Amos Pt. 7: God's Influencers

[0:00] Amos chapter number 2, and let's get back into where we were. We've already covered his introduction.

[0:14] ! We've covered his words to the surrounding nations of the kingdom of Israel, including the! Amos was called out of Judah to go north to preach to this kingdom, and likely he's in Bethel.

[0:30] Preaching and delivering the word of God. And where we find ourselves, he's finally now zeroed in on the kingdom of Israel, beginning in verse 6 of chapter 2, where he gives out the accusations that God has against his people.

[0:46] And then what we did last week was we looked at God's appeals to them, saying basically, look what I did for you. And then, obviously, has the expectation of them to follow him and to obey him.

[1:02] We saw this in verse 9, 10, and 11. These three appeals that he makes to them of destroying the Amorite, that formidable, those two kings of the Amorites.

[1:13] As we studied, they were no small thing, what God did there. And if the people could defeat those two giants, literally, of kings, then they should have no trouble wiping out the rest of the land.

[1:27] And it's that thing there that caused the people of the land to be afraid of them. And we also saw in verse 10, he appealed to how he brought them or escorted them out of Egypt and all that he did there, which was much more than just what's kind of condensed into verse 10.

[1:41] Forty years of feeding them and providing for them, not only just escaping Egypt by his terrible acts, but to consider they went out harnessed. They had all they needed.

[1:52] They had more than they needed. And he even directed their path. He kept them from war. He protected them. He fed them. He kept their clothes from rotting and wearing out.

[2:03] He sustained them in every way. And God says, I did that for you. And then in verse 11, this is where we stopped. And so I'll reread that one with you and continue. In verse 11, the Lord says, And I raised up your sons for prophets and of your young men for Nazarites.

[2:19] Is it not even thus? O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord. And the last thing I said last week was that God instituted influencers. And I know that's kind of a catchy word today because of social media and the society.

[2:33] Everybody wants to be an influencer and get followers. But that's a legitimate word here of what God did with his people when they were without, when they had the word of God, but they were now without Moses going into the promised land.

[2:46] And what he did was raised up among their own children. They didn't bring them from afar, but their own sons. He raised them up to be preachers, to deliver his word to his people, to guide them and to instruct them, the generations to follow.

[3:01] Now, we're going to pick it up in this verse and continue here just for a little bit because there's more here. He says in verse 11 that, I raised up for your sons for prophets and of your young men for Nazarites.

[3:15] Now, prophets are not Nazarites and Nazarites are not prophets. Prophets spoke the word of God. They were the mouthpiece for the Lord to deliver a message to God's people.

[3:29] It could be a message of blessing or of instruction to do with battle or how things are going to, how to line up or how to, you know, what to do. Or it could just be of condemnation and of judgment that's coming or a threat or a warning of it, just whatever it was.

[3:43] God's prophets delivered a message to the people of God. God, sometimes these men were, they were object lessons. Like, you'd have to read through this on your own, but there was times where just days, weeks, even years of their lives, they had to do some things, including having what we'd say illegitimate children.

[4:01] They had to do some, just some wild things to be a testimony or an object lesson, visible example of the message that God gave them. That's a prophet.

[4:11] Now, a Nazarite is not the same, although maybe some prophets were Nazarites, but still the Nazarite itself is not the same thing. This is somebody who lived a separated and devoted life, holy unto the Lord.

[4:25] And they were an example and a testimony to everybody else in their nation of being holy before God and before the people. They didn't necessarily speak the word.

[4:37] You might say they lived it. Now, a Nazarite, if you're not familiar with the term, and maybe not everybody here understands what that is and knows it, it comes up just a couple times in your Bible.

[4:48] A Nazarite, first thing, it has nothing to do with the town of Nazareth. These are two total different things, and it can be confusing. The Bible says of Jesus that he shall be called a Nazarene.

[4:59] That just means he's coming out of the town of Nazareth in Galilee. That has nothing to do with this term here in Amos 2, verse 11, Nazarites. Now, let me show you just a little bit, just a glimpse of what they are.

[5:12] Come back to Numbers 6. This is pretty much the passage you want to be familiar with if you want to know anything about a Nazarite. Numbers 6. Numbers 6. This word has very much to do with separation.

[5:31] And it's the term God gives to somebody that vows a vow of separation unto God. Numbers 6. Numbers 6. And verse 1 says, The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite to separate themselves unto the Lord.

