Great Heavenly Father, we come again before you. We thank you that. You have come to us in the power of your Holy Spirit As you have promised to do so, we thank you and praise you for the blessing of that your presence and for coming to us full of grace and mercy and love. We pray, Lord, help us to praise you and to give ourselves to you. Give our hearts our attention to you.

Now, as we seek your face and your word and seek to hear. Our Lord Jesus. the reading and the preaching of your word, we pray, send your Holy Spirit to us anew and fresh and empower that we might. Come as we do so, and as he does, as children raving and yearning to feed upon every word. That you say to us. We do pray, Lord, as we hear from you today that we would. Find what it means that you are a God of restoral and faithfulness.

We pray, Lord, grace, grace for the speaker, grace as we listen to your voice. We pray, break through, shatter our oh-so-often thick and stubborn hearts and transform us, transform us into likeness of Jesus. As you do so, dear Lord, help us to know for certain that you provided all that we need in Jesus Christ, that when we come to him and find our all in him, truly the lover and protector of our souls. All this, dear Lord, we pray for our good and for your glory. We ask it in Jesus’ name and all God’s people said together, amen, amen. Joel chapter two, starting in verse 18. Please give once more your full attention. This is the word of the true and the living God. And remember, verse 17, right, this call to repent, this call to repent.

Spare your people, O Lord. Make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, where is their God? And then verse 18, glorious turn. Then the Lord became jealous for his land and he had pity on his people. The Lord answered and said to his people, Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine and oil. and you will be satisfied. I will no more make you a reproach among the nations. I will remove the northerner far from you, and drive him into the parched and desolate land, his vanguard into the eastern sea, and his rearguard into the western sea.

The stench and foul smell of him will rise, for he has done great things. Fear not, O land, be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done great things. Fear not, you beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness are green, the tree bears its fruit, the fig tree and the vine give their full yield. Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given the earthly rain for your vindication. He has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the latter rain as before.

The threshing floors shall be full of grain. The vats shall overflow with wine and oil. I will restore to you the years that the swarming locusts have eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied.

And praise the name of the Lord, your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. My people shall never again be put to shame. You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel and that I am the Lord, your God, and there is none else. My people shall never again be put to shame.

And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions Even on the male and female servants in those days, I will pour out my spirit. And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke.

The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. It shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. or in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls. The word of the Lord. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but this word of the Lord indeed endures forever.

Well, we continue in Joel this morning, and I’ll remind you the only thing that we know for certain about Joel is his father’s name was Petuel, and that he lived through some of the some catastrophic plagues of locusts. And it’s possible that as Joe delivered, Joel delivers this prophecy given to him by God.

And when he wrote it down, that he had an awareness, an awareness that he was not simply writing it down for the people of his own day, but he was writing it down for the people of every day. Similar to David in the Psalms, right? Many of David’s Psalms, he gives you no suggestion of the event that caused the crying out to God. Does so so that others, we, might take it up and cry out in our need.

The first chapter of Joel, God sends this warning message to his people, this plague of locusts. Judgment call summoning them, summoning them to repent. And then in chapter two, it begins. It’s a picture. It’s a vision of the awful day of God’s judgment of sin.

Joel ended last time, as we heard in verse 17, with a summons, a call to repentance, and he summons the leaders of the church to stand before the people, even before the sacrifices leave, stand before the people, call upon God to have mercy upon them. Rend your hearts, not just your garments, Joel said. And then after verse 17 or verse 18, there’s the shift. There’s this move, a break.

There obviously been an assembling for prayer because we’re told in verse 19 that the Lord answered them and now speaks to his people. Again, verse 17, spare your people, O Lord. Make us not a reproach, a byword among our nations. Why should they say among the peoples, where is their God? And the Lord answers. The Lord answers. Verse 18. Then the Lord became jealous for his land and had pity on his people. The Lord answered and said to his people, Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine and oil, and you will be satisfied. I will no more make you a reproach among the nation.

So the history, the text moves from the Lord’s locus to the Lord’s judgment, and then to the Lord’s promise, the promise of restoral. Joel knows that God might extend his chesed, his steadfast, loyal covenant love, and there’s this cry for mercy from the people. And that God comes full of grace, full of grace. But notice the foundation of this grace.

In verse 18, then the Lord became jealous for his land and pity on his people. So what’s Joel saying there? This is the key, that by their sin they had fallen short of the glory of God. Romans 3, all have fallen short of the glory of God. They had, as it were, robbed God of his glory amongst the people, and God was jealous to have his glory back. Jealous for that glory. And yet with that, while the Lord was jealous for his own glory in his own land, right, which again is named after him, his people named after him. He was jealous for what their sin was saying to the world about him. It demeaned his glory, but at the same time, he saw them in their shame and repentance and misery. And he saw their need. He had pity on them.

