Amos 3
Amos • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 7 viewsWe are looking at the importance of God's Word in warning His people
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
“Early on the morning of December 7, 1941, George E. Elliott, Jr. was manning new radar equipment, a state-of-the-art SCR-270, on the northern tip of Oahu alongside fellow serviceman Joseph Lockard.
At just after 7 a.m., Elliot noticed an unusually large blip on the radar, something that seemed to indicate a rather large flight. Unsure of what the signal could be, Elliot made a call to the Information Center at Fort Shafter and was advised no one was available and he would receive a call back.
Moments later, the callback came through and Lockard answered. On the other end was Lt. Kermit Tyler who was quick to dismiss the large blip as a dozen American B-17 bombers arriving from San Francisco, a judgment call that, had it gone the other way, may have prevented the complete surprise of the impending Japanese bombardment, known to us now as the Day of Infamy
With Tyler’s mistaken reassurance, Lockard was ready to pack up and end his shift but Elliot insisted on tracking the signal, partially hoping to use the incoming flight as practice on the new radar warning system. By 7:39, the blip had vanished entirely into mountains of Oahu. Almost immediately after the signal disappeared, Elliot and Lockard were pulled off duty to head back to base for breakfast. Upon their arrival, the two learned of the Japanese attack. Among the enemy forces were 183 Japanese fighters that Elliot had spotted on the radar.” But by then, it was too late to heed the warning
-pearlharbor.org
In the same way that there was a crucial warning that was missed that caused disaster, God tells about His crucial warning that He gives, and the disasters that result when His warning is missed
Background
Background
The year is 755 BC
-In the Middle East, near the Mediterranean, lay the Nation of Israel, now divided up into two separate kingdoms, the Southern Kingdom of Judah, and the Northern Kingdom of Israel
-In the Southern Kingdom of Judah, King Uzziah reigns on the throne, and the nation is enjoying prosperity
-To the North, the Kingdom of Israel was also enjoying one of the most prosperous eras in their history
-Their king, Jeroboam II seemed to have brought stability to the nation and economy which was often in turmoil with military coups and new dynasties
-Israel had regained some of its territories and was enjoying economic prosperity
-The people were still religious, holding to a form of Yahweh worship that they had set up in Bethel and Dan
-They still were sacrificing, as well observing religious festivals and holidays
-And yet the nation was deathly ill, infected to the core
-Like a tree that looks outwardly healthy, and yet is rotten on the inside, waiting for the next storm to come and seal its upheaval
-Israel was deeply infected with injustice and unrighteousness
-The rich of the nation were abusing and taking advantage of the poor
-The court system was corrupt, allowing people to get away with horrible atrocities
-Sexual perversion was rampant, with wicked men taking advantage of helpless women
-Dishonest scales were used in business practices, allowing common people to be cheated out of more of their money
-The Northern Kingdom had become a cesspool of filth, violence, and injustice towards those who had no means to defend themselves against their oppressors
-All the while, the people of the nation were leading lives of religiosity, pretending to live by the Law of God
While it may have seemed that God did not notice or did not care, nothing could be further from the truth
-At this time, God puts unfolds His Sovereign plan into action
-And His plan . . . is to send a prophet
-This prophet was one of the most unlikely men to hold the office in all of our Old Testament
-This prophet was not of priestly or royal descent
-This prophet wasn’t even related to any other prophets nor was he from one of the schools of prophets
-This prophet isn’t even from the Northern Kingdom
-Instead, into this desperate situation, God sends a country-man, a sheepbreeder, a tender of sycamore trees from the land of Judah
-Sometimes referred to as “God’s Cowboy”, God sends a man named Amos
-Amos leaves his blue-collar job in Judah to go to the North and deliver a message, inscripturated for us in these 9 chapters
-And the thrust of his message, the theme of the book is this:
“God hates outward signs of religiosity that are not accompanied by relational righteousness with those around you.”
Let me say that again:
The theme of the book of Amos is that “God hates outward signs of religiosity that are not accompanied by relational righteousness with those around you.”
800 years later, the Apostle John would phrase it like this:
“If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother he has seen cannot love the God he has not seen.” 1 John 4:20
Last week, we looked at the first sermon of Amos to the Northern Kingdom
His sermon consisted of two parts
-The first part of his message said this: “God sees the horrible injustices and abuses that are going on among the heathen, and God will judge”
This surely would have been applauded by the hearers
-I mean, who doesn’t love to hear that God is going to judge the wickedness of all of the awful people around you?
