Bob Weppler: Thank you, bob.
Bob Weppler: The nervousness part though that's sorry that noise you hear that's my heartbeat.
Bob Weppler: Tonight we're going to look at the book of Amos, as Doug mentioned.
Bob Weppler: Please turn to 811 in your Bibles.
Bob Weppler: We are at book 30 of the 66 books of the Bible.
Bob Weppler: We're almost halfway home, making our way through the Old Testament, book three and the Minor Prophets.
Bob Weppler: There's nine more to go there.
Bob Weppler: The book, chronologically, is either first or second.
Bob Weppler: The book of Jonah may or may not have taken place earlier.
Bob Weppler: Scholarships sort of divided on that.
Bob Weppler: The consensus has the date of Amos' sermons, around 760 BC.
Bob Weppler: Before we meet the prophet, let's go to have your perfect, precious, pure word.
Bob Weppler: It is truth itself, said Martin Luther.
Bob Weppler: Father, please, as we look at the book of Amos tonight, may your message that you want us to hear come forth.
Bob Weppler: And we ask this in Jesus' name.
Bob Weppler: Amen, all right.
Bob Weppler: So Amos was a shepherd and a fig farmer from a small village named Tekoa.
Bob Weppler: It was located 10 miles south of Jerusalem.
Bob Weppler: He is called by God to preach to the wealthy officials of the northern kingdom At the moment.
Bob Weppler: Amos was called, he became a prophet, a prophet's purpose To call Israel, to call God's people back into covenant, exodus 6-7.
Bob Weppler: I will take you to be my people and I will be your God.
Bob Weppler: His message your end has come Pretty easy.
Bob Weppler: Message right.
Bob Weppler: The name Amos means burden bearer.
Bob Weppler: What a burden he must have felt when given his assignment.
Bob Weppler: How could he have possibly understood God's plan for him?
Bob Weppler: Clearly, god saw something in this man.
Bob Weppler: God knew that Amos would trust him.
Bob Weppler: Proverbs 3.5, probably a verse you guys know very well Trust in the Lord with all your heart.
Bob Weppler: Lean not on your own understanding.
Bob Weppler: Amos trusted and off he went.
Bob Weppler: We will discover in our reading that Amos was both a beautiful poetic writer and a great communicator.
Bob Weppler: The setting as mentioned, around 760 BC, king Jeroboam II is ruling.
Bob Weppler: Scripture calls him an evil king.
Bob Weppler: He's not alone.
Bob Weppler: Every northern king, 19 in all, did evil in the sight of the Lord.
Bob Weppler: During his reign he greatly expanded Israel's border.
Bob Weppler: It was a time of peace, prosperity and political strength.
Bob Weppler: Also a time of relative weakness for Israel's two biggest foes, egypt and Assyria.
Bob Weppler: All was good in the north, but was it?
Bob Weppler: God was not in agreement here.
Bob Weppler: Israel was far from good and even farther from God.
Bob Weppler: Their continual sin and rebellion had hardened their hearts.
Bob Weppler: What caused this?
Bob Weppler: Let's grab some plutonium and jump in our DeLorean and head back to 932 BC.
Bob Weppler: King Jeroboam I is the first king of the north.
Bob Weppler: Shortly after bless you.
Bob Weppler: Shortly after his appointment, he constructs two rival temples One in Bethel near the southern border, one in Dan near the northern border.
Bob Weppler: Samaria, the capital city, was midway between both temples.
Bob Weppler: In both houses of worship, they made for themselves a golden calf.
Bob Weppler: Has anyone read the scroll of Exodus?
Bob Weppler: A golden calf what are they thinking?
Bob Weppler: Israel enjoyed the status as God's children.
Bob Weppler: However, their identity looked nothing like it.
Bob Weppler: They were hardly a light to the nations.
Bob Weppler: The idol-worshiping Israelites were behaving like their pagan neighbors.
