Alright, open your Bibles to Amos chapter number
6 please, the Old Testament Minor Prophet Book
of Amos and chapter number 6.
Let your eyes fall to verse number 1.
The Bible says, Woe to them that are
at ease in Zion, and trust in the
mountain of Samaria, which is named chief of
the nations, to whom the house of Israel
came.
Pass ye unto Calni and see, and from
thence go ye to Hamath the Great, then
go down to Gath of the Philistines.
Be they better than these kingdoms, or their
border greater than your border.
Ye that put far away the evil day,
and cause the seed of violence to come
near, that lie upon beds of ivory, and
stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the
lambs out of the flock, and the calves
out of the midst of the stall, that
chant to the sound of the vial, and
invent to themselves instruments of music like David,
that drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves
with the chief ointments, but they are not
grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
Look back at verse number 1 if you
would please.
It will be our title and be our
text for the message.
It says, Woe to them that are at
ease in Zion.
Thank you very much.
You may be seated.
Let's bow our heads and hearts, and let's
ask the Lord to bless our time together.
Lord, thank you so much for the privilege
that you've afforded me to preach, and I
pray Lord that you would bless as the
word of God goes forth, and Lord I
claim Jeremiah chapter 20 in verse number 9,
where your Bible says, It's not my word
like unto a fire, and like a hammer
that breaks the rock in pieces.
So I pray the Spirit of God would
guide me now as I preach, in Jesus'
name, Amen.
If you know anything about your Bible, especially
your Old Testament, when you get to the
major and the minor prophets, they are completely
inundated with the subject of revival.
As an evangelist, I am greatly joyed by
the fact that I can preach on revival
from these books, because this is a series
of books where God's people are living on
a spiritual plane, they are doing what is
right, people are being saved, but yet then
little things begin to creep into their life,
begin to creep into their families, they go
off into sin, into deception, and then God
does some type of judgment, He gives them
some type of blessing, He brings the prophet
of God to come in and to preach,
and then the people are once again brought
into an aspect or an atmosphere of revival.
But when you get to the book of
Amos, ladies and gentlemen, that is not at
all what is taking place.
The book of Amos is probably the only
minor prophet book that you have that deals
not at all with the subject of revival.
As a matter of fact, there is no
revival terminology in the book of Amos.
As a matter of fact, there is not
one tear shed over one lost soul in
the book of Amos whatsoever.
But rather, the book of Amos is a
continual book of the pungent judgment of Almighty
God.
And here is a man by the name
of Amos.
His very name means burden.
If Amos were alive today, his name would
basically mean that Amos was a pain in
the neck.
He was a pain in the neck, burdened
down preacher because of the message that he
had.
He opened his mouth, he opened his Bible,
and he continually preached, thus saith the Lord.
And ladies and gentlemen, let me just say
unapologetically this morning that without a shadow of
a doubt, what America and what the world
needs more than anything else is some old
-fashioned, burdened down, pain in the neck preachers.
The Bible says in 2 Timothy chapter 4
and verse number 2, Preach the Word.
Be instant in season, out of season.
Reprove and rebuke with all longsuffering and doctrine.
And no doubt in your Bible, Amos was
a gospel preacher, but yet he was a
preacher of judgment as well.
But you'll notice there in verse number 1
where God, using Amos, said, Woe to them
that are at ease in Zion.
Now many people don't understand that little phrase,
but the phrase, at ease in Zion, literally
means that these people had kicked it in
a spiritually neutralized year.
They were carnal.
They were compromisers.
They were complacent.
They got to the place where they were
very backslidden and lukewarm in their service to
Almighty God.
Now, quickly, by way of introduction, let me
give you two reasons right here from the
text that I believe with all of my
heart, God said that these people were lazy.
Why did He say that they were at
ease?
Why did He say that they were backslidden,
if you will?
Well, look at verse number 1 if you
will.
The Bible says, Woe to them that are
at ease in Zion, and trust in the
mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of
the nations to whom the house of Israel
came.
Now, we could go on in verses 2
and 3, but for time's sake, we will
not.
What is God saying?
He's saying, first of all, that these people
were well protected.
If you were to look at a map
strategically, when this portion of Scripture was written,
you would see that the children of Israel,
God's people, the Jews, were located around mountains
and many, many valleys.
You remember reading your Old Testament Bible, I'm
sure.
They would come against their archenemy, the Philistines,
and the Ashtonites, and the Amorites, and the
Hivites, and the Jebusites, and all the other
parasites in your Bible.
And they would fight against these people, and
the enemies of God would come in, and
they would always throw themselves on the mercy
and grace of God, and they trusted in
the saving right hand of God to protect
them.
