The prophecy of Joel describes a future "day of the Lord" characterized by a devastating invasion of Israel from the north, which will bring immense destruction and suffering, turning the land into a desolate wilderness. This invasion, distinct from a literal locust plague, serves as a divine instrument to humble Israel and compel them to repent and cry out to God. The sermon highlights parallel passages in Psalms, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Zechariah to illustrate the severity of this tribulation, the worldwide scope of God's judgment, and the ultimate deliverance and restoration that will follow Israel's sincere repentance and turning to the pierced Messiah. The message concludes by emphasizing that this period of intense suffering is necessary to bring about a genuine, heart-rending repentance, leading to God's restoration of His land and people, and contrasts this future event with the present church's calling to repentance and the believer's heavenly hope.
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Well, thank you for coming, and if you will take your Bible today, we'll go back where we were last week to the second chapter in the prophecy of Joel. We didn't get very far in the reading and in the ministry of the chapter last week, but God did give us some very precious truth as well as some wonderful manifestation of his purposes regarding a coming day. where we would like to read again in chapter two for our lesson today from verse three and read on if I may through verse eleven so that we may complete what we began but did not come to finish a week ago chapter two in the book of Joel let me begin reading at verse three where God by the Spirit through the prophet writes to say the fire devours before them Behind them a flame burner.
The land is as the garden of Eden before then. Behind them a desolate wilderness. Yea, and nothing shall escape them. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses, And as horsemen so shall they run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, Like the noise of a flame of fire, that devoureth the stubble of the strong people sent in battle array. Before their face the people shall be much pained. All faces shall gather blackness. They shall run like mighty men.
They shall climb the wall like men of war. And they shall march every one on his ways. And they shall not break their rank. Neither shall one trust another. They shall walk every one in its path. And when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. They shall run to and throw in the city. They shall run upon the wall. They shall climb up upon the houses. They shall enter in at the windows like a thief. The earth shall quake before them. The heavens shall tremble. The sun and the moon shall be dark. and the stars shall withdraw their shining, and the Lord shall utter his voice before his army.
For his camp is very great, for he is strong that executeth his word. For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible, and who can abide it? May God bless the reading of his word, and may our hearts and minds be directed by the Spirit into the truth that they contain. By way of recollection, we must again impress ourselves upon the subject that is before us in relation to the coming day of the Lord. Again, may we be reminded in chapter one, we saw the literal plague of locusts that was manifested in Joel's day many centuries ago.
But I would like you to note something. On your lesson sheet very quickly. Under number one on your page three. And under paragraph B. Please let me emphasize what we have in relation to the second chapter. The second chapter takes us at once to the end of the times of the Gentiles. When the day of the Lord is to be fulfilled. May I repeat with emphasis, and I would like again to remind you, and I hope you don't forget it, and I hope many of you made notes of it, the distinction between the day, man's day, as we saw last week, the day of Christ, and the day of the Lord, and then the day of God.
Before us in the prophecy of Joel in our second chapter, it concerns the day of the Lord. And a day which is terrible. If you please note, particularly as we read of the great at the end of verse eleven, for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible. Who can abide it? How true are the words of the prophet, even Malachi, when he wrote very similarly to state that, so that we are realizing the scripture before us does not describe an invasion of locusts but it describes the last day invasion of the Assyrian host when they come down from the north against the land of Israel just preceding the second return of the Lord Jesus to the earth.
Now we noted particularly last week verse three in our closing moments and I presume you may remember that we had a reference in Isaiah chapter twenty eight relative to the fact. Can I repeat it? It's so practical and it's so present day in its application that the land of Israel has been renovated not just merely industrially but agriculturally in almost as being like the Garden of Eden in its culture. But when you read verse three, as we noted in our closing application of it last week, when the enemy from the north comes, the Assyrian invasion, the last invasion, you can read of it in Isaiah twenty-eight, you'll find it mentioned in Isaiah ten, and you'll also find it in Daniel chapter eleven.
