See the Face of God

This morning I'm actually going to reveal a couple things about how I preach and how I decide what I'm going to say. Some of that is because of the theme of this morning, but one of them is actually a circumstance. The circumstance is the fact that I always Google whatever word or theme that I'm going to be exploring and study or or proclaiming and that's because I at one level I really want to know what the world is saying about whatever the topic is and so Google is well it shows you what the the popular what is popular among culture and so it was interesting this week I googled see the face of God and it was the most fascinating response the the the top few hits were a line from Victor Hugo's Les Mis. And the reason that's interesting is because there's quite a few folks in the church that seems to be somewhat enamored by this musical. The line is this, to love another person is to see the face of God. That just is profoundly nonsensical to me. And so I decided I should watch Les Mis. You know, they move, I guess it would be. And it didn't help at all. It was a great, great story and a great story of redemption, but I still have no idea what that line is. And so the Google search really only gave me an introduction that ends there. Last week, we studied idolatry. We were looking at the golden calf, Exodus 32, and we saw that God had been giving his instructions for the tabernacle. And then all of a sudden, it's just this abrupt change, this intrusion in the story of how God is saying, this is how you'll worship me. And the problem is Israel has begun worshiping another god. They've been worshiping another idol, an idol. And so, they have broken his covenant. Well, as we'll see, chapters 32-34, they're a unit. They hold together. And it's rebellion, mediation, reconciliation. Rebellion, mediation, reconciliation. It's beautiful with the gospel. That's what the gospel is. Our rebellion. Christ's mediation. God reconciling us to himself. Last week, we really saw the rebellion. In its height, the monumental mistake of Israel in the golden calf, we saw Moses as a figure of Christ in his mediation. Next week, we'll see the full reconciliation. This week, today, I really want to look at a particular happening, at a particular few phrases from chapters 33 and 34. I want to look at Moses' bold request. Let me see your glory and God's response. No one can see my face and live. We'll be looking at the theme of seeing the face of God. Now, the reason I introduced you by saying I want to talk about how I preach and why I do what I do, I preach. There's really always two tasks before me. Googling was something I do just for fun. But the real two tasks that I always set before me every time I preach, I go through back to the sermon. I make sure these two things are there. The first is the gospel of Jesus Christ. If we're not proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ, how sinners become saints by belief through their belief in the Jesus Christ who died for them and rose again. Well, it's just some moral lesson that can be spoken of anywhere. As a church, we are centered around the gospel and the gospel must always be clear. The second thing is, my desire is to always give a clear vision of who God is to the body. God's word is about God, and so every sermon must be about God and must proclaim Him and lift Him up, so that as He is lifted up, He will draw men to Him. And seeing His face is really one of the most, well, it's a theme throughout Scripture that has impacted me the most. I want us to always have a desire to see God more in his glory and to always be seeking him to reveal his face to us. Now, this particular task is the most burdensome. Because here it is, I'm supposed to proclaim the indescribable. I'm supposed to present the one who can only reveal himself. I am supposed to proclaim a pure vision of the one and only true pure God with impure lips to impure ears. And here is the battle. This is how this is where we remember that God is good. He reveals himself. He is merciful to speak. He is merciful to open our ears, open our eyes and change our hearts. This morning, the thematic sentence, the message summary is this. We are to seek God's face to worship him by repenting of our idolatry. That's fairly complicated. We are to seek God's face. We could leave it there by repenting of our idolatry. Now, if you were here last week, that probably sounds very similar because last week the message was we are to repent of our idolatry by seeking God's face or by fixing our eyes upon God and his glory. Well, that's fairly intentional. These two messages are very similar because our problem is the same. We're idolaters and the solution is the same. God is rich in His mercy to save us. The first thing I want us to see as we look to Exodus 33 and 34 and we will be reading these chapters and looking at them. But it is a little bit of a different message as I'm going to be looking at the theme of seeing God throughout Scripture and that's why the inserts there for you. But the first thing I want us to see now is that God makes himself known. God makes himself known. And this is putting this request. Let me see