Joel chapter 2. The title of
the lesson this morning is the Lord will do great things. And
we don't know very much. We don't know anything really
about the Prophet Joel. We don't know who his parents
were. We don't have his his pedigree. We don't know where Joel lived
or where he prophesied. But we have recorded in these
three chapters the message that the Lord gave to the Prophet
Joel. And the message of Joel is that God is always working
His will in our day. Now, there is a phrase, the day
of the Lord, appears five times in these three chapters. Now,
Joel, when he uses this phrase, the day of the Lord, he doesn't
mean an individual day. He means any day, any day in
which the Lord displays His sovereignty in all things. There was the
day of the Lord in creation, when He sovereignly, by His sovereign
will and power, created everything spoken into existence. There's
the day of the Lord in providence, where the Lord overrules everything
happening in His creation, bringing to pass His will that was determined
before He created anything. There's the day of the Lord in
salvation, the day when the sacrifice died to purchase the salvation
of His people. There's the day of the Lord and
salvation when he reveals himself to his people. And there is coming
a day of judgment, the day of the Lord and judgment when he
will judge the world in absolute authority. And there is a day,
the day of the Lord, when he does great things for his people. Look in Joel chapter two, verse
21. Fear not, O land, be glad and
rejoice. For the Lord will do great things. Now, I want you to turn back
to 1 Samuel chapter 12. The day of the Lord, when the
Lord will do great things. There was the day when the Father
elected a people. In 1 Samuel chapter 12, we see
this phrase, great things, repeated several times in scripture. 1
Samuel 12, verse 24. Samuel says, only fear the Lord
and serve him in truth with all your heart, for consider how
great things he hath done for you. Now, what great things is
Samuel talking about here? Well, if you look back in chapter
12, verse 22, he tells us, he's speaking of the day when the
father elected the people. For the Lord will not forsake
his people for his great namesake, because it has pleased the Lord
to make you his people. That was a great thing that the
Lord did when he elected a people. Now look at 2 Samuel 7. There was the day that God promised
a Savior who would reign forever. This was a great thing that the
Lord did for his people. 2 Samuel 7 verse 21. This is David praying before
the Lord, and he says, for thy word's sake, according to thine
own heart, hast thou done all these great things to make thy
servant know them. Now, what's David speaking of
primarily there? Well, he's talking about the
Savior who would come. Look back at verse 12. And when
thy days be fulfilled and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers,
I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out
of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a
house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom
forever. Now, this is talking about Solomon,
but not really, not primarily, is it? This is speaking of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He would come as the son of David.
The son of God is gonna become the son of David, and he'll reign
forever. What a great thing the Lord has
done for his people. Then there was a day that the
Lord actually redeemed his people from their sins. The Savior who
will reign forever is going to accomplish a great redemption
for his people. If you're still there in 2 Samuel
7, look at verse 23. And what one nation in the earth
is like thy people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem
for a people to himself and to make him a name and to do for
you great things and terrible for thy land before thy people,
which thou redeemest to thee from Egypt, from the nations
and from their gods. There was the day that God redeemed
his people through the sacrifice of his son. Then one more look
at Psalm 71. There is the day of the Lord
when he makes his people righteous. What a great thing he's done
for his people to make them righteous. In Psalm 71 verse 19, Thy righteousness also, O God,
is very high. Who has done great things? O
God, who is like unto thee? Now, what great things is he
talking about there? Well, look back up at verse 15.
He's talking about Christ, our righteousness. David says, my
mouth shall show forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day.
For I know not the numbers thereof. I will go in the strength of
the Lord. I'll make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine
only. And you know, every believer
can tell these great things that the Lord's done for us. Now,
all of us aren't preachers. All of us don't have that gift,
but you know, we, every believer is like that gathering. Remember
that gathering was dwelling in the tombs. He had that legion
of evil spirits in him and the Lord cast out that legion. And
once that man was in his right mind, what'd he want to do? He
wanted to go with the Lord. People wanted the Lord to leave
and the Lord said, all right, he's leaving. And that man says,
let me go with you. And what did the Lord tell him?
