You recall, I trust, that some time ago, we began to consider the book of Joel. Too long ago, I'm afraid, and we took too long a break, and now it's time to come back. Tonight, we turn again to Joel's prophecy. We read together chapter 2 and the text for tonight, verses 18 through 27 of Joel chapter 2. As I return to this book, I was reminded again of how weighty Old Testament prophecy is and how sometimes hard to understand, but yet what a sweet message. And I hope and pray that is what you will find as well tonight by the grace of God. We read together the entire chapter of Joel 2 and considering specifically verses 18 through 27. Hear now the Word of God. Blow the trumpet in Zion, sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming. It is close at hand, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like dawn spreading across the mountains, a large and mighty army comes, such as never was of old, nor ever will be in ages to come. Before them fire devours, behind them a flame blazes. Before them, the land is like the Garden of Eden, behind them a desert waste. Nothing escapes them. They have the appearance of horses. They gallop along like cavalry. With a noise like that of chariots, they leap over the mountaintops like a crackling fire consuming stubble, like a mighty army drawn up for battle. At the sight of them, nations are in anguish. Every face turns pale. They charge like warriors. They scale walls like soldiers. They all march in line, not swerving from their course. They do not jostle each other. Each marches straight ahead. They plunge through defenses without breaking ranks. They rush upon the city. They run along the wall. They climb into the houses like thieves. They enter through the windows. Before them, the earth shakes. The sky trembles. The sun and moon are darkened and the stars no longer shine. The Lord thunders at the head of His army. His forces are beyond number and mighty are those who obey His command. The day of the Lord is great. It is dreadful. Who can endure it? Even now, declares the Lord, return to Me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. And He relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing, grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God. Below the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly, gather the people, consecrate the assembly, bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber. Let the priests who minister before the Lord Weep between the temple porch and the altar. Let them say, Spare your people, O Lord. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, Where is their God? Then the Lord will be jealous for his land and take pity on his people. The Lord will reply to them, I am sending you grain, new wine, and oil, enough to satisfy you fully. Never again will I make you an object of scorn to the nations. I will drive the northern army far from you, pushing it into a parched and barren land, with its front columns going into the eastern sea and those in the rear into the western sea, and its stench will go up, its smell will rise. Surely he has done great things. Be not afraid, O land. Be glad and rejoice. Surely the Lord has done great things. Be not afraid, O wild animals, for the open pastures are becoming green. The trees are bearing their fruit. The fig tree and the vine yield their riches. Be glad, O people of Zion. Rejoice in the Lord your God, for He has given you the autumn rains in righteousness. He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains as before. The threshing floors will be filled with grain. The vats will overflow with new wine and oil. I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten, the great locusts and the young locusts, the other locusts and the locusts swarm, my great army that I sent among you. You will have plenty to eat until you are full and you will praise the name of the Lord your God who has worked wonders for you. Never again will my people be shamed. Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the Lord your God and that there is no other. Never again will my people be shamed. And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the survivors whom the Lord calls. Beloved of our Lord Jesus Christ, we all, I'm sure, have experienced restored relationships. You know, relationships which have been broken and then were mended again. Sometimes, as boys and girls, we have had fights with our best friends. Or as young people, we have had major disagreements with our siblings or our parents or any sort of difficulty which has led to a separation for a time. And then the difference was dealt with and restoration, the relationship was restored. Yet often, the relationship isn't completely restored. It's never quite as good as it was before, or at least it takes a long time to get it back to where it was before. And that may be because the friction or the problem is kept in the back of our minds, and maybe we don't quite trust the one we had the problem with as much as we did before. We talk about forgiving and forgetting, but that's not always so easy. And that's when we are called to remember how our God operates, how He deals with repentant sinners. As we return to our consideration of Joel's prophecy, we remember, first of all, the general theme of this book. The call to prepare for the coming day of the Lord. That was Joel's focus. The judgment day. The coming day of the Lord. Joel, remember, ministered to the southern kingdom of Judah. And he comes with a warning, a warning which could be understood from a very real event. A locust plague. As I said when we first began this study, I believe Joel is