And recognize the glory here, right? We have to see this. In the Lord God, his zeal for glory doesn’t require our crushing, right? These aren’t at odds with one another. Many unbelievers think this is the case about God, that if he’s determined and set that he be glorified, he must also be determined and set that his creatures be squashed, be crushed, or the other way, around, to put it as this, if God has pity on us in our sinfulness, then he must put aside his zeal, his jealousy for his own glory. But the wonderful thing is about the gospel throughout his word, we see this.

It’s that his passion for his glory is intertwined with his pity for his people. God, the covenant lord of his covenant people, wants his people back. He wants his people back, Joel is saying. At the same time, God is longing to have pity on his people, to extend his mercy to them. And this arises from the text before us in an amazing way. It’s in the amazing deliverance from the plague of locusts that God had provided. And that glorious deliverance does what? It describes the way in which the locusts are driven into the sea.

Even as they came, crushing, devouring, consuming everything, even blocking the sun. Listen again to how they go out by the will and work of the Lord. Verse 20, I will remove the northerner far from you and drive him into the parched and desolate land, his vanguard into the eastern sea, his rearguard into the western sea. The stench and foul smell of him will rise, for he has done great things.

And so by now we’re told that God is going to do an even greater thing and restore the years that the locusts have eaten. And that deliverance has a couple of trajectories. First, the deliverance points to the salvation of God in the present. And then second, it is a foretaste, an intrusion out of time, breaking into the now of Joel’s time. of the greater salvation from God that is to come in the future. It’s a taste of the salvation of God in the present because it’s deliverance, it’s salvation from the plague of locusts. But it’s a foretaste of the salvation that is to come in the future, that greater salvation in the power and the gift that God will give to his people through his spirit. Notice what he says about the salvation that God’s people experience in his own day.

Right. And these mirror these track and pattern down for us as well, as we see the connection from Peter in his proclamation at Pentecost. First, salvation for them comes through the destruction of the enemy. Right. We’ve seen this again and again. It’s a pattern that’s writ large in Scripture. And we just heard right versus 18 to 20.

The Lord has pity and the Lord is going to remove the enemy far from them. And the picture is a grisly one. It’s grisly, to be sure. It’s of the enemy, the locust enemy, lying on the shores of the sea in piles. They’re bugs, but they’re meaty. They’re weighty. And they lie there, piling up, and their foul, gross stench rising up from their bodies.

And for us, for us, we always have to remember this is a picture of what God does spiritually for his people. He not only delivers them from their enemies, but this is the pattern in the Old Testament and in the new. He delivers and then he reassures them of that deliverance by destroying his enemies. This is the case, of course, in that great redemptive act of the Old Testament for the Israelites when they came through the sea. And remember, their enemies were drowned when the sea opened up and then returned over them. Why did the Lord do that? Do it like that. He did it to reassure his people that these Egyptians. Would chain and pursue.

Them never again. Never again. Or think of the time when Jesus, right, when he cast out the demons of the demoniac, what did he do? He cast the demons out and he sent them into that herd of pigs, remember. And we get what Jesus is doing here. It’s the same pattern. He’s reassuring him, the demoniac, his damaged child, that these demons will never, ever infect and harass him again. Never again.

He demonstrates their destruction for the sake of the delivered, and so the power of the enemy must be destroyed and shown forth to be so. And then there’s also, right, the deliverance and then the reassurance from that deliverance. There’s the restoration joy of the delivered, the one who’s delivered, right? Think again of the overwhelming, gross, and icky, creepy, crawling, flying, and moving everywhere, those locusts. But it’s not just gross. They’re destroying everything, even blocking the sun. Tremendous force, right? It’s described incredibly, right? Nothing remained in their way. But now, Joel says, what glory, right?

Verse 21, fear not, O land. Be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done great things. Fear not, you beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness are green. The tree bears its fruit, the fig tree and the vine tree, their full yield. And then maybe the best known verse, the best known line in the book up till now, verse 25, the Lord declares, I will restore to you the years that the locusts have eaten. And over and over again, joy, joy and gladness.

And I pray, brothers and sisters, for each of us that you’ve been there, right? You’ve been here, like Psalm 51, right? Think of, remember Psalm 51. Lord, restore to me the joy of your salvation. David cries out as he’s convicted of his sin. He’s dealing honestly, barely before the Lord, right? Bare before the Lord. He says, make me delight that I’m delivered and that you are now returning, restoring all those things that my sin had shattered.