No, you don't go with me. You go home to your friends and
you tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, how
he's had compassion on you. Every believer can tell that
story, can't they? What great things the Lord has
done for us. And that's what's pictured in
our text. Look back at Joel. We're gonna look first in chapter
one. What great things has the Lord done for his people? First
of all, he's restored everything we lost in Adam. And this is
pictured here in Joel chapter one, look at verse four. That
which the palmy worm hath left, hath the locust eaten. And that
which the locust hath left, hath the canker worm eaten. And that
which the canker worm hath left, hath the caterpillar eaten. Everything's
destroyed. Look at verse 7. He hath laid
my fine waste and barked my fig tree. He hath made it clean bare
and cast it away. The branches thereof are made
white. And then look at verse 10. The
field is wasted, the land mourneth, for the corn is wasted. The new
wine is dried up, the oil languishing. Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen,
howl, O ye fine dressers, for the weeds and for the barley,
because the harvest of the field is perished, the vine is dried
up, the fig tree languished, the pomegranate tree, the palm
tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field
are withered, because joy is withered away from the sons of
men. Now this is a picture of what
happened to mankind when Adam sinned. When Adam sinned, he
lost life. Spiritual death came on all men,
just like a plague of locusts. Now I've seen pictures, I've
never seen it, but I've seen pictures of great swarms of locusts
just being blown by the wind and coming after the crops. I
mean, there's so many of them, they're so thick, they just blot
out the sky. And when they landed, they ate
everything in sight. I mean everything. They got into
everything. You couldn't keep them out. You
couldn't drive them away. And they didn't leave until there's
nothing left. Just everything green is gone. A farmer, you just imagine this
farmer out there breaking his back to plant this field and
get this harvest and it's about ready and in a matter of hours
the crop is gone. I mean, his family's going to
starve to death if they're dependent on that crop because it's gone. That's what sin has done to you
and me. Sin came like a thick cloud and
it's destroyed everything in its path. It's left us dead with
no life, with nothing to sustain life. Everything that had any
life in it is gone. We're dead. Sin's like the canker
worm and the caterpillar. burrow in there silently and
just eat and eat and eat till everything's gone. That's what
happened to us in Adam. We lost all life. But the Lord
promises to do great things for his people. He's going to send
his son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to restore everything that was
lost in Adam. Look back at chapter two. The
Lord's going to give life in Christ where there was death
in Adam. In verse 22, Be not afraid, you 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.
Now back in chapter one, you can read this this afternoon
if you want, but all the animals, they were groaning and crying
because there's nothing in the field for them to eat. They're
starving to death. But now the Lord's restored life. The fields
are producing again. There's plenty of them for the
animals to graze and eat on. Well, how did he do that? How
did the Lord restore life to those fields? Well, by sending
the rain. By sending the rain, which is
a picture of the water of life, the Holy Spirit giving life.
Look at verse 23. Be glad then, you children of
Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for he hath given you
the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for
you the rain, the former rain and the latter rain, in the first
month. Now rain is going to come in
just the right amounts, at just the right time to give life back
to the fields there in this area. Now in this area of the world,
their planting cycle is different than ours. They plant the seed
in the fall. And right after they plant, they
get the former rain. And the former rain is a moderate
rain, a gentle rain. Just little bits come, you know,
at a time. And the former rain gently waters
the earth. It gently waters those plants,
those seeds that have been planted. It has to be a moderate rain.
