00:00
00:00
00:01
Transcript
1/0
Joel chapter 2. I'll begin our
reading this evening at verse 12. Yet even now, declares the Lord,
return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and
with mourning, and rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God for
he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast
love, and he relents over disaster. Who knows whether he will not
turn and relent and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering
and a drink offering for the Lord your God. Blow the trumpet
in Zion, consecrate a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the
people, consecrate the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the
children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his
room and the bride her chamber. Between the vestibule and the
altar, let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, and say, Spare your
people, O LORD, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword
among the nations. Why should they say among the
peoples, Where is their God? Joel has been prophesying against
Judah. Judah has turned from focusing
upon Him and listening to His commands. They have been seduced
by the world. They have pursued their neighbors. And for these things they have
felt the disciplining hand of the Lord. And yet, the Lord doesn't
leave them. And the Lord's intent is clearly
seen in the passage in which we are looking at this evening,
that His discipline is aimed at bringing them to repentance,
to abandon their sin, to return to that One who is faithful,
that God who they know, that One who has already delivered
them time and again, And so this evening as we look at this passage,
we're going to look at three things. First, that God calls
us to himself. That he also calls upon us to
value God above all else. Then we are called to be contented
in his vineyard. That the delight of our heart
is found only when we are with Him, that One who has delivered
us, that One who has made us, that One who has forgiven us,
our Almighty God. So let's look here at this first
portion, looking at verses 12 to 14. After God has already
sent these vast armies of locusts upon Judah, after the land has
been decimated, after the people have felt the pressure exerted
upon them after right worship of God has been arrested because
those sacrifices He demands, those of grain and wine, could
not be offered. So great was the devastation
wrought by His disciplining hand that we find here God giving
His people instruction turn to the Lord. We live in a day and
age where a lot of individuals are willing to ask for forgiveness,
are willing to acknowledge their sin, and they do so with the
hope that whomever it is that they have offended will stop
asking about it, but they also overlook an important
ingredient that accompanies true repentance. True repentance is
not a mere uttering of words. It's not an I'm sorry. But true
repentance means a turning away from sin, a forsaking of sin. You see, oftentimes in the day
and age in which we live, Men and women will acknowledge those
areas in which they fail or they are weak or in which they struggle,
but they think upon those things and those sins in their life
as something that is like their DNA, something that is just a
part of who they are, and that those who are around them need
to grow accustomed to it. Sometimes, husbands, we have
this same thought as we deal with our own frailties and failures
as husbands with our wives. But rather than seeking to address
those areas of weakness or failures or sin, we anticipate that our
wife will just get used to them and understand them to be a part
of who we are. And when we grow content in our
sin, when we grow comfortable in it, We see it as a part of
our identity. We fail to realize that we are
not looking for nor expecting the work of Christ, that work
of Christ which is intent on transforming us into His image,
to move us from a position of lawlessness and being lawbreakers
to increasingly being those who abide by and embrace and love
the law of God. And so here at the outset of
our passage, after these things have befallen Judah, we find
that yet there is still hope put forth by God. Yet even now,
declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart. In this life we contend often
with our enemy who sits perched upon our shoulder, whispering
into our ear that those sins that are present within our life
make us unacceptable to God, make it impossible for us to
turn away. And yet here is the Almighty,
here is the giver of salvation Himself, reminding His beloved
people, even now. Turn to me, return to me with
all your heart. This act of repenting is not
something that is done in half measure. It is not something
that is done partly. But we see that it is to be a
condition, an expression of a heart whose focus has changed. This
is as if we are discarding those things that our heart once wanted
to cling to, those things of the world, those things we spoke
of this morning that were represented by that prostitute in the wilderness. Those things of the world that
are absent and unfulfilling and mere illusions, fleeting and
soon to be destroyed. He says, you need to return to
me with all your heart. We sang this morning from Psalm
51, a psalm that is known as the Psalm of the Penitent, a
psalm written by David after his egregious season of sin,
a season in which he was guilty of adultery and of murder, where
he went months God's face, where he had grown
comfortable and untouched by his sin until that time that
God aroused within him, awakened him to the grave nature and the
danger in which he found himself due to his sin. And the response
of David when the prophet Nathan confronted him was to repent. And it was a full-hearted repent. It was a seeking God, understanding
that the offenses that I have carried out may have injured
Bathsheba, may have yielded the death of another man, may have
dishonored and been a terrible example unto the people of God
in Israel. And a far heavier weakness is
that David understood his sin to be an affront to a holy God.
