Okay, let's open our Bibles back
to Joel chapter 2. Now the title of tonight's message
is The Prophet of Pentecost. The Prophet of Pentecost. And
so you might want to go ahead and turn in your Bibles to the
book of Acts chapter 2 because in a few moments I'll be relying
heavily on that passage in our study tonight. because that's
one of the places that, this is one of the scriptures here
in Joel chapter two, our text tonight is verses 28 through
32, where we see stated out in black and white in the scriptures
that this is the fulfillment of a prophecy. Acts chapter two,
as Peter stood and preached at Pentecost, that great gospel
message, which ushered in the establishment of the New Testament
church. And that's what Joel is prophesying
of here in the last few verses of Joel chapter 2. And so that's
why I call it the prophet of Pentecost. Now, let me just give
you the context as it appears in the book of Joel first. Joel
was a prophet, as you know, to the southern kingdom of Judah.
in the midst of their sin and their rebellion and in the context
of a great national disaster, what I believe was a literal
plague of locusts that came and just devastated the land. this
land which was formerly called the promised land, this land
which was formerly described as a land flowing with milk and
honey. Compare Joel's description of
the land, the actual land now, with the description of the land
that the Hebrew children were given before they entered the
promised land. You remember when they sent the
spies over how they just come back and they describe the land?
They sent those people over to kind of a on a reconnaissance
mission. They came back describing how
lush and how plentiful and bountiful the land was. Grapes, they'd
have to carry them on sticks between two men, you know, grape
vines. I mean, it was just, it was such
a fertile land. You might remember in your studies
in school, in geography or in history, that it was often called
the Fertile Crescent. the Fertile Crescent, this land.
But it had degenerated so much. And then after Israel occupied
the land, there were times of flourishing and abundance and
all that, but this was not one of those times. The land was
just devastated by the plague of locusts. And God tells them
through the prophet Joel that that plague of locusts, that
locust natural disaster as people would look at it, that was His
army. He brought vengeance upon Judah
because of their sin and rebellion. And so, the prophet Joel, in
dealing with that, he calls Judah to repentance. Repent of your
sins. Turn to the Lord. Don't turn
to yourselves. Don't turn to foreign armies.
Don't turn to your own works and your own ways, but turn to
the Lord, the God of the the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
the God of promise, the God who promised to send Messiah into
the world to save His people from their sins and turn to Him
and obey Him and serve Him. Also, I believe in every generation,
even in this nation, Even though sometimes when you read these
prophets, you might wonder, well, where are these people? I believe
in every generation there was a remnant of true believers,
even though it may have been small. Isaiah said in his day
earlier than this that it was so small that if the Lord had
not left them a remnant, they would have been destroyed completely
just like Sodom and Gomorrah. Read it in Isaiah chapter 1,
a small remnant. There was always, you remember
in Elijah's time how he complained to the Lord about that. He said,
am I the only one? And the Lord revealed to him
that he had 7,000 who had not bowed the knee to Baal. And the
Apostle Paul used that to show that God has a remnant of his
people, his chosen people, true believers, chosen of God, justified
in Christ. sanctified by the Spirit, called
out, separate from the nation, the literal nation, the physical
nation, rather. And so I believe that Joel's
prophecy is not only a call for sinners to repent, but he's also
an encouragement to that remnant of true believers in that nation.
And he's telling them, don't lose heart. Don't despair. I know the nation is in shambles
and I'll tell you what, we can identify with this today in our
nation. I'm not one of those who ever
says that America was ever a Christian nation. But what I'm saying is
this, when we look at our nation today and we read the newspapers
and watch the news reports and we see how bad things are and
how people just have no interest in the truth of the gospel, we
need not despair. We need not despair because God
has a people and Christ is coming again. And I believe that's what
Joel was talking about here. God has a people and the Messiah
is coming. He's coming. And so he's encouraging
the nation and commanding unbelievers to repent. Well, man by nature
left to his own will will not repent. And yet the Bible tells
us in another place that God is not willing that any of his
people should perish, but that all of them should come to repentance.
