There. Good. Yeah, good. Be a little cooler today. Yeah. It sadly Facebook to Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome. Glad to see all of you you here. And as you can see, we got a train wreck about to happen here. And that's vacation Bible school behind me there. That starts tomorrow. We're looking forward to that with a good group of kids in here learning a little bit about Cross Tide Junction. That's where we're going to Cross Tide Junction this week. And so that'll be good. And I am not teaching a little bit of this and a little bit of that. This morning I have a guest with me. I'm going to give a fuller introduction in the worship service when his family's here. But I do want to invite Pastor Mark Bayes. Many of you know him. Our online audience knows him here. Our local audience knows him because he's been coming to church here off and on for what, six, seven years, something like that. And I have had the privilege of mentoring him. And today is his exam to to see how well he has done in my mentoring. I will afterwards give a full report in front of everyone on how poorly you did or how well you did. Mark, he's actually a great preacher. You'll enjoy listening to Joel in one sermon. That's what we got today, right? And yeah, John was just saying says Joel in one sermon, but it doesn't say how long a sermon. But I'm preaching when it's my turn, so you come up. Mark, we're glad you're here. I'm going to lead us in a word of prayer, and then I'll turn it over to you. Heavenly Father, thank you for these who join us here and these who join us online and for the blessing of being able to hear Pastor Mark from Blue, Oklahoma, and give us this book of the Old Testament in one sitting that we can grasp and take and understand. Thank you for he and Mary and their four children and pray that you bless them and continue to bless their ministry. And thanks for the role that our church has had in encouraging them in that ministry. And we're grateful to have him come and open the word for us today in Jesus name, Pastor Mark Bays, we are very glad you're here. Thank you, Dr. White. It's a great honor to be here and it really is. Yeah. Six or so years ago, I came in as a clueless young kid wanting to do some preaching. And then I ran into that guy and he kind of turned everything upside down for me, and he's been working on me ever since. So it's just great to be here. Taos, you're a very special place, this church here. And also, by the way, when I was expecting triplets, my wife and I, you were so kind to give a very generous love offering to help us. So I can't thank you enough for that. Unfortunately, I've got a lot to cover and we got a little time to do it. So with that, we need to go ahead and just jump right in. Dr. White opened us up in a word of prayer. So I'm just going to simply have you turn your Bibles to the book of Joel. My objective today is to give you a very good overall picture of this prophet, a minor prophet in the Bible. And the reason why I chose it is because I had divine revelation from the Lord. No, as much as I'd like to claim that I was thinking, what am I going to preach on that Dr. White has not talked about. And most of you realize he's been doing this for a good long while and it's very, very challenging to find something he hasn't covered. And I wanted to cover something he hasn't covered because then he would just take the credit and say, well, I taught him that. Okay, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to approach Joel today. I don't think he's done a book verse by verse study through it. And so I get to do it first. Ok. And then maybe along the way he'll steal something from me and I get to take credit that I taught him that. It was either that or Isaiah and I flipped a coin. Now with that, Joel is consisting of three chapters. You'll find it after the book of Hosea. And let me give you the quick rundown on who Joel is as well as when Joel was. The truth is, Joel is one of the more obscure prophets. There's a number of times if you were to do a search for the name Joel in your Bibles, you'll find the name, but it's not him. This is a Joel who's the son of Pithuel. And we don't really know who Pethuel is. So with that we're just kind of having to speculate as to when and who and where he was. There are some that would claim that he's possibly the son of Samuel because Samuel did have a son named Joel. I'm going to tell you, I don't think that's going to work timeline wise, but maybe just know that that's out there now. Joel is just the Hebrew Name for Jehovah is God and pthuel, very interesting. It's consisting of two Hebrew words. And I think this may have an interesting thing to play in here. So pthuel, it's Patah and then El, which El is named for God in Hebrew, but patah actually maybe patha, is to persuade is essentially the meaning of the word. So if you put Joel together with his Father's name, you have Jehovah, God, persuade God. So I think I propose to you that we're going to see in Joel there is going to be some persuasion being done by the Lord in the course of this short minor prophet. Okay, so as far as when was Joel? Once again, we just don't know. There's some books that think Micah, Amos, Hosea, some of these other books that give you a very good timeline. This is the prophet so and so who prophesied during the days of King so and so of Israel or of Judah. You get none of that with Joel. It is entirely speculation, but I think we have some good reasons to think that maybe he was a prophet who lived in the kingdom of Judah. So the southern kingdom, we're going to have references to the house of the Lord, we're going to have references to priests, we're going to have references to Zion, Jerusalem itself. So my speculation is Joel was a prophet, probably living maybe sometime in the day of Judah's, the span between Judah's first and third siege by Babylon. So I think maybe he was a contemporary with Daniel somewhere along the way. Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, they are a major threat, getting ready to come and siege Jerusalem and bring destruction to it. But that's some speculation. So with it, now that the speculating is over, let's get into what we know for sure. And that's what the book of Joel actually says. Starts out in verse one here of chapter one, the word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pauel. 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? This is getting them ready to hear some things that they have never heard before. And it's going to be absolutely astonishing to them, basically. Read it. You've never seen anything like this. That's going to be my position on what the prophet has to say here. Old men, men who came before you, your fathers. What you're about to hear, what I'm going to portray to you today, you've never seen it before. It's never happened. Before it's going to leave you astonished. And it goes in, and we get into verse four. Here 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 eaten, hath the caterpillar eaten. Very interesting words. There you get the initial picture of famine. Think Egypt and the plagues. There have been locusts, insects come upon the land. They've laid devastation. That is not the only problem, though. So as a result of that, it seems like the vines for the wine, the grapes, they've been destroyed. There's no wine left in the kingdom, in the land. And that's not the only issue, if you get down to verse six. For a nation has come upon my land strong and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion. Now hold on to that little piece of information. Whose teeth are as the teeth of a lion. I think that's going to be important for us in a little bit. Now, we do have to start speculating a little bit, or at least you would want to. Who could this nation be if this is Judah in those times of Babylon's affliction or the affliction brought about by Babylon? The lion is certainly an animal, a symbol tied to the kingdom of Babylon. You'll recognize that in some of Daniel's prophecy. So if we have the teeth of a L, maybe this nation is in fact the nation of Babylon coming in as a threat to this southern kingdom here. And it goes on and says, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion. He hath laid my vine waste and barked my fig tree. He hath made it clean bare and cast it. The branches thereof are made white. So this is the state of things. It's not a great time for whoever this is about. Like I said, I think it's the southern kingdom of Judah. You have these locusts come, laid waste to the vegetation. You have a nation who has come upon them, threatening them, not good days, right? And this leads into some very interesting things. Verse 9 says, the meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the Lord. Now, the house of the Lord, even though sometimes, common language, we would just refer to that as the church, a church house, a church building. That is the temple itself. And the temple is in Jerusalem. So there's our first indication that we have something going on directly impacting, affecting Jerusalem, Judah. The temple itself, the meat offering, the drink offering, these things are cut off Maybe there's no meat or drink left. It's in time of famine. They just don't have it. And then there is this call. Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen. Verse 11. Howl, O ye vinedressers. This is not a good time. This is a call to mourn. This is a call to weep. And verse 13 you have this continuing message. Gird yourselves and lament, ye priests once again. Where would the priests be? Let's think about that. They would be in Jerusalem. They'd be doing service in the temple. And so these priests, how 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 withholden from the house of your God. So this is where we're at right now. You have great affliction coming upon the people. And there is this call to repent, lament, wail and mourn. Okay, this is what we've got so far in chapter one. In fact, verse 14 calls for sanctify ye a fast. It goes on as I try to turn my page here and 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. So you need to be crying out unto him. You need to seek the Lord, that he will deliver you from this. Now this is when there are certain times in the Bible that you have got to hit the brakes and hope that you're not on a train. Because those things take a good while to stop, don't they? See how I worked that in there? Verse 15 contains words that you are going to have to stop and think for a moment. Here's what verse 15 says. This is really going to be the answer to everything that's going on right now. Why are the people suffering at the hands of these locusts? Why are the people faced with this great nation coming upon them? The meat offerings, the drink offerings, the vines, all these things have been destroyed and cut off. Verse 15. Alas. For the day, for the day of the Lord is at hand. And as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. That phrase right there, the day of the Lord. You need to mark and note that as in prophecy. And I try to avoid