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AMOS 5:18-27
(Reading: 1 Thessalonians 4:17-5:11)
When All Is Said & Done
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ…
“The Day of the LORD” is the heading this passage is given by various translations.
This is a title summarises what our text is about.
“The Day of the LORD” is a phrase which not only makes sense of this passage but it also connects this with the same phrase found right throughout the Scriptures.
In this way, it’s like the phrase, “The Book of Life”, which we also find right throughout the Bible.
That phrase, “The Book of Life,” speaks of what God has planned for his people and how he’s working out that plan.
With this phrase, “The Day of the LORD”, however, we hear about when the earthly part of that plan comes to an end.
As there is an end to each day, an end to the week, an end to the year, an end to your course of study, so there’s an end to almost everything!
And certainly when the Lord Jesus Christ returns upon the clouds of glory that is the end to everything here!
Congregation, the Bible is convinced that history is going somewhere.
Time is a limited line.
It began with ‘the first day’ and it will end on ‘the last day’.
The Scriptures clearly tell of a beginning as it begins in Genesis chapter 1 and the end at its end in Revelation 22.
This picture of ‘The Day of the Lord’ develops this belief in an ever-growing way through the Bible.
The Israelites of Amos’ time knew about this.
They readily confessed to this.
Amos in verse 18 admits this.
They longed for the day of the LORD.
Well, that’s a good thing - isn’t it?
I mean, they’re interested in what the Lord’s doing.
They want to be part of that.
They even see themselves as a special part in that.
Then how come Amos so roundly condemns them in verse 18?
Why does he now continue the cry of lamenting from the verses 16 and 17 with this “Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD!”?
Weren’t they doing the right thing?
Just as Christians may say today through their conversation, “Praise the Lord!”, didn’t they say “The Day of the Lord is coming!”
Wasn’t that a constant focus on the Lord?
Was it though?
It’s very easy to say “Praise the Lord”, or to thank God, as we hear said often at American acting and music award nights, but how much of that hasn’t just become cultural?
Let me compare this with the kind of language being used on television and the movie screens these days.
Have you noticed?
There has been a definite decrease in the use of the four letter swear words which were so popular twenty years ago.
That hasn’t meant that swearing has got less.
Now it’s blasphemy which is so common.
God’s name, our Saviour’s name, and the name of the place we shouldn’t want to go to, all get well used.
When they swear using those words we don’t take it that it means they’re Christians.
They have stunted themselves with a sinful habit.
Those words are profanities, because they have treated a sacred thing with disregard.
The Israelites have become no different.
They have fallen to using the Lord’s name with no thought for who he truly is.
That’s what Amos condemns.
In fact, in the words of the first aspect to these verses … THEY ARE IN FOR A SHOCK!
You see, while those blaspheming God’s name often don’t even realise they’re doing that, these Israelites knew alright.
Of course they believed in God.
Always had done - wouldn’t have it any other way!
Anyhow, it’s what Israelites are.
In its way this belief is much like the belief of other cultures who through the ages have believed themselves to be something better.
Whether it be the Romans under the Caesars, the French under Napoleon, the Germans under Hitler, or the white supremacists of the southern USA, it’s assumed that things are going to turn out for their benefit.
It just has to!
They are the superior race!
It was this same assumption that the Israelites thought they had in the covenant.
That made them unique!
And the Lord at the end of this time would prove just how right they had been.
It’s an attitude which fits in with the tremendous upsurge they’re having in their economy.
They were doing very well.
There was political stability inside the country and outside - a rare blessing indeed!
In a way it’s similar to the 1950’s and 1960’s when our country was experiencing a time of tremendous economic prosperity.
Do you remember that?
Or perhaps, boys and girls, Grandad and Nanna have told you about it.
You know, when they start to tell stories from the past, about what things used to be like.
There were good old-fashioned values then - corporal punishment in schools and nothing open on Sundays.
The men all had short hair and were neatly dressed.
That was pretty Christian.
It can all seem so right on the outside.
But the Lord says that it’s not just what it seems on the surface but that it’s in the heart too.
And if there is one thing his prophet Amos has already decisively shown is how far away the people are from Him.
It was just skin-deep.
This is the kind of religion which cannot last.
In fact, it’s doomed to disaster!
The last ones to realise this, though, are those who believe the lie.
They thought being the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would give it to them.
In Matthew 3:9 John the Baptist had to remind them God was able to make children of Abraham from even the stones.
Your ethnic race alone is no help in life’s race.
Congregation, that’s why … THEY ARE IN FOR A SHOCK!
The way Amos pictures the shock for them makes it quite graphic.
It will be the complete opposite to what the expect,
That day for them will be darkness not light - it will be black not white!
In other words, don’t think you’re going to be super well off then; and don’t imagine that your stocks and shares will really hit the ceiling then.
It will all be wiped away!
Forget the crash of ‘87, don’t even bring up Wall Street of 1929 - they’re no comparison to what you will meet then.
