AMERICA Needs to Repent: Book of Amos 21

turning your Bible to the Book of Amos chapter 4 and as you're turning there let me remind you of a few things first of all we're in the third section of the book which is actually three sermons now in these three sermons Amos is trying to convince the Israelites that what he had prophesied against them was actually going to happen because they just didn't believe it and the reason they didn't believe it was because they're God's chosen people so in their mind they were safe God would never bring judgment on them sure he would bring judgment on the pagans the Gentiles but not his chosen people or at least that's what they thought so to convince them that God was going to bring judgment upon them Amos preached three sermons now last week we started on the second sermon we got about halfway through and I ran out of time so tonight we're going to pick up where we left off which is verse six so turn to Amos chapter four and let's read verses 6 through 12 now there's only 13 verses and you would think well why aren't we reading the thirteenth verse with the thirteenth verses two doxology and of course we're going to cover it tonight but verses 6 through 12 is its own little section and we want to keep it together so let's read verses 6 through 12 but I gave you also cleanness of teeth in all your cities and lack of bread and all your places yea you have not returned to me declares the Lord and furthermore I withheld the rain from you while there were still three months until harvest then I would send rain on one city and on another city I would not send rain one part would be rained on while the part not rained on would dry up so two or three cities would stagger to another city to drink water but would not be satisfied yet you have not returned to me declares the Lord I smoked you a scorching wind and mildew and the caterpillar was devouring your mini gardens and vineyards your fig trees and olive trees yet you have not returned to me declares the Lord I sent a plague among you after the manner of Egypt I slew your young men by the sword alone with your captured horses and I made the stench of your camp rise in your nostrils yet you have not returned to me declares the Lord I over through you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and you were like a firebrand snatched from a blaze yet you have not returned to me declares the Lord therefore thus I will do to you O Israel because I shall do this to you prepare to meet your God o Israel now as you can see verses 6 through 12 distraught describes Israel's unwillingness to repent in spite of the calamity that God had brought upon them you see these calamities were curses that God said would come upon them if they didn't keep the commandments if they didn't keep the Covenant turn to Deuteronomy chapter 28 verse number 15 and I'll show you what I'm talking about and as you're turning there let me say a little bit about Deuteronomy 28 those of us who ventured out into the charismatic churches we understand that Deuteronomy chapter chapter 28 has to do with the blessings of Abraham the problem is we only read the first fourteen verses the first fourteen verses are all about the blessings that will come upon Israel if they keep God's covenant if they keep God's commandments and statutes but when you get to verse 15 things change now he tells them what's going to happen if they don't keep God's commandments and statutes so look at verse number 15 but it shall come to pass if that will not hearken unto voice of the LORD thy God to observe to do all his commandments in his statutes which I command thee this day that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee and from verse 16 all the way to verse 68 which is the end of the chapter he lists all of the curses that will come upon them if they don't keep the Covenant now Deuteronomy chapter 28 is not the only chapter that lists the blessings for keeping the Covenant and also the curses for not keeping it Leviticus chapter 26 does as well as Deuteronomy chapter 32 but the reason we always remember Deuteronomy chapter 28 is because it's so long you know starts chapter verse number one and goes all the way to verse number 68 but here's what we don't realize the first fourteen verses talk about the blessings but from verse fifteen on all the way to verse 68 it's all about the curses oh my gosh I think the reason God probably did that is because he realizes that it's human nature to serve Him out of fear not out of love now as you grow in your relationship with God you begin to experience that love and you begin to serve him out of love but let's be honest the majority of us got saved because we were afraid of going to hell how many of you got saved because you didn't wanna go to hell oh yeah yeah the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and God understands that and when he's dealing with immoral people he understands that the best motivation is fear so anyways Deuteronomy chapter 28 is a more complete list of the blessings and the curses but my point is this Israel knew that blessings become come upon them if they could kept the commandments and the statutes of God and that curses become if they didn't keep his Commandments and statutes in other words if they kept the Covenant they would be blessed and all of the blessings were specifically stated so they knew exactly what to expect but if they didn't keep