One of the wisest people I’ve ever known is my Grandfather Adams. That’s him in the upper right corner of this family picture…taken when my dad was home on leave from WWII. My grandad had a small farm in central Mississippi and when I was a kid we’d spend a week or two of our summer vacations there. When we arrived from Delaware for those annual visits, all the uncles and aunts and cousins would come as well—which meant the little farm house would be crowded with family. Every bedroom would be filled. Grandkids would sleep all over the house on palates made from my grandmom’s quilts—and I have lots of wonderful memories of those visits.
- We’d go fishing in grandad’s pond.
- We’d explore the woods and once we found a spring where cold, clear water bubbled right out of the ground. I still remember how good that water tasted.
- Grandad would let us help him feed and milk the livestock. He had two dogs and they would always help heard the cattle into the barn at the end of the day. Sometimes grandad would whistle in a special way and those dogs would make all the cows march in a circle—we loved that!
- Grandad had two plow mules—Mobe and Tobe—and he talked to them as if they were people.
- Once Grandad let us churn butter—how many of you can say you’ve done that?!
- In the afternoon, Grandad would pile us in the back of his pick-up and drive us to the gas station that was one of only two buildings in the “town” of Tomnolen—the other being the tiny post office…and he’d treat us to cold bottles of soda pop and comic books. I loved my gradad!
And of all my memories about him the one that stands out most in my mind are the nightly after-supper discussions.
You see, after the evening meal the men would take the cane chairs they had been sitting in around the table….and bring them out in the shade under the big cedar tree. Grandmom would refill all the glasses with iced sweet tea and then the talking would begin. My uncles and other neighbor friends who had come for the meal would discuss crops, politics, current events, world crises…and I remember being amazed at the WISDOM of my grandfather. He was uneducated—I don’t think he even graduated from high school—but the things this poor, farmer had to say under that cedar tree always seemed to make so much sense. I remember thinking, “I wish grandad were president. He’d know how to solve the world’s problems.”
I don’t know for sure—but perhaps wisdom is one benefit of farming—maybe working that closely with God’s creation gives you a kind of common sense that others don’t have. Perhaps living and working away from crowded cities gives you a better perspective on life. In any case, I bring this up because on this first day of 2012 I want us to tap into the wisdom of another uneducated farmer—a bi-vocational prophet of God known as Amos. Amos served God 800 years before the birth of Christ—and he was a contemporary of several other—better known prophets of Israel. For example: Isaiah, Hosea, and Micah all spoke for God at about the same time Amos did. Some even believe that old Jonah was still alive. But Amos was special in that he was the FIRST to prophesy against the sins of the people of Israel…and many Bible scholars think the others would have remained silent if he didn’t have the courage to speak up. So Amos was a pioneering prophet!
As I inferred, like my grandad, Amos was a simple man. He was a farmer who herded sheep and harvested fig-like fruit from sycamore trees that grew on his land. He lived and worked on the Tekoan plateau…a remote area southeast of Jerusalem. By the way, centuries later the wilderness of Tekoa was the home of John the Baptist…and also the scene of Jesus’ temptation. I’ve been there and it is a very rough piece of real estate.
Well…from time to time Amos came down from the SOLITUDE of his wilderness to sell his figs and wool in the markets. And every time he did, he became even more disgusted with the immoral lifestyle of his people. Amos saw a culture in which wealth abounded and people gave themselves over to a life of luxury and self-indulgence. Families had multiple homes…a place to live in the winter and a place to live in the summer. Amos noted that these homes were lavishly furnished and that the owners hosted numerous banquets and feasts in them. All this ease and extravagance contrasted with the misery and suffering of the poor who could not afford even the bare necessities of life. In other words, Amos saw that there were plenty of PALACES in Palestine but he also saw that there were plenty of SHANTIES….people living out of the equivalent of a cardboard box, which is why as John R. Sampey put it, Amos “snorted every time he saw a palace.”
