Book of Amos 14: The JUDGEMENT of Judah

if you would in your Bibles turn to Amos chapter 2 verses 4 & 5 and as you're turning there let me remind you one more time that we're in the second section of the book which is the pronouncement of judgment upon the eight different nations six of those nations are heathen nations are what we would call Gentile nations the other two nations are Judah in Israel now in chapter 2 verses 4 & 5 Amos pronounced judgment upon Judah and of course Judah was the name of the southern kingdom during the divided monarchy period in other words after Solomon died the Kingdom of Israel split into two kingdoms the northern kingdom which became known as Israel and the southern kingdom which became known as Judah Israel was made up of the ten northern tribes and Judah was made up of the two southern tribes I won't name all the ten tribes you can actually come and deduce that let me just tell you the two southern tribes said that Judah was made up of Judah of course and Benjamin but there were many families from the various northern tribes that moved to the southern kingdom after the Kingdom split because they didn't agree with jeroboams decision to create a new religion their own religion if you remember Jeroboam made two goat and calves he placed one in Bethel and he placed the other and Dan and he ordained priests who weren't Levi's Levites to be able to minister at these places of worship look at first Kings chapter 12 verses 28 through 31 says after seeking advice the king made two goat and calves he said to the people it's too much for you to go to Jerusalem now remember God had specifically told Israel that when they came the promised land he would choose one place for them to come to and where was that one place in Jerusalem he said it's too much trouble to go to Jerusalem here are your gods and notice it's a little G Israel who brought you out of Egypt now the sin that Jeroboam was guilty of was something called syncretism how many of you ever heard the term syncretism well if you ever get a degree in theology or biblical literature or divinity or anything like that you will hear this term all the time and what syncretism is is when you take your religion and you combine it with other religions well that's what Jeroboam did he didn't want to just create his own out of the air no they had a rich history so what he wanted to be able to do is he wanted to take the religion and the Israelites and then he wanted to combine it with some aspects of the other pagan religions and bullet into one religion and so what he did is the very same thing that Aaron did except he made two camps he came out and he said you all know our history we as a family went down to Egypt a favor rose up who knew not Joseph and as a result of that he enslaved our people but God rescued us and God brought us out of the land of Egypt and then he said these are the gods that have brought you out of Egypt violating the second commandment he made idols so let's keep reading one he set up in Bethel the other and Dan and this thing became a sin the people came to worship the one at Bethel and went as far as Dan to worship the other Jeroboam built shrines on high place and appointed priests from all sorts of people even though they were not Levites and people you remember this was a big deal because even among the Levites you had to be of the family the clan of Aaron to be able to minister inside the temple you couldn't even just be a Levite the Levites had different jobs depending upon what your clan was if you remember cores rebellion Korah was upset because he was of the tribe believe I can't he minister at the temple and burn incense and do those things and what did God do we talked about cremation last time he sent fire and boom wiped him out it was a consuming fire he cremated them there on earth to show that they were not only judged on this lot in this life on this earth but they were also going to be judged in the life to come so he he actually put in priests that weren't Levites now not everyone in the Northern Kingdom agreed with this so you had a few from each of the ten tribes who moved to the southern kingdom because they couldn't put up with it you'll always have a remnant that says this is wrong it might look like and you've got to remember we're living in the church pure known as the Church of the latest it's the apostate Church and it might look like the church has lost its way it might look like there's no one that's teaching the truth but I promise you there's still a remnant out there that believes in God and it's going to stick up for what is right and that happened even then when the kingdom splits you had families from each of the 10 northern tribes that said this isn't right and they moved down to the southern kingdom now the reason the southern kingdom was called Judah was because the tribe of Judah was the predominant tribe in the south plus the Kings came from that tribe turn to Genesis chapter 49 verse 10 and I'll show you what I'm talking about it says the scepter shall not depart from Judah everyone knows what a scepter is right a scepter is a symbol of royal or imperial power it's what a king holds if you're holding the scepter it means you have the royal power you're the one in charge you are the king so it says the scepter will not depart from Judah telling us that the one who's going to hold the royal power the one who's going to have the imperial power is coming from the tribe of Judah then it goes further nor the ruler's staff from his descendants so they have to be from the tribe of Judah until the coming of the one to whom it belongs the one who to whom all