Well, it's time to turn to the word of God. And so let's open our bibles to Amos chapter 7 as we continue our journey through the word.

Good evening. William Booth was the founder of the Salvation Army. And he got his young man that he was mentoring together one day and told them, it is the nature of a fire to go out. And then he said, you must tend it, and feed it, and carry out the ashes.

An interesting statement, he was on to something. Just as in the physical world there is that law called entropy, that in a closed system things tend not toward organization but disorganization and decay, the loss of energy, so too, I believe, in the spiritual life that things tend toward decay, disorganization. It's the nature of a fire to go out.

So I remember back in 1973, when I came to Christ by watching Billy Graham on television. I prayed that prayer, and then they sent me some literature. And they instructed me read the Bible, pray, stay in fellowship. In other words, the fire that God lit in your heart, tend it, carry out the ashes, feed it so that you might grow. Well, there is that tendency, that tendency to let the fire go out.

One of the great hymns of the church was, and still is, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. It was written by a man named Robert Robertson. And one of the stanzas of the hymn is one we can all relate to. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.

That's the story of the nation of Israel. They were prone to wander, and wander they did. Started out in such a wonderful way as God delivered them from Egypt, brought them out into the wilderness, they became a nation. But as they settled in the land, as they got complacent, the nation split into two nations, the North and the South.

And the prophet Amos comes because the fire has gone out in the northern kingdom. The fire has waned. The relationship with God, that drive, that spiritual drive has gone. And so that tendency that Amos speaks against, here.

Now, in chapters 1 and 2, the roaring of judgment. The Lord roars from Zion, He pronounces doom upon the Northern kingdom. He says in so many words, judgment is coming. The Assyrians, whom you fear, will come and destroy the Northern kingdom. That's chapters 1 and 2.

Chapters 3 through 6, he gives reasons for judgment. Reason number one is because you have a favored status. You are God's chosen people, and to whom much has been given much shall be required. Because I've blessed you so abundantly and given you so much, you've squandered it, so I will hold you in higher account, not lower.

Second reason is because it was told over and over again, if you don't turn, if you keep going down that track I will judge you. So the prophets warned them over and over again. Third reason is because of the way they treated the poor. They were not just. They were not righteous. And they ill treated one another.

Now, in the final chapters 7, 8, and 9 we have the representations of judgment. Five visions are given. Pictures so that we can understand the visual of them.

Somebody once said, I'd rather see a sermon than hear a sermon any day. A picture is worth a thousand words. That's why when we travel, we usually take with us cameras rather than tape recorders or tablets. Few of us, if any, will sit down and write down what we're experiencing. We'll take a picture of it because it says so much more.

So the prophet Amos will give five visions, three in chapter 7 alone, that will depict the coming judgment. Chapter 7 verse 1, the first vision, the vision of the locust plague. 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.

This will remind us, who have been here on Sunday nights, of the prophecy of Joel, because Joel's prophecy was occassioned on a swarm of locusts that swept through that land. 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. And so the Lord relented concerning this, it shall not be, says the Lord. Amos sees God forming a plague of locusts, ready to be released upon the people of Israel.

And we read after the King's mowings. There were generally two crops per year, two harvests. The first harvest, or the first mowing, was the King's mowing. He would take and harvest the crops, and he would take it for himself. It was part of the taxation on the land.

But not a problem, because the people of the land would live generally off the second mowing. It would come up again and they would have ample time to take the food before the winter time. So if they missed out on the first showing no problem. But if something like a plague of locusts were to destroy the crop that came up again, they would have no food at all. They would be destitute, desolate. And that's what this prophet is seeing happen.

Now, some people think that this is sort of a predictive metaphor rather than a literal swarm of locusts. That this was the invasion of an Assyrian King by the name of Pul, P-U-L, and that he was making his advances on the Northern kingdom. But this prophet, Amos, prayed that God would stop it and, in answer to that prayer, The Lord did. That's one thought.

The other thought is it is what it is. It is what the Lord said a swarm of locusts about to come on the land that was stopped by the prophet's prayer. He prayed, oh Lord, how are they going to survive? And it says the Lord relented.

Now, it's not that God said, oh you talked me out of it. I've changed my mind. God doesn't need to change his mind. He's not a man, the Bible says, that he should lie or change. He is immutable. But this is given to us in a way we can understand.

It's similar to Abraham pleading for Sodom and Gomorrah. In Genesis chapter 18 the Lord says, I've heard reports about Sodom. I'm going now to see if those reports are true. And if so, I'm going to wipe it out.

