In the sermon 'Multiplied Mercies,' Peter Allison discusses the visions of Amos from Amos chapter 7, focusing on God's response of mercy despite Israel's scorn. Amos is shown three visions: locust swarms, conflict by fire, and a plumb line. Each vision represents God's potential judgment on Israel for their sins, but Amos intercedes for the people, and God relents. Allison highlights Amos's sincere love and commitment to the people he ministers to, drawing parallels to figures like Moses, Job, and Samuel who also interceded for others. The sermon emphasizes the power of prayer as a means for God's mercy, stating that while prayer does not change God's eternal decrees, it is a means through which God has ordained to show mercy. The plumb line represents the standard by which God will ultimately judge Israel, and the sermon warns that God's mercy does not last forever, urging listeners to seek God's mercy before the day of judgment. The message concludes with a call for repentance and a reminder of God's delight in showing mercy to those who seek it.

Please turn in your Scriptures to Amos chapter 7. We will read beginning at the first verse. Thus the Lord God showed me. Behold, He formed locust swarms at the beginning of the late crop. Indeed it was the late crop after the king's mowings.

And so it was when they had finished eating the grass of the land that I said, Oh Lord God, forgive, I pray. Oh that Jacob may stand for He is small. So the Lord relented concerning this. It shall not be, ' said the Lord. Thus the Lord God showed me.

Behold, the Lord God called for conflict by fire, and it consumed the great deep and devoured the territory. Then I said, O Lord God, cease, I pray. O that Jacob may stand, for he is small. So the Lord relented concerning this. This also shall not be, said the Lord God.

Thus He showed me. Behold, the Lord stood on a wall made with a plumb line in His hand. And the Lord said to me, Amos, what do you see? And I said, A plumb line. Then the Lord said, Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel.

I will not pass by them anymore. The high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise with the sword against the house of Jeroboam." The entirety of God's Word is truth, and every one of His righteous judgments endures forever. Heavenly Father, we ask that as we look at this Word, as we continue to worship, that You might speak to us. That we might hear Your voice this morning. May You open our eyes and open the understanding of our hearts.

May you teach us, may you sanctify us by your word. And they ask that you would sanctify also my sinful lips that they may proclaim the gospel of the grace of God. In Jesus name, Amen. In Jesus' name, Amen. We saw last week how Israel had scorned the Lord.

They refused to acknowledge Him and to give Him the honor that was due to His name. They scorned the privilege of praising Him, of remembering His works. They presumed on His covenant promises. They ate His food and denied that it was His food, that He had provided it. They enjoyed victory and a measure of safety and security in their cities, and yet denied that it was the Lord that had given that to them.

And then come these visions in this chapter. And what is God's response to these people who had scorned Him? Scorned His blessings of them? Scorned the privilege of remembering His works and praising Him. What is His response?

Brothers and sisters, the response of the Lord to these incorrigible people is mercy. It's mercy. There's a pattern. God chastens His wayward people. We see that in these first two visions that Amos has.

He forms the locusts as the instruments of his wrath against Israel. He formed the locusts. They were His creatures that He had created. They were creatures that existed to declare His glory and His wisdom. But now they are given an additional purpose.

And so it says that He forms these locust swarms. They are given this additional purpose of being the instruments of His wrath, of His chastening. And the locust swarms eat the second crop after the king's mowings. So when it says the king's crop, it's not likely that the king took all of the first crop, but presumably his taxes came from that first crop. But it's the first crop that's usually the best.

It's the first years of corn that are the best. It's the first cutting of hay that season, that year. That's usually the best. And then you may get some second cuttings, but they're usually not quite as prolific, not quite as good. We had a watermelon plant one year.

We got three crops off it. The first crop was amazing. 30 to 40 pounders. The second sort of crop was smaller. They were only 20 to 30.

And then there was a third crop, and they were kind of small. So the first crop is the most important crop. It's the one that you would need after the winter. But there's a mercy here. God didn't take that crop.

The locust didn't eat that crop. It was the late crop that God formed this swarm of locusts. The beginning of the late crop. So, here's a mercy of God to these people. Did they see it as a mercy?

That God had given them this first crop? Did they see that this was God's chastening, but He was chastening them in mercy? Well, we know from the earlier passages that They didn't see that. They were insensitive to that chastening. The remembrance of God's prior mercies to us ought to make us more willing to submit to His will in our lives.

In the second vision, Amos sees fire destroying the land. Or conflict by Fire. Could be that God was bringing armies in. Some people think even the locusts were representing armies. I don't think so.

