WEBVTT 00:00:00.720 --> 00:00:05.839 Very much, Alice. Good afternoon, everyone. Really good to be here and to continue our series in the 00:00:05.839 --> 00:00:11.919 Book of Jewel. And today, the mood of it lifts a bit. It's been all kind of doom and gloom for the 00:00:11.919 --> 00:00:16.240 last couple of weeks, although in the first part of chapter two, there was a foretaste of what we're 00:00:16.240 --> 00:00:22.480 going to be looking at today, but very much more positive in the message that Jewel brings to us 00:00:22.480 --> 00:00:29.440 as we go through it. As we focus our thoughts, let's just think about something else. When you 00:00:29.440 --> 00:00:34.880 came to the church this morning, you probably walked up or down Leamington Terrace and you came 00:00:34.880 --> 00:00:38.560 to a view that looks something like that. Probably more people there than there were when I took the 00:00:38.560 --> 00:00:45.280 photo. But you see a bit of the architecture of the church and see a bit of the inside. Very familiar 00:00:45.280 --> 00:00:52.000 to many of us. Let's imagine instead you'd come in a helicopter this morning. And the view you got 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:57.120 might have been something like that. So you can see the church down near the bottom left-hand corner 00:00:57.119 --> 00:01:02.959 and you can see quite a lot more of the immediate area around Brunsfield. The thing that I think is 00:01:02.959 --> 00:01:07.599 surprising for a lot of people when you see a picture like this is how much green space there is 00:01:07.599 --> 00:01:12.239 in among the tenement flats that you never would see from the streets. So you can see a bigger 00:01:12.239 --> 00:01:17.840 perspective, you can see a bigger picture, but you can see less of the detail of the church. You 00:01:17.840 --> 00:01:23.280 hopefully would recognise it, but you can't see all the detail that you can if you're standing at the 00:01:23.280 --> 00:01:29.920 front door. Now let's imagine you're flying over Edinburgh in an aeroplane and you're looking out for 00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:34.480 the Church of Brunsfield right in the middle of this picture and it might look something like that, 00:01:34.480 --> 00:01:40.400 the view that you get. You see quite a lot of Edinburgh, of the character of the city, perhaps 00:01:40.400 --> 00:01:46.319 see if there are a lot of churches around the city, but you don't really see much of the detail of 00:01:46.319 --> 00:01:52.239 this building. You might be able to locate it if you look carefully, but you can't see all the detail 00:01:52.239 --> 00:01:59.599 you see from the helicopter, certainly not all the detail you see from the front door. Now if we replace 00:01:59.599 --> 00:02:07.759 distance with time, I think what I've just shown you is quite a good illustration of how biblical prophecy 00:02:07.760 --> 00:02:16.640 works and how we can look at it. We look at biblical prophecy from quite a long distance away, two and 00:02:16.640 --> 00:02:25.439 a half thousand years perhaps, or even more potentially in the case of Joel. And we can't see all the detail 00:02:25.439 --> 00:02:32.000 that the people Joel was writing to at the beginning could see. We don't even know with any certainty 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:39.599 at what time Joel was written and their differing views on that. But we can see a bigger picture. 00:02:40.159 --> 00:02:45.520 We can look at Joel or any of the other Old Testament prophets and we can see them in the light 00:02:45.520 --> 00:02:52.960 of what God has since revealed about himself and particularly what he's revealed through the Lord Jesus. 