Amos 3:6-10

[0:00] I find in your Old Testament, the minor prophet Amos. We're in chapter number 3. And I think we stopped at verse 6. And we'll just start at the top of the chapter, read to verse 6, and then pick it up from there.

[0:20] So I want to pray as you're finding your place in Amos chapter 3. Lord, it's with thanksgiving that we're here together and assembled, thankful for health in our bodies, thankful for safety in our travels throughout this week, thankful for one another as we meet together, thankful for the Word of God and for the Lord Jesus Christ that shed His blood, that paid for every sin that we've ever done against you.

[0:44] Thank you for accepting that blood and for not requiring our sins of us. Lord, as we are here and as we meet, please humble us and help us to open up this Scripture with open hearts and give us ears to receive the truth and give us eyes that might behold wondrous things and make this applicable to us as you see fit.

[1:05] We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. So we'll begin at the top of the chapter. Chapter 3 again, verse 1. Hear this word that the Lord hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, You only have I known of all the families of the earth.

[1:23] Therefore, I will punish you for all your iniquities. And now comes in these next four verses, seven questions, and all the questions demand an answer of no.

[1:37] Can two walk together except they be agreed? The implication is that God and Israel are not walking together, and there's a problem. That's why Amos is preaching. Will a lion roar in the forest when he hath no prey?

[1:49] Will a young lion cry out of his den if he hath taken nothing? Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth where no gin is for him? Shall one take up a snare from the earth and have taken nothing at all?

[2:01] Shall a trumpet be blown in the city and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city and the Lord hath not done it? Now each question here shows an effect that's brought on by a cause, and the overall case is that Amos wouldn't be preaching God's judgment if they hadn't incurred it and if they hadn't done wickedly and brought this upon themselves.

[2:26] And we commented upon a few of these last week, so I'm just going to start at the end of verse 6 with that last phrase. Shall there be evil in a city and the Lord hath not done it?

[2:38] The Lord takes credit for evil being in a city. And he's saying that I'm the one that does that stuff. Now we're going to do a little word study here to start off.

[2:50] It's an easy one and many of you are okay on this already, but it's one that trips people up. And if you get reading in any of the new versions, they alter this verse because it's something they don't like.

[3:01] Other teachers and preachers will avoid this, or just I've read online people attacking the King James Bible because of the word evil. And so I want to make some comments on it.

[3:12] I want to strengthen you in your faith in the Word of God and in your just being comfortable with its words and knowing its words and never questioning.

[3:24] If that statement doesn't sit well with you, the statement, shall there be evil in a city and the Lord hath not done it? If it doesn't sit well with you, if it confuses you a little bit, then it's because you're misunderstanding something about the words.

[3:37] It's not because the Bible's wrong. It's not because it's saying something wrong. It's because you're not getting it. And that's the case with all this Bible. Anytime you don't understand it, you're the problem. The Word of God is pure.

[3:49] Every Word of God is pure. It's right. It's true from the beginning. And so what is this saying then? Well, let's understand the word evil. That's the whole issue there, the word evil.

[3:59] Evil is not a reference to sin or to wicked behavior. God is not saying that these people are so ungodly and I'm going to judge them and I'm the one that's making them do these things.

[4:12] That's not the statement at all, but that's where the mind goes when he's accusing them of guilt and then they are assuming that's what they're talking about. But no, evil is a generic word.

[4:23] It's a negative word. It's always negative, but it's a generic word for many forms of bad things, for destruction, for punishment, for natural disasters like hurricanes or tornadoes, for war, for death, for anything that causes harm, diseases.

[4:43] These are all things considered evil. Don't think satanic or witchcraft because that's a different realm. Just the word itself is a generic blank word for negative things, bad things happening.

[4:58] And when God says, shall there be evil in a city, meaning shall there be destruction to a city, shall there be war or a king coming against and besieging a city and famine in that city.

[5:09] And if you know the history of this people, there was a time where they were eating their own children to stay alive in a city. And the Bible is saying that's what he's talking about.

[5:21] Shall there be evil in a city? That's the hand of God doing that against people that deserve it. Now, I know that's a pretty ugly thought there, but this word evil can be used to refer to bad things that bad people do, to sin and wickedness.

[5:37] It can mean that, but it can also simply just be negative and harmful situations that are hard to live with. So I want to take you on a little Bible study, and there's so much to cover with this that'll prove it to you, but I'll just give you a little glimpse.

