A Famine of Hearing

Well, good afternoon, everyone! Great to be back here with you all again. And I would love to go to that homemade ice cream social in Saginaw in two weeks. I'd like to bring some of my own as well. Unfortunately, I'll be in Detroit that week, so I don't think I can make it. But I hope some of you do go up there. And by the way, they, of course, were there this morning.

It's amazing that they were able to rent this building, and the owner of the building, which rents at a very reasonable rate, he told me they could do whatever they want to with it. Fix it up and remodel it, do whatever they want. They put a kitchen in, they've done all this remodeling, and it's really, really nice. They made a platform now that just finished for the podium, so it stands up a little bit, and they're going to cut the platform here in the next couple of weeks.

But it's almost finished. You've got a few little touch-up things to do, but it's really a great little building. It's really, really nice. It's a real blessing for all of them up there in Saginaw. And I know they would love to see you for the Ash Cream Social, so I hope some of you can make it.

It's really easy to find. Actually, you should go to Tittabawassee Road, go to the very end up to M47 or Midland Road. It's about seven miles out to Tittabawassee, and then go north through Freeland, and then take right on Carter Road, when you pass the light in Freeland, and turn right about a block and a half or so, and you'll be there.

So I know you would enjoy seeing you, and it's really a very beautiful building. It would be fun to be up there for that, to look up there after services made for the Ash Cream Social. Well, a lot has happened this month, and of course, as we all know now, back on November 8th, we had our elections, and I think many people were surprised and maybe even shocked by the fact that we now have a new president-elect, who turned out to be Donald Trump, a billionaire businessman.

So that's going to be a first. And some people were quite surprised. It really looked as they were leading up to that time that Hillary Clinton had pretty good lead, when she was going to be elected, but things turned around. I watched the election until about 10.30 or 11, and about that time, it looked like the table was beginning to turn a little bit. But that's about my eyes closed down right about 10.30 or 11. That's when this light's out for me. So I turned it off, went to bed, and I got up the next morning about 6.30 and turned on the news, and I was kind of surprised and shocked myself to actually see that Trump won.

But the main theme in the model of this campaign, which resonated with many voters, was, make America great again. And many Americans now realize, America has lost much of its former greatness. That greatness was reached after World War II. It probably reaches its zenith right after World War II into the late 40s or early 50s. But many Americans now realize that America has lost much of that former greatness, which reached that pinnacle, as I said, after World War II. But there are two key questions, and the third one I'll add is a little bit later as well. There are two key questions that the vast majority of Americans do not know the answer to.

And those are these. Why did America become great in the first place? And why have we now lost that former greatness, or why are we beginning to lose it? Another question Americans really don't know the answer to is, how can that former greatness be restored? What would it take to restore it? What would it take in order to make America great again?

Actually, for the answer to those questions, we have to go back a couple thousand years or more. We have to go to the Word of God, and we have to go back to the promise made to Abraham many, many years ago. In the beginning of the sermon here this afternoon, I want to briefly review that, but then I want to take it much deeper in that and make it much more personal. And by asking this, what about God's Church?

We're not like we were a few years ago, a number of years ago. What about the spiritual people of God? How did God's Church become great one time? We had our influence around the world. We had tens of thousands of members around the world. Our name was known almost around the world. Plain truth reached a 5 million, something like that or more. So why have we now lost that form of greatness? And what will it take to make God's Church great again? So today I want to address the answers to those questions from the perspective of both physical and spiritual Israel. From the perspective of the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and from the perspective of the spiritual descendants of Jesus Christ.

The title for my sermon here this afternoon is taken also by Mr. Stussman, who centered his sermonette around one scripture. I'm going to center my sermon around one scripture, basically. We'll go other places, but I'm centered on one particular scripture from which I've derived my title. My title is, A Famine of Hearing. A Famine of Hearing. Now, before looking at physical Israel and how to make America great again, I want to begin looking at a prophecy in the book of Amos.

Amos, of course, is one of the twelve minor prophets. He came from a little village called Tekoa, which is a village in Judah, about ten miles south of Jerusalem. He was a sheep breeder. So like David, he took care of flocks.

