I'm glad I got married. I can say she is my wife and I'm her husband, right? But I'm so glad I got married to Christ when I received Him as my Savior that I can say I am His and He is mine. I hope He can say that today. Alright, we'll dismiss the little ones to go with Mr. Shor to the crash, okay? So if you're part of that group, you can be dismissed quietly. We'll turn in our Bibles again to the book of Joel. It's a little difficult to find. It's one of the minor prophets there in the back of the Old Testament. Alright. I'll get the kids all situated. That room's getting kind of small. Callum, you're a little old for that class. Oh, he needs a Bible maybe. Alright, okay. Bulletin. There you go. Alright, Joel chapter 2, verses 12 and 13, alright. Joel chapter two verses 12 and 13. As we come to this book, the book of Joel, it's all the minor prophets speak about end time events, with the exception probably of Jonah. And so you read the book of Jonah and you don't see Jonah speaking about the millennium where Christ is gonna reign in the earth. You don't see Jonah speaking about future events maybe. But most often you come to these minor prophets and you'll find in the prophets in general, You'll find them speaking about things that are going to come to pass in the future And so as we come to the scripture today Joel is both speaking about Something in the future of God's blessing that there's a day coming where Israel is going to repent there's a day coming where Israel is going to get right and Judah's going to get right and they're going to have the blessing of God again and There is something about at that time period They were living in disobedience to God. And so As a prophet, prophets didn't have a very flattering job title. It's kind of like this, you know, God says, you know, my people are completely disobedient, they're going to hate you, they're going to despise you, they're going to rebel against your message, but your message is to go tell them all those things from me. You think about it, a prophet had a very tough job. But what Joel is going to do, he's going to tell them about the judgment of God that's going to take place. And again, it's both prophetic future, because the book of Revelation takes the picture of the locust and the plague that's going to take place. It applies it to the tribulation period. On Thursday nights, we've been studying the book of Revelation. We're almost finished with that book. But Revelation's all about the tribulation, then very minimally about the millennium, and then just a bit more about the new heaven, the new earth in that time period. So it's all the future. But they take, John, as the spirit of God leads him, takes passages of our book here, Joel, and applies them to that future prophecy of what God's gonna do. So we know that that has a place. But we know as well, that was also current. It was also something of which the people could look at and they could look around, they go, why don't we have the blessing of God today? Can I say this as, and I don't want to look at it nationally, but if I could look at it among born again believing churches, that we could look around today and say, as the people of God, do we really have the blessing of God today? See, is it fruitful fields like it was in the days of Duncan Campbell on the Isle of Lewis back in the 1950s when the churches were packed out by people seeking after God? Is it like when D.L. Moody preached to crowds of thousands of people? Is it like when George Whitefield preached at Campbell Slang to crowds of 20,000 out in the open air? Is it like the days of the Covenanters where they were willing to die for the faith? They were willing to stand with Jesus Christ even at the point of death and hold to his name and not, and by the way, today, the church has bowed down and says here, the Bible says, buy the truth and sell it not, but tell you what, today we're gonna give you a discount. We're gonna take all the truth that we have and we're just gonna offer it to you for a pittance. That's what the church does today. It's very sad. They may have bought the truth in the past, and it came at a dear price, didn't it? I mean, I was thinking at camp, that idea of buy the truth, it's like, I'm sitting there at camp, God, I invested time, I invested money, I invested effort to get myself here to camp. I can honestly say, I bought this truth that I'm getting here at camp. But the Bible says, sell it not. We could come back from camp, and we could just waste the blessing of what God's done over the last two days. But buy the truth and sell it not. But the sad thing is, again, the church in our day, they've taken that precious truth that God's given, they've handed it to the world, and they've said to the world, you just tear out whatever you want to tear out. They don't care about this book. Okay, when that takes place, guess what? God's judgment comes. Why, and let's look at it nationally just real quick, why America and Britain, I love this when I speak to people about, when I speak to people about Christianity, I'll start with Scotland. This country in the 1800s was a premier Christian nation. Guess what? This country produced inventors, technology, not technology, eventually technology like the television and things, right? They put medicine, Watt, the steam engine. I mean, you got major things that Scotland contributed, and they're just a little country. I've got a book, and it's entitled How the Scots Invented the Modern