Turn Us Again, O Lord God of Hosts — Ian Paisley

Psalm 80: A Prayer for Divine Restoration

If you would turn with me now to the 80th psalm, I want to read it to you, Psalm numbered 80. Give ear, O shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock, thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up thy strength and come and save us.

Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. O Lord God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people? Thou feedest them with the bread of tears, and givest them tears to drink in great measure.

Thou makest us strife unto our neighbors, and our enemies laugh among themselves. Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt, thou hast cast out the heathen and planted it, thou preparest room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land.

The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river. Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way to pluck her?

The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it. Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts. Look down from heaven, and behold and visit this vine, and the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou makest strong for thyself.

It is burned with fire, it is cut down, they perish at the rebuke of thy covenant. Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the Son of Man, whom thou madest strong for thyself. So will not we go back from thee?

Quicken us, and we will call upon thy name. Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts, cause thy face to shine, and we shall be seeing. God will stamp with his own divine seal of approval and blessing this reading from his very own infallible book.

Let's stand for a word of prayer before the preaching. O God our Father, we need to hear thee speak to us tonight. What a sad and terrible plight we would be in if we heard ourselves and heard one another, but did not hear the still, small voice of thyself.

Intensify our experience of thy divine presence. Intensify the reality that thou art amongst us. Lord Jesus, walk down these aisles. Sit beside every worshipper. Open our hearts to receive the engrafted word of God.

If thou speak not to us, we will be like those that go down to the pit. O save us from that this night. Let us hear thy voice. Let us know thy presence. Let us see thy light, for in thy light we shall see light.

To this end I take the promised Holy Ghost, the blessed power of Pentecost, to fill me to the uttermost I take. Thank God he undertakes for me. And the people of God say it. Amen. Amen. You may be seated.

The Threefold Prayer for God’s Face to Shine

The psalm numbered 8A. At the verse 3, turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be seeing. And at the verse 7, turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be seeing.

And then at the last verse, the verse 19, turn us again, O God of hosts, cause thy face to shine, and we shall be seeing. Note the difference between these prayers in the ascription given to God. Verse 3, turn us again, O God.

In verse 7, turn us again, O God of hosts. And in verse 19, turn us again, O Lord God of hosts. You would be well aware, I'm sure, of the tabernacle and the arrangements of the furniture within the tabernacle.

The first verse of this psalm brings us to the tabernacle and talks about the place where God dwelt in the tabernacle. And addresses Him and says, that dwelleth between the cherubim, shine forth, shine forth, shine forth.

And then in each prayer of verse 3 and 7 and 19, cause thy face to shine. Remember, when you enter the outer court of the tabernacle, you are confronted with the brazen altar, but God does not dwell there.

You go further in the outer court and you're confronted with the lever, but God does not dwell there. You enter the holy place and on one side is the golden candlestick, but God does not dwell there. Opposite that candlestick is the table of Shuvrat, but God does not dwell there.

Before the veil that divides the holy place from the holiest of all, before that veil there's the table or altar of incense, but God does not dwell there. And then once a year the hand of the high priest parted the veil and carrying with him the precious blood of the sacrifice, the body of which was burned without the camp, he approaches to the ark of the covenant with the overshadowing cherubim and the lid of the ark, which was a mercy seat.

And there on the mercy seat was the Shekinah glory, the dwelling place of the Lord God, Jehovah God. And so brilliant was that glory that it went through the fabric of the tent roof and caused in the daytime the pillar of cloud, which overshadowed the whole of the encampment.

And at night the cloud became a fire lighting up the whole encampment. But that shining was always upward. The glory shone upward. But when you turn over to portions of scripture, we have a striking change in regard to that matter.

The Aaronic Blessing and the Glory of God

Turn first of all with me to Numbers chapter 6. And in Numbers chapter 6 we have recorded for us, for our information, the Aaronic blessing, the blessing that Aaron and his sons were to use in blessing the children, the six children of Israel.

The sixth chapter of Numbers and the verse 22. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them, The Lord bless thee and keep thee.

Mark it well. The Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. Keeping in mind that that was the blessing which was offered by the high priest.

Turn over now to Leviticus chapter 9. And in the ninth chapter of Leviticus we have a special incident. When the glory of God, instead of going up, went out. And it resulted as a result of Aaron blessing the people.

