15 As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness;
when I awake I shall be satisfied, beholding your likeness.
There is a pop-theology idea floating around these days that teaches Christians can, and should enjoy prosperity in health, wealth and every other area of life. It seems to imply that if you are not swimming in cash, dressed in diamonds and able to display abs that are “cut and buff” there is something drastically wrong with your spiritual commitment. One of the most visible proponents of this philosophy is Joel Osteen. One of his flock referred to him as the “Pastor of feel good”; I have listened to him on at least a dozen occasions, and have never heard him say anything approaching a negative statement.
Now, that’s easy to listen-to, however, I’m not certain it is faithful preaching of God’s word. He makes, what seems to most people, good sense, but those are his thoughts, and they disagree sharply with what God’s Word actually teaches. You must outline what is wrong if you want to be able to show what is right and good.
Osteen’s following is phenomenal at Lakewood Church in Houston. Reports show that upwards of 45,000 people gather to hear their leader preach the Gospel of Prosperity.
Now it is a tempting thing to think and organize your life around that kind of philosophy; there’s just one problem with it – it’s dead wrong. It not only flies in the face of Scripture, but ignores life and common sense. The “Prosperity Gospel” teaches you can have it all, and you can have it now”. The Scriptures (and life, natural laws of science and common sense) tell us that part of any result which is long-lasting, desirable, and honest is achieved by working hard with integrity, waiting and God’s providence.
* If you want a crop you have to work hard, wait, and see God give the increase.
* If you want the interest the bank promised (assuming THEY are honest), you still have to wait.
* If you want justice (hoping they are honest), you sometimes have to wait into the next life.
* And if you want genuine and true answers...well, get used to being on hold; you’re going to be there for a while.
God sometimes does bless people with unusual wealth, health and abilities. He sometimes responds quickly and decisively to our prayers to “balance the books” of right and wrong; sometimes, not! But there are always three consistent factors that agree with Scripture, God’s Sovereignty and common sense about how, where, when and why He acts:
a. It’s always in His way.
b. It’s always in His time.
c. In the end He will be RIGHT!
Mr. Osteen is a good-looking, likeable and very charismatic young man with a great smile; but he, and all those who preach the empty hope of the prosperity gospel are false teachers, leading people away from a Biblical faith in the true reward that God has in store for those who love Him. The Bible indicates that false teachers teach for profit, and they teach untrue things that sound really good.
Peter warned the early church that Scripture is not to be interpreted on the strength of one, or even a few people’s notion of what God’s Word means. The church (and that includes the mainline and well-established evangelical denominations) has never taught prosperity Gospel. Peter said, in effect: watch out for that group; if you go with that philosophy you’ll come to the end God has for them.
They’ve put themselves on a fast downhill slide to destruction, 2but not before they recruit a crowd of mixed-up followers who can’t tell right from wrong. They give the way of truth a bad name. 3They’re only out for themselves. They’ll say anything, anything, that sounds good to exploit you. 1 Peter 2:1b-3 (The Message New Testament)
Now, I’ve gone (as they say) a “far piece” and laid-out some pretty negative words in order to set a dark background; that is the best way to see the light!
I would like to spend our remaining time holding up the word of God’s genuine light about the real rewards God has for you. I guarantee you it is better than a Rolls Royce, or a pocket-full of cash.
(Incidentally….about that pocket-full of cash thing; how many rich people have you ever heard about who either felt they had enough, or were completely at peace about money in any way? Just thought I’d throw that in without any extra charge!)
The rewards God has for those who love and follow Him are not “of this earth”, just as assuredly as when Jesus stood before Pontius Pilate and told him, My Kingdom is not of this earth.
There are those who twist and pervert Scripture to present a point of view, so this morning, allow me to just stick with what God has said. Here are three certainties from God’s Holy Word upon which you can rely. It is all about the real prosperity of the day a believer comes face to face with Jesus Christ.
Certainty #1. I Will See Him
1 Corinthians 13:12 (NRSVA)
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.
In the days of the Old Testament there was really “fuzzy” thinking about the afterlife. But in David’s Psalm there isn’t much doubt that he understood he would see God after this life is over.
15As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness;
when I awake I shall be satisfied, beholding your likeness.
The word “awake” has always stirred some controversy about whether that means “tomorrow” or “day-after-day” or if it is a statement of resurrection. The word is used in all three of those ways in the Hebrew Scriptures; but the context and thrust lead many of the church’s Biblical scholars over the centuries to conclude this is a foreshadowing of resurrection.
We don’t understand even a little of what God’s creation is like. Paul says we see things as if we’re looking through a murky drinking glass our three year old played with in the mud outside. You can’t see the other side of the glass. But then….we see face to face.
An old hymn that isn’t even in our hymnal is “Face to Face with Christ”.
Only faintly now I see Him,
With the darkling veil between,
But a blessed day is coming,
When His glory shall be seen
Face to face I shall behold Him,
Far beyond the starry sky;
Face to face in all His glory,
I shall see Him by and by! [1]
We will see Jesus, the one who died for us. I shall see Him, face to face! But David said we will see our Redeemer in righteousness. The fact is that is the only way you can stand before God and “see” Him. That righteousness is nothing which we have; it must be provided for us. Jesus did that on the cross, and we only need trust Him. It means, if you’re going to see Him face to face, He must not just be THE savior – He must be YOUR Savior. It has to be personal. There must be a moment when you settle things. You must accept what He did for you. It is like any other gift – it isn’t truly yours until you receive it, open it, accept it!
