Let us call upon the name of our covenant God together now in congregational prayer. Our Father which art in heaven, let God arise, and let thine enemies be scattered. Let them also that hate thee flee before thee. As smoke is driven away, so drive them away. As wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at thy presence. But let the righteous be glad, let them rejoice before God, yea, let them exceedingly rejoice. We thank Thee, Father, that Thou hast revealed unto Thy people by Thy Word and through Jesus Christ Thy great name, Thy great name, Jah, by which Thou dost ride upon the heavens, and that Thou dost extol Thine own name and dost cause among men that Thy name is extolled, and that through Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast given unto us with His songs, that we might sing unto Thee and sing praises unto Thy name and rejoice before Thee. We thank Thee, Father, that Thou art a father of the fatherless, and that Thou art a judge of the widows in Thy holy habitation. We thank Thee that Thou dost set the solitary in families, and dost bring out those which are bound with chains, but hast caused the rebellious to dwell in a dry land. Father, when thou didst go forth before thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness, the earth shook, the heavens also dropped at thy presence. Even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel. Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain, whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance when it was weary. Thy congregation hath dwelt therein. Thou, O God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor. Thou didst give the word. Great was the company of those that published it. Kings of armies did flee apace, and she that tarried at home divided the spoil. Thank thee, Father, for thy precious promise through Jesus Christ to us that though we have line among the pots, yet shall we be as the wings of a dove covered with silver and her feathers with yellow gold. For when thou dost scatter kings, it was white as snow and salmon. Thy hill is as the hill of Bashan and high hill as the hill of Bashan. Why do all the other hills leap? For thou hast chosen heaven as thy hill which thou desirest to dwell in. Yea, thou wilt dwell in it forever with thy people in Jesus Christ. Thy chariots are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels. Thou art among them as in Sinai, in the holy place. Thou hast ascended on high. Thou hast led captivity captive. Thou hast received gifts for men. Yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them. Blessed be thy name, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. He that is our God is the God of salvation, and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death. We thank thee, Father, that thou hast been good unto thy people and has shown us safety and salvation in Jesus Christ. We thank thee that thou hast assembled us here in thy house this day, that we might behold thy beauty and thy glory, that we might inquire in thy temple and that we might do all of this not because there is anything of us that is worthy to be here, not because there is any goodness or soundness or righteousness found in us, but because of the Lord Jesus Christ who is righteous and who is good and who is holy and who is the one perfectly who beholds thy beauty and inquires in thy temple. We pray then, Father, that Thou wilt nourish us and feed us and refresh us by Thy Word. Will Thou give unto us the gospel of the final judgment of the multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision, and that seeing through the prophets' symbolism and through the prophets' speech We might see all the way with him to the last day of our Lord Jesus Christ, when he descends from heaven with might and power, shining with thy own glory, for he is the brightness of thy glory and the express image of thy person. and when coming down on the clouds of glory he raises the dead and sits for the final judgment where he shall thresh and separate the wheat from the chaff and shall bring his people into life and glory everlasting bliss and salvation and in which he shall show publicly before all the weakness and the folly of man but the salvation and the power of thee the living God. We look forward to that day, Father, not because of ourselves we can stand, for of all men we would fall the first. But we look forward to that day because Thou hast hid us in Jesus Christ. Thou hast brought us into the secret place of Thy tabernacle. Thou hast given to us a pavilion, and built round about us the walls of our salvation, and hast made us members of the Head, who is Christ, so that we might stand in Him, and might not suffer the judgment and the wrath and the curse that belongeth to us by nature according to our sins. We thank Thee, Father, that Thou hast not dealt with us after our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities, but that as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is Thy mercy towards us, and as far as east is from west, so far hast Thou removed our transgressions from us. We pray, Father, then that Thou will give us this comfort and this peace as we anticipate that final judgment that our Lord conducts and that we might look forward to it with longing as the Spirit cries in our hearts so that the bride cries, Come, Lord Jesus. We pray that thou will watch the mouth of thy servant whom thou hast appointed set a watch on his lips that he might speak not the will of man which is