A LION HAS ROARED

Amos 3:1-8

A sermon preached by

Pastor Jim Scott Orrick

September 16, 2001

The title of this morning's message is A Lion Has Roared. I invite you to turn in your Bible to the book of Amos chapter 3. Once having found the book of Amos chapter three, from which I will take my text in just a moment, I urge you to put a marker there so you can readily find it.. Then turn in your Bibles to Ezekiel chapter 16. Those of you who hear me regularly know that I often will begin the message with a story that leads into the sermon. Sometimes it is a story from my childhood, or a story from literature; sometimes it is a story from the Bible. Today it is a story from the Bible that is going to give an introduction to my message, A Lion Has Roared. Before I read Ezekiel 16, I want to answer a question that will probably arise in your mind as you try to understand why it is that I have chosen Ezekiel 16 as the story to introduce my message this morning. I anticipate that the question that may arise in your mind will be: Does the pastor think that the United States of America is directly analogous to Israel under the Old Covenant? Or to state the same question a different way: As Israel was once the chosen nation of God under the Old Covenant, does the pastor believe that America has been or is the chosen nation of God? I will answer that question with an emphatic, No. I do not believe that the United States of America is or has ever been the chosen nation of God in the same way that Israel was the chosen nation of God under the old covenant. But I do believe that there are some striking points of analogy, namely these: as Israel was the recipient of remarkable blessing so also the United States has been the recipient of remarkable blessing. And as there were certain responsibilities that were incumbent upon Israel because they had received these wonderful blessings, so also there are responsibilities incumbent upon America for having received such marked and unusual blessings from God. This principle of obligation following blessing is an axiom that holds true for any people that has been signally blessed by God. Much is required of those who are given much. With that clarification in mind, I am going to read at length from Ezekiel 16. I will try to make some point of application of this story to the United States in our present situation. Again I remind you that this is not my text, it is only a story to introduce my text.

Ezekiel 16

¹Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ²“Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations, ³and say, 'Thus says the Lord GOD to Jerusalem: “Your birth and your nativity are from the land of Canaan; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. ⁴As for your nativity, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed in water to cleanse you; you were not rubbed with salt nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. ⁵No eye pitied you, to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you; but you were thrown out into the open field, when you yourself were loathed on the day you were born.

⁶“And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood, 'Live!' Yes, I said to you in your blood, 'Live!' ⁷I made you thrive like a plant in the field; and you grew, matured, and became very beautiful. Your breasts were formed, your hair grew, but you were naked and bare.

⁸“When I passed by you again and looked upon you, indeed your time was the time of love; so I spread My wing over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine,” says the Lord GOD.

⁹“Then I washed you in water; yes, I thoroughly washed off your blood, and I anointed you with oil. ¹⁰I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of badger skin; I clothed you with fine linen and covered you with silk. ¹¹I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your wrists, and a chain on your neck. ¹²And I put a jewel in your nose, earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head. ¹³Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate pastry of fine flour, honey, and oil. You were exceedingly beautiful, and succeeded to royalty. ¹⁴Your fame went out among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through My splendor which I had bestowed on you,” says the Lord GOD.

¹⁵“But you trusted in your own beauty, played the harlot because of your fame, and poured out your harlotry on everyone passing by who would have it. ¹⁶You took some of your garments and adorned multicolored high places for yourself, and played the harlot on them. Such things should not happen, nor be. ¹⁷You have also taken your beautiful jewelry from My gold and My silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself male images and played the harlot with them. ¹⁸You took your embroidered garments and covered them, and you set My oil and My incense before them. ¹⁹Also My food which I gave you—the pastry of fine flour, oil, and honey which I fed you—you set it before them as sweet incense; and so it was,” says the Lord GOD.

²⁰“Moreover you took your sons and your daughters, whom you bore to Me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your acts of harlotry a small matter, ²¹that you have slain My children and offered them up to them by causing them to pass through the fire? ²²And in all your abominations and acts of harlotry you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, struggling in your blood.

