Alright, let's open our Bibles
to the book of Joel, chapter 2. Joel, chapter 2. Now the prophet Joel is continuing
on the theme of the need for godly repentance. And that's
the title of this message. This is just part two as he continues
through this. The Need for Godly Repentance. And beginning there in verse
12, look at Joel chapter 2 and verse 12. He shows us the issues
and the reality of what true godly repentance is. Now, first
of all, you understand that repentance is not natural to man. to sin for man. Repentance in
the Old Testament, and I've said this before, but just to show
you, repentance, the word for repentance in the Old Testament,
is a word that describes a change of direction. A total change
of direction, as if one was walking north and then turns around 180
degrees and walks south. It's not a veering off. It's
not just going a few degrees to the left or the right. I mean,
it's a total change of direction. The word for repentance in the
New Testament has the same idea, but it's more in line with a
change of mind. And the change of mind there
is not just describing an intellectual change or a mental change without
the heart, but it's describing the whole heart, which includes
the mind and the affections and the will. And one of the things
that Joel makes clear here is that God, when he commands repentance,
that he's not just looking for an outward show of religion.
He'll say here, we'll look at this in just a moment, he talks
about rending your heart, not just your garments. That was
common in that day, that whenever someone heard something that
just overwhelmed them, something in the form of blasphemy, they'd
rend their garments, they'd tear their garments. And that was
an outward show. And hopefully that outward show
was a reflection of the inner state of the heart. But we've
read so many scriptures here. We last week read part of Psalm
51 where David said, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and
a contrite heart. Blessed are those who mourn in
sorrow over sin, the Beatitudes, the poor in spirit. And that's
not natural to man, to fallen man. And so repentance, like
faith, is the gift from God. It's a gift of God's grace. If
you have been brought to repentance, and the Bible teaches in 2 Peter
3 and verse 9, that God is not willing that any of His people
should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Now, by nature,
we're pretty hard people, aren't we? That's what total depravity
is all about. And when it comes to salvation,
It takes a work of God the Holy Spirit in the new birth to break
our hearts over sin. Things that we're naturally proud
of. And so, Joel writes here, look at verse 12, I covered this
last week, but let this be the introduction to tonight's message
on the need for godly repentance. He says, therefore also now saith
the Lord, the Lord being Jehovah, the God of all grace. Always
remember that. Pray that the Lord will seal
this in our minds, that the God who is commanding these things
and calling us to repentance is not some kind of a legal monster
that that is just wanting us to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps
and do the best we can. He's the God of mercy and God
of grace, but also a God of justice, a God who justifies the ungodly,
God who saves people like Jacob and people like me and people
like you, sinners who don't deserve it and cannot earn it. And so
it says, the Lord said, return ye even to me. That's the first
thing. Repentance is not just turning
away from something, it's turning to the Lord. And that's why faith
and repentance come together. There's no need to argue with
people over which comes first, faith or repentance. Faith is
the foundation grace. And the only way that you and
I are ever gonna come to repentance is in the light of the glory
of Christ who died for our sins and put away those sins and wrought
out righteousness for us. Paul described that in Philippians
chapter 3. He talked about how he counted
everything but loss. That's repentance. Everything
that he used to glory in, he counted it but dumb. How did
he do that? In light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in Christ. What does it take to save me
from my sins? What are my thoughts on that
issue? Where is my heart when it comes to this issue of salvation
from sin? What does it take? Does it take
anything that I do? Is there anything I can do that
will save me from my sins? Is there any religious act? Is
there any ceremony that I can go through? Is there any group
that I can join? Is there any prayer that I can
pray? Is there any tear that I can
cry that will save me from my sins? As long as I think that
any of those things could save me from my sins or bring about
forgiveness or make me righteous, I'll tell you one thing about
me, if that's the case, I've never come to repentance. The
only way you can know a sinner comes to repentance is when they
turn to Christ for all salvation. The only thing that'll save me
from my sins is the death of the Son of God incarnate. the
blood and the righteousness of Christ. Nothing else will do
it. Nothing else will put away sin.
Nothing else will secure me into God's favor and blessing. Nothing
else will justify me or make me righteous. Nothing else will
secure me and preserve me unto glory. Only Christ and Him crucified
and risen again. As long as I think it's anything
else from me or in me, I've never come to repentance. You understand
it? So it's, turn ye even to me,
he says. Look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth, for I'm God and there's none else.
