Joel 3

Joel 3:1-21

JOEL—OR A PROPHET’S CALL TO Joe 1:1 to Joe 3:21IN taking up the study of the Book of Joel, we want to express the hope that many of you will read and reread this volume. Its brevity makes its reading the task of only a single sitting, and its clear forceful style is sufficiently attractive to invite a second perusal; while a third and fourth review would aid materially in making evident the plan of the Book, and the purposes of the Prophet.In discussing Hosea, we called attention to the fact that the order of these volumes, as they appear in our Bible, was not necessarily the order of their origin. The date of the Book of Joel is difficult to determine. Hosea told us the king under whom he prophesied, made mention also of the four kings of Judah who reigned in his time; and so definitely fixed for us the period of his prophecy. But the Book of Joel provides no such guide-posts. We know nothing of his personal history, and although the name of his father is given, that name appears nowhere else in sacred story.

So we are left without information regarding his family. The result is that students of the Word have parted company when they came to discuss Joel’s place in history, the majority putting him back as far as 810 to 758 B.C. while others, with some array of arguments, bring him down as late as 500 B.

C. We need not stop to enter into this discussion, since what Joel has to say is of equal weight and authority whether uttered at the one time or the other. He was Judah’s Prophet, just as Hosea and Amos were Prophets of Israel.His purpose in writing this prophecy seems to have been twofold, to reveal God’s judgment against sin, and the Day of the Lord, when men should turn from their iniquity to “worship * * in spirit and in truth”, and the golden Age would be on. In the Hebrew text this Book is divided into four chapters; in your English version, into three chapters; in fact, into no chapters at all. Its form is more like that of a sermon than a book. And while certain parts of it are given to the discussion of certain phases of his subject, the prophecy is worthy to stand as a single discourse, only passing from one subject to another as the preacher makes progress from point to point.We have elected, therefore, to discuss this volume under terms that will cover the entire Book, following, largely, its own arrangement of thought. AND It is not difficult to see that the first chapter opens with a description of a dire affliction which has fallen on the land: an affliction such as had not been in the days of the oldest inhabitants, nor even in the days of their fathers; an affliction which made such an impression upon the generation of Joel that he expected them to tell their children, and their children to repeat it to their grandchildren, and the grandchildren to give it to the generations to come.The unfaithfulness of Judah was assumed, not described. The Prophet’s appeal to the people to “turn unto the Lord” is proof positive that they had turned from the Lord. But he says nothing as to the nature of that turning, and nothing as to the extent of it. It would seem altogether probable that the arrangement of Joel in the Scripture Canon is due to this fact. Hosea had so vividly portrayed the apostasy of Israel and Judah that those who gathered these prophecies into one Book might say “Joel fits after Hosea”. Hosea tells the condition of the people, and Joel describes the judgments that had come in consequence.

If there is any one thought abundantly illustrated in the Old Testament, and often emphasized by the Great Teacher Himself, it is the dire fate of those who are unfaithful to the Lord God. It is found in the writings of practically every Prophet of the Old Testament, and it burns with new meaning when God’s Beloved Son speaks to that subject.

In Matthew 24:48, we have Jesus’ description of the faithless servant, and also His severe judgment against him. Joel is not out of date, therefore; he has a message for this generation. It is the message which the Apostle Paul repeated when he said, “He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption”.The affliction, here, is expressed by the processes of natural law. The scourge which Judah saw is brought about by the locust, or grasshopper. George Adam Smith calls our attention to the fact that though the palmerworm, the locust, the cankerworm and the caterpillar are all mentioned here, they are simply four separate terms for the same devouring insect—the locust, and might be translated properly in these words, “That which the shearer left the swarmer hath eaten; that which the swarmer hath left the lapper hath eaten; and that which the lapper hath left the devourer hath eaten.”No man, who has ever looked upon Kansas or Nebraska, in locust years, would charge the Prophet Joel with extravagance in the language which he here employs; and possibly Palestine and vicinity have seen more dreadful scourges. Dr.

Doughty, in his volume entitled “Arabia Deserta” speaks of having seen in this very country “clouds of locusts which devoured everything before them:” While a traveler to South Africa tells of the space of ‘ten miles on each side of the Sea-cow river, and eighty or ninety miles in length, the whole surface of which was literally covered with these pests; Another was reported, from Syria, concerning a season when the whole face of the mountain was black with them: when the effort to stop their onward march by trenches and fires proved utterly useless; when it required days for their armies to pass a single point, and when the noise of them, as they marched and foraged, was like that of a heavy shower falling on a distant forest.’ Driver declares that when in an erect position the appearance of these insects, at a little distance, is like that of well-armed horsemen. Ail these testimonies, and more, that might be easily given, corroborate the realism of Joel’s words in picturing what had occurred to Judah’s possessions.We call your attention to the fact that these insects, which may hatch at any season, in innumerable companies, and march forth to consume the very land itself, were regarded by the Prophet as judgments against Judah’s sin.

