[0:00] Okay. Well, it's good to be here this morning. I guess you know that we're going to be studying Joel chapter 2,! The last four verses in it.
[0:11] So if you want to go ahead and find it in your Bible, I'm going to try to use technology and stuff that I've been studying all together. So we're going to pray that this all works together right and everything.
[0:23] But, you know, I'm used to working with young people a lot of times. So my first thoughts go to, you know, when I'm getting ready to teach anything, you know, what do I do to get people's attention?
[0:35] You know, what can I do? So the Lord has to kind of calm me down sometimes because I keep getting all these ideas and everything. But we're going to start off this morning.
[0:45] This is going to be for the, especially for the younger people probably. But let's see. Who can tell me who this is? Look at there.
[0:56] John told you who it is. I figured the young people would snap that one up right away. That's exactly right. The Fantastic Four, exactly who it is and everything.
[1:08] Now I have always, I would... That was John, Lance. Huh? I thought you meant that was John. Oh! Well, you know, I'll be honest with you. You probably could pick out a character.
[1:19] And I might say a little bit about this in a little bit. Now, this is what I was hoping wouldn't happen. I don't want to start going. Let's see. I've got to hit. Yeah. There we go.
[1:30] Does anybody happen to know who this is? Out of the Fantastic Four? Mr. Fantastic. Yeah, Mr. Fantastic. That's who it is. Mr. Fantastic. See, he...
[1:41] Okay. I've got to figure out my buttons here. There we go. Mr. Fantastic. Okay. Now, that's one... Now, he had an ability to be able to stretch.
[1:52] His body could stretch and go every which way, you know. He had this power to be able to reach out and stretch out, you know, moving. Which I always thought would be a pretty cool power. Because sometimes I get this itch right here.
[2:04] And I can't quite reach it. And I'm up against the wall and everything. So, you know, I don't... I have trouble with that. Now, who can tell me who this is? Who? Well, she is kind of Mrs. Fantastic.
[2:20] But this is the invisible woman. And, of course, by her name, you get the idea that... Okay, here we go. Ah, there we go.
[2:33] That she can turn invisible. And she has the power of making... creating a shield. And she can also shoot a blast of... out from her...
[2:43] has another power that she has. Okay. Okay. Does anybody know who this is?
[2:56] John McGarrett. This is the thing. Now, of course, the thing... He looks different and everything.
[3:07] But he has great... He has great strength. And, of course, being made of rock, you don't get hurt very easy. And everything. If you're made of rock and stuff. So, that's the thing.
[3:17] And then this is the last one. Who knows who this is? Huh? The flame. The flame, yeah. The flame.
[3:28] And they call him Johnny Torch. You know, he has a lot of different... And his ability is, of course, he's able to... Let me get this off. Yep. He's able to get fire on the outside of his body where it makes him lighter and he can fly.
[3:41] He can also shoot blasts of fire, too, if he wants to. So, I just wanted you to start thinking about these things because, you know, what I've always found interesting about this is these are four people that in the story...
[3:57] This is from a comic book, and so you guys know what I did at the age of 12 a lot and everything. That they went up in a rocket ship together. All four of them. And all four of them, as they went up, they were exposed to this cosmic rays that changed them.
[4:13] And so, when they came back, even though each one got affected by the same cosmic rays, each one of them had a different... Something different happened to them. They had a different power.
[4:25] And so, this is something that happened to them. And I'm going to kind of use a little bit of this maybe later on. But I just wanted to get you thinking about that idea because if you're kind of like a...
[4:36] Who's heard of Paul Harvey? Anybody in here heard of Paul? Yeah, okay, good. If you've heard of Paul Harvey, you're old. If you haven't heard of Paul... But he always loved to tell a story about... I'm going to tell you a story and now I'm going to tell you the rest of the story.
[4:49] And I might get to the rest of the story here in a little bit. But our message is out of Joel chapter 2. And what it is, chapter 2 begins with an appeal for repentance.
