If you turn with me in God's Word to the prophet Joel, the prophecy of Joel is tucked away in there, it's just a few chapters. And as you turn to that, can I just take the opportunity to thank Dennis for the invitation to come and to minister God's word here amongst you in Lurgan this morning, and to thank you for the very warm welcome into your midst. I pray that God will bless you, bring you greetings from the church at Tandra Ghee, and we look to the Lord to bless us through his word this morning. Joel chapter two. I want to read a selection of verses. I'll guide you down through them as we come to them. Joel chapter two, reading at verse one. Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble. For the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand. A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness. As the morning spread upon the mountains, a great people and a strong, there has not ever been the like. Neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. A fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burneth. The land is as a garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness. Yea, and nothing shall escape them. And then if you turn to verse 12, on down the chapter, verse 12, Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning, and rend your heart and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God. For he is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil, who knoweth if he will return and repent and leave a blessing behind him, even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God. Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, And those that suck the breasts, let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should roll over them. Wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? then will the people be jealous the lord be jealous for his land and pity his people yeah the lord will answer and say unto his people behold i will send you corn and wine and oil and ye shall be satisfied therewith and i will no more make you a reproach among the heathen verse 25 And I will restore to you the years that the locusts have eaten, the canker worm and the caterpillar and the palmer worm, my great army, which I sent among you. And you shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord your God that has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never be ashamed. And you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel. and that I am the Lord your God, and none else, and my people shall never be ashamed. May God bless this reading of his precious word. Let's bow in a word of prayer. Our God and our Father, we thank you that we have your word, the living and eternal word of God in our own language. We thank you this book has opened before us. And as it is, Father, we pray just now for the power of the Spirit of God who first inspired every word of this book, and that the Spirit of the living God will come just now and take his own word and cause it to live, because it is a living word. And we pray, Lord, that the Spirit will cause it to live in every heart this morning. Lord, that your word will come, and not in word only, but in the demonstration of the Spirit's power. And it will accomplish this morning, Lord, that which you have ordained from all eternity in the hearts and lives of your people. Yeah, Lord, even in the hearts and lives of unbelievers this morning, may your word live and cause them to live through faith in Christ. Lord, help us, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. I want to ask you this morning at the very outset of our service, do you love the Lord? I'm not asking you this morning, do you profess to love the Lord? I'm asking you this morning, do you really love the Lord? from the heart? Do you love the Lord with all your heart and mind and soul? Do you love the Lord this morning more than anything else in all the world? It's a searching question. Oh, we know the answer that we ought to get, but what is the reality in your heart this morning? I want to look at this chapter together with you this morning. We're not given very much as to the historical background either of the prophecy of Joel or to the man Joel. Most likely, he was a contemporary of Amos, the shepherd that God sent to minister for a little time in the northern kingdom. And that would then make Joel also a contemporary of the great Messianic prophet, Isaiah. But other than that, we know very little about him or the precise background into which he prophesied. Now, we see a number of things generally that we know. But the name Joel literally means the Lord, he is God. What a name. As the name Joel, the prophet, would be echoed through the nation of God's people Israel, there was a message there in the original language, the Lord, he is God. And oh, that we grasp that in our day and generation, the Lord, He is God. That we'd really grasp this morning who the Lord is. He's the living, eternal Creator God. He's the one who loved the world, the one who gave His Son to that death of the cross. He is God. alone is God. There is none other, there's none beside him, there's none like him, the Lord." It's an exclusive phrase. He is God. Now, the theme of the book, of course, is the day of the Lord. That has a twofold application. It is very clear from the text that it has an application to the near, imminent judgment of God upon the nation. And that's why he's warning them. That's why he's calling them back to the Lord, because judgment is at the door. But of course, it looks way beyond that to that great and final day of the Lord at the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. But before that day comes, God promises through Joel, I will send the Messiah. and in sending the Messiah to accomplish the work of redemption, then I will send my Spirit and salvation blessing will come upon all the peoples of the world. And