It is so that a great many of those wide-spread calamities that visit neighborhoods, and touch even nations, whether inaugurated of God or no, are yet taken possession of by Him, and employed to teach the afflicted the effects of unfaithfulness. To illustrate—the ground often cleaves asunder and earthquakes have shattered its parts, but when one opened at the very feet of Korah and followers and swallowed them up and all that appertained to them, Moses felt it was a Divine judgment against their conspiracy. For a long time people have read Bulwer Lytton’s volume “The Last Days of Pompeii” to see the evident connection between the awful sins of that people, which, like those of Sodom, called to Heaven for judgment, and that fateful hour when the silent mountain, whose solitary flickering light had already sent a word of warning, poured forth a torrent of death, and smote men and women, by the hundreds and thousands, leaving them in the very acts of their iniquity so that when the day of exhuming should come, the Judge would be justified or having overthrown the city.It is only a short time since, that Martinique, with twenty-five thousand inhabitants, had poured upon it a flood of lava which left but one living man in all its limits. He was preserved not because he was righteous, but because he was so vile that they buried him in the lowest cell of one of their prison houses, and even then his flesh was roasted until he has walked the earth bearing the marks of a judgment like the mark of Cain. Let no man misunderstand me! Jesus Himself once distinctly taught that God was not sending these calamities upon certain individuals because they were sinners beyond the rest.“There were present at that season some that told Him, of the Galilean whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. “And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? “I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. “Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? “I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:1-5). If Joel saw in this devastation of the land by the locusts an occasion of repentance, it was not for the farmers or gardeners whose fruits and vegetables were most utterly destroyed, but for the whole people to learn the lesson, search themselves and see if there were any wicked way in them! And today Jesus seems to be saying to us what God said to this ancient people, and what His Son said to those who reported the Galilsean blood shed by Pilate, “Repent”!God, therefore, is confessedly over all. We doubt if Joel meant to suggest that God had, by any miracle, made ready this myriad of locusts, but he did mean to say that ‘all power in Heaven and in earth’ is with Him, and whatever comes to pass must be by His permission. Even the offensive things—His hand is upon them. Few subjects enjoy a greater agreement on the part of the Old Testament Prophets than this touching the Divine presence. Joel’s name is significant.

The very word means “The Lord is God.” And who can sound the depths of that word, or explore the heights of that thought? Joseph Parker has justly said, “The ease or difficulty with which a man can surrender God depends, if I may say, upon the use to which he has become accustomed to put the mysterious term.

If God has been but a nebulous and speechless dream—a veneration without a corresponding morality—the act of surrender will be as indefinite as itself. But in our case, as Christian believers and Christian teachers, God is in every part of our life; He has manifested Himself to us; He has taken up His abode with us; the Spirit of His Son is in our hearts, crying, Abba-Father! He searches us and tries us; He acts directly and judicially upon every motive; He guides us with His eye; He besets us behind and before, and lays His hand upon us; to Him our hearts aspire in instinctive as well as in reasoned prayer; the spontaneous outstretching of our hands is towards His holy Temple, if haply we may touch His strength, and feel secure because He is almighty. When we do wrong, our eyes are darkened as with a cloud, and when we do well our hearts feel upon them the light of a smile. That is our case now; in such circumstances surrender would be destruction. We have, if I may so put it, gone too far in our use of God to turn away from Him and yet retain our identity intact.” “We live and move and have our being in God.” We have passed the merely argumentative stage. “God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us”. “Our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ”. This was the old Jewish conception; this is also the Christian conception; and this is the true conception. “God * * over all, God blessed for ever“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. “Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come?” (Joe 1:14-15). This Prophet saw God in the storm just as surely as in the sunshine that was to follow. God was present there in the time of their sorrow and witnessed their suffering just as surely as He would be present when the sorrow had passed, and all sighing had fled. With the great Apostle of the New Testament he believed that “in Him we live, and move, and have our being”. AND At the end of the eleventh verse of the second chapter he has finished his word-picture of devastation, and has reminded his auditors that the Infinite Father, the Lord of Heaven and earth, is in command of this terrible army, and hence his appeal,“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 rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth Him of the evil. “Who knoweth if He will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind Him; even a meat-offering and a drink-offering unto the Lord your God”? (Joe 2:12-14). In their affliction He would have His people hear the Father’s voice. It is a blessed suggestion. Our hours of suffering, our seasons of sorrow can be converted into Divine speech, if our hearts turn to Him. As you know by repeated assertions, we do not belong to the company who lay every calamity to the charge of God. Our afflictions we do not count a certain evidence of the Divine disfavor. We have an adversary who is pleased to lay his oppressive hands upon us, but we know that “all things work together for good to them that love God”, and like Job of old, Satan’s attack may, under God, become our season of blessing. Or, like the Son of Man, his temptations and trials may afford a positive triumph through the Divine grace.“I asked of my spirit within me A question that troubled me quite— A querulous question of nature, Because I was short in my right: I asked it to search out the reason Why trouble should light upon earth, And tears should be mingled with blessing, And moans with the ringing of mirth.

