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Amos. Book of Amos. This is what
we read in the first verse. The words of Amos, who was among
the sheep breeders at Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel
in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam,
the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. And he said, listen to what he
says here at the first. And he said, the Lord roars from
Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem. Later on in chapter
3, this is what he's going to say. He's going to say in chapter
3 verse 8, a lion has roared. Who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken. Who can but prophesy? If he's
spoken, who can keep silent? I've never lived in a place where
lions roam free. Never, never lived in a place
like that. I've seen lions in a zoo. I've heard them roar in
a zoo, but I've never lived in a place where they roamed free.
I can only imagine that if you did live in such a place, and
that if you were out about doing whatever, and all of a sudden
you heard a lion roar, I mean really cut loose, you'd probably
stop everything. Wouldn't you imagine? You'd probably
stop everything and start paying attention. I would imagine. I don't know. I want to think about, just think
with me just a minute about this as we make our way into Amos
and what Amos says this lion said when he roared. I want you
to think about accountability just a second. Accountability,
the idea of accountability has shifted, and it's been a long
gradual shift. And it's just now where we are
seeing it full blown now. Also, along with accountability,
think about, in a sense, tied to that obligation. I think we
used to understand when it came to accountability that we were
all accountable to something bigger than us. In other words,
we were accountable to a community, we were accountable to an organization,
we were accountable to something bigger than us, right? As believers,
we understand that. We understand that we're accountable
to something that transcends us. Ultimately, that's God, right? But I also think that the understanding
of obligation, there was an obligation to something outside of us. There
was an obligation to something that was bigger than us. You
see, over the last hundred years or so, that ground has slowly
shifted to where what we are seeing right now, full bore,
out in the open, in our face, is the idea that accountability
does not mean accountability to something outside of me. That
real accountability is this. I am only accountable to myself. I am only obligated to myself. Now, how it shows itself is this.
You hear it all the time because you may hear something like this.
Someone may say, I'm changing. All right. Whatever that means
today, fill in the blank. But I can no longer live a what? Lie. I can't live a lie anymore. You see, that's the language
of this shift of accountability and an understanding of obligation,
because ultimately I'm only accountable to myself. You see, in this new
spiritual movement that's happening, that's one of the core tenets.
You are only accountable to yourself. You are only obligated to yourself. And so you'll hear things like
that. I cannot live a lie anymore.
You know, I have to be free and I have to pursue my own whatever
it is, right? I mean, this is showing up over
and over and over. When you begin to understand
that as a core tenet of the new spiritual movement, then you
begin to understand things like identity politics. You begin
to understand things like the overemphasis of individual rights. You begin to see that what's
behind that is this thinking that we are no longer accountable
to something outside of us. We are only accountable to my
heart, what's inside of me. I am only obligated to live my
life to maximize my pleasure and happiness. I'm no longer
obligated to live my life for the good of others. That's a
core tenet here. When you begin to see that, you
begin to see it. You see the fruit of it everywhere.
And it's wide open right now. It's wide open. But we as Christians,
we look at that and we say, well, hold on a second. Wait a minute.
Who are we ultimately accountable to? Am I ultimately accountable
to myself? No, I understand from God's Word,
from the very beginning of His Word. In fact, don't we see accountability
at the very beginning? Don't we see the seeds of this
type of thinking in the very beginning? When after the fall,
and they're confronted. And what's the first thing that
Adam does? After the fall, does he stand
up and say, I did it. You created me to be the leader
here. You created me to be the head
of this thing here. And I blew it. Bring it on me. Don't blame them. I did it. We don't see that at all, do
we? What's the first thing he does? That woman you gave me. He had to give me that woman
and everything would be alright. He's shifting blame. He's not
being accountable for anything. And then what did Eve do? She
didn't go, oh Adam's right. I blew it. I listened, I shouldn't
have. No, she didn't take accountability. She wasn't accountable to any
of that. What'd she do? It's that serpent. It's that
slimy little serpent. The devil made me do it. You thought that started with
Flip Wilson, didn't you? No. You see, that's the seeds of
this worldview that has been planted. And it was planted at
the fall. And it has shown itself at times, but over the last hundred
years and maybe even going back further than that to Enlightenment
thinking, you begin to see it really blossoming. And to where
now we're looking at the ripe fruit of that kind of thinking.
You see, things don't, I've told you this before, things don't
just happen in a vacuum. They don't just happen in a vacuum.
The groundwork has been laid for this long, long, long before
we're seeing what we're seeing now. And so who are we ultimately
accountable to? It's to God. You want to see
something funny. I wish I'd have videoed some
of these encounters. When I was in school administration,
and you get a certain young man, and he's caught. You know he
did it. Everybody in the school knows he did it. His parents
know he did it. I mean, it's just no doubt. And you get him in
your office, and you sit him in a chair, and you just look
at him there for a minute. He don't say anything. He knows.
You know. And then you say something like,
what'd you do? It wasn't me, I'm not telling you it wasn't
me. It's that group over there. I
mean, they just start squirming and they just start, they throw
everybody under the bus. But they're not gonna be accountable.
