Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Joel 1 | Date: April 8, 2018 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Open your Bibles with me, if you will, please, to the prophecy of Joel. Returning now to our series on the Bible story of salvation, you may remember, just to put all of this back into context, long ago when we began a series on the Bible teaching about salvation, I said that the first large segment of that—and it’s been many months now—would be the Bible’s story of salvation. Before we begin to look at particular doctrines of justification and regeneration, different things like that, we’re looking at the Bible’s story of salvation.

And we began by showing that the Bible is, in fact, a story. And we tried to show that it’s a story about Jesus. We tried to show that it is a gospel-shaped story about Jesus, a story that centers on and climaxes in his death, burial, resurrection, and his second coming. And then what we’ve tried to do over many months now is to take various themes that carry that story. And rather than expounding a given passage each time, what we’ve been trying to do is take some representative passages throughout the scriptures that unpack these themes that each carry the same story from beginning to end.

And so we’ve looked at creation and new creation, kingdom and the new kingdom, and we’ve looked at Adam and the new Adam, and we’ve looked at Satan and Satan being defeated, crushing the tempter’s head. And we’ve looked at subjects like eternal life and various themes that we’ve seen, temple and so on, that carry the story of the Bible.

Today we take up a big theme. They’re all big themes. It’s the nature of it. We take up a really big theme that has me a bit frustrated. It’s the theme of the Day of the Lord. It frustrates me not because of the theme itself, just because it is so big that I can’t handle it in one message. I think one of the mistakes that I’ve made along the way in this series is trying to cram too much into a given sermon. It either gets too long or just too packed. So we are going to take this in two steps. And it frustrates me because I would like to get to part two to show where it culminates in the work of Christ, but that will be next week. You know that it is coming, so keep that in mind, but today we look at part one of it, the Day of the Lord.

And to do this, I would like to read through—I’ll read through several passages this morning, but our primary representative passage will be from the book of Joel, and I’m going to take the time to read a large segment of this. Joel chapter 1, and I think I will go through parts of chapters 1, 2, and 3. Beginning with verse 1:

“The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel: Hear this, you elders; give ear, all inhabitants of the land! Has such a thing happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers? Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation. What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten.

Awake, you drunkards, and weep, and wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it is cut off from your mouth. For a nation has come up against my land, powerful and beyond number; its teeth are lions’ teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness. It has laid waste my vine and splintered my fig tree; it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down; their branches are made white.

Lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth for the bridegroom of her youth. The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord. The priests mourn, the ministers of the Lord. The fields are destroyed, the ground mourns, because the grain is destroyed, the wine dries up, the oil languishes. Be ashamed, O tillers of the soil; wail, O vinedressers, for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field has perished. The vine dries up, the fig tree languishes; pomegranate, palm, and apple, all the trees of the field are dried up, and gladness dries up from the children of man.

Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar! Go in, pass the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God, because grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God. Consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord. Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.”

If you look down to chapter 2, beginning with verse 1:

“Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains a great and powerful people; their like has never been before, nor will be again after them through the years of all generations. Fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns. The land is like the garden of Eden before them, but behind them a desolate wilderness, and nothing escapes them.

Their appearance is like the appearance of horses, and like war horses they run. As with the rumbling of chariots they leap on the tops of the mountains, like the crackling of a flame of fire devouring the stubble, like a powerful army drawn up for battle. Before them peoples are in anguish; all faces grow pale. Like warriors they charge; like soldiers they scale the wall. They march each on his way; they do not swerve from their paths. They do not jostle one another; each marches in his path; they burst through the weapons and are not halted. They leap upon the city, they run upon the walls, they climb up into the houses, they enter through the windows like a thief.

The earth quakes before them; the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. The Lord utters his voice before his army, for his camp is exceedingly great; he who executes his word is powerful. For the day of the Lord is great and very awesome; who can endure it?

‘Yet even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.’ Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God?

Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber. Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep and say, ‘Spare your people, O Lord, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, “Where is their God?”‘”

And then again, chapter three, beginning with verse one:

“For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And I will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land, and have cast lots for my people, and have traded a boy for a prostitute, and have sold a girl for wine and have drunk it.

