In his sermon titled "The Word of God Neglected," David Green discusses a spiritual famine, as prophesied in Amos 8, where people search for God's Word but cannot find it. He draws parallels between this biblical prophecy and contemporary society, highlighting recent events such as the burning of Bibles in Portland. Green emphasizes the importance of revival and the need for God's Word in individuals' hearts, churches, and communities. He references a letter from Elder William T. Brantley in 1822, which identified neglect of the Word of God as a cause of religious decline. Green argues that this issue persists today, as people prioritize worldly distractions over scripture. He calls for believers to ensure the Word is preached in churches, taught in homes, and spread in communities. Green underscores the responsibility of individuals to engage with and uphold the teachings of the Bible, warning that without action, society may experience a spiritual decline akin to that in Europe.

Amos chapter 8 will be our text this morning. Amos chapter 8, we'll begin with verse 11, going down to verse 14. Amos 8, beginning in verse 11. It says, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea and from the north even to the east they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it.

In that day shall the fair virgins and the young men faint for thirst. They that swear by the sin of Samaria and say thy God, old Dan, liveth and the manner of Beersheba liveth even they shall fall and never rise up again." I never rise up again. My message this morning is on the subject of the word of God neglected a, there is a famine in the land. There is a famine in the land there is a famine in the land we've seen perhaps not a famine in this land but we've seen some shortages this year. We've seen shortages of meat, we've seen runs on rice, shortages of toilet paper, coins, maybe some other things.

And maybe some other things. You know the other day I was watching the news reading the headlines, checking things out and these days that's not for the faint of heart, that's for sure. But I saw where in Portland rioters were out burning Bibles in the streets. They were burning copies of the Bible out in the streets of Portland. And I thought, well, that's physically what they've been doing spiritually for a long while.

And I thought how disgusting and how evil these people are. But I began to think about this text. Surely we've been praying for this country and surely you've been praying for revival for a long time as I have and surely we recognize that there is a great need for this country and as I thought about these things my mind also hey son sit up thank you surely as we think about these things we think about this country and we become fearful and we think about what this country needs we realize that there is a great need for the Word of God. As I began to think about this my mind went back to something I read and I love to read anybody that knows me knows that I love to read and every chance that I get you know I'm reading something some people You know, every free moment they get, they turn on the TV. Well that's...

Some people. For me, every moment I get, every free chance I get, I'm reading a book. And, you know, I don't have a lot of free time But you'd be surprised how much you can read Just waiting on things, you know, we're waiting on the doctor You can you can read a few pages in a book You're on the phone waiting on the whoever you're trying to get a hold of. Maybe customer service or something they got you on hold. You can be reading a few pages in a book.

You're waiting for your wife at the grocery store. You can read a few pages in a book, you know, whatever. And by doing that sort of thing, You can get through a book quite a bit. And then, of course, you can be intentional with your time, too, and you can block certain times of your day out. You say, all right well I want to say this first hour of the day I'm gonna read from the scriptures and maybe this time during the middle of the day I'm gonna read from this book and this time at night I'm gonna read from that book and another bit of scriptures and anyway I love to read and and I've been reading over the past two or three months a book about the Georgia Baptist Association.

There was a letter in there from Elder William T. Brantley in 1822. And during those association days, the preachers used to write circular letters. And those letters would be circulated amongst the association, amongst the churches. I'm not a convention person, I'm independent Baptist 100%, but I think we miss something when we don't circulate letters among the brethren and among the churches like we used to.

And I think that's something that we miss out by that those old Baptists used to have. But those circular letters always had a theme. And in 1822, Brother Brantley recognized a problem. And let me read you the problem that he recognized. And you tell me afterwards whether you think it might apply to our day.

This is what he wrote, the low state of vital piety among us, the smallness, the smallness of the numbers joining themselves to our churches, the increase of error and schism, the disappearance of good signs and the appearance of bad ones, are some of the facts which we have chosen. When too many are turning from the ways of God and a cold lethargy possesses the hearts of those who ought to be the most forward in religion. When many profess to follow in the Savior, become impatient of his doctrines and precepts, and do not like to have the whole truth told them. When a worldly cancer lies corroding the very life of piety and godliness and eats up everything noble and disinterested and when a morbid indifference to such a state is found to prevail." Sounds a lot like today, doesn't it? He goes on to say, it is then surely time for the watchman to rise from his treacherous calm and sound an alarm in God's holy mountain, we proceed to make some remarks upon the causes of decline in religion." And so then he goes on to remark six things that he perceived to be the causes of the decline in religion in 1822 amongst his generation.

And let me tell you, those six things, you could take them and write a letter and send it out to the churches and no one would know the difference. You'd probably have to clean it up a little bit and change some of the words because, you know, in 1822 people wrote a little bit different than what they do today. You know, there was no LOLs or slangs in there because people actually used proper English back in those days. But it would work. It would work.

