Welcome to the 2011 Shepherds
Conference, General Session 8, Steve Lawson. I want to begin
by thanking Dr. MacArthur for this opportunity
and this privilege to be able to stand before you this afternoon
and to bring the Word of God And I want to thank Grace Community
Church for their wonderful hosting of this conference, which has
come to be really a milestone in our annual calendar for us
who serve the Lord. It is such a joy to be with you
men. I don't think there's another
place in the world where so uniquely, so many strong men gather together
in one place to commit themselves to the work of God. As iron sharpens
iron, so one man another And I believe that we draw strength
from one another, and we sharpen one another, and we challenge
one another to stand strong in the grace of God as we come together
and convene in this conference. And so it is with a great deal
of anticipation to be with you at this conference that I now
ask you to take God's Word and turn with me to the book of Amos,
to Amos chapter 8. I want to bring to you a message
that I've entitled, Famine in the Land. I have written a book
entitled Famine in the Land, yet I have no chapter or no message
by that title. And I would like to expound this
passage for us in our time today, because we do live in such a
time in which there is a severe famine in the land for the hearing
of the words of the Lord. Amos chapter 8, I want to begin
reading in verse 11. We will expound the entire chapter,
but I want to read verses 11 and 12. God says through His prophet, Behold, days are coming, declares
the Lord, when I will send a famine on the land. not a famine for
bread or a thirst for water, but rather for hearing the words
of the Lord. People will scatter from sea
to sea and from the north even to the east. They will go to
and fro to seek the word of the Lord, but they will not find
it. Of all the natural disasters
that can strike a nation, few are more devastating than a severe
famine. Times of a widespread shortage
of food on a grand scale has resulted in widespread loss of
human life. In 1846, the great Irish famine
devastated the United Kingdom and some one to two million lives
were taken. In 1932, a severe famine shrouded
the Soviet Union, resulting in massive starvation conditions
that took the lives of some six to 10 million people. In 1943,
the Bengal famine struck India like a food tsunami in which
some four million people had their life taken due to the shortage
of food. In 1959, a catastrophic famine
swept across China and caused the deaths that has been estimated
as many as 43 million people. During these extreme famine shortages,
devastating effects are seen on every side. Human life wastes
away to nothing. Body fat dries up. Stomachs balloon
and swell out. Arms shrivel up. Faces shrink. Cheekbones protrude. Ribcages
surface. Famine victims are like dead
men walking. The truth is, where there is
no food, there is no human life. Food is absolutely an essential
and a necessity for human existence. Without food, the grim reaper
of death stalks the land. But no matter how devastating
a major famine is, what is even more calamitous is when a spiritual
famine descends upon a land. Far worse than the starvation
of the body is the starvation of the soul. A physical famine
has temporal consequences, but a spiritual famine has eternal
consequences. A physical famine leads to the
first death, but a spiritual famine ushers in the second death. Whenever a spiritual famine occurs,
there can be no spiritual life, and no spiritual vitality, and
no spiritual growth, and no spiritual fruit. During days of severe
spiritual drought, pulpits dry up and become barren. Truth becomes
scarce. Preachers become clouds without
rain. Teachers become springs without
water. Churches become dust bowls. Ministries
shrivel up, and people begin to die on the vine. This is precisely
what the prophet Amos said as he stood in his day. The year
was 755 B.C., and it was the best of times, and it was the
worst of times. Financially, politically, culturally,
it was a time of prosperity and power for the ten tribes of the
northern kingdom. Jeroboam II was the king of Israel,
and in his kingdom, outwardly, it was at a time of the zenith
of success. But inwardly, spiritually, the
nation was given over to gross idolatry. and corruption, and
hypocrisy. And Israel had the Word of God,
but she did not hear the Word of God, and the people of God
would not heed the Word of God. And Israel was guilty of playing
games with God, and she gave the external appearance that
she was religious, but on the inside, she was only half in
and half out with God. Consequently, God declared through
the prophet Amos that He would remove the Word of God from their
midst, and that God would send an unprecedented famine in which
there would be a famine upon the land. As the prophet Amos
warned of a coming famine in his day, I believe that surely
we are living in such days in which we are witnessing a spiritual
famine in the land. Theologian Walt Kaiser is among
many who have declared that such days of drought are now here
for the evangelical church. Kaiser writes, the famine of
the word continues in massive proportions in most places in
North America. Kaiser analyzes the current state
of the church and he renders it spiritually anemic and malnourished
and weak. And the reason is, he says, the
utter absence of biblical preaching in the evangelical pulpit. Kaiser further writes, it is
no secret that Christ's church is not at all in good health. She has been languishing because
she has been fed spiritual junk food. All kinds, Kaiser writes,
of artificial preservatives and all sorts of unnatural substitutes
have been served up to her, and as a result, theological and
biblical malnutrition. has affected the very generation
that has taken such giant steps to make sure its physical health
is not damaged by using foods that are harmful to the physical