²³“Then it was so, after all your wickedness—'Woe, woe to you!' says the Lord GOD—²⁴that you also built for yourself a shrine, and made a high place for yourself in every street. ²⁵You built your high places at the head of every road, and made your beauty to be abhorred. You offered yourself to everyone who passed by, and multiplied your acts of harlotry. ²⁶You also committed harlotry with the Egyptians, your very fleshly neighbors, and increased your acts of harlotry to provoke Me to anger.

²⁷“Behold, therefore, I stretched out My hand against you, diminished your allotment, and gave you up to the will of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior. ²⁸You also played the harlot with the Assyrians, because you were insatiable; indeed you played the harlot with them and still were not satisfied. ²⁹Moreover you multiplied your acts of harlotry as far as the land of the trader, Chaldea; and even then you were not satisfied.

³⁰“How degenerate is your heart!” says the Lord GOD, “seeing you do all these things, the deeds of a brazen harlot.

³¹“You erected your shrine at the head of every road, and built your high place in every street. Yet you were not like a harlot, because you scorned payment. ³²You are an adulterous wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband. ³³Men make payment to all harlots, but you made your payments to all your lovers, and hired them to come to you from all around for your harlotry. ³⁴You are the opposite of other women in your harlotry, because no one solicited you to be a harlot. In that you gave payment but no payment was given you, therefore you are the opposite.”

³⁵'Now then, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD! ³⁶Thus says the Lord GOD: “Because your filthiness was poured out and your nakedness uncovered in your harlotry with your lovers, and with all your abominable idols, and because of the blood of your children which you gave to them, ³⁷surely, therefore, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved, and all those you hated; I will gather them from all around against you and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness. ³⁸And I will judge you as women who break wedlock or shed blood are judged; I will bring blood upon you in fury and jealousy. ³⁹I will also give you into their hand, and they shall throw down your shrines and break down your high places. They shall also strip you of your clothes, take your beautiful jewelry, and leave you naked and bare.

⁴⁰“They shall also bring up an assembly against you, and they shall stone you with stones and thrust you through with their swords. ⁴¹They shall burn your houses with fire, and execute judgments on you in the sight of many women; and I will make you cease playing the harlot, and you shall no longer hire lovers. ⁴²So I will lay to rest My fury toward you, and My jealousy shall depart from you. I will be quiet, and be angry no more. ⁴³Because you did not remember the days of your youth, but agitated Me with all these things, surely I will also recompense your deeds on your own head,” says the Lord GOD. “And you shall not commit lewdness in addition to all your abominations.”

Now turn in your Bibles to Amos 3. I repeat, I do not believe that the United States of America is exactly analogous to Old Testament Israel, but think of this: If God would treat His own chosen nation with such severity, how much more willingly will He treat with severity a nation that has departed from Him and rebelled against Him, who is not His own chosen nation? Many voices today will be saying, “God had nothing to do with what has happened this past week.” That is a message of despair. If God didn't have anything to do with it, then what are you left with? Fate! Chance! The Devil! The will of men! You've got to make your choice among those four! I'll say more about that in just a moment as to why the consequences, the logical deductions of leaving it to fate, or to chance, or to the devil or to men, is immeasurably more calculated to bring despair than to face the message that I bring to you today from the Word of God. A Lion has roared, and that Lion is none other than the Lord God Himself.

Amos 3: 1-8Amos 3

¹Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying:

² “You only have I known of all the families of the earth;

Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”

³ Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?

⁴ Will a lion roar in the forest, when he has no prey?

Will a young lion cry out of his den, if he has caught nothing?

⁵ Will a bird fall into a snare on the earth, where there is no trap for it?

Will a snare spring up from the earth, if it has caught nothing at all?

⁶ If a trumpet is blown in a city, will not the people be afraid?

If there is calamity in a city, will not the LORD have done it?

⁷ Surely the Lord GOD does nothing,

Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.

⁸ A lion has roared!

