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This morning I'm going to preach on the prophet Amos and the title of my sermon is an overview of the book of Amos. Amos is one of the earliest of the prophets in the section here of the Minor Prophets. And let me just start out by explaining that the major prophets are in chronological order and the minor prophets are in chronological order. So you have Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, that's the order that those men preached. Then Isaiah, then Jeremiah, then Ezekiel, then Daniel and then when you get to the Minor Prophets, starting with Hosea and ending up with Malachi, those are pretty much in chronological order as well. So that helps you kind of get your bearings a little bit of when these men preached. The Bible says in verse number one, the words of Amos who was among the herd men of Tekoa which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel two years before the earthquake. And if you were to look at the beginning of the book of Isaiah, you'll notice that that's when Isaiah started preaching as well. So it makes sense that the first major prophet and the third minor prophet, they both roughly line up as preaching during the days of king Uzziah. Now notice there's a difference in who is king of Israel versus who is king of Judah because we're talking about the divided kingdom. After king Solomon died, the kingdom of Israel was split, ten tribes to the north known as the kingdom of Israel and then the two tribes to the south, Benjamin and Judah, known as the kingdom of Judah. And Amos was a prophet that was from Judah because it said he was of the herdsmen of Tekoa. And Tekoa is a place that's deep into that southern kingdom, but he was a preacher who went up north into Israel and preached to Israel. His ministry was in the northern kingdom. So he was a prophet that went from Judah up into the northern kingdom, you know, behind enemy lines spiritually to preach unto that house of Israel that had gone astray. Now, the book of Amos starts out with this sort of poetic preaching where he goes through and preaches against these different geographies and he follows the same pattern with each of them. You probably noticed that as we were reading where he says, you know, for three transgressions of Damascus in verse three, and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof. And then he goes through the pattern of listing their sins and then talking about how he's going to send fire and devour them and destroy them, right? So verse one gave us the introduction of who Amos is, and then verse two gives us sort of a theme verse, and then verse three we jump into that poetic pattern of hitting these different geographies. Look at verse two and we'll get a theme verse for the book of Amos. It says in verse two, and he said, the Lord will roar from Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn and the top of Carmel shall wither. So this is a verse about the judgment of God that's coming, about God roaring like a lion and uttering his voice and melting and destroying and causing his enemies to wither. That's pretty much a theme. Now what's interesting is that as we get into the first chapter in Amos and we see who Amos is preaching against, you can hear how the northern kingdom of Israel, when they hear this sermon, they're probably with him in the beginning. They're probably saying amen on some of these points when they hear him ripping on Damascus, right? So the first person he goes after is Damascus. Well obviously that's one of the traditional enemies of Israel. And then when he starts to hit on Gaza, obviously the Philistines are one of the traditional enemies of Israel. They don't mind listening to preaching against Gaza and Ashkelon and Ashdod. These are their enemies, right? And in fact, when you look at what the grievances are that he brings up, he talks about some of the wicked things that these nations have done to Israel. So you can see how on point one of the sermon, they're saying amen. Point two, they're still saying amen, right? Verse three and verse nine, for three transgressions of Tyrus, they're still saying amen. Verse number 11, for three transgressions of Edom, of course they're still going to say amen. Verse 13, three transgressions of the children of Ammon. Chapter two, verse one, three transgressions of Moab. Now when he gets to verse four of chapter two though, it's starting to get a little closer to home, but they're probably still saying amen, because remember, they're Israel. Judah is the southern kingdom. He says in verse number four of chapter two, thus saith the Lord, for three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof. Now when he gets to this part of the sermon, they might be a little surprised, because where's this guy from? I mean, he's from Judah. He's coming from that southern kingdom to straighten them out, but one of the first things he does here is to admit, hey, even my nation is not right with God. Now if you want to get a parallel for this, it's sort of like the United States and Canada. That's the way I look at it. You know, the United States has traditionally been a Christian nation. Now obviously you could go back to the founding fathers and say, hey, these people are always wicked and point out the ones that were Freemasons and the ones that were, you know, removing from the Bible and doing wicked things, but when I say it's been predominantly a Christian nation, I'm talking about the people in it. You know, over time throughout the course of history, the United States has been a nation where the people professed belief in Christ. Not saying that they're all saved. Obviously they had all different beliefs and denominations and so forth, but in general, the people of the United States claimed the name of Christ for hundreds of years. So that's a parallel with Judah, a nation that traditionally pretty much claimed the name of Christ, right? But today the United States has a lot of wickedness that could easily be preached against by a fire-breathing man of God like Amos. Now the northern kingdom of Canada there, they're worse than we are. I mean the stuff that they do up there even would blow us away when you see even their president up there or prime minister, people are always like, I'm sorry, I'm not an expert on the politics of Canada, nor do I want to be. So I think it's a prime minister and Justin Trudeau, is that his name? And he got up and literally was making a speech and stopped someone for using the term mankind. What did he say? Person kind. That's not even a word. But that's how weird things are getting up in Canada where the prime minister will stop and say, excuse me, it's not mankind, let's use person kind. And he's the first prime minister or president or head of state anywhere that actually marched in a sodomite pride parade. So I mean things are pretty extreme up there when it comes to wickedness. But there are still 7,000 up there that have not bowed the knee to Baal. Some of the godliest Christians I've met, wonderful people, have been from Canada and live in Canada right now. There's a righteous remnant up there, thank God. So that's kind of a parallel because it was the same thing back in these days. You've got the kingdom of Judah that's turning away from the Lord, but you have the northern kingdom who has turned way away from the Lord, even worse. And in fact, the northern kingdom of Israel had always