Yeah, that's right. Don't forget I'm up here too. Not just your brother And the first remark that he had there was, in the decline of religion, was through neglect of the Word of God. He said, the truths of Scripture are the only proper furniture for the Christian's heart and the food which gives him strength and health. And though we admit that a critical knowledge of the whole Bible is not necessary to salvation, yet we must assert that a ready acquaintance with its leading truths is a matter essential to the growth of religion in the heart.

It is not to be expected, " he goes on to write, that every believer will have time to read elaborate commentaries on the word of truth, but every believer must be able to give a commentary from his own heart upon the contents of that word. You know, you talk to most people today, even some preachers, and you talk about reading the Bible through, And they act like it's such a chore, because people aren't readers anymore. Charles Spurgeon recommended that his students read Matthew Henry's commentary, which is a big old six volume set to sit down and read it through like you'd read a novel. But Brother Brantley recognized that not everybody's able to sit down and read a whole commentary but he said at the very least you ought to be able to give a commentary from your own heart upon the contents of this word you ought to be able to know what you believe and why you believe it oh how we have the same problem in our day with this generation. Oh, how we need more Brother Brantley's to write letters like this, challenging us in this time of famine.

There is indeed a famine of God's Word. And while we get upset at the rioters out there burning the Word of God, there are some things that we're responsible for. And I don't recommend going out there and trying to stop the rioters While they're writing Pretty dangerous Case you don't know I believe this country's at war already. I believe we're at civil war. I don't think we can talk like Civil War is coming, or I hope that Civil War doesn't happen.

I believe war is in our streets in some cities. I don't know how far it's gonna spread. I hope it doesn't come to our neighborhood, but just understand, just understand That there's some things that we are responsible for in this battle And I believe that and I'll just say this just to clear it out of the way Before before we get too far into the message. Just ignore him right now. Okay, if he wants to cross his legs right there, at least he's paying attention.

Okay? If... War does come to our streets and our cities, I believe we're responsible to at the very least protect our own families. And I'll just leave it at that. I don't care whether you've got a sword, a gun, or what you've got.

I believe your responsibilities protect your family. I believe that's biblical. That's minimum. Depending on how far things go and you're able, you can take it further than that, but at the very minimum I believe you've at least got that responsibility. But I also believe we've got responsibility in the spiritual war, in this time of famine.

And we need to make sure that we are doing what we can in this time of famine. And when we look at the world and we see them disrespecting God's Word, and we see them misusing and abusing and even burning the Word of God in the streets, understand we may not be able to stop that. Best we can hope for is maybe it's an NIV or something, it's not even a good translation and you know, Maybe they're doing the world a favor. You know, but let us do what we can. And the first thing I want us to notice is we need to make sure that the Word of God is to be found in our churches.

In 2nd Timothy chapter 4, 2nd Timothy chapter 4, beginning of verse 1, and going down to verse 5, I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom. Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. They shall turn away their ears from the truth. They shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions through the work of the evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry." Paul wrote to Timothy, he said, preach the word.

Preach the word. Now those who have never been called to preach, you might say, Well, how is that my responsibility? Well, it is your responsibility because over in the book of Acts chapter 17, we find this. In Acts chapter 17 and verse 11. It says, these were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so.

And so as you go and as you as you're a member of one of the Lord's churches and as you go and visit churches and as you go to look for another church you're responsible to make sure that the Word of God is being preached in that church. And so one of the most important things that you should check whenever you go to look for a church is whether or not the Word of God is preached there. And as you join a church and as you're a member of a church, then you're responsible to make sure that the Word of God is continually preached in that church. Not only are you responsible for discouraging error, but you're in responsible for encouraging the truth It's not a crime to amen a sermon or amen a point It's not a crime to tell the pastor. Hey, that was a good message To show appreciation of a good sermon.

Those things ain't easy. If it were, I reckon everybody would be stepping up here to preach. Whenever I'm going on vacation or whatever, we'd have people lining up to fill the pulpit, but we don't. But not only do we need the Word of God in the pulpit, but also in our Sunday schools, in our vacation Bible schools and seminaries across this country. Do you realize, as big of a mess as this country is, there are more churches by name and more seminaries and Bible schools than in any other country.

What's going on? What's being taught in these places? There's a famine in the land. There's more vacation Bible schools. What's going on?

Well, I'll tell you what's going on. The Bible is not there. There's a famine in the churches even. When, and I don't have a problem with colleges and seminaries as long as they teach the Bible. And I went to a good one and I thank God for it but there's some of them that instead of teaching the Bible and Teaching the truths of the Bible they teach Criticism of the Bible and they teach well, they teach it kind of the way the devil was in the Garden of Eden.

When he met up with Eve, you remember? He says, Steve, yea, hath God said. Did God really say that? Does God really mean that? God called us to be Bible teachers and preachers, not to be Bible critics.

