Amos - A Minor Prophet With A Major Message — Amos 1-2

0:05 It's right after the book of Joel. My goal here today, really is to talk about Amos. Talk about the things he says. Talk about the people of Israel. And we're just gonna, try and go in somewhat of a linear fashion through his book.

0:29 We'll make, some introductory comments about, where he's from, who he is, and, the like. But, let's just open up in a word of prayer. Dear Lord, we're just so grateful this morning to be here, to be among the body, to learn from you, to learn what you have to say to us. We're just so grateful to learn about these different characters in the Bible, from all over the place. And we do pray that, you just apply this to our hearts.

0:59 Apply, the teaching today and throughout these, weeks, to our lives. We pray that we would be more like Christ as a result. We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen. Okay. So we are in the book of Amos.

1:17 And the, title of this message, I actually stole it from our brother Doug. I asked, brother Doug when he came here, the last time. And I asked him at the end of his message, said, Would you consider yourself a major prophet or a minor prophet? He says, I consider myself a minor prophet but with a major message. And so we're going to title that A Minor Prophet with a Major Message.

1:48 And really before we read anything, I think that in and of itself, the difference between major prophets and minor prophets and even as you look at all the 66 books of the Bible, that's kind of the lesson in and of itself because there's very diverse things going on. All of the different books of the Bible are written in different styles. They have different purposes to them. One note is remember that a major prophet doesn't mean he has something more important to say but it's just in the length of his book. And then in a minor prophet means he just has maybe something shorter and less things to say.

2:37 But nevertheless, it's still very important. And as you come to the book of Amos, Amos is a minor prophet. And so while he is a minor prophet, he only has nine chapters in his book. Still very important for us to look at. And maybe you find yourself in that same situation.

2:58 Meaning, look at the different books of the Bible, look at the people in the Bible and not necessarily compare yourself but look at those characters in the Bible and and think of, oh, how do I identify with this guy and and the gifts that he has and what he's called to do? So maybe you're like Amos. Maybe you're like another major prophet. You have a greater teaching, greater prophecy, more things to say. Maybe you have less things to say like a minor prophet.

3:31 So just something to look at. The next things are for a couple of comments about Amos himself. So Amos is a prophet of God but he's from the nation of Israel, but from the kingdom of Judah. So he's part of the Southern Kingdom. He starts his prophecy at about seven eighty four BC.

4:00 He also is from the land of Tekoa, we're gonna read. The land of Tekoa. That's just South Of Jerusalem. Actually, oh great. It's just South Of Jerusalem, even just South Of Bethlehem.

4:14 He's also a sheep herder. One of the interesting things about the prophet Amos is that he's the only prophet who first has a profession or has a career. So he's got this career it seems to be a sheep herder, to be a fruit picker of the sycamore tree. Amos himself, his name means burden bearer. And so while Amos is from the Southern Kingdom Of Judah, the Lord calls him up to the Northern Kingdom Of Israel to bear this burden to to go before Israel and and talk about what the Lord has for them.

5:01 And just a quick note about that. So he's got his career or his profession already. Maybe the Lord would call us to do the same thing. Maybe we already have our career, maybe we already have a profession, but in a certain time in our life we could sense the Lord's leading and do what he calls us to do. Whether it's on a daily basis to talk to different people about the Lord or maybe he even calls you at a certain time in a certain place to teach at a certain place, to use your gifts, to be a blessing to the body of Christ.

5:36 Timothy is another example. He's an example of someone young that was called young. Now I don't know the age of Amos, but really all that to say is this Amos and all these different people in the Bible, the Lord can call you at any given time. He can use you and He wants to use you for His purposes. Next, Amos one:one.

6:45 And Jeroboam, the son of Joash is king of Israel. Now this is Jeroboam two. So if you want to make a note in your bible that doesn't already have a heading, it's Jeroboam but the second Jeroboam. We already learned about the first Jeroboam. And if you might remember from when my dad gave preaching and teaching on the first Jeroboam, that's when the two nations or the two kingdoms split.

7:16 You have the 10 tribes that go up north and then the Southern Kingdom Of Judah and Benjamin and you even see it right there. You have the Southern Kingdom Of Judah and the Northern Kingdom Of Israel. And what had happened is the first Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, he decided to make these idols, these golden calves. One of them was in Bethel and one of them was in Dan. And so he led the people away into idolatry.