And the latter part of Daniel eleven describes the invasion of the northern army that will come upon the land of Israel in that eventful day. Will you go down the chapter in Joel, please, for just a moment? I want you to notice with me, if you please. A particular verse, verse twenty, so that we can emphasize the direction from which this invasion comes. In verse twenty, where God speaks of his judgment upon that army, I will remove far off from you the northern army. Now, one can recognize immediately that this could never be a literal locust invasion.
The locusts do not come from the north. They come in their invasion from the south, usually from Africa and Egypt and on, but not from the north. So we have before us dispensationally the last event of the Norman invasion of Israel in the day of the Lord that is yet to come. But note with me again in verse three, as the result of that invasion, a fire will devour before them, the flame will burn, and though the land will be of the Garden of Eden, yet it will become a desolate wilderness, nothing shall escape them.
And the prophecy of Isaiah, if I recall in chapter twenty-eight, made the statement they would plant foreign plants, foreign slips, and trees, but never would they be able to reap. In the day of harvest it would be nothing but sorrow. And, beloved, how we can recognize it, let me say it earnestly. And I hope sympathetically you and I will realize that the dear land of Israel and the people of Israel are facing the destruction of all that they built since nineteen hundred and forty eight can I repeat that to be a terrible blow for them and they have they have in a magnificent way developed and prospered in that land in such a marvelous character but oh the end the great tribulation the greatest hour and time of sorrow that they ever will know.
Now, let me go very quickly from verse four, and read going down, if I may, through verse eleven, and dwell upon it with the fire. If I may, if I may, let me read what we have on the lesson sheet. Particularly, let me read the outline covering these verses. Many armies in the past have invaded Israel and wasted it. There is to be a coming invasion from the north. That we can read up in Isaiah both chapter ten and even twenty eight. And then the Assyrian invasion mentioned is a type of the final Assyrian threatening the land and the people at the end time, which can be read in Daniel eleven. And then as we have noted in verse three, the land is as the garden of Eden.
Yet the invading army find the land restored and cultivated. And this is now true today. There is to be a rude awakening. And I think I made a mistake in referring to Isaiah twenty-eight. It's Isaiah seventeen, ten and eleven that reveal the cultivation of the land and its ultimate sorrow. And it will again be stripped of its beauty. Now note this, let us see on that outline from verses four to ten. The Lord uses, and I think the word three is typographically wrong. It should. The word these. The Lord uses these destructive hosts to humble his people, to show them that he is their help when this great calamity comes.
For the greatest trouble of their long history of blood and tears is at hand, and nothing can escape them. For as we have in the chapter, and very quickly, if I may suggest, without even going into the reading of it, we've already read it. you have the description of the invasion from verse four going right down through verse ten and where you recognize the invasion army is powerful and conquer and overrun the land of Israel beloved can we not say you may wonder why may I say this God must and God will humble his people Israel as we go down the chapter We'll see the reason for it, to bring them to call upon him upon the name of the Lord.
There's a parallel scripture, if you ever were to read in the book of the Psalms. Psalm chapter forty-two, forty-three, forty-four, forty-five, forty-six, forty-seven, and even forty-eight. And in those chapters, which really are called the second division of the book of Psalms, The book of Psalms has sometimes been called the Pentateuch of David. And you may remember, the Pentateuch, why is it called the Pentateuch? The word means pentateuch, means five. And the first five books of the Bible are called the Pentateuch. And when you read the Psalms, the Hebrew division of the Psalms is divided into five sections, five books, as it were.