What are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for something? If you are paying me back, I will return your payment on your own head swiftly and speedily. For you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my rich treasures into your temples. You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them far from their own border. Behold, I will stir them up from the place to which you have sold them, and I will return your payment on your own head. I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away, for the Lord has spoken.

Proclaim this among the nations: Consecrate for war; stir 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 a warrior.’ Hasten and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves there. Bring down your warriors, O Lord. Let the nations stir themselves up and come into the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations.

Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great. Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. The Lord roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth quake. But the Lord is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the people of Israel.”

Let’s bow together for prayer. Our Father, this is not only a big subject in your word; it is a sobering one. We pray that you’ll give us a clear understanding of it and through it, give us a clearer understanding of the value and the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Give us through it a clearer, more focused faith in him. We ask in his name, amen.

This judgment theme, of course, looms very large in scripture from Genesis chapter 3 onward. It is something that is taken up again and again throughout the entire Bible. It comes up, of course, not only in Genesis 3 originally, but also in Genesis 6 to 9 with the flood, and again in Genesis 11 with the Tower of Babel. We find it again with Exodus and the plagues. We find it again with Joshua and the conquest. We find it in Judges with that cycle of sin and judgment and repentance in the experience of the people of Israel at that period. We find it in the Kings and the Chronicles with the rebellion of the people of Israel, and finally the exiles. We find it in the New Testament as well in the preaching of Jesus in a prominent way, in a way climaxing with the destruction of Jerusalem that was prophesied and came to pass in AD 70. We find it, of course, in the book of Revelation with some graphic imagery of it. And of course, all of this judgment theme culminates in the Bible’s teaching about hell and eternal punishment.

It’s a familiar topic in the prophets as well. If you’ve ever read through the prophets, even casually, you’re aware of that. And this judgment theme, particularly in the prophets, crystallizes in this expression: “the Day of the Lord”—an expression that is a bit ominous sounding in itself, and in the way it is described in the scriptures, is more ominous still.

In fact, you’ve noticed it, I’m sure, as we’ve read through. Chapter 1, verse 15: “Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is near.” Chapter 2 and verse 1: “blow a trumpet in Zion, sound an alarm on my holy mountain, let all the inhabitants of the land tremble for the day of the Lord is coming. It is near.” Verse 2, again: “a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness.” Again in verse 11, we see it again: “the day of the Lord is great and very awesome. Who can endure it?” And this throughout the prophets, not just in Joel, but throughout the prophets, and then in the New Testament as well, is to describe this climactic day of judgment that will be coming. It is a period of time when God’s purposes for mankind will be brought to full realization.

As I said earlier, we can’t exhaust it even in two weeks, but we certainly can’t today. We’ll have to finish it up next time. But again, to give a sense of the pervasiveness of this teaching, I want to take the time to read several passages of scripture that speak of it. I won’t take the time to have you turn to it, so if you would please—I know it’s difficult to listen to someone just read and read and read—but if you would try to listen in carefully when I give you a sampling of some representative passages from the prophets that speak of the Day of the Lord.

Isaiah chapter 2: “For the Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up—and it shall be brought low… and the haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. And the idols shall utterly pass away. And people shall enter the caves of the rocks and the holes of the ground, from before the terror of the Lord, and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth.”

Isaiah 13: “Wail, for the day of the Lord is near; as destruction from the Almighty it will come… Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it. For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light.”

Isaiah 22: “For the Lord God of hosts has a day of tumult and trampling and confusion in the valley of vision, a battering down of walls and a shouting to the mountains.”

Isaiah 34: “For the Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.”

Jeremiah chapter 46: “That day is the day of the Lord God of hosts, a day of vengeance, to avenge himself on his foes. For the Lord shall devour and be satisfied and drink it full of their blood.”

Ezekiel chapter 7: “Behold, the day! Behold, it comes! Your doom has come.”

Ezekiel 30: “For the day is near, the day of the Lord is near; it will be a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations.”

Obadiah: “For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you; your deeds shall return upon your own head.”

Zephaniah chapter one: “Be silent before the Lord God! For the day of the Lord is near; the Lord has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated his guests. And on the day of the Lord’s sacrifice—’I will punish the officials and the king’s sons and all who array themselves in foreign attire.’ … The great day of the Lord is near, near and hastening fast; the sound of the day of the Lord is bitter; the mighty man cries aloud there. A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements. I will bring distress upon mankind, so that they shall walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the Lord; their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them on the day of the wrath of the Lord. In the fire of his jealousy, all the earth shall be consumed; for a full and sudden end he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth.”