Bob Weppler: Exodus 20, verse 4 and 5.
Bob Weppler: Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape of anything, in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters underneath the earth.
Bob Weppler: Do not bow in worship to them, for I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God bringing consequences of the father's iniquity on the children of the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.
Bob Weppler: As far as God is concerned, idol worship equals hatred of him.
Bob Weppler: In the minor prophet books we notice that the prophet's message usually is in four parts Indictments, god's judgment, god's instruction and the aftermath.
Bob Weppler: Amos has all four.
Bob Weppler: Let's look at the book's structure.
Bob Weppler: Amos is divided into three sections.
Bob Weppler: Chapter 1 and 2 are God's judgment against eight nations.
Bob Weppler: The last two are Judah and Israel.
Bob Weppler: The focus for the book is on Israel.
Bob Weppler: Chapter 3 through 6 provide verification of God's judgment against Israel.
Bob Weppler: Lastly, chapters seven through nine are five visions of devastation and one vision of hope.
Bob Weppler: Verse one, two the Lord roars from Zion.
Bob Weppler: What an understatement this is.
Bob Weppler: The book of Amos is 144 verses long.
Bob Weppler: For the next 137 voices.
Bob Weppler: You will indeed hear the Lord roar.
Bob Weppler: We read of Amos' first sermon, beginning in verse 1-3.
Bob Weppler: First, amos speaks about Israel's enemies.
Bob Weppler: Verse 1-3 through 2-3 are oracles against six nations Syria, philistia, tyre, edom, ammon and Moab.
Bob Weppler: Let's look at the judgment against Edom, beginning in verse 111.
Bob Weppler: The Lord says I will not relent from punishing Edom for three crimes, even four, because he pursued his brother.
Bob Weppler: If we look at the six paragraphs that talk about the oracles against the nation, we'll notice a pattern.
Bob Weppler: In every judgment we see the two sentences I will not relent from punishing.
Bob Weppler: Therefore, I will send fire.
Bob Weppler: What do we learn here?
Bob Weppler: God will punish.
Bob Weppler: God will punish with fire.
Bob Weppler: We know that fire destroys, but fire also refines.
Bob Weppler: All these nations' crimes fit into two broad categories of sin, oppressive social policies.
Bob Weppler: And two, the breaking of their own moral code.
Bob Weppler: Judah's sin is similar, but their penalty will be worse.
Bob Weppler: Why?
Bob Weppler: Because they are the covenant people of God.
Bob Weppler: If Amos was sent by God to deliver a message of condemnation to Israel, why is he mentioning other nations in his first sermon?
Bob Weppler: Because Israel is guilty of the same crimes.
Bob Weppler: This was a rhetorical device used by the prophet.
Bob Weppler: What was its intention?
Bob Weppler: To get Israel to understand?
Bob Weppler: They too will be judged.
Bob Weppler: Beginning in verse 2-6,.
Bob Weppler: It's Israel's turn.
Bob Weppler: Why is God so angry with Israel?
Bob Weppler: What are their crimes?
Bob Weppler: We find six broad categories.
Bob Weppler: One oppression of the poor Verse 2-6,.
Bob Weppler: Third line.
Bob Weppler: Because they sell a righteous person for silver and a needy person for a pair of sandals.
Bob Weppler: They trample the heads of the poor on the dust of the ground and obstruct the path of the needy.
Bob Weppler: Poor on the dust of the ground and obstruct the path of the needy.
Bob Weppler: The wealthy leaders were selling the poor into slavery.
Bob Weppler: Even small debts were not being forgiven.
Bob Weppler: Two corruption and greed Verse 8.5,.
Bob Weppler: When will the new moon be over so we may sell grain, and the Sabbath so we can reduce the measure, while increasing the price and cheat with dishonest scales.
Bob Weppler: Three injustice and unrighteousness, verse 512, third line.
Bob Weppler: They oppress the righteous, take a bribe and deprive the poor of justice.