[5:58] Notice the separation two times in that verse. And then he goes on to give some instructions about it. He shall separate himself from some things.

[6:08] Verse 4. For all the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is... And so one of the things is that he... I'll just give you a synopsis of this. They're forbidden to cut their hair.

[6:22] They're forbidden to touch a dead body. They're forbidden to eat or drink anything that comes from what the Bible here calls the vine tree. And what verse does that show up? The vine tree.

[6:33] In 4. All the days shall have nothing made of the vine tree. From the kernels even to the husks. It says no liquid, no substance, eat or drink, anything to do with grapes or the vine.

[6:44] In any form. They're off limits. In verse number 8 it says, All the days of his separation, he is holy. Get this down. He is holy unto the Lord.

[6:56] Kind of sounds like a priest. What we studied of Aaron and the priest and how their consecration and when the oil was upon their head and all... Like that's... They're like separated from everybody and consecrated to him.

[7:09] And that's the term in verse 8. All of his days of his separation. He is holy unto the Lord. If he violates it or when the days are up of his vow, then there's some things, some offerings, some sacrifices that he's to come to give.

[7:20] And that goes through most of the rest of this chapter. Now, that's all I wanted to show you back there. It was just something to deal with separation and them being holy unto the Lord. So, coming back to Amos, he raised up of their sons prophets and he raised up of their young men for Nazarites.

[7:36] God raised up influencers, whether by words or by example of the way they live, to point them, the nation of Israel, to the Lord. To point them to himself.

[7:48] He did a work in their children and in their seed in the generations to come so that there would be this living remnant of worship, of holiness, of righteousness within them.

[8:00] God did that to influence the nation, to keep them on what we call the straight and narrow because he knows what they'll do if they don't have that influence. Now, they were to keep the word of God or keep the ways of God in front of his people, to keep it within the culture.

[8:17] You may think, well, they had the word of God and that's all you need, right? You just need a Bible. That's all you need. You'll do fine. You don't need other people around. That's like you saying today, all I need is a Bible.

[8:28] That's all I need and I'm fine. And the truth is you're wrong. And I know maybe you think, no, that's true. All I need is the word of God. It's got everything I need. But you're dead wrong. God gave you more than his word.

[8:40] He gave every one of us more than his word. Take your Bible and go to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4.

[8:57] God gave us more than just a book. Just like he did for his people when he raised up influencers, prophets, Nazarites.

[9:12] Ephesians chapter 4 and verse number 11. And he gave, God gifting, he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers.

[9:29] Here's the reason. For the perfecting of the saints. Because just putting a King James Bible in their hand saying you're good to go for the rest of your life probably isn't going to get them as far as you think it would.

[9:41] So God gives these offices to the body of Christ for the perfecting, the completion, the maturing of each saint. For the work of the ministry. Somebody to do the work.

[9:52] For the edifying of the body of Christ. He gave people to minister to other people. So God gave leadership and God gave membership.

[10:06] Meaning members of the body. You can look around. There's some right here tonight that God gave to you to be in your life to keep you doing right. You think you're an island?

[10:17] You think you can just go to work and come home and go to work and come home and go to work and come home and then you're just going to be on fire for God? God calls you to come here and to meet with your brothers and sisters and to be challenged from the word of God from some leadership and as well as to be around one another from the membership.

[10:37] Members of the body. It's inconceivable to me personally to live for God without both of these. If I looked at my life coming up in a home and then getting out of my home and not having a church and a pastor and not having brothers and sisters in Christ and people that sharpen my iron, so to speak and people that challenge me or that I could go door knocking with or get out and do street work with or if it was just me, myself and I and that's it, there wouldn't be much getting done.

[11:07] I'm just, that's just the truth. I need other men in my life to challenge me and to counsel me and to stay in touch with me and it's something the Lord's laid on my heart since I've been here is reaching out to some other preachers and just staying in touch with them and just encouraging them and trying to be a blessing to them and fellowship with them and bounce ideas off each other.

[11:30] It's just, it's needed. You know all those passages in the New Testament that say something about one another like forgiving one another or forbearing one another or having charity amongst yourselves or there's just, it feels like there's hundreds of them.

[11:44] Probably not, but it's all over that New Testament. There's an expectation that we're together, that there is one another in the body. We're expected to function and to serve and to worship the Lord together.

