I'm just going to read the first part of the book, the opening section of the book. It says this, the word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Bethuel. Hear this, you elders, and give ear all you inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this happened in your days or even in the days of your fathers? Tell your children about it. Let your children tell their children. And their children, another generation. What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten. And what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten. Awake, you drunkards, and weep. And wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth. For a nation has come up against my land, strong and without number. His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has fangs of a fierce lion. He has laid waste my vine and ruined my fig tree. He has stripped it bare and thrown it away. Its branches are made white. Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth, the grain offering and the drink offering have been cut off from the house of the Lord. The priests mourn who minister to the Lord. The field is wasted, the land mourns, for grain is ruined and the new wine is dried up, the oil fails. Be ashamed, you farmers, well, you vine dressers, for the wheat and the barley, because of the harvest of the field, is perished. The vine has dried up and the fig tree has withered. pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, and all the trees of the field are withered. Surely joy has withered away from the sons of men. Gird yourselves and lament, you priest. Wail, you who minister before the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you who minister to my God. For the grain offering and the drink offering are withheld from the house of your God. Consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God and cry out to the Lord. You better be crying out to him. It's bad. You better be crying out to him. What's the proper response in time of judgment? I think it's an appropriate thing to ask. What is the proper response in the time of judgment? There have been responses from our country and from our leaders in times of distress and in times of hardship, in times of war, in times of many different things. And there have been these calls this week A call went out for a day of prayer. A call went out from our president for a day of prayer. I want to read to you his statement, and I want you to pay close attention to what I'm about to read. Our president said, throughout our history, Americans of many religions and belief systems have turned to prayer for strength, hope, and guidance. Prayer has nourished countless souls and powered moral movements, including essential fights against racial injustice, child labor, and infringement on the rights of disabled Americans. Prayer is also a daily practice for many, whether it is to ask for help or strength or to give thanks over blessings bestowed. Our First Amendment to our Constitution protects the rights of free speech and religious liberty, including the right of all Americans to pray. It just depends on who you pray to and what you pray about. These freedoms have helped us create and sustain a nation of remarkable religious vitality and diversity across the generations. Today, we remember and celebrate the role that the healing balm of prayer can play in our lives and in the life of our nation. As we continue to confront the crisis and challenges of our time, from a deadly pandemic to the loss of lives and livelihoods in its wake, to a reckoning on racial justice, to the existential threat of climate change, Americans of faith can call upon the power of prayer to provide and uplift us for the work ahead. As the late Congressman John Lewis once said, nothing can stop the power of a committed and determined people to make a difference in our society. Why? Because human beings are the most dynamic link to the divine on this planet. On this National Day of Prayer, we unite with purpose and resolve to recommit ourselves to the core freedoms that helped define and guide our nation from its earliest days. We celebrate our incredible good fortune that as Americans, we can exercise our convictions freely, no matter our faith or beliefs. Let us find in our prayers, however they are delivered, the determination to overcome adversity, rise above our differences and come together as one nation to meet this moment in history. That was his proclamation for day of prayer. Do you notice what's missing? There is no mention of God. This caught my attention because I read a little blurb about it, and then I went and I started digging. And I wanted to, ah, surely that can't be true. So I pulled it and read it. Sure enough, there's no mention of God. It's the first time ever. It's the first time ever on the proclamation of a national day of prayer that our president has not mentioned God. Right. You're calling on prayer, not God. So I did some digging. I started digging because it just, it kind of blew me away. And I'm thinking, I'm thinking, surely there was a mention of God. Well, I read, I just read it to you. There's not a mention, not a mention of it. So I started digging and really what caught my attention was the fact this is the first time that a president has never mentioned God. And a national day of prayer of all things. The national day of prayer was called in 1952. Now, there had been times where Congress or the President called people to prayer before that. In the early years of our nation, in the Revolutionary War, there were continual prayer meetings and so forth. In 1952, in the midst of the Korean War, there was a congressional