Well, well, well. All right, well. God be the glory, amen. Well, exciting things happened out in Porterville this morning. We don't know how many of them. We don't know what kind of invasion it was, but we had some guests come by here. You never know what you're gonna meet out here on 498. Might be a horse, might be a buggy, might be a trail ride, might be a bull, it might be a buffalo, who knows? Who knows, who knows? But praise God, they can find kind-hearted, generous people out here, amen? You see, the same thing happens when we recognize we're those messengers that have a message, and we live that away, people don't forget when they run across these messengers of the Lord. They stand out, just like those little, whatever they were, I don't even know what you call them things that came by here today. I don't know what they call them, Matty Walker, but we sure talk about them, amen? A suicide buggy. That could be a good name for them. We know of two that went by, but we don't know if any went by before then. We don't know if they was racing, or if they were just out joyriding, or what they were doing, but at least two of them come by here, and I did capture one on video, though. I got him on video. Brandon got some pictures of him, or video of it as well. Danny tried to flag them down, but he couldn't see outside of that machine. He kept hooking down the road. He was trying to catch his buddy, what he was doing. Yeah, you don't know what was in it Yeah, Danny and him tried to run them down and and Wasn't able to see him and they went to the house got his phone to take a picture of when they went by when he went back out They never showed up But Chris and Elizabeth found them at the end of the road one of them at least so you never know You just never know you never know what you're gonna encounter Yeah, Chris and Elizabeth came to pick up the kids. Yeah, so they are home. They sent a word just a minute ago. They made it home, and I think their youth group kicks off about 5.30, and that's what they were trying to get home for. So take your revelation, the book of Amos, the book of Amos. That's where we are right now. We're studying the work and the witness of the Lord. through the message of this messenger of God in this Older Testament book of Amos. And once you get there, once you get there, everybody say amen. Amen. All right, now I want you to take your copy and turn to the book of Romans chapter number 15. Just gonna point something out, just in our study, hold your spot in Amos, because we're coming back. Just a good reminder for us anytime we're digging around, which we dig around a lot in the Older Testament, y'all know that. I'm an Older Testament preacher and preach it in view of what we know of the Newer Testament and the work of grace and Christ. And I don't believe anybody could ever be saved apart from grace, even those in the Older Testament were saved by the grace of God. And, but in Romans chapter number 15, in about verse number three and four, I want you to look at that a minute, because it tells us about the value of this Older Testament book that we have. It's just a good reminder to, to think on these things and remind ourselves of these things. And 1 Corinthians chapter 10 also tells us that these things happen as an example to us, both positive and negative, good and bad. So, but verse three says this, for even Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproach you, that would be the father, God, fell upon me, Jesus said. So we wanna live in that kind of way, in the sense that we wanna be thoughtful and put other people before and even when they don't treat us the way that we think people ought to treat one another, We don't respond back with reviling. We don't respond back. We understand the reproaches are actually falling upon the Lord. We're just the instrument that he's using to manifest his glory at the time. He says in verse four, for whatever things were written before were written for our what? Our learning, so when we're walking through Amos, and we're looking at the witness and the work of God through this prophet, this is for our learning, for our instruction. That we, that we, that we, through this learning, through the patience or the endurance and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Or we can say it like this. We can say through the enduring or the trustworthiness of the scriptures, we might have hope. Through the learning of the trustworthiness of God of the scriptures, because every word God's ever spoken has come to pass. It has been fulfilled exactly the way that he said it would be. And what that does in us is build an expectation in that learning that we can see that God has done what he said he was gonna do. God is doing what he says he would do. And what has not been fulfilled yet, we have a guarantee by God. God's faithfulness, by God's past, by what's going on in the present, that what's gonna happen in the plan of God in the future is going to come the past as well. So we have a blessed hope in the sense that not only what we've seen God do faithfully in the enduring work of the scriptures, that as we learn from this, it builds a hope in us that never disappoints. that we have a hope in the promises of God, as God would teach us, as grace teaches us, that we're looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all lawlessness or iniquity and purify for himself his own special or peculiar people. Grace is always teaching us and it's always teaching us of the trustworthiness of the Lord and how we can deny ourself, rest our confidence upon him and we can take every word he ever spoken and believe it and see its trustworthiness manifested in our life. This word right here is gonna help you because it's in relationship to how Christ lived his life. Christ was able to live his life in faithfulness to his father because he depended upon the faithfulness of the father. For the spirit that was in him knows what verse five says. Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another according to Christ Jesus. So this learning is the same means by which Christ rested his life upon the Father, that when people came against him, he didn't have to revile back at them. Why? Because he knew vengeance was the Lord's. That God did not miss a thing. God would hold all men accountable. And there was nothing he did to create this trouble in their life. Matter of fact, he came to rescue them, but because they couldn't see who the Father was, they would never be able to recognize him. So they would reproach him, but he then did not reproach them back because he knew God was trustworthy. He knew his father was trustworthy and he could rest his life, even when the father told him to give his back to the smiters. that would pluck out his beard and mistreat him. Why? Because he knew his father was trustworthy. And as a man, we know he was God as well, but as a man, he rested by the leadership of the Holy Spirit that was in him in the trustworthiness of his father. And as a result, look what verse six says, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So this leads to glory. This learning leads to glory. This learning from Christ leads to glory. This learning from the book of Amos of the work and the witness of God through this messenger leads to what? Glory. And that glory leads to the glory of the Father because we have not only one who was our substitute in every way, that it's not that we have to perform these things, we get to rest in this because Christ fulfilled it, but we get to look at his example in life that we can also practically live and walk in the footsteps of Jesus. And what a glory, amen, what a joy. Look what verse seven says, therefore receive one another then just as Christ also received us. He didn't receive us because we was perfect. He didn't receive us because we did everything right. He didn't receive us because we've seen everything right. He received us to the glory of God. Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promise made to the fathers and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy as it is written. For this reason, I will confess you among the Gentiles and sing to your name. Now we go forth as messengers, confessing the riches of Christ Jesus, singing fresh songs of praise and continually growing in this knowledge and this understanding that our love is growing in knowledge and judgment or discernment. that we can approve the excellent things and receive one another just like Christ received us, amen? Amen, that just puts us in a position to lay our life down. For who? For the glory of the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ. So let's go back to Amos and be reminded of that as we read through these things that Look, when God speaks to a man and gives him a message, that man can see it because he's heard it. Remember, in the kingdom of God, seeing is what? Hearing, and hearing is seeing. We see because we heard. God spoke, those words are alive, those words are able, and those words become active within us. God transfers that life of that spoken word into us. Let me give you a New Testament passage to write down and let's just go look at it real quick. Hebrews chapter four. Hebrews chapter four. Let's go look real quick. Hebrews chapter four about this living word. Do you believe this word's living? You believe this is where Amos is living and alive and able and active? Oh yeah, we see it. Matter of fact, as we travel through Amos this over the next several days until the end of the month, you're gonna find in the last chapter there's something actively happening right now, even as we speak in this place today, this word is being fulfilled by the Lord. But Hebrews chapter number four. Look at this, Hebrews four. Look what he says in verse number 11. Let us therefore be diligent, earnest, quick to respond to what we know, to enter in that rest, for fear anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. So everything we're reading about in Amos of this prophetic word to them, this is in Hebrews chapter four, verse 11. We're dealing with a prophet, a messenger sent with the authority and the power and the purpose of God to a people who were disobedient, who were living in unbelief. Now, we don't wanna be found in that. We wanna see that this Word, verse number 12, the Word of God is number one, it is what? It's quick. What does the word quick mean? It's alive. It's living. It's quick. It's living. It's a living word. It's an alive word. Number two, the word is what? Powerful. So we can use the word able. The word is able. It's alive and it is able. And the word is what? Sharper. Or you could use a word like active. I'm giving you preacher words here. Alive, able, and? It is living, it's quick, it's powerful, it's able, and it's sharp. That is, it's active, it's at work. What is it at work doing? It's like a two-edged sword. When a two-edged sword pierces something, it is actively piercing into that body, and this word will what? pierced even to the division of the soul and spirit and joints and marrow, and it is a discerner of the thoughts and the intentions of the heart. So we can say that the Word of God is not only alive and able, but it's active in the sense that it gives us an awareness, a keenness, a wisdom that belongs to God, that God imparts to us. God's Word is alive, it is able, And it is active. It is keen. It is sharp. And it is discerning the intentions and the thoughts of the heart. And we need this alive, able, and active word at work where? In us. And the only way that it gets illuminated in us is when we, by faith trusting, and the Spirit of God that is living within us is illuminating this Word to see it as it is intended to be seen. So do we need the Spirit? Without question. Do we need the Scriptures? Without question. Do we need a submissive faith? Without question. And that transfer of life that is in the Word gets transferred to us. and it is living in us. It's alive, it's able, and it is active in every way. So let's go back and look at Amos. Let's look at Amos. Amos 1.1, for the words or the subject matter of Amos. And he's gonna lay it out to us in nine chapters. And in these nine chapters, we're gonna see that he has a word for eight nations of people. We're gonna see that he's gonna narrow it down into some messages in chapter three through six, and then toward the end of the chapter, we're gonna see these visions of