We do have some that are away from us. I know some traveling. I trust happily and healthfully and some struggling with seasonal things. A few remnants of those around the room even tonight. Let's do remember these particular needs that have been put before us. I was mentioned in the pre-service prayer meeting, but Calvin Gallagher, I sent an email about him a few days back, but Derek gave us an update. He spoke with Ian, and Calvin is still hospitalized, and I think really they're still awaiting diagnosis, and told him, at least the email we had last week was that it may be a couple of weeks before they can get some lab results back and so forth. So do pray for him, that the Lord will give wisdom, and help in diagnosing and then, Lord willing, treating this problem. We want to read tonight from Amos 9. And we're going to break into the chapter and begin our reading in verse 8. And read from there through the end of the prophecy. So Amos 9 and verse 8. Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom. and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth, saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the Lord. For lo, I will command and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth. All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say the evil shall not overtake nor prevent us. And that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof, and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the heathen which are called by my name, saith the Lord that doth this. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes, him that soweth seed, and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them, and they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof. They shall also make gardens and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God." Amen. We trust again the Lord to add His blessing to the public reading of His inspired Word. Let's bow our heads together before we consider this portion tonight. Our Heavenly Father, we come The closing words of a prophecy that has been filled with rebuke. It has been filled with predictions of calamity for the sinful kingdom. That northern kingdom and all its apostasy. Sins described in one point of its history as if it had been a light thing for them merely to walk in the ways of the heathen that surrounded them. Lord, we used to marvel at such descriptions in our youth, and yet as we look around and even see the professing church of this day, truly there are atrocities, great sins that are paraded in the name of Christianity. Such an apostate kingdom, such an apostate people, are present today as well. Lord, give us grace. Give us the encouragement of understanding these words that You gave to this prophet. We pray for wisdom and our understanding of them for that day and for our own. And we pray it in Jesus' worthy name, Amen. We've been in our survey of the minor prophets and spent several Lord's Day evenings in this prophecy of Amos. It is one of the longer of the minor, shorter prophets. And Amos certainly, undoubtedly, was a prophet of judgment. He was a fiery prophet of judgment. I would be hard-pressed to discover, I think any would be hard-pressed to discover more bold more powerful, more pointed statements of judgment and descriptions of sin than you find in this prophet. God even allowing, God even inspiring the prophet to use from the Lord's own mouth words of sarcasm with regard to the depths of the sin. And even the continued worship of this sinful nation. So Amos is a prophecy that's full of bad news. But Amos closes with a prophecy of good news. Amos closes with a prophecy of such distinction that it is quoted very notably at a key point in the New Testament church in the book of Acts. We'll come to consider something of that Well, some of the problems that that brings up for our understanding as we go along the way this evening. But as you read the prophecy this evening, you see that in it, there are elements of the covenant that God had made with His people that are included throughout. Some scholars even point out that there are parts of the Abrahamic covenant that really bookend the opening and the closing of this final prophecy of hope. The Davidic Covenant figures prominently and it's for that portion that's even quoted by James in the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. I want to come tonight to charitably look at some of those questions that we have because it touches our understanding of the millennium. But before we come to look at that, what does Acts 15 mean? There's where our millennial questions come in. What does Amos mean? What has Amos said? So we'll consider something I say of that tonight. I will confess, I like to put footnotes in. I have borrowed heavily from a journal article from my favorite Old Testament scholar, Dr. Barrett, from, well, a few decades ago now, I believe the article was written. But he entitled it, Good News for Everybody. It's a wonderful article. If you're in a seminary class sometime, I might give you a copy of it and give you some test questions from it. But we'll have none of those this evening. But the elements of the Abrahamic and the Davidic Covenant that are included in here, we would just suggest are these. Abraham, we'll not turn that up, but Genesis 12, we're perhaps very most familiar with the words that the Lord tells Abraham that in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Of course, we learn from the New Testament this is the Gospel promised before to Abraham. It's the promise of Christ. And we as Gentile believers are in Christ. We as Gentile believers are notably of the seed of Abraham. Children of the promise. But that covenant also contained promises with regard to the nation. Promises with regard to their earthly kingdom. And here we find some of those promises reflected in this prophecy of hope. The Davidic covenant is also prominent in these words of hope that Amos gives us. As Abraham is told that in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed, David had promises with regard to the whole of mankind. And I'll ask you to turn with me just quickly and briefly back to 2 Samuel 7. 