A very interesting study. Three
chapters. Three chapters. And it always
starts out with the Word of the Lord came. The Word of the Lord
came. And it always comes to a man
with a message. The Word of the Lord comes to
give the man the message and to send him. And it always tells
about who his father is. to show us, you know, the relationship
that we have in this earth and that that's not what counts.
And you know, believers, Christians are so different than the world
in their view of the world. Our view as believers is so different
as we view the world and as the world views the world. Even as
religion views the world. You know, we understand and believe,
and God has taught us, that everything that happens in this world is
His history, is His story. Gary and I were talking about
that before the service. He's searching the Scriptures,
studying the Scriptures in light of the word purpose. Now, everybody
wants to know why things happen. They call them accidents, fate,
bad luck, good luck. call it a lot of things fate.
But is this world run by fate or free will? Is it run by man
or nature or somehow power? One of those things man's going
to believe in. But God in His mercy has taught us that it's
every, this story, we look back and it's God's history. And we
look forward, and it's still God's history. It just hasn't
been told out yet. Now, we know what God's purpose
is when we get to the end of the day. When we get to the end
of the day, whatever it is that God's purpose for us was, we'll
know what it was. Whether it was sickness, whether
it was a loss of a job, or whether we got out of bed, we was able
to go to work, was able to make a payday, was able to come home,
eat a good meal, and lay down and get a good night's sleep.
All those things are in the purpose of God. And we know that. And
I tell you, beloved, and I tell you, no man, no man left to himself,
will ever, ever figure out that God controls this world. He'll have a thousand reasons
why this world is the way it is, but not God. But if God ever
reveals to a man that He's running this world, that this world's
in His control, that He declared the end from the beginning and
from ancient times are things that are not yet done, saying,
All my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. And when you see that, everyone,
now we acknowledge it now, that God and God alone controls this
universe. But one of these days, everyone's
going to know that. But still, they won't believe
it. They'll have to bow to it. They'll have to be subjected
to it. And they'll say, yes, yes, yes,
but they won't like it. They'll be mad at him, and they'll
curse him, and they'll blaspheme him, but it still won't change
the fact that God controls the affairs of the world, of men
in the world, of the governments in the world, that He does this. That He does this. And that's
why, when you look at who controls this world, when our Lord Jesus
said, and if I be lifted up, I'll draw all men unto myself."
And that means who's going to do that? He said he would do
that. And he says, the Father hath
given all things into my hand. So who's running this outfit
today? The Lord Jesus Christ is. Now, I'm very thankful that
the reins of this universe, the reins of the human race, the
reins of every government is in the hands of a God-man, the
Lord Jesus Christ, a man like unto us, sin accepted, but yet
God, and as a man, He sees us and knows us and fills our infirmities
and can be touched with them. And I tell you what, that's why
the Scripture says, Of him, through him, and to him are all things
to whom be glory both now and forever. And we know, not guessing,
not hoping, not thinking, We know that all things, how comprehensive
is all things, work together for good to them that love God. Why do they love God? Because
He first loved them. To them who are the called according
to His purposes. So let's look here at Joel's
message. You know, Joel, his name means
Jehovah is God. Jehovah is God. And when we went
through Hosea, we saw that the heart of redemption, the heart
of God in redemption as Hosea took Gomer to be his wife. But
Joel reveals the hand of God in ruling this universe to save
his people. And it tells us plainly that
the first three verses tells us that this message is not just
to the people that day, but on into the future. The word of
the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Thuthul. Hear this, ye
old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath
this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?
