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Alright, good evening everyone, welcome to First Works Baptist Church. Let's all find our seats and grab a song book. Open that song book up to song number 429, Park the Herald Angel Sings for our first song. If you are able, let's all stand together for this first song. Song number 429, Park the Herald Angels Sing. Everyone all together nice and strong. Park the Herald Angels Sing, Glory to the newborn King. Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled. Joyful ye nations rise, join the triumph of the skies. With angelic hosts proclaim, Christ is born in Bethlehem. Park the Herald Angels Sing, Glory to the newborn King. Christ by highest heaven adored, Christ the everlasting Lord. Late in time behold Him come, offspring of a virgin's womb. Failed in flesh the Godhead see, Hailed incarnate deity. Pleased as men with men to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel. Park the Herald Angels Sing, Glory to the newborn King. Hail the half-born Prince of peace, Hail the Son of righteousness. Light and life to all He brings, Risen with healing in His wings. Mild He weighs His glory by, Born that man no more may die. Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give the second birth. Park the Herald Angels Sing, Glory to the newborn King. Come desire of nations come, Fix in us thy humble home. Rise the woman's conquering scene, Cruise in us the serpent's hand. Adam's likeness now effaced, Stamp thine image in its place. Second Adam from above, Reinstate us in thy love. Park the Herald Angels Sing, Glory to the newborn King. Amen. Amen. Let's open our service with a word of prayer. Well I thank you God Lord for just everything you give us Lord for this evening tonight God. To just come and sing praises unto you Lord in remembrance of you coming to earth for us God. Pray Lord that you would bless the service Lord every aspect of it God. Bless the singing Lord. May it be pleasing to your ears. May it tenderize our hearts for the message that Pastor Mejia has prepared for us Lord. And may you fill him with your spirit Lord when he preaches to us God that we would leave here differently Lord than when we came in God and apply that which we hear to our lives Lord. We love you God. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Song number 424. Oh come all ye faithful. For a second song. Everyone all together nice and strong. Oh come all ye faithful. Joyful and triumphant. Oh come ye. Oh come ye to Bethlehem. Come and behold him. Born the king of angels. Oh come let us adore him. Oh come let us adore him. Oh come let us adore him. Christ the Lord. Sing choirs of angels. Sing in exultation. Oh sing all ye bright hosts of heaven above. Glory to God all. Glory in the highest. Oh come let us adore him. Oh come let us adore him. Oh come let us adore him. Christ the Lord. Yea Lord we greet thee. Born this happy morning. Jesus to thee be all glory given. Word of the Father now in flesh appearing. Amen. Adore him. Oh come let us adore him. Oh come let us adore him. Christ the Lord. Alright great singing. Thank you for being here this evening. Welcome to First Works Baptist Church. Just a few announcements here before we sing our next song. Which will be 423 if you want to get that ready. Joy to the World song number 423. If you did not get a bulletin go ahead and raise your hand and one of the ushers can get one for you. Important information on there as well as our prayer sheet that we'll go over in just a bit. And I believe brother Cody is going to be the one praying tonight. And so we'll get into that in just a bit. Of course our services are as follows. Sunday morning is at 1030 Sunday evening at 5 p.m. And then we have our Thursday night Bible study at 7 o'clock. We're starting a brand new book tonight. Starting the book of Joel. And so we'll be in the book of Joel for the next three weeks. And so I want to encourage you to make it all the way through. And you know make it just from the start of the book all the way to the end. Try to endure those three chapters. And so it'll be good. And then you see there the so many times and teams. The list of expecting mothers if you can keep them in prayer. And then the important reminders there at the bottom. Please make sure you pay attention to those reminders. Some of the upcoming church events. We have Christmas caroling this Saturday December 9th. We're going to be meeting at the building at 5 p.m. And there's going to be sign ups in the Usher station right outside here. And so if you can do us a favor. Number one participate in the Christmas caroling. Number two participate in the Christmas caroling. Number three sign up if you're participating. And number four participate in the Christmas caroling. And so it'll be a lot of fun. We typically have a great time. I think we're probably going almost maybe to the same area if I'm not mistaken. It's a really nice area and people are very receptive to the Christmas caroling there. And we won't have to sing Psalm 139 to anybody as we're leaving or anything like that. We had that in Omani one time it was pretty funny. But we'll meet here at the building at 5 p.m. Be here at 5 for cookies and hot chocolate. Don't worry we're not doing champorado and bolios. Bunch of haters here you know apparently they don't like that. But we'll do the hot chocolate and cookies on Saturday. And so looking forward to seeing you all there. And then the First Works Christmas program is on Saturday December 16th at 6 p.m. It'll begin with the orchestra playing a couple songs Christmas songs. And then lead into the children's program where they sing and act out the Christmas story as well. Encourage you to bring your family friends to come see the little ones. And so we're going to have a great time that evening. Looking forward to if you have any questions about that you can see brother Maury he has all the details. And then our Christmas Eve service of course falls on a Sunday on the 24th. And we're going to be having a special lunch after the Sunday morning service. It's Mediterranean food after the Sunday morning service. And then I just confirmed after the Sunday evening service. First of all we're going to have desserts. It's going to be like a dessert fellowship. We're also going to have an alligator. So I'm looking forward to that. People are looking at me like what? Yeah come on you guys aren't excited about that? Alright you guys can have dessert. I'll have some of the gator. I'm looking forward to the gator. For those days actually bringing the alligator. It'll be smoked or you know it'll be dead right? So I'm looking forward. I think that's going to be great. And so some of you need to start eating gator to prepare for the tribulation. If that's grossing you out now who knows how you're going to make it throughout the great tribulation. But we're looking forward to a great Christmas Eve service. And so hope to see you in church for Christmas Eve. That would be a good time to come to church. And then we have our New Year's Eve service on Sunday December 31st. And then on Friday January 26th is Sarah and Giovanni's wedding. And please do us a favor and RSVP to the wedding. There's a scanner there. You can RSVP it'll take you straight there so you can RSVP. So please do us a favor and do that so they can plan accordingly. And we're looking forward to that starting in the new year. And then no food or drink allowed in the main auditorium except for water and coffee. Please make sure you silence all your phones so as to not be a distraction during the service. Go ahead and pull out your prayer sheet. We'll go over that briefly. And then brother Cody's going to come up and pray over these needs. Continue to pray for our church corporately. Of course you see just the regular prayers that we need there for God's favor. For the sowing and the missions protection of our church. Of course the spiritual numerical growth. And just pray that our church finishes strong. And you know particularly individuals in our church who are new. You know if you've been in church for any length of time it's just kind of normal for you to just stay in church throughout the holidays. However not many people know that and sometimes they can get caught up in parties or whatever and get out of church easily. So pray that newer Christians, newer believers would still be in church even during December and Christmas and New Year's. And that they would replace some of their old activities with new spiritual activities. So pray for that. Pray for the younger Christians in Christ that they would be able to just have those disciplines and stay in church. And then you see the different needs there for church family members and barren women expecting mothers. Just different needs there. If you can continue to keep all of those in prayer. And please do us a favor if you do have a prayer request on this list and it's been answered. Please let us know so we can cross it off and even announce it that prayer was answered. And so if you can do us a favor and do that. If you have an additional prayer request you'd like to be mentioned. You can put that at the bottom tear that off and put into the offering plate. And we'll make sure that it gets on there for the following week. All