I please the Lord to bless us
together this evening as we meditate in his word let us turn to the
prophecy of Joel and the second chapter and we'll read verses
25, 26 and 27 the prophecy of Joel, chapter 2 and reading verses
25, 26 and 27 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, that hath dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall
never be ashamed and he shall know that I am in the midst of
Israel and that I am the Lord your God and none else and my
people shall never be ashamed it is interesting to note that
this prophecy of Joel was written, but there is no indication when
it was written we have no real clue as to when this little prophecy
was written but the reality is that it is suitable really for
all ages therefore it doesn't have any timescale on it and
in the time it was written obviously it was appropriate for the people
in that age and it is as appropriate really for us tonight as we gather
together for worship. The Prophet on two occasions
in this prophecy says, Blow ye the trumpet in Zion. The trumpets
were only blown really on fairly rare occasions when solemn feasts
were being attended to, or perhaps times of war. So, with this introduction
really, blowing the trumpet in Zion, it's very clearly an important
thing to consider. It's not something that we should
just say, well, it's just another chapter in the Word of God, which
it is, and we should be thankful for it. But in this first verse,
The Prophet says, 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. Well, the Lord does still blow
the trumpet in Zion, in the Church of God. He does still sound alarms. And it's good when the inhabitants
of the Church of God do tremble. not knowing really what is before
them. For the day of the Lord cometh,
for it is nigh at hand. And then he says, A day of darkness
and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the
morning spread upon the mountains, and great people and strong there
hath not been ever the like, neither shall there be any more
after it, even as the years of many generations of fire devoureth
before them. and behind him a flame burneth
so it's clear with those introductory words really that it wasn't a
good time it was a sad time, it was a dark time the world has gone through many
dark times in its history many times of thick darkness many
times when the fire is devoured and when I say so that I mean
more really spiritually than I do naturally and so there have
been those sad times in the history of the church when these things
have occurred and so the Prophet goes on through this chapter,
we won't go through it but just come to some later verses when
he tells us Then will the Lord be jealous
for His land and pity His people. What a tendency there is for
us to forget that God is a jealous God. He guards His glory. He desires that His name may
be honoured and glorified. And so He is indeed a jealous
God. then will the land be jealous
for his land, and pity his people. Yea, the Lord will answer and
say unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn and wine
and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith, and I will no more
make you reproach among the heathen. We have this word in the text
we read this evening of being satisfied. It is a a wonderful
blessing if, under the Spirit of God, we are satisfied. It means the Lord has greatly
blessed us. It means the Lord has greatly
favoured us. And I dare say, if we're honest, we're not really
satisfied. We haven't been blessed to that
extent that we're totally satisfied with what the Lord has given
us. We always perhaps think and perhaps
usually rightly so that there's room for more favour and there's
room for more blessing. Then he comes down to verse 21.
Fear not, O land, be glad and rejoice, for the Lord will do
great things. Isn't it good to read such a
verse as that? We are often very fearful, fearful
of the future. We need to be, we should be,
the present time with regard to the things occurring in the
world and in our nation we should fear but nonetheless here we
have an encouragement to fear not and of course there are many
fear not's in the Word of God to speak to us as we face the
future the future is always unknown to us what a blessing it is when
we have that humble confidence that the Lord is with us the
Lord will not forsake us he will not cast us off and so there
is good reason therefore to fear not O land be glad and rejoice
for the Lord will do great things there are so many wills in the
word of God again to encourage us to recognise that we have
a great God who will do great things so often we limit God
so often we kind of put God into the same category as ourselves
but then has always recognised and realised God is a great God
He is able to do for us individually collectively as a church and
people as a nation far more exceedingly abundantly than we can ask or
even think so what a mercy it is therefore to have such a God
as this be not afraid ye beasts of the field you see we have
a statement here really to the beasts of the field they don't
have souls but nonetheless the Lord speaks to them for the pastures,
for the wilderness, for the spring for the tree berries, for the
fruit for the fig tree and the vine to yield their strength
be glad then ye children of Zion and rejoice in the Lord your
God." So therefore, in the midst of difficulty, in the midst of
trials, in the midst of opposition, perhaps from our own heart of
the devil, who tries to overcome us, be not afraid, but be glad
then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God.