And when you do that, the Bible tells us that confessing our sins to God means that the blood Jesus shed on Calvary’s cross became your blood…His sacrifice was intended for you; when you acknowledge it and accept it, it becomes your valid righteousness before God. You accept His son; God accepts you AS His child, and cleanses every stain of sin from your record!
A second certainty about when believers die and come face to face with Him…
Certainty #2. I Will Be Seen BY Him
Matthew 5:8 (NRSVA)
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Now, this is a promise, that the “pure in heart” will see God. Who are the “pure in heart”? They’re the ones I just described, the forgiven and cleansed.
Many times as a child I managed to get myself in trouble. I was always forgiven when I went to my parents and confessed. But, until I did so the guilt was always overwhelming. The last thing I wanted to see was the hurt in my mother’s eyes, or the look in my Father’s eyes!
That holds true with God. When we are unprepared, lost in un-confessed sin, who wants to see the Judge? But the cleansing of Jesus’ blood leads to the kind of forgiveness that is righteousness or purity of heart. At times in my life I’ve had people who do not understand this question my opinion of myself…you are soooooooo pure and holy, eh? Now they would have cause for questioning Russell’s purity and righteousness level; some people address me as “Reverend” and I’m not really able to assume that position on anyone’s pedestal. But that’s the misunderstanding; it isn’t my righteousness, or your purity, but it is the righteousness of God, and His own purity that He gives you when you confess your sins. You stand uncondemned in front of Him. That makes seeing Him, and Him seeing you a whole different experience.
Another example would be in marriage. There have been times in the past 41½ years that I have left the house to go to work after having some disagreement with Elizabeth. All through the day there are ambivalent feelings; I don’t want to go home, but I can’t wait to get there. I don’t want to go home, because 98.9% of the time she was right and I was stubborn; I can’t wait to get there, because I want to make it right, and nothing but “face to face” will do. That’s how it is with God…you want to see Him, but you really NEED for Him to see you, to know you, to search your inner self like nobody else on the planet can do – not even you. Believers will see Him, and He will see us.
And then a third certainty…
Certainty #3. I Will Be Like Him
1 John 3:2 (NRSVA)
Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.
It is a Wesleyan foundation drawn from Scripture that we are created in God’s image.[2] We all know that image has been corrupted. We’ve come a long way, baby! John said the image is on its way back; when we see Him, all the corruption will fade away.
Again, the old hymn:
What rejoicing in His presence,
when are banish’d grief and pain;
When the crooked ways are straighten’d,
and the dark things shall be plain
That is the key to understanding David’s psalm; he said:
when I awake I shall be satisfied, beholding your likeness.
Satisfied is what happens when God restores me into the image of Christ. In fact, that’s what God is always working-on…transformation of sinful people into the image of Christ.
I ran across an example of that this week. It is a little piece written by a person who might live in an area like Franklinville:
A stranger came by the other day with an offer that set me to thinking. He wanted to buy the old barn that sits out by the highway. I told him right off that he was crazy. He was a city type. You could tell by his clothes, his car, his hands, and the way he talked.
He said he was driving by and saw that beautiful barn sitting out in the tall grass and wanted to know if it was for sale. I told him he had a funny idea of beauty. Sure, it was a handsome building in its day. But then, there’s been a lot of winters pass with their snow and ice and howling wind. The summer sun’s beat down on that ole’ barn till all the paint’s gone, and the wood has turned silver gray. Now the old building leans a good deal, looking kind of tired. Yet, that fellow called it beautiful.
That set me to thinking. I walked out to the field and just stood there, gazing at that old barn. The stranger said he planned to use the lumber to line the walls of his den in a new country home he’s building down the road. He said you couldn’t get paint that beautiful. Only years of standing in the weather, bearing the storms and scorching sun...only that can produce beautiful barn wood.
It came to me then. We’re a lot like that, you and I. Only it’s on the inside that the beauty grows with us. Sure, we turn silver gray, too... and lean a bit more than we did when we were young and full of sap. But the Good Lord knows what He’s doing. And as the years pass He’s busy using the hard wealth of our lives, the dry spells and the stormy seasons, to do a job of beautifying our souls that nothing else can produce. And to think how often folks holler because they want life easy!
They took the old barn down today and hauled it away to beautify a rich man’s house. And I reckon someday you and I will be hauled off to Heaven to take on whatever chores the Good Lord has for us on the Great Sky Ranch. And I suspect we’ll be more beautiful then, for the seasons we’ve been through... Like the seasoned barn wood is used to beautify a home, the hard seasons in our lives, will surely bring a little bit of beauty into heaven. [3]
Face to face – oh, blissful moment!
Face to face – to see and know;
Face to face with my Redeemer,
Jesus Christ who loves me so.
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ENDNOTES
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1] Words Breck, Tune Tullar
2] Genesis 1:27
3] http://www.countrywhispers.com/oldbarn/