And Abraham said, now Lord, you wouldn't destroy the righteous with the wicked would you? What if we could find 50 righteous in the city, would you spare it? Done, the Lord said. OK well how about 40? He knew he was shooting a little bit high. Yeah, you give me 40 righteous, I'll spare the city. Oh how about 30, 20, 10? Got him all the way down, you find 10 righteous and I will spare the city.

Now, it wasn't that the Lord was changing his mind. It's that we have a prophet pleading, according to the will of God. It was God's intention all along to avert that judgment. It was His desire all along. We have a prophet now cooperating with the will of God.

The second vision, in verse 4, is of a devouring fire. Thus the Lord God showed me, behold the Lord God called for conflict by fire. And it consumed the great deep and devoured that territory. Then I said, O Lord God, cease, I pray. O that Jacob may stand for he is small. So, the Lord relented concerning this. This also shall not be, says the Lord God.

Now, this fire that is seen here may be a reference to a famine, a severe famine. For notice it consumed the great deep. What does that mean? Well, that's a reference to the ocean.

And the thought is that the hydrological cycle had been messed with, that is moisture that would rise up into the sky over the ocean, winds that would blow those moisture laden clouds inland. Rain that would normally then dump from those clouds and feed the springs had stopped. It was a drought. It consumed the great deep. That cycle had been stopped.

Now, this some people see as not literal but a metaphor. It could be a prediction of another invasion by the Assyrians, this time by a guy named Tiglath-Pileser, who did plan on invading and did make motions toward that Northern kingdom. But again, it was stopped by the prayer of Amos or it was something literal. Some people take it different ways. I find no reason to take it other than what it says. And so we go on.

But again, we notice something very important that's behind the scene here, behind the backdrop. God is not some ogre in the sky waiting to pounce on people. That's how a lot of people take God, as if He just can't wait to judge. He's waiting for us to do something wrong, make one small little move, and say, great! Now I gotcha!

That's not the Lord at all. The Lord is not bent on destroying. He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. So rather than waiting and wanting to pounce on us, the Lord is waiting and ready to pardon us, as He does twice here.

Verse 7, third vision. 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? I said a plumb line.

The Lord said, behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel, and I will not pass them by any more. The high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste. I will rise with a sword against the house of Jeroboam. A plumb line is a simple device, an age old device, for building. Basically, its a weight hung on a string, and when you put that string down it will give you a true vertical, because gravity forces it downward toward the core of the Earth. So when you hang the string with the plumb line you get a true vertical measurement.

Not too long ago, I was putting a shower door in a bathroom at the house, and there was only one problem. In putting in this door we discovered that we can't cut the door to true vertical, because the wall that it will be set on is out of plumb. Now if we want to rip out the whole wall and rebuild the whole bathroom we could, or we have to cut the door according to the wall, that is out of plumb. It'll be less work. It'll be far less money, so we opted to do that.

The Lord, here, is seen as the builder of the house of Israel. And He sets His plumb line, because they have claimed that they are upright, that they are righteous, that they're walking a straight line. So the Lord says, well, let me see, now. Let me bring my measurement in and see if you measure up to true vertical, to what is right and upright.

And the vision reveals that the house of Israel is out of plumb. They started out OK, but the foundation that they were built upon has shifted. It was once built upon just an absolute surrender and love relationship with the Lord. But that foundation they were built upon has moved, and so now the walls are out of plumb.

There are a number of ways for us to build our lives. We can build our lives according to lines of people around us. And if we do that, it's a dumb and unstable way to build. If we start building our lives based upon people around us, here's the problem.

We usually find people worse than we are, whose walls are way out of plumb. We look at them and go, I'm much better than they are. I'm pretty straight in comparison to them. It's a foolish way to build.

And so Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 10, they measure themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves. They are not wise. But then God steps in and says, OK, here's true vertical. Here's the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, how do you measure up to that? And we go, boy, my life isn't all that straight, is it? This is God's measurement, here.

Jesus said that He would send the Holy Spirit. And when the spirit is come, said Jesus, he will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin because they believe not on me. Of righteousness because I go to the Father and you see me no more. When Jesus ascended up to the Father, after offering himself as a sacrifice, and He was received into heaven, it was as if the Father was saying this, and this alone, is the righteousness that I will accept and none other.

Now, none of us can measure up to perfection, certainly the perfection of the Lord Jesus Christ. All have fallen short of the glory of God. And this is where the good news comes in. The same Jesus Christ that reveals our unrighteousness by his perfect plumb line standard is the same Jesus Christ who will wash away all of our sins, so that His righteousness is imputed to us. So that when God looks at you in Christ, He sees straight walls. Perfect plumb, perfect righteousness, because we're found in Christ.