The second one begins in chapter forty-two of the Psalms. typical of the book of Exodus. And when you go back to the book of Exodus in memory, I'm sure you recall, the children of Israel were in bondage under the despotic rule of Pharaoh and the Egyptians. They cried to the Lord for deliverance and have the story of their deliverance in those early chapters of the book of Exodus. Likewise in the book of Psalms, in that second division, which would be the Exodus division, you find chapters forty-two going down through forty-eight very similar in principle you find in forty-two and forty-three they are suffering under the oppression of the enemy can I use that expression and emphasize it you find a quotation in both of those Psalms forty-two forty-three because of the oppression of the enemy and I cannot visualize and emphasize too greatly the oppression God's earthly people not only have been through and are going through but even in a greater way they still will go through it and
may I remind you do I need to the coming oppression is going to be worldwide in its source ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake and then when you come to Psalm forty three forty four rather You find them calling on God, the king, to deliver them, as they did longer go in the land of Egypt. For they recognize the oppression is so great when the nations are challenging them. Where is your God? Where is your God? I say very frankly, though in unbelief in the land of Israel, the nation is at the present day.
There are some a godly remnant without question of doubt. who long for God to deliver them. But it will necessitate this oppression of the enemy to cause them to cry. And chapter forty-four of the Psalms brings the cry for God to be their deliverer. Not man. Oh, it's almost a sad note to think that Israel is conducting itself as a nation without God their guide. And look into man. Whether it be this country or any other that will help. But it will fail. When they cry to God, you read Psalm forty-five, they describe the glory of their king and messiah.
In chapter forty-six he comes and the earth is moved. But he comes and delivers them and says to the nations, you may quote the verse in many other ways, but when you read Psalm forty-six ten, be still. And know that I'm God. You know what it is? Literally. According to the application of the truth. Dispensationally in relation to Israel. It says that God is going to tell the nation. Shut up. Know that I'm God. I'm going to be the king over all the earth. When Christ comes. Oh, the great need of his coming.
And then when you get into chapter forty-seven. Ah, they clap their hands for joy. They are delivered. And then you reach Psalm forty-eight. They invite all the nations to come and see the city of the great king. Look upon his palaces in that day. Oh, I cannot visualize too greatly. That will be their coming deliverance. But before it, they pass through that time of terrible trial. They go down verse ten and eleven in our application. In closing this section here, as God uses these destructive hosts to humble his people, to show them that he is their help when this great calamity comes, and their greatest trouble of their long history of blood and tears will be at hand in that day.
The earth shall quake before them. The heavens shall tremble. The sun and the moon shall be dark. The stars shall withdraw. They are shining. and the Lord shall utter his voice before his army. For his camp is very great, for he is strong that executeth his word, for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible. Who can abide it? Oh, beloved, we can never comprehend the terrible character of those days that are going to be manifested when thus the army invades Israel, and it is the great, the terrible day of the Lord, very great and very terrible, for God will bring his judgment upon his earthly people in that coming day.
Now we can read it. You have some reference that I'd like to refer to at the end of your second paragraph on your lesson sheet, page three. And under letter D, if I may, let's connect these scriptures. they certainly are connected with it Jeremiah chapter thirty and verse seven we may read verse six and seven they are referring to the same day as Jeremiah writes concerning it let me see let me begin these words reading in verse four if I may please may I point out and then may I also emphasize as you look in this thirty of chapter and as you look at verse four the words are being addressed to Israel to God's earthly people, and Jeremiah is saying, These are the words that the Lord spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah.
For thus saith the Lord, we have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, not of peace. Can I pause for a moment? You know as well as I do, everybody's crying out, Peace, peace, peace. Among the nations today. The words of Isaiah in chapter fifty-seven, twenty and twenty-one, should be remembered. There is no peace that might go to the wicked. The wicked are like the troubled sea which cannot rest, whose waters cast up my red dirt. And you have the implication here. Instead, there will be a voice of trembling. There will be a voice of fear, not of peace.
Can I repeat it again? Please let me say. All the efforts of peace that are humanly being put forth will fail. How can you have peace when the Prince of Peace is rejected? When Christ the Prince of Peace is not known. And Jeremiah says, it will not be peace. It's going to be trembling. It's going to be... Can I repeat it, Luke? We so gullibly sometimes let these facts pass over our mind when we hear the plea, the cry, the prayers, the organizations that rise up trying to bring peace.