act that said, we need a National Day of Prayer. and people were being killed on the battlefield and things. And so that has been set aside. And you go back and you look and you see you can go back and you can find it. You can pull all of these proclamations. You go all the way back to Truman and every one of them all the way up until Biden mentioned God. In fact, make it very clear we're praying to God. But there's one I pulled, and I want to read it to you. And then I'm going to tell you who it was from. This, after giving a history of the proclamation of the day of prayer, he says this. Members of Congress who spoke for the resolution made it clear that they felt the nation continued to face the very same challenges that preoccupied our founders. The survival of freedom in a world frequently hostile to human ideals and the struggle of faith in an age that openly doubted or vehemently denied the existence of the Almighty. One senator remarked that it would be timely and appropriate for the people of our nation to join in this service of prayer in the spirit of our founding fathers who believed that God governs the affairs of men and who based their declaration of independence in a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence. Human nature is such that at times of distress, grief, and war, our recent memory impels us to acknowledge, to the acknowledgements that we are often too proud to make or too prone to forget in periods of peace and prosperity. During the Civil War, Lincoln said that he was driven to his knees in prayer because he was convinced that he had nowhere else to go. During World War II, an unknown soldier in a trench And Tanzania left behind a scrap of paper with these verses. Stay with me, God. The night is dark. The night is cold. My little spark of courage dies. The night is long. Be with me, God. Make me strong. America has lived through many cold and dark nights. when the cupped hands of prayer were our only shield against the extinction of courage. Though that flame has flickered from time to time, it burns brightest, and I want you to listen to this, it burns brightest when we are willing, as we ought to be now, to turn our faces and our hearts to God. not only at moments of personal danger and civil strife, but in the full flower of liberty, peace, and abundance that he has showered upon us. What was this president calling us to do? To turn our face and heart to God and cry out to him. Isn't that what Joel just said? This was Ronald Reagan in 1987. Ronald Reagan in 1987. You mean to tell me that in 34 years, and I'm not comparing Reagan to Biden. That's not what I'm doing. What I want you to see is the worldview at play here. I want you to see the cultural shift that has happened. That's what's happened. That's what's happened in 34 years. To the point where there is no mention of God in a national proclamation of the day of prayer. Now, despite what may come out, it was no accident. It was no accident whatsoever. These calling of these sacred assemblies, these solemn assemblies, we see it in the Old Testament. Joel's going to call for it. Joel's going to call for it. And these sacred assemblies, these solemn assemblies, these were special feast days. And it's mentioned about 11 times in the Old Testament. And the first mention is Leviticus chapter 23. Leviticus 23, Numbers 29, even Deuteronomy 16. And what God is saying is that in Leviticus 23 and Numbers 29, after the day, after seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles, God said, you are to call a sacred assembly on the eighth day. And you were to pray, you were to fast, and you were to seek me. And then in Deuteronomy 16, Moses says, after the Passover, on the seventh day, you call the sacred assembly, and you gather everyone together, and you pray fast, and you seek me. 2 Chronicles 7, verse 9, Solomon calls one at the dedication of the temple. He calls the people together in sacred assembly. praying, fasting, seeking God, seeking His blessing on the establishment of the temple. In Nehemiah 8, verse 18, there's another call for this. But what Nehemiah is doing is restoring Leviticus. He's restoring Numbers. He's restoring Deuteronomy because they had been years without it. And so Nehemiah is calling them back to this practice. This is what you need to do. What's interesting is when you get to the prophets, Now Joel's going to call for one, but when you read Isaiah, and then when we get to Amos, what Isaiah's going to say, what God's going to say through Isaiah in chapter 1, and what he's going to say through Amos, and what he's going to say in chapter 5 of Amos is this, I hate your sacred assemblies. I am sick to death of what you're doing. I am sick of your calling of these prayer meetings. I am sick of you calling because when you come together, it's not me you're seeking, And he says, away with them. Away with them. I'm done with it. There was a very interesting sacred assembly called in 2 Kings. In 2 Kings chapter 10, Jehu, who's the king, he hatches this scheme. In fact, Elijah told him, don't you do it. But he did it anyway. So he hatches this scheme that he's going to call a sacred assembly. for Baal. So he calls a sacred assembly for Baal and gathers all the prophets of Baal in one place. And then he slaughters them. And Elijah had told him, don't you do this. But he did it anyway. He added this false pretense, and he figures, well, we've got to kill these idol-worshiping prophets somehow, right? And so he calls a sacred assembly, and they end up killing him. The idea seems to be a special day of seeking God's favor, of turning one's face back to God, of examining one's life, examining