We turn together to God's word
this morning. May he bless it to us as we consider
it. As we turn to the chapter we read in the book of Joel,
chapter three, and we'll read the final six words, the final
clause in Joel chapter three, verse 21. Verse 21, for the Lord dwelleth
in Zion. Joel chapter three, second half
of verse 21, for the Lord dwelleth in Zion. Joel spoke to God's people in
Judah primarily. And in speaking to them, he was
speaking of course to what we would term an ancient society.
which was largely a farming based society, a farming community. Of course, there were their towns
and cities, Jerusalem most notably, but generally speaking, a people
who lived off the land and relied on the prosperity of their crops. The greatest fear in the Middle
East, those times particularly, would have been famine, would
have been the destruction of crops. and in therefore their
livelihoods, their source of food, their source of income.
And Joel speaks to Judah at a time when the greatest fear was realized. Because we read in Joel chapter
one that a swarm of locusts had come. We were thinking this morning
in the Sunday school about locusts, just to remind those who were
there and to inform others who weren't there. Locusts, though
not the biggest of animals, at times they swarm. Millions and
millions of locusts swarm and they will devour millions of
pounds of vegetation in a day. They will strip the crops bare
and leave what was once fruitful and hopeful completely barren
and desolate. And when Joel speaks to Judah,
this is what was happening or what had just happened. Joel
chapter 1 verse 4, he says, that which the Palmer world hath left
has the locust eaten. that which the locust hath left
hath the canker worm eaten, and that which the canker worm hath
left hath the caterpillar eaten." And here it's thought these different
types, these palmer worms, locusts, canker worms, these are different
types of locusts and it's thought that perhaps these canker worms
particularly are the offspring of the locusts and the locusts
would come and would devour what was there and they would then
swarm and leave the young wingless offspring who would clear up,
as it were, what was left before they also developed to grow wings
and swarmed as well. Effectively, what we have is
this repetition. One, the palmerworm first eats
and destroys, then the locust comes and destroys anything that
was left, then the cankerworm, then the caterpillar. Effectively,
nothing is left by the end. There is complete devastation
in the land. And he says, a nation is come
upon my land, strong and without number, whose teeth are the teeth
of a lion and hath the cheek teeth of a great lion, and hath
laid my vine waste and barked my fig tree. He hath made it
clean, bare, and cast it away. the branches thereof are made
white. So you see the picture here of all the, even the bark
stripped off the trees. It's clean bare, the vines have
no fruit, no vegetation at all left behind. A devastation in
the land. And as a result, there is hunger,
there is starvation. He says, how do the beasts groan? This is chapter Chapter 1 verse
18. How do the beasts groan? The
herds of cattle are perplexed because there is no pasture.
Yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate. So there is no
food. The beasts of the field, the
flocks of the sheep are wasting away. The locusts have come and
stripped the land bare. It would seem that this was a
real event that Joel was living through and saw, and he describes
it in his first chapter. But then as he comes into chapter
two, having taken and described those events, he takes it as
an illustration and as a picture of something more serious and
greater that is to come. And he describes that as the
day of the Lord. There are disputes about when
the Book of Joel was written. It's not clear. It's not that
easy to date the Book of Joel. He doesn't tell us who was reigning
or what period of time he was living. But it seems, I think,
to indicate that the further day of the Lord that he is referring
to is the time of the Babylonian invasion. And he is speaking
that as the locusts have come and stripped the land bare in
a natural sense, so this greater day is coming of judgment when
the Babylonians through Nebuchadnezzar will come, will strip the land
bare as a punishment on the rebellious people of Israel, of Judah. And it will be like the locusts
swarming across the land to bring destruction into the people of
God. So he takes this picture, he
warns them of a day of the Lord that is coming, and as a result
he calls them in the second half of chapter 2 to repentance. Therefore also now saith the
Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart. and with fasting,
and with weeping, and with mourning, and rend your heart, and not
your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God. You see, the
locusts have come. Destruction, the day of the Lord,
is coming on you. Repent. Turn again to the Lord,
for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness,
and repenteth him of the evil. So he calls them to repentance. And he reminds them that if they
do repent, the Lord is gracious. The Lord will restore them. The Lord will bless them. Verse
21 of chapter 2. 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, and the tree beareth her fruit. The fig tree and the
vine do yield their strength. Be glad then, O 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. And the floor shall be full of
