FBC Morning Light (12/9/2023)

Faith Baptist Church

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Good Saturday morning, people of faith. We're going to be looking at a portion of scripture in Amos chapter 8 this morning.

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So if you would join with me in Amos chapter 8. Thus the

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Lord God showed me, behold, a basket of summer fruit. And he said,

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Amos, what do you see? So I said, a basket of summer fruit.

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Then the Lord said to me, the end has come upon my people

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Israel. I will not pass by them anymore. And the songs of the temple shall be waiting, wailing in that day, says the

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Lord God. Many dead bodies everywhere, they shall be thrown out in silence.

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So Amos was one of the first prophets.

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He was the first prophet to have a book named after him. And this is a prophecy against the

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Northern Kingdom, where Jeroboam is the king. And Jeroboam, if you remember, led the rebellion of the 10 tribes against the

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United Kingdom of Israel and Judah. And the summer fruit here represents the end of the time of Israel.

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They are walking in rebellion against God. And so in verse 4, we see who specifically the

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Lord is talking to here. He says, hear this, you who swallow up the needy and make the poor of the land fail.

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All right, so we're talking about those who are taking advantage of various people because they're poor and they're needy.

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And this is what it says, starting in verse 5, it says, when will the new moon be passed that we may sell grain and the

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Sabbath that we may trade wheat, making the ephah small and the shekel large, falsifying the scales by deceit.

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So they are robbing people through their trade. It's not fair trade at all.

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And so then it goes on, it says that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, even sell the bad wheat.

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And so they're using their ill -gotten gains to purchase people and to be their servants.

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And it's not a good thing. It says in verse 7, the Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob, surely

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I will never forget any of their works. I will not forget any of their works.

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Let's compare that with the blessed man of Psalm 32, says, blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

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Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

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We have the direct opposite of that here in Israel. Let me pick this back up in verse 9 of Amos chapter 8, says, and it shall come to pass in that day, says the

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Lord God, that I will make the sun go down at noon and I will darken the earth in broad daylight.

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In other words, judgment is coming. He says,

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I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. I will bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head.

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I will make it like mourning for an only son and its end like a bitter day.

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Now, these things have come true for the Northern Kingdom and there's worse things coming and those things that we just named are very awful.

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It says, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will send a famine on the land.

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Now, famine is typically associated with not enough food or not enough water or starvation, but he says, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the

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Lord. Of all the types of famine you could have,

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I cannot imagine one worse than not having the words of the

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Lord, where there's no place you can go to hear what

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God says about what is true, about what is right, about what is noble, about what is the way of salvation.

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And I think of brothers and sisters in Christ who even now travel for over an hour to come to church here as a place where they hear the words of life.

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Now, yes, we have internet access. Yes, we have the Bible in our hands and things like this, but in a sense, there's been a diminishment in the land that we now live of the preaching of that word, whether it's we no longer hold the

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Bible in the same regard as God's word, or if it's that we've completely turned away and say, it's not

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God's word at all. Either way, there is a somewhat of a famine now for us.

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And as you think through the consequences of that today, please let that drive you to prayer.

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While I very much enjoy the fellowship of people who drive a long way to get here, it ought not to be that they have to travel so far to find a church that preaches and believes the word of God as the word of God.

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Let's take a moment and pray. Heavenly Father, we have, as a people, not followed you.

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And as a people, we need to repent of that, and we need to look to you and to your word.

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May it be that there would never be a famine of your word in our lives or in this land.

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Help us to walk with you this day. It's in your son's name, Jesus, we pray, amen.