The Responsibility of Privilege

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

You can listen to the series here.

"Praise God, I can't think of a better place to be tonight than in church. If you can't be in glory with the Lord, then next best place to be in church. Praise God.

Hallelujah. We've been studying the Book of Amos. I believe this is our fifth message as we've been working our way through the book.

I've titled the message tonight The Responsibility of Privilege. We're going to be reading in chapter 3. Amos chapter 3, beginning in verse 1.

Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, You only have I known of all the families of the earth. Therefore, I will punish you for all your iniquities. Can two walk together except they be agreed?

Will a lion roar in the forest when he hath no prey? Will a young lion cry out of his den if he hath taken nothing? Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth where no djinn is for him? 

Shall one take up a snare from the earth and have taken nothing at all? Shall a trumpet be blown in the city and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city and the Lord hath not done it?

Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. The lion hath roared. Who will not fear?

The Lord God hath spoken. Who can but prophesy? Now, sometimes you read these things in the King James, which, of course, I believe is the Bible of choice.

But I want you to know, when you read these things, sometimes the full impact of just what's being said doesn't come across. Sometimes you read things like that, and it doesn't say anything at all to you. Now, I know some of these verses you're all familiar with.

In fact, two of these verses really stand out above all the rest. Not because they're more important, but because they're more familiar. Like verse 3, for instance, Can two walk together except they be agreed?

Now, that's a familiar verse. We've all read it, heard it, probably spoken it to others dozens of times. Can two walk together except they be agreed?

But one thing you've rarely done, you've rarely really understood that verse in its context. And understanding it in its context makes a big difference to what it really says. It really does.

Because I'm going to tell you this. This verse has been misused, abused, misapplied in many, many different ways by a lot of different people. Also, verse 7 is another verse we've been familiar with.

Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants, the prophets. Now, that one's been abused, too, quite a bit. But in its context, it's a powerful, tremendously powerful message that says something we need to listen to, that says something we need to hearken.

In fact, as we understand all of these things in their context, I believe the whole passage is going to just give us a great deal more comprehension. Now, I want you to see, first of all, remember, we've titled our message, The Responsibility of Privilege. I want us to see, first of all, that God reminds His people that they are a privileged nation, that they're a privileged people.

They are unique in all of the world. Now, that's seen in verse 1 and 2. Let's look at these verses again.

Israel, He's saying, you are unique in all the earth. Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family, which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, you only have I known of all the families of the earth.

I want you to see also how he starts this chapter with the word, hear. Now, that's a real strong word. He's just telling them literally, listen.

Listen to this word of God. Hear this word that the Lord has to say to you. Now, it's a shame, but this is a religious people.

Remember, Israel is a religious nation. It's a shame, but that Amos would almost have to rattle them just to get them to pay attention to his message. You know what happens sometimes to religious people?

It's not just something unique with Israel because it happens, unfortunately, even in the church today. People, religious though they are, sometimes grow weary and tired and neglectful of hearing the word of God. They just grow tired of it.

I mean, it's like they've heard it before. It doesn't really hold their interest as much as it used to. You know, keep in mind what we've studied already in these passages.

Israel was enjoying great prosperity. This was a time of great success for them. They were probably more prosperous than they'd been at any time in their history, except during the reign of Solomon.

But here, the people were enjoying wealth and success and prosperity. The world had really captured their attention. And the word had lost its interest to them.

The world held a lot of interest. The word didn't hold as much interest. So to get their attention, you've got Amos the prophet saying, Listen!

Hear this word that the Lord would say unto you. And you know what it did? It got their attention.

It's no different today. You see, the nature of men has not changed. Because people's minds drift.

Their thoughts wander. They're thinking about what they're going to eat when they get home. And you know, Amos is up there talking, and they listen for a little while, and then their minds wander off.

And they begin to think about this and that. And I wonder how much I can get that goat far over there. Boy, my camel's been giving me trouble.

I don't know what's the problem with that thing. He's getting old mean. You know, their minds get to drifting.

And so Amos, his message just comes, listen to this word that the Lord has for you. I mean, he wanted their undivided attention. You see the same thing in the New Testament.

Jesus, how many times, when we studied Revelation 2 and 3, how many times did Jesus Himself say, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit sayeth to the churches. He that hath ears to hear. You know what it tells you?