The ninth chapter of Leviticus and verse 22. And Aaron lifted up his hand toward the people and blessed them and came down from off the offering of the sin offering and the burnt offering and peace offerings.

And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation and came out and blessed the people. And the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the people and there came a fire out from before the Lord.

The consuming fire of the Shekinah glory and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat which when all the people saw they shouted and fell on their face. The glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

That's what we need. The glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But that same glory that brought infinite blessing and kindled the fire that consumed the sacrifice of the prison altar also came a second time.

Nadab and Abihu the sons of Aaron, chapter 10 of Leviticus took either of them a censer and put fire therein and put incense thereon and offered strange fire before the Lord which he commanded not. And there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them and they died before the Lord.

One manifestation of this holy fire was blessing. Another manifestation of this holy fire was wrath to the uttermost. Here in this psalm the psalmist calls to God and he cries to Him, Shine forth! When God shines forth there is a quickening among the true believing people of God.

When God shines forth God's people are uplifted. Their chains are snapped. Their bondage to sin is destroyed. Their hearts are lifted heavenward, homeward, Godward. The Spirit of God is at work. But that same fire that burns for the blessing and the quickening and the resurrection of the church also burns in judgment against all false religion and all false fire not of the Lord's kindling.

And in every movement of the Spirit of God in history there has not only been the blessing and the uplifting and the strengthening of the true church but there has been the curse and judgment of God on evil, apostasy, sin and wickedness and the violation of God's commandments.

God Alone Can Turn His People

Now let us turn and look at these three prayers and the difference between them. First of all in verse 3 the prayer is Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine. Please notice this petition. It does not say turn our captivity.

It does not say turn us away from our weaknesses. It does not say turn us away from our darkness. It does not deal at all with our circumstances. The burden of the prayer is turn us. And God before he can revive his people has got to turn them.

And turn them not in regard to circumstances but in regard to their whole character. And when God turns the people to himself the circumstances are quickly dealt with because they themselves have wholly turned unto God.

We cannot turn ourself. It is a sovereign act of God that turns us to himself. Turn us. Thou must take us. Thou must seize us. We walk the wrong way. We go the wrong road. We have rejected thy way and thy paths and thy word and thy commandments and we are so enchained and snared and imprisoned and incarcerated.

O God, it is an act of omnipotence we need to break the chains, to set us free, that we may be turned unto thee. Turn us, O God. Notice that he uses the title O God. We have a view of God here. In his aloneness there is nothing added to the expression.

It is just turn us, O God. God alone. God in the infiniteness of his aloneness. God in the infiniteness of his solitariness. O God, turn me. When you come to the next prayer you will notice that we leave the thought of aloneness and we come to the thought of creativeness.

O God of hosts. God the infinite creator. The one who made all things by the word of his power and the one who upholds all things by the word of his power and the one that preserves all things. Turn us.

You will remember the young man who served Elisha and one morning he woke early and he got up and he walked on to the battlement of the city and he saw all around the city the chariots of Syria, the enemy of his master.

And he came down to where his master was and he said, Alas, master, the enemy is all around us. There is no possibility of help. And Elisha said, Open the young man's eyes. He is blind. And God opened.

And he saw round about his master the hosts of the most high God. And he saw that those that were the enemies of Elisha were few and weak and impotent. But those that were for Elisha were armed with the strength of the Lord God, Jehovah.

I want to say to you tonight it will take the omnipotence of our great creator of God to bring the church, the true church, out of the mess it's in and bring people out of their love of materialism and their love of the world and the love of the flesh and their love for the things that are devilish in their heart.

It's a miracle that's needed. A miracle of God. And thank God He can do the miracle. And thank God He can answer the prayer of the heart that says, Turn us, O God of hosts. God is mighty to deliver His people.

Human Powerlessness and the Need for Revival

I visit Europe every month for one week when the European Parliament is in session. The European Parliament is the expression today of all that characterizes the beasts of the earth. In fact, our new building in Strasbourg is built after the fashion of the Tower of Babel.

And it's an unfinished building. Purposely unfinished. And in fact, recently, in one of their posters that they issued was the Tower of Babel. That was their symbol. Another symbol of European unity is the woman riding the beast.