reminding the people about a real locust invasion, maybe two or three or four that came one right after the other, completely destroying vegetation, not even giving it an opportunity to grow again, but it's talking about a real invasion which the people had suffered. And then beginning in chapter 2, he warns them about judgment, further judgment that was still coming, and he uses the locust invasion which they had suffered, and he uses the details of that invasion which were all too fresh yet in their minds to point out just how terrible the coming judgment would be, at least upon some. The judgment, again, is the day of judgment when Christ comes again to judge the living and the dead. And as Joel makes clear in the first part of chapter 2, that day would have an unmistakable character in one way in the sense that no one will be able to escape it. Just as when locusts invade a territory and they leave nothing untouched, they don't pick and choose what they will destroy, they simply destroy everything in their path in the same way. No one will be exempt from the final judgment. No one will be able to earn their way out of it, or buy their way out of it, or hide their way out of it. All will either stand or fall in the judgment, but all will face the judge. There is one way and only one way to stand in the judgment, and that is to stand on the solid rock, Jesus Christ, through repentance and faith in Him. Notice again what Joel says in chapter 2, verses 12 and 13. Even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning, rend your heart and not your garments, return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and He relents from sending calamity. You see, the destruction, the devastation which they had endured was punishment for their disobedience. But notice the grace of God. He calls them to repentance. And true repentance is inward. Rend your heart, not just your garments. Don't just put on the sackcloth and sprinkle some ashes on your head. Rend, tear your heart. It involves a heart transformation through the power of the Holy Spirit which is then demonstrated outwardly in life. You see, the most anguishing and devastating part of the locust invasion was the fact that it was a sign of the punishment of the covenant. And it was a sign that fellowship with God had been broken off. But again, through this call to repentance, there was hope as the people were given that call. And now in the text before us, the kingdom of Judah and we are given a word of comfort as we consider this word of God, the Lord responds mercifully to genuine repentance. You see, it's not an iffy sort of situation. It's not a maybe situation. If you repent, then maybe God will be merciful. The Lord responds mercifully to genuine repentance. And His merciful response is first of all heard in the promise of His mercy. Secondly, it's experienced in the content of His mercy. And finally, it is reflected in the response to His mercy. Verse 18 of the text says once again, Then the Lord will be jealous for His land and take pity on His people. Beloved, this is really the turning point of Joel's prophecy. Again, chapter 1 through verse 11 of chapter 2 talked about that locust invasion with all of its devastation, destruction, and ruin which pointed forward to the day of the Lord and the final judgment which will bring suffering unimaginable for those who reject Jesus. They will not be able to escape just as one cannot escape a locust invasion. Those who reject God will be rejected by Him for eternity. But then in chapter 2, verses 12-17, as we've already begun to see, the Lord through His prophet issues that call to repentance, and then there is a transition, you see, from judgment to restoration. And now in verse 18, we hear His promise of mercy toward those who repent. And this is consistent with what the Lord says in another place. In 2 Chronicles 7, verse 14, the Lord says, If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now repentance does not earn us forgiveness. It doesn't earn that for us. But repentance is the means God uses to restore His people, to bring them back into fellowship with Him. Repentance is the means God uses to grant us the forgiveness earned for us by Christ. Verse 18 talks about the Lord's jealousy and taking pity on His people. Now, mercy, I've said this before, mercy presupposes misery. And boys and girls, that means that where mercy is needed, misery already exists. If you fall off your bike and you scrape your knee up really bad and it's bleeding really bad, Your mom has mercy on you. She pities you. She has mercy on you. And she works to take away the pain to help to clean up that which has been damaged. If she would leave you alone, then she would not be merciful. But where mercy is needed, misery already exists. And God has pity on His own who suffer misery. It's no doubt that Joel's intended audience suffered, was miserable. They had suffered all of the effects of the locust invasion and the drought. They suffered drastically, physically speaking. But also, in chapter 1, verse 13, the Scripture says, the grain offerings and drink offerings were withheld from the house of God, which was a sign that fellowship with God had been cut off. They were without God, which pointed to the eternal separation of the wicked from God. It was so bad that as chapter 2, verse 17 says, they were an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. And that means the nations laughed at them. And when the wicked laugh at God's people, they are really laughing at God as if to say their God could part the Red Sea, He could make the walls of Jericho fall, He did all kinds of