AMOS 5-7 SEEK GOD AND LIVE2011 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Amos 5-7 Seek God And Live

You're listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2011. Well this evening we're in the book of Amos. We're picking it up in chapter 5 and continuing on. We'll be looking at chapters 5 through 7 this evening as Amos continues his ministry. Just a brief intro on Amos for those who were not with us last week.

Amos was not a special or trained prophet. He was a sheep breeder and we'll see that this evening in chapter 7. That he was not a son of a prophet. He didn't go to the school of the prophets.

He was a shepherd. He was out in the fields with the sheep and then God called him to go to the nation of Israel. That is the northern kingdom of Israel after the kingdom had been split into two nations. And God called him to the northern kingdom to pronounce upon them the judgment that was coming if they would not turn and get right with God.

And so they had been in rebellion for quite a long time. And this is taking place about 40 years before the judgment actually happens. And so it's one of those last warnings that God is giving to the people. It's their opportunity or their chance to turn, repent, and get right with God. And so he's a simple farmer, a shepherd that was out in the field, and he's brought forth this message from the Lord.

What we saw in the first four chapters last week, it was a message, a call to repentance. And we continue to see that here in chapters 5 through 7 this evening. So let's get started here in chapter 5 verses 1 through 3. It says this.

Verse 1.

Here as we get started here in chapter 5, Amos is recording for us a lamentation. A lamentation that God is sharing through Amos. Now a lamentation was a type of poem that was shared at funerals. And so it's a funeral poem. It's a poem of mourning, of sorrow. And this short poem here, this short lamentation is...

It's about the destruction of Israel and how there will be really nothing left of Israel as a result. In fact, they'll be reduced greatly. He talks about the city that goes out by a thousand.

Now one of the things that Israel had going for it as Amos was prophesying was they had a pretty strong army. And you can read in the accounts there of Kings and Chronicles about the battles that took place and how the northern kingdom had a pretty good sized army. They were pretty strong militarily.

But here God is saying, the city that used to have a thousand warriors, they would go out by the thousands, they will be reduced now to one hundred. And the city that would be able to send out a hundred warriors will now only have ten warriors left. And so the remnant, the people who are left over after this destruction comes will be basically ten percent of the population.

And so there's going to be a massive, massive destruction upon the nation so that there's only 10% of them left. 90% will be destroyed in the judgment that God is going to bring upon the nation as a result of their disobedience, as a result of their rebellion against God. However, we've often noted, we've often seen as we've been going through the prophets in the Old Testament that when God pronounces judgment upon a nation,

It's also a call to repentance. It's an opportunity to turn and get right with God and God will not then bring the full judgment that He declared would come if they had not repented. And so we see that as we go on into verse 4 it says, "...for thus says the Lord to the house of Israel, seek me and live."

God is saying, if you seek Me, this is the destruction I've promised for you, because of your sin, because of your rebellion, this is what's going to happen. However, if you turn around, if you seek Me, you will live.

If you seek me, you will find life. And so God is calling, as he's pronouncing this judgment, he's calling the people to turn to the Lord, to seek God and find the life that he can provide. And so God is continually inviting the people to repent. They're not beyond hope, they're not beyond help, but they must turn to the Lord and forsake their sin and their rebellion. Verse 5 says,

But do not seek Bethel, nor enter Gilgal, nor pass over to Beersheba. For Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nothing. Seek the Lord and live, lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph and devour it, with no one to quench it in Bethel. You who turn justice to wormwood and lay righteousness to rest in the earth.

He made the Pleiades and Orion. He turns the shadow of death into morning and makes the day dark as night. He calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the face of the earth. The Lord is His name. He rains ruin upon the strong so that fury comes upon the fortress.

Here is, this prophecy continues as God is calling them to repentance. He's pointing out that they must not continue to practice idolatry.

The nation of Israel, the northern kingdom, after it had been split, from the very beginning of that split, began to practice idolatry. Well, not just began, but they progressed in idolatry. And they were committed to idolatry, worshipping false gods. They were never once faithful, or they never once revived and turned back to God. The northern kingdom had bad kings that led them away from God continually.

And they would go and worship these false gods at Bethel, which was a city there in the southern part of Israel, at Gilgal, and then also at Beersheba. Now it's interesting because Bethel, Gilgal, and Beersheba, as you look at the Old Testament, they're all significant places where God has worked and ministered to the nation and established the nation. They're all very important places in their history where God had reached out and spoke to them and done a work.