And don’t think you’ll get away!
Amos shows there’s no escape with his next illustration in verse 19.
It’s a picture which also gives us an insight into how hypocritical the Israelites were.
I mean, how do we tell the difference between the faithful believer and the hypocritical unbeliever?
On the surface they appear almost the same.
But where do you see them looking - is it to the Lord or themselves?
And what do they do?
The hypocrite lives with what he can get away with.
It’s what can fit in with him at the time, not the change that God looks for in hearts and lives.
So when the hypocrite meets the lion he shocked!
He just gets away!
Phew!
Does he learn?
He bumps into a bear!
Ough!
An even more desperate escape there!
Hey, is anything changing up there? [Point to head]
He ducks into an old cottage.
He’s getting away from that bear!
Safe.
Huffing and puffing away, he’s puts his hands on the wall.
Ow!
The snake bite gets him right there!
Israel, you can’t hold out against the LORD.
You will get caught in the end.
And what have you learnt before then?
Person in the pew - what will you have then?
There’s no more escape!
So what is waiting for you?
Amos is crying out the question.
He’s afraid you won’t stop and listen.
He wants you to wake up - stop kidding yourself!
Come into the light.
See the Lord and know him for who he really is.
He is the loving and all-powerful Father God.
Meet him as your Saviour - not the Judge!
You see, congregation, not only is it that the Israelites are in for a shock - it’s even more drastic because, secondly … THEY ARE NOT ABLE TO OPEN THE LOCK!
Look at the number of first person pronouns for the LORD in the verses 21 till 23.
“I hate, I despise … I take no delight … I will not accept … I will not look upon them … I will not listen…”.
The feeling is quite strong.
The Lord is furious!
He rejects his people.
And it’s all because they have already rejected him!
It’s a list his prophet had gone through before.
But now it’s compressed into this attack on their self-confidence, their assumption that they automatically had God on their side, and all would be fine.
Because their arrogance shows also in their worship.
That’s where they show off their wealth.
When a society has a lot of money and spends it on escapist entertainment, it also happens religiously.
Many worship services today are quite different than those during the depression or the second world.
‘That’s inevitable,’ we say.
‘There’s always change.’
But being part of an enthusiastic worship service doesn’t necessarily make for being happy inside.
It can serve the same kind of purpose which others get from a rock concert or football game.
Come on guys, you know – ‘It’s not the same if you’re not at the game!’
And Amos digs a bit deeper into their worship too.
They had all their feasts and assemblies, true, but they were all in the wrong place!
It was only right to offer sacrifices on Mount Zion.
That’s where the Ark of the Covenant was.
But they are where the golden calves were.
Then consider the different types of offerings in the verses 21 and 22.
The burnt offerings symbolised dedication.
It was obvious, though, that the people were living lies because they had no intention of following God’s Law.
The grain offerings symbolised thanksgiving.
Their disobedience, however, showed how unthankful they were.
The words of Jesus in John 14:15, where he says, “If you love me, you will obey my commands,” were far from true for those Israelites.
And the fellowship offerings symbolised communion.
But they showed they didn’t want to work with God because they were doing all those wrong things.
It may well have been the best of the cattle, but who were they trying to fool?
Congregation, how can we best sum up this situation?
I think Jesus did it very accurately eight hundred years later.
In Matthew 23 he cries out not just one or two “woes” against the Jewish religious leaders, but seven!
Here is one of those, in the verses 25 and 26, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!
You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
Blind Pharisee!
First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.”
Congregation … THEY ARE NOT ABLE TO OPEN THE LOCK.
We have come to our second aspect.
While they lived to serve themselves they only deceived themselves more.
And it’s a lot harder to convert a hypocrite than it is an outright pagan!
You see, they think they’re saved already - through what they do.
The noise of their songs shows this further.
They may have great choirs and put on awesome performances but what use is it if their hearts are not in it?
Then they can sing all they like - yet it’s only like the resounding gong or clanging cymbal of 1st Corinthians 13.
THEY ARE NOT ABLE TO OPEN THE LOCK.
And the key is right there!
Amos then says, “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!”
Here is something from the believer’s heart.
For while the hypocrite responds only to things as they happens, so he lives reactively, the believer lives proactively.
He’s looking for what he can put in, not what he can get away with!
Amos in verse 24 tells us about a stream.
Now there are two kinds of streams in the Middle East.
There are those in which water flows during the water months, which is the rainy season; and there are those which flow both winter and summer.
The winter streams contain water only when the other streams have water as well, but the “never-failing” stream can be counted on to flow even in periods of drought, when all the other streams have dried.
What a difference!
The hypocrite is seen when it suits him to be seen.
The believer is going the right way all the time.
We can’t help but show our righteousness.
This righteousness is the same as our godliness.
For we’re not like a stream which has water for just a little while.
Our faith has to be alive all the time!
