Okay, Joel chapter 2. The title
of the message this morning is Turn to the Lord. And we don't know really anything
about the prophet Joel. We don't know where he came from,
who his parents were. We don't know where Joel lived
or where he prophesied. But we do have recorded in Scripture
the message The Lord gave to Joel, and this is the message
of Joel, that God is always working His will in our day. The phrase, the day of the Lord,
appears five times in these three short chapters. And when Joel
refers to the day of the Lord, he's not referring to any individual
day. He means the day. in which any
day in which the many different days in which the Lord displays
his sovereignty over all things. Those all those days where God
shows he's God. There was the day of the Lord
in creation. God displayed his sovereignty.
He spoke everything into existence because he's God. There's the
day of the Lord in providence where God overrules every, even
the most minute events of providence because he's God ruling and reigning
in his creation. There's the day of the Lord in
salvation. The day the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified was not
the day of man. This was not the day that the
will of man was accomplished. This was the day the will of
God was accomplished. This happened by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God. That was the day of the
Lord. For those of you who believe,
there came the day, God's day, the day of the Lord in salvation
when he revealed himself to you. How'd that happen? God showed
himself to be God, didn't he? And revealed Christ to your heart.
And there's coming a day of the Lord, the day of judgment. when
every knee will bow, every tongue will confess, and the books will
be opened, and everyone will be judged according to them.
But this day of the Lord also means right now, today, December
27th, 2015. The Lord has displayed his sovereignty
in bringing you here this morning. He brought you here to hear the
gospel. Today is the day of the Lord. Today's the day of salvation. Today is the day to turn your
heart to the Lord. And this message of Joel is not
just for people that lived thousands of years ago, we don't know.
His message is for us, every one of us here this morning.
Look in Joel chapter one, verse one. the word of the Lord that
came to Joel, the son of Bethuel. Hear this, ye old men, and give
ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your
days, or even in the days of your fathers? Tell ye your children
of it, and let your children tell their children, and their
children another generation. Well, that covers all of us,
doesn't it? From Joel till today, that covers
all of us. And the rest of this chapter
one and the beginning of chapter two, Joel describes God's judgment
against sin. And you read those verses into
the center. These are scary, dark verses,
frightening words. And every gospel preacher has
these words, the warning of God's wrath against our sin, the warning
of God's judgment. And it's summed up in chapter
two, verse 11. And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army,
for his camp is very great, for he is strong that executeth his
word. For the day of the Lord is great
and very terrible." Who can abide it? Who can abide it? None. Those are true, yet frightening,
sobering words every gospel preacher has. God is holy. He must punish
sin. But we also have words of sovereign
grace, grace that comforts the heart of God's people. Look here
in verse 12, Joel chapter two. Therefore also now saith the
Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart and with fasting
and with weeping and with mourning. First, the paragraph begins,
therefore, therefore, because of what was said earlier, because
no man can abide this very great and terrible day of the Lord,
because no man can stand in God's judgment against our sin. God
has a message. The message is repent and turn
to the Lord. Now, what is it to turn to the
Lord? You know, I can't physically
turn and see the Lord over there. I can't turn. It's not a physical
turning, is it? This word turn, I looked this
up in Strong's, it doesn't necessarily mean return to the starting point. Turning to the Lord is more than
trying to go back and get back to where Adam was when God created
him in the garden. This word turn, it means to retreat
and lay down. Just lay down like you would
in surrender. Turning to the Lord is to retreat
from our position of rebellion against the Lord and surrender
to him. Turning to the Lord means laying down our weapons and surrendering
to the Lord. Turning to the Lord is surrendering
to him and to seek peace on God's terms. Unconditional surrender,
just unconditional total surrender to his will. Turning to the Lord
in surrender is turning to Him with this attitude. Whatever
God does with me is right, and it's just, and it's good. But
I'm throwing myself on His mercy, praying for mercy. Well, how
do I turn to the Lord? Well, I have a few points. First,
turn to the Lord with all your heart. Turn to the Lord in sincerity. Isn't that what he says here,
verse 12? Turn ye even to me with all your
heart. Now that word heart means with
all of your desire. It means with the determination
of your will. Now when you turn to the Lord
and you seek him, when you seek Christ because you need him more
than anything, you'll find him. When you turn to the Lord and
you seek him, and you're so determined to have Christ that you will
not quit until you find Him. That's when you'll find Him.
