[00:00:00.000 –> 00:00:06.840] In the second commandment, we are prohibited from making a carved image or a likeness of any sort to be used in the worship of God.
[00:00:06.840 –> 00:00:10.000] The church has always had a hard time being faithful to this command.
[00:00:10.000 –> 00:00:15.760] What is it about the human heart that is inexplicably pulled towards wanting to draw God?
[00:00:15.760 –> 00:00:21.200] Or consider from the other side, why is it so important to ensure that we not draw God?
[00:00:21.200 –> 00:00:26.220] I believe that the problem is that the use of images in worship is a way of trying to tame God.
[00:00:26.640 –> 00:00:30.200] It’s a way of making Him serve our own proclivities by portraying God.
[00:00:30.200 –> 00:00:33.400] Not so much as He is, but rather as we want Him to behave.
[00:00:33.400 –> 00:00:39.480] When we use images in worship, our vices are indulged and set up as a picture of the God that we want to worship.
[00:00:39.480 –> 00:00:44.800] Syrupy, sweet sentimentality, machismo run amok, ethnic chauvinism.
[00:00:44.800 –> 00:00:48.500] We paint those things that we see in ourselves that we want to indulge.
[00:00:48.500 –> 00:00:55.760] And though it’s set up supposedly to help in worship, it’s actually a huge distraction to worshiping the true triune God.
[00:00:56.120 –> 00:00:59.480] Rather than setting up a picture of God, we set up mirrors of ourselves.
[00:00:59.480 –> 00:01:01.500] But God is not tameable.
[00:01:01.500 –> 00:01:06.320] He is the God who spoke into existence heaven, earth, and the waters under the earth.
[00:01:06.320 –> 00:01:09.580] And He will not be tamed or contained by our drawings.
[00:01:09.580 –> 00:01:14.300] But if we think about this for a moment, we’ll see that we are prone to fall into the same sin
[00:01:14.300 –> 00:01:17.700] even without picking up a pencil, paintbrush, or a chisel.
[00:01:17.700 –> 00:01:22.160] We are still prone to trying to tame God, trying to remake Him after our own image.
[00:01:22.580 –> 00:01:26.680] We do this when we come to Scripture in order to find proof text for what we already believe
[00:01:26.680 –> 00:01:30.700] rather than coming with an open heart, ready to be corrected, humbled, and taught.
[00:01:30.700 –> 00:01:34.980] We do this when we decide for God what His blessings in our life need to look like
[00:01:34.980 –> 00:01:38.380] when we try to script for Him how and when He will move.
[00:01:38.380 –> 00:01:41.680] Then when we feel suddenly as if He has wronged us
[00:01:41.680 –> 00:01:45.140] because He didn’t follow the script that we so carefully wrote for Him.
[00:01:45.140 –> 00:01:49.940] And we remake God in our own image when we imagine that the sins we don’t really struggle with
[00:01:49.940 –> 00:01:53.000] and are actually really disgusted by, these are the ones that God truly hates.
[00:01:53.000 –> 00:01:56.840] But the sins that we regularly fall into, the ones that are attracted to us,
[00:01:56.840 –> 00:01:59.740] these are the ones that are far more understandable in His eyes.
[00:01:59.740 –> 00:02:02.020] Put aside your false gods.
[00:02:02.020 –> 00:02:06.940] Get rid of the carved images and the likenesses that have been set up in your heart.
[00:02:06.940 –> 00:02:10.760] Launch a 16th century reformation in your soul,
[00:02:10.760 –> 00:02:14.520] cleansing out all of those images by confessing these sins.
[00:02:14.520 –> 00:02:16.860] Our text this morning is Amos chapter 4.
[00:02:17.480 –> 00:02:21.820] Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria,
[00:02:21.820 –> 00:02:25.020] who oppress the poor, who crush the needy,
[00:02:25.020 –> 00:02:28.000] who say to your husbands, bring wine, let us drink.
[00:02:28.000 –> 00:02:32.580] The Lord God has sworn by His holiness, behold, the day shall come upon you
[00:02:32.580 –> 00:02:36.640] when He will take you away with fishhooks and your posterity with fishhooks.
[00:02:36.640 –> 00:02:39.840] You will go out through broken walls, each one straight ahead of her,
[00:02:39.840 –> 00:02:42.240] and you will be cast into Harman, says the Lord.
[00:02:42.240 –> 00:02:46.780] Come to Bethel and transgress, and Gilgal, multiply transgression.
[00:02:46.780 –> 00:02:50.100] Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days.
[00:02:50.100 –> 00:02:53.040] Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven.
[00:02:53.040 –> 00:02:55.480] Proclaim and announce the freewill offerings.
[00:02:55.480 –> 00:02:58.340] For this you love, you children of Israel, says the Lord.
[00:02:58.340 –> 00:03:05.280] Also, I gave you cleanliness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places.
[00:03:05.280 –> 00:03:08.060] Yet you have not returned to me, says the Lord.
[00:03:08.060 –> 00:03:10.540] I also withheld rain from you.
[00:03:10.540 –> 00:03:14.020] When there were still three months to the harvest, I made a rain on one city.
[00:03:14.020 –> 00:03:15.860] I withheld rain from another city.
[00:03:15.860 –> 00:03:19.320] One part was rained upon, and where it did not rain, the part withered.
[00:03:19.320 –> 00:03:24.040] So two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water, but they were not satisfied.
[00:03:24.040 –> 00:03:26.120] Yet you have not returned to me, says the Lord.
[00:03:26.120 –> 00:03:29.860] I blasted you with blight and mildew when your gardens increased,
[00:03:29.860 –> 00:03:32.380] your vineyards, your fig trees, and your olive trees.
[00:03:32.380 –> 00:03:36.320] The locusts devoured them, yet you have not returned to me, says the Lord.
[00:03:36.320 –> 00:03:39.260] I sent among you a plague after the manner of Egypt.
[00:03:39.260 –> 00:03:42.840] Your young men I killed with a sword, along with your captive horses.
[00:03:42.840 –> 00:03:45.760] I made the stench of your camps come up into your nostrils.
[00:03:46.160 –> 00:03:47.940] Yet you have not returned to me, says the Lord.
[00:03:47.940 –> 00:03:51.720] I overthrew some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
[00:03:51.720 –> 00:03:54.140] And you are like a firebrand plucked from the burning.
[00:03:54.140 –> 00:03:56.080] Yet you have not returned to me, says the Lord.
[00:03:56.080 –> 00:03:59.140] Therefore, thus will I do to you, O Israel.
[00:03:59.140 –> 00:04:02.920] Because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel.
[00:04:02.920 –> 00:04:06.480] For behold, he who forms mountains and creates the wind,
[00:04:06.480 –> 00:04:08.820] who declares to man what his thought is,
[00:04:08.820 –> 00:04:12.700] and makes the morning darkness, who treads the high places of the earth.
[00:04:12.700 –> 00:04:15.420] The Lord God of hosts is his name.
[00:04:15.860 –> 00:04:16.280] Let’s pray.
[00:04:16.280 –> 00:04:21.240] Our Heavenly Father, we come to your word and we ask that you would pour out your spirit on us.
[00:04:21.240 –> 00:04:23.360] We know that your word is effective and powerful.
[00:04:23.360 –> 00:04:26.160] Your word called the world into being.
[00:04:26.160 –> 00:04:29.700] Your word upholds and sustains all things.
[00:04:29.700 –> 00:04:31.820] Your word is a lamp and your word is a sword.
[00:04:31.820 –> 00:04:34.000] We are blessed to sit under its teaching.
[00:04:34.000 –> 00:04:37.380] Would you bless this time now that we would joyfully receive your word
[00:04:37.380 –> 00:04:39.540] and cling to it for the week to come.
[00:04:39.540 –> 00:04:42.600] We praise things in the name of Jesus Christ and amen.
[00:04:42.600 –> 00:04:44.980] And please be seated.
