call it. We are in Joel chapter
2 this morning for the first hour. Joel chapter 2. Joel is addressing the issue
of the children of Israel, what they need, what is required of
them. He's dealing with the problem.
Only the Lord's people are made needy, aren't they? Only the
Lord's preachers declare unto them the need that the Lord's
people have, and only the Lord's people will flee unto Christ
and hear the truth of the gospel. So here we find the root of the
problem, the need that they have in Joel chapter two. Let's look
in verse 12. Therefore also now sayeth the
Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart and with fasting,
and with weeping and with mourning. And rend 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 repenteth
him of the evil, who knoweth if he will return and repent
and leave a blessing behind him, even a meat offering and a drink
offering unto the Lord your God. The root of the problem is, is
they have a bad heart. He says, rend your heart, not
your garment. Now, the garment is something
that's outward. It's something that can visibly be seen by others.
And what they were doing was, is they would pretend to be returning
unto the Lord by fasting, by ripping their garments and sitting
in sackcloth and ashes, wanting to receive something from God.
But the issue was that their heart never was changed. He says,
rend your heart, not your garment. That's what I've titled the message
this morning. Rend your heart. And we see that This is mentioned
in the New Testament as well when it talks of circumcision.
Men believed after the Lord established his church that they still had
to do certain ordinances that were under the law, such as circumcision. And he would say, if you haven't
been circumcised, then you're not a Christian, you're not a
believer, you're not one of the elect of God. But that wasn't true.
Paul addressed this by saying, but he is a Jew, which is inwardly,
and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not
in the letter, not in the flesh, whose praise is not of men, but
of God. We've been made to understand
this heart condition that we have, and because of it, we've
been made to see that the flesh cannot please God. They that
are in the flesh cannot please God. Nothing we can do, nothing
we can say, nothing we can think, everything that we are cannot
please God in any way, shape or form. So what do we do? We cry out for mercy, don't we?
Lord, I need a new heart. Lord, if it's going to be the
rending of the heart that's required for my salvation, you're going
to be the one that has to do it. I can't rend my heart. I
don't know how to do that. This is a spiritual matter, isn't
it? It's not a carnal matter, not a, not a physical matter. Understand that the Lord's standard,
the Lord's standard, the bar that he has never changes. It doesn't fluctuate up or down. It doesn't have leniency based
upon merits. It doesn't have, if the Lord
spared not his own son when he saw sin upon him, how much more
so are we not going to be spared if we have sin upon us? See,
this issue of the heart is going to take the Lord to change it,
the Lord to give a new heart, the Lord to give one that looks
unto him. And this is what Joel is addressing. God requires perfect holiness. David said, who shall ascend
into the heel of the Lord? Who shall stand in his holy place?
He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted
up his soul into vanity nor sworn deceitfully. Well, there's only
one. There is only one that has ever
lived upon the face of this earth that had clean hands. and a pure
heart. And it is not you and I, is it?
It is not you and I. We don't have clean hands or
a pure heart. And we certainly lift up our
soul into vanity, don't we? What's vanity? Well, we found
in Ecclesiastes when we looked there, Solomon told us everything,
everything that we do is vanity. Whether it's an outward getting
of things or if it's an inward getting of knowledge, everything
is vanity. Christ is all. That's what the
conclusion that Solomon had. We see that God requires perfect
holiness, and we are other than he is in every way. We are opposite
of what he is. He requires true righteousness. He requires true repentance,
not just a rending of the garment, not just a cutting away of the
foreskin of the flesh, but of the heart. That's what he requires.
He said in Psalm 44, shall not God search this out? For he knoweth
the secrets of the heart. There's nothing hidden to him.
He sees all things. We are open sepulchers unto him,
which means he doesn't just see the outward. That's what he called
the Pharisees, wasn't it? Whitewashed sepulchers. They
would bleach them, the sepulchers, the tombs that they had. And
boy, they would look pretty for a little while. They looked good
on the outside. They would be nice and wide and clean. But
he said inwardly, you're full of dead men's bones. Lord sees
all the way down, doesn't he? He doesn't just look at the outward.
He looks at the inward. Thanks be to God. He doesn't
look at the outward of us. He looks at the outward of Christ.
What did Christ merit? What did Christ do? What did
Christ think and speak? See, he did it all perfectly.
