The Untameable God Roars

Father, we come before your word.

Father, your word talks of people that we don't really know,

of countries that we no longer know.

Father, we know that it was written almost 3,000 years ago,

and it can be hard for us to enter into it.

And Father, for some of us who are just familiar with certain parts of the New Testament,

this part of the Bible sounds very strange and odd to us.

We ask, Father, that you would gently but deeply pour out your Holy Spirit upon us

and humble and quieten our hearts so that we might hear your word,

that your word might enter deep within who we are

and there bear much fruit in our daily lives to your great glory

and the furtherance of your kingdom.

And this we ask in Jesus' name, your Son and our Savior. Amen.

Please be seated.

When I first, sorry, I felt that God was calling us to look at the book of Amos

during the summer every year at Church of the Messiah.

We like to take at least some of the teaching from the Old Testament.

It's really helpful, I think, for Christians to have the pastor

or other speakers go through an Old Testament book

to help us to try to read things which are very strange.

And I don't know how many of you are aware of this,

but there's part of the book of Amos,

not the part that we're going to look at particularly today,

but from a literary point of view,

actually sort of in some ways the turning point

or the key foundational text of the whole book of Amos

played a very important role in the history of the United States of America.

Andrew's going to be getting things set up on the screen right now as I speak

because in a moment I'm going to show you a film clip.

Those of you who are used to HD, this was something filmed in 1963,

and Martin Luther King was part of a leadership team

that called for a march on Washington in 1963

to address the persistent racism and segregation of the United States of America.

And at the end of that famous march on Washington,

he gave his famous I Have a Dream speech.

And at the very center of the I Have a Dream speech

is a quote from the book of Amos,

which is part of the theological center of the book,

and it gives us, in fact, the name for our sermon series.

So we can't play the whole clip.

We're going to play a little bit of the clip,

which quotes from Amos.

So off you go, Andrew.

We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights,

when will you be satisfied?

We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim

of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.

We can never be satisfied.

As long as our body is heavy with the fatigue of travel,

cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.

We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one.

We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood

and robbed of their dignity by signs stating for whites only.

We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro in Mississippi cannot vote,

and the Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.

No, no, we are not satisfied,

and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters

and righteousness like a mighty stream.

Let justice roll down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.

We're not going to look at that text today.

I think it's going to be Daniel in a couple of weeks who's going to exposit that,

but it's at the center of the book

and the center of the theological understanding of the book of Amos.

It's really interesting that in 1963,

when there was still no integration in many parts of the United States,

still segregation,

that in this historic speech in Washington underneath the Lincoln Memorial,

they had the Lincoln Memorial just behind them,

that in calling people to address these evils

and in a sense to have the moral weight and moral certainty

and moral courage to address these evils.

He goes to the book of Amos.

And so, you know, when Nora was reading the book of Amos,

it might have sounded,

where on earth is George going to go with a text like this?

But to understand that this book has this moral weight

that inspired this profound movement of nonviolence in the United States

to try to start to address some historic evils

that have been going on for hundreds of years.

Well, let's look and see if we can have a bit of a glimpse

of this moral weight and moral authority

that can lead to such changes and such courage.

So if you would just read with me, let's look how it begins.

It's Amos.

It's a hard book to find.

It's a short little prophet book towards the end of the Old Testament,

just before the New Testament.

And here's how it begins.

Verse 1.

The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa,

which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah,

in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel,

two years before the earthquake.

And over the next few weeks,

we'll talk a little bit about the distinction of Judah and Israel.

I'm not going to say anything about it right now,

or very little about it right now.

Just to let you know that one of the things which is really curious about this text,

I'm not going to say anything about it other than point it out to you.

He sees the words.

I mean, the words are spoken, but he sees them.

Isn't that an odd thing?

I don't know what it means, but I thought I should show you.

Look at that.

The words of Amos, which he saw.

I think that's just cool.

I don't know what else it means.

It's just cool.

