Amos 9:5-15 The King is unshakeable

Amos 9:5-15

6 The Lord’s home reaches up to the heavens, while its foundation is on the earth. He draws up water from the oceans and pours it down as rain on the land. The Lord is his name!

The Lord! God of the whole Universe. Powerful, awesome, holy, perfect. This is the God who made us, and made us like him, in his image. We are made for him, for his good pleasure, to know him, deeply, intimately, perfectly. Each person, made in his good image. Each person, therefore, infinitely valuable.

For we are eternal beings, all of us. Luminous – not just this crude matter. We are built for the world to come. And finally, finally!, we see a glimmer of hope as Amos takes us up, up and onward to a world where 13 the grain and grapes will grow faster than they can be harvested. Then the terraced vineyards on the hills of Israel will drip with sweet wine! A land where the exiles are brought home, when they can live in peace and security.
Imagine Sudan, at peace. Exiles like Ahmed, return home, plant their crops, live in peace.
But it’s more than that, greater than that. The exiles come from the whole world, the grain and grapes grow faster than possible, and the people will never be uprooted. It is a picture of Heaven, the life we were made to live. The life that is only possible through Jesus – he is the door, the key. He is the King of the fallen house of David, now restored (v11). He is our hope, because he is the one who has defeated sin, paid the price to rescue us, and who is seated on the throne, our mediator and our guarantee of safety. The Lord is his name!

Two points from the passage tonight:

1. We will be shaken

2. The King is unshakeable

1. We will be shaken

We pick up where we left off last week. Israel, shock and horror!, has become like Egypt under Pharaoh. Corrupt. Enslaving people. Sexually immoral. Caring nothing for the word of the Lord. Caring only for wealth and comfort. Fat cows saying “bring us a drink”.

Sounds like us? Well, maybe not yet. Our courts are generally fair, and people are generally honest. But for how long? How long will the legacy of Christian morals: treat others like you would want to be treated – how long will that last against the secular onslaught of look out for number 1. Love yourself.

We don’t have slavery – well, at least within the borders of the country. What about where the products we buy are made?

Our sexual morals are in a complete mess. “Families” are gone, replaced with way stations where the parental figures are swapped out every few years, and where the children commute back and forth between two or more homes. Fathers are nearly non-existent.

Why? As we see in Amos, because our centre did not hold. Our churches are rotten, filled with religion, the glorious gospel of grace replaced with a Mother Grundy wagging finger of “Behave! Or else the troll will get you. Troll, sorry I meant to say God”. Sin was reduced to naughtiness. Sin is no longer a relational thing – I am distant from God; but reduced to behavioural. As someone remarked to me the other day “people are sick of hearing about sin here in Norway”. If sin is just someone else’s’ idea of how you should behave, then yes. The key of course, is to preach MORE on sin, REAL sin – ignoring God, being estranged from Him. If someone has the counterfeit, the false, give them the truth!

Like Israel, much Christianity here in Norway has been and is simply empty religion. Much activity, but a stench in God’s nostrils, just like Israel in the time of Amos. If you don’t believe me, talk to non-Christians about their experience and view of the church. They feel condemned, they feel rejected, they feel inferior. They see the church as a holy huddle, a bunch of superior religious types looking down their noses at the “failures” the sinners and tax collectors…. Just like Pharisees.

Oh be warned! Being in church your whole life means absolutely nothing. Jesus’ terrifying words “get away from me, I do not know you!” (Matt 7:23). What we’ve seen so far in Amos is that religious activity counts nothing before God. Our righteous acts are dirty rags before him. Do we really think that you can get right with God by being good? Do we? Do we really think that being “a good person” is enough.
Fools! Do we not know who we are talking about? The great God, the Holy God, the perfect God, magnificent, pure, perfect, seated in unapproachable light on his throne high above the Heavens, a searing, blinding HOLINESS shining out from Him, his word goes forth and shakes kingdoms, brings down the mighty, h8mbles kings; his breath holds the world in check, he commands the sun to run its course, the rain to fall, the moon to rise. Our “goodness” is RIDICULOUS, laughable. A mockery of his Goodness and Justice.