[5:50] If I could find Jeremiah chapter 11. I want to show you a few places in Jeremiah where both uses of the word evil, as far as sin, as well as harmful consequences, are both, it's used in the same thing, or the same words used both ways.

[6:09] You'll see it in Jeremiah chapter 11. And look at verse number 17. Jeremiah 11 and verse 17.

[6:24] For the Lord of hosts that planted thee, hath pronounced evil against thee, for the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done against themselves, to provoke me to anger in offering incense unto Baal.

[6:41] So their idolatry is evil. It's sin. Yet also the word evil, the Lord hath pronounced evil against thee. There's the negative judgments. It's the, you see how the word is used in the same verse two different ways.

[6:55] Look at chapter 18. And I'll show you one more. Very similar idea. Chapter 18. And this is the potter's house, and the potter and the clay.

[7:08] This passage here. And the Lord using that as an object lesson for Jeremiah to see it, and then to convey a message to the house of Israel. Starting in verse 6. O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter, saith the Lord?

[7:22] Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel. At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it?

[7:35] If that nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. There's their evil being sin, and then God's evil being destroying that nation.

[7:51] It's the same word. It's got two different contexts. And verse 9. At what instance I shall speak concerning a nation concerning a kingdom to build and to plant it? If it do evil in my sight that it obey not my voice that I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them.

[8:08] And in verse 11 he says in the middle, Behold, I frame evil against you. And then he tells him to return from his evil way. It's in the same verse 11. Both uses in one verse again.

[8:20] And so it's a generic word. Not a neutral word. It's a negative word. But the context will always identify for you how it's being used. Whether it's referring to sin or whether it's referring to judgment.

[8:35] Now, we'll go a little further. Go to Daniel chapter 9. Back toward the right a little bit. Daniel chapter 9. In the Bible you can have an evil name which is a reference to your reputation.

[8:52] An evil name. A land is said to be an evil land because in the context there's no water and there's no fruit. It's not saying that the land did anything wrong.

[9:03] It's saying that it's not a good land. It's not productive. So it calls it an evil land. A negative word. There's evil diseases. There's evil beasts. Not beasts that are sinning against God.

[9:16] They're just evil beasts because they devour and because they're harmful. evil. I think that's what the term that's used back with Joseph when Jacob thought when the brothers said they brought their evil report to him.

[9:28] And I think it says some evil beast hath befallen or something like that. I'm not sure if that's the one but you get the idea. There's another this is a good one evil arrows of famine.

[9:39] Evil arrows of famine. That's not sin. That's just harmful, bad. And then as I just mentioned evil report. So looking at Daniel I want to show you just another this word I'm going down this road a little further than maybe you feel I should because this word is I want to say like 600 times in the Bible.

[10:00] It is the go-to word for the King James translators to describe whether it's something sinful or whether it's something harmful and damaging and destructive. That's the go-to word is evil.

[10:12] So it'd do us good to understand it and I'm going to show you in a minute that it's not just going to help you understand what this passage in Amos is but there's a lot of passages that trip people up when they see the word evil and I'll just give you a case in point.

[10:25] So in Daniel 9 in verse 5 Daniel's describing he's praying to God in verse 4 and in verse 5 we have sinned and committed iniquity and have done wickedly and have rebelled and he just goes verse after verse to describe what God is doing to them but God is right in doing this they deserve it they have been the ones that have sinned verse 10 says neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God to walk in his laws verse 11 all Israel have transgressed thy law even by departing so they are the ones that are guilty at the end of verse 11 because we have sinned against him verse 12 and he hath confirmed his words which he spake against us against our judges that judged us by bringing upon us a great evil the question was in Amos shall there be evil in a city and the Lord hath not done it and so Daniel says that Lord you brought upon us this great evil for under the whole heaven hath it not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem there's the city as it is written in the law of Moses all this evil has come upon us yet may not we our prayer before the Lord our God that we might turn from our iniquities and understand thy truth therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil and brought it upon us for the Lord our God is righteous and all his works which he doeth for we obeyed not his voice and that's enough of that but you get the idea there's the city there's Jerusalem and there's even connecting it back to last week's notice of how the word of God is first for you and when you ignore it then it's against you and here it is the word of God is against them it was for them in the law of Moses and there's the evil that comes come back to the left to Isaiah 45 so God brought heathen nations against Jerusalem they besieged it they burned it they took away the inhabitants captive into a foreign land and Daniel says