[00:04:45.860 –> 00:04:51.520] Good morning and again greetings from Moscow.
[00:04:51.520 –> 00:04:58.840] I can’t tell you how much the way this congregation is thriving is an encouragement to the saints back in Moscow
[00:04:58.840 –> 00:05:01.780] and their thoughts and prayers are with you all here.
[00:05:01.780 –> 00:05:07.120] And just to remind us where we are as we work through this book of Amos.
[00:05:07.120 –> 00:05:11.080] Amos is prophesying against the northern kingdom of Israel.
[00:05:11.080 –> 00:05:15.800] They’ve fallen away from worshiping the one true God and because of this judgment is coming.
[00:05:16.840 –> 00:05:23.600] Ultimately, this judgment finally comes when the Assyrians conquer the northern kingdom and takes them all away.
[00:05:23.600 –> 00:05:29.660] And the book of Amos serves as a warning to the ten northern tribes of this coming judgment.
[00:05:29.660 –> 00:05:32.260] So let’s just dive into chapter 4.
[00:05:32.260 –> 00:05:38.000] It begins with this first verse. It’s pretty exceptional.
[00:05:38.000 –> 00:05:41.000] Hear this word, you cows of Bashan.
[00:05:41.600 –> 00:05:46.020] This is a terribly un-PC thing for a prophet to have said.
[00:05:46.020 –> 00:05:52.240] Just to unpack that a little bit, Bashan is the, if you’re looking at a map of the nation of Israel,
[00:05:52.240 –> 00:05:58.840] Bashan is the furthest northeastern region of Israel, what we would now know as the Golan Heights.
[00:05:58.840 –> 00:06:05.380] It was a lush plateau that was particularly good for grazing cattle, and in fact is to this day.
[00:06:05.380 –> 00:06:09.120] If you’re in Israel and you get into this area, all of a sudden you see cattle everywhere,
[00:06:09.120 –> 00:06:10.400] and you realize we’re in Bashan.
[00:06:10.920 –> 00:06:14.960] The cattle there were known for being the largest in the Middle East.
[00:06:14.960 –> 00:06:21.100] The cows of Bashan, these are the largest, most well-fed cattle in the Middle East.
[00:06:21.100 –> 00:06:27.260] So much so that the cattle of Bashan actually becomes a standard image in Hebrew poetry
[00:06:27.260 –> 00:06:33.260] for this kind of opulence and for this sort of largeness.
[00:06:33.260 –> 00:06:35.040] Think of Psalm 22.
[00:06:35.040 –> 00:06:40.700] Psalm 22, it’s in the Psalms, but it’s quoted as a prophecy of the crucifixion,
[00:06:40.700 –> 00:06:43.660] and there’s a line at verse 12 where it says,
[00:06:43.660 –> 00:06:48.240] many bulls have surrounded me, describing Christ’s anguish on the cross.
[00:06:48.240 –> 00:06:54.040] He says, many bulls have surrounded me, strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me.
[00:06:54.040 –> 00:06:56.220] The bulls of Bashan encircle him.
[00:06:56.220 –> 00:07:00.700] And if we sing Psalm 22, you might remember that line comes again and again,
[00:07:00.700 –> 00:07:02.680] the bulls of Bashan circling him.
[00:07:02.680 –> 00:07:12.620] The idea here is that the bulls of Bashan are the largest, strongest, fiercest bulls that you could encounter.
[00:07:12.620 –> 00:07:16.980] To say bulls of Bashan means that you’re surrounded by a ferocious force.
[00:07:16.980 –> 00:07:20.340] And it describes the fierceness of those that crucified Jesus.
[00:07:20.340 –> 00:07:28.260] But here in Amos, we should notice it’s not the bulls of Bashan that the prophet wants us to imagine.
[00:07:28.260 –> 00:07:31.720] It’s the cows of Bashan that he is talking about.
[00:07:31.720 –> 00:07:34.640] It’s the female of the species.
[00:07:34.640 –> 00:07:36.120] It’s the cows of Bashan.
[00:07:36.120 –> 00:07:41.640] And these are the most well-fed, fattest cows that you could imagine.
[00:07:41.640 –> 00:07:43.520] Don’t think fierce strength.
[00:07:43.520 –> 00:07:45.900] Instead, think of an obese cow.
[00:07:45.900 –> 00:07:47.680] These are Wagyu heifers.
[00:07:47.680 –> 00:07:52.640] And that’s the image that Amos is trying to conjure up in your mind.
[00:07:52.640 –> 00:07:57.840] He wants you to have that in your mind as you think about particularly the women at this time.
[00:07:57.840 –> 00:08:06.740] And I think it’s really the wives of the nobility in the northern ten tribes that he’s describing here literally as fat cows.
[00:08:06.740 –> 00:08:10.000] And to be clear, it is the women that he’s talking about.
[00:08:10.000 –> 00:08:12.460] That’s not just like one little line there.
[00:08:12.460 –> 00:08:20.340] The first three verses, it’s really interesting because in Hebrew, you can tell when you see a Hebrew verb,
[00:08:20.340 –> 00:08:23.340] it includes the gender of the subject in the verb.
[00:08:23.340 –> 00:08:26.520] And through the first three verses, these are feminine verbs.
[00:08:26.520 –> 00:08:30.260] It’s describing the women of the northern kingdom.
[00:08:30.260 –> 00:08:35.380] So he’s speaking specifically of the women all the way verses one through three.
[00:08:35.380 –> 00:08:37.380] And these women, he says in verse one,
[00:08:37.380 –> 00:08:45.400] oppress the poor and they crush the needy, all while they demand that their husbands bring them wine.
[00:08:45.400 –> 00:08:50.160] And the whole time they’re being super cruel to the helpless,
[00:08:50.160 –> 00:08:53.580] and while they demand that their husbands bring them wine.
[00:08:53.580 –> 00:08:58.940] And the way it describes them asking for their husbands to bring them wine,
[00:08:58.940 –> 00:09:01.400] it’s specifically referring to a drinking party.
[00:09:01.400 –> 00:09:04.960] You need to be throwing these wine drinking parties.
[00:09:04.960 –> 00:09:07.700] They’re demanding endless keggers at this time.
[00:09:07.700 –> 00:09:13.020] Now, it’s kind of a shocking image, and especially if you contrast that in your mind
[00:09:13.020 –> 00:09:16.700] with what Scripture holds up as the ideal wife.
[00:09:16.700 –> 00:09:21.240] You think of Proverbs 31 and that description of what a woman is supposed to be like.
[00:09:21.240 –> 00:09:27.820] And the thing that I think is really striking, if you hold up Proverbs 31, the first three
[00:09:27.820 –> 00:09:33.640] verses here, the godly wife is a wife that is known for her production.
[00:09:33.640 –> 00:09:40.280] When you read through Proverbs 31, you get this picture of this woman who makes everything
[00:09:40.280 –> 00:09:43.200] fruitful and is supplying things for everyone.
[00:09:43.200 –> 00:09:48.320] She clothes her family, she takes care of her village, her works go out and praise her in
[00:09:48.320 –> 00:09:48.620] the gates.
[00:09:48.620 –> 00:09:50.720] She’s producing, producing, producing.
[00:09:50.720 –> 00:09:55.680] That’s what a godly home is supposed to be like and I think it’s the ideal, the biblical
[00:09:55.680 –> 00:10:00.660] ideal for femininity is this thing that seeks to provide and produce for others.
[00:10:00.660 –> 00:10:04.120] Her own works praise her in the gates as the proverb concludes.
[00:10:04.120 –> 00:10:09.560] But the women that Amos is addressing, one of the things you notice is they’re known and
[00:10:09.560 –> 00:10:11.540] remarkable for their consumption.