Something else to note before we move on, in the first two visions, Amos intercedes for the people and God responds. Notice here there is no prayer. There is no intercession. Amos knows God's patience is past. He has measured Israel. They can't stand the test. They don't measure up. They can't avert judgment.

And so the final destruction came by Shalmaneser, as the Assyrians did come down in 722 BC. Now we have sort of a historical interlude in the next few verses. Look at it as a parenthesis, a parenthetical statement. He's given three visions and then there's this parenthesis. It's a showdown between the true prophet Amos and a false prophet by the name of Amaziah.

Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to Jeroboam, the King of Israel, saying, Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all of his words. This false prophet, this false priest, this worshipper of the calves of Bethel is bringing an accusation of conspiracy against Amos. For thus Amos has said, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive from their own land.

If you look at what Amaziah says, it's pretty obvious that he's misquoting what the prophet Amos has declared. This is a personal attack. And it is often the case, when somebody can't win an argument that they take it down to the ad hominem, personal approach. Instead of dealing with the issue, they try to by conspiracy, or by gossip, or by a direct approach drag it down to the personal level.

Then Amaziah said to Amos, go you seer, flee to the land of Judah. Remember that's where he's from. Toccoa is down South in Judah. What are you doing up here, boy? You're misplaced. You don't belong among us.

There eat bread and there prophesy. But never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the King's sanctuary. It is the royal residence. Notice that Amaziah doesn't refer to the temple at Bethel as God's sanctuary. He couldn't. It wasn't.

The true temple was down South, Mt. Zion, Jerusalem where God put His name. This was a false temple. It belongs to the King. It's of human origin. It's mad-made religion. And so he refers to it not as God's sanctuary but as the King's sanctuary.

Amaziah, as I mentioned, is twisting the words of Amos. Go back to verse 9 and notice what Amos actually said. He's saying what God said He would do. I will rise with the sword against the house of Jeroboam. That's what he said. But he is falsely accused in verse 11, for Amos has said Jeroboam shall die by the sword.

One of the hard parts about any public ministry is people like Amaziah misquoting you. That's why, in one sense, it's great that everything's on tape and you could refer to the tape. Now, because it is on tape and is on CD and is recorded, it raises the level of accountability. I've listened to my old tapes and I think I can't believe I said that. Boy, I want to take that back. I hope no one else listens to that.

But the prophet Amos didn't have a tape, and Amaziah is misquoting him. And again, this is the lot of anybody who is a bold, biblical, straightforward preacher and representative of the Lord. People in the world or people of false religions will not accept easily the words of a prophet like Amos. They didn't do it with Jeremiah. They put him in the mire. He sunk in the dungeon. He was told to be quiet.

Stephen, when he preached, people were cut to the heart and they gnashed at him with their teeth. Paul stood and preached before King Agrippa and boldly proclaimed the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And Festus said, Paul, your much learning has made thee mad. He was accused.

When Jesus was at Gedera and released the demon possessed man, who was infiltrated with all sorts of demons, and cast them into the swine, the Bible says a very interesting and very sad statement, that all the people of that region came in harmony and begged Jesus to leave their town, to leave their borders. So go home seer. We don't want to hear you anymore.

By the way, that same persecution exists still today, much less in this country, much more and persecuted countries. But in countries like Bulgaria, a pastor was, not long ago, thrown into prison and sentenced for a long period of time. Here was his crime. He preached in his own church. And he preached the truth in his own church, from his own pulpit. And the Bulgarian government isolated him and sentenced him.

Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet nor was I the son of a prophet. I didn't go to prophet school. I didn't go to the schools of the prophets that were around in the days of Elisha. He was a nonprofit organization, you might say.

[CONGREGATION LAUGHTER]

But I was a sheep breeder and a tender of Sycamore fruit. I'm just a country bumpkin. Then the Lord took me and I followed, as I followed the flock. And the Lord said to me, go prophesy to my people, Israel.

I love this and I love the fact that Amos was sure that he heard the word and the call of God for his life and ministry. He didn't sit around one day and go you know I'm sort of tired of this job. I want a cushy kind of life. I think I'll be a prophet. He knew better. He would have just as soon stayed out there in the wilderness watching sheep, breeding sheep, growing his Sycamore fruit tree business. But the Lord told him and commissioned him as he was watching the sheep.

And I find that to be true. I find that as you go about your normal activities, your normal career, your normal life that the Lord will set opportunities in front of you. Don't worry about it. The Lord is able to lead, and guide, and move things around behind the scenes and give you opportunities that will just fall into place.

