Let's turn now to the book of Hosea.
These are what are commonly known as the
Minor Prophets.
Hosea was a prophet to Israel, primarily.
And in Hosea's ministry, we learn something very
interesting.
The theme and the subject of this book,
his prophecy is, we could say, spiritual adultery
and God's unchanging love.
It's a tremendous book that displays God's relationship
with His people like a husband to a
wife and how that wife was thoroughly unfaithful
to him and how he continued to love.
Even in the Old Testament, Israel was called
the bride of Jehovah and the relationship between
God and man was pictured in the Old
Testament as that of a husband and wife,
like a marriage relationship.
Just like today, our relationship with Christ is
like a marriage relationship.
And just like in a marriage, if the
wife loves other men and serves other men
and wants to please other men, she is
unfaithful to her husband, she is called an
adulteress.
It's the same in our relationship with the
Lord.
When we love money, we are spiritual adulteresses.
That's another husband.
When we love the honor of this world,
that's another man trying to win our attention.
When we love pleasure, that's another man trying
to win our interest.
And when we love any of these other
men, we have become adulteresses.
That's why James says, you adulteresses, don't you
know that friendship with the world is enmity
with God?
And Hosea deals with that subject.
And he learned it in a very painful
way.
You know, what we see in Hosea, perhaps
more than in any other prophet, is God
trying to make His servant feel His heart.
This is the principle of true prophetic ministry.
Even in the New Testament, we have to
feel towards God's people the way God feels
towards them.
We have to look at God's people the
way God looks at them.
Otherwise, we will be just preachers who are
preaching something which may be true, but without
the feeling that God has towards His people.
So, God has to take us through many
painful trials in order to make us feel
the way He feels towards His people.
For example, in Hosea's time, Israel was like
an unfaithful wife.
When she worshipped idols, she was being unfaithful
to the Lord.
And that was pictured as adultery.
Adultery and idolatry were very closely linked in
the Old Testament.
And even in the New Testament, spiritual adultery
is some form of idolatry.
And idolatry means worshipping something other than the
true God.
Something other than Christ takes number one place
in my life.
It may be your business, it may be
your property, it may be money, it may
be your good looks, it may be your
ministry.
Even that can be an idol.
Anything that takes the place of Christ as
number one in my life is an idol.
And as soon as something has taken the
place of number one in my life, I
have become an idolater, a spiritual adulteress.
And all the words that are spoken to
adulteresses and idolaters apply to me.
And that's at that point.
So we see here, the way that God
made Hosea feel how he felt towards an
adulteress wife was by making Hosea marry an
adulteress wife.
Now that's a very painful way of learning
the truth.
How many men would like to marry a
young girl who you know from the beginning,
she's going to be unfaithful to you, she's
going to commit adultery, she's going to just
fool around with other men.
I don't know how many people would be
willing.
You see, it was quite a price these
prophets had to pay to be prophets.
But when Hosea married this girl who was
like a prostitute and was unfaithful to him,
and he was told to keep on loving
her.
And at one point, even she had gone
and sold herself as a slave to somebody,
he had to pay money and buy her
back.
And keep on loving her, spend money on
her, and she's going to keep on committing
adultery.
And he found it was so difficult.
And as he found himself going through this
struggle, God said to him, now you know
how I feel towards my people.
Now, go and preach to my people.
So then, even though Hosea spoke sternly, there
was a voice of compassion in his message
of holiness.
What is he emphasizing?
Holiness and God's unchanging love.
Remember, these two things were the burdens of
all the prophets.
Holiness in God's people and God's unchanging love
for His people, even when they are in
spiritual adultery, they've gone astray, always His desire
is to bring them back.
He punishes them, but He wants to bring
them back after the punishment is over.
Jeremiah said, after the punishment is over, God
will bring you back.
Hosea, the same thing.
Holiness is what God demands.
And when He doesn't find it, He's going
to punish you.
But His love is so great that He
wants to bring you back into fellowship with
Him.
This is the essence of all prophetic ministry
in the church also.
A true prophet in the church today will
always have the same burden that the prophets
in the Old Testament had of holiness among
God's people.
Not all are called to a prophetic ministry,
but if a man is called to a
prophetic ministry, his burden will be holiness among
God's people and God's unchanging, long-suffering, compassionate
love that wants to bring His backslidden people
back to true holiness.