for he has 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 well I'm sure we all know that rain
is so necessary for natural growth natural growth of plants etc
must have rain therefore spiritually we must have the blessing of
God we must have The Spirit of God come upon us as rain indeed. As we read in another case, as
upon the mown grass. We need this rain and the Lord
says here, He's given us 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. Well, perhaps the Lord
has been very gracious and has blessed us with spiritual blessings. He has favoured us. We have enjoyed
the favour of God, the former rain, but now we need more. We need the rain to come. Perhaps
the ground's parched, perhaps the ground's barren. We need
the Lord to come, to be gracious to us, recognising we don't deserve
it, recognising the need we have of repentance as the Church did
in the verses in this chapter. and need it again to turn unto
the Lord. Indeed, we're told to rend your
heart and not your garments. It's not something with an outward
show. It's that between your soul and
my soul and God. Rend our heart and not our garments
and turn unto the Lord your God. For he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and of great kindness and repenteth him of the evil
well that is our God that's the God that we are to deal with
it and surely it behoves us then to turn unto Him turn unto the
Lord your God and not to remain stout hearted or hard hearted
and so the Lord graciously comes and says and the floors shall
be full of wheat And the fat shall overflow with wine and
oil. Well that shows a time, doesn't
it, of prosperity. That shows a time of blessing. That shows a time when we shall
receive spiritual food. And what a mercy that is. And
here it is told, shall overflow. Overflow, what a mercy that is. David knew what it was, wasn't
it, have the blessing which overflowed what a mercy and favour it is
when the Lord comes to us so there is that overflowing with
the blessing of the Lord well then we come down to these three
verses where Joel says I will restore
to you the years that the locust has eaten the canker worm the
caterpillar and the Palma were my great army which I send among
you. It appears almost that there
are four years when there have been these times of famine when
the Lord has allowed his great army to come and to eat up all
that which is good and brought us into a time of poverty The
Lord did that, didn't he? As I mentioned in prayer in ancient
Egypt, when Israel was brought out of Egypt, there were all
those plagues which had no effect upon Pharaoh. They had effect
upon the land to a great extent, but didn't touch Pharaoh's heart. You see when the Lord brings
these things upon us, our heart may not be moved we
may remain hard-hearted we may remain barren and therefore what
good news it is to read words like this the Lord says he will
restore restore what we might say the wasted years the wasted
times in our lives and I'm sure all of us can look back with
regret upon times that we've lost times that have been wasted
times that have been taken from us either by the locusts or the
canker worm or the caterpillar or the palmer worm God has sent
it amongst us to bring us down to lure us to bring us down in
our own estimation, to make us recognise how poor we are, how
dependent we are upon the blessing of God. No man can keep alive
his own soul. How true that is, and the Church
of God are brought into situations where they recognise the truth
of words as that. They can't keep alive their own
soul, but the Lord does keep it alive but the blessing is
we are not left totally and there is this wonderful restoration
well it's a mercy if we know, if we have known this time of
restoration and we can bless God indeed for it and he comes
and says I will restore to you the years the locusts have eaten,
the canker worm and the caterpillar and the palm and worm of my great
army which I sent among you. And then you see, there is a
complete reversal, a complete reversal, not because of what
we've done, not because of our wonderful prayers, it's because
of God's love, because of his mercy toward us. He's produced
a change, and it's a great change. The Lord deals very graciously
and very wonderfully and so we read, and, and, it follows on,
and ye shall eat in plenty and be satisfied. Well that means
of course that we shall feed upon the blessed Saviour, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps we've been afar off. just like Peter, and yet, by
the grace of God, brought nigh. You see, in that situation, we
then, by the grace of God, view the wonderful work of the Saviour,
the wonderful plan of salvation. And what does it do? It rejoices
our soul. We bless God for the wonderful
plan of salvation. We bless God that we haven't
been left on the rubbish heap. He hasn't cast us off, but he's
remembered us with that favour he bears to his people. And to think of this wonderful
statement, and he shall eat in plenty and be satisfied. with a blessing of the Lord.
The Lord comes and favours our soul, lifts us up, so that by
faith we view the Saviour in all his sin-atoning glory, in
all the wonderful work which he performed upon the cross at
Calvary, and to have the blessed application that it was done
for us. You know the effect will be that
we shall repent of all our sins, we shall bow down before this
great and glorious God as our Lord and our Master, and we shall
desire to do His will. We shall desire to do that which
is pleasing in His sight, because He has been so kind and so gracious
to us and hasn't dealt with us as our sins deserve. And so we
shall eat We shall feed upon Christ. There is really no greater
evidence that we are blessed indeed, that we are one of God's
children, than to feed upon the Saviour. And that means to love
to hear about the Lord Jesus Christ. We never tire. It's always good news. We always
rejoice to hear what he's done and to recognise that he now
intercedes for his people at the throne of grace as he sits
at the throne in the right hand of the Father well he says, ye
shall eat in plenty and be satisfied it's a tremendous statement isn't
it to think that we will be satisfied by the grace of God we shall
be one day, when by his grace we shall look on his face, that
will be glory, be glory for me. We shall then be satisfied when
we awake in his likeness. It's a wonderful prospect, isn't
it, for the true Church of God. It's wonderful to think that
we shall be totally satisfied. There will be nothing to make
us unsatisfied. All will be peace and joy and
happiness and a favour to be with the saints of God in glory. And praise the name of the Lord
your God. We shall indeed praise Him forever
and ever. Let us remember, praise to God
doesn't start when the Church of God gets to heaven. It's a
continuation of what the Lord has blessed us with on this earth. So there will have been those
times that we will praise his name and praise the name of the
Lord your God. And the reason is quite clear,
because he's dealt wondrously with us." Dealing wondrously
with us means that he's come to us and he's brought us out
of nature, the darkness of nature, into the glorious light of the
Gospel. This is God's wondrously dealing
with us. What a blessing it is to be able
to testify that he has dealt wondrously with us. We want to
be able to testify of it. We want to have the evidence
of the love and mercy of God. And He has looked upon us in
our last state and dealt with us. It's good to be able to look
back in our lives and see the good hand of God dealing with
us. Dealing with us. When we cared nothing really
for the things of God, He watched over us. And He dealt graciously
with us. He came to us where we were.
