A FAMINE FOR THE BREAD OF LIFE
Dr. W.A. Criswell
Amos 8:11
1-11-81
It's a gladness for us and our dear First Baptist
Church in Dallas to share this hour with the uncounted multitudes of you who
are watching on television and listening on the two radio stations that bear
it. The message today is the last in
the series on Bibliology.
Next Sunday we begin the
series on God, theology proper, the title of the sermon next Sunday morning
will be: God And The Reasoning Mind:
Then
the next Sunday: God And The First Universal Fact:
Then
the next Sunday: What Is Wrong With Being An Atheist?
The
next Sunday: He That Cometh To God:
The
next Sunday: Is There A God Who Cares About Me?
The
next one: The Abounding Grace of God:
And
the last: The Unfathomable Mystery Of The Trinity.
That
will be the series, the doctrinal series (the “theology proper”) on God. Then, that will be followed by the series on
Christology, the series on Jesus our Lord.
Today, on this hour, the last in the
long series on the Bible itself, on Bibliology—The message is entitled: A
Famine For The Word of Life. In
Amos, the prophet Amos, chapter eight, verses 11 and 12:
Behold the day is come, saith the Lord
God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, not a famine
of thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord:
And they shall wander from sea to sea,
and they shall wander into the East, they shall run to and fro to seek the word
of the Lord, and shall not find it.
A Famine For The Word Of God: Amos was a country preacher. He lived in Tekoa, which is by the Dead Sea
in the wilderness of Judea. And God
sent him to the Northern Kingdom of Israel, to Bethel, the capital, the king's
court and the king's chapel. And there
he delivered the message of the Lord.
The land trembled under the weight of his words. You could not imagine a deeper contrast
between what Amos was preaching and the estate of the nation. He was preaching judgment. And the nation was at it highest zenith of
prosperity and national strength.
Uzziah was king of Judah, the Southern
kingdom; one of the wisest and ablest administrators Judea ever had. He reigned for fifty-two years. Jeroboam II, was king of Israel, the ablest general
Israel ever had. He reigned for
forty-one years. The kingdoms were stable
and those leaders had brought their people to a national affluence never seen
before. They had recreated the
Solomonic glory in Judah and in Israel.
The people were marvelously and aboundingly blessed. Amos refers to the fact that they have
summer homes and winter homes. He
refers to their ivory palaces. He
speaks of the ivory couches upon which they rest. He describes the unbounding, overflowing optimism of the nation:
“Tomorrow will be a better day than today!”
Then “the Day of the Lord,” which
Amos says is a judgment of God. The Day
of the Lord, to them was one without evil or interference from heaven. All of that in 760 B. C. and, in 722 B. C.,
a few years later, the nation was destroyed forever! Never was there a prophet again in Israel, and never did the
nation rise anymore.
As I think of the abounding optimism and
blindness of those people to the judgments of Almighty God; as I think of them
and there illimitable prosperity and optimism, I think of America and America's
leading, far-famed liberal preacher, Harry Emerson Fosdick in the
thirties. I went to hear him in New
York City. He was riding the crest of
liberal, theological popularity: “No more war—never! No more bloodshed—never!
The millennium is at hand. Peace
and prosperity are becoming universal.”
That was the preaching of Fosdick and all of the little Fosdicks who
followed after him in their pulpits.
That was in the thirties; and in 1939,
Hitler unleashed his dogs of war on the whole world and bathed the earth in
human blood. That is the judgment of
Almighty God!
So, in the days of Amos, when the nation
was at its highest peak of prosperity, and strength, and stability, God took
that country preacher in the wilderness of Judea and sent him up to Bethel, and
there he delivered the Word of the Lord.
And as he preached, he delivered four judgments of Almighty God. The first is found in Amos, chapter five,
verse 27: "Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond
Damascus, saith the Lord, whose name is The God of hosts."
And he repeats that judgment in the
seventeenth verse of the seventh chapter: "…And Israel shall surely go
into captivity forth out of his land."
The first judgment of Almighty God upon Israel is that, they will go
into slavery, into exile and into captivity.
The second judgment of God upon Israel,
built upon by the prophet Amos, is found in the seventh chapter and the [ninth]
verse:
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 a sword.
