Calvary Chapel Staten Island

Narrator (Male): Andy Chrisman of 4HIM has spent 40-plus years in Christian music and chances are he knows your favorite artist personally. Now he's bringing you their stories. Andy Chrisman in his new podcast, One Degree of Andy. He sits down with the voices behind the song for real, honest, and faith-filled conversations you won't hear anywhere else.

Andy Chrisman: That's a great question.

Narrator (Male): If you love Christian music, this is your backstage pass, the One Degree of Andy podcast. Listen now to One Degree of Andy wherever you get your podcasts.

Intro Announcer (Female): Hello and welcome to God in Our City: The Daily Edition. Your host and Bible teacher is Pastor Dave Watson. Pastor Dave has been the pastor of Calvary Chapel on Staten Island for 35 years. In addition, he is the co-founder and president of the New York Institute for Biblical Studies.

To receive a special downloadable gift from Pastor Dave, please go to calvarychapelsi.org/gioc. That's calvarychapelsi.org/gioc. Now here's Pastor Dave and our show.

Pastor Dave Watson: Welcome again. This is Pastor Dave Watson. I'm so glad you could join us here on God in Our City: The Daily Edition. I hope you're having a great week. I hope you're walking with the Lord. I hope you're growing in Him. I'm hoping this show is making a difference in your life, helping you on your spiritual journey.

That's why we do it. We hope and pray that people will come to a personal faith in Jesus Christ, that people will give their hearts to the Lord. In addition to that, we hope that believers and followers of Christ will get more serious about their walk and find more success in their walk as they listen to what God's Word says and as they seek to live out the principles that we are discussing.

This is Pastor Dave Watson. This is God in Our City: The Daily Edition, where we go book-by-book, verse-by-verse through portions of our incredible book called the Bible and hopefully give you some very simple insights into what God is saying to us and then some practical ways to apply it. We have turned our eyes in the last two weeks from Proverbs to the Book of Matthew, and a specific section in the Book of Matthew: the Sermon on the Mount.

Kingdom Quest, we call it, because we have a quest. We have a journey. We want to be like Jesus and we want to live out the way we're supposed to be living out the principles of the Kingdom of God. We're so glad you joined us. I hope you're glad. If this is your first time, welcome. If you stopped for a while and you came back, welcome. Maybe you said, "He's never going to finish Proverbs." I did.

Let's work through what we have for you. We want you to be successful. We want you to have all you need to get the most out of this study, so please go to calvarychapelsi.org/gioc. Please go there and download the study guides we have. They're free. They are absolutely free.

Beyond the study guides, also ask for the Matthew Journal. You have to give us your address so we can send it to you. We're not going to hound you, though. All we want to do is send you this incredible resource. The Matthew Journal has the Book of Matthew on one side of the page and a spot to write on the other, so it's basically a journal Bible. I think that's the name they give it.

We want to send this to you for the Book of Matthew for free. So as you're listening to God in Our City, as you're taking notes, as you're working through the scripture, you can simply write in your journal, your Matthew Journal. While you're there getting these free resources—we pay for the postage and handling on the Matthew Journal as well—while you're getting these resources, consider making a donation to God in Our City.

God in Our City is the name of our program, but it's the mantra of the incredible church I pastor on Staten Island. We want to make an impact in our city. Your donation helps us to do that. Without your donation, we can't do it. This is a local church-sponsored program, but it has to become more and more a listener-supported program, so please consider making a gift.

Please make that gift if you can, recurring. Maybe you could give us $25 a month. Make it recurring. Maybe you could give us $30 a month, a dollar a day. Make it recurring. When you push the button, you'll see how easy that is to do. So please consider doing that. But that's enough of my talking. Let's get into our study.

We've been reading Matthew 5:1-12 every time we have had a broadcast here on the Sermon on the Mount. Today is going to be no different, except I'm going to read it from my journal Bible, my Matthew Journal Bible. Let's see if it sounds any different. Are you ready?

It says, "Seeing the crowds, He went up on the mountain, and when He sat down, His disciples came to Him. And He opened His mouth and taught them, saying: 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on My account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.'"

From the Journal Bible, we want to give this to you, the Book of Matthew. Just go to calvarychapelsi.org/gioc. Request it. We'll pay for postage and handling. Let's pray.

Father in heaven, You have been incredibly good to us. Meet, Lord, the needs, the spiritual needs, the physical needs, the soul needs of everyone listening today. Help us, Lord, to come to You as the God who makes all the difference in the world. Help us, Lord, to give You our hearts. Help us, Lord, to surrender to You and Your perfect will and Your perfect plan. Teach us now, we pray, through Your Word. May it make a huge impact on everyone listening. We pray this now in Jesus' name. Amen.