[12:30] Lord you did that you did all you brought all that evil upon us here's a verse that trips people up it's a if you understand what we've covered already it's very very simple I'll start in 6 that they may know from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none beside me I am the Lord and there is none else I form the light and create darkness I make peace and create evil I the Lord do all these things does that have anything to do with sin when your mind goes to sin and wickedness you think well God creates it well then teachers say and some of the scholars say well that's a misfortunate translation in the King James Bible a better translation would be and then they start altering the words of God God creates evil well it's the opposite of making peace and you consider that just with a wartime experience everybody wants peace but then the evil is the opposite of that it's chaos and destruction and death and harm and God says

[13:34] I create evil ok so now now let me take you the one that I personally have heard people mistake it's not a big deal but look at Psalm 78 when you get it right things just fall in place every single time like every single occurrence you can handle when you understand how the Bible uses this word and for a word that shows up 600 plus times then it'd be one that you should have a handle on Psalm 78 tell me if you haven't read this verse and been a little curious about it and even allowed your mind to try to resolve what it seems to say and check this out so God is describing what took place back in the land of Egypt in verse 43 44 45 46 47 verse 48 he gave up their cattle also to the hail and their flocks to hot thunderbolts and verse 49 is our verse he cast upon them the fierceness of his anger wrath and indignation and trouble by sending evil angels among them now have you ever read that and thought or maybe even heard taught that this is the devil and his angels or these are fallen angels and God is even using them to perform his bidding and if that's the thought well there's evil angels there's holy angels we know that from the Bible the Lord coming back with his holy angels there's several references matter of fact there's very few references or adjectives placed in front of the word angel in the Bible most of the time it's the angel or an angel a few times it's holy angel a couple times it's mighty angel one time it's strong angel in Revelation these are just the quick glance that I took at this but this is the only reference to the word evil evil angels and so if you're thinking oh wickedness sin well then your mind has already gone the wrong direction and you're trying to couple that with other things you know from the Bible like well there's the angels that sinned and they kept not their first estate but the Bible says they're reserved in the chains of darkness and it doesn't say that God's sending them to do something in Egypt so the evil angels are not sinning angels or devilish angels or the angels of devil that's mentioned in Revelation 12 these are just angels performing evil they're angels that bring on destruction and they brought death now if you go we're not going to take this back to Exodus 12 but in the in the Passover lamb scene when they were to put the blood on the lintel on the doorpost and the lintel the Bible says when God saw blood on the doorpost and the lintel it says the Lord will pass over the door and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto the houses to smite you the Lord will pass over the door and will not suffer will not allow the destroyer to come in and so the the implication from that verse is that the Lord is there and giving the green light for an evil angel or an angel executing evil upon a house slaying the firstborn and so that's what it looks like to me and don't ever don't get it's not a big deal is it

[17:00] Psalm 78 evil angels if you misinterpret that but once you get the word right it starts everything starts to fall into place now getting back to Amos chapter 3 shall there be evil in a city and the Lord hath not done it here is a case where studying a minor prophet Amos we not only can learn about the book and about what God is saying and get it right what he's saying but it also we can also gain insight into so much other places in the word of God by understanding the words learning the words and comparing scripture with scripture there's other passages that I'm not even going to take you to one of the most famous is Exodus 32 and I think we covered that pretty well when we were hitting this on Sunday that the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people that was where he said to Moses turn us or get out of the way however he said it I'm going to let my wrath wax hot against this people that I may consume them in a moment and Moses cried out to the Lord and he turned his wrath he acted as an advocate and then the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do is it sin that he thought to do no of course not it's consuming them in his wrath that's destruction it's harmful behavior against his people judgment and so there's one that people just have a fit with the Lord repenting of evil so modern versions consider this word a problem and would you guess what they do they change the word where it's the same word in the King James Bible over and over and over and over and over again just takes a little

[18:41] Bible study to understand it they change the word in so many places to things like calamity destruction catastrophe disaster where the King James Bible uses four letters and two syllables as it's as simple as possible all the new versions claim to improve upon the Bible and yet they introduce words that are four syllables and much longer and harder for a young child even to read and say with their mouth and pronounce catastrophe can't even spell that word some of you can't spell that word but evil evil is an easy one and you can't improve on it and there's a whole other angle to this that I find fascinating it's kind of a bit it's over my head and it's probably over yours as well it gets into the linguistics of the English language and the V letter and the evil sound or the mainly the V that connects your mind to violence and to vicious and to vengeance and envy and vanity and there's there's a whole list of them and when you allow the pure words of God to teach you how they it's over my head

