Book of Amos Bible Study 17: The 3 SERMONS of Amos

we finished the first section of the Book of Amos which is the pronouncement of judgment on eight different nations so now we're ready ready to move into the third section of the book which is actually three sermons now these three sermons Amos is trying to convince the Israelites that what he had prophesied against them was actually going to happen because they really didn't believe that not only were they shocked when he started pronouncing a judgment against them but then after he did it they just discarded it they didn't believe it you see in a sense the Israelites were what theologians call libertine antinomian now does everyone know what that means probably not so I'm gonna define that libertine antinomianism is the fallacy that the elect can sin with impunity and never fall from grace in other words you can sin without there being any repercussions or any consequences because salvation is by grace you see the word libertine refers to a person who behaves without moral principles or a sense of responsibilities now there's a lot of synonyms that we could use you know we could look at someone who's a philanderer or we could look at someone who's just a dirty rotten scoundrel but actually a libertine to someone who behaves without any moral principles he does what he wants when he wants antinomianism is the belief that Christians are free from having to keep the moral law by virtue of grace in other words because we're saved by grace through faith it really doesn't matter whether we sin or not because we're not saved by works we're not saved by what we do or what we don't do we're saved by grace so if we sin it's really no big deal it's covered by the blood of Jesus right right yeah after all once saved always saved you gave your life to Jesus you're going to heaven you do some things you shouldn't do no big deal you'll ask Jesus to forgive you now obviously libertine antinomianism is a New Testament term and it only applies to New Testament Christians and not to O Testament Saints because salvation by grace comes through Jesus Christ and is a New Testament doctrine according to Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 and 9 were saved by grace through are saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus and not of works lest any man should boast most of you know that scripture now throughout history there have always been Christians who pushed the concept of grace to the extreme and the Bible addresses this look at Romans chapter 1 verses 1 and 2 and maybe you've used this first before maybe you have a friend that accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior but their lifestyle really didn't change and they're still sleeping with their boyfriend and they're still going out and doing all the things that they used to do and they're getting drunk and they're blacking out they're doing all of these things using drugs and you know you're coming to the fore where you go I'm not really sure they're saved so you read this scripture to look at Romans chapter 1 verses 1 and 2 well then should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace of course not since we have died to sin how can we continue to live in it you see if you're a believer in Christ you have died to sin and now you are the righteousness of God in fact if you're familiar with the book of Corinthians you know that he made him who knew no sin to be our sin so that we might be made the righteousness of God in him so when the Holy Spirit immersed us into Christ Jesus was made our sin so when he was crucified we were crucified in him when he died we died in him and when he was raised we were resurrected with him so now we're dead to sin and were the righteousness of God so should we be living a righteous life or sinful life and that's what Paul is saying because we're dead to sin we should not be living a sinful life we are now the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus therefore we should be living a righteous life now look at Romans chapter 6 verse 15 well then since God's grace has said is free from the law does that mean that we can go on sinning of course not we're to be a holy even as God is holy and that's what the New Testament tells us so all of you who claim to be Christians and smoke pot or have premarital sex or view pornography or are in a homosexual relationship or get drunk etc and you think that you're okay with God you're a Liberty libertine antinomian yeah you think that because you believe in Jesus you can do whatever you want with impunity in other words with not any consequences without any repercussions you're still going to heaven now whether or not you're really saved it's not up to me I don't know whether you are not that's between you and God all I know is to go by what the Word of God says in Galatians chapter 5 verses 19 through 21 says this the works of the flesh are obvious sexual immorality which would include adultery fornication all types of sin bestiality homosexuality then he goes further impurity and debauchery ADAT idolatry and witchcraft now let me stop right here with witchcraft witchcraft is translated from the Greek word pharmakeia that's where we get the word pharmacy it literally means mind-altering drugs we're not talking about going to the doctor you know and you have to have a surgery therefore they give you some pain pills we're talking about taking pills or smoking dope or doing whatever in order to get high that's pharmakeia and the reason the King James translators translated as witchcraft