Thank you, Mark, for leading us. Diane, Ray Brown, good to hear you sing up here again. Appreciate that. 

We're in Joel 3 today, starting chapter 2 at 28. I wanted to encourage you again to take notes and write down questions as we go. This is kind of a broad subject matter, quite deep, so there's a lot of information, a lot of going all over the scripture. So write down your questions or any comments you have or anything you want to share, and we'll just have a brief time of questions again at the end of the message. 

And things got a little convoluted with the ice storm last week, and we didn't have church, and we were going to have communion, and now we're not having communion. But I think next Sunday, I believe we're planning to do kind of a wrap-up message of all this that we've been studying in Old Covenant, New Covenant distinctions, Church Israel distinctions. And then we'd like to have a little lunch time and then maybe move into more of an application or while this matters in New Covenant application in the Christian life. So we'll have a little bit of an extended time next week. Hopefully, you can make it for that. We've been planning that for a while, just kind of got bumped around a little bit with the weather and everything. 

So when we consider the book of Joel, there's one thing, one phrase, that jumps out at us through this prophecy, and it's the phrase, the day of the Lord. And this phrase, the day of the Lord, is a loaded term, means a lot, plays out a lot in prophecy. It's also temporal, as we'll see. It's used 27 times in the scriptures. However, two of those times speak of the day of our Lord Jesus, which does not refer to the same time or the time of wrath. And only two of the remaining 25 times are found in the New Testament, both of those talking about the end time and fulfillment of the day of the Lord. The other 23 are found in the Old Testament, mostly in the prophets. 

And it's a term that relates to Israel. It does not relate to the church. It's a term of judgment, the day when God intervenes and rules and ultimately takes back what is his, shows his righteousness and holiness. And it sits in contrast to the day of man. The phrase is used four times in this short little book of Joel. It's really the theme of Joel. 

Last time, we worked through chapters 1 and 2 and found that there was a temporal day of the Lord in the time of Joel in Judah, and that this judgment came in the form of a plague of locusts. And remember, this was at the end of the evil reign of Ahab and Jezebel in the north, Athaliah in the south. They had led the nation away from the Lord and into the worship of Baal. And God took care of those wicked rulers and their households through Jehu and the high priest in Jerusalem. But he also sent a plague to Judah to warn and chasten the people, to judge them for their disobedience. 

And he also sent the prophet Joel with a word of warning and a call to repentance as well as a promise of restoration. And this was a temporal day of the Lord. It was a judgment for Judah. And it was fulfilled in the locusts and the repentance of Israel and the restoration as God promised. Now, I just want to note again that the curses and blessings in this time under the old covenant were physical, temporal, carnal in nature. We in the new covenant in the church are guaranteed and experience spiritual blessings, in fact, every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies. But we have no guarantee of any physical blessings in the way of food, clothes, rain, crops, et cetera. 

But in the old covenant time, their relationship with God as a nation was based on obedience or disobedience to the law of God, to his statutes. And if they obeyed, they were blessed physically. And if they went astray, they were cursed physically, carnally, temporarily. Spiritual blessing in the sense of justification, I think this is important for us to be clear about, justification, that is personal salvation, came individually to those who believed what God revealed to them, such as we see with Abraham in Genesis 15:6, or Daniel, or Jeremiah. They believed God, and it was counted to them for righteousness. That's justification. That's true through all time. 

But under the old covenant, as God dealt with Israel as a nation, the blessings and cursings were of a physical, temporal nature. The kingdom of God that we now experience is a spiritual one, where Jesus rules and reigns in heaven. He lives and rules in our hearts. The kingdom that Israel will receive will be a physical kingdom, where Jesus rules on the throne of David on the earth with a rod of iron. So we see in Joel 1 and 2 a temporal day of the Lord, where God's judgment came to Judah for a specific purpose and resulted in repentance and restoration temporally. And they enjoyed those blessings, we know, at least for the 40-year reign of Joash. 

So this morning, we're going to shift gears a bit as we get into Joel 2:28 through the end of the book. And in this text, we see that Joel shifts his focus, his prophecy, to a future day of the Lord. In fact, the day of the Lord, in the last days, when God will judge Israel again and will call her to repentance and will bring full and final restoration and blessing in the kingdom. When we think about the day of the Lord, that future time when God brings to consummation all things in Christ and fulfills his creative intent in Israel and brings about her salvation in the promised kingdom and the new covenant promises, we need to understand it from the scriptures, primarily in the prophets. It's used from Isaiah to Zephaniah, where we see this term used. 