I think locusts are a very real plague. We have even had these kind of locust swarms in this country. And Laura Ingalls Wilder speaks about them in her books. They were part of our historical record as well. A crop of grasshoppers come and just eat everything in sight.

I believe that Amos saw these visions of what God was intending to do. Visions of what God justly was intending to do. And he sees here conflict by fire. Israelites had seen their land ravaged. And they'd seen under Jeroboam, they'd seen a current king, a measure of success.

They'd seen a measure of relief and reprieve. And they thought it was by their own power that this had come. So God shows Amos then these visions of what he intends to do. Again. And what is Amos' first response?

I think This is beautiful. Amos' first response on seeing these judgments that God shows him in a vision of what he intends to do, Amos' first response is to intercede for the people of God. That says a lot about the character of Amos. Amos possessed a sincere love for the people to whom he ministers. Amos intercedes for the people to whom He is ministering.

It wasn't just a job that He was paid to do. He wasn't just a prophet for hire who had been sent to a country to bring a message. He is personally invested in these people. He loves them. He's willing to sacrifice for them, to fast for them, to pray for them.

He gave up His income producing work to come to this foreign country because they were two separate countries. They were sister countries, but still different. They had different kings, different rules, and different laws. He comes to this foreign country to preach to a wicked and corrupt people. But He had a sincere love for them.

And so as soon as He sees His vision of God's judgment coming upon them, His first reaction is to intercede for them. And this is the kind of Love that we see in all of God's shepherds, faithful shepherds, we saw that in Moses. It's the kind of love that Moses had for the Israelites. Remember, out of a sense of seeking to deliver the Israelites, he had killed that Egyptian who was oppressing the Israelites. They didn't understand it.

He ended up fleeing, but God brought him back 40 years later to deliver them. And when God was angry with them at Mount Sinai for their idolatry, for so quickly turning away from the Lord and worshiping this golden calf, the Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, and I will make of you a great nation." Now what would you think if the Lord told you something like that? Well, Moses did not stay silent and think, well, that's too bad for those Israelites, but they really deserved what they had coming. Moses was angry with them, but he didn't say that.

Although it would have been true, they did deserve what they had coming. But Moses loved these people. He cared for them. And he immediately falls on his face before the Lord and he intercedes for them at the throne of grace. And Moses pleaded with God, Why does your wrath burn hot against your people whom you have brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?" And he pleads, he intercedes.

Job does something very similar. He had three friends that treated him in reality quite poorly. On top of the loss of his family and the loss of all his servants and the loss of all of his wealth and the loss even of his health. These friends accused Job relentlessly. They told him these calamities must be the result of some great sin that he had committed, and they kept pressing him to get him to confess to some sin that they just knew he had committed.

And when God's anger was aroused against these counselors because they had not spoken what was right about God, as Job did, Job prayed for his friends. He interceded for them. He prayed for God to heal them. Job being probably the king of Edom. Samuel also was rejected by the Israelites.

He felt rejected when they wanted a king. God told him, no, they haven't rejected you. They've rejected Me. Nevertheless, I think Samuel did feel somewhat slighted by them. He said, here I am, witness against Me before the Lord and before His anointing.

Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I cheated? Whom have I oppressed? Whose hand or from whose hand have I received a bribe?

And I will restore it to you." But see, then he was feeling rejected. But then he goes on to say, moreover, far be it from me that I should sin against God by ceasing to pray for you. But I will teach you the good and the right way. Amos was a true man of God, a true prophet, not a hireling. And when he saw these visions of God's just and righteous judgment about to fall on Israel, he immediately begins to intercede at the throne of grace.

We see that Amos then was a man of prayer with a close fellowship with the Lord. As soon as he sees this anguish, he jumps to prayer. That's indicative of a habit of prayer. If we're not in the habit of prayer, we're not going to think to pray in these times of urgency. It won't be the first thing that comes to our mind.

The fact that He immediately jumps to intercede indicates this was His habit. This was His habit. We don't all of a sudden think to pray if that's not been our habit all along, day by day, hour by hour. We don't think to praise the Lord if that's not our habit. Amos comes in his prayer.

He comes with boldness and directness, but also reverence. He says, Oh Lord, forgive. Oh Lord, forgive. For God to forgive, He's asking that God's just and holy wrath for their sins would be put upon Christ. O Lord, forgive.

O Lord God. O Jehovah God, forgive. I pray. That word, I pray, there is a very simple word that means please or now. Please or now.