2 Samuel 7 and verse 19. While you're turning, I'll just share with you what I shared many years ago now. I was smitten when we were doing a study in the life of David. Just one of those little side things, if you will, in the Scriptures. In 2 Samuel 6, David, as the Lord had delivered him from all his enemies, internal and external, established him upon His throne. Another one of those scriptural seconds. Saul, the first king of Israel, had failed and sinned and rebelled against God. David, the second king, becomes the premier king. It will be of his seed that the future, ideal, real king will come. But David had a desire to build a temple. And God said no. And to me, the juxtaposition, if you will, of 2 Samuel 6 and 2 Samuel 7 is precious. God has said to David, you can't build My house. But He also says to David, I'm going to build your house. And of course, we have this that we call the Davidic covenant. Certainly, so much of Christ within it. But there's a term in verse 19 or a phrase that I want to draw your attention to. David is responding to the word of this promise from God through the prophet Nathan. And it says here, Then went King David, verse 18, in and sat before the Lord. And he said, Who am I, O Lord God? And what is my house that Thou hast brought me hitherto? And this was yet a small thing in Thy sight, O Lord God. But Thou hast spoken also of Thy servant's house for a great while to come. And this is the manner of man, O Lord God. And what can David say more unto Thee? For Thou, Lord God, knowest Thy servant." We'll end reading there. I mean, it's precious and powerful and a significant portion that continues. But there's a little phrase there, the manner of man. You might have a marginal reading suggested from the word manner there. Perhaps law. But my dear brother suggests an alternate translation here. Not here the manner of man, but the revelation for mankind. a revelation for mankind. That the promises God was making to David, just as the promises God had made to Abraham, are going to have a significance. They're going to have an application far beyond the borders of the national kingdom of Israel. Now I say then both the Abrahamic and the Davidic covenants are foundational and they're reflected in this prophecy of hope that Amos brings to close out this minor prophecy of judgment. Premillennialists and Amillennialists both seek support from how James uses Amos 9, this prophecy we're going to look at this evening, Premillennialists and Amillennialists I say find support for their prophetic outline from this portion. But before we charitably, I hope, turn the page to Acts 15, when we want to answer that question, we have to first look at what Amos said. and then later how James uses it. So I want us to look, and this will be the bulk of our time this evening, just at what Amos said. What Amos brought to this people that he had preached sermon after sermon after sermon, telling them of judgment, inevitable judgment. that was coming upon them for their sin. And we'll come to look at three points in Amos' sermon, if you will. And the first is in v. 8-10. Here's a revelation of the remnant. The Lord has said again as we look back at v. 8, Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon, notice the description, the sinful kingdom. And I will destroy it from off the face of the earth. So let's pause. This has been the thrust of Amos' prophecy. Israel's sin is so deep, they've been so intractable, they've had the Word, and they've rejected the Word. God will send a famine of the Word. He'll send them into captivity. The ten tribes' captivity is still ongoing. But then he says this, I will destroy it, that is the sinful kingdom from off the face of the earth, saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the Lord. For I will command and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations like as corn is sifted in a sieve. Yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth. All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, the evil, the calamity shall not overtake or prevent us." So the first part of the message of Amos, his closing prophecy of hope, is the revelation of a remnant. And of course, the remnant is a theme that permeates the Old Testament. There we see it permeates the New Testament as well. And Amos begins to intrude, can we say, upon some territory that we'll come into a little bit deeper into Romans. Romans 9-11. There's a remnant. There's an Israel that's not Israel. Paul's words are, they are not all Israel which are of Israel. We'll have to talk about that when we get there. There's a people that are within the nation, but they're distinct from it. They have an identity. They have an existence that transcends, it exceeds. It's not just that they're physical descendants of Abraham. There's something else that belongs to them. They're children of the promise. and it is for God's faithfulness to His own promise, then when He now comes, finally, after we read the page after page of Old Testament apostasy, finally, to honor His promise to judge them for their unfaithfulness and scatter them abroad among the heathen, that He won't, to borrow the words from