the life of the nation of Israel and coming back to Him. Joel's calling for this. Joel is saying, consecrate this, call this, call the people together. Because it's bad. And what's bad is God's judgment has fallen upon you. And what's worse, some of you don't even realize it. Some of you don't even realize what's happening. And Joel says, let's be clear here. This is the hand of God's judgment. You better call a sacred assembly. You better call the Sacred Assembly. There's humility with this. There's a genuine seeking, as we'll see with Joel, not a half-hearted seeking that Isaiah and Amos said, you people away with this mess. There was no real genuine seeking. I don't back up from this statement whatsoever. What our president called for, and we will not join in, What our president called for was a sacred national day of prayer. He called a sacred assembly to bail. That's what he called. That's what he called. A solemn assembly to bail. Not only that, it's a solemn assembly to the beast. It's a solemn assembly to the antichrist. It is bowing the knee to an idol. It is bowing the knee to false worship. And just like in the book of Revelation, in the fall of Babylon, when Christ says, come out of her. And that's what we've been trying to look at and trying to deal with. And I know you probably get tired of thinking, well, you know what? OK, enough. You're ratcheting this thing up to where? No, I'm not. I'm not. Just survey some news out of Canada. Just start paying attention to what's happening in Canada. It's unbelievable. It started with James Coates' church where they built the fence. Now they are going in, armed police are going into church meetings just like this. Just like this. And you know what's sad? I just heard a report of this. I just heard one of the guys in Canada talking about this. And what's so sad here is that yes, the culture, and this is Canada, you say that's Canada, yeah, but it's Western culture. What's so sad here is that right now, on Easter Sunday, this is what this report, this is what he was saying. On Easter Sunday, there was a call that went out. Churches gather. Churches get back. Worship. And all of Canada, from what I was told, all of Canada, there were only 79 churches that met to worship. And the rest, most of them said, hey, you know what? We got a Romans 13. We got to obey the government. We've got to love our neighbor here. And we've got to. And there were excuses after excuses. And when I heard that, it shocked me. It stunned me. I am thankful that at least in America right now, there's still some resistance. Because you know what? 20 years ago in Canada, they never would have thought that. Canada would be in this position. And it's been by concentrated effort by the government. It has. So as we look to the prophets, we're trying to discern from the prophets how do we engage a post-Christian culture. Because that's where we are. If you don't believe me, just read through this proclamation again. We're a post-Christian culture. And how do we engage it? How do we deal with it? What do we do as believers and so forth? And so we've looked to the prophets. We've looked to Daniel. Daniel has helped us. We've looked to Hosea. Hosea has helped us. We're going to look at Joel and Lord willing, we're going to take a prophet each Sunday and we're going to look and see how did they do it? How did they deal with it? What can we learn in our engagement? How do we respond? Joel helps us. There's three sections in the book of Joel. And there's two big, broad principles. are two, let me put it this way, two big, broad rules of engagement that I think come out of Joel. Alright? Now, we don't know much about Joel. Don't know much at all about him. All that we know is that he's identified at the beginning of this book, the son of Bethuel. We know nothing about that. In fact, we know very little about the whole situation, the whole historical situation of the book of Joel. It's hard to nail down. Is it an early book in the time of the exile or is it a later book in the time of the exile? It's hard to nail down dates and times. Kings aren't mentioned here. Two big nations at the time aren't mentioned here, Assyria and Babylon. Some have said that the way the book appears to us and the way that we have it and the way that God's given it to us through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is it's almost like this divine service manual. It's almost like it was to be pulled out and used in times of distress. Because there's not a lot of specifics here. It almost reads that way so that when you do call a sacred assembly, you pull the book of Joel out and you use that sort of like your order of service. You use this sort of like your service manual. That may be the case. Maybe why it's so ambiguous as to date and historical events and things like that. One thing we do know is that from verse one, the word of the Lord came to Joel. This is God's word to Joel. He must have lived in Jerusalem. He must have had some familiarity with the temple because of some of the things that he says here. But other than that, we know very little about him. And when we look at and try to place it within a historical context, It gets very hard to do. But this is what he says. Here's the first thing that he addresses. The first thing that he addresses is immediate judgment. What's at hand? And that's what we just read in chapter 1, when he says, hear this, you elders. This is the extent of the judgment, the immediate judgment. And again, no kings are mentioned. Some have said that maybe this is because the book, Joel's preaching, this book is during the time of Joash, who was king. He was