But that is not at all what they
were doing in Amos chapter 6.
As a matter of fact, if we could
say it this way, they were kind of
like America.
They had a good military protection program, and
so therefore, they did not trust in God,
but rather they trusted in their own military.
And so God said, because you're so well
protected, you don't trust Me anymore, and you've
got to the place where you're backslidden.
I want you to look now at verse
3 if you would, because there's another accusation
that God brings against them.
He says, "...Ye that put far away the
evil day and cause the seed of violence
to come near, that lie upon beds of
ivory and stretch themselves upon their couches," there's
your Bible verse for couch potatoes, "...and eat
the lambs out of the flock and the
calves out of the midst of the stall.
They chant to the sound of the vial
and invent to themselves instruments of music like
David, that drink wine in bowls and anoint
themselves with the chief ointments, but they are
not grieved or bothered," literally, "...by the affliction
of Joseph."
So He said, number one, they were well
protected.
But He said their second problem was they
were well prospered.
These were not people that prayed for their
daily provisions.
These were not people that no longer trusted
in the strength of God to provide for
them financially, but now they had so much
riches and they had so much health and
wealth that they were backslidden and they left
God out of their daily routine.
Now the basic premise of my message this
morning is this.
How can you know, as a blood-bought,
born-again child of God, if you are
at ease in Zion?
How can you know if, number one, you
are an Amos 6 Christian, or, number two,
you are well nigh on your way to
being one?
Well, I believe the Bible gives us the
answer.
Turn back to chapter 3, if you would
please, of the book of Amos, and look
at verse 1, would you?
Amos 3, verse 1.
The Bible says, "...Hear this word, that the
Lord has spoken against you, O children of
Israel, against the whole family which I brought
up from the land of Egypt, saying, You
only have I known of all the families
of the earth.
Therefore," God says, "...I will punish you for
all of your iniquities.
Can two walk together, except they be agreed?
Will a lion roar in the forest when
he hath no prey?
Will a young lion cry out of his
den if he hath taken nothing?
Can a bird fall on a snare upon
the earth where there is no gin or
no trap for him?
Shall one take up a snare from the
earth and have taken nothing at all?
Shall a trumpet be blown in the city,
and the people not be afraid?
Shall there be evil in a city, and
the Lord hath not done it?
Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but
He revealeth His secret unto His servants the
prophets."
Now what is taking place in Amos chapter
3 is simply this.
The prophet of God, this pain-in-the
-neck preacher Amos, is using some old-fashioned
hillbilly logic.
He just begins to draw some very ordinary
logical conclusions to prove to these people why
they are under the direct divine judgment of
God.
For example, look at verse number 3.
He gives a verse that we quote many
times.
"...Can two walk together, except they be agreed?"
Now obviously, the answer to that question is
no.
Two people that are walking in the same
direction cannot disagree and be divided on certain
issues because they are not going to get
along.
So that is a logical conclusion.
And then he begins to draw some other
conclusions.
He said a young lion is not going
to roar unless he has found himself some
prey.
He is not going to be all excited
and roaring from his den unless he has
found something that he is willing to fight
for.
That is a logical conclusion.
And then he says in verse 6, "...Shall
a trumpet be blown in the city, and
the people not be afraid?"
In Old Testament days, they would be what
they called a watchman.
This watchman would work 12-hour shifts and
they would have one man go 12 hours,
another man go 12 hours, and they would
go this way 365 days a year, all
the time, to make sure that the enemies
of God were not coming against the people
of God.
They would stand up there and they would
blow the sound of the trumpet.
If that trumpet was blown, the people in
the city would know, hey, this is kind
of like a tornado warning.
This is something serious.
This is not playing games.
This is not messing around.
And so they would be very much afraid
because their enemies were coming and they were
fixing to engage in hand-to-hand combat.
So logically, God said, if a trumpet is
blown, what is going to happen?
The people are going to be afraid.
And then He said, if a bird is
on the ground and that little bird sees
a djinn, literally means a trap, He said
that trap is not going to hurt that
bird whatsoever unless the bird puts himself in
the trap.
That is a simple logical conclusion.
And then He concludes all of this by
simply saying this, if a man picks up
a snare, a stick, a rock, whatever you
want to call it, if a man picks
up a snare from off of the ground
or off the earth, the Bible says, it
would be foolish for that man to pick
that up, to have it in his hand
and say, look here, I have nothing in
my hand.
No, God said logically, if he picks it
up, he's got it there.
And so, ladies and gentlemen, what God is
doing is this.
He's drawing some basic conclusions to show these
people this.
The reason I am judging you is not
because I'm bored.
I'm not twiddling my thumbs in the throne
room of God and kicking around pop cans.