Well, again, if you’ve read the prophets at all, this is a familiar theme. This is just a representative sampling, and this runs through the prophets as a steady kind of theme that shows up again and again and again. In fact, some Old Testament books—the entire prophecies are given over to this theme, like the prophecy of Joel, the entire book devoted to this theme of the Day of the Lord. The same with Obadiah. It’s largely true with Amos as well. You have these major passages that expound it at length and it crops up here and here and here again.

It comes up in the New Testament then as well; just a couple of passages here to represent it. 2 Peter 3:10: “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.” Revelation chapter 16 in verse 14: “For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God Almighty.”

A haunting expression, isn’t it? “The great day of God Almighty.” And then of course various passages throughout the New Testament as well pick up on this theme of the Day of the Lord. There are related expressions that we find both in the Old Testament and the New Testament that carry out this theme. It’s not always the exact expression, “the Day of the Lord.” Sometimes—and I’ll give you just a few of the related expressions that are given—the day of the wrath of Yahweh, the great day of the Lord, the great and dreadful day of the Lord, the day, the day when I act, the day of visitation, the day of punishment, the day of your calamity, the day of your disaster, a day of trouble, a day of vengeance, a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace. Sometimes it’s simply “that day,” or “the day,” or “the day of the Lord’s wrath.”

When we take these expressions—the day, the Day of the Lord, and its related expressions—and then we combine it with the various themes that are attached in expounding the significance of the Day of the Lord, themes like kingdom, things like judgment, things like the outpouring of God’s spirit, and so on, pretty soon we’ve dealt with the entire Bible. It is that big of a theme, and these are familiar expressions and even characteristic expressions running through, particularly, the Old Testament prophets. We come to the New Testament, again it’s picked up: the last day, that day, the great day, the Day of the Lord, the day of Christ, the day of the Lord Jesus Christ, the day of Jesus Christ, the day of God’s wrath, and then again, as I say, that particularly haunting expression in Revelation, “the great day of God Almighty.”

Well, all of that just to run through in relatively brief time, to give you a refreshing sense. I’m sure you’re familiar with it if you’ve read the Bible at all. But to refresh our minds with not only the pervasiveness of that theme, but something of the flavor of it as well, to remind us of the sobering teaching that comes with it.

Now in the rest of our time today, and then next time as well, I want to explore what is the significance of the Day of the Lord, and how does it tell this story, this Bible story about Jesus. Again, this is my frustration; we won’t be able to get to Part 2 today, but today we’ll deal with the first significance of the Day of the Lord.

A Day Of Judgment

And of course, the first significance of the Day of the Lord is that it is a day of judgment. That just lies on the surface of it, and we see that in virtually every passage where it crops up. Throughout the prophets, that’s its obvious significance. In fact, it first occurs chronologically in the book of Amos, chapter 5, and it already appears as an expression that is one that is familiar to the people of Israel. It has a haunting significance even to them in its first occurrence. This is something that the prophets preached evidently over and over again to give them a sense of this coming day of judgment when God comes to call people into account.

Now in this theme of judgment then—the Day of the Lord as a theme of judgment—God is presented in various kinds of ways. One, of course, is that he is presented as the judge, the chief magistrate of the nations, if you will. We find that here in Joel chapter 3, verses 12 to 14. I’d like you to see that again. Joel chapter 3, well, let’s pick it up with verse 13:

“Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great. Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.”

I remember when I was a kid at a conference or something, one time hearing a preacher refer to this passage about multitudes in the valley of decision, and his application was, “This is your day for decision. You need to decide whether you will be with Christ or not, whether you repent of your sin or not.” Looking back at that, I have to say that however true all of that may be, and however true it is that the New Testament and all through the scriptures, Old Testament and New, there is a call for you to decide that you must repent of your sin and turn—that is not the point of this passage. This is not a passage that tells you this is your time to decide. This is a passage that tells us when you are in the valley of decision, it is God’s turn now to decide, and he will determine what to do with you as he renders verdict. Multitudes in the valley of decision, God sitting as judge over the earth, determining what he will do with him, with her, with him, with her, and dividing the nations and the people accordingly.