If it's a hard rain, just a big old gully washer, it's going
to wash the seeds away. So this is a moderate rain to
begin to give life to those seeds. And the picture here is the Lord
sending His servant to sow the seed. Wayne, that's what you
prayed in your prayer for our children, that the Lord would
sow that seed. And then the Lord waters that seed with just the
right amount of water. Here a little, here a little,
here a little. Gently, moderately watering that
seed. Doesn't come so much all at one
time that the seed's washed away. Just enough to gently water that
seed to give it life. And then right before the harvest,
they'd get the latter rain. Now the latter rain was a large
rainfall. But by the time this large rainfall
came, the plants were able to handle it. They've gotten roots
grown down in the ground. They're grown up and they're
stronger. And right when they are almost ready to harvest,
they get this latter rain, a heavy rain that would fatten all the
crops up and give them a juicy, fruitful harvest. And that's
exactly how the Lord strengthens his people. He gives them more
and more and more as they can handle. He gives them more and
more and more of the gospel. And it is the gospel that comes.
the gospel of Christ that makes his people fruitful. Now this
form of rain, it's a moderate rain. And that has to do, you
see that in your center reference there, it has to do with according
to righteousness. Christ our Savior was sent in
righteousness. That moderate rain has come to
make his people righteous and have life in him. We lost righteousness
in Adam. We lost life in Adam. But righteousness
is eternally restored. Life is eternally restored in
Christ. In Adam, we've got nothing but
death. I mean, there's no hope for anything
but death. But you know, in Christ, there's going to be a large harvest
of souls. Look at verse 24 of chapter 2.
And the floor shall be full of wheat, and the fat shall overflow
with wine and oil. And I will restore to you the
years that the locust hath eaten, the canker worm and the caterpillar
and the palmer worm, my great army, which I sent among you.
And ye shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name
of the Lord your God, which hath dealt wondrously with you. And
my people shall never be ashamed. And ye shall know that I am in
the midst of Israel and that I am the Lord your God and none
else. My people shall never be ashamed.
Now in Adam, that's all there is a shame. There's the shame
of our sin. There's the shame of our nakedness.
There's the shame of death. It's all what we read about there
in chapter one. But in Christ, there's no shame.
There's no shame because Christ our Savior bore the shame of
his people away. He bore the shame of our sin
away, put it away under his blood. He bore the shame of our nakedness
away and clothes us in his righteousness. He bore the shame of death away
by dying in our place and giving His people His life. See, there's
no satisfaction in Adam. There's nothing good in Adam.
All you'll find in Adam is disappointment. So you come to Christ. You come
to Christ and your soul will be satisfied with this rich,
full harvest. You come to Christ. You have
a feast of the love of God for sinners in His Son. You come
to Christ, you'll have a feast of Christ our righteousness.
We have none. You come to him and you'll feast
on him. You come to Christ and you will enjoy a feast of the
forgiveness of sin. All we have in Adam is condemnation
of our sin. You come to Christ, you have
a feast of the forgiveness of sin in his blood. You come to
Christ, you'll have a feast of cleansing in his blood. In Adam,
all we have is the filth of sin. You come to Christ, you have
a feast of cleansing. Have you ever worked all day
in something hot and dirty and at the end of the day, you know,
the job's done, you're dirty and you're tired and you're sweaty
and you go take a shower. Doesn't that feel good? You come to Christ. to be cleansed
of the filth and the iniquity of your sin. Nothing feels better
to a sinner than cleansing in his blood. You come to Christ
and you have a feast of his keeping power. In ourselves, all we have
is failure, falling, falling away. You come to Christ, you
have a feast of his keeping power. He'll keep you. Oh, what great
things. The Lord Jesus Christ has done
for his people. He's restored everything we lost
in Adam. Secondly, what great things has
the Lord done for his people? He's restored the way back to
God. Now in chapter one, look back
here in chapter one. The reason for all this great
sorrow is the locusts took away the sacrifice. The locusts took
away the meat offering and the drink offering. Now the meat
offering and the drink offering, they were thank offerings. They
were offered after the burnt offering was offered, after once
sin had been put away, then they offered the meat offering and
the drink offering. It was a thank offering, sin
had been put away. But the Lord sent the locust
and he took away the offering. The offering's gone, there's
no way back to God. See that in verse nine of chapter
one? The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from
the house of the Lord. The priest, the Lord's ministers,
mourn. In verse 13, he says, gird yourselves
and lament, ye priests. Howl, ye ministers of the altar.