right. Brother Cody why don't you come out and pray over these needs. Let's bow our heads in order of prayer. I did look up. Heavenly Father, Lord, I just thank you for everything that you blessed us with, Lord. And in this time of the Christmas season, Lord, I just pray that we all focus on you, Lord. And what you've done for us, Lord, coming to be born of a virgin, Lord. To die on Calvary, Lord. And so we just thank you for the best gift you could give us, Lord, which is eternal life, Lord. And just thank you for all the other blessings that you've given to our church, Lord. And the members within our church, Lord. All the great families and the great soul winners, Lord. And the great people who are on fire for you, Lord. And just thank you for everything you blessed our church with, Lord. And I just pray that you continue to keep us in the fight, Lord. Just continue to fill us with the Spirit, Lord. And help us with our soul winning efforts, Lord. To just continue to go out, Lord. And preach the gospel of the lost and not lose that fire and the tear in the eye for the lost, Lord. And, Lord, I just pray for our protection of our church, Lord. Obviously we've had a long time of peace, Lord, and it's been great. And, Lord, I just pray that you continue to protect us, Lord. Especially during the Christmas time, Lord, where we just get to enjoy celebrating your son, Lord. And just get to grow closer one to another, Lord. So just pray for your continued protection of our church, Lord. And, Lord, I just pray for the spiritual numerical growth, Lord. For more people to come in and get plugged in, Lord, to our church. And not just that, but also the people who are already here, Lord. I just pray that you help us to grow spiritually, Lord. And for the new people, Lord, I just pray that you continue to give them that passion, Lord. That zeal that it's easy to start off with, Lord. And, Lord, I just pray that you help them to have endurance, Lord, and consistency in their life to stay in the fight, Lord. Fight the good fight. And even for others who have been in church for a long time, maybe their whole life, Lord. Continue to help them to endure and keep going and stay in the fight. Continue soul winning, Lord. Continue to serve you, Lord. And just help us, Lord, to continue to grow spiritually and never think that we know it all or just have everything together, Lord. Help us to continue to seek after you, Lord, and to read our Bibles, Lord. And, Lord, I just pray for this Christmas season, Lord. I pray the Christmas caroling goes well, Lord. I pray we're at least able to be a light unto some people during this Christmas season, Lord. And I pray for the Christmas program, Lord, that it's honoring to you, Lord. And we see people get saved through that, Lord. And, Lord, I just pray, lastly, for the people who are sick in our church, Lord. I just pray that you have a hand of healing on every individual, Lord, who's sick right now. And I pray that you help them to feel better for Sunday, Lord, so that they can be at church on Sunday, Lord. So bless this service, Lord. Fill Pastor Mejia with your Holy Spirit, Lord. And give us in the congregation ears to hear to the message that the pastor has prepared for us, Lord. And bless the service. Keep us safe on the way home. We pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Song number 423 for our third song, Joy to the World. Song 423, Joy to the World. Everyone all together nice and strong. Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Let earth receive her King. Let every heart prepare Him room. And heaven and nature sing. And heaven and nature sing. And heaven and heaven and nature sing. Joy to the world, the Savior reigns. Let men their songs employ. Of fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains. Repeat the sounding joy. Repeat the sounding joy. Repeat, repeat the sounding joy. No more let sins and sorrows grow. Nor thorns infest the ground. He comes to make His blessings flow. Far as the curse is found. Far as the curse is found. Far as, far as the curse is found. He rules the world with truth and grace. And makes the nations prove. The glories of His righteousness. And wonders of His love. And wonders of His love. And wonders, wonders of His love. All right, so we're going to do an additional song tonight. You should have a song sheet for our service. We'll do one additional song. Infant holy, infant lowly. Sorry to the ushers there. Infant holy, infant lowly. If you do not have a song sheet, go ahead and raise your hand. If we have any left, the ushers, we'll bring them to you. Anyone need a song sheet? Everyone have one? All right, great. Start this song. Infant holy, infant lowly. Everyone all together nice and strong. Infant holy, infant lowly. For His bed a cattle stall. Oxen lowing, little knowing. Christ the child is Lord of all. Swiftly ringing, angels singing. Bells are ringing, tidings ringing. Christ the child is Lord of all. Christ the child is Lord of all. Locks were sleeping, shepherds keeping. Vigil till the morning new. Saw the glory, heard the story. Tidings of a gospel true. Thus rejoicing, free from sorrow. Praise His voicing. Christ the child was born for you. Christ the child was born for you. Amen. This time the ushers will collect the offering. We'll be starting a new book tonight. Joel, chapter number one. . . . . . . . . . And the Bible reads, the word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel, hear this ye old men and give ear all ye inhabitants of the land. Have this been in your days or in the days of your fathers? Tell your children of it. Let your children tell their children and their children of the land. He hath left the locust eaten, and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten, and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten. Awake ye drunkers and weep and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, for it is cut off from your mouth. For a nation has come up upon my land, strong and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion. He hath placed, embarked my fig tree, he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away. The branches thereof are made white. Lament like a virgin, coated with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the Lord. The priest, the Lord's ministers mourn. The field is wasted, the land mourneth, for the corn is wasted. The new wine is dried up, the oil languishes. Be ye shamed, all ye husbandmen, howl, all ye vine dressers, for the wheat or the barley, because the harvest of the field is perished. The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languishes. The pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even though the trees of the field are withered, because joy is withered away from the sons of men. Encourage yourselves and repent, ye priests. Howl, ye ministers of the altar, come. By all night in the sackcloth, ye ministers of my God, for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholding from the house of your God. Be ye crucified, ye fast, call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord. Alas, for the day, for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as the destruction from the Almighty shall it come. Is not the meat cut off from before our eyes, yea, joy, and gladness from the house of our God? The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are like desolate, the barns are broken down, for the corn is withered. How do the beasts groan? The herd of the cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture, yea, the flocks of the sheep are made desolate. O Lord, to thee will I cry, for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field. The beasts of the field cry also unto thee, for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness. Let's pray. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for the King James Bible, your God. We thank you for this wonderful church you have given us. Thank you for the pastor you have given us, dear God, please bless her with your Holy Spirit tonight as he preaches your word unto us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Okay, tonight, as I mentioned, we're starting a brand new book, the book of Joel. And let me give a couple of introductory thoughts here to kind of prime the pump of our thinking and just kind of think about this particular book here in the Minor Prophets. First and foremost, I want to point out the obvious, and that is that the book of Joel is obviously part of what we would refer to as the Minor Prophets. And don't get mistaken, it doesn't mean that, you know, any of the Minor Prophets are of any less quality than the Major Prophets. They call them the Minor Prophets simply because of the fact of the amount of content that is found in each book. And so when you look at, when you think about the Major Prophets, you have Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, a lot of these are just saturated with a lot of chapters and a lot of teaching, whereas the Minor Prophets are somewhat of a brief sermon, a brief prophecy that they're giving forth. And so, Joel is a part of what's commonly referred to as the Minor Prophets. Now, a unique thing about the book of Joel is that we don't necessarily know when he prophesied this, okay? And when