Would you turn back to Psalm
80? Tonight I'll be speaking from Matthew chapter 25, verses
27 through 31, where the Lord said, You've heard it said of
them that old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery, but I say
unto you, Whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath
committed adultery with her already in his heart. I've entitled the
message, Adultery, and I'm going to be preaching the gospel from
that passage of scripture as the Lord enables me. Psalm 80. In 1859, Charles Spurgeon preached
the message from verse 19. Turn us again, O Lord God of
hosts, and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. And he entitled that message,
One Antidote for Many Ills. An antidote is a remedy. One
remedy for many ills. Turn us again. Oh Lord God of hosts, cause thy
face to shine And we shall be saved. Now, I'm going to borrow
that title for this entire psalm. This psalm, Psalm 80, is a psalm
of distress. Look in verses 1 through 3 of
Psalm 80. Give ear, O shepherd of Israel,
thou that leadest Joseph like a flock, thou that dwellest between
the cherubim. Shine forth! before Ephraim and
Benjamin, Manasseh, stir up thy strength and come and save us."
Now, when the psalmist said this, he felt unsaved. That's how he
felt. Now, he believed in eternal security,
I have no doubt about that, but he felt unsaved. You ever felt that way? Unsaved. So he said, come and save us. Turn us again, O God, and cause
thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. Look what he says in
verse four. O Lord God of hosts, how long
wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people? He felt
as though his prayers were unheard at best and that they actually
make the Lord angry when he presented them because of his condition.
How long will you be angry with the prayers of thy people? Look
in verse five, thou feedest them with the bread of tears and give
us them tears to drink in great measure. He had the tears of
sorrow in his life, not tears of joy, but tears of sorrow,
trouble, trouble. Look in verse 6. Thou makest
us a strife, a contention unto our neighbors. We have strife
in our relationships and contention. And our enemies laugh among themselves. They laugh at us. We're laughing
stocks. Look in verse 12. Why hast thou then broken down
her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck
her? The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast
of the field doth devour it. Her hedges, her walls of protection
and security seem to be broken down. You know, I want the Lord
to hedge me up, don't you? I want Him to put hedges around
me. I want Him to keep me. I want walls to be built up around
me to protect me. I don't even want to be tempted.
I want hedges. But the psalmist says, the hedges
are broken down, so whatever it seems like I had, I've lost.
It's being plucked away. It's being devoured. It's being
wasted. I feel like whatever I had, I
have no longer. Verse 14, return. We beseech thee, O God of hosts,
look down from heaven and behold and visit this vine. We feel
like we've been left to ourselves. Return to us, come back, turn
us. Verse 16, look how he speaks
of himself. It's burned with fire, it's cut
down. They perish at the rebuke of
thy countenance. Now, these are a lot of ills,
aren't they? In this psalm. This is a psalm
of distress. And the psalmist speaks of a
lot of ills, and these can be summarized. The antidote, the
remedy can be summarized by something he repeats three times. Look
in verse three. Turn us again, O God, and cause
thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. Verse seven. Turn us
again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine and we shall
be saved. Verse 19, turn us again. Oh Lord,
God of hosts, cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved. Now this is the remedy. This
is the one antidote for many ills. Turn us again. Cause thy face to shine in favor. and we shall be saved. Now, let's look at this whole
song. Look at verse one. Give ear. Lord, hear me. Oh, shepherd of
Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock, thou that dwellest
between the cherubims, shine forth. Give ear, hear what I'm
saying. Now, if you wanna know where
the Lord is, I can tell you where he is. He dwells between the
cherubims. Now, what does that mean? That's
a reference to the mercy seat. Remember the mercy seat in the
Old Testament, the cherubims were over it, and that's the
place where God said, I'll meet you. I'll meet you at the mercy
seat, the lid of propitiation, the lid of covering. Now, this
is where you can find God. And the only way you'll find
him is if he causes himself to make known. You and I better
be seeking him though. And this is where he makes himself
known between the cherubims, the mercy seat. Now turn to Romans
chapter three for a moment, hold your finger there in Psalm 80
and turn to Romans chapter three. Beginning in verse 23. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. Do you know that to come short
of the glory of God is sin? That's the essence of all sin.
Being justified freely by His grace. Through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation. You see that word propitiation?
That same word is translated in Hebrews 9, 5, a mercy seat.
