Numbers chapter 6. Let's read a few verses here. Verses 22 through the remainder
of that chapter. Numbers chapter 6. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Speak unto Aaron, and unto his sons, saying, On this
wise you shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them,
The Lord bless thee, and keep thee. The Lord make his face
shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his
countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. And they shall put
my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them.
A few months ago, we had an occasion, just offhand really, in one of
our Sunday school classes. I think it was Brother Larry
didn't show up. I just made a few comments about the many faces
of God. And I want to look at that again
this afternoon, just for a few minutes. And one of the reasons
I wanted to look at that was I heard a Jew preaching. I don't even know what his subject
was at the time, but one of the things he said caught my interest,
and I did some study on it, and he said in the Hebrew language,
there is no singular for face when it concerns God. When you
look in the Hebrew and the Old Testament, every word that is
pertaining to God's face is always plural. In other words, here
in verse 25, "...cause thy faces to shine upon us. And he said
one of the reasons that the Hebrew language didn't pertain to face,
singular, they say because God is too complex. He's too great. He's too wonderful. And His attributes
cannot be explained in looking at Him from one direction. That
therefore He has many faces. His faces. And I looked in the
Old Testament, and sure enough, every place that uses face as
it pertains to God, cause thy face to shine upon us, it's always
plural, it's never singular. He's known by His face. By His faces. And we see one
face, we see one thing about Him. We see another face, we
see something else about Him. He is holy, so we see that face,
don't we? That's the face that the angels
probably see more than anything else. In Isaiah chapter 6, remember,
Isaiah saw Him eye lifted up, and the angels saying, Holy,
holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. And the Lord Jesus said, the
angels, do always behold the face of our Father which is in
heaven." So that's a holy face. He sees His holy face. And of
course, He's got a just face. He's got a good face. He's got
a loving face. He's got a kind face. A long-suffering
face. A gentle face. A sympathizing
face. And He reveals Himself by showing
to us His face. He's a God of many attributes.
So therefore, He says here in our text, make thy faces to shine
upon us. You know you and I are like that,
aren't we? We just don't have one face. We don't want to be
what they call two-faced, but we have many faces, don't we?
None of us know one another. We know one another alone, but
just one face. I've seen some of you and you're
sad, and I see it in your faces. Sometimes you're happy, And you
see it in your faces. And your countenance, your countenance,
the way you look at people, tells them so much about how you feel
about them. This verse here in verses 25
and 26, the Lord make His faces to shine upon thee. And in verse
26, the Lord lift up the light of His countenance upon you.
That word face and countenance is the very same word. Our translators
translated it countenance because we distinguish between the person's
face and his countenance. When we look at a person's face,
we just don't look at their face. What do we look at? Their countenance. And if you haven't seen somebody
in a long time, when you see them, their countenance tells
you how they feel about seeing you. If they see you and they
don't look at you, If they see you and they don't smile at you,
you'll think, oh man, they don't even like me. Oh my, they don't
even miss me. That's the way we do with our
wives and the wives do with their husbands. If you're working all
day and you come home and you're going through the house and you
don't look at your wife, don't look at your husband, and you
don't smile at them, that tells what's in our heart, doesn't
it? That's what I'm saying. You know how we feel about each other.
by our countenance. Someone shows you how they feel
by their countenance. If they're angry with you, you
can't hardly disguise it, can you? You give yourself away by
your countenance. And you can't hide it. I mean,
it's just almost impossible. When the Lord told Cain he was
cursed, remember, He said, Cain, why has your countenance fallen? Wow,
I can see the sadness on your face. And then when he killed
his brother, you remember what Cain said? And the Lord cursed
him? And he said, the greatest curse
you could put upon me is this, I'm going to be hid from your
face. I'm going to be hid from your
countenance, your gracious countenance. He said, You cause Your face
to shine upon us and be gracious to us. And that's the face that
was hid from Cain. He never saw that face again.