actually like seven years old when he became king. And he had, I think it was an uncle that sort of was a regent for him. And so they say, well, if it was during this time, then no king's really mentioned. I don't know. Or it could be that it's after the kings. This is post-exilic. This is after the exile. This is after Babylon. The kings are gone. Hear this, you elders, and give ear all you inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this happened in your days? You haven't seen anything like this. Isn't that what we've been saying for the last year? Have we ever seen anything like this? In our lifetime, right? Or even in the days of your fathers. Now, verse 3, I want you to pay attention to this. Because this is important. Because when He says, listen, you need to pay attention here. And He says, go tell your children about it. Let your children tell their children. And their children, another generation. Don't you lose this history. You lose this history at your own ruin. And if there's one thing that's taking place today, that is not only the rewriting of our history, it is the erasing of our history. It is the erasing of our history. Here is a call in the prophet, don't you forget your history? It's important. That's why I'm so thankful for men like Charles Elam who's sitting back there. Charles Elam has a love for history, but not only a love for history, his desire is to pass that on. We need men to come along and we need men to be raised up who are going to take that mantle and not let us forget our history. Our history as a nation, but more importantly, our history as the covenant people of God and trace it and root it and ground it in the foundation of the old covenant. Mark, Sunday school classes is exactly what he's trying to do is link us back to that. And show that foundation. The most important thing you can do in your family right now. Um, one of the most important things. besides putting the gospel in front of your family every day, with your grandkids, your children, is to teach them history. Teach them history. They're not going to get it in the public schools. And if we forget it and we lose it, you see right out of the gate, you see Joel here saying, don't lose your history. This is happening. You need to tell your children about it. You need to tell the next generations what happened as they come along and they see it and they understand it. And then he goes in to the extent of this. The locusts. I mean, this is total devastation. You see this? The chewing locusts. What they left, swarming locusts has eaten. What the swarming locust has left, the crawling locust has eaten. What the crawling locust has left, the consuming locust has eaten. There is nothing left. The immediate judgment that he's talking about, we do know this for sure, is that it was a judgment on Judah. The southern kingdom, not the northern kingdom. This very well could be after the Babylonians. He could very well be talking about what the Babylonians came in and did. Or it could be before that and he's saying, they're coming. And then there's this call. One, to awake. Awake, you drunkards. You've been living your life like you're drunk. You've been living your life like you just have no sense or discernment about you. You need to wake up. You need to weep. Why? Because the new wine, it's been cut off from your mouth. What's the new wine? The satisfying wine. You see, I don't think it's a mistake. The first miracle our Lord did in John 2 was what? He turned water into wine. And you remember what the host said? Oh, man, you saved the best for last. Usually you wait till everybody gets drunk and then you bring the bad stuff out. New wine. New wine is going to come up again in this book. The new wine has been cut off. I don't think it's a leap for us in New Covenant understanding to understand what's what's being cut off is the very word of God. What's being cut off is the gospel itself. You need to wake up and weep. You need to wake up and mourn. You need to wake up because not only are you losing your 401k, you're losing the very word of God. That's what's at stake here. And then he says, he talks about this nation. Why? Because this nation's coming. Which one? We don't know. It's not mentioned. Is it Babylon? Maybe. And he says, this nation's coming. And this nation's horrible. This nation's terrible. Look at verse 7. He's laid waste my vine. Who's the vine? It's Israel. It's Judah. He's ruined my fig tree. Who is that? It's Israel. It's Judah. This nation that came, they came after you. They came after God's covenant people. And he stripped it bare and had thrown it away and its branches are made white. And then here comes another call. Lament. So awaken, lament, lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. And then he talks about how in the very worship, there's no more worship here. That's been cut off. Grain offering, drink offering, it's been cut off from the house of the Lord. The priests mourn who minister before the Lord. The field is waste, the land mourns, the grain is ruined, and here it is again. The new wine, it's dried up. It's dried up. The oil fails. And then he goes to the farmers. Is this economics? I don't know. It may be. Is it a way of saying, listen, you know, your worship is gone. Your economy is gone. Be ashamed, you farmers. Well, you vine dressers. And notice again, verse 12. The vine has dried up and the fig tree has weathered. This is what's happened to you, Judah. You are a shell of yourself. You have been judged by God. And it's over. But see, just when he talks about the extent of this immediate judgment, and it's total, it's all of Judah. He mentions the