A lot of people in churches just aren't hearing. They're there, but they're not hearing. Not spiritually.

Not really. I want you to notice also here in verse 1 that God is addressing not only Israel, He's addressing Judah as well. This is the time of the divided nation.

Judah in the south, Israel in the north. But God makes it very clear that He's addressing all the children of Israel. You see it right here in verse 1?

Oh, children of Israel against the whole family. He's talking about all of them now. Not just Israel, but all of them.

Judah as well. They're still a family, you know. They were still brothers and sisters, the northern and the southern kingdom.

Even though the nation was divided, they were still family. But also, we need to keep in mind that of the family, Israel was still the worst of the lot, because Israel was the ones who had fallen into such depravity, worshipping the calves and Dan and Bethel. So Israel was the worst of the lot.

But the message was addressed to all of them. Now, we said our first point here was that God is reminding them that they had been recipients of great grace, great privilege. Notice, verse 2, You only have I known of all the families of the earth.

Only Israel. Israel had a very unique place in the sight, in the economy of God. You only have I known.

Now, that doesn't mean that God didn't know about other nations, that He didn't know about their existence, or that He was somehow less than omniscient, because certainly He knew of their existence. But the word known here speaks of in an intimate sense. He knew them in a special way.

Israel was special to God. They were His chosen. They were His unique people.

And He dealt with no other nation on the earth the way He dealt with Israel. Israel was His chosen, His people. They alone had been delivered out of the slavery in Egypt.

They alone experienced the Exodus. They alone had been given the covenant of God on Mount Sinai. They alone had the ark of the testimony.

They alone had the presence of God dwelling in their midst. That nation alone, in all the face of the earth, had experienced tremendous privilege, unlike any nation before them. So they were unique.

They had tremendous blessings that other nations had not had. Now, the point that God's making here is that they had enjoyed an outpouring of grace, a great outpouring of privilege, as no other nation had. But that brings us to our second point, which is, He reminded them that with great privilege comes great responsibility.

With privilege comes responsibility. Look at the latter part of verse 2. When He tells them in the first part of verse 2, You only have I known of all the families of the earth.

Therefore, I will punish you for all of your iniquities. That word, therefore, is a powerful word. It gets its message across, because He says, therefore, You only have I known in all the earth.

You only had all these blessings, all these privileges. You had the covenant. You had the prophets.

You had the light.

You had the testimony. I've given you all this privilege.

Therefore.

Now, I believe that Israel was probably waiting to hear, Therefore, I'm really going to bless you extra special. Therefore, I'm really going to pour out blessings upon you in the future. I think that's what they were ready to hear.

But instead, he said, Therefore, I'm going to punish you. Therefore, I'm going to judge you. I think that came as a shot to the people of Israel.

You can't help but believe that a people who are dwelling in luxury and in wealth, experiencing prosperity, everything's going well for them. They just conquered all their enemies. They can't help but think God's on their side.

You know, it's kind of like America might feel right now. They can't help but think God's on our side. We have crushed our enemies.

They didn't stand a chance against our might, against our troops, against our soldiers. We have superior training, superior weapons. We're a superior people.

We just showed them what for. We showed them God's with us. He's not.

He's certainly not with them. I'm just using that as an illustration so that you can see how Israel felt at this time, because they had crushed their enemies. They were dwelling in ease.

They were prosperous.

Their economy was really bristling with wealth and money and input and success. They were a very successful people at the time. They felt like God was on their side.

All of this wealth and blessing has to prove God's for us. God's with us. We're doing something right.

And still today, people will interpret wealth, possessions, luxury, prosperity. They will interpret those things as a sure sign of God's blessing in their life. But it's not necessarily so.

Just keep in mind, it's not necessarily so. You know, the Bible also speaks about how God fattens up the calf for the slaughter. Just like the farmer who really stuffs that calf, he stuffs those hogs with the best grain, the best food.

He feeds it choice food. Does the calf think, oh boy, that farmer really loves me? The whole time, the farmer is licking his chops.

He's feeding that calf because he knows he's redding it for the slaughter, fattening it for the slaughter. Well, God does the same thing, you know, with those who oppose him and reject him. So here you have Israel thinking that God's on their side, and Amos says, Therefore, I will punish you for all of your iniquities.