hard line rules all the time because you got to be careful. But it's just about a hard line rule that the day of the Lord is final last days events that we're talking about tribulation, we're talking about God's wrath, we're talking about judgment and we're Talking about ultimately this leading to the Messiah to come and reign on the throne. He's going to reign, he's going to deliver. But this is the day of the Lord at hand. What I want to do here is I want to turn to Isaiah chapter 13 for just a moment, because the day of the Lord is certainly a passage that. Or it's a. It's a term that describes God's wrath being poured out. And also I would say that you may see it at times, this phrase, day of the Lord. Once again, It's Isaiah chapter 13, in which you read about it and you think this sounds like something that's happened in the past, something that was happening at the moment with the prophets. And yet there is a future thing that is still yet to come. There is a future part of this that is not completed in totality. And so chapter 13, this is Isaiah's record here of a prophecy concerning Babylon. Isaiah, chapter 13, the burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see. And I want you to read verse six. This is entirely a passage talking about the judgment to come upon Babylon. Verse 6 says, Howl ye for the day of the Lord is at hand, and it shall come as destruction from the Almighty. That reads the exact same way, doesn't it, as what it does in Joel? And so when we see these two phrases here, so similar, we need to start trying to connect the dots because most of the time you will find a good tie there. Verse nine even says, behold, the day of the Lord cometh cruel both with wrath and fierce anger to lay the land desolate. This is talking about Babylon. Now when you get on to the later part of this chapter, it says here in. Let's see if I can find it, verse 17. If you jump to verse 17 of October, Isaiah 13, the Lord in this word says, behold, I will stir up the Medes against them which shall not regard silver as for gold, they shall not delight in it. Now we've had this framed as in the day of the Lord, destruction from the Almighty. And God says, I will stir up the Medes. The truth is, this did happen. We know this happened back in the 4002 B.C. when the kingdom of Babylon, the Chaldeans, was overturned by the Persian Mede empire. And does that mean, though, that this is fulfilled in totality? I would argue that just because you have a historical record now, looking back, it was future in Isaiah's day, does not mean the whole thing has been completely accomplished. If we read here in verse 20, here's what it says, it shall never be inhabited. Speaking about Babylon, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation, Neither shall the Arabian pitched tent there, neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. The truth is, Babylon did not have a single moment in history of destruction where no one dwelled there. It was completely a desolate land. Even to this day, there's people that dwell in the region of Babylon. You can go and get tours there and probably stay in a hotel or something. The reality is, yes, God said the Medes are going to come and bring destruction. That's absolutely what happened. But the ultimate fulfillment of Babylon's final destruction, their final destination, their final judgment, is yet in the future. What does this mean for Joel? Why did I take you on a detour here? I would say there are a number of preachers, theologians, who would say that Joel chapter one is about Babylon. That may be true. Yet at the same time, just as there was a time of judgment by the Medes through the hand of God upon Babylon, the ultimate fulfillment was not yet. I would propose to you, as we're reading Joel chapter one, while it may have some historical events that have already taken place, Judah's fall to Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, there is still yet a future, more final fulfillment that you are going to find not back in history past, but in prophecy future. And I think that's going to become all the more apparent, all the more clear as we get into chapter two. All right, so just hang in there. Bear with me for a moment as we start putting all this together. And why did I decide to try to tackle an entire book in one sermon? We're getting there. I promise. We're nearly a third of the way done. So this is the situation. This is the day of the Lord. It is at hand. Destruction from the Almighty. It has come. And this is the. This is the state of things. Israel, Judah, they are in a bad way. They're in bad shape. A nation has come upon them. So what I want us to do now is see what Joel chapter two has to say, because I think we're going to get more of the picture that filled in when we get into chapter two. Chapter two begins kind of with a bang or a blowing of a trumpet. Blow ye the trumpet in Zion. We're talking about Jerusalem here. Sound the alarm. 