can hardly wait!" And we should lift our hands and praise God and sing and have the victory. And in that moment what Jesus said takes place: Rivers of living water will stream forth from our bodies, and then people will start to shout out and fall over. That's just the way it was with Jesus. He would come into the synagogue and the demon-possessed would fall to the floor and cry out, and then he would say "Come out!" and – whoosh! – they were out. That's what it should be like. That's the norm. That's what God expects. That's what God expects from us. That's not just the ideal situation, but that's what he expects. For him it's the norm. That's the norm.

Last Sunday morning we experienced a little bit of that. There were a lot of people in the service. We worshipped for a short while after the service and yesterday evening we heard some testimonies, there were a whole series of testimonies from people who had been healed Sunday morning during the preaching of the Word and during the worship time. There wasn't any praying. There wasn't any praying for the sick, but instead the blessing just started to flow. People did what they were supposed to do. People started thinking God's Word and speaking out God's Word more and stopped expressing their own feelings and doubts. And God was able to work because he has bound himself to his Word. And his Word says that we can live a clean life. We can be holy. God says, "I am holy and you shall be holy." That is what he expects of us. Hallelujah! Oh, that get's me so excited!

So what is the heart? Romans 7:22. Read it, Romans chapter 7, verse 22. I've heard so many definitions for heart, and I think that it's important that we see what the Bible says that it is.

For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self.

Aha! "For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self." The inner man, "my inmost self". My inmost self, that's what my heart is. My true personality – that's my heart. Not my body. I don't like this three-way division of man, because it's a unity. Spirit, soul, and body are a unity. If you're sick in your soul, your body gets sick. When your body is sick, your soul is afflicted. It's all connected together. You can't divide it up. You can't cut it up into three parts: here, this is the spirit, over here is the soul, and down there's the body. It doesn't work that way. It all overlaps and is all tied in together within itself. I've heard various definitions of the heart but none of them has ever satisfied me. But when I read Romans 7:22 I was satisfied. My inner self. My inner me. My true personality, just as God made me. That's what my heart is. And that includes my intellect, my feelings, my conscience, my will, all together. My inner being, my true self. That's what my heart is. And the whole man: spirit, soul, and body as a unity.

And the natural man, we read before what comes out of the natural man, out of his innermost being. From within him come thoughts of hate, murder, whoring, stealing, selfishness, wanting to put oneself in a good light, and all these thoughts of envy, jealousy, selfishness. All this is what comes out of the innermost parts of the normal natural man who's corrupt in sin.

And now comes the Holy Spirit. A person is born again when he gives his life to Jesus and the old man wastes away and the new man is renewed day by day, says the Bible. And this new man, from his inward parts, if he's really born again and filled with the Holy Spirit, there flow streams of living water. He said that about the Spirit, the Bible says. Here flows blessing, here flows the fruit of the Spirit: love, friendliness, patience, gentleness, humility, chastity, all of these wonderful traits. And have you ever noticed that these personality traits, this fruit of the Spirit is nothing else but the character of Jesus Christ? Every word written here about the fruit of the Spirit matches the character of Jesus to a "T". And no matter what kind of character we have, what kind of a personality we have, what kind of temperament we have, we should reach the point where we are like Jesus.

So, that's the heart. My innermost self, my true self, the personality that God has created within me.

And now the word "pure", those of a pure heart; what does the Bible mean by the word "pure"? And I did a little study on this, this morning, and I found out that the word "pure" in Greek means something like "utterly sincere". Utterly sincere. Or "utterly just", or "utterly perfect." All of this is tied together into this word. In Greek a word can have many meanings, you know. "Utterly sincere". And I believe that that comes very close to what God wants to tell us with "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Utterly sincere. If a man is really utterly sincere, then he has to come to God. Because a man who is really utterly sincere is not satisfied with anything less than the whole truth, and the whole truth is in the person of Jesus Christ. It's not to be found anywhere else. So an utterly sincere person will see God.