the Covenant they would be cursed and all of the curses were specifically stated so again they knew exactly what would occur or what to expect so when these calamities started coming upon them they should have recognized them as curses for not keeping God's commandments and they should have seen them as a sign that they needed to repent and that they needed to return to God or they would be removed from their land which was the last thing that would happen to them if they refused to repent you think all of the curses that are listed they go in a progressive order they start with in a sense what we would consider to be minor curses and then they start getting worse and worse and worse till you get to the very last one and the very last curses want you're going to be expelled from your land you're going to be removed from your land look with me if you wouldn't Deuteronomy chapter 28 verses 63 through 66 notice what it says just as the Lord has found great pleasure and causing you to prosper multiply now I want you to understand something God finds great pleasure in causing you to prosper and to multiply and it doesn't just mean multiply in the sense of reproducing it does mean that but it also means to multiply in every area of your life not just with your children but also with your finances with the blessings God finds great pleasure in doing that but notice what else it says the Lord will find pleasure in destroying you it doesn't say great pleasure it's his pleasure and you know what's interesting about this what it's telling you is that God is just like a parent you know sometimes when your kids get too big for their britches and they get too mouthing off to you sometimes it brings a little pleasure to put you put them back in their place and to spank them doesn't doesn't it yeah this is what it's saying here he finds great pleasure and causing you to prosper multiply but if you don't do what he says and you become rebellious as stiff-necked he also finds pleasure and destroying you here's what he says you would be torn from the land you were about to enter and occupy for the Lord will scatter you among all the nations from one end of the earth to the other there you will worship foreign God's that neither you nor your ancestors have known God's made out of wood and stone there among those nations you will find no plant piece or place to rest and the Lord will cause your heart to tremble your eyesight to fail in your soul to despair your life will constantly hang in the balance you will live night and day in fear unsure if you were survived in other words this was the last thing that would happen if they still refuse to repent after all of the other curses had come upon them now at the time that Amos was prophesying to them many of the curses that are listed in Leviticus chapter 26 in Deuteronomy chapter 28 and 32 had already come upon them but they had refused to recognise them as a sign that they needed to repent in fact let me list the curses list the curses that had already come upon them according to Amos and then we'll look at each one of them individually as we study this verse by verse but the first one that he mentions is famine he calls it clean teeth and we'll find out why he calls it clean teeth in just a little bit but famine is listed as one of the curses in Leviticus chapter 26 verses 26 and 29 and also in Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 24 the second calamity was drought in other words God was withhold rain and drought is listed as one of the curses in Leviticus 26 19 and Deuteronomy 28 verses 22 through 24 in other words if you don't keep the commandments and statues of God then drought will come the 3rd was agriculture in other words blight and mildew and this was also one of the curses that was listed in Deuteronomy chapter 28 verse number 22 if you don't keep the Lord's commandments and you don't keep his statutes then blight and mildew will come the fourth was pestilence in other words human disease this is listed in Leviticus 16:16 Deuteronomy 28 21 through 22 Deuteronomy 32 24 if you don't keep God's commandments this is what's gonna happen to you the fifth was the sword this is listed in Leviticus 26 25 verse 33 verses 36 through 37 and Deuteronomy 28 22 and in Deuteronomy 32 25 if you don't keep God's commandments and statutes and the sword will come notice it just keeps getting worse the sixth was rotting corpses and the reason you would have that is because either so many people were wiped out you didn't have enough time to be able to dig one big hole and throw them in or there was a siege around your city and people were dying and you didn't have time and you didn't have any place to bury them but that's what it says and that's found in Deuteronomy 28 verses 53 through 57 and the seventh was the land would become like Sodom and Gomorrah it would become barren you'll find that in Deuteronomy 29 verses 22 through 23 if you don't keep God's commandments these are the curses that will come upon you and these are the things that had already come upon Israel yeah so they should have recognized them as curses for not keeping God's commandments and statutes and as a sign that they needed to repent and to return to the Lord before the final curse occurred and what's the final curse that takes place I've already told you what is it they would be removed from their land and taken into captivity so let's go through the passage