Well, we thank you for coming. And when one particular joy is always to know, the Lord Jesus said, where two or three are gathered together, there am I in the midst. A dear friend of mine, who went to a very small group of believers in Albany, New York, he was a wealthy man, found the Lord Jesus as his Savior, looked around to find where he could find other believers that loved the Word, and the only place he could was a group of small, a small group of believers, and he met with them. But he told me as I sat with him in his home one time, his neighbor, and his neighbor was wealthy too, often chided him because he could have gone to a fashionable, though it was a liberal, wealthy church. And he had been a steward in that very church himself. And his neighbor often chided him. And one day his neighbor called him over, And said, Doc, you have to be a doctor. He said, Doc, come over here. And so he went. He said, I went over to my neighbor. And he said, Doc, we had over four hundred and more at church this morning. How many did you have? You know, a little bit sneeringly. And he said, Brother Bramwell, I was fed up. And I looked at him. I said, we beat you. And he looked back astonished and said, you beat us. How could you? You couldn't even get a hundred in that place where you were. How could you get more than that? Nevertheless, I know we couldn't get more than a hundred in, but we had one person there was worth more than ten thousand. That was the Lord. And beloved, after all, whether two or three, whether two or three thousand, whose reattraction? The blessed Lord. But how precious to know he is. Joel chapter three, may I say solemnly, we've got a very serious lesson. It makes my heart grieve in studying it to realize the depth of sorrow and trouble that is facing the world. Joel chapter three, your lesson sheet is page number five. And we come to the last chapter of the prophecy and the last events of the day of the Lord, and they are judgments preceding the kingdom of our Savior, taking over. Let me read from verse one through verse eight for our reading, first of all. Chapter three. Joel writing by the Holy Spirit, God writing through him to say, For behold in those days, and in that time when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat. and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. They have cast lots for my people. They have given a boy for an harlot and sold a girl for wine that they might drink. Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O tyrant Zidane, and all the ghosts of Palestine? Will ye render me a recompense? And if ye recompense me, Swiftly and speedily will I return your recompense upon your own head, because you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things. The children also of Judah, and the children of Jerusalem, if ye sold under the Grecian, that ye might remove them far from their border. Behold, I will raise them out of the place whither you sold them. and will return your recompense upon your own head. And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah. And they shall sell them to the Sabaeans to a people far off. For the Lord hath spoken it. May God bless this section of the portion we have read from his holy word. And if you will follow with me your lesson outlined on your page number five. And from verses one through eight, We have God's call to the nations to bring them unto His judgment. Please note particularly verse one, which you have on your lesson sheet first mentioned. Jehovah tells the time when it will take place. Please remember the preceding chapter, especially the closing part of it, when there would be the recovery, the restoration of the remnant of Israel in that day yet ahead. And it is at that same period of time that God says in that time when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem. And God thus declares what he is going to do in that day in relation to the nations. Can I just visualize with you a little bit clearer, I hope, that God is saying At that time when my people are restored, I'm going to deal with all the nations. Please, may I say, the worldwide scope of it, the worldwide embrace is alarming, for God includes every nation in the final dealing with the worldwide empires of the Gentiles. The scope, please let me say, the scope of it is far greater than anything that has ever taken place in human history, whether it be what we may be remembering in our own minds and our own lifetimes, the First World War, the Second World War, any wars, the scope of the gathering of the nations to battle against Jehovah in that coming day. is far beyond our little imagination. It embraces the whole world. Let me please state again, take all the history of time that you can read, whether you go back to the Phoenician days of early history, as well as the, and the history of the, in the days of the Patriarchs, the Phoenicians, the Egyptians, or any particular empire. The scope of their activity was limited, usually to the old world. Now we face in the prophecy of Joel an activity that God says will be affecting all the nations. And of course you and I realize that in the present day, well, it's almost a small world, so to speak, the close proximity of nations to one another today in their interest, in their activity, in their economic activity, and political and so on. They are closer together. And may I point out, too, as we well know from the Scripture, they are coming closer together when in subsequent days they will be under one world dictator, who will rule the world in his agnostic and atheistic power as well as moral evil. And what a day that will be. But now