And I believe that there should be prophetic
ministry in every church if the church is
to be kept alive and functioning for God
as it should.
So that's the basic theme of Hosea.
So God allowed Hosea to suffer.
It says in chapter 1 in verse 2,
the Lord first began speaking to Israel through
Hosea.
He said to him, go and marry a
prostitute.
Some of her children will be born to
you from other men.
It's quite a price to be a prophet.
How many people want to be prophets?
Certainly in the Old Testament, the price is
pretty heavy.
But I want to say in the New
Testament too, God may not require things like
that today, but God's principle is the same,
that He has to take us through deep
suffering in order to get us to feel
His heart.
If you read the sufferings that the Apostle
Paul went through in 2 Corinthians 11, so
many dangers, so many beatings, imprisonments and being
beaten with rods and robbed and without enough
clothes to keep himself warm and without food.
The purpose of it all was to make
this man feel the heart of God, to
live close to God, to listen to God's
heartbeat.
You know, when we go through trials, we
are very close to God's heart.
We can hear God's heart beating.
And we feel that when we speak to
God's people.
There's a lot of difference between such a
preacher and a man who's just acquired a
lot of knowledge by reading books and by
listening to tapes.
Do you want to serve God?
Do you want to preach the way God
wants you to preach?
Then ask God to help you to see
His heart and to feel His heart.
And that will not come by sitting in
classes.
It will come by going through trials.
It will not come by attending meetings or
reading books.
All that is good.
You know, we have a great lust for
knowledge and we think, Oh, if only I
could get more knowledge, I could serve the
Lord.
You look at some servant of God and
you say, I want to serve the Lord
like that.
Yeah, you can.
But it won't come by study.
It won't come by listening to tapes.
It will come by allowing God to crush
you.
Through going through deep sufferings which nobody may
know.
Any true servant of God has gone through
deep sufferings which other people know nothing about.
Most of the time he won't even tell
other people what he's gone through.
So remember this.
Hosea teaches us that the only way to
effectively minister is by going through deep suffering
in one's personal life.
And it's different for different people.
It's not a standard syllabus for all of
God's children.
He taught Hosea one way.
He taught Jeremiah without a wife, putting him
in deep pits.
He taught Paul without a wife.
So it's not all the standard procedure for
everyone.
But the principle is the same, that you
have to suffer in order to have a
ministry from God.
In 2 Corinthians 1, Paul says, verse 4,
I've gone through trials and the strength that
I receive in that suffering is what I
can pass on to other people.
Otherwise we just pass on knowledge.
So, here we read he married this lady
called Gomer.
And he had children.
And some of those children were born through
others.
The first son was Hosea's, the other two
were perhaps not his.
And the names of those children indicated how
God was punishing his people.
In chapter 2, verse 7, he says, The
way of Israel is, when she runs after
her lovers, she won't be able to catch
up with them.
She will search for them, but won't find
them.
And then she will think, I might as
well return to my husband, because I was
better off with him than I am now.
This is a picture of, you know, Hosea's
wife ran away from him.
And the same way Israel ran away from
the Lord.
But in their trouble, you see, most people
seek God only when they are in trouble.
And they find all money doesn't help them,
honor doesn't help them, people of the world
let them down.
Then they say, Oh, I might as well
turn back to God.
At least he'll help me.
And God still cares for such a person
who comes back.
And that's why God told Hosea, Take your
wife, even when she comes back like that.
And it says here, this is a verse
that can apply to all of us.
She doesn't realize that it was I, the
Lord says, who gave her everything she has.
Do you realize that?
The grain, the wine, the olive oil, the
gold, silver.
Do you realize that your health is God's
gift?
Do you know how many people in the
world are not healthy in sickbeds?
Everything you have is God's gift.
The money you have is God's gift.
The intelligence you have is God's gift.
Now, those people, it says, when God gave
them gold and silver, they used that gold
and silver to make an idol to Baal.
It's like the prodigal son.
He took money from his father, and he
didn't use it for his father's business.
He went and spent it on himself.
This is the mark of God's backslidden people.
They get so many gifts from God, and
what do they do with it?
They think, this is mine.
I earned this myself.
I got an increase of salary in my
office.
My business prospered.
This is my money.
This intelligence is my intelligence.
I must use it in the maximum possible
for my own profit.
That is to take the gold and silver
God gives you and make an idol for
Baal through it.
They did not realize that everything they have
is what I gave them.
How is it in our life?