In the new building built in Brussels on the dome of that building there is a life-size painting of the beast and the harlot riding the beast. Symbols of what this is all about. Man has sought to raise his kingdom and make it reach to heaven and make it the gate of God.

But it's not the gate of God. It's the gate to hell. And last month, this past month of October we were discussing homosexuality. And before us was a directive to elevate homosexual marriages onto the same plane as Christian marriages.

And also to make it lawful that there could be no discrimination by any church body who refused to employ a person because they were homosexual. One would have thought there would have been outrage. But there was no such thing.

I made a speech on this issue. It was very badly received, I can assure you. Because I quoted that such people cannot be members of the kingdom of God. And I also quoted from Romans chapter 1. And when I sat down, a woman member of the parliament got up and said, We found out just a moment ago why we must have this legislation when we heard the awful, filthy remarks of Ian Paisley as he reeled against this matter.

My remarks were the remarks of the Holy Book of God. And when the vote was taken, there was only 34 members voted against the elevation of the homosexuals. And 500 voted for it. That's what's happening today.

What can turn that? Thank God, God, the great creator can turn it. He can turn it. Things were bad in Strasbourg in the days of Luther and Calvin. In fact, Strasbourg became a refuge for many of the reformers that had to flee including both Luther and Calvin.

Calvin opened the first reformed church in Europe in Strasbourg. But in their day, there were no fundamentalist churches across the world. No Bibles. All was darkness. They called it the dark ages. But God still lived.

And God turned the people. And the great reformation shook the foundations of Europe. It can be shaken again by the power of God. Got to realize that it's the doing of God. Every revival in history is the doing of a sovereign God.

And God is evil. And God is willing. And God will turn His people if we constantly cry to Him for such a turning. But then when we come to the last verse, you'll find that the emphasis is not upon the aloneness or the creativeness of God.

It's upon the redemptiveness of God. Turn us again, O Lord. In an authorized version that's printed in small capitals, it's Jehovah. O Jehovah, God of hosts. Creation only needed God's breath. Redemption required God's blood.

The might of a redemption is greater than all the might of creation. The greatest work God ever did was the work of redeeming people. The doing of the cross was the height of His omnipotence, His omniscience, and His omnipresence.

You can't get a higher power than the power of the cross. The preaching of the cross is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. And so we turn to the God of redemption. Mighty to see Him.

Mighty to deliver. Mighty to turn the tide. The darkest wave must obey Him. The strongest wind must lie down at His feet in silence. He rules. He reigns. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. And all heaven's power is at His disposal.

All power in heaven and in earth is His. So we're calling tonight to that God. Now look at that prayer and you will find after each petition of Turn Us there's a little word again. It's a very encouraging word, isn't it?

God has done it before. This is not a new thing with our God. This is something that God has done and will do. He calls us. He calls us from the depths and He calls us to cry to Him. Turn us again! I wonder do we really believe that God can give us another reformation?

God’s Power to Send Light and Revival

Some people seem to think that with the turn of the 20th century omnipotence power has faded. That God is dead. That God doesn't do things like that today. I don't believe a word of it. I believe God is the same yesterday, today and forever.

And I know that things will get bad and wicked and worse. But that doesn't mean that God doesn't parallel that with His blessed, saving, regenerating and reviving work. And that's what happened in the day when the martyrs died.

It was a dark day. It was a terrible day. But it was also a day of glory. After darkness, you heard on Sunday night, light came. My, we have the darkness today. But the light can shine. The light of God.

If you turn over to that great chapter in Corinthians, you will find what it says there. It says that the light that shines out of darkness, 2 Corinthians chapter 4, worth marking, worth pondering on, worth taking to our hearts and using it as an encouragement to us.

For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, the darkness of the whole world, 2 Corinthians chapter 4, and verse 6, God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness. Go back. See the abyss.

See the deep. See a world chaotic. But God commanded the light to shine. And what happened? The light did shine. And it says here, He has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Where does God's light shine? God's light shines in the face of the Lord Jesus. Man can bring all his powers together and do his very best, but all the power of man, all the confederate power of man can do little or nothing in the terrible issues that are before us.

