OK, great. And thank you for coming this morning. Good to see you this morning. We started a series in the book of Amos in the Old Testament. And we approached these opening chapters, chapters 1 and 2, from the standpoint of asking the question, why do nations fall? I think that's a pertinent question because the history of this world, that is human history, has been just that. Nations or peoples, groups of people meet together as governing bodies and then all of a sudden they degrade and then they are destroyed. Sometimes by direct intervention of God. I don't know. I've often speculated, and maybe you have, about how the governments or how men were governed before the flood. It's an intriguing question because after the flood, And Noah embarking upon a new and different earth. was given a covenant by which mankind was to abide. And we suggested last week that covenant was the Noahic Covenant, which is a covenant that basically binds mankind to a form of justice. And it's synthesized in if a man takes a person's life, he forfeits his right to live and those who are in governing positions or those who are in collective positions in society have the responsibility, if proven, And as the law is given, there is the stipulation that it's only at the mouth of two or three witnesses that a matter has to be affirmed. You can't use circumstantial evidence to convict an individual, although we do in our justice system. And some of the science that has been brought into that field of criminology is just amazing. With the advent, first of all, with fingerprints, Pinkertons, the detective agents, it was my understanding that they're the first ones who started using fingerprints because everyone's fingerprints, and even their mouth print, but particularly the fingerprints that are left on items, none of them are the same. A person can narrow it down circumstantially, even though you don't have a witness. That in itself is a witness to a man's identity. But the point I'm trying to make is that God structured society then at that point that they be governed by people, leaders, and particularly in the Israelite It was to be governed by God's law. That was to be the foundation. And the elders of the city, each city that existed in the nation of Israel, were to adjudicate matters. Ruth is an instance of a matter that needed to be adjudicated, not anything capital in nature, a property dispute. thing like that, but justice is to be exercised. And that's what we pointed out from Romans chapter 13. That's why God appoints authorities, he calls them. We're to be subject to the governing authorities, is the intimation, because God has appointed them to reward goodness and to judge evil and he does not bear the sword in vain. And so when a society in the world in which we live begins to stray from that governing agent, particularly the Noahic Covenant, God intervenes and sometimes he intervenes directly as he did with Sodom and Gomorrah. Sometimes he uses agents like surrounding nations. With the nation of Israel, he causes Assyria to rise up and to come and be that agent of judgment. It was true with the nation of Israel when they came into the Canaan land. They were that instrument of judgment that was to bring down the Canaanites, all of the various tribes of the Canaanite inhabitants. They were to be brought down by the instrumentality of Joshua under his leadership. And so in this text of scripture, It specifically deals with surrounding nations, surrounding the Northern Kingdom. That's what's in view primarily in Amos' ministry, is to be a prophetic call to the Northern Kingdom and also to the nations around. And so I think the point that we need to concentrate on and see as nations rise and nations fall is that they fall because of flagrant sin. It reaches a point, we saw it depicted in the phraseology that's used here of each nations that is addressed, three transgressions of Damascus, for instance, and four. It is reaching a tipping point, an apex, where it demands God's intervention. That's what happened with Sodom and Gomorrah. We say, well, how do we know that? Well, we know that Lot was a righteous man, and he was vexed every day with the sins of the people, the inhabitants where he dwelt. And he was some sort of testimony to these people. And God made an investigation and executed a judgment based on the real time condition of Sodom and Gomorrah and God brought out Lot with his two daughters and then poured fire and brimstone upon those two twin cities because of their sin that it reached that point And these nations, although it only mentions one thing, basically with each nation, even Judah, and then finally when it gets to Israel, which we'll deal with more fully in verses six to the end of the chapter, and even going on further through the rest of the book, he deals in detail, specifically with their sins and their need for divine judgment. Even though under Jeroboam II, They were living during the first half of the 8th century BC basically in prosperity and in peace. But they had become corrupt just as the nations around them had become corrupt. There's a text of scripture, the first time I heard it, it made a profound impact on my mind and my thinking. And that's found in Daniel, Daniel chapter 4 verse 17. Daniel is the story of Nebuchadnezzar who had a dream A dream of a large tree that all kinds of fowl in it, which is a picture of Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom. And finally, that kingdom was, that tree was cut down. It was hacked down. It was a picture of the humbling experience that ultimately worked its way out with Nebuchadnezzar to bring him to his senses, so