00:02:54.000 --> 00:03:00.560 And part of the passage we're looking at today is very definitely looking ahead to the time of the 00:03:00.560 --> 00:03:08.159 Lord Jesus and beyond that. So we take a slightly different view of it. And if we think about the 00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:15.599 perspective the prophets give to us. So all of the prophets were writing for their own time. And they 00:03:15.599 --> 00:03:22.879 wrote about what was happening at that time. So it wasn't always they were just looking forward to seeing 00:03:22.879 --> 00:03:28.080 what's going to happen in the future. They were saying here are things that are happening in our land now. 00:03:28.080 --> 00:03:34.800 And here is what God is saying to us through them. So in Joel chapter one that we looked at a couple of 00:03:34.800 --> 00:03:40.320 days ago, there's been this great plague of locusts that has come over the land. The little creatures 00:03:40.320 --> 00:03:48.480 are everywhere. They're destroying all the fields and the crops of the Israelites. And God says to them, 00:03:48.479 --> 00:03:55.759 this is a sign to you that you should be repenting of your sin. The people had failed to keep God's 00:03:55.759 --> 00:04:02.479 covenant and that had consequences. And one of the consequences in that time was the locust coming. 00:04:02.479 --> 00:04:09.759 And it was a call from God that the people needed to repent and to turn back to him. So that was chapter one. 00:04:09.759 --> 00:04:18.159 Second element of biblical prophecy is what I've called soon after. Now soon after can mean several generations, 00:04:18.159 --> 00:04:24.480 not necessarily next month or next year, but it's something that God has said is going to happen in that era of 00:04:24.480 --> 00:04:32.759 human history. And that's what we had at the start of Joel chapter two, and indeed quite a lot of what we'll see as we go through 00:04:32.759 --> 00:04:40.599 today. God says there's going to be an even greater plague of locusts, or is it actually a picture? And 00:04:40.599 --> 00:04:45.719 it's going to be a great foreign army coming and invading quite likely, and that's what is intended. 00:04:45.719 --> 00:04:50.519 And it's going to come on the land and it's going to be in the relative of the near future. And then as we 00:04:50.519 --> 00:04:55.639 read in the passage just now, there will be that period when God restores the land and the people win 00:04:55.639 --> 00:05:01.479 in the world, they will win. And they will win. And they will win. And they will win. And they will win. 00:05:01.479 --> 00:05:09.000 So a bit of looking forward in the prophecy again in their time. And as with the then of chapter one, 00:05:09.719 --> 00:05:15.000 this part of the book, we don't know the kind of detail that people on Joel's day would have seen in it, 00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:22.759 but we see the broad picture of what's happening. As we go through our reading today, from verse 28, 00:05:22.759 --> 00:05:30.599 things change. And the third element of biblical prophecy is that very often is pointing forward 00:05:30.599 --> 00:05:38.360 to something that we now understand was fulfilled by Jesus. The people in that day might in some cases 00:05:38.360 --> 00:05:42.920 have recognized that it was going to be part of the Messiah coming. Some cases wouldn't have, 00:05:42.920 --> 00:05:49.639 but we can look back and we can say this part of the book, we can definitely see as being associated 00:05:49.639 --> 00:05:55.879 with the coming of Jesus. How do we know that in this case? We know it because in Acts chapter 2, 00:05:55.879 --> 00:06:03.479 the very first Christian sermon, Peter starts with this passage from Joel and says that what was written 00:06:03.479 --> 00:06:10.279 in Joel was now being fulfilled. We'll come back to that a little bit later. And then there's a final 00:06:10.279 --> 00:06:17.079 potential perspective, which is things that are still in the future for us. Things that haven't happened 00:06:17.079 --> 00:06:22.839 yet, but we look at what's said in the prophecy and we say that is something that God is going to bring 00:06:22.839 --> 00:06:29.479 about in the future. And the very last part of our reading today appears to be that, is looking forward 00:06:29.479 --> 00:06:36.199 beyond our times to a time when the Lord Jesus returns and he comes again as judge. 