Whom God has set forth to be a mercy seat through faith in
his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that
are passed through the forbearance of God. Now, the mercy seat is
the covering. The covering over the Ark of
the Covenant was sprinkled with blood. And what that propitiation
means, propitiation means the removal of sin. And that's what
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ has done. It has removed sin. It's washed it away. And that's
the only way God's gonna meet me is at this place of propitiation. The mercy seat. Thou that dwellest
between the mercy seat. Now I know something about this. in my heart, because I know the
prayer of the publican when he cried out, God be merciful to
me, the sinner. The word merciful is propitious. He's not just asking for general
mercy. He's saying, Lord, remove my sin. By the blood of your
son, there's nothing I can do about it. There's nothing I can
do with it. And what he's asking me is remove it. Cause it to
be washed away through the blood of your son. Now that's the only
way God could be approached. He says there, at the mercy seat,
will I meet with you and commune with you. Now the psalmist knew
who is approaching when he said, thou that dwellest between the
cherubims, shine forth. He says in verse two, before
Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up thy strength and come
and save us. Now that word stir up actually
means wake up. Now I know the Lord never sleeps.
I realize that. The Lord never sleeps. He that
keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. But as far
as the psalmist felt, he's asleep with regard to me. He doesn't
hear me. He's not having anything to do
with me. So he says, wake up, Lord, wake up and stir up your
strength. I know this. The only way I can
be saved is by the strength of God, the power of God. I need the power of God to create
in me a new heart that I can't do. He's going to do it for me.
And I need the power of God to annihilate my sin, to make it
to where it's no more. So come stir up thy strength,
wake up and come and save us. Verse three. Turn us again, O
God, and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. Now, I
know this. I won't turn unless he turns
me. Do you know that? Do you know that so about yourself?
Psalmist did. He asked the Lord to turn him. Turn us again. Turn with me for
a moment to Jeremiah chapter 31. I love this passage of scripture.
Jeremiah 31. Verse 18. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning
himself thus, Thou hast chastised me, And I was chastised as a
bullock unaccustomed to the yoke. I was chastised, it didn't do
me any good. I'm still the same. I've been chastised and my heart
still is hard. Nothing's happened. Here I am
as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke. Turn thou me. Turn thou me. And I shall be
turned. For thou art the Lord my God. Surely after that I was turned. I repented. And after that, I
was instructed. I smote upon my thigh. I was
ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach
of my youth. Turn thou me. Can you pray that
prayer right now? Lord, work in me both to will
and to do your good pleasure. Turn me. You turn me, and I will
be turned. Now, there are two responses
to this. Now, understand, you and I must turn or we'll be damned. Isn't that so? If I don't turn
to the Lord, I'll be damned. And I cannot turn unless he turns
me. Now, there's only two responses
to that. One response is, well, nothing I can do about it. Therefore,
I'll just go on until he turns me. And you'll go right to hell
with that attitude. And the other response is, Lord,
turn me. Turn me right by your grace.
Turn me. Turn us again. Oh, Lord, God
of hosts, cause thy face to shine in favor, not in anger. In favor,
2 Corinthians 4, 6 says, For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of the darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Now remember this, the glory
of God is His capacity to save somebody like me or you. That's
His glory. And His glory shines in the face
of His blessed Son. Now, if you turn us and cause
your face to shine in favor, we'll be saved. We'll be saved
from our sins. We'll be saved from ourselves.
That's what I need saved from. I need saved from myself. Saved
means liberated. Set free. Now, you can only know
something of liberty if you know something of bondage, being trapped,
being in prison, not being able to get out. Lord, set me free. I'm in the prison. I can't just
offer my free will, walk out whenever I want to. It wouldn't
be prison then. Set me free. Now, this is what
all God's people cry for. come cause thy face to shine
and we shall be saved liberated set free verse four oh lord god
of hosts how long would thou be angry against the prayer of
thy people now you can only understand this in light of feeling that
because you prayed the prayer that makes it bad How long will
you be angry against the prayer of your people? You feel as though
your prayers can provoke His anger because of your own personal
sinfulness. How long will you be angry against
the prayer of thy people? Verse 5, Thou feedest them with
the bread of tears, and givest them tears to drink in great
measure, troubles and tears. Thou makest us to strife unto
our neighbors. We have strife in our relationships,
discord and contention. And our enemies laugh among themselves. These are the people of God?
