PREPARE TO MEET THY GOD

Amos 4:6-13

INTRODUCTION

1.                  Read Text

2.                  I want you to think of your situation as we discuss this lesson now.

3.                  Amos is giving warning to

a.       They have been warned over and over by God

b.      They continue to act defiantly toward Him

c.       They refuse to change their lives and to practice His will

d.      Not all of them were openly rebellious, some just refused on one point in life, whether worship or daily activity

e.       But all were told by Amos, “Prepare to meet your God”

4.                  What I want you to consider during this lesson is this: you are going to meet God one day, are you too prepared?

I.                    He gave them cleanness of teeth and lack of bread

A.                 Cleanness of teeth was not the result of proper oral hygiene

1.                  God is not commending them on their proper brushing

2.                  Nor is He saying that they have the greatest toothpaste

3.                  Cleanness of teeth is means that they had not food to stick to their teeth

4.                  Lack of bread is in parallel to this statement saying that there were famines in the land

B.                 These were from God

1.                  Sometimes good things come packaged in bad boxes

2.                  God sent the famine to

a.       Not so they would starve to death

b.      But so they would return to Him

3.                  Proverbs 3:12, “For whom the Lord loves He reproves, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.”

4.                  God sent discipline to His people when they were not following Him

C.                 This discipline hit the deepest felt need they had, hunger

1.                  He reached out to the pain of hunger to teach them

2.                  What He wanted them to learn was that God provides and they had turned their back on the providing God

3.                  The “I” in this section is in the emphatic position

a.       It would more accurately translate, “I even I gave you also cleanness of teeth”

b.      God is saying in no uncertain terms that He takes sole responsibility for the famines that occurred

4.                  And that it is for discipline not punishment necessarily

a.       He is trying to teach a lesson

b.      Stay with me and I will take care of you

D.                 “‘Yet you have not returned to me,’ declares the Lord.”

II.                 At the cause of many famines are droughts which the Lord also sent (V7)

A.                 “Furthermore I withheld rain from you”

1.                  Lack of rain causes famine

2.                  Do not believe it, look around, we are close to just that (my garden would have left us hungry)

3.                  But it is not the only cause of drought

a.       Blight

b.      Insects (tobacco worms ate our tomatoes)

c.       Animals

B.                 But drought brings about even more troubles

1.                  Not only are you hungry, but now you are thirsty

2.                  Each of which are life-threatening problems that compound one another

3.                  And on top of that He gave some cities rain and left some dry

4.                  This is not showing the selective nature of the saved and lost

5.                  It is showing the power of God and His control over the elements

a.       Matthew 5:45, “So that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”

b.      It is not a matter of who was better on earth that determines earthly blessing and loss

c.       The idea is that it is HIS sun and he sends it where He wills and HIS rain and He enjoys absolute control

6.                  Inhabitants of two or three dry cities end up in one city that had rain and there is not enough to go around

a.       Those who thought they were blessed are suffering as well

b.      Each city actually is being chastened

c.       It is our responsibility to serve God

d.      It is also our responsibility to help others serve God

C.                 God brought drought on the cities of

1.                  Not to thirst them to death

2.                  But to make them repent

D.                 “‘Yet you have not returned to me,’ declares the Lord.”

III.               He sent other means of damaging their crops

A.                 Scorching wind

1.                  The hot eastern winds would blow and kill the already drought stricken crops

2.                  It would blow sand across and bury them or would increase the damage of the drought by adding heat upon heat

3.                  The plants would stand no chance

B.                 The mildew

1.                  There would be warm damp rains in the winter

2.                  This would cause the ear of grain to mildew and rot before it ever ripened

C.                 The caterpillar ate the crops

1.                  Worms destroy gardens

2.                  Large amounts of pesticides are sold locally to kill those pests

3.                  And some of them do not work so well

4.                  But the worms that eat crops leave little to nothing behind

D.                 All of these activities were warned about in Deuteronomy 28:222

1.                  They were a warning to those who “Would not hearken unto the voice of the Lord” and do all His commandments