And Amos prophesied, when he mentions the two kings,

they were both two kings who had a very, very, very, very long rule.

Sort of imagine Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth of the North and Queen Elizabeth of the South

with a little bit of an overlap between the two of them.

And so he wrote somewhere between the time 793 B.C.,

in other words, 793 years before the birth of Christ,

and 739 B.C.

And one other thing for you to note just before we go on.

Amos is going to be pronouncing these oracles,

and an oracle is as if God speaks, but he uses someone's mouth.

So it would be as if God used Daniel here to speak an oracle,

it would be God speaking, but he uses Daniel's mouth, Daniel to speak it.

And there's a series of eight oracles, which make up chapter 1 and chapter 2.

Six of them are about the pagan nations outside of Israel,

and two of them are about the northern and southern kingdom of Israel.

And I'm going to look at the six oracles to the pagan nations.

And so Amos tells us that he's saying these things sometime between 793

and sometime between that and 739.

Let's just say for sake of arguments around 750.

One thing for you to remember is in 722,

Israel ceased to exist as a nation.

That sometime in the 720s, in other words,

sometime maybe a decade after Amos prophesied,

the Assyrian empire entered into this area.

All of the nations that are mentioned are completely and utterly defeated militarily,

some of them never to recover,

and some to recover but in a very weakened state.

And the nation of Israel itself is defeated by Assyria.

The ten tribes that are resident there are carried into exile,

and they are lost from history.

They disappear.

So depending on how you date it,

somewhere between 15 and 50 years after Amos speaks these words,

the nations will all fall that he mentions.

So let's read verses 2 to 5.

And he said,

The Lord roars from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem.

The pastures of the shepherds mourn,

and the top of Carmel withers.

Thus says the Lord,

For three transgressions of Damascus and for four,

I will not revoke the punishment.

Because they have threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron,

so I will send fire upon the house of Hazael,

and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-Hadad.

I will break the gate bar of Damascus

and cut off the inhabitants from the valley of Avon,

and him who holds the scepter from Beth Eden

and the people of Syria shall go into exile to Kir,

says the Lord.

And just sort of pause here for a second.

And I'm going to spend a little bit of time

just in this first five verses,

or the first couple of verses,

because as you'll see, there's a rhythm throughout all of the six,

in fact, all of the eight oracles,

two of which Daniel will look at with you next Sunday.

But there's this rhythm for three, for four.

I will send fire.

I will devour.

Thus says the Lord.

There's this rhythm.

So let's just sort of begin with this.

And here's the first point,

if you could put it up,

that would be very helpful.

The true, real, living, untamed, nation-judging God roars.

This is the introduction to the whole book.

The whole book.

What's one of the things that can help Martin Luther King stare down

the police in places like Alabama and Mississippi

is he's gripped with the notion

that there is a God who exists

who is bigger than the United States of America.

He is untamed by human institutions.

He is true.

He is real.

He is living.

He is untamed.

He judges every nation,

every human institution,

every social structure.

And this God roars.

At this time, for a lot of Canadians,

the glow of Martin Luther King's speech starts to fade.

Just this past week, as I'm working on the book of Amos,

I overheard that God sent two pairs of people

to sit right beside me to talk.

And in both cases,

in one case it was two men,

and in another case it was two women.

And one person was giving advice to the other.

And their conversation was very Canadian

and very spiritual, not religious.

And I'm not saying this to mock.

I'm just saying it to describe.

And obviously that one person was in some type of trouble

and the other person was giving them advice

that they had to become more spiritual.

They had to know that they had to walk on their own spiritual path.

And that spiritual path meant leaving these other people behind.

And they had to stop being concerned about these other people

because they had to get in touch with their own spiritual nature.

They had to get in touch with their own spiritual power

and their own spiritual value

and walk their own spiritual path.

Even if that means leaving all these other people behind

and just completely ignoring the complaints that they have about them,

they needed to get in touch with their spiritual center,

their spiritual power,

their spiritual path.