These are God's people? Yeah, I can really see. You make
us a laughing stock among our enemies. So he says again, perhaps
with more vehemence, turn us again. Aren't you glad the Lord
doesn't just turn once? What if he just turned you once?
If he just turned you once, you'd go back the other direction.
But thank God he turns again. and again, and again. I'm so
thankful for that. Turn us again, O Lord God of
hosts, cause thy face to shine, and we'll be saved. We don't
feel saved. We don't feel saved. But if you turn us again, and
cause thy face to shine, we shall be saved. You know something
that I pray a whole lot? Lord, save me. Save me. Get me out of this mess
that I've created. Save me. It's all my fault. Save
me. Save me. Now he uses a beautiful analogy
of what the Lord had done for Israel. Verse 8. Thou hast brought a vine out
of Egypt. Talking about when he brought
Israel out of Egypt. Thou hast cast out the heathen
and planted it. You put us in the promised land.
Verse nine, thou prepares room before it. And notice the word
room is in italics. It's not in the original. The
translators put it there. It says thou prepare us before
it. And you know, we know this about
salvation, don't we? It's what he's prepared. Come ye blessed
of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you. from the foundation
of the world. Remember when the Lord said,
I go and prepare a place for you? We realize all of salvation,
everything God has, is of His preparing. He did it all. He
didn't just prepare room, He prepared it. He prepared it beforehand. That's what He did for His people,
and we know that. 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. Now,
every aspect of our salvation is what He caused. He caused
it. We know that. You don't have
to argue with a believer about that. He caused it. Verse 10,
here's the blessing of grace. 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 do pluck
her? Now I know this. I need hedges. I need walls. I need walls to keep me in. so that I can't get out. I need
walls to keep me from being tempted because I know what happens when
I'm tempted. And I need walls and I need hedges. I want to be completely surrounded.
I want the Lord to hedge up my way. I'm not worried about me
doing anything on my own. I know where that'll go. I can't,
well I've resisted this and I've resisted that. No, I just want
to be hedged up to where I'm not even faced with about anything. I want to be hedged up. I want
the Lord to hedge me. I want hedges. And I also know
That when the Lord allows those to be broken down, it's my fault,
He allowed it to happen. But I know this, when those hedges
go down, I feel like whatever I have, I lose. It's plucked
away. It's plucked away. It's devoured. It's wasted. And
you feel like whatever it was you had, You've lost. I need
the Lord to preserve these walls, and if they come down, He let
them be broken for a reason, but because of the walls have
been broken down, I appear to be losing what I once had." And
that's what he's saying. Why is thou then broken down
her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck
her? The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast
of the field doth devour it. Verse 14. Return. Return. Turn to us a mercy. If you don't
return unto us, it's over for us. Return, we beseech thee,
O God of hosts. Look down from heaven. That word look down means look
down in favor. Look down. Here I am in my weakness,
in my smallness, in my sinfulness. Look down from heaven in favor. And the only kind of favor he
has is unmerited favor. And that's the only kind of favor
that'll do me any good. Completely unmerited favor. I think of what is said in Genesis
chapter six, verse five. Unmerited favor is grace. Grace. I want grace, don't you? Look
down in favor. Look down in grace. And God saw
that the wickedness of man was great. in the earth and that
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,
but Noah found grace. That's what I want. I see myself
described in Genesis 6, 5, but Noah found grace, complete unmerited
favor in the eyes of the Lord. Now return, we beseech thee,
O God of hosts, look down from heaven and behold and visit this
vine. We need divine visitation. Lord, come down, behold me, look
upon me in favor and visit me with thy salvation, with thy
presence, with thy mercy, with thy grace. Now he says in verse
15, and the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, And
thy, the branch that thou made is strong for thyself. He reminds
the Lord, we're your work. This is what you did. All glory
goes to you. But this vineyard, verse 16,
is burned with fire. It's cut down. They perish at
the rebuke of thy countenance. Now I know some religious people
would look at that and say, well, how can these people be saved
if they talk about themselves like that? Well, the reason somebody
says that is because they are strangers to grace. They're strangers to God. They've
never had him make himself known to them. They wouldn't be talking
that way. Burned, cut down, perishing at the rebuke of thy countenance.
Verse 17. Let thy hand be upon the man
of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong
for thyself. Now who's that talking about?