World and Everything in It. All right? That's the title, kind of a little cheeky title. But the reality is, yes, they did. Where did that wisdom come to for this little nation? Guess what? It came from God. It came from God. And atheists, I'm speaking to them and I'll say to them, I say, okay, say there is no God. Explain this to me. United States, not a big nation. Britain, obviously with the Commonwealth bigger, but as far as the nation itself, not that big. But these are the premier nations in the world. Why? And isn't it interesting that our legal system is based on what? The Bible. Interesting. And so as nations you say it has been said and it grieves me today to say we're no longer Christian nations, but the reality is that's true as much as a believer. I want to deny it. I want to say that's not who we are. But the reality is that's who we are now. But it's not who we were. And let's look at it again. Do you think that these nations that I've mentioned. Do you think they are what they were back in the day when they were Christian nations? And I understand even back then they weren't fully Christian nations, but they were more so. They honored God. They had God in the courts. They had God in the schools. They had God in society. Okay? No longer. So we can look at it today, and I'm just trying to get us into Joel's day. In Joel's day, as they received this prophetic word from God to them saying, stop, look and listen, there's judgment taking place. They can look around and say, you know, I can see that thing today. I can see that. And can I remind us again today? Look, we can see the judgment of God. We got to stop agreeing with the world and say, well, that's just natural when we have floods. That's just natural when there's economic pressure. That's just natural when there's societal upheaval. And listen, there's a lot of change taking place in the United States. There's a lot of change taking place in Britain, right? That upheaval is taking place. We got to look at it. And we've talked about it at church. I love this. Whether somebody agrees with Brexit or not, whether somebody agrees with the Trump presidency or not, can we not all see the fact that God has done something that men thought was impossible? The world said that's not going to happen, it happened. The world said it's not going to happen, it happened. We're still in that taking place. And God puts up, and God takes down, okay? So we see the hand of God in that. But I say that to say, it may not be for God's blessing. As believers, we want to say, you know, we see God's hand, let's hope it's a blessing. But it may not be. It may be judgment. Okay? So that's staying in place. So what do we do? And that's what we'll get to. But let's just get ourselves into the story. We've already read it. But we'll read a bit more. Joel 1, okay? Joel 1, verse 4. That which the palmer worm hath left, hath the locust eaten. That which the locust hath left, hath the canker worm eaten. That which the canker worm hath left, hath the caterpillar eaten. Awake, ye drunkards, and weep, and howl, ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, for it is cut off from your mouth. For a nation has come up upon my land, speaking about a plague. strong and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion. He hath the cheek teeth of a great lion. He hath laid my vine waste and barked my fig tree. He hath made it clean bare and cast it away. The branches thereof are made white." And he's saying, look around. This plague comes and eats this part of the fruit of the vine. This plague comes and eats the rest, and then it eats the rest, and it eats the rest until, look, it's all gone. There's not something that you can go to and you can grab and you can pick up and say, see, we still have a fruitful field. No, it's not there. Why? Because the judgment of God is so complete that it takes care of everything. And Joel says in chapter 2 verse 17, as we've read, let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar. Let them say, spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them. Wherefore should they say among the people, where is their God? Listen, the world today looks at the church and laughs. It's a joke. They say, and it's not right that they say it, but they say, where is their God? But can I say that this morning, that we can understand why they say that. I can kind of understand today why people look at the church and laugh. Look what's going on in the Church of Scotland right now as they come out and they say, not only is homosexuality okay, it's okay for homosexuals to get married in the church. Question, is the Church of Scotland God? Do they decide what sin is? No. We had an MP, Member of Parliament, that he was confronted by his people that put him into power, you know, the pop stars and stuff. Really, what is your view? He's an evangelical Christian. Really, what is the truth about homosexuality to you? And is it sin? He says, the quote was, homosexuality is not sin, says this minister. Let me ask you, is he God? No. Does he get it? Oh, God in heaven just crossed off his list. Well, I guess homosexuality is not sin anymore. Why are we even talking about homosexuality? Because that is the premier sin that Satan is putting up and saying, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay. Listen, I could as equally speak about men and women living together without being married. It's rife in our society. And our society acts as if it's not a big deal