That's what it means to turn with all of your heart. And that's
what this verse is saying. Joel says, turn to the Lord with
fasting. Now you don't have to literally
fast, go without food, you know. At this time of year, if that
was required, we wouldn't be finding the Lord today, would
we? We've all overeaten a lot the past week or so. It's not
literally fasting. But I'll tell you what this is.
When seeking the Lord is more important than eating lunch,
you'll find me. When seeking the Lord is more
important than all these other fleshly things that we become
so easily preoccupied with, That's exactly when you'll find him.
Joseph's turned to the Lord with weeping. Now, when do we cry? Well, we cry when we're overcome
with emotion, good or bad. In this case, it's being overcome
with sorrow, sorrow over our sin, and we weep. Now, this is
not just being sorry that God says he's gonna punish me for
my sin. It's not just being sorry I'm gonna get what I deserve.
This is being truly sorry for what I am. It's not what I deserve,
it's being sorry for what I am, that I am sin, that being overcome
with emotion, I am the opposite of what God requires. That's
turning to Him with weeping. And it's to turn to the Lord
with mourning, Joel says. Well, when do we mourn? Well,
we mourn when we're in a sad situation and we realize there's
nothing I can do about it. When a loved one dies, we say
I'm in a time of mourning. I'm mourning the loss of that
loved one because my loved one's died and there's not one thing
I can do about it. I can't bring them back to life.
I'm helpless. That's when we mourn. Well, you
don't want to know when a sinner will mourn We'll turn to the
Lord in mourning when we realize there's nothing I can do about
my sin. I'll turn to the Lord in mourning
when I realize there's nothing I can do to make God have mercy
on me. You hear all these false prophets
give you all these lists of things, you can do these and then God
will be merciful to you. Well, that's not mourning over
sin. Mourning is turning to the Lord
and realize there's nothing I can do to make God save me. I can't quit sinning and I can't
pay for my sin. I'm helpless. So I turn to the
Lord because he's the only one who can help. That's turning
to the Lord in mourning when he's the only one who can help. When I am shut up to Christ,
that's when I'll turn to him. Now I know I tell you, I'm telling
you, turn to the Lord with all of your heart. But I realize
we can't turn to the Lord with this natural heart. This natural
heart will not and cannot turn to the Lord. It's dead. It can't
do anything. The Lord's got to give us a new
heart before we'll turn to him. Look back at Jeremiah chapter
29. And when the Lord gives a new heart, he's got to give a new
heart. And when he gives that new heart, we'll turn to him.
Jeremiah 29 verse 11. For I know the thoughts that
I think towards you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not
of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall you call upon
me and you shall go and pray unto me and I'll hearken unto
you. And you shall seek me and find me when you search for me
with all your heart. When God gives you a new heart,
a new birth, you'll search for Him with all of that heart. But
now listen to me. Scripture tells us to do what?
Turn to the Lord and turn to Him right now. That's what Joel's
telling us. Don't use the fact that you have
a sinful, dead heart as an excuse not to turn to the Lord. Don't
do that. Don't blame God and say, well,
the Lord hasn't given me a new heart, so nothing I can do about
it. I can't turn to him. That's the wrong attitude. You
don't turn to the Lord because you know God gave you a new heart.
You turn to the Lord because you're a sinner who needs a savior.
That's why you turn to the Lord. Now, I assure you, you'll find
out later on, oh, I turned to the Lord because He gave me a
new heart because he revealed himself. You'll find that out
later on. But right now at this moment, you turn to the Lord
with everything you've got because of your need of him. Turn to
the Lord out of your need for him. If you turn to the Lord
with a fatalistic attitude, you'll never find him. I watched this
show on, occasionally I watch it on, history channel, these
fellows digging on some island for some, you know, great treasure. Some fellow's been digging in
this place for 50 years. I can assure you if I dug and
looked for that treasure for more than a day, I'd give up. I've got this fatalistic attitude,
you know, if I didn't find it, I'm never going to. You know,
either me or that fellow's going to find the treasure. Which one
do you think that one is still digging after 50 years? If it's
there, he's much more likely to find it than me. Don't turn
to the Lord with a fatalistic attitude. If you say, oh well,
you know, I'll find Christ if I'm one of the elect, and you
know, if the Lord's seeking me, then I'll find Him. And if He's
not seeking me, then I'll never find Him. If you seek the Lord
with that attitude, you'll never find Him. A sinner who's in desperate
straits, a sinner who's hopeless and helpless will seek Christ
violently. Nothing will stop him. If you
need Christ, I mean you need Him, nothing will stop you from
getting to the Savior. The woman with the issue of blood,
she sought the Lord violently. If she had to crawl through the
midst just to touch His garment. The fellow who was sick of the
palsy, he couldn't come to the Lord. He got his buddies to get
ahold of him and drop him down. He sought the Lord violently,
didn't he? If you ever need Christ, you'll
seek Him violently. That's the day you'll find Him.