00:06:37.159 --> 00:06:43.959 So four perspectives are then what the people of the day need to learn from God. Looking a bit into the 00:06:43.959 --> 00:06:50.839 future, looking towards the Lord Jesus, and also looking to what is now future for us. Now, it's not 00:06:50.839 --> 00:06:56.839 always that simple. Some passages say it was partly fulfilled in the past and partly through the Lord 00:06:56.839 --> 00:07:03.319 Jesus, maybe partly in the future as well. But these are the perspectives that we get in prophecy. And all 00:07:03.319 --> 00:07:10.839 that helps to orientate us as we come today to look at the end of chapter 2. We're looking at something 00:07:10.839 --> 00:07:16.119 that was a bit in the future for Joel's generation in the first part of our passage. And we're looking 00:07:16.119 --> 00:07:22.919 at something that is current now and some of its future in the second part. I've called them to help 00:07:22.919 --> 00:07:29.319 us hopefully remember it a bit better. It's the years of the locust and the days of the Spirit are the 00:07:29.319 --> 00:07:35.000 two sections we're going to be looking at. The years of the locust and the days of the Spirit. 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:43.240 So let's start by looking at the section from verse 18 to verse 27. So I've called the years of the locust. 00:07:43.240 --> 00:07:49.319 Now, you remember last week, we had a passage where God was talking about what was going to happen when 00:07:49.319 --> 00:07:55.959 these new locusts or this new foreign army came. And there was in the middle of that, there was the promise 00:07:55.959 --> 00:08:02.920 that if the people repented that God would relent because he's slow to anger and abounding in love. But it ended up 00:08:02.920 --> 00:08:09.480 with this thing that was being said by the nations round about about the Israelites, where is their God? 00:08:10.120 --> 00:08:17.080 So the people round about were saying, have they got a God? Is he real? Does he care? And if he does, 00:08:17.080 --> 00:08:23.879 why is all this happening to his people? And the first thing we see in the passage reading today 00:08:23.879 --> 00:08:31.480 is the Lord's response to that. And for the first time in the book of Joel, we have God speaking directly 00:08:31.480 --> 00:08:38.120 to his people, not through the prophet, but the words of God himself. And so in verse 17, 00:08:38.680 --> 00:08:43.159 the people around the Bible say, let them say, spare your people, Lord, do not make your 00:08:43.159 --> 00:08:49.800 inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. And the Lord replies in verse 19, 00:08:50.360 --> 00:08:57.480 never again will I make you an object of scorn to the nations. Now, I think we have to assume that 00:08:57.480 --> 00:09:05.080 between verse 17 and verse 18, the people have done what God was commanding them and they have repented 00:09:05.080 --> 00:09:12.120 for their sins. I think that's implicit in what is in this passage we're looking at today. So the very 00:09:12.120 --> 00:09:20.360 firm message that came from God, blow your trumpets, come together and repent as a people of your sins, 00:09:20.360 --> 00:09:30.600 that has happened. And God now is restoring them as a result of that. And so from verse 18 down to verse 00:09:30.600 --> 00:09:39.560 20, the first half of verse 20, we see what happens when God responds. The grain and the harvest, the 00:09:39.560 --> 00:09:46.600 wine and the olive oil, they start coming in again, the famine is over, and the invaders, whether people or 00:09:46.600 --> 00:09:55.960 locusts, they are gone, God has destroyed them, and his people have been restored. God has responded, 00:09:56.680 --> 00:10:03.800 and the God who is jealous for his name, and for his people, and for his land, he has shown everyone 00:10:03.800 --> 00:10:10.200 that he is indeed God, that they are indeed his people. And as they have returned to him, so they 00:10:10.200 --> 00:10:17.000 have been forgiven and brought back into a relationship with them. The Lord responds. 