(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Page number 159. And let's sing it out on the first. All praise to him who reigns above in majesty supreme, who gave his son for man to die that he my man redeem. Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. Page 159. Let's sing it out on the second. His name above all names shall stand exalted more and more at God the Father's own right hand where angels adore. Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. Redeemer, Savior, friend of man once ruined by the fall, thou hast he by salvation's plan for thou hast died for all. Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. Let's sing it out on the last. His name shall be the counselor, the mighty prince of peace. Of all earth's kingdoms conquer, whose reign shall never cease. Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. Great singing. Let's open up on a word of prayer. Father God, thank you so much for this church, Lord. Thank you for these people coming out here on a Wednesday evening. God bless you. God bless you. God bless the service and the preaching to come. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Please send your song books to page 116. We're going to sing he leadeth me. That's page 116. We're going to be singing he leadeth me. Page 116. Let's sing it out on the first. He leadeth me, O blessed thought, O words, with every comfort fraught. What e'er I do, where e'er I be, sales his gods and that he leadeth me. He leadeth me, he leadeth me, by his own hand he leadeth me. His faithful power I would be, for by his hands he leadeth me. Page 116. Let's sing it out on the second. Sometimes mid-seams of deepest gloom, sometimes where Eden's true, by waters still o'er troubled sea, sales his hand that leadeth me. He leadeth me, he leadeth me, by his own hand he leadeth me. His faithful power I would be, for by his hand he leadeth me. Lord, I would last my hand in mine, or ever burn, nor refine, content wherever, but I see, sales his my god that leadeth me. He leadeth me, he leadeth me, by his own hand he leadeth me. His faithful power I would be, for by his hand he leadeth me. Let's sing it out on the last. And when my task on earth is done, when by thy grace the victory's won, and seven people will not leave, since God through Jordan leadeth me. He leadeth me, he leadeth me, by his own hand he leadeth me. His faithful power I would be, for by his hand he leadeth me. Great singing. Amen. All right. We want to welcome you to the midweek service here at Ready Baptist Church. We're glad you're with us. We call this the most encouraging service of the week, and we are glad that you are here. All right. Let's go ahead and take our bulletins. We'll look at some announcements real quickly. If you do not have a bulletin, just raise your hand and one of our ushers can get one for you. If you need a bulletin, just put your hand up and we will get one for you. The verse this week, Proverbs 21, 3, to do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. And that's a good verse there. We like that. If you open up your bulletin, you'll see our service time Sunday morning service 1030 a.m. And we do invite you, of course, to be with us on Sunday morning service at 6 p.m. And then, of course, our Wednesday evening Bible study. We're glad that you are here for that. If you look at our soul winning times, our main soul winning times on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m. And we'd love for you to join us on Saturday mornings for the Saturday morning soul winning rally. And in the month of January, I'm doing all the preaching on Saturday mornings. I'd love for you to come out. I've got some things I want to talk to our soul winners about and teach our soul winners. We also have soul winning times on Thursdays, Fridays, at 2 p.m. So we'd love for you to join us for any of those times. And we, of course, are a family integrated church. What that means is that children and infants are always welcomed in the church service. We do not separate children from their parents for any reason. We do have mother baby rooms and daddy rooms available for your convenience. All the rooms have comfortable seating. You have monitors so you can watch the service and listen to it. So if you have a child that's been distracting during the service, if you need some privacy, please use those rooms in the back. There's a card on the back. There's a place for you to check off if you'd like information about baptism. And if you look at the announcements and upcoming events, of course, with the new year, we started some new series. So on Sunday morning, we started a series called judgment. And we're going to be looking at principles of judgment and justice and equity on the Sunday mornings. And you might think, oh, that's not needed. You know, that's what I thought when I was immature. But you realize in the Christian life that judgment and equity are a big part of the Christian life. I want to encourage you to be here as we teach you how to think through those things. Declaring doctrine on Sunday nights. We're back in our declaring doctrine series. And we started with the doctrine of sin. On last Sunday night, we talked about the concept of sin. This coming Sunday night, we're going to talk about the practice of sin. So I encourage you to be here for that. Some of you are thinking, I'm an expert at that already, so why would I need to learn about that? But it would be good for you to learn about the consequences of that. And then, of course, on Wednesday night, we are starting the book of Amos tonight. We're starting the book of Amos, a verse-by-verse study, chapter-by-chapter study through the book of Amos. And I'm pretty sure most people have no idea what the book of Amos is about, including me. So we'll try to figure it out together as we walk through it. And that's actually a very interesting book. We'll begin it tonight. Nine chapters a day. I hope you're sticking with it. You are right. If you're on track, you're just right there where it's about to get easy, all right? Just give it a couple more days, and then the chapters start getting a lot shorter. If you've gotten behind, I want to encourage you, don't quit, don't give up, stick with it. If you need to use your grace period days, use your grace period days. If you need to use somebody else's grace period days, do whatever you've got to do, but just stick with it and don't give up, all right? And like I said, when the chapters get shorter, it's a lot easier to catch up and all of that. Team activity is coming up on Friday, January 27th, and this is an exciting one. It's laser tag for all of the teams. We want to encourage you to sign up. Your young people, if you've not done it already, it is on Friday, January 27th at 6 p.m. The address is there for you. You need to sign up on your communication cards. We have to be able to let them know who's coming and be able to pay for the activity. All teens 13 to 19 years old at the activity, we're going to pay for them for, I think it's like three games or close to like an hour of laser tag. So it will be fun, and there will be a pizza afterwards as well, and then we'll pay for one parent as well. Both parents are going to come, but we'll pay for one parent and make sure there's a parent in there chaperoning their kids and all of that. So it will be a good time. We encourage you to sign up. If you've not signed up, you can do that on your communication card. Choir practice, they started practicing for I Love My Church Sunday. They'll keep doing that on Sundays at 5 p.m. Here in the auditorium, home school group, they're supposed to have PE class tomorrow, but we're going to go ahead and postpone that because the field out there, the park is just completely drenched, and there's trees and limbs and stuff everywhere. So we're not going to have PE tomorrow, but we are going to reschedule it for next Thursday, all right? So if you could just make a note of that, no PE this Thursday, but we will reschedule it for next Thursday. Lord willing, next Thursday, the weather will be better. Upcoming cleaning crew, you can check for your name there. Other things there for you to look at, please don't forget to turn your cell phones off or place them on silent during the service so that they're not a distraction to anybody. If you look at the back of the bulletin, birthdays and anniversaries for the month of January, we had Brother Keith Rosenberg's birthday was on January 9th, and Miss Casey Chandler has a birthday on January 14th. Praise report, money matters, all those things are there for you to look at. I do have one baby announcement to give, and Yvette Iris Rosenberg was born on January 10th at 1.22 a.m. So she missed her dad's birthday, and she's a girl. So she's not off on a good start, but I'm sure she's precious anyway. Eight pounds, 11 ounces, and both mom and baby are doing well. So congratulations to the Rosenberg family on the birth of their new baby girl. If you'd like to sign up to bring a meal to the Rosenberg family, you can see my wife after the service, and she has a sign-up sheet, and we of course always want to be a blessing to our church families and help them with that. And let's see, I think that's it for all of the announcements. So let's go ahead and take our song books, and we're going to go to page number 238. Page number 238. And we're going to sing 238, Christ liveth in me, 238 as we prepare to receive the offering this evening. Sing it out on the first. Once far from God in sin, my heart could see, but in God's word the light I found, Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Oh, what a salvation this, Christ liveth in me. Good, 238, sing it out on the second. As rays of light from yonder sun, the flowers of earth set free. So life and light and love came forth from Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Oh, what a salvation this, that Christ liveth in me. As much the flowering leaves, as in the cold the trees, so praise the God of truth and grace. His spirit dwelleth in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Oh, what a salvation this, that Christ liveth in me. Good, sing it out on the last 238, on the last. With longing all my heart is filled. And I am, I may be, as on the wondrous thought I felt, that Christ liveth in me. Good, sing it out. