The sermon by Peter Allison explores the prophecy from Amos 9, focusing on the restoration of the tabernacle of David. It delves into the historical context of the ark of the covenant, including its capture by the Philistines and the subsequent events that led to its return and placement in the tabernacle constructed by David. The sermon interprets the tabernacle of David as a symbol of the Gospel's extension to Gentiles, highlighting the integration and unity of Jews and Gentiles in the faith. It references the New Testament, specifically Acts 15, to explain how the early church understood the fulfillment of this prophecy with the coming of Christ and the spreading of the Gospel beyond Jewish boundaries. The sermon also discusses the nature of God's covenant, the typological role of Old Testament structures, and the ongoing spiritual restoration that believers experience. Ultimately, it asserts that the prophecy's fulfillment is a present reality, demonstrated by the inclusion of Gentiles in the church and the spiritual blessings that accompany this inclusion.

Please turn to Amos chapter 9. And I believe this will be our concluding message in this series. Starting today at the last part of chapter 9, beginning at verse 11. Hear God's word. On that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David which has fallen down and repair its damages.

I will raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom. And all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord who does this thing. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows seed, and the mountain shall drip with sweet wine, and all hills shall flow with it. I will bring back the captives of My people Israel. They shall build the waste cities and inhabit them.

They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them. They shall make gardens and eat fruit from them. I will plant them in their land. And no longer shall they be pulled up from the land I have given them, says the Lord your God." May this law be our delight and lead us to long for His salvation. Heavenly Father, please open our ears and give us faith that this word that we have heard might be mixed with faith, that it might lead us to greater love and obedience of You.

And please sanctify this vessel of clay in my sinful lips that I might proclaim Your gospel of grace and prevent me, Lord, from error. In Jesus' name, Amen. The truth is sometimes very hard to hear, isn't it? Especially if it's a message of judgment, a message of condemnation, of pointing out something we've done wrong or where we've erred or gone astray. That can be very unpleasant.

It can be hard to deliver that kind of a message when it concerns judgment and not blessing. And Amos' message that we've been looking at in this book that the Lord has given him has been very direct and certainly not filled with wonderful news. Sprinkled throughout have been little hints of Mercy and grace, yes. But in this closing words of this final vision of this book is really a most wonderful and glorious promise. And It's that promise that we want to look at this morning.

That promise is a promise to build or raise the tabernacle of David to restore the ruins, to repair the damages, to bring in the Gentiles who are called by God's name. But what is the tabernacle of David? We talk about the tabernacle of the Mosaic tabernacle, or the Mosaic temple, or Solomon's temple. What is the tabernacle of David? He's a king.

We talk about maybe the kingdom of David, David's kingdom, but what is the tabernacle of David? Well, to answer that question, we really need to go back to 1 Samuel 4, where the ark is taken into the battlefield. Remember the Israelites in the days of Eli are battling the Philistines and they are losing. And they are losing badly. And they think that if we can just get the Ark out here on the battlefield, then we'll be able to win.

And so they go get the Ark, thinking that it's some kind of magical box that will somehow magically defeat the Philistines if it's out there on the battlefield with them. Well, you know the story. The Philistines go into battle after being encouraged by their leaders that the ark wasn't going to make a difference. And they should act like men and get out there and fight. They do, and Israel is defeated.

And everyone flees, and the ark is captured and there's a great slaughter, and 30, 000 Israelites die that day, and Menus comes back to Eli. He's old. He falls over and dies. His daughter-in-law is giving birth, and she names the child that's born. The glory has departed." Ichabod.

The Philistines now have this ark. They think initially this is great. They take it back and stick it with their god Dagon. They wake up the next morning and he's collapsed. And they try it again and he falls over again and then he starts breaking things.

And then they realize we need to get this box out of here, this ark. We can't have it. So they pass it around from city to city. And every city it goes, it doesn't go well with these Philistines. So it goes from Ashdod to Gath to Ekron.

But in each of these cities, it doesn't go well, and they try to pass it off to the next city. When it gets to Ekron, then people start dying. They start getting tumors. And finally, in desperation, in 1 Samuel 5, verse 11, they gather together all the lords of the Philistines to try and figure out what to do with this curse that's upon them. They realize that this ark is the source of their troubles.