to speak. But Daniel, through the Lord, gives us an interesting insight to this divine decree that had been pronounced by the watchers. Verse 17, this decision is by the decree of the watchers and the sentence by the word of the Holy Ones. In order that the living may know And that's a resounding phrase that you'll find in the book of Ezekiel, that you might know, that the Lord, whatever. God doesn't just willy-nilly come and slap us down without revealing to us through the word of nature, revelation of His grace and nature, or through a prophetic voice that He's going to judge. and the sentence by the word of the holy ones in order that the living may know that the most high rules in the kingdoms of men. Gives it to whomever he wills and sets over it the lowest of men. That word could be translated basest. In other words, in the history of humankind, society has not been as a rule favored with kings that are full of goodness as David was, as Hezekiah was, as Josiah was, and Asa and Jehoshaphat in the southern kingdom, and even Solomon on a certain level. The kingdoms of men have been ruled by the basest, the lowest of men. And I've often heard and often thought about who's ruling us in Washington and who's ruling us in Phoenix. It's not the best. It's not the greatest men, the men with the most intellect and the most virtue. A lot of times they're corrupt to the core. But sadly he has appointed them, the Caesars, during the time of the Roman Empire. corrupt to the core. The Senate that worked in conjunction eventually with them, with the Caesars, were corrupt themselves. All of this political intrigue and manipulation that takes place in the nations of the earth, which is to say, and bringing it home to here, possibly to our own nation and our nation to the north, Canada and even Mexico and other nations in our hemisphere. that even though they are elected officials, and many times they're the ones with the most money, they've had the most backing, they're corrupted from the core right off the get-go. That's what God has designed. That's what he tells us. And so these nations, there are very few of them that you could put as a light on a hill. And so it makes me wonder about our own nation, our own nation. Where are we in the divine timeline and His clock? Where are we? I know we're under judgment right now. All three of the markers that are given in Romans chapter 1 have been fulfilled or are being fulfilled. Dr. MacArthur outlines them. I've heard in messages The first one was to give them over to a sexual revolution that happened in the late 60s the early 70s And the next one is to give them over to a homosexual Revolution and we are there on steroids now If you don't accept it You're forced to accept it. You can lose your job. You can suffer financially and so forth by certain institutions. And that seems to be where it's heading. And then the last judgment, he gave them over to a reprobate mind, a mind that does not have the capacity to evaluate properly. It's been corrupt, and there we are. Evil is good. Sin is rejoiced in. Unable and unwilling to see that this leads to their own personal demise and then collectively to the demise of our nation. That's the reality under which we exist. And that's what happened here with these nations surrounding Israel. We looked at Damascus last week and their sin is seen in verse 3. It says they have threshed Gilead with implements of iron. It's a threshing sledge. It was several boards, planks put together and then given a curved so it would slide over the ground easily. Its purpose was to shred the harvest, the stalks, and agitate them so that the grain would separate from the chaff. It looks like, in my opinion, that it was a massacre. They came in and just run roughshod over the people. It was undeserved. And God pronounces in each instance, I found it interesting just thinking about it this morning, that in each instance, each one is judged by fire. Each one is judged by fire. No longer is God judging with a flood. Although there are floods that happen locally and people experience the ravage of it. But there's no universal flood. And so one of the means is that he uses and he will during the tribulation period is that of fire. Fire. And ultimately this earth will be changed. It will be burned up. and we'll have a new heaven and a new earth. And each of these nations are judged by fire. Verse 4 he says, but I will send a fire into the house of Hazael. Verse 7 it says of Gaza, I will send a fire upon Gaza. Tyre, verse 10, I will send a fire upon the wall of Tyre. It's always the wall. Edom, verse 12, I will send a fire upon Teman, which would devour the palaces of Basra. So on and so forth, he uses fire as an instrument of judgment. Whether it's from an enemy, usually that's the way they work. They would burn the city. They'd start at the walls, at the exterior of the city, begin to collapse their defenses, and then they could make entry into the city, and then they would burn everything to bring desecration. We look at Philistia, verses six through eight. Let's focus our attention there. It takes us through every major city that is found in the territory of the Philistines. Gaza is first and foremost. And I take it that the other cities are mentioned here because they're complicit in the crime. And they also will be judged themselves. Thus says the Lord, verse 6, for three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment. Because they took captive the whole captivity to deliver them in to Edom. probably as slaves. But they went beyond what, and that's usually the case. in any time, and this has happened in the military. They go