It's a good question to ask ourselves.
If we recognize it's God's, then we will
give it back to him.
Say, Lord, you gave me intelligence so that
I can use it totally for your kingdom.
But, in spite of their being so unfaithful,
the Lord says, I will win her back.
Verse 14, I will win her back once
again.
I will lead her into the desert.
I will make things dry and barren in
her life.
And then, when everything is dry and barren,
she will turn to me and then I
will speak tenderly to her there.
Now, normally, we wouldn't like to speak tenderly
to someone who has been so thoroughly unfaithful.
But the Lord says, I will speak tenderly
and I will continue to give her gifts.
I will return her vineyards to her and
I will transform the valley of Acre into
a gateway of hope.
Verse 15, Acre was the place where you
read in Joshua chapter 7 that Achan, the
man who committed sin in Jericho was punished
and put to death.
That's the place called Acre, a place of
judgment for sin.
And the Lord says, that place of judgment
for sin, I'm going to make it a
door of hope for you.
That means even though you failed because you
confessed your failure and this judgment has come
there, chastening has come there, from there, I
can open a door of hope for you
that something wonderful can come in your life
even in future.
That's a wonderful message, particularly for those who
are backslidden, gone astray, gone away from God
or wasted a lot of their life.
They say, Lord, what can I do?
So much of my life I wasted, so
many wrong things I've done, I wish I'd
known all these truths when I was younger.
You've been chastened, you've suffered.
The Lord says, don't get discouraged.
I can make that valley of Acre a
gateway of hope for you.
And then the Lord says in chapter 2,
verse 16, sorry, chapter 2, in that day,
in that coming day, the Lord says, you
will call me my husband and not my
master.
See, in the old covenant, they could not
experience this type of relationship that we can
have with the Lord today of husband and
wife.
And it's in a sense a prophecy of
what is going to happen when the Holy
Spirit comes in.
You see, the Holy Spirit brought Rebekah to
Isaac, Eliezer, a picture of the Holy Spirit.
In the same way, the Holy Spirit brings
us to Jesus to be married to Him.
In the Old Testament, they knew Him as
master.
Oh God, my master.
He says, in this day, you will not
call me my master, you will call me
my husband.
What type of relationship do you have with
the Lord?
Do you know that He does not want
to be just your master?
He wants to be your husband.
A lot of people, their service for the
Lord becomes boring and heavy because it's like
a servant serving his master.
It's like government working in a government office
so many hours a day.
I have to do it and I get
my salary and I go and do it
again every day.
Like that.
But a wife does not serve her husband
for a salary.
But that doesn't mean the husband doesn't take
care of his wife.
The husband shares a lot of money with
his wife but she doesn't work for that.
She works out of love.
So He says, in that day, you will
not call me master, you will call me
husband.
My husband.
And verse 20, the Lord says, even if
you are unfaithful, I will be faithful to
you and make you mine.
See the tremendous love of God pursuing after
someone who has gone astray.
Chapter 3, verse 2, she had sold herself
for Zia's wife as a slave and so
He says, I bought her back for 15
pieces of silver and 5 bushels of barley
and a measure of wine.
See, she had gone away, she had gotten
into problems and she had sold herself as
a slave, maybe working as a housemaid in
somebody's house.
And Hosea heard about it and he goes
after her and says, I'll pay whatever that
master paid and I'll buy you back, come
back and be my wife.
And said to her, verse 3, you must
live in my house for many days and
stop your prostitution.
And this is a picture of God's love.
In this particular case, the Lord said to
them, because they were going to go into
captivity and be punished, the Lord says, Hosea
had to tell his wife, in this time,
you will not have any sex with anybody
else and not even with me.
Which illustrates that God, though He hasn't forsaken
Israel, will allow Israel to be apart from
Him for a period of time when He's
going to punish them.
When Israel will be without temple, priests or
any such thing.
But God's desire always is to bring His
people back to Him.
From this experience of suffering that Hosea had
in the first three chapters, he begins to
preach in chapter 4 onwards.
And he says some strong words, but remember,
the background to all these strong words is
this experience that he had been through.
So, it doesn't mean that because we have
this experience, we become soft, we become firm,
but with compassion for God's people.
And first of all, he says in chapter
4, this is the controversy that the Lord
has against His people.
And again, like all the prophets, He starts
with the leaders.
I remember many years ago, I think it
was 20 years ago, I was invited to
a large denominational convention.
