God Has Given Us A Perfect Tool To Evaluate How We Are Living.
The Bible Is God’s Perfect Measure. Ignoring It Will Lead To Disaster.
I. FINDING AN ACCURATE MEASURE (VS 7-9)
God Is The Highest Point In The Universe. Therefore He Is The Only True Reference Point.
A. PERFECTLY LEVEL (7)
B. COCKEYED (8)
C. SQUARING IT UP (9)
II. APPLYING AN ACCURATE MEASURE (VS 10-17)
Lasting Peace And Joy Only Come From Conforming Our Lives To God’s Plan For Us As Spelled Out Clearly In The Bible. Conforming To Any Other Standard Leads to Disaster.
A. DISTORTING THE MEASUREMENT (10-11)
B. IGNORING THE LEVEL (12-13)
C. REAFFIRMING THE CORRECT MEASUREMENT (14-15)
D. CORRECTING THE FAULTY CONSTRUCTION (16-17)
It seems that as we progress through the book of Amos, God is getting angrier and angrier. Last time we were together, God showed Amos two visions in which He intended to destroy
This morning, we are going to encounter the first vision in the next pair of visions. God will show Amos a vision of a plumb line, and next week we will study the second vision in this pair that is a vision of a basket of fruit. God will not let Amos intercede for
Again, this text gives us an opportunity to reexamine the way we are living our lives because we tend to presume on God’s grace. But there does come a time when He will not tolerate our willful sin and disobedience.
One of the dangers we church people face is defining religion and God in ways that justify the way we live our lives. The problem is that that is idolatry and God will not tolerate that very long. We have used our friends, our family, our cultures, and our own rationalizations to evaluate our lives. The problem is that God is the only true measure.
I never cease to be amazed at how even church people are able to twist things around. One day, one of my deacons wasn’t feeling very well and he asked me to accompany him to the doctor. After all the tests were completed, the doctor called us in the office. The deacon said, “Doctor, if there is something wrong with me, please don’t scare me to death by using a scientific name. Just tell me what it is in plain English.”
The doctor responded, “Well, to be honest with you, you are just plain lazy.”
“Thanks Doc,” sighed the deacon, “Now give me the scientific name for it so I can go home and tell my wife.”
We use all sorts of measures in life to judge how we are doing. However, the only measure that counts is God’s.
In everyday life, we know the importance of measuring things correctly. When cooking, if we don’t follow the recipes accurately, the food will not taste right. Measuring accurately is especially important for carpenters. If they measure a board incorrectly, and cut it too short, they have just ruined a valuable piece of lumber. That’s why carpenters, woodworkers, and other tradesmen have a saying, “Measure twice, cut once.”
That makes a lot of sense. If you think about it, that saying applies to the way we make decisions in life and the way we live our lives. Here is the main idea of this morning’s text.
GOD HAS GIVEN US A PERFECT TOOL TO EVALUATE HOW WE ARE LIVING.
THE BIBLE IS GOD’S PERFECT MEASURE. IGNORING IT WILL LEAD TO DISASTER.
In other words, we often look at our lives and evaluate our decisions, successes, and failures based on what our family, friends, and culture tell us, combined with our own rationalizations. To further complicate things, the church has been greatly influenced by culture as well. This is a very dangerous state of affairs because as today’s text points out, there will come a time when God’s patience with us will run out. The only legitimate measure and guide for our lives is the Bible.
God Is The Highest Point In The Universe.
Therefore He Is The Only True Reference Point.
In verses 7-9, God assists Amos in finding an accurate measure. The upshot of this section is that
GOD IS THE HIGHEST POINT IN THE UNIVERSE.
THEREFORE HE IS THE ONLY TRUE REFERENCE POINT.
Today we use levels. When the bubble floats between the two marked lines, we know the construction is level. In verse 7, God demonstrates how to build a structure that is perfectly level.
I need to take an aside and point out the structural parallel here. The vision here is meant to be paired up with the vision in chapter 8 verses 1-3. Here in verse 7 the text literally reads, “Thus, He showed me, and behold.” Verse one of chapter 8 reads, “Thus showed me the Lord Jehovah, and behold.”