As it says in Amos 7, verse 15, he also attended sycamore trees, which, when you do a little bit of research, it could indicate that Amos was not a wealthy man. He had to work hard to make ends meet. But then God kind of took him from that life that he had there, and he called him to be a prophet.

To give a warning message to surrounding nations at that time, back at the time he wrote, then to also give a warning message to Judah and Israel, to the north of Judah. So this prophecy of Amos is dated, and we go back there and look at it. And it tells us who was reigning in Judah at that time, when the king of Judah was at the time Amos gave this prophecy.

It also tells us who the king of Israel was when God gave Amos his prophecy. Turn to the book of Amos, the minor prophets, Hosea, Joel, and Amos.

And begin in Amos 1, verse 1.

Amos 1, verse 1. The words of Amos, who was among the sheep-readers of Ticohah, again, a little village about 10 miles south of Jerusalem, which he saw concerning Israel, which the nation of Israel was to the north of Judea, so 10 tribes of Israel were, concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and the days of Jeroboam, the son of George, king of Israel. And then it says, this was written two years before the earthquake. What was that? Two years before the earthquake. It must have been a major earthquake. People at that time would know which earthquake it was, but it was two years before the earthquake.

So thus, this prophecy here in the book of Amos took place during the reign of Uzziah, king of Judah, during the reign of Jeroboam, the king of Israel, and two years before the earthquake.

Now, this particular earthquake is mentioned one other place in the Bible. It's mentioned in Zechariah 14, verse 5.

Where Zechariah 14, verse 5 is actually prophesied in a future earthquake that would take place during the day of the Lord.

When the Mount of Olives are going to be split in two. That would be a major earthquake, wouldn't it?

And speaking of this future earthquake in Zechariah 14, verse 5, it says, Then you shall flee through my mountain valley, referring to the spring and the two of the Mount of Olives in the future.

Then you shall flee through my mountain valley, for the mountain valley shall reach to us all.

Yes, you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of the King of Judah.

So, it refers back to this earthquake here that's mentioned here in Amos 1, verse 1.

Now, if you go to our United Bible reading program, it dates to this earthquake as occurring in 751 BC, around about that time.

Or, to put it a little bit in perspective, about 30 years before the fall of Israel to Assyria.

And two years before that would be around 753 BC is when this earthquake would have occurred, which dates the Book of Amos to around 753 BC, somewhere in that time, about 30 years before Israel fell to the Assyrians.

Now, you think about Israel at this time, we don't know all the details, but it probably was a time when Israel still had some prosperity. It was probably a decline at that time, but it's probably still fairly prosperous.

And it's interesting to just think of a possibility.

Some may have even been looking for a king at that time who could make Israel great again, as it had been under kings David and king Solomon.

But the prophecy I want to focus on is in chapter 8, but prior to that I want to go through some significant passages here in the Book of Amos leading up to chapter 8.

Let's go to Amos chapter 3, first two verses. We'll start off in Amos 3.1. Hear this word of the Lord, hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the ten tribes of Israel to the north. And he gets the whole family, which I brought up from the land of Egypt. Of course, God intervened for the sins of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He rescued them from Egypt and made them into a great nation, as he had promised. And then verse 2 says, You only have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. In this context, if you analyze and think about it, you only have I known means you only have I chosen, because God's chosen people, his or was. He chose them, as he brought them out of Egypt. He chose them to be Savage pattern, they have a special covenant relationship with them. God have an exclusive relationship with Israel when he called them out of Egypt. They recalled they were his special holy people, and they recall that have a covenants relationship with God. And that covenant relationship they recall to have a God was a covenant relationship. A marriage covenant relationship, I should say. And as you look over the history of the Old Testament of Israel, God was faithful to Israel in that covenant relationship, in that marriage covenant relationship. God was faithful, but Israel was not faithful to God. They turned away from God. They turned to idolatry. In verse 3, verse 2, you only have I known of all the families of the earth, or of all the families of the earth have I chosen to be my special people. Therefore I will place you now for all your iniquities, and turning away and breaking my covenant relationship I have with you.