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Oh, what a salvation this, that Christ liveth in me. Amen. Good singing. We'll have the guys come up and help us with the offering at this time. And let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we do ask that you would bless the offering tonight. Lord, we pray that you'd bless the gift and the giver. We pray that you'd meet with us, Lord, as we take time to pray over the requests of our church family and as we take time to study the Bible together, begin a new book of the Bible together. We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right, well, let's go ahead and take our prayer sheets, and we're going to go ahead and take some time to pray for these prayer requests. If you did not get a prayer sheet on your way in, raise your hand. Or not, actually. There's no more prayer sheets. So maybe you can share with somebody if you didn't get a prayer sheet. And I do want to remind you that the way you add a request to the prayer sheet is through your communication card on the back of your screen. And if you don't get a prayer sheet, you're going to get a prayer sheet. And I do want to remind you that the way you add a request to the prayer sheet is through your communication card. On the back of the card is this place for you to write down your request. Make sure whether it's to mark, whether it's private or public. If it's private only, I will see it. If it's public, we'll put it on the sheet. If you don't mark it, we'll do our best to figure it out, but we usually leave those off. We do add them in the order that they're received, and they are removed after a couple of weeks. So let's go ahead and take these requests to the Lord. I'll pray out loud, and I ask that you would follow along in your mind and in your heart with me. Let's bow our heads together. Lord, we do thank you for the privilege that it is to pray. And, Lord, we pray that you would meet with us tonight as we bring these requests to you from our church family. And we begin with these requests regarding health. Lord, we ask for Brother Joe Maples praying for Joe Jr.'s health and his sleep throughout the night, asking that you would just give him good health. Lord, help give him restful sleep as well. We pray for Brother Allen praying for his wife, Ms. Patricia, and for everyone else in the church family that may be sick, praying that they would get better soon. And, Lord, we pray for Ms. Christine Ortiz praying for her health and also for Baby Gabriel's recovery from surgery, Brother Salvador praying for his health, and Brother Edgar and Ms. Selena praying, of course, for Little Urezi to continue to be healthy and strong. Lord, we ask for all these individuals. We pray that you would give them health and recovery. Lord, we pray that you would give wisdom to the doctors, nurses that may be dealing with them. Lord, we pray for the ladies in our church that are expecting. We thank you for the safe birth of the Rosenberg baby, Lord. And we pray for these other ladies that are expecting as well for Ms. May and Ms. Ajana, Ms. Schuyler, Ms. Karen, and Ms. Ava, asking that you would give them all healthy pregnancies and healthy deliveries with no complications and no issues. And, Lord, we pray for these requests having to do with friends and family. Brother John praying for Ruben Gonzalez and his case to be resentenced and that he would be able to come home soon due to a law change. Lord, we pray that your will would be done there. We pray for Brother Allen praying for his brother to be transferred closer so that he can visit with him more often and see him more often. Ms. Nicole praying for her family as well. And, Lord, and Brother Salvador praying for his family as well. And, Lord, we ask for all these individuals. We pray that you'd bless them and help them with these different requests and situations they're having. And, then, Lord, we pray for these that have requests for salvation. Ms. Natalie praying for the salvation of her husband and her family. And also Ms. Christine Ortiz praying for her children and grandchildren's salvation. Ms. Docma praying for her daughter and her family's salvation. And, Lord, we ask that you would help with all of these individuals, that you would help them to come to the place where they would be able to hear the gospel, willing to hear the gospel, and that a soul winner would communicate the gospel clearly to them. We pray that you would move circumstances around in their lives, that you would bring them to the place where they might be saved. And, Lord, we pray for these that are asking for traveling mercies. Brother Graham and Ms. Michelle, we pray for their travel as they travel out of the state. Lord, asking that you'd bring them home safely. Ms. April praying for Alex's safety during his trip to Uganda. And Ms. Nicole praying for safe travel in Mexico for her husband, Valente, as well. And, Lord, we ask for all of these that are traveling, that you keep them safe and that you bring them home safely as well. We also pray for these that have requests dealing with financial needs or just physical needs. Brother Darrell praying that the VA would allow a benefit to be added to his life insurance. And we pray that your award be done there. We pray for Ms. Kimi praying for her mother to be able to find an apartment in Sacramento. We pray that you'd open the right doors there and the right location for her. We pray for Ms. Christine Ortiz for her finances, Brother Salvador for his finances and work. We ask that you would bless in all of those areas. And then, Lord, we ask also for Ms. Christine Ortiz and Brother Salvador for their faith, their walk with you. We pray that you would continue to help them and bless them. And, Lord, we pray for these that have unspoken requests. Ms. Natalie, Ms. Andrea McQueen, Ms. Nicole, Ms. Kimi, and Brother Salvador, Ms. Docma all having unspoken requests. Lord, you know what their petitions are. You know what they're asking for. We pray that you would please answer according to your will. Lord, we pray for our church. We pray that you'd continue to bless our prison ministry as we endeavor to reach people in prisons and disciple them and help them grow. And then, Lord, we pray for our church here in Sacramento. They'd continue to help us to grow and to reach people with the gospel. Lord, I pray that you'd help us to grow spiritually and to draw closer to you. And then, Lord, I pray for our church plant in Manila, Tampong and Bicol, that you keep all these locations safe and thriving and growing. Lord, we ask that you'd meet with us tonight as we take some time to study the Bible together as we begin a new book of the Bible, the book of Amos. Lord, I pray that you'd help it to be a blessing to us so we might learn from it and grow from it. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Please open our hearts to Amos, chapter number one. Amos, chapter number one, if you need a borrow, put your hand up and I'm just going to read you a Bible. Amos, chapter number one, if you need a borrow, just keep your hand up and I'll show you what comes by. Amos, chapter number one, we'll read the entire chapter as our custom. Amos, chapter one, beginning in verse number one. The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Isaiah, king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. And he said, The Lord will roar from Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem, and the habitations of the shepherd shall mourn and the top of Carmel shall wither. Thus saith the Lord, For three transgressions of Damascus and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron. But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, which shall devour the palaces of Benhadad. I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitants from the plain of Avon, and him that holdeth the scepter from the house of Eden. And the people of Syria shall go into captivity and to Kher, saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, For three transgressions of Gaza and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because they carried away captive the whole captivity, to deliver them up to Edom. But I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, which shall devour the palaces thereof. And I will cut off the inhabitants from Ashdod, and him that holdeth the scepter from Ashkelon. And I will turn mine hand against Ekron, and the remnant of the Philistine shall perish, saith the Lord God. Thus saith the Lord, For three transgressions of Tyrus and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because they delivered up the whole captivity of Edom, and remembered not their brotherly covenant. But I will send a fire on the wall of Tyrus, which shall devour the palaces thereof. Thus saith the Lord, For three transgressions of Edom and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because he did pursue his brother with a sword, and did cast off all pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath forever. But I will send a fire upon Timon, which shall devour the palaces of Bozrah. Thus saith the Lord, For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because they have ripped up the women with child Gilead, that they might enlarge their border. But I will kindle a fire on the wall of Reba, which shall devour the palaces thereof, with shouting in the day of battle, with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind, and their king shall go into captivity. He and his princes together saith the Lord. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this evening. God, I thank you for your word, and I pray that you be with us throughout this new Bible study, God, and I ask that you please be with us, and be with our pastor to strengthen him, and from the inner spirit. We love you. In Jesus' name, pray. Amen. Amen. All right, we're there in Amos chapter number one, and of course tonight we are beginning a brand new study in the book of Amos, a chapter by chapter study in the book of Amos, and I'm glad that you are here. I'm always happy when people are here, of course, for the beginning of a brand new study or series, and since you are here, I want to encourage you to make the commitment to be here every week for the next nine weeks on Wednesday night as we study the book of Amos so that you can get it from beginning to end, and hopefully you'll learn it, be an expert in it, and of course we're going to, it's Wednesday night, so it'll be very much a Bible study, and I'm going to give you a lot of just cross references and things like that, and I hope you brought something to take notes with. Of course, on the back of your course of the week, there's a place for you to jot down notes, but if I were you, I would bring a notebook and a pen and something like that to be able to study the Bible and take notes together. So we are there, of course, in Amos chapter number one, and I'd like you to begin at verse number one. The Bible says, The words of Amos who was among the herdmen of Tekoa. So here immediately, of course, in chapter one and verse one, we are introduced to the author of the book, the character, the main character of the book, and of course we have this prophet Amos. The Bible tells us that he was a herdman. That means he was a keeper of cattle. He was a rancher or farmer of Tekoa, and I will say more about Amos, and we'll talk more about Amos' background, and we're actually going to get into that in a different chapter, but I want you to notice there that the Bible tells us that he was a herdman. So this is not someone that was in what we might call vocational ministry. He was not someone that was already in the ministry or already doing God's work in that way. Obviously, he was serving God, but he had a secular job. He was what we might refer to as a layman, and he was called by God into the ministry this prophet Amos. The Bible says the words of Amos who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa, which he saw, and I want you to notice here what the Bible is going to emphasize, because this is really what the book of Amos is about. The Bible says what you saw concerning Israel, what you saw concerning Israel. I want you to notice that we're going to get a context here in this very first verse regarding when it is that Amos lived and ministered and when it is that his ministry was had. We're told here that he saw these words, he saw these visions, that he got this preaching concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah. And just to kind of help you with the time frame, I want you to understand that when Amos lived, we are in the time and history in the Old Testament known as the time of the divided kingdom. And of course, if you're familiar with the Old Testament, if you've read the Old Testament, you know that Saul was the first king of Israel. David was the greatest king of Israel as far as spiritual and might. Solomon, his son, was the greatest king of Israel regarding wealth and prosperity. But after Solomon, the kingdom was divided, and the nation of Israel was divided into two different parts. You had the northern kingdom of Israel, which was basically the ten tribes of the northern Israel. And then you had the southern kingdom of Judah, which was made up of Judah and smaller tribes with Judah being the bigger tribe. And that's how the kingdoms were divided and that's how they were known. They were known as the northern kingdom of Israel. The ten tribes of the north remained with the name Israel. And then the southern kingdom was called Judah. Now I'm saying that to you because I want you to notice here that Amos is living during this time of the divided kingdom. After the kingdom divides and you have the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom, this is where when you read in 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles about the king of the north and the kings of the south and they are parallel to each other because you have this divided kingdom. There is going to come a time when the Assyrian Empire will take the northern kingdom and they will be taken captive and then there will be a short period of time in which only the southern kingdom is in existence before the southern kingdom is taken over by the Babylonians. So here we have Amos living during this time of a divided kingdom and I want you to notice that he's actually from the southern kingdom of Israel. The Bible says in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, but the vision and the preaching and his main focus is going to be concerning Israel, referring to the northern kingdom of Israel. So he's from the southern kingdom of Judah which if you have read the Old Testament you might have noticed that though both kingdoms had their problems, by and large the southern kingdom of Judah was a lot more godly and they had better kings than the northern kingdom of Israel. The northern kingdom of Israel was pretty wicked and had just a lot of bad kings and a lot of bad stuff going on up there. So here we have a prophet from the southern kingdom who was not even a prophet, he was a herdman called by God into the ministry, but he directs his ministry to the northern kingdom of Israel. So the Bible says here, what you saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, notice, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. So here we see a time frame as to what we're dealing with and where he is. I want you to notice that the Bible tells us here in verse 1 that Amos ministered during the reign of Uzziah in the southern kingdom, Jeroboam in the northern kingdom, and Uzziah was not perfect, no king was perfect, but he was a pretty good king and because of Uzziah being a pretty good king for the most part there was a lot of good things going on in Judah as far as spiritually and there was a lot of good men and preachers during the time of Uzziah. Now I want you to notice, and this is just kind of by way of introduction and you can maybe jot these things down, have some cross references, that Amos lived during the time of Uzziah, lived during the time of Jeroboam, and he was a contemporary with the prophet Isaiah and the prophet Hosea. And let's just run a couple of verses real quickly. Keep your finger there in Amos chapter 1, obviously that's our text for tonight, but go if you would to the book of Hosea, Hosea chapter number 1. If you're there in Amos you're going to go backwards past the book of Joel into the book of Hosea, Hosea chapter number 1, and look at verse 1. And when it comes to Bible studies we are working our way through the entire Bible here at Verdi Baptist Church and we've gone through a lot of books of the Bible together and as we go through the minor prophets we're not doing them in order in the sense that we're not doing them back to back, but when we do do them we do them in order and we've already studied the book of Hosea together, we've already studied the book of Joel together, so we are in the book of Amos now together as well. Hosea chapter 1 and verse 1, I want you to notice what the Bible says here. Hosea 1, 1, the word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Birai, notice the similarities here, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Here we're told Hosea had a very long ministry, so his ministry extended through the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel. So notice that Amos we're told was prophesying in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel, and then Hosea we're told prophesied in the days of Uzziah as well, along with Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, and in the days of Jeroboam. So I want you to notice that these men were contemporary, meaning that Hosea and Amos lived at the same time, and not only that, but ministered at the same time. And there's another prophet. Go to Isaiah real quickly, Isaiah chapter 1. If you're there in Hosea, just go backwards. You're going to go past Daniel and past those big books of the Bible, Ezekiel, Lamentations, Jeremiah, into the book of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 1, and verse 1, Isaiah 1-1, the vision of Isaiah. Isaiah 1-1, the vision of Isaiah, the son of Amos, which is all concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, king of Judah. So I want you to notice here that we've got these pretty famous preachers, pretty well-known prophets, all living at the same time. They're contemporaries with each other. They're prophets of the Lord. But I want you to notice that they're different, and they've got different ministries. Notice there again, Isaiah 1-1, the vision of Isaiah, the son of Amos, which you saw, notice, concerning Judah and Jerusalem, that is the southern kingdom of Israel. God had Isaiah focus on the southern kingdom of Israel, while He had Amos focus on the northern kingdom of Israel. So you had these two different prophets living at the same time, and just having different emphasizes and focuses on their ministry. And there's really, that's exactly how it is today, if you think about it. You've got pastors that are serving in different locations and ministering to different people, but they're men of God, and they're serving God as contemporaries and as friends. So just by way of introduction, it's good to know that Amos was a contemporary of Isaiah and Hosea. Go back to Amos 1. Let me give you another kind of thought here, just in the beginning verses. Amos 1 and verse 1. I want you to notice in this first verse, the Bible says, The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel, in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. We've already saw that. And in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash king of Israel. I want you to notice this last little phrase here in verse 1. The Bible says, two years before the earthquake. Two years before the earthquake. And something I want you to notice, if you're jotting down notes, or if you're taking notes, maybe you can jot this down. The ancient history, and specifically the ancient Middle East history, is often done in a relative chronology. Meaning that you're giving these time markers or these land time markers of history, but those are relative to you already knowing when those are. So for example, here we're told two years before the earthquake, but you have to know when the earthquake is for you to be able to know that. And the idea is that this was a pretty big earthquake that people relatively would have known about. Obviously, thousands of years later, for us, it's difficult to be able to really figure out when exactly this earthquake was or an exact date. But this is how it works oftentimes when you're looking at ancient history. Let me just give you an example of that. It's this relative type of chronology, and you don't have to turn here. Let me just read you this verse just to give you another example. I just looked this up real quick while we were singing. But in Ezra chapter 1, here's another example. In verse 1, this is what Ezra wrote. He says, Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made proclamation