Alright, let's look back at the
book of Amos, Amos chapter 1. The title of this message is,
The Burden of God's Word. The Burden of God's Word. This
starts out in verse 1, the words of Amos, who was among the herdmen,
or a shepherd of Tekoa. which he saw concerning Israel
in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and Uzziah was the king,
as you know, of the southern kingdom of Judah. He's mentioned
in Isaiah. And then in the days of Jeroboam,
the son of Joash, king of Israel, Jeroboam II here, that's what
he's talking about, not the first one, but he was the king of the
northern tribe of Israel, and he's mentioned in Hosea. And
it says, two years before the earthquake. And he said, verse
2, the Lord will roar from Zion. Notice again the word Lord is
in capital letters. That's the covenant keeping God. The God of promise. And that's
always important because everything that's going to be prophesied
and stated here in these chapters of the prophecy of Amos is in
the context of the covenant that God made with Abraham and ultimately
the covenant that God made with Israel. And so it says, the Lord
will roar from Zion. That's that place where they
originally intended to build the temple. It's the place where
David lived. It was the place that is indicative
of Jerusalem. It's typical of the church, the
redeemed of the Lord, the dwelling place of God. where God rules
and reigns in the hearts of His people on this earth. And so
the Lord will roar from Zion. He speaks through His people.
And that's speaking of the preaching of the Word of God, the preaching
of the Gospel, and the preaching of the judgments of God to all
who reject the Lord Jesus Christ. And He says He will utter His
voice from Jerusalem. Now, he will utter his voice
eternally from the heavenly city. And the habitations of the shepherds
shall mourn in the top of Carmel, that's one of the most northern
parts of Israel. And what he's simply saying here
is that the whole country shall wither and mourn. So this is
a prophecy of God through the prophet Amos. for not only Israel,
but also Judah, the whole nation. Now this man Amos, he was a shepherd
and a farmer. Some say he was a sheep breeder,
which would make him pretty affluent. He wasn't just a dirt farmer. He wasn't, you know, I read one
sermon called him a prophet and bibbed overalls. There's nothing
wrong with wearing bibbed overalls if you like bibbed overalls,
but I don't believe Amos was somebody who was poor. He wasn't
some dumb hick or anything like that. But he was a shepherd and
he was a farmer. He was from a little town called
Tekoa, which was about 10-12 miles south of Jerusalem. So
he was from Judah, the southern kingdom. And he was called of
God to be a prophet to the northern kingdom. So he was a man from
the southern kingdom who was called to go prophesy to the
northern kingdom of Israel. And he prophesied about 700 to
750 years before the coming of Christ. That makes him a contemporary
with Isaiah and Micah, both who prophesied in the south, and
a contemporary of Hosea, who was in the north. In fact, Amos
and Hosea, their ministries sort of overlapped. I believe Amos
came first, even though he's not listed first in the scripture.
But he was first, and then Hosea prophesied with him for a while,
and then kind of took over after Amos died. But you see, this
was a prophecy of God to the people of Israel, but there's
also words spoken to the people of Judah in the southern kingdom.
Now, verse 1 tells us when he prophesied under the days of
Uzziah, king of Judah, Jeroboam II, king of Israel, two years
before the earthquake, it says. Now that earthquake is mentioned
in the book of Zechariah. You can look this up yourself
at Zechariah chapter 14 and verse 5. There was a great earthquake
that shook the land around 750 BC. And the Jewish historian
Josephus, he connects this event with the scent of King Uzziah. Now you remember King Uzziah?