[11:58] And so the Lord in Amos, he raised up these influencers, these prophets and these Nazarites and guess what the people did? Guess what the people did to the young men that God gifted to them?

[12:12] Remember God's using this statement in chapter two, verse 11 as an appeal to them saying, this is what I did for you. I raised up of your sons, prophets, of the young men, Nazarites.

[12:22] I did that. But guess what they did to what God gave them? Look at chapter two now in verse number 12. But he gave the Nazarites, but ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink.

[12:38] You caused them to violate their vows, to profane their separation, unto God. You see what they did? Not just messing with them, but they're messing with God.

[12:51] They were holy unto God. He gave them this gift and they messed it up. They defiled that. They didn't want that holiness, that separation in their land.

[13:03] They didn't want people living among them that were living better than they were. So they violated them. They caused them to fall, living separated, holy lives before the Lord.

[13:13] The Lord lost something when they caused them to do this. And it was the people, it was likely the leadership that didn't approve of having these Nazarites around living this way. So they put an end of it.

[13:25] And they robbed God of a special thing, of a very rare thing that was a pleasure to Him. There was just, I don't know how many, but it couldn't have been that many of them that had vowed and committed their lives to be holy unto God.

[13:40] And it was His own people, His own chosen people, that said, we don't want them around us. Here's what we'll do. We'll give them wine to drink. We'll cause them to violate and to lose that separation they had.

[13:57] Look at Matthew chapter 18. Let's see something here that Jesus dealt with that's very comparable. A bunch of backsliders in Amos' day interfered with somebody living holy and somebody living separated and righteous.

[14:17] Matthew chapter 18. You'll recognize this passage, but just watch how this, these statements fit exactly what's going on with these Nazarites.

[14:28] Matthew 18 verse 1. At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him and set him in the midst of them and said, Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

[14:47] Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same as greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. Now watch very close, verse 6.

[14:58] But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me? It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

[15:11] These little ones believe in the Lord, but somebody, when it says caused them to offend or shall offend one, it doesn't mean they're calling them a mean name or hurting their feelings.

[15:22] That's not the word offend. Offend means they're sinning. They believed in the Lord, but somebody over here says he's not the Messiah. He's not the Christ. The rulers aren't following after him.

[15:35] And he says, whoso shall offend one of these little ones. Somebody is believing on the Savior and coming after him. They're just a child with faith.

[15:45] They believe it. And then somebody else comes in and says, oh no, don't follow him. Don't believe in him. And he says, you mess with those kids that have simple faith.

[15:56] It'd be better, and there it goes, if you were drowned in the depth of the sea, never to get back out. It'd be better if the world was completely rid of people that would destroy the work of God inside of somebody else.

[16:11] They believe on the Lord and they try to turn him aside. They want to live a separated life unto God and they don't want that in their life. They try to turn him aside. It's a terrible thing.

[16:23] Look at Romans chapter 14 while we're here. All of this is terrible. It should sound terrible to think that somebody would just leave them alone and let them be, but know they actually have to take action to try to turn them away from righteousness.

[16:39] Who would do such a thing? Who would do something like that that would get in the way of somebody living for Jesus Christ? Would a Christian do that today?

[16:50] Would a Christian do such a thing? Look at Romans 14. And here's a reason Paul has to say something like this. Verse 13. I'll back up a little.

[17:01] I'll start in verse 10 with the judgment seat. Verse 10. But why dost thou judge thy brother? Or why dost thou set it not thy brother? For we shall all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

[17:13] Stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one another anymore, but judge this rather.

[17:29] What? That no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. Because Christians will do that. They'll mind not their own business, but their brother's business.

[17:44] And decide that they have a say and on and on and on. Yeah, Christians will do it too. The Bible says in 1 John 5, He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.

[17:55] Christians can do the same thing today. And so backslidden Christians today are no different than the people back here in Amos and the bunch back then in his time. And I surely hope that it's not in this place, that it's not happening here, that it doesn't ever happen here.

[18:12] I hope that it's, at the very least, you should understand that it's possible, understand that it happens, and be aware that you don't ever act like this. And if you feel like, well, act like what?

[18:24] Well, when a believer's heart gets cold and gets indifferent toward the Lord and starts to backslide, but still comes to church dressed well and shows up on time and has a smile and still sings the songs and on and on, but inside it ain't right.

