Amos 4:10-12

[0:00] I've got two bookmarks, actually. Just started reading the book in my daily reading today. Just began the book of Amos. So that was a little interesting for me. So we're in chapter four and Lord willing, we'll finish the chapter here tonight.

[0:16] Right? And I said a couple times already in covering this chapter, it's a hard hitting chapter where Amos comes with such strong sarcasm, calling them kind, a bunch of cows, a cattle, and telling them that the Lord has sworn by his holiness that he is going to visit and he is going to remove you from your homes and from your houses and destroy your religious institutions.

[0:43] And he's going to just, he's done with you. And I'll show you why. But what we've discerned already is that the Lord has given us two forms of correction, two forms of punishment, or I guess correction is the right word to start with.

[0:58] The reproof is the first one, and then the rod is the second one. It begins with preaching. It begins with prophets that he would send to them and say, thus saith the Lord. And they would, they tell them your ways are evil and turn back to God.

[1:13] And they refused to hear their prophets and they ignored the word of God. And then he would send punishment to them. And where we're at in this chapter, in chapter four, we see that there's five separate and distinct punishments that God sent to these people.

[1:27] These were not across the entire land to just completely wipe it out. As a matter of fact, at the time of Amos' preaching, Israel as a kingdom is doing pretty well.

[1:38] And they're looking at this preacher like, what do you, what do we need to listen to you for? That we're pretty stable, we're pretty secure under their king, Jeroboam, the second one. Now, what he comes with is five different punishments. We've got through the first three in verses six through nine last week. And I parked there after the third one, after verse nine, and just revealed to you and tried to spend some time on how their hearts were hardened and how one of the most horrible things you can have is a hardened heart toward the Lord and toward his word and toward his will and toward him trying to move you and guide you through life.

[2:16] And to allow whatever it would be to set in, whether it's bitterness or pain or fear or sorrow or just stubbornness or pride, whatever it would be that would set in on you to harden your heart against God.

[2:28] It's one of the worst things you can have. And it's going to be, you're going to be the one that loses out every time. So I'm going to back up to verse six and start through this. And then when we get through the first three, then we'll pick it up on the fourth judgment.

[2:42] And verse six, he begins by saying, and I also, I, the Lord, I also have given you cleanness of teeth and all your cities and want of bread and all your places. So that was famine. He sent famine to them. Yet you have not returned unto me, saith the Lord.

[2:58] Round two in verse seven. And also I have withholding the rain from you when there were yet three months to harvest. And I caused it to rain upon one city and caused it not to rain upon another city.

[3:09] One piece was rained upon and the piece were upon it rained not withered. So two or three cities wandered under one city to drink water, but they were not satisfied. So he sent them drought phase two. And you have not returned unto me, saith the Lord.

[3:23] Verse nine, I've spent you with blasting and mildew and your gardens and your vineyards, your fig trees and your olive trees increased. The palmer one devoured them, but ye have not returned unto me, saith the Lord.

[3:34] And then this last one after the famine, the drought. Now these, these creatures or diseases are overtaking their agriculture and their food production.

[3:45] And when that goes down, not just do the people hunger and starve, but their economy would collapse. And all of this, I believe, is isolated. It's not nationwide. It's not crippling them all the way to nothing.

[3:58] But that was the third one, the third thing that God did to his people to get them to turn to him. And so now we're going to begin with the fourth one in verse number 10. And we're going to start off tonight with more of a Bible study.

[4:10] And then we'll just learn something or try to learn something from the scripture. Because I want to arm you with understanding the word of God. I want you to, I want to challenge you to be reading your Bible on your own.

[4:22] Just you and this holy book. And you read it. And I want you to understand what you're reading. And I don't want it to be tripping you up if you can help it. And so the best thing you can do is to learn its words and to learn the way it's read.

[4:35] And the way things are expressed from the Lord. So let's look at verse 10. I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt. Your young men have I slain with the sword and have taken away your horses.

[4:46] And I've made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils. Yet have you not returned unto me, saith the Lord. The fourth time he says that, yet have you not returned unto me.

[4:58] Now the verse begins with God saying, I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt. The word pestilence can refer to a variety of things.

[5:11] And there's a lot of scripture that you could look at the word. You could look at things related to it. It goes a little bit. It's a bit broad. It could be some deadly plague that God sent among his people.

[5:23] Things that you're familiar with over history would be something like the Black Death. Some plague where people would have to quarantine and they'd have to separate themselves. Or the thing would just continue and continue and continue.