It's amazing that people who do wrong and know they do wrong, people who sin and know they sin, people who are spiritually cold and indifferent and know they are, still think God's blessing them. When they have money rolling in or they just got a big increase at work or things have been going well for them, they think God's blessing them.

I'm sure Israel thought that God was blessing them. Their future was going to be glorious, rich, luxurious. We're going to be prosperous.

God said, your future is judgment. That's your future. That's what he said to Israel at this point.

Your future is not bright. Your future is bleak. Your future is not going to be joy.

It's going to be judgment. It's not going to be pleasure. It's going to be pain.

That's the future that God was reserving for Israel. And then a third thing he reminds them of is that peril travels with privilege. Peril travels with privilege.

That's also seen in verse 2. You only have I known in all the earth, of all the families of the earth, you only have I known. You've been my special people, my privileged people.

Therefore, therefore, I will punish you for all of your iniquities. You know something? With privilege does come peril.

Because the Bible tells us, not just once, but the Bible tells us many times, in principle and in plain English, that to whom much is given, much is required. With privilege comes peril. There's no question about it.

Now, here's just a few of the things that the privileged are tempted to do. First of all, they're tempted to ignore their responsibilities.

They're tempted sometimes to think that they're more deserving than others are. Sometimes they're tempted to think they're better than others are. They become judgmental or critical or proud or haughty.

It's sort of like spoiled rich kids. You know the picture you have in your mind about just spoiled, totally thoroughly spoiled rich kids. They were brought up in total luxury and ease and wealth, never had to work for anything, never had to earn anything.

Everything was handed to them on a silver platter. And they, you know how that can spoil them? They would become snotty and haughty and look down their nose at others and take everything for granted, take people for granted.

And, well, that's one of the perils of privilege. And that's true in a spiritual sense as well, you know. Also, there's the tendency to believe that your privilege or your status somehow places you above the law of responsibility.

In other words, sometimes people can think that they're really important to God and that somehow God can't get along without them. Now, I once heard a major television evangelist make claims to the effect, to that very thing, that God couldn't get along without him, that his ministry alone was touching the whole world more than any other ministry. He was doing more than anybody in the world.

And at the time, he probably was. But when you start getting the idea that God can't get along without you, you are headed for trouble. And that particular ministry was headed for big trouble.

And it did have a great fall. You know, God doesn't need any of us. I mean, it's not like we're not, you know, we can't be replaced.

You know, Jesus said even the rocks would cry out, Hosanna, if the people kept their silence. It's not as though God absolutely has to have us and sits around worried, saying, oh no, what am I going to do if this one doesn't serve me? Or if this one doesn't do right?

Or if this one doesn't preach? That's just not the way it is. That's not the way it is at all.

God brought down His own temple. He didn't need His own temple. He didn't need the Ark of the Covenant.

He didn't need any of those things. He certainly doesn't need a man or a woman or someone who thinks that they're all puffed up in their own importance. The fact is, we can't get along without Him.

But there is great peril with privilege. And another of those perils is that if we're not careful, we become hard and callous towards others who may not have had the same privileges that we had. And that's easier to do sometimes than you think.

Sometimes, it becomes very easy to look down your nose, let's say at another Christian or another ministry, who doesn't know some of the things you know. And it's real easy to just criticize them or be judgmental towards them, when the fact is, you've had some privileges that they haven't enjoyed. Instead of making you proud, critical, hearty, or judgmental, it should humble you and cause you to realize, with what you know, with that privilege comes responsibility.

Some people just haven't heard the things you've heard. And it's not because they're anti-God or rebellious against God.

They just don't know.

They just haven't had the same privileges. You follow what I'm saying? So we have to be very careful, especially when you go around judging and condemning and criticizing people in a real general fashion without really knowing things about them.

Look with me over to chapter 6. I just want to show you a verse over here, Amos chapter 6. Here's an interesting verse.

Look at this one. This shows a little bit of the danger, the peril that comes with privilege, that sometimes it shows that you can become hard towards others if you're not careful in guarding your heart. Amos 6.6.

Oh, he's speaking about the wicked, at ease in Zion that drink wine in bowls and anoint themselves with the chief ointments. They live in luxury and ease and prosperity. But notice this, the latter part of verse 6.

