If My People Will Seek My Face, and Turn from Their Wicked Ways

I'm so given to the scriptures and to preaching God's Word and being prepared to do that. And sometimes there's things the Lord puts on my heart to say. And I want to tonight make sure that I'm not negligent to do that. And I want to just tell you what a joy it is to be with you. I absolutely love everything that I see. I told Brother Chris at lunch today not to make it sound like, "Oh, it will be 10 years before this happens." That's not what I mean at all. I mean from the point you're at right now, the next decade in this church is going to be very, very sweet.

I told Chris at Shelbyville Mills, and I so see this in your fellowship, it is such a joy to be a part of our church. It's the love of my life. Our people love each other. There's not the schisms and the backbiting and the fighting and the clawing that I know you guys have come through in the past and we've certainly been through in the past. The Lord has, not that we underestimate our enemy, we know Satan can get an advantage among us, but the Lord has put so much of that in the rear view mirror and our church is unified and our church is together and our church loves each other.

I told Chris today, if you want to know what kind of a preacher a man is, you don't really need to look any further than his wife's face. You can look into Kayla's face and know whether or not I'm a good preacher. One of the first things I noticed about Christie when I was around her just has a lot of joy. There's a lot of light and a lot of sweetness and just glowing countenance and that speaks so much. I told Chris, the only thing you need to accurately estimate the job a pastor is doing is just looking at the faces of his people. When I come among you, what I see is joy, what I see is love, what I see is peace.

I just want to give God the glory for that. I love you. I love everything about you. Here I feel like I'm at home. I feel like I'm among our church. That's what I feel most of the places that I go in our Anchored in Truth network. I do serve on the board of Anchored in Truth and just on behalf of Anchored in Truth and all of our partners and Brother Jeff and Brother Steve, I just want to tell you, we thank God for your partnership. I can't tell you the numbers of times, even today Brother Jeff called me twice today.

Even today, the conversations I've had with Steve, the conversations I've had with Brother Jeff, with Brother David Young, and we've all agreed every time that we've talked that your pastor, Chris Shepherd, is one of our top pastors. He's one of our top pastors in Anchored in Truth. He's in the class of about three or four guys, and the way I state it is, he's just top shelf in every way. I love this brother, and it's a joy to be in this pulpit, and it's a joy to be with you guys. I can tell you that this past Sunday, your church was in our church bulletin.

Everybody that attended our church saw your pastor and pastor's wife and family, the girls' faces, and saw the bow of your church, and it's only the 200th time they've seen it. But they love you, and they respect you, and they pray for you, and you're our sister, and we're your sister, and it's just a joy to be pulling in the same direction. Amen? And so thank you for letting me come. And I would just ask you if you would to open your Bibles again to 2 Chronicles 7. And let me just say, again, I hope this brings some comfort to your heart, but just know this.

Last night was probably at least the fifth time that I worked through that sheet in a very serious way, and all I've got to say is, pray for me. It hurts me too. I'm just being honest with you. We all struggle with pride in some form, and keep struggling. Keep fighting, and don't give over to it. That's one of the keys of revival. And I taught you last night that this entire text revolves around two words. And one of those words, the responsibility falls on you, and it's if. And the second word falls upon our sovereign God, and it's then. And by sovereign design, if comes before then, there will be no then unless the conditions of if are met.

And I find that in the Christian walk, in this matter of sanctification, that's the way it is in many of the disciplines that our Lord leads us in. I do not believe in passive sanctification. I believe that God requires us to run the race, to walk with Christ, to press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, for it's God that works it in us. And God lays this responsibility on us. You remember the word revival means to renew, it means to repair, it means to restore or to make something whole.

And if you would be renewed, if you would be repaired, if you would be made whole in a word, if you would be revived, then if my people, which are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, any of you all grow up with the conjunction junction, what's your function era? And joins all those boxcars together so that they're inseparable, then God says, I will hear from heaven, I can't wait to preach that. And I will forgive your sin. Aren't you glad God forgives? He's the God of the 209,000 millionth chance. I will forgive their sin and heal their land.

