Title: Face of God/Ezekiel 39:21-29
Contents The face of God
Text: Ezekiel 39:21-29
Among the juniors whom I cherish and love, there was a junior who was good at Ham Jin-Abi. Hamjin Abi refers to the person who carries the hammer when the groom brings it to the bride's house. This junior drills a hole in a very large squid, opens his eyes, and does a cool hunchback dance while looking ahead. It is natural for this junior to get a lot of money when he buys a ham. He dances so well that the people who are there with him are like watching a performance of art. It is said that musicals that have been performed for a long time on Broadway in the United States are gaining popularity in Korea. It is none other than The Phantom of the Opera, or Phantom of the Opera. Perhaps those of you who like music have seen this musical or heard it on CD. The musical shows a ghost wearing a mask. There is also a masquerade ball. It's like wearing a mask on your face and dancing. Why do people wear masks? Because humans somehow become brave when they wear masks. This is the reason why a junior can wear a squid mask and dance nicely, or when a ghost wears a mask, it can appear.
People wear masks when they hide themselves. They say that life is so ugly because of sin that it is impossible to live without a mask. How ignorant and incompetent are humans? Life is what you don't even know about yourself and what's in front of you. At the same time, living while hiding the reality of this weakness is life. It is for this reason that we do not know why humans live as if they know everything and can do everything. They say that a mask is a fake face. The real face is naturally hidden. Children who rely solely on their feelings will see the person wearing the mask and mistake it for the real thing. The monster's mask terrifies children and makes them cry. In modern society, masks are made more and more sophisticated, and even adults are easily deceived.
Long ago, there was a clear difference between artificial flowers, which are man-made flowers, and fresh flowers, which are flowers that bloom in nature. But in modern times, how sophisticated harmony is is like a living flower. So, when you think of it as a living flower and touch it, you can often see that it is an artificial flower made of plastic. The mask becomes more and more sophisticated, making it mistaken for a real face. No matter how sophisticated a mask or harmony may be, there is a difference from the real thing. Real flowers have a fragrance and bees and butterflies fly away, but artificial flowers have no scent and neither bees nor butterflies fly. Even in fellowship, there is a lively practical fellowship and a formal fellowship. If we take the relationship of a couple as an example, there is a relationship where a married couple lives while enjoying the beauty of the couple. However, there is also a relationship where you can only live and maintain the relationship of a couple formally. The same is true of the fellowship of saints. In the fellowship of saints, there is the fellowship of life and flowers, and there is the fellowship of harmony. The fellowship of harmony, or life, ceases. Even the slightest wind blows, and it will soon collapse.
In today's text, the people of Israel, who had been living with a mask of their sins, had a realization as they saw God's fervor in the judgment of God that appeared among the nations and the power that appeared on it. The main content is to let them know that they will be able to see the face of God by knowing God's mercy and receiving the promise of the sending of the Holy Spirit. What does it mean to see the face of God? If God is a spirit and not a human being, does he really have a face? God uses many parables in human form to help us understand. To see the face of God means to experience in your life your interest and love for yourself as God's people. “God cares so much about me,” that is, experiencing a specific relationship between God and oneself. "God loves me so much", that is, experiencing God's concrete love for himself. When is God's face revealed? When do I know God's interest and love in my life?
First of all, it is when humans know the shame of a mask.
Everyone wears a mask and lives. The mask has served to hide our dirty sins. "Is there anyone who can't fly by shaking the dust?" What does this mean? In fact, we are all living in the dust of sin. There is no one who is not a sinner among those who live and breathe in this world. The only people who think they are not sinners are those who live under their mask. People try to hide themselves by making them absolute no matter how they do the little things they have. In order to hide their own weakness, they live by absoluteizing the things that God has given them. This is life wearing a mask. Rockefeller was known as the richest man in America. He was a rich man who didn't know what to do with a lot of money. Rockefeller was living in the mask of a rich man. His life was focused on how to make more profit.
In fact, it is a waste of time to go to church. Worshiping God is the next best thing if there is something to further maximize one's own profit. The church goes to the extent of appearing to God for the protection of its own profit. Then one day, the doctor tells Rockefeller how serious the illness is. I am diagnosed with a feeling that I will not live long. Laying on his bed, Rockefeller thinks. If you die now, you will find that that much money has nothing to do with you and is useless.
