Well, when you're singing good enough on the next to the last verse that the song leader thinks it has to be the last verse for them to be singing that good, that's a good night, so that's good. Amen. Turn with me this evening, if you would, again to the prophecy of Joel. We're, I don't know, we may be at 30,000 feet as well doing a survey of the minor prophets here these Sabbath evenings. But I want us to visit these preachers of the Old Testament again. They spanned, as we've seen in our first few studies, many centuries. Joel, among the earliest of the prophets, the ninth century BC, every indication. So hundreds of years before, ultimately, the captivities, and even more hundreds before the coming of Christ. And as we see tonight, some of the fulfillment of the words that were uttered. But Joel chapter 2, and I just want to break into the chapter from verse 21 and read down to the end of the chapter together. So Joel 2 and verse 21. Fear not, O land. Be glad and rejoice, for the Lord will do great things. Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness do spring. For the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength. Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God. For he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain and the latter rain in the first month. And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fat shall overflow with wine and oil. And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten. the canker worm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer worm, my great army which I sent among you. And you shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that he hath dealt wondrously with you, and my people shall never be ashamed. And you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else, and my people shall never be ashamed. and it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My Spirit. And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord come. and it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered. For in Mount Zion in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call. Well, amen. We again trust the Lord to add his own blessing to the public reading of his inspired word. Let's bow our heads together. Our Heavenly Father, tonight we come with hearts that are moved at the singing of your praise, and we ask that you might stir up even greater praise within us, that we might walk through this week, that in our hearts, in our homes, in our places of occupation, that the joy of the Lord might be our strength, even in troubled times. And so, Lord, grant us something of help toward that tonight, as we come to this familiar, and yet in some ways difficult, portion of Your Word. And we commit these things to You, in Jesus' worthy name. Amen. Amen. Last week when we came first to the prophet Joel, I just suggested three very simple and general thoughts to you from the prophecy. That God is long-suffering, that God intervenes, and that repentance and restoration are possible. Again, as we go through all the prophets, and it will be remarkable to consider something as we, perhaps along the way, mark a date and think of times that have come and gone in between the prophets. I say it will be remarkable to see the times in which Israel was in deep sin, when repentance was evident, and then blessing followed, as we see this evening. And then to consider something of the dangers of the long suffering when God's judgment, when those interventions as we've suggested are seemingly delayed. But that repentance and restoration are possible. What we've read here tonight in the second chapter, we really shared those thoughts from chapter one. is an evidence of, well, really all of these things we suggested last time. But what we've read this evening is a part of Joel's prophecy that is a part, and we should be mindful that while the prophets seemingly preached doom and gloom, they were preachers of warning to an apostate nation, there were glimmers of hope, there was the setting forth of blessing that came with these preachers of righteousness. And what we've read this evening is part of Joel's prophecy of blessing. Now again, the background to the prophecy of Joel is a plague of locusts that have overwhelmed the nation. You see the cycle of the insect in all of its various forms. It has devastated the land. There's seemingly nothing left. It said in front of them, we read, it's like the Garden of Eden, and behind them, total desolation. Well, what we've read this evening, Joel has a word of promise blessing. And one thing we will seek to demonstrate here is that there's a part of the blessing that Jewel speaks of that is applicable that was to be experienced by those very people that had experienced the plague of locusts. God was gonna visit them again. The things the locusts had eaten, we talked a little bit ahead of ourselves into chapter two last week with that text that we read tonight of God restoring the years that the locusts had eaten. So there's a blessing that the people are given and promised that's gonna apply directly to them. And then we see that there's greater blessing that Joel prophesies to these people and to those, including ourselves, that will come after the blessings that are still to come. So I want to look this evening, I told Derek on the way in the door this evening, I'm going to shamelessly, well, I won't be plagiarizing now that I announce it. You know, when you have a footnote that's accurately used, it's not plagiarism, it's citation. So write Mike Barrett a thank you note if you appreciate some of the thoughts this evening. But I want to look tonight from the verses