Monthly Archives: August 2009

Amos 5:1-6 (ESV)

Hear this word that I take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel:

[2] “Fallen, no more to rise,

is the virgin Israel;

forsaken on her land,

with none to raise her up.”

[3] For thus says the Lord God:

“The city that went out a thousand

shall have a hundred left,

and that which went out a hundred

shall have ten left

to the house of Israel.”

[4] For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel:

“Seek me and live;

[5] but do not seek Bethel,

and do not enter into Gilgal

or cross over to Beersheba;

for Gilgal shall surely go into exile,

and Bethel shall come to nothing.”

[6] Seek the Lord and live,

lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph,

and it devour, with none to quench it for Bethel,

The nation of Israel has forsaken God for idols and religion of their own choosing. God promises punishment but in the midst of that He still holds out His hand to the ones who have abandoned Him for idols. If they will seek Him they will find life. There is still hope. Mercy is still possible. The ball is in the court of those who have abandoned their God.

This is an opportunity they do not deserve. But our God is the God of great mercy. He is longsuffering and even those who have committed the sin of turning their backs on God He still is ready to forgive and restore. God reminds them who it is that they are rebelling against. He is the God who made the constellations, who causes the earth to turn on its axis and who creates the water cycle for the continual sustenance of the plants that He made. It is a brazen thing indeed to challenge one’s Maker. It is a vast act of self righteousness and self aggrandizement. Puny little creatures vaunting themselves up against the One who is larger than the whole created order. This is what those who pit God against science and God against logic and God against ethics do all the time. They have no fear but it is a fearful thing to push God off the throne and suppose to be able to run the world on one’s own. The fact that they are not consumed is a testimony to God’s great mercy.

And it is grace that they are offered. The only solution to people who are intransigent in their sin is the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. It is easy to grumble and complain about the sins of the ungodly. It is easy to hunker down and isolate ourselves from a wicked world and live in a Christian ghetto where it is safe. But God calls the lost to repentance and offers grace. And they will only hear of the Gospel of grace from those who already have it. There is no one who is as strong as the grace of God. There is no sin that the cross is unable to cover.

What a mission He has sent us on. What a glorious work He plans to accomplish. Let us give people the Gospel.

Amos 4:4-5 (ESV)

“Come to Bethel, and transgress;

to Gilgal, and multiply transgression;

bring your sacrifices every morning,

your tithes every three days;

[5] offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened,

and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them;

for so you love to do, O people of Israel!”

God is not giving commandments here to do the things listed. We know that because the things listed are sinful. He is mocking the people for their hypocritical worship, their self righteousness. Verse 5 God says that the people offer sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened. That is, the people come to offer a thank offering to God for blessings He has bestowed and they break the Law in doing so.

They decide how they are going to approach God. Leaven was forbidden in the offering because leaven is a symbol of sin. They come without repentance to thank God. They want to worship but they are not willing to come the way that God says they should. They are not willing to turn from sin. They bring their sin with them into the presence of God. This is no small matter.

The trouble with many Christians however, is that even while they read this and agree that what was going on in Amos’ day was horrible, they do not see that they are doing the very same thing. Until the leaven is removed we cannot worship. This means, first of all, that outside of Jesus Christ it is impossible to worship God at all. He and He alone is able to remove the leaven. We must trust Him to remove our sin and guilt. He is the only way to God and as worship is coming into the presence of God then we must have our sin dealt with first. All our sin. This is the miracle of grace. Despite our sin, because we are in Christ we can worship. We come into the presence of God and are welcomed. Not because we are righteous, but because we are in Christ and He is righteous.

Secondly, even true believers are able to commit the sin of bringing leaven into the worship. We come to God with gossip still fresh. We approach God with unrepentant hearts. We come with an attitude of superiority over those who do not believe. There are other believers we will not talk to while we expect God to talk to us. We come into the place of worship thinking we know the Bible better than others. We see someone who will not sing and we think we know why – because they are lacking spirituality. We come to critique the sermon, the singing, the hearts of others who come in, the preaching. We come with bitterness against God. We come hoping to be entertained. We give very little money, time, prayer and effort into cultivating true spirituality. We have little or no concern for the lost, the welfare of others, the heart aches of those who worship with us. We hate Muslims, Hindus, evolutionists and atheists. We come with a Bible that has hardly been open since the last time we worshipped and our knees are in no danger of being calloused from prayer. We think we know the solution to the church’s woes and we know that the reason the woes continue is that no one listens to me.