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. We are still concerning the day of the Lord. This is our focus. We have an Immediate threat, an immediate danger in is coming upon Jerusalem itself. Now, there's been times in the past, like I said, that Jerusalem has faced siege before. But what we're going to see here, remember the opening of chapter one. Old men, have you ever seen this? Have your father seen it? Tell your children about it. This is something unlike anything before. That theme is going to continue. This is something that is not of history past, but will be unlike anything ever known previously. Verse 2 says, A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and a thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountain. So we've got a dark day. And then furthermore, we have another great people, a great force that is coming upon the land. A great people and a strong. There hath never been ever the like old men. Have you ever seen this? Have you ever heard of such a thing? Have your fathers ever seen it? The theme, the pattern is remaining here. Never been the like. Neither shall be anymore after it. Even to the years of many generations. You're never going to see anything top this, anything like this that could compare to it for the rest of history. That's how we need to take this. Here it goes on. Verse 3. A fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame burneth. The land is as the Garden of Eden before them. It's just saying they haven't been there yet. There's trees, there's vegetation in front of them, but when they get there, and behind them, a desolate wilderness. Yea, and nothing shall escape. So once again we could say this is still Old Testament history. Babylon coming upon Judah. Some very strong language here. But at the same time, we keep getting this language. There will be nothing like it. Nothing can compare to it. It does carry the weight that this is something that will top even the times of Jerusalem's past being sieged by other nations, by foreign opponents. And then furthermore, we get into verses 4, down through 11, and this great people of chapter 2 begins to make you wonder, who in the world are these people? This is not like. This does not sound like just Babylon. This doesn't sound like Nebuchadnezzar's army. This sounds like something else entirely. Verse 4. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses and as horsemen, so shall they run like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. So it describes them there. They are intimidating. They're a great mighty force. They've Got horsemen, the sound of chariots, they will run. But then I want to go ahead and jump down. There's so many things that I would like to talk to you about in this short lesson, but I just, I've got to focus on the major points. Hopefully this encourages you in your all your spare time this afternoon or maybe while Pastor Randy is preaching. If you get bored, you can just do the study through Joel on your own. But let me just jump down here to verse eight and make a point for you. Neither shall one thrust another. They shall walk everyone in his path. You could read that as well trained, well, well prepared. They're not going to be in a calamity amongst themselves. But then look at what it says at the end of this verse. And when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. That's quite an amazing thing. Hold on now. If this is just an army of men, even great warriors, mighty men, I'm pretty sure if you fall upon the sword, that means that you are wounded. But not these. Verse 9. They shall run to and fro in the city, they shall run upon the wall. I don't quite know how you do that. I've seen some people who can do some interesting acrobatics. But running on the wall, how do we take that? They climb upon the houses, they shall enter in the windows like a thief. The earth shall quake before them, the heavens shall tremble, the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. This is sounding a whole lot more like a very major event to take place at the end of all things, as opposed to an attack brought about by the kingdoms of man. Now this gets all the more strange when we get to verse 11. When we get to verse 11, it leaves you saying what verse 11 says. And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army, for his camp is very great, for he is strong that executeth his. For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible, and who can abide it? Now we have two options here. Either this verse just briefly mentions God's army that's going to come and maybe deliver Israel. Or is this army that we just read, this army that brings gloominess, that is destroying all the land about them that seem to be superhuman, they can fall on a sword and not be hurt. Is this this the Lord's army? And he's sending it upon Israel, upon Zion? Blow the trumpet, sound the alarm. What's going on? If you're looking for anything to support that this is a second army, that this is God's posse riding to the rescue. You're not going to really get any other verse that even gives you any support for that. It really sounds like we've had one great people in this chapter coming upon Israel, and maybe it's the Lord's army themselves. With that being said, I would propose to you that we actually have more information about this very army and this very event, but it's not in the book of Joel. What I want you to do now is I want you to go to Revelation chapter 9. Let's go to Revelation chapter 9 and see if there is not a little bit information we can gain as to this army, its identity, as well as why they would possibly be even labeled the armies of the Lord. Here's chapter nine. And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth. And to him was given the key to the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit, and there arose a 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. I don't know if you recall, but just a moment ago in Joel chapter two, it was described as a day of gloominess, a day of darkness. Continue on. 