In Joel chapter 3 from verse
9 we read the following. Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles. Prepare war, wake up the mighty
men. Let all the men of war draw near. Let them come up. Beat your plowshares
into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak
say, I am strong. Assemble yourselves and come,
all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about. Thither
cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord. Let the heathen
be wakened and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat. For there
will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle,
for the harvest is ripe. Come and get you down, for the
press is full. The fats overflow, for their
wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the
valley of decision. For the day of the Lord is near
in the valley of decision. the sun and the moon shall be
darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. The Lord
also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem,
and 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. so shall ye know that i am the
lord your god dwelling in zion my holy mountain then shall jerusalem
be holy and there shall no strangers pass through her anymore verse
16 the lord also shall roar out of zion and utter his voice from
jerusalem The context in which this promise,
this promise of hope and salvation and triumph for the people of
God, the children of Israel in their God, the context of this
promise is presented to us in chapter one of Joel, where we
read of an awful thing that has come upon the land. There we
read this, the word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of
Perfuel. Hear this ye old men, and give
ear all ye inhabitants of the land. Have this been in your
days, or even in the days of your fathers. Tell ye your children
of it, and let your children tell their children, and their
children another generation. That which the palmer-worm have
left have the locust eaten, and that which the locust have left
have the canker-worm eaten, and that which the canker-worm have
left have the caterpillar eaten. Awake, ye drunkards, and weep,
and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine,
for it is cut off from your mouth. For a nation is come up upon
my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth
of a lion, and he hath the cheek-teeth of a great lion. He hath laid
my vine waste, and barked my fig-tree. He hath made it clean
bare, and cast it away. The branches thereof are made
white. Oh, what an awful scene! What
a scene of desolation and ruin. How the enemy has come into the
land. How the locusts and the palmy
worms have come in. How all the goodness of the land,
all the food, all the crops, all that which sustains life
has gone. And how a nation has come in
upon the land strong and without number whose teeth are the teeth
of a lion and who has a cheek teeth of a great lion. A great
enemy has come in and raised everything to the ground. So
bad, so dreadful, so terrible in its effects that Joel cries
out to the old men and the inhabitants of the land, have this been in
your days or even in the days of your fathers, have you ever
seen something so bad, so dreadful as this? Have you ever seen the
enemy come upon you in such a manner? Have you ever seen so little
food? Such a famine, such a desolation. Has it ever been? It is that and that picture of
a nation as of a lion with teeth as a lion to which in the end
the Lord by Joel sends a promise and a prophecy of salvation to
come of deliverance and of the fact that the Lord as a lion
as the lion, shall roar out of Zion and utter his voice from
Jerusalem. Because he is God, because he
rules over all, because he is jealous for his people, and no
nation, no enemy, will in the end triumph. no matter how bad
it might seem, no matter how dreadful the situation may appear,
no matter how little food there appears to be, no matter how
great the famine, no matter how mighty the force that has come
upon his people, he rules. Jehovah is God, and He is jealous
for His own, and He will deliver His own. He will feed them, He
will protect them, He will provide for them, He will deliver them,
He will save them, and none can stop Him. None can stop Him. But they will try, and they did
try, and they do try today. Because there was a famine in
this land. The palmer worm had eaten what
the locust... The palmer worm left what the
locust had eaten. Everything was eaten up. And
a mighty nation with teeth as a lion had come in to devour
this people. It had happened. And it happens
today. There are enemies in the land.
There are those who would seek to destroy God's people. There are those who would seek
to steal and take away and eat up all the food, all that which
sustains life. If you look upon the churches,
the professing churches, the land, That which is food, that
which gives life is the gospel. And where can you hear and feed
upon the gospel today? It's there, as God has his people
there. Where his people are, there he
feeds them, there he sends his word. but so many places and
so many places that profess his name hear nothing of the truth
of the gospel week in and week out there's no food for the hungry
child of God there's a famine the locust has come in and a
nation with teeth as a lion has come in to devour his people
a nation as a lion, why a lion? where we read of other lions
in the scriptures and we read of one who goes about
as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour because this nation
here this powerful force that came in upon the land is likened
to a lion It's described as having the teeth of a lion and the cheek
teeth of a great lion because of the force, because of the
one, because of the one who drove this nation along. There is a
force, a motivation behind how this world moves, behind the
thinking, the goals, the ambitions, the desires, the actions, the hatred of those in the world
against the things of God and the people of God there is a
malevolence about them there is a lion there is one
who appears as a lion who motivates and leads and guides But that one who goes about as
a roaring lion, and who leads and drives the people in this
world to do his bidding as a lion, is not a lion. He goes about
as a lion, masquerading as a lion, pretending to be a lion, but
he's not a lion. He's not a lion. He just pretends. He has his influence cast upon
the nations and his greatest malevolence and anger and hatred
is set upon the children of God, upon the children of Israel.
