Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Happy New Year.

It’s good to be back with you and to be starting a New Year together.

Tonight we’re going to come to the end of the journey that we’ve been on since early September - we’re going to wrap up the book of Amos.

It’s been a rough journey - Amos had a lot of really hard things to say to the people of Israel and some of them have been difficult for our modern ears to hear.

We’ve seen God’s utter sovereignty over every event that takes place - whether for good or evil.

Tonight he is going to reach the crescendo that he has been building to throughout the book.

What we’ve seen throughout this book is that the people of Israel had forgotten who God was and who they were.

We have done much the same today.

I used this quote earlier in the series but I think it is a great summation of where we stand not only as a society but is many ways as a church.

It is the now late Dr. R.C. Sproul answering a question at a question and answer session.

The question asked was Since God is slow to anger and patient, then why when man first sinned was His wrath and punishment so severe and long-lasting?

That God’s punishment for Adam was so severe.

This creature from the dirt defied the everlasting Holy God, after God had said the day that you shall eat of it you shall surely die.

And instead of dying that day, he lived another day, was clothed in his nakedness by pure grace, and had the consequences of a curse applied for quite some time, but the worst curse would come upon the one who seduced him, who’s head would be crushed by the Seed of the woman, and the punishment was too severe?

What is wrong with you people?

I’m serious.

I mean this is what’s wrong with the Christian church today.

We don’t know who God is and we don’t know who we are.

The question is why wasn’t it infinitely more severe.

If we have any understanding of our sin and any understanding of who God is - that’s the question.

In this passage tonight Amos is again going to remind us, through the vehicle of one final vision, Who God is and who we are - but he doesn’t simply leave the Israelites there and he’s not going to leave us there either.

Tonight there will be a promise at the end that we can take heart in.

Lets look at our passage for tonight.

Read Amos 9:1-15

Pray

He is God Almighty

Amos 9:1-6; John 3:19; Luke 12:3; Genesis 3:8; Joshua 7:19-21; 1 Samuel 28:8; Psalm 139:7-12; Revelation 6:12-17

This vision starts out differently than all the others - in the first two visions in Amos 7:1-6 Amos is shown the calamity that God intends to send on Israel.

In the second two visions God shows Amos an illustrative item - first a plumb line and second a basket of fruit - that illustrates the judgement that is about to come.

In this final vision Amos sees God Himself standing by the altar.

There are no more intermediaries, there are no more illustrations - the Lord Himself will visit this judgement on His people.

And look where He is standing - He is not in the public square or the palace of the king - He is standing next to the altar in the sanctuary.

Ultimately it is not the pride of the leaders in their national accomplishments or the mistreatment of the poor by the upper class that moves God to action - it is the perversion of His name and His statutes in the religious centers of the nation that provoke Him.

It is the mixing of the pure covenant that He had instituted and made with His people with the pagan religions and practices of the societies surrounding them.

It was the false prophets who continuously proclaimed peace, peace and prosperity and good for the people when there was none to be found.

The same is happening today.

In churches across the nation and right here in our city there are speakers who claim to be prophets who give false hope.

Take note of the role of a prophet in the Bible - it was always to call the people back to God when they had wandered away from Him.

While their messages may have held a note of hope, theirs was generally a message of judgement and destruction for a people that had not followed the precepts of God.

Beware of these self-proclaimed modern prophets who do nothing but proclaim good tidings and good things and never once call the nation back to repentance.

And there will be no where to hide from God

As a child I would often try to hide things from my parents - I would go into the hall closet to eat candy.

Or hide toys under the blankets and then after lights were out I would pull them out to play with them.

Yet I would get caught.

One time I had this three foot tall Godzilla that I took to bed with me and when I was caught with it I tried to tell my mom that Godzilla just wanted a kiss good night.

We try to do the same thing to God.

We conceal our deeds thinking He wont see them.

We hide in our rooms and look at images on our computers we shouldn’t.

It is interesting that most of our illicit deeds happen at night.

