30_Amos_06-07

Now, we come to the sixth chapter, and when we come to this chapter, this is the last chapter in this present series that we had at the very beginning, the judgments on Judah. and on Israel. And beginning with chapter 7, it will be visions of the future. And that will take us through the book of Amos. We'll move a little faster through that section.

But now we've come today here to chapter 6, and it's the last in this series of three chapters. In chapter 4, it was God punished Israel in the past for iniquity. And chapter 5, God will punish Israel in the future for iniquity. And now, in chapter 6, Israel admonished in the present, that is, in Amos' day, to depart from iniquity. Now, he begins by giving one of his woes. He is not the prophet that majors in the woes. You find them in several of the other prophets that we've studied.

and you find them in the book of Revelation. Now, here is a woe, W-O-E, and it also means W-H-O-A, means to stop, look, and listen. Because this is something that is important. It's like the word, therefore. He used that in the last verse of the last chapter. Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus.

That therefore is always an important word, as we've said. Someone wrote me, said that their preacher says that when you come to a therefore, you should see why it's therefore.

And that is a very good explanation of it. And the word woe is one that ought to draw our attention. Woe to them who are at ease in Zion. and trust in the mountain of Samaria, who are chief of the nations to whom the house of Israel came. Now, actually... The northern kingdom, in grave danger, engaged in sin, was taking it easy. And it was something that they were saying, I think, to each other, the common greeting at...

departure years ago was, well, take it easy. Well, today it is. Have a good day. I take it that it means practically the same thing, and that's what they were doing. Woe to them who are at ease in Zion. And they were sitting in the lap of luxury in a day of affluence. And we've been doing that, actually, since the Depression and World War II as a nation.

We have been in the same condition, sitting in the lap of luxury and in a day of affluence. Now, he goes on here to say, you trust in the mountain of Samaria. That's where they kept the atom bombs. They felt that Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom. Ahab and Jezebel lived there, and that was where the palaces of ivory were. And it was a place that could be defended, wall around it. It sets lonely on a hill. And this had become a very important city.

So much so that when the Assyrians destroyed it, Herod later on rebuilt it. Herod was quite a builder. You'll find that he built all over Palestine. He built Caesarea. built it right from ground up. But in Samaria, he rebuilt it because it was such a marvelous location. Now, all of this luxury... And the fact that they had the atom bomb, they felt secure. They felt that they were well protected. Woe to them who are at ease in Zion.

and trust in the mountain of Samaria, who were named chief of the nations to whom the house of Israel came. And they were recognized in that day among the nations. They belonged to the United Nations, and the Northern Kingdom had a great deal to save. Now, he says to them in verse 2, he says, pass unto Calna. Now, Calna is actually one of the cities that was in the... intersection of the Tigris River and the upper Zab River. And Nineveh was there. Kalna was there. It constituted a great center.

And he says, pass unto Calder and see, and from there go to Hamath the great. Well... Hamath is the chief city in Syria. You're coming south now. Then go down to Gath. Now, Gath was in the south. It was the leading city of the Philistines. Are they better than these kingdoms? Are their border greater than your border? In other words, go look at these nations. Why do you think that you are superior to these nations? You're not superior.

You're engaged in the same sins they are, and your responsibility is greater. They have no revelation from God, but you do have a revelation from God.

Now, he mentions the three national sins of that nation. And these are the three sins that brought the northern kingdom down. It brought the southern kingdom down. It brought Babylon down. It brought Egypt down. It brought Greece down. It brought Rome down. And it has brought many great nations down. It's the reason France is a second-rate nation today. It's the reason that Great Britain has become a second-rate nation.

One time, why, the sun never set on the British Empire, but it looks like the British Empire is setting now. So that these three sins are national sins and they're sins that God will judge nations relative to. Now, number one is in verse 4. I probably should read verse 3. Ye that put far away the evil day and cause the seed of violence to come near. In other words, they say, yes, a day is coming. But it's not near. We don't need to worry about it. Remember, that was the thing that Hezekiah.

said to Isaiah when he told him judgment was coming on the southern kingdom and they'd be carried into captivity. And Hezekiah says, will it be in my day? And Isaiah said, no, it won't be in your day. And even Hezekiah, who was a great king, he said, well, then that's all right. A great many of us have passed on to our grandchildren. a debt and a nation that is in trouble today. I used to worry about my daughter and the day she would live in. Well, I don't worry too much about that now.

