Joel 2:12-32 Call a Fast For Holiness

Joel 2:12-32
Theme: Call a Fast for Holiness


We’re currently in a series on the Elements of a Revival. The elements of a revival are the things that come before and during a revival that demonstrate a revival is actually occurring in the church. I believe our church is beginning to experience- at least a hint of it. It’s like the sounds of a distant river that’s rushing towards us. I can hear the sound of a coming flood. But we have yet to experience the full force of what revival can do when it comes.

The first element of a true revival is repentance. And (as I said in the first week) repentance is not an event, it’s a lifestyle. Whereas a lack of repentance is the mark of resistance to the Holy Spirit; repentance is the evidence of a true believer. Without it, it is impossible to be a Christian! Why? Because we have a Holy God and an awareness of His Holiness ought to bring us to the place of grief over sin and a desire for repentance and forgiveness.

The other effect of an awareness of the holiness of God is that the holiness of God ought to result in personal holiness because God’s holiness is an example that cries out to all true believers “imitate me!” If personal holiness is not on your radar screen as a Christian, then you are either at best worldly and at worst, still in your sins and spiritually dead.

I could spend the next 30 minutes arguing about why holiness matters and why it is practical and relevant and a good thing. But instead, I want to let the Word speak because it is far more powerful than my foolish logic and defective reasoning and useless persuading. God’s Word never returns empty.

Take the time now- as I unpack these texts- in the quiet of your spirit and your conscience, bury these words in the good soil of your heart (not upon the shallow soil, nor among the thorns), meditate upon them and God will cause them to increase and bear fruit. Holiness is not optional! From the garden in Genesis to the New Jerusalem in Revelation: the Bible is a call to God’s people to personal holiness:

• Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am the LORD your God (Lev 20:7).

• I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service (Romans 12:1).

• For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (Eph 5:8).

• …as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct (1 Peter 1:15).

• He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still.” (Rev 22:11)

Jesus prayed that the church would be holy: “Sanctify them by Your truth (John 17:17). Do you think God will answer the prayer of His Son? Will God permit us oppose Him from fulfilling His Son’s request for his bride the church?

Jesus suffered the humiliation and violence and an excruciating death on the cross to earn that holiness for his people…
• that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish (Eph 5:27).

• For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: “Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth” (1 Peter 2:21-22).

Without personal holiness, you cannot hope of ever seeing God:
• Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart… (Ps 24:3-4)

• Pursue …holiness, without which no one will see the Lord (Heb 12:14)

This is a fact of eternal importance because as Christians, we have been chosen by God before time began for holiness:

• He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him (Eph 1:4).

• [God] saved us and called us with a holy calling… according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began (1 Tim 1:9).

Let us consider first, what it is that personal holiness is not: personal holiness is not outdated backward moralism; nor is it legalism or a set of rules for the church with all sorts of culture laden prohibitions about things to wear, or eat or look at (i.e. gum and neck ties).

Personal holiness is not a “holier than thou” attitude- that’s an offense to the cross- it’s nauseating to Christ when people behave like self-righteous Pharisees! Arrogant judgmental Pharisaistic self-righteousness in all of its forms is antithetical to true personal holiness. Its another religion!

Holiness is not a list, its not about pointing out other people’s failings to be as holy as myself… holiness is your inner life… an inner life of mortification of sins and delight in the perfections of God and nothing else!

CS Lewis once said, “How little people know who think that holiness is dull. When one meets the real thing, it is irresistible.”

As Christians we have been called into a new life, not a new religious code. If all you got when you were baptized was a new religious philosophy of life and voting rights in a business meeting then according to scripture, you are twice the resident of hell than you were before you ever pretended to be converted.

That’s what personal holiness is not. On the other hand, personal holiness is about being set apart from common use and profane things for the purpose of being wholly devoted to God like the priests who served in the ancient temple and the lambs they were supposed to sacrifice.

Personal holiness has two parts: the first is the being set apart from…. And the second part is the being consecrated for…. To be Holy, we must separate from three things because they keep us from delighting in God’s perfections and mortifying sin in the flesh:
1. The first thing we are separate from is the World. Romans12:2 says, “do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

Coming out of the world means not being conformed to things that mark the world like reliance on self, reliance upon human wisdom and learning over the Word of God, hope in human leaders (like Obama) to solve the world’s problems. Have you seen the way the world has fallen under collective amnesia since Michael Jackson died? I reminded people on Facebook this week that the man slept with little boys and was accused of harming children and one Christian reprimanded me and another removed me from her friendlist. Do you see the way they grieve over a man they never met? I wish they would grieve that way when Christ is slandered. That’s worldly and Christians ought not to behave that way!