to live with somebody who you're not married to. I could talk about lying, because our society says lying is not a big deal. Right? So, the only reason I named that is because it's right there, it's in the news, it's in our face. Okay? And God's judgment is coming. And the world is laughing at the church because the church is kicking the Bible under the bus and saying, we don't care about God's truth anymore. And the world laughs. Where's their God? Nobody's afraid, you know, like the Bible, not the Bible, history says about Queen Mary, that she feared the prayers of John Knox more than invading armies. When's the last time that the government trembled because a man of God stood up and said, I'm not going to bow the knee, I'm not going to yield to you, God is able to give victory to truth, and we're just going to stand up for what God said in His Word. We need a generation like that. And so, this judgment's coming on the people And it's Israel, but we're the church. We're not Israel. And so there's Joel saying to Israel, Israel, it's time to get right with God. It's time to turn to God. It's time to get burdened about the things of God. And so he says to the priest, weep. Man, preacher, get on your knees. Weep. Pray. Beg God to do something. Because this is serious. And so what we're looking at today does apply to the church. There's truth here this morning that we need to see. That as people, that we need to take it into our heart and say, dear God, help us to obey what the word of God says here. And so the message this morning is the truth to turn us to God. Okay, what we need and what did Israel need? Israel needed to get back close with God and say, I'm gonna stand with God. I'm gonna stand with God. What truth did God give them in this passage to make them do that? Now, our text this morning is just two verses. It's Joel 2, verses 12 and 13, okay? And so how, you could ask the question, how do men turn to God? Okay? What's it look like? It's one thing to say, turn to God. It's another thing to stop looking and examine it and say, What does that look like? How does somebody really do that? And so first thing this morning, if you're taking notes, is that they turn to God immediately. Okay. They turn to God immediately. It says in verse 12, turn ye even to me. Turn ye even to me. Turning is repentance, okay? I'm going this way, away from God. And that's the world. We talked about it this morning. Jesus Christ is truth. I am the way, the truth. When I reject the truth, I reject Jesus. That's why when I sell this book, I sell Jesus. Because He is the truth. And so, when I turn my back on that book, that truth, I am walking away from God. What's repentance? Repentance is turning my back on the world and walking to God. That's it. So God says, turn ye even to me. Question, when? As a parent, sometimes I'll say something to a child, you know, and I say, stop playing in the road. When do I mean? I mean now, right? So I'm saying, Turn ye even to me. When? Immediately. So God this morning is saying to us, church, church, turn to me. When? Immediately. An unbeliever that is away from God completely, turn to me. When? Immediately. You know, I was witnessing to a couple girls there in Ireland and having a good chat with them on Friday night. And I said to them, I said, you know, every rule that God gives us about sin is for our benefit. I said, you know, as a dad, I don't say to my children, you can't play in the road because I don't want them to have a good time. It's not because I want to restrict them. It's not because I want to be a burden to them as a dad. It's because I love them, and I know that if they play in the road, they could get hit by a car. Now, imagine a child is out in the road, and they're playing in the road, and the mom says, turn to me now. Get out of the road. What if they don't respond? Could die, right? They get hit by a lorry or something coming by. It might be at that moment that they need to respond immediately. That's why kids, the Bible puts a high priority upon immediate obedience. And by the way, the song says it well, to delay is to what? Disobey. When God says today, turn ye even to me, and he means now, we don't turn, guess what? It's disobedience, and do you know the consequences could be eternal? Bernard would stand here and say the same thing I'm gonna say, and that's Joan didn't know she was gonna die three weeks ago. She's 51 years old. Do I know today that I've got a week to turn to God? I don't. And by the way, God's judgment was coming. We just looked at Noah at camp. Boy, it was good. You know Noah's building the ark? He's saying get in the ark. A hundred years he builds the ark. There's a lot of things I'd like to say, and maybe I'll say them tonight about what we learned there. But you think about this. I mean, that judgment was coming, but you know what people are doing? They're sitting in their house. They're drinking their drinks. They're having their tea. They're getting married. They're raising families. Life is just going along normal. And guess what? Then the door shuts. Can they get on the ark? Who shut the door? Do you remember who shut the door? Not Noah. Because man doesn't control God's judgment. God shut the door. You know what, I believe Noah might have been on the other side pulling on that door saying, Dear God, let me out, let me out, let me out. There's people out there that need to get saved, right? But he couldn't open the door. Why? Because God shut it. You know, think