Leaven. There is no shortage of leaven. To bring our leaven into the place of worship and expect God to accept the worship is no small wickedness. It needs to be excised and it needs to be done now.

The miracle of saving grace should always bring a sensitive heart that works, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to put sin to death. To be willing to enter into worship unconcerned about our sin is a sign that we may not be in Christ at all.

Amos 3:2 (ESV)

“You only have I known

of all the families of the earth;

therefore I will punish you

for all your iniquities.

God chose the people of Israel. He knew them as His own children. He chose them and chose in His sovereign justice to look over all the other peoples of the world.

What would you say to a people so blessed who continued to live as if they were not chosen of God? What would you say to such a people who spurned the laws and the love of the One who rescued them, saved them and planned a great future for them? And yet, how many of us humbly speak about being the chosen of God and still live like the world?

Should God deal with us more leniently than he did the ancient Israelites? If He would not let them get away with their sins why should we think that He will let us get away with ours? To whom much is given much shall be required and no one can be given more than grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

Those of us who are believers need to be reminded that God holds us to a higher level of accountability. Not many should suppose to be teachers since teachers shall be judged with a harsher treatment (James 3:1). Judgement begins in the house of God. God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap. Christians are foolish to think that such warning Scriptures do not apply to them. They do. They apply to me. I must live my life in the power of the Holy Spirit in holiness, righteousness, godliness and faithfulness.

Grace will demonstrate itself in holy living or else it has not been received at all. We all sin and one of the ways God shows His displeasure to His saints when they sin is through a sense of His being distant from us. It is a horrible thing to happen. I know. It happens to me far more often than I care to admit.

O lord forgive me for being so willing to abandon you at times for the things that will not satisfy. And thank you for graciously bringing me back to yourself through the withdrawal of the sense of your presence. Thank you that such a thing is so very painful. Help me to remember it before I sin again, so that I will not have to go through the discipline of being distant from the One who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Amos 2

1Thus says the LORD:

“For three transgressions of Moab,

and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,

because he burned to lime

the bones of the king of Edom.

2So I will send a fire upon Moab,

and it shall devour the strongholds of Kerioth,

and Moab shall die amid uproar,

amid shouting and the sound of the trumpet;

3 I will cut off the ruler from its midst,

and will kill all its princes with him,”

says the LORD.

4Thus 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.

5So I will send a fire upon Judah,

and it shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.”

6Thus 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—

7those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth

and turn aside the way of the afflicted;

a man and his father go in to the same girl,

so that my holy name is profaned;

8they 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.

Some of the sins for which God punishes nations are truly barbaric. The first one mentioned in chapter 2, for instance, speaks of burning a king’s bones to lime. Cruelty. Some of the other sins against which God levies judgement, however, do not seem that bad to 21st century sensibilities. Judah is judged because they reject the Law of God. We would side with God as He punishes Moab for cruelty and yet we would find God to be a harsh taskmaster for punishing Judah for its seeming small sins of rejecting aspects of God’s law.

This is because we do the same all the time. If not obeying all the law is punishable by death then there is no hope for anyone and so we say that God is cruel. Or at least that He doesn’t judge people for that anymore.

Some of the sins God takes action against are sins that we commit but may not recognize that we do. 2:6 – they sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals. To live in comfort at the expense of the poor is a great evil. Does this count globally? Do we commit this sin when we support policies that help keep the poor in their place or buy products because they are cheaper and the reason they are cheaper is because the products are made in sweat shops for poverty wages?

In 2:9 God reminds them that the things they have, they have because He defeated their enemies and established them in the land. To live in such a way that we do not acknowledge God for the things we have is to put ourselves under His judgement. To fail to recognize God as the Source of all our good is evil that demands justice.

But we do not think so. We think such sins are not sins at all. But ingratitude is one of the greatest sins there can be. It is the sin of godlessness. It is the sin of independence. It is that which takes the credit to itself when it is God who deserves it. This is idolatry and that is the worst sin of all. Dressing up sin in respectable garb does not alter its abhorrence to God. Elevating some sins to be horrible while making our own out be small is a great sin in and of itself.

We stand under the judgement of God and our only hope is Jesus Christ. We deserve to die – He died. We deserve to be forsaken by God – He was forsaken by God. We deserve to suffer for our sins – He suffered for our sins. What He did on the cross is our only means of salvation. We must see the work of Christ in everything for us. We must see that all our sins condemn us and Jesus’ life, death resurrection, ascension and intercession are needed for everyone of them.

Amos 1:6, 9, 11, 13(ESV)

Thus says the Lord:

“For three transgressions of Gaza,

and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,

because they carried into exile a whole people

to deliver them up to Edom.