But they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. Now, Joseph, of course, is one of the tribes of Israel and speaks in this sense symbolically of Israel. In other words, he's talking about people who become rich, they become prosperous, they become wealthy, living in luxury, they drink their wine in bowls.

I mean, they think only about themselves, their own wants, comforts, desires, and they forget about their brothers who are being afflicted. They forget about their own people, Joseph, their own tribe, their own brethren, who are going through great oppression. In fact, they even add to the oppression of their own brethren.

You see, that's another one of the dangers, the perils of the privileged, that they get so wrapped up with themselves, their own lives, their own privilege, their own prosperity, that they forget about others who are hurting, lacking, needy, and so on. They forget about the difficulties and so forth that others experience. Now I want to remind you also about the message of Matthew chapter 25.

Now you don't have to turn there, but let me just remind you of what Matthew 25 records. It's the message of the ten virgins, five of whom were wise, five of whom were foolish. But listen to this.

Of the ten, all of them had received great privilege. They all had lamps. They all were virgins.

They all had invitations to the great wedding. All of them had privilege, didn't they? But not all of them acted responsibly with their privilege.

Not all of them were responsible. Not all of them made themselves ready. Just half of them did.

The other half got themselves locked out because, you see, with privilege comes peril. And if you don't take that privilege seriously, if you don't think about your responsibilities with the privilege, you can get left out in the cold. That's what happened to them.

They got left out in the cold. Matthew 25 also speaks of the talents. Remember the teaching Jesus gave on the parable of the talents?

And with the giving of the talents, he expected something in return, right? With the privilege comes responsibility. God expects something in return.

So that's the point. To whom much is given, much is required. That's the point God was making here with Israel.

And the way we should apply it to ourselves is to realize that there has never been anyone that's more privileged than we've been. All the privileges Israel had, we've been more privileged. We really have.

We've been more privileged than Israel. More privileged as a nation. More privileged as a people.

No one on earth has been blessed more, taught more, no one has read more, heard more. I mean, we've got privileges like books galore, Christian books, Christian radio, Christian television, Christian tapes, teaching tapes, magazines, Christian magazines, more Bible translations than you can count. Christian videos.

I mean, we've had a lot of privilege. We've had a lot given to us, an awful lot given to us, which also indicates that God's going to require that much more of us. Hello.

In fact, considering all that God's given to us and all that God's done for us, we're going to have an awful lot to give an account for, an awful lot, because we have been a tremendously privileged people. And with that in mind, all that we've heard, all that we've been taught through the years, all of the teaching, the messages, and that's not even counting all of the, like we said, magazines, TV, radio, preaching, teaching, so forth. With all of that in mind, you know, we ought to be a lot further along in our walk with the Lord than many of us are.

We just ought to be a lot further along. The things that trip some of us up ought not be tripping us up at all. Those are the things we should have had victory over a long time ago.

We just ought to not be stumbling over some of the little petty things that causes people to stumble. Well, look with me to verse 3. Beginning in verse 3, on through verse 6, I'm back in Amos chapter 3.

From verse 3 to 6, Amos bombards the people of Israel with a series of seven questions. In verses 3, 4, 5, and 6. Question after question after question.

Now, the first one is this. Verse 3, can two walk together except they be agreed? Now, he's making a point here.

He's making an analogy that the people would quickly understand. In those ancient times, it was a lot wiser, and certainly a lot safer, to travel with someone on the roads between cities. That's why the people often traveled in caravans.

They traveled in as big of a group as they could because the bigger they were, the more of them they were, the less likely they were to be robbed because thieves, robbers, murderers, cutthroats were everywhere. And a person traveling alone was almost sure to be robbed, perhaps killed. You know, you can even think of how Jesus spoke of the Good Samaritan, the man who left and was plundered, robbed, pillaged, beaten, almost killed until the Good Samaritan came along and helped him out.

But he traveled alone. There's great danger in traveling alone. So Amos is just referring to that when he says, can two travel together?

Can you walk together unless you're going in the same direction? You just can't travel with somebody if you're not going the same way. That's his whole point right here.

Two couldn't travel together unless they were going in the same direction. But God was actually using this as a reference to his own walk with Israel. The point is, he and Israel were going in opposite directions.