is because in that time the way that people practice witchcraft is they would get high in order to be able to do whatever they did in order to see visions to be able to see the little people or whatever it was they were doing and so they translated it as witchcraft but actually it means drugs let's keep going hatred discord jealousy fits of Rage selfish ambition dissensions factions and envy drunkenness orgies and the like now if your King James Version it says and suchlike now growing out I would hear the Baptist pastor read this and then he would come to the part and say in such like and that includes dancing and then he would just list whatever he wanted to because that was included in such like I'm not sure that includes that I like to dance and I dance but anyways I want you to see it says and such like or like I warn you as I did before that those who live like this now that's very important because in the King James it actually says those who do these thing and that word do poo yellow and the Greek is written in the in the present tense which denotes continual action what it means that you actually practice these things without any reservation or with any feelings of guilt you this is just what you do you're not sorry for it you don't want to stop doing it you just do that this is who you are so what he's saying is not that if you've done these things you're not going to inherit eternal life because I'll be honest with you there's probably not a person in here that hasn't done at least one of the things that's mentioned here I've done several of them and I'm not going to tell you which but I want you to understand it doesn't say if you've done this once let's keep reading it says will not inherit the kingdom god it's not saying if you've done one of these things are several of these things but now you can't get to heaven it's not saying that it's saying that if you continually do these things without any reservation or reservations or feelings of guilt if you practice these things if this is a part of your lifestyle and you want to repent from it I'm gonna be honest with you you're not gonna inherit the kingdom of God now now people that's not what I say that's what the book of Galatians chapter 5 says these are the works of the flesh and then he tells you what the fruit of the Spirit is but we're not going to read that now you see according to Paul and what he was running here if you're saying truly saved the Holy Spirit will convict you if you do any of these things plus you're going to have a desire to live a holy life now that doesn't mean that you won't struggle with sinful desires everyone struggles with sinful desires because we're still in this sinful body we still have this adamant nature I don't know exactly what our resurrected bodies are going to be like but they're going to be like Jesus resurrected body and here's what's interesting the implication is as you study the New Testament that we will no longer be subject to this Adamek nature in that resurrected body we will no longer struggle with the temptation to sin not only will we have our mortal body being turned into an immortal body not only will it be a carnal body being turned into a glorious body but it will stop a sinful Adamic nature body therefore we're going to be released from this animal nature and we're not going to be always struggling with sin but I'll be honest with you as long as you're on this earth you're gonna struggle with sin and sometimes you'll probably give in to some of those struggles but if you're a true Christian the Holy Spirit's going to convict you when you sin now as I say it from the time of Jesus until now there have always been people that believe that you can do anything that you want and still be saved because you believe in Jesus in other words they don't believe that Jesus has to be Lord of your life you just have to believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God that Jesus died for your sins and that when all of your sins were paid for God raised him from the dead and if you believe that because you believe you're gonna go to heaven and of course they base that belief on the fact that salvation is by grace through faith and not of works lest any man should boast so they profess to be a Christian and they live like the devil simply because they believe in Jesus and they believe that that's all it takes to be saved that's their personal theology based on certain scriptures and I will say not taking all of the Scriptures in context but they honestly believe that they're going to heaven they are what scholars call libertine anti no means now again if you know a little bit about Greek and Greek words you probably know where we get this word empty no means of course it's made from two Greek words it's transliterated from two Greek words the first one is the Greek word ante where we get the word anti some of you are anti-abortion hopefully you are anti drugs it means you're against drugs and that's what the Greek word means ante it means against and then you have the Greek word namasthe all so what it means is you're against the law and when you say against the law it means that because of Jesus Christ we're knowing lo underneath the law it doesn't matter what we do or we don't do as long as we believe in Jesus we get to go to heaven now some people think that that term libertine antinomian no means is actually redundant because again libertine means that you're a person who doesn't practice or you don't actually live by certain moral principles but you don't have to be a Christian