August 27, 2025 • 13 mins
Pastor Brandon unpacks the metaphor of the plumb line from Amos 7, showing how God's Word serves as our objective standard for measuring spiritual truth and righteous living.
• The origin of the episode title "The Fruit Line" comes from a humorous story about a master carpenter forgetting the term "plumb line"
• God showed Amos a series of visions including locusts, fire, and finally a plumb line to test Israel
• A plumb line represents an objective standard – in Christianity, God's Word is that standard
• We don't interpret Scripture according to our preferences; we measure our lives against its truth
• God doesn't use the elite but the obedient – "there are no second-class citizens in the kingdom of God"
• Every believer has the right to share God's Word when they know what it says
• Spiritual maturity requires both learning and application
• Our freedom comes from aligning our lives with God's standards
Go out and know God more and make Him known today!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, hello everybody .
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown Podcast with your host
, pastor Brandon, today.
Amos, chapter 7, today's titleis the Fruit Line.
The Fruit Line the reason whyI'm saying that I'm going to go
ahead and tell you this story.
So the idea is actually calleda plumb line, and what a plumb
line is is it is a line that youuse.
(00:22):
That is kind of your baselinefor what is level, what is
straight.
It's supposed to be like themost level thing ever.
And then you judge everythingelse based on this plum line
plum being flush straight, allthat right.
Well, I was working with a guyone time and I am by no means a
carpenter.
You can ask any of my friends,they will tell you.
(00:43):
No, that is not an adjective Iwould use, but I'm the guy who
has like a strong back and willhelp as much as I can.
Right, and I knew what a plumbline was.
I had been told and I was withthis master carpenter and he'd
been teasing me a little bit,just friendly ribbing back and
forth, and he's like hey,brandon, if you can bring me the
hammer, by the way, it's theone that's got the claw on one
(01:04):
side.
You know, just teasing becausehe knew I'm just clueless, right
?
Well, he had been going backand forth and really giving me a
hard time and, once again, allin good fun.
But it was brutal and it cametime and we needed to run a
plumb line, a chalk line, plumbline, to make sure that we were
doing everything right.
And this masterenter, who hasforgotten a hundred times over
(01:26):
again anything that I've everlearned he knows everything.
He couldn't remember for thelife of him the word plumb line
or the phrase plumb line.
And so he's like we need tomake a fruit line.
And can I tell you, justimagine the scene.
There's like 10 of us aroundand all nine of them have been
(01:48):
laughing.
And, you know, teasing andlaughing at me, the guy who
doesn't know anything.
And I'm laughing too because Idon't know anything.
Right, all of them, all of us,look at him, mr Master Carpenter
, and go excuse me, a fruit line.
And he starts laughing athimself.
He's like all right, brandon,what is it?
And thankfully, I knew it wascalled a plumb line.
And so, of course, I juststraighten my back, pop out my
(02:09):
chest and say, well, now it is afruit line, even though it is a
plumb line and we had some funwith that.
So from now on, if you are acarpenter, it's a fruit line,
right?
We're going to talk about fruitlines, plumb lines in here
today.
We're going to have some fun.
So, if you have your Bibles, Iwant to open up with me to Amos,
chapter 7.
While you're doing that asalways, if you're new around
here make sure you take just asecond to like, share and
(02:31):
subscribe to the YouTube channeland the podcast.
Make sure you leave us afive-star review on the podcast
it really does help and makesure you can get all the links
to all the things atthebiblebreakdowncom Real quick.
We've had a lot of peoplecontact us recently and say
(02:52):
Pastor Brandon, I don't do theFacebook thing very much.
I don't get on social media allthat much, and a lot of times
it's because people do socialmedia they just don't do
Facebook that often.
Twitter or X, now Instagram,tiktoks, all those things they
don't really lean you kind oflend themselves to longer form
stuff like that.
So there's not going to be muchof a chance of us doing a lot
(03:13):
of that kind of stuff on thoseplatforms.
So the way we're trying to fixthat is by very slowly,
eventually moving everythingover to thebiblebreakdowncom.
