Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to the Prophet Joel, the chapter
that we read. We read for our text part of
verse 16. Part of verse 16. But the Lord will be the hope
of his people. The whole verse reads, 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 will
be the hope of his people and the strength of the children
of Israel. Joel chapter 3 and verse 16. What is upon my spirit, especially
at this time of crisis in our nation, is the hope that God
has given to his dear people. And here we have it so clearly
stated, but the Lord will be the hope of his people. The Prophet Joel, it is not certain
as to when he prophesied, but it seems likely that it's after
the times of captivity and more likely say a hundred years after
Zerubbabel, maybe in the time of Malachi. But what we do know
is that it was a time of great distress in the nation and amongst
the people of God. They had had a terrible drought
that had followed from a plague of locusts. And the picture here
is a picture of a nation that is in the grip and in the midst
of a time of great trial. And they are called in the midst
of that to repentance in chapter two, to humble themselves before
the Lord and to bring a solemn assembly, call it, gather the
people and to bring them to mourning and repentance. and to supplicate
the Lord, who knoweth if he will return and repent and leave a
blessing behind him, even a meat offering and a drink offering
unto the Lord your God. The people of God, right through
the history of the children of Israel, God's ancient people,
had many times of famine, of trial, of distress, through plagues
or through the enemy coming into the land. And God was to be their
hope and it was used again and again to bring them back to the
true worship of God and to return to Him and to serve Him with
all their heart and with all their mind and with all their
soul. We have in this prophecy two, we might say, key passages
or texts that lead us to know what it is pointing to. We know,
of course, there is an immediate application to the people of
those things that they were passing through. It was to be a help
to them, a blessing to them at such a time that the Lord would
bless them and be with them and help them. But there is also
prophecy looking forward. Some of it has specifically been
fulfilled as that which was mentioned by the Apostle at the day of
Pentecost. In chapter 2, and this is why
we read in the beginning of the reading from verse 28, because
from 28 to the End of the chapter there in Joel 2. is that which
the Apostle referred to the day of Pentecost Acts chapter 2 and
verse 14 through to 21. There were those that were mocking
when the Holy Spirit had been given and there was those tongues
of fire and they spake with other languages, languages and tongues
that those that were in Jerusalem at the time they recognized They
were able to understand those languages and they marveled that
those men that were speaking, that was not their native tongue
at all. And yet they were speaking in
a language that they could understand. And some said that they were
just filled with wine and they were mocking at what had happened. But Peter, he stands up and he
said this in verse 14, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be
this known unto you, and hearken to my words. For these are not
drunken, as ye 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 of my spirit upon all
flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And
your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream
dreams. And on my servants and on my
handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my spirit and they
shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in heaven
above and signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapour
of smoke. The sun shall be turned into
darkness and the moon into blood. before that great and notable
day of the Lord come, and it shall come to pass that whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." Peter very
clearly identifies and said, this is that which was spoken
by the prophet John, that which we have read in this prophecy. And we have this blessed word
of hope for a gospel time, a day of the last days, and in the
context of Joel, in a time of trouble and a time of trial,
that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be
saved. It is a blessed word of hope
to call upon the name of the Lord. So we have Peter identifying
a prophecy that is set before us here in this passage. Then
if we turn to where our text is and we read in the verse before
it, the sun and the moon shall be darkened and the stars shall
withdraw their shining. And we have what our Lord and
Saviour gave as the signs of the last time and of the coming
of the Son of Man the second time. In Luke chapter 21 and
from verse 25, verse 25 and 26. And there shall be signs in the
sun and in the moon and in the stars and upon the earth distress
of nations With perplexity the sea and the waves roaring, men's
hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things
which are coming on the earth. For the powers of heaven shall
be shaken, and then shall they see the Son of Man coming in
the cloud with power and great glory. And the word that our
Lord then said to his people, And when these things begin to
come to pass, then look up and lift up your heads, for your
redemption draweth nigh. Heaven and earth, he says, shall
pass away, but my words shall not pass away. And we have a reminder in the words
of our Lord at the end of that chapter, that we are to take
heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged
with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life, so that
day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come
on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. I feel
very much at this time of the pandemic and the reaction of
our governments to it, that the things that are being touched
are our wealth, our freedoms, our ability to buy and sell,
to get married, to even gather together. And these are things
that the Lord said, as in Noah's day, they bought, they sold,
they married, they gave in marriage until the flood came and took
them all away. The Lord is giving us in our
nations a wake-up call, a reminder that these things, even lawful
in themselves and right, that these things we can be so taken
up with them that we're not ready when the Lord comes, when he
appears the second time. So in our text and in the prophecy
of Joel, We have firstly at the beginning of the Gospel day,
in the day of Pentecost, a very clear identifying, Joel speaks