We know he's speaking of his elect there, those who are redeemed
by the blood of Christ, those who are part of what Isaiah called
all Israel in Isaiah chapter 45 and Paul identified in Romans
11. Spiritual Israel, God's elect
out of every tribe, kindred, tongue and nation, Jew and Gentile.
So, here's the point. Now, how is all this going to
be accomplished? Look at the state of the nation
here. Look at the state of the land. Devastation. You remember I told
you that scholars differ over when Joel prophesied. A lot of difference, a lot of
argument, a lot of debate about that. Some think he was early,
some think he was a contemporary of Isaiah and Micah and Hosea. But I tend to believe that Joel
prophesied later on. I believe he was one of the last
of the prophets. And if that's true, then you
have to understand, just like in the prophet Malachi, this
nation was coming upon a very, very sad period of time in their
history. Because between the time of the
Old Testament and the New Testament revelation, what do you have?
You have about four to five hundred years of nothing, silence, no
word from God, no prophet in Israel. Their history was just
downhill. So when you think about all that
and how this thing is going, you know, there's just not a
whole lot from man's point of view to be optimistic about.
There's not a lot of promise here, but Joel says, hold on,
there is promise. There is joy in the morning. There's coming a day. A day in
which God is going to fully accomplish His purpose set out from before
the foundation of the world. He's going to send His Messiah
to save His people from their sins. and to give repentance
both to his elect people among the Jew and the Gentile. That's
what he talks about in verses 21 through 27. Fear not, O land,
look at it, verse 21. Fear not, O land, be glad and
rejoice for the Lord will do great things. Man's not going
to do anything great, he's going to sin. But the Lord will do
great things. Now it's not that the Lord had
not already done great things, he had. But he's going to do
something infinitely greater than anything he has ever done
before. And look at verse 22, don't be
afraid, you beast of the field. The pastures of the wilderness
do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit. There's going to be
a fruitfulness connected with this great thing that the Lord's
going to do. I don't believe he's talking
about a tree bearing fruit here or crops. I don't believe that. I believe he's talking about
spiritual things. And he says, "...the fig tree
and the vine do yield their strength." You know the fig tree and the
vine are always symbols of God's flourishing grace among His people. That's what we are. That's what
the church is. He says in verse 23, "...be glad
then, ye children of Zion." Zion's a picture, a type of the church.
the redeemed of the Lord. He says, rejoice in the Lord
your God. How is the church identified? We rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh. He says, for he hath given you
the former reign moderately. Now, you remember last time I
told you what that means literally, and if you've got a concordance
in your Bible, what he's talking about, he's going to send a teacher
of righteousness, or who will teach you of righteousness. That's
talking about Christ, the Messiah. He's going to send Christ into
the world, and Christ is going to show you the reality of righteousness. And he's going to do it in several
ways. He's going to do it by his holy life, His obedient,
perfect life, for He knew no sin, He did no sin, and He's
going to do it by His substitutionary work of atonement on the cross
of Calvary as He satisfies completely the justice of God for the sins
of His people and brings in, establishes an everlasting righteousness
of infinite value whereby God can be just and justify the ungodly. That's how this teacher, this
rabbi, this master, the master of all masters, is going to teach
you of righteousness. If you want to know righteousness,
now listen to me, if you want to know righteousness, don't
look to the pastor, don't look to the denomination, don't look
to the constitution, don't look to the denominator, look to Christ. Don't look to the law, look to
Christ, for He's the standard of righteousness. And he says,
he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain
and the latter rain in the first month, that former rain being
the salvation of God's elect among the Jews, and that latter
rain being the salvation of God's elect among the Gentiles. Jew
and Gentile. Not just, not going to be connected
now, just, or distributed among a physical nation. He says, verse
24, the floor shall be full of wheat. That's the, not tares,
but the wheat. Christ doesn't sow tears. Satan
does that. And he says, "...and the fat
shall overflow with wine and oil." That's the joy and power
of the Holy Spirit. He says, "...I will restore in
you the years that the locusts have eaten, the canker worm,
caterpillar, palmer worm, my great army, this and God's great
army of vengeance against the sin of Judah, which I sent among
you, but there's going to be a restoration." It's going to
come through this teacher of righteousness. And then he says,
it's going to come by the grace of God. He says in verse 26,
and you shall eat in plenty. We'll eat and never get hungry
again. Spiritually speaking, the bread of life, Christ. Be satisfied. He's all we need. He'll never leave us lacking.