[5:00] And it's followed by God's response which promised good things to them. Corn and wine and oil. If they would repent. You remember we talked about the idea that if you would repent...
[5:12] And it wouldn't be just an outwardly repentance but it would be an inwardly. In other words, he said, don't rend just your clothes but rend your heart. And so we've spoken about that. But now we're going to...
[5:23] We're finishing chapter 2. And what we're going to see is there's something even better that God has that He wants for the true believers. Both for the... They're going to find out the kingdom of grace and the kingdom of glory.
[5:37] And we're going to see that there's happiness for the true believer in both of these. So let's look at our scripture. And we're in chapter 2 of Joel. And we're going to start out with two verses.
[5:49] 28 and 29. And it says... And I'm using the New American Standard. It says, It will come about this... I'm sorry. It will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind.
[6:03] And your sons and your daughters will prophesy. And the old men will dream dreams. And the young men will see visions. Even on the male and the female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.
[6:17] So as we're looking at this, we start out... Notice one of the first things He talks about which is in verse 28. He says, After this... So He's saying, After what has happened already, this call for repentance and everything, something better, something new is going to come.
[6:32] And there is an appointed time for this to happen. And so He says, At that point in time, I am going to pour out My Spirit. Now, I think we all kind of know where this is going, but this gift of the Spirit is being spoken about by Joel.
[6:49] And it's going to be a special beginning that's going to be for mankind. Because before this pouring out of Spirit comes, the Messiah is going to come. And so what He is telling them that there will be a time where God is going to pour out His Spirit upon everybody.
[7:05] And He says, if you notice in verse 28, He says, I'm going to pour out My Spirit on all mankind. Now you might think, well, that's kind of strange. But it's not really that strange. Because in the Old Testament, God didn't necessarily do that.
[7:19] He would give His Spirit for a particular reason that He had for that individual or for that community or that nation to do. But then it would be pulled back. And a lot of times, they would lose the Holy Spirit if they did something wrong.
[7:34] Maybe some examples of that would be like when Samson, who had the Spirit of the Lord on him, gave him great strength to be able to do unbelievable things. He lost that strength because he kept being disobedient to God.
[7:47] You know, God told him, you know, there were certain things he shouldn't do. And one of them was not to get his hair cut, not to allow his hair cut. If you follow the story of Samson, he does many things.
[7:58] He keeps doing things and finally gets his hair cut and the Lord says, that's it. My Spirit's pulled away from me. And so at that point, his eyes were gashed out. He was made, he was put in a servitude and made fun of the mockery of.
[8:13] And so finally, at the last, at the end of Samson's story, he says, Lord, let me, please give me your Spirit one more time. And he did a great deed again for the Lord.
[8:24] If you think of King Saul, King Saul was the same way. God's Spirit had come on King Saul. And, and, but because his disobedience, God took his Spirit away from him. And if you remember, it was really, it was a, to have God's Spirit there and then taken away as it was from Saul, Saul suffered greatly from it.
[8:42] And if you read any of the Psalms of, of David, King David, you notice that in times, especially when he is sinned himself, he would ask God, God, please don't bring, please don't take your Spirit away from me.
[8:55] So what we see here is that this Spirit that the Lord is, is, uh, saying he's going to pour all his people. It will not be as it has been in the past. His Spirit will come and this pouring out of Spirit is going to be on all mankind.
[9:09] Now, it has to be accomplished after, you know, the coming of Christ. And even in different Scriptures that are spoken about by him and, uh, and others in the New Testament lets us know that.
[9:20] So let me kind of share that with you just right now real quick. In John chapter 7, 39, he said, but this is spoken of the Spirit, which those who believe in him were to receive.
[9:32] They hadn't received it yet, but he said, they will receive it. For the Spirit has, was not yet given because Jesus had not been glorified. When was Jesus glorified? His resurrection.
