Amos 7:1-17

hi this is pastor Daryl on Monday the staff made the decisions to cancel all church gatherings until further notice this decision was driven primarily by love fire people and a special concern for our elderly and immune compromised congregants this was not a decision driven by fear the Bible speaks very clearly about the relationship between the believer in the government where to obey the government authorities except when the government asked us to do something that is in direct disobedience to God's Word we believe it is appropriate to comply with our president's 15 days to slow the spread directive and as Christians let our obedience be an example to our neighbors our prayer is that by taking this decisive action early lives will be saved and recovery will be much quicker meaning that even less adverse financial impact for those that can least afford it as far as financial impact to the church Christ loves his bride and he will provide now I want to take a moment to both challenge you and encourage you I want to challenge you to see the blessing from God and receive it the number-one reason given by virtually every Christian for not praying being in the word and doing family devotions is this I don't have time God has removed a lot of things to steal a lot of time from a lot of lives such as sports March Madness canceled NBA Major League Baseball shopping youth events school reporting to work locations all canceled and it comes while we're already in the midst of spring break God has given most families a lot of additional time in the home they don't typically have so the big question for us all what are we doing with our newfound time it is as if God has said okay I will eliminate all those distractions and see how your family will worship me now ask yourselves what has increased more in these past few days in my home time on screens or time in the Bible I want to encourage us all to see this as a Family Worship reset an opportunity and a precious gift from God in the midst of the raging storm many of us have an opportunity to redeem family worship in our home making it the priority as God designed it to be from the beginning husbands dads now is your opportunity to set new priorities in your home and lead your family in a god-glorifying way wives mothers now it's your opportunity to support your husband and to point your children to Christ we hope you will use this gift of time to be in the word together enjoy meals at your dining table together and begin the family discipleship journey together if you're up to the challenge of hitting the family worship reset button we want to help you we will be posting resources on the church app regularly and we also encourage you to take this time to download the right now media app today please feel free to reach out to the staff here at first Kingsland if we can help you in any way also please be persistent in prayer and look for opportunities to share the gospel with others we're praying the church responds in a manner that glorifies God we love you all [Music] and to Oh [Music] you [Music] you [Music] you did not speak you with no sound you died [Music] and as your blood fell to the ground you redefine my you to alter day that you were the darkest land for the King of Kings as Pedro now [Music] yes you are you [Music] my maken marrinson my savior my refuge my hiding place your help by here by blessed Redeemer by saving my strength in the battle by a cure for all my days and you stand you stood in my place Jesus Oh you [Music] you [Music] yes you are [Music] [Music] so today our scripture reading comes from psalm 119 verses 57 through 64 i'll be reading from the NASB translation the Lord is my portion I have promised to keep your words I saw your favor with all my heart be gracious to me according to your word I considered my ways and turn my feet to your testimonies I hastened and did not delay to keep your Commandments the chords of the wicked have encircled me but I have not forgotten your law at midnight I shall rise to give thanks to you because of your righteous ordinances I am a companion of all those who fear you and of those who keep your precepts the earth is full of your loving-kindness O Lord teach me your statutes [Music] as held the oceans in his hands who has now burned every grain of sand kings and nation's tremble at his for all creation rises [Music] seated on his nose come let us me nothing come let us adore [Music] Oh is world who can teacher who knows all things [Music] his risky Oh God seated on his throne come let us to draw me nothing can compare come let's go [Music] on his complete answer mijo go [Music] a sinful man [Music] Oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Hey day [Music] come mijo [Music] Oh God seated on his throne come let us adore deer before ah King nothing can compare come let us adore [Music] all right good morning I hope that you have your Bibles with you but you already have them open up and ready to go if not I invite you to take your Bibles now and turn with me to Amos chapter 7 here from chapter 7 through the end of Amos God is going to share with Amos five different visions these visions were pictures of the total destruction that the Lord was going to bring upon the Northern Kingdom of Israel he was going to put an end to the Kingdom of Israel and in fact the Northern Kingdom would never rise as an independent government again and so he shares with his prophet five visions and so if you go to the end and we see by the time that we get to chapter nine Amos sees the Lord standing beside the