Whereas they were called to walk in a holy fashion, they were walking in a worldly fashion. They were called to be separate from the world. They were being like the world.

They were falling into idolatry, immorality, wickedness of every kind, sin, rebellion, carnality. God was telling Israel, we're supposed to be walking together. We can't walk together if we're not agreed.

If we're not going in the same direction. That was his message to Israel. God and Israel were not going in the same direction.

And so the whole point was that God was going to judge them because they were going in a different direction that God was going in. And God wasn't going to walk with them any longer because they were not agreed. He wasn't going to be with them.

He wasn't going to be for them. And just, he wasn't going to be their protection. He wasn't going to be their safety anymore.

So they would become victims of the spiritual plunderers and of course, their enemies. The thieves, the robbers, the Assyrians as the ones who destroyed the Northern Kingdom. But let me tell you what we've done all too often with this verse.

We take verse 3 here, sometimes even out of its context, and we use it to justify bad attitudes towards other people. You know, there's tragically sometimes people in our own congregation that won't have anything to do with other people in the congregation because they say, how can we walk together if we're not agreed? And they don't agree with everything that I believe, and so how can two walk together if we're not in agreement?

And they're talking about a brother or a sister in their very own fellowship. But they don't think they can fellowship with them. They can't walk with them because they don't dot their eyes, cross their T's exactly the same way they do.

And they think that that's what this verse means. How can you walk together except we be agreed? That's not what it means, brothers and sisters.

If it meant that, that we had to be in 100% precise, exact agreement on every fine point of doctrine or detail, if that's what it meant, you wouldn't walk with anybody. You probably wouldn't walk with your own husband or your own wife because they don't even agree with you on everything.

Or your own kids.

We can't walk together.

You know, the way that sometimes people apply this verse is just, you know what they do, they use it and justify really mean-spiritedness, because that's what it is. They just have a whole mean spirit. They're just angry with everybody, and I'm not going to walk, I can't fellowship with him.

Now, you know, obviously, we're not talking about people who were in heresy. If they were in heresy, they would have to be corrected anyway. That would come under aspects of church discipline.

“And if it was other Christians outside of the body, and they were supposed to be Christians, they were in heresy, obviously, this verse would apply, because you couldn't walk with them, because you aren't going in the same direction if they were in heresy. You follow what I'm saying? But if it's some of these little minor things that people get so bent out of shape over, don't use this verse to justify.

A man who is not in spirit or an isolationist, they're ready to cut people off or any little thing. So that's not what the verse means. The verse means, actually, it means God wasn't going to walk with Israel because they weren't going the same direction God was going in.

All right, look with me in verse 4. Here's two questions that Amos raises. The first one was verse 3.

He raises that question. He raises two questions here. Verse 4, can a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey?

Will a young lion cry out of his den if he's taken nothing? Now, here, the point that Amos is making is the lion or the adult lion would not roar until his prey, it was certain that he had a victim. It was certain that he had triumphed over some prey, whether it was, you know, an antelope, a deer or whatever.

And then the lion, when he, when victory was certain, when he was just about to, you know, deal his death blow to this antelope or deer or whatever, he trapped this victim. When his victory was assured, he would roar in triumph, roar in conquest because he had captured his victim. Now, the young lion, he speaks of here in verse 4, will a young lion cry out of his den if he has taken nothing?

This refers to the fact that the young lions, the younger of the den, were not known to roar until they were actually eating their prey, eating their victims. It was in, they were in their den. They were chewing, chomping, devouring, tearing.

They were, you know, they were just gulping it down in their den. So then they were roaring in pleasure and joy because they were devouring their victim. Now, this is significant, and we're going to see the significance of it when we get down to verse 8.

But right now, let's see verse 5. Look with me to verse 5. He asks two more questions.

These questions reveal the principle of cause and effect. Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth where no djinn is for him? Literally, the word is bait where there's no bait.

Shall one take up a snare from the earth and have taken nothing at all? Now, here's the principle that Amos is referring to here. It's really the principle of cause and effect.

Birds don't get caught in a trap unless you set bait in the trap for them. That's what he's saying. You want to trap a bird, you have to put seed out there.