He made us spiritually alive. He shone the light of the glorious
Gospel into our heart. It was wondrous dealings with
us. Great joy there was to know that God was and had dealt with
us, that hath dealt wondrously with you. If, as we look back, we can see
God having dealt wondrously with us. Oh, what cause to praise
and to glorify our God. And then he says, and my people
shall never be ashamed. We may be ashamed of our profession.
We may be ashamed of what we think and do. But we shall never
be ashamed of our God. Because our God is faithful.
Because our God is ever the same. Because our God does what he
says he will do. Because our God comes to us as
he has promised. I will not leave you nor forsake
you. The promises of God. We shall
never be ashamed of our God. We shall always have cause. to
praise him. We should always have cause to
bless his name. We should always have cause to
trace out the dealings of God with us. Well tonight, as we
perhaps view ourselves and recognise there have been those wasted
years in our lives, and the devil has come in and consumed our
time, and we have passed through years perhaps of antipathy perhaps
hatred to God and God's mercy has been toward us and he's very
graciously dealt wondrously with us and so the Prophet goes on
and say and ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel it's
a wonderful blessing this to know that the Lord is in the
midst of the Church of God. Indeed, Jesus in the midst. What a blessing that was, after
the resurrection, when Jesus came and stood in the midst of
the disciples and the others that were gathered together.
My friends, what a blessing it is for us today, when by His
grace, The Lord Jesus comes and stands in our midst and pours
forth a blessing, draws us to Him in love and union. And the Word tells us, and ye
shall know, times of blessing, times of favour, that I am in
the midst of Israel. There's two things here. That's
the first point. We should clearly know that the
Lord is with us, He's in the midst. And secondly, that I am
the Lord, your God, and none else. It comes back to the truth
that God is a jealous God. The Lord will have all the honour
and He will have all the glory. he won't allow other people to
take that honour and take that glory I am the Lord your God
and my friends if God is our God that's an eternal favour
an eternal blessing the Lord won't change his mind and say
well I've thought about this again and I don't think you're
worth it which of course is true naturally but you see if we are
amongst those whom he has loved with everlasting love. We can't
be cast off. He watches over us. He draws
near to us. He draws us to himself. And we
see a glory and a beauty in Christ which is only granted to his
church, those indeed who are called by his grace and that
I am the Lord and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God and
none else none else, nor will no one else take the place of
our God and to think this God He goes with us to think this
God is with us day by day watching over us watching over us not
forsaking us what a mercy it is to have such a kind and gracious
God. I am the Lord your God and none
else. And then he says again, and my
people shall never be ashamed. It's not vain repetition. It's
repetition to remind us of this great and glorious truth and
we will never be ashamed of our God. Never. We shall perhaps
in our lives but as regards to the truth of God we shall never
be ashamed because God fulfills his promises. Everything from
Genesis to Revelation is true. Everything that he has said comes
to pass and indeed may that be a comfort to us as we look forward
in our little lives to the time when by the grace of God we leave
this earth And the Lord receives us unto himself. That's why he
gives us that great and glorious statement, let not your heart
be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's
house are many mansions. If they were not so, I would
have told you, I go to repair a place for you. And if I go
to repair a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto
myself. that where I am there ye may
be also.' A great and glorious promise of God, spoken all those
years ago in the upper room to his disciples and yet as true
today as it was then. I am the Lord your God and none
else and my people shall never be ashamed. May the Lord be gracious
to us and apply these words tonight to the encouragement of our souls
and to realise although we may have passed, although perhaps
we are passing through dark and difficult times, the Lord doesn't
change, he is the same and as he says, he will bless and we
shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord
our God. Amen.