There are passages in the Old Testament that continue this figure of God as judge or as chief magistrate. Daniel chapter 7, of course, is one of the most graphic of them, where the thrones are set and the Ancient of Days takes his seat, the books are open, and judgment is set. That’s picked up, of course, in Matthew chapter 25 in the Olivet Discourse when Jesus speaks of his coming in glory and separating the nations on the right and the left, the sheep and the goats. So God is presented then in this figure of judgment under the figure of judge or chief magistrate.

He’s also presented as a warrior. The Day of the Lord is presented to us as a day of war when God rises to do battle against the nations. I’m sure you noticed that in the passages we’ve read so far. One representative passage, Isaiah chapter 13 in verse four: “The sound of a tumult is on the mountains as of a great multitude! The sound of an uproar of kingdoms, of nations gathering together! The Lord of hosts is mustering a host for battle.” It pictures God as coming to do battle and coming to war finally against the rebellious nations of the earth.

It’s been suggested—I think it’s probably right—that the origin of this Day of the Lord theme is found in the Exodus. When God comes to war against sinners and to triumph for his people, you can picture it with the Song of Moses on the other side of the Red Sea, triumphing in God’s judgment over his enemies, and this “God as a warrior” theme is born. It’s picked up again in the conquest, of course, with Joshua, picked up again with David and his exploits as well.

Along with this “God as a warrior” theme, and the Day of the Lord as a war and a battle, is this trumpet imagery. We saw it here in Joel chapter 2 and verse 1: “Blow a trumpet in Zion, sound an alarm on my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming. It is near.” Often in the Old Testament, this trumpet imagery is used to announce the Lord’s arrival and to announce his work is about to commence. And there are plenty of passages that speak to that. The symbolism of it probably traces back to Joshua chapter 6. You remember in the Battle of Jericho with the call to battle, and this trumpet imagery—a call to battle, a call to the soldiers to take their arms and to line up for battle.

Also with that, not just the trumpet imagery, but this name for God that is given throughout the Old Testament: Lord Sabaoth. Lord of hosts—simply a Hebrew word that’s been transliterated into English, Sabaoth. The Lord of hosts; it’s a military expression picturing God as the captain of his armies and calling together the host to do battle. You remember we sing that expression in the song, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God: “Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing. Were not the right man on our side, the man of God’s own choosing. Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is he; Lord Sabaoth his name, from age to age the same, and he must win the battle.” It’s a military expression. Luther had the insight to connect Jesus to the Lord of hosts.

And of course that’s picked up throughout the Old Testament and then the New. It is something that is pressed by the prophets over and over again—that God will come and he will come in battle, bringing his hosts with him. And that of course culminates in the book of Revelation chapter 19 when Jesus comes riding on a white horse and a sword coming out of his mouth, which is to say it won’t be much of a battle. He speaks and his enemies fall away.

This will be a day of judgment—a day of judgment on Israel, a day of judgment on the nations. Generally, it is a day of the destruction of the godless and the disobedient, the ultimate day of God’s judgment against sin. It is a day then that is marked by wrath and destruction. The Day of the Lord, in many contexts, is simply a synonym for judgment and destruction and wrath and vengeance.

One of the figures that is used in the Old Testament on several occasions, picked up in the New as well, is this cup imagery. Cup of wrath. God pouring out this awful mixture of wine out on the world, and they must drink then of the wrath of the wine of God. Jeremiah chapter 25 verse 15: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it.'” Ezekiel 23: “You have gone the way of your sister; therefore I will give her cup into your hand. Thus says the Lord God: ‘You shall drink your sister’s cup that is deep and large. You shall be laughed at and held in derision, for it contains much. You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, a cup of horror and desolation, the cup of your sister Samaria.'”

All of this judgment theme and these various figures that are used are described in all kinds of haunting terms. In Isaiah chapter 2, it is a day of massive leveling, bringing low what is lofty. It’s often described in terms of natural disaster, like we saw here in Joel chapter 1, the plague of locusts. what the cutting locust left, verse four, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten; what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten. Verses four and following, it’s spoken of in terms of a drought. Chapter two, verse two, it’s thick clouds and darkness, this ominous sign of a storm coming. Amos chapter 5 and in other places we have it described as the sun refusing to shine, a day of darkness.