You remember Isaiah talked about King Uzziah? In the year that
King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up. You remember
what Uzziah did? Uzziah was a king in the southern
kingdom when it was very prosperous, very affluent, and he became
puffed up and proud and he decided to usurp the role of a priest
and he went into the holy place where he wasn't supposed to go
and God struck him with leprosy, and the Jewish historian Josephus
connects this earthquake with that event. I don't know if that's
so, but there was an earthquake two years before this, so that
gives you an idea. But you can read about Uzziah
in 2 Chronicles chapter 26. Great earthquake. And then Amos,
he was not formally educated as a prophet, probably like Isaiah
was, But he was taught of God in the ways of the truth, and
that's all it takes, isn't it? What is a prophet? He's the one
who sets forth the word of God, not the word of men. The name
Amos means burden-bearer. That's why I entitled this message,
The Burden of God's Word. Amos, the burden-bearer. He was
a man who had a burden. His message was one of God's
inflexible judgment against sin. And his message was a burden
to bear in three ways. Now listen to this. Number one,
he himself as a prophet of God, he himself bore a great burden
because of the sin of the people. The sin and the rebellion, the
idolatry and the unbelief of the people. That was his burden
to bear. And then secondly, it was a burden
to bear because of the great and awesome responsibility that
he had to warn Israel of God's judgment. What a burden. To tell
people who are at peace and in prosperity that God's angry with
them. That the judgment of God's coming.
And it was a great burden. And then thirdly, He's a burden
bearer in this sense. The people of Israel in their
pride and their self-righteousness and unbelief, they saw Amos and
his message as a burden to them. They looked at this man as a
burden. Look over at Amos chapter 7. I want you to see this. Amos
chapter 7 and look at verse 10. It said, here's a man named Amaziah,
he was a priest of Bethel. Now you remember Bethel was one
of the places that the first Jeroboam set up, built one of
the golden calves and they called that golden calf God, they called
it Jehovah. And that was one of the beginning.
Remember Bethel, Hosea talked about Bethel and he called it
Beth-Avon. Bethel means house of God, Beth-Avon
means house of evil. There's a play upon words there.
So here's Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to Jeroboam,
king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in
the midst of the house of Israel, and the land is not able to bear
all his work. We can't bear him. He's a burden
to us. For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam
shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive
out of their own land. Also Amaziah said unto Amos,
O thou seer, It is a prophet now. That's what a seer is. I'm
not talking about a stargazer here or a crystal ballgazer,
but a prophet. He says, go, flee thee away into
the land of Judah and there eat bread and prophesy there. Get
out of here. Take you and your message away
from us and go down there to Judah. They deserve it. This
message of judgment and wrath, now they deserve it down there.
So get away from us, that's what they're saying. And he says in
verse 13, but prophesy not again anymore at Bethel, for it is
the king's chapel and it is the king's court. You're a burden
to Isaias. You remember in the book of Jeremiah,
he is sometimes referred to as the burden of God. Because he
had a message of wrath and judgment. Now at this time, when Amos prophesied
in the northern kingdom, the nation of Israel was rich and
prosperous. Remember during the reign of
Jeroboam II, we talked about that when we studied Hosea. The
nation was at peace, they were stable, they were strong, they
were very, very religious. You can go all the way through
and you can see the religion that's really prevalent in the
northern kingdom. And there's three things you
can use to describe this, and I want you to see this because
if you didn't know that he was talking about Israel, you'd say
he's talking about the United States of America. Number one,
it was a time of great wealth and influence. Look over at chapter
3. Look at verse 15, last verse. God says, this is His pronouncement
of judgment through Amos, He says, I will smite the winter
house and the summer house. They had a winter house and a
summer house. This was very common among the people, very affluent.
The houses of ivory, that wasn't cheap. Wouldn't be cheap today,
would it? You can imagine what it would
be like back then. He said, they'll perish and the great houses shall
have an end, saith the Lord. That's just one verse among many
out of Amos that shows how affluent and how influential and rich
these people were at this time, the general population. And you
know, we live in an affluent society. I know we complain about
a lot of things, you know. But the thing about it is, we
are an affluent society. Really, I mean, compared to a
lot of places, we have got it made. We really do. And there's
a lot, so much said in the book of God about this, you know,
about you can't serve God and man. But what happened here is
the people were more interested in this life and its materials
and its riches than they were in the things of God. That's
what happened. They were making a living, they
were getting more and more, they were preparing for whatever in
the future, and amassing these great houses, winter houses,
summer houses, houses made of ivory, and all of these things
that they wanted, they wanted to accumulate. A man began to
be judged not by the measure of his worship, or his spirituality,
or his character, but by how much he owned. Isn't that like
ours today? That's why Christ said, you can't
serve God in mammon. That's why the Bible warns us
against covetousness, which is idolatry. Letting these things
of this world overtake our minds and our time and our hearts to
the point that we don't have any time for the things of God,
the things of Christ and salvation. That's the society that Amos
was prophesying to now. That's why, you remember our
Lord spoke that parable of the rich man who accumulated so much
he filled up his barns and then he said, what am I going to do?