[18:41] They don't get too fired up when somebody else shows up in this church that's on fire for God. They don't get too excited about that. They mumble about that a little bit.

[18:52] They can't stand seeing somebody catch fire because it pricks their heart because they know that's not me anymore. I used to be on fire for the Lord, but I'm not anymore. But he is, that brother is, and the truth is I'm not living like he's living.

[19:06] It's a testimony against you. And so Christians do this. They say, well, they see somebody doing right and getting caught up in living for God and they say, oh, they're just emotional.

[19:18] We'll see how long it lasts. It won't last long. They'll be just back there. They probably won't even be around here in a few weeks. And that's just their way of brushing it off and not helping them.

[19:31] And when we're talking, let me tell you something. If you ever see a brother or a sister getting emotional for the Lord and starting to break down or starting to open up, you start seeing one of your brothers and sisters growing in the Lord or showing God, showing a little more zeal than you ever did, don't you throw water on that fire.

[19:52] The best thing you can do is get close to it and get some to warm you up and maybe do something with them. But don't you grieve the spirit of God that's trying to work in their life just because you're not doing what you should be doing.

[20:05] So I hope I'm not telling anybody that tonight but at least understand how it goes down. And if you can't keep from messing them up then get out of the way.

[20:19] Don't make God get you out of the way. That would be the worst thing yet. If your heart gets cold and indifferent towards spiritual things and it can and it can and then God deals with somebody over here and you can look at them and think who do they think they are?

[20:37] It ain't the real thing. They don't even know what they're doing. Look how they're dressed. They're not saved as long as I have been. You just get this pride inside of you. You better not interfere with God's work in them because it's better to wrap that thing around your neck and chuck you out there in the ocean too than to harm somebody that God's dealing with.

[20:59] Not only would you be destroying a brother but you'd be robbing God of getting something that he's trying to do with somebody else. Turn to 1 Kings 13.

[21:11] Let me show you a case of this in the Old Testament. 1 Kings 13. 200 years before God sent Amos to go north to Bethel, he sent a different preacher out of Judah to go to Bethel.

[21:34] And he sent him there because Jeroboam had built two altars with golden calves and told Israel to worship them. One was in Dan, one was in Bethel.

[21:44] That's in 1 Kings 12. So God, in chapter 13, verse 1, he sends a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord unto Bethel. And he's to cry against that altar and to instruct him of a fulfillment of an old prophecy about a king or about a child that would be born, Josiah by name.

[22:08] I'm getting a little mixed up here, but he's prophesying of this and what he's going to do. And then he tells him that the altar in verse 3 is going to be rent and the ashes are going to be poured out. The king turns and says, take a hold of him.

[22:20] He's telling his soldiers or his bodyguards or whoever they are to grab a hold of the man of God, lay hold on him and his hand dries up. He can't bring it back and the altar rents right there and there's got to be some kind of quaking and something going on.

[22:36] The ashes are poured out just like he said. And so everything is just right exactly on. This prophet, this man of God went there with boldness and zeal and preached his message from God to the king's face, was threatened by the king.

[22:53] The Lord interfered and then he prayed for the king and the Lord answered that and he restored his hand again. And the king says to him, come home with me in verse 7 and refresh thyself.

[23:04] I'll give you a reward. The man says, I can't do that. God told me three times, I can't go and eat. I can't go and eat bread or drink water. I got to preach the word of God and then when I leave, I got to go a different way.

[23:18] And in verse 10, so he went another way and returned not by the way that he came to Bethel. Mission accomplished. The guy did exactly what God told him to do.

[23:30] Like, way to go. The man of God is working. But in Bethel, don't you know it, in Bethel, there's an old prophet living there in verse 11.

[23:42] There dwelt an old prophet in Bethel. And he finds out what took place. He had no idea. God didn't come to him and say, go prophesy against them. Apparently, I'll just assume, he wasn't doing his job speaking the word of the Lord against King Jeroboam there with that wickedness in his town.

[23:59] So, he brings, he goes and saddles and goes after the man of God. He finds him in verse 14 sitting under an oak. And he says, art thou the man of God that camest from Judah?

[24:09] And he said, I am. Then he said unto him, come home with me and eat bread. He said, I may not return with thee. Nope. Can't do it. Verse 17, God told me, I can't, can't, can't. And I did exactly what the Lord said.

