Bible Study - Famine of the Word

(4) NW Bible Study - Bible Quiz #17 Famine of the Word - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29bCCtLYbfw

Transcript:
(00:01) Famine of the word is what I've titled this one Famine of the word and where do we find this at we find it in Amos chapter 8 verse 11 Amos 8 verse 11 is where we're going to find that and I'll get to that in just a minute but I wanted to wanted to kind of introduce this idea here that that what we're going to be dealing with here uh in this Bible study relates to the subject of a famine of the word as as it's called in in Amos you know the Bible speaks of many types of famines we're familiar with what it means to not
(00:36) have access to food not be able to eat we hear of famines across the world but Amos 11 God warms of a different kind of famine it's one that's far more devastating Than Physical hunger because this is a famine of the hearing of the word it's a prophecy that was given to ancient Israel but it's not merely about a future event in their time but carries profound implications for today I think we'll see that there's there's there's certainly Duality and when we look at Prophecy in the Bible we obvious we we always see duality in that and so and
(01:14) that's the same with with this we're going to see duality in this prophecy now what's interesting for you to note what I'd like to I guess draw our attention to as we think about this particular message is that God does not say that his word will cease to exist when am wrote this God's word had not ceased to exist God's word today exists God's word will exist in the future so he's not saying that his word is going to cease to exist or copies of let's say the Bible like the bibles are not going to cease to exist we will have his word in that
(01:56) sense but instead God says that people are going to be seeking his word and they're not going to be able to find it now that's what's really profound and I think something that's particularly uh should be worrisome to people today is this very idea that there may be a time when somebody would want to wake up and there there's going to be a time when God says it's too late you're not going to be able to find the word then so this famine is not about the absence of scripture but the absence of
(02:29) understanding it's it's the absence of conviction it's the absence of divine revelation it's a famine where people desperately desire the truth maybe they finally realize that they need it but it's no longer available now let's read Amos chapter 8 let's begin our Bible study here in Amos chapter 8 verse 11 Amos chapter 8: 11 which is the subject scripture of our quiz Amos 8:1 says behold the days are coming says the Lord God that I will send a famine on the land not a famine of bread not nor a thirst for water but of hearing the
(03:12) words of the Lord to understand this prophecy fully we first need to examine the historical context in which Amos delivered this message Amos lived during the time of jeroboam II now he was a king that ruled over uh Israel in a time of great economic Prosperity Israel was doing fantastic economically uh they just weren't really doing all that well spiritually but they were they were doing very well economically now jeroboam II's name is very significant to me because it is to this King to whom Amos is actually or
(03:54) underneath or or through which Amos is actually prophesying now his name's sake is Jeroboam the first now maybe you'll remember that name because when Solomon uh passed the Kingdom on uh his in you know his kingdom was divided so we had a monarchy at the time they basically split the kingdom in half the northern 10 tribes went with jeroboam and and Judah which was which was the tribe of Judah Benjamin and Levi went with rehoboam or stayed with rehoboam so jeroboam wanted the kingdom himself and he so he wrenched away the northern 10
(04:34) tribes now what's what's interesting was is that that while we had this divided Kingdom which God foretold why have this divided Kingdom jeroboam deathly was afraid that the northern 10 tribes would uh because of the holy days because of coming to Jerusalem to worship uh during the holy day seasons jeroboam feared that Israel the northern tribes would come to Jerusalem to do what they were supposed to do in celebrating the feasts of the Lord and so he to prevent and of course his fear was if they went there then
(05:10) they would see and maybe build uh Fidelity towards rehoboam and that would and that would lead to uh that would lead to uh him losing he feared for his his very life so let's look here in First Kings chap 12 to see what he did about that first Kings chap 12 veres 25- 28 First Kings 12 25- 28 speaking of jeroboam it says then jeroboam built shechem in the mountains of Ephraim and dwelt there also he went out from there and built penuel and jeroboam said in his heart now the kingdom May return to the House of David if these
(06:00) people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem then the heart of this people will turn back to their lord rehoboam king of Judah and they will kill me and go back to rehoboam King of Judah continuing on here he says here in verse 28 therefore the king asked advice made two calves of gold and said to the people it is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem here are your Gods o Israel which brought you up from the land of Egypt and he set one up in bethel and he set the other in Dan now this thing became a sin for the