Who will not fear?

The Lord GOD has spoken!

Who can but prophesy?

My message today is not a message of comfort. I acknowledge that if I were preaching in New York City, or if I were preaching in Washington D.C. it may be that today I would try to preach a message of comfort. But I am convinced that eventually, even in New York or in Washington D.C., the pastors there will need to preach a sermon very similar to the one that I am going to preach to you today. It may be that next week the Lord will bless me with a message of comfort. But the message that I have for you today from God's Word is a message of awakening.

This is a message that says we ought to respond to what has happened this past week the way we would respond if we, with our children, were camping out someplace, and in the middle of the night we were awakened by loud roaring. If you were in the western part of the United States and you heard a loud roar, then you would probably immediately think, “Grizzly bear!” Whatever you had been thinking prior to hearing that terrifying sound would become relatively insignificant to the danger that you felt you were in once you heard the roar of the grizzly bear. We don't have lions in this country, but let's suppose that you were camping out somewhere in Africa or in Asia where there are lions still in the wild. In the midst of the night, close to your tent, you heard a lion roar. You would begin to make an appropriate response. You would seek safety from the lion; you would try to get to some kind of weapon that would protect you in the event of the lion's attack. You would not simply roll over and go back to sleep. There is a great danger that after having heard the Lion roar this week, America will simply pull up the covers, roll over and go back to sleep. That ought not to be what happens when the Lion has roared.

Before I get into the various parts of my message this morning, I want to remind you that the judgment that comes at the end of the world is a judgment for individuals. The small and the great will stand before God at the Great Day, the judgment for individuals. It is not a judgment for nations. If God, then, is going to bring judgment upon a nation, He must do it now. For a long time pastors have been warning that America must be under the wrath of God. We have pointed to some of the cultural trends that have become accepted and prevalent in our day. We have pointed to them saying, “This is the judgment of God.” But many people have said, “No, this is not the judgment of God; this is just a new life style, this is just the twenty-first century that we are living in. You mustn't expect us to think the way we did one hundred years ago. This is just a new life style that we have in America.” But now, a calamity has occurred in the city, and the Lord has done it. The Lord has sent a judgment upon America, and the effect ought to be that we the people of God, the people who care what God says, will sit up and take notice because the Lion has roared.

Notice in the first place from my text, something that I have already mentioned: Great blessing brings with it great responsibility. Look back with me at verse 2. God says to the children of Israel, You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore, I will punish you for all your iniquities. The second half of this verse may be not exactly what we would have expected. We may have expected something like this, “You only have I known of all the nations of the earth; therefore, I am going to take it easy on you; therefore, I am going to overlook your iniquities and your transgressions because I care for you so much.” That's the kind of thinking that the last one hundred years in this country have led us to adopt regarding people that we love. We have adopted this flabby notion of love that says, “We will not do anything about the transgressions of people that we really care about.” Some parents will say, “I never discipline my children because I love them too much.” That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says that if you hate your son you will neglect to discipline him. The fact of the matter is, if you love yourself too much, you won't discipline your children, but don't say it is because you love your children too much.

Then again, this same philosophy has crept into our churches so that churches will say, “If we love our members, then we will be so longsuffering toward them that we will allow them to do anything and never ever exercise church discipline.” That's not the way the Lord thinks. The Lord thinks, “Because I love you, I am not going to allow you to carry on like this.” Therefore, I think that the events of this past week, which I believe were a judgment from God upon America, give us hope that God does care about The United States of America, and that He does care about His people who live here. He has blessed us with tremendous opportunities to hear His Word. He blessed us with lavish wealth. We are better off than Solomon was in all his splendor. There has never been a people – indeed there has never been a royal dynasty in the history of the world that lived so well as most of our congregation does. We have it so great. But instead of these wonderful blessings causing us to pour out our praise and thanksgiving to God, our nation has become selfish and proud. But along with great privilege, there comes great responsibility. You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. That's the first point, with great privilege goes great responsibility.