You cannot take the wealth you have obtained by squeezing out your own wisdom to heaven, and you do not need to take it with you, even though it is said that there is everything in heaven. At that time, I remember my mother's religious education when I was a child in Sunday school. Mother trained Rockefeller to pay tithes out of the pocket money she earned because everything belongs to God. Rockefeller is terrified to think of the tithe he's been paying off. At the same time, the words written in the hospital that the person who gives the scriptures are blessed touches my heart.
He starts to realize. Faith is surrendering yourself to God, and you come to realize that you are using God as a means to meet your needs. Strictly speaking, he realizes that he intended to borrow the power of God to fulfill his desires, not his own needs. Even though they called on the name of God, they realize that it was a formal relationship where they could not see God's face. Although he used God's name, he realized that he could not face God's face. Wearing a material mask, you realize that you cannot experience a concrete relationship with the true God at all. The reason was the same as the Israelites did not see the face of God even though they were God's people.
“I have covered my face from them because of their uncleanness and their transgressions” (verse 24). Death was the time when God's judgment and power were revealed. When he stands before death, he realizes who God is. You come to realize that God has given you such an abundant life. “When they dwell in the land in peace, and there is no one to fear, they will be ashamed and repent of their sins against me” (verse 26). It's possible. He had no choice but to be ashamed of discovering his true nature, who disregarded and despised God, disrespecting him as God's. Seeing how he loved money more than God, he couldn't help but feel ashamed. The Rockefeller Foundation was born through this realization of shame and repentance.
After that, he will live long and go to God's bosom. How many lives and joys have been brought to life through the Rockefeller Foundation? Most colleges and universities have Rockefeller Chapel. Through this foundation, many people will see beauty and live with life. But those who are ashamed of their own masks and have no remorse never take them off. If you find your own mask, you will take it off when you realize that it is shameful and repent. True shame leads to true repentance.
It's time for humans to take off their masks.
What does God really want in a specific encounter? God wants His children to be truthful. God comes face to face when we try to have fellowship with each other by giving out who we are. It is the fact that no matter how bad or ugly his own face is, he grants permission to meet with those who take off their masks and seek God. “The Lord is righteous, and he delights in what is right; the upright shall see his face” (Psalm 11:7). Don't forget that it makes you bitter. There is a mask that can be worn as a person of faith. I'm trying to put on the mask of faith. We call this pride of faith. Studying the Bible to deeply know and contain the grace of God can be a mask if you deviate from its purpose. You can wear the mask of Bethel Bible Study, the mask of Crossway Bible Study, the mask of experiencing God or discipleship. If spiritual training goes wrong, it can be a mask.
Some churches say that people who do not participate in some spiritual training are not treated as saints. It is said that eventually the church was turned into a place of envy, condemnation, and contention. Sometimes doctrine is the mask. All of this is not God's righteousness, but a mask of his own righteousness. However, when we take off the mask we have put on ourselves and repent and show the face of our sinful reality before God, God will face us. God looks at his face with kindness and compassion and allows us to meet with the precious blood of the Lord's love.
You will see God face to face. Heaven is the place where you will discover the interest and love of God who turned his face to embrace this ugly, dirty and sinful image as it is. If you put on the mask that hides your sins, do not forget that God turns away from you. John Bunyan, who wrote The Chronicles of the Ages, defined sin as follows: "Sin is to blaspheme God's righteousness, to rob God's mercy, to mock God's patience, to despise God's power, and to despise God's love." Are you unable to experience and share God's interest and love in a concrete way? This is because they are trying to face God with a mask on without showing their honest and real face before God.
Masks are things you believe in more than God. Unless you take off that mask with repentance through that shame, you cannot experience God's specific interest and love for you in your life. In the end, we have no choice but to lead a formal life of faith. Although it looks good only to others, it has no choice but to lead a formal life of faith that has no scent and no bees and butterflies fly. Dear saints, God specifically wants to have fellowship with you. You can see the face of God when you take off the mask that you regard as more important than God and are ashamed and repent of your sinful appearance. We can abide in His love, who cares and loves even these sinners abundantly.