when God approaches the problem here, He has a reason for bringing them together. Note verse two. He tells where He will do it. He has a definite place. He'll draw them to. I will also gather all nations. We'll bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat. And we'll plead with them there for my people and for my heritage, whom they have scattered among the nations. Please note, let me read the paragraph on your lesson sheet before going into some other scriptures. The place is mentioned, the valley of Jehoshaphat. A specific place in the land of Israel. He brings the nations together, and that will be described when we come later in the chapter, what will take place there. The word Jehoshaphat, who is the king by that name, as we well know, means Jehovah Judges. And it occurs elsewhere in the Bible we well know. But the significant meaning of Jehu's name, he is Jehovah. And the name of Jehoshaphat, Jehovah Judges. And so the name of Jehoshaphat implies Jehovah Judges. And please let me think. Let me give you the thought. Now you may well remember, I hope you do. First of all, remember Matthew twenty-five. thirty-one through forty-six, often rightly called the judgment of the living nations. One could properly say that that judgment of the nations will take place even in the valley of Gehoshaphat, when they will be separated for eternity. Those on the right, the sheep that will be blessed and into the kingdom taken, and the others on the left, who will be cast aside into eternal fire. But the judgment day is coming and the place, the valley of Jehoshaphat. I remember reading after World War I, General Allenby, whom God used to deliver Palestine from the power of the Turks, entered into Jerusalem. In fact, he wouldn't ride upon a horse when he rode into that city victoriously. But he was a Christian man. and honored the Lord and the Savior whom he loved by walking into the city reverently. But when he stood later looking over the valley of Jehoshaphat, he stated to his men that were gathered around him, to the officers within, this is the place where the last battle will ever be fought. He knew his Bible. The last world battle will be fought here, the valley of Jehoshaphat. and God has the place. Now let me also add, it's not on your notes, but I want you to go with me and see how he gathers them. Go to the book of the Revelation, chapter sixteen if you please. Chapter sixteen of the book of the Revelation. There's something there I think will be greatly helpful for the book of the Revelation touches upon that same period of time as well as the consummation of the judgment which will come upon the nations, and we'll see that later. But may I read in chapter sixteen at verse twelve? The sixth angel poured out his vile upon the great river Euphrates. The water thereof was dried up at the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits, like frogs, come out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of demons, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth, and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle. May I say, perhaps the better word rendered would be to the war or the campaign. For there may be many phases of battle in that war, to the war of that great day of God Almighty. Now here you have a contemporary scripture telling how God will gather the nations together. And as you may have noticed in verse thirteen, unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, the beast, the false prophet, of whom you may read in chapter thirteen, they are the leaders of satanic trinity of the last day. The dragon, Satan himself, energizing the beast and the false prophet, and through them speaking by the spirits of demons, evil demons, words that bring the nations together. And may I give you this thought, and I think it's worthy of suggestion, there will be a united effort and a united agreement they want to exterminate God's earthly people of Jews. They'll be united in that. Remember, and let me quote the words of Jesus, Matthew twenty-four, when he said, Ye shall be hated of all nations, for my name's sake. And please, I feel confident from the word of God in his teaching that they will together combine for the extermination of God's earthly people. At that end time, and they will be brought together by the powers of evil and the darkness of evil spirits, prompting them, uniting them. And yet, behind all the Satan's purposes, God is always working. Can I repeat that? Behind all the Satan's purposes, God is always working. Whatever the sins may be on the earth God is working behind the scenes his purpose is coming forward to be fulfilled according to his divine will and if you please note will you please note in verse fourteen note the end of the verse to gather them to the battle of the war of that great day of God Almighty now may I Can I point out something to you? Do you notice it in that reading? The nations are going to fight against God. And God is going to fight against the nation. Take it in. It's what you got in Joel. We'll see it later in the chapter in Joel more in detail. Well, may I go on reading if I will? Let me read the paragraph on your page going down, if I may. The valley of Jehoshaphat, and in the immediate vicinity of Jerusalem, will be the place where the Lord will deal with the nations, and his judgment will be on account of his people and heritage Israel. The nations scattered them and divided his lands. They treated his people like slaves. They cast lots for them. They sold a goat for wine and drank it. You've got that in verse two at the end of it, in our chapter in verse three. And please note, God