The first judgment of God is Israel
shall go into captivity. The second judgment of the Almighty is desolation and
waste. The third judgment of Almighty
God is found in chapter eight, verse [three]:
And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in
that day, saith the Lord God: there shall be many dead bodies in every place;
they shall cast them forth with silence.
The first judgment, slavery and exile;
the second judgment, waste and desolation; and the third judgment, death on
every side—dead everywhere! And those
few who still remain, cast forth the dead bodies in astonishing silence.
The fourth, and the last judgment, is in
an altogether different category. The
first of slavery, the second of desolation, the third of death; then the fourth
climactic:
Thus saith the Lord, I will send a
famine in the land, not a famine of bread or thirst for water, but of hearing
the words of the Lord.
They shall wander from sea to sea, from
the north to the south, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord,
and shall not find it.
What do you think about that? Do you think in a judgment of Almighty God,
of slavery and of desolation and of death, that the climactic and awesome and
final one would be a judgment of famine for the Word of God? What do you think about that? We cannot but pause before it. In Psalms 74, verse 9. The illimitable cry of the Psalmist Asaph:
"[We see] not our signs: there is no more any prophet: neither is there
any among us anymore that knoweth how long.”
What an awesome judgment it is among a
people when God doesn't hear, when God passes us by. One of the solemn refrains in Amos—you will find it again and
again—In chapter seven, verse eight: "I will not again pass by them any
more." You will find it again,
typically so, in chapter eight, verse two: "I will not again pass by them
any more."
Do you remember the Fifth Symphony of
Beethoven? That judgmental note: “ta,
ta, ta—TAH!” Do you remember that—and
all through that Fifth Symphony, that resounding judgment? It sounds to me, that Almighty God, “da, da,
da—DAH!” That's exactly the way it is
with the Lord God about Israel:
I will not pass them anymore.
I will not pass them anymore.
There will be no more prophets.
There will be no more answers from
heaven.
There is no Word of God anymore.
What
an awesome judgment!
When Saul went to the witch of Endor—a
thing interdicted in Israel on a pain of death. When Saul went to the witch of Endor, he begged for the rising up
of the dead prophet, Samuel. And out of
deference, in a judgment upon Saul, God raised the apparition and the spirit of
Samuel. Do you remember the cry of
Saul? Great God, what a cry! He said:
I am sore distressed; and the Philistines make war
against me, and God has departed from me, and will not answer me, and there is
not any prophet (and there is not any word from heaven), and I don't know what
to do.
And Samuel's voice: “Because of your
disobedience God hath judged you. And
tomorrow, at this time, you and your sons will be slain. And all Israel will be handed over into the
hands of the Philistines."
Can you imagine a cry like that? "I am sore distressed and I am pressed
on every side and God has departed me!
And there is no answer from heaven and I don't know what to do and I
don't know where to turn!"
The final and climactic judgment from
God, upon Israel: Could we pause and look at that just for a moment? The first judgment was slavery, and exile,
and captivity. But what are slavery and
exile and captivity if God is with us?
John, the sainted apostle, was exiled to the barren, rocky island of
Patmos, there to die of exposure and starvation. But while he was on the Isle of Patmos, he heard a great voice,
as of a trumpet. And he turned to see
the voice that spake unto him. And
there stood, in all of His meridian glory, the raised and immortalized, Lord
Jesus. And when he fell to His feet as
dead, the Lord put His right hand upon him as He had many, many times in His
flesh, and said to him: "Fear not, fear not, I am He that liveth and was
dead. And behold, I am alive
forevermore and I have the keys of hell and of death."
What is exile, or slavery, or captivity,
or imprisonment if God is with you? It
is being without God that makes slavery an awesome judgment from an
Almighty. The second one was
desolation—waste, loss. But what are
fire, and flood, and desolation, and loss if God is with us? Job sat in an ash heap and cried so
pitifully and piteously: "Naked came I forth from my mother's womb and
naked shall I return hither. The Lord
gave and the Lord hath taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord."