bodies. And then Kaiser concludes, a
worldwide spiritual famine resulting from the absence of any genuine
proclamation of the Word of God continues to run wild. and almost
unabated in most quarters of the church." Men, we stand in a very unique
time in history as God has called us to stand and serve and to
minister His Word. And we are surrounded by dead
men who are walking. We are surrounded by an absence
of the preaching of the word of God. We serve in days of a
famine in the land. Could it be that we have exchanged
theology for methodology? Could it be that we have exchanged
biblical preaching for behavior modification? Could it be that
we have exchanged scripture for stories? Could it be that we
have exchanged the supremacy of God for the supremacy of man? Could it be that the church today
is actually bored with the Bible? The prophet Amos said in his
day, days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will send a
famine on the land, not a famine for bread or a thirst for water,
but rather for hearing the words of the Lord. As we look at this
text today, I want to set before you five headings as we will
work our way through this passage. I believe that this text is relevant
for the hour in which we find ourselves as we minister in days,
I believe, of famine. I want you to note first the
certainty of the famine. God is the speaker, and He declares
with infallible and irrevocable certainty that there is a famine
coming to the people of God. Notice how verse 11 begins, behold. And that is to say, mark this
well. Pay attention to this. Take note
of this. This word behold is like a drill
sergeant who is bursting into the barracks early in the morning
and waking up his sleeping troops to secure their attention. Behold,
wake up, look at this. Days are coming. and not merely
a passing day, more than a short period of time, days, plural,
are coming. An extended period of time is
fast approaching, God says. It is coming with absolute certainty. It is unavoidable. It is inevitable. It is destined. It is inescapable. It is irreversible. God says,
these days are looming on the horizon. They are fast approaching. It cannot be diverted. They are
now soon upon us. How certain is this? Well, He
says in verse 11, Behold, days are coming, declares the Lord. It is God Himself who says it
is coming. God has declared it, and surely
it will come to pass. Numbers 23, verse 19, Moses writes,
God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he
should repent. Has God said it, and will He
not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He
not make it good? The answers to these rhetorical
questions is a resounding yes. God will bring to pass all that
He said He will do. This is the certainty of this
coming famine, God says, through Amos. The people of God had crossed
the line with God. The people of God had gone too
far. The people of God had hit the point of no return. There
is no avoiding this famine. So it will be equally certain
for any land when God declares it to be so. Those who have the
Word of God and who refuse to hear it and who refuse to heed
it in the perfect timing of God will face the certainty of just
such a famine. I wonder where our land stands
today with God. First, the certainty of the famine.
Second, the controller of the famine. Please note who it is
who is sending this famine. We continue to read, Behold,
days are coming, declares the Lord. when I will send a famine
on the land." Who will send this famine? It's not the devil. It's
not the false prophets. It is not apostate religion. It is God Himself who will send
the famine. God is the one who exercises
control over the spiritual condition of any land. This famine is heaven
sent. The hand of the Lord will send
it. This is a divine famine. This
is a divine judgment upon the land. God is the speaker, and
God is the sender of this famine. And when it comes, it will break
with divine fury, and it will break with divine severity. This will not be a small famine,
not a mere passing one, but one that will hit with great power
upon the land. It will hit with the severity
of a category five hurricane. It will be a divine visitation
from heaven. This famine, God says, will strike
the land. The land is in the northern kingdom
of Israel. That place where God had sent
His prophets, and sent His prophets, and where the word of God was
plentiful, and the hearing of the word of the Lord was accessible
to the people of God. But they turned a deaf ear to
the prophets and to the Word of God. And God now promises
the cataclysmic famine, and it looks ahead to the coming Assyrian
captivity. The ten northern tribes of Israel,
once in the promised land, will be taken away in judgment at
the hands of the invading Assyrian empire. This will be a horrific
judgment from God. Men will be slaughtered. Women
will be abused. Children will be enslaved. They
will be swept away in judgment. And once they arrive in Assyria,
they will be enchained, they will be enslaved, they will be
subjected to cruel treatment. But once in Assyria, as they
are in the chains of slavery, there will await yet a more severe
judgment upon the people of God. It will be a famine for the hearing
of the word of the Lord. It is a famine sent by God upon
the foreign land in which they will find themselves. This famine
will be a far greater judgment than the Assyrian conquest, than
the Assyrian imprisonment, and than the Assyrian exile. It is a famine that will follow
them all the way to Assyria, and there is no greater judgment
upon a people than for them to no longer hear the word of the
Lord. God is sovereign over the spiritual
conditions of any land, over any nation, over any church. It is God who sovereignly chooses
His prophets and chooses His preachers. And it is God who
commissions them. And it is God who sends them
forth. And it is also God who withholds
them. And it is God who redirects them