So he went back in time. And then he says, tell your children
of it. And let your children tell their children and their
children another generation. So what he says is that I want
this message to go on and on and on and on and on. And I tell
you, beloved, he spoke not only about the people, but of the
future generations. And we don't know what things
were like. We don't even know in what period they joined. Don't
tell us who was the kings at this time. But this means that
Jehovah is God, and His Father's name is Bethul means the open-heartedness
or sincerity of God. And this one thing that Joel
says five different times in this book, he says, the day of
the Lord, the day of the Lord, the day of the Lord. And there's
only three chapters, and what Joel shows us is that God's history,
is moving constantly, constantly working and moving until the
final day, that day of the Lord, when God Christ our Savior shall
be up here. And when he talks about the day
of the Lord, he's not talking about a specific single day or
time. Look what he says in verse 15
of chapter 1. Alas, for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as
a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. So there he's
talking about the day of the Lord being a day of judgment.
God's judgment coming. Oh, it's going to come at any
time. And then over here in chapter 3 and verse 14, look what he
says. This is the day of the Lord.
Over here, when he talks about multitudes, 3.14, multitudes,
multitudes in the valley of decision. For the day of the Lord is near
in the valley of decision. In that day the sun and the moon
shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.
You'll not be in the valid decision on that day. On that day. And we need to see this, that
the day of the Lord, the day of the Lord refers to any day,
any day in which God displays His sovereignty and controlling
things in this world. Today was the day of the Lord.
Did God run things today, or did He abdicate His throne? Huh? And, O beloved, the day of the
Lord is the day of the Lord, is today the day of the Lord,
tomorrow being the day of the Lord, the day after being the
day of the Lord, there's always going to be a day of the Lord,
and there's going to be a final day of the Lord, when we shall
look for Him who shall appear, and that day of the Lord shall
come. And that's why Paul said, well, that's the first, he said,
I pray that the Lord give him mercy, mercy in that day. Now, there's a warning that he
gives us. The first one is he tells us that the day of the
Lord is a day of warning. When the Lord sends judgment
to warn us of judgment, sends judgment to warn us of it. Now,
look what happens here in chapter one. The first thing God did,
look what he says here in verse four. What God did, He gives
us a warning, the Day of the Lord. And this Day of the Lord
is a day of judgment. You know, He's warning us of
judgment to come. And He says, "...that which to
tell your children this, and the generation after them, that
which the Palmerworth hath left the locust eat, that which the
locust hath eaten hath left the cankerworm eat, and that which
the cankerworm hath left the caterpillar eat." And then He
says, "...How, you drunkards, There's somebody coming that's
got number on the teeth of a lion. And then he said, they laid my
vine waste, barked my fig tree, killed it, made it clean, made
it bare. The branches are white. And then
it said, it went so far that the meat offing, in verse 9,
the drink offing is cut off from the house of the Lord, the priest,
the Lord's minister, the field's wasted, the landmines, the corn's
wasted, the wine is dried up. Be ashamed and howl! for the
barley, because the harvest of the field is perished." Then
he says, oh, listen to you, he talks about the preachers now.
Verse 13, "'Gird yourselves and lament, you priests! How, you
ministers of the altar, come lying all night in sackcloth,
you ministers of my God, for the meat-offering and the drink-offering
is withholding from the house of your God.'" God pronounces
this judgment upon them. He's done sent judgment upon
them. And, oh, beloved, God sent a plague of locusts upon this
land of Judah, and He did it because of their sin. And then
He calls His people to repentance. And He describes this locusts
as an army sent by God Himself, an army. That's what He calls
it, an army. And I tell you, beloved, Joel
lived in a day like our day. When God's manifest judgments
fall upon all people who are called by His name, I'm going
to tell you something. You know, the Scripture said
over in 1 Peter, the time has come that judgment must begin
at the house of God. And if judgment begins at us,
what shall be the end of them? If God starts judgment here,
what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
And if the righteous scarce be saved, where will the sinner
and the ungodly appear? Now, judgment's upon this land,
judgment's on this world. The day of the Lord is on this
nation. It's obvious that His hand's against us, and it's obvious
it's against us because of the condition that this world's in,
the immorality that's in it, the uncommonness that's in it.
