May the Lord be pleased to bless
us together as we meditate in his word this evening. Let us
turn to the prophecy of Joel and the second chapter and we'll
read the 21st verse. The second chapter of Joel and
reading verse 21. Fear not, O land. Be glad and rejoice. for the Lord will do great things. It's a wonderful thing to have
the word of God which speaks to the souls of the people of
God. And here Gerald is addressing
Israel and speaking to them. And of course, as we know, Historically
Israel often had walked contrary to God and God had continually
looked upon them and had mercy upon them. And so as we read
through this chapter we see how the Lord was telling the people
of his goodness and of his mercy and of his grace and also those
things that would come upon them, those things which would perhaps
press them down, perhaps those things which were to purify them,
perhaps those things which were to turn them more and more unto
the Lord. And so the Prophet tells us here,
fear not O land, be glad and rejoice. And the reason We really
take from the next clause which says, for the Lord will do great
things. Now, if we really believe in
our hearts the Lord will do great things, whatever that means in
your life and my life, And it may not be the kind of things
that you and I expect to happen, to be great things, but nonetheless,
they will be if God says they are great things, they will be.
And so the reality is, these words speak to us, fear not,
O land, be glad and rejoice. How we fail so often in keeping
our eyes on the Saviour. Remember there was that tempest
and that storm and Peter was in the boat and he saw the Lord
walking upon the water and the Lord encouraged Peter to come
to him. He jumped over the side of the boat and walked on the
water but when he looked around and he saw all the waves and
the billows he began to sink. What had happened? He'd taken
his eyes off Jesus. And that's the problem today.
We often take our eyes off Jesus. And therefore we look to ourselves,
we look to man to produce a solution in rather looking unto the Lord
himself. Fear not. There are no doubt
many reasons why we should fear. Many things perhaps in our lives
that we fear. Perhaps many times there are
those things that we fear. We fear the future. We fear the
unknown way. Perhaps we fear what's going
to happen tomorrow. Perhaps we see clouds as it were,
storm clouds perhaps gathering, and we wonder what's going to
be the outcome. And we fear. We fear, well, let
us remember. Here the Lord says, fear not. It's very clear, it's very straightforward,
and yet so often we do, because we take our eyes off Jesus. Because we have a little plan,
and we want that plan to be worked out, and it looks to us as though
it won't be. Well, it may not be. It may not
be. And perhaps we have a justifiable
fear, because that which is going to occur is not in accordance
with what we perhaps anticipated or wanted. But nonetheless, we
should recognise the truth of these words, fear not, O land,
be glad and rejoice, for the Lord will do great things. We
really often don't appreciate how great our God is. The trouble
is we often are so carnally minded and the carnality of our mind
doesn't bring us spiritual blessing. It doesn't bring us spiritual
peace. We find ourselves looking to
man rather than looking to God and to trust in the Lord for
the future. The Lord knows what is good for
us. And this word is true, it must
be true. God's word is true. For the Lord
will do great things for you. Now let me just say this. If the Lord takes care of us
spiritually and brings us safe home to glory, surely that is
a great thing. Surely that is the greatest thing
that you and I can ever desire and can ever find accomplished
with us, to find ourself safe home in glory. So therefore,
if we look, therefore, beyond the things of time to those eternal
realities, if we have a good hope through His grace of His
love and mercy toward us, there is no cause to fear, is there? whatever the situation may arise
in this world, on the earth, we have no cause to fear because
we know it will be well with our soul and we have reason then
to truly be glad and rejoice. Believe in the Lord, we'll do
great things for you and the great things will be then to
bring us safely through our little life on this earth with all the
difficulties, the trials, the temptations, the battles with
the adversary, the many things to naturally disappoint, yet
to realize, yes, there will be a good end. And that should be
our chief concern. That should be our chief desire,
to know the Lord is with us, and the Lord will not leave us,
nor forsake us. You know, in Isaiah we have Many
fear not it's good just to refer just to one or two and in the
41st chapter of Isaiah there are some beautiful words and
in the 10th verse we read Fear thou not And why can he say that? For I am with thee See if God
is with us We have no reason to fear, do we? Because God is
stronger than our fears. And God is able to do that for
us which we couldn't do for ourselves. Fear thou not, for I am with
thee. Be not dismayed. Be not dismayed. You see, we look as poor humans
look. We look at that which stares
us in the face, that which we observe. It looks as though everything
is going wrong. Everything perhaps seems to be
upside down. The problem is that we are then
dismayed. And why are we dismayed? We have
no cause to be dismayed. If God is with us, fear not,
for I am with thee. be not dismayed, and the reason
for I am thy God. Now we cannot ask for a greater
encouragement than to know that we have a great God who tells
us, for I am thy God. And we should therefore not fear,
fear thou not, for I am thy God. If God be for us, who can be
against us? God makes the mountains to flow
down at his presence. God makes the crooked things
straight. God makes the rough places plain. Our God is able
to do all these things. So often we spend our time worrying
about the unknown, worrying about that which may occur, forgetting
that we have a God who is looking after us, and a God who is watching
us, and the word goes on, for I am thy God, I will strengthen
thee. You may feel weak, you may feel
the temptations of Satan buffeting us, You know the Church of God
are buffeted as they travel through life. We're never promised an
easy journey. We're told there will be much
tribulation. We're so foolish we tend to forget
that. We tend to pass over it and we
think it refers to someone else. It doesn't refer to us. And yet,
here is the encouraging word, for I am thy God, I will strengthen
thee. Now, it's not a word that may
happen. He says, I will strengthen thee. That's a promise, isn't it? What
a blessing that is, to be able to come and look to this God.