“But a voice, like the voice of an angel, Said, ‘Turn thee, and question again; God never afflicts for His pleasure, Nor troubles the children of men. His hand is the hand of a Father, His chastening is good in disguise, Though the clouds which are resting upon you May darken this truth from your eyes.

“ ‘And then,’ said the voice growing softer, ‘Some things which you counted God’s wrath, Are only His wonderful blessing, Revealing themselves in your path; And that which you counted evil, Was happily an angel of light, God’s beautiful angel of sorrow, Who winged his way through the night.’ ” Repentance was the Prophet Joel’s appeal. He was like Jonah in his opinion of the character of God when he repeated the words of the Lord,“Turn ye even to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: “And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth Him of the evil” (Joe 2:12-13). He knew, with the Psalmist, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise” (Psalms 51:17). You remember Jonah’s words when he complained that God had saved Nineveh, “I knew that Thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest Thee of the evil”. And Joel entertains the same opinion of Him. It is a strange thing that any man knowing his own past, studying the Divine treatment accorded his fellows, or looking into the Scripture to hear what God would say, can reach another conclusion.Joel believes that this repentance should begin with the leaders of religious opinion,“Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare Thy people, O Lord, and give not Thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God”? (Joe 2:17). Hosea has already said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge”—a charge against the priests, and reminds them “Like people, like priest?” Pentecosts will never come to the Church until God’s Prophets, the men who stand in the pulpit, and through whom the congregations voice their prayers, have made themselves right before the Lord. Long since I have ceased to complain of the pew. I confess to you that I believe profoundly that the pew is what the pulpit makes it. The opinions prevailing among the people are the direct product of the speech of the sacred desk.When John Wycliff was attempting to recover true religion he declared that it was the business of the preacher to “preach the Word” and argued that out of false preaching comes the spiritual deadness of the people; that the friars of his time had affected the depravity of the Church, and he announced, then, a truth which ought now to be sung in the ears of every seminary professor, and become the conviction of every theological graduate, namely, “It is God’s Word that should be preached. God’s Word is the bread of the soul—the indispensable, wholesome bread. Therefore, to feed the flock in the spiritual sense without Bible truth, is the same thing as if one were to prepare for another a bodily meal without bread.

God’s Word is a live seed which begets regeneracy and a spiritual life. Now the chief business of the preacher is to beget and to nourish up members of the church.

Therefore it is God’s Word he must preach. Then only will he succeed.” I confess I cannot help asking myself sometimes whether I am a worthy successor of my fathers in the Protestant faith.It has been claimed that every new era has been created by a preacher. Guizot is the authority for the opinion that Paul did more for liberty and free institutions than any other man of two millenniums, Froude only voices what is universally accepted when he affirms that Luther created the Reformation. It was certainly Savonarola who redeemed Florence more effectively than any grand jury of modern times has been able to cleanse Augean stables of municipal life. Dwight Hillis thinks that Caedmon, Bede, Bunyan and the translators of the King James version of the Bible opened up for us the springs of English literature. Cromwell wrote that “the Puritan preacher destroyed the Divine right of kings.” If the religious leaders are all right, God’s people may behave foolishly, as they did under Moses, but, after all, their leadership will insure their progress through the Wilderness, and their eventual possession of the Promised Land.But this call to repentance was associated with the promise of restoration.