what's gonna happen in the future, what is still yet to come to close out the book. But we've looked at this this morning and we see that he's writing, he gives us some historical context to it. It was two years before this earthquake during the time frame of Uzziah and Jeroboam. We know the Northern Ten Tribes are just a messed up group of people. They've been messed up from the beginning because they didn't set out on the right foot from the start. God even tells us in second, 2 Chronicles 15, 2 Chronicles 15. Prior to this time frame, prior to Amos' word, prior to Joel's word, prior to Isaiah's word, if you look over in 2 Chronicles 15, two and three, it explained to you what was going on and why there was such an issue happening in this area. Look in 2 Chronicles 15. I'm giving you these things just to reveal what the Word reveals in our learning. So this alive and able and active word would be something that we pursue, that we seek. And I mean we seek with all that we have to understand who God is and what God is doing and why did he say this and why did he say that? Because we never wanna be caught in a position where we don't have a fresh word from the Lord. that we're walking in and leaning on. Because this nation, the northern 10 tribes, went a long time, years and years and years, without the right dynamics in the nation to make a difference for the nation. And notice what he says in verse number, this was a word directly toward Asa, who was a king over Judah, but he's gonna speak about the nation of Israel and what had set them up for the problems that they had. The scripture says in verse number two, and the prophet went out to meet the king. The king's name was Asa. And he said to him, hear me Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. He's got a warning for Judah and Benjamin as they think about the northern 10 tribes. He says, the Lord is with you, the Lord is with you while you are with him. That right there ought to be something you want to cling to. This is in what, 2 Chronicles 15, two. The Lord is with you while you are what? With him. Now see, now he's fixing to say the northern 10 tribes have not been with God and therefore God's not been with them. Why have they not been with God? He's gonna say. If you seek him, that is the Lord, he will be found by you, but if you abandon, leave off him, he will leave you off. He will let you go to do your own thing. Verse three, for a long time, Israel has been without several things. Number one, they've been without who? The true God. Number two, they've been without what? A teaching priest or you can say a teaching messenger. At that time the priest was the ones to be ordained by God that men would seek the word of the Lord from their mouth. We read that, remember Malachi? We just read Malachi a couple months ago, and Malachi said the design that God gave to the priest is that they were to turn people from their iniquity and that people were to seek the law of the Lord from their mouth. They were the teachers. So he says they're without God, they're without teaching, and they are without what? The law. Now the law we're talking about, how can we sum up the law? Remember, no man can keep the law that's been given from the very beginning. The just shall live by faith. See, but if you trusted God's way, you would put confidence in the Lord and the word that he spoke. But when you have no regard to the law, you don't have the law, you can't put proper faith in the Lord. Because you don't have a word from God, are you with me? So they're without God, they're without teaching, and they're without the word of God. That's the idea of the law. We're talking about the word as a whole. The word, how would you sum up the law? In one word, you're to love God with what? And you love man? Now nobody can do that. Nobody can love God with all their heart. Nobody loves man with everything they have. That's still God's standard though. Did Jesus fulfill it? He did. Jesus did fulfill that. We can't fulfill that. We won't fulfill that. God never designed us to fulfill that. But he fulfilled it for us, but it is still his standard. And God will not judge men by the law. God's gonna judge men by the righteousness of Jesus. So even if you think you could keep the law, you still, you can't keep the law. And some people are foolishness enough to think they can keep the law, but they can't keep it. But that's not the standard by which God will judge men. God judges men by one standard and one standard only, that's the righteousness of Jesus. And nobody's ever been as righteous as him. That's why you gotta trust him. And when you trust him, he then gives you his righteousness. He transfers that to us in his life. So notice what they were without. They were without what? They were without God. They were without? Teaching, and they were without the Word of God. But, verse 14 says, but when in their trouble they turned to the Lord God of Israel and sought him, God was what? found by him. Why? This is the God who is full of mercy, who is ready to forgive, and when he sends a word out through trouble and sends a messenger and his people turn to him, they find him. They find him, he can be found because that is what God desires. That's why we have a word that is alive and able and active so that it would turn us from our ways to look unto the Lord, to look unto him. Now, when God raised up these prophets like Hosea and Micah and Jonah and Joel and Amos and Isaiah, they were raised up to proclaim a word that had God's authority, God's power. and God's purpose in it, they proclaim truth to them, to what? Turn them back from the trouble that they had found themselves in to have them or get them right again with the Lord, to put their confidence in him. The problem is, Miss Pat, they had gone for so long in this false system that they was operating without God, without the teaching of God, and without the word of God. And all that is is a equation for disaster. It's just setting people up. There's people in our land today that are living without God, without the teaching of God, and without the word of God. And it only sets up a society, a community, a place, a group of people, a family, it only sets them up for