We've been scooting along here. We talked about the fact that as an expression of our salvation, we admit we're bankrupt, broken, bowed, and begging. And now, evidence of our salvation is, first of all, this pardoning. We are merciful and thus we are receiving mercy. The next one of these is pretty tough here in our journey, in our quest: we are purifying.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Let me read that again. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed is the position that we want to be in, the place of favor that we want to be experiencing. We want the applause of God. That's where we want to be. And who are the people who are experiencing that?

The description here is quite clear: they are the pure in heart. The pure in heart. It's a little bit of a play on words. The Greek word for clean is katharos. We get our word catharsis from it, a cleansing. The picture here is being completely clean. We bathe, as it were. Blessed are those who are bathed.

Remember in Matthew 13:10, Jesus was speaking with Peter. Jesus came to bathe only Peter's feet. Remember that? He comes to bathe only his feet, and Peter doesn't want Him to do it. Peter doesn't want Jesus to do it. Peter said to Him, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head." Jesus said to him, "The one who has bathed doesn't need to wash except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you."

So the picture here is taking a bath and being completely clean. Blessed are those who are completely clean with reference to where? The heart. The heart. That part of us, that incredible part of us that governs the rest of us. That's why it says in the Book of Proverbs, the fourth chapter, to guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the springs of life.

This relates back to having experienced pardon and being a pardoner. What does Psalm 32:1-2 say? "Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit."

When we read passages like in Jeremiah 7 and Mark 7 about our hearts, we recognize that to purify my heart, it has to be a God thing. It's not something I can do. Jeremiah 17:9 says the heart is desperately wicked, and it asks the rhetorical question, "Who can even know it?" Or "Who can know it?" In Mark 7:21-23, we read these words about the heart of man.

It says, "For from within," Mark 7:21, "for from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person." The problem is not our outward circumstances. The problem is our heart. The problem is our heart.

So who gets the applause of God? The person who has a clean heart. The person who has a clean heart. The conclusion is, "for they shall see," who? God. They themselves shall see, orao, to see, to experience, to understand. It's a future idea. They'll attain to experiencing or seeing God.

It's a future tense. 1 Corinthians 13:12 talks about the fact that we all now look through a mirror darkly, then face-to-face. 1 John 3:2-3 says, "Beloved, now we are the children of God, and it does not appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." Revelation 22:4, a verse we often hear quoted at funerals. Revelation 22:4 speaks of the fact that the redeemed, they will see His face, and His name will be on their forehead.

It is what the psalmist is longing after. It is what the psalmist wants for their life. What is it they want? They want to see God. They want to be ever so close to God. Listen, if you will, to the words of the Psalms. Psalm 24, beautiful psalm. Psalm 24 and 27 are both beautiful psalms.

Psalm 24:1-5 says, "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for He founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation."

Psalm 27:8. "You have said, 'Seek my face.' My heart says to You, 'Your face, Lord, do I seek.'" This is in contrast to the Pharisees who were ceremonially clean. They were clean on the outside and Jesus takes them to task for that. Remember He calls them whitewashed sepulchers because we know that man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks where? On the heart. Where does God look? On the heart.

In Exodus 33, we have a beautiful, beautiful picture of what it means to see God in the life of our buddy, our friend, Moses. Now Moses wasn't a perfect person, but he was a person who wanted to walk with God, right? So in Exodus 33, verses 10 and following, we read about this encounter that Moses has with God where God comes over his tent, the tent outside the camp, the little tent of the meeting.

Listen to the words of chapter 33, verse 11. "Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face-to-face, as a man speaks to his friend." Moses, as it were, the best you can in an Old Testament or New Testament sense, saw God. The ones who can be described as having a cleansed heart will appear in the presence of God.

Because God extends mercy to us, we can be cleansed and experience in a special way God's presence. Hebrews 12:14 says, "Strive for peace with everyone, and for holiness," watch the next phrase, "without which no one will see the Lord. Strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord."

You say, "Pastor Dave, I want to see God. I want to be close to God. How do I make that happen?" Let me recommend something to you. I want to recommend that you set aside a few minutes. When I say a few, I mean a half-hour, three-quarters of an hour, an hour. And that you have a pen and paper with you and you begin and just talk to God, reading some scripture, maybe reading out of your journal Bible on the Book of Matthew.