we're living in that time. We're living in the Gospel day. We're living in the day when Christ by His Spirit is gathering men and women and boys and girls from every nation, kindred, tribe and tongue to Himself through faith in Christ. What a glorious day of opportunity in which we live. And as God's people, we need to seize the moment. And we need to work while it's yet day, because the day is coming when no man can work. But in between, what wonderful opportunities for the proclamation of the gospel. Tell your families, tell your neighbors, tell your colleagues about the Lord. who is God. Three things that I want us to see from this chapter this morning. I want us to note, first of all, the reality of the situation. The reality of the situation. Joel, as he ministers, in dark and difficult days, in days of spiritual barrenness and emptiness, Joel could recall days of great blessing in the nation. He could recall days when the people loved the Lord. And when the people obeyed the Lord, when the people served the Lord and worshiped the Lord who is God. But as God calls and sends Joel on his prophetic ministry, the situation is very different. Spiritual declension has laid hold upon the people of God. spiritual barrenness are the order of the day. People don't love the Lord, people don't obey the Lord, and people aren't serving the Lord, generally speaking, in Joel's day. They're far from God. What had happened? Well, I'll tell you what happened. Little things. Little things. had gradually, little by little and step by step, taken the people's hearts away from loving and serving and obeying the Lord. You know, that's how it is usually. People whose hearts grow cold, whose love for the Lord wanes, When spiritual emptiness and barrenness come upon us individually, or as churches, or as a nation, it usually starts with little things. Very few people who find themselves backslidden and away from God, with their love of God low and ebbing, it's not usually because of some great gross sin into which they fall. That happens occasionally. But mostly it's just little things. Yeah, legitimate little things. Not anything wrong with the little things, but just little by little they stifle and choke our love for the Lord. And if we're not careful and we're not watchful, very quickly we're away from God in the spiritual wilderness, in a place of barrenness. And when Joel comes to preach, nobody's interested. Nobody's listening. Nobody wants to hear from or to know the Lord who is God. They just don't. And so Joel's heart is heavy. His heart is broken. He comes with the burden of a message. And the Lord sends him and he says, Joel, it's time to blow the trumpet. It's time to sound the alarm. Hear this, Joel. Has it ever been worse? Joel, can you ever remember, tell the people, was there ever a time in the history of my people when things were as spiritually low as they are now? Now, you know the history of Israel. It went from mountaintop to valley, sometimes very quickly. But when Joel comes to minister, the Lord says to him, tell the people, have they ever known the like? And yet still nobody's listening. Nobody really cares. Many of the people to whom Joel ministered, yeah, they too, like Joel, could remember in the days of Jehoiada the priest, when the word of God was rediscovered and there was a spiritual revival and there was blessing among the people of God and they loved him and they served him and they obeyed him. But when Jehoiada the priest died, We read these solemn words in 2 Corinthians Chronicles chapter 23, that when Jehoiada the priest died, the people turned away from the house of God to serve idols. How tragic. They'd known revival, they'd known the presence of God, they'd known the blessing of God, but when the spiritual leader dies, they turned away after other things. and spiritual declension continued to pace until in the days of Joel, it's at a low ebb, never been worse. There's a desperate spiritual state in the nation, and yet the people knew better. It was indeed time to seek the Lord. That's what Joel says. Now we use that verse often evangelistically, and that's okay, but that call is to the people of God. It's time for you who profess the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior this morning, it's time to seek Him afresh. The application is clear, isn't it? All of us can look back and read and remember a time when in our nation, in our land, things were better spiritually. When things were better spiritually in our churches, And maybe this morning you look back and you can remember a time in your own life when things were better spiritually, when you were vibrant, when you loved the Lord, really loved him and obeyed him and served him, delighted in him, delighted in his day, delighted in his people, delighted in his worship. But what happened? Little things. suddenly came into our land. In the post-war years, liberalism came into our churches, and do you know what happened? Biblical expository preaching went out, and our churches emptied. You know, people today, professing Christians today, say, we don't need preaching. Just a wee word, just a wee thought. People will not come if you preach. History tells us it's a lack of biblical expository and applicatory preaching that empties our churches. Then there came an easy-believe-ism, a soft evangelicalism, didn't preach repentance, just looked to her decisions for Jesus, but it didn't produce converts, didn't produce a love for the Lord. a love for the place of prayer, a love for the Word of God, a love for the day of God. And it just affected the churches until we find ourselves in our day and generation in our land and in our churches, generally speaking. And yes, maybe in your own life this morning, things are spiritually barren. No one wants to know about the Lord who is God. No one wants to hear. No one's interested. You see, because the locusts