We’re not just Sunday Christians.
Everyday we mean what we do and say!
Because it’s everyday that He is having His way!
By faith we’ve opened the lock.
Let’s not lose that key!
Don’t forget … THEY ARE NOT ABLE TO OPEN THE LOCK.
What is yet worse, though, is that, thirdly … THEY WERE NEVER PART OF HIS FLOCK.
Astounding though this may seem, this is the essence of the Lord’s question to those Israelites in verse 25.
When he asks “Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?” he’s showing how deep this heartless worship goes.
Wasn’t it in the desert that they made that golden calf to suit their own way of worshipping the LORD?
They’re still doing the same now!
The spirit of the antichrist has been in these people all along.
There is nothing new under the sun.
Something we need to remember too when we might start to think that one time in history is better than another.
Now, someone might object here.
This doesn’t seem fair.
Why hold them responsible for the sins of their forefathers?
Would we want to be charged with something we didn’t do?
Ah, there’s the rub, because this is something they are still doing.
They haven’t stopped this false worship.
The sins of the fathers have continued down to the third and fourth and the thirteenth and fourteenth generation of those who hate the LORD.
This is something Stephen highlighted in his speech to the Sanhedrin in Acts chapter 7.
He points out there the false worship to the golden calf in the desert and that continuing influence amongst them.
And then he says in Acts 7:42, “But God turned away and gave them over to the worship of the heavenly bodies.”
The Lord had had enough!
THEY WERE NEVER PART OF HIS FLOCK.
Their exile will prove this.
For this is the exile with no return.
While Judah were promised a remnant returning in seventy years, there’s no such comfort here.
They will be sent into oblivion - to the most feared of all enemies, the utterly barbaric Assyrians.
Forget any nonsense about anyone claiming they have found the last Ten Tribes of Israel.
They who once were the most privileged of people are now no people whatsoever!
It had all been foretold of course.
The great prophet Moses had warned them of this curse for disobedience.
He had said it to them in his sermon just before they entered the Promised Land.
There he declares in Deuteronomy 28:36 & 37 that if they don’t obey the LORD their God, he “will drive you and the king you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your fathers.
“There you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone.
“You will become a thing of horror and an object of scorn and ridicule to all the nations where the LORD will drive you.”
Congregation, within forty years these people in the lap of luxury now were taken away in the most horrendous captivity and slaughter!
Much as the worship assemblies were packed full, and the people seemed so involved in the religious services, it was terribly rotten underneath.
There was nothing to hold it together.
When it was pushed it didn’t just topple - it fell into a huge heap!
If their faith was real justice would have rolled like a river, and righteousness would have been seen throughout the land.
And then the Day of the LORD would have been completely the opposite.
It would reward what they had been doing all along.
This is what that great coming King himself said in Matthew 7.
There in the verses 21 till 23 Jesus declares, “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
“Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’
“Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you.
‘Away from me, you evildoers!’”
You might recognise similar words in Matthew 25 with the story of ‘The Sheep and the Goats.’
There the judgment is the same.
The disobedient will go away to eternal punishment.
So what we have here with exile of the Israelites is a shadow of what the ultimate Day of the Lord will be like.
And right up until the day those Assyrians came in they didn’t see it.
THEY WERE NEVER PART OF HIS FLOCK.
They had gone to church.
They had got comfort from their religion, they enjoyed the services, with the music and the message.
And they looked forward to heaven.
Yet that doesn’t mean they’re saved.
We heard Jesus say, “Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord … but only he who does the will of my Father.”
It’s not what we experience or communicate.
It’s what we do!
And this doesn’t mean grace gets put away.
It simply means that if we’re saved we have to show it.
We can’t help but be changed by it!
So when a large enthusiastic church refuses to support the local ministry against abortion and counselling pregnant unmarried mothers, because it might make their members uncomfortable, you have the curse of Amos’ Israel all over again!
Christians cannot only meet in their little huddles and participate as little as possible in the rest of the world.
God’s Word demands that we go out and change this world for him!
We ourselves have been totally changed by that Word!
And that’s a light we cannot hide under hide under a bowl!
Believers, let’s not be found wanting on that last Day!
Instead, let’s make it the great Day - the day we meet in a special way the One we’ve been living with - everyday!
Amen.
PRAYER:
Let’s pray…
Almighty God, you know how easily we are prone to superstitions, and how hard we find it to obey Your Word; so please, by the power of your Spirit, help not to go either to the right or to the left but always follow you alone.
Help us never to presume on you, or to be distracted from you by bringing in other things in our worship of you.
Instead do so move in us that we will depend on you with all our hearts, and always respect your holy name, which you have written on us.
Make us truly your children, as you are our Heavenly Father.
In the dear name of your Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ, Amen.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Rev. Sjirk Bajema, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
The source for this sermon was: www.rcnz.org.nz
(c) Copyright, Rev. Sjirk Bajema
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