THE ROAR OF THE LORD
#3 - THE PROBLEM IS US
AMOS 2:4-3:2
By Rev John Hannem,
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The doctor walked into the room and said to the patient, “Well, I’ve got some good news and bad news. The good news is that I think you are going to be famous. The bad news is that they are going to name a disease after you. Friends, the first 2 chapter’s of Amos are kind of a good news, bad news scenario for the people of
The Lord is going to punish His own people. Today our journey through the Book of Amos brings us to chapter 2. The Lord speaks to us through every page of the Bible. Yet, I believe that today He has an especially powerful and relevant message for those of us in this room. Pray that each of us will truly hear what the Lord has to say and that He would enable us to respond in the right way. Read Amos 2:4-3:2
As we look at Amos’ message, we should remember that the first part of what he said, which we looked at last week, probably received applause high fives all around from his audience. Chapter 1 announces God‘s judgment of 6 surrounding enemy nations. If Amos had stopped there, he would have been a very popular preacher, probably with a huge following. There might have been best selling novels speculating on exactly how God was going to carry out His punishment of these other nations. But Amos doesn’t stop there. After telling of the impending doom of
Verse 4 “This is what the Lord says: for 3 sins of
He then explains why that is going to happen. “Because they have rejected the law of the Lord and have not kept His decrees, because they have been led astray by false gods, the gods their ancestors followed.” The 6 previous nations mentioned would experience Gods’ judgment because they had violated their conscience and mistreated other people. The folks in
There are murmurs in Amos’ audience now. Some folks are stunned, but others are saying, “Maybe those southerners deserve that. They are always so proud and arrogant.” Yet Amos next words will shock everyone. 2:6 “This is what the Lord says—“For three sins of
Verses 7-8 also describe how sexual sin was rampant within
The seriousness of these sins is compounded by the fact that
Then the Lord says, “I also raised up prophets from among your sons and Nazirites from among your young men.” These were very precious gifts from the Lord. The prophets spoke God’s word to the people. They told them what God was like, what blessings He promised to His people and what He desired from them. The Nazirites were kind of a special religious order who served God and the people. You may remember that Samson had taken a Nazirite vow. Yet, rather than being thankful for these special people,
Because of this they are going to face God’s judgment. Verses 13-16 describe a total military defeat. This would happen at the hands of the Assyrian army in just a few years. Now whether God specifically sends this army to punish His people or simply withholds His protection and allows
Friends, we might find these ancient words from the prophet Amos interesting from an historical perspective. That is not, however, why we are looking at them tonight. I think these words from God are just as relevant for us as they were for the people who first heard Amos speak them. They provide a powerful reminder that we as Christians, as the church, are not exempt from God’s judgment, even though we are the people of God. Let’s explore some reasons we might experience God’s judgment today, which interestingly are almost identical to things that Amos pointed to in ancient
1. Just like in Amos’ day, God’s authority is sometimes blatantly ignored. This is happening where the Church has been captured by the culture and tends to follow the currents of political correctness more than it does the Word of God. We have people who claim to be Christians, totally disregarding the Bible, just as the people of
A more serious example is when God’s authority is compromised by a commitment to radical feminism. Though it doesn’t get a lot of headlines anymore, there are still people who call themselves Christians, that worship Sophia, which they claim is the feminine name for God. Let me give you a hint---whenever you go to a church where they refer to God as He/She or as the divine mother, don’t stay there very long. Through the Bible God reveals Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That doesn’t mean God is male, it just means we are to think of Him and refer to Him as God the Father, not divine mother. The rejection of God’s authority extends to even the most basic teachings of the Christian faith. As Joel Belz wrote in World Magazine (now this is American but it hits the mark in
Friends, if we think what God is telling us in this passage is merely that liberal Christians are wrong, we are really missing the point. Years ago the comic strip character pogo uttered these famous words, “We have met the enemy and it is us.” That was the Lord’s message to the people of
The real problem, the one that deserves our full attention tonight, is not what’s happening out there, but what happening in here. Yes, we should be concerned about decisions that are made in
Some of you may be thinking, “That’s true Pastor, but in this church we are faithful to God. We believe every word of the Bible; we are not like those liberal Christians.” That’s right. A few weeks ago I was with some people who were talking about the controversy over same-sex marriage in their denominations. They looked at me and said, “John, you probably don’t have that problem in your church.” I said, “No, we don’t.” Last month at our Convention Assembly, a resolution was passed affirming our belief that marriage is to be a relationship between one man and one woman, and that our pastors are not to be involved in any way with the performing of same sex marriages. Having a Pastor who is a practicing homosexual or worshiping the goddess Sophia, is not an issue for us. But….we have some other issues.
