Ruin for the wicked, but Hope for a Remnant

Transcription of the twelfth episode in Studies in the Book of Amos brought to you by Pastor Rusty Tardo.

You can listen to the series here.

"Thank you, Jesus. Let's turn to the last chapter of the Book of Amos.

That will be Amos chapter 9. This will be our last message in this series. I believe this will be actually lesson number 12 in this series that we began some time ago in the book of Amos.

This has been a, for me, I hope it's been for you, but it's been a blessed study for me. I have seen so much relevance in Amos' message to Israel. I've seen that relevance in what he would say to America today.

His message would be the same if he was speaking to America today. So if you're there, in Amos 9, let's bow our heads and pray. Amen.

Father, we ask that now as we look in your holy book, that you would direct our speech, direct my mouth. Father, let your anointing be upon this message. Let it come forth with clarity and power.

And Father, let it minister life and encouragement and a solemn sobriety to each and every one of us. And Father, we ask it in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Amen. I've titled the message tonight, Ruin for the Wicked, but Hope for a Remnant. Ruin for the Wicked, but Hope for a Remnant.

Now, let's read chapter 9 of Amos' prophecy. This is his fifth and final vision. He says, I saw the Lord standing upon the altar, and he said, smite the lintel of the door that the post may shake, and cut them in the head, all of them, and I will slay the last of them with the sword.

He that fleeth of them shall not flee away, and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered. Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them. Though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down.

And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence. And though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them. And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them.

And I will set mine eyes upon them for evil and not for good. And the Lord God of hosts is he that toucheth the land, and it shall melt, and all that dwell therein shall mourn, and it shall rise up wholly like a flood, and shall be drowned as by the flood of Egypt. It is he that buildeth his stories in the heaven and hath founded his troop in the earth, he that calleth for the waters of the sea and poureth them out upon the face of the earth.

The Lord is his name. Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel, saith the Lord? Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Cepher, and the Syrians from Cur?

Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth, saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the Lord. For lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve. Yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.

All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which, say the evil, shall not overtake nor prevent us. In that day, I will raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof. And I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom and of all the heathen which are called by my name, sayeth the Lord, that doeth this.

Behold, the days come, sayeth the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes, him that soweth seed, and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them, and they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof. They shall also make gardens and eat the fruit of them.

And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land, which I have given them, sayeth the Lord thy God. Now, here we have the last chapter of Amos' message his fifth and final vision, a vision of the Lord standing on the altar. Notice this, verse 1, I saw the Lord standing on the altar.

Now, commentators, Bible students, have for a long time debated as to what altar is he talking about. But the consensus of conservative scholarship is that he was standing on the altar at Bethel, the idolatrous altar at Bethel. Notice in chapter 8 and the very last verse, verse 14, is actually speaking of that idolatrous altar in Samaria.

It speaks, chapter 8, 14, They that swear by the sin of Samaria. The sin of Samaria was the idolatrous calves that Jeroboam had set up in Dan and Bethel, and they were worshiping those golden calves. The Israelites had been for almost two centuries, and that's the sin of Samaria that God is speaking of.

They swear by the sin of Samaria. In other words, they put their trust. They made their oaths.

They offered their sacrifices to these calves instead of to God. And they say, Thy God, O Dan, liveth. You see the calf that was in Dan and the other in Bethel.

Chapter 9 just picks up with that same thought. And the altar that Amos sees is actually that idolatrous altar that the Lord is standing upon, and he smites it. He smites that altar, smites the top of that pagan temple.

That's chapter 9 and verse 1. He said, smite the lintel of the door, smite the very foundations of the temple, causing it to fall on all of the wicked people that were worshipping in it. They had been idolatrously serving the false gods, worshipping the demon gods actually, and offering incense and sacrifice to them.

And God smote that temple so that it would fall down upon their heads. Now, I've titled the message, as I said, Ruin for the Wicked, but Hope for a Remnant. I'm glad that Amos' message, the gloom and doom prophet that he is, and has been throughout this whole book, he actually ends the book with a little glimmer of hope.

But not before he pronounces the ultimate ruin and destruction upon the idolatrous, greedy, materialistic nation of Israel. I've divided the chapter into four declarations that Amos makes. The first one is this.