about it. Somebody that dies without Christ, when do they go to hell? Right then. See, for a believer, absent from the body is present with the Lord, but for an unbeliever, and he died, and in hell he lifted his eyes, being in torment. The Bible speaks about the rich man. So when God says, look, turn, He doesn't mean in the future. And so we're talking about repentance. When should somebody repent? You should repent now. 2 Corinthians 6, 2 says, behold, now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. Isaiah 55, 6, seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is near. See, I know that's a heavy truth today, but, I mean, the reality is, God's passing by, He says, look, I've got mercy for you, I've got mercy for you, I want to save you, I want to save you, I want to help you, I want to help you. But God can't. Because that person refused. That's, God, as hard on the Lord as it is on that person. Jesus looked at Jerusalem and wept and said, man, how often would I have gathered you to myself as a mother hen gathers her chicks, but you would not. You've got to touch the heart of God to see how hard men's heart is. You know, in 2 Chronicles, before the judgment of God came, with the Babylonian captivity, as God sold them into slavery because of their disobedience. Before that took place, the Lord God of their fathers sent to them, okay, God sent to them His messengers. rising up betimes and sending, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. Okay, but, but they mocked the messengers of God. They despised his words, misused his prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people. And then it says these words, till there was no remedy. God is pleading with them and saying, hey, I'm sending my prophets, look, get right, get right, get right, get right, get right, get right, get right, please get right, please get right, please get right. No, no, no, no, no, and God goes. Too late. You know, there's a very sad song, Almost Persuaded. Have you heard that? We've sung it in the hymnal recently, I think we've sung it. But this is what it says. Seems now some soul to say, go spirit, go thy way. Some more convenient day, on thee I'll call. Almost cannot avail, almost is but to fail, sad, sad, your bitter wail, almost but lost. See, King Agrippa thought as he, and I've stood there in Caesarea on the sea in January, in that place where King Agrippa and Paul had that conversation, and King Agrippa says, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. And Paul goes, King Agrippa, I wish that You are like me in everything except these bonds. But almost but lost. See, I know, you know, Sunday morning we're at church and you think, life's really real, isn't it? Pastor, make apology for the Word of God today. That's a tough truth for us to look at. But God says repent. Isn't that right? I mean, God says to us today, look, turn, turn to me. How? Completely, with all your heart. Turn ye even to me. How? With all your heart. Can I control my heart? What are you passionate about? What are you excited about? Well, you know, it might be different things for different people today. But we're all passionate about something. I mean, there's something that we get excited about. There might be excitement in our voice. We tell somebody about it. We're excited about it. It could be family. It could be work. It could be achievements. It could be pride in something, a team, or a sport, or something like that. But we get excited. Nobody goes to a football match that cares anything about the match and sits there and just looks at it. You know what I'm saying? No one just sit there and look, do they? They jump up. They cheer. They get excited. They're passionate about it. And God says, turn to Me with what? All your heart. All your heart. Can I ask you this morning, are you following God with all your heart? Now that's an interesting question, isn't it? Because we've got to stop and say, what does that look like? If I'm a wholehearted person following after God, what does that look like? All your heart. 1 Corinthians 9.26, Paul said, I therefore so run, not as uncertainly, so fight I, not as one that beateth the air, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I preach to others, I myself should be a castaway. Do you remember Paul, who Paul is? I mean, Paul had been shipwrecked for the Lord. Paul had been stolen for the Lord. Paul had been taken and he had been beaten with, what is it, five times, 39 stripes, so 195 stripes that touched the back of the apostle Paul. And he goes, Paul goes, "...I therefore surrender, not as uncertainly, so fight I, not as one that beateth the earth. I'm not shadowboxing, but I get under my body, and I bring it into subjection, lest that by any means when I preach to others, I myself should be put on the shelf." That's what that means, to be a castaway. You think about that. Paul... We'd look at Paul, if Paul came in here, we wouldn't bow down to him because he's just a man, but we'd be in awe of the Apostle Paul. We'd say, what an amazing man of God. We're not worthy to stand in this room and say, I'm a Christian with a man like the Apostle Paul. But Paul said, I discipline myself, I discipline myself, I discipline myself because I want to be the very best for God that I can be. Now listen, is that with all your heart? It is, isn't it? And so, let's think about our Christian life and experience. Do we get up and spend that time with the Lord? Because we got to get in the Word