If you have your Bibles, I'd love for you to join me in Amos chapter 7, and we'll conclude our study in this very important prophet. Our study thus far, I think, would lead us to expect The visions of disaster now falling at this point in the book. The lion has roared, the message of warning has been communicated, and now the hammer will fall. All the activity kind of comes to a screeching halt. It's very ominous as in chapter 8 at the end of the third verse we read the word, silence. I find that in these concluding chapters, Amos is going to be tested. He has the unenviable task of communicating and articulating the coming destruction. That's not a fun job. The life of a prophet was not easy. On the one hand, you had to stay close enough to God to hear the message that you had to articulate, and on the other hand, you had to be bold enough to communicate the truth, which in this case is a message of destruction. And you're preaching that message to people who don't want to hear you minister, and don't want to hear the truth, and that makes for a tough life. It is no wonder to me that some of the prophets wanted to resign, including the likes of Moses and Jeremiah. This does remind us as we get into this chapter that there is no service for God. without opposition. There is no truth spoken, there is no word of God delivered without persecution and without trial. All of us will face that. Too often, myself included, believers are knocked off course by opposition, persecution, trial, by being misrepresented or mere criticism. I think all of us have been wearied by the constant nature of the struggles. But Peter told us in the New Testament, in 1 Peter chapter 4, My brethren, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened unto you, but that's exactly how we react. It's strange to us that we of all people should endure opposition. That we who are faithful and we who are truth-tellers should endure criticism, persecution maybe at times, and trials. But it's not strange. We're told to expect this, much like Amos. And that's exactly what we'll find with him today. He'll meet his opposition, he'll carry on his message, he'll tell them of coming destruction, and he'll remind us of the grace of God. But the first thing I want you to walk through with me is the test that Amos has to endure. At the very beginning of chapter 7, Amos is continuing his message of destruction. It has been heavy. It is severe. It is seemingly harsh, but I believe it is all motivated by compassion, and we'll see that momentarily. He's communicating this vision of utter devastation and the first vision that he has as chapter 7 starts is grasshoppers coming up and eating all the harvest. And if all the harvest is eaten, Amos is smart enough to deduce that all the people will die of starvation. He's shaken just a little bit as he sees this vision of utter devastation. And so in chapter 7 and verse 2 in the second part, listen to Amos' response to this vision. Then I said, O Lord God, forgive. That's not a very long prayer, though it is an intense prayer. It's not verbose, it does not have a wide use of vocabulary, but it is certainly passionate. Amos sees the vision of utter devastation, and it shakes him, and he simply cries out to the Lord, forgive. I think sometimes we are pressured into imagining that our prayers have to be really wordy if they're going to be effective. I think we imagine we have to use some high level spiritual language if God is ever going to hear us. But these words are offered up and God hears them. He simply cries out, forgive. He's asking God for an act of pure grace. The people have not repented. Their sinful ways have not relented. And I'm asking you God, whatever, not the grasshoppers. In verse 3, the Bible tells us the Lord repented for this. It shall not be, saith the Lord. You say, the Lord repented. Does that mean that He sinned? No. He changes course. He changes His mind on that method of destruction based on the interceding prayer of Amos. Never underestimate your prayers. Never underestimate that your Heavenly Father wants to hear from you. In the New Testament, we're told, the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. You say, well that's for the elite, spiritually speaking. The righteous people have effective prayers. But the Bible also tells us, if we will confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. People who are in right standing with God have unbelievably potent prayers. That's what we're learning here from Amos. Spurgeon said of this prayer, we cannot set too much store by the earnest prayers of holy men. So Amos has another vision. The second vision that Amos has is not grasshoppers consuming all the harvest, thus the people die of starvation. He now has a vision of a consuming fire. So great is the fire, he sees that it consumes both land and sea. Again, it surprises me that Amos intercedes. Once again, there's no basis for God to relent, yet Amos begs, and God responds, verse 5, Then said I, O Lord God, cease! I beseech Thee, by whom shall Jacob arise? For he is small. The Lord repented for this. This also shall not be, saith the Lord. This proves to me that Amos was motivated by compassion. It is an intensely harsh message. It is severe, even in the visual imagery that it brings up. But it's motivated by compassion. I would not have been a good Old Testament prophet. Amos is withstood by people. They hate his message. They try to silence him. They reject the truth. And when Amos finally sees that God is going to judge those people that Amos has been ministering to, rather than revel in the fact that they will be judged with compassion, he intercedes on their