Well, rather than thank God and seek the Lord and worship God,
he said, I'll build bigger barns. Because I'll get more stuff,
you know. And that's what the scripture talks about, you know,
how the thorny ground hearer who left the gospel because of
the deceitfulness of riches and this world and the things of
this world. The Bible says, seek ye first
the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all the things that we need
will be added to us. Not all the things we want, but
all the things we need. We seek Christ. But that was
Amos' time. And then secondly, it was a time
of great exploitation. They made money off of each other,
especially off the downtrodden, even off the poor. Look at chapter
2 and verse 6. Amos chapter 2 and verse 6, it
says, Thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of Israel
and for four. I'll deal with that in just a
moment. He said, I will not turn away the punishment thereof because
they sold the righteous for silver. He's talking about slave trading.
and the poor for a pair of shoes, that pant after the dust of the
earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the
meek, and a man and his father will go in to the same maid,"
talking about temple prostitution. Here's a man and his son going
in under the name of religion and committing fornication under
religion, to profane my holy name. That's what they're doing. It's exploitation, you know,
taking advantage of things and disguising them under a guise
of religion. And then thirdly, it was a time
of much religion but no truth. Turn to Amos chapter 5, look
at verse 18. And this is a description just
about like you see in Isaiah chapter 1. They were religious,
but there was no truth, there was no heart, there was no grace,
and most of all, there was no Christ. There was no resting
in the promise of God to send the Messiah for salvation, which
was the whole reason they existed. to be honest with you, as a nation.
But look at Amos 5, look at verse 18. Woe unto you that desire
the day of the Lord. To what end is it for you? What
purpose do you desire this day? He says the day of the Lord is
darkness and not light. You've turned it into darkness.
Boy, doesn't that describe our generation today in religion?
He says, and as if a man did flee from a lion and a bear met
him. In other words, he thinks he's fleeing from the wrath of
God, but he runs into that wrath. Flee from a lion, you run into
a bear. That's not too secure and safe, is it? or went into
the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit
him. Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness and not light,
even very dark and no brightness in it? And then he goes on to
say, I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in
your solemn assemblies. What that's talking about is
when they come to sacrifice, you know how the sacrifice in
the Old Testament is described, if it's a right sacrifice, it's
a sweet-smelling savor unto the Lord. And he says, you're stank. And Isaiah said the same thing,
and Isaiah won to the southern kingdom in his day. So there's
religion, but there's no truth, there's no grace, there's no
heart, there's no Christ. That's the key. And that's who
Amos is prophesying to. And so Amos' message to the northern
kingdom is this, God will by no means clear the guilty. The
wages of sin is death, and my friend, without God's grace in
Christ, there is nothing but wrath, judgment, and death. Without the good news of God's
grace, without the blood of Christ, there is no remission, no forgiveness
of sins. Without His righteousness, there's
no justification. That's it. And His message was
one of judgment against sin. But now his message was also
one of repentance. That's why I read in Romans chapter
2 there. God had done so many good things
for Israel. And I want us to think about
that too. I mean, like I said before, I know we complain a
lot. We may have some valid complaints. I'm not saying that we don't.
But I mean, let's think about it, folks. How good has God been
to us? Now, that goodness that God has
given us is not deserved. I mean, it's not because we deserve
it or earn it. It's out of God's sovereign good
pleasure. It's what the scripture says.
And I don't know how that works, to be honest with you. It seemed good in God's sight.
Now, why it seemed good in God's sight, I don't know, but it did.