Wouldn't it be awful to go through this life and never see God's
gracious face? That's what bothered Cain the
most, ever since the fall. Any awakened person, when you
and I are really concerned about our relationship with the Lord
and our salvation and our souls, there's one thing that we want
to see, and that's His gracious face. God be gracious and cause
His face to shine upon you. Remember how Laban, Jacob's father-in-law,
was angry with him because Jacob was getting all the cattle, all
the sheep, and Laban wasn't getting any? And Jacob looked at his
father-in-law one day and he called his two wives and he said,
we're going to get out of here. Your father's countenance is
not towards me like it used to be. And boy, that tells it, don't
it? That tells a person's countenance.
It tells it. Remember when the Lord Jesus
looked upon Peter and Peter saw his face? There was something
in that face. that made Peter go out and weep.
You and I don't know what it was, but when the Lord looked
at him, he showed how he was feeling towards Peter, and the
brokenness of his heart, and the grace that was in his heart
towards that man. And he went out and wept bitterly. So this countenance, the Lord
lift up the light of his countenance, it expresses to us that grace
that's in his heart. the mercy that's in his heart,
the love that's in his heart. That's the face that you and
I want to see. Make thy face to shine upon me. And it means let them see your
attitude towards them. Let them see the feelings of
your heart, the grace that's in your heart. Manifest it. And
where will it be seen? In the face. In your face. In your countenance. And that's
one of the things that tormented poor Cain. He would never see
it again. Never see that gracious face.
Imagine what Adam and Eve saw in God's countenance when He
said to them, Have you eaten of the tree? Boy, can you see
the disappointing face that they seen? The disappointing face
in their God in His countenance. Sometimes it's God's merciful
face. Sometimes it's His good face
and His kind face and a proven face. And sometimes it's His
disapproving face. And that's what they see. And
thank God there is a gracious face. Thank God there is a merciful
face. There's a forgiving face. There's
a long-suffering face. And where do we see these faces
of God? We see it in one face, don't
we? All these faces of God's saving attributes is revealed
in one face, and that is the face of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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, the saving glory of God. Where is that seen? In the face
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is where God has revealed
His saving grace and all of His saving attributes. Therefore,
where should you and I be looking to see this gracious face? Look
into the Lord Jesus Christ. Always be looking to Him. Martin
Luther used to tell his congregation, he says, God is a God that has
many sides. And you want to see His smiling
face. You want to see His good side. And to see His good side,
we are always looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. Because there
is where we see the smiling face of God. And what is the result
of that? He says here in verse 26, look
at this. And the Lord make His face to
shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee. In verse 26, the Lord
lift up His countenance upon thee, and when He does, His gracious
countenance, What's the effect of that? And give thee peace. And give thee peace. It's just
like seeing the smiling face of an old friend. You know that he loves you. You
know that he's glad to see you. And now, I can't explain what
this is, to have God to shine upon you, into your heart, but
you know You know. I've experienced it. And you've
experienced it. And when He does it, you just
know it, don't you? You know it. And it gives you
peace. It gives you peace because you've
obtained favor. You know you've obtained favor
with Him. Look over in Psalms chapter 42.
This is a very familiar psalm that we've read so often. And
it mentions about the Lord's face. It calls it, you're His
countenance. David speaks of this being cast
down, his soul being cast down, and he tells us what would cheer
him up, what would happen. He says here in Psalm 42 and
verse 5. Psalm 42, 5. Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? Why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God, for I shall
yet praise Him for the help of His countenance. His face shining
into your heart, into your mind, into your understanding is help
to you. When we've got a sense of what
another failure we are, what is it that would help us in such
a feeling as that? Would it not be His countenance?
His countenance. What would His countenance do
for us? Well, wouldn't the countenance of mercy strengthen us over our failures? Do you ever feel like you're
just an utter failure? I mean, everything you've ever done,
you feel like you've failed, you feel like you've tried to
do it for His glory, but I tell you, look, and you just feel
like such a failure. And you feel like you're in need
of mercy. Well, here is the countenance of mercy. when He shows you in
His face that He is merciful. Come boldly to the throne of
grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help us in
the time of need. When you are utterly weak, His
strength will make you strong. When He shines His gracious face
upon you and gives you strength, His love will keep you from despairing
with fear. His faithfulness will dispel
your doubts. Lord, Your countenance will do
all of this for me. I'll yet praise Him for the help
of His countenance." And then look down in verse 11, what he
says in verse 11. Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you disquieted within
me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise Him who is the help. of thy countenance and my God."