I used to see that all the time. I just try to bring them back
and say, look, here's the deal, you did it, all right? And you're
the one that's gonna get punished for it, all right? You're gonna
be held accountable for it. There's an interesting passage
in Ezekiel. when Ezekiel's talking about the sins of the father
passing on to the sons. And there's something interesting
that Ezekiel says in that passage in Ezekiel chapter 18. They're
beginning about verse 19 through I think probably the end of the
chapter, verse 31 or so. And he's laying this out and
the question is, okay, do the sins of the father pass on to
the son? And what Ezekiel says in the
midst of that passage is he says this, now you have to understand
this, that soul that sins, that soul will die. In other words,
I think it's a very clear understanding of the accountability that if
a person lives their life, and this is what comes through in
that passage in Ezekiel, because if you live your life in righteousness,
Ezekiel says, you're not going to die, you're going to live.
But if you decide as an individual that you're going to live your
life contrary to the standards of God, contrary to the word
of God, contrary to what God would require of us, Contrary
to oblivious, not just oblivious, but totally rejecting any accountability
to God. Then what Ezekiel says is that
soul must die. In other words, what he's saying
there is that soul is accountable. I think it's a very clear statement
in Ezekiel 18 about Accountability. And in that passage there, there
comes the retort. There comes the, the, they throw
back at, well, that's not fair. God's blamed your ways are not
fair. Can't hold us accountable. It's
not fair. Your ways are not fair. Let me
say this equity of outcome is not fairness. It is not righteousness. It is
not justice. It's not. It's not according
to what God reveals to us in His Word. Who are we ultimately
accountable to? It's God. You understand that?
Who are we ultimately obligated to? We shy away from using the
word obligation sometimes because we don't want it to sound like
Well, God's sort of this mean taskmaster and he holds us and
he says, you know, he cracks the whip and we just out of obligation
obey him. We shy away from obligation sometimes
because we understand as believers that it is by grace, it is through
faith. I do what I do because I love
him. Why did I come to church today? Why am I standing here
before you preaching? Because I'm obligated to do that?
Well, there is a certain sense in which I am obligated to you
to do that. But I'm going to tell you the ultimate motivation
is my love for Christ. My love for His Word. That's it. So as believers we
sometimes shy away from obligation. Sometimes that's not good. We need to understand accountability.
We need to understand obligation. We're accountable to God. We're
obligated to God. And here's the thing, we understand
that as believers, but even the unbeliever is accountable to
God, even the unbeliever is obligated to God. Because the very fact
that the unbeliever draws breath, this very second, is by the mercy
and grace of God. There is accountability, there
is obligation there. So, Hebrews will tell us, the
writer of Hebrews will tell us something like this. The writer
of Hebrews will tell us in chapter 9 towards the end of the chapter
there. It is appointed to man to what?
Die once. Once to die and then the judgment. You see, it's accountable. It's
accountability. It's appointed a man to die once and then the
judgment. But then, in the very next verse, there about verse
28, he says, but, but, Christ was offered once. And why was
He offered once? So that our sins could be forgiven.
So in other words, there is accountability and there is obligation there.
And as we understand the very law of God and the very nature
of sin, and we see the Sermon on the Mountain, which Christ
points us out so clearly, we very quickly understand, I cannot
live up to His standard. There's no way I can. So where's
the hope? Where does the hope come in that?
It comes in Christ. Yeah, it's appointed to man to
die once and then the judgment. God's going to hold you accountable.
But you know what? There's a Savior who died. There's
a Savior who gave his life for you. There's a Savior who if
you turn to him, you will be saved and and he took on your
sin. There's hope in Christ. It's
there. So what does all this have to
do with Amos and what does all this have to do with what we've
been trying to look at and answer the question and looking at these
minor prophets, how do we as Christians engage a post-Christian
culture? I'm not going to spend the time
now because we've looked at it. We'll look at it some more. But
I hope I don't have to convince you that we are a post-Christian
culture. We are. We are. So how do we as believers
engage that? We must engage. We've dealt with
the need to engage. We'll see it again here in Amos.
But Amos, does Amos help us? Yes, he does. Amos helps us in
tremendous way. Amos is going to give us, in
this, as we do this overview of this book, he's going to give
us five rules of engagement. Now, we've seen with each prophet,
Daniel, Hosea, Joel, we've been trying to look at this question
and answer this question, how do we engage? And we've sort
of looked at it as, okay, what are some rules there? You could
use the word principles if you like principles better. But how
do we do it? What are some guidelines? Maybe
that's a good word, right? What are some guidelines there?
If we were to write a manual about how to engage and we were
to take these ideas from the prophets, what would we put in
this manual? Well, Amos is going to help us
with five of them here. Now first, let's do just a quick
overview of the book of Amos. Amos is in three sections. Three
very clear sections in Amos. Amos is a prophet to the northern
kingdom. We've dealt with this issue.
Some of the prophets to the southern kingdom, Judah. Some of the prophets
to the northern kingdom. Amos is preaching to the northern
kingdom. He's called by God to preach to the northern kingdom.
And he gives us the date. This is not like Joel. See, Joel
was ambiguous about the date. So he didn't mention kings. He
didn't mention things like that. And so Joel was hard to nail
down in a time period. Amos is not. Amos is preaching
during the reign of Uzziah and Jeroboam II. Same Uzziah, by
the way, that Isaiah mentions. So they're in the same sort of
general time period. But Amos is to the northern kingdom. What was going on in the northern
kingdom at the time is a time of prosperity. Man, things were
going great. Economy was booming. Military
was strong. In fact, if you read in 2 Kings,
you understand and you begin to see that in the time of Jeroboam
II in the Northern Kingdom, they had expanded the boundaries of
the Northern Kingdom almost back to David and Solomon's times.