to be a libertine in fact the majority of people who are Libertines are not Christians so they don't live by any moral principles they don't live up to society's expertise expectations' they do what they want when they want to do it and that's what a libertine is and antinomian on the other hand is usually someone that's a Christian because when we're talking about being against the law we're not talking about the law of the government we're not talking about civil law we're talking about religious law God's law so we combine those two terms to talk about someone who doesn't believe that when to the law but they take it even further there's someone who practices especially sexual immorality and those things that are in the works of the flesh were considered to be the works of the flesh now as I said libertine antinomianism is a New Testament term not an Old Testament term and that's why I said in a sense in a sense the Israelites in amos time were libertine antinomian in other words technically they weren't libertine antinomian but they believed something very similar to libertine antinomianism you see they believed that because they were elected by God to be his chosen people God wouldn't bring judgment upon them and the only way he would is that they totally abandoned God and they became a pagan but as long as they didn't totally abandon him they could sin and they could get by with it they could sin with impunity in other words without any consequences or repercussions because after all they were elected by God to be his chosen people they were in covenant with him he was Yahweh and they were his covenant people so as you can see this was a common problem back then just like it is today now when I say back then I'm talking about an a mistake I'm talking about before the Assyrian captivity and before the Babylonian captivity because after the Babylonian captivity in the Syrian captivity they weren't like that at all in fact it blew their mind because not only was Israel completely completely annihilated and destroyed and defeated but they were carried away from their homeland and other people were brought in to take their place and then when the Babylonians came and they took the southern kingdom they destroyed Jerusalem and they even destroyed the temple and it devastated them and so they looked for the reason why why would God allow this to happen and they came to the conclusion as they read the scriptures it's because we didn't fulfill our obligations of the Covenant it's because we were antinomian s-- we thought just because we were elected and chosen by God that as long as we kind of did what he wanted then God would always bless us but after the Babylonian captivity and they realized that's not true and as a result of that the Pharisee sect came into being most people don't realize this but she didn't have synagogues in Israel until after the Babylonian captivity you didn't have that after the Babylonian captivity they had to stay had to come up with a way to practice Judaism without the temple because the temple was destroyed and so what they did is they created synagogues and then they created this position called scribes or lawyers people who actually studied the Word of God to teach the people the Word of God so that we would never ever again sin to the point that God has to destroy us like this and as a result the Pharisees came into play and we always think of them as being bad but they weren't always bad because many of the Pharisees actually became Christians they became believers in Jesus Christ but there was a certain group of Pharisees that were bad because they carried it to the other extreme to legalism that if you keep the law then you can go to heaven and of course we know that no one can keep the law no one is perfect except Jesus Christ and as a result of that we need Jesus so but here's what I want you to see this was a common problem back then back in Amos stage just like it is today in fact they might have even taken it further than we do look at Jeremiah chapter 7 verses 3 through 14 I'll show you what I'm talking about and you need to remember that Jeremiah he was actually prophesying to the southern kingdom and he was telling them if you don't repent if you don't change God's gonna destroy Jerusalem and the temple and boy they didn't like it in fact they even arrested him put him in prison couldn't stand him but notice what he says this is chapter 7 verses 3 through 14 this is what the Lord of heavens armies the God of Israel says even now if you quit your evil ways I will let you stay in your own lands you see up to this time they were paying tribute to Babylon and they had carried away some of the they already had this first one in 605 or they carried this first group into captivity but it was voluntary because we know they can whip us and then of course they had the second group but now they want to rebel and Jeremiah saying don't do it even now if you quit your evil ways God will let you stay in your own land then it goes further but don't be fooled by those who promise you safety simply because the Lord's temple is here you see you had those that said God will never allow his temple to be destroyed that's his home he dwells here on earth and he goes further they chant the Lord's temple is here the Lord's temporal is here but I will be merciful only if you stop your evil thoughts and deeds and start treating others with justice only if you stop exploiting foreigners orphans and widows only if you stop murdering and only if you stop harming yourselves by worshiping idols