behalf. May I say to you, motivation by compassion will help you to endure some hardness. will help you put up with some trials because you deliver the truth in love. Amos is going to have another vision now. By verse 7, note his vision. Thus he showed me. Now God's showing him his third vision. Grasshoppers, all-encompassing fire, and by verse 7, behold the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumb line. with a plumb line in his hand. And the LORD said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumb line. Then said the LORD, Behold, I will set a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel, I will not again pass by them any more. And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword." That's the third vision. Now a plumb line is simply a standard by which a wall is tested. And in his vision, God is standing on a wall that is made by a plumb line. It's straight and it's level. He has the plumb line in his hand and he asks Amos, Amos what do you see? I see a plumb line and God says to him, I'm passing through the nation. with this plumb line, and I am going to gauge the moral straightness, the spiritual fitness of my people. And I will not pass over again. I will not relent this time. I'm gauging the spiritual straightness, and I will judge. In essence, I'll spare them no longer." That's an ominous thought. That's an ominous phrase. God up to this point has overlooked the sins of the nation of Israel. Now let me be careful. I don't mean that he's overlooked them in the sense that he is ignorant of them. I don't mean that he has overlooked them in the sense that he has excused them. He has overlooked them in the sense that he has been long suffering. He has put up with the presence of that sin. He still does that for us. There will come a day, they tell us in the Bible, where men will look at us, who are believers, and they will ask, where is this day of coming judgment? Where is this Jesus that you believe in? Certainly He's never coming, and sin will never be judged, and the answer to that is wrong. Our God is long-suffering. He wants men to repent and not perish. He is always merciful. And that's what we're sensing in this moment. The judgment that was described in verse 9. The places of their pagan sacrifices will be destroyed. The dynasty of Jeroboam, this pagan king, is going to come to an end. And it is at this moment in time where Amos, who's had to deliver some really harsh messages, who compassionately has interceded on behalf of the people, is going to deal with a very personal attack from Amaziah the high priest. Of all people who should have been sensitive to the voice and the message of God, it's Amaziah. And yet Amaziah has sold himself out to be priest at Bethel and Gilgal and Beersheba, living a life of luxury, and in effect, he wants to silence the truth. Look around, Amos. We're incredibly prosperous. Look around, Amos. We're intensely comfortable. Look around, Amos. The spiritual centers are packed. Why don't you zip it and move on and leave us be? Stop making us confront the truth. Amaziah will address him in verse 10. Amaziah, the priest of Bethel. sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land. Also, Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread. Prophesy there, but prophesy not again any more at Bethel, for it is the king's chapel, and it is the king's court. May I say very kindly, he tells Amos to shut his mouth, And because he's not man enough to confront Amos who's delivering the truth of the Word of God, he sends to Jeroboam and in effect tries to get big brother to silence this truth teller that is Amos. Amos is down here telling the truth, King Jeroboam, and we don't want to hear it. We like our lives of comfort. We like our world of ease. We like the songs that we sing in the filled up religious centers. Can you silence this man's mouth? Amos is directly attacked by Amaziah, who should have known better. Did you note in there that Amos was misrepresented? He's charged with conspiracy and He's charged with treason. He's lied about. By the way, this is something that Jesus warned us we would have to face. In Matthew 5, Jesus said this, Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for My sake. Understand that your actions, grasp that your motives, know that your words will be misrepresented as you try to tell the truth in the midst of a lost world. Expect it, Peter said. Know it's coming, Jesus said. And in fact, set your compass to happiness when it happens. Just recognize you will be misrepresented. Not only was he misrepresented, he was directly threatened. Get out of here, Amos! When he tells him, go back to Judah, flee unto Judah, eat bread there and prophesy, within the Hebrew language we hear the intent, for your own sake. In effect, Amaziah says to Amos, go back to Judah. Eat bread and prophesy there or else." This is directly against his boldness and his courage. And after all, Amos is utterly alone at this point in time. Preaching a message that he never asked to have to preach. Fulfilling a calling that was not of his own device. He's threatened. Shut your mouth. No one wants that from you. You're the lunatic fringe. You're outside the norm. Just be quiet or else. Sounds very much like our modern world. Misrepresented. He's threatened. He's uninvited. They were looking down their nose at him with pride. Hey, shepherd. Hey, collector of sycamore fruit, look around. Here at Bethel, this is a royal court. This is the king's chapel. You look like an outsider. You don't fit in here. You're uninvited from this place. You don't belong. Get out of here. Amos is misrepresented, he's threatened, he's uninvited, and yet he