Now, here's the good thing youdon't have to have a Facebook
account to access the devotions.
So if you want to, you can goto thebiblebreakdowncom, find
(03:34):
the link that says discussion.
When you click that, if it'sworking properly, it will send
you to the discussion, which ispublic, and you can do that.
Now, if you want to comment,which we'd love for you to do,
you have to have a Facebookaccount for that, but you can
still comment in that way, okay,all right.
Well, if you've been with usover the past several days,
we've been walking through thebook of Amos, and if you
(03:54):
remember the book of Amos, theoverall idea is let justice roll
, as the great Garth Brooks says.
And, and Amos is one of theoldest prophets in the Old
Testament and he is writing toIsrael.
Now, as we've been talkingabout, he is not from Israel,
he's from Judah, and then youhave the northern and the
(04:14):
southern kingdoms, and so, yes,at one point these were both
together, and so it can bedifficult sometimes to remember
that there is now a dividingline and these, these two guys,
are they are at war as much asthey are friends, right, but he
is writing to the Israelitesbecause he is telling them hey,
listen, listen, I know that youguys are so blessed right now
(04:35):
and economically they were veryblessed but he is saying that
there is an empire called theAssyrians and they're going to
come take over you guys if youdon't repent.
And so we've been talking aboutthese ideas, about how, with
access comes responsibility.
He talked to him about how thisis your wake-up call.
He talked about the idea ofcoming on back to God, and then
yesterday he was saying thatthey are walking on thin ice.
(04:58):
Well, today he's going to talkabout this, this plum line, this
fruit line, as it is the ideaof really having an objective
standard in our life to help usknow what's good and what's not.
And he's going to do thisthrough these different visions.
Now, one way to look at avision is the idea of, if you've
(05:20):
been with us for a while now,we've been reading through the
Bible, one chapter at a time fora while, and we will read one
book in the Old Testament, onebook in the New Testament, and
so at this point, we have readthrough the Gospels, and the
Gospels, jesus did this amazingthing called teaching through
parables, and what a parable is.
A parable is a spiritualprinciple, a deep spiritual
(05:43):
principle wrapped in a story sothat you can see the different
aspects of it right.
Well, that's a lot of what avision is in the Old Testament.
It is a way for God to make apoint in a visual way for people
to understand.
So if you're ready, let's diveinto this today and let's see
what God's word will teach us.
Chapter 7, verse 1 says this thesovereign Lord showed me a
vision.
(06:03):
I saw him preparing to send avast swarm of locusts over the
land.
This is after the king's sharehad been harvested from the
fields as the main crop wascoming up.
In my vision, the locust ateevery green plant in sight.
Then I said O, sovereign Lord,please forgive us or we will not
survive, for Israel is so small.
(06:25):
So the Lord relented from hisplan and said I will not do it.
Then the sovereign Lord showedme yet another vision.
I saw him preparing to punishhis people with a great fire,
the fire that burned up thedepths of the sea and was
devouring the entire land.
Then I said O sovereign Lord,please stop, or we will not
(06:46):
survive, for Israel is so small.
Then the Lord relented fromthis plan too.
I will not do that either, saidthe sovereign Lord.
Then he showed me yet anothervision.
I saw the Lord standing besidethe wall that had been built
using a plumb line Remember afruit line?
And he was using the plumb lineto see if it was still straight
.
Then the Lord said to me Amos,what do you see?
(07:09):
And I answered a plumb line.
And the Lord replied I willtest my people with this plumb
line.
I will no longer ignore theirsins.
(07:29):
The pagan shrines of yourancestors will.
And the Lord replied toJeroboam, king of Israel, amos
is hatching a plot against you,right here on your very doorstep
.
What he is saying isintolerable.
He is saying Jeroboam will soonbe killed and the people of
Israel will be sent away intoexile.
Then Amaziah sent orders to Amosget out of here, you prophet.
(07:51):
Go on back to the land of Judahand earn your living by
prophesying there.
Don't bother us with yourprophecies here in Bethel.