He tells Israel, he gives them a declaration. He's talking here actually to the wicked, the sinners, the idolaters. And this is what he tells them.

You can run, but you can't hide. This is Amos' message to the wicked in Israel. You can run.

You can run from God. You can run from judgment. You can run from his wrath.

You can run, but you can't hide. That's found in verses 1 through 4. You can run, but you can't hide, because God's wrath and his judgment will seek you out.

Now, that's a very sober message that he delivered. Now, keep in mind, Israel is very pompous, very wealthy, very proud, very arrogant. Israel is really riding the crest of prosperity right now.

Very materialistic, very greedy, much like America today. Much like America today. And yet the people are wholly given over to idolatry, worshipping idols of their own making.

Now, in Israel, they worship calves. In America, they worship, you name it, automobiles, money, homes, land, wealth, success, fame, whatever, sex, drugs, alcohol. I mean, they give their lives to false gods, gods of their own making.

Notice verse one again. He is speaking of smiting this altar, smiting actually the very foundations of the pagan temple so that it would fall upon their heads. All of them.

He says, And I will slay the last of them with the sword. Every one of them. I'll slay them.

He says, He that fleeeth of them shall not flee away. He that escapeth of them shall not be delivered. Verse two, though they dig into hell, or literally the Hebrew there is she-o, the underworld, the place of the dead, the departed spirits, even if they should go into the afterlife.

He says, My hand will take them there. There's no place to hide from God. That's His message.

Though they climb up to heaven, I'll bring them down. He's making a point here. Verse three, though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel.

Carmel was a mountainous peak known for its heavily wooded areas, its rocky crags dotted with caves and caverns all over. It was a place of hiding and refuge for criminals, people who were trying to hide from the law, hiding from authority, hiding from their enemies. He said Carmel may be a hiding place for them.

You might hide from your human enemies, but you won't hide from God there. Though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out from there. Though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, there will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them.

He's saying, God, you won't hide from God. You may run, but you can't hide. He'll be on you like a hound dog on the trail.

You won't lose him. You won't hide from him. You can run.

You can do what you will, but you won't hide from God's wrath or from God's judgment. Now, this is a sober message to sinners everywhere. It's a sober message to America.

It's a sober message to everyone. You know, there comes a time and a place where judgment is decreed and it will seek you out. Israel had gotten to the place of hardening their heart, of resisting God's word, resisting God's prophet, resisting God's message.

They didn't want to hear it anymore. They were happy in their idolatrous lifestyle. They were unrepentant.

And finally, God had gotten to the point, as we saw in previous chapters, He had gotten to the point where they had gone too far. And now, He said, judgment will seek you out. Wrath will find you.

You won't hide from it. No matter what you do, no matter where you go, God's wrath will find you. So Amos' message to sinners at this point is very clear.

You know what it is? Don't provoke God to anger. Don't provoke God to anger.

Because there's no place to hide from God. No place to hide. In the natural frame of things, if you made the law mad at you, if the authorities wanted you, sometimes people can flee.

Sometimes people can go to a foreign country. They can go to a remote part of this country and maybe find refuge there. Change their name, try and change their appearance, their identity.

Dye your hair another color. If it's a man, grow a beard or a mustache. You can try and become inconspicuous and just blend in into your surroundings and hopefully nobody will know you and recognize you and you won't be caught.

You won't be found. But you know you can't hide from God. There's no hiding from Him.

Here, Israel has remained wicked and rebellious. They have gathered in this great pagan temple, and God is commanding that the temple be struck and smitten so that it be collapsed upon their heads. The great pillars would fall in, the great roof would collapse, and the multitudes of them would be destroyed.

Kind of reminds me of Sampson pulling down the Temple of Dagon. Remember over in the Book of Judges, as he brought the great pillars down, the roof collapsed and crushed all of the Philistines that had gathered in it? Well, God is speaking here about doing the very same thing in Israel and destroying them.

And if by some miracle, some should escape, he said, yet notice, the he that fleeth of them shall not flee away. They may escape the great crushing of the temple, but they won't get away because God will seek them out. Wherever they go, God will seek them out, and he'll bring them into judgment.