He said the reason I'm judging you is
because you are full of iniquity, because you
are full of sin.
So what happened to the people of God
in Amos chapter 3?
How do we know that these people were
at ease in Zion?
And what is the first way this morning
that you know that you are at ease
in Zion?
Number one, they began to tolerate sin.
These people got to the place where all
too often I meet people in evangelism where
they say, well, you know, brother Locke, sin
just isn't that bad anymore.
Who told you that?
It certainly wasn't the Bible.
As a matter of fact, the Bible says
in Hebrews 13.8, Jesus Christ is the
same yesterday, today, and forever.
Almighty God never changes.
Malachi chapter 3 verse 6, God said, I
am the Lord, I change not.
Therefore ye sons of Jacob shall not be
consumed.
And we are living in a day, ladies
and gentlemen, where people get to the place
where they think just because the world is
wicked, that they can involve themselves, they can
tolerate, and they can allow certain sins in
their life, if you will, and they think
that it's okay and that it's pleasing to
God, but there's nothing further from the truth.
Now, if you want a shocker, you jump
in my diesel truck in my 40-foot
travel trailer with my wife and I, and
you travel around America for just about six
weeks to six months, and you would be
amazed and you would be appalled by some
of the things that so-called God's people
tolerate in their homes, in their family, and
in their individual lifestyle.
They are not growing in grace.
They are not reading their Bibles.
They are not faithful to God the way
that they should be, but yet they are
tolerating things that they know good and jolly
well that is not pleasing to Almighty God.
And the reason, ladies and gentlemen, that we
do not deal with sin properly in the
day and age in which we live is
because we've just about renamed and reclassified every
sin in the book.
And there seems to be nothing that is
sin anymore.
Now it's only mistakes.
Now it's merely problems, and now it's merely
habits, and now it's merely just shortcomings of
my humanity, but God calls it sin.
David said in Psalm 51 verse 1, "...Against
thee and thee only have I sinned and
done this evil in thy sight."
And America and fundamentalism will never see revival
until we get to the place where we
are willing to get rid of sin and
totally annihilate sin rather than tolerate sin.
And these people were harboring sin and bitterness
and ungodliness in their hearts, and God told
them, I am judging you because of your
continual toleration of sin.
But I want you to look now, if
you would please, at Amos 4 and verse
4.
The Bible says, "...Come to Bethel and transgress."
Now the word transgress means to willfully disobey
God.
It's not just a generic term for sin.
It means to willfully and knowingly by your
own volition, by your own will, do that
which is contrary to what God has said.
And so he says, "...Come to Bethel and
transgress.
At Gilgal, multiply transgression.
And bring your sacrifices every morning and your
tithes after three years.
And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven.
And proclaim and publish the free offerings for
this likeeth you, O ye children of Israel,
saith the Lord God."
I want you to notice in verse number
4 there are two places that he mentioned.
He mentioned number one, Bethel, and he mentioned
number two, Gilgal.
You say, so what?
So this.
Although these may not be very particular to
us, these cities were greatly spiritually significant to
the people of God in this day.
As a matter of fact, in your Bible
in Genesis chapter 38, we had a man
by the name of Jacob.
Jacob was running from his brother.
Jacob was running from God.
And in essence, Jacob was basically running from
all of his problems and trials in life.
Well, the Bible says that he fell asleep
one night and he had a dream that
we call Jacob's Ladder.
The Bible says on that ladder there were
the angels of God ascending and descending upon
the rungs.
And it says, and the Lord stood at
the top.
Now, I like that, ladies and gentlemen, because
that proves to me one thing and one
thing only.
That God's in control of everything that goes
out and everything and everybody that comes in.
Well, when Jacob woke up from that dream,
if you know your Bible, you know good
and well that his life was changed, his
name was changed, and practically this morning we
also realize that an entire nation was changed
because of that experience.
The word Bethel means house of bread or
the place of blessing, the house of God.
And here was a man that was completely
rearranged in that particular incident at Bethel.
And so Bethel was very significant to the
people of God.
But yet in your Bible in verse 4
there's another place that begins with a G.
It's called Gilgal.
Well, what was Gilgal?
Well, you remember Joshua 1.
The Bible says, Moses, my servant, is dead.
And he told young Joshua, who probably was
about 35 or 40 years old, he told
him to take courage and to fear not.
He told him to take this book of
the law which shall not depart out of
thy mouth.
And he told him to lead those people
into the promised land which Moses could see
but could never go in because of his
disobedience to Almighty God.
But yet the Bible says that they crossed
over the Jordan River.
And when they got across the Jordan River,
their feet touched a land called Gilgal.
And as they entered into the sacred promised
land that God had promised them many, many
years earlier, they set up camp as a
spiritual testimony.