your glory in the context of the book of Exodus. The main theme of Exodus is God makes his name known. God is making his name known. Exodus is about God disclosing who he is to Egypt through destruction and who he is to Israel through deliverance. God is making himself known to Egypt through their destruction and to Israel through deliverance. He's disclosing himself to the world in a new way. He is showing that he is committed to his people, that he is the one and only true God, the only God who is worthy of worship, the only God who is mighty to save, the only God who has a deep love for his people that he has chosen. He's the only God who has a commitment to them. He's revealing that he has a will for his people to live for him as his nation. He's revealing more of his glory and more of his goodness. As we're ending Exodus, this is a good reminder. God speaks and makes himself known. That's what Exodus is all about, revealing the name of God. Now, there's an important implication here for us that I think we oftentimes take for granted. God speaks. That is a truth that we too easily and too often take for granted. We only know God because he makes himself known. We only know God because he makes himself known. We were created to listen, to trust, and obey. But we chose to ignore, deny, and rebel. And God, in his mercy, didn't stop speaking. God, in his mercy, spoke the word of the gospel and continued to speak to us. God initiates our relationship by continuing to speak to us. He speaks to us, most importantly for us, in his word. This is why the Bible is what we speak of. This is why the Bible is the center of what we do. This is why we read the Bible as part of our worship service. God initiates. Now, we need to identify the problem and that if you're not hearing God, it's not because God isn't speaking. It's because our sin keeps us from hearing him. If we're not hearing God, it's not because God isn't speaking, God spoke, God is speaking. If you're not hearing him, it's your sin that keeps you from hearing him. And that means that leads us to repentance. The second thing I want us to do is now look at this particular section of the story. We'll be reading Exodus 33 through 34, 9, and you can use the Pew Bible in front of you if you don't have a Bible. It's found on page 73 and 74 there. We'll be reading Exodus 33, and here we're going to see what it looks like to desire more knowledge, a desire to see God as he is. I begin reading in Exodus 33. The Lord said to Moses. Depart, go up from here. You and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying to your offspring, I will give it. I will send an angel before you. I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way. You are a stiff-necked people." Now, if you weren't here last week, the major change in what God is doing now in Israel as He is talking to Moses, He calls them your people. Throughout Exodus, the sweet declaration that God has said is that you are my people. But because they have broken God's covenant, he has stopped declaring them to be his people. And he's telling Moses that they are, they are his. He's quit saying they're my people. He said, now I will not go up among you. My presence will not be with you as you go. That's the major difference. And the problem there is that Israel has been stiff-necked. Verse four. When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. For the Lord had said to Moses, Say to the people of Israel, You are a stiff-necked people. If for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you. Therefore, the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments from Mount Horeb onward. Now, Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up and each would stand at his tent door and watch Moses until he'd gone into the tent. When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would ascend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. And when all the people saw the pillar of clouds standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship each at his tent door. Thus, the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again to the camp, his assistant, Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent. Moses said to the Lord. And listen, for for these bold statements from Moses. Moses said to the Lord, See, you say to me, bring up this people, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, I know you by name and you have also found favor in my sight. Now, therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider, too, that this is this nation is your people. And he said, my presence will go with you and I will give you rest. And he said to him, if your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight? I and your people, is it not in your going with us so that we are a that we are distinct? I and your people from every other people on the face of the earth. And the Lord said to Moses, This very thing that you have spoken, I will do for you have found favor in my sight and I know you by name. Moses said, please show me your glory. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name, the Lord, and I'll be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But he said, you cannot see my face for man shall not see me and live. And the Lord said, Behold, there's a place by me where you shall stand on the rock. Well, my glory passes by. I'll put you in a class for the rock. Now I'll cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I'll take away my hand and you shall see my back. But my face shall not be seen. The Lord said to Moses, cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Be ready by the morning and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain. No one shall come up with you and let no one be seen throughout all the mountain. Let no flocks or herds graze opposite that mountain. So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first and he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him and took in his hand two tablets of stone. The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But who, by no means clear the guilty. visiting the iniquity of the fathers and the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation. And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. And he said, If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us for your inheritance. As we consider the request here, let me see your face. Seeing it in the full context is helpful, because we can go all the way back to Exodus 3.6, which I think is on your handout. It reminds us of Moses' first encounter. Exodus 3.6. And God said, I'm the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. This is this is Moses introduction or God introducing himself to Moses and look at Moses response. Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. Exodus three, he's afraid to look at God. Exodus 33, he's making the request. Lord, let me see your glory. Now, what's happened between Exodus 3 and 33 is, well, hugely significant. God has revealed himself mightily. He's shown himself to be merciful and patient. He's proven that he is the one true God who has committed himself to Moses and his people. We see a man grown up now, a man with faith who's learned to walk with God. His first response is to hide his face. Now Moses is saying, let me see your glory. And God says, no one can see my face and live. And this is an important dilemma here. Moses is asking to see the glory. And God says, no one can see my face and live. And well, this forces a few questions that I think we have to ask. Why is Moses making this request? Why here, why now, is Moses making the request to see the face of God? That's question one. Question two, how is looking at God's face different than speaking with God face to face? Moses was speaking with God face to face, but then God says you can't see my face. So how do we reconcile those two particular descriptions or passages? And then finally, What is God's face? Or what is Moses requesting to see? Well first, let's ask the question, why is Moses making this request? This section is moving towards the... we're moving forward in these chapters. Moses is mediating for a people who's rebelled and God is reconciling them. So that has to be in the backdrop of how we think of this. They've rebelled, he's mediating, we're moving towards reconciliation. The text shows us the mediating process. Moses is making requests, keep your people, take them back as your own, stay with us, lead us, let your presence be here with us. The request to see God's glory, I think, is a request to see a demonstration that God will truly keep his word. and to help Israel see that God has not forsaken them. Because Israel has heard him say, you're a stiff-necked people, I cannot be with you. I believe this request is asking for a visible demonstration, not just for Moses, but for all of Israel, so that they would see that God is keeping his word, that God is going to reconcile them. See, every time God has acted, he's given a visible presentation of his covenant. The fire by night, the cloud by day, the deliverance of God had great signs and wonders of God's power and his might. Moses is asking God to do what he's done before, and that is to give a clear, definitive presentation that he has truly forgiven Israel and he will reconcile them. And we'll look more at what that reconciliation was next week. Now let's ask the question, the second question, how is seeing his face different from speaking face-to-face? Because if Moses is speaking face-to-face and you can't see God's face and live, well, we've got a little problem if those two things mean the same. But I'm sorry, I believe speaking to God face-to-face, that's an idiom. It means that God is just allowing Moses to come into his presence and speak to him as if a friend. It's an expression of intimacy not to be taken literally. It speaks more of how they spoke with one another rather than what Moses has been seeing or what has been revealed to Moses in the tent. I also, I don't think this is the way Moses always spoke to God. Here, I think Moses is saying in this one instance, I spoke to God as if a friend, and that explains all these very bold request that he made of God. Again, he says, God, you told me you'd bring this people up and then you say, well, now come with us. You tell me that you know my name and I found favor