-But the 2nd part of the message most certainly landed with a thud and deafening silence from the once pleased audience
-The second part of Amos’ sermon was this: God will judge the heathen for their injustice and wickedness towards others, but much more pressing in the mind of God is the injustice and relational wickedness of His own people
This brings us to our text today:
**Read Amos 3 and pray**
1. God’s Coming Judgment (vs. 1-2)
1. God’s Coming Judgment (vs. 1-2)
Now, let’s take a look at this text:
These first 2 verses would have been quite shocking to the audience Amos is preaching to
At the beginning of this second verse, God says to Israel “You only have I known of all the families of the earth”
-Which makes what he says next all the more shocking and to his hearers when he says:
“Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities”
Why would this have been so shocking?
-You see, Israel was relying on their special relationship with God to protect them and keep them from judgment
-The tendency of the Israelites throughout their history was to think that because they had been chosen by God, they would be just fine!
Jeremiah dealt with this problem 150 years later when he was preaching judgement to the Southern Kingdom
-And people didn’t want to believe him!
-If you were to go to Jeremiah 7, you’d see that the people there were saying, “we’re not going to be conquered! Look, we’ve got Yahweh’s Temple here! There’s no way that God would ever turn His back on this Temple!”
-and Jeremiah in effect said, “what good is the Temple going to do for you if you’re living in idolatry? You’ve turned this Temple into a den of thieves”
600 years after Jeremiah, John the Baptist came preaching repentance, saying
Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
You see, God’s people can have a tendency at times to think that because of their relationship with God, that they can live however they want!
-Even in our day, people can wave their sinners prayer, or their baptism or their church membership around like a get out of jail free card that protects them from any consequence of their sins or any need to pursue holiness
And here, God says that it’s because of their special relationship with God that God must punish and chasten for their unfaithfulness to Him
And before we move on, brothers and sisters, let me make quick application to us:
-Let us not think that because we have professed Christ that we are therefore free to live however we want!
-Let us not chalk up our sinfulness or loose living to “Christian liberty” or something similar
-If you claim to be a Christian, understand that God is zealous for your holiness and progressive sanctification
-And He will not allow you to claim the name of Christ and simply live however you want
-He loves you too much for that, but even more, He loves His own name and glory too much for that
As the Apostle Paul says, 2 Timothy 2:19
2 Timothy 2:19 (NKJV)
“Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”
This leads us to the next section of the text which we will give most of our attention to:
2. God’s Gracious Warning (vs. 3-8)
2. God’s Gracious Warning (vs. 3-8)
Now, what on earth are these verses saying?
What is going on here?
there’s all these questions about lions and birds and trumpets . . .
How do we make sense of all this, much less apply it to our lives today?
-These are often the kinds of passages in our OT that make us want to throw up our hands and run back over to John and Ephesians
But let me assure you, this passage has great encouragement and warning for us today, so let’s work through it
-Remember, Amos has brought a word of judgement against the Israelites
-He’s told them that God will judge them for their relational wickedness
-In the social sphere, they have been unjust and unrighteous towards one another
Now, how do people often react to this type of message
-Well look back at Amos 2:11-12
I raised up some of your sons as prophets,
And some of your young men as Nazirites.
Is it not so, O you children of Israel?”
Says the Lord.
“But you gave the Nazirites wine to drink,
And commanded the prophets saying,
‘Do not prophesy!’
What do you do when someone gives you a message that you don’t like or that doesn’t fit with your worldview?
-You silence them
-You tell them to go away
And we shouldn’t be overly judgmental of the Israelites here, since we do this all the time in our day too!
-We prefer to listen to our own sports team announcers instead of the announcers of the other team
-We don’t like the spin that this news station puts on the news, so we go over to the news station that holds our political views because it makes us feel better
-Someone posts something on facebook that clashes with your view of the issue, so you unfriend them or mute them
Why?
-It’s far more comfortable and reassuring to just get rid of messages and messengers that don’t agree with us or step on our toes
And this is what goes on in the book of Amos
-As a matter of fact, in chapter 7, Amaziah, the priest of the Altar of Bethel, tells Amos to go away!