And it's very Canadian.

And we breathe that Canadian spiritual cultural air.

We breathe it every day.

We breathe it when we watch TV and we watch Netflix.

We breathe it probably even when sports commentators comment.

We breathe it in the newspapers.

We breathe it when we hear about the decisions of governments.

We breathe it when we go to school.

We breathe it when we go to work in the bureaucracy

and even in many businesses and companies.

It is the spiritual air.

It is the cultural air that we breathe

that people are to get in touch with their spiritual nature,

their spiritual path,

to walk their spiritual path,

to touch their spiritual values.

And it's a very, very comforting type of thing.

And here in a country which that is very common,

if you said that at a particular party,

I mean, some people might be bored.

Some people might roll their eyes,

but nobody would insult you probably.

Maybe Christopher Hitchens,

if he was still alive in there,

he would insult you.

But apart from odd atheists like him,

it would just come with knowing nods.

And then here you come,

what, a kilometer from Parliament Hill,

half a kilometer from the entertainment and bar center

of the city of Ottawa,

half a kilometer from the University of Ottawa.

And we read a text,

and at the heart of that text

is this profound theological claim

that there is a true God.

There is a real God.

There is a God who actually is alive.

And he is completely and utterly untamed

and untameable.

He can never, ever be domesticated

by any human being,

by any institution,

by any nation.

He is completely impossible

to domesticate or tame.

And he's real,

and he's live,

and he's true,

and he judges,

even nations,

even the Supreme Court of Canada,

even the Parliament,

the Senate,

the Premier,

the Mayor,

Apple,

Google,

GM,

he judges.

and he roars.

And it is very un-Canadian.

Let me tell you one other thing about this.

I'm not going to argue for it, by the way.

I'm just going to give you a bit of an analogy about it.

And I'm going to say,

at the end of the day,

I mean, for many Canadians,

they would just say,

well, that's one of the reasons

I don't read the Bible.

Thank you very much,

and off you go.

But,

I mean,

the argument for why this is true

is partially the fact that

the prophecies are fulfilled.

At the end of the day,

I would have to talk about

the overall narrative of the Bible,

the wisdom,

and the insight of the Bible.

I would maybe have to talk a little bit

about why it is

that the type of spiritual,

not religious talk

that I overheard in Starbucks

could not lead you

to stare down troopers

in Alabama and Mississippi

and change

systemic,

century-old evil.

It has no power

to do that.

Never has

and never will.

At the end of the day,

I'd have to talk about

arguments for God

and finally,

ultimately,

the fact of Jesus

and his death

and resurrection.

But let me tell you this.

Before I was married

to Louise,

I imagined

what my perfect girlfriend

and wife would be like.

and my imaginary

perfect girlfriend

never told me

that I was doing something wrong,

never commented

negatively

about how I was dressed,

how I cut my hair,

how I spent my time,

how I should spend my time,

how I should speak to her.

My imaginary ideal girlfriend

and wife

never talked like that.

And then I met Louise.

And let me tell you,

her account of the distance

between whatever her imaginary

husband and me,

that would be vastly different.

I have way more to repent of

than she does.

But don't you think

that much of the spiritual,

not religious,

contemporary talk

about religion,

spirituality in Canada

is exactly like

imaginary girlfriends

and boyfriends.

Real people

are annoyingly angular

until you learn

to love them

and you have to love them

in their angularity.

In fact,

what I'm going to suggest

is the God

who's described in the Bible

is vastly more likely

to be real

than the way we talk

about spirituality

and religion in Canada

and is well worth

our considered opinion.

Especially after a clip

like that

and Martin Luther King.

I believe the Bible is true.

And I believe that

the God who really does exist,

who's revealed

in the words of Scripture

and is ultimately revealed

most perfectly in Jesus

and his death upon the cross

and mighty resurrection,

that he is the real

and true God.

The true,

real,

living,

untamed,

nation,

judging God

that roars.