in and ravage the people and they just, and that happened with Assyria. You see that in Isaiah chapter 14 and other texts of scripture. Assyria went way beyond what God designed for them to do with his people. They ravaged the people. And here they take them and no doubt take them and sell them into a further captivity. One writer said that one of the most lucrative aspects of warfare and border raiding was the slave trade. And may I mention that's what's happening on the borders of our own country right now, where children, young people are being sold into slavery. It's a sex slavery. And they're being sold into financial bondage under our economy. The writer goes on to say, captives were easily sold to dealers who would transport them far from their homeland. And this is what the Philistines, in Gaza in particular, leading the way, delivered them to Edom, which is south and east of the Dead Sea region. As a result, we have a pronounced judgment. I will send a fire upon the wall of Gaza, which should devour its palaces. As Bollinger in his figures of speech says, the word wall there is simply a part of the whole. It started at the wall and proceeded through the whole area, and devoured even to the place of the palaces. And further he goes on to say, I will cut off the inhabitants of Ashdod and the one who holds the scepter from Ascalon. And I will turn my hand against Ekron. and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, says the Lord. So this whole area and all of its little cities, kind of city-states on some level, and yet they worked and functioned in kind of united efforts. You see that during the time of Saul and Samuel and David, the Philistines were constantly harassing the nation of Israel. And if they would intrude, they would ravage them by taking captive slaves and selling them, and in this case, eat them. And so they were worthy, in this case, of being destroyed and ravaged. Next, Tyre. Thus says the Lord, for three transgressions of Tyre, and for four I will not turn away, punishment. It's punishment because they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom and did not remember the covenant of brotherhood. Tyre is under judgment. It's believed that the covenant here or treaty that existed between Judah and under the auspices of David. You remember that Hiram was king at the time and they entered into a congenial relationship that they would supply materials and craftsmen for the temple that ultimately was erected. And in this treaty or covenant of brotherhood between these two partners If Israel was the injured party, the reference is probably to a pact that further Solomon made with him, and perhaps a later relationship that was established with Ahab and Jezebel, who were from that region, who became monarchs. Jezebel in particular being from Tyre. And so they were violating, and covenants in the ancient world were very serious matters. God's covenant with us is a very serious matter. God has entered into covenant with us through the Abrahamic covenant. We have been brought in to that unconditional covenant with a statement, according to the Apostle Paul, that is a gospel statement. In you, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. And so God's covenant relationship with us, which he expounds in Galatians chapter 3, is that he will justify and bring salvation to the nations, to the Gentiles. That's what was happening in Paul's day through Galatia and Macedonia and Achaia. And all throughout Judea and into Syria, Antioch of Syria, the gospel message was making its way in there as a fulfillment of this covenant. And so we who are brought into that covenant are brought into an eternal, unconditional covenant. And the writer of Hebrews calls it an everlasting covenant. which God cannot violate. It's inviolable. So it always, it doesn't tickle me, but it concerns me when I read on the internet, those who believe, you know, we're not safe in Christ. Beloved, I assure you this morning, if you're a believer, you're safe in Christ. I was reading Dr. Michael Brown recently and he said if it was by an act of will, our own free will that brought us into a relationship with God through Christ, why is it that we or some individual can't by his own free will negate that relationship. He has it, at least momentarily, and what I contend is probationally. In other words, in that system you're living your whole life. You made that decision or you come to Christ and you can never know. You never know if you're obedient enough, never know if you've done enough, never know if you're safe enough. If the sin of Adam Eating a piece of fruit brought condemnation upon him and the whole human race. How is it that men think that even the slightest of sin would not sever that relationship? And so justification, and I know I'm getting on an aside here, but I want to stress the nature of the covenant. Justification is twofold. It's not only the God imputing reckoning righteousness to us by faith, but it's also the non-imputation of sin. That's what David stresses in Psalm 32. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute his sin. That was his sin with Bathsheba. That was his penitential psalm. That sin that was taken by Jesus, penally, and for which He was judged in your place, is never going to be imputed to you, nor to me. Because it would be a violation of His covenant relationship with us. And if we're in that covenant relationship with us, guess what? He deals with us as with sons. And whom the Lord loves, He disciplines. He disciplines and scourges every son whom He receives. That's the proof. That's one of the proofs of salvation. You've seen it in people's lives. You've probably experienced it in your own life. The disciplining hand of God upon you as a believer to humble you, to bring you back in to line. We can never be judged twice. once were judged in the person of our substitute and that is Jesus. And so he does an account to us our sins and that was a hideous sin complicit in Uzziah's murder. adultery, cover-up, all of that whole situation, God says through David, blessed, oh how happy is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity. Which is to say that's the flip side of justification. It is the imputed righteousness of Christ and the non-imputation of sin. Do you get it? Do you understand that? That's covenant. That's covenant. And here's another covenant on a human level. Joshua, you remember, had some visitors, Gibeonites, and they feigned themselves as being journey, journeying a far distance away and coming to Joshua. And they wanted to enter into some type of covenant relationship. And Joshua did not consult the Lord, the scriptures say, or he would have known that this was a fraud, a sham. And so he enters into covenant with the Gibeonites. But they become subservient to them because they cannot violate that covenant once it's been established, even though it's bilateral. But later in the history of Israel, under the reign of Saul, Saul violated that covenant with the Gibeonites. It doesn't go into detail in scripture. But David was experiencing and seeing the results of that sin. And so he consults the Gibeonites to see what they want done. And so they made amends by taking some of the offspring of Saul and executing them. to remove the plague because a covenant, a human covenant, had been violated. And here this covenant of Tyre with the people of God, Israel, had been violated. And they delivered up again what the Philistines did, people into captivity, slavery. They did not remember that they had covenant relationship. Now it may have been descendants. They may not have been familiar with it. Nonetheless, it was a serious matter. You don't violate a covenant. And that's why the scriptures in Ecclesiastes chapter 5 warn one making an oath before God, that if you make an oath, it's a serious matter because you have to carry it through. You can't have, you know, second thoughts. Ah, I made a mistake. Jephthah understood that with his daughter. He says, the first one that comes out of the household, he said, I will sacrifice to the Lord. There's interpretations on what that means. Nonetheless, he had made an oath, a covenant with God. He was bound by that covenant. A covenant is inviolable. And so God says, I'll punish. I will send fire upon the wall of Tyre. which shall devour its palaces, again beginning externally and coming to the interior of the city. Look at verses 11 and 12 and we'll kind of wind down here for the sake of the Lord's table. But what God is doing with the nations, He has done throughout history in many ways. But here, in relationship with Israel, it's instructive, and the nations around them. For three transgressions of Edom and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because he pursued his brother. And that would be Israel's descendants, and in particular, the northern and southern kingdom, both. He pursued his brother with a sword and cast off compassion. It is how the Christian Standard Bible translates that. They cast any semblance of pity or mercy in this venture. These drug cartels, you can be assured, they have no pity for any of their victims. Don't care, it's all about money. And here, It was a violation of that covenant relationship that as a brother, to Jacob was violated. He pursued his brother with a sword and cast off pity, compassion. His anger tore perpetually. It was egregious. It was unrelenting. It was beyond the pale of what was reasonable and lacking any dignity about it. He kept his wrath forever. He didn't set it aside. Even though Jacob and Esau, you remember when he came from Peniel and crossed the Jordan into the land, Jacob was worried about Esau and Esau had more or less washed it away, the offense that he stole the birthright and the blessing from Esau. That was water under the bridge, so to speak. But I don't think it was completely for his descendants. He kept his wrath forever. And because of these, he said, I will send fire on Teman, which shall devour the palaces of Basra, one of the major cities. Again, God using the instrumentality of fire to destroy the Edomites. We'll pick up with Ammon next week and go into Moab, but I think you get the picture. And it worries me, not for myself, but for my children, my children's children, what they may experience and what they are experiencing. What our leaders and what our institutions are doing, especially with the children in our land, and what they are doing with the whole abortion apparatus. That is a blight upon our nation. And it was fawned and began in hopes of depopulating some of the lower, what people considered the lower races, the black races. The whole abortion industry, the whole desecration of taking life, that is a human being in the womb of an individual that was created in the image and likeness of God. And therefore, to take its life falls under the censure of the Noahic Covenant. We ought to know better as a nation. But sin has blinded the minds of men and God has delivered us over to that reprobate mind that can't think straight. And that's why one of the prayers that we've emphasized is for reformation and revival in our nation. I put an interesting quote and I've never seen it dissected that way by Francis Schaeffer. That reformation is return of the church to sound doctrine. Revival