Verse 3, another very important scripture or passage that we've all read before or heard. Can two walk together unless they are agreed? Can Israel keep walking with God when Israel no longer agrees with God or God's laws?

The following two verses clearly answer that question for us. Will a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey? Will a young lion cry out of his den if he has caught nothing? Will a bird fall into a snare on the earth where there is no trap for it? Will a snare spring up from the earth if it has caught nothing at all? The answer, of course, is obviously no, which means, in the answer to verse 3, no, two cannot walk together indefinitely unless they agree. There's going to be a parting of ways. On the other side of the coin, verse 6, If a trumpet is born in a city, will not the people be afraid? If there is a calamity in a city, will not the Lord have done it? The obvious answer to that is yes. Then we'll come into another significant passage here in verse 7. You're familiar with most of us. Sure, the Lord does nothing unless he reveals his secret to his servants, the prophets. Now we are God's servants today. And God has revealed his secret. He has revealed the truth of God's Word, the truth about Jesus Christ. The truth of his plan of salvation. He has revealed those secrets, quote-unquote, the world does not understand. He's revealed them to us. We understand God's Word. We understand God's plan of salvation through Jesus Christ. That the world really does not understand. And we know why America became great. And we know why America will lose this greatness, or is losing this greatness.

And, you know, as trying to do the work of preaching the gospel to the world, we're doing everything with our means to make those truths available to the people of the world, especially to those people here in the United States of America. We do that through our Beyond Today television program, which is viewed by thousands every week. We do it with our BT Daily, which many people see on a daily basis, with our Beyond Today magazine, which goes into many, many thousands of households. Why then are not more minds being opened?

And why are not more people coming into our churches? Because we don't see a lot of that happening. The Word's going out, it's there, people are hearing it. Why? Not very much response. Another significant passage, which I'm not going to turn to, I'm just going to refer to his name as 412, where it says this, because Israel did not return to God, even after numerous warnings, the latter part of Amos 4.12 says, Prepare to meet your God, O Israel. And about 30 years or so after this was written, the Old Testament, ancient Israel, did meet their God.

God cut off His relationship with them, and they went into captivity under the Assyrians. And we wonder how much longer will America come to the point where they will have to meet their God. One final passage before getting to Amos 8, and that's Amos 7, beginning in verse 7. Amos 7, verse 7, Amos says, Thus he showed me, behold, the Lord stood on a wall made with a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand.

And the Lord said to me, Amos, what do you see? And I said, well, a plumbline. And then the Lord said, behold, I am sitting a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel, and I will not pass by them any more. In other words, I will not pass by and overlook their iniquities any more. Verse 9, Because the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste. And I will rise with sword against the house of Jeroboam, who again was the king of Israel at that time.

Plumbline, as we know, is a basic tool of a builder. Mr. Murray should probably use those a number of times. But it's a basic tool of a builder. It's a line with a way to test to the end. And when held against a wall, it will measure the wall's vertical accuracy and trueness. So the message of maintenance here, then, is this. When God measured the morality of Israel and the Israelite society, when He measured them spiritually at that time, that trueness was so far from...

that is that the accuracy of the plumbline was so far from being true, it was shown to be so far from true that the whole construction had to be torn down. You've got to build a building and you've got it so far off trueness, and you can't correct it, then you basically have to tear it down and start over. And that's what He's saying here. He said that one line with Israel, when He measured Israel's society and how far they had strayed in the wrong direction, they were leaning in the wrong direction off balance, that it was too much to correct.

It was going to have to be destroyed and they were going to have to start over. Amos is saying here, we've got his prophesying through Amos. And I have to ask the question, when you look at our society today, are we getting to that point where there's no way to correct it? It's so far from true that it's going to have to just all come down and start over.

Let's now get to the main passage I want to focus on today, and that's Amos 8, verse 11. Amos 8, verse 11, He said, Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord God, that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of God. That's my title, a famine of hearing. I want you to notice carefully what this verse does not say. It does not say that there will be a famine of the word of God. It says there will be a famine of hearing the words of the Lord, which indicates what?