00:10:18.440 --> 00:10:24.600 Second thing we see in this part of the passage is the Lord restores. Now, I think from towards the end 00:10:24.600 --> 00:10:31.400 of verse 21 down to the next few verses, it's not the Lord himself speaking, it is a commentary by Joel, 00:10:31.399 --> 00:10:40.439 or a marveling by Joel at what God has done. And twice he says, do not be afraid. Do not be afraid, 00:10:40.439 --> 00:10:49.480 land of Judah. Do not be afraid, you wild animals. And then in verse 23, be glad people of Zion, rejoice 00:10:49.480 --> 00:10:58.120 in the Lord your God. God has got rid of whatever the invading force was. He has brought the rains that 00:10:58.120 --> 00:11:04.840 the people need for their harvest, and they are back to normal, if you like, again. The trees are 00:11:04.840 --> 00:11:14.200 bearing their fruit, the fig trees and the vine yield their riches. As the people repent, the Lord restores 00:11:15.080 --> 00:11:22.600 his people to him and restores their normal way of life. But as we go through this passage, he actually 00:11:22.600 --> 00:11:30.600 goes beyond that. From verse 25, is the Lord speaking directly again? And we call this, but the 00:11:30.600 --> 00:11:38.440 Lord repays. It's the beginning of verse 25, I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten. Now, 00:11:38.440 --> 00:11:42.440 when the Lord uses the word repay here, it doesn't mean he had any kind of debt to his people, 00:11:42.440 --> 00:11:49.000 that there was any requirement on him to repay what they had lost in these years. But it's the Lord making 00:11:49.000 --> 00:11:55.080 up to them what they have lost. So, he's going beyond just restoring the normal way of life 00:11:55.799 --> 00:12:03.080 and the normal harvest. He's saying, you've lost the years of the locusts, they've gone, but I will make 00:12:03.080 --> 00:12:12.759 up for them, and your harvest will be even more plentiful. And the reason for that is, in verse 27, 00:12:12.759 --> 00:12:19.319 then you will know that I am in Israel, I am the Lord your God, there is no other. Never again will my 00:12:19.319 --> 00:12:28.759 people be shamed. God, in his great mercy and in his grace, has not just restored the normal 00:12:28.759 --> 00:12:35.720 circumstances of life to his people, he has given them extra on top, in a sense to make up for the 00:12:35.720 --> 00:12:44.200 years of the locusts. What a wonderful grace, amazing grace that God shows to his sinful people 00:12:44.200 --> 00:12:52.120 as they return back to him. Now, what we make of this passage, or this part of the passage for today? 00:12:53.080 --> 00:12:59.160 I was really struck by the phrase, the years of the locusts. The Israelites would look back 00:12:59.159 --> 00:13:06.519 as the Lord had restored them, and they would say, these were really difficult years. These were hard 00:13:06.519 --> 00:13:12.039 years when the locusts were here, and we were really struggling, and we didn't have enough food, 00:13:12.039 --> 00:13:17.799 and perhaps we were being invaded by foreign armies. These were really difficult years, but God has 00:13:17.799 --> 00:13:26.360 restored things, and he has gone beyond that, and we can rejoice in him. Many people these days suffer 00:13:26.360 --> 00:13:33.080 for what we might describe as the years of the locusts. They go through times when things are really, 00:13:33.080 --> 00:13:41.159 really tough, and they find it difficult to see how God is working or what is happening in their lives. 00:13:41.960 --> 00:13:48.360 Very often, it is a consequence of their own actions. We do things that are really stupid, 00:13:48.360 --> 00:13:54.039 and that has consequences within our lives, of the way we live, and our relationships, and other things to 00:13:54.039 --> 00:13:59.879 do with our lives, and it takes time for things to get back to normal. But as we come back to God, 00:13:59.879 --> 00:14:05.559 and we repent, we have his promise that he'll forgive us, he will restore, he will repay. 