have been at work in our lives. Have the locusts been at you? The locusts have hurt. The locusts of busyness. Too busy for the prayer meeting. Too busy to read your Bible. Yeah, that is to seriously read your Bible. The locust of materialism, taken up with the things of here and now, that when Jesus comes, he'll be burned up. Not seeking first the things of the kingdom of God and his righteousness. The locust of wrong relationships. Maybe you're in a wrong relationship, and it's dulled your spiritual life. The locust of unwise choices. Choices that you should never have made. And they've been eating away at your spiritual life, and perhaps this morning you're found in a barren place spiritually. Do you see the language that Joel uses here? The lushness of Eden. Yesterday was a beautiful day. I love this time of year. Because everything comes to life. The hedgerows are alive. The grass is green. Everybody was cutting their lawns yesterday. The lushness that was in Eden's garden before this people, as the locusts come behind them, is a barren wasteland, a desert. And that's a spiritual picture. And maybe it's a picture of you and I this morning, a picture of our land, of our churches, and of ourselves with little desire for God, little desire for his word, for his house, or for his day, or for his presence. Little concern for the lost as you drove here this morning and your neighbors going to the seaside, going to the shopping centers. No, did you see them as souls going to hell? Did you really see them? in that vein. And did you care? The reality of the situation. But secondly, we see this morning here the requirement of the situation. What was required as Joel preached the word to people in a spiritual desert? One word, repent. needed to repent, they needed to have a change of heart and mind. That's what the word means, not saying sorry or just saying sorry. It's about a change of mind and a change of heart that changes our direction. We preach repentance to the unsaved. Well, maybe sadly in many professing evangelical churches they don't preach repentance in the gospel, but it's an essential note of true gospel preaching. But repentance is a gift of God that is to be the disposition of the child of God every day. Every day we need to be before the Lord to confess our sins and to ask for the Lord's help and power to turn us from those sins, to have a change of mind, to say, I will not do that. And Lord, by your grace, help me to walk away. God says, repent, return to me with all your hearts. It's not just a casual, trivial thing. And he says, rend your heart and not your garments. You see, it's easy to tear our clothes, so to speak. That is, it's relatively easy to speak about the spiritual state of our land, to bemoan it, And it's relatively easy to talk about the spiritual state of our churches generally, how bad things are, how they're not what they once were. And it's easy even to do that about ourselves. We can talk to one another and say, oh, I struggle. That's rending your garments. The Lord says, don't rend your garments, rend your heart. That's a different thing altogether. Rending your heart is taking decisive action. It involves weeping and mourning over sin. It revolves a turning to God that will be costly. It'll mean you'll have to change some priorities. Those little things, legitimate though they be, will have to go if you're to get back to the Lord and to love him as you ought to love him and to love him with all your heart and mind and soul. It'll mean seeking first the kingdom of God. It may mean radical change of direction for your life. I don't know. Do you know that verse that we love to quote from 2 Chronicles 7, 14? We quote it, if my people which are called by my name, we'll come to it in a moment. But we don't often read back to the context. The preceding verse actually speaks of a time like the day of Job. In 2nd Chronicles 7 verse 13, God says, if I send the locusts to devour the land, in other words, when there's spiritual barrenness nationally or in our churches or in our lives, then my people, if they will humble themselves and confess their sins, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land. but it's costly. Joel called a national assembly. He called the people together. The young people were to come. The children were to come. The mothers who had just given birth were to come with their babies. Those who were on honeymoon had to break off their honeymoon. Things were serious. Everyone had to come. You know, if you were to arrange a gospel concert and you were to charge people to go to it, you'd fill the odyssey twice over. But if you were to call here in this church for a meeting that the stated aims of the meeting were to bring the people of God to repentance and to mourning and to brokenness, you'd put them in the porch. But here the whole nation are gathered, they needed to come, they needed to hear the word of God, that they might weep and mourn, that they might repent and return, because the day is coming. For them a day of imminent judgment, for us the day of the Lord. How will you be at his appearing? If the trumpet of God were to blow just now, would you be ashamed at his coming? at your spiritual barrenness, at your half-heartedness, at your lack of love for the Savior who loved you, who gave himself for you at the place called Calvary, who bled and died there for your sins. Maybe you've wasted weeks or months or years, things that you once loved you no longer love because the locusts have been at you. You know the world and the world is zealous in its pursuit of its pleasures. And yet the professing people of God, generally speaking, were half-hearted at best in our love for the Savior, the Son of God, who loved us and gave himself for us. I'm asking you again, do you love the Lord? Do you love his word? Do you love his day? Did you know that delighting in the Lord's day