pomegranate tree, the palm tree, the apple tree. All the trees of the field are withered. Surely joy is withered from the sons of men. Here's this call to repentance. Here's this call. What's the response to judgment? To call some nebulous day a prayer? No, here comes a specific response in the face of God's judgment. Gird yourselves and lament, you priest. Wail, you who minister before the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth. That's the language of repentance in the Old Testament. Come lie all night in sackcloth, you who minister to my God, for the grain offering and the drink offering are withheld from the house of God. There's no worship. Consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God. And you remember when we read this in the beginning and cry out to who? Cry out to the Lord. You better be calling out to him in this time. You better cry out to Him because there's no one else to come. This is the right response in the face of judgment. Not half-hearted. Joel's going to deal with that in just a second. It's not a half-hearted, oh well, I guess we better give God His due, and we tip the hat at Him. That's not fearing God. Fearing God is understanding He could destroy us. But by faith, I believe He won't. Not because of me, but because of Christ. And then he says, here's the reason why he gets down to it. Alas, the day, alas, for the day, for the day of the Lord is at hand. It shall come as destruction from the almighty. You see this? It shall come as destruction from the almighty. What's interesting is no specific sins mentioned. It's ambiguous to this. They have sin. And this is coming from God. This judgment's from him. Is not the food cut off before your eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God? The seed shrivels under clods, storehouses are in shambles." Again, it's bad. It's bad. You haven't seen anything like this. It's bad. And then you look down at verse 19. Here it comes again. Oh Lord, to you I cry out. It's to you I cry out. For fire has devoured the open pastures and a flame has burned all the trees of the field. The beasts of the field also cry out to you. Everybody's crying out to you. For the water brooks are dried up and fire has devoured the open pastures. Devastation. God's judgment. The immediate judgment on Judah for her sin. And what was the call? What was the response? The proper response? It was to repent and fall on your face before God, call a sacred assembly, and you cry out to Him as you've never cried out to Him before. I submit to you that's where we are. That's where we are. The hand of God's judgment is evident. And it's not time for us as a church to just simply kick back and say, well, the government will take care of this problem. Science will take care of this problem. Man will take care of this problem. And right now what we need to do, and I hear this argument over and over and over, right now we're Romans 13 and we need to obey the authorities over us. As long as they permit what God commands, we obey. We obey. The minute they forbid what God commands, we say no. We say no. What happens in chapter 2 is a shift. Because he's dealt with the immediate judgment. Now, he broadens the horizon, because he's going to shift into a coming judgment. And the coming judgment that he's going to be dealing with in chapter 2, and then we get to chapter 3, God answers, and there's this interweaving of both the immediate and the coming. But the coming judgment that he talks about in chapter 2 is clear. We saw it in the book of Revelation. We saw what's coming. So chapter 2 starts this way. Blow the trumpet in Zion. A warning. Blow the trumpet. Blow the trumpet. It's time for war. And guess what? This is a heck of an army that's coming. Blow the trumpet in Zion. Sound an alarm in my holy mountain. Let the inhabitants of the land tremble. For the day of the Lord is coming. For it is at hand a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness like the morning clouds spread over the mountains. A people come great and strong. Guess who this people is? It's God's army. It's God's army. And you read down through this, the like of whom has never been nor will ever be any such after them, even for many successive generations. And then there's this description of this army. This is some kind of army. Now, I don't know all, understand all of what this would have been like to think in these terms in this day. But I can just imagine that what he's describing is an invincible army. What he's describing is an army that can fight. What he's describing is a well-organized army. An army that is on the march. An army that is coming. An army that is taking no names. An army that is led by one. And when we get to the book of Revelation, we know who that is, don't we? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. This army's coming. And if you look down at the end of this, in verse 11, it says the Lord gives voice before His army. See, this is His army He's talking about. For His camp is very great. For strong is the one who executes His word. For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible. Who can endure it? Who can stand against this when He comes? Now, again, remember, He's dealt with immediate judgment. This is future judgment. This is the end. Who can deal with it then? Who can stand? Malachi raises the same question in Malachi chapter 3 when we get to him. Who can endure it? You remember Revelation chapter 6. The seals, they're starting to be broken. And we start to see this devastation and all that's taking place. And then there's this question. Who can stand? I'll tell you who stands. The book of Revelation answers