in other words as long as you practice ethical monotheism remember you can't truly worship God you can't truly love God if you don't treat others right because if we love God will keep his Commandments and we'll love our neighbor as ourselves that golden rule comes from the Torah it comes from the pintuck they were required the greatest commandment was to love God with all your heart soul mind and strength the second greatest commandment was liken to the first that you love your neighbor as yourself ethical monotheism and Jeremiah saying you need to do this if you don't he says don't be fooled into thinking that you will never suffer because the temple is here it's a lie some of us in America think that God will never do it to America because we were established on Christian principles that's not true people that's a lie let's keep reading do you really think that you can steal murder commit adultery lie and burn incense to bail and all those other new gods of yours and then come here and stand before me my temple and chant we are safe I'm going to go right back to those evils again do you really think you can go outside of these walls do you really think you can watch pornography do you really think that you can enjoy all of those things do you really think you could smoke your dope do you really think you can support abortion do you really think you can do all those things and then come back in here say that you're safe because you're in God's house don't you yourself submit that this temple which bears my name has begun to become a den of thieves surely I see all the evil that's going on there i the lord has spoken go now to the place at Shiloh where I once built the tabernacle bit bore my name we're gonna come back to that Shiloh is very important because what God did at Shiloh was supposed to be an example to them and they didn't learn and if we don't learn from their example then we'll pay the price because we'll do the very same thing they did let me tell you a wise man doesn't learn from his own mistakes he learns from the mistakes of others so he doesn't make that mistake let's keep reading see what I did there because of all the wickedness of my people the Israelites while you were doing these wicked things says the Lord I spoke to you about it repeatedly how did he speak to them through prophets but you wouldn't listen I called out to you but you refused to answer so just as I destroyed Shiloh very important we're gonna find out what he means by that I will now destroy this temple that bears my name how bad does it have to be when God destroys his own house I will now destroy this temple that bears my name this temple that you trust in for help this place that I gave to you and your ancestors do you see that they thought that God would never allow his temple to be destroyed in fact they believe that no matter what they did or how they behaved the temple was safe from destruction which meant that they were safe that was their mentality now in verse number 12 Jeremiah reminded them of what happened at Shiloh concerning the Ark of the Covenant and of course that's referring to what happened in 1st Samuel chapter 4 verses 2 through 11 go ahead and turn there if you don't mind and I'm gonna show you this is the example that he was referring to so don't you remember what happened at Shiloh this should have been something that you learned from so let's read it the Philistines attacked and defeated the army of Israel killing four thousand men well that's not supposed to be because God's on our side God's on America's side we're supposed to go in and we're supposed to destroy all these people to take minimal casualties we're supposed to be like Israel in the 67 war beyond Yom Kippur War we're supposed to be the ones that's wiped out but for some reason we destroy all of the enemies because God's on our side and we take minimum casuals but this wasn't the case 4,000 men were killed after the battle was over the troops retreated to their camp and the elders of Israel asked why did the Lord now you notice the word Lord is in all caps what does that mean it's translated from the word Yahweh that's the redeeming covenant keeping name of God only those who are in covenant with God can use that name so these elders go back and they say well I did the Lord why did Yahweh who were in covenant with allow us to be defeated by the Philistines then they say said let's bring the Ark of the cutting of the Lord from Shiloh if we carry it into battle with us it will save us our enemies so they sent men to Shiloh to bring the Ark of the Covenant the Lord of heavens armies who is enthroned between the cherubim hophni and Phinehas the sons of Eli were also there with the Ark of the Covenant of God now they're priests their father Eli is the high priest he's allowing them the ministers priest but they're very very sinful men we're going to find out but the Ark of the Covenant cannot be carried by anyone except the priests so when the Ark of the Covenant comes who's carrying it off 9 Phineas because they are priests but they are terrible horrible wicked priests so let's keep reading when all the Israelites saw the Ark of the Covenant the Lord coming into the camp their shout of joy was so loud it made the ground shake they were so encouraged because this is the throne of God and we're going to carry it into battle with us God sits between the cherubim here what's going on the Philistines asked what's all the shouting about in the Hebrew camp when they were told it was because the Ark of the Lord had arrived they panicked