Fear not. Fear not. I will strengthen thee. And not only that, he says, yea,
I will help thee. Whatever we need the Lord for,
he will help us. We can't have any greater blessing. No one can help us more than
Almighty God, because God knows how to help us. How to help us
naturally, how to help us spiritually, how to encourage us in our journey
of life. He says here, yea, I will help
thee. Again, you see, very positive. Let's be thankful that we have
a positive word of God, a word that you and I can rely upon,
because we can come to our God and say, Lord, I have said and
I'm relying on thy word. And my friends, we can rest our
soul upon the truth of scripture. I will strengthen thee, yea,
I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand
of my righteousness. To think of that, God holding
us up, spiritually and perhaps naturally, holding us up. Peter
was about to sink, wasn't he? The Lord put forth his hand and
grabbed him. Perhaps you and I may be about
to sink. What a mercy the Lord is gracious
and puts forth his hand and strengthens us and helps us. What a mercy then to have a God
like this. And then the 13th verse of this
same 41st chapter we read, For I the LORD thy God will hold
thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not, I will help thee. What we have from this, what
is inferred from this is, as you and I therefore journey through
this world, to realise that the Lord is taking us by our right
hand. I will hold thy right hand. And
if the Lord is holding us by our hand, you see, he's strengthening
us and therefore we might think the path is very slippery, we
may think it's a very dangerous journey, which it probably is,
but don't forget what the Apostle Paul said, I can do all things
through Christ that strengthens me. There's our place of rest. There's our place of support. There's our place of encouragement. And the Apostle Paul knew what
it was to be able to express such words. He had to walk a
very difficult path in this world. with much opposition and much
hardship. And yet, you see, he had that
blessed confidence in his God, so that he was able to say, yes,
that he was relying on, I can do all things through Christ
that strengthens me. Not in his own strength. That's
where we fail. That's where we rely upon ourselves.
Miserable, isn't it? Sinful, isn't it? Failure, isn't
it? And so, for I the Lord thy God. I the Lord thy God. On the face
of that, that's a wonderful statement, isn't it? To think that this
is spoken to the Church of God, for I the Lord thy God. This is the One who created all
things, the Almighty, Omnipotent, Omnipresent God, who speaks this. Oh, what words they are of encouragement. to the Church of God. We might
feel very low. We might feel perhaps almost
cut off. We may feel very miserable. We
may feel very afflicted. We may feel the Lord has forsaken
us. Perhaps we've forsaken God. Perhaps
we've taken our eyes off the Saviour. For I, the Lord thy God, will
hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not, I will help thee. And then he, 14th verse, the
next one, Fear not thou worm Jacob. He didn't speak of Jacob
as any wonderful person. My friends, when you and I see
ourselves small and insignificant like that, Fear not, thou worm
Jacob, and ye men of Israel. Not a self-righteous person,
not a person who thinks he can cope by himself, but someone
who is dependent upon God. Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and
ye men of Israel. I will help thee, saith the Lord. He doesn't leave it there. And
thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. This is the glorious
One who is speaking, our Redeemer. And why is it precious? And why
is it so very real? Why is it important? Because
if the Blessed Saviour has redeemed our soul, that means He's paid
the price for our redemption. And that price was His life's
blood. He sacrificed Himself in order to save our soul, in
order that He would be our Redeemer. My friends, the Blessed Redeemer
is not going to leave us. He's not going to say, well,
now you fight your own battles, you get on with it. He's going
to watch over us. He's redeemed us. Wonderful truth,
is it not? And so here we have this statement.