wheat, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. You see, he
promises blessing. the opposite to the destruction
of the locusts. Now there will be rain and there
will be full of wheat and there will be flowing with wine and
with oil. There will be blessing if you
turn to the Lord, if you repent for the day of the Lord is coming. And that is the context of chapters
one and two, the swarm of locusts, the day of the Lord, the coming
destruction, and then a call to repentance and blessing. should
they do so. Moving into chapter three that
we read together this morning, part of that blessing that would
come for God's people if they repented and if they turned to
the Lord, part of the blessing would not only be the restoration
of what had been stripped away, would not just be the physical
of the growing of the crops and so forth, but would be a destruction
of God's enemies. And that's described in chapter
3 that we read together. And the Lord is pronouncing this
judgment on all those who had oppressed God's people. And in
a sense, that was another side of the blessing for God's people.
As we read together, He says, I will gather all nations and
bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, or the valley
of decision. 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. And he calls them, calls
them to face this judgment. Beat your plough-chairs into
swords and your pruney-hooks into spears. Let the weak say,
I am strong. Assemble yourselves and come, all ye heathen, and
gather yourselves together. Thither cause thy mighty ones
to come down, O Lord. Let the heathen be wakened. Come
up to the valley of Jehoshaphat, and there will I sit to judge
all the heathen round about. So you see, now we move on to
this declaration of judgment upon all those who had oppressed
God's people. The great day of the Lord, we
could say, on God's people's enemies. And then he concludes
this chapter, as we read in the final three verses, of the blessing
that were poured out on Judah. It shall come to pass in that
day that the mountains shall drop down new wine, the hills
shall flow with milk, and the rivers of Judah shall flow with
waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the
Lord and shall water the valley of Shittim. Great blessing on
God's people. Their enemies, Egypt, shall be
a desolation, and Egypt shall be a desolate wilderness. in verse 20, but Judah shall
dwell in forever and Jerusalem from generation to generation.
So you see, he concludes with this promise of prosperity and
of blessing and that the Lord will be with them. So we have
come from the desolation of the swarm of locusts stripping the
land bare to the day of the Lord, a greater judgment on the people,
most probably the Babylonian invasion, And then to a call
to repentance, and if they turn, there will be this blessing of
prosperity again and of the bringing down of the enemies of God. But here in the final six words
of Joel's book, I believe he tells them of really the greatest
blessing that God's people knew. Oh, it would be good to have
the vines healthy again. It would be good to have the
full of wheat and it'd be good to have the mountains flowing
with milk and wine and the rivers flowing with waters. It would
be good to have this prosperity. It would be good to have the
threat of their enemies of Egypt, of Babylon, of Edom and so forth
brought down. But the greatest blessing they
could know, it's this declaration for the Lord. dwelleth in Zion. The Lord is among them. The Lord
is in their midst, and that is why he will favour them. That is why he will bless them
and restore them and remain with them, because he dwells in their
midst. The Lord dwelleth in Zion. Well, like Judah, you and I face
the terrible day of the Lord as well. You and I do not face,
maybe we will in this land, maybe, I don't know, but at the moment
at least we do not face a swarm of locusts. We do not face what
Judah did in any sense. You're not facing Nebuchadnezzar
and his army, but we do all face the day of the Lord. And that
is a day ahead of us when the Lord will come, when the Lord
will return in glory, and when he will judge the world, and
when the world will be destroyed by fire, and there will be an
eternity ahead of us. Like Israel received warnings. You could say that the very act
of the coming of the swarm of locusts was a warning, was a
picture. And Joel takes it as a warning
of what is to come. So we receive warnings of the
day of the Lord to come. that there is judgment to come,
and we see it all around us. The very fact that we are constantly
reminded of the death of others, that others pass away, that others
leave this world, should serve as a warning that one day it
will be us. One day it will be our passing,
unless if the Lord returns, it will be our passing that others
will be talking about and mourning. Every funeral should serve as
a warning to us. The disasters around the world
should serve as a warning that one day a greater disaster is
coming, we could put it that way. One day the greater devastation
is coming when all will be burnt up that is in this world. A man's
weakness in the face of natural disasters, if we can call them
that in this world, man's weakness in their face shows to us our
utter weakness in the face of the day of the Lord. There are
warnings that the day is coming, like the people were warned.