throughout all the kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying. So here you have Ezra using the reign of Cyrus as his time marker in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia. But the thing is, that's relative because you have to already know when it is that Cyrus was reigning. So if that makes sense, sometimes people get really, you know, they put a lot of focus on things like this. And like this earthquake is something that people will ask a lot, you know, is there some significance here? Why did he bring up this earthquake? And I just want you to understand that you'll notice in ancient literature that oftentimes they will use markers of something that people are very aware of, the reign of Cyrus, this earthquake, and it's a relative chronology. We don't do it like that. Today we use years, of course. But it's this relative chronology to help you reference when something was, but the reference has to do with common knowledge. So this earthquake was actually very common knowledge. In fact, I want you to notice there in Amos 1-1, it says, 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, two years before the earthquake, go with me real quickly to Zechariah, Zechariah chapter 14. Let me give you a cross reference if you want to write a cross reference there to Amos 1-1. Regarding this earthquake, this is a very famous earthquake. It's very well known, Zechariah chapter 14. And isn't it like that for us today? People still talk about the earthquake in San Francisco, in the Bay Area, you know, in the 90s, and people will refer to major events and things that happen. You know, we might refer to coronavirus. Obviously we have years so we know when that was, but these are the types of events and this is how people would focus on history throughout history and in the ancient world. Zechariah chapter 14, if you're in Amos, you're going to go past Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah. Zechariah chapter 14, look at verse 5, notice what the Bible says, And he shall flee to the valley of the mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal. Here's Zechariah preaching, but then notice the historical reference he makes. He's telling them, you're going to flee to the valley of the mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal, yea, ye shall flee. And then notice the reference that he makes to a common event that they would have all been aware of. He says, like as ye fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. So it's interesting that both Amos and Zechariah make a reference to this earthquake during the reign of Uzziah king of Judah and the Lord my God shall come and all the saints with thee. So this is the type of time markers used in history and all, you know, don't just read too much into it. But the idea is this, that there was a really big earthquake that happened and people talked about it. And even in Zechariah he's using it as a reference, Amos is using it as a reference and talking about, I began to minister about two years before the earthquake. Go back to Amos chapter number 1, look at verse number 2. Amos chapter 1 and verse 2, the Bible says, And he, and of course this is Amos, said, I want you to notice this phrase, the Lord will roar, 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. Now I want you to understand and before I make the next point, and really I'm just making introductory points at this point, but before I make a point here regarding the Lord and his roaring, let me just quickly, just to help you understand the context and the theme of the book of Amos, let me give you a very quick outline of the book of Amos. It's nine chapters and it's actually a pretty easy outline. There are some chapters, some books of the Bible that are very difficult to outline. Amos is not one of them. If you want to jot this down or you can just listen. In Amos chapter 1 verses 1 and 2, which is the verses we've read up to this point, you find an introduction to Amos and an introduction to the book of Amos, of course. In chapter 1, starting at verse 3 and all of chapter 2, you have an outline of burdens, or you might call them sermons, against eight separate nations. So in chapter 1 and in chapter 2, you have Amos preaching against eight different nations and bringing criticism against eight nations of the ancient world. Then in chapters 3 through 6, Amos focuses his attention and he has a rebuke of the northern kingdom of Israel. And there are, in those three chapters, three different major oracles or points that are made there regarding the kingdom of Israel. Chapter 7 to chapter 9, to right at the end of chapter 9, from chapter 7 to chapter 9 in verse 10, you have an outline of five visions that Amos saw. And these five visions are really probably what the book of Amos is famous for. You have the plumb line vision and all sorts of different visions that God gave Amos. You find that in chapter 7 to chapter 9 verse 10. And then chapters 9 verse 11 through 15, just the last few verses of the book of Amos, is really the only positive part of the book of Amos. And it's where he just in the last few verses leaves off with something nice and describes the coming millennial reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's a real quick synopsis and outline of the book. Chapter 1 verses 1 and 2 are an introduction to Amos. Chapter 1 verse 3 to chapter 2 is an outline of eight sermons, eight burdens preached against eight different nations. Chapters 3 through 6 is a rebuke of the northern kingdom of Israel. Chapter 7 through chapter 9 verse 10 is five visions that God gives Amos. And then the very last few verses of the book, 11 through 15, describe the coming millennial reign of Christ. Here's the reason I wanted to give you that outline and help you understand that. What we're going to see tonight in chapter 1 is the first five of the eight nations that Amos preaches against in the first two chapters. And the reason that I want you to understand that is because I want you to understand the context of this little phrase when the Bible says the Lord will roar. Amos chapter 1 look at verse 2. And he said the Lord will roar and utter his voice from Jerusalem and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn and the top of Carmel shall wither. Now here's what I want you to understand, okay, a couple of things. When this terminology is used in the Bible, the Lord will roar and that he will utter his voice. These are terms that are used, and I'm going to show it to you here in a minute, that are used throughout the Bible when God is pretty much declaring war against nations of the earth. When God is declaring that he's going to battle with certain nations, this is the terminology that is used in prophetic literature. The Lord will roar. He will utter his voice. So that makes sense when you understand the book of Amos because in the first two chapters he is dealing with eight different nations of the ancient world. But here's what I want you to understand, and I'm going to get into more detail about this next week in Amos chapter 2, but what God is doing is his focus is really on his people, on the southern kingdom of Judah and specifically on the northern kingdom of Israel. So though he is going to roar and roar against the nations and wage war against these nations, what he's really doing is he's picking off these eight nations and making his way and zeroing in to the northern kingdom of Israel, which is where he spends the majority of this book, chapters 3, 4, 5, and 6, rebuking the nation of Israel, the northern nation of Israel, for their wickedness. Now if you read Amos, if you read chapter 1 and you don't understand the context of the book, in the first two chapters you kind of could get the impression that God's just upset with all these heathen nations and it's not about Israel and it's not about Judah. Obviously the further you get in the book it becomes clear that God's really upset about Judah and really, really upset about the northern nation of Israel. But I want you to notice that here in this first couple of verses there's a hint to the fact that yes, he is preaching against these nations, but it's really about his people because in Amos 1 and verse 2 the Bible says, And he said, The LORD will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem. And notice these words, the habitations of the shepherds. So even though Judah does not come up until after the six heathen nations that preceded, there is a hint here to God preaching and Amos was preaching against Judah because Judah was known for its shepherds. Of course, we know just the most famous reference to a shepherd is the fact that King David was a shepherd and he was from Bethlehem. He had his capital in Jerusalem. The city of David was in the southern kingdom of Israel and Judah is known for King David. It's where David came from, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ. The son of David was also born in Bethlehem and we understand that. But what was David known as? He was known as a shepherd. This was a land of shepherds. The southern kingdom was known for being a land of shepherds, which is why when Jesus was born in Bethlehem the angels appeared to who? Shepherds. Why? Because the southern kingdom of Israel is known for being a land of shepherds and a land of sheep. So here, just in verse 2, when he says, The LORD will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem, people might think, oh yeah, God's really upset with these six heathen nations and we're going to look at those six heathen nations. But what I want you to notice, right off the bat, he is referring to the fact that he's going to roar at the habitations of the shepherds. He says the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn. And that is a subtle hint towards what's coming later in the book, which is an emphasis of Judah. And then he says this, And the top of Carmel shall wither. Carmel is a famous city of the northern kingdom of Israel. We have a city here in California called Carmel by the Sea. And it is named after the city in the Bible, which is in the Bible referred to as Carmel by the Sea. It's a beautiful city and it is a city that is known for being a famous city in the northern kingdom of Israel. So the fact that God mentions the tops of Carmel shall wither is a reference that though he's going to talk about these nations, his focus is on his people. And you want to envision it, if you could envision