2 Corinthians chapter 4. Read down through verse 7. Therefore, seeing we have received
this ministry, as we have received mercy, We faint not, but have
renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness,
nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation
of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in
the sight of God. But if our gospel be hid, it
is hid to them that are lost. in whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine under them. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus'
sake. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts. to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. Our Lord Jesus, our great God
and Savior, we just read how that We're to preach you, to honor
you, and that we've received mercy. We're not supposed to
handle this word deceitfully in any way. So God teach me and
enable me and enables others to always be true, rightly dividing
the blessed word of truth. And Lord Jesus, we pray for those
who have afflictions, have great trial going through in their
life or whatever may be going on, we ask for your mercies and
your strength, your encouragement, for your spirit to be their comfort
and consolation. And our Father, we pray for those
who are sick, physically sick, that you would please have mercy
on them, restore them, and Lord, have mercy upon our children
and our grandchildren, creating them a desire A desire after
Christ. A desire after Christ. Enable
me to feed your sheep tonight. Enable your sheep to hear. Please
let us have your presence and power. We ask these things in
our Lord Jesus name. Amen. Back here in verse six with me.
I want to get my subject this evening. I got up with this on
my mind yesterday morning. about the face of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the face of Christ. He says in verse 6, for God who
commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in
our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And there are several things
about the face of our Lord Jesus Christ in the scriptures. When you see our Lord Jesus Christ,
you see God. That's obvious. We know that.
That's what he says himself. And here, when it says we see
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, this is the
only place you can see God's glory. It's the only place you'll
see perfection. The only place you'll see God
glorified and honored is in this blessed man's face. And when
he talks about face, he's talking about the person of our Lord
Jesus Christ. And I tell you, the glory of
God's in him. Look in Hebrews, and there's perfection. Look
in Hebrews 1. Perfection's in this blessed
man. That's a face of perfection. And you know, our Lord Jesus
Christ, when it says God's glory was seen in the face of our Lord
Jesus Christ. You remember that Philip said
to him, Show us the Father and that will be sufficient. That
will satisfy us, that's sufficient for us, we won't ask for nothing
else about you. And he said, Philip, have I been
with you such a long time? And you've not seen the Father,
for he that hath seen me hath seen the Father. And look what
it says here in verse 3 of Hebrews chapter 1, talking about the
Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who being the brightness of His
glory, the brightness of God's glory, And how could he be the
brightness of God's glory manifested in the flesh? Well, only to the
people that God gave the light, gave the understanding, gave
the knowledge to, can see the brightness of his glory. And
he was not only the brightness of God's glory, but the express
image of his person. And so when you've seen the Lord
Jesus Christ and looked on his face, you're just looking on
Jehovah. You're just looking on God Almighty. You're just
looking on the glory of God in Christ's face. And let me show
you something else, just to make a comment. In John chapter 1,
just make a comment or two here. Now we're going to use a look
at several scriptures this evening. But all to what's seen in that
blessed face of our Lord Jesus Christ, we see the glory of God
in it. The only place that there's perfection. And here's another
place where it talks about God's glory in Christ. John 1.14, and the word was made flesh. Christ came as a man and dwelt
among us, tabernacled among us, lived among us. And look what
it says, and we beheld his glory as the only begotten of the Father.
Now how could we behold his glory as the only begotten of the Father?
Because God gave us the light of the knowledge of God's glory
in the person of his blessed son. And then look what he says
about him. Full of grace and full of truth. Is there anything
that happened to our Lord Jesus Christ that when he left glory,
it was grace that brought him down? When he took into the womb
of a virgin, it was grace that put him there? When he was born
in a manger and raised up in Nazareth, it was the grace of
God. Everything, he was full of grace.