[9:44] That's right. So, they would, they had not received that Spirit yet. Now, in John 14, he kind of gives the role of the Spirit. He says, I will ask the Father and He will give you another helper.
[9:56] He may, that He may be with you forever. That is, but that is the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it does not see Him or know Him.
[10:09] But, you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring you remembrance of what I have said to you.
[10:27] So, this gives you an example of what that Holy Spirit, that outpouring of the Spirit is going to do. And then, in Acts, which is where we see this, it talks about when the day of Pentecost had come.
[10:39] They were all gathered together in one place. Now, remember too, Jesus had told them to gather, not to leave. He was going to send the Spirit to them. And suddenly, there came from heaven a noise like a violent, rushing wind.
[10:52] And it was filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as if fire distributed themselves and they rested on each one of them.
[11:04] And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit was giving them others. So, the Holy Spirit, this is the beginning of that outpouring of the Holy Spirit that Joel has been talking about and that God had said was going to come.
[11:21] This is the better thing that was going to come. See, the Messiah, they knew the Messiah was going to come but there was also another thing that was going to happen and that was going to be the Holy Spirit.
[11:32] Now, this Holy Spirit that came, who is the Holy Spirit going to be, who is the Holy Spirit going to come to? Well, it says it's going to come to your sons and your daughters.
[11:46] Who in here is a son? Raise your hand if you're a son. Okay. Raise your hand if you're a daughter. Now, if you didn't raise your hand or something, we got a little problem here.
[11:59] Because basically, the sons and daughters cover all of us. And he says, they will prophesy. Now, you know, the Holy Spirit, you know, when we think of that, a lot of times we get this idea that prophesying is something telling the future, going to some kind of trance or something like that.
[12:14] But it's not. It's the idea of speaking God's Word. Prophecy is bringing God's Word and speaking God's Word to people. And so, the Word, you think, well, what is the Word?
[12:26] Well, the Word is the Holy Scripture. It's the Bible. And God has given us His Holy Word so we have it to go and speak it to other people. We have been given the Holy Spirit.
[12:37] If you have received Jesus Christ as your Savior, you have the Holy Spirit in you. And you've been given the Holy Spirit so you can prophesy, you can tell others the Word of God to them.
[12:49] And that's one of the things that we should be doing. And so, He's saying all sons and daughters and everything. So, we see that's happening here. And if you notice, so this means basically all males and females will have this Spirit.
[13:01] It won't be delegated to any particular gender or anything. It's going to be everyone. And there will be, this is just an extraordinary gift. This beginning, this outpouring of the Spirit also was the outpouring in the beginning of God's church.
[13:16] The Bride of Christ. And so, this is what helped found it and helped set it up. The Spirit helped the early church to get together. That's why you see so many miraculous things.
[13:27] I think sometimes we want to mimic exactly what happened there. But the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was one time. Was that outpouring to God's giving?
[13:38] Now, we receive the Holy Spirit as we receive Jesus Christ as our Savior. If you notice also in that Scripture, it said, the old men will dream dreams. Now, I'm not going to ask you which one of y'all will consider, which one you consider yourself old.
[13:54] Now, I will say this. When He says old men and young men, this is not restricted gender. This is the idea that He's just saying older people and younger people. And when we see that He's talking about prophecy, dreams, and what He's going to say visions in a minute, it's not restricted to these particular people.
[14:12] It is basically what it is. He's just encompassing everyone with this. And when He talks about this idea of dreaming dreams, I think what it was, I think when He thinks of dreaming dreams as an older person, which I guess I can consider myself an older person, when you start to reach an age and you have been doing, you've been trying to allow the Holy Spirit, do what the Holy Spirit tells you, do what God tells you, you start to have dreams, you think of what God is going to do with the seed that you have planted.
[14:45] You think of all the things that God's going to do. Because you're getting a little bit older, you start having, I guess you can dream dreams of where you're going to be spending eternity to. So I kind of think that's why it might have been kind of put with that, the idea that you start thinking about that.
