20 Oct 1996

HTC 9 The God of Abraham praise

HTC 373 What a friend we have in Jesus

Amos 3:1-8, 13, 4:1-13 Explain Bethel

HTC 362 How can we sing with joy to God?

HTC 189 Great God, what do I see & hear?

In the book of Amos, we read a prophecy directed against an evil king, Jeroboam II, who ruled over a wicked kingdom.

God gave that wicked king long life & success, & great victories in battle, as we read in 2 Kings. He delivered Israel from the oppression of the surrounding nations - OHP

In my last sermon I showed how Amos brings the message from Zion - (Jerusalem) & he condemns the surrounding gentile nations one by one - OHP ... Aram; the Philistines; Tyre; Edom; Ammon; Moab; their old enemies are listed for judgement. God has judgement reserved for the wicked nations, for their sins against God & each other. The list of God's judgement continues with Judah, for rejecting the Law of the Lord. Finally Amos speaks of God's judgement against his hearers, Israel.

I want to consider the longsuffering of God with the wicked & how we can use the time of God's patience to prepare to meet our God

A surprising truth of Scripture is that God is longsuffering, allowing sinners to live, & get rich, & rebel. Some sinners suffer in their lives for their sin, but in many cases God does not judge the wicked in their lifetime.

When we hear of great wickedness taking place in our own day (& especially when young children are the victims) many people will ask the question:

1. Why does God allow wicked people to continue to be wicked?

Why? is always a difficult question, for it means understanding the mind of God! We can only answer it as far as it is revealed in God's Word.

The simple answer is in the declared covenant purposes of God. God has a covenant with the seed of Abraham, represented by Israel. (2 Kings 13:23) Mankind is under sentence of death, but God has made a covenant with His Son to save His people out of mankind, from their sin, by His blood. (Matthew 1:21, Hebrews 13:20)

If God had acted to destroy Adam as soon as he sinned, there would have been none to save.

When we hear of evil acts & suffering, we often ask or think, "Why doesn't God act to prevent evil." We forget that all, including you & I, are evil. To prevent evil God would need to destroy the entire human race. Again there would be none to save.

He does not execute judgement after every sin. He warns after 3 sins & 4. He commands repentance, & has made a way of salvation.

God sent His Son to die to save His people from their sin. God's answer to evil is to change sinners to saints. To give His people new hearts to love & serve Him. To overcome evil with good.

Peter reminds us that God's longsuffering - His patience with the wicked (& with you & me) - means salvation. (2 Peter 3:9,15)

2. God allows the wicked to continue to sin, to show their utter sinfulness, but while He is patient with the wicked, He is saving His people.

In this prophecy of Amos there are repeated warnings of God's judgement. God is unchangeable, so are His warnings unchangeable? No. He warns, so that sinners might repent, turn from their wickedness & live. 4:6-11 makes that very clear.

Why did the people of Nineveh repent at the preaching of Jonah? His message gave no hope. Their thought was, "Who knows? God may turn & have compassion on us."

Sadly many of God's warnings go unheeded.

At the time of the flood, God's purposes of salvation were seen in the deliverance of Noah's family in the ark. He gave evil mankind 120 years warning. During that 120 years Noah built the ark for the salvation of his family & the animals.

Notice that people of Noah's time had become utterly wicked: "every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil all the time." (Gen.6:5) That is not the normal state of mankind. Sinful mankind had become utterly sinful and ripe for judgement.

Abraham was promised the land of the Canaanites. His descendants would come into the land 400 years ahead. During that 400 years, his descendants would suffer in Egypt, & be delivered. And during that 400 years the sin of the people of the land would reach its full measure, & be ripe for judgement. (Gen. 15:13-16)

At the end of time there will be a double harvest, of the good grain into glory, & the wicked for the wrath of God, "because its grapes are ripe." Rev. 14:14-20)

The warnings of Amos show that God is long-suffering, but His patience with the wicked is coming to an end. The wicked will continue & increase in wickedness until they are "ripe for judgement." Listen to Amos in 8:1-2.

God is allowing evil mankind to continue in wickedness while in grace He is saving His elect out of mankind.

3. Prepare to meet your God

Dare we presume on the patience of God, & multiply wickedness so that grace may increase? (Romans 6:1,2)

Dare we claim the covenant purposes of God for His people, while we show contempt for God & His holy law?

There is a popular cartoon ... The onlookers laugh as they see the one who is warning others is himself about to meet God in death, & of course will no longer be able to warn them. They do not see that by this they are mocking God, are themselves quite unprepared to meet God. (Gal. 6:7-8)

Amos is surely warning the people of Israel that they will soon meet God as their judge for all their sins. And they reject his warnings. (Amos 7:10-13)

The people of Israel had rejected the laws of God, justice, true worship AND the prophets God has sent to them. It was no use Jeroboam saying in effect, "We are the covenant people. God can only do us good." It was no use continuing with sacrifices & offerings, while they continued in sin. (4:4,5)

In the same way the Government & people of Britain have rejected the gospel, the laws of God, the Word of God and those who preach God's Word. Yet they still say, "Britain is a Christian country."

Plans are being made for the "millennium celebrations" for the year of our Lord 2000 AD. I heard only this week that they expect champagne to be in short supply so people should order it now.

What we can be sure of is that the celebrations will be as described by our Lord in Matt. 24:48ff (read). Because he thinks the master is staying away a long time, he beats his fellow servants & eats & drinks with drunkards.

What a way to remember the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ! How dare they! They will surely be eating & drinking judgement on themselves. They plan to celebrate 2000 years of God's longsuffering during this Gospel Age by mocking the One whose birth they are celebrating.

We must be those faithful & wise servants, who continue in our Lord's service.

Amos is speaking a severe warning when he says, "Prepare to meet your God."

But God is gracious & merciful. There is a promise of mercy in His warnings. Just as in the opening chapters there was the repeated warning, "for 3 sins & for 4 I will not turn back my wrath," so in chapter 5 we have the repeated invitation, "Seek Me & live" (v.4) "Seek the LORD & live" (v.6) "Seek good & not evil, that you may live ... Perhaps the LORD God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph." (v.14,15)

Our harvest service last week concluded with a reading from 2 Pet. 3. In that chapter Peter reminds his readers that God is not being slow to keep His promise to return in judgement. God lives in eternity. One day is as 1,000 years, & 1,000 years as one day. He is showing His patience with the wicked, while saving sinners. He commands repentance. We must not presume on God's grace. Now is the day of salvation. May we all hear that gracious command to repent & believe in Jesus Christ, and live to His glory. I'll close with 2 Peter 3:8,9,14,15a.

There is an appropriate way to remember all that Christ has done for us, & prepare to meet our God, given by our Lord Himself, in eating & drinking the Lord's supper. "This is the New Covenant in My blood."We don't plan for the year 2000. We plan for eternity, for "we proclaim the Lord's death until He comes." (1 Cor. 11:26)

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Let us first consider the teaching of the passage.