It's nice to be with you tonight. I was in a church in North Eust just a couple of weeks ago
and everybody sat at the back. There were only ten and the church was twice the length of this one
so I really appreciate you sitting fairly close tonight. It was a kind of night just like tonight
outside but the one good thing about it is I had no problems parking my car because we were away
in the middle of nowhere but tonight here I had problems parking but it's good to be here
and this is the sort of a book, it's the sort of chapter that I don't think any preacher would
choose to preach on. So when Johnny sent it to me I thought oh here we go. So if you've got your Bible
it's the book of Amos and it's chapter 7. I'm reading from the English Standard Version ESV.
This is God's Word. This is what the Lord God showed me. Behold he was forming locusts
when the latter growth was just beginning to sprout and behold it was the latter growth
after the king's mowing. When they had finished eating the grass of the field I said oh Lord God
please forgive. How can Jacob stand? He's so small. The Lord relented concerning this. It shall not be
said the Lord. This is what the Lord God showed me. Behold the Lord God was calling for a judgment by fire
and it devoured the great deep and was eating up the land. Then I said oh Lord God please cease.
How can Jacob stand? He's so small. The Lord relented concerning this. This also shall not be
said the Lord. This is what he showed me. Behold the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb
line with a plumb line in his hand and the Lord said to me Amos what do you see? And I said a plumb
line. Then the Lord said behold I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel. I will never
again pass by them. The high places of Isaac shall be made desolate and the sanctuaries of Israel
should be laid waste and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword. Then Amaziah the
priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel saying Amos has conspired against you in the midst of
the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos has said Jeroboam shall
die by the sword and Israel must go into exile away from his land. And Amaziah said to Amos oh seer go
fly away to the land of Judah and eat bread there and prophesy there but never again prophesy at Bethel
for it is the king's sanctuary and it is a temple of the kingdom. Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah
I was no prophet nor a prophet's son but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs.
But the Lord took me from following the flock and the Lord said to me go prophesy to my people Israel.
Now therefore hear the word of the Lord. You say do not prophesy against Israel and do not preach
against the house of Isaac. Therefore thus says the Lord your wife shall be a prostitute in the city
and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword and your land shall be divided up with a
measuring line. You yourself shall die in an unclean land and Israel shall surely go into exile away from
its land. And this is God's word. Just a brief prayer. Father we thank you for these great truths that echo
down to us from the dawn of history. We thank you that we're able to have a look here at the sermon notes as it were of this
preacher of long ago. And we just ask for your help tonight that we'll somehow see what he saw
and we'll be able to understand what this is all about. Grant us your help for Jesus' sake. Amen.
Amen. As we open up this seventh chapter tonight and enter into the last section of the book of Amos,
six times in as many verses in the chapter, he refers to the God of Israel as the Lord God,
or as the NIV has it, the sovereign Lord. And in using that language, I think Amos is just reminding us
that the God of the Bible is really God. For the first six chapters, you will know by now
that the imminent judgments of the sovereign Lord have been the burden of the message
that Amos has been called to preach to the people of his day and to Israel in particular.
But what we mustn't overlook is that along with this unpopular, unpalatable message of judgment,
there are also little shafts of light. If you read the prophecy carefully, little shafts of light
that would encourage us to believe that the God of infallible justice
is also a God of incredible mercy.
And I think it's this that guarantees the bringing to pass of God's saving purposes in the world.
If it was just justice and judgment, we would all be wiped out.
But we haven't been wiped out because God is a God of mercy.
The line to the coming of Messiah was being preserved, even amid all the gloom and doom
in the northern kingdom of Israel in the 8th century BC.
No question about that.
And the graphic pictures of national judgment in the book of Amos are really preparing us,
I think, for the final eternal judgment that is sure to come.
And yet at the same time, thinking on this theme of judgment, the book is moving relentlessly
to this conclusion.
There's hope.
There's a message of hope.
There are little glimmers of hope peppering the book.
And eventually, Amos is going to tell us, and you feel you want to hear it a lot sooner than this,
but he's going to tell us in chapter 9, the last chapter, that there is hope for us all.
And this is ultimately to be found in the promises concerning the Lord Jesus Christ.
So I'm a bit of a blow-in tonight.
I know you've had six chapters expounded to you, and after I go, you're going to have another two expounded to you.
What I want to do is to try and confine myself to this seventh chapter.