00:14:06.519 --> 00:14:11.559 Perhaps if I can broaden it a little bit, the years of the locusts also potentially come through 00:14:11.559 --> 00:14:19.399 circumstances that aren't directly under our control. From times of illness, or of bereavement, 00:14:19.399 --> 00:14:27.720 or of unemployment, or from the actions of others which harm us through their consequences. And many 00:14:27.720 --> 00:14:32.840 of us can look back, and perhaps we can see these in our lives, perhaps even very recently, or even 00:14:32.840 --> 00:14:39.480 currently, we can see these things in our lives. And it's good then to be able to lay hold on what God 00:14:39.480 --> 00:14:47.000 says here, that he will bring us through them as we depend on him, as if necessary we repent and turn 00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:55.399 back to him. Then he is a gracious, a merciful, a loving God, and he will not just restore, but actually 00:14:55.399 --> 00:15:03.560 he will to some extent repay for the years of the locust. Very often those of us who have fairly routine 00:15:03.560 --> 00:15:08.519 lives, if that's the right way to describe it, who haven't had these big crises, we don't really 00:15:08.519 --> 00:15:15.399 appreciate all that God does for us on a daily basis. And yet those who have gone through these 00:15:15.399 --> 00:15:20.840 times, and God has spoken to them, and they have come through, and they're able to rejoice in what 00:15:20.840 --> 00:15:29.240 God has done. Perhaps they have an extra appreciation of his goodness, of his love. So if today you're going 00:15:29.240 --> 00:15:34.759 through the years of the locust, or have been through that recently, then the message of Joel, I think, 00:15:34.759 --> 00:15:44.200 is this, that as we turn to God, as we look to him and recognize his goodness, then he will not fail us, 00:15:44.200 --> 00:15:52.200 he will repay us, he will give us his blessing, his joy in our lives. The years of the locust. 00:15:53.799 --> 00:16:01.080 Then we want to, from verse 28 onwards, and what I've called the days of the Spirit. And as we saw earlier, 00:16:01.080 --> 00:16:08.200 the prophetic perspective is changing here. We are not looking primarily at the years immediately ahead, 00:16:08.200 --> 00:16:16.280 as Joel was writing. We are looking forward to the days of the Lord Jesus, indeed, beyond these days. 00:16:17.240 --> 00:16:24.360 And the days that Joel is writing about are actually the days that we are in now. Peter, on Pentecost, 00:16:24.360 --> 00:16:30.600 as I've mentioned, used this passage as part of his sermon. And he said, this is what is happening here 00:16:30.600 --> 00:16:37.879 and now. God's Spirit is here. He has been poured out in a marvelous way that it never has been before. 00:16:39.000 --> 00:16:45.639 And it will culminate in the day of the Lord, in the return of Jesus, in his return in judgment. 00:16:45.639 --> 00:16:50.120 But with the knowledge that everyone who has called on the Lord, everyone who has believed 00:16:50.120 --> 00:16:57.639 in Jesus will be saved from judgment. So let's go through the verses. And again, I've got three 00:16:57.639 --> 00:17:07.319 subheadings to think about. So in verse 28 and verse 29, I've called it, The Lord Sends. The Lord 00:17:07.319 --> 00:17:12.839 sends his Spirit. Actually, the word sends, which I use for alliteration, is probably not strong enough. 00:17:12.839 --> 00:17:19.559 What it says here is that I will pour out my Spirit on all people. And the picture is probably 00:17:19.559 --> 00:17:25.399 akin to what Joel has talked about in a few verses before, of the Lord sending the rains, and it is 00:17:25.399 --> 00:17:33.399 the Lord sending abundant rain, of pouring out the blessing from heaven of his Spirit. As the Spirit 00:17:33.399 --> 00:17:39.559 is sent to us, so we can experience this marvelous blessing that God gives us. And we're experiencing 00:17:39.559 --> 00:17:47.480 the day of Pentecost and is still available today. I will pour out my Spirit on all people. 