But he's not that lion that dwells in the midst of that people.
He pretends to be God. and he leads and influences the
nations with a pretense of a gospel and
a pretense of Jesus Christ and a pretense of the things of God. He's not irreligious in how he
leads the nations but so much of his hatred and his greatest
tactics To take away the food of the hungry child of God and
to give it to others is to take the food that the child of God
feeds upon, to take the gospel and to corrupt it and to take
from it and to adapt it and to change it and to present to the
people another gospel with another Jesus. which presents salvation
not by the grace and the power and the might of God, but by
the will, the power and the strength of men. Now whether he packages
that gospel up as something that he calls Christianity, or whether
he takes his package of works and calls it Islam, or Hinduism,
or Buddhism, or whatever else, it matters not. He will take
a religion a religion of works and lead the people forth to
follow it and to seek and to serve that which they think is
God and as such they are turned wholesale against the true child
of God and they hate them with a hatred and an anger as of a
lion devouring its prey. This is why 1 Peter 5, 8 tells
us, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil has
a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. He's looking for you, child of
God. He's looking for you, children
of Zion. He's seeking whom he may devour,
and he's subtle and deceptive in how he will bring it to pass.
because he'll lead you astray by bringing in those into the
churches bringing in those alongside you who will present unto you
a message about Jesus Christ and you will be led and deceived
because it sounds so reasonable unless you are sober and vigilant
and discerning and looking unto me, your God looking unto Jesus
and resting and trusting in him alone except you walk with your
gaze set upon him this lion will come in alongside and deceive
but in the end no matter whom he seeks to devour and no matter
how subtle and deceptive are his ways None of God's true sheep,
none of God's children, none of God's elect will in the end
be led away. They cannot perish, he cannot
devour them. He may get his paw against them,
he may get his teeth on their back, They may hear his roars
from time to time. They may be taken in and led
about and deceived for a while. They may, like the Galatians,
be bewitched, but they won't be taken astray forever. God will deliver them because
there is another lion who is not a counterfeit. There is one who is not a pretender. There is one whose strength is
greater than he who goes about seeking whom he may devour. There
is a Lion, the true Lion, the Lion of Judah, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he in the midst of Zion roars,
he shouts forth his truth, he declares his power, he declares
I am God and there is none else, there is none like unto me. And he will not let this pretender
to his throne take any one of his children. Child of God, when
you're cast down, when all trouble comes your way, when you know
not where to turn, when you think that you could easily fall, rest
in this. There is One who rules in the
midst of Zion. You have a great King, a great
Lord, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and He will not, He will
not let you go. none shall pluck you out of his
hand. That one who goes about as a
lion, that one who leads the nations to come upon you with
the teeth of a lion will not devour because this one, this
lion is in the midst of his people. This is why Paul could say in
2 Timothy chapter 4, 17, notwithstanding the Lord stood with me and strengthened
me no matter what came upon me despite all the trials, all the
enemies, all the hatred, despite all these who would put me to
death for the sake of Jesus Christ. notwithstanding the Lord stood
with me and strengthened me that by me the preaching might be
fully known and that all the Gentiles might hear and I was
delivered out of the mouth of the lion. Now was Paul here referring
to a physical lion or a spiritual? There may have been lions from
which he was delivered. The Romans in their hatred of
the Christians did indeed throw many to the lions. But what may have occurred in
reality was but a picture of that which occurred spiritually
for every child of God. For Paul was delivered not only
out of the mouth of physical lions, but he was delivered out
of the mouth of the lion, out of the mouth of that adversary
who would rip him to shreds if he could. And he was delivered
out of his mouth because the lion of the tribe of Judah stood
with him and strengthened him. And as long as Jesus Christ stood
at Paul's side, no one, no power, no force could rip him to pieces. He was safe in his refuge. Now what is it about a lion that
is so significant that Christ is called the Lion of the tribe
of Judah? or that the devil goes about