But I do worry about that little grandson and the world that he's moving into and the world that he'll be living in. The evil day is coming. Now...

What are the three sins that destroy a nation? Number one, verse 4, that lie upon beds of ivory and stretch themselves upon their couches. and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall. Now, sex and gluttony are the two sins. that are mentioned here, and they're sins of the flesh. And so I have them labeled gluttony in my notes. I would like to change that to the sins of the flesh. Gluttony.

and sex. Those are the two things that are mentioned here. Now, that lie upon beds of ivory. Now, Samaria, Ahab and Jezebel had built there an ivory palace. That has been thoroughly excavated, and they have found many very fine, delicate vessels that were in the rubble and the ruins of that great palace there. And it represented the life of the upper class in that day. They lie upon beds of ivory. They all had king-size beds.

And they were taking it easy. And it suggests sex, by the way. Stretch themselves upon their couches. That was the thing that they were engaged in. thing that has been said in our day. Someone has answered the woman's lib movement by saying the woman's place is in the kitchen and in the bedroom. May I say to you, it's an awful thing to say because I totally disagree with that. But it's the color and complexion of our nation today.

Now, I could give you quotation here after quotation that I have, but I'm not going to do that today. I call attention to one. I took out a Life magazine. And it gave a picture of Washington, the capital. And this was many years ago under administration in the early 60s. And it says, talking about the social life. It's when they get together and all they talk about is who is going with whose wife and who is being unfaithful to his wife.

and drinking. And that was amazing to find that in Life magazine of that day. And that was many years ago. You wonder what it is today. It hasn't any reference to any particular party. It just means the whole kit and caboodle there, given over to this type of thing. I think more attention is probably paid in Washington.

to sex than to any of the problems that you and I have today. When these lawmakers get on television, they become very serious about their social life. Now, that's not true of all of them, of course. But the social life in Washington must be very corrupt today. Now, no nation has ever been able to survive that type of thing. Rome, probably the greatest of all nations in the one nation. that will come back. It will come back in the last days. Antichrist will put it back.

But why did it fall apart? No enemy outside destroyed Rome. It was like Humpty Dumpty. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. And all the king's men, all the king's horses can't put it back together again. But why did it fall? Well, Gibbon in his decline and fall of the Roman Empire mentions this as being the destruction of the family was one of the important things when immorality came in.

Then the nation began to go down. That's number one. Now, number two is, verse 5, that chant to the sound of the harp and invent to themselves. instruments of music like David. Now, they came up with a lot of new tunes in that day. You may think hard rock music and rock and roll is something new and jazz. They had it back in that day. And music, the character of music, can destroy a nation. And friends, as far as I'm concerned,

We've arrived there. Now, I know I sound like a square. Now, I'll get many letters on this that what a backward fellow I am. Well, I am. And somebody's going to say, you don't know anything about music. I sure don't. I know whether I like it or whether I don't like it. And a lot of it I don't like today. And I just don't listen to it. The chant or the sound of the harp. In other words...

The music no longer was used as it was in David's day. And David was a genius. But his music was to praise and glorify God. But now they had also geniuses. in their day. But they were not writing music to praise God. And for the glory of God, it was, of course, that which would take people away from God and the worship of God.

Now we come to the third in verse 6, that drink wine in bowls. Not just in little glasses, but in bowls. They were really alcoholics that drink wine in bowls and anoint themselves with the chief ointments, but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. Now, they drink wine in bowls and they anoint themselves. You see, in that day, while there was a great deal of tension spent on the matter of getting the right kind of ointment,

for your underarms. I don't mind mentioning it because they mention it on TV all the time now. And in that day, it was pretty important that you use the right kind of spray and the right kind of deodorant. But it's drunkenness. That was destroying the nation. Now, these were the three sins. And now, I'm not going over it. I went over it some time ago. The drunkenness.

is the thing that is destroying our nation today as well as these other sins. And we're not getting by with it. And today it's becoming an alarming sort of thing. I have a statement here. that there are 9 million alcoholics in the country, and that there are 36 million people whose lives are directly affected by the alcoholic.