of Scripture first by verse starting in verse number 6 here's what it says in verse 6 but I gave you also cleanness pthen all your cities and lack of bread in all your places yet you have not returned to me declares the Lord so the first curse that came upon them was famine you see the phrase clean teeth is a figure of speech and it means there's no food people just think about it when there's no food you have nothing to eat so your teeth remain clean you don't have to pick them with the toothpick or scrape them with the twig which is how they actually brush the teeth back in how many you know how they used to brush their teeth in Israel salt was an easily attained commodity and the reason it was is because you had the Dead Sea there you know you could actually send some pack mules or whatever down the Dead Sea you could cut all this up bring salt back so salt was readily accessible so the way that they would brush their teeth is they were licked her forefinger they would stick it into the salt and then they would begin to rub it in their mouth she had any canker sores ooh but they would rub it Ollie and top bottom inside and out and then they would rinse with water and then they would take a twig and I will cut that twig is kind of sharp just like we would a toothpick and they would begin to pick their teeth take it through all of that and then they would scrape it with it to get that plaque off and that's how they brush their teeth but here's the interesting thing he says I will give you cleanness of teeth in other words you won't need to do that because you're not going to have any food now we don't know exactly when this famine occurred because all of these things that he's listing are things that have already occurred if you remember when I gave you the outline I told you that these three sermons were different the first sermon dealt with Israel's present the second sermon which were Ian's deals with Israel's past why Israel's past because the things that he's preaching are the things that have already occurred and he's telling them you shouldn't see that these are curses and the reason they're curses is because you haven't been keeping God's commandments and statutes and you can see that they're progressively getting worse in the last final curse is going to come upon you if you don't get your act together and repent and return to the Lord so anyways we don't know exactly when this famine occurred it could be referring to the fam Elijah's time turn to first Kings chapter 18 verse 2 and I'll show you what I'm talking about it says so elide you went to appear before a happe meanwhile the famine had become very severe in Samaria so this could have been the famine that Amos was referring to but we really don't know it's a strong possibility because this happened during King Ahab's reign and of course he was a king in northern Israel you all remember his famous wife who was that Jezebel yeah so King Ahab was one of the kings he's one of the wicked kings so this happened in his reign but regardless of whether this was the specific famine that Amos was referring to or not the point is they didn't repent return to the Lord now look at verse 7 and furthermore not too good a step further i withheld the rain from you while there were still three months until harvest then I would send rain on one city and on another city I would not sin rain one part would be rained on while the part not rained on would dry up now the drought that Amos is referring to can't be the drought during the time of Elijah because the drought during Elijah's time lasted for three and a half years and it didn't rain anywhere in northern Israel during that time turn to James chapter five verse number 17 he tells us exactly how long it was as says Elijah was as human as we are and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall none fail for how long three and a half years and it didn't fall anywhere in North Israel I mean and there was a drought all through it but of course the drought that Amos is referring to is after that time period because he starts off with famine and that would occur during this time of thirteen 1/2 years but now he's working down through their history he's saying and then drought came now the drought that Amos is referring to only occurred in certain areas and really only affected the winter rains look back at verse seven and you'll see what I'm talking about and furthermore I would held the rain from you while there were still three months until harvest then I would send rain on one city and on another city I would not send rank one part would be rained on while the part not rained on would dry up now I want you to notice two things first I want you to notice that the rain was withheld during a specific period of time it was withheld three months before the harvest in other words God withheld the winter rains you see the barley harvest takes place in April most of you don't realize this but because Israel's on a lunar cycle and when we get to the feast we'll explain this that means that they actually determine the month by when they first saw the very first Crescent of the new moon now for us when we call the new moon it means you don't see a moon and all but for them they called a new moon the first sliver that's when the month began well the problem with that is it's about twenty nine point something days you don't it doesn't add up to 365 days so if you kept doing