What does it matter if fire, or flood, or waste, or
disaster, or destruction takes away everything we posses. If only God is with us. A Turkish woman in a hospital in Konya,
ancient Iconium—where Paul preached on his first missionary journey—a Turkish
woman, in that hospital, was singing this song.
Trample upon me, yea, tread on my head.
Consume me with terror, Thou judge of
the dead.
If only, O God, I thus, Thee may know.
And Thee wants me whole, while I tarry
below.
Throw me like Abraham, unto the fire.
Like Moses, with hope, from the land I
desire.
If only, O God, I thus, Thee may know.
And Thee wants me whole, while I tarry
below.
Hang me like Jesus, upon the rude tree.
Or a beggar, like Lazarus, through life
I would be.
If only, O God, I thus, Thee may know.
And Thee wants me whole, while I tarry
below.
It is nothing if God is with us. The last judgment was death; but what is
death if we have the promise of the presence of God standing by? When they stoned Stephen, he looked up, into
heaven. And there, when heaven opened,
he saw Jesus, the Son of God, standing on the right hand of glory, ready to
receive His first Christian martyr.
Everywhere, in the Bible, universally, without exception, Jesus is
always seated on the right hand of the Majesty on high. In that one place He stands. Why?
To receive His first Christian martyr into glory.
What is death if God is there—if the
Word of the promise of the sacred page is with us to comfort and strengthen our
souls? I don't know a more sublime
passage of human literature then the last words of the apostle Paul wrote to
his son in the ministry:
(Timothy), I am ready to be offered up, the time of
my departure is at hand (Nero's executioner's ax is waiting at the prison
door.)
I fought a good fight, I have kept the faith, I have finished my
course: Henceforth there is laid upon
me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord… will give to me: not only to me,
but to all those who love his appearing.
It is a triumph. Our greatest and finest hour of victory will
be that day when the trumpets blow on the other side of the river and God's
saint has gone home. What is it to die
if God is with you? Death is grim, and fierce,
and awesome, and terrible only if God isn’t near; if there is no word from
heaven; if there is no promise from above; if there is no assurance, that a
quiet, sweet, welcoming hand is extended to us beyond the darkness of that deep
and midnight grief.
And that is the tragedy that is
overwhelming our modern world. We have
turned aside from the Word, which is the Living Water of life and have hewn
ourselves our cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. We have exchanged God for a textbook on
humanism. We've turned aside from the
living Word of the living God, and have followed blind, and adventitious, and
fortuitous systems.
Our prophets today are not Moses, and
Paul, and John. We have exchanged them
for Charles Darwin, and Karl Marx, and Sigmund Freud. More and more, our entire world is swept away by the textbooks of
humanism—false intellectualism, pseudo-science, secularism, materialism—all of
the things that grip our modern life, leaving God out of the equation. And we see the evidence of it on every hand.
Out of our daily newspaper, I read
this. A man is criticizing another man
for quoting from the Bible and he says:
Quoting from the Bible, to substantiate is idiocy.
That is a grievous mistake; research would have shown that the Bible was
written at unknown times, by unknown authors, and assembled in the fourth
century at Nicea. And the writings of
the Bible can be given no historical credence today. To believe in Christ as to actually have existed, one is to
believe that these late writings are divinely inspired. That is a gulf you can bridge. Surely, we can forget the myths and legends
of the Bible, or merely accept them as such.
And swept away by the liberal,
theological position of the academic community, ministers of the gospel stand
in the pulpits and refer, never at all, to the Holy Word of God.
I copied this from the Dallas Morning
News:
Ministers of the Gospel got a suggestion from
editor, Ernest Joyner, in the Rawles Banner, who had bought a Bible. “It cost $14.95,” he wrote, "It has
seven hundred seventy-three thousand, six hundred ninety-two words in it, and
it is such interesting reading. We are
considering asking ministers of our acquaintance to base a Sunday sermon on it one
day when there is a lull upon it in a congregation from an overdose of
economics, labor, statistic, soil conservation, politics and a lagging
subscription campaign."
Just typical! And God looks down upon this world—and there is a judgment day
coming. I have quoted from an
evangelist, the most famous that ever lived, Billy Graham. I am quoting from an agnostic, H. G. Wells;
from an atheist, George Bernard Shaw; and from the most distinguished
journalist in the world today, the British Christian, social critic, Malcolm
Muggeridge.