Man, this was a time in which, man, if you were in the Northern
Kingdom at the time, if you were in Samaria at the time, you sat
back and said, aren't we great? The economy's great. Military
strong. We got plenty to eat. Things
are great. Things are going good. Outwardly,
men were very, very prosperous. Wealthy. What had happened at
this time, and this may sound a little bit familiar, what had
happened at the time, and Amos will address this, is that there
was a wealthy elite class that had separated itself from everybody
else. And this wealthy and elite class
had gotten powerful. They had all the power. And they
were accumulating most of the wealth. And with the wealth came
power. And with the power came influence,
right? So guess who's calling the shots?
They were. Guess who was controlling kings?
They were. Guess who was getting left out?
Everybody else. Right? Sound familiar? So this is what's happening.
One writer said this about the time. He said it was prosperous.
It was going great. They were looking at it, and
they were like, man, this is a great time. But he said this,
and I couldn't help but to think about our nation. I couldn't
help but to think about America when he said this. He said, but
what they did not realize is that they were in their sunset. They were in their sunset. not
sunrise, not high noon. They were in their sunset. And
who strolls into the sunset and begins preaching? Amos. There were other prophets who
came along at the time, but it's Amos. Now Amos, he breaks down
into, this book breaks down into three sections really. The first
section is this judgment that he mentions against all the nations. What's interesting about these
nations that he mentions, he mentions six of them, and then
he mentions Judah, and then he mentions Israel, and the focus
is on Israel. But these six nations that he
first mentions, if you were to look at a map in ancient times,
these nations would have sort of surrounded Israel. So this
is their enemies. This is their immediate enemies
around that sort of surround them. And we read, these are
the words of Amos, who was among the sheep breeders. We'll get
more to that here in just a second. The keepers of sheep from Tekoa. Which he saw concerning the days
of Uzziah, king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, Jeroboam
II, son of Joash. This lion, the lion roars from
Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem. Who is this lion?
We're going to see here in just a second. But notice what else
he says. He says, the pastures of the
shepherds mourn and the top of Carmel withers. When this lion
roars, man, he's covering everything. There's no place here in the
northern kingdom that is exempt here. Now, he addresses the first
nation, which is Syria. This is Syria. And what he's
saying to Syria, and he's using a common device in Hebrew poetry. You see this in some of the poetic
books. For three transgressions of Damascus
and for four. What does he mean? No, no, no,
wait, it's four. Wait, is it three or four? No,
it's not that at all. What he's saying, it's a poetic device
to say, this is many. And you got a lot of sin. You
got a lot of sin. But notice what he says. You
look down in verse four. But I will send fire into the
house of Hazael. Syria, I'm judging you. That's
what he's saying. And then you look down in verse
six, thus says the Lord. I want you to, as we look at
this, pay attention to how many times thus saith the Lord, thus
saith the Lord. This is who's roaring. This is
the line. And then he turns his attention to Philistia and notice
in verse seven, but I will send a fire upon the wall of Gaza.
Judgment's coming to you, Philistia. And then you look at verse 9,
here it comes again. Thus saith the Lord. This is Phoenicia. And look at verse 10. But I will
send a fire upon the wall of Tyre. You can go back and read
what he's saying about these judgments. But when he says I'm
sending fire among you, when I'm sending fire through you,
this is his judgment. Fire is the language of judgment.
And he's sending judgment on these nations, these enemies
of Israel. Then verse 11. Thus says the Lord. And he says,
Edom. This is the judgment on Edom,
and look again at verse 12, but I will send fire through Teman.
Then verse 13, thus says the Lord. This is Ammon. And then verse 14, but I will
kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah. And then we get to chapter
two, verse one, thus says the Lord, there it is again. And
here he says, Moab, Moab, I'm sending judgment. Verse two,
but I will send fire upon Moab. Now understand this, these were
Gentile nations. These were Gentile nations that
surrounded Israel, and they were historic enemies of Israel, both
the Northern Kingdom and Southern Kingdom. And so if you were sitting
back and as you were listening to Amos preach, and at this point
you're probably going, yeah, go get those dirty Gentiles.
Go get them. These Gentile nations are horrible.
But then all of a sudden, in verse 4, you see, thus says the
Lord. He turns his attention to Judah.
This is the southern kingdom. Amos is not preaching to Judah.
He's preaching to the northern kingdom. But just so that Judah
doesn't feel left out of this judgment. Judah's judgment comes
after the northern kingdom. But he says, for three transgressions
of Judah and for four. And he uses the same language
in verse 5. But I will send a fire upon Judah.
Then with verse 6, now we get to the focus of his preaching.