as a roaring lion. What is it about a lion? Well
in the animal realm he's the king. He's a mighty animal. He's all-powerful. He rules. He roars. He has a bite to be
feared. He has a roar to be feared. He
has arms and legs to be feared. He's strong. He's mighty. He's a king, he's sovereign and
Joel's message to us regards that power and that authority
and that rule. it presents unto us on the one
hand the world and he who moves through the world he who moves
he who is the prince of the power of the darkness of the air that
influence in the world satan the devil the one who goes about
as a roaring lion he presents unto us the mighty forces of
the devil working through the mighty forces of mankind which
all try to bring their weight and their opposition down upon
Zion, upon Jerusalem, upon God and upon his people. He presents
that to us on one side but then he presents the wonderful tremendous
hope of he who is in the midst of Zion, he who shall roar out
of Zion. The Lord also shall roar out
of Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem and 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. There is a greater strength a
greater king, a greater lord, a greater power, a greater force
in the midst of God's people, in the midst of Zion than any
in this world. Who rules? Who is the king of
this world? Who really is God? What does
Joel tell us? Jehovah is God. Jehovah. The name Joel has that
as its meaning Jehovah is God Jehovah He is the son of Perfuel
whose name means the open heartedness of God He presents unto us an all powerful
God the one who rules over all and coming from his father Perfuel
He presents unto us something of the character of that God
who rules over all. Because that God who rules over
this world, this universe, over all men and all women including
you, that God who rules over all, is not a malevolent dictator. He's not one who just has power
and is greedy. or angry or mean with that power,
he's not a force like that one who is against his people. But he is one who is open-hearted,
one who has a heart of love, of grace, of mercy, who loves
those who are unlovely, who loves those who are undeserving. There
is a grace that is presented to us through this book, the
grace of God. Because you could say of that
nation, upon which such calamity had come, you could say of the
nation of Israel, you could say of God's people, that they deserved
all they got. You could say of us that we deserve
all that comes upon us. If a nation came upon us and
raised us to the ground and slew us and chewed us to pieces with
the teeth of a lion, we deserve it. Our sins have earned it,
our corruption has bought it. We deserve to be destroyed and
God would be just if he destroyed us. But God is not a God who
is out to destroy, but he has sent his Son. into this world
to deliver his people he's gracious he delights in showing mercy
he's a lion but a lion who brings grace yes he's the lion his rule
is over all there is none like him none more powerful none Not
the wisest of men, not the greatest of empires, not the strongest
of kingdoms is like under him. Not science, not technology,
not the wonders of the modern world, not the greatest of thinking
that we have today, none is like under him. We live in strange
days. godless days where science and
technology and the ingenuity of mankind is promoted as though
it will bring about peace and prosperity and wonder as though
there is no God. The foolishness of man has come
to say there is no God and it bows down at the foot of science. And we can say of such a day,
Hear this, ye old men, and give ear all ye inhabitants of the
land. Have this been in your days,
or even in the days of your fathers? Have you known anything like
this day? Anything like this day in which
so many have turned away from a belief in God, so many have
darkened understandings, so many have become so foolish in what
they think is wisdom. Have you seen a day in which
there is so much religion but so much blindness in it? so much
darkness in it? Have you seen a day in which
there is so much corruption and evil and filth promoted in society
and bolstered by the laws of the lands? Such worldwide movements
to force a certain ideology and thinking not just upon one town,
not just upon one county, not just upon one country but the
entire world, the whole world is being moved along in one direction
and it's being moved along by a voice and a roar which is anti-Christ. which roars against the people
of God, roars against the Lord Jesus Christ and roars against
his gospel. Has there ever been a day like
it? We live in days where people
ask questions, where did the universe come from? A big bang? The chance explosion of certain
gases in the darkness of nothing? Well where did those gases come
from? They just appeared. Well what
made them just appear? Did the universe come from chaos,
from chance? People ask where we came from?