And I've had several people

over this week

tell me that they've tried

to study the book of Amos

and it just seems

to be the same week in

and week out

and so they never finished it.

And it might very well be

that we will come

to the conclusion

that the book of Amos

keeps banging

the same note

like a drum.

But I want to suggest

to you

that contemporary Canadians

need to spend

ten weeks

meditating upon the fact

that the God

that really does exist

is true

and living

and real

and untamed

and nation-judging.

And that if all we do

is hear that

for ten consecutive weeks

it is probably

very important

for our souls.

And probably

very important

for our nation.

And if you get

nothing else out of it,

if that's all you get

and you are confronted

to meditate upon that,

then God has done

a mighty thing

in our midst.

Now I want to tell,

I don't know if there's

any people

who are here today

who are not a follower

of Jesus

and maybe have been

dragged here

because of a family member

or maybe you're here

because you're on a search.

I want to tell you

a secret about Christians

in Canada.

I want to tell you

a secret

about most of

your Christian friends.

most of your Christian

friends suffer

under the belief

that God is small

and people are big.

God is small

and their boss is big.

God is small

and their money is big.

God is small

and the Supreme Court

of Canada is big.

God is small

and Hollywood is big.

And most of your

Christian friends

suffer

from that basic belief.

And the book of Amos here

is going to challenge that.

Listen to it again.

The Lord roars from Zion

and utters his voice

from Jerusalem.

The pastures

of the shepherds

mourn

and the top

of Carmel withers.

This is an image

of the,

it's an image

of north to south

and it's an image,

it's as if I in Canada

said from the hunters

in the high Arctic

to the penthouses

on Bay Street.

from the street people

in Victoria

to the richest people

in Bridal Path

area of Toronto.

And he uses an image

of high to low as well.

He uses the image

of from the river valleys

to the highest places

on the highest tree line

in the mountains.

The Lord roars from Zion

and utters his voice

from Jerusalem.

The pastures

of the shepherds

mourn

and the top

of Carmel withers.

Thus says the Lord

for three transgressions

of Damascus

and for four

I will not revoke

the punishment

because they have

threshed Gilead

with threshing

sledges of iron.

So I will send,

I will send fire

upon the house

of Hazael

and it shall devour

the strongholds

of Ben-Hadad.

I will break

the gate bar

of Damascus

and cut off

the inhabitants

from the valley

of Avon

and him

who holds

the scepter

sign of ruling

from Beth Eden

and the people

of Syria

shall go into exile

to Kir

says the Lord.

Here's the next point.

If you could put it up,

Andrew,

that would be great.

The Lord roars.

I live as if Canada

and its institutions

are big

and God is small.

Pray for me.

Pray for each other.

It is a persistent,

pervasive illness

for North American Christians.

Our God is too small

and people and problems

are too big.

We live as if

the only option before us

is to tower ourselves

or to cower under others.

And once we are gripped

with the idea

that the living,

true,

real,

untamed nation

judging God roars,

we can begin

to understand

that there is

a completely different option

and that is

to be the servant

of the Most High King.

Do you put up

the next point?

Really,

in some ways,

the whole part

of the sermon

is to try to bring us

to these first two points

and prayers

that are going to

follow from them.

But we need to go

through the text

because there's really

something very important

in here.

Dear Lord,

please make me

a disciple of Jesus,

gripped by the gospel,

growing in a humble,

trusting,

knowing that you are big

and everything human

is small

or everything created

is small.

That is a prayer

for the rest of your life.

It's a prayer

to pray every day.

And if you don't have time

to write these down,

they're always on the webpage

within a day or two

if you want to write them down

and use them

in your prayer life.

But some people might say,

isn't this passage

offensive?

Here we have

a Jewish guy

from Judah,

southern kingdom,

and he's judging

other people groups

by Jewish standards.

Like,

what gives him

the right

to judge Edomites

as to how they should live?

What gives him

the right

to talk to Damascus?

They have their own values.