[9] Thus says the Lord:

“For three transgressions of Tyre,

and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,

because they delivered up a whole people to Edom,

and did not remember the covenant of brotherhood.

[11] Thus says the Lord:

“For three transgressions of Edom,

and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,

because he pursued his brother with the sword

and cast off all pity,

and his anger tore perpetually,

and he kept his wrath forever.

[13] Thus says the Lord:

“For three transgressions of the Ammonites,

and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,

because they have ripped open pregnant women in Gilead,

that they might enlarge their border.

The Old Testament prophets wrote the word and will of God powerfully and without holding anything back. The words of the prophets, especially the “minor” prophets are scathing accounts of the sins of Israel and its surrounding nations. It is, in part, because of the words of these prophets that God, in the Old Testament has the reputation of being harsh and cruel and unappeasable, while the God of the New Testament, it is believed, is gracious and loving and approachable. This over generalized view of God is mistaken at every level.

When we read the Book of Amos, for instance, what we see when we encounter the fierce wrath of God against Israel and the nations surrounding Israel, is that the reason He is so angry is because they have forsaken compassion and pity and justice and basic human rights. God’s anger is against people who show no mercy. He is treating them as they treat others. In Amos chapter 1 God will judge because people were carried into exile, betrayed, showed no pity and mistreated the defenseless. The God who rages against such sins is not a God of wrath and retribution that He is so often portrayed as being. He is, rather, the God who defends those who cannot defend themselves. He is the big brother or protective father who comes to the rescue of the helpless sibling or child. Southern Ontario was taken up with the abduction and death of a little girl this past spring and summer. The person who is angry at such people and actions will never be accused of possessing no pity or of being harsh and without compassion.

It is compassion that drives the very anger that wells up from within. Our anger at such unthinkable cruelty cannot compare to the anger of the thrice holy God who made all things for the praise of His glory. If God does not get angry at the horrifying sins of abuse and cruelty and unimaginable horror that goes on in the world and has always gone on since the fruit was eaten, then we have a very inadequate God indeed. But our God is not inadequate. He is perfect in His holiness and His anger at sin is righteous. He cares for the oppressed and He shall have His justice levied against all who have abused the innocent.

And then we need to remember that when Jesus suffered on the cross He was receiving the just punishment for sins that were not His. The cross is the wrath of God in ways that transcend our understanding. We, and all other sinners, deserve to be on the cross and we are the ones who should be crying out about God forsaking us. But we are not – not because God has forgotten our sins. But because He has already levied His wrath against Jesus for us. The cross is the most complete and awesome demonstration of justice and mercy there has ever or ever will be or ever can be. It was hatched in the pre-creation councils of God and prophesied throughout the whole Old Testament and accomplished in the Gospels and preached throughout history until Christ returns. What a God! What a plan. Let us worship Him, who is holy in His righteous judgements and holy in the display of His mercy to all who are His.

Psalm 36:1-4 (ESV)

To the choirmaster. Of David, the servant of the Lord.

Transgression speaks to the wicked

deep in his heart;

there is no fear of God

before his eyes.

[2] For he flatters himself in his own eyes

that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated.

[3] The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit;

he has ceased to act wisely and do good.

[4] He plots trouble while on his bed;

he sets himself in a way that is not good;

he does not reject evil.

Sin is ingrained in the human heart. Before a man will surrender up his sin he must have a heart that has a disposition to do so. This is the miracle of regeneration. We will never have the wickedness that is entrenched in our hearts take up a lesser position except by the power of God. The desire to truly desire God and chase after him is a work of God.

Sin here should not be thought of as that which makes a person completely unfit to be around. The essence of sin is independence and the wickedness that resides deep in the human heart is that which says “:you are good and you need not bow down to any god to grant forgiveness. Your sins are small and your good is bigger.”

This is where the Gospel is utterly rejected in our world today. People believe the lie that they are good, that they can accomplish good by themselves, that the good they do will stand them in good stead with God if they believe in God at all. It is the greatest sin of all and it is universal. It is thought to be nothing because it does not murder or destroy and is frequently accompanied by good works. This is its deception and it has succeeded in sending many unwary souls to a Christless eternity.

The most popular humanitarian can be guilty of this sin and many of them are. The saddest thing of all is that even some “Christians” believe it. They look up to people who have dedicated their lives to good causes as exemplars of a godly life when their lives may be just the opposite; a testimony of the deceitfulness of the human heart in that they believed they were good and acceptable because of their humanitarian efforts. It is the most common and the most serious of sins and only Jesus can deal with it as decisively as it needs to be dealt with.