[00:10:11.540 –> 00:10:18.460] It’s just, they consume and that is the whole expression of their femininity is this
[00:10:18.460 –> 00:10:23.240] consumption. These women are not known for their production, but their consumption. And I think
[00:10:23.240 –> 00:10:30.720] it’s a striking contrast. And I think it’s also kind of a useful way of evaluating both ourselves
[00:10:30.720 –> 00:10:37.380] and our culture around us. Is our femininity productive or consumptive? It tells you like,
[00:10:37.380 –> 00:10:42.880] is your culture healthy or is it sick? And I think we can see lots of signs where there are certain
[00:10:42.880 –> 00:10:47.520] problems in our culture. Now look at verse two though, moving on. It says,
[00:10:48.300 –> 00:10:55.540] The Lord God has sworn by His holiness, behold, the days shall come upon you when He will take you
[00:10:55.540 –> 00:11:03.880] away with fishhooks. The days are coming. That phrase right there should be burned into your
[00:11:03.880 –> 00:11:11.180] mind. The days are coming. This is Amos’s promise. It’s his warning. You party now. You have your
[00:11:11.180 –> 00:11:16.580] drinking parties now, but the days are coming. You’re living in this opulence. You’re oppressing
[00:11:16.580 –> 00:11:23.780] everyone, but he says the days are coming. When we look at creation, when we look at the natural world
[00:11:23.780 –> 00:11:29.800] around us, natural revelation has given us the ability to deduce certain principles, certain
[00:11:29.800 –> 00:11:36.300] rules for the way that nature behaves. An apple dropped from a tower falls at 32 feet per second
[00:11:36.300 –> 00:11:41.540] squared, and we call this the law of gravity. And we call it a law. It’s really interesting. We call it
[00:11:41.540 –> 00:11:46.520] the law of gravity. We call it a law because it’s not just nature’s suggestion that things
[00:11:46.520 –> 00:11:51.080] should fall at a certain rate. It’s not just a good idea. It’s the law. It’s just what’s going to
[00:11:51.080 –> 00:11:57.120] happen. It’s nature’s law. And that force is always at work and it never turns off. A ball thrown into
[00:11:57.120 –> 00:12:02.000] the air, up high in the air, might look for a time as if it’s broken the law of gravity as it ascends.
[00:12:02.000 –> 00:12:06.960] But if you keep watching, you will see that the law of gravity is still enforced. Even though it’s
[00:12:06.960 –> 00:12:13.000] going up, it’s still enforced because gravity is weighing that ball down, slowing its climb until
[00:12:13.000 –> 00:12:19.280] that ball ceases to go up and instead starts to go down. In fact, it’s a truism for us, isn’t it?
[00:12:19.280 –> 00:12:23.960] That what goes up must come down. What goes up must come down. It’s the law of gravity.
[00:12:23.960 –> 00:12:30.620] But God has given us a different code of law, the moral law revealed in His Word and written on our
[00:12:30.620 –> 00:12:36.780] hearts. Instead of governing physical principles, this law governs moral principles. Thou shalt not
[00:12:36.780 –> 00:12:43.240] kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not commit adultery. I find that we often think that God’s
[00:12:43.240 –> 00:12:48.660] moral law is different than His physical law. I see people make this contrast frequently,
[00:12:48.660 –> 00:12:55.640] that the physical law, you know, you’ll always have to obey gravity, but God’s moral law can be
[00:12:55.640 –> 00:13:02.940] broken. Sometimes people get free of it and they don’t obey it. But what I think that you will notice
[00:13:02.940 –> 00:13:10.720] is that it’s not actually the case. God’s moral law can be defied for a time. His moral law can be
[00:13:10.720 –> 00:13:18.780] defied for a time, just as a ball can go up for a time, seemingly defying gravity. But as Amos says
[00:13:18.780 –> 00:13:24.640] to the women of Israel, days are coming. Days are coming. This is another way of saying that what
[00:13:24.640 –> 00:13:31.000] goes up must come down. With regard to the moral law, what goes up must come down because days are
[00:13:31.000 –> 00:13:37.360] coming. You can defy his word for a time, but days are coming. Days are coming when the cows of Bashan
[00:13:37.360 –> 00:13:43.100] will be drug out of their city like a fish with a hook in its mouth. That’s a really, he’s not
[00:13:43.100 –> 00:13:48.720] painting complimentary images here when he describes the women here. They’re going to be
[00:13:48.720 –> 00:13:56.120] brought out with a hook in their mouth like a fat fish pulled out of the water. And in verse 3 he says,
[00:13:56.120 –> 00:14:02.760] this is a little bit cryptic at first. It says, you’ll go out through broken walls, each one
[00:14:02.760 –> 00:14:10.860] straight ahead of her. That seems a little bit cryptic. But actually if you’re reading closely,
[00:14:10.860 –> 00:14:19.040] you’ll realize this phrase is a, he’s echoing what happens in the book of Joshua, in Joshua 6,
[00:14:19.040 –> 00:14:24.700] when the Israelites surround the city of Jericho and they march around it and they blast the trumpets
[00:14:24.700 –> 00:14:31.860] and the walls fall. And then God says that when the walls fall, you’re all going to turn and the walls
[00:14:31.860 –> 00:14:37.860] will essentially have fallen so completely that every man will be able to charge straight into the
[00:14:37.860 –> 00:14:42.840] city. You’ll be able to, there’ll be a gap right in front of you and you’ll be able to all charge
[00:14:42.840 –> 00:14:46.540] straight into the city. It’s not that there’ll be a little hole here, a little hole here, and you all
[00:14:46.540 –> 00:14:53.420] kind of stream through. The walls will fall and you’ll go straight in, every man right in front of
[00:14:53.420 –> 00:14:57.640] him, and that every man right in front of him is the exact words that are being used here
[00:14:57.640 –> 00:15:02.560] to describe what’s going to happen to these women. There’s going to be a moment when you
[00:15:02.560 –> 00:15:09.400] will go, you’re not going to be the army that’s going in, you’re going to be the captive slaves
[00:15:09.400 –> 00:15:17.000] that will go out through broken walls, everyone, each one straight ahead of her. So in other
[00:15:17.000 –> 00:15:25.720] words, in Joshua you have this wicked city Jericho being captured and now that same language is being
[00:15:25.720 –> 00:15:31.420] used to describe the Israelites going into this captivity. These Israelite women have become the
[00:15:31.420 –> 00:15:36.920] city of Jericho that needs to be wiped out and needs to be taken away. Israel has become Jericho
[00:15:36.920 –> 00:15:43.280] needing to be wiped out. Why do they need to be wiped out? Amos seems to think that the root of
[00:15:43.280 –> 00:15:49.420] their problem is what is going on in Bethel and in Gilgal. Look at verses 4 and 5.
[00:15:49.420 –> 00:15:55.180] Come to Bethel and transgress at Gilgal. Multiply transgression. Bring your sacrifices every morning,
[00:15:55.180 –> 00:16:01.340] your tithes every three days. Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven. Proclaim and announce
[00:16:01.340 –> 00:16:08.860] the freewill offerings. For this you love, you children of Israel, says the Lord. He’s speaking
[00:16:08.860 –> 00:16:16.260] sarcastically here. He says, come transgress. Come up to what you’re doing in Gilgal. Come to Bethel.