But now these places have become places for them to go and worship false gods. At one time, God ministered to them there, but now it's a place where they're rebelling against God and continuing on in their idolatry.

And so they were going to these places and God says, don't go there any longer. Those places are going to be destroyed. In verse 6 again, He says, seek the Lord and live. You see, God's call, God's desire is to give them life. Even though they've been idolatrous, rebellious, even though they've been going against God for quite some time,

He's reaching out to them and giving them an invitation to live. Seek the Lord and live, he says. But he also reminds them who they're dealing with. In verse 8 he says, He made the Pleiades and Orion. The Pleiades and Orion, they're constellations of stars.

He says, "Look, I'm the Creator of the universe essentially. I'm the one who set those stars in place. I'm the one who holds them in their position. I'm the Creator." He reminds them, "Look, I am the one who made everything." As we've often seen in the prophets, you cannot outrun God, you cannot outsmart God. When He pronounces judgment, you will receive that judgment. The wages of sin is death. There's no exceptions to that.

Except unless you seek Him, turn, repent from sin and live. That's the only way. God says you must turn. You must repent. He's the Creator. You cannot defeat His plans and purposes. He's the one who can turn the day into darkness. He's the one who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the face of the earth.

That whole cycle there where water is evaporated from the ocean. It goes up into the atmosphere. It spreads out and then pours down as rain upon the earth. God's in control of that cycle. He's the one who maintains it. He's the one who keeps it. It's a reminder of how big God is and the futility of us trying to run from Him or rebel against Him or think that we will escape the judgment that He promises. Verse 10.

He says,

Verse 14, Verse 15,

It may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. Here as we continue to look at this prophecy, God says, seek good and not evil.

They need to change. They have been seeking evil. They've been pursuing things that are not of God. And God says, you need to turn around. You need to repent. And you need to start seeking good. But the problem was, as we see in verse 10, they hate correction. The one who stands in the gate and rebukes,

The gates of the city was where they would kind of conduct business and where everybody would come and go. And so it was a good place to pass on a message or speak a word. And so the one who would stand at the gate and rebuke and correct and say, let's turn to God, let's get right with God, they hate that person. They hate the one who would suggest that they need to turn and live their life differently.

They despise the one who would bring correction and say, hey, we need to do what's right. Let's turn and get right with God. And we'll see that as well in chapter 7. And so they don't want to be corrected. They refuse to be corrected. But he goes on to list some of the things that they're doing. Treading down the poor. They've built houses of hewn stone. Solid houses. Solid houses.

It kind of reminded me of the story of the three little pigs. Remember the story of the three little pigs? The first house, that didn't stand. He huffed and he puffed and he blew it down. And then the second house, that didn't stand. He huffed and he puffed and he blew it down. But then the brick house, he couldn't blow it down. This is the mentality of the people. They're thinking, hey, we're not weak. We're strong. We've got these houses made out of hewn stone. I mean, these are solid. They're going to stand. We don't need to worry about...

We don't need to worry about danger. We're secure. We've got it all set. They were comfortable and secure in their homes and what they had built and established. But God is saying, even though you live in those houses, He says, I know your manifold transgressions.

Even though you think you're so strong, He says, I know what's going on within those homes. I know what's happening there. And He describes it as manifold. That is, there's many different folds. It's not just a little bit of sin. It's not a little bit of a stumbling. But it's a repetitive. It's a continual. Well, they're transgressing and rebelling against God in many different ways. He lists a couple of them. Afflicting the just.

So those who are bringing correction, those who are speaking the truth, those who are seeking to walk with God, they're persecuting them, afflicting them. Those who are doing what's right, they're taking advantage of them. Then also they're taking bribes. And so they're just seeking their own advantage. They're seeking their own gain. And they're also diverting the poor from justice.

And so the poor are being mistreated. The just are being mistreated. And the crooked are taking bribes and advancing themselves and pursuing their own gain. God says, seek good and not evil. He says, look, you're seeking evil when you seek those things. You need to turn around and seek what is good.

Even though this has been their condition for a long time, it amazes me that God is still giving them this invitation, this opportunity to repent. It's encouraging to know how good and how gracious our God is. That He gives us opportunity to repent. He gives people second chances and third chances and 150th chances. He gives us opportunity to turn and get right with Him.