The Prophet Joel knew this to be within the Father’s will and power. He said, “God * * is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth Him of the evil. “Who knoweth if He will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind Him; even a meat-offering and a drink-offering unto the Lord your God”? (Joe 2:13-14). No man will either doubt that willingness or question that power when once, like the Prophet, he has seen God. Oh, to know the heart of God.Love so deep, so high, so broad,Help me, Lord, to fully prove,All it means that God is Love!This Book also gives us THE IN OUTLINE Joel, the Prophet, had a vision of the end of the age centuries before John, the Apostle, put foot on Patmos. He saw the Pentecost to come. “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” (Joe 2:28-29). On the day of Pentecost Peter interpreted and applied these words. When the mockers said, “These men are full of new wine * * “Peter, standing up with the Eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them * *” (Acts 2:13-14). “This is that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel; “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: “And on My servants and on My handmaidens I will pour out in those days of My Spirit; and they shall prophesy” (Acts 2:16-18). There are those who profess to have no interest in prophetic studies, who speak of it with scorn as if such studies were mere speculations; but the truth is, until a man works himself into the meaning of prophecy there is for him no plan for the ages, and a great majority of God’s promises are without practical application. To get into the spirit of prophecy is to discover the key of Scripture study. Many of you remember Dr. John Robertson, of Glasgow, Scotland, who, a few years ago in this pulpit, broke unto us the Bread of Life. One day in my study I asked him the question how he came to be a pre-millennialist? He answered, “The World’s Fair compelled me to assume that position in Scriptural study.

At the request of Mr. Moody, I came over from Scotland to join with the famous evangelists from the ends of the earth, in a Chicago campaign in the Name of Christ.

Day after day I was face to face with defeat. I saw quickly that for every convert to the Gospel that we were making, the Adversary, and his emissaries, were winning a score to such conduct as meant their destruction, and I became despondent over the situation. All the while such men as Moody, Torrey, Chapman, Dixon, Wharton, Pierson, and Gordon not only kept their courage, but seemed positively confident of eventual victory. I was unable to understand their spirit, and when I asked them why they were not discouraged, they answered by pointing to the promises of the prophecies. Though prejudiced against the pre-millennial theory, I made up my mind to see what the Scripture had to say upon the subject, and lo, to my amazement, when once I began to work upon the subject in honest spirit, the meaning of prophecy was made clear, and the Coming of my Master burst forth from the Sacred page, and became to me also the “Blessed Hope”.Ah, beloved, if Abraham, living when he did, was privileged of God a look down the ages that revealed to him the day of the Son of Man, and thereby gladdened his heart, who will say that God does not intend us to do what Joel did—foresee the conquests to come?He also saw the special privilege of the Age of the Spirit. He knew that in that day it should “come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall he delivered” (Joe 2:32).Evangelism was in his perspective.

He saw the Jew and the Gentile alike, brought under the Divine benediction. Even Peter did not fully understand the sweep of His promise.“I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh” Jew and Gentile alike.

Nor the depths of it— “Your sons and your daughters * * and your young men, * * and your old men * * and on My servants and on My handmaidens”.That this was to be the portion of men irrespective of station or nationality, Joel made perfectly evident.“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: “Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears; let the weak say, I am strong. “Assemble 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 round about” (Joe 3:9-12). Then he proceeds to show that all this opposition will be in vain. “Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great” (Joe 3:13).Such has been the history of many of His movements in this age of the Spirit. No human opposition or hellish device has been able to retard the progress of our God who is marching on.Dr. A. B. Simpson tells us that there is an old frontispiece in Wyclif’s first Bible representing the cause of truth and the Holy Scriptures by a bright flame, while all around it are the enemies of the truth, with the devil at their head trying to blow it out. The bishops, the priests, the cardinals, and the Pope, with the devil himself leading them, blowing and blowing until it seems as if they would burst.

But instead of blowing it out, they only blow it in, and it blazes and blazes until they are scattered before its consuming breath. This is ever true of the cause of Christ.

Opposition, persecution, and misrepresentation only strengthen it, as we have all had such good reason often to prove. Nobody can hurt us but ourselves and “when the enemy shall come in like a flood” let us quietly ask the Spirit of the Lord to “lift up a standard against him”, and we shall hear a voice proclaiming, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts”.Finally, this apocalyptic vision represents alike, millennial glory and terrible judgment. Judgment is repeatedly expressed in this volume. It will be attended by the darkening of the sun and the moon, and the cessation of the shining stars; by the shaking of heaven and earth; by the revelation of the power of God, and His righteous wrath against sin. I shall not attempt to depict the scenes of that judgment, beyond what the Prophet has said. I agree with Henry Van Dyke that there is much concerning this judgment which we ought not to try to peer into, and explain with our little limits of reason.

It is not ours to pronounce judgment upon our fellow creatures; the one thing of which we are certain is that God will never do injustice to a single soul; but in every nation, “whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be delivered”. The rest we may leave in silence with God, and fear when He speaks against sin.Of that millennial glory we are enamoured.“It shall come to pass in that day * * the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the House of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim * * “But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. “For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the Lord dwelleth in Zion” (Joe 3:18; Joe 3:20-21). It is in harmony, beloved, with the twentieth and twenty-first chapters of the Book of Revelation. It is the picture of the consummation of the Ages when the Adversary shall go down into the eternal depths; after which“The Tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. “And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful” (Revelation 21:3-3).