the gods had come into their camp they cried this is a disaster we have never had to face anything like this before because they know their gods are nothing like the God of Israel they know how the God of Israel brought them out of Egypt they know how they took the promised land they know the miracles that have taken place help who can save us from these mighty gods of Israel they are the same gods who destroyed the Egyptians with plagues when Israel's in the wilderness fight is never before Philistines if you don't will we we will become the Hebrew slaves just as they have been ours stand up like men and fight so the Philistines fought desperately and Israel was defeated again the slaughter was great thirty thousand Israelite soldiers died that day the survivors turned and fled to their tents the Ark of God was captured and hopf nine phineus the two sons of Eli were killed you see they thought that if they took the Ark of the Covenant to battle they couldn't lose even though even the priests for committing horrible sins turn to 1st Samuel chapter 2 verse 12 and then we're going to jump down to verses 22 and 23 and I'll show you what I'm talking about when I say horrible sins look at verse 12 now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial now remember the phrase son of means you have the characteristics of so whenever in the Bible you see this phrase they were a son of Belial it means they had the characteristics of Belial and Belial is not a person he wasn't a man that went out fathering all of these children their sons of Belial oh no it means they had the characteristics of Belial and Belial literally means worthless so it means they have the characteristics of worthlessness there are people that God considers worthless and many of us have been there before we were saved there's hope for anyone you know I will say this my wife used to get on to me because I would say so-and-so was worthless and she would say no one is worthless she since learned that there are people who are worthless but the great thing about God is he'll redeem even the worthless and these people were worthless look at verses 22 and 23 and we'll see why now Eli who was very old who was a good high priest except for one thing he did not check his sons he allowed them to do abominations and God held them accountable for that now Eli who was very odd heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel and how they slept with the women who served at the interest of the tent of meeting there were women that would help at the temple at the tabernacle and they had seduced these women and they were sleeping with him you can go a little bit further we won't look at it but they would demand certain portions of the sacrifices and offerings that came in they would bully the people they were very very large basically if you didn't do it they just work you over and these were the priests so he said to them Eli did to his sons why you why do you do such things I've hear from all the people about these wicked and the word wicked in Hebrew actually means evil all of these evil things that you do but my point is this the Israelites just couldn't believe what Amos had prophesied and the reason they couldn't believe it was because they couldn't believe that God would ever bring judgment upon them because after all they were elected by God to be his chosen people and they were in covenant with him and his they didn't totally abandon God they were safe or at least that was their mentality sure they were sinning and not keeping his Commandments and yes they were worshiping other gods Bale and some of the fertility gods but they still believed in Yahweh and regardless of what they were doing they were still as covenant people so in their mind they were safe God would not bring judgment upon them at least that's what they thought so Amos preached three sermons and attempt to convince them that God was going to bring judgment upon him that he was truly a prophet and God was warning them that if they didn't repent and change their ways and do what God required of them then God would bring judgment upon them and in order to convince them he is going to preach three sermons to them look up here on the screens to the outline and I want you to notice the first part is the introduction to Amos first number one's a bio if you remember in verse number two it's the theme of the book and if you don't understand the theme of the book you really don't understand what's going on the theme of the book is Yahweh is like a lion roaring from Jerusalem and if you remember Lions only roar for one of four reasons now we're only interested in two of those the first reason that they roar is because in the evening they want to call members of the pride back to the den so when one of them gets back the one that's there usually the one in charge the Alpha he will roar and what he's doing is he's calling members of the pride back to the den and God is doing that because it was part of God's plan for the Kingdom of Israel to split into two if you remember Solomon was not the Great King that we've always heard that he was if you study the Bible you realized in the mid part of his life he drifted away from God and he got involved in all types of sin he had so many wives he couldn't even count them and so many concubines and yes he could count him because in their Bible but you get the drift that's a figure of speech it take two years maybe longer to sleep with each one of his wives and his concubines that's how many he had and he did things he wasn't supposed to do