Well, it indicates that the words of God will be available, and the words of God will be accessible, but the people won't hear them. Not that they won't hear them with their ears, but that they won't hear them with careful focused attention in a way that could convict them and cause them to act on those words and change the course of their life.

They don't have that kind of hearing. And that's what we see happening today. Thousands watch the Beyond Today telecast. Thousands more read the Beyond Today magazine. Plus, many thousands, other than that, read publications or the truth from other Church of God groups, and they read their magazines and listen to their broadcasts. The truth is there. It's available from a number of sources. But only very few respond with any lasting commitment, even when you look at all the Churches of God. So today, you could say we have a famine of hearing, a famine of hearing in a way that would convict people to change the course of their life.

Many hear the words, but they're not acting on them. The result? The result of our nation is going to continue to decline because people are not hearing and making the changes necessary to bring them to repentance.

And people will continue asking, people of our country will continue asking, why has America continued to decline? Why aren't we becoming great again? Many Americans today realize something is wrong, that we're heading in the wrong direction. And then you're searching for the answers today, but they're looking in the wrong place, as the next verse indicates.

Verse 12 is a very interesting verse when you analyze it deeply. Verse 12, V. 8, They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east. They shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Eternal. But they shall not find it. Why won't they find it? It's not because it's not available. It is available. Scowmell is going out of the way, airways, is going out in many publications, and people are receiving. So it's not because it's not available. It's because they are searching in the wrong direction, which this verse actually indicates, if you look at it carefully.

Notice the one direction that's missing from verse 12. First it says, they shall wander from sea to sea. Now if you look at where Judea, where Amos was prophesying from, Judea, and there were two seas there that was between, it was between the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. So it says they were searching from sea to sea, or from the Dead Sea to Mediterranean Sea, which would be from east to west. What was the next line say? It says, and from north to east.

Isn't that something kind of strange? They were searching from east to west and from north to east. Now what would you expect it to say? They were searching from east to west and from north to south. But it doesn't say that. North to east. Doesn't that seem a little strange? Because we naturally expect them to say from north to south. But it says, it says from sea to sea, or from east to west and from north to east.

The only direction they don't go here is south. Why not? How does not going south tie in to a famine of hearing? If you want to look at this spiritually, I'll put on your spiritual thinking hats now. What was to the south of Israel? Because it's a prophecy concerning Israel. Israel is north of Judea. It was north of where Amos was prophesied from. Almost to the south of where Amos was prophesied from. To the south of the city of Jerusalem and the temple of God. The one direction they didn't go was towards the temple of God.

Thus they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it. Why? Because they couldn't go in the right direction. They wouldn't go to the only place where the word of God could be found, to the temple of God. Who are the temple of God today? We are. We are the temple of God. And we have the words of truth. Whoever God's people are, whoever God's churches are, whatever organizations are part of the true church of God today, spiritual people of God today.

We are the ones that have those words that can cause people to change the direction of their life. But they're not going there. They're not going towards the direction of the temple of God. But we have the true words of God, we have the answers and solutions to the problems that many face today. And many are looking for answers, but they're looking in the wrong directions. And they're unwilling to go where the actual they needed to, to where the temple was.

And we're looking at that spiritual temple of God, the church of God who has the answers. Why? Because we now have a famine of hearing. Now, you think about that. A normal famine, a famine of bread or thirst for water, is readily recognized when it's widespread. They've had that kind of a famine in California for some time now.

It focuses on the news, gets a lot of attention. Other places in the world there's famines and it'll get attention. And it becomes a tragedy that even makes the news. But not so when it comes to a famine of hearing. That is not recognized as being a tragedy. But it is a great tragedy. Because without heating and acting on the Word of God, without divine instruction from God, and acting on that instruction, our nation will only stagger towards its demise. Again, Amos 8, 11, Behold these are coming, says the Lord God, I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread or a thirst for water that's easily recognizable, but of hearing the words of the Lord.