it this way. It's those in Christ. That's who stands. If you're not in Christ, you don't stand. You're destroyed. If you're in Christ, you stand. You stand. Then here comes the response again. It's the same pattern. Devastation, judgment, response. There's a call to something. And notice this call in verse 12. Now therefore, says the Lord, turn to me with all your heart, with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning, and so rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful. It's His character. His mercy, His graciousness flows out of His nature. You better turn to Him. And it better be full. It better be wholehearted. It better be full. You remember what, in Hosea, it was break up your fallow ground. It's time to seek God. That's what Hosea told us. Amos is going to tell us along the same lines. In fact, most of the prophets, they're going to tell us the same thing. You better turn. You better turn. But do not turn with just lip service only. You better turn with your whole heart. You better turn with all your being. You better put away everything and seek Him. Turn to me with all your heart. This is the problem. Our response over the last hundred years or so in this nation, by and large, has not been a wholehearted response. Our response has been sort of like, let's get God off our back and get back to our party. Get back to our good times and rock and roll. And then something bad happens, oh, let's just be pious enough, get him off our back. I'm telling you what, that has run its course. God is sick to death of that. He's had it with that. And if there is not a genuine turning to God right now and a genuine calling out to God right now from the heart, then he squishes this nation. But the hope is that He will pour out His Spirit again. Joel's about to mention it. If you turn, he says, I'm merciful. I'm merciful. Verse 14 says, who knows if He will turn and relent and leave a blessing behind Him. That's what we're asking. Then here comes this blow the trumpet in Zion. Here comes the call for a consecrated feast again, or fast, in verse 15. Consecrate a fast. Call a sacred assembly. This is a meeting for confession. This is a meeting for consecration. This is a genuine turning to God. Call this. Gather the people. Sanctify the congregation. Assemble the elders. Gather the children in nursing bathes. Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber and the bride from her dressing room. And then look down at verse 17, at the end of verse 17. This is what we say. Spare your people, O God. Spare your people. That's what we gather and cry out for. Spare your people. And do not give your heritage to reproach that the nation should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, where is their God? Does this not remind you of Moses? God says, I'm going to wipe these silly people out. And Moses says, hold on a second. What are the Egyptians going to say? They're going to say you couldn't save your people. Sort of reminds you of that, doesn't it? Oh God, you've got to move, you've got to spare us because we don't want these nations, we don't want these pagans around us saying, ha, where's your God? Show yourself. That's what we cry out. Show yourself. Then this third section, so he deals with the immediate, the judgment on Judah, then he deals with what's coming, this future judgment. And then God answers both of these. First, He answers the immediate judgment. And what He says, basically, at the end of chapter 2, all the way down to verse 27, is basically this, Judah, you will be restored. There's coming a restoration. There's coming a restoration. There's God's faithfulness to His covenant. There will be restoration. Look down at verse 22. And the tree bears its fruit, and the fig and the vine yield their strength. God's done marvelous things. Verse 25. So I will restore you to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, the chewing locust, and then you see at the end of verse 26, and my people shall never be put to shame, then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel. It's interesting he uses Israel here, because he's clearly talking to Judah. Israel may be gone by this point. 722, the Assyrians may have already wiped out the northern kingdom. I am the Lord your God, and there is no other. My people shall never be put to shame. You hear that? You see the offer, the extension of this mercy and grace? I'm your God. I'm your God. Then, verse 28, he answers this coming judgment, this end time judgment. and it shall come to pass afterward." Now what's interesting is Peter quotes this in Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost. And they're saying, well, these men are drunk. They're standing up here preaching and speaking in tongues and all this stuff is going on. These men are drunk. And Peter stands up and says, no, no, no, no, we're not drunk. You need to understand what you're seeing, what you're witnessing before your very eyes is the fulfillment of what Joel said was going to happen. And what's very interesting is Peter changes one word. You see, Joel says in verse 28, and it shall come to pass afterward. Peter changes that word afterward. But in the context of Joel, you see, I'm addressing the immediate judgment. If you turn to me, you'll be OK. And after this immediate judgment, now let's talk about the end time judgment. We could almost look at it this way, too. There could be application maybe this way. We've just been through this pandemic. We've just been through this year. And who knows what else is coming, right? We're seeing the collapse of Western civilization. We're living through the collapse of our culture. And