Bob Weppler: At the city gates the poor had no standing, no standing in the court system.
Bob Weppler: Empty worship Verse 521 through 523.
Bob Weppler: I can relate to this.
Bob Weppler: I hate, I despise your feasts.
Bob Weppler: I can't stand the stench of your solemn assemblies.
Bob Weppler: Even if you offer me your burnt offerings, I will not accept, I will have no regard for your fellowship.
Bob Weppler: Offerings of fat and cattle.
Bob Weppler: Take away from me the noise of your songs.
Bob Weppler: I will not listen to the music of your harps.
Bob Weppler: The Israelites were going through the motions.
Bob Weppler: God knew their hearts.
Bob Weppler: He knew their worship was empty Idolatry, verse 526.
Bob Weppler: But you have taken up Sackath, your king, and Kiwan, your star god, images you made for yourselves, king and Kiwan, your star God, images you made for yourselves.
Bob Weppler: Worship of golden calves had led to all kinds of pagan worship.
Bob Weppler: Lastly, pride and complacency.
Bob Weppler: Woe to those, I'm sorry.
Bob Weppler: Verse six, verse six one.
Bob Weppler: Woe to those who are at ease in Zion and to those who feel secure on the hill of Samaria, verse 6, 8.
Bob Weppler: I loathe Jacob's pride.
Bob Weppler: God has given them peace, prosperity and political strength.
Bob Weppler: But the wealthy leaders took all the credit.
Bob Weppler: God's judgment.
Bob Weppler: Would Israel be judged for their crimes?
Bob Weppler: God answers in verse 412.
Bob Weppler: Prepare to meet your God.
Bob Weppler: I think that's a yes.
Bob Weppler: God cannot look upon sin.
Bob Weppler: Sin must be judged.
Bob Weppler: Who will judge these sinners?
Bob Weppler: Verse 413.
Bob Weppler: The Lord, the God of armies.
Bob Weppler: This was no God of mercy.
Bob Weppler: This was the warrior God, the almighty God, and he's carrying a sword.
Bob Weppler: How would Israel be judged?
Bob Weppler: Verse 311.
Bob Weppler: Therefore, the Lord God says an enemy will surround the land.
Bob Weppler: He will destroy your strongholds and plunder your citadels.
Bob Weppler: Israel has been deemed no better than their pagan neighbors.
Bob Weppler: God was going to do the unimaginable Verse 213.
Bob Weppler: God was going to do the unimaginable.
Bob Weppler: Verse 2.13.
Bob Weppler: Look, I am about to crush you in your place.
Bob Weppler: What other punishment would God's children face?
Bob Weppler: Verse 5.27.
Bob Weppler: I will send you into exile beyond Damascus, whoa.
Bob Weppler: To exile beyond Damascus, whoa.
Bob Weppler: God sent Amos to deliver a message of doom to the Israelites of the northern kingdom.
Bob Weppler: The wealthy leaders ignored him and tried to send him away.
Bob Weppler: Now God was going to send them away.
Bob Weppler: How incredibly sad.
Bob Weppler: What does life look like in exile?
Bob Weppler: Verse 8, 11, and 12.
Bob Weppler: Look, the days are coming.
Bob Weppler: This is the declaration of the Lord God.
Bob Weppler: When I will send a famine through the land.
Bob Weppler: Not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but a hearing of the words of God.
Bob Weppler: But a hearing of the words of God.
Bob Weppler: People will stagger from sea to sea and roam from north to east seeking the word of the Lord, but they will not find it.
Bob Weppler: God's instruction, our Lord, god, has accused Israel of many crimes.
Bob Weppler: He has pronounced judgment.
Bob Weppler: Was there hope for Israel?
Bob Weppler: Yes, verse 5-4, seek me and live.
Bob Weppler: He repeats it again in verse 5-6, seek the Lord and live.
Bob Weppler: Seems simple, but is it?