But just a glance of that shining face of Jesus, just one glance of it, and the glory of God will break upon the soul. If you're a child of God, you remember the day when His glory broke upon you, and you were a sinner, and you couldn't rid yourself of your sins.

Oh, you made a mighty effort, and you tried the religious way, and you tried the ethical way, and you tried every way, and you went farther into your sin and deeper into your darkness, and you found you were tamed, and you had no power, and you were lost, and you were dead in trespasses and in sin.

And then the light came. And what happened? The impossible freed from the darkness. And what God does when He saves a man and saves a woman and saves a boy and saves a girl, the miracle of regeneration, the bringing in of the light, God can do that ten thousand million times over.

God is not limited. He's the unlimited God. How dare we set limits to the omnipotence of God. There He could do no mighty work, it says, because of their unbelief. God says we should be praying, turn us again.

Prayer for a Burning and Faithful Ministry

Look at the second part of this prayer. Not only the turning of ourselves to God. I was very interested the other day in reading a sermon by C. H. Spurgeon. And Spurgeon had a tremendous ministry, as you know, in the city of London in the reign of Queen Victoria.

But after he had built his tabernacle, and after his ministry had gone on, he mourns for the days when he first came to London. And he says, your minister feels that he needs to be turned more thoroughly to the Lord as God.

His prayer shall be God helping him that he may be more fearless and faithful than ever before. That he may never for one moment think what any of you will say in regard to what he utters. But that he may only think what God his Master would say concerning him.

That he may come into this pulpit with the resolve that he cares no more for your opinion with regard to the truth than if you were all stones. He only resolves come law or come game by it. Whatever the Lord saith unto him he will speak.

And he desires to ask his Master that he may come here with more prayer himself than her uttered. That whatever he preaches may be so burnt into his own soul that you will all know even if you do not like it that this man is speaking the burning word of God.

Every preacher needs to pray like that. We need a rekindling of the Holy flame within our heart. And every person in the congregation needs to pray that. Someone said to John Wesley our preacher is useless and he is hopeless.

It is an easy thing to blame the preacher. But Wesley said I will tell you what you do. Pray him on fire and the whole village will come out to see him burning. So we need to have fire man in the pulpit.

And if you have fire man in the pulpit there will be not many snow men in the pew. They will melt when the fire comes down upon us. We need that melting fire. The fire of the Holy Ghost. Turn us again O Lord cause thy face to shine.

Cause thy face to shine. And Spurgeon said further in that sermon there are people who limit the word of God and limit its power. Have you never heard that under one of Whitefield's sermons there have been as many as two thousand saved?

He was a great man but God can use the little as well as the great to produce the same effect. Why should not there be souls saved? Why? What keeps it from happening? Not God but we are the stumbling blocks.

And we can only be turned into the way if God turns us into the way. Cause thy face to shine. Revivals in the church are a matter of record. God has sent revivals. You cannot deny them. God has done great things in this country of yours.

The days of Whitefield and the days of Edwards they were real happening. Real changes took place. Society was changed to their very depths. In 1858 God moved in this country and in 1859 in our own country.

Moved mightily. Turned the tide. Sunk the drift. The broken hedges of the church were repaired. The vine that was broken down grew up again. God gave blessing to His church and to His people. And what happened in the last century can happen today.

God is still the same. Yesterday, today and forever. Hold for faith to believe Him. Hold for faith to trust Him. Hold for prayers that will set the place on fire. Hold for prayer meetings that will warm the very heart and the soul and the energy of God's people and call them to evangelism with power to reach the lost for Jesus Christ.

Revival, Holiness, and the Harvest of Souls

And at this same time that God sends His blessing He sends the sea and fire to curse that which is evil. And my, we need a demonstration of that power. We need to see God vindicating His holiness. It grieves me when I hear my Lord's name taken from Him.

It grieves me to see the society that hates Him. The society that crucifies the Christ and puts Him to an open shame. I pray God that we will see His holiness vindicated. That the fear of the Lord will come down upon districts.

That man will cry bent double with agony of heart before God. That's what God can do and He wants to do. And He tells us we should be praying to Him. Cause thy face to shine. Revivals are commenced, continued and completed by God alone.

