Mercy (Joel 2:18-32)

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Hello. Good morning church. Actually have just one more announcement before we get going with the sermon, just kind of trying to bring you guys up to date with some of the stuff that’s been happening around the church in terms of the facilities and finances, and the two are often related, of course. So you may have noticed at a few different points we’ve had some work done here this year, including the roof over this part of the building, which was in danger of collapsing, and the cupola over on above the 41 the original sanctuary back there. So we were able to do that using our capital expenditure funds budgeted from last year and this year, which is great news, it came in a little bit cheaper than we were expecting. And so that was awesome. Jake mentioned the kitchen clean out. What’s happening there? We do have quite a bit of work to do to get the kitchen up to snuff as well. And so we, the elders, have just proved making two purchases. One is for a new refrigerator and one for a hot box to keep food warm when we’re doing things just, you know, that’s kind of above and beyond budgeted expenses right there. That’ll be a capital expense. Just wanted you to be aware that that’s happening if you’ve been with us for a while, you know, at revision, which is our annual vision night back in November, I mentioned that this would happen. We just did a huge chunk of renovations, and our primary goal with any extra funds is to pay down our loan as quickly as possible. We got about $1.5 million loan right there, and we are doing that, and that’s great news. But I mentioned that there are also quite a few things that still need to happen at the church, and some of them are very urgent, like that roof and the cupola and the kitchen. And so we’re going to tackle some of those as we go as well. So you’ll hear more about that in November at the vision night. But just wanted you to be aware of it. Now if you have any questions, anything like that, of course, you can grab any of the elders. We would be happy to talk through that with you. More with that. Go ahead, grab your Bibles, open up to Joel, chapter two. Joel two, we’ll be starting in verse 18 this morning. Now, when I started this series, I mentioned that, you know, some of you were going to think we were doing Joel with all its focus on the plague of locusts because of the cicadas that had been here recently. Now you know it wasn’t the cicadas, it was the cicada mites. That was the real play. So keep your itching to a minimum as we dig into God’s Word together this morning, Joel, two will be starting in verse 18. As you’re turning there. We all know the feeling of waiting for the big day, kind of whatever big day that might be. For some of you, it was the first day of school. There are kids of a certain age who are still very excited for that. Other kids, of course, get less excited as the years go by. Maybe it’s a bigger day than that, even a wedding, a new baby. We just celebrated a parent commissioning. Of course, we also had a baby born to this church this week also. But I don’t know the name or gender, so I’m gonna say nothing about that, but congratulations, jaxis, anyway, a vacation the first day of the NFL season. Some of you are waiting for that. I get it. We especially are waiting for the big day when things aren’t going well, like we’re wired for hope, and so there’s just this sense of like we need something to look forward to, I actually think of it. You know, is it funny? I wrote the sermon and then found out we were doing an announcement about the work trip today. So this is coincidental, but for years now, some of the men in our church have been doing a Samaritan’s Purse trip, where they go down to areas that have been ravaged by hurricanes, floods, things like that, and rebuild homes and, you know, the families we had, our people there sometimes when the families actually get to, like, move in, when they get the key to their house that has been rebuilt, like, that’s the big day they were waiting for, like, that moment when they were restored to their home. And that’s exactly where Judah is, as we’ve seen in our weeks in Joel so far, like Judah needs a big day, the people of God, they need a big day, because the locusts have devastated their land, and there’s this like apocalyptic threat hanging over them that we keep talking about. Is there any hope of restoration? That’s the question. And so they cried out to God. We saw this last week, in repentance and faith, they returned to God because He is who he always is, the Lord, the Lord the compassionate and gracious God. And now they’re wondering, how will God answer? No surprise, compassionately and graciously, exactly as you’d expect. There is hope after judgment. If you read the passage in preparation for today, I know some of you do that, so we’ve got the bookmarks and things like that. This passage probably felt like a breath of fresh air after a couple of heavy weeks, right? And that’s okay, you know? It’s interesting. You read the prophets, and we preach the prophets and things like that. It usually it’s about a two thirds, 1/3 balance, like two thirds of judgment and 1/3 then the hope afterwards. Can I just say that as a people, we