Like,

isn't this a multicultural world?

Shouldn't we value tolerance?

Aren't morals

just relative?

How dare...

Okay, George,

you sort of caught us up

with some of your rhetoric,

but how dare there be

a guy from Judah

imposing Jewish standards

on these six

surrounding pagan nations?

They have their own gods.

They have their own

metanarrative.

They have their own story.

And, George,

all the smartest

and brightest people

in Canada

know that morals

are relative,

that there's nothing

inherently absolute.

Like, George,

this is a deeply

offensive text

to Canada.

Well,

all I'd like to say is,

do you still want

to maintain that

when you see the sins

that Amos accuses

the six nations of?

Like,

let's look here again

at verse 3.

Thus says the Lord,

for three transgressions

of Damascus

and for four,

I will not revoke

the punishment.

Why?

Because they have

threshed Gilead

with threshing

sledges of iron.

It's an image

that they use

an iron device

to take an entire

people group

and go over them

and over them

and over them

and over them

until they are

completely,

utterly,

completely destroyed.

He's condemning

genocide.

You're fine with that?

In smug Canada?

You're fine with genocide?

You have nothing to say

about what goes on

about that?

Is genocide

just a figment

of the imagination,

a moral oddity

about some guy

from the southern

kingdom of Judah?

He condemns

the nation

for genocide.

Here's the third point.

Could you put it up,

Andrew, please?

The Lord roars.

There are some things

that human beings

cannot

not know.

Despite all of the

glib talk

of a certain form

of multiculturalism

and a glib talk

of a certain form

of tolerance

and the glib talk

of certain forms

of moral relativism,

the Bible here

is going to maintain

and all the way

through the book

of Amos

that there are

some truths,

some things

that human beings

cannot

not know.

There is never

a justification

for a complete

annihilation

of a people group.

One of the things

that people wonder

about is the Bible

on slavery.

Do you know

that the next

two condemnations

are about slavery?

In fact,

it's a condemnation

of slavery

in a remarkably

complete way.

It's not immediately

obvious in the English,

but if you look

at it very carefully,

it's even more obvious

in the Hebrew,

but even in the English,

if you look at it

very carefully,

you'll see

that the next thing

that is condemned

is two aspects

of the institution

of slavery

and is completely

and utterly condemned.

Is slavery all right?

Let's read it.

Verses 6 to 8.

For thus says the Lord

for three transgressions

of Gaza

and for four,

this is a condemnation

of the Philistine people.

For three transgressions

of Gaza

and for four,

I will not revoke

the punishment

because they carried

into exile

a whole people

to deliver them

up to Edom.

They were the ones

who went and captured

a whole people

for the purpose

of making them slaves

and took them

to the slave market

where they could be

sold.

This is condemned

by Amos

in a cult,

in a world

that viewed slavery

as normal.

The Bible condemns it

750 years

before the birth

of Jesus,

before Plato,

before Aristotle,

before Socrates.

So I will send

a fire upon

the walls of Gaza

and it shall devour

her strongholds.

I will cut off

the inhabitants

from Ashdod

and him who holds

the scepter

from Ashkelon.

I will turn my hand

against Ekron

and the remnant

of the Philistine

shall perish,

says the Lord God.

And then he captures

the next part.

Some people might say,

well, I'm just an ordinary

businessman.

I'm just trying

to make a living.

It's not my fault

that they come

and dump all these

slaves with me.

I'm just trying

to provide a market.

I'm just trying

to provide a service.

It's just business.

Business is neutral.

Excuse me.

Before we read

the next part,

could you put up

the next point,

Andrew?

The Lord roars.

There is a real

moral order

that despite being

imperfectly known,

forgotten,

twisted,

and repressed,

it is still present

enough for God

to judge us.

Listen to verses

9 and 10.

Thus says the Lord,

for three transgressions

of Tyre and for four,

I will not revoke

the punishment

because they delivered

up a whole people

to Edom

and did not remember

the covenant

of brotherhood.