The ridicule that's given to the Bible, the ridicule that's
given to the Scripture, the ridicule that's given to Jesus Christ,
the Lord of Glory. You can't say nothing against
the prophet, but you can say anything you want to do against
the Lord Jesus Christ. And how many churches that's
got million-dollar buildings, half a dozen ministers, and not
one of them is preaching the gospel? They got the guitars,
and the drums, and the basses, and the noise, and the timbrels,
and the singing, and all the noise. And the preachers have
got degrees, after degree, after degree, and they could not open
the Bible and tell you one verse of Scripture, or tell you a doctrine
from the Word of God. And when the pulpit has been
so dishonored, and the Word of God has been so blasphemed, and
so set aside, when you can go to a service, go to a place,
and go to the coffee shop and get your coffee, stop off and
get your donut, and drink it while the priest was standing
up there with his shorts and his shirts on, because he wants
to feel like one of you, Judgment's on us, boys. I mean,
judgment's on us. All you got to do is, because
of this lack of truth and this judgment and this army that God's
turned loose on us, this army of darkness, this army of liars,
this army of deceivers, this army of betrayers, they said,
where'd you take him, O Lord? They don't know where they've
taken him. They never knew him. And because of that, now our
nation has got a bunch of blasphemers that's leading this outfit. God-hating,
Christ-rejecters, from the top to the bottom. And oh, and if the judgment begins
here, and God's done pronounced judgment on these congregations
all over America, all over the world, As Oral Barner said, you can't
get a gopher's guard to come hear the gospel. But they'll line up to hear a
preacher lie. But the judgment's just started,
and God has sent a strong delusion that they should believe a lie
and be damned. And when it talks about us being
saved with difficulty, it means that it's not difficulty on our
part. The difficulty was how could
God be just and justify and save sinners like us? We're not saying
the difficulty in ourselves. The difficulty come in how that
God could save a sinner, be just and justify in the wisdom of
God seen in the gospel. That's where the difficulty came
in. But, oh, beloved, and I tell you, if the righteous scarcely
be saved, saved with that difficulty, where will all these other folks
appear? And I'll tell you something. I'll get on with this. You better be thankful that God
judges you in the sound of the gospel. That judgment's already been
done, and we understand who bore our judgment. We understand the
judgment, and that's why when the gospel's being preached,
he says that one is the savior of life unto life, another is
the savior of death unto death, but one or the other, A man's
being judged every time he hears the gospel. And when he acknowledges
that gospel, hears that gospel, and says, yes, that's my gospel,
yes, that's my salvation, yes, that's my righteousness, yes,
that's my justification, then he's given accent and consent
to what God said. And if he says, I don't know
about that, I don't believe that, he's in trouble being judged.
And when the Lord visits a nation, visits a people, visits a generation,
or an individual, he warns of that judgment to come before
he ever does it, and then he gives a merciful call to repentance. Because God said in Genesis 3,
6, He says, My spirit will not always strive with man. And then
look over here in Chapter 2 with me. Oh, my. God sends this judgment, sends
these awful judgments. But let's look back up in chapter
1, verse 16, just a minute. Oh, the day of the Lord is at
hand, and as destruction from the Almighty it shall come. Is
not the meat cut off before our eyes? Yea, joy and gladness from
the house of our God. God cut it off. The seed's rotten
under the clods. The garners are laid desolate.
You ain't got no place to put your stuff because you ain't
got nothing to put it in. The barns are broken down, the corn withered.
Even the beasts groan, the herds of cattle are perplexed, because
they had no pasture, yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.
O Lord, to Thee will I cry, for the fire hath devoured the pastures
of the wilderness, the flame hath burned all the trees of
the field." Now what's he talking about? What's he talking about?
Well, look here in chapter one, chapter two, excuse me. God said
that He sent this army of locusts, this great bunch of locusts,
to destroy. But before it ever happened,
the land was like the Garden of Eden. Look here in verse 3. A fire devours before them, and
behind them a flame burns, going before and behind. The land is
as the Garden of Eden before them, oh my, as it comes, and
behind them a desert wilderness. Yea, and nothing shall escape.
