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Our Bible reading this morning is taken from the book of Amos on chapter 2. The prophecy of Amos on chapter 2, we're going to read from verse 6 to verse 16. Amos 2 and verse 6. Thus saith the Lord, for three transgressions of Israel and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because they sold the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of shoes that pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor and turn aside the way of the meek, and a man and his father going unto the same maid to profane my holy name. And they lay themselves down upon clothes led to pledge by every altar, or any altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their God, Yet destroyed I the Ammonite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks, and yet I destroyed his fruit from above and his roots from beneath. Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt and led you forty years through the wilderness to possess the land of the Amorite. And I raised up your sons for prophets, And of your young men for Nazarites, is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel? saith the Lord. But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink, and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not. Behold, I am pressed under you as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves. Therefore, the flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, neither shall the mighty deliver himself. Neither shall he stand that handleth the bow, and he that is swift of foot shall not deliver himself, neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself. And he that is courageous among you the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, saith the Lord. Amen. And God will bless the reading of his inspired word. In this epistle, or not an epistle, it is a letter, I suppose, but a prophecy written by Amos to the people of Israel, we see what a state God's old covenant people had got themselves into. They were proud in their material prosperity coupled with spiritual decline and muddle. They were enjoying in chapter 1 and the first few verses in chapter 2, they were enjoying hearing God's judgment upon the other nations. Yet they themselves were committing the very same sins. And God raised a farmer called Amos to tell them the truth. The truth about themselves. To point out their sin. Because God's old covenant people were existentialist relativists. That's one of their sins. They twisted. We looked at it a few weeks ago. They twisted justice for material gain. Verse 6. Their greed had blurred, had fudged their idea of what's right and wrong. What's right was right for me. What's wrong is wrong for me. They had no absolutes of what right and wrong was. It all depended on what they wanted. They were existentialists, they were relativists. And that is sin. They were materialists, verse 7. They were proud and not meek, verse 7. They were immoral, verse 7. These are their sins. They were unmerciful towards the poor, verse 8. Money meant more than people. and they were multi-faith compromisers. At every altar they lay down. They were mixed together with all sorts of religion, all different religions, all in a great big compromised muddle. Their sins were crimson, their sins were blizzard blatantly obvious to anyone who even looked. Yet, yet despite all of this being so blatantly obvious, they were still relying on their profession of being the people of God. Even though their lives visibly contradicted their profession. They still thought they were God's people. While they were willfully sinning, undetermined to sin, they still held to their profession. They must have had magic words like Billy Graham had, repeat these words after me, raise your hand, all that nonsense. They must have had that, some form of it, because that's what they were holding on to when their lives contradicted what they said they were. Amos was sent to tell them the truth about themselves and the truth about their disobedience. And what Amos came to do was, he came and he said, you are under judgment. And if you don't repent, your time is up. That's it. God's people had a phenomenal blindness to the truth of scripture and the truth about themselves. And don't think that you're any different, New Testament believer. The more I go on in my ministry, the more willful disobedience I see, the more willful sin The more passages of Scripture that so many who profess the name of Christ just willfully ignore and disregard, chapter after chapter, the more excuses for sin I hear. The more I believe that the thankful or the thankless task of Amos needs to be done all over again. Because of the gross neglect of ministers and preachers for decades. The tip your hat to Jesus mentality must die. It's not in the Bible. It's false. It must end. Tip your hat to Jesus, repeat these magic words, and then go on living a life of determined disobedience to God. That is sinful. That is not the Christianity that you read of in the Bible. That's the Christianity of Finney and Billy Graham. That's the Christianity of Arminius. But it's not in the Scriptures. You don't live a determinedly disobedient life after you're saved. You're not saved if you think that. God's will becomes your joy once you're a true child of God. And if it's not your joy, If you're not a Christian, oh, I delight in His command. Love to be led by His dear hand. Unless you don't like that chapter, in which case, I'll just ignore it. The child of God delights in God's will and word, and the child of God is grieved and burdened by those who disobey His word. Read it in the Psalms time and time again. It hurts the psalmist when people do wicked things, disobedient, sinful things. That's a true child of God, is grieved and burdened when people disobey God. And Amos was preaching to a sinful covenant people, and their next sin that he pronounced woe upon, which is my first point this morning, is unscrupulous. They were unscrupulous in financing their pleasure. Verse 8. They drink, halfway through the