 But recently, I began to be more and more aware of and even more concerned. My concern has been growing for some time over certain things that I see that are happening in the nation. Now, of course, I'm not somebody who's got much of a voice as it pertains to these things and I certainly don't come every Sunday to share with you my concerns about a variety of things, but I am concerned about this, you know, as I've been watching the news and all. I'm going to assume that most, if not all of us, are people who do watch the news. I would say that much of the news that you watch, if you're not watching cable news, you're more likely getting either CBS, ABC, NBC news and the version of that, which is very often really not really, I don't think it's really balanced at all. So I get my sources of news in different ways and so one of the things I've been noting is that in the face of the situation with ISIS and with the march, you know, that at one time they had been referred to as a JV team, while this team is no JV team, it's a very vicious, organized and growing organization that is stretching its hands out in a variety of ways throughout the world now, you know, in Australia and in France and into England and various places. We need to be aware of that and because of that, I've been waiting to see what our nation would do in response to it and especially wondering how our president would be addressing the concerns that all of us are having and so recently some of you are aware of, all of us should be aware of this, that 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians were beheaded by ISIS terrorists. For some reason our president can't bring himself to refer to them as terrorists and is making an apology for Islam throughout the world basically as he makes his statements and you know, I've had a little bit of a problem with that. He became the historian in chief at the recent prayer breakfast where he wanted to remind Christians that of the crusades that happened 1100 years ago, went for 400 years and did not account for the amount of deaths that one terrorist bombing of the tower in New York did, but it's interesting how we were being chided as Christians that we're no better than anybody else and therefore should stay off of our high horses, but at the same time you've got 21 Christian men who were marched to a sea shore and brutally beheaded and nothing's being said about this and so I feel it's time that somebody says something, more people need to speak and all and they need to understand that what's going on right now is interesting. How many of you have heard, not interesting in the interesting sort of way, interesting in the sense that I'm watching the responses, but how many of you have heard the statement where they have said, ISIS has said we're going to go to Rome? How many of you have heard that? I want to know who I'm speaking to right now. Okay, ISIS is saying we're going to go to Rome and so what is the result of, let me give you a bit of insight into that, what that means because I know what it means but our press apparently doesn't in Italy itself apparently didn't or at least was acting in a way that one would wonder if they understood. You see when they said we're going to Rome, there's actually a history to that kind of comment. All you need to do is read your Bible and you begin to look and see certain things. You need to know that when the Muslim says we're going to Rome, it's not that we're going against Western civilization per se but there's something deeper than that. You see the church was birthed by the power of the Holy Spirit in the city of Jerusalem and so you had actually five major centers of Christianity in the ancient world. You had Jerusalem, then you had Antioch in the Bible, in the book of Acts, it states that Christians were first referred to as Christians in Antioch. Then you have Alexandria, Alexandria was a learning center in Egypt where a lot of Christians had gone, had tremendous influence and some of the greatest thinkers in the Christian history came out of Alexandria. Then you have Constantinople which was the center of Eastern Christianity and then you have Rome and what they're saying is we have already destroyed Christianity in Jerusalem, we've destroyed it in Antioch, we have destroyed it in Constantinople, we have destroyed it in Alexandria and we will destroy it in Rome. That's what they're saying. They're saying that we are coming against Christianity. They call Christians and they call Jews pigs, sons of apes and so our president needs some advisors to let them know and perhaps they're telling them and he's not listening. I don't know. So when you start speaking about these who killed these Egyptians and will not even refer to the Egyptians as Christians, there's something wrong there. When you have people who are, when you have them say things about Islam and it's always with such a respectful way and I'm not saying we should disrespect Islam, I am saying that it's interesting how Christianity is ignored and other religious faith is in front of everything and as I've been watching this and thinking about this, you need to know that they were marched to the seashore, they were forced to put their heads on the ground, they were beheaded there so that their blood would go into the water. It was a statement that was being made and people don't understand that because when they have you bow your head like that, the way that they were, I was reading one expert on how that really works out in Islam, they're saying that