Many thousands of people there.
They had invited me as a special speaker.
And when I got on the platform, I
said, the burden the Lord has given me
is not to speak to all the thousands
of people sitting here, but to the leaders
who are sitting on the platform behind me.
And for two days I spoke primarily.
I didn't turn around because there was no
mic that side.
The mic was here.
So, I had to face this way.
And I said, I'd like to speak to
the pastors and leaders.
And I spoke about righteousness and money matters.
And after two days they told me, we
don't want to hear you anymore.
So, they didn't allow me to speak the
third day.
So, I had to pack my bags and
go home.
Well, it hasn't gone very well with that
denomination, by the way, since then.
Okay.
The point is this.
The prophets always spoke to the leaders first.
Because it's because the leaders are going astray
that the people are going astray.
So, if children go astray, it's the parents'
fault.
The parents have not brought up those children
properly.
If your children misbehave in school, you can't
blame the children.
I said, the parents have not taught their
children to behave properly at home.
That's why they misbehave at school.
No use talking to the children.
Talk to the parents.
I remember once a mother brought a young
boy to me and said, Brother Zack, please
pray for this son.
He's like this, like this, like this, like
this.
I felt like praying for the mother.
Because I felt the problem was with her.
And so, I didn't pray for the son.
I don't just do what people tell me
to do.
And I said, you're not going to help
this boy if you treat him like this.
Humiliate him publicly by saying he's like this.
So, in the same way with God's people,
very often God's people even today suffer because
their leaders are not godly.
Their leaders don't know God.
And therefore, the people suffer.
So, these prophets said, look you priests, verse
4, don't point your finger at somebody else
and try to pass the blame on somebody
else.
Say, what to do brother, the people in
the church are like this.
No!
You priests, chapter 4, verse 4, my complaint
is with you says the Lord.
And as a punishment, you will stumble in
broad daylight.
And so also will all the false prophets.
So, my people, verse 6, are being destroyed
because they don't know me.
Why are God's people destroyed?
It's not because they don't know the Bible,
they don't know God.
And that is, the fault is yours, verse
6, you priests because you yourself don't know
me.
See how the prophets spoke directly to the
leaders.
And so I refuse to recognize all of
you, verse 6, the last part, as priests
anymore.
I remove the anointing from your life.
You have forgotten the laws of your God
and I will forget to bless your children.
And verse 7, the more preachers there are
here, the more they sin against me.
What a condition!
They have exchanged the glory of God for
the disgrace of money.
Idols.
You see how relevant this word is for
today.
Many preachers have exchanged the anointing of God
for money.
They've lost the anointing because they got more
money.
Once upon a time they had the anointing
and less money.
They went after money, lost the anointing.
They've exchanged the glory of God for the
disgrace of these idols.
And the priests are only interested in feeding
themselves at the expense of people, verse 8.
And in those days, you know, the priest
would get an offering from, if a man
brought a sin offering, a portion of that
became the priests.
You read that in Leviticus.
So some priests, it says here, you people,
you're glad when people sin.
Why?
Because they bring more offerings and you get
more meat in your curry.
And he says like priests, like people, verse
9.
Since the priests are wicked, the people are
wicked.
So now I'm going to punish both priests
and people.
And so on.
Wonderful.
I want to encourage you to read some
of these prophets in the Living Bible translations.
Really excellent.
I don't have time to read all of
it.
Verse 14.
Why should I punish these people?
For the young men, for you men, are
doing the same thing.
Careless in your attitude to women and sinning.
Okay, let's move on.
Chapter 5.
Again.
Listen to this, you priests and all of
Israel's leaders.
And listen to this, all you men from
the royal family, the kings.
Again, the word is to the leaders.
These words of judgment are for you.
You are doomed.
And so on.
And it says here about returning to the
Lord in chapter 6.
They say, okay, when they hear a message
like this, this is what happens sometimes when
you hear a message, oh Lord, we're very
sorry.
And they say, okay, come let us return
to the Lord.
He has torn us in pieces.
We usually turn to the Lord after we
get torn up.
And now He will heal us.
He has injured us.
They say He will bandage our wounds.
And He will restore us.
And we want to know the Lord.
Let's press on to know Him.
He will surely come.
But what is the Lord's response to this
outwardly, apparently repentant attitude?
I mean, if you didn't have discernment, you'd
read verse 1 and 3 and say, praise
the Lord, there's a revival.