I’ve always said that nothing good happens after midnight a maxim that certainly holds true.

We try to hide because we would rather live in the darkness - it’s more comfortable there

But nothing can ultimately be hidden from God

This is nothing new - it’s been going on since man first sinned in the Garden

It followed the Israelites to the Promised Land

It is a desire that plagues both the small like Achen and the great - king Saul went to consult a medium

Our passage exposes the futility of trying to hide from God

There is no where we can hide - whether in the depths of hell or the heights of Heaven.

On the summit of a mountain or the depths of the sea.

Not even captivity among a foreign nation will protect the Israelites from God’s judgement.

These people who compared themselves to David should have actually read his songs:

Psalm 139 tells eloquently of the omniscient eye of God - in fact this passage is almost a direct quotation of that psalm

Psalm 139:7-12

But men continue to try and hide themselves from God.

And they will continue to.

We should take heed to Amos’ warnings though as another day is coming when we will not be able to hide

Revelation 6:12-17

Even now men are preparing for this day

There is a company called Doomsday Bunkers that is offering Survival Condos.

The offer several options - a 3600 sq ft bunker (two floors) will only cost you 4.5 million.

An 1840 sq ft bunker will set you back 3.0 million.

For those looking for a bargain and embracing the tiny home lifestyle, a 920 sq ft bunker is going for the paltry sum of 1.5 million dollars.

This is their sales pitch: “Act now because this is a very limited opportunity to get total “life assurance” for you and your family in the event of just about any major crisis.”

The only total life assurance that can be found is through the Gospel of Jesus Christ - because there is no hiding from God.

And there’s no hiding from Him because He is God.

He’s the Alpha and the Omega.

He’s the Creator of the whole place.

Amos inserts a fragment of a well known hymn about the Lord here - highlighting and emphasizing His power as Creator.

He touches the land and it melts

He raises up the Nile to flood yearly and then subsides it into it’s banks

The bedrock passage highlighting God’s sovereignty and man’s powerlessness is Job 40:6-14

He builds His upper chambers in Heaven and the vaulted dome over the earth

He call forth the waters and then pours them back onto the earth

The Lord is His name

There really aren’t any words that I can add to these to make Him more glorious or wonderful in your eyes - but it makes me want to cry out with Paul

And look at the end of verse 4 - it says I will set my eyes against them for evil and not for good.

You will never see that verse on a coffee cup or in anyone’s journal as a life verse - and remember that the same God who prompted Jeremiah to say that I know the plans I have for you, plans for welfare and not to for calamity to give you a future and a hope” is the same God who prompted Amos to write that I will set my eyes against them for evil and not for good.

Which now leads us to who we are....

We are not

Amos 9:7-10; Ephesians 2:1

Amos pronouncement of destruction on the land would have been met with outright rejection and responses by the religious and cultural elite of society

Just as the vision of the plumb line in Amos 7 brought about a response from Amaziah the priest, so this final oracle would illicit a response - but this time Amos doesn’t have to answer for himself - God does it all

Part of Israel’s problem was that they viewed themselves as better than other nations because they were the covenant people of God so they believed that God would always be on their side - that He would favor them.

When I was in the Navy there were often times that sailors would be ingratiate themselves to leadership hoping to get better treatment.

They hoped that they would get favorable treatment because they were close to the Chief or Division Officer.

I always held those Sailors who could be perceived to be in a favored position to a higher standard.

By nature of their covenantal position to God the Israelites didn’t realize that they would be held to a higher standard by God - they thought they were safe and that anything they did would be forgiven.

God’s response here tells them that in reality they are no better than the other nations - that He acted sovereignly apart from any merit on their part.

Have I not brought up Israel from the land of Egypt - the exodus story was a clear example of God’s work on behalf of the Israelites and the event that the nation pointed to as the event in their history that made them God’s people - and yet they were not the only nation that God had provided and exodus story for.

Two other nations, the Philistines and the Arameans - two bitter enemies of the Israelites - also had exodus stories.