They'll never make it. You get it from the government down. You get it over the rest of the world. In spite of the building up of their armaments, behind it they claim they want to bring peace. There is no peace. says my God to the wicked. And it's going to be a day of trembling in fear. Now look at verse six. How the prophet illustrates it. Ask ye now. See whether a man dot travail with child. What a metaphor. Who ever heard of such a thing? But the implication is very clear in his figurative sense. Men are going to be troubled.
Said the Lord Jesus in his in his exposition or his sermon on the Mount Olivet, the Mount Olivet discourse. Men's hearts shall be failing them for fear for what is to take place upon the earth. And ask, see whether a man does travail with child. Wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins as a woman in travail? And all faces are turned into paleness. Alas, for that day is great. So that none is like him. Tis even the time of Jacob's trouble. But he shall be saved out of it.
Loathe me again in the next reference that we have in Isaiah thirteen. Go back into Isaiah chapter thirteen. And in the thirteen verse of Isaiah. What can we do but seek to emphasize properly the awful character of that day in chapter thirteen? He knows these words. Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger. Oh, beloved, may I impress upon you as well as on my own heart the fierceness of God's wrath. You go to the book of the Revelation where we have been in past times together.
And we recognize that the cup of wrath is filling up to the full, to the brim, when God will pour out his wrath upon the nations of the world. And Isaiah mentions it. It will be a day of the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and it will be the day of his fierce angry. Can I repeat again what we've stated before? The world has not yet seen God's wrath. His anger. poured out there is a psalm that says God is angry with the wicked every day he surely is but there is a special kind coming when over all the earth his divine wrath will be poured out upon the nations and little Israel will be in the center of it in their land another scripture we have there go to Zechariah next to the last book in the Bible let me read just the first four verses of that fourteen chapter Much of Zechariah is contemporary in the truth of this.
But in chapter fourteen, know what the prophet writes in the opening verses. Please note it. Verse one through three and even through four we could go. Behold the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoils shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle. The city shall be taken and the house is rifled. The women ravished. Half of the city shall go forth into captivity. The residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations as when he fought in the day of battle.
And his feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west. There shall be a very great valley, and half of the mountains shall be moved toward the north, and half of it toward the south. And the rest of the chapter you could read at your convenience, but it will be the day of the Lord. And may I add, when we come into chapter three of Joel, we shall see that God brings all the nations together. He will have a controversy with all the nations. You know, I'm glad I'm saved.
I would not wish to meet God unsaved, would you? He would have a controversy with me. My sins, John, what have you done about them? Oh, how precious it is to realize, in the mercy of God and the grace of the Lord Jesus, you and I who know him as our Savior, we need not fear. Let me quote the words of John, first John, chapter four, lovely words. Where he says, Perfect love, rather. Perfect love casts us out fear. And it's not your love, it's his love. The love where we beloved us and redeemed us.
It takes away the fear of judgment. Hallelujah. But oh the ungodly. And the day of the Lord when the earth will be visited by the Lord's wrath. What a day. great and terrible it is going to be. Now let's go in our chapter of Joel again. Let's go forth as we know beginning at verse twelve. Now on your lesson sheet on page three we have from verse twelve through verse seventeen the great repentance. Now here we can see the result that will follow when that great tribulation period comes to the end, when the time of great judgment has been poured out.
Now note how there is a call. I'd like to tell you something that is worthy to be noted. Whenever you read any of the prophets, whether it's Isaiah anywhere between going down to Malachi, again and again and again, God calls them to repentance. We've already seen it as we went through Hosea. was seen in other prophets and their writings, Lord willing. He calls them to repentance. And may I point out, God often has to deal very drastically to make men repent.