[24:22] And here comes the pivot in the whole story. And the old prophet, verse 18, he said unto him, I am a prophet also as thou art. And an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord saying, bring him back with thee.

[24:35] Verse 18 says at the end, but he lied unto him. I have a real genuine question. Why did he lie to him? You say God was testing him. Was he?

[24:46] The guy did the job. He turned down the king's reward. He said, I can't go back and eat with you. He did exactly what he was told and was headed home a different way.

[24:57] And then comes an old, backslidden, deceiving, lying prophet that used to be preaching the word of God in Bethel until things changed.

[25:09] And here's about this other man of God that God's using instead of him, obviously bypassing him to call somebody out of Judah to come up and get the job done. And he lies to him.

[25:19] Why did he lie to him? What business does he have lying to him? It never says the word of the Lord came unto him, go and deceive him, test him, check him out. So the younger prophet believed the older prophet.

[25:34] He did mess up. He should have told him no. He should have went home. It ended up costing him his life. But what reason did that old prophet have at all to interfere?

[25:47] Why couldn't he just let him go back to Judah like he was already planning and on his way? But instead, he caused him to turn aside and to violate the command of God and it cost him his life.

[26:00] And for what? What did the old man get out of that? He just got to put the competition out. I doubt you see him getting the word of God come to him after this anymore.

[26:14] I don't know what this is. I don't really understand why the whole situation. But I feel like there's something very wicked about it. That God raised up somebody and then the other one comes by to cause him to fall.

[26:26] It's something satanic. It's corrupt. It has bitterness. It has pride. And it has envy written all over it. You know what the Bible says in James? I'll just catch it quick for you.

[26:36] James chapter 3 says, Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth.

[26:53] This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

[27:09] I think that's what that man is. I think he's full of confusion and strife and envy and bitterness. Now back in Amos, we've got to hurry, back in Amos chapter 2, he sent Nazarites to them.

[27:22] They gave him wine to drink. Chapter 2 and verse 12. They gave him wine to drink. They violated their vows. They took that away from God and from themselves.

[27:35] The second part of verse 12 says they commanded the prophets saying, prophesy not. Prophesy not. That's exactly what they told to Amos.

[27:46] Look at chapter 7. Chapter 7 and verse 12 and 13. Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah and there eat bread and prophesy there but prophesy not again anymore at Bethel for it is the king's chapel, it is the king's court.

[28:12] So Amos knows how it feels to be told to shut your mouth. We don't want to hear that message anymore from God. You just keep it to yourself or get out of here.

[28:23] And they ran him out of town. They want to run the preacher out because they don't want the message. Prophesy not. So back there with Jeroboam in 1 Kings 13 he told the soldiers when that preacher showed up and preached his message he said, lay hold of him.

[28:39] Take hold of him. Get him. Ahab and Jezebel, they sought to kill Elijah. And it says that Jezebel had killed many of the Lord's prophets. Ahab imprisoned Micaiah.

[28:52] Ahab's son Ahaziah sought to apprehend Elijah by three different times sending a captain with 50 soldiers to go apprehend him. And each time fire of God came down from heaven you know the stories there.

[29:07] But that king wanted to get a hold of that man and get rid of him. Another prophet named Hananiah was thrown in prison for his preaching. A preacher named Zechariah the son of Jehoiada was stoned.

[29:20] King Amaziah told the prophet that came to him he's unnamed but he said, forbear. Like shut your mouth. Why shouldest thou be smitten? That's what you get.

[29:32] In Jeremiah 26 it talks about a man named Uriah. He preached to Jehoiakim who sought to kill him so Uriah fled to Egypt. Jehoiakim sent men down to Egypt to find him.

[29:43] Got him, brought him back and killed him for preaching something he didn't like. Jeremiah himself his preaching was met with resistance all the time including persecution and many times being imprisoned even cast down into a dungeon where he sunk into the mire.

[30:01] When you move into the New Testament the apostles of our Lord were beaten more than one occasion. They stoned Stephen in Acts chapter 7 when he told the Jews ye do always resist the Holy Ghost.

[30:14] They gnashed on him with their teeth. The Bible says here that ye told the prophets to prophesy not. You know who would do such a thing? This is God's chosen race.

[30:28] The people that God chose and revealed himself to and gave his holy words to those are the people that told the preachers God sent them we don't want to hear it.

[30:40] It's not the world. It's God's people. And you know what Christians do today when they hear something they don't like or they think oh he's talking about me.

