#GOFAMINTDailyDevotion Sun. 9/7/2017
9/7/2017 LESSON 6
BLESSINGS FOR THE PURE IN HEART
Quarter’s Theme: CHRISTIAN ATTITUDE
Unit 2: Our Virtues (Lessons 5-9)
(RESPONSIBILITY MONTHS)
Suggested Hymns: G.H.B. 28, 62
Devotional Reading: PS. 24:3-6
Topic For Adults
PURE HEART, PURE MOTIVE
Topic For Youths
PURE HEART, PURE MOTIVE
Topic For Intermediates
LET YOUR THOUGHTS BE PURE
Scripture Lesson
MATT. 15:10-20; PS. 51:1-11; MATT. 5:8; PS. 24:3-6
MEMORY VERSE
Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Matt. 5:8 (NKJV)
DAILY DEVOTIONAL READING
Sun. 9/7/2017
Defiled Consciences
Tit. 1:10-16
When Paul wrote this letter to Titus, he wrote about people within the church. There are those who have chosen impure lifestyles. They prefer philosophies which pamper their carnal desires, ego, and feeling of self-importance. Though their conscience condemns them of what they are doing, they have decided to silence or muffle the voice of conscience. The conscience becomes numb and no longer responds to the prompting from the Holy Spirit. The conscience becomes defiled and can no longer prompt them to live in purity. Such people need to be rebuked so that they may change their ways of life. When one’s heart is purified, his outlook about life and all things surrounding him changes. While others focus on things that defile, the pure in heart focuses on the things which are pure and pleasing to God.
POINT OF EMPHASIS: To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled nothing is pure.
PRAYER POINT: Purge my heart with the Holy Spirit fire that I may stand pure before You, O God.
BACKGROUND
The need for those who have been delivered from the power of sin by God’s grace to strive to please Him by living a holy life, necessitates Jesus to admonish them to have the same attribute of heart that God has. This week’s lesson teaches us the need to make our minds, wills and emotions to be in tune with God so that we can dwell in His presence and see Him both now and in His future kingdom.
NOTES ON THE TEXT
PART 1: SPIRITUAL POLLUTION (MATT. 15:10-20)
The heart is the spring of all that a man does. His actions, words and thoughts are products of what is in the heart. The condition of the heart is also determined by what is fed into the heart. Those who feed their hearts with ungodly materials often think that they have immunity from the effects of what they take in. But they are totally wrong. These things pollute the heart; just like the smoke being inhaled by a cigarette smoker whose effect later is lung cancer. No matter how spiritual a man may be, if he feeds his heart with the wrong stuff, he will end up with spiritual cancer.
Things that can pollute the heart of a man include lustful desires, ungodly passion, worldly ambition, illicit sexual desire and fantasy, uncontrolled fits of anger and desire for revenge, spiritual covenants, worship of idols directly or indirectly, willfully committing sin, unbroken ancestral entanglement, etc. Name other actions that can spiritually defile a person. These activities often open the door of a person’s life to influences from the demonic world.
PART 2: TRUTH IN INWARD PARTS (PS. 51:1-11)
David called Uriah from the war front and tried to be nice to him by feeding him and asking him to go and sleep in his house. Out of loyalty to the king, Uriah refused to go to his wife. David then sent him back to the war front with a letter which was in fact his death warrant. David’s treatment of Uriah was the highest form of deceit from a polluted heart. When confronted, David knew that God had found him out. Though he was described as the man after God’s heart, at that point in his life, his heart was contaminated with the spirit of adultery and murder. He knew that no outward show of piety would please God. What God desires is inner purity; a heart washed clean of lust, hatred, malice, deceit, anger and all other forms of work of the flesh.
Many come to church with a show of piety, but harbor all manners of sin in the heart. In our dealing with other members of the congregation, or in serving God, or in relating with spouses, or in dealing with others, God desires that we deal with purity in our inward parts – in our hearts. Deeds and actions which do not spring from a pure heart are contaminated before God and have no reward.
PART 3: BLESSINGS OF A PURE HEART (MATT. 5:8; PS. 24:3-6)
God commanded the Israelites to follow some form of ceremonial cleansing; anyone who violates the commandments is to be cut-off from the congregation. Those who have polluted their hearts are in the same manner cut-off from the presence of God. Nothing can be more disastrous for a Christian than to be excluded from the presence of God. Someone excluded from the presence of God loses all the rights to His blessings of peace, joy, guidance, protection, provision, and assurance of salvation. One of the blessings of a pure heart is to be counted worthy to ascend the hills of the Lord and to stand in His holy place. This privilege is reserved for those who have pure hearts and clean hands.
Another blessing of a pure heart is that one has closed the access route to Satan. Balaam’s effort to curse the Israelites was futile because God “has not observed iniquity in Jacob, nor has He seen wickedness in Israel”. The person who has impure heart opens the doors of his life to the devil and his agents to freely operate.
CONCLUSION
God desires and demands pure hearts from His children. Anyone who harbors impurity cuts himself off from the presence of God. God creates a desire of necessity of love and devotion in the heart of those who have experienced a new birth through the Lord Jesus Christ. Purity of heart is an essential ingredient for anyone to please God since the heart is the knowledge faculty where people know things, also a centre of feeling and volitional activity. The heart that is yielding and devoted to seeking the Lord must be ‘pure’.
In view of this, Christians should keep God’s word in their hearts, trust in the Lord with all their hearts in order to experience the love of God poured into their heart (i.e. to become pure in their hearts)
QUESTIONS
- Why is it mandatory for those who want to please God to feed their hearts with godly materials?
- Name some things that can pollute the heart of men.
- Mention the defilements that one can be exposed to through demonic materials.
- Explain how God wants us to deal with others in our inwards part.
- Mention the blessings God sets for those with pure heart.