Look at what he says to Israel 7 “Are you Israelites more important to me than the Ethiopians?” asks the Lord. “I brought Israel out of Egypt, but I also brought the Philistines from Crete and led the Arameans out of Kir.

They thought their bloodline mattered. I’m a Jew, so I’m safe from God. They thought their religion mattered. I serve God, so I’m safe. God owes me. They thought their goodness mattered. I’m a good person, so I’m safe.

God says: who do you think you are? Oh, I rescued you from Egypt – but I also rescued the Philistines and the Arameans.

What makes Israel special? Not Israel. Only God’s favour. It is his sovereign choice, his great mercy – and Israel instead of praising God for his mercy is betting on his grace in order that they may do evil!

This is grace: not what we do, but what God does.
Israel thought it was what they had done, and therefore thought that God owed them. You know, like they were somehow special, unique, superior, better than everyone else. How often this same thought is in our hearts. God loves me because I’m special, better than the others. Oh, we might not say it like that – but we feel it.

Oh, oh, how foolish we are! We are not special, we are not better. Israel is not more important than the Ethiopians, the Philistines, the Arameans. We are not more important than the drunkards, the New Age believers, the Muslims, the “råner”, the sexually promiscuous single mother next door, the grumpy old man up the street – whoever it is that we look down on, feel superior to. Thank goodness I’m not like “them”.

We think “God loves me” not because of his amazing grace poured out through the cross, his anguished cry “Father forgive them” covering our sins – no! We think he loves us because of us. I am nice, so God loves me. And we think we deserve his love instead of his wrath.

Oh, that is so dangerous! 8 “I, the Sovereign Lord, am watching this sinful nation of Israel. I will destroy it from the face of the earth. But I will never completely destroy the family of Israel,” says the Lord. 9 “For I will give the command and will shake Israel along with the other nations as grain is shaken in a sieve, yet not one true kernel will be lost.

One day God will shake the foundation of our lives. And if we have built on anything- ANYTHING other than Christ crucified… it will be a day of shame and terror as our whole life will crumble before our eyes and we will stand naked and alone before the God whom we have tried to manipulate and control and whose Word we have ignored and whose free gift of forgiveness we have rejected.
What a terrible Day that will be. 10 [A]ll the sinners will die by the sword— all those who say, ‘Nothing bad will happen to us.’
Sin is not firstly what we do, but what we are. Who are the sinners? Those saying “Nothing bad will happen to us” – those ignoring God’s Word, pretending He doesn’t exist. That is sin. It is relational before it is behavioural. It is the root before the fruit.

So where is your root? Where is your life anchored?

Will you be standing on the Rock of Christ when the world around is shaken? Will you be standing when the spiritual breaks through into the physical – when Christ’s trumpet will sound and his mighty army of thousands of angels reveal themselves in splendour and we will see HIM, coming in the clouds, victorious, splendid, the KING.

Will you be grasping his hand of eternal life, will his Breath be in you as you take your last breath on your death bed and awake to New Eternal Life. Or will you gasp your last breath as you realise your life was built on you, and you are now dead, and you sink down to the utter darkness?

We must turn to Him, for he is unshakeable. Not one true kernel will be lost. Because our King is the King like David, the unshakable king, the King of the Restored kingdom.

We will be shaken, but...

2. The King is unshakeable

11 “In that day I will restore the fallen house of David. I will repair its damaged walls. From the ruins I will rebuild it and restore its former glory. 12 And Israel will possess what is left of Edom and all the nations I have called to be mine.” The Lord has spoken, and he will do these things.

As an Israelite you would have been delighted to hear these words. David was Israel’s greatest king, a great warrior who defeated Israel’s enemies and finally brought peace to the region. He was a good king, a man who loved God, and honoured his people. David!

After all the doom of judgement what a glorious message to hear. Those who had listened to Amos and believed him knew that they were going into exile for their wickedness. They knew the day was soon coming when armies would swoop down from the north and wipe out Israel. So this was a great hope –something to hold on to in those years of captivity. A day is coming when all will be restored.

And it was. 2 of the 12 tribes of Israel were restored, brought back from captivity after 70 years in Babylon. They did indeed rebuild their walls and plant vineyards. But the grapes did not grow faster than they were harvested, and they were not safe forever. This prophecy was not yet fulfilled – for it was looking forward to a greater restoration, a greater day, a greater King.