And I want to look with you tonight at three things about Amos in chapter 7,
in terms of his all-round ministry.
I didn't know until this afternoon that the title for tonight is Seeing It As It Is.
I gave my own title to it when I was preparing, An All-Round Ministry.
So I want us just to have a wee peep at Amos in this chapter.
And the first thing I want to draw your attention to is that he's a man of prayer.
You could easily miss that, but you mustn't miss it, and I mustn't miss it.
The writer to the Hebrews tells us that in the past, God spoke in different ways and at different times through the prophets.
Amos is a classic example of that.
In the Old Testament, the prophets, they sometimes received the word of God by way of revelatory visions.
That's how God spoke to them.
And this was true of Amos, way back at the very beginning of the prophecy, in the very first verse of this book.
He saw before he spoke.
He was a seer.
He saw before he spoke.
A vision is not about seeing what isn't there.
A vision is about seeing what is there.
It's about seeing things as they really are, and then saying what God wants him to say about what he has seen.
That's what's really happening here.
It's a message given directly by God.
It's not invented.
It's not dreamed up.
It's not imagined by the person receiving it.
And if you're watching carefully and listening carefully as we read through the chapter there, there are three visions in this chapter.
But we want to look at the first two only.
Just for a moment.
We'll come to the third one later.
But we want to look at the first two visions.
To see Amos, in particular, as a man of prayer.
So, let's look at the visions.
What Amos saw in these verses, and we're looking at verses 1 through 6 here.
What Amos saw in these visions, he began to speak.
And he began to write down in words that ordinary people like you and I can understand.
And that tells us something.
Every preacher, and there are, I'm quite sure, a few preachers sitting here tonight.
Every preacher needs to be convinced.
And he needs to be confident of the fact that nothing can compare with the spoken word.
Nothing.
Not drama.
Not visual aids.
Not mime.
Not dance.
Nor indeed any other non-verbal methods of communication.
I'm not saying God can't speak through these other things.
But nothing can compare with the word of God coming in words addressed to our minds and our understanding.
The first vision he sees is that of devouring locusts.
In this vision, God forms swarms of locusts as a potter forms his vessel made of clay.
And that's telling us that God is gloriously active in the normal processes of the created order.
He's obviously made these locusts.
Created these locusts.
And here he gathers them together with the specific intent of them coming across the land of Israel.
Not just in their hundreds of thousands, but probably in their millions to strip the land bare.
I don't know whether you've ever been in a country where you've had a plague of locusts.
I was in Kenya once.
And we had a plague of locusts.
I was covered from head to toe.
And when we got back home into the house, they were clambered onto the windows.
It was an astonishing thing.
The sky was full of them.
And it's that kind of thing that you have here.
God's obviously made the locusts.
He's gathered them together with a specific intent of them coming across the land in their hundreds of thousands to strip the land bare.
The prospect of a splendid crop of grass is being endangered.
The first crop mentioned here, known as the king's mowing, that would be safely gathered in during October.
But the picture here is that of the second crop of lush grass.
After the late rains, during March and April, that crop is going to be devastated by these locusts.
That's the vision Amos sees.
And when it takes place, total ruin stares the whole countryside in the face.
No pasture for the cattle, for the animals, for six months.
And a big problem for the people.
The animals wouldn't survive.
Would the people survive?
That's the first vision.
The second vision is of this consuming fire.
And it's that of God sending fire into his controversy with Israel.
The burning summer heat would produce such a drought that the whole land would be dried up.
Completely devastated.
And it's presenting us again with another picture of even greater severity than that of the plague of locusts.
The locusts would only destroy a crop.
Whereas this fire was going to dry up the whole land, including every place where water was to be found.
And you look at that and it gives us a foretaste, does it not?
Of what is recorded in 2 Peter 3.10 with reference to the end time.
The day of the Lord will come like a thief, said Peter.
The heavens will disappear with a roar.
The elements will be destroyed by fire.
And the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.
These judgments are a kind of a forerunner to the final judgment.
Now these are visions that haven't occurred as yet when Amos preaches and writes.
The content of these things hasn't really taken place.
They may very well refer to literal locusts and literal fire, bringing famine, bringing drought.
But I think it's only fair to say that some commentators, including John Calvin, believe that they actually symbolize an invading army of men.
That's how Calvin sees it.
Now it's not important for our purposes tonight to know one way or the other.