7:47 And there's a quick note on Bethel. You might remember what's the first mention of Bethel. One of the significant points in the Bible about this place Bethel. Well, Jacob before we had the nation of Israel was there at Bethel. You might remember he's traveling up to see his uncle, Laban.

8:09 And he stops at Bethel and he has this great vision of God. And he sees this ladder coming up and down and you have this, you have these angels coming to the earth and going back into heaven. And Jacob has this encounter with God. And so I was thinking, was like, well why did they put it at Bethel? Maybe they thought that okay, this is like some spiritual place.

8:36 There's some spiritual significance like I'm gonna come here and worship and I'm gonna end up worshiping this golden calf. And I'm going to get connected to god that way. So, maybe that's why they they had they had the idols in this place. But take a look at Amos chapter seven and verse twelve and thirteen and really to come back to Jeroboam two and then our prophet Amos. Amos seven twelve and thirteen, Then Amaziah said to Amos, Go, you seer.

9:09 Flee to the land of Judah. There eat bread and there prophesy, but never again prophesy at Bethel. For it is the king's Sanctuary and it is the royal residence. And so we see right again, Amos is from Judah but he goes up to Israel and prophesies. And it says that he actually goes up into the king's sanctuary, this royal residence.

9:35 He's... I imagine like he comes there and he's right where all the business is happening. The place of worship, the place of government. I don't know if you've all ever seen pictures of when Celi and I got married but we had the privilege of getting married in Mishla. We're right downtown.

9:54 We're inside the pavilion right in front of the mayor's house. It's where all the business happened. The police parked their cars there when there's not something going on. Funerals are happening. Weddings are happening.

10:07 And so there's just another example of this is right where Amos is. He goes there. He's prophesying to to both the religious leaders, the the kings, the places of governance, all of the different government officials there. And that's where he was prophesying. And you have this background information for Jeroboam, the king of Israel.

10:33 He's the king of Israel. He has quite a long reign, forty one years. But it says that he did evil in the sight of the Lord. And maybe that's a good study is, well if he did evil in the sight of the Lord, why did he have such a long reign? I'm not gonna go into that, but I do think that the Lord did have a purpose for Jeroboam too.

11:01 The second Jeroboam, he ended up expanding the different lands of Israel and so we do have a time of sort of military prowess. The lands of Israel expanding and it's also a really good economical time. And people's wallets are flushed with cash, know, and there's a lot of prosperity during that time. Now, Amos was sent up into the kingdom of Israel to bring the people back to the Lord. Because as we've already said, we have Jeroboam, the very first Jeroboam started leading the people in idolatry with these golden calves.

11:48 And it says that the second Jeroboam walked in all of the ways his father Jeroboam, the son of Nebat did. And he continued to lead the people into idolatry. And so Amos gets called by the Lord from his profession. He goes up for a short time into the Northern Kingdom Of Israel to bring the people back to the Lord. He goes there and he goes there to preach judgment to them.

12:15 To call out their sin. To talk with them and saying, Lord or people, the Lord is very serious about your sin. But he wants you to come back to him. Reminding me of a verse in Proverbs. Proverbs 20 seven:five, Open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed.

12:37 And so this is what Amos went to do. He went up into the Northern Kingdom Of Israel to rebuke the nation of Israel and say look, leaders, king, religious leaders, come back to the Lord. Here's all these different sins that you're doing and the Lord does not like it. And if you continue in them, judgment is going to come. And we even see later on that judgment does end up coming.

13:06 But he goes to them and he says, look, repent. Here's what you're doing wrong but come back to me. Just a quick note on the other king. King Uzziah is the king of Judah. They overlap in their kingdoms about fifteen years.

13:22 Jeroboam two and Uzziah. And just to try and think of again this place in history that we're at. You might remember the phrase from Isaiah six. In the year or in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. And so this...

13:39 There... Here's the same era that that Amos is preaching. You have Isaiah, a prophet as well. We talked about Hosea last week. We have Jonah right around the same time period.

13:54 But Uzziah is a good king. And so it says that in two Kings 15, it says, He did what's right what was right in the sight of the Lord. So now we go on to the words of Amos. What did Amos actually say? What did he come to do to prophecy?

