of Joel. Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel. Before we begin, let's ask our
Lord's blessing. Our Father, how wonderful it
is to be able to call on You, Lord, to have a heart to call,
a desire. Lord, would You bless the services
tonight? Help us. Lord, would You bless
this Word for the comfort of Your people calling out of Your
sheep? Thank You. that you've kept us
here. We pray and ask these things
for Christ's sake. Amen. There's not a lot that's revealed
about the prophet Joel. His name means Jehovah. is God. His dad, according to verse 1,
was named Bethuel, which means the vision of God. And Joel ministered about 800
years before our Lord's birth. And he had this as his credential. This was it. Verse 1, the word
of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Bethuel. Now, in chapter 1, the Spirit
of God moved upon this prophet to declare not only the necessity
of not only the necessity of hearing the Word, but the need
of rehearsing it to future generations. Look at verse 2 and 3. Hear this,
ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Have
this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?
And what he just said, he just asked a question about something
we're getting ready to look at in just a moment. What he said
is, have you ever heard of anything like what we're about to read
about? Tell ye your children of it, and let your children
tell their children, and their children another generation. We need to be taught the Word
of God. It does not matter how old or
how young you are. The youngest child in this congregation
needs to hear the Word of the Lord. The oldest needs to hear
the Word of the Lord. The Scripture says, was taught
by his mother, by his grandmother, and the Lord blessed it. Every time we come together,
we are going to hear, by the grace of God, the preaching of
the Gospel. Now listen, every time you hear
me preach, every time you hear a man set forth the truth, The
savor, the savor of this should be in there. Man was ruined by
the fall. God's sheep were redeemed by
the blood of Christ. And God's elect are surely regenerated
by the grace of God. Every time I stand up to preach,
whatever the passage is, This is the foundational truth of
the Gospel. Man is totally preyed. God Almighty
has elected a people unto salvation. Christ Jesus died for them in
particular and put away their guilt. And the Spirit of God
shall irresistibly call them by grace, power, And the Lord
is going to preserve His people. He's going to preserve them from
the falling away of the harm of sin, despair. God's going to keep His people. Every time I preach, that needs
to be the savor. That's the foundation. Listen
to what Paul says in Philippians 3, verse 1. Finally, my brethren,
rejoice in the Lord. to write the same things to you,
to me, indeed, is not grievous. But for you, it's safe. It is safety for you to hear
the gospel of God's free grace over and over and over. It is not tiresome to the preacher
that God has called to preach The gospel of God's free grace.
And it's not tiresome to the hearer. When you hear, if you
hear something new, you've never heard that before. I'm not talking
about if you hear something that you've heard before and the Lord
gives you light on it. I'm talking about something that
you've never heard preached before. It's not the savor of life. Something's wrong. We need to
hear this same message. It's one bell, one note, one
trumpet, one sound, one sound, one sound. It's not tiresome. It's not irksome for the preacher
to preach or for you to hear. In fact, if you don't hear it,
a question mark, flags will go up. It protects you against error
and self-righteousness. You need to hear the Gospel.
Tell your children. Let your children tell their
children. Their children are another generation. The prophet
has a message that he wants to set forth from the Lord to the
people. And the prophet of God declared
this message to the people of Israel, and it was about swarms
of destroying insects. This was it. But the savor of
the gospel was there. It's the savor of man's total
depravity. God's judgment. God's justice. Here was the message right here.