So I want to pick up where we left off with the next two of these if requirements for us to be renewed and restored and revived. I'm just like you, I'm your brother, I'm fallen, I'm redeemed, I'm a sinner just like you. And all I can tell you is that as a fallen man, as a sinner, as your brother, as a servant of Christ, there is a desire in my heart that I can't even explain to you the good I want for you, the good I hope for you, the blessings I pray God bestows upon you, the renewal I hope he gives you, the revival I pray that God pours out on you. And I'm just a man that pales in comparison to what God wants for us.

And how I pray that you know that, that you're accepted in the beloved and that God wants you to be revived and he's telling you here how that is to come. If my people, here's the third if statement, "What you call by my name shall humble themselves and pray." That's what we learned last night and then ouch worked through the homework. And here it goes, humble themselves and pray. And the third if requirement is if my people will seek my face. It's no secret that my favorite scripture, my favorite genre of scripture is Psalms and Proverbs. I just, I guess I identify more there than any place. And I love the Psalms and I love the Proverbs.

And in Psalm chapter 27 verse 8, the Psalmist said this, "God, when you said to me, 'Seek my face,' my heart said to you, 'Your face, Lord, I will seek.'" And that's my prayer for you, dear church, that you would genuinely say in your heart to your Lord, "Lord, your face I will seek." Listen to me, hear this. God in heaven, our God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has a face. And He says to you and He says to me, He invites us, keyword, to seek His face. Balcash in the Hebrew. It means to make a diligent inquiry. One brother said it can mean to beg after. It means to strive after.

Another brother said it means to diligently search for something. And what is that something? It's the face of God. He says, "If my people will seek my face," and here's the faces right up front. God is asking you to seek Him in the most personal, the most intimate way possible. And that is in seeking His face. Let me begin by doing something that I cannot do. I want to define the face of God, which is laughable. It can't be done. And my attempt is going to be but to stammer, but here we go. What do we mean when we say the face of God? God says to you, "My people seek my face," Paul neem in the Hebrew. You've heard this word before.

It speaks of the countenance. It speaks of this portion of our person, our face. You can see in my face tonight if joy is expressed, or you can see anger just by reading my face. You can discern sadness as well as happiness, pleasure as well as displeasure. By looking at someone's face, you can see if they're pleased or displeased because a person's face is the mirror of their soul. A person's face is the very display of their emotions and their feelings. God's face is His most close and personal and intimate part. God's face, think about it, is where His vision is. God's face is where His intelligence is. God's face is where His wisdom is.

And in God's face is where His knowledge dwells. There's a familiarity in someone's face. I know when tonight I got to ride my bike with Rob this morning. I just met Rob yesterday. But when he walked through the door, I knew it was Rob. Why? I recognized his face. When Christie walks in, I know it's Christie because I recognize her face. I met Devon and Evan. And now I know them how? By their face. We have facial recognition software nowadays that can take an image of a person's face and cross-reference it with a database and come up with the name, rank and serial number of who that person is. It's amazing. That's how we ought to know God.

When's the last time you saw His face? Do you know Him? I mean do you know Him? Are you striving to know God deeper? Are you content with what you learned in primary Sunday school class when you were 9 years old and figured you knew everything you needed to know about God? No wonder we need revival. Look, even after we get to heaven and this flesh is stripped away and there's no more devil and there's no more demons and there's no more temptation and there's no more flesh to contend with. Boy, I wish that would come tonight.

Even with glorified bodies and even with a capacity to understand God at a level that right now we couldn't even conceive, after we've been there 10,000 years, we will have not even touched the hem of the garment of understanding who God is because you can't ever grasp infinite completely. I'll tell you heaven will be about us learning more and more and more about Jesus. More of His saving fullness, more of His love that died for me, the old hymn says.