wondrous acts, but when it came down to it, when the rubber hit the road, He couldn't keep His own people faithful to Him. He didn't have the power or the love to save His own people. Congregation, we need to remember that our sin, which is public, which is seen by the world, we're not talking about private sin, secret sin that we know that God sees. But the sin that we commit, which is public to the world, provides an opportunity for them to scorn and to laugh at God. As if to say, if that's what they are like, if that's what God's people are like, then their God must not be so great. Sin is a miserable thing which brings only misery and complete separation from God. But God has pity on His people and shows favor to them. Why? Because He is jealous for His own possession. Then the Lord will be jealous for His land. Remember Canaan. The land of Canaan was the covenantal inheritance of God's people. It was the land at one time flowing with milk and honey, but now it was just a wasteland. But here the Lord promises to remember His covenant with His people. You see, He had punished them for disobedience. He promised that if they disobeyed, He would withhold the rain and the dew. We find that recorded in Leviticus 26 and in Deuteronomy 28. As well in Deuteronomy 28, verse 38, Moses said that locusts eating up all the crops would be a sign of the curse for disobedience. But the Lord is jealous for His own possession, for His own glory, for His land, for His people. You see, in our language, when we speak of jealousy, it's not considered to be a noble quality, is it? It's not something that is considered to be a good thing. For you and me, jealousy has the idea of envy, wanting what someone else has and wanting them not to have it. But as Exodus 20, verse 4 says, For I, the Lord, am a jealous God. You see, this jealousy is something that is not bad at all. It is to be a very good quality. With God, here it means that He has an earnest desire. for that which is His. First of all, He is jealous for His own glory. Isaiah 42, verse 8 says, I am the Lord, that is My name. I will not give My glory to another or My praise to idols. Of course, Exodus 20, verse 4 is the second commandment. It fits right along with Isaiah 42. You shall have no other gods before Me. they shall not be given the glory that truly belongs to Me. You see, the Lord's jealousy is His passionate loyalty toward what is His. A loyalty which prompts Him to protect that which is His. And that's why He had punished His people in the first place, because they turned away from Him to other gods. They had attacked and spurned His glory. Yet you see, beloved, He is also jealous for His people. which is why He even bothers to call them to repentance and takes pity on them and chooses to restore them in the first place. Just as He will not share His glory with idols, God is not willing to share His people with idols and false gods. He is not willing to share the glory that His people owe to Him with idols as well. It's for our protection, you see. He is not willing to share us with idols that which would destroy us. And you see, this is the kind of jealousy that a husband is to have for his wife and a wife is to have for her husband. You see, a husband is not willing to share his wife with another man. He is jealous for her and her devotion only for him because she belongs to her husband and for the sake of the glory of that marriage relationship. But what a beautiful promise here of God's mercy. He will not give His people what they deserve, which is eternal separation, but He will restore them to Himself. And in the text for tonight, He promises in large part physical restoration. And in the next section, which we also read, verses 22 to 32, the end of the chapter, He promises spiritual restoration through the pouring out of His Holy Spirit, which took place on Pentecost. And beloved, we know that God announced His restoration of His people already in the Garden of Eden when He said, that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the seed of the serpent. But then in the second place, notice the content of His mercy which His people would experience. The content that they would experience. Now this is spread throughout verses 19-27, and we don't have time to do justice to all that is written there. Verse 19 begins, The Lord will reply to them which is merciful in and of itself that God would even give His ear to them. the Lord will reply to them. And then, after that introductory statement, He gives a beautiful salvation speech. Which, to summarize, promises complete restoration of both the land and their relationship with Him. If we were to chop up this section, we see here that in these verses, Joel announces relief from distress for God's people. He announces that the devastator would be destroyed. He announces that God will renew His covenant with His people. And he announces that the people will worship God and acknowledge that God is with them right where He belongs. Now in verse 17, the verse before our text, the priests on behalf of the people prayed for two things. They prayed to spare the people, be merciful to them. And they prayed to uphold the people before the nations. Do not make them an object of scorn and a byword. And in this salvation speech, we notice that these are the things that God promises. First, as I said, He promises relief from the distress and the devastation which they had suffered. Again, verse 19, after the introduction. I am sending you grain, new wine and oil, enough to satisfy you fully. Never again will I make you an object of scorn to the nations. Then dropping to verse 22, Be