Joel 2:12-14
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-ever heard the phrase the real mccoy - in the 1800s there was an inventor Elijah McCoy who had invented a lubricator for steam engines, there were other products that came after but the real mccoy was favored, therefore people would ask is this the real mccoy
-perhaps there are selections in life that you find to be the real mccoy, my grandmother loved cokes and she would say I want a real coke which meant not a diet coke to her that wasn’t a real one, some refuse to buy generic brands because they feel as though they are not as good as the original
-In our text today we will see that we need real repentance, genuine repentance, that a makeshift repentance will not do
John Calvin - Moderate repentance will not do
-But first we must understand on the very definition of repentance and we find the definition in the text - return, in Hebrew turn back
19 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out,
-to change one’s mind, to change actions
Repentance Requires Faith
Repentance Requires Faith
-When we read through Joel we can get this idea of despair - judgment is coming, mourning, fasting, the locust devour, the army invades
-But it is not despair, it is the invitation of repentance, and to truly repent requires faith
4 “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.
Repentance is the tear in the eye of faith.
Dwight Lyman Moody (Evangelist)
-without faith there would be no repentance, we repent because our faith rests in the merciful, gracious God who forgives
It is impossible to disentangle faith and repentance. Saving faith is permeated with repentance and repentance is permeated with faith.
John Murray (Professor)
-Even now
-Now in the midst of this warning, even though judgment is coming, even now God stands ready to forgive and to restore
-This is a word of grace, God had not fully rejected the Jews, he was ready to forgive, this is wonderful news, God had not given them over to their sin but is ready to forgive
-The message has been: there is to be an attitude of remorse, a recognition of sin against the Holy and awesome God, weeping, and fasting, seeking forgiveness
-In our context we must see repentance and faith in connection to one another
Repentance will not make you see Christ, but to see Christ will give you repentance.
All Of Grace, Page 72
Charles Spurgeon
-We repent because of what Christ has done for us
-Repentance is not this idea: oh well I will just stop doing that, or I will keep sinning and seeking God, that is not genuine repentance, what is genuine repentance
Repentance Requires a Change of Heart
Repentance Requires a Change of Heart
-All of the emotional desperation that Joel has highlighted is not for show
-It is to get the Jews attention that they had a heart problem, when we sin against God we are not just performing some actions, we are not just casually doing things in life, we are following our wicked our hearts, we are following our fleshly desires - so to repent there must be a change of heart
-return to Me with your whole heart
3 And Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.”
-There is this idea that the Old Testament is only about the Law of God, but so many miss the point that God desires the heart of His people
Deut. 6 - Love the Lord your God with all your heart
6 For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
9601 The difference between true and false repentance lies in this: the man who truly repents cries out against his heart; but the other, as Eve, against the serpent, or something else.
John Bunyan
-What does it mean to love God with all our heart? What is a change of heart? To love God with all our desires, all our affections, all of our will
26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
-God gives us a new heart through Christ - Christ died so that our hearts can be transformed
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
-Have you had a change of heart? Do you desire to seek God with all your heart? What are your desires? Is it to know God?
Paul put it this way:
10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
Repentance Must be Genuine
Repentance Must be Genuine
rend your hearts and not your garments
-just going through the motions is not repentance, just saying I am sorry, or doing things for the Lord does not mean you are truly repenting and worshiping Him
6 And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
-only place where a prophet asks the people to tear their hearts and not their garments
-However, several prophets highlighted the absurdity of ritual repentance, this idea of repenting verbally but having no change of heart, going through the motions, doing a physically act of service but inward there is no change
Hosea 6, Jer 7
-I think of false repentance in light of our kids, they will be disobedient, and we will address their behavior, and there are times where they will say I am sorry, or nod their head like they agree and I can see through it - they are just verbalizing what I want to hear but are not truly repenting their behavior, we cannot just say Lord forgive me and have no change of heart and behavior
-Right godly behavior is only the result of genuine submission to God
-Notice return to Yahweh, this very well may be an indication that false idol worship was the grievous sin of the Jews that Joel was addressing
-However, any sin we allow to remain among us will lead us away from God - therefore He said return to Me
16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
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Repentance is a Result of God’s Grace
Repentance is a Result of God’s Grace
-It is truly a gift of God that we can repent, can anyone tell me why God should give us grace and mercy? Why should God be forgiving? Why should he bring judgment so that we may return to Him? Why should God provide His own Son to take our punishment upon Himself? To repent is a result of God’s grace
-gracious and merciful
9 For if you return to the Lord, your brothers and your children will find compassion with their captors and return to this land. For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him.”
-God used similar language when he made the second tablets for the Israelites
6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
-God is merciful and gracious
-interesting - who knows?
9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
2 And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.
15 Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
-how does this compare with the sovereignty of God? God has mercy on whom He has mercy
15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
-This is a direct decision of God to be merciful, to be compassionate towards His people
-I urge you today to return to God, to turn to Christ if you have not submitted to Him as Lord
-Give thanks for the grace of God that we can repent of our sins, that we can turn and be forgiven
-Genuinely repent, seek God with all your heart