Joel 3:11-15

THREE GREAT DAYS Joe 3:11-15IN the on-going of our Bible studies, we have reached this Book of Joel, and for several services we have dwelt upon the study of the same. On Thursday, at the Thanksgiving service, I spoke to you from Joe 2:15-32 discussing in that connection A Solemn Appeal, A Sacred Promise, and The Out-Pouring of the Spirit. Tonight I bring you to this third chapter of Joel with the deliberate purpose of helping men and women who are hesitant and fearful to reach a positive decision for God and His Christ. All that I shall say this evening has that objective, and I have no disposition to disguise it.This text seems to me to fall under the natural division of three great days; The Day of Judgment, The Day of Decision, and The Day of the Lord.THE DAY OF “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” (Joe 3:11-12). It is a clear indication of an approaching judgment day. I know that people are now telling us that there will be no judgment day. A few years ago Professor Paul Haupt of the Johns Hopkins University, in an address before the American Philosophical Society was reported to have said, “There is no biblical foundation for the story of the final day of judgment. The Book of Zechariah which Jews as well as Christians give as authority for the description of the last judgment, refers merely to a municipal plan for municipal improvements laid out by the Maccabees. The language has been misinterpreted.”Since the time of that utterance, it has become quite popular to hold the judgment day in contempt, and to declare it only a myth—religious imagination; but, just the same, practically every Book of the sixty-six that go to make up the Bible holds some reference to the judgment day.According to this text there will be certain characteristics of it.First, It will be a solemn assembly. “Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause Thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord” (Joe 3:11) The constitution of that assembly is rather clearly voiced by the Master Himself. In Matthew’s Gospel, the 25th chapter, we read the following:“When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory: “And before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: “And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. “Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: “For I was an hungred, and ye gave Me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took Me in: “Naked, and ye clothed Me: I was sick, and ye visited Me: I was in prison, and ye came unto Me. “Then shall the righteous answer Him, saying, Lord, when saw we Thee an hungred, and fed Thee? or thirsty, and gave Thee drink? “When saw we Thee a stranger, and took Thee in? or naked, and clothed Thee? “Or when saw we Thee sick, or in prison, and came unto Thee? “And the King shall ansixter and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me. “Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: “For I was an hungred, and ye gave Me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave Me no drink: “I was a stranger, and ye took Me not in: naked, and ye clothed Me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited Me not. “Then shall they also answer Him, saying, Lord, when saw we Thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto Thee? “Then shall He answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to Me. “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal” (Matthew 25:31-46). It must have been that Ringwaldt was dwelling upon this very passage when he penned the poem, “Great God, what do I see and hear! The end of things created! The Judge of all men doth appear, On clouds of glory seated: The trumpet sounds; the graves restore The dead which they contained before; Prepare, my soul, to meet Him.

“The dead in Christ shall first arise At the last trumpet’s sounding— Caught up to meet Him in the skies, With joy their Lord surrounding: No gloomy fears their souls dismay, His presence sheds eternal day On those prepared to meet Him.

“But sinners, filled with guilty fears, Behold His wrath prevailing; For they shall rise, and find their tears And sighs are unavailing: The day of grace is past and gone: Trembling they stand before the throne, All unprepared to meet Him.

“Great God, what do I see and hear! The end of things ereated! The Judge of all men doth appear, On clouds of glory seated. Low at His Cross I view the day When heaven and earth shall pass away, And thus prepare to meet Him.” In that day the sleepers shall be wakened. “Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about” (Joe 3:12). Just what that awakening will mean is suggested by Revelation 20:11-13— “And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another Book was opened, which is the Book of Life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works?” Dear John Newton sensed its awfulness; hence his hymn: “Day of judgment, day of wonders, Hark! the trumpet’s awful sound, Louder than a thousand thunders, Shakes the vast creation round: How the summons Will the sinner’s heart confound!

“See the Judge, our nature wearing, Clothed in majesty Divine; You who long for His Appearing Then shall say, ‘This God is mine:’ Gracious Saviour, Own me in that day for Thine.

“At His call the dead awaken, Rise to life from earth and sea; All the powers of nature, shaken By His looks, prepare to flee: Careless sinner, What will then become of thee?” The approach of that day is at hand.“Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great” (Joe 3:13). It is my profound conviction that the ministry of America, and for that matter, the ministry of the world is altogether too much engaged in singing lullabies and rocking cradles. They are declaring “peace, peace, when there is no peace”. They are administering sleeping potions to the people at the very time when they should be shaking them, and compelling them to become broad awake.Dr. Henry Clay Trumbull, the notable father of the present great editor of the “Sunday School Times”, Charles G. Trumbull, relates the following experience:“One Sunday I passed with a near relative, and there I met a gentleman whom I had never seen before, but who was connected with my relative. I sat with him at the table and we had a pleasant conversation.