traditionally been away from the Lord. And that's where Canada is in my opinion because Canada seems like it was founded more on Catholicism if you look at Quebec and so forth. And like I said, I'm not an expert on Canada or the history or the politics. But that's my view as an American. I think most people would look at it the same way that the United States has always been a godlier place than Canada in general and that even though we have problems, they've gone even further into sin up there. And we should take warning because we're heading the same direction. We're heading down that same path. So basically Amos is sort of like an American missionary going up to Canada and preaching hard in Canada. That's pretty much what Amos was like. He headed up north and he preached hard up there. And guess what? They didn't like it up there and they wanted it banned in fact from the northern kingdom. Look if you would at chapter 7 in verse number 10. Amos chapter 7 verse 10, then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel. Now where's Bethel? Bethel is the hub of the false religion of the northern kingdom. The true religion of the Lord down in the southern kingdom is based in what city? Jerusalem. And that's why verse 2, the theme verse of Amos, he brings up Jerusalem right away as being the true seat of the worship of the Lord. That's why Jerusalem is brought out even in verse 2 of this book. He's not going to go up to the northern kingdom and tell them, hey it's okay to follow the religion of Bethel. Hey it's okay to follow the religion of Dan. He tells them no, the Lord is going to roar out of Zion. It's Jerusalem where men ought to worship. That is the seat of the worship of the Lord, the house of God, the Levitical priesthood, etc. But here Amaziah the priest of Bethel, so who's he? He's one of the people that's running the idolatrous northern religion that's based in two places, Dan and Bethel. This is the head of their false church. This is their archbishop or pope or whatever of their false idolatrous religion that claims to worship the Lord, but they do it with an idol. That sound familiar? Claiming idolatry but claiming you're Christian or claiming that you're worshiping Jesus but it's a molten image. That's what the northern kingdom is like with those molten images in Dan and Bethel. They claim that they were images of the Lord. But it says here, Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. He's a terrorist. He's conspired against you. And notice what he says, the land can't handle his words. The land's not able to bear his words. Why not? You know if Amos is not preaching the truth, why don't they just ignore him? I'll tell you why because Amos is a powerful book in the word of God. I mean Amos is very powerful. The words that Amos preached cut like a knife and I guarantee you that when Amos went up there and started preaching that fire breathing preaching in Israel, I guarantee you people responded to that preaching. I will guarantee you people are getting saved. People are straightening things out, getting right with God. And so this priest of Bethel, he feels threatened by that and says, oh, you know, the land's not able to bear his words. You know, why doesn't somebody tell this guy that sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me. But they don't want free speech, do they? They want to silence the truth of God's word. So that's what we see in this passage. Verse 11 says, for thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall surely die by the sword and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land. And obviously Amos is preaching that as a consequence of disobeying the Lord. If they get right with God, they can find mercy. But he's basically warning them that if they don't, that's what's going to happen. So Amaziah verse 12 said unto Amos, oh, thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah and there eat bread and prophesy there. But prophesy not again anymore at Bethel for it is the king's chapel and it is the king's court. So he's saying, look, go back home where you came from. Go back down south. Don't come up here and preach this kind of preaching up here. Then answered Amos and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet. Neither was I a prophet's son, but I was a herdman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit. And the Lord took me as I followed the flock and the Lord said unto me, go, prophesy unto my people Israel. Now therefore hear thou the word of the Lord. So what's he saying? Look, God has called me to go up here. God specifically told me to come here. He didn't tell me to preach in Judah. He told me to preach in the northern kingdom of Israel. That's where I'm going to preach. Now let's see if Amos tones down his preaching, right? Because I mean, he's in trouble with the authorities. He's in trouble with the priest of Bethel. He's in trouble with the king. He's being told to leave. They're trying to send him away. Let's see if he tones it down. Verse 16. Now therefore hear thou the word of the Lord. Thou sayest prophesy not against Israel and drop not thy word against the house of Isaac. For thus saith the Lord, thy wife shall be a harlot in the city. Oh, you don't like what I said about King Jeroboam? You're probably not going to like what I have to say about you either. Thy wife shall be a harlot in the city. That's not a very nice thing to say, is it? A harlot is a prostitute and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword and the land shall be divided by line and thou shalt die in a polluted land and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land. I mean this guy's got guts. I mean this guy's preaching hard. This guy's not holding back and that's why they're afraid of him. They didn't want people to hear what he had to say. So let's go back again to the beginning of Amos. So remember we talked about verse 1 kind of just explained to us who Amos is. Verse 2 gave us a theme verse for the book. And then in verse 3 we began the poetic sermon where Amos is preaching against these various geographies and he starts out with the traditional enemies of Israel. Everybody's loving it. Everybody's saying amen. Then he gets on Judah and they're a little surprised like, oh wow, this guy's even preaching against Judah. He even realizes that there's problems with his own country that he's coming from. But then after Judah, here comes the climax, the final point he gets on them. And this is where it gets pretty quiet. When he gets on them, he says in verse 6, for thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of Israel and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof because they sold the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of shoes that pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor and turn aside the way of the meek and a man and his father will go in under the same maid to profane my holy name and they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar and they drank the wine of the condemned in the house of their God. So he hits on them pretty hard for certain things. Now what did he condemn his homeland of Judah? Well in verse 4, he condemned them for despising the law of the Lord, not keeping his commandments and so forth. When he gets to the northern kingdom of Israel, he talks about them oppressing the poor. And this is actually another theme that comes up throughout the book of Amos, rebuking these