Joel 2:12-17
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· 4 viewsWe are looking at repentance in Joel 2:12-27
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There’s a multi-million dollar underground industry that probably many of you know nothing about
-And when I say that it’s an underground industry, I really mean it
-It’s the safety bunker industry
-You see, many people in the world have a fear of the Apocalypse
-Whether that’s nuclear Holocaust or Zombies infesting the world
-And there are many people who will pay thousands, or maybe even millions, to have a place where they can run to a be safe
One of the largest privately owned bunkers is in Tifton, GA
“The bunker boasts seven luxury apartments that sleep a total of 13, fully working and secure Internet and a common area with a 15-seat movie theater. It was originally built in 1969 and fully brought up to government standards in 2012, the listing says, and can withstand a nuclear blast up to 20,000 tons”
-article on CNET
“Fortified blast doors are controlled by a multi-biometric meter that simultaneously scans the face, iris, palm and fingerprints, only you and your designated loved ones can get it. In addition, all of the residences come equipped with an integrated complex security system with military-grade protection.”
-article on Yahoo.com
-While we may laugh at the expensive and extravagant paranoia of many of these people, they are right in at least 2 major points
1. There is coming a terrible day of Destruction
2. And we all need something to be able to withstand or avert the danger of that day
And this is exactly the issue that the prophet Joel sought to address in his day
The coming danger
The solution to averting the danger
Why this solution works
1. The coming danger
1. The coming danger
-The book of Joel is written by a prophet we know nothing else about, during a time period in Israel that we cannot definitively pinpoint
-All we know about Joel is the 12 words we have in verse number 1:
The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
The time period in which this is written is widely debated
-It could have been as early as 835 BC during the reign of Joash, or as late as 400 BC, a little after the time of Malachi
-there is really very little internal evidence to help us make a decision, and therefore it is probably not of any substantial significance because the Spirit of the Lord does not impart this information
-The book of Joel centers on a locust invasion that swept through the land of Israel
-A locust invasion, to a society that was dependent on agriculture could have deadly implications
-And make no mistake his locust invasion was lethal
-Joel tells his readers that the locusts have left hardly anything in the land
-This invasion of locusts is compared throughout the book to an invading army
-They march on the land, ravaging it and robbing the inhabitants of their hard-worked crops
-The people are to lament and wail for their loss
-The farmers have nothing
-The vinedressers have nothing
-The wheat, barley, grapes, apples, pomegranates — all gone
-But Joel is not primarily concerned with a locust plague and meager supplies
-Joel uses this bleak and mournful devastation of national proportions to preach about an even greater judgment to come
The Day of the Lord
Consecrate a fast,
Call a sacred assembly;
Gather the elders
And all the inhabitants of the land
Into the house of the Lord your God,
And cry out to the Lord.
Alas for the day!
For the day of the Lord is at hand;
It shall come as destruction from the Almighty.
Thunders the prophet!
His sermon is simple yet profound
Passionate and sobering
“if you think this day is bad, just wait until THE day comes”
And make no mistake, it is coming
Joel 2:1–2 (NKJV)
Blow the trumpet in Zion,
And sound an alarm in My holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble;
For the day of the Lord is coming,
For it is at hand:
A day of darkness and gloominess,
A day of clouds and thick darkness,
Like the morning clouds spread over the mountains.
Joel is not a preacher given over to trite truisms or to meandering cliches
He drives home is point, preaching to a devastated, mourning people who have suffered loss
Some modern readers may take offense to his preaching, saying that he is taking advantage of these poor, hapless Israelites
“leave them alone! they’ve suffered enough right now! Can’t you see their devastation!”
-But Joel is not taking advantage or manipulating
-He is doing the most loving thing he can do
-He is fearlessly calling the people’s attention to the reality that they will face something far, far worse in the future if they dwell contentedly in their sin
Joel comes to the crescendo of his sermon
-He trumpets the truths that stand behind the reality of the recent locus invasion
Referring to the locust army, he proclaims:
The earth quakes before them,
The heavens tremble;
The sun and moon grow dark,
And the stars diminish their brightness.
The Lord gives voice before His army,
For His camp is very great;
For strong is the One who executes His word.
For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible;
Who can endure it?
Let us consider a few things about the day of the Lord from the text here before us:
God is the driving force behind this day
-This day is not just a bad day that occurs due to natural circumstances
-It’s not primarily due to any rulers of the earth causing trouble
-This is not Satan trying to wreak havoc on the earth
No, this is the Day of Yahweh
-It is His voice that goes forth
-It is His camp that is great
-This is the Day that He has planned to take vengeance on His enemies
2. God is Powerful executor of His Word
-God has the power to accomplish all that He pleases
-As we’ve learned in Revelation, He is the One who can send plagues and destructions
-He can cast stars to the earth
-He can shake the entire earth in the greatest earthquake ever known to man
-There is nothing too hard for Him!
And He will do this in accordance with His Word!