The remedy to the disease of conforming to the world is to have your thinking conformed by the Word of God. Take every thought captive! Think on things that are good and pure and true and holy! Meditate upon the Word of God night and day and you will have the piece of God that guards your hearts and minds from all unholiness and vain thinking.

2. Another thing that we are to separate from is Satan. Before our conversion we were not only his slaves, we were in unfettered loyal allegiance with him. And the flesh keeps trying to draw us back to that allegiance by corrupting our thought life and keeping us away from the Word of God. This is spiritual warfare.
Satan is the father of lies and when we fail to separate from our former allegiance to him, we fall under lies and risk shipwrecking our faith.

Jesus said that demon can only come out by prayer and fasting.

Finally we must separate from an unhealthy focus on Self. Let’s face it, we love ourselves too much. We esteem ourselves in sick, sick ways! We are the centre of our universes. Don’t deny it. Who do you think about more, Yourself or God? Whatever your answer is will reveal who it is that you really worship (I suspect its you!). Paul said that when we were baptized we died with Christ. Not only that, but as Christian we are also crucified with him and dead to ourselves so that the life we now live is about him and not us!

Jesus said if anyone wants to follow me he must love himself? No! He must deny himself and take up the shame of his cross and follow Jesus. The direction he leads us is away from self; away from the Satan and away from the world!
17 Therefore
“Come out from among them
And be separate, says the Lord.
Do not touch what is unclean,
And I will receive you.” (2 Cor 6:17)

The other side of holiness, separation’s conjoined twin is purity. When we seek personal holiness we are seeking to be consecrated for God. That means to be made pure.

God will not allow his Holy things to be handled by the profane things of this world. Remember when Uzzah put out his hand to touch the ark because the ox stumbled? He dropped dead on the spot because he believed that he could handle a holy thing of God with sinful hands. How much more the holy thing when it is a soul that has been bought and purified by the blood of Christ when it is handled with impurity?

When you sing that great hymn, “Take My Life” do you really mean it? Can you honestly sing to the Lord:
Take my life, and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee;
Take my moments and my days,
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.

Take my hands, and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love;
Take my feet, and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee.

Take my voice, and let me sing
Always, only, for my King;
Take my lips, and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee.

Take my silver and my gold:
Not a mite would I withhold;
Take my intellect, and use
Ev’ry pow’r as Thou shalt choose.

Take my will, and make it Thine:
It shall be no longer mine;
Take my heart it is Thine own:
It shall be Thy royal throne.

Take my love, my Lord, I pour
At Thy feet its treasure store;
Take myself and I will be
Ever, only, all for Thee!

That’s Holiness! Do you mean it?
The Ermine
In the forests of northern Europe and Asia lives little animal called the ermine, known for his snow-white fur in winter. He instinctively protects his white coat against anything that would soil it.
Fur hunters take advantage of this unusual trait of the ermine. They don’t set a snare to catch him, but instead they find his home, which is usually a cleft in a rock or a hollow in an old tree. They smear the entrance and interior with grime. Then the hunters set their dogs loose to find and chase the ermine. The frightened animal flees toward home but doesn’t enter because of the filth. Rather than soil his white coat, he is trapped by the dogs and captured while preserving his purity. For the ermine, purity is more precious than life. - HGB
Our Daily Bread, April 21, 1997

Before I tie this in to this week’s fast, let me leave you with this last warning:
Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; 2 for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. 7 For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. 8 Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit. (1 Thess 4:1-8)


Now let’s talk about this week’s fast:

My hope is that this call to holiness will bring about the conviction that a time somber prayer and fasting is required to help us extricate ourselves from our allegiance to Sin, Satan and the World. I am also hopeful that this will be a time of consecrating ourselves to the Lord in anticipation of the great work He is about to do in our midst.

See brochure…
28 “And it shall come to pass afterward
That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your old men shall dream dreams,
Your young men shall see visions.
29 And also on My menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days.
30 “And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth:
Blood and fire and pillars of smoke.
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD.
32 And it shall come to pass
That whoever calls on the name of the LORD
Shall be saved.
For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance,
As the LORD has said,
Among the remnant whom the LORD calls.

Benediction:
11 Now may our God and Father Himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct your way 12 And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you, 13 so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.(1 Thess 3:11-13)