Come unto me, Christ said, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and I'll give you rest. And then here's the second thing
about it, with all your heart, with the whole heart. Repentance
is not just mental agreement to a system. Repent is, listen,
now you can't repent without truth. Don't ever let him, you
can't repent without right doctrine. And I don't mean you have to
have all your ducks in a row, but you gotta know who Christ
is, and that's what God teaches his people. You gotta know what
we are by nature, sinners. And so we turn with him with
our whole heart when we see that we've got no place else to go.
One old preacher said, somebody asked him, he says, is Christ
enough for our salvation? And he said, well, he is if he's
all you've got. Well, I'm going to tell you something,
he's all we've got. And he's all we need. And he's more than
we need. Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. So this is a matter of the heart.
What is the heart? It's the mind, the affections,
the will, the whole person, the inner man. It's what I really
am. It's what you can't see as you look at my outward appearance.
It's what I can't see as I look at your outward appearance. It's
repentance of the heart. Don't draw nigh unto Christ with
your lips when your heart is far from Him. And then here's
the third thing, he says in verse 12, and with fasting and weeping
and mourning, these three things are evidences of repentance.
The fasting, you know what that is, going without food, it was
a sign of sorrow, self-denial. But what it means for us is simply
this, it's simply a statement that tells you that I need Christ
more than I need food. I need Christ for salvation more
than I need anything in this life. And this weeping is sorrowing
over sin with a godly sorrow. Now that's sorrow that leads
not to despair, but sorrow that leads to joy in Christ. A sorrow
that drives me to Christ for relief, for forgiveness, for
righteousness. And then with mourning. That's
the mourning over death. Mourning over the dead. They're
people who are lost in their sins. And you think about that. And so he says in verse 13, rend
your heart and not your garments. Outward show means nothing. Turn
unto the Lord your God, your God, not just a God, but your
God. And here's the divine incentive.
He says, for he is gracious and he is merciful. And then it says
he's slow to anger. That's the reason, listen, that's
the reason this world is not already destroyed right now.
When Adam fell, why didn't God destroy this world immediately?
Because God's slow to anger and He had a purpose. And His purpose
was to glorify Himself in the salvation of His people. And
He's of great kindness, that's loving kindness, that's covenant
kindness. Remember what Jeremiah wrote
in Jeremiah chapter 29 and verse 23, Thus saith the Lord, let
not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty
man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches,
but let him that glorieth, boasteth, have confidence, glory in this,
that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord, which
exercise loving kindness, covenant kindness in Christ, and judgment,
in Christ and righteousness in Christ and I do it in the earth.
That's right. You don't have to ascend to heaven.
You don't have to work your way unto God to get this. He comes
down and lifts the beggar off the dung heap. Christ came to
earth. He was born among men. He identified
with his brethren. That's what it said. And God
says, for in these things I delight, saith the Lord. And it's all
in Christ. Now he says, and repenteth him of evil. Now whenever people
see this thing about God repenting, and literally what that means
is this, it means he relents of evil. He relents of evil. And basically all he's saying,
he's not saying anything here about the nature and character
of God as to his immutability, his unchangeability. God is immutable. What he's simply saying here
is this, this salvation, this grace and this mercy and this
kindness is for any sinner who comes to God with a contrite
heart, a broken heart pleading the merits of Christ. That's
what it's for. But you know how people are.
They say, well, if you can pray hard enough, if you can plead
hard enough, if you can cry hard enough, or you ask long enough,
or often enough, you can get God to change His mind. That
is not so. A God who changes His mind is
not the true and living God of the Bible. And I want to tell
you something before I give you just a little something about
this. Now, when you think about the attributes of God as He reveals
Himself in the Scriptures, you're going to find that every one
of them in its essence is just totally mind-boggling to these
little old finite minds that we're given to think with on
this earth. For example, God is timeless. That's infinite.
Well, we're always subject to time. I mean, time is our life.
I mean, you think about time right now. How long? I mean,
it's all time. When you got to get up, when
you got to be there, when you're going to eat. Everything about
it. And then we see the effects of time. But now God is timeless
and then God is immutable. He doesn't change. And that's
mind-boggling. All we do is change. Isn't that
right? Even in a good way, we grow in
grace and in knowledge of Christ, but we change. We change physically.