And I got that out of Ann Landers' column a few years ago. That is the picture of this country today. And other statistics that 50% of these accidents... where people are killed, and there are more people being killed. in automobile accidents in this country than were ever killed in Vietnam. But nobody is protesting the fact that 50% of them are caused by alcohol. And you find nothing said about that.

And I was amazed that a few years ago that one of the distilleries had an advertisement about the young people drinking, and they said they were concerned about it. It says, teenager, now I'm reading from an advertisement of a distiller. Teenagers, especially in a group, are often tempted to do things they might not do on their own, like taking a drink when they know they shouldn't.

We're sure you're concerned about this problem. Imagine a liquor maker telling me and you that they think we are concerned because they are. Why don't you quit making this stuff? But you won't have to worry much about it if you've shown your youngster over the years that your ideas about drinking are healthy and mature. Well, now, what are healthy and mature ideas about drinking?

It's drinking, isn't it? That's what they have in mind. They're surely not running an advertisement on prohibition. And I'd like to conclude by reading this poem. It's nobody's business is the name. It's nobody's business what I drink. I care not what my neighbors think or how many laws they choose to pass. I'll tell the world I'll have my glass. Here's one man's freedom cannot be curbed. My right to drink is undisturbed. So he drank in spite of lower man.

Then got into his old tin can, stepped on the gas and let it go down the highway to and fro. He took the curves at 50 miles with bleary eyes and a drunken smile. Not long till a car he tried to... pass, then a crash, a scream, and breaking glass. The other car was upside down, about two miles from the nearest town. The man was clear, but his wife was caught, and he needed the help of that drunken sot.

who sat in a maudlin, drunken daze and heard the scream and saw the blaze, but too far gone to save a life by helping the car from off the Y. The car was burned. and a mother died, while a husband wept, and a baby cried, and a drunk sat by, and still some think it's nobody's business what they drink. May I say to you,

This is what destroys nations, not just accidents on the highway. These are the three great sins that have brought great nations down. And I just don't think we're the exception to the rule as a nation. It's enough to break any person's heart when you see what's happening in this great nation of ours today. And we try to explain it away by saying that we now are civilized. We today have a new morality. We have grown up. We've got rid of the old Puritan notions.

And by the way, the Puritans and the pilgrims founded a great nation. Are we the sophisticated and suave folk? Are we going to keep it that way or are we losing it today? May I say that this message of Amos was fulfilled in his day. The northern kingdom went into captivity. It was destroyed. These are the sins that brought it down. Now, friends, in conclusion, the three great sins that undermine every great nation of the world.

and has led to the downfall of all the great powers of the past. And we saw them in verses 4, 5, and 6. In verse 4, It was gluttony and sex. In verse 5, it was heathen music. And in verse 6, it was drunkenness. And we dealt with those three, and we're not going into that again today, other than it's the same old story. Wine, women, and song. That's what a great many people...

think life is. But actually, that is not what life's all about. That's what death is all about. And this is the philosophy that says eat and drink. And be merry, for tomorrow you die. Or the philosophy says, pick the daisies while you can. That day is coming when you won't be able to pick them. In other words, satisfy self.

But if a man goes down the line or a nation, he'll find out that this does not lead to a pot of gold, but it's a dead-end street with the emphasis upon dead. It's led to the death.

of individuals and nations. And it reveals something quite interesting, that the heart is one of the most remarkable organs that God has put in the human body. It's a very small organ, by the way. But you know, you can put the world in it, and when you do, you can't even fill the heart. Remarkable, is it not? Now, we move on here, and we begin at verse 7. He says now, because we're in this sixth chapter, where Israel is admonished now in the present.

to depart from iniquity. And the reason, of course, is that it's going to lead to the destruction of the nation. And he makes this remarkable statement, Amos does, in verse 7. Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretch themselves shall be removed. Now, this is a remarkable statement.

And because of these three great sins, he says, therefore, and as we said last time, that we just heard a new one about that little word, therefore, that when you come to it in the Bible, You better investigate and see why it's there for. And so, therefore here leads to this great statement, and it is... that the northern kingdom will go into captivity first. And that is the direction in which they were moving, and they were moving rapidly.