Well, I know one thing. We're not all saved in the same manner, but I do remember as a young boy and a young fellow, I was scared of going to hell. I didn't want to go there. I realized I'm saved. That's where I was headed. I know Mother would have said I was a good boy. Maybe she would have called me the best boy in the family. We only had two brothers. But anyway, I knew I was lost. I knew that if I died without Christ, there's nothing but hell. And I do think of a dear brother in Raleigh many, many years ago. He said to me, Brother John, how did the Lord save you? What made you come to the Lord Jesus?
I thought in a flash... And then in a moment I said, Brother Luther, I believe it was my fear of hell. And you know, he said, Brother John, I've asked so many Christians that same question. Not all of them, but most of them say the same thing. The same thing. And beloved, please let me say. Oh, can I say it? Can I even impart it? The fear of God's anger that's going to have its effect. upon the then known world. For many will be lost, we know forever, but in God's earthly people, his ministry of judgment will be to bring those who will repent, the remnant who will turn to him and seek his face.
Now notice this call in verse twelve. Therefore also now saith the Lord. turn ye even to me with all your heart with fasting with weeping with mourning note what follows in the next verse rend your heart not your garments turn unto the Lord your God for he is gracious and merciful slow to anger for great kindness repent of him of the evil who knoweth if he will return and repent and leave a blessing behind him Even a meal offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God. Now please note these words. They're very, very significant.
May I say very frankly, I believe literally they will be fulfilled in that day when the godly remnant of Israel will turn to the Lord. But please note very careful what the Lord says. Turn to me with all your heart. with fasting, with weeping, with mourning, and rend your heart not your garments. When you could think of the history of Israel in the past, remember that there were times, you know, when the prophets and even some of the kings would rend their garments because of the situation that they faced.
Sometimes it was superficial. The God says, I don't want your garments rent. I want your heart torn. One can recognize how deep will be the work of God's power in the hearts of those who turned to him in that day. And with fasting, with weeping, with mourning. Please, go over to Zechariah, will you? Let's go back to Zechariah. Let me read with you. That's some of the words of Zechariah. I believe in chapter twelve. Oh, it might be eleven. Well, look in Zechariah. Chapter twelve. That's right. Chapter twelve.
I want you to note. God's going to make them turn to him with weeping. With mourning. With fasting. Now look in chapter twelve of Zechariah. Day of the Lord as well as the day of God. In Zechariah chapters twelve through fourteen. you have the repetition of an expression if I recall twenty times in that day in that day in that day in that day now every pious Jew knew the meaning of it was the day of Messiah's coming the day of Messiah's glory when he comes to reign and that is the meaning of the expression here in that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem, of which we read in chapter fourteen.
Now note what he says regarding Israel, the nation. I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications. And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced. They shall mourn for him as one mourners for his only son. They shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. In that day shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hated-Rimmon, in the Valley of MacGinnon, and the land shall mourn every family apart, the family of the house of David apart, their wives apart.
The family of the house of Nathan apart. Their wives apart. The family of the house of Levi apart. Their wives apart. The family of Shinii apart. Their wives apart. And all the families that remain. Every family apart and their wives. May I briefly suggest. You've got the prophetical families. The families of the prophets. The families of the priests. And the families of the king. The. the ones who would be in the kingly reign of Israel. But all of them, they will mourn in that day as God brings them to repentance.
And they will see the one whom they have pierced. Now, may I point out something? It's very obvious. When God seeks to work a work of repentance in any heart, man, woman, boy, or girl, you know why he does it? He wants them to know Christ. And in that day, the godly remnant who mourn will see the one whom they pierce, and they'll mourn. They will mourn. And their song of mourning and confession will be actually Isaiah chapter fifty-three in its words. As they acknowledge They despised him.