Praise in the name of the Lord your God that hath dealt wondrously
with you and my people shall never be ashamed because all
who plead Christ, all who are washed in his blood and clothed
in his righteousness shall never be ashamed." And then he says,
and you shall know that I'm in the midst of Israel and that
I'm the Lord your God and none else and my people shall never
be ashamed. That's a lot to sing about. That's
what he's talking about. How's all this going to be accomplished?
By God sending Christ, sending His Son into the world. And that's
everything, you see. Everything that God requires
of His people, we find complete and full in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so salvation by God's grace
in Christ ensures and secures the salvation and eternal blessedness
and well-being of all of God's people, Jew and Gentile, and
even in the Old Testament. This prophecy right here, which
was not yet fulfilled in time, was the reason and the ground
upon which God saved His people and blessed them spiritually.
Even Old Testament believers, even all the way back to Abel.
You can go all the way back. And the blessings that God would
bring upon His people include the blessing of faith in Christ
and includes the blessing of repentance. Joel's been talking
about that. Repent. Man won't repent. God
commands it. How's it going to be accomplished
then? He's going to send Christ to bring repentance. You know,
let me read you these passages here. This is Acts chapter 5
and verse 31. We read this last week. It talks
about Christ whom God exalted with His right hand to be a prince
and a savior for to give repentance to Israel and the forgiveness
of sins." So, in other words, if they're going to repent, you
know what's going to have to happen? God's going to have to give it
to them. Same way with faith. Faith is the gift of God, not
of works, lest any man should boast. And then Acts chapter,
that's to Israel, spiritual Israel. And then Acts 11 and verse 18,
listen to this, it says, when they heard these things, and
what they're talking about there is Peter preaching Christ. And
when they heard, the people that he was preaching to, when they
heard him preaching Christ, it says, they held their peace and
glorified God, saying, then hath God also to the Gentiles granted
or given repentance unto life. And what Peter was talking about
is how he preached to a Gentile centurion named Cornelius. He
was defending that against the accusations of Jews. So you see
there, it's always given. It's a gift from God through
Christ. We're blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. Isn't that right? He that spared
not his own son, how shall he not with him freely give us all
things? All of these things. Now, here
we see that there's coming a time of God's vengeance even in the
future. There's going to be vengeance.
Look at Joel 2. Look at verse 30 of Joel chapter 2. He says,
I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire
and the pillars of smoke. Now those are all emblems of
God's vengeance against sin. Verse 31, the sun shall be turned
into darkness, the moon into blood before the great and the
terrible day of the Lord come. Joel had been talking about the
day of the Lord which had already come. God manifesting himself
in vengeance against sin. But he's talking about a future
day of vengeance. So there'll be a day of God's
judgment for Israel. And that won't be a day of rejoicing
for those who refuse to repent. It'll be a day of sorrow, a day
of darkness. But for another part of that
nation, it'll be a day of deliverance and rejoicing. And what part
of that nation will be rejoicing in that day? Well, he tells you
in verse 32, he says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be delivered. So let's look at that. Look at
verse 28 now, Joel 2, 28. He starts off, he says, and it
shall come to pass afterward. After what? After God sends Messiah
into the world. After God sends that teacher
of righteousness, Christ. to do His great work, to accomplish
His great work of redemption. All that Joe is going to prophesy
here in verse 28 through 32 is the fruit and the result of God
sending His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, into the world to accomplish
His work. And so this is the promise of
grace founded upon the promise of the coming of Christ to accomplish
His work of redemption. And here's what he says, that
I will pour out my Spirit, that's the Holy Spirit, upon all flesh,
all people. Now we know that's not all without
exception, because he didn't pour out his Spirit on all without
exception. But what is he talking about?
He's talking about all who came to faith in Christ and repentance
of dead works at Pentecost. I'll show you that in a minute.