folly and vain and can never help or bless or save anyone. But wilt thou cause that the word that he speaks is thy word which helps and blesses and saves and delivers and refreshes and renews and comforts and fills We pray, Father, that we might hear thy word and deed. Will thou cause our Good Shepherd's voice to be heard in the midst of thy people this day. We pray thy blessing upon our elders. Give to them grace as they stand on the walls of Zion watching, as they seek to protect the sheep also by seeing to it that the gospel of salvation is brought to them. Will thou give to them understanding of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. and cause, Father, that the elders may have the comfort of the Great King, the Eternal King, who is Jesus Christ, and whose Church it is, and who himself watches the walls. Thou remember our deacons also as they help those who are in need, as they visit the distressed, as they bring the Gospel that makes full those who are empty, and that makes rich those who are poor, and that makes happy those who are sad. Thou wilt remember the deacons, giving unto them the comfort of the chief prophet, the chief priest that Thou hast given unto us, who is the one who helps the distressed. We pray, Father, also that Thou wilt continue to remember those who have oppressed and persecuted Thy church Thou'll remember those who are thy people among the oppressors. Thou'll forgive them for they know not what they do. Thou'll give unto them a rich measure of thy grace. Will thou comfort them by the gospel of Jesus Christ? Will thou show them the depth of their oppression, and show them their murder, show them their wickedness? Not to destroy them, but to save them, and to give them in place of that grief the fullness of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. We pray that thou will remember also those among the oppressors of thy church who are not thine own and who do hate Thee and set themselves against Thee and do their own will, wilt Thou protect us and keep us? Because, Father, Thou art wise and we are foolish, we pray that Thou wilt be in our midst as our refuge, that Thou wilt be the refuge of Thy people wherever they might be, that Thou wilt bless them and keep them, that Thou wilt cause Thy face to shine upon them and be gracious unto them, thou will lift up thy countenance upon them and give them peace. We thank thee, Father, then, that in all things we depend not upon ourselves, not in our worship, not in our hearing thy word, not in the building of thy church or the maintaining of thy church, but that in all things we depend upon thee. Will thou, Father, then go in our midst and abide with us and bless us and keep us? Forgive the sins we have committed. We do not know yet the depth of our iniquity. We have no idea of the bottomless well of our sin. Thou knowest, for these are all sins against thee. Thou knowest the corruption that is ours by nature, as we even cannot know it, for the heart of man is very deep, and his iniquity is very profound. Who can know it? But we know, Father, according to thy word, that our rebellion against thee is the worst that it could possibly be. We pray that thou will uncover our sins unto us, that thou will show us that we are the publicans and the sinners, and that no man in the whole earth, whatever he hath done, hath yet achieved the depth of our iniquity, for we know what thou hast done to us in delivering us and rescuing us by thy sovereign mercy, and yet we sin against thee. We thank Thee, Father, for Jesus Christ. Wilt Thou show us our sins, not that we might be destroyed, not that we might despair, but that we might see the fullness and the richness of our Savior, and that Thou hast given us double for all our sins, that Thou hast come to us who have the stain and the plague of iniquity in us and upon us, and hath washed it away by the blood of Christ, and hath come to us who are wretches and worms and sinners, and hath fed us with the bread of heaven. and poured into our mouths the water of life, and hath given us the wine of the blood of Christ to make us glad and to make us rejoice. We thank Thee, Father, that there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared. And we beseech Thee that Thou will give unto us a life of gratitude and deed, that we might go forth in this worship and in our life with the works that thou hast before ordained, that we might be a testimony to men of the power of thy grace that takes the worst sinners and makes them thy sons and thy daughters. Will thou hear our prayer, answer us in mercy, for Jesus' sake, amen. We worship the Lord now in the giving of our offerings. The first offering is for the General Funch and the second is for Benevolence. so so We return to Psalm 68. Psalm 68, this time singing verses 7 through 13. In this portion of the psalm, we sing of the wilderness, of Sinai, of God refreshing his weary people, of the congregation having a habitation with God providing goodness for the poor, and that beautiful promise of verse 13 of what God does to his people who are low and weary. We'll sing verses 7 through 13 of Psalm 68. I know. of Israel. ♪ The truth I ne'er did it ♪ ♪ If said that the angels scream ♪ ♪ Whereby the wind with weary voice ♪ ♪ Is stilled, refreshed again ♪ their habitation there. All thy own goodness for the poor, O God, thou didst prepare. himself did give the word, the word of God his friend. Great was the company of them, the Savior of the we may ♪ Holy and mild among the pines ♪ ♪ Thy counting shadow appear ♪ ♪ Whose wings, with silver and with gold ♪ ♪ Whose feathers cover night and day ♪ We turn in God's Word this morning to Joel 3. Joel 3. Today we conclude this brief series on the Old Testament prophet Joel, who prophesied concerning the day of the Lord. In the chapter that we read now, Joel 3, we find the final judgment as God gathers the nations and gathers his people into the great Valley of Jehoshaphat, or the Valley of Decision, and there judges all men. Joel 3. For behold, in those days and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations and parted my land. And they have cast lots for my people and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine that they might drink. Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? Will ye render me a recompense? And if ye recompense me, swiftly and speedily will I return your recompense upon your own head. because ye have taken my silver and my gold and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things. The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians that ye might remove them far from their border. Behold, I will raise them out of the place whether ye have sold them. and will return your recompense upon your own head, and I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off, for the Lord has spoken it. 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, get you down, for the press is full, the vats 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. And it shall come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim. Egypt shall be a desolation and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness for the violence against the children of Judah because they have shed innocent blood in their land. But Judah shall dwell forever and Jerusalem from generation to generation. For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed, for the Lord dwelleth in Zion. This is God's word, holy and inspired. May he bless the reading of his word to our hearts this morning. Our text is verse 14. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision, for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. Beloved congregation and our Lord Jesus Christ, the prophet Joel has been prophesying concerning the great day of the Lord. The occasion for the prophet's vision of that day was that terrible plague of locusts that God sent upon Judah and Jerusalem, which utterly devastated the land. And in that plague of locusts, God caused Joel to see a symbol, a picture, and a type of the coming of the day of Jesus Christ. He caused him to see all the way to the end of the world. He caused him to see to this New Testament age. For in this age, the Spirit has been poured out, as we saw last time, and he caused him to see all the way to that great day of the Lord Jesus Christ descending upon the clouds of heaven. In chapter 3 of the prophet, he teaches us what that day of judgment will be like. That's the theme and the message of chapter 3. God takes us through the prophet to that very day when the Lord Jesus Christ returns on the clouds of glory, when he raises the dead, and when he sits for judgment over all nations. And all of that final judgment is described in our text as multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The prophet speaks of that great day of judgment using all the symbolic figurative language of the Old Testament so that we have a rich and full picture of what that day of the Lord will be like. And the Lord gives this vision to the prophet, and the prophets spake in the name of the Lord that the church of Jesus Christ might have comfort. The message of the great day of judgment for the church of Jesus Christ is not this. What you have suffered all your life, you will suffer forever and ever. What you've suffered all your life in the oppression of the wicked, in the sin of your own flesh, you will be judged for forever and ever. But the message of the prophet for the people of God is this. God shall dwell among you. God shall dwell among you. That's the way the whole book ends. The prophecy comes to its final climax with that great promise, for the Lord dwelleth in Zion. As God shows us that great judgment and what will happen in that great judgment, what we find is that in that judgment God is not vengeful against us, but he is our refuge, he is our strength, so that the people of God may look forward to that day of judgment with great anticipation. We need not fear that day of judgment or run from that day of judgment. but pray by the Spirit of Christ who brings that prayer to the heart of his church. Come, Lord Jesus, come as thou hast promised for this day, for this day of judgment, the day in which publicly you will show to all men that you have been our hope and that you have been our refuge and our harbor and our pavilion and our strength. Come, Lord Jesus, yea, come quickly. And all the heathen, who exalt themselves against God, all the heathen who make the people of God their foes, they shall be destroyed. And that too is taught for the comfort of the Church of Jesus Christ, that the oppression of the oppressor shall not destroy God's people, for the Lord dwelleth in our midst. There are multitudes in the valley of decision in the great day of the Lord. And so we consider this text this morning with the comfort of the gospel under the theme multitudes in the valley of decision. In the first place, consider the multitudes gathered. In the second place, consider the decision. And