[15:02] And then He says, He says, your young men will see visions. Well, you know what? See what it is, the vision is something that you see when you're awake. And usually when you're younger, you don't have to do like I do every day, and that is take a nap.
[15:15] I like to take my men. And so He said that the younger men, He said, you will see visions. But this is not restricted to just young men. This is for all.
[15:26] And that vision is, for the younger people, you're probably sitting there thinking, what does the Lord want to do with me? What does the Lord want me to do? And you're seeking that all the time.
[15:37] Maybe for, but, but, and so they're thinking about all these ideas. What is God going to do with my life? And I think, when I was your age, when I was younger, man, I was thinking of all kinds of stuff because I was thinking, I, young people sometimes have the ability, they don't, they're not as old people where they get kind of, kind of set in ways or kind of restricted.
[15:59] they're, they're allowed to do something a little bit unusual and everything. And I remember as a Christian, as a young man and everything, I would do all kinds of stuff. You know, we, we, we were going everywhere, uh, handing out tracts, you know, getting run out by the mall cops, you know, doing all kinds of stuff, you know, because we wanted to tell others about the Lord.
[16:19] That doesn't mean I can't do it now, I just can't run as fast as I used to. So, so, so what it is, he's kind of encompassing everyone. When he says, I am going to outpour my spirit, it's going to be on all, all people.
[16:33] It will be with the, with the sons, the daughters, the old men, and the young men. He says, I'm going to do all these things. And then he says, and even on the male and female servants, I will pour out my spirit in those days.
[16:48] Now, what he's saying too is, listen, you don't have to be rich. You don't have, if you're poor, you're rich, you don't have to have a high place in society.
[16:58] It doesn't matter who you are. If you receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, then you have been given the gifts of the Holy Spirit. You're going to be able to do all kinds of things. Whatever the Spirit will do in you that God wants you to do.
[17:12] And so, you think about that, the Holy Spirit does that for you. And so, if the male and female servants will have the Holy Spirit poured in, the young men and young women will have the Holy Spirit poured into them.
[17:25] The old men and the older women will have the Holy Spirit poured in. The sons and the daughters will have the Holy Spirit poured into them. But remember, that this Holy Spirit is poured into individuals, is poured in through Jesus Christ.
[17:41] In other words, you have given your life to Jesus Christ and you have received Him as your, you know, you have received Him and you will receive the Holy Spirit.
[17:52] Now, I want to kind of say, mention too, that a lot of people have a tendency to think that, you know, there's a different special time of receiving the Holy Spirit. No, you receive the Holy Spirit when you receive Christ as your Savior.
[18:06] And so, if you notice in this last bit of Scripture in verse 29, it says, in those days. In other words, He said, at this appointed time, this is going to happen. He said, the Holy Spirit is going to be poured out.
[18:18] And this is when, this was at the appointed time, the day of Pentecost. And it was at this point in time that, that was started by Jesus Christ when He came and with His death and on the cross and then when He was buried in His resurrection that this time started.
[18:34] And this, and that was the beginning of the last days too. The end times. The last days had begun at that point. So, we, we are living in the last days as time goes on.
[18:48] And each day we get a little closer to that end time. Now, as I told you, the rest of the story. The Fantastic Four, I always think about them because they each got, had the same thing hit them and that was that cosmic race.
[19:05] But you know what? They didn't receive the same superpowers, did they? When we receive the Holy Spirit, we don't receive the exact same thing. Each one of us, the Holy Spirit works in each one of us individually.
[19:18] And, it isn't that you, and it isn't in the story of the Fantastic Four, they didn't just pop out of that rocket ship and say, look at me, I'm ready to go. It wasn't like that. They had to figure things out.
[19:29] They had to allow to learn what had changed in them and what's going on. And that's the way it is with the Holy Spirit. When you receive the Holy Spirit, not to say, I'm not trying to live in the Holy Spirit, but I'm saying the Holy Spirit works, you start to learn things.
