Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. What does God look like?
Michelangelo pictured Him as an old man with a flowing beard. We don't have a visual description of Him, nor are we to attempt to find one, but we are given clues as to what He's like in the Bible. Today we begin a brief series we're calling In the Divine Presence.
Stay with us. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, can God be said to have a face? Your teaching today speaks of three faces of God.
Of course, Dave, we should not think of God having a face such as our face. The Bible uses what we like to call anthropomorphisms. Now that's a big word, but it means that God is likened onto human beings so that we can understand Him. The Bible talks about Moses speaking to God face to face. But even there, Moses was not seeing God directly because God says, no man can see me and live. He was seeing a manifestation of God, just like we speak about the hand of God. Now, the reason I believe that this message is so important is that we should come before the face of God, using that metaphorically, of course, we should come into the divine presence and you and I should learn to enjoy the presence of God. And we do that best when we fall before His face.
That is to say, in submission and worship. Listen carefully. Art Linkletter said that he was working with some children and he found a boy who was scrawling wildly on a piece of paper. And he said to the boy, what is it that you're drawing? And the boy said, I'm drawing a picture of God. Linkletter said, you can't draw a picture of God. Nobody knows what God looks like.
And he said, oh yeah, they will when I'm finished. So how do we draw God? We need to recognize that it is very difficult for us as human beings to have conceptions of God that are worthy of Him, especially in a society where God is remade in our own image, where people begin with man and then they reason upward and think that they know that their conception of God is the right one.
And that's the society in which we live. Let me ask you, why is it that Israel made the golden calf? Why idolatry? And the Bible says that there are those who make images in their mind. They make images of me in their mind, idols of the mind, it says in the book of Ezekiel. Why idolatry? Well the reason that they fashioned the golden calf is first of all, they were impatient with God.
He had hid himself on the other side of the mountain. And when God seems to be absent, you can fashion him into any image that you want. That's one reason. The other reason is because they wanted a manageable deity. Give us a God, they said, that we can take into war.
Give us something that we can touch. Give us a God that we can control. Give us a God to whom we can attribute any attribute we wish or deny any attribute that we wish. Give us a more tolerant, understandable God. And that's the reason for idolatry.
And America is sinking in idolatry today. We have the Santa Claus God, the God of the health and wealth. We have the God of self-authentication, that's the therapeutic God that people have.
There's the God of my gender, the God of my sexual preference. And on and on it goes, and all of these are idols of the mind manufactured in the human heart. Today we're going to look at three images of God from the Bible and grasp as much as possible, and we never do that exhaustively by any means, grasp as much as possible that we can from these three images of God, the face of God. Two messages that I'm preaching are entitled in the divine presence.
Next time, the face of Jesus Christ. But why this message? You may be here today and you may say, why should my life be changed forever because I've heard this message?
Well, a couple of reasons. First of all, you may be here today and you do not know what to do because news has come to you this week that is so devastating. Perhaps a divorce is on the horizon, perhaps children that have rebelled and you don't know what to do. The second chronicles chapter 20, Jehoshaphat was in a situation like that with the enemies at the gates and he prayed and he said, Oh God, we do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you. I can't tell you what you should do, but I do know this, that what you need today is a fresh understanding of God.
That's what I need too. We all do. So that's why I speak on this. A second reason is that you might understand the reason that there is emptiness in your life. I think of the words of Augustine. So famously made, Oh God, thou has made us for thyself and our hearts are restless until they find their all in thee. You and I have been born with a raging thirst for God and people fill that thirst with sexuality.
They fill it with pleasures of various kinds and with money and with pursuit and all of those things that drive us. And God is saying, I want to fill that void in your life. But there's another reason why I preach it and that is to honor God because the Bible says we can bless the Lord.
Oh my soul. Did you know that it is honoring to God, glorifying to God and it is a pleasure for God. Yes, God has his pleasures when he sees his people absorbed with himself, understanding to some extent the divine revelation. And as a result of that, God is honored.
So that's on the table for the next 20 or 25 minutes. First of all, I want to introduce to you these three faces of God. The Bible uses the expression frequently and I suppose as I got into this, I could spend a whole series of messages just on the faces of God.
Normally I ask you to turn to one passage. Today I'm going to ask you to turn to two, but first of all, there's one that I'm simply going to quote for you and then we'll turn to the other two passages. The first face of God is the angry face of God. The Bible says in Psalm 34 verse 16, the face of the Lord is against those who do evil to cut off the memory of them from the earth. God's angry face. The Lord is against those who do evil.
You say, well, who does he have in mind? Who does the Psalm must have in mind? Well, the proud. The Bible says in the New Testament that God resists the proud. It's a very strong Greek word. It means that God is at war with the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
Could I ask you today, are you a proud person, self assured, thinking that you know better than anyone else and that you know better than God as to what is best for your life? God is at war with you and you don't want to be at war with God. So that is certainly encompassed in that term evil. I think of violence happened to see yesterday on TV. Somebody was commenting that there are hundreds of thousands.