in the third place, consider the great day of the Lord. Multitudes in the valley of decision. The multitudes gathered, the decision, and the great day of the Lord. The scene that the Prophet Joel presents is a very vivid and dramatic scene, and we should begin by understanding the nature of this scene. The scene is presented in very symbolic language. There is a valley, and you can picture a valley in your mind, perhaps a valley that was nearby Mount Zion with the temple sitting atop of it, and now this valley running low. There were valleys around Mount Zion like that, with the Mount of Olives perhaps rising up to the other side. Today there are people who call that particular valley between Mount Zion and the Mount of Olives, the Valley of Jehoshaphat. But there is this great valley, a valley of Jehoshaphat, a valley of decision. There are whole armies that come together. All the nations of the earth are assembled there. And there are God's people who are brought there too. And Jehovah God comes down with darkness and with cloud and with earthquake in order to sit for the final judgment of all men. It is very vivid language, very dramatic language, very picturesque language. What we must understand about that vivid language is that the prophet Joel is not drawing for the church of the New Testament a roadmap so that we can go find where the valley of Jehoshaphat is. There are many who try to pinpoint that it will be this valley or that valley. That is not what the prophet is doing. Rather, he is using very symbolic language He'll use the language of threshing wheat. He'll use the language of a valley. He'll use the language of an assembled army. But all of that language is very symbolic language in order to teach us the spiritual reality of the final judgment and the final protection and salvation of God's people. What we find then in this picturesque language is that Joel has this final judgment unfolding in the Valley of Jehoshaphat. He mentions that in verse two, I will also gather all nations and we'll bring them down into the Valley of Jehoshaphat. He mentions later in verse 14, multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision. In our text, that's the same valley. The valley of Jehoshaphat is the valley of decision. The prophet presents the final judgment as occurring in the midst of this great valley. And that is remarkable for the people of God of great comfort. Not that we can find that specific valley, but because we spend our whole life here in a valley. The confessions call this life the veil of tears. That's what it is for the church. And Psalm 23 calls it the valley of the shadow of death. You spend your whole life in a valley, a difficult, dark valley where death hangs over, a valley in which we are sinners, a valley in which we are oppressed. Our whole life is spent in the valley. But when Jehovah God comes to judge all men, he has that take place in a valley, not a literal valley, but he has that take place in the symbolic language in a valley, because that's the day of our great victory. That's the day of our public vindication. That's the day when publicly all men will see that these were the people of the Lord. So that though our whole life is spent in the sorrow of this valley, The end of all days will take place in a valley of great victory for God's people, even in the symbolic description of where the judgment takes place. God comforts and is very merciful towards his people. What Joel is describing by this valley and the events that happened there is indeed the final judgment. And we can see that from verse 12. 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 you. Indeed, even the name Valley of Jehoshaphat means the valley where Jehovah judges. The name Jehoshaphat is made up of two parts, Jehah, Jehovah, and Shaphat, which means judge. Jehoshaphat is Jehovah judges. This is the valley of Jehovah's judgment. And decision means threshing. It refers to a sharp instrument by which a crop might be threshed so that this is the valley of threshing or the valley of judgment. We have here in Joel 3 a very symbolic, rich, vivid description of the final judgment at which Christ sits to judge all men. We find that God gathers two peoples to this valley for judgment. There is the gathering of these multitudes, these multitudes who are in the valley of decision. There are two peoples gathered there. The first people is what God has described already in Joel as the remnant. That was verse 32, in the remnant whom the Lord shall call for behold in those days and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem. One of the peoples that God gathers is the remnant. And if you would see all of those people that are these captives gathered together, you would laugh at them. You would say about them, nobody can make a kingdom out of that. Nobody can. These people are described throughout the entirety of Joel 3 as those who are utterly abused, as those who are utterly oppressed by the full roundabout. They are described in verse one as the captivity, the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem. Captives in those days were not fresh faced, strong looking people. Captives were put upon, they were beaten They were starved. They were dirty. They were not kept well. This is the people that God is gathering, this people that's miserable. They're in a prison. The dirt is on their faces and the flesh has fallen off their bones. They are the captives. Verse 2, they are the scattered. I will plead with them