Did we evolve? Did we develop gradually over
millions of years from monkeys? before them from fish in the
sea? O where the wisest of men come
to in their folly! What darkness and blindness characterizes
our day? What of you? Have you been spellbound
by these lies? Are you bewitched by them? Has
science blinded you to the truth? The reality that is all around
you, that the heavens cry out unto you? The creation, the heavens,
the world, your own body, your eyes, your hands cry out that
there is a maker and a God who made you and sustains you. And
do you look upon these and see nothing but chance and chaos? If you do, you're blind. For there is One who is over
all. There is One who brought these
things into being. There is One who spake and it
was. There is One who said let there
be light and the light shone in the darkness. God is over
all. Over all. Every nation. Every tongue. Every people. He's over all the whole universe. He causes Mars to circle the
sun. He causes Jupiter to circle the
sun. He causes the moons to circle
the planet. He causes the comets to circle. He causes the weather to change.
He's the one who rules. Not man. Not chance, not science,
not nature. He's behind all things and it's
to him that you must answer. He works and moves throughout
time, throughout the universe, throughout every event in history
and he works and moves throughout all these things to accomplish
one great aim. We're here. The world is here,
the universe is here, you and I are here because God is working
to accomplish this aim, the salvation of his people from their sins
and the establishment of the Kingdom of God. which he has
done and is doing through the death of his son who was sent
into this world as a sacrifice for sinners like you and I. The
great problem in this world is not a lack of food. It's not peace or a lack of peace. It's not a lack of knowledge
or education. It's not a lack of equality.
It's not the need to get everyone to get along with everyone. The
great problem in this world is not global warming or the fact
that the natural resources upon which we depend are fast depleted. The great problem in this world
is the sin which is in your heart, for which you have nothing that
you can do to take it away, nothing with which you can pay a price
to present unto God as atonement for what you've done. Your great
trouble is the sin and the death which entered by sin into your
being. you will die. The days of your
lives are numbered and when you die all this world and its troubles
and its trials and its ideas and its thinking and its foolish
nonsense about evolution and global warming and whatever else
the people are taken up with all that will be gone in but
a moment. and then truth and reality steps
in as you stand before your maker as you stand before Jehovah and
you answer for what you are and what you've done then you will
know that day of which Joel speaks when he speaks of the day of
the Lord the terrible day of the Lord to come in that day
you will stand before God and you will have to give an answer all events are moving towards
that day and they are moving towards it because God sent his
son to deliver his people from their sin. And he is preaching
his gospel throughout the ages and the generations. Not only
2,000 years ago, not only 200 years ago, but today, tomorrow,
and every day until that day, he is preaching his gospel that
sinners like you and I might hear and might believe on the
Son of God and bow the knee to him on which on that day we will
bow whether we like it or not and he's preaching his gospel
to bring the knowledge of his grace and his mercy to his people
to build and add to his kingdom a kingdom which will be gathered
into his presence following that day for eternity to come to dwell
with him forevermore in light in perfection in a world where
there is no more sin no more darkness no more death no more
disease no more suffering he's bringing that to pass and he's
bringing it to pass by the preaching of that gospel which you hear
today This is the day of the Lord. A gospel day. A day in which
you may hear the voice of the Son of God, that Lion of Judah,
who roars from the midst of Zion, who takes his gospel and shouts
it forth in the darkness. Turn unto me, Have you heard that gospel? Have you heard the roar of the
lion? Because everything's moving towards
that day when there will be no more days to hear the Gospel. You live today in an immediate
day of the Lord, a day in which He speaks, a day in which you
may hear. But there is that terrible day
of the Lord that comes when there's no more preaching, No more gospel,
no more mercy, no more grace when the door is shut and when
if you have shut your door of your heart to the sound of God's
word, when if you have shut your ears and buried your head in
the sand and denied and denied and gone off in your foolish
ways, then the door of grace is shut forevermore. Everything's
moving towards that day. that day when this world will
be brought to an end that day when the sun and the moon will
be darkened that day when the stars will be darkened and when
this world will be burnt up with fire it moves from day to day
to day to day day unto day every day a gospel day in which the
voice of the of the lion roars in which the gospels preached
and in which you in darkness shut your ears the fools that
you are the fool that I was to shut my ears to but that's the
day in which we live a day in which the lion roars and sounds
his voice will be heard now you may hear his voice every