See, a famine of hearing is not because the words of God are not being heard physically or available, but that they are not being heated. Because the vast majority who hear those words do not allow those words to penetrate into their hearts and minds in a way that would convict them and cause them to repent and change.

We don't have a famine of the Word of God, we have a famine of hearing the Word of God, a famine of really hearing and heating the Word of God today.

Why? More people are instead focused on materialism, they're focused on choosing what's right or wrong for themselves, they don't want other people telling them what's right or what's wrong, they won't have to face the consequences of that, they want to deal with that.

They prefer situation ethics, and I'm not having to be held accountable.

And that's a big part of the reason as to why we now have a famine of hearing, as indicated here in Amos 8-11.

So, Amos 8-11 is a prophecy in the Book of Amos that directly applies to all of us today, and I say all of us, I mean all the people of America, and Great Britain as well.

Let's go to another question. How did this prophecy apply to ancient Israel, and how does it apply to Israel today?

First, how did ancient Israel become great?

How did it become a great nation? Let's go back to Genesis 12.

Just to review this briefly, Genesis 12, verse 1. Now the Lord has said to Abram, Get out of your country from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you, and I will make you a great nation, I will make your nation, your descendants, great. I will bless you and make your name great, and you should be a blessing, and I will bless you who bless you, I will curse him who curses you, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Of course, as we know, the ancient Israelites were descendants of Abraham, and they became a great nation because of God's promise to Abraham here.

And to prove this was a promise that would not be performed by their own doing, God purposely closed Sarah's womb, as you know, so she couldn't bear any children.

Genesis 15, begin in verse 1.

After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram, and a vision, saying, Do not be afraid, Abram, for I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.

But Abram said, Lord God, what will you give me? Seeing I go childless, and the air of my house is Eleazar of Damascus.

Then Abram said, Look, you have given me no offspring. Indeed, one of my own house is my air.

And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.

And then God took a bomb outside in the evening and had him look up into the heavens, and he said, Look now toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to number them.

And he said, So shall your descendants be, that if they become so numerous, you will not be able to number them.

And it says in verse 6, He believed the Lord, Abraham believed God, and he counted to him for righteousness.

That's an amazingly encouraging scripture.

It says that if we live by faith, as Abraham learned to live by faith, and we continue to believe in God's promises, God will account this to us for righteousness, even though we have him by ourselves have no righteousness.

But if we have absolute faith to hang on, cling to God's promises through our entire life, He will count that to us as righteousness. Very encouraging.

Of course, eventually, God did keep His promises to Abraham, even after Sarah was well past childbearing age, to show Abraham and Sarah, and all of us that this was totally God's doing to make Israel great.

And when Sarah was about 100 years old, she gave birth to Isaac, who gave birth to Jacob, and gave birth to Joseph, who just then became the nation of ancient Israel.

But after the death of King Solomon, the northern ten tribes of Israel were bailed, and the kingdom of Israel became divided into two kingdoms, Israel to the north and Judah to the south.

Now Amos was one of the very earliest of the prophets, warning the nation ten tribes of Israel as to whether they were headed thirty years before they fell to Assyria.

But as Amos himself reveals to Israel from God, Israel refused to heed Amos's warning, because they brought on themselves a famine of hearing.

Does the book of Genesis foretell anything about modern-day Israel?

Does it foretell how the United States of America became a great nation?

How did we become great?

How did modern-day Israel become great? Genesis 49, verse 1, this is Jacob's now toward the end of his life.

He knows he doesn't have too much longer to live.

So Jacob called his sons and said, Gather together that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days.

And this is now a prophetic of the last days, the days leading up to the return of Christ.

He said, Gather together and hear, you sons of Jacob, and listen to Israel your father, because Jacob's name was changed to Israel.

So this now then becomes prophetic of the various descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, how they would fare in the last days leading up to the return of Christ.

And the primary descendants being those of Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which it talks about in chapter 48 of Genesis, who in the last days became the nations of Great Britain and the United States of America.

And here's how they became great nations, Genesis 49, verse 22.

Joseph is a fruitful ball, a fruitful ball by a well.