verse, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their God. They were unscrupulous in financing their pleasure. They drink, that means they imbibe, the Hebrew word means, the wine of the condemned. Now that's an important word to understand because it means those that were fined. Those that were given a fine or a penalty unjustly. were unjust in their judgment and they fined people unjustly and they got money from those people and they used that money to buy wine and drink wine in the house, not of God, but of their own God, their God, the God that they've made up in their own little mind. The money they got from unjust gain, from fines of condemned people, they used on their pleasure. They purchased wine with it. That's what they were doing in Israel. The money they got from claims, unjust claims, was used for their pleasure. They were an unjust claim society. Just like Northern Ireland. And I thank God that any of God's people that I have heard of are a bit different from most of our society in this era. The unjust claiming society. Any Christians I've heard of, if they were not hurt in an accident, they don't claim. Even though the solicitor will tempt you in all sorts of ways and try and get you to claim, most of the Christians, in fact all the Christians that I've heard of, they don't claim if they're not hurt. And that is a great, great witness And by the way, let me say this, if you are hurt in an accident, it's right and just to claim, scripturally. According to the Bible, if someone's animal or someone's person or someone else's neglect caused damage to your property or your person in God's law, that person that caused that damage has to pay a recompense according to God's law. And it's usually threefold or fourfold. It's just unjust condemnation or claims for money that is being condemned in Amos. But God's people in Amos were doing that. They were fining people unjustly and then they were using that money for their own pleasure. They were unscrupulous in financing their pleasure. The second sin And I think it's the last sin in chapter 2 that I'm going to deal with. We're going to sum up the chapter after that this morning. But the second sin that they were guilty of was point 2. They were corrupting and pulling down God's holy people. Now the people of God, get this right, the people of God, the people who professed to be God's people, were the people who were actually corrupting and pulling down the real, holy, true people of God. You see that in verses 11 and 12. God says, I raised up of your own sons prophets and of your young men for Nazarites. Is this not even so, children of Israel, saith the Lord? Verse 12, But you gave the Nazarites wine to drink, and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophecy not. They gave the Nazarites wine to drink, and they told the prophets, don't you preach. They actually corrupted to their own pleasure mania and corrupted to compromise the men of God. The Nazarites, you read of them in the book of Numbers, were a holy order of men. that were set apart and took certain vows to be holy. And as long as they were under those vows, they didn't cut their hair, they had a very strict diet, and they were not allowed to drink any wine, was one of the rules for being a Nazarene. But God's covenant people, those that profess to be the people of God, came to the Nazarites and they said, oh, go on, drink wine. The word means quaff wine. It's all right. They corrupted the holy men of God to disobey God and say it's OK. Sin is OK. A little bit of laven just spreads about and it corrupts the whole lot. And then the prophets, the preachers. The preachers, they commanded, don't prophesy. Think about that. The people of God were commanding the preacher. They didn't obviously like any authority over them. Sure they didn't. They were commanding. Those that were meant to teach them, even though they knew next to nothing themselves. And they said to them, don't you preach, prophesying not, just speak unto us slew things, nice things. God's people said to the prophets that God had sent to them, oh, come on, just a lovely little gentle servant. Oh, don't be so hard. A little bit of encouragement for us while we continue on willfully disobeying the Bible. Tell us how good we are. Softly, softly tickle our ears. Because they did not want to know the truth. One commentator, Katie, says this. You made the Nazarites drink wine and commanded the prophets not to prophesy. The holiness of the former, that is the holiness of the Nazarites, embarrassed them. And the message of the latter offended them. These holy men were a living reproach to the unclean lives of Israel, God's people. Today in the church in Northern Ireland, are the godly and the holy corrupted? Listen, see if you're a new convert, let me tell you something. The old converts already know. If you're a new convert and you try and obey the Bible in your Christian life, you'll be kept going. by some who are called Christians. If you want to obey the Bible in your life, you'll be kept going by the unfaithful, disobedient, professing Christians. You mark my words. You try and obey scripture. You try and be obedient to Christ in your Christian life. And do that. Do that. But you mark my words, the ones who will mock and snigger at you for your diligence will not be the world. It's never the world. But it'll be those who profess to be Christians, but disobey God all the time. They'll be the ones. Mark my words. And you know why? Because your practical obedience to the Bible reproaches and shows the disobedient up for exactly what they are. Easy-believism rebels who disobey the plain teaching of the Bible. And they don't have any argument for doing so. They may spoof that they have, but they don't. See, if you try and dress like the Bible tells you, you believer. You try and dress modestly and decently and submissively so you're not showing off. Or the way you dress, perhaps when you come to worship. Those that question and make fun of you will not be the pagans of Northern Ireland. It will be the professed Christians who don't dress in that way. And they feel put out because