Amos: Why Do the Wicked Prosper?

Blessed Be Your Name

WELCOME

Psalm 113:2-3—Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore! From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised!

Welcome! (in-person/online)

Thank you for supporting CareNet—$3,847.34 raised by PBC

Operation Christmas Child—doors to my left after service to learn how you can be involved

Women’s Conference with Jen Wilkin—in Virginia Beach on Friday, May 14 (5:30p-9p) - Sat. May 15 (8a-12:30p)

Cost is $25, head to blue flag for more information

Turn in your Bibles to Amos 6:1 and Shelly will come read to us after this short video about the conference

Show video: https://vimeo.com/522069801

Scripture Reading (Amos 6:1-8)

Prayer of Praise (Shelly Robertson)

The Reformation Song

Sovereign Over Us

Prayer of Confession (Derick Dickens)

My Worth Is Not In What I Own (At the Cross)

NCC #19 & Pastoral Prayer (John Rogers)

SERMON

A teenage girl shouted to her mom on Mother’s Day, “How does breakfast in bed sound?”

She said, “Ooh that sounds lovely!”

Her daughter replied, “Great! I’ll have bacon, hash browns and two eggs over easy.”

. . .

A teenage boy noticed his mom about to do the dishes after Mother’s Day brunch. “Relax mom, it’s Mother’s Day! . . . You can just wash them in the morning.”

We rarely treat our moms like we should.

Moms may occasionally wonder, “Why is it so hard for me while other people have it so easy? I’m trying to do things right, and yet I’m struggling! Meanwhile, so-and-so over here who doesn’t even care about God is thriving!”

Milder version of the question we hope to answer in today’s sermon: Why do the wicked prosper?

Strange question to ask on Mother’s Day

Sermon series on Minor Prophets

Turn to Amos

Why do the wicked prosper?

Dictators guilty of mass genocide die, seemingly never facing justice

Sex offenders and mass murderers get acquitted in court and go on to live peaceful happy lives. Or to kill or hurt again.

Influential people in politics, business, or entertainment who thrive even as they publicly speak against God and His people

Run-of-the-mill unbelievers who seem to be doing just fine, thank you very much, even though they don’t give a rip about God

Why do the wicked prosper? Amos teaches us they don’t. At least not forever.

Three Truths about Judgment:

1) Every SIN Will be Punished

Visiting Edinburgh, Scotland on a mission trip in 2002—men dressed in women’s lingerie, Satanist tracts

Perhaps Amos felt similarly when he visited the Northern Kingdom around 760 B.C.

Amos was a farmer who lived in Tekoa, 10 miles south of Jerusalem in the Southern Kingdom. But God called Amos to be a prophet to the people of Israel in the north.

What Amos encountered was luxury, injustice, and debauchery

He began proclaiming the word of the Lord in chapter 1. . .

Amos 1:3—Thus says the LORD: “For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron.

1 is enough to make them guilty. Poetically saying Damascus is guilty of many sins

God won’t revoke punishment because every sin must be punished

Damascus and the following nations are condemned for various human rights offenses. They’re mistreating image-bearers of God.

God will punish . . .

Gaza and the Philistines for exiling a whole people (1:6-8)

Tyre and the Phoenicians for delivering a whole people to destruction (1:9-10)

The Edomites for violence without pity (1:11-12)

The Ammonites for violence against women and children (1:13-15)

The Moabites for disrespecting the dead (2:1-3)

Sin against God always leads to sin against His image-bearers.

Adam and Eve blaming each other

At this point, surely Amos’ audience is ecstatic. Sure, these wicked nations may be prospering now but they will be punished!

Like a politician at a rally

Then the tone in Amos’ prophecy begins to shift . . .

Amos 2:4-5—Thus says the LORD: “For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have rejected the law of the LORD, and have not kept his statutes, but their lies have led them astray, those after which their fathers walked. So I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.”

All of a sudden, the people in Israel are getting antsy. If Judah’s sin will be punished, what about Israel?

To add to their fear, if you look at where these nations were on a map, it looks almost like Amos the prophet has got a bullseye on the people of the Northern Kingdom

Amos 2:6a—Thus says the LORD: “For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment. . .”

The rest of the book is going to flesh out this sentence...

2:6-6:16—reasons for Israel’s judgment

7:1-9:15—visions of Israel’s judgment

You can ask “why do the wicked prosper?” But what will you do when God shows you a mirror?

When we ask, “why do the wicked prosper?” We mean “the ‘really bad’ wicked.” Not the “run-of-the-mill, middle-class, respectable, conservative, American wicked.” God will not judge based on your standards, but His.

When you ask God to judge the wicked, do you know what you’re asking for?

