Do you Fear the Lion's Roar?

In his famous book- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe- C.S. Lewis depicts Jesus as Aslan the mighty lion. One of the famous quotes from that book is from a conversation between Susan and Mr. Beaver when the children first learn about the mysterious King.

Mr. Beaver begins the subject: “Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion." "Ooh" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion"..."Safe?" said Mr Beaver ..."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.”

― C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Christians, I want you to think about this question: Should we really fear the Lion’s roar?

Romans 8:1 ESV

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

1 Peter 1:17 ESV

And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,

Hebrews 10:31 ESV

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

If you are not a Christian then you have much about God to fear. You have most vividly His wrath to deal with!

John 3:36 ESV

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

You need to be saved from you sin and from God’s wrath. And God has provided for you a way to be saved. One of the most important steps in coming to God and receiving his gift of salvation is understanding your own sinfulness and comprehending God as He really is. He is a mighty lion roaring in judgement over sin.

Friend, you need to see God clearly as He is.

We have all seen displays of unbelievers blaspheming God because they don’t believe in Him, and they don’t know Him as He truly is. If they really knew God they would tremble and cry out for His mercy.

Example: Satanic conference- tearing out pages of the Scripture and taking selfies for social media.

If they only knew what God is like they wouldn’t dare!

2 Peter 2:10–12 (ESV)

and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones,

whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord.

But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction,

Revelation 20:11 ESV

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.

Romans 3:19 ESV

Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

This is reality. This is what will happen when unbelievers stand before God. What if those people really saw what God was like now? Do you think they would respond differently? So why is it Christian, that you and I can sin and in a similar way, not fear the Lion’s roar?

Why don’t unbelievers? because they don’t know what God is really like! Why don’t we? Because we don't’ really know what God is like!

“The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him.” (Tozer)

Have we entertained unworthy thoughts about God for so long that we no longer fear when He roars in judgment over sin?

“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” (A.W. Tozer)

Tozer laments the way the church of his day thought about God,

“The Church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshiping men … The low view of God entertained almost universally among Christians is the cause of a hundred lesser evils everywhere among us. A whole new philosophy of the Christian life has resulted from this one basic error in our religious thinking.”

We don’t really fear God’s word, because we don’t vividly comprehend God as He is! We don’t see a mighty roaring lion!

Amos preached to the Northern Kingdom of Israel so that they might see clearly who God really was.

Friends, how can we fear God’s roar? We must see Him as He is!

What about God do we need to see clearly?

Amos proclaims for us five truths about God that we must understand if we are to see God as He really is. Only this will allow us to rightly fear the Lion’s roar.

I. When we sin we offend the ONE who elects with undeserved kindness (vv. 1-2)

The first characteristic of God that Amos highlights in his message to the nation of Israel is that of God’s grace.

Amos 3:1 (ESV)

Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt:

Keep your eyes open to this theme as we progress through chapter three. Amos is abundantly sure that his audience knows that these are the very words of the LORD. God is speaking. Amos also uses various names of God to reinforce who God is. He begins his discourse by using the Hebrew name Yahweh.

The most utilized name of God in the book of Amos is Yahweh (81 times). The theological significance of this name is meant to underline God’s covenant name and relationship with Israel.

So it is a very fitting name of God to use in his introduction.

Amos 3:1 (ESV)

Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt:

God is speaking a word of judgement against the people of Israel. The whole family that God gracious brought up out of the land of Egypt. These are the people that are in a special relationship with God. He chose them, he delivered them, he brought them out of the land of Egypt and into the land of Canaan. They are God’s people, the people of His own choice.

Amos 3:2 (ESV)

“You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.

You only- is in the emphatic position in the original language, it is positioned ahead of the verb. The intended meaning here is “you alone, you and no one else.”

God chose them, going all the way back to Abraham, from all the other nations of the earth.

This is speaking of the biblical concept of election. The basic ideal of election is God choosing something or someone. Here God chooses Israel out of all of the other families of the earth. God, according to his own good pleasure and purpose bestowed on Israel a special love that he did not bestow on the other nations. And why did God choose Israel? Not because the merited it or deserved it. God choose them for his own good pleasure and by His grace.

MTP Class: Grace- God bestowing his favor upon those who don’t want it, can’t earn it, and can’t repay it.

This is who God is!

Exodus 34:6–7 (ESV)

The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,

This is where Amos starts in proclaiming who God is. God is the one who graciously elects. He is the one who chose you out of his unmerited kindness. What does that have to do with judgement?