hasn't forgotten the nations may, but God never has forgotten what the nations have done to his earthly people. And may I state, no matter how far back, the outrages may go, and the history of time has shown many of them have departed out of life, yet the existing nations that prevail at the end time their lives. their descendants of that coming day, God holds them guilty as nations, as nations. And I'm sure we don't need, even today, to question the fact that the dealing of the nations with God's earthly people, even at the present time, is not what it should be. Outside, perhaps, of our own country, they have no friends particularly seeking to help them. And how long they'll have that last friend, one may wonder. But we can recognize God has a controversy with what the nations have done with his people of old and even down to the present day. And he gives the reason. Now let me read paragraph D on your lesson sheet. The great sin of the Gentile nations against Israel. And you go down, as we go down the chapter. Please let me look at your chapter. In verse four, five, and six, down into verse seven, God specially tells, J, what have ye to do with me? Tyre, Zidon, Palestine? Will ye render a recompense? Nations that were very near to Israel? And if ye recompense me swiftly and speedily, will I return your recompense upon your own head? You've taken my silver. You've taken my gold. You've carried into your temples my goodly pleasant thing. And the children of Judah and your children of Jerusalem. You've sold to the Gentiles that you might remove them far from their border. Please let me read your paragraph that we have on the lesson sheet. We're not going to follow all those scriptures that are there. But look on the lesson B. The great sin of the Gentile nations against Israel. As we read from verse four through verse seven. This is repeatedly mentioned by God's prophets. May I state this? You have the scriptures for reference, if you would follow them. The Psalms, quite frequently there. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah are the prophets. And in Matthew twenty-five, the judgment of the living nations, it's all based upon their treatment of Messiah's brethren. My brethren, my earthly people, my earthly people. May I give you this thought. God is not going to settle the problem of the nations until he first settles the problem with his own people. And that we have noticed, if you don't mind, in our study of John in the preceding chapter two, we found God coming in to bring his own people back to himself. Then, when he has that problem settled with his people, He deals with the nations for what they've done to his people. Let me repeat again. No human effort for peace will ever be accomplished, no matter how strong and great the effort may be, until God's earthly people are right with Jehovah. It will take that. It will take that. And when they're right with Job, then God's going to deal with the rest of the world and put that right. Can I repeat it? May I stay? I do it in love. Some of our good friends that preach the word sometimes. They're longing to see the world in peace. And who wouldn't like to see it in peace? But from the word of God it's evident. There is no peace sent, my God, to the wicked. The wicked alike, the restless see which trouble see which cannot rest. And until God's earthly people get right with him, the nations can expect no peace at all. No peace at all. Nothing but trouble. And of course, unfortunately, on their part, their mistreatment of God's earthly people. Let me read in that paragraph feed. I've got a quotation of one of the terrible examples regarding what the nations have done to God's earthly people. The destruction of Jerusalem in seventy AD by Roman powers. And if you ever get the writings of Josephus, they're very interesting and an amazing thing is so much about the wars of the Jews in it. But Josephus was a Jewish historian who witnessed the siege of Jerusalem in AD seventy by the Romans. The Romans had taken him and made him a prisoner, and yet as a prisoner he had the privilege of writing what he saw and what was taking place. But he states that one and a half million Jews perished at the awful siege of Jerusalem. And if you were to read the account of the siege of Jerusalem, Josephus writes, you would be horrified. For two years that siege lasted, and the fanatical, patriotic Jews withstood the siege of the Romans that long. In other words, they were starved out. Women ate their children, as the word of God even foretold they would. And many atrocities were committed. But when they conquered the city, and destroyed the temple. Well, let me read on. Over one hundred thousand were taken prisoners. They were disposed of by Titus, who was the Roman general then, according to this historian in the following way. And I quote him, Those who were under seventeen years of age were publicly sold. Of the remain that some were executed immediately. Some were sent away to work in the Egyptian mines, which was even worse than death. Some were kept for public shows to fight with wild beasts as a sport in all the chief cities of the Roman Empire. Only the tallest and the most handsome were kept for the triumph and procession of victory in Rome when Titus returned there." Now in the history of centuries others have been massacred, tortured, outraged, sold as slaves, World War II, exhibited similar horrors in Germany. And yet the history is not yet finished. And here's the quotation of Matthew twenty-four, or reference to it in verse twenty-one. And when the Lord says in that scripture that that great day of tribulation there