He says, your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, prophesy meaning
preach the word. That's what that means. Your
old men shall dream dreams and your young men shall see visions.
Age is not an issue here. That's what he's saying here.
He's not limiting dreams to old men and visions to young men,
besides dreams and visions. Now let me tell you something
about it. I know people, you know, they get enthralled with
dreams and visions, but what He's talking about here, and
we'll see that in Acts chapter 2 in just a moment, is that God
is going to give them His Word. Now, he gives his word by various
means. Today, we have God's written
word right here, the completed revelation of God's revealed
will in salvation from Genesis to Revelation. But back then,
they didn't have that. In the Old Testament, they didn't
have it. They didn't have the written word all the time. In
the beginnings of the New Testament, they had the Old Testament. Some
of them had part of the Old Testament, but not everybody could get hold
of a copy of a scroll. You had to be rich back then
to have the Scripture. And so God revealed himself in
different ways through dreams and visions. But now here's the
point. Whatever anybody says, and I'll
tell you, today we all have people, you know, I hear preachers say,
well, I had a dream or I had a vision. Listen, listen to me.
Just mark it down that whatever they say they had or experienced
or felt or whatever, if they speak not according to this written
word, to the law and to the testimony, there's no light in them. Now
mark it down. But during this time of the establishment
of this prophecy that Joel's talking about, there was some
marvelous and great things that men could not explain. I'll show
you that too in Acts chapter 2. And so age wasn't an issue
here, old men, young men, whoever. He says in verse 29, and also
upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will
I pour out my spirit, male and female. In Christ there is no
male nor female, you see. God saves His people. And then
he talks about God's vengeance. There's going to be a time of
vengeance too. In other words, whenever this day comes about,
that doesn't mean God is through with his vengeance against sin.
It's still coming. I'll show wonders in the heavens
and in the earth, blood and fire, pillars of smoke, sun shall be
turned into darkness, moon into blood before that great and terrible
day of the Lord comes. and it shall come to pass that
whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered."
And then he says, for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem. Now, you
can read this on your own. Read Hebrews chapter 12. It defines
Zion and Jerusalem there. It's not an earthly mountain.
It's not an earthly city that we come to or we're looking for
here. Listen, he says, for in Mount
Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance." All right? Now that deliverance is the same
deliverance that he's talking about that the Messiah is going
to bring sinners to by his work on the cross. He's not talking
about an earthly land now. I mean, you can take a plane
ride and go to what you think is Mount Zion or Jerusalem today
and you're not going to find deliverance there. It's not in
an earthly mountain or an earthly city. It's in the heavenly city. Read Hebrews 12. We come to the
heavenly Jerusalem, he said. Not a mountain. With all of its
fire and all of its threatening, we come to the heavenly Zion. Zion being the church, Jerusalem
being the people of God, the city of God. That's salvation
by God's grace through Christ and there's deliverance there.
And he says, as the Lord hath said and in... Now listen to
this, read this now, look at this. He says, as the Lord hath
said and in the remnant, whom the Lord shall call." Now, who's
that remnant? That's the remnant according
to the election of grace. That's what he's talking about.
He is the elect out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation.
Spiritual Israel. Now, with all that in mind, go
to Acts chapter 2. I want you to see this. What he says here, after these
days, after he sends this teacher of righteousness, The promise
is going to be fulfilled. Well, here we are in Acts chapter
2. The teacher of righteousness
has been sent. He's preached his word. He lived
his perfect, obedient life as God-man. God in human flesh,
that's who he is. The Lord Jesus Christ, the one
mediator between man and God, God and men. And he went to the
cross of Calvary and he drank damnation dry. He fulfilled the
prophecies of the Old Testament concerning the abolishment of
the Old Covenant and the establishment of the New Covenant. He said
it's finished. He fulfilled the prophecy of
Daniel in Daniel chapter 9. He made an end of sin, finished
the transgression, brought in everlasting righteousness. He
sealed up the vision and the prophecy, and the Most Holy was
anointed. He died, He was buried, He rose
again the third day, and He ascended unto the heavenlies, seated at
the right hand of the Father, even now ever living to make
intercession for His people so that we who are sinners, saved
by the grace of God, have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous. That's been done. So afterward,
now look at Acts chapter 2 verse 1. When the day of Pentecost
was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
And suddenly came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty
wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And
there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of a fire, and
it sat upon each of them." You see, this was a vision that they
actually had, that God gave them. This was marvelous. He said,
"...and they were filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to
speak with other tongues." That word tongues is languages. You ever heard of a glossary?