people who had gotten wealthy at the expense of the poor oppressed and mistreated the poor. And then he goes on to bring up perversion that they had and obviously that could also be applied to our neighbors to the north as we mentioned earlier with the perversion and the sodomites and all the weird stuff there. And not to mention just the basic fornication, adultery that's becoming normalized both in the US, Canada and in a lot of other places throughout the world. So he gets on them for that and then he brings up the drinking and he brings up the worship of a false god. So he's got some major beefs with the house of Israel here. Now when it comes to oppressing the poor, this is obviously a theme that comes up throughout the Bible. One of the most famous passages is probably James chapter 5 if you want to flip over there in the New Testament just to get a New Testament perspective on this subject of oppressing the poor. How does that work? What does that look like when the poor are being oppressed? Now what the Bible is not saying is hey we need a welfare state where everybody can just stay home and get a paycheck to do nothing. Hey let's take care of the poor by giving them free money. That's not what the Bible teaches because the Bible teaches that if a man won't work neither should he eat, 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. If you're not willing to work the Bible says you shouldn't eat. So this is not talking about a welfare state but on the other side of that oppressing the poor is wicked and the Bible tells us a little bit about what that looks like in James chapter 5 verse 1. Go to now ye rich men weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered and the rest of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. You have heaped treasure together for the last days. Watch verse 4. Behold the hirer, excuse me, behold the hirer of the laborers who have reaped down your fields which is of you kept back by fraud crieth and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. So what he's talking about is basically the owner of the company, the owner of the business is withholding money from his employees. He's using fraud to keep back part of the money that they've earned. He's not paying them their just desserts and he's just rolling in the dough. He's nourishing his heart every day like it's a day of slaughter, you know like it's a big feast or you know we're killing the fatted calf. That's just another day at the office for this guy as his workers are starving. They can't make ends meet. They can't provide because he's fraudulently holding back the money that they've rightfully earned. You know we think about in our country today obviously there are corporations and businesses that rip off their employees and their goal is just to make as much money off these employees and just make as much money off their back as they can and just make maximum profit and they don't really care about paying an honest wage for an honest day's work. That goes on today. There are rich people that are like that as well. And if you're a business owner you should make sure that you pay a decent wage and I'm not saying that you have to just overdo it or overpay people and give them more than they're worth but you should give them what they're worth and not have an attitude that says what's the least I could possibly pay this person just so I can pad my bank account. It should be you know hey this is the going rate or this is a fair price or this is a wage where I can pay them and I can still make the profit that I need to make and I can pay them what's right and what's fair. You know so we need to have a balance here of what the Bible is teaching that the employers would pay their workers a just wage and especially to be truthful you know if you say you're going to pay this much that's how much you pay and not say well let me deduct this and deduct this and deduct this and play games with their wages like Laban did to Jacob seven times okay and of course God ended up blessing Jacob and cursing Laban because of that. So if you want God to bless your business you got to be fair you got to be honest with your employees and you don't want to be that guy that God is telling to weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you because you're withholding by fraud wages but not only that you know the people in our government today oppress the poor they're all millionaires make no mistake about it you go through the members of Congress and the Senate they're all millionaires and they didn't get that way through an honest living most of them get that way through insider trading and through lobbyists that wine and dine them through taking bribes etc. and what are they constantly doing withholding the wages of the reapers you know we go out and we work our job and we reap the field as it were or whatever you do whether it's electrical plumbing computer programming whatever and you have all these withholdings being taken out of your check and you know the Bible says and I don't have the verse in front of me so I'm going to get this wrong but I'm going to paraphrase the verse in Proverbs it talks about the one who withholds more that which than that which is meat and yet it tended to poverty that's our government in a verse right there you know our government withholds more than what is appropriate meat means appropriate acceptable suitable they withhold more than meat and do they have money they're in debt I mean how many trillions of dollars of debt what are we up to now twenty trillion dollars I haven't checked the national debt clock lately does anybody know twenty seven trillion is that really true can somebody verify that sounds high I thought it was like twenty trillion but you know obviously there are other numbers that add in other unfunded liabilities and projections and so forth but I mean we're talking about an insane amount of money so basically I have more money than the US government does you know even if you have two nickels to rub together you have more money than the US government because they are twenty trillion dollars in debt they withhold more than that which is meat and God doesn't bless that that's why they tend to poverty but the Bible says that if you're generous you that tends toward being blessed and having abundance give and it shall be given unto you the Bible says so we see there's nothing new under the sun there was a rich ruling class in the northern kingdom of Israel that was taken advantage of the situation instead of being a righteous leader a righteous rich person a righteous company owner they were oppressing the poor and Amos lays into them for that he preaches hard against that throughout the book looks like we're at twenty one trillion twenty one point one trillion and count by the end of the sermon it'll be a little higher but anyway they're working hard to spend all that money as fast as they can so that's what we see if you want to go back to the book of Amos we see that the same preaching is being done in the book of James as what Amos was preaching and you know we still need to preach that stuff today it's always going to be relevant there's nothing new under the sun that's why we can look at Israel and Judah and think about Canada and the United States and we can apply these things unto ourselves because the word of God is relevant and don't say oh that's the Old Testament well you know what even during the times of the