-From start to finish, the Word of God testifies to this coming day of reckoning
Behold, the day of the Lord comes,
Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger,
To lay the land desolate;
And He will destroy its sinners from it.
For this is the day of the Lord God of hosts,
A day of vengeance,
That He may avenge Himself on His adversaries.
The sword shall devour;
It shall be satiated and made drunk with their blood;
For the Lord God of hosts has a sacrifice
In the north country by the River Euphrates.
The great day of the Lord is near;
It is near and hastens quickly.
The noise of the day of the Lord is bitter;
There the mighty men shall cry out.
3. God ensures that this day is dreadful
-This is not a day of joking
-It’s not a day of laughter and mirth
-It is a day of dread
-A day so weighty that it crushes
The prophet brings this section to a close, his final question lingering uncomfortably long in the tense air
“who can endure it?”
2. The solution to averting the coming danger
2. The solution to averting the coming danger
As the question hangs there in the somber silence, a new voice breaks through tense air
-Like the bright rays of the sun cutting through the clouds, hope cuts through the gloom
-Yahweh Himself answers the question, “who can endure it?”
“Now, therefore,” says the Lord,
“Turn to Me with all your heart,
With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”
In light of the unstoppable Day of the Lord, God Himself provides the way of escape from being consumed on that Day
Repentance
What is repentance?
According to our text, it is turning to the Lord with all your heart
-It is a response to God’s grace that allows someone to turn to God from their sin
Now, we must talk about 2 common misconceptions about Repentance:
-these 2 misconceptions are like ditches on either side of the road
-A person can fall into one extreme or the other
1. A person can repent without really giving up there sin
Understand very clearly, there can be no repentance where sin is still cherished in the human heart
-As long as someone still loves their sin and wants to keep it as a secret companion, there can be no repentance
“Many do their sins as mariners do by their goods, cast them out in a storm, wishing for them again in the calm . . . Many confess their sins, but with no intent to forsake sin; they confess the sins they have committed, but do not leave the sins they have confessed.”
-Matthew Meade, 17th century Puritan
A person cannot repent and yet still cherish and hold to their sin, anymore than a drowning man can swim to the surface while desperately clutching to a 100lb bar of gold
There must be a turning to God from sin
But the other misconception of repentance is this:
2. That somehow I must clean myself up before I come to God
-brothers and sisters, this is not possible
-We are not capable of cleaning ourselves up before we come to God
-As a matter of fact, unless God first works upon a person’s heart, they would not even be able to repent!
As it is written:
“There is none righteous, no, not one;
There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God.
God must first work upon the heart of a person so that they are even able to repent!
-But if you somehow think that repentance is a work that you must conjure up to change yourself, you are gravely mistaken
Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots?
Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil.
-We are not capable of changing ourselves or cleaning ourselves up
-So understand that repentance is neither some prayer that I pray, but still love and cherish and hang on to my sin,
-Nor is it a religious, man-made effort to conjure up some inner righteousness
What is it like then, this true repentance?
-It is a characterized by a sorrow over sin that comes from changed affections
Joel 2:12–13 (NKJV)
“Now, therefore,” says the Lord,
“Turn to Me with all your heart,
With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”
Do you see the heart of it??
-It is a work of God whereby I come to love what I used to hate and hate what I used to love
-I used to love my sin!
-I used to cherish it!
-I used to enjoy it!
-But now I love God!
-And because I love God, I hate my sin!
-Joel’s voice returns in verse 13
Joel 2:13 (NKJV)
So rend your heart, and not your garments;
Return to the Lord your God,
God doesn’t merely want outward shows and signs of religion!
-He wants a heart of sorrow over sin
-He wants us to have a broken heart over our rebellion
The prophet once again gives the command:
“Return to the Lord your God!”
Now, as we get to this point in the sermon, I really have two questions:
Why are we to repent?
-I mean, why is it effective?
-Why will it do any good?
And
2. How do I get to the point of sorrow over sin?
-how do I go from cherishing my sin to being filled with grief over it?
-how does that work?
-Are we just talking about conjuring up some emotion?
-Forcing some tears?
-That sounds exhausting
-How is it that sorrow over sin is produced in my life
So two questions:
Why is repentance effective?
How can I really have this kind of repentant heart that God wants?
The answer to both of these questions is found in verse 13
Joel 2:13 (NKJV)
Return to the Lord your God,
For He is gracious and merciful,
Slow to anger, and of great kindness;
And He relents from doing harm.
3. Why the solution works
3. Why the solution works
-The reason that repentance keeps us from the wrath of God on Judgment Day is because of who God is
-There’s nothing magical about repentance!
-There’s nothing about it that makes someone have to let us go free
-What if you were to go and drive your car through someone’s lawn, tear up their grass, run over their mailbox, and then attempt to drive it through their window.
-And then when the police showed up, you were to say, “i’m really sorry about this! I won’t do this kind of thing again.”