[5:35] It could be that God sent something like that. There's several passages in the Bible that allude to that sort of thought. He even threatened back in Deuteronomy 28 that he would put upon them all the diseases of Egypt.

[5:49] And so a lot of the commentators connect to that and say this was some kind of disease, some kind of plague that he was killing them with. In Numbers chapter 16, almost 15,000 Israelites died from what was called a plague.

[6:04] The people were murmuring against the Lord and against Moses and Aaron and a plague broke out among them. And so Aaron, the high priest, had to go get the censer in his hand and run out among the people and get the incense going among where the plague was.

[6:18] And the Bible says the plague was stayed. But almost 15,000, it was 14,700 that died in that thing. Now that's an example of a plague, of something that's killing people.

[6:30] But in addition to him saying that, he says that I've sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt, the verse says more than that. And so before we just accept that this is some disease, this is primarily what all the commentators say, it's some disease, a plague.

[6:47] But before we accept that, the rest of the verse reads, your young men have I slain with the sword and have taken away your horses. That seems very likely to be a reference to battle, sending out the young men to battle and the horses to battle and saying that I've slain them with the sword, I've taken away your horses.

[7:05] It very much seems to indicate there are a loss at battle. The verse finishes here and it says, I have made the stink of your camps to come up under your nostrils. So certainly there's death in the context.

[7:18] This is unlike the previous three where it was famine and drought and their crops are being destroyed. Now there's death. But when we look at this verse, I think it's all referring to the same thing.

[7:32] All one thing. The commentators of these, they all isolate each phrase and try to separate them to different events. I think it's all one event and I'll show you why.

[7:44] Look at the first statement. And it says, I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt. And that phrase ends with a grammatical mark called a colon.

[7:55] And I know that you don't care too much about this stuff, but you should care about some of this stuff because this is the way the King James holy words of God have been presented to you. And I'm not asking you to go get a degree in literature, but I am trying to teach you how these things work.

[8:11] What follows a colon is an explanation. It's not necessarily in addition to, but rather an explanation of. And I could give you examples of this, but let's just acknowledge that.

[8:25] And so in explanation of sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt, here's what happened. Your young men have I slain with the sword, have taken away your horses, and I made the stink of your camps to come up on your nostrils.

[8:38] That's explaining him sending among them the pestilence after the manner of Egypt. Look back at Leviticus chapter 26. And I want to read a portion of this.

[8:52] We could have come to this earlier in this chapter, but I think now would be the right time to come and read this. Leviticus chapter 26. And I'm going to read a portion of this chapter, so just follow along and stay with me.

[9:14] And we're going to start in verse 14. And go for a little ways. So this is Leviticus. This is God instructing his people as to what he's going to do to them when they come into their land, if they cease to obey his laws.

[9:31] Verse 14. But if you will not hearken unto me and will not do all these commandments, and if you shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgment so that you will not do all my commandments, but that you break my covenant, I also will do this unto you.

[9:47] I will even appoint over you with you terror, consumption, and the burning ague. I don't know what that is. The burning ague. That shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart.

[9:59] You shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. And I will set my face against you, and you shall be slain before your enemies, that they that hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when none pursueth you.

[10:15] And if you will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then will I punish you seven times more for your sins. And I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heaven as iron and your earth as brass.

[10:26] Your strength shall be spent in vain, for the land shall not yield or increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits. And if you walk contrary unto me, will not hearken unto me, I will bring seven more, seven times more plagues upon you, according to your sins.

[10:40] You remember how Amos was saying, yet they not return unto me, so he did this, yet they didn't return unto me, so he did this. And here's Leviticus breaking down, saying, I'm going to do this, then if you don't want to hear that, then I'm going to do this.

[10:52] And it's kind of not exactly word for word, but it's the same concept, this unfolding right here in Amos. Verse 22 says, I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number, and your highways shall be desolate.

[11:09] And if you will not be reformed by me, by these things, but will walk contrary unto me, then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins.

[11:20] And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant. And when you are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you, and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.

[11:34] And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, they shall deliver you bread again by weight, and ye shall eat and not be satisfied. That was the fourth. Here comes the fifth. If you will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me, then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury.

[11:50] And I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcasses upon the carcasses of your idols.

[12:04] And my soul shall abhor you. And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and will not smell the savor of your sweet odors. And I will bring the land into desolation.