to other lands and to other places. There is no greater judgment
than to be in a land where you cannot hear the word of the Lord. This is the controller of the
famine. And it is none other than God
Himself. Now, please notice third, the
character of the famine. For verse 11 goes on to define
and to describe what will be the nature of this coming famine,
of what character will it be. And God declares, both with a
negative denial and then with a positive assertion, exactly
what will this famine be. He begins by telling us what
it will not be. God begins with the negative,
note. Not a famine for bread or a thirst
for water. No, this will not be the normal
kind of famine. This will be no ordinary famine. Not a famine caused by drought
conditions. Not a famine caused by a lack
of rain resulting in no water and severity of food. Such famines
for bread and water have struck the people of God previous to
this. In Genesis 12, verse 10, in the
days of Abram, there was, quote, a famine in the land. In Genesis
26, 1, in the days of Isaac, there was, quote, a famine in
the land. And in Genesis 41, verse 27,
in the days of Joseph, seven years of famine, all under
the control of the sovereignty of God, because God alone is
the one who controls the weather and the conditions that are necessary
for the harvest, and it is God who withholds the rain in a severe
judgment upon the land and removes the food from those people. But what God said was coming
was not a famine like this. It will be far worse, far more
devastating, far more deadly. And God now speaks with positive
assertion what will be the character, what will be the nature of this
coming famine. Notice, but, meaning on the other
hand, or to the contrary. but rather for hearing the words
of the Lord. The day will come, God says,
when the people of God will no longer hear the words of God. There will be a spiritual famine.
There will be a truth famine. There will be a revelatory famine. In the days of their captivity,
God will turn them over to their own ways, and there will be no
prophets to speak a word from heaven. In captivity, there will
be no mouthpieces for God through whom he will speak to the people.
The heavens will be as brass, the heavens will be silent, the
heavens will be mute, and the people of God will no longer
hear the word of God. Food and water constitute the
absolute essentials to sustain human life. But God's people
would languish under an even more oppressive and severe famine. This will be the worst famine
of all. No one can live spiritually without the strength that comes
from the Word of God brought to the heart. It is better to
be deprived of food and drink than to go without the Word of
God. The nature of this famine would
be that there would be no truth from God proclaimed to their
ears. There would be no prophets sent from heaven. There would
be no more thus says the Lord. There would be no divine revelation. This famine would be catastrophic.
Worse than strong words of judgment are no words at all from God. To receive no word from the Lord
meant that God had hidden His face and had given a people over
and had abandoned them to go their own way. And in such a
state without the Word of God, their souls would become emaciated,
their spirits malnourished, their faith shriveled up, their growth
stunted, their spiritual muscles atrophied, their strength gone. Spiritually speaking, they will
suffer bloated bellies, pencil-like arms, sunken eyes, shrunken tongues,
they will become walking dead men in the land because there
will be no word of the Lord." It was George Whitefield, the
renowned English evangelist of the 18th century who said, as
God can send a nation or people no greater blessing than to give
them faithful, sincere, upright ministers. So the greatest curse
that God can possibly send upon a people in this world is to
give them over to blind, unregenerate, carnal, lukewarm, unskilled guides. And so it is, the greatest curse
that can descend upon any nation. is that they be subject to spiritual
leaders who say, peace, peace, when there is no peace. The greatest
curse is to come to the house of God, and to sit in the house
of God, and not to hear the word of God. The greatest curse is
to hear instead, in the house of God, the vain imaginations
of godless men. to hear the empty, vain philosophies
of this world. The greatest curse is to come
to the house of God and to hear instead secular ideologies. The greatest curse is to come
to the house of God, but to hear only the religious babblings
and spiritual superstitions of blind leaders of the blind. The greatest curse is to be subjected
to a famine in the land for the hearing of the word of the Lord. Men, I believe that we are living
in such days of famine for the hearing of the words of the Lord. Our host John MacArthur has told
me that when he now flies into a city to preach, and he is picked
up at the airport by his host and put into the car to be driven
to the church where he is to preach. He says, we drive past
large church after large church until finally he arrives at a
tiny little church on the outskirts of town where a mere handful
of people are gathered to hear the word of the Lord. Al Mohler
has told me a few years ago, he said, I've been the president
of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary for 15 years, and I
have only received one phone call from a pulpit committee
asking for the name of an expositor. This is from the man who is the
president of the largest seminary in the evangelical world that
trains men for the largest denomination in the evangelical world, 15
years, and one request for a biblical expositor. Men, that is a famine
in the land for the hearing of the words of the Lord. I spoke
not long ago at a seminary, a leading seminary in this country. They
asked me if I would come and do the Bible exposition week
in chapel that week. I thought, this is tremendous.