You'd be sending a report straight away the
next day.
We had a revival here yesterday.
And send the number of people who raised
their hands, etc., etc.
But God sees through that and He says,
I'm not fooled by all these words.
Verse 4, your love vanishes like the morning
dew.
He says, all this repentance is like in
the morning, you know, the dew is on
the grass.
You come back an hour later and all
the dew is gone.
He says, your love is like that.
Your repentance is like that.
It's meaningless.
It's not deep.
It disappears like the dew in the sunlight.
I sent my prophets to cut you to
pieces.
It's not a very exciting ministry to be
a prophet, to cut people to pieces.
But remember, this man himself has been cut
to pieces in his private life with his
wife.
He's been cut to pieces in God's dealings
with him.
And it is from that background that he
speaks.
I sent my prophets to cut you to
pieces.
Verse 5, chapter 6, verse 5.
I've slaughtered you with my words, threatened you
with death, and my judgment will surely strike
you as surely as day follows night.
If Hosea had not had all that experience
of suffering in his private life, he would
have spoken those words in a very harsh
way.
Don't try to imitate those words if God
has not taken you through the deep valley
of suffering.
It's very exciting to be a prophet in
the pulpit, but you can get honor.
But when you try to imitate a prophet
without God leading you through that type of
experience, you will be a false prophet.
First of all, ask God to take you
through deep experiences where you get to know
him.
Trials, sufferings, pain, and then God will make
you his mouthpiece to many people.
Walk with God in secret and humble yourself
under whatever God sends into your life.
And he speaks so strongly here about judgment.
And he says, I don't want your sacrifices.
I want you to be merciful.
This is the verse that Jesus quoted.
I want mercy and not sacrifice.
Chapter 7 I wanted to heal Israel, verse
1, but its sins were far too great.
And Samaria, the capital of Israel, is filled
with liars, thieves, and bandits.
That means the leaders of Israel were telling
lies.
The leaders of Israel were thieves.
What is a thief?
A thief is a person who takes money
that doesn't belong to him.
When somebody sends money to a pastor here
for God's work and that pastor uses that
money to buy property for himself in his
name and his children's name, what is he?
A thief.
What else?
That's exactly what God is saying.
Money sent for God's work is being used
for buying his private property.
Do you know the type of things that
are going on like that in this land?
Yeah, that's what happens.
And then he says in verse 8, My
people mingle with godless foreigners.
Chapter 7, verse 8.
They pick up these godless ways from these
godless foreigners.
That's also what we see in Christendom.
Mingling with worldly people, adopting worldly methods, adopting
worldly standards, adopting worldly business procedures in Christian
work, and adopting the method of psychologists when
preaching.
There's a lot of preaching today from Christian
pulpits which is pure psychology.
It's not God's word.
And the Lord says, they've all become like
a half-baked cake.
Cooked on one side, not cooked on the
other side.
And then he goes on like that about
their despising God's laws in chapter 8, verse
12.
In chapter 9, verse 1.
He says, O Israel, don't rejoice like other
people do.
Now the Bible is full of exhortations to
rejoice.
Rejoice in the Lord, rejoice in the Lord,
rejoice in the Lord.
But here is one verse which says, don't
rejoice like other people do because you've been
unfaithful to your God.
You're an adulteress.
You offer sacrifice to other gods.
See, a person who loves money, loves honor,
loves pleasure, loves a comfortable life, those are
his gods whom he worships.
When he comes on Sunday morning to the
meeting and he shouts and praises God, do
you know what God says from heaven?
Don't rejoice.
I don't listen to all this.
I know what you live for in your
personal life.
I know what your ambitions are.
I know that you worship your job and
your business and your money and your property
and you fight for those things and here
you come and say Hallelujah and praise the
Lord on Sunday mornings.
Don't rejoice.
So sometimes God says things which startle us
and that's why a prophet is the most
misunderstood person in the Old Testament and in
the New Testament.
He says break up your fallow ground in
chapter 10 and verse 12, plant the good
seeds of righteousness, plow up the hard ground
of your hearts for it is time to
seek the Lord till he comes and showers
righteousness on you and then he goes on
to speak about God's love when Israel was
a child, chapter 11 verse 1, I loved
him and he goes on in chapter 12
verse 7 and 8 these people are like
crafty merchants selling from dishonest scales they love
to cheat and they cheat others and then
they boast I'm rich I've gotten it all
by myself and listen to this, no one
knows that I got it by cheating.