(06:43) people went up to worship before one as far as Dan he made shrines on the high places and made priests from every class of people who were not of the sons of Levi that is a very important scripture by the way you want to keep tabs of that scripture uh in uh First Kings chap 12 I read I said we were going to read through 28 but I read all the way through 31 that particular verse there in verse 31 is very important because when we when you fast forward in time and we get to the time of Ezra and Nehemiah you have a people up in Samaria
(07:21) which were giving uh a lot of trouble to the Jews who had come back to rebuild Jerusalem after the Captivity and some people just mistakenly think that Samaria was Israel and that in fact is not the case and and you'll see as you kind of go back and look at all of that history you'll put you can put some of the math together to see that Samaria no longer had the religion of God in fact beginning right here as we see jeroboam replaced the levitical priesthood with anybody and everybody from the 10 tribes who wanted to be a
(07:55) priest so we can call this then a counterfeit religion began in the Northern 10 tribes and it and it basically continued for Generations it became deeply entrenched in the culture of the northern 10 tribes and by the time of jeroboam II now this is like 150 years later the people had long abandon the true worship God they still performed religious rituals but they had replaced obedience with basically empty ceremonies they never really turned back to God from that time forward now their wealth increased and of course
(08:32) Amos talks about that he has a lot to say about where they were as a nation physically all they seemed to be enjoying a lot of blessings they were riding High economically and doing quite well uh financially but as their wealth increased their faithfulness basically vanished and this is what Amos was rebuking them for hypocrisy and he warned them that judgment was near let's look over here at Amos chapter 5 Amos chapter 5 verses 10 and 11 it says they hate the one who rebukes in the gate and they abhore the one who
(09:20) speaks uprightly therefore because you tread down the poor and take grain taxes from him though you have built houses of hewn stone yet you shall not dwell in them you have planted Pleasant Vineyards but you shall not drink the wine from them so this rejection of truth from the northern tribes led to judgment you know when when people refuse to listen to God long enough after a while God finally says fine then that's it you don't have to listen to me anymore this is why Amos warns of a time when people will search for the word of the
(10:06) Lord but not find it which is a terrifying Prospect if you think about that to suddenly recognize that you need God and where is he no longer available to you verse 12 here of Amos 5:2 says for I know your manifold transgressions and your Mighty sins afflicting the just and taking bribes diverting the poor from Justice at the gate well so God says there's going to be a famine of the hearing of the word now that's really an important sort of thing to keep in your mind about this as we're kind of walking through this topic
(10:46) today it says it's not that there won't be God's word it's that there will be a a famine of the hearing of the word God will no longer be making it available to people and this certainly happened if you think about that in ancient Israel you know it wasn't very many years later that that Israel goes into captivity to Assyria and there's no worship there's nothing they are no longer a nation under God he divorces them he sets them aside uh using that language that very language because he said I was a husband to you
(11:21) we read that throughout scripture and so he divorced Israel his Unfaithful wife and he described her behavior as the behavior of a harlot so obviously very unflattering but this is the world that Amos was speaking to but if you looked at Israel if you looked at Israel physically you know it's easy for us today to look at our own circumstances and to think oh God's blessing me look at my life God's blessing me you could do the same thing if you looked at ancient Israel here which which would have been about 780 or so uh 770 BC you
(12:04) if you would have looked at Israel simply as a physical nation and you would have seen them being Bess it would have looked like they were being richly blessed by God taken care of prospering and it's easy for us to kind of look at our our own lives and say well if I'm if I'm being blessed if I'm prospering I must be doing well in God's sight and that I think is something we need to take as a warning message that just because things look good like we have to be looking inside here to see whether or not God is blessing us
(12:34) because what we see is the blessings of God in other words and what I seeing the blessings of God or has God just allowed things to play out and I might be I might be reaping some benefits but he may be not blessing me Bas based on wherever my attitude is and maybe I should be looking at that more carefully let's listen to what God Said through Amos here in Amos chapter 5 still here and I want to drop down to verses 21- 24 21 this is how God sees them he says I hate I despise your feast days I do not Savor your sacred
