Have you ever stopped and asked
yourself the question of what do you fear most in this life? Is it losing your health? A lot
of folks are concerned about that. Is it losing your home? What about your job? Do you fear
losing your job? How about your retirement benefits? We live in a world of uncertainty
anymore. Sometimes you wonder, will there
be any benefits there when it comes time for me to get them? What about losing your mind?
I had someone tell me recently that their greatest fear was
getting Alzheimer's or dementia and losing their mind. I suppose
that could be something to fear. But what is your greatest fear?
Is it death? Is it dying? Well, you know,
a believer shouldn't fear death. Death is a departure to a promotion,
as we say. Death is to leave this nature
of sin and to leave this body of death. Death is to put off
corruption and put on incorruption. And death is to put off mortality
and to put on immortality. Well, that's a good thing. No
need to fear death. No reason for a child of God
to fear death. Matter of fact, there's no reason
for a child of God to fear anything. What is your greatest fear? Do
you want to know what my greatest fear is? I'll tell you this morning. It's a famine of hearing the
words of the Lord. If you would turn with me to
the little book of Amos, chapter 8. If you can find Ezekiel, then
there's the book of Daniel, then Hosea, and then the little book
of Joel, and then you'll find the book of Amos, chapter eight. I'll give you a moment to get
there. It's hard to find. It's tucked, a little book tucked
in there between a bunch of other little books, just nine chapters. And I want you to look at chapter
eight with me. Amos chapter 8 verse 11 reveals
this thing that I fear most in my life. Here, Amos, the prophet of God
says this, verse 11, Behold, the days will come saith the
Lord God." Amos is reporting to us what God has said. The Lord God said, behold, the
days come, they're certain, they will come, the days come, they're
certain the day will come, that I will send a famine in the land. And then he tells us, not a famine
of bread, and not a famine of thirst for water, but a famine
of hearing the words of the Lord. I believe that day has come.
I believe that day is here. And I fear this famine for myself. In verse 12, the prophet continues
by saying, or the Lord through the prophet, by saying, and they,
well, who are they? Them to who this famine comes. They shall wander from sea to
sea and from the north, even to the east. They shall run to
and fro to seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it. Those last five words strike
fear in my heart. Those who are experiencing this
famine shall wander from sea to sea, from north to east, and
from east to south, and from south to west, and from west
back to the north. And they run to and fro to seek
the Word of the Lord and those last five words, and they shall
not find it. What a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God Look back, you may not have to
turn a page, but look at chapter 7, verse 7. Amos chapter 7, verse
7. Here the Lord, through the prophet
Amos, tells us that God has a plumb line in His hand. You see that?
Do you know what a plumb line is? Well, I know some of you
men do, and probably some of you women. A plumb line, or a
plummet as it's sometimes called, is a weight hanging by a cord. I remember the first time that
I was exposed to a plumb line, my dad said, did you know that
the eave of your house is not level? And I said, well, sure
it's level. He said, that's a pretty new house. He said, no, I'm going
to show you it's not level. And he climbed up on a ladder
and he had a weight, I don't know, I think it was a fishing,
a heavy fishing lure or something, tied to a string. And he held
it there at the top. And as that came down where he
held it at the top, well, it swung out a fur piece down at
the bottom. He said, it's not plumb. It's
not, it's not right. You see, gravity ensures that
the weight hangs perfectly straight, thus allowing a builder to ensure
that a structure is vertically aligned. It's much like a level, that
tool that's found in most every toolbox today, a tool called
a level. A level ensures that the construction
of a project is true to plumb. Now in the Bible, a plumb line
is just that. A plumb line measures our waywardness,
our inability to be true to plumb. God's plumb line of justice exposes
that we're not plumb. A plumb line is the standard
by which other things are measured. The plumb line is established
by a greater force than us. It's the force of gravity that
declares and determines what is plumb and what is not. And
God asked Amos here what he saw, and Amos said, I see a plumb
line in your hand. And I'd have you notice this
plumb line is in God's hand, not in our hand. It's in the
Lord's hand. This is God's plumb line. And in verse eight, The Lord
said, here behold, I will set a plumb line in the midst of
my people, Israel. And he says, I will not again
pass by them anymore. What a fearful thing. And the
high places of Isaac shall be desolate, verse 9, and the sanctuaries
of Israel shall be laid waste. And I will rise against the house
of Jeroboam with the sword. In other words, Israel was weighed
in the balances and they were found wanting. They were found
deficient. They were found lacking. They
were found inadequate, insufficient. Defective, faulty, flawed. They
found out a plumb. Found out a level. And there's
great consequence for it. God said, I won't pass by them
anymore. God says, their high place is
going to be desolate. Their sanctuary is going to be
laid to waste. God said, I'll rise against them. Now, does
there actually come a time when God has had enough? Does there come a time when God
restrains from showing His mercy and His grace? Well, it sure
seems so. Matter of fact, in Genesis 6,
verse 3, the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with
man. There's coming a time when my
spirit won't strive with man anymore. And that day, in Genesis
6 we know, was the day when God looked down from heaven and He
saw that there was none that did good. That man's heart was
only evil, and only evil continually, and it repented the Lord that
He'd made man on the earth, and God said, I'm gonna destroy it.
