Amos - The God Of Justice - Preach The Word
Amos - The God Of Justice - Preach The Word
Amos - The God Of Justice - Preach The Word
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THE GOD OF JUSTICE<br />
David Legge<br />
there were still three months to the harvest. I made it rain on one city, I withheld rain<br />
from another city. One part was rained upon, and where it did not rain the part<br />
withered. So two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water, but they<br />
were not satisfied; yet you have not returned to Me', says the LORD. 'I blasted you<br />
with blight and mildew. When your gardens increased, your vineyards, your fig trees,<br />
and your olive trees, the locust devoured them; yet you have not returned to Me',<br />
says the LORD. 'I sent among you a plague after the manner of Egypt; your young<br />
men I killed with a sword, along with your captive horses; I made the stench of your<br />
camps come up into your nostrils; yet you have not returned to Me', says the LORD. 'I<br />
overthrew some of you, as <strong>God</strong> overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a<br />
firebrand plucked from the burning; yet you have not returned to Me', says the LORD.<br />
'<strong>The</strong>refore thus will I do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to<br />
meet your <strong>God</strong>, O Israel!'. For behold, He who forms mountains, and creates the<br />
wind, who declares to man what his thought is, and makes the morning darkness,<br />
who treads the high places of the earth; the LORD <strong>God</strong> of hosts is His name".<br />
Let us pray, and as I've invited you on previous nights, I would ask you do pray with<br />
me now that <strong>God</strong> may speak, that He may speak to those who may be gathered here<br />
who have never trusted Christ as their Lord and Saviour; and that He may speak to all<br />
of us, because we all need to hear from <strong>God</strong>. If you're here and you don't need to<br />
hear from Him, well, you're the biggest person in need of prayer here tonight. We all<br />
need to hear from the Almighty, so let us unite our hearts together in meaningful<br />
prayer as we ask <strong>God</strong> for His help, and for His presence.<br />
Father in heaven, we come in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was crucified for<br />
our sins, was buried, and rose again, and is alive and is at Your right hand interceding<br />
for us, a Prince and a Saviour. We ask in His mighty, all-victorious name that You will<br />
meet with us tonight by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lord, we thank You for the<br />
meditation this morning, and that little phrase spoken by the prophet Isaiah: 'Your<br />
<strong>God</strong> will come to you'. We long, Lord, that tonight our <strong>God</strong> would come to us. Lord,<br />
we remind You of the words and promise of our Lord Jesus when He said: 'If any man<br />
love Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him; and we will come to him<br />
and make our abode with him'. Lord, come to us tonight and meet the needs of<br />
everyone here this evening, and may we get a vision of this <strong>God</strong> of justice who is also<br />
a <strong>God</strong> of grace. Lord, I'm going to pray that tonight the fear of <strong>God</strong> would grip us.<br />
Amen.<br />
Imagine walking into your place of worship on Sunday morning as usual, and the<br />
visiting preacher is from the countryside, the backwoods in fact, and he gets up to<br />
preach and his opening lines are these: 'You elders and deacons wives are fat cows!' -<br />
can you imagine that? Now if you didn't choke on your toffee, or whatever you chew<br />
in the pew, I imagine you'd be thinking immediately that it's obvious that this man<br />
has never read Dale Carnegie's book 'How to Win Friends and Influence People' - and<br />
also, if he attended Bible seminary, he played truant during the sermon class, or like<br />
most people he probably fell asleep! What I'm absolutely certain of is that the pulpit<br />
vacancy committee would not be sending out feelers to see if this country cousin<br />
would be open to a call. But what this tells us is that <strong>God</strong>'s ways are not our ways,<br />
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