you're showing them up by your obeying the Bible. And you're showing them up unconsciously. Now it's not that they have a different intellectual interpretation of the passage that you're reading. It's just that they're willfully disobedient. You know, I have preached many on many passages in four years in this church and in the Bible study. Many passages that people find controversial. And I have asked Is there any other interpretation? Is there any other reason you want to give me, please? Why people don't obey these passages? I've dealt with all the interpretations. I've never had one answer. That's because the disobedient don't have an argument to back up their disobedience. It's not that they have a different interpretation of a passage. It's because they're willfully sinning. That's why. They are just stubborn and will not obey what the scripture plainly says. But you know what the sickening bit is? And this is why I get so enthused about these things. The disobedient don't leave it there. The disobedient have to make fun of and criticize and question those who are trying to obey the Bible, don't they? Just like Israel and Amos did. They wanted to corrupt and pollute those who were trying to obey God. Trying to corrupt the Holy Ones who were committed unlike them. Because the Holy Ones showed up their sin. You try and keep your humour clean, Christian. And there will always be some professed Christian with some stinking, innuendo-filled joke that they got from their worldliness because they've got square eyes. Trying to pollute and corrupt your humour. Always. Because what is in their heart comes right out their mouth. That's what Jesus said. Filth. Double meaning. Innuendo. Because they're disobedient wretches towards God's word. They're disobedient towards a holy life. They will not. They will not. And they want to drag you down, obedient Christian, to their gutter. But it's not the world that does it. Don't make any mistake. It's never the world that does it. It's the professed people of God. It's they who try to pollute anyone who's trying to be holy and obey the Bible. In many churches in Northern Ireland, professed Christians do try and corrupt the obedient, godly Christian. They give the Nazarites wine to drink. Don't worry, I know God says you're not to do that, or you're meant to do this, but don't worry, it'll be alright. I don't do it. That's because you're going to hell, that's why. You're willfully disobeying God. And then the preachers They said to the preachers in Amos day, don't you preach. Don't preach. Speak on to us soft things. We want encouragement, you know, in these days. Encouragement and sin. That's gross. Gross. Gordon Keeley says this. How many faithful ministers have been told by their congregations that they do not want to hear any more sermons on sin and conversion? The truth is never comfortable until it is embraced wholeheartedly in love for Christ. The lamentable reality is that the most virulent opposition to enthusiastic expressions of Christian commitment come from supposedly Christian people, the opposition? Who wants today's preachers to tone down their message? Who? Who wants a rock gospel rather than preaching? Who? Surely, he says, it's the church, not the world. The word tells us that this will be the case, even from your own number. Men will rise up and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after themselves. A wee fleek. Acts 20 and verse 30. Now we're going to sing for 50 minutes, preacher. Please don't preach any more than 10. That's an evangelical church in Northern Ireland. Preacher, we don't want you to mention hell anymore. An evangelical church in Northern Ireland. These things, you see, were the sins of God's people in Amos day. They told the prophets to prophesy not. And these things, the corrupting of the holy men of God, and the telling of the preachers not to preach, were the sins for which God judged them. He judged them for these very sins that the New Covenant Church is committing in this land. So they were corrupting and pulling down the people of God that wanted to be obedient. The third thing I want to say this morning is this. God says to them basically in verses 9 and 10 and 13 to 16, and I'm putting this in my own words, I'll read the chapter, the verses in a minute. But God said to his people Israel, if you think you're going to get off with your disobedience, you're mad. If you think you're going to get off with your disobedience, you're mad. Verses 9 and 10 and 13 to 16. God says, Yet I destroyed the Ammonite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars. He was strong as the oaks. Yet I destroyed his fruit from above and his roots from beneath. I also brought you up from the land of Egypt and led you 40 years through the wilderness to possess the land of the Amorite. Down to verse 13. Behold, I am pressed under you as a card is pressed that is full of sheaves. Therefore, the flight shall perish from the swift. The strong shall not strengthen his force. Neither shall the mighty deliver himself. Neither shall he stand that handles the bow. And he that is swift of foot shall not deliver himself. Neither shall he that rides a horse deliver himself. And he that is courageous and strong and mighty shall flee away in that day, says the Lord. God says to them, listen, I destroyed the Amorites before you for the very sins you're committing. And see that verse, verse 13, where it says there in my translation, I am pressed under you. That's not a very good translation of those words. It actually means the I am should not be there. God is saying to them, you children of Israel, will be like a cart at harvest time, when it is full of sheaves and it's pressed down, it's weighed down into the mud, it's stuck in the mud. You'll be like a cart that's full and bedded in the mud, stuck. Verse 14, then it goes on, your flight, when you try and escape from the judgment, Your flight will perish. You're not going to escape. You will not escape. Verse 14, your strength will fail. Verse 15, your equipment will not save you. Verse 16, your courage will fail. And God is saying