Billy
Graham:
“Man is on a collision course, probably heading
into a third world holocaust, which might well, destroy humanity between now
and year 2000.”
The
agnostic, H. G. Wells, the brilliant, English historian and social critic:
“The end of everything we call life is at hand and
cannot be evaded.”
I
quote from George Bernard Shaw, the Irish dramatist and essayist. At the close of his life—he died in 1950—at
the close of his life, he wrote:
"The science to which I pin my
faith is bankrupt. Its counsels, which should
have established the millennium, have led directly to the suicide of the human
race."
And
last, from Malcolm Muggeridge:
"We live in a world of scientific achievement
and gross materialism. We have sown the
wind of egotistic humanism, and God help us, we are reaping the
whirlwind."
As though the scientific advancement
that bring to us the gadgets we enjoy in life could save us; as the
psychoanalytical processes and approaches could save us. As though all of the changing of the
political machinery and labor in Karl Marx's “Das Kapital” could save
us. Our world is increasingly bankrupt
as we grope with super military leaders, and totalitarian dictators, and a
thousand other panaceas that lead us into ultimate, abysmal despair.
What we need, in the face of the famine
for the Word of God, is to rediscover the word and the message of the prophets
and the apostles of the Lord God for our souls, for our lives, for our houses
and homes, for our nation, for the nations of the world, for the peoples of all
humanity. And what a glorious vista of
hope that such a thing could ever be: A return to the Word and the message of
the Lord.
Do you remember reading in the life of
good king Josiah, in repairing the temple?
Hilkiah, the high priest, and Shaphan, the prophet, came to the king and
said: "We have found the Word of the Lord, we have found the Book of
God!" And it brought a great
revival that spared Judah from the awesome judgment that fell upon Jeroboam.
When I was pastor in Oklahoma, Governor
Marlin, erected a marvelous, impressive, bronze statue in his home city of
Ponca City. It is of a glorious,
pioneer woman. And standing there,
looking at that remarkable piece of sculpture, your heart could not but be
moved, as looking at that pioneer woman.
On one hand, she is holding the hand of a child and with the other hand
she is cradling the Word of God. This
is our hope, this is our salvation, this is our promise, this is the way; as
God says: "You will hear a voice from behind you saying, This is the way,
walk ye in it."
Whether it is the living Word (Christ),
or whether it is the living Word (Bible), both are called the Word. And when I exalt the living Word, I glorify
the written Word. If I dishonor the
written Word, I do disparaging disgrace to the living Word.
Lord God, send us an abounding manna
from heaven. Not a famine for the Word
of life, but angels food, God's revelation, our hope and promise, now and
forever.
May we stand together? Dear God, in a day of the clamorous voices
of ten thousand false philosophies of humanism; that blots Thy name out of the
very life of a nation; of a secularism and materialism that lives as though God
didn't exist and this world would last forever—O Lord, in the midst of the
darkening clamor, may we hear the voice of the Lord, written on the peaks. Dear Lord, listening, may God find a
responsive heart. May it be a new day
for us, a glorious beginning again.
While our people pray and stand before
God, in this quiet moment of appeal, in the balcony, round to the throng on
this lower floor, a family you, a couple you, or just one, somebody you, giving
your heart to God, deciding for Christ, coming in to this dear church. And welcome!
And the multitude of you, on radio and
on television, who have listened to this message, may the famine of the bread
of life be turned into the bounding abundance of God seeing us, the Lord caring
for us, the Lord saving us. Can you
bear where you are, giving your heart to Christ? Welcome!
And on this lower floor and on the
balcony here in this sanctuary, down one of those stairways, down one of the
aisles: "Here I am pastor, here I come." And bless you already here at the front. Thank Thee, Lord, for the pastor thank Thee,
Lord, for the answered prayer and the sweet harvest that You give us now—In Thy
wonderful and saving name. Amen.
While we sing and while we appeal:
"Here I am pastor." Our men
welcome you and angels welcome you.
Come, come, God love you, Son.
.
