All right, let's turn in our
Bibles to the book of Joel, chapter 2. Joel, chapter 2. The prophet Joel. And as I said,
the title of this message is, The Need for Godly Repentance. Now, Joel, as we studied last
time, whose name means, literally, Jehovah is God, He's been called
and identified by many different descriptions and names. He's
been called the prophet of the day of the Lord. And that was
the title of the message last week on this subject. The day
of the Lord is at hand. Five times in this short prophecy,
Joel brings up that the day of the Lord is at hand. And here
to Judah, the southern kingdom of Judah, in Joel's day, it's
a day of judgment. It's a day of God's wrath against
sin. Any day that the Lord manifests
Himself and reveals Himself in any way whatsoever is a day of
the Lord. And of course, we look forward
to the day, or we look at the day and look forward to the day
of the Lord's revelation of Himself in grace and mercy, which He's
already given His people in Christ. Joel is also called sometimes
by commentators the prophet of Pentecost. And of course you
know that over in the book of Joel chapter 2 and verse 28,
we won't get that far tonight, but there's a prophecy there
of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit in the time of the New
Covenant. at Pentecost when Peter in Jerusalem
stood on the day of Pentecost and preached that message and
the Holy Spirit was poured out on all flesh. And that's the
evidence and the fulfillment and the establishment of the
New Testament, the New Covenant Church. And so he's called the
prophet of Pentecost. But another identification or
name for the prophet Joel is this, the prophet of repentance. the prophet of repentance. And
that's only right because repentance has always been a major theme
for God's prophets and for God's preachers, always has. We preach,
as it's described in the New Testament, repentance towards
God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's only right
so because it is God's purpose and God's will in the salvation
of His people, His chosen people in Christ, that He's not willing
that any of them should perish but that all of them should come
to repentance. Peter said that in 2 Peter chapter
3 when he was describing the days before the second coming
of Christ. Now we know it takes God the
Holy Spirit giving us a saving view of Christ to bring us to
repentance. The scripture talks about repentance
from dead works. Repentance from dead works. And
the issue of repentance has to do with how we come to a saving
understanding of who God is in His holiness and in His justice
knowing that He must punish sin. God cannot look over sin. God
cannot ignore sin. He must punish sin because He's
God. If God were to look over sin
and just ignore it and act like it didn't happen in some way
that men from our sinful, selfish natures call compassion, then
He'd cease to be God. God must judge according to truth. And then this reality of repentance
comes from a view, a Holy Spirit conviction, a view of ourselves,
who we are, that we are sinful, that we are sin. You can say
it that way. And that as we're born in it,
we fell in Adam, and we're born into this world dead in trespasses
and sins. and everything that we are, even
at our best. The Bible says in the Psalms
that man at his best state is altogether what? Vanity. That's worthless. And there is
absolutely no way, if God, listen, if God shows any mercy or any
grace or any love, then we have to come to a realization that
we as sinners, there is absolutely no way at any time to any degree
that we can say we deserve that. I deserve God's mercy. You see,
if you deserve it, it's not mercy. Do you understand that? Somebody
said, mercy is God not giving me what I deserve and grace is
God giving me what I don't deserve. If it's mercy, it's not deserved. If it's grace, it's not deserved.
Whatever we receive from God in the way of salvation and blessing,
life, righteousness, it's not because we deserve it and it's
certainly not because we've earned it. I mean, it is total mercy
from God. And then we must come to an understanding
by the power of the Spirit through the Word of God of who Christ
is, how God saves sinners. He doesn't save sinners by inviting
them to help themselves. It's not a situation where God
helps those who help themselves. We're going to see here in Joel
chapter 2 that these fellows were just helpless, and that's
us too by nature. It's not just them, you see.