Pray for the lost who are lost in a deception that tells them they have scored enough points to be found acceptable with God.

Psalm 30:1-5 (ESV)

I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up

and have not let my foes rejoice over me.

[2] O Lord my God, I cried to you for help,

and you have healed me.

[3] O Lord, you have brought up my soul from Sheol;

you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit.

[4] Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints,

and give thanks to his holy name.

[5] For his anger is but for a moment,

and his favor is for a lifetime.

Weeping may tarry for the night,

but joy comes with the morning

[6] As for me, I said in my prosperity,

“I shall never be moved.”

[7] By your favor, O Lord,

you made my mountain stand strong;

you hid your face;

I was dismayed.

[8] To you, O Lord, I cry,

and to the Lord I plead for mercy:

[9] “What profit is there in my death,

if I go down to the pit?

Will the dust praise you?

Will it tell of your faithfulness?

[10] Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me!

O Lord, be my helper!”

[11] You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;

you have loosed my sackcloth

and clothed me with gladness,

[12] that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent.

O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!

It is not wrong to praise God for what He has done for us. Sometimes we get the impression from some Christians that it is never right to praise God for giving us things, answering our prayers or doing things far beyond what we have asked. “Just thank Him for who He is”. This is not so.

It is wrong to love the gift more than the Giver but it is certainly right to have an attitude of gratitude when God graciously gives us good things. David thanks God in this Psalm for not letting his enemies win, for helping him, for healing him, for restoring his life. We have much to be thankful for and it is wrong not to express thanks to God for all His goodness.

But the Psalm does not end there. David makes it clear that the reason he asks God for life is so that he can praise God for His goodness to him. How can he sing the praises of God from the grave (verse 9)?

Why do we ask God for what we ask for? Is it because we do not want the opportunity to attract attention to Him to end? The reason we have life is to praise God. Every sin, every act that we do that does not give God glory is a denial of why we are on the planet. It is to act in cross purposes to why we are here in the first place. We were created for His glory. To live and not give God glory is an act of rebellion against our raison d’etre.

It is no wonder so many have such a sense of worthlessness. They are trying to fill their lives with purpose that goes counter to the purpose for which they were made in the first place.

There are different ways to live for the praise of God’s glory. But there is no way to direct praise to Him while living in rebellion against Him. Love life, be thankful for all you have and know that the reason you have life and things to be thankful for is to deflect attention away from you up to the One who is responsible.

Psalm 29:1-11 (ESV)

A Psalm of David.

Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings,

ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

[2] Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;

worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.

[3] The voice of the Lord is over the waters;

the God of glory thunders,

the Lord, over many waters.

[4] The voice of the Lord is powerful;

the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

[5] The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;

the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.

[6] He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf,

and Sirion like a young wild ox.

[7] The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire.

[8] The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;

the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

[9] The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth

and strips the forests bare,

and in his temple all cry, “Glory!”

[10] The Lord sits enthroned over the flood;

the Lord sits enthroned as king forever.

[11] May the Lord give strength to his people!

May the Lord bless his people with peace!

David calls out for Israel to ascribe to God the qualities that God possesses. It is important for us to remind ourselves of the God that we serve. It is important that we remember just how great He truly is. In this Psalm we are told to worship Him because of His glory, strength, splendour of holiness, power, majesty, ubiquitous providence, and grace. After rehearsing all these qualities the Psalm ends with a plea to God.

If you get a true understanding of the power, majesty, necessary involvement in even the most “natural” occurrences, then what will you ask God to do for you? David, after reminding us and himself of what God does and is makes a request – strength and peace. No call here for money or disease free and trouble free living or comfort or any of the many things that might occur to us to be asked for if we become convinced that God is all that the Scriptures say that He is.

He asks for strength. Strength to handle the difficulties, the enemies, the things that come into our lives and into the life of the people of God, into the life of the church. Give me strength to handle the things that mark this life.

And he prays for peace. Peace in the heart, among the people of God. Peace in the world, in communities … . What a good reminder this is! Our God can do whatever He pleases. O Lord, be pleased to enable me to handle a very difficult life. Give us the ability to fight bravely in the warfare that the Christian life is. Give us peace. Give us the peace that comes from knowing You through faith in Your Son. Give us the peace that causes us to want others to know you too and spurs us into the world with Gospel.

Strength and peace. It is what we need the most and it is what God is willing to give us. He has the power and knowledge to do so. He is willing. Ask Him for good things and He will not refuse you. O Lord, give your church strength and peace.