The Day of the Lord

Building on the previous message of 9-18-2011, this message addresses more particularly the second “I will” statement of Joel's prophecy (2:28-32) concerning signs in heaven and on earth—signs of judgment and devastation—“blood, fire, and vapor of smoke” (vv. 19-20).
By definition, the Day of the Lord (v. 20) is an event when God steps into human history and directly acts either in judgment or deliverance. It mainly focuses on judgment, but always contains a promise of mercy in the deliverance of a remnant for God's glory.
There are three uses of the term “day of the Lord” in Scripture: (1) temporal, as with Ephraim (Amos 5:18-20); Babylon (Isaiah 13:6-11); Egypt (Jeremiah 46:10); Judah (Joel 1:15), (2) the first Advent of Jesus Christ (Malachi 4:5-6; Luke 1:17; Malachi 3:1; Matthew 11:13; 7:10; Luke 7:26), (3) The great and final Day of the Lord at the end of the age (Matthew 24:29, 30; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4; 2 Peter 3:10; Revelation 6:12-17).
There is hope in the fact the day of the Lord judgments always promise the deliverance of a remnant “whom the Lord our God shall call.” This deliverance is a sovereign work of God. Joel is clear on this. Peter applies it to his hearers (Acts 2:38, 39). Peter urged and pled with his hearers with many words to “save yourselves from this crooked generation” (v. 40).