But however you view it, there can be no doubt that these acts of God in judgment, when they occurred, they would utterly ruin and devastate this nation.
What's important for us is that we take careful note in this and not miss it on the way through, of Amos' response to what he sees and understands in these two visions.
When Amos sees what's in God's agenda for Israel, what does he do?
He gives himself to prayer.
And I think that's the important point we need to grasp from it.
Following the visions are intercessions.
Amos has a lesson to teach us here.
He converts what he sees and what he understands by what he sees into prayer.
He doesn't think to himself, okay, sara, sara, whatever will be, will be.
That would have been to embrace fatalism.
No, he didn't do that.
He prayed.
And if I may be allowed to say this, the man who truly understands the doctrine of the sovereignty of God will believe in the importance and absolute necessity of prayer.
He'll not sit back with his arms folded and say, well, God's going to do it, God will do it.
No, no, not at all.
I would be surprised.
And if I had to ask you the question, do you believe in prayer?
I would be very surprised if anyone within these walls would say no.
Surely we all believe in prayer.
But the reason we know this man believed in prayer is because he prayed.
He didn't say, I believe in prayer.
He prayed.
That's how we know he believed in prayer.
If disasters are to be averted, if deliverances are to be experienced, if doors are to be opened, if doubts are to be scattered, if divine intervention is to happen, we must give ourselves as the people of God to prayer.
I think that's the lesson we learn from Amos here.
That's exactly what Amos did on both occasions.
He prays in verse 2 after the vision of the locusts.
And then in verse 5 after the vision of the consuming fire.
Listen to him pray.
They're very short prayers.
He cries out in verse 2,
Oh, Lord God, please forgive.
How can Jacob stand?
How can he survive?
He's so small.
And then in verse 5 he cries out,
Oh, Lord God, please cease.
I beg you to stop.
How can Jacob stand?
How can Jacob survive?
He's so small.
You see, the situation was this.
The people of the land of Israel thought they were something special.
They thought they were the people.
They were proud.
They were spiritually proud.
They were self-sufficient.
But Amos knew better than that.
So he pleads on their behalf for mercy.
He pleads with the Lord on their behalf for forgiveness.
He humbles himself before the Lord on their behalf.
And he acknowledges, if the people will not do it,
their smallness and their sinfulness.
He tells the Lord in just a couple of sentences,
he tells the Lord,
Lord, if you don't step in and do something for these people,
they're going to be blown away by your judgment.
And cease to be.
And what happened in answer to his prayer?
God held back his hand from judgment.
On both occasions we read,
The Lord relented and said,
This shall not be.
Now some translations have the words,
The Lord repented.
Not the Lord relented.
Some translations have the words,
The Lord repented.
But as John Wycliffe says,
God doesn't change his mind,
as men do,
but he changes his course of action in answer to prayer.
And that change is quite consistent with his eternal purpose.
Now you need to think that through.
What I'm trying to do is explain the unexplainable.
There is a mystery here with regards to the sovereign God.
But the bottom line is that the eternal purposes of a sovereign God
are continually being worked out through the prayers of his people.
Even John Wesley,
who gets a bad press in some circles,
even Wesley believed that.
He said that the prayers of the saints were the decrees of God being worked out.
Now from our perspective,
with our little finite fallen minds,
and from our viewpoint,
it may appear at times when we pray
as though there has been a change of mind on God's part.
But it is, in actual fact,
simply a change in his course of action.
That's what happened with these two visions.
Judgment was deferred because Amos prayed.
He humbled himself,
and he prayed for mercy,
and he prayed for forgiveness,
and the judgment was averted,
and it was postponed,
but it was not annulled,
and it was not cancelled.
God doesn't change his mind.
God didn't change his mind,
but he can change his course of action
when people give themselves to prayer.
Now you need to think that through and work that out,
but that's what's happening here.
Amos, the man of prayer.
Here's the second thing.
Amos and the message of the plumb line.
Verses 7 through to 9.
It brings us to the third vision,
the vision of the plumb line.
Having said all that I've said,
under the last heading,
Amos, the man of prayer.
Let me just say this.
I'm sure you've heard people say it before.
There is a time,
I know not when,
a place,
I know not where,
that seals the destiny of men
for glory or despair.
And no amount of praying will alter that.
Or divert it,
or avert it,
or defer it,
or postpone it.