And they realize wisely that they need to get rid of it. Get it out of their land if they are going to be able to live in peace. And they decide to send the ark of God of Israel and let it go back to its own place so that it does not kill us and our people. And the Bible says this ark was seven months. This ark of the covenant.

Seven months among the Gentiles. This is the ark where the mercy seat was. And they send it back, and you know there's a miraculous story associated with that. God doesn't need anybody to get this ark back. They put it on a cart with new cows, heifers with calves, new calves, and the cows ignore their heifers and carry the ark back where it was sent.

And when the Philistines saw that, they recognized that there was a miracle here. And it went to a Levite city, Beth-Shemesh. And in the first Samuel 6, as we move this story forward, God struck the men of Beth-shemesh because they looked into the ark of the Lord. He struck 50, 000 and 70 men of the people. These are Levites.

They are sort of known to respect the ark, this holy piece of furniture in the temple. A piece of furniture that's made after the pattern of something in the heavens, and something that we looked yesterday at the death of Nadab. Last week in the regulative principle of worship at the death of Nadab and Abihu because they offered strange fire. Well, this is a very similar situation. They look into the ark.

They weren't supposed to do that. That's not how they were to take care of it, and God struck them dead. And so they say, who is able to stand before this holy God, and to whom shall it go up from us? They don't want this thing. It's a terrible thing to fall into the hands of an angry God.

And so, 1 Samuel 6, 21 says, they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kirjath-Jurum, saying, the Philistines have brought the Ark of the Lord. Come down and take it with you. We don't want it. So the men of Kirjath-Jurum came and took the Ark of the Lord and they brought it into the house of Abinadab on the hill and they consecrated Eliezer his son to keep the Ark of the Lord. So this Ark has been seven months in Gentile territory with the Philistines.

It comes back and very quickly gets, it comes back to a Jewish city, Israelite city, a Levite city. But they quickly don't want it because they didn't honor it properly. And so it goes back to Kirjath-Juram. This is a Gentile city. Joshua 9 says, "...then the children of Israel journeyed and came to their cities..." That's the Gibeonites.

Remember the Gibeonites had come and deceived Joshua. So Joshua made this treaty with them, thinking that they were far, far away, but it turns out they're not. So the children of Israel journeyed. They came to their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, at Chephira, Beiroth, and Chiridhath-Jeram.

Chiridhath-Jeram is a Gentile city of the Gibeonites. They weren't considered children of Israel. 2 Samuel 21.2 says, Now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites. The children of Israel had sworn protection to them, but Saul had sought to kill them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah." That was a zeal that wasn't according to knowledge and it brought God's judgment on him because Saul did not honor this covenant. And so the ark remained in Kiryat Yiram, this Gentile, this Gibeonite city, non-Jewish, non-Israelite city.

It stayed there a long time, 20 years. And all the houses in 1 Samuel, that all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord. And it was there for 20 years. When the people renewed the covenant at Mizpah. And that happened in, I have Judges 13, but that was a little bit later in 1 Samuel.

But at that time, after the 20 years, Samuel didn't move that ark. It stayed there all during the reign of Saul, which was 40 years. And it stayed there then seven more years after David began reigning because he didn't get this ark until both the north and the south, Judah and Israel were united under him. And that happened seven years after him. So we have here quite a long time that this ark is under Gentile control.

And then when David finally did attempt to move that ark, you remember what happened. That's when Uzzah reached out his hand to touch it, to keep it from stumbling, and God killed him. And David then became upset and a little bit angry at God, and so he didn't take it into Israel. He put it over in the house of Obed-Edom, a get-tite. That would make him a Philistine from Gath.

That's what a get-tite is. Obed-Edom the get-tite. He's a Philistine from Gath. He's a Gentile convert to Judaism. He feared God.

He's also called a Levite. And so this ark now stays with him, this converted Philistine. It stays in his house. And then in 2 Samuel 6, it's told King David that the Lord has blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that belongs to him because of the Ark of God. So David went up and brought the Ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the city of David with gladness.