-He in effect tells him, “Go back to Judah where you came from and take your message with you, because we don’t want to hear it over here!”
-Amos is a blue-collar guy who’s not easily intimidated and tells Amaziah that he’s not going anywhere and that Amaziah’s wife is going to be to be a prostitute in the city and his children will die when this judgment comes
So this is the kind of opposition to his message that Amos is dealing with
So look at this passage here in 3-8:
Now, don’t get too bogged down in all the rhetorical questions
-I know many of us don’t know a lot about lions or bird traps, but the logic Amos is putting forth here is easy enough to follow
-Amos is going to lay out some very simple verses that have to do with cause and effect
“can two walk together, unless they are agreed?”
-No, you don’t walk together and fellowship with someone unless there’s some type of agreement and understanding
“will a lion roar in the forest, when has no prey? Will a young lion cry out of his den, if he has caught nothing?”
-No, of course not. Lions don’t roar before they’ve caught something! that would scare away the prey
-Lions roar after they’ve eaten
“will a bird fall into a snare on the earth, where there is no trap for it? Will a snare spring up from the earth, if it has caught nothing at all?”
-No, of course not. Birds don’t get trapped by nothing. And traps don’t spring shut unless something has triggered it
“if a trumpet is blown in a city, will not the people be afraid?”
-Of course they will! who in their right mind back in this day would ignore the warning of a trumpet! The inhabitants would have heard that and feared!
“if there is a calamity in a city, will not the Lord have done it?”
-Of course He would have! God is sovereign and in control of all that happens
So for each of these things, there is a cause and effect happening
-the bird gets trapped. Why? because there was a trap laid for it
-The lion roars. Why? because it has caught something
What’s the point?
Skip down to verse 8
A lion has roared!
Who will not fear?
The Lord God has spoken!
Who can but prophesy?
The people of Israel are living in sin
-They’re treating each other horribly
-They’re living in social unrighteousness
-They’re committing horrible relational wickedness
-Amos comes along with a message of confrontation and judgment
“God sees how you’re living, and He’s not at all impressed by your outward signs of religiosity while you are failing to love those around you. And God will judge this”
They don’t like this preacher, and they certainly don’t like his message
“Go away! we don’t want your dumb prophecies”
What does Amos say?
**softer and while shrugging**
“I have to preach . . . I have to prophecy . . . God has spoken”
Look at verse 7
Surely the Lord God does nothing,
Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.
You see brothers and sisters, God’s gracious provision for His people in their relationship with Him and their relationship with others is His Word and His faithful messengers
Did you hear that?
God’s gracious provision for you and for me, to keep us on the right track in our walk with Him and our walk with others is His authoritative Word, often through the mouths of His faithful messengers
Let me ask you: how do you respond to God’s Word in your own life?
-Are you in God’s word daily?
-You may not be telling a prophet to leave town, but do you ignore your time with the Lord? Do you leave the Bible on the shelf?
-If we live like that, isn’t that us ignoring God’s Word as well?
-When you read your Bible, do you think about?
-Do you allow it to touch your everyday life?
-Do you allow it to convict you?
-Let me ask you something:
How do you respond to the preaching of God’s Word?
-Do you reverence it?
-Do you submit to it?
-Or do you get annoyed or angry or defensive when the preacher makes application that hits a little too close to home?
-does it annoy you when specific sins are talked about?
Let’s consider this:
-How do you respond when someone confronts you about relational sin in your own life?
The Israelites didn’t want to hear about their relational sins. Do you?
-Parents, let me ask you this:
-how would you respond if a pastor, or a fellow church member lovingly confronted you about your parenting?
-How would you respond to that?
How would you respond if someone lovingly confronted you about the way you interact with your spouse?
-If they said, “you know, I’ve been praying for you, because I’m concerned with the way you treat your wife, or you treat your husband.”
How would you respond?
Teens and young adults:
-How would you respond if someone confronted you about the way you treat your parents, or your siblings, or the way you treat some of your friends?
How would you respond if someone lovingly confronted you about your church relationships:
-Maybe that you’re not being faithful to be with your church family consistently, or that you’ve been unkind or gossiped about a fellow church member.
-How would you react to that?