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 it was commanded. I'm going to skip verse four for a moment. That's going to be an exciting twist that we're going to get to in a moment. So we have a day of darkness, smoke coming out, covering up the shining of the sun, and we have locusts upon the earth. Now, we did read about locusts in chapter one, right? What the Palmer worm hath left, the locust hath eaten, and so on. When you look at the Hebrew text there, the different Hebrew words from my studies basically say these are all references to a locust, but it's more so locusts of different stages. You've got the young locust eating. You've got the mature grown locust eating. You've got another young locust eating. The point is, the locusts have come, and of every kind. They are eating and bringing destruction. We now have a reference to locusts here that are released out of the bottomless pit. When we initially read Joel Chapter one, we said, well, looks like you've got famine due to locusts, plain plagues, and you've got a great nation. What if this swarm of locusts and the great nation, the great strong People are all one in the same. There are times where you can find that reference to locusts as being not necessarily the actual insect itself, but a swarm of people, a threat, a danger. So with that, just entertain this idea for a moment as we try to work our way through here. And so with that, look at the description of them. Verse 7 says, and the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle. That's exactly the description given of the great army in Joel chapter two. This is horses prepared in battle array. And on their heads were as it were crowns like gold. And their faces were as the face of men. Look at verse eight. And they had hairs on the hair, or they had hair as the hair of women. And their teeth were as the teeth of lions. Hold on. Locusts, a great nation. Teeth as of lions. This is starting to sound like these are all one and the same. Okay, what do you think, Isaiah? Is it starting to sound like the same thing to you? Sounds like the same thing to me. Now, as we go on, this army here that's in Revelation 9, these have been released out of the bottomless pit. You may recall, I believe it's First Peter, chapter three, verse 19, and it's in your notes. Peter talks about the spirits that were in prison from the days of Noah who were disobedient. Who could these be? Could these be those sons of God, those fallen angels who rebelled against the Lord, Shut up in prison? The bottomless pit. The interesting thing is, as you read Joel chapter two, you start to think to yourself, this sounds like a very evil demonic army going out against Jerusalem. But then you get to verse 11 and you read, there's an army of the Lord. Furthermore, this entire purpose, remember we talked about pafuel, persuasion, persuading God. It sounds to me like God is trying to persuade Israel to repent, to confess that they have fallen short, to mourn over their sin and their disobedience. So maybe is the answer, yes, this army is sent out as a threat to Jerusalem, a danger to Jerusalem. But it's also because this army is doing the will of the Lord. These locusts are fallen angels released out of the bottomless pit. And that is why they can fall upon a sword. And it will not harm them, it will not hurt them. Are we reading one in the same? My theory sounds very good. And then I may get a little bit of pushback in verse four because it sounds like a wrench almost gets thrown into the system. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the Earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree, but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. That one does almost sound to be like a problem, very briefly, because it says in Joel that they've been destroying everything. Behind them is desolate wilderness. Before them. The land is as the Garden of Eden. What the Palmer worm hath left, the locust hath eaten. So how can it be that this army, released out of the bottomless pit, being locusts, are instructed in Revelation, don't harm any green thing, but only those that have not the seal of God in their foreheads? And yet this army of locusts in Joel chapter one, Joel chapter two, have been destroying sounds like vegetation that's in front of them. I think the answer is quite simple. Are the locusts? If our theory on tying Revelation chapter nine back to Joel chapter one and two, are these just normal locusts that Joel is talking about, I would say no. These are not just normal locusts, not the insects that fly around, and then when they land on you, you kind of panic there for a moment, swat them, trying to get them off of you. These are spirits loose from the bottomless pit to carry out the work of the Lord. If that's the case, what if the vegetation we're reading about in Joel is not actual vegetation, just as the locusts are not locusts in the traditional sense? Think about some of the language used. The vine, the nation of Israel, Jesus words, Thou art, or I am the vine, thou art the branches. So maybe my theory there was going to mess up, but here's one for you, the fig tree. If you recall back in Joel chapter one, it mentioned the fig tree was barren or was cut off. You have the illustration, the very real event, the miracle of Jesus cursing the fig tree when it didn't produce fruit. Clearly being an illustration of Israel, you have the reference to the olive tree and the nation of Israel being the branches. I would say that very likely what you have in Joel chapter one and two is these locusts, being prophetic of this future army released out of the bottomless pit, has