you look at the other prophets, whether it's major or minor, it kind of gives an indicator of when it was stated or when it was prophesied based upon the kings that are mentioned, like right off the bat. Because it will often tell you that Jotham was the king at that time or King Uzziah was the king at that time. And so it kind of gives you an indicator of when these events were taking place, when the judgments were coming upon the land, whereas the book of Joel just says that he was the son of Pathuel, okay? And obviously, God doesn't owe us any explanation of when this is taking place, but we can conjecture that he is possibly prophesying around the same time as these contemporaries that we see before and after him, known as Hosea, and of course, you have Amos, Obadiah, and Jonah, because of the fact that I believe that a lot of the major and minor prophets, although we see them in chronological order in the Bible, excuse me, we see the order that they're in in the Bible, I believe that's actually the chronology of when they actually prophesied. And so it would be that Joel possibly prophesied during the same time as his contemporary Hosea and Amos and Obadiah. So it could be that Uzziah as well as Jeroboam were the kings at that time. Can we say beyond a shadow of a doubt? No, but it kind of places that around that period of time. Now, another thing that I want you to understand, and it's important to note, is that when you are studying the major and minor prophets, you know, these books obviously have a lot of content, they talk about a variety of different subjects, but one of the major themes of the major and minor prophets is these two things right here, judgment and restoration. That's pretty much the exact theme throughout the Old Testament as far as the prophets are concerned. They always talk about judgment, destruction, and then they also talk about restoration. Now, obviously they talk about other things as well. They hit on specific sins and the sins that Israel is guilty of, that Judah and Jerusalem are guilty of, and they'll talk about a variety of different kings, but in general, a lot of the same commonalities that they have is the fact that they are prophesying about judgment and restoration. And the reason that's important to note is because of the fact that when you study these books, you'll notice that when they talk about judgment and restoration, there's always an immediate fulfillment of that, okay? In other words, when you have Joel, you have Isaiah, you have Jeremiah preaching about judgment and destruction, they literally experience that in their lifetime, you know, where a foreign army would come. The most notable one would be what? King Nebuchadnezzar taking the children of Israel into captivity, into Babylon for 70 years. That is a part of God's judgment. And then, of course, along with that prophetic statement of judgment also comes the promise of restoration, meaning that after those 70 years are done, he's going to bring them back into the land and they will be blessed of God once they believe on the Lord once again. And so you always have to understand that when you read those things, there was an immediate fulfillment of those particular events. However, what you'll also notice is that when you read these events in each of the major and minor prophets, you'll see certain statements that are made and it's just kind of like, that doesn't sound like it happened during their time. You know, it sounds supernatural, it sounds outside of the scope of the nation of Israel, and that's because that is a prophetic statement regarding something that's going to take place in not even the near future but in the far future. We're talking about the end of the book of Revelation, okay? So when you think about the judgments and the restoration, that's often, you know, it's often designated for a specific geographical location known as Israel, right? It's kind of like a microcosm of that. But then the underlying prophetic statements that are made about destruction and restoration in the future are obviously dealing with the world, okay? Because we know that God is going to eventually judge the entire world during the wrath of God, which is the second half of Daniel's 70th week, and then the restoration would be referring to what? The millennial reign, the new heaven, and the new earth. And so it can be a little tricky sometimes when you're studying these books because you're reading them and you're just like, man, what's taking place when? And obviously you can't say beyond a shadow of a doubt when is it that particular events took place, but, you know, you can basically surmise, okay, this obviously happened in their near future, but there's obviously an underlying tone, there's a foreshadowing of something that will take place in the future on a greater scale, you know, affecting the entire world. And so keep that in mind when you're reading the major minor prophets that that is essentially the major theme. And then the other thing I want to mention about the book of Joel is the fact that the book of Joel, the theme of the book of Joel, as I mentioned, would be destruction and restoration, but primarily it focuses on this phrase right here, the day of the Lord. And that statement is found countless times in the Old Testament, and you can research it, you can look up every time it's mentioned, and it's always associated with these particular events, the sun and moon being darkened, and then just God destroying his people, okay, Israel or whatever it may be. So it has to do with God's judgment, but it also carries with it these cosmic occurrences of the sun and moon being darkened, the stars not given their light, things of that nature. And you can look up pretty much every instance of when the day of the Lord is mentioned, and it's pretty much associated with those things there, as we're going to see in the book of Joel. Now, when you start researching it in the New Testament, it's the same exact thing. The only difference is that a new element is added, and that is the resurrection and the rapture. So when you think of the day of the Lord, consistently it teaches that it's associated with destruction, sun and moon being darkened. However, when you study it in the New Testament, the element that's added to that is the rapture, the resurrection, that's what it's referring to. For example, you have in 2 Thessalonians 2 where the Apostle Paul is writing, and he says, I beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him, he says, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, nor be troubled. He says, neither by letter nor by spirit, or excuse me, neither by word, as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. And the day of Christ in the New Testament is synonymous with the day of the Lord. So how do you know that? Because Christ is Lord. I don't know if you knew that. The day of Christ is just simply another way of saying the day of the Lord. And he says, let no man deceive you by any means for that day, referring to the day of Christ, referring to the gathering together unto him, shall not come except to come a falling way first, the man of sin be revealed, showing us that there are things that precede the day of the Lord. And so when you compare that to the very clear passages of the New Testament, such as Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21, and Revelation Chapter 6, you see that the day of the Lord carries with it the rapture and the resurrection, along with destruction and punishment upon, you know, the world or in the Old Testament, Israel, okay? And in particular, in Judah and Jerusalem. And so that is important to note there, okay? And here in the Book of Joel, even though it's only three chapters long, the day of the Lord is mentioned six times. So obviously this is something that God is really emphasizing in this book. He wants us to have a firm grasp of what the day of the Lord is and what it entails, okay? And so keep in mind that when you read this, there is an immediate fulfillment and there is also a future fulfillment. Now the last thing I want to mention regarding the Book of Joel, and this is very, very important, okay? And that is that when you read it, you can't necessarily put everything into chronological order as far as end-times prophecy is concerned. So what do you mean? Well, sometimes when you read the major and minor prophets specifically, particularly the Book of Joel here, we have a tendency, because we already know the chronology of end times, we want to fit that chronology into the minor prophets and major and minor prophets, but it doesn't really work that way. Because a lot of the prophetic statements that are made in the major and minor prophets are kind of scattered. You'll have the day of the Lord, and then he'll talk about the restoration, and then you'll have the restoration, and then you'll talk about the day of the Lord again. And so it's kind of out of order, all right? You say, well, how do we know then for sure? Well, you're supposed to go to the New Testament. So if you want to learn chronology of end times, the Book of Joel isn't necessarily a good book to go to to learn that. You say, well, what book am I supposed to go to? The Book of Revelation, which is supposed to reveal unto