A little book of Joel. Joel,
I hope you read it. I read it several times in preparation
for this and kept, more and more kept being revealed to me. Read verses 1 through 3. Joel
1 verses 1 through 3. another generation. So he begins
the word of the Lord and he says, hear this, hear this, you old
men, how significant that is, relevant that is to this congregation,
which is older, been around a while. And he says, hear this now, I
have personally only preached one message from the book of
Joel since I've been here, 30 some year. Is this relevant? Or is this
just some old, archaic, out-of-date prophecy that has no application
to now? No, there is no old, out-of-date,
archaic prophecy. It's the living word of the living
God, and it applies to every living person, every generation. Actually, it's more relevant
now than ever because we're in the very last days. It's more relevant now than ever. It's easier for me to preach
messages of comfort. And I'm going to comfort. I'm
going to comfort. It's easier for me. It's more
joyful for me. I enjoy preaching messages that
are more comforting. He told Isaiah in chapter 40,
comfort ye, comfort ye my people. But everybody's not his people.
There are people in this room that are not yet his people. And you've heard this so many
times from me, and I first heard it from my preacher, my pastor,
that the scriptures are full of warnings. Warnings and promises. Warnings lest we presume, promises
lest we despair. But there's no promises to those
who don't heed the warning. Okay? And even God's people need
warning, don't we? There never comes a time that
we don't need to be warned. In fact, Zion, the Lord says,
all the prophets warned, warned, warned, warned. You've read them.
Warning, warning, warning, warning. Mixed with promises. And that's one of the big reasons
that the people hated the prophets and killed them all. They all
were killed. People don't like that. And Isaiah,
he said, comfort ye, comfort ye my people. That's chapter
40. You know what all went on before that chapter, beginning
with chapter 1. You know what that said. So,
all the prophets warned and sounded the alarm, and throughout this
prophecy it talks about the alarm, and they lamented, they lamented.
Jeremiah, you know, and in lamentation, they lamented, they mourned over
their generation, their evil, evil generation. It's never been
more so than now. And it should make us more lamed,
shouldn't it? For us and our children, shouldn't
it? The worse things become, the
more we should sound the alarm, right? The more complacent, woe
is those that are at ease in Zion. The more complacent we
should sound the alarm. Verse 2 says, hear this now.
Verse 3 says, tell it to your children. Tell your children
this. Tell them this. Verse 5, awake. Wake up. Paul said that, didn't
he? Let us not sleep as do others.
Wake up. Verse 6, the nation's coming
upon us, the enemy's on us, upon us. The enemy's upon us. The Lord has prepared us a table.
Here we see it. Where? Where does He prepare
a table? What does Psalm 23 say? In the midst of our enemies. Thank God for this place. Thank
God for this table. Thank God for the comfort of
the Gospel. Oh my, my. Sound the alarm. Now the Lord literally, and if
you read this book, it's just three chapters. The Lord literally
sent invading armies, literally sent armies to destroy Jerusalem. His people. His professing people. He literally sent armies to destroy
that nation and take people captive. One. Sin. Look at chapter 2,
verse 11. The Lord shall utter his voice
before his army. Joel is prophesying of something
that actually happened to Jerusalem. Chaldeans came and just wiped
them out and took the people captive. And this is not the
only time. This happened many times down through the history
of Israel. But the Lord said, they're my
army. I sent them. You know that nobody, you know,
that the king's heart is in the hands of the Lord. Like the rivers
of water, he turneth it whithersoever he will. Pharaoh did what God
told him to do. God hardened his heart, didn't
He? And all the rulers throughout
the history have been in the hands of the Lord and He sends
