This Sunday, Brother George preached from Amos 8:4–12 with a sobering reminder of just how great a privilege it is that God has spoken.
We live in a time of extraordinary access to Scripture. Many of us own several Bibles. We have Bible apps, study tools, commentaries, sermons, Sunday School classes, and Bible studies. We can hear the Word of God almost anywhere and at almost any time.
But abundance can carry its own danger: something extraordinarily precious can begin to feel ordinary.
That was part of the tragedy in Amos’s day. Israel had heard from God. They had His law. God had sent His prophets to warn them, correct them, and call them back to Himself. Yet they repeatedly refused to listen.
Hearing God’s Word Without Heeding It
In Amos 8:4–6, God confronts people who were outwardly religious but whose lives revealed hearts that were far from Him.
They observed the New Moon and the Sabbath, but while worshiping they were already thinking about when they could get back to business. They cheated their customers, exploited the poor, manipulated their measurements, and sold inferior grain.
They were physically present for worship, but they were not submitting to the God they claimed to worship.
Brother George reminded us that this raises an important question:
What does it really mean to love the Word of God?
It is possible to believe the Bible is inspired and inerrant, own several Bibles, attend Bible studies, listen to good preaching, and know sound doctrine—and still resist Scripture when it confronts something we do not want to surrender.
The real test does not come when Scripture tells us something we already agree with.
It comes when the Word confronts our pride, our money, our relationships, our priorities, our unwillingness to forgive, our secret sin, or something else we desperately want to hold onto.
Do I still love the Word when the Word disagrees with me?
We can treasure the doctrine of Scripture while resisting the authority of Scripture in our lives. And we can possess the Word in abundance while slowly taking the privilege of hearing from God for granted.
When People Reject God’s Word
Israel’s rejection eventually became explicit.
In Amos 2, God reminds them:
“You…commanded the prophets not to prophesy.”
—Amos 2:12
Then in Amos 7, Amaziah tells Amos:
“Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel.”
They were essentially saying, “Take God’s Word somewhere else. We don’t want to hear it.”
Then comes the frightening reversal of Amos 8:
“The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign LORD, “when I will send a famine through the land—not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.”
—Amos 8:11
They repeatedly rejected the voice of God, and eventually God announced that they would seek the Word they had refused to hear—and they would not find it.
Brother George emphasized a sobering biblical truth:
We should never mistake God’s patience for God’s indifference.
God is extraordinarily patient. He warns. He corrects. He calls people to repentance. He sends His Word again and again.
But Scripture never tells us that we may presume upon that patience forever.
Romans 1 repeatedly tells us that God “gave them over.” Proverbs 1 describes those who continually refuse wisdom until eventually they seek it and cannot find it.
In effect:
“If that’s what you want, that’s what you’ll get.”
A Famine of Hearing God’s Word
God called the coming judgment a famine because a famine is the absence of something necessary for life.
Food is not a luxury. Water is not a luxury.
And neither is the Word of God.
Jesus said:
“Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
—Matthew 4:4
Amos pictures people staggering from sea to sea, wandering from north to east, desperately searching for a word from the LORD but unable to find it.
Before, God had sent His Word looking for them.
Now they were looking for a word from God.
Before, God sent prophets.
Now they wandered trying to find one.
Before, God spoke and they would not listen.
Now they wanted to listen—and there was no word to hear.
Historically, Amos was speaking to the northern kingdom of Israel, and judgment through Assyria was approaching. This does not mean God ceased speaking everywhere or that His redemptive purposes ended. But the people who had repeatedly rejected the privilege of hearing His prophetic Word were about to experience the terrible loss of that privilege.
And while that judgment was specifically pronounced upon Israel, the principle should sober us.
Churches can still own Bibles while abandoning biblical preaching.
A preacher can read a verse and then spend the rest of the sermon saying very little about what God actually said.
A denomination can claim to believe the Bible while gradually explaining away everything that conflicts with the surrounding culture.
