AN UNPLEASANT SURPRISE: Amos opens with God’s wrath for everyone.
- Amos 1:1-2:16.
- Maybe just focus on the nations’ part under this point.
- What does the “three sins, even four” mean?
- God is not saying, “I would stop if you would do three or four sins,” although it kind of sounds like that at first read. That obviously makes no sense, since the undeniable larger point of the passage is God’s concern over their continued sin.
- What God is saying is, “Because of multiplied sins, I am doing this.” One way to clarify the meaning is to read the word “for” as “because of.” When you insert that in there, it becomes much clearer what God is saying.
- God is repeatedly condemning these nations for their accumulated sins.
- The repetition of “My wrath” throughout the passage.
- The word “wrath” is one that we don’t like anymore. Surely God is not wrathful, is He? Isn’t He forgiving?
- Wrath, though, appears again and again in this passage. It is God’s response to repeated unrepentant sin.
- Is this right? Does this make God into a moral monster? No, on the contrary, it’s necessary for Him to not be a moral monster. Why? Because these are horrible things that are being done. For God to look at them and shrug His shoulders in face of such evil would make Him morally complicit. And not just that He calls them “bad” but that He would be angry about such terrible things happening without anyone feeling repentant.
- And this is the opening salvo of this book!
- No starting off soft or trying to explain things away. No, Amos jumps right into the thick of the problem.
- Promised destruction from God: Amos 1:4-5, 7-8, 10, 12, 13-15; Amos 2:2-3, 5, 9, 13-16.
- Summary of the sins enumerated in the first two chapters:
a. Slavery.
- Amos 1:6b, 9; Amos 2:6b.
b. War.
- Amos 1:11.
c. Violence.
- Amos 1:13b; Amos 2:1.
d. Rejecting the Law.
- Amos 2:4b.
e. False gods.
- Amos 2:4c.
f. Exploiting the poor.
- Amos 2:6c-7a.
g. Sexual sin.
- Amos 2:7b-8.
- It’s worth noting that much of the named sin involves harming those around you, as opposed to just “bad thoughts” or a “poor attitude.”
WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE IN GOD'S RESPONSE TO ACCUMULATED UNREPENTANT SIN BY THE WORLD VERSUS BY HIS PEOPLE? Not much.
- Amos 2:4-16.
- God hits the foreign nations – you can almost hear His people cheering along. But then He hits Judah and Israel.
- We cry, “Go get ‘em, God!’ until it turns out we are guilty too.
- It reminds me of Romans 2. Paul spends much of Romans 1 explaining the depth of the world’s sin only to turn in chapter 2 to the fact that we are guilty too.
- Wait, I thought we were “Jesus’ favorites”! How could He have anything negative to say about us?
- Saying that you’ve been forgiven of sin doesn’t mean there are no consequences when you choose to continue in sin.
- God punishes accumulated unrepentant sin, no matter who is doing it.
- We get confused on this point by thinking that knowing that we will be forgiven in heaven by Jesus’ blood when we stand at Final Judgment means that there are no earthly consequences for our sin when we continue to sin now.
- We know this with certainty because of the teaching in Hebrews about disobedient children. God disciplines those He loves. Even if we are a child of God, God takes our unrepentant sin seriously. Why? That leads us into our next point.
GOD'S PEOPLE CONSTANTLY FORGET: Grace is not a license to sin.
- Grace is often misunderstood as a “get out of jail free” card. Because of that, people presume that “saved by grace” means that a forgiveness that involves no changed life.
- It is true that grace is the vehicle by which God saves us. We cannot earn salvation, so we are saved by grace. It’s a free gift from Christ.
- But that doesn’t mean that we are to continue to dwell in our sins. In fact, in Romans Paul goes to great length to explain that being “saved by grace” doesn’t mean that we should just keep right on sinning so God can keep right on forgiving. There were even some people accusing Paul’s “saved by grace” teaching of meaning that we should all sin as much as we can so God can forgive us of all that, thus increasing how forgiving God is! Paul says that’s ridiculous.
- No, we are saved by grace, but that salvation transforms who we are and how we live. We have been freed from sin by God’s grace. Why in the world would we want to go back into that spiritual slavery? We have been freed!
- So grace is not a license to sin. Not at all. Grace is the path God uses for our salvation, which enables us to live a transformed life through what Jesus has done for us.
- God desires our righteousness, not merely our forgiveness.
A QUESTION FOR MY PRAYER LIFE: When praying, how regularly do I repent?
- Let’s finish with a personal application question.
- In my own prayer life, how often do I repent?
- Now, of course, you don’t have to repent if you’re not sinning. Unfortunately for all of us in this room, we are still sinning. So we need to repent regularly.
- When you pray, do you repent?
- What would that look like?
- Think through the previous day. Are there things you did that were wrong? Are there things you didn’t do that you should have? Consider actions, words, and thoughts. Consider both recurring sin issues as well as unique situations.
- Confess specifically. Don’t just throw out a general “God, forgive me of my sins.” Name the sins you’ve thought of.
- Ask God to help you to not repeat those sins.
- Thank God for His forgiveness.