you are bowing your head to a false God and we who are worshiping the true will remove your head from you. That's what they were doing. It wasn't just capital punishment. It was a statement about their faith. Now, I wonder how many of you know, I didn't know this until recently, that Coptic Christians have tattoos on their wrist. How many of you knew that? They have tattoos on their wrist of a cross. They have tattoos, as a child, they get tattooed. American Christians, oh no, you know, they've got tattoos. They have a tattoo on their wrist and that cross is to remind them, never compromise your faith. When these men were being beheaded, some of them were crying in their language, Ya Rabbi Yasu is what they said. Jesus, he said, Lord Jesus. That's what that means, Lord Jesus. Somewhere reciting the Our Father as their heads were removed from them, as their faces were pressed on the ground. He said, you worship a false God will remove your head. That's what was taking place. We're going to Rome is a threat against Christianity. We're going to destroy you who are followers of the cross. And so, that's what's going on. I'm concerned and I wrote the president. Whether he reads it or not, I don't know. But this is what I wrote him and I wrote with respect and I'd encourage you to write and let him know if you have concern too. But this is what I wrote. I sent it today. I pastor a large Protestant church and in speaking for my congregation as well as myself, I would respectfully encourage you, Mr. President, to react quickly and as forcefully as prudence allows to deal with the massacre of the Egyptian Christians. I would encourage you to not shy away from addressing these martyrs as Christians and would say that in your apparent diplomatic avoidance of doing so, you are giving the impression that their deaths do not matter. Please restrain yourself from acting as a lawyer. Take the mantle of Commander-in-Chief as an Army veteran who served with the US Army 82nd Airborne. My heart is touched by the needs of those who cannot help themselves. There is a time to use whatever force is necessary and to be honest, that time is now. I encourage you to be decisive, to move the greatest military force on earth to action. I will support your efforts. We'll keep praying for you. Remember, Helen Caller once said, the only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision. I pray that you will have the vision necessary to lead this great nation. Thank you. And I wrote that for this church. It's time. We have to stand up against evil. We are salt and we are light. We speak for the voiceless and we defend the helpless. That's what we're called to do. No, I'm not running for political office and no, I don't see a political solution to this but I do believe that when evil is present, good has to stand up to oppose it. And I pray that we do as a nation. I hope that I speak for you when I wrote to him but that's exactly what I think and I think we need to do something. Now, I tell you this. If it was his daughter who recently, we saw a young woman who died. She was held in ISIS captivity and she died. I guarantee you that if it was a president's daughter, one of his daughters, he would have moved to action for her. Well, that was our daughter in a sense and there was no action taken. We need to stand up against evil or it will overflow. We have to stand. And there's, I'm a man of peace, God knows it. But if somebody touched my wife to hurt her, I will give up my life for that woman and I would give up my life for this nation. We need to stand up against evil and I say that with all of my heart and all of my heart. Our father, our father, we lift up this to you. You have the world in your hand. You are directing. You are behind the activities we know but we ask that you Lord would move to stop evil. I pray for wisdom for our president. I pray that advisors would give to him wisdom that really is from you Lord. We lift him to you. I would not want to wear the responsibility that he wears every day. I just pray for the man and I ask Lord that you might move somehow to save your children. Lord, we don't expect a political kingdom. We know that it's kingdom of righteousness, joy and peace and spirit. But I ask that you would cause us Lord to know what it means to oppose evil. We lift up our military. We lift up our law enforcement personnel, first responders and I thank you Lord for their service and the way that they faithfully carry out their tasks. May your hand be upon them. Keep them safe Lord and do your work. And we would ask this as a congregation in the name of Jesus, amen, amen. All right, Matthew five. I've got a little emotion about that. Matthew chapter five, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. When we were last together I mentioned that the last be attitudes correspond to the first four. Each of the four blessings that we find here in Matthew five and what is called the be attitudes, each of the first four blessings are related to inner drives and motives. And I also mentioned to you that the following blessings, the blessings following the first four are outworkings corresponding to the first four. And so today we're gonna see how Jesus shows us how one comes to know God intimately. You see those who mourn over their sin become pure of heart and Jesus says that enables them to actually see God. And so what we're gonna do is we're gonna be looking briefly at the subject of holiness. Now somebody once said a holy God calls his people to holy living. It is inconceivable