That, of course, is what the Lord told Moses in Egypt when that Passover lamb was to be slain. And the Lord told Moses to put the blood of the lamb on the doorpost on the lentil of each door. What a picture of the cross. And that the death angel would come through that night. The only thing the Israelites had to do was stay behind that blood. Stay behind the blood. The Lord didn't say, when I see your good intentions, when I see your faith, when I see anything, when I see the blood. Pray that the Lord will enable us to trust what Christ did for the putting away of our sins. And not just to look back at what he did at the cross, but to, as Paul tells us in Colossians, set our affections on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. We have a reigning savior now who sat down, his work was finished, and he has taken his rightful place at the right hand of the majesty on high. And he ever lives in heaven, making intercession for us, presenting himself before his heavenly father for all of our righteousness. Our righteousness is not, you know, it's not found in our experiences or in our feelings or even in our faith. Our righteousness is in heaven. And as long as he's interceding on our behalf, we have the righteousness of God, perfect in Christ, saved in him. What a hope. Not only do we look back to the cross and look up to where he is, but so much of the Bible is given to us in order for us to anticipate his coming again. And that's what I want us to try to consider this morning. The second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The scripture tells us that he is coming for those who are waiting and watching. And the Lord uses his word to to put in our hearts the hopeful anticipation of his imminent return so that we can have what Moses longed for. After Moses left Egypt and went to Mount Sinai, Moses said, Lord, I want to see your glory. What did Moses mean by that? I want to see your face. Because the Lord responded to him by saying, no man can see my face and live. The Lord provided a hiding place for Moses and that's where we are now. We are in our hiding place. But like Moses, we are anticipating, we are anticipating the sight of his glory. We look through glass darkly now. We see in part now, but then we'll see him as he is. We'll see his face, the glory of his face. That's our hope. And that's what Joel writes about. If you'll turn with me to the book of Joel, towards the end of your Old Testament, I've titled this message, The Great and Terrible Day of the Lord. Joel is prophesying of the second coming of Christ. And it's going to be a great day for God's elect who are found in Christ and caught up to be with him in heaven. And so the Bible says, shall we ever be with the Lord? And I believe that's what the Lord means here in the book of Joel when he refers to this as the great and terrible day of the Lord, because as great as it's going to be for all of God's elect who are found in Christ waiting for his coming, it will be equally terrible. for everyone else. So this is a message of comfort, and it's a message of warning. A message of comfort to those who are looking and waiting. And as we just sang in that hymn, hoping. Notice in Joel chapter three, At verse 16, the Lord also shall roar out of Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake. But the Lord, the Lord himself, will be the hope of his people. The Lord told Abraham, I am thy shield. I will protect you. And I am thine exceeding great reward. I am your reward in heaven. Those who talk about varying of rewards in heaven, they fail to understand that you can't get a reward any better than the Lord Jesus himself. And he is every believer's reward. And so Joel tells us here that the Lord himself will be the hope of his people. Now in the Bible, when the word hope is used, it's not used in the way in which we use the word hope. We oftentimes use the word hope to refer to things that may or may not come to pass. We hope for this or we hope for that. And most often our hopes end in disappointment. We hope that it will happen or we hope that it won't happen. The Bible speaks of a hope that will not disappoint. This hope, when the Bible speaks of hope, it's talking about a confident expectation. Matter of fact, this word hope is often translated trust. We are trusting, we are resting, we are putting our hope. It speaks of the hope of the gospel, the hope of the gospel. The Bible speaks of Christ being in us, the hope of glory. What is the hope of glory? Christ is the hope of glory. To see his face, to see his glory, to no longer look through a glass darkly, to no longer have to separate the holiness of God from the sinfulness of our own flesh, but to have a glorified, sinless body and to see him as he is and to be made like him. In the book of Hebrews, the scripture says that Christ is a better hope than the law. There's no hope in the law. The law can only condemn us. The law judges us guilty. Speaks of the Lord Jesus, which hope we have as the anchor of our soul. Which hope we have as the anchor of our soul. Oh, what hope that anchor is firmly planted in heaven. And one day, the Lord's gonna draw, you know, oftentimes in the Bible, the church is pictured as a sailing vessel, a ship. And think about all the little ships and the fellowship that we have in the gospel. And one day, the Lord's going to take those whose anchor is firmly planted in heaven. That's where our anchor is. Our anchor is in heavenly places and all the blessings of God are in Christ in heavenly places. I want to have a greater anticipation of his coming. I want to be to be less attached and attracted to the things of this world and to have more of an affection of seeing him. The Bible tells us to gird up the loins of our