And we will also, again, gain some insight from the book of 1 Thessalonians and 2 Peter, where we see the term used in the New Testament, as well as explanations in the book of Revelation, where we see this final day of the Lord play out. So that's what we're going to look at here together this morning. I just want to read Joel 2:28 down to 3:2. Mark already read the whole text, and we'll visit it later in the message. 

Joel 2:28, "It shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your old men shall dream dreams. Your young men shall see visions. And also on my men's servants and on my maid's servants, I will pour out my spirit in those days. And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, there shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the remnant whom the Lord calls. For behold, in those days and at that time, when I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat and will enter into judgment with them there. On account of my people, my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, they have also divided up my land." 

Well, I've given you four points on your outline this, or five points on your outline this morning. First, temporal fulfillment. Second, future day of the Lord. Third, narrow scope of the day of the Lord. Fourth, broad scope of the day of the Lord. I actually think I have those flipped around in the message, just so you know. And God's promise to Israel. 

Well, we've already discussed the temporal fulfillment of the day of the Lord in the Old Testament. And it's important for us to discern when this is the case, to see that God did judge Israel in real time and did bring warning and a call to repentance and promise of restoration through each of the prophets. God worked in this way in Israel in the Old Testament times, and there were temporal days of the Lord that were fulfilled in the time of the prophet of the people of Israel. And sometimes this led to repentance and a temporal restoration and blessing. 

So we want to discern that in those texts when we come to that. But what we want to look at this morning is what we see in Joel 2:28, following to the end of this prophecy. And we also see this in all of the prophets. And that is the promise of the future day of the Lord and the deliverance and blessing of Israel when we see God fulfill his new covenant promises to his people. And so we begin to shift our thinking to that future time, the day of the Lord. 

What do we know about that day, about this time concerning God's judgment of the nations, the earth, and its system, the systems of men, and his deliverance of Israel and accomplishment of his will as he brings all things to consummation in Christ? These days that are afterward, Joel says, this is the time of the last days. You've heard that phrase. And it's a significant phrase, the last days. It began in the first coming of Christ. When Jesus came the first time, he began the last days. 

One significant thing we see in Joel 2:28 is that in this time, God will pour out his spirit. And we saw this at Pentecost for the very first time. It was promised as part of the new covenant in Ezekiel 36:25 and following. And Jesus talked about it as well in John's gospel. Talking to his disciples at the end of his life in ministry, Jesus said this in John 14:16. He said, "I will pray the Father, and he will give you another helper that he may abide with you forever, the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him, for he dwells with you. Now listen to this. And he will be in you." 

He dwells with you, and he will be in you. In the old covenant time, the Holy Spirit would come upon a man. He would be with him for a certain purpose of God. But then the spirit would depart. Bobby and I were reading the other day about Saul, King Saul, when he had disobeyed and didn't kill the king and all the animals and so forth. And it said the Holy Spirit departed from him. And then it says God sent an evil spirit upon him. That's not true in our time. That cannot be. The Holy Spirit will not depart from us. He will never leave us or forsake us. And no evil spirit can come into us, because the Holy Spirit indwells us. 

But in the old covenant, the spirit would come for a purpose and then would depart. In the new covenant, in these last days, we see something new, something wonderful. The Holy Spirit comes and indwells us, lives in us permanently. And we saw this on the day of Pentecost. And this is why Peter quotes Joel in Acts chapter 2. He says, "This is what Joel promised." Now we have to be careful here. Peter quotes the whole passage. But it was only the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that we see on that day, not the other signs which will come in these last days, in the future day of the Lord, the sun darkened, the moon to blood, et cetera. 

But what Peter was telling the people was this. These last days have come upon us. They have begun. The time of the new covenant is upon us, the time which Joel prophesied about. And we see it with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It's important to understand that we now in the church are experiencing the soteriological blessings of the new covenant. What I mean by that is that our blessings relate to salvation. They are spiritual blessings in Christ, who is the promised seed of Abraham, who brought a blessing to all nations. We do not experience the land promises, the land of milk and honey. 