tend to skip right to the hope? Kind of like it’s probably good for us to sit in the warning and the judgment passages sometimes and just remember the seriousness of our sin. But there’s always good news, right? The prophets always get to hope, because there is always the hope of the Gospel, as we will see. So that’s where to look at this morning. There are we’ve seen in the in the past couple weeks, there been kind of two halves to this trial, right? There was a present trial in the locus plague, and then, like the, you know, camera zoomed out, and it was like this big apocalyptic trial. We get the same thing in the response, where we kind of get the response to the locust, but then we zoom out and we get an apocalyptic response as well. And the response then also, like part of it is for the people of God, and then part of it is for the nations. We’re going to focus on the people of God today. Kyle will walk us through the nations next week, but we get this response through God. So long intro, let’s dive in. Alright, first part of the Lord’s answer has to do with restoration. Alright, the restoration of the people and the land. Let me read Joel two verses 18 to 20. And the Lord was jealous for his land and took pity on his people. The Lord replied to them, I am sending you grain, new wine and olive oil enough to satisfy you fully. Never again will I make you an object of scorn to the nations. I will drive the northern horde far from you, pushing it into a parched and barren land. Its Eastern ranks will drown in the Dead Sea, and its Western ranks in the Mediterranean Sea. And its stench will go up. Its smell will rise. Surely, he has done great things. So the passage opens with then, and so you can tell it’s as a result, like after what just happened, after the people returned to God. As a result of their repentance, their lamentation, the Lord responds, and he responds in jealousy. And that’s probably not the word we were expecting there, in part, because jealousy is for us, a very negative concept, because we think in terms of romantic love, and, you know, jealous person in like, a high school relationship, you’re like, that’s weird. Okay, so that’s kind of how we think about jealousy in a romantic context. But we’re not in a romantic context here. We’re in a covenantal context, and jealousy makes a lot of sense when it comes to covenants. This is like Sinai, the passage that will read for us earlier today, like this is how the 10 Commandments begin as the covenant is being established with God’s people. He says, I’m the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before me. Don’t bow down. Worship serve any other gods. Why? Because I, the Lord, am a jealous God. And so there is that sense right covenant and jealousy make sense together. And again, they should the most common covenant we enter into in our culture today is the marriage covenant. One of the things we say when we say our vows is forsaking all others, which is exactly what God just said to his people there at Sinai, forsake all other gods. He says it elsewhere, Zechariah, eight, verse two, for example, the Lord talks about this, you know, he says, I’m very jealous for Zion. I am burning with jealousy for her. So again, Lord not feeling apologetic about the jealousy he feels for his people. And it’s interesting this passage in Zechariah, same context that we get here in Joel, where it’s right before he then goes on to share the blessings he’s about to pour on his people. So covenantal context and the marriage connection like it reminds us a husband should be jealous for his wife and for his marriage, because he’s bound to her. They’re bound together. So if the wife is unfaithful, and as a result is, you know, harming herself by wandering not just from the husband, but from the Lord and handing herself over to sin and destruction. Ultimately, of course, he should be jealous, for he should pursue her and bring her back. That is very much like the Lord and His people. That’s why the Lord has Hosea live out that scenario I just described, and go after his unfaithful wife, jealously in the same way the Lord goes after us. God’s jealousy for his people is foundational to our relationship with Him.
The central basis of Christian assurance, Tim Keller tells us the central basis of Christian assurance is not how set our our hearts are on God, but how unchangeably set his heart is on us. That’s the Lord’s jealousy, right there. He won’t leave us, He won’t forsake us. That’s marriage language, right? He won’t leave us or forsake us. Why? Because he’s bound. Himself to us, and that’s the whole reason he keeps putting up with us despite our repeated unfaithfulness. And be like a wife with with an ungodly spouse just emotionally distant, unhelpful around the house. And you know, you can hear her friends being like, Why do you put up with him? The answer is, Because I covenanted with him, I bound myself to him. That’s what the Lord says. It’s interesting. He actually says he’s jealous for his land. That makes sense, because his people are in his place where he dwells, and then he takes pity on his people, and as a result, he relents from the disaster that he’s sent on them. It’s interesting in these verse 18 really answers the requests of verse 17. If you were here