of God, got to have the Word of God impact our hearts, because we want to be the best Christian that we can be. Are we getting on our knees saying, oh God, please, I pray, dear God, help me to be the best Christian I can be for you. God, I want to be all for you. God, I want to really have a heart and a burden and a passion for you. Because God doesn't want today half-hearted Christians. He doesn't. In Revelation, it says, I'd rather you were cold than not be hot and be lukewarm. Because you're neither cold nor hot, God says, I'm gonna spew you out of my mouth. I'm gonna vomit you out of my mouth, just like Jonah was spit up on the beach by the whale. God says, I just wanna get you that nasty taste out of my mouth, because half-hearted Christianity is disgusting to God. Isn't that right? Again, that's tough truth this morning, isn't it? But you know, isn't that what God says? That I gotta look at my life and say, God doesn't want half-hearted Christianity. Because God can't use it. There's nothing there that God can reach somebody with. There's nothing there that identifies with Christ, that people see Christ. It's actually, you know, a lot of people will say to me, I've heard it many times, I don't go to church because churches are just full of hypocrites. There's people that, you know, they say they're Christian, but I know they do everything I do. You know, they're worse than I am, is what they say. You know, God wants wholeheartedness. See, and if you want to get saved today, it's wholehearted. It's got to be God. I understand that's what I need. I want you. I want Christ. As a believer, it's got to be all my heart. God doesn't want us to turn partially, you know, completely. So God would ask us today, you know, what are you holding back? You know, is there something that you've yet to give to God and say, God, I want you to work in my heart this way. So completely, and then sacrificially, it says, and with fasting. The word fasting is in our Bible 26 times. Do you know that? 26 times God speaks about fasting. If God speaks about it in his word 26 times, do you think it's important? It is, and it's gotta be, doesn't it? I mean, you think about how many times he's talked about it. And if I were to ask today, you know, let's start with, read your Bible. And I'm not asking right now, but just think in your heart how you answer it. I think probably if I ask the question, how many of you read your, let's start with prayer, let's start with prayer. How many of you pray, okay, daily, all right? And don't answer, you don't have to raise your hand. But if I were to ask that, I would expect a good number of people in here to raise their hand and say, I pray daily. And then if I asked the question, well, what about read your Bible? How many people read their Bible daily? It might be a little bit less than that, right? Or maybe, I don't know which would be more. It'd be kind of interesting to know, reading your Bible or praying? How many of you read your Bible every day, or you do your best to read your Bible every day, and as best you can, you try to do that? But then if I ask the question, how many of you this past year have fasted, taken time, said, I'm gonna set aside food because I gotta seek God? You know, I think what we'd find is that very few, and let's imagine there were 1,000 people here today. Wouldn't that be great? 1,000 people. The reality would be there'd be very few that would say, you know, I've fasted. But you know, the Bible, again, has much to say about fasting. Jesus said in Matthew 6.16, moreover, when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto man to fast. Verily I say unto you that they have the reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy father which is in secret. And thy father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. See, in Jesus' day, there were these religious leaders, they're Pharisees, and they liked to give long prayers. They liked to bring their bags of money and pour them in. They liked to fast publicly. and have sorrowful faces so that people look at them and say, my, what a godly person, look how they're fasting for God, right? But Jesus says, when you fast, don't be as a hypocrite, just wash your face, look right, appear as if you're not fasting. Most people look at you and go, hey, you're looking good, losing a little weight or something, but they don't look at it and say, you're fasting. But let me ask you a question. Why would Jesus give instructions about fasting if he didn't expect the church to fast? And the answer is, he wouldn't. And notice what he said. He said, when ye fast. Isn't that interesting? See, Jesus expected that there would be fasting that would take place. Now, the disciples didn't fast while the Lord was with them because, I mean, the Lord's there, you know. They didn't need to, but in our day, Jesus Christ has gone, and now it's time to fast. Now it's time to seek God. Remember the disciples? They tried to cast a demon out of a demon-possessed boy. Jesus was up on the Mount of Transfiguration. And that's where the glory of God shone through him, and it was revealed to those that were there that Jesus Christ is not just a man, but the glory of God broke through. He comes down from that great experience to the disciples down there trying to cast a demon out of a demon-possessed boy. And the disciples can't do it. And the father's upset. He's saying, please, please help me. I've asked them to cast the demon out and they haven't done