Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be found and alarm in my holy mountain. Let's pray.

Lord, I love you. I pray that you would bless and work. Lord, help my speech to be plain and clear.

Help my throat this morning. And Lord, I pray that you would open up the hearts of listeners. And Lord, I pray that you would use your Word in our heart. And Lord, help us to understand the importance of making sure we're right with God. It's very easy to sometimes be around an atmosphere where God is doing great things in the lives of people.

And it's very easy to be around that, to almost think that it's happened to us when it hasn't. To almost think that I've gotten excited when we really haven't. To think that we've made progress in our relationship with you when maybe we really haven't taken those steps. And Lord, I pray as you'd help me this morning to explain to our people the importance of making sure we're right with God.

The importance of making an emotional decision and following it up with a physical change. And Lord, we love you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Number one in this passage, and we're given prophetic here about what is called the day of the Lord.

And I'm going to just give you some highlights real quickly. But in these first 11 verses, we have what I would call the description of the terror of the Lord. Now we believe this is a prophetic reference to the Lord coming back and setting up his kingdom. Now we believe that God is calling out those that are saved, and we which are alive and well will be caught up together with them in the clouds. And the Lord is taking us back to heaven, but then we will be coming back to earth to set up his kingdom here on earth.

This is in Joel, this prophetic book, is a little bit of this reference. And so I want to remind you that this is coming. There's not a lot of preaching on the second coming of Christ, but this is what I would call his coming back to set up his kingdom on earth.

And I want you to look at some of these things. You and I need to keep this in our mind, that these events are happening. Jesus is coming again, folks. And not only is Jesus coming again to get us, but he is coming again to this earth to set up his kingdom. And he will rule and reign. Doesn't matter who makes fun of men. Doesn't matter what talk show, whatever has something funny and sarcastic to say about Jesus. They can have at it if they want.

They're not gonna be laughing this day. I want you to know the terror of the Lord. Let's look at verse one after that first phrase. Sound an alarm in my holy mountain. Look, he just begins to describe it.

Notice this. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord cometh. It is nigh at hand.

It is closer than you think. Look at verse two. A day of darkness and of gloominess. A day of clouds and of thick darkness. Look at the middle of verse two.

A great people and a strong. There have not been ever the like. Neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. What are we talking about? We're talking about Jesus coming back to earth with those that have been saved and redeemed by the blood of Jesus. The blood of the lamb.

We will be his army. Notice, if you would, verse three. A fire devoureth them.

Behind them a flame burneth. Notice the end of verse three. Yea, and nothing shall escape them. Notice verse four as we're given the description of us, the army of God. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses and of as horses. Like horsemen, so shall they run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap.

Like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble as a strong people set in battle array. When the Lord comes back to the earth to rule and reign and set up his kingdom, there is no little baby Jesus in a manger. He is king of kings and lord of lords.

He's the captain of the army. This is exciting, isn't it? Some of you are like, what?

What's going on? Look at verse six. Before their face, the people shall be much pained. All faces shall gather blackness. You see, this is when they realize what they had been told is true. This is when they realize that the truth that was given that they rejected was true.

Sad. Look at verse eight. The Bible describes us as the army of the Lord. It says, neither shall one thrust another. They shall walk everyone in his path and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. It doesn't matter if we die, it doesn't matter if we've stabbed, fallen, a sword, whatever, we're not going to be wounded. You know, it's a reminder that when you and I are in Christ, that there's a lot of things that come against us, but they don't have to defeat us. That means in life, listen, you can be stabbed by a few swords, but it doesn't mean you have to be wounded. Some of you have been stabbed a little bit.

It doesn't have to wound you. I could give you more verses for that, but for sake of time, I'm getting more excited here than I know probably you are. But I've been in this a little bit this week, and this is exciting to me. Notice verse 10. The earth shall quake before them.

The heavens shall tremble. The sun and the moon shall be dark. It doesn't mean they're going to be hidden. See, when it gets dark here, it means that the sun's hidden from our view.

It doesn't mean that they're hidden. It means they're dark. It means God turns the light out. Not only that, notice this, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.

Total complete black darkness instantly. Notice verse 11. And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army, for his camp is very great. This is the one time you need to be in a camp. Now, in Bible circles, we have different camps.