-That person would be under no obligation whatsoever to let you go free
-And brothers and sisters, there is nothing about our repentance that somehow forces God to have to let us go
-It’s not at all about the act of repentance
-It’s about the character of the person who has been sinned against
-Let’s say that in that situation I just put forth a minute ago, little did you know that you had decided to drive your car through the lawn and front window of the kindest, most gracious person ever
-And let’s say that when the cops show up, they say, “please don’t charge this person. I’ll take care of all the damages.”
-No one would be impressed by your repentance
-No one would credit you being mournful as the reason that you got off free
-No, it would be the incredible grace and kindness of the person whom you offended
-No one would say, “wow, what a great show of mourning and sorrow that drive gave! What an incredible apology gave!”
-No, it would be “wow, what an incredibly kind and gracious person that homeowner is. How incredibly compassionate.”
And brothers and sisters, this is the kind of God that our God is.
-And you see, the way that this grace and mercy has been shown and demonstrated, is in the person of Jesus Christ.
-If you want to see the character of God, look to Jesus
Watch as a leper comes and kneels in the presence of Jesus, and says, “sir, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
-And watch as the Savior reaches out, touches the man, and says, “I am willing. Be clean.”
-What graciousness
Watch as a woman is caught in adultery, and brought to Jesus by accusers who want her killed
-Watch as Jesus defuses that situation, and tells the woman, “neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.”
-What mercy
Watch as self righteous Jewish leaders slap Jesus in the face and mock Him, and say to Him, “prophesy to us Messiah, who hit you?”
-Watch as Jesus meekly takes the beating and mockery, staying silent as a lamb led to the slaughter
-What slowness to anger
Watch as Jesus, dying and suffering in agony, turns to the thief next to him and assures him that he will be with Jesus in paradise!
-What great kindness
Watch as the Suffering Servant, the Lord of Life, the blessed God-Man, shouts it is finished and bows His head, yielding to death, so that the punishment we deserve on the Day of the Lord will not come crashing down on our heads
-What a God who relents from doing harm!
You see, in the person and work of Jesus Christ, God can accept our repentance
-Because He has taken the punishment we deserve on that Day!
Not only does this answer the question of why repentance is effective in saving us from the terrors of the Day of the Lord, but it also answers the question of how we can cultivate a heart of sorrow over sin
-When we look to the cross of Christ, and see the character of God on display, we will learn to love our Savior more than we love our sin
-It will cause us to turn from our sin and turn to the merciful Son of God
Look at the Divine response there is to repentance:
Then the Lord will be zealous for His land,
And pity His people.
The Lord will answer and say to His people,
“Behold, I will send you grain and new wine and oil,
And you will be satisfied by them;
I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations.
You see, God was promising His people that when they repented, He would respond in forgiveness and restoration
-He would heal their land
-He would exalt them again
And we may not be Israelites who are trying to restore our crops, but we serve the same God they did
-A God who responds to our repentance with mercy and grace
For thus says the High and Lofty One
Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
“I dwell in the high and holy place,
With him who has a contrite and humble spirit,
To revive the spirit of the humble,
And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
Application:
Application:
So what does this mean for us?
1. If you are unsaved, still living in rebellion and sin, repent and turn to Christ
-God desires to save you!
-He has sent His Son to forgive and cleanse you
-He can work in your heart and grant you repentance
-Call to Him
-Don’t continue to live on in your rebellion against God
-Anyone here who is not saved, please repent and be saved!
Though after this life repentance be perpetual, it is in vain.
Augustine of Hippo
There is, in the world, a great deal of sorrow on account of sin which is certainly not repentance, and never leads to it.
Sorrow And Sorrow, Volume 46, Sermon #2691 - 2 Corinthians 7:10
Charles Spurgeon
There’s no repentance in the grave.
Isaac Watts
But this sermon is not only for those who are lost:
2. If you are a Christian, God desires us to live a lifestyle of repentance
“Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”
-Martin Luther, 95 Theses
I was born for nothing but repentance.
Tertullian
Brothers and sisters, are our lives marked by true repentance as a lifestyle?
-This does not mean living in constant introspection
-This does not mean constantly thinking about past sins
-This doesn’t mean living a dejected and discouraged lifestyle, constantly thinking about how bad you are
-The repentant lifestyle is the Christ-focused lifestyle
-It is the lifestyle that loves and treasures the Savior
And as we love and treasure the Savior, there will be conviction over sin
-There will be a greater passion for Christ, and a greater passion for sin
-And as we are convicted of our sin, it will push us even closer to Christ, as we gaze on Him, the one who made an end of all of our sin
Sincere repentance is continual. Believers repent until their dying day.
Morning And Evening, Page 574
Charles Spurgeon
Are there sins that you secretly treasure and hold on to?
-Confess them
-Repent of them
-Treasure the Savior
So rend your heart, and not your garments;
Return to the Lord your God,
For He is gracious and merciful,
Slow to anger, and of great kindness;
And He relents from doing harm.