All right, let's open our Bibles
to the book of Joel, chapter 3. In the Old Testament, the
book of Joel, the prophet Joel, chapter 3. And I want to deal
with the final verses of the book of Joel. And the title of
this message is, Forever and for All Generations. Forever
and for All Generations. Now my main text is verses 18
through the end of the chapter, verse 21. So we'll be closing
out this study of the prophecy of Joel tonight. But what is
being described in these last verses, I'm convinced, in Joel
chapter 3, is something that is new and fresh. It's a prophecy of the future
for Joel and actually a prophecy of the future for us. but it's
something that's new and fresh and holy and sinless and it's
also something that is eternal. It's not something that's just
going to last for 1,500 years here on this earth as the old
covenant describing from Sinai to Christ. It's not just something
that's going to take place in a literal thousand years here
on this earth. This is something that is eternal. And what I believe Joel is describing
in these last verses is what our brother read in Revelation
chapter 21, the new heavens and the new earth. As Peter said,
wherein dwelleth righteousness. And that refers to Christ and
his people, his church, the glorified church. Now this whole chapter,
as you remember, has been about that final conflict and the final
triumph of Christ over the forces of evil under the leadership
of Satan. And I spent two messages dealing
in detail with that conflict, which I also think is described
in Revelation chapter 16 as Armageddon. And people who look for that
to be a literal battle in a geographical location here on earth, I think,
are missing the point of it. It's a final gathering of all
nations. When Christ comes the second
time to gather his people, to catch up his people, and that's
why they call it the rapture, to gather his people unto himself,
into his bosom. And also it's the final gathering
of all the opposition, all the forces of evil, unbelief. under
the leadership of Satan in that final conflict in the valley
of judgment. And as I said last time, I think
a lot of times we'll just say, because we've heard this term
so much, we'll call it the Battle of Armageddon. It's not really
going to be a battle. Up here in Joel chapter 3 and verse 2,
he says, I'll also gather all nations and will bring them down
into the Valley of Jehoshaphat. That word Jehoshaphat is the
name of a Judean king in the line of David, but his name means
Jehovah Judges. This is the Valley of Judgment.
This is the Valley of Decision, as it's called later on here
in verse 14. Multitudes and multitudes in
the Valley of Decision. And you can think about it this
way, as one old preacher called it, Verdict Valley. This is where
God, the Judge, Christ, unto whom all judgment is committed,
will pronounce the verdict. That's what it's going to do.
There's not going to be a trial. There's not going to be a battle.
The battle's over. Christ is going to win. The victory's
won. And all he has to do is with
his word. You know that. You know he's
a sovereign savior of his people. He fought our battle and won
it at the cross. That's the foundation of our
whole salvation eternally. That's the foundation of the
new heavens and the new earth. Where he by himself as the representative
and substitute and surety of his people defeated sin, defeated
Satan, defeated the world. redeemed us unto himself, established
righteousness for us, whereby we have an eternal, unchangeable
acceptance, blessedness, standing before a holy God. That's an
amazing thing. But all things have not worked
out yet and finalized in God's providence. He still allows Satan
to plague and war after the church. And so, but this time that's
described in Joel chapter 3, that's going to be it. That's
the final conflict. and Satan and all of his followers,
anyone who stands without Christ at the judgment, stands in opposition
to Christ, anyone who is not found with faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ, who's not washed in his blood and clothed in his
righteousness, will be totally and utterly, eternally damned. And so that's what's being described
here. But then there's a triumph. Now,
it's not all just bad news, you see. It's a victory for God's
people. First of all, we need not fear
this judgment, this day of Armageddon. We need not fear the valley of
Jehoshaphat, the valley of decision. Because we have a mediator. We
have an advocate. We have one who stands in our
place and pleads our cause. That's what he does. He said
he will plead our cause. He will stand for us before God. And so we're one with Christ
in the view of God's law and justice. Christ is our mercy
seat. He is the Lord our righteousness
and therefore the Bible says something that I believe is absolutely
astounding to those who know themselves as sinners. And it
says this, it says that we not only can but should have boldness
in the day of judgment. That's astounding to me. That
I know myself in part. God knows me better than I know
myself. And for me to say that I could have confidence and boldness
in the day of judgment is an astounding thing. But how can
we have that? Well, in Jesus Christ. We're
washed in His blood and clothed in His righteousness so we can
have boldness and confidence in that day. So there is a triumph. Now let's begin. Look at verse
18. of this, it says in verse 18, and it shall come to pass
in that day. Now, what day? The same day that
he's been talking about all through chapter 3. Not a different day.