That's the whole point. They would be slain with a sword, he said in verse 1, which, of course, speaks of the Assyrian invasion when Assyria invaded them with all of their fury and brought them into great and violent death and decimation. But if they should escape the fall of the temple, they wouldn't escape the judgment, the death that had been decreed against them.

Even if they went into Sheol, like he said, where is a rebel going to hide from God? Think about it. Where are you going to hide from God?

I can remember as a backslidden Baptist boy, I can remember running from God. I can remember years of running from God, avoiding surrendering my life to Him and yielding my whole life to Him. And I can also remember brother Jim MacAleese, Wade and Tony's father, sitting down with me at a picnic table and just telling me, in effect, why don't you take your tennis shoes off?

And my response was, what? He says, you've been running for a long time from God, it's time to stop running. That really bothered me, because it was true.

I had been running for a long time. I'd been looking for answers, looking for peace, looking for some purpose in life, getting involved with occultism, karate, something, anything I could throw myself into, business, work. But they were empty.

They were meaningless. They meant nothing. They offered no fulfillment, no sense of accomplishment.

Something was really missing in my life. And those words, take your tennis shoes off because you're running from God. It's time to stop running and surrender to the Lord.

That really struck me. This passage really reminded me of that because where can you hide from God? You can run, but you can't hide.

He will seek you out. Not only is there no hiding in this world, but Amos says, verse 2, there's no hiding in the next world. There's no hiding, period.

In verse 3, no hiding in the highest mountain, no hiding at the bottom of the sea, no matter where you go. This is what God is saying to the sinner. This is what God says to the wicked.

I want you to listen to me now. Everyone, young people, teenagers, I want you to listen to what God says to those who are unrepentant, stubborn, rebellious, defiant, refusing to hearken to God, refusing to surrender. He says, no matter where you go, I'll find you.

Top of the mountains, you think you'll go there and find peace? There'll be no peace there. I'll get you there.

The bottom of the sea, I'll send a serpent to get you there. Judgment will find you. There will be no place, no place of peace, no place of safety, no place of serenity, no place on earth, no place in heaven, no place at the bottom of the sea.

Well, even in the afterlife, everything is in God's hands. Everything is in God's control because He absolutely rules, doesn't He? He rules.

He rules in heaven and earth. Somebody says, you know, I'm kind of glad that that's Old Testament Scripture and that God is not like that in the New Testament, that He wouldn't judge or condemn, and He's not that fearful of a God in the New Testament. Can I read a New Testament verse to you?

Let me read a verse over in Hebrews, chapter 10. You can turn there if you like, or you can just listen, but I want you to listen carefully. Hebrews 10, 31.

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. New Testament. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

I think we could err in our conception of God. We could make him a very stern, mean ogre with a rod just wanting to smite us on the head and taking a cruel pleasure and beating his children. That's not the way God is, is it?

But we could err in the other direction, making him a senile old man who just smiles at the sins of mankind, which he does not. The Bible tells us he is angry with the wicked every day. He does not overlook sin.

In fact, he hates sin. And for us to continue in rebellion, continue in sin, fling our fist in the hand in the face of God, this coming a day of comeuppance, when he says it will be a fearful thing, a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. That's New Testament.

New Testament. Look with me back in Amos, chapter 9, verse 4. He says, no place on earth will be safe.

No place on earth to hide. You can run, but you can't hide. And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them.

That reminds me of Joseph over in the Old Testament. Remember how Joseph's brothers were out to get him? Took away his coat, threw him into a pit, later repented of that, dug him out the pit, and then sold him into slavery.

He wound up off in Egypt somewhere. He was safe from his brothers in Egypt. Sold into slavery.

He was a slave. He was safe from harm from his brothers. But you know what God is saying here?

There's no place where you'll be safe. You can fall into the obscurity of slavery, be carried off into some foreign land. Unknown.

But God says, I'll send the sword even there to judge you, to slay you. And I want you to notice this very, very sober verse, the last part of verse 4. And I will set mine eyes upon them for evil and not for good.