2.                  In they had forsaken the commandments of God

3.                  They received his chastisement

E.                  “‘Yet you have not returned to Me,’ declares the Lord.”

IV.              So He touched them even more personally

A.                 He smote them with a plague like that of

1.                  Remember the killing of the first-born and the impact it had on pagan

2.                  saw that power and did not see God

a.       He slew their young men with the sword

b.      Again the promise is given that if they do not obey this sword and pestilence will come upon them

c.       It is spoken in Leviticus 26:25 and that promise was fulfilled

3.                  The Lord stepped up his chastening of them

a.       He went from a less direct destruction of crops to the more direct killing of Israelites

b.      In II Chronicles 20 the Lord strikes 70,000 men of because of the unapproved census taken by David

c.       When David made the sacrifice the Angel of the Lord, God commanded him to put his sword back in its sheath

4.                  God called His people to repentance through the difficulties and chastisements that He sent to them

5.                  “Yet you have not returned to Me,’ declares the Lord”

B.                 And He caused them to be overthrown

1.                  This word means sudden destruction like that suffered by Sodom and Gomorrah

2.                  It could refer to an earthquake

a.       One is mentioned in 1:1

b.      Earthquakes come on suddenly and there is often no where to hide and no way to escape

c.       The sufferer is left to the mercies of the earth and the ultimate will of God

d.      If a house falls on him he dies, if a hole opens and swallows him he dies

e.       If he is fortunate he lives

3.                  It could have been some other disaster that we do not know of yet

4.                  Two things are certain is that it was brought on by God because of the rebellion of and that there was no escape for those caught up in its path

5.                  As powerful as God has demonstrated Himself in these passages

6.                  “‘Yet you have not returned to me,’ declares the Lord.”

V.                 So prepare to meet your God

A.                 Who is this God they will meet?

1.                  The one who forms the mountains and creates wind

a.       Power of creation

b.      Two greatest wonders are majestic mountains and wonder causing wind

2.                  Who told man what his thoughts are

a.       Power over man

b.      We do not even originate our own thoughts but they are of godly origin

3.                  Who makes dawn into darkness

a.       Power over order

b.      Created sun and moon which govern our time and tide and the measure of our lives

4.                  And treads on the high places

a.       The places that are unreachable to man God treads on

b.      His power and might are beyond what man can accomplish or aspire to

5.                  He is the Lord of hosts

a.       Lord of all things

b.      Animal, vegetable and mineral all answer to Him

c.       And call Him Lord

B.                 How do you prepare to meet such an awesome God as this?

1.                  Return to Him

2.                  This is what the Israelites refused to do over and over again

3.                  And but for a few years under Jeroboam II they struggled and suffered from pestilence, drought, and famine

4.                  And never returned

C.                 Are you prepared to meet your God?

1.                  We can draw near with confidence the Hebrew writer says

2.                  We can do this when we return to Him

3.                  Since Adam we have been separated from Him because of our sin

4.                  Since Christ the path back has been plain and clear

a.       Faith comes by hearing (Romans 10:17)

b.      Without faith we cannot please God (Hebrews 11:6)

c.       Repentance is essential in our return (Acts 17:30)

d.      We must confess Him before men or be lost (Mt. 10:32)

e.       To return to him we need to be baptized (Romans 6:1-6)

f.        And to live faithfully until He returns for us (Rev. 2:10)

D.                 That is not a checklist like a shopping list

1.                  Each of these is the result of listening to God’s word and changing your life

2.                  He is sending you a sign everyday

3.                  When the sun rises you know it is because of Him

4.                  When you take your first breath of the new day it is His air

5.                  When you are given great gifts in blessing they are from Him

6.                  When you suffer it is His laws and nature that bring that on

7.                  The Israelites lost their lives for not returning to God

8.                  Are you going to lose your eternal life because you were not willing to return?

9.                  Do not worry about what the world will say if you do

10.              Be aware of what the Lord will say if you do not

11.              The pestilence felt by will pale in comparison to the suffering of those who look on the perfect law of liberty and spurn its invitation to salvation

12.              That invitation is yours now

13.              Do not neglect this opportunity if there is any reason at all that you will not hear “Come unto me”

14.              Return to Him now as we stand and sing