And please understand. It wasn’t that Amos was anti-rich people or anti-success. No the thing that disturbed this farmer/prophet was the fact that the JUDGES of Israel were dishonest and the GOVERNMENT corrupt…which allowed—even encouraged—the rich to gain their enormous wealth not by hard work but by acts of injustice and oppression. In fact, the dishonest merchants and judges conspired to make the lives of the poor miserable beyond endurance. They sold men into slavery if they could not pay their debts—even for some insignificant amount—such as the cost of a pair of sandals. The wealthy took their debtors’ garments as pledges but did not return them at sundown as God had demanded in Exodus 22:26-7. Instead each evening these rich sinners visited pagan altars, where they got drunk on wine purchased with the fines they extracted from the poor. Then, in their drunken stupor, they slept by the pagan altars using the debtors’ clothing as a bed, defiling the garments and disobeying God’s law. In short, the officials were getting rich by exploiting the people, and then were using their unjust gain in the committing of sinful acts. The women of the land, whom Amos referred to as “cows” were just as heartless and made such demands on their husbands that they in turn heaped new burdens upon the poor peasantry.
So…it was not a proud hour in the life of God’s chosen nation.
And the worst thing that Amos saw as God’s prophet was the fact that the people were OUTWARDLY religious. I mean “church” attendance was up in Amos’ day. In fact, people were very pious in their claims to be the special creatures of Yahweh. But Amos saw that THEIR brand of religion obviously did not make for better moral behavior. In other words, back then, “everyone singing about Heaven wasn’t going there!” Amos was wise enough to know that worship is nothing but empty ritual unless it leads to changed lives—a principle that you and I should certainly heed today.
Now—how did Israel sink so low? I mean…how did things get so bad for God’s chosen people?
To answer that question, we have to back up a bit in the history books. Years earlier Syria had been the nation that most plagued Palestine. They were constantly at war—and Syria usually came out on top. But the supremacy of Syria ended when Adadnirai II became king of ASSYRIA and smashed Damascus in one vigorous campaign. Then—a succession of weak kings in Assyria gave the Hebrew people full freedom of movement.
Jeroboam II came to the throne of Israel in 783B.C. and due to the weakened state of Syria, he was able to easily recapture lost territory and even EXTEND the limits of his kingdom. In Judah—the southern part of Palestine—King Uzziah forged ahead along the same lines. His little nation was made into a strong, vigorous kingdom with armies, fortifications, trade routes, and powerful political alliances. So….these two aggressive Hebrew kings carried their small kingdoms along in the same stride—from victory to victory. The old limits of the kingdom built by David and Solomon were reached. In short it was a period of expansion, freedom, activity, prosperity, and peace. Money poured in—the economy was in great shape—and I imagine that their equivalent of the nightly news reported continued successes by the armies. This lasted from 805 B.C. until 740 B.C.—a 65 year period in which the land of Israel enjoyed a season of peace and tranquillity. But as so often is the case, with prosperity the people lost sight of their need for God. They forgot all that God had done for them in freeing them from bondage in Egypt—and they became self-sufficient…and materialistic…WORLDLY. Some began to practice the idol worship that was so prevalent in the world at the time. Amos even saw father and son using the same pagan temple prostitute.
Now…Amos was basically a PREACHING PROPHET. In fact, the book that bears his name in the Old Testament is a collection of nine of his sermons. I have heard it said that preachers are called by God to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable—and after reading Amos’ sermons, I would say that he tended to major on the latter. He preached his first “afflict the comfortable” sermon at the temple in Bethel. Amos was there to sell his crops and felt led to go to “church.” When he arrived, he stood on the steps near the altar and began to deliver his message. Amos may have been an uneducated farmer but he obviously knew one of the most important tactics for delivering a successful sermon…which is you must have a GREAT introduction. And Amos did. He structured his sermon that day so that his first words caught the people’s attention and made them want to hear more. He did this by beginning his message with a detailed list of the sins of the nations all around Israel. He preached against the evils of the people of Damascus and Gaza and Tyre and Ammon and Moab…and I can imagine the people loved to hear him do so. After all, it is part of our sinful nature to take delight in hearing about the sins of others. Well…by doing this Amos had his congregation in the palm of his hand…and that is a great feeling for a preacher…in fact I was hoping to experience that feeling myself about now but THEN Amos’ sermon “introduction” ended and he began to list the sins of Judah and Israel. When he did that I’m sure many who were present grew angry and felt that he had quit preaching and gone to meddling.