[00:16:16.260 –> 00:16:22.780] Come here and sin up a storm. Come multiply your transgressions. You love this. You love to do this,
[00:16:22.780 –> 00:16:26.880] what you’re doing there. What is it that’s happening at Bethel and Gilgal that makes
[00:16:26.880 –> 00:16:34.580] Amos so sarcastic? Remember just the kind of history of where we are. After Solomon died,
[00:16:34.580 –> 00:16:41.000] his son Rehoboam took the throne, and the northern ten tribes revolted against Rehoboam,
[00:16:41.000 –> 00:16:46.060] against the throne in Jerusalem, rejected not just the king, but when they did this,
[00:16:46.060 –> 00:16:50.860] they also rejected the temple that was in Jerusalem. So they didn’t rebel just against
[00:16:50.860 –> 00:16:57.880] Rehoboam, the king. They rebelled against all of the worship that God had commanded them to perform
[00:16:57.880 –> 00:17:04.420] at the temple in Jerusalem. They rebelled and rejected that at the same time. And because they
[00:17:04.420 –> 00:17:11.060] had rejected the temple in Jerusalem, they created multiple shrines all throughout the nation of
[00:17:11.060 –> 00:17:17.800] Israel, the ten northern tribes. They’ve got shrines all over the place. At this point, when we’re
[00:17:17.800 –> 00:17:23.740] writing here during Amos’ life, the two most prominent shrines in the northern kingdom are
[00:17:23.740 –> 00:17:29.820] Bethel and Gilgal. Bethel is just a little over ten miles north of Jerusalem, so it’s actually not that
[00:17:29.820 –> 00:17:36.560] far away. It would be on the southern border of Israel. So Bethel is right there, and during this
[00:17:36.560 –> 00:17:44.140] time, Jeroboam II, who is now the king in the northern region, he has taken Bethel as his capital
[00:17:44.140 –> 00:17:53.200] city. You see this if you flip to Amos 7. I’m just gonna read verses 10 and a few verses on from there.
[00:17:53.200 –> 00:17:59.520] Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to Jeroboam, king of Israel, saying, Amos has conspired
[00:17:59.520 –> 00:18:04.200] against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words, for thus
[00:18:04.200 –> 00:18:10.000] has Amos said, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive from
[00:18:10.000 –> 00:18:16.700] their own land. Then Amaziah said to Amos, Go, you seer, flee to the land of Judah. There eat bread,
[00:18:16.700 –> 00:18:22.540] and there prophesy, but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary. It is the
[00:18:22.540 –> 00:18:29.020] royal residence. So this is now, Bethel is where the king, Jeroboam II, has set up his throne, and it’s
[00:18:29.220 –> 00:18:35.100] also a place where they’re worshiping disobedient to God. Gilgal had also become another alternative
[00:18:35.100 –> 00:18:39.780] site of worship. You see that in Hosea 12 where it describes the shrine, well, the unbelieving
[00:18:39.780 –> 00:18:45.560] shrine, the disobedient shrine that’s there in Gilgal. So these are two places where Israel
[00:18:45.560 –> 00:18:50.020] is now disobediently worshiping. They’re supposed to be worshiping in Jerusalem, but they’re
[00:18:50.020 –> 00:18:58.280] disobediently worshiping in Gilgal and Bethel. The worship at these two shrines,
[00:18:58.920 –> 00:19:06.000] God rejects. That’s why he says, go to Gilgal, go to Bethel, go transgress, go sin up a storm
[00:19:06.000 –> 00:19:11.740] with the way that you worship there. He rejects it because it’s disobedient worship, and there’s
[00:19:11.740 –> 00:19:18.860] a few different reasons why this is considered disobedient worship. First of all, it was disobedient
[00:19:18.860 –> 00:19:24.000] on the surface. It was disobedient on the surface. They had been commanded to sacrifice at the temple
[00:19:24.000 –> 00:19:28.620] in Jerusalem only. God said, when I plant my house there, that’s where you’re to take all
[00:19:28.620 –> 00:19:33.800] of your sacrifices. So they’re not supposed to sacrifice anywhere but in Jerusalem. So it’s
[00:19:33.800 –> 00:19:39.280] disobedient for that reason. They’re worshiping in multiple locations chosen by them according to
[00:19:39.280 –> 00:19:46.580] their own convenience. Also, God had commanded that you were to sacrifice only by the priests drawn from
[00:19:46.580 –> 00:19:52.880] the Levitical family, the Levitical tribe. The northern kingdom had begun appointing priests from
[00:19:52.880 –> 00:19:58.240] wherever they wanted. So these are not authorized priests that are offering their worship.
[00:19:58.320 –> 00:20:05.640] So that’s what I mean by it was a problematic worship on the surface because it was formally
[00:20:05.640 –> 00:20:10.360] wrong. It’s in the wrong place. There’s the wrong people doing it. But we also know that this worship
[00:20:10.360 –> 00:20:16.800] was disobedient because it was offered up by a disobedient people. We get that in verse 1.
[00:20:16.800 –> 00:20:21.900] There are people who oppress the poor and crush the needy. And then this is going to be expanded on
[00:20:21.900 –> 00:20:27.200] in chapter 5. So next week you’re going to get more from this where Amos describes in greater detail
[00:20:28.020 –> 00:20:35.940] of their worship. They pretend to serve God while disobeying his law as well as worshiping demons at
[00:20:35.940 –> 00:20:44.120] other shrines. So their worship is formally corrupt but also on the inside in their hearts it’s corrupt
[00:20:44.120 –> 00:20:49.960] and hypocritical. And for both those reasons God is not regarding their worship and he’s going to
[00:20:49.960 –> 00:20:57.480] judge them. In short they maintained a charade of religiosity while giving free reign to demonic lusts.
[00:20:57.720 –> 00:21:04.620] And because of this God hated their worship. And as Amos is warning days are coming. Okay you can’t keep
[00:21:04.620 –> 00:21:10.480] doing that. The ball that goes up is going to come down and days are coming. But one thing that you
[00:21:10.480 –> 00:21:17.140] should notice though is how patient God has been with them. There’s an incredible patience of God in
[00:21:17.140 –> 00:21:23.680] this and it’s easy to miss it because this is so loaded with language of judgment and it’s harsh
[00:21:23.680 –> 00:21:29.280] language so it’s hard to notice I think the incredible patience and care that God has shown
[00:21:29.280 –> 00:21:35.640] him. The phrase days are coming indicates that although Israel has merited a great judgment God
[00:21:35.640 –> 00:21:41.960] has withheld his hand. He’s waiting this long period of time before the judgment actually comes.
[00:21:41.960 –> 00:21:47.820] He’s waited patiently giving Israel multiple chances to turn from her hard-heartedness. Verses
[00:21:47.820 –> 00:21:55.640] 6 through 11 kind of goes back and recounts over the past all the different ways in which God has
[00:21:55.640 –> 00:22:04.240] mercifully offered correction that Israel could have taken. And we need to see that. It’s easy to
[00:22:04.240 –> 00:22:11.800] miss it because it’s hard stuff that he sends, but he sends it with the goal and the opportunity of
[00:22:11.800 –> 00:22:18.000] this could soften your heart. This could correct you. This could bring you to repentance. In verse 6,
[00:22:18.000 –> 00:22:27.200] he sent famine. In verses 7 and 8, he sent drought. In verse 9, he sends blight and mildew. Blight is
[00:22:27.200 –> 00:22:32.540] like a parched dryness when everything goes dry and crispy, and then mildew. And those two things
[00:22:32.540 –> 00:22:39.340] together, he sends. He sent, in verse 10, plagues that were like the ones that he had sent to Egypt.
[00:22:39.340 –> 00:22:45.180] And then verse 11, he overthrew them with fire, like what he had done to Sodom and Gomorrah.
[00:22:45.180 –> 00:22:51.420] Now, I said that God mercifully offered correction, and then I list a bunch of really hard things that
[00:22:51.420 –> 00:22:58.800] God sent them. Why would I call it merciful for God to send famine, drought, blight, mildew,
[00:22:58.800 –> 00:23:07.320] plagues? How is that mercy? Well, first, notice that it’s not as if giving them prosperity had
[00:23:07.320 –> 00:23:13.380] helped them that much, right? The prosperity had fattened their hearts and turned them against God.
[00:23:13.380 –> 00:23:18.060] It was their prosperity that had hardened their heart against God. So you can’t say that the only
[00:23:18.060 –> 00:23:23.240] thing that a loving God can give is prosperity, because it’s clear that prosperity can come and
[00:23:23.240 –> 00:23:30.120] it can become a snare and a curse. Prosperity received with an irreligious heart becomes an
[00:23:30.120 –> 00:23:37.240] occasion for greater sin, not a prompt to repent. Instead, God gives them a correction.