It is also described in terms of the disruption of the heavenly bodies, the stars falling, and so on. Earth itself is spoken of as shaking, convulsing, quaking at the coming of God in judgment. It’s spoken of in terms of floods, raging fires, whirlwinds, storms. Zephaniah uses a complex metaphor: “The day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness, a day of trumpet and battle cry.” Malachi chapter 3 describes it as a day that will be like a burning oven.

It’s often with the language of slaughter, with dead bodies lying across the battlefields, dead bodies lying in the streets in the wake of God’s wrath. Often it’s described in terms of blood running in just disgusting quantities, animals feeding on the corpses. And then there’s that, I think, just an ominous sounding kind of a description, a metaphor that is given that I read earlier in Zephaniah chapter 1—that that day is the day of the Lord’s sacrifice. In that day, God will offer a sacrifice. And it won’t be a lamb, and it won’t be a goat, and it won’t be a bull. The sacrificial victim that he will offer will be his enemies.

Because of all of that then, the Day of the Lord is described as a day of mourning, a day of wailing, a day of crying. And I think just most significantly is the simple expression: “the Day of the Lord.” This is His day. No longer your day. It’s no longer the world’s day. No longer will the world have its say; this is His day. God himself will come and in the in-breaking of his kingdom, he will come not only on the scene, but he will totally dominate the stage.

According to Isaiah chapter 13, all hands will go limp and every man’s heart will melt. The earth and the heavens will shake. The sun will refuse to give light. A complete meltdown of the created order. Often the stress is not only that this judgment will be universal in scope, but often the prophets will stress the overwhelming power that God will have when he comes in judgment. Wrath coming so swiftly. There’s no time for flight, no time for escape. It’ll be like a thief in the night. People will be hiding in caves, people calling on the mountains to cover them so as to escape God’s wrath. Graphic, sobering imagery. The God of all the earth comes and calls his creation into account. They have rebelled; he has been patient; and time has run out.

As I say, this is a major theme in the prophets, some entire books given to it. I don’t have time now to survey the book of Joel further, but you’ll see in chapter one, it’s spoken of in terms of locust calamity, drought, calling for a fast and assembly, calling out for mercy. Chapter three, we get to God calling the nations into account, not just Israel. Let’s take the time, look over a page or two at the book of Amos.

Amos famously describes this in graphic terms. You’ll see this repeated expression, “for three transgressions, yea for four.” Look at Amos chapter 1 and verse 3: “Thus says the Lord: ‘For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron.'” Verse 6: “Thus says the Lord: ‘For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment.'” Verse 9: “Thus says the Lord: ‘For three transgressions of Tyre, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment.'” Verse 11: “Thus says the Lord: ‘For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment.'” Verse 13: “Thus says the Lord: ‘For three transgressions of the Ammonites, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment.'” Chapter 2, verse 1: “For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment.” Verse 4: “For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment.” Verse 6: “For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment.”

Tremendous rhetorical effect, doesn’t it? You imagine a prophet of God coming? “For three transgressions of Pyongyang and for four, I will not revoke the punishment.” And we say, “Amen.” “For three transgressions of Tehran and for four, I will not revoke punishment,” and we say, “Amen.” “For three transgressions of Beijing and for four, I will not revoke punishment.” For three transgressions and for four—and they work their way around the cities and the nations of the world, and then: “For three transgressions of Washington, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment.” “For three transgressions of Philadelphia, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment.” That’s the rhetorical effect that Amos has through this. The surrounding nations and all their sin, I’m sure all of Israel says, “Yeah, give it to them!” “For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment.” The universal scope of judgment in that day.

After Amos comes Obadiah, a very brief prophecy, again given over entirely to this theme of the Day of the Lord, with a particular focus on Edom, but then he expands it as well to all of the nations. A day of judgment, a day of wrath, a day of vengeance, a day of calamity—sobering, sobering passages.