You know, that's what he's referring to as the djinn. You've got to put corn, a kernel, something out there to entice the bird into the trap. You ever tried to catch a bird?

When you were a kid, whatever?

We used to do it quite a bit, especially when I lived with my grandparents for a while, because my grandfather had constructed a particular kind of trap that the birds would trap themselves on under it. And you'd sprinkle the corn kernels or the grain up under there, and then we would go hide and watch and just wait for those birds to get up underneath that trap and spring it, because that's what they did. They'd get under there and spring it on themselves, and the trap would fall on them.

Well, here's what God's saying through Amos. The trap doesn't fall for nothing. That's what he's saying.

There's bait there.

And when they go after the bait, the trap falls. The same thing is true with a mouse or with a rat. You know, the trap doesn't fall for nothing.

It doesn't snap for nothing. There's a reason why it snaps. The mouse goes after the cheese.

Or even if you just bump into it and it snaps, at least there was a cause. See, it doesn't snap for nothing. That's his whole point.

It snaps for something. Now, here's what God is saying to Israel in all of this. He has them in his grasp.

That's the point. He has trapped them. Just like the fowler traps the birds, just like the lion traps its victim, well, God has trapped Israel.

He has them in his trap. They went after the bait. Now, you know what the bait is.

The bait was sin. The devil's bait. Idolatry, sin, excess, carnality, immorality, greed.

That's the devil's bait. It's still his bait. He still sets his traps.

And the devil dangles those things out in front of us, you know, to make it look real enticing. Israel was the bird. You know, they were the bird that went after the bait, the sin, the excess.

Now the trap had sprung, and now God's judgment would snap. That's the whole idea. His judgment would snap.

It would snap upon them, and He would crush them, and destroy them, and judge them because of their sins. They were in His trap, and the whole point here is, they wouldn't escape. Punishment was certain.

When we look at things like this, you want to make this apply to us today. Don't just look at it and say, well, yeah, that's what happened to Israel. I want you to see how it applies to us today, because, you know, Christians are doing the same thing.

Judgment doesn't fall on us for nothing. There's a cause and an effect. When we reach out and grab the devil's bait out there, and the devil dangles that bait out in front of us, you know he does.

He does it to all of us. He makes sin look enticing. He makes the world look alluring.

He makes you want to put your hands out there and touch it. You know, grab ahold of things you shouldn't, do things you shouldn't, and get involved with things you shouldn't. He makes it look enticing.

But boy, when you do, the trap falls. It springs on us. I'm going to tell you this.

You know, young people, the devil puts his bait out there in front of you, and it's not just young people, old people too, but I especially want to tell you young people, teenagers. I want you to listen to me. You know, the devil will try to make the world look very alluring to you.

He tries to dress sin up in such a way that it'll look like fun if you go for it. The devil wants to make you think that church is no fun. Serving God is no fun.

It's dull. It's boring. It's for your parents, but it's not for you.

That's the devil's lie. The devil wants to tell you that real fun is found in the ballrooms, in the dance joints, in the booze bottle, in the pill bottle. Real fun is found in the marijuana.

It's found in drugs. It's found in sex. It's found in excess.

It's found in doing your own thing. The devil wants to tell you that's where fun is. That's excitement.

But that's all the devil's lie. All he's done is just like we used to set that trap out for the birds and we'd throw the corn in there. And then you would sit and watch those birds as they would land and then they'd look at that corn and then they'd dance all around that trap.

They didn't want to go in there, but man, that corn looked awful good to them. They'd dance all around that corn.

You know what I'm talking about?

You ever tried to trap birds?

They'd look around it.

They'd stick their head in and they'd take it back out. You can just imagine what's going on in their mind. Nah, I'm not going to do it.

I'm not going to get up in there, man. And the next thing you know, they're going in there again.

That's just the way the devil does with you, with all of us. He tries to make that sin look so tempting, so enticing that you want to go in there after it, but you know you shouldn't do it. You don't like the bird.

He knows, I ought to not get up under that thing.

I ought to not go under there. But man, that seed looks good. That sin looks good.

That woman, that man, that tobacco, that booze, that whatever. The devil makes it look good. But it's a trap.

And when you go for the devil's bait, it will spring on your neck. Just like the bar on a rat trap springs on the rat. Just like it springs on the mouse's head.