we could look at it this way. After this, if you turn to me, after this immediate judgment, there's hope. There's hope for you. But you better turn. So Peter quotes this, and it's very clear that what Peter's saying is that what's happening is Joel's being fulfilled right here in front of your very eyes. There is the outpouring of the Spirit of God in full measure, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men dream dreams, your young men shall see visions, and all my menservants and maidservants, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. In other words, my Spirit's going to be poured out in full measure on everyone. There's going to be no distinction. If you turn to Christ, if you repent of your sins, and put your faith and trust in Christ, then the Spirit's going to be poured out on you, as Jude says, richly. It's going to be poured out on you. This is New Covenant. This is the New Covenant. And it's going to be poured out on all believers, not just few like in the old covenant. It's going to be poured out. There's going to be no distinction here. There's not going to be a special priestly class that gets the Spirit. And then there's just a bunch of average Christians who maybe every once in a while tap into the Spirit. You have the same Spirit I have. We have the same Holy Spirit that hovered over the waters at creation. We have the same Holy Spirit that moved in these prophets. We have the same Holy Spirit that moved in the apostles. We have the same Holy Spirit The Spirit of God has been there throughout. That power, that's Pentecostal power. And it was poured out in full measure in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost. Now why is he mentioning this pouring out of the Spirit? It's because without the pouring out of the Spirit, and without the work of the Holy Spirit, we don't stand. We don't have a chance. We don't have a chance. So he's poured out. He's poured out on all believers. And then he talks about in verse 32, and it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord, Paul uses this in Romans 10. We've looked at that passage before who and whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be what saved. All you have to do is call out to him. He'll save you. He'll save you. He is God. He is holy. He is righteous. And he judges sin. But in the midst of all that, if you'll turn and call out, he'll save you. and he'll pour out his spirit on you. That's what he'll do. And then he talks about for in Mount Zion in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance as the Lord has said among the remnant whom calls out. The remnant. Catch that language. Among the remnant whom the Lord calls. So immediate judgment on Judah, this judgment that's coming This judgment that's coming. He continues in chapter 3 addressing this coming judgment. And he talks about it in the first part of chapter 3. For behold those days, and at that time I will bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem. I will also gather all nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. This is the valley of decision that Joel mentioned later. He'll mention the valley of Jehoshaphat again. You know what he's describing? He's describing what we saw at the end of the book of Revelation. When God gathered the nations together. You remember the beast, the false prophet, the Antichrist? You remember those rebellions that happened at the very end? You remember that calling? Gather them together! Bring them together! Who's coming? He's riding a white horse. And you know what? He's got that army of chapter 2 with him. And what we read in that portion of the book of Revelation is that when he comes, he totally destroys. the beast. He totally destroys the Antichrist. He totally destroys evil. It's done away with. That's who's coming. How do you stand against that? You see the question comes up again, doesn't it? Well, you only stand if you're on his side. And how am I on his side? In Christ, in Christ alone. He mentions these nations Verse four, and again, what's interesting is no mention of Assyria, no mention of Babylon. There's an interesting statement in verse five, because you have taken my silver and my gold and have carried into your temples my prized possessions. If you remember Daniel, you remember Nebuchadnezzar took the things out of them. You remember he did that? This could be a reference to Babylon. It was Belshazzar, his son, who brought them out and treated them like common. And there was the writing on the wall. The writing on the wall said, you're done. You're done. And then you look at the end of verse 8. All of this because for the Lord has spoken. He's spoken. And then verse 9, Proclaim this among the nations. Prepare for 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 and come. All you nations, this is God assembling the nations and saying, come. You want war? I'm going to give you war. And He totally destroys them. Totally defeats evil. And again, we see this at the end in the book of Revelation. In verse 13, there's something interesting where he says, put in the sickle for the harvest is ripe. Come go down for the wine press is full. The vats overflow for their wickedness is great. You remember Revelation 14, that picture of hell when the angels told, put your sickle in and then I want you to tread the wine presses. And you remember how deep the blood was and what was going on. This is language of that kind of judgment. This is end time judgment here. It's coming. The wine press is full. Multitudes, verse 14, multitudes in the valley of decision. For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. And look down at the end of