them because of sin and idolatry and unbelief. Look at verse 20
of chapter 2. Verse 20. He said, I will remove
far off from you the northern army. That is, this nation, this
army that he sent. Verse 25. The last line says,
My great army which I sent among you. And Psalm 17. David talks about his enemies
and asks the Lord to deliver them. He says, deliver them from
men who are your sword. In chapter 3, look at verse 2,
he says, I'll gather all nations and bring them down to the valley
of Jehoshaphat. We're going to look at that in
a few minutes. And I'm going to gather them all together against
my people. We're going to see what that
means in a minute. We're really going to understand what that
means. Armageddon. Well, if I'd announced this message
was going to deal something with Armageddon, there wouldn't be
an empty seat in here. The Lord said, the Lord Jesus
Christ, in Matthew 24, is where He gave a general summary of
the end of all things. When and how and so forth, in
Matthew 24. Very short, very brief, Matthew
24. He said, you'll hear wars and
rumors of war. He told them, his people, don't
be afraid. And there have literally been
wars and wars and wars since the beginning of time. And then and now, and it will
never stop, but this is not what we need to be afraid of. Invading
armies and nations is not what we need to be afraid of. We need
to fear and we need to be aware of an enemy that is unseen. Okay? And in my generation, just in
my generation, I wasn't born until after World War II, but You know, there have been armies
from Korea and Vietnam and Russia and what's next, China. The real battle that rages, the
greatest enemy who kills people, who holds men and women and young
people captive, He's an unseen foe that the world that is in
his captivity and under his dominion scoffs at and laughs at like
it's some fairy tale. He's very, very real. I'm talking about the God of
this world, Satan. He lays bare the land. In all
of this, we read how the land is empty and people are dying
and leaves the land with no... It keeps talking about, look
at verse 14 of chapter 2. It says, who knows if the Lord
will return and leave a blessing behind him, a meat offering and
a drink offering. 1, look at this, verse 9, the meat
offering, the drink offering is cut off from the house of
the Lord. The land is empty, it's desolate, it's void, there's
no meat offering or drink offering in the house of the Lord. What's
that talking about? There's not a person in here who shouldn't
know what the meat offering and the drink offering in the house
of the Lord is. Our Lord says, my body is my meat indeed. My blood is drink indeed. He
that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath life. I abide in
him, he abides in me. But this is what it's saying,
the gospel is missing. Look around you. Listen. It's
sad, isn't it? It's awful. Ephesians 6, go over there. This
tells us who we're battling against. Ephesians chapter 6. You know, we love Ephesians 1
and 2, but the last chapter is just full of warning. Put on
this armor now. Put on this armor. Ephesians 6, verse 11, put on
the armor of God. Why? We've got a wily enemy. Verse 12, we're not wrestling
against flesh and blood. China is the least of our worries. The ruler of China is in the
hands of Jesus Christ. He can't do anything unless the
Lord tells him to. And would God, the Lord, send
him against this nation? Maybe. Why? Idolatry. Sin. Unbelief. Wipe them out. He did that to Israel. He did
it to Israel several times for those very reasons. They claim
to be God's people. Oh, how this applies, Stephen,
how this applies to professing Christendom, Christianity. Christianity. Christianity means
people that worship Jesus Christ. A people that believe that Jesus
Christ is all in all. A people that love the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. A people that worship God in
spirit. Did you hear the radio mention?
Really worship God as God. And rejoice in the Lord Jesus
Christ, His gospel. So much so that they won't meet
any... They will never meet a time that
they don't hear the gospel. That's what they want to do.