God had had enough. And here God, told the prophet
Amos, he said, I will not again pass by them anymore. And you
might say, well, Brother David, I thought the Lord's mercy endured
forever. It does to the child of God. But they are not all true Israel,
which are Israel. just because a man is of the
seed of Abraham. Now, follow me on this. It'll
help you if you don't know this. But because a man was of the
seed of Abraham, it did not make him a true child of the promise. It didn't make him a true child
of God. As a matter of fact, Paul went on to say those which
are children of the flesh, these are not the children of God.
Just because you're a descendant from Abraham and you can trace
your bloodline back to Abraham, that don't make you God's child.
That don't make you a joint heir for Christ. You know, Jacob and
Esau both were of the physical seed of Isaac, with Abraham being
their father. But we're told very plainly that
God loved Jacob and He hated Esau. God has mercy on whom He
will. God has compassion on whom He
will. Therefore, He had mercy on whom
He'll have mercy, and whom He will, He hardened them. That's what God did to Esau. God has mercy on the children
of promise. But being a direct descendant
of Abraham, being children of the flesh, means nothing when
it comes to redemption. The sovereign potter has the
power over the clay of the same lump to fashion and make one
a vessel of honor and another to dishonor. You see, like that
plumb line, the clay is in the potter's hands. And God says
in Amos chapter 8, back there, verse 11, I'll send a famine
in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the Lord, and they shall wander from
sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, and they shall
run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find
it. Now we've studied it through
the book of Exodus and through the book of Numbers, and we know
that Israel was a stiff-necked people. So are we. So are we. All men and women by nature are
stiff-necked. God continued to send His prophets
and He patiently continued to show His mercy. But now at the
time of our text, here in Amos, God saw that the labor of His
servants seemed useless and vain. Israel displayed no fruit. They profaned God's name. God's kindness and His mercy
and His grace was despised. The nation of Israel joined themselves
to idols. And this wasn't the first time.
But this time, God said, leave them alone. I've had enough. Leave them alone. I will not
again pass by them no more. Just like King Saul. You remember
what happened to him? Israel, King Saul, King of Israel,
found the Spirit of God departed from him. So did Israel. They were now without God and
without hope in this world. Those who were without Christ
are. Just like Samson, Israel woke to find their strength had
expired. God was not there. Samson said,
Lord, use me one more time for your glory. And God heard him,
and God used him, but Samson died in the victory. The Pharisees, oh, they were
always offended by what our Lord said. And God one day said, let
them alone. Horrible words to hear from God
Almighty. Let them alone. They be blind leaders of the
blind, and if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into
a ditch. The Lord had preached freely
and openly for three years, but when He stood before Pilate to
be judged, the Scripture says He answered not a word. He didn't
say anything. For the day had come that God
had sent a famine, a famine of hearing, a famine of hearing
the words of the Lord. What a famine that is. There
was a time when Pilate could have asked the Lord, what is
truth? And he would have received an
answer from Christ, but not this time. No, it's too late. A famine
of hearing had come. A famine of hearing the word
of the Lord. God said, prophesy no more to them. Don't preach
to them anymore. Preach no more to them. Tell them no more. And
the Lord answered, not a word. God gave them over. There'll
be no more word from God. There's a famine of hearing the
Word of the Lord. Isaiah told them, the Lord hath
closed your eyes. He's closed your eyes, and the
Lord hath poured out on you a deep sleep. We've got a lot of folks
in church today that are awake, but really, they're asleep. They're
asleep. God said, My words have become
as the Word of a book, a book that is sealed. A book that you
cannot read. Jeremiah said, God's prophets
find no vision from the Lord. There's no word from the Lord.