Old Testament people were people and God was God and they the same type of sins were happening and the same type of preachers were around there were the phony compromised preachers and then there are the preachers who preach what God told them to preach like Amos no matter what happened so he brings up these transgressions in chapter two then in verse eight he closed it out verse nine of chapter two he says yet destroyed I the Amorite before them what's he saying hey I don't care if your name's Israel I don't care if you descend from Abraham Isaac and Jacob I destroyed the Amorite for doing the same thing and I'll do the exact same thing to you if I did it to the Amorites I'll do it to you why because God's not a respecter of persons even if you're God's chosen people you're still going to get wiped out if you're living a sinful life according to the Bible and so he said I destroyed the Amorite before them jump down if you would to verse 12 he brings up some more grievances he says you gave the Nazarites wine to drink and commanded the prophet saying prophesy not behold I am pressed under you as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves that's an interesting illustration you know you think of like a cart that's just overloaded just crushed with it God's saying look all your transgressions are just heaped upon me and it's just it's bringing me down he's saying you know that's an interesting way for God to speak about this but he's not going to take it anymore you know there's going to be that final straw that breaks the camel's back is what he's saying where eventually he says that's it you're done now we get into chapter 3 chapter 3 has a pretty famous verse in it in chapter 3 he starts asking some rhetorical questions here in the book of Amorites and so chapters 1 and 2 was this poetic beginning that followed those patterns but when we get into chapter 3 he hits them with some rhetorical questions seven rhetorical questions in a row and spoiler alert you know the answer to all these questions is no all seven of them have the same answer no and the first question is probably the most famous it's one of the most famous verses in the book of Amos if you're a fundamental Baptist and that is can two walk together except they be agreed and that's a verse that I've heard preached more times than I can even count can two walk together except they be agreed and what's the Bible telling us you know we need to be united with people that agree with us as far as you know we don't want to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers we don't want to yoke up with people that are using a totally different Bible than we are or have totally different salvation doctrine totally different doctrine about who Jesus Christ is totally different doctrine about you know the word of God whether it's inspired whether it's preserved whether it's just you know man-made or something like that you know can two walk together except they be agreed this is a great verse on separation and the Bible says that if you walk with wise men you'll be wise but a companion of fools will be destroyed so it's important who we run with it's important blessed is the man that walketh not in the council of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners nor sitteth in the seat of the squire that's the first verse of Psalms that wonderful book of a hundred and fifty songs of praise unto God and it starts out telling you hey don't walk don't stand and don't sit with these types of people it starts out you're walking with them next thing you know you're standing with them next thing you know you're sitting in their seat you're sitting in their chair you're doing what they do is what that means and so we see here it's important that to agree in order to watch it you know the church needs to have unity we must have unity we don't just bring in all doctrines all types of denominations and that's what the whole non-denominational movement's all about it's just about saying hey put aside doctrine and let's all go to the same church I mean we all like the music amen we all believe in somebody named Jesus amen no no that's not what faithful word Baptist Church is all about that's not what being an independent Baptist is about well being an independent Baptist is about where we get together with people who are like-minded that's what the church is it's a place where we must have unity around the Word of God now does that mean we have to agree on everything no does that mean that we have to be perfect no does that mean that you can't disagree with anything of course not but you know what it does mean is that on the essential doctrines we must have unity on that which is critical that which is crucial that which is important so there are certain things that are non-negotiables we're not going to bring in the baby sprinklers we're not going to bring in the tongue talkers we're not going to believe in the Trinity bring in the Trinity deniers you didn't need me to tell you that you know you've already realized that lately we're not going to bring in you know all versions of the Bible I mean if God put this horrific curse on those who add to and take from God's Word in Revelation 22 18 and 19 you know we don't want to be messing around with that and bringing that in and having that around that's why we're King James only because the new versions do what they remove entire verses they add entire phrases and concepts that were never there in the first place we don't want to bring that cursed thing into our church unless we become a curse and if we bid God speed unto those that do not abide in the doctrine of Christ we become a partaker of their evil deeds and so can two walk together except they be agreed pretty famous verse it was originally preached here by Amos preaching in Israel but then he goes on and says will a lion roar in the forest when he hath no prey now who is the lion that we're referring to well if you remember flip back to chapter 1 verse 2 and you'll see that the Lord will roar from Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem so that roaring lion there is the Lord now is it interesting how the devil walketh about as a roaring lion why because he's the great imitator the great pretender the great imposter who always wants to try to be like Christ or like God he's the he's the one who has his Antichrist to go along with Jesus Christ so he's of course the great counterfeiter the great imitator but the true lion of the tribe of Judah is Jesus Christ and the one who is truly roaring like a lion in this passage is the Lord according to chapter 1 verse 2 and in fact you'll see how that works at the end of this series of seven questions will a lion roar in the forest when he hath no prey will a young lion cry out of his den if he had taken nothing can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth where no jinn is formed that jinn is referring to a trap shall one take up a snare from the earth which is also a trap 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 then we get a little interpretation of this series of seven questions it says surely the Lord God will do nothing but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets the lion hath roared who will not fear the Lord God hath spoken who can but prophesy so we see that the lion has roared and who can but prophesy right the Lord has spoken we need to preach what God has said that's what he's saying here that's