Oh my, what are these locusts going to look like? He said,
the appearance of them is as the appearances of horses, and
as horsemen, so shall they run. They'll sound like, you know,
remember several years ago when we had all those locusts? And
I mean, man, all you could hear, they just, they just, constant,
wherever you went, they just, and they ate all the trees that
would come out of it. That's what happened here. God sent
them in right before them. It was like a garden of Eden.
They come and behind them nothing but desolate. And they come and
it sounded like a bunch of horses coming. They were making so much
noise. You could hear them coming from miles off. And then they
were like the noise of chariots on the top of mountains. Say
a leap across the mountains. And they're like the noise of
a flame. Flame and a struggle. And as the strong people said
in battle array, here comes these loafers and they're just like
a great army of horses jumping over the mountains. And before
their face the people shall be much pained. All faces shall
gather blackness." And oh, look what it says, how fast these
things are. He says, they'll run like mighty men. They'll
even climb the walls like a men of war. They shall march every
one on his way, and they won't break the ranks. When they come,
they'll just come as a great marching army, just dividing
everything in their presence, like a fire consuming everything
before them. Neither shall one thrust this
way or another way, they shall ever one walk in his path. And,
O beloved, they shall not be wounded." And then he goes on
to say, "...they shall run to and fro in the city. They shall
run upon the wall, they shall climb upon the houses, they shall
enter in at the windows as a thief." After they've divided everything
up, they're going to go in the house and eat what they can there. And, oh, beloved, they darken
the sun just like eclipsed. Look what it says in verse two.
These clouds, these locusts, when they come, they have darkness
and gloominess. They have clouds of thick darkness.
As the morning spread upon the mountains, the great people are
strong like had never been before, neither been any more after,
even in the years of many generations. Here they come. Everything that's
before them was alive and well, but when they come, they attack
everything that was green and aided. In just a little while,
everything was gone. All the bark was gone. The leaves
were gone. And then they devastated the...
It takes years to get over this. The noise of the wind can be
heard for miles. It's like the noise of a great
fire. And they stripped the country clean. Then they scaled the walls
of the city. Then they got in the houses.
And beloved, that's just the way false religion is. Don't
you think it is just like a marching bunch of locusts? It devours
everything. It just devours everything. It takes away righteousness.
It takes away the sacrifice. It destroys the souls of men.
And it's a horrible army. But it's God's army. And that's
why He says, you know, that He'll send them a strong delusion to
believe a lie. But now that's the warning. Man,
the warnings are before us. And let me ask you a question.
As much as we'd like to see things change, as much as we desperately
would love to see things change, as much as we'd love to see morality
come back and values come back and honesty and integrity and
people be able to find jobs, as much as we'd like to see things
come back, do you think we deserve any better? That's the kicker. We want better. We ask for better. We ask God to please intervene.
We ask Him to do for us what only He can do. We ask Him to
do for our nation what only He can do. But yet, at the same
time, if He has purposed it, who's going to turn it back? And we're no better than these
people right here. We're no better than Amos or
any other prophet or any other generation. We're no different.
If our nation, as a nation, if all nations that forget God should
be turned into hell, then hell is being, today's nation is being
turned into hell right before. And God's warned us and warned
us and warned us. And false religion, that's the
worst, that's the worst. But then there's hope. Look what
he says down here in verse 11 of chapter 2. Oh, we have this
warning, but God doesn't leave us without hope. And that's why
we always look to, we always have hope. And the Lord shall
utter his voice before his army, for his camp is very great, for
he is strong that executeth his word. For the day of the Lord
is great, another day of the Lord, is great and very terrible,
and who can abide? Who can abide this great and
terrible day of the Lord? Who can abide the day of God's
wrath? Who can abide this day? Who can
stand before His indignation? Who can abide in the fierceness
of His anger? when his fury is poured out like
fire and rocks are thrown down by him. Now, beloved, we know
without a shadow of a doubt that the Lord will punish sin. God
will punish sin. His judgment is sure. It's sure. There's things that's just sure
as anything. Man's got one life to live, one
death to die, one eternity to spend. And beloved, hell is as real
in eternities forever. But now look what he says here
in verse 12. We know that the Lord calls us
to repentance. And therefore now also, saith
the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart. With weeping
and with mourning, And listen to this right here. And rend
your heart and not your garment. That's what folks like to do.