not afraid, O wild animals, for the open pastures are becoming green, the trees are bearing their fruit, The fig tree and the vine tree yield their riches. And then 24 through the beginning of 26, the threshing floors will be filled with grain. The vats will overflow with new wine and oil. I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten, the great locusts and the young locusts, the other locusts and the locusts swarm, my great army that I sent among you. You will have plenty to eat until you are full. All that had been taken away from them, physically speaking, grain, new wine and oil, which were really their staple crops. Not only their food, but materials for medicine purposes, as well that which they needed to worship God. All these things would be restored, and not just a little. They would be fully satisfied. They would go from emptiness to overflowing. And just as the locust invasion pointed to greater judgment to come, this physical restoration pointed to greater blessing to come. Again, verse 28, that God would pour out His Spirit on all people. And all of this abundance that would be restored, grain, new wine, and oil, points to the heavenly banquet, that great wedding feast Christ speaks of in His parables, which all believers are to look forward to. You see, those who offend God will starve forever. But those who trust in Him will never hunger and thirst again. Another promise was that the devastator would be destroyed. Notice verses 20 and 21. I will drive the northern army far from you, pushing it into a parched and barren land with its front columns going into the eastern sea and those in the rear into the western sea, and its stench will go up, its smell will rise. Surely He has done great things. Be not afraid, O land, be glad and rejoice. Surely the Lord has done great things. Now, of course, this could, as some say, be talking about some foreign army, but again, because Joel's prophecy is so general, we don't know the time of his prophecy. We don't know who was reigning in Judah. We don't know who the world powers were at this time. It is so general. I believe, again, that Joel is referring to the locusts, especially talking about the stench, which could be figurative. But there are reports about locust storms being blown into the sea and piles of dead locusts washing up on shore, piling up four to five feet high with an odor so bad that you cannot stand it. But also the rest of the language here is interesting. You may recall that we said a few months ago that locusts travel very orderly, it is reported. Like a well-trained army. These insects stay in their rows or in their columns and when they travel through a field, they blanket the field and they move together in such a progression that it looks like the whole field is moving. If there's an obstacle in their way, they don't go around it. They go up and over it or through it. Notice again, chapter 2, verses 7 and 8. They charge like warriors. They scale walls like soldiers. They all march in line, not swerving from their course. They do not jostle each other. Each march is straight ahead. They plunge through defenses without breaking ranks. But here in verse 20, we're told that they will be scattered to the different directions of the compass. Their orderliness will be all confused, all messed up. This points to rapid and total destruction. As well as the text says, not only will some be drowned in the sea, but some will be driven into a parched and barren land. Locusts need vegetation and foliage to support them, to sustain them. Without it, they will die. Here we're told there would be none, and therefore they would starve. the enemy would be removed completely, never again to disturb God's people. When Jesus Christ comes again to judge the living and the dead, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, then the end will come when He hands over the kingdom to God the Father after He has destroyed all dominion, authority, and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. Now in Joel's prophecy, we are told that earlier it was the Lord who sent this army against His people. This devastator was the tool in the hand of God to punish His people. But now He becomes the defender and the redeemer of His repentant people. Sometimes, indeed, He drives His people into a corner to remind us just how necessary He is for us. Yet the content of His mercy He also includes covenantal renewal. In many respects, all that we've said so far at this point is talking about covenantal renewal. But remember, God's withholding of the rain and the dew was understood as a covenant sanction or punishment for disobedience. Whereas sending it fresh once again was a sign of blessing and a right relationship between His people and God. Again, as we find it recorded in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 11. And notice verse 23. Be glad, O people of Zion, rejoice in the Lord your God, for He has given you the autumn rains in righteousness. He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before. You see, water is a symbol of life, because it's necessary for life. The autumn rains, also called early rains, came at the beginning of the growth process. These rains fell at planting time and promoted the germination and the growth of the seeds. The spring rains, also known as ladder rains, came right before the harvest time and brought the crop to maturity. So here we have beginning and completion pointing to complete covenant renewal. And God's promise of restoration is so sure, so certain, that Joel speaks of it as if it had already happened. for He has given you the autumn rains in