Just like the cage falls on top of the bird, now he's trapped. That's what the devil wants to do with you. He wants to trap you.

He wants to destroy you. He wants to catch you in his bait.

Well, I just want everyone to realize that when you go for the devil's bait, no matter how the devil dresses it up, you know, Hollywood dresses up sin to make it look mindy alluring. Boy, Hollywood really does a good job of putting a fancy dress on sin, make it look tempting. But if you go for it, it will destroy you.

It will certainly destroy you.

Look with me to verse 6.

He asks two more questions. Shall a trumpet be blown in the city and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city and the Lord hath not done it?

Here he's saying, if a watchman blows his trumpet, it means the city is under attack. People should be afraid. They should take warning.

They should get ready. Soldiers, get your weapons. Everybody else takes shelter.

If he blows his trumpet, that's the signal. The city's under attack. Now, with everything that's been going on the last few weeks in the Middle East, we can make a real modern analogy here and say, if the air raid siren sounds, do people run for cover?

Well, of course they do, because if you've seen anything that's been going on in the Middle East for the past couple of weeks, you know when those air raid sirens go off, what do people do? When the trumpet blows, the siren sounds, what do they do? Man, they run, they grab their gas mask.

They run for the bomb shelter because are the people afraid when the trumpet blows?

Of course they are.

If they have any sense, they are. They're running for shelter.

They know they're under attack.

They know death is lurking around the corner. You follow the you get the point? That's what Amos is saying here.

Shall a trumpet be blown in the city?

Now, that's the watchman on the wall's trumpet.

He's sounding the alarm. We're under attack.

And the people are afraid. They run for shelter. They run for cover.

That's the whole point.

Now, here's the implication. Amos is saying, the message that I'm giving you right now, the message that I'm delivering to you right now, that's the trumpet blowing. That's the warning.

That judgment is at your door. He's telling all of Israel this. Judgment is falling right now.

In fact, the latter part of verse 6, shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord has not done it, shall there be evil? I think the word literally is calamity. Shall there be calamity or disaster or great judgment in a city such as Israel and it not be the Lord's doing?

In other words, he's making it very clear. When judgment falls on you, it won't be an accident. When judgment falls on you, it won't be a coincidence.

When judgment falls, it's because God is judging you. It'll be divine wrath, divine judgment. Verse 7, surely the Lord will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.

He would send a warning concerning his judgment. When he's going to judge a people, judge a nation, he would send a warning through his prophets. In fact, as you read the Old Testament, one thing you find consistent throughout that God sent prophets as messengers who were commissioned by God to announce judgment.

When God was going to judge a people or judge a nation, he sent prophets as messengers to go and announce that judgment coming and the call to people to repent, call them to renounce their sins, to turn from their sins. God would send the prophet with this message. Now, I think it's important for us to understand this message, this verse, rather, verse 7, in its context, because, like I said earlier in the message, that it's a misused verse.

Surely God will do nothing, but that he reveals it to his prophets. Now, some people take that to mean that God won't do anything. He won't move in a supernatural way, except the prophets will come and prophesy.

You know, they think prophets will tell you everything, prophesy everything to you. But the context is judgment. When judgment befalls a nation, God will send a prophet to give a warning to that nation to repent.

But this tells me several things, and I believe these are important things, and I want you to think about it. Before God would crush a nation, He would send a messenger. He would send prophets to that nation to warn them of impending judgment.

He would tell them why they were going to be judged, because of their sins, because of their rebellion, because of their idolatry, their excess. Just like He told Israel here, even wicked Nineveh, as wicked as Nineveh was, capital of Assyria, as wicked as they were, God sent a prophet to Nineveh to go prophesy.

He sent Jonah.

He sent Jonah, go prophesy. Forty days and judgment falls.

That's what he did.

He went prophesy, and the people repented. But before God judged them, He sent a prophet to go with his message, that He was going to destroy them as a people. And that's what He did consistently.

Before judgment fell, He sent prophets with a prophet's message. Now listen, because this is important. A prophet's message is judgment.

Hello. A prophet's message is not peace, joy, and prosperity. A prophet's message is not everybody line up, and I'm going to have a word from the Lord for you.