He turns the tide and He alone can turn the tide. What a harvest revival brings. The harvest of souls being saved. The promotion of love in the church. Truth glorified, taken out of the gutter and enthroned in glory.

Holiness abounding. And the rejection by the church of the world, the flesh and the devil. And the glorifying of the sons as the doctrine of the gospel is adorned by the life and separation and holiness of the people of God.

Turn us again, O Lord and we shall be saved. Turn us again and cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved. When I was a young preacher, and I'm no longer young, I know that. But I feel young. And after all, you're as young as you feel.

The Face of Jesus and the Scars of Redemption

But I used to use an illustration. It was an illustration concerning the suffering of the Savior. This mother sat one day and her child, little girl, sat upon her knee. The little girl looked up into her mother's face and she said,.

And she touched her mother's face. She said, I love your face. And she touched her mother's eyelids. She said, I love your eyes. And she put her hand across her mother's lips and she said, I love your lips.

I really love you. I love your face. And then she took up her mother's hands and the mother's hands were scarred, broken, fingers were missing. And she said, I don't love your hands. I really hate your hands.

They're ugly. I don't love your hands. And the mother said to her dear, let me tell you a story. When you were just a babe in your cot, and you were sleeping one morning, I got an urgent message that one of the neighbors was in sore trouble.

And I thought you'd be all right. And I ran down the street to help my neighbor. I wasn't long there till a terrible cry reached my ears. And when I came out, the road was packed with people and they were all running to our house.

And when I got there, the firemen were there. And they wouldn't let me in and I tore my way through them. And I went up the stairs and I took all the blankets I could get and I wrapped them around you.

And I brought you down that fiery stairway. But my hands were burned to the bone. My fingers had to be taken away. Some of my fingers had to be taken away after it. It was a terrible ordeal I had. That's why my hands are not lovely.

A little girl with tears running down her cheeks, she picked up the hands of her mother. And she said, I do love you. And then she took the hands and she kissed them. And she said, I love your hands most of all.

For it was those hands that saved my life. The face of Jesus. What did we do to it? We spat upon it. We tore the hairs from off it. We battered it. We crowned it with thorns. We turned our back upon him.

There was no beauty that we should desire. He is despised and rejected of men. The battered, bleeding, disfigured face of Jesus. His visage was marred more than any man. And his form more than the sun's.

But oh, I want to look into his face tonight. And I want to say, Lord Jesus. I know your face was scarred. I know it was crowned with thorns. I know my sins, my cruel sins were your chief tormentors. I know that I spat upon your face and battered it.

I took the lead and drove the thorns into your brow. But Lord Jesus, I love that face that bore the scars for me. To save me from hell. And oh, Lord Jesus, I want to see something tonight. I want to see the glory of God in your face.

Restoration from Backsliding Through Christ’s Gaze

Turn us again. Oh, Lord God of hosts. And cause thy face and we shall be saved. What do you need? You need to be saved from your backsliding, your coldness, your lack of love for the Lord believer, your lack of earnestness, your lack of zeal.

When we've done all, we're unprofitable servants. I know it. But God wants to stir our hearts. And our stark hearts can only be stirred when he turns his face towards us. Do you remember Peter? Hard Peter.

He just used words of blasphemy. Dissociating himself, distancing himself from the blessed Savior who had saved him. And the Lord turned and looked and he went out and he wept. Oh, that the Lord would not smite our love for sin and the world.

May we weep the tears of bitterness. And let me know what Peter knew. The blessed restoring of God and of his love. Turn us again, oh, God. Turn us again, oh, God of hosts. Turn us again, oh, Lord God of hosts.

Cause thy face to shine from between the cherubim. Shine forth. Shine forth, oh, God. And thy glory shall dispel the darkness. And after the darkness there shall be. Heavenly Father, we thank thee for thy good and thy gracious word.

We thank thee for this cry that thou hast told us to cry to the highest heaven. To keep on crying until the light shines and we see the face of Jesus. Turn us again, oh, God. Turn us again, oh, God of hosts.

Turn us again, oh, Lord God. Let thy face shine. Let thy face shine. Let thy face shine. And we shall be saved. Answer that cry of our hearts this night. For Jesus' sake. And everybody said, Amen. Amen.