you the things that shall shortly come to pass, okay? You say, then why study the Book of Joel in regards to end times prophecy then? Well, because of the fact that even though the information that's laid out in the Book of Joel is not necessarily in chronological order, it does have elements that foreshadow end times prophecy. So what it does is it allows us to reinforce some of the things that are being stated in the Book of Revelation, okay? And essentially kind of lets us know that that's what's going to take place. The problem is it's not in chronological order. Now, if you ask five different pastors for an interpretation on the Book of Joel, you will get five different interpretations. That's how obscure it can be, okay? However, each of those, and I'm talking about like new IP pastors. Old IP, I don't even think they even touch the Book of Joel, you know? That's not something they want to mess with, you know? And you say, well, why can't you guys agree? Well, I don't know if we do or we don't agree, but for sure what we agree on is what Revelation is teaching, right? The chronology and things of that nature, we know what the Book of Revelation teaches. It's where we disagree or differ on would essentially be the interpretations of these obscure passages in the Old Testament and what they picture, understand? And so I'm going to lay out just some of the possible interpretations that we're going to find here in the Book of Joel, but at the end of the day, we know what they foreshadow in the long run, okay? As far as the chronology is concerned, we don't know if it's being laid out here, but we're not studying the Book of Joel for chronology, understand? We're studying it for foreshadowing, okay? Which kind of cracks me up when people, they're like, well, if you really want to know the Book of Revelation, you've got to study the Book of Daniel. No, if you want to know what the Book of Daniel says, you've got to study the Book of Revelation. You've got to study it in light of the Book of Revelation because the Book of Revelation actually has more information, it's far more clear, and so obviously you can learn things about the Book of Revelation using the Book of Daniel, but that's not necessarily the marker, okay? These, the Old Testament, you know, essentially are books that are in obscurity and require the New Testament to bring to light those dark sayings, understand? And so just want to let you know that, and it's important to note that, okay? Now, it's a powerful book here, and so I'm going to give the immediate fulfillment of what we're going to look at in Chapter 1, and then we're going to get into the future fulfillments, and then also some applications. So the first thing we're going to look at here is the fact that the destruction that Jerusalem and Judah are going to receive is obviously a destruction that's worth remembering, okay? Because he says in Verse 2, Hear this ye old men, and give ear all ye inhabitants of the land, hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers, tell ye to your children of it, let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. Now let me just say this right off the bat, is that we actually don't know what Judah and Jerusalem were even guilty of based upon the Book of Job, because it actually doesn't talk about their specific sins, which is another unique thing about the Book of Joel, because other books will tell you what they did, you know, the prophets will just call out their sin, but the Book of Joel doesn't actually highlight the specific sins that they're guilty of that merits judgment upon them, however, we can basically look at other instances in Israel's history, and you know, instances where they've sinned and committed abominable acts, and say they were probably involved in idolatry, they probably were involved in covetousness, righteousness, you know, that's the way of Israel, okay, and so obviously it doesn't matter, it's enough for God to just bring destruction upon them, but this destruction is so severe that God is telling them, you're going to be talking about this for a long time, so this isn't just some judgment that comes upon them, and just quickly vanishes away, people forget about it in the coming years, no, it's going to be on the minds of the population for quite some time, even to the point where the word is in the mouth, people are just going to be talking about it for generations to come, and you think about 2020, people are going to be talking about 2020 for a very long time, people are going to be talking about COVID-19 for a very long time, right, it's something that is constantly, you know, being talked about, and even if you don't want to talk about it, you know, you will run into someone who does, right, because this is just something that really devastated this country, and you know, essentially changed the face of our country to a certain extent, as far as laws are concerned, and people's minds, things of that nature, but here God is telling them that the judgment that he's going to lay on them is so severe that people are going to want to talk about it, and a good application to this would be that it's important for us as Christians and as parents to always communicate God's judgments to our children, okay, it's important for us to always talk about the consequences and the ramifications of disobeying God, and it's always important to talk about, yeah, the love of God to our children, but we also want to talk about hell and destruction, and God's standard, and what happens when people violate that standard, and we want to talk about it to our children, and we want our children to talk about it to their children and their children to another generation, why? Because that way we can keep the judgments of God alive, okay, and so that's important because that way we can transmit the fear of the Lord to the coming generations, so God wants us to talk about these judgments, and not just judgments that are taking place in our world today that God is responsible for, but even the judgments of the Bible, you know, supernatural occurrences where God wiped out entire cities, you know, God wants us to communicate Genesis 19 to our kids, he wants us to communicate Judges 19 to our kids because he wants us to keep the fear of the Lord alive in our generation, so he's telling them, you know, you're going to talk about it for generations to come, and this is essentially implying that this destruction is going to be severe, okay, to the point where generations after, they're going to be talking about as though it happened yesterday, and this isn't hard to believe because when the children of Israel were delivered out of Egypt, people were talking about it even 40 years later, I mean, 40 years later in Jericho, people were still fearing, they were afraid, they were living in fear even 40 years after the fact because they were afraid that Israel was going to come and God was going to do the same to them, so that's the kind of fear that we need to instill into this world, amen, where even 40 years after this church has started, people are still fearing, you know, the word of God, and they're fearing God's wrath, and they're fearing God's judgments, that is a proper communication of the judgments of God. Now, what judgment is he actually specifically referring to? Well, look at verse 4, it says, That which the Palmer worm hath left hath the locust eaten, and that which the locust hath left hath the canker worm eaten, and that which the canker worm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten. So, we can basically surmise that the first judgment, or at least something that already took place, was the fact that he allowed some sort of pestilence to come upon them, okay, known as the locust. And this judgment that God brought upon Judah and Jerusalem was so severe that just nothing was left. He made sure that nothing was left. See, how do you know? Because he's saying, like, whatever the Palmer worm eats, you know, he's going to eat something, he's going to destroy your resources, but whatever he does leave, any leftovers that he leaves behind, don't worry, the locusts are going to get that. And once the locusts are done, whatever leftovers they have, it's okay, the canker worm's going to get that, and even whatever residue the canker worm leaves behind, the caterpillar will eat. What is God telling them? I'm not going to leave you with anything. There's not going to be any residue of your crops, of your resources, and this is a fulfillment, I believe it's Deuteronomy 28, where God warned his people, if you disobey me, if you serve false gods, I will send the locust among you. Why? Because sometimes God has to hit you where it hurts, and where it hurts is your resources, it's your money, it's your possessions, you know, it's what you hold dear, near and dear to your heart, and so if the children of Israel aren't listening to the prophecies that are being put forth, God is like, okay, I'm going to get your attention another way then, by hitting you right where it hurts, in your wallet, and destroying your resources, just leaving you with absolutely nothing, and that way you'll cry out to me and you'll get right with me. And you know what? It works. It absolutely works. It gets people to read their