of that day. We have in what our Lord spoke
of the day of his second coming, a very clear identifying of that
with our text as well. If there was a trial and a terrible
time in Joel's day, then it is also pictured of a terrible time
when the Lord comes again, we read that men's hearts shall
fail them with fear of those things that were coming on the
earth, though short the warning will be. We read that those that
know not the Lord shall call upon the rocks and the hills
to hide them from the face of him that sitteth on the throne. And yet we have in Joel a real
hope for the people of God, as much as the Lord said that when
you see these things come to pass, look up for your redemption,
draweth nigh. And so with Joel, he says, though
all of these things happen, when the Lord shall roar out of Zion,
and utter his voice from Jerusalem, the heavens and the earth shall
shake. The picture again is the picture
what our Lord paints, when he shall come again, when judgment
shall be in the earth, but the Lord shall be the hope of his
people. And it is a beautiful word, a
blessed word for the people of God, that the Lord shall be their
hope. They have got a hope, a good
hope. They've got a refuge. They've
got something that will be a help to them. in times of distress
and times of trial. And so it is in this way that
I desire to look at the word this evening. We have trials,
many severe trials that may come upon us in our lifetime, but
in one sense they shall be nothing compared with that day when we
shall yield up the ghost and appear before God's judgment
throne, or that day when the Lord comes and the end of the
world is brought about. Those times that come in between. We read in another place, if
we have run with the footmen and they have wearied thee, how
wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan? In other words, if
we have struggled in the lesser trials of life's journey, what
will we do when we come to die? What will we do when the Lord
comes in such power? And so we have need in these
lesser trials, these trials that are trials and are burdens that
come upon us, that we look at where is our hope then? And if
we have a hope in the Lord then, hope now, then it'll be in the
same place, whatever trials come, even that of death and of the
end of the world. So I want to then look at three
points. I've based them upon the words
of the text itself. Firstly, the words, the Lord
will be The hope. We have those words in our text. But the Lord will be the hope. And then secondly, his people. The Lord will be the hope of
his people. Our second point, his people. And then thirdly, the words,
the hope of his people. What is the hope? of his people. Bringing together the three points
in this word of the text, but the Lord will be the hope of
his people. Firstly then, the Lord will be
the hope. It is identifying where that
hope actually is. How necessary that we should
be able to identify where that hope is placed. Now, in our text, we have the
Lord in capitals. It is Jehovah, Lord. It is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
the God of salvation, the eternal God. We know that in salvation,
all the Godhead is involved. We know also that in all things
that happen in this world, it is this Jehovah that is the author,
the governor, the orderer of it all. In one sense, we may
say that in the words of our text, the Lord will be the hope. There is no higher authority. There is no higher one that we
could possibly look to. Not that we would divide the
Godhead if it should have been said that the Lord Jesus is our
hope, who he is our hope, or that we should say that the Father
is our hope. But when we have Jehovah, we
gather in the eternal God is our refuge and underneath the
everlasting We gather in, he that doth bring these things,
the Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and it is the same Lord
that will be the hope of his people. And so the prophet is
looking to the author of the trials, the fearful sights and
the things that are being done, and says this same God, this
same author is the hope of his people. We're not looking at
someone else. We're not dividing the Godhead. We are not saying that a trial
comes from one source, but our hope is from another. There's
some, like in the pandemic, wouldn't like to say, well, God has sent
this. God has ordered it. He's appointed
it. He has caused it to come. He
causes it to come. They'd more rather say that some
other force was involved. I never forget reading of account
of a pastor, so-called, who had one of his congregation that
was involved in a car accident and they were in hospital. And
he went to that hospital and he said to them, he said to them,
Don't worry, he said, it was not God. It was just chance that
it happened. It is the devil's hand. And he
wouldn't describe what had happened to that person, that the Lord
had anything to do with it whatsoever, and then sought to comfort them,
supposedly, in the Lord. The most solemn thing, if those
entrusted with the word of God can ascribe anything that happens
in this world to some other force, to some other cause, something
out of the hand of the Lord, as if the Lord was not in control
and in this matter never had a decree, a counsel, a purpose
in it at all. We have in the Lord's dealings
with Egypt when he brought the children of Israel out of that
country, the most solemn account of the work of God in bringing
one pestilence and trial after another upon that land. God's
hand was in it. It is the Lord who appoints,
who brings, who causes it to come. And it is the same God
that has control over these things that is the hope of his people
and it is necessary that we see the two joined together as they
are in the verse of our text. You know in natural ways in life's
journey we find trouble from second causes coming from one
source and then we look in natural ways to a help from some other
cause and some other source. If we're injured by one person,
a child, if he's injured and attacked by one person, will
then go to the parents for solace and help and comfort. The idea
of a people that actually look to the hand that brings the things
they pass through, that is the one that orders their lives and
orders their afflictions and all that orders their sorrows,
look to Him that has power over all those things and see in Him
that He is their hope, that He is the God of hope, that He is
one that doth not afflict willingly, nor tread under the sons of men. We have it in the Lamentations
of Jeremiah, as Jeremiah saw the desolations of Jerusalem.