In both visions God ends up saying, “I will spare them no longer.”
Let’s get back to this morning’s vision. In the vision, God was standing next to a wall that had been built perfectly level. Amos saw God standing next to the wall with a plumb line in His hand. A plumb line was a flat board, with equally cut pieces attached at right angles placed at equal intervals up and down on this board. At the very top of this instrument, a piece of wood that resembled a fishing pole supported a string with a piece of lead attached to the end of it. The way a person could tell if the wall was level was by placing the instrument on the wall. If the string fell down perfectly gapped between each protruding arm, then the structure was perfectly level. On the other hand, if the string touched one of the arms, then the structure was out of level.
A. PERFECTLY LEVEL (7)
Here is the picture. God is standing next to a wall. He put the plumb line on the wall, and found it to be perfectly level. The point that God is making is this. He is the ultimate point of reference. The world is not a proper measure. Family, friends, and culture are not proper measures. Our own logic and reasoning are not good measures. And certainly our emotions and passions are not good measures. God looks at our lives and constantly evaluates them.
Let me just point out some areas that I constantly see come up. Christians will date and fall in love with unbelievers. Then they start to reason, “We are in love and love conquers all.” They get married and by getting married what they have done is willfully disobeyed God by elevating “human love” above God’s commands. They have committed idolatry.
People who are very into their ethnicities participate in all sorts of community activities. They contribute to scholarship funds, work on community issues that affect their ethnic roots, and somehow come to equate that with pleasing God. Actually, in many cases, they are working against God and perpetuating customs and attitudes that are anti-Christian. For one, as we discussed at family camp, ethnic pride is extremely sinful and anti-Christian.
Those of us who have been raised in the
Now hear me clearly. I’m not saying these things are wrong. Living in a capitalistic democracy has afforded us a very comfortable lifestyle. Life in the
What is my business is when we elevate all these beliefs and try to give them Biblical status. You see, the only true measuring instrument is the Bible. Where the Bible speaks, we must speak. Where the Bible is silent, we must be silent.
The danger in Amos’ day was that the church, the government, and all society’s leaders were validating one another’s views and lifestyles. The problem was they were all wrong. When we use family, friends, culture, our own logic, reason, and passion to evaluate our actions, we are doomed. We are good at justifying all sorts of crazy thoughts and behaviors.
B. COCKEYED (8)
And that’s how our lives get all cockeyed as described in verse 8. God asks Amos, “What do you see?” Amos responds, “A plumb line.” Let me just quote a sentence from the prophet Isaiah,
“I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line;”
(Isaiah 28:17a/NIV).
Based on what we have studied so far in Amos, God is placing the plumb line up against the culture that
Look at the next phrase because it should cause us to tremble. God says, “I will spare them no longer.” I need to emphasize this point. God has measured His chosen people. God is now saying that His patience with them has run out. He is going to destroy them. As Christians, we are God’s chosen people. We think we are doing o.k. because we are successful, we have an abundance of blessings, and we feel relatively safe. We live in a strong and free country. But remember that’s exactly what life was like for
My hunch is that we are great Americans, great Italians, great Japanese, Chinese, Africans, Hispanics, etc. We are good workers and good neighbors. We are good churchgoers. But if God were to measure us, how would we fare?
C. SQUARING IT UP (9)
It’s an important question because as verse 9 points out, God will square up a cockeyed life. I know that many of us think we are good Christians. We think we are mature Christians. We think we believe all the right stuff. Some of us are out there trying to convert people to Christianity, and we don’t even have correct theology ourselves. If you are not reading and studying your Bibles diligently, then you probably have a cockeyed life. If you find yourself rationalizing questionable behavior, then you probably have a cockeyed life. If you are not changing the way you think and behave, then you probably have a cockeyed life.