Everything God did for him and everything he came to do is full
of grace and full of truth. Truth. Truth without grace is
just, it's just harshness. It's just, don't have no life
to it. It has no power to it. It has
no touch to it, but you take grace and truth mixed together
and grace will take that blessed truth and he'll make that truth
as he speaks it to us and reveals it to us in Christ's glory in
his face as he opens his mouth. I think it's in Psalm 45 where
it says that grace poured forth from his lips. Never man spake
like this man. So we see that, we see the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And let me tell you another one
before we, you don't even have to look at this one. But in Psalm
84 and nine, it says this, the glory of God in, excuse me, look
upon the face of thine anointed. And that's our Lord Jesus Christ
saying, look upon the face, look upon me, look upon the face of
thine anointed. Now God, the word Messiah and
the word Christ, that's what it means, the anointed one. That's
what Christ means, the one anointed. That's what Messiah meant, the
one anointed. And of all the people that God
anointed, He anointed Aaron to be the first high priest. He
anointed Moses to be the mediator, to be the deliverer of Israel. But of all the anointings that
was done, he says, thou hast anointed me with oil above the
gladness of thy fellows. Now our Lord Jesus Christ was
anointed, and God looked upon him and saw him and said he's
sealed upon him. And there's three offices of
our Lord Jesus Christ that he's anointed to. And the first one,
he said in Isaiah 61, the Lord hath anointed me. What's the
first thing? To preach the gospel. to be a
prophet, to be a preacher, to tell people what God said. That's what a prophet does. And
he not only tells what God said, but he tells you what's going
to happen later. He told his disciples what would
happen to them later. He told them what he himself
was going to go through. So he had anointed to the orphan
of a prophet. If we ever learn anything from
God, do you know who's going to teach us? The Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the Holy Spirit does.
He takes the things of Christ and shows them unto us. And the
second office he has is as a priest. He's anointed to be a priest.
forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now, you know what a priest does?
The first thing he does, he's got to be called to the office.
Christ didn't take this unto himself, but God anointed him
to the office of a priest, the great high priest. And a priest,
there's two things he does. First of all, he approaches God
on behalf of other men, on the behalf of sinners. He has to
take an offering. And only the priest can make
an offering. Only the priest can make the
offering. And only the priest can come
back out and tell you what God did with that offering. Whether
that offering was accepted or not. And our Lord Jesus Christ,
not only was he our priest, but he was the sacrifice that he
offered. He was the altar on which he
offered it. And he was the blood on that
offer. And he took it all into the presence of God and he came
back out and God said, I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied what he did, and
now his blood is a sweet-smelling savor. His name is a sweet-smelling
savor under God. And the third office that he
has is as a king. And now a king, and this is what's
so blessed about the kingdom of Christ. That's what Pilate
says. He says, if you're a king, where's
your subject at? Well, he says, my kingdom's not
of this world. My kingdom's not of this world.
If it was, my people would have fought. He said, I could call
12 legions of angels. But my kingdom is a spiritual
kingdom. And Christ reigns in the hearts
and in the lives of his blessed people, and we're thankful that
he does. Ain't you grateful that he's
king? And I tell you, watch every way this election goes. I'll
guarantee you this, Christ will still be king over his people.
He'll still provide for his people. He'll still protect his people. And as a king, he went and fought
all of our enemies. That's what a king does. He goes
and fights all your enemies, conquers all your foes. And then
he comes and takes care of all of his subjects. And you look
what King David did, what Solomon did, what Hezekiah did. These
men defeated the foes of Christ, and our Lord Jesus Christ defeated
all our foes. Sets on the throne, and that's
why we say, Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth. even as it is in heaven. And
oh, when the kingdom of God comes into a man's heart, and Christ
sits on the heart of a man's soul, from then there on, he
is a glad, willing subject of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
why Job said, he's taken the crown off of my head. Oh, he took that crown off of
my head. Where'd he put it? And everybody'll say, But you
know people talk about getting these crowns when they get to
glory. It says if you was to have one, and it talks about
two or three crowns in the New Testament. When you get them,
whatever you get, there's a crown of life and there's a crown of
righteousness. And whatever we get, you know what the scripture
says? They all cast their crowns down at the feet of the Lord
Jesus Christ. So he's anointed to three blessed
offices. And oh, listen. Let me show you
something over here in second, in Luke chapter 9. So, oh, he's,
look upon the face of thine anointed. And you know, that's what we
talked about the other day in Acts chapter 2. It says that
he was approved of God, a man approved of God by miracle signs
and wonders. And our Lord Jesus Christ, look
upon the face of thine anointed. And I'll tell you one thing, our Lord Jesus Christ, the scripture
says that God said to his seal that he's true. When God says
his seal, that means that God says this is the one that I approve
of and nobody else. And God gave him offices that
nobody else can intrude on. There ain't no more prophets.