minds and be sober and hope to the end. It is hope that keeps us trusting and waiting and believing that the promises that he made, he's going to keep. just as the promises that he made to come the first time and redeem his people he kept. So much of the Old Testament speaks of the one who is coming. The Old Testament prophets pointed to Christ. And we read in the book of Hebrews that those prophets who spoke of the one that was to come that he has now come. And the gospel accounts, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, reveal the Lord Jesus as the one who is here. So in the Old Testament, we could say, look who's coming. In the gospel accounts, we could say, look who's here. And in so much of the New Testament, right up to the very last word, Turn with me to the last chapter of the book of Revelation. I want you to see how God ends his word. Revelation chapter 22. And look at verse 20. He which testifieth these things. John was giving testimony of the promises of God. And so much of the book of Revelation speaks of his second coming. He which testifieth these things saith. Here's what John says in response to the revelation that God has given. Surely I come quickly. And John says, amen. Even so Lord Jesus come, come Lord Jesus. Oh, oftentimes we long for his coming. to be delivered from the trials and troubles of this sinful world and of this sinful flesh. But what a blessing it is when the spirit of God enables us to set our affections on him and long for his coming, not just to be delivered from this sinful flesh and this sinful world, but to to see the one that we've been hoping for. and to be made like him. Child of God, we ought to live our lives in anticipation of our Lord's coming. Having the full assurance of hope until the end. It's called a blessed hope. This hope is a blessing that's given to us from God. And the scripture says, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our hope? Who is our hope? How much of this world we would be delivered from, the fears, all the things that we waste so much time on, the enticements of this world, if we could only have our hearts drawn more in hope of his coming. Much, much of God's word has been given to us in order to excite our hearts to that day. The gospel of the book of Joel is no different, is no different. In the first chapter of Joel, there is a description, a very graphic description of our lost condition and our need for redemption. and our inability to save ourselves. That's Joel chapter 1. Let's just read a couple of verses in Joel chapter 1 that summarizes that truth. Joel chapter 1 verse 16. Is not the meat cut off before our eyes? Yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God. The seed is rotten under their clods. The garners are laid desolate. The barns are broken down for the corn is withered. How do the beast groan? The herds of cattle are perplexed because they have no pasture. Yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate. We read in Revelation and Romans chapter eight, how that all of creation groaneth in anticipation of the coming of Christ. We groan within us to be delivered from this condition of sinfulness. And then in chapter two, we have the declaration of the gospel and how the Lord Jesus Christ came and accomplished the redemption of his people and how the Lord calls us now to believe on Christ and to repent, to have our minds changed. And we summarize that in verses 12 and 13 of chapter two. Therefore also now saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all of your heart. and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning, and rend your heart and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful. He is slow to anger and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil." The evil of eternal wrath and judgment. is changed by the accomplished work of Christ in putting away the sins of his people. And that glorious declaration of the gospel is made clear in chapter 2. But also twice in chapter 2, as the Lord is calling on his people to repent and to believe, He at the same time comforts them and warns them of that great and terrible day of the Lord. Look at verse 11 in chapter two. And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army, for his camp is very great, for he is strong. that executeth his word. For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible. Who can abide it? The Lord's promising that that day of deliverance and that day of final judgment is on God's calendar. It is coming. There's no question It will come just as sure as the Lord Jesus fulfilled the promises of redeeming us. It will come just as sure as the Lord fulfills his promise in regenerating us. Look at verse 21 of chapter two. Fear not, O land, be glad and rejoice, for the Lord will do great things. Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength. And look at verse 31. For the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood. There'll be no more preaching of the gospel. There'll be no more. The moon in the Bible is a picture of the church. The church reflects the light of the sun. It doesn't, it's not the light. We looked at this in the first hour. I am the light. We're not the light. John said, I'm not the light. He's the light, but we reflect the light. How do we reflect the light? By preaching Christ, preaching the gospel, comforting and warning men. And so the church is gonna, in this day of the second coming of Christ, there'll be no more sun shining and there'll be no more moon. The sun should be turned to darkness, the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call." Here's our hope. The Lord's going to deliver his people from this great and terrible day of judgment. We think about our salvation and