Clean Hands and a Pure Heart
Sunday, September 05, 2010
Who shall go up into the mountain of the Lord? Or who shall stand in His Holy Place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted himself up to falsehood or to what is false, nor sworn deceitfully. 5 He shall receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Psalms 24:3-5 AMP
Sin cannot enter or stand in the presence of God and neither can anyone who is full of sin. Who can ascend into Heaven? Who may enter the Father’s Holy Presence?
Only those who:
1. Have clean hands
• Hands that have not committed sin – sin free
• Hands that are innocent – blameless; clean; clear; exempted; free; guiltless
• Psalms 15 NKJV - Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill? 2 He who walks uprightly, And works righteousness, And speaks the truth in his heart; 3 He who does not backbite with his tongue, Nor does evil to his neighbor, Nor does he take up a reproach against his friend; 4 In whose eyes a vile person is despised, But he honors those who fear the Lord; He who swears to his own hurt and does not change; 5 He who does not put out his money at usury, Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.
• No matter what we have done in the past, we can repent and have a heart-change, receive God’s forgiveness, have our sins washed away by the blood of Jesus and have the power of sin broken over us. We can have a brand new start and begin to do right from that moment on.
2. Have a pure heart
• A heart empty or void of sin and iniquity
• A sincere heart; beloved
• A choice, clean, clear, pure heart
• Psalms 51:7-11 NKJV - Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 Make me hear joy and gladness, That the bones You have broken may rejoice. 9 Hide Your face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
• Malachi 3:2-3 NKJV - “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire And like launderers’ soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, And purge them as gold and silver, That they may offer to the Lord An offering in righteousness.
• Matthew 5:8 KJV - Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
3. Do not lie, have idols or live a selfish, ungodly life
• 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 NKJV - Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
• Galatians 5:19-21 NKJV - Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
• Hebrews 12:14 KJV - Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.
4. Love truth
• Revelation 21:8 NKJV - But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
Have you received Jesus as your Lord? Do you live to do His will and not your own? Heaven welcomes those who are perfect – not perfected by their own goodness, but who have truly repented, been washed in the blood of Jesus, been forgiven and who continue to serve Him in the beauty of holiness.
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. Hebrews 12:22-24 NKJV
The twelve gates were twelve pearls: each individual gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. 22 But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. 24 And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. 25 Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). 26 And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. 27 But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Revelation 21:21-27 NKJV
Is your name written in the Lamb’s Book of Life? Only those with clean hands and a pure heart, whose names are written in there, will be able to enter that glorious City of God, to live forever with Him, filled with and surrounded by His joy and His peace. The reward of having clean hands and a pure heart is that you will receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of your salvation!
Recent:
THE RIGHTEOUS SHALL FLOURISH
The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. 13 Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. 14 They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing; 15 To shew that the Lord is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. Psalms 92:12-15 KJV
The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree:
The Hebrew word “flourish” used here means: to bloom or blossom; to spread or grow; to fly (as extending the wings); to break forth; to break out; to spring up. Palm trees are known for their long life. To “flourish like a palm tree” means to stand tall and to live long. The AMP says that the righteous will be: long-lived, stately, upright, useful, and fruitful.
Palm trees have been important to humans throughout much of history. They are mentioned nearly 40 times in the Bible. Palm trees are are among the best known and most widely cultivated plant families in
THE BLESSINGS OF TRUSTING IN GOD
The Lord will greatly bless and show His goodness to all those who trust in Him:
Psalms 34:8 NIV - Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
Psalms 40:4 NKJV - Blessed is that man who makes the Lord his trust, And does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
Psalms 84:12 AMP - O Lord of hosts, blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man who trusts in You [leaning and believing on You, committing all and confidently looking to You, and that without fear or misgiving]!
Proverbs 16:20 AMP - He who deals wisely and heeds [God’s] word and counsel shall find good, and whoever leans on, trusts in, and is confident in the Lord — happy, blessed, and fortunate is he.
Jeremiah 17:7 AMP - [Most] blessed is the man who believes in, trusts in, and relies on the Lord, and whose hope and confidence the Lord is.
Psalms 31:19 AMP - Oh, how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear, revere, a
TRUST GOD WITH YOUR LIFE – PART III
Trust (lean on, rely on, and be confident) in the Lord and do good; so shall you dwell in the land and feed surely on His faithfulness, and truly you shall be fed. 4 Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the Lord [roll and repose each care of your load on Him]; trust (lean on, rely on, and be confident) also in Him and He will bring it to pass. 6 And He will make your uprightness and right standing with God go forth as the light, and your justice and right as [the shining sun of] the noonday. 7 Be still and rest in the Lord; wait for Him and patiently lean yourself upon Him; fret not yourself because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked devices to pass. 8 Cease from anger and forsake wrath; fret not yourself — it tends only to evildoing. 9 For evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait and hope and look for the Lord [in the end] shall inherit the earth. 10 For yet