And that first place was Gilgal.
And so these two places were very, very
spiritually significant.
But I want you to notice, out of
the great significance and the great importance of
these two places, what does Amos, this pain
-in-the-neck preacher say?
He says, folks, come to Bethel and transgress.
In essence, what he is saying is this.
The next time you come to Bethel, don't
act spiritual.
He said, act like you really are.
He said, come and live for the devil.
He said, then when you go to Gilgal,
he said, not only do I want you
to sin, he said, I want to multiply
your transgressions.
I mean, heap them up in a rubber
-made wheelbarrow and carry them around so everybody
knows what you really are.
What was he saying?
Well, in chapter 3, he accused them of
tolerating sin.
But in chapter 4, he accused them of
being two-faced or hypocritical in their service
and worship of God.
Now, here's what took place.
Now, I realize that our 365 days on
our calendar does not correctly correspond to the
calendar by the day and age in which
they live in the Old Testament, but for
illustration's sake and time's sake, follow me.
Basically, what Amos is saying is this.
He is saying, listen here, if you are
going to live for the devil for 363
days out of the year, he said, then
that one day when you come to Bethel
and that one day when you come to
Gilgal, he said, don't put on your spiritual
facade and make everybody think you're something you're
not.
He said, you people are hypocritical, you are
two-faced, and you are very foolish in
the eyes of man and the eyes of
God to do such a thing.
He said, if you're going to live for
the devil and for the world and for
yourself all those other days, he said, you
might as well just live for the devil
when you come to the house of God.
He was exposing their wicked worldly hypocrisy.
Now, you can see, ladies and gentlemen, why
he was a pain in the neck to
these people.
You can see why he was such a
burden to these people.
You can see why they wanted him to
be derailed and out of there, if you
will, because he exposed their sin, he exposed
their hypocrisy, he knew what they really were,
and he was not going to soft-pedal
and soft-soap and push around the Gospel
and the Bible.
He preached it gun barrel straight.
He chopped the Gospel wood and let the
chips fall where they may.
And he told these people that they were
two-faced.
Now, we have got a problem in American
Christianity.
And that problem is simply this.
We think that when we go to church,
there is something super-duper spiritual about the
building in which we worship.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, I thank God for
choir lofts, for baptismal pools.
I thank God for carpet, for drywall, for
crooked nails and straight nails.
And I thank God for shingles on a
church roof.
But I want to tell you, ladies and
gentlemen, that the church of Jesus Christ is
not brick and mortar and drywall.
And when you come into the doors of
this auditorium at a local church, I want
you to understand that it is not something
you should be in here spiritual and then
be another way out there.
No, no.
What you are in here as a child
of God should merely show a reflection of
what you are on the job, what you
are at Walmart, what you are at the
supermarket, what you are in the neighborhood, at
the family reunions and the friendly get-togethers.
And many times we have people that live
in the world one way and they come
to the house of God, they wear their
Sunday best, they wear their Sunday finest, they
take their King James Bible, they tote it
under their arm, they put on a great
big hypocritical smile, and they pretend to be
something that they are not.
And ladies and gentlemen, God says that that's
wicked and God said that's hypocrisy.
God said that is wrong.
We should be genuine.
We should be the real deal.
We should be 100% sold out to
God in church, out of church, around church,
anywhere we should continually, consistently be working on
our Christian character and here were people that
were two-faced in their worship and their
service of God.
Now, if that wasn't bad enough, now let
your eyes fall to verse number 6 of
Amos chapter number 4, would you?
Verse number 6, the Bible says, And I
also have given you cleanness of teeth.
He's speaking in reference to a famine in
the land.
They didn't have any food to eat and
so God said their teeth were clean because
of that.
He said, I've given you a famine or
a cleanness of teeth in all of your
cities and wont of bread in all of
your places.
Yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith
the Lord.
You might want to underscore that little particular
phrase.
We're going to see it again.
Verse number 7, And also I have withholden
the rain from you when there were yet
three months to the harvest.
And I caused it to rain upon one
city and I caused it to rain not
upon another city.
One piece was rained upon and the piece
whereupon it rained not withered.
So two or three cities wandered unto one
city to drink water, but they were not
satisfied.
Yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith
the Lord.
I have smitten you, he said, with blasting
and mildew.
When your gardens and your vineyards and your
fig trees and your olive trees increased, the
plumber worm devoured them.
Yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith
the Lord.
Verse 10, I have sent among you the
pestilence after the men of Egypt.
Your young men have I slain with the
edge of the sword and have taken away
your horses.
And I have made the stink of your
camps to come up unto your nostrils.
Yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith
the Lord.