Jeremiah's treatment of the same truth, He won't make a full end. He is going to destroy the sinful kingdom. But verse 8, I will not utterly destroy. Verse 9, I will sift. And so God's judgment that Amos has predicted and that will come upon the nation, many that will certainly be destroyed, is not overturning God's ultimate promises. And it doesn't apply to the believing within the nation. There's a remnant that is present. He will not utterly destroy, but he will sift. And it's significant because if you look at the end of verse 10, these people that are going to die by the sword have said the evil, the calamity, will not overtake us. You remember what Amos said previously. He said, Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord is darkness and not light. Obviously, that prophetic terminology was already in use in Israel. The people were mindful of it. The day of the Lord, it's one of those prophetic buzzwords which we'll see again in our next section of this prophecy. It's a time where God intervenes unmistakably in the ongoing history of man. It's not, can we say, His mere providential oversight, His decree which covers all things that ever come to pass, but He works in such tangible ways, such remarkable ways, both to chasten, to judge, and to bless, or to deliver, that it's unmistakably the hand of God. I mean, wasn't that the Exodus itself? Unmistakably the hand of God? I mean, even the Egyptian false worshippers told Pharaoh, don't you see? This is the finger of God. And the minor prophets and Amos himself deal with various days of the Lord, judgments against other nations. Well, Israel had come to the mind that the Day of the Lord is when God finally finishes off our enemies and gives us the keys to the world. Nothing can tear us down, and we'll just keep on sinning. And God said, no. Those of you that desire the Day of the Lord, in your winter houses and summer houses, you're in your beds of ivory, you're drinking wine in bowls. This prosperity that you're enjoying, that I providentially allowed, and yet all alongside of such unbelief, such wickedness that even justice, fallen in the streets, oppression of their neighbors was rampant. This evil would overtake them. but a remnant would be preserved. It will not utterly destroy. It will sift Israel. So Amos' first point is the revelation of a remnant. Verses 8-10. But in verses 11 and 12, it continues, and here he speaks of the restoration of the kingdom. Verse 11, in that day, Will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, close up the breaches thereof? I'll raise up his ruins, I'll build it again as in the days of old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen which are called by my name, saith the Lord that doeth this. There are two issues in these verses, this section of the prophecy that we have to wrestle with. Now, of course, it's from this section that James is going to quote and we'll come to Acts in a few moments. But the two questions that arise in this part of the prophecy are basically, when and what? Well, the when is given in the opening statement, in that day. The day of the Lord had become a known phenomenon, a known anticipation in Amos' day. He, as other prophets, often speak of that eschatological day of God's ultimate, final, obvious, direct intervention in the affairs of men simply under the description of that day. And so the when question seems to be easy enough in that day. The question then that's more significant is what? What will he do? What is this restoration of the kingdom? Well, it says here that he will raise up the tabernacle of David that has fallen, building up again the tent of David. There are parts of this prophecy I don't know whether you would say they are fascinating, interesting from an Old Testament, from a whole biblical perspective of hermeneutics and interpretation, all of that. We may mention some of those questions a little further on. I don't want us to get into those deep, deep waters this evening. But the things that are put before us here, these, what is that tent then that's going to be built up? The word that is used is not the one that was normally used for the tabernacle, that was the place of worship prior to the building of the temple, but it's a small temporary structure. It was used at the Feast of Tabernacles when the people would, one of the pilgrim feasts, journey from their homes to Jerusalem, but at that feast they would build little booths, erect temporary structures for themselves, and of course emblematic of their journey from Egypt. This tent of David. It's an interesting description. But consider the day in which Amos gave the word. The kingdom of David. What was it to Amos? David's kingdom had been divided after the reign, the death of his son Solomon. It had seen the pinnacle of its glory very early on. And the ten tribes seceded and formed another nation to the north and Judah to the south. Those kingdoms themselves had had various days of prosperity and of utter smallness. What is it that the tent of David is going to be rebuilt? Well, here's where I can get into the tall grass and I would step aside gladly and have our brother take the pulpit. But there's a sequence of terminology of phrases here. He says, I'll raise up the tabernacle of David that has fallen, close up the breaches thereof, I'll raise up his ruins, I'll build it as in the days of old. The three phrases there that give us a description of the what of this restoration of the kingdom. The breaches of them, the ruins of him, and building it. Well, our Old Testament scholar points out that pronominal suffixes are supposed to agree with their antecedent in number, person, etc., etc. And