They were much closer to it than they could really believe. Now, verse 8, and we'll continue to move on down now. The Lord God hath sworn by himself, saith the Lord, the God of hosts. I abhor the excellency of Jacob and hate his palaces. Therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is in it. hated all of this. If you want to know God's attitude today to the present-day philosophy of the new morality regarding sex and gluttony and...

the music and drunkenness. Why, God makes it very clear here. God says he hates it. And they had become, as a result, a godless nation.

Now, these things take you away from God and will not bring you to God at all. Verse 9, And it shall come to pass, if there remain ten men in one house, that they shall die. In other words, there would be no defense for ten men to get in one house. They might think that would be protection that no one could take them. Well, God says they all are going to die.

Verse 10, And a man's uncle shall take him up, and he that burneth him to bring out the bones of the house shall say unto him that is inside of the house, Is there yet any with thee? And he shall say, No. Then shall he say, Hold thy tongue, for we may not make mention of the name of the Lord. Now, this is a strange statement, but it just simply means this, that...

It was a day when there was no freedom of religion. They could worship among idols and go into idolatry, but they could not even mention the name of the Lord. Now we come to verse 11, For behold, the Lord commandeth, and he will smite the great house with breeches, and the little house with clefts, high and low, great and small.

are going to be affected by this when the Assyrian comes down and takes them into captivity. And verse 12, shall horses run upon the rock. Well, if you've ever ridden horseback... In a mountain country where there's a great deal of rock, you know a horse can slip and fall. Among the many things that I did as a young fellow, I belonged to the National Guard. and to the cavalry. That's the horse cavalry. And we were out on patrol duty, and I was riding a big, tall, red horse.

And the section I patrolled was very rocky. It was up in middle Tennessee. And my horse slipped out from under me. Not necessarily from under me, because I went right down with the horse. And he fell on the side of one of my feet. And as a result, why, it got me off of patrol duty. And I was actually sent back home because they didn't want me hanging around.

And I never regretted that because it cut me out of a great deal of hard work. Very frankly, and probably I'd ended up peeling potatoes, but... I got out of it because of that. And I always appreciated that old red horse. But this is the same thing. Shall horses run upon the rock? Well, they better not. They'll slip and fall. Will one plow? There with oxen you can run a plow over a rock, for ye have turned justice into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock.

In other words, you've done that which is contrary to reason, that which is contrary to that which is right. and that which is righteousness. That is the thing that he's saying to them. In other words, you've acted very foolish, as foolish as I was, and maybe not so foolish, and riding that old red horse over that rocky terrain.

Now, verse 13, ye who rejoice in a thing of nothing, who say, have we not taken to us horns by our own strength? Now, they've taken nothing. Actually, both the Old and the New Testament treat idols as nothing. But the very interesting thing that they recognize that back of idols are demons. The Greeks were probably as intelligent a people as ever been upon this earth. And for a period of time...

There was a glory that was Greece. It manifests itself in many ways. And one, of course, was intellectual. They were highly sophisticated. and intellectual people during that particular period. Now, they worshipped idols. You remember Paul? He says, why, you've got so many of them that you even made an idol to the unknown God. They were an intelligent people.

but they worship idols. And somebody says, well, there's nothing to an idol. Why in the world would an intelligent people do that? Don't you believe that the Greeks worship nothing? The idol's nothing. But Baca, the idol, was a demon. And I will go along today with many of these people who are in cults who tell me that some remarkable things take place.

in the cult. I'll go along with you and say the remarkable thing takes place, but whodunit? That's my question. Whodunit? And the one that did it, I'm confident. is Satan and demonism is back of a great deal of this today. Now, let me move on down, verse 14. But behold, I raise up against you a nation. O house of Israel, saith the Lord, the God of hosts, and they shall afflict you from the entrance of Hamath. That is all the way up into Syria. This was the chief city.

under the river of the Araba. And that, of course, is the river that was on the other side of the Jordan River. In fact, it flowed into the Dead Sea. So that God says, through the whole extent of your land, this enemy is coming down from the north. That enemy was not Ben-Hadad of Syria.

But it was the king of Assyria, and he took these people into captivity. Now we come to a new division in the book of Amos. The last division, and this is the third major division that we have, and here we have visions of the future, and that's chapter 7 through 9. And these visions are, I think, very remarkable. And they reveal the fact that though this fellow Amos could be called a clodhopper,

a country preacher. He could soar to the heights. And some of the visions that the Lord gave him are quite remarkable here. Now, as we come to chapter 7, we see that first vision. In the first three verses are the vision of grasshoppers or locusts, if you want to call them that. They're called grasshoppers in our translation, but they were, of course.