Just say, "God, show to me my sinfulness." And then just write what God shows you, or keep track of what God shows you. Having gone through that exercise, go back over and confess what God shows you is wrong with you to Him. Just confess it. Confess it openly and fully.

Just lay it on the line and say, "God, this is who I am. These are the mistakes that I've made. This is how I have acted. This is how I have behaved. This is what I've done that I shouldn't have done. Lord, here are my sins, my trespasses, and my iniquity before You." And then say, "God, please forgive me."

The Bible says that when we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's your starting point. And then make it a point every single day, every single day, of keeping a short account with God. As you sin, and you will, as you sin by accident, and I'm sure that will happen, as you sin on purpose—I wish I could tell you that wasn't going to happen, but it is—as you do that, confess those sins openly to God.

Just say, "God, this is the truth about me right now. I'm not in a good spot. Please forgive me. Please forgive me. I say the same thing that You say about my sin." And then take an act of faith. Remember, faith is taking God at His word. So if I've done that, if I've been faithful, if I've done my part in consistently spoken to God about my sin, He's forgiven it. He does forgive it and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. You are now clean.

And every day you go through that experience, you are clean. And then remember what the Bible says about the washing of the water of the Word in Ephesians. The Bible itself, the reading of scripture, has a washing effect on us. It has a purifying effect on us. Get your nose in the scriptures. Meditate on the scriptures. Let the promises of God wash over you. Let the holiness of God awe you. Let who God is enter your life.

If you will do that consistently, you will experience an intimacy with God that you never have before. There's one other portion of that. Jesus said, "I give you My commandments. If you keep My commandments, the Father and I will come and make our abode with you." He says shortly thereafter in John chapter 16, "If you keep My commandments, you're the one who truly loves Me, and My Father and I will manifest ourselves to you."

So there is that necessity of cleansing. There is that necessity of letting the Word wash over me. That third element, though, cannot, cannot be neglected: that is obedience. That is obedience. Doing what God is asking you, doing what God is telling you to do.

You and I were made for a close relationship with God. I need that relationship. You need that relationship. And we are blessed when we go through the purification process. We are blessed because we come into the presence of God in a different way. We come clean. We come clean.

You know, it's interesting the way James words it. In James chapter 4, he's talking in verses 6 through 10 just about the rebellious nature of people, of human beings, of you and me. And listen to just the way he couches it because it's very, very applicable. He says in verse 6, "But He gives more grace. Therefore it says," James 4:6, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."

Then he says, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will exalt you."

But note the commands there. Drawing near to God. Submitting myself to God. Resisting the devil through drawing near. And then that whole scenario of cleansing my hands and purifying my double-mindedness, purifying my heart and dealing with my double-mindedness, and to do it seriously. That will result in a closer walk with the Lord.

In His presence is also what? Fullness of joy. So as I put these principles into my life, the end product is joy. So we want to make sure we do that. Hey, let's pray together. As we're praying, would you right now ask God to help you to take the time to purify your heart? To purify your heart, for without that purity of heart, you will not experience that close relationship with God.

Father God, please help us to hear what You're saying to us. And help us, Lord, to as an expression of our salvation, as evidence of our salvation, help us to give our hearts to You. Clean us up, God, for Your kingdom and Your glory. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Well, thank you for listening. Please go to calvarychapelsi.org/gioc. Calvarychapelsi.org/gioc. Get the study guide, order Matthew, we'll send it to you free of charge. Consider making a donation to God in Our City. If you need us, if something's cumbersome to you, if you have a prayer request, just call us. 718-720-5390. 718-720-5390. Thanks for listening. We hope to see you again tomorrow on another edition of the daily edition of God in Our City.

Intro Announcer (Female): Thanks for listening to God in Our City with your host, Pastor Dave Watson. We hope the show was a blessing to you. Again, to receive a downloadable gift from Pastor Dave, go to calvarychapelsi.org/gioc. That's calvarychapelsi.org/gioc. Please check out Pastor Dave's blog at nycshepherd.com. That's nycshepherd.com. Please invite a friend and join us every weekday for another edition of God in Our City.

Narrator (Male): Andy Chrisman of 4HIM has spent 40-plus years in Christian music and chances are he knows your favorite artist personally. Now he's bringing you their stories. Andy Chrisman in his new podcast, One Degree of Andy. He sits down with the voices behind the song for real, honest, and faith-filled conversations you won't hear anywhere else.

Andy Chrisman: That's a great question.

Narrator (Male): If you love Christian music, this is your backstage pass, the One Degree of Andy podcast. Listen now to One Degree of Andy wherever you get your podcasts.