That time he did it right. He had all the Levites carry the ark properly. And nobody touched it that wasn't supposed to, and nobody looked into it, and there was great rejoicing. And they brought it up to the city of David, it says, with gladness. And 2 Samuel 6-12 says, He put the ark in the tent that God commanded him to make for it.

And that is the tabernacle of David. This tent that God commanded David to make for the ark. First Chronicles 16, 1 describes this as, So they brought the Ark of God and set it in the midst of the tabernacle. David had erected for it, then they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before God. That Ark was staying with the Gentiles for at least 75 years.

From 1122 BC, when it was captured by the Philistines at the death of Eli, until at least after 1048. At least 75 years, maybe more. And this period of extended Gentile control and housing and curing of this ark is a clue to the significance of the tabernacle of David. See, it's not the same tabernacle as Moses. It's the tabernacle of Moses.

Phil Kiser has this to say on this subject, and I'm going to quote him at a little bit of length, but he says, And God has David continued to appoint Obed-Edom the Gittite and his family to be the main caretakers of the ark. Robert Gordon calls this a Levitical preferment to a Gentile. It's like the Levitical tribe adopted this man as their own. He became a Levite to prefigure Gentile pastors in the New Covenant, whom Isaiah characterizes as Gentile Levites. Which almost seems like an oxymoron, but it is part of the mystery of the New Covenant Church.

But it is also part of the mystery of how God makes both Jews and Gentiles jealous of a Gospel's blessing. As one author puts it, this story represents an Old Testament preview of what Paul calls a provocation to jealousy. And I'll break in here. Remember, Romans 11 talks about God bringing salvation to the Gentiles to provoke the Jews to jealousy. Paul says that he ministers to them, if he might provoke to jealousy those who are his flesh and save some of them." So coming back to the quote, salvation was offered to the Gentiles.

So David was jealous of the blessings that these previous caretakers of the ark were experiencing, and he brings the ark to Jerusalem. This was the beginning of the theology of Zion, God dwelling in Zion. It had never happened before. And in terms of Old Testament eschatology, it was a major turning point. Anyway, as a result, 1 Chronicles says, then the fame of David went out into all lands, and the Lord brought the fear of him on all nations.

Now, he says, closing, now obviously it was all nations in the known world, But the phrase all nations is again Typological of Christ's advancement of the kingdom into all the world That's the end of a quote from him see Paul could say that the gospel was preached to all the nations of the world, all the world. And that might be all the nations in the known world, but it might be all the nations in the world. There was a migration of people into this land, these Americas, around the time of Christ. And we know there are some very, very ancient Christian inscriptions over here that predate anything that the Indians would have done, which is a second migration a thousand years ago, separate from the ones that came over after the time of Christ. So I think it's possible, although I don't have any concrete proof, that this Gospel did go to all the nations of the world.

And that even though America is not in the Bible because it wasn't a part of the story at that time, that the Gospel very well could have come over here. We know it went to England, we can't prove that. It went to England before 70 AD. There was Christianity there. There was Christianity there.

And so the significance of this tabernacle is brought out in 1 Chronicles 16. After the Ark is placed in the tabernacle of David, David wrote a psalm of thanksgiving to the Lord to commemorate this occasion. And this psalm, which is recorded in 1 Chronicles 16. And it contains parts of Psalm 105 and parts of Psalm 96, and parts of Psalm 98, and parts of Psalm 106. It's a number of things that are put together here.

But in verse 23, this psalm speaks of salvation coming to all the people of the world, not just the Jews. Verse 23 says, sing to the Lord all the earth, proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day, declare His glory among the nations, His wonder among all the peoples. See, this psalm that David wrote on the occasion of this art coming into the Tabernacle of David, spoke of the Gospel going to all the people, all the nations, not just the Jews. It's going to all people. The Gospel is going to all people without distinction.