The Bible can remain in the building while the Word of God effectively disappears from the pulpit.
And there is another danger.
The Bible may still be in our hands while our hearts become dull to what it says.
Hebrews warns of becoming “dull of hearing.” That is why we should never take for granted the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit—the One who opens our hearts and minds to understand and receive God’s truth.
Psalm 119:18 gives us the prayer:
“Open my eyes so that I may contemplate wondrous things from your instruction.”
The Word was already there.
But the psalmist still prayed:
“God, open my eyes.”
What a tragedy it would be to know the words but no longer tremble before them—to become knowledgeable about Scripture while becoming increasingly resistant to Scripture.
Treasure the Voice of God While He Speaks
Hebrews 3:15 says:
“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”
Notice that first word:
Today.
Scripture never encourages us to presume upon tomorrow’s opportunities to respond to today’s truth.
When God speaks, listen.
When God convicts, respond.
When God exposes sin, repent.
When God commands, obey.
When God promises, believe.
When God comforts, rest in Him.
Brother George also reminded us that many in our church genuinely do love God’s Word. We read our Bibles. We gather for Bible study. We desire faithful preaching.
The challenge is not merely, “Do you own a Bible?” or even, “Do you love the Bible in general?”
The deeper question is:
Am I willing to hear whatever God says?
Even when He corrects me?
Even when He contradicts me?
Even when He calls me to repent?
Even when obedience costs me something?
The Word of God that corrects us is itself an expression of the mercy of God.
If His Word exposes sin, we should thank Him.
If His Word says something in our lives must change, we should not silence it.
If His Word contradicts something we desperately want to believe, we must not change the Word.
We must let the Word change us.
Because there are worse things than being corrected by God.
One of them is no longer hearing the correction at all.
God Has Spoken Most Fully in His Son
Ultimately, the wonder is not merely that God has given us a book.
The wonder is that God has revealed Himself.
Hebrews 1:1–2 says:
“In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.”
God has spoken.
And ultimately, He did not merely send another prophet.
He sent His Son.
Jesus Christ is “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of his nature.”
And in Christ, God has spoken clearly about our greatest need.
The cross tells us that our sin is worse than we imagined—so serious that nothing less than the death of the Son of God could atone for it.
But the cross also tells us that God’s grace is greater than we imagined.
Christ came for sinners.
He lived the righteous life we have failed to live.
He bore the judgment His people deserved.
He died.
He was buried.
He rose again.
And God now calls sinners everywhere to repent and believe in Him.
We do not have to wander from sea to sea looking for some hidden word from God.
Open the Book. God has spoken.
He has told us who He is.
He has told us who we are.
He has told us what has gone wrong.
He has told us what He requires.
And most wonderfully, He has told us what He has done about our sin in Jesus Christ.
God still leads and prompts His people by His Spirit, but we are not waiting for new prophets to give us additional revelation. The canon of Scripture is complete, and anything we believe God may be leading us to do must be tested by—and can never contradict—the written Word He has already given.
Brother George closed with one final picture.
The people in Amos were facing a famine.
But we are not starving. We are feasting.
Like the prodigal son who went from longing for the pigs’ food to eating at his father’s table, we have been given an extraordinary abundance.
Church, we’re sitting at the table.
May we never have to experience the famine to appreciate the feast.
May we never merely possess the Word without hearing it.
May we never merely hear the Word without obeying it.
And may we never become so familiar with God’s voice that we stop marveling that the God of heaven speaks to us at all.
So the challenge from this week’s message is simple, but searching:
Treasure His Word. Hear His Word. Believe His Word. Submit to His Word. Obey His Word.
And may our prayer continually be:
“Open my eyes so that I may contemplate wondrous things from your instruction.”
Because today, God has spoken.
Today, we have His Word.
Today, we have the gospel.
Today, Christ is proclaimed.
“Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.”
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