In the evening this gentleman was out at a church service, and the lady of the house was suffering with a headache. I urged her to retire while I would sit up and close the house after the visitor came in.

As I did this, I sat by the fire in the sitting-room on the cold winter night. When the visitor was in, and the house closed, we still sat together there. He spoke of the service which he had attended, and he was evidently much impressed with the sermon. ‘You don’t often hear a sermon like that, especially from such a minister,’ he said.‘The minister brought us right up face to face with the judgment seat, and there he left us. There were no soft words to ease us down, such as, ‘But I trust this is not you, my brethren.’ Then as if soliloquizing as he sat there looking into the fire, he added, ‘I TELL YOU THAT, IN THE GREAT DAY, WE WHO GO OVER TO THE LEFT HAND WILL NOT FEEL VERY KINDLY TOWARD THE MEN WHO HAVE GLOSSED THIS THING OVER, WHEN THEY HAD A CHANCE TO TELL US THE PLAIN TRUTH.’“This complaint, made against the ministry and others charged with the responsibility of warning the people, is certainly in order today. A considerable portion of the ministry seems disposed to ‘gloss things over,’ and making sin a light matter, doing away with the terrors of the Law, and bringing salvation within our power!”THE DAY OF The second great day suggested by this text is the Day of Decision.“Multitudes in the valley of decision” (Joe 3:14).Jesus was always deeply concerned about the multitudes, just as God, the Father, has from time immemorial revealed a kindred concern.We read, “But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd” (Matthew 9:36).Again, when the multitudes thronged to Christ in the mountain of Galilee, bringing with them the lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, in addition to His healing He said to His disciples,“I have compassion on the multitude, because. they continue with Me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way”. And you will remember that He performed that miracle of the loaves and fishes, “And they did all eat, and were filled” (Matthew 15:32; Matthew 15:37).The times upon which we have fallen have again put the multitudes into distress and need, and millions on millions of dollars are being raised throughout the cities of the United States, and, for that matter, other cities of the world, to feed the hungry multitudes. However, while Jesus Christ was not indifferent to their physical needs, as was abundantly shown both by His miracles of healing and His miracles of feeding, He knew that there was a far deeper interest, and an interest that was fundamental to life itself and all its varied phases, and that was the interest of decision.It is a singular fact, but fact it is, that the big majority of those who are now suffering from lack of bread and shivering with cold are men and women who have never made a great decision for Christ. To be sure, there are Christians involved in the Bread-Line, and doubtless some fairly consecrated souls, but the testimony of all social workers is that they are the exception,—not the rule.David in his day was able to say, “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread” (Psalms 37:25). If David were alive now he probably could not justly make that remark, but beyond question he would say that the righteous of the earth fare a thousandfold better than those who know not God and regard not the Gospel.A decision for Christ affects character and influences conduct, and high character and righteous conduct count tremendously in the commercial mart. When they are found combined with industry, and it is doubtful if they can exist apart from it, they are in demand, and it is a bit difficult for the world to wag on without them.I personally know, at this very period of depression and unemployment, men whose talents are not even of the average, but whose Christianity is decisive, and whose conduct is uniformly admirable, and with whom energy is a Christian grace, who still have more positions open to them than they can possibly accept and fill.There are important days in one’s life;—the day when one leaves home, for instance; the day when one embarks in business for himself; the day when one makes a life choice of a profession; the day when one graduates with his College class; the day when one stands at the altar and pledges to a chosen partner fidelity for life; but there is no day in human existence that holds such potentialities of good as the day in which one decides deliberately to yield his or her heart to the Lord. That, after all, is the big decision!It took Peter, the plain fisherman, and lifted him to immortal honors; it took Paul, the persecutor of Christians, and made him an Apostle of Light by whose writings the entire world has felt illumination; it took John Newton, the sinful sailor, and converted him into the most influential of saints; it took John G.

