Faithful to Punish and Restore
Amos • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 1 viewBig Idea: The Sovereign God both intensely hates sin and faithfully loves His sinful people. 9:1-10 — Because God despises and punishes sin in our relationships, you must love others. 9:11-15 — Because God faithfully fulfills His promises to His wayward people, you must rejoice in His faithfulness.
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
Introduction:
**perhaps the opposite laws that allow planes to fly?
**I really need to bring out the paradoxical nature of these seemingly opposing truths about God. The Introduction is going to be very important here
1. Because God despises and punishes sin in relationships, you must love others (vs. 1-10)
1. Because God despises and punishes sin in relationships, you must love others (vs. 1-10)
A. Your religious practices do not negate God’s hatred of relational sins (vs. 1)
A. Your religious practices do not negate God’s hatred of relational sins (vs. 1)
-This is the fifth and final vision that Amos sees, and Amos here sees the Lord standing by the altar
-This is probably a depiction of one of the temples in the Northern Kingdom that the Israelites used for worship
-And Amos hears the Lord give the command to strike the doorposts so that the threshholds may shake
-The Lord continues, commanding that that the doorposts and threshholds are to be broken on the heads of the people
-What is the purpose of this?
-God is punishing the Israelites in the midst of their religious center
-He goes on to say that He will slay all of them
-Not one of them shall be delivered
Remember, Israel has been living in gross relational and societal sins, yet they are still outwardly religious
-They gather for feasts, they offer their sacrifices, they sing their songs,
-And yet here, in this vision, God once again shows that He is completely unimpressed by outward shows of religion when His people, the Israelites, are living in relational sin
**illustration with man on the prayer line who was living with his girlfriend yet was a deacon at church and said everyone loves him**
Brothers and sisters, be careful not to be deceived into thinking that reading your Bible, going to church, giving in the offering, or witnessing somehow means that God doesn’t care when:
-live in anger with your spouse and children
-when you’re a constant gossip and slanderer at work
-when you refuse to forgive that person in your life
God hates relational sin, and outward signs of religion will not negate his hatred of it.
This is why we must love other people
So religion will not negate God’s hatred of relational sin, but notice next that
B. Your surroundings and circumstances do not hide you from God’s hatred of relational sins (vs 2-6)
B. Your surroundings and circumstances do not hide you from God’s hatred of relational sins (vs 2-6)
-Now, what’s striking about these verses is that they are an eery echo of a passage of Scripture that will be familiar to all of you:
Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me.
This passage uses very similar language to David’s words in Psalm 139, but states the negative aspect of God’s omnipresence and omniscience
There is nowhere that these oppressive and unjust Israelites will be able to go to escape the punishment of God on their sin
-They cannot go deep enough into the depths, nor climb high enough to heaven to escape God’s punishment
-There is nowhere to hide from God’s all-seeing gaze and His all-reaching arm
-Whether they climb up Mount Carmel, or dive down into the depths of the sea, God will punish their injustice
-In verse four, God states that even though they go into Exile, even there God would carry out His punishment on them and slay them
-God’s eye is on them, not for good, but for their harm for their sin
You see, your circumstances and your surroundings will not conceal you because God’s omniscience and His omnipresence means that He will deal with relational sins
-He sees all of our relational sins
-He knows about our lack of love for others
-He will deal with these kinds of sins
-This is why, we must love others
So Amos shows how God’s omnipresence and omniscience lead Him to deal with relational sin
But notice next
*fix this above*