This tabernacle, as I said, is separate from the Mosaic tabernacle. And this is shown also in 1 Corinthians 16 in verse 37. David left Asaph and his brothers there before the ark of the covenant of the Lord to minister before the ark regularly as every day's work required. And Obed-Edom with his sixty-eight brethren, including Obed-Edom the son of Juduthon and Hosea, to be the gatekeepers." So this Gentile Levite, Obed-Edom, is a gatekeeper at this tabernacle of David. Remember, The Ark is in the tabernacle of David in Jerusalem, but the Mosaic tabernacle is without the Ark in Gibeon.

In verse 39 we read, And Zadok the priest and his brethren the priests before the tabernacle of the Lord at the high place that was in Gibeon. So there's two places here to worship. One at the tabernacle of the Lord, which would be the Mosaic tabernacle, which was at Gibeon. And then there was this tabernacle of David in Jerusalem which had the ark. And so Zadok, the priest, and his brothers were to minister at the one in Gibeon and to offer burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of burnt offering regularly morning and evening and to do according to all that is written in the law of God which He commanded Israel.

So we can say then, based on this Old Testament discussion of this tabernacle, that it's typical. This tabernacle is typical. It's typifying the Gospel going to the Gentile nations. Remember, everything in the Old Testament is a type and a shadow that points forward to a reality that was yet to come. The sacrifices of the temple pointed forward to Christ.

The sacrifice who would actually remove guilt. The bulls and goats were typical of that. The whole Mosaic Tabernacle was typical of the Heavenly Tabernacle. And Hebrews tells us that when Christ ascended, He passed through the heavens, and He sanctified this Heavenly Tabernacle with His own blood. And once he's done that, there's no more need for any earthly temple or tabernacle.

Because you don't need the shadow when you have the reality. We have a foretaste at the Lord's table of the marriage feast. But we won't need that when we have the reality, when we have what this is symbolic of. So, to come back to Amos, Behold the days are coming, and it will come in that day, says the Lord. And on that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David which has fallen down and repair its damages.

I will raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old." So when did this happen or when will it happen? When is it to be rebuilt? We see we don't have to guess just from these Old Testament clues about the significance of the tabernacle of David. We don't have to guess about what day that would be and when God would rebuild it. But we have in the New Testament an infallible interpretation of when that rebuilding is.

And that's in Acts 15. Acts 15 gives us the account of that first ecumenical assembly. And that assembly was to resolve the debate or the question of whether the Gentiles had to become Jews in order to come to Christ, or whether they didn't have to become Jews and participate in all of the temple sacrifices, the temple sacrificial system, including eating the Passover and getting circumcised and so on, because you couldn't eat the Passover without being circumcised. You couldn't come into the temple, into the part where the men could go without being circumcised. You can only go into the court of the Gentiles.

And so there's this big debate in the early church. Do people that are coming to Christ have to get circumcised in order to be Christians? And in Acts 15, verse 12, we read that then all the multitude kept silent and listened to Barnabas and Paul declaring how many miracles and wonders God had worked through them among the Gentiles. And after they became silent, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, listen to me. Simon has declared how God at first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name." Simon was talking about Peter there who was talking about how the Holy Spirit fell upon Cornelius and his family as he's bringing the Gospel to them.

And Peter realizes that means they should be baptized. That means they are receiving the Holy Spirit just like we have the Holy Spirit. He said earlier, Men and brethren, you know what? A good while ago God chose among us that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the Gospel and believed. And God who knows the heart acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, and made no distinction between us and them purifying their hearts by faith.

And so James is getting up now. He's going to summarize the debate. He's going to summarize the discussion and put forth a resolution. He says, men and brethren, listen to me. Simon has declared how God at first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name.

And with this the words of the prophets agree. Prophets agree. Just as it is written. And then he quotes this passage from Amos. After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tabernacle of David which has fallen down and I will rebuild its ruins and I will set it up so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord.

Even all the Gentiles who are called by my name says the Lord who does all these things. So we have this apostolic assembly of elders and apostles telling us that The fulfillment of God raising up the tabernacle of David was in the coming of Christ and the Gospel going to all the world, to the Gentiles. The Holy Spirit coming upon Cornelius. And God giving them salvation without distinction between Jew or Gentile. And James goes on to say, known to God from eternity are all His works.