[19:43] You learn the fruits of the Spirit. You learn what God will do through you. The problem is, for us sometimes, we think, well, you know what? You know, I got the Holy Spirit here, so, you know, me sitting on the pew here each Sunday, that's good enough.
[19:57] But we're just happy with that. Well, no, we are given the Holy Spirit for a reason. That is, to spread God's kingdom. To go and tell others. We have that responsibility. Just like the Fantastic Four with their responsibility of beating all the bad guys.
[20:12] and everything. We have a responsibility to share Jesus Christ with those that we meet. So that they may share that same gift. So, you know, sometimes when I've been with young people, I even took a bunch of young people from church one time, we went and saw Fantastic Four movies, so we can discuss it in the Bible later on that afternoon.
[20:31] But we went and saw it because, you know, each one of us kind of had that. And I'll just tell you, you know, Mr. Fantastic, he was able to stretch and do all kinds of things. We have people in our church family who have the ability to stretch themselves and take care of a lot of different things.
[20:48] They're able to reach out. They're able to be a little bit more flexible than others. Then we have the invisible woman. You know, she was, she could make herself invisible, but she had a way to protect and shield other people.
[21:03] We have people in our church body that, you know what, you don't really see what they're doing. But they're doing stuff all the time and everything. They take care of things that you don't see.
[21:14] When you come in, you got light. You got air conditioning. You got new rug on your Sunday school class floor. You, you come, if you came last night, you, excuse me, you might have come and you saw, oh, there's, there's food that somebody set up all this place.
[21:30] Or when somebody's sick, somebody has been going to someone and taking care of them. So, you know, that, the invisible woman to me is that person who kind of goes, who's behind. All the background.
[21:41] We don't see, but they're the ones getting things done and everything. And it isn't that they don't, they don't, it's not that they don't want to be seen. They're thinking, I don't need to be seen. I'm doing what the Holy Spirit has guided me to do.
[21:52] Then you've got those people like the thing. You know, big old rock guy, strong and everything, kind of boisterous, bust into doing things. You know, and we have Christian brothers like that, have some strength and everything.
[22:04] They are strong, they're able to withstand the force that comes, sometimes the bad things that come in our church and they're protectors of us. And they protect us too. And they're able to get in there and do what needs to be done.
[22:16] And then you've got, often I think of young people when I think of the human torch. You know, he is the one, he is just on fire and he's zipping around. He can fly up in the sky.
[22:28] You know, a lot of times young people have a tendency to be him. You know, they're ready to jump in action and go. And if you ever watch, if you ever happen to see any of the Fantastic Four or read the comic books, often Johnny, or the human torch is often portrayed as somebody who's a little bit, what's that word?
[22:48] Huh? Hothead. Yeah, hothead, impulsive. You know, he's the one who's going to, he's going to jump up and, you know, go out. He's the one who's going to walk up to just about anybody and start telling them about Jesus.
[23:00] And, you know, he's the one who's going to really reach out. So, you might be able to see yourself in one of these Fantastic Four people. So, now we see this idea of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
[23:11] Now, in the last part of the scripture that I had, it talks about the day of the Lord. And let me share this last bit of scripture with you. We're going to do verses 30 and 31. He says, I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke.
[23:27] And the sun will burn into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. Now, there's some different ideas of what this great and awesome day could be.
[23:40] There's different things I've read. But, when I think of the day of the Lord and when I think that day of the Lord is his second coming, of him coming back, that is the day of the Lord. And this is describing a future time that could be coming.
[23:54] Now, the thing is, we don't know when that's going to happen, that great day of the Lord. It's like, how many of you ladies have been mothers? Anybody in there?
[24:06] Okay. You've delivered. Let me ask you this. How many of y'all delivered exactly on the day that the Lord, I mean, that the doctor told you you were going to have? Anybody delivered on the exact day that they were going to have?