But I tell you what, we, this side of heaven and that side of heaven, but especially here, you and I are tasked by God with seeking His face, knowing Him more personally, knowing Him more intimately. And can I remind you tonight that God is not a creed or confession, God is not a concept, God is not a fetish, God is not some idea, He's a living soul. He is the living God and He's to be known and He's to be loved and He's to be cherished and He's to be experienced. God said, "Seek my face, forgive me." That's the best I can do.

But not only do I want to define God's face, I want to describe God's face and again this is something that can't be done. Are you all tracking with me, are you still with me? God's face is the place where God's glory is displayed. If you will, God's face is ground zero for the radiant glory that emanates from His being. Listen to what the Apostle John said about the face of the glorified Christ. I'm in the book of Revelation going verse by verse, we've been in the book of the Revelation about two years and we're just about halfway through.

And I turned to see the voice of Him that spake with me, John said, and being turned I saw seven golden candlesticks. And in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one likened to the Son of Man clothed with a garment down to the foot and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hair were as white as wool, as white as snow, his eyes were as a flame of fire, his feet were burning like fine brass as if they burned in a furnace. His voice was as the sound of many waters. Out of his mouth went a sharp two edged sword and his countenance, his face was like the sun when it shines in all of its strength. Revelation 1, 12 through 18.

John said in Revelation 19, Christ's eyes were as a flame of fire, on his head were many crowns, many diadems. You can look at someone's face and you can know so much about them, that's why he says, "People, my people, seek my face." Isaiah once said that you can know a lot about a person just from their countenance. Isaiah said of Israel at a very low point in the history of the nation, he said in Isaiah 3.9, the show of their countenance witnesses against them, he said Israel's countenance declares their sin as if it were Sodom.

When Daniel and Hananiah and Azariah and Michelle were brought into Nebuchadnezzar's court, their names are not Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Those are the names the wicked pagans put on them. When Daniel and Hananiah and Azariah and Michelle came into Nebuchadnezzar's court and they had eaten vegetables and drunk water, it says their countenance were fairer and more gleaming than all of those that ate the king's meat and drank the king's wine. You can tell so much from a person's countenance because it's a reflection of their heart.

And that's what we're talking about when we talk about the face of God, to know Him, to know Him more intimately, to know Him more personally, to know Him at a deeper level. I've been doing youth camp for about 33 years. Every year I load up, I go to youth camp. Now look, when you can't see and you're bald, you're not cool. So I don't go to youth camp to try to be cool because I would just look like an idiot. So what I do is I just stand up in front of 7th graders through college kids graduating and preach the book. And man, I'm telling you, God has honored it. And each year we take a grand doctrinal theme. Last year we did it on the Trinity.

The year before that we did Sola Scriptura. The year before that we did it on the doctrines of grace. This year's theme for youth camp is the attributes of God. We've given every student 7th grade through college a copy of A.W. Pink's book, The Attributes of God. And on Mother's Day they'll begin reading one attribute a day for 17 days. And on that 17th day we go to youth camp. And what do we mean when we talk about the attributes of God? You know, there's so many, I can't preach a message tonight on the attributes of God.

But we think of God's mercy and we think of His grace and we think of His holiness and we think of His righteousness and we think of His sinlessness and we think of His purity and His wrath and His judgment. All of these things, the attributes of God help us to understand more about Him. That's what He means when He says, "Seek my face." Can I heartily recommend to you? It's just a little thin book. It's so well written. It's so concise. Every one of you should get A.W. Pink's book, The Attributes of God.

And look, on Mother's Day, just join in with Shelbyville Mills and on Mother's Day read one attribute a day and then the seventh think day, pray for us as we go to youth camp. That's seeking God's face. That's knowing the Lord more deeply. That's knowing the Lord more intimately. And this is what He says to you, "My people." He says, "Seek my face." Will you seek God's face? Will you seek to know Him at a level deeper than you now know Him? Will you seek to know Him more intimately now than you've ever known Him before? People don't have a problem seeking God's hand for all the things He can give them.