that. And Jesus steps up and he cast the demon out. And then the disciples say to the Lord, why couldn't we do it? What's the problem? You know what the Lord said? He said unto them, this kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting. This kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting. What does that tell me about the problem that they were facing, that demonic resistance that was there in the life of that child, that without prayer and without fasting, they didn't have the power to cast that demon out? Question, why did Jesus have the power to cast the demon out? Because he had prayed and because Jesus had fasted. He didn't say because I'm God. See, he became a man. We talk often about that in the Word of God. Jesus became fully man. He's still who he was, but he set aside his deity. Because he fasted, and because he prayed, he could do it. And you might say, well, good thing today, Pastor Ben, we don't have a problem with demon-possessed people in our churches, and they have to cast out demons, don't we? And I'm not saying, so don't get scared, I'm not saying that you're demon-possessed this morning, all right? But here's the point, listen to these verses. Ephesians 611, put on the armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we, that's you and me, wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Paul just told me that I wrestle against demonic powers. That's what He said. We wrestle not against flesh and blood. We see the human element. God, this is tough. Raising kids is tough. Being a Christian is tough. Standing up for God is tough. There's a battle that's taking place. And we say, we see the physical, that is tough. But we've got to see the spiritual. We wrestle not against flesh and blood. but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world. Why is it so hard for somebody to get saved? Because a natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he discern them, because they are spiritually discerned, that God's power has to get in there to get that person to come to the point of salvation. He has to. But we wrestle against demons, demonic powers. Revelation 12.1, Speaking about sacrifice. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Is it too much for God to ask us today to say, you know what, church, it would be a good idea if you just took time, set aside a meal to seek me. You know, church, it would be good today if you set aside two meals to seek me. It might be good to set aside two days to seek Me, if that's what God puts in your heart. But the point is, God expects us to fast. If I could look into hell today, would I have an appetite to eat? If I saw what God can see of the need of men to get saved, and if I understood today that it is urgent, and that we've got to be passionate about it, and we've got to have God's power to do it, guess what? There's going to be a natural fasting that takes place. And so God says, turn to me sorrowfully. I'm sorry, sacrificially. And then He says, turn to me sorrowfully. It says, and with weeping, and with weeping. Have you ever, you read the advertiser? Does that, you ever read the newspaper that Midlothian puts out called the Advertiser? Our church at different times has had opportunities to be in there with, there's a column called Views from the Pews that they put in. So we have been able to contribute a couple columns, but I was also asked to do a column that they do called Five Minutes With. All right, they'll ask you goofy questions about your background stuff, try to embarrass you a little bit in front of everybody. But they'll also ask just odd questions. One of the questions was this, when is the last time you cried and why? Isn't that interesting? How would you answer that today? I mean, that could bring out all sorts of stuff, right? When's the last time you cried and why? And you stop and think about that question. Let me ask you this, what makes you cry? When's the last time that you wept because the cause of Christ and the need of the world and the powerlessness of the church? When's the last time you wept because we need the power of God? See, that's convicting. See, God says to weep. And He's not asking us today, get your onions, you know, start pinching your cheeks and you'll get those fake tears going. God wants it to come from our heart. God wants our heart to break before Him with weeping, with weeping. You know, some people think, well, that's not manly. But you know what I'm going to say, right? The Lord Jesus, what's the shortest verse in the Bible? Jesus wept. Yeah, John 11, 35, Jesus wept. Hebrews 5, 7, who in the days of his flesh, when he'd offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him. Guess what? Jesus Christ, if you saw him right here on his knees before his father pleading with God, very likely what you'd see going down the cheeks of our Lord are tears because his heart was breaking. And I mean, you'd know beyond a shadow of a doubt, you looked at the Lord, his heart is in that. He is pleading with God. When's the last time you wept in prayer? You might think today, well, I haven't cried in 20 years. Might be that way. Guess what? There was a guy like that. James Stewart met him over in Europe. His wife, the wife of this man, had been praying for her husband, for him to get saved. She'd been going to the revival prayer meetings and just praying and praying and praying, God save my husband, save my husband, save my husband, save my husband. She invited James Stewart