It's the high point of the entire spiritual year for this seminary. I took the book of Jonah and
preached verse by verse through the entire book of Jonah. Four
chapel messages, four chapters on Jonah, moved right through
the text, and when it was over, One of the most prominent and
leading professors of this seminary, who has been there some sixty
years, came up to me and he said, Steve, you are a dinosaur. We do not even put out people
like you anymore. We don't even know anyone like
you. And I thought, my God, We are
living in days of famine in the land. Theology has given way
to theatrics. Pulpits have been replaced with
performances. Doctrine has been abandoned for
drama. We are living in days of severe
famine in the land. And you and I need to be aware
that as we serve the Lord in the places in which we serve
God, that we are not surrounded by places that are serving an
abundance of food to their parishioners and to those who sit under their
ministries. In this hour, in this day, as we look to our right
and as we look to our left, in so many cases we will be alone
as we serve the Lord, and we must do the work of ten men and
stand in the gap and serve the food of God's Word. I want you
to see forth the cause of the famine. I want you to go back
to the beginning of chapter 8. Why did God send such a famine
upon the land? The answer is clear. And the
answer is, when they had the Word of God brought to them,
they would not hear it, they would not heed it, and they came
to the point when God said, therefore, I will remove My prophets and
my people will no longer hear the word of the Lord." So notice
verse 1, "'Thus the Lord God showed me, and behold, there
was a basket of summer fruit.'" This is the fourth of the five
visions. that the Lord would give to Amos. In chapter 7, there
are three visions, the vision of the locus, the vision of the
fire, and the vision of the plumb line, and the plumb line being
that unchanging standard of the Word of God by which everything
else is measured. In chapter 9, there will be a
vision of God Himself. Here in chapter 8, the vision
is that of summer fruit. Amos is shown a basket of summer
fruit by the Lord. It is the end of the summer season. This is the fruit that is fully
ripened by the long summer's sun. It has reached its final
stage of development. So notice verse two, God now
speaks to Amos. God said, what do you see, Amos? And as God asked the question,
it is not for God to receive information that he does not
have. The point of the question is to teach Amos and to teach
us something. The question is designed to teach
the prophet a lesson, to force Amos to think. This basket of
summer fruit would become an object lesson for the prophet. So, we continue to read in verse
2, And I said, Hey, basket of summer fruit. The prophet saw
exactly what God had revealed to him in this vision. Then the
Lord said to me, The end has come for my people Israel. I
will spare them no longer." The message is clear. God's people
are ripe for judgment. There is an intended wordplay
here as end and fruit, summer fruit, sound much the same in
the Hebrew. It's a pun, if you will. Like
saying, the fall of the year will be the fall of God's people.
Ripe fruit means that the people of God are ripe for judgment. There will be no more patience
with God. No more time will be given to
the people of God. No more extended opportunities
will come from God to His people. There will be no more servants
who will come with the Word. There will be no more, thus says
the Lord, through His prophets. And so he says in verse 3, the
songs of the palace will turn to wailing in that day. That day is the day of the coming
famine. The songs of the palace will
turn to wailing in that day, declares the Lord God. These songs probably refer to
the Feast of Booths when they would gather to celebrate the
prosperity the Lord had given to them, and they had much for
which to physically give thanks. It was a joyous time of merriment
when suddenly, The songs were turned to wailing, ear-shattering
screams reserved for the funeral. And that day, in verse 3, refers
to the day of divine intervention, the day of divine judgment, when
God would descend upon the land by bringing the Assyrians down
into Israel to subject them to horrible captivity. Many will
be the corpses. There will be the loss of human
life. In every place, they will cast them forth in silence. There will be shock and awe upon
the faces of the people of God. They have been carefree. They have been laughing. They
have been marked by outward gaiety and outward partying. And now it will be replaced by
absolute silence because of the dead bodies that are strewn all
around them. Verse 4, hear this, God says,
hear this, you who trample the needy to do away with the humble
of the land. God is explaining why. He is
bringing this judgment. It is because the people of God
had disregarded the Word of God, which called for compassion toward
the needy and equity toward the poor, and the people of God turned
a total deaf ear to the Word. We would say today, it came in
one ear and went out the other. Verse 6 says, what they are thinking
in their minds. They are not saying it out loud,
but God with x-ray vision is looking into their heart, and
He gives to the prophet Amos the transcription of what they
are saying. This is what they are saying,
the people of God. When will the new moon be over,
so that we may sell grain?" The new moon was one of the religious
holidays at the beginning of each month. And while they are
sitting in the house of God, while they are hearing the word
of God, they could hardly wait for church to be over. so that
they could go back to their true love, so that they could go back
to where their heart is, which was making money. The whole time
that the Word of God was being preached to them, they could
hardly bear it. They could not wait to get out
of this religious service and to go back to the marketplace
so that they could make more money. Their true love was not
God and not the Word of God, though they sat in the house
of God. Their true love was out in the
world, which was to consume the things of the world, the lust
of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the boastful pride of life.