afflicted not the literal green vegetation on the earth, just as Revelation says, but rather it's the nation of Israel due to their disobedience, the judgment that's come upon them. They're not offering the meat offerings, they're not offering the drink offerings, because they have been in failure to keep up the law, to be obedient to the commands, and God is bringing wrath and judgment upon them. When we have Revelation 9, it definitely gives us a different perspective on this event that's unfolding in Joel chapters one and two. Now, with that being said, just as in chapter one going back to Joel, now you have the affliction, you have the threat, and then you have the call to repentance. Chapter two follows very much the same pattern. You have the affliction, you have the threat of the great army. And then verse 12 of Joel, chapter 2. Therefore, also now saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart. And with fasting and with weeping and with mourning, and he goes on. You need to repent. Repent, repent. Sounds like God is trying to persuade. That's what it sounds like to me. Trying to get them to understand all this is befalling you, Israel, because you are failing to keep the commands. And you can go on and read the rest of those verses there. Speaking to God will remove the army. God will protect them. God will deliver them if you will weep over your sins and confess these things. And then there's the promise, as I just read, that God would deliver them. This brings us to where I did an interesting break in your notes. Joel, chapter 2, verses 28 through 32. Why did I not just keep those in the Joel chapter two section? Well, they are in Joel chapter two in our Bibles. There are some Bibles, though, that actually have these in their own separate chapter. So you and I, we have three chapters of Joel. If you were to pick up a Tanakh, a Hebrew Bible, they would have Joel segmented into four chapters. And these verses here, Joel, chapter two, verses 28 through 32, are segmented in their own unique chapter, which would be Joel chapter three. Why is that? I am going to present to you the case that when you get to chapter two, verse 28, the language really does take a shift where these are distinct from the events that we have just seen. We have seen a threat come upon Israel, a great nation, locusts, all the like that are afflicting them, God asking them, repent, confess, I'll deliver you all the like. But then you get to verse 28, and it shall come to pass afterward. I would say it would be a hermeneutical error, hermeneutical being the way you study the Bible, a hermeneutical error. To just read that as this is something that takes place after the great nation, the army comes upon the land. This is something. What is that? Angels. Angels, right. Yes, this. Well, fallen angels. Right. This kind of. This demonic army of angels that rebelled against God, that are released out of the bottomless pit there. Yeah, there's a lot to talk about regarding that. So the Hebrew scholars clearly read in that verse 28. Hold on. This is saying this is distinct. I'm talking about different events still related to the end times, but I'm not talking about the assault, the attack on Jerusalem. Let me tell you what else is going to happen in these later days, in these last times. And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions, and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids. In those days will I pour out my spirit, and I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke. Now, let me stop there. If you are familiar with Acts chapter two, you know, Peter said this was fulfilled, the pouring out of the spirit. This is that which was fulfilled by the prophet Joel. How can we say that Peter's right here and at the same time say that this was last days final day's events? If we do not have anything to say that there is a pause or a postponing of the last days events, it's really hard to say that Peter was right, because all this is leading up to the final days, the last judgment, all of these matters. And yet Peter said this is that we here at, at Taos First Baptist Church. Have you ever heard Dr. White say something about rightly dividing the word of truth before we understand that we live in a time that you need to rightly divide from Old Testament prophecy? And this is why I would say if you want to convince somebody that we live in an age that's very different, to persuade somebody to be a dispensationalist, the best thing to do is just study what the Bible has to say about the last days. And you're going to realize, hold on, something has gone awry. Something is not following the order of all that this was supposed to lead to, because we have already had Joel 2:28 fulfilled, and yet so much of this is still to come later. What's going on? This is where we introduce our age of grace. This is where we introduce the mystery revealed to Paul. Whereas in Acts chapter two, when Peter said, this is that you're reading the fulfillment of Joel 2:28, this has already taken place. This has already happened. And yet it was paused, it was put on hold. The Lord decided to put it on a. You know, put it on the warmer before he gets back to cooking with Israel again. And so all these things are going to unfold. And then verse 32. Actually, I want to read verse 31. It says, the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. This does furthermore help reinforce that verses 28 through 32 do really stand distinct from the events that we've read concerning the locusts, the assault on Jerusalem, and