Therefore, I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God, but that we should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood. For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city being read in the synagogues every Sabbath." So their answer was no. These Gentiles do not need to become circumcised. That is a ceremony that is passing away. And yes, there was this period, this transition between Christ's resurrection and His coming again in 70 AD, where both of these were being practiced.

And Paul, the Jews continued to do these things. But in 70 AD, that temple was destroyed and it became impossible to offer any more sacrifices. And the clear message of Acts 15 is that Gentile Christians do not need to be circumcised in order to have access to the covenants, in order to be a member of Christ's church. Rather, that sign of that covenant has been changed to baptism. Now, there are other views on this, of course, that There are some that would believe that this happened when the Jews came back from captivity, but I think there are a number of obvious reasons why that's not satisfactory.

The Jews who returned from captivity can't be said to never be uprooted from the land. There are other views that would hold that this is yet to be fulfilled. That this whole thing is still out in the future. And they would look at Acts 15 and say, well, yes, that's a sort of a metaphorical fulfillment, but that's not the real fulfillment that we're looking for yet. They would say that in order for this to be fulfilled, in order for these types of passages to be fulfilled, you have to have the gathering of Israel into the physical land of Palestine, because that was the promise made to Abraham.

You have passages dealing with the Antichrist that require an Israel in Palestine. You need repossession of the old Jerusalem. You need the rebuilding of the temple because the Antichrist would desecrate it. And you have those witnesses that are at the temple. And so you need to have a new temple.

And you have to have then a great revival and outpouring of salvation of the Jews. So they say you need all these things for this passage to be fully fulfilled. But I don't think that is correct because the context of Acts 15 is not national. It's not talking about the nation of Israel, it's talking about the church. And membership in the Old Testament church has always been by faith.

It's never been by blood. That's why Esau's descendants weren't circumcised. That's why Ishmael's descendants weren't circumcised, although Esau and Ishmael were. They didn't get to circumcise their children because that was for those who believed. They were not a part of the Old Testament church.

J. Adams in his book, The Time is at Hand, I think makes a very good point in pointing out that There's a double vision here. All the things that they're looking to have happen already happened. They don't need to happen again. Why do we need to rebuild the temple again?

That temple pointed forward to a heavenly temple. The earthly temple was made according to the pattern of the one in the heavens. And when the temple in the heavens was purified by Christ's blown blood, we'd have no more need of an earthly temple. There's no more need of any sacrifices. In fact, to offer sacrifices would be to repudiate the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice.

So in the progression of God's covenant, things always move to the more glorious, Not to the less glorious. So there's no need to go back to that old temple. Also, God only has one bride. And a lot of their views is a double vision that sees two different people of God. The Jews under one plan, and the church under another plan.

And so they see these two different people. But Scripture only speaks of Christ having one bride, His church. We can, and so I think, I think J. Adams' point is very helpful, that there's a double vision, And we need to have single vision. Return also means returning to the Lord.

A number of places that talk about returning meaning returning to the Lord. The Lord has tabernacled among us. In John 1, 14, the Word became flesh and dwelt, or tabernacled among us. And we beheld His glory, the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And when Jesus cried out, remember, in the temple, destroy this temple, and in three days I will build it.

And the Jews were up in arms. It took us decades to do this. How are you going to do it in three days? And John says, but he was speaking of the temple of his body when he said destroy the temple and I will rebuild it in three days. So Christ, by His resurrection, said He was rebuilding the temple.

He's rebuilding the temple with His church. Now, the other point is, some don't see this passage being fulfilled without a great national salvation of Israel. And I'd like to look at that just a minute. That means we need to look at Romans 11 because that's where this is most explicitly discussed. And there's a whole chapter that Paul devotes here.

Actually, there's three chapters, 9, 10, and 11. 11 is the culmination of these three chapters. And it, jumping in, So he talks about in 11, just to give you the context, it's talking about God's rejection of Israel, but it is not a nullifying of God's covenant. When God rejected Israel, covenant is not being nullified. The promise of salvation applies to all those who believe, Jew and Gentile.