As I followed the sheep, the Lord called me. The Lord said to me, go, prophesy to my people in Israel. I think also it is important to verify and to test one's gifts before going into ministry. It's great if there are people around you who can say, you know, I've watched your life and I've heard you or I've observed you. And, I think, after that time of observation what I can see is a definite calling on your life. Go for it. Try it.

And I think it's important, because typically, in the last few hundred years, the model for ministry in the church is this, go to school, graduate, then go to seminary and get graduate and post-graduate courses in Greek and Hebrew and theology, and then go out and try the ministry. So often you have people who will do that and they're very smart, they're brilliant, but some are not called of God to be in positions as pastor teachers. They're brilliant. They're smart. They'd be great in a classroom. So they have spent years and years of, perhaps, not wasted time but deferred time, when it would have been better to just start and test to see if you're called and if you have those innate God given gifts and talents. And then supplement it with education like a school of ministry.

That's Amos' story. Look, I wasn't looking for the job. I was just a sheep tender, and I was picking fruit. But it was unmistakable that God called me.

And that's what Paul could say. Galatians 1, Paul an apostle, not of man nor by men, but through the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, therefore, hear the word of the Lord. You say do not prophesy against Israel. Do not spout against the house of Isaac.

Therefore, thus says the Lord, your wife shall be a harlot in the city. Your sons and daughters shall fall by the sword. Your land shall be divided by survey line. And you shall die in a defiled land. And Israel shall surely be led away captive from his own land.

Boy, what a hard comeback! What a hard prediction he made. Not only am I sure of my calling, but I am here to tell you, you who tell me not to prophesy in the name of the Lord and give these predictions, here's another prediction. Your wife will become a harlot. Your family will be affected, and you, yourself, will die.

Now, those are hard things to say, but do you know, one of the most loving things you could ever do for a person is to tell them the truth. If you love someone who's not following Christ, tell them the truth. And here's the truth, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life, and He's willing to forgive you of all of your sins and enact that plan in your life. But if you reject Jesus Christ, you will face an eternal hell and punishment forever. You say, oh, but that's so harsh. It's one of the most loving things you could ever do, if you are concerned about a person's future.

So I don't see this as just a comeback. I don't see this as Amos saying, OK well, I have something to tell you then. But rather in love, he's shooting straight, being straight forward with him.

Now, in Amos chapter 8, we have the fourth vision, a vision of fruit, a basket of fruit that he sees, which takes the entire eighth chapter. Thus the Lord God showed me, behold, or look, or check it out, a basket of summer fruit. Mm, sounds great.

And He said, Amos what do you see? And I said a basket of summer fruit. And the Lord said to me, the end has come upon my people Israel. I will not pass them by anymore. Another version of that same verse says, the time is ripe for my people Israel. I will spare them no longer.

Nothing better than a ripe basket of fruit. God's candy. It's awesome. But when fruit is ripe, especially a whole basket of it, you better eat it quickly, because it will deteriorate very rapidly. Once it's ripend, it goes downhill.

Now every year at the end of the summer, beginning of the fall, there was a celebration in Israel the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths, Sukkot, where people erected little booths and lived in them. And they were thanking God for the years their forefathers spent out in the wilderness and God provided for them and was their shelter. And they would eat the produce of the land. And they would often bring in baskets of summer fruit, a token of God's blessing and a token of prosperity.

Here, the Lord says, you know, Israel is like ripe fruit. But what they are ripe for is judgment. Now, there's a play on words here. Look at the word in our text summer fruit, that's the Hebrew word qaits.

And then notice the word in verse 2, the end has come. That's the Hebrew word qets. Qaits sounds very similar to qets. Amos, what do you see? In Hebrew, he said, I see qaits.

The Lord says, I'll tell you what I see. I see qets. You see ripe fruit. I see the end. I see that the fruit has come to its end. There is no more mercy. It's the end of that nation. They will be destroyed.

God had a purpose for his people. God wanted his people, all along, to become a light to the Gentiles, not just to be a nation that trusted in Him. That was part of the deal, but beyond that, to be a light to other nations, the Gentiles. What had happened is they became like the other Gentiles, as dark as the world, rather than being a light to dispel the darkness. They had denigrated this beautiful position of walking with the Lord.

In Atlanta, Georgia, downtown, there is an interesting restaurant with an interesting name. It's called the Church of God Grill. The Church of God Grill, and here was the history of this grill. It was at one time a church called the Church of God in downtown Atlanta.

To subsidize the church budget the church members decided, well, if we sell chicken dinners it will help to pay off our property, and help with outreach ministry. And they did that very successfully for a while. And the chicken dinners became very popular. In fact, they became more popular than the church services, themselves.

So as time went on, as time would have it, they decided, let's stop holding Bible services, and let's keep the grill going. So the church eventually was closed down, but they kept the name, and they kept the chicken. A foul decision, don't you think?