All right? Now, that goodness is not to
lead us to be puffed up and proud and self-righteous. That goodness
of God is meant to lead me and you and Israel and Amos this
day to repentance. God, be merciful to me, the sinner,
to seek Christ. You see that? That's what the
goodness of God in general, in the things of this life, is about.
That's why he blessed Israel in the way that he did. And so
in Amos 5 and verse 14, he says this, Seek good and not evil
that you may live, and so the Lord, the covenant-keeping God,
the God of all grace, the God of hosts, shall be with you as
you have spoken. Seek Christ. That's what he means. Seek salvation by the righteousness
of God in Christ. And don't be proud and puffed
up because you've been blessed and you've been privileged. I mean, think about what God
had done for Israel. And everything he says is grounded
in the covenant God made with Abraham and the promise of the
Messiah for redemption, but that's really not... The language all
the way through Amos says that, but it's really not stated out
until the last chapter, the last verses of the last chapter, and
you can read that on your own. Now, one of the reasons that
I read Romans chapter 2 as an opening is to show you that chapters
1 and 2 of Amos here are almost a carbon copy of chapters 1 and
2 of Romans. Especially chapter 1 verse 18
of Romans. Remember what chapter 1, let
me just read that to you. Romans 1 18 says this, it says,
"...for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness."
Now that's what we deserve by nature. That's man fallen in
Adam, ruined in Adam, And this is what we deserve. Remember,
he started off Romans talking about the gospel, the gospel
of God. The prophet preached the gospel
of God. It concerned the person and work
of Christ. It's the revelation of the righteousness
of God, which is the merits of the obedience unto death of the
Lord Jesus Christ. But somebody might ask the question,
why do I need the righteousness of God? Why am I in need of that? Why can't I work it out myself?
Why can't I just muster it up and do enough good? Well, he
tells us, he starts, well, the wrath of God is revealed from
heaven against all sin and all unrighteousness of men who hold
the truth in unrighteousness. And then immediately in Romans
chapter 1, what does he do? He starts bringing the Gentiles
in guilty before God. Man in general, fallen in Adam. And mainly talking about the
Gentiles. And while he's talking about the Gentiles, he sort of
anticipates this kind of attitude from the Jews. Get them, get
them, get them. Yeah, they deserve it. Now go
look at Amos chapter 1. He's talking about God roaring
out of Zion His judgments against the sins of all without exception. He's pronouncing judgments here.
He gives about eight oracles of judgment in chapter 1 and
chapter 2. And he begins with pronouncing
God's judgments against Israel's enemies. And he mentions all
these nations, if you've already read chapters 1 and 2, you'll
see he mentions these nations that surround Israel. If you
look on a map, these are the surrounding nations, the surrounding
armies, alright? And he starts out, look at verse
3 of chapter 1, he says, Thus saith the Lord, And as he mentioned,
the shepherd shall mourn, the top of Carmel shall wither, thus
saith the Lord, for three transgressions of Damascus. Damascus was the
capital of Syria. And then he adds, and for four.
Not just three, not four. And he uses that expression in
the pronouncement of judgments against each one of these eight
oracles. for three transgressions and
for four. What is he talking about? Is he talking about four
transgressions and that's it? No, what this is, that's an expression
that's designed to represent simply the fact that there have
been a lot of transgressions, numerous transgressions that
you cannot count. But finally, one, as we would
say, that fourth one, that's like the last straw. That's the
point of this expression. In other words, it's like sin,
it's like he's saying, he uses those numbers to say sin upon
sin upon sin upon sin, where sin abounded. And so he's saying
that God has a matter against these nations, and he's going
to judge according to truth, as Romans chapter 2 says, All
right, God's judgments are always according to truth, and there's
going to come a time when God says, I've had enough, that's
it, there's the last straw. And there is a time appointed,
you see. And that's what he's saying. And I'm not gonna read
down through all these, but just listen to what he said. He mentions
Damascus, that's the capital of Syria. He says they're going
to be judged because of their cruelty. That's verses three
through five. And then he goes on to Gaza.