[00:23:37.240 –> 00:23:46.140] And that is exactly what He told them beforehand would happen. And this is the thing that’s really
[00:23:46.140 –> 00:23:51.620] important to notice. God had told them beforehand, when you start to disobey like this, I’m going to
[00:23:51.620 –> 00:23:56.860] correct you. And here’s how I’m going to correct you. And He tells them everything that is happening
[00:23:56.860 –> 00:24:03.320] now. When God first brought Israel into the promised land, He knew that a time would come
[00:24:03.320 –> 00:24:07.700] when their prosperity and the blessing that He gave them would actually harden their hearts
[00:24:07.700 –> 00:24:12.620] and turn them against Him. And so in Deuteronomy 4, I’m looking at verse 25,
[00:24:12.620 –> 00:24:21.120] He gives them this warning. Deuteronomy 4, 25. When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown
[00:24:21.120 –> 00:24:26.620] old in the land and act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything and do evil in the
[00:24:26.620 –> 00:24:30.940] sight of the Lord your God to provoke him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against
[00:24:30.940 –> 00:24:35.300] you this day that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to
[00:24:35.300 –> 00:24:40.600] possess. You will not prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed. And the Lord will scatter
[00:24:40.600 –> 00:24:45.000] you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will
[00:24:45.000 –> 00:24:52.380] drive you. And there you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood, and stone, which neither see
[00:24:52.380 –> 00:24:58.020] nor hear nor eat nor smell. But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him if you
[00:24:58.020 –> 00:25:02.180] seek him with all your heart, with all your soul. When you are in distress and all these things come
[00:25:02.180 –> 00:25:06.960] upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the Lord your God and obey his voice, for the Lord your
[00:25:06.960 –> 00:25:12.780] God is a merciful God. He will not forsake you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant of your fathers
[00:25:12.780 –> 00:25:20.220] which he swore to them. Notice that God’s bringing these temporary curses upon them. It’s a sign of
[00:25:20.220 –> 00:25:26.540] his mercy. It’s a sign of his love and his care for them. He’s a merciful God and his chastisement
[00:25:26.540 –> 00:25:34.520] is meant to turn us from our sin and that’s why his chastisement is a mercy. His love, it’s a
[00:25:34.520 –> 00:25:41.000] revelation of what God is like. The God of unfailing covenant love. And each of these plagues that God
[00:25:41.000 –> 00:25:47.560] has sent upon Israel was intended to be a sign of his love for them. Keeping his covenant and calling
[00:25:47.560 –> 00:25:53.300] them back. You’re going to start to turn. I’m going to send these punishments upon you. And it’s so that
[00:25:53.300 –> 00:25:58.800] you can return to me. It’s to wake you up and draw you back to me. It’s interesting because
[00:25:58.800 –> 00:26:05.420] to prepare for this sermon, I wanted to read through the text in the Hebrew. And my Hebrew is
[00:26:05.420 –> 00:26:10.720] okay, but not great. I can make my way through, but then every now and then, like if I hit a not
[00:26:10.720 –> 00:26:15.640] very common word or even a slightly uncommon word, I generally have to go look it up. And when you go
[00:26:15.640 –> 00:26:21.780] to look up a word and understand its meaning, its definition, one of the best ways for unpacking
[00:26:21.780 –> 00:26:26.860] the meaning of a word is to look at other verses and to see it in context of other passages. And
[00:26:26.860 –> 00:26:32.000] that’s how you kind of get an understanding of what a word is. When I’m going through chapter four,
[00:26:32.000 –> 00:26:36.460] particularly when I hit this section where it’s describing the curses that God is bringing on
[00:26:36.460 –> 00:26:41.240] them, it starts to have a bunch of unfamiliar words. So I’m looking them all up. And one of the things I
[00:26:41.240 –> 00:26:47.860] found really strange was how when I wanted to see where else these words were, they were all found in
[00:26:47.860 –> 00:26:54.680] Deuteronomy 28. These are all words that come from Deuteronomy 28. And I was wondering, what is it
[00:26:54.680 –> 00:26:59.940] about Deuteronomy 28 that makes this passage resonate so much with it? In Deuteronomy 28,
[00:26:59.940 –> 00:27:05.620] we’re coming to the very end of the Torah, the end of the first five books of the Old Testament.
[00:27:05.620 –> 00:27:14.040] And during that, and specifically in Deuteronomy 28, God lists in detail the plagues that he promises he
[00:27:14.040 –> 00:27:20.220] will strike the Israelites with if they turn from him and turn from keeping his law. He will strike
[00:27:20.220 –> 00:27:24.800] them with blight. He will strike them with mildew. You can see why those are words you’ve got to look
[00:27:24.800 –> 00:27:30.600] up. It’s a long list of punishments that he has prepared for them. And Amos is just showing them
[00:27:30.600 –> 00:27:36.340] how God is doing exactly as he said he would do. He’s being faithful in keeping his covenant love
[00:27:36.340 –> 00:27:42.360] with them because that’s how God always is. He’s never not like this. He’s always like this.
[00:27:42.360 –> 00:27:48.140] Unfortunately, Israel persists in her hardness of heart. And it’s striking to see those last two
[00:27:48.140 –> 00:27:55.500] punishments against Israel because God says, I sent you the same plagues I sent Egypt. I overthrew you
[00:27:55.500 –> 00:28:01.980] the way that I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. God’s triumph over Egypt and over Sodom and Gomorrah
[00:28:01.980 –> 00:28:05.800] had been legendary in the Israelite memory. Think of that if you’re an Israelite kid growing up.
[00:28:05.800 –> 00:28:12.580] Those are two nations that you know well. My God struck down Egypt. God was the God who had brought
[00:28:12.580 –> 00:28:17.680] them out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. He’s the God who struck down Sodom and Gomorrah.
[00:28:17.680 –> 00:28:25.440] And now God is having to deploy on Israel the same plagues that he had once leveled against
[00:28:25.440 –> 00:28:33.220] Egypt. Same with Sodom and Gomorrah. What God had done for Israel’s behalf, he’s now doing to Israel. And
[00:28:33.220 –> 00:28:39.500] even then, Israel remains hard-hearted. After each plague, when you’re reading verses 6 through
[00:28:39.500 –> 00:28:47.000] 11, if you read through those carefully, you’ll notice after each one, after each plague, the Lord
[00:28:47.000 –> 00:28:52.500] says, yet you have not returned to me. Yet you have not, I struck you with the plague, yet you have not
[00:28:52.500 –> 00:28:57.240] returned to me. I struck you with the blight and the mildew, yet you have not returned to me. And that
[00:28:57.240 –> 00:29:02.680] word returned in Hebrew, it’s the exact same word for repent. Just context determines whether you
[00:29:02.680 –> 00:29:08.040] translate it as return or repent. So I think you could translate it, it would be right to translate
[00:29:08.040 –> 00:29:15.080] as repent here. I gave you these things and you still didn’t repent. Again, it’s a sign that though
[00:29:15.080 –> 00:29:20.380] he is striking them with hardship, his intention with it was a loving kindness. He was trying to
[00:29:20.380 –> 00:29:28.980] turn them from their sin. And so as Amos has warned, days are coming. God’s delay in judging the
[00:29:28.980 –> 00:29:34.840] Israelites is not the delay that that impotent dad at Walmart who starts counting when his children
[00:29:34.840 –> 00:29:42.280] disobey. It’s not that kind of delay. We know that when he gets to 10, nothing will happen. He’s not
[00:29:42.280 –> 00:29:48.040] teaching obedience. He’s just teaching numbers. But that’s not what’s going on when God delays his
[00:29:48.040 –> 00:29:53.640] judgment. God is displaying his covenant faithfulness. And when that covenant love is
[00:29:53.640 –> 00:30:00.140] rejected, then comes God’s judgment. Then comes his judgment. The promise that the days are coming
[00:30:00.140 –> 00:30:07.140] is fulfilled, and those days finally come. Through the prophecy of Amos, God sent Israel this chilling
[00:30:07.140 –> 00:30:14.300] warning, prepare to meet your God, O Israel. Verse 12, prepare to meet your God. And that’s what happened
[00:30:14.300 –> 00:30:18.740] to Israel. About a generation later, when the Assyrian army conquered the land and led the
[00:30:18.740 –> 00:30:24.240] northern tribes away as captives, and the northern nation of Israel ceased to exist. They were gone,
[00:30:24.240 –> 00:30:30.160] never, you know, they’re the lost tribes, never to be seen again. So prepare to meet your God, O Israel.