that it should be otherwise. So a holy God calls us to live in a holy fashion and that's something that you see throughout scripture in Leviticus in the Old Testament chapter 11 verse 45. We read I am the Lord who brings you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy for I am holy. Paul in the New Testament, 1st Thessalonians 4 7 said it like this. He said God has not called us to uncleanness but to holiness. The writer of Hebrews chapter 12 verse 14 says follow peace with all men and holiness without which no one shall see the Lord. So there's a call to holiness that's found throughout scripture. When we begin to understand God's call to holiness, well that helps us to realize that the reason we're called to holiness is because God himself is holy as we just read and the Old Testament reveals to us God in the Old Testament is revealed as the holy God and also gives to us man's response to his holiness. When we read Exodus for example chapter 15 verse 11 the question is asked who else among the gods is like you oh Lord who is glorious in holiness like you. So awesome and splendor performing such wonders or the Psalmists in Psalm 77 13 your ways oh God are holy. What God is so great as our God. So the Bible on one hand tells us God is holy and God says be holy because I am holy but the Bible also presents to us that man is unholy without Christ without God imputing to us his own righteousness then our natural state the Bible says without the Lord is a state of unholiness. So in the Old Testament book of Isaiah chapter 64 verse six it says we are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags and we all do fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. We're all unclean. Our righteousness is filthy rags in the sight of a holy God. Paul when he was writing in Romans 3 verse 10 said there's none righteous no not one. There's none that understands. There's none that seeks after God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that does good no not one. So you see that man is by nature sinful in sin David the Psalmist said did my mother conceive me. We have a sin nature and therefore we are unholy. So how does an unholy person obtain a relationship with a holy God because to have a relationship with a holy God one needs to be holy. That understanding by the way of having a relationship with the holy God and being holy that runs contrary to the way the majority of people today are thinking. If I were to say that there's something common that all of us in this church could agree with I would say this that the average person the average person doesn't have what is called the fear of God. There's no fear of God in them. He just don't have it. The Bible says the fear of God is the beginning of knowledge but fools this despise wisdom and instruction. There's no fear of God in them. We don't begin at the right place. And so because this nation that we have does not have a sense of the fear of God what we end up with is people doing what is right in their own sight. And what we have done in fact is we have made man bigger and God smaller in the way that we think of him. You know we are more as a society afraid to speak in certain terms using certain words to describe people than we are about using God's name in vain. I mean you can watch a program even a comedy and you will hear sometimes you can hear God's name in vain. People who use the name of the Lord in vain all the time they'll use Jesus' name in vain all the time. God says that's his name. He doesn't hold the person guiltless. It takes his name in vain. It's one of the commands. And yet you will hear God's name being used in vain all the time even from the minor things like what we would refer to as minor by simply using the word oh God or oh my God which is really blasphemous to take his name in such a fashion to using it in a swear context and all. And we see that and we know that but you will never hear racial groups being certain words used for a racial group. You would never hear that. You will never hear a sexual preference group being used in an unflatter anyway. You will never hear that. You will never hear women being demeaned. You just don't hear that. And it's not as if those words should be used. They shouldn't be used but it's easier for this society to use God's name in vain than it is for them to even realize how wrong it is. And that's just the way it is. There's no fear of God in man. To many God isn't concerned about this kind of thing but the Bible reveals to us that God is holy and God does not ignore sin. In the Old Testament book of Habakkuk 1.13 the prophet says you are of purer eyes than to behold evil cannot look on iniquity. You don't look at sin with pleasure. There's nothing in sin that is attractive to you because God is holy. So the question is one, if you have a holy God and he is and two, you have unholy man, how can an unholy person have a relationship with a holy God? When you look at the book of Exodus in chapter 20 when the Lord God is giving his commands to Moses and all in that general area, it speaks concerning the fact that the mountain that he received these tablets on, there was smoke on it, there was thunder, there was lightning, there was a trumpet peel and the people who were there said to Moses in chapter 21, they said to Moses, you talk to him, we don't even want to get near that place because the thundering and the lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the smoke that was rising was so awesome that the people had a tremendous