Bob Weppler: Jeremiah 29, 13.
Bob Weppler: You will seek me and find me when you search me with all your heart.
Bob Weppler: There lies the problem.
Bob Weppler: Their hearts were full of pride.
Bob Weppler: A prideful heart has no room for God.
Bob Weppler: We heard this this morning in James 4.6.
Bob Weppler: We see more instruction in verse 5.14.
Bob Weppler: Pursue good and not evil.
Bob Weppler: Verse 5.15.
Bob Weppler: Hate evil, love good.
Bob Weppler: Establish justice at the city gates.
Bob Weppler: All throughout the book we see a recurring theme Injustice leads to unrighteousness.
Bob Weppler: The wealthy leaders were treating the poor unjustly.
Bob Weppler: God wanted his people to repent, to seek him and turn from their evil ways.
Bob Weppler: What did God desire of his people?
Bob Weppler: Amos writes, verse 524,.
Bob Weppler: Let justice flow like water and righteousness like an unfailing stream.
Bob Weppler: That sounds good.
Bob Weppler: Sadly, israel's justice and righteousness flowed like poison.
Bob Weppler: Would a remnant be saved?
Bob Weppler: Scripture tells us that God usually saves some.
Bob Weppler: Let's see how it plays out.
Bob Weppler: The aftermath God's people have been given a choice.
Bob Weppler: The choice was a personal choice Ignore the prophet's warning or take heed of it.
Bob Weppler: What will they do?
Bob Weppler: In chapters 7, 8, and 9, we see the consequences of their personal choice.
Bob Weppler: God gives Amos five visions of devastation and a vision of hope.
Bob Weppler: These visions depict the day of the Lord.
Bob Weppler: Great or terrible.
Bob Weppler: Vision one locusts Not again, pastor Doug.
Bob Weppler: Vision two fire.
Bob Weppler: After each vision, amon pleads with God to relent from punishing.
Bob Weppler: Lord.
Bob Weppler: God, please forgive, lord, god, please stop.
Bob Weppler: In both cases, god relents.
Bob Weppler: This indicated to the prophet that a remnant would indeed be saved.
Bob Weppler: Who were they?
Bob Weppler: The humble repentant?
Bob Weppler: In visions 3, 4, and 5, god does not spare.
Bob Weppler: We read of the gruesome aftermath in verse 8.3.
Bob Weppler: In that day the temple songs will become wailing, many dead bodies thrown everywhere, silence who would perish?
Bob Weppler: Verse 9.10.
Bob Weppler: All the sinners among my people who say disaster will never overtake or confront us will die by the sword.
Bob Weppler: These were the proud, wealthy leaders who oppressed the children of God.
Bob Weppler: They had no love for neighbor.
Bob Weppler: They loved themselves and their possessions.
Bob Weppler: Finally, a vision of hope.
Bob Weppler: The Lord has roared for 137 verses.
Bob Weppler: The last five verses of the book show the aftermath for the saved.
Bob Weppler: Our beloved God of mercy has finally returned.
Bob Weppler: Amos paints a beautiful picture of the paradise that awaits God's children Verse 9, 13 through 15.
Bob Weppler: Sweet wine and the hills will flow with it.
Bob Weppler: I will restore the fortunes of my people, israel.
Bob Weppler: They will rebuild and occupy ruined cities, plant vineyards and drink their wine, make gardens and eat their produce.
Bob Weppler: I will plant them in their land and they will never again be uprooted from the land I have given them.
Bob Weppler: The Lord, god, has spoken.
Bob Weppler: When these days come, the crops will be so plentiful that the seasons for planting and harvesting will run together.
Bob Weppler: A place where justice and righteousness will flow like sweet wine, where all the nations will enjoy true peace and true prosperity.
Bob Weppler: Psalm 1,.
Bob Weppler: How happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked or stand in the pathway of sinners or sit in the company of mockers.