I got to tell you, I'm farming up in Irwin township in the UP of Michigan, not a land of milk and honey. My old buddy Guy Folsom used to say, there's only one rock in Irwin township that covers the whole township. Rock and swamp and snow and cold. We don't experience the land promises, the national promises, the branch of David to sit on the throne and rule and reign for 1,000 years. These are all the physical temporal blessings associated with the promised kingdom for Israel. So Israel is still waiting for her Messiah for the fulfillment of the kingdom promises. 

You see, Israel did not understand the suffering of the Messiah of Isaiah 53 or Psalm 22. They were looking for the kingdom. They were looking for the ruler to sit on David's throne. But when Jesus comes at the second coming and Israel looks on the one whom they pierced, they will receive him as their Messiah and experience not only the spiritual blessings of salvation in Christ, but also the material blessings of the new covenant in the kingdom. 

We in the church age, experiencing the blessings of the new covenant concerning salvation, living in these last days, are waiting for our Lord to come and take us to be with him forever. We are not looking for signs. We are not looking for wonders. We are not looking for the day of the Lord. We are not looking for the kingdom. We are looking for Jesus. Jesus said in John 14, "Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also." 

In Thessalonica, they were having a problem because they were experiencing great tribulation in that place in the time of Paul in the church he founded there. And they thought maybe they were in the day of the Lord. They thought maybe they had missed the rapture. And Paul writes to them in 1 Thessalonians 4:13, he says, "I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, those who have died, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus." The dead will rise first, he's going to tell them. Don't worry about the believers that have died. They're going to come with Jesus when he comes to get us. 

"For this we say to you by the word of the Lord that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of an archangel with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up." That's where we get that word rapture, the Latin raptura, like a bird rapture picking up. "Will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and thus we shall always be with the Lord." 

And then Paul says this, "Therefore comfort one another with these words." Comfort one another with these words, this promise—the coming of our Lord to take us to be with him forever. 

Now I want you to look with me at a very important passage that comes next in that letter, and it's 1 Thessalonians 5:1. Again, they were concerned about the epochs, the times, and the seasons, and Paul says to them, "Don't worry. Jesus is coming. You haven't missed the rapture. You won't be in the day of the Lord." 

1 Thessalonians 5:1, "But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, 'Peace and safety,' then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman and they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness so that this day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night or of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love as a helmet and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him." 

Look at verse 11 again, "Therefore comfort each other and edify one another just as you also are doing." Notice Paul's purpose, his intent—comfort each other, edify one another with these words, with this promise of deliverance. We the church are not appointed to the time of wrath, the day of the Lord, but we are appointed to obtain salvation. 

I don’t want to get off track here, but I just want to mention one thing because I hear it a lot, and I think there's a lot of confusion—we can discuss it further later. The church will not be part of the day of the Lord, the time of wrath, the chastening of Israel, and the judgment of the nations. 

Now, I want to be clear about this. We're not being taken out of this world for the purpose of avoiding the wrath of the Antichrist, the wrath of man. Think this through with me. In the church age, in this time, we do not have any promise of deliverance from the wrath of man, from persecution, from starvation, nakedness, peril, even martyrdom. What does it matter if Nero cuts my head off or the Antichrist does? 

Christians get so confused about this largely because they do not understand the distinctions between old and new covenant economies and the distinctions between the church and Israel. We are not being delivered from the wrath of man. That is not the reason for the timing of the rapture. Rather, when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in this church age, God is going to turn his focus to the day of the Lord. And what is that day for? It is for Israel. 

It is for the judgment of God on Israel to bring her back, to fulfill the pattern we saw established in Joel and in all the Old Testament prophets. God will bring the Antichrist to power to judge Israel, to turn her back to him. Then, as is so consistent with this pattern, He will bring judgment on the Antichrist and bring deliverance to his people—only this time it will not be temporary. It will be full and final as God judges the nations, takes back what is rightly his, and establishes his kingdom on the earth, fulfilling the new covenant promises to Israel. 

The reason the church is raptured before the day of the Lord—we believe in a pre-tribulational rapture—the reason the church is raptured before the day of the Lord begins is because that time is for Israel. That time is for the Lord. It is the end of the day of man and the beginning of the day of the Lord. There will be darkness. There will be light, judgment, and deliverance in the coming day of the Lord. 