They rejected him. They sent him ignored. May I repeat that again? Look, no matter if it be the nation of Israel as such or an individual throughout the world, God seeks to bring them to repentance, to bring them to confess and acknowledge His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Go back to our chapter in Joel, if you please, and we can see what God is doing. Please note it. Rend your heart, not your garments. Turn unto the Lord your God. And then while precious of the word, he's gracious, he's merciful, he's slow to anger, of great kindness, and repent of him of the evil.
Who knows if he will return and repent and leave a blessing behind him, even a meal offering? and a drink offering unto the Lord your God. Beloved, I want you to remember, go back to chapter one, please. In chapter one, when the prophet spoke and revealed the condition of the nation and of the people, and you read, if I may, in chapter one, verse thirteen, note the plea of the prophet telling them to be ashamed. And in verse thirteen, gird yourselves Lament, ye priests, how ye ministers of the altar.
Come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God. For the meal offering, the drink offering, is withholding from the house of your God. Now do you recall that we made reference to the fact that meal offering was the symbol of Israel or any Israelite? His devotion to the Lord. And a drink offering was the symbol of his joy in the Lord. But the nation of Israel and Judah in that day, and even today, they've lost their devotion to Jehovah.
They have no joy in Jehovah. We go into our second chapter. Please note in the end of verse fourteen, who knoweth if God will return and repent? and leave a blessing behind him. And what kind of a blessing? Meal offering, drink offering, hug to the Lord your God. Beloved, may I say, now here's a blessed application. Oh, how we need to have devotion to the Lord. How we need to find all our joy in the Lord. But my fellow believer, even for you and for me, How precious to realize if you and I, if we will repent as God's dear children who may wander away from him, there is restoration.
The restoration of devotion to God. The restoration of joy in the Lord. We used to sing an old hymn in my early days. And the words of one verse went like this, Where is the joy that once I had when first I knew the Lord? And I'm sure that you're very familiar with the fact that joy of the Lord is certainly full when one finds the Savior for the first time. But oh, how as time goes on that joy can decrease, the interest of the heart be devoted to other things except the Lord. But oh, the joy of knowing. He's merciful.
He's gracious. He knows our frame. He remembers that we are done. And so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. And he will always restore. May I say very briefly, this is the restoration of Israel. Now please know. Let's go on to verse fifteen. And here we find the deliverance coming. Blow the trumpet in Zion. Sanctify your fast. Call a solemn assembly. Go back to verse one, will you please? I want you to note the distinction between the two verses. Verse one, blow ye the trumpet in Zion and sound an alarm.
Now those words that I quoted at the end, sound and alarm, and they're not, you don't read them in verse fifteen. Blow the trumpet. There were, you'll read Numbers chapter ten, you'll read of the use of the trumpet in Israel. When it sounded an alarm, there was danger. And that's what the first part of the chapter in the second chapter of Joel records. The danger of the great and terrible day of the Lord and the invasion at the end of the latter time of the enemy. And a great and terrible day of the Lord experience. This second call of the trumpet is not for danger.
It's to call. Let me say this. When you remember the seven feasts of Jehovah. The record in the Leviticus. Every time they gather together. God in that chapter calls. They're coming together at each feast. from the feast of the Passover going all the way down to the feast of tabernacles, they were thus seven times a year to come before God. And he called them a holy convocation. A holy convocation. And what we have in verse fifteen is a different call than the one in verse one. It's a call to bring them back in convocation to Jehovah.
To bring them back. blow the trumpet sanctify your path call a solemn assembly oh beloved let's pause for a moment this is God's call that by the power of his spirit will bring those who believe and those who trust him and those who were his in that day in Israel to come before him now please know verse And you have here a most amazing thing. Note it. Gather the people. Sanctify the congregation.
Assemble the elders. Gather the children. Those that suck the breath. Let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber and the bride out of her closet. Let the priests and the ministers of the Lord weep. between the porch in the altar, let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, give not thy heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them. Wherefore should they say among the people, Where is thy God? May I point out, very obvious, precious to realize it, from the elders, the whole congregation of God's earthly people, and the children, Even the little ones on the breasts of their mothers.