That is what consumed their hearts. And so we read in verse 5, and
the Sabbath, that we may open the wheat market. The Sabbath
was their weekly time for worship. And the whole time they are under
the preaching of the Word of God, they are saying, oh, when
will this be over? How much longer of the word must
we endure? The businessmen could hardly
wait until the worship service was over so that they could go
back to their money-making schemes. And the whole time they were
under the word of God, their wheels are turning, and they
are scheming how they can make more money. They did not want
the words of the prophet. What they wanted was the profit
of the marketplace. And so we read in verse 5, to
make the bushel smaller and the shekel bigger, and to cheat with
dishonest scales. What they were doing was conspiring
in their own heart how they can bilk the people out of more money. They would make the profit, the
product smaller. They would make the exchange
rate greater. They would make the scales upon
which the smaller profit would be, product would be measured.
It would be heavier scales so the people would be paying far
more for far less. It was dishonest. It was a total
lack of integrity. It was stealing from the pockets
of the people. And the whole time, they are
under the sound of the Word of God. They are going through the
New Moon festivals. They are going to Sabbath celebrations
every week. Verse 6. so as to buy the helpless for
money. Those who finally have come to
the end of their resources, who can no longer pay for more money,
for less product, until they finally come to a state of bankruptcy,
they are left to sell themselves into debtor's court. and be bought
by those who had lent them the money until they now had sold
themselves into slavery to the very merchants who were selling
them the product. and the entire time. These merchants
were going back into their places of worship. They were hearing
the Word of God, but there was no repentance. There was no confession
of sin. There was no turning away from
their worldliness. Instead, the entire time They
are repelling the message of the Word of God. They are saying
no to God. They are stiff-arming God. They
are bored to death in church, can hardly wait to get out of
the service so that they can go back to their life of worldliness
and godlessness. And then he says in verse 6,
and the needy for a pair of sandals. They are buying people for the
price of a pair of shoes, and that we may sell the refuse of
the wheat." Just the leftovers, the scraps that fall to the floor
after they have measured out their other products. They sweep
up really the debris off of the floor, they package it together,
and they sell it to the poor people. Here's the problem. The preaching of the Word of
God meant absolutely nothing to them. They heard the truth
over and over and over, and they had become numb to it. They sat
under the Word of God, but the entire time they were daydreaming.
They were fantasizing. about business and making money. They were not setting their mind
on things above. They were not seeking first the
kingdom of God and His righteousness. Their creed was greed. Their
God was gold. Their motto was, get all you
can and can all you get and sit on the lid. They belly ached. When is the
Sabbath day with all of this preaching going to be over? Do you think there are any similarities
for the day in which we live? Do you see people bored with
church? Do you see people tapping their
watches, wanting shorter and shorter sermons and less and
less of the Word so that they can go back undisturbed to their
lifestyle of sin? Such spiritually dead churches
start at 11 o'clock sharp and they get out at 12 o'clock dull. They are the bland leading the
bland. Their sanctuary is a morgue with
a steeple. Their congregations are corpses. They have undertakers for ushers.