verse 16, but the Lord will be a shelter for his people. You see this over and over. Just when you think, my gosh, who could say? There's mercy. You see, he'll be a shelter for his people and the strength of the children of Israel. So you shall know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain, then Jerusalem shall be holy and no alien shall ever pass through her again. You remember Revelation? You remember the scene of the new heavens, the new earth, Jerusalem, the new Jerusalem? There's no aliens there. The only ones who are there are those who are in Christ. The only ones there are God's covenant people. And who was outside? The unbelievers. You see, this is the language of this end. This end. And then beginning in verse 18, he sort of weaves in and out of the immediate and the coming. And he ends the book this way in verse 20. But Judah shall abide forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. For I will acquit them of the guilt of bloodshed, whom I have not acquitted. For the Lord dwells in Zion. You remember how the book of Revelation ends? Who's in heaven? What's the joy of heaven? Who do we see face to face? You see, that's where this ends. The immediate judgment? God's holy. God's not winking at sin. He's judging sin. He's judging sin in this nation. He's judging sin in this world right now. And you better turn, or you won't stand it. You won't be able to make it through it. There's coming a day of judgment. There's coming a day of judgment in the end. When it's final. It's complete. And if you're not in Christ, you don't make it. You don't make it. And what's in store for us as His covenant people, this mercy and grace, this new heaven, new earth, new Jerusalem, being with Him forever, because He dwells in Zion, That's where he dwells. So what are the two rules of engagement that we can take away from Joel in these three sections? Well, remember the pattern here. Destruction, judgment, both immediate and future, right? And then what happens? Crying out. crying out, call the sacred assembly, turn to God, turn with your whole heart. That's the response. It's to repent and turn with your whole heart. So what are the two clear rules of engagement as we engage with the post-Christian world, as a post-Christian culture? One, we need to be crystal clear. This is a judgment from God. We don't need to be ambiguous about that. We don't need to back up from that. We don't need to shy away from that. We don't need to say, well, you know, viruses are natural. Yeah, they are. But who created? Who created everything that exists? It's God. What does God have at his disposal? Everything within his creation. Even though it's a fallen world, does he have it still at his disposal? Yes, he does. And we need to be crystal clear that what you are facing as a culture is not some evolutionary advancement to a utopian society where we are becoming smart and science is winning the day and we're redefining everything from what it is to be human to what it is to live on this earth and it's great utopia and it's moving and it's going and it's going to reach the zenith and we're going to be a happy and prosperous people. That's garbage. That's garbage. We're not in an evolutionary advancement for the good. We are in the judgment of God for our sin. And we need to be crystal clear about that when we engage this post-Christian culture. Crystal clear. This is judgment. It's underway. And you know what? We need to be very clear that there's more to come. There's more coming. There's more coming. But then, in the response, that's the first rules of engagement. Clear about what God says. Clear about what the Word of God says in this judgment. But the second thing is we need to also be crystal clear about the response to this. And the response to this is what Joel is saying in the calling of a sacred assembly, the turning with a whole heart, the calling out to God, crying out to Him. Let's look at it on two levels. On the first level for the believer, for the Christian, what is it we better be doing now? We better be calling out like we've never called out before. We better be turning like we've never turned before. We need to look and take a look in an inventory of our lives and the way we're living our lives and where we're putting our values and where we're putting our love and affection and there needs to be an inventory taking in which we understand our first allegiance is to the kingdom of God. The second level is for the unbeliever. What do we call the unbeliever to? What's the proper response of the unbeliever? It's to turn from your sins and put your faith and trust in Christ alone. That's it. There's no hope. We need to be crystal clear about the gospel. And what do we see at every turn in Joel? What do we see? Devastation, response. And then what do we see God saying and talking about? Mercy, mercy. If you turn, I'll be merciful to you. Why? Because that's who I am. But if you don't turn, if you don't turn, you will face my wrath for all eternity in a place called hell. Why? Because that's who I am. away with this pagan superstition call for a day of prayer. Pray every day. Pray every day. And what do you pray every day? As His people, we call out to Him. And we say to Him, spare us, have mercy on us. And in praying that, you better be praying for your lost friends and relatives. And you better be praying they turn to Christ. I'm no Joel, I'm no prophet. But there is every reason to sense that a door is closing. And the new one is going to be dried up until He pours His Spirit out again. You better turn today. You better turn today. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Joel.