these don't. And he said this, and here's why I'll quote him. The pronominal suffixes are grammatically inconsistent, but historically and prophetically precise. You see, the kingdom is in ruins. It is divided. And so this tent of David that is to be restored, singular, the breaches of them are described as plural. It's not just Israel, it's Israel and Judah. It's divided, impoverished, and soon to be chastened kingdoms that are present. Nothing like the former glories or future glories of a kingdom of David. So it's breaches of them. And then the ruins of him. The him obviously comes to be David, but David's son. It's interesting when Ezekiel in chapter 37 speaks of the divided kingdom in his imagery of the two sticks. that it is the son of David, it is David that will restore these two again into one and then build it. Again, the divided kingdoms restoration now singular in the prophecy. So I say remarkable that it's grammatically incorrect, but historically and prophetically correct. This kingdom that had suffered division and apostasy and now prophesied ruin is going to be ultimately reunited. It's ultimately going to have David its king restored. And it's going to be built up. And the building up of this kingdom is going to be prominent. But when we come to verse 12, the restoration of the kingdom has another element. that they may possess the remnant of Edom and of all the heathen. There are a couple of changes we'll suggest to you here in verse 12 and its translation. First, and which follows the remnant of Edom could be translated in the context here would seem to demand it as even. Edom is representative of the kingdoms of the world. And this really harks back, we'll not take time to turn it up, but the prophecy of Balaam. Maybe we will take time to turn it up. Turn up Numbers. Numbers chapter 24. I'm always taken back when you do a study of prophecy in the Old Testament, if you particularly look at some of the titles of Christ that appear in the books of Moses, that some of the most striking of them were from the mouth of an apostate prophet, Balaam. Numbers 24, from verse 17. I shall see Him, but not now. I shall behold Him, but not nigh. There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel. There are your titles, star and scepter. shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth. And Edom shall be a possession. Seir also shall be a possession for his enemies. And Israel shall do valiantly. Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion, and shall destroy him that remaineth of the city." Edom prominent in those nations Balaam mentions that Israel will rule. that Israel will be victorious, come out from under their oppression. But here again, the translation, they may possess the remnant back in Amos 9.12, they may possess the remnant of Edom, even all the heathen, and then our authorized version reads, which are called by my name, but you may have a marginal reading there, upon whom my name is called. So part of the restoration of the kingdom is that the Gentiles are going to be included in the kingdom. And this was a marvelous event that has not yet transpired for Israel. And so the restoration of the kingdom in this prophecy of hope has as its central point, and significantly the point that James is going to pick up on in the New Testament, that the Gentiles are included. But of course, we've already seen that in both the Abrahamic and the Davidic covenant. In Abraham's seed, all the families of the earth will be blessed. In David's kingdom, in his promise, there's revelation for all mankind. So we see verse 8 to 10, the revelation of a remnant. The prophecy Amos has been predicting is not the end. We see the restoration of the kingdom This kingdom is going to include even Gentiles in the day that David's dynasty is restored. And then thirdly, verses 13 to 15, we see a reversal of the captivity. And here we'll just read again the verses and let them speak for themselves. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper. and the treader of grapes, him that soweth seed, and the mountain shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt." We read here of prosperity, we read here of productivity, where the land is so productive, the harvest is going on while the planting is going on. Verse 14, I'll bring again the captivity of my people Israel. They shall build the waste cities and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof. They shall also make gardens and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land, which I've given them, saith the Lord thy God. In the reversal of captivity that Amos prophesies, there will be unimaginable productivity, there will be prosperity that permeates the land, and there will be an enduring peace from which Israel will never be pulled away again. These do not describe Israel's condition after the exile. The reunited kingdoms themselves never occurring in the remnant that came out of Babylon. So Amos gives a prophecy of the revelation of a remnant. The destruction won't be total. The restoration of the kingdom and the reversal of captivity of unimaginable blessing, peace, and prosperity. So we turn over to Acts 15 In Acts 15, we read from the middle of the chapter starting in verse 13. We'll just set the context. Remember Acts 15, if you have a label in the top of your Bible, it should say something like this, the first meeting of the Presbytery of the New Testament Church. I digress. A lot of the principles of Presbyterianism why Presbyterians view church government, New Testament church government the way they do are drawn from Acts 15. There's the repetition of the phrase the apostles and elders met