There's only one who that describes. When he's praying, when he's
seeking the Lord's mercy, he says, Lord, let your hand be
upon the hand of thy son. Put your hand on him, and that
way you can put your hand on me and embrace me. You look to
him, and then you look to me. You see him, then you see me. Let your hand be upon him, and
then let your hand be upon me. Oh, we read that passage that
Paul read where, where Israel was in his hand as the potter.
And you know, when, when, when I just read, when I read that
with him, I just felt such joy to be in his hand. Let your hand
be upon the man of thy right hand, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then let your hand be upon
me. Verse 18. So will not we go back
from thee. Now that word go back is apostatize. Apostatize. I fear apostatizing. I do. I fear. Don't you believe
in eternal security? Of course I do. Of course I do. With all my heart, I believe
in the eternal security of God's elect. I believe that if Christ
died for me, I must be saved. And I also fear apostasy. Well, how can you believe both
those things? I don't know, but I do. I do. And I know this, the only
way I won't go back is if he quickens me. If he gives me life
and quickens me. And I pray, Lord, quicken me.
Give me this life. I'll apostatize. I'll leave.
I'll depart. I'll be damned if you don't quicken
me. Lord, quicken me. Look what he says in verse 18.
So shall we not go back from thee? Quicken us. Give us life. And you know what we'll do if
we're quickened? will call upon thy name." Hold your finger there and turn
to Romans chapter 10. Verse 11. For the scripture saith,
whosoever believeth. Thank God for that word whosoever. I don't care who you are, what
your condition is. I don't care who I am or what
my condition is. Whosoever, that's a glorious word. Whosoever, I'm
a whosoever. This is better than if it said
Todd, because there are other Todds. There are even other Todd
Noverts. I'm not the only one. I wouldn't
be for sure he'd be talking about me, but I am a whosoever. Whosoever. The scripture saith, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. It means two things. Number one, I won't be put to
shame. I won't be put to shame. When my name is called, There'll
be nothing but pure linen, clean and white. They'll put the screen
of my life up and there won't be anything to be ashamed of.
Perfect righteousness. He was always obedient. He always
loved with all of his heart and all of his soul and all of his
strength. And he loved his neighbor as himself. He never sinned.
I won't be ashamed. Also this. I won't be ashamed
of the gospel. The gospel is my glory. For the scripture saith, whosoever
believeth, where? On him. You gotta believe! Huh. You gotta believe on him. You gotta believe on him. You
gotta believe he is your righteousness before God. Whoso believeth on
him shall not be ashamed. Verse 12. For there is no difference
between Jew and Greek. You know, you take the whole
lot of mankind, and there's no difference between any of us.
We're all sinners, fallen sons of Adam. I mean, you might have
some smart sinners and dumb sinners. You might have pretty sinners
and ugly sinners. I mean, we all are different. No difference. When it comes right down to it,
no difference. Just flesh, just vanity. I love the way the psalmist said,
surely every man walketh in a vain show. The high, the low, the
rich, the poor, vanity. There's no difference between
the Jew and the Greek. For the same Lord over all, and
that's who he is. He's the Lord over all. is rich
unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now, whosoever shall call,
shall call. Lord, help me. Lord, save me. Lord, have mercy
on me. Lord, quicken me. Lord, do something
for me. Calling on the name of the Lord. Now, that doesn't just mean using
his name. I'm calling on Jehovah. His name is his attributes. His
name is who he is. When I call upon the name of
the Lord, I'm saying, Lord, save me by your justice. Not just your general mercy,
but your justice. Save me in a way that honors
your justice. Save me by Your holiness in a
way that's consistent with Your holiness. Save me by Your sovereignty. Will my salvation. Give a commandment
concerning my salvation. Save me by Your power. Put away
my sin. Give me a new heart. Save me
by Your wisdom in a way that You show Your wisdom in being
just and justifying the ungodly. I'm calling upon every attribute
of God to save me. And you know, that's why God
saves sinners, is to make himself known. You know, the only way
we can know who he is, is his salvation. You know that name
of his, I am that I am, that he gave to Moses? I've read several
times, I don't know how they get this, but the fellas that
supposedly know say this. That's the same thing as saying
I save in the manner in which I save. If you want to know who
God is, how does he save? Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord, and listen to the certainty of this, shall
be saved. You call. You call. You call
right now. You call on the name of the Lord.