to them, what's the teaching in verses 14 to 16? God is saying to them, because of your sin Israel, your judgment is coming and you will not escape. You will not take flight. Your options are futile. You're like a cart that's stuck in the mud and you're going nowhere. And you will not get out of this mess. by your own efforts. You can try everything, your might, your courage, your swiftness, your horses. Try it all. It's all going to fail. You're not going to escape. You're like a weighed down cart and Babylon or the Assyrians are going to come and destroy you. Why? For your sin. For your disobedience to God. I will draw to a conclusion. I've given you three points. Number one, they were unscrupulous in financing their pleasure. Number two, they corrupted and pulled down the people of God who tried to obey God. And then thirdly, God said to them, if you think you're going to get away with this, if you think you're going to get off with your disobedience, you're mad. All your options of escape will fail. Let me apply the chapter. What's the application of this chapter to God's covenant people today? Well, to the churches of Northern Ireland, I would say, look at your sin. It's the same sin as Israel. We've looked at it in chapter 2 here. Existentialists, relativists, whose view of right and wrong is all, there's no such thing as right and wrong. Materialistic, proud, immoral, multi-faith compromisers, all mixed up. Unscrupulous in finances and corrupting and pulling down those that try and obey through their tongues. I would say, dying Church of Britain, don't think you'll get out of this mess by your own efforts. You can try everything. You can try your drama, go on. Try your pop bands. Try your Christian bars and discos. Try your worldliness and dress and morality. Your equipment will not save you. It will all fail because you will not escape. God's judgment will come upon your willful disobedience, your willful sin. The only way to escape is repentance. You need to remember, God is the same as what he ever was. He's immutable, as they taught the young men, I'm afraid. He doesn't change. And God still hates sin. And don't think, please don't think, that you will deliberately sin and get away with it, Christian. You won't. Your deliberate rebellion to Scripture, your settled disobedience to the Bible, your determined continual justifying of disobeying certain passages of Scripture proves what you are. There are men in this land and they are rebels against God. And they will never be in heaven. They say they know God, but they don't keep His commandments. Well, according to 1 John, they're liars then. You're a liar. If you say that you know God and don't obey Him, you're telling lies. It's not true. And see, if you're here this morning and you're a professed Christian, and you're disobeying God all the time, and you know it, and your own conscience is telling you, even now, the passage is coming to mind, or the thing that you do is coming into your mind. If you're a professing Christian, and you're disobeying God all the time, and you're determined to do it, and you're actually saying that it's alright to do it, I'm not saying you've slipped, no. Any Christian slips. But determined to disobey the Bible, I want to say to you, it's bad enough that you don't obey the Bible, but don't you dare try and pull others down into your quagmire of rebellion and sin. Don't you dare. The shepherd of this flock, the under shepherd, is going to start smiting you for doing that. It's a pastor's job to keep the sheep safe from the wolves and sheep's cloning. Real Christian, godly Christian that's trying to obey the Bible. You see, when you try and obey a particular passage of the Bible practically in your life, See if you're doing that and some professed Christian comes to you and mocks you or makes fun of you for obeying the Bible. You rebuke them once and twice according to scripture and then don't have anything more to do with that person. And come and tell me. Come tell me. If anyone is trying to get you to disobey the Bible, rebuke them and come tell me because I will have something to say to that person. Any mockers and scoffers towards people that are obeying the plain teaching of the Bible, that's going to change. People of God, be godly. Don't be mixed up in your view of what's right and wrong with the world. Don't be materialistic and don't be proud. And don't be immoral in your dress. And don't be unmerciful. And don't be a multi-faith compromiser. And don't be unscrupulous. And do not corrupt other Christians into your disobedience. Be a real Christian. Be an obedient Christian. Be a church that's going to obey the Bible in all areas, including rebuking mockers and scoffers and disobedient and those that will drag you down. The little bit of leaven spreads. Be a real Christian. Don't just profess Christ with your mouth. Amen. Thank you for your attention.
Christians Embarassed by Holiness and Offended by Preachers
系列 Amos
Intro
Old covenant people in a right state
They were proud immoral materialistic existential relativists who were in spiritual decline and unmerciful to the poor.
They were also a bunch of multi faith compromisers who were relying on their profession when their lives of deliberate sin blatently contradict it
1 Unscrupulous in financing their
pleasure
- they drink the wine of the
condemned in the house of their
'god' - they unjustly fined people to get
money for drink - it was an unjust claim society
2 Corrupting and pulling down GOD'S
holy people
- pretending to be the people of GOD
but hindering the real holy people
of GOD by telling them sin is OK - they hated GODS people because they
show up sin fro what it is - most trouble in the Church today is
from professing Christians who have
crept in secretly
Application
- look at your sin, it is the same as
the Israelites - you cannot escape the judgment by
your own efforts for example rock,
pop or drama - don't pull others down with you as
that is a worse sin - the only escape is repentance
讲道编号 | 114071127276 |
期间 | 40:52 |
日期 | |
类别 | 周日 - 上午 |
圣经文本 | 預知者亞摩士之書 2:6-16 |
语言 | 英语 |