This morning as we finish looking at the book of Joel, I want to point out one verse that forces us to ask a question. Then I want to try to answer that question from what God reveals of himself from the rest of the book. Then after we answer this question, I want to show two implications of that truth (also shown in Joel) and remind you of our place in redemptive history.

In 2:25, God says, “I will restore to you the years the locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you.” My question is, “What is it about God’s purpose and nature that would lead him to send these locusts among them at one point and then restore all that they ate at another?”

God’s purpose is to be known and honored

What we have been able to see from Scripture as a whole is that God’s purpose is to be known and honored. In the Exodus, God’s purpose is that both his people as well as the Egyptians might know that he alone is God and none is his rival. He asks Satan to consider Job that those around Job might see the worth of God and honor him. He takes Gideon’s army down to 300 that all may know that the victory was nothing about Gideon’s army but that God alone might be glorified. And that is just the beginning.

However, what about God’s work in Joel? For if God’s purpose in acting is that he might be known and honored, then his work recorded in Joel should be no exception – and indeed it isn’t.

For remember two weeks ago that we saw from Joel 1:1-2:17 that God had sent a plague of locusts upon the people both to discipline them for their sin and to warn them of a greater judgment yet to come? Well, what was the purpose of that locust plague?

We could rightly answer that it was to bring repentance, and that would be right, but why was repentance on behalf of God’s people so important? What was behind this work to bring them to repentance?

We answer this question as we begin to see what God wants to do in bringing repentance to his people. Joel 2:18 tells us, “Then the LORD became jealous for his land and had pity on his people.” And after that we read that he is going to bless them in their repentance. So, could we answer that repentance was so important because God wanted to show his kindness and love to his people? Yes, and he demands repentance.

But there is something else that we read in 2:26-27. God says, “You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God who has dealt wondrously with you. And 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. And my people shall never again be put to shame.”

He says within that, that he labored to bring repentance so that they would “praise the name of the LORD your God” and “shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God and there is none else.” Therefore, God’s purpose in bringing the invasion of the locusts was that he might be known and honored.

But we also saw that the locust plague was a sign of the final judgment to come, so what will God’s purpose be then? Again, we read after his description of that final day of judgment in 3:1-16, “So you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who dwell Zion my holy mountain” (3:17). God’s final judgment will be that all may acknowledge that he is the Lord and honor him.

So Joel tells us nothing different about God’s purpose than we have seen in the rest of Scripture. But what implications does it allow us to see? I want to list a couple.

God will fight against his people in order that they might worship him alone

Just as he did with the Israelites, God will fight against you in order that you might repent and give him your complete worship.

Why does God do this? We saw it in the first point. God will fight against his people so that they might repent from honoring other things above him and begin to honor him above all things. For if God were not a God whose purpose was to be known and honored, then he would not be a jealous God, or care about our sin and idolatry, or turn oppose us when we are holding something above him.

Just as a parent lacks character if he does not oppose his child when he is delighting in something that is not good for him, so God would lack character if we delighted in anything less than him with our whole heart and he did not oppose us.

So if God is just a portion of your life and your purpose is not to treasure and obey him above all things, and if you are his child, then you might be in a position today in which God is fighting against you for your complete devotion. He did it with Israel, and he loves you as his child no less.

On the last day, God will vindicate his people and judge those who dishonor him that all may know that he is the Lord

This is another implication of the truth we see in Joel that God’s purpose is to be known and honored is that on the last day, God will vindicate his people and judge those who have dishonored him by not recognizing him as their Lord.

Yes, there will be a final day of judgment in which God will allow his children to enter into heaven, into his presence for all eternity and enjoy him and will cast those whose names are not found in the book of life into hell for eternal agony and torment.

We are promised this event from Joel. We read of the foreshadowing of the blessing for God’s children:

“Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God, for his has given the early rain for your vindication; he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the latter rain, as before” (2:23).