[12:15] Your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you. Your land shall be desolate, and your city's waste. Then shall the land enjoy your Sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies' lands.

[12:31] And he goes on. But I wanted to bring it all the way down to that thought about the land lying desolate, because that's going to come up. But you saw back there in verse 25, that I'll send the pestilence among you, and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.

[12:45] Verse 25 said, So back in Amos, we have this statement that, I sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt. Your young men have I slain with a sword, taken away your horses, made the stink of your camps to come up under your nostrils.

[12:59] It sounds to me like the pestilence is not a plague or a disease at all, but rather an enemy that God aroused to destroy Israel as they were come out to battle. It says in verse 10, the stink of your camps, not the stink of your cities or of your towns, but of your camps, which sounds to me like the men of war camping and all the death that surrounded them.

[13:21] Now, there's an additional thought to this, because there might be more to that than just that statement, that it was some enemy that God raised up and they destroyed. But what God says in Amos 4 and verse 10, I've sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt.

[13:38] After the manner of Egypt, and then he says, your young men have I slain with the sword. I'm reminded that in the same manner back in Egypt, he took credit for slaying the firstborn all over Egypt.

[13:52] And it wasn't necessarily the Lord that went into the homes to do it. He says that in one case, that I will not suffer the destroyer to go in if I see the blood. And so while the Lord takes credit for doing the slaying, it's called the destroyer or the destroying angel, which others call the angel of death.

[14:12] And look back at Psalm 78. We looked at this once a little bit ago when we were discussing the word evil. Psalm 78.

[14:23] There might be more to this thought of the pestilence than simply an enemy coming against them and killing them.

[14:40] In Psalm 78, when we're looking back at the manner of Egypt, a description of the plagues is given around verse 43, the signs in Egypt. In verse 44, the rivers and the blood.

[14:53] And you can just kind of skim down several verses. You'll see a mention of flies and frogs and the locust and the hail and the cattle being killed.

[15:04] And in verse 49, he cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath and indignation and trouble by sending evil angels among them. He made a way to his anger.

[15:14] He spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence and smote all the firstborn in Egypt. And so it looks like that word pestilence now is connected to evil angels that were sent to go in and to murder the firstborn where the blood was not applied to the lintel and the doorposts.

[15:35] And so connected to this, all of this, this angel of death as people call it, the additional thought that I have to this pestilence and to what it means is that it may not be an enemy at all that did the damage, but rather evil angels sent by God to destroy them for their wickedness and perhaps sending an enemy and bringing them out to war, but sending angels against them to destroy them.

[16:01] I'll show you one more case of this. Look back at 1 Corinthians chapter 21. 1 Corinthians 21.

[16:17] If it sounds wild to you, I mean, I get that thought, but I'm not going to take the time to send you to these places, but God said that when I take you from Egypt and I bring you into the land, I'm going to send my angel.

[16:30] He's going to go before you and he's going to deal with the Amorites and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. And there's a case where one angel, the angel of the Lord, shows up and slays 185,000 of the enemies of Israel in one night.

[16:45] And so this thought of God sending angels or spiritual beings into battle when they're coming nation against nation, that should come as no surprise.

[16:56] But in this case, God's flipping the script on Israel and saying where I was for you, now I'm against you and I'm coming against you. I have slain your young men with the sword. I sent the pestilence, which was reserved for your enemies is now for you.

[17:11] 1 Chronicles 21. This is where David sins and numbering the people and he's given three options of what his punishment will be when the prophet comes to him.

[17:21] And so start in verse number 11. So Gad came to David and said unto him, thus saith the Lord, choose thee either three years famine or three months to be destroyed before thy foes while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee, or else three days, the sword of the Lord, even the pestilence in the land and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the coast of Israel.

[17:48] And David chooses the third. Verse 14. So the Lord sent pestilence upon Israel and there fell of Israel 70,000 men and God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it.

[18:02] And as he was destroying, the Lord beheld and he repented him of the evil and said to the angel that destroyed, it is enough. Stay now thine hand. The angel of the Lord stood and so you know what happened.

[18:12] In verse 16, David lifts up his eyes, saw the angel of the Lord stand between the earth and the heaven, having the drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. So in my view here, the pestilence after the manner of Egypt seems not to be a plague at all in any way, but rather not even an earthly foe, but angels that are destroying among them, perhaps as they went out to face a Gentile enemy that God raised up against them.