I have overthrown some of you as God
overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and you were as
a firebrand plucked out of the burning.
Yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith
the Lord.
Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O
Israel, and because I will do this unto
thee, prepare to meet thy God."
What is the third thing that these people
began to do?
I believe according to my study of the
Word of God, they began to, number one,
tolerate sin.
They began to, number two, become two-faced
or hypocritical in their service of God.
But number three, they began to toughen beneath
God's judgment.
You read your Bibles very closely, ladies and
gentlemen, and you will find out that the
more God judged them, the more backslidden, the
more lackadaisical and the more rebellious they became.
Now you would think, logically, that is not
human nature, but it is.
And God said, I have sent you blastings,
whatever that means, heavenly dynamite.
He said, I have sent you mildew.
I have slain your sons.
He said, I made it rain upon one
city and not upon another.
He said, I have given you famine.
I have given you dearth.
I have given you death.
And God said, I have done everything possible
to get your attention.
I have whooped you.
I have spanked you.
I have chastised you.
He said, I have done everything that I
possibly can as your loving Father, as your
loving God, to get your attention, to give
you revival.
He said, yet have you not returned unto
Me.
And after God said that about five times
with a broken heart, He then said in
verse number 12, Because of this, O Israel,
prepare to meet thy God.
Now ladies and gentlemen, that verse tells me
two things.
Number one, it tells me you will meet
God.
Regardless if you're saved or if you're lost.
Regardless if you're tall, short, fat, skinny, red,
yellow, black, and white, you will meet God.
Dear Christian friend, let me tell you what
the Bible says.
Philippians 2, verse number 5.
The Bible says, Let this mind be in
you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who,
being in the form of God, thought it
not robbery to be equal with God, but
made Himself of no reputation, and took upon
Him the form of a servant, and was
made in the likeness of men, and being
found in fashion as a man, He humbled
Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross.
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and
given Him a name which is above every
name, that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow with things in heaven and
things in earth and things under the earth,
and that every tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord to the glory of God
the Father.
And dear Christian friend, you one day will
stand before what Almighty God called the judgment
seat of Christ.
Not to give an account for your sins,
for our sins were taken care of on
the cross of Calvary.
That's why Jesus said in John 19, 30,
It is finished.
But you will stand before God and give
an account of your motivations and your service
for God if you are worthy or unworthy
of the crowns that He is going to
bestow upon you.
And ladies and gentlemen, you have one simple
choice.
You can declare Jesus Christ Lord of your
life right now because you want to, or
you can declare Jesus Christ Lord of your
life then because you have to.
But make no bones about it, you will
declare Him Lord one day.
But Mr. sinner friend, let me invade your
private trespassing territory just for a moment.
Let me trespass on your spiritual property if
I may and let you know.
Although you may not be saved by the
grace of God, you will meet God one
day.
But it will not be at the judgment
seat of Christ.
It will be at what John called, what
Jesus called, the great white throne judgment bar
of God.
Revelation 20, verse 11.
Listen closely.
John said, And I saw a great white
throne and Him that sat on it, from
whose face the heavens and the earth fled
away.
And there was found no place for them.
And I saw the dead, small and great,
stand before God.
And the books were opened.
And another book was opened, which is the
book of life.
And the dead were judged out of those
things which are written in the books according
to their works.
And the sea gave up the dead which
were in them.
And death and hell delivered up the dead
which were in them.
And the Bible says that death and hell
were cast into the lake of fire.
This is the second death.
Verse 15.
Get it and get it well.
It says, And whosoever was not found written
in the book of life was cast into
the lake of fire.
Dear sinner friend, you will meet God one
day.
And my Bible says that if you meet
Him at the great white throne, it will
be under adverse circumstances.
And there's not one thing that He, you,
me, or anybody else in all the world
can do.
You have been doomed, dead, and damned in
your sins.
And the Bible says that you'll forever go
to a place called the lake of fire.
But yet, you know, not only does it
tell me that you're going to meet God,
He said secondly, prepare to meet thy God.
But you know what the irony, you know
what the oxymoron, if you will, about this
portion of Scripture is?
You're going to meet God whether you're prepared
to or not.
You're going to meet God whether you're ready
or not.
You're going to meet God whether you want
to or not, whether you believe it or
not, whether you're saved or not.
It makes no difference.
You will one day meet your Maker, as
the preachers say.
And ladies and gentlemen, right here, Almighty God
is judging these people, but yet they will
not get right.
Now you believe anything you want to.
You study your Bible high and low.
From Genesis 1-1 to Revelation 22-21,
you are going to find a principle that
God spanks His own, that God spanks His
children.
And one of two things will happen when
God chastises His children.