And yet—this won’t be till next time—but and yet this will also be a day of salvation, a day of God’s deliverance of his people. This theme runs through the prophets: a day when God’s purpose for humanity will be realized in judgment and in salvation. We find it in the New Testament as well. As I mentioned, Matthew 25, Christ says he will come and the nations will be gathered before him and divided on his right and left, the sheep and the goats. Acts chapter 17, verse 31: “God has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness.” Romans chapter 2, which is something of Paul’s extended exposition of the doctrine of divine judgment, in verse 5 he puts it in such a haunting way: “storing up wrath for themselves against the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.” Storing up wrath against the day of wrath—picturing sin as something that’s put into the bank and put into the bank, and every next sin put into the bank and put into the bank and deposited again and again until finally the day of judgment comes and all of that comes back upon the sinner in judgment.

1 Thessalonians 5: the Day of the Lord will come like a thief. 2 Peter 3: “but by the same word the heavens and the earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.” And all culminating in the various judgments of the book of Revelation, which come to pass in the great day of God Almighty. All of that, of course, tied very tightly, particularly in the New Testament, to the return of Jesus Christ, which is a day of salvation also.

I would like to take time—I don’t have the time for it—I would like to point us through that passage in Romans chapter 2 where Paul gives us a nice summary, a summary exposition of the doctrine of divine judgment. There he tells us the scope of judgment. It will include everything about us, everything about you, taking into account even the secrets of men’s hearts. The principle of judgment then will be justice: exact, exact retribution, fitting for each person. Each person measured against the sin committed and fitted then with the punishment he deserves exactly. The standard of judgment will be God’s law. It will be according to truth. A time when no excuses will make any difference. There’s no talking your way out of it. But judgment will be fixed according to God’s law, measured against reality, according to truth. The point then is justice will be served. Sinners must be punished and the righteous vindicated.

These are the passages that give the Bible the reputation it has with some of “hellfire and damnation.” It’s a theme that’s everywhere in the scriptures. The biblical writers are never shy to say it. This is reality. The day is coming. Why is it necessary? It’s necessary because God is a righteous God. He’s just. One aspect of his righteousness is that he demands righteousness of creatures made in his image. We are responsible to manifest his righteousness in our own behavior. Another aspect of his righteousness is that he not only demands righteousness, but he must punish unrighteousness. It would be unrighteous, it would be wrong for God to let unrighteousness go unpunished. He could no sooner allow unrighteousness to go forever unpunished than he could cease to be the God that he is. His just and righteous order must be maintained. Justice must prevail, and justice must not only prevail, but it must be shown to prevail. And all of that brings us to these end-time conflagrations, the culminating judgment of hell itself.

And this note of the certainty of that day of wrath is a note that is pressed over and over again by the biblical writers—the certainty of that day of judgment. This is not a topic we address a lot, which really I think is an odd thing given the prominence of it in the scriptures. Jesus himself warned of it often and warned of it in graphic terms. The Apostles also; for example, 2 Thessalonians chapter 1: “God will repay with affliction those who afflict you, and grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and those who do not obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal damnation away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.”

As I say, the biblical writers just don’t shy away from this. It’s dominant, prominent in the scriptures, and the purpose throughout is to warn. This is no trifling matter. This day will come. The day will come when you will be in the valley of decision. It won’t be your decision. It will be God’s decision. He will determine what is to be done with you. He will render verdict.

You young people, children, you need to hear this. You may think that you can ignore the gospel and the warnings that you have heard from your mom and dad, from your Sunday school teachers. You may think that the world is attractive. This is real. In that day, in that day, your excuses won’t matter. There’ll be no talking your way out of it like you can with mom and dad today. God will judge and he will judge according to truth and he will dispense justice accordingly.

All of this is given in the scriptures to drive us to see the vital necessity of Jesus Christ, who himself bore the judgment of God against sin in the place of sinners. And the whole Bible comes to us to tell us—and we’ll explore this more next time—but the whole Bible comes to us to tell us that there is safety to be found from judgment, but it is only in Jesus Christ who has borne that judgment for sinners. We’ll see that next time. Let’s bow together for prayer.

Our Father, these are just sobering themes. How thankful we are for Jesus Christ. What a glorious Savior he is to have come and borne that punishment for us. Lord, I pray that you will not allow any who attended here, none of the children of RBC, none who have heard the gospel here—Lord, don’t allow any of us to go from here without Christ. Give us a sense of the awfulness of judgment and give us then a clear picture of the glory and the beauty of Jesus Christ. In his name we pray. Amen.