In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of the face in reflecting one's faith. He begins by reading from Matthew 17:2, where Jesus' face shines with glory on the mount of transfiguration. The preacher highlights the idea that our faces should speak for Jesus and show forth His glory, rather than reflecting the devil. He shares anecdotes about a Hindu missionary who was mistaken for Jesus and a pedestrian who rejected an invitation to church based on the appearance of the person giving it. The sermon concludes with a reminder that our faces reveal what is in our hearts and the kind of Christians we are, referencing Psalm 34:5.

Today I'd like to speak about the face. I told someone on the way here, I'm going to preach about the face. And the person looked into my face and said, you mean face? I said, no, I mean face. You hear, you young girls and you young Indian girls, I want to preach about the face. Not faith, face. So the ladies will be very happy because they're very often busy with the face. Some young ones are more busy with the face than with the faith. Especially that which is above the face, on the head. But I won't tell you what that is. Of course I don't think it's only for the women. For the men are included as well because some of them have got bulldog faces. Some men are like that. But to crown your bulldog face, put a cigar in your mouth or a pipe, that's the crown for such a face. Now what has the face to do with faith or the Christian life? A face, what has that got to do with it? A face, what has that got to do with it? As I looked at this topic in the Bible, I said what a pity that we have so little time because there is so much in the word about the face. Let's begin with our text for today. We'll read from Matthew 17 verse 2. Before we read it let's bow and pray. Lord Jesus we are aware that the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. We ask you that you'd speak by your Holy Spirit to us. The spirit which can bring to life the dead letter and bring a person to life and heal a person. Be gracious to us Lord that the service would not be in vain. Work in a marvelous way Lord. They phoned me earlier on this morning from Tunzini to say that they had had a downpour of rain there in Tunzini area of two inches within a short time. Over 45 millimeters. It's been somewhat dry and we are thankful. They are grateful and in quite a few other places been dry but I was when I heard that I was grateful it hadn't rained here because aren't you made of sugar? Don't you simply melt when it rains and you don't want to come to the service? Now Matthew 17 we read verse 2 and was transfigured before them. His face shone like the Sun and his clothes became as white as the light. And then we read 2 Corinthians chapter 3. Verse 18. 2nd Corinthians 3. 3 that's chapter 3 verse 18. But we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as by the Spirit of the Lord. Let me read that verse again. But we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as by the Spirit of the Lord. We who bow down to gods we need to realize that those gods leave their imprints their impression upon our faces. Never forget that the gods that you worship they write their names on your faces. And it is without fail. Go for instance to Papua New Guinea. Look at the people of that area. With some of their faces you think that they have they are animals and you feel like running away. Why so? Because their gods have written their names upon their faces. Go into jails. Go to murderers. Study their faces and you will behold the names of their gods written upon their faces. And be fully aware. Because the gods you worship write their own names upon your face. Look at witches. Or those who are involved in ancestral worship the occult. And witch doctors. Some of them even emphasize the frightening look on their faces. Because then they say that that terrifying look creates more power. I remember in 1966 when the Lord poured out his Spirit the first witch who came and think of what a witch's when she said pastor I'm troubled by these spirits and she named these ancestral spirits of the Zulu nation one by one. Her face was heartbreaking. When those warriors of darkness were driven out of her. Her face shone in a moment. And the glory of Jesus was instantly evident upon her face for she shone. And she said loudly Lord Jesus thank you for breaking the chains of darkness of Satan which I have been bound with. And so the gods you worship whether they are spirits of the dead or a promiscuity or stealing or drunkenness or jealousy. It gets written upon the face. These gods stamp their impression their names upon your face just as you find it stamped as a seal on a letter. Cain who had murdered his brother. Cain who the one who murdered his brother. Now when it was the time of the sacrifice and the Lord accepted Abel's. Rejecting that of Cain. Cain was furious. And his face was very sour at that time. God came down and said Cain why is your face so upset and angry. Even his face betrayed him for that spirit that God of murder was upon him. Was this murderous spirit. So when you get angry with your brother you know what kind of a spirit you are worshipping and bowing to. The face when studied depicts so much. His Cain's face fell. It was evident in the eyes in his mouth. Even the mouth looks different. The eyes and mouth of one who is angry just shows that there's that snake serpentine like anger. Even upon the forehead. For the face betrays some of the heart. And the mouth too. What comes out of the mouth shows what is