GODS PLEA Now the question is: What can a sinner do in a period like this? Well, Joel gives the answer for that: Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning [Joel 2:12]. Turn ye even to me with all your heart. The word turn means repent. God says to His people whose hearts are turned from Him, Repent. Repent means primarily to change your mind. You indicate a change of mind by turning around. It is true there may be some shedding of tears along with the repentance, but that is only a by-product of repentance. Repentance really means to change your mind. Now when God says, Turn ye even to me with all your heart, He means to repent, and the by-product of it will be fasting, weeping, and mourning. Unfortunately, a great many people think that if they go down to an altar and shed enough tears, they are converted. Well, I went through that process as a boy and found it to be absolutely meaningless. 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 [Joel 2:13]. You see, this was to be a heart experience, not some outward gesture. Actually, the Mosaic Law forbade the priest from tearing his garments. Repentance was not to be shown by being a fanatic. The tear was to be in the heart. And turn unto the LORD your God is repentance. Now he gives the reason for turning to the Lord: For he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. In the Books of Exodus and Jonah, I deal more thoroughly with the question of what it means when God repents. When Israel was in Egypt it looked as if God changed His mind. He sent plague after plague to Egypt to give Pharaoh the opportunity to repent and turn to Him, but he didnt. Also in Jonahs day, God sent Jonah to preach to the Ninevites that He would destroy the city. However, Nineveh repented and turned to God; so God did not destroy the city. It looked as if God had changed His mind after He said that He would destroy the city, but He did not change His mind. God is immutable. He is always gracious; He is always merciful, and He is always slow to anger. My friend, you can always depend upon God. He never changes, He is immutable; but when a sinner repents and turns to Him, God says in effect, You were under My judgment, and I was going to judge you, but now that you have turned to Me, I will not judge you. God is always gracious and ready to forgive. 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? [Joel 2:14]. In other words, The Lord will bless you again in the field and in the vineyard, and you will have a drink offering and youll have a meat offering to bring to Him. Incidentally, the drink offering is mentioned here; yet there is no instruction in Leviticus for a drink offering. The drink offering was poured on the other offerings and became a part of them. When it was poured on the sacrifice, it went up in steam on the hot coals. The apostle Paul, you recall, said that he wanted his life to be like that—just a drink offering on the sacrifice of Christ. Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly [Joel 2:15]. At the beginning of this chapter we saw that the blowing of the trumpet was used to call an assembly and also to sound an alarm. In verse 1 it was to sound an alarm. Now here at verse 15 it is to call an assembly. The people were to be brought together to hear Gods message so that they might have the opportunity to turn to God. He is gracious and good, and He is willing to accept them. Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly. As we have seen, in the Mosaic system God gave His people only feast days. They were to come before Him with rejoicing. But now that they are in sin and rebellion against Him and have turned from Him, they are to fast and come before Him in a solemn assembly. My friend, the only way we can come to Him is to come as sinners wanting to turn from our sins. If you have been turning from God and now will turn to God, all you have to do is call upon Him and He will save you. … Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved … (Acts 16:31). You dont need to do anything but that. You dont need to join a church, go through a ceremony, or promise Him something. You simply turn as a sinner to Christ for His mercy. It is interesting that the word for preaching or evangelizing or heralding the gospel is a word that means trumpet. The trumpet call of the New Testament is the gospel message that we are to get out to the world. Blow the trumpet in Zion. This is to call a solemn assembly. When people respond to an altar call and come down to the front of the church, it is a solemn moment. They are testifying that they are turning to God from sin. That is serious business and should not be done lightly. However, I emphasize again that it is not merely going to the altar of a church that constitutes real repentance. A lovely young couple in Memphis responded to an altar call and came down to the front of the church after a message I had given. I went down to talk to them and asked them, Is this the first time you have responded to a call? No, we come down every Sunday. Then why do you come down to the altar? Because we want all that God has for us. Do you think you will get that by just coming down here. We hope so. Let me ask you another question. Do you think you have it now? No, we dont. Then I would get a little discouraged if I were you. Maybe this isnt the way it is to be done. Maybe you are trying mans way, and God has another way. God wants to be good and gracious to you, and He wants to save you, but you must come to Him His way. No man comes to the Father but by the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only door to heaven. Jesus Himself said, I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture (John 10:9). Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet [Joel 2:16]. Gather the children, and those that suck the breasts sounds as if the little children were to be taken care of in the nursery so their mothers could give this assembly their full attention. Notice that even the bridegroom is to go to the assembly. When a man was married in Israel, he was excused from going to war for one year. In fact, he was excused from a lot of duties so he could get acquainted with his bride. I guess that was an advantage of getting married! However, God is saying here that everybody is to be gathered together—even the bridegroom and the bride if they are on their honeymoon. Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? [Joel 2:17]. The priests and the ministers of the Lord are to weep. Joel is in Jerusalem, you see; he is a prophet of the southern kingdom. They were to pray, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen [nations] should rule over them. Israel has been scattered throughout the world to this day. Although they have a nation and a government and a flag, they are still pretty well subject to the nations of the world. As I write this, they are caught in the oil slick which is causing them a great deal of trouble, and it will continue to cause trouble because they are not back in the land today in fulfilment of prophecy. When God puts them back into the land, there will be no problem relative to the oil situation. Golda Meir made a statement which inferred that Moses had made a mistake. She said something like this: Imagine! Moses led all of our people around through the wilderness for forty years and brought them to the only place in this area that has no oil! Well, if she believed the Old Testament, she would know that they were led by a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day, and that God had a definite purpose for keeping them from settling on land that was rich with oil. They would never have gotten their land back—thats for sure! Actually what Israel needs is not oil but water. They dont have enough water because the judgment of God is upon them. Moses made no mistake because he was following the orders of God, and certainly God makes no mistakes. Wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? They were wondering what was happening to them. And today that is still their question. I talked with a sharp young Jewish fellow here. He said, If it is as you say that we are Gods chosen people, why doesnt He intervene for us today? I told him very candidly, Because right now, you are not with God. Until you come back in repentance to Him, He is not dealing with you as His chosen people. Today God is doing a new thing: He is calling out from among your people and my people—Jews and Gentiles—a people to His name. You are just not up to date with God. You are going way back to the Mosaic system which is outmoded. The latest thing, the newest model, is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, God is inviting whosoever will to trust Christ and become a part of the new organism which He calls the church.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 03:16:11 +0000
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