When you won't let anything get between you and the Savior, you'll
find Him. And we know we've turned to the
Lord when Christ is all I want and He's all I need. If Christ
satisfies, you've turned to the Lord. I've sought the Lord with
all my heart. When there's no plan B, when
I don't have a fallback position, either Christ is my Savior or
I'm damned. That's when I've turned to the
Lord. Turning to the Lord with all of your heart in sincerity.
The day you do that, you'll find Him. Second, how do I turn to
the Lord? I turn to the Lord with a broken
heart. Look at verse 13 of Joel chapter two. And rend your heart. and not your garments, and turn
unto the Lord your God." Now, when a sinner truly turns to
the Lord, they're not making a show of religion. Everybody
knows somebody who's made a show of religion. And that's why Joel
says, don't rend your garments, now rend your heart. Come to
the Lord with a broken heart. And the reason he said that in
this day is they would tear their clothes as a sign of grief and
mourning. You know, if you tore your clothes,
you're sitting around, your clothes torn, you know, that's easy to
see. Everybody knows, oh, you're in
mourning. But turning to the Lord is not
rending our garments. Turning to the Lord is not something
we do for the benefit of others. Turning to the Lord is not making
a show of religion. Religion in our day, has turned, turning to the Lord
and they've made salvation something that's entirely outward. You
know, you got to quit doing all these things that people see.
You got to start doing all these good things that people see.
You've got to walk an aisle. You got to do this thing. You
got to make a profession. You got to go live the Christian
life. You know, you got, and everything they talk about is
an outward thing and they ignore the truth. The salvation is a
heart work. It's an inner work in the inner
man. Now, if the Lord saves you, you
will confessing publicly. But the heart work comes first.
The confession is what the Lord's already done in the heart. So
Joel says, don't wring your clothes. Wring your heart. Turn to the
Lord with a broken heart. Look at Psalm 34. This is very
important. Turn to the Lord with a broken
heart. The only way a sinner can seek the Lord is with a broken
heart. If your heart's not broken, you'll
never seek the Lord. Psalm 34 and verse 17. The righteous cry and the Lord
hear it and deliver them out of all their troubles. The Lord
is nine to them that are of a broken heart. And he saveth such as
be of a contrite spirit. He saves those who have a broken
heart. And he's far away from those
who filled with pride, aren't they? Well, what is it to have
a broken heart? If I have to turn to the Lord
with a broken heart, what is it to have a broken heart? Well,
to have a broken heart is to see that my heart, my will, my
nature is broken. It doesn't work right. It's broken. So I turned to the Lord with
a broken heart because I need a new one. My first one was broken. It didn't work right. To have
a broken heart is to see that I need God to give me a new heart. The old one's broken. You know,
something that's really broken means it can't be fixed. Deb
Sparks tells me I can't throw anything away. Anything, like
I always gotta save it and Ed's gonna fix it. And he's skilled,
usually if he can't fix it, he'll finally throw it away. To have
a broken heart is not to see, well can somebody smarter than
me fix it? To have a broken heart is to know this one's gotta be
thrown away and I've gotta be given a new one. Look at Psalm
147. If you turn to the Lord with
a broken heart, he'll heal you. He'll heal your broken heart.
Psalm 147 in verse three. He healeth the broken in heart
and bindeth up their wounds. He binds up their griefs. How
does he do that? God heals the broken heart by
giving a new one. If something's really broken,
I mean, it's broken beyond repair, You gotta throw it away and get
a new one. That's what God does for his people in the new birth.