He's their life. Not all this fun and games and
stuff, you know, family and fun and, you know, dinners and all
this religious crap that's going on today. Not God's people. But
that's all the land is full of, isn't it? The meat offering and
the drink offering is missing in the house of God. It's sad. It's no laughing matter. It's
sad. It's a weeping matter. Revelation 17 talks about I've got to go on. Revelation
17 talks about war. It talks about the whole world
doing war against the Lamb. The Lamb. You know where this
started? In the Garden of Eden. Satan's seed against God's seed. Against Christ. Talks about armies
following the Lamb. Talks about one thing overcoming
everyone and everything, the blood of the Lamb. About many
of them dying for the cause of the Lamb. But precious in the
sight of the Lord was the death of their sin. And He'll avenge
their blood. And then He's coming to shed
some blood. because of their rejection of
Jesus Christ. Full word. Fiction? Fairytale? Cunningly
devised fable? No. Simon Peter said, we beheld
the Lamb. We saw Him. We heard Him. He
came. And He's coming again. No, this is no allegory. This
is no fable. This is no fiction. This is fact. This is truth about Jesus Christ. Joel 1 and 2 is full of warnings. Go back to Joel. Joel's chapter
1 and 2 is full of warnings and a call to the people to lament. Lament. And verse 11, it says,
Joel chapter 1 verse 11, be ashamed. Did you read the last article
in our book? Far from men and women being
ashamed of sin and their rebellion and their cursing of God and
using God's name in vain, far from being ashamed, glory, glory
and shame. God forbid that we should ever
speak of sin, that I should ever preach on sin and talk about
sin without hanging my head. Be ashamed. Verse 13, he says,
gird yourselves. Gird yourselves. How do we gird
ourselves? He's talking about war, battle. How do you gird yourself? With
truth. Shod with the preparation of the gospel. Gareth lamented,
howl, he said. He tells the preachers, lie all
night on the ground, lie all night on the ground, call on
the Lord. Verse 14, sanctify a faith, call
a solemn assembly. It says that in chapter 2, verse
15, a solemn assembly, a solemn assembly. How should our assemblies
be? How should this assembly be?
Sober, solemn, serious. Serious is serious. This is not...
Paul said, Paul the Apostle said, I was with you in weakness and
fear and much trembling, didn't I? If this preacher, my general
tenor of life, is not serious, if I'm a clown, If I'm clowning
and joking and all that before I get in the pulpit and all of
a sudden get serious, you run real quick and you find your
preacher is serious about this. Paul said, I was with you in
weakness and fear and much trembling. Oh, may it be so with me. May
it be so with you. You see, this message is a message
of warning. It's an urgent cry to what? Repent. When Peter preached the Pentecost
to all those people, he said one thing, repent, save yourselves
from this untoward generation. Cry, mourn, fear. And all who do, all who do, it's blessed promises. All who turn, all whom the Lord
turn. All who cry, repent means, repent
means turn us, oh Lord, All who repent, like David. David
said, Have mercy on me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness,
according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies. Blot out
my transgressions. Wash me throughly from my iniquity.
Against Thee and Thee only have I sinned. That's repenting. Take not Thy Holy Spirit from
me. Create in me a clean heart. Renew within me a right spirit.
Oh, Lord. Anybody have See, there's not
only a war raging out there. I mean, there's not only evil
and wickedness out there. It's in here, too. You know, the Lord sent wars
and rumors of war. The Lord sent plagues, plagues,
plagues. Nothing changed. God hadn't changed. The world hasn't changed. Man
hasn't changed. God hasn't changed the way He
does things. He sent plague after plague after plague, and Egypt
didn't recognize it. God's people did. Plague after plague after plague,
and the last plague we should be worried about is COVID. The
plague we need to worry about is the plague of our own heart. Right? Send me COVID and kill
me before my sins do. Right? That'd be a blessing. Day of
one's death better than birth, Scripture says. Oh, Lord. Let me tell you this true story. Brother Ralph Marger, when he
was a little boy, he had a dog named Shep, the shepherd, named
Shep. He loved that dog. And one day
he came in, just a young boy, seven or eight years old, and
he came in and said, Dad, something's wrong with Shep. His dad would listen to him.