I will set mine eyes upon them for evil and not for good. God will set himself totally against the wicked. Now, that passage, that verse, you can't help but think of Deuteronomy 28 when you read Amos 9 and verse 4.

You have to think of Deuteronomy 28 when God says, I set before you a blessing and a curse, a blessing if you serve me but a curse if you don't. In fact, I'm going to turn over to Deuteronomy 28. I just want to remind you of a couple of verses over here.

Remember this, verse 4, where he says, I will set mine eyes upon them for evil and not for good. Comes right out of Deuteronomy 28. Notice this.

Deuteronomy 28, verse 59.

Well, in verse 58, he says, If you will not observe, to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayst fear this glorious and fearful name, the Lord thy God. The first part of the chapter deals with all of the blessings that God will bless us with. If we'll serve Him, if we'll follow Him, if we'll obey Him.

He speaks of the blessings of joy and peace and divine protection and health and so on. If we'll serve the Lord. But, He says, if you won't, then, verse 59, the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful.

That doesn't mean they'll be great and terrific. That means that they'll be horrifying beyond description, horrifying beyond belief. And the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues and of long continuance and sore sicknesses and of long continuance.

He will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt which thou was afraid of, and they shall cleave unto thee. It's not the kind of thing you'll shake off in a day or a week or a month or a year, but long continuing diseases and every sickness and every plague which is not written in the book of this law. Then will the Lord bring upon thee until thou be destroyed.

He says, you'll be left few in number. Whereas once you were as the stars of heaven for multitude, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord thy God, it shall come to pass that as the Lord once rejoiced over you to do you good and to multiply you, so the Lord will now rejoice over you to destroy you and to bring you to naught. You shall be plucked from off the land, whether thou goest to possess it.

Pretty sober, huh? This is his message to Israel. And over in chapter 9 of Amos, Amos is just confirming everything that God had said over here in Deuteronomy 28.

You read the rest of this passage where he says, this is going to happen to you because you serve these false gods, because of your idolatry, because of your rebellion and defiance. He speaks about, verse 65, the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, sorrow of mind. He's speaking here of great fits of gloom and despair and depression, racing hearts and fear and eyesight failing.

Your life will hang in doubt before you, verse 66, and you will fear day and night, will have no assurance of your life. In the morning, you'll say, I wish it was evening. In the evening, you'll say, I wish it was morning, because of your fear, the fear that will plague you, and the things, the terrible sights, you will see.

Well, over in Amos, what was the sights that he predicted they would see? The destruction of Israel, a Syrian invasion. Their enemies, their hated enemies, conquering them.

These verses were fulfilled by God. Amos confirmed them, and some years after Amos' prophecy, Assyria rolled in, conquered Samaria, conquered the whole Northern Empire, and it actually ceased to exist.

No hiding in the highest mountain, no hiding at the bottom of the sea, no matter where you go. This is what God is saying to the sinner. This is what God says to the wicked.

I want you to listen to me now, everyone, young people, teenagers, I want you to listen to what God says to those who are unrepentant, stubborn, rebellious, defiant, refusing to harken to God, refusing to surrender. He says, no matter where you go, I'll find you. The top of the mountains, you think you'll go there and find peace?

There'll be no peace there. I'll get you there. The bottom of the sea, I'll send a serpent to get you there.

Judgment will find you. There will be no place, no place of peace, no place of safety, no place of serenity, no place on earth, no place in heaven, no place at the bottom of the sea. Well, even in the afterlife, everything is in God's hands.

Everything is in God's control, because He absolutely rules, doesn't He? He rules. He rules in heaven and earth.

Somebody says, you know, I'm kind of glad that that's Old Testament Scripture, and that God is not like that in the New Testament, that He wouldn't judge or condemn, and He's not that fearful of a God in the New Testament. Can I read a New Testament verse to you? Let me read a verse over in Hebrews 10.

You can turn there if you like, or you can just listen, but I want you to listen carefully. Hebrews 10.31. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

The New Testament. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. I think we could err in our conception of God.

We could make Him a very stern, mean ogre with a rod just wanting to smite us on the head and taking a cruel pleasure and beating His children. That's not the way God is, is it? But we could err in the other direction, making Him a senile old man who just smiles at the sins of mankind, which He does not.