over for a meal with the hope that he'd have a chance to lead her husband to the Lord. And so he came and he's thinking, I'm just, you know, who am I, you know, to reach this guy? Anybody, you know, if she can't reach him, how could I reach him? But he gets there and he talks with the man. He says to the man, why don't you get saved? Why don't you accept Christ? You know what the man said? He said, because I can't cry. And yet he had this idea, you have to cry to get saved. And James Stewart just said to him, look, the Bible doesn't say that you have to cry to get saved. It says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved. If thou confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. And so the man said, okay, I'll pray. Guess what? When the man started to pray, a man who hadn't cried for 20 years, tears started streaming down his face as God broke his heart. You know, sometimes what it is, it's not that we can't cry, it's that our pride and our will is so hard against God. But when we submit our will and we humble our heart, the tears begin to flow. It's us submitting to God and letting God break our hearts. You might have to pray to God and say, God, pastor shared with us this morning the word of God, and the Bible says, when we turn to you, that if we really desire your blessing, that God says, weep, weep. And we can say, God, help me to weep. God, give me tears. God, break my heart. Allow me to sorrowfully seek after you. And so the Lord help us to do that. And then it says, with mourning, and I use the word regretfully, okay? Turn to the Lord regretfully, with mourning, with sorrow. You know, nobody goes to a funeral with a smile, do they? You know, not if they care about that person, not if they love that person at all. You go to a funeral, and it's sorrow, and it's regret, as it were, that you didn't have more time and didn't have more opportunity with that person. You know, this is, you look at what God's speaking about here, there ought to be regret. God, I'm so sorry we didn't spend more time with you. God, I'm so sorry it's taken me this long in my life to let you break my heart and get me on my knees before you and get me right with you. God, I'm so, so sorry with sorrow, with sorrow. You know, Jesus knows what that's all about, doesn't he? He was called the man of what? Sorrows. Jesus mourned. You know, the Bible says it's better to go to the house of mourning than to go to a party. Last night there was a party here and I feel bad for the lady that cleans. We know her and they just left the place a mess. You know, it's better for us this morning to have a sobering message from the word of God than to have been here last night and balloons and beer and all the stuff they had going on here last night. because it's empty and it makes people think that life is what it's all about. This message today that we're looking at makes us realize that eternity is what it's all about. It's all about God. It's all about glorifying God. It's all about honoring God. When's the last time, again, that our society mourned? You know, is our society embarrassed to go out dressed naked? They're not, are they? They go out with their legs uncovered, other parts of their body uncovered. They're not embarrassed. They're not ashamed. They don't apologize for their modesty. Is our society ashamed to speak filthy words or to tell filthy stories? Do they blush because they said something they shouldn't say? No. Is our society ashamed of the alcohol? I read an article about alcohol in Scotland and the ambulatory services and pressure it's putting on the NHS. and the pressure it's putting on the police. But as a society, we just go, well, I mean, that's part of Scottish society. It's just ingrained. We have no mourning over that, no sorrow over that, no looking at that and saying that's not the way God intended men to live. You know, society is not ashamed to watch whatever they want to watch. I mean, they're just nowadays. I mean, again, filthiness on the telly. We've got to, as believers, guard our families from and ourselves from wickedness on the telly because it is a shameless society. I mean, back in the day when they made the old pictures, husbands and wives even were in separate beds. Do you remember that back in the old television? Nowadays, they're not only the same bed, but it's filth. Okay? It's almost a shame to speak of that in the church, but the reality is our society is not ashamed of that. They don't mourn. You know, sexual sin, Paul dealt with in the church in Corinth, and he said to them, It's reported commonly that there's fornication among you, and such fornication is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife. And you are puffed up, had not rather mourned, that he that had done this deed might be taken away from among you." And the church, again, in our society today, has people in ministry even that are divorced, people that are in ministry that are ungodly, and they just say, but we just love them. It's love, and we're so proud of our affection for them. And Paul says, you're bragging about it, and you're not ashamed about it. You've got fornication in the church, you don't even care. Sexual sin in the church, and you're not even, your heart's not even broken about it, you're not even getting it out of there. Isn't that where the modern church is today? Okay, there ought to be in our hearts as godly people, we ought to get on our hearts before God and say, God, we're so sorry. And I heard