that's going to foretell anything. And there ain't nobody that knows
the will of God, the mind of God, the purpose of God, the
covenants of God, than our Lord Jesus Christ did. And he come
and told us what God's will and purpose was in this world, and
what would be accomplished by his death. And then not only
that, but he come and told us that he himself was the Lamb
of God, that he himself would be that offering. And he told
his disciples that he must go up to Jerusalem. And there's
never been a king on the top side of God's earth. And people
keep waiting for a king to come and set up an earthly throne
down here. Our Lord Jesus Christ reigns now and always will reign,
and he'll reign until the last enemy is destroyed, and that'll
be death. And he says in Revelations 20,
death and hell shall be cast into the lake of fire, and that'll
be the end of death. He'll even put death away. And
oh, and then is our blessed king. Oh, that's why I just, he's anointed. He's the anointed one. And oh,
I heard Spurgeon say one time about anointing people, preachers
to preach. He said what they do is they
put empty hands on empty heads with men with empty mouths. That's pretty much to say, you
know, they get to get you know, somebody's gonna get anointed
to the ministry, you know Anointed to the ministry a bunch of people
preachers get around them and all that stuff and they lay hands
on them and all that and they pray over And that's what you
know That's that's the thing about if you're called to preach
you'll know it and everybody else will know it God will give
you a hearing but I do know this that Putting your hands on a
man, that's why he says, lay hands suddenly on no man, but
I tell you what, old Spurgeon's about right, he said, empty hands
on empty heads with men with empty mouths. That's about the
truth, ain't it? And then look over here in Luke
9, 51. Another, our Lord Jesus Christ,
and look what it says about his face here. And it came to pass
when the time was come Oh, the time had come. Our Lord Jesus
Christ's time had come. That hour that he had been talking
about, that he should be received up. He steadfastly set his face
to go to Jerusalem. Now, what in the world is he
talking? Steadfastly set his face. He had the face of determination. He was determined to do what
his father sent him to do. And he says, the time has come.
He knew his hour, he knew his moment, he knew everything that
was going to come upon him. He said over in John 18, he says,
knowing all things that should come upon him, he went off into
the garden to get semen. And I'll tell you what, and it
says here, that he should be received up. Received up to who?
Received up to the hands of wicked men, to the hands of sinful men,
to the hands of a pilot and Herod and the soldiers and all the
men that despised him and hated him. He's about to be received
up. And instead of, you remember
where Simon Peter told him, he says, you know, the hour's coming
when the Son of Man must be delivered up. into the hands of sinners. And Simon Peter told him, said,
Oh, be it far from thee, Lord, be it far from thee. Now, Simon
Peter wasn't Satan, but Satan certainly used him. And our Lord
said, get thy behind me, Satan, for thou savest not the things
of God, but the things of men. Said, you can't have me without
a cross. You want to keep me from going to the cross. You
want to keep me from going to Jerusalem. You want to keep me
from being turned over to the hands of sinful men. But I've
got a, I've got a, will to accomplish, a death to die, a resurrection
to come out of, and I've got a Father to satisfy and a people
to save. And He sent His face toward Jerusalem
and nothing, nothing could have stopped our Lord Jesus Christ
from doing it. He had that face of determination.
I'm going up to Jerusalem. Oh, be it far from you, I'm going
up to Jerusalem. Don't you know what's going to
happen to you up there? I do. I know every person that's
going to slap me. I know every word that's going
to be said. I know what they're going to do before they do it.