like have chariots and horses and he treated people the way he wasn't supposed to treat them and he got into all this philosophy and he then he started worshipping other gods and so God sent a prophet to him he said because of what you've done I'm gonna split the kingdom but because of my son David's because of him because of my love for him I won't do it in your day I'll do it after you die and of course when he dies Rhea Boehm becomes king and we know the story God sends a prophet to Jeroboam and he says I'm gonna split the kingdom and you're gonna get the ten northern tribes if you're if you will serve the Lord I will bless you and your family and you'll have a dynasty well of course it happens just like they say it's going to there's two split Jeroboam becomes the king but Jeroboam is afraid to trust God and instead of trusting God he creates his own religion so Jeroboam was part of God's plan in the kingdom separating but it was never a part of God's plan for Jeroboam to create his or her own religion and he did so yahweh is calling back to them he's this line and he's roaring and he's telling them to come back to jerusalem come back to the covenant but the lion roars for a second reason he also roars to warn those who are not members of the pride that they are considered to be prey so what he's doing is when he's roaring and telling them to come back he's also telling them by roaring that if you don't come back to Jerusalem that if you don't come back to the Covenant if you don't come back and worship the way that I told you to worship then I will consider you to be prey and I will bring judgment upon you and that's the theme of the Book of Amos and that applies to every nation today that says they're a Christian nation and then we go to the second section a book it's called the eight judgments and of course by now you should ho but of those eight six or pagan nations Gentile nations because God wants them to know that he's not just picking on them but he holds these six Gentile nations he holds them accountable for breaking what's called his natural law these are things that they knew better it didn't matter that they didn't have God's revelation it didn't matter that God hadn't given them the law there are certain things that every one knows is wrong and I don't care what you say everyone naturally knows that homosexuality is a perversion if you don't know that then you have come to the point where you've seared your conscience everyone knows that abortion is wrong and if you don't believe that then you have seared your conscience because that's part of natural law everyone knows that stealing is wrong when you travel to a foreign country the first thing that you do is you go to your hotel you don't have to go to the police station say before I do anything I need to see your laws need to know if I take something that's not mine is that wrong here no everyone knows that stealing is wrong it doesn't matter what country you go to that's the natural law so these six these six pagan nations God pronounce judgment on them because they broke his natural law but when it came to Jude in Israel there's their sins seem to be quite tame but God held them to a higher standard why because God had revealed his word to them he had revealed his will they knew better so God held them to a higher standard and here's what I want you to see the last to judge from Jude and judgment in Israel the longest pronouncement of judgment is on the Israel it's 11 vs. all the others are just two to three versus even Judah is only two verses but not Israel 11 vs. and the rest of the book is going to deal with just Israel every once in a while Judah is going to be mentioned because God's gonna hold them to a higher standard - but he's gonna deal with him later and with other prophets after he gives this pronouncement of judgment to Israel they don't believe it so then Amos moves into the third section of the book which are the three sermons of judgment and that's where we are today now Amos began his first sermon by affirming the fact that God had an elected Israel to be his chosen people look at verse 1 and 2 in chapter 3 says here this word people of Israel the word the Lord has spoken against you now let me just say something before we read on when it says here this word the word here is written in the imperative mood it means it's a command I'm commanding you to hear it's actually more forceful than the phrase thus saith the Lord you know we read a prophecy what's the normal thing that we hear the prophets say thus saith the Lord it's like whew but you need to understand something if you're a Jew you understand when God says hear this word people of Israel the word the Lord has spoken against you that's actually more forceful because God's not just saying thus saith the Lord listen to me he's saying listen to me look at me hear me that's what he's saying then he goes further the whole family I brought up out of Egypt so now he's talking to both Judah and Israel but he's gonna he's gonna zero in on Israel a little bit you only have I chosen of all the families of the earth you know what I like about God and we need to think this way you know just because you want to have borders doesn't mean you're xenophobic you know III don't understand people the truth of the matter is gods made borders and that's for law and order we have different cultures as a result of that certain things work better in certain nations but here's the interesting thing about it God sees all of the nations as families families and I like that because it