That day that he spoke of in verse 1, for behold, in those
days and in that time when I shall bring again the captivity of
Judah and Jerusalem. In other words, I'm going to
bring back all my people. What that is, that's language
that shows you that all of Christ's sheep are now brought into the
fold. All of God's elect have been called. They were chosen
from the foundation of the world, justified in Christ, redeemed
by His blood, and now they're called out by the Holy Spirit
in the preaching of the gospel, and then Christ comes and He
gathers them out of all nations, every tribe, kindred, tongue,
and nation. And so he says, it shall come to pass in that day
that the mountains shall drop down new wine. Now, new wine
in the scripture is an emblem of the joy and the peace of the
Holy Spirit. And what he's talking about is
something here that's new, that's never been before. And it's going
to drop down from heaven. It's not going to come from man.
It's not the invention of man. It's not feelings. It's something
that God does in His Son. He says, the hills shall flow
with milk. That's the fullness of it. That's
the nourishment of it. What is this new wine? What is
this milk? It's the spiritual blessedness
that Christ's people have in and by Him. And here we have
it in perfection, in fullness. We don't just have a foretaste
of it here. You see, right now we have an
earnest an earnest, which is the Holy Spirit, but now we see
through a glass darkly. We have the Spirit of Christ,
and we've been born again by the Spirit, and we have eyes
to see and ears to hear, but we still have the flesh. We still
have this physical body that hinders us. We still have the
world that we live in, circumstances. But then it's all going to be
clear. John said in 1 John 3, he said, we'll see Christ as
he is. Can you imagine that? Seeing
the Lord Jesus Christ in all his effulgent glory. That's a,
we don't know what that's like. And I have people ask me all
the time say, what's it gonna be like when we get to heaven
or when we get, when we occupy the new heavens and the new earth?
I don't know, I really don't. I know there's some scriptural
language that is sort of symbolic that gives you an idea about
it. But the only thing I can tell you from that language is
it's gonna be something like you have never seen before. I
mean, you can't imagine it. Nobody's even dreamed. Paul,
I think, got come close to it when he was given that vision
and taken up to the third heaven in that vision. But you know
what he said? You remember what he said? I
don't have the language to describe to you what I saw. There's not
human language to describe such a vision. Well, this is the perfection
of joy and peace and holiness in the Lord Jesus Christ, the
nourishment, the fullness of it. He says in verse 18, all
the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, the living water. You remember Christ told the
woman at the well, He said, if you drink of this water, meaning
the spiritual water, Christ the water of life, there'll be a
fountain of living water welling up within your soul, you'll never
be thirsty again, spiritually speaking. You'll never be hungry
again, spiritually speaking. He said, a fountain shall come
forth of the house of the Lord. What is the house of the Lord?
That's his church. And where is our fountain? Who
is our fountain? Christ is our fountain. He's the water. Judah describes his people as
being made kings and priests under God. And he says, it's
going to come forth out of the house of the Lord and shall water
the valley of Shittim. Now, that word Shittim, that's
a tree, that's acacia. We called it the acacia tree.
You remember back when they were making the elements of the tabernacle
that many of the things, especially, for example, the Ark of the Covenant,
the mercy seat was made of acacia wood or Shittim wood overlaid
with gold. And this particular tree was
a tree that grew and flourished in surroundings that were just,
you wouldn't think anything could grow there. It's like what our
Lord has described in Isaiah 53 as a root that grows out of
a dry ground. And so this is a tree that grows
in abject, unaccommodating circumstances. And that's the way our Lord was.
you see, in His humanity. He was the... He, in Him, dwelt
the fullness, dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and where
did He grow up in His humanity? In this awful, barren world of
sin. and shame and depravity. And yet he grew because he was
never contaminated in his soul, in his mind, in his heart, in
his will with the sin of his people. He never, listen, the
only way he came in contact with sin is when he touched a sinner
or was in proximity of sin or when he was on the cross it was
charged to him. The iniquity of us all was laid
upon him, and he bore our sins in his own body upon the tree.