And the bridegroom, and why the bridegroom and the bride? Well, did you ever notice back in the book, in the Pentateuch, when Moses wrote, when the man got married, he's supposed to stay home for a year and share his wife. I don't know why she needed it, but anyway, it's in there. And also, he was not, neither was he eligible to go to war for the first year. But in what we have before us, God includes all of us, whatever the circumstances may be, whoever they might be, whether the elders of the nation, the old congregation, down to the children, down to the bridegroom and the bride.
And let you please know it in verse seventeen, the priests, the so-called spiritual leaders of the nation, weep. between the porch and the altar, praying, Spare thy people, O Lord, give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them. Wherefore should they say among the people, Where is thy God, or their God? Beloved, look, what a day that will be. Oh, what a day that will be when thus God brings them under the oppression of the enemy to that day of restoration.
Let me read with you, please, the paragraph we have on your lesson sheet under paragraph number four, which describes in verse eighteen and on what God will do. Then the Lord will be jealous for his land and pity his people. And we have mentioned Psalm forty-two and forty-three. The language of their distress in that time will be due to the oppression of the enemy. And it is prophetically portrayed here. And these two Psalms, they prophetically describe their future cry for deliverance. As long ago in Egypt, they cried unto the Lord as recorded in the book of Exodus. Please, may I point out, it's hard to really enter into it.
But from verse fifteen, down through verse seventeen, you've got the actual repentance of the godly remnant. the actual repentance. And it will be complete. It will be complete. And the Lord answers. Now may I make an application? Wouldn't it be wonderful if all the saints of God in our present day, from the spiritual leaders down to the youngest? were calling upon God for deliverance, for his help.
Oh, beloved, I can only set before you the blessed responsibility as well as privilege to realize, to make it in a localized way, whether it be the church, in whatever locality it might be, But when it comes to knowing the blessing of the Lord, whether spiritual and otherwise, but particularly, of course, spiritually in the relation to our testimony today, how necessary to realize, from the oldest to the youngest, if God could pour out the spirit of grace and supplication as He will in that coming day upon His godly remnant, And very personally, we can indeed feel rebuked in our own heart.
How much do we pour out our hearts before God for our own path to manifest that we're walking with Him and seeking to live for His glory in spite of the difficulties that prevail around us? In other words, let me give you the thought. You remember chapters two and three in the book of Revelation? We covered those two chapters, two and three, in our study of the Revelation. We noted very carefully it gave not only the historical information regarding these seven particular churches.
We touched upon the fact there was a prophetical application that it showed the digression and the declension of the church from the days of the apostle down to the coming of the Lord and there was a constant decline in spirituality and the spiritual state of each church was revealed by the Lord Jesus who walked in the midst of the lampstands but do you remember that virtually not in all but in most of them those seven letters the Lord kept saying repent Repent. Repent. Now look, you take any local church that would be anxious for the Lord's blessing.
Repentance would be required from the leaders down to the youngest member of that church to get the blessing that God would give. Satisfate. Satisfate. We don't see movements of that kind anymore. Back in the past century, in what was called the Welsh Revival, men and women came together without anyone inviting them. Till the churches. They were seeking until someone would come in and preach the gospel. It was a great work as far as souls being saved.
But they wept. They cried to the Lord. They poured their heart out. Beloved, please let me say, today you'd have to be like a solitary Elijah on Mount Carmel. And Elijah said, though he wasn't true what he said, but this is where he felt, Lord, I, even I only am left in Israel. And God told him I've got seven thousand that never bowed beneath a veil. But one can realize if God's going to make himself known in power and blessing, It requires the humility and the humbleness of the Spirit and the heart and the life in turning to the Lord.