[CONGREGATION LAUGHTER]

The Church of God Grill. Now, here's a church, at one time they were dispensing the truth, giving out, feeding people the word and the truth of God. But now, instead of giving out food for eternal life, it's just all about the money. And it's all about the grill rather than the church. They lost their purpose. They lost their intention. They lost their edge, as did Israel.

Once intention to be a light, now abiding in darkness. And the songs of the temple shall be wailing in that day, says the Lord God. Many dead bodies everywhere, they shall be thrown out in silence. That is, the dead bodies will be so numerous they will just be cast out, indiscriminately out into the streets, not even following the Jewish forms of burial because it was so widespread. And there will be a silent hush that will fall over that city as they realize this is the judgment of God.

So a place of praising, a place of worship, will be turned into a place of wailing. Hear this, you who swallow up the needy and make the poor of the land fail, saying, when will the new moon be passed that we may sell grain and the Sabbath that we may trade wheat, making the Epha small and the Shekel large, falsifying the scales by deceit, that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, even sell the bad wheat. The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob, surely I will never forget any of their works.

The new moon and the Sabbath days were considered Holy days. They were days where people push aside normal work and they rest, they worship, and it's all about God, which means normal business transactions were not carried on. That was the law. You work six days and on the seventh day, and then these holy days, your rest.

Now this shows us once again, it's a highlight for us. It's a little picture into the reality of what's going on in Northern Israel. On one hand, they're worshipping idols. They have false altars and temples to other gods. But at the same time, they would dare to observe the Sabbath and feast days.

Sort of odd, when you go to Israel today, you could walk into the home of an atheist, who will say I don't believe in God, oh, it's almost Shabbat. We'd better all get inside. We want to keep the Sabbath or we want to keep the Passover, and they observe it culturally but not spiritually from the heart. And so here's Israel worshipping other gods, other idols and other shrines, but at the same time, they're even keeping, to some degree, the Sabbath and these Holy days.

Look at verse 5. They're saying, when will the new moon be passed that we may sell grain and the Sabbath that we may trade wheat? Here's a group of merchants, let's say keeping the Sabbath going through the worship of God, but all the time they're thinking I can't wait for the Sabbath to be over with. Their mind is on the prophet. Go back to work. Open the business. Get more money. The bottom line was the bottom line for them, and thus they were desecrating the whole purpose of the Sabbath.

Now, you may remember that Nehemiah, who became the governor of Jerusalem for a period of years and help them rebuild that city, after the walls were rebuilt and he went back into Persia and then he came back to Jerusalem, he found that some of the people in Jerusalem had deteriorated so quickly. Now, this is post captivity. This is 70 years after 586 BC. He notices that the people of Jerusalem are once again selling on the Sabbath. They're cutting it really close.

And in Nehemiah 13, let me just read this little section. I saw the people in Judah treading wine presses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and loading donkeys with wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I warned them about the day on which they were selling provisions. And then he says, what evil thing is this that you do by which you profane the Sabbath?

Now that's sort of like what has happened in the United States of America. Years ago, businesses were closed on Sundays. It was just the Lord's day, whether you were a highly religious person or not. It's Sunday. We'll have one day where the stores will be closed, and certainly you couldn't find a liquor store open. But today, Sunday may be one of the biggest days for profit. Why should we close on Sunday?

Oh about a year and a half ago, I was guest speaking in a town on the east coast called Ocean City, New Jersey. And I found the history of that city to be fascinating. They told me that it was basically a Christian resort. It was a town built upon Christians going out and having retreats to hear the voice of God.

To this day, every store in Ocean City on Sunday is closed. To this day, you can't buy liquor in that town. If you want to get drunk in Ocean City, you have to go to the next city, buy it, and bring it in. They've kept that and it's a very refreshing place to visit.

A friend of mine was speaking to a buddy of his, who is a realtor, and he was telling him you know you need to come back to church. You ought to keep the Lord's day and honor him at least once a week, on Sunday morning. And he said, oh yeah, I love the Lord, but you know, Sunday is a huge day for me. I'm too busy. It's my biggest selling day.

And my friend reminded him of the promise of Jesus. Well, you know, Jesus said, if you seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, all these other things will be added unto you. Oh, but Sunday's too big of a prophet day. I'm too busy.

Listen, if you're too busy for God, you're too busy. Everyone needs to make priorities. And priority number one, worship the Lord. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

These people in Israel couldn't wait for the Holy days, the feast days, to be over with the Sabbath, so that they could get back to the profit. And in some cases they were desecrating the Sabbath altogether. Shall the land, verse 8, not tremble for this and everyone mourn who dwells in it? All of it shall swell like the river, heave and subside like the river of Egypt. And it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord God, that I will make the sun go down at noon and I will darken the earth in broad daylight.