And that's why we need a substitute, isn't it? Men will say, you should give
your heart to Jesus in this rending of the heart. Well, that means
you give your heart to him. The Lord don't want your heart. He doesn't
want my heart. Heart's deceitful above all things
and desperately wicked. The Lord's people has been made
to know that. My heart's repulsive in his sight. My love will not
merit anything in His sight because it's always changing. But Christ,
the love that the Father has for His Son, His love never changes. And all those who are in Christ,
His love never changes because it's everlasting. Men hear that your heart's deceitful,
your heart's wicked, and men believe the lie. It's not that
we transgressed the law. That's not the lie. The lie is
that you can do one thing to fix it. That's the lie. We can't
do anything to fix our heart condition. We can't do anything
to fix our circumstances of being born dead and trespasses and
in sin. We can't obligate God to do anything, can we? That's
what most religion does. They believe if they live a certain
way, They do something, they're gonna obligate God to do something.
We can't obligate God. He's sovereign, he does whatsoever
he will. I was reminded this week of trials
that we endure, things that we face, sicknesses. As you heard
me mention a minute ago about Brother Parks, who's, it would
appear he's on his deathbed. That's a trial that they're facing,
an affliction, but No matter what we face, it doesn't mean
we deserve anything. We are not entitled based upon
ourself. We are not entitled based upon
anything but the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. We live in
a society that truly believes that they are entitled. They
are entitled to this or entitled to that. When it comes to God,
we're entitled to nothing unless we are found in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's entitled because He did
it all. And if we are in Him, then we
have eternal life. We have a new heart. We are entitled
to grace. We're entitled to mercy. We're
entitled the love that He has towards His people because of
His merits alone. Don't leave this place thinking
that we can do anything. anything to obligate God or deserve
something from God based upon what we do. It's not true. It's
not true. We can't. But Christ did, didn't
he? Christ did it for his people,
for a purpose, to redeem them that were under the law, to redeem
them that were lost. No matter what we've done, no
matter what we're doing, and no matter what we do, we deserve
hell to be our eternal home. That's what we deserve. but by
the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, we now deserve eternal
life based upon what He's done. By His own blood, by His own
will, by His own power, He has given us everything required
so that it's not hell that's our eternal home, but it's heaven.
It's everlasting life found in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's eternal
peace. It's eternal justification before
God. It's sanctification. We've been
made holy by His merits. by what he has done. We see our
evil heart and we know we need mercy and we need grace. The Lord tells us a little bit
about the heart in Mark chapter seven. He says, and he said,
that which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. See,
everything that we produce is sin in the Lord's sight. We heard
last Sunday about the seed. Do you remember the seed? We
are the seed of Adam. Therefore, everything we produce is sin.
But everything Christ produced was holiness, righteousness.
It's why he's been made unto us our wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. The Lord said, that which cometh
out of a man, that's what defiles him. For from within, out of
the heart, men proceed evil thoughts. This is where adulteries come
from, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness,
deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these things come from within. That's what defiles a man. The
disciples were being accused of eating with unwashed hands. And the Pharisees said, well,
they have defiled themselves. The Lord said, it's not what
you take in that defiles you. It's what you're producing. It's
what's on the inside coming out of you. That's what defiles you.
And then you heard me read the list just there that he gave.
It's all manner of evil, isn't it? That's what we're capable
of left to ourself. Every person is capable of that.
Their heart is deceitful. They'll deceive themselves. Their
heart is wicked. But did you know the Lord's people
have been given a new heart, one that looks to him? Somebody
might say, well, I certainly see sin that I do still. You're
going to see it, but he doesn't. He's put it away. As far as God's
concerned, it's already done. It's finished. You and I just
have to go through the time that he's created. Step by step, minute
by minute, second by second, loathing ourself, not loving
ourself, crying out for mercy along the way. Being reminded
it is finished. Even though you see this heart
that you have still that doesn't want to look to him, you've been
given a new one. A new one that beats perfectly in his sight.
One that looks unto him in all things. Men hear that they're not good
enough and they say, well, I can fix that. I can fix that. I can
do better. Now, I know that all of you have
seen in your lifetime as I have a moral decline in society. Certainly
there can be no doubt about that in different ways and it's continuing
every day. But the Lord's not telling us
to live a moral life to please him. That's not what he's saying. Moral life to obtain salvation. That's not what we do. But men
think that they can do that. They can please God by the life
that they live. That's called iniquity. That's called iniquity. And the Lord said, if you regard
iniquity in your heart, I won't hear your cry. That's what David
said. Lord, if I regard iniquity in my heart, you will not hear
me because I'm looking to myself in some way, shape or form, either
as the evidence of my salvation or for the purpose of my salvation.
