ASH WEDNESDAY – Feb. 17, 2021 – Joel 2:12-14
“GOD BLESSES US”
Introduction: Grace be to you and peace, from God our Father, and from our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. Our text is the Old Testament lesson just read, from Joel 2. We begin with prayer.
Dear fellow disciples of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ:
- The key to all proper relationship with God, and to great blessedness in this life and the next, is an understanding of how God blesses us, and how He blesses all of mankind, or at least seeks to. In our text we see God doing this – calling out to all people to come back to Him, to learn of and to receive His great love.
- All of Holy Scripture presents this same message, this same basic understanding of Who God is and how God is toward us. He loves the world, all people in the world, for He is the Creator of every human being. If we grasp this, especially His love in Christ Jesus our Savior, then our hearts and minds and lives begin to change. We now live and exist and thrive in the realm of love rather than sin, light rather than darkness, and life rather than death, eternal life.
- The call is to return in repentance, acknowledging our sin and guilt and spiritual poverty, our impotence at helping ourselves. The call includes the promise of God’s goodness, grace, forgiveness, and mercy. As we consider just how “GOD BLESSES US,” we begin with the fact that:
I. God Has Saved Us
Matt. 1:21 “You shall call His Name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
Exod. 15:2 “The Lord is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation.”
Is. 12:2 “Behold, God is my salvation.”
A. He Is Gracious And Merciful With Us
Text: “Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful.”
B. God Is Patient With Us, Slow To Anger
Text: “Return to the Lord your God . . . for He is slow to anger.”
C. God Is Abounding In Steadfast Love For Us
Text: “Return to the Lord your God . . . For He is abounding in steadfast love.”
D. God Does Not Want To Bring Disaster Upon Us But Is Eager To Save Us
Text: “The Lord your God relents over disaster.”
Ezek. 33:11 “As I live, declares the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his ways and live.”
Lam. 3:31-33 “For the Lord will not cast off forever: But though He cause grief, yet will He have compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. For He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.”
Jer. 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
Statement: You see clearly then, the goodness, the kindness, the gracious will of God toward you, His steadfast and eternal love for you. This is the message of His Word, the Holy Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation! The devil doesn’t want you to know and believe this! The unbelieving world does not want you to know and believe this! And incredibly, our sinful nature does not want to know and believe this! It makes us so beholden to God!
Application: But that is the nature of our circumstance. And in view of this, God chooses good and love to prevail toward us! He tenderly invites us to participate in His blessings and goodness! Our sin leads in the direction of horrid and dire consequences: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” “The wages of sin is death.”
But God wants none of this for us! He so loved the world that He gave His Son Jesus as our Savior, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
So, by all means:
II. Let Us Return To The Lord Our God
A. Repenting Of Our Sin And Mourning It
Text: “Yet even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and with mourning.”
1. Repenting and confessing our sin
Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”
2. Changing our commitment and orientation back to God
Romans 6:10,11 “For the death Christ died He died to sin, once for all, but the life He lives He lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
B. Rejoicing Always In His Salvation
Psalm 13:5 “But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.”
Is. 61:10 “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation; He has covered me with the robe of righteousness.”
Statement: You see the way to great blessedness from God. Yes, it begins with the fasting, weeping, and mourning of repentance – keen awareness of our sin and guilt. But God’s response of forgiveness, mercy, life, and salvation bring the greatest comfort, peace, joy and exultation in God! He is my God! He is our God!
Application: In all of these matters we can be certain – for it is God Himself Who is speaking these things to us, assuring us, inviting us, and promising us! And of course God Himself assures us: “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not fulfill it?” [Num. 23:19]
Conclusion: When we allow these blessings of God to sink into our hearts and minds, our hearts and minds change – in orientation and commitment to God: “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” What a wondrous change this is!
As we commence with the season of Lent, looking forward to the relief of the cross and the celebration of resurrection, let us indeed, even now, return to the Lord! Amen.
Votum: And the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds in the true faith, which is in Christ Jesus, even unto life everlasting, Amen.