Do you know that there's a lot of
black money in the church which you don't
know about?
Do you know there are business people in
the church who give bribes, but nobody knows
about it.
Some of them are elders in good churches,
even separated assemblies outwardly they appear so right
and get honor in the church but one
day God is going to expose them and
a true prophet can see through such people
and that's why most of these rich business
people who are crooked are afraid to confront
a true prophet I want to encourage you
my brothers and sisters, be a voice for
God in this generation there are people who
say no one knows that I got it
by cheating because my outward testimony is spotless
they are like clever merchants who deceive people
but they can't deceive God or his true
servants in chapter 13 there's a beautiful verse
here about the resurrection in verse 14 about
ransoming us from the grave in chapter 14
the Lord calls them back, return oh Israel,
don't just say like you said in chapter
6, I'm coming back return, give up your
sins it's your sins that have brought you
down, say to Him, say to the Lord,
forgive us our sins verse 2, graciously receive
us so that we may offer to you
the sacrifice of praise, a new testament expression
which we find in Hebrews 13 the sacrifice
of praise that is the place to which
God wants to finally bring us where we
become worshippers where our relationship with Him and
a life of praise becomes more important than
everything else and the Lord says verse 4
I will heal you of your idolatry and
faithlessness do you know that the love of
money is so deeply entrenched in all of
us that only the Lord can deliver us
from them, from it recognize how much you
love yourself, how much you love money, I
remember once when I told a brother, brother
I think your problem is the love of
money he said oh no brother Zach, I've
been freed from that long ago, I said
well you're better than me in that case
because I'm still battling it are you battling
the love of money do you think you're
free from it God have mercy on you,
if you think you're free from it, the
love of money is like a big onion,
you peel off the first layer of the
onion is anything left, sure you peel off
a second layer of the onion, it's still
there sin is like that, you think you're
free from it, that shows how blind you
are when God gives you light you see,
ok I may have peeled out 25 layers
of the love of money but there's still
something there in it, I want that onion
to come down to zero how many of
you are in the pursuit of that every
sin is like that, lusting with the eyes
adultery, it's like a onion many many layers
till you come down to the center let's
press on to perfection verse 9, those who
are wise will understand these things those who
are discerning will listen carefully the paths of
the Lord are true and right and righteous
people will live by walking in them that's
how Hosea ends now we want to look
at Joel it's just a short prophecy of
three chapters and the subject of Joel is
the day of the Lord in the first
chapter he's talking about a plague of locusts
that had come upon Joel by the way
was a prophet to Judah, the southern kingdom
and he the Lord sent him at a
time when there was a terrific plague of
locusts that had swept the land and many
of the crops had been eaten up and
sometimes in these natural calamities we have to
see the hand of God and we need
a prophet at such a time to tell
us why this has happened we read in
1 Samuel 2 Samuel 21 verse 1 that
there was a famine in the time of
David for three years that was abnormal so
he began to seek the Lord and said
Lord why is there a famine and the
Lord told him what the cause of the
famine was there was some sin that had
to be set right and when that sin
was set right the famine problem was solved
the Bible says that sometimes sickness is due
to sin 1 Corinthians 11 seems to teach
that some people even die because they are
playing the fool with sin not taking the
breaking of bread seriously James chapter 5 says
pray for one another that you may be
healed confess your sins to one another that
you may be healed so when there is
some calamity it's good to ask ourselves what
is the Lord trying to say to us
even when you have an accident always try
to listen what is the God trying to
say to me there was a plague of
locusts instead of explaining it by natural terms
why not stop and say Lord is there
something you are trying to say to me
through it and God may have something to
say to you through it it's always good
to hear what God has to say and
that can protect you from more serious calamities
in the future I remember times when I've
ridden my scooter and I've had a little
toss by the grace of God I've never
hurt anybody in all these 40 years that
I've ridden a scooter or broken any bone
of my own but I've had little tosses
and had a scrape and I've come home
and I said Lord what are you trying
to tell me and the Lord says you
must drive a little slowly you're driving too
fast so I'm thankful for a word like
that that ok I take that seriously and
I try and that can save me from
a more serious accident at some other time
in everything big and small when something happens
which is not normal which is not good
sickness, accident, ask the Lord Lord what are
you trying to say to me maybe the
Lord is just telling you to trust Him