[00:30:30.160 –> 00:30:36.260] The days came, and they were not prepared. But the chapter doesn’t end there, okay? We have one more
[00:30:36.260 –> 00:30:41.020] verse, and I think it’s a very important verse to cover. Verse 13, for behold, he who forms mountains
[00:30:41.020 –> 00:30:46.200] and creates the wind, who declares to man what his thought is, and makes the morning darkness,
[00:30:46.200 –> 00:30:53.220] who treads the high places of the earth, the Lord God of hosts is his name. The final verse here is not
[00:30:53.220 –> 00:31:01.440] a reiteration of the curse. It’s not an I told you so. It’s a summary statement of who God is, okay?
[00:31:01.440 –> 00:31:07.780] It closes just by this clear statement of who your God is. And I think that there’s something profound
[00:31:07.780 –> 00:31:13.500] here that we need to look at briefly before we close. The God of the Bible is the one who made
[00:31:13.500 –> 00:31:18.240] the mountains, he says. He who forms mountains. The God of the Bible is the one who breathed the
[00:31:18.240 –> 00:31:23.700] mountains into existence. He’s the one that causes the wind to blow. All the weather that we experience
[00:31:23.700 –> 00:31:30.200] right now is a result of his continued present power. He speaks it all into existence. He’s the
[00:31:30.200 –> 00:31:36.840] God who rules over all with angelic armies. When we say, it says here at the end, the Lord God of hosts
[00:31:36.840 –> 00:31:42.180] is his name, when it refers to hosts. It’s referring to the fact that he is the one who stands ruling over
[00:31:42.180 –> 00:31:49.460] angelic armies who are there to do his will. When we talk about God’s judgments, I think it’s always
[00:31:49.460 –> 00:31:54.460] really important to remind ourselves who God is. When you talk about his judgments, you have to step
[00:31:54.460 –> 00:32:01.560] back and ask, who is God? I say this because whenever somebody starts to make judgments, we have a natural
[00:32:01.560 –> 00:32:05.900] impulse to ask the question, who put you in charge? When somebody makes a decree, makes a
[00:32:05.900 –> 00:32:12.980] decision, and their will is enforced on others, then people naturally say, who are you to make this
[00:32:12.980 –> 00:32:17.260] decision? Who are you to make this determination? Why do you get to be the one that makes this
[00:32:17.260 –> 00:32:22.420] decision? Why does President Trump get to direct our foreign policy? Well, because he was elected by
[00:32:22.420 –> 00:32:28.340] the American people to be our president. Why does mom decide, get to decide whether or not we watch
[00:32:28.340 –> 00:32:33.220] the Olympics? Because she birthed you, and she’ll probably remind you. I birthed you. I brought you
[00:32:33.220 –> 00:32:39.900] into this world, so I get to make certain decisions. Those stay with me. You see how a judgment always
[00:32:39.900 –> 00:32:46.540] provokes the question, why does he get to decide that? Why does God get to determine a final judgment
[00:32:46.540 –> 00:32:50.840] on Israel? We’ve been listening to all these things that he’s going to do to them. Why is it his right
[00:32:50.840 –> 00:32:59.220] to make this decree over them? Because he is the God who spoke all things into existence and currently
[00:32:59.220 –> 00:33:04.500] upholds them by the power of his being. He’s your maker. He is your maker and your redeemer. And so he
[00:33:04.500 –> 00:33:09.180] gets to make these kinds of decisions. He’s the sovereign over all with a throne that sits above
[00:33:09.180 –> 00:33:15.780] every power in the heavenly places. So yes, he gets to pronounce a judgment on Israel. And I want to
[00:33:15.780 –> 00:33:22.560] dwell on this point for a moment because when we consider how God leads us, particularly in how he
[00:33:22.560 –> 00:33:28.040] leads us sometimes with a carrot, sometimes with a stick strategy, okay? When we see how God leads us,
[00:33:28.360 –> 00:33:32.580] sometimes moving us with blessings and sometimes moving us with punishments,
[00:33:32.580 –> 00:33:41.060] we can easily come to a crass view of what God is like. You start to come up with a crass view of
[00:33:41.060 –> 00:33:46.020] what God is like and what serving him really means, what worshiping him really means. What I mean is
[00:33:46.020 –> 00:33:52.880] you get this popular notion of God that Christians worship him kind of pragmatically as a means to some
[00:33:52.880 –> 00:33:59.020] very immediate end. You worship God in order to get him to do things for you. Pray to God to get
[00:33:59.020 –> 00:34:05.440] rain, to get into law school, to get you healed from cancer. You have this thing that you need and
[00:34:05.440 –> 00:34:10.720] because he apparently has power over these things, you do whatever you can to move the levers to see
[00:34:10.720 –> 00:34:16.020] if you can get him to give you this thing that you need over here. This kind of worship of God is less
[00:34:16.020 –> 00:34:22.400] about worshiping him as it is about manipulating him, getting him to do things for you. It’s not
[00:34:22.400 –> 00:34:28.020] so much that God is God, but more almost a genie in the bottle that does stuff for you. That’s how we
[00:34:28.020 –> 00:34:34.500] start to treat him with our prayer life. But this is actually a very pagan notion of deity. The old
[00:34:34.500 –> 00:34:40.720] pagan gods were gods who provided certain functions, right? Baal brought rain, Asherah brought
[00:34:40.720 –> 00:34:47.620] fertility. You go and you offer sacrifices to the one that works the lever that you need moved,
[00:34:47.660 –> 00:34:52.580] right? Because they’re attached to certain things that they’re able to provide for you. They were
[00:34:52.580 –> 00:34:57.260] gods who were worshipped in order to provide certain functions. They were genies that you
[00:34:57.260 –> 00:35:01.660] could be brought into your own service. But one of the things that I find very interesting about the
[00:35:01.660 –> 00:35:08.660] old pagan pantheon of gods is the way that none of them were the creator god. It’s really interesting.
[00:35:08.660 –> 00:35:13.260] They’re never the creator god. They’re somehow downstream. The creator god is in the background
[00:35:13.260 –> 00:35:20.120] and forgotten. The pagan gods, none of them made the world. They were players inside of the system
[00:35:20.120 –> 00:35:25.680] and they were worshipped for what they could do within the system. Essentially, they were worshipped
[00:35:25.680 –> 00:35:31.780] for how they could be manipulated to your own immediate benefit. You also see none of them
[00:35:31.780 –> 00:35:38.720] made the world and also none of them provided a moral code to which you had any obligation.