The branches run over the wall, the archers have bitterly grieved him and shot at him and hated him, but his bow remained in strength, and the army of his hands were made strong.

You know, they were. As allies in World War I and II, Great Britain and the United States were victorious.

Their hands were made strong to be victorious in World Wars I and II.

Why did we prevail, and by whose hands made us strong to prevail at that time?

Verse 24, but his bow remained in strength, and his arms of his hands were made strong. How?

By the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. God made our nation great, and were made great by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.

Verse 25, by the God of your Father who will help you, by the Almighty who will bless you, by the blessings of heaven above, by the blessings of the deep that lies beneath, by the blessings of the breast and the womb, by the blessings of your Father who have excelled, by the blessings of my ancestors, by the blessings of the utmost bound of the everlasting hills.

They shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers.

But now, what do we see?

We see our nation turning away from God, and away from our former values.

You know, I read something astounding just this past week in regards to Great Britain.

In Great Britain right now, you have more people worshipping in mosques than you do in Christian churches.

That's what Britain is on, is that right now?

As God warned in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28, if we turn against God, all of our blessings and greatness are going to be removed.

And we see that happening. That's beginning to happen.

See, to make America great again, we as a nation would have to return to God, and to our Christian roots, because only God can make America great again.

And, you know, in the future, when all is said and done, God is going to do it. He's going to make His people Israel. His descendants great again.

That's what God is doing.

I want to look at one other thing here. What about spiritual Israel?

What about the spiritual descendants of Israel?

What about God's church?

How might Amos 8-11 apply to spiritual Israel?

Could there be a famine of hearing involving the people of God?

You know, you look around us and you see what's happening, what's happened over the last few decades, and especially what's happening now.

I mean, most of us would have no doubt that we are living in the end times.

It certainly seems that way.

But we don't know how much longer things will go on. We just don't know.

Before, the people of God will be consoled to buy from Christ gold, refined in the fire, as you can read in Revelation.

To be refined in the Great Tribulation, we don't know how much longer that will be.

Maybe this election is going to give people more time to maybe see things and turn to God and be called. I don't know.

But before America can become great again, God Himself is going to have to refine some of the people of God.

They're going to have to be refined.

Book of Revelation deals with the coming day of the Lord.

With the time leading up to God's direct intervention into mankind's affairs and to Christ's return.

Let's go to Revelation for a final section of Scripture that you want to look at today.

Let's go to Revelation. Let's begin in Revelation 1, verse 1.

The revelation of Jesus Christ was God gave to Him to show His servants things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified by His angel or His messenger to His servant John, who bore witness to the Word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ and to all things that He saw.

Verse 3. Blessed is He who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy.

So this revelation involves hearing.

Blessed are those who hear the words of this prophecy.

And what kind of hearing is this?

And what kind of hearing is this?

And keep those things that are written in it.

Keep those things that they hear, for the time is near.

Blessed are those who keep those things which are written.

This hearing involves an active response.

It involves acting on and keeping what is heard.

In the end, what is written is that the hearing involves the hearing Schneider's Word.

It involves the hearing of the hearing. It involves acting on and keeping what is heard.

Now, why is that so important in the context of the time of this revelation of Jesus Christ and the time this is referring to?

It's extremely important because, as it says in the latter part of verse 3, because the time is near.

Let's go to verse 10.

I was the Spirit on the Lord's Day. I think from all of us we probably understand that.

It's talking about the Day of the Lord.

As echoed from the book of Joel, it really should be said, I was in the Spirit on the Day of the Lord.

John here is projected into that timeframe when the Day of the Lord is going to occur, when God is going to intervene in affairs of mankind, which is what the Day of the Lord is all about.

So John here sees a vision which prophetically projects him into the coming Day of the Lord, in the time when God will directly intervene in mankind's affairs.

I was in the Spirit on the Day of the Lord, as it should be, and I heard behind me loud voices of a trumpet saying, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last.

And what you see right in the book, and sent it to seven churches which are in Asia, to Evasas, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Taliah to see it.