that we've read at the blessing that is promised here in Joel, but we're going to call these under two headings, the now blessing and the after. Because if you look in verse 21, or excuse me, verse 23, the promise of blessing starts in that 21st verse. But in verse 23, when the Lord speaks of giving this rain or this blessing, he speaks of rain, former rain moderately, the former rain and the latter rain is actually a terminology of righteous rain in here. Rain that comes when it's supposed to, it conforms to the standard that was normal for rain. But if you look at the end of verse 23, you'll notice that in the King James Bible, we have an italicized word, month. It says the latter rain in the first month. And the suggestion here is if we omit that, that we should just let this read at the first. Rain was to be the harbinger of all the blessings, even of the land that are part of that now blessing. So there's a blessing that Joel's speaking of that's gonna be at the first, but then if you go to verse 28, he says, and it shall come to pass afterward. So there's an afterward blessing and the first blessing that Joel has in view. We'll come to see in a little bit that that after-blessing itself has some divisions underneath it. But the first blessing that Joel gives is clearly to these people that have experienced the locust plague. The very items, the very parts of the produce, the land, the crops, the fruit of the trees, it's all described as returning to them. And so there's blessing that is given to the people. And we'll just, in some ways, hurriedly go through this now blessing. But if you read here, the Lord says to them, fear not, O land. Be glad and rejoice, for the Lord will do great things. And then it follows on, ye beasts of the field, the pastures of the wilderness, the trees, the vines. There's a blessing that is coming upon the people that is going to make The locust plague, all the devastation of that plague fade into the distance. It's gonna be a blessing of such a nature that that plague will be forgotten. That God will move in such a way as he will restore the years the locusts have eaten. Now last week we applied that text in more of a spiritual way. And I think it's a text worthy of that. there's been chastening, where there has been loss that is due to sin, God is able to restore. God is able to restore even more than was lost. And I think it's a great gospel truth. But here, the very literal senses of that blessing are put before the people. And so the now blessing includes first a return to prosperity. Now for Israel, and if we know our Pentateuch, there were promises that were given to the people as they dwelt in the land that were very tangible promises of blessing. Now we have to always have to be careful When we start looking at circumstances, we hasten to a very educational text in the New Testament where the disciples point out the man born blind and ask the Lord who sinned, him or his parents. Not every bad circumstance or every good circumstance is a direct indication of God's displeasure or his pleasure. So we have to be careful in those things, particularly here. But in the Old Testament, there were aspects of Israel's life in the land that were directly connected to their obedience or their disobedience. If they walked in obedience, no enemy could stand before them. A handful of them puts thousands to flight. The land would yield her increase. These were part of God's promises to them. The plague of locust, the devastation that came from that, were directly due to the people's sin. And the prophet brings that to them. So here, this prosperity that is in front of them, this blessing for now, the now blessing that the prophet is preaching, is something that they will experience by the grace of God. It's gonna send forth, if you look in verse 26, you shall eat in plenty and be satisfied. What's the result of that gonna be? You will praise the name of the Lord your God. So not only will they have a return to prosperity, but it's gonna issue in expressions of praise. And again, we can take this in the literal sense as Israel and in the spiritual sense. When God prospers us, an inevitable result of that will be praise. It's gonna flow forth from those who recognize their recipients of grace. But then, in verse 27, in some ways, the greatest of these tangible now blessings is an enjoyment of the presence of God. Ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else. And my people shall never be ashamed. You know, it's an interesting turn of phrase. It's not put here exactly like in other places. But you can look in the Old Testament scriptures in particular. times in which God was going to intervene. We've talked about the day of the Lord as a theme, a point of clear intervention. But in so many of those occasions, it would be said both of Israel, of God's people, and also at times of the enemy, they will know that I'm the Lord. God's going to move in such a way there's no question, there's no inability to understand. He is God. And Joel here is preaching, promising to this people that if this return to prosperity, the expressions of praise that will flow forth from that are going to issue in an enjoyment of God's presence, of knowing that He's our God and we're His people. Verse 21 to verse 27, I say, are the now blessings. Where do these blessings come from? What is it that moves the hand of God? Well, we haven't read the whole chapter, but if you back up with me, look at verse 12, from verse 12 to verse 14. Therefore also now saith the Lord, Turn ye even to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning. And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God. For