People don't have a problem seeking His feet so that He can carry them all the places they'd like to go. And it seems that people don't have a problem seeking words from His mouth as long as they fit their agenda. But I don't hear a lot of people talking about seeking God's face. And that's because when you seek God's face, brother, you're hitting at the nerve center of the holiness. This is why Isaiah said three times, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was and is and is to come." The attributes of God. Seek God's face. Now I want to do this. We've defined God's face to some degree. We've described God's face to some degree.

But I want to give you a help if I can. I want to talk to you very briefly about how to seek God's face. How do we seek God's face? I would ask you if you would to turn to James chapter 4 because I believe this is a parallel passage of scripture that will help you to understand how to seek God's face. James 4, 8 through 10, I believe is a New Testament parallel to 2 Chronicles 7, 12 through 14. And James provides for us, just follow along with me, a good description of how to seek God's face.

First of all, he says in James 4, 8, this is so simple, "Draw near to God and he will what?" Doesn't that sound like "if my people?" Does that not sound like that? If my people, which are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face, then I'll hear from heaven, then I'll forgive their sins, then I'll hear their land." That's the exact same thing. God places this on you. There's some things God expects your will to get involved in in this matter of revival. He says, "Draw near to God and he might draw near to you." Is that what it says?

It says, "He will." Just like it says, "Then I will hear from heaven." When we draw near to God, we draw near by humbling ourselves. We draw near by praying. We draw near by seeking his face. We draw near by turning from our wicked ways. Then he hears us. He forgives us. Rapha, he heals us, which is what revival is. He restores us. He repairs us. If demands that you move. If demands that you draw near to God. God places this, if you will, burden, and it's no burden, but God places this responsibility upon his people to move. And by the way, lost people can't do this. Lost people can't draw near to God. Lost people can't seek God.

That's why he said, "If my people, only the redeemed can do this." This is a rare privilege. God invites you into his throne room to seek his face and all the healing you need and all the renewal you need and all the revival you need is right there in the face of God. But it's your move. It's your move. Will you do what this text says? Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. I tell you what I tell my church all the time. You are this evening. What is today? The what? April what? 25th. This evening, April 25th at 649, you are as close to God as you want to be because you can be as close to God as you want to be. Did you hear me?

You're as close as you want to be because the door is wide open. When God saved you, he invited you in to enter before his throne with boldness, to find help in your time of need. The truth is the reason we need revival is because we don't think we need God that much. So we don't seek God that much. But here he says, "Draw near to God and what? He will draw near to you." And then there's another way we seek the face of God. James says in verse 8 and 9, "Mourn over your sin." That's some of what we did last night. "Raise your hands, you sinners, purify your hearts, you double minded. Be afflicted and mourn and weep.

Let your laughter be turned in the morning and your joy to heaviness." When Isaiah, in Isaiah chapter 6 saw God's face, his mind immediately went to his lips. God's radiance, God's holiness surfaced Isaiah's sinfulness. Today Isaiah knew I've offended with my lips. I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the presence of a people of unclean lips. I've got to tell you folks tonight, I need to come into the face of God because I need my sin to be exposed.

William Howells said, "There is not an evil principle in the heart of Satan himself that will not exist in me if I'm not daily and continually renewed by the Spirit of God." There's a built-in self-deception within every one of us to conceal our deformity, to make less of our sinful condition than is reality. But when you come into the presence of the face of God, it's all laid bare, which is why David said, "Search me, O God, that means x-ray vision. Look it up. Search me, O God, and know my heart.

Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting." That's what it means to seek God's face. It means to mourn over your sin. It means to call it what... I've always been a little bit amused, and that might not be the best word, but I've always been a little bit vexed about... This is the only way I know to say it. God's people, they sin specifically, but they confess generically. Do you all know what I'm talking about? We sin specifically, but we come before God and say, "God, forgive me of all my mistakes." How cute and cuddly and convenient.

