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MERCY AND PURITY OF HEART
MATTHEW 5:7,8
Series:  The Beatitudes - Happiness is... - Part Three

Pastor Stephen Muncherian
November 15, 1998

I invite you to turn with me to Matthew 5:7,8 and we're going to read these two verses out loud together. This morning we are continuing our look at the Beatitudes - these first 12 verses of Matthew 5 - in which Jesus is teaching about real happiness - what leads to real happiness in our lives - not just some fleeting thing - but deep down lasting happiness.

Matthew 5:7,8: Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

First, Jesus says that:

1. MERCY LEADS TO HAPPINESS (v. 7)

In Matthew 18:21-35 we read that Peter came to Jesus and asked Him, “Lord, how many times can my brother sin agains me and I have to forgive him?” How merciful to I have to be?

Jesus answers that Peter should forgive his brother 70 times 7 - or 490 times - a limitless amount of times. And he tells Peter a parable to illustrate why.

Jesus said that there was a king who decided to check on his servants' accounts - to see how much they owed him. He had just started checking when one servant was brought to him who owed him billions of dollars. Even if this servant worked his whole life he could never pay the debt he owed - it was an impossible sum.

And so the king ordered that the servant be sold as a slave - along with his wife and children and everything they had - in order to pay back the debt. When the servant heard this - he fell on the floor prostrate in front of the king and begged for his life.

He cried out, “Be patient with me and I will pay pay you everything!”

The king felt compassion for him and so he forgave the debt - this debt of billions of dollars - and let him go.

So, the servant goes out and runs into another servant who owed him a few dollars - a trivial amount. And he grabs his fellow servant and starts to choke him and says, “Pay back what you owe me!” And the fellow servant falls down and begs him, “Be patient with me and I’ll pay you back!” But instead of showing mercy - he had his fellow servant thrown into jail until he could pay the debt.

When the other servants saw what had happened they were really upset and the told the king everything that had happened. So the king called the first servant in and said, “You worthless slave! I forgave you everything you owed me - just because you asked me to. You should have had mercy on your fellow servant - just as I had mercy on you.”

The king was very angry - and he sent the servant to jail to be punished and tortured until he could pay back the whole amount - which basically meant that the servant would spend the rest of his life in prison.

Then Jesus concludes the parable by saying, “that is how My Father in heaven will treat you if you do not forgive your brother, every one of you, from your heart.”

God’s mercy is our motivation to be merciful to others. If we do not show mercy to others it means that we do not understand God's mercy towards us. Mercy is not getting what we deserve. We - sinners - deserve the wrath of God. But God is merciful towards us.

A mother once approached Napoleon seeking a pardon for her son. The emperor replied that the young man had committed a certain offense twice and justice demanded death.

"But I don't ask for justice," the mother explained. "I plead for mercy."

"But your son does not deserve mercy," Napoleon replied.

"Sir," the woman cried, "it would not be mercy if he deserved it, and mercy is all I ask for."

"Well, then," Napoleon said, "I will have mercy." And he spared the woman's son.

Imagine - God is merciful towards us.

The Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 2 (1) You were spiritually dead in your disobedience and sins, (3)...and were by nature children of wrath - in other words we deserved the wrath of God because of our sin - (4) But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, (5) even when we were spiritually dead in our disobedience, made us alive together with Christ - saved us through Jesus Christ.

Every time we are merciful we celebrate God’s mercy towards us. Mercy is a joyful reminder - happiness in knowing God’s mercy towards us.

Then Jesus says:

2. PURITY OF HEART LEADS TO HAPPINESS (v. 8)

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

Jesus looked at people and had mercy and compassion for them. He didn't just see them with His eyes and mind - He saw them with His heart. Someone can read Psalm 23 and understand the meaning of the words and phrases. But some read it and they "feel" the message and know the Good Shepherd. A boy can look at a girl and know that he loves her. He sees her not only with his eyes but with his heart. A person sees God through the eyes of the heart.

In Scripture the heart is the part of who we are where we desire, deliberate, and decide - the source of our feelings, desires, passions, thought, understanding and will - and this needs to be pure before God if we’re going to be merciful - or do any thing that leads to real happiness.

