Famine In The Land

AMOS 8:11 Famine in the Land 3/10/08

I’m sure that most of us would have to agree that for the most part we here in the U.S. certainly have been blest as for as our material needs are concerned, but I believe that without a doubt our country is swiftly headed in the direction of a spiritual famine because of the slackness of preaching and teaching of the true Word of God.

There are many churches across our land that have come up short of teaching and preaching the entire council of the Word of God, there’s all kind of perversions of the Bible being used across our land today and God is not pleased.

A large number of the so-called Christians only have a form of godliness but know little of true godliness.

Listen as I read today’s text found in Amos 8:11-12 11Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:

Paul said to timothy in 2nd tim. 4:1-4 1I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; 2Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. 3For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts* shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables

listen dear heart the preachers personal feelings are not the grounds for reproof: bible doctrine alone is the ground for reproof.

The time will come and most believe it is here today. Itching ears will be “tickled” by preachers who do not preach the Bible. Many pastors bow to the wishes of ungodly congregations who only want to hear what pleases them.

Someone has said, some people go to church to close their eyes and others to eye the clothes! In other words, many don’t go to church to hear sound doctrine!

They don’t want to hear the Word of God; they want a substitute.

They don’t want to hear that their sinners, they don’t want to hear that lost sinners are going to hell, they want to hear about how good all man kind is, they want to hear soft things to do with love, love, love, not how wretched man kind is and must be saved.

Like in the days when God said to the Profit Isaiah in

Isaiah 30:9-14 9That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD: 10Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:

11Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.

12Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon: 13Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, -

Many will go to see & hear religious entertainment from Christian performers who will tickle their ears.

The man of God who simply opens the Bible is rejected while the shallow religious entertainer becomes a celebrity.

And itching ears soon will become deaf ears as people turn away from the truth and believe man-made fables.

1st pet. 4: 11If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, --

listen as I read our text once again found in Amos 8:11-12 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD: 12And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.

There are many scriptures in the Bible that speak of famines and droughts, but this particular scripture is speaking of a famine of the Word of God. This particular scripture is speaking of an absence of God’s Word; An absence, a shortage…a time of hunger and thirsting for the Word of God…running from sea to sea, from north to east, and to and fro, seeking and searching for the Word and not finding it.

In this chapter of Amos, God is pronouncing judgment on Israel. God showed Amos a basket of ripe fruit and He told Amos it was representative of the people of Israel, because they were ripe, or ready for punishment. God was tired OF THE WAY His people were doing; the merchants were keeping religious festivals, but not in the spirit of worship.