kind of a map, God is making his way to Israel. And as he's making his way to Israel, he's bypassing these heathen nations. But as he's passing them, he's having Amos preach against them. He's zeroing in on his people. And it's important to understand that because the Bible says that judgment must begin first at the house of the Lord. It begins with God's people. So don't think that this is God just ranting on heathens. His focus is on the southern kingdom of Judah, the habitation of the shepherds, and on the northern kingdom of Israel, the top of Carmel shall wither. And if you need a reference to help you see that Carmel is famous in the northern kingdom of Israel, probably the most famous story, though there are many stories, probably the most famous story is the fact that Carmel is the city where Elijah faced off with the prophets of Baal and where he called down fire. And of course, that was Elijah preaching against Ahab, the king of the northern kingdom of Israel. So let's run some verses real quickly. Go to Isaiah 42. Isaiah 42. If you go back to Isaiah, I'd like you to keep your place in Isaiah if you don't mind. Isaiah 42. And what God is doing and what Amos is expressing is that the Lord is going to war. What these people would have heard when they heard the words, the Lord will roar from Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem, they would have thought these are fighting words. These are words regarding war and battle. God is getting ready to go to war against his enemies. Let me just show you some verses regarding that. Isaiah 42, 13. Isaiah 42, 13, the Bible says, the Lord shall go forth, notice this phrase, as a mighty man. Okay, the Lord, God, shall go forth as a mighty man. The term mighty man in our Bible is synonymous with the word warrior. When you read the word mighty man in your Bible, just realize we are referring to a warrior or someone who fights for a living, a professional fighter, a professional soldier, a professional warrior, not someone that's just messing around, but someone who does this as their vocation. Here the Bible says, the Lord shall go forth as a mighty man. He shall stir up jealousy like, notice these words, a man of war. What is that? It's a mighty man. It's a warrior. It's a soldier. Someone who fights for a living, who goes to war for a living. So here Isaiah is telling us that the Lord is going to come like a warrior, like a soldier, like someone who's ready for war. Notice what he says, he shall cry, yea, roar. He shall prevail against his enemies. So when you see this phrase, God roaring or the Lord roaring, just realize that the context has to do with God waging war or declaring war against his enemies and specifically against the nations of the earth. Let me give you another example. Go to Jeremiah chapter 25. Jeremiah chapter 25. Jeremiah chapter 25. And I realize that this maybe feels more like a Bible study, but that's why we call it Wednesday night Bible study. Jeremiah 25. Look at verse 30. Jeremiah 25, 30. Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words and say unto them. So here we have the prophet Jeremiah. God is having him prophesy these words. Notice the words. The Lord shall roar from on high and utter his voice, the same words being used by Amos, from his holy habitation. Notice what the Bible says. He shall mightily roar upon his habitations. He shall give a shout as they that tread the grapes. Okay, now I don't have time to develop that phrase, but that phrase, treading of the grapes, always has to do with the wrath of God and God's judgment and punishment. As they that tread the grapes against all, notice, the inhabitants of the earth. So the Lord shall roar, utter his voice, he shall give a shout against who? The inhabitants of the earth. He is waging war against the inhabitants of the earth. Jeremiah 25, 31. A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth, for the Lord hath a controversy, notice, with the nations. So when you see the Lord roaring, it's always against the nations. It's God coming against the nations to fight the nations. He has a controversy with the nations. He will plead with all flesh. He will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the Lord. Go to Joel, if you would, Joel chapter 3. If you can, keep your place in Isaiah if you can. And if you're in Amos, right after Amos you have the book of Joel. Joel, excuse me, right before Amos is the book of Joel. Right before Amos is the book of Joel. Joel chapter 3. Now here's, I'm making a big deal about this, or I'm spending a little bit of time on this, because I want you to understand it. The phrase, or this terminology, the Lord will roar, utter his voice, he will cry, he will shout. The word cry in our King James Bible is not cry like tears. It means to shout. The King James Bible uses the word weep for what we call cry. It's always God going to war with the nations of the earth, or the people of the earth, or the inhabitants of the earth. Now here's what's interesting. In Joel chapter 3, we've already studied the book of Joel. So if you're with us for the book of Joel, you know that Joel is filled with end times prophecy. And Joel chapter 3 in verse 16 is a reference to the coming day of God's wrath, the day of the Lord. We spent some time with that in Luke as well. Joel 3, 16, notice what the Bible says. The Lord also shall roar out of Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem. But notice when is this time? Because we've seen God already roar and utter his voice other times, different times when his judgment was coming. But when is Joel 3, 16 about? Notice. And the heaven and the earth shall shake, but the Lord will be the hope of his people and the strength of the children of Israel. And of course, the heaven and the earth shaking. And if we kept reading there in Joel 3, we'd see the sun going dark and the moon turning into blood. And of course, this is the day of the Lord. So there's coming a day of the Lord where God is going to pour out his wrath. And for those of you that are interested in end times prophecy, here's just a good thought to have. People will mix up the day of the Lord with the tribulation. And they'll say, well we can't be here during the tribulation because God's not going to pour out his wrath. But I want you to notice that if you see that the day of the Lord is a day that the Lord shall roar out of Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem. And when you make the connection that every other time you see that in the prophetic writings, it's always God going to war against the nations. Then you realize that in Joel 3,16, the day of the Lord is not God pouring out his wrath on saved people. He's going to rapture them out because we have not been appointed unto wrath. And he's going to go to war against the nations of the earth. He's going to go to war against the inhabitants of the world. He's going to go to war against his enemies. So just something to be aware of whenever you see that phrase. There's certain phrases in the Bible and as you read and study the Bible you'll become aware, you'll start to see them. But there's certain things that when you see it, it should stand out to you. And at the very least you should realize there's something there. There's something there that maybe you could study out or you could look up. And whenever you see the Lord roaring, he's uttering his voice, it's always destruction and judgment and wrath coming upon the nations of the earth. Go back to Amos chapter number 1. Okay, so all of that was introduction. I'm going to try to get through the rest of the chapter here. It's not a long chapter so I think we should be fine. Let me just quickly give you two lessons that we can learn from this chapter regarding the judgment of nations. Because that's what this chapter is about. When it says the Lord shall roar, it's God roaring against the nations, coming against the nations to punish them. And let me just give you real quickly, there's only 15 verses in this chapter so we don't have to spend a lot of time. So let me give you two thoughts regarding the punishment of nations and the judgment of nations upon the earth. Here's the first statement if you want to write this down or the first point, the first heading. And it's a simple one but it's one that we should remember and it is this, that God does punish nations. God will punish nations. Amos chapter 1 and verse 3, let me just show you some phrases that come up over and over in this chapter and also in the second chapter. Amos 1, 3, Thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of Damascus and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof. Alright, so you notice there Damascus is the capital city of Syria, a heathen nation near Israel there. And the Bible says, God says, I will not turn away the punishment thereof. Look at verse 6, Thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of Gaza. Gaza is a major city for the area of the Philistines. He says, and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof. Look at verse 9, Thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of Tiras. If you remember Tiras was that island nation that had all the mariners and the sailors. He says, for three transgressions of Tiras and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof. Look at verse 11, Thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of Edom. Remember Edom were the descendants of Esau. They were closely connected to the nation of Israel because of the fact that Esau and Jacob were brothers and the nation of Israel were descendants of Jacob, the twelve sons of Israel, and the descendants of Edom were descendants of Esau. So there was a familiar connection here between these nations and it was near to Israel. And here God says, of Edom and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof. Look at verse 13, Thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of the children of Ammon. Ammon is right on the other side of the Jordan River. Often times when you read in the Bible this phrase which comes up often is the title of one of the documentaries that I was in called Beyond Jordan. Whenever that reference is used beyond Jordan, if it's being used in reference to going out of Israel, it's going into the area that would be known as Ammon or there's a part in ancient Israel that was still part of Israel on the other side of Jordan but it would be referring to that area. So these are all nations, heathen nations