Fear not, O land. Fear not, O land. Speaking about
really the Church of God here. Fear not, O land. Be glad and
rejoice. So tonight, surely we have reason
to be glad and to rejoice that we have such a God, that we have
such a Redeemer, one who is so kind and gracious, one who does
not deal with us as we deserve. We wouldn't be here tonight,
would we? If the Lord dealt with us as we deserved, we would be
cut off. We wouldn't be here. The Lord's
mercies are great. Indeed, they're new every morning.
As Jeremiah says, great is thy faithfulness. Oh, we have a faithful
God, a God who does not lie, a God who speaks and keeps his
promises. So often, perhaps, we fail to
keep that which we say to the Lord, perhaps, and then something
arises And we find an excuse why we needn't go along that
way. Why we needn't follow that way. And therefore we find that
we walk in a dark way. We find ourselves wandering away
into that broad way which leads to destruction. And we need the
Lord to bring us back into the narrow way. However difficult
that way may be. Because in that narrow way the
Lord is with his people. I am with thee. What a mercy
then to know that. Fear not, O land, be glad and
rejoice. Be glad and rejoice. And we read
together in these following verses some great truths which we should
be encouraged by. When the Lord said, 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, Be glad then, ye 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, how necessary it
is, naturally, for rain to fall upon the ground, so that there
is that growth without any rain, There's a drought and there's
no true growth. And it's the same in our spiritual
life. And it's when the Lord comes
and sends down the heavenly rain, sends down His Spirit upon us,
so that we're like the mown grass. And we are refreshed. And the
Spirit is with us. And we go in the strength of
the Lord God. We don't rely then on our strength. The Lord has caused the rain
to fall. What a mercy it is. And there
will be blessing. And there will be prosperity.
Yes, there will be spiritual growth. I hope we all long for
that spiritual growth. We don't want to stagnate. We
don't want to stand still. But we should desire and pray
earnestly that we may grow in grace and in the knowledge of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And he tells us, and the floors
shall be full of wheat, and the fat shall overflow with wine
and oil. Why? For the Lord will do great
things. The Lord can bring great blessings. How easy it is to limit our God. How easy it is to look around
and say, well, of course, very much will happen. You know, we're
in the last times and we shouldn't expect anything. Well, we may
be in the last times, but we can still expect God to bless.
And we can still pray to God to bless. Because our God is
a great God. And we should not forget, He
has said, I will be inquired upon the house of Israel to do
these things for them. So easily we can find, we get
ourselves into a rut and we perhaps forget to pray almost, or at
least pray just in a formal way. But oh bless God when he grants
that spirit of prevailing prayer, because then we can humbly expect
the blessing. We can humbly expect the Lord
to appear and touch our hearts, so that the floors are full of
wheat and the Fats overflow with wine and oil. Yes, remember what
David said in the 23rd Psalm, my cup runneth over. God's blessing. Let us not limit
our God. Let us realize how great he is. It's easy to say, well, we believe
in a great God, but you see actions speak louder than words, and
perhaps we don't actually walk in that way. And yet, fear not,
O land, be glad and rejoice, for the Lord will do great things. And then he comes and he tells
us this, and this is a wonderful mercy, I will restore to you
the years the locusts hath eaten, the canker worm and the caterpillar
and the palmer worm, my great army, which I sent among you."
Now, the words are, I'll restore to you the years. It doesn't
say, I'll restore to you the one or two days. The clear inference is here that
perhaps we've allowed things to eat into our life. We've allowed things to penetrate
into our life. So there has not been that spiritual
prosperity. There's been, as it were, death
in the pot. Yes, we haven't benefited from
the preaching of the gospel, and we've been consumed by the
cares of this life, the things of this world. It's very easy
to be consumed by the things of time. And what a blessing
it is that we have such a kind and gracious God who doesn't
deal with us as our sins deserve and tells us that he will restore. Do we need restoring? God knows whether we need restoring,
whether we need to be brought back. Brought back to the narrow
way? Brought back to the good way?