And so this blindness that's happened to them is a blindness that's in part. It's not entire. And so he's making the arguments there that We've heard about the salvation coming to the Gentiles to provoke the Jews to jealousy and so on. But in verse 25 it says, I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fulfillment until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. Blindness in part, not a total blindness, but blindness in part has happened to Israel.

And how long will that happen? Until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in. And so, all Israel will be saved. Now, I think the first thing to point out is when it says, and so all Israel, that's chi. And it's not a consecutive.

It's not saying after the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, then Israel will be saved. It's saying after the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so, when that happens, that means then, all the Israel will be saved. Now people say, well, and it's a good point, well, you're using Israel in two different senses. In the same sentence, You're saying blindness in part has happened to ethnic Israel, the Jews, the visible church.

Blindness in part has happened to physical Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, then all Israel, meaning the invisible church, the elect will be saved. We are using the word in two different senses in the same sentence. That's not good hermeneutics. And that's a valid point.

However, that's what Paul does throughout this book, but especially in this section. He's making the distinction between the visible church and the invisible church. And the visible church is called Israel. But look in chapter 9. He says, Chapter 9 verse 6, But it is not that the Word of God has taken no effect.

For they are not all Israel who are of Israel." Now there he's using the same word in two different senses in the same sentence. And He's making it so you have to understand it in two different senses. They are not all Israel. They are not all elect. They are not all of the invisible church who are of Israel, who are in the visible church.

Nor are they all children, because they are, nor are they all children, meaning the invisible church, because they are the seed of Abraham, meaning physical descendants. But in Isaac, your seed and their seed is referring to the spiritual heirs, those who are in Christ. You see, Paul is using the exact same words in two different senses in the exact same sentence. And he's forcing you to use the words in two different senses there. That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of promise are counted as the seed." And he also does that in Romans chapter 2 where he says, "'For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor a circumcision that which outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart and the spirit." So you see he's using the word Jew there in two different senses, in the same sentence.

You see, that's Paul's whole point in this section. That there is the invisible church, and not everybody is elect in the visible church. And there is the invisible church, which is comprised of the elect. And so I believe when we look in that sense at what he's saying in Romans 11, he's saying blindness in part has happened to the Jews until all the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so, all Israel is saved.

When the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, all Israel is saved. All of the church will have been saved at that point. The Jews and the Gentiles. A church composed of Jews and Gentiles without distinction. And some people say, but it talks about earlier in Chapter 11 about the fullness of the Gentiles.

For if they're being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? Or if the Jews fall as riches for the world and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness? And they say, the fullness of the Jews. Well, the fullness of the Jews needs to be the same thing as the fullness of the Gentiles, I think. And the fullness of the Gentiles doesn't mean every single Gentile is saved.

So I don't think the fullness of the Jews here means that every single Jew is saved either. The fullness is simply that number, that number known to God of His people, a number that He knows to the person. Well, This raising up of the tabernacle of David then is something that is happening now. It's something that is being fulfilled as God is bringing in Jews and Gentiles into His church. There are many Jews that are being saved today.

There are many groups that are dedicated to the evangelization of the Jews as well as of the Gentiles. And so there's a beautiful description of the blessings that come in this time. There is the possession of the remnant of Edom. They possessed the remnant of Edom. Edom are the descendants of Esau, and there was a bitter hatred between Edom and Israel.

In Amos 1, 11, the Lord says, For three transgressions of Edom and four, I won't turn away its punishment because He's pursued His brother with the sword." That's Jacob. And, "'Cast off all pity. His anger tore perpetually and He kept His wrath forever.'" There was a bitter animosity between the Edomites and the Israelites. And later after Amos, the Edomites actually cheered on the Babylonians when they were taking the Judah captive. They cheered them on.

And the Psalms speak of that cheering of them on. And so this is a blessing of supernatural peace, where bitter, life-long enemies are reconciled and now live in peace with each other. They may possess the remnant of Edom, And all Gentiles who are called by My name, says the Lord who does these things, Gentiles who are called by My name, will act as a detailed account of how the Gentiles all over the world were saved through the preaching of Paul and the other apostles. As I said, Paul talked about the Gospel two times in the New Testament. He speaks of the Gospel going to the whole world before 70 AD.