[18:43] And so in verse 10, I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt. Explanation. Your men have I slain with a sword. He said, I did it and have taken away your horses and have made the stink of your camps to come up to your nostrils.

[18:57] Yet you have not returned unto me, saith the Lord. So that's as far as I'll go with that. I think there is a few more verses to add to it, to strengthen that. But at any rate, whatever it was, this was the fourth of five judgments or punishments that God's sending among his people.

[19:14] The fifth and final one now is mentioned in verse 11. So Amos 4 verse 11, I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning.

[19:28] Yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. So most of the commentators, I don't, I'm just telling you this because it's popular opinion and taught by many.

[19:39] Most of them, first, I cannot fathom this at all, but for some reason, they automatically go to saying it was an earthquake. In verse 11, I have overthrown some of you.

[19:51] Almost without fail, nine out of ten of the scholars and commentators say, this was some very incredible earthquake. And I'm scratching my head in the text saying, the word overthrown?

[20:05] Now, their greatest proof for this, it's not even a proof, but it's a mention back in chapter one in verse one. The very first verse of Amos mentions an earthquake. But the timing of that earthquake, it says that he's, the words of Amos, two years before the earthquake.

[20:23] And it makes no mention of that being connected to Amos' statement here at all, in any way. There's no way you can prove this from the Bible at all.

[20:34] And yet most, if not all the scholars, very high rate of the scholars, go and say this is an earthquake. That just completely is unreachable to me.

[20:45] So we'll just ignore that. Others attempt to take this read as a little bit more literal and say that, because it mentions Sodom and Gomorrah, it says, I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

[20:58] And they think, well, oh, Bran plucked out of the burning, so God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone. He rained it down out of heaven and just burned them up, everything. I mean, gone, completely gone.

[21:08] And so some take a literal view to say that God at some point must have commanded fire and brimstone to fall from heaven and to consume certain cities in Israel. And yet there's no Bible anywhere to back that up except an interpretation of the words of verse 11.

[21:25] So I think there is some Bible to study, and I want to take you to a few of these places to develop an opinion of probably likely what this is saying. Find Jeremiah chapter 49, comparing Scripture with Scripture.

[21:41] Jeremiah 49. And I'll start in verse 17 and 18.

[21:54] A reference here to Edom, specifically to Edom being desolate, to being emptied of its inhabitants. Jeremiah 49, 17.

[22:06] Also Edom shall be a desolation. Everyone that goeth by it shall be astonished and shall hiss at all the plagues thereof, as in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbor cities thereof, saith the Lord, no man shall abide there, neither shall the son of man abide in it.

[22:25] So you don't get the idea that God's raining fire and brimstone on Edom at all. You understand that God's going to remove them from their land, and he's going to do it just like Sodom and Gomorrah was uninhabitable, so is Edom going to be uninhabited.

[22:40] And that's all he says. He says, As in the overthrow, no man shall abide there. That's what happened with Sodom and Gomorrah. Nobody's abiding there. So look back at Isaiah now, chapter 13.

[22:56] And this time he's talking about Babylon. And watch how the same language is used. Isaiah 13, verses 19 and 20.

[23:13] This is a reference to the kingdom of the Medes, verse 17, coming in and taking over. I'll start in 17.

[23:24] Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver. And as for gold, they shall not delight in it. Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces. They shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb.

[23:35] Their eyes shall not spare children. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.

[23:50] And it describes beast dwelling there and some spiritual beings and creatures. Come back to Isaiah chapter 1, just the last verse on this, on this thought.

[24:02] So once again, it's as Sodom and Gomorrah, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, is what Amos says. He's just running them out.

[24:13] Look at Isaiah chapter 1. And before we read the verse, look at the very beginning of the book. It says, The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amos, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

[24:26] He's seeing a vision. He's seeing the future state of Jerusalem and Judah. It's not like this right now when he's going to go prophesy to Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, these kings.

[24:40] What he sees is not what they see because they're living in the present. He sees the future. And he sees in verse 7, Your country is desolate.

[24:52] He gets to see this with his eyes, the city being destroyed and nobody living there. Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Your land, strangers devour it in your presence.

[25:04] And it is desolate as overthrown by strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage and a vineyard as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers as a besieged city.

[25:16] Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant. We should have been as Sodom and we should have been like unto Gomorrah, meaning desolate, nobody living there.

[25:28] Now come back to Amos. In Amos, God had rendered some of their cities desolate and uninhabitable and overthrown by some Gentile powers.