The Bible tells us He is angry with the wicked every day. He does not overlook sin. In fact, He hates sin.

And for us to continue in rebellion, continue in sin, fling our fist in the face of God, this coming a day of comeuppance, when He says it will be a fearful thing, a fearful thing, to fall into the hands of the living God. That's New Testament. New Testament.

Look with me back in Amos. Chapter 9, verse 4. He says, no place on earth will be safe.

No place on earth to hide. You can run, but you can't hide. And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them.

That reminds me of Joseph over in the Old Testament. Remember how Joseph's brothers were out to get him? Took away his coat, threw him into a pit.

Later repented of that, dug him out the pit, and then sold him into slavery. He wound up off in Egypt somewhere. He was safe from his brothers in Egypt.

Sold into slavery. He was a slave.

He was safe from harm from his brothers. But you know what God is saying here? There's no place where you'll be safe.

You can fall into the obscurity of slavery, be carried off into some foreign land, unknown. But God says, I'll send the sword even there to judge you, to slay you. And I want you to notice this very, very sober verse, the last part of verse 4.

And I will set mine eyes upon them for evil and not for good. I will set mine eyes upon them for evil and not for good. God will set himself totally against the wicked.

Now that passage, that verse, you can't help but think of Deuteronomy 28 when you read Amos 9 and verse 4. You have to think of Deuteronomy 28 when God says, I set before you a blessing and a curse, a blessing if you serve me, but a curse if you don't. In fact, in fact, I'm going to turn over to Deuteronomy 28.

I just want to remind you of a couple of verses over here. Remember this, verse 4, where he says, I will set mine eyes upon them for evil and not for good. Comes right out of Deuteronomy 28.

Notice this. Deuteronomy 28, verse 59, well, in verse 58, he says, If you will not observe, to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayst fear this glorious and fearful name, the Lord thy God. The first part of the chapter deals with all of the blessings that God will bless us with.

If we'll serve Him, if we'll follow Him, if we'll obey Him. He speaks of the blessings of joy and peace and divine protection and health and so on. If we'll serve the Lord.

But, He says, if you won't, then, verse 59, the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful. That doesn't mean they'll be great and terrific. But that means that they'll be horrifying beyond description, horrifying beyond belief.

And the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues and of long continuance and sore sicknesses and of long continuance. He will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt which thou was afraid of, and they shall cleave unto thee. It's not the kind of thing you'll shake off in a day or a week or a month or a year, but long continuing diseases.

And every sickness and every plague which is not written in the book of this law, them will the Lord bring upon thee until thou be destroyed. He says, you'll be left few in number, whereas once you were as the stars of heaven for multitude, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord thy God. It shall come to pass that as the Lord once rejoiced over you to do you good and to multiply you, so the Lord will now rejoice over you to destroy you and to bring you to naught.

You shall be plucked from off the land, whether thou goest to possess it. Pretty sober, huh? This is his message to Israel.

And over in chapter 9 of Amos, Amos is just confirming everything that God had said over here in Deuteronomy 28. You read the rest of this passage where he says, this is going to happen to you because you serve these false gods, because of your idolatry, because of your rebellion and defiance. He speaks about, verse 65, the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, sorrow of mind.

He's speaking here of great fits of gloom and despair and depression, racing hearts and fear, eyesight failing. Your life will hang in doubt before you, verse 66, and you will fear day and night, will have no assurance of your life. In the morning, you'll say, I wish it was evening.

In evening, you'll say, I wish it was morning, because of your fear, the fear that will plague you, and the things, the terrible sights you will see. Well, over in Amos, what was the sights that he predicted they would see? The destruction of Israel, a Syrian invasion.

Their enemies, their hated enemies, conquering them. These verses were fulfilled by God. Amos confirmed them, and some years after Amos' prophecy, Assyria rolled over.

What was the sights that he predicted they would see? The destruction of Israel, a Syrian invasion. Their enemies, their hated enemies, conquering them.

These verses were fulfilled by God. Amos confirmed them, and some years after Amos' prophecy, Assyria rolled in, conquered Samaria, conquered the whole northern empire, and it actually ceased to exist. Look with me back in chapter 27 of Deuteronomy.