During my seminary days I served on staff in a church in New Albany, Indiana, just across the river from Louisville, Kentucky…and in those days the Louisville area was known for it’s brewery industry and it’s tobacco farming. For that reason the sins of alcohol excess and smoking were not usually dealt with from the pulpit—because most preachers felt that to do so would step on too many deacon shoes. Well…what Amos did that day in Bethel was the same as if a farmer from the country around Louisville would have walked into the First Baptist Church…and preached against the sins associated with alcohol and tobacco. I mean….his message really got the people mad. He definitely AFFLICTED THE COMFORTABLE.
With all this in mind, listen now as I share with you a few excerpts from the sermon God gave him to deliver that day:
Amos 2:6 – “This is what the Lord says: ‘For three sins of Israel, even for four, I will not turn back My wrath. They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals.
7 – They trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed. Father and son use the same girl and so profane My holy name.
8 – They lie down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge. In the house of their god they drink wine taken as fines.
10 – I brought you up out of Egypt, and I led you forty years in the desert to give you the land of the Amorites.
11 – I also raised up prophets from among your sons and Nazirites from among your young men. Is this not true, people of Israel?
12 – But you made the Nazirites drink wine and commanded the prophets not to prophesy.
13 – Now then, I will crush you as a cart crushes when loaded with grain.
14 – The swift will not escape, the strong will not muster their strength, and the warrior will not save his life.’
3:1 – Hear this word the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel—‘against the whole family I brought up out of Egypt.
2 – You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth, therefore I will punish you for all your sins.
5:21 – I hate, I despise, your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies.
22 – Even though you bring Me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them.
23 – Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.
24 – Let justice roll down like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!
26 – You have lifted up the shrine of your king, the pedestal of your idols, the star of your god—which you made for yourselves.
27 – Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,’ says the Lord, Whose name is God Almighty.”
Well, there were no “AMEN’S” at this point. In fact their response was to throw Amos out, so he went home and wrote his messages down, which, as I said, is what we have in this little book of the Old Testament. Now, I’m sure you would agree that the people should have listened to the message God gave Amos that day. We should always heed the Word of the Lord! But since they DIDN’T listen, the inevitable happened. They suffered the natural consequences of disobeying God’s law.
By the way—we must understand that….it is not so much that we break the laws of God as it is that we are broken by them. I mean, there is ALWAYS heart-breaking pain and suffering associated with sin. In chapter 6 of his book Amos used an interesting word picture in one of his sermons. This farmer-turned-preacher asks, “Does one plow the sea with oxen?” He said this to make the people imagine what would happen if a farmer tried this. He and his oxen would of course sink to the bottom. That is inevitable. That is the law of gravity. Amos was saying it is just as inevitable for us to suffer if we defy the law of God. We hurt OURSELVES when we sin—which is why God spends so much time in His book telling us not to do so!
I remember hearing the story of a man who went to church. For some reason his wife did not go with him so when he got home she asked him what the pastor’s sermon was about. He replied, “Sin.” She asked for more information, saying, “Well, what did he say about sin?” And her husband replied, “He was against it.” Well, God IS against sin—because He knows what it does to His creation—which is why He sent prophets like Amos to Israel…to warn them of the pain and suffering that would come if they continued their sinful lifestyle.
But, as I said, the nation of Israel ignored Amos and continued it’s downward spiral and a few decades later, in 712 B.C., the enemy marched in, captured the city of Samaria, and carried away the captives to Babylon. And the ten northern tribes of Israel disappeared from the stage of history, never to be heard from again.
Now…I don’t know about you…as I study the EXPERIENCES of Amos, I see many parallels between our own culture…and that of the people of Amos’ day…so as we begin a new year I think it is very important for us to pay close attention to His sermon…even if doing so makes US feel a bit uncomfortable. I mean—let’s be honest—even as Christians, you and I are active participants in one of the most materialistic cultures in the history of the human race. Plus—many of us ignore the law of God each and every day—just like the people of Amos’ time.