And so he calls them in verse 15 to hate evil and to love good. Do you hate evil? Is that something that you could declare, that you could say? Is that something that you live out? In Proverbs we find in Proverbs 8.13 that the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. And to hate evil means that we turn from it, that we repent of it, that we don't continue to walk in it.

And so as He calls them to hate evil, He's calling them to change their life, to change their actions. He's calling them to repentance. Do you hate evil? Do you hate the things that are not of God? And do you love what's good? Do you love the things of God? Is that demonstrated by the life that you live? That's something important that you need to consider. Because as we'll see, these...

People that Amos is ministering to, they were very religious. They also were looking for the day of the Lord. They were looking for the Lord to visit them. And yet, their hearts were far from Him. And they were living in rebellion against God. And as a result, judgment was going to come upon them.

Well, in verses 16 through 20, he begins now to talk about the day of the Lord. Verse 16 says, "...therefore the Lord God of hosts, the Lord says this, there shall be wailing in all streets, and they shall say in the highways, Alas, alas, they shall call the farmer to mourning, and skillful laminators to wailing."

Verse 1.

Is it not very dark with no brightness in it? Here now he pronounces a woe upon those who are looking for or desiring the day of the Lord. Again, these people were very religious.

And the day of the Lord is a reference to a time period where God comes and visits His people. It's a thing that was going to happen then, it was going to happen in judgment. It's also something that you and I as believers today look forward to, the day of the Lord, talking about the end times.

We talked about that quite a bit as we studied through the book of Revelation on Sunday mornings. And the day of the Lord includes the rapture of the church, the tribulation period, the millennial kingdom. It's that time frame when the Lord comes and visits the people. Well, these people were saying, oh, we can't wait for the day of the Lord. We can't wait for God to visit us.

It might be kind of hard for us to understand, but they were looking forward to God doing a work. Because they were absolutely deceived. They were absolutely corrupt in their thinking. They thought, no, we're fine. It's okay that we disobey God's word. It's okay that we don't do what God has said. Because we offer these offerings and we offer these sacrifices and so we're fine, we're okay.

And so they were looking forward to, they were desiring the day of the Lord. But God explains here in verse 16, there's going to be wailing in all the streets. For a Christian, as we look forward to the day of the Lord, the return of Jesus, it's a joyful thing, it's a rejoicing thing. We look forward to Jesus coming again. But as we saw, as we studied through the book of Revelation, it's also going to be a time of very serious judgment like the world has never seen before.

And so for the Christian, it's a joyful time. But for those who are here, for those who are experiencing the judgment, it's going to be wailing in all the streets. That's how it was going to happen to Israel. That's how it will happen to the world in these last days, in the tribulation period. So there's going to be wailing in all the streets, in all the vineyards, because of the devastation, the destruction, the agony. As he says there in verse 17, for I will pass through you.

When the Lord visits, it's going to be a time of judgment. And for those who are right with Him, we don't have to fear that judgment because of Jesus Christ and our faith in Him. But if we're living in disobedience to God's Word, even though we may say, hey, I can't wait for the day of the Lord, looking forward to Jesus' return and have not of this world on our cars and clothing and stuff, we might say all of those things, but if our lives...

are lived out in disobedience, if our actions are contrary to the Word of God, even though we desire the day of the Lord, God says, "Woe to you!" Because that's going to be a time of judgment for those who are living in disobedience, for those who are rebelling against the Lord. "Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord!" It's going to be for judgment, not for blessing, He says to the nation of Israel, because they're in rebellion against God. It's going to be a day of darkness and not light.

It's light for the righteous. Again, it's joyful for us because we have a hope and we're right with God. But don't get confused. Don't be deceived like the nation of Israel was. Saying those words doesn't protect you. Having that hope doesn't protect you. But it's really about how you live your life. Are you living in obedience to God? John tells us in his epistle, 1 John 3, that those who have this hope that is the return of Jesus...

Those who have this hope, purify themselves as He is pure. And so if you have a hope of the return of Jesus, if that's your hope, if that's what you're desiring for real, then your life will be lived in purity. Not in perfection, don't misunderstand. But you'll be purifying yourself. You'll be turning away from sin. You'll be removing things that are not of God from your life, just as He is pure.

But if you say, this is my hope, and you continue to live in disobedience to God, well, number one, we see it's not really your hope, because if it really was your hope, you would purify yourself. But secondly, understand, there's a woe pronounced to those who say that, who desire the day of the Lord, but live in disobedience. And so God's calling this people to repentance. And perhaps this evening He's calling you to repentance. Are you living and walking in obedience to God?

