The Day of the LORD

Series: “God Speaks”

Text: Amos 5:18-27

Introduction: (What?)

Amos warns Israel to be careful what they wish for. That warning also applies to us today. There are many who are wishing for Jesus to return and yet they are not ready. In Matt. 7:21-23 Jesus warned that not everyone who says they are Christians really are Christians. The message of Amos addresses religious practices that are hated by God. Just because we hold church services, christian concerts and special prayer meetings does not assure that God is pleased with us.

Examination: (Why?)

1. Bad to worse (vv 18-20)

Previously, in vv 16-17 God said through Amos, “There will be wailing in all the public squares, they will cry out in anguish in all the streets. The farmer will be called on to mourn, and professional mourners to wail. there will be wailing in all the vineyards, for I will pass among you. The LORD has spoken.” We noted in the last message that this means that businesses and crops will fail and there will be cries of anguish both in the city and the countryside. Today we see businesses closing daily, droughts, floods and storms decimate our crops while food and gas prices skyrocket. God’s warning to Israel was “for I will pass among you”. When God passed among mankind in Egypt (Ex. 11:4) every first born of family or flock that were not covered by the blood on the doorpost was killed by the angel of the LORD. How could it be much worse?

In vv 18-20, the fifth sermon; the LORD spoke once again through Amos. “Woe to you who long for the day of the LORD! What will the Day of the LORD be for you? IT will be darkness and not light. It will be like a man who flees from and lion only to have a bear confront him. He goes home and rests his hand against the wall only to have a snake bite him. Won’t the Day of the LORD be darkness rather than light, even gloom without any brightness in it?”

The Israelites assumed that because they were God’s Chosen People they would be exempt from judgment on the Day of the LORD. Throughout the OT and from the mouths of prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joel, Amos, Zechariah and Malachi God predicted a time of intense judgment upon all except the “remnant of Israel”. It is a time when the sheep and goats will be separated, (Matt 25:31-460 with the sheep being rewarded and the goats being punished. In our day it means that those who have religion without a relationship with God through faith in Jesus will be exposed and sent to eternal punishment. Billy Graham once said that he believed that fully 50% of those who were members of a church were not truly saved. We have lowered the bar so much that we mislead people as to the real way of salvation. The modern “gospel” is usually a gospel without suffering. The true gospel warns that suffering is inherent in the life of every true follower of Jesus. Just as Amos condemned Israel’s “arrogance, decadence, complacent self-indulgence, and perversion of justice” (HCBC) the church today must condemn these things in America. Some so-called Christians who say “even so come quickly LORD Jesus don’t know what they are asking for.

2. False worship (vv 21-24)

Many churches today hold services that are about 60% entertainment with expensive light shows, smoke machines, and so-called “worship bands” that resemble rock stars in their dress and actions on stage, and maybe 40% true worship and preaching. You have perhaps heard people say that they attend such and such a church because they like the “praise and worship”. Very rarely do you hear people say they attend a church because of the diligent preaching of the word of God. True worship music calls attention to the object of worship (God) not to the performers. Anything that diverts attention away from God is idolatry.

In vv 21-24 Amos condemned any “worship” that came from corrupt hearts. “I hate, I despise, your feasts! I can’t stand the stench of your solemn assemblies (prayer meetings). Even if you offer Me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. I will have no regard for your fellowship offerings of fattened cattle. Take away from Me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice flow like water and righteousness like an unfailing stream.”

For the person who has surrendered to Christ by faith, their judgment will not be eternal punishment. However they will be judged according to their “works” 2 Cor. 5:10 “For we must ALL appear before the judgment seat (bema) of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” Paul includes himself in this judgment. In Romans 14:10b-12 Paul wrote “For we will ALL stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, ‘As I live, says the LORD, every knee will bow to Me, and every tongue will give praise to God.’ So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.” This is the judgment of our our works as described in 1 Cor. 3: 12-15 “If anyone builds on the foundation (Christ) with gold, silver, costly stones, wood hay or straw, each one’s work will become obvious. For the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire; the fire will test the quality of each one’s work. If anyone’s work that he has built survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will experience loss, but he himself will be saved---but only as through fire.” J. Vernon McGee wrote about this. “Although many people are saved, they are going to smell like they were bought at a fire sale when they get to heaven.”

Now, the poor materials that you have used to build on the foundation of Jesus can be replaced before judgment time through confession and repentance. 1 John 1: 8-9 “If we say, ‘We have no sin,’ we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Using wood, hay and straw to build on the foundation of Christ is SIN. Once you confess and repent of that sin, those materials are wiped away and you have the opportunity then to build with gold, silver and precious stones. God’s work must be done God’s way in God’s time. Our works are what we have done with our resources such as time, energy, talent, money and possessions. That is the reason I’m constantly bugging you about discovering, developing and using your spiritual gifts through the church. There is an old hymn that unfortunately is not in our hymnal entitled “Give of Your Best to the Master” (read lyrics)

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want Jesus to come before I have been cleansed through confession and repentance of my sins and rebuilt on the foundation of my faith in Christ with the best that I have.

3. Idolatry will be punished (vv 25-27)

You cannot mix Christian worship and service with idolatry. God doesn’t grade us on the curve. he doesn’t weigh our good versus our evil and reward us or punish us accordingly. If I were to offer you a Coke, and as you lifted it to your lips I said to you, “Oh, I forgot to tell you. It is 99 percent coke and one percent cyanide” would you drink it?

Amos ended this sermon with the warning in vv 25-27 “House of Israel, was it sacrifices and grain offerings that you presented to Me during the forty years in the wilderness? But you have taken up Sakkuth your king and Kaiwan your star god, images you have made for yourselves. So I will send you into exile beyond Damascus. The LORD, the God of Armies, is His name. He has spoken.”

During the Exodus Israel mixed worship of the LORD with worship of pagan gods, represented by images they had made themselves. Sakkuth and Kaiwan were names of the sky deity of the planet Saturn. Stephen quoted this passage from Amos in the sermon he preached in Acts 7:42-43 which led to his being stoned to death. This paganism was Molech worship which included the sacrifice of children. Today people sacrifice children through abortion or through child neglect or abuse.

On the other hand there are those who mix the worship of God with the worship of their children. They allow their kids to skip church in order to participate in some sports activity, party, or school event that is planned on a Sunday. This is dangerous. Anything or anyone you place between you and God is in peril.

There was a day when stores closed on Wednesday afternoon so that people could go to Prayer Meeting. Today, even if they don’t go shopping, people stay away from prayer meeting in droves.

Application: (How should I respond to this message?)

What or who do you allow to interfere with your worship of God?

Are you “giving of your best to the Master” or does your best go to your job or your recreation?

In what ways are you mixing the sacred with the secular?

Does justice flow like water and righteousness like an unfailing stream from your life? (v24)

Do you need to confess that you’ve been building with wood, hay or straw and begin to build with the best you have on the foundation of Christ?