But in this case, it means please. Oh Lord, please forgive. He's asking with reverence. He's not demanding it. But he's also not fearful to ask for it.

So he comes boldly to the throne of grace. And he argues at the throne of grace on the weakness of God's people. Oh Lord, forgive, I pray. Oh, that Jacob may stand for he is small. That's his reason.

First of all, note that he brings a reason. He brings arguments. And this is something that we should learn to do. We need to learn to bring arguments to the Lord. Arguments that are according to His Word.

Arguments from His promises. Arguments from His attributes. And also as we see here, arguments from our own weakness and our own frailty and our own inabilities. See, God is our Father. And He has the thoughts of a Father for His children.

And what father among us seeing His child in a difficult state, seeing his child overpowered or seeing his child powerless to do something, seeing his child struggling and caught in a way that he can't get out. What father isn't moved to act on behalf of His child who is weak and unable." Isaiah describes to the Lord, he gives power to the weak and to those who have no might, he increases strength. Amos comes to the Lord on the basis of this promise. That the Lord gives power to the weak and to those who have no might. And He says, O Lord, that Jacob may stand, for he is small.

He's weak. Notice also, he repeats his prayer. He prays with fervency here. And he uses almost the same words. Oh Lord, forgive, I pray.

Oh, that Jacob may stand, for he is small. That's one characteristic of effectual prayer is that it is fervent and it is persistent. Jesus' prayer in the garden was much the same. He repeated three times much the same words. And we ought not to think that because God has been merciful to us in the past, because He's forgiven us in the past for this same sin, that we should doubt that He will forgive us again.

But rather, it should be just the opposite. Because He has shown mercy in the past, because He's forgiven us in the past, that He will also forgive us now. Sometimes We think that when we've gone wrong, when we've sinned, when we've erred, when we've gone astray, we think, oh, I already did this yesterday. How can I pray to the Lord and ask His mercy, His forgiveness, for the exact same sin? You see, God multiplies His mercy.

And the fact that God has forgiven us and is a God of mercy ought to be rather an encouragement, an inducement to us to come again and ask the Lord for more mercy. May He not give us hope and encourage us to pray. It is the glory of God that He delights in mercy. That He multiplies, pardons, that He spares and that He forgives. Seventy times seven.

And so Amos prays with fervency. And he's not afraid to pray again and again the same words. Oh Lord, forgive. Oh Lord, forgive. And what happens?

What happens when Amos prays these prayers? The Lord relents and extends mercy. The Lord is a merciful God. He multiplies His mercies. This is how the Lord reveals Himself.

The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with Him there. That's with Moses. And proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty." The Lord, merciful and gracious, longsuffering. Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.

That's how the Lord declares Himself to be. In Jeremiah the Lord tells him, go and proclaim these words toward the north and say, return backsliding Israel. I will not cause my anger to fall on you, for I am merciful. I will not retain my angry forever. So rend your hearts, Joel says, and not your garments.

Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and He relents. He relents, Joel says, from doing harm. This is the multiplied mercies of the Lord. Mercies upon mercies. You see, prayer changes things.

Prayer changes things. James tells us that the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. It means it has a great effect. That means it changes things. What happens when we pray is different from what would have happened if the prayer had not been made.

James says one reason we don't have is because we haven't asked. Or because we ask amiss. Because of this, some speak about the power of prayer. Well, there's no power in our mere words. The power is in the Lord to whom we pray.

And prayer is the means by which God's power is exercised on behalf of His people. Prayer is the means by which God works. The power is in God. It's not in our words. We can't say, peace be still and have the ocean be still.

Not to say our words aren't significant. They are very significant. What we say is very, very significant. But the power is in God. You see, prayer itself is an admission that we don't have any power.

If we had the power to get what we need, then we wouldn't have to pray. And that's why prayerlessness is often a sign of pride. We don't think we need to pray because we think that we can do some things. Maybe we can't do everything. Maybe we can't do big things, but we think we can do some things without God.

Of course, that's not true, is it? Jesus said you can do nothing without Me. Nothing. Now, we say that prayer changes things. Let me be clear.

Prayer does not change what God has ordained to pass. Prayer does not change what God has ordained to pass. Prayer does not change what God has ordained to bring to pass from before the foundation of the world. God is not a God that He should repent. What He's decreed will come to pass.

There is no variation or shadow of turning with God." So what does it mean then that says God relented? And He did not bring to pass. He said, it shall not be. Well, It means that God has ordained the prayers of His people even as He has ordained everything else that comes to pass. God has ordained the prayers of His people even as He has ordained everything else that comes to pass.