Now this may be worldwide, hundreds of thousands of people who have committed murder and they've never been found. Does that trouble you? You say, well, of course it troubles me because I'm a good person.
Let me ask you if it troubles you. Don't you think it troubles God? Don't you think that God knows? Do you think that God is just bypassing it all, whitewashing it all?
No, no, no. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil. God is tracking the criminals that have never been found.
God is the one who is doing it and he sees the the raping and the molestation and the devastation. God sees it all and the Bible says that the face of the Lord is against evil doers. And that happens in this life, most assuredly.
But it also happens in the life to come. In fact, in the book of Revelation, when those judgments comes, it says that the people on earth, they cried and they said, hide us from the face, there you have the word, hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and of the lamb for the day of their wrath is come and who shall be able to stand. Could I ask you today, is God against you because you are fundamentally independent, proud, arrogant, selfish and living your life according to your own agenda? The Bible says that the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.
Now, that's something in our society that people don't hear about. You know, whenever you hear these various idols about God, he is so loving. What kind of a God would he be if he were only loving and not just and not holy and not angry with evil doers? Would you want a God like that? I think that the doctrine of God's wrath and anger is actually a very comforting doctrine. I'm glad that God is on the case of those who are getting by on earth. Aren't you? Aren't you thankful that there's a God who's interested in those who are evil and is tracking them down and his face is against them and he will get them?
There's a country to the north of us called Canada and it was always said of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, they get their man. God always gets his man and his woman. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil. That's his angry face. Well, now let's go to a different image and that is his gracious face and for this I'm going to ask you to turn to Numbers chapter six, Numbers chapter six, verse twenty five. What a wonderful passage of scripture this is and you've heard it many, many times from me at the end of a service. Numbers chapter six, this is God's gracious face and please find it in your copy of the scriptures. It says in Numbers six verse twenty two, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to Aaron and his son saying, thus you shall bless the people of Israel, you shall say to them, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel and I will bless them. Now, actually in the text there in verse twenty six where it says lift up his countenance, that's the very same word, it's the word face.
But, the translators didn't want to use the word face twice so they changed it to countenance which is okay because your face is your countenance but we could read it like this. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his face upon you and give you peace and that's the way God says I put my name on my people.
Wow, now what happened? Were there no evil people in Israel? Was everybody righteous and so Aaron could just stand up there and give this general benediction, this liturgy?
The answer is no, of course not. There were evil people in Israel for sure but the reason he could do it at the end of the ceremonies of the Old Testament is that the issue of sin had been done away. You see, you may be here today and you may be an evil person but if you respond to Jesus Christ and receive him as your Savior, the face of the Lord who is against you will turn and before you and will be gracious unto you. When we look at this we realize that here we see the kindness of God toward those whom he has redeemed. You think of the blessing, this is the act of kindness of God. It is God's favor and God's face shines upon you. The imagery is being out in the sun and just simply saying okay God, as the sun shines upon me so may your blessing shine upon me as well.
It indicates blessing, it indicates ownership. You'll notice it says this is the way God says I put my name on my people. Is there anything as great in all the world as belonging to God? There are things in life that we own but imagine things in life that God owns and we are his people and God says I don't mind if you're identified with me and I put my name on your life. It involves not only the blessing of God, the ownership of God but no doubt it is God's intention as is clear in other passages, the enjoyment of God. Did you realize that God wants you and me to enjoy him, the enjoyment of God.
That takes care of that void that I spoke about earlier, doesn't it? Many years ago there was a man by the name of George Mueller who began orphanages all throughout England and he did it in faith. Never asked for money and God brought it in and some people think well that's the only way it should be. We should never challenge people to give etc.
No that's not true. God led Mueller in that direction but when you look at the Bible, Paul was constantly challenging people to give and it is perfectly proper for us to put before the people of God the challenges that he's laid upon us but Mueller was led in a very specific way for a specific reason. Basically it was so that he could demonstrate the faithfulness of God within a certain context but this is what he said, the first duty of every Christian. What is the first duty of every Christian? It is to make his soul or to find his soul happy in God, contented with God.
I mean if you are there and God's face is shining upon you and he's lifting up his countenance upon you and he's giving you peace, why can't you find happiness in your relationship with the Almighty? Yesterday Rebecca and I attended a birthday party for someone who was 90 years old. Now that's pretty old and we were there and I'd known this man for 40 years and the thing that is so striking about his life is how contented he was with God. We knew him way back when, his wife died perhaps 20 years ago so we've seen contentment in the midst of sorrow, in the midst of loneliness, being a widower, never complaining, always giving praise to God, in the midst of financial reverses through a situation that was not of his making, he lost all of his money and has to live now with one of his children and so we've seen God's faithfulness in his life there in health issues and all that there is is this divine contentment because he's discovered that in the midst of the reversals of life when things don't go well, God is there and as I saw him there yesterday at the age of 90 still glowing with God I was reminded of this text, may the Lord bless you and keep you, may the Lord cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you, may he lift up his countenance, may lift up his face and grant you peace.