You know what a glossary is? It's like a dictionary, isn't
it? They used to give you a glossary in school. You could look up
the definitions of words. Well, that's where we get this
word tongues here, we get the word glossary from. And that's
languages. That's not gibberish now, you
know. It's not gibberish. It's not
some unknown tongue, heavenly, language that people can't understand. It means nothing, but just makes
the person who's doing it think that they're spiritual. No, he
says, "...as the Spirit gave them utterance." And it says,
"...and there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men of
every nation under heaven." Now, these were These were even Gentiles
that are included in this label, I believe, called Jews here.
They were out of every nation. And he says, now when this was
noised abroad, the multitudes came together and were confounded
because that every man heard them speak in his own language. You see that? Now what were they
saying in his own language? They were preaching Christ and
Him crucified and risen again. They were preaching the gospel.
They were talking about how He's already come and accomplished
His work. He shed His blood for the forgiveness
of our sins. He brought in righteousness for
our justification. Bow to Him, submit to Him, believe
in Him, rest in Him. And they heard this in their
own language. They couldn't all speak the same language. And
it says in verse 7, And they were all amazed and marveled,
saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak
Galileans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue wherein
we were born? We hear it in our native language.
Parthians, Medes, Elamites. Now this is why I believe that
term Jew up there is referring to spiritual Jews who come to
believe the gospel. Because there were Parthians,
Medes, Elamites, and the dwellers of Mesopotamia. See, these weren't
natural children of Abraham. But they were spiritual children
of Abraham. And they heard that gospel in their own tongue, in
their own language. And it says, and in Judea, and
Cappadocia, and Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, in Egypt,
and in parts of Libya, Cyrene, and strangers, foreigners from
Rome, Jews, and proselytes. Those were people who had before
become Jews religiously. They were Gentiles who had converted
to the Jewish religion. They still didn't know the gospel
until they heard These preachers of Christ speak it in their own
tongue. God the Holy Spirit gave them
eyes to see and ears to hear, brought them to faith in Christ
and repented. Verse 11, Cretes and Arabians,
we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of
God. What did Joel say? Remember what
he said back here? He says, for the Lord will do
great things. He's going to send Christ. He's
going to send Him into the world to put away our sins. He's going
to send Him into the world to establish righteousness. All
of these great, marvelous things. Life through His death. And that's
what they heard in their own language. What a day that was.
You can just imagine how they felt. But now look here, verse
12. And they were all amazed and
were in doubt, saying one to another, what meaneth this? Now
this is another group. How do you know? Well, look at
verse 13. Others mocking said, these men are full of new wine. They're drunk. But they heard
the same thing, but all they heard was gibberish. They didn't
hear the glory of Christ. the glory of God in Christ. They
didn't hear about their sin and depravity and their need of God's
grace. They just heard gibberish and
they said, these fellows are just drunk. You can't even understand
what they're saying. Well, isn't that the way with
the natural man? He cannot understand and know the things of the Spirit
of God, neither can he know them for they are spiritually discerned.
So they said, well, they're drunk. Verse 14, now look here, here's
what Peter says. But Peter, standing up with the
eleven, lifted up his voice and said unto them, Ye men of Judea,
and ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken
to my words. For these are not drunken, as
you suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. Now,
of course, I mean, if a fell's an alcoholic or something like
that, it doesn't matter what hour of the day it is, but Peter
had enough sense to know, he says, you know, they're not having
a drunken party at this time of day. But he said, look at
verse 16, but this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel,
and it shall come to pass in the last days. Now, here's the
first thing that Peter tells you about Joel's prophecy. Joel
was talking about the New Testament. Joel was talking about the new
covenant. Joel was talking about in his
prophecy that we just read a while ago of the coming of the Messiah
and the abolishment of the old covenant and the establishment
of the new. How do you know that? Because
he talks about this is what the prophet Joel said. It shall come
to pass in the last days. Joel said afterwards. That's
the way he said it. Peter speaking by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, he says, now let me tell you what Joel
meant by afterwards, the last days. What are the last days?