righteousness. He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains as before. Beloved, the content of the Lord's mercy which Joel speaks of here is a beautiful picture of God's way with all of His people. Relief from distress. Destruction of the Devastator. And complete covenant renewal. Jesus Christ, as we have considered specifically in our celebration of His death and resurrection has conquered the enemy. Satan has been defeated and it's only a matter of time until along with all of His wicked hosts and those who reject Christ that He will be cast away forever. And because of His perfect righteousness and His victory, those for whom He died have been purchased, as we said this morning, and delivered from eternal misery and given complete relief in Jesus Christ who is the way, the truth, and the life. Beloved, He is a living water who will never allow His own to thirst again. Believers are restored completely with God the Father according to His mercy and grace. For those who repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, theirs is the assurance that their sins, as it were, are blown far out to sea. Never ever to be considered again. And what is to be our response? What is to be our response to God's merciful response? God's mercy, you see, is to be reflected in our response to Him. Verses 26 and 27 tell us, you will have plenty to eat until you are full and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you. Never again will my people be shamed. Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the Lord your God, and that there is no other. Never again will my people be shamed. There are only two responses possible to God's work of creation and His work in creation. And Paul says the wicked suppress the truth by their wickedness and exchange the truth of God for the lie. But Joel makes it clear how God's people, those born again and who repent of their sins, how they respond to God's grace and His work. And you will praise the Lord your God. God's mercy and grace, without fail, without fail, brings praise and worship from those who are illumined by the Holy Spirit to recognize God's hand of blessing. Beloved, how can we not be filled with praise to God when we realize what we truly deserve, what it is that we can earn, when we understand that the only thing that we could contribute to our salvation is the sin that needed to be atoned for, and then compare that to what God has given to us and what Christ has earned for us? How can we not be filled with praise? As one commentator said, He fell. End of quote. You see, Jesus Christ earns the means by which we even desire to be forgiven. That's new birth. Apart from new birth, we don't even want to be forgiven. And as well, He earns that very forgiveness. He earns that restoration. How can we not be filled with praise to God when we enjoy that right relationship with Him once again? And only when we understand our eternal benefits in Christ, only then will we also see our daily bread and our daily blessings even reign as blessings from God's hand. We sing, feed me till I want no more. Now that phrase could be easily understood, especially by the boys and girls who say, I want this or I want that. You see, that phrase is not saying, feed me until I don't desire anymore. Feed me until I don't want anymore. But it's saying, feed me so that I am never in want anymore. Feed me so that I am filled and never more empty. That's God's promise. That His people shall never more be lacking. And that's because He is in the midst of, He lives with His people from now on. When God does what He promises, beloved, that is proof that He is with His people. And no matter what the world says, no matter how much the wicked scorn you and me, the church and our God, as it says in both verses 26 and 27, never again will my people be shamed. Never again. Instead, as Revelation 20 verse 6 says, blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years. Those who do not heed the call to repent of their sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ will be condemned by God forever. And for them, the day of the Lord will be a horror as they will stand against Christ only to be cast into outer darkness and destroyed forever. But those who are brought to faith and repentance by the grace of God will stand firm with Christ who will usher them into their eternal home. That's why we worship today. That's why we worship every day. And beloved, what a comfort that God accepts our worship. Even today, as imperfect as it may be. But may we look forward with all anticipation to that promised day when, as the hymn says, when I see thee as thou art, then I'll praise thee as I ought. God's merciful response to the repentance of His people. Amen. Shall we pray? Father, what a comfort this word is. For we know that in this life, whether we are students asking our teachers or children asking our parents or workers asking our employers, we might ask questions, we might ask for things, but we never know what the answer will be. Yet, Father, we have the assurance that for those who repent of their sins and confess them before You, You will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And we will enjoy forever a restored relationship with our Heavenly Father for Jesus' sake. And we thank You, O Lord, that we enjoy that already in part today. Oh, we have the fullness of it in principle. But we will enjoy the completeness of it. One day in glory. May we anxiously look forward to that day when Jesus Christ comes again to put away His enemies forever. To take His people home for good. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.