He says, look, this day of judgment, the day of the Lord, it's going to be darkness. It's going to be a day of wailing. And he says, it's going to be like a man who flees from a lion, but then meets a bear. You can imagine a guy fleeing from a lion, right? And he's running, he's running. He thinks he's escaped. Boy, that was close. I almost got killed. And then there's the bear.

Or he makes it inside the house. Oh man, I made it. And then a serpent bites him. What's the point? The point is you can't escape. Out of the frying pan into the fire. You can't escape.

In the day of the Lord, there will be no escape for those who are in disobedience. You will experience the judgment that God has promised. You will experience the wages of sin in the day of judgment. And so he says, Woe to them, because they're walking in disobedience, and they will not escape the judgment that God has pronounced. They think they're fine. They think they're secure in their solid homes of hewn stone, but they will not escape.

they will experience the fullness of what God has declared. Verse 21. God says, I hate, I despise your feast days. Take a moment and consider that. God doesn't use these words lightly. He says, I hate, I despise your feast days. And I do not savor your sacred assemblies.

Verse 1.

You also carried Sikuth, your king, and Chiyun, your idols, the star of your gods, which you made for yourselves. Therefore, I will send you into captivity beyond Damascus, says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts. Here as he goes on, he says, I hate, I despise your feast days. Now understand, the feast days that he's referring to,

Are there religious festivals? There are religious feasts. He's not talking about, you know, they're going out and, you know, just random days and they're having feasts. He's not talking about wedding feasts. He's talking about days that they have set aside and they declare, we're worshipping God. This is the feast unto the Lord. We're following the feast that He commanded there in the book of Leviticus. This is Passover. This is Tabernacles Day.

This is the feast of first fruits. And we're celebrating and we're rejoicing what God has done for us. When he talks about these feast days, he's talking about these religious services, these religious feast days that they would have. He says, I do not savor your sacred assemblies. What's a sacred assembly? That's a gathering of worship, a gathering to praise God, a gathering to seek God. He says, I don't savor them. I don't desire them. Those are not tasteful to me.

I despise them, I hate them. Why? Why would God hate their religious festivals? Why would He hate them obeying Him and following the feast days that He declared in His Word? Why would He hate their sacred assemblies as they gathered together to seek God? Well, He hated it because it was outward only. Their hearts were far from Him. So they're just putting on a show. They're just acting it out. But it's not real.

Although it's called a sacred assembly, their hearts were not set apart for God. They were not dedicated to God. They were living in disobedience. Can you imagine God announcing to you today, I hate your church attendance. I hate it when you go to church. I hate it. Look in verse 23. Take away from me the noise of your songs. I hate it when you sing.

I hate it when you're playing and worshipping together. We can think, well, how could He say that? Well, if it's not real, if we don't mean the words that we're singing to the Lord, if it's just nice music, if it's just entertaining, if it's just a way to spend Wednesday evening, it's not real in our hearts. We're not really seeking Him. We're not living in obedience to Him. We're not wanting to glorify Him.

If it's not real, God says, "I hate it, I despise it." You're just being religious, you're going through rituals, you're doing the outward motions, but you're still in a place where you will receive judgment because you live in rebellion. We like to try to calm down our conscience by being religious and by going to church and by reading the Bible and by playing worship music or singing. We like these things. They help ease our conscience.

And so we practice them. We go through them. You can also see this not only in our church or the Protestant type of church and the Catholic church and all types of religions. We're no different, guys. We need to recognize. It's not about the outward. The outward is important, but it needs to match what's going on in the heart. And so attending church, being part of the sacred assemblies, yeah, that's important.

And you need to come. You need to be a part of what God's doing. But your heart needs to match. Otherwise, God says, I hate it. I despise it. Because their hearts were far from Him. So He says, take away from me the noise of your songs. God is rejecting it. Instead, what He says in verse 24, but let justice run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream. What does He say? Okay, instead of all these outward shows of worship and...

Faithfulness. Instead of like putting on this show, do it for real, God says. Do justice. Practice what's right. Live in obedience. Let righteousness come like a mighty stream. Not, you know, a good deed here or there, but let your life...

produce a mighty stream of righteousness, of the things that are right, the things that are good, the things that are of God. In other words, God is saying, repent. I don't want your outward show. I don't want you to pretend like you're right with me. I don't want you to worship or to practice these rituals so that you can make yourself feel better because you're living in sin. He says, I want you to stop living in sin, turn and do what's right.