Number one, you'll get right and your fellowship
will be restored.
Or number two, according to Hebrews 13, God
will kill you and take you to heaven
because you can get more glory for Him
up there than you can down here.
God does not play games.
He knows exactly what buttons to push in
your life, in your marriage, in your family,
to get your attention.
And ladies and gentlemen, as a child of
God, God wants you to repent, to get
right, and to live on a spiritual plateau,
an atmosphere of revival, but yet God said
five times with a broken heart to these
people, yet have ye not returned unto Me.
It's a dangerous thing to toughen and to
buckle your neck and to stiffen up your
heart against Almighty God when He says repent,
when He says pray, when He says read,
when He says go and be faithful.
It is a very, very fearful and terrible
thing to tell God no.
Now, let's define disobedience.
If God says yes and you say no,
you're disobedient.
If God says no and you say yes,
you are disobedient.
And according to my Bible, these people hardened
their hearts and God greatly judged them because
of Him.
I was at a meeting not long ago.
On Friday night, we had testimony time and
an 85-year-old lady raised her hand.
There was about 150 people in the auditorium
at the Calvary Baptist Church and she said,
Brother Locke, I've shared this with few people,
but please let me share this with you
tonight.
With tears in her eyes, she said, when
I was 30 years old, I had a
three-year-old daughter who was the apple
of my eye.
She said, we were in a fundamental church,
we were faithful in tithes and prayers and
offerings.
We went to soul-winning visitation.
She said, but we had a financial crisis.
We got out of church and she said,
for two years, our family was not right
with God.
She said, we didn't have family altar, we
didn't read our Bibles, we didn't pray, we
didn't go to church.
When the preacher would come and knock on
our door, we would pretend that we were
not home.
And she said, Brother Locke, we knew that
we were not right with God.
She said, two years went by.
And with a sorrowful broken heart, she said,
Brother Locke, she said, after those two years,
she said, at the end of those two
years, I would lay in my bed at
night and weep.
And in front of all these people, she
said, I knew, Preacher Locke, I knew I
was not right with God.
And she said, I would go to bed
weeping, saying this, not now, God, not now.
Not now, God, not now.
And she said, Brother Locke, almost two years
to the day, she said, we had a
terrible car accident.
She said, I was not harmed at all.
We were hit head-on by a semi
-truck or a dump truck, I can't quite
remember which one.
She said, we were hit head-on.
I didn't have a scratch on me.
She said, but immediately, now was my five
-year-old, was three, two years later, now
five, my five-year-old daughter was immediately
thrown, ejected from the car.
She was immediately killed.
And she said, for all of these years,
we've been in church, we've been faithful, we've
tried to live right.
She said, but I go to bed every
night knowing that because I would not get
right with God, God had to judge me
and push a very sensitive nerve and button
in my heart.
And friend, I don't try to scare you,
I try to prepare you, but God will
do what He takes to make you live
for Him because He wants your service.
But there's one more thing that I'd like
you to see in your Bibles before we
close, and it's in Amos chapter 7, if
you would flip over there please.
Amos chapter 7, and verse number 7.
The Bible says, Thus He showed me, and
behold the Lord stood upon a wall made
by a plumb line, that was a measuring
rod, if you will, with a plumb line
in His hand.
And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what
seest thou?
And I said, a plumb line.
Then said the Lord, behold, I will set
a plumb line in the midst of my
people Israel.
I will not again pass by them anymore.
And the high places of Isaac shall be
desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be
laid waste, and I will rise against the
house of Jeroboam, that was the king at
this time, with the sword.
So God comes to Amos and says, Amos,
I don't want you to preach a nice
little sweet message about the love of God.
I want you to preach, get right with
God, the judgment's coming.
Get right with God, the judgment is coming,
and it's coming quickly and it's coming soon.
And so God said, I have taken the
plumb line, the measuring stick of the Word
of God, and these people are cracked, their
foundation is sagging.
He said, they are not vertical, they are
not up and down, they are not perpendicular.
He said, these people do not measure up
to the ruler stick of the Word of
God.
And He said, I want you to preach
a message of desolation and judgment.
Not a very popular message, but the message
that God wanted him to preach.
Now look at verse number 10.
It says, Then Amaziah the priest...
Now look at me in the face.
I want to explain something to you.
We don't have pictures of people in our
Bible, but I want to explain this.
Amaziah, I believe with all of my heart,
was probably about six foot two.
He had greased back Don Juan Suave hairdo.
He wore one of those jackets that buttoned
all the way from your neck all the
way to your knees.
And he was just kind of one of
these guys, and I mean he was just
loaded down with money.
And here was one of these fellas that
just kind of walked around.
He was kind of a highfalutin preacher.