Some people think this refers to an earthquake that happened. Some feel it refers to an eclipse of the sun that happened 11 years after this prophecy. Your pastor this morning, I hear, did an excellent message showing how this fits so beautifully with what happened when Jesus died on the cross and there was darkness over the land. And did you know the Rabbis in the Talmud state that when a land is guilty of a supreme sin that God will judge them with severe darkness.

That was one of the plagues in Egypt. There was darkness over the land and Josephus says, it was a darkness that could be felt. It was palpable. And when Jesus died on the cross, certainly as part of that judgment, there was that darkness that covered over the entire land.

But then also, we could take that as sort of a template and move into the future, because the Bible predicts that in the tribulation period, that full and final judgment of God upon the earth, that darkness will again be part of those judgments. Jesus predicted it in Matthew 24. The sun will be darkened, and then the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the heaven.

In the Book of Revelation, when the fourth angel sounded the trumpet in Revelation 8, it says a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, a third of the stars so that a third of them were darkened. And a third of the day did not shine and likewise the night. So we see sort of overlapping predictions of coming judgments. And again if you weren't here this morning get the tape or the CD. After hearing about it, I plan to do so.

Verse 10, I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentations. I will bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head. I will make it like mourning for an only son. And it's end like a bitter day. These are all symbols of deep mourning, deep grieving. No prosperity, all adversity, and the people are all affected.

Behold the days are coming, says the Lord God, that I will send a famine on the land. Not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, from North to East, they shall run to and fro seeking the word of the Lord but shall not find it.

This reminds me of another text of scripture, that you are going to be familiar with in 1 Samuel chapter 3. It says that the word of the Lord was rare in those days, and there was no widespread revelation. Earlier in Israel's history.

Now, once again, the prediction of a famine, not a normal famine, but people so hungry and desirous to be fed the word of God because it's just not happening. Now, we know what happened historically. The Northern kingdom went into captivity 722. The Southern kingdom went into captivity at Babylon 586 BC. They returned.

Shortly thereafter, they elapsed into a period of time we call the 400 silent years, between the testaments, between the Old and the New Testament. Before God again speaks in the fullest possible manner, the Lord Jesus Christ, there's that 400 silent years. Heaven is silent. God sends no prophets. God isn't speaking. There's that famine. They want to hear the word of the Lord and that yearning grows deeper and deeper, but heaven is silent.

We live in a great age in this country where we can turn on Christian radio in our community, and we can hear Bible teaching throughout the day. And in just about every community in the United States, you can do the same. Though the Bible teaching may vary, it's so often teaching through the word of God. It's wonderful to have that.

And yet, with all of that great Bible teaching, with all of the books, and seminars, and availability to get the word of God, there seems to be a general apathy among so many Christians for the word of God itself. It's like they don't have the appetite. They're hungry, they just don't know what for. And if you suggest Bible study, well, that doesn't sound all that exciting. Hey, it's the most exciting as God transforms your life through it. But there just seems to be an apathy.

And I think, in many churches from many pulpits this could be said, that there is a famine for the hearing of the words of God. People are starving for truth. To make sense out of their life, for God to speak into their lives.

And so I think it's a mistake to say, well, you know, our approach to church isn't to be so upfront about Jesus or preach the gospel of the good news of Jesus saving from sin because that might offend some. It's better just to soft sell it, soft pedal it, make it digestible because after all we want them to come back. So we don't want to tell people that they're in sin and they need to turn to Christ. And we don't want to use the "J" word too often in our songs, Jesus. We'll just sort of talk generically about the great spirit, the great first cause. And that's a shame.

A poll was taken, some time back, asking unchurched people, why don't you go to church. 49% said, because when I go to church they don't talk about the real issues of life. They're not helping me find meaning in life. 56% said they don't go to church, because the churches they go to are more concerned with organizational issues rather than spiritual issues.

Now folks, it's a sad day when the world is telling the church to preach the gospel. They have figured it out, and they have stopped coming in many ways because of that. There is a hunger. There's a famine for the word of God in so many places. And the trend, unfortunately, isn't to feed, as we said feed the sheep, but to entertain the goats. Give them junk food. There's no growth. Hey, we have Bibles. We carry bibles. As the ancients used to say, let's make full use of those Bibles and read them through.

In that day, the fair virgins and strong young men shall faint from thirst. Those who swear by the sin of Sumeria who say, as your God lives, oh Dan, and as the way of Beersheba lives, they shall fall and never rise again. Here they are making an oath or swearing by an inanimate object, which was not uncommon in ancient days.