Like to make their face look bad, put on, you know, don't
want to look like that. But God says, it's your heart
that's your problem. It's your heart. That's where
it's at. Turn unto the Lord your God.
Now listen. For He is gracious and merciful,
slow in anger, and of great kindness, and repented him of the evil."
Oh, wouldn't it be wonderful if he'd do that for us as a nation,
as a people? "...who knoweth that he will
return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him, even a
meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God." He'll
leave you something. He'll give you what to give back
to him. He said, I'll give you what I need for you to give back
to him. I'll leave it for you. I'll give it to you. Oh, he's gracious and merciful.
Bless his holy name. And then God uses this prophet
and always uses his preachers and prophets to plead with his
people, plead with his people. And look what he says in verse
15. Blow the trumpet. That's what Amos said. We'll get to that next week.
He said, Sound ye the trumpet. Blow the trumpet. Set the trumpet
to your lips. Blow the trumpet in Zion. And
if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself
to battle? Sanctify fast. Call everybody
to a solemn assembly. Get all the people together.
Sanctify the congregation. Assemble the elders. Gather the
children. Get them all. Get the women and
the babies and suck the breast. Let the bridegroom come out of
his chamber and let the bride out of her closet. Let all come
to priest. Let the minister of the Lord.
Weep before And between the porch and the altar, let them say,
Spare thy people, O Lord. Spare thy people. Let every one
of them come and say this when you get them together. Spare
your people, O Lord. Give not your heritage to reproach,
that the heathen should run a blow with him, or the heathen would
have to say among the people, Where is their God? Then will
the Lord be jealous for his land, and have pity upon his people. Oh, God, have pity on us. Have
pity on us. And He promises this, that as
we seek His mercy, He will grant it. Look what He said in verse
18 of chapter 2. Then the Lord will be jealous.
He said, You seek Me with your heart. I'm gracious and merciful. And the Lord will answer and
say unto His people, You know what I'm going to do? Your corn
was gone. You didn't have enough to put in your garden. He said,
I'm going to send you corn. I'm going to give you some wine.
I'm going to give you some oil. And you know what? You'll be satisfied
with it. And I won't make you reproach anymore. I'll remove
far off that northern army. I'll drive them back into the
sea." And then he says, "'Fear not, O land. Be glad and rejoice,
for the Lord doeth great things.' Then he tells them of the peace
of the field and the pastures. Don't be afraid anymore. You're
going to spring forth. The fruit tree and the vine will
yield their strength. And so he says, go all here.
And he says, look what he says now in verse 24. And the floor
shall be full of wheat, and the fat shall overflow with wine
and oil. Oh, after the locust had done all that. Now listen
to what he says right here. And I will restore to you the
ears that the locust hath eaten, the canker-worm, the caterpillar,
the palmer-worm, and my great army when I sent among you. And then he says, look here.
And you shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise
the name of the Lord your God, that he hath dealt wonders with
you, and my people shall never be ashamed. And you shall know
that I am in the midst of Israel, that I am the Lord your God,
and none else, and my people shall never be ashamed." Went
from all this judgment to this. And then the promise. of grace,
this promise of grace, this promise of blessing, always comes through
our Lord Jesus Christ and the redemption. And Joel understood
this. Look what he says in verse 28.