“The LORD roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth quake. But the LORD is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the people of Israel” (3:16)

“So you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who dwell in Zion, my holy mountain. And Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall never again pass through it. And in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the streambeds of Judah shall flow with water; and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the LORD, and water from the Valley of Shittim” (3:17-28).

And those who deny the Lord will receive great judgment as we could read in 3:4-15. Joel calls this day, “The great and awesome day of the LORD” (2:31).

So, yes, final judgment is sure. The day will come when those who have professed Christ will know eternal life and those who have rejected him will know eternal torment. It is sure, for God’s glory and honor will be shown in the carrying out of these two acts. His justice, righteousness, and truthfulness will be upheld. Someone should not encounter that day in hopes that God is a merciful and good God who will excuse their sin and surely not cast them into the lake of fire, which is hell if they have rejected his Son. For, yes though God is a good and merciful God, he is also a just and holy and truthful God who cannot lie. Thus, if you reject his offer of mercy and remain unrepentant denying him as your Lord, he will be truthful to his foretold judgment of hell.

So be sure on that day that God will be vindicating you as his child and not judging you as his enemy.

We are in the last days

I provide this point so that all of us might have a sense of urgency. But it is a point that is very clear from Scripture, including Joel.

Right now, God’s people are already getting a foretaste of the glory to come to them and those who are unrepentant are “storing up wrath for [themselves] on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed” (Romans 2:5).

How can we be sure of this?

First must go back to Moses and see the progression of days in Scripture. In the Old Testament, God’s people would have the Spirit come upon a certain few and they would be able to commune with God. However, even with those few, the Spirit might come upon them for a while and depart from them later. Thus, David prays in Psalm 51:11, “Take not your Holy Spirit from me.” And, thus, the people of Israel would rightly say to Moses, we do not want to speak to God, but you go speak to him and then come back and speak with us.

Yet an interesting thing happens in Number 11. God says to Moses, “Gather for me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you. And I will come down and will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you may not bear it yourself alone” (Numbers 11:16-17).

The next day, God does pour out his Spirit on these seventy and they begin to prophesy. However, two men who remained in the camp also had the Spirit rest on them (11:26). Therefore, a young man ran to Moses and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” And Joshua said, “My lord Moses, stop them” (11:28). But Moses said, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the LORD’s people were prophets, that the LORD would put his Spirit on them” (11:29).

Thus, Moses longed for a day in which God would pour out his Spirit not on a select few but upon all his people.

Then Joel tells us of a coming day in which God will do just that. He writes in Joel 2:28-32, "And it will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions. "And even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. "And I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, Blood, fire, and columns of smoke. "The sun will be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. "And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD Will be delivered; For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem There will be those who escape, As the LORD has said, Even among the survivors whom the LORD calls.”

Therefore, Joel sees a time in the last days when the desire Moses voiced would be fulfilled.

Then on the day of Pentecost as the disciples were gathered in the upper room, suddenly there was a rushing wind and flames set on their tongues and they begin to speak so that men from many languages could understand them, as the Spirit was poured out on them. And as all were wondering what had happened, Peter stood up and said, “Men of Judea, and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give heed to my words. "For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only the third hour of the day; but this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel: 'And it shall be in the last days,' God says, 'That I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all mankind; And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams; Even upon My bondslaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth of My Spirit And they shall prophesy. 'And I will grant wonders in the sky above, And signs on the earth beneath, Blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke. 'The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the great and glorious day of the Lord shall come. 'And it shall be, that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved’” (Acts 2:14-21).

His announcement was nothing less than that the last days that Joel had prophesied about were here. We now live in a day in which all of God’s children have his Spirit dwelling within them so that Paul can write, “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him” (Romans 8:9). And the Spirit is a deposit of what is to come for God’s people (Ephesians 1:13-14).

So we are officially in the last days. We are awaiting the coming judgment of the Lord, believing that it might be very soon. Therefore, I urge you today not only to ensure that you are his child, but also to repent if God is fighting against you for your complete devotion.

May this day we choose to honor the one who is passionate about his honor and will one da

MERCY, JUDGMENT, AND THE COMING DAY OF THE LORD