therefore my people and for my heritage Israel whom they have scattered among the nations. God's people are made afraid. They are made to flee throughout their entire life. They are scattered people. Verse three describes how easily and thoughtlessly the wicked could cast off God's people. They have cast lots for my people and have given a boy for an harlot. The idea there being the boy is the currency and the harlot is the product. that the currency is purchasing. But that's done without a thought. Here's this boy, this little boy with his life before him, sad, afraid, scared in the hands of his captors, and without a second thought they sell him so that they can have a harlot. And a little girl, scared, afraid, alone, they sell so that they can have a drink of wine. Who knows what will become of that boy? Who knows what will become of that girl? who knows what cruelties will be inflicted upon that boy and that girl, but it was nothing for the oppressor to cast that boy and that girl away for a little bit of pleasure and for whatever the oppressor wanted. So also in verse six, we read of the lowness of these people who are gathered, the people of God. The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their border. And there we find a hatred in it. Why did you sell them into captivity? So you could get rid of them. So they would be far away from you. So that you could remove them from their own border. There is a hatred that the foe hath inflicted upon God's people. Verse 19 describes the violence that they have suffered. Violence against the children of Judah. Verse 19 describes also the shedding of their innocent blood. Though they had done nothing against the foe, the foe had come to them and with cruelty had shed their innocent blood. Verse 21, for I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed, so that it appeared to all the world that God's people were abandoned. Nobody's coming for them. Nobody's coming to rescue them. Nobody's going to deliver them. Their blood has not been cleansed. The blood of violence against them has not been cleansed. There it sits on them, and there they go into captivity in that blood. These are the people that God gathers. This little remnant, this little group of captives, those who have been sold, those who have been scattered, those who have been made afraid all their lives, God gathers them all together. And if you would see that whole group, you would say there's nothing there. There's simply nothing there. There's not a kingdom there. There's not a family there. There is simply nothing there but the leftovers of the human race And what the nations have done to God's people, they have done to God. There's a reason that God's church is this captive in the world. And that the reason her innocent blood is shed in the world. The reason for that is that the church belongs to Jesus Christ. They are the members of the body of Christ. They belong to the head Jesus Christ. And that's what the world has always done to Christ. They didn't feed Christ and seek Christ. Anytime they did seek Him was for their own gain. They hated Him. They chased Him. They made Him afraid, as He sings of in many of the Psalms. They delivered Him over easily, thoughtlessly, cruelly, with hatred and malice in their hearts. They went against the Lord Jesus Christ. Is it any wonder then that the Church of Jesus Christ suffers those same afflictions in the midst of this world and is so oppressed by her many foes? And because what they had done to the church, they had done to Christ, they had done it also to God. God brings that up in verse 5, where he speaks to Tyre and Zion and all the coasts of Palestine, those who had been instrumental in selling his people away, You sold them. Are you going to pay me? Are you going to pay me, recompense me to get my people back? Are you going to offer something to me? You have something in your hand that can pay for what you have done to my people. Is that what you have? I'll turn that recompense on your head and make it lay upon you heavily. if you have something to recompense me for what you have done to my people. Verse five, you have taken my silver and my gold and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things. Well, what is that silver and gold? Just some precious metals? Not at all. The silver and gold and the goodly pleasant things are God's people. He immediately connects that in verse six. The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians that ye might remove them far from their border. And God shows that he's talking about what they did to the people of God when he says, the recompense that I will visit upon you is that I'm going to destroy your children. You destroyed mine, then I will destroy yours. If you think that you come to me and have a recompense to pay me, to make right what you have done. I'll turn that on your head and the people of God will take your children and sell them to the Sabeans and they'll go who knows where. God comes to his people who have had nothing, who are absolutely empty and who have been so treated because they belong to Christ and because they belong to God so that what the foe has done to God's people they have done to God. That's one group, this little despised group. And there is another group. There are there the heathen, there are there the nations. Throughout Joel 3, these nations are powerful. They are represented as the cream of the human race and as mighty men of war. I will gather the nations, verse two, the