that are all near the nation, the northern kingdom of Israel, the southern kingdom of Judah. But I want you to notice again that he says, Thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of the children of Ammon and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof. So I want you to notice God says, Damascus I'm going to punish you. Gaza I'm going to punish you. Tyrus I'm going to punish you. Edom I'm going to punish you. Amen I'm going to punish you. And in chapter two we're going to see that he says the exact same things about Moab. He says the exact same things about Judah, the southern kingdom of Israel and he says the exact same thing about Israel, the northern kingdom. So I want you to understand this that God punishes nations and here's really the point that I'm trying to make is that God punishes nations on this earth. Nations are not people. They are made up of people but nations are not people. People will be judged on this earth and then there is a coming judgment for every single person. Whether you're saved or you're unsaved in the other life, in the next life you will be judged. If you're not saved you'll be judged at the great white throne and cast into the lake of fire. If you are saved, praise God, you don't get judged at the great white throne but we have our own judgment called the judgment seat of Christ. Where we're going to be judged for what we did with the resources and the talents and the abilities that God gave us on this earth. People, everyone will be judged in the afterlife. Nations however cannot be judged in the next world so they must be judged in this world. And it's just good for us to understand, look, God is no respecter of persons, we're going to talk about that next week, and he's no respecter of nations. He uses the exact same terminology for three transgressions and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof. He says that about Damascus, he says that about Gaza, he says that about Tyrus, he says that about Edom, he says that about Ammon, he says that about Moab, he says that about Judah, he says that about Israel, he says that about all of us, even Judah, even Israel, even the people of God. Hey, he judged them just like he judged the heathen. Let me tell you something, he'll judge the United States of America too. There's no one, there's no nation that is not going to be judged by God and I'm here to tell you something, every nation gets judged by God. Every nation. This show's not going to end. We are not going to go into the millennial reign of Christ until every nation has been judged by God because nations cannot be judged in the next world, so they must be judged in this world. Which is why some of the things we've been talking about in the Gospel of Luke might seem odd to you, like why is the anti-Christ turning on Israel and making Jerusalem desolate? You know, Jerusalem's a bad guy in the end times prophecy and the anti-Christ is a bad guy. Why is God using the anti-Christ to judge Jerusalem? Here's why, because nations will get judged in this earth one way or another. God punishes and God judges nations. It's the first point that I want you to just understand. The second point, and this is where we're actually going to walk through this chapter, is that God cares about how nations treat each other. In fact, if you want to jot this down, you probably should, and it is this. The entire book of Amos, all nine chapters, and it's really interesting because Amos is probably the only, I shouldn't say only, but it seems like it's the only Old Testament prophetic book that has such a heavy emphasis on this. The entire book of Amos is about God judging how people treat each other. I mean, if you want to understand the theme of the book of Amos, what is the book of Amos about? If you've thought to yourself, you know, pastors starting this study in the book of Amos, I've read the book of Amos a few times and I don't know what it's about. I want you to understand the entire, obviously there's different things that are brought up in different chapters and we're going to learn about that and talk about it. But the overarching theme of the entire book is this, that God cares how people treat each other and we begin the first two chapters by looking that God cares about how nations treat each other. This is something that God cares a lot about, which should not be a surprise to you since Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy might, and the second is like unto it, to love thy neighbor as thyself. Amos is a book about how you should love your neighbor as yourself. That verse is not quoted in this book, but the theme of that idea, that principle is found throughout this entire book. So we see that God punishes nations and we see that God cares about how people treat each other. We're going to see that in the next several chapters in the book of Amos. But in chapter one and chapter two we're going to see that God not only cares about how people treat each other, we're going to get a lot of that in the book of Amos, but God even cares about how nations treat each other. So like I said, there's eight nations that are outlined in these two chapters. The first five are found in chapter one. Let's go through them quickly. The first nation is found in verses three to five and it is Damascus. Damascus is a city. It's the capital city of Syria. Amos chapter one verse three, thus saith the Lord, for three transgressions of Damascus and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof. So why? Why is God so mad at Damascus? Why is God roaring at Damascus, going to war with Damascus, going to utter his voice against Damascus? Here's why. Because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron. You say, what does that mean? Well here Amos is using an illustration. The word thresh or the action of threshing or threshed is defined as the separation of grain or seed by beating it with a tool or a machine. And of course this is a farming idea. That when you are harvesting grain you have to separate the plant from the grain that you're trying to get. The grain is on the plant and you've got to separate the two. And the way they would do that is they would thresh or they would beat or they would thresh the grain to separate the seed from the plant. And what Amos is doing is he's using this as an example and God is saying, I'm upset with Damascus, I'm going to war with Damascus, I'm going to not turn away the punishment of Damascus because they have threshed Gilead. Gilead is another city, a group of people, he says they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron. What is it that God is saying here? Please understand this. God is not against war necessarily. The Bible even refers to God. The Bible says that the Lord is a man of war. And if you read the Old Testament you're familiar with the fact that God sent Joshua in to fight battles and to fight wars. God sent David in to fight wars. God is not necessarily against war, but he was against these people. Why? Because the way that they conducted their war, he said they did not just go into Gilead, fight a battle, win the battle, take over the city and move on with their lives. No, he says they went too far. They threshed Gilead. He said you threshed them like grain being beaten down and separated. He said you took instruments of iron, like you would take an instrument of iron to beat the wheat and to separate the grain and the seed. He said you took it too far. And here God is making an application about how nations should treat each other. And please understand this, God is not against war, but he is against total destruction and annihilation. Now there were times in the Old Testament where God told the children of Israel to completely annihilate a group of people. But that was not the standard of war. Those were special circumstances and I don't have time to develop it, but if you study it out you'll find that whenever God told them to go into a city and kill everyone, that was a reprobate city. There was a lot of abomination and things going on, unnatural sins going on. Generally speaking though, God would tell them before you go to battle, you know, try to make peace, try to get them to surrender. He gave them a list of things that they were supposed to do. And once they went to battle and they won the battle, they were supposed to treat the people with dignity. They could take certain captives and do certain things, but they weren't supposed to just pillage and rape and destroy. But God is upset with Damascus because of the fact that they didn't just win a battle, they threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron. And here's what I'm telling you, and I know a lot of Christians want to be patriotic or whatever, but God would not have been okay with what the United States of America did to Japan in World War II. He would have been against it. Because nations are not supposed to just completely thrash or thrash or destroy or annihilate civilian people. It's not something that nations, look, you say, well I don't think the aim is going to be very applicable. Oh, you better believe it's going to be very applicable to the United States of America because, you know, we're killing civilians all over the place. Annihilating people all over the place. And I'm just here to tell you that God punishes nations. He judges nations. And if he judges Damascus for threshing Gilead with threshing instruments of iron, you better believe he'll judge the United States of America for using A-bombs and all sorts of other bombs. And again, God's not against war. God's not against battles. But he is against total annihilation and total destruction of people groups. Again, not talking about reprobates. Look at verse 4. But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael and shall devour the places of Benhadad. And of course those are references to leaders of Syria. Look at verse 5. Now in verse 5 we have a prophecy that Amos makes about Damascus. And it's actually fulfilled in the Bible. I'll give you the cross reference. Amos 1.5, he says, I will break also the bar of Damascus. Remember again, Damascus is the capital city of Syria. And cut off the inhabitants from the plain of Avon and him that holdeth the scepter from the house of Eden. And the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Ker, saith the Lord. So I want you to notice that Amos makes a very specific prophecy here. He says God's going to punish you and you will know when God has punished you because the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Ker. Let me give you a cross reference. Go to 2 Kings chapter 16. 