to discuss this question. It's repeated and then when you go over to chapter 16, As they go back, remember Paul had come aside from his journeys. As they go out on his second missionary journey, now Barnabas has his own team and Paul his team. They go in verse 4, they went through the cities, delivered them the decrees for the keep that were ordained, here's our phrase again, of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem. We won't get into all of that there, but there's some independents that want to look at Acts 15 and say it was a local church meeting and they decided some questions, but independency doesn't have decrees that are sent into other independent churches. Representatives of all the churches came together. The apostles didn't decide the question alone. That kind of puts episcopacy out of the picture. And it was binding on all the churches with representatives from all the churches. That's where we get some of our, I say, description of Presbyterian polity. But the question they're considering is this. God's blessing the preaching of the gospel. Gentiles are being saved, brought into the church. A lot of the early converts were Jews. What do we do with these Gentiles? I mean, they're not even circumcised. Shouldn't we at least circumcise them? Do Gentiles that God is obviously saving need to enter the kingdom, if you will, through becoming proselytes to Judaism? Peter, others rise to give evidence that God is saving the Gentiles. And James, the brother of the Lord, the minister in Jerusalem and moderator of the council, rises to speak. In verse 13 we begin reading James. After they, Peter and Paul, after they held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me. Simeon, that's Peter, had declared how God of the first did visit the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name. Underline that little phrase, a people for his name. And do this agree the words of the prophets as it is written, after this I will return and will build again the tabernacle of David which is fallen down. I will build again the ruins thereof. I will set it up that the residue of men might seek after the Lord and all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called saith the Lord who doth all these things. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. James rises after Peter's part of the speech and gives the speech that we've just read. He seems to be taken with Peter's comment that is out of the Gentiles, God's taking a people for his name. It reminds him of a phrase in Amos, which we showed you the marginal reading, upon whom my name is called. Amos speaks of them. And he says, to disagree the words of the prophets. Now, I don't want to get into the tall grass. It's not my field. I can at times enjoy reading some of these things. But they're textual issues. There are changes. There are times where James quotes the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament and not the Masoretic text. What do we do with that? Well, just some pieces of that. Amos says, that day, and in that day we pause to look at that prophetic buzzword. James changes that to say after these things. Well, James under inspiration is not giving new meaning to what Amos has said. Many suggest, Dr. Barrett powerfully suggests here, James is summarizing Amos' whole prophecy of hope that we've looked at tonight to just single out the point that he's wanting to use from that prophecy. So when he says, after these things, there's some of the prophetic stuff in there, if you will, that James isn't worried about. He's coming to the particular point, I'll return, he says, it's added to what Amos says is build again. Well, I will return is a Semitic idiom. It will be kind of attractive for us, even us pre-millennialists in our prophecy to say in that, well, that's got Second Advent language all over it. I'll return and build again. But it's really just an idiomatic way of saying, I'll do it again. But then he goes kind of rogue and says, Edom, he borrows that phrase, even all the nations we saw in Amos, the residue of men seeking after the Lord. Well, that's where we didn't read that in our King James version of Amos tonight. He's siding with the Septuagint there. But what this shows us plainly is this, and again this is not to get all in the weeds, the fact that James under inspiration quotes the Septuagint, and the Septuagint, we'll just pause here, that Greek translation of the Old Testament, it varied in its quality. There were some books that were translated that weren't that great. There are others where the translation was very good. And it's an interesting part of scholarly New Testament study to see where Old Testament quotations are more in line with the Masoretic text or the Septuagint and all the different pieces of that. There are different kinds, there are different labels for variants you have to memorize and reproduce on tests, different kinds of, anyway. The fact that James quotes the Septuagint under inspiration simply demonstrates that the Septuagint grasped the meaning of the Masoretic text and its translation was right. It got at the heart of what was being viewed. And this residue of men seeking after the Lord is a correct understanding then of Edom, even all the nations upon whom my name is called. Well, to boil it down and close, again we suggested charitably to address the conflict. The big conflict here is between amillennialists and premillennialists. I'm a premillennialist, a historic, non-dispensational premillennialist. But I believe everything amillennialists believe. The dispensational premillennialists don't. I just don't think amillennialists believe enough that we