altar this was a vision of the finality of judgment that was to come was also a vision of the promise of his glorious kingdom we get to chapter 8 Amos sees a a ripe basket this was a picture of how the the children of Israel were ripe for judgment now this morning we're going to be in Chapter 7 and here we find three different visions all three visions were visions of judgment and so we're going to begin with the first vision and that is a vision of locusts follow along as I read beginning in verse number one it says thus the Lord God showed me and behold he was forming a locust swarm when the spring crop began to sprout and behold the spring crop was after the Kings mowing and came about when it had finished eating the vegetation of the land that I said Lord God please pardon how can Jacob stand for he is small the Lord changed his mind about this it shall not being said the Lord here we see how Amos agonized for his people agonized for his people so much that he cried out to God asking him to suspend his judgment and God does I want you to notice how he argued Amos said that the nation was so small but they would never be able to survive the plague of locusts and noticing that and also want you to notice what what Amos didn't argue Amos didn't plead any of the Covenant promises of God because Amos knew that the people had violated their covenant relationship with God and were therefore worthy of being judged by him Amos agonizes for his people it cries out unto God for God to call off his judgment and that's exactly what God did there is a significant and beautiful spiritual truth that's captured in these verses and I hope that you you don't miss it severe trials can't at times be pushed back even prevented this truth is is almost too wonderful for us to comprehend so how can this happen how can this be and here we see that it happens too through intercessory prayer so the present scripture teaches us a great lesson on intercessory prayer we ought to continually seek the Lord on behalf of our family and our friends we ought to continually not just a one and done type of prayer but we should be continually going to the Lord for important matters that that related on a local level a national level even an international scale we ought to as believers we ought to be interceding on behalf of our community our nation and the world crying out to God and asking God for some really leave with the epidemic that we're faced with today Amos was was traumatized by what he saw and he immediately began to cry out to the Lord begging him to forgive the people of their wickedness because if the Lord wouldn't forgive them then the nation would never survive and although the people consider themselves a great nation in the sense of their prosperity and the sense of their military power they were very small and insignificant compared to the awesome power of God and unless God had mercy upon the Northern Kingdom of Israel there was no chance of her survival so the Prophet intercedes so the Prophet stood in the gap stood in the gap between the awful sins of the people and the holy wrath of God he stood as an intercessor in behalf of people begging God to forgive their terrible evil deeds and the Lord Lord heard his prayer and he turned back the judgment the Lord allowed the people more time the Lord gave them another opportunity for them to repent of their wickedness in doing this God further demonstrates his great love God further demonstrates the longing of his heart for people to repent and to turn back to him I mean Mary herself captures this beautifully in her song and in Luke chapter 1 verse number 50 where she says His mercy is upon generation after generation - towards those who fear Him so Amos sees this first vision the vision of locusts and then he sees the second vision the second vision was a vision of consuming fire this was a picture of of severe drought let's continue to read beginning in verse 4 now thus the Lord God showed me and behold the Lord God was calling to contend with them by fire and it consumed the great deep and began to consume the farmland then I said Lord God please stop how can jacob stand for he was small lord changed his mind about this this too shall not be said the Lord God now mister drought that that Amos saw this picture of judgment was so severe that it scorched the land and it dried up all the waters of the land means the entire water supply from Springs to streams to to rivers they had all dried up all the vegetation throughout the nation was withering and dying under the the scorching heat of the Sun and on top of all that people and animals by the thousands were suffering and dying from from from their thirst there was no hope of surviving this judgment whatsoever not unless the Lord had mercy upon his people and again God's judgment so moved of the Prophet that he intercedes on their behalf crying out to the Lord asking God stop it's interesting this time instead of asking God to pardon or to forgive the nation amos simply cries out to God and ask God to stop here he's not even asking for forgiveness he's just asking God for more time he's asking God to show some of his great compassion and again God responds in grace and he shows his long-suffering he displays his great patience with the people that Amos is made aware of this third vision the third vision was a vision of a plumb line now a plumb line was an instrument that was used to test whether our a wall was straight and true what would happen is the man would stand at the top of a wall and he would drop a line down with a weight that