Verse 4 to 7. Here's what Joel was to tell
the people. That which the palmer worm hath left, the locusts eaten. And that which the locusts hath
left, hath the canker worm eaten. that which the canker worm hath
left hath the caterpillar eaten. Awake, ye, you drunkards, and
weep, and howl, all you drinkers of wine, because of the new wine,
for it is cut off from your mouth. For a nation is come up upon
my land, strong and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of
a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion. He hath
laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree. made it clean bared,
cast it away, the branches thereof are made white." What the Lord
did to the people of Israel, declaring through the prophet
Joel, was to tell them of a great destruction that was going to
come through the land. Almighty God was going to devastate
Israel because of this great There was this, these worms and
these locusts and these caterpillars and what one left, the next one
got. And that and whatever he left, the next one got. And there
was absolutely nothing there. Famine. Destroyed it. Now because
of that great loss, the people were told to lament. Verse 8,
lament like a virgin girded with cyclops. for the husband of her
youth." Here the prophet is to preach to those that were sensitive
of the Lord's glory and now were made to suffer because of the
general rebellion of Israel. And that which was most mournful
to them now was that Almighty God was going to remove the sacrifice. Look at verse 9 to 11. The meat
offering, the drink offering, is cut off from the house of
the Lord. The priest, the Lord's ministers,
mourn. The field is wasted. The land
mourneth, for the corn is wasted. The new wine is dried up. The
oil languisheth. Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen. How, O ye vine dressers, for
the wheat and for the barley, because the harvest of the field
is perished. The Lord took away the grain,
took the vine away by the plague of locusts, canker worms, caterpillars
that He sent. There was nothing left to make
the fine flour with for the meat offering. The wine was gone. There was no grapes. They destroyed
it. Look at verse 12 and 13. The
vine is dried up, the fig tree languisheth, the pomegranate
tree, the palm tree also, the apple tree. Even all the trees
of the field are withered because joy is withered away from the
sons of men. Gird yourselves and lament, ye
priests, how you ministers of the altar. Come, lie all night
in sackcloth, you ministers of my God, for the meat offerings
and the drink offering is withholding from the house of your God."
What has happened is the Lord has taken away worship. He's moved it. He's done exactly
what David asked Him, prayed. Lord, don't do. Don't do. Psalm 51. Verse 11, David said
this, "...cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy
Holy Spirit from me." Now you think about this. Here's the
people. They've rebelled against God. Have you noticed that all
the messages of all these prophets are the same? Same message. The
people are rebellious people. This is us. This is us by nature. Here we are. And Almighty God
sends chastisement and plague. It goes through now. He said, your heart is withdrawn
from me. No heart from me. No heart. I'll just send a plague through. I'll take these little locusts,
these little caterpillars, things that people would think wouldn't
be that big a deal, and I'll send them through. And I'll tell
you what I'll do. I'll destroy everything. And
there won't be anything to make any bread with. There won't be
anything to make any wine with. Almighty God knows how to get
the attention of His people. Then He gave this merciful instruction,
verse 14, sanctify ye afast and call a solemn assembly and gather
the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of
the Lord your God and cry unto the Lord. The Lord had sent chastisement
to His people, but even in wrath He remembers mercy." Oh, how
encouraging it is to hear whenever the Lord has gotten the attention
of His people. Proclaim a fast, a ceasing from
your own pleasures, crying to the Lord, crying to Him who is
the only hope of deliverance. And rest assured, if this desire,
a desire for mercy resides within, the Lord has had mercy on you. You know, a believer struggles. We struggle. Lord, have mercy
on me. Lord, have You had mercy on me. Lord, if I have never known You
truly before tonight, Lord, have mercy on me right now. Lord,
don't leave me to myself. Lord, don't leave me to my own
fickle thoughts and will. Lord, don't let me leave this
world. without you." That's the heart of a believer. An unbeliever
has no desire, no care, but Almighty God gets the attention of His
people. He speaks to them in mercy with
chastisement. Whom the Lord loves, He chastens. Now the message that was truly
sent through these swarming insects was this. God Almighty is going
to totally and completely deal with and judge sin. That devastation that actually
happened, that's what Joel told them. He said in that verse 2
and 3, he said, now you old men, you here, you inhabitants, you
listen, even in the days. Has there ever been anything
like this happen before in your days? Your kids, you tell your
kids to tell their kids. Remember what happened right
here. This picture, this tithe. It actually happened. It was
actually a famine. The Lord actually sent the famine
of those grasshoppers. But He got the attention. He
got the attention of the people. Now He says, now you sanctify
a fast. You call. Call for the elders
and the inhabitants of the land. But here's the message. Here's
the message that God Almighty sent through those swarms of
insects. Verse 15, Alas, for the day,
the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the
Almighty shall it come. The day of the Lord. That's what
He's saying. Now listen. Listen. Listen. to what I'm saying. The day of the Lord, the day
of judgment is coming. Four times in these three chapters,
five, I'm sorry, five times in these chapters, the prophet tells
us of mankind steadily moving toward the day of the Lord. The
first time was where we just read it. of chapter 2. Blow ye the trumpet in Zion,
and sound an alarm in my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants
of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord cometh, for it
is nigh at hand. Look at verse 11 of chapter 2.