And there is a call to repent. God commandeth all men everywhere
to repent. There is this day ahead and there
is a call therefore to turn from our wicked ways and to turn to
the Lord, to turn to him who may be gracious and to turn from
our sin. There is a call to repentance. The sad thing is how few respond
to such a call. how few hear it, realize its
relevance and act upon it by God's grace. But there is a call. The day is before us. The call
is to turn unto the Lord. And if we do, like Judah, if
we do, there is a promise of blessing. There is a promise
of prosperity. There is a promise of life. There
is a promise of spiritual blessing. And part of that will be the
downtrodden of our enemies, the greatest of which, of course,
is the devil. The downtrodden of him whose
head is bruised by the heel of the Saviour. And he will be seen
to be no more. He will be seen to be destroyed
by our glorious Lord Jesus. And there is the blessing of
heaven above. That is The lesson for us, the
day of the Lord is ahead of us. There's a call to repent before
it is too late. There is a call to turn to the
Lord who promises to bless those who come to him asking for mercy. But the greatest blessing then
that the Christian knows if they do by His grace turn to the Lord
and find Him as their Saviour, the greatest blessing they know
in this life and in the life to come is this, the Lord dwelleth
in Zion. God dwells with His people. Well,
what does this mean? Well, it's true to say that the
Church of God can often feel very alone. as individual Christians in this
world, we can feel alone, can't we? We can feel alone, perhaps
at school, amongst our peers. We can feel alone amongst our
colleagues. We can feel alone amongst our neighbours and the
world around us. We feel to be so small. And in the face of the power
of the world, of the media and of the prevailing philosophies
of today, the Church can feel alone. and weak. And when we look at ourselves,
when we look at what we are, when we look at our own abilities,
it's hardly surprising that we feel alone and weak. But what
do we have? Truly, rightly, we don't have
impressive, attractive things to offer the world. We don't
have things that will make them rich and naturally happy all
the time in this world. We don't have things that they'll
be attracted to, to keep them entertained and to keep them
enjoying the things in this world. We don't. What can we offer?
And yet, what can we do anyway? We know we have the Word of Life. We know that we have the Gospel
of Jesus Christ, but we have such poor means. We simply have
a book. I don't speak irreverently, I'll
qualify myself, but we do simply have a book, the Word of God. We say, well, giving someone
a book, giving someone the Bible, is that going to really make
a difference? You say, well, it needs expounding.
We need to preach, but that's just simply the words of someone's
mouth. Will that really have an impact,
make a difference? What can we do? You see, our
own weakness and our own abilities and the means that we have seem
to be so small, seem to be so weak, seem to be so ineffective
in themselves. So therefore we do often in the
face of all the enjoyment and all of the entertainment and
all the glitz of the world, we think, well, we're alone. We're
small, we're weak, we're insignificant. There's no hope for the advancement
of the kingdom of God. That may be our view if we look
to ourselves. But if we think like that, we've
forgotten something vitally important. We've forgotten the one vital
ingredient. That the Church of God is not
on their own. The Church of God is not weak.