And that's not looking to Christ with the new heart, is it? If I look at anything that I've
done, anything that I'm doing or anything that I'm going to
do, it's called iniquity. And the Lord's displeased with
it. Aren't you glad you have a substitute? One that did not
commit iniquity, one that did not commit transgression or trespass
in any way against God's holy law. He lived the perfect life,
the perfect life you and I could not live with the perfect heart.
And that's what he bestows upon his people. Proverbs 20, Solomon says, who
can say I have made my heart clean? I am pure from my sin. Who can say that? The Lord Jesus
Christ can. The Lord didn't have any sin,
did he? I'm pure. He didn't have any sin. Only the Lord can purify
the sinner. Only the Lord can wash them in
his blood and make them perfectly righteous. See, this is all about
him and his work and his gospel. goes forth and it says, rend
your heart. But when the Lord gives a law,
anytime the Lord's ever given a law, then men will hear it
and think that they can do something to obtain it. But the law does
not equip us to be able to do anything to rend our heart, does
it? The law doesn't equip us in order to satisfy God. We're
going to hear about that some more in the second hour, but
the call still goes forth, rend your heart. And only the believer
will wind up at the conclusion by grace, through faith that
says, I can't. I can't rend my heart, but I
want to for you, Lord. I want my heart to be rent. This
is the stumbling block. Understand, it's the part where
it takes us out of the equation completely, and it gives God
all the glory and salvation. This is why men hate the gospel.
Whenever you tell a man that your heart's deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked, and there's nothing you can do
to change it, men say, I will not have that man reign over
me. I can do something. I get some
kind of glory in some kind of way. This is what men do by nature.
Only the believer says, Lord, be pleased to rend my heart. If you haven't rent my heart
before, if you haven't give me this new heart that looks to
you, please do it right Now, right now. Lord, cause me to
come to you. Cause me to come to the fountain
of water and drink from it. This is what the believer cries
out for. Create in me a clean heart, oh God. Renew in me a
right spirit. Lord, if it's gonna be done,
I can do nothing. If it's gonna be done, it's gonna
be done all by you, because it's all by grace, all by grace. Examine
me, oh Lord, and prove me. Try my reins and my heart. David
said, search me, O God, and know me. Know my heart. Try me. Know my thoughts. Empty me, is
what he's praying. Empty me. If there be any unbelief
in me, if there be any evil within me that doesn't look to Christ,
empty it out of me. Make Christ all. Rend my heart. This is what the believer prays.
You know how often? Every day. Every single day we
cry out for mercy, don't we? We cry out, Lord, have mercy
upon me again. Lord, it's me again. Have mercy
upon me. Lord, have mercy upon me. Lord,
forgive me my sin. What does he do? When you bring
that empty bucket to him, now, if you have anything in the bucket,
The picture is given in the scripture of this as well. Anything in
the bucket, he won't give you anything. But to David, when
David prayed in Psalm 23, he was speaking, he said, my cup
runneth over. Why is that? Because he came to the Lord with
an empty bucket. In my hand, no price I bring. I have a need
of a new heart. And if I come to you bringing
anything, I won't receive the new heart. I won't receive the
fullness of the Lord. There's no room for anything
else but Christ when it's pertaining to his gospel. His salvation. Only empty buckets are filled.
Only empty buckets have been made to have a need. Everything
else is broken cisterns. If we come to the Lord without
an empty bucket, we're bringing a broken cistern unto Him. A
cistern is something that catches rain. I know most of you probably
know that, but broken cistern wouldn't do any good, would it?
It's not going to hold anything. Everything is going to run right out of
it. And that's what he says to the Lord's people. He said, you've
hewed you out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.
You need to be mended up. You need to be mended up. And
that's what the Lord does, doesn't he? He shows us that we're broken
cisterns. He shows us we have a broken
heart. He shows us that we have a wicked heart. And what does
he do? Does he leave us in that state
and say, okay, you have to do this and you have to do this
and you have to do this, then I'll fill you up. No, no. Once he shows us that we are
broken completely, he does all the mending. He does all the
rending. He does all the binding back
together. And he takes out that heart of stone and he gives us
a heart of flesh that looks unto him. Understand something in society,
people say broken things are useless. You have a broken television. You're not going to be able to
use it. Your car's broke down. It's not going to get you point
A to point B is it? And my wife tells me, I always use examples
that men understand. So I'm going to use one of the
ladies can latch a hold of a little better. If your oven's broken,
can't cook supper, what are you going to do? You got to figure
out another way to cook supper. It doesn't do any good. It's
broken. But did you know that the Lord only, only, takes broken
hearts. Your heart being broken is part
of the qualification of you needing a savior. If you've never had
your heart broken, if you've never had your heart rent, the
Lord is not gonna mend it back up. He's not gonna give you a
new heart that looks to him. He says, David said this, the
Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and saveth
such as be of a contrite spirit. Do you know why? Because he's
made us thus. He's broken our heart and showed
us we are the chief of sinners, needing a substitute, needing
a savior. So when the cry comes forth,
rend your heart, we say, Lord, I can't. Lord, I'm blind. Lord, I'm deaf. Lord, I'm lame.