(13:11) assemblies though you offer me burnt offerings and your grain offerings I will not accept them nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings take away from me the noise of your songs for I will not hear The Melody of your stringed instruments but let Justice run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream so here's God sitting on his throne he's looking down at Israel and he's saying whatever you're doing I don't it doesn't matter to me I don't I hate what I see in you you have a pretense you have a
(13:44) fake religion you have ceremony but you don't have a religious heart you don't actually see me you don't actually pursue a relationship with me this is how God sees Israel at the time Amos is writing here he's just not impressed by their religious performances he wants Justice and righteousness and true worship but instead the people were living hypocrisy hypocritically right they Fain religion on the one hand what their heart is far from God but the worst part of all of that is they didn't think anything was
(14:20) wrong they thought their wealth meant that God was blessing them they thought their religious ceremonies meant that they were safe we're honoring God we're doing these things God says that we're supposed to do of course God sends Amos to wake them up to tell them no you're not I'm not happy with what I see of course amos's message was not popular he told Israel that disaster was coming and no one wanted to hear that you know can you imagine the the wealthy those who are enjoying living off the fat of the land
(15:02) and so forth um and they're being told by Amos that God's not pleased with them they would look and say what what's not to be pleased with God's obviously blessing God's obviously taking care of us I don't want to hear this that we're not doing right it's obvious that we we must be satisfying and pleasing God so they didn't really want to hear what Amos had to say Israel ignored Amos and just a few decades later the Assyrians swept in and destroyed them you imagine that so here we are around 770 is or so I don't know
(15:39) 760 770 ad Israel was conquered Northern tribes of Israel was conquered by Assyria in 722 began in 722 uh BC and they were utterly removed from the land and I thought my memory serves it was about less than five years I I want to say total by about 717 or so Israel was completely gone Assyria had removed the people had replaced it with people from throughout the land of Assyria so by Gentiles they moved Gentiles in to take over and enjoy the fatted land and all the blessings that Israel had formerly enjoyed so I'm thinking to my myself about
(16:30) this idea of the Famine of the word because when Israel goes into captivity where's the ceremonies where's the you know where's the book of the law where is where's anything that they would have claimed that they had possession of that they were following the all of that stuff just goes away and so they don't have can you say that that's then essentially a famine of the hearing of the word there's no Temple there's no worship they've been scattered and so to me in a very real sense that is a famine and of course that famine
(17:03) would would go on we can see this kind of playing itself out even in the wake of Judah when she comes back from captivity after conquered by the uh the helenist from from Greek when Alexander conquered them and and everything changed uh even in the even with the Jews in Judah uh everything changed there as well and we ended up with a long period of time where there was essentially a pretty big of the word but let's take a look at this a little bit more here in detail here because God does not bring judgment without
(17:38) warning there's something we see over and over again in scripture Before Destruction God sends a warning he sends Messengers and Prophets every he sends these as a wakeup call pay attention wake up look at what you're doing and of course Israel does not have a good reputation with how it treated its prophets it did not listen to them time and again prophets were sent to tell them to repent to listen to pay attention to turn back but they were ignored and obviously Israel shows that at some point God's had enough that's
(18:19) really the big warning for us at some point God has had enough he withdrew himself from them and there is nothing left but silence and that's what Amos was talking about when he prophesied a famine of the word not a famine of bread or water but a famine of hearing the words of the lord it's one thing for a nation to ignore God's word when it's readily available but what happens when it is taken away from them what happens when people finally wake up and seek the truth but it's too late and that's the reality Amos was warning
(19:01) about it wasn't a new message God had warned Israel before again and again he had sent prophets to call them back to plead with them to return to him and again and again they refused to listen let's look at three examples of God's repeated warnings warning that Israel rejected to see how they mirror our time today let's turn over here to uh First Kings chapter 18 there was a time in Israel's history when idolatry had completely taken over I'm going to First Kings chapter 18 though the people still used God's