He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth Him of the evil." Now we've dealt with phrases like this before, but since it's here, let's pause. Evil, at times what's translated in our English Bible as evil, is not always a moral thing. Here, and in many other contexts, it has the idea of calamity, of bad circumstances. Well, the calamity of the locust plague, that God will turn from that. And if you see here, and of course this isn't a place for some of our deep theology lessons, but repentance ascribed to Him, It doesn't mark change in Him. If you look in here, what party is changing here? Israel has been in sin, walking away from her God. God has graciously chastened them to get their attention, to wake them up, to call them back to Himself. And as they repent, repentance is a change of direction on their part. And here, again, these things from our perspective, God's turned back from the calamity. But notice here, this is really a very marked example, description of biblical gospel penitence. It shows that it is a matter of the heart. It's not a tradition that we pursue, but the rending of garments in the Old Testament was an outward symbol of repentance. To make a tear in the garment, to demonstrate the brokenness of spirit, the brokenness of heart. But Israel, and we in so many ways like them, become expert at going through the outward accompanying features of repentance and faith. We can externalize the gospel, externalize our religion, and miss the root of the matter. And there are occasions where the Lord, through His prophets, will use striking language. We're going to see in Amos as we come to him shortly in our survey. God says at one point, I hate your feast days. He had given them the feasts. They were full of images of Christ. But Israel had so lost contact with Christ in the images, in the feasts, that God said, I hate these days. You don't have any idea of what the pictures are all about. And so this call for repentance, which obviously in Joel's case is heeded by the people, he says, rend your heart, not your garments. Rend your heart. Forget about the outward sign. Just have the real thing. And I wonder how often in our context, We're not big on them. We're not in principle opposed to them, we might say, but we're not big on altar calls and high-pressure invitations to get a visible decision or result at the end of a meeting or so forth. But whether it would be in multiplied responses to altar calls, or without those multiple expressions to the people in power, to whom it may concern people, that I'm turning over a new leaf, I'm doing a new thing, I've made this decision, the slate's clean now. Well, we may not be rending our garments, but we have religious hoops that we invent and we jump through. And God would say to us as He did to Israel, forget about jumping through that hoop. Just seek me for a new heart. Rend your hearts and not your garments. There's a phrase to commit to memory. This is the foundation of the now blessings that form this part of Joel's prophecy. It is here, subsequent to this gospel thinking, that God now says, I'm going to turn. My favor will be returned to your land. And all of these blessings, the prosperity, that for which you will utter praise, and in the midst of which you will have the assurance again that you're my people and I'm yours. These are blessings, great indeed. As we go back to the section of blessing, when we come to verse 28, we read, it shall come to pass afterward. Here's the after thus blessing, and my plagiarism of Dr. Barrett, he uses the phrasing after thus. I couldn't just say after this, but that's a side point. And I'm sure he has a reason, and it'll be better than mine. But after this, there's part of the blessing that's after the contemporary blessing. There's something that's in view that's beyond just the restoration of the land and of the people's livelihoods after the plague of locusts. And Joel becomes for us in many ways a case study in prophetic telescoping and how the prophecies of scripture are set before us. It's often the case, and we'll not try and seek out examples here this evening, but one of the most frequent occurrences of what we call prophetic telescoping is when you have the two advents of Christ that are joined together in the same prophecy. We'll hear events that we know are clearly separated now by at least 2,000 years, And yet, the same prophecy contains them. And it's often seen, you may have seen in Sunday school or in graphs of a man looking across a mountain range. And he sees the peaks of the various mountains. And yet, what's in between them, they might look like they're just standing right there next together. But if you ever have to hike from the one you saw, and then you get there, and you think, the next one I saw that looked so close is way over there. There's a lot of stuff under here I didn't see. That's how it is often with the prophets. And when you look at the after thus blessing, the verses that are contained here, it actually divides into three sections. I don't want to get us bogged down here, but there's a feature in the Old Testament called an inclusio. It's kind of like an inspired parenthesis. where a section that's blocked off is marked by a repetition. Well, there are two of these in these verses. If you look in verse 28, we read here, it says, it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. Now let's skip over. And if you go into the end of verse 29, will I pour out my spirit? This reference and the repetition of the act of pouring marks off a section. If you jump down to verse 32, there's another inclusio