was on the bottom of that line and so the weight of the line would make the line straight and by matching that line to the wall the workers could tell if the wall was straight or crooked may you know that God's law is the plumb line and he measures his people to see how they are and according to the pattern of his word the question becomes how does your character and how does your conduct how does that measure up to the Word of God oh please understand I'm not asking you how does it measure up against other people I'm not asking you how your character and your conduct measures up against the crowd I'm not asking how it measures up against the latest opinion polls no how does the your character in conduct measure up to the Holy Word and standards of God let's keep reading look at verse number seven as best he showed me and behold the Lord was standing by a vertical wall with a plumb line in his hand the Lord said to me what do you see Amos and I said a plumb line then the Lord said behold I am bout to put a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel I will spare them no longer the high places of Isaac will be decimated and the sanctuaries of Israel laid waste then I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword so in in his vision aim has heard the Lord ask him hey what do you see and Amos immediately replies that he saw a plumb line it was then that the Lord explained what he was doing the Lord was checking the people to see if they were plumb to see if they were straight this if they were in line with him and what God discovered was disastrous the people looked crooked they were calloused they were completely out of line because they were disobedient and rebellious they were building their lives on the pattern other than the Word of God and as a result their lives were out of kilter they were headed in the wrong direction and it was for that reason that they were going to be destroyed I want you to notice the statement at the end of verse number 8 it's certainly an ominous statement for the Lord to make he says I will spare them no longer which means the nation has gone too far there was now no hope of him with holding his judgment I believe it's for this reason that Amos unlike the other two times Amos doesn't intercede as he has previously done in fact in verse number nine god pronounced that both worship centers and the government referred to as the house of Jeroboam God pronounce that both of them would be destroyed under God's hand of judgment now when the chief priests Amaziah when this chief priest here's Amos and his prediction about the destruction of the nation well he immediately begins to oppose God's servant Amaziah quickly goes about writing a letter to the king in fact he's going to accuse Amos of a conspiracy against the government and I'll show you let's keep reading look at verse number 10 verse 10 says then a messiah the priest of Bethel sent word to Jeroboam king of Israel saying Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel the land is unable to endure all his words for thus Amos says Jeroboam will die by the sword and Israel will certainly go from its land into exile so this chief priest makes two charges against Amos he charged Amos with with preaching a conspiracy about predicting the death of the King Jeroboam he charges Amos with what's predicting that Israel itself would be conquered and that it's survivors would be exiled obviously a messiah felt strongly that Amos and his message of judgment had to be silenced and so he writes the letter to the king now whether or not he waits for the King to respond and send a letter back to him it's not really known I believe it appears that that the chief priest immediately goes from sending the letter to confronting Amos himself he confronts Amos and he orders the Prophet to get out of the temple he orders him to leave Israel and to go back to his home in Judah follow along again in verse number 12 now it says then a messiah said to Amos go you see her flee away to the land of Judah and there eat bread and there do your prophecy but no longer prophesy at Bethel for it is a sanctuary of the king and a royal residence you see in Amazon's eyes it was absolutely essential that God's prophet had to be silenced neither the King nor the rest of the audience wanted to hear what Amos had to say and so the chief priests can only see one solution stop the prophet and get rid of him but here's the thing Amos wasn't about to be stopped Amos wasn't about to back down Amos courageously answers a messiah by by sharing his personal testimony look at verse 14 says then Amos replied to Amaziah I am NOT a prophet nor am i a son of a prophet for I am a herdsmen and a grower of Sycamore figs but the Lord took me from following the flock and the Lord said to me go prophesy to my people Israel so in a very straightforward manner Amos informs the priest that he's not a professional prophet he's not a son of a prophet this wasn't his calling man he was just a regular guy he was just a just a layman man Amos was a rancher and a farmer when the Lord called him it was the Lord that clearly instructed him to leave his profession so that he could go proclaim the Word of God it's at this point that the Lord Himself had a specific and special word for the chief priests in fact look at verse 16 it says now you're the word of the Lord you're saying you shall not prophesy against Israel nor shall you speak against the house of I say now now because of Amazonas opposition to God's prophet man God was going to unfold a a five-fold judgment upon the