It was C.S. Lewis who said that God is the all satisfying object. So we have first of all God's angry face, he's against those who do evil, God's gracious face. Now we have God's hidden face and this will take just a little bit of explanation but take your Bibles now and turn to Exodus chapter 33. The context is this that Moses is on the mountain, the people make the golden calf and God is angry. By the way there are some people who teach that God has no emotions because they think that if God had emotions that would indicate there was something that changed within him. The Bible is filled with God's emotions. Over and over again we read and the anger of the Lord burned against people and it's right here in the text in chapter 32 where they're up on the mountain, Moses and God and then down in the valley what's happening is the golden calf. Moses had a temper problem, God does not have a temper problem. When he's angry it's in the right proportions for the right reasons for the right length of time but sometimes we as people we're not quite that quite that sanctified. Moses had an anger problem, he comes down from the mountain in verse 19 and Moses anger burned hot and he threw the tablets, these are the 10 commandments out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.
He was mad. By the way that's why he didn't get into the promised land at the first try either because he was angry and struck the rock when he should have just simply spoken to it. So God and Moses they have this God says first of all in 32 he says what I'm going to do is I'm going to wipe out the nation and I'll make you a great nation Moses. Moses says no don't do that, this was a test. God couldn't have wiped out the nation based on his promises but Moses passed the test and said don't do that because it'll look bad in the presence of pagans. Let's remember that many people make up their mind about God based on the way in which God's people act and the pagans might say you know God was able to take his people out of Egypt but he couldn't sustain them there and they would ridicule God so Moses says because of your covenant and because the pagans are watching don't wipe us out. God says okay I won't. So then there is a purging of the rebels and then God says this to Moses he says you know my face has always been toward you. My blessing has always been upon you but you know because of what you have done now I have turned my face against the nation and I'm not going to go with you anymore.
I'm not going to travel with you. Now you have to understand that God exists everywhere simultaneously. There is no place in this universe where God is not but he is localized in certain places and in the Old Testament it was in the tabernacle and it explains this actually in chapter 33 as to what used to happen. How verse 8 for example 33 verse 8 whenever Moses went out to the tent all the people would rise up and each would stand at his tent door and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. When he entered the tent the pillar of the cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent and the Lord would speak with Moses and then it says in verse 11 thus the Lord used to speak with Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend and when Moses turned again into the camp his assistant Joshua the son of Nun a young man would not depart from the tent. What's going on there?
You'll notice it's past tense. What he's saying is this is what God used to do. Why? Because God says hey I'm not going with you anymore.
I'm withdrawing. He said if I stay with you it says earlier in the chapter in verse 3 he says if I stay with you I might wipe you out so I'm going to withdraw the pillar of fire. I'm going to withdraw the cloud and God says in chapter 33 I'm going to send an angel in my place and he'll direct you and this angel is going to take care of all of the folks in the land.
What would you do? If you were Moses would you say well okay we'll just go into the land and the angel will do it and God says he's going to help us you know so we'll go without the pillar of fire without the cloud and we'll manage because we still have some promises left not Moses. Moses goes on to plead with God beginning at verse 12 and says look at you have said bring up this people and you have not let me know whom you will send with you and yet you said you have known me by name. In the midst of this judgment with God hiding his face the Bible says over and over again and Moses found favor in the eyes of the Lord and he found favor and God graciously said okay I will go with you. You know it's very interesting the Bible talks about Moses of course communicating with God that God spoke to Moses face to face and yet the scriptures also teach no man can see me the Lord says and live.
Augustine was a theologian philosopher who lived centuries ago who said these words oh God thou has said no man can see thee and live may I die that I might behold thy glory. My dear friends one of the things that's going to happen when you and I die if our faith is in Jesus Christ we're going to behold the glory of God and at last I believe that we will be able to see God directly. I've written a book entitled One Minute After You Die. Some of you perhaps already have a copy of this book but at the same time I want to emphasize that the Lord has used it mightily to give comfort to those who have loved ones that have gone on but also as a means of salvation. For a gift of any amount we're making this book available for you. Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Remember that contact info rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. The title of the book One Minute After You Die.
You can write to us at Running to Win 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard Chicago Illinois 60614. The Bible uses metaphors to communicate spiritual truth. We're learning about a glimpse of our Father's face seeing his angry face as well as his gracious face. Next time more about what we're calling his hidden face as revealed in Exodus chapter 33. Plan to join us. Running to Win is all about helping you understand God's roadmap for your race of life. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