day in that gospel But does that gospel come unto
you as a message of judgment or a message of grace? Is it
life unto life or death unto death? Do you just hear it with
the outward ear and it goes over you and you go away in the darkness
of your sin and shut your ears to it and all it's become unto
you is death because you will not believe? Or has God by grace
opened your understanding, opened your ears to hear, such that
when you hear, you fall down upon your knees before Him, knowing
that you're a sinner, knowing that He rules, knowing that He's
true, knowing there is a lion upon a throne who roars, and
knowing that because he died upon a cross, not as a lion but
as a lamb, because he died, because he took upon himself the sins
of his people, because his father beat him and bruised him for
those sins and judged them in him, because his blood was shed,
knowing that because he did that, that your sins can be washed
in that blood. If you're brought to know that,
if God opens your eyes to see it and your ears to hear it,
if he puts faith in your heart to believe on the Son of God
who died upon the tree, then you will know that not only can
that blood cleanse you from your sins, but that blood has cleansed
you from your sins. Or has it? Have you heard the
roar of the lion? If you have, has it been a roar
of anger? A roar of judgment and wrath
against you? Do you feel the anger of God? Do you feel the peril of your
sin? Or is it for you a roar of triumph? Do you feel and hear the roar
of Christ, the shout of the gospel in triumph and victory? Is it
triumph and victory for you? Can you join in the shout and
say, God is my salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. Can you look upon the cross and
see your sins washed away? And can you with Christ shout
out, it is finished. For me. Everything's answered. I'm forgiven. God has set his
love upon me. He's loved me when I hated him. He's loved me when I despised
him. He's loved me in the darkness.
He's shone the light into my heart. He's opened my eyes to
see and he's done it all. He saved me by grace. I earned nothing but his judgment
and yet he's looked upon me and shouted in victory. it is finished
yes this is roar against you or for you you will hear one
day you will hear that roar one day even if you shut your ears
to it now you will hear it one day but when you hear it now
in the gospel by grace is it life unto life What does that
roar sound for you? Oh, the shout of the gospel,
the power in this voice and the power in this message. I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, Paul says, for it is the power of God unto salvation. It's a wondrous message, a powerful
message. A powerful message. How the multitudes
in this world love to shout, to boast, to cry of what they've
done. But then above all their shouting,
all their boasting, all their boasting of their own glory,
their own works, their own wisdom, above all the noise of all the
multitudes, out of Zion, there is this roar. And when it shouts
forth, the people go silent. Because there's a roar of a lion,
who is greater than all. A roar which deafens all and
which puts all in the dust. There's none so powerful, none
with such authority. He rules. The king, the lord,
the lion has roared. As Amos the following book, the
following prophecy follows on in Amos 1 chapter 2 he also says
the Lord will roar from Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem. He will roar. and Amos chapter
3 verse 8 says the lion have roared who will not fear the
Lord God have spoken who can but prophesy he's roared and
he's roared from the midst of Zion the midst of Zion, the midst
of his city, the midst of his people, the midst of his church,
that's from whence the roar, the sound, the voice, the gospel,
the power is heard. It sounds forth from the church,
from amidst that people for whom this one died. he died outside
Jerusalem, he died numbered with the transgressors, he died as
a malefactor, taken upon himself the sins of that people, he died
for their sins and having died he delivered them and in the
midst of that people in whose hearts he dwells by faith he
shouts that gospel goes forth from the church. Amos in chapter
2 verse 11 says, Who shall abide in the day of his wrath? Who
can take it when he's angry, when he utters his anger, when
he's furious? In that day of the Lord which
is great and very terrible, who can abide it, who can stand in
it? These can. These in Zion, these
for whom he died, none can stand against his wrath. But because
he died in the midst, because Christ died for his own, because
he took that wrath and that anger upon himself, they stand. those for whom hope, salvation
and deliverance is promised unto in chapter 3, those who come
to know the fruits of this salvation, those who can be delivered, those
who have been delivered because of what happened in the valley
of decision or judgment of which we read chapter 3 in the passage
we read. Multitudes multitudes in the
valley of decision for the day of the Lord is near in the valley
of decision. When Christ came from the heights
of glory from the mountaintops of sitting and dwelling with
his father when he came into this world he came into a valley
he came to the deepest place the worst place. He came and
walked through the valley of death. He was led as a lamb to
the slaughter. He was led to the place of sacrifice. He was nailed to a tree and slain
in a valley of judgment. A valley of decision. He descended into that valley.