Brought back to the right way? Or are we being consumed? Well, we have figuratively here
several things that consume. Locust, canker worm, caterpillar,
palmer worm, that great army. And the Lord knows how you and
I may be consumed by all of those things in a spiritual way and
I won't try and isolate them or speak and say what they could
represent because I might miss something out and you might think
I'm all right then. Well you and I need to examine ourselves
to see whether there are those things in our lives which have
brought us into a low place, a spiritually low place. So instead
of being near or nigh, we're far off. And of course, when
we wander far off, we're not under the eye of the Blessed
Saviour. What a mercy then if we are kept
close to him. Well, if we have wandered away,
and if we have been perhaps consumed by the things of time, consumed
by the things of time. It's very easy to be consumed
by the things of time. And by that I mean this, we put
the things of God in a secondary place. Perhaps not always intentionally,
but nonetheless there is this thing which arises and oh we
must do that. And then as this comes and oh
yes we must do that. And then there's something else
and yes we must do that. And we need to say, is it benefiting
our soul? Is it benefiting our soul? How
infrequently perhaps we ask such a question. But we find then
that we are being consumed by those things which have been
allowed to penetrate into our life. Well, here we are told,
and I will restore. We're not told how we will be
restored. The Lord knows how he will restore
us. But bless God, he says, I will
restore. And that's a great thing, isn't
it? To be restored. To be restored to a healthy condition. So there is that spiritual growth. There is that fruitfulness. There
is not just a shoot, there is fruit. There's not just green
leaves. there are flowers and fruit.
We don't want to just be satisfied with what we might term an outward
performance. We want there to be spiritual
fruit which will bring glory and honour to God and peace to
our souls. There's no peace in this world.
There's no peace in following the things of time. But there
is peace in following the things of God. And so here we have,
fear not, O land, be glad and rejoice, for the Lord will do
great things. Oh, my friends, may we latch
onto that. And may we pray that it may be
so, and that you and I may have our life perhaps changed, at
least in a right way, which is a way which brings honour and
glory to God. Early on in this chapter of Joel,
he tells us this. He's speaking about the things
that have been done. He says, Hear this, ye old men,
and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in
your days, or even in the days of your fathers? And he tells
us this. Well, let me just go on. He says, That which the palmer
worm hath left the locusts hath eaten, and that which the locusts
hath left hath the canker worm eaten, and that which the canker
worm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten. Awake! Now, the verse
previous to that was this. Tell you your children of it,
and let your children tell their children, and their children
another generation. And this we often fail in today,
to tell the generation following. And it means setting aside time
and telling the children of what has happened. Perhaps being honest
and telling the children that we've come into a sad position,
a sad state, because we've allowed the things of the world to enter
in and to separate us from our God. And our desire is now to
be blessed, and to be blessed indeed, and to realise for the
Lord will do great things. Again, how good it is when the
Lord gives us that grace to come and to confess our sins, confess
our shortcomings. It's not easy, is it? We never
like to admit we're wrong, do we? We never like to admit we're
wrong. And yet, as we stand before God,
how often we are wrong. Here we have this truth, I will
restore. He goes on, you shall eat in
plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord your God.
When the Lord blesses, we're not to consume it by ourselves.
We are to acknowledge the goodness of God. We are to praise him.
what he's done when he blesses us with spiritual food. And that really means, as I often
point you to, Christ. To feed upon Christ in a spiritual
way is to think upon Christ, is to meditate upon his great
and glorious work. That will feed the soul. Nothing
else really will. And how important it is, because
Jesus tells us so clearly except ye eat the flesh and drink the
blood of the Son of Man, there is no life in you. Let us not pretend to have life
and yet not be found meditating upon the glorious truths of the
Saviour in His wonderful life and glorious death and now His
wonderful intercession in glory. There is so much to feed upon
and ye shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the
name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you."
Is that true? Can we testify of that? You see,
for the Lord will do great things. My friends, if he's dealt wondrously
with us, he's done great things, hasn't he? No doubt. And my people,
then shall never be ashamed." Oh, bless God, my friends. If
we're never ashamed of the great and glorious work of the Saviour,
let us always acknowledge what He's done. My people shall never
be ashamed. And you must answer before God
today whether you are ashamed or whether you're not ashamed. 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. And my people shall never be
ashamed. Well, have we the evidence? The Lord is in the midst of us. I am in the midst of Israel,
midst of the church. My friends, we do desire truly
that the Lord will be in the midst of us, influencing all
of us individually and collectively to honour and glorify the great
name of our God and to turn to the Lord and have the evidence
in our spiritual life that he is restoring us. We should never
assume that we are healthy in the things of God. There's always
room for improvement. There's always room to seek for
greater blessings. because greater blessings bring
greater honour and glory to our great and glorious Saviour. And
let us never forget the cost of our salvation. Again and again,
let us remind ourselves what the Saviour did in dying upon
that cross at Calvary in order to save our souls. Oh, what a
blessing. Oh, what a mercy. What a wonderful
God we have. And to think now that he's gone
to glory to prepare a place for us. And here we are on the earth.