all of this. It shall come to pass afterward. This is a thing that will take place, and all this must take place before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. We actually read back in chapter two, the day of the Lord is nigh at hand. It's here that is very good grounds if you want to have ammunition to say that the Old Testament prophecies started to be fulfilled, Joel 2, 28 and onward. But it was put on hold because this clear setting apart of verses 28 through 32, these are distinct from what we just read regarding that attack on Jerusalem. Now with that, that brings us into Joel chapter three. Now, Joel chapter three is really, I would say, easily summed up here, because we are done by the time you get to Joel chapter three, we are done dealing with Israel's disobedience. The let's just say that God persuaded them, or at least persuaded the remnant of them. The second chapter concluded with a number of Israel believing, calling upon the Lord and him delivering them. So this issue of Israel's disobedience, the need to send nations upon Zion to get them to repent, that has been accomplished because we read in verse one, for beholden those days, and in that time when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem. Very interesting King James language. It just says, israel will come, Israel will dwell in the land, the kingdom will be established, peace will be brought to them. So no more will they be afflicted, no more will a nation come upon them. The Lord is now with them. The focus of judgment and wrath is transferred from Israel to now the nations at large, all the nations of the earth. Verse 2 says, and I will also gather all nations and bring them down into the valley of the of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations and parted my land. And the following verses go on to describe some of the ways they treated Israel, the wrong done against the nation of Israel, and they will be judged by how they treated Israel. What I want to talk about, though, is this matter of the valley of Jehoshaphat if you come across the Valley of Jehoshaphat in the Bible in Joel, chapter three, and you think, I want to know more about this valley, let me look it up, you're going to have a hard time because that is the only time you have a direct reference to the Valley of Jehoshaphat in the Bible. Now we have Jehoshaphat, he was a king. But as far as the exact identity or location of his valley, what that means, we don't. We don't know. There is some speculation that it is the valley that lies between Temple Mount and the Mount of Olives, which is known as Kidron. There we go. You get the golden prize today, preacher. So the Kidron Valley. Why do we believe that? I have not read in my studies any argument to give clear reason other than I don't know, seems like maybe the best place you might have some textual argument there to say that the Valley of Jehoshaphat is the Kidron. Possibly. The problem is, as I read the rest of this chapter, I lean all the more towards thinking the Valley of Jehoshaphat is another valley that goes by the name Valley of Megiddo. And let's read a little bit as we work our way through here. Here is what it says. Verse 9 says, Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles. Prepare war. Wake up the mighty men. Let all the men of war draw near. Let them come up. Yeah, they're all the men. It's time to go to battle. Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, I am strong. That's a nice line. Makes us feel good. But the truth is, it's just saying I need every able bodied person. If you've got blood pumping through your veins, pick up a sword, go fight. Verse 11 says, Assemble yourselves and come all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about thither. Cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord. Let the heathen be wakened and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there will I sit to judge all the heathen roundabout. This is a depiction here, a picture of all of the nations, the armies of the nations gathering in this valley. God will judge them. This is not Israel. Israel's already been secured by God. God has come to deliver them. Now God is focusing on the nations and they are all gathering in the Valley of Jehoshaphat. Once again, does this answer exactly what Jehoshaphat is? Not yet, but I have a couple more verses I want to read before we're done. Verse 13 says, Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, get you down, for the press is full, though the fats overflow, for their wickedness is great multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision. For the day of the Lord is near, in the valley of decision. We are going to have to go back to Revelation just one more time. Revelation chapter 14. I want to note you're going to see very similar words as you did in verse 13 of Joel. So in Revelation chapter 14 I want you to read in verse. Let me find it, verse 15, Revelation 15, Revelation 14:15. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, thrust in thy sickle and reap. For the time has come for thee to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe. We just Read in Joel 3:13 Another reference to a sickle, a time for judgment. If we then go to verse 16 of Revelation, let's just go ahead and read verse 13. So Revelation 16:13 may even be on the same page for you. You may have to turn one page in your Bibles. This is John writing, and I saw three unclean spirits, like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Once again, if you just. What is that you say? Let the plain sense make common sense, something about nonsense. I think we see a great battle, people being gathered in Joel. I see a great battle, people being gathered in Revelation verse 16 says, and he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. Once again, that valley of Megiddo. I would propose to you at this time, unless someone can present to me, and maybe there's someone out there, some very undeniable evidence that the valley of Jehoshaphat is something else, I am going to default to this is the valley of Megiddo, and these are one and the same. As a matter of fact, if this does help the name Jehoshaphat, I don't know if I have it in your notes here. Yes, it does. The name Jehoshaphat just literally means Lord has judged. Maybe we're not even necessarily talking about the King Jehoshaphat. Maybe we're saying this is the valley where the Lord will judge. And we read in Joel multitudes Multitudes in the valley of decision. God will decide. God will judge the nations. And with that the nations are judged. They are judged based on how they have treated the nation of Israel. And then it all concludes with the deliverance of Israel. Verse 16. The Lord also shall roar out of Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake. But the Lord will be the hope of his people and the strength of the children of Israel. So ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain. Then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more. And it shall come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drop with new wine. Remember when we read in chapter one that the wine was cut off. Wail all you drunkards, you have no wine to drink now there is wine dripping from the mountains, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth out of the house of the Lord and shall water the valley of Shittim. And let's go on. Verse 20. But Judah shall dwell forever and Jerusalem from generation to generation. For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed. For the Lord dwelleth in Zion. And that's how the prophet Joel concludes. And with that Israel is delivered. They went from being afflicted, being faced with a great nation, locusts coming upon the land to get them to do what? To repent, to turn back to the Lord. One of the reasons why I hold to a pre tribulational rapture and I say you and I do not have to endure the seven years of tribulation is because I study books like Joel. You are doing yourself a disservice, Bible students. If you don't go back and read those minor prophets, whether it's Habakkuk, Joel, a number of others. Because every time you read them, you come away realizing you know, all of the bad stuff that's going to happen in the last days has nothing to do with you and it has nothing to do with me. It's all about when God decides that he's going to deal with the nation of Israel again and get them to understand you did not keep my law, you need to repent. And oh, by the way, I sent you your Messiah and you need to look upon the one whom you pierced. And I take great blessed assurance in that, that this age that you and I live in is very distinct from this. And we can read where God was getting ready to carry all of this out the final judgment, the great nation, all of the things you'll read about in Revelation. And yet what did he do? He put a pause on all that. Where you and I live in this amazing mystery age where I'm not telling you repent or God is going to come and judge you. The message is, even though Christ the Son of God was rejected, the shed blood and resurrection that he accomplished is sufficient for you and I to be reconciled by believing that good news. And so with that, today that's Joel in one sermon. Hopefully you're going to come away with a good understanding. It's amazing how really we're covering the book of Revelation in just three short chapters. And so thank you all for letting me give you your Sunday school lesson. I better wrap it up so Dr. White can get ready to give you a lesson. I'm sure it'll be okay, but. Alright, let me close out in a word of prayer. Lord, we thank you so much for the opportunity we had to study your word, to look at this amazing minor prophet of Joel and see the events that are to come. And Lord, I just pray it leaves us with a great assurance that the final days, the last days, are not concerning our age and that we live in an amazing time where the Gospel is able to be presented and be received. And yet at the same time, Lord, we know you fulfill all promises. So just as you promised us eternal life, you've also promised Israel to be delivered and to be. To be the great kingdom that they were promised to be. And with that we thank you for all of your word. And it's in Christ's name I pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Pastor Mark Bays from Blue Oklahoma. I appreciate that. I was going to say something nice and until that last line of yours and then I decided not to, but he did the whole book of Joel and only went 14 minutes overtime or three or four. I never do that. Thanks for, for great work. I appreciate that. And yes, yes, I'm going to say a few words of introduction in the service that we'll have in just a moment, but those of you online, thanks for joining us as well. We'll have a new link for you in just a moment in our service. Those of you here, we'll take a few minutes break and the others come in and enjoy. Then some worship and some music and some preaching and be ready to go for a 10:45 service. God bless you. You're dismissed for a few minutes. See you soon.