And then Revelation 2 and 3, it records God's messages to these seven churches, or to the seven church era, as it could prophetically be interpreted and applied.

Let's go to Revelation 3, verse 7. And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia, right, Philadelphia means brotherly love.

And that is one of the main things we have struggled to exemplify, to have brotherly love for all people, not just among ourselves, but for all people, for the people of the world.

Even as Christ gave his life for the world, and the people of the world. We should love all people.

That's the kind of brotherly love God wants for all people.

I think we've all struggled in that area as a church, but I think we've also grown in that area over the past number of years.

I think we probably still have room for improvement.

But as I indicated in verse 8, we have all gained a little strength in that area.

And we have persevered through many trials and uncertainties and setbacks and losses.

Revelation 3, verse 10, Because you have kept my commandment to persevere, because you've held in there, you held fast, you've gone through many trials and tribulations, you've had losses, you had things you never expected to happen, but they've happened, but you've stayed with faith in God, and you've prevailed, you're still there.

Because you have kept my commandment to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial, which you'll come upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth.

Behold, I'm coming quickly. Hold fast what you have. Don't let any man take your crown. Don't give up now. Don't let go of that truth that's so precious to you.

Because he who comes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out no more, and I will write on his name the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, and I will write on him my new name.

A great reward awaits those who learn brotherly love and who persevere to the end.

Then we come to what may seem as being the final air of God's end-time church, Revelation 3, verse 14, and to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans, write.

The word Laodicea is derived from two Greek words, one meaning people, Laos, and the other meaning justice.

Justice in the sense of executing justice or executing a just decision or a just judgment.

So Laodicea means justice people or people who receive a just judgment or decision for a positive reason, for hopefully a positive outcome, though.

But what is God's just decision regarding these end-time people of God, whoever they might be?

Verse 15, I know your works that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot.

So then because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will, as it says here, vomit or spew you out of my mouth.

I'll make a just decision on how you can become hot, because that's what God wants.

In what way, I should say, were they lukewarm?

Well, if you look at the context and think about it, they were lukewarm spiritually.

They were lukewarm in their spiritual relationship with God, and they were lukewarm in their conversion.

Why were they lukewarm? Verse 20, Behold, I stand at the door and knock, and if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and die with him, and he with me.

The insinuation here is that Christ is right there close by, knocking on the door.

Trying to get the right response.

And he's knocking on the door to their hearts. That's what he wants. He wants our hearts.

God wants us to open our hearts to him. He wants to open our deepest feelings, struggles.

He wants into our hearts, and he wants to come in and dine with us, so his heart can become our heart.

But the insinuation here is that some of the end-time people of God don't have ears to hear.

That they have a family of hearing.

Because the insinuation is that they don't respond to let him in.

What just judgment or just decision is then rendered because of that? Verse 17, Because you say, I am rich and have become wealthy and I have need of nothing.

Because you say, I'm spiritually good. I'm okay.

And you realize maybe there's something missing.

But you do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked.

You have some deficiency spiritually you don't realize.

So then what does result?

What then is God's counsel to those people who have a family of hearing because they don't act on what they hear?

Verse 18, I counsel then you to buy for me gold refined in the fire.

You may be rich spiritually and you have my white garments.

You might have the very righteous of Jesus Christ in you.

And that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed.

And note your eyes with eye-sail that you can see spiritually and understand from God's perspective.

And then Christ gives these very encouraging words, saying in essence, it's not too late to change.

Verse 21, To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with me on my throne, as I also overcame and sit down with my father on his throne.

He was an ear to hear.

He does not have a famine of hearing.

Let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

In conclusion, then, that is why ancient Israel became a great nation and why it lost its greatness.

It's also why modern-day Israel, why the United States of America became a great nation and why we are now losing that greatness.

It's also why God's church became great and why we have now lost much of that greatness.

It's all because there has been a famine of hearing, of hearing in a way that would result in true repentance and change.

So it's prophesied in Amos 8, 11, Behold, the days are coming that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.

I think we are now living in that time, in the time when there is a famine of hearing.