Thus says the Lord, for three transgressions of Israel, this
is the northern kingdom, and for four. Many sins, many transgressions. I will not turn away its punishment,
because they sell the righteous for silver, and the poor for
a pair of sandals. They pant after the dust of the
earth, which is on the head of the poor. and pervert the way
of the humble, a man and his father go in to the same girl
to defile my holy name." There is absolutely no moral ground
left. None. He continues in verse 8. They lie down by every altar
on clothes taken in pledge and drink wine of the condemned in
the house of their God. Now listen to this, verse 9,
yet it was I, God, I who destroyed Amorite before them. I who destroyed
Amorite before them. This is the Ammonites. This is
probably a reference back to Numbers 21 when he destroyed
them as they're going to the promised land, as they're attempting
to do that in their wanderings in the wilderness. And the Ammonites
were an enemy, whose height was like the height of the cedars.
He was as strong as the oaks, yet I destroyed his fruit above
and his roots beneath. Also, it was I who brought you
up from the land of Egypt. This is the Exodus, right? I
did this. You see it? And led you 40 years
through the wilderness to possess the land of the Amorite. I raised
up some of your sons as prophet, and some of your young men as
Nazarites. This is the Nazarite vow. Is
it not so? O you children of Israel, says
the Lord, but you gave the Nazarites wine to drink. This was against
their vow. In other words, here's the indication
early on that what you've done is you've totally forgotten me.
You've totally ignored my ways. You've totally thrown out my
standards. You gave the Nazarite wine to
drink and commanded the prophets saying, do not prophesy. Don't
preach the Bible. Don't preach the word of God. We don't need that. That's outdated.
That's something for another time. That's not now. What we
need now is Something that's going to cement us, something
that's going to make us feel really good and comfortable in
our own individual identity. Stop prophesying. This is what
they were saying. And notice verse 13, behold,
I am weighed down by you. I'm weighed down by you. These
sins, they make me weary. They weigh me down as a cart
full of sheaves is weighed down. Therefore, flight shall perish
from the swift. The strong shall not strengthen
his power, nor shall the mighty deliver himself. He shall not
stand who handles the bow. The swift of foot shall not escape,
nor shall he who rides a horse deliver himself. The most courageous
men of might shall flee naked in that day, says the Lord. So
there's the first section. You Gentile nations, you're going
to be judged. Every one of them were judged
because of what they did or didn't do to Israel. They were. Lord willing, when we get to
Obadiah, we'll see the Edomites. We'll see what they did. Judah,
just so that you don't think, just so that you don't sit down
south and look at your sister up north and say, ah, we knew
she was bad. It's coming for you too. And Israel? Let's deal with you. Northern Kingdom, let's deal
with you. This is who you are. You have totally forgotten me.
You have totally forgotten me. Now comes the second major section
of the book, and this is where it focuses on this judgment on
Israel. And the first thing that he deals
with is it is imminent. It's coming. It's here. It's
coming. And he says, hear this, chapter 3 verse 1, hear this,
that the Lord has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against
the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying,
you only have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore
I will punish you for all your iniquities. You have to understand
covenant here. You have to go back and understand
covenant language. And go back, all the way back
into Genesis, and understand the Abrahamic covenant. It was
through Abraham God created the nation of Israel. He didn't choose
another nation. He created one. And then when
you walk through that covenant and covenant understanding in
Deuteronomy, you understand very clearly from places like Deuteronomy
chapter 28, when God says, if you do this, I will bless you. If you do not do this, you will
be cursed. You see so clear accountability
and obligation under the covenant. And if we know anything about
our God, He's not a covenant breaker, is He? Guess who broke the covenant?
It was Israel. And under those covenant obligations,
when you break the covenant, then you can expect judgment. Because that's who God is. If
He didn't send it, He wouldn't be God. Right? That's what you
can expect. And then he, I think he plays
out more of this sort of like covenant language. Can two walk
together unless they are agreed? Will a lion roar in a forest
when he has no prey? Skip down to verse six. If there
is calamity in the city, will not the Lord have done it? In
other words, I'm doing this. You've got to understand Israel.
I am doing this. Surely the Lord does nothing
unless he reveals his secret to his servants, the prophets.
And here it comes again, verse eight. A lion has roared. Who will not fear the Lord God
has spoken? Who can keep silent? Who can
but prophesy? So understand Israel. This is
not some false prophet strolling into your midst, which you've
had before. This is not some crazy new age idea. This is not some crazy new age
teacher strolling in and writing books and starting a television
show or making a movie or going on the Internet or any of that
stuff. This is not what this is. What this is, Israel, is
the judgment of God. What this is, O America, is the judgment of God. A lion has roared. And he goes on and he spells
this out to them, the punishment for Israel's sins. Verse 9, proclaiming the places
of Ashdod and the palaces of the land of Egypt, and say, assemble
on the mountains of Samaria. This is interesting because this
is lawsuit language as well. You've broken the covenant, you're
in a courtroom, I'm bringing suit against you, I'm bringing
charges against you. And what's so interesting about
this is what he's saying to these Gentile nations. I want the Gentile
nations to come and be witness against you. Whoa, wait a minute. Gentile nations to witness against
us? Come on, we're more righteous than the Gentiles. We're more
righteous than them. No, I want them to come witness
against you. And so that's what he does. He calls them. Verse
11, therefore, thus says the Lord God, an adversary shall
be all around the land. This is Assyria. 722, Assyria
comes in, wipes out the northern kingdom. So this is the nation
that he's going to raise up. He goes on and he talks about,
look down in verse 15, I will destroy the winter house along
with the summer house. The houses of ivory shall perish
and the great houses shall have an end, says the Lord. You've
been living in luxury. You've been living in this, this
great prosperity. Guess what? I'm bringing it down. I'm tearing it down. I will destroy
your luxury. Look back up at verse 14. In
that day I will punish Israel for their transgressions. I will
also visit destructions on the altars of Bethel. Why? Because you were accountable
to me, Israel. And your covenant obligations you broke. And this
is the result. And you cannot say we were not
warned. You were warned over and over
and over. And then we get to chapter four,
he spells out so clear that they were so unrepentant. Chapter
four, verse one, hear this, word you cows of Bashan, who are on
the mountain of Samaria. These were bad women. Ladies,
you don't ever want to be called a cow of Bashan. You just don't. These were the wealthy elite
women. And then he spells out what they've done. You've oppressed
the poor, you've crushed the needy. You say to your husbands,
bring wine, let us drink. The Lord is sworn by His holiness.