Some think you ought to do things this way, and some think you ought to do things that way, and not that it matters to you much. It's probably more stuff that preachers face and things, but if I can give you some advice, don't worry about camps. You don't need to be in a camp, but this is one you ought to be in. And by the way, I don't think you're wasting your time to go camping, but this is one camp that you ought to be in. See what I did there?

Okay. His camp is very great, notice this, for he is strong that executeth his word. That means this is all about God doing what he said he would do. For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible, and who can abide it?

Nobody can. You're his enemy. Phew. This terror of the Lord. This ought to wake us up a little bit. This is gonna happen, folks.

This is as real as if it's already taken place. The terror of the Lord. You say, well, thank you for the encouragement on a Sunday morning.

Well, I really feel like going to eat now. Thank you, preacher. Number two, I want you to see the turning to the Lord. You see, God will execute his word. Because of that, if God's gonna do what he said he would do, and if God's warned us, and he's warned us for a reason, notice verse 12.

Be even to me. That's what repentance is. Turning to God. Why should we turn to God? Because God will execute his word. God will do what he said he's gonna do. He is a merciful, loving God, but the day is coming where he keeps his word. You say, all right, preacher, what does that mean? Well, in verse 12, we are told the entire process, and the beginning of verse 13, we are told the entire process of repentance. Now, here's where I'm a bit scared. That we can come and we can have revival, and we can hear about repentance, and we can hear about revival, and we can hear about change, and we can hear about all the things that we heard about, and we can be excited, and we can get in the environment, and because we have the knowledge, we feel better, and we kind of have a little bit more hope, and we feel good that, hey, I was there for the services, and I was here for revival, and I was here experiencing all this wonderful different thing, but dear friend, I'm here to tell you that if you get in the middle of all that, and you really don't change, it's gonna be worse for you at the end. We're responsible now for what we've been through, and for us to come through it, and if we go through it, and we go through the motions, but there's no change, then our heart will only get harder and harder. So I'm gonna take another stab at it two weeks later. Kind of catch you from behind.

I'm here to sound the alarm. What is real biblical repentance? And I would ask you this, has this taken place in your life? Notice number one, he says this, turn ye even to me, verse 12, with all your heart. Number one, real repentance involves sincerity. Turning to the Lord involves sincerity with all your heart. May I say there's a lot that goes on in church that's insincere.

There's a lot of fake that can go on at a church. You know it. We argue with each other. Ripping our throats out as we're on our way to church. Shut up back there! Tell our kids, whatever. I know you're not supposed to say that word. I'm just hypothetical.

Never takes place in our home, but you know what I'm saying in case. I mean, we're bickering back and forth. I don't understand why we're doing this. We're late already. What have you been doing? I mean, you take an hour to do your hair.

I mean, it takes five hours to shower out in the world. And we walk on the church property. Hey, good morning. How are you doing? God's so wonderful. Fake! You all know I'm telling the truth. I mean, we'll sit. We've been nothing. We haven't been in our Bible. Hadn't prayed.

Had nothing during the week. But bless God, I'm a choir member. So I'm gonna sit here and we stand to sing.

Yeah. Fake! Fake! I mean, bless God, we can put on a show and we can act good and we can do a whole lot of wonderful things and everybody's gonna think, oh, they're doing good. Oh, they're doing God bless you.

Oh, isn't it great to worship in the house of the Lord this morning? They know it's fake. They know we act like we do here. And they know how we act at home. And they know it's fake.

And they know that there's nothing real to it. And all of a sudden, here we come and we say, hey, hadn't revival been great? Revival's only great if we change. Some of you are like, what's going on on a Sunday morning? I must have ended up in the wrong church. Well, dear friend, this morning you ended up in the right one. Sincerity. You turned to me with all your heart.

Dear friend, look at me. I can turn with part of my heart and I can fool you. In fact, I can turn to God with just a quarter of my heart. And you would think that, oh, in this wonderful, oh, our dear brother is so sold out to God.

But God knows our heart. And dear friend, I'm here to tell you for us to really turn to God. We have to turn in sincerity with all our heart.

Has that happened? Notice, secondly, he says, turn to me with all your heart and with fasting. You say, well, what are you saying? I'm saying this, that repentance, turning to the Lord, revolves, number one, sincerity. Number two, it involves sacrifice. Fasting means I'm sacrificing something. I'm setting aside something that I desire so that I can prove to God and show to God that deep down I am sincere about this. So I'm going to sacrifice something for him.