Unless you go through and you read the description of the nation
Israel and what they got by the justice of God and you come up
from that revelation from the word of God and say, well, not
me, I'm better than them. Oh no. We've all sinned and come
short of the glory of God. And the soul that sinneth must
surely die. The wages of sin is death. That's
what we've earned. We don't earn God's mercy. So
we come to an understanding of how God saves sinners. That's
why I read that Psalm 111. It says, He sent redemption to
His people. Now how did He send redemption
to His people? He sent Christ into the world
to redeem us. God on that day, whatever day
it was, it says, in the time that God had appointed before
the foundation of the world sent forth His Son. And so we come
to an understanding by God's power and grace of who Christ
is and that He's the only hope of a sinner like me being saved,
being made righteous, being glorified and being blessed of God. One
of the old preachers, I can't remember who, said that in true
godly repentance there are three realizations that a sinner is
brought to by the Holy Spirit. He's brought to repent of his
sin, S-I-N, meaning who he is by nature, our sin nature, fallen
sinful human nature, not just what we do or don't do, but what
we are. And then he's brought to repentance
of his sins, S-I-N-S, and that is the product of what we are,
fruit unto death. And then he's brought to repent
of his own righteousness, thinking that he can do anything in the
way of obedience or good works to recommend himself unto God,
because he sees that Christ alone is his righteousness. So with
that in mind, let's look at the prophet Joel. concerning this
issue of the necessity, the need of godly repentance. First of
all, he starts off the first 11 verses of this chapter has
to do with God's urgent and gracious warnings to sinful men. Now, the Bible's full of warnings.
And usually when we think of warnings, we think of what we
commonly call judgmental preaching or hellfire and brimstone. And
many times when you hear that kind of preaching from different
segments of so-called Christianity, it ends up being nothing but
legalism trying to scare the hell out of people. I think about
these places that they'll have around,
most of them have them around Halloween time. They'll have
what they call Hell House or Judgment House. And they'll take
little children through this and show them depictions or scenes
of what they think hell is. And I got news for them, you
don't, listen, whatever you got in that house, you don't even
come close to what it really is. And then they try to get
a profession of faith out of them at the end. I remember when
I was a boy, they took us to a religious gathering. We saw
a movie called The Burning Hell, and I'm going to tell you, it
did scare me to death. It didn't say, listen, it didn't
teach me the gospel, but it scared me to death. It was a horror
movie. It was like watching a horror
movie. And that's not the way God brings His people to repentance. That's not the way of it at all.
But He does warn His people. But now the warnings are not
horror movies, the warnings are not legalism. The warnings are
always warnings for sinners to run to and flee to and rest in
Christ. And that's why it's not legal.
Now listen to what He says. He starts off in verse 1, "...blow
ye 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 cometh, for it is nigh
at hand." Now, it was common for the Israelites, for the Jews
of this day, and we see this in our Lord's day too, and it's
common in our day too, not just for the Jews, but for all self-righteous
people, to think that the day of the Lord, when we think of
the day of God's judgment coming through and His vengeance, that
that's coming upon somebody else. Because we just don't deserve
that. And we'll hear about natural disasters. Joel's talking about
a natural disaster here. He's talking about that plague
of locusts. They had the swarm of locusts that came into Judah
and just devastated the land, which I believe was a literal
swarm of locusts. And it would be like us, if we
were alive today, looking and saying, well, they must have
done something really bad to earn that, to deserve that. Have
you ever thought about that? Some big earthquake or some hurricane
or tornado comes to some foreign land or to some place here in
the United States, and you say, well, I wonder what they did
to deserve that. And that's common among men.
The Jews thought that way. They thought, well, when the
day of the Lord's coming through, the day of God's judgment, it
won't come on us. We're God's people. We don't
deserve that. But now those old Gentiles do.
Those rotten Gentiles, they deserve it. Well, I want you to turn
to Luke chapter 13 quickly. Now, here's the problem with
that. What is the problem with it?
I'll tell you exactly what it is. It's nothing but self-righteousness. What we ought to be asking when
we see some plague or disaster come through on any people is,
why didn't it happen to us too? What do we deserve? You say,
well, they're sinners. So am I. They deserve God's wrath. So do I. That's right. And this is what Christ was teaching
the Pharisees here in Luke chapter 13. Look at verse 1. He says,
"...there were present at that season some that told him of
the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices."
Now this is speaking of an episode in history where Pontius Pilate
sent the Roman garrison in to slaughter some people while they
were worshiping. And they were Galileans. And
apparently this segment of Galileans were not very reputable. And
so they were telling them about this episode when Pilate sent
this Roman garrison in to slaughter these Galileans. And verse 2,
it says, And Jesus answering and said unto them, Suppose ye
that those Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because
they suffered such things? Is this how you reason? Well,
now those Galileans who suffered, they were greater sinners and
they deserved it. rather than those ones who didn't
go through it. They were better. They didn't
deserve it. What he says in verse 3, now
listen to what the Lord says. He says, I tell you nay, but
except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. Now go back to Joel chapter 2.