Micah the prophet said, God shall cover His prophets' lips. No answer from God. There's a
famine. A famine of hearing. A famine of hearing the Word
of God. A famine of God speaking. What
does this famine mean? What are the signs of this famine? Well, maybe this famine is sent
to a whole nation. Maybe this famine was sent to
a singular tribe. Maybe it was a famine that would
be given to a particular family. Maybe it was a famine to an individual. What is the sign? No word from
God. God said to the prophet Micah,
their enemies shall eat the flesh of my people. They shall break
their bones. They shall chop them in pieces
and throw them into the pot, the cauldron. I remember a message
Jack Shanks preached years ago. And he said, it's called, and
I'll say the best I can as Jack would, there's death in the pot. They're death in the pot. That's
what that's talking about. And he said, then they shall
cry unto the Lord, but He will not hear them. He will even hide
His face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves
ill in their doings. This could mean that preachers
just keep right on preaching, but they have no message from
the Lord. It could mean that they are preaching the truth,
but God doesn't give you the hearing of that word. Famine
can come in many ways. A famine of hearing. It doesn't mean there's a lack
of material. It doesn't mean that there's
not anything to preach. Did you know that you can go
online and you can buy sermon outlines by the thousands? I
didn't get this one online, but you can buy a bunch of them online.
You can buy sermon outlines. This is not a famine of words. This is a famine of hearing. This is a famine of hearing the
words of the Lord. And if all you do is hear from
me, I've told you this before and I reiterate again this morning,
if all you do is hear a message from me this morning and from
any other band that preaches and stands to preach, then you
have not truly heard from the Lord. God's power must accompany
our words. God's Word must come in the power
of the Spirit of God. Not in word only. Now, we can't
preach without using words. Well, you'd think I was ridiculous
if I got up here and went... You've got to use words to preach.
But words alone cannot save. Words are just vehicles of thought. And these words have to be inspired
by God. They've got to be illuminated.
They've got to be revealed by God. They've got to be enlightened
words. Not just words to the head, but
words to the heart. Only God can take the words that
we receive here and put them here. They'll see doctrines, but only
God can enable them to see Christ. There's a big difference. Big
difference. Men can keep preaching in the
strength of the flesh, but no heart is moved, and the sinner's
not saved. People in great number can meet
together, and they can sing good hymns, and they can read the
Bible, and they can pray, and they can preach, but God is not
present. God's not there. That's the day
in which we live. Maybe this is a famine where
God blesses everyone around you, but you yourself can't hear anything. I've experienced that a few times. Listen to a sermon preach and
go, I can't get anything out of that. And everybody around
me go, wasn't that just the best message you ever heard? Is something
wrong with me? When God revealed Himself to
those two disciples on the road to Emmaus, did they not say,
did not our heart burn within us while He talked to us by the
way and while He opened to us the Scriptures? Why, our hearts
burned within us. Where there is a famine of hearing,
there's no conviction of sin. There's no burning in the soul.
When Job saw God's holiness and strict justice, you remember
what he said? He said, I abhor myself. I hate
myself. I'm a wretched, no good sinner,
and I hate myself. And he repented in dust and ashes. David, whose sin was ever before
him, said, I was silent and opened not my mouth. When I saw my sin
and God's holy and strict justice, I didn't say a word. He said,
Oh Lord, let me not sin with my tongue for I'm dumb with silence. Has God ever broken your heart?
If He does, you'll stop talking about all you do and all that
you've done and you'll see that God requires what you're incapable
of providing and your mouth will be stopped and you'll become
silent. All the world will become guilty
before God. I tell you, in a court of law,
a man that is truly guilty, he's not going to stand up and try
to convince anybody that he's not. The evidence has proven
that he's guilty. What's there for him to do? Just
keep his mouth shut and take the sentence that's given to
him. We're without a word of defense
and we become guilty before God. Now that word guilty there in
that text in the margin says subject to the judgment of God. That's what it is to be guilty.
Subject to God's justice. I heard a story not long ago.