fear. Do you even go near that place? Well, that kind of fear doesn't exist in many hearts even to this day. God is a holy God. He's too pure to look upon wickedness or evil. So how can an impure person have a relationship with a holy God? Well, David the Psalmist gave us the answer. He said in Psalm 51.10, creating me a clean heart, oh God, renew a right spirit within me. Creating me a clean heart, purify my heart, Father. The good news is that God will do that. The bad news is that without him, we remain in our sin but the good news is that God will cleanse our heart through faith in Jesus Christ. It begins with repentance. Second Corinthians 7.10 says, Godly sorrow works repentance to salvation not to be repented of. But the sorrow of the world works death. And so God would have us through repentance, have a new heart given to us. True sorrow over our sin will lead to God comforting us and we become born again. When we're saved, we receive a new nature and this new nature is described as being a new heart. In Ezekiel 36, 25 through 27, in the Old Testament, God makes a promise, I will sprinkle clean water on you. You will be clean. Your filth will be washed away and you will no longer worship idols. And I will give you a new heart with new and right desires and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony heart of sin and give you a new obedient heart and I will put my spirit in you so you will obey my laws and do whatever I command. You're gonna do it not from the outside but from the inside. So he gives us a new heart. Now as we're looking at this passage, Matthew 5 verse 8 and he speaks concerning the pure in heart. What does he mean when he speaks of someone being pure in heart? Well, the word heart. The word heart refers to the inner person. It's the seed of the character. It's the origin of desires, affections, perceptions, thoughts, reasoning, imagination, conscience, intentions, purpose, will and faith. It speaks of the center of personality. Now when he speaks concerning the pure of heart, the word heart is more than referring to emotion or feeling. Even today, I mean, we use that word heart very often. We'll say, you know, I love you with all my heart. But when we use that term, we Americans mean we love you with our emotions. We love you with something deep within us that is emotional in terms of its origin and all. And so we say, I love, I mean, I love them with all my heart. But if a Jew wanted to tell you something about emotion, they would talk about their kidneys or they would talk about their bowels. Now, did any of you ladies get on Valentine's Day, a Valentine's card with some bowels there? I love you with all my bowels. Maybe a couple of kidneys on the side. No, what do we do? We give our heart, why? Because that's the way we describe our emotions. I'm giving you my heart or I broke your heart or you fill my heart with joy. We're talking about our emotions, but the Jews didn't use the word in that way. They were speaking, they would speak concerning the heart as being the center of personality. It speaks of the desire and affection. It speaks of the purpose, will and faith. That's what it refers to. So it's more than simply referring to emotions or feelings, it represents mind and will. That's why the Proverbs 4.23 says, above all else, guard your heart for it affects everything you do. That's why Matthew 9.4, Jesus knowing their thoughts said, why do you think evil in your heart? Because it's the center of the will, purpose, desires, et cetera. You see, when a man creates a religion, he generally will clean up the outside. But in doing so, he ignores what's on the inside. We have a tendency of doing that. We wanna change the exterior, but we don't even think about the interior. We think if we change the exterior, we will change the interior also. We don't think about human nature. We simply don't do that. We have a way of dressing up the outside, but we really don't spend much time looking at the inside. It's been said, you can get a baboon and you can dress them in a tuxedo and it may look nice, but it's still a baboon. I mean, you still have only the exterior that's being changed or dressed up, but the heart itself is not. But we still have a tendency of doing that. So if you see somebody riding their 10 speeds or standing in front of a winchels with a tract or you see someone in a saffron robe or whatever doing some exterior kind of thing, you look at them as being religious because these are people who have the outer appearance of being faith-filled individuals. When I got saved back in 1970, as a hippie, didn't wear shoes and all of that, we had people at that time who thought these hippies cannot possibly be Christians because Christians don't have long hairs. You know, they're not long hairs, they call this long hairs. You know, and they'd say, they're not long hairs, you know, they have short hair. They really were turned off by the long hair and the beards. And I used to think those women look kind of funny with those beards too, but that's another story. But they would look at us with the long hair barefoot hippie and they would say, you can't be, you don't look like a Christian. They would even say that. Now, what's a Christian look like? I don't know, but we didn't. You don't look like a Christian, they would say, and they did say that. You don't look like a Christian. And I didn't even know what a Christian was supposed to look like. There was a well-known church, it was in Indiana. It was known for its evangelism and all. And they