[30:54] They get all sideways and they start chatting with other people around them. They do it all the time. It happens all over the place in churches everywhere. There's always somebody disgruntled but they won't leave they'll just run their mouth they'll get angry catch an attitude despise on and on and on.

[31:12] The Bible says to grieve not and to quench not the spirit. But Israel Israel is guilty they're purposely extinguishing any work that God is going to do among them.

[31:28] When God sends the preachers prophesy not. Their hearts were hardened to the word of God they didn't want to hear the word of God. The only thing that's left for them is their calamity.

[31:41] The only thing they've got coming now is their destruction. The Bible says whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed. I don't think this is happening here in this church so I'm not saying this for any reason except just be aware of this form of rebellion because it's God's people that do it.

[32:04] You're not even talking about the heathen nations anymore. He's done with them. He's zeroing in on the people that he worked in their nations in their generations and he's saying this is how you treat me.

[32:18] They're so filled with pride they forgot what he did for them. They forgot what he's how he they ought to be back in Egypt. And you know what they're going to get?

[32:29] They're going to get back to Egypt so to speak. They're going to go back to slavery and to servitude because they didn't appreciate the blessing that the Lord laid out in front of them.

[32:43] In chapter 2 I want to get this chapter over with verse 13 he continues by saying behold I am pressed under you as a card is pressed that is full of sheaves.

[32:54] I love the language of the King James Bible. He's just saying I've had enough I can't bear any more of your rebellion and of profaning my holy name. In verse number 6 when he began with this group he says that there's three transgressions of Israel for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof.

[33:13] And now he's telling them I'm pressed I can't take any more of it I'm going to I'm going to my long suffering and my patience is wore out it's over it's expended.

[33:25] And so enough has become enough. And so what he says now in verse 14 therefore the flight shall perish that flight means the escape shall perish from the swift doesn't matter how fast you are you can't outrun God the strong shall not strengthen his force neither shall the mighty deliver himself doesn't matter how strong you are how wise you are you can't get away from God neither shall he stand that handle with the bow and he that is swift of foot shall not deliver himself neither shall he that ride at the horse deliver himself and he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day saith the Lord and so the Lord is going to bring them low and strip the way all honor and all strength and their military is going to be defeated their economy is going to completely collapse to nothing the land is going to be taken over they're going to just experience and with their own eyes see utter destruction and complete annihilation of their kingdom and why would God do all of that because everything they have in that land is of him and when they turn their back on him then he's just going to take it all away from them and as a matter of fact you're not staying in this land anymore you're going to Babylon and so off they go they don't deserve it they're not going to enjoy their homes their land they're not going to enjoy peace their children are going to be separated from the parents they're going to be drug off to the heathen land to be forced to be slaves again and isn't that what God saved them from in verse 10

[35:03] I brought you up from the land of Egypt instead I'm just going to have to teach you a lesson and so going into chapter 3 he says hear this word that the Lord hath spoken against you and the next time we get together here I'm going to show you some things about that that the word of God it doesn't have to be against you it doesn't come against you at first the first time it's for you but when you say I don't want that then it comes against you and we can learn from these Jews and we can learn a lot from them and I hate to be so ugly with all of this but that's the condition that it's gotten to and we can learn from that God help us to learn from that and to believe and fear and love our holy God and to obey him on his terms and not forget what we were and what we deserve and how good he has been to us Father thank you for our study tonight Lord help us to take to heart the things that you mentioned and laid on our hearts in the study here

[36:09] Lord it's my prayer that we'd be a holy people unto you that we would desire to hear the word of God that we'd never ever ever turn or stop our ears or turn our necks or stiffen our necks and hearts from the word of God I pray that you'll have complete access to our hearts Lord I pray especially for the upcoming meeting God I pray you'll do a work inside of every single person's heart don't let anybody get away without hearing from you and I pray God that you'll be pleased with our response to your preachers and to the time of coming together I pray you'll be pleased with our attendance with our giving with our singing with our obedience God get something out of this for yourself and draw us closer together draw us closer to the Lord Jesus Christ and minister to our needs and to the questions that are in this room and to the fears and to the sins

[37:10] Lord to the things that are missing I pray you'll do something fill our cups give us joy and give us liberty and be with those preachers as they're going to be traveling and coming and Lord minister to us we pray for Jesus sake Amen Amen Alright you're dismissed