in your sight. Well, if so, show me your way. He also says, remember, this is your people, your nation. The point is that Moses is making very bold requests in his speaking with face-to-face. He is speaking with someone that he knows he can say what he truly wants to say, and God will be merciful in hearing him. This is important because he is able to speak to God in a certain way. He was a child who was afraid of God, but now he's grown into a man who has a faith in God, as he has seen God through new eyes. He feared God, and now he sees God as a friend. As we think about this, we have to realize that we're invited to speak to God in a way even better than Moses. We just don't go to God and speak to him as if he's a friend. We actually have a unique way of speaking to God that Jesus Christ introduced to us. We get to call God Father. We take that for granted. Because, well, everyone in our culture calls God Father. But that is a new, unique privilege that Christians get to have when we speak to God, because we get to go to God as sons to the Father in the name of Jesus Christ, who is the Son sent to save us by the Father. So as we pray, we pray with confidence and boldness. But we also make sure our prayers are always lofty. Our prayers are to praise God, to lift him up. Our prayers are to be personal. We're speaking to a God who cares for us. And we're supposed to love because he's first loved us. Let's make sure our prayers are to God, clinging to his promises, as Moses very well demonstrates. Now, let's ask the most complicated question. What would Moses have seen if he had seen God's face? What is he asking for there? What would he see if he saw God's face? Moses' request is, I believe, to see God in his glory. And the clue there is that Moses says, can I see your face? And God says, no one, I'm sorry, Moses says, can I see your glory? And Moses, and God says, no one can see my face. I believe the request to see God's glory, God is equating with his face. God says you cannot see my face, you cannot see my glory. Why can't man see God's glory? What has God seen, what has he already seen if it's not his glory? Well, Isaiah gives us a clue as to why man cannot see God's glory. If you look at your passage there, Isaiah saw the throne of God high and lifted up, and Isaiah's response when he saw God's glory is that I am undone. He had to be forgiven of his iniquity. Our sin is what keeps us from seeing and experiencing God's glory. Atonement is needed. It's interesting. God says, I'm going to, I'm going to hide you in the rock. I'm going to unveil myself and you can only see the backside of You can't see the fullness of my glory and the principle there is that you are too sinful. You are too impure to see the perfect purity of the one and holy true God. He can only see the afterglow of God's radiance, but what God says he will do is I will show you my goodness. I will pass before you my goodness. I will proclaim to you my name, but my face, my glory, You cannot see. What God is doing here is protecting Moses. In the same way we looked at a couple of weeks ago in the tabernacle, that veil that protects the most holy place, that's for our protection. That keeps sinners from going too close into God's intimate, immediate presence, lest we be overcome with his wrath. God knows how sinful we are. God knows what we can take. God knows how to reveal himself in a way that takes us from baby faith to mature faith like Moses. God doesn't just unleash all of his glory because it would consume us. It's kind of like Nolan Ryan back in the 80s or 90s or probably even still today. If he's throwing a baseball with a young child, he's not bringing the heat. He would not only injure the child, Possibly could do some real damage if he threw the ball as hard as he could to a child. When God speaks to us, when God reveals himself to us, he doesn't give us all of his glory because it will consume us and destroy us. God responds when Moses says, let me see your glory. He says, you will see my goodness and you will hide behind the rock and I will show you only the afterglow of my glory. Because if you looked into the true glory, you'll be able to look into the sun. It would destroy your sight. It would overcome you. Now, this is where it gets real interesting. Moses said, let me see your glory. God says, I will pass by you the revelation of my goodness. And what we have recorded is not a vision. What we have recorded is what God said. I've wrestled with why is this? There's a popular saying, a picture is worth a thousand words. You know, as I thought, you know, we're going to the Dunrovan farm, we're going to see the sunset of the Blue Ridge Mountains. That picture would be a picture better than a thousand words. You couldn't write the description of what you saw there as the sun goes down. However, sometimes words communicate things that pictures could never do justice. Take, for instance, the simple words that we first teach our children to sing, Jesus loves me. This I know, for the Bible tells me so. Can any picture ever do justice to the three words in there? Jesus loves me. Words are powerful in communication, and that is how God has primarily chosen to reveal himself with words. What we have recorded is not a vision. Moses doesn't tell us anything about what he saw. He tells us what God said, because what God declares to us is that he is good. We see really three things. In chapter 33, 19, he declares that he is free in his grace. He declares that he is free in his grace. As we look at 33, 19. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. This is the name of the Lord. I will be gracious to whom I am gracious. I will be merciful to whom I'm merciful. The second thing is that he is rich in his grace. The first he was free. The second he is rich. This is the key passage in all of Exodus 34, beginning in six. If you're going to memorize any part of Exodus, there's the Ten Commandments. There's this. Yahweh, Yahweh, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. God is free in His grace. He is rich in His grace. Then halfway through verse 7, we see that He is just in His judgment. He will punish. He will pour out His wrath on sinners. A question I want us to all ask is this. Have you been overwhelmed with the glory and the holiness and the purity of God? Have you come to the point where you've been undone? That is a prerequisite for salvation, I believe. I've been blessed with a friend. He's not a Christian, but he gets it. He understands sin. He actually has gotten to the point where he can articulate the gospel to me, where he could go out and he could be an evangelist. He's very clear in the gospel of Jesus Christ. But he's not a Christian. And I keep asking, what's keeping you from being a Christian? And he said, I lack urgency. I said, thank you, brother. Because becoming a Christian isn't an intellectual decision. It's whenever you and your sin come face to face and you realize there's a holy God who would judge you. There's an urgency. There's an overwhelming sense of guilt and that you can you must depend upon someone else to save you. He understands sin. He understands the gospel. He understands that there must be an overwhelming, immediate need for a savior. And we're praying for him for that, and I pray for you. that you have that as well. Becoming a Christian, it's an act of God where he unveils himself. He shows you his glory. He shows you his goodness. He shows you your sin that you need a sinner. You need a savior. Christians. As we look to Moses' request, it's challenging this man who spoke to God face to face. He's not content with what he's known about God. He's constantly longing for more and more knowledge of God. This is what we should be doing. We have a greater revelation of God. We should be constantly longing for more and more knowledge of God. Is this your prayer? When you read scripture, is that what you pray beforehand? It's not just getting to the Bible in a year, it's seeing who this God is. through the Bible in a year. Are we longing to grow by the reading of his word as he discloses himself? The third point of the sermon. Really, it's the fourth question. Can we see the face of God today? Can we see the face of God today? And I believe the answer is yes. we can see the face of God, the glory of God today. Look at John one, and I'm already going to be stealing somewhat of the thunder of the John series, but that's a few weeks away. John ends his glorious prologue by contrasting Jesus and Moses. John 117 for the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. He is the greater revelation. It's a greater covenant. It's the new covenant. The point, the revelation we're about to tell you is a new revelation. There's a change in how everything works. The temple's gone. The priests are gone because Jesus Christ, the great high priest, he's in the true temple. Then John declares in verse 18, no one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the father's side. He has made him known. No one has seen God. I don't think it's a coincidence here. We're talking about Moses and Jesus. We get back to the fact that Moses, he couldn't see God. And then the contrast is that Jesus, the only son, the one from the father's side, actually the word there is bosom. It's a close connection, close relation. He has made himself known. Jesus is greater than Moses as his covenant is greater than Moses. He's greater because he's sinless. He's greater because he's God himself who's become man. He's greater because he is the son of the father who truly reveals the father. As Philip asked, let us see the father. Jesus says, when you're looking at me, you're seeing God. Now, what's interesting here is that Jesus set aside his glory. To take upon flesh. When Jesus was walking, he didn't reveal the glory of God. He revealed the grace and truth of God. He revealed that the Father so loved the world that he sent his Son to die for them. So when Jesus was walking on earth, people wouldn't look at him and see the glory. No, they saw humility. They saw grace. They saw truth. This really is where we see the gospel. His humility and revealing grace and truth points us to the gospel. In Exodus, God said no one can see God. No one can see my glory and live. In John, Jesus came so we can see God and he died. God said no one can see me and live. Jesus came to reveal