Here's the second point: Alliance with God requires agreement with God. Notice verse 3, Can two walk together unless they be agreed? It may be that the people of Amos' time thought, “I don't think the Lord is going to bring any great judgment upon us because, after all, we are the people of God.” Amos says, “Even though you may lay some claim to being God's chosen nation, yet, your practices demonstrate that you are not walking together with God. You cannot expect God to protect you and to watch over you if you are constantly thumbing your nose at Him.” Let me ask you this, Has America been walking with God? As a whole, has our society, has our culture, been walking with God or have we, instead, been thumbing our noses at him? Lately I think there has been quite a bit of nose-thumbing.

Our nations present deplorable condition started not so many years ago with just forgetting God – acting as though God were not present. Even then we should have heeded the warning from God's Word, The wicked will be turned into hell and all nations that forget God. But we began acting as though God were not relevant. “We are not denying His existence,” we said in our public schools and we said in our public forums, “We are not denying God's existence, but we are operating on the philosophy that we can do everything that needs to be done as if God didn't exist. We are not saying in our government schools that God doesn't exist or that God does exist, we are just saying that He is irrelevant. You don't need to have a God in order to study history, or math or to study science.” As that philosophy has blossomed and has grown, then we see some of the results in our own culture today with what has been called post-modernism, the essence of which is: every man constructs his own reality. The post-modernist says, “Something may be true for you, but that doesn't mean it's true for me.” To the post-modernist thinker, Truth is nothing more than a social construction. If enough people believe something to be true, then it is true for them. If a post-modernist is consistent, he cannot condemn the horrific events of this past week. Those men who hijacked the planes were merely acting according to their construct of reality. There are thousands of people who applaud their actions, and will revere their names for having done what they did. But my friends, Truth is not a social construction, it’s a God construction. He has summarized Truth for us in his Holy Bible, and according to the Truth of God’s Word, The men who perpetrated the atrocities of this past week are guilty of mass murder. Those men who were the hijacker-pilots of those planes are even now being punished for their sin in a way that they could not possibly have imagined. These poor dupes thought that they were going to be catapulted into paradise, into the presence of their god. But the sad fact is, their god doesn't even exist, unless he is a demon. Those poor men are even now suffering the eternal wrath of God, and they will never escape from the wrath of God. The point that I am making is that America has not been walking with God, that America has forgotten God. America has acted as though God is not relevant to our studies or to our government. America has forgotten God!

Increasingly, in recent years, not only has America forgotten God, but America has made fun of God. When I was listening to the news on Tuesday morning, the only mention I heard of God's name was when God's name was taken in vain. You would think that of all times, people would have some reverence for the name of God. Instead, in the very throes of despair people were taking God's name in vain. It has become so commonly accepted on television, in the movies, that even Christians seemingly shrug their shoulders and say, “This is not such a bad movie; they may take the Lord's name in vain a half-dozen times, but it's not so bad.” America has forgotten God, America has increasingly taken God's name in vain and taken God's blessings in vain.

But in recent years, America has positively and purposely made itself obnoxious to God, seemingly searching out lifestyles that God has specifically condemned and then rebelliously practicing that kind of life. Let's suppose that you and I were walking down the road together and suddenly for no reason whatsoever I began ignoring you. You said, “Jim, have I done something wrong? Are you ignoring me?” I said, “Yes, I am ignoring you because I think you are insignificant and irrelevant. Furthermore, I don't like any of your ideas, and even though I personally know that you don't like me to use a certain kind of language, I want you to know that I am going to use it from now on. Not only that, I know that you hate to have cigar smoke blown in your face, but I don’t care.” With that, I light up a cigar and blow a big puff of smoke into your face. Then I do everything that I can to hurt you. Would you continue to walk with me? Can two walk together except they be agreed? I think that America in general ought to have a very hard time singing “God bless America” because we have been doing all that we can to alienate God from us. If we are going to have alliance with God, then we must pursue agreement with God. That's my second point.