will be none like it, not as ever happened before like it, nor will again anything happen like it, that period of the great tribulation. But the day will come when the Lord will judge the nations, for the evil that they have done. And what a day of trouble that will be. Please let me go to verse seven and then go to verse eight in our chapter and finish the reading. And Jehovah's saying, Behold, I will raise them. I'll bring them out of the place where you've sold them. And I will return your recompense upon your own head. What you have given them, I'm going to give you. and I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah. They shall sell them to the Sabaeans who are people for the Lord has spoken in. Oh, beloved, may I say lovingly, please, may I say carefully, have not the centuries built up the day of judgment? When you think of the centuries that have elapsed, and God has not yet visited the nations in judgment for what they have done to his earthly people. They've been going on and on and on and on, not only before Christ, since our Lord Jesus came and died and rose again. And even to today, and even in the days ahead, the worst form of trouble and trial, as we well know, is coming for God's earthly people. Now, will you please go with me to verse nine? Verse nine. As we come to the closing part of this chapter, we have the warfare of the nations and how it ends. Now, please remember this. Remember what we found in Revelation sixteen? The battle is between God, the Almighty God, and the nation. Can I repeat it? The battle is between Almighty God and the nations. What a day it's going to be. May I just read verse nine for just for a moment. And ten. 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 sores and your pluding hopes into spheres. Let the weak say, I am strong. Now please may I point out to you, this is actually going to take place. God prophetically foretells it. And he calls the nations, proclaim war among the nations, and prepare. Wake up, bring all your mighty men. Let all the men of war draw near. Let them come up. My beloved, will you please notice, this is a divine challenge. And may I say frankly, the gathering together of the men of the nations to that battle. As you have it further down in the chapter, the prophet said, multitudes. There will have never been a gathering together of so many to battle. Representing all the nations of the world in that coming day. And God challenges them. Come on. I'm going to fight with you. I'm going to battle with you. If you please know, you know in verse ten, beat your plowshares into, get every instrument that you can. Take the common things that you use for farming and so on. Beat them into weapons of war. I don't care how much you bring. Can you visualize, can I imagine, what an array of battle and equipment and weapons? In this sophisticated day? In this sophisticated day? I'm not very sympathetic with the explanation that sometimes Bible teachers give from the thirty-eighth of Ezekiel that it'll be just cavalry horses. No, no, no, no. Of course, in the days of the prophet wrote, he couldn't write about guns. He couldn't mention weapons. of nuclear power, and of course the horse was usually the instrument of battle in those days long ago. But may I point out to you, God challenges, look, if you've got Russia challenging the United States, and United States challenging Russia and building up armaments in order to be the strongest power, what will it be when they're combined? to be in representation in that coming day of battle in the valley of Geoshaphat. And God said, bring all the weapons you've got. Bring all the weapons that you've got. Play notes something. Further down, please, in verse eleven. The Lord said, assemble yourselves. Come all ye heathen. Gather yourselves together round about. Will you look at verse nine? Right in the center of the verse. Wake up the mighty man. Beloved, the best warriors, the best soldiers, the best men of war will be gathered together to supervise that battle in that coming day. Mighty man. Now go to the end of verse twelve. And verse eleven rather, I beg your pardon, assemble yourselves. Come, all ye nations, gather yourselves together round about. And when he's got them all there, now notice the next phrase. Hither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord. Hither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord. Now there's a lot of difference between the mighty men in verse nine and the mighty ones in verse eleven. The mighty ones in verse eleven are coming down from heaven. The angelic hosts. And God's going to call for the hosts of heaven to come down at that battle, to join him in the battle, to thus judge the nation and bring their destruction. We've got a scripture we want to turn to. Revelation chapter fourteen. Chapter fourteen in the book of the Revelation. And here we can find it's the same time as John by the Spirit in Revelation writes in chapter fourteen, verse fourteen. Let me begin reading there. For here is one of the consummating judgments. And John writes in verse fourteen to say, And I look, it's a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire, cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth. For her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city. And blood came out of the winepress, even under the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. Let me but briefly comment upon this scripture that we have read. It's allied with the scripture in the book of Joel. It's the same scene. But you look upon it from the heavenly side. And as the prophet Joel wrote, and God said, Bring down