Come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God. Why? For the meat offering and the
drink offering is withholding from the house of your God. This
we know about sacrifice. God cannot be worshiped where
there is no sacrifice. And he sent the locusts and took
the sacrifice away. So the worship of God has been
taken away from Israel. That's why the people mourn so
much. And that is exactly what Adam did to you and me when he
sinned. Adam had fellowship with God, didn't he? As long as Adam
did not eat that fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil, Lord commanded him not to eat it. As long as Adam
didn't eat it, he had fellowship with God. But the moment Adam
took that fruit in rebellion against God, Adam lost the way
to God. He lost fellowship with God.
And that separation between God and Adam, that was a two-way
street. Now, yes, not only did God not,
being holy, not allow the sinner back into his sight, Adam didn't
want to come into the presence of God. Not anymore, he didn't.
Where was Adam when God came walking in the garden in the
cool of the day? hiding in the bushes. He didn't want to be
in the presence of God either. That separation is a two-way
street. Now that causes mourning. I'm
separated from God. My sin has separated me from
God. We ought to mourn that a whole
lot more than we do. But is there a way? Is there a way a sinner
like me can come back to God and be accepted in worship? Is
there a way? Well, not in any way we can produce. You know, if we tried to plant
crops and produce these things and get the meat offering, the
locust would just destroy it. Man can't produce the way to
be accepted of God, to come back into his presence So God himself
made the way. The one who was offended, the
one who was sinned against, he made the way for his people to
come back to him. And the way a sinner comes back
to God is through the sacrifice, but not the sacrifice of animals,
not the meat offering. You know, they took flour and
oil and some different things and mixed in with the offering.
It's not in the sacrifice of animals. It's not coming up with
the meal and the oil and the wine and all these things. The
sacrifice that brings a sinner back to the father is the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look back in chapter two. This
is what he speaks of in verse 30. And I will show wonders in
the heaven and in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of
smoke. The sons will be turned into
darkness and the moon into blood before the great and terrible
day of the Lord come. Now this, verse is a prophecy
of the day that Christ would be crucified. This day of the
Lord, the day in which Christ was sacrificed as the sin offering
for his people. That was a day of wonders, wasn't
it? Everything about that day is a wonder to us. We can't understand
it. We can't comprehend it. If God
gives us faith, we can believe it. We can rejoice in it and
rest in it, but it's a day of wonders. We can't understand
that. On that day, The son refused to shine. God made him, the father
made his son to be sin for his people and punished him in absolute
darkness. Three hours of darkness covered
the earth. It was a terrible day of blood.
This is the day the blood of God's son was shed. His back
was beaten. His hands and his feet were pierced
and blood flowed out. This was a bloody day. His visage
was marred more than any man. He didn't even look like a man. Because this day showed man's
hatred of God. And it showed God's hatred of
sin. What a bloody horrible day. A day of fire and smoke. The
fire of the wrath of a holy God was poured out on Christ our
substitute. God's judgment against sin is
a terrible sight, a bloody, dark, smoke-filled sight. But in that
sacrifice, the justice of God is satisfied, and God's people
return through that sacrifice in worship, and they're accepted.
The great day of the Lord, the great thing he's done for his
people is he has restored the way to God. And you know, that's
the message of every believer. Every believer has this message. Well, what great things has the
Lord done for his people? Well, he's given us the message
of Christ. Look at verse 28 in chapter two
of Joel. And it shall come to pass afterward
that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons
and your daughters shall prophesy. Your old man shall dream dreams,
your young man shall see visions. And also upon the servants and
upon the handmaids in those days, Well, I pour out my spirit. Now
these verses don't mean every believer is going to be given
dreams and made preachers. You know, God doesn't give his,
his preachers dreams to preach. He gives us his word to preach.
What this means is that every believer, no matter where you
find them, every believer will have the Holy Spirit dwelling
in them. The spirit will show them the things of Christ because
God has poured out his Holy Spirit upon them. Look over in Hebrews
chapter eight. And because of that, because
the father's poured out his spirit, the same spirit and all of his
people, they all have the same message. They all say the same
thing. They all believe the same thing.