Behold, the day shall come upon you when He will take away you
with fishhooks. This is literally what the Assyrians
did when they took a people captive. They put these rings either in
their nose or in their jaw and they would lead them like a fishhook
in the mouth and they would lead their captives back to Assyria. This is what's going to happen
to you. You think you have it? You think your prosperity is
going to save you? It's not. He's going to address that in
just a second. Verse 4, come to Bethel. Transgress at Gilgal.
Multiply transgressions. Bring your sacrifices every morning,
your tithes every three days. Bethel, Gilgal. Important places
in the history of Israel. But by this time, they had become
centers of blended worship. syncretism, blending paganism
with the worship of God. And he says, go ahead, keep going
about it, your tithes every three days, offer a sacrifice of Thanksgiving
with 11. You weren't supposed to do that,
were you? But you go ahead, you keep ignoring me, you keep forgetting
me. Proclaim and announce the freewill
offerings, for this is what you love to do, you children of Israel,
says the Lord. And then you see this in the
next section here. He says in verse six, I gave
you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, yet you have not
returned to me, says the Lord. I withheld rain from you. I did
this. And then look down at verse 8.
Yet you have not returned from me, says the Lord. Verse 9. I
blasted you with a blight and mildew. Yet, you see it in verse
9. Yet you have not returned to
me, says the Lord. Verse 10. I sent among you a
plague after the manor of Egypt. Yet you have not returned to
me, says the Lord. I overthrew some of you. I overthrew. God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. This is what he did to you. Yet
you have not returned to me. Verse 12. Therefore thus will
I do to you, O Israel, because I will do this to you. Prepare
to meet your God. That's strong language. You've been unrepentant. I've
done all this, I've done all this, I've done all this to get
your attention and yet you refuse to repent. So now, guess what?
Prepare to meet your God because I'm coming in judgment. And some way we could say, you
know what? I sent COVID among you and yet you still did not
repent. Is He saying to us, prepare to
meet your God? Then we get to chapter 5 and
there's this beautiful call to repentance. I want you to repent.
You look down at verse 4. Seek me and live. He's going
to say this again. Seek me and live. Seek me and
live. Verse 6. Seek the Lord and live. Lest ye break out like fire in
the house of Joseph. Lest ye break out like fire.
And then you look down towards the end of this section, verse
12, for I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty
sins, afflicting the just and taking bribes, diverting the
poor from justice at the gate. Therefore, the prudent keep silent
at that time, for it is an evil time. It's a very interesting
phrase that he uses. What he's basically saying is
this, the ones with understanding, they don't say a word because
it's evil. The times are evil. Let me just
say this as a side note, because we are a fast approaching time. I hear people that I know. I
know of people who have said things like this.
It is getting to the point where I cannot speak up at work. When they bring in diversity
training, and when they bring in this and they bring in that,
I cannot speak up at work. because I will be fired. You remember Alexander Solzhenitsyn
when I read through his essay, Live Not by Lies? Solzhenitsyn
said this, when you are powerless, then one of the things that you
can do is not give voice to what you don't believe. In other words, what he was saying
was, I think, in a sense, this. Sometimes speaking the truth
means being silent. If you find yourself in that
situation where you are powerless and you're given context, then
sometimes in that evil time, just being silent and not joining
in, just being silent is speaking the truth. But it takes wisdom
and understanding. That's what he says. The ones
who understand, the ones who see the time, they're silent.
Because this is an evil time. This was happening at this time.
And then here it comes again. Seek good, not evil, that you
may live. So the Lord God of hosts will be with you as you
have spoken. Hate evil, love good, establish
justice in the gate. That it may be that the Lord
God of hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. There's
this call to repentance. Seek me. Seek me. The prophets,
they laid down some heavy judgment. But in that, there's always this
call. There's always this call to turn,
turn, turn to me. And if you do, you'll find me
to be gracious. Then he talks about the day of
the Lord. One of the things that people
look at Amos and say, oh, this is about the day of the Lord.
It's about judgment. It is. And therefore, the Lord God of
hosts, the Lord says this. He talks about this wailing in
the streets. He talks about, in all vineyards there shall
be wailing. And then he says this, verse
18, woe to you who desire the day of the Lord. Woe to you. If you're praying, Lord, bring
on your judgment. Amos says, you don't have a clue
what you're praying for. You don't have an idea. You don't
know what you're asking for. Ah, bring it on. You don't know
what you're asking for. And he talks about this day of
the Lord. Now, the immediate day of the Lord was the Assyrians,
but this also sort of looks future to the ultimate day of the Lord
that's coming in the end. We saw this in the book of Revelation.
