Text: Amos 1:5-15
God will one day do away with evil, but if you’re one to blame God for not doing away with evil right now, here is how God uses the wicked to His advantage.
Proverbs 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. The verse is talking about the use God will make of his creatures, not the decisions he will make for his creatures. God did not create wickedness, but he will make it useful to his purpose. He will make use of the wicked, without making decisions for the wicked. Whereas the enemy, the devil, cannot make use of the righteous. In this is the wisdom of the Lord.
Devour the wicked
- …I will send a fire… just like a controlled burn
- the unharvestable and dead areas
- This fire will not be the Lord Jesus Christ himself I don’t believe. It looks like it will be carried out by the forces of the Assyrian antichrist, or that Wicked one as he’s called in 2 Thessalonians.
- A few years before the Lord Jesus Christ returns, there is a time called the tribulation, and some of Israel’s enemies will be overtaken by the antichrist and his armies. These enemies of Israel are located immediately around Israel. These five nations will be judged by God for their warfare against Israel: 1:3-4, 6-7, 9-15
- Then Amos describes a judgment that will occur within 20 years of his preaching and will also be directed by God, but not carried out by God: 1:5
- 2 Kings 16:8-9 And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king’s house, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria. And the king of Assyria hearkened unto him: for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried the people of it captive to Kir, and slew Rezin.
- This happened about 20 years after Amos preached this sermon. God did not personally destroy Damascus, carry away the people captive, and kill the king of Syria, but He set up circumstances for this to occur.
- The hand of the Lord
- …I will turn mine hand against Ekron… 1:8
- Psalm 17:13-14 Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword: From men which are thy hand…
- God’s warning to Israel before they inherit the promised land: Deuteronomy 9:4-5 Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee. 5 Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
- Fornicating saint: 1 Corinthians 5:5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Deceive the damned
- 1 Kings 22:22-23
- 2 Thessalonians 2:7-12
Develop the saints
- Job
