Seek God's Face

Trinity II - June 5, 2005

Hosea 5:15-6:6

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

God is love. At least that is the mantra one hears today. We hear about the Gospel as the good news of how God loves us. This, dear friends, is very true. However, if this is all of the story, there is something tragically missing. Many people believe that God is nothing more than a God of love - a loving God who takes everybody to heaven. A loving God who would never send anybody to hell, no matter what they do or what they believe.

Some people proclaim that the Christians who teach that God has given moral absolutes, and threatens punishment to those who remain unrepentant, are unloving. In fact, there are some Christians and even some Christian denominations who have gotten on board the bandwagon that states, “God would never punish anybody, for that would be the act of an unloving God, and God is love.”

Of course, God is love, we all believe that. God tells us such. In Christ Jesus’s sacrificial death, we see how much God does love us. Furthermore, God tells us that unless His love fills us, we cannot love Him or others. Unfortunately, our culture has confused the removal of rules and their consequences, with love. Just because there are no rules, and therefore no consequences when those rules are broken, doesn’t mean there is love.

Imagine telling a parent that because they grounded their child for a week for an hour late violation of their curfew, that they are unloving. Would you tell the parent who removes TV for two weeks as a consequence to a “F” on a science test, that they are unloving?

I can tell you, kids will claim their parents are unloving when they discipline them - it’s a ploy for sympathy. And yet, the reason parents make rules, and then discipline their children for breaking those rules, is out of love.

When someone complains about the rules, and that there are consequences for breaking those rules, what is the reason for their response? Could it be that they do not want to admit their guilt? Could it be that they don’t want to have to deal with the consequences?

God’s law says there is acceptable behavior and unacceptable behavior. Unacceptable behavior is called sin. Could the reason people are unwilling to admit their sin be because they are afraid of the consequences? Of course, there might be another reason for unwillingness to admit guilt. Admission of guilt would mean that they must put an end to the behavior that is sinful. Let’s face it, which one of us, when confronted with our sin, really wants to give it up?

Personally, I really don’t like it when my son tells me that I haven’t fastened my seat belt or that I’m speeding. But, he’s right! I can choose to ignore his warning. I can refuse to repent and turn from my sinfulness, and continue to be disobedient to the law of the land. If I do so, I may possibly suffer the consequences of my actions if an officer of the law does his job and pulls me over. If, in fact, I choose to continue in my defiant disregard for the law, is the police officer the bad guy? Of course not, I broke the law, whether it seems rather insignificant or not.

Today, we have two Biblical examples of how God uses the Gospel and how the Gospel is intimately tied to His Law. In our Gospel lesson from Matthew, Jesus is eating with tax collectors and “sinners”. The Pharisees act as if Jesus is sinning by doing so. Yet this entire situation takes place to show that there is forgiveness for those who repent, those who recognize their sin and seek the forgiving face of God. In our text, those who have recognized their sin and are repentant and seeking God’s forgiveness, are the tax collectors and so-called sinners.

On the other hand, there are the Pharisees. These are the ones who see themselves as better than others, they are self-righteous and do not feel they need to repent. Jesus points out, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

In these words, Jesus points out to the Pharisees that they too are sinners. After all, why did God command them to make sacrifices? To atone for sin. The Pharisees pointed at all they did, the way they kept the laws in regard to sacrifice and cleanliness and such as why they thought they were righteous by their own works.

The purpose God gave those laws to them, was to remind them of their unrighteousness and keep them looking forward to the perfect sacrifice to come in God’s Promised Messiah. They had forgotten all this. The sacrifices they made had become an empty ritual by which they were showing off their self-righteousness. And in so doing, they were showing God their unbelief, for they no longer were seeking God’s face.

The tax collectors and sinners recognized their sin. In fact, their sin was plainly obvious to them. Zaccheus was labeled such by the people. When Jesus went to eat with Zaccheus, they grumbled, “He has gone to be the guest of a ‘sinner.’” Zaccheus didn’t plead his innocence. He didn’t claim that God is a God of love who wouldn’t punish the impenitent. Instead, he was repentant, evidenced by his turning away from his when he said, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” (Luke 19:1-10)

In his repentance, Zaccheus not only expresses sorrow over his sin, but immediately intends to turn from his sinful practice and live a new life. In his repentance, he looks to the face of God in Christ Jesus for forgiveness.

To understand God’s love in the Gospel, we need to understand God’s law and its role. God’s law shows us what we are to do and what we are not to do. It shows us God’s desires in the life of those who would live according to His will. It shows to us our own disobedience.

The purpose for which God gives His law is to drive us to seek His face. Listen to our text from Hosea again. In it, God has Hosea record what happens in His calling them back:

God says, “Then I will go back to my place until they admit their guilt. And they will seek my face; in their misery they will earnestly seek me.” The people respond, “Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence. Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.” God responds to them,“What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with you, Judah? Your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears. Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets, I killed you with the words of my mouth; my judgments flashed like lightning upon you. For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

Can you hear God’s frustration? He desires His people to love Him, to seek His face. But, the only time that people seek the face of God is when they admit their guilt. In other words, only in repentance do people seek God’s face. Repentance is sorrow over their sin, a turning from it to live a new life, and turning to God’s face - turning to the forgiveness purchased, given, and sealed in Christ Jesus.

In our text we see that prophesy that the face of God is in Christ, for “on the third day he will restore us.” For what purpose? “That we may live in His presence.”(6:2) On the third day, Christ rose from the dead - all those who live in Christ are raised to new life with Him.

God gave His prophets to cut the people “to pieces”, to kill them with the words of His mouth. Why? So they’d seek His face. In God’s Word, His law kills us, it drives us to the Gospel - we are driven to despair so that we might rejoice in God’s gift of life in the forgiveness of sins.

Where God’s Law works no despair, there is no repentance. Some people may deny God’s law, “God’s a God of love, He’d never punish anybody.” Some may attempt to justify their behavior, “God made me this way.” But, whatever the excuse used, this is simply a denial of God’s Law. What is more, it is also a denial of God’s love, for a denial of sin is a denial of the need for Christ and therefore a rejection of the cross. The denial of God’s law and lack of repentance seeks nothing more than to find salvation in self, not in God’s Christ.

True repentance seeks the face of God. The face of God has only ever been seen by sinful man in the face of Jesus Christ, true God and true Man. In Jesus Christ God’s love was incarnate, it took on human flesh, to die for sin and grant forgiveness and new life.

God desires to be merciful. God desires to shower us with His love. God wants us to seek His face. Our love is fickle, it seeks only to make our own flesh happy, we try to justify our behavior within the boundaries of the law - even if we have to remake God’s law to suit our own desire.

God desires us to turn from our own flesh and seek His face. God’s face is love, and mercy, and grace. God’s face comes to us in the person and work of Jesus Christ. God’s loving Face was bruised by blows from sinful men and it’s brow was pierced by a thorny crown. God’s merciful Face begged the Father to forgive those who abused Him so.

Today, God’s Face showers you with His grace. Christ, the very Face of God, comes to you in Word and meal that you might seek Him where He has promised to be found.

Seek His Face, here He speaks to you forgiveness - for all your disobedience to His Word and will.

Seek His Face, here He feeds you life giving food and satisfying drink, His own body and blood - given and shed for the forgiveness of your sins.

Seek His face and know that in Christ Jesus, the Face of God grants you His mercy unto life everlasting. Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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