2 Kings chapter 16. You can write this reference next to Amos 1.5 if you'd like. 2 Kings chapter 16. If you can find the 1 and 2 books, they're all clustered together. 1 Samuel, 1 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Kings chapter 16. Do me a favor when you get there, put a ribbon or a bookmark there or something there because we're going to leave it and we're going to come back to it. 2 Kings chapter 16. And please understand something. I'm not a pacifist. I served in the U.S. Air Force. God's not against war and God is not against military protecting nations and going to battle and going to war when needed. But God is against any nation just completely annihilating and destroying another nation for no need. So the judgment for Damascus was that the people of Syria should go into captivity unto Ker, right? Amos 1.5. Look at 2 Kings 16 and verse 9. And the king of Assyria hearkened unto him, for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus. So Assyria and Syria are two different nations. The king of Assyria went up against Damascus. Remember Damascus is the capital city of Syria. And took it, notice what it says, and carried the people of it captive to Ker and slew Rezin. So here in 2 Kings 16.9 we're told that he carried the people of it captive to Ker. Which is exactly what Amos said and the prophecy that Amos had in Amos 1.5 when he said the people of Syria should go into captivity unto Ker. So here we have a prophecy that Amos made and we find the fulfillment of it in the Bible. And that's important to understand because that gives credibility to Amos as a prophet of God. That he prophesied things that actually came to pass. Go to Amos, go back to Amos chapter 1, look at verse 6. Here's the second city, Gaza. Amos chapter 1 and verse 6. Thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of Gaza and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof. Why is God so angry with them? Why is God roaring against them? Why is he uttering his voice against them? Here's why. Because they carried away captive the whole captivity to deliver them up to eat them. Why is God upset? The terms captive here are something that we would probably refer to as slavery. And please understand this, this is not God necessarily being against slavery. Now the Bible gets a bad rap for, people will often say the Bible is for slavery. And obviously the Bible is not for slavery in the sense of what you and I think of as Americans. When we think of slavery we think of the South before the Civil War. And God's not for that type of slavery. And here's a proof text for that or a proof of that is that that's exactly the type of slavery that the children of Israel were in Egypt. And God delivered them out of that. But the Bible does teach certain types of slavery or servanthood. The King James Bible doesn't use the word slavery but if you want to understand it that way. Some of it has to do with punishments. You weren't allowed in the government of God, you're not allowed to just go into a bunch of debt. And then declare bankruptcy and Joseph gets forgotten. No, no, you go bankrupt you're going to go work for seven years. You're going to pay it off. You know certain punishments were that way. Well in the Bible when you went to battle against a nation and before you went to war you gave them the opportunity to surrender. And they chose not to and they chose to fight you anyway and they lost. Then it was acceptable to take prisoners of war. And usually you would take the certain individuals that God allowed and of course soldiers and things like that. You're allowed to take captives as part of that punishment and you would make them hewers of wood and drawers of water. And they would have some sort of a servant type role because of the fact that they lost. So God's not necessarily upset here with the taking of prisoners and taking up captives but here's what he's against. Look at it again, verse six, because they carried away captives. What's the problem? Notice the whole captivity. They didn't just take prisoners of war, they took everyone, men, women and children. He's against them because they took the whole captivity to deliver them to Edom. So please understand the crime is not that soldiers were enslaved, quote unquote, after being taken in battle which was the standard practice of the ancient world. But the Philistines here are being judged by God because they used their temporary supremacy to enslave an entire population of people. And God's against it. Look at verse seven. I will set a fire on the wall of Gaza which shall devour the palaces thereof. And I will cut off the inhabitants of Ashtad and him that holdeth the scepter from Ashkelon. And I will turn mine hand against Ekron and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord God. And of course this is dealing with the ancient people of the Philistines. And if you want to jot this down for your personal notes, if you remember or if you remember this from your Bible reading, the ancient Philistine people were what we would refer to as a pentopolis. Meaning that they were a nation made up of five city-states. If you remember the famous story of the Amrods that they had when they took the Ark of the Covenant, you had five different city leaders coming together to try to decide. You had the city of or the region of Gaza. You had Ashtad, you had Ashkelon, you had Ekron, and then you had Gath. Gath is famously known for being the town that Goliath was from. Remember Goliath the giant was from Gath. These are the five cities that make up the pentopolis of the Philistines. And here in Amos chapters 1 verse 8, four of the five cities are mentioned as God destroying them. Ashtad, Ashkelon, Ekron, Philistines, excuse me, Gaza, Ashtad, Ashkelon, Ekron. Gath doesn't seem to be mentioned here, but then he says at the end, and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish. So he says, I'm going to destroy them all. And by the way, the Philistines aren't around. God judged them. They're gone. And this Gaza or Gaza, however you want to call it, is not the same as the Gaza that people are fighting about in Israel right now. These people are gone. Philistines do not exist anymore. Why? Because God judged them. Why? Because God judges nations. In verses 9 and 10 we have the third city, the third nation, Tyrus. Look at verse 9. Thus saith the Lord, for three transgressions of Tyrus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof. Why? Why is God so mad? Why is God so angry? Why is God so upset with these nations? Notice what it says, because they delivered up the whole captivity of Edom. So same thing as Gaza. They delivered up the whole captivity and remembered not the brotherly covenant. God says, I'm mad at them because they delivered the whole captivity, and I'm also mad at them because they remembered not the brotherly covenant, but I will send the fire on the wall of Tyrus which shall devour the palaces thereof. Now you say, well what is this brotherly covenant referring to or what is that about? And obviously there must have been some league made between Tyrus and Edom. And we know that this is even, in Scripture we even see if you want a cross reference, 1 Kings 5 and verse 12. 1 Kings 5, 12. If you kept your place in 2 Kings you could go there real quickly. From 2 Kings to 1 Kings, 1 Kings 5, 12. The Bible says, and the Lord gave Solomon wisdom. Remember when Solomon became king? He wanted to build the temple and the Lord gave Solomon wisdom and he promised him. And there was peace between Hiram. Hiram is the king of Tyre or the king of Tyrus, which is being referred to here. There was peace between Hiram and Solomon and they too made a league together. So in 1 Kings 5, 12 we're told that Hiram, the king of Tyre or Tyrus, and Solomon, the king of Israel at the time, made a league together. When the Bible says in Amos 1, 9, you can go back to Amos 1, 9, because they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom and remembered not the brotherly covenant. The brotherly covenant being referred to there may be a reference to this league made between Solomon and Hiram. Obviously this is going against Tyrus and the captivity of Edom. But Edom and Israel were known as brother nations or brotherly nations because, as I already mentioned, one was a descendant of Jacob and the other was a descendant of Esau, which were brothers. So it might have been that this league included Edom. We know that obviously Solomon, when he was king, his kingdom was expansive and it would include Edom as well. So this league together, that God is upset that they remembered not the brotherly covenant, he's going to destroy them because of these covenants. And here's the thing, we as people should keep our promises and we as nations should keep our promises. And we should be careful about not getting wrapped up in too many promises and leagues and covenants. But if you're going to, then you need to keep it. And that's consistent throughout the Bible because if you remember in Joshua, Joshua was tricked into going into league and he was beguiled into doing it. But God still expected him to keep that covenant. Look at Amos chapter 1 and verse 11. In verses 11 and 12 we have the fourth kingdom, Edom. Thus saith the Lord, for three transgressions of Edom and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof. What was Edom's problem? Notice. Because he did pursue his brother with the sword. Remember Edom and Israel were brothers. And let's talk about the nations. Because he did pursue his brother with the sword and did cast off all pity. And his anger did tear perpetually and he kept his wrath forever. But I will send the fire upon Teman which shall devour the palaces of Bozrah. Teman and Bozrah are both references to locations in Edom. What was Edom's problem? I want you to notice this, it's really interesting. Because remember, what is the theme of the book of Amos? The theme of the book of Amos is that God cares how we treat each other and God cares how nations treat each other. And we're going to get into a lot of chapters where Amos was preaching about people not treating each other right. Which is really interesting because I did not do this on purpose. In fact I wish I could say I did this on purpose. Because if I did this on purpose it would