Let me read a couple of verses to you over here. I want you to notice this. All of those people he once wanted to bless, he said, I delighted to bless you.

He said, now I'll curse you because of rebellion, defiance, idolatry. He speaks of all these curses that would come upon him in chapter 27. I want you to notice this in verse, well beginning in verse 14 of Deuteronomy 27.

The Levites, the priestly tribe, shall speak and say unto all the men of Israel with a loud voice, Cursed be the man that makes any grave in a molten image. Those things are an abomination to the Lord, he says. And they put them in a secret place.

They offer their devotions and so forth to them. These are the high places, the idols that were formed. He said, I'll curse them.

That's exactly what Israel did, though. They did this very thing, and so they were cursed. He says in verse 16, Cursed be he that seteth light by his father or his mother, and all his people shall say, Amen.

Seteth light, he's speaking here about utter disregard, disrespect, dishonor towards their parents, which God detests. That's why one of the Ten Commandments is, Honor your mother and your father. He says, I'll curse you if you don't.

Verse 17, Cursed be he that removeth his neighbor's landmark. Now, the landmarks mark the boundary lines of the property, and sometimes these Israelites would get greedy, and they'd cheat their neighbor out of their land by moving the landmark, moving the boundary lines, so that the neighbor's land all of a sudden got shorter and your land got bigger. He says, I'll curse you for that, for taking what's not yours, for stealing from your neighbor.

Verse 18, Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way. What's he referring to here? Cruelty to people who are handicapped.

Mockery of those who are less fortunate than you. Those who have physical impairments and so forth. Here, it was a mockery of the blind that he refers to.

He says, I'll judge you for that. I'll curse you for that if you act in that way. Verse 19, Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow.

You cheat anybody, especially the poor, especially the orphan, especially the widow. Even a stranger, a foreigner in town, you cheat anybody, God says, I'll get you for it. I'll judge you for it.

I'll curse you for it. Verse 20, Cursed be he that lieth with his father's wife. Cursed be he, verse 21, that lieth with any manner of beast.

Verse 22, Cursed be he that lieth with his sister, the daughter of his father, the daughter of his mother. Cursed be he that lieth with his mother-in-law. All of these verses refer to sexual immorality.

He says, I'll judge you for it. I'll curse you for it. Sexual immorality was a trademark of Israel in Amos' day.

They were wanton. They were totally immoral, totally given over, just like America today. A people without morality.

A people whose mouths were filled with profanity, whose actions were filled with violence, who did not blush at any sin. They had no shame. God said, I'll curse them for their immorality.

Verse 24, He'll curse those that smite His neighbors secretly. He'll curse those, verse 25, that take reward to slay the innocent. He'll curse those who don't confirm all the words of this law.

You know, all of these curses were just confirmed by Amos over here in chapter 9. These were the sins that brought God's wrath and judgment upon Israel. It finally fell.

They finally came. After long centuries of rebellion, of defiance, God finally brought judgment and wrath upon the Northern Kingdom. Then back in Amos 9, He makes a second declaration.

Not only this, He says, first of all, you can run, but you can't hide. Secondly, He says this. The second declaration is of the majesty and omnipotence of Israel's God.

That's verses 5 and 6. Amos 9, 5 and 6. Notice, the Lord God of hosts is He that touches the land, and it shall melt.

And all therein, that dwell therein, shall mourn. It will rise up holy like a flood, shall be drowned as by the flood of Egypt. It is He that buildeth His stories in the heaven, and has founded His troop in the earth, that calleth for the waters out of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth.

The Lord, literally Yahweh, is His name. In other words, Amos is contrasting God and all of His majesty and all of His glory and all of His omnipotence and all of His power. He's contrasting God, Israel's God, with these pathetic little calves over in Dan and Bethel.

These immovable, inanimate objects that do not answer prayer, that cannot help you. The same thing is true today, you know. We make gods many times out of inanimate objects.

It may be a house. It may be an automobile. People literally worship those things, you know.

Their whole life revolves around them. It's all they think about. It's all they work for, to support, and so on.