A prophet's message is not just to tell you your name and address, even though that may sound astounding and wonderful.

That's not a prophet's message or his ministry. A prophet's message is judgment. It's get right.

It's repent. It's prepare ye the way of the Lord. It's judgment is going to fall.

A prophet's message is a sober, strong, cutting, biting, preparatory message.

Always, always.

It's not a pleasant message. It's not the kind of message people want to hear. It's really not.

A prophet's message is a tough message, a harsh message. It's, it speaks of impending judgment. God has determined to judge.

And now, hear ye the word of the Lord. That's a prophet's message. That's why they weren't popular people, you see.

The prophets weren't. Anyway, people didn't like them coming around because it upset everybody to have a prophet in their midst. Always prophesying doom and destruction and get right and repent and turn or burn.

They didn't like that. People didn't like that. So when prophets came around, they got antsy.

They got nervous. You know, they liked people who would preach things that would be fun, exciting, pleasant, entertaining, amusing. That's what they liked.

But the prophets' message was just not like that. So, you know, sometimes we hear things about this person over there that's supposed to be a prophet. Here's another one over here that's supposed to be a prophet.

Prophet so-and-so is passing through town. You only have to hear somebody speak a time or two to find out if they were a prophet or not. If they were a legitimate prophet, first of all, they have a prophet's message.

And it would not be a light, trivial, entertaining, fun, inspirational, amusing message. You don't listen to a prophet and laugh. Not unless you're in serious spiritual trouble.

Because the prophet's message was sober, somber, scary. Hello. You follow what I'm saying?

Now, that's just one way we can discern, another way we can discern the truth from the false prophets. Because, as you know, Jesus did predict in the last days, Matthew 24, that there would be a lot of false prophets who would arise and would deceive many with their messages. If they're prophesying great things, wonderful things, pleasant things, happy things, if their messages are just fun, exciting, they're not prophets.

Hello. They're not prophets. That doesn't mean that they're necessarily devils.

Don't get me wrong, because not everybody is a prophet. Thank God. They are pastors, they are teachers, they are evangelists, and they all have unique ministries.

But if somebody claims to be a prophet, then they have to have a prophets message, not just to not just prophesy. See, it's one thing to prophesy, but that doesn't make you a prophet. It's one thing to have gifts of the Spirit.

That doesn't make you a prophet.

A prophet's message is always, consistently, sober, somber judgment.

Repent. Get right.

Prepare the way of the Lord.

Then verse 8, I want you to see the whole sobering significance of verse 8 as it's brought before the people. The lion hath roared. Who will not fear?

The Lord God has spoken. Who can but prophesy? In other words, Amos is saying, why do you think I'm here?

The lion has roared. Remember when we read back up in verse 4? The lion roars when?

When it's got its victim, when it's got its prey, when it's about to just tear its throat out and devour it. Well, the lion has roared. The lion is God.

The prey is Israel. And Amos is the prophet, the watchman who's blowing the trumpet, saying, you're the victim.

You're the one who is about to be crushed. You're the one. You don't know it, but you are right now in the lion's mouth.

That's his whole message. You are right now in the lion's grasp, and you are about to be devoured. You are about to be destroyed.

The lion has roared. Why did he roar?

Because he was about to destroy Israel.

He was about to devour his prey. So here he was, God's man, God's messenger, delivering God's message. He heard the roar.

He knew the meaning.

He was sounding the alarm. Therefore, verse 2, I will punish you for all of your iniquities. So in these verses, we see that privilege has its peril.

We've all been privileged. With the privilege comes responsibility. Responsibility to hear the word of the Lord, to obey the word of the Lord.

Like Amos, I believe that there's a sense in which all of us have been commissioned to warn everyone to flee from the wrath to come. Because, you know, judgment is going to fall on everyone. All the lost, the judgment is going to fall on all of them.

“They're going to be eternally judged. And so we have a commission to warn them, you see, that they too will fall in the lion's grasp, be devoured, be destroyed, if we don't sound the alarm. Well, I think that Amos has a very relevant message for today, not just for Israel thousands of years ago, but for America today, for each of us.

Well, Father, bless the word we pray this evening to our understanding and help us all, Father, to take it to heart, to incorporate it into our own individual lives, to profit from it. Father, we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Let's stand together.”