00:17:48.839 --> 00:17:57.000 Second thing we might notice about this is it is on all people. And Joel is very clear as he goes 00:17:57.000 --> 00:18:07.799 through that. It's on the old and the young. It's on men and on women. It's on servants, as well as those 00:18:07.799 --> 00:18:16.119 who perhaps are in higher social status. In the Old Testament, the Spirit of the Lord came upon people 00:18:16.119 --> 00:18:22.519 in certain circumstances and empowered them to do things for God. Kings, prophets, people like that. 00:18:23.319 --> 00:18:31.319 But not everyone had the Spirit of God. Not everyone could enjoy that in their lives. With the coming of 00:18:31.319 --> 00:18:39.879 the Spirit at Pentecost, the Lord poured the Spirit on everyone. And if I am trusting today in the Lord 00:18:39.879 --> 00:18:47.960 Jesus, if I know him as my Savior, then as part of that I have this wonderful blessing of the Holy Spirit 00:18:47.960 --> 00:18:56.759 in my life. Leading me, guiding me, teaching me the truth, empowering me to do good things, 00:18:56.759 --> 00:19:05.319 and changing my character as well to be more like Jesus. God has poured out his Spirit on all those 00:19:05.319 --> 00:19:11.879 who trust in the Lord Jesus. And what does the Spirit do? I've talked about these things specifically 00:19:11.879 --> 00:19:21.079 in this passage. The Spirit is the one who teaches and who helps us to speak out to others. So your 00:19:21.079 --> 00:19:27.319 old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Someone has described that as God revealing 00:19:27.319 --> 00:19:33.960 himself intimately to us. Not all of us will see lots of visions or have lots of dreams, but God, 00:19:33.960 --> 00:19:41.480 through his Spirit, reveals himself to us and helps us to understand more about him and more about how we 00:19:41.480 --> 00:19:48.439 should live. And then what happens? Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Now, I don't think he, 00:19:48.440 --> 00:19:52.039 when he talks about prophesying, he is looking specifically at the gift of prophecy, which we 00:19:52.039 --> 00:19:57.400 read about in the New Testament, which some people had and some people didn't. This is something that 00:19:57.400 --> 00:20:05.720 everyone has, and it's being able to take the Word of God and to apply it in our generation. To be able 00:20:05.720 --> 00:20:12.920 to say to people, whether it's publicly or one-to-one, here is what God's Word says, and here is what it 00:20:12.920 --> 00:20:21.480 means for us today. And all of us, if we know the Lord Jesus, are able to do that. He has sent his Spirit 00:20:21.480 --> 00:20:28.840 to enlighten us and also to empower us as we go out and as we talk to others about him and seek to help 00:20:28.840 --> 00:20:36.200 them to understand their need of the Lord Jesus. The Lord has sent, he has poured out his Spirit on all 00:20:36.200 --> 00:20:44.039 people. And if today your faith is in the Lord Jesus, you have his Spirit living in you, and day to day, 00:20:44.039 --> 00:20:53.080 you can enjoy the benefit of that. Now, that was the initial perspective of these verses, 00:20:53.080 --> 00:20:58.680 but then it does move on. And what we're looking at now, I think, is mainly future. Now, 00:20:58.680 --> 00:21:02.920 there's some disagreement on exactly the timescades of some of these things, but I would take it what we're 00:21:02.920 --> 00:21:08.840 looking at from now is mainly future. All part of the days of the Spirit, the last days, as Peter 00:21:08.840 --> 00:21:16.600 calls them, but probably future to us. Next, verse 31, I won't talk about very much. I've called the 00:21:16.600 --> 00:21:23.800 Lord shows. So, Joel is saying, before the day of the Lord, before what we're taking is the return of 00:21:23.800 --> 00:21:29.320 the Lord Jesus, there will be certain signs that happen. And the Lord Jesus talks about them himself 00:21:30.200 --> 00:21:35.159 in the Gospels. And Joel says here, the sun will turn to darkness, lips of the sun, I assume, 00:21:35.159 --> 00:21:41.720 the moon to blood, and these will be signs that the Lord is coming. Now, we don't know the day, 00:21:41.720 --> 00:21:47.960 as Peter said earlier, we don't know the day that the Lord Jesus will return. We don't know the timing, 00:21:47.960 --> 00:21:55.159 but there are signs that he brings. Let me maybe look and say that it could now be very, very soon. 00:21:55.160 --> 00:22:03.720 And then he will come. And the last part I've called the Lord saved. This great phrase, which is taken up 00:22:03.720 --> 00:22:10.840 by Paul in Romans chapter 10, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. 