[25:39] The timing of it shows in 2 Kings 13, the king of Syria coming down and threshing them and leaving very few of them in some cases. And that's not their whole nation wiped out off the earth, but it's the neighboring cities of Israel that neighbor Syria.

[25:58] So he comes into their land and just starts some of their towns just taking them out of there. And he pillages them and burns them to the ground. And so the Lord says, I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

[26:15] Like you're desolate and uninhabited up there too. And ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning. He gave them a chance to repent and he followed that with a punishment.

[26:27] And I want to rewind back to the statement from the beginning that God sends prophets to warn them and preach to them. Then he sends punishment. It's destruction and it's harm, but he does not make a full end of his people.

[26:39] He still wants them to return. And if they refuse both of these, the preaching and the punishment, then the only thing left to do is to remove them from their land as he did.

[26:50] And of course, again, it's not to make a full end of them. He's made these covenants with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is not going to make a full end of this nation. He's going to run them out of their land though.

[27:01] And as he did that exact thing. All right. So in verse 11, the end there, he says that you were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning. You escaped with, as the Bible says, with the skin of your teeth.

[27:15] Yet have you not returned unto me, saith the Lord. It's pretty common for people to experience some trauma, some very heightened, fearful occasion, a car accident, see their house burning, just go through some major thing and to call upon God when they're in that bad way.

[27:42] That traumatic thing scares them, it rattles them. It's normal. It's not constant, you know, but it's pretty common for people to turn to God. Our nation did that when we got attacked years ago, 9-11.

[27:55] And the whole nation now is in God we trust and showing up to church services. They like to say things like, it's finding religion during some time of desperation or some fearful time.

[28:09] Somebody gets caught committing a crime and they go to jail and in jail they find religion. they call it jailhouse religion because the idea is they're scared, they're sober minded and they see things for what they are and they choose the right thing in the moment.

[28:25] I can remember going to a jail and we held some services and I led this young man to Christ and he was, I knew where he was from. I didn't know him personally but through visiting him a few times I became to know some acquaintances and some connections to him and anyway, he was going to get out of jail in about two months I believe and so I went in there and just saw this, he seemed very authentic and I saw it as a time to try to disciple him and just to get him prepared and get him in church when he gets out so I went to him every Thursday night for a couple months and met with him in Bible study and he's all, I'm coming to church, I'm coming to church, I'm coming to church and the next time I saw that guy after he got out six months later was back in a jail service because he did get out but he never came to church and he went right back to his drug friends and down he went.

[29:12] He found a little jailhouse religion. I think he was saved, I believe it, I mean I'd spent time with the man but it was only when he was scared and it was only when he was focused and sober enough to think on what's right and that happens but these Jews, they barely escaped with their lives.

[29:34] They were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning like it's in the fire, it's already started to take over and they pulled it out, it's smoking but it's not going to burn because you pulled it out and God spared some of them.

[29:48] Their cities were burned, their homes were destroyed, they're going to have to start over somewhere but they have this hardened mindset that we're not going to start over with the Lord. We'll go to the next town and we'll find a place to stay but we're not going to bend our knee to God and that's what the Lord says, you were, I overthrew some of you, you were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning yet you have not returned unto me.

[30:14] I talked about it last week, this hardened heart, this nation has a hard heart. Beyond the preachers, these five distinct punishments, this chastisement and correction and you're just left with some reprobate Jews that refuse to turn to their own God.

[30:33] It's incredible to read this and to consider their hard heartedness. Keep your place but let's look at a couple quick verses in Proverbs. Find Proverbs 29.

[30:44] Proverbs 29. I reckon you're familiar with this verse, the first verse of the chapter.

[31:02] Proverbs 29 verse 1. He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck. What's going to happen to him? Shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy.

[31:16] And there is a truth presented in the Proverbs that is going to come to light against the children of Israel. Look back at chapter 17 of Proverbs. 17, 10 and 11.

[31:28] A reproof entereth more into a wise man than an hundred stripes into a fool.

[31:44] And there is the nation of Israel, fools that won't receive the punishment. Verse 11 says, An evil man seeketh only rebellion. Therefore, a cruel messenger shall be sent against him.

[31:57] And there they go. That's that nation right there. Come back to Amos and try to finish this or get a little further. Verse number 12 says, Therefore, that's five things, and they would not return unto me, saith the Lord.