it that way pretty soon your spring feast would be at your fall feast time and your fall feast time would actually be where your spring feast should be they would be in the spring does that make sense because you would be faster and as a result of that they had to add an extra month every three or four years and the reason and the way that they did that is the very first month that they had in the Babylonian way to say it was Nissan in the Hebrews it was Aviv but Aviv actually means ripe so what would take place is the high priest along with his entourage they would go out to the barley fields and they would look at the barley fields and they would see if it was Aviv if it was right or going to be ripe and if it wasn't and they would declare that there's another month because it's not going to be ripened time now why did that have to be the first month does anyone know I'm going off on a tangent but this is interesting to me anyone know why the barley was so important because when the exodus occurred it was the time of the barley harvest and remember the exodus is when you started Passover so what they would do is that's the first month Passover begins in the first month and it has to be the time it has to coincide when when Israel came out of Egypt and that's when they came out when the barley was ripe so anyways just want you to understand something the barley harvest usually took place sometime around late March early April and the wheat harvest would take place around June but to have a good crop you needed rain during the winter which is the rain season in Israel if you want to go to Israel you want to go in late spring in summer or early fall and the reason you want to go then is because it doesn't usually rain in fact every time that I've gone to Israel I've never seen rain once but normally when it rains it's the winter time but the reason that's so needed then is because it's getting the barn a cropper it ready and if there's no winter rains and there's gonna be a drought when the summer time comes there's not gonna be any water you're not going to have any harvest so what God did was he withheld the winter rains so this can't refer to the drought in Elijah's time because that drought lasted for three and a half years and this one was very specific it was a drought during the winter rains secondly I want to want you to notice that it rained in certain areas and not in other areas if you remember in Elijah's time it didn't rainy anywhere in northern Israel but here in verse number seven it tells us that it rained in some areas but it didn't rain in others it says and furthermore I withheld the rain from you while there were still three months until harvest in other words the winter rains then I would send rain on one city on another city I would not send rain one part would be rained on while the part not rained on would dry up now because this was selective rain in other words it rained in some places but not others Amos is implying that Israel should have recognized that this drought was a divine drought in other words that God was behind it God was the one causing it in fact this is much like Gideon if you remember Gideon wants to know if God's gonna be with him so he puts out these signs God if you're gonna be with me here's what I want you to do I'm gonna put out this fleece and if if there's dew on the ground everywhere but the fleece that I'm not I know that it's you of course there's - everywhere except on the fleece then he's still not sure so I said God this time I'm gonna put out the fleece if this is really you want me to do this that I want the fleece to be wet but I want there to be do on any ground you think that was in a sense what we would consider to be specialized well this is what he's saying here you should have recognized this is a divine drought because in Israel it's so small when you get to northern Israel you're in the Jezreel Valley you come down the Jordan Valley and you're in Samaria when those rain counts come in all of Israel gets it at least of northern Israel but now that didn't happen God would cause rain to fall on this city in the city that was just across the yield didn't get any and this place over here got rain in this place didn't get rain now look at verse number 8 so because of this selective rain two or three cities would stagger to another city to drink water but would not be satisfied yet you have not returned to me declares the Lord so this drought not only affected the farmers but it also affected those who lived in the cities and because it rained in some areas and not in others some cities had water but most cities didn't so the citizens from the cities without water went to the cities with water but there wasn't enough for everyone so those cities with water had to ration it and they only allowed them to take enough of the water for them to survive but not their animals and that's why I says if they went to drink but they were not satisfied in other words they didn't get all that they wanted they only got enough to be able to survive and yet they still didn't repent nor did they return to the Lord now look at verse number nine I blasted you with blight and mildew when your gardens increased your vineyards your fig trees and your olive treats you thought oh boy this is going to be a bumper crop then the locusts devoured them yet you have not returned to me says the Lord you see in the ancient world there