disaster. That's why we go out with a message. And we go out with a message, that message is set by God. So we go in God's authority, with God's power, for God's purpose, to proclaim truth to a world that is operating without him, without his teaching, and without his message. And we try to infiltrate, we try to get in to these homes, to these minds, to these lives, with the message. So that they can have what? the true and living God. They can have an active, able, and alive word in their life and in their family, within their homes, within their communities, so that they can, what, walk in intimacy with the great I am, the God of this universe, who came and took upon flesh, gave his life for us, so that we could have access to him and walk in peace with him. so that we could be with him. And when with him, he's what? With us, amen? So when you think about these words and these words of Amos, there's a reason why God keeps sending these prophets to this northern 10 tribes. They have been without the Lord, they've been without teaching, and they've been without the Word. And they've been functioning this way for a long time. That meant lots of people have come and gone and died and died separated from the Lord because they didn't have the true God. They didn't have the teaching of the Word of God. They didn't have the message of God. And there's been generations upon generations who perished without that. But God in his faithfulness kept sending them messengers. Sending them messengers. Sending them messengers. Go look in Hosea. Hosea chapter number four, I believe it is. If you go back to Amos, and you go back toward Psalms and Proverbs, you're gonna come across Joel, and then you'll come into the book of Hosea. Look in Hosea chapter number four. Remember this morning we talked about Hosea a moment. Hosea was that prophet who was a living illustration. What was that illustration? God told him to go marry a? A harlot, a prostitute. And he did what God called him to do. He risked his reputation. He risked his resources. He marries this harlot. What was her name? Y'all remember her name? Let's give her a name. Her name was Gomer. Her name was Gomer. And he goes and he buys her. And he brings her home. And she bears him two children in the home. But she has no love, no care, no concern over those children. And it's not long after that that she leaves her children and leaves Hosea and goes right back into Hallatree again. And then God comes to Hosea again and says, Hosea, I want you to go buy her again. And he went and bought her again and brought her home. The first time he had her, She was just, it was no different in her profession than it was when she was living as a harlot. Now she's got a man who's meeting needs in her life, who's paying for things, who's taking care of her, but it's still just a business transaction. There's no love there, there's no affection there, there's no concern there. By a byproduct of her life, she has children. She doesn't really care or love those children. Gotta keep in mind, she's been in a harlotry all her life. That's all she knows. She's seen women who've had children and who had children and therefore would prevent them from making money or having this and having that. So she's easily can walk away from it and go right back into it again. But Hosea did exactly what God told him to do and he went and married her again. And the second time he goes after and pays for her again and the slave trade buys her back. She comes back and she recognizes something's different about this guy. He's not just a husband to me. He loves me. And he sacrificed for me. And she recognized him now as not just a man, but as somebody who she could love and who she can have a life with. And all that began to unfold and what Hosea was was this living illustration that God was using to point out that Israel had done the same thing, that God had bought her. that she had been paid for at a price. But she kept running to spiritual holatry and going after all these things out there. And God went and rescued her again and brought her in. And now they don't see him just as God, as a creator. Now they see him as somebody who cares for her, who loves her, and he rescues her. And that's what's gonna happen to Israel overall. There's gonna come a day when they're gonna see Jesus. And when they see Jesus, they're gonna realize that, hey, he's not just the creator of this world who created me and who met needs in my life. He really loves me and laid his life down for me and purchased me with his own blood. And what a great picture this book is. But he says this in chapter four in verse number six. Verse number six, God says, to the northern 10 tribes, who'd been without the true God, who had been without teaching, and they'd been without the word of God. So they didn't have a able, active, a living word, and God says this, my people, Israel, they are destroyed for a lack of what? Of a lack of knowledge. Why did they have this lack of knowledge? Because you have what? Rejected knowledge. I also will reject you from being priests for me because you have forgotten the law of your God. I also will forget your children. That's the consequences of all these years. You gotta think about how many years we talking about. You gotta think about when the Assyrians come in and disperse the northern 10 tribes, they're still dispersed today, Brother Shannon. There's Jews that are of these northern 10 tribes that are spread out all over the world today. But one day, God says he's gonna what? Gather them all back together. and when he gathers them all back together and then the world comes against them, that's when they're gonna see Jesus and the great love that he shed and the blood that he shed for them. So his people perish or destroyed for lack of knowledge. Lack of knowledge of the true God. Lack of knowledge of what? The teaching of the ways of God and the lack of knowledge of the word of God because when they could have They had the message of God. What did they do to it? They rejected it. They pushed it away. The problem is they just didn't know how long they would have to go without these things because they kept pushing back at the message of God. Look what he