I know I'm going to be blindfolded. I know I'm going to be hated.
I know I'm going to be despised. I know I'm going to be lied on.
I'm going to be took to this judgment hall, to this judgment
hall. I know that Peter's going to
deny me three times. I know that there's going to
be over 500 men come out into the garden of Gethsemane to get
me." He said, but still yet, I sat determinedly, I steadfastly
set his face to go to Jerusalem. Now, if I know that something
bad was going to really happen to me, something bad, and if
I really knew it was going to happen, I'd just try my dead
level best not to go. There's some things I'm not going
to do. I'm not going to drive on ice. I'm not going to do that. And there's a few other things
I just can't think of right now. You ask me sometimes, would you
do this? I say no. Just like if I knew that I was
going to be burned at the stake. I'd go hide someplace and they'd
have to find me. And that's the truth. I heard
a fellow say the other day, he said, you know, I'd be willing
to go to the stake for the Lord Jesus Christ and set me on fire.
If the Lord calls you to do that, that'd be one thing. But I still,
I still believe, and I know that's what they did with everybody
they did. They had to go hunt them down and bring them. And if they was
gonna burn me at the stake or put me in prison, they gonna
have to find me. That's what I'm telling you. I'm not like
my Lord Jesus Christ. Not on any stretch of the imagination.
I have some determination in some things. But my determination
can be swayed by certain circumstances. But our Lord Jesus Christ faced
everything that was against Him. And steadfastly set His face
to go to Jerusalem. Huh? And oh, listen. Let me show you another thing
about the blessed face of our Lord. Look in Isaiah 52. Isaiah
52. Oh, here's another face. Oh,
here's another face. And I thought about this a lot
this afternoon. Here's another face of our Lord. And let me tell you, you know, look what it says in Isaiah 52
and verse 14. And many were astonished at his
visage, his soul marred more than any
man, and his form more than the sons of men. His visage, his
face, his face. And look what it says in verse
1 and 2 of chapter 3, or 2 and 3 of chapter 53. He shall grow
up before him as a tender plant. and has a root out of dry ground,
listen to this, he hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall
see him, there's no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised
and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief,
and instead of him, he steadfastly set his face to go drusen, look
what we did, and we hid as it were our faces from him, he was
despised, And we esteemed him not. His visage was marred. Now, how do you reckon what this
means? I saw a young Marine the other
day. Both his ears was burnt off. He didn't have no ears on
the side of his head. Skin just tied around his face. No eyebrows, nothing, you know.
His mouth all drilled over to the side where they'd done over
lots of operations on him. And I thought, oh boy, and he
was so articulate and he wasn't embarrassed and he wasn't ashamed,
had an arm missing. Very touching man. He had some
things to say and was very good about it, very strong about it,
articulate about it, passionate about it. And it just seemed
like his visage bothered him at all. But our Lord Jesus, and that
man's visage was marred. I mean, it was marred. But our
Lord Jesus Christ, here's the difference. That happened to
a sinful man. And a man did it to him. And
other people did more. But our Lord Jesus Christ was
a sinless man. A perfect man. a holy man. And they took a man who had no
sin, took a man who was the just one, the holy one, and what they
would do is they'd get him and they'd take his beard and they'd
pluck it out. That's what they said, they'd
take his beard and they'd start pulling his beard out and blood
and all that hair coming out of there. And he opened out his
mouth and they'd pull his beard out and all the blood and stuff
that would come out of it And then they would draw back, big
old Roman soldier would draw back and just whap, hit the Lord
Jesus Christ like that. He was talking to Herod that
said something for Herod and another one walked back and slapped
him across the mouth and said, you can't speak to the high priest
like that. And then after they plucked off
his beard, and all the blood and all the tear that came out
of it and tore it out from under his chin and all that. And then
they took a crown of thorns and, you know, big old, these wasn't
little old, these not like briars that we have. Not like these
briars. They took him crown of thorns.