tells me that God is a relationship god he really cares about relationships and when he looks at nations he looks at them as families and we know this when we look at families sometimes you look at families ooh boy that's a good family they all serve the Lord they're doing good look look at their life can we look at another family go don't mix with that family they're just just mean as a barrel snakes just stay away from them how many you know what I'm talking about so he's talking about family so he says this you only have I chosen of all the families of the earth and what he means I chose you of all the nations of the earth so out of all the families on the earth or nations God chose Israel in fact what most people don't realize is Amos actually quoting Deuteronomy chapter seven verse number six you see the more the Bible you know when you're reading through the Bible you go that's not his original words he's quoting from something what's he quoting from and you go look it up well he's quoting from deuteronomy 7:6 notice what deuteronomy 7:6 is for you are a holy people and of course the word holy doesn't mean what we think we think holy means pure never sinning oh no no holy people means set apart holy means set apart for God you know he had holy vessels and you had earthly vessels the holy vessel simply meant that they were only to be used for God so he says for you are a holy people I've set you apart for me who belong to the Lord your God of all the people of the earth the Lord your God again the word Lord is caps Yahweh I made a covenant with you the Lord your God has chosen you to be his own special treasure what a privilege now people it wasn't because they deserve to be chosen it was simply because God had made a promise to Abraham Isaac and Jacob in fact let's keep rooting reading and Deuteronomy chapter seven so we get the context of this says for you are a holy people who belong to the Lord your God of all the people on earth the Lord your God has chosen you to be his own special treasure the Lord did not set as hard on you and choose you because you were more numerous than the other nations in other words because you're mighty for you were the smallest of all the nations you were pitiful man you were pitiful you had a slave mentality when I brought you out I couldn't take you through the land of the Philistines you'd have got your butt kicked rather it was simply that the Lord loves you and he was keeping the oath that he had sworn to your ancestors who's that Abraham Isaac and Jacob that is why the Lord rescued you with such a strong hand from your slavery and from the oppressive hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt understand their 4th of Lord your God is indeed God he is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and he lavishes his unfailing love on those who love you know and obey his commands you want to be loved by God there it is you love him and you keep his commands because if you say you love me and you don't keep my commands you're a liar and the truth is not in you according to first John then it goes further but hey don't you hate the buts man you put a butt in there what's that mean just disregard everything that was said pay attention to this but he does not hesitate to punish and restrain those who reject him therefore you must obey all these commands degrees and regulations I'm giving you today and the implication is you reject him by not obeying him you got a choice every day as Jesus Lord or zeenat Lord you can either accept Jesus as Lord or you can reject him as Lord how do you reject him as Lord you do your will not hiss you obey your commands not his commands now with a great privilege of being chosen by God King great responsibility as God's chosen people they were supposed to be a holy nation look at Exodus chapter 19 verses 5 through 6 now if you will obey me and keep my covenant you will be my own special treasure from among all the people the earth for all the earth belongs to me and you will be my kingdom a priest my holy nation this is the message you must give to the people of Israel they're gonna be mine they would also they were also supposed to be a witness to the world look at Isaiah chapter 43 verses 10 through 12 but you are my witnesses though Israel says the Lord you are my servant you have been chosen to know me now the word no was translated from the Hebrew word Yana and it literally means to intimately know when it refers to being in covenant with him to have an intimate relationship with him says you've been chosen to know me all the other nations they don't know me they don't know me they're not in a relationship with me they don't have a covenant with me but you have been chosen to know me believe in me and understand that I alone in God there is no other God there never has been and there never will be I yes I am the Lord Yahweh and there is no other Savior that's what Jesus has to be the Son of God very god of very God as the Nicene Creed says because if he's not God then we're not saved and it's the Lord Jesus the Son of God very god of very God who's our Savior but then he goes further I was going to talk about what he did that no other gods have done first I predicted your rescue what does it mean I predict you risk i towed Abraham that your family will go into Egypt and they will be there for four generations four hundred years and they're going to become slaves but I will bring them out and even gave him the time period and it was actually fulfilled to that time period so he says I predicted your rescue from