[24:16] No. You know what? Oh, you did? I did. I had a C-section, but I did it. But that's not. There you go. Well, you know what? When I think of the day of the Lord, the day of the Lord, no one knows when that's going to happen.
[24:29] Christ tells us that no one will know that but the Father. And so, we don't know when exactly at the end of the day, but there are going to be signs. When you, let me ask you this, ladies, when you knew that you had a baby in you and that baby was born, what were some of the signs that you knew that you were pregnant?
[24:46] Throw up. Huh? What did you say? Throw up? Throw up. Yeah. What did you say? I said throw up. Throw up. That's right.
[24:57] And, you know, don't take offense, but you started getting a little bit bigger too, didn't you? Yeah, that's right. So, all those things start, there's a change. But you know it's coming, but you just don't know when.
[25:10] You know you've got a general idea. And so we know that the day of the Lord is going to come. As Christians, we look forward to that, that day that the Lord is going to make everything right. And so we know He's going to come.
[25:22] And sometimes, things start happening. Y'all remember when the year 2000 came about? Everybody got on site thinking, this has got to be it. Or then when 2012, what was it, my account here started, everybody thought, oh, this, I had people calling me at home sometimes, people that I knew that knew I was a Christian.
[25:40] And they would talk to me and everything. And they would say, Glyn, do you think that's really going to happen? I said, well, I don't really think so, but it could. But I said, so now's a good, if you haven't made that decision, now's that time.
[25:51] Well, so they were trying to say, okay, if it's not going to happen, then I'm not going to worry about it. But if it is, I think I'll go ahead and do it on the day before. So it is that idea.
[26:01] So some people, they look to that idea. It's kind of the same way when we see things happening in our time that we think, oh, this might be the last day. What it is, it's just, it is things reminding us that it's going to happen.
[26:15] Now, let me ask the men this question. Men, if your spouse, your wife was pregnant and she was going to have, did anybody get to go beforehand with a test run to the hospital?
[26:27] Well, yeah, yeah, both of ours, we went to the hospital, sat there on, we sat there all night, Renee didn't sit there, she was, she was having contractions and stuff, but they'd come in and say, well, this isn't it, go home.
[26:42] And you're sitting there and think, oh my goodness. So you go home and then it happens again. And ours always happened in the middle of the night too. And I couldn't figure that out. So it would happen. So it is this kind of thing.
[26:53] God is going to give great signs and wonders of those last days when he's going to return. But it's hard to say exactly. A lot of these signs and wonders really you could say have happened.
[27:06] And so I think, you know, there is a time when Christ is going to come back. The thing is, we need to always be prepared for that last day. We always need to be prepared for that day.
[27:17] You know, and if you think God is always doing great wonders for us and everything and things that we see, you know, I especially think of Jesus Christ. You know, when Jesus was born, there was all kinds of great wonders.
[27:27] There was a star that sat right over where he was born at. And there was a host of angels that popped up where a bunch of shepherds were at and told them of this great happening.
[27:39] There was a, there was, and when he was crucified, think of the great wonders that we saw there. there was darkness at the time of his crucifixion.
[27:50] And I don't think it was just a cloudy darkness. I think it was a supernatural darkness. And there was, there was a great earthquake. And then from that great earthquake, they said they even saw, people saw dead people walking and everything.
[28:03] And there was a rending of the temple, the veil of the temple. And three days after he had been in great, now for the Jews, the idea, you know what, I read this when I was studying something about Lazarus, you know, because Jesus came on the fourth day.
[28:17] But they say it's three days that if, basically, you're, you've been dead three days, you've been dead. In other words, there's nothing, no kind of turning back of any kind.
[28:28] But Jesus was in the grave for three days and then he was resurrected. So what kind of, what greater wonder do we need than that and everything? But the scripture here tells us that there will be, there will be great wonders displayed before the coming, the second coming of Jesus Christ.