But he never became contaminated, and that's what the picture is
of this valley of Shittim, this acacia. And so he says in verse
19, now listen to this in verse, chapter, he says, Egypt shall
be a desolation. Now Egypt is, you know, Egypt
is always a symbol for a great enemy of Israel. Egypt here is
a symbol of a great enemy of the church. Egypt represents
bondage. It represents idolatry. It represents
unbelief. That's what Egypt represents.
What he's saying here, oh, that's going to be gone. So you see,
he's not talking about something that's just partially fulfilled
or some literal thousand year here on there. This is, Egypt's
going to be, there's not going to be any more bondage, any more
opposition, any more idolatry. It's going to be gone, a desolation.
That means it's not there anymore. And then he says, Edom shall
be a desolate wilderness. Now the word Edom means red. And it actually, if you trace
it all back, it has its roots in Esau. And Esau was one who
scorned his birthright. Now, what was his birthright?
Well, his birthright was connected. Literally, his birthright...
Now listen, you know, when Esau gave up his birthright, gave
it up to Jacob, It wasn't just money. Listen, you know, when
Jacob tricked him out of his birthright and then left and
came back years later, when he met Esau, Esau wasn't in poverty. He was rich. He had plenty. So it wasn't money. It was his
spiritual birthright. It was his place as the spiritual
leader of the family, and he didn't care about that. I think
about so many today who are in positions of leadership in families
who don't even care about their spiritual leadership. That's
like Esau. And he gave it up. But then,
this red here, I believe, represents opposition to and persecution
of the church, as Esau opposed and persecuted Jacob. Well, what
he's saying here is that's going to be gone. No more. There'll be no more persecution
of the church. There'll be no more opposition
in that way. Edom shall be a desolate wilderness. And then he says, for the violence
against the children of Judah. Now, I believe that proves what
Eden means. The violence against the children of Judah. Who are
the children of Judah? That's God's people. That's Christ's
sheep. That's God's elect out of every
tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation who have come to Christ and rest
in Him. And it says, "...because they
have shed innocent blood in their land." They've killed the children
of God. That's the persecution. Well,
that's going to be no more. But now look at verse 20. He
says, "...but Judah shall dwell or abide..." For how long? Forever. "...and Jerusalem from
generation to generation." That's the spiritual people of God.
And that generation to generation means throughout all generations. That's why I titled the message
forever and for all generations. Now what generation is this?
This is the generation of the Lord. This is the children of
God. These are those who have been
chosen, redeemed, justified, adopted, born again. by the Spirit
of God. This is the family of God. This
is the church of God. The Bible says in Psalm 22, let
me read this to you. You know, Psalm 22 is the psalm
of the cross because it is so graphic in its language that
much of it can be applied directly as quoted by our Savior on the
cross and in that experience that he had when he died on the
cross to save his people from their sins. And at the end of
that chapter, in Psalm 22, in verse 30 and 31, those last two
verses, it says, as a result, what it's talking about, as a
result of Christ's redemptive work on the cross, which means
as a result of him finishing the transgression, making an
end of sin, and bringing in everlasting righteousness, sealing up the
prophecy and the vision, and anointing the most holy, all
of that, it says this in verse 30 of Psalm 22, listen to this,
it says, a seed shall serve him. Now that word seed means offspring. In other words, this is the offspring
of Christ. It's the fruit. and the result
of His redemptive work on the cross. It's all whom the Father
had given Him before the foundation of the world. He said in John
6, 37, All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me. That's what
this means. A seed shall serve Him. They'll
come to Him. And Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast
out. And later on in John 6, He said,
And this is the will of Him that hath sent Me, that of all which
He hath given Me I should lose nothing. but raise it up again
at the last day. Now he says a seed shall serve
him. Now listen to what it says. It shall be accounted to the
Lord for a generation. Now that's what he's saying in
verse 20 of Joel chapter 3. Judas shall dwell forever because
our dwelling place is Christ and he's the Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the end. No beginning and no end. And
it says, "...but Judah shall dwell forever, and Jerusalem
from generation to generation." That's the generation of the
Lord. That's the seed that shall serve Him. And it says in Psalm
22, verse 30 and 31, "...they shall come and shall declare
His righteousness." Not our own. We don't come declaring our own
righteousness. We come declaring His. His righteousness is my
righteousness. Do you understand that? Just
like my sin became his, his righteousness is made mine. And I claim it. I didn't have anything to do
with it. I didn't work it out, didn't contribute anything to
it. When I believed the gospel by the power of God the Holy
Spirit, my faith did not add one iota to the righteousness
in which I stand before God. Did you know that? My repentance
didn't add anything to it. If I do anything that's good
in the sight of God, it does not add one iota to the righteousness
that I declare to you that gives me a right standing before God.
