Book of Amos Ch. 3, Vs. 3-14 (09/12/1999)

Abraham, Israel, and the Call Out of Idolatry

By God. Now he told him to get away from his family of idolatry and go to a place where he would show him. Didn't tell him where, he did not reveal the entire plan just as he does not to us, but there was enough revealed for him to act.

God said that from this one man he would build a nation and give them this land. And this is what God meant when he says you only have I known of all of the families in the earth. Because he made them, he brought them up, he developed the nation Israel from the line of Abraham and their purpose was to show God to the world.

Now at the Tower of Babel, if you'll go back to it for a moment, man was not trying to build an escape route there be in case there was another flood. But this so-called tower that was never finished was an altar to worship the sun.

Greg, they reasoned, being superstitious, they reasoned that it was the God of storm and the God of darkness that had brought all of the calamity upon the earth. And you may ask, well how did these people know that?

Because everybody died in the flood except Noah and his family, but they brought the information with them. And we see traces all over the world that prior to the flood the world was populated perhaps as much as it is right now.

Well they reasoned that it was the darkness and the storms so they are going to worship the sun. And to this very day in that part of the world which was the area of Chaldeas, this devil type worship is still going on.

And it is out of this that God called Abraham, Abram in the beginning. So we see as Amos started out now, he started out to show us cause and effect and he's used many many examples of cause and effect.

Walking With God as Agreement, Not Ritual

Does anyone not understand what we mean by cause and effect? Does everyone understand what we mean by cause and effect? Does anyone understand? I'm going to assume that you do. For every cause there is an effect.

If I was to hit Jesse upside the head there would be an effect. Alright, so here again is cause and effect. The walking together with God, he says, can two walk together if they're not in agreement? Of course that's impossible.

Can two walk together except they be agreed? The cause here must be agreement. And the result of it is that you walk together. Now this does not mean, Debbie, that God moves over to your side. We must move to his side because as Rocky told us this morning, he never changes.

I like that. Walking together, Fred, signifies a working together. To walk with God is to have God with you continuously, consciously, and by choice in every day's occupation. I urge you to listen very closely.

To walk with God is to lead a godly and Christian life. So I want you to ask yourself now, do I walk with God in form or in substance? It is possible to follow God's decrees and still not be in agreement.

If the agreement does not exist, the most exact observance of the legal ceremonies not only will be powerless to produce it, but has the effect of widening the breach. So don't come to church just out of ritual.

You come because you want to and because you want to serve the Lord. Over the years, I've tried to teach the people to look at nature. So I want you to do that with me this morning for just a moment. And we'll look at the rose.

We're all familiar with roses. I like the real deep dark red ones, but my wife has yellow ones that are most beautiful. Well, we see the bloom and it tells us that it is attached to the bush and that the bush is a healthy growing plant that gets its nourishment from the root.

We can tell that because the bloom is there. But what if the flower depended only on the stalk of the plant? It would soon fade. It would wither. It loses color, its fragrance, and would be fit only to be swept out.

So it is with our worship. Though our words should be suited to the lips of angels and our attitude fit for the court of heaven, if it is only a mere outward thing, having no root and no ground in our inner life, it will soon fade away.

We've all seen people that get real excited about coming to Bible study or coming to church, but before long they're gone. They begin to miss spasmodically and then completely. Have no root. God's law is his reflection cast down on earth.

The conscience of man is that part of his wonderful being that comes into closest contact with God's law, the conscience of man. When first the conscience is informed and awakened, it discovers itself guilty and the law is angry.

There is no peace between the two. Guilty conscience is what we call it. This conscience touches all points of our life, much like air touches earth everywhere. Neither can it be avoided, the contact.

The law's enmity against guilty moral being is intense and total. The consequence of this disagreement is they cannot walk together. It's impossible. Enmity produces distance. I don't want to go to church.