(19:44) name they still claimed to be part of his Covenant but in reality they turned to bail they were worshiping Idols following corrupt leaders and blending truth with lies so God sent Elijah to wake them up and he wasn't just another prophet he was a man who stood alone against the false religion of his day he directly challenged the priests of Baal you might remember that story but these were the priests of Jezebel and of Ahab but he called Israel to make a choice to stop wavering to stop trying to serve two masters
(20:29) in other words Israel the people were given a warning First Kings 18: 21 where this is recorded so here's I'm going to pick this up in verse 20 sorry about that any of your note takers so verse 20 so Ahab sent for all the children of Israel and gathered the prophets together on M Mount Carmel and Elijah came to all the people and said how long long will you falter between two opinions if the Lord is God follow him but if bail follow him but the people answered him not a word this is stunning because the people
(21:21) knew the truth there's only God Baal is is a false god he was never the god of Israel you know that you think the stories of Exodus had gone away and people didn't remember that there was a thing called Exodus and plagues and God delivering the people of Israel out of Egypt with a mighty hand you think they didn't remember that that that wasn't stories told generation after generation after generation probably got corrupted over time I I I guess I wouldn't be too surprised about that but God had done Miracle upon Miracle upon miracle with
(21:59) ancient Israel so they really did not have any excuse they had his law yet when confronted with the choice to stand for him they remained silent even after God sent fire from heaven in a dramatic Display of Power which is if you recall this is where where Elijah mocks all 450 of the priests of Baal and he says to them uh you know light have your God light your stack on fire and take and consume your offering and I'll have my god do it over here and I'll give you as much time to get your God to do that as you want and you know maybe he's asleep
(22:36) and all of that kind of it was all of that maybe he can't hear you and he D so Elijah douses and pours water all over his and floods that offering and yet God in an instant consumes that and the entire area around it and licks up all of the water in the entire area undeniable miracle that God performs here demonstrating his power over the power of a fake God called Baal the people know this happened and here they are being witnessed to so they had their warning they saw God's power firsthand but they chose to
(23:20) turn away and the result Israel descended further into wickedness and judgment followed how different is that from today the truth is out there it's being preached the people can he you know even today if you look around you'd say well you know all people are without ex or you know I guess I'm thinking to myself are all people without excuse today do people have access can they hear the word you know this is still the most popular book ever sold it's still the most popular book being sold today the Bible by Far and Away do people have
(23:59) the truth do they have the word of God well they have the word of God and of course we know that Satan has blinded them but they're not but they have no excuse when it comes to the possibility of saying can they hear if they wanted to hear the answer is yes because God's word is here if they wanted to hear it but they don't want to hear it and judgment is coming let's look at Jeremiah through Jeremiah here hang on here let me get to the scripture I want to turn to Jeremiah chapter 6 Jeremiah chapter 6 because a second
(24:36) warning came in the time of Jeremiah this is just I'm I'm just giving you three warnings that have been given of course the Bible's filled with them but I'm going to give you just three in Jeremiah we have another warning given in in chapter six now Jeremiah lived in Jerusalem at the time they were being sent into captivity and conquered by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar and of course he warned and warned and warned and warned and warned and you know God has some really negative things to say about Judah
(25:15) because of Israel's example before like there was no possibility that you could have escaped what happened to Israel Judah was in place and watching that and yet just 120 or so years later here is Judah worse than Israel they had the law they had no excuses they didn't have a king that led them off into total and absolute idolatry king after king after King they had the temple they had the law they had the levitical priesthood they had no excuse so here's Jeremiah a lone voice in the nation and they didn't want to hear his
(26:00) truth he begged them to repent to turn back to God or Babylon would come and Jerusalem would be destroyed but the people mocked him the leaders ignored him and the false prophets contradicted him Jeremiah chapter 6 and verse 10 Jeremiah 6:10 it says To Whom Shall I speak and give warning that they may hear indeed their ear is uncircumcised and they cannot give heed behold the word of the Lord is a reproach to them they have no Delight in it so they had no Delight no desire to hear no you know Delight in something