When you read about the plague of locusts here, you say, well,
those people got what they deserved. Then I say unto you, as our Lord
said, except you likewise repent, or unless you, except you repent,
you shall likewise perish. My friend, here's the point.
That apart from God's grace in Christ, we all deserve damnation. Now that's the point. That's
the point of every one of God's manifestations of judgment in
the scripture. And that's what blowing the trumpet
is. It's a warning. Judgment is coming. Judgment
from God is coming. And if God's judgment comes against
all sin and all unrighteousness, then what are we as sinners to
do? What are we going to do? The
Bible says in Romans chapter 8 and verse 31, it says, what
shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? But now let me ask you this question.
What if God's not for me? What if He's not for you? You
say, well He's got to be for me, I'm an American. Or He's
got to be for me, I'm a Southerner. Well now wait a minute, is that
what you think? That's what the Jews reason. Well, he's got to
be for me. I'm a Jew. I'm circumcised. I'm a child
of Abraham. Got to be for me. I'm a Baptist.
Is that what you think? What if God's... Is God for everybody? The Bible says he's not. In fact,
he himself, he said, I'm against those who worship other gods.
Well, let me tell you something. Who is God for? If God be for
us, who... In other words, if God is for
me, then I don't have to worry about anybody else. Well, who
is God for? I'll tell you exactly who God's
for and who He's not for. He's for every sinner who runs
to Christ for salvation. And He's against everyone else.
Now, you mark it down. If you're washed in the blood
of Christ and clothed in His righteousness, I can guarantee
you upon God's Word, He's for you. That's what Psalm 111 was
about. That's why he said he will remember
his covenant forever. That's his covenant of grace
made with the Son before the foundation of the world where
he chose a people and gave them to Christ and sent his Son into
the world to redeem them by the shedding of his blood. God is
for any and every sinner who comes to Him begging for mercy
at the mercy seat, and that mercy seat is Christ. Now, if you come
before God pleading anything else other than the blood and
the righteousness of Christ, I'm going to tell you, and I'll
tell you somebody who'd tell you exactly the same thing I'm
telling you, his name is Cain. He'd tell you God's not for you.
You can come bringing the best you can bring. The hardest work
you've ever... Come to Him bringing... You say,
well, I was baptized when I was 12. Is that what you're bringing?
Or I've tithed all my life, or I've attended church all my life.
I've done this, I've done... Think about those false preachers
in Matthew chapter 7 who said, Lord, Lord, haven't we prophesied
in your name? Cast out demons. Haven't we done
many wonderful works? You know, there's nothing wrong
with those things except when you present them before God as
your foundation, as your righteousness before God. That's right. And this is where the issues
of repentance are clearly seen. Godly repentance. Blow the trumpet. I'm telling you. Blow it in Zion. That's the church. Judgment has
to begin at the house of God. You who have been listening to
the gospel for so many years, what is your foundation and hope
of salvation? What is your assurance? Paul
said, God forbid that I should glory, boast, or have assurance
save in one thing, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Blow
that trumpet loud. Blow it in the holy mountain
where the gospel is preached. Let all the inhabitants of the
land tremble. Now that trembling there doesn't
mean you run scared from God like Adam did after the fall.
or that you hide from God, it means this, any sinner who's
been brought to true godly repentance, I'll tell you exactly what you
tremble at, because I know, because I tremble at it too. I tremble
to think of me standing before God without Christ. Think about
that. Oh, that I may know Him and be
found in Him. not having mine own righteousness.
The day of the Lord's coming, it's nigh at hand. Look at verse
2. He said, a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds
and thick darkness as the morning spread upon the mountains, a
great people and a strong... Now there he's talking about
that army that's going to come and destroy Judah. There hath
not been ever the light, neither shall be any more after it, even
to the years of many generations. This is a day of judgment against
sin. Notice how he describes it as a day of darkness and a
day of gloominess. What a dark, dark, dark day it
will be for any sinner who goes to meet God without Christ. And you know what I thought of
when I read about that day of darkness? I thought about our
Savior on the cross. You remember over in Matthew
chapter 27, in verse 45, you don't have to turn there, let
me just read it to you. It says, now from the sixth hour there
was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. And about
the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli,
lama sabachthani, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Darkness all over the land. And you know why there was darkness?
Because God was showing in a physical manifestation His judgment against
the sins of His sheep that were laid upon the person of our Savior.