It's all Christ. It's all His obedience unto death. That's what we declare. That's
what this generation, Judah and Jerusalem, spiritual Israel,
God's elect out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation.
That's what we declare. And it says we declare His righteousness
unto a people that shall be born, born of the Spirit, that He,
Christ, hath done this. This is the work of God. So as
this whole passage now, Joel chapter 3, short book, isn't
it? But boy, is it full, isn't it?
As it's been, the whole passage is a figurative description of
that final conflict and triumph to take place at the Second Coming.
You know, and I know the natural man receiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God, but sometimes it's beyond me how people commit,
you know, commit things. You know, they talk about Armageddon
and being a literal valley and gathering. You know, if you went
over there to that actual valley of Megiddo, and looked at it. It's a beautiful place, they
say. I've seen pictures of it and I've never been there. But
you know, it would be physically impossible for all nations to
gather in that valley, that valley of Jehoshaphat, physically. And
this valley of Shittim, this valley of Acacias is located,
it's on the other side of the Jordan River. And it's geographically
impossible to be watered by a stream from Jerusalem. You could not
water this valley of Shittim, this valley of Acacias. Geographically,
you couldn't do it. Physically, it's impossible to
water that by a river or any waterway or stream from Jerusalem. He's not speaking physically
here. He's talking about a spiritual triumph. He's talking about the
new heavens and the new earth, the new Jerusalem coming down
from heaven. This is all figurative language
to accomplish that. And Joel speaks in such meaningful
terms here that we don't want to miss the blessing. He's seeking
to call the people of Judah to repentance in light of this judgment
because God hath commanded all men everywhere to repent and
that he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world
in righteousness. In this valley of decision, he's
going to pronounce the verdict. That's it now. And the verdict is this, all
who are in Christ, eternally blessed and glorified. All who
are without Christ, eternally damned. That's the verdict. All
who are without Christ, guilty. We read it, let him that is guilty
be guilty still. All who are in Christ, righteous,
not guilty. Now you're a sinner, aren't you?
I'm a sinner. What does a sinner deserve? He
deserves eternal damnation. How would you like to stand before
the God of this universe and hear him say, not guilty? You
don't have to wait to Armageddon. You don't have to wait. You can
do it right now. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. He's appointed a day in which
he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained
and he hath given assurance unto all men. and that he had raised
him from the dead. And one of the things that Joel
is preaching to the people in Judah is that all who believe
in the covenant-keeping God, the God of all grace, all who
look in their day forward to the promise of the coming Messiah
to put away their sins, that there's hope for the future.
that even though this land of Judah is going to be desolate,
going to be conquered, God will not forsake His covenant people.