That's what we call Philistia. The Philistines, they were infamous
enemies of Israel. They enslaved Edom, another country,
and they were idolatrous, as they all were. So he's going
to judge them. In verses 9 and through 10, he
mentions Tyre. Tyre... was a very prosperous
trade city. And he does mention, you might
look at this in verse 9 at the last of that, he talks about
Tyre breaking the brotherly covenant. Now that refers to the covenant
that Solomon earlier made with the king of Tyre, a guy named
Hiram, when he was building the temple. And he got materials
from Tyre. And they made a brotherly covenant
just between men that they wouldn't fight, they wouldn't fuss, that
they'd always be friends. And so that was a covenant that
they made. That was a promise that they made, but now Tyre
had broken that covenant with Israel. And so, you remember
Timothy talks to, or Paul talks to Timothy about in the last
days there'll be covenant breakers. That's the kind of covenant breakers
he's talking about. Men won't keep their promises.
They'll lie to you. And they'll break those covenants,
so he's going to judge Tyre. In verses 11 through 12, he mentions
Edom. And you know what he's doing. Edom is the country of Esau.
That's the descendants of Esau. And he's going to judge them
for their hatred of Israel. And then in verses 13 through
15, he mentions Ammon on the east side. That's Jordan today,
the country of Jordan. And he's going to judge them
for their cruelty, their greed, and their lust for power. And
then in chapter 2, he mentions Moab. Now, you know about Moab.
Moab, that was for their hatred of Israel. He's going to judge
them. Now, I want you to notice what's happening. Notice the
wisdom of God in all this. What he's doing, he's making
a circle around Israel. He said, I'm going to judge Damascus,
I'm going to judge Ammon, I'm going to judge Moab. He's going
right around the circle. And then, then all of a sudden,
look here in verse 4 of chapter 2. He says, Thus saith the Lord
for three transgressions of Judah. Judah and for four. I will not
turn away the punishment thereof. I'm going to judge Judah. Because
why? They have despised the law of
the Lord. They've despised the covenant
that God made on Sinai. They've despised the Word of
God. They've not kept His commandments and their lies caused them to
err. In other words, they loved lies
instead of the truth. That's what he's talking about.
They wanted to hear somebody lie to them. And after the witch
their fathers have walked, but I will send a fire upon Judah,
and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem." So there's Judah,
they despise God's law. Now you remember that law, that
law is the whole covenant. It's not just the Ten Commandments,
that's included. But it's that whole covenant
that God gave to Israel through Moses on Sinai. And that law,
that whole covenant, was designed and given to them by God to bring
them to where? To bring them to conviction of
sin. You see, when it says they hadn't kept the commandments,
he's not saying they weren't sinlessly perfect. Nobody is.
We're all sinners. Israel's a sinner. Judah's a
sinner. We're all sinners. If God required us to be sinlessly
perfect in order to be accepted with Him, none of us will be
saved. For by deeds of law shall no
flesh be justified in God's sight. Why was the law given? The law
entered because of what? Sin. Now, listen, if there wasn't
sin, God wouldn't even have to have given the law. That's right. The law entered because of the
transgression. So this law was, when he says
they haven't kept the commandments, what he means is this. They weren't
brought to conviction of their sin. They weren't brought to
repentance. They weren't brought to faith
in Christ. They rejected God's word. They rejected His law. And so, that's what it was meant
to do. And it was meant to guide them in the obedience of grace
and love and faith and gratitude. It was designed to guide them
in brotherly love of mercy and charity. The law provided for
the poor, the orphan, the widow, and they despised that law. They
missed the message of the covenant, which was designed to convict
them of sin and drive them to Christ for salvation, for righteousness,
for life and glory. And so God says, I'm going to
punish him. Now look what's happening here. Now, he comes, verse 6
of chapter 2. He says, Thus saith the Lord
for three transgressions of Israel and for four. Now he comes to
the northern kingdom. Now I want you to notice how
he does this. This is the wisdom of God. He makes this circle
around Israel with the Gentile nations. And these Israelites
are standing there and they're hearing how Amos preached this.