I can't do anything spiritually that pleases you. Lord, rend
my heart and give me a new heart that looks unto you. He's made
us beggars, mercy beggars. We've been made to know that
He's going to have to give us everything he requires. Everything
he requires because we can't produce it. We can't produce
anything that he's pleased with. And he says he'll do just that
in Ezekiel 36. A new heart also will I give
you and a new spirit will I put within you. I will take out the
stony heart of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh.
And this new heart does one thing, it looks to Christ constantly,
continually, with every single beat, it's looking to Christ
for everything in salvation. I was thinking about needing
a new heart and how that men will do heart surgery and there's
always scars left over from the surgery, but the Lord, and I
about misspoke because I was gonna say that the Lord doesn't
leave any scars, but the Lord Jesus Christ is the one bearing
those scars, isn't he? In his hands, in his feet, in
his side. That's where the heart transplant
happened was upon the cross of Calvary for the Lord's people.
And he's the one that bears the scars in his own body for us. You can't see it. You can't see
that. If the Lord's given me a new heart, if the Lord's give
you a new heart, I can't see it. But we look to the scars
of the Lord Jesus Christ, his finished work. And we know that
for whom he lived and whom he died, whom he was resurrected
for, they will have the new heart that he earned by his own death.
Our prayer comes forth unto him. Lord, call me over and over. Lord, draw me over and over.
Lord, say unto me, seek my face. Then my heart will say, thy face
will I seek. We see ours is not good enough. That's our confession, is it?
Lord, my heart's not good enough for you. I know that. I know
that I need the heart of Christ and his merits alone. So he says,
rend your heart. Well, that's the same thing as
saying, come to Christ. That's what he's saying. Come
to Christ. Don't move a muscle. Don't move.
It's not by physical. We're not going to have an altar
call here in a few minutes where we come up here and have a show of, of
something that happens or pretend like something happens. No, it's
don't move a muscle. Cause if you move it's iniquity. Don't move a muscle. Come to
him with the new heart that he's given you. Come to him through
the eyes of faith, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of faith. Come to him right now, but don't move a muscle. That's
the call that goes forth. Can you not move? If you can,
it's because he's made you not move. It's called resting, isn't
it? Lord says, rest, come unto me,
all you that labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. Because his yoke is easy and
his burdens light. Why? Because the work is all
done. The work is, it's finished. The
work is, there's nothing left for you to do. Nothing left for
me to do. In Galatians chapter four, he tells
us, because you are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of
his son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. I love the wording
of the Lord in that verse. He says, because you are sons,
God hath sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts.
He didn't say he sent forth the spirit into your hearts to make
you sons. He says, because you are son,
because I've bought you, because I've given you a new heart, because
I've purged you from your sins, I've given you the spirit of
Christ as well. And a new heart that cries out at him, because
you are son. See, if the Lord saved us, then
he called us, didn't he? That's what happened first. The
Lord saved us first and he calls us, because you're sons, I've
give you my spirit. It's God that rends the heart.
He gives life by his spirit. His spirit breathes upon his
people because they've been purchased by the blood of Christ. We cry
out. All that's left for us to do
is cry out, Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. Lord, have
mercy upon me. I have a wicked heart. Lord,
give me a new heart that looks unto you. And we cry that out. You know what the scripture tells
us? The Lord said in Matthew chapter seven, if you being evil,
Know how to give good gifts unto your children? How much more
shall your Father, which is in heaven, give good things to them
that ask him? What good things is he talking
about? Well, what does the believer cry out for? Peace, grace, mercy? That's what we cry out for, isn't
it? This is the good things that he does. Lord, rend my heart.