Egypt then I saved you and I proclaimed it to the world everyone knew because you see at that time Egypt was the world power and when I brought you out and I humbled Pharaoh and I destroyed them that word got out and everyone in the world knew that I done this for you no foreign God has ever done this no one's ever predicted to the time period to exactly what he's going to do you are a witnesses that I am the only God says the Lord so they were supposed to be witnesses in this in fact by keeping God's commandments it was supposed to draw attention to God look at Deuteronomy chapter four verses five through eight see I have taught you decrees and laws as the Lord my God commanded me so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it observe them carefully for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nation's who will hear about all these decrees and say surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people what other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near whenever we pray who else has a God that when you pray to him he shows up who else has a God where Joshua speaks and commands the son to be still and it's still and it changes the course of the world and from that point on no longer is a year 360 days but it's 365 because he was able to do that what other nation is so greatest to have their gods near than the way the Lord our God is near to us whenever we pray to Him and what other nation is so great is to have such righteous decrees in laws as this body of laws I'm sitting before you today so with this great privilege came great responsibility and the promise that if they didn't keep God's commandments then they're not going to proclaim God they're not going to be witnesses the nations aren't going to look at them and say we want your God so therefore they would be punished in fact let me give you three quick scriptures where God told the Israelites they didn't obey his commandments they would be punished look at Deuteronomy chapter 7 verses 9 and 10 understand therefore that the Lord your God is indeed God he is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and laughter some feling level those who love Him by his commands but he does not hesitate to punish and destroy those who reject him now look at Deuteronomy 819 but I assure you of this now does everyone know what the book of Deuteronomy is it's the reestablishing of the Covenant before they go into the Promised Land that's what dude wrong is so he's reminding them before they go into the Promised Land but I assure you of this if you forget the Lord your God and follow other gods worshiping bound down them you will certainly be destroyed and finally look at Deuteronomy 28 15 in fact read the rest from 28 15 there in at the chapter I'll just read verse 15 but if you refuse to listen to the Lord your God until obey all the commands decrees I'm giving you today all these curses will come upon you and overwhelm you and just go through and read them it's bad but because of optimism bias the Israelites did not think that God would actually carry out his promise of judgment everyone knows what optimism bias is right optimism bias is a cognitive bias in other words it's a mentality that causes a person to believe that they are less at risk of experiencing a negative event compared to others it's kind of like young men that go to war they're going to war and you've got these young men and they always think that they're the ones that's not going to die they're the ones that's going to be the war hero everyone else is going to die that's optimism bias you know the person who smokes doesn't think they're the ones that's going to get lung cancer the other person will does that make sense one who drinks doesn't think they'll become the alcoholic that's optimism bias that's why people do it optimism bias in other words it happened to others not me so when Amos prophesied that God was going to judge them they didn't believe it would happen to them and when you couple that with their antinomianism mentality they just didn't believe that God would punish them but what they didn't realize is that God had to punish them in fact from God's perspective it wouldn't be right if he didn't punish them because they knew his will and they didn't do it notice how the NLT translates verse two in Amos chapter three I love it because this is actually a better translation that's what it says for among all the families of the earth I've been intimate with you alone that is why I must punish you for your sins do you see that that is why I must punish you you see to whom much is given much is required and Israel had been blessed with much so God required more of them and that's what Amos was trying to get across to them so that's the thesis of this very first sermon and verses 1 & 2 is the thesis or it's the scene Israel is God's chosen people but to whom much is given much is required so Israel must be punished for being unfaithful to their covenant with God

Channel: Cornerstone Fellowship

Views: 3,815

Rating: 4.7142859 out of 5

Keywords: Antinomianism, the 3 sermons of amos, israels present situation, book of amos bible study, amos, prophetic literature, minor prophets, book of amos, minor prophet amos, The 3 Sermons of Amos | Amos Part 17, book of amos 3 sermons, 3 sermons of minor prophet amos, 3 sermons of amos explained, 3 sermons of amos bible study, amos chapter 3, amos chapter 3 bible study, minor prophets sermon study

Id: Zk4Mw1W-pMI

Length: 45min 53sec (2753 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 23 2018