the interpretation of the parable and at the beginning here it says in verse four will a lion roar in the forest when he hath no prey what's that saying it's saying you know what God's not just up there roaring and he doesn't have a victim he doesn't have a prey no no somebody's getting torn up somebody's getting ripped apart that's what he's saying just like if a lion roars you know there's some wildebeest that's about to get shredded and that's what the Lord's saying here hey the lion has roared why because he has a prey but you say what about the two walking together hey we need to walk with the Lord we need to get on the Lord's side and we can't say oh yeah I'm walking with the Lord and we don't even agree with the Lord hey you better agree with the Lord if you want to be like Enoch who walked with God you better start agreeing with God God's opinion God's viewpoint God's mentality and so he says hey if the lion roars in the forest he's got prey he's got a victim right look at the latter part of verse four will a young lion cry out of his den if he have taken nothing what's that referring to you know God's already wiped some people out God's already shredded some victims and he's got another one in mind and guess what it's you Israel you're next is what he's saying then he goes on and says can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth where no jinn is for him shall one take up a snare from the earth and have taken nothing at all look there's a trap out there that has been laid for us by the wicked and that trap will trap people and it is going to catch somebody you know the Bible talks about how the wicked lay a snare for the just so on one side we've got the Lord punishing the wicked we've also got traps laid by the wicked and he that is abhorred of the Lord is going to fall in he's going to fall into those traps and then the Bible says next shall a trumpet be blown in the city and the people not be afraid shall there be evil in a city and the Lord has not done it what's it saying it's saying look if you get wiped out it's going to be because God wiped you out you know God can protect us or God can destroy us it's up to him and you know what if your city gets wiped out God is the one who allowed that to happen it's because of your sins that's what Amos is preaching to this northern kingdom of Israel what is the trumpet represent the trumpet represents preaching the Bible says of course you know the lion is Lord who will not fear the Lord has spoken who can but prophesy you say why does the trumpet refer to preaching well you don't have to turn there but on Isaiah chapter 58 verse 1 it says cry aloud spare not lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins so God tells Isaiah to preach with a voice that's as loud as a trumpet to yell to cry out and what kind of preaching to show them their sins so Amos is the one who's blowing the trumpet he's sounding the alarm he's preaching loud he's preaching hard on sin and people need to be afraid they need to not just laugh at it slough it off not take it seriously hey they need to be afraid the lion has roared and I don't know about you I've never heard a lion roar out in the wild but I guarantee you that if we were out in the wild and we heard that sound it would chill us to the bone we would fear if we heard a lion roar in the flesh and I'm not talking about a mountain lion that lives in California I mean we're talking about these lions that weigh several hundred pounds and when that lion roars we ought to be afraid and you know what when the preacher is preaching hard on sin if we're living in sin that should cause us to fear the Lord and so that's what these questions represent as we go down through that list jump over to chapter 4 chapter number 4 here's another famous passage from chapter 4 I mean the book of Amos it has some really famous preaching in it because it's just it's a lot of hard preaching so this is a book that a lot of preachers have turned to to kind of pull out a verse here a verse there to use which is great but we're getting an overview of the context of of where these famous quotes come from because you might have heard that famous part about can two walk together except they be agreed but you maybe didn't have the context of the other six questions that follow and this next chapter that you're going to see is a pretty famous verse too you can get a little bit of the context it says in verse 11 I've overthrown some of you because remember the lion had already taken some prey past tense as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning yet have he not returned unto me saith the Lord now look when God wiped out Sodom and Gomorrah didn't he pluck out a few people before he wiped it out he pulled out Lot and his wife and his two daughters he would they were like a firebrand plucked out of the fire I mean they were just pulled out of there just in the nick of time but did they turn unto him no Lot's wife turned back to Sodom and she was destroyed she was turned into a pillar of salt and then of course Lot and his daughters they didn't serve the Lord they ended up raising a bunch of wicked descendants Moabites Ammonites and of course I'm not even going to bring up the wicked sin that Lot's daughters did unto him you can listen to my sermon called blacking out while drunk if you want to hear about that story that's a whole other sermon but he said you know just like when Sodom and Gomorrah was overthrown you were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning yet you've not returned unto me saith the Lord therefore thus will I do unto thee O Israel and because I will do this unto thee prepare to meet thy God O Israel who's heard that phrase before prepare to meet thy God you know what he's saying you're going to die physically is what he's saying there because what happens when you die physically you're going to meet your maker we've all heard that saying as well this is where it comes from prepare to meet thy God O Israel why because you have not returned unto me that's why I'm going to do this thing unto you now the whole book of Amos is not just doom and gloom there's hope as well look at chapter 5 verse 6 it says in chapter 5 verse 6 seek the Lord and you shall live see it's not too late for these people to repent and to get right with God and to make things right seek the Lord and you shall live lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph and devour it and there be none to quench it in Bethel and again throughout this book we have constant references to the geography of northern Israel all the time it's all about Bethel and he brings up Joseph because the tribe of Joseph is what Ephraim and Manasseh and they're in the northern kingdom that's one of the main people that he's preaching to is that group of tribes he says look if you seek the Lord you live don't get mad don't deport me don't ban me don't get upset at this preaching don't get mad at the Lord don't get mad at the preacher you know all you have to do is return to the Lord and everything's going to be fine look at verse 14 seek good and not evil chapter 5 verse 14 that you may live and so the Lord the God of hosts shall be with you as you have spoken hate the evil uh get rid of this guy he's a hate he's a hate preacher is this excuse me Amos this is hate speech hate the evil and love the good and establish judgment in the gate it may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph hey look maybe you guys can be blessed maybe God will turn away the fierceness of his wrath if you'll hate the evil and love the good if you'll return unto me say the Lord of hosts so look when we do hard preaching we also want to make sure we include the good news and say hey look there's a way out there's a way for you to be safe there's a way for you to make things right and so don't get upset at the hard preaching think of the hard preaching as an invitation to do right you know hard preaching against alcohol is inviting you to be sober hard preaching about church attendance is inviting you to the house of God you know look at it in a positive light hey this preaching can help me be a better person and live a better life and draw closer to the Lord agree with the Lord and walk with the Lord but some people they just look at it as only a negative oh we can't eat of all the trees in the garden why look at all the trees you can't eat from there's only one that you can't eat but people who are not right with the Lord they get a bad attitude and they only focus on the negative and all you are is negative no no you're just focusing on the negative because you can't see the positive because you're not accepting that invitation that says return to the Lord do what's right seek the Lord love that which is good love that which is right I mean this passage is just as loving as it is hateful I mean he said hate the evil love the good so you can either walk out and say oh that preacher loves or you can say oh that's a hate preacher but you can also call him a love preacher cuz he said hate love he covered both right jump over to chapter six I gotta hurry up for sake of time isn't this a great book I love the book of Amos this is a powerful book it's you know out of all the minor prophets and some people shy away from the minor prophets as being a difficult portion of Scripture you know if you're new to the minor prophets I think Amos is a great place to start because Amos is one of the most readable of the minor prophets it's one of the easier books once you get through that poetic introduction it's one of the most readable and easy to understand I think and it keeps your interest it's good stuff I mean you're gonna get something out of it reading this book you're not gonna walk away like oh that went over my head and that's what I love about hard preaching when it just hits the nail on the head and you don't have to wonder what was being said well I wonder where Amos stands on this you know I wonder where I wonder where he thinks the true worship of the Lord is going on Jerusalem Dan Bethel I don't know he'll tell you this is a great book I gotta hurry chapter six verse one woe to them that are at ease in Zion another famous passage right who's ever heard that statement before in a sermon okay maybe it's not that famous because one one hand went up all right well I've heard sermons like that I've heard sermons that were called woe to them that are at ease in Zion you know and basically the preacher is preaching about people that are just kind of taking it easy you know they're just too relaxed they're not working hard so let's get the context of this not so famous statement that I thought was famous look at verse three ye that put away far the evil day and cause the seat of violence to come near that lie upon beds of ivory so again we're back to that group of people that's kind of rich at other people's expense and then just kind of taking it easy they're not working like they should they're laying on beds of ivory and watch this stretching themselves upon their couches I mean these people have a big couch I mean they can just kind of stretch out on the couch and they got tons of room of course now somebody's going to claim the Mandela effect because the Bible mentioned a couch you know since they never mind I shouldn't have even I shouldn't have even said that so stupid but anyway and eat the lambs out of the flock and the calves out of the midst of the stall what's he saying you know these are delicacies when you're slaughtering an animal when it's tiny you know most people you know you raise the animal right and you want it to grow and eat a lot of grass so it can have a lot of meat and you're going to slaughter that full grown cow aren't you but when you're slaughtering these little calves and lambs you know what this is referred to as veal a veal cutlet is from a calf right I don't even know because I don't eat it very often isn't that what it is am I right or what help me out yeah you know I can somebody prepare me some veal for life no I'm just anyway you know a veal cutlet you know these these young calves and lambs and so forth that are being prepared for their table as they stretch out on the couches and lay on the beds of ivory and they chant to the sound of the vial verse five and invent to themselves instruments of music like David that drink wine in bowls now look I've drunk milk out of a bowl many times right you know you finish up your coco puffs and you drink the milk out of the bowl right but I mean drinking wine out of a bowl that's pretty intense okay these people are filthy rich when they're drinking wine out of a bowl on the couch okay he says they anoint themselves with the chief ointments right they've got all these expensive lotions and creams and perfumes just over the top priced items and and they anoint themselves with the chief ointments but they're not grieved for the affliction of Joseph therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive they're the first ones and that's what happened when the Assyrians came in when the Babylonians come in that's the first people they took were all the wealthy people all the leaders all the politicians and they left the poor of the land right so he says you're going to be the first one you know oh you ignore all the hard preaching you think your wealth is going to be a stronghold unto you in the day of trouble wrong buddy you're going to be the first one to go into slavery into captivity into bondage and the banquet of them that stretch themselves shall be removed shall be removed party's over the smorgasbord is over you're not going to be able to stretch like that in your cell or in your cot or whatever you know squalid conditions you're going to be put in when you're in bondage go to chapter seven we already covered chapter seven so don't go there let's go to chapter eight chapter seven was the one about where they tried to kick him out of the country they tried to send him back to Judah they tried to intimidate him but it appears that he called their bluff and just stayed and kept preaching you know we don't know when and and and how his ministry ended but we get to chapter eight here's another very famous passage from Amos verse eleven behold the days come sayeth the Lord God that I will send a famine in the land not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water but of hearing the words of the Lord and they shall wander from sea to sea and from the north even to the east they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it in that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst they that swear by the sin of Samaria and say thy God O Dan liveth and the manner of beer Sheba liveth even they shall fall and never rise up again you better be careful making pronouncements and oaths and vows unto a false God and you know what this makes me think of this makes me think of the Mormon