So I will send

a fire upon

the wall of Tyre

and it shall devour

her strongholds.

And when you put

the parts together,

the Syrians

capture people

to make them slaves.

They don't know

how to sell them.

They sell them

through Edom.

Edom sells them

as slaves.

The Lord roars.

There is a real

moral order

that despite being

imperfectly known,

forgotten,

parts of it,

parts of it twisted,

parts of it repressed,

it is still present

enough for God

to judge us.

Imagine for a second

that they were able

to take a human being,

like in a test tube,

they were able

to develop something

like DNA

and they were able

to make a human being

in a machine

and, you know,

whatever it is,

a little while later

out pops this

fully functioning

human being.

But then you actually

spend time

with a human being

and you discover

that the human being

has no conscience

at all.

Like, by no conscience

I mean it's like a snake.

Snakes have no conscience,

it's just an animal.

When it's hungry,

it hunts and eats.

After it's eaten,

it stops.

If somebody threatens it,

it fights back,

otherwise it just sleeps.

Would we say,

even if it had

everything about us

as human beings,

it looked like

a human being

and everything like that

is completely

and it's real,

if you cut it,

it's not like a machine,

like it's real.

But would you say

that something

that looks like

a human being

manufactured out

of a test tube

that had no conscience

was human?

And if you think

about it for a second,

one of the problems

with the Turing test

about machines

having consciousness

is there's,

I believe,

no conscience aspect of it.

Can there be

a human mind

without conscience?

Would you call

a mind

without conscience

a human mind?

The Bible says

that having a conscience

is part of the image

of God in us.

And even though

our consciences

can be repressed

and parts of it repressed

and parts of it twisted

and parts of it

inflamed unnaturally

and parts of it

just all messed up,

that every human being,

this is the message

of Romans 1

and Romans 2,

that every human being

retains enough

of a conscience

that God in complete

and utter justice

can judge us.

In fact,

the horrible thing

on one hand

from the book

of Romans chapter 2

Romans 2 · chapter mention

is that Paul maintains

that even if

all God did

was take your moral order,

no matter how twisted

or whatever it is

and no matter

how much repressed,

the moral order

that you're conscious of

and that you use

in your own life,

and if he used that

to judge you,

you would fail

and he would be right

in judging you.

You know,

to our glib

Canadians

who are enticed

by spiritual,

not religious

and all things

being relative,

what about racism?

The hatred

of any people group,

not just racism,

but hating men

because they're men

or women

because they're women

or a particular

ethnic group

because they're ethnic.

Isn't that a human problem

and isn't it viewed

not just as ethnocentrism

but as something fundamental

that we should reject?

But Amos rejects it.

In fact,

I would suggest

that it's only ultimately

in the biblical worldview

that you can have

a true rejection

of racism

because racism,

you know,

if you have,

in our modern narrative,

our modern story,

you know,

that first everything,

you know,

whatever the initial bit

of life came together

completely and utterly

by chance

and then natural selection

means that eventually

we go from having

apes and gorillas

to human beings,

therefore don't be prejudiced.

That doesn't follow.

That's incoherent.

It makes absolutely

no sense.

Our culture's hatred

of racism

is an echo

of an echo

of an echo

of an echo

of the story

of the Bible

and the teaching

of books like Amos

that teaches

there is but one God

who's created

all human beings

and all human beings

equally bear

the image of God

and all human beings

equally bearing

the image of God

have a conscience,

a reflection

of the moral order

even if imperfectly known

after the fall.

And there is

but one God

and but one

created human race

made male

and female,

two genders,

not 70.

And the book

of Amos

is going to condemn

racism at its heart.

Read along with me

here in verses 11 and 12.

Thus says the Lord,

for three transgressions

of Edom

and for four

I will not revoke

the punishment

because he pursued

his brother

with the sword

and cast off

all pity

and his anger

tore perpetually

and he kept

his wrath forever.

So I will send

a fire upon Timan

and it shall devour

the strongholds

of Basra.