I heard it years ago and then I heard it again recently. where
Brother Henry once was visiting Yucatan, Mexico. And he traveled
with Brother Walter and Cody to one of the villages there
that Walter and Cody ministered to. And they arrived a little
late because the roads there are horrible. And sometimes,
I mean, you had to have a four-wheel drive to get around, and sometimes
that wasn't enough. But they arrived a little bit
late and Brother Mahan said that there was a young man there teaching
a class of young Mexican children. He said they all stand around
a little bit dirty, didn't have any shoes on, sitting on a bench
that was kind of made out of a log cut in half and turned
over. That's all they had. And this young man was teaching
And he noticed that this young man had a hammer, and a light
bulb, and a mirror, and a makeshift wooden sword. And speaking in
Spanish, Henry looked at Walter and asked him what he was saying.
And Walter said, oh, he's teaching about the Word of God. And that young man held up that
hammer and he said in Spanish, he said, the Word of God is a
hammer! It breaks and it crushes. You know, God, through the prophet
Jeremiah, said, is not my word like a hammer that breaketh the
rock in pieces? You know, we're like a rock. We're hard, we're rough around
the edges, and only the hammer of God's word can break us. Now, the question is, has the
word of God become a hammer to you? Then that young man held
up that light bulb and he told those young children, he said,
the Word of God is a light. It enlightens the understanding.
It reveals the mystery of the Gospel. It reveals the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It reveals how God can be both
just and justifier. It enlightens the mind, the eyes,
the soul, and the heart. And the little children just
smiled. And then came the mirror. He said, we see ourselves in
the word of God. Oh, we see through a glass darkly,
but still we see. And then he held up that wooden
sword, and I bet you could Imagine what he said. He said, the word
of God is quick and alive and powerful and sharper than any
two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul
and spirit and of the joints and marrows and is a discerner
of the heart. of the thoughts and intents of
the heart. You see, God's word is piercing. You know, it gets right down
to the deepest part of our hearts, dividing even the bone and the
marrow. Boy, that's a sharp, sharp sword
that does that. And that's God's word. And if
you're around fire, you're gonna feel it. You're gonna feel the
heat of it. And a hammer's gonna break, and
a sword is gonna cut, and a light's gonna enlighten. The light of
God's Word is, it's gonna bring about some understanding. And
if God's Word doesn't do these things to you and for you, then
you're experiencing a famine of hearing the Word of the Lord. And this famine is in full drought
when the Word of the Lord becomes a source of controversy instead
of a source of comfort. I know people that talk about
loving the Word of God, but they only study the Word of God so
they can argue with others about them being right and others being
wrong. This famine's in full execution
when we're more concerned to prove our doctrine than we are
to prove ourselves to God. A famine of hearing the word
of the Lord is in full effect when we become more concerned
with convincing someone of God's election than we are giving diligence
to make our own calling and election sure. Do you see what I'm saying? So how can this famine, this
horrific drought of hearing be prevented? I want to know. I don't want to experience it. I'm fearful of it. Well, David gives us the answer
in Psalm 51. Would you turn there with me?
You can let your place go there in Amos. Psalm 51, you know this passage
well. The first thing we do to help
prevent this famine is found here in Psalm 51, verse 1. David
says, have mercy on me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness,
according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies, blot out
my transgressions. Is that your desire this morning?
That God might have mercy on you? According to His lovingkindness? According to the multitude of
His tender mercies? That's why he blots out transgression. Famines subside when we seek
mercy from the only one who can give mercy. We must keep coming
to Christ for mercy. To whom coming? Doesn't mean
you come once and quit coming. No. To whom coming? We continue
to come. We come today. We come tomorrow.
The day after, we keep coming to Christ for mercy. We forget
those things which are behind us, and what do we do? We press
on, reaching forth into those things which are before. We press
toward the mark of the high calling in Jesus Christ, Philippians
3, 13 and 14. And secondly, this famine of
hearing, well, it dissipates when we acknowledge our sins
and ask forgiveness for them. Verse two, wash me throughly
from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Verse three,
for I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.