Here is what is frightening. Let’s view our lives as a wall. We build a course of bricks one on top of another. Now let’s say we have a pretty good size wall built and when God measures us, He finds that way down on the wall, we have built a course of bricks that are out of level. That means first of all, that every course built on top of it, will also be out of level. And secondly, He must tear down the whole wall until He reaches the first course that was out of level. Then He must correct that course before we can start building again. Believe me, that will be a painful process. In verse 9 He is going to destroy every church
I know we are good at fooling ourselves into thinking that we are good people and that God understands how we feel and act. But the picture here in this section of Amos is that God will tear us down. How many setbacks will it take to get us back on track? How much suffering will it take us to humble ourselves and submit? How much pain will it take to get us to get rid of our pride, arrogance, and stubbornness? The Bible seems to say that it would be better for us to break down all the out of plumb and defective courses of bricks we have built in our lives and get them in line with God’s measure than to presume on God’s patience and force Him to come and take action against us.
I don’t know where you are this morning. I don’t know if you are using family, friends, culture, passion, or your own reasoning to evaluate your life. But the Bible makes it clear that the only legitimate measure is God. Let me emphasize this one more time. GOD IS THE HIGHEST POINT IN THE UNIVERSE. THEREFORE HE IS THE ONLY TRUE REFERENCE POINT.
Lasting Peace And Joy Only Come From Conforming Our Lives To
God’s Plan For Us As Spelled Out Clearly In The Bible.
Conforming To Any Other Standard Leads to Disaster.
I really hate to come across passages like this because it forces me to speak on the church and politics. And those of you who know me know how extreme I am on this topic. I will try and show some restraint as I preach through this next section. In verses 10-17 we will see how applying an accurate measure can affect our lives.
LASTING PEACE AND JOY ONLY COME FROM CONFORMING OUR LIVES
TO GOD’S PLAN FOR US AS SPELLED OUT CLEARLY IN THE BIBLE.
CONFORMING TO ANY OTHER STANDARD LEADS TO DISASTER.
First of all, let me just give you a feel for the structure of this section. Amaziah the High Priest sends a message to King Jeroboam. Amaziah then speaks to Amos. Amos responds to Amaziah. The section ends with God speaking to Amaziah.
Let me also say that I know many of you are civil rights workers, many are activists, and many of you are politically involved. As I preach through this section, I’m not criticizing your involvement. I’m merely warning all of us to be careful what we find ourselves defending and who we find ourselves supporting.
A. DISTORTING THE MEASUREMENT (10-11)
In verses 10-11, we find the High Priest distorting the measurement of God. Here we meet Amaziah, the High Priest of the temple at
Further, Amos was not raising a conspiracy. He was calling
Here is what really frightens me. The King and the High Priest are in a very close relationship. The High Priest assures the King that
In today’s climate in the
I don’t think we like to ask those questions. I think that we like being part of the system. Again, I can’t tell you what to do. Each person needs to get on his or her knees, before God’s presence and be able to say, “God, I know this vote honors You. I do this without reservation.”
In order to be able to stand together with Jeroboam, Amaziah had to clearly distort God’s laws and commands. My only warning to us is to be careful what we end up defending and who we end up supporting. And what part of the Bible do we have to distort in order to do so?
B. IGNORING THE LEVEL (12-13)
The reason we need to constantly be careful is that as verses 12-13 point out, we can easily find ourselves ignoring the level. Amos was preaching out in the open. He wasn’t starting an underground movement or anything like that. All anyone had to do was get a copy of the Torah, read it, and evaluate Amos’ message with it. Amaziah the High Priest should have been able to do that. Amos said that the upper class was exploiting the poor. They were denying them justice. And further, they had ignored all the laws that God put in place to insure justice and righteousness. They had ignored the passages in Deuteronomy where God had clearly spelled out doom for the Israelites if they ignored His laws. All they had to do was read it for themselves.
Not only did they ignore it, Amaziah, the religious leader confronted Amos. He accused Amos of preaching for money. He told him to go back to his home country
What really confuses me in American politics is how Christian leaders can say these kinds of things to one another. Religious leaders who are democrats charge religious leaders who are republicans with preaching a false gospel. Republican religious leaders make the same charge against democratic religious leaders. If you think about it, there are only two possibilities. First of all, one of them is right and one of them is wrong. The second option is that they are both wrong. The one clear option that is definitely not a possibility is that they are both right. That cannot be. Either one of them or both of them are wrong.