And so you know what, though? What that does for us who know
Christ? It shows us that our day of darkness
is turned into a day of light. For yes, He was separated from
the Father And I can't explain that to you, and you can't explain
it to me, so let's not even try. But I know He was made sin for
us, Christ who knew no sin, in order that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him. And so He died, He was buried,
but He arose again the third day. That day of darkness of
our condemnation in Christ becomes a day of light. A day of light. But without Him it's nothing
but darkness. Look at verse 3. A fire devoureth before them.
That's the fire of God's wrath. Our God is a consuming fire to
any sinner without Christ. And behind them a flame burneth.
So there's a fire before them and a fire after them. In other
words, they're engulfed in the justice of God against sin. The
land is as the garden of Eden before them and behind them a
desolate wilderness, yea, and nothing shall escape them. He
likens this judgment of God against sin to the judgment of God against
the sin of Adam in the garden when he fell. And see by nature
we all identify with that and the Bible says in Romans chapter
5 and verse 12, Wherefore as by one man's sin entered into
the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all
for that all sin. But it also shows this, that
there is no hope of salvation based on our works. There's no
hope of salvation based upon our best works. There's only
salvation in Christ. And then look at verse four,
he says, the appearance of them is as the appearance of horses.
Now these locusts that he's talking about here, which is a type and
a symbol of God's vengeance and God's judgment. In other words,
somebody said they kind of look like horses, little horses, but
I don't know. But I know this, the horse was
a symbol of power and warfare back then. And what he's saying
is God's going to bring vengeance in power. And he said, and as
horsemen so shall they run. Verse 5, like the noise of chariots
on the tops of mountains shall they leap like the noise of a
flame, a fire that devoureth the stubble as a strong people
set in battle array. What's he saying here? He's saying
they're too strong for you. They're too strong for me. Verse
6, look at it. Now literally, I don't know why
the King James translators translated it the way they did, but literally
what it means, it means literally that when you see this, you're
going to turn white as a sheet. You're going to lose all color
out of your face. That's how bad it is. Your countenance
is going to change. He says in verse 7, they shall
run like mighty men. They shall climb the wall like
men of war. The wall's not going to... Your
cities are not going to help you. Man-made built cities will
not help you against the judgment of God. You know back over in
the book of Numbers, there were some cities that would help.
They were called the cities of refuge. And they were types of
Christ. You see, your only refuge from
the wrath of God is Christ. He says, "...they shall march
every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks."
In other words, you're not even going to put a dent in this attack. That's how bad it's going to
be. They won't even break ranks for you. He says in verse 8,
"...neither shall one thrust another. They shall walk every
one in his path, and when they fall upon the sword, they shall
not be wounded." You're not going to be able to kill them. Verse 9, they shall run to and
fro in the city, they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb
upon the houses, they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.
You won't even be able to hide in your house. You cannot hide
from God's wrath against sin. Verse 10, the earth shall quake
before them, the heavens shall tremble, the sun and the moon
shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.
No light. utter darkness he says in verse
11 and the Lord shall utter his voice before his army for his
camp is very great notice here he calls this his army this is
God listen this is God's vengeance this is God's just judgment This
is not... And listen, when God shows vengeance
and justice, He's not throwing a tantrum now. He's executing
righteous indignation against all sin. And it says there, His
army for His camp is very great for He is strong that executeth
His word. They go out by the word of God.
And He says, for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible
and who can abide it? What does that mean? It means
who can endure it. It reminds me of what the psalmist said
in Psalm 130 in verse 3. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark
iniquities, who shall stand? Who could endure it? If God were
to charge me with my sin, could I stand before Him and endure
it? The answer is no. So what is my only hope? Well,
that God lift that sin off of me and charge it to another.
And who did He charge it to? He charged it to Christ. And
Christ endured it. He died, but he didn't stay dead.
But we can't do it. We can't do it. Who can endure
it? No sinner without Christ. No
sinner at all without Christ. Well, verse 12 brings us to the
hope that is in the Lord. And here's the call to repentance.
Now, what should Judah do? When Joel stands and he... announces
about this plague of locusts, which is a prophecy of coming
judgment from a foreign army that's going to wipe out Judah. It's going to destroy the temple
and bring Judah into captivity. That's the Babylonian army. What
should they do when they hear this prophecy? Now, what should
they do? Well, any good military man would
say, well, you better sharpen your swords, boys. You better
gather your ranks. You better start training your
soldiers. You better get ready to do battle. Prepare yourself
to fight. But is that what God says to
do? No. Look at verse 12. Therefore also
now saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart. That's
what they're to do. Turn to God. Sinners, we're all
sinners. When God exposes our sinfulness
and our depravity, what should we do? Well, we ought to go join
a church real quick. Or we ought to get baptized.