Hopefully, to help us understand, I want to emphasize this twofold nature of the day of the Lord. We can characterize it in a couple of ways. It will certainly include darkness, gloominess, judgment. But it will also include light, promise, and deliverance. In the 70th week of Daniel, we see persecution, we see tribulation, we see judgment and wrath. But beyond the second coming, we see salvation. We see deliverance, the rule and reign of God on this earth, the Millennial Kingdom, even the new heavens in the new earth. That's all part of the day of the Lord. 

Remember Peter says in 2 Peter 3 that in the course of the day of the Lord, all these things will come to pass. He says, "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, the elements will melt with fervent heat, both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up." And then he talks about the new heavens and the new earth. 

So we must understand that there is in the use of the term the day of the Lord in the scriptures. Speaking of the future day, there's a broad scope, a long period of time which begins with a couple of very specific things and it runs all the way to the new heavens and new earth, an expansive time—more than a thousand years. But we also find in the scriptures that some uses of the day of the Lord refer to a literal day, a very specific time where Jesus will come to this earth and set his feet on the Mount of Olives and bring cataclysmic final judgment to this earth and its rulers and system. We see this in Zechariah and we see this in Joel 3. 

So I want to consider first, if you're following me here, the broad scope of the day of the Lord—the long period of time where all of these things are accomplished. It's clear from 2 Peter 3 that the broad scope of the day of the Lord extends all the way and past the Millennial Kingdom into the new heavens and new earth. I think this makes perfect sense because the day of the Lord is, in its essence, the manifestation of God's sovereign rule on this earth. The day of the Lord is where God steps in and demonstrates his power and might and reign and rule, his sovereignty over all things. 

That's true in the past, isn't it? I mean, did they know in Joel that the locust plague came from God? When he steps in, you know? Right? When he steps in and intervenes in the day of the Lord, that's again why we don't see the day of the Lord in this time because God does not step in in judgment in this time in this way. 

When we look at the broad scope of the future day of the Lord, we can really understand it this way, it's a process of God manifesting his right to rule and reign over all things. If you've been confused about the book of the Revelation, I want you just to think about it this way: it is God, through Christ, taking back what is rightly his and exercising his right to rule and reign over all of his creation. 

Let's look at Revelation 5, Revelation 5 at verse 1. 

This is the beginning, before the judgments start. John has this vision: "I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back sealed with seven seals." Right now, that seven seals is going to become important. "Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, 'Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?' And no one in heaven or on earth or under earth was able to open the scroll or to look at it. So I wept much because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll or look at it. But one of the elders said to me, 'Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.' And I looked and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. 

Then he came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. Now when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, 'You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation and have made us kings and priests to our God, and we shall reign on the earth.' 

Then I looked and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, 'Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.' 

And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them, I heard saying, 'Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever.' Then the four living creatures said, 'Amen!' and the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped Him who lives forever and ever." 

My friends, the scroll is the title deed to the earth, and Jesus is the only one worthy to take the scroll. And what we see when Jesus begins to open the scroll, to break each of the seals, is a process whereby God is taking back all that is rightly His and delivering the earth, the kingdom to Jesus for him to rule and reign in a theocracy as God always intended for His creation. 

So the rest of the book of Revelation is an unfolding of God taking back rule of the earth and setting His holy king on the throne. That's the seals progressively opening and we see those judgments come about and finally Christ coming and judging the nations and then setting up the kingdom for Israel. 

What about the beginning of this day of the Lord, the broad scope? This is a little bit trickier, but I want to just touch on it. We do know for sure that it begins with the 70th week of Daniel. 

We could illustrate this in many ways, but what is the sign of the start of the day of the Lord? I think there are a couple of scriptures that help us understand this, perhaps the most important Daniel 9. God sends this revelation to Daniel, and if you look at Daniel 9:24 with me, please. This is about the future of Israel. It's about the time of tribulation and deliverance. Pay close attention to the words. 

Daniel 9:24: "Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city." Did you notice that they are determined for who? Your people—who were Daniel's people? Israel—for your people and your holy city, Jerusalem—to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy. 