He goes on to ask in verse 25, did you offer me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness? And the answer is, yeah, they did. But he goes on to say in verse 26, but you also worship these other false gods that you brought with you from Egypt. These other gods that you made for yourself. And so he's saying, look, you've continued to worship these false gods.

And you've not given yourself to Me completely and that's what God requires. Nothing else will satisfy. Everything else is rebellion against God. It's full devotion or nothing at all. And so He says, therefore, I will send you into captivity. Because their hearts are not completely given to Him. Because they're not devoted to Him. Oh, on the outward it looks like they are. They're going through all these rituals and feast days and celebration and singing songs of worship. But they're living in disobedience.

Their lives are not full of righteousness and justice. And so he says, therefore, you're going into captivity. You're going to experience judgment. As the nation of Assyria comes and conquers you, 10% will be left. And those who survive will be carried away into captivity. Going on into chapter 6, verse 1, it says...

Woe to you who are at ease in Zion and trust in Mount Samaria, notable persons in the chief nation to whom the house of Israel comes. Go over to Calna and see, and from there go to Hamath the great, then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are you better than these kingdoms, or is their territory greater than your territory?

Verse 1.

who drink wine from bowls and anoint yourselves with the best ointments, but are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. Therefore, they shall now go captive as the first of the captives, and those who recline at banquets shall be removed. Here he's pronouncing a will upon those who put off the day of doom. So on the one hand, they're saying, yes, come, day of the Lord, we want the day of the Lord, we want the Lord to visit. Because there's...

thinking it's going to be a day of blessing and God's just going to be wonderful, it's going to be awesome, because they're not considering that their rebellion against God makes everything else pointless and worthless. As they're saying, yes, come day of the Lord, they're also saying, ah, the day of doom, that's far off. That's not going to happen for a long time.

In verse 1, he calls out Zion. Zion, of course, is Jerusalem. And so he shifts his focus for a moment to the people of Jerusalem because the people of Jerusalem are trusting in the northern kingdom. They're thinking, hey, they'll protect us. They'll keep us safe. We don't have to worry. And so he says, woe to those who are at ease in Zion. Woe to those who are trusting in Israel to keep them safe.

He calls them to go and look at some other cities. Go look at Calna. Go look at Hamath. Go look at Gath. Different cities in the area of these neighboring nations that at one time were strong and great, but now they've been destroyed. God says, look, are you greater than they were? Are you somehow stronger than they or bigger than they? Why do you think that you will escape judgment even though they did not is the point. They experienced judgment.

For their rebellion against God. For their sin and disobedience. Why do you think that you will not? We need to take sin seriously. And not continue in it. We can never think, well hey, I go to church. I read the Bible. I sing the words during worship. I look around and some people aren't singing the words. But I sing the words. And so it's okay that I have this

continual practice of sin in my life. It's okay. I don't need to worry. God understands. He knows what I'm like. I don't need to worry about that. Because look, I do all these good things. I'm very religious. We need to be careful. God calls us to repentance. We're no better than anybody else. The wages of sin is death. And as He called them to go look at those cities, we could go and look and

See other people whose lives have been devastated by sin. Do you know anybody whose life has been devastated by sin? You and I are no better than them. We're no stronger than them. As the saying goes, except the grace of God, there go I. I'm in the same position except for the grace of God. This is why it's so important for us to continually, daily, regularly, draw near to the Lord and seek Him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. Because we're all capable.

Of turning from God. We're all capable of deceiving ourselves and continuing in sin while we practice outwardly the things of our religion. We're all capable. Harvey DeVille one time said, and I kind of hold on to it, I like his quotes because they're so to the point. That aged wisdom. He says, just one day of backsliding can ruin your whole life. Consider that. You know, I know people

who've backslid for one day and ruined their whole life. It's really true. Just one day of not pursuing God can destroy your life. It's that serious. How much worse for us to continue and continue and continue in a pattern, a lifestyle of rebellion and sin. But we're religious and we put on the show. He says, woe to you who put off the day of doom.

Those who, they continue on and they think, ah, it's not going to happen. I'm not going to experience the judgment of God. That's going to happen a long time from now. It's not time to repent. It's not time to deal with that. It's not urgent. It's not really, you know, something we have to take care of right now. We can deal with it later on. You know, I'm going to go sow my oats and live the party life and have fun and then later on after that, then I'll repent and get right with God. Woe to you who put far off the day of doom.