I also read something, or heard something, about the derivation of this word. When was this Greek word formed, that we now know as "pure"? It turns out that it's tied together with Greek history. The Greeks used to make vases out of marble, out of a single piece of marble. That was their art, that they could create wonderful vases out of a single piece of marble. And then when the Romans came with their imperialism and overran the Hellenistic world, militarily, and brought them under their control. Then they tried to imitate what the Greeks made with their arts, but they didn't succeed. That happens so often, that people today can't make things that were made two thousand years ago. We can't create the kind of works of art that were made ages ago in spite of our science and the means that we now have at our disposal. We just can't do it like they used to. And that's what happened with the Romans. They found that they couldn't make certain types of vases out of a single piece. And so they just took several pieces and out of these several pieces they fit them all together and put a glaze over it all so that you couldn't see the seams. But the experts, they could tell the difference. And so then they came up with this word, "this is a pure vase" and "this is not a pure vase", or "this is a sincere vase" and "this is an insincere vase".

That's how this word was formed. This was made out of a single piece, and the insincere vase, or the "impure" vase, which was made out of many individual pieces and simple glazed together so that no one would notice the difference. And now you can understand what a wonderful picture this is of those who have a pure heart, who are created anew under his hand into a single piece, into a wholeness in their personality, made completely new into a unity. They don't have any facade any more. They aren't glazed over any more so that you can't see the cracks.

Do you know these people who go around wearing a mask? Whenever they're around one group of people they wear one mask, and when they're around another group of people they wear another mask, and when they go to church they put on a special mask because they're afraid that people will find out who they really are. You would not be able to read their lives like an open letter. Paul says that our lives should be like an open letter that everyone can read and see right away what's going on. But instead they have – and that's where another expression comes from, the simple [German: einfältig, literally, "having one fold"] heart. A heart with a single fold. You can open it up and look inside and everything is in plain view. But nowadays there aren't very many people with a simple heart; most people have a heart with several folds. And depending on where they are they open up the corresponding fold and show it, just like the black-white fish: on one side it's black and on the other side it's white, and when it comes up to a black fish it turns to show its black side, and when it comes up to a white fish it turns to show its white side. That's what most people are like, and you'll never have victory that way. You ask, "Why am I always so depressed? Why don't I have real victory in my Christian life?" The reason is because you're not whole. You're still someone who wears a facade, who's glazing over his "cracks", and the Bible says calls that "impure" or "dishonest." And people like that don't have a chance with God, but in order to come to God you have to come as you are and let yourself be created anew.

God wants us to be real, he wants us to be genuine. The hippies have a saying: "He's plastic." I think that's such a terrific phrase. I've preached on that several times already. "The plastic Christian". I'll never forget the time I went to Mrs. Eckhart's place, the lady who had such an impact on my life and who in effect represented a milestone in my life. When I went up to her place and saw this wonderful bowl of fruit on her table: peaches and oranges and grapes, all big and juicy and tempting, and when I saw all that fruit I thought to myself, "Wow, what a treat! Let's have some!" And when I got a little closer and tried to pick one of the grapes, they went - pfft – pfft – it was all artificial, it was plastic! It was plastic, artificial fruit. And the Bible says that this kind of person is an abomination to God. God wants to have people with a pure heart, people who don't have a facade, people who are genuine, not plastic people. People who say, "Look at me. This is how I am! I can show you my heart. I can show you my world. You can come along with me."

That passage of Scripture really impressed me about Jesus where he calls his first disciples. They come to him and ask, "Are you really the Messiah?" And he says, "Yes." And they say: "How can we tell?" "Come and see." Come along and see. Come! Can you say that too? If I were to say to you right now, "Hey, I'm going home with you tonight", what would you do? Turn red in the face? "Gosh, I still have a few Playboy magazines lying around, I've got to get rid of them real quick," or, "Oh man! I left the stereo on when I left, and that Black Sabbath music is still playing, or Ringo" or whatever. "Man alive, I can't let him find out who I really am! If he knew what I have planned for tonight when the youth meeting is over, I'm going to go over to such and such a place". Can I come along? You see, now you understand what's genuine and what's not.

Jesus says, "Blessed are those who are pure in heart, for they shall see God." This is a wonderful promise, the most wonderful promise in the Beatitudes: to see God face to face. Only one group of people: those of a pure heart. We can live a clean life. God is no idiot, and he won't demand something from us that we can't do. With him it's the norm. He wants us to be victorious. He wants us to be overcomers. He wants us to be strong, to be the Christian elite – the kind of person that God actually intended us to be.

Part 1	Part 3	Part 4	Back to Nolli