He said up there, He said, He's the help of my countenance. He's
my help. And down here He said, He's the
health of my countenance. Boy, when He shines upon you
and helps you, He puts health in you, doesn't He? He puts health
in your countenance. You can't help. You can't be sad. You can't even look sad when
He shines His face upon you. It will help your countenance.
It is the health of your countenance. I have seen it in people that
the Lord visited them and blessed them and gave them their heart's
desire, His presence, His countenance. And I tell you, you can almost
see it in their faces. Cause thy face to shine upon
me and that will be the health of my countenance. He said, in
another place, there be many that say, who shall show them
any good? And David said, Lord, lift up
the light of Thy countenance upon us. Lift up Thy face upon
us. That will do us good. That will
do us good. That will help us. And David
said, Thou hast made Him exceeding glad with Thy countenance. Well, I reckon, I reckon. Boy,
that would, wouldn't it? Acts 2.28, "...thou shalt make
me full of joy with thy countenance." So I'm just saying this, if the
Lord's countenance, if His face shining upon you, does that for
us here, when we just get a glimpse of Him, that's all we get. We
just get a glimpse of His countenance, a glimpse of His grace, a glimpse
of His merciful face, His loving face, His forgiving face. And
if just a glimpse of His face here will fill us with such gladness
and joy and peace, what will it be to see the Lord Jesus Christ
yonder? I mean, in the fullness, Greg,
of His face. See Him continually. What will
it be like? I tell you, that will be joy
unspeakable, won't it? And full of glory when we shall
see Him as He is. And Revelation 22, verse 4 says,
"...they shall see His face." They shall see His face. Sometimes,
in the Old Testament especially, you hear these saints praying
like this, "...hide not thy face from me." Hide not your face
from me? Why? It's my joy. It's my peace. It's the health of my countenance.
It's our life, ain't it? It's our life. We hear them praying
like this, Make thy face to shine upon thy servant. Save me for
thy mercy's sake. Let me not be ashamed. When you
said to my heart, Seek ye my face, my heart said, Thy face,
Lord, will I seek. And listen to Psalms of Solomon
chapter 2 and verse 14. This is the love story. The little
Shulamite woman and the king who loved her. And listen to
what she said. And this is what the church says
about her Savior. Let me see Thy countenance. Let me hear Thy voice. For Thy
voice is sweet and Thy countenance is lovely. It's comely. It's beautiful. Oh, we want to
see His face. Sometimes the Lord hides His
face. And boy, when He hides His face, He does it to teach
us a lesson. Maybe we've not appreciated His
face. Maybe we've not appreciated the glimpse of His beauty. And
He's going to make us appreciate that face. So what does He do?
He hides His face. Sometimes He hides His face to
correct us. And sometimes He hides His face
that He may show mercy to us later on down the road somewhere.
But one of the most difficult things a poor believer faces
in his lifetime is the Lord hiding his face. And you can't have
any joy. You can't hardly have any assurance.
Sometimes we get full of doubts and fears when He hides His face.
Here's what David said, Hear me speedily, O Lord. My spirit
fails within me. Hide not Your face from me, lest
I be likened to them that go down to the pit. And he said
this, Lord, by Thy favor Thou hast made my heart strong. Thou didst hide Thy face, and
I was troubled. Boy, when His countenance shines
upon us, our hearts are strong as mountains, aren't they? But
just let Him remove His countenance, hide His face, and we are troubled. Hide thy face from my sins, and
blot out all of my iniquities." That's a good time to hide his
face. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all of my
iniquities. And here's what Moses said, we
are consumed by thine anger. And by Thy wrath we are troubled.
Thou hast set our iniquities before Thee, our secret sins,
in the light of Your face, Your countenance." That's why David
rejoiced when he said, You hid my sins from Your face. Boy,
I tell you, do you ever have sins that you didn't even know
about? Maybe if you knew about them, you'd forgot about them.