In fact, I think our problem stems from the fact that just like the Israelite’s, you and I are in danger of forgetting a very important spiritual principle…and that is the importance of PURSUING HOLINESS.
Now, HOLINESS is a very Scriptural idea. In fact the word “holy” in its various forms occurs more than 600 times in the Bible. Two of those times are found in Leviticus 11:44 where God says, “I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be HOLY, because I am HOLY.”
But—what exactly does God mean here? What is holiness? I mean, in spite of tons of verses in the Bible calling us to holy living, most of us don’t understand it and in fact entertain certain misconceptions. Jerry Bridges writes, “To some minds the very word ‘HOLINESS’ brings images of bunned hair, long skirts, and black stockings. To others the idea is associated with repugnant ‘holier than thou’ attitudes.” But…holiness is much more than a list of prohibitions or a particular style of dress. It’s more basic than that. To be holy is to be MORALLY blameless.
Of course only GOD is morally blameless. Only God is Holy but in this text from Leviticus and in hundreds of others like it God calls us to STRIVE FOR, or PURSUE, holiness in our daily living. I think a good definition of holiness is this, “…willfully separating ourselves FROM sin and separating ourselves TO God.”
Now…why do you think it is that so many Christians struggle with the pursuit of holiness?
Why does the church of Jesus Christ so often seem to be more conformed to the sinful world around it than to our holy God?
In his classic book on this subject Bridges gives three reasons:
(1) First of all, he says that our attitude toward sin has become more SELF-centered than GOD-centered.
And he’s right because we tend to be more concerned about our own “victory” over sin than we are about the fact that our sins grieve the heart of God. W. S. Plumer said, “We never see sin aright until we see it against God…All sin is against God in this sense. That is…His law is broken…His authority is despised…His government is set at naught. We must learn to say as the returning prodigal said, ‘I have sinned AGAINST HEAVEN…and as David said, ‘Against Thee, Thee Oh God only have I sinned.’”
God wants us to walk in obedience to Him in life. In fact, this must be our primary motivation in choosing NOT to sin—OBEDIENCE and not personal victory. You see, victory is a by-product of obedience—not an end in itself. And it is important for us to get this in the right order because obedience is oriented toward GOD—whereas victory is oriented toward SELF. I would agree with Bridges and go so far as to say that to try to be holy or follow a set of God’s standards without a relationship with God is really idolatry…because it is putting OUR BEHAVIOR above our RELATIONSHIP with God.
In any case, it is impossible to be holy without God’s power—AND to attempt to do so defies the definition of Holiness. Remember? I said that holiness not only means being set apart from the world…it also means being set apart TO God. Striving for holiness is based on our love for God…not on our prideful ability to “be good.”
(2) And then, Bridges points out that our second problem is we have misunderstood what Paul said in Galatians 2:20 when he talked about “living by faith.”
Many times we think that no EFFORT at holy living is required on our part. We think that all that is needed is faith in God and everything will be alright. We must face the fact that we have a personal RESPONSIBILITY to walk in holiness. We are called to use the freedom of choice that God has given us and decide to obey Him and live holy lives. Pursuing holiness involves striving to live out our faith each and every day, intentionally trying to be holy. Pursuing holiness is training ourselves…to be like God.
By the way, if we don’t “train” for holiness then we are training for worldliness. This is what 2 Peter 2:14 is inferring when it talks of people who have “trained themselves to be greedy.” This verse should remind us that if we don’t strive to be like God…the world will pull us the other way. Pursuing holiness involves pulling AGAINST the sinful influences around us. It’s like pulling against a huge rubber band…if you stop pulling in one direction you will be pulled back in the other.
The fact of the matter is that holiness doesn’t just happen. Remember the words of Paul to the Philippians? He said, “Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do…I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. [I press on in my pursuit of holiness!] All of us who are mature should take such a view of things.” (Philippans 3:13, 15)
(3) A third problem we have with holy living is that we do not take some sin seriously.
We have mentally categorized sin into that which is unacceptable and that which may be tolerated. We think that it is okay to commit “little sins.” And the danger with this way of thinking is that it is the little sins that always lead to the bigger sins. As Song of Solomon says in 2:15 “It is the little foxes that ruin the vineyards.” We must be willing to call sin SIN not because it is big or little but because God’s law forbids it.