last week, this is where we ended. You know, spare your people. Don’t make them an object of scorn among the nations. And here the people are spared. And even says directly, Never again will I make you an object of scorn to the nations. He doesn’t just spare them, though it’s so much more than that. He sends grain and new wine and oil, and then says it’s enough to satisfy you fully. This isn’t just enough that you’re going to get by like the Lord has moved them from subsistence to satisfaction, and that is a blessing. Indeed. It’s such a picture of God’s bounty, which is a holy, undeserved and yet he keeps sending it our way. It’s interesting too, that he says it’s enough to satisfy you fully. This is interesting because when the people prayed last week, verse 14 says, Who knows he may turn and relent and leave behind a blessing, grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God. So the people are going, would you give us food again, just so we can restore our relationship with you like we just want to be making sacrifices? And the Lord goes, I want you to feast, right? I want you to feast. That’s part of it. Again, his goodness, again. He just lavishes a blessing on us. But to do this, to send this new grain, all that kind of stuff, he’s going to have to get rid of the locusts. And he does that. All four compass points get mentioned here in this section. So he he drives the northern horde. For whatever reason, the invader always comes from the north in the prophetic literature. So he drives that northern horde into the south. Doesn’t say house, but how south? But that parched in barren land, that’s the Arabah, the southern part of Israel, and they would all know what was being talked about. So there’s the north and the south. And then you see how big this Horde was, because the western flank is at the Mediterranean Sea, and the eastern flank is at the Dead Sea. So it spans the whole land of Israel. This has definitely been an invading army, and yet it gets removed. How God always removes locust plagues, if you remember, back to the Exodus, and that eighth plague of the locusts, the Lord sends a stiff breeze, and that’s what happens. So here’s Exodus 1019, the Lord changed the wind to a very strong Western wind, which caught up locusts and carried them into the Red Sea. So same thing, strong wind pushes them into the sea, and that’s the end of them. And this is often how it works. Locust plagues usually end up floating in the water at the end of it. So here’s Saint Augustine recalling a locust plague in Northern Africa, where he is from. Back in his day, he said, Africa was attacked by an immense number of locust having eaten everything. A huge swarm were drowned in the sea, thrown up dead upon the coast. The putrefaction of these insects so infected the air is to cause a pestilence so horrible that in one kingdom alone, 80,000 are said to have perished. That’s why Joel mentions the stench here, right? Like it’s so bad people were actually getting sick, at least in Africa at that point, but to the people of God, what a sweet smell of restoration. This would have been even the stench, because the plague has been removed, and it was a plague. It’s interesting. The very last sentence of verse 20, surely he has done great things. It’s definitely one possible translation. It could just as easily be. Surely it has done great things. And we don’t really know which one. You can imagine the original audience kind of going, who’s done what now? Because we were just talking about the locusts, and most likely, what they would have heard was, surely it the invading army, the horde of locusts, did great in the sense of very big things, because they brought great devastation on the land. But now it’s gone and the land is restored. So how do we respond? Let me keep reading verses 21 to 24 and we move from restoration to an imperative rejoice. Rejoice here, 21 to 24 Do not be afraid. Land of Judah. Be glad and rejoice. Surely the Lord has done great things. Do not be afraid. You wild animals, for the pastures in the wilderness are becoming green. The trees are bearing their fruit. The fig tree and the vine yield their riches. Be glad, people of Zion, Rejoice in the Lord your God, for He has given you the autumn rains. Because he is faithful, He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains. As before, the threshing floors will be filled with grain. The vats will overflow with new wine and oil. Because the theme is the same in these verses, it would be easy to miss the shift that happens. So we’re talking about restoration in both cases, but we go from a bunch of declarations like I will remove this plague from the land. Kind of thing, I will make sure you get grain and wine and oil and all that. We move from I will declarations to imperatives, which is really interesting. These are only imperatives in our whole passage today. Don’t be afraid. Be glad. Rejoice. So this is our response to the bountiful goodness of God, the One who has brought us from mourning into joy once again. And the people here have every reason to rejoice, because what they’ve just experienced is the complete reversal of the devastation in chapter one, and we mentioned kind of three areas affected, the land which was mourning back there in chapter