nations will honor and who is that the Messiah Jesus Christ if you remember he is from the tribe of Judah that's why he's referred to as the Lion of Judah it's because he's from the tribe of Judah all of this is setting up for Jesus and when Jesus come comes he will be the eternal king now look at 1st chronicles chapter 5 verses 1 & 2 the oldest son of Israel was Reuben but since he dishonored his father by sleeping with one of his father's concubines his birthright was given to the sons of his brother Joseph for this reason Reuben is not listed in the genealogical records as the firstborn son the descendants of Judah became the most powerful tribe and they provided a ruler in other words a king for the nation they're supposed to come from them but the birthright belong to Joseph now if you went through the book of Genesis with me you understand what the coat of many colors was all about when he received the coat of many colors it wasn't just because oh he's my favorite I loved Joseph more than everyone else now that signified that he was going to receive the birthright and of course he had a younger brother that comes along later which is Benjamin but he was the youngest but he received it that also explains why he went to check on his brothers and he would report back to his father on what he saw it's because he received or was going to receive the birthright but that's also why his brothers hated him and sewed him into slavery but we all know the story when he goes down to Egypt because God's hands upon him because he serves God he's faithful he was the right choice to have the birthright well he rises up in the ranks and then because of famine the whole family has to go down to Egypt and then they discovered that this is Joseph their brother and he still has the birthright now what does the birthright give you the birthright gives you two things number one it gives you a double portion if you have 12 sons you divide it thirteen ways eleven of the sons get one portion but the birthright the person who has it gets a double portion my dad had four sons if Adel is the ODIs and he was worthy of the birthright he would receive a double portion it would be divided five ways he would get two fists the rest of us would get one-fifth but here's what's interesting Carol would be his responsibility and the reason you get a double Portia's because now you're responsible for all the women you're responsible for the widows the single women for the needy it's your job to do that well if it's your job and you have that responsibility you should also have the benefit and that's why they received a double portion does that make sense now when it came time to divide the tribes because Joseph has the birthright he's not going to receive his portion but he gets two portions and guess what he has two sons so he says I don't want to receive a double portion I want each of my sons to receive a portion so he brings them to Jacob and Jacobs going to bless them Manasseh is the oldest Ephraim's the youngest Jacob does something's kind of weird he can't hardly see very well but he crosses his hands he puts his right hand on ephraim which is the dominant hand that's where the one who's getting the ruling is supposed to go on and he puts his left hand on the oldest which is Manasseh joseph thinks he's making mistakes things Oh bless his heart he can't see he's got the kids mixed up so he tries to switch it and what happens Jacob says leave me alone I know what I'm doing Ephraim will receive the birthright now that's why when the kingdom splits the northern tribe is referred to Israel but sometimes it's referred to as Ephraim why because it has the birthright it's supposed to be the leader of those tribes but that's also why you always had conflict between the tribe of Judah because the kings come from that and the tribe of Ephraim because they had the birthright and they're supposed to be a leader also does that make sense so the reason that the southern kingdom was called Judah was because the tribe of Judah was the predominant tribe in the south plus the Kings came from that tribe so when Amos pronounce judgment on Judah he was pronouncing it upon the kingdom of Judah the southern kingdom because that's the name of the kingdom he wasn't pronouncing it just on the tribe it was on the southern kingdom so let's read verse number four name is chapter two thus saith the Lord hear the word Lord is in all caps such Yahweh it's the redeeming covenant keeping name of God only those who are in covenant with him can use that name so thus says saith the Lord for three transgressions of Judah for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof because they have despised the law of the Lord and have not kept his Commandments and their lives caused them to air after the the which their fathers have walked now once again Amos begins to press the pronouncement of judgment with this common Hebrew a ISM for three transgressions and for four and by now you should know what it means in fact we ought to give a test next Wednesday night we're not going to relax but if we did I would say what does this common Hebrew ism and you should be able to say that Judah was guilty of multiple sins and these sins had filled the cup of God's wrath up to the brim but this last sin has caused the cup of God's wrath to overflow and now his judgment cannot be stopped so what was the fourth sin that caused the cup of God's wrath to overflow well according to Amos they despised the law of the Lord and as a result they didn't keep his Commandments now this is interesting because Amos pronounced judgment on six Gentile nations for committing crimes