This is the king's sanctuaryand the national place of
worship.
But Amos replied I am not aprofessional prophet.
I was never trained to be oneand I am just a shepherd and I
take care of sycamore fig trees.
(08:13):
But the Lord called me awayfrom my flock and told me go and
prophesy to my people in Israel.
Now listen, this is the messagefrom the Lord.
You say don't prophesy againstIsrael, stop preaching against
my people.
But this is what the Lord saysyour wife will become a
prostitute in the city.
(08:33):
Man, you want to talk about aclap back?
Let me say that again.
Okay, pause, okay, the next no,no, no, no, no.
I'm not even going to say this,but imagine somebody tells you
to get out of here.
This is your clapback.
This is what the Lord says.
Here we go, verse 17.
Your wife will become aprostitute in the city and your
sons and daughters will bekilled.
That's rough.
(08:53):
Your land will be divided upand you yourself will die in a
foreign land, and the people ofIsrael will certainly become
captives in exile, far fromtheir homeland.
That's his way of saying don'tmess with me, fool, and I
wouldn't.
But what's the big idea we cantake from this?
The plumb line was I'm going tolook at the objective standard
(09:19):
and then I'm going to judgeaccordingly.
Well, what is the objectivestandard in Christianity?
God's Word?
God has revealed to us His Word.
That's why we're reading it,one chapter at a time.
We don't look at God's Word andthen decide what it means.
We learn what God's Word meansand then we measure our lives
according to it.
(09:40):
Now, salvation comes by gracealone, through faith alone and
Christ alone.
Our level of freedom comes fromhow closely we do what God's
word says.
And the thing is is, god's wordtells us to do so many good
things, but we tend to focus onthe things that we can't do, and
then that human nature.
That's fine, but that's why wedo this.
(10:01):
But then the other thing I loveis that God tells Amos not a
professional prophet, someonewho loved God and was just crazy
enough to obey him, to go anddo what he needed to do, and
then, when he was accused ofwhatever he's like, no, no, no.
An older translation of thissays I am not a prophet, nor a
son of a prophet.
In other words, I am a nobodyfrom nowhere.
(10:23):
I'm just trying to do what Godtold me to do, and you know what
that does.
That reminds us God does notuse the elite, because there is
no such thing in the kingdom ofGod.
But if there were, god does notuse the elite to do his work.
He does the obedient to do hiswork, can I tell you there are
(10:44):
no second class citizens in thekingdom of God.
If you're looking at theYouTube video, I want to look
straight at you and say that onemore time there are no second
class citizens in the kingdom ofGod.
You have every bit as much of aright to obey God as anybody
else.
Now there's a caveat, there's anuance to that, and that is
there are levels of maturity inthe kingdom of God, which means
(11:08):
that if you're a brand new babyChristian, sit down and learn.
Okay, your pampers will falloff.
You know what I mean.
It's okay to sit down and learn, but at the same time, if
you've been in God's word,you're studying God's word and
you know what God's word says.
Never be afraid to share God'sword with other people.
You have every right, and ifsomeone says to you, what are
(11:29):
you doing?
Telling me God's word, who doyou think you are?
You can tell them hey, listen,I am not a prophet, nor the son
of a prophet.
I'm nobody from nowhere.
But my Jesus is somebody fromsomewhere and I'm just here to
tell you what his word says.
Everybody is gifted to doeverything that God has called
them to do, and you know whatGod's called us to do To know
him and to make him known.
(11:49):
So go out and know God more andmake him known.
Today let's pray together, god,thank you so much for today,
thank you for your word, thankyou that it is powerful and it
is true, and it is the plumbline.
(12:09):
It is the line at which we makethe objective standard of who
we are, and your word wants usto be free.
It's one of the things I loveabout you, god, that you didn't
have to be good, you didn't haveto be gracious, you didn't have
to be kind, but you are allthose things and your word leads
us into that freedom.
Help us to lean into that moreand to never listen to the devil
, who tries to tell us that wecan't lean into your word, but
rather lean into it more andmore every day.