But God does not. So what does it mean when He
uses this kind of language that it repented Him of evil? He relented of evil. How can
we view this in light of the perfection of God who doesn't
change because He doesn't need to change? Let me tell you something
about change. It's by the very nature of change. If you change,
see if you don't agree with this, if you change, you're either
going to change for the better or for the good or for the worse,
right? You're either going to get worse or you're going to
get better in that sense. If you're an athlete and you
say, well, I want to run a five minute mile or something, the
only way you're going to change is to get better at being a better
runner. And if you don't exercise and do the things that you need,
you're going to get worse. You're going to go back. You're
not going to make any headway. So if you change, you either
change for the better or for the worse. All right? Well, where
does God have to go in that system? He can't get any better. He's
the embodiment of perfection. He's holy. And certainly, He's
not going to get any worse. And what God does is right because
God does it. He doesn't make decisions like
we do. So what does it mean? Well, let
me read you some scripture. Numbers chapter 23 and verse
19. Listen to this scripture. This is Numbers 23, 19. God is
not a man that he should lie. Let God be true and every man
a liar. Neither the son of man that he should repent. He's not
born of human flesh. He's not born of men. He's not
human. If you're human, you've got to repent because you're
a fallen sinner. God's not that way. He didn't have to repent.
Hath he said and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken and
shall he not make it good? Listen to this one. This is 1
Samuel chapter 15 and verse 29. talking about God and describing
Him as the strength of Israel, it says, "...he will not lie
nor repent, for he is not a man that he should repent." Doesn't
have to. And then, as I said, we know
God doesn't change. He speaks to us in ways that,
for when we look at it, it looks like change. But let me tell
you something, Malachi chapter three and verse six, listen to
this, for I am the Lord, I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. So what's he doing here? What
does this mean? Well, he's speaking to us in human terms. As I said
last time, almost you could call it like baby talk. because of
our understanding is so limited in the way we see things. Whenever
man repents and God does not bring judgment upon that man,
it looks to us as if God has changed, but He hasn't. We see
from the Scripture that He's been working all things after
the counsel of His own will all along. Isn't that right? Everything's
going according to God's plan. He's still working all things
after the counsel of his own will, and he does not change.
So this is just human language for our purposes. That's all
it is, to accommodate our minds. Look at verse 14. He says here,
who knoweth if God will return and repent and leave a blessing
behind him, even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the
Lord your God? Or who knoweth if, not if God,
if he will, that's man. Who knoweth if any man will return
and repent? and leave a blessing behind him,
the legacy. Even a meat offering, bringing
an offering, and a drink offering unto the Lord your God. Who knows? God commands repentance. Man
needs repentance. But man on his own will not repent.
So who knows who's going to repent? Well, I'll tell you exactly who
knows. God knows. God knows. 2 Timothy chapter
2 and verse 19 says this. And this was in light of people
who came and claimed to believe the gospel and then left it.
But he says this, nevertheless the foundation of God standeth
sure having this sealed, the Lord knoweth them that are his. And let everyone that nameth
the name of Christ depart from iniquity. That's repentance.
Romans chapter 8 and verse 29, for whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called,
them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified."
God knows His people. And that's our salvation. If
you're one of His people, that's your salvation. God knows His
people. Well, look at verse 15. Now,
here's the fruit of repentance, and this is obedience and worship
and service. It says, blow the trumpet in
Zion, sanctify a fast, set apart a fast. This is Joel the prophet
calling the nation to worship. And he says, call a solemn assembly. Verse 16, gather the people,
sanctify the congregation, set them apart. This is for worship.
And this is specific now. This is something that's important.
That's why we're here tonight. Everything that's described here
is what we're doing tonight. We set apart the congregation.
Why are we here? We're here to worship God. See,
that's why it's so awful. Somebody said, I don't want to
be here. Well, we're here to worship God. That's why we're
here. We're here to sing praises to
him. We're here to feed upon his word. And he says, assemble
the elders. Now, he goes through all the
different kinds of people that make up the congregation. We
have them here tonight. He says, assemble the elders.
The elders don't have any right to stay away from this solemn
assembly. Gather the children, bring the
children, and those that suck the breast, even the infants.