But why don't we say, "God, forgive me, I lied today. God forgive me for allowing lust in my heart today. God forgive me for gossiping today." We want to sin specifically, but then confess generically. That's not what this is. It means to mourn over our sin, to call it what God calls it, to agree with God about it. Here's my definition of repentance. Repentance is when you take sides with God against you. You take sides with God against yourself. That's coming to the face of God. Drawing Him, drawing near to Him, and when we draw near to Him, sin is going to be exposed. That's what we need. Don't fear that. Run to it.

When we draw near to God, God's face and the glory of His radiant countenance exposes our sin and we see it and we do what Isaiah said. We specifically confess it. Take the coal, touch my lips, cleanse me from my sin and God will always do it. Praise He that covers His sin will not prosper, Proverbs 28, 13. But whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, seeking the face of God. That's why I told you last night, "if" is a big word. We'll come together and sing, "Lord, sin the great revival in my soul.

Lord, sin the great revival in my soul." But are we willing to deal with this word "if"? The reason we haven't seen a great awakening in America since the second great awakening is because of a two little letter word "if". We haven't been willing to fulfill the demands of "if". If my people, which are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and look at the fourth "if" statement. And conjunction, junction, what's your function? They all go together. You can't separate them. Humble yourself and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. Could we all say "shube"? That's the Hebrew word for turn.

It translates "repent". Let me just tell you something. People ask me, "Do you have to repent to be saved?" Well, absolutely. Absolutely. I would say the better way, when God regenerates you, you repent. You turn from your sin. But that's only the beginning. Don't think that repentance is something you experienced at conversion. It is. If you're truly born of God, you are a habitual repenter. When God saved you, He created a repenter. God created within you the ability to repent. That's what this word "turn" from their wicked ways means. It means to repent. And what is He asking us to repent of? Our wicked ways.

This word "wicked" means that which brings calamity. That which brings grief. That which brings harm and trouble and vexes. It says "wretched and wrong". It's sin in a word. It's sin that has stolen away the power of the Spirit. It's sin that has stolen away the vitality of the Christian life. It's sin that has stolen away the power of prayer and multiply that times the membership of the church and it's sin that's caused the church to be impotent in a world that needs a strong church. I'll tell you, America needs biblical churches. We don't need more churches. We need biblical churches. Churches that preach the book. If my people will turn.

That's why "if" is such a big word. Turn from their wicked ways. I told you that revival is two-fold. There's a personal aspect to revival and there's a corporate aspect. The same is true here. God's calling upon you and me to turn, shube, repent of our individual personal sin. That's why He says humble ourselves and pray and seek God's face. When God moves in revival, He first moves in the heart of the individual. He deals with each individual member of the church over their individual wicked ways. Here's what I want to ask you to do. Maybe this will be your homework assignment for tonight.

When you get home tonight and you say, as the psalmist said, "Lord, when you said unto me, 'Seek my face,' I said in my heart to you." "Your face I will seek." And you do like David. You come before the Lord and you say, "Lord, search my heart, try my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me." Here's what I would encourage you to do. Get a legal pad. You're going to need it. And get a pen. And write down the things that the Holy Spirit surfaces as He did with Isaiah's unclean lips. Confess them specifically, not generically. Don't play that cat and mouse game. Confess your sins specifically to God and then listen.

Are you all listening? Would you say, "Amen?" Turn away from it. Cease and desist. Come out from among them and be separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing. That's what repentance means. This is why we need the face of God. Jesus in the book of Revelation said to the seven churches in Asia Minor, in Revelation chapter 2 verse 23, He said, "I am the one who searches the hearts and the minds." Jesus is a heart reader. Jesus is a mind reader. I am the one who searches the hearts and the minds to give to every one of you according to your deeds. Jesus sees beneath the surface. Jesus sees beneath the politics.

Jesus sees beneath the facade. That's why when He encountered the Pharisees, He said, "You guys are twofold more the child of hell than those before you. You're liars. You're whitewashed tombs. You keep up pretenses, but inside you're full of dead men's bones." That's because Christ has the ability with His face to look to the very core of who we are and bring the necessary exposure to expose our sin. I would just encourage you as an individual, when you seek God's face tonight, He's going to say something to you about your sin. And when He does, write it down, confess it specifically, not generically, and turn away from it.