Sometimes we subtly ignore God’s authority and fail to listen to and heed His Word. For example, in some churches, good evangelical churches like ours, people are more attentive to tradition than they are to the Bible. The words, “We have always done it this way” sometimes carry more weight than “Thus saith the Lord.” Traditions are not necessarily bad. Without our traditions, we might indeed be like a fiddler on the roof. Yet, as Jesus reminds us, Matt. 15:9, we can get in big trouble when we choose to follow the traditions of men rather than the Word of God.
Friends, we can be content to do church or live our Christian lives just as we have always done. My life as an individual, our life together as a church needs to be continually put under the scrutiny of God’s Word. When we find that the way we have been doing things contradicts the Bible, we need to start doing things differently and this is important---when we find that the way we do things, though not contrary to the Bible, is not required by it, then we need to have a much more humble attitude. No we don’t necessarily need to change; we are not doing anything wrong, but we should not condemn someone who does it differently. We should be open to consider new ideas and new ways of doing things, not because they are new, but because they might help us do a better job of honoring the Lord. That is true whether we are talking about what time church service is to start, how to structure particular ministries, or what type of music is to be used in worship. It is fine for me to have an opinion on issues like that. I just need to remember that it is my opinion and not God’s since the Bible doesn’t address those issues. We need to be careful that we don’t confuse “This is how we have always done it” or “This is the way I like to do it” with “This is the way God wants it done.” To focus on following human traditions, rather than God’s Word is being unfaithful to Him.
Another way of subtly ignoring God’s authority is agreeing with what the Bible teaches, but not doing it. As James tells us, “To be faithful, to the Lord we need to be doers of the Word and not just hearers”. One of my favorite stories is about a Pastor who came to serve in an old logging town. His office in the church overlooked the river, which at that time was used to float the logs down to the lumber mill.
One day he noticed men from the town, including some from his church taking logs which were coming from another town upstream and changing the stamp on the log. They did that, of course, to make it look like that log had come from their town; the mill would then pay them more money and the folks upstream would get less. The next Sunday the Pastor preached a sermon from Exodus 20 on thou shalt not steal. Almost everyone in church told him how much they appreciated his sermon. Yet, the next week he noticed that the men were still changing the stamps on the logs. The theme of the following Sunday’s sermon was “Thou shalt not steal thy neighbor’s logs.” Again, there were very positive comments about the message. When he looked out his window on Monday, there were the men changing the stamps on the logs again. The third Sunday’s sermon title was “Thou shalt not steal thy neighbors logs by changing the stamps on the logs.” After the service, the chairman of the deacon board politely informed the pastor that he was fired.
Friends, I don’t know about you, but I sometimes do things like that. Actually, that’s not true; I do know that you do things like that too. We complain about sexual immorality in our culture and then watch one of those TV shows that are all about lust.
We complain about the breakdown of the family, but surveys show that people who call themselves born again Christians are getting divorced at the same rate, maybe even a higher rate than everyone else. Friends, I’m totally 100% against same-sex marriage, but I’m afraid those folks may have a point when they say heterosexual divorce is more of a threat to the family today than same-sex marriage.
Closing Hymn #366 – I Surrender All