nations are mighty. You go through the world, nation after nation after nation. It has its own government. It has its own people. It has its own ways. It has its own history. The nations of the earth are significant things. There are greater nations and lesser nations, but the nations as a whole are the cream of the crop of man. They are the greatest thing of man. These nations are represented in their might as those who are a great army. Verse nine, proclaiming this among the Gentiles, prepare war. God is not saying there's going to be some battle that's going to be fought now. But God is saying there, deck yourself out in all your fine war regalia. Take your plowshares, beat them into swords. Make sure that every man has a weapon in his hand. Gather all of your people together. Let your men of war draw near. Let the heathen be wakened. Assemble yourselves and come, so that as all the nations of the earth march into this valley of Jehoshaphat, they come as powerful. Who's going to stand before them? Certainly not that little band that they have sold into captivity. No one will stand before them. But these nations are great and powerful and mighty. If you saw them, you would tremble before them, and so would I. These nations that God gathers into the Valley of Jehoshaphat are mighty. God gathers two peoples in the Valley of Decision. Multitudes, multitudes in the Valley of Decision for the day of the Lord draweth nigh. God comes to this valley of Jehoshaphat and makes a decision. That word decision here does not mean that God makes a discovery. This is not called the valley of decision. to indicate that a decision has not yet been made, that a decision must be discovered yet, and that God is going to wait until he sees these two peoples, sees what they're like, sees which one he prefers, sees what they have done, and then he will make a decision about what is going to happen. The idea here is not that of a discovery or of a new decision. God's judgment concerning all men is eternal. From all eternity, he has elected his people, and they shall never perish. They shall never perish. Sinners though they be, wretches though they be, oppressed though they be, they shall never perish. They're elect by God. The final judgment isn't going to bring some new revelation to God that he hasn't known from all time. And God has reprobated all those who are not his and who are not in Jesus Christ. And God knows that as well. All of that is determined by God already. There's no new decision to make. But rather the word decision here refers to a public declaration and demonstration and to a public deliverance and a public desolation. What God knows, he knows in his secret counsel about all men. What we know about ourselves, for we know already the verdict that God has rendered concerning us in Jesus Christ. What we know, we know as God's word to us. In the final judgment, that will be made public so that there will be a public declaration and a public demonstration in the Valley of Decision. There will be a public destruction of the nations and a public deliverance of the captivity. The word decision here means a threshing. The word literally refers to some sharp instrument that would be used in the gathering in of a crop so that there is here a threshing. And now you can imagine that scene as the prophet paints it in your mind's eye. there deep in that valley where all the nations are gathered and where God's people are, there is a thresher at work, a thresher who beats the wheat that has been gathered in so that the kernel of that wheat falls to the ground and the chaff of that wheat blows away and a great gout of the wind and disappears. That's the idea, that's the picture that's being painted here in the Valley of Decision. God comes to make a judgment. And God's judgment upon the nations is fearsome. The judgment God makes upon the nations is that he comes to plead for his people. Verse 2, I will plead with the nations there for my people and for my heritage Israel. The word plead here does not mean beg. God does not come to the final judgment to beg something of the oppressors. The word plead here means to sit officially in judgment. God will sit as judge. There is a counsel that the Lord will utter, a verdict that he will declare. His pleading for his people refers to his official entering into judgment for his saints. That's remarkable for God's people. That is full of comfort and hope. The church never gets a hearing now. The church never has anyone sit in judgment for her now. Her lot is to be condemned and accused. Her lot is to be cast out. Her lot is to be condemned by many wicked and impious judges, as Belgic Confession 37 has it, for having a cause that is not the cause of man, a wicked cause, a cause that is God's cause, but that man hates. But now, God says in this final judgment, Though no one has come to plead for you all your days, I come to plead for you with the nations who have oppressed you." And when God sits officially to judge for his people and to prosecute the sins of the nations against his people, then that is comfort for the church indeed, but it is fearsome for the nations. God says about this judgment, in this judgment, that he will recompense the reward of the nations upon their own head, as we have seen, will ye render me a recompense, and if ye recompense me, verse four, swiftly and speedily will I return your recompense upon your own head. With the destruction that the nation sought to destroy the church, the nation