When you consider this third vision,
you can see from verses 7 through 9,
the Lord's standing by a wall.
It's been built true to plumb.
He has a plumb line in his hand.
And the Lord asked me,
what do you see, Amos?
A plumb line,
I replied.
Then the Lord said,
look,
I am setting a plumb line
among my people Israel.
I will spare them no longer.
The high places of Isaac
will be destroyed
and the sanctuaries of Israel
will be ruined.
With my sword,
I will rise against
the house of Jeroboam.
He was the king
in the northern kingdom.
The sovereign Lord
is standing with a plumb line
in his hand
to test this wall.
The message in this vision,
as distinct from the first two visions,
is crystal clear.
The message here is that
with regards to these people,
the day of grace is over
and judgment is inevitable.
The time of his mercy
has run out
and no prayer,
no prayer
is to be offered.
That's the striking thing here.
That's the frightening thing here.
It's as if God is saying
in this particular vision,
enough
is enough.
And this is a very solemn thing.
Here is God
whose name and nature is love.
Here is God,
the master builder.
And he's standing beside
a perpendicular wall
that clearly represents
the nation of Israel.
He had set his love upon them.
Brought them into being
as a nation.
He had protected them.
He had provided for them
not just during their wilderness wanderings,
but over the centuries.
He had given them his law,
the Torah.
And it was his law
that symbolized
by the plumb line
in his hand.
It was his word
that made them
what they were
in times past.
It was his word to them
that had galvanized them
into being
the people of God.
He had said to them
in chapter 3
of this prophecy,
you only have I known
of all the families
in the earth.
That's what he said to them.
You only have I known.
But he expected them
to say to him,
you only will we worship.
They were different
from all the other nations.
They were his chosen people.
Even people who've got problems
with the doctrine of election
would never have a problem
with that with regards to Israel.
They were his chosen people.
He had redeemed them
from Egypt.
They were called to be
an obedient people.
They were called to be
holy people,
even as God is a holy God,
as they ordered their lives
according to the law
and according to the testimony,
according to the Torah.
But those days
had long since gone,
it would appear
in this vision.
God brings the exact
same plumb line
to the exact same wall
that he had built
from the calling of Abraham
out of Ur of the Chaldees
up to the days of Moses,
the wall representing
the nation.
He brings the plumb line out
in order to inspect
the nation.
And in order to carefully
examine the nation,
the Puritans used to say,
God is a precisionist.
And here's God
measuring the nation
against his own standards
of measurement
as in the law
and as he does so,
he notices the wall
is bending
and it's tottering
and it's out of line
and the cracks
are appearing everywhere
and it's about to fall
and come crashing
down to the ground.
In this vision,
Israel has failed
to pass the test
of the Torah.
The God of creation,
the God of eternity,
the God of history,
the God of Israel,
the sovereign Lord,
he can spare them
no longer.
They had become
an embarrassment
to him.
They had paid no heed
to the law
and to the testimony
over a long period
of time,
even though God
had sent his servants
to them,
his prophets to them.
They thought they knew
better than God.
substituting man-made
centers of religion,
introducing man-made ideas
into their religious
practices,
they're going to be
destroyed.
God has made up
his mind.
The high places
in the northern
kingdom of Israel
were repeating
the error of those
who were building
the Tower of Babel.
They thought they
could get closer
to God by climbing
steps and erecting
buildings that were
reaching up to heaven
and God tells the
nation of Israel
through the lips
of Amos,
the high places
of Isaac
will be destroyed
and the sanctuaries
of Israel
will be ruined.
With my sword
I will rise
against the house
of Jeroboam.
When the Assyrians
would come
and they came
in 721 BC,
when they would come
all these things
that they had done
and treasured,
they would have to go.
What I'm saying to you,
and I say this
with thought in this,
I'm not saying this
carelessly,
there is a time
when even praying
can't make any difference.
The prophet Jeremiah
was told something
similar by the Lord
in Jeremiah 7 and 16.
God said to Jeremiah,
do not pray
for this people,
nor offer any plea
or petition for them.
Do not plead with me
for I will not
listen to you.
That's what God
said to Jeremiah.
It's in the Bible.
So why mustn't
Amos pray
for these people?
Why mustn't he pray?
They are guilty
of idolatry.
They had crossed
the point of no return.
Do you think
it's possible
to do that?