Now notice verse 4, Will a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey, will a young lion cry out of his den if he has caught nothing? Here's the next point: God has done what He has done with good cause. A lion doesn't roar for no purpose, for no cause. A lion is a silent hunter; he will only roar when he has nearly caught his prey or after he has caught his prey. There is a cause for the lion's roaring. Even so, when we hear God's roar, we have to acknowledge that there has been just cause for His roaring. What are some of the causes, from America in general and then from Christians in particular, that have prompted the Lord God to roar?

From America in general, what are the causes that have given God reason to roar? You could preach this part of the sermon for me, couldn't you? You know that every day in America there are more innocent babies slain in their mother's wombs than were slain in all the tragedy that took place on Tuesday. You think of the horror that stole over your heart as you saw the pictures of those towers crashing down, and you imagined in your mind that those corridors were probably filled with people who were rushing to get out. You knew that thousands of people had died. I believe that God Almighty experiences a horror akin to that everyday as thousands and thousands of little babies, created in His image, are senselessly offered on altars to convenience and so called freedom of choice. The children of Israel offered up their little children to false gods. Americans offer up their children by the thousands and the tens of thousands and by the millions to the gods of convenience, to the gods of prosperity. Doesn't the Lion have a good reason to roar? Then, think further about the perverted lifestyles that have become prevalent in the United States of America: homosexuality and blatant promiscuity between men and women. Adultery is rampant. It is almost taken for granted that our young men and our young women will commit fornication with one another. “They are going to do it, just give them protection against disease and pregnancy; give them instruction about it, and don’t make them feel guilty for what is natural.” This perverted view of fornication has been the accepted message in America in recent years. Doesn't the Lion have reason to roar? Think further about the way divorce has become epidemic in our land. God says, “I hate divorce.” Yet, divorce has become a commonly accepted practice. Doesn't the Lion have just cause to have roared, when you think about the practices of America in general?

But think about the practices of American Christians in particular. Think of how American Christians are now leading the way for ignoring the Word of God. Thankfully, there has been a great turn around in the Southern Baptist Convention, but other denominations are leading the world in telling them that you don't have to believe what God says in His Word. It is sad, but our universities and even our seminaries have become breeding grounds for Christians to go into the rest of the world and say, I have been to America, the Christian nation, and I have come back to tell you that we have taken the Bible too seriously. That's been happening for years. Hasn't the Lion good reason to roar against His professing people, when we persistently and obstinately ignore His Word?

Think about the practices of the religious organizations in America that profess to be churches of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said, If you love Me, keep My commandments. Have you read the letters to the seven churches to Asia Minor lately? God, the Lord Jesus Christ, loved those churches, but one after another He told them, “If you don't repent, I will visit you in anger and I will judge you.” Is Jesus the same Jesus as He was when He inspired John to write the book of Revelation? Is He the same Jesus that cares about the purity of His people? Is He the same? We know that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. He has good reason to execute judgment upon the professing churches of America, the professing Christian churches of America who persistently ignore Him, who say that they are worshiping Him but are worshiping Him in a way that He has not prescribed. Many so-called churches are consumed with triviality. I hope that one of the good effects of what has happened this past week is that in some church services today the performances of the clown ministry will have been cancelled. I hope! Some people may justify the continuance of the clown performance saying, “People need to laugh again, and so we are going to go ahead with our clown services.” But I would say that in most churches around the country, the clown services have been cancelled for today. But the very fact that so many would be having such ridiculousness helps us to say, Yes, the Lion does have just cause to have roared.

Moving on to verse 5, the next point of my message is, God has a distinct purpose for having roared. Looking into the past we see have seen that God has just cause for having roared; now let us look into the future toward the purpose that God might have for having roared. What does God have in mind that should happen here? I've taken it from verse 5 this way; A bird does not get trapped without a trapper designing to catch it. A snare does not simply spring up from the earth for no reason whatsoever. The King James Version gives the impression that a trapper will not take up his trap unless he has caught something. The point that I am making from this is that God does have a purpose. He has laid a snare; the bird has fallen into it. He has a reason for having done it, and He will not give up His intention until His intention has been accomplished. What are some of the intentions that God must have had in His having roared this past week and how successful has He been thus far?