They have embalmers for elders. Their pastor graduated from the
cemetery. Their choir director is the local
coroner. They sing in Balmed in Gilead. You may say their worship is
a bit stiff. The chair on the platform is
for rigor mortis to sit in. I've got more. I'm not finished. At the rapture, they will be
the first church taken because the dead in Christ will rise
first. They drive to church in one long
line with their headlights on. Whenever someone joins the church,
they notify the next of kin. But the church band is a black
hearse, and their church sign is a tombstone. But you want to know what's even
worse? It is those churches where there is the buzz of excitement,
and where there is electricity in the air, and where there is
energy, but there is no preaching of the Word of God. The people
of God ought to rise up with one voice and say, where is the
beef? Give us the word of God. How
sad it is where spiritually dead churches cannot even bear the
simplest diet of the word of God. So what is God's response
to such dead religion? Look at verse seven. The Lord
has sworn, verse 7, the Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob. The pride of Jacob is a name
that refers to God Himself. What this is saying is God has
taken an oath by Himself, to Himself. God has sworn. There is no higher name by which
God can pledge the fidelity of His oath. The Lord has sworn
the pride of Jacob. Indeed, I will never forget any
of their deeds. Not a single one of their boredom
with the Word of God will be overlooked by the Lord, and they're
going off into their lifestyles of living for this world. Verse
8, because of this, because of what? Because of their utter
rejection of the Word of God, because of their utter resistance
to the prophets of God, because of their consumption of their
lifestyles in which they are abusing people and bilking them
for their money. Because of this, will not the
land quake, and everyone who dwells in it mourn." He is saying
that there will be a judgment that will descend upon the people
of God that will be like an earthquake that will shake the very land
in which they find themselves. He says in verse 8, indeed all
of it will rise up like the Nile. There will be a flood of judgment
that will spill over the banks of God and will sweep across
the land and will consume the people of God. It will be this
coming famine in the land for the hearing of the word of the
Lord. It will be tossed about and subside like the Nile of
Egypt. It will swallow up all of the
people and drown them in misery. Verse 9, it will come about in
that day, the day of calamity, the coming of the Assyrians,
that will be the birth of this famine. It will come about in
that day, declares the Lord God, that I shall make the sun go
down at noon. It will be like a total eclipse
in the sky. Darkness, as it were, will cover
the land. The darkness, though, will be
a spiritual darkness. God will turn out the lights
of truth. The people will be left in absolute
darkness. Verse 10, then I shall turn your
festivals into mourning. God will just shut down the worship
services. God will pull the rug out from
under the hypocrisy of all of this religiosity and all your
songs into lamentation. and I will bring sackcloth on
everyone's loins and baldness on every head, and I will make
it like a time of mourning for an only son, and the end of it
will be like a bitter day." What was this cause of national disaster? What was the cause of this devastation,
of this attack that came upon the people of God? The answer
is that in the midst of their days of prosperity, the nation
rejected God. The nation rejected the word
of God. God would take them off to a
land in which they would never hear the word of God again. I believe that this is precisely
what has occurred in this land in which you and I live. Never
before in the history of the world has there been a land so
blessed with so much preaching of the Word of God. Never has
a land had more Bible colleges, more Christian schools, more
seminaries, more Bible teaching pastors, more Christian publishing
houses, more Christian television, more Christian radio, more Christian
bookstores, more theologians, more authors, more teachers,
more professors, more evangelists, more Bible translators, more
Bible translations, more Bible publishers, as this land in which
we live. And no land has ever so intentionally
repudiated the Word of God and turned a deaf ear to God that
it might go back to the things of the world. This is the cause
of the famine. And God, who is the same yesterday,
today, and forever, will not tolerate His people, His people,
when they refuse to hear the word of the Lord. If you do not use it, you will
lose it. So notice finally the consequences
of the famine. What is the result of such a
famine upon the people? What is its effect when the famine
for the hearing of the words of the Lord come? Notice verse
12, people. It refers not to the Egyptians.
It refers not to the Babylonians. It refers not to the Canaanites.
It refers not to the Assyrians. It refers to the people of God. People will stagger. They will
be so weakened by this famine that they can hardly stand up.
They will stagger about like drunks, from place to place,
searching, looking, but never finding the Word. People will stagger from sea
to sea, and from the north even to the east. from the Mediterranean
Sea in the west to the Dead Sea in the south, from Galilee in
the north to Jordan in the east. This represents the totality
of the land. People will stagger from sea
to sea and from the north even to the south. They will go to
and fro to seek the Word of the Lord. This will be like the day
after 9-11. People will be in shock. People
will be out of their mind. They will be in consternation.
Do you remember what it was like in your church after 9-11? Suddenly, everybody's religious.
Suddenly, everybody wants to hear a word from God. I remember
the church that I pastored, there was a Wednesday night prayer
meeting right after that. I would normally speak to just
a handful of people, be like BBs in a barrel. They would just
be bouncing around in the sanctuary. There were almost 3,000 people
there that night. People were desperate for answers.
