Video #3 - A Pure HEART = A Pure Man

Being a Pure Man isn’t just about doing (or not doing) certain things.  In other words: not looking at pornography, not having sex with someone other than my wife, not lusting after women at the beach, and not masturbating does not make me a pure man.  In the same token, going to church, reading my Bible, singing in the choir and teaching the fifth-grade Sunday School class at my Church does not make me a pure man.

Genuine purity begins in the heart.  It starts as an attitude, not an action.  As King David was contemplating the holiness of God, he was gripped by the question: who could possibly be allowed into His presence?  His conclusion? Only the one who has clean hands and a pure heart (Psalm 24:3-4).  David understood that to be accepted by God, he had to be a Pure Man, and to be a Pure Man he first had to have a pure heart.

He also acknowledged that, because he struggled with a heart that was impure, He needed God to intervene.  Listen to what David asks of God in Psalm 51:10 … “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”  David’s deep desire was to have a clean heart before God, and he recognized that as long as he tried to clean up his act – he would eventually fail. Why? Because only God can clean the heart.  You see, left to ourselves, every plan, every purpose we frame in our mind, everything we determine to do will always be displeasing to God because it is in total opposition to what He wants for us.

This is why David asks God to “create” in him a pure heart.  He understood that outside of God’s direct intervention in his life, his heart would be only evil all the time, which meant that his actions would be as well.  So his deepest desire was for God to fashion a heart that would be always focused upon Him.  A pure heart.

The fact is, without Christ in your life, you will always make the wrong choices.  No matter how hard you may try, outside of Christ, you can never be a Pure Man because you have an impure heart.  It is impossible for that which is already dirty to make that which is dirty – clean.  Dirt can never clean up dirt; it just spreads the dirt around, moving it to other places.  We need God to fashion for us a pure heart, removing the old and putting in the new.

Here’s the great news – He already has!  When Christ shed His blood for us on the cross, that blood washed (purified) us from all of our sin.  Paul writes that anyone who is in Christ is a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).  God didn’t take your filthy, sin-stained heart and refurbish it; He crucified the old and gave you a brand-spanking-new one in its place (Galatians 2:20; 2 Corinthians 5:17).  That heart He gave you has been “created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24).  In other words, it’s a holy and pure heart!

I want to ask you a very important, life-changing question here.  Have YOU put your faith in Jesus Christ for your salvation?  If you’re answer is anything but yes, I challenge you to follow-up with an answer this question.  Why not?

Do you understand and accept the fact that you are a sinner?  God says that because of our sin, we are without excuse before Him (Romans 1:20).  We cannot wash away the filth that is in our heart, because we are already filthy (Isaiah 64:6).  Man cannot save himself, no matter how good he tries to be.  To make matters even more desperate, because of our sin, we deserve to spend all of eternity in the agonizing fires of Hell itself (Romans 6:23).

The amazing, fantastic fact is that Jesus Christ loves you so much that he paid the horrible price for your sin so that you wouldn’t have to (1 Peter 2:24).  The only thing you have to do – all that is required of you – to guarantee you a place in Heaven for eternity is choose to believe the fact that Jesus died, was buried and rose again (Acts 16:31).  He paid it all for you.

So, let me encourage you, take the first step toward purity. If you’ve never cried out to God for forgiveness and acknowledged the fact that He loved you so much He died in your place to pay for your sin, and that He’s alive today to give you eternal life, take a moment right now and talk to Him. You’ll be forever glad you did!

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About Steve Etner
Steve Etner is a National Men’s Speaker, Author and Purity Coach (www.thepuritycoach.com). He has authored many books, including “Extreme Mind Makeover: How to Transform Sinful Habits into God-Pleasing Patterns of Life”; “The Pure Man’s Devotional Guide: A Biblical Toolbox for Purity”; and “Are You A Super Man? Becoming God’s Man of Steel.” 

Steve’s conferences, seminars and retreats focus on what God has to say about the way we think and the impact it has on our behavior. By teaching men how to live in moral purity by equipping them with Biblical answers, Steve’s goal is for men to have a re-ignited passion for Jesus and learn how to prepare their minds to successfully overcome their temptations and thus live pure lives for Christ.