one, the animals who were panting back then, and of course, the people who are starving. Well look. Verse 21 Do not be afraid. Land of Judah. Verse 22 do not be afraid, you wild animals. Verse 23 be glad. People of Zion. So everyone who is hurting is restored at this point, the rains are falling on the land, and so the pastures are green for animals, and then the threshing floors and vats are filled with grain and new wine for the people, all because no ambiguity this time, the Lord has done great things. He has relented from his just anger, has shown mercy and has loved jealously, and there’s only one response, praise. It reminds me of Psalm 126, verse three, the Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. And that’s it. Surely the Lord has done great things. Rejoice, rejoice, be filled with joy. A lot of talk about rain in this section, and that’s important, because rains are actually tied to the covenant. Interestingly, so in Deuteronomy, 11, again, Deuteronomy, all about the covenant. These are some of the promises God makes. He says this, the land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot, as in a vegetable garden. Not a lot of rain in Egypt. There is the Nile, though, and so that’s what happened. You’re going to farm in Egypt, you need to irrigate, you need to get canals from the Nile to wherever you are farming. But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of Israel is a Land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. It is a land the Lord your God cares for. The eyes of the LORD your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end. So the Lord Himself waters the land of Israel. That’s why it says that he sends both autumn and spring rains as before, like this is what I promised to do. This is how the land has been getting its water all along it says he promised to do when he made that covenant with Israel. But it’s interesting, right before these promises here in Deuteronomy 11, we get this in verse eight, observe therefore all the commands I’m giving you today. That’s a good reminder that God’s covenant promises are for his covenant people who show that they’re his covenant people by keeping the covenant, by observing the commands that he set before them, and they didn’t observe the commands. So the covenant is broken. And yet, and yet here the Lord is keeping his end of the bargain, still sending rains. Why It even says it right there, because he is faithful. It’s because of his faithfulness, not ours. He upholds His promises. Again,
it’s actually interesting when it says that He has given you the autumn rains because he is faithful. It reads literally, he’s giving you the autumn reigns for righteousness, that’s all it says. It’s very ambiguous. Again, for righteousness, that phrase gets used just a handful of times in the Old Testament, and every time it does, righteousness is the goal that is being sought. So here’s an example. Isaiah Five, Verse seven, the. Lord looked for righteousness, but heard cries of distress. So the goal there was, I’m going to look, I’m going to see righteousness, people keeping my commands. And instead, I heard something else. But the question here is, whose righteousness exactly are we talking about? You can see the NIV is translated in such a way as though it’s the Lord’s righteousness. And I think that’s a fair case. You could make it, because on the one hand, God proves himself righteous by keeping His covenant, but on the other hand, of course, he’s looking for our righteousness in response, like God keeping His covenant should stir us to keep it too, so that we begin to observe His commands again. Don’t imagine, you know, keep going back to the marriage. Example, an unfaithful husband and whatever has happened, pornography, addiction, something like that, and the wife, instead of, you know, booting him out the door, forgives, reconciles, the relationship is restored. How does this husband respond? Does he think sweet, free pass? I can do this again. Hopefully not. Hopefully that act of love and forgiveness would motivate him in a new way, to put sin to death in his life, to be a different sort of husband. That’s what the Lord is expecting here, which is why it’s so interesting that the command is, don’t be afraid, be glad and rejoice, because here’s a really important truth for us, fear will rarely lead you to keep God’s commands, but joy will. Joy and keeping commands are linked in Scripture. Think of nehemiah’s famous declaration, the joy of the Lord is our strength. It’s one of those verses that just gets pulled out of context. You go, I don’t know in what sense joy is strength, but somehow it’s strength. Well, there was a context to this declaration. Ezra is there. He’s reading the law outlet aloud for the people of Israel, they’re hearing all the commands they have broken, and they start weeping. And so Ezra and Nehemiah go, hang on, let’s actually stop reading the laws that you have broken, and instead, let’s throw a party. Let’s not remember our unfaithfulness, but let’s remember God’s faithfulness instead. And that’s when Nehemiah says, the joy of the Lord is our strength. Now, these two go together, right? Ours is a mournful joy, because we have the overwhelming sense that not just the world, but that we ourselves