Woolley from a common gutter drunkard and made him into the leading temperance orator of the land, and into a Christian whose character shone resplendent, and whose ministry was in the power of the Spirit; and it took John Bunyan, the profane unbeliever, and made of him a matchless Christian author.As a matter of fact, decision requires character, and it also contributes to character. If one would sit down to read the Book of Daniel, the very first thing that would profoundly impress him would be the firm decision of that immortal man. The great decision for God he made in his youth, and when the exigencies arose he found himself capable of choosing the right and standing against the wrong. The text says, “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank” (Daniel 1:8).That is a great phrase, “Daniel purposed in his heart”! That is decision! Doubtless his influence was felt also with his brothers, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, who, when they faced the proposition of image worship, refused to bend the knee, and when threatened with death if they dared to defy the king, answered,“If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. “But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up” (Daniel 3:17-18). That is decision! That is character! That is the most valuable commodity of life.You know, what they call “the printer’s devil” often makes mistakes in setting type. Sometimes those mistakes are ludicrous, sometimes embarrassing. At other times the mistake itself becomes most suggestive. Such a mistake that printer made who, setting up some type about Daniel, had before his eyes the line “He had an excellent spirit in him”, but by his mistake made the type to read,—“He had an excellent spine in him.”That is the essential feature of the human frame.

The man who has not a good backbone will never command the respect of his fellows or deserve the special favor of God. The man who cannot make a decision is lacking in character; the man who cannot make a decision will be uncertain of conduct; the man who cannot make a decision and stand by it, will be the play-thing of the winds of temptation and the waves of passion.Joshua once said to the Israelitish multitude, “Choose you this day whom ye will serve” (24:15).

It was a demand for decision; it was an appeal to character. In my judgment more men and women fail from this lack than from almost all others combined.When Jacob called together his sons that he might tell them that which should befall them in the last days, he said to Reuben, “Thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power: unstable as water, thou shalt not excel” (Genesis 49:3-4).James writes “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:8).This country has honored Abraham Lincoln above all other Presidents; yea, if a popular vote were taken, it is altogether likely that he would be named as the first American—all American history considered; and the thing that made Abraham Lincoln the marvelous man that he was, was his ability to reach a decision and stay by it. You will remember that in the days of the Civil War his Cabinet was not with him, and his Secretaries were often in opposition. It is said that once he had a certain measure that he believed ought to be put through. He called the Cabinet together and explained it in all detail, and then, addressing the members, said, “All who are in favor of adopting this plan will say ‘aye.’” Immediately he, himself, said, “Aye.” The rest were silent. “Those who oppose this plan will say ‘No.’ ” Every member of the Cabinet shouted “No!”He was silent a moment, and then looking up with a twinkle in his eye, said, “Gentlemen, the ‘ayes’ have it, and the plan is adopted.”That was characteristic of Abraham Lincoln. What he felt to be right he stood for until it was accomplished.Our text also carries another clear indication, namely,Immortal destinies rest with decision.

God seldom deals with men in reference to time only. The eternity in which He lives determines His very thought and decides His very speech; He is no temporizer.

To Him Heaven and hell are realities, and “the hereafter” is the first and most important of all considerations.Dean Farrar has commonly been thought of as a liberal minister; as a matter of fact he was supposed to hold pretty much with the Universalists. Yet, when once he stood before Cambridge students and addressed himself to the subject of “Eternity” he said this,—“Is there then no hell here, that we can be so very certain that there will be none hereafter? Nay, seeing here that indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish fall upon every soul of man that doeth evil; seeing that the Scriptures, from beginning to end and whole Books of them, blaze like the walls of Belshazzar’s palace with messages of doom; seeing that God hath declared His wrath against sin as clearly as though He had engraven it upon the sun or written it in stars upon the midnight sky—this presumptuous ease about the after-life, this growing indifference to the thought of future punishment, this philosophy which is so treacherous and so timid, seems to me, and I say it deliberately, at once an aberration of the intellect and an infatuation of the will. Oh, better surely that a sinner should tremble with agony, as the last leaves of the aspen shudder in the late autumnal wind, than that he should thus falsely presume that he knows more of God than God Himself hath taught him; and, seeing, as has been said, ‘that wrath is written in Scripture against his way of life, should hope that it is not wrath, but mercy, and so rush upon the bosses of the Almighty’s buckler as the wild horse rusheth into the battle.’ ”It will not be forgotten that when Aaron Burr was a student at College, a great revival swept the School. In that day professors believed God and were not above the practice and preaching of the Word, and were often most effective in personal soul-winning endeavor. The young lad, Aaron Burr, was 19 years of age when he was brought face to face with the necessity of a decision between God and the world.