He describes all this luxurious living. You know, you're hanging out on these nice couches. You're having the, you know, the nice flock. You're singing idly to sound. You know, just singing nonsense. You're inventing musical instruments. The idea is like, you have all this time on your hands, but you're not getting right with God. You're not seeking the Lord. You're just goofing off and having a good time and not taking your sin seriously. Because you think, ah, the day of judgment, it's a long time for now.

I'm not going to experience judgment for these things. You know, it's not that big of a deal. He says, woe to you. Woe to those who put off the day of judgment. They're living in this great luxury. But verse 6, he says, are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. Joseph is a reference to the nation of Israel. You think, ah, well, it's fine. This is the state of the nation. This is the condition of the nation. But you're not grieved for it. Just content. Hey, at least I have a nice couch.

Yeah, other people aren't doing so well. The poor are being persecuted. Yeah, but at least I got a nice couch. I got time to invent musical instruments and goof off and play around. He says, woe to you because you're not taking your sin seriously. It's time for repentance. It's not time to goof off and to just enjoy and not take anything seriously. Not that every moment you have to be serious and somber and never have any fun. That's not what God is saying. But...

But when you're living in rebellion against God, you're living in sin. He's called you to repent and soon you're just like, eh, at some point later on down the line, I think I'll repent. He says, woe to you. Now's not the time to mess around. Now's not the time to goof off. It's time to repent. Verse 8. The Lord God has sworn by himself. The Lord God of hosts says, I abhor the pride of Jacob and hate his palaces. Therefore, I will deliver up the city and all that is in it.

Listen, this is something you can be assured of. God has sworn by Himself. He says, I abhor pride. I abhor pride. When the Lord swears by Himself, it's because He can't swear by anything greater. This is the sure thing that you can know. God hates pride. And living in disobedience to God is a result of pride. Putting far off the day of doom is a result of pride. Thinking that you won't experience...

Judgment or consequences for sinning against God, that's the result of pride.

God says, I hate pride. Therefore, I will deliver up the city. Verse 9, Then it shall come to pass that if ten men remain in one house, they shall die. And when a relative of the dead with one who will burn the bodies, picks up the bodies to take them out of the house, he will say to one inside the house, Are there any more with you? Then someone will say, None. And he will say, Hold your tongue, for we dare not mention the name of the Lord. For behold, the Lord gives a command. He will break the great house into bits and the little house into pieces. And he will say,

Here God says, this is what's going to happen.

If ten men are left, they're going to be killed. They're going to be put to death. As we saw earlier, ten percent are going to survive the judgment that God is bringing. And if there's one who survives and someone comes by and says, Hey, is there anybody else with you? They'd be like, Shh, don't mention the name of the Lord. Why? Because they just experienced the judgment of God. They don't want to call attention to themselves. They don't want God to bring judgment upon them because they survived.

God says He's going to break the great house into bits and the small house into pieces. Bits and pieces will be what's left of the houses of Israel. They're going to be broken, shattered completely because they put off the day of doom, because they did not heed God's call, because they did not turn and get right with Him.

What are they thinking? They're thinking, hey, we've taken Carname for ourselves by our own strength. They're thinking, we're strong. We can handle it. We can handle whatever comes against us. They're thinking, we can handle attack. Let the nation rise up. We'll take care of ourselves. We can handle ourselves.

We took our name. We endured this great difficulty. We overcame that nation, that city, that place by our own strength. We're strong. We're proud. God says, you're trusting in yourselves and you're going to be broken into bits and pieces. He says, I'm going to raise up a nation against you and they will afflict you from Hamath to the valley of Araba. That's from the far north to the far south.

Just completely. You're going to be afflicted, overwhelmed, overcome. You think you're strong. You think you can handle it. You think that you're not going to experience judgment. But I'm going to bring judgment upon you. Listen, this is the reality. And this is why we must take sin seriously. You cannot allow it to continue in your life. You cannot dabble with it or play around in it. You cannot just kind of think, ah, it's not that big of a deal. You must repent.

You need to turn and get right with God. You could think, well, hey, I'm strong. I've got money in the bank. You know, I can handle problems that come. I can handle situations that happen. You know, whatever comes, I can handle it. I've gone through worse. But when judgment comes for sin, you'll be overwhelmed. It's not an idol. It's not a trifle matter. It's a serious thing. And so as we've seen, as we continue to go through the prophets, it's a call to repentance for you and I. It's a call to turn and get right with God.