[00:35:38.860 –> 00:35:45.140] They might have certain proclivities that you needed to humor. Athena loved war, Aphrodite preferred
[00:35:45.140 –> 00:35:50.080] love. So they might have certain proclivities that you need to humor, but it’s not as if the moral
[00:35:50.080 –> 00:35:56.200] character of Athena was this universal code that we all had a moral obligation to. It was just her
[00:35:56.200 –> 00:36:01.440] personality that you needed to take into account if you wanted something from her. There’s no universal
[00:36:01.440 –> 00:36:08.020] obligation to adhere to the ethics of one or the other. In fact, if you read much pagan literature,
[00:36:08.020 –> 00:36:14.440] you find that the gods were just as likely to break any moral code as you are. In fact, kind of maybe a
[00:36:14.440 –> 00:36:20.900] little bit more so. They get pretty bad. I point all of this out because with Israel, we see that
[00:36:20.900 –> 00:36:27.700] God is both blessing Israel with prosperity and then removing that prosperity from them and cursing
[00:36:27.700 –> 00:36:34.960] them with plagues. And he does both things out of his love and faithfulness to Israel. And I think
[00:36:34.960 –> 00:36:39.480] there’s actually, it’s kind of hard, I think, for people to understand. Why would you worship a God
[00:36:39.480 –> 00:36:47.080] who both blesses you and curses you? The fleshly heart sees religion to the extent that the fleshly
[00:36:47.080 –> 00:36:53.220] heart is willing to grant any truth to a religion as a means of manipulation for material profit in
[00:36:53.220 –> 00:36:58.440] this life. You serve a God in order to get him to do something for you. And if that God doesn’t
[00:36:58.440 –> 00:37:04.340] cooperate and do what you wanted, then what’s the point of that religion? If Kabbalistic love charms
[00:37:04.340 –> 00:37:09.180] don’t actually make women fall in love with you, then what’s even the point? Why would you bother
[00:37:09.180 –> 00:37:17.120] with that? But the thing about the Christian faith is that our God does not serve us. We serve him.
[00:37:17.120 –> 00:37:22.100] And we need to have, we need to make sure that we fundamentally understand this very different
[00:37:22.100 –> 00:37:28.540] nature of who our God is compared to almost everybody else’s conception of him. He doesn’t
[00:37:28.540 –> 00:37:35.280] serve us. We serve him. And it is right that we serve him because he is our creator and our
[00:37:35.280 –> 00:37:43.260] sustainer. He’s our redeemer. He’s above all. He’s the one who made us and his moral code,
[00:37:43.260 –> 00:37:49.920] his own nature defines for us all of our moral obligations. He made the world. He holds all
[00:37:49.920 –> 00:37:54.980] things together by his current and present power. And we serve him because his moral character is
[00:37:54.980 –> 00:38:00.740] the straight edge to which all human, all of humanity will be judged. That’s why we worship
[00:38:00.740 –> 00:38:07.040] him, because of who he is, not because of what he is, if he’s going to give me a good thing today
[00:38:07.040 –> 00:38:13.420] or tomorrow. What is more, this God who made us and who will judge us, his character is the very
[00:38:13.420 –> 00:38:20.760] definition of faithful love. His character is the fulfillment of all that our souls long for,
[00:38:20.760 –> 00:38:28.800] because we were made in his image. His character is what we need. He is not a Baal or an Asherah
[00:38:28.800 –> 00:38:34.620] or a Zeus or an Aphrodite. He is Yahweh, the living God who made and sustains this world.
[00:38:34.620 –> 00:38:42.140] And this is how we make sense of a God who both blesses and curses his people. That kind of God
[00:38:42.140 –> 00:38:47.500] does not make sense if deities exist to serve us, to give us whatever we pray for. When that God is
[00:38:47.500 –> 00:38:52.880] the actual God who rules over all of it, then it starts to make sense. And it makes sense because
[00:38:52.880 –> 00:39:00.020] we realize that he doesn’t serve us. We serve him. He is our God. We kneel before him. He is not a means
[00:39:00.020 –> 00:39:08.860] to certain ends for us. He is the end that we serve. He is the actual end that we serve. And that’s why
[00:39:08.860 –> 00:39:16.380] a blessing or a curse, whatever it takes to restore us to him, is actually a blessing, is actually love,
[00:39:16.380 –> 00:39:22.640] is actually a good thing because it’s raising us up to know him. And so he can use whatever tool is
[00:39:22.640 –> 00:39:28.640] before him to wake us up in our hard-heartedness and to get our eyes up on him. If it doesn’t matter
[00:39:28.640 –> 00:39:33.660] that we know him, if I just need Aphrodite to make some girl fall in love with me, it doesn’t really
[00:39:33.660 –> 00:39:39.860] matter about Aphrodite. I just need her to do what I need her to do. But that’s not who God is. He
[00:39:39.860 –> 00:39:45.160] himself is the end that we seek. And so all of these things, it’s why he can be sometimes blessing,
[00:39:45.260 –> 00:39:50.700] sometimes cursed because we’re seeking him. If he is the end, then anything that directs us toward him
[00:39:50.700 –> 00:39:57.120] is actually a blessing. When he blesses us and it turns our hearts to him, then that blessing is a
[00:39:57.120 –> 00:40:02.680] good thing. But if he chastises us and that chastisement softens our hearts and turns us to
[00:40:02.680 –> 00:40:08.800] him, then that chastisement is also a good thing for which we should be grateful. Prosperity in this
[00:40:08.800 –> 00:40:15.240] life is not the end. God is the end because he is the God over all things. He’s the God of verse 13.
[00:40:15.700 –> 00:40:22.780] He is the God that all of our attention should be on. Prosperity then is not the end. God is the end.
[00:40:22.780 –> 00:40:28.000] And whatever points us to him, blessing or hardship, is a good thing. And whatever distracts
[00:40:28.000 –> 00:40:34.780] us from him, even great prosperity, is a curse that we should want removed. And so in conclusion
[00:40:34.780 –> 00:40:40.880] then, we need to remember that days are coming. Therefore, as Amos said, prepare to meet your God.
[00:40:41.160 –> 00:40:47.460] Or as Paul said, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. There’s a time coming
[00:40:47.460 –> 00:40:54.900] when we all must go and meet our God. Days are coming. We all will stand before him. Now, to end
[00:40:54.900 –> 00:41:01.860] a sermon on that ominous note might seem a little bit harsh and depressing. Judgment is coming. Amen.