is dealing with the practical application of that in everyday life. That is the outworking of wholesome and healthy and sound doctrine. Working it out in a life of holiness and godliness before God. Pursuing righteousness. That's what revival is. And the church is in need today of both. The church has been co-opted, many in the church have been co-opted by the culture and have embraced these sins and endorsed these sins and consequently we're seeing the result of it today. One of my friends on Twitter went to a recent conference held at Andy Stanley's church. He's the son of Charles Stanley in Atlanta, Georgia. And it was a conference centered around the acceptance of homosexuality. And they were having two homosexual speakers at the conference. Any way you slice it and dice it, that's an embrace of the culture. God doesn't just frown on it. It's a violation of his revealed law. And although the people involved, some of them are nice, they're good people, you'd like to have them as your neighbor. Nonetheless, collectively, the accumulation of these sins, they don't realize it, that what they're doing is bringing an accumulation where it reaches this apex that it ultimately brings judgment. We're under judgment right now. And the only remedy is reformation in the church. Returning back to the pure foundations of the faith. The faith that Jude refers to that was once delivered to the saints. In other words, everything that is essential for a Christian to know and to believe was delivered in the first century to the church. The faith collectively is there. We don't have to add to it and we best not alter it and subtract or detract from the faith that's been given to us in the Holy Word of God, especially the New Testament documents that are given to us and are the foundation of the church in its existence. I've often thought about some of these churches that invite drag queens to come in to give some sort of exhibition to them, especially in liberal Lutheran churches and Methodist churches. Charles Wesley would roll over in his grave. Martin Luther would roll over in his grave. Some of our Baptist forefathers would be sick at heart to see what's happened and what they thought they had delivered the faith to. And yet we're never safe entirely. That's why we have to stand and be on guard and be prepared and stand up, stand up for Jesus. He's soldiers of the cross. Lift high his royal banner. It must not suffer loss. That banner is the banner of our faith that has been given to us once and for all. I pray I may not touch on it every day in my prayer light, but I pray about it consistently through the week for our country and for the church. I pray for this church. I pray for y'all. I hope you pray for me. I hope you pray for one another. Not just about people's sickness, that's important, but pray for the spiritual health of the church in these days. Pray that God, through His Spirit, might fortify us and strengthen us for the battle. Look at these words in closing from the Apostle Paul when he wrote to the Ephesians, which was by all standards a healthy church, but later vacillated and they were called to repentance because they'd left their first love in chapter 1 and verses 15 and following. He says, therefore I also after I heard of your faith, In the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation. There's those two words. They're taken from the book of Proverbs. If you read with any sense of reading the words of the text in the New Testament. It's become abundantly clear to me that the writers of the New Testament understood the book of Proverbs and they use those words specifically and these are the words of wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. The spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, and here's another word, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. And further he says, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead. Oh that God would give you, give me, that resurrection power that was promised on the day of Pentecost because He ascended to the Father, the Spirit came, and the church has had the indwelling of the Spirit. May He manifest that power, may we know that exceeding great power as a church. May God revive us in that realm, His power and His presence. That's what I want to see. That's what I want to experience. And I hope that you do this morning. And I pray that as you go out there into the world, He'll give you wisdom. He'll give you understanding. He'll give you perception. He'll give you knowledge. He'll give you discernment. He'll give you prudence. He'll give you the fear of the Lord, which is the principal part, not only of wisdom, but it's the principal part of knowledge. Your knowledge, Whatever you accumulate ought to be governed by the fear of Yahweh. So God help us in these days. God bring revival to this church, to your heart, to my heart, to our nation. Let's pray. Our Father, the power of your word is enormous. We don't fully understand it. I know Paul did. He understood it in his own life, the power of the word that transformed him on that road to Damascus, and continually transformed him. And as he took that word, that message to the ancient world, Asia Minor, to the Grecian provinces and the other apostles to the uttermost parts of the known world even now as it's being transmitted verbally. by tracts and other means, that Word is powerful, able to save to the uttermost. So blessed to that end, may we see the power that has been given to us and may we unleash it in our own lives, knowing that it is God who works in us, both to will and due of His good pleasure, in Jesus' name, Amen.