(26:56) is that's pretty self-evident isn't it you Delight in something you enjoy something it gives you satisfaction and deep joy and gratitude says that the law of God his words didn't do that for them anymore they rejected it even when the Babylonian armies were at the gates the people still clung to false hope they refused to believe that God wasn't with them we've got the temple God is with us eventually Jeremiah stopped prophesying God's warnings ceased and the city fell the temple was burned the walls were torn down and the people were
(27:40) taken into Exile by the time they wanted to hear the truth it was too late how many today are walking that same road how many dismiss the warnings of scripture mock The Messengers and cling to false promises that God will never bring judgment Jud you know it's just the human nature to say that judgment delayed is no judgment at all and so if I if God isn't if if I'm enjoying if I see my life and it looks like God's blessing me God must be blessing me if I don't see God actively punishing me then I don't have any
(28:15) reason to think that I'm not pleasing to him of course the third example I would give to you is Jesus warnings to the Pharisees the religious leaders of his day were experts quote unquote in the scriptures they studied they taught they prayed they looked righteous they had a form of religion but when God himself stood in front of them when Jesus spoke the very Words of Life they rejected him the messenger of God Matthew chapter 23 Matthew chap CH 23 and verse 37 this is how Christ expressed the feeling of the godhead towards his
(29:16) people Matthew 23:37 oh Jerusalem Jerusalem the one who kills the prophets and Stones those who are sent to her all of the warnings that God had sent over Millennia to warn Israel turn return to me they would not they killed the prophets and stoned those who were sent how often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings but you were not willing that is essentially the summation of it they were not willing Jesus warned them he told them that if they did not repent destruction
(30:07) would come and just a few decades later it did once again within just a few Decades of Christ no Christ died in 31 ad the temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD so just about 39 years later four decades again a famine of the hearing would happen the warning for us today these three examples are not just history they're a pattern a pattern that we're seeing again today God has given our generation access to his word like never before there isn't anyone who could say uh that in our language the Bible doesn't exist
(30:58) because it exists in virtually every language by by this point in time now there may be some obscure dialect or something but on the whole the Bible is available in virtually every language on the face of the Earth virtually I say it's everywhere but of course it's more than that sermons are everywhere biblical teachings are everywhere warning warning warning you know the United Church of God the part of the diaspora what we call the diaspora the Church of God in the dispersion which has sort of happened happened in the
(31:28) wake of of 1995 so here we have a whole bunch of churches if you will under different names but the Church of God exists in as as many ways as it seems to be able to try to find the Church of God under whatever name is trying to preach the gospel it's trying to get the message out there United Church of God is preaching the gospel in as many ways as it can think to do so it's not like it's not out there the internet you we're not hiding if somebody wants to find the truth TR seriously if they want to find the truth
(32:04) they can find it I think really at the end of the day that's the problem do they want to find the truth apparently not they're tuning out God's word in fact if you look on the whole um you know surveys being done by Bara and others are they're just more and more reflective of the fact that our nation is moving farther and farther farther and farther away from being quote unquote Christian being religious um it's stunning if you if you if you start to search and and to look at at where uh at what a lot of of recent um you know surveys are are
(32:47) unveiling about where where Ephraim and Manasseh are when it comes to being Christian nations their belief in God their worship of God their desire to go to church everything is down down down going to church keeping uh keeping the laws of God uh what they say about their belief in God how how those beliefs reflected in their lives what they do and so for we're becoming more and more and more and more secular in these Western countries so this is this is the warning for us today if we reject the word of God long
(33:24) enough a time is going to come when we will seek it and not find Paul says to Timothy here in 2 Timothy 4 second Timothy Chapter 4 verses 3 and 4 for the time will come when they will not endure sound Doctrine but according to their own desires because they have itching ears they will Heap up for themselves teachers and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables Brethren I I don't know I guess I don't know how strongly I could actually say that we need to take this warning seriously whether we're talking whether