Let the bridegrooms go forth of his chamber and the bride
out of her closet. Now, if anybody had an excuse
to miss that day, it would be a newly married couple. Isn't
that right? No. He says, tell the bride and
tell the groom. And then look at verse 17, he
says, let the priest, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the
porch and the altar. They're to lead the way in repentance
in the solemn worship of God. And that porch there, that's
in the temple, that's Solomon's porch and the altar. In other
words, the procession here is going to the altar to sacrifice. Because without the shedding
of blood, there is what? No remission of sins. And that
meal offering up here and that drink offering, those thank offerings,
they're based upon the sacrifice. In other words, if you come to
worship God, if you're set apart and you truly have a repentant
heart, there's one thing you will not do. You will not come
before God without the blood of the Lamb. And if anybody ought
to know that, it ought to be the priest. They ought to be
leaders here now. And he says, let them say, spare
thy people, O Lord, save us, O Lord, and give not thine heritage
to reproach. In other words, let us enter
in to the life that you've given and not just be a reproach that
the heathen should rule over them. Wherefore should they say
among the people, where is their God? Now what's he talking about? Joel here, the prophet, he's
pleading with the people, he pleads with the fathers, he pleads
with the ministers, he pleads with the priests and all the
people to heed the Lord's call, to come in repentance, come with
a broken heart, broken over sin, come pleading for his mercy,
just like Moses did before the people of God. Plead for the
glory of his great name, bringing the blood, coming to the altar.
Godly sorrow overseen and you know what he's teaching every
Single person in this congregation here, and that's this whatever
is going on in your life Whatever station you're in Whatever stage
of life you're in whether it's an infant a child a father a
mother grandfather grandmother priest minister Whether it's
a young married couple there is nothing more important in
your life than to worship the Lord. There's nothing else, nothing
else should ever in your life for any reason eclipse praising
God and worshiping Him in Christ. And that's the evidence of repentance.
That's a broken and a... If your heart, if my heart is
truly contrite and broken over sin, that's what I'll do. I'll
worship God in Christ. I'll come to the mercy seat because
I'm a mercy beggar. and I need mercy daily. But then
look here, now look at verse 18, now here's the blessings
of repentance. Now listen to what he says here, listen to
the language. He says, then will the Lord be jealous for His land
and pity His people. Now when the Lord is jealous,
it's a godly jealousy, it's for His glory. You see, it's not
the kind of jealousy that we have that's selfish and proud. but it's his glory. Our God is
a jealous God. And what he's talking about is
God is jealous over his people. That's why the scripture says
now, the way you treat, you know, you can bring that down to very
practical things. It's not just some kind of highfalutin
concept up there. However you treat his people,
however I treat his people, he takes it personally. And he's jealous. He, His glory
is wrapped up in the salvation of His people. Verse 19, Yea,
the Lord will answer and say unto His people, Behold, I will
send you corn and wine and oil. Now all of these flourishing,
fruitful things, you see, this is the goodness of God. You shall
be satisfied therewith. You won't go hungry. You won't
have lack. That's what Terry read in that
Psalm 34. There's no lack there, see. And the spiritual application
of that is this. In Christ, we're blessed with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. We have the fullness
of the Godhead bodily in Christ. We're complete in Him. He's everything
we need and more. The bread of life, the water
of life. All the righteousness that God requires of me, I find
complete in Christ. Nothing lacking. All the wisdom,
all the redemption, all the holiness I find complete in Christ. That's
the spiritual application of this. But listen to it. He says,
I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen. Remember one
of the complaints that God made against Israel through the prophet
Ezekiel is that you profaned my name among the heathen. You
were a reproach among the heathen. You were a laughing stock. These
are the people of God. You know, like David when he
sinned with Bathsheba. What did the prophet Nathan say? You've given the enemies of God
occasion to blaspheme. And God's saying here, you will
no more make you a reproach among the heathen. Verse 20, he says,
but I will remove far off from you the northern army, that's
probably that Assyrian army that's coming down, and will drive him
into a land barren and desolate. In other words, all your enemies,
Christ is going to take care of all the enemies of his people.
with his face toward the East Sea, and his hinder part toward
the utmost Sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savor
shall come up, because he hath done great things." That great
things there is terrible things, awful things, sinful things. Now this is Prophet Joel. Think
about this. Joel standing there in his day
speaking to Judah, the nation. And they're under the Old Covenant.