12 Israel (Hebrew: “they”) will possess. “they” literally – those who are in the house of David. It is “David” who will possess the nations. David the great King, who in 2 Sam 7 wanted to build a house for the Lord. The Lord said “who are you to build a house for me – I have no need for a house (duh! 6 The Lord’s home reaches up to the heavens, while its foundation is on the earth! The Lord is his name!) But I will build YOU a house. With an eternal King.
In 760BC the house of David lies in ruins. The land is corrupt, the king is evil, religion is corrupt, false, idolatrous. But there is coming a King, a King from the line of David, a King who will restore the house of David and gather all the nations in to it.

That King is JESUS of Nazareth. He is in the line of David (Matt 1:6. Luke 3:32).

Jesus is the great King who will restore Israel.

But wait, there’s more! Remember in the book of Acts when the gospel first moves out to the Gentiles (non-Jews), and the church is not quite sure about this – can non-Jews be Christians? So they call the first ever church Council, this held in Jerusalem. All the main guys are there, Peter, Paul, Barnabas. At the end James, the brother of Jesus, gets up to summarise the Council’s decision. And guess what he uses to back up his point that Gentiles like you and me can be included in the gospel? Amos 9:11-12! These are our verses!

Ac 15:13 When they had finished, James stood and said, “Brothers, listen to me. 14 Peter has told you about the time God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people for himself. 15 And this conversion of Gentiles is exactly what the prophets predicted. As it is written: 16 ‘Afterward I will return and restore the fallen house of David. I will rebuild its ruins and restore it, 17 so that the rest of humanity might seek the Lord, including the Gentiles— all those I have called to be mine. The Lord has spoken— 18 he who made these things known so long ago.’ 19 “And so my judgment is that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.

The King who will restore David’s house is looking beyond just Israel! He will possess not just Edom , the great enemy of Israel, as far “outside” Israel as you can get – but indeed, ALL who are outside Israel can now be brought in! All the nations I have called to be mine.

This King is Jesus, the Christ. He of unlimited power, power to reign, power to rule. When he came into Jerusalem crowds lined the streets shouting Hosanna! Yet he rode in on a donkey, not a mighty horse of War. He used his power to heal, to preach, to reveal his identity. And he laid aside his majesty and died a sinners death on the cross for you and for me in order to restore the fallen house of David, in order to pay the price so that Israel could be washed clean and could be included in the house of David, and we who are outside (Gentiles) could be brought in, all who are called by his name.

Notice again that we are called by him. It is not our actions which save us, but his. It is his grace, not our effort. Praise him.

This should make us bold to share the gospel with our friends and neighbours. Yesterday my daughter said sadly “I’m the only Christian in my school”. What a privilege! She’s a missionary to an unreached people. And she can have confidence to share the gospel because it is GOD who works to call people to himself. Already His Spirit is at work awakening some in her class to life. Our confidence in witnessing is his grace, not our efforts. All the nations I have called to be mine.

Will you show that his call is upon your life by responding in joy and committing yourself to him, our Great King!

This is what we were made for! He is unshakeable, and will not lose one true kernel. Do you see the ruined cities rebuilt? The grain and grapes growing faster than they can be harvested. Do you see sweet wine running down the terraced vineyards? Do you want to be 15 firmly planted in your own land. You will never again be uprooted from the land I have given you,” says the Lord your God.

Is that not the cry of your heart. Home! A place to belong, to be at peace, to be a rest. A place where you are free, loved, accepted, cared for, looked after, free to be yourself, the true you without sin and anger and fear and worry and pain and suffering. Truly free. Christ the Kin had bought this future with his blood. Accept it. Accept it with joy and gratitude.

That is where we are going, friends, brothers and sisters. This is our future. And we know it is secure, because Jesus rose from the dead. He smashed death, and the evidence is utterly overwhelming.

The King has restored the kingdom. This is a foretaste here on earth – but the Reality. Oh my! The reality that is coming, perhaps today.

Let’s celebrate, let’s thank God, let’s tell other people! Hallelujah! Praise God. Hooray for King Jesus!