He saw it all as the Lord's hand. Yes, Nebuchadnezzar was used,
and before him, the Assyrians took away the ten tribes, but
he saw the Lord's hand. And indeed, Nebuchadnezzar was
the Lord's servant. And so I draw your attention
to this, that whatever is brought upon us, in whatever way it is,
we may view the Lord's hand in appointing it, in bringing it,
in ordering it. He's not the author of sin, He's
not the author of wickedness, but He is in control. And it
is He that is our hope, And so our text, but the Lord
will be the hope. And in the Lord is everything
that is comprised in salvation. The Father, the Son, the Holy
Spirit, the God that said, let us make
man in our own image, the God that created the world and man
upon it, the God that brought it into existence and will close
its existence, that created time, and that has also said there
shall be a decree that time shall be no more. It is created. And
this is the God of hope. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
eternal Son of God, one with the Father, Jehovah. He is our hope. He is our salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. Abraham said to Isaac, my son,
God will provide himself. a lamb for a burnt offering and
himself was the lamb. And it is the provision in the
gospel that comes not from some other source, not from man, not
from some other entity, but from the one undivided almighty and
eternal God. And so our first point, the Lord
will be the hope. Jehovah will be the hope. Our second point, his people. What does it mean, his people? Are there those that are not
his people? When we think of the children
of Israel, we think of a people that were raised up from Abraham,
of the seed of Abraham, whom God called alone, and he brought
from him a nation that was formed in Egypt, and then brought out
of Egypt, brought to the promised land to Canaan, which God had
promised to Abraham. He said, while Abraham was alive,
that he would not give him not even a foot in it, but that his
seed should possess that land. And they did, and it came to
pass. They were a typical people, the
ancient people of God, a people that God had ordained that the
promised seed of the woman, the Messiah, should come according
to the flesh. They were the custodians of what
we know as the Old Testament that records the history of that
nation. And in that nation, we have many,
many types of the spiritual people of God. We spoke of here in Joel,
the prophecy being fulfilled at the Day of Pentecost. and
that then leads to the prophecy of the end of the world. And
between those two times, they are the days of the gospel, the
preaching of the gospel. And it is the Old Testament that
speaks of Christ that was used by our Lord on the way to Emmaus
in preaching to those two, walking there, and that Philip used when
he preached to the eunuch from Isaiah 53 in our Bibles. And so the Lord has given in
these gospel days, not just the New Testament, but all the repository
of the Old Testament in all its types and teachings and instructions,
including this prophecy of Joel, to be an instruction to us. And it is an instruction to a
people that are to be God's people. We read when our Lord was named
of the angel, and in Matthew 1, Joseph was told his name shall
be called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. We have his people, but this
is not just Israel literally. This is those of what Paul says,
that they are not all of Israel, which are of Israel. Not all
the Jews were saved, but the Lord has blessed the Gentiles
and from amongst the Gentiles. He has a people, a chosen people. And when the gospel was preached
to the Gentiles, as many as were ordained unto eternal life believed. And so it is through the preaching
of the gospel throughout the world in every nation, kindred
and tongue, that God's chosen people, the people that the Lord
said of his father, thine they were and thou gavest them me,
a people that is a cure in his hand. None, no man shall pluck
them out of my hand. My father that is greater than
I, no man shall pluck them out of my father's hand. It is that
people that are made known through God's calling them and quickening
them by his grace, showing that it is those that the Lord Jesus
Christ died on Calvary Street to put away their sin by the
sacrifice of himself, a substitutionary offering made unto God acceptable. And so God raised him from the
dead and that this resurrection from the dead is to be preached
in every nation. And it is this hope, a hope of
life from the dead, a hope that God and sinners are reconciled,
a hope that is based that God, through his spirit, working in
sinners' hearts, reconciles them unto God. Instead of being enemies,
they are brought to love him, and to serve him, obey him, and
trust in him, and to walk in his ways. God has a people. This is very evident through
the Word of God. And this whole text, if we do
not identify and know who this people is, how are we to get
any comfort from it? If our text says the Lord will
be the hope of his people, and we do not know whether we are
his people, then How is that going to be a comfort to us?