Okay, so all that's going to happen in this seventy—or this time of the end here—they're going to accomplish these things. "Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. The street shall be built again, and the wall even in troublesome times. After the sixty-two weeks, Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; and the people of the Prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, till the end of the war desolations are determined. Then He shall confirm a covenant with many for one week, but in the middle of the week, He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering, and on the wing of abomination shall be one who makes desolate even until the consummation which is determined is poured out on the desolate." 

Well, I just want to highlight and emphasize again verse 24: "Seventy weeks are determined for your people and your holy city." Whatever these seventy weeks are, they are concerning Israel and Jerusalem, not the church, but Israel—the nation and for specific purposes—to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up or fulfill vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy. 

Now, my friends, these things have not yet been fulfilled. We know as we study the scriptures in history that sixty-nine of these seven-year periods have been fulfilled up until the time when Messiah was cut off, and we understand that this church age, when God turns to the Gentiles in order to provoke the Jews to jealousy, carrying out his salvation plans, we understand that this time is a parenthesis in the seventy weeks. 

Sixty-nine are fulfilled. We now live in this time of the church age, but there's coming a time when God will turn back to Israel, will graft in the natural branches, will bring salvation to Israel and fulfillment of the new covenant promises—that seven-year period is yet to come. And here's the main thing to understand: it is for Israel; it is concerning Jerusalem. 

Now, there's one more important key to understand in Daniel 9:27. He says in 26, "After the sixty-two weeks, Messiah is cut off, but not for Himself; and the people of the Prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary." The temple was destroyed by who? Rome in 70 AD, after Messiah was cut off. Look at verse 27, "Then he," the people of the Prince who is to come, "shall destroy the temple. And he," the prince, Antichrist, "shall confirm a covenant with many for one week, the seven-year one-seven. But in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering, and on the wing of abomination shall be one who makes desolate even until the consummation." 

Okay, so now Jesus confirms this interpretation of Daniel in Matthew 24, as he instructs his disciples concerning the abomination of desolation that Daniel spoke of, speaking of the end times and his coming. We don't have time to go into all the scriptures, but Antichrist will begin the one week, the final seven years, by confirming an existing covenant with Israel—that's what the language says. 

Okay, so we're talking about how can we know when this time starts, this day of the Lord. And Daniel and Jesus speak of the abomination of desolation that will occur at the midpoint of the seven years. 

Now let's turn to 2 Thessalonians 2, get just a little more help. 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 1. Again, the Thessalonians are concerned about the rapture, the day of the Lord—that maybe the believers who had died had missed the rapture, that maybe they were in the day of the Lord. He says, "Now brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him," that's the rapture, "concerning the rapture, we ask you not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us," see? Someone had sent them a letter saying they were Paul and told them a bunch of lies about this, and they were all confused. 

"Don't be soon shaken or troubled," he says, "as though the day of the Lord had come." Hear what he's worried about here, what's going on. "Let no one deceive you by any means, for that day will not come unless the falling away, the apostasy comes first and the man of sin, the Antichrist is revealed, the son of perdition." Paul says something really important here: the day of the Lord cannot come, cannot begin unless two things happen first—first, the apostasy, the great falling away, a specific event noted by the definite article here, and second, the man of sin is revealed. 

So if you are a student of scripture, and you know Daniel 9, which we just looked at, what is it that marks the Antichrist? What is it that he will do that might relate to the beginning of the broad day of the Lord? He will confirm an existing covenant. 

For one week, it says, one seven, the 70th week of Daniel's prophecy. Now we know from Revelation 6 that the Antichrist will conquer, will come to power through peace. The first rider has a bow and no arrows; he's bringing peace in order to rise to power. He'll solve the problems of the world; he'll bring peace in the Middle East. And I believe he will do this in a very specific way. 

We know that there will be a temple in the seven-year time because the Antichrist will desecrate it at the midpoint and put an end to the sacrifices. There's going to be a temple again in the tribulation. It seems reasonable to me, based on the scriptures, we're considering that Antichrist is going to capture the affections of Israel by establishing again the law covenant of Moses and the sacrificial system and temple in Israel. So when Daniel says that the Antichrist will confirm an existing covenant with Israel, I believe that is the law covenant—the sacrifices and the temple worship—and that the apostasy that Paul speaks of is that of Israel following after Antichrist, perhaps even receiving him as their Messiah. 