14:39 So you have these different surrounding nations and Amos goes up and he starts talking to the people about these different nations and and calling out judgment on them for the different sins that they have. Most of all, I would say it's they're oppressing the children of Israel. Over the the whole history of the the period of the kings, you have these great battles taking place. Battles with the Philistines, battles with the Edomites, Battles with the northern nations of Syria and and Assyria and Babylon. And and the the Lord through Amos is prophesying against these nations and saying look you're oppressing my people and so I'm going to judge you.

15:19 And there's a lot of different ways or a lot of different examples of that. You can kind of look in each and every one of those different prophecies and kind of look, well how did? What happened? And you can look at other historical accounts and see exactly that that what Amos said was true. These kingdoms did end up getting judgement.

15:41 So, he he starts off with the surrounding nations then he goes to Judah and then to Israel. And he calls them out for their sin and for their corruption and even for the fact that they're separate as nations. The Lord wanted them together. Next you have chapters three through six. Amos calls out Israel in general, just the nation as a whole.

16:05 He doesn't split the kingdoms up. But he calls out their sins of religiosity. Just going to do the worship almost like going to church to check the box and then going home and living however they wanted to. You get the sense it was not heartfelt worship. And not only that but their worship or them coming to worship the Lord did not line up with the way they lived though.

16:33 It said that they started to take advantage of the poor. Israel or no, Judah ended up despising the word of the lord, it says And and in the word of the Lord, in in the law, it says that they were to take care of the poor. They had certain measures to take care of the poor. These people that had financial situations, you might even remember the story of Ruth where she comes and she ends up gleaning under Boaz. That's according to the law.

17:04 That people would go out and they would harvest their grain and then they would leave all these gleanings, these extra clippings that fall while they're doing their normal harvesting. And the poor can come and grab that. But here you have the people not following that law. Any way that they can get money, that that they do that. And so that's chapters three through six.

17:28 Chapters seven through nine end with both five visions of Amos and then you have this little historical interlude which I I believe really offers us a lot because you get to see this interaction that Amos has with the different leaders there. And so, let's jump into chapters one and two and take a look at at what Amos says. So Amos chapter two, we have this phraseology that Amos uses. Amos himself is a very direct prophet. You have this very common language that he uses.

18:12 He doesn't, he's not like Isaiah where he goes all over the place. But he's just like, look, Moab, you're sinning and here comes punishment. Amos chapter two verses one and two. For three transgressions of Moab and for four, I will not turn away its punishment. But I will send a fire upon Moab and it shall devour the places of Kiriath.

18:38 Moab shall die with tumult, with shouting and trumpet sound. And so you have this phrase, for three transgressions of blank, put in the nation there, I will not turn away its pun... And for four, I will not turn away its punishment. Meaning that, okay, you did three but now you're doing four. Like I've tolerated these three sins but now you've done these four sins.

19:06 The numbers are pretty much arbitrary but you have these list of sins and it's almost like this is the last straw. Because you've done this, because your idolatry, your corruption, your moral sins have been so bad, I'm gonna send punishment. And so that's what that phrase kind of means when you look at each of those different nations. But even in this phrase, I really see this thing that we can learn about the Lord in this book. The Lord is patient, isn't he?

19:41 He's patient for his people. In fact, from Jeroboam one all the way to Jeroboam two right now, we're at about, I believe the thirteenth king and pretty much all of the kings of Israel are very evil. It says repeatedly and they did evil in the sight of the lord. Whether it was as bad as the very first king of Israel or not as bad, they did evil in the sight of the lord and the lord tolerated that whole sin. The lord allowed them to continue to go And he sent prophets to them to try and woo them back to himself.

20:22 And so you just see right there, you have this patience of the Lord. But even in the second half of that phrase, but for four, I'm not gonna turn away its punishment. While we have the patience of the Lord, we also have the judgment of the Lord as a reminder. Here we have this example of the nation of Israel turning away from the Lord. Getting a prophet to come and tell them, come, repent and turn back to the Lord, but I'm gonna judge you because of your sin if you do not, if you do not turn away from your sin and turn back to me.