How big of a scandal is that? The church is divided and arguing over Caesar? How can the church, that is built on One Lord, One faith, One Spirit, and One Baptism, be split over secular politics?
C. REAFFIRMING THE CORRECT MEASUREMENT (14-15)
Amos responds to Amaziah in verses 14-15 by reaffirming the correct measurement. He says that he is not a prophet by trade. Neither he nor his father was religiously trained. In fact, he was making a nice living breeding sheep and cattle. In addition to that he had fruit orchards. He was doing well and living comfortably when God called him.
The only reason Amos came to preach in
D. CORRECTING THE FAULTY CONSTRUCTION (16-17)
But we’d better do it ourselves before we force God to take action against us. In verses 16-17 we see that God will correct the faulty construction. I want all of us to hear and feel the full force of these two verses. We may feel very righteous and passionate about what we are doing, rationalizing, defending or supporting. Amaziah has challenged Amos’ message. Amos said he was merely saying what God wanted him to say. Obviously the government, high society, and the religious community rejected Amos’ call for them to examine their lives according to the Bible. And now God steps in.
But look at the progression starting in verse 16. Amos says, “Now hear the word of the LORD.” In other words, Amos was sent by God to warn them. They refused to listen to Amos so now God is going to take over.
God’s message starts out, “You say.” Amaziah passionately and patriotically defended
How many things do we defend and support? How deeply have we thought about these things? Have we really searched them out in Scripture and brought them before God? We say and believe a lot of things deeply, passionately, politically, and even religiously.
But how frightening is it to think that God may respond to us as He did to Amaziah in verse 17? What God tells Amaziah is that
I think that we face several dangers being the church in modern day society. We have become entrenched in the whole political system. We not only obey Caesar, we want to become Caesar. We have come to accept democracy and unrestrained Capitalism as equal to Biblical truth. We have accepted our culture’s view of money. We have come to let culture’s evaluation of the poor to justify our not helping the poor. We have allowed culture to tell us that it is a woman’s right to kill her unborn baby. We have allowed culture to tell us that when poor children starve to death, it is their parents’ fault. We have allowed culture to tell us that the unjust and racist society we live in is not our fault or our responsibility. Depending on where we go to church, we justify different sorts of thoughts, behaviors, and politics.
But for the church, for believers, God is going to judge us and measure us on the basis of His Word, the Bible. We get all cranked up and passionate about all sorts of things. But the truth is this.
LASTING PEACE AND JOY ONLY COME FROM CONFORMING OUR LIVES TO GOD’S
PLAN FOR US AS SPELLED OUT CLEARLY IN THE BIBLE. CONFORMING TO
ANY OTHER STANDARD LEADS TO DISASTER.
In my opinion, we Christians have let family, friends, culture, our own rationalizations, and our own passions define Christianity for us. But the only reliable source of authentic Christianity is the Bible. We must let God speak to us and correct us through our diligent Bible study. I’m sad to say that statistics reveal most Christians don’t read and study their Bibles. Most Christians read the newspaper more than they read the Bible. If we are not reading and studying our Bibles, the chances are we are more like the High Priest Amaziah than we are like Amos, God’s true prophet. If that’s the case, we better be careful about what things we are passionate about, what kinds of things we find ourselves defending, and who we find ourselves supporting. Amaziah and
GOD HAS GIVEN US A PERFECT TOOL TO EVALUATE HOW WE ARE LIVING.
THE BIBLE IS GOD’S PERFECT MEASURE. IGNORING IT WILL LEAD TO DISASTER.
I talk to people every day. I know that many of us distort and ignore God’s Word. I don’t know where this story comes from but it nicely illustrates the point in a way we can all relate to.
“A school teacher lost her life savings in a business scheme that had been elaborately explained by a swindler. When her investment disappeared and her dream was shattered, she went to the Better Business Bureau.
‘Why on earth didn’t you come to us first?’ the official asked. ‘Didn’t you know about the Better Business Bureau?’
‘Oh, yes,’ said the lady sadly. ‘I’ve always known about you, but I didn’t come because I was afraid you’d tell me not to do it.’
The folly of human nature is that even though we know where the answers lie – God’s Word – we don’t turn there for fear of what it will say.”