So these two things mark the beginning of the seven years and the broad day of the Lord—a covenant confirmed, according to Daniel, and the falling away of Israel. Paul says these two events must happen before the day of the Lord can begin, and Daniel says he will confirm a covenant for one week, one seven-year period, and I believe that this confirming of the covenant with Israel and their apostasy begins the broad day of the Lord. 

And of course, with this, the rapture of the church—the removing of all believers when the fullness of the Gentiles have come, and God turns back to Israel. A little side note for you there, okay? The church age will have ended; the fullness of the Gentiles will have come in; the church is raptured out of this world. 

Now let's consider briefly the narrow day of the Lord, and this brings us back to Joel 3. Go to Joel 3 at verse 1, and we're going to read this text so we understand these events. 

"For behold, in those days and at that time, when I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem, he's bringing back the people to Israel. I will also gather all nations, and I'll bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat," judgment. "I will enter into judgment with them there on account of my people, my heritage, Israel. Why is he judging them? On account of Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and they've divided up my land." 

And he goes on talking about how the nations have treated Israel. Go down to verse 10. "Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, 'I am strong, I am mighty.' I'm going to come against the Lord. Assemble and come, all you nations, and gather together all around. Cause your mighty ones to go down there, O Lord. Let the nations be wakened and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations." 

Verse 13 speaks of judgment: "Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come go down, for the winepress is full, the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great." Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of judgment. That word decision there means judgment. "For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision." The sun and moon will grow dark; we see this in Revelation. The stars will diminish their brightness. The Lord will roar from Zion and utter His voice from Jerusalem. The heavens and earth will shake, but the Lord will be a shelter for His people in the strength of the children of Israel. 

What do we have here? We have God judging the nations and delivering Israel. All the nations gathered against the Lord in the valley of decision. This is the picture of the day when Jesus comes at His second coming and judges the earth. I wish we had more time to develop this, but the book of Revelation expands greatly on this, Zechariah 14, many other scriptures. The great and terrible day of the Lord, Joel says. The day, the specific day when He comes means judgment for the world, for the system, for the nations, for all that offend. But it means salvation and deliverance for Israel. Here we see the promise to Israel, and here's the point in Joel 3:17— the purpose of all this, "so you shall know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion on my holy mountain. Then Jerusalem shall be holy; no aliens shall ever pass through here again. It will come to pass on that day that the mountains shall drip with new wine, the hills shall flow with milk, and all the brooks of Judah shall be flooded with water. A fountain shall flow from the house of the Lord and water the valley of Acacias. Egypt will be desolate, but Judah will abide forever. He says, for I will acquit them of the guilt of bloodshed whom I had not acquitted, for the Lord dwells in Zion." 

We see the same promise, Zechariah 14:1, "Behold, the day of the Lord is coming. Your spoil will be divided in your midst. I'll gather all the nations to battle. The city shall be taken, and all this judgment, and then it says the Lord is going to bring judgment on all those nations. That day there will be living waters flowing from Jerusalem, and the Lord shall be king over all the earth." 

And that day it shall be, "The Lord is one, and His name one." Everyone will know that He is the Lord. Paul refers this in Romans 11. He says, "I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved. As it is written, the deliverer will come out of Zion; he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob, for this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins. Concerning the gospel, they, Israel, are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election, they are beloved for the sake of the Fathers, the covenant, the promise." 

And then he says this, "For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." He doesn't go back on His word. He made a promise to Israel, and He will fulfill that. We see the broad scope and the narrow scope of the use of the day of the Lord in the Scriptures, and we see the promise of deliverance, of salvation for Israel. 

My friends, the day of the Lord is for Israel. It's a time for Israel. We are going to experience full salvation before this time in the rapture. These are comforting words. God is going to do a wonderful work in Israel, and He's going to keep His promises. And aren't you thankful for that? Because you know what? You're betting your whole eternity on a promise from God in Christ, and you better hope He keeps His promises. 

He's going to judge all that offends on this earth. He will bring His will to pass. He will glorify Himself, and all will know that He is the Lord in His day, the day of the Lord. My friends, the day of the Lord, temporally and fully and finally, is the theme of the book of Joel. 

Let's close in prayer. Father, we're so thankful that we have Your Word, that we can go to Your Word, that we can study and grow and learn and continually understand more and more about who You are, about Your grace, Your mercy, Your holiness, Your judgment, and we can depend on You and trust Your promises, and we can know that all the promises are yes in Jesus. We trust Him, we believe Him, we are in Him. We know that this means we are secure forever. 