So deep was his conviction that he finally asked leave to go to the country for a week to consider the matter, and was granted it. At the end of that time he came back, saying, “I have decided never to trouble myself further over my sours salvation.”From that moment he was reckless in his sin, desperate in his lust, and finally became the murderer whose brilliant talents made his black career seem all the more terrible in the eyes of men and before God.Decision, I tell you, is the call of every life, and I speak what you do know when I say if you can make it for God and right, your future is made, and if you cannot make it, future holds for you nothing but blackness of darkness, temporal defeat, and eternal death!THE DAY OF THE LORD This text brings us to the third and most notable of the days suggested in this text, The Day of the Lord, saying, “For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision” (Joe 3:14).There are two or three suggestions in the statement itself, “The day of the Lord is near”.The time of His Appearance approaches. Possibly never in human history have so many signs of the soon-coming of the Son of Man existed as now. You may combine the testimony of Old and New Testament Prophets, and you will find them paralleled in present history.The Old Testament prophecy that Israel should return to the land of Judea in unbelief is being rapidly fulfilled in the Zionist movement. The rehabilitation of that land, and the quickened growth of Jerusalem itself are also in line of fulfilment.The New Testament prophecy such as is found in 2 Timothy 3, or Matthew 24, are all proving the molds of history at this moment. A man doesn’t live who will question that perilous times have come, for men are “Lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, “Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, “Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. “For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, “Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the Truth” (2 Timothy 3:1-7). Again, it will be remembered that a few years ago even the prophecies of Jesus spoken of in Matthew 24 were held a bit in scorn by world-improvers. Namely, such sentences as these: “And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. “For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers place”. “Many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many” (Matthew 24:6-7; Matthew 24:11). The last eighteen years have impressed all thoughtful men with the certainty of Christ’s infallibility in the matter, for they have seen His every prophetic sentence changed into historic fact; for, as in Isaiah’s time, writing with prophetic vision, he said, “Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. “Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man’s heart shall melt” (Isaiah 13:6-7). This Prophet, Joel, in Joe 1:15 cries, “Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come”. Zephaniah appeals to the people in these words,“Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God: for the day of the Lord is at hand: for the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, He hath bid His guests” (Zephaniah 1:7). The New Testament Prophets take up the refrain, Paul writing to the Thessalonians in his Second Letter says,“Now we beseech you, brethren, by the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him, “That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand” (2 Thessalonians 2:1-2). And John, in the last Book of the Bible, after having told us of his vision into the open Heaven, puts into the angel’s lips these words,“And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this Book: for the time is at hand” (Revelation 22:10). The Lord’s Coming is the end of probation.“Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation”. “To day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” The circle of time that sweeps about each of our lives is also the circle of opportunity. We must decide before we cross that line what we will do with Jesus!It is reported that Antiochus Epiphanes was at the height of his power as king of Syria; he conceived the idea of invading Egypt and making that country his own. The Ptolemies, who were the ruling family there at that time, appealed to Rome for help against Antiochus. Rome listened favorably, and an envoy was sent with a letter from the Roman Senate, ordering the Syrian king to cease the invasion of Egypt and to make peace at once.Antiochus asked for time to consult with his friends and leaders before he gave his answer, but the Roman envoy, Popilius, with his staff, drew a circle in the sand around Antiochus and said, “Before you step out of that circle, you must decide.” There was no alternative left to the Syrian King. He surrendered.Around each of us the circle is drawn already, and God only knows the size of it. For some of us it will be as was said to the false prophet Hannaniah, “This year thou shalt die”.

But whether time is short or long, it is our one and only opportunity, and since we have no claim on any of it except the present the Scripture injunction becomes significant, “Behold, now is the day of salvation”; “To day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts”. The further text suggests my last thought—Don’t let time end for you in darkness. It is written,“The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. “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” (Joe 3:15-16). What a contrast here! Darkness and judgment for unbelievers, and light and strength for the children of God! Such it always has been, is now, and will ever be.To illustrate, Paul, as he approached the end, uttered those immortal words,“I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: “Henceforth there is laid up’ for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the Righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His Appearing.” How triumphant the utterance! How confident he is that the end of time is but the beginning of eternity for a man of God!Contrast it, if you will, to another of kindred mental greatness, who rejected Jesus and finished his earthly course in the melancholy of unbelief. I speak of the great poet of Germany, Goethe. Hear him while he speaks,—it is his last sentence, “I have scarcely tasted twenty-four hours of happiness during my long and unhappy life,” and finally, “Won’t somebody open the shutters and let in the light, it is so dark—so dark!”Listen again, if you will, to England’s most gifted bard, whose poetry had charmed the world, but when he came to the end without God, and faith was gloomy and desolate, he moaned, “Oh, but to die, and go, alas! Where all have gone, and all must go; To be nothing that I was Ere born to life and living woe— Count o’er the woes these hours have seen, Count o’er the days from anguish free, And know, whatever thou hast been, ’Tis something better not to be.” Or, if you like, think with me in conclusion, of the death of the French infidel, Mirabeau, who with his last breath pled for opium to deaden conscience, and drive away the terrible phantoms that haunted the visions of coming doom.How much better to be able to say with the Apostle, “Whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s”,