must tell the truth. This is so reminiscent of the apostles in the New Testament. In Acts chapter 5 in the New Testament, the church is just underway, and it is making incredible headway. Thousands of people are being saved. It is infiltrating every region of Jerusalem. The religious leaders pull the apostles in and they look at them and they say, that's enough. No more talk of Jesus. No more talk of His crucifixion. In fact, in verse 28 of Acts 5, they say, Did not we straightly command you that ye should not teach in this name? And behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood upon us. How would they respond? The apostles have been charged, no more Jesus talk. No more truth telling. We will beat you and we will imprison you. And now Peter is about to respond. Now remember the context. Peter, just a few weeks prior, was a chicken, spiritually speaking, and denied that he even knew Jesus. And now, he's standing in front of the religious. And here's what he says in verse 29, Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. You may misrepresent our words. You may threaten our safety and our physical well-being. You may uninvite us from the temple courtyard, but we have to obey God rather than you. Our reverence for God surpasses our fear of you. I think our world would do well to have a little more Old Testament prophet in it. A little more backbone of the apostles in it. You won't silence our message by threatening us. You won't cause us to cease from telling the truth because we're uninvited. We must. In fact, Amos' response is epic. I think it's one for the ages. I feel like, as a student of the Bible, I would do you a disservice if I didn't read these verses and you're thinking, no, it's cool, you don't have to read them to us. All right, but just put up with it a second. Here's Amos' response, verse 14. Then answered Amos and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son, but I was an herdman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit. And the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said unto me, go, prophesy unto my people Israel. Now therefore, hear thou the word of the Lord. Thou sayest, prophesy not against Israel, and drop not thy word against the house of Isaac. Now just stick with me a second. Amos is now going to respond to Amaziah. Put it in your mind. Amaziah looks like he belongs in the king's chapel in the royal court, and Amos does not. Amos, who's dressed like a herdman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit, this poor man standing in the king's chapel, taking on the entire world, looks at Amaziah in the eye and he says in effect, I know I'm a nobody, man. I was not a prophet. I'm not trained in prophetry. In fact, I'm not even the son of a prophet. I don't even have it in my lineage. I was a shepherd a few miles south of Jerusalem. I gathered sycamore fruit. That's how I made ends meet. But God took me from following after my herds and he called me and put a message in my mouth and sent me here by saying, go prophesy unto the nation of Israel. So Amaziah, you may twist my words. And you may threaten my well-being, and you may not want me here, but I don't belong to you, I belong to God. And I'm good with the fact that I'm a nobody. But you must understand, God told me to go, and I will obey Him before I will obey you. And in the New Testament, does not Jesus say to the church, go? and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. And wherever you go, I'm going to go with you. And yet, we don't have the guts, the heart, the compassion of Amos. It's convicting. Now we get to one of my favorite verses in all of Amos. It's one that I wish God would allow me to have the privilege of enjoying one time in my life. If ever people get to be Old Testament-like, God will never give me that privilege because he knows I can't handle it. I would revel in this moment. Amos is looking at Amaziah now. Amaziah's dressed like Amaziah. We all know how Amaziah dresses. And Amos gets to deliver a very personalized prophecy for Amaziah. It's the kind of present wrapped in a bow, and Amos gets to go, and here's God's message for you, sir. Here it comes, verse 17. Therefore thus saith the Lord, thy wife shall be in Harlot in the city. And thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword. And thy land shall be divided by line, and thou shalt die in a polluted land, and Israel shall surely go into captivity, forth of his land. How many of you, like me, would have been a little in the flesh in that moment? Amaziah, I got a word for you. You don't want me here, and this is strong. Yeah, your wife's gonna be a harlot, whoa. and your sons and daughters are gonna die by the sword, your land, your house is gonna be given away to strangers, and you're gonna die in a polluted pagan land. That's from God. I will never get the privilege of doing that. Look, I'm gonna, I know God's gonna burn your house down for not listening to my preaching. Now, I've actually heard preaching like that. God is gonna send pestilence upon you if you don't do what I say. I would probably stop short of like, and your wife's gonna be a harlot, but that was Amos' message, and God put it there, and we know that happened because God said it. Here's what we also know. Amos didn't revel in delivering that message. We've already seen his compassion. Oh God, forgive. Oh God, cease. Not that. Please be patient. Please be long-suffering. I love what one wrote. The word to Amaziah, though ministered with the gentleness of lightly falling rain, was harsh. You don't have to strengthen the words of the Bible. You don't have to be angry on behalf of God and spew hate at people