00:22:11.640 --> 00:22:15.720 But we're going to understand that we do have to look at the previous verse, 00:22:15.720 --> 00:22:24.440 where Joel talks about the great and dreadful day of the Lord. Christians can look forward to the 00:22:24.440 --> 00:22:30.680 return of the Lord Jesus, and to all that that will mean. But we also have to recognize that the 00:22:30.680 --> 00:22:37.400 Lord Jesus, when he comes, he will come as judge. And for those who don't have their trust in him, 00:22:37.400 --> 00:22:44.280 for those who have refused his offer of salvation, then there will be consequences. It really will be a 00:22:44.280 --> 00:22:52.840 great and dreadful day as they are held to account for what they have done. But the great news is, everyone 00:22:52.840 --> 00:23:02.600 who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. It's not everyone who lives a good life and does their best and is good to others. 00:23:02.599 --> 00:23:09.159 Not everyone who goes to church and tries to do their religious duty. By the great grace of God, 00:23:09.159 --> 00:23:17.879 it's everyone who calls on the name of the Lord. All that God requires of us is that we recognize our sin, 00:23:18.679 --> 00:23:24.679 as the people in Joel's day had to do, that we recognize our sin, that we recognize that that does have 00:23:24.679 --> 00:23:31.799 consequences. But then that we realize that these consequences have been taken for us by the Lord 00:23:31.799 --> 00:23:39.000 Jesus, if our trust is in him, that he died on the cross, taking our sins on himself, and that we can 00:23:39.000 --> 00:23:45.240 have complete forgiveness. And that when he comes, we can know that he, we have been saved, that we have 00:23:45.240 --> 00:23:55.559 been delivered, and we can rejoice in the fact that we know him. So the day of the Lord, the coming again of 00:23:55.559 --> 00:24:02.919 the name of the Lord Jesus, for some, it will be a time of terror and of judgment for everyone who calls 00:24:02.919 --> 00:24:09.399 on the name of the Lord and puts their trust in Jesus. It's a time when we are saved from all the 00:24:09.399 --> 00:24:17.559 consequences of sin, when we have the privilege of going to be with him forever. And the challenge must 00:24:17.559 --> 00:24:26.119 then come to us. Are we those who have called on the name of the Lord? Can each of us look into our 00:24:26.119 --> 00:24:35.480 hearts and say, yes, I realized my sin, I've realized my failure before God, but I've recognized that through 00:24:35.480 --> 00:24:43.319 Jesus I can have salvation, my trust is in him, I believe that he is my savior, and I am seeking to 00:24:43.319 --> 00:24:51.319 follow him and to live for him. That is the challenge, I think, that particularly comes from this passage. 00:24:51.319 --> 00:24:59.319 Have I called on the name of the Lord? Can I be sure that my sins are forgiven because Jesus took the 00:24:59.319 --> 00:25:07.079 punishment for them? I leave that with you to think about and to consider prayerfully whether you are 00:25:07.079 --> 00:25:15.960 among those who have called on the name of the Lord. But the great thing with this passage is that it 00:25:15.960 --> 00:25:25.720 shows us what wonderful mercy God has for us. And if we will just accept that mercy and that grace, 00:25:25.720 --> 00:25:32.439 his blessings will be poured out, his joy will be ours, and we can know that whatever our circumstance, 00:25:32.440 --> 00:25:39.799 whatever happens in life, he will be with us. Now we do need to look forward to the coming of the 00:25:39.799 --> 00:25:45.559 Lord Jesus again. When I was a teenager, there