I know I've been baptized before. Let's get it again. Be like old
Pearl Bailey. She said, I'll go get baptized
in the Jordan, then I'm going to go over and make a pilgrimage
to Mecca, and then I'm going to go sit with the Buddhists.
She said, I'm going to cover all bases. Now think about it. What should
we do? Well, I better start giving my money away. Or I better start
doing... What should we do? No, none of
those things because none of those things will save you from
the wrath of God. Repent. Turn to the Lord. That's what he's saying. Turn
to the Lord God. And here's the essence of repentance.
Let me give you these three things. First of all, it says, turn ye
even to me. Repentance is not just turning
away from something. It is turning away from some
things, but it's also turning to the Lord. It's repentance
towards God, the God of grace. There are many people who turn
toward a God and they get religious and it's a God who will save
them if they'll do their part. That's not this God. He says,
you return to me. Turn ye towards me. It's not
just turning away from bad habits. We ought to turn away from bad
habits, but it's turning to Christ. That's what it is. Man's religion
and man's righteousness in his idea mainly consist of what he
doesn't do, what he stops doing. But true godly repentance is
turning to the God who saves sinners through Christ. That's
what repentance is. Paul spoke of that to the Thessalonians. He says, you turn to God from
idols. Now, you did turn away from idols,
but you turn to God to serve the living and true God. 1 Thessalonians
1.9. Paul spoke and preached both
to the Jews and also to the Gentiles, and his message is summarized
this way in Acts 20 and verse 21. It's repentance toward God
and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. He said in Philippians chapter
3, in verse 3, that our confidence is in Christ and we have no confidence
in the flesh. Turn away from your works, but
turn toward the God of all grace. Secondly, he says here in verse
12, turn ye even to me with all your heart. That means with your
whole heart. What is the heart in Scripture?
It's the mind, it's the understanding, it's the affections, it's the
will. The Bible refers to the heart in many different ways.
Sometimes it's referred to as the inner man. In other words,
the real man as opposed to the outward appearance. You may see
a lot of things about me outwardly, but one thing you cannot do is
peer into my heart. who I really am. I know I point
there, I don't really mean that. It's not that organ in here pumping
blood, but we just point there. It's not a Valentine, it's not
a Hallmark card, it's who I really am in my inner being. That's
what the heart is. It's what I really understand
concerning the things of God. That's why the Bible says the
natural man doesn't know and understand the things of the
Spirit of God, neither can he know them, they're spiritually
discerned. The natural heart, as we're born into this world,
Jeremiah chapter 17, it says, the heart, in verse 9, the heart
is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can
know it? Our own hearts will deceive us.
And that's why it takes a sovereign, powerful work of God to give
us a new heart. Ezekiel described it that way
in Ezekiel chapter 36, a new heart. to change our heart, to transform
our heart, to give us understanding that we didn't have before through
the light of the Scripture and the power of the Spirit, to know
who I really am, and who God really is, and who Christ is. To change my affections, to make
me love what I didn't love before. I love the Word of God. Love
Christ. If any man loved not the Lord
Jesus Christ, let him be anathema and maranatha. I know it's not
a perfect love yet, but I do love Him and love His people. And I know we're in a warfare. And Paul, he wrote about it in
Romans chapter 7. He said the things that I would
not, that I do. But he said there's no more I
that do it but sin that dwelleth in me. Paul wasn't passing the
buck there. He's just simply saying when
I fail to love God perfectly and love my neighbor as myself,
you're not really seeing the real me. You won't see the real
me until we're all together in glory. Because then he said,
we will know then as we are known. As God knows us, we'll know then. You may look at me at any given
moment and you say, man, that guy's a preacher. But you're
not seeing the real me. What's really written on my heart
by the power of the Spirit, my affections. You think about it,
that's why I always tell, especially young people, you know, especially
young people who've been raised under the truth. When you come
to that point, there's many things we can say to our children, but
when you, young person, when you come to that point in listening
and hearing the gospel of Christ, hear Christ lifted up, when you
can't live without it. And you'll know God's done something
for you. When you can't live without... Now, if you take it
or leave it, your affections, your understanding haven't been
changed. Your will. What do you want to do? You know, somebody
says, well, I wonder why so-and-so never comes to church. I'll tell
you what, they don't want to. If they wanted to come, they'd be
here. We do pretty much what we want to do, don't we? Somebody
says, well, you know, I work hard, I do that. Well, you do
other things you want to do. But we want to feed upon the
Word of God. We want to worship. You see, that's what he means
with the whole heart. Not half-heartedly. Not with
a divided heart. Not with a double heart. But
with the whole heart. That's what he's saying. And
then he says, thirdly here, he says, verse 12, and with fasting
and weeping and mourning. You know what fasting is, to
go without food. And it was a signification in
worship back then under the old covenant. It's not commanded
under the new covenant. Nothing wrong with it, but of
course Christ tells us how to do it in Matthew chapter 6. If
we're going to do it, don't go around trying to announce it.