[20:00] I'm telling you it's so holy it the Bible is a training book it's a textbook it trains your mind it gives you sounds it gives syllables it gives all these things which your mind catches it but you don't it's subconscious you don't know it but it's happening and if you allow the word to be what it is it'll cut it'll hit it'll land the way it's supposed to and it'll resonate when you start changing them to other things it's just you lose some of that if not all of that and it's a bigger deal than I can even really expound upon you'd have to have a literary scholar to come in here and really give you a lesson and you'd probably fall asleep but I find this stuff fascinating to know that this book is so holy it is so high that even down within its syllables is perfect and is accurate and is precise and chosen by God and not for man to mess with so alright we got shall there be evil in a city and the Lord hath not done it that's the question by the way you put a D in front of that you have devil not that that's a big revelation but it's one that is an easy connection for your mind of the negativity of it okay so verse number 7 surely the Lord will do nothing but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets and so what's saying here

[21:24] I believe is the only thing the Lord is going to do in attempts to turn his people away from their sin is he's going to select a man and to give a vision to this man he'll reveal a secret to this man he'll give a vision of what's going what this place is going to look like if they don't turn from their sin and their wickedness and God reveals this to the man Amos and he charges him to go publish it in the land now you don't need to turn but just listen as I read a little passage here from one of the other prophets because God will do nothing the Lord will do nothing but it reveals a secret to a prophet and the prophet's job then is to go speak the word of God Jeremiah chapter 4 I'll begin reading in verse 23 he says I beheld the earth and lo it was without form and void in the heavens they had no light I beheld the mountains and lo they trembled and all the hills moved lightly

[22:24] I beheld and lo there was no man and all the birds of the heavens were fled I beheld and lo the fruitful place was a wilderness and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord and by his fierce anger for thus hath the Lord said the whole land shall be desolate yet will I not make a fool end for this shall the earth mourn and the heavens above be black because I have spoken it I have purposed it and will not repent neither will I turn back from it the whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and the bowmen and he goes on beyond this a description of vision that he sees of destruction from the Lord and then his job is to go out and preach it I want to read one more to you this is just a quickie just in another prophet after Jeremiah as Ezekiel and it describes in the very beginning of his book he says that he's by a river that the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God and he gets to write what these visions are but throughout the course of this he hears the Lord speak and the Lord says unto him son of man

[23:31] I send thee unto the children of Israel another case he says moreover he said unto me son of man all the words that I shall speak unto thee receive in thine heart and hear with thine ears and go get thee to them of the captivity unto the children of thy people and speak unto them and tell them thus saith the Lord God whether they will hear or whether they will forbear so these men Jeremiah Ezekiel Amos others Daniel they see visions they hear the words of God and then they're called to go preach these words and so God offers revelation to his people Israel through a medium through a man a preacher that would go unto them and cry thus saith the Lord and the man has seen already in his vision or he's heard already however God conveys this to him individually the words that God has given him to pronounce against this people today if there's a people that are in their sins and that God's word is against them

[24:36] God's not going to show up to them in their home and start having a conversation with them and he's not going to plead with them but what he has done is he has revealed the future their future to some of his people like you do you not know the end of all men do you not know confidently from the word of God the end of the sinner the end of the saved born again you know the future you've been given revelation that secret's been revealed to you and you've received it and so it would be your job then your commission to go publish that message and to declare that message of sin and righteousness and judgment and to teach and preach to them the gospel of Jesus Christ their only hope and only way out of that judgment of God Amos showed up to preach because God revealed to him a secret and it wasn't revealed to them and liken that to yourself today you don't have to be some holy man of God in Christ you are but you've got the truth and they need to hear the truth so coming back to Amos chapter 3 and that was verse 7 surely the Lord will do nothing but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets verse 8 says the lion hath roared who will not fear the Lord God hath spoken who can but prophesy now this ties back into verse 4 where a lion will a lion roar in the forest when they have no prey and now he's saying