Say, well, how do you know that Amaziah
looked that way?
Because all liberal modernistic preachers from the World
Council of Churches look just like that.
And here was this new evangelical backslidden preacher
that probably knew nothing about his Bible.
He knew nothing about God.
He was liberal to the core.
And look what he said.
Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to
Jeroboam the 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 words.
For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by
the sword, and Israel shall surely be led
away captive out of their own land.
And so he gets together and he takes
up a little love offering.
And he goes and he puts on his
little pharisaical grin and he gets his little
Bible that don't even believe I'm short.
And he comes walking in there and he
says, Mr. Jeroboam, he said, we appreciate everything
that you've done for the kingdom.
And you've been the best person in the
White House up this far.
And I tell you, your tabernancy and your
rulership has just been absolutely wonderful.
And we appreciate your presidency so much.
And as a matter of fact, me and
the ministerial assassination have gotten together and we
want you to know that we think you're
doing a fine job.
And he lied through his teeth about every
bit of it because Jeroboam was one of
the most wicked kings that Israel had ever
known.
But then when he leaves the presence of
the king, he says, King, just feel good
about this thing.
Don't worry about the judgment.
He says that the land is going to
be desolate and that we're going to be
taken captive by our enemies and that you're
going to die by the sword.
He said, but don't you worry about that.
But you keep reading later in your Bible
and you'll find out that every bit of
that took place because God's man said it
was going to.
And then in verse number 12, it said,
Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer...
Now ladies and gentlemen, those were not words
of commendation, but condemnation.
He was saying, you redneck, hillbilly, backwoods, know
-it-all, know-nothing preacher whatsoever.
He said, you've never been to our seminaries
and you've never been to places where we
tell you the Bible is not the Word
of God and you don't have our B
.A.'s and our master's degree and you don't
have our Ph.D.'s. By the way, I
have one.
Preach hellfire, damnation every time I get a
chance.
Amen.
And so, here was a man that didn't
believe the Bible who comes against the man
of God and begins to condemn him for
preaching.
And he says in verse 12, Go flee
thee away into the land of Judah.
He said, We're sick of you.
Why don't you go preach to the trees?
He said, And go down there and eat
bread and go down and prophesy there.
But prophesy or preach not again any more
at Bethel.
For it is the king's chapel and it
is the king's court.
He said, We want you out of here.
We're selling the parsnips.
We're cutting your salary.
He said, Your tale's through, friend.
He said, We're sick of you.
We're going to get somebody that don't believe
the Bible to preach to us.
Now look what happens in verse 14.
Then answered Amos and said to Amaziah, I
was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's
son, but I was a herdman and a
gatherer of sycamore fruit.
And the Lord took me as I followed
the flock and the Lord said unto me,
Go prophesy unto my people Israel.
You know what Amos said?
He said, You're right, Amaziah.
I've never been to your schools.
I've never been told the Bible's not the
word of God.
He said, But I'll tell you one thing
I got you don't have.
He said, I wasn't looking to be a
preacher.
My great-great-granddaddy is not a preacher.
He said, One day I was a gatherer
of sycamore fruit and I was a herdman.
I just gathered them little sheep up and
said, One day God called me into the
ministry and I've been preaching ever since and
said, I've had a burden in my soul,
couldn't keep my mouth shut if I wanted
to.
And he said, You're right.
He said, I don't have all the credentials
you've got.
He said, But I've got something you don't
got, big boy.
He said, I've got a divine, direct call
of God upon my life.
And you know what?
You turn on your television and liberal modernistic
preachers that don't believe the Bible that are
a dime a dozen.
But God give us in America some God
-called, God-fearing men who will open their
mouth and open their Bible and say, Thus
saith the Lord.
And here was a man that preached it
and the people did not want the message.
And let me close with this simple thought.
The last straw that they pulled out of
the hat of God before God judged them
was simply this.
They turned upon the man of God.
Now study your Bible.
When Jeroboam and Amaziah and the rest of
those priests turned on Amos, the whole nation
turned and they got on their heels and
walked away from the man of God.
And when they did that, God sent cataclysmic
judgment.
He said, You've messed with my man and
you have messed with me.
Now, I realize that it is in reference
to King Saul.
But there is a spiritual principle in your
Bible that says, Touch not mine anointed and
do my prophet no harm.
And when God sends a man of God
to pray, to teach and to preach the
Word of God, you better be careful if
he's preaching thus saith the Lord when you
go against him or but that which he
says because God said, I place my word
in his heart and if you turn against
him, God says, I will turn against you.
Now there are many, many illustrations in the
Bible that prove to us that when God's
people honored God's man, God honored them.
But when God's people disregarded and disobeyed God's
man, I'm not talking about dictatorship.
