The Healing Word

Pastor Jack Morris: Christians or people do not grow in Christ when everything is going good: smooth, no problems, no conflict. You only grow in Christ when there's conflict.

Guest (Male): Welcome to The Healing Word. Today we're featuring a very special message that Pastor Jack Morris recently delivered to the congregation dealing with purity in the life of a Christian and how a close relationship with God is key in not only convicting us but has the power to restore us when we have stumbled. Let's go to today's message, "Pure in Heart".

Pastor Jack Morris: This message today entitled "The Pure in Heart" goes right to the very core of life. If the heart is pure, everything else is going to be okay. But this is something that we're going to have to struggle with all our life long. But we're going to struggle with it and we're going to have a pure heart because of our faith in the Lord and because of His cleansing, ongoing cleansing. It's not just a once and for all, "I'm saved and all is well forever and ever, world without end." No, Jesus said at the communion table, "As often as you eat this bread and drink this wine."

So first I'm going to talk about the pure in heart. We're going to look at the word "pure". Then we're going to go to the pure in heart and look at the word "heart". Then we're going to look at the paragraph entitled "Purity Restored" because purity is often lost. And then finally, "Purity Rewarded". What does it mean when it says "pure"? It means that which is perfectly clean. Children are born with a pure heart. Children are a clean slate. They know nothing but purity. They are pure. They're without hypocrisy. Children are not prejudiced. Children are not racist.

Where did all this hypocrisy, racism, impurity, lying, and moral defilement come from because it was not there in the beginning? It was not there for quite a while. Why can't we have that innocence always? When did we lose that innocence? But we lost it somewhere along the way. When did the change come? When did we become morally defiled? When did we become sinners? The Bible says we have all sinned.

When did it happen? All of a sudden we realize we are lost. We're sinners. We need to confess and repent. We need to come to the communion table because our life needs Jesus and our life needs cleansing. But somewhere along the way, imperceptibly, we yielded. But the pure simply means singleness of heart, oneness, a single self as opposed to a divided self. The scripture says in James 1, a double-minded person is unstable in all his ways.

Friend, if you're mixed up on one issue, the scripture is saying we're going to be mixed up on a lot of issues. We've got to get it right with the Lord. And there's a lot of pressure out there. But thank God for the Lord, for the Holy Spirit who comes, who convicts, who shows, who reveals, who receives our confession and repentance and cleanses us from all sin over and over and over again throughout life. I'm a sinner saved by grace.

One of my very favorite quotes is from the man who wrote "Amazing Grace". He knew how amazing it was, John Newton. And when he was an old man, he said, "I'm a great sinner, but Christ is a great Savior." Is He not a great Savior? What a Savior Jesus is to us. Now it's hard to self-diagnose. I can never remember a person telling me, "Pastor, I'm a hypocrite." Other people are hypocrites. "Pastor, I'm a sinner." I never remember anybody ever saying that to me.

But we've all sinned, the scripture says. It's hard to say. I've never heard a person come up to me and say, "Pastor Morris, I'm a racist." You may have. "I'm prejudiced, Pastor Morris." No. But until we confess openly to the Lord, our hearts are not going to be pure. And because our hearts are not pure, we're not making that confession to God. You don't have to make that confession to me. Certainly not. I can't do anything about it but pray for you, and I will do that. And I will pray for myself.

But to keep racism out, to keep prejudice out, to keep hypocrisy out, it keeps coming. When will it let up? When did it start? When will it be over? We need the Lord. It says, "Blessed are the pure in heart." The pure in heart are the happy people with a superior happiness, a divine happiness that is of God. And only God can bring about that happiness. Blessed are the pure in heart.

The pure. Now let's go to the word "heart". Let's look at the word "heart" for just a moment. The heart is my inner self. It's where the spring of life comes forth. The heart: my thoughts, my desires, my passions, my intellect. Package it all together, that's your heart. Blessed are the people who are pure in their passions, pure in their desires, pure in their intellect. Blessed are the pure in heart.

Now when you go through these beatitudes, look at them. Every one of them starts with a promise and ends with a promise. Every one of them are short. There are eight of them here. But real quick: blessed—wow, that means that superior joy—are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those that mourn, superior joy for those who mourn and grieve over their own sin. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.

Blessed are the merciful because they'll be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Those little sayings, every one of them starts out with a promise and every one of them ends with a promise. God is filled to overflowing with blessings to flow upon us and to minister to us. He desires only to bless. Jesus came not into the world to condemn the world. Friend, let's stop condemning each other.