Are we honouring Him in what we do? Are we honouring Him in
what we say? And are we honouring Him in what
we think? All those things go together.
They shouldn't be separated. We shouldn't think, well, I don't
think bad things. Well, but I might say something
bad. Well, we shouldn't do any of
the things. We should think and speak and act on those things
which are for the honour and for the glory of God. And ye
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." You see, these are such encouraging words, aren't
they, to the Church of God. So encouraging, especially when
we've wandered away and the Lord looks upon us. Thankfully, he
remembers that we are dust. He remembers what we are. And
yet he condescends to come and draw us, draw us to himself. Draw us to himself. Draw me,
he says, Solomon, and we will run after thee. And it's interesting,
isn't it? He does use the plural. Draw us and we will run after
thee. We will run after thee. What a mercy today if you and
I know something of running after the Saviour. running after Him. You may have run away, you may
have run away from the Saviour, you may have said, I'm not going
to do this, I'm not going to follow the Lord, and you run
away. Bless God when we are so moved
by His Spirit that we desire to run after Him. Surely is it
not because of such a word as this, fear not O land, Be glad
and rejoice for the Lord will do great things. Now, has the Lord done great
things? Has the Lord done great things
for you? Has he done great things for me? Dare we deny it? Dare we deny it? I hope no one
here tonight can deny what God has done for them. My friends,
let us search our hearts. to find what God has done for
us. And naturally He appears very
often and hears our prayer naturally, but the greater blessing of course
is to appear for us spiritually. So that He comes and visits our
souls and directs us to the Saviour. And Christ becomes precious. His blood becomes precious. His
death becomes precious. His intercession becomes precious. His resurrection becomes precious. They are all precious and we
view them in that light. We praise God for them. Lord,
we do great things. My friends, they are great things
if we are led to Christ in that way. We're led to feed in that
way in a spiritual sense. And because of that, there is
then that spiritual growth and there will be then that fruitfulness
in the things of God. They will automatically follow,
they must. Well, what a mercy! And the Lord
goes on to say, And it shall come to pass, afterward, that
I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams your
young men shall see visions and also upon the servants and upon
the handmaids in those days when I pour out my spirit. Well I'm sure I hope we long
for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God. Perhaps it's our
prayer, I hope it is our prayer, will not thou revive us again
that we may indeed rejoice in thee. My friends, remember here,
we read about the great God, the great God who promises to
do great things. Perhaps we find it is because
our sins have separated between us and our God. Well, God is
compassionate. If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins. and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. Never forget to confess sin. Never think you've had a good
day without any sin. My friend, sin is mixed with
all we do. And the older we get spiritually, the more we see
the exceeding sinfulness of sin and the greater need to confess
sin. greater need to pour our heart
unto our God and the greater need to come to him at all times. Fear not, O land, be glad and
rejoice. Well, may we not fear God, may
we not fear God, may we be blessed with that true right fear that
we come to our God and fear not because he is a kind and gracious
God. But you see, if my friends, you
and I are walking contrary to God, if we are not listening
to his voice, if we're not obeying his will, surely we have reason
to fear, to fear what he will bring upon us. And yet you see,
if he gives us grace to do that which is right, we can believe
he will remember us for good. We read earlier in this chapter
where Joel says, and he says, therefore, also now saith the
Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, with fasting,
with weeping, and with mourning, and rend your heart, and not
your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God, For he is
gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and 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? You see, we are
to rend our heart, our innermost feelings, not just an outward
performance. It is that which affects our
soul, that which affects our heart. I know that the Lord would
come and grant us that grace to truly turn to Him, turn again. Oh, my friends, to turn to the
Lord, to seek for His rich blessing in our souls so that we may show
forth His praise, show forth what He's done for our souls.
Oh, there's so much to praise God for, surely, is there not?
And remember this wonderful word tonight. Fear not, O land, be
glad and rejoice, for the Lord will do great things. May we pray and watch and have
a humble confidence the Lord will hear and answer our prayers
for his great namesake and for his honour and for his glory.
Remember God is a jealous God and God will have the honour
and the glory, rightfully so. Amen.