We are continuing on in the series on the state of the professing Church. While there is much going on in the professing Church these days that appears good, we can see from the churches in Revelation that some of them were doing many good things too. We must learn to look beyond the externals and see things with the spiritual eye or look for the work of the Spirit of God as He works spiritually in and through things. Last time we looked at Isaiah 64:6 and noted how it was in the context of judgment. When a person, a people or a church is under the judgment of God, they are turned over to a hardened heart. Most of the time people are not aware that they have a hardened heart and so they continue on in blindness. A hardened heart can simply mean that a person is not walking in the wisdom and power of the Spirit and so tries to create the work of the Spirit by the works of the flesh though s/he may give credit to the Spirit for this. This comes from pride and leads to more pride which is also from the spirit of the Pharisee and leads to more of the same. It is a dangerous place to be.
For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls on Your name, Who arouses himself to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us And have delivered us into the power of our iniquities (Isaiah 64:6-7).
As stated last time about Isaiah 64:6, verse 7 is also in the context of judgment. The context of the judgment of God and His causing them to stray from His ways and hardening their hearts from fearing Him (Isa 63:17). It is in the context of a judgment where the people had become like those over whom God had never ruled (Isaiah 63:19). While these do not have the appearance of a fearful judgment to people, these things are severe judgments. As we continue on with the judgments in Isaiah 64:7, this is again something that will not scare many people. It is nothing to the world and scarcely of any concern to most people within the religious realm. As long as we can get people into the church building and get a few people to make a profession of faith all is thought to be well. But within this verse (Isa 64:7) a most frightening judgment is seen. It is one that takes some spiritual discernment to see, but not a vast amount of it. It is one that spells doom to a professing Church and then to a nation as well.
In Scripture the face of God stands for His presence and then for His presence in the sense that He is pleased. When the face of God is turned away, it pictures what Americans know of as turning your back on another and walking away. When God turns His face and walks away, there is no strength to stand against the strength and wiles of Satan and his deceptions. It is truly a frightening picture once this way of looking at things begins to set in. Look at this passage from II Chronicles 30: “For if you return to the LORD, your brothers and your sons will find compassion before those who led them captive and will return to this land. For the LORD your God is gracious and compassionate, and will not turn His face away from you if you return to Him” (v. 9). When God has turned His face or has hidden His face from a people, those people are under a severe judgment. They must repent and return to the Lord or they will be cut off permanently.
We can see from Isaiah 59:2 that sin makes a separation from God and He hides His face and does not hear. In other words, He does not hear the prayer of those people. “But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.” We see from Jeremiah 44:11 that the Lord can also set His face against a people: “Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am going to set My face against you for woe, even to cut off all Judah.” We read in Psalm 27:9 that the Lord’s hiding His face is seen as abandoning and forsaking the person: “Do not hide Your face from me, Do not turn Your servant away in anger; You have been my help; Do not abandon me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation!” Another part of this is seen in Jeremiah 21:10 where the Lord sets His face against the city for harm and gives it into the hand of an enemy king. “For I have set My face against this city for harm and not for good,” declares the LORD. “It will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon and he will burn it with fire.”‘
What is it that has driven the Lord’s servants to their knees in prayer over and over? Is it all the temporal judgments of property and the lack of ease? No, it is when He hides His face. The judgments come from that. This is seen in the life of David in Psalm 13:1: “For the choir director. A Psalm of David. How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?” We see it again in David in Psalm 30:7; “O LORD, by Your favor You have made my mountain to stand strong; You hid Your face, I was dismayed.” When the Lord hides His face, all good is gone. The soul dries up and the person no longer has the strength to stand against the onslaughts of the enemy. On the other hand, the desire of the person that loves God is to behold His face as seen in Psalm 11:7: “For the LORD is righteous, He loves righteousness; The upright will behold His face.”
The great text from Numbers 6:25 that pastors have used for centuries to pronounce a blessing on the congregation is wondrously instructive: “The LORD make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you.” The greatest thing that can be sought is the face of the Lord. Without that nothing else has any satisfaction for the soul. We are told by David in a Psalm of thanksgiving when the ark was being returned to “Seek the LORD and His strength; Seek His face continually” (1 Chronicles 16:11). What is it that we see in the Psalms several times that is a sign of restoration or that which brings restoration? “God be gracious to us and bless us, And cause His face to shine upon us” (Psalm 67:1). “O God of hosts, restore us And cause Your face to shine upon us, and we will be saved (Pa 80:7). Or Daniel in his prayer in 9:17 of the book in his name: “So now, our God, listen to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplications, and for Your sake, O Lord, let Your face shine on Your desolate sanctuary.”
While the New Testament does not focus on this in the same way, we do have a few instances where this thought is found: “FOR THE EYES OF THE LORD ARE TOWARD THE RIGHTEOUS, AND HIS EARS ATTEND TO THEIR PRAYER, BUT THE FACE OF THE LORD IS AGAINST THOSE WHO DO EVIL” (1 Peter 3:12). What we must being to see is that it is in Christ where the face of God is now seen. It is Christ who is the outshining of the glory of God (Heb 1:3) and it is Christ who is the way, the truth, and the life and apart from Him there is no way to the Father (John 14:6). II Corinthians 3:18 sets this out very well: “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” Christ, as taught in II Corinthians 4:4-6, is the very image of God and it is in His face that the glory of God is seen. We must not forget that eternal life is in knowing God (John 17:3). If the Lord has His face turned from us, we cannot know Him. Using the Old Testament language, it is in Christ that the Father shines His face upon us and is gracious to us.
When we see the way that the Old Testament uses the concept of the face of God, the judgment of God in this light is understood to be very hard for all under it. Let us look at our text from Isaiah once again.
For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls on Your name, Who arouses himself to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us And have delivered us into the power of our iniquities (Isaiah 64:6-7).
We do not have time in this newsletter to develop the connections and the thoughts other than to point some things out. Verses 6 and 7 are linked in the list of things that are signs and evidences of the judgment of God. Why have people become like one unclean and why are their righteous deeds like a filthy rag? Why is it that our iniquities have blown us away like the wind does to a withered leaf? Why is it that there is no one who calls on His name? Why is it that there is no one who arouses himself to take hold of God? Is it because no one has tried hard enough? Is it because no one has exercised his or her free will enough? Is it because of any other humanistic or human oriented reason? No, the text tells us that all of these things have happened because God has hidden His face from us and has delivered us into the power of our iniquities.
When we look at the professing Church today, where are those who are truly calling on His name? I am not speaking of things like tacking the name of Jesus on the end of a prayer, but where are those who really pray according to the character and glory of God? I am not talking of those who repeat words over long lists of requests, but where are those who wrestle with God for the sake of His name? Where are those who are aroused to take hold of God? We see many programs and many of man’s efforts at doing this or that and even prayer, but where are those who have taken hold of God? We have preachers and we have scholars, but where are those who truly have taken hold of God? The fact that we don’t really see these things in ourselves or in others is clear and startling evidence that God has hidden His face from us and has delivered us into the power of our iniquities. Until we are broken from our own efforts at all of these things and are given light from God to see what is truly going on, our judgment and darkness will deepen with each passing today. We need to be broken and seek the face of the Lord.
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