That's the days since the first coming of Christ all the way
up to his second coming. So that's the first thing you
know about Joel's prophecy. He was not talking about things
fulfilled in his own day, talking about the last days. And then
let's look on, here's another thing, he says, it shall come
to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my spirit
upon all flesh, that is, upon all people, and your sons and
your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see
visions, and your old men shall dream dreams, and on my servants
and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my
spirit, and they shall all prophesy. And I will show wonders in heaven
above, and signs in earth beneath, blood and fire, and vapor and
smoke." Just like Joel said, you see, he's quoting directly
from the Old Testament. The sun shall be turned into
darkness, the moon into blood, before the great and notable
day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass that
whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now
here's the second thing Peter tells us. The Spirit of God has
been poured out upon all flesh, Jew and Gentile. That's what
he's talking about. Now here's the significance of
that. What's he talking about? He's talking about not a physical
nation, but a spiritual nation. He's talking about spiritual
Israel, Jew and Gentile, God's people. God's elect believers
among both Jew and Gentile. Now God's dealings with Israel
as a nation is over, in that sense, as a nation now. Now God
still has a remnant in that nation. Paul talks about that in Romans
chapter 11. Peter himself was a Jew. All
the apostles were Jews. I'm not saying God's through
with all the Jews. Now, don't get me wrong. Don't
go out here and say I said that. But I'm talking about in dealing
with them as a nation. God still has a remnant out of
that nation of His people. But believers in the Old... And
think about it. He says God's going to pour out
His Spirit on all flesh. Now, didn't God pour out His
Spirit in any sense in the Old Testament? Yes. Every Old Testament
believer was born again by the Spirit just like we are. You
realize that when Christ stood and spoke to Nicodemus in John
chapter 3, that time-wise, I know that's recorded in the New Testament,
the Gospel of John, but do you know time-wise that was still
Old Testament? Because the Old Testament wasn't
abolished. The Old Covenant wasn't abolished
until Christ died on the cross. You see that? And he told Nicodemus,
during the Old Testament period of time, he said, Nicodemus,
you must be born again. Nobody ever came to faith in
Christ without being born again by the Spirit. Now there's a
lot of argument about how the Spirit operated in the Old Testament
as opposed to the New Testament. My own personal opinion on that
is that He operates the same way as always. I don't think
He's changed. Some say, well, he didn't permanently
indwell believers in the Old Testament. I believe he did.
Listen, if he doesn't indwell us, we'll fall away. You can
mark it down. But he's always worked in the
conversion of sinners, in the new birth to bring sinners to
Christ by faith to bring us to repentance and indwell us. But
in the Old Testament, there were special manifestations of the
Spirit given all the way through to the prophets, to some of the
priests, to some of the kings, to different people in different
ways, and it was mainly in the Old Testament restricted to the
Jews, to Israel. Now, you had on some rare occasions
there were manifestations given to Gentiles, but very rarely,
all right? So under the Old Covenant, the
works of God's grace were primarily limited to the nation of Israel. But here, and this is the time
that Joel prophesied of, the work of the Spirit and the power
of the Spirit and those special manifestations of the Spirit,
for example, as speaking the gospel in other language, was
going to burst forth like a floodgate, just come out to all people,
like it never had before. And that's what Joel was talking
about, and that's what Peter's talking about. In light of the
Messiah's arrival and His great work, the Holy Spirit has broken
forth in a mighty way like He has never broken forth in the
history of mankind to all of God's people, Jew and Gentile. And as a result, the gospel has
been and is being preached all around the world to every nation. And it's an amazing thing. But
now here's the third thing. The judgment of God has fallen
upon the nation of Israel for their rejection of Christ. God
has rejected that nation. And that's what this darkness
and this blood and fire and vapor of smoke and the sun turned to
darkness, the moon to blood, the great notable day of the
Lord that Joel prophesied of. That day is coming when God's
dealings with that nation as a nation would be over. And they
would be scattered and judged for their sins. And that day
has come. But now, fourthly, the gospel
of the grace of God is now proclaimed to all nations of the world.