chief priests himself and he gives that fivefold judgment in verse number 17 of what it says it says therefore thus says the Lord number one your wife will become a harlot in the city number two your sons and your daughters will fall by the sword number three your land will be parceled up by a measuring line and you yourself will die upon unclean soil there's number four so he's going to die himself and then the fifth one moreover Israel will certainly go from its land into exile if a messiah had only listened to the prophet if he had only heard the warning from God if he would have listened to the Prophet heard his warning and then repented of his sins then he might have been saved and delivered by the mercy of the Lord in fact if you look back in chapter 5 you see in at least three different occasions where God says look at verse number four verse number four of chapter five says seek me that she may live then again in verse number six six seek the Lord that you may live and then in verse number 14 says see good and not evil that you may live you see being a priest this is exactly what a messiah should have done but sadly he chose to reject the Lord's prophet he chose to reject the Lord's message he chose to ignore the warning of the coming judgment and as a result he was to bear the full weight of God's condemnation which brings the point anyone who rejects the Lord anyone who rejects God's Holy Word will also suffer the penalty of the full weight of God's condemnation John chapter 3 verse number 36 says whoever believes in the son has eternal life whoever does not obey the son shall not see life then it says but the wrath of God remains on him but the wrath of God abides on him another one there will be no escape for any of us if we refused to repent and to adhere to the Word of God if you refuse to repent of your sins and turn to the Lord then YouTube you've remained under the weight of his wrath I want you to think about the implications of that whoever does not obey the son says will not see life in fact it goes on to say but the wrath of God remains on you the only way to remove God's wrath from your life is serve repentance it's entrusting in Jesus it's in committing your life unto Him it is recognizing that without him we are worthless we have no right to anything that is good but well John chapter 3 verse number 36 clearly pictures the wrath of God falling upon those who do not obey Him who do not submit and surrender their lives unto Him I mean aren't we glad for John 3:16 because there it clearly says that God loves the world God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish there's no longer under the wrath of God but now you have eternal life but there it is my friends the two options you're either under the wrath of God because of rebellion because it refused to repent and trust Jesus as Lord and Savior or you have eternal life eternal life because you put your faith and trust in the Son of God and so each of us are faced with the decision what do we do with Jesus what do we do with with the Holy Word of God do we reject it do we ignore it if we reject it Andrey ignored then we're rejecting God and we're Naurang God and we're standing in opposition of who he is and and what he calls for us to do with our lives but for those of us who want to love God who love his word who want to submit to God by submitting to his word who want to put our faith and trust in Jesus then we were removed from God's wrath and now we're given eternal life so it is a transition from death and wrap to life and freedom so it is today my question for you is do you have eternal life in and through Jesus Christ if not why not why not you tired of doing the same thing aren't you tired of living the same way don't you want peace in your life don't you want to fully understand the purpose for your existence don't you want to know and experience the love of God if so would you receive Christ trust in him commit yourself unto Him so this morning I'm so thankful that you took the time to - to watch this message and to participate in your own homes and and it sure it is difficult confusing days we live in a world of uncertainty made you know this although things might seem uncertain to us although things might seem to be changing moment by moment in our understanding may you know that God is not surprised by any of this that he is sovereign in and through it all and so while God is not surprised and perhaps we are we could find peace and knowing that he still sits upon his throne allow this season in all of our lives to draw you closer to our Lord use this as an opportunity to re-engage with the Word of God husbands and fathers use this as an opportunity to lead your family in a time of devotion with God open your Bibles read a portion of Scripture with your family pray together check out your neighbors knock on their doors make sure that they have what they need during these days love one another by loving one another we also demonstrate our great love for God so with that being said let me close with our standard benediction if I may so may God bless you may God go before you to lead you behind you to protect you beneath you to sustain you and beside you to befriend you and not be afraid got the Father God the Son and God the Holy Spirit will always be with you don't be afraid go glorify God and seek to make his glory known amen we'll see you next time church

Channel: David Henneke

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Length: 41min 11sec (2471 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 22 2020