We could, of course, turn it the other way around and say
His people are known by the fact that they have a hope in the
Lord. It is one of the ways that they
are brought to actually know that they are His people. But how do we know that we are
His people? We know that those that are chosen
in the Lord Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world will
be called by God. And that call is a giving of
eternal life by the Son to that people. I give unto them eternal
life. They shall never perish, neither
shall any man pluck them out of mine hand. And that life is
spoken of in John 3 as the new birth. It is spoken of as being
called of God. God's people are a called people. They are likened to sheep who
hear the shepherd's voice and who follow him, who are brought
to believe on the name of the Son of God. Philip's word to
the eunuch was, when he desired to be baptised, if thou believest,
with all thine heart thou mayest. And his testimony was, I believe,
that Jesus is the Son of God. And he'd had the Lord Jesus preached
to him from Isaiah 53 as the crucified one, the one that was
to bear our sins, to bear our iniquities, the one that was
to endure the wrath of God and the punishment due to our sins. And so it is a people that is
made known to be a people from every nation, kindred and tongue,
through believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord was very
clear that no man cometh unto me except the Father which sent
me. Draw him, and I will raise him
up at the last day. It is the work of God to send
his word so that it finds out his people and his work in the
heart so that they bow before his word, believe his word, and
that they then have hope because he which hath begun a good work
in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. So his people are a people that
have been brought to believe on him, have been brought to
love him and to serve him, to desire to know his will and do
his will, to walk in his ways, to love his people. John gives
us a very clear evidence of it. We know that we have passed from
death unto life, because we love the brethren. It is a people
that is separated from those of the world that lie in wickedness
and desire to, as Bunyan puts it, go on pilgrimage, seek the
celestial city, seek those things above, and to turn their backs
upon the world in all of the love of wickedness and sin and
everything that is not of the Father and not of God. The Lord said to those Jews that
believed on him, if ye continue in my word, then ye shall be
my disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth
shall make you free. And it is in the Lord's dealings
with his people in their life that marks them out as his people. They are a people that he chooses,
he chastens, he corrects them, he feeds them, he instructs them,
he gathers them together around himself. Unto him shall the gathering
of the people be. Drawn to him when the Lord was
upon the earth, Then there were many, thousands came and were
drawn to him. It is true, many of those were
not real believers, but in a spiritual way, those that are truly brought
to him, to cleave to him, and they are brought to trust on
him. Hemrider says, other refuge have
I none, hangs my helpless soul on thee. He becomes their hope. And so the people of God are
known not by the Lord saying, you are my people, you're one
of mine, or by the church of God saying, well, we know who
the people of God are. No, it is the spirit bearing
witness with their spirit, a spirit of adoption. The Lord taking
that people and dealing with them as his people that makes
it very clearly known that they are. You know, if we have a natural
family and you observe, say if you were out at the beach or
in the park or something like that and you see children running
around and they don't appear to have any parent or you're
not sure what group they're joined with, but then you find them
gathering together for a meal. And suddenly one comes from one
direction, another, another direction, and there they all are, they're
sitting around having a picnic together. And you think, were
those that I had no idea that they were actually part of that
family? Now I know, because there they all gathered around having
a meal. They're not part of that other
group, but because they're of that family, they're fed from
that one table, Then if one was to be doing something that was
not right, you'd find the father, the mother would go after them,
would correct them, would bring them back. The things that were
done to that people would show that actually they were part
of that family. Now a child does not have to
remember their birth, they cannot, to know that they are a child.
When they actually know all of the attention, the care, the
provision, they have a daily evidence of their belonging to
that family. And so God's people also have
an ongoing, a daily evidence of being the people of God. His people, His people that He
has suffered for, bled for, died for, put away their sins for. But it is this people then, and
may it be our true desire to know that we are His people.