Look at verse 21 of Acts 2. He quotes again from Joel. And
it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the
Lord shall be saved. Now let me close with this. I
want you to turn to Romans chapter 10. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. You know it's always been that
way. Was there anybody in the Old
Testament who truly called upon the name of the Lord that wasn't
saved? No. You won't find one example of
it. But now he's talking again now about this special, powerful,
abundant manifestation breaking forth of the work of the Spirit
into the whole world. And he's making this emphasis,
this point, that whosoever, all over the world, Jew or Gentile,
doesn't matter, no restrictions, no providential restrictions,
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Here's the problem. Man by nature,
number one, will not call on the name of the Lord, and man
by nature Number two, doesn't even know what it is to call
upon the name of the Lord. Now look at Romans 10 and look
at verse 9. Talking about the word of faith
which we preach, the gospel of Christ. Verse 9, that if thou
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus. Now what are
you confessing when you confess the Lord Jesus? You're confessing
that you're a sinner and you cannot save yourself, and even
your best efforts to save yourself are an abomination in God's sight,
and the only way you can be saved is through God's Messiah, the
Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, who died on the cross, was buried
and rose again the third day, for my justification. To confess Christ is to confess
my sinfulness and His righteousness. He is all my righteousness before
God. I have no other. It's not just
to say Lord Jesus or confess Lord Jesus. It's not some kind
of a mantra. It's not just some kind of...
It's confessing Christ and He says, "...shall believe in thine
heart that God hath raised him from the dead." What does that
mean? Not just in the historical fact of the resurrection, but
in the implications and meaning of the resurrection, that He
finished the work. He put away my sins. If He...
Listen, if Christ had not put away my sins that were charged
to Him on the cross, He would have never been raised from the
dead because sin demands death. If sin was still on him, imputed
to him, charged him, he'd still be dead. But he put him away. He finished the transgression.
Thou shalt be saved. Verse 10, for with the heart
man believeth unto righteousness. How do you believe unto righteousness?
You believe in Christ. You rest in Christ. And he says,
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation, for the
scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
What Joel say, God's people will never be ashamed.
Why? Because in Christ we have nothing to be ashamed of. Now
in ourselves we have a lot to be ashamed for. But in Christ
we don't have one single solitary thing to be ashamed of. And so
he says in verse 12, for there's no difference between the Jew
and the Greek or the Gentile. All right, that distinction is
no longer valid. Joel prophesied of that now.
Peter said it's fulfilled. For the same Lord over all is
rich unto all that call upon Him for whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now what is it to call
upon the name of the Lord? Well, that was established way
back in Genesis chapter 3. Did you know that? Way back in the beginning, when
God slew an animal, shed blood, and made coats of skin to give
Adam and Eve, and He established that there's only one way you
can call upon the Lord and be saved, and that's through the
blood of sacrifice. That's through the blood of the
Lamb. God, be merciful to me. You see, calling upon the name
of the Lord is not just looking up in the air and saying, No, no. It's coming to the Lord
God of grace and glory, sovereign mercy, and pleading the merits
of Christ. And that's what he says. Verse
14, how then shall they call on him in whom they've not believed?
How shall they believe in him of whom they've not heard? How
shall they hear without a preacher? How shall they preach except
they be sent as it is written? How beautiful are the feet of
them that preach the gospel of peace? Remember when they heard
the gospel in their own language, how they said, oh, what marvelous
great things God has done and bring glad tidings of good things,
but they've not obeyed the gospel. Isaiah said, Lord, who hath believed
our doctrine, our report? So, then faith, faith in Christ,
cometh by hearing, hearing of Christ, and hearing, hearing
of Christ, by the Word of God that guides us and leads us to
Christ. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord. Well, I pray that the Lord will
give us all a great and marvelous outpouring of His Spirit in that
way.