[26:12] God did speak and God did reveal some things to his prophets so who can but prophesy the idea is any prophet that hears the words of almighty God you can't keep that in you hear it's got to be so powerful and so stirring that it must be published it's too great of a burden upon them it's even that's the term that's used by some of the prophets the burden of such and such the burden consequences are far too serious to just ignore or keep it to yourself do you remember one particular prophet that tried to keep his mouth shut do you remember he got bitter against the Lord when things weren't turning out right for him Jeremiah chapter 20 and the Bible says his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones and I was weary with forbearing and I could not stay and off he went thus saith the Lord reminded of a king one time King Saul the spirit of God came upon him and they're all looking at him like what's he what's he talking about is Saul among the prophets because he's prophesying he's just the Lord speaks and he can and the Lord hath spoken who can but prophesy but I'm reminded also of a prophet named Jonah

[27:33] I'm reminded of a man that did not have any interest in conveying that word and vision God gave to him to the people that he sent him to to the people of Nineveh and Jonah fled from the presence of the Lord and he fled from the calling to preach the word of God to Nineveh to cause them to repent because the Lord's not willing that any should perish any of those people of Nineveh but that all of them should come to repentance and I realized that that prophet had something in his heart that was wrong and so he wouldn't open his mouth and he ran from God I read in the Bible that a prophet of the Lord can go into hiding when there's wicked powers that are coming for their lives and they can by many of them they can hide out in caves and disappear from the scene when their lives are being threatened I read of a prophet that was silenced by a king that threatened him and told him to keep his mouth shut he'll be smitten I read of Jeremiah when God told him what he's going to do be a prophet to the nations

[28:37] Jeremiah originally in chapter 1 said oh Lord God I cannot speak for I'm a child and the Lord didn't take that excuse and say say not thou thou art a child and he told him I'm going to send you to them and you're not going to be afraid of their faces Paul said that the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets and so Amos is saying when the Lord speaks who can but prophesy how could we possibly keep this in and keep this to ourselves and yet there's other cases where prophets the spirits of the prophets are subject to them and if there's fear in their heart they'll keep it to themselves and if there's bitterness in them and they don't have a desire to see those people repent and God despair them then they will run from the calling of God if there's apathy if you don't care that the heathen around you are in a filthy city with filthiness and their stench of unrighteousness is coming up before God if it doesn't interest you to take God's message to them hoping that they too would repent then you'll probably just be found asleep in the boat too like Jonah was who can but prophesy well I could say I know some Christians that can keep their mouth shut and maybe it's just that it's fear it's fear of what man can do unto you it's fear of what your family will say unto you and God help us to see the end of their souls in hell and understand how real that thing is how God sees it that way and so he sends us to go tell them would we get the vision that

[30:18] God has of their souls maybe we would tell them maybe we would not see the ridicule or the mockery or they're not going to invite me over to Thanksgiving dinner or they're going to talk about me behind my back may we have some more compassion and so the Bible says that the Lord hath spoken who can but prophesy ideally the message should be that much of a burden and weight and a fire inside of you that it's got to come out and I don't know but just from the Bible these few examples certainly fear can keep it from coming out and so that fear needs to be repented of and it needs to be laid at the throne of grace and ask God to take that fear out of you and to not give you a spirit of fear but give you one of power and of love and of a sound mind sometimes you can get apathetic toward the wicked you can get bitter toward seeing them be more successful than you and make more money than you and have better families and better situations and not be stressing over everything and you just lose sight of their eternal soul and then you go back to Psalm 73 I think it is when

[31:24] Asaph said I went into the sanctuary of God when I considered their end and things changed so God help us to see things from the vision that God gives us a clear vision from the word of God we're gonna let's finish up a little bit here to verse number nine says publish in the palaces at Ashdod and in the palaces in the land of Egypt and say assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria and behold the great tumults in the midst thereof and the oppressed in the midst thereof for they know not to do right saith the Lord who store up violence and robbery in their palaces he's telling them to publish in Ashdod that's one of the Philistine cities in Egypt he's calling he's inviting the heathen nations to come to Samaria assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria and behold calling on the heathen nations to come to Israel and behold what God does to them possibly this is as a warning to those heathen nations of how God will judge iniquity but I think it might be a little more like a rebuke to the nation of Israel that imagines that that God's brought us here we're better than all of you we have this land and it's ours and they just kind of see themselves as set up and I think