was always an evidence of spiritual vibrancy in the nation of Israel? It's a good thermometer, you know. Have you awareness this morning of the beauty of Jesus, of his greatness, of his goodness, of his presence? Does your life, your home, your church, is it the abiding place for God's glory? Will you come now and return? When the Lord walked through the churches in Asia Minor, and he came to the church at Ephesus, he found a church that was as sound as a bell. It's true to the word. Sound in doctrine. Tolerated no nonsense. The word of God, if you like, was their sole rule of faith and practice. But the Lord found something in that church that he had to challenge. They'd lost their first love. Have you lost your first love this morning? Then hear the God calling you to repent and return, and he will restore. And that brings me to my third and final point. There was the reality of the situation, spiritual barrenness. There was the requirement of the situation, repentance and returning to the Lord. But there is, thirdly, the restoration of the situation. God's warning comes in Greece. It always does, you know. God called you this morning as a sinner to repent and believe in Jesus Christ. There's a warning there, but there's grace. That if you will come as a sinner to the foot of the cross this morning, realize that you've done something wrong, and because God loved you, Jesus took your wrong and paid its price at Calvary. Unless you should come under the eternal judgment of God, God called you in grace to repent and believe and be saved. And God comes in grace here to his people. He says, if you repent and return, I will restore. The prophecy is messianic. It looks away to Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Oh, if the people to whom Joel preached could but by faith see the One of whom he's speaking, the Lord of glory, the Savior of the world, they would have made haste to repent and return. Who is this One of whom Joel speaks? He's the eternal Son of the eternal God. Do you see Him this morning, majestic? in the heavens, the one through whom the worlds were framed. Do you see him this morning as the glorious God of eternity, glorious in his person, glorious in his work? Do you see him this morning as the altogether lovely one? That's who he is. But oh, will you come this morning, and will you look away to Calvary this morning, and will you see him, the man of sorrows, on that cross with your sin and for your sin? Will you see him this morning smitten and afflicted of God for you and your sin? I tell you, if you come by faith and look to the cross and see the Son of God there in your place with your sin, and see him stricken and smitten and abandoned by God the Father as he deals with your sin, that you might be redeemed, that you might be forgiven, that you might be clothed with his righteousness, that you might receive the gift of eternal life, how can you not love him? oh, I want you to see him this morning as the resurrected Lord. He's not on the cross, and he's not in the tomb. He's enthroned in the heavens. He's seated at the Father's right hand, clothed in majesty and glory, and there he prays for you in all of your spiritual barrenness. He's praying for you. And you know what? From that seat of majesty and enthronement, one day he's coming for you. Do you see him? Do you walk with him? Do you know him? Are you in speaking terms with him? Does your heart throb with love for the Savior? Oh, do you love him? Joel says, if you come to him, you'll find that he's gracious. forgiving, that he abounds in kindness, he's slow to anger, he's great in mercy, he delights to best you, you know, not to punish you. He longs to send blessing and to revive your soul and to bring you again the lushness of Eden. And suddenly we read this chapter and the situation's transformed and there's lushness again and there's an abundance of harvest and there's reaping and joy and rejoicing. And the worship of God is restored and love for God is restored and blessings flow and abound to the nation. Do you not desire that? yourself, for your church, for your land? Do you not long for such a visitation from God that you might delight in him and that others might come to know him and delight in him? But perhaps you're saying, David, you don't know my heart. No, I don't. Perhaps you're saying, David, you don't know the locusts that have been at me. No, I don't. don't know what happened that turned my heart from loving the Lord the way I ought to love him. David, you don't know how long it's been that I've been far from the Lord. Yes, I'm still going through the motions, I'm still at all the meetings, but my heart is not throbbing with love for my Savior. But it's been too long, and it's too late. No, it's not. In a fortnight's time, God willing, I'll be preaching as I go through the book of Joshua on the man Caleb, fresh and vibrant for the Lord in his 80s. It's never too late. Whatever the locusts have been, whatever the hurt, whatever the little things that have taken and stifled your love for the Lord, the Lord promises he will restore you. And the Lord can do more in a moment when you're restored. by His grace and power than you can do in a lifetime going on, plodding on in your own flesh and energies. The fulfillment of the end of chapter 2 is Pentecost. Interesting for a number of reasons. Charismatics want to say it's still to be fulfilled. If you read Acts chapter 2, Peter says what's happening on the day of Pentecost, that is the spirit coming to introduce the gospel age when salvation, blessing in Christ alone, by faith alone, will pass and go to the peoples of all the world. Peter says this is what Joel spoke of. And we're still living in those days. Don't be moaned. The spiritual state of our land and our churches and of your life, come back to the Lord and he will restore. and he'll do great things, so that his people will not