Okay, with Bridges insights in mind I want to return to the basic definition of holiness I gave you a moment ago. Remember? I said holiness is separating ourselves FROM sin…and separating ourselves TO God.
I want to return to that so as to point out a very practical way that we can pursue basic holiness…
(4)….namely the practice of SOLITUDE.
AMOS—and anyone whom God has used in furthering His kingdom—will tell you that it is essential to pull away from the world on a regular basis…each and every day…so that we can experience solitude…uninterrupted time AWAY FROM THE WORLD and uninterrupted time alone WITH GOD. Remember…Amos was a farmer…a man of the land…who spent most of his time alone—secluded from the perverse culture around him. This lifestyle made it possible for him to pray undistracted—and in this way deepen his relationship with God. It also gave him a Godly perspective on the sinful world around him. He was better able to see sin as sin.
I’m not saying that to grow spiritually we need to join monasteries or religious communes. I’m just saying that to avoid the negative influence of our world we need regular time alone with God…time apart from the influence of the world. The New Testament records that Jesus engaged in this kind of solitude frequently. At the beginning of His ministry, our Lord went to this same Tekoan wilderness for an extended period of fasting and prayer. He also went into solitude when He heard about the death of John the Baptist…and when He was about to choose His disciples…and several other times. This pattern continued into the final days of His life, when again He withdrew into the solitude of the Garden of Gethsemane to pray on the night of His arrest…which means that Jesus ENDED His ministry, as He BEGAN it, with the practice of solitude. And Jesus taught His disciples to follow His example.In Mark 6:31 He urged them saying, “Come away with Me by yourselves to a quiet place.” and He issues the same invitation to us today.
Now…what is it that makes solitude so important?
I like how John Ortberg answers that question. He says, “Solitude is the one place where we can gain freedom from the forces of society that will otherwise relentlessly mold us.”
Listen—like the culture of Amos’ day—ours is filled with ideas and values and pressures and temptations about success and security and comfort and happiness that we will not even notice…unless we withdraw on occasion to clear our heads in the presence of our Holy God. P. T. Forsythe put it this way. He said that solitude is important because, “Unless there is within us a yearning for that which is ABOVE us, we shall soon yield to that which is ABOUT us.”
When we clear our heads through the regular habit of practicing times of solitude with God we come to see something…that people immersed in our materialistic world often miss…
(5)…We come to realize that the world’s pleasures are TEMPORARY at best.
Amos’ book records that the people of Israel foolishly invested their lives in the things of THIS world: elaborate homes, expensive furniture, fat bank accounts. But this is a dead end road to take because as Isaiah 40:6-8 says, “All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass…but the word of our God stands forever.” As this text says, the best rewards this world has to offer have the substance and staying power of cut flowers. They droop, wither, and eventually perish under God’s judgement.
One day God’s going to set this fallen world on fire. 2nd Peter 3:11 says, “Since this is true…what kind of people ought you and I to be? We ought to live HOLY and GODLY lives as we look forward to the day of God.” In other words, you and I must live for things of eternal significance—things of TRUE value. William Farley writes and says that his time alone in the presence of God has led him to be, “…deaf to the world…in the same way that a man with a Mercedes is impervious to the temptation to buy a Geo Metro.” This principle is what led George Beverly Shea to sing with such conviction,
I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold. I’d rather be His than have riches untold.
I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands. I rather be led by His nail-pierced hand.
Than to be the king of a vast domain and be held in sin’s dread sway.
I’d rather have Jesus than anything this world affords today.
What about you? As you look back on 2011 would you say you have been pursuing holiness or living for the things of this world? Well, if you look back and see that you’re headed down the dead end street that the Israelites were on, remember God allows U-turns. In this new year, you can turn from that way of living…you can return to God. Even old “afflict the comfortable” Amos, ended his sermon with a word of hope. In chapter 9 he quoted God as saying, “I will restore David’s fallen tent. I will repair its broken places, restore its ruins and build it as it used to be.” So…if your life needs repairing due to the damage our sinful world inflicts, then bring it to Jesus. He will repair it’s broken places.
LET US PRAY