He said, Chip growled at me. He said, he's never growled at
me before. Father became grave. He said, Dad, he's kind of foaming
in his mouth. His dad reached up, walked over
to the mantel over the fireplace and grabbed his shotgun off it. He broke it open, put a couple
shells in the chamber and put it back. Dad? Rolf said, Dad,
what are you doing? He said, son, I got to kill Shep
before he kills you. There's only one. who can kill
this sin in us. Only one hope. Only one hope
for those who are dead and dying to be crucified with Christ. This
is the only hope. The only hope. So I preach a message of hope. Hope. Look at chapter... Chapter 2, he says, sound the
alarm, blow the trumpet. What's a trumpet? It's a gospel
trumpet. There were two trumpets over numbers, Lord told, I think,
chapter 10, I think, where the Lord told Moses to make two trumpets
of silver, solid silver. What's silver? That's the price
of the atonement, of redemption. Okay, all the sockets under all
the posts, the whole, everything was on silver. The price of redemption,
the atonement, the blood of Jesus Christ. They said make two trumpets. One was for the calling of assembly,
calling the people in. It was a calling of a trumpet.
Come, come, come. What for? Why are you gathering?
To see the sacrifice. the meat offering, the drink
offering. Come, all gather. We're going to gather around
the lamb being slain. This is it. And then there was
another warning. The enemy's approaching. It made
them all wake up and go out. They were to go out. It means
one was to gather and the other one was to go. One was blessing
and gathering and assembling and all that, and the other trumpet
was Get up now. We're leaving. We're leaving.
We're going out in the world. And there's danger. There's nothing
but enemy. That's the gospel, isn't it? Come on. Come on. I'll
tell you the good news. Nothing but good. There's good
news. There's hope now. Only hope in Jesus Christ's blood. Come on now. Gather with me.
This is our only hope. Why? Because we're going out. We're going to have some dangerous
blood. The second message this morning is about darkness. Light
and darkness. Darkness is fearful. Darkness
is dangerous. Dangerous. Well, the Day of the Lord. He
says throughout this book, the Day of the Lord, the Day of the
Lord, the Day of the Lord. Chapter 2, verse 11. Look at
this. It says, The Lord shall utter
His voice, for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible.
Who can abide it? The day of the Lord. All through
the Scriptures, the day of the Lord. It's often spoken of, the
day of the Lord is often spoken of as the judgment of God against
the people for their sins. By war, by plagues. The last
plague in Egypt before the death of the firstborn was darkness. Darkness that could be felt. Are we in the last days or what?
Right before the Lord coming, before we're going out. It's
really good news to us. We're not in darkness. That's
my next message. But the Day of the Lord is often
spoken of as judgment against the people for their sins. The
Day of the Lord is the day of the Lord Jesus Christ when He
came to this earth the first time, when He came to live on
this earth. The sun of righteousness arose
on this earth, this dark place. The sun walked among us. He lived. He died. The day of
the Lord is speaking often of the day the Lord Jesus Christ
died on Calvary's tree. Great and terrible. Very terrible. Malachi 3 talked about the day
of the Lord, who shall abide his coming. He's like a refiner's
fire, full or so. The day of the Lord, the day
the Lord Jesus Christ died, it talks about darkness. The whole
world was in darkness from the third hour, sixth hour to the
ninth hour when Christ was hanging on Calvary's tree. The day of
the Lord is often spoken of in scriptures as the day He comes
to you. The day the gospel comes in power, the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ comes in power to you. It's both terrible and wonderful. It's a day of darkness. and a day of light. It's a day
of death, a day you die, and a day you live. It's a day of
great fear, conviction of sin, and great joy. The day of the
Lord. The day of the Lord is often
spoken of in scriptures as a day when He's coming back to this
earth. And then after that, there will
be one long day. No more night. No more darkness. No more enemy. No more enemies. Anybody want that? Surely someone says, and maybe
not in this room, but someone who hears this or will hear this,
where is the promise of His coming? As in the days of Noah, they
say, everything continues like it always had. Well, look, everything
is peace, peace. We're not hearing from Korea
and we're not worried about North Korea anymore. We haven't heard
from that fella in a long time. When COVID quietened him, it
doesn't take much for the Lord to... I laugh. I do. He that sits in
the heavens laughs. We haven't heard from that fella
in years. He's still there. Is he still a threat? Well, you
know. China. Everything's continued like it
always has. You know, everything's coming from China. Everything's
fine. Everything's just fine. Oh, isn't
it? Chapter 2 actually happened to
Israel. The Lord sent an invading army
and took them all captive. And as I said, it's like professing
Christianity today. Here's the blessed promise, okay?