They've done something I don't like, so I'm not going back. Produces distance. Distance produces disobedience. To walk with the law of Christ is to live righteously. To walk with the law is to not walk with the law is to live in sin.

Where love is, the fulfilling of the law is. Hate and distance then must be the highest of disobedience. I put together a formula for walking with God. Here's something that works for me and perhaps it'll work for you.

We are to be in prayer constantly, we're told, instantly. I want you to listen to this. When you first open your eyes of a morning, pray, Lord open the eyes of my understanding. And while you are dressing, pray that you may be clothed with the robe of righteousness.

When you wash, ask for the washing of regeneration. As you begin work, pray for strength equal to your day, that God's work may revive in your soul. As you sweep out the house or shop or whatever, pray that your heart may be cleansed from all impurities.

While partaking of breakfast, desire to be head fed with the hidden manna and sincere meat of the Word. As you are busy with children, look up to God as your father and pray for the spirit of adoption, that you may be his child.

Amos, Judgment, and the Meaning of Evil

And so on all day long, this is prayer without ceasing. Know this, everything you do furnishes you with a thought for prayer. Now he goes into some more examples in the fourth verse, he says, will a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey?

Of course not. What he's saying is that the judgment of God is coming and you cannot avoid it because of the way that you have been living. Will a young lion cry out of his den if he has taken nothing?

There is always a cause followed by an effect. The judgment of God will follow man's iniquity. Amos, the third chapter in the fifth verse, can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth where no djinn is for him?

The word djinn simply means trap. Shall one take up a snare from the earth and have taken nothing at all? Shall a trumpet be blown in the city and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city and the Lord hath not done it?

Now don't become confused if God does sinful things, that's not what the word evil here means. The evil means the calamity or earthquakes, tornadoes, hailstorm, all nature's ordained of God. There are no accidents.

There must be cause and effect. Anytime you have one without the other, it's a miracle from God. Anytime the cause is not there but the effect is, or vice versa, that is a miracle. The judgment of God, Russell, is just.

Now we say, well how can that be since he has ordained everything that's going to happen? How can he dare judge man when man was ordained to do what he did? Well that's all true, but you must understand that man always does and always has done whatever he's done because he wanted to.

Adam ate of the tree because he wanted to. He sinned because he wanted to. We do not have to sin. Verse seven, surely the Lord God will do nothing but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.

Now Debbie, here's a truth that I want us to really be able to understand. All things that come about are the will of God and it includes the prayer of his saints. I'm going to make a statement and I want to be sure you understand what I say.

Nothing will take place without prayer of his people, but nothing takes place because you prayed. You understand what I'm saying? Prayer is part of the package of his will being done and he will put on your heart or in your mind thoughts concerning that that is coming in which you will be involved.

And we are to act upon that. We are to pray concerning it, not knowing what the event is perhaps, but that's part of his will being done because he will do nothing Steve and surprise us. Or we act shocked sometimes when we see his hand in things.

We really shouldn't. We do. That tells me I don't look for it often enough or I wouldn't be as astounded. He does nothing but he revealeth his secret to his servants. Such secrets are revealed to cause us to walk with him.

Go to the book of John the 15th chapter please, then go to the 15th verse. Henceforth I'll call you not servants for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth, but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my father I have made known unto you.

Bill, who's he talking to? Right, to his people. By the way, this is Bill Nichols, a very dear friend of ours visiting this afternoon. I want all of you to shake his hand. I feel sorry for the liberal today.

Well, maybe a little bit sorry. That is not giving out God's Word. Folks I've been on this trip most of this century and I have yet to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. It doesn't work like that Russell.

The real problem is sin in the heart of man. Now I know today sin's not popular and we call it dysfunctional family or whatever, but it's sin. Verse 8, the lion hath roared who will not fear. The Lord God hath spoken who can but prophesy.