says in chapter number eight. Chapter number eight of Hosea. Look in verse 11. Eight, 11. This all fits with Amos. Contemporary prophets, and God tells them in chapter three of the book of Amos exactly what we're reading right here. I'll show you what I'm talking about. Hosea chapter eight and verse number 11. He says, because Ephraim, and Ephraim was just another name used for Israel. Remember, Joseph had two sons, Manasseh and Amos. Ephraim, Joseph is of the tribe of Israel. This is what we're talking about. Because Ephraim has made many altars for what? For sin. Talking about Bethel. Talking about Dan and Beersheba and Gilgal. All these places that Amos is now being sent to Bethel to proclaim this message to them. They have created altars, places of worship that were unfit, that were not altars that God ordained. Remember, they didn't have the true God. They didn't have the teaching of the Word of God. Matter of fact, they didn't even have the message of God being proclaimed to them. Everything they were building their life upon was falsehoods. and they built these altars to sacrifice upon. Now watch what he says. They have become for him altars or opportunities for sin, for missing the mark. That's all they were. They were opportunities to miss the mark, to do what is wrong, not to do what is right, because they were what? Without God, without teaching, and without the word of God. He says in verse number 12, God says, I have written, I have written for him, The great things of my law, but they considered my law, what? A strange thing, something foreign. Something foreign. Now I'm willing to say that every one of us in here tonight, and people that we're close and intimate to, that have very little, very little understanding of the message of God's word. That when you speak the truth of God's word, God's message, these things you learn, that is seeing the trustworthiness of the word of God and God's faithfulness that builds a hope in you are like strange foreign teachings to them when they hear it. It's strange to them. didn't have the possibility to hear in it. They just, very similar to how Israel were, they rejected and chose not to. Now you're dealing with generation after generation after generation after generation, 200 plus years down the road. Longer than we've been an established nation here in America, they get to the place where God gave them his message, but his message was like a foreign language to them that they didn't understand, didn't want to understand, and didn't want it part of their life. They rejected and kept pushing it away. And therefore, as a result, there is no God who reigns over them. There is no teaching of this God that permeates in their life and in their families and their society because there's no word of God that they're seeking out to understand. And everything they do and in life is built on lies and falsehoods because God's word, God's message is foreign to them. There's people all over that we know. There's people that we cross paths with, work with, live around, those types of things that just have no clue of the message of God's Word other than what they've heard other people say. that has been filtered and refiltered and reprocessed and changed here and changed there, and they have these ideas who God may be, but it hardly ever matches up with who God says he is in the message that he's given us. And you see, we are messengers like Amos who's been sent into this environment. This is the environment Hosea was sent in. This is where Joel was sent to. This is where Isaiah was proclaiming a word. This is where Micah was proclaiming a word to. Now we see Amos proclaiming this word, and this word just keeps, what, getting pushed away, pushed away. Why? Because it's so foreign. It's so foreign and out of character to them, they can't even understand its language. It's like speaking in another tongue that they don't want to understand it, they don't want anything to do with it. They just say, you move on and you go proclaim that somewhere else. We don't wanna hear that up here. And I wanna tell you that that happens to us on a consistent basis, doesn't it? We're to be faithful as these messengers with the word of God. Go to Jeremiah. Go to Jeremiah 48, I believe it is. Jeremiah 48. Go back toward Proverbs and Psalms. Look in chapter 48, Jeremiah 48. I'm just giving you a few things to consider and think about how the condition of a society that Christ doesn't reign over. That it didn't reign over them. You know, the Bible does tell us that Jesus will reign over the Gentile believer. He reigns as king over them. And when he reigns over them, those that he reigns over wants to know who he is. They wanna know what he's done. They wanna know what he's doing. He reigns over them. Look in verse number 30. Verse number 30. This is in regards to Moab. Moab's brought up in Amos. Remember, it's one of the nations. Jeremiah 47, Jeremiah 48, and Jeremiah 49 cover the nations that Amos is gonna cover. Isaiah's gonna cover these nations. Jeremiah is gonna cover each of these nations that we're talking about. God again and again and again continues to what? Infiltrate into these nations with a message to turn them before His wrath falls upon them. That's the patience and the longsuffering of God. Aren't you glad he's been patient with us, amen? But notice this word, Greg, verse 30. God says, I know his wrath. I know, I know his wrath, says the Lord. But his wrath is not what? It's not what? It shall not be so, it's not right. His lies. have made nothing right. No wrong ever rights a wrong. No lie can ever right a wrong. God says, I'm aware of his wrath. I understand he is wrathful. I see that he is full of wrath. I understand, I can see it, I know his wrath. but because he's not right with me, nothing he does is right. Nothing he does is right because what he does is based on a lie and not based on the truth and you can't produce a right from a untruth. His lies have made nothing right, nothing. Nothing can be right in his life when he's living his life based on the lie. So let's think about that again about Israel. What did it say about them? That they were without God, without teaching of God, and without the word of