We all have our own years. of locusts, don’t we? We look back and we have regret. We have our sorrows, we have our laments. Maybe regrets of sin, in particular sin, or the regret of sloth. Seasons of life unproductive, unacknowledged to God, unlived for God, doing little or nothing with the life that God has given us.

Life has gone by, the locusts have ravaged the years, But what did the Lord say through Joel, right, through his Holy Spirit? There is yet a word from God for you as you turn to him and turn away from your sin, turn to his mercy and pray that he will be jealous for his glory in your lives.

He says to us, do not be afraid, rejoice, be glad. And then lastly, there’s this in regards to this, there is an an awesome fulfillment of God’s provision. Right. Verse 26, you shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And this is uniquely right, this is uniquely for people, for God’s people.

We must acknowledge we have to acknowledge brothers and sisters, the pleasures of the world indeed are fading. And for the person apart from without Jesus, you’ll always be lusting for satisfaction from the world. The world can never provide. The world can never. Satisfy, you never provide true lasting satisfaction or true lasting peace. You cannot do so. but from the world they crave and they lust for more and more and more and more, but they will never find it.

For those who belong to Jesus, I pray that’s every one of you. For you, you know what is your greatest lasting treasure and what is your greatest and lasting pleasure is Jesus alone. Jesus alone, he will restore. He will use the time and life that he’s given you There is yet time. Call upon the name of the Lord, brothers and sisters. Call upon him, you children, you young people, hearing my voice. Call upon this Lord, you children of Zion, children of the church.

Don’t wait until you’re old and crusty, right, like so many of us. Find someone with silver hair up top who’s lived a long life and ask them if you should wait to give yourself to Jesus. Good odds that they’ll agree. Don’t wait. Don’t wait. Don’t wait, children. And for you, a silver on top, who’ve let the time and the years be locust food, the word is what? Still for you. There is yet still time. Call on his name. Live.

You live for Jesus as well. Give him your lives for all of us, and he will give you his. And behold his mercy and his care. experienced the full blessing. Of restoration in and through the Savior, Jesus Christ, and the intimacy of communion with God, which is the privilege of all of God’s children, communion, love, fellowship and joy in the Lord Jesus Christ. These are the blessings for all. Right. And so we have the question is, how can they be for me? How can they be for me?

Well, God’s word throughout the Old Testament, the New Testament, the one book tells us. These blessings are for all who call upon the name of the Lord. All who call upon his name. So Peter comes in Acts 2 and he’s declaring the truth and he preaches, turn away from your sins, be baptized, enjoy forgiveness, come and live for your glory, for the Lord.

And that’s the same call for you and for me. You’ve not done so. That’s the call, and I plead, I pray that all of you have, and if you haven’t. Call upon the name of the Lord for restoration and restore, restore and joy and peace. What did Jesus say? Peace, I give to you, not as the world gives. Because it cannot. All upon the name of the Lord and those of you who have come again and again and again continue to call out for him.

The gospel isn’t something you leave behind you after you believed in him. It is through the gospel, believing and trusting in the gospel that the spirit promises to change you and to grow you. Increasing measure. Joy upon joy, glory upon glory, and transform you evermore, evermore into the image of a son, even seemingly slowly.

That’s His promise, and He will do it. Call upon the name of the Lord, and you shall be saved for your life and for His glory. Oh, that we would do so. Oh, that we would be cognizant always of this glorious promise that He gives. to command in the results that he will do through the spirit. Glorious Savior we have indeed, is he not? Let’s pray. Our Heavenly Father, we praise you. We praise you for the truths that you tell us.

We pray, Lord, that you would indeed give us faith to believe. We are so slow to believe and we’re so seemingly Inhibited, Lord, we feel so powerless in and of ourselves. We pray, Lord, increase the faith you’ve given us. I was to know for certain that you are for us and not against us in Christ. And that it is true that you tell us that we have died. Been raised to newness of life and to walk boldly with our Savior in that freedom, Lord.

Help us to not be those who are self-confined in the cell of sin with the door open. Lord, we are free. Help us to know that. Help us to know that. Place that truth in our hearts that we would love. Place it in our minds that we would know. Place it in our wills that we would indeed live the life and that we would be who we are.

Sinners saved by grace. Be with us, we pray the remainder of the service, be with be with us as we leave this place and descend back into the world. As your ambassadors living, showing, telling forth with our lips and with our lives of the love that we’ve been shown and the hope that yet awaits them. Were they to call upon the name of the Lord they would be saved. We ask all of this for your glory.

In Christ’s name, amen. Amen.