Bible more, it gets people to pray more, it gets people to sow in more, they start coming to church more because they know they need God's favor. And let me say this, is that sometimes God has to take a lot away in order to get our attention if we're straying away from the things of God, you know, and that's one of the things we need to pray for, for people who are backslidden. When people are backslidden and they're away from God, you know, it's not a pleasant prayer to pray because we love the people who are, even if they have strayed from the Lord, but sometimes we just got to pray, Lord, send the caterpillar, send the canker worm, send the palmer worm, send the locust to just devour all of their resources so they just hit rock bottom. Because it's when you hit rock bottom, then you actually start setting your affections on things above and not on the things of this earth, okay? You know, the covetousness, the deceitfulness of riches, the lust of other things entering in can choke the word and a person can become unfruitful, they can develop a love for money and that is, a love for money is the root of all evil, it can bring upon them destruction and pain and sometimes what's needed is for God to just snatch that away, okay? And this is exactly what happened to the children of Israel is that he sent locust among them, he's done that multiple times throughout the history of Israel in order to get their attention. And so another thing that I want to point out here is that if we were to look at this in a chronological sense, okay, actually I'll get into that later on, I'll get into that later on in the chapter. So verse number four shows us that there's obviously an immediate judgment that already came, okay? And Joel comes to them and he's preaching this to them and he's telling them this is what the locust had done, God did this to you and you're not going to be left with anything, okay? And what is the result of that? Verse number five, awake ye drunkards and weep and how? All ye drinkers of wine because of the new wine, for it is cut off from your mouth. Verse number seven says he hath laid my vine waste and barked my fig tree, he hath made it clean bare and cast it away and the branches thereof are made white. So basically he's just like, you know, anybody who's a drunkard, anybody who's involved in sin, well God's going to get their attention through this, okay? He's going to get their attention through the destruction that's come upon them. Now I literally believe that there were locusts that were sent among them. I believe that's a legitimate event that took place, but I believe that even in this time it was a foreshadowing of something greater that was going to happen to them. Because he says in verse number six, for a nation is come up upon land, upon my land, strong and without number, whose teeth are as the teeth of a lion and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion. So it's interesting that he talks about the locusts, and when I say locusts I'm including the palm worm and all those other worms, okay? I'm just going to call them locusts for now. He sends the locusts, but then he talks about the locusts as though they're a nation. Now why does he do that? Well because I believe he's literally referring to locusts, which is a part of God's judgment, and then he's telling them a nation is going to come just like those locusts came. And a foreign nation that's coming to judge God's people would essentially behave the way locusts would behave. Because just as the locusts come and just destroy all the crops and the resources and leave them with nothing, well a nation's going to come and do that to the people. He's going to destroy the people, they're going to destroy them and take them into captivity and kill them. And so he's using these locusts as a foreshadowing, I believe, of another coming judgment of a nation, okay? Which is, by the way, another way that God judges people. He judges them by using a foreign nation to come and destroy them and wipe them out, okay? And so look what it says in verse number seven, He hath laid my vine waste and barked my fig tree. He hath made it clean bare and cast it away. The branches thereof are made white. Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the Lord. The priests, the Lord's ministers mourn. The field is wasted, the land mourneth, for the corn is wasted, the new wine is dried up, the oil languishes. Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen, how ye vine dressers, for the wheat and for the barley because the harvest of the field is perished, and so on and so forth. So He's just explaining all the resources that are going to be taken away. He's referring to the field being wasted. He wants them to lament. And He's even saying, He's even stating here that so many resources are going to be removed that they're not even going to have enough to do a meat offering or a drink offering. So they don't even have enough to serve the Lord with, which obviously they're not even serving the Lord in the first place, okay? Which is why He's even removing that ability to do so because of the fact that they are doing something that's not pleasing unto the Lord. And so this judgment is not only affecting the common man in Joel's day, but it's also affecting the priest. It's affecting the people who are the spiritual leaders of that day. Now I want you to skip down to verse 15 there. Look at verse 15. It says, alas for the day, for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. Now let's pretend for a minute that this is in chronological order, okay? It can get a little tricky here because of the fact that if the events that are being highlighted here not only have a near fulfillment, but there's a future fulfillment of them, and if we were to apply some sort of chronology of end times prophecy to this chapter, what we have here in verse 15 is that the day of the Lord has not yet come. And what we have is that previous to the day of the Lord, there's already some form of destruction being imposed upon the people because of the fact that it says the locust hath eaten. It says a nation hath come, referring to the past tense, right? Whereas the warning that He gives in verse 15 is that the day of the Lord is at hand, meaning it's close, and it says that it shall come, okay? So let's pretend for a second that maybe this is a chronological setting of end times prophecy. How would we explain that? And let me say this is that I'm not dogmatic about this at all, okay? Because I don't think you can be. Because we know that the day of the Lord clearly teaches in the New Testament that it's synonymous with the rapture, and if it's synonymous with the rapture, the events that precede the day of the Lord are not destructions and devastations imposed by God. They are things that are being imposed by the Antichrist and by the rulers of this world, right? Because prior to the day of the Lord, the day of Christ is you would have what's known as the beginning of sorrows and great tribulation. And so you have beginning of sorrows, great tribulation, lasting for 75 days, and then you have the day of the Lord where the sun and moon are being darkened. Then you have Revelation 7, which is the result of the day of the Lord for believers, the deliverance, because then you have a multitude which no man can number in Revelation chapter 7 of every nation and tongue. And then thereafter is when you start the trumpet judgments where God begins to burn the earth, and we'll talk about chapter 9 in just a bit. So how would we fit this? If this is indicating some sort of chronology, how would this particularly fit in end times prophecy if that's what it's talking about, okay? Well, here is an interpretation that we can run with and is a possibility. Again, we can't be dogmatic about it because, again, that which I want to make it very clear that that which precedes the day of the Lord in the end times is not God's judgment, okay? And the reason it's important to note that is because you have pre-tribbers who believe it is, right? They think the wrath of God and the tribulation are one and the same. Whereas we obviously understand based upon clear passages of scripture, we're not going to go over all of them in regards to tribulation, that tribulation is a theme thoroughly across the scriptures that indicate that it's someone doing that to believers, not God himself. Whereas the wrath of God is obviously God imposing destruction upon unbelievers and sometimes even God's people, but in the book of Revelation, end times, it is unbelievers that he's doing it to. And the proof of that is found in Revelation chapter 7 where he literally says, the angel says, I can't think of the wording right now, but he basically says, you know, not to hurt the trees, not to destroy the trees, the vegetation. And we obviously have in even chapter 6 where the saints are saying under the altar, how long, O Lord? Holy and true, does thou not judge and avenge our blood on them which is on the earth? Well, how can that be if he's destroying them already, right? You know, they're obviously saying it because God has not yet judged all of the world for their crimes against God. But again, let's pretend that this is in chronological order, what would the locust and or the