Oh, I'm going to judge Damascus. Oh, yeah, Lord, get Damascus. They deserve it. And then I'm
going to judge Gaza. Well, get Gaza. They deserve
it. And then I'm going to get Tyre. And then I'm going to get
Moab, I'm going to get Eden. Oh Lord, get those rotten Gentiles,
they deserve it. They deserve to be punished,
those sinners. And then, let me tell you something,
when God brought Amos to speak of Judah, I'll guarantee you
that Israel really got into it then. Boy, if there's anybody
who deserved it, it's those Judahites. Because see, there was such animosity
between the northern and the southern kingdoms. And that's
what happens in Romans chapter 1. He goes after the Gentiles.
And the Jews can stand and say, yes, they deserve it. They deserve
to be in hell. And then all of a sudden in chapter
2 of Romans chapter 2, he says, but you're without excuse, you
who judge. You condemn yourselves. You think
you're any better. What makes you think that you
don't deserve God's wrath? And that's what Amos does right
here in verse 6. Israel, you too. And you can just say, it's
kind of like going around a target and then he hits the bullseye
here. And it's Israel. And he said, you think you're
exempt from the wrath of God? You think all these Gentile nations
and the Judeans deserve the wrath of God? Well, what makes you
think you're any better? What makes you think you're not
even more deserving of the wrath of God than any of those Gentile
nations? And he says to Israel, verse
6, Thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of Israel, for
four I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because they
sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes
that pant after the dust of the earth. on the head of the poor,
turn aside the way of the meek, and a man and his father will
go in unto the same maid." Again, that's idolatry. "...to profane
my holy name, and they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge
by every altar." That refers to a custom where they would
give clothes to someone to make a pledge. And he says, "...they
even mocked that, and they drank the wine of the condemned in
the house of their God." And what is he saying? He's saying, You think you're not deserving
of God's wrath? Well, you are. You're a sinner. And that's just
exactly what the Lord was saying in Romans chapter 2. You judge
that people deserve hell because they are sinners. Well, you do
the same thing. Are you not a sinner? Yes, I
am a sinner. Well, what do you deserve then?
Somebody says, well, I'm not as great of a sinner. Well, first
of all, you don't know that. All you know is what's revealed. You don't know their hearts.
You know yourself better than they do, but God knows your heart. God looks upon the heart. It's
kind of like what the Lord said in Luke chapter 13. When he told them, he said, talking
about the Galileans who were slain by Pilate when they went
to the altar to sacrifice. And he said, suppose ye that
these Galileans were greater sinners, that they were more
deserving of the wrath of God than any other sin? And they'd
say, yes, they must have been. Oh no, he said, except you repent,
you shall likewise perish. There is none righteous, no,
not one. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. They are all under sin. When the Bible says we're under
sin, that means we're deserving of God's wrath. That's why it
means when it says that we who are in Christ are not under law
but under grace, when it says we're not under law or sin doesn't
have dominion over us, it doesn't mean we're not sinners anymore.
It simply means we're not condemned. Because there is therefore now
no condemnation in Christ. We're under grace. We cannot
be condemned if we're in Christ, if we're under His blood. We
cannot be condemned. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? But without Christ, we're all
condemned. Look at verse 9 of chapter 2.
There's sin and deservedness of wrath in light of God's goodness
towards them. He says, yet destroyed I the
Amorite before them. He's talking about back in the
wilderness when he destroyed the Amorites. God did that for
Israel. They didn't do it on their own
power. He said, "...whose height was like the height of the cedars,
and he was strong as the oaks." Yet I, notice the I's here, that's
God. That's not you, that's not me,
that's not Israel, that's not Moses. God destroyed His fruit
from above and His roots from beneath. And then He says in
verse 10, "...so I destroyed your enemies," God said. I'm
the one who did that. And then he says in verse 10,
and I brought you up from the land of Egypt and led you 40
years through the wilderness to possess the land of the Amorite. I did that, God said. Verse 11,
and I raised up your sons for prophets. And I raised up your
sons for prophets. and of your young men for Nazarites,"
that's referring to the Nazarite vow, which had to do with young
men who dedicated themselves to the Lord in their whole lives. And he says, "...is it not even
thus, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord?" Isn't this the
way it was? Didn't I do that? These are the mighty works of
God that brought Israel out of Egypt, established them as a
nation, and kept them. all this time. And then he says
in verse 12, but you gave the Nazarites wine to drink. What
he's talking about is you called, you tempted them and caused them
to compromise their vow. In other words, instead of thanking
God for them and using them in a godly way, you brought them
to sin. And he says, and commanded the
prophets saying prophesy not. You didn't want to hear God's
word. You didn't want to hear the preacher who preached the
truth. Don't prophesy. When Samuel came
and prophesied, what did Saul do? I don't want to hear it anymore.