21:04 And we have that example for us as well. The Lord has promised, the Lord Jesus has promised that he's gonna come again one day. And he came first as our savior, as someone who would beckon us and he said, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. But there's gonna come a day and time where the Lord's gonna come back and he's gonna come up, come down as a king, as a judge. And he's gonna come back and judge the land.

21:33 Second Thessalonians one nine says, it is a righteous thing with god to repay with tribulation those who trouble you and to give you who are troubled rest with us. When the lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know god and on those who do not obey the gospel of our lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. When he comes in that day to be glorified in his saints and to be admired among all those who believe because our testimony among you was believed. And so we just...

22:56 In Deuteronomy 20 and verse 16, it says, but of the cities of these people which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive. You shall utterly destroy them, The Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Parasite and the Hivite and the Jebusite just as the lord your god has commanded you. Lest they teach you to do according to all their abominations with which they have done for their gods and you sin against the lord. And so you have these nations right there. You've got Philistia, you've got the the Phoenicians, and you've got the Syrians.

23:37 And what ends up happening is they end up causing the nation of Israel and the nation of... Or the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah to sin. You might remember that they said, hey, we wanna be like all the other nations. We wanna have a king too. And and that's what the Lord did not want.

23:56 He said to Moses through in the Torah, in Deuteronomy, and he also said to Joshua, when you come in, wipe out these people because they are gonna lead you into idolatry. And we... You you even find in Joshua that it's towards the end of Joshua's leadership and it says that the people of Israel left some of the people in the land. Back up in... Right near the Sea Of Galilee, just to the north, it talks about how the people of Israel left the Mayakites and the Jeshurites there.

24:32 And and you can imagine that this is one of the reasons why they were led into idolatry. And I think that just that idea that Israel generations ago, before they even had the kingdoms, they didn't obey the Lord and thus the future generations had all this trouble, had all this strife. Now, I do believe that the Lord, you know, worked during that time but certainly if the if the children of Israel had obeyed the Lord when they came into the land and driven out these nations, they wouldn't have had so much trouble with these different nations. And so, maybe that's a lesson for us today that that for future generations, if we look and and take a look into our lives and we take a look at the sin that we have, I'm really speaking to myself here. As I look to be a father.

25:27 If I look into myself and look in into the way that I live and the sins that I have, if I go and look into god's word and look as to how to get rid of these sins and purge these sins, the future generations, my kids, we could even talk about future generations of Westlake. Maybe there's some things that we need to look at as a body, as families. Is there something inside of us that we can purge out now that is going to make it better for the future generations? That they would also or that they would have an easier time, a more yeah, an easier time to follow the Lord. That we would set up for future generations to not have idols.

26:07 To not have these sins that befall us. To follow the Lord. And so you read in in Amos chapter one and chapter two that he just kinda goes in a clockwise direction. He starts here down in in Philistia. You have the the city of Gaza there.

26:25 And then he goes in a kind of this clockwise direction and he starts talking about these nations and and the different things that they have done to the nation of Israel and the judgment that's gonna come to them for those sins. In the latter half of chapter two, Amos comes to Israel and Judah. And remember that Amos is prophesying and he's speaking and he's in this busy center of town. He's in the king's palace and he's talking to the nations of Israel. Now, imagine if you were a part of the kingdom of Israel and you were listening to Amos at that time and he starts call...

27:08 Calling out the different nations around you for their different sins. You might start to feel pretty good, right? He's not talking about you at all. He's talking about this nation and that nation and Syria and Ammon. He even talks about Judah first.

27:25 So maybe the Israelites are are, I think this, have this natural inclination. I think we all do to think about, Oh, that person's being called up for that sin. Man, am I glad it's not me. Have you ever been before your parents at a time when, for just reasons they've been talking to each child and saying, look, this is what happened and this is what the consequences are going to be. And you've listened and your brother, got talked to and your other brother got talked to, maybe your sister got talked to and you're sitting there like, I'm glad it's not me.

28:05 But then Amos comes to Israel and he calls out the sins of Israel. The moral decay of Israel was real. I mean, was absolutely real. In Amos chapter two in verse six, it says, thus says the Lord, for three transgressions of Israel and for four, I will not turn away its punishment. Because they sell the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of sandals.