are not what we should be, and have not done what we should do, but God is saving us. So the joy of the Lord is our strength. The picture is it would be like a couple renewing their vows after one of them was involved in an affair, where there would be joy at the restoration but grief at the damage done the same time. And that’s sort of what we have here, but to dwell on the sin, to just sit in confession only would create such discouragement and hopelessness in us. You know, if you’re just looking at yourself and your sin all you’re going to go, I can’t save myself. I’m not good enough. I can’t change but if we’re really paying attention to the law, to the covenant, we remember God’s demands and God’s deeds again. That’s how the covenant starts. We’ll read it for us, all right. Exodus, 20 before we get to the commands, know that God’s before me. Don’t worship anyone else. Honor your father and mother. Don’t you know, commit murder, adultery, all the rest. That’s not how it starts. That comes after the opening part. I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of Egypt. It begins with God’s deeds, the joy of our salvation, God’s faithfulness to us. That’s what produces obedience. This is so important for how we change. Like, imagine you’re back in your high school chemistry class, and your high school chemistry teacher gives you a, you know, like extra credit assignment. You have to get all the air out of a laboratory beaker, and you can use any equipment in the lab. And so, you know, some of the Type A students of which I was not one, but you know, they would stay there after school and try and rig some sort of vacuum system to get all the the air out. Maybe the glass shatters, because vacuums probably not good for that and all that kind of stuff. And and at the end of it, the chemistry teacher, what does he do? He takes the beaker over to the sink and fills it with water. All the air is out. That’s how we work, too. The best way to expel our sinful desires, our inordinate love of the world, is to replace them, to be filled with gospel joy instead you. The love of God, the joy of the Lord is our strength. The Gospel arms us to do battle against our sin, because we know who God is and what He has done for us. So do not be afraid, not of locusts and not of the Lord’s wrath, but rejoice and be glad. Why? Because our God is a jealous covenant. Keeping God the Lord goes on. He’s not done yet. So let’s go on also restoration. Rejoice, repayment. Verses 25 to 27 I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten, the great locust and the young locusts, the other locusts, and the locusts swarm my great army that I sent among you. You you will have plenty to eat until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you. Never again will my people be shamed. Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the Lord your God, and that there is no other never again will my people be shamed. This section opens with a stunning promise, God will repay the years the locusts have eaten. The best way I can explain what he’s saying here is, and some of you live this scenario, I’m sure, where you lose your job, and you’re unemployed for a time, and those lost wages are really difficult to handle, and then you get a new job, and it turns out it’s a much higher salary, so that within just a few pay periods, you’ve made up for all that money that was lost during your unemployment. That’s what the Lord is saying here. The harvest is gonna be so plentiful coming up that you’re gonna forget there was ever a famine. Now, what makes this such a stunning promise is because the locusts that ate all the food were there because of the people’s sin. So why is the Lord repaying them? Like, I have children, two of them. I don’t want to name names, but they’re the masculine ones. Are among the wickedest children yet I’ve ever known, at least, you probably know your own wicked children, but so they often lose treats for the next day, or something like that, right? Like, that, right? Like, that’s it. There’s no candy, there’s no ice cream, there’s no popsicle. Don’t care how hot you get, okay, you’re not getting anything. Well, what happens then, if that day after they lose the treats? We’re like, we feel so bad that you didn’t get any sugar yesterday, that here’s a whole Portillo’s chocolate cake for you today. We’re like, well, that doesn’t make any sense. You got in trouble. Why are we rewarding you? This, by the way, is how Amy works, because she is all sweetness and goodness. Okay, me, I’m like, you don’t ever have to eat cake again. Okay? The Lord is more like Amy. That’s the point. Okay, in all sorts of ways, but that’s what he’s doing here. Like, I’m gonna repay you for this. It’s a legal term too. Repayment. It’s a legal term despite Judah having no claim. That’s the interesting part. It’s as though, like, we backed into the Lord’s car and then he gives us his insurance information. And it’s like, go ahead, file a claim with me. And you’re like, No, no, I like, I he’s, he owns. That’s the gospel. Of course. The message of this section is so simple. It’s a message of the Bible as a whole, where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more it is such lavish, undeserved blessing, and it comes to us by grace alone.