were no pesticides or fungicides to combat plant diseases and pests so people were at the mercy of God and they had they had to depend on him because he's the only one that had the power to control the elements of nature and so they would start to see this multiplying all of a sudden thing about was this going to be a great crop and all of a sudden these locusts would come in the caterpillars would come in and they would just devour everything and yet they still refused to repent and return to God even after their crops were decimated now I don't know about you but if I was in covenant with God I would go back and read Leviticus 26 I would read Deuteronomy chapter 28 I would read Deuteronomy chapter 32 I would look at all these curses and I would see that God said if you don't keep my Commandments and statutes if you don't keep the Covenant these specific curses will come upon you now look at verse 10 I sent a plague among you after the manner of Egypt which is very important I slew your young men by the sword alone with your captured horses and I made the stench of your camp rise up in your nostrils yet you have not returned to me declares the Lord now verse 9 was all about the death of crops verse 10 is about the death of Israelites themselves first a plague was sin after the manner of Egypt in other words it was like one of the ten plagues that come that came upon Egypt in the book of II in the book of Exodus you see everything that was inflicted upon Egypt was referred to as a plague look at Exodus chapter 9 verses 13 and 14 and I'll show you what I'm talking about I'm talking about the ten plagues that came upon Egypt do you remember the Israelites are in Egypt God tells Moses go and deliver my people so he goes down there he talks to pharaoh and pharaoh says who is God that I should obey Him and so God brought ten plagues upon them and everything that happened to them was referred to as a plague notice what it says then the Lord said to Moses get up early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh tell him this is what the Lord the God of the Hebrews says let my people go so they can worship me if you don't I will send more plagues on you and your officials and your people then you will know that there is not no one like me and all the earth so everything that was inflicted upon Egypt when Pharaoh refused to let the Israelites go was considered to be the plague but the reason they came upon Egypt was because they refused to listen to God and to obey him and to let his people go so all these things that had come upon Israel were the result of having a hard heart just like Pharaoh that's what that's what Amos is saying but Pharaoh still refused to budge until all the first ball died in Egypt and notice what it says in exodus chapter 11 verses 4 through 8 this is what it says Moses had announced a pharaoh this is what the Lord says at midnight tonight I will pass through the heart of Egypt all the firstborn sons will die in every family in Egypt from the oldest son of Pharaoh who sits on his throne to the oldest son of the slowly a servant girl who grinds to the flower even the firstborn of all the livestock will die Wow so not only will every firstborn human being die of the Egyptians but every firstborn of other goats of all their camels of all their donkeys of all their horses of all their cows all of their livestock all of the firstborn would die then aloud well will rise throughout the land of Egypt well like no one has ever heard before will ever hear again but among the Israelites it will be so peaceful that not even a dog will bark then you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between the Egyptians and the Israelites all the officials of Egypt will run to me and fall to the ground before me please leave they will beg hurry and take all your followers with you only then will I go then burning with anger Moses left Pharaoh and people that's exactly what happened when all of the firstborn died Pharaoh repented and he let God's people go now of course we know the story he changed his mind after he thought they were wandering around in the wilderness and he went chasing after them along with his army but he in his army they died in the process but here's what you need to understand Pharaoh did repent at least initially so in a sense Israel was worse than Pharaoh because they still refused to repent even after God sent the plagues upon them after the manner of Egypt so god slew their young men by the sword just as he slew all of the firstborn of Egypt look at Amos chapter 4 verse 10 again notice what it says and this time when we read it notice what Amos is actually saying I sent a plague among you now he says after the man Egypt and this is the phrase after the management many after the manner of Egypt that you need to understand now he's going to explain what he means by that I slew your young men by the sword along with your captured horses and I made the stench of your camp rise up in your nostrils in fact so many were killed it did create a stench and yet they still refuse to repent and return to the Lord so in a sense they were worse than Pharaoh because at least they rule repented initially you know when this took place he said get out of here go in fact all of the Egyptians wanted to go he told the children of Israel go to your neighbors talking about the Egyptian neighbors ask for their jury ask for everything they're gonna so