God. So if you're without the word of God, you're without the truth. If you're without teaching, you're without teaching of the truth. And if you're without God, you're without the God of truth. So there's nothing you can do that's right. Everything's based on a lie. That's why they had to have a messenger sent to them. To turn them from the lie and put them back on the right course again. Man's wrath is not right. Self-justification is a lie and it's never right. When a man justifies his life or his anger or his wrath or his love, it is never, ever, ever right. And that's what men do. That's what Israel was doing. And they've done it for hundreds of years. They justified their love. They justified their anger. They justified their wealth. They justified their warring. They justified it all. But everything they justified was based on a lie. And therefore, nothing they did could be right. There's another passage. Look in Zephaniah. If you go back toward Amos and go past Amos, you'll find Zephaniah. Look in Zephaniah, Zephaniah. Go past Daniel and Hosea and Jonah and Micah and Nahum and Habakkuk. You'll come to Zephaniah. Look in Zephaniah chapter number three. Zephaniah chapter number three. Zephaniah three and verse number six. I have cut off nations, their fortresses are devastated. I have made their streets desolate. With none passing by, their cities are destroyed. None who inhabit it. I said, surely you will fear me. Okay, that tells me God did this with intent to do what? To get their attention. Now he's gonna tell us that's what he did in Amos. Amos is gonna tell us the exact same thing. This is Zephaniah three and verse number seven. I said, surely you will fear me. You will receive instruction so that her dwelling would not be cut off. despite everything which I punished her. But notice what the last few verses say. What does it say? But they rose early and corrupted all their what? All their doings, all their deeds. They rose up early and they corrupted all their doings or all their deeds. You know what that is saying? They rose up early and didn't seek me. They rose up early and didn't seek me first. They rose up early and didn't prioritize me in their life, therefore they couldn't prioritize anything else right, and therefore everything they did was corrupt. They corrupted all their doings, all their deeds. Because they rose up and lived life without me. Without me. Isn't that what he said about Israel? Without God, without teaching and without the Word of God. Does God put a high stock on the Word of God? Does he put a high stock on the teaching of the word of God? Does he put a high stock on knowing him who is the true and living God? Yes, does he want his word to be alive and able and active in our life? Yes, he doesn't want us to walk in disobedience. He wants us to have a word from him that we can sing a fresh new song, of a fresh new work of faith, of a fresh praise that God is doing in our daily life, why? because we have made him the priority of our life. And when we make Jesus the priority of our life, Jesus then prioritizes everything in our life. When we make Jesus the priority of our life, he then prioritizes everything in our life. And when we live and walk by faith, because he's the one prioritizing everything in our life, our deeds are not prioritized. corrupted, why? Because they are being led by him, and therefore he is being glorified through our life. And that's why Amos, this messenger, was sent to these eight nations, including Judah and Israel, to warn them that living the way you've been living is not ever gonna get you right with a holy God, but God has given you a space, a space of repentance, so that you can turn unto him. I don't know about you, but how many of y'all got a history of missing the mark with God? Everybody in here, as sweet as Stephanie is, Stephanie's got a history of missing the mark with God. Your preacher has a history of missing the mark with God. But if you have a history of missing the mark with God, you best have a history of repentance to go along with it, amen? a history of repentance. And that's what we see in all the people of God who knew who the true and living God was, who had the constant teaching of the word of God, who abided under the message of God, had a history of repenting before God. because they're gonna miss the mark. You're gonna miss the mark. We're all gonna miss the mark. But you see, you gotta have a word to recognize when you miss the mark, amen? Because if you think you're missing the mark without the word of God, everything you're doing is messed up to begin with and even your repentance is off. Because everything we do is corrupted when we're not operating under the working and the witness and the will of God, amen? So, if you go back to Amos, if you go back to Amos, and just think about what he says, look in chapter number three, I told you this morning, we wasn't gonna go through each one of these issues that each one of these nations were going through, with the exception of that you recognize when God says these three sins, or these three transgressions, yes, four, he was gonna deal with them. Now something that you probably picked this up on, he then says, because you done this. And everything they were doing was what? Mistreating people. They were mistreating people one way or another, whether they were killing them, murdering them, hurting them, stealing from them, misjudging them, whatever it was, God says, I'm gonna deal with everybody on those bases. But in every one of these eight nations, he started out with that, with that phrase. For three things and yes, four, I'm gonna deal with them. But if you pay close attention, he usually only dealt with one thing. So it's a phrase he's using to say that your sins have piled up before me and I'm gonna deal with you based on this. But he only dealt with really one issue in each one of these nations until he got to Judah. When he got to Judah, he dealt with four of them. But when he got to Israel, he started piling them up of what they'd been doing. what they've been doing, this and that and this. So that should have been a wake-up call, don't you think? When you're reading that and you got a prophetic word that