[28:45] Now, as we look in verse 32, the last piece of scripture that we have here, it says, and it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered.
[28:57] For on Mount Zion and Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as the Lord said, even among the survivors whom the Lord calls. Now the thing is when we look, you know, the Lord gives us, this, the Lord tells us right here in the idea that in verse 32 you see whoever calls on the name of the Lord, that is, whoever calls on Jesus Christ, they will be saved and they will be delivered from what we see here if they call on the name of the Lord and because God's spirit is outpouring into them and they can receive the Holy Spirit.
[29:31] And so, when we see this, it's comfort for those who are saved, who have accepted Jesus Christ. For those who have not accepted Christ, this could be a, it's a great and terrible day and everything.
[29:44] And we see it that's often used in all kinds of books and videos and movies and stuff. This great and terrible day. And so, the thing is, I think we have to be careful. We have to let people know.
[29:55] I think when you look at this scripture and it says, whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered. Well, I think that goes back into earlier parts of Joel. It doesn't mean that just you call on the Lord then and you say, oh Lord, here I am.
[30:08] You know, I'm ready now. I think on that great day, if they haven't given their life to the Lord, it's not going to happen because what it's going to be, it's going to be rendering, rendering, what?
[30:21] Rending the outside garment, not truly the heart. So, that is one of the responsibilities we have when we speak to others about Jesus Christ. When we go out to witness to others, is to let them know that there's no waiting.
[30:34] You need to go ahead and make that decision today because when that great day of judgment comes, it will happen. Now, if you look in the scriptures, you see that God has had days of judgment all through the scripture.
[30:48] And Joel, in some ways, sometimes you can, some scholars think some of these things that Joel is saying is talking about those days of judgment. You know, you look at the, when Christ was there in his ministry, he told those that were around him that there would be a great day of judgment on the Jewish nation.
[31:08] That the temple and all the walls would be torn down. And it did happen. You know, even God in the Old Testament, He told them that there was going to be a great judgment on His people if they did not change their ways, they did not repent and come back to Him.
[31:22] And it happened more than once because they didn't make the decision to follow Him and obey Him. So, when we look at this, He's saying whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
[31:37] And whoever that is, that's when you accept Jesus Christ. Not as a last minute thing, think, oh, I'm going to throw out the life preserver and grab onto it now. And that's how I'm going to get through it. No. We call on the name of the Lord and He delivers us.
[31:50] One of the things in the New Testament also says, in Romans 10, 13, it says, for whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Now, this calling on God and receiving Christ means that you have knowledge of Him.
[32:04] That you have faith in Him. When you have called on Him and you have given yourself to the Lord, you have a desire to go towards Him.
[32:15] And you have a dependence on Him in your life. And there's evidence of the sincerity as a conscious obedience to the Lord when you give your life to the Lord. And so, as I said, when you give yourself to the Lord, you receive the Holy Spirit because He said, I will send a helper to you and you will receive.
[32:35] And those who escape will be those who called on the name of the Lord. Now, this last bit of Scripture that it was talking about, it talks about those who escape. And I read quite a few different ideas.
[32:47] But you know what? I think those who escape are referring to the last days to me in here. And those last days are a selected few that God has chosen.
[33:00] I think that those that are selected will not be the ones when Christ returns. They won't be there to... I think in a way that it's probably talking about revelation and that we see in there of that group of people, the small group that is taken and saved.
[33:18] You know, we think of when God's judgment has fallen on His people, there's always been a remnant. And I think we see this here. Because when Noah, when God brought the great flood onto the earth, there was a remnant.
[33:31] How many were there? Anybody have any sense? Eight. Eight. That's right. Eight people were saved out of all those in the world. And then when the Jewish nation was taken from their land, only a remnant returned.
[33:46] So, I don't think if anybody, as I've said already, I don't think if anybody who thinks I'm going to wait to this last moment, they're fooling themselves. I think that's a lie of the devil.