was a film that was very widely sending millions of 00:25:45.559 --> 00:25:51.160 people around the world, and we're supposed to have seen it called A Thief in the Night. And it was a 00:25:51.160 --> 00:25:57.559 film about the second coming of the Lord Jesus. The theme song for it was by Larry Norman. Larry Norman 00:25:57.559 --> 00:26:02.599 was probably the first Christian rock musician, certainly the first very popular one. And the 00:26:02.599 --> 00:26:11.240 line that was repeated again and again in that song was, I wish we'd all been ready. I wish we'd all been 00:26:11.240 --> 00:26:16.759 ready. It was likely where people had been left behind me saying, I wish we'd all been ready. 00:26:17.559 --> 00:26:24.679 Let's make sure today that all of us are ready. If the Lord should return, perhaps very soon, that we are 00:26:24.680 --> 00:26:32.200 ready to meet him, that we know that we have been saved by our faith in him. I'm going to take a couple 00:26:32.200 --> 00:26:36.360 of minutes, we've got some time left. We're going to just take a few minutes to respond to what we've been 00:26:36.360 --> 00:26:43.080 thinking about this morning, respond in prayer, and give all of us an opportunity to think through 00:26:43.640 --> 00:26:49.960 some of the things we've talked about. So let's join together in prayer now. And perhaps for some of us, 00:26:49.960 --> 00:26:55.799 and we're looking at what we've started about in the first part of the message today of the passage 00:26:55.799 --> 00:27:02.440 of the years of the locusts, of times which have been difficult for us, and when perhaps we've been 00:27:02.440 --> 00:27:10.440 away from God, or perhaps circumstances have been very hard for us. Let's rejoice in the fact that God 00:27:11.000 --> 00:27:17.559 has great grace and is willing to pour out marvellous things in our lives. And let's just commit ourselves to 00:27:17.559 --> 00:27:28.839 him and put our trust in him for that. Perhaps for some of us, it is to challenge today to recognise the 00:27:28.839 --> 00:27:37.240 work of the Spirit in our lives, to recognise the importance that we understand God's Word with the 00:27:37.240 --> 00:27:44.440 help of the Spirit, and that then we use that to go and talk to others about it. That we can, in the sense 00:27:44.440 --> 00:27:50.440 that Joel's talking about, we can go and prophesy to others by applying God's Word in our generation, 00:27:50.440 --> 00:27:53.480 and helping them to understand its relevance to us. 00:27:57.720 --> 00:28:04.840 And perhaps for some, it is that point of recognising our need of Jesus, recognising we need to call on the 00:28:04.839 --> 00:28:12.679 Lord and to be saved. And to think that today could be the day when we finally put our trust in Jesus, 00:28:13.559 --> 00:28:21.720 and choose to trust in him, to repent of our sins, and to acknowledge him as Saviour and Lord. 00:28:25.639 --> 00:28:31.319 Our Father, we thank you for your Word to us today. We thank you that this passage comes still with real 00:28:31.319 --> 00:28:38.599 power to us. We pray that you will help us to apply it to our hearts, help us to recognise your wonderful 00:28:38.599 --> 00:28:45.240 grace, that if we will just trust everything to you, we can know that you are the God who is in control 00:28:45.240 --> 00:28:52.519 of all things, that you are the God who saves, that you are the God who blesses. I pray that all of us may 00:28:52.519 --> 00:28:59.799 go from here today, recognising more of who you are, perhaps for the first time for some recognising 00:29:00.440 --> 00:29:06.519 who the Lord Jesus is, and putting their trust in him, that we may experience in the coming weeks and 00:29:06.519 --> 00:29:13.960 months, that great grace that you give to us that great blessing that you want to bring into our lives. 00:29:13.960 --> 00:29:17.960 We thank you for your presence this morning as we have worshipped and as we've studied your 00:29:17.960 --> 00:29:34.360 word together and we commit ourselves to you now in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.