28:38 They pant after the dust of the earth, earth which is on the head of the poor, and pervert the way of the humble. A man and his father go into the same girl to defile defile my holy name. They lie down by every altar on clothes taken in pledge and drink the wine of the condemned and in the house of their god. And so you see the moral failure of Israel that they were so greedy anyway they could find money whether it was by just means or in just means, that's what they were doing. It says that they were taking advantage of the poor.

29:18 They were selling the righteous for silver and and the poor for a pair of sandals. They pant after the dust of the earth which is on the head of the poor and so, while it was economically prosperous time, you could take a look and see the poor were getting poorer because of the rich were being even more greedy and taking advantage of the poor in the nations. And you even have this very disgusting thing happened that men and their sons would go to a a temple to the temple prostitutes and they were sleeping with the exact same woman. And so just very very gross, disgusting saint sins. He goes on with even some more practical sins.

30:06 Check out chapter four and verse one, chapter four and verse one. Hear this word, you cows of Bashan or Bashan, who were on the Mountain Of Samaria, who oppressed the poor, who crushed the needy, who say to your husbands, bring wine, let us drink. And so they took from the poor, they used any means necessary to get this money and then they spent it on these leisurely things. And you have this almost flamboyance about them that they they took their money and they spend it. Hey, let's go bring bring buy this, buy that.

30:44 Let's have a party. Let's have a good time with this with all of our riches. But it was unjust riches. I think there's a lesson in that very thing as well that not only our worship but when our when we come to worship, the the god who we serve, he's not just our god on Sundays but he's god throughout the entire week that our practical life, the things that we practice, the business decisions that we make, the things that we buy on a regular basis, how we budget our money, how we get our money is directly linked with the god that we serve. Chapter four verse four and five says, in this very sarcastic way, he says, come to Bethel and transgress.

31:37 At Gilgai, multi... Gilgal, multiply transgression. Bring your sacrifices every morning. Your tithes every three days. Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven.

31:48 Proclaim and announce the free will offerings. For this you love, you children of Israel, says the lord god and so he says this in a very sarcastic manner saying, come and do your worship but guess what? It it doesn't mean anything to me because it does not agree with the lifestyle that you're choosing to live. You're just in it for you. What can I get out of this when I come to the worship the lord and then go and live the way that I want to live And so really it's just a it's a think about it in yourself?

32:22 As a heart check, how am I living and and what are the things that I do in the very practical decisions that I make and does that agree with how I how I worship the lord? Does it agree with with god's word? And and just we could take a look at that each and every one of us. And as you go along in Amos, you get to the end of chapter four and into chapter five and six. I think that you start to see the Lord's heart in Amos still for his people.

33:03 The lord is very patient. In fact, if you take a look at first Corinthians thirteen four, the very first quality, it says that love is patient. Love suffers long And he tolerated their sin for a long time and and he even did things for them to or to them to get them to come back to him. He sent different plagues. Chapter four and verse six.

33:28 I gave you cleanness of teeth. Meaning, you had lack of bread. You didn't have a lot of food in all your places. You yet, you did not return to me. Verse seven, I also withheld rain from you when there was still three months to the harvest.

33:42 I made it rain on one city. I withheld rain from another city. One part was rained upon and where it did not rain, the part withered. So, two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water but they were not satisfied. Yet, you have not returned to me.

33:59 Verse 10, I sent among you a plague after the manner of Egypt. Actually, in verse nine, it talks about the plague of locusts and even if you take a look at that, the plague of locusts, we we first hear about was when this the lord sent the plague of locusts on the Egyptians. So, this this idea of a plague of locusts wasn't even first for the children of Israel. It was for Egypt but he's going to use, he he used these different plagues to get Israel's attention. It says, I sent them among you a plague after the manner of Egypt.

34:37 Your young men, I killed with a sword along with your captive horses. I made the stench of your camps come up into your nostrils, yet you have not returned to me. Verse 12, therefore, thus will I do to you, oh Israel, because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your god, oh Israel. And I really take a look at that phrase, prepare to meet your God. He's saying in these passages over and over again, look, I've sent these plagues.