more so here was a plague of locusts
and there was a prophet who came and
said to them listen to this again leaders,
verse 2 always the prophet spoke to the
leaders listen to this you leaders of the
people everyone listen verse 2 in all your
history in all your history has anything like
this happened before no this is God trying
to speak to you have you had any
experience like that where the Lord has to
say in all your life such a thing
has never happened to you right what am
I trying to tell you through this, stop
and listen and when you listen and you
hear that God is chastening you and punishing
you for your sins and you repent of
those sins and you set it right then
verse 3 you can tell your children about
this in the years to come in future
generations you can tell your children you know
daddy I was going astray and your dad
was going astray and then God spoke to
me and judged me and gave me this
type of punishment and I could come back
in his ways now children you tell your
children about that pass it on from generation
to generation so that they can know how
to fear God so that was what the
Lord was saying but it says all of
you people are so drunk with your own
you know assured confidence in yourself saying no
no no we haven't done anything wrong then
you are not able to hear what God
is saying Joel says wake up you drunkards
and we there is no fruit in your
ministry all the grapes are ruined, your new
wine is gone what is the reason is
it God's will that we should be unfruitful
no Jesus said very clearly in John chapter
15 is it verse 16 I don't remember
I have chosen you and ordained you that
you should go and bring forth fruit and
that your fruit should remain for eternity by
this you will prove that you are my
disciples so it is God's will that we
should be fruitful fruitful in our character that
we overcome our natural the nature we inherited
from Adam and produce the fruit of the
spirit and fruitful in our ministry whatever our
particular calling is but he says look at
this the locusts have destroyed it and you
don't seem to be bothered by it at
all and verse 12 joy has withered away
joy has dried up when you lose your
joy you can be absolutely sure that you
are a backslider a true disciple of Jesus
is full of joy he may have many
trials he may have sorrows but when joy
has withered up when joy has dried up
you know you are a backslider please take
that as a sign of backsliding when you
start murmuring when did the children of Israel
murmur when they were in the wilderness and
God destroyed them for murmuring and 1 Corinthians
10 says this is written for our instruction
that we should not murmur like them when
you murmur and complain against people at home
because the food is not cooked right you
are in the wilderness yourself please remember that
when joy has dried up you are a
backslider what should you do then you leaders,
first of all, verse 13 dress up in
sackcloth go and weep before God's altar spend
the night in sackcloth you leaders, you ministers,
you preachers announce the time of fasting call
the people together tell them all to fast
and seek God because there is no fruit
in the church, no fruit of character no
fruit in the ministry we need to seek
God with fasting and repentance and prayer and
blow the trumpet verse chapter 2, verse 1
in Jerusalem, in the church sound an alarm,
this is a serious matter let everyone tremble
in fear, because the day of the Lord
is soon going to come the day of
the Lord is comes in chapter 3, but
in chapter 2 he is telling us how
to be ready for it it's a day
of darkness and judgment and a time when
fear will grip people, so what while there
is time, verse 12 the Lord says, before
that day comes, while there is time turn
to me now, give me your hearts come
with fasting weeping, mourning, don't tear your clothes,
I'm not interested in that tear your hearts,
verse 13 return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and merciful he is
filled with kindness and he is not eager
to punish you who knows, he will send
you a blessing instead of a curse so
blow the trumpet, verse 15 2.15 in
Jerusalem announce a time of fasting call the
people together this is the one place where
we are told to publicly have a fast,
fasting and prayer as a church call the
elders, call the children, even the babies call
the bride groom from his room, and the
bride from her private room the priests who
stand in the Lord's presence must stand between
the people in the altar weeping, verse 17,
and they must pray saying Lord, spare your
people don't let us become an object of
mockery among the heathen, you know that Christians
are an object of mockery among the heathen
I heard of a meeting recently in one
part of India some time ago where some
people claimed to heal the sick, you know
these advertisements the eyes of the blind are
being opened, etc, etc so they had a
meeting with this man who claimed to have
a gift of healing, preaching and some radical
fundamentalist anti-christian people came to that meeting
with some sick people and a doctor and
brought them up to the front and said
please heal them and of course he could
not heal any of them he was just
a hoax and then these people broke the
sound system and everything on the platform and
said don't deceive the people here saying you
can heal the sick when nobody is getting