God and he died. And the connection here is that Jesus came so that we can see him by dying for us. You see, what keeps us from seeing God is our sin. Our sin taints the way we look at God, it blinds us, it keeps us away from God. So Jesus had to come as a perfect sacrifice to remove our sin, to remove our blindness, to remove our perversity, to remove our sin, so that now we can come into the presence of God and see him. Now he's risen. Now he's glorious. He's been restored, as John 17 makes clear. He's been restored to his glory. And now, if we believe in the one who humbled himself and died for us, took away our sin, rose again, now in glory, we can see God's glory. We can see God's face. How? How can we see God's face? Two passages I want to meditate upon as we close. Matthew 5 8. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. First of all pure in heart means you're even purified internally by God's Word and Spirit. Isn't it in contrast to the Pharisees who dressed up and they put on a parade, they put on a show to pretend like they were righteous? No, Jesus is saying the true purity, the purity that God creates, the purity that God desires is within. It's a change of heart. It's a change of desires. It's an ordering of your love according to God's will. What does it mean to see God? Well, first, we need to recognize that the reason a pure heart is necessary to see a pure God is that God is perfectly pure. God is perfectly pure. We cannot look upon God with our eyes that are full of lust, with our eyes that are full of hatred, our eyes that are full of coveting and envy. We need to be purified in order to see the pure God. The more pure our eyes are, the more purely we will see Him. Again, what keeps you from seeing God? It's our impurity. We have to remember here, we were created to worship. So, how can we see God more? Now, I'm going to admit, I can't explain this perfectly. This is my best attempt at explaining what it means to see God. I believe we all have what I'm going to call a heart capacity. We only have so much love for anything or anyone. And God says my the divine love that I've created in you and for me, that is all for me. The problem we have is that we take that divine love, that limited love we have for God and we we love idols. We love everything but God. Our fallen inclination is to worship everything other than God. When we worship other things, we pretend we rule them in our worship, but really they're ruling us. In order to love God, we must repent of our idolatry. This is why I love Calvin's declaration. Our hearts are bent in on ourselves. That capacity to love The one true king, it needs to be bent more and more towards God. And as we grow in Christ, we bend our hearts more to God. If you want to see more of God, ask God to illuminate where you are still an idolater, where you are keeping your love from him and repent. This is actually helpful for those who are wrestling with assurance of salvation. If you have been wrestling with assurance of salvation for a long time, go back and ask yourself, what did I refuse God to repent of? What sin was it that I said I'm not going to stop doing that when God revealed it? That's oftentimes where we start losing our assurance. If you want to see God, I believe from Matthew 5.8, It means we have to be purified. We purify ourselves from idols. The last thing I want us to see is from 1 John 3 to beloved, we are God's children now and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. The church must always be an expectant people. And we have to be expectant because if we're ever satisfied with the way we love God, we're committing idolatry. You see, as we're pursuing a pure vision of God, our sin's being revealed. And what we've become is very frustrated with what's going on inside of here. If we're pursuing God wholeheartedly, we are constantly frustrated that we can't bend our heart enough because it's so tainted and perverted by our sin that we can't love God perfectly as he loved us. Loving God becomes frustrating because our hearts are so perverse, our hearts are so bent towards idols. Living in this world is frustrating. Because we're always being kept from a full vision of God. As Augustus said, no one in this life will ever see the true full vision of God because that would consume us. It's frustrating because we're so inclined to idols. It's frustrating because we're so forgetful. Friends, we must seek to purify our hearts so that we can worship God purely. We must long for the day when we will forever behold his face as it is because we will be made perfectly pure when Christ appears and we shall be made like him. Let us leave this place asking God show me my idols. Show me my impurity. Make me pure so that I can see you more purely. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, I can only think of the words of Keith Green. Lord, you are beautiful. Your face. Help us, Lord, to let that be all that we seek. Lord, we look to you for purity. We look to you so we can see you in your glory We thank you, Lord, that we can see you in your grace. Be merciful to us, Lord, so we worship you. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.