so they really sense the truth. All you have to do is tell the truth. The Word of God is harsh enough to the offender. Now what we'll find is the Hammer Falls chapter 8 and 9 to me are humbling. They're sobering to read. They chronicle the downfall. Never ever let yourself forget that these are the lives of real people. These people had family dinners and businesses that they built and homes that they loved. They had grandchildren and uncles and aunts and trips and dreams and aspirations. These are real people who rejected God. And by the time we get to chapter eight, here's now another vision that Amos has. Thus hath the Lord God showed me, and behold, a basket of summer fruit. And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, a basket of summer fruit. Then said the Lord unto me, the end is come upon my people of Israel. I will not again pass by them anymore. The songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord God. There shall be many dead bodies in every place. They shall cast them forth with silence. This is what makes you ready to move on, right? From Old Testament minor prophet study. Dead bodies in every place. Songs in your pagan religious centers are actually going to be turned into howlings. I'm already not listening to them anyways. They're void of any spirituality. There is no true worship of God. It's just noise anyway. But he is saying, do you see the basket of summer fruit? The end is come. Judgment is nigh. I find there is a play on words. Because in the Hebrew, the word for summer fruit sounds very similar to the end in English. In fact, as I studied, to help us understand the mind of the listener, I found it interesting that the excavations of Giza in 1908, an archaeologist found a tablet that had on it the sequence of ancient Israel's agricultural year. Grasp this. Months of vintage and olive harvest. Months of sowing. Months of spring pasture. Months of flax pooling. Month of barley harvest. Month of wheat harvest and measuring. Months of pruning. And at the very end of the calendar, month of summer fruit. The end. The message of judgment is so thoroughly communicated to the listener, that when he heard the vision of the basket of summer fruit, he would have immediately comprehended, this is the end. This is the end of the calendar. This is the end of it all. And that is the fact for the nation of Israel. You're ripe for the harvest. Ripe for God's judgment. Not sparing any longer. The worship songs in your idolatrous temples will be wailing in tears. Dead bodies thrown everywhere. Total silence. It's a gruesome scene. In fact, you can hear God pleading in verse four when He says, hear this, hear this. He's just said it's coming, and yet He is still compelling them to repent and forgive. Hear this. In chapter 9, there's another terrifying vision. You say, enough of this, we've got to get through this to see the grace. In verse 1, he said, I saw the Lord standing upon the altar and He said, smite the lintel at the door that the post may shake. Cut them in the head, all of them, and I will slay the last of them with the sword. Get this, he that fleeth of them shall not flee away. He that escapeth of them shall not be delivered. Though they dig into hell, then shall mine hand take them. Though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down. And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence. And though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them. And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them. and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil and not for good." Wow, that's savage. Here is what is being articulated by God through Amos to the nation of Israel. Your sin must be paid for. And you cannot hide from this moment of accountability. The bill is due and I will find you whithersoever you run. He is so vivid. He says, if you dig down into hell itself, I'll find you and you'll pay for your sin. If you climb up into heaven, I will find you. You are accountable for your sin. If you go up into the top of Mount Carmel and find a rock to get behind, I'll find you there. If you invent some diving apparatus and get to the bottom of the sea and think you can avoid accountability, I'll find you there. No matter where you run, you cannot hide. No matter how long it takes, I will find you and your sin must be paid for. That's what's being communicated. And ultimately the hammer falls. They don't listen. Hear this. Instead of being carried off into captivity, you can repent, grasp for just one moment how savage and how violent the judgment of God seems. Dead bodies everywhere. And then remind yourself that God loves all humanity. And that all humanity is lost woefully in their sin. and that God loved humanity so much that he sent his only begotten son, Jesus, and Jesus came, born of a virgin, never knew sin, never committed sin, and then willingly Jesus died on the cross, took sin upon him who knew no sin, bore in his body all the savage unfolding wrath of God so that we don't have to. And there is salvation from this kind of harsh judgment. And God says the way of salvation is Jesus, only Jesus. That is intense, acute mercy. You do understand if you're here in this moment and you do not know that Jesus Christ has forgiven your sins, I am saying to you as sure as Amos preached this message to the nation of Israel, your bill will come due and your sin must be paid for. It may seem like it's taking forever. He is long-suffering and good. May that lead to your repentance. You may think he doesn't see. You may think he doesn't know. You can dig the deepest hole you'll find. He'll find you there. You can't run and you can't hide. The