The Church of God is not small. It may be numerically, but it
is not. Because God dwells in Zion. God is with the Church. This
dwelling tells us something so wonderful. Gives us such an insight
into the relationship between God and His people. He dwells
in Zion. It tells us, firstly, there is an intimate relationship
between God and His people. There's a sense of intimacy here.
He dwells in Zion. He's not on the outskirts. He's
not on the outside, at an arm's length, at a safe distance, as
it were. He is in the midst of his people,
and that shows a sense of intimacy, a sense of closeness. Way back in the Old Testament,
in the book of Numbers, we're told about the layout of the
camp of Israel in the wilderness. And it's very specifically laid
out. And they are told which tribe was to camp where. And
if you work out how it was to be laid out, you had the tribes,
three on each side in a square formation. And then in the middle
was the tabernacle. And there, of course, was the
altar. And in the midst of the Holy of Holies and the tabernacle
was the Ark of the Covenant. In the midst. of the people was
God's presence in the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle. So
when they camped, they were reminded that God was there. When they
moved, we read in the 11th chapter, I think it was, or the 10th chapter
of Numbers, when they moved from place to place, there was a specific
order in which they were to move. They didn't just pack up their
tents and all just get in a mass scrum and move on their way through
the wilderness. They had a specific order of where they were to be
in the moving. And the tribes are labeled again
where they were. And you will notice that the
tabernacle was again packed up, but in the midst of the moving
people of Israel. At times, of course, the Ark
of the Covenant was carried by the Levites at the front of the
of the camp, particularly when they went through Jordan, it
was at the front. But I don't believe it was always
at the front. It was at times, particularly the tabernacle,
was in the midst of the people when they were moving. You see,
whether they were camped or whether they were moving, God was in
the midst of the people in the form of the tabernacle. God was
there. He was intimately involved, intimately
amongst the people of God. Now one of the greatest judgments
or sadnesses at the time when the people of Israel sinned with
the golden calf was that for a time the tabernacle was removed
outside of the camp, a sign that God's presence was removed to
the outside for a time. And that was a judgment for their
sin. So the Lord dwelling in Zion
is this picture we have here of the Lord in the midst of his
people. He has come to his people. And this is the glorious truth
about our Lord Jesus Christ. When he came from glory to this
earth, to Bethlehem, and to live his life, he came in the midst
of the people. He came to the people. He told, he shall call his name
Emmanuel, which is being interpreted God with us. Not God by us, or
God aware of us, or God sees us, but God with us. You see the intimate connection
that God is with his people, and it's the same today. We're
told, know ye not, that ye are the temple of the Holy Ghost. Christ in you, the hope of glory. And it's the same when the Holy
Spirit comes and blesses the Lord's people. He comes within
them. He dwells in them. It's a wonderful, glorious truth
that God is intimately involved in his church. You think how
amazing it is that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God,
The second person of the Trinity, the glorious creator of the heavens
and the earth. The Lord Jesus came, and he came
into his creation. He stepped into time, into fallen
creation. But he didn't just step into
creation, the Lord Jesus Christ became his creation, in that
he became man. And he didn't just become man
for a period of time. The Lord Jesus Christ took on
flesh and that eternally, for he is eternally man in glory
and always will be man. He became his creation. He dwells with his people. Do you see the intimate link,
connection between God and man in that he has himself taken
on flesh for all time? He dwells. So there is a deep
love in this word. There is a deep concern. There
is a deep interest that God has for his people because he dwells
among them and he dwells among them today. It may feel at times
that he is far off, it may feel at times that he has left us,
but he most certainly has not. If we are his child, he dwells
within us and he dwells among his church. The Lord dwelleth
in Zion. So it shows a sense of intimacy
between God and his people. Secondly, it also shows a sense
of permanence, of permanence. This is not just a temporary