nation that's found in verse 4 and verse 6, what is the parallel to that in end times prophecy? Well, even though that which precedes the day of the Lord is tribulation, there is one little aspect during great tribulation where a particular people are being judged by God. The Jews. Okay, I don't know if anyone got that. Everyone's like hanging off their seat like the Jews, okay? And this is what Luke 21 refers to as what? The days of vengeance. And it's an anomaly, we would call it like an anomaly within the tribulation where God is executing vengeance upon the Jews by allowing them essentially to be destroyed. And in fact, it states that Jerusalem shall be compassed about with armies, right? That these armies shall compass Jerusalem about for 40 and 2 months. And we can surmise that during that time that essentially, you know, the armies of the Antichrist through the providential will of God is allowing Jews to be destroyed during that time because they're not going to accept, the vast majority of them are not going to accept the Antichrist as being God because they don't want a divine God, they want a political leader. Well, once he reveals himself to be God, he goes into the temple of God, proclaims himself to be God, many of them are going to reject him and according to Luke 21 that the Gentiles will compass Jerusalem about. And that would fit in with the nation coming up, that would fit in with the locusts since the locust pictures a nation, it pictures soldiers, it pictures, you know, some sort of warfare that is taking place here, that would definitely fit in. And it's interesting that the locust and the nation that's coming up is going to Jerusalem in the book of Joel and Jerusalem is the city that's being compassed about in Revelation 11 by the Gentiles, okay? Does that make sense to everyone? So that would definitely fit if this was in chronological order, which we can't say beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is, but if it was, we can see how the locust and or the nation are picturing, you know, the Jerusalem being trotted under their foot for 40 and 2 months. Prior, because that is prior to the day of the Lord. I mean they do it for 40 and 2 months, but obviously the day of the Lord comes a lot sooner than that, okay? Almost a little past the midpoint of Daniel 70th week and then you have the day of the Lord, the rapture, the deliverance and the destruction happening thereafter. But again, we can't be dogmatic about it, I'm just saying that if we're to look at this through a chronological lens of end times and if we were trying to decipher why verse 15 is speaking as though the day of the Lord has not happened, even though the locust and the nation that is part of God's judgment is being spoken of as though it already happened, that's how you can kind of, you know, explain it. Does that make sense to everyone? Hopefully I didn't lose, maybe I lost like half of you, but I got it, you know? Now, let me say another thing about the locust and the nation here because the vast majority of the chapter is really dealing with God telling his people to repent, right? That's the main message is like you guys got to repent, you guys got to get right because this is going to come upon you and he's essentially motivating them to get right with God, okay? Which is why we preach so much judgment, by the way. I preach judgment in hopes that people would just repent and get right with God. You know, it's like, oh, you shouldn't preach that way, you're going to scare people away. Well, I hope I scare people away from disobeying God because that should be the goal, right? You know, no one gets people right with God sounding like a sissy up here begging you to get right with God. That's not the model of hard preaching that we see in the Old Testament. The Old Testament prophets are like, you guys are all going to die. You're going to be destroyed, you should howl and moan and lament. You're not going to have any new wine. The caterpillars are going to take everything. It's proclaiming judgment because judgment often motivates us to stay right with God or get right with God, okay? Which is why he says in verse 13, gird yourselves and lament. Ye priests, howl, ye ministers of the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God, for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholding from the house of your God. He says even in verse 14, sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God and cry unto the Lord. Now, we don't know if they, I would say that they probably didn't do this because often when you hear about the day of the Lord and the repercussions of the day of the Lord, you know, it ends up coming upon Israel, okay? Because Israel is a stiff necked people and they nine times out of ten just didn't listen to the prophet, okay? You know, there's just rarely an instance when that happened other than like with Josiah, for example, because they had a righteous king and but in general, I would say nine times out of ten they disobeyed the prophet and suffered greatly because of it. So, we see there referring to the locust and the nation. He's talking about what's going to happen to the resources. Now, let me just go into chapter two a little bit to carry over with this thought of end times prophecy. Look at verse number two, or excuse me, chapter two. Look at verse number one. It says here, blow ye a trumpet in Zion and sound an alarm in my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble for the day of the Lord cometh for it is nigh at hand. So, at this point, we're actually getting more specific to end times prophecy, right? Why is that? Well, because of the fact that now when the day of the Lord is mentioned in chapter two, it's mentioned in conjunction with the sounding of a trumpet, which when we see the day of the Lord in the book of Revelation, there is a trumpet involved not only announcing judgment against, you know, the unsaved, but also a sound of deliverance for the redeemed, right? The fact that they're going to be raptured, the resurrection takes place. He says in verse number two, a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness as the morning spread upon the mountains, a great people and a strong, there has not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. A fire devoureth before them and behind them a flame burneth. The land is as the Garden of Eden before them and 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 top of the mountain. Shall they leap like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble as a strong people set 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 everyone on his ways and they shall not break their ranks. Last verse here. Neither shall one thrust another. They shall walk everyone in his path and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. Now, when you read that, you're like, okay, some of that happened, but for sure some of that stuff did not happen. There's some supernatural stuff taking place there, okay. And so when you read these prophets, you have to understand like some of this is definitely applicable, but I guarantee you some of these nations did not have these capabilities, okay. So now we're looking into the foreshadowing, obviously. Now, go with me if you would to the book of Revelation. I know you guys all want to go there. Go to Revelation chapter 9, if you would. Revelation chapter 9. Because this army or this nation that we see in Joel chapter 2 could be referring to the nation that's referred to in chapter 1 and verse number 5, but it also could not be. Now, in the immediate context, in the immediate fulfillment, the nation that's in chapter 1 is probably different from the nation in chapter 2, we don't know, or it could be the same thing because the Old Testament prophets don't necessarily need to operate on end times prophecy chronology, you know. God can bring judgment and then he says he's bringing the day of the Lord and then there's judgment after that and destruction after that because of the fact that there is, you know, he has to take care of what needs to be addressed first and foremost, which is the nation of Israel and they need to be punished. And it's not always going to be in chronological order. Obviously, there's going to be some foreshadowing and obviously there's instances where God is judging a particular nation or judging Israel and it just so happens to fall in chronological order with some of the events that take place in Revelation. Don't make me repeat any of that. But do you understand what I just said? Hopefully you understand. I know I talk fast sometimes, but, you know, I just, you've got to listen fast. What I'm saying is that when you read the Old Testament, don't become frustrated thinking, well, why is this here and the day of the Lord is here and you have judgments of nations on both ends. Well, it's because he has to deal with them primarily so it's not going to fall perfectly in line with the chronology of end times. Sometimes it will, sometimes it won't. And he can do it that way, okay, if he wants to. It's called the day of the Lord. He can do whatever he wants with it, okay. What we're supposed to do when we study these major and minor prophets is look at the elements that are similar to end times prophecy