When Ahab I can't remember which king it was, told him to go down
and get Micaiah. He said, I don't want to hear
him. He never had anything good to say about me. Prophesy not. They didn't want
to hear Isaiah and Jeremiah and Hosea. They didn't want to hear
Amos. So he says in verse 13, Behold,
I am pressed under you as a card is pressed that is full of sheaths. Now, what he's saying here is
that God is burdened by their sin. And the meaning is this. It's that God is about to burst
forth in wrath. He's had enough. So look at verse
15. Or verse 14. Here's what he's saying here.
There's no escape from God's judgment. Therefore, the flight
shall perish from the swift. You can't run fast enough to
outrun God's wrath. The strong shall not strengthen
his force, neither shall the mighty deliver himself. You're
not strong enough to withstand God's wrath. Verse 15, neither
shall he stand that handleth the bow. No weapons that you
can form or skill that you can muster will save you from God's
wrath. "...and he that is swift of foot
shall not deliver himself..." Again, not fast enough. "...neither
shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself." No strong power
on earth can take you away from God's wrath. Verse 16, "...and
he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked
in his shame..." "...stripped of all of his glory in that day,
saith the Lord." What's he saying here? He's simply saying this,
that by deeds of law shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. There's no escape from God's
judgment. God's justice is vindicated. No one is above God's judgment. God's no respecter of persons.
All nations are held accountable for their greed, their cruelty,
their lust for power, their pleasure, and their despising of the Word
of God. Religion won't deliver you. God
said, I hate your religion. Religion without truth, without
grace, without Christ, without heart. But do you know in all
of these, there's mercy in God revealing this truth because
this is a warning. This is a warning. John the Baptist
told his generation about that. He said, O generation of vipers,
who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? The Bible
talks about the only refuge from God's wrath. And Hebrews chapter
6 and verse 17 talks about God who's willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs of promise. And what is His promise? His
promise is to save sinners by His grace through Christ. That's
His promise. God never promised to save any
sinner any other way. Is that right? That promise that
He gave to Abraham, that promise that He gave to Adam and Eve
in Genesis 3 15 was the salvation of sinners by His grace and mercy
through the blood and righteousness of Christ. And so He willing
more abundantly to show to the heirs of promise the immutability
of his counsel, his wisdom and his purpose is unchangeable.
He confirmed it by an oath. He engaged everything that he
is behind the keeping of this promise that by these two immutable
things in which it was impossible for God to lie, that we might
have a strong consolation Now who's going to have that? We
who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before
us. And what is our hope? My hope
is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
There's the hope set before in the gospel. That's what this
Lord who roars forth from Zion, that's the only hope that He'll
give a sinner. I don't care if you're from Damascus
or Edom or Judah or Israel. The only hope that this God who
roars forth out of Zion will give a sinner is that hope which
he has set forth and promised and engaged himself in his glory
behind in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord of hosts is with us.
The God of Jacob is our refuge. Let me just close with this.
You know, Hosea is the burden... Amos is the burden-bearer. And
being the burden-bearer, you know he's a type of Christ? Because I want to tell you something.
It was Christ himself alone who bore our burdens, the burden
of our sin, to Calvary. And on that cross, He bore the
full burden of God's wrath against the sin of His people and He
fulfilled all righteousness. As we say, He drank damnation
dry. He emptied Himself of His glory
and He bore our sins in His body on the tree. Now that's the only
hope that God sets before any sinner and every sinner who will
hear.