situation. He is not just tabernacling with
us. He is not just with us for a
short period of time. He is not just staying with us
for a period. He is dwelling. There is a sense
of permanence here. If we dwell somewhere, it's our
home. It's where we live. It's where
we will always be. If we're staying somewhere, if
we're on holiday, if we go to a holiday house, we can't be
said to be dwelling there. If we stay this way with someone,
we're visiting them for a few nights, we're not dwelling with
them, we're staying. Here is a difference, there's
a sense of permanence, of dwelling with his people. And why does
he dwell with his people? Well, amazingly, he is pleased
to be there. He delights. to be there. He is not forced to bless his
people. He is not forced to come and
dwell with his people because of anything we have done. He
delights to dwell with his people. It's an amazing truth and we
know this because he has promised. to never leave us. He has said,
I will never leave you nor forsake you. He has promised to always
be amongst his people. He has promised to dwell in Zion. And though he may feel far off,
if he is a God who keeps his promises, and he most certainly
is, then he will never leave us and he will always dwell among
us. In Isaiah we read those well-known,
beautiful words, don't we, of how he has graven his church
upon his hands. Have a sense of permanence. Can
a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion
on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet I will
not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon
the palms of my hands. Thy walls are continually before
me. In our homes we have walls. It
sets the boundary, defines the bounds of our house. The Lord's
constantly beholding the walls of the church. If he is always
looking at the bounds of the people of God, their habitation,
surely he is with them in the midst of the habitation. He is
observing the walls. He is observing them to see if
they are secure, if they are safe, or if there is any form
of attack from outside. But he is observing from within,
because he dwells in Zion. They are continually before him. So there is a sense of permanence
in this word. The Lord will never leave nor
forsake his church. Thirdly, there is a sense of
knowledge in this word. a sense of knowledge. Because
the Lord dwells in Zion, He knows about Zion. At our homes, we know what goes
on in our houses. We know like no one else knows. If we go to visit someone for
an afternoon, for an evening, we can get an idea. of what goes
on in their house. We know perhaps what they like
to do and how they lay out their house and so forth. We can get
an idea if we're visiting, but we don't really know what goes
on in the household until we become part of the household.
And we see them at their best and at their worst. We need to
be dwelling there to know. The Lord dwells in Zion, and
that means He is fully aware of all that goes on in Zion.
He sees and He knows. Nothing whatsoever is hidden
from Him. We may think we can hide things
from God. At times we sin, at times we
fall into temptation, at times we willfully do wrong things
as individuals and the Church of God collectively. We sin. And perhaps we think we can get
away with it. We think that God hasn't seen. We think that God
hasn't noticed. But if we remember this truth
that he dwells within Zion, then surely we know he has seen and
he is fully aware. So that truth can bring fear
in one sense, but it should also bring joy. The Lord knows where
we are. The Lord knows what we're going
through. The Lord knows what we will go through and what is
before us. He knows individually what our pathway contains and
what we must deal with. He knows collectively, as a local
church, what our pathway contains and what is before us, whether
it be times of joy or of sorrow. He knows globally the Church
of God, each individual member. He knows the times that are ahead
of us, perhaps times of tribulation, of persecution, perhaps times
of revival and of blessing. But he knows. And he knows where
we are today. He knows the prayers we've offered
up this morning. He knows the yearning of our heart. He knows
whether we're lively or whether we're lukewarm. He knows because
he dwells in Zion. Psalm 103, a beautiful psalm,
when it says, the Lord knoweth our frame. He remembereth that
we are dust. That amazing truth. He knows
our frame. He knows exactly what we are.
He knows our innermost being, personality and thoughts. He
knows our frame. And he remembers that we're dust.
He remembers that we're nothing, we're not able to do anything,
we're not great and glorious and holy in our own ability.