mean that I was like a genius or something. But unfortunately I'm not and I didn't do it on purpose. But the Holy Spirit is a genius. And it's interesting to me that for whatever reason when God laid it on my heart to start a Sunday morning series on the subject of judgment and justice and equity. And we as Christians learning to judge properly and to have justice and discernment in our lives. God laid it on my heart to start that series at the beginning of this year. And then we just happened to start Amos because it was just the next book. I actually have a whole system that I'm working through and it was time to do a minor prophet. We'd already done Joel so we're in Amos. And what is Amos all about? People treating each other justly. People treating each other with justice and equity. And I did not plan that. I wish I could take the credit for it but I did not. But God must want us to learn something about how we should treat each other. And notice what he says about Edom. What's their problem? Because he did pursue his brother. You know what God had against Edom? He was fighting with his brother. You know what God might have against you? You fighting with your Christian brother. Because he did pursue his brother with the sword. But it wasn't just fighting with his brother because brothers fight, right? Physical brothers fight, spiritual brothers fight. But notice, and it cast off all pity. The word pity means compassion or to care. He cast off. He did not have any pity or compassion. And his anger did tear perpetually and he kept his wrath forever. What was Edom's problem? God is literally judging this nation for being bitter and resentful towards their brother. You're not saying amen because that will preach. You know that God will be angry at you and will judge you for being bitter towards your brother or sister in Christ? For being resentful towards your brother or sister in Christ. This is how some people live their lives. Cast off pity. Their anger did tear perpetually. I mean, like, they're still mad about it. Weeks later, months later, years later, they're still angry and upset. That's what he's saying. His anger did tear perpetually. He kept his wrath forever. And God says, I'm going to judge you for that. Say why? Because we should be forgiving. And we should be loving. And we should be compassionate. And we should let things go. And we should not cast off pity. We should embody compassion. Our anger should not dwell with us perpetually. You know what the Bible says? The Bible says, let not thy wrath, let not the sun go down upon thy wrath. That's the opposite of your anger tearing perpetually and keeping your wrath forever. That's how some Christians do relationships. It's not right. Look at verse 13. In verses 13, 14, and 15, we have Ammon. We have to finish this up. Thus saith the Lord, for three transgressions of the children of Ammon, and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof. Notice what he says. Why is he so mad at them? Because they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border. Just write next to verse 13 if you like, if you're taking notes and you like to write notes in your Bible. In the margin of your Bible there in Amos 113, just write this word, abortions. Because they have ripped up women with child of Gilead that they might enlarge their border. Now let me just, let me explain that. God is mad at them because they killed babies in the womb. But why did they do it? Notice, because they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead that they might enlarge their border. Why did they rip up children in the womb and kill children in the womb? Here's why, that they would enlarge their border. That they would have a bigger border, a bigger house. You say, I don't think that's like abortions. Okay, well listen, they killed babies in the womb for personal gain. And though I understand that that is exactly like an abortion because we don't actually rip up the womb of a woman when an abortion is committed, maybe if we did we'd have less of them. But we still in this country kill babies and listen to me, the vast majority of abortions happening, we're told three thousand, four thousand babies are killed in this country, are murdered in this country. Their life is taken from them in the womb in this country. Three to four thousand children a day. And here's what everyone wants to talk about. They want to talk about the rape and incest and the life of the mother. And look, I'm not preaching on abortions necessarily and we can make those arguments at another time, but let me just make this argument real quickly. The vast majority of abortions in this country have nothing to do with that. They all have to do with personal gain. Somebody wanted to be a whore or a whoremonger and go to bed and got pregnant, but they got to finish their degree. Or they need to buy a bigger house. Or it's going to mess up their vacation time. The vast majority, you know it's true. Don't tell me it's not. The vast majority of abortions, the babies being ripped up in this country have to do exactly like Ammon because they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead that they might enlarge their borders. So that they can have a nicer car and a nicer house because children are expensive, because children are this, because children are that. Look, let me tell you something. God will judge this nation. You can sing God bless America all you want. God's not going to bless this country when we're murdering babies literally by the thousands every day. They kill babies in the womb for personal gain. We're killing babies in the womb for personal gain. But I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabah and it shall devour the palaces thereof, with shouting in the day of battle, with the tempest in the day of the whirlwind. And their king shall go into captivity, he and his princes together, saith the Lord. So that's Amos chapter 1. Maybe you came here tonight and you said, I don't know what the book of Amos is about. Well, I hope you have a better idea. Amos chapter 1. Let me show you just one verse and we'll be done. Just go to Amos chapter 5. Real quickly, Amos chapter 5. We'll finish up. I just want to cement this thought in your mind. I hope you'll join us as we continue through the book of Amos. Next Wednesday night, chapter 2, we'll look at the end of this little series here of God roaring against the nations. Amos chapter 5 and verse 14 may be, and don't hold me to this because when I get to chapter 9, by the time I've preached through the entire book of Amos, maybe I'll change my mind, but I don't think so. Amos chapter 5 and verse 14 may be the key verse of the book of Amos. The key theme of the book of Amos, which is interesting because Amos chapter 5 is right in the center of Amos. There's nine chapters in Amos. You would have 1 through 4 before 5 and 6 through 9 after 5. So the fifth chapter is right in the middle of the book of Amos. Verse 14 is not right in the middle of the chapter, but we're kind of centered right in the middle of the book of Amos. Amos says this, Amos 5.14. Here's the theme of the book. Here's what the whole book's about. You don't know what the book of Amos is about? It's right here in one verse. Seek good and not evil. We should do good to people and not evil, not hurt them. Sometimes we have to go to war and sometimes war is needed. Sometimes nations have to defend themselves and we understand that. God's not against that. But don't kill the women and children in the process. Seek good and not evil that ye may live and so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you as he has spoken. You know what this whole book's about? The theme that we'll see over the next nine weeks is that God cares how you treat other people. God cares about that bitterness and resentment in your heart that you just won't let go. God cares. God wants you and I to seek good and not evil that you may live. And so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you as he has spoken. This is why our heads are not bored of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for the book of Amos. I know it's not a book that people often think. There'll be an exciting book. But every book in the Bible is good. All scriptures are given by inspiration of God. And Lord, I pray you'd help us. I pray that you'd help us to learn from this Old Testament book, from this Old Testament prophet, this minor prophet. Help us to glean what we can and help it to change us, Lord. I pray that we would leave here today mindful of how we treat others, how we treat our brothers and sisters in Christ, that we would live with justice and judgment and equity. In the matchless name of Christ, we pray. Amen. We're going to have Brother Moses come up and lead us in a final song. I just want to give you one quick reminder that if you'd like to bring a meal for the Rosenberg family, if you just had a baby, if you'd like to sign up to bring a meal, my wife has a sign-up sheet, please go by and see her. And if there's anything that we can do, please let us know. And I want to encourage you to be at soul-winning on Saturday morning. And the weather's been messing with us. And I don't know that the weather won't mess with us this Saturday, but we're planning to be out soul-winning. And I'm bringing some lessons, some soul-winning lessons in the month of January. I hope you'll come. Some things that I think our church family could use. If there's anything we can do for you, please let us know. We'll have Brother Moses come up and lead us at this time. Please enter songbooks, page number 308. Page number 308. We're going to finish off with I Surrender All. Page 308. Let's sing it out on the verse. All to Jesus I surrender all. To Him I freely give. I will ever love and trust Him. In His presence daily live. I surrender all. I surrender all. All to Thee my blessed Savior. I surrender all. Page 308. Let's sing it out on the second. All to Jesus I surrender. Calmly at His feet I bow. Worldly pleasures all forsaken. Take me Jesus, take me now. I surrender all. I surrender all. All to Thee my blessed Savior. I surrender all. Let's sing it out on the last. All to Jesus I surrender. Lord I give myself to Thee. Fill me with Thy love and power. Let Thy blessings fall on me. I surrender all. I surrender all. All to Thee my blessed Savior. I surrender all. Great singing. Can I please have Brother Serge close us an order of prayer? Amen. Amen.