[33:58] If they think, oh, I'm just going to wait and try to be part of that last little remnant. That's not going to happen. So, what does this end of Joel... The end of Joel chapter 2 tells us that God is sending a better thing.
[34:12] These last four verses. God is sending a better thing after Israel repents. A lot later than what they thought. And that better thing has happened. We have received the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
[34:24] God sent His Spirit not just to what they thought was going to be the Jewish nation, but to all people. Because Christ, and even in the Old Testament, He says, there's my tribe and these are my people, but there are people that you have not seen come in yet.
[34:38] And we are God's people. All those who have accepted Jesus Christ. Christ. And then Jesus, at Jesus' death and His resurrection, it's the beginning of the last days. We live in the last days.
[34:50] There is nothing but the end days to come now. And so, we're at that time. And Pentecost fulfilled what God said He was going to do with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And then we've got to remember that day of the Lord is the day that Christ will return.
[35:06] And at that point, all things will be set right and everything that God has always planned to do. So today, I want you to think about that. Where is it you stand? Are you one who has called upon the Lord and given your life?
[35:22] If not, I hope you do that today. And if you have received the Holy Spirit, but you've received Christ, and maybe you haven't, you know the Holy Spirit's there.
[35:34] And you just don't feel like things are going the way you think you should. I guess the way I want to explain it, God doesn't force us to do anything. When we receive the Holy Spirit, that Holy Spirit will do great and wondrous things through us.
[35:48] Christ told us that. And so, if you want those, if you want to be, have that happen, then you have to allow that to happen. You can't, we have a tendency, our natural man has a tendency to want to shield and try to fight that.
[36:01] We have to allow God's Spirit to come out and let us do things. In other words, sometimes you get that nudging to do things. You know, you feel like there's something there telling me I should speak to this person.
[36:12] It might be that, you know what, I've been thinking about, I might like to teach some school, but I don't think I should. You know, I don't want to, in other words, this Holy Spirit gives you abilities to do things that you can't do.
[36:24] The Fantastic Four couldn't do any of those things until they went through and got, hit that cosmic rays. And what I'm saying to you now is, you're going to do things that you normally couldn't do because of the Holy Spirit.
[36:36] God's power. And you let God's power do those things in your life. You let God's power help you make decisions in your life. You follow Him, you draw close to Him, and you will see a difference in your life.
[36:48] And so I want to tell you just to keep going, to keep drawing towards that. So I want to try to, I'm going to try, I am going to hopefully, and I meant to use this too.
[36:58] I forgot that. Okay. So as I, I've got a video I want to show you. And as this is, I want you just to listen and watch, just to give you time to think about some of the things I said.
[37:14] And then our, our musicians will come up after the, after the video. Oops.
[37:33] Come on, Glenn. In the last days, God says, I will pour out my spirit upon all people.
[37:46] Your sons and daughters will prophesy your young men's sea visions and your old man will dream dreams.
[38:00] In those days, I'll pour out my spirit men with the light, men with the light, they will prophesy. In those days, I'll pour out my spirit, men with the light, they will prophesy.
[38:20] them with them with them with them. The sun goes on, the heavens above Signs on the earth below, earth below The sun will turn black, and the moon will turn blood red For the great and glorious day of the Lord arise But everyone, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved Everyone, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved Not with them live We'll be right back.
[39:46] While there is a time Turn to me now Turn to me now Give me your heart As more, the autumn rains will come As well as the rains of spring And I will give you back what you've lost I will give you back what you've lost Turn, turn to me now Turn, turn to me now Give me your heart While there is time While there is time I wish I knew how to play and sing that one
[41:10] That's what we can sing right now together That's a beautiful song Let's do stand and sing this final song together It's called Living in Prayer And in some ways it kind of lines up with this It's talking about how while we're in this life There are a row of roses that we each have to endure And we need to be calling out God To live in us and work through us In this world In this world