and these are supposed to reinforce those events that are going to take place, okay. And in my personal opinion, one of the reasons a lot of these things are mentioned the way they are in the major and minor prophets is essentially to help us connect the dots. You know, we learn things in the Bible when things are repeated over and over again with the same phrases, the same terminology, and so it essentially ingrains those doctrines into our mind when we hear them. So it's a wonderful thing when you read the Old Testament, you read a phrase, you're like, whoa, I feel like I remember reading that in the book of Revelation or in 2 Thessalonians or something. And so it's helping you to connect the dots and it's given you a surplus of scripture for the Holy Spirit to work with to teach you more doctrine. You understand? We just can't be really strict about it in the Old Testament because you've got to keep in mind that the most important thing to take place in the Old Testament are the immediate judgments that need to take place. You know, God's not going to come to Israel and say, hey, I'm trying to do this end times prophecy thing. And so let me just work it this way. No, he's got to judge them and then, you know, through his providential will, you know, it just so happens to happen in certain ways or certain elements that are involved in there that essentially reflect what's going to happen in the end times. Okay, so with that being said, what we see in Joel chapter 2, we see a nation being talked about and some of these elements that are in there are kind of weird, okay? Now, what could it picture? Well, it could picture that army that we talked about that's compassing Jerusalem about for 42 months, or it could be referring to the locusts that we're going to look at in Revelation chapter 9, okay? It says in verse number 1 of chapter 9, And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth, and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit, and there was a rose of smoke out of the pit as the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth, and unto them was given power as the scorpions of the earth have power. And so what we see here is there is these supernatural creatures that are coming out of hell, and they're referred to as locusts. They have the power of scorpions. In other words, they have the ability to essentially possibly even paralyze men because it tells us later on that men will desire to die and cannot. I don't believe that it's saying that they're immortal or something for a short period of time. I think what it's referring to is that there's a paralyzing agent in their venom that's essentially rendering them immobile so they can't do anything. And it's like as soon as they get better, they get stung again, and then it's just back to square one, okay? It says there in verse number four, and it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither in a green thing, neither in a tree, but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. Now, the reason it says that is because the 144,000 of Revelation 7 are given this seal of God on their foreheads, and it's primarily for the purpose of not being harmed by these locusts, which would imply that they don't have their resurrected bodies yet, okay? So even though the 144,000 come from the Old Testament tribes, the 12 tribes, the 11 tribes actually, they can still be harmed because they have not yet received their resurrected bodies. They're sent back here, according to what we see in Revelation 14 and Revelation 7, to preach the gospel, but they still have their carnal bodies, so to speak, okay? You say, why is that? Well, because they still have a job to do, and therefore, you know, they're probably still going to get rewarded for preaching the gospel here, and that's why God has to seal them in their foreheads so they're not harmed by these locusts. And it's not a far-fetched idea because Elijah also comes back. He was taken up into heaven in a whirlwind of chariots of fire. He's going to come back, not in a resurrected form in his regular body, which is why he's killed later on, right? He's killed by the Antichrist, and so we see that there, so that's why the seal of God is placed there, verse number five says, And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months, and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he strike at the man. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it, and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. Let me just make this little point real quick. I remember hearing a sermon by Phil Kidd, and I remember him using this verse here, and he's like, it's going to be so horrible that men will literally take a nine millimeter and shoot their brains out, and they're still going to be alive, and it's just like, you're an idiot. He's like, it's a zombie apocalypse! He's like, I'm like, this guy's stupid. But this is the kind of stuff that unsaved people come up with, though. Obviously these people can die, and eventually probably will die. The venom is not some agent of venom that immortalizes them for a short period of time or something, because that would actually be good for them. He's like, oh, I can't die, cool. Let me just let a fireball just land on me, because I can't die anyways. Obviously what it's implying is that they're paralyzed, they're incapable of moving, they're immobile, and so even though they want to die, they want someone to kill them, they can't because they can't even move. They're just sitting there. They're vegetables is what they are. Now look at verse 7, it says, The shapes of the locust were like unto horses prepared into battle, and on their heads were, as it were, crowns like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men, and they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. So you see the similar descriptions there with Joel chapter 2. If you held your place there, you can see that in Joel chapter 2, in verse number 4, it says, The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses, and as of horsemen so shall they run. And then obviously in chapter 1, in verse 6 it says, For a nation is come up upon my land, strong and without number, whose teeth are as the teeth of a lion, and yet the cheek teeth of a great lion. Now one thing I want to point out in Revelation chapter 9 is that it says in verse number 8, And their hair was as the hair of women. What does that mean? What does it mean that it's like the hair of a woman if hair length doesn't matter? Obviously God is saying it because the picture you get is that these locusts have long hair. Now that's a really freaky sight if you think about it. Because if you have a locust, you know, and it's crawling on the floor and it has just like hair, I mean how freaky is that to see it just like kind of moving around looking for you? That's like a scary thing to see. But I just want to point out the fact that God says the hair is as the hair of a woman, well if hair length didn't matter then what is he even talking about, right? It's obviously referring to the length of the hair. And then it says in verse 9, They had breast plates as it were, breast plates of iron, the sound of the wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to the battle. And of course he goes on there describing Apollyon and Abaddon later on. Now one issue that we would have though with stating that the nation that's being addressed in Joel chapter 2 is talking about the locusts from hell in Revelation 9 is what? Joel chapter 2 the army that comes kills people. Locusts here do not kill people, they torment men for five months but they are not permitted to kill, okay? So obviously that would be an issue, right? Which is why we have to obviously see that not all the prophetic statements that are made, it's prophetic to their near future but not all of it is here in Revelation, you understand? But I do want to point one more thing out in Revelation chapter 9 because you know obviously you can see that there is correlation between the locusts in Revelation 9, these locusts from hell and the army that's conquering the people in Joel chapter 1 and chapter 2 but then there's other descriptions and details in Joel 2 that are not given about the locusts but hold on a second, it is given about the 200 horsemen in Revelation 9, okay? Because it talks about a fire devouring before and look at Revelation 9 in verse number 16 it says the number of the army of the horsemen were 200,000,000 and I heard the number of them and thus I saw the horses in the vision and them that sat on them having breastplates of fire and of jacinth and brimstone and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions, same description you see in Joel chapter 1 and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. Well in Joel chapter 2 it talks about the fact that they issued fire, a fire devoured before them and based upon Revelation 9 these 200 horsemen are literally killing a bunch of people, I mean they're destroying everything and that would actually match up with what we see in Joel chapter 2 because in Joel 2 it says like the garden of Eden was before them and then desolation behind them, now what is that talking about? It's referring to the fact that they will literally transfigure