Amos - The God Of Justice - Preach The Word

THE GOD OF JUSTICE
David Legge
the LORD'. The first vision that God gave Amos of judgement was the vision of the
plague of locusts. These locusts are about to destroy the crops, the harvest - and as
Amos sees it in this supernatural eyesight that God has given him, he begins to
intercede for the people of Israel, they're small, and for their harvest. He cries out to
God on behalf of the people, he becomes a go-between for the people, and the Lord
stops the plague of locusts.
Now Amos, as we've seen, was a farmer, though he was a sheep breeder he still knew
that locusts could have a devastating effect. A swarm could strip a whole harvest in a
moment, and it's happening in some parts of the world even to this very day. What a
picture of what God was going to allow to happen to the Northern Kingdom of Israel
by the Assyrians coming in in 722 BC and taking them captive. We saw how they
would take them with fishhooks through their noses, through their lips, and carry
them away like fattened cattle ready for the slaughter. This is what God was allowing
to happen as a discipline, as the chastisement for their backsliding, their
waywardness, their aimlessness, their affluence, and their apathy.
I want to say to you tonight that I believe that the forces of darkness can be like a
swarm of locusts, and what locusts can do in devastating natural harvest
agriculturally, spiritual locusts, demonic forces of darkness, principalities and powers,
rulers of wickedness and darkness in heavenly places, can do this in the spiritual
realm. When the walls and the foundations of the righteous are destroyed, often this
is what can happen - irrespective of our heritage this can happen: we can be invaded
by the locusts. We read in the New Testament that even the apostolic heritage can be
devastated. In 2 John and chapter 1 and verse 8 the apostle John says: 'Look to
yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a
full reward'. Thank God for the blessed heritage we have in our land, much of it the
overflow of revival even to this very day, we're still living in some of the remnants of
the blessings of 1859 - and yet, in a moment, if we let our guard down as individuals
in our Christian lives, no matter what our parentage is or the blessings of our lineage
and family, if we let our guard down in our churches and denominations, the swarms
of locusts of evil can come in and destroy in a moment - and we can lose in an
evening what has been laboured for for centuries!
I believe it is happening to us in our land. The Old Testament prophets said, 'The
ancient landmarks are being removed'. Now sometimes when you talk like that people
misconstrue you're speaking about traditions - I'm not talking about legalistic
traditions, like how you dress and how you speak, and what translation of the Bible
you read - though they're not all brilliant, but nevertheless those are not the things
that I'm talking about. What style of music you like - although they're not all,
perhaps, appropriate for the Gospel and worship, many of those things are down to
taste. What I'm talking about are the unchangeable godly principles of the word of
God in the life of faith, those ancient landmarks are now being eroded and are starting
to crumble in what is called 'Christendom' in our land. What do we do when that
happens? Surely as we've gone through these evenings, surely God has spoken to you
and opened your eyes, and unplugged your ears, to see that this is in fact happening
in our day and generation? What do we do when the foundations are being destroyed?
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