The Lord has very little place in their lives. They make a god out of these things, but you know what? When you get in trouble, can you pray to that car?

Will it save you? Will it help you? Can you pray to that house?

Will it deliver you? Will it make you well? Will it cure you?

Will it give you peace of mind, or will it give you worry of mind? Many times, the more possessions we have, the more they burden us with cares and worries and concerns and so on. But Amos' message is, God, Yahweh, is not like this pitiful little calf that you've been worshiping, because Yahweh is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe.

He's the one who touches the earth, and He can bring it to ruin. He can bring it to drought or earthquake, volcanic eruption or fierce storm. He can make the earth either a garden or a graveyard.

Amos makes his point very clear. God rules. The God of Israel rules supreme over all of His creation.

Yahweh is His name, he says. Not these little pitiful calves. These things, gold, silver, money, fame, none of that will deliver you in the hour of trial when God has set His wrath upon mankind.

They won't help you. Here's a third declaration. He says, God will disinherit His chosen people.

God will disinherit His chosen people. Verse 7-10. Look at this statement.

Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Cephther, and the Syrians from Kerr? Now listen to this.

Israel has been His chosen people, His chosen nation, His privileged people. They had privileged status in the eyes of God. But now what does He say?

I've disinherited you. Now you're just like the Ethiopian. You're just like every other nation.

You're just like every other people. You've rejected Me? Now I disinherit you.

Now I disown you. Now that's pretty sober. Think about it.

Those who had been privileged, those who had been the chosen, the sons, the daughters of God, Israel, now he says, you're just as common as any other nation to Me. You're no longer privileged in My sight. You're like the Ethiopians.

I brought you out of Egypt, sure, but look at what else he says. I also brought the Philistines out of Kafeir. I brought the Syrians out of Kirt.

You're no longer privileged in My eyes. I've disinherited you. Like a parent would disinherit their child, a rebellious child.

That happens all the time. A child becomes rebellious. They become sometimes drug addicts, wanton, alcoholics.

The parents can't trust them. They bring the parent nothing but grief and heartache. And what do you find many times?

The parent writes the child out of their will. The parent disinherits them, because they knew if they had anything, all they'd do is take it and use it on drugs or use it on women or whatever. You know what I'm saying?

So the parent, in great grief and distress, disinherits their own child. This is what God says to Israel. I'm going to disinherit you.

No longer are they going to enjoy privileged status. No longer is there going to be a special relation between God and Israel. In fact, in verse 8, I want you to notice this.

He promises to destroy the whole empire. Behold, the eyes of the Lord are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth. You know that's exactly what he did?

He destroyed it completely from off the face of the earth. In 721 BC, the Assyrians invaded Israel, the northern kingdom, and it ceased to exist, never to come into existence again. The northern kingdom no longer exists as a separate empire.

Just as he said, I'll wipe it off the face of the earth, that's exactly what he did. He totally disinherited those people. He obliterated the northern kingdom.

Notice what else he says right here in verse 10. This is a very sober verse also. All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword.

All the sinners of my people. Now, these were the ones that were supposed to be his people, but they weren't. They were rebels.

They were unrepentant. They were defiant. He says I'll destroy them all, every one of them.

The ones which say, the latter part of verse 10, the ones which say, the evil shall not overtake, nor prevent us. In other words, even all the proud and wealthy merchants who basked in their luxury, who enjoyed their great wealth and success, they were conceited and selfish and pompous, and they thought they were invincible. And you know the wealthy many times think they are invincible.

They think, man, nothing bad could ever happen to us. We enjoy privileged status in the eyes of God. They think that because they're wealthy, God has blessed them.

They think that because they have plenty, they see that it's a sign of God's favor. All of those who said, this evil that Amos is saying, this won't overtake us, God said, I'll see to it that it seeks you out special and bring you to death and judgment. But in all of this, yet there is a glimmer of hope for a remnant.

Notice what he says in the last part of verse 8. Saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, sayeth the Lord. I'm not going to utterly destroy it.

There's a hope. There's a hope for a remnant, a repentant remnant. You know, there's hope for the repentant.

