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.