Church the Latter-day Saints they make all kinds of vows to their false God they go into that Mormon temple and they swear that they're gonna obey this rule and they swear that they're gonna obey that rule and in fact in the modern temple ceremony which used to be secret but now with the advent of super tiny cameras people can smuggle in cameras even though they make them change their clothing and put on a special outfit you know so they couldn't really smuggle in a camcorder or anything or a cell phone now cameras are getting so small they can smuggle it in okay and so now you can go on YouTube and watch the whole endowment ceremony from 2017 or something I mean modern up to the minute up to date what's going on in that temple in Salt Lake City and in that video Lucifer partakes in the ceremony and he tells them quick put on these aprons and then you know what they do they pause the video and they say all right everybody let's put on our aprons um excuse me Lucifer just told us to put on these aprons okay they ask Lucifer what is that apron you're wearing in the ceremony Adam and Eve asked Lucifer and Lucifer says this is the symbol of my power and my priesthood pointing to the apron then he has them all put on that apron okay then 20 minutes later in the ceremony they're still wearing the apron they're wearing all white and then a green apron representing the fig leaves which by the way the fig leaf apron was a bad example you remember that God replaced it with coats of skins but they're still wearing the fig leaf apron 20 minutes later when they do their handshakes that are straight out of Freemasonry because Joseph Smith you know joined Freemasonry three months before inventing the endowment ceremony and they do the handshakes and here's what they say power and the priesthood be upon me and upon my seed forever what power what priesthood well they just finished saying that that apron was the symbol of Lucifer's power and priesthood they're wearing that and then they say power and priesthood be upon me and upon my seat forever and then in the act where Lucifer's interacting with Adam and Eve on their video Lucifer says and if you break any of these vows then you'll be in my power forever he said and he says it real creepy the camera like zooms in on Lucifer like then if you break any of these vows you'll be in my power forever but guess what some of the vows are the vows are to obey a whole bunch of rules that no one could one of the things that they can't do because they list a bunch of things I'm not gonna do this they make vows I'm not gonna do this I'm not gonna do this I'm not gonna do this and one of the things that they promise to abstain from is loud laughter loud laughter go watch it in fact whenever I've known Mormons in my life because I have this inside information sometimes I kind of drop a little info like one time I had a Mormon laugh loudly in my driveway those part of like an organic food co-op and I said watch it no loud laughter and she's like oh you know what you're right it's true that's one of the things that Joseph Smith condemned well you're all going to hell whoa there buddy yeah no loud laughter so the point is they're promising these promises that they can't keep I mean what if you promise like I'm never gonna sin again or something I'm never gonna tell a lie I'm never gonna do that I'm never gonna disobey my parents well then what happens when you do it you broke your vow so you shouldn't make those kind of vows but especially not making vows by the God of Dan by the manner of Beersheba by idols and false gods and certainly not by Lucifer but what are they doing they're making vows in the name of Lucifer and what happens you know what the Bible said they shall fall in verse 14 and never rise up again have you noticed how people they quit the Mormon Church every day the Latter-day Saints right now are hemorrhaging members right now they're losing members every day because of this thing called the internet where people can see what's going on that creepy ceremony people can see the Book of Abraham is a complete fraud but guess what these people that are leaving the the Mormon Church every day you know what they're not doing they're not becoming a Baptist they're not becoming an evangelical Christian you know what they're becoming atheists they're becoming agnostics when you look at the former Mormons they're constantly atheist they're constantly agnostic why because you know what they just fall and they fall and they don't rise up again they are under the power of Lucifer because they put themselves there they put their children under the power of Lucifer they put themselves on the power of Lucifer I mean that's a tough nut to crack it is hard to get these people safe it is hard to pull them out of our you want to know why Gilbert's a hard area to go soul-winding you want to know why certain parts of Mesa or a hard area to go so I'll tell you why because every teenager that you talk to their parent has already put them under a curse of Lucifer every adult that you talk to that's a married adult that got married in the temple has already condemned themselves and put themselves under the thrall of Lucifer and under his power and his priesthood just like that priest of Bethel they're under the power of the devil that's a chilling thought isn't it boy don't you start blowing off your mouth making rash vows or praising false gods or you know you better be careful not to mess around with another Jesus a false Jesus a false Christ a false word of God a false God an idol a graven image a molten image hey we ought to shun these things and and abstain from these and stay as far away from them as we can because we don't want to be in these people's boat chapter nine here's here's a the passage that probably jumped out at me the most the first time I read my Bible cover to cover right and I was reading my Bible cover to cover I got to Amos 9 I underlined this I thought this was pretty interesting verse 2 though they dig into hell then shall my hand take them though they climb up to heaven thence will I bring them down and though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel I will search and take them out thence and though they be hit from my sight in the bottom of the sea thence will I command the serpent and he shall bite them I mean he's saying look you are not getting away you can dig as deep as you want to go you can climb as high as you want to go you can run but you can't hide from God and he says you get down in the bottom of the sea I'll just command some creepy little thing to just bite you you can't escape from God it's like the man who goes into the house and leans on the wall and he thinks who oh man I got away from the lion I got away from the bear I got away from the enemy he leans on the wall and a scorpion bites him a serpent bites him a spider bites him I mean God can kill you whenever he wants you can't hide the Bible says in verse 8 of chapter 9 behold the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth saying saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob saith the Lord so here's what he says the kingdom is getting wiped off the face of the earth it did that happen you better know that happened the northern kingdom of Israel got completely wiped out it stopped being a nation it just ceased to exist the kingdom of Judah continued on longer but that northern kingdom of Israel got wiped off the base of the earth