(12:30):
We love you, we celebrate youIn Jesus' name.
We pray Amen, amen.
What Jesus' name?
We pray Amen, amen.
Well, god's word says in Amos,chapter five, verse 24,.
He says instead I want to see amighty flood of justice and an
endless river of righteousliving.
Let that be our story today.
I love you.
I'll see you tomorrow.
We're almost done with Amos,chapter eight.
Well, hello everybody .
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown Podcast with your host
, pastor Brandon, today.
Amos, chapter 7, today's titleis the Fruit Line.
The Fruit Line the reason whyI'm saying that I'm going to go
ahead and tell you this story.
So the idea is actually calleda plumb line, and what a plumb
line is is it is a line that youuse.
(00:22):
That is kind of your baselinefor what is level, what is
straight.
It's supposed to be like themost level thing ever.
And then you judge everythingelse based on this plum line
plum being flush straight, allthat right.
Well, I was working with a guyone time and I am by no means a
carpenter.
You can ask any of my friends,they will tell you.
(00:43):
No, that is not an adjective Iwould use, but I'm the guy who
has like a strong back and willhelp as much as I can.
Right, and I knew what a plumbline was.
I had been told and I was withthis master carpenter and he'd
been teasing me a little bit,just friendly ribbing back and
forth, and he's like hey,brandon, if you can bring me the
hammer, by the way, it's theone that's got the claw on one
(01:04):
side.
You know, just teasing becausehe knew I'm just clueless, right
?
Well, he had been going backand forth and really giving me a
hard time and, once again, allin good fun.
But it was brutal and it cametime and we needed to run a
plumb line, a chalk line, plumbline, to make sure that we were
doing everything right.
And this masterenter, who hasforgotten a hundred times over
(01:26):
again anything that I've everlearned he knows everything.
He couldn't remember for thelife of him the word plumb line
or the phrase plumb line.
And so he's like we need tomake a fruit line.
And can I tell you, justimagine the scene.
There's like 10 of us aroundand all nine of them have been
(01:48):
laughing.
And, you know, teasing andlaughing at me, the guy who
doesn't know anything.
And I'm laughing too because Idon't know anything.
Right, all of them, all of us,look at him, mr Master Carpenter
, and go excuse me, a fruit line.
And he starts laughing athimself.
He's like all right, brandon,what is it?
And thankfully, I knew it wascalled a plumb line.
And so, of course, I juststraighten my back, pop out my
(02:09):
chest and say, well, now it is afruit line, even though it is a
plumb line and we had some funwith that.
So from now on, if you are acarpenter, it's a fruit line,
right?
We're going to talk about fruitlines, plumb lines in here
today.
We're going to have some fun.
So, if you have your Bibles, Iwant to open up with me to Amos,
chapter 7.
While you're doing that asalways, if you're new around
here make sure you take just asecond to like, share and
(02:31):
subscribe to the YouTube channeland the podcast.
Make sure you leave us afive-star review on the podcast
it really does help and makesure you can get all the links
to all the things atthebiblebreakdowncom Real quick.
We've had a lot of peoplecontact us recently and say
(02:52):
Pastor Brandon, I don't do theFacebook thing very much.
I don't get on social media allthat much, and a lot of times
it's because people do socialmedia they just don't do
Facebook that often.
Twitter or X, now Instagram,tiktoks, all those things they
don't really lean you kind oflend themselves to longer form
stuff like that.
So there's not going to be muchof a chance of us doing a lot
(03:13):
of that kind of stuff on thoseplatforms.
So the way we're trying to fixthat is by very slowly,
eventually moving everythingover to thebiblebreakdowncom.
Now, here's the good thing youdon't have to have a Facebook
account to access the devotions.
So if you want to, you can goto thebiblebreakdowncom, find
(03:34):
the link that says discussion.
When you click that, if it'sworking properly, it will send
you to the discussion, which ispublic, and you can do that.
Now, if you want to comment,which we'd love for you to do,
you have to have a Facebookaccount for that, but you can
still comment in that way, okay,all right.