You want that to come? As a believer, you think it's
a stance of righteousness to say, God, bring your judgment. Amos says, you don't have a clue
what you're asking for. Because when his judgment comes,
no one escapes it. It's going to afflict all. It's
going to happen on all. That judgment is going to come.
It may not be designed for us. The immediate judgment was not
designed for the remnant. He had that remnant. But guess
what? They suffered in it. You think the immediate judgment
of something like the rise of communism in Russia to those
Russian Christians, the rise of communism in China to those
Chinese Christians, the rise of Nazism in Germany to those
German Christians who were resisting, you think that that rise of that,
that somehow they didn't suffer in that, and that that wasn't
a lion roaring, passing off his judgment, and yet they suffered? You know what? They were protected
in it. They were protected in it. Go back to Daniel, Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, right? Where were they protected? Not
outside the furnace, in the furnace. So Amos is just simply saying,
listen, be careful what you're asking for here. You don't know
what you're asking for. He talks about it. It's like
a man flees from a lion and a bear met him. He goes home, leans
his hand up against the door post and says, man, we missed
it. And a serpent bites him. You can't escape it. He says
in verse 21 about their worship, I hate, I despise your feast
days. I hate it. I do not savor your sacred assemblies. You offer me burnt offerings
and grain offerings. I will not accept them, nor will I regard
your fatted peace offerings. Take away from me the noise of
your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. But let justice run down like
water, and righteousness like a mighty stream." This is the
gospel. God's righteousness. Let that run down. I don't want
your worship anymore. He's already talked about it.
He's already pointed out to them how corrupt it was. And he continues
in verse 25, did you offer me sacrifices and offerings in the
wilderness 40 years, O house of Israel? Yeah, you did. But
you also brought your pagan gods with you. We sit back and we say, you know
what? Hey, listen, we're worshiping. Churches are opening. Yeah, but
you're so many situations. If we're not careful, we're bringing
our pagan ideas right in with us. Then he talks about in chapter
6, there's no escape. Woe to you who are at ease in
Zion. Verse 3, woe to you who put far off the day of doom.
And he makes it clear, who's the eye that's doing this? If
you notice, this name keeps coming up over and over. It's the Lord
of Hosts. That's who's doing this. That's who's doing this. And in verse 14 of chapter 6,
This nation that he's going to raise up again, that's Assyria.
It says the Lord of hosts. This is who's doing this. There's
no hiding. And they will afflict you from
the entrance of Hamath to the valley of Arabah. You can't hide.
You can't escape it. Then the last section is chapter
7. Very interesting section because he has these visions. And the
first two visions that he has is something very interesting
happens in these visions. These are events. The first vision
that he has is of locusts. The second vision that he has
is of drought, fire. Now, if you're a farmer, you
don't want locusts, do you? And you certainly don't want
drought. But God says, I'm threatening you with the judgment of locusts.
And I'm threatening you with the judgment of fire or drought.
And what's interesting is Amos intercedes in these first two
visions. Oh Lord, don't do it. They can't
stand. They're weak. If you do this, you'll wipe them
out and you can't do it. And it says that the Lord relented
concerning this. It shall not be. He says it twice
in these first two visions. And then you get the vision of
the plumb line. The standard. Now if you've ever done any building,
you understand what a plumb line is. You want to keep things square. You want to keep things... You
use a plumb line. God drops his plumb line among Israel and says,
you're all out of joint. There's nothing square about
you. Everything's out of line here. And the plumb line is a
standard of his law. You've broken it all. Then comes
opposition in chapter 7. Then comes opposition. Amaziah,
the priest at Bethel, he goes to Jeroboam and says, this guy
Amos, he keeps preaching against you. He sort of twists his words. He misquotes Amos a bit. But
he basically tells Jeroboam, hey, he's preaching against you.
And then Amaziah says, he goes to Amos and he says, go you seer,
flee to Judah. Go down there and preach. Go
down there and preach. Get away from here. Never again
prophesy at Bethel, for it's the king's sanctuary and it's
the royal residence. We don't need this stuff here.
You go preach that stuff somewhere else. And then Amos answered. This is where we get a little
insight into Amos. We don't know much about him other than this.
Amos says, I was no prophet, nor was I the son of a prophet,
but I was a sheep breeder, a tender of sycamore fruit. Then the Lord
took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said to me, go prophesy
to my people Israel. Now, therefore, hear the word
of the Lord. You say, do not prophesy against Israel and do
not spout against the house of Isaac. Therefore, thus says the
Lord, your wife shall be a harlot in the city. You tell me to shut
up? Guess what? It's not me. It's
God speaking. And God says judgment's coming.