healed I thought if I were in that
meeting I would have agreed 100% with
what those people said, don't deceive people by
telling lies and Christians have said things like
that which have made them an object of
mockery Lord have mercy upon us these unbelieving
people come let us be honest and say
let's not claim things which we don't have
let's not claim to have gifts which we
don't have, if you have the gift of
healing, go ahead and exercise it but don't
go around claiming that you have a gift
when you don't have it Jesus didn't go
around advertising, I'm the great healer I've come
to town he didn't have to advertise, he
actually healed the sick and everybody knew about
it in no time that's just an example
of how the Christians have become an object
of mockery among the unbelievers because of their
own fault and the Lord will pity his
people when we repent like this, when we
confess our sin and he'll be indignant for
the honor of his name and he will
reply and what is he going to do
he will pour out his spirit verse 28
I will pour out my spirit upon all
people your sons and daughters will prophesy your
old men will dream dreams this is the
verse that was quoted by Peter on the
day of Pentecost saying this is what Joel
prophesied we've been praying in the upper room
for 10 days fasting, praying, seeking God repenting,
saying Lord don't let your people be the
object of mockery here and the spirit was
poured out I want to encourage you my
brothers and sisters call a fast, blow a
trumpet, get people to seek God, people who
are concerned that the name of Jesus is
being dishonored in our land oh what a
word of prophecy Joel has for us today,
seek God and then very soon the day
of the Lord will come, verse 30 onwards
he says there'll be wonders in the heaven
and the earth, blood and fire and pillars
of smoke and in between this time before
that happens, verse 32 anyone who calls on
the name of the Lord Jesus will be
saved and chapter 3 describes the future judgment
the millennial reign of Christ and before that
comes it says here in verse 14 a
verse that we need to think about thousands
and thousands chapter 3, 14 are waiting in
the valley of decision that's where many many
not thousands, today it is millions in Joel's
time it was thousands, millions and millions of
people are waiting in the valley of decision
not knowing which way to turn and the
day of the Lord will soon arrive in
the valley of decision we are in this
time a time will come when the sun
and the moon will grow dark, the stars
will no longer shine the Lord's voice will
roar from Zion but to his people verse
16, the Lord will be a refuge and
a strong fortress in this time and then
you will know verse 17 is speaking about
the millennial reign of Christ when he comes
to earth I will live in Zion my
holy mountain Jerusalem will be holy forever there
will be no more backsliding then no more
foreign armies will conquer her again and Egypt
verse 19 will become a wasteland Egypt refers
to the world and Pharaoh is a picture
of Satan, the ruler of the world Edom
is a picture of the flesh you know
we have three enemies the world the flesh
and the devil and all three are pictured
here, Egypt the world, its ruler Pharaoh, the
devil and Edom Edom is the descendants of
Esau and in the new testament we are
told that the conflict between Esau and Jacob
is like the conflict between Ishmael and Isaac
is a picture of the conflict between the
flesh and the spirit Ishmael is a picture
of the flesh and Isaac is a picture
of the spirit man born of the spirit
and man born of the flesh there is
conflict between religious people and spiritual people Esau
and Jacob had the same type of conflict
and is a picture of the flesh and
here it is saying that finally God will
completely deal with the world, the flesh and
the devil because for so many years they
attacked God's people and killed her innocent people
but Judah will remain forever Jerusalem will endure
through all future generations and I will pardon
my people's crimes that's a picture of the
church and I the Lord see the conclusion
will make my home in Jerusalem with my
people, that is the ultimate goal of prophecy
is that God can dwell in the midst
of his people and today you and I
are called to proclaim the word in purity
to call God's people to repentance, to fasting
to give up all their idols, notice how
in all these prophets that we have been
considering so far their burden was always give
up your idols, give up your idols, give
up your idolatry, give up your idol worship,
put God first, put God first in your
life holiness, holiness, holiness and holiness was having
no idols in our life holiness is not
just being righteous in financial matters, holiness is
that nobody but God has first place in
my life, he is number one anything less
than that is not holiness and that's our
calling to proclaim today so that one day
the church can be a place where God
can dwell and be happy let's pray, heavenly
father, we thank you for the message of
these fearless prophets who went through such suffering
to proclaim their message we pray that we
shall absorb that message into our system learn
from them and take their message to our
heart and apply it to our lives and
to our ministry and to the church we
are in today so that we can make
in the churches a home for you to
live in we pray in Jesus name Amen