Look at me. A lot of good it does to get to an altar and say, oh, God, help me with whatever. And we go back home and nothing changes, nothing sacrificed. We're still watching the same stuff. We're still looking at the same stuff. We're still spending no time in prayer, no time in the Bible, but yet we got revived.

No, we didn't. You all know I'm telling the truth this morning. I'm preaching to me as much as I'm preaching to you. Turning to God involves sincerity and involves sacrifice. What have we given up? What have we really let go of so that we can really turn to God? Have you sacrificed anything lately for God?

Being as it's mentioned here, have we sacrificed a lunch? You say, preacher, you just got to pray for my child. I've been praying and praying and praying.

Well, have you sacrificed a breakfast or a lunch or maybe a week full of lunches to pray for them? Oh, preacher, I don't know what's going on in my life. The devil's just all over my back. Well, why don't we give up a lunch or something and say, God, get the devil off my back.

We're not desperate enough. There's no sacrifice. So we go through the motions. We continue to play church and we wonder why things really don't change because there's not sincerity and there's not sacrifice.

Notice what he says here. I love this. Turn ye even to me with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping. Preacher, what does this mean? It means that to turn to the Lord, it must be done in sincerity. It must be done with sacrifice.

Number three, it must be done with seriousness. Weeping. I'm serious about this. This isn't a passing thing. This isn't an emotional moment. This isn't a decision that I make on Monday night of revival and by Thursday morning, it's done.

Uh-uh. I'm serious. There's no playing games.

I'm serious about this. Dear friend, this is real biblical repentance. We can't play around with that. We can't put on a show at church for that. Weeping is something that you can't put on. We're not talking about a fake little, well, I just, you know, no, no, no. We're talking about weeping.

This term is wailing. Weeping, seriousness. How serious are you about turning to God? How serious am I about really, really turning to God? Dear friend, listen, I'm not here to make you feel guilty. I didn't write anything. I'm here to encourage you and to make myself aware that we better get serious because verses one through 11 is coming.

It's coming. Notice if you would in verse 12. He said, turn to me with all your heart, sincerity, and with fasting, sacrifice, and with weeping, seriousness, and notice this, and with mourning. This means sorrow. It takes sorrow for repentance. This is the word for, look at me, brokenness. Sorrow broken. It means I am broken. Let's be honest. Usually we don't turn to God until we are broken.

I mean, we would love to get up and motivate everybody to change before that has to happen, and I have literally had times in my own prayer life I've said, God, I want to change, and I want to want to change, and I want to have those desires, and I want to be motivated to do that without you having to break me. Because I know there's just certain things you're not going to do until you're broken. Sorrow. That's what happens when we finally get to the point that we realize, I've blown it. I've made a mess. I can't fix it.

I'm desperate. Until you and I are willing to admit it, until we are willing to admit that we are broken, then we're really not going to repent. I would ask myself this with trembling, and I would ask you this. What is God going to have to break? For us to repent. What would God have to break in your life for you to finally get rid of that sin? What would God have to break? Who would God have to break to get through to you and to get through to me and to get through to us? Mourning.

You notice this last, this is my favorite. You're like well this hasn't been real positive yet preacher. Well can I let you in a little secret? Not all the Bible is positive. We just need to get over that right now. If we're wanting to go somewhere where it's always just positive, always feel good, we're in the wrong, this isn't the place.

Because then we're not going to share the whole truth. There's just going to become some days, you know what, I have found in my life sometimes I need to hear it. I need to be told.

My wife has to tell me. Stop it! Notice verse 13. And rend your heart and not your garments and turn unto the Lord your God. Did you just hear that? Now I feel like I've studied the Bible a lot over the years and I never saw it until this week.

And I'm going to tell you something. This is what God said. All through the Old Testament you'll find anybody in repentance, they would rend their garments. They would take off their clothes, rip their clothes as a sign that they are humbled before God. And God looks to the people and He says this, can I ask a favor for you this time? Instead of going through all the motions of taking off your garments and ripping them and throwing them down, why don't you take your heart this time?

Why don't you change your heart? Instead of just your jacket and instead of just your garment, don't waste your time with that anymore. I've seen you do it. I've watched you go right back. Don't even worry about ridding your garments anymore.