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, and who shall
abide it? Chapter 2, verse 31. Scripture
says forth, the sun shall be turned into darkness, the moon
into blood before the great and the terrible day of the Lord.
Look at chapter 3, verse 14. Multitudes, multitudes in the
valley of decision, for the day of the Lord is near in the valley
of decision. That word decision right there
means threshing. There is going to be a threshing.
Almighty God is going to deal with rebellion. Now, men ignorantly
think that the day of the Lord is something that is so far off
in the future and there's no really need of alarm. The day
of the Lord, that's the day of judgment. Well, I just don't
know how far in advance that is. But the day of the Lord has
come for many already. The day of the Lord comes when
Almighty God calls a man or a woman out of this world, right here,
the moment they take their last breath. I got an email today
from a young pastor out on the West Coast. What it was, it was
a relating of the last words that some prominent atheist had
made. Someone had recorded. some things
that some of these avowed atheists had said. And he said that one
of them, or two of them I remember in particular, but one of them
said this. A man had written some books
on atheism and just disrespectful stuff before the Lord of glory,
and his last words as he was actually, I mean, moments from
dying. And he said these words. He said,
What have I done? What have I done? Something is
terribly wrong. Something is terribly wrong.
He said that Joseph Stalin, when he lay, he said the moment that
he was dying, his eyes got very wide and he looked around at
the people. in horror, lifted up his hands
trying to gesture. And the nurse that was there
that witnessed him dying said, I never want to have to watch
another person, another evil person die like that. I don't know what happens. You don't either in the moment
of death. But I'm telling you, I have read
in these Scriptures When Stephen died, I know what the Word of
God says. He said, I see the Son of God
standing at the right hand of God Almighty. I know something
happens when people leave this world. They know either that
they are right with God or they are not right with God. You proclaim
the Day of the Lord. Alas! For the day of the Lord
is at hand, verse 15, and as destruction from the Almighty
shall it come, the day of the Lord. The Scripture sets forth
that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night, when
you least expect it. You did not think in a day such
as this, in a day that you think God's not coming, that's when
He's coming. That's when Almighty God will
come and snatch one out of this world. And before you know it,
it is so fast, it makes your head swim. Believe me. They're here and they're gone. And you stand in amazement. You're
thinking, what just happened? What just happened? The day of
the Lord. His second coming? Yes. But that day could be today. But in the light of the surety
of God's judgment upon sin, here is a tender command and hope
for a needy sinner. Look at Joel 2, verses 12 to
14. Also now, saith the Lord, turn
ye even to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and weeping,
and mourning, and rend your heart, and not your garments. Turn unto
the Lord your God, for He is gracious, merciful, slow to anger,
of great kindness, and repenteth Him of the evil. 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. Boy, what a command! Turn ye even to Me with all your
heart, fasting, weeping, mourning. Rend your heart. You know, that's
a deed that must be divinely wrought. A believer, let me tell
you the difference between a believer and an unbeliever. A believer
hears that command right there. Turn to the Lord. Turn to me. Rend your heart. Turn unto God. And a believer hears that and
says, Lord, do that for me. Lord, have mercy on me. Lord, do for me. Lord, You said
it is God that worketh in you, both will and purpose. Lord, do for me what I cannot
do for myself. I can't do that. And I know it. I know it, but I desire that.