And so his heart was broken. And he cried out to God for repentance. And the miraculous thing about
that account of David and the sins that he committed, sins
which had no corresponding sacrifice in the ceremonial system, is
that it gives us a glimpse of the capabilities of our God to
forgive our sins. There's only one sin noted within
scripture. And yet our enemy sits upon our
shoulder and would tell us each and every sin that we commit
is itself a far, is a thing that separates us from God. And sin
does separate us. But if we understand the ministry
and the work of Christ, if we understand what He came and what
He accomplished in His ministry among us, then we know that through
Him, Those sins which we commit we can bring before the throne
of grace and there we can receive forgiveness. That He is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins, what a great blessing this is
to us. This was an important word given
to Judah in the midst of calamity to be reminded that it was not
too late. It's an important reminder for
you and I this evening as we gather before God to worship
him, that if there are sins that have gone unrepented in your
hearts, it is not too late. Tonight is the night to call
upon him, to acknowledge your sin, to ask him for his forgiveness,
that you might not carry that guilt, but that you might that hope renewed and that you
might experience His blessing in place of that disciplining
hand. He says, return to the Lord your
God for He is gracious and merciful. These are important reminders
to us lest our fears, lest the cunning words of the enemy cause
us to be hesitant to approach God and to admit our sin to Him,
here is God reminding us of who He is, of His nature, that He
is gracious and merciful. As we are men and women of the
Book, as we spend time in the Word, we see repeated over and
over and over again the demonstration of God's grace and mercy upon
a people that again and again fall into sin. You go to the
book of Judges and we are reminded of that pattern where God sends
to them a judge and he rescues them from their sin, he establishes
them once again and they walk for a time with him and then
they fall back into sin. And God sends another judge and
God sends another judge. all of these things attesting
to the reality, the factual nature of what is here before us, of
God's grace and mercy. Oh, how many are the times that
the sins of God's people were deserving of His wrath, of His
condemnation, and of our utter destruction, and yet the God
whom we love and worship is a God Think in terms of that, those
many years spent by God's people in the midst of the exodus and
their wanderings in the wilderness. How often they showed themselves
to be stiff-necked, disobedient, rebellious people, complainers. Is that something you've ever
struggled with, complaining? Complaining that things don't
come when you think they should? that you don't get the acknowledgments
you think you deserve, that you didn't get the raise or the promotion
that you think you deserved. Oh, there are so many things
that cause us to complain. And we see the ridiculous nature
of our complaining in this land that is known for its speediness. When we lose our cool and lay
on the horn, when our McDonald's cheeseburger takes more than
three minutes. We're quick to complain, aren't
we? We sometimes have a tendency to think that after all of these
thousands of years since those wanderings in the wilderness,
we've grown so much, we're so much wiser than they were, and
yet we see how the sins of our forefathers are no different
in us today. We still stumble in the same
ways. We're still guilty in the same manner as they were guilty. And that's what makes even this
prophecy of Joel so important to you and I today, as these
are important reminders of the God whom we love and whom we
serve, that we would be reminded of our need to flee to him. Slow to anger, abounding in steadfast
love, He relents over disaster. What important words given here
by Joel under inspiration of the Spirit to a people that has
become accustomed to disaster, a people that has felt the disciplining
hand of God, that he relents. Jonah saw this, didn't he? God's
relenting. both in his own attempt to flee
and God saving him in the midst of that tumultuous sea, in the
belly of that fish, but he also saw the relenting spirit of God
expressed in that city, a city that was renowned for its sin,
a city and people which Jonah didn't want to go and proclaim
the message God had given him. Rather, he would have preferred
to see them suffer as they had been the cause of many others
to suffer. And yet God's word went forth,
and it brought about an amazing transformation in the residents
and even in the rulers of that great city. He goes on and he gives instruction
to the people of God at the next point that we are to value our
God above all else and what is the avenue by which he would
have us repent. Well first we see here the use
again of the trumpet. The trumpet was that instrument
used in the Old Testament for several different things. One,
it was used by the watchmen. to alert the city when danger
was approaching. It was used to gather the troops
together to lead them, but it was also used to gather God's
people together for times of worship. And so we see it here,
blow the trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast, call the solemn assembly,
gather the people, and consecrate the congregation. God's people
are encouraged to gather together as they have come to understand
their sin and they are to publicly and corporately seek the Lord. You don't have to watch the news
very long to see the number of ways that sin is manifesting
itself throughout our land. To see the way that men are chasing
after the foolish ideas of men rather than the ways of God.