In Matthew 19 - there’s an account of a rich young man who comes to Jesus seeking the secret to eternal life - the secret to being with God eternally - seeing God. He’s a “yuppie” - a young urban professional. He’s upwardly mobile - young - rich - a mover and shaker. And he’s also devoutly religious.

This “yuppie” says to Jesus, “Teacher, what good thing do I need to do to receive eternal life?”

This is the ultimate question - what's the bottom line? What do I need to do to see God? And Jesus says to him, "Keep the commandments." And He lists them - do not murder - do not commit adultery - do not steal - do not lie - honor your father and mother - and love your neighbor as yourself.

The question is so much like the everyman religious thinking of today. Today there are four things people seem to believe.

1) Belief in Almighty God

2) Belief in open admission of “mistakes”

3) Belief in a self-defined “decent” life

4) Belief that at the Judgment Day - God - the great “umpire” will call us safe.

How many times we hear people say, “I’ve made some mistakes in my life. But I’ve always believed in Almighty God. I’ve lived a middle-of-the-pack moral life. And I figure that’s good enough. I’ve always believed that if you live your life as a decent person that’s good enough - in the end the umpire will say you did it right - you’re safe.”

The rich young man says, “I’ve done all that.” I’ve done everything I need to do - according to my everyman religious thinking - I’ve done everything I need to do to be called safe. But there’s something missing. What is it?

Jesus says to him, “If you want to be complete - go and sell everything you have and give the money to the poor - and you will have riches in Heaven - you’ll see God - then come and follow me.” And when the young man heard this he went away sad - grieving - because he was very rich.

This guy had done everything right - but he had never surrendered his heart to God. Jesus knew - he trusted his riches more than God. His heart was not pure before God.

There are so many things that we offer to God - and we’re willing to do for God - our religous acts - our beliefs - even give of our possessions. But what God asks for is purity of heart. A heart which is 100% sold out to God. Not 50% - not 75% or 90% - but 100%. There’s nothing else in there but God. Nothing is held back.

If our hearts are not pure before God then anything we do for God - including acts of mercy and compassion - come from our own selfishness and pride.

The other side of this is real happiness. There is nothing greater - no greater satisfaction - no greater joy - no greater happiness - than to be totally surrendered to God and to experience His working of miracles - His working to transform the lives of others through us.

Practically - how do we come to the place where we see God with pure hearts?

This past week a friend faxed me the words of the Hymn, “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” And I've been thinking about the words ever since. They have a powerful message about how our hearts become pure before God. By the way, "Come Thou Fount" is #148 in our AEUNA red hymnal.

Listen to the words of this hymn: "O to grace how great a debtor. Daily I'm constrained to be! Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love; here's my heart, O take and seal it; seal it for Thy courts above."

The author of this hymn was Robert Robinson - who was born in Swaffham, England in 1735. He was a gang member - a crook - immoral. Robinson - when he was a boy - lived about as far away from God as a person could.

When he was 17, Robinson went to hear the evangelist George Whitefield preach. The reason they went was to make fun of Whitefield. But during that meeting Robinson came to trust Jesus as His Savior. Later, he became a Baptist pastor and was well known for his theological writings and for his hymns. This is the mercy and grace that Robinson writes about in his hymn.

It would be great if the story ended there. But, in Robinson's later years he returned to his life of sin. The story is told that one day Robinson was riding a stage coach when he noticed a woman deeply engrossed in reading a hymn book.

As they started to talk - the woman asked Robinson what he thought of the hymn she was humming - “Come Thou Fount.” Robinson burst into tears and said, “Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago.”

The words of the hymn are a reminder to us. "Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love; here's my heart, O take and seal it; seal it for Thy courts above."

To be pure before God we must first come to acknowledge our sin - and accept Jesus as the means of salvation from the penalty for our sin. And then we need to live for God. It is so easy for us to wander away from God. Happiness comes - purity of heart comes - as we purpose to daily surrender our lives to God - as we are daily thanking Him for His mercy.