Thorns about that long. And they planted that and they
stuck it down on his head and them thorns would just go, you
know, there ain't no skin there anyway. And them thorns going
down deep under his skin. And why his visage was so marred? Because it was the face of God. It was the face of a sinless
man. Now if I got my face messed up, it's just a sinful man. But our
Lord Jesus Christ wasn't a sinful man. They'd done that out of
hatred. despising him in mockery and
derision. They despised a man that was
sinless so much that they absolutely abused him beyond recognition. And our Lord Jesus Christ, that's
the face of substitution. That's the face of substitution.
And now he's got that glorified body He's got that face. Now you know what we sing about?
Face to face with Christ my Savior. Face to face I soon shall see. No, we want to see him face to
face. And then I'll have a good face, and he'll have a shining
face. And he won't have that face like he had there on the
cross. He won't have that face that
he left Pilate's hall with. He won't have that face anymore.
No, he'll have that face. And the scripture says that we'll
see that glory. We'll see that glory. And then
let me show you another one. In Matthew 26. Matthew 26. Oh, what a face of
our Lord Jesus Christ. And look what they did here in
Matthew 26 and verse 67. Well, they said there in verse
66, what thank ye that priest are saying. The answer said,
he's guilty of death. Now watch what happens here.
Then did they spit in his face. Do you know what it means for
somebody to spit in your face? That means that they absolutely
have no regard for you whatsoever. In fact, they've got animosity. They've got hatred. They despise
you. They have contempt for you. And
they want to show you how much they hate and despise you and
how little regard they have for you when somebody walks up and
spits in your face. And that's the first thing. They
said, he's guilty. Men walked up to him and started
spitting in his face. And there's nothing comes out
at no part of a person's body more than what's nasty come out
of their mouth. That's spit, spit in his face. showing their
hatred, their animosity. And I'll tell you something else,
when a person's in a position to do it, when a person's in
a position to do it and there's no consequence for it, there
ain't nothing a human being won't do, and these men saw that they
had the power, they had the authority, they had the liberty to do it
and there'd be no penalty for it, and they spit in his face. And they'd already peed it. They'd
already plucked out the beard. And look what else it says. And
they buffeted him. Buffeted him. That means they're
just punching around on him. Just throwing him from one man
to the next. Just buffeting him around. And look what else it
says. Another smote him with the palms
of their hands. They spit on him. You know what
I think about you, Jesus and Nazareth? Spit on you. You know
what I think about your claims as the Messiah? I spit on you.
You know what I think about those men that follow you? I spit on
you. You know what I think about all
the miracles that I heard about you doing? I spit on you. And
that's what they did. They spit in his face. They spit
in his face. And oh, that's rejection. Oh,
they rejected him, spit in his face. And then there's another
one, Matthew 17. Oh, you'll like this one, I think. Matthew 17 and verse two. And was transfigured before them
and his face did shine as the sun. That's his glorification. This
is what he's going to be and all of us have to look forward
to. When he's on that mountain, the scripture says that he was
glorified and his transfigured before him, his face did shine
as the sun. Can anybody here, when the sun's
at its brightest, can you look at it in the sun and not, you
know, you look away and you're just blind as a bat? that our
Lord Jesus Christ is as bright as the sun is. That's how bright
his face was. Ain't that what it says? And
his face did shine as the sun. And all of its glory, and all
of its power, and all of its warmth, and he was changed. When they
looked at him, they said, oh, that's so bright. That's so bright. And oh, His face was shining
like the sun. And that's what's going on in
Revelations 1.16. That's what it says over there,
that His face was as the sun in its brightness. And oh, that's
His glorified face. And bless His holy name. One
of these days, that's where we're going to see Him, and that's
the way we're going to be. We're going to see Him as He
is. And let me give you two more and make a couple of comments. First of all, look in Revelations
20, in verse 11. Revelations 20, 11. Talking about our Lord Jesus
Christ and his face. Face of perfection. Pays face
of consecration. Revelations 20, 11. If I can
get there myself. Here we go. And I saw a great white thong,