When I was a young seminarian at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Jesus, there was in America a phenomenon of what John MacArthur calls, and I agree, strange fire. There were these so-called professed revivals that were breaking out in Florida and breaking out in Illinois and other places. One of them was called a laughing revival. And everybody just got together and there would be a leader stand up in front of the congregation and he'd just start laughing like a hyena. And everybody else would get tickled and everybody else would start laughing and oh, they'd just come out and say, "Oh, it's just wonderful.

We just had a laughing revival." Let me tell you, when we have revival, I don't think we're going to be laughing. There was another one called a barking revival. Everybody got together and just started barking like dogs. There was another one, a rolling revival. And then there was the infamous slain in the spirit revival. No, when revival comes, the first thing we'll know when it's genuine is God's going to deal with our sin, not surface superficial stuff. And then here's the last thing. Original sin, God will then deal with corporate sin, corporate sin.

When I preach through the seven churches in Asia Minor, Revelation 2 and 3, of all the churches that Christ addresses, the one who had it most together was Ephesus. I mean, they were practicing church discipline. They were doctrines of grace, they were preaching Christ, they were doing world missions, they were doing evangelism. I mean, they were expositional preachers. They would have been an anchored in truth church for sure. But Jesus looked at that body, that corporate body made up of individuals that hadn't been seeking the face of God. And this is what Jesus said. He said, "I've got something against you. You've left your first love.

Remember from where you've fallen." We think a preacher's fallen when he commits adultery. Certainly he is. We think about a Christian is fallen when they get caught up in some financial scam. That'll do it. But Jesus says he applies the word fallen to those who no longer love him. First love, protos agapan. They no longer love him as they did at the first. Do you love Jesus as you did when he found you? Has your love been growing? Has your love been deepening? Are you on the upward way? Jesus said, "I have something against you. You've left your first love and please listen to me.

I know we're almost done, but don't turn me off." I said last night that every sin can be traced back to pride and it can. But let me tell you another thing. Every sin that we commit can be traced back to a lack of love for Jesus. A lack of love for Jesus Christ. We serve what we love. We enjoy what we love. We think about what we love. We invest in what we love. We prepare for what we love. We tenaciously defend that which we love. We protect what we love. We provide for what we love. So I have a few questions for you. What are you serving? What are you enjoying? What do you think about mostly? What are you investing in?

What are you preparing for? What do you defend? What do you protect and what do you provide for? Revival is when we enjoy God above every other enjoyment. Revival is when we pursue God above every other pursuit. Revival is when we value and esteem God above every other treasure. We think of Him. We talk of Him. We dream of Him. We tell others of Him. In a word, we love Him. Jude only one chapter, verse 21. Listen to what Jude said and it goes along with this word "if." God places this responsibility on you. Jude 21 says, listen to this, "Keep yourselves in the love of God." Did you hear that? Keep yourselves in the love of God.

Why would God say that to us? "Prown to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love." Anybody else? Oh, we like sheep. Go astray. We slide. We go through declension. Our hearts wax cold. We begin to love other gods. That was Israel's history. Paul said everything that happened to them was written for our examples. You and I have a responsibility before God and this is revival. Don't make it any more complicated than this. This is revival. Keep yourselves in the love of God. It requires effort. It requires a rebuke like this message to call us back to the love of God because we're prone to wander.

The call of revival is keep yourselves in the love of God. What sin do you as a Christian need to turn away from this evening? Then turn from it, brother. Turn from it, sister. And if you will turn from your wicked ways, the Lord will revive you. It's a promise. Draw near to God and He will what? Draw near to you. For there to be revival, there has to be a turning. God doesn't need to turn. It's not God that needs to turn. He's not moved anywhere. He's where He always was. We're the ones that need to turn. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.