This is what Peter preached on the day of Pentecost. He quoted
these verses of Scripture. And he says, And that shall come
to pass afterward. Now, when is these days going
to be? Joel 2.28. And this is what Peter
preached on the day of Pentecost. And this shall come to pass afterward.
that I pour out my Spirit upon all flesh. Before, it was just the prophets,
certain people. And your sons and your daughters
shall prophesy. They'll be able to talk about
Christ. Your old men will dream dreams. Oh, they'll just talk
and sit around and dream about how gracious God is and dream
about, oh, the future and everything that God's going to do for them.
And your young men will see visions. They'll have a vision for the
glory of God, a vision for the grace of God, a vision for the
gospel of God. And also upon the servants, even
the people that work for a living, upon the handmaids, the people
that take care of your houses. These days I'll pour my spirit
on you. And oh, Peter stood up there,
and he says, Deliverance is going to come. In verse 32, And I'll
show wonders in the heavens, and in the earth blood, fire,
and pillars of smoke. That's all figurative language,
you know. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into
blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord come. And it
shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the
Lord shall be delivered. Peter got down to that, and they
said, Oh, men and brethren, when he says this name Jesus, that's
what he's talking about. That's what's happening right
here, right now. God's pouring out His Spirit. This is what
Joel said is going to happen. And whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be delivered. For in Mount Zion,
in the church, and in Jerusalem shall be delivered, as the Lord
has said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call. Oh
my, God has blessed us with these things in Christ. And then look
here in chapter 3. Oh my. You know, God promises that He's
going to save, that He'll deliver His elect from out of all the
nations that He's scattered. And that battle, there's a battle
that takes place in this Valley of Decision. And He says in chapter
3, verse 2, I will also gather all nations and will bring them
down into the Valley of Jehoshaphat for My people and for My heritage
of Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations and parted
My land. And then he goes down in verse 14 and says, ìThere
are multitudes and multitudes in this valley of decision, in
this valley of Jehoshaphat. For the day of the Lord is near
in the valley of decision.î And, beloved, when we get in this
valley, get in this place where people are trying to sell us
and trying to get rid of us, God says this. He said in verse
17, ìThe Lord also shall hear out of Zion. and utter his voice
from Jerusalem. The heavens and the earth shall
shake, but the Lord will be the hope of his people and the strength
of the children of Israel." Now listen, "...so shall ye know
that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain. And
shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall be no strangers pass
through any more." Oh my! Not only is he going to
save, but look what he says, and it shall come to pass in
that day that the mountains are going to drink down new wine,
hills are going to flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall
flow with waters, and the fountains shall come forth out of the house
of the Lord. You know, and here's the thing, God's people, They
may forsake Him. They may go a lot of different
directions, but one thing for sure, God never forsakes them. He may try them. He may put them
in the midst of great afflictions. He may send great, great burdens
and great judgments. When God judges the world, we
live in the same world He's judging. When God's judging a nation,
if we're in that nation, we've got to be in that, we're judged
with that nation. We've got to bear what's going on in that
nation. But one thing about it, God knows them that are His,
every single one of them. And He'll save His remnant, He'll
save His people, and He'll meet all their needs. And I tell you,
they'll be satisfied with His wine, with His corn, and with
His oil. Won't He do it? Oh, Lord Jesus. Father, Father,
Father, Father, Father. our Master, our Lord, our Savior,
our Redeemer, our God. We know where our God is, and
we'll never be ashamed. We know that He's in the heavens,
and the heavens of heavens can't contain Him. We know the earth
is His footstool. We know that our blessed Savior
sits at your right hand with all power and all authority.
We know where our God is. He's in the heavens, and He's
doing as He pleases. So be pleased to meet the needs
of this body of believers. Be pleased to save your people
in this place. Be pleased, O Lord, to open our
children and grandchildren's hearts. Be pleased to give great
grace and strength and mercy to your children. And your blessed
preachers meet all their needs. And as me and Don and Bruce go
to preach in Alabama, go before us. Give us words to preach,
things to say, to be a blessing, to be an encouragement, to be
a strength for that body of believers. We ask these things in our Lord
Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.