And then the Lord sets them in the light of His countenance?
And He makes them so real to you. And boy, isn't that troubling? Especially if He lets you carry
them for a while, knowing them in your own conscience. He does
that sometimes. Sets them in the light of His
countenance. Your secret sin. Man, what a
burden that is. And the only thing we can do
for Him then is just plead for His mercy and wait for the shining
of His face. God is a God of many faces. And
one of the reasons I dwelt a little bit on this first part, because
God is not only a God of a gracious face, and merciful, and loving,
and tender, forgiving face, and a sympathizing face. He's got
another face too, ain't He? And that's an angry face. God
has an angry face. We don't like to talk about this.
But listen to Psalms 34, 16. The face of the Lord is against
them that do evil. to cut off the remembrance of
them from the earth. Psalm 34, verse 16. The face
of the Lord is against them that do evil. And listen to Psalm
7, verse 11. God judges the righteous, and
God is angry with the wicked every day. This is talking about
the just God. It's talking about the moral
judge of all the earth. And as the moral judge of all
the earth, He has to do right. And he's too pure-eyed to behold
iniquity. He cannot look upon sin. He's
too holy for that. So when he looks upon sin and
he looks upon the unbeliever, he hates him. That's a fearful
thing. We don't like to talk much about
that. I preached a message one time at a conference on Psalms
5.5. God hateth all workers of iniquity. And I tell you, it was quiet.
I tell you, you could hear a pin drop into that congregation.
I got home and there was a pastor called me and he said, Brother,
I just wanted to tell you what a good message that was. But
he said, nobody says amen to a message like that. You know,
you don't see anybody shouting when you're talking about God
is angry with the wicked every day. That's a fearful thing.
We know something about angry faces, don't we? Especially people
in authority. I sat one time and listened to
a judge and he wasn't very happy with me. I tell you, I never
want to sit before that judge or any other judge again. When
somebody in authority that's got advantage over us, it may
be a police officer, it may be even our parents. I can remember
a few times in my life when my dad showed me his face and I'm
telling you it was angry. And none of us like to see an
angry face, do we? How much more the face of God? when He manifests in an angry
face. The face of the Lord is against
them that do evil, even to cut off the remembrance of them from
the earth. And I tell you, when God manifests
His angry face, the Bible says this. Listen to Revelation 20.
I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose
face the heaven and the earth fled away. God has revealed,
He has concealed, He has covered the face of His throne. Job said,
with a cloud. But someday when He shows that
face, all that cloud will be dissipated. All the starry universe
will flee away and there will be no place left for Him because
of His face. God's glorious face. His just and holy face. This is why you and I, as believers,
as children of God, we should pray. This is why we should pray. For the Lord to shine upon His
church, shine upon His people, and that they may, through His
grace, teach others about His face and His grace. Listen to
how David said it. He said, God be merciful unto
us and bless us and cause His face to shine upon us. Why, David? For this reason,
that by way they may be known upon the earth. Your gospel may
be known, and believed, and loved, and heard. And that by saving
health may be known among all nations. So we want His saving
face. We want His gracious face to
shine. And we want others to see it, don't we? We want Him
to shine upon others. The three young ladies I was
talking about, I just love for the Lord to shine His face upon
those three young ladies and let them see His countenance
and the grace that's in Him and the saving mercy and the love
of God in Jesus Christ. But He'll have to do that. But
we tell Him about it, don't we? When He shines upon us, we tell
Him There's many of these in the Scriptures, and I wanted
to give you just a few of these so you could maybe take up the
subject yourself in looking up His face and His countenance.