We thank You, Lord, for Jesus, for our salvation, for the future, for the promises, for eternity, and all that You have in store for us. Help us to live in light of these truths today and to be witnesses hastening the coming of the day of God. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. 

Okay, are your heads full? Anybody have any questions before we have coffee and cookies? Yes. 

Okay, so Tammy asked about the timing of the rapture. I'd made the statement that the rapture purpose was not to deliver us from persecution, and this is one of the real problems I think we have with premillennial evangelicals today and kind of this argument between a pre-trib and a mid-trib or pre-wrath timing of the rapture. And my point in that, Tammy, was that we are not, I don't believe it's a good argument from the scriptures to say that the purpose of the rapture is to deliver us from the wrath to come. 

Yeah, right. 

Yep. The reason I say I believe in a pre-trib relational rapture, and this is really a minor thing in my opinion between people who are premillennial. I think premillennial is pretty important, but the reason I believe in a pre-trib relational rapture is because the time of Daniel's 70th week, the day of the Lord, is for Israel. God's whole purpose in that time is to do what he's done over and over and patterned throughout the Old Testament with the nation of Israel. It is to bring a ruler or a nation to judge the nation of Israel, okay? Which the Antichrist will do, and then to bring judgment on that agent of judgment, as God did to all of the nations he used in the Old Testament, and then to bring deliverance and salvation to the nation of Israel. 

So in Daniel 9:24, it says, "Seventy weeks are determined for your people and your holy city." Speaking of Israel, all those scriptures we read in Joel, why is he going to enter into judgment with the nations? For the sake of my people, Israel. He's not going to be dealing with the church in that time. 

Yes. 

Yes, so the church age ends at that point—that's what Paul says in Romans 11—is when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. So now in this time, God is focused on the Gentiles. It says in Romans 11, that in order to provoke Israel, the Jews, to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles, and in this time, he's primarily working calling out Gentile people and Jews to a remnant, forming the body of Christ, the church. And when that is filled, when that is full in God's sovereign plan. 

That's good. 

That church age is going to come to an end, they'll be raptured, and then the day of the Lord will begin in order to deal with Israel. So my main point is in all these scriptures we're looking at is that that time is for Israel; it's not a time for the church. 

That's why we don't see the day of the Lord anywhere in the New Testament other than Thessalonians and Peter, where he's talking about that time. You see, we don't have that economy, that system. That's why I've been belaboring and I believe it's so important for us to understand the distinction between the New Covenant and the Old Covenant, the church and Israel, that we don't fall into an ever-present pressure to move to reformed or covenant thinking and that we keep these distinctions clear so that we might rightly interpret the whole of God's Word. Does that answer your question? 

Okay. 

The believers are indwelled by the Holy Spirit, so therefore there's a lot of Holy Spirit that's not out of their control. He's not indwelling people permanently. Don said when the church is taken out, the Holy Spirit's taken out. So what's the significance of that in that time? He's not indwelling people permanently at that time, but he is excessively active in that time. And we see the two witnesses coming right away; we see the salvation of the hundred and forty-four thousand Jewish witnesses, twelve thousand from each of the twelve tribes. We see vast numbers of Gentiles saved in that time. 

So there's a lot the Holy Spirit's doing, a lot, even though it's not—the way we see it, we're moving back more to a different kind of economy in that time than what we have now. And there's going to be massive, obviously massive revelation from heaven. It amazes me always to read the book of the revelation. You read about these incredible judgments and opening the seals, and at the end of several of those, they know—they're hiding in the rocks, hiding themselves from the face of the Lamb. And they know it's from God, and at the end of those, it says—and they would not repent. 

See, it's never revelation's never the problem. It's not if we had some miracles and signs, everybody believe. The problem is the heart of man. We're going to see that in the Millennial Kingdom. Everyone going into the Millennial Kingdom is going to be a believer. But they're going to have children who are born with indwelling sin and have a need for salvation, and many of those are going to—Jesus is going to be there. The presence of God's Spirit will fill the Millennial Temple. They're going to worship outwardly, or they're going to be killed as Jesus rules with a rod of iron, and yet many will still not believe. 