And unfortunately, too many of these schools are teaching worldly wisdom and throwing a couple Bible verses in with it. Bible, vacation Bible schools are mostly a lot of times more about the vacation and glorified and glorified babysitting, craft shows, craft clubs, pizza parties, not so much about the Bible. Sunday school is the same thing, goof off sessions. I don't have a problem with none of those when They're centered around the Word of God. Because there's a famine in the land.

God has told us to preach the Word. And when it's a church function, that ought to be the focus of it. What do these young people need? Well, let's give them some crafts. Let's give them some glue and some scissors.

They get that out there. Let's give them the Word of God. That's what they need. Amen. What do these young preachers need to equip them for the ministry?

I'll tell you what they need. They need some education in the Word of God, yes. But let it be focused and driven by the words on these pages, not by man's wisdom. Famine in the land. And in a few years we're gonna be just like Just like Europe, let me tell you what Europe's like right now We're right behind them You go back a few years in the days of Charles Spurgeon and some of those guys, these great buildings of church buildings and churches and seminaries.

Now you look at the pictures and a lot of those buildings are empty. Many of them have been converted to museums, mosques, strip clubs, pubs and whatever. Just a shell. Where are the people that used to worship the Lord? Well, they're old or died off.

The church is disbanded, gone, famine in the land, And we're on our way there as a country. It didn't happen in England and Europe overnight, and it won't happen here overnight either. We need the Word of God in our homes. You know, we can't do anything about what them Portland rioters were doing with those Bibles in the street. We can make sure that the churches that we're a member of hold to the Word of God.

And we can make sure that our homes hold to the Word of God as well. And it's a battle. It's not easy. But listen, we've got to. Deuteronomy listen we've got to Deuteronomy chapter 6 Deuteronomy chapter 6 verses 6 through 9 And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, when thou risest up.

Thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. Now shalt write them upon the post of thy house and on thy gates. Oh, how there's a famine in the Word of God in many homes today. Go into any house in America and you'll find a TV. In fact, most of us have more TVs in our house than we've got toilets.

We've got more waste coming in than what we've got going out. Go figure. We'll find iPods, iPads, iPhones, cell phones, whatever smart phones, whatever you want to call them, got all that sort of stuff, gaming systems, all sorts of things to keep us busy. But we've got no time for God's Word. You might even find a Bible in most homes today still.

I thank God for that, but unfortunately a Bible in your home won't do you any good if you never pick it up and read it. So much dust on it, Either literally or figuratively, enough dust to write the word damnation on it. I remember growing up I heard a preacher and I'm sure he was well meaning. And he was talking about how that every Sunday morning, every Sunday morning, him and his family was running late for church because they could never find their Bibles. And he was trying to tell us how we all needed to bring our Bibles to church.

And that's right, you need to bring your Bible to church. And so he said he came up with a solution. And he said that every day whenever they came home from church, they set their Bibles on the table by the door and that's where they were Sunday morning until Wednesday night when they left to go to church and they pick them up to go to church And then Wednesday night when they came back, they put them right back on that table. And then Sunday morning, they left. That's where their Bibles were.

Wait a minute. What about the other days of the week are they not picking up their Bible in between you know There's lots of opportunities in between Personal Bible study, family worship, Bible reading, study. You know what days are good for having your Bible, using your Bible, looking in your Bible? Days that end in Y. Does that leave any days out Isaiah?

No. Days that end in Y. That's a good day for having your Bible and being in the Word of God. Don't let there be a famine in your home. Famine in the land, yeah.

Writers burning Bibles and abusing and misusing the other kind of churches that other homes. Yeah, famine, But don't let there be one in your house. And then thirdly, We need the word of God in our community. You said, wait a minute. I can see where I've got responsibility for my church and my home, but how in the world can I be responsible for my community?

Acts chapter 8 verse 4. Acts chapter 8 verse 4. It says, Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. They that were scattered abroad went everywhere. Who was scattered abroad?

Well, if you go back up to verse one, it says, and Saul was consenting unto his death, and at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was in Jerusalem. They were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. The apostles were scattered. It was everybody else. And it says these were the ones that were scattered abroad and they went everywhere preaching the word.

You know, They could have easily said, man, I wish one of the apostles was here. They did, but since I ain't got a preacher, I'm just gonna stay home. I didn't do that. They took responsibility for getting the Word of God out in their community. We're not being scattered yet because of persecution, but in a sense we are kind of scattered because of we're all living different neighborhoods.

We are disbanding. We live in a world that a country that is, I believe we're on the verge of persecution. We might see it in our lifetime. We've still got freedom to go and witness to people, to take the word out different ways. We make sure that the word of God is taken in our community.

You see, we've got things that these guys didn't have. Since they were around, we've been blessed with the printing press. We've got the internet. We've got all sorts of different things. We've got automobiles and travel communications.

Travel, communications. There may be a famine in this land overall, and it may be. There's some Antifa rioters burning Bibles in the streets in this country, but may God help us to make sure that the Word of God is upheld in our communities, in our homes, and in our churches. And may he add the blessing to even our most feeble efforts. Let's stand and be dismissed.