I have seen some good consequences. I think it has been a good thing that we have all been reminded about the important issues of life. Sometimes we get so caught up with baseball and with football and with clothes and with beds and with couches and with cars and with a thousand petty grievances, all of which get jerked into relative insignificance when the Lion roars. I sometimes observe at funerals how this happens. It is almost as though death holds the faces of the mourners between his bony fingers and turns their eyes away from beholding vanity and says, “Look at this, you are going to die, as your loved one has died, you are going to die. Now in light of that fact, what is really important in life?” I thought about those people who were killed this past Tuesday. Some got on a plane; they were no doubt thinking about what they were going to do that afternoon as they arrived at their destination. Some had already pulled out newspapers; they had picked up magazines on the way in. Some had booted up their lap top computers, when suddenly there was a commotion. They saw that something dreadful was happening, and then all the trivialities were forgotten. They began thinking about their family, they began thinking about eternity, they began thinking about God, they began thinking about death, and they began thinking about judgment and heaven and hell. Suddenly everything else became, oh, so unimportant! The roar of the Lion ought to have that sort of influence in your life.

Oh, put away your petty grievances. There's many a wife this morning who is a widow, who wishes that she had not been upset with her husband when he left that last day. There's many a husband who wishes that he had spoken a kind word to his wife, and that they had kissed before she left that day for the office. There's many a child who wishes that they had put away their petty grievances and their disrespect against their parents because now they'll never again be able to show them respect in this life. There are many parents who wish that they had loved their children and would have told them so because now it is too late in this life. That's one good effect that the roaring of the Lion has had and ought to continue to have upon us as we go about our daily lives. Trivialities have been revealed.

I dare say that some churches that are usually happy-go-lucky and pay little attention to the Word of God are this morning searching for reason, are this morning, perhaps, spending more time in prayer, and more time reading God's Word. That's a good effect.

Though I think that some good purposes have been accomplished, I see some other things that have not been learned. For example, a few days ago our President called for a national day of prayer. That's a good thing. But at the national prayer service, I dare say that God was extraordinarily irate with what went on. There were people there who were praying to false gods. You say, “Jim, you are being so closed-minded about this. Don’t you realize that the President had to have other religious traditions represented at a National Prayer Service?” It may have been politically correct but it was morally deceptive and theologically repugnant. Eventually every man and nation must answer the question, “Will I please men, or will I please God?” What is the purpose of a prayer service? Is it to rally American patriotic sentiment? Is it to solidify the unity of religiously diverse peoples in America? A thousand times, “No!” That may be the purpose of what went on last week, but the purpose of a real prayer service is to call upon Almighty God and seek his face. Anything less other than that must be an abomination to God. We can do without the approval of false religious groups in America, but we cannot do without the blessing of God. A “prayer service” that further arouses God’s anger is not what we need. Am I being close-minded? I am being as closed-minded as God is in His Word. Islam is a gigantic lie! Allah is no god! “How long will you halt between two opinions?” Elijah said to the people of Israel on Mount Carmel, “If Yahweh is God, serve Him, but if Baal is god, serve him.” It should be one of our prayers that a gigantic blow will be dealt against Islam in what has happened, because people who believe in Allah are going to hell. They need to be born again; they need the message of Jesus Christ. Jesus said, I am the Way the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father except through Me. Anything that we do that gives the impression that one religion is as good as another and that people can be saved and reconciled to God some way other than through Jesus Christ, is morally irresponsible and theologically repugnant.