Let people know, hey, I'm fasting today. I want you all to know
I'm religious, you know. Well, big deal, you know. No,
what he's talking about is this. It's kind of like this. It is
a self-denial, but it's actually a statement saying, I need Christ
more than I need food. I need His righteousness and
His blood more than I need physical. I need physical food, don't get
me wrong. You all see me at the table.
I need it, and I usually eat more than I need. But I'm going
to tell you something, and I know this to be fact. This is my heart. I need Christ more than all the
food in the world. I need His Word. I've got to
feed on His Word. And then this weeping, that's
sorrow over sin. Not that leads us to despair,
but that drives us to Christ. And this mourning, who do you
mourn? You mourn for the dead. You mourn for those who are without
Him. And then he says in verse 13,
and I'll close with this. He says, and rend your heart
and not your garments. In other words, this repentance,
this godly repentance is a heart matter. It's an inner thing.
It's a work of God within us. It's not just religious profession. It's not just outward show. You
remember when Caiaphas had our Lord upon trial? And he accused
him of claiming to be God, claiming to be the Messiah, and the Lord
essentially told him that that's true. And you remember Caiaphas
tore his clothes? All that was was just a big religious
show. That's what they did. No, he
said, rend your heart, not your garments. Rend your heart. He says, "...and turn unto the
Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful." Now there, right
there is the divine incentive to repent. Because God is gracious
and merciful, slow to anger. That means He puts up with a
lot. And great kindness, that's loving
kindness, that's covenant kindness. You know what He's saying? It's
like David said there in Psalm 51. The trappings of religion is
not what God wants. But it's the broken and contrite
heart. And it says, and repenteth him
of the evil. Now, I'm going to start with
that next time. I'm going to deal with that when
it talks about God repenting. But let me just say this real
quickly. It doesn't mean that God changes
His mind. Because God doesn't change His
mind. He didn't have to change his mind. He's not like me and
you. I change my mind all the time because sometimes I'm wrong. Not very often, but sometimes.
But God's never wrong. And God is not reactionary. In
fact, I'm going to show you some scripture on this next week about
the immutability of God. And that's a mind-boggling concept,
the immutability of God. I mean, you know, we just can't
grasp that. But what he's doing, it's kind
of like one old writer said one time, he said he's speaking,
now listen to this now, I'm not just trying to impress you with
this, but he said he's speaking anthropomorphically. Anthropomorphically. Well that's just, what that is,
that's just a fancy way of saying that he's bringing it down to
the level of human beings and it's kind of like one old writer
said, it's like baby talk. You ever talk, you ever say,
Y'all watch me around my grandson sometimes, baby talk. And what that is, it's not saying
anything about the nature of God. God doesn't change. He said,
I'm the Lord, I change not. Therefore you sons of Jacob are
not consumed. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today, and forever. From our point of view, sometimes
it looks like he does. It's kind of like the weatherman.
If you listen to the weatherman tonight, he's going to talk to
you about what time the sun will set and what time the sun rises.
Well, I got news for you. The sun doesn't set and the sun
doesn't rise. Never has, never will. But that's
the way it looks to you, doesn't it? It's the way it looks to
me. And that's the way the weatherman talks to me about it. He's not
saying, Bill, you're stupid, you don't know any better. No,
he's just bringing it down to my level. And that's what God's
doing here. But here's the point, any and
every sinner who comes to God in Christ, pleading the merits
of Christ, come as a sinner with your whole heart, saying, I've
got to have Christ. God's gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and loving kindness. You can mark it down. He'll save
you for Christ's sake. All right.