Now that’s not to say, though, that this trial wasn’t real. I mean, it’s interesting. It says I will pay you for the years the locusts have eaten like again. That’s why we gotta sit sometimes in the judgment passages like this was real trial, the effects lasted for years because the crop was eaten, there was no seed. And so our time is not always God’s time, and the Lord makes no apology for that. Did you notice that where it says in verse 25 you know, I’m going to repay you for the years the locusts have eaten my great army that I sent among you, which we talked about last week, he doesn’t apologize for sending the calamity again last week, we say God ordains what he hates to accomplish what he loves for His glory and our good, As we so often sing, and this is what wakes us up, these kind of moments when trial comes to us. And so you don’t apologize for waking somebody up if they’re asleep in a burning building. And that’s what the Lord said. Like, yeah, I sent the hour. I don’t feel bad about the fire alarm that I just sounded. We can trust his heart, because we know the covenant that he’s made with us, we can trust that he will accomplish His good purposes in us. Why? Especially we know this because we’ve seen what the Lord does with evil when he ordains what he hates to accomplish what he loves. Because what do you think he hated most of all the things that have happened in this world? It’ll be the murder of his son, probably. And yet, what did the Lord bring out of that? Can we trust his heart from that great evil, the Lord brought about our salvation, the resurrection and exaltation of Christ. So no surprise. Then, what happens next when we experience God’s Grace and Bounty, we turn. It to praise. You’re gonna have plenty to eat until you’re full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God. Not an imperative. He doesn’t say so praise the name. No, we don’t even need to make it an imperative. It’s just going to happen. It’s a simple statement of fact. But it’s not just their praise, but the wonder and awe of the surrounding nations as well. This is often the case, right? When the Lord brings Israel up out of Egypt, the Egyptians all learn something about who God is. When he brings them into Canaan the Canaanites learn something about who God is. That’s how it’s gonna be. Now also, here’s Exodus, 1511, this is Moses’ song after the Exodus, he says, Who among the gods is like you, Lord, who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders? That’s not a question for Israel. That’s a question for everybody who got to see this. Like really you want to put your gods up against the one true God? No contest. No contest. And that’s what explains the repetition of this phrase, you won’t be shamed in the eyes of the nations. Israel had suffered psychologically during this trial. They and their neighbors believed that God had abandoned them, if he exists at all, and if he exists at all, he was a weak God because he couldn’t even keep the locusts out. So they’re suffering psychologically with these thoughts running through their minds. But now they and the nations know three truths without a doubt. First, that I am in Israel. God has not abandoned Israel. It’s interesting. That’s the first time in the book of Joel that the Lord has referred to them by name, but it’s right now. It’s reminding them of that you’re my people. I have not abandoned you second that I am the Lord your God. The relationship hasn’t changed. The covenant is in place. The Lord Yahweh, the name there, that’s his covenant name. He reveals it to Moses, as the covenant is being established. The Lord your God, there’s the relationship, and you’re my people. He says the relationship hasn’t changed. And then third, there is no other. He is God, and there is no other because, remember, they were questioning his strength versus the other gods. But now we know actually there’s only one God, and His name is Yahveh, and so he acts as we talked about last week, for the sake of his name. But that’s what takes away their shame. It’s the reminder that it is not Israel’s identity and activity, but God’s identity and activity that grants them their glory, their status. It’s the firm foundation on which they stand. And here’s the good news, if you are in Christ, that’s true for you too. You’re standing before God depends on Christ’s righteousness, Christ’s perfect performance, and not yours. And you think about how much joy and freedom there is in that truth, and how that spurs us on to obey, to endeavor to be worthy of the love that he has shown us. Last section, then we turn to renewal verses 28 to 32 and this is where we zoom out. Let me read it for us, and afterward, I will pour out my spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions, even on my servants, both men and women. I will pour out my Spirit in those days, I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke, the sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, there will be deliverance, as the Lord has said, even among the survivors whom the Lord calls so God zooms out here like he did in the calamity. Remember, we kept talking about how there was something about this day with the locusts that has to do with that day when the Lord will come again. Well, now we see the opposite, like the restoration on this day, the end of the locust plague. There’s something about that that prepares us for restoration on that day, the renewal at the end of time. I gave you the mountain analogy. You look at a mountain from one side, it just looks like one mountain. And then if you look at it from the other side, you see it’s actually a series of peaks. Well, we’re looking at some of the other peaks now at this point, and it begins with and afterward, that’s a major time transition. So we are, we are talking about a distant fulfillment. It’s not the first peak. It’s a different one. And what’s interesting is we know now, of course, that actually there were two more peaks behind it, because we know that the Lord does pour out His Spirit on all people at Pentecost. And so that part’s already been