They were like a drowning person looking for a rope to suddenly
hang on to. It was not true repentance. It
was a self-serving, grasping for a straw someplace, somewhere. That's what these people are
doing. They will go to and fro to seek the word of the Lord. And in this day, commerce was
halted. The economy was ruined. The businessmen
were shut down. Their businesses were put out
of business. They turned to the Lord for help. But notice the end of verse 12. but they will not find it. There would be no voice of the
prophet. There would be no word from God. There would be no message
from heaven. There would be none to be found. They had crossed the deadline
with God. Jesus said much the same in Matthew
13, verse 12, of the seriousness of when we hear the Word of God
to act upon the Word of God. What a privilege it is to be
exposed to the Word of God and the great stewardship and responsibility
that comes to the hearer when they hear the Word of God to
act upon the Word of God. But if the hearer does not act
upon the Word of God, God says, He will remove that word from
their ears. Jesus said in Matthew 13, verse
12, for whoever has, has what? Has the truth. To him more shall
be given. But he will have an abundance,
and he will have an abundance, but whoever does not have even
what he has shall be taken away from him." What that says is
when you hear the truth and you receive the truth, if you will
act upon that truth, more truth will be given to you. But if
you receive the truth and repudiate the truth and reject the truth,
the time comes when God will remove the truth from you, lest
the person be saved. Second Thessalonians 2 and verse
10, we read Paul's words, they did not receive the love of the
truth so as to be saved. For this reason God will send
upon them a deluding influence, not the devil, not the world,
not the false prophets, God will send upon them a deluding influence,
so that they will believe what is false, in order that they
all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but who took
pleasure in wickedness." Now, we cannot play fast and loose
with the truth. No generation can play fast and
loose with the truth. Either you use the truth, or
you will lose it. This is really Romans 1, for
even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give
thanks. Verse 21, But they became futile
in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing
to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the
incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man
and the birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures."
Verse 24, "'Therefore God gave them over.'" in the lust of their hearts."
Verse 26, for this reason, God gave them over to degrading passions. Verse 28, and just as they did
not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over
to a depraved mind. If a generation will not receive
the truth that is given to it, There comes a time and a place
when God will abandon them and give them over, and there will
be a famine for the hearing of the words of the Lord. So look at verse 13. in that day, the day of famine
for the hearing of God's Word. In that day, the beautiful virgins
and the young men will faint from thirst, the strongest of
young people, the most energetic, the most athletic, those least
likely to faint. They will stagger from weakness
for lack of the Word of God." Verse 14. as for those who swear
by the guilt of Samaria." This refers to the allegiances that
the people of God were making to false gods, adding to their
guilt. They had turned a deaf ear to
the Word and instead turned first to false gods in Baal worship. Verse 14, "'Who say, As your
God lives, O Dan, the tribe of Dan to the north swore by false
deities on pagan altars. And as the way of Beersheba lives,
the way of Beersheba was the way to go down to the south to
worship pagan gods. I believe that the church today
has done the same. swearing and pledging allegiance
to other gods. The church today has bowed its
knee at the altar of pragmatism, mysticism, legalism, open theism,
ecumenicalism, universalism, annihilationism, liberalism,
ritualism, sacerdotalism, secularism, or as R.G. Lee used to say, every
ism that ought to be a wasm. And what will be the result?
Look at the end of the chapter, the last line, at the end of
verse 14, what will be the result of such a famine in the land? They, referring to God's people,
they will fall and will not rise again. This scene has been repeated
down through the centuries among the people of God. Those places
where the Word of God was most heard, where the Word of God
was most preached, when those people turn away from hearing
of the Word of the Lord, they fall and never recover again. Wittenberg and Worms in Germany,
where Luther once stood and posted his 95 theses, has fallen and
has not risen again. Geneva, where John Calvin so
fearlessly preached the Word, is now home to the apostate World
Council of Churches. Oxford, where John Owen was dean,
where George Whitefield was converted, has fallen and has not risen
again. Edinburgh, where John Knox and
Robert Murray McShane and Chalmers walked the land as giants, has
fallen and they have not risen again. St. Andrews, where Patrick
Hamilton and George Wishart preached the Word of God and were martyred,
has fallen and it has not risen again. And on and on it goes.
London, Yale, Harvard have all fallen and they have not risen
again. This has occurred in every generation. How rare it is in those places
where the Word of God has been heard and has been utterly rejected
and has fallen for it to ever come back again. When God sets
a famine, it is a devastating, lasting judgment upon that land. So what are we to do? How shall
we now then live? How are we to conduct ourselves
as ministers of the Word of God in days of such famine? Number
one, compassion. Have you ever turned on television
and seen those pictures of children in Africa who are starving, and
you see their stomachs bloated? Does that not tug on your heart?
Does that not move you in some way with a feeling of compassion
towards those children who are without the Word of God? Even
so, we must feel compassion for those who are around us who are
subjected to a famine for the hearing of the Word of the Lord.
We need to weep over the times in which we live. We need to
be like Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, and lament the broken
walls of the church. We need to be like the Lord Jesus
Christ, who wept over the city of Jerusalem. Let us weep over
the impoverished conditions of the famine in our day. And let
us feel compassion for those who are subjected in ministries
and in places that are barren and dusty, and there is no food
for their souls. Second, saturation. We now more than ever as men
of God must be saturated with the Word of God. In days of famine,
it is all the more reason to dig deeply into the Scripture.