(34:21) this is in the world or even in the church we need to take this seriously each and every one of us needs to be looking in the mirror and asking ask ourselves am I am I somebody who wants to hear the truth no matter how difficult it is whether it agrees with me or not am I willing to change my beliefs to follow the truth or do I want to Stack up for teachers who say what I want to hear that's the warning if if if my choice is to stack up for myself only the teachers that say what I want to hear and to reject the
(35:00) truth because it's uncomfortable it it's hard it's something that I just don't think makes sense and whatever my reason is if I don't want to hear the truth anymore Paul says here that the time is coming when people won't hear sound Doctrine but according to their own desires they want to hear something different they'll Heap up for themselves teachers people who say what I want to hear and they'll turn them their their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables and that should be such a stark warning for us it should be
(35:34) sobering it should be alarming we should it should make us want to wake up and take a hard look at where we are I fear that there are going to be some who are going to be very surprised when Christ returns Paul warned Timothy that there would be a time when people wouldn't endure sound Doctrine but the fact of the matter is that time isn't coming it's here more than ever people are choosing messages that make them feel good rather than a truth that convicts the world has turned against truth calling good evil and evil good
(36:19) those who stand for biblical values are mocked silenced labeled as intolerant the push isn't to just ignore the truth it's to eliminate it this is the beginning of the famine when people reject truth long enough God allows them to have their way and when that happens darkness follows just like in the days of Amos the fall of Israel and just like before the fall of Judah and the destruction of Jerusalem it will be too late to find what was once freely given so how do we avoid this famine the warnings are clear history has shown us
(37:01) what happens when people reject the word of God the Famine of the word isn't just about Nations it happens to individuals it happens when people lose their hunger for the truth when they stop listening when they allow distractions and deceptions and compromise to take root it's not inevitable though it can be avoided it can be prevented but not through human strength not through our willpower but through deliberate pursuit of God and his truth Matthew chapter 4 and verse 4 Matthew chapter 4 and verse 4 where Christ tells Satan what we need
(38:07) to be thinking and living by ourselves every single day because he told Satan it is written man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God this should be our Focus this should be our desire the food we take in that spiritual food needs to be the word of God and we need to do it daily in the same way that you don't go uh you don't go long periods of time without eating real food because you know that your body craves and needs to eat in order to function in the same way
(38:42) we must have spiritual food a spiritual famine will kill us the same and worse than a physical famine because a physical famine can only destroy the body but a spiritual famine can destroy the soul So to avoid the Famine of the word we must first develop real hunger for the truth this means we cannot treat the Bible as an occasional meal it must be our daily bread many today rely on spiritual fast food which is like you know quick readings and stuff you know I mean I'm putting out a weekly thing that is designed for that it's it's you know a
(39:25) few hundred words it's a quick 5 minute read and yes those are good and those are helpful but if that's your only diet if you're not diving into the word of God itself and reading and really consuming what God has to say the fast food diet of of you know a quick thing here and and a verse there and all of that it's not healthy that is not a healthy diet they're snacks they're not meals you can't survive eating snacks you have to have healthy full blooded as Paul describes it or as the author of he Hebrews describes it you need milk if
(40:02) you want to survive on or excuse me you need meat I said that wrong sorry you need meat you can't survive on milk we're adults we're not babies we've got to have meat over in second Timothy Paul warns the young Minister Timothy in 2 Timothy Chapter 2 verse1 15 for he says this you know excuse me chapter 2:1 15 here we go he says be diligent to present yourself approved to God a worker who does not need to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of Truth can we do that can we rightly divide the word of Truth not if you don't know it not if
(40:54) you're not spending any time in it like that's your only hope if you want to if you want to fulfill the command and look I know Paul's talking to the young Minister but which of us can say that doesn't apply to me because the ministry isn't supposed to be you know living a lifestyle that nobody else has to like we're supposed to be examples I get that but that doesn't exempt everyone else and say well you don't have to live righteously of course we do and Paul is saying that everyone should be capable of discerning and rightly dividing the word
(41:26) of God handling it accurately and of course false teachings everywhere you know which of us just doesn't have family or friends that doesn't have the truth we need to know the truth So to avoid essentially being tripped up we need discernment Acts chapter 17 : 11 you might remember this group of individuals that the Bible mentions acts 17:1 because of what they did and it's what we should be doing as well acts 1711 it says these were far these were more fair-minded than those in thessalonica in that they received the