God said to Jeremiah,
do you not see what,
this is with regards
to the southern kingdom,
do you not see
what they're doing
in the towns of Judah
in the streets
of Jerusalem?
The children
are gathering wood,
the fathers light the fire,
the women need the dough,
and make cakes of bread
for the queen of heaven.
They pour out
drink offerings
to other gods
to provoke me to anger.
Who's doing this?
Some tribe
in the middle
of Papua New Guinea?
No,
these are the people
of God.
And the same message
was given to Jeremiah
in chapter 11,
verse 14,
to a people
who had broken
the same covenant stipulations
again and again.
God said to Jeremiah,
don't pray for this people
nor offer any plea
or petition for them
because I will not listen
when they call to me
in the time
of their distress.
Do you know what's happening?
Do you know what the picture
Amos is getting here
in this vision?
What was happening
was that Israel's creator
is now becoming
her executioner.
Now,
the book of the law
that they had jettisoned
is the book
that is now going
to judge them.
The writing's on the wall
in this vision.
Like Belshazzar
in the book of Daniel,
they're weighed in the balances
and they're found wanting.
Constant rejection
of the Lord
led to ultimate rejection
by the Lord.
This frightening thing
still happens,
brothers and sisters.
When you have a people
who are privileged
to hear the word of God
on a regular basis,
I would wager
that you're sure
to find somebody
in that gathering
is going to continually
reject it
until one day
God eventually
rejects that person,
gives them up,
to use Paul's phrase
in Romans 1.
Gives them up
to their own desires
and no amount
of praying.
No amount
of praying
will ever be able
to change their destiny.
I'm just saying tonight,
don't let that person
be you.
Amos had stopped
preaching
in order to pray.
Now he must
stop praying
in order to preach.
Now both these things
are vital
and both have their place
in the economy of God.
God,
there was a time
to pray
and there's a time
not to pray.
But let's look finally
at how he was called
to exercise
the ministry of preaching
now as I bring us
to a final conclusion.
Amos,
the man of prayer.
Have a wee look
at this chapter
when you go home.
Just see how brief
his prayers were,
how pointed they were,
how simple they were,
how profound they were.
Amos,
the man of prayer.
What he sees,
what he understands
by what he sees,
puts him down
on his knees
to pray.
Then have a look
at Amos
and the message
of this plumb line.
Keep in mind,
this wall
is Israel.
It's bending,
it's tottering,
it's cracking,
it's going to crush
to the ground
because it's being measured
by the very plumb line
that made them
the people of God.
It's now judging them.
Now Amos
in the ministry of preaching
from verse 10
to the end.
We've no doubt
that we've read
some of his sermon notes
in the earlier chapters,
but there are some aspects
of Amos' preaching
that are mentioned
exclusively
here in the seventh chapter
that I want to leave you with.
They're worth considering
and especially
if anybody in here
is giving serious thought
to preaching
being God's will
for their lives.
Two things in particular
to pay attention to
that are of great importance
from this passage,
which incidentally
is the one
autobiographical section
in the whole book.
The first is this.
I want to underline
the origin
of authoritative preaching,
the origin
of authoritative preaching.
How did such a man
as Amos
ever get himself
involved
in the prophetic ministry,
in preaching
the word of God?
Well, let him speak
for himself.
We read from verse 10 onwards
in a conversation
he had with Amaziah,
who was the priest
at Bethel,
during which time
Amos tells us
how it all began.
We read in verse 14 and 15,
that Amos said
to this Amaziah,
I was neither a prophet,
he says,
nor a prophet's son,
but I was a shepherd
and I took care
of sycamore fig trees,
but the Lord took me
from tending the flock
and said to me,
go,
prophesy to my people Israel.
And you read that passage.
I tell you what came
to my mind
when I read it.
That passage in 1 Corinthians
chapter 1.
Brothers,
think of what you were
when you were called.
Not many of you
were wise by human standards,
not many influential,
not many of noble birth,
but God chose
the foolish things
of the world
to shame the wise.
God chose the weak things
of the world
to shame the strong.
He chose the lowly things
of this world,
the despised things,
the things that are not,
to nullify the things that are
so that no one
may boast before him.
Who was this guy Amos?
He was no religious professional.
He hadn't even been groomed
in one of the prophetic schools,
one of the schools
of the prophets.
And he certainly hadn't been
given the opportunity
to study for a theological degree
at the University of Jerusalem.