He will not forsake His promises. The Israelites, they could understand
some of these terms. Think about it. Thinking about
deliverance in their capital, Jerusalem. But God's Word speaks
of a heavenly Jerusalem. The judgment upon their enemies
who oppress them. desolation of such enemies as
Edom and Egypt, infamous enemies of Israel, blessings to befall
the nation and the land, but all fulfilled not in that physical
land, and not based on the works of man, but all fulfilled in
the heavenly, based on the righteousness of Christ, and all of it fulfilled
in Him. Look at verse 21. He says, for I will cleanse their
blood that I have not cleansed for the Lord dwelleth in Zion. A couple of things about this. That cleansing there is not by
way of atonement. That's accomplished at Calvary,
not at Armageddon. There'll be no atonement at Armageddon. There'll be no atonement at this
final conflict. There'll be no mercy, the day
of mercy is over. by this time. When you read Joel
chapter 3, there is no talk of mercy for the enemies of Christ.
Day of mercy is over. Day of grace is over. The Spirit
will stop striving with man, as the Bible says. So it's not
cleansing by way of atonement. That's already accomplished at
Calvary in full. Christ paid my debt in full. What he's talking about is vengeance
when he says cleansing here. It could read, for I will avenge
their blood that I have not avenged up to this point. Now, God says
it, vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. And what that tells
us is this, there is absolutely no mandate in scripture for a
Christian. Now, I'm using my terms selectively
here. And I'll show you why in just
a moment. There is absolutely at no time in any way, at any
time in history that a Christian is commanded by God to take up
physical arms against the enemies of the church. No crusades, no
nothing like that. The weapons of our warfare are
not carnal, they're not physical. We're to defend ourselves, we
have that right. But to go on holy war or some
kind of anything, that's not... Now, the reason I say Christian
is because people have brought up, well, what about the Old
Testament when the people of Israel were told to go in and destroy
the enemy? That's not Christian. That was old covenant to that
nation for the purpose of keeping that nation pure for God's providential
purposes to use them to bring the Messiah through. It wasn't
a Christian act. It was God's vengeance against
the ungodly And it was right to do, because God said, do it. And whenever God says, do it,
that makes it right. So it was vengeance. But it wasn't
a Christian mandate for us to take up arms. You see, that's
not what we're here for. God said, I'll avenge it. I'll
take care of it. Vengeance is mine, saith the
Lord. So he says in verse 21, I will
avenge their blood that I have not avenged up to this time.
God will settle all matters. And here's what he says. For
the Lord dwelleth in Zion. That word, Lord, there is Jehovah.
That's the covenant-keeping God. That's the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. That's the God of all grace.
That's the God of the promise who saves sinners by His grace
in Christ. And He dwells in the midst of
His people. Now, I want you to turn to Revelation
21. I'll close with this. And here's the issue, basically. Number one, the day of the Lord
is coming. And it's going to be a terrible day for the wicked.
A terrible day. That's why Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians
5 verse 11, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade
men. And what is that terror? Now
understand that terror. It's the terror of standing before
God without Christ. Think about that, believer. Listen. Think about it this way. If I
could bring you up here and stand you before this group and flash
all the sins of your lives and all of your inner thoughts before
this crowd, would you be terrified? You sure would. Or I hope you
would. I would be. Well, I guess you
could say multiply that terror a thousand, maybe a million times
standing before God, a holy God with whom we have to do. Our
God is a consuming fire. Without Christ, we have no hope. So the day of the Lord is coming
and it's a terrible day for the wake of it. Secondly, the only
way and means and source of salvation is the Lord himself. I, the Lord,
dwell in Zion. I want to be where God is. You
know what hell is? It's eternal separation from
Christ. That's unimaginable. I cannot
describe the terror and the horror of that. I want to be where Christ
dwells. The Lord dwells in Zion. You
know what that is? That's His church. Here in Joel
chapter 3, in the last verses, he's talking about the glorified,
perfected church. But I want to tell you something
right now. If you have no interest in dwelling in His church today,
while you're living, you'll have no interest dwelling in it there.
That's so, isn't it? And then thirdly, in the end,
there'll be eternal life and glory and blessings for God's
people in Christ. Look at Revelation 21. Let me
just read it to you and then I'll close. This is what Joel's
talking about. He said, I saw a new heaven and
a new earth. God makes all things new, doesn't
he? This old world's gonna burn up. I don't know what all that's
gonna involve. I don't know how God's gonna do it. That's about
the only global warming I believe in. How about you? But he's gonna
burn it up. He's gonna purge this world.