fulfilled, but some of the sun and moon and all that stuff, well, that’s still to come. That’s revelation stuff. That’s Christ’s Second come. Thing, there is a shift here, though, in more than just time like well, now we’re in a different era, or something like that. We’ve also shifted from mere restoration. God’s putting things back the way they used to be, to renewal, that God in Christ, is making all things new. It’s interesting that God pours out His Spirit. We’ve used that language for so long that it doesn’t strike us as metaphorical anymore. But it’s really interesting that this is liquid language to pour and that’s what’s needed after a drought. And so we can see, we’ve seen all along, that the land really mimics our souls. There has been a spiritual drought in the land, but now the rain is falling. The Spirit of God is falling on us. And what’s so interesting is that the spirit is falling on everyone, on all people now in context, because it even goes on to say, your sons and daughters, every Jew reading this at this time would have thought, right, the Jewish people, it will fall on all the Jewish people again. Now we know what. There’s more than one peak, but let’s look there for now. Let’s just stick and hear this in Joel’s context, because this was truly all people in a new way. It says, Your sons and daughters. So there’s no longer a distinction based on sex, and then your old men and your young men. There’s no longer a distinction based on age. And then you get the servants, male and female. So breaking down the gender distinction again, but male and female servants. So there’s no more distinction based on your station in life, like your socioeconomic status, there is now equality of access to God, equal standing before God when it comes to our salvation. This is a big deal. Jewish men of this time, well into the time of Christ, even they would pray every morning, I thank God that I wasn’t born a woman, a slave or a Gentile, and it’s not because they were sexist, classist and racist. Some of them may well have been. They prayed that because every one of those groups had some barrier
to God. You could actually see it in the layout of the temple. There was the court of Gentiles. That’s as far as the Gentiles could get. That’s most of us, by the way, couldn’t get any closer to that court of women. Same thing to get this close, no farther. Same thing if you were a slave. And so that’s what they were. They were praying. It’s like, I thank you that I can get as close as possible to you, Lord. And now Joel’s saying there’s going to come a day when that’s not going to matter, except for the Gentiles. We haven’t solved the Gentile problem yet, have we? We got to sum at the next peak here to get that. It’s interesting. Peter quotes this passage in his first sermon of the church age, because they’ve just seen the spirit fall on all flesh. They’re all speaking in tongues. They got little tongues of fire above them, all that kind of stuff. And at Pentecost, so the Spirit falls on the church, and it’s a beautiful moment, because the very first time the gospel was proclaimed in the church age, it is proclaimed in every language simultaneously, like there is the welcome to all nations. This is so different from Islam. For example, if you’re going to read the Quran, you have to read it in Arabic, and the Lord has nothing to do with that. The Lord’s like, nope, all peoples, all languages, all tribes, right, that’s the idea. So it’s such a beautiful thing, but the Spirit had only fallen on Jews. Still at that point, they’re hearing it different languages, but it’s only on the Jewish people. It’s not until we get to Acts 10, and Peter shares the gospel with Cornelius, who’s the first Gentile convert that we read about, and then the Spirit falls on him. Read this acts 1045, the circumcised believers really drawing out the Jewishness there, right? The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles. They weren’t expecting that. Why? Because they read Joel, and they knew that it was for our sons and our daughters, not for everyone else. But in Christ, there is no longer Jew or Gentile. He is torn down the dividing wall of hostility between us and made the two groups one. The fulfillment of this prophecy in Joel is Galatians, 328, there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female. For you are all one in Christ, Jesus, there is your equality of access to God, your equal standing before God. God is renewing all of creation for all people, people from every tribe and language and nation and every age and sex and station, as we’ve learned here. Now, because of our culture and stuff, we talk a lot about the sex and the race piece here, but like, let’s not rush past the age part either. If you are in Christ, you have the spirit kids like, whatever age you are. If. You have truly repented of your sins and trusted in Jesus, you have the Spirit of Christ, and that Spirit has given you gifts to serve his body, to serve his people. If you believe in Jesus, you are every bit as much a part of this church as your parents, and you can and should be serving God using those gifts for the common good, so that we grow and build ourselves up in love as each part does its work. That’s you too. So even now, to borrow the language from last week, like, if you’re here kids and you haven’t done this, even now, you can turn to the Lord with all your heart and trust in Him. But if that is you, then even now start serving. Of course, that’s true, not just for the kids, but for the adults too. If you’re in Christ, you have the spirit, you’ve been gifted to serve in the body. So real simple application, serve in the body like we need you. There are no spectators in Christianity. All right, everyone is an active participant. We’re a little far off, but just knowing, every October, we host a ministry fair. So if you’re newer here, and you’re like, Where can I get plugged in and use my guests to build up the church and to reach the world for Christ, make sure you’re there. It’s like, October 13 or something, and you’ll have all the ministries