Well, if you've been with usover the past several days,
we've been walking through thebook of Amos, and if you
(03:54):
remember the book of Amos, theoverall idea is let justice roll
, as the great Garth Brooks says.
And, and Amos is one of theoldest prophets in the Old
Testament and he is writing toIsrael.
Now, as we've been talkingabout, he is not from Israel,
he's from Judah, and then youhave the northern and the
(04:14):
southern kingdoms, and so, yes,at one point these were both
together, and so it can bedifficult sometimes to remember
that there is now a dividingline and these, these two guys,
are they are at war as much asthey are friends, right, but he
is writing to the Israelitesbecause he is telling them hey,
listen, listen, I know that youguys are so blessed right now
(04:35):
and economically they were veryblessed but he is saying that
there is an empire called theAssyrians and they're going to
come take over you guys if youdon't repent.
And so we've been talking aboutthese ideas, about how, with
access comes responsibility.
He talked to him about how thisis your wake-up call.
He talked about the idea ofcoming on back to God, and then
yesterday he was saying thatthey are walking on thin ice.
(04:58):
Well, today he's going to talkabout this, this plum line, this
fruit line, as it is the ideaof really having an objective
standard in our life to help usknow what's good and what's not.
And he's going to do thisthrough these different visions.
Now, one way to look at avision is the idea of, if you've
(05:20):
been with us for a while now,we've been reading through the
Bible, one chapter at a time fora while, and we will read one
book in the Old Testament, onebook in the New Testament, and
so at this point, we have readthrough the Gospels, and the
Gospels, jesus did this amazingthing called teaching through
parables, and what a parable is.
A parable is a spiritualprinciple, a deep spiritual
(05:43):
principle wrapped in a story sothat you can see the different
aspects of it right.
Well, that's a lot of what avision is in the Old Testament.
It is a way for God to make apoint in a visual way for people
to understand.
So if you're ready, let's diveinto this today and let's see
what God's word will teach us.
Chapter 7, verse 1 says this thesovereign Lord showed me a
vision.
(06:03):
I saw him preparing to send avast swarm of locusts over the
land.
This is after the king's sharehad been harvested from the
fields as the main crop wascoming up.
In my vision, the locust ateevery green plant in sight.
Then I said O, sovereign Lord,please forgive us or we will not
survive, for Israel is so small.
(06:25):
So the Lord relented from hisplan and said I will not do it.
Then the sovereign Lord showedme yet another vision.
I saw him preparing to punishhis people with a great fire,
the fire that burned up thedepths of the sea and was
devouring the entire land.
Then I said O sovereign Lord,please stop, or we will not
(06:46):
survive, for Israel is so small.
Then the Lord relented fromthis plan too.
I will not do that either, saidthe sovereign Lord.
Then he showed me yet anothervision.
I saw the Lord standing besidethe wall that had been built
using a plumb line Remember afruit line?
And he was using the plumb lineto see if it was still straight
.
Then the Lord said to me Amos,what do you see?
(07:09):
And I answered a plumb line.
And the Lord replied I willtest my people with this plumb
line.
I will no longer ignore theirsins.
(07:29):
The pagan shrines of yourancestors will.
And the Lord replied toJeroboam, king of Israel, amos
is hatching a plot against you,right here on your very doorstep
.
What he is saying isintolerable.
He is saying Jeroboam will soonbe killed and the people of
Israel will be sent away intoexile.
Then Amaziah sent orders to Amosget out of here, you prophet.
(07:51):
Go on back to the land of Judahand earn your living by
prophesying there.
Don't bother us with yourprophecies here in Bethel.
This is the king's sanctuaryand the national place of
worship.
But Amos replied I am not aprofessional prophet.
I was never trained to be oneand I am just a shepherd and I
take care of sycamore fig trees.
(08:13):
But the Lord called me awayfrom my flock and told me go and
prophesy to my people in Israel.
Now listen, this is the messagefrom the Lord.
You say don't prophesy againstIsrael, stop preaching against
my people.