In fact, still today, Muslims will take an oath swearing by the pilgrimage to Mecca, what they call the Hajj. So they're making these oaths to their false places of worship, that they had turned them into. They said that they kept the Sabbath. They said that they're keeping certain feasts. They just couldn't wait for them to get over with, so that they can make more profit.

But at the same time they're worshipping false gods, going up to Bethel and Dan and getting involved in pagan worship. What were they doing? Basically, they're covering their bases.

They're covering their bases. Oh I worship God, but look at this little statue I have of Baal. Now, I hear if I pray to Baal, I'll get rain on my crops and my animals will be fruitful. So yes, I believe in God but, you know, I want to cover my bases.

I'll never forget the woman I x-rayed years ago at Westminster community hospital, when that hospital was in existence. And I was called in, in the evening, and she had abdominal pain and we took her into the department. And on her abdomen was a stack of books. So I'm thinking, well that could be part of the problem, you're carrying books around on your belly, that will weigh it down.

And I asked her, I said, why are you carrying these books? And they were all books of different religions, alternative religions, different belief systems, not one Bible. And basically her answer is I'm covering all my bases. I want to make sure that I believe in something, and I don't want to offend anyone.

So as they were swearing by the way up to Sumerian and the way to Dan and Bethel, their worship boiled down to one thing. It's all about me. It's all about us. Naming the name of God, but they made it all about them.

Harry Ironside, who was for a long time in Southern California, years ago a pastor in the Los Angeles area and traveled around America, said that he visited a church. It had a great sign on the front of it. It was a banner that was put up, it said Jesus only. Jesus only. He thought what a beautiful thing to say. What a beautiful admission of your purpose.

He said, I was in that town about a week and I heard, that really, that church was a cantankerous, divisive group of people. He said, toward the end of the week, I drove by again and a wind storm had swept through. And the first three letters had fallen off of that sign. And he said, actually, it was more truthful the second time I saw it. For it read us only. It was all about them and them only.

And for Israel it was the same. It was covering their bases in hopes that they might get the prosperity that they were seeking, anything that would bring them relief. Now, Amos chapter 9 is the final vision, where God is standing by the altar and He's referring to, not the altar or the temple in Jerusalem, but again in Bethel the false temple and false altar.

I saw the Lord standing by the altar. And He said, strike the door posts that the thresholds may shake and break them on the heads of them all. I will slay the last of them with the sword. He who flees from them shall not get away, and he escapes from them shall not be delivered.

Why was God standing by the altar. The altar was the place of sacrifice. Now, though it was a pagan altar, it was modeled after what was going on down in Jerusalem. There was an altar for a sacrifice, an animal sacrifice was to be made, for their iniquities, for their sins. What God is saying, in effect, is you will become the sacrifice, your life. All of the sins that you are hoping will be atoned for will be put upon you and you'll pay for them.

The Bible over and over again has this principle of imputation, that's the word it uses. That sins are imputed to Christ, and His righteousness is imputed to us. The truth is either you will bear your own sins or Jesus Christ will bear them for you. Just like in the old economy, the Old Testament. You will either bear your sins or you will confess them on the head of an animal, and that animal will be sacrificed and bear the sin for you, until the Messiah would come.

So, the good news, Jesus died for your sins. The bad news, if you don't confess Christ and turn to Him, then your sins aren't put upon Him and His righteousness isn't put upon you. But you will live and die bearing your own sins and become, as it were, the sacrifice itself.

Though they dig into hell, verse 2, from there my hands shall take them. Though they climb up to heaven, from there I will bring them down. It sounds somewhat like Psalm 139. If I go into heaven, you're there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and go to the uttermost parts of the sea, behold, even there your right hand shall hold me.

Verse 3, and though they hide themselves on top of Carmel, from there I will search and take them. Though they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea, from there I will command the serpent and it shall bite them. Though they go into captivity before their enemies, from there I will command the sword and it shall slay them. I will set my eyes on them for harm and not for good.

There's two things that are a comfort to the believer and an absolute terror to the unbeliever. Number one, the Omni-presence of God. It's wonderful as Christians to know that God is everywhere we go. He's already there in his fullness. He's there to protect us, to give us guidance, to answer our prayers.

And number two the immutability of God. He never changes. He's always the same, in judgment, in righteousness. Both of those truths are a terror for the unbeliever. And both of those truths are seen here. God is everywhere you can't escape Him.

And though you escape at the bottom of the sea, or you run to Mount Carmel, where there were at that time 1,000 caves that faced the sea and there were dense forests where people could hide. You can run, God says, but you can't hide. I'll find you wherever you are.