But there is one more I want to show you over in Psalms 104. His gracious face, all of His
attributes, His gracious attributes shining, shining in His face
and His countenance. And then His face, that's the
face of the moral judge of all the earth, that just face, that's
against the wicked, against the unbeliever. And here's another
face I think we all should be acquainted with. We don't hear
too much about this, but it's the face of the Lord too. Here
in Psalms chapter 104, and this deals with God's face
as a creator. shining upon His creatures, all
of His creatures. You often find this in the Old
and the New Testament. The earth and everything in it
is utterly dependent upon its Creator. The Bible says that
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, created all things, and by Him
all things consist. And that word consist means they're
held up. They're held together. They're
provided for and preserved Jesus Christ, the Son of God who is
God, the Creator and Savior, He upholds and provides and keeps
everything He's made together. And you know, that's enough in
itself to restrain men from sin. If they understand that God is
holding them up and providing for them, even in the temporal
things of this life, this often is used to restrain people from
sin. Our forefathers used to talk
a lot about this country knowing something about the providential
care of God. You see it in our Constitution.
When our forefathers, most of them didn't know God. We hear
these people talk about what great Christian men our forefathers
were. They weren't brothers and sisters.
They weren't. But they listened to men preach
sometimes like George Whitefield. They read these great sermons.
And they believed in their heads that there was a God. And that
in His providence, they talk so much about providence, holding
everything up and providing things that we need in our human condition. And that's a good thing. It's
a good thing when people believe that. Paul and Barnabas, you
remember when they were preaching at Lystra. And Paul had healed
this impotent man. And the whole city had come together
to worship Paul and Barnabas. And brought their wreaths, going
to lay at their feet and do sacrifices. And here is what Paul said to
them. We preach unto you that you should turn from these vanities
unto the living God, which made heaven and earth and the sea
and all that in them is, who in time past suffered all nations
to walk in their own way, Nevertheless, he left not himself without witness,
in that he did good." God did good to the nation. And what
was that good? Well, listen to this, He gave
us rain from heaven. He gave us fruitful seasons,
filling our hearts with food and with gladness. And with these
words, He restrained them from offering sacrifices to Him. Remember
Acts 17, Paul was on Mars Hill, those idolaters that made all
these idols that they worshipped. And he found one idol to the
unknown God and he said, let me tell you about this God. And
he begins this very way talking about the Creator, Sustainer
of all things. And he said, God that made the
world and all things therein is, seeing that He is Lord of
heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands, Neither
is worship with men's hands, as though he needed anything.
Sin he gives to all, life and breath and all things, and has
made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on the face of
the earth, and has determined the times before appointed. He
set the bounds of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord,
if perhaps they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He
be not far. from every one of us. And this
is talking about the face of God, our Creator. And He shines
and He looks upon His creatures with kindness and mercy and goodness. That's the face that we see.
Here's how the Lord Jesus said it. Listen to Matthew 5.44. I
say unto you, love your enemies, Bless them that curse you, do
good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully
use you and persecute you. Why? That you may be the children
of your Father, that you may be like your Father, which is
in heaven, now listen to this, who makes His Son to rise on
the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. And in the parallel passage in
Luke 6, He says this, "...love your enemies, and do good, and
lend, hoping for nothing again. Your reward shall be great, and
you shall be the children of the highest. For He is kind unto
the unthankful, and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as
your Father also in heaven is merciful." And how is this goodness
of God? How is His kindness and how is
His mercy manifested? Is it not in upholding His creatures? I tell you, wherever you go in
this world, there's the face of God shining upon His creatures. Is it not? I don't care how wicked the man
is, he'll have to acknowledge, I see the goodness of God. I
should have been in hell. I should have been in hell a
long time ago. I'm not in hell. I'm eating. I'm breathing God's
air. I have relative health. Why is
this? God the Creator, His face is
shining upon His creatures. Isn't that a wonderful thing?
We don't hear much about that anymore, but we should think
about that, shouldn't we? We should think about that. The
Creator providing rain, providing the sun, providing food, health,
protection. And the beast of the field, He
provides for them. He provides for the fowls of
the air, and the little creatures in the sea. He provides for all. The face of the Creator is shining
upon them. Look here in Psalms 104. He speaks
about some of these things, and you find this in different places.
especially in the Old Testament. Psalm 104, look in verse 10. He sendeth the springs into the
valleys which run among the hills. This is what the Lord does, the
Creator. And these springs they give grain to every beast of
the field. The wild asses quench their thirst. By them shall the fowls of the
heaven have their habitation. which sing among the branches.