[32:11] Therefore, thus will I do unto thee, O Israel. Thus, meaning the previous thing, I've overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, meaning he wiped out their cities, he sent nations against them, and they left them desolate and burned their cities to the ground.

[32:31] Therefore, thus will I do unto thee, to the ones that escaped, and to the rest of the nation that has not returned unto me, I'm going to leave your land desolate.

[32:41] And we read that back in Leviticus. And it's all over this Bible of what exactly God did there. Therefore, thus will I do unto thee, O Israel. Because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.

[32:55] Prepare to meet thy God. Some scary words for the Lord to be saying this through the prophet to this kingdom. He's not welcoming them home.

[33:05] He's not saying this in any kind of positive note. He's saying, you're going to meet me in judgment after you've refused my mercy, after you've ignored my pleas.

[33:16] You're going to meet me as a wicked man. In my sight, that's what you are. Let me put some Bible on what God thinks about the wicked. Come back to the Psalms.

[33:27] And there's just a few Psalms, right, one after another I want to turn you to. Chapter 5, Psalm 5. And these are words that in the giving of them, they're aimed at the heathen nations that are against God.

[33:42] They're aimed at the wicked. But it turns out that God's own people are the wicked. And so this is what's going to come on them. Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. This is how they're going to meet their God.

[33:53] Verse number, Psalm 5, verse 4 and 5. For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness. Neither shall evil dwell with thee.

[34:06] The foolish shall not stand in thy sight. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Look at Psalm 7 and verse 11.

[34:20] Psalm 7, verse 11. God judgeth the righteous and God is angry with the wicked every day. Psalm 9, verse 17.

[34:35] The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations, all the nations that forget God. In the context, it's the heathen that were against.

[34:48] Verse 19. Arise, O Lord, let not pertinent man fear. Let the heathen be judged. Put them in fear, O Lord, that the nations may know. You're looking outwardly at the other nations when he says this.

[35:01] But all the nations that forget God, the wicked shall be turned into hell. One more. Look at Psalm 11, verse 4 through 7. Psalm 11, verse 4. The Lord is in his holy temple.

[35:13] The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. The Lord trieth the righteous, but the wicked and him that loveth violence, his soul hateth.

[35:25] Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone and a horrible tempest. This shall be the portion of their cup. For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness.

[35:36] His countenance doth behold the upright. And he sends a preacher to his own wicked, sinful people. He says that I'm going to punish you, Amos 3, verse 2, for all your iniquities.

[35:50] He's come against his own people and he's overthrown some of them. He's given them famine and drought and taken away their crops. He's met them and destroyed and killed some of them and their army and disseminated their horses and their standing troops.

[36:12] And now he's like, okay, then this is what I'm going to do to you. You're ready to meet me and you're going to meet me as a wicked man in your sin.

[36:23] And so what does that tell you? You say, well, no, not Israel. Not Israel. They're God's chosen people. They're the apple of his eye. Look at Matthew chapter 8 and we're almost finished tonight.

[36:35] Matthew chapter 8. And I say, yes, Israel. He's given them so many chances, so merciful to them.

[36:52] Here's what Jesus Christ had to say when a Gentile man showed some belief and some faith in him. He commends the man for his faith, but he rebukes the Jews for their lack of faith.

[37:08] In verse number 10, when Jesus heard it, he marveled and said to them that followed, verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith. No, not in Israel.

[37:18] And I say unto you that many shall come from the east and west and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness.

[37:31] There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Those are Gentiles from the east west coming and sitting down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in a kingdom that's not theirs to inherit, but they're getting in because of their faith.

[37:47] But the children of the kingdom, Jews, that we're reading about some of them right back here in Amos, are going to be kicked out. They're going to be sent to hell in outer darkness and weeping and gnashing of teeth.

[37:59] So yes, those people, God's been more than merciful to them. It may not sound appealing tonight to discuss all this stuff and to see the judgments of God, but I want to give you something I consider a very positive takeaway in what's happening here and the things that we're studying.

[38:16] I know it's just doom and gloom and horror and wickedness and punishment and it's just nasty. But just speaking personally, I think many of you would echo this.

[38:29] I'm grateful to understand and for lack of better terminology, just to say, to come to terms with who the God of the Bible is. I'm grateful that his true character and his true nature as expressed in the word of God is understood and believed and proclaimed.

[38:52] He is not some soft, sissified, gender-neutral cloud or smiley face just waiting to bless everybody. Regardless of who talks like that or how modern Christianity imagines that he is, you know, high-fiving him with one hand and drinking a beer with the other one.