Put the practices of the national prayer service in a biblical context then ask yourself the question, “Would God be pleased with that; would God have anything to do with that?” Just imagine if at the dedication of the temple Solomon said, “We are glad to have some of our Philistine brethren with us and they are going to offer a sacrifice to Baal when we get finished offering sacrifices to Yahweh. Then we have some of our Syrian brethren over here, and they are going to offer up some prayers to Asherah, the goddess of heaven. We don't want to be closed-minded about this; we want to be inclusive.” Do you think that God would have been pleased with that? You know good and well that He would not have been pleased with that. I don't believe that God is pleased with it either when Americans, let me rephrase that, when Christians act as though one religion is as good as another. I rephrased that because we really can't expect any better from Americans per se. We can't expect America to show preference to Christianity, but it is a sad day when American Christians act as though there is no difference between our God and the false gods of the world religions.

God has purpose for having roared. Who can question that one of God’s purposes is that we should come to repentance and that we should seek God? The roar of the lion has America frightened, but it has not brought about repentance. In fact, in some ways, our national arrogance has been increased. We are cocksure that we can handle this situation with our superior intelligence gathering and our superior military might. When it comes right down to it, we really think we can handle this situation without God. We would do well to consider the words of the Psalmist in Psalm 33: No king is saved by the multitude of an army; A mighty man is not delivered by great strength. A horse is a vain hope or safety; Neither shall it deliver any by its great strength. Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, On those who hope in His mercy, To deliver their soul from death, And to keep them alive in famine. That is the appropriate attitude, but that clearly is not the current attitude in America. We think we can handle this ourselves.

It can't be done! We must look to God for protection from our enemies. God has spread a net; He's not going to take up His net until His purpose is accomplished. Oh, I hope that God blesses His roaring, and that another roar is not necessary. I am afraid that unless there is a widespread turning to God there will be yet more roaring in the future.

Now for my next point look at verse 6. If a trumpet is blown in a city, will not the people be afraid? They ought to be afraid. I have said enough about that, so I will move on to the last part of verse 6. If there is calamity in a city, will not the Lord have done it? Now there are many misguided, well-intentioned people who say something else. This is what the pastor of the second largest protestant church in America said, “You may hear misguided minds say, 'This must have been God's will.' Nonsense. In a world of free choices, God's will is rarely done; doing our own will is much more common. Don't blame God for this tragedy, blame people who ignored what God has told us to do, 'love your neighbor as yourself'.”

Now, I acknowledge that there is an element of truth in what this brother says. He would no doubt say that I was misguided and that Amos was misguided for what he writes here, “Is there calamity in the city and will not the Lord have done it?” I think he's also misguided when he says, “God's will is rarely done.” That depends on what you mean, but I would say that God's will is always done. His will of purpose is always done; His will of precept may be rarely done. That is, when these men bombed the World Trade Centers with these airplanes, they were disobeying God. They were violating God's will of command, Love your neighbor as yourself, and thou shalt not kill. They were disobeying God, and they are being held accountable for it. But all of this has taken place in God's will of purpose. God does have purpose in it and God is in this calamity.

What's the alternative? I mentioned in the introduction that you have basically four: the alternative that this brother has said: men did it, God had nothing to do with it, men did it. Is that the kind of world you want to live in, where your safety and well being are dependent upon the plans of men? You have another option; that it was just fate, was just blind fate, or that it was just fortune. Things just happened to happen that way. Another option is that it was Satan that did it; Satan is behind it all. There will be many people who will say, “God had nothing to do with it, Satan did it.” What about those choices, that men did it or that Satan did it? Do you want the world under the control of Satan? He's the Prince of the power of the air, yes, but he does not control everything upon the earth. Fate and chance ought never to enter into a Christian's vocabulary much less his thoughts. Is there calamity in a city, will not the Lord have done it? God has purpose in what He has done.

Finally, a verse 7 and 8. Surely the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secrets to His servants, the prophets. Someone might say, Did He reveal this to anyone? It took the FBI by complete surprise. Have any of God's preachers been warning of something like this? Not specifically, we haven't. Of course, we didn't know that something like this was going to happen on September 11. But God's faithful ministers have been saying for years, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness since what may be known about God is plain to them for God has made it plain to them.” God is revealing His wrath and such sudden and drastic revelations of His wrath ought not to take us by surprise.