Are you right with Him? Is there ongoing sin in your life? Is He speaking to your heart right now about something that's happening and you're like, oh no, don't bring that up. I don't want to deal with that. Yeah, you might be religious and you're here at church on a Wednesday night. Good for you. Great job. But make sure your heart matches it. Make sure your life matches it. Coming to church doesn't make up for living in sin, for practicing disobedience. You've got to get your heart right with God.

You've got to seek Him to find life. You've got to hate evil and cling to what is good, to what is right. As we head into chapter 7, verse 1 says, Thus the Lord God showed me. Behold, He formed locust swarms at the beginning of the late crop. Indeed, it was the late crop after the king's mowings.

And so it was when they had finished eating the grass of the land that I said, "'O Lord God, forgive, I pray. Oh, that Jacob may stand, for he is small.' So the Lord relented concerning this. "'It shall not be,' said the Lord." Verse 4. "'Lest the Lord God showed me. Behold, the Lord God called for conflict by fire, and it consumed the great deep and devoured the territory. Then I said, "'O Lord God, cease, I pray. Oh, that Jacob may stand, for he is small.'

So the Lord relented concerning this. This also shall not be, said the Lord God. Here, Amos receives two visions from the Lord. Visions of some destruction that would take place upon the nation. He sees this vision, first of all, of the locusts and how they would go and devour the food after the king had already taken his take. And so the taxes were paid. The people were supposed to survive off what's left, but then the locusts came and devoured it.

in this vision that God showed him. And then the other one was the vision of fire and this fire came and devoured the land. And these visions caused Amos to cry out, to seek God and to say, Lord, please don't bring this judgment. Don't allow this to take place. Please relent. And what's amazing here, it says in verse 3 and verse 6, so the Lord relented. So it tells us here, because Amos prayed, that vision of judgment was not fulfilled.

It did not take place because Amos prayed. In Ezekiel chapter 22 verse 30, God says that He is seeking one who will stand in the gap for the nation so that He would not bring the judgment that He declared He would bring upon it. Now this doesn't mean that the nation is escaping God's judgment. But this judgment of locusts, this judgment of fire, the Lord relented because Amos prayed.

What a great encouragement for us to lift up our nation. As we see our nation progressing in the same pattern of the nation of Israel as Amos was prophesying to them. And we're on the same path of destruction and judgment to cry out to the Lord on behalf of our nation. To stand in the gap. And so judgment was not going to come by locusts, nor was it by fire. But now he gives them another vision of a plumb line in verse 7.

Thus he showed me, behold, the Lord stood on a wall made with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. And the Lord said to me, Amos, what do you see? And I said, a plumb line. Then the Lord said, behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel. I will not pass by them anymore. The high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste. I will rise with the sword against the house of Jeroboam.

So now he has a vision of the Lord standing on a wall with a plumb line. Now what's a plumb line? A plumb line is basically a string or a rope, something like that, with a weight tied to the end. And it would be used to measure the straightness of a wall, to make sure that a wall wasn't slanted or crooked, falling over. It was kind of like what we use levels for today, but they still have plumb lines and they're still useful, they're still used.

But it's to make sure that the wall is straight, standing upright, that it's not crooked. And so he has this vision of the Lord standing on a wall. It's perfectly straight, perfectly upright, because he built it with a plumb line. It was made with a plumb line. And so Amos, what do you see? Well, I see that plumb line. And here's what God's saying. I've set my standard. And my standard is uprightness. It's straightness, standing uprightly.

This is the standard. This wall is the standard. And it's by this standard that the people will be judged. He says, I'm setting a plumb line in the midst of my people. And I'm not going to pass by them anymore because they're not upright. Their ways are not right. They've turned against me. And so he says in verse 9 that he will rise with the sword against the house of Jeroboam. Jeroboam was the king of the nation at that time.

So he says, I'm bringing a sword against his house because their ways are not right. They don't measure up to the standard. God's going to measure Israel by his standard and not theirs. Now one of the things to consider as you look at the standard, you can't say, well look, all the other walls are crooked, so it's okay if I'm crooked. That doesn't work.

Because the other walls are not the standard. What's the standard? The wall that has been built with the plumb line. The standard is perfection. The standard is Jesus for you and I. That's the standard. To live and to walk uprightly. And we can only meet that standard by faith in Jesus, by walking with Jesus, by seeking Him, pursuing Him. We can't meet that standard in our own strength.