Now, something that I have come to understand in a new light is that I am nothing but a dying
man preaching to dying men and women. And I don't have anything
to be proud about. Nothing at all. God came into
the world to save sinners. And that's something I qualify
for. There's very little that I qualify
for. But that's something I qualify
for. Mercy. Mercy. God came into the world
to save sinners. I'm gonna tell you, beyond a
shadow of a doubt, this church welcomes sinners. That's who Christ came to save,
sinners. And then thirdly, the famine
of hearing the word of the Lord fades when we justify God in
His holiness. Whatever God does with me is
right. Whatever God does with you is
right. God is justified. God is just. He's right when He speaks. God
is clear when He judges. If He speaks against me, He's
right and just. If He condemns me in wrath and
judgment, He's right and just. And that's why we acknowledge
our sin. Look at verse 4. Against God
and God only have we sinned and done this evil in His sight,
that God might be justified when He speaks and be clear when He
judges. He's always right. Verse 5. After all, we were shaped
in iniquity We were conceived in sin. Born sinners. You know, a baby's not born perfect
and then go astray. No, we're born sinners. Verse
6, God requires truth in the inward parts. Holiness is not
an outward thing. Oh, I wish folks could learn
that. Men walk around in their robes and they're so pious and
they act so holy. It's not an outward thing at
all. It's an inward thing. These things are heart matters.
It's the inward part that we're made to know wisdom. A sinner
that God saves desires to be washed from their sin. Look at
verse 7. David said, Purge me with hyssop,
and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter
than snow. We sing that hymn, and every
time we sing it, I think of that verse. The Lord is the one that
makes us whiter than snow. We make ourselves whiter. Verse 8. Make me to hear joy
and gladness. That's what hearing the words
of the Lord does to a believer. So much so that the bones that
God breaks with the hammer of His Word make us joyful and glad
that God has revealed unto us our need of Christ who is a just
God and a Savior. If God never showed us our sin,
we'd never see our need of Christ. Verse 9, Lord, hide your face
from my sins. Blot out all my transgressions,
all my iniquity, all of them. Verse 10, create in me a clean
heart. People say, give your heart to
Jesus. It's not clean. It's deceitful above all things. It's desperately wicked. David
said, O God, renew a right spirit, a right heart within me. Verse
11, cast me not away from Thy presence. Take not Thy Holy Spirit
from me. Now, it's God that saves us. It's God who keeps us. We're
kept by the power of God through the faith that we have in Christ.
Salvations of the Lord. Verse 12, restore unto me the
joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit. Now, if God doesn't restore joy
unto me, if God doesn't uphold me, I'll remain in this famine. I'll remain in this shortage
and in this lack and in this dearth and this draught of hearing. And look down at verse 17. The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. Oh God, thou wilt not
despise. As I said in the beginning, I
don't fear to lose my health. I really don't. You know why?
Because that's going to happen to all of us if we live long
enough. Some of us are experiencing it
now, aren't we? Well, I got up this morning and
can't even turn my head to the right. Because I'm getting old
and I lay in bed wrong and I hurt all over. We're dying. I don't fear losing my home.
God's always provided my every single physical material need. Never. I don't fear the loss of food
and raiment. I'm not afraid of being naked and hungry. Why,
if God feeds the ravens. If God clothes the lilies of
the field, He'll not suffer His children to beg bread. But I do fear a famine of hearing. I fear it for you, and I fear it
for me. Paul said, the Apostle Paul,
who wrote the majority of the New Testament, he said, woe unto
me if I preach not the gospel, and woe unto us if we don't hear
it. Paul said, I fear that when I
preach to others, that I myself should be a castaway. Oh, I fear
that. Don't let me preach to others,
Lord, and myself. Not believe what I preach. Let's not lay a hold of perishing
things. These things that moths eat,
that rust corrupts, that thieves break into steel. Lay up for
ourselves treasures, heavenly things that cannot. And the Lord
said, for where your treasure is, that's where your heart is. There will be your heart also.
It's out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. What
a man talks about the most are the things that he loves the
most. You ever figured that out yet? I've got a cousin that I
preached his mom's funeral not long ago, and he's a member of
a car club, and he's got a beautiful hot rod Chevy that he's redone,
and that's all he talks about is that car. Why? Because that's
what he loves the most. He loves that car more than anything
in the world. What a man loves the most is
what he talks about. And I wouldn't by any means want
to embarrass this man sitting up front here this morning, but
I'm telling you, that's all Brother Danny wants to talk about. Sharon and I were talking here
a while back, and Danny interrupted us very kindly, and he said,
let's talk about something else. He said, let's talk about our
Lord. You see, what a man loves the most is what he'll talk about. So let me ask you, what think
you of Christ? Is Christ your treasure? Is Christ who you think and talk
about? If He is the treasure of your
heart, you will. If Christ is your treasure, that's
who you'll talk about. Oh, may God be pleased to make
that soul His own glory and for our good and for the Lord Jesus
Christ.