against humanity in other words the Gentiles had sinned against the natural law of God whereas Judah had sinned against the written law of God now does everyone know the difference between the natural law of God and the written law of God well if you don't let me explain the difference the natural law of God is the standard of morality that's known and recognized by all men intuitively in other words God has implanted within each person a recognition of certain moral principles or ideals as an example in every culture murder is always known to be or recognized to be wrong now how they classify murder depending upon the Kerch culture may differ in other words in one culture killing an enemy might not be seen as murder but of self-defense but in every culture man recognizes and acknowledges that murder is wrong that's what we mean by natural law now the concept of natural law is biblical turn to Romans chapter 2 verses 14 and 15 and I'll show you what I'm talking about in fact if you have your Bibles when you turn here you should put a little parenthesis in the margin and put the natural law all right natural law of God notice what it says even Gentiles even pagans even heathens who do not have God's written law show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it even without having heard it they demonstrate that God's law is written in their hearts for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they're doing right do you see this the Gentiles didn't have the written law but they knew God's law instinctively it was written in their heart and their conscience either accused them of doing wrong or it affirmed that they were doing what was right people that's what we mean by natural law if I go to China I don't have to say I need to look at your law book to find out if stealing is wrong I can guarantee you that if I go to China and I take something that doesn't belong to me but belongs to someone else they're gonna arrest me for stealing I'm gonna go why I didn't know stealing what's wrong in China if I go to Japan I can guarantee you stealing is wrong there if I go to Brazil I can guarantee you stealing is wrong why because there's this natural law that God has written on our hearts we just know taking something that doesn't belong to us is wrong right that's what natural law means so the six Gentile nations that Amos had pronounced judgment on were guilty of committing sins against the natural law of God Iran was guilty of committing war crimes they tortured their prisoners if you remember they took a threshing sledge that had iron teeth and they laid their prisoners down and they rode this over them Philistia was guilty of human trafficking Phoenicia was guilty of making money off of human trafficking they didn't actually take the slaves hey they were just the middleman it's not really my fault who sells who or what I'm just making money off of it Edom was guilty of betraying his brother and harboring an eternal hatred towards him and actually coming in and killing them and and they that they were just cruel when it came towards Israel and maan was guilty of infanticide they were literally cutting babies out of their mother's womb Moab was guilty of desecrating the dead now all of these sins are crimes against humanity but there are also sins against the natural law of God in other words they knew what they were doing was wrong and no one had to tell them that was wrong they instinctively knew that it was wrong yet they still did it and for that God was going to punish them and he did now the written law of God refers to the divine revelation that was through God's holy prophets and recorded for posterity in Amos day it referred to the Pentateuch in other words the first five books of Moses because that's all they had at that time you got to remember Amos is one of the first prophets and he's one of the first recorded prophets so these haven't yet been fulfilled these prophecies are taken to the temple in Jerusalem they're held there if they don't come to pass they're burned but if they're kept there and they come to pass and they realized this man was a man of God these prophetic all writing czar added but he's one of the first prophets so all they have is the first five books of Moses and possibly joke now of course God held Judah and Israel to a higher standard than he did to that did the Gentile nations because they had received the written law of God but they also had a covenant relationship with God so God expected more from them than he did the Gentile nations that's why the Gentile nations were being punished they had committed crimes against humanity they had committed human atrocities acts of cruelty violations of the natural law of God that everyone knows is Rome whereas Judah and Israel they were being punished for breaking the commandments of God they had committed religious violations or what we would call sins against God so you have human atrocities versus religious violations and from a human perception or perspective one seems so much worse than the other doesn't it but in God's eyes to whom much is given much is required and since you didn't Israel had received divine revelation and they knew what God expected of them they were held to a higher standard does everyone understand that so even though their sins don't seem to be as bad as the Gentile nations God is holding them to a higher standard now the question you should be asking is what what is the question you should be asking does God hold America to a higher standard hmm and if so why are we set up on judeo-christian values are we set up on biblical principles do we have the written word of God and did