Amos 5:18-20—Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! Why would you have the day of the LORD? It is darkness, and not light, 19 as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him. 20 Is not the day of the LORD darkness, and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?

Why do the wicked prosper? Amos teaches us they don’t. At least not forever. He teaches us that every sin will be punished.

But why? Amos also teaches us. . .

2) Every SIN Must be Punished

Do you know the difference between an arraignment and a trial? At an arraignment you hear a list of the charges against you. At a trial the prosecuting attorney will present evidence to the judge in an attempt to convict you as guilty.

Amos 2:6-16 is like the arraignment where Amos the prosecuting attorney reads a summary of the charges against Israel

Amos chapters 3-6 is like the trial, where Amos presents evidence of Israel’s guilt

At Israel’s arraignment in ch. 2, we see four reasons why Israel’s sin must be punished.

Their sin (and ours) must be punished because they’re guilty of four perversions . . .

A Perversion of Justice

Amos 2:6—Thus says the LORD: “For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals

They’re taking bribes, turning on one another for silver or sandals

More evidence in Amos 5:12—For I know how many are your transgressions and how great are your sins—you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and turn aside the needy in the gate.

The innocent are being punished because they’re bribing one another to testify against them.

The innocent are imprisoned and the wicked go free.

The vulnerable are being ignored

Amos 6:12—you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood

Not everything called “justice” is actually justice. True justice is rooted in truth.

The truth is, these people were innocent but treated as if they were guilty.

But why are they treating each other this way? Why are they willing to turn on each other to get ahead? Because they’ve already made an idol out of wealth.

A Perversion of Wealth

Back to the arraignment in . . . Amos 2:7a—those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the afflicted

How are they trampling the poor? By refusing to help even though they can.

Amos 3:15—I will strike the winter house along with the summer house, and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall come to an end,” declares the LORD.

Amos 6:4-6a—Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory and stretch themselves out on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall, 5 who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp and like David invent for themselves instruments of music, 6 who drink wine in bowls and anoint themselves with the finest oils, . . .

Most of Amos’ evidence against Israel is related to this perversion. He rebukes them for having . . .

Vacation homes (3:15)

Large, beautiful houses (3:15)

Fancy furniture (6:4)

Plenty to eat (6:4)

Fine entertainment (6:5)

Large dishes and large portions (6:6)

Quality beauty products (6:6)

Is it wrong to have these things? If it is, we’re in trouble. . .

Most Americans don’t own vacation homes, but on average we spend $2000 a year on vacations. [1] Meanwhile, nearly half the world lives on less than $5.50 a day. [2] Which means, we spend more on vacations every year than half the world spends on everything.

On average, Americans have some of the largest houses in the world. And they’re getting larger. The average American living in a newly built home in the US enjoys 211% more living space than their grandparents did. [3]

The average American spends more money a year on furniture than the poorest people in the world make in a year [5]

Not only do most Americans have plenty to eat, the amount of food we waste every year [6] is worth more than the total GDP of the 7 poorest nations combined. [7]

We spent a record $30 billion on home entertainment in 2020 [8]

In the past 50 years, food portions in America have increased exponentially. Men consume nearly 168 calories more a day today than they did in the 1970s. Women eat nearly 335 calories more a day than their counterparts 50 years ago. [9]

The US is the world’s largest beauty market, accounting for 13% of a $532 billion industry worldwide. [10]

Is it wrong to have these things? Maybe

Amos is not preaching against wealth per se, but the abuse of it.

They have all these things but they. . .

Amos 6:6b-7—. . . are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph! 7 Therefore they shall now be the first of those who go into exile, and the revelry of those who stretch themselves out shall pass away.”

Are you grieved by a world of suffering? How are you using your wealth to alleviate the suffering of others?

When we begin to see other people as a means to get what we want, we quickly move to another perversion. . .

A Perversion of Sexuality

Amos 2:7b—a man and his father go in to the same girl, so that my holy name is profaned;

Amos doesn’t say anything else about this perversion

It can only happen when God’s design is disregarded

Sexual perversion includes anything and everything outside of God’s design.

God designed sex as a gift to be enjoyed in marriage between one biological man and one biological woman for one lifetime.

Everybody believes in the reality of sexual perversion, we just don’t agree on the standard by which we judge these things. For some, anything is okay as long as there’s consent. For others, it must be consenting adults. For others, it must be a man and a woman. For Christians, its a man and woman in marriage. The question is not, “Do you believe in perversion” but how do you draw the line, where do you draw it, and why?”

Beginning in Amos 7, God gives Amos five different visions of the judgment that’s coming. In the third vision. . .

Amos 7:7-8a—This is what he showed me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. 8 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; . . .

God is the standard! You might think we’re arrogant to insist on these standards of sexual immorality, but the real arrogance is ignoring what God says in His Word!