He's the only one who can do anything for you. You call upon the name of
the Lord, and you shall be saved. Now that's what someone who's
quick and does go back to Psalm 80. They call upon the name of
the Lord. Verse 18, so will we not go back
from thee, we won't apostatize. If you put your hand on the man
of thy right hand, so will we not go back with thee quick in
us, and we will call upon thy name. And then he repeats for
the third time. Turn us again, O Lord God of
hosts, cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. Now this turning us again has
something to do with returning to the starting point. Now I
want you to remember, as the Lord enables you, when you first
came to Christ, How did you come? When you first came to Christ,
you came empty handed. You didn't have anything to recommend
you, not a thing. You didn't have any experience
to look to. You couldn't look back to some experience you had,
no. You had absolutely nothing. Go back to the starting point.
We are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our
confidence. What was the beginning of your
confidence? The beginning of your confidence is when you believed
that Jesus Christ was all you had. You didn't have anything
else to plead. You didn't have any experience,
you didn't have any works, all you had was Christ. He said,
we're made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our
confidence steadfast to the end. as you received Christ Jesus
the Lord. How'd you receive Him? You received Him empty-handed. So walk ye in Him. Turn us again. Go to the starting
point. repent and do the first works.
And then he says, cause thy face to shine. Now, what is this thing
of God's face shining? No man can see his face and live.
Well, this is talking about seeing his reconciled face in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Christ is the face of God. You
want to know what God looks like? He looks exactly like Jesus Christ
because Jesus Christ is God. You and I can't see God absolute.
We can't approach God absolute. He's a consuming fire. consuming
holiness, but in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, that one
who's meek and lowly in heart, I can come. He says, come unto
me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest.
He that cometh to me, I'll in no wise cast out. That's the
face of reconciliation. The face of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Cause thy face to shine. God was in Christ reconciling
the world to himself. He made reconciliation. Turn
us again, O Lord, God of hosts, cause thy face to shine, and
we shall be saved. One last scripture. Turn over
to Matthew chapter 1. Very familiar scripture. You want to... One of the things
that makes me know, a lot of reasons I know the Bible's the
word of God, I think in my own experience, but one of the reasons
that makes me know that the Bible's the inspired, infallible word
of God is I can read the same thing thousands of times and
it's still powerful, it's still fresh, it's still wonderful.
No human writing is like that. I've read books, I do well to
read one, I'm not, but I mean, men's writings, you know, they
lose their power. They lose their, well a song,
you know, you listen to a song. These hymns we sing even, you
know, they're great, but even they can get old compared to
this word. It's altogether powerful. Now listen to this scripture
in Matthew chapter one, verse 21. And she shall bring forth a son,
And thou shalt call his name Jesus. That name means Savior. Joshua,
Savior. He's the Savior. Thou shalt call
his name Jesus, for he shall. Look at the certainty of it.
He shall. Not he'll make an attempt, not
he'll make a stab, not he'll make this available. He shall. Save. Save, not try to save. He shall save. Who? His people. Well, who are his
people? The ones who call on his name.
That's the ones who he saves, the ones who call on his name. You sure you're one of the elect?
Well, I don't know about that, but I know this. I'm calling
on his name right now. Lord, save me. He shall save. His people from their sins. Now their salvation. To be saved
from my sins. He shall save His people from
the penalty of their sin because He took the penalty for them.
He shall save His people from the power of their sin. You know,
that used to always trouble me because I'd always thought, well,
it seems like sin's got a lot of power in me if I've been saved from
the power of my sin. But understand this. There was a time when I
didn't even know what it was to believe. And I tried to believe
and I couldn't figure it out. I tried to repent and I didn't
know what it meant. I believe now. And my mind's been changed. I
believe the gospel. I believe grace. Time I didn't,
I do now. I've been saved from the power
of sin. There's a time when I couldn't
do that. I can now. I've been saved from the power of sin.
And bless God, one of these days, in my experience, I'm going to
be saved from the very presence of sin. David said in Psalm 1715,
as for me, I'll behold thy face in righteousness. I'll be satisfied when I awake. in thy likeness. Now here's the
remedy. Here's the cure for every ill. Here is a prayer that I hope
me and you are praying multiple times a day. Turn us again, O
Lord God of hosts. Cause thy face to shine. and we shall be saved. Let's pray.