35:12 I've even sent prophets to you in in other passages of scripture. I'm sending them to you to to bring you back to me and so, you come to this phrase, prepare to meet your god. If you don't want to know me as a loving god and as one that is going to reach out to you as much as possible to get you to come back to me, you're going to meet me as a judge. I don't think any one of us wants to know the lord as a judge first and we even have this opportunity that we live in in a dying world. If anyone here in this world dies without Christ, they're going to know go and they're going to meet the lord first as a judge.

36:00 They're going to meet god as a judge but then you find that still the lord wants Israel to come back to him. Even after he is through Amos preaching all of this judgment like, these are all the sins that you're doing, very disgusting sins, come back to me even, seek me. Chapter five and verse three. Thus says the lord god, the city that goes out by a thousand shall have a 100 left and that which goes out by a 100 shall have 10 left to the house of Israel. For thus is the lord of the house of Israel.

36:36 Seek me and live But do not seek Bethel nor enter Gilgal nor pass over Beersheba for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity and Bethel shall come to nothing. And so, he's saying, look, Israel, seek me, come back to me and you're gonna live. You're not gonna get destroyed. He's still wanting them to come back to him. Amos five verse 14, seek good and not evil that you may live.

37:07 So, the lord god of hosts will be with you as you have spoken. Hate evil, love good, establish justice in the gate. It may be that the lord your god or the lord god of hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph and so he's saying, look, not only, look, seek me, seek my face, come back to me in true worship with your whole heart, come back to me, but also do those things that agree with what I've said in my word. Obey me in the very practical things of life. Establish justice in the gate.

37:47 Love good and hate evil. And so God still wanted his people to come back to him. He was still patient. He was slow to anger. He hadn't brought judgement yet.

37:58 He was saying, look, I'm going to send judgement but if you still come back to me, it may be that the lord god of hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. And so you hear, you come to this last section. You come to the visions of Amos. And again, you see the patience of the Lord. Amos chapter seven and verse one.

38:56 So, the lord relented concerning this. It shall not be, said the lord. Here you have an example and connection I would say to the New Testament. You have Amos here having this vision of the lord sending this plague, this judgment on Israel and Amos says, no lord, please forgive us. Jacob's not going to be able to stand.

39:22 He's very small. He's going to die under judgement and the lord relented. We had this great example of Amos being an advocate, advocate for the people. He goes to the lord in prayer and he says, no lord, please forgive them. They're they're not going to stand.

39:41 He throws them at at the lord's feet at his mercy of the king and says, they're not going to be able to stand. Please, have mercy. So, you have Amos, this great picture of an advocate. We can do the same thing as we advocate, advocate for people that we know. We can be an advocate for those that are lost and pray for them and say, Lord, have mercy on them.

40:08 Send me. Send someone else. Whatever it is, send someone to them that they might believe and that they might be saved. And this is the greatest example then in the New Testament that we have as an advocate. We have the Lord Jesus Christ.

40:24 I believe that you can look in any book in the New Testament, Old Testament, and you're going to find Jesus and here's this one picture of how we find the lord Jesus in Amos. For we see Amos as an advocate, He's an unperfect advocate, right? Because all he can say is, lord, have mercy on them. Jesus Christ on the cross says, father, forgive them. He actually talks to the father and he says, forgive them for they do not know what they do.

40:56 Speaking about the very people that were putting Jesus on the cross and crucifying them. And Jesus could do that because he himself was the way that they could be forgiven. He was the very payment for them. If you have forgiveness, you have to have a payment. And the Lord knew that the Lord, Jesus knew that the lord would grant this sweet crust because he was he was the very payment for sin at that moment on the cross.

41:33 And so you have towards the end of Amos chapter seven, he comes into these other visions. Before that, he has this vision of a plague of fire. And again, Amos says, Lord, forgive them. Forgive us. We're not going to be able to stand and the lord relents but here you come to Amos seven verses eight and nine.

41:58 Behold, I'm setting a plumb line in the midst of my people, Israel. I will not pass by them anymore. The high places of Isaac shall be desolate and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste. I will rise with the sword against the house of Jeroboam. Now, you look at other places in the Bible where it talks about the plumb line before they had levels in construction today.

42:28 They used the plumb line and the plumb line was a way of basically making sure whatever you were building was level. It was straight. It was secure. We like level things. Know, think even about how all this is made.