want to get rid of you they're gonna give everything and everything to you and it literally says that the children of Israel spoiled the nation of Egypt in other words they took all of their wealth that's why when they left that they were slaves but they had all of the wealth of Egypt in fact most people don't realize this one of the reasons that Egypt was so wealthiest because when that drought came upon all of the Middle East Joseph was there all of the other surrounding nations had to come and buy the grain from there and so they had spoiled all of the other nations but the reason that had taken place is because God had a plan that when his children of Israel came out of there they would take all of the wealth from Egypt who had taken all of the wealth from all of the other nations so the so the Israelites came out with all of this wealth so Pharaoh repented when this took place because they'd taken all of his wealth and all of a sudden a day two days three days later he's thinking our slaves are gone our wealth is gone oh my gosh so he decides to go after but the thing that Amos is bringing up at least he did repent initially but he's looking at them and he's saying but you are worse than Pharoah because when I slew your young men and their horses just like he did with the chariots of Pharaoh at least he repented you didn't now when did this happen because remember all of these things had already happened Amos is preaching the sermon and he's listing these curses that have come upon them and it gets to the spine of one he says at least Pharaoh repented you didn't even repent when did this take place well this took place when Hosea invaded northern Israel look at 2nd Kings chapter 13 verses 6 through 7 says but they continue to sin following the evil example of Jeroboam they also allowed the astra poland Samaria to remain standing finally Jehovah has army was reduced to 50 Sharia tiers 10 chariots the whole nation only had ten stinking chariots which mean they only had 20 horses in 10,000 foot soldiers people that's nothing in fact if you read this in context these ten thousand warriors was all they could get from the older men because all of the younger ones had been decimated killed by his ail and this is what Amos was referring to in verse number 10 chapter 4 now look look at verse number 11 I over through you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and you were like a firebrand snatched from a blaze yet you have not returned to me declares the Lord have you noticed that keep saying that doesn't matter what happens yet you have not returned to me he keeps saying that now most people have no idea of what this is talking about because we think of Sodom Gomorrah we we think about all of this fire and brimstone coming down from heaven and just destroying them right and we think is this what God is saying no this is not what God is saying this is referring to the land you see after all the drought pestilence and famine the land its land itself was devastated it happened just as Deuteronomy chapter 29 verses 22 and 23 said it would go ahead and look at this because this is an very interesting curve that God said would come upon the people if they didn't do his Commandments and statues notice what it says then the generations to come both your own descendants and the foreigners who come from distant lands will see the devastation of the land and the diseases the Lord inflicts on it what's it the land they will exclaim the whole land is devastated by sulfur and salts in other words that's what it will look like it will look like someone salted the land it will look like there's nothing there it is a wasteland with nothing planted and nothing growing not even a blade of grass it's like the cities of sodom and gomorrah admah and zeboiim which the Lord destroyed in his tense anger and so what Amos is saying is look at your land look at it it's devastated there's been drought there's been pestilence our young men have been killed and yet you still haven't repented and returned to me but here's what's interesting because when we started off I was telling you they were at the peak do you remember me telling you that when Amos was prophesying how prosperous they were here's what's interesting no matter how bad it got you still had those who were rich and not just rich filthy rich and in that environment the rich got richer and the poor got poor in fact those conditions actually allowed the rich to take advantage of the poor and people that's what Amos was talking about in Chapter three you see the merchants are the ones that got richer and the farmers were the ones that got poor why because the land was devastated but the merchants didn't depend on the land they depended on the trade routes and the trade routes all came through northern Israel so the king and the merchants and those who had businesses and were in the cities they still prospered and they prosper greatly but all of the poor farmers who what we would consider peasants their land was devastated and so the rich we're taking advantage of them so when we look at this and we read this the second sermon and we see what Amos was preaching to them sometimes we look at this and we go well how in the world could they have been prosperous God was bringing all these curses upon them well the reason they could remain prosperous because of the trade routes and the rich got richer in that environment the poor got