Very frankly, please let me state it again. We don't see the blessing that the Lord would give us if we were in the right spiritual condition as God's people at large. But it's God's method. As you have it here. Now let's go on. If you please verse eighteen. Let me read through verse twenty. And you see the restoration. As you go there. Then. Now get the application. Then. When they cry to him. Then will the Lord be jealous for his land. And pity is before you notice something. He puts the land before the people. He puts the land before the people.
It's his land. It's his land. I know when I was over there, they are me, you go, they make a trip to the Holy Land. I never saw anything holy over there. It's his land. And he'll be jealous for it. He is yet jealous for it. And in that day he will intervene. He'll be jealous for his land. And then, for he'll pity his people. Jay, the Lord will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn, I will send you wine, I will send you oil. You shall be satisfied therewith, and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.
Beloved, you've got to confess. Don't tell me that it has happened. It has not happened yet. It's yet to come. But the day's coming when God will lift the shame. Remove the reproach. that Israel has suffered for centuries at the hands of the nation. What a day that will be. And yet let me rejoice. Before that happens, he's coming for his bride. And I say, come, Lord Jesus. But read on. And then he declares, I will remove far off from you the northern army those invaders that devastated your land.
I'll drive him into the land barren and desolate with his face toward the east sea, which would be the Red Sea, and his hind apart toward the utmost sea, the Mediterranean. And his stink shall come up, and his ill-savoured shall come up, because he has done great things. Ah, beloved, what a deliverance. That's going to be for Israel. As he drives the northern army, the last invasion, Below it our precious to realize. And yet our solemn to realize the mighty power that God's going to make known. The mighty power that he's going to make known. You know, it makes you feel small, doesn't it?
After all, you and I but humble believers in the Lord Jesus. We're not the great of the earth. But you remember what the Lord Jesus said in Matthew chapter eleven? When the nation was rejecting him? Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. Thou hast not revealed these things unto the wise and the prudent, but unto babes. Even so, Father, for it seemed good in thy sight. Here we are, just a group of humble believers.
And God's telling us what he's going to do. But you go up to Washington and find out who's listening to God. Go to the United Notions. And nobody's listening to God. Go to any nation in the world. Who's listening to God? You know the Lord must love you and me. To be able to sit here. and see from the prophecy of Joel written so many centuries ago what lies ahead. And yet the blessed joy of knowing within our hearts to us who believe on the Lord Jesus in this day of the church is coming to make us his bride.
I don't envy Israel their glory. In fact, they ought to envy our glory. But after all, you and I are going to enjoy the heavenly relationship forever as the bride of Christ with the bridegroom's love ever for us and with us and to us. But oh, how we can rejoice. Oh, we can, and we should rejoice. You know the psalmist kept saying, pray for the peace of Jerusalem. And surely may we say, the heart of every believer should be concerned for God's earthly people. and their restoration.
It's coming. It's coming. It's got to come. But, oh, it's coming through a time of terrible judgment and suffering on their part to bring them to repentance when their hearts will turn to the Lord and they'll rend their hearts, not their garments. They'll mean it and they'll confess it. Then, Lord, I'm going to bless the land. I'm going to bless. Oh, my. I think of a dear sister as I close. She was asked if she should, she ought to, this thought, some people thought she ought to go and make a visit over to the Holy Land.
Or she says, no, I'm going to wait till I see it from heaven. I ain't look a lot better than how true it will be. So don't worry about, in fact, if you go to the Holy Land, let me advise you to make a bulletproof vest. as well as a hard hack. You never know what's going to happen. But praise God, we don't have to go. We know what's going to happen. The Word tells us, shall we pray? Blessed Father, we thank thee for the revelation of thy truth. Oh, we bow in reverence and worship. And Lord Jesus, we think of those precious words we quoted. Thou hast not revealed these things under the wise.
unto the prudent of the earth, but even unto babes. We thank thee, Lord. We take our place. We know this. We can never learn anything unless we do take our place before thee as little children. And we thank thee for what you've told us today. Grand indeed that we shall love thee more, Lord, and live for thy glory. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for coming.