And you remember under that Old Covenant there was a national,
temporal, temporary prosperity and peace, flourishing and safety
that was promised to them by God that was based upon their
national obedience. And you know that's all the way
through. And people get that confused now when they go back
to the Old Covenant and they try to claim those Old Covenant
promises for us today and you can't do that. But they did have
that as a nation. And there was, especially in
Judah, the southern kingdom that Joel prophesied to, there were
brief times of what we would call national obedience. The
king was a leader in the worship of God. You can think about David,
you can think about Solomon, even amidst their sins now. On
the whole, they were considered to be godly kings. You could
think about Hezekiah, Josiah, these kings, and there were brief
times of national obedience, but on the whole, according to
the terms of that old covenant, now, for 1,500 years, on the
whole, the nation failed miserably. Am I right? On the whole, the
nation failed miserably. Even though there were brief
times of national obedience, the majority of the people in
the kingdom, it didn't last long. And you know why? You want to
know why it didn't last long? Because by nature, we're sinners. And what was God showing according
to the terms of that covenant all that time? He was showing
by deeds of law shall no flesh be justified in His Son. They
didn't keep that covenant. That's why Jeremiah prophesied
in Jeremiah 31 that God said, in the last days I'm gonna make
a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah,
not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers
in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of
the land of Egypt, which my covenant they what? They break. Although
I wasn't husband to them, saith the Lord. According to the terms
of the Old Covenant, if the nation Israel or Judah had turned to
God, like He commanded, they would have flourished temporally.
But they couldn't do it. You say, well, I wish I'd have
been there. I would have helped them. Well, you think too highly
of yourself. You'd have been right there with
them in their sin, and so would I, because men are sinners. That's
why there was no salvation in the law. What did he say, John
1, verse 17? He said, the law came by Moses,
but grace and truth came by who? By Jesus Christ. Moreover, the
law entered because of the transgression. You see that? So, yes, you know,
people look at verses like that and say, oh, if we could just
get America to repent, then this would happen to us. Well, we're
not under the old covenant today. But you go ahead and try to get
America to repent and see how successful you are. Now, we do
preach repentance. And God's going to bring His
people to repentance. And I wish the whole country
would repent. And I pray for that. But you
see, here's the point. The point is this, man by nature
will not repent. But there are blessings with
repentance. So, here's the question. Now look at verse 21. How then
is there any hope of repentance? Where's there any hope then,
if that's the case? How's there any hope of salvation? All right,
look at verse 21. Now this, from verse 21 to verse
27, You might not see this as you
read it just on the surface. But what it is, it's a promise
of the coming of Christ. And what comes with Christ? Salvation. And what comes with salvation?
Faith and repentance and obedience. Look at it. He says in verse
21, Fear not, O land. Now this is encouragement for
the people of God within that nation. They're worth a remnant
of believers. Be glad and rejoice. How are
you going to be glad and rejoice at all this disobedience and
this famine? You know, Joel had talked about
the locust plague that had come through and devastated the land.
How are you going to have any hope? How are you going to rejoice?
He says, for the Lord will do great things. Now there's our
hope, that the Lord will do great things. What great thing is he
going to do? Well, look at verse 22. Be not
afraid, ye beast of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness
do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the
vine do yield their strength. See, all of this is symbolic
of life and growth and prosperity. Look at verse 23. Be glad then,
ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God." Now, how
do you rejoice in the Lord your God? You rejoice in Christ. We
are the circumcision. We worship God in spirit. We
rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh, Philippians
3, 3. But now look at the next line. He says, "...rejoice in
the Lord your God, for he hath given you the former reign moderately."
Now, I hope if you've got a concordance in your Bible, look at it. The
former reign, moderately. If you look in your concordance,
you might see that phrase, the former reign, translated a little
differently. And it says there, He hath given
you a teacher of righteousness. You see that?