I long for that. These outward signs, you know,
rend your heart and not your garments. You know, it's easy. If I was going to just try to
make a show, try to, you know, tear, maybe tear my shirt or
something like that, you know, all the anguish of myself, but
all in the world that is, it's just hypocritical. I had people, you know, I've
told you before, people, you know, That's for show. That's show. That's all it is. You know, if
God Almighty gives me a heart to lift my heart before Him,
it's by the grace of God that I do that. But to experience
true sorrow for sin is totally of the Lord. Psalm 5110, creating
me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." I would desire that. This is
too humbling. This is too heart-searching for
us. But a believer hears these words
and says, Lord, oh, to call on You in truth. Lord, to be able
to lift my heart before You. You leave it to me. And all the
world I'm going to do is I'm going to desire worldly stuff. But the regenerated soul desires
and needs that which is substantial, that which is real. Lord, create
in me a desire, a love for You that I can leave this world looking
to You, trusting You, resting in You. I think of that Scripture. I quote that Scripture so many
times. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And I think to myself, Lord,
I want to come. And in that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast out. Oh, can you imagine leaving this
world and hearing those words from Him and to hear Him say,
I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. Lord,
I want that. I desire that. Lord, I know that
in myself I'm a weak and frail creature. But Lord, by Your grace,
Lord, would You turn me and I'll be turned. You keep me and I'll
be kept. in response to the Lord's tender
command that we just read. Here is a blessed remedy. Look at verse 15 to 17. Blow the trumpet in Zion. Sanctify fast. Call a solemn
assembly. Gather the people. Sanctify the
congregation. Assemble the elders. Gather the
children. Those that suck the breast, let
the bridegroom go forth of his chamber and the bride out of
her closet. Let the priest, the ministers
of the Lord, weep before the porch and the altar. Let them
say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to
reproach, that the heathen should rule over them. Wherefore should
they say among the people, Where is their God? Blow the trumpet
in Zion. Oh, the blessing that Almighty
God gives when He sends a preacher of the Gospel. God gives a man
a heart to want to study, want to seek God, and ask God for
mercy to preach the Word of the Lord, to hear what God has to
say, and to have a people that wants to hear what the Lord has
to say. Oh, these priests, verse 17,
let the priest, the ministers of the Lord, weep before the
porch, the altar. Let them say, Spare thy people,
O Lord. Give not thine heritage to reproach. I pray that. I pray God keep
us here. We've talked about that so many
times. Lord, how thankful that You've given us a place where
we can hear the Gospel. Thank You raised up a candlestick
of light. Thank you that you would send
and keep these people according to your everlasting purpose and
promise. Let the priest, the ministers,
those that speak to God for the people, the priest, oh, but what
joy I know there was for them to hear the priest Speak to the
Lord and say, Lord, spare. Give not your heritage to reproach. But you know what? Oh, how this
causes me to realize afresh the true need of the Christ, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He who ever liveth to make intercession
for His people, to hear Him that says, I speak on your behalf
forever, pleading His own merit, His own blood, the one in whom
the Father is well pleased. This is My beloved Son whom I
am well pleased. He who is the priest the Scripture
sets forth forever after the order of Melchizedek. And with
that hope that's given, here's the grace. that's promised. Look
at chapter 2, verse 18 to verse 27. Then will the Lord be jealous
for His land and pity His people. I read these words over and over
and over. And I think, you know, when the
Lord sent that swarm of bugs through that land, I know this. They deserved it. But you know
what? I deserve the same thing. I deserve
devastation in myself. But I think of the mercy of Almighty
God when He would say, I am going to have mercy on compassion on
whomsoever I will. I say, Lord, can I be found in
that group? Then will the Lord be jealous
for His land and pity His people. Yea, the Lord will answer in
saying to His people, I will send you corn and wine and oil,
and you shall be satisfied therewith. And I will no more make your
reproach among the heathen, but I will remove far off from you
the northern army and will drive him into a land barren and desolate
with his face toward the East Sea and his hinder part toward
the utmost sea. And his stink shall come up and
his ill favor shall come up because he's done great things. 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 her
strength. Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord
your God, for He hath given you the former rain moderately. He
will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, the
latter rain in the first And the floors shall be full of wheat.