had on staff, this is a true story, back in 1970, 71, they had on staff a barber. So whenever the hippie came forward to get saved, the first thing they did is took them in the back and gave them a haircut. They were that caught up with the exterior. They were that caught up with outer appearances and that's what religiosity is. It has a tendency of looking at the outer appearances. There is a way, when I grew up, we didn't really use this, but I heard this term when they said they're putting on their Sunday go-to-meeting clothes. Which simply meant their Sunday clothes, you know, they're getting dressed up. In Calvary Chapel, what we did was we brought casual to the fore. We didn't wear suits. You know, we came as we were. I mean, I used to teach Bible studies Sunday morning when this church first began barefooted. I would sit there barefooted, because I don't wear shoes very often. I wear sandals everywhere except basically here. And my mom's the one who made me put shoes on. I would sit there teaching and she finally one day said to me, I'm tired of looking at your feet, put some shoes on. That was my mom, because that's what we were. That's, we knew that God works on the inside. He changes hearts. That's what he wants to do. He changes the heart of a man. He changes the heart of a woman. It's not the exterior because we can look so religious. And we, you know, Jesus said that the Pharisees were experts at that. They would stand at corners and they would pray. They would fast so that people knew that they were fasting. They would drop their money into the offering and it would make noise so that people would know that they were given. He said they do this to be seen by men because religion can be all external but God wants to work on the heart. He wants to change the heart, the interior, that person, the center of personality. Ecclesiastes nine three says the hearts of the children of man are full of evil and madness is in their hearts while they live. And after that they go to the dead. And he's speaking of human nature. Hearts are filled with evil. Before I was pastoring this church and I was working a full-time job in the area. Marie and I lived in Ontario. And I forget why but I had to drive her car to work and I remember climbing into the car to go to work one morning and the interior really smelled really bad. Now we had babies at that time so that tells you how long ago this was. We had babies. And I thought for sure that one of the baby's diapers was stashed somewhere but I had to leave. So I rolled the windows down and just took off because I was running late. I had to get to work. Then I rolled the windows back up when I got to work and then I came out after work, opened the door and oh I was welcomed by that odor once again. I said, oh this is horrible. Rolled the windows down, drove home and then I went and looked through the entire interior everywhere, there's gotta be a diaper or something here. This is horrible. Couldn't find a thing and I thought now I wonder what this is. I went to bed. Next morning I got up to go to work. Had to drive the car again. I walked out, opened the door. I was hoping that it aired out. It hadn't, it's even worse. So I go back in the house. I got some air freshener. I came in and I sprayed the entire interior. Sprayed it all over. I sprayed it on the seats and everything, the rug, everything. It was Lysol, it's supposed to disinfect. Rolled the windows down, drove to work. Then I came back out after work. Oh, it was even worse. And oh, rolled the windows down, drove it home, went into the house and I told Marie, I said I can't believe it. Man, it smells so bad in that car. She goes, I don't know why. I said I don't either. I'm going to have to go and really look now. So I looked everywhere. I couldn't find a diaper stashed in any place. I couldn't see anything. There was no reason that this car should smell that bad. So I thought I'll look at the trunk. I went and opened up the trunk. Marie had gone grocery shopping and she had forgotten to take the meat out. And so it had been sitting there for three days in the heat. And yeah, and I'll tell you that meat tasted terrible but that's another story. You put some lime juice on it and kind of, but anyway. It was rotten meat. And the Lord taught me something. He said that is your human nature. That's what's inside. See you could look at the car. I looked at the car, it looked fine. Even the interior I could see in certain areas that it didn't look that bad. It was in the trunk. There's something rotten inside. It was hidden there. I didn't even know its presence was there but it made its presence known by its smell. And our lives without Christ are just like the dead meat in a trunk. The corruption, it's corrupt. It's dead. We need life and it has to be removed. That has to be removed. That dead meat comes out through confession. And then God gives you a new spirit, a new heart and that old is done away with. God gives a pure heart. Men has a tendency of looking at other people on the outside. Oh, they look religious. But in 1 Samuel 16, 7, the Bible says to us, the Lord does not see as man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart. God looks at the inside. David was being referred to there in 1 Samuel 16. And later he wrote concerning what he had learned about God. In Psalm 51 verse 6, he said surely you desire truth in the inner parts. You teach me wisdom in the inmost place. In Psalm 73 verse 1, surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. The Bible