And you get another vision in chapter 8, this vision of summer
fruit. It's ripe. Summer fruit's ripe. Junior,
we were talking about gardening earlier, right? You get to that
end of the summer and that fruit gets ripe. Those vegetables get
ripe and you go pick them. The sin of Israel is so ripe,
judgment's coming. That's the vision of the summer
fruit. It's a word play just like Jeremiah chapter 1. But
then you get to chapter 9 and there's a fourth vision. And
what's interesting about this fourth vision in chapter 9 is
that Amos is speechless. Amos says nothing. He's just
listening. There's no dialogue because in
chapter 9 verse 1 he says, I saw the Lord standing by the altar. Remember some of the visions
John would have and he falls flat on his face? Can't speak,
can't, you know, he sees the Lord. And what Amos, Amos is
quiet. He says nothing. There's no dialogue going on.
And what does God do? God continues to talk about how
he's sending this judgment. He's the sovereign creator over
all. And he's sending this judgment.
But in the last section, this book ends with this beautiful
promise of salvation beginning in chapter 9 verse 11. On that
day, I will raise up the tabernacle of David which has fallen down
and repair its damages. I will raise up its ruins and
rebuild it as the days of old that they may possess the remnant
of Edom and all the Gentiles who are called by my name. All
the Gentiles. See, this is not just immediate
restoration that will happen. This is end time restoration.
This is Christ restoration. This is the book of Revelation
in restoration. They're all going to come. They're
all going to come. And he says, and all the Gentiles
who are called by my name, says the Lord who does this thing.
See that again? The Lord, he does this thing.
Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when the plowman
should overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes. Him who
sows seed, the mountains shall drip with sweet wine, and all
the hills shall flow with it. I will bring back the captives
of My people Israel. They shall build waste cities
and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and
drink wine from them. They shall also make gardens
and eat fruit from them. I will plant them in their land,
and no longer shall they be pulled up from the land I have given
them, says the Lord your God. standing on His promises. And the ultimate restoration
and salvation that's coming, no longer will you be pulled
up. It's very interesting because
this is almost garden language, right? Very interesting because
you almost see as Eden in Genesis in the fall total ruins. And yet what do we see in the
book of Revelation? It's restored. There's a new heaven, a new earth,
a new Jerusalem. And who's there? God's there. God's there. What does this Let
me use this word. Maybe it'll help you get an understanding
of kind of what Amos was and who he was. What does this country
boy have to say to the northern kingdom? By his
own confession, he says, I didn't go to the School of Prophets. I'm not a professional. But I'm going to tell you this,
he understood, he was steeped in Old Covenant, Old Testament
history. He knew his Old Testament. He knew Covenant. He knew Covenant
language. He may not have gone to the school
of the prophets and learned from the professors, but I'm going
to tell you what, he had spent his life pouring over the Word
of God because he knew it. Charles Spurgeon refused to be
ordained. Spurgeon said, no man's going to lay hands on me. God
called me. Spurgeon thought about early
on going to school, thought, well, maybe I need to go to school
and learn how to do this. And he has an appointment. The
story goes, he has an appointment to meet with one of the colleges,
one of the president of the college. And so he's in the little study
waiting. And the president of the college was busy and was
late to the meeting. And Spurgeon just turned around
and walked out. Never went to college. Never was ordained.
And today we remember him as the Prince of Preachers. But make no mistake, Spurgeon's
education came through the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. And early in Spurgeon's life,
he poured over his grandfather's Puritan library and read everything
he could get his hands on. He was a self-taught man. I hear sometimes some going into
the ministry and they say, I'm not going to school. Spurgeon
never went to school. You're no Spurgeon. There was only one Spurgeon. Amos never went to the school
of the prophets and he just strolled out and started preaching. You're
no Amos. In one sense. But see, here's the first rule
of engagement. Amos was not a professional.
So what does that say? What it says to me is this. This
engagement with our culture today is not left up to the professionals.
In fact, I'm going to be honest with you, a lot of times in a
lot of places, some of the professionals are caving fast. They're caving fast. This engagement comes from all
of us who claim the name of Christ. This engagement comes from all
of us. Amos, just a common man, called by God, equipped with
the Spirit of God, with the knowledge of the Word of God. So what it
says to me is that as a believer and follower of Christ, what
we had all better be doing is pouring over the Word of God
and seeking Christ as never before, and dependent upon the working
of the Holy Spirit, and living in the power of the Spirit daily. and engaging in that. Paul says that we're all ambassadors.
The Great Commission is to all of us. That's the first rule
of engagement here. We're all involved in this. Now
it may be that some, all you can do is just simply keep silent
where you are and pray. Then pray. If you have the opportunity
to speak, then speak. If you have the opportunity to
stand, stand. But first and foremost, in your
own heart and mind, settle the issue that you are a child of
God and a follower of Christ, and we will not give in to this. We will not follow this. By God's Spirit, we'll stand
where we can stand. Don't wait on the professionals. Don't wait on it. There's another principle here,
another rule, and that is that what we see in Amos is God is
speaking. So when I engage with this post-Christian
culture, what I need to make them understand very clearly,
and where I need to stand, is that God has spoken in his word,
and the ultimate standard that I point to is his standard. You
remember the plumb line? What's that standard? It's His
law. It's His word. I cannot engage a post-Christian
culture with sort of this wishy-washy idea as if there is no real moral
ground here. There is clear moral ground.
And when we stand and engage, we engage by the ultimate standard
of God's word. What has He said about marriage? He's clear about marriage. And we're accountable to that
standard. We're obligated to that standard. And even if the
unbeliever says, not me, I'm accountable to myself. I'm obligated
only to my own happiness. Then we have to be crystal clear.