The fats shall overflow with wine and oil. And I will restore
to you the years that the locusts hath eaten, the canker worm,
caterpillar, palmer worm, my great army which I sent among
you. And you shall eat in plenty and
be satisfied. Praise the name of the Lord your
God that He has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall
never be ashamed. And you shall know that I am
in the midst of Israel. that I am the Lord your God,
and none else, and my people shall never be ashamed." Oh,
what a blessing to continuously feed upon Him who is our daily
bread. He said, "...that which I took
away from you, for your good, to cause you to see your need
of Me, He said, I'll give back to you.
And don't you know the people who would see this and say, Lord,
how merciful, how kind You are. Lord, You're the food of our
soul. Lord, feed me again. Lord, feed
me right now. Lord, while I sit and hear the
Gospel being preached right now. Lord, feed me. Lord, help me
to hear. Cause me to muse upon these things. Bring this back to my memory.
Help me even right now. We need Him who is our salvation. He who is our comfort and assurance. He who hedges us about and sends
the rain of His merciful Word. We need the presence of His Spirit. Look at verse 28 in chapter 2.
It shall come to pass afterward. I will pour out My Spirit upon
all flesh. And your sons and your daughters
shall prophesy. Your old men shall dream dreams.
Your young men shall see visions." Now, I know for a fact that that
verse of Scripture right there was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. In fact, you can go back to Acts
2, 17 to 21. Quotes Joel 2 right there. And the Lord poured out His Spirit
on the day of Pentecost. And the people heard. It was
an amazing thing. There were all kinds of different
countrymen that were there. They spoke different languages.
They didn't understand the same language. But Peter and the apostles
were standing up and preaching the Gospel. And you know, it's
kind of hard to know for sure, but whether the preaching was
actually preached in that native tongue or whether they heard
it in their native tongue. They were Galileans and the people
knew it. As I've said before, I don't
speak Russian. But you know, when I hear it
spoken, I can say, that's Russian. That sounds like Russian. I don't
know what you're saying, but it's Russian. It sounds like
Russian to me. Well, these people said, these
are Galileans. Their speech is the speech of
Galilee. But how is it that we all hear
these wonderful things in our native tongue? It was a miracle
of God's grace on the day of Pentecost that God Almighty sent
His Spirit. That's what He said. As you come
to pass, I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh, not just Jews,
Gentiles, men, women, bond-free. Male, female. I will pour out
My Spirit upon all flesh. Your sons, your daughters shall
prophesy. Your old men dream dreams. Young
men shall see visions. But every believer, I know this,
has the Spirit of God poured out upon him. Poured out upon
him right now. Here is the miracle of God's
grace. The preaching of the Gospel is
that which God blesses. is the message, this message
that honors God, that puts a man in man's place, in the dirt,
in the dust before God and tells man what he is by nature and
sets forth who God is, sovereign, right, just, holy, good. And Almighty God deals with people
in accordance with His will and purpose and has mercy and compassion
as He will. This is the God of the Bible.
The Lord has promised to His people, I'm not going to leave
you comfortless. I'm going to chastise you because
I love you and I'm going to lift you up and bless you. I know
while we're in this world, we struggle with this flesh. We
struggle with sin within. We struggle with the powers of
darkness, but we know that the Lord is saving His people. I want you to hold your hand
right there, Joel. Turn to 1 Corinthians 1.18. I
want to show you a passage of Scripture. You've read this before,
but here again, it's safe. 1 Corinthians 1.18. 1 Corinthians
1.18. For the preaching, of the cross. And I'm not talking
about just the day of the crucifixion. The preaching of the cross is
everything that Almighty God purposed eternally to do for
His people and accomplished in the substitutionary death of
the Lord Jesus Christ. When the Lord said it's finished,
everything that God Almighty had ever purposed to do for His
people in their redemption was completed at Calvary. That's
the preaching of the cross. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God. Now if you go back and you get
a literal translation of that, here's what it is. For the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto
us which are being saved." Which are being saved. God's people were saved eternally, justified
freely before the foundation of the world. Saved. And prove
that. Who has saved us and caught us. God's people are being saved
right now. Being kept. Now you think about
it. Just look at Israel. Where were they? Well, they were
in the land. What were they doing? Rebellion.