Let me read now, beginning with verse 1. Thus hath the Lord God shown unto me, and behold, he formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up. of the latter growth. And lo, it was the latter growth after the king's mowings. Now, there were two crops that could be gotten off of the land in that day, and it's true today. And the first crop went to the king as taxes. The people actually in that day paid more than one-tenth as a tithe. It's estimated they paid in all about...

three-tenths, about 33% of what they took from the land. And here you see an example of it after the king had gotten his... Then came in the plague of the grasshoppers, or the locusts, and got theirs. So there was nothing left for the people who had really done the work. Now, that is a judgment that should have shaken them and wake them up.

Verse 2, it came to pass that when they had ceased eating the grass of the land, then I said, O Lord God, forgive, I beseech thee, by whom shall Jacob arise? For he's small. In other words, we have been cut down to size. You have already cut us down, and now this has so weakened us, we will not be able to stand.

And he calls out to God to forgive and help them. And notice, the Lord is still patient with them. Verse 3, the Lord repented of this. It shall not be, saith the Lord. The Lord says, well, I won't do it. I'm not going to weaken you this way. So he gave them a good crop. He got rid of the grasshoppers, got rid of the locusts. Then you would think that the people would return to God, that because of his tender mercy...

they'd return to him. But they did not. Notice, now you have the vision of the fire. And that's in verses 4 through 6. And a great many who believe that the fire here... represents actually a drought. Well, I'm perfectly willing to say a drought has to go along with it. When we have dry weather here in Southern California, why, the mountains start burning.

And here on the West Coast, I don't know how many more years it'll be before we'll burn off everything that we've got out here on our mountains, to my judgment, due to the carelessness of the public today. and of cigarette smokers. They say that a great deal has been started by a cigarette. But regardless of that, evidently it's caused by a drought. But the thing that did the destroying...

I think it's a literal fire, and I think he makes that clear. Verse 4, Thus hath the Lord God shone unto me, and behold, the Lord God called to contend by fire. And it devoured the great deep, and did eat up a part. And now notice, Then said I, O Lord God, cease, I beseech thee. By whom shall Jacob arise? He's small. And again, the Lord repented of this. This also shall not be, saith the Lord God. And apparently he sent rain, and the fires were put out. And again, God...

heard them. And when it says God repented, it's because of the fact of the prayers of the people. And God is tender-hearted and would not go through with it. The awful thing today, friends, in rejecting Christ and being lost eternally is the fact that you have to do it against a God who is tenderhearted.

who's gracious and loving, and he loves you. And sin against that is the awful, dreadful, terrible thing of the present hour. Now, will you notice we have here... The vision of the plumb line, verses 7 through 9. Thus he showed me, and behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. Now...

You will find that used many places in the Word of God. I'm just going to lift out one today. Over in Jeremiah 31, verse 38, it says here, "...behold the days come, saith the Lord, that the city..." shall be built to the Lord from the tower of Hananiel unto the gate of the corner, and the measuring line, or the plumb line, if you please, shall go forth. against it upon the hill Garib, and shall compass about the Goab. And you're going to find that when we get to the book of Revelation.

And every time that you have this vision and this one in Zechariah, that means God is getting ready to judge. In other words, he's measuring up now. Or, as it was in the book of Daniel, You've been put in the balances and you've found warning. When God begins to measure, either in length or in weight, you can be sure of one thing, judgment is the thing that he has in mind.

Now, will you notice verse 9 says, "...and the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste." and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword. Now, in other words, God says that Jeroboam will not have peace. God's principle is, There is no peace, saft my God, to the wicked, and Jeroboam's not going to have peace. Now, that is the vision of the plumb line. Now, we have wedged in here that little historic interlude.

that was very personal, that introduced us to Amos. And I considered that at the very beginning. Now it fits into the story here very well. Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent the Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos hath con... spired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel, the land is not able to bear all its words. For thus Amos saith,

Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall be led away captive out of their own land. Now, if you read back here, you'll find out that Amaziah lied. And to me, one of the tragic things that is in the church today is the way that you're misquoted. I try to make it as simple and as plain as I possibly can. And then I discover that people misquote and make you say something you have not said at all. Now, sometimes this is done through just not really understanding or failing to comprehend.