Brothers and sisters, God’s Word, and God’s people proclaiming God’s Word is a guard to us against all kinds of sins, and specifically, as we’re talking about here in Amos, relational sins
-And this is a gracious provision from God!
-God loves us so much, that He gives us His authoritative Word!
-He gives us a church family that loves the Lord and loves us!
God has spoken!
“who can but prophesy?”
But brothers and sisters, here’s the thing: this provision of God’s grace is painful and uncomfortable at times, isn’t it?
-yes, there are many wonderful, comforting and soothing passages and verses!
-And we run to those passages, and let the reassuring and soothing words of our Father wash over us
-But there are many passages of Scripture that are uncomfortable
-They’re painful
-They expose us and leave us naked before God as Hebrews 4:12 says
Jesus understood this better than most! Jesus is the Word of God in the flesh, He often made people very uncomfortable
When writing about Jesus, John says in His Gospel
And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
But this is what God’s word does!
-This is what our Savior came to do!
But my dear brothers and sisters, the exposure from the Word of God is so necessary for us
As the Psalmist said,
How can a young man cleanse his way?
By taking heed according to Your word.
With my whole heart I have sought You;
Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!
Your word I have hidden in my heart,
That I might not sin against You.
When we ignore God’s Word, or we just read the parts of it that make us feel good, we’re doing exactly what Israel was doing here
-When we get defensive and annoyed at those who try to lovingly confront us, we’re doing exactly what Israel was doing here
Why do we do these things?
-Oftentimes for the same reason that Israel was living in sin: it’s convenient and comfortable
-Holiness is uncomfortable
-Holiness is inconvenient
-It makes you stand out
We don’t like to be exposed
-We don’t like the light of the Gospel to shine on us and penetrate our sinful motives and affections
-And yet this is what God has done through His Word and the Person of Jesus
whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
Brothers and sisters, have we become comfortable in our sin?
-Have we become comfortable in our relationships with others that are not biblical?
-Have we become comfortable living in ways that are unethical in our society?
God’s gracious provision for that is Revelation
-His Word and the Gospel of His Son reveal the sin in our lives and invite us to repent
3. God’s Response to the Rejection of His Word (vs. 9-15)
3. God’s Response to the Rejection of His Word (vs. 9-15)
Unfortunately, Israel rejected the Word of the Lord through His prophets
-Prophets like Amos
And vs. 9-15 show the disastrous results
God once again calls out their social unrighteousness in vs. 9-10
And then He promises judgment
In verse 11, an enemy will surround their land and plunder them
Verse 12, God promises that very few would survive this judgment
Vs. 13-15 God promises that He would punish Israel for their social unrighteousness
-He would destroy their altars, the signs of the outward religious devotion
-and He would destroy their luxurious houses, the signs of their great wealth
-All because they would fail to heed the Word of the Lord through His messengers
-Brothers and sisters, make no mistake. Even though there is abundant grace and forgiveness in Christ for all of our sins, there are devastating consequences that can occur in our lives and relationships when we fail to heed God’s Word.
Application
Application
Let’s make a few applications to us today as we close
-I know we’ve already talked some about application, but let’s talk about some ways that we can heed what God has spoken today through His Word to us today as New Covenant people of God
First, we let’s consider the view of Scripture that Christ had
-Christ had the highest view of the Scriptures
“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.
John 10:35 (NKJV)
the Scripture cannot be broken
If the Captain of our Salvation, our Savior whom we adore, had such a high view of Scripture, what should our view of Scripture be?
But it’s not simply enough to have a high view of Scripture. We need to have a dependence on Scripture.
-what are some ways that we can be intentional about making sure we heed God’s Word, even the convicting parts
Seek to read through the whole Bible
-We need to be careful about just constantly reading the parts of the Bible that we like
-I hope you have favorite parts of the Bible, and I hope you go to those often, but we need all of God’s Word
2. Be present when the people of God meet and the Word of God is taught and proclaimed
-We need all the teaching and preaching we can get
-We can shut God’s Word out by not being present when it is taught
3. Encourage the Christians in your life to confront you
-tell your pastors, tell your discipler, tell those Christians in your life who you love and respect to confront you when you’re wrong and in sin
-invite them to speak truth into your life
-tell them “would you please love me enough to lovingly tell me when you see sin or pride in my life and relationships”
For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.