What did God do? He sent some locusts. Just wiped
it out. Took away. Took away. Got their attention right quick.
I'm telling you, Almighty God, who would not leave them to themselves. In tender mercy, He said, call
the assembly. Let the ministers sound the trumpet.
Let the priest cry unto the Lord. Let the priest approach God.
I'll give you back the corn. I'll give you back the wine.
The sacrifice unto us that are being saved. That's what God's
doing right now. He's keeping us. Keeping us.
He will not let His people go. He will not let them go. Kept
by the power of God through faith being saved. And I'll tell you
this, in that day, in the day of the Lord, He's going to save
us. In that day. Standing before
Him, we've been saved or being saved And we shall be saved. I know
this. God's Word is not going to return
unto him void. I tell you what I know. Look
at verse 32. 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 delivered. as the Lord has said, and in
the remnant whom the Lord shall call." Now, I'll tell you, if
there's ever been somebody to say, is there a verse of Scripture
that you can think of that would just sum up the whole Word of
God? I'd say Joel 2.32 would be it.
There's the sum of our preaching right there. That right there was the subject
of Peter's preaching at Pentecost. Whosoever, whosoever, as I said
a while ago, Jew, Gentile, bond-free, whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord. What does that mean? I'm not
talking about just the verbal, you know, people will try, they
give these invitations. And they think that just because
someone made a verbal, you know, this is to call on the Lord to
worship. Worship in heart. Calling on
the Lord is not something that somebody is going to see in you. God sees it. Looking to none
other. I looked this up. to get the
meaning of this. Worshipping the Lord alone. That means you and me excluded. Worshipping Him alone. Not looking
to myself for anything. Looking to myself for nothing. Nothing. Bowing. in heart, depending upon thy
faith, crying from the heart for mercy, whosoever shall call
on the name of the Lord." The character is what name means. The character of the Lord. What's
His character? Well, He's sovereign. He's holy. He's just. I know He's going
to deal with sin. Has He dealt with my sin? If
He's dealt with my sin in Christ, and Christ would make sin for
me, then I'm telling you, the character of the Lord for me
is He's my Savior. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be rescued. That's what that word means.
Rescued. Rescued. For in Mount Zion and
in Jerusalem, shall be deliverance." The Lord's Gospel, the power
of God unto salvation, is declared from His church. If God Almighty
raises up assemblies, and we're part of His bride, the church,
for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, shall be deliverance, the proclamation
of deliverance. the gospel. As the Lord has said,
and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call, God's got a people
and they're going to come. He's going to call them. But
in closing, two things. Here's what it is. I know this.
Judgment is sure for the rebellious. I know. I know that People falsely
accuse preachers of the gospel and those that believe it of
being too narrow-minded. But listen, I'm going to tell
you this. We are no more narrow-minded
than the Scriptures reveal. This is what God reveals. I know
that judgment is sure for those that will not come. Chapter 3,
verses 1 and 2, For behold, in those days, in that time when
I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem. And I
will also gather all nations and will bring them down into
the valley of Jehoshaphat and will plead with them there for
My people and for My heritage Israel whom they have scattered
among the nations and parted My land." The valley of Jehoshaphat,
I found, is the same as the valley of decision, the valley of threshing.