And that's a better translation. Some of you may not have that
in your concordance. If you do, if you've got a Strong's, look
it up when you go home. The former reign is literally a teacher
of righteousness, like a rabbi. That's a teacher in Israel, a
rabbi, a master in Israel. Now, when you think about a rabbi
that God has given who teaches righteousness, who do you think
of? I think of the one who stood
at the Sermon on the Mount and said, Except your righteousness
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you
shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven. My friend, this is
talking about Christ. Now, the word moderately there,
it's not like in moderation. We think about something being
in moderation. But it's according to justice. That's what it is,
according to righteousness. So, God has given you a teacher
of righteousness. That's what it means. He's talking
about the promise of Christ here, the Messiah, who will bring in
righteousness, and who will bring with Him salvation, who will
bring with Him faith, who will bring with Him repentance, who
will bring with Him all that God requires to save His people
from their sin. He says, he will cause to come
down for you the rain. He will rain down righteousness
upon his people. The former rain and the latter
rain in the first month. I believe that's referring to
the salvation of God's people out of the Jews, that's the former
rain, and the Gentiles, that's the latter rain. God has a people
out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. And look
what's going to happen, verse 24, the floor shall be full of
wheat and the fat shall overflow with wine and oil. There was
a literal application of this in Judah under the old covenant,
but it didn't last. The spiritual application is
to spiritual Israel in Christ. Verse 25, I will restore to you
the years that the locust hath eaten. What the locust devastated
will be restored. The canker worm, the caterpillar,
the palmer worm, you remember those that we mentioned in Joel
chapter 1. My great army which I sent among you, that's for
God's vengeance against sin. Verse 26, you shall eat in plenty
and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord your God that
hath dealt wondrously with you and my people shall never be
ashamed. Now, what does the Bible tell
us about those who will never be ashamed? They call upon the
name of the Lord. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall not be ashamed, shall not be found wanting
or lacking, And he says in verse 27, and you shall know that I
am in the midst of Israel. Christ said where two or three
are gathered in my name, there I'll be in the midst of them.
He's the rock of the church, the foundation. He's the head
of the church. He's the heart of the church.
He said that I am the Lord your God and none else. Look unto
me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth for I am God and
there is none beside me. And my people shall never be
ashamed. They'll sorrow over sin. but
they'll never be ashamed. Why? Because they have Christ. This is the promise of repentance
that comes through Christ. That's what he's talking about.
Look over there at Acts chapter 3. Let me read you these scriptures
here that I read in the opening. Remember Acts chapter 3 verse
19, he says, repent ye, therefore. Now what is that therefore there?
Well, he's talking about how Christ has already come and done
his great work. He says in verse 18, but those
things which God before had shown by the mouth of all his prophets,
including Joel, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. Now repent. Christ has fulfilled
it all. You see, repentance is not a
sinner changing in order to try to establish his own righteousness.
Repentance is a sinner seeing the glory of Christ who's already
come and done his work of righteousness. And then look over at Acts chapter
5. Look over here. And look at verse 18. Or 28,
rather. Acts 5, 28. Here's Peter and them preaching,
and they were commanded not to teach in the name of Jesus of
Nazareth. Verse 28 saying, Did not we straightly command you
that you should not teach in this name? And behold, you have
filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's
blood upon us? Then Peter and the other apostles
answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised
up Jesus, whom you slew and hanged on a tree. Him God hath exalted
with his right hand to be a prince and a savior for to give repentance
to Israel." and the forgiveness of sins. Where does repentance
come from? It comes from Christ. One more,
Acts chapter 11. Acts chapter 11. And look at
verse 18. This is where Peter's defending
having preached to a Gentile. He had to defend the Jewish believers. And he preached to a Gentile
named Cornelius, a centurion. And he told them about how God
had worked a mighty work in this man by bringing this man to Christ
and bringing him to faith and repentance. And it says in verse
18 of Acts 11, Where did it come from? It came from Christ. Now
go back to Joel chapter 2. Now, how does Christ give us
repentance? The repentance that He Himself
has and gives to His people. Well, He gives it by the promise
and the power of the Holy Spirit. And that's what Joel's going
to be talking about in the last of this chapter. I'm not going
to deal with this except in one message beginning at verse 28
through 32. This is what Peter quoted from the prophet Joel at Pentecost.
This is why Joel is called the prophet of Pentecost. But this
is the fruit of salvation, that the Holy Spirit would come and
be poured out in mighty power to burst forth upon the world
and to bring sinners, Jewish sinners and Gentile sinners,
to repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I'll pick up there next time.