stored up in the heart. The Bible says after all that the mouth speaks what overflows from the heart. The face of Jesus it says in our text shone like the sun. There was no darkness in him. Just as the Bible says that God is light and there is no darkness in him whatsoever. Hear the divinity of God being manifest in the Lord Jesus. Not only did his face shine but even his robes and his clothing shone. If you stand in your clothing before God will they shine with heavens light? It is said that after all clothing is meaningless. It doesn't really matter. It's just outward. But here we find even the clothing of the Lord Jesus was shining. I've often said ladies you needn't worry about doling yourself up and titivating yourself with make up when the glory of Jesus inside you will make you beautiful. Martin Lloyd Jones said that if you have the feeling that you are rejected and you don't have peace inside you and you feel restless and disturbed, joyless, depressed and down because of things. He says those things always show in a person's face. Always in a person's face. You can't mistake it. You read it in a person's face. That's why Spurgeon told his choir that sang while he preached. People that accompanied him while he was preaching. He says when you sing about heaven let your faces shine like those of angels. But if you sing about hell just leave them as they are. They are good enough. You're saying that because the expressions on the face were showing for hell and not heaven. The glory of heaven. When a happy person comes into a room it is as if another candle has been lit. It shines the brightest. But if God isn't at work in that life, that person's presence brings darkness. The text that we've read in Corinthians says that as we behold the Lord with unveiled faces we are changed. 2 Corinthians 3. We repeat it. We read it twice. But we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as by the Spirit of the Lord. If we look at Jesus his glory we are changed our faces from glory to glory. Moses was on the mountain. The people had thought he was dead or something had gone wrong. But when they beheld Moses as he descended from the mount they beheld that his face, the skin of his face was glistening. It was shining with such a glory that they put a cloth, a veil over his face. You can read that story for yourself at home in Exodus 34 from verse 30. He had been with God beholding his glory. If you are beholding Jesus how can your face not shine? There was a certain bishop in England. His name was John Smith. He was a military chaplain general during the first world war from 1914 to 1918. Now it so happened that there was to be a jubilee festivity in Chicago. And they had invited this chaplain general Smith to their jubilee celebration. Chicago being a very large city in a northerly state of America They had wanted a very special sermon. And so he was the one to be invited. Now simultaneously in the Atlantic Ocean, the ocean that is between America and Africa He had been taking his daily strolls on the ship which he was on. While he was on this ship he developed flu or laryngitis. His voice disappeared completely and he could barely whisper. He arrived in Chicago with the same problem just he could barely utter a whisper. Now at that time they didn't yet have the technical equipment of amplifiers and loudspeakers that we have. What was he to do? Should he go and just whisper in this inaudible voice of his? He said, God you've sent me. My voice is completely gone. What am I to do? Now after he had finished his speech, a person came to him. He said, Bishop I have been overcome by this message or you have overcome me. I'm giving myself to Christ. I'm becoming a Christian today. The Bishop was astonished. And then he inquired of him. Sir, what exactly was it that brought you to this point? To this decision that you'll become a Christian today? What is it that I said that convinced you that you should become a Christian? He said, Bishop, I couldn't hear one word of what you said. It was just looking at you that convinced me I must repent and turn to God. He just beheld him. Just his behaviour, the way he was, his whole visage, all that he was. That young man said, I must repent today. The Bible says we are being changed. We are being changed into the same image of the Lord, from glory to glory. And the Lord shone with that glory on the Mount of Transfiguration. In another town, there was a church on a busy main street. And an elder of the church had been standing outside the gates of this city church, inviting pedestrians, passers-by, to come to the church. He said, I want to get this program and to come to the service. And then a certain person came along, and when he gave him the invitation or program, and he looked at him in the face, I've got enough troubles of my own. I don't need more. I have sufficient problems of my own, the pedestrian said. Do you hear that? He beheld his face. And so, instinctive, his instinctive reaction was that, I have enough troubles of my own. I don't need more from people. with faces like this, I'd only be adding to my griefs. Paul in the New Testament said to one of the churches to whom he wrote, I wish to come to see your faces, so that in seeing your faces I might find out what is still lacking in your faith. What an astonishing statement. Paul wanted to see the faces of the brethren and then he would be able to tell what was still missing in their Christian lives. Many years ago when we were still at work with ministry and there was great spiritual activity at the time at Yeleferi, when