[32:48] God brings the heathen in there to sit in judgment of them it's like you go into getting called or summonsed into the courthouse and you're a good person you're a Bible believing Christian saved by the grace of God and you go into the courthouse and and there's a drug dealer or some gangbanger on trial and you're going to sit in the jury and you're going to look down upon him and you're going to hear the testimony against all the crimes he did and find him guilty and it's as if the roles get switched and you say no wait a minute what am I doing here why am I sitting here in the seat as the defendant and and and and the jury's filled with all the heathen gangbangers and drug dealers and they're all looking on me you think I'm better than you I'm the one that's good around here not you and that's the I that's the the pride in God's people Israel and the Lord saying assemble bring those heathen all the way up into your home and and bring them around let them see what I'm going to do to you and it looks to me like even the heathen are not as guilty of what the people of Israel have been because they know better and they had the truth and and we've already covered the things that God has done for them in the past and for God to call the heathen in to sit and judge them and and to view this and maybe as a warning but probably also as a way of putting them in their place to sit down in judgment as a rebuke to them for their sin God help us not to look upon anybody and think we're better than anybody but for the grace of God you and I are I can speak for myself inside me dwelleth no good thing and I'm just as guilty as they are if not far worse I was out in the neighborhood the other week and I came across a man who grew up

[34:29] Catholic he and his wife were Catholic and they they spent all their years going to Catholic churches all around this valley here and by the grace of God he led him to through circumstances led him to a church that was kind of wishy-washy but it was it had some truth there it had the gospel there and he was very confused about all of this stuff he just didn't understand it and here I am God brings me a guy that was born and raised with a King James Bible and the truth just comparatively now coming out of my ears in front of him and he doesn't know the lingo he doesn't know much of anything and I'm I start just just feeling him out talking to him and he starts to tell me just what he believes and what his wife said she believes about this and that about you know kind of everybody getting their path and he just didn't understand it and as I started giving him some Bible he just smiled he just smiled with joy like receiving it because it was making so much sense to him because he really had turned the corner on the Catholic

[35:32] Church and he was seeking truth and now it's just coming at him and I said I'm sorry I'm not trying to preach to you here and on your driveway he's like no this is wonderful he was just in just enjoying it engaged in it but I look at the man and I left there and as I kind of think on him think why do I get to come up with a Bible when I had parents that were Catholic just like him and their parents were Catholic they were brought up in that how is it that I got out of that what I'm getting at is I am not better than that I don't have anything to claim but the grace of God but his mercy on some people in a different generation and here I come receiving the fruit of it and walking in the way of righteousness because of their obedience man sometimes I think it's true of all of us we can tend to get this high and mighty we are somebody attitude because God's given us so much truth and we have we know him we have his grace all over our lives and we look at them as if you don't even have a King James

[36:44] Bible you filthy reprobate and I look around and say there's so many people here that never even heard of a King James Bible it's not their fault their parents handled them an NIV from the beginning their pastors at their church they grew up in preaches from all this corruption they don't know any better so we're not better than them we're just as sinful as they are but help us not God help us not to turn our attitudes to where we snuff at them because he might just bring them in the judgment of us I mean this there's a there's I'm stopping with this there's a little fear in me or just a little nervousness about about seeing men and women that don't have as much doctrine and truth as I do and yet I see them with what I feel is like a a complete wide open love and joy for the Lord Jesus Christ and just want everybody in the world to be saved and to know him and have the gospel and they don't even know how to articulate it really well and it bothers me a little bit to say do I think I'm better than them how am I going to stand beside them in judgment am I going to stand there and pretend like well I kept the truth and I held the truth if I didn't do enough with it but they did more with the light that they had I'm serious I'm a little nervous about that a little nervous about that so I don't want to get proud I don't want to get lifted up in my heart to thinking that because God's been gracious to me therefore I'm better than these people around me because they're his people are now he calls them to come in and view it and see look what I'm going to do to mine my own because of their pride father as we dismiss thank you for your word thank you lord that it challenges us thank you for its purity thank you lord for giving this book to us and helping us to rightly divide it and to to stand for it and to study it lord please help us to have compassion upon the wicked in our lives the lost among us help us to see their eternity in hell in the lake of fire and to believe it lord give us that vision give us a burden for the souls help us lord to be obedient to your calling and not to allow fear or anything to hold us back may we not allow the things the gifts that we have in this world and the riches in this land to distract us from our calling and duty to serve you first and to be a light and to hold forth the word of life we thank you for your grace to us help us to be faithful and obedient to serving you and please use us we pray this in Jesus name amen amen we'll see you Saturday men you