bill will come due on your sin. It is appointed unto man once to die and then the judgment. And if you plead anything before a holy God other than the shed blood of Jesus Christ, You will pay for your sin in the torment of hell for all eternity. Now take that to the Capitol building and see how popular you are. Take that into the highways and the byways and see if people are like, I love this guy. Tell them the day is coming where Jesus will return and this earth as we know it will burn up with fervent heat and the judgment of God will pour out on sinful man and he's going to start over. You're gonna seem like the lunatic fringe. You'll be misrepresented, you'll be threatened, you'll be uninvited. I'll finish by simply pointing out a glimpse of the coming dawn. There's always grace, always grace. We turn the corner in chapter nine and the language changes. For the first time, we get to look forward to something. We sense hope and we sense restoration. In verse 11, here's what we read. In that day, there's coming a day. Will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof? And I will raise up his ruins, and will build it as in the days of old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen which are called by my name, saith the Lord that do this. Behold, the days come." I won't take the time to read through the rest of that, but the language has changed. We sense hope and restoration. A coming dawn. This storm is not going to last forever. This darkness will not go on unendingly. Dawn's on the way. He even uses terms in here like raise up. Build again. Close up in the sense of healing. What is it that Amos is pointing to? What is it that Amos wants us to see when the Lord will restore the kingdom and heal all? He is pointing us to the day of the kingdom of the Messiah. How could something like this happen? The kingdom of David be rebuilt. the kingdom of the Messiah. He's telling us there's hope, there's restoration, there's a coming dawn. This interests me. And I know that the key to being a good teacher or conversationalist is realizing that not everybody's interested in the things you're interested in. But because I'm preaching and I've studied it, this interested me and I'm gonna share it. And you can be so rude as to just walk out, but hang on for a minute, it'll really hurt my feelings. In the New Testament, in the book of Acts, we've already been here, the church is explosively growing. The apostle Paul has been a missionary to the Gentiles and many Gentiles are being saved. The religious Jews have a problem with the Gentiles being added into the church without the right of circumcision. So there's a council called together in Jerusalem and the Apostle Paul is addressing the council and James stands up and James will begin to speak about the Gentiles coming into the church. And he directly quotes from Amos chapter 9, which adds veracity to this study and sheds light on what is being said here. Here's James in the New Testament, Acts 15 verse 13, and after they held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me. Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name. And to this agree the words of the prophets, as it is written, here he's quoting from Amos 9, after this I will return and will build again the tabernacle of David which is fallen down and I will build again the ruins thereof and I will set it up that the residue of men might seek after the Lord and all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth these things." Here's the point. Amos was looking forward to the kingdom of the Messiah and he is saying there is coming a day where the kingdom will be restored and the outsiders will become insiders because of the shed blood of Jesus. There's hope and there's restoration and I can stand before you today and say plainly the day is coming where King Jesus will rule in a very practical and tangible and visible way. And all will be restored in this message of severity and harshness. There is hope for restoration because King Jesus will reign, and this has been referenced in the church for thousands of years. We get to be a part of that kingdom. It's stunning. Can I simply say to you, grasp this. If you don't know that your sins have been covered by the shed blood of Jesus, today is the day. It's not a message delivered to you with harshness nor with joy, longing for judgment. It is, please hear this. And if you're a believer who has been tasked with go and teach all nations, then I say to you, when the wind is stripped out of your sails, and you face the unending nature of the struggle, and the hardness, and the harshness, and you don't always feel like you're in it, and you face a little bit of opposition, or a little bit of a headwind, or a little bit of a trial, or a little persecution, be happy about it. and grasp that even if they misrepresent you and they threaten you and they uninvite you, you have the responsibility of being a truth teller. With compassion and love, let Jesus take his word to their hearts. Would you please bow your heads just for a moment? Thanks for listening this week to the Graceway Baptist Church podcast. For more information about our church and our ministries, head on over to our website at gracewaycharlotte.org. We are a church located in South Charlotte. We are growing and our ministries are doing big things for Christ. If you're looking for a way to get plugged into what we're doing, email us at info at gracewaycharlotte.org. Also, stay in the loop with everything happening by following us on Facebook and Instagram. Our handle is GracewayCharlotte. Thanks again for listening to the Graceway Charlotte podcast. We'll see you next week.