Give me the good thing. Give me Christ, lest I die. He's been made into us our treasure. I was looking up verses that
had heart in it, and one of them said, for where your treasure
is, there will your heart be also. If you're a believer, Christ
is your treasure, isn't he? Whenever you see that he has
put away your sins by his own blood, he is more precious than
anything else, isn't he? He is, he's our treasure. And
where your treasure is, that's where your heart is also. Our heart is hid. Our life is
hid with Christ in God, the scripture tells us. This is why he's our
treasure. For we're dead and your life is hid with Christ
in God. See, all those for whom Christ lived, for whom Christ
died and was resurrected, have already been given this rent
heart. Look to Christ. That's the message
that goes forth. Look to him. You've already been
given a new perfect heart. We've already been given light
to see his face. That's why he says to whom coming,
it's continual over and over. It's not just one time, is it?
For God who commended the light to shine out of darkness has
shined in our hearts. Not the wicked one, the new one. Christ has shined in our hearts
and given light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. So you understand his death hath
brought life and light through the gospel, immortality through
his gospel. Because he's given us, he bought
it, and he's given us a new heart. And now the scripture says, the
love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by this gospel. This is what makes him all to
his people. This is what makes him our Our desire always, our
desire is to always see that we are in Christ. Always. That's the believer's desire
constantly. Now in closing, I want to look at Jeremiah 24. Hold
your place in Joel because we're going to turn right back there.
Jeremiah 24. We have the good news of the
gospel. Jeremiah 24, verse six tells
us, for I will set mine eyes upon them for good. The Lord said, I will. You can
believe that it's going to happen no matter what. Jeremiah 24,
six, for I will set mine eyes upon them for good. And I will
bring them again to this land. And I will build them and not
pull them down. and I will plant them and not
pluck them up. And I will give them a heart
to know me, that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people,
and I will be their God, for they shall return unto me with
their whole heart. Now, what is it that the Lord's
people do in this chapter, in this verse to earn any of this? Nothing. The Lord said, I will,
and you shall. Do you rest in that? I will give
you a new heart that looks unto me. I will give you what I require
for your salvation. This is what the Lord's saying.
I will set mine eyes for good upon you. Now, I thought about
for good. And did the Lord mean that it
was going to be eternal, meaning permanent for good? Or did he
mean it was going to be all good things given to them? Yes, he's
going to eternally give them all good things. I will set mine
eyes upon them for good forever and ever, and I will give them
all things for good. It's gonna be good things given
unto them. I will bring them, I will build them, I will plant
them, I will give them the heart I require. Now his people completely
rest in Christ alone by faith with this new heart that he's
given us. Now with that in mind, look in Joel chapter two again. and see if this is not the prayer
that you pray, that comes from this new heart the Lord's given
you. Joel 2, verse 12, we're gonna read this as if it was
his prayer, not just the command of the Lord. Therefore also now
saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your hearts. Lord,
I cannot turn to you with all my heart unless you make me And
Lord, I want to put away the things of this flesh. That's
what that word fasting is all about. But I can't crucify this
flesh like I should. You're going to have to live
the life. I could not. Lord, you're going to have to break
my heart and cause me to weep and mourn. You're going to have
to rend my heart and not my garments, because if you leave me to myself,
I'm going to rend my garments and think that I'm pleasing in
your sight. Lord, you're going to have to turn me into you.
You're going to have to be made Lord unto me. Show me that you
are. Show me that you're gracious. Show me that you're merciful.
Show me that you're slow to anger because your anger was assuaged
when Christ Jesus died in my stead. Lord, show me your kindness. Show me that the evil that you
would put upon the sinner, Christ Jesus took into himself as the
substitute. Lord, I know this is the only
way, the only way you'll leave a blessing behind you by the
offering of Jesus Christ alone. Is that not what we cry out over
and over and over? Every day, this is what the Lord's
people cry out. And in verse 15, it says, blow
the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast. Lord, I can't sanctify
anything. I'm not holy. But you did. That's
why the trumpet's blown in Zion. This is past tense, but this
is present tense and future. This is already finished. Everything
required. The trumpet's blown, the fast
is sanctified. The people, the congregate of
the people, sanctify the congregation. How do we sanctify? Look to Christ.
Don't look to yourself, look to Christ. That's how you know. That's the only rest that you
have. That's the only thing that we know for sure is that Christ
Jesus put away the sin of his people. That's what this rending
of the heart's all about. When the Lord says, rend your
heart, he's saying, look to Christ. As soon as we hear that, We cry
out, Lord, if it has not been rent, rend it right now. This is what we cry. Rend our
hearts, Lord. Father, thank you that you give
us a new heart that's pleasing unto you. For we know the one
that we have by nature could never please you. Cause us to
cry out, give us faith. Cause us to cry out, Abba Father,
unto you. In Christ's name we pray, amen.