All of these perversions are rooted in a deeper perversion. . .

A Perversion of Worship

Amos 2:8—they lay themselves down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge, and in the house of their God they drink the wine of those who have been fined.

The altar and temple were places to come before God for worship

They came wearing clothes stolen from the poor, drinking wine stolen from the unjustly accused.

They have perverted their worship!

Amos 5:21-23—“I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. 22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. 23 Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.

Solemn assemblies. . . fattened sacrifices . . . loud songs

God is not pleased by phony worship!

Amos 5:24—But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

God has always expected genuine worship to lead to a life of genuine good works

James 2:14-18—What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

Why do the wicked prosper? Amos teaches us they don’t. At least not forever. He teaches us that every sin must be punished.

I thought God was loving?

Parents, would it be loving if you taught your children that the red hot eye on the stove is good? “It makes water boil to cook spaghetti noodles. It turns slimy eggs into a tasty yellow breakfast. It turns hard, inedible kernels into fluffy white popcorn. The stove is good.” That’s true, but it’s incomplete. A stove is good, but it’s also dangerous. If the stove is misused it can be deadly.

God is a God of love, yes. But He is holy. And if we never warn people about His holiness and righteous judgments, they’ll be like a little child playing around with a hot stove because they’ve never been warned.

But is their any way to escape?

3) Some SINNERS Won’t be Punished.

God will punish every sin, but not every sinner.

Notice what God does to rescue His people from punishment. . .

God Sent Suffering

Just as He did in Joel’s day, God uses suffering to wake up His people. . .

Amos 4:6—I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you did not return to me,” declares the LORD.

[IF TIME KEEP READING. . .]

. . . 4 more times! . . .

Amos 4:7-13—“I also withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither; 8 so two or three cities would wander to another city to drink water, and would not be satisfied; yet you did not return to me,” declares the LORD. 9 “I struck you with blight and mildew; your many gardens and your vineyards, your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured; yet you did not return to me,” declares the LORD. 10 “I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, and carried away your horses, and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils; yet you did not return to me,” declares the LORD. 11 “I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning; yet you did not return to me,” declares the LORD.

Has God used suffering to wake you up? Are you awake?

In Amos’ day, God’s people didn’t wake up. But God didn’t stop pursuing His people. . .

God Sent His Word

In Amos 7, the Northern Kingdom finally gets sick of Amos. A priest named Amaziah tells Amos to leave. Stop preaching these sermons about judgment and gloom and doom!

So God tells Amos to warn Israel about a horrifying judgment. . .

Amos 8:11-12—“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD, “when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. 12 They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it.

You can reject and ignore God’s Word so many times that He stops speaking to you.

Which would bother you more? A famine of food or a famine of God’s Word? Could you be content without food as long as you could still feast on the Word of the Lord?

Not long after this, Amos’ warnings would come true. The Northern Kingdom would fall. A few hundred years later, the Southern Kingdom would fall too. And then, for nearly 500 years God’s people would hear nothing from God. No more prophets. No more books of Scripture. But God didn’t stop pursuing His people. . .

God Sent His Son

Amos 9:11-15—In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old, 12 that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name,” declares the LORD who does this.

God’s going to punish the sins of His people. But not all sinners will be punished. Some will be raised up, repaired, and rebuilt.

Not just Jewish people — “all nations called by my name”

What is Amos talking about?

Turn to Acts 15

Paul and Barnabas preaching, Gentiles getting saved!

Jews: “You must obey the law of Moses”

Jerusalem Council to decide

Acts 15:14-17—Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. 15 And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written, 16 “ ‘After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, 17 that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things 18 known from of old.’

Amos was prophesying about the work of Jesus! Some sinners won’t be punished because Jesus was punished in their place!

Your best day on earth is the closest you’ll get to heaven

A prairie fire was whipped along by the wind so fast that it overtook all creatures in its path. One family, seeing the impossibility of outrunning the blaze, began a backfire and then covered themselves with earth as they lay in the midst of the already burned-out circle. The roaring fire met the backfire and it burned only up to the edge of that burned-over area, then went right around it, continuing its hungry race. That family was saved. They knew the only safe place was where the fire had already burned.

Christian:

Look up! Praise God for the Gospel! Your worst day on earth is the closest you’ll get to hell!

Cheer up! You’re always doing better than you deserve!

Show up! The rebuilt ruins is the church! The gates of hell won’t overcome it!

Shape up! If you’re guilty of any of these perversions, repent!

[IF TIME. . .]

Turning around, while walking, riding bicycle, vehicle, aircraft carrier

Speak up! We know the ONE way to escape the punishment that’s coming. Let’s share the Good News!