As I said, I quoted Peter, out of 2 Peter 3, it's a new heavens
and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. The only thing
that will be able to dwell in the new heavens and the new earth
is righteousness. And that's eternal union with
Christ. That's eternal fellowship with
Christ. He says, for the first heaven and the first earth were
passed away. Now see, they're gone. No remnants
of it. And there was no more sea. That's
symbolic. The sea, you have to understand,
the sea to them was not a place to go on vacation, like we think
of. The sea to them was a place of terror. And you can think
about that. You know, back then, if you lived back then, it was
a place of terror and a place of trouble. And what they're
saying, there's not going to be any more terror or trouble.
He says in verse 2, And I, John, saw the holy city This is the
separate city. This is the unique city. No city
like it. You can talk about Jerusalem
today, but it's never going to be like this. All right? This
is the perfection of it. New Jerusalem. Coming down from
God out of heaven. Salvations of the Lord. Doesn't
start from the earth up. Comes down from heaven. Prepared
as a bride adorned for her husband. Now what is the bride? That's
the church. What's New Jerusalem? That's the dwelling place of
the church. And this bride is adorned. What's she adorned in?
In the righteous robe of her husband. We read about it this
morning in Revelation 19. The righteousness of saints.
It's what I am in Christ. And verse 3, And I heard a great
voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God was with
men. His brother Jotah... What is the tabernacle of God?
That's Christ. For He was made flesh and dwelt
tabernacled among us. And He's with men and He will
dwell with them. That's where I want to be. How
about you? I want to be where the tabernacle of God... I want
to be where Christ is. And they shall be His people.
and God himself shall be with them and be their God." This
is the language of eternal union with God. They never had that
under the Old Covenant. It was always conditional. If
my people who are called by my name will humble themselves,
if you'll do this, if you'll keep this commandment, or if
you'll do... It was always conditional. And what do we see in the Old
Covenant as you read the Old Testament? They never did keep
the covenant. And you know what? Don't be puffed
up and proud. We never would have either. You
know why? Because we're sinners. That's
why our salvation eternally must come in an unconditional covenant
towards us. And so he says in verse 4, "...and
God shall..." Who met the conditions? Christ did. In verse 4, "...and
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall
be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there
be any more pain..." Boy, isn't that something? Can
you imagine being somewhere where there's no more pain? He says,
for the former things are passed away, they're gone. And he that
sat upon the throne, behold, I make all things new. And he
said unto me, write, for these are the words, these words are
true and faithful. They're true and you can trust
them. You can bank on them. And he said unto me, it is done.
It's done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end. I will give unto him that is
a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. Now here's
where you see, this is where the promise of the gospel, this
is to whom the gospel blessings are promised. It's to those who
are thirsty. It's not to those who are good
enough. It's not to those who meet a condition. It's to the
thirsty. Now are you thirsty for Christ? Blessed are those
who hunger and thirst after righteousness. Are you hungry for Him? And He
says in verse 7, He that overcometh shall inherit all things. That's
Christ. And I will be His God and He shall be my Son. That's
talking about the mediatorial glory of Christ. The acquired
mediatorial glory as the mediator. He's the Son of God eternally.
In the essence of His deity. But as God-man. You see that's
important because there's a man in glory. And if there's not
a man in glory, you won't be in glory, and I won't be in glory.
Do you understand that? He's God-man. He's more than
just man. He's God-man. But He is a man. And if He's
not, then we're goners. But he is. And so he says, but
the fearful... Now look at verse 8, the fearful,
and that's talking about those who are fearful like Adam and
Eve after the fall. We're fearful in the sense that
we worship and respect God in faith and trust. But those who
run from God because they're ashamed and running from His
wrath and don't know the way of salvation, the unbelieving,
the abominable, murderers, whoremongers, sorcerers, idolaters, and all
liars, shall have their part in the lake, which burneth with
fire, and brimstone, which is the second death, which is eternal
death." You see, this is the issue. In that day, Joel says,
in that day, the Lord will dwell in Zion, the Lord will keep His
people unto Himself.