If we will repent, anybody who will repent, in Israel's day or in our own day, if a man or a woman would repent and turn from their sin, God says, I won't destroy. But I want you to know God doesn't change in his attitude towards sin. If we sin, He'll judge us.

If we stop sinning, He'll bless us. That's because He doesn't change, we must change. Which brings us to Amos' last declaration, and that is the promise of future glory and restoration, verses 11 through 15.

For all of his doom and gloom, Amos closes on a positive note. This is a promise to restore Israel to her land, to raise it up again at the end of the ages, to raise it out of the dust of ruin. He says in verse 11, In that day, I will raise up the tabernacle of David that has fallen, and close up the breeches thereof, and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen which are called by my name, saith the Lord, that doeth this.

Then he speaks of a time of fertility and prosperity in the land that will only occur during the millennium. The days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes, him that soweth seed, and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. You know what he's talking about here?

The time of such fertility and prosperity and abundance, super abundance, that no sooner will the farmer go down one row, he's just gone down and picked all of his crop, that he's got to go back and start over at the head of the row again and start picking again, because he's talking here of supernatural, super abundance, just overflowing abundance and plenty and prosperity. He's speaking here. He transcends the time of restoration of Israel as a people and as a nation when he brings them back to their own land and begins to speak of the millennial blessings that they'll know as his privileged people once again, as he dwells in the midst of Jerusalem and sits on the throne of David, as Christ himself regains the throne of David.

He says, verse 14, here's a promise of Israel's restoration as a people. I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel. In other words, not bring them into captivity again, but bring them from out of captivity and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them and shall plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof.

They shall also make gardens and eat the fruit of them, and I will plant them upon their land. Now, you know he's seeing far into the future, because at this time, they were in their land, had been in their land all along. And he's prophesying a time when they'll be out of their land, decimated, scattered abroad for a long period of time, but he foresees a time when he says, I'll bring them back.

I'll bring them back to their land. We saw that fulfilled in 1948. Israel returned to their land.

He says, I'll plant them again upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land, which I have given them, saith the Lord their God. Now listen, all through this book, Amos has pronounced judgment and wrath upon Israel. And here at the last, just the last five verses or so of this last vision he has, he gives them hope for the future.

Some people have found this so far different from the rest of Amos' book that they said, verses 11 on couldn't have been written by Amos. It's not the same guy who wrote the rest of this book, because all the rest of it has been death, doom, judgment, destruction, fire. And then all of a sudden, he starts talking about restoration, peace, plenty, joy, blessing, return.

They said, it can't be Amos. It's got to be somebody else who wrote the rest of it. Somebody else added this to the Bible.

That's what some have said. They failed to see the prophetic element in God's inspiration, that Amos saw all of this gloom and doom, which surely would come upon Israel. And it did.

But he also foresaw a time when God would restore them to their land. He saw our own generation, our own day, our own age. And in that very connection, he speaks of the millennium.

He puts the two so close together that we can't help but believe that this time of great prosperity and plenty in the millennium is really not far away at all. It's really not far away at all. I can't help but believe that we are living in the last days, that our generation will see the return of the Lord to the earth, and that we will also see our Lord reigning and ruling in Jerusalem from the throne of David.

These days are not far away. They're not far away for any of us. So Amos' prophecy ends on a note of hope for a remnant, a future remnant.

The complete fulfillment of this prophecy, especially the last verses of Chapter 9, would not find its fulfillment until the millennium, which is not very far away.

Well, Father, we ask that these messages would find a home in our hearts and in our thoughts, that Father, they would draw us closer to Yourself, that they would bring us into a greater realm of sobriety concerning the end times, concerning Your wrath upon sinners, and help us, Father, not to be like stubborn and rebellious Israel that fell under the fury of Your wrath. But Father, help us all to be as the repentant remnant, the pure-hearted, the vigilant, the faithful, the true worshipers of God. Father, we ask that You do even as You promise to do, and that is preserve Your people.

Preserve us. Keep us. Direct us.

Help us, Father. Help us to live the life You call us to. Father, we acknowledge that we need Your help.

Keep our hearts right, our thoughts right, our eyes straight ahead, our purpose and hearts single, our hearts undivided. Father, help us. In Jesus' name, hallelujah."