thy mighty ones. So we have here in the Revelation how God will bring down the heavenly host to execute his judgment. You notice in both, in verse fourteen, you've got the Lord Jesus sitting upon the cloud of glory, his head crowned with a symbol of his authority and of his kingship, and in his hand the sharp sickle, ready to reap the harvest of the earth. And when you think of it, at the end of verse fifteen, the time has come for thee to reap. Hope you love it, please let me say. It's been a long day before the harvest comes. Remember the text in Galatians six, whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Let me paraphrase it. Whatsoever the nation's soweth, That shall they also reap. Whether it be an individual or nation, the harvest comes. And what we have solemnly, both in Joel and here in the Revelation, is that harvest day of reaping for the evil. No, know what it says. What it says in verse fifteen at the end. The harvest of the earth is ripe. In other words, it must be cut down. And if I may paraphrase that, the harvest of the earth is wrong. The rottenness of evil has become such. It's got to be cut down. And the surgery of divine justice is going to do it all over the world. And then in the... wine presses, you note the second angel, he comes out of the temple, which is in heaven. And if you note, with a sharp sickle, but another angel in verse eighteen comes out from the altar, which had power over fire. I want you to note two distinctions. The Lord is seen in the first vision sitting on a cloud. Then when you get to the second vision, of the second angel, he comes from the altar. And the altar speaks of God's holiness and God's righteousness. And one can recognize that altar that speaks of the death of his dear son implies that from that same altar there's going to be poured out from heaven above Divine judgment upon the nation. Let me give you the contrast. They nailed the Lord Jesus to the cross of Calvary. Pilate wrote the title over him in Hebrew, in Greek, and in Latin. This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. He wrote him in the language of the prevailing divine religion of that day, Hebrews. He wrote it in the language of the cultured world, the Greek, and he wrote it in the language of the civil world, the Roman power in Latin. And it was the language of the nations at large, the whole world, crucify him, crucify him. We will not have this man to reign over us. And the tragedy is this. On the basis of that also, divine judgment is going to be poured out upon the earth. Let me go down the chapter, please. I want you to know what is written further down. As you go to verse nineteen, the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth. He gathered the vine of the earth and he cast it. Now, no, he cast it into the wine press of the wrath of God. And you can understand the language. The wine press, the grapes are put into the wine press, and then the press is stuffed, crushed down upon the grapes to squeeze the juice from it. And you're reading verse twenty. The wine press was trodden without the city. There you recognize Jerusalem and its environment. And blood came out of the wine press, even to the horse bridles. By the space of a thousand six hundred furlongs, about two hundred miles. And may I please literally suggest to you that in the confines and the environment of Jerusalem and the valley of Jehoshaphat, when the nations of us gathered from north to south and south to north, the length of Israel is about two hundred miles. And the whole scene is going to be a carnage of blood. Of blood. when the judgment falls. Can I go with you to Psalm chapter two, please? I want you to notice something in Psalm chapter two. You've got something in the second Psalm that coincides in prophecy with the same event. In chapter two, let me read verse one through three. Now I want you to realize this is a prophetic Psalm. Why do the heathen of the nations rage? And the people imagine a vain thing, an impossible thing. The kings of the earth set themselves. And the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, Let us break their bands of thunder and cast away their cords from it. In those three verses you hear and you listen to the voice of the nations. In the last day, They gather together. The kings of the earth and the rulers take counsel together. And their battle is against the Lord, against his anointed, his beloved son, the Messiah. And the purpose is what? To break their bands of thunder and cast away they're called shamans. Please let me say frankly, if you've got it, then show up. God says, I'm going to fight against you, and you're going to have to fight against me. We'll see who's going to win. And you got it in the Messianic Psalm here. The nation will be gathered together to fight against the Lord and against his beloved Son. Well, let's read the Psalm through quickly. For I want you to notice something else. In verse four, five, and six, you can hear the voice of God the Father. You've got four voices in the Psalm. First you've got the voice of God the nations. Then you've got the voice of God the Father. He that sitteth in the heaven shall lack. The Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. And there you see the purpose of the Father. And in that day, he laughed. Oh, I remember, I think I go back in the nineteen thirties. I remember looking at a cartoon, a caption that was taken from the Moscow paper, Pravda, the Russian publication, and on that cartoon was the picture of a Soviet workman climbing a ladder. The ladder was on earth, the top supposedly reached heaven. And climbing the ladder was the