that focuses on the word call. It shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord followed the end of the verse and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call. So there's another section by this common feature that's blocked off. Well, in these verses we've read, if you have one section that's singled out at the beginning and another section that's singled out by this feature in the end, it just follows logically that the section that's in the middle that's not part of section one or section three is a section on its own. And so we have in this afterward prophecy, three blocks really of material. Now, some of it brings up questions. It can get into our suggestions about prophecy in the millennium. We're not gonna try and solve every question that arises there. But the three sections have some general themes that are quite clear. The first one has to do with spiritual power. Here's where I am plagiarizing quite greatly. The second one has to do with supernatural signs. And the last one has to do with salvation guarantees. In his later years, Dr. Barrett actually started using alliteration. I digress. But the first part that's in that first inclusio is a section that deals with spiritual power. It shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. This outpouring of the spirit, this is obviously something that Peter references at Pentecost, and we'll come back to that in a few moments. But here, if we can pause and say, the question isn't so much the what of prophesying, dreaming dreams, seeing visions. That's there. But the bigger part of Joel's prophecy in this afterward blessing is not focused on the what. It's focused on the who. Because in the Old Testament, this prophesying, dreaming dreams, seeing visions, well that was prophet stuff. And you look at the different aspects of ministry in the Old Testament, particularly that of the kings and the priests, There was stuff that belonged only to them. Prophets were drawn from a little wider source among the people, a farmer like Amos, as we'll see, but yet it was a select body. God was, if you could say it narrowly, demonstrating some of these offices and gifts. The striking thing is, and this is where Peter brings forth the prophecy on the day of Pentecost, that in the last days, we'll come to that in a moment, God will pour out his spirit upon all flesh. And here's where, well, we could get our brother to Take us on a little journey through other Old Testament references. The phrase, all flesh, there are times in which it almost becomes a specific description of Gentiles. Those that are outside of the people of Israel. Well, what happened at Pentecost? Well, one thing that happened, and again, there were extraordinary gifts at that point that were poured out. But they weren't just poured out upon prophets. They weren't even just poured out upon the apostles. They certainly weren't just poured out on the priests. And the kings were absent. God would pour out spiritual power, spiritual blessings upon all flesh. And of course, this is part of the New Testament era. God using people from every tribe and tongue and kindred to proclaim the good news to all the world. One of the things that is striking in Peter's quotation is that Peter changes both what the Old Testament Hebrew text says and what the Greek translation of the Old Testament says. Here it's afterward, after thus. Peter says it'll come to pass in the last days. So Peter, under inspiration himself, is giving us a little further glimpse into what Joel has in view. There's a season, scripturally. I know we always go kind of run into the tribulation when we use the phrase last days, but scripturally, the last days is a description of the whole period between the two advents of Christ. What characterizes this period? The calling out of a people from among the Gentiles. Of bringing those who were outside, to borrow Hosea's terminology, those who were not my people, to be among my people. We'll anticipate ourselves a little bit here, but the Apostle Paul and probably one of the most famous texts in the book of Romans in chapter 10. Quotes from this section of Joel's promised blessings. Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Let's turn that up to get its context. Turn to Romans 10. I think it is right for us to apply that in an evangelistic context, to be sure. But what do we read? Verse 12 in Romans 10. For there's no difference between the Jew and the Greek. For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him. This whole section of Romans, as we'll see, is Paul dealing with that question, what then about the Jews? What is that? He's working that through. Well, it's right in the midst of that that we have this quotation. There's no difference between the Jew and the Greek. The same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Part of the after blessing is that multitudes from outside of Israel are not only gonna minister, but are gonna be saved. Here, if you look scripturally, and again, we don't have time to pursue all of this, but the outworking of the Spirit, the different ways where we find the Spirit working in scripture, there's a work of regeneration, of breathing life into dead sinners. There's a work of indwelling. Old and New Testaments, mind you, the indwelling Spirit of God. There's a work of empowering, and there's a work of influence. Well, if you look at the context, it seems that it is that work by the hand of the Spirit of empowering God's people for service that's in view here, and this after-blessing is, that's just going to expand. God's gonna call people from every tribe and tongue, from every rank