Again, it's done deliberately. Now, Amaziah here just went in and deliberately lied about Amos. Amos did not say that Jeroboam would perish with the sword because he didn't. He said, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with a sword, which means there would come warfare. And it did come. And they were finally taken into captivity to Assyria.

And then this liberal preacher, for that's what he was, this priest here of the altar of the golden calf, why, he came to Amos, and we've seen that. And he insulted him. He tried to call him an ignoramus. And I'd like to know where the books are that Amaziah wrote. We've had one preserved now for a little over 2,500 years, written by Amoz.

He calls him a country rube. He told him, well, you are not fit to speak here in the king's chapel. We want soft words said here. We don't want to offend anybody. And as a result... Why, Amos answered, and we've already seen that, and he did it in such a proper manner. It shows he's a moderate man. He wasn't giving out wild utterances of a prophecy monger.

He was no fanatic at all. And Amos now is going to make the strongest statement that he's ever made. Now, I want you to notice that Amos is a very reserved man. He confesses. He said, I'm no prophet. I recognize that. I've never been to the seminary. And I'm not even a prophet's son. I'm from the country. I'm a country boy. I have no background whatsoever. I'm a herdman, a gatherer of sycamore fruit. But the Lord took me as I was following the flock.

And the Lord said unto me, Go prophesy unto my people Israel. And I think that a man should be very sure that he has a call from God if he's going to be in the ministry. If there's any doubt in his mind, he ought not to go in the ministry. I've heard it put like this, that if you can do anything else, why don't go in the ministry? Well, I don't like it quite like that.

because a great many of us could have done something else, by the way, and might have preferred doing it. The important thing is, did God call you? And if God has called you, then may I say, that we ought not to let anything stand in the way. Now, he gives a prophecy, and he has a prophecy for Amaziah. And I want to tell you, here is strong medicine, what he says to this man.

Now, I hear a great many people say to me, Dr. McGee, you're very harsh at times on certain people or certain groups or certain churches. And I'm not really against any of these. I can truly say I carry no bias or hatred in my heart at all against any of these that I mention. I'm trying to say what the Word of God says. The argument given to me is that as a Christian, you ought to be nice and sweet. You ought not to...

indulge in this type of thing of giving out that which is harsh. It's love today, you know, and love, love, love. You want to listen to Amos now as he talks to brother Amaziah? Will you listen to him? Verse 16, I'll read first of chapter 7 of Amos. Now therefore hear the word of the Lord. Thou sayest, prophesy not against Israel. and drop not thy word against the house of Isaac. Therefore thus saith the Lord. Now he says he has a word from God to this man Amaziah. Now will you listen to this?

thy wife shall be an harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided by line. and thou shalt die in a polluted land, and Israel shall go into captivity away from his land. Now, my friend, that is a very disturbing... prophecy. And it's a very strong prophecy. And it was a true prophecy. Because when Assyria came down, this is what they did with the women. They were made harlots.

And the sons and daughters were destroyed, and those that were not were taken into captivity. And this old priest of Baal, of the golden calf, He was taken into Assyrian captivity. And again, we could say, I'm sure his word would have been on his deathbed, that of old Cardinal Woolsey, who served Henry VIII.

And if he hadn't have gotten sick and died, he would have been taken to the tower and his head would have been taken off. But he played politics with Henry VIII and tried to, you know, not really tell him. what the Word of God had to say. And as a result, on his deathbed, he could say, if I had only served my God like I served my King, I wouldn't be where I am today. And I'm sure old Amaziah.

could say that. If we don't give out the Word of God, those of us that are called to the ministry today, there's no reason for us to point our fingers at Washington and say, that you're failing up yonder in Washington, you're a bunch of politicians, and you're jeopardizing our nation today. May I say to you,

My friend, of the ministry, you're not giving out the Word of God. There is no traitor like that in this land. If you are called to be a minister, you're called to be a minister of the Word of God. And you're called to give that out. And if you're not giving that out, you are a traitor to the cause of Christ today. May I say that's pretty strong also. I'm sure I'll get some letters on that, but what we are interested in are letters. We hope all of you are right.