No, you don't understand. There's a sovereign creator over
all things and you will one day be held accountable to him. So that's another rule of engagement.
We don't get wishy-washy about where God has spoken clearly.
Where he's spoken clearly, we stand clearly. If we don't, we're
going to get swallowed up. Here's another one. This is the
intercession. In those first two visions, the locus and the
fire, what does Amos do? He intercedes. We need to be
interceding. We need to be praying. Enough
with our shock and awe at what's happened.
Let that now become prayer and intercession. Because the unbelievers
that you know, the unbelievers that you know that are around
you that are buying into this and that are this and that and
that and that and that, the unbelievers around you, they cannot stand
in this judgment. They cannot stand. They will
not stand. And you need to be interceding
and pleading for God's mercy in their life. They can't stand. And we also have to pray and
intercede because there is no neutrality here. There's not some neutral ground
that you retreat to. This new spiritual movement is
sweeping unprecedented speed, swiftness,
and they're taking no prisoners. They're taking no prisoners.
Here's another one. Rule for engagement. As we do
this, we need to expect opposition. Amaziah, Amos, go home. Amos, shut up. We don't need
that here. What you're doing, Amos, is you're
causing harm. That's the new buzzword. Listen
for it. What you're doing is you're causing
harm. You need to live and speak in a way in which you cause no
harm. What is causing harm now? What
is causing the most harm in our culture right now is the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ, according to the unbelievers, according
to the pagans. When you preach the gospel, you're bringing great
suffering and harm to people. Why? Because you're confronting
them with their sin. and to be confronted with your sins to
harm. You better watch. Watch very closely what's happening
in Great Britain. Watch very closely what's happening
in Canada right now. There are two bills in Parliament,
and one in Parliament and one in the Canadian Parliament, whatever
they have. And you may have read some of
this and heard about some of this, but what these bills are
saying is it's outlawing what they call conversion therapy.
What is that in short? It is this. You can no longer
say as a pastor, if you came to me and said I'm struggling
with same-sex attraction, And I say to you, well, I'm going
to pray for you, and I'm going to pray as we read and pour over
God's Word, and you understand the Gospel, that what God's going
to do is God can change you. God can convert you. God can
change you and help you deal with that. Because that attraction
is against His standard. Go back to what do we ultimately
point to? God's standard, right? So I don't
say, well, that's okay. Just be true to yourself. And
if you're tired of living a lie, come out. But as a Christian
pastor, if I say to that person, if I were in Great Britain or
Canada, and these are expected to pass, by the way, I can't
pray for that person. I can't preach the gospel to
that person. Because if I do, I'm causing that person harm. And that action will be illegal
in Great Britain and Canada. You pay close attention to that
because there's talk of it already here. Expect opposition. You just be
quiet, you Christians. It used to be that they were
satisfied with us being quiet and sitting in our own little
corner. Now it's not that way. Now they want to eradicate us.
They want us out of society. They want us done with. They
want us eliminated. They want us canceled. But here's the final thing. As
I engage a post-Christian world, I need to be brutally honest
about what's going on here. God is speaking, and his law
is clear, his standards are clear, his judgment is clear. But I
also need to understand that it can't be just about hate-filled
speech. and animosity, and throwing bricks,
and fighting, and going after them, and praying God's judgment
on them. What I need to understand is
that in love and compassion, interceding on their behalf,
in love and compassion, what I present for them is an alternative
view of salvation. That salvation's not about discovering
yourself. Salvation is about discovering
the Lord Jesus Christ. And there is an ultimate restoration
and salvation in Him. that is so far superior to any
salvation you're seeking in this world. And I need to be consistent
and clear that what is coming one day is this grand restoration
In other words, what I need to do as I engage in this, and as
you engage in this, what we need to do as Christians is present
a clear alternative to the worldview that's just sweeping this nation
right now. And the clear alternative worldview
is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that ends in full restoration
and salvation. I'm going to tell you this. This
is going to implode. It's going to fall apart. I don't
know what's going to be left in its wake. I don't know how
much damage it's going to do before it does. But I'm going
to tell you this. As believers, we had better be
ready and we better start preparing ourselves now. One, for what
we may have to go through. But even looking beyond that,
we need to be ready because when it implodes and when it collapses,
there are going to be a lot of disillusioned, hurt, fearful,
frightened people. And we need to step in the gap
with the gospel of Christ and say there's hope in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And if you'll turn to Him, you
will find compassion and mercy. You see, that's why when the
lion roars, there may be times in that judgment
where we are silently speaking the truth, being in silence speaking
the truth. But you see, when the lion roars
and when the aftermath of that lion roars happens, who can keep
silent? We had better not keep silent. Or their blood is on our hands. How does this country boy help
us? He wasn't a professional. He was just a Christian. I'll
use New Testament language. He was just a Christian believer
who was inflamed by the Spirit of God, who knew the Word of
God. And God said, go say this. And what did he do? He went and
said it. Did he suffer? Yeah. Let's go do the same, right?
Let's go do the same. Let's pray. These prophets just continue
to speak to our hearts.
The Prophet Amos
Series The Prophets
How to engage a post-Christian culture.
| Sermon ID | 615212232256635 |
| Duration | 1:02:04 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Language | English |
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