By our own means. By being religious. By coming to church. By worshipping. We cannot meet that standard. We must come to Him on His terms. That is, turn from sin and receive Him by faith. We can't try to do it on our own. Our standards don't work. And the fact that everybody around you is crooked as well, that doesn't matter. You'll be judged by the Lord's righteous standard.

Not by locusts are they going to receive their judgment. Not by fire. But they're going to receive judgment by the sword, God says. Because their ways are crooked, perverse. They've turned against God. Verse 10.

So Amos is preaching this message that God has given to him. And Amaziah, who's a priest...

There at Bethel. Now, being a priest at Bethel automatically meant that he was in rebellion against God because he was not a priest in Jerusalem at the temple. He was a priest of this place of idolatry, this false worship. But he's a priest there in Bethel where Amos is preaching. He hears the message that he preaches and he warns the king. He says, hey Jeroboam, this guy is saying that the sword is going to come against us.

We're going to be led away captive. Verse 12, Then Amaziah said to Amos, Go, you seer, flee to the land of Judah. There eat bread and there prophesy, but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary and it is the royal residence. Verse 12,

Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, nor was I the son of a prophet, but I was a sheep breeder and a tenderer 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,

Wow.

It was pretty hardcore. Amaziah sends the king a warning and says, hey, this is what Amos is prophesying. Then he speaks to Amos and he says, hey, get out of here. Go your way. Go back to Judah where you came from. Don't be telling us these things anymore. Don't prophesy. Never again prophesy in this area. He says, this is the king's sanctuary. It's the royal residence. You need to stop speaking those words. And Amos now responds to him. He says, look,

I wasn't a prophet. I'm not here on my own. I'm not here because I have this reputation. I'm not here because, you know, I went to the school of prophets and so I got to be a prophet somewhere so I just came here. He says, no, God called me. I was out there in the fields. I was watching the sheep. I didn't want to do this. But God called me to come and to deliver this message. I was just an ordinary guy. I had no desire to be a prophet. But God called me to be a prophet.

As we saw last week, encouraging news because God uses ordinary people like you and I to deliver messages even to nations, to kingdoms, to empires. And so He says to Amaziah, you've told me to be quiet. You've told me not to preach anymore. So here's what the Lord says to you. Some pretty serious things. Your wife is going to be a harlot in the city. You're going to die. Your land is all going to be divided. Your children shall fall by the sword.

And all of Israel is going to be led away captive. A very serious thing to forbid God's representative to speak what God has said. Because when a person is delivering forth God's message, to tell him to be quiet is to tell the Lord to be quiet. It's a continuation of their rebellion. Say, hey, don't speak judgment against me, against our nation. Don't speak judgment against us. Don't speak what God has said. Only tell us words we want to hear.

Paul tells us in the last days people will heap up for themselves teachers who tell them what they want to hear. And that's a serious thing in our nation and our society these days. People only want to hear things that are nice and good and what they want to hear. But it's also good news for us. Because you and I, called to bring the gospel to the world around us, we can see here our job,

Our responsibility is to deliver the message. If the people reject it, the people reject it, and that's on them. But our job, our responsibility is to deliver the message. If it's not received, that's not our fault. That's not up to us. Like Amos, even if it's rejected, God's got our back because we're delivering the message He gave us to share.

As we wrap up this evening, looking at Amos 5 through 7, the worship team is going to come back up and lead us in a couple songs. And as Katie comes up, as she leads us in worship, I want to encourage you. Preach the gospel like Amos. Share the good news. It's not popular, but it's necessary. It's the Word of God. And it doesn't matter if people don't like it, if they reject it, because it's God's message. Just like God told Samuel, they're not rejecting you, they're rejecting me.

And so we need to be bold and preach the gospel, especially in our nation. But also I want to challenge you. Do you hate evil? Are you seeking God that you might live? Or are you just going through the motions? You're practicing religion, you're practicing rituals, you're attending church, perhaps you're reading the Bible and singing songs. But does your life match with one who is committed to the Lord? Is your life devoted to Him?

Let's take this time to seek the Lord. And if there's sin, if there's some area that you've been continuing on in disobedience, take this time right now. Don't put off the day of doom. You don't know. You might experience God's judgment this evening. You might experience death this evening. Don't put it off. Don't think later on I'll get right with God. Let's take this time right now to turn ourselves over to Him. To allow Him to have full reign within us.

as we worship the Lord together.