Sermon Outlines

By Frederick F. Schwindt, Evangelist

THE REVEALING OF THE FACE

1. We are carefully and wonderfully made:
   1. Just as the countenance reveals the physical state of our health -- 1 Sam. 16:12; Dan. 1:13 -- so do thoughts and character reveal themselves in our faces - Dan. 5:6; Gen. 4:5
2. Our nature, with its complexity of being, has yet a subtle and mysterious oneness, and the tone of the mind and the inclinations of the heart are made manifest, not alone in speech, but in look and gesture and mannerism:
3. In the simple language of our text there is a show of countenance:

1. Man cannot prevent self revealing:
   1. "They that be otherwise cannot be hid" - 1 Tim. 5:25
   2. Scientists tell us that there is no concealing in nature.
2. Said Moses to the children of Gad and Reuben, "Be sure your sin will find you out": Num. 32:23
   1. As snow reveals the footprints of the beast or prey, as the wind of the desert drifts the sand from the body that is covered, so sin will surely be found - EXAMPLES -
      1. Felix in the presence of his prisoner - Acts 24:25
      2. Belshazzar on his last night - Dan. 5:6
      3. Ananias and his wife Sapphira - Acts 5:1-11
      4. The hypocritical Pharisees in the presence of Christ - John 8:9
3. Men cannot long act a part:
   1. You cannot forge handwriting.
   2. You cannot make an artificial rock and keep it unknown beside the real.
   3. This is true, also, of the voice and the face of the individual.
   4. Hypocrisy unconsciously drops its mask.
   5. The truth will have a way to get out; this is a fact of moral and natural law.

1. Men cannot avert punishment:
   1. "Woe unto their soul! For they have rewarded evil unto themselves" - Isa. 3:9
   2. Memory is their painful misery - Dan. 5:9; Matt. 27:1-5
   3. Theories of unaccountability are useless in the face of truth.
   4. Paul quotes God's unalterable law in nature, "For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" - Gal. 6:7
   5. "He that soweth upon the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption" - Gal. 6:8
2. There is, however, one exception which may alter the law of sowing and reaping:
   1. Jesus Christ and my relationship to Him is that one exception.
   2. When we accept Him as our personal Saviour, a complete change of our life comes into full view - 2 Cor. 5:14-17
   3. A transformation that affects body, soul, and spirit is visible - 2 Cor. 3:18
   4. One may, however, not escape the results of sin completely, scars will show up in some way - EXAMPLES -
      1. God forgave persecuting Saul, but he refused to remove the physical impediment from him - 2 Cor. 12:9
      2. The Lord forgave Jacob's sins, made him a prince, but left a mark on his body - Gen. 32:32
3. Our face reveals many things:
   1. Our association - EXAMPLES -
      1. Moses spent forty days with the Lord on the mount; his face showed that - Ex. 34:29
      2. Ahab had committed a crime against one of his subjects and his face showed it - 1 Ki. 21:4
      3. Belshazzar had desecrated the vessels of the Lord's house, and his face showed it - Dan. 5:4-8
   2. The face will reflect the life of the soul, it will mirror that which is within because nature itself provides no hiding place for a guilty conscience.