To see the attacks that are being waged against the church, against
the crown rights of Christ. These should motivate us as the
people of God. Not to merely accept them as
the time and place in which we live. but that we would come
together and, as a people, we would lift our voices in prayer
to God, that He would equip us, that He would loose our tongues,
that He would give us the words to speak, that we might be His
instruments in our communities to speak of Christ, that we may
see the foolishness and sin that is so brazen around us replaced. turned from, repented of, and
to see our communities transformed for Christ. Brothers and sisters, we all
ought to be praying that God would bring about a new Reformation,
that He would awaken His Church, that
He would cause His Bride to go forth ready to speak of who would listen, that He would awaken His bride
to walk in such a way that the world would look and see something
radically different in all those who make up the Church of Jesus
Christ. For they bear a fruit which the
world does not know nor can produce. They possess a hope and they have a security and
peace that is absolutely foreign to the world. We see this should
be a priority in our lives. This should be something of importance
to us. We see that picture if you look
on down to the latter part of verse 16. Let the bridegroom
leave his room and the bride, her chamber, Give up the plans that you've
made for yourself, for this far supersedes the plans of men. If you think back, those of you
who have been married to that glorious day when you went and
stood before that assembled crowd and pledged your love before
God and before those witnesses for your spouse, there were few
things that could have delayed you, that could have kept you
from that appointed hour. And yet here is God speaking
to his beloved people of the need of this hour to repent,
this need of the hour to seek his face. And so we are reminded ourselves
to examine those priorities in our lives, to ensure that Christ
is truly at the top of our list of priorities, that he truly
is our first love, and that we rightly recognize all those other
things that try to vie for our attention and try to keep us
from focusing upon that one in whom we have our life. And then he calls us to be contented. Between the vestibule and the
altar, let the priests and the ministers of the Lord weep and
say, spare your people, O Lord, and make not your heritage a
reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say
among the peoples, where is their God? Just as David understood
his sins were affronts before God first
and foremost. Here we see the heart of those
who repent rightly, those whose hearts have been broken, recognizing
their sin, are here not concerned with their own good, not concerned
with their own reputation and how the world views them, But
here we see that the people of God's first concern is that the
reputation of their loving Heavenly Father would be rightly known
and understood around the world. This is another expression of
Judah recognizing her sin, recognizing how their sin had been a disgrace
to the name of God, how it had brought ridicule from the nations,
as they looked upon the nation of Judah, a nation that had been
decimated by the disciplining hand of God, and those nations
were tempted to say, where is their God? And so our concern
and our care is not for our glory and our reputation, but for the
glory of the God who has shown us grace, the glory of the God
who has been merciful to us, his glory, the one who grants
to his people who call upon his name forgiveness for sin. And may we grow in our ability
to run to him. May that typify our response
to sin as we uncover it in our lives. as an expression of his
wonderful work within us. All to the glory of his name.
Entreat Our Gracious Father
Series Joel
| Sermon ID | 1119221953107311 |
| Duration | 25:51 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | Jeremiah 6; Joel 2:12-17 |
| Language | English |
Documents
Add a Comment
Comments
No Comments
© Copyright
2026 SermonAudio.