a good statement. There was a great statement at camp. And it was this, basically. If you accommodate something, you cease to be offended by it. Let me give an example. I might have a problem with wicked music in a church, but if I go to a church that has wicked music, pretty soon I'm going to stop being as bothered by it as I was when I first started going. That's just an example. Anything like that. We accommodate it in our lives, we let it into our lives, and pretty soon it doesn't bother us anymore because our conscience is seared. And when we ought to mourn, we don't even have the grace to blush and be ashamed. Jeremiah 6.15, were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Neither were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush. Therefore they shall fall among them that fall. And so turn with mourning. And then we'll end with this this morning. Well, two things briefly. Turn to God seriously. It says, rend your hearts, not your garments. The Jews, I mean, they would show their mourning by coming and tearing their garment as if outward, you know, outward problem. But God says, hey, look, we're in the heart. God says, be real about it, deal with it, get rid of the sin. Romans 6, 1 and 2. What shall we see then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? And so, If we're in earnest today and we say to God, God, I want to turn to you, then God says, get rid of the sin. Deal with the sin. So turn to God seriously. And I'm rushing this morning for sake of time, but we've got to get that behind us. You know, this morning, you probably guessed, but I'm not in the United States. I'm not in the United States because I left the United States to come to Scotland. I'm not in Ireland today because I left Ireland to come to Scotland. You know what, today you shouldn't be in the world if you're claiming the name of Christ. The Bible says, let him that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. There ought to have been a lefting, a leaving. And then the last thing this morning is that we ought to turn unto the Lord submissively. It says, and turn unto the Lord your God. He's God. See, God makes the rules. As we think about repentance, repentance is acknowledging, God, you're God and I submit to you. God, I submit. God, I put myself under. And God, I want what you want. God, I submit. We'll end there this morning. I almost regret, but this might be turning into a two-part message. I'll likely preach the second part of this message next Sunday, and let me end with what the second part is. We turn to God the way we've talked about, and we've just had the heavy part of it today, turning and what that is and what it looks like and how to do it, et cetera. But we turn to him because of who he is. Okay, turn to the Lord your God, because what does the verse go on to say? For the Lord is gracious, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repented him of the evil. And as we continue the story, God's blessing comes. We don't have to say, well, that's the end of the story, the judgment and the heartache and having to turn, having to repent. But guess what? You get to the end of the story, you got the blessing. And so the blessings come in. But let's just bow our heads this morning and pray. And let me just, as you got your head bowed and your eyes closed this morning, let me just ask you a question. And the question is this, have you turned to God with all your heart? You know, the weeping in the morning and the other things, they kind of come out of the beginning, don't they? Can you honestly say this morning in your heart before God, God, by your grace, I am following after you. And if not, let me just encourage you in your heart, just before God, in the quietness of this time, just say to God, God, I'm sorry. I do want to follow you. I do want to please you. We do need you as a church. We do need you as an individual. We do need your power to give the gospel. God, help me to be that person that is following you with all my heart. And let's just bow before the Lord and pray now. Father, thank you for your love for us. Father, thank you. for this passage that we've looked at. We just looked at the beginning part of it, and I missed out on kind of the sweetest part of the passage as we consider who God is. But Father, we've got to start at the beginning there. Turn unto the Lord your God with all your heart. And Father, there ought to be weeping, there ought to be mourning, there ought to be fasting. And so I praise the Spirit of God. Speak to our hearts. Maybe this morning we'd have to covenant with You that by Your grace we're going to begin to fast, because we need the power of God. Father, we just let Satan beat us up, thinking that it's just human, that it's just part of life, instead of realizing the battle's being waged against us. And we're not even fighting because we don't have the armor on. We're not getting in prayer. We're not getting fasting and getting the power of God. And so, Lord, however you see fit to use that. But I pray too, Lord, for those that have not yet bowed the knee to God for salvation. Father, I pray that the Spirit of God would speak to their heart. Father, give them grace to yield to you. Lord, I'm thankful for your presence this morning. I'm thankful for the way you're working and the quietness of our hearts here in this service. We need it. And so, God, be glorified to do a great work, a thorough work. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.