consistently reveals God to be the most concerned with a person's heart. And Jesus says there to be pure. Now this is interesting. I normally don't give you little Greek words and all of that, but this word is interesting. The word pure is catharsis. And those of you who've been trained in certain disciplines know that the word catharsis is the root for cathartic or catharsis. It's a word that's used commonly today. It means cleansed from filth and contamination. That's what catharsis means. It means to be unmixed with hypocrisy, single-minded, undivided devotion. It speaks of spiritual integrity and true righteousness. So they are to be cleansed from filth. The heart is to be pure, no hypocrisy, single vision, undivided devotion. You see, the Christian life is not applied like makeup to the outside of our personalities. It's an outgrowth from an inner transformation. I was speaking at the women's retreat. I always open up the women's retreat. It's interesting because sometimes ladies who've never been to a women's retreat with us, when they see me there, they will say, what are you doing here? They saw me on Friday. One of the ladies saw me as I was walking by. What are you doing here? You know, this is a women's retreat. And I said, well, it's the only time I have opportunity to wear my high heels in this cute little skirt. What are you doing here? Because they don't know. And so I have a chance to go. I love to go. It's kind of like my night being able to share with the ladies and all. And I enjoy it. I've been doing it for many years. And as I was speaking to the ladies, I was saying, you know, God wants us to have an openness of heart. He wants us to see Him in a face-to-face way with unveiled faces where to be looking at the glory of God. I said, there's a saying they used to use years ago. I don't even know if this saying is used anymore. I've heard it on occasion, but it really isn't from another time. But it was something my mom would say sometimes to my dad when my dad was ready to go. And he would be telling my mom it's time to go. And it was this. My dad would say, honey, it's time to go. And my mom would say this, I'm still putting on my face. Has anybody here ever even heard that? I don't know if I'm speaking to anybody who's old like me. Some of you are old. Anyway, I gave you some old thing as new information. I'm putting on my face. You know, now me, I'm very grateful that mom did. So was my dad. And there was times that Marie would even use that because you know, I'm putting on my face. Well, what does that mean? And I was talking to the ladies. I said, it's interesting how that is a saying that came into existence for a while when you were speaking of putting on your makeup. That's what you were doing. And many of the women understood that. I said, you're putting on your face. You're putting on your makeup. I said, well, what the Lord wants is the Lord wants you to see him with unveiled face to be real because all of us can put on a certain appearance. All of us can. It's easy to do that. It's easy to do that. There are these garments today that men are buying. And watch some of the guys will bring their papers and pens out. Yeah, what is it? And it tightens up your waist. They're like T-shirts that are real, real tight. And it makes you look like you have that waist you used to have when you were younger. You know, and you can put on these tight fitting shirts and they sell them. They're always trying to sell those things. I see them in different ads and all. And in a way, you know, that's nice to have that on, but you got to take the shirt off sometime. And when you do, whoa, hello there. What is it? Is it called a Spanx, ladies Spanx? Is that a word, Spanx? Yeah, yeah. You got to come off sometime and whoa. There's a riot going on. We can look good. We can look good, but is it real? Often it's not. All the Lord really is saying is, listen, I want to give you something you really don't have. You don't have to dress yourself up for me, by the way, I'll dress you up. You need to have a pure heart. It's not the external at all. It's not like makeup being applied to the outside of your personality. It's really a work I'm doing on the inside. It is nothing else but the habitual and predominant devotion and dedication of soul, body, life, and all that we have to God. It is esteeming, loving, and serving, and seeking Him before all the pleasures and prosperity of the flesh. Blessed are the pure in heart, but the question remains, how can I have a pure heart? Well, one, I need to recognize that I'm unable to live a holy life without Him. I cannot give myself a pure heart. I cannot make myself have a pure heart. Proverbs 29, 20 verse nine asks the question, who can say I have cleansed my heart? I am pure from my sin. And so what we do is when we begin to mourn over what we have sinned, how we have sinned against God, is we recognize our sin and we confess our sinfulness, and that's when we ask God for forgiveness. In Romans 4, 5 it says, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. And so one, I realize I cannot live a holy life without Him. Secondly, I begin to examine the word of God and remain faithful to the word, to the Bible. God's word is truth, and we order our lives to align with His word. The question is asked, how can a young man cleanse his way? The answer is by taking heed there too, according to thy word. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you. Jesus in John 17 verse 17 said, sanctify them by the truth, your word is truth. And so we ask the Lord to cleanse us and we remain faithful to His word. Then we seek God's Holy Spirit to fill us and to have His way done in our life. I need the power of the Spirit to walk with the Lord. I cannot, even if I know I'm a sinner saved by grace and even if I love His word, I cannot walk a holy life and be pure in heart if God's powerful spirit is not working in me. Galatians 5.16 says, walk by the Spirit, you will not fulfill the desire of the flesh. We need to know God's word. We need to know that God doesn't lead us into sin, but we need to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit. You can wake up in the morning and you can say, Lord, I'm just waking up, but I need your help today. I need your power to be resident in me. I want to read your word and I want to be not only getting into your word, but I want your word to get into me. I want to receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save my soul. I want you to work your will out in my life by your word, so I will read your Bible and I will know what you want and in your power I will walk with you because I want a pure heart. And that comes again by prayer. And as you pray, you actually weigh your own motives. You evaluate your own motives because you want to have a pure heart. Again, we say it created me a clean heart. Oh, God, renew a right spirit within me. God work within me that I might do the right thing for the right reason. Now, as that's taking place, it's an ongoing kind of thing. You begin to have a deeper relationship with the Lord. Jesus said, you shall see God. When he says we shall see God, when you see God, you're gonna have a growing knowledge of him and a deep personal intimacy with him. You see, God speaks of intimate knowledge and true fellowship with him. That's something that occurs now, but it is something that continues into the future. I care about my wife. Every married man in this room probably cares about his wife. I would pray that every wife cares about her husband. And Marie and I made a decision using this as a personal illustration that we wanted to not only be together, but we wanted to grow older together and we wanted to stay together and have a good marriage. And so from the beginning, we've been working on knowing each other. And it's a growing intimacy, it's a growing fellowship. I mean, when somebody gets married and I've done a number of weddings, you see the beautiful little bride walking up, you see the guy all anxious, waiting for her to take his arm and for him to lead her up here and all of that beautiful. And when the minister says, and I pronounce you to be husband and wife, you may kiss your wife on that moment that he kisses her and that it's just beautiful, it's a beautiful moment. And everybody cheers and it's exciting and they look at one another with those doe eyes and then they hold hands and they walk on down and it's just real romantic and it's beautiful. And sometimes you may think, gosh, I could never love this person more than I do right now. And the answer to that is no, that's not true at all. That's just the beginning. That's just the start because every day isn't a wedding. Weddings are events, marriage is lifetime and you have to work on that. You work every day on that. You wake up in the morning and you say, Lord, today's a new day. I wanna be a more loving person. See, I had to learn that, I'll say this very quickly, I had to learn that. So I'm just sharing what I've tried to learn. I was one of these men who did not tell my wife I loved her, I just didn't use the word. I didn't use that word, that was not a word I used. I was uncomfortable saying it. And so I wouldn't say it. And so Maureen and I are married and I'm never saying it. Now she would say, honey, I love you and I'd say thanks, you know, I appreciate that. But I was not, that's the truth. I mean, I was not the kind of guy that said, ooh, and baby, I love you. You know, I wasn't that way. I figured, look it, I told you that once, do I have to repeat myself? How many times do I have to hear it? What's the matter, are you insecure? You know, I did not get it. I really didn't, I really didn't. And so I can still remember I was at work and Maureen calls me at work and my boss is seated right across from me and she's given me some news. And I said, okay, fine, that's great. And she says, okay, I'm gonna hang up now. And I said, okay, I'll see you at home. And she says, I love you. And I said, yeah. And she says, true story. She says, tell me you love me. And I said, why? I said, why? I said, you know that? She says, tell me you love me or I won't hang up. And I said, come on. I gotta go to work, I got work. And my boss who had been married 30 some years at that time turns to me and he says, tell her you love her or she won't hang up. So this is a veteran. She will not hang up. Tell her you love her, she will not hang up. So I said, oh, all right. I love you. She goes, that's all I wanted to hear. And so I thought, man, what's wrong with you? And I come home and I talk to her. See, so I didn't know how to do that. I didn't know how to say that. It was not a big thing. Valentine's Day comes, Valentine's Day goes. I mean, it's just a day. If I don't love you today and tomorrow, why am I gonna love you more on Valentine's Day? Why am I gonna go and buy you a card and flowers and candy? Look, if you're so insecure that you need gifts to know that I love, that's how I was. Oh, you ladies would have loved me. And Marie was, oh, she had real problems with that. Man, where's