we still worshipped in a little garage just in a small room, some of the heathen ladies came in and they were dressed in their traditional Zulu garb. The mother of Barney came to me and said in this place can we confess our sins? Can we find forgiveness? I said yes and indeed she got converted. She had been, she got saved. She had been the number one in the district in bead, traditional beadwork over the leather traditional skins that she wore for these beautiful beads. Then she got saved. That was the end of her She also changed her way of dressing without us telling her to. She got rid of that the skins and all the traditional clothing and by the way I've never ever told anybody to cast off their traditional clothing. I would, I've always said this, I'd much prefer people to come to church with their loincloths and their traditional skins, knowing Christ, than for people to come in nicely dressed in a Western way but with Satan in their hearts. With the form of Christianity, as the Bible says in the last days, they will come having a form but denying the power thereof. As they were seated in this old garage, it had just been swept and cleaned up for the service, they were seated there in the service, a white lady from Durban came and it seems that she didn't know Zulu and when they sang or when they spoke, she couldn't understand. But when she went out of that service, she was overwhelmed and she could not stop saying how blessed she had been with the beautiful shining faces of these ladies still in their traditional dress. She said, I want to buy you a truck, I want to buy this lorry so that you can cart people that they won't have to walk to the service. What was it that convinced her? It was simply the shining faces of the people. It was a Mrs. Hind. Mrs. Hind's husband had been an industrialist and they're the ones where you can still see the salt and pepper and different spices, Hind's products. He was killed in an airplane accident in the mountains, she was left as a widow and she was the one who bought that truck on the grounds of her experience of these shining faces. The face. Even though you're facially disadvantaged and you're unattractive by nature, the glory of the Lord Jesus in you will shine and show forth his beauty as you cast off the things that are at enmity with him and let his beauty rule within. Stephen, the one who experienced fierce resistance from this hellish crowd, as they took stones to kill him and they did hurt him. But they were astonished to behold Stephen's face shining like that of an angel. What has the face got to do with faith? Nothing, but it tells volumes. It reveals what's in your heart and what you are like, what kind of a Christian you are. There's a verse in Psalm 34 verse 5. I almost forgot to mention that one. 34 verse 5. They looked to him and were radiant. Their faces were not ashamed. They were radiant. There is a song. Look at his wonderful face and the things of this world will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. Does your face speak for Jesus? Shows forth the glory of Jesus? Or show forth the devil? I don't know whether this is understandable or not. I thought it was something quite clear, but should this be like Greek to you, well then you need to be specially delivered from these demons that stop you from understanding. One Indian missionary, Hindu missionary, when he was in England, the teenage girl went to the door hearing the knocking, opened the door, she saw the man and she ran back to her mother. And her mother says, child who's there at the door? She says, I don't know, but he looks like Jesus. One Indian missionary, Hindu missionary, when he was in England, the teenage girl went to the door hearing the knocking, opened the door, she says, I don't know, but he looks like Jesus. You then, who do you look like? It cannot but be that you will look like your master. Never. For your face to shine, let your heart shine. Part from the devil, part from sins. And if you should forget, ever forget these words, then go home and write it down. You can even write it in your Bible. And you can look at it every day for the rest of your life. The gods we serve. All the gods we worship, write their names on our faces. May God's glory be seen in your face. And Revelation says one day, he, our Lord, will write his name on our foreheads. But if you are not faithful to God and to Jesus Christ, you will just be giving the Antichrist a chance to write his name on your forehead. Now, I'm your Georgia. I'm your favor. I'm I'm You use your right hand, you use your hand for that which is evil, for stealing, for groping, you will have the mark of the devil upon it. And so with the mark of the devil on your hand or your forehead, where do you think you're going to go when you die? I would be a liar if I stand at your grave and I justify you and say, well, this person is in heaven. And say, oh, when he gets to heaven, Jesus will stretch forth his hand and say, well done, good and faithful servant. What a fool he'd be. And that Christ I don't want to serve. Not in this world and in the world to come. Never. You can do it. Go and serve him. But I want to serve the one. When it was revealed what's in him and who he truly was, he shone brighter than the sun. Even his clothing were lit up. Let us pray. Let us pray. Lord Jesus, I pray that they hear us this morning when death. And if they are those that don't understand. Oh, God, be merciful and raise them from the dead. That they'll be alive. That they'll understand what your holy word tells us so clearly. Amen.