we receive it as such so does God hold America to a higher standard than he does say Russia China the Islamic nations well let's not get ahead of ourselves look back at verse 4 now let's see exactly what they were guilty of thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of Judah and for four I will not turn away the punishment there up because they have despised the law of the Lord now I want you to underline the word despised despised is translated from the Hebrew word ma and it means to detest to abhor to loathe to disdain to hate to look down your nose at and I could have kept on going but you understand what it means so what this is saying is that Judah detested of hoard and load the law of the Lord they looked down their nose at it now does everyone know what that idiom means we say it all the time well they just look down their nose at it well that means that they didn't consider the law of the Lord to be important or to have any value and this is where America is today we don't consider the Bible or its commands to be important or of any value to us in fact those on the left actually detest and abhor it they hate it because it specifically states what is right and what is wrong and it sets a clear standard of morality fornication and all types of sexual sin is wrong it doesn't matter what society says it doesn't matter if it says after three dates well you know sex is just kind of expected it doesn't matter it if you say well our society says if you love that person that's okay now the Bible says all sexual sin outside of marriage is wrong abortion is wrong people according to the Bible abortion is not a choice abortion is wrong it's murder same-sex marriage is wrong it's not an acceptable alternative lifestyle according to the Bible it is an unacceptable alternative lifestyle transgenderism is roan marijuana and all forms of mind-altering drugs are wrong it's referred to in the New Testament is for Makhija our word pharmacy comes from that we translated as witchcraft but most people don't even know what that means what it means is these pagan priests would take these mind-altering drugs and they would have these revelations or visions in the spirit world they saw things that regular people didn't people divorce is wrong except in cases where the Covenant is broken and abuse is one of those things that makes it acceptable because of abuse and I thought on that before pornography is wrong people doesn't matter what our society says the Bible says it's wrong and the list can go on and on now most Americans feel that each individual should decide for themselves whether things are wrong or not because man is the measure of all things not God in fact Protagoras is the one who said that anyone familiar with philosophy he was one of the ancient Greek philosophers if you studied philosophy I really enjoyed philosophy I was one of the weird ones and so I would take those classes and I would go into this and Protagoras says that Protagoras is the one who said that he said man is the measure of all things now does everyone know what that means but what he meant by that is that each man must decide for himself what's right or wrong good or bad and not God or some type of unchanging moral law such as the Bible you know look at that man is the measure of all things and more specifically each individual is the measure of all things you determine if it's right for you and people that's where America is today hey if same-sex marriage works for you that's fine it's up to you if you want to smoke pot hey it's your business smoke pot it's okay if you want to watch pornography that's up to you who is God to tell you that it's wrong and what's the Bible and we are the Bible doesn't have the right to tell you what's wrong you have to decide for yourself and have a Bible that claims to be the final authority on what's right and what's wrong well that's unacceptable to the left to liberals they believe that man has to decide for himself what's right and what's wrong and what's sad is that has permeated inside the church today and many of you believe that wake up Judah that's what he exactly what Amos meant when he said despising the law of the Lord they detested abhorred and loathed they despy they disdained they hated and they looked down their nose at the law of the Lord which was their Bible at the time it was the Pentateuch the first five books of Moses now once you get to that place as a society where you look down your nose at the Bible then society as a whole stops keeping God's commandments look back at verse four again in Amos chapter two thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of Judah and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof because they have despised the law of the Lord and have not kept his Commandments do you see that once their society got to the point that they despised the law of the Lord they stopped keeping God's commandments in other words once they got to the point where they thought that it was up to them to decide what's right and what's wrong they stopped keeping God's commandments everyone did what was right in their eyes once we got to the point where we started looking down our nose at the Bible then we stopped keeping God's commandments people there was a time even if you weren't a believer but you looked at the Bible and you said that's a holy book you might not believe the Bible you might not even be a Christian but you looked at that you go you know what I'm not even a Christian but that's God's book you went to the legal system you placed your hand on the Bible you raised your right hand and you solemnly swore