(42:19) word with all Readiness and searched the Scriptures Daily who's he talking about well then the Brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas verse 10 Away by night to Berea when they arrived they went into the synagogue of the Jews and so these were more fair-minded than those in thessalonica in that they received the word with all Readiness and searched the Scriptures Daily to find out whether these things were so so in other words somebody comes in there preaching to them this group is of people are saying that's interesting let's see if that's
(42:52) true isn't that a beautiful test let's just open our Bibles and see if it says that if we truly are seeking God and seeking the truth God is going to open our minds to the words that he gives to us we will have understanding James chapter 1 James chapter 1 verse 22 where James says but be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves it's not enough to hear the word it's not enough to read the word it's got to be lived that's why we talk about when we cover the issue of Faith remember faith is believing in God
(43:39) believing What God Says doing accordingly doing those things living that out in your life having Works in other words actions that demonstrate those beliefs are real and then trust in God that's Faith that's is the essence of faith and and here we're being reminded that that is what is required for us we have to do we have to obey having knowledge but no transformation is not faith and of course he tells us that those who think that they have faith but who don't listen to who don't obey God who don't change their lives
(44:27) who don't transform they're deceiving themselves that's what James says to us the greatest key to preventing spiritual famine has to be seeking God wholeheartedly Isaiah chapter 55 Isaiah chapter 55 verses 6 and 7 seek the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near this is what we need to do seek God while he may be found and call him while he is near every single one of us has that calling right now we all have the opportunity right now to to turn towards God to stay on that narrow path that leads to his kingdom to pursue him to
(45:24) seek him while he may be found now while he's here now he's saying I'm here I will feed you but there comes a point in everyone's life When God says you refused long enough and now it's too late and we don't want to be that person so this is our invitation to seek God while he can be found because there will be a time when he will not be found that is the Famine of the word when people finally wake up to their need for God but it's too late so the choice is ours we can ignore the warnings continue on in spiritual
(46:12) complacency assume that we're always good with God that we've got time or we can wake up we can turn to God we can fill our lives with his word right now before the famine comes this warning of Amos was not just for ancient Israel it's a warning for us today a famine of the word does not come because God stops speaking we have his words speaking to us every time we open the pages of our Bibles it's because people stop listening it comes when the truth is pushed aside when deception is embraced when people become so spiritually numb
(46:50) they no longer recognize that they're starving to death we've seen this pattern 4 God warns people refuse to listen judgment follows it happened in the Days of Elijah it happened at the time of Jeremiah it happened when Jesus Christ himself walked the Earth and it's happening right now but we do not have to be among those who starve to death in a famine proverbs 1: 28-30 so I wrap up here Proverbs chap 1: 28-30 then they will call on me but I
(47:53) will not answer they will seek me diligently but they they will not find me because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord they would have none of my counsel and despised my every rebuke now is the time to seek God now is the time to listen now is the time to fill our hearts and our minds with his word because a day is coming when many will search for the truth but will not find it but we can prevent this famine in our own lives we can choose to hunger for the word of God to stand on the truth to
(48:31) reject deception to cling to sound Doctrine the choice isn't for another generation it's not for another time it's for right now I'll read Amos 5:4 because it says for thus says the Lord to the house of Israel seek me and live this is what God wants a famine is coming the question is simple will we listen will we be like Israel in amos's time rejecting the warnings until judgment Falls will we be like Judah in Jeremiah's day ignoring God until it's too late or will we be people who hunger for truth in a world of deception people
(49:17) who stand on the word when others reject it people who seek God now before it's too late the famine is coming but for those who choose to seek choose to listen and choose to obey it's not going to come for them they're going to be fed they're going to be sustained they're going to be rooted when others are lost in darkness God has given each of us a choice what will we choose