The Revealed Secret of God and the Duty to Prophesy

Only those in communion with him, those that are walking with him, know what he said. Have you ever heard anyone say, well I read the Bible and I don't get a thing out of it? You ever hear that? The problem in our day is not that people do not have the Word of God.

The problem is that they will not hear that Word from God. The Bible is more up-to-date than tomorrow's newspaper. Jesse, it never goes out of date. That's what makes it so wonderful, Steve. You can pick up the Bible and read it any time and chances are you'll see something new.

Yet the Word has never changed. It's always been the same, but our circumstances change and our thinking changes. God makes it clear that his preacher and teacher is obligated to give his message regardless of what it is.

Most messages given today have less truth than it would take to make soup for a sick grasshopper. Most of them amount to nothing. It's just exercise and experience. Verse 9, publish in the palaces at Ashdod and in the palaces in the land of Egypt and say, assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria and behold the great tumults in the midst thereof and the oppressed in the midst thereof.

The mountains of Samaria surrounded the palaces of Ashdod and he's challenging them to go to the mountains and look down on the valley and just see what's really going on. Ten, for they know not to do right, saith the Lord, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces.

Jezebel and Ahab had built one of the wonders of the world it was an ivory palace beyond description, an enormous thing. There's nothing left today except a few fragments of ivory once in a while, but they're going to be destroyed and they were.

So Fred, we see there are none so blind as those that cannot see. The people that rob and steal from others, what they're doing is really storing up wrath that is destined for them in the day of judgment.

Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, an adversary there shall be even round about the land and he shall bring down thy strength from thee and thy palaces shall be spoiled. Thus saith the Lord, as the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs or a piece of an ear, so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria in the corner of the bed and in Damascus in a couch.

So we see that after God finishes with Israel they'll be left only maybe a leg and an ear, just a very small remnant. When he mentions the corner of a bed, that was considered to be one of the very best places for comfort and then the couch was considered even more luxurious than that.

So we find in other words they will lose all of their so-called luxuries and influence. Hear ye and testify in the house of Jacob, saith the Lord God, the God of hosts, that in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon him, I will also visit the altars of Bethel and the horns of the altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground and I will smite the winter house with the summer house and the houses of ivory shall perish and the great houses shall have an end, saith the Lord.

Money will mean nothing in the day of judgment. Now back for a moment and we'll be through to this statement in 14. That in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon him, I will also visit the altars of Bethel.

Now that doesn't sound very foreboding, does it? God's going to visit the altar. What's wrong with this statement? What's he pointing out? What? Well they hadn't been where they're supposed to be. Again I caution you to look for the little word, sometimes even one letter of a word.

Right. Now what's important about that? So you see how just the plural of a word opens up everything? God has established one altar for them and it was where? Don't say Boston. Jerusalem. And that's where they were to go.

All men above 20 and below 80 had to go three times a year. That's where the altar was. But Russell, why did they build other altars? Could be convenience to make worship easier for themselves. Not have to go all the way to Jerusalem.

What's the sense in traveling that far when I can go down to the corner and do the same thing? See the rationale of man? This proves something and it's this. And we'll be through. This proves that God will be worshipped only in his own way only.

He will never leave any part of his worship to man's imagination. So don't think you can build the biggest church, the most influential, greatest architecture, overlaid with gold and be thought of more in God's eyes than somebody meeting in a tent someplace.

It doesn't work like that. I like the phrase that Amos uses so much, thus saith the Lord. And whoever stands here should not stand here unless they can say that. This is what the Lord says. Any questions?

Any thoughts? Statements? You all want to go home? Stand with me, please. Heavenly Father, we thank you again as we come to the close of our time spent in your house. We would pray that we could continue to worship, continue to think and to study and to dwell and to learn.

We thank you so much for this opportunity and for the place in which you have placed Bea and I and for all of these lovely, lovely people. Thank you. Thank you seems so inefficient, but you know our heart.

Go with each one today and bring us all back together again, if it be your will, in the name of Christ. Amen.