and file of our human existence, and use them. pour His Spirit upon them that they might be empowered for service. Here is Pentecostal blessing. The second section of this after blessing is called Supernatural Signs. Here is where we read verse 30 and 31. I'll show wonders in the heavens and the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord come. Here. seeing back in Joel's prophecy in its context, that this is distinct from the other two units of the after blessing, helps us as we wrestle with Pentecost and say, well, we can see that Spirit's empowerment going on here at Pentecost, but what about this cosmic stuff? Well, it doesn't have to be for Peter any more than it was for Joel, something that's happening right now for it to be put before the people as part of a promise of blessing and accompanying that as the day of the Lord does, blessing and judgment together. People that call on the Lord are delivered in that day, but that day is looming. And so here again, whatever our Speculations, whatever are working out of the millennial and second advent pieces of this, the dangers of future judgment. You think about Israel having come through this small forerunner, harbinger, this mini day of the Lord, of the locust plague. What a picture. what a help toward right living, future prospects of the ultimate day of the Lord will be. Prophecy should always produce godliness in the present. For the stuff that's clear and the stuff that's not quite so clear, but we know it's coming. They're supernatural signs and the fact that Joel includes them in his reference to the prophecy doesn't mean that we have to somehow figure out how that really happened at Pentecost. No, it can just as easily be future for Peter in his sermon as part of it is present, as part of what Joel is saying in his preaching of blessing is present and part of its future. But the last section, these salvation guarantees, is contained in verse 32, and again we see the bookends of the verb to call here. It shall come to pass that whosoever shall call in the name of the Lord shall be delivered. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call. Now there may be implications here as we find in other prophets that have millennial anticipation, but without even working through the questions of the millennium, the promise here, the guarantee here is of salvation, is of deliverance in the day of the Lord. Here, when we think of those that call, same verb is used at the opening and the closing of the verse, but there's a very interesting and striking change of subject. The first time, the first bookend of the section is with reference to us. Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered. The subject in the second reference that closes the section, the Lord is the subject. The remnant whom the Lord shall call. The remnant here has the idea of really survivors. And whether this is those, very likely, true believers, in contrast to the unbelievers in that final day, Well again, however this plays out in our chart, the truth is the same. It's what Paul took up in Romans 10. The salvation guarantees are here. There is a people, there is a remnant in Israel and out of Israel according to the election of grace. And whosoever shall call, not just Jews, any person, any nation, any tribe, any tongue, any kindred, they shall be delivered. Joel is a prophet that has a particular context. An early prophet in a striking season of the Lord's chastening of his people. But he comes to promises of blessing. There's a now blessing here at first. And I think for us to understand Locust plagues notwithstanding, whether it's personally or even corporately among God's people, seasons of declension in contrast to seasons of revival, the promise where genuine repentance, genuine faith are pursued even after devastating days. I mean, we talk about the dark ages for a reason. But some gospel light came. A remnant preached that truth. And the greatest revival since the day of Pentecost occurred. We're the beneficiaries of that, but yet we've lived through Many decades now where that light has faded, apostasy has come to prevail. But the days were dark, and even darker before the Reformation. God can bless again. Let us humble ourselves. Let us rend our hearts and not our garments. And Joel then could be given to preach the after-blessings. And we're living in a piece of that. And we can truthfully and scripturally say, the best is yet to be. So here's a prophet whose context was a tangible, temporal, earthly devastation, but he was given to preach revival and blessing for them, from that particular crisis all the way to the end of this age. So I trust the Lord will encourage us tonight that even in a prophet that has to deal with a tragedy so great, it's called a day of the Lord, that there's also blessing to be had. Let's bow our heads together. Heavenly Father, we are grateful tonight that we have such a faithful God And we ask that you might take up these words. Lord, we know that this passage often we're almost immediately drawn into some questions of interpretation and of prophecy. But the gospel truth underneath is plain to be seen. And we ask that you might encourage us in that and stir us. Thank you for the blessings in your house that we've known this day. Fellowship, joint praise, And these seasons, in your word, we ask that as we part one from another, that the word will find lodging in our hearts, that we have help to us, perhaps even in mundane parts of this week, or in maybe even greater serious questions of life. So take up the word we've read and considered together. We ask it in Jesus' worthy name. Amen. you you