your heart, man? Where's your heart? That's right here. So what you see up here when I speak in the way that I do came after years. Not of my wife training me. She knows better than to try and train me, frankly. Lady, if you try to train your husband, you're losing, you won't win. She left me alone and let God train me. And as I was reading the word of God, it said, husbands love your wives. And when it said that, I said, am I? And then he started teaching me, well, you're not in this way and you're not in this way and you're not in this way. But she's so insecure. She has to hear that all the time. I created her that way. She wants you to love her. See, I'd take Marie, we'd go shopping and she'd come walking out and she'd put on some clothes and she'd say, how do you like them? And I would say, why would you ask me? I'm not gonna wear that. See, what I like is for you to buy it. Let's get out of here. I hate this place. That's what I would say. They have these timeout benches for husbands. You guys have been there. Right? Right? Now, how long you been here? Three pairs of pants and two blouses. Man, you're a long timer, man. You know? So I had to learn. And I would tell her that. I'd say, baby, I'd say, when I go and buy a pair of pants, I don't put them on and walk around sachet in front of you and say, how do they look? I just buy them. I said, if I buy a pair of shoes, I put them on and I walk out of the store with them. Why do you have to have me tell you that I like them? Why are you doing that to me? The spirit of the Lord, because her beauty is reserved for you. And she wants you to find her attractive because she wants you to think she's beautiful. And I said, bam. And also it saves me time because the first time she puts them. Man, those are the best. I don't think you could look any better. Let's go get some coffee. That's a beautiful man. I started using words I never use. Those are cute. Cute. Word is cute. That starts early. Let me give you a quick story. This has nothing to do. Last week, I was wearing a pair of shoes. My two-year-old granddaughter, I come walking into the back. My two-year-old granddaughter, Stella's there. She looks at my shoes. She goes, oh, Papa. I love those shoes. She goes, they're cute. I have a lot to learn. I'm just saying this. When you love someone, you want to be with them. I knew of a Hollywood actress whose husband lived in Japan and she lived in San Francisco. She said, we have a great marriage. How can you? You never see each other. You're never together. A great marriage is spending time with one another. It's when iron sharpens iron. It's when you begin to rub off the rough edges on each other's life to become one. And it takes time. And the only way that happens is by spending time with one another. And then the husband will know his wife. He will dwell with the wife according to knowledge. He will know her. I'll tell this to Marie. She'll be seated next to me. And I'll say, baby, go to bed. You're going to sleep. No, I'm not. She does that all the time. Anybody else? She does that all the time. She'll sit next to me. I'm watching a program. Then she'll go, what happened just now? And I'll go, well, didn't you watch? Yeah, I'm watching it, but I will stare at her. I will watch her as her heads. But she, so I'll tell her, honey, you're sleepy. You need to go to bed. No, I don't. What makes you say I have to go to bed? Well, one, you're drooling. Two, I mean, you've got bruises on your chest from your chin. So you get to know them, don't you? I mean, that's how you have relationship, is you spend time with them. Listen, if all we ever do is spend one hour in the Word of God a week, I promise you, you are not getting to know God very well. Promise you. Anymore than if you had one hour with your husband or wife or children, one hour a week, you could never tell me you really know that person. You couldn't, because you don't, because you're not spending time with them. That's why studies, fellowship, midweeks, Sunday night, whenever, that's why that is so important. And when we avoid that and think that we're getting close to God because we come once in a while, no, you want to have pure heart that talks about seeing God. You want to have that, you have to fellowship with them. You spend time with them. That's how it works. That's what God calls us to. It's been said, purity of heart cleanses the eye of the soul so that God becomes visible. You see, when our heart is pure, we can say even with Job, Job 42.5, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear. But now my eyes see thee. I've heard of you, but now I see you. We're talking about intimacy. Somebody wrote, when my life work is ended and I cross the swelling tide, when the bright and glorious morning I shall see, I shall know my redeemer when I reach the other side. And his smile will be the first to welcome me. Through the gates of the city in a robe of spotless white, he will lead me where no tears will ever fall. In the glad song of ages, I shall mingle with delight. But I long to meet my Savior, first of all. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. It's been said it is impossible to be too preoccupied with God. And it is only as we fill our hearts and minds with him that we become melted out of our likeness and molded into his fellowship with God. Blessed are the pure in heart who have mourned over their sin and have sought deep intimacy with God, for they shall see God because God will reveal himself to them daily and welcome them into eternity.