You and I must have a voracious appetite for the Word of God
and we must be devouring it on a daily basis because we in reality
are eating even for others who find themselves in famine conditions. We must study the Word of God.
We must pour over the Word of God so that we may be able to
feed the languishing souls of others. Spurgeon said of John
Bunyan, why the man is a walking Bible, cut him anywhere and he
bleeds Bibline. So it is, we must be walking
Bibles in these days of famine in the land. And we must be saturated,
and we must find the Word of God and eat it, so that when
we speak, we speak words of truth. Third, not only saturation, proclamation. We ourselves must preach the
word of God as now, now as never before. Every time we enter our
studies, we must prepare a feast. Every time we step into the pulpit,
we must serve a banquet. Sunday by Sunday, week by week,
we must give the best meal to feed the souls of our people. We need a deluge of Biblical
preaching. We need a cloudburst of expository
preaching. We need a rainstorm of Scriptural
truth to be proclaimed in the land. This land needs to be flooded
with the hearing of the words of the Lord. Let the Word of
God pour down in our preaching. Let there be thunder and lightning
again in the pulpit as we proclaim the truth of the Word of God. And finally, expectation. Men, we must not lose heart.
We must not lose hope. The God who sends the famine
is the God who brings the rainy season, is the God who brings
the growing season, is the God who brings the harvest. After
the dreadful famine comes seasons of refreshing from the Lord. Let us devote ourselves to the
Word of God now as never before. Let us not kid ourselves into
thinking that we are serving in some Pollyanna time in history. Days of famine are here for the
hearing of the Word of the Lord. We must devour the Word. We must
consume the Word. We must eat the Word. We must
digest the Word. We must live the Word. And now,
more than ever, we must preach the Word of God. We must do the
work of ten men. We must feed the hungry souls
of people all around us. Jesus said, man shall not live
by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth
of God. This is the appointed hour in
history in which God has placed us. He has strategically placed
us upon his timeline of history in this hour, and it is at this
time now more than ever that we must devote ourselves to that
which is not transpiring around us in other places. As others
are languishing in famine conditions, as others are suffering under
starvation conditions, as days of drought surround us in denominations
and in churches and in ministries that once were committed to the
Word and now no longer. Let us spread a banquet feast
before the people. Let us serve the Word of God
now as never before. And let us have hope that after
darkness is light and after days of famine, surely the God of
heaven will hear from heaven, and He will bring again a season
of great blessing from His hand to His people. Let us remain
faithful. Let us look to the Lord, and
let us minister His Word. in days of famine for the hearing
of the words of the Lord. Let us pray. Father, we feel the winds blowing
around us. We feel the dust and the dryness. We see the fields empty. we see there is no harvest. We see in mainline denominations,
we see in places where the Word once prospered that there are now days of drought. There is a famine for the hearing
of the words of the Lord. And many are staggering And many
are turning and seeking and looking, but it is even a false repentance.
Lord, we pray for our land, wherever it is You have called us to serve.
We plead with You for the honor of Your name and for the display
of Your glory in this hour, that You would remove the famine conditions
and that You would restore the plenty in the barn. I pray that
we in this room would devote ourselves to serve the Word of
God as never before. I pray that as we go into our
studies and open the Bible, that we will pour over it, we will
study it, we will eat it, we will devour it into our souls,
that it will be like honey to our taste. And that week by week
and Sunday by Sunday, as we stand before Your people in such hours,
that we will be faithful to serve a full course meal of the height
and depth and breadth and length of Your Word, the fullness of
the richness of sound doctrine and biblical theology. I pray
that we would proclaim Christ and Him crucified. that we would
preach the full counsel of God, and that in days of famine, these
places to which you have called us, these parts of the land in
which you have assigned us to serve, that we would serve a
full buffet, a full banquet feast, and we pray that others would
be drawn to the sweet aroma of the food that will be served
from the Word of God. Would you lift the famine? Would
you bring back clouds? Would you pour down rain again
upon the land? May your Word come down as the
rain, and may it not return to you void without accomplishing
all your good pleasure. bring the cloudbursts of grace
and mercy and favor upon the dried and parched land in which
we serve. And may we be instruments in
Your hand to be used by You and to live to see the day when there
would be seasons of refreshing that would come yet again from
Your hand. Father, we turn to You, we humble
ourselves before You, and we ask that You would use us in
these days. May our hands be full of food for hungry hearts
in our churches. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You've reached the end of this
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