poor and all these merchants then had the money and they were then taking everything and they were starting to own everything they didn't care whether they worked the land or not as long as they owned the land and that's what he was talking about in the first sermon now look at verse number 12 therefore this I will do to you O Israel because I shall do this to you prepare to meet your God o Israel oh my gosh do you read that do you see that prepare to meet your God now what does that mean prepare to meet your God well it means exactly what you think it means it means prepare to die I mean let's think about this let's suppose someone wanted to fight you and you showed up with the knife and they showed up to the knife fight with a gun and they told you prepare to meet your God what do they mean by that Oh exactly what he meant I shall do this to you prepare to meet your God o Israel and so he sang prepare to die and the few of you that don't die you're gonna go into captivity remember what Deuteronomy chapter 28 tells us is that if they refuse to repent after all the other curses have come upon them then this last curse will come and what is the last curse they will be removed from the land and taken into captivity and their life will hang in a balance those who don't actually die are the ones that will go into captivity and they will live in fear look at Deuteronomy chapter 28 verses 63 through 66 again it's very important that you understand as you're reading through these curses that they go from bad to worse to the worst and this is the worst just as the Lord has found great pleasure and causing you to prosper and multiply the Lord will find pleasure in destroying you but he only finds pleasure in destroying you when you are so rebellious and you are so haughty and you will not return to him and all of these other things did not work then he's like dad that says all right here's what's gonna happen you will be torn from the land you are about to enter and occupy for the Lord will scatter you among the nations from one end of the earth to the other there you will worship foreign gods and that neither you nor your ancestors have known God's made of wood and stone there among those nations you will find no peace or place to rest I want you to think about this this happened in northern Israel in 722 BC but it also happened to Judah in 586 BC and then they got to come back to the land but because they didn't receive the Messiah Jesus Christ then of course in 70 AD Jerusalem was destroyed and then you had the Bar Kokhba revoked and then and then they were destroyed again in the 132 all of the Jews were just taken everywhere and from that point on the Jews have always been doing what it says there among the nation's you will find no peace or place to rest and of course that wasn't erased if you were here when I was teaching on Islam you know that there's a wonderful prophecy in Ezekiel that actually prophesied the exact day the exact month in the exact year that Israel would become a nation again and it said this generation that sees these things will know that the things that I prophesied will come to pass and that literally came to pass but until that time among those nations you find no peace or place to rest God was serious when he told them that and the Lord will cause your heart to tremble your eyesight to fail and your so to despair your life will constantly hang in the balance and you know these Pugliese pogroms that have happened against the Jews all of the things that's taking place with the Holocaust this is everything that he said you will live night and day and fear and sure if you will survive you see what Amos is telling Israel is if you still refuse to repent after all these other curses have come upon you then this last curse will come and it's the final curse now why is this considered the final curse anyone know it's because everything else has been taken away from them there's nothing more that God can do to them except take them out of the land and make it where their life is always hanging in a balance that's the final curve what else can he do to them and you know what's kind of interesting do you know what the rabbi said in the concentration camps they're looking back over this two thousand year period since they were expelled from the land in 132 ad and you know they're crying out to God and you read this quite a bit if you read some of the stories of the people who actually lived in these concentration camps of the rabbi's looked at this and they said God what else can you do to us exactly what this is what else can you do to us in fact most of you don't even know what the word Holocaust means Holocaust actually is a it's a Hebrew word the rabbi's refer to it as the smoke that was coming in the chimneys that when they were gassing these people than they were cremating than the smoke was coming up and what they were saying Holocaust is actually a Hebrew word that means burnt offering and they were being facetious and they were saying god is this the burnt offering is this what you want from us and of course that's not what God wanted but people this is the final curse now look at verse 13 this is the doxology this is the end and this is very interesting this is what Amos ends this sermon with for behold he notices capitalized referring to God he who forms mountains and creates the wind and éclairs to man were what are his thoughts he who makes