Bob Weppler: Instead, his delight is in the Lord's instruction and he meditates on it day and night.
Bob Weppler: He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bear fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither.
Bob Weppler: Another beautiful painting.
Bob Weppler: God's people will never again be uprooted.
Bob Weppler: Why?
Bob Weppler: Because Jesus is ruling and reigning on the throne of David.
Bob Weppler: The Lord of lords and king of kings will reign forever and ever.
Bob Weppler: Can I get a hallelujah chorus?
Bob Weppler: I get a hallelujah chorus.
Bob Weppler: Let's look back and reflect.
Bob Weppler: More than any other book in scripture, the book of Amos holds God's people accountable for their ill treatment of others.
Bob Weppler: It repeatedly points out the failure of God's chosen to fully embrace God's idea of justice.
Bob Weppler: Amos rebuked them because he saw in their lifestyle evidence that Israel had forgotten God.
Bob Weppler: Why had they forgotten God?
Bob Weppler: Idolatry, idol worship, was the foundational sin that led to all of Israel's ungodly behavior.
Bob Weppler: They had become just like their pagan enemy.
Bob Weppler: What's an idol?
Bob Weppler: Anything or anyone that replaces God.
Bob Weppler: It's a matter of the heart we make them.
Bob Weppler: John Calvin wrote the human heart is an idol factory.
Bob Weppler: God wanted Israel's heart, but their heart had no room for him.
Bob Weppler: Israel was incapable of obeying the first commandment because they couldn't obey the second.
Bob Weppler: Idol worship led to all of their other sins.
Bob Weppler: Their rebellion led to God's judgment a brutal judgment, the unimaginable.
Bob Weppler: Sacked by their enemy and exiled from their land.
Bob Weppler: Amos' prophecy was fulfilled in 722 BC.
Bob Weppler: Assyria would be that enemy who would surround Israel, destroy their strongholds and plunder their citadels.
Bob Weppler: The end had indeed come to those who turned their back on God.
Bob Weppler: Injustice permeates our world.
Bob Weppler: Are we, as Christians, turning a blind eye?
Bob Weppler: Are we truly loving our neighbors as ourselves?
Bob Weppler: God has called Christians not only to be in relationship with him, but to be in relationship with others.
Bob Weppler: Do we focus more on our invisible God than we do on his visible creation?
Bob Weppler: The book of Amos teaches us God's scheme of justice, where the physical needs of people are as important as the spiritual needs of people.
Bob Weppler: The book of Amos reveals the consequences of taking our eyes off God.
Bob Weppler: We are God's new chosen people, the children of the new covenant, united with Jesus, united with each other.
Bob Weppler: It is our status and our identity, and that will never change.
Bob Weppler: What can we take away from the book of Amos?
Bob Weppler: God requires true worship.
Bob Weppler: When we place anything or anyone above God, we run the risk of making an idol.
Bob Weppler: Idol worship leads to empty worship.
Bob Weppler: How do we avoid this trap?
Bob Weppler: Amos provides the answer.
Bob Weppler: We seek God and live.
Bob Weppler: We live the life that God intends for us.
Bob Weppler: We seek him through scripture.
Bob Weppler: We seek him through prayer.
Bob Weppler: We seek him through fellowship.
Bob Weppler: Israel was called by God to be a light to the nations.
Bob Weppler: They failed.
Bob Weppler: We have been called by God to be a light to the world, to manifest justice and righteousness to our neighbors and to walk in a manner worthy of our calling.
Bob Weppler: May we never fail.
Bob Weppler: Let's pray, father.
Bob Weppler: We are so grateful for the prophet Amos, who has delivered to us a message of doom, but a message of hope for those who repent, for those who come to you, for those who approach your throne humbly and seek the Lord Jesus.
Bob Weppler: We are grateful for the prophet, we are grateful that he answered your call and we pray that we will always answer your call In Jesus' name, amen.