That place where the decision, the judgment was brought to pass
where the judgment was wrought where sheep were separated from
goats where the Lamb of God was slain that place the multitudes,
multitudes are there because what happened there determines
where they will be they were either washed by his blood as
he was shed as their sacrifice or they will be judged forevermore
because their sins remain upon them. Chapter two. We read it shall come to pass
afterward that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men
shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions and also
upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will
I pour out my spirit and I will show wonders in the heaven and
in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke. the sun
shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before
the great and the terrible day of the Lord shall come. What
happened in that valley of decision? The sun was turned into darkness
and the moon was turned into blood Because the Son was Christ,
the Son of God, the Son of Righteousness and as He bore the sins of His
own, as He was made sin, the light of the sun was taken away
and He was made darkness that God might judge it and take it
away. The moon, that figure, In the
account in Genesis, that figure of the law, that reflection of
the light of God, which has no light in itself, that figure
of the law, the law, the moon shall be turned to blood. All
the judgment of the law was poured out upon Christ because of the
sins of his people. and his blood was shed, its penalty
was poured out and that brought about the decision in the valley. It wasn't our decision, it's
not a decision to be made by us, it's not a being called to
the valley to look upon Christ and decide if we believe or we
won't believe but what God did to him when he judged the sins
of his people When the law's demands were poured out upon
Christ, when the moon was turned to blood and the sun was darkened,
what God decided then decides where you and I will spend the
rest of eternity. Well what happened there for
you? Was your anger, your rebellion, your hatred and the sin which
dwells within you, was that the cause of His death? or will that be what seals you
in the grave for eternity to come? What is it? Did he deliver you
from your sin? Did he rise from the grave with
you in order to go forth with a shout, a roar of victory? Did he? Oh lift up the voice
in praise if he did. Shout it out. Sing the glory
of God and of his redeeming grace, love and mercy. Shout it out
from the rooftops. Blow the trumpet in Zion. The Lord has roared from Zion,
from amongst His people, from His church, who shout out to
a dark world around them. They who dwell in the light,
they declare what God has done, that He has sent a sacrifice,
He sent a Saviour, He sent a Deliverer and He's delivered us from our
sins. Praise God, He's washed us clean. Come see a man who told me whatsoever
I have done. Come see a man who knows me inside
out. Come see a man who is God, who
rules over all. Come see a man who loves me.
Come see a man who died for me. Come see a man crucified upon
a cross. for me, come see a savior, come
see God delivering his people. Oh in the midst of them he shall
sound out his word in this world of darkness. In the midst of
Zion the Lord shall roar through his gospel. What a sound the
gospel has. What a sound of grace. What a
sound of grace which we read of in chapter 2 verse 32 here,
as quoted in Romans 10. It shall come to pass, this being
done, the blood having been, the sun having been turned to
darkness and the moon into blood, Christ having died, Christ having
delivered his people, this having been done, it shall come to pass
that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be
delivered. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant
whom the Lord shall call. Whosoever shall call, have you
called? Has he shown you your sin and
your need of salvation? Have you called? For whosoever
shall, shall be delivered. He saved his people with an effectual
salvation. Nothing depends on you. If you
see what he does, if you've been shown who he is, if you've heard
the roar of the lion and called upon his name to have mercy,
you shall be saved. And if you shall be, O child
of God, children of God, Zion, go forth with a shout. Blow ye
the trumpet in Zion. For as chapter 3 tells us, the
harvest is great. Put ye in the sickle for the
harvest is ripe. There are many who are ready
to hear. He has his people in this world. It carries on because the gospel
is being sounded. So don't be silent. Speak up, declare unto this world
in darkness who Christ is and what he's done. Shout out about
that lion who roars in Zion. Yes, blow ye, blow ye the trumpet
in Zion. For the Lord also shall roar
out of Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem and 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. Amen.