shall be destroyed, but now not under the hand of man, now under the hand of the living everlasting God. God also speaks in verse 16 of this judgment of the nations. He shall roar out of Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem and the heavens and the earth shall shake. God shall roar in such a way that the nations with all their might and all their power that they had all this life will be shown to be nothing. Who is going to stand before the roaring of the Lord And notice where he roars from in this judgment, from Jerusalem, from Mount Zion. When the Lord roars out of Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem, he is saying this, all I'm saying to you is what the church of Jesus Christ always said. The church of Jesus Christ always said that salvation is of the Lord and not of man. The church of Jesus Christ always said that the Lord alone is the sovereign in salvation and worship and all things. And you never listen, now listen, as the Lord roars out of Zion and sounds his voice out of Jerusalem. And the effect of that roar, verse 19, is that the wicked are no more. There's no Egypt left. You can't even find it. There's no Edom left. The land is there, but it's a desolation. Nobody lives there anymore. That's the judgment of God upon the wicked, that they're cast forever into hell. There will be a new heavens and a new earth. That's coming in verses 18 and following. But the nations aren't there. They don't live there. Their land is nothing but a habitation and a desolation. This is God's judgment of the nations who now oppress God's people who ride over their backs, who sell them into captivity, who hate them and destroy them. God's judgment against all the foes of his people is this utter destruction. God's judgment for his church, for his people, is utter salvation, marvelous, gracious salvation. I belong on the side of the multitude that hates the church. That's where I belong. That's where the Church of Christ always belongs. There's nothing about us that is holy or innocent of ourselves. Of ourselves, we are the worst of all sinners. We are the publicans and the sinners, those who are known for their sin. That's what we are in this world. When God comes in that final judgment, in his mercy to his people, his elect people, who have committed all manner of wickedness, his elect people who even have been oppressors in their own life, God's mercy to his people is that he comes to them and says, but I am yours and you are mine. But you belong to me and I will save you. God speaks that beautifully in verse 16. This is as the judgment is unfolding. The Lord is roaring out of Zion against the nations, but the Lord will be the hope of his people. and the strength of the children of Israel. In that day, the Lord will be our hope." And that word hope there is a very precise word. Hope is a good translation. But that word hope means especially a refuge. It's a place where someone flees. It comes from a word that means a running away. There is a flight, there is an oppression that the people of God have. There is even our own iniquity that rises up against us. And now the Lord says in that day of judgment, but I'm your refuge. You could use the word pavilion there, or you could use the word tower there, or you could use the word harbor there, or refuge. The Lord is our hope and the strength of the children of Israel. When the judgment falls upon the wicked, there is a refuge for us wicked. And that refuge, which is the hope and the harbor of the people of God, is the Lord Jesus Christ. All that wrath, all that curse that God will pour upon the foe is the wrath and the curse that we deserved. But that wrath and that curse did not fall on us. God put Jesus Christ between us, lifting him up from the earth so that the Lord Jesus Christ bore, drinking up the full dregs of that curse of God, finishing the cup so that there is no curse for the people of God. No curse left, no curse now, no curse in the day of judgment. When you come to that Day of Judgment, and when you come to that Day of Judgment having suffered oppression, yes. But when you come to that Day of Judgment having lived with an old man of sin your whole life, and sinning against Jehovah God, when you come to that Day of Judgment, there is no fear there for you, no terror there for you. Why not? Because God appears in that judgment as our refuge. The one who has provided that refuge through Jesus Christ. There's only one verdict that's possible. Only one public declaration that could ever be spoken. And that one public declaration for God's people is this. You are not guilty. You are my people. You are my people and I have made a refuge for you. And God does this for our comfort. That's verse 17. If you look at it just from a strictly objective point of view, God really doesn't need to tell us any of this. He could have just saved us and delivered us and been our refuge and then someday we find out about that. But God does all of this and makes it public so that we know and speaks to us now by his gospel so that we know. Verse 17, so shall ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain. You know this. It's certain to you. I am your refuge. I always have been, and I always will be, even in that final judgment. I'm your refuge in Christ. And I tell you this now through the prophet Joel. I tell you this now in the preaching of the gospel, that you may know that I am the Lord your God dwelling among you. And when you go back through Joel 3, you find that