[39:09] Thank God that we have a little bit better handle on who the God of the Bible is. He's so holy that when his mercy and when his warnings are exhausted, his judgment comes.

[39:23] His judgment comes and it comes hot. Justice is served no matter who likes it, no matter who cares what anybody on this earth says or thinks about him.

[39:33] And I don't glory in the damnation of the wicked. And I don't glory in the judgment of the backslider either. But what I'm saying to you tonight is that I'm thankful that I've been pointed to the book where God has revealed himself clearly.

[39:53] Meaning I'm thankful that I've been taught to study the Old Testament and not just stay up there or just read a psalm a day or stay into those positive epistles or those things that Jesus has blessed or this person and blessed is that person and he heals everybody.

[40:11] The Bible is not a mystery. It's a revelation of who this person is, this God of glory, this creator. It reveals everything he wants to reveal about himself.

[40:24] And it's all exposed so clearly in the Old Testament. When we read it and study it, we don't want to never neglect the love of Christ, the compassion of Christ.

[40:37] I don't want to ever neglect that and pretend like we want a God of judgment. But we need to get the whole picture, the entire revelation of God. One more verse and we're done.

[40:48] Look at Jeremiah chapter number 9. And so with all of this punishment and gloom that we're reading about and God threatening even his own people that he redeemed and brought out of Egypt and gave them chance and time after time after time, even reading when it's coming to their end and their judgment, I don't get excited about that, but I'm just saying I am thankful to have a balanced view of who God is and not imagine him to be something so soft and so loving and just so compassionate that I can just do whatever I want to do and he's going to be the God that I want him to be.

[41:31] So it changes how I live my life and look upon him. Jeremiah 9, the end of this chapter, verse 23. Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches.

[41:51] But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me that I am the Lord, which exercise loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.

[42:11] For in these things I delight, saith the Lord. And you know how he finishes this? Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised.

[42:24] Egypt and Judah. How about that? Judah. The one that he is reserved and preserved with a king because of his covenant with David.

[42:37] And yet he's going to treat him like he does Egypt. And the children of Ammon and Moab and all that are in the outmost corners that dwell in the wilderness. For all these nations are uncircumcised and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.

[42:51] So he's against his people. You better believe it. But one thing, I love his statement and it's enlightening to get into Jeremiah chapter 9 where nobody reads and studies and find out God says this one time.

[43:06] Paul quotes it later on, but he says it one time in the Bible. You want to glory in something? Then you glory in understanding and knowing me. And you don't get to decide the terms of who God is.

[43:21] You go to the word of God and see who did this creature, this creator and being reveal himself to be. You understand and know him. You can only do that by getting in the book and you can only know a full and balanced view by getting in the Old Testament.

[43:37] You overlook that thing, you're not going to know what you're talking about. And that's the sad case of a lot of our brethren today. Born again believers in the church today don't have a balanced and sound view of their God because they're just in the New Testament with the wishy-washy and the love and the grace and overlooking the righteousness.

[43:59] He said loving kindness and then he said judgment and righteousness. And I delighted those things. You don't delight in those things. You don't delight in them.

[44:11] Not like God does. But if you want to understand and know him that's something to glory in. Get to know him. You get to know him by reading his book. Amen.

[44:23] Alright, we didn't finish the chapter but we tried. So Lord willing maybe not next week or the following but a few more weeks we'll get back to this. Next week we'll have communion here. So be here for that.

[44:33] Let's pray and be dismissed. Father, thank you for revealing yourself in this holy book. Lord may we go after you and seek to know you and understand you and may that be what we glory in like you said.

[44:47] Thank you for the insight that we get into your holiness and into your patience and your long suffering and mercy but also into your execution of judgment when it's deserved.

[44:58] Lord help us to tremble at your word to walk lightly before you in contrite spirit and humility to love you and serve you and worship you because you're God because you're holy because you're high and lifted up because we have nothing to come to you by but the righteousness of your son Jesus Christ and Lord use us for your glory fit us to do something that will be a pleasure to you minister through us to this lost world and draw souls to Calvary and help us to be faithful in doing what's right.

[45:33] Thank you for this church for each one here for the opportunity once again tonight to come together and to be in the word of God. It's a precious book. May we never ever ever take this for granted. So thank you again for this time.

[45:45] It's in Jesus name that we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[46:00] Thank you.