be ashamed, they'll not be approached, what is the language of the world today? How are Christians viewed? They're viewed with contempt. Where is their God? So Joel said to the people of his day, but when the Lord comes, oh, what a difference. how the situation will be transformed, but how much do you want him? How much do you long for him? How much do you desire the blessing that he delights to give? If you don't want it, if you don't desire it, then he won't give it. And you'll plod along in barrenness and emptiness of soul. I finish with two stories, both of them true. The first is a true story and it's set interestingly amongst the Calvinistic Methodists of Wales. And there's a man there who ministered among those folk at the late 1800s. Sorry, the early 1800s. His name was Daniel Rowlands. And God blessed his ministry. And there was a little revival under his ministry. It was quite localized, but you can read about it. But when this story comes, Daniel Rowlands has been dead for about 100 years. And amongst this assembly of Calvinistic Methodists, things were spiritually low. Not much was happening. They were going through the motions. They still had their assembly meetings. And the pattern was that these assembly meetings would move around the churches. And they would meet for their assembly meetings in the different churches of Wales. And it was the responsibility of the pastor or elder in the church that was hosting the assembly meetings to address the delegates, to bring the Word of God. And it came a hundred years later to be in the church where Daniel Rowlands had ministered. And there was a godly elder there, and he was responsible to address the delegates. And it filled him with fear to stand up and to preach to the delegates. What would he say? It paralyzed him, and he lay awake at nights, and he tossed and he turned, and one night he fell asleep, and in his sleep he had a dream. And in his dream, he went to heaven to search for Daniel Rowlands. And he searched through heaven to find Daniel Rowlands, and when he found him, he pleaded with him. He says, will you go to the Lord, and will you ask him to send a delegate from heaven to address the delegates at the assembly in our church? And in his dream, Daniel Rowlands went away to ask the Lord to send a delegate from heaven to address the delegates in the church. And after a while he came back to the elder and he says, no, I've spoke to the Lord and the Lord says he'll not send a delegate from heaven. For the Lord says he'll come himself. And the Lord came. It was the birth of the 1903 revival in Wales. You see, dear friends, when the Lord comes in revival blessing, only he can bring it. Only He can give it. But we need to ask Him. We need to claim and fulfill the terms of 2 Chronicles 7, 14, and pray that the Lord might come and transform, to transform that denomination, and transform that land, you know. You go to the National Rugby Stadium in Wales, and 1903 and 1904, there's no captain of the rugby team. Not that rugby's wrong, but when the Lord comes, priorities change. We need the Lord to come, you know, and revival blessing before he comes. Because only the Lord can see. Only the Lord can restore the locust years. The second story, it's a true story, it's more humorous. told by Paul Mallard, pastor, and he said he was pastoring a church and there was a young couple who came to the church and they they got married and it was evident before they got married and when they got married that they were head over heels in love and just one of those couples that whenever you've seen them they just just loved each other to bits and it didn't change when they got married But one Sunday, after many months, as he preached, he noticed this couple, there was something wrong. You wouldn't notice it, you see. And at the door, he called the man aside, and he says, everything all right? And the man says, no, we've had our first ride. Paul Mannard says he was amazed it took so long. Probably over nothing, the man put the cups in the dishwasher the wrong way. You know how it is. He said, I need to come and see you, and they made an appointment, and he came to the manse the following day, and the pastor sat him down, and he says, pastor, I need some help here. He says, well, how do I? And things aren't good, and the pastor says, listen to me. I want you to get back in your car, and I want you to drive home, and on the way home, I want you to stop and buy a big bunch of flowers, and then get back in your car and take them home and give them to your wife and tell her that you love her. And the man's very disappointed. He wanted some great theological advice, but he did it anyhow. And off he went. The next Sunday, as Paul preached in his church, he looked down and he knew there was still something wrong, but he couldn't understand it. So he got to the door and he pulled the man aside and he says, everything all right? He says, no pastor, it's worse than ever. And Paul says to him, what did you do? He says, I did what you said. Pastor says, walk me through it. He says, I got into my car and I drove to a shop and I bought my wife a great big bunch of flowers. And then I drove home and I gave her the bunch of flowers and I said to her, the pastor says to tell you that I love you. But you get it, don't you? That's what we do all the time with the Lord. It's not from here, it's from here. We know what we ought to say. We know what the pastor tells us to say. Lord, we love you. But do we love him from here? We're back where we started. Do you love the Lord this morning with all your heart? Really love him. And unless you can say that before the Lord this morning, then wherever we are, including the man that preaches, We need to come back to the Lord to restore our souls, to revive our souls, that revival might come through our churches, through our land, to the glory of his name. Amen.