In Hebrews chapter eight, verse 10. And this is the covenant that
I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith
the Lord. I'll put my laws into their mind and write them in
their hearts. And I'll be to them a God, and they should be
to me a people. And they should not teach every
man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, know the
Lord. For they'll all know me. From the least to the greatest,
they'll know me. For I'll be merciful to their unrighteousness
and to their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. So it's
not just everybody's going to be a preacher. I mean, everybody's
going to have the spirit to believe Christ when they hear him preach.
But now look in Acts chapter two. These verses do mean this. God's going to raise up preachers
and they're going to preach Christ. And he'll do that by sending
his spirit and giving his servants a message to preach. And that
message is Christ. This prophecy we have in Joel
chapter 2 has its fulfillment in Acts chapter 2 on the day
of Pentecost. Acts 2 verse 1, And when the
day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord
in one place. And suddenly there came a sound
from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house
where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them
cloven tongues like as a fire, and it sat upon each of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak
with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now you
notice they didn't speak until the Spirit gave them utterance.
But this is the fulfillment of what happened in the prophecy
in Joel chapter two. And Peter tells us in his message,
what is it that the Lord's done here? He's given his messengers,
he's given his servants the message of Christ. Look at verse 14,
this is what Peter says. But Peter, standing up with the
11, lifted up his voice, and he said unto them, Ye men of
Judea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto
you, and hearken to my words. For these are not drunken, as
you suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But
this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. And it shall
come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my
spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall
prophesy. Your young men shall see visions, and your old men
shall dream dreams. And on my servant and on my handmaidens,
I will pour out in those days my spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in heaven
above and signs in earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into
darkness, the moon into blood before that great and notable
day of the Lord come. See, this is the fulfillment
of it on the day of Pentecost. God poured out his spirit and
gave the message of Christ. And you know what happened in
the rest of that? God gave faith to believe it, didn't he? He
poured out his spirit on the people and they heard the message
of Christ. They believed it. Now one last
thing, what great things has the Lord done for his people?
He has given his people free access to him through the Lord
Jesus Christ. Look back at Joel chapter two,
verse 32. And it shall come to pass that
whosoever shall call in the name of the Lord shall be delivered. For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, and in the remnant
whom the Lord shall call. Now, you know, the gospel message
is to everyone. To all people, this gospel message
is preached the same message to all people. It's preached
to whosoever will hear. And the message of Christ is
so powerful. It will give life to any sinner. Any sinner. I didn't say every
sinner. Any sinner. Any sinner who God
will call through the preaching of the gospel. will receive life. That's what he says here at the
end of verse 32. And in the remnant whom the Lord
shall call. So I don't care who you are.
I don't care what your background is, what you've done, what you
haven't done. If you call on the name of the Lord, you'll
be saved. What a great thing the Lord has
done for sinners. He's given us free access. Whoever
you are, if you call on the name of the Lord, you'll be saved.
And the fulfillment of that verse was seen back in the day of Pentecost,
wasn't it? After Peter preached that message of Christ, what
happened? The Lord added about 3,000 souls to the church. Well,
that was a baptismal service, wasn't it? 3,000 added in one
day. The fulfillment of this very
prophecy. Whosoever called. Whosoever, who is Peter preaching
to? Preaching to the very people
who just not so awful long ago shouted, crucify him, crucify
him, give us Barabbas. What mercy, what grace, whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And you
know, God hadn't changed. God's unchanging. He's doing
the same thing today as he did in Peter's day. He's probably
not going to save 3,000 souls today, but I tell you this, if
he saves anybody, he's going to do it the exact same way,
through the preaching of Christ. Now you call on the Lord. He's
still in the business of saving sinners. Call on him. The Lord
has done great things for his people by dealing with them in
great love, great mercy, and great grace. through the sacrifice
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now call on Him. Call on Him. He'll deliver you. All right,
I hope the Lord will bless you.