That's just a tradition. Why don't you rend your heart instead? This is surrender. Why don't you just get real? And why don't you just get down to the point that you admitted, God, as much as I want to act like it on the outside and as much as I want to pretend that I am, as much as I actually want to make myself believe that I'm getting closer to you, my heart's not right. It's my heart. God said you're going to have to come to me with sincerity and you're going to have to come to me with sacrifice and you're going to have to come to me with seriousness and you're going to have to come to me with sorrow, but most importantly you're going to have to come to me with surrender. Go through all the motions again and don't put on the show anymore.

Get to your heart. I'm right about this, folks, because that's what the Bible says. Verses 1 to 11 is coming.

Let me tell you something. When that time comes, you're not going to stand up and convince God somehow. Oh God, but I really was right with you. Well God, yeah, but look what I did. Hey, have I not prophesied in thy name and thy name of cast out devils and done many wonderful works?

And then will I profess unto them I never knew you. We're not going to convince God of anything. We're not going to argue our way through this one. Either we surrendered or we didn't. Either we're sincere or we're not.

Either we're serious or we're not. Number three. The time to beg the Lord. The terror of the Lord, the turning to the Lord. We see here the time to beg the Lord.

Let me save you a little bit of time here. It's time. Look at verse 14. Who knoweth if he will return and repent and leave a blessing behind him? God says you need to turn to me and you need to do this. You need to be serious. You need to be broken.

Verse 13, the verse says he is a gracious and merciful, slow to anger of great kindness and repenteth him of the evil. Who knows? What's it going to hurt? Just turn to God. Who knows what he might do?

I love this. Who knows if he might return, repent and in the process leave a blessing behind. We don't deserve that little blessing leaving behind.

We don't deserve it. But I know about you I've turned to God many times from doing wrong and getting repentance and forgiving and saying God I've blown it. I've blown it. I've messed up. I've got no reason. I've got no excuse.

I've just got to humble myself before you. I've done wrong and I don't deserve forgiveness. But just like the prodigal son that came home, I have found that when God returns and repents and forgives me that there's a ring and there's a robe and there's a fatted calf and there's a blessing he leaves behind. Time to beg the Lord.

Look at verse 15. Number one, sound the alarm. Blow the trumpet in Zion. It's time to beg God.

It's time to ask him. So here's what we do. Number one, sound the alarm.

Number two, notice this. Sanctify a fast. Look at verse 15. Blow the trumpet in Zion. Sanctify a fast. Notice number three, call a solemn assembly.

This isn't a fun activity for the family. This isn't a fellowship dinner after church. This is a solemn, a serious assembly. Hey, if you believe verses 1 to 11 is coming, you need to turn to me with sincerity. You need to turn to me with sacrifice. You need to turn to me with seriousness.

You need to turn to me with sorrow and you need to turn to me with surrender. And if you are, call the assembly. Sound the alarm.

Sanctify a fast. Start doing something. Call everybody together.

Now I love this and I just want you to see this before we go this morning. Solemn assembly. Look at verse 16. Gather the people. Sanctify the congregation. Assemble who? Number one, the elders.

Get them together. These would be the leaders. If anybody ought to be getting right with God, it's the leaders.

If anybody ought to take the first move to repent and turn to God and admit it and get serious, it's the leaders. Get the elders. Second, the children.

I love this. Gather the children. He says literally those that are nursing. That means babies. So we have elders. We have children. Then the babies.

Notice this. Let the bridegroom go forth. That's husbands and the bride out of her closet. That's wives. He said gather everybody together. Get the leaders, the elders, the older people. Get the children, the babies, the moms, the dads, the husbands, the wives. This is serious.

That's what I'm trying to do this morning. Trying to get the moms and the dads and the husbands and the wives and the leaders. Why? There's still a group missing from this. Oh, he's got it covered.

Trust me. Look at verse 17. Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord. So we have ministers. What are the ministers supposed to do?

What's so interesting? He says gather these individuals, but he gives instruction to the preachers. Look at verse 17.

I've never seen this either, and this got me really excited. Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord weep between the porch and the altar. What does that mean? Do you know what the porch is?

I found out looking it up. The porch is the foyer of the temple. Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kerwin Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192 or via the web at KerwinBaptistChurch.com. Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you.