has the authority and the power and the purpose of God on it, and he says, you've done these three things and four I'm gonna deal with you, but God only highlights one of them, you ought to start questioning him. I thought he said he had four he was gonna talk about, but he only talked about one. Then he gets to the next nation. And he only talks about one, Brother Shannon. Then he gets to the next nation, he only mentions one issue. Then he gets to the next one, and it's only one. But then when he gets to Judah, he says, I got several things I'm gonna highlight. Matter of fact, just look in chapter two in verse number four. Thus says the Lord for three transgressions of Judah and for four I will not turn away my punishment because number one, what did they do? Here it is, what did they despise? You're never gonna get away, that's where it all starts right there, amen? That's everything we've been talking about right now, the value of the message of God. They took it lightly. They despised the message of the Lord and not kept his commandments. Their lies have led them astray, lies which their fathers also followed, but I will send a fire upon Judah and it shall devour the places of Jerusalem, the palaces of Jerusalem. We know that eventually is gonna happen with the Babylonians, but what's gonna come before the Babylonians is the Assyrians. And the Assyrians are not mentioned in here, why? Because Isaiah 10 tells us that the Assyrians are God's rod and staff of judgment right now. He's using them to deal with these nations. He's gonna use them to deal with Israel. Now look what he says about Israel. Thus says the Lord for three transgressions. This is verse six of chapter two. For three transgressions of Israel and for four I will not turn away his punishment. Why? Because they sell the righteous for what? Do you notice he didn't even bring up the word of God? Why? Because the word of God was so far away from them They've been outside of the ways and the Word of God and serving the true God for almost 300 years now. He doesn't even have to bring it up. Why? Because the Word of God, according to Hosea, was foreign to him, Brother Shannon. It was foreign to him. He can't even relate to that like he did with Judah. Because they sell the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of sandals. Like trading sandals. The value of a person, the value of a pair of sandals. They pant after the dust of the earth. They want to eat up land. They want to buy more land, have more land. which is on the head of the poor, and pervert the way of the humble, a man and his father go into the same maiden and defile my holy name. They lie down by every altar on clothes taken in a pledge." Back in those days, if somebody said they were gonna do something, they made a pledge to you, they could give you their cloak. That's saying you owed him something. But God said, be compassionate with that man. At the end of the day, give his cloak back because he's gonna need it that night when he lays down and go to bed. He owes you. It's a dishonor in the fact that he's gotta give his cloak up to you to begin with, but by the end of the day, you be merciful and give him his cloak back. That was the word of God. They wasn't doing that. Why? They were taking advantage of one another, the misfortunes of one another. And drink the wine of the condemned in the house of the Lord. Verse number nine, yet, It was I who also destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the heights of the cedars, and who was as strong as the oaks, yet I destroyed his fruit above and his roots beneath. You know what he just did? He said, you remember those Amorites that was in the land before you took it over? Why did I deal with them? Because of their abominations. He says, the land vomited them out. And he's saying, you are living no different than the Amorites who I judged and who the land vomited out. Verse 10, also, it was I who brought you up from the land of Egypt and led you these 40 years through the wilderness to possess the land of the Amorite. I raised up some of your sons as prophets, which was a gift, amen. Even gave some of your sons as men as a Nazarite y'all remember Samson. He was a Nazarite Is it not so oh you children of Israel says the Lord, but you corrupted the Nazarites I told the Nazarites he wasn't even supposed to put the fruit of the vine on his lips, but you enticed him to drink wine. And you commanded the prophets not to speak, not to prophesy. Behold, I am weighed down by you as a cart full of sheaves is weighed down. Therefore, flight shall perish from the swift. The strong shall not strengthen in power, nor shall the mighty deliver himself. He shall not stand who handles the bow, the swift on foot shall not escape, nor shall he who rides a horse deliver himself. The most courageous of men of might shall flee naked in the day, says the Lord. Basically, God's saying, look, numbers matter, but when I'm against you, no numbers count. No skill, no greatness, none of those things are gonna make a difference. But you get into chapter number, chapter number three, but did y'all notice how intensive he highlighted Israel compared to the rest of the places? Why? Because this is the heartbeat of the message that Amos is bringing. This message is for Israel. And that's why God gives them all that he gives. But notice what verse number one of chapter three says. Hear this, O word, that the Lord has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, which is including Judah and Israel, that's the whole group. Verse two, you only have I known of all the families of the earth. Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. Everything that we've read up to this point about God giving his word, about God giving his word to his people, but that word was like a stranger to them. God says, I haven't dealt with any other nation like I've dealt with you. Not only have you known me, but you've been known by me. I've known you more intimately in person. Like Stephanie, I know Stephanie better than anybody. I have a relationship with her different than anybody on the planet. There's nobody that has a relationship with Stephanie and I like we have. I know people, I know about people, I can tell you about people I've never met before, but Stephanie knows me like no other person on the planet that knows me. And this is what God is telling them here. I've known you like the relationship of a husband and wife. You're the only group of people that I brought up out of Egypt, both Judah and Israel now, they've been divided, but I'm talking about you as a collective whole. Nobody on the earth has known me like you've known me, and I have known them the way that I know you. There's nobody else that I've revealed myself to. You can know a lot about somebody who's famous. Y'all ever Googled somebody who's famous to find out how old they are? Maybe where they were from. Maybe who their parents were, or where they went to school, what kind of background, and you can tell a lot of people about this particular person that you're pretty fond of, who's famous, that you know a little bit about, and you can talk a little bit about them, But that famous person that you've learned a little bit about don't have a clue about you. Don't know the first iota about you, don't even know you exist in the world. And God is saying, as he says in the book of Galatians, because in Galatians, Paul says that you know him. And then he says, well, let me say it another way. Rather than that, you are known by him. That puts you in a whole nother category. of everybody else in the world. Not only do you know him and know about him, but he knows you and knows everything about you. Because you're in a relationship with him. And God says, I have not done that with anybody else. For thousands of years, nobody has known me the way you've known me. Nobody knows me the way you have known me. Nobody's received the word the way you've received the word. Nobody has known me, but you treat me like a foreigner, like a stranger. You don't even know what I said. You don't care to know much about me. And you wonder why I've roared, and you wondered why I've released these thunderings in the heavens, and why the fields are drying up in mourning, and why the mountain of Carmel is withering away, because creation has heard me roar. and they've heard the thunderings, and they mourn and wither at the sound of my voice, but you, it's so foreign to you, you haven't even picked it up yet. Matter of fact, you haven't even sought me to wonder why it is the way it is, because you don't know to seek me. But God in his compassion sends this messenger, Amos, to say it's time to wake up. God has spoken. And not that he's just spoken with a word to bless you. God has roared like a mighty lion who's about to devour. And I've heard him thunder. And you know what thunder, anytime you hear thunder, what do you think about? What's going on in the atmosphere? There's a storm brewing. There's a storm brewing. The atmosphere is unstable. And there's a storm coming when we start hearing the rumble of thunder. And that is what was headed for these nations. This is what was headed for Israel. There was a storm brewing. There was a storm brewing. Just like we see in the book of Revelation. Y'all know when we read in the book of Revelation, what do we see when they take a look at the throne of God, and like Revelation 4 and Revelation 5, what did John say? He said there was lightnings and thunderings. Why? There's a storm brewing in the heavens. But as a believer, we don't have to look for a coming storm. We're looking for a coming Savior. But you see, a world that doesn't have a savior can only anticipate a coming storm. And this is where these people, where a storm was brewing. And that's why he says this in chapter one and verse number two, the Lord roars from Zion from the city of David and utters his voice. The word utters means to give or to release. He utters his voice and the voice is his thunderings. He has released his thunderings because a storm is coming from Jerusalem. He didn't speak at Bethel. He didn't speak up at Dan or Beersheba. He's speaking from Jerusalem, from the city of David, from the mouth of God. And that roar is about to fall upon you, but he's gonna give you a space. You got a long history of disobedience. you better get a history of repentance before the storm comes, amen? And that's what we see thus far. That's what we see thus far. We'll pick up again, Lord willing, this Wednesday if we can. We got a few more chapters to look at. We'll be up to chapter six, I believe, by Wednesday, and we'll continue to look at this great prophetic word. What did Romans chapter 15 say? Everything that was written before was written for our learning, our instruction, that through the enduring faithfulness or the trustworthiness of the scriptures, we might have God is true to his word, amen? He is true to his word. Therefore, we wanna seek him, we wanna seek it, we wanna be taught by it so that we can know him and be known of him for his glory, amen? Father, we thank you tonight, we bless you. Thank you for this opportunity we've had to gather once again today and seek you, to learn of you, to hear from you, to see your heart and your patience and your endurance, even though generation upon generation had died without you. It wasn't because you hadn't sent them something. They had just chose to reject it and push away at it, and therefore they were destroyed as a lack of understanding and knowledge of you. We don't wanna put ourselves in that position, and we don't wanna take you lightly and despise your message. So Lord, I pray that you help us in this place tonight, that you help us help other people. see the true value of knowing you, being known by you, and also knowing what you have said, knowing your works, knowing your ways, and that we would, in faith, take you at your word and walk in it and live as these everyday missionaries with a message that is to a world that is perishing without you. And that we can encourage the brethren as we see those who are walking through this world like those fellas that came by here, those gals that came by here today. that has got us talking about something different, something strange. Maybe when we go out in this world this week, that people begin to see something different in us, that they can see you at work through us. In Jesus' name, amen.