A Lion has roared. Verse 8 says, Who will not fear, the Lord God has spoken, who can but prophesy? What ought to be the effect in us? It ought to be fear and it ought to be something analogous to prophesying. We ought to fear the Lord God. We ought to examine our own lives. We ought to seek a nearness to God that compels us to walk with Him and say, “Lord, we want Your alliance, and so we want to agree with you. We want to walk with you.” How can two walk together unless they be agreed? Who will not fear? We ought to fear God since He has roared. Secondly, we ought to be faithful proclaimers of the message of hope that Jesus Christ offers to the world. Oh, would to God that many Moslems would turn away from their false religion and turn to Jesus Christ, that they would put their faith in Him and be saved from their sin. Oh, that this would stir us up as the people who have the message of God, the message of salvation through Jesus Christ, that we would be more faithful to preach God's truth because it is only in the preaching of God's truth that men and women around this world can be saved. Let's go to the Lord in prayer:

I remember, Father, when King Jehoshaphat was confronted with a foe that he did not have the resources to withstand, and he prayed, “Lord, we don't know what to do but our eyes are upon You.” Even so, Father, we today join our hearts and our voices with many of our brothers and sisters around the country and around the world who raise a similar prayer. We don't know what to do, but our eyes are upon You. We hear Your roaring in this, Lord. We see Your hand and we acknowledge that You have just cause for having roared, and we also know that You have good purpose in having roared. We pray, Lord, that You will bless this roaring of Yours that it will stimulate fear in the hearts of America, and that we will not fear terrorists so much as we will fear You. We pray that we will look to You as our protector, that we will sing anew with Your people as they have been singing down through the ages, I lift up mine eyes unto the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, (Yahweh) the maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip; He who watches over you will not slumber. Indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. Yahweh watches over you, Yahweh is the shield at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day nor the moon by night. Yahweh will keep you from all harm, he will watch over your life. Yahweh will watch over your coming and your going both now and forevermore. We remember the teaching of Your Word, that unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain that build it at all. Father, we are vulnerable. In our pride have perhaps assumed that no one could do what has happened this past week but we have learned that we are vulnerable. In spite of all our precautions, we remain vulnerable and we look to You for protection. You are our light and You are our salvation. Having feared You, then help us to put our hearts at rest and say, We will not be afraid of what men can do to us. Lord, we pray that You will give us, Your people, a great calm, a peace that transcends understanding and that You might be pleased to even use the peace and the calm of Your people to be a testimony to those who have great cause to be afraid. We pray, Lord, that You will make this providential visitation of Yours upon our country to be effective in the destruction of the strongholds of evil, cast down principalities and powers and wickedness in high places. Deal a severe blow to the ugly head of false religion but establish Your truth. We pray that the gospel will prosper today. We pray that many who have previously been unconcerned about their soul's welfare will be taught by the events of this week that their life hangs by a thread and that one moment they could be sipping their first cup of morning coffee and the next moment be in eternity. Impress that same lesson upon many who now hear me. We pray that You will direct our attention away from the trivialities of life. We pray that our marriages will be strengthened and delivered from pettiness as a result of this roaring of Yours. We pray that our families will be delivered from pettiness and trivialities as a result of this. Help us to be a people who seek first Your kingdom and Your righteousness and may all these other insignificancies be like the dust on the balance to us. Help us to be concerned with eternal verities and eternal realities. Call us to Yourself, Lord, spread Your wings and gather us under the protection of Your wings and keep us safe until the storm passes over. Hide us in the shadow of the great Rock in a weary land. Help us to sing in the shadow of your wings. And while we are sheltered beneath the arms of the Almighty, help us to take comfort that we hear Your own voice singing over us and rejoicing over us in the time of trouble. We pray all this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.