same language. This wasn't just the captives. This wasn't just the people. These were always my people, my children. God is jealous of his people, zealous for his people. God holds his people and teaches his people again and again and again. You are my people and I dwell among you and you know it. There will be no more oppression from the foe. There shall be no more strangers passing through her anymore. The idea of strangers who came to hurt and to destroy, none of them will pass through anymore. And for God's people, Jerusalem shall be holy. There's no oppression from our sin anymore. That final judgment is God's. public declaration and public display that there is no sin for his people anymore. Why not? Jesus is holy. He is devoted to God, perfectly consecrated to him in all things, in his heart, his mind, his soul, in his hand and his feet, in his eyes and in his ears. The Lord Jesus Christ is perfectly consecrated to God. And that's your consecration to God and mine. And in the day of judgment, there will be no more oppression from our own sin. For now, my flesh is never consecrated to God, but always consecrated to itself. Not in that day, not anymore. This is the great day of the Lord that Joel has been speaking of, and the great day of the Lord that he mentions in our text. The day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. Joel teaches what that day shall look like or what the new heavens and the new earth shall look like in that day. Verses 18 and following, it shall come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drop down new wine and the hills shall flow with milk and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord. and shall water the valley of Shittim. Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land. But Judah shall dwell forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. God teaches the wonders and the fullness and the overflowing of what the new heavens and the new earth shall be like for God's people. And if you step back and look at the whole message of what that day of the Lord will be like. If you look at the meaning of that day of the Lord for God's people, then you will find at the heart of it all this, that God dwells with his people in Jesus Christ. That's what the whole message of the day of the Lord is. What is the day of the Lord after all, but Jesus coming coming on the clouds of glory because God dwells with his people in Jesus Christ. What is all of this overflowing in Jerusalem and Judah after all, but the overflowing of all the riches and the benefits and blessings of salvation that are ours in Jesus Christ. The whole message of that day of the Lord, the whole essence of that day of the Lord is God dwelling with his people forever and ever in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the comfort for the church as she lives in this world, as she sojourns here, as she looks for the coming of the Lord on the clouds of glory, as she sees the signs, as she sees even the rushing on of that day. That's the hope of the church as she suffers the afflictions that belong to this New Testament age. That's the hope of the church in the midst of all of her sin. Her hope is this, but God dwells with me. in Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ has removed all my sin. Joel comes to the last word of his prophecy then to teach us that essence and that meaning of the great day of the Lord. Jesus Christ is coming on the clouds of glory. He's coming surely and he's coming quickly. And why? for the Lord dwelleth in Zion. Amen. Our Father which art in heaven, we thank thee for the gospel to us, wilt thou bless it to our hearts and comfort us by it. We pray, Father, that thou wilt be merciful to us who deserve no mercy, that thou wilt be gracious to us who have forfeited all favor, that thou wilt look upon us in thy love, thy everlasting love in Jesus Christ, and that Thou wilt comfort our weary hearts by these glad tidings of our salvation in Him. We thank Thee, Father, that Thou dost dwell with Thy people now and forever. And we long to see our Savior come, Lord Jesus. Amen. Psalm 68. We return to Psalm 68, verses 14 through 19. Here we have the hills leaping, but Christ says to them that the hill Zion is where God desires to dwell. So that now God having marched victoriously through the wilderness, through Sinai, through all of those lands, now comes to Mount Zion and makes his abode there. In verse 18, we have Jesus Christ ascending that mountain so that all of this is not only the song of Christ, but fulfilled in Christ. We'll sing verses 16 through 19 of Psalm 68. 14, 14 through 19. is mine ♪ Beneath the mountains high ♪ ♪ This is the hill where God resides ♪ ♪ To God be glory given ♪ ♪ For Him will make a born again ♪ ♪ But sure as 20,000 are ♪ ♪ Thousands of angels strong ♪ ♪ Gracefully placed, but it is as if ♪ ♪ One side by the other ♪ ♪ The Lord most glorious ascended upon high ♪ ♪ And in triumph victorious stood ♪ ♪ And in, and in with thee was born the King of Israel ♪ has received his torment, for such as did rebel, waiting for them that God the Lord in midst of them might ♪ The Lord who is to us a high salvation God ♪ ♪ Who daily with His benefits ♪ ♪ Us plentifully doth flow ♪ Praise and thanks unto the Lord, for bountiful is he. His tender mercy doth endure unto eternity. Blessed be Jehovah, his trust not to all eternity. Let all the people sing, Amen. Praise to the Lord, give him praise. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. you