So don't ever think that the problem is a lack of revelation, that we needed something else. We need a football star or baseball star to come speak at our church, or we need a coffee bar and a rock band, and then we can woo them or whatever. The problem is not revelation; the problem is men's hearts, and the only thing that can penetrate men's hearts is the Word of God, the gospel truth, and the work of the Holy Spirit. And if men are unwilling, they will not believe. 

Absolutely, and there will be multitudes of believers, especially all Israel—one-third of the Jewish people who go into the tribulation will live to the end, and they will all be saved when they look on the one whom they pierced. 

But relatively speaking, the road will still be—the gate will be narrow, right? And the road will be broad. 

That leads to destruction. 

Dean? 

You? 

Mm-hmm. 

I think that in that time, so we're talking about Israel here, and we're talking about that time, and I think there's—though they're going to be saved in that time, there's going to be a process where many people are being saved during the seven years. And then specifically, I think probably this is pointing at when they see Jesus. When Jesus comes and they call on Him—whom? And they look at the one they pierced and they call on Him to be saved. 

But certainly, yes, those hundred forty-four thousand are going to believe Jesus in that tribulation time and be sent out to witness. 

No, they will be active in the tribulation. They will be martyred as well. I don't know—Mark, you got a thought on that? 

Right. 

We see—they're going to be witnesses first, though. You know, they're going to go and witness. And so there's going to be a—I don't know the length of time that they're alive or some of them will be beheaded. 

And I know they're sealed, so I don't know if God will protect them. I don't know what that length of time is. We see the saints beheaded under the altar in heaven coming out of the tribulation. They could be some of those, but they're going to perform a vital purpose of being a witness in that time for sure. 

Yeah. 

Fritz asked about the covenant the Antichrist confirmed. So in Daniel 9, the language says he will confirm an existing covenant. This is speculation on my part, Fritz, but I believe that's the law of covenant. And the reason I believe that is that we know that the Antichrist is going to allow Israel to build a temple and to start the high priest and the sacrificial system, the priestly work—animal sacrifices and the whole covenant system is going to be happening in those first three and a half years of that time. 

So I believe that the covenant he's going to confirm with Israel will be the law covenant, bringing that back and allowing them to perform sacrifices and worship that way until he reveals himself really for who he is, that the abomination of desolation comes in and desecrates the temple. That was prefigured—drawing a blank now—by Antiochus Epiphanes, that whole thing was prefigured. We see that, but he's going to come in and do that same thing and desecrate it. So that's my understanding is the covenant will be the law covenant again. 

Mm-hmm. 

Yeah, Jean asked—the falling away. I wish Ricky was here to answer this, too. This is one of his favorite pet peeves. The falling away there could refer to the rapture. The problem with that is, first of all, I think it's an attempt to explain away a mid-trib rapture is where that comes from. 

But if you follow that in the text, it's basically saying the rapture cannot come until the rapture comes. You know what I mean? I don't think there's a—I just think—I don't remember all the reasons now. I've studied that before, but I don't think that's a good answer. I think a better answer would have to do the—the word means to fall away or—and it's used in the sense of apostasy. And, of course, apostasy has a negative connotation. It just makes more sense to me in that time that will be Israel following after the Antichrist. 

You know what I mean? Right? 

Yes, absolutely doesn't—I don't believe has anything to do with the church. What he's saying to them there again, they're worried that they've missed the rapture and they're in the day of the Lord because the persecution they're having. They're worried about their dead saints and what happens to them. What he's saying to them in the context is, "I don't want you to be confused about the rapture," verse 1, "as if you missed it and you're in the day of the Lord," verse 2. 

"For that day," the day of the Lord will not come "unless these things come first." He lists those two things. That's a very tricky text, by the way, in 2 Thessalonians 2. 

And the problem has been for a long time that people don't have an answer for that. That's a strength of the pre-wrath timing of the rapture there. But I think what we talked about is a good answer, in my opinion, my humble opinion. 

Okay, anything else? 

Okay. 

All right, well, we'll have coffee and cookies, and then next week, just if you can plan on staying, and we'll have a little lunch, and then we'll wrap this whole thing up. And then we're going to move on to the book of Galatians—get back to a more normal study week after next. So hopefully, this has been profitable and got you thinking. We'll keep working at it.