to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God but now we don't do that we saw me swear to tell the truth but we don't do that and people this is where America is today and that's why there has been 58 million 58 million abortions since row v wait that's why the porn industry generates about thirteen billion dollars alone in America just in America that's why recreational marijuana is legal in the District of Columbia Colorado Washington Oregon and Alaska that's on medical marijuana people as a recreational marijuana and this November when we go to vote for president Arizona California Maine Massachusetts and Nevada are voting on whether to not whether or not to legalize recreational marijuana and it's leading in all the polls California's going to pass it now still against federal law but we have a president that refuses to do his main responsibilities a president only has to remain responsibilities according to the constitution and the very first responsibilities the president has is to is to to keep or to uphold the laws of the land and he refuses to do that so you've got states that are passing laws that are against what the federal law says but the reason all of this is happening people is because America despises the Bible and as a result we no longer keep God's commandments now look back at verse number four chapter two and Amos notice what it says thus saith the Lord for three transgressions is you them for four I will not turn away the punishment there because they have despised the law of the Lord the written law the Bible and as a result had not kept his Commandments and their lies is the root cause their lies caused them to err now whose lies caused them to err the false prophets and their leaders you say it was their false prophets and their leaders that condone their actions it was their false leaders and their false prophets and their leaders that led them astray and told them that it was okay to adopt the laws and principles from the neighboring pagan nations it was their false prophets and their leaders that told them is okay to adopt the practices of their neighbors because their practices were more progressive and much less restrictive and that's what led them to despise the law of the Lord they looked at what the law of the Lord said in the law the Lord said this is right this is wrong this is right this is wrong this is right this is wrong they looked at their pagan nations and they said well the my neighbors they get to decide it's not right over there and it's not wrong over there so they looked at that before long they're despising the law of the Lord Wow but they knew better because their fathers had walked in the commandments of the Lord now here's what's interesting whenever the fathers are brought up in the Bible it can be used either positively or negatively and we do the same thing when we talk about our fathers we can either be talking about our physical fathers or grandparents those on back or we can talk we can be talking about our forefathers in America we can be talking about George Washington we can be talking about Thomas Jefferson we can be talking about Samuel Adams and Ben Franklin and those right if we do it in a positive light we're talking about the fathers of our nation if we do it a negative light we're talking about our physical fathers and what they didn't send a negative light now here's what's interesting and so they knew better because their fathers had walked in the commandments of the Lord their fathers respected the laws of the Lord now that was their forefathers Abraham Isaac Jacob Joseph Moses Joshua and so when he says your fathers have walked in that they respected what God said our founding fathers respected the Bible we were based on biblical principles and Christian values now if we want to look at this in native society we can look at fathers in negative way and say their fathers did the very same thing even though their forefathers did this they looked around and they didn't want Commandments that told them this is right and this is wrong this is right and this is wrong they wanted to be the measure of all things they wanted to determine whether it is right or not now I'm using this in a positive sense because I believe that's what Amos was doing he said their fathers respected the law of the Lord they didn't buy into the lies of the false prophets and the wicked leaders instead they remained faithful to God so people Judah had no excuse they had the law of the Lord the written law they had their fathers as an example and yet they were still led astray which caused them to despise the Bible which led them to not keeping God's commandments and for that reason God's judgment would not be overturned it's coming now let's look at what type of judgment was pronounced upon them look at verse 5 but I will send a fire upon Judah there's that fire we talked about it last week with cremation fire always symbolizes what the judgment of God destruction I will send a fire upon Judah and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem referring to the Kings palaces but also to the temple of course it was fulfilled in 586 BC Nebuchadnezzar not only destroyed Jerusalem but he also destroyed the temple and he took almost all of the inhabitants of the southern kingdom into captivity with the exception of the poorest of the poor literally wiped them out why because it started by despising the law of the Lord which caused them to not keep the law of the Lord and as a result of that judgment came

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Id: U5sqweYdRLM

Length: 30min 18sec (1818 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 20 2018