There's enough condemnation out there, enough sin to go around. We don't have to start doing that in the church. Because if we do it in the church, and it has been done in the church, friend, there is no place else to hide. You see, sin and evil is like the coronavirus. It seems like it's in the air. We're going to have to put a mask over our face and to begin to protect ourselves.

But isn't it something? We'll wear a mask over our face, but we won't wear a mask over our heart or over our mouth, spiritual mouth, our tongue that is deadly wicked and is set on fire of hell. Friend, watch your mouth. Look to the Lord. He has sanctifying power that will bring blessedness into your life. You choose, and God will follow through with a great and wonderful blessing.

But this virus is in the air, this sin, this temptation to talk about somebody, to criticize somebody, even to criticize ourselves. These words that we say to ourselves: "You're stupid, you're ignorant, you've done wrong." Tell it to the Lord and watch what God will do with it and how He'll make things right and purify your heart. The scripture said He sent His word and healed them. Now think about it. That's the name of the radio broadcast on the two radio stations.

He sent His word. The word of God, listen to me friend, the word of God is the mask over your heart. Put the word of God over your mouth, put the word of God over your heart, put the word of God over your mind. You will have put the word of God, in doing so, over your heart and your heart will become pure. You can't believe the word and speak the word and speak evil at the same time. Oh, you can, but it doesn't work. The blessing isn't there. Look to God and allow God to bless you.

The scripture says in Psalm 24, "He who ascends to the hill of the Lord, he who stands in the holy place, he who has clean hands and a clean heart." If you want to stand in a holy place, you've got to have clean hands. That's activity. Your hand speaks of activity. That's when Jesus said, "If your hand offends you, cut it off." Not your literal hand, but your activities, the activities of your brain, the activities of your mouth, your habits, your way of life.

Any activities, friend, in Jesus' name, cut it off. It's better to enter into life maimed and halt than to go into life with all of these activities that are wrong. Put a mask over your heart and your heart will become pure. We've lost our purity. We come back to the Lord and confess and repent and He restores. And then everything seems to go along smoothly for a while and we're drifting through life and imperceptibly, before we know it, here we're suckered in.

Somebody says something and we agree with it and then we add to it our two cents and pretty soon we are one with them, but we're no longer one with Him. Friend, you have to make a choice who you want to be one with. Let's be one with the Lord Jesus and follow the Lord with our hearts. We're going to stand in the holy hill of the Lord, Psalm 24. But you have to have a pure heart.

And there are Christians today that are not on holy ground simply because they have yielded to the way of the world. That virus of sin, that virus of hypocrisy, that virus of racism, that virus of prejudice, they have breathed it in and now they're affected. Now their breath, spiritually speaking, is short, meaning their prayer life isn't what it used to be. They're trying to suck in air and they're having a hard time.

It won't get any better until you become transparent with the Lord. And when you do, the blessing of God will come and you'll be restored. This is the day the Lord has made to bring us into His presence and He's here to do just that. This virus hit us with a vengeance and it was right after that Mr. George Floyd was murdered. I don't know what happened to this very day, but some arrows were shot at me.

And I suspect I needed them to be shot at me, but I don't know why or what. One of the board members called me one night. I don't know what he had heard or what he had seen, but he said, "Pastor Morris, I want you to know that there's arrows being shot at you." And I didn't know why or what. He said, "But I'm going to be your armor guard and I'm going to stand and reflect those arrows away from you."

You talk about being blessed and didn't really know why I was blessed. But there was a person there. Friend, if we start standing with one another like that, our church will become the most pure church and we will become the most pure Christian. The only thing I know that I've done is what I've always done for going on 49 years and that is lift up Jesus. For Jesus said, "If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto Me."

I can't reform Congress. I can't reform the police department. I know there's a lot of evil and a lot of wrong just as much as everybody else knows it. But I'm not going to come into church and write letters and lift that wrong up. I'll acknowledge it but I'm going to do what Jesus told me to do, what God told me to do. And that's what I've been trying to do: lift up Jesus for He is the physician of the soul.

He is the physician of the pure heart. And if your heart is pure then you are blessed with a divine blessing that is a supernatural blessing. And that's what God has called me to do. And for 49 years and whatever what has happened, virus or racism, I have to do. The whole Bible is about Jesus, Old and New Testament. And I have no other message, no other message. I cannot do otherwise.

I have been called to lift up Jesus. That's what I'll keep on doing. And whether I'm right or whether I'm wrong—and I know I'm right because the Bible tells me—John the Baptist was a voice in the wilderness preparing the way of the Lord. Friends, Jesus is coming and I feel like I have a John the Baptist ministry and I'm going to do my best to lift up Jesus and lift you up and myself up to Him.