I mean there's

not only here

a strong condemnation

of anger

but isn't that

the very heart

of racism?

Like even just

within this past

week or two

the president

the head

of the Palestine

group I think

centered in Gaza

continuing to pass

on this

libelous assault

on Jewish people

of poisoning wells.

a lie of hatred

against the Jewish

people that has

gone on for

centuries and centuries

and is used

to fuel

and inflame

hatred.

And the Bible

here condemns

all hatred

of people groups

as people groups.

All of our social

and other means

by which

we nourish

a hatred

of entire

people groups.

we feed it

we justify it

we rationalize it

we inflame it

and the Bible

condemns it.

The Bible

condemns it.

The Lord roars

if you could put up

the next point

Andrew

the Lord roars

he is holy

good

and wholly

opposed

to evil.

The Lord roars

he is holy

he is good

and he is wholly

opposed

to evil.

I have to confess

that there is a

on the Christian

radio show

here in Ottawa

on Sunday

afternoons

they play the

same one hour

show over

and over again

I think from

about one o'clock

till seven

and I

every time I

listen to it

for longer

than a couple

of minutes

I get so angry

I have to spend

time in repentance

and I know

that for some

people this may

be very very

helpful

I hear true

confessions

John Maxwell

who is one of

these power

of positive

thinking

I have a very

soft spot

in my heart

for John Maxwell

his writings

at a certain

point in time

in my life

were tremendously

tremendously

tremendously

helpful

but I think

even John Maxwell

would acknowledge

if you only read

John Maxwell

you are going to

starve yourself

you will poison

yourself

and encouragement

constant encouragement

without any

discussion

of the holiness

of God

and any

call to

repentance

it might be

very good

for a very

brief season

but it's

spiritually

profoundly

dangerous

we live

in a culture

where not all

praise songs

are like this

and I'm not

dumping on

praise songs

I love

praise songs

we go a whole

other thing

you know the

favorite song

of this church

you know before

I came here

was the words

of that poem

what is it

Andrew

and did

in England's

that you know

England's fields

green

did Jesus

really walk

no

he didn't

stop singing

the song

he didn't

walk around

England's

green and

verdant fields

England isn't

Israel

get over it

it's in the

hymn book

in the

Anglican

hymn book

well beloved

but there is a

common problem

of Jesus is my

girlfriend songs

you can't sing

Jesus is my

girlfriend songs

if it never

means you have

to wrestle with

the fact

that the God

who really does

exist is untamed

nation judging

he is holy

he is holy

good

and he is

holy

opposed

to evil

let's read

verses 13

to 15

we're almost

coming to

an end

of the text

thus says

the Lord

for three

transgressions

of the

Ammonites

and for four

I will not

revoke the

punishment

because they

have ripped

open pregnant

women in

Gilead

that they

might enlarge

their

border

so I

will

kindle

a fire

in the

wall

of

Rabah

and it

shall

devour

her

strongholds

with shouting

in the

day of

battle

and with

a tempest

in the

day of

the

whirlwind

and their

king

shall go

into exile

he and his

princes

together

says the

Lord

because they

ripped open

pregnant women

in Gilead

that they

might enlarge

their border

enter the

next point

the Lord

roars

he is

judging

every

human

being

institution

and social

structure

he is

judging

every

human

being

institution

and social

structure

I know

a woman

who had

an abortion

so she

would look

good in her

wedding dress

not making

it up

so she had

the abortion

she wanted

to look

good in her

wedding dress

on her

wedding

day

human

beings

regularly

attack the

weakest

and the

vulnerable

because of

their

ambitions

whether it's

an ambition

to take

more territory

or to look

good in a

bikini

or ambitions

because as a

guy you want

to travel and

you want to

do things

you don't

want to have

to be

encumbered

by a

girlfriend

whom you

made

pregnant

the first

time I ever

spoke on

Parliament Hill

at the

Parliament Hill