Gentiles are part of God's spiritual people. that we're not a distinct body, that there is a kingdom that's going on now. We could turn back to Acts 2. There's fulfillment of the prophecy of Christ's resurrection being a fulfillment of the prophecy of a son to be raised up to sit on David's throne. I mean, that's kingdom stuff. And Acts 2 says it's already going on. That's amillennialism. The church ages the kingdom. Hallelujah. I believe it. But does it finish everything that the Scriptures have said? Well, James and Amos. The Amillennialists have an easy application in Acts 15. They say, this coming in of the Gentiles to the church is what Amos was talking about. We should expect this. This is it. That's great. It sounds good. The problem is is that it has to twist what Amos said. I mean, Amos was talking about a nation being restored. He was talking about produce of the land. He's talking about an enduring peace for a remnant of Israel. That's not some Romans and Greeks got saved. So, all right, we have to spiritually interpret the details of Amos' prophecy to say it's not talking about the kingdom being restored, it's talking about Gentiles being saved. And they do that for various other prophecies that are in the Old Testament. It's a literal versus a spiritual understanding of Old Testament kingdom prophecies that really is the crux of the question between primals and amals. It's easy, it makes sense, and like I say, I agree with everything they say. I just don't think it says enough. So how does a premillennialist deal with it then? How does a premillennialist have a legitimate application of what James is talking about? He can say Amos says what he said, take it literally, end of argument. There's a future kingdom, peace, prosperity, here's the millennium. Great. Why does Amos bring it up then when he's talking about Gentiles getting saved? Well, to me, here's the answer. Amos goes to the point, he summarized part of or James, excuse me, goes right to the point of what Amos said. He just summarizes part of it and says, after this, I'm going to return again and build up my people. This Edom, this designation of all the Gentiles, all the heathen are going to call on my name. What the premillennialist says is this. James stands at the council and says, Amos talked about the future day, the restoration of the kingdom. Gentiles are going to be part of the kingdom in that day. In Abraham's seed, all the nations of the earth are going to be blessed. In the son of David, in the future David himself, the nations are going to be brought into the kingdom. If Gentiles are going to take part in the not yet part of the kingdom, it's only natural that they take part in the already part of the kingdom. And so here we see what Amos said fulfilled. So, those are some of the questions. If you suggested answers to those questions, put back to our minor prophet an application for us. There are those that suggest premillennialism, one of the reasons it's wrong is it's pessimistic. That things just get worse and you get apostasy and the man of sin and the church is just toast. The thing is, exactly the same thing happened in the Old Testament. They don't have a problem with the pessimistic history of the Old Testament. It's ultimately very optimistic. That in spite of Old Testament Israel and New Testament churches' apostasies, the sinful among the kingdoms, if you put it that way, will be destroyed and judged of God. But a remnant of believing people, the one people of God, will be saved. And yet, in the last day, I think what Amos and James are referring to, that ultimately the nations will be brought in, that every knee will bow, every tongue will confess. Revival will come following these apostasies. Revival will come following that final greatest apostasy. And it will be among all nations. Pre-millennialists see Christ reigning for a thousand years as Revelation 20 describes in Jerusalem. The nations of the earth flowing unto it. Perhaps even that thousand years, a transition between time and eternity, Perhaps even that thousand years a season of the judgment. The judgment seat of Christ. Of all people. Whatever it is, I like Dr. Barrett's title for his article on some pretty heavy-duty hermeneutical and interpretive stuff. Good news for everybody. Because there's coming a day when God's not only going to visit Israel again, He's going to visit people from every nation and make them His own. And they not only will call upon His name, they will be called by His name. So Amos was a prophet that, yeah, he had a lot of bad news. But he was a prophet that closed with good news for everybody. Let's bow our heads together. Our Heavenly Father, we tonight come and ask for wisdom, yes, and charity in wrestling with some of the questions that arise in these things. But Lord, we ask for grace and spiritual eyes to see the redemption that is promised. And in times such as ours, Lord, even times where many prophecy preachers are hanging on every news report in another war in Israel. Oh Lord, You've told us there'll be wars and rumors of wars. But the end is not yet. There are other things yet to be. But the culmination of them all is the revelation. The coming again in power and glory. The visible return of Jesus Christ. Lord, tonight in this little church in North Carolina, Very far from the promised land, we are grateful to be among those nations, that residue of the people that have called upon the name of the Lord. Prosper Your Word. Help us even in a season where we could preach a lot of Amos' words to the church of our times. that the message of hope will not be lost upon us. We pray these things in Jesus' worthy name, Amen.