But this is what the Lord saysyour wife will become a
prostitute in the city.
(08:33):
Man, you want to talk about aclap back?
Let me say that again.
Okay, pause, okay, the next no,no, no, no, no.
I'm not even going to say this,but imagine somebody tells you
to get out of here.
This is your clapback.
This is what the Lord says.
Here we go, verse 17.
Your wife will become aprostitute in the city and your
sons and daughters will bekilled.
That's rough.
(08:53):
Your land will be divided upand you yourself will die in a
foreign land, and the people ofIsrael will certainly become
captives in exile, far fromtheir homeland.
That's his way of saying don'tmess with me, fool, and I
wouldn't.
But what's the big idea we cantake from this?
The plumb line was I'm going tolook at the objective standard
(09:19):
and then I'm going to judgeaccordingly.
Well, what is the objectivestandard in Christianity?
God's Word?
God has revealed to us His Word.
That's why we're reading it,one chapter at a time.
We don't look at God's Word andthen decide what it means.
We learn what God's Word meansand then we measure our lives
according to it.
(09:40):
Now, salvation comes by gracealone, through faith alone and
Christ alone.
Our level of freedom comes fromhow closely we do what God's
word says.
And the thing is is, god's wordtells us to do so many good
things, but we tend to focus onthe things that we can't do, and
then that human nature.
That's fine, but that's why wedo this.
(10:01):
But then the other thing I loveis that God tells Amos not a
professional prophet, someonewho loved God and was just crazy
enough to obey him, to go anddo what he needed to do, and
then, when he was accused ofwhatever he's like, no, no, no.
An older translation of thissays I am not a prophet, nor a
son of a prophet.
In other words, I am a nobodyfrom nowhere.
(10:23):
I'm just trying to do what Godtold me to do, and you know what
that does.
That reminds us God does notuse the elite, because there is
no such thing in the kingdom ofGod.
But if there were, god does notuse the elite to do his work.
He does the obedient to do hiswork, can I tell you there are
(10:44):
no second class citizens in thekingdom of God.
If you're looking at theYouTube video, I want to look
straight at you and say that onemore time there are no second
class citizens in the kingdom ofGod.
You have every bit as much of aright to obey God as anybody
else.
Now there's a caveat, there's anuance to that, and that is
there are levels of maturity inthe kingdom of God, which means
(11:08):
that if you're a brand new babyChristian, sit down and learn.
Okay, your pampers will falloff.
You know what I mean.
It's okay to sit down and learn, but at the same time, if
you've been in God's word,you're studying God's word and
you know what God's word says.
Never be afraid to share God'sword with other people.
You have every right, and ifsomeone says to you, what are
(11:29):
you doing?
Telling me God's word, who doyou think you are?
You can tell them hey, listen,I am not a prophet, nor the son
of a prophet.
I'm nobody from nowhere.
But my Jesus is somebody fromsomewhere and I'm just here to
tell you what his word says.
Everybody is gifted to doeverything that God has called
them to do, and you know whatGod's called us to do To know
him and to make him known.
(11:49):
So go out and know God more andmake him known.
Today let's pray together, god,thank you so much for today,
thank you for your word, thankyou that it is powerful and it
is true, and it is the plumbline.
(12:09):
It is the line at which we makethe objective standard of who
we are, and your word wants usto be free.
It's one of the things I loveabout you, god, that you didn't
have to be good, you didn't haveto be gracious, you didn't have
to be kind, but you are allthose things and your word leads
us into that freedom.
Help us to lean into that moreand to never listen to the devil
, who tries to tell us that wecan't lean into your word, but
rather lean into it more andmore every day.
(12:30):
We love you, we celebrate youIn Jesus' name.
We pray Amen, amen.
What Jesus' name?
We pray Amen, amen.
Well, god's word says in Amos,chapter five, verse 24,.
He says instead I want to see amighty flood of justice and an
endless river of righteousliving.
Let that be our story today.
I love you.
I'll see you tomorrow.
We're almost done with Amos,chapter eight.
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