Although there is nothing wrong
with getting a theological degree,
but this man's not in that league.
But he's called by God.
And he's called by God
to preach God's word.
And this is what gives him
his authority
to do what he's doing.
He's probably a man of few words
under normal circumstances.
I mean, he's a shepherd.
He was used to his own company
on the hills
looking after his sheep.
He's a very ordinary guy,
it would appear.
He's doing a hard day's work.
And he apparently needed,
you know,
to take on an extra job
on the side
gathering figs
to keep body and soul together.
But he knew something
of the grace of God
in his life.
And he knew he was doing
what he was now doing
because God had called him.
He didn't choose his vocation.
He hadn't waken up one morning
and said,
I would like to be a prophet.
He hadn't responded
to an advert for a vacancy
in the evangelical times
of his day.
He had an unmistakable
call from God.
Now, we might call this man,
forgive the term,
a layman.
He's a layman.
He had been faithful
as a shepherd
looking after sheep
with four legs.
And the Lord
puts his hand on him
and says,
now I want you to look
after my sheep,
those that have got two legs.
You've had plenty of training.
Now I want you to go
and talk to my people
and faithful deliver
a message to them.
It was as simple as that.
It was as serious as that.
But when it comes to authority,
when you read Bob Files
commentary on this,
it isn't the prophet.
The authority is not in him.
It's in the prophecy.
It isn't the messenger.
It's the message.
It isn't the preacher.
It's the preaching
that stamps it all
with divine authority.
It's the authority
of the word
given by God
and not the personality
of the preacher
that's all important.
Even when the preacher
knows he's called by God
and even when he takes
his calling seriously
and even when he prepares
himself thoroughly,
the authority
in preaching
is this book here
and woe betide
any man
who tries to preach
anything else.
The second thing
and the last thing is
opposition
to authoritative preaching.
Apparently,
Amos' preaching
had a considerable
impact on the nation
even although
the people
didn't repent.
that seems like
a contradiction
in terms.
But there it is
from the king
and the throne
downwards.
I think it's all
summed up.
Here's the response
of the nation
at all the different levels.
Verse 10,
The land is not able
to bear his words.
What a statement that is.
The land is not able
to bear his words.
They couldn't stomach it.
They didn't listen.
They certainly heard
loud and clear
what he was saying.
They got the message.
If we could picture
what was taking place,
God's word
must have come
like a fire,
like a double-edged sword,
like a hammer
coming from the lips
of Amos.
It was a ministry
that burned,
that purged,
that cut to the quick,
that smashed to pieces
the status quo
in the nation
from top to the bottom.
I like to think of Amos
as the 8th century BC
equivalent of John the Baptist.
Nobody was coming up
to Amos after he preached
and said,
well done son,
that was a great sermon.
I tell you,
they were shaking
in their shoes.
But for the vast majority
of them,
it didn't make
a slight bit of difference.
Such a faithful preacher,
such authoritative preaching
as you can imagine,
is sure to be misrepresented.
It's sure to be misunderstood.
What he says
is liable to be twisted
and perverted.
That's exactly what happened.
And who by?
The religious professionals.
Ahaziah,
the priest
from Bethel,
he conspires against him.
He wants to get rid of him.
A-S-A-P
as soon as possible.
So he accuses Amos
of things
of which he wasn't guilty.
Amos wasn't guilty
of an attempted coup
of the king.
Not at all.
Nor had he predicted
Jeroboam's death.
Although Amosiah
said he had.
It's true that Amos
spoke of the death
of the house of Jeroboam,
but not of the death
of the king.
He spoke of God's sword
rising against
the dynasty of Jeroboam,
but not against Jeroboam
himself as a person.
So Amosiah
is twisting it.
Personalizing
what the preacher says
is a common tactic
by those who want
to discredit the preacher
and his preaching.
They did it
with the apostle Paul.
Read Galatians.
Amosiah the priest,
he comes across
as an unscrupulous politician
speaking out
against Amos,
the uncompromising prophet.
He resents
what Amos is preaching.
He'll go to any lands
to have this prophetic
voice silenced.
He tells Amos
in verse 12
to go back
to where he came from
and prophesy there.
He's telling them,
will you go back
south of the border, son?
Earn your money there.
He may very well
be implying
in what he's saying
that Amos is in
this whole thing
for the money
just like Amaziah
was in it for the money
and that Amos
was a hired hand
just like Amaziah
was a hired hand.