And if the Lord has given us those evidences and those tokens
of it, may we be able to recognise them and know that we truly are
His people. The Lord has laid claim upon
us, not us laying claim on Him, though the people of God do in
return. As much as the Lord says that
ye are my people, they will return and say, the Lord is our God. It is a two-way thing. The Lord
desires his people, his people desire him. We have in the Song
of Solomon the real desire of the Lord to hear the voice of
his people and his people wanting to hear his voice as well. So our second point, his people. Well, if we are his people, then
when storms and trials and troubles come, the sorrows that are portrayed
and set forth before us here in the prophecy of Joel, Then
we read here of the hope of his people. The hope of his people,
and that's what I want to look at with the Lord's Hell in our
third point. We say right at the start that the greater trials that
come The worst trials that can ever come, that the hope that
the people of God have then, is the same hope that they have
had. Just because the trial is worse,
is different, is greater, doesn't change that hope. If the Lord
has raised up a hope in him, in the smallest thing. It is
the same grace, it is the same trust, it's the same God, it's
the same people as in the greatest thing. And really this is the
message here of this text. And we know that we do have many
differing trials and some of you this evening may be able
to say, the Lord has helped you hitherto. And this is what the
hymn writer then goes on to say, He that has helped me hitherto
will help me all my journey through. It's going from the small things
to the great things. It's like David facing Goliath. And David says, the God that
delivered me out of the paw of the bear and out of the paw of
the lion, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. You say, but David, but the Philistine,
how can you compare that with the bear and the lion? How can
you think with this great big trial, how can you presume to
think that God will help you in this just because he has helped
you as a shepherd boy? But this is the teaching that
is here. And this is what builds up the
hope of God's dear children. And so when we read the hope
of his people, it is what has been their hope already. And
what has been their hope in salvation, their hope has been that he has
forgiven them, he's cleansed them, he's delivered them, he's
pardoned them, He's blotted out their sins. He is their hope now. And now that more troubles come,
more trials come, when death comes, when the end of the world
comes, the hope of his people is the
same. The Lord will be the hope of
his people. Will still be the hope of his
people. Will be at that time too. In
one way, it's a beautiful promise. To those of you that may fear
and tremble, and you say, well, the Lord has been my hope in
these lesser things. But the unknown why. and sickness
and death, the end of the world. Will it stand that? And the Lord
says through this verse, in this context of these trials, these
great troubles, but the Lord will be, not might be, the Lord
will be the hope of his people. What are they hoping in? They're
hoping in the Lord. Because he is the same yesterday
and today and forever, he does not change, he is the same. So the hope that they've had
before, their hope's still in him. They look to the same source,
the same God. They trust in his word, we read. of our Lord's word, heaven and
earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away. They
trust, hath he said, and shall he not do it? They remember that
he has said, if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come
again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may
be also. And they rest in that word. We
have the Spirit and the Bride say, come, even so come, Lord
Jesus. The Bride is the Church, the
Bride is His people, and when they are in the Spirit, when
they have the Spirit, is that one desire, that the Lord would
come. The Lord would visit and bless
them, that He'd come at last, and He'd take them to be with
Himself, that where He is, that they might be also. They look
then for his coming. Their hope is that he will come
again. You read all of the epistles,
the letters to the churches. The Old Testament church look
forward to Christ's first coming. The New Testament is exhorted
to be looking for his second coming. To them that look for
him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. The Lord exhorts again and again,
be watchful, don't be sleepy, be looking for his comings. But
one day there will be a people on the earth and the Lord shall
come again. Now those dear disciples, how
many times it may be that they thought, here we are, the Lord's
appointed it in our day. our generation, that we can see
the Lord, the promised seed, he's before our eyes, we're hearing
him. And you know, in each generation,
we might say we've been called in our generation to pass through
this time of a pandemic, this time in our nation and all that
is happening. But one day it shall be a people
that shall realise and they shall see the Lord coming with power
and great glory in the clouds. They shall be caught up with
him in the air. They shall realise they are the
people appointed to be alive on the earth when the Lord returns. And we are exhorted to be ready
and watchful and expecting that the Lord shall come again. He is the hope of his people. He will come. He won't leave
his dear people. He will bring them home. You
hear what he says in John 17. That is his word. The hope of his
people is in his word, that he'll bring that to pass. And this
must apply to all of the sorrows, trials, difficulties of the way. Dear friends, may we hope in
the Lord. May we hope for time and hope
for eternity, hope for heaven, for that inheritance that is
undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. Who shall bring us there? We
can't. We can't bring ourselves there.
But the Lord can. And our Lord will. And our hope
is to be placed upon the Lord. and to rest in him. And so this
is a beautiful word. It rests in the context of troubles
all around. It rests in the context even
of the end of the world and of those great things that are happening. When the Lord does come, the
Lord roars out of Zion, utters forth his voice. The heaven and
the earth they shake. And yet in the midst of it all,
there's a people of God and they're hoping in the Lord. May we be of those that have
this hope, a well-founded, well-placed hope that we love His appearing
and that we see His hand and we see Him not as a stranger,
not as an enemy, Not as a fearful God, but as dear Thomas said,
my Lord and my God. And as the Lord said when he
comes again that we're to look up for our redemption draweth
nigh, the Lord shall take us to be with himself. A beautiful word. May it abide
with us, remain with us, but the Lord will be the hope of
his people. Amen.