God said, I'm going to deal. with all rebellion. Verse 14,
it says, multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision for
the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. Great
masses. One great surging throng of rebellion
that goes blindly to their destruction. They rage together. And imagine
the Scripture says, Psalm 2, 1 and 2, Vain things against
the Lord. Does it not just grieve you when
you hear the disrespect that's uttered against the God that
we love? The God of all grace. The God of mercy. And people
will stand in utter rebellion against God. But the Lord says
the day of decision is coming. The valley of decision. The valley
of threshing. That place that there is going
to go severe, sharp judgment for everyone without Christ. The day of the Lord is near,
the Scripture says. But His judgment is sure for
those that will not come, will not bow as the Lord has set forth
in His Word. Here is the last point. Salvation
is sure for all who trust Him and God is going to avenge his
own. I want you to look at the last
three verses of chapter 3 in this prophecy. The Scripture
says, verse 19-21, Egypt shall be a desolation and Edom shall
be a desolate wilderness for the violence against the children
of Judah because they've shed innocent blood in their land. I'm going to tell you what He
just said, and then I'm going to go back and read it again. Almighty God is going to send
judgment. And you know why He said, I'm
going to send it? Because of the way my people were treated. Because of the way my people
were treated. To put a hand on God's people.
Be careful. I say this, I mean with God's
authority. Be careful what you say. Men,
women that speak disrespectfully against God's people, speak disrespectfully
against Him. That's what He told Saul of Tarsus.
Why are you persecuting Me? I'm going to go back and read
that verse. Verse 19, Egypt shall be a desolation
and Edom, that's the lineage Esau. We are going to look a
little bit more at this in this next prophet too. Edom shall
be a desolate wilderness for the violence against the children
of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.
But 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. Now, that last verse of Scripture
right there is one that was for me, and it is still,
a very trying verse of Scripture to try to get the heart of. But
having looked at the words as carefully, Err not. As I've said before, you get
into some of these prophets and you start hearing what these
prophecies are and you ask the Lord for guidance and direction.
I don't want to say anything disrespectfully. I don't want
to say something wrong. And if I do, I pray the Lord
show me, correct me, forgive me. For I will cleanse their
blood, the Word, The word cleanse right there is not what you're
thinking, talking about the cleansing and the washing away of the filth. The Lord has done that. He said
that in verse 20. That's what He said. Judah shall
dwell forever. Jerusalem, generation to generation.
Now here in verse 21, the word cleanse there is actually exterminate. Exterminate. That's what the
word means. I will exterminate it. Here's
what he's saying. He said that Almighty God has
set forth. He's been talking about it. He's
talked about it. It started in verse 19. And he was talking
about what he was going to do to Egypt and to the lineage of
Esau. Esau and Jacob, those two. But here's the lineage of Esau,
Edom. It's going to be a desolate wilderness. for the violence against the
children of Judah because they've shed innocent blood in their
land. Judah shall dwell forever in Jerusalem from generation
to generation." But he said, what I'm going to do, I'm going
to avenge the slaughter. I'm going to exterminate. I'm
going to avenge the slaughter. Those that were martyred for
my namesake, I'm going to avenge. my people. Vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord. And if I am not mistaken, if
I'm not wrong, and I've looked at those words and prayed, asked
in God's direction, I think that that's the spirit of that last
verse of Scripture. I will avenge their blood that
I have heretofore, maybe not avenged yet, But in the day of
judgment, the day of the Lord is coming, and I'm telling you
there's going to come a day when all the accounts are going to
be settled. All the books are going to be opened. That verse
of Scripture is consistent with that passage that deals with
the books shall be opened, and all men shall be judged out of
the books. Those that stand before God Almighty
in that day and say, Lord, up until that moment, Lord, Lord, we prophesied in Your name. We
cast out devils in Your name. We've done many mighty works
in Your name." And he said, I'm going to exterminate
you. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. My friends, hear the Word of
the Lord. Joel has long since left this
world, but Almighty God still continues to preach through the
words. His Word is life. God's Word never changes. God's
Word is going to accomplish the purpose for which it was sent.
I pray that the Lord bless these words to our heart and cause
us to remember a friend. Almighty God has a people. He
is going to save them. If the Lord has shown mercy to
you, thank Him. Thank Him. Bless His holy name
for His namesake. Amen.