Chapter 2, verse 12. Let's just read it. Chapter 2,
verse 12. Now therefore, he said, turn
even to me. Turn to me, God said, Christ
the Lord, with all your heart. Fast and weep any more. Rend
your heart, not your garment. Turn unto the Lord your God,
for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, of great kindness. Repenteth Him of the evil. Who
knows if He will return and repent
and leave a blessing behind Him, a meat offering and a drink offering.
Who knows? Turn. Call. Ask. Modern Christianity
talks about all this. Claim it. Claim it. Claim the
blessing like men deserve it. The way we approach God is beggars
fall on our faces. You don't have to show a blessing. God bless America. Why? Because
we're such a good nation. Oh, no. Oh, may the Lord bless America.
May the Lord have mercy on America through preaching the gospel.
Show America, show my people their sins, God said to Jeremiah. Restore, keep reading with me,
chapter 2. Blow the trumpet, verse 15. Call
an assembly. Gather the people. Assemble the
elders. Gather them all, young and old.
Verse 17, let the priest weep, saying, Spare thy people, O Lord,
give them not to reproach the heathen. They're out there amongst
the heathen. Read on. Verse 18, if this happens, if
the Lord grants this repentance and this calling on them, you
know what the Lord says? Then I'll be jealous for the land.
I'll pity this people. The Lord will answer and say
unto his people, I'm going to send you corn and wine and oil. What's that? Hosea, I remember, said there's
a famine. Amos. There's a famine. Next book.
There's a famine in the land, not of bread. There's so much
bread, everybody's full of it. But of the hearing of the Word
of the Lord. Amen. He said, people call on
me. He said, I'll send corn. I'll
send wine. I'll send oil, the Holy Spirit. You know what He'll do? He'll
show you Christ. Your only hope. And a good hope. Right there. And verse 20 says,
I'll remove my northern army. I'll keep the enemy at bay. Whew, man, please, Lord. Verse 21, Fear not, O land, be
glad and rejoice. The Lord will do great things.
Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field. Talks about the beasts
moaning and groaning. Isn't that Romans 8? The whole
creation groaneth, waiting for the Sons of God. The manifestation of Sons of
God. The whole earth groans and moans. My, my. Look at chapter 3. I've got to get over here real
quick. This is Christ crucified. I may have to do two messages
here. I probably will. My time is up. You need to see
this. He says in chapter 3, verse 1,
Behold, in those days, these days, because chapter 2 talks
about, and people, Pentecost, you know what happened at Pentecost,
chapter 2? He poured out His Spirit on the
people, Gentiles and so forth. In Mount Zion, Jerusalem, there
was a deliverance. Those that called on the name
of the Lord delivered in Mount Zion and Jerusalem. That's the
church. And the Lord said, the remnant
whom the Lord shall call by the gospel. And he pours out this
blessing of the gospel, meat offered, drink offered, corn,
wine, the oil of the gospel of Christ that they call, and he
blesses them, okay? In chapter 3, verse 1, he says
that in those days, I'll bring again the captivity. I'll leave
captivity captive. Those that call on me in spirit
and truth. Those that really call. And look
at what he does. Down in verse 14. Multitudes,
multitudes in the valley of decision. Maybe we'll do this Wednesday
night. The rest of this, okay? Jehoshaphat, Armageddon, all
that. It says in verse 15, I'm going
to give you the clue to it all right here. The key to it all. You already knew it. Verse 14, multitudes, multitudes
in the valley of decision. The day of the Lord is near in
the valley of decision. The sun and the moon will be
darkened. The stars shall withdraw their shine. The Lord shall roar
out of Zion and utter His voice. The heavens and the earth shall
quake, but the Lord will be the hope of His people and the strength
of the children of Israel. What's that talking about? Christ
on the cross. Christ in Him crucified. OK.