Amos 3:2 (ESV)

“You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.

God connects his gracious choice of Israel with His coming punishment for their sin.

I chose you of all the families of the earth, therefore!

Amos was reminding these Israelites that their special relationship with God carried with it special responsibilities and accountability.

What were those special responsibilities? Well, how did God choose Israel? What did He do to make known his choice of the nation? He made covenants with them. What were the stipulations of the covenants? Specifically the Mosaic Covenant? If you obey me I will bless you, but if you disobey me I will curse you.

This is what Amos is reminding the people of. God chose you, you are in a special covenant relationship with Him. You are violating that covenant, therefore this is what Yahweh says to: “I will punish you” I think each of those words are significant here. I WILL PUNISH YOU!

Illustration: How do we feel this? How do we feel this in the Lion’s roar? How does it make us fear God? Do you remember one of the main points of the prophets? They function like a bucket of ice water. They preach a consistent message they just do it in ways that shocks people awake. One of the other minor prophets does this very vividly and brings home the point Amos is making here in chapter 3.

There was this one guy that God command and said, “Go and marry a wife of whoredom (adulteress / prostitute), and I want you to have children with her.” Who was that prophet? Hosea. Why would God do that? That is a shocking thing to ask isn’t it? That is startling to read and think about even thousands of years later.

Why was this act so shocking? Because marriage is a covenant. It is a unique special relationship that pictures the relationship between God and His people.

Imagine having to marry someone who you know is going to be unfaithful. Imagine you graciously chose this one that didn’t deserve it, didn’t really want it, and couldn’t repay it. Then imagine that one betraying you by being unfaithful time after time after time.

And as shocking as it is to violate the marriage covenant, it is more shocking for God’s people to violate their covenant with God.

Do you want to fear the lion’s roar over sin? You must know God as the one who elects with undeserved kindness.

Refutation: That was God’s relationship with Israel, but my sin as a NT believer is different. It isn’t as significant.

Ephesians 5:25–27 ESV

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

James 4:4 ESV

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Application: Friends, do you see God this way? Do you see God as one who chose you because of his unmerited kindness? You should!

Ephesians 1:4–6 (ESV)

even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love

he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,

to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

Ephesians 1:11–12 (ESV)

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,

so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

Do you think of God this way? Do you think of your Savior, Jesus Christ is way? Can you hear in the Lion’s roar tones of betrayal and heart-brake?

Do you fear God’s roar?

Hosea 2:13 ESV

And I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals when she burned offerings to them and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry, and went after her lovers and forgot me, declares the Lord.

Friend, will you repent? Will you turn from you sin? Will you cry out to God in confession? If you do his grace awaits you!

Hosea 2:14–17 ESV

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. “And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more.

Hosea 2:19–20 ESV

And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.

This is your God, the one who elects with unmerited kindness. Do you fear His roar?

What else must we know about God to fear the Lion’s roar?

II. When we sin we offend the ONE that permits with unrivaled providence (vv. 3-6)

Amos 3:3–6 ESV

“Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet? Does a lion roar in the forest, when he has no prey? Does a young lion cry out from his den, if he has taken nothing? Does a bird fall in a snare on the earth, when there is no trap for it? Does a snare spring up from the ground, when it has taken nothing? Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster come to a city, unless the Lord has done it?

III. When we sin we offend the ONE that prophesies with unerring certainty (vv. 7-8)

Amos 3:7–8 ESV

“For the Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets. The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken; who can but prophesy?”

IV. When we sin we offend the ONE that acts with incomprehensible justice (vv. 9-11)

Amos 3:9–11 ESV

Proclaim to the strongholds in Ashdod and to the strongholds in the land of Egypt, and say, “Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria, and see the great tumults within her, and the oppressed in her midst.” “They do not know how to do right,” declares the Lord, “those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds.” Therefore thus says the Lord God: “An adversary shall surround the land and bring down your defenses from you, and your strongholds shall be plundered.”

V. When we sin we offend the ONE that punishes with inescapable judgement (vv. 12-15)

Amos 3:12–15 ESV

Thus says the Lord: “As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the people of Israel who dwell in Samaria be rescued, with the corner of a couch and part of a bed. “Hear, and testify against the house of Jacob,” declares the Lord God, the God of hosts, “that on the day I punish Israel for his transgressions, I will punish the altars of Bethel, and the horns of the altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground. I will strike the winter house along with the summer house, and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall come to an end,” declares the Lord.