now he says I'm not gonna utterly destroy the house of Jacob what is he saying they're going to be Israelites who are a remnant who don't get destroyed there's always a righteous remnant if God wipes out any country he always has a righteous remnant and so in this case not all the Israelites got wiped out and you know when Jesus Christ came to this earth in general he was rejected by the Jews but as many as received him to them gave me power to become the sons of God even them that believe on his name there were a lot of Jews who received Christ Paul the apostle said well I'm a Jew you know he was part of that righteous remnant so did God cast away his people well no because there's a remnant according election of grace but the silly thing is when people claim that he didn't reject the unbelievers hello yes he did wipe out the unbelievers he only accepted the righteous remnant as his people those who were saved he says for lo I will command and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations like as corn is sifted in a sieve yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth what he's saying is he's gonna purge he's gonna sift them and he's gonna figure out what is good and what is trash and he's gonna gather the good into vessels and he's gonna cast the bad away all the sinners of my people shall die by the sword which say oh the evil shall not overtake nor prevent us okay now we end the book of Amos on a high note we end with that which is positive where God gives a hopeful vision at the end of Amos he says in verse 11 in that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen and close up the breaches thereof and I will raise up his ruins and I will build it as in the days of old that they may possess the remnant of Edom and of all the heathen which are called by my name saith the Lord that do it this behold the days come saith the Lord that the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed and the mountains shall drop sweet wine and all the hills shall melt and I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them and they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof and they shall also make gardens and eat the fruit of them and I will plant them upon their land and they shall be no more pulled up out of their land which I have given them saith the Lord thy God now here's a mistake that people commonly read when they're reading Old Testament scriptures like this of prophecy one of the big mistakes is that when they're reading about the nation of Judah coming back to the land after they get removed what they don't realize that that already happened because Judah was pulled out of the land for only 70 years and then they returned in the days of Ezra Nehemiah Haggai Zechariah so they came back so you'll find a ton of scripture in Jeremiah about them coming back to the land becoming a nation again and so on and so forth that's a pretty common theme in the book of Jeremiah but what they'll try to do is apply that to 1947 apply that to 1948 when a bunch of Christ rejecting so-called fake Jews formed the Antichrist state of Israel that's gonna play an important part of the end times it's so exciting how they're all gonna be wiped out by the Antichrist and then by the Lord you know but they act like oh yeah this is great we're fulfilling Bible prophecy and they're about to build that third temple yeah that's the temple that the Antichrist is gonna sit in and declare himself to be God people yeah it's a fulfillment of prophecy for the bad guys but what they'll do is they'll make one of two mistakes mistake number one is to take stuff about them coming back from Babylon and Judah being reestablished and say oh that's 1947 that's 1948 then another mistake they'll make is that you have a lot of Old Testament scripture about the millennium talking about the resurrection and a famous example of this is Ezekiel's valley of the dry bones he literally talks about dead bodies coming to life and coming back into the land why cuz it's the millennium that's why it's followed up with the Battle of Gog and Magog and Revelation chapter 20 tells us that the Battle of Gog and Magog takes place after the millennium that's why Ezekiel 38 and 39 comes right after chapter 37 you go from the valley of the dry bones of resurrection being brought back into the land being reestablished then you have Gog and Magog it makes sense so what we see is that in the millennium all the 12 tribes will be there in the millennium they'll all be reestablished they'll all be a nation once again now how do I know that this passage talking about the millennium because of the fact that he says I'll plant them upon their land and they shall no more be pulled up out of the land no more everything's great why because 1947 yeah okay a bunch of unbelievers Christ rejecting people went back to the land but guess what they're not just gonna sit there and drink their wine and chill out and relax under their vine and under their fig tree because they're gonna get wiped out in the end times that place is gonna be set ablaze in the end times that place is gonna get tore up so to say that this is that makes no sense but not only that but part of them being established here is that God's gonna raise up the tabernacle of David that's not happening right now we don't see that do we we don't see King David ruling over them he says that when they're brought back into the lamb in these millennial passages like Ezekiel he said David my servants gonna reign over them but we know that that is a code word for Jesus because Jesus is the son of David they didn't have the name Jesus revealed in the Old Testament so sometimes he'll be referred to as David but not only that literal David's gonna be there writing to why because David is saved David is in heaven and one day when the bodily resurrection of all the Saints takes place David's gonna be one of them the twelve tribes of Israel are gonna be there look the righteous of Ephraim and Manasseh and Naphtali and Asher and Gad and Isaac are in Zebulun and Simeon hey those people are gonna be resurrected and even of Dan the the righteous remnant they're gonna be resurrected in the end times and they're gonna dwell in the millennium and you know that's when that ten tribe Confederation is gonna ever be a nation again and they're gonna be joined with the two tribes of the southern kingdom and they're gonna be one nation again what we see over there today is not a twelve tribe Israel what we see over there is just Jews just a so-called southern kingdom revival but it's certainly not spiritual revival and that's why God's gonna wipe it out because it's not a spiritual revival you got to walk with the Lord and how can you walk with the Lord if you don't agree with the Lord how can you agree with the Lord if you don't even believe that Jesus is the Messiah that's step one to have an any kind of agreement or walk with the Lord let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer Lord thank you for this powerful book of Amos Lord and we thank you for hard preaching and and all the hard preaching in your word Lord that that keeps us on the right path and it causes us to fear you and to love you and to praise you and not to get caught up in the world's fantasy and the world's fake religion and the world's fake lifestyle of riches and the love of money Lord help us to heed the words of the Prophet Amos even thousands of years later in Jesus name we pray amen