believers don't look back to an experience in time and hang all the hopes of their salvation on that. God gives a person an experience in their regeneration, like he did Saul of Tarsus, who was arrested on the road to Damascus. I find most believers don't have that sort of experience. It's hard to pinpoint a moment in time when we were regenerated, but we know because we now believe the gospel, that there was a time when we heard the gospel as the gospel, and we believed. And the evidence of that is that we're believing right now. The evidence that we've been regenerated is that we would not believe now if there wasn't a time when the Spirit of God opened the eyes of our understanding, gave us faith, and caused us to believe. When exactly that happened, I'm not sure. But our salvation is not just in that moment. Our salvation occurred before that, 2,000 years before that, when the Lord Jesus hung on Calvary's cross and shed his precious blood as a covering for our sins. And he cried, it is finished. Father into thy hands, I commend my spirit. And he justified his people right then and there. Everything that God required for the salvation of his elect people, the Lord Jesus accomplished 2000 years ago at Calvary's cross. The proof of that is his resurrection. And so he was offered up for our offenses and raised again for our justification. We look back even before that to the covenant of grace, when God, according to his own will and purpose, chose a people, an elect people, and put them in Christ. And he's loved those elect people with an everlasting love. There's never been a time when God has not seen His people outside of Christ. He's loved them perfectly in Christ. And in the eyes and sight of God, they've always been saved in that covenant. That covenant had to be ratified at the cross. It had to be experienced in regeneration. It is being experienced every day as we are brought by the Spirit of God to see our need for a Savior, for the Lord Jesus. And so we are coming to Him continually and constantly. You see, we have been saved. We are being saved. And here's the point that I wanna make. We shall be saved. we shall be saved. There is another part of our salvation that we have not yet experienced. And that's what Joel is writing about. That great and terrible day of the Lord, when the Lord, well, the Bible says that the trump of God will sound, the dead in Christ will be raised, Those of us which are alive, we caught up together with them in the air to meet the Lord, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Joel's writing about that many, many years before it was to happen. I remember back in free will religion hearing a couple of messages preached from Joel chapter three. And the preachers became very animated about making a decision. And that is a misinterpretation of what we're going to read in the book of Joel. I'm Joel chapter three. Salvation is not a decision. A decision means that you have two or more options. And given two or more options, you will always choose against Christ. We have to be shut up to Christ. We have to have no place else to go. Faith is not our contribution to being saved. Faith is the confession that we have nothing to contribute in our salvation. Faith is believing on the Lord Jesus Christ for all of our salvation, having no place else to go. That's what faith is. It's not the cause of our salvation, it's the proof of it. It's the proof of life, not the cause of life. But men will take what we're about to read in Joel chapter three and say, you need to make a decision. And that is exactly the opposite of what's being said here. Let's read it together. For behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, God's people are scattered throughout all the world. In every tribe, in every language, in every nation, and among all people, God has an elect. And they're usually in very small groups of people here and there. And there's going to come a day when God's going to gather them all together. And I will also gather all nations, and I will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat. Now, Jehoshaphat was the king of Judah. He reigned for about 25 years. His father was King Asa. He was a good king. And he destroyed the idols that the children of Israel were worshiping when he was king. And the Valley of Jehoshaphat is the Kidron Valley. That's where he destroyed these idols. He took them down to that place and he destroyed them there. Jehoshaphat's name, you see Jehovah in his name, don't you? Jehoshaphat's name translated means Jehovah has judged. Jehovah has judged. That's what his name means. And so the Lord is looking back to this reign of King Jehoshaphat and he's saying that I'm gonna bring all the idol worshipers together just like Jehoshaphat did. And I'm gonna execute the justice of God against all false prophets and false gospels and false Christ. This is a message of Judgment, this is the sharp sickle that God's gonna bring when he sends his angels to gather his wheat and bring it into the barn and separate the wheat from the chaff. This whole chapter is about that. That's why I say this is a message of comfort to those who are looking to Christ and it is a comforted message of great warning to those who are not. Because in this day, God's not going to be pleading with men to believe. And that's how this verse has been interpreted. Look, let's read it together. I will also gather all nations and I will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat and will judge them. That's the word plead. You look it up. God's not begging men to let him have his way. God's not begging men to believe on him. God's not giving men a decision to make. He's executing his judgment against this world. I will bring judgment with them, therefore my people. We read this all throughout the book of Revelation. For the blood of the saints of God, the unbeliever is going to be judged. This is the judgment of God against all unbelief. I will judge them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations and parted my land. Because of their hatred for Christ, their hatred for God's people, their hatred for the gospel, This is the day of retribution. And they, speaking of those whom God's going to judge, they have cast lots for my people, they have given a boy for a harlot and sold a girl for wine that they might drink. Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre and Zidon and all the coast of Palestine? Will ye render me a recompense? In this day of God's judgment, are you going to offer God something to make up for your sin? No, there is no recompense. The only recompense for sin is the blood of Christ. And these are those who refused the gospel. Will you render me a recompense? And if you recompense me swiftly and speedily, will I return your recompense upon your own head? Whatever you offer me, you offer me your works and your will for your salvation, it's only going to add to your judgment. because you have taken my silver and my gold and carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things. You remember when the king of Babylon took the silver and the gold from the treasury that had come out of the temple of God and used them in the participation of his own false religion? That's when God executed judgment. What the Lord's talking about here is all the false gospels that use the name of God and use the word of God to support a free will works gospel. And the Lord's warning them, you've taken my pleasant things and you've used them in your own religion to support your own works. and to deny Christ his glory in salvation. The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have you sold into the Grecians that you might remove them far from their border. Behold, I will raise them out of the place where you have sold them, and I will return your recompense upon your own head. "'And I will sell your sons and your daughters "'into the hands of the children of Judah, "'and they shall sell them to the Sabeans "'and to people far off, for the Lord hath spoken it.'" That God has spoken it is gonna happen. When God returns to bring judgment into this world, he's going to return not only with a multitude of angels, but with his saints to execute judgment and justice in this world. And all the Lord's warning, all those that would pass judgment against the gospel and against Christ and against his people are going to be recompensed. Verse nine, proclaim ye this among the Gentiles, prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near, let them come up Now in Isaiah chapter two, when the Lord is telling those who are in rebellion against God, those who raise the weapons of their warfare against God in rebellion against Him, He says to take your sword and take your spear and beat them into plowshares and into pruning forks. In other words, those who are by nature at enmity with God, those who are by nature who would raise their fist against God and say, I will not have that man reign over me, when they experience the grace of God and are given faith, all the weapons of their warfare are laid down and now they become farmers. Now they're no longer in rebellion against God. Now they are scattering the seeds of the gospel. They are participating in the harvest of God's people. Beat your swords into plowshares and your spears into pruning forks. Here, look at this verse. beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning forks into spears, and let the weak say, I am strong." Brethren, this is a prophecy of the second coming of Christ. When God's people are no longer going to be participating in a harvest, the moon's going to be darkened, the sun's going to give out its light, God's going to gather the nations in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and He's going to exercise judgment against them, and He's going to call upon all of His people to join Him. Those who are weak are now going to be made strong. Those who have been using their plowshares and their pruning forks are now going to have them turned back into spears and swords to rejoice. to rejoice in the execution of God's judgment. Why? Because in the execution of God's judgment, their Lord is finally being glorified in the eyes of all men. The whole creation and the whole world is seeing what we see by the eye of faith now. We see Him. We see where He is. We see who He is. We understand that He is the God of glory. But He's still waiting. He came the first time as a suffering servant. He's not going to come again that way. This is exactly what this prophecy is about. Joel starts out by telling us what sinners we are. He tells us what the hope of salvation in the work of Christ is. And now a message of great comfort and great hope for the believer in knowing that there's a day coming soon when our Lord is going to be glorified before all men. Assemble yourselves, look at verse 11. Assemble yourselves and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about. Fither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord. Let the heathen be wakened and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat. Jehovah has judged. That's the valley of Jehoshaphat. For there will I sit to judge all the heathen roundabout. Put ye in the sickle for the harvest is ripe. Come get you down for the press is full. The fats overflow for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision. Now this is the verse that the free willers love. I've seen free will preachers become apoplectic about this verse. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision. You need to make a decision. Look up the word decision. God's written his word in such a way as to give the unbeliever enough rope to hang himself. The scripture says, because men had no love for the truth, 2 Thessalonians 2, because they have no love for the truth, therefore God sent them a strong delusion that they should believe the lie. The lie is free will. The lie is a works gospel. And men who have no love for Christ, where do they get that lie from? What is the means that God uses to send men that lie? Right there. Men will stand up and they'll use, they'll take verses of God's word out of context. You read the whole context of Joel chapter 3. It's a message of God's justice and judgment and separating the wheat from the chaff in the valley of Jehoshaphat. There's nothing about a decision being made there. You don't, what are you gonna bring? You're gonna bring your decision as a recompense? That recompense is gonna be placed right back on you. The word here is concision. It's a sharp sickle of judgment. Multitudes, yes, multitudes are gonna be in the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And God is saying, by way of warning, and only the elect will heed this warning, Only one of God's lost sheep will hear this and believe it and flee to Christ to be saved. The unbeliever will say, yeah, they've been talking about the second coming of Christ for 2,000 years. Where is his coming? God is not slack in his promises. A day is as of 1,000 years and 1,000 years as of a day. It's what Peter tells us. The scripture tells us that the coming of Christ is at hand. It is at hand. It's near. It's near. The unbeliever is not moved by that. The reprobate will be one of these multitudes in the valley of concision and will experience the sharp sickle of God's justice in the valley of Jehoshaphat. Jehovah has judged. The believer, the elect of God, will rejoice that the Lord has delivered them from this great and terrible day of the Lord, a day that is great for God's elect, a day that is terrible for the reprobate. This is not an isolated scripture. We don't have time this morning to look up all the passages of scripture referring to the second coming of Christ, but the Lord is speaking a word of comfort to us, brethren. We're gonna be given a sinless body. We're gonna see him as he is. We're gonna be made like him. We're gonna see his face. Verse 14. multitudes multitudes in the valley of concision for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision not man's decision God's decision this day of reckoning is set it's on God's calendar it is sure How many times we read that they tried to take the Lord Jesus, but his time was not yet come. He was in control of that. He's in control of this too. The day or the hour, I don't know. The Lord has revealed the time of his second coming in such a way to give every generation of believers reason to hope that it will be in their lifetime. And no generation of believers have had more hope than we have, more reason to hope than we have. It's nearer now than it's ever been before. Peter says this, this is kind of encouraging to me. He said, when men say peace and safety, then sudden destruction shall come. What are we hearing in the world today? Oh, all these words are stopping. I tell you what, brethren, let us hope. Let us hope. This might be it. I'm not making a prediction as to when the Lord comes, but oh, might we live every day believing and hoping that today could be the day. Verse 16, I'm sorry, verse 15. The sun and the moon shall be darkened. The stars shall withdraw their shining. The Lord also shall roar out of Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem. The heavens and the earth shall shake, but the Lord will be the hope of his people. The Lord will be their hope. He will be our exceeding great reward. And the strength of the children of Israel. He will be our strength. No longer will we experience the weakness of our flesh and the weakness of our sin nature. No longer. No, we'll be fully in Him as our reward and as our strength. So shall you know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain. Then shall Jerusalem be holy and there shall no stranger pass through her anymore. Right now, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ has strangers passing through it. Right now, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is made up of wheat and tares. In that day, Everybody with him will be perfectly holy. No sin. Therein resides righteousness. And that's all that's there. And it shall, verse 18, it shall come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Sherom. Oh, the valley. This is the river that John speaks about in the book of Revelation that flows clear as crystal from the Lamb and from the throne of God and the whole city of God. Egypt shall be a desolation and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness for the violence against the children of Israel because they have shed innocent blood in their land. But Judah, Judah, shall dwell forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed. For the Lord dwelleth in Zion." The Lord dwelleth in Zion. The great and terrible day of the Lord. no greater day for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. We often say of our loved ones who depart this world and go to be with the Lord, as much as we grieve over their loss, we can say with confidence, best day of their life. Best day of their life. This would be the best day of our life. But it'll be a terrible day in the valley of Jehoshaphat. May God give us hope, hope in Christ. All right. Tom, let's see. Inside the cover of the Bible, I'm longing to see. OK. The inside covenant of your spiral hymnal.