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The great British evangelist George Whitefield used to

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tell his congregations that I got this sermon

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while many of you were still in bed.

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Well, I'm no George Whitefield, but I got

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the following message between the hours of three

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and four this morning.

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We will be in the book of Joel.

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You can turn in your Bibles there now,

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friends.

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Joel is prophesying against the southern kingdom of

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Judah.

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We find in Joel a people who have

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forgotten God.

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They have forgotten what God has done for

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them in former times, and they have forgotten

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that all their blessings and prosperity have come

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from his hand.

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The Jews in Judah in the days of

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Joel are self-reliant people, hell-bent on

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self-indulgence and self-rule.

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God has been pushed into the background to

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where only religious formalism exists without any reality

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of him in the daily life.

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And God has a bone of contention with

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the backslidden Jews, and he sends his prophet

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Joel to deliver a stinging series of messages

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to them, and he sends a locust invasion

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to destroy their crops to get their attention.

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We saw recently the locust plague on East

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Africa just this last year, where the desert

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locusts multiplied 20-fold in a period of

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three months to reach densities of 80 million

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per square kilometer, where they ravaged entire communities

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in Kenya and Ethiopia, consuming a food equivalent

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that is mind-boggling.

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They consumed a food equivalent to that eaten

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by 35,000 people a day.

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This kind of devastating locust swarm is what

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occurred to the Jews in the days of

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Joel.

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Crops were ruined, families were bankrupted in a

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financial collapse, and this is the scene where

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we pick up our story as we look

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at the passage in Joel in chapter 2,

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beginning in verse 12, where the prophet calls

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the nation to a time of repentance and

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to a return unto the Lord God.

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Therefore, also now, saith the Lord, turn ye

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even to me with all your heart, and

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with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning,

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and rend your heart, and not your garments,

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and turn unto the Lord your God.

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For he is gracious, and merciful, slow to

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anger, and of great kindness.

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And repenteth him of the evil, who knoweth

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if he will return, and repent, and leave

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a blessing behind him, even a meal offering,

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and a drink offering, unto the Lord your

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God.

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I will pause here, friends, to say that

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this call to repentance falls squarely upon the

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shoulders of the religious leaders of Judah.

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They are the ones who have been derelict

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in their duty of calling awayward people back

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to God.

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So God sends a plague and a prophet

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to them in the hopes of national repentance

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and a return to God.

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It's a desperate situation, where the crops have

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been wiped out by these desert locusts, and

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all have felt the pain of this financial

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collapse.

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And here, Joel instructs the religious leaders to

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call a solemn assembly, to call the people

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back to God.

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We pick it up in verse 15.

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Look at this striking imagery as we see

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this national call for alarm.

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Blow the trumpet in Zion.

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Sanctify fast.

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Call a solemn assembly.

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Gather the people.

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Sanctify the congregation.

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Assemble the elders.

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Gather the children and those that suck the

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breast.

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Let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber,

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and the bride out of her closet.

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Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord,

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weep between the porch and the altar, and

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let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord,

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and give not thine heritage to reproach, that

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the heathen should rule over them.

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Wherefore should they say among the people, O

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where is their God?

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Then will the Lord be jealous for his

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land, and pity his people.

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I will stop there.

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In this striking passage of scripture, we see

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a repentant people and a merciful God.

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When God sees the repentance is genuine, then

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he's moved to action in two dramatic ways.

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He's jealous for his land, and he will

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heal it, and he will pity his people

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and restore fellowship with them.

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We live in a day of remedial judgment

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from God on the nation and the withdrawn

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presence of God in the church.

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We too, like the people of Judah, are

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in desperate times.

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The national tragedy that occurred in our nation's

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capital and the devastation of the pandemic should

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be wake-up calls to our religious leaders,

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to call solemn assemblies, to seek the face

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of Almighty God, and to lead a nation

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in repentance back to the living God of

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the Bible.

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But sadly, since the church lies in the

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very grip of apostasy, I don't see any

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hope from our religious leaders who are too

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asleep and too afraid of men to take

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any firm stand for God.

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It's up to the average Jane and Joe

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in the pew to fall on their faces

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and cry out to God over the sins

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of the land.

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It's up to them to let their tears

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fall between the altar and the sanctuary, and

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wet the carpet of the sanctuary with their

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broken-hearted cries and desperate petitions to Almighty

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God.

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God will hear the desperate cry of His

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remnant and turn and be jealous for His

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land once again.

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The land belongs to Him after all.

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England belongs to Him.

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America belongs to Him.

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Everything may look desolate, but He owns it.

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He is ownership over His land and over

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His people.

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But if the people of God turn back

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to God in sincerity of heart, He will

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hear their cry.

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He will come and heal the land.