[00:41:01.860 –> 00:41:09.240] Have a nice day. We’ll just leave it there. And I think especially when we live in a nation in which
[00:41:09.240 –> 00:41:17.100] we can see signs of God’s displeasure all around us. Like as we read through these curses in verses 6
[00:41:17.100 –> 00:41:21.420] through 11, how many of these do you start to see in the world around us? How many biblical
[00:41:21.420 –> 00:41:27.860] curses do we see on our nation now? And you start to feel that we’re under chastisement. You feel God’s
[00:41:27.860 –> 00:41:34.620] displeasure with us. We see national sin around us that deserves God’s wrath. And we see signs of
[00:41:34.620 –> 00:41:39.640] judgment upon us. And I think that’s a little bit unsettling because it’s all around us. And in many
[00:41:39.640 –> 00:41:44.580] cases, it’s inside of us. We know that we’ve been complicit in so many of these things. But I want
[00:41:44.580 –> 00:41:51.760] to close with three brief points. First, remember that God in his covenant love uses temporary
[00:41:51.760 –> 00:41:57.500] judgments as a way of calling his people back to him. The things that we see around us that seem to
[00:41:57.500 –> 00:42:03.380] be signs of his displeasure with us, we need to remember are his invitations to us to return to
[00:42:03.380 –> 00:42:11.340] him. It’s him saying the door is open. Repent. Come. Come right now. Repent. It’s every verse he says
[00:42:11.340 –> 00:42:17.880] repent. You can turn right now. You can repent right now. The signs of his displeasure are the
[00:42:17.880 –> 00:42:24.960] signs that the door is open for us to repent. In fact, they are signs that his love is still waiting
[00:42:24.960 –> 00:42:31.000] on us. Remember that God is the one who chastens those whom he loves. He’s the father who chastens
[00:42:31.000 –> 00:42:35.800] those whom he loves. When we feel his chastening, we need to understand that that is a declaration of
[00:42:35.800 –> 00:42:42.820] his love over us. There is something encouraging about that. Second, remember what was at the heart
[00:42:42.820 –> 00:42:49.020] of Israel’s disobedience. It was a disobedient worship. Remember, it all comes down to what’s
[00:42:49.020 –> 00:42:55.980] going on at Bethel and Gilgal. What’s at the heart? It’s fundamentally a matter of worship, okay? So what
[00:42:55.980 –> 00:43:01.240] would it have looked like for Israel to have repented in accordance with God’s Word? Well, for
[00:43:01.240 –> 00:43:06.360] starters, in some crazy way, I think it would have looked like this. It would have looked like what
[00:43:06.360 –> 00:43:13.360] we’re doing right now and right here. Returning to God starts right here on Sunday morning, confessing
[00:43:13.360 –> 00:43:19.400] our sins, listening to His Word, praising our God, okay? Returning our nation to God begins exactly
[00:43:19.400 –> 00:43:25.800] like this. This is how we do it. This is what, when He says, turn, return, repent, this is
[00:43:25.800 –> 00:43:30.560] that happening, okay? We are doing that now. At home in Moscow, our pastor Doug, I think
[00:43:30.560 –> 00:43:34.900] you get to hear from him next week, has always told us that when we go to worship on Sunday
[00:43:34.900 –> 00:43:39.200] morning, we should think of our worship as the sound of a battering ram on the gates of
[00:43:39.200 –> 00:43:45.320] the enemy’s great city, okay? When we worship, we’re doing something fundamental for our city
[00:43:45.320 –> 00:43:51.120] and for our nation, for our people, right? This is the way that a nation begins to turn,
[00:43:51.540 –> 00:43:57.740] begins to repent as we come together to worship. And that’s why this is the sound of the battering
[00:43:57.740 –> 00:44:04.240] ram on the gates of the enemy’s city, okay? It’s boom. And we just did it. You just heard the boom
[00:44:04.240 –> 00:44:10.060] as that battering ram lands. And then we go out and we save up all of our energy and we get the ram
[00:44:10.060 –> 00:44:16.080] back again. And then next Sunday, we’ll have one more big boom. And that’s what faithful cultural
[00:44:16.080 –> 00:44:25.980] renewal looks like. John, sorry, the last point. Also, we need to remember that all judgment
[00:44:25.980 –> 00:44:32.280] culminates in the final judgment. And that’s that sobering moment that all human history is headed
[00:44:32.280 –> 00:44:39.240] towards, right? So every little judgment is just a taste coming towards that final judgment. And
[00:44:39.240 –> 00:44:45.220] again, I note that that’s an ominous, it’s an ominous concept. And it’s one that would be worth
[00:44:45.220 –> 00:44:51.500] us dwelling more on at some later date. But it’s important when you think about the judgment and
[00:44:51.500 –> 00:44:57.240] the final judgment and what exactly the final judgment is, you must remember that the final
[00:44:57.240 –> 00:45:02.400] judgment, in addition to this moment when God judges everything in all of human history,
[00:45:02.400 –> 00:45:09.420] it’s also the culmination of your own union with Christ. And this is, I think, something that is
[00:45:09.420 –> 00:45:17.720] not understood well enough. The final judgment is the culmination of your salvation. Everything
[00:45:17.720 –> 00:45:21.600] that’s going on in your life, God is working on you, dealing with sins, putting certain things
[00:45:21.600 –> 00:45:28.940] to death, and making you more and more like his son. The final judgment is the culmination of that
[00:45:28.940 –> 00:45:35.120] process. And when you stand before God in the final judgment, you stand before him for the first time
[00:45:35.120 –> 00:45:42.460] ever with that whole work complete. It’s the moment that you get to finally be the man, the woman that
[00:45:42.460 –> 00:45:49.380] God is making you. And that’s why it’s not something to dread, because it’s the culmination of your
[00:45:49.380 –> 00:45:54.660] salvation, and him finally declaring, this, this is what I was bringing you towards. This is what
[00:45:54.660 –> 00:46:02.940] I was making you into. 1 John 3, beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed
[00:46:02.940 –> 00:46:07.540] what we shall be. It’s not yet revealed what you shall be. You don’t even know what you’re going to
[00:46:07.540 –> 00:46:13.420] be like yet, but we know that when he is revealed, that is the second coming, when Christ comes and
[00:46:13.420 –> 00:46:18.620] calls us all back to him, when he is revealed, we shall be like him. Okay, you don’t know what it’s
[00:46:18.620 –> 00:46:23.880] going to be like yet, but at that moment you will be like him, and everyone who has this hope in him
[00:46:23.880 –> 00:46:32.040] purifies himself just as he is pure. Okay, that hope is a purifying hope, and that purification
[00:46:32.040 –> 00:46:38.320] is completed at that moment of the resurrection as you step into the final judgment. You step into him
[00:46:38.320 –> 00:46:47.000] completed in the image of Jesus Christ, completed in the glory of Christ. So the final judgment is not
[00:46:47.000 –> 00:46:52.300] just when God is done with this world, it’s also when God is done with you, and what I mean by that
[00:46:52.300 –> 00:46:58.120] is the final judgment coincides with when Christ’s work of your redemption is complete. You meet him
[00:46:58.120 –> 00:47:05.660] completed, or as John just said, fully and completely purified. I think in the benediction that we have,
[00:47:05.660 –> 00:47:11.700] I love this when we do it from Jude, because he says, now to him who is able to keep you from
[00:47:11.700 –> 00:47:17.940] stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, okay?
[00:47:17.940 –> 00:47:23.540] That moment that you step into the final judgment, you step into it faultless. You step into it
[00:47:23.540 –> 00:47:28.880] purified because the faith that you have is working on you now and it’s all culminated. It’s all
[00:47:28.880 –> 00:47:35.700] completed at the final judgment. I say this because I think that Christians fear talking about
[00:47:35.700 –> 00:47:41.600] judgment, okay? I mean, and that’s what Amos is about. It’s about judgment. And I think Christians
[00:47:41.600 –> 00:47:46.160] fear or are a little bit nervous about talking about judgment because they think it somehow makes
[00:47:46.160 –> 00:47:51.260] them into a works righteousness people who think that they are better than everyone else. Going to
[00:47:51.260 –> 00:48:00.660] go around whispering Amos-like judgment against everything that you see all around you. And you
[00:48:00.660 –> 00:48:04.520] start to worry, I don’t want to become somebody who’s oriented towards a works righteousness that
[00:48:04.520 –> 00:48:09.760] thinks he’s better than everybody else. But the final judgment will be the final display of Christ’s
[00:48:09.760 –> 00:48:17.100] grace, not our self-righteousness. We need not be embarrassed or shy about longing for God’s straight
[00:48:17.100 –> 00:48:22.600] edge to be applied to all of creation. Because that’s the moment when you are going to be
[00:48:22.600 –> 00:48:27.660] straightened completely, when you will be perfected completely. It will be a glorious thing
[00:48:27.660 –> 00:48:34.740] that all of us should be longing to see. We do not yet have any idea how great that moment will be.
[00:48:34.740 –> 00:48:39.960] It’s something that’s right and good for us to long to see. All right, let’s pray. Our Heavenly Father,
[00:48:39.960 –> 00:48:45.100] we pray for our nation. We pray for your mercy for our people. You’ve been gracious to us in your
[00:48:45.100 –> 00:48:50.840] kindness, and you’ve been gracious to us in the correction that you have sent us. Father, would
[00:48:50.840 –> 00:48:57.240] you wake up our nation that we might return to you with truly repentant and faithful hearts? May the
[00:48:57.240 –> 00:49:02.180] sound of true Christian worship flood our nation on Sunday mornings, and would you please be with us?
[00:49:02.180 –> 00:49:07.400] Bless us, Lord, that we might worship you with the sincerity and truth that you desire. We thank you
[00:49:07.400 –> 00:49:13.020] for our Lord and our Savior, Jesus Christ. May his name be great in our nation. May his righteousness
[00:49:13.100 –> 00:49:17.280] fill our hearts, and it is in his name that we pray as he taught us to pray, saying,
[00:49:17.280 –> 00:49:26.440] Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

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