That's my job. That's what I'm going to do. And I'm not going to change, friend. I'm too close to the end now. I'm too close. I'm going to lift up Jesus and I believe He's going to lift you up to His own pure heart and your heart will become just like His heart. Purity is rewarded. I have to close now but I want you to listen to this. He said, "Blessed are the pure in heart."

Now what's the reward? "For they shall see God." Friend, who are you looking for? You know, people get upset with one another because somebody votes Democrat and somebody votes Republican. You have it in your yards and my yard. People have signs up. They're going to vote for one man and then the very next yard, not far away, they have a sign up. Friend, we're looking in the wrong places.

Look up for your redemption draweth nigh. Isn't that what the scripture says? Look up. We're looking up today to the Lord Jesus. But the scripture says, "For they shall see God." Are you looking for God? Then you're going to see God. But if you're looking for imperfection at home, in the church, in other people's lives, you're going to see that. But it's going to blind you to see Jesus and the image of Jesus. See Jesus. Look at Jesus.

The scripture said, "If the Lord had not been on our side, let Israel say, if the Lord had not been on our side." During this virus, during all of this racism, if the Lord had not been on our side, friend, we wouldn't even be where we are now. But we have the Lord on our side. Like Abraham Lincoln said, he said something to this effect: "I'm not nearly as concerned about the Lord being on my side. What I'm concerned about is am I on His side?"

Friend, let's get on the right side. Let's get on Jesus' side. If it had not been for the Lord. Have you gone through a valley experience recently? If it had not been for the Lord, let Israel say, if it had not been for the Lord, you wouldn't have made it through that valley. But even then, even as that board member said to me, "Pastor, I'm going to deflect those arrows," I went down into a valley, a deep valley.

The mountains were casting shadows over me and I was wondering what's happening? What is happening? I didn't know until this day. Nobody has said why those arrows were being shot. I don't know. All I've tried to do, as I said, lift up Jesus. But down in that valley, do you know what I found? I found the lily of the valley. It's in a valley experience, friend. You may be going through a different valley.

We all go through valleys. I went through a valley. I'm still there, but I'm on my way out right now. I'm feeling good in my soul. Are you feeling better in your soul? Let the Lord purify your soul and He's here to do that. But in that valley, I found the Rose of Sharon. He's the lily of the valley. That's what Solomon says in chapter one of the Song of Solomon, verse two: the lily of the valley.

So friend, when you go into the valley, look for the lily. Look for Jesus. You'll see Him. It's as the scripture said, "If it had not been for the Lord who was on our side." Maybe I could say it this way: "If it had not been for the Lord who was on my side." Now may Jack Morris say, now may the Largo Community Church say, now may Christianity say, "If it had not been for the Lord who was on my side, I would have never made it."

But I'm making it and I'm making it strong and I'm making it good and I'm making it with joy. If it had not been for the Lord who was on my side. And then, I mean this has gone on for weeks, this has gone on for months. Sometimes you get in a valley, you don't get out of it very quickly. The night became so dark, I mean even in my own soul. In my own soul it was dark, so dark.

But I knew the Lord was there. But in that darkness and those arrows coming, I looked up and guess what I saw? I saw the bright morning star. In the valley I found the lily. In the darkness I saw the bright morning star. You know God knows how to get us out of the valley. God knows how to get us back into the light of Him who is the way, the truth, and the light.

Friend, don't let people, not even so-called Christian people, not even Largo Community Church people, let nobody bring you down. You are God's people. Your name is in the Book of Life. You're redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. God loves you. He has purified you. And if you trip, get tripped up and slip and become part of whatever is out there—the hypocrisy, the racism, the gossip—if it's out there, don't let it get in here because it will taint your heart.

But if it does get in, and sometimes it'll slip in unperceived, then go to the Lord and He'll purify your heart. Blessed are the pure in heart. He'll make your life blessed and happy and joyous again and you will see God like you've never seen God before. I have to close now but want you to know this. Christians or people do not grow in Christ when everything is going good: smooth, no problems, no conflict.

You only grow in Christ when there's conflict. The only time I can really develop muscles is when I go to the gym and I pick them up and I strain. And those heavy weights push against me and try to push me down and I push them up and my muscles begin to develop. And so it is. When I'm walking or sitting in an easy chair all day long, I'm not developing physically at all. It's only when the strain is on, when the pressure is on.

And so God will send conflict sometimes and allow it to come so that He may grow us in the Lord. And I believe I've been doing some real spiritual growth in the Lord. And God knows that some of them meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. Amen. Hallelujah. And everybody says praise the Lord. Would you bow with me, please?

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