I'm just talking about submission to the message
of the Word of God.
But when they disobeyed and disregarded God's man,
God always in your Bible judged them.
We have the example of Elijah.
Elijah was preaching and they came and they
said, Go up thou bald head.
Go up thou bald head.
And those teenage boys were laughing at him
in the wilderness and basically they were calling
him Mr. Clean, Mr. Clean because he was
a bald headed man.
But the grimaces and the smiles were wiped
and the smirks were wiped from their cheeks
whenever the cedar trees were bent down and
the Bible says these she bears came and
devoured them.
And then there was a man by the
name of Elisha.
Elisha came and a dear family built him
a little room on the side of his
house, on the side of their house rather.
That's why we have the terminology prophet's chamber.
And he came in there and he could
sleep and preach and rest and relax and
study his Bible.
And he said, You know what folks, you've
been awfully good to the man of God.
What can I do for you?
And they said, Elisha, they said, We want
a baby so bad we can't see straight.
We've been praying and beseeching God but he's
not so fit to give us one.
Would you pray as the man of God
that God would give us a baby?
You read your Bible.
He got his Bible tucked in under his
arm.
He went out there and got down on
his knees and said, God, these people sure
have been good to your man.
I hope you'll give them a baby.
And in the next couple of chapters they
had a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, bouncing baby boy
because they honored the man of God.
And when these people turned on God's man
that was the last straw.
God turned on them.
Listen, I'm through.
Let me say this just to draw everything
that we've said to a simple conclusion.
I was preaching at a revival meeting and
I preached one night on pastoral authority and
pastoral leadership.
A family came to me and said, Brother
Locke, this did not happen to us.
It happened to our sister and our brother
-in-law.
They said they live in a little neighboring
town, go to a little backwoods fundamental Baptist
church and said one night a missionary from
Russia got up and said, we need money
for the land of Russia to translate Bibles
into their language and give them the Word
of God into their hands.
The pastor got up.
He was overly moved.
He was about my age, a young man,
about 25, 26 years old.
He got up and he said, folks, I'm
your pastor.
He said, I'm not an auctioneer and I'm
not a money raiser.
He said, but tonight we're not going to
pass the plate.
He said, we're going to take up pledges.
He said, is there anybody that would give
me $100?
Anybody give me $100 for this man?
What about $50?
Anybody give me $50?
What about $20?
What about $30?
What about $15?
And he was getting rather discouraged because that
group of 30 or 40 or 50 people
there that night, they just did not seem
at all encouraged with this man's ministry.
And he was discouraged at the fact that
these people just would not give.
And finally he said, what about $10?
Anybody give me $5?
And these people looked at me with a
sad countenance and said, Brother Locke, this happened,
sure as the gospel truth.
And they said, finally he got down to
$1.
He held up both of his pointer fingers
and said, who gave me $1?
Anybody give me $1?
Who gave me $1 in the room?
And a couple people raised their hand.
He wrote that missionary some little old mealy
mouth check out of the treasury fund and
he left and he said, Brother, I'm sorry,
I couldn't give you more.
That night, they said, Brother Locke, it was
not us, but our sister and brother-in
-law went back home and she was eight
months pregnant and they were going to have
a little baby.
So they went home and they sat down
at the kitchen table.
And she had herself a cup of coffee.
He had himself one.
He said, Honey, I think I'll play charades.
He jumped up and he said, he put
his little hands in the air and put
his pointer fingers up and he said, Honey,
who am I?
And he began to mock, Who give me
$1?
Who give me $1?
He began to jump around and dance around
like some kind of Barlow and Baylor circus
clown.
And then she got up, Who give me
$1?
And they jumped around.
They were appalled and completely eaten up with
bitterness that their preacher would get up and
raise money that way.
And they laughed and they scorned the preacher,
Who give me $1?
One month later, their baby was born.
A little black-haired, blue-eyed, bouncing, beautiful
baby boy.
But on both hands, his pointer fingers were
missing.
And they looked at me with a cold,
blank stare and said, Brother Locke, our father,
Who give me $1?
Ladies and gentlemen, I say to you this
morning, you better be careful how you touch
God's anointing.
You better be careful how you take care
of your pastor this morning.
You better be careful how you give and
how you go and how you pray and
how you follow the leadership of the man
of God that God has given you in
this local church and many local churches across
America and across the world.
You better be careful because according to my
Bible, when they disregard God's man, God will
send judgment.
And in chapter 6 and verse 1, He
said, Woe to them that are at ease
in Zion.
And the simple question is this, do you
find yourself in Amos 6 this morning?
Your heads are bowed.
Your eyes are closed, please.
No one looking and no one talking.