dawn into darkness hope you caught that and treads on the high place of the earth the Lord God of hosts is his name now here's what he's saying in this doxology Yahweh is the creator of all things he forms the mountains he creates the winds and he reveals his will through his prophets but Yahweh is also the judge in destroyer and he can and will turn the dawn into darkness if we refuse to repent and started turning the darkness into dawn did you catch what I said did you catch this in the stocks ology it says who turned the dawn into darkness instead of turned the darkness into dawn what is the dawn everyone know what dawn is done is that first light that begins to come up before the Sun rises how many ever looked at you get out there now it's about 6:30 in the morning tomorrow morning get out about 6:30 and the sun's not yet up but it's starting to get light because the Sun is gonna come up that's the dawn now what happens in the dawn it turns to light you know what this says it says he'll turn the dawn into darkness what does he mean by that means I'm the judge and I'm the destroyer you think you don't need me you think you can thumb your nose at me you think you can do immorality do you think you can cheat your neighbor you think you can be involved in sexual immorality do you think you can be involved in homosexuality transgenderism you think you can can perform abortions and look the other way and justify it you think you can do all of these sins and not get by with it let me tell you I take great joy I take great pleasure and blessing and prospering you but I also take pleasure in punishing you when you don't do what you know to do and that's what he's saying and why would he do this because God is just and God is fair and God is going to punish sin and then he ends with this he's a Lord God of hosts the host means the army people he's got an army in heaven he can do anything that he wants now let me ask you something we're gonna close with this when I talk about America in the coming judgement upon it how's that make you feel in other words how does it make you feel when I say that God will do to America what he did to Israel if we don't repent return to Him if we continue on in our immorality especially concerning sexual sins if we continue to be callous towards abortion if we continue to be rebellious towards Authority and have an entitlement attitude how does it make you feel when I say that God's judgment is going to come upon us how many you don't like it when I say this how many you don't like me doing this okay now let me ask you this how do you think Israel felt when Amos preached these type of sermons how do you think Israel felt when this prophet came and prophesied this you know when I start talking about the earthquakes that have happened the Hurricanes the tornadoes the droughts the forest fires the mudslides the ecological disasters and I refer to them as wake-up calls how does that make you feel pastor Allen those are just natural disasters that has nothing to do with God that would have happened anyway did Israel do that when these curses came upon them do they look at Deuteronomy chapter 28 did they look at Leviticus chapter 26 do they look at Deuteronomy 32 and they look at these specific things and say well you don't want God has the power over natural elements of nature maybe these are wake-up calls do we think that these things would continue to happen whether we repent or not you know I took a little hope and that our vice president pence he talked about us being a nation of faith and he actually quoted if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin up with you of their land you know what he said we need to return to our faith and be a nation of faith I want you to understand we always think it can't happen to us optimism bias that's what Israel thought now I want you to understand something in the midst of these things this is when Christians shine so I don't want everyone to go ahead and go boy that was good but it was bad we need to be survivalist you know you need to dig that little hole in your backyard and make it concrete walls and a way to get into there and start putting back footing and I'm not saying that I'm sure this is a time for us to shine because God knows how to take care of the righteous this is a time for us to begin to pray for a nation and to do what we ought to do and when these things begin to take place let me tell you something people normally turn to God you'll see a Great Divide you'll see those who get more wicked you'll see those who will flood into the to the churches and people that's what we want to me this is an exciting time we couldn't be living in a better time but we do need to understand that the Book of Amos could apply to America just as well

Channel: Cornerstone Fellowship

Views: 2,369

Rating: 4.8367348 out of 5

Keywords: Israel, does america need to repent, book of amos bible study, amos, prophetic literature, minor prophets, book of amos, minor prophet amos, does america need to repent amos part 21, amos part 21, book of amos study, study on the book of amos, in depth study on the book of amos, bible video, biblical law, laws in bible, slavery in bible, old testament, old testament laws, how to read the bible, read the bible, reading biblical law, america needs to repent to god

Id: jZxZCmGMaAc

Length: 45min 37sec (2737 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 29 2018