Their heart's broken and he gives them a new one. Now I want you
to look at Psalm 51. Here's an example of someone
who turned to the Lord with a broken heart. David's heart was broken
and he turned to the Lord. This is the way a broken heart
speaks. Have mercy upon me, O God. According
to thy loving kindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender
mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgression
and my sin is ever before me. against Thee, Thee only have
I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight. See, to have a broken
heart is to have my sin and my fault in it. Against Thee, Thee
only have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight, that Thou
mightest be justified when Thou speakest and be clear when Thou
judgest. Behold, I was shaped in iniquity, and in sin did my
mother conceive me. Behold, Thou desirest truth in
the inward parts. See, don't rinse your garments.
Salvation is an inward matter. And in the hidden part, thou
shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall
be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me
to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken
may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and
blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O
God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from
thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore
unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit.
Then will I teach sinners thy ways, and sinners shall be converted
unto thee. Deliver me from blood guiltiness,
O God, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud
of thy righteousness. Open thou my lips, and my mouth
shall show forth thy praise. For thou desirest not sacrifice,
else would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt
offering, The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken
and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Do good in thy good pleasure
unto Zion. Build thou the walls of Jerusalem.
Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness,
the burnt offering and whole burnt offering. Then shall they
offer bullocks upon thine altar. That's a man with a broken heart,
and we know God healed his broken heart, didn't he? Thirdly, how
do I turn to the Lord? I turn to the Lord as a sinner
seeking mercy. Look at verse 13, our text again,
Joel chapter two. Rinse your heart and not your
garments and turn unto the Lord your God for he is gracious and
merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness and repented him
of the evil. Now you turn to the Lord as a
sinner seeking mercy. Don't do what this flesh, this
flesh natural inclination is to turn to the law. We're going
to turn to the law and we'll clean ourselves up and make us
more acceptable. Then we'll turn to the Lord and
he'll accept us. Don't do that. Don't turn to
the law. Turn to the Lord. And don't turn
to religion to try and make yourself look better, you know, get you
a nice religious coat and then turn to the Lord. See, if you
turn to the law, you're not a sinner at all, are you? If you turn
to the law, you think you're a righteous person who can do
a little better and make himself somehow acceptable. Now, you
come to the Lord as a sinner. If you turn to religion, all
you are is a Pharisee. The Pharisees were religious.
Our Lord said they have a righteousness, but their righteousness is all
outward. And he said, if you're going to be saved, your righteousness
must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.
So it can't just be an outward thing. So you turn to the Lord
as a sinner who needs mercy and grace. You're the only person
who's interested in sovereign mercy is a guilty sinner who
can't do anything for himself. He's got no defense. That's the
person who's interested in sovereign grace. If you're a guilty sinner,
then you turn to the Lord, seeking his mercy and his grace to sinners. You're the only person who's
interested in mercy is a miserable person. Now, if your sin has
broken you, If your sin has broken your heart and you're miserable
in yourself, then turn to the Lord, turn to him for mercy. And you know, if you're a miserable
sinner, if you're a guilty sinner, you can turn to the Lord in confidence
because we know what the Lord said about himself. He delights
to show mercy to sinners. If you're a sinner, turn to him
for mercy and turn to him in confidence. If I could ever find
a real bonafide sinner, I've got good news for that person.
We've sinned against God. I mean, we've sinned against
him a long time. And what we deserve is for the
Lord to wipe us out immediately. Isn't that what we deserve? I
mean, enough's enough. I mean, how long is this race
going to keep going on in the state we're in? Enough's enough. Yet the Lord is slow to anger. I turned on the news last night
and saw things going on in the world. I thought, my soul, what
is this thing coming to? And this came to my mind, what
I'd just been studying. The Lord's slow to anger. He
had wiped this thing out because he's slow to anger. And I'll
show you why in just a minute. You and I are great sinners,
but our Lord gave a message to Joel that he is of great kindness
to sinners. Kind to sinners. I'll show you
why in just a minute. So Joel says, you turn to the
Lord. He just might repent himself
of the evil. Now what he says at the end of
it, and he repented him of the evil. Verse 14, who knoweth if
he'll return and repent and leave a blessing behind him, even a
meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God. You turn
to the Lord, who knows if he'll show mercy. He promised judgment
and destruction at the end of it, didn't he? And they said,
who knows? Maybe the Lord be merciful. Let's
repent. Let's call on him for mercy.