You have described in verse 13, 14, and 15 the reversal of the curse and the outpouring of temporal blessings. These curses that are being reversed are the curses that are given in Deuteronomy 27 and 28 for disobedience to the law of God. And these blessings that he talks about here are the blessings of the covenant that are given in that chapter. We don't have time to look there this morning, but if you need to, you can read it and refresh your memory. But the plowman will overtake the reaper, the treader of grapes, him who sows seed.

The hills shall flow with it, and I will bring back the captives of my people Israel. They shall build cities and inhabit them." And the curse was they would build it and not inhabit it. They would marry a wife and not be able to live with her. They would plant vineyards and wouldn't be able to drink the wine from them. They would plant crops and not be able to harvest, enjoy the harvest.

The blessing is that they will build a city and inhabit it. They will plant a garden and reap the fruit. They will plant a vineyard and gather wine from it. And he would build the waste cities and they would inhabit them. Those are blessings.

Now, some understand this as that the plowman overtaking the reaper and the treader of grapes, him who sows the seed, as simply there is ongoing throughout the world, there is, this process is always going on. It's like the idea of the sun never set on the British Empire because at some, at any given time, the sun was always shining on some aspect of the British Empire because it surrounded the world. And that could be what this is saying. It could also just be language typical of covenant blessing that God is going to bless His church. And His church is going to grow and it's going to prosper.

And the gates of hell will not prevail against His church. His people will never be destroyed. But He will bless the righteous. He will surround them with His favor as with a shield, even in persecution. Oftentimes the church is strengthened in persecution.

This then is also a permanent blessing. They shall no longer be pulled up. And we know that the promise of the land of Israel given to Abraham was expanded to cover all the earth. Remember in the fifth commandment, that you would live long in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. But when Paul quotes it in Ephesians, it's that you live long on the earth because that land of Israel now is the earth.

And the Great Commission is to go throughout the world teaching and baptizing, teaching the nations to observe everything that God has commanded us. And So in that sense, there is a permanency. The church will never be uprooted or destroyed from this earth. God will preserve her and He has preserved her and He will continue to preserve the church. We can say then that God is a God who restores the ruins.

He restores ruins in nations. He restores ruins in people and in families. Psalm 107 talks about people who through their own rebellion and through their own folly come under terrible judgments. But God, when they repent, God is gracious and heals them. He uses broken people.

He uses broken people to build His church. His kingdom is built by broken people who are his instruments. Instruments of his grace. You know, in this earth, this age that is being fulfilled here in Amos 9, It won't be perfect until Christ comes again. And that's what we see throughout the Scriptures.

Solomon's kingdom wasn't perfect. It was a glorious kingdom, but there was still sin in it. Solomon himself fell away. David fell away. The Israelites fell away continually, fell away and repented.

That's the pattern that we see throughout the Scriptures, that we as humans are unable, apart from the grace of God, to do good, to obey the Word of God. And it's God in His grace who saves us. It's God in His grace who enables us to do the good that we do. And so this is our, we still have that future hope and expectation when He returns again, that sin will be wiped away and death will be destroyed. He will reign until he has put all enemies under his feet and that last enemy is death.

And it is only then that we will be able to live without sin. But until then, Jesus says there are weeds and there are tears in His Kingdom and in the world. In this world, you will have tribulation. And that has to be true until He comes again. But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

That is our hope. And let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for your grace. We thank you for your work in us. We thank you that you use us even though we are imperfect.

We thank You that You know us and that You love us, despite our sins against You. We ask, Lord, for your encouragement, for your Holy Spirit's fire to remain brightly lit within us. And for that fire to be fed daily, moment by moment, by the oil of your spirit. We thank you Lord for your work through us and your work around us. We ask that we might take our encouragement from your work and not from the newspaper headlines.

We ask that you would Strengthen our faith where we are weak, where we doubt or wonder about the certainty of your promise of your victory over all your enemies. Lord, we ask that you would comfort us by your word. In Jesus' name, Amen.