everything that comes in their path, something as beautiful as the garden of Eden they're just going to make it look as desolate as possible because they're just destroying everything with fire and in fact it says, let's read verse 17 it says and thus it saw the horses in the vision and then it sat on them having breastplates of fire and of jacinth and brimstone and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone by these three referring to the fire, smoke and brimstone was the third part of men killed by the fire by the smoke and by the brimstone which issued out of their mouths for their power is in their mouth and in their tails for their tails were like unto serpents and had heads and with them they do hurt so you can look at some of the details that are given in Joel chapter 2 apply them to the locusts but you can also apply them to the 200 horsemen as well because they have heads as lions they're issuing fire he said so what is it then pastor I need we need to be dogmatic about this I need to know is it the locusts or is it the 200 horsemen yes no no no what is it though is it the horsemen the 200 horsemen because they're issuing fire heads of lions or is it these locusts yes and I think what Joel 1 and Joel 2 are simply doing is just kind of giving us this conglomerate of information and it's obviously there's no coincidence that the 200 horsemen come right after the locusts and the details that are given about the locusts and the 200 horsemen are kind of mixed in in Joel chapter 1 and chapter 2 as well okay so I don't think we have to be dogmatic about it and say it has to be one or the other it's just supposed to put that image in our mind that this is something we should expect to see in Revelation chapter 9 okay and let me just say this the locusts are terrifying but I think the 200 horsemen need a little more recognition here because that's super scary and I don't think people realize how terrifying that is to have these horses with heads of lions and tails of serpents and then they're breathing out fire and brimstone it basically means you can't hide anywhere because if they're not able to burn you let's say because you are in some sort of you're in the house or something they can easily just break through your window and just breathe brimstone and smoke into your house and asphyxiate you with smoke there's just nowhere to hide and if you just I mean think about hearing these horses run 200 horsemen running through the streets just looking for people to kill I mean on site right just on site they see you're dead obviously it's not us because we're not going to be there but hopefully we get front seats in heaven and we can possibly see some of this I'm just saying like I don't think this is just like imagery here I don't think this is symbolic at all and people always want to make excuses to say well that's just symbolic, symbolic of what? What does a horse with a lion's head and a tail of a serpent symbolically represent? I personally think and I taught this in my Revelation series that you know what you see in the tribulation is just a low budget version of what God is actually going to do during the wrath of God because you have the four horsemen of the apocalypse but then you have the 200 million horsemen here and I believe the people on the 200 horses are actually probably believers that have been selected for whatever reason to participate in these judgments I mean not that you should judge the world you know and so go back to Joel if you would so anyways just wanted to show that there just to kind of you know whet your appetite for end times prophecy in the book of just walk away understanding this that you can't really be dogmatic as far as the chronology is concerned you can fit certain things in it but we can't say beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is if you want to know chronology you got to go to the book of Revelation you can use these passages of scripture to kind of expand the foreshadowing though and just kind of appreciate God's capability of inserting end times prophecy thousands of years prior you know and have real events take place to Israel that are definitely a foreshadowing of end times prophecy but the main thing that we need to get from this is going to finish the chapter here this is verse 17 the seed is rotten under their claws the garners are laid desolate the barns are broken down for the corn is withered how do the beast groan the herds of cattle perplex because they have no pasture yet the flocks of sheep are made desolate Oh Lord to thee will I cry for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field now let me say this last thing here is again if we were to go back and say what's the chronology here what can fit is that the locusts and the nation can picture the gentiles trotting Jerusalem under foot for 42 months then you have the day of the Lord and what is the first judgment that comes after the day of the Lord the trumpet what's the first trumpet it's fire and what do we have after the day of the Lord in verse 15 we have verse 19 that the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness that's exactly that's literally what happens in Revelation chapter 8 where God is just destroying everything with fire he's destroying all the all the greenery and all that and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field verse 20 the beasts of the field cry also unto thee for the rivers of water are dried up we know that the rivers and the oceans the seas are also affected in Revelation chapter 8 and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness and so at the end of the day the main thing that we need to take away from Joel chapter 1 is the fact that God is willing to go through some extreme measures to get people's attention right and here's the last thing I'm going to mention and that is that I don't really think that the children of Israel repented after this because just in general they didn't they like needed they needed a good shellacking they needed to be taken into captivity in order to get through to them but it's interesting that in the book of Revelation in fact in chapter 9 what we just looked at you have the locusts right these crazy locusts with women's hair just tormenting men for five months and if that's not enough you have the 200 million horsemen burning everyone up riding through the streets asphyxiating people burning people and even if you're behind them there's like their tail is biting you I mean this is like horrific stuff and you know what it says at the end of chapter 9 that they repented not of their evil works of their sorceries their fornications so in spite of all of those that destruction and judgment which you would think like if God has to create these crazy animals God's like what is the most terrifying animal that I can come up with and he makes this horse and he's like alright let's make 200 million of them and he just sets them free in the world to just kill a bunch of people and then people still don't repent well kind of shows you the nature of man and obviously one of the main reasons why is because a lot of them are reprobate but I'm just trying to draw the correlation here that I don't believe the children of Israel repented in the book of Joel because the nature of man as we saw in Revelation 9 is that they don't repent in spite of judgment coming upon them now we're not in that boat and so judgment is coming upon you repent just get right with God before he takes you home amen let's pray father we thank you so much for your word thank you for the book of Joel a lot of great things in the book of Joel Lord but of course the main application is far more important to us and that is that when you send the locust upon us Lord for our disobedience Lord we know that you can remove all our resources and everything that we hold dear in order to get our attention and I pray that Lord that would motivate us to stay on the right path and if there's someone here who's not right with God then maybe they're they're backslidden in heart in their heart they turn back into Egypt that they would get right with you as they hear the judgments of God and so I pray that you would you'd bless us with that mentality Lord and help us to think upon those things we love you we thank you pray these things in Jesus name amen all right we have one last song song 421 the first Noel let's do our very best on this first verse the first Noel the angel did say was to certain poor shepherds in fields where they lay in fields where they lay in fields where they lay keeping their sheep on a cold winter's night that was so deep Noel Noel Noel Noel born is the king of Israel and by the light of that same star three wise men came from country far to seek for a king was there in ten and to follow the star wherever it went Noel Noel Noel Noel born is the king of Israel this star drew nigh to the northwest for Bethlehem it took its rest and there it did both up and stay right over the place where Jesus lay Amen. Noel Noel Noel Noel born is the king of Israel then entered in those wise men three for them to go reverently upon their knee and offered there in his presence their gold and myrrh and Noel Noel Noel Noel born is the king of Israel Amen. Great singing tonight. You are dismissed.