And He was ordained through these prayers to bring mercy. The Lord relented. The Lord relented and said, it shall not be. What would have come to pass, now won't come to pass, because Amos had interceded before the Lord. And the Lord is merciful.

But God's mercy does not last forever. There's a third vision. Then He showed me, behold, the Lord stood on a wall made with a plumb line. With a plumb line in His hand. And the Lord said to me, Amos, what do you see?

And Amos said, I see a plumb line. And God said, I am sitting a plumb line in the midst of Israel. And what's a plumb line? Probably you all know If you've done any carpentry or construction, a plumb line is a mass that hangs on the bottom of a string. And it always points toward the center of the earth, no matter where you are, no matter what angle you are.

If you hang it on a string, it will always point down to the center of the earth, unless you're in a centrifuge, but assuming you're still, it's going to point down to the center of the earth. And so no matter where you are in the earth, it will always tell you what is a straight vertical line, meaning pointing upward from the center of the earth. It will always give you that straight line. So it's something that you can measure by. You can measure a wall to see if it is a straight wall.

Use a plumb line. Maybe you've seen a mason building a brick wall, and he'll have a plumb line at the end as he's lining up every course of brick on the plumb line so that the wall is straight. And so the Lord is saying, I am going to set a plumb line in the middle of my people, Israel. They're His people, but He's coming with a plumb line. He's going to compare what they are doing with His Word.

And He's not going to pass by them anymore. There comes a time. There comes a day when God's mercy ends. There comes a day when God is no longer merciful. When He no longer withholds what is justly due to those who have sinned.

God says the high places of Israel shall be desolate. The sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste. The day of mercy will come to an end. Today is the day of mercy. Today we can call upon the Lord and He will answer in mercy.

But there is coming a day when that ends. That day ends differently for everybody. But the day is appointed unto everyone to die. And after this, the judgment. After this, the measuring with the plumb line.

And there is no more mercy for all those in that day who have not repented, who have not called upon the Lord and asked for His mercy and for His grace to be poured upon them. This judgment came upon Israel in the not too distant future. It said that he would rise with a sword against the house of Jeroboam. And in Jeroboam's descendants, Zechariah, in the 38th year of Azariah, the son of Judah, Zechariah, the son of Jeroboam reigned six months. And he did evil on the sight of the Lord, and He didn't depart from the sins of Jeroboam.

And then Shalom conspired against Him and struck Him and killed Him in the front of the people. This judgment came upon the house of Jeroboam. It came in time. And God's judgment upon all those who do not obey the Gospel is coming just as certainly as Zechariah was killed by the sword by the decree of God. But the Lord takes pleasure in those who hope in His mercy.

Psalm 147, 11. The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His mercy, in those who call upon Him as Amos did, in those who ask the Lord to forgive them and to be merciful to them and to withhold the wrath that is justly due upon us for our sins. The Lord takes pleasure in those who hope in that mercy. So that we can say, when I cry out to you, my enemies turn back. This I know because God is for me.

The Lord takes pleasure in His people and He beautifies the humble with salvation. The Lord, Zephaniah says, the Lord your God in your midst. The mighty one will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you with His love.

He will rejoice over you with singing. This is the God that we serve. This is the God who multiplies mercy upon mercy. Who delights when we call upon Him and ask Him for His mercy, who delights us when we humble ourselves before Him, we acknowledge our sins, we acknowledge that we have done wickedly and we ask for His mercy, then He delights to give it. He delights in that.

He desires that we do that. He commands that we do that. He commands all men everywhere to repent and to call upon Him for His mercy. May the Lord have mercy on us. Heavenly Father, oh how we praise You, that You are the God of mercy.

That You do not retain your anger forever because you delight in mercy. We thank you, Father, for the sacrifice of your son Jesus Christ, that He now intercedes for us at your throne of grace, that His wounds make constant intercession, that He has borne your wrath for us, and that you in your grace show us mercy. Lord, we ask your forgiveness where we have despised, your forbearance and your long suffering with us. We ask, Lord, that You would forgive us where we have taken advantage of Your goodness. And may You bring to our minds the certainty of Your wrath, the reality of it, that we may call upon You for Your mercy.

Lord, You are just and You are righteous, You are good, You are true, Your Word is true, every word of it. And We ask, Lord, that You would impress Your Word upon us, that we might not be insensitive to it, that we might not be as those who are asleep, but Lord, wake us And give to us that urgency of calling upon you for your mercy. We ask this in Jesus' name, Amen.