If you're a Christian you go, great! If you are an unbeliever you go, uh-oh. It all depends on where you stand with God. Jeremiah 23 said, can any one hide in secret places so the night cannot see him, declares the Lord? Do I not fill heaven and earth, declares the Lord?

Interesting, years ago, when the Russians put their first cosmonaut out into outer space, and he came back and spoke at a conference. And he said, in defiance of God, (IMITATING A RUSSIAN ACCENT) I was in outer space. I traveled the universe. I did not find God. God is not there.

And the crowd sort of liked it. A guy in the crowd, who was a Christian, said if he'd have stepped out of his space suit, he would have seen God real quick.

[CONGREGATION LAUGHTER]

And probably he already has.

The Lord God of Hosts, He who touches that Earth and it melts, all who dwell there mourn. All of it shall swell like the river and subside like the river of Egypt. He who builds his layers in the sky is founded his strata in the earth. Who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the face of the earth. The Lord is his name.

Are you not like the people of Ethiopia to me, o children of Israel, says the Lord? Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt, the Philistines from Caphtor, the Assyrians from Kur? In other words, God's judgment will be impartial. He'll treat them like those other nations, if they wanted to be so much like them.

Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are on the sinful kingdom. That's the north. And I will destroy it from the face of the earth. Yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, says the Lord.

For surely I will command and will sift the house of Israel among all nations as grain is sifted in a sieve. Yet not the smallest grain shall fall to the ground. All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say the calamity shall not overtake nor confront us?

Now, there's a shift from the house of Israel, the sinful kingdom as it's called, to a restoration. It's down south, but it's a restoration of both. Notice, 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 in the days of old. That they may possess the remnant of Edom. Keep that tucked in your mind when we get to the next chapter, or the next short book, Obadiah, in just a moment.

And all the Gentiles, who are called by my name, says the Lord, who does this thing. So yeah, judgment is coming. But also a golden age is coming for the Jews. Judgment on one hand, but after the judgment, God promises to be gracious because of a covenant that he made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and God will keep that. Israel will be restored in the latter days, the messianic days.

And this golden age for Israel, the Lord promises that, I will raise up the Tabernacle of David, literally the booth or the hut of David, broken down, the Tabernacle, the tent. The dynasty of David, the house of David, once a canopy of protection over the people of Israel, established by God for David, a man after God's own heart. That tent had fallen down.

It split into two, the Northern 10 tribes the 2 Southern tribes. That canopy, that hut, that booth had been torn down. But the promise is it will be restored in the latter days, and God will restore the nation of Israel that had fallen by this schism.

Now, when you get to the New Testament in Acts chapter 15, James, who presides over the council in Jerusalem, quotes these verses. And he quotes them for a very important reason, to prove that the Gentiles don't need to be circumcised and don't need to become Jewish in order to be saved. And he's pointing back to Amos, who is predicting, hey, in the kingdom age, when God brings in the Gentiles, they will join that kingdom age as distinct Gentiles, saved Gentile's, not as quasi Jews, not as converted Jews, but as Gentiles, who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in that kingdom.

So that is what he bases that same principle on in the book of Acts chapter 15. Behold the days are coming, verse 13, the Lord says, when the Plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows seed. The mountain 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 the 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 that I have given them, says the Lord. Notice those promises. God predicts during that era, that age, this messianic golden age, when that tent of David, that dynasty of David, comes once again into view through the Lord Jesus Christ, the greater son of David, there will be a time of incredible prosperity restored to the land.

For the promise is the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treasure of grapes him who so seed. In other words, they've scarcely finished sowing the seed, when it's time to harvest. That's how abundant it will be. That's the idea.

Now the Lord, here, says, from the land that I have given them. There's a huge dispute and it's been going on for a long time over that land we call Israel, some call Palestine. Whose land is it? And there is the argument whose land it really belongs to? Here's the answer. It's God's land.

That's what God said, Leviticus 25, for the land is mine. It will not be sold permanently. The Jews take that to heart. They have 99 year leases on land. You can't buy anything outright. You lease it.

And that's why it's the Holy Land. It's not because you go over there you go, this is the Holy Land? It's holy because it's God's. And because it's God's, He can give it to anybody He wants to give it to. That's His prerogative.

If I own something I can give it to whomever I please. And God decided that he would give that portion of land to the descendants of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the 12 tribes and their progeny. And God can do that.

You could say, well, those other people that are there, that's so sad. Well, if you look at the land around Israel, it's a lot more. In fact, God promised Ishmael and his sons an enormous amount of territory. But He promised that land allotment to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.