and on him that sat on it, from whose face, face the heaven and
earth fled away. And there's found no place for
him. Our Lord Jesus Christ, when this world is done, and this
world is consummated, he's gonna stand in his glory, he's gonna
stand in his power, gonna sit on that great throne. And when
this thing's done, just at his face, the heavens will go, The
earth will go, and I tell you what, the scripture says there's
going to be a new heaven and a new earth, but it's that face
of Christ. It's the glory of Christ. It's
the power of Christ, the person of Christ. When they see his
face, the heavens will fly away. The earth will fly away. Now
that's what it's going to be like when our Lord Jesus Christ
consummates his age. When it's all said and done,
when it's all done, amen. was talking to me today. He was
asking me a long time ago about cremation. And I told him, no,
you can't, that's unscriptural. And he asked me to give him some
scriptures, and I did. And he came to talk to me today,
and he said, I've been looking at them scriptures. And he said,
I, you know, I never had thought anything about cremation being
bad. And he started, he said, I've
seen some things. I said, I believe you're right. We're going to
get a new body, ain't we? I said, we're going to be changed. I
said, yeah, that's what's going to be. That's what's going to
be. And so you see, beloved, that's
what, when this, our Lord's face, when he comes and this, and this
says ever, I shall behold him. But when this age is consummated,
when everybody's been, judgment's been set and all things has been
done, the heavens going to flee away and the earth going to flee away. Because they are under the curse
and they got to be gone. They got to be taken away. They
got to be something done with them. And then, let me show you one more here, two more. Psalm
80. Let me look at this with me.
Psalm 80. You know, I skipped a point and I'm going to have
to make a few comments on it. Psalm 80. I skipped something, got carried
away on that consecration, and look what he says here now. Oh, this is salvation. This is
our salvation right here. Turn us again, oh God, and cause
thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. Yeah, Lord, you cause your face
to shine on us, and that's salvation. Oh, you cause your face to shine
on us, and that's salvation. Oh, boy. And then there's a group
that holler, hide us from the face of the wrath of the Lamb,
and call for the rocks and mountains to fall on them. And I tell you
what, when he said, hide not thy face from me, and this is
salvation, our Lord Jesus Christ, When he come to bring us salvation,
he had three things he had to do. I know he had more to do,
but I'm gonna give you three things off the top of my head
if I can. First of all, he is the shepherd. He had to lay down
his life for the sheep. He had to lay, if the sheep's
gonna be saved, if God's gonna shine his face on us, Christ's
gonna shine his face on us, then the shepherd's gotta lay down
his life for the sheep. And then the second thing is,
is that not only must he save them, but as the Lord's, as the
shepherd of the Lord, as the shepherd of the sheep, he has
to keep them, he has to lead them, he has to guide them, he
has to give them rest, he has to do everything. And that's
why he says, the Lord's my shepherd and I shall not want. And the
third thing he'll do in this business of salvation is, is
that the great The chief shepherd shall soon appear and we'll appear
with him. And then one other thing, Psalm
27, eight, and I'm done. Psalm 27, eight, look at this. I know you, this is what everybody
says. This is what happens. When thou sayest, seek ye my
face, seek my face, my heart said unto thee, listen to it,
thy face, Lord, will I seek. You tell me, you show me your
face, you tell me to seek it, my heart said, that's what I'm
gonna do. That's what I'm gonna do. And you know, once you start
seeking that blessed person, that face and see God's glory
in the face of Christ, Your heart continually and constantly seeks
him. Don't it? It does. The blessed face of our Lord
Jesus Christ. God's glory is in that person. Our Father, thank you for allowing
us to say a few things about your blessed son this evening.
Thank you for your wonderful grace, wonderful pity, your patience
with us, your long-suffering with us. And thank you for the
great love. We're with you, loved us. Oh,
and that you're rich in mercy. Oh, blessed be your name. God
bless these saints as they leave here tonight. Got to get up and
go face the world tomorrow. Face work and deal with this
world. God bless them. God strengthen
them. God encourage them. God protect them. and meet all
the needs of their homes, the needs of their hearts, the needs
of their families. We ask these things in our Lord
Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.