42:43 You know, you have the flat floor and the vertical walls just very rigid, very secure. That was the plumb line and whenever the lord talks about the plumb line, he's saying, look, I'm coming as the plumb line myself. I am the one, the the I'm the one that I'm going to measure you off of. The the very standard of righteousness and when he comes out with the plumb line, he says, this is your sign of judgement. I'm going to come down and I'm going to judge you.

43:17 And so then you have in Amos chapter seven right after that, you have this historical interlude. Here we get to look at this interaction that Amos the prophet has with the different leaders. So, Amos chapter seven and verses 10 through 17. So, verse 10 says, then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to Jeroboam, king of Israel saying, Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words.

43:52 For thus, Amos has said, Jeroboam shall die by the sword and Israel shall surely be led away captive from their own land. Verse 12, then Amaziah said to Amos, go you seer, flee to the land of Judah. There eat bread and there prophesy but never again prophesy at Bethel for it is the king's sanctuary and it is the royal residence and so here you have Amos. He's prophesying all these things in the in the king's residence and you have this corrupt priest coming to Amos and he's heckling him. Might watch those different videos and different streets preachers where they have people come up against him and and really just start laying into them saying, get out of here.

44:44 We don't want to hear what you're saying and the great thing about Amos is that he stays true to what the lord has given him to do. He stays true to the message and he stays humble as well. Check out verse 14. Then Amos Amos answered and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet nor was I a son of a prophet. I was a sheep breeder and a tender of sycamore fruit.

45:11 Then the Lord took me as I followed the flock and the Lord said to me, go prophesy to my people Israel. And so Amos is basically saying, look, I wasn't even originally a prophet. I'm not that profession. And even what's more, what's very interesting too is at this time in the kingdom of Israel, you have different prophets that are under the different kings and they they live in the house of the kings but they're almost like paid counsel. They're paid counsel to advise the king how he wants to hear.

45:50 Basically, telling the king of the things that he wants to hear but Amos is saying, look, I'm not one of those prophets. I'm from Judah. I'm just a simple farmer. All I'm doing is coming up here to tell you, this is what god is saying. It's not about me.

46:04 It's what god is saying to you. He's saying, now therefore, hear the word of the lord. You say, do not prophesy against Israel and do not spout against the house of Isaac but Amos says, therefore, thus says the lord, your wife shall be a harlot in the city. Your sons and daughters shall fall by the sword. Your land shall be divided by survey line.

46:31 You shall die in a defiled land and Israel shall surely be led away captive from his own land. So, you just have this great example of Amos staying true to the message and the thing that he was called to do to go and preach to the kingdom of Israel no matter what, no matter what they would say. The last vision that we have of Amos here is, verse 11 of chapter nine. At the end of his book, Amos does end it on a positive note. He looks up to the lord and he sees this great vision and he it says in chapter nine verse 11, on that day, I will rise raise up the tabernacle of David which has fallen down and repair its damages.

48:31 All the different Gentile nations, whoever is left at that time is going to say Jesus is king and he's going to come and make a perfect kingdom. He's going to restore the people of Israel to their land. Maybe just a final lesson for us coming off of what brother Christian was sharing with us on Wednesday. Second Corinthians five and verse 11, knowing then, therefore, the terror of the lord, we persuade men. Amos knew the judgment of the lord.

49:38 He gives us the different ministries, the different day to day tasks to go to people and to talk to them and say, today, don't harden your heart as in the days of Israel. But turn to the Lord, repent, come back to him, confess your sin, and he is faithful to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Let's just go to lord in prayer. Dear lord, we're just so grateful this morning that we can look at this passage of Amos. Such a bold preacher, a preacher of of righteousness, someone that came and said, look, He called out their sin and said, look, you're not doing right.

50:26 Come back to me. And we just see the heart of God in that, that he would send this man to the nation of Israel to to plead with them. Come back to me. Come back to me, and I will be with you, and I will bless you. I might even give you and be gracious to you.

50:45 And so we just see that, Lord, and see that great example. May we also be like Amos, absolutely bold, staying true to the message, and and true to the person that has sent us as sent to us as we go into the world and take this message of reconciliation about how the lord Jesus has come that we might have forgiveness of sins. We pray that you would apply this to our hearts and it's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.