of the church out there. You can get plugged in as you go. Then in verses 30 and 31 we get the apocalyptic language. This is the final peak where that like now and not yet fulfillment. We have the spirit Christ has come, but we’re still waiting for that final renewal. When Christ comes again on the day of the Lord. It will be a great and dreadful day. Joel says, I understand the translation. I’m not sure there’s a better one, but dreadful sounds bad, and this word is ambiguous. Honestly, the best word would be awful, but we don’t use awful that way anymore. We use it to also mean bad. So like I said, no good translation, but awful, like it will be a day filled with awe. And for those who have rejected Christ, it will be a terrible day. It will not be good awe. For those of us who have trusted Christ, it will be, well, an awesome day. This is the big day that we’ve been waiting for, not just the going of the locusts, but for the coming of the Lord. And then all this concludes with one of the most precious promises in all of Scripture, also quoted by Peter in the early church, that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. This is such a precious promise, too, because it answers that question that we saw last week that was just painful to read, right? Who then can endure it this great and dreadful day of the Lord? And we have the answer. That’s those who hide themselves in Christ, who have called on the name of the Lord, who, by the way, was crucified in Jerusalem on Mount Zion, that’s where our deliverance comes from. We are the purified remnant who can endure that day because of what he has done, not because of what we have done. But notice the last phrase, then, so everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, even among the survivors whom the Lord calls. So those who call on the Lord are those whom the Lord calls to call on the Lord, if that makes sense, and no, it doesn’t make a ton of sense, because there’s this tension, and it’s on every page of Scripture, really, the tension between divine sovereignty, that God works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will. So God is in charge, divine sovereignty, and then human responsibility, where we are responsible for our actions like we have volition. Of course, this is where we get into lots of theological debates. And I mean, it’s been quite clear. We’ve even seen it here in John in Joel, like, we cannot deny God’s exhaustive sovereignty over even sinful human action. It’s there over and over and over again in scripture. But we don’t need so much. Need to fight about the theology, about, like, why don’t we just worry about our part? Like, there’s the application. How do I know if the Lord has called me, call on the name of the Lord, right? That’s the part you can do. You call on the name of the Lord. That’s what we have to do. I’ve been saying this for four straight weeks, but it is still the message of Joel. Like, if you are here today and you are still questioning Christianity, you’re seeking, or you realize that you are here today because someone else made you come, but you are rejecting Christ, you are living in defiance even now, call on the name of the Lord Jesus and be saved. Turn turn from your sin to Christ. That would be your takeaway. What about for the rest of us? Though? I’m going to kind of for all of us. I’m going to pull all these strands together. The big idea today, you probably could have gotten there on your. Maybe you wouldn’t have phrased it the same way, but, but here it is, when we return, that was last week, right, when we repent, when we turn to the Lord, when we return, God renews. So rejoice. That’s it. If you are in Christ, if you are a part of His new covenant, people, the covenant that he established when he dies, what we say in communion every time, right? This is the new covenant in my blood. If you’re a part of the new covenant people, you always have cause for joy. Always have cause for joy because you’ve experienced His grace and His bounty super abundantly. Because where sin abounds, grace abounds. All the more God is still lavishing His blessings on his people, grain and oil and new wine. And I know this hasn’t changed, because we know who Jesus is and what Jesus did. Just think with me for a moment, who was the very first sign Jesus performed, it wasn’t healing the sick or feeding the poor or raising someone from the dead. The first sign that Jesus performed was turning 150 gallons of water into wine for a wedding in Cana. By the way, they needed wine because they’d already drunk the rest of the wine. Like put that into your theology real quick. Okay,
what is the point? Why would Jesus have done that? Because it’s a sign. John tells us that’s a sign. John chapter two, what is the sign pointing to? It is the super abundant goodness of God. He’s just lavishing his love on us. It’s like the new husband who sends his new bride 100 flowers every day for a month. And you’re like, Baby, I don’t need any more flowers. And he’s like, I don’t care. I just love you so much. Here you go. That’s what Jesus is saying in that moment that was God is saying to us. Now, see how much I love you. I’ve restored you, repaid. You, renewed. You poured out my spirit on you. And when we experience that restoration and repayment and renewal, what we can what can we do but rejoice God, rejoice and praise Him. This is our God. This is who he is. So we love Him and praise Him forever. Let’s pray to him now, Lord, this is who you are. You are so good to us. You have given us so much more than we deserve, because what we deserve is eternal punishment, and what you have given us instead is Grace, mercy, compassion, love, and then you have lavished blessings on us, so that we are brim full and overflowing with your goodness, Lord, what could we possibly do now but turn in repentance and trust, love, rejoice and then praise you and Lord, we’re going to sing to you now, because we can’t help but sing you have been so good to us. Be lifted up in our hearts, in our lives and in our songs, even now we pray for Your name’s sake. Amen.