But of course Amos wasn't.
But he's reminding Amos
for sure
that he's not a preacher
because he's not
been officially registered
or personally recognized
in Israel.
Amos,
this is not your patch.
This is not your pitch.
It's my patch.
It's my pitch.
Off you go.
And he accuses Amos
of invading his space
and preaching on his turf
and on his territory.
How did Amos respond to that?
Verses 16 and 17.
He said to Amaziah,
you say stop preaching.
But this is what the Lord says.
When I was in Ballymen,
I was in Ballymen for 10 years.
I was in a big church.
And there was a few
sort of things being said.
You know,
grapevine,
is that what you call it.
And the elders' court
was convened
and some of these things
were brought to our attention
and this wee man
in the elders' court
is,
oh,
he was almost 80 years of age.
He put it like this.
They say,
what do they say?
Let them say.
Let's keep on preaching the Bible.
You say,
stop preaching.
Is that what you're saying, Amaziah?
But this is what the Lord says.
Amaziah wants to see Amos go away,
never to come back.
But Amos tells Amaziah
that he's the one
who's going to go away
and the whole nation
will go with him,
the northern part of the country.
And it's Amaziah
who'll never come back.
Unconverted men,
hired men,
men who are in it for the money
or because they think
it's a cushy number,
they don't like to hear
a message on judgment.
Even if that message
at times is tinged with mercy,
they can't stand it.
They don't like
the whole counsel of God.
When Paul preached
in his missionary journeys,
we're told he reasoned
with people
on the truth of judgment.
I can't think of a subject
that will give more bite
to preaching
than the certainty
of judgment.
Can you?
I can't think of any other subject
that will cause people
to look for the healing balm
of the gospel
of the Lord Jesus
more than the message
of judgment.
Can you?
Now thankfully,
it's not the only note
that needs to be struck,
but it is a note
that is missing
in today's Western world
as it teeters
on the brink of disaster,
just like Israel
in the 8th century BC.
John Piper says,
sometimes the people
need a holy fright.
Amos was the guy
who brought it.
It's thought by some
that Amaziah
was eventually able
to have the prophet Amos
deported back to the south.
If that's the case,
but no proof of it,
his voice may have been silenced
in the north,
but he became one of the first
of the writing prophets,
and although he's long since dead,
he's still speaking today.
I don't want to steal
anybody's thunder,
but as you go through this book
with its recurring theme
of judgment,
it's important
not to lose sight
of what's coming
in the last chapter
where God's mercy
becomes clearer
as the long night
of judgment
comes to an end.
I picked up a book
by Mark Deaver.
Some of you will know
who I'm talking about,
American.
He says he loves
to answer the question,
how are you doing?
You know, people,
how are you doing?
He loves to answer
the question,
better than I deserve,
is how he loves
to answer that question.
Better than I deserve,
and he says,
because it reminds him
of the gospel.
Well, brothers and sisters,
can I tell you something?
If it was only down
to justice being done,
you and I would be
cast off.
Even in how we've lived
the Christian life,
never mind how we lived
before we were Christians,
but God is a God
of incredible mercy.
Can I give you the words
of a hymn just to finish?
Just a verse.
After all these years.
Is this not the language
of our hearts tonight?
All of us,
if we really know ourselves
in the light of these
great truths that are
in this book,
nothing in my hands I bring.
Simply to thy cross
I cling.
Naked.
Come to thee for dress.
Help us.
Look to thee for grace.
Foul.
I to the fountain fly.
Wash me, Savior,
or I die.
We said it a long time ago,
did we not?
Are we not saying it again tonight?
God, be merciful to me.
I am a sinner.
You're the judge of all the earth.
You're going to judge
the secrets of all men.
What Amos is saying here
way back in the 8th century BC
is just a forerunner
of the great day
that is yet to come.
But we know
that in Christ
the promises of God
are all yes
and amen.
And there's hope
for us all
in Jesus.
Let's just pray.
Father, thank you
for Amos,
his fearlessness,
his faithfulness.
Help us, Lord,
in the small way
that we are able
to be just as fearless
and just as faithful
and to preach your truth
and to live out
your truth in love
and grace
and with mercy
but not to choose
the things
that we want to say.
To say the things
that you want us to say
even if that strikes
the note
of a righteous judgment.
Hear our prayer.
For Jesus' sake,
Amen.