He remembers that we're like dust. Yet, as the psalmist says,
he has compassion on his people. As a father has compassion on
his children, so the Lord has compassion on them that fear
him. For we knoweth our frame, we remembereth. that we are dust. He knows us. Again, Timothy tells
us, the Lord knoweth them that are his. That's not just a general
awareness and knowledge, that's a deep, intimate knowledge. He knoweth them that are his. Because he dwells in Zion, We
all have our different paths, we all have our different spiritual
positions. Today, some of us perhaps are
more spiritually mature than others. Some of us may be early
seekers, desiring the blessing of the Lord. Some of us may have
been believers for many, many years. Some of us may struggle
with particular temptations. Some of us may struggle with
particular doctrines, and we find it difficult to understand
and to believe. Whatever it may be, He knows
and understands us. Not a thought passes through
our mind without his knowledge. Not a sin is indulged in without
his knowledge. And yet, and yet, he continues
to dwell among his people. You see, here is grace and love,
for the Lord dwelleth in Zion. So it shows a sense of intimacy,
a sense of permanence, a sense of knowledge, and then finally,
fourthly, of access. Here we have access to the Lord. We can approach him because he
is near at hand. He is a God who is there. We can speak to God as if we
could speak to a friend. We can come to him as we might
speak to another. And we can pour out our hearts
and our thoughts to him as we may to another. And the Lord
is always by us ready to hear and ready to help because he's
dwelling in Zion. He is always ready to hear your
confession. He is always ready to hear your
sorrow. You don't have to go into a confessional
booth. You don't have to wait until
the priest is available. For the high priest, the Lord
Jesus, is always. And he is the only one who can
and who does hear our prayers. Because he dwells. because He
is by our side. He is able to hear our groans
and our cries. He is able to hear our muddled
and confused prayers. He is able to hear our praise
and adoration, whatever it might be. He is able to hear us. There is access to God through
the Lord Jesus Christ who dwells in Zion. You do not need to go
on a pilgrimage. You do not need to go to the
heights of the Napoleon Mountains. You do not need to spin the prayer
wheels. You do not need to ascend to the priest in a church. You do not need to go to any
place or any person because the Lord Himself dwells in Zion. There is access to our heavenly
friend and therefore we can come. Come therefore boldly to the
throne of grace that ye may receive grace to help in time of need. Come boldly. So the Lord dwelleth
in Zion. This is a wonderful truth. and
it must surely be a great encouragement to God's people. It should really
lead us to worship. It should lead us in a sense
of thankfulness to praise our God for his blessing, for his
grace in deigning to come and dwell among sinners, those who
are not perfect and will never be this side of the grave, and
yet dwells among them. As the individual believer, this
should be a way in which we consider the wonderful relationship we
have with God, and to worship and praise him as a result, that
this God should love you. that God should dwell in you,
that God should send his son for you, that the Lord Jesus
Christ should have our name on his heart and on his hands as
he suffers on the cross, that God should come and bless us
with the presence of the Holy Spirit, that God should enliven
you and give you a hope for glory, that God should always be there
for you. This should give us a great sense
of humility and of indebtedness to our God for what he has done. And as the individual looks forward
then to a day when there will not just be God with us, but
in the world of sin, but God with us in the permanent heights
of glory. But this must also surely be
a great encouragement for the church in general, the company
of God's people. When we feel to be so low, struggling,
generally in number, in the way people hear or do not hear the
truth of the gospel. We feel that really little headway
is made and yet we're not being abandoned. We have not been left. The Lord will never abandon his
people because he dwells amongst them, because he is here. and as an individual, as a local
company, and as the church throughout the world. We must remember that
any man is simply an under-shepherd. God is the shepherd of the sheep. God is the head of the church. He loves them. He gave himself
for them. He shed his blood for their souls. He bought them with a price. They belong to him and therefore
he cannot leave them. What encouragement for the church
today. So may we continue to look to
him, continue to hold to his precious promises, believing
them to be true. May we seek him more in his blessing.
May we draw near to him more because he draws near to us and
he promises to do so throughout our lives. We have a wonderful
God. May we turn to him and find him,
him who dwelleth in Zion. May the Lord have his blessing.
Amen.