Soviet character with a hammer and a sickle in his hand. Underneath the caption of the Cartoon had these words. We've destroyed the gods of the earth. Now we'll destroy the gods of heaven. I read it for myself. Look what the world's coming to. Drive God off the earth. You've got it. With the satanic Trinity and the man of sin. Making man his own God. There is no God above. Where is God? Beloved, There's going to be a final battle. And when it takes place and they gather together, God the Father is going to look down and laugh and have them in derision. I'm going to put my king on my holy hill of Zion. Now look at verse, as you go to verse seven, eight and nine, you hear the voice of God the Son. You find these distinct voices. God the Father. Now God the Son speaks. I will declare the decree. The Lord has said unto me, Thou art my Son. This day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, I shall give thee the nation. Now wherever you read the word even in your Old Testament, it means nation. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the nations for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a father's vessel. And there you see the decree, the father having said to the son, You my son. And from the dead I brought you. And in resurrection as man, I brought you to be the king of all the earth. Ask me, I'll give you the nations for your inheritance. It's not a missionary verse. This is really a prophetic verse. When the sun will get the nations. And at the same time, thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Oh, beloved, please let me say. Please let me say lovingly. Oh. I remember, I don't know whether any of you may remember Jim Graham, missionary to China many years ago. I remember him telling the story of how he was very useful, used by the Lord in the regime of Chiang Kai-shek to lead some of the people of the government of that regime to the Lord. Chiang Kai-shek's wife was a Christian woman. Some of the other officers of the realm, their wives were Christian, and they invited Brother Graham to come and have a feast together with them and their husband. Their purpose was they wanted him to reach their husband with the gospel. And so he said, being interested in eating, he said, I went. And he sat at the table, he sat right next to the Minister of Finance at that time in the Chinese regime. And of course, he said, my Christian friends there, the women were anxious for me to get going on telling them about the Lord. And so he said, ultimately, I began talking to one and another about the Lord. And my minister of finance on the left became interested in the Bible as I began to talk from the Word of God. And he asked me, Mr. Graham, is there anything in the Bible about the future of the Chinese government? Oh, yes. He answered, There is. And do you know what he did? He took Daniel chapter two, and the vision of Nebuchadnezzar. When he saw that head of gold, the breast and arms of silver, the belly and thigh of brass or copper, and the legs of iron and clay, that described the whole Gentile powers from beginning to the end, from Nebuchadnezzar, to the coming of the Lord. And he told him it was the history of the Gentile nations. And he says, he tells you how it ends, and how China will end. And then he described the coming of the law, that stone cut out without hand, and smites the image on its feet. And he said, the whole thing goes down, shatsui, smash. Please, can I say it lovingly? God's going to smash every nation to pieces. Thou will break through, thou will, he said, thou shall break them with the wine of wine and shall dash them in pieces like a pot of bread. Now you've got verse ten and eleven and twelve. Oh, after what has been written, you can hear the voice of God the Spirit. Be wise now, therefore, O ye king. Be instructed, ye judges of the earth, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son, lest he be angry and ye perish from the way. When his wrath is kindled but a little, blessed are all they that put their trust in him. And now you can recognize how the Holy Spirit, after revealing the voice of the nation, the voice of God the Father, the voice of God the Son, and wanted to take place you hear his voice pleading with men to trust the Lord Jesus. The only way you'll be saved from the catastrophe. Blessed are they to put their trust in him. And so you've got it as we read in the book of the Revelation. You've got that judgment coming and it will fall and the Lord will execute it. Now let's go back to Joel please. I hope you get the connection. You know, the best way to explain the Bible is to use the Bible. And it does help. Now let's go to our chapter in Joel. Let me go further and read in verse eleven. Assemble yourselves and come, all ye heathen. Gather yourselves together round about. Thither cause thy mighty ones to come down. Let the heathen be waken. Come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat. There will I sit to judge all the heathen roundabout. And then you've got the language that's very much like revelation. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is right. Come get you down, for the press is full. The fats overflow. Their wickedness is great. Oh, beloved, can I say again, please note the moral, the spiritual state. Their wickedness is great. Right for judgment. Beloved, let me ask a question. How near is it? How near is it? One wonders when you read, when you listen, when you hear of the atrocities, the lawlessness, the wickedness, the violence, the hatred, and all the immorality of today that is get more rotten. Here, you get the thought. The vine of the earth is ripe. In other words, it gets to be overridden. It's nothing but rottenness, not faith, to be let to go, only to be put away and cast out, and the harvest to be manifested. For their wickedness is great. Now, in verse fourteen, Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision. For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. Let me ask you something. What's the decision all about? Who the world belongs to? It's God that's going to decide. This is not a soul-winning verse, so it's often used with something. Belab and look this is an actual prophetic scene that is yet to take place where in that valley of Jehoshaphat and in the land of Israel God's going to draw the nations of the world to come and multitude in the valley of decision and the battle is going to be between them and God Almighty now let's read on and you have the character of that day revealed as you look in verse as you go on Verse fifteen. The sun and the moon shall be darkened. The star shall withdraw their shining. And the Lord also shall roar out of Zion. He'll utter his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake. And beloved, please let me say, I cannot visualize. I cannot enter. Oh, what a shaking there is going to be. Please. Every nation is going to be shaken. Sometimes, you know, I don't know. Sometimes you feel you like to take some people and shake them, they wake them up. You know. To bring them to their senses. And here's God going to shake. Not only the earth, but the heavens too. The heavens and the earth shall shake in that day. But, now no. The Lord will be the hope of his people. The strength of the children of his children. And please let me say something I need. And you need, I'm sure too. In the days of our testings in trial, the Lord is our hope. and the Lord is our strength. We need both. Blessed hope. And may I confess gladly, your hope and mine is a lot better than Israel. We're waiting for the Lord to come. Paul wrote to Titus, two, thirteen, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior. Jesus Christ. I'm glad I know whom I'm looking for. He's my hope. He's coming. And while waiting, weak, travel oftentimes. He's my hope. He's my strength. And the same one will be the hope and the strength for his earthly people in that coming day. And then in verse seventeen, so shall ye know that I'm the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain. Then Jerusalem shall be holy. There shall no strangers pass through her anymore. In that day God will bless his people and be in their midst, and they will know that he is there. And from verse eighteen to the end of the chapter, your God is blessings that shall flow in that millennial day. It shall come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drop down new wide. The hills shall flow with milk. All the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters. A fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, shall water the valley of Shinnim, which is a very dry place, normally. And Egypt shall be a desolation. Eden shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they shed innocent blood in their land. But Judah shall dwell forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation, for I will cleanse their blood, but I have not cleansed, for the Lord dwelleth in Zion. And in that coming day, Jehovah will be in the midst of its people. Can I give you one verse before we close? In Numbers chapter thirty-five, I think it's chapter thirty-five in verse thirty-three. I want you to notice something that I'd like to bring before your heart and before your mind, relative to what we have been studying, chapter thirty-five in the book of Numbers in verse thirty-three. The prophet writing, Moses writing, regarding the children of Israel, went in the land of Canaan. So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are. And it's relative to the slaying, and the slaying of any person within the land. Ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are, for blood it defileth the land. The land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it. This is God's divine principle that the one who sheds blood, innocent blood, himself or herself must have their blood shed. Now may I remind you, what has been the greatest crime that has ever been perpetrated upon the earth? It was when men put to death the Son of God. They shed his blood upon the cross of Calvary. God's going to cleanse that land from the shedding of the blood of his dear son by bringing together the nations of the earth. Not only the guilt of what they've done to God's earthly people, but what they did to God's son. Look at the end of that verse. The land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that's shed. God's going to have the last word, isn't he? He's going to cleanse the land that men defiled by shedding the blood of his dear Son. But it's got to be an awful day of vengeance, is it? Shall we pray? Oh, blessed Father, we solemnly bow in thy presence, realizing that the depth of truth that we have tempted to cover is perhaps beyond our comprehension in its fullness. But, oh, Father, we will say, we long to see thy son come. We long that he will have his rightful place. And we say, even so come, Lord Jesus. May thy kingdom soon be on the earth, and let that which is done in heaven be done upon the earth in the glory of thy great reign. We ask it giving thanks for the truth. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, God willing, we'd like to take up the book of Abacus. Begin next. It has some similar judgments in it, but it's a very different vein of study than even the book of Job.