Joel 1:4-7

-Thank the Lord for mothers, one of my favorite passages about mothers is in 2 Timothy 1 - where Paul is thankful for Timothy’s mother who taught him the faith, at the hospital I come across faithful mothers quite a bit and there is something that comes up from time to time in conversations, I offer to pray with these mothers who are sick, who need physical healing, and when I ask is there anything in particular you would like me to pray for - pray for my son, pray for my daughter, pray for my wayward child, pray for my child because they will not speak to me - often it is them who are mourning over the sin of their children

-Joel called the people to mourn over their sin

-Hebrew poetry, a sequence, each phrase progresses to a worsened condition, each line also begins with Hebrew word that means “what is left”

-interesting that the we find ten different Hebrew words used for locust, Talmud uses twenty

-But what is the meaning of this sequence:

-the wrath of God is inescapable, those who think they may have avoided one stage of calamity are caught by another

-This is also a reference for the people of Judah, they have heard of the great exodus, and the plagues that God sent on the Egyptians, people that would be considered enemies of God’s people, perhaps they heard about how the locusts devastated the land. It is a point of reference for Judah in that what God had once done to his enemies, he now was doing to Judah

-Joel was calling the people to wake up to the acknowledgement of their sin, and in this section he called them to not only wake, not only acknowledge their sin, but he called them to mourn over their sin

-In fact Joel called the people to mourn numerous times: v.4, 8, 9, 13

-What does it mean to mourn?

-face value it means to feel or express sorrow or grief

Matthew 5:4 ESV

4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

640I believe the holier a man becomes, the more he mourns over the unholiness which remains in him.—16.221

Charles Spurgeon

-Why would we mourn? Why were the people of Judah to mourn? Two primary reasons: it dishonors God, and the punishment it brings upon the sinner

-Joel specifically told the people of Judah the reasons they were to mourn:

Mourn Over Self Indulgence

-It is a beautiful thing to see God’s gift in mothers, a true mother is a sacrificial nurturer

-drunkards - like gluttons, they use the fruit of the land in excess

-drunkards signifies people who are self-indulgent, those are individuals who are not concerned with the things of God, they are only focused on their selfish desires

-Joel commanded the people of Judah to wake up and mourn

-This is not a sole focus on drunkeness, but the sin of self indulgence

-What is self-indulgence = excessive or unrestrained gratification of one's own appetites, desires, or whims

-Scripture does not prohibit the drinking of wine, in fact we see numerous places in which wine is referenced

-however Scripture does teach that the over self-indulgence use of wine is sin - it is what we call drunkeness

-as well gluttony is a sin - it is over indulgence

-I remember being in chapel at New Orleans Seminary and it was known that there was a group of seminary students who would drink and discuss theology, I was not one in that number particularly because I was not invited, nor would I want to attend if I had been invited. But we had a guest preacher who hounded those who drink alcohol. Well lets just say this guest preacher was of the bigger persuasion, he was very much overweight - oh how we overlook the not so major sins

Proverbs 23:20–21 ESV

20 Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat, 21 for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags.

Self-indulgence has slain its thousands.

Charles Spurgeon

-does it mean that we are to never think of ourselves? Does it mean I can never do something that I want to do? No, not all.

-In fact, there are times where we have to do something that is called self-care

-Instead the point is that we are not to be consumed with ourselves or our desires, we are to be consumed with God, our desires should be to glorify God

-We live in a time that focuses on self-indulgence, be whatever you want to be, identify as whatever, do what is right in your own eyes; instead be who God created you to be, do what magnifies God

-Our prayer should be that God would expose us when we become so self-indulged

-there is a problem within the local church, I have seen it first hand - when it becomes about pleasing myself, I have heard it so often - what type of worship music

-we must examine our hearts - is it our desire that God is glorified or that we can gratify all our fleshly desires?

-When confronted with our self-indulgence it should lead us to mourning, it should lead us to wailing and lamenting

But it is the excellence of a holy man that he is not at peace with indwelling sin, as others are. He hates it, mourns over it, and longs to be free from its company.

J. C. Ryle

Mourn Over the Judgment of God

-because of the sin of Judah, because they were self-indulgent - then God’s judgment

-wine is cut off - the hastiness of the wine taken away, it was as if they were bringing the glass to their mouth and it was snatched out of their hand, this was the severeness of the locust and how unanticipated

-Joel shared how God would carry out his judgement between a literal locust devestation and a human army, and we will see that in weeks to come

-The point that Joel wanted to make known is the devastation is not the locust nor the human army, but the very hand of God

Isaiah 8:8 ESV

8 and it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass on, reaching even to the neck, and its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.”

-Joel overly expressed the extensiveness of the judgment

-a nation = swarm

-teeth are lion’s teeth = locusts do not have teeth, so what is this about

-it is to indicate the ferocity of the judgment of God, that God can use a locust to bring devastation

-lion has been referenced many times in Scripture with a focus on its power and ferocity

Genesis 49:9 ESV

9 Judah is a lion’s cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?

Isaiah 5:29 ESV

29 Their roaring is like a lion, like young lions they roar; they growl and seize their prey; they carry it off, and none can rescue.

-It should be enough when confronted with our sin of self-indulgence, but when we see the judgment of God that should lead us into mourning

Mourn Over the Consequences

-Now we see the affects of God’s judgement, the consequences

-Growing up my mom had to do a lot, my dad worked offshore so he would be gone a month at a time, sometimes three months. And I can remember times in which we made bad decisions and misbehaved of course there were consequences that my mom put into place, but then there was the worse consequence - wait until your dad gets home - nothing was worse, you had sometimes 28 days to wait until the wrath of dad

-the consequence of Judah’s sin - the vine is laid waste, the fig tree is splintered - utter devastation

-vineyard is often referred to in Scripture with God’s people (we have the vine reference in John 15, abiding in Christ and we bear much fruit) and often in terms of judgment (don’t bear fruit and you and there is pruning)

Jeremiah 2:21 ESV

21 Yet I planted you a choice vine, wholly of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine?

Ezekiel 15 - is another passage about God’s judgment with the vineyard

-Jesus also used the image of fig tree in Luke 13:6-9.

-all of the metaphors are in reference to judgment and particularly northern armies coming to bring destruction to Judah whether it be Babylonian or Roman

-Joel wanted the people to know the consequences to their sin, nothing remained, not a leaf, the branches were stripped white

-WE must be careful

-our mourning should not just be over the consequences of sin, the affect of judgment, but as we started with the fact that we have chosen self-indulgence over glorifying almighty God

Albert Barnes rightly notes that “false repentance dreads the consequences of sin; true repentance dreads sin itself”

John F. MacArthur

-But there is good news in the midst of the mourning, that Christ has come to reconcile us to Himself. That our sins are completely forgiven in the blood of the Lamb.

As Jonathan Edwards preached in the sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God:

And you Children that are unconverted, don’t you know that you are going down to Hell, to bear the dreadful Wrath of that God that is now angry with you every Day, and every Night? Will you be con- tent to be the Children of the Devil, when so many other Children in the Land are converted, and are become the holy and happy Children of the King of Kings? And let every one that is yet out of Christ, and hanging over the Pit of Hell, whether they be old Men and Women, or middle Aged, or young People, or little Children, now hearken to the loud Calls of God’s Word and Providence. This acceptable Year of the Lord, that is a Day of such great Favour to some, will doubtless be a Day of as remarkable Ven- geance to others.

Answer the call, awaken to your sin, mourn over it and turn to the one who takes our mourning and converts to rejoicing, trust in Christ, repent and believe on the name of the Lord Jesus