Christian Fellowship

I thought to

myself

I've seen

many people

come and go

in places

like this

and what

they do

is they

try to

preach a

sermon

that people

will like

so they

get invited

back

and the

irony is

that they

usually

don't get

invited

back

so I

prayed about

it and

I thought

I will

preach

so that

if I only

get one

shot on

Parliament Hill

and I

never get

invited

back

and so I

preached on

the fact

that we

have to

fear

God

and that

on Parliament Hill

you have to

understand

that you're

under judgment

that God

will judge

you

funnily enough

they've invited

me back

now for

19 years

go figure

but that

wasn't actually

my plan

my plan

was that I

might only

get one

shot

and so I

was going

to give

it to

them

because it

would be

not because

I was going

to give

it to

them

because

you know

how

would it

be

if at

the

judgment

seat

God

said to

me

George

you had

a chance

to warn

those guys

because you

wanted them

to like

you

because

you're

a people

pleaser

and even

now I

worried about

whether I

should make

a reference

to abortion

in case

it offends

people

I confess

I am

very

very

very

very

very

deeply

Canadian

but the

text here

speaks very

clearly

to political

ambition

economic

ambition

and personal

ambition

and the

way we

will

victimize

the

weakest

the

great

worry

amongst

many

of the

law

that's

now

in

Canada

that

allows

doctors

to

kill

people

is

what

happens

if in

20

years

I'm

fading

and my

kids would

like to

go on

a cruise

and it

would be

a lot

easier

if I

died

before

they

went

and if

you think

this is

completely

obscene

or completely

unrealistic

just read

what's

gone on

in the

Netherlands

and in

Belgium

the

weakest

get in

the way

of our

ambition

some of

you are

saying

George

this has

been too

much

just the

one

final

text

just so

we can

and then

we'll

start to

wrap it

up in

a very

important

way

you know

in our

warfare

nobody

in our

modern

world

I think

in our

warfare

thinks

that we

can send

people to

hell

by defeating

them

but in

the ancient

world

they thought

that

and that's

at the

heart

one aspect

of the

heart

of this

final

condemnation

not that

they're able

to do

it

but they

thought

they

could

do

it

and

because

they

thought

they

could

do

it

they

did

it

look

at

chapter

2

verses

1

to 3

thus

says

they

believed

in that

particular

culture

that

if you

were to

completely

annihilate

the body

in such

a way

it would

mean

that

his

existence

in the

afterlife

became

fraught

became

endangered

that in

a sense

he could

wander

and be

he would

not have

a good

death

he would

dwell

in a

terrible

place

after

death

and it

also

had

the

ability

of

destroying

the

traditions

of the

country

so it

both

destroys

their

past

and destroys

the future

and in a

sense

by doing

it to

the king

who's

understood

to be

a

representative

of the

whole

people

in some

ways

they're

saying

we are

going to

cast all

of you

as a

nation

we're not

only going to

defeat you

militarily

we're going to

send you to

hell

and it's

condemned here

in the

Bible

the Lord

roars

enter the

final one

the Lord

roars

in mercy

this might not

be originally

mainly obvious

the Lord

roars in

mercy

you know

the thing

about this

text

is this

text is

written

somewhere

between

15

to 30

years

before

Assyria

invades

these

nations

and these

nations

are

destroyed

it's

the

complete

opposite

of a

terrorist

attack

I was

on

Thursday

I was

going to

have

lunch

with

somebody

in the

church

and so

I was

walking

on

Laurier

bridge

right by

the

D&D

and virtually

every time

I walk

by D&D

I think

to myself

is this

the day

that a

terrorist

will set

off a

bomb

at D&D

headquarters

while I'm

walking

by

I know

I have a

very odd

imagination

but I

think about

that

and you

know the

way terrorists

work is

the bomb

goes off

and then

they roar

the Lord

roars

10

15

20

30

years

later

the

judgment

comes

he roars

so we

can repent

in fact

even within

this text

you might

notice that