Who knows? Now, the Lord's unchangeable, isn't he? You know, we hear the
word immutable. You kids, you hear the word immutable.
All that is is a great big word that means the Lord never changes.
He never changes his mind. He never changes his will. He
never changed what he is purposed to do. But the Lord reveals to
us why he turns his anger away from his people. It has to do
with the offering, the meat offering and the drink offering that he
mentions here. So you and I don't have an offering that'll please
God. We don't have anything we can offer that will please God
or take his anger away from us because of our sin. So God provided
the sin offering. He provided his own son to be
the sin offering that would take away his wrath. And the meat
offering and the drink offering, They were offered after the burnt
offering for sin was offered. They were a thank offering. They
are offered in thankfulness that God had taken away the sin. He
has accepted the sacrifice and he's taken away the sin of his
people. And Joel says, who knows? The Lord may leave behind a blessing
for us. He may leave behind a reason
for thanksgiving. He may reveal to us the sacrifice
of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. You want to know why the Lord
is slow to anger? He's slow to anger with his people
because he's already poured out his anger on our substitute.
There's no anger left. That's why he's slow to anger.
He's already poured out his anger upon our sacrifice. And the Lord's
slow to anger with the unbeliever. You know why? The Lord's merciful. He's giving space for repentance.
And if they don't repent and they're destroyed, whose fault
is it? Theirs isn't it? The Lord's slow to anger. He
gave space for repentance. And now the Lord knows a person
unbeliever. He knows that they're never going
to return to him. He knows that. He never chose
them. He never knew them, but the Lord's
slow to anger with them. You know why? Could be from their loins is
going to come one of his left. He's going to bless him. He's
going to preserve their life. So his child's born into this
world so the Lord can have mercy on them. He's slow to anger.
God doesn't destroy them for the elect's sake. God's slow
to anger because the sacrifice of his son removed the anger
of his elect. And the Lord is of great kindness
to his people. You know why? Because he poured
out all of his wrath against their sin on his son. All that's
left. All that's left in God for his
people is great kindness because his wrath has already been poured
out. God provided the sacrifice to take away what made him angry
and all that's left is great kindness to his people. Now, that doesn't make you turn
to the Lord. You got a dead heart. If that
doesn't just break your heart and make you overcome with emotion
so that you weep in joy, you've got a dead heart. We turn to
God because He's reconciled Himself to sinners through the sacrifice
of His Son. We turn to God because His wrath
against our sins has already been poured out on our substitute.
We turn to Him because He's turned to us. He's great kindness. God's wrath does not mean scared
into heaven. It doesn't mean scared into repentance.
No, it's God's goodness. His great kindness that caused
us to turn to Him. Turning to Christ is simply believing. Why don't you turn to Him? Because
you don't believe He'll save you. Because you don't believe
you need Him. Because you don't believe. That's why you don't
turn to Him. Why does someone turn to Christ? because they
believe that Christ is all they need. That's why they turn to
Him. His righteousness makes me righteous. His blood cleanses me from all
sin. That's why I return. That's why
I turn to Him. I turn to Him because He said,
turn to me and I'll heal you. I'm sin sick. I need healing.
So I turn to Him. I believe He's able. I believe
He'll do what He said He'd do. I need mercy. God said, turn
to me. I turn to Him. Because I need
mercy. Could be you'll have mercy on
me. Now you turn to Christ. Right now, where you sit, turn
to the Lord. You'll never find him until you
seek him with all of your heart. You'll never find him until there's
nothing you need more than him. You'll never turn to him until
God breaks your heart. broken over your sin, it doesn't
work anymore. If you seek Him with all of your
heart, you'll find Him. That's what God said. Now turn
to Him. Turn to Him. Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, how thankful we are
for your great mercy, your great kindness to your people through
our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we're thankful that you've seen fit to send
your gospel, the glorious gospel of your dear son, to your people,
to tell us to turn to thee. Father, we're thankful. And I
pray that you'd bless your word as it's been preached, that you'd
cause us here this morning to turn to the Lord. Give us a heart
that would turn to thee.