He waters the hills from His chambers. The earth is satisfied
with the fruit of His work. He causes the grass to grow for
the cattle, and the herb for the service of men, that they
may bring forth food out of the earth, and wine that maketh glad
the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread
which strengtheneth man's heart. The trees of the Lord are full
of sap, the cedars of Lebanon which He hath planted, where
the birds make their nests. As for the stork, the fir trees
are her house. The high hills are a refuge for
the wild goats, and the rocks for the little conies. He appointeth
the moon for seasons, the sun knoweth He is going down. Thou
makest darkness, and it is night, wherein all the beasts of the
forest do creep forth. The young lions roar after their
prey and seek their meat from God. The sun arises, they gather
themselves together and lay them down in their dens. Man goeth
forth unto his work and to his labor until the evening. O Lord,
how manifold are Thy works! All of these are God's works,
all of them. In wisdom hast Thou made them all, the earth is full
of Thy riches. So is this great and wide sea
wherein are things creeping, innumerable, both small and great. There go the ships, there go
Leviathan, whom Thou hast made to play therein. These wait all
upon Thee, and Thou givest them their meat in due season. What
thou givest them, they gather, thou openest thy hand, and they
are filled with good." And what happens when God hides His face?
Look in verse 29, "...thou hidest thy face, they are troubled,
thou takest away thy breath, they die and return to their
dust." Where does all this care come from? What is all this providential
care of God? It comes from Him. The face of
the Creator. He's looking upon it with a good
face, a merciful face, and providing all. You go out in the woods
sometime, and you run up on an old dead carcass. Maybe all that's
left is the skeleton. And you just point at that skeleton
and say to it, God hid His face. God hid His face. You go to some
part of the world, or you see it on your TV where they show,
and it used to be a fruitful place that provided for the inhabitants
that dwelled in that part of the country, and now it's nothing
but desolate and deserted. And you can look at a place like
that and say, God hid His face. You can go out in the cemetery,
walk up to somebody's headstone, And down there just a few feet
below that headstone lies a lifeless body. Maybe a turned corpse,
maybe a decayed corpse, maybe nothing but dust. But you can
point at that grave and say, God hid His face. God hid His
face. What happens when God the Creator
and the Sustainer hides His face? Nothing can exist. And we can carry that over into
the spiritual realm too, can't we? We can go to a building like
this. We can go to a community. We
can go to a country where the gospel used to be preached, where
it was believed, where it was loved, where men were so fearful
about losing it, they claimed to it with all their hearts.
But you go there now You go back to that building, you go back
to that community, back to that state, and the Gospel is not
preached there. There is no true worship of God.
There is no love for the Gospel. There is no saving faith in the
heart. And you look at a place like that and say, God hid His
face. I am telling you, brothers and
sisters, we are nothing. We can do nothing. We know nothing
apart from God's face shining upon us. in the spiritual realm,
in the grace realm, or in the natural realm. In God's kingdom
of grace or His kingdom of providence. He must shine His face upon us
or we perish. We perish. And you know something
about that? This is a sovereign face. God
is sovereign in this. When He is pleased to shine His
face upon anybody or a nation, Men or devils can't stop Him.
He can shine through the darkness of men's unbelief and rebellion
and reach their hearts and save them. And nobody can stop Him.
And if He refuses to shine, nobody can make Him. He's sovereign
in the shining and sovereign in the withholding. And I'll
read that to you and we'll close. Look in the book of Job chapter
34. Job chapter 34 verse 29. This is one of my favorite verses,
I think, in the Bible. Job chapter 34 and verse 29. When He giveth quietness. Boy,
don't you love that? When He giveth quietness. In
the time of your trouble, when you're so perplexed, confused,
cast down, fearful, doubtful. But He gives quietness. And when
He gives quietness, look at this. can make trouble. Nobody. Nobody. No sickness, no affliction,
no trial, no devil, no man. Nothing when He gives us quietness.
And look at this, and when He hides His face, who then can
behold Him? Nobody. Nobody. Whether it be done against a
nation or against a man alone, Nobody can behold His face when
He hides it. But thank God when He shines
and gives quietness. Nobody can disturb that heart. Lord bless His Word.