Introduction: Grace be to you and peace, from God our Father, and from our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. Our text is the Old Testament Lesson just read, from Amos 5. We begin with prayer.
Dear fellow disciples of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ:
- We don’t really like receiving warnings. Sure, if there is some impending danger or disaster I would prefer to be warned rather than to have the disaster break upon me without any time to prepare. But the nature of a warning is negative, informing us about something unpleasant that is coming. I would prefer not to have unpleasant experiences or to have to contemplate their arrival.
- Holy Scripture, God’s Word, is full of warnings. Our text contains them. The Epistle Lesson we read contains warning of Christ’s return, as does the parable of Jesus in the Gospel reading. Jesus warns against being unprepared for the time of His coming, and unwatchful.
- There are also assurances in God’s Word – and ultimately God’s will and purpose is that we be encouraged in our faith and trust in God. However, such encouragement is in the face of the “grief” that we will experience, the trials, troubles, and tribulations that we must endure as we enter the kingdom of heaven.
- The reason that warnings are necessary, that danger is around us, is the reality of sin being in the world. And I suppose that if our very being was not infected with the distortions and delusions of sin, we would already be aware of the dangers that sin has created. But because of the blindness and ignorance that sin has effected in us we need warnings, warnings that God provides to us in His Word.
- It is the dismal nature of the task of those who minister God’s Word to us to bring these warnings to us, and woe to them if they do not do so. So this morning we contemplate the “SOLEMN WARNING” provided by the prophet Amos, first to the children of Israel, but also to us. And it is “A SOLEMN WARNING” that we still need to hear. For:
I. The Solemn Warning Is Against Hypocritical Piety
A. That Of Offering Worship And Praise To God In Continued Impenitence And Commitment To Sin
Text: “I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.”
B. Or That Of Trying To Buy Off God So That We Can Continue To Deny Justice To Others And To Ignore Any Encouragement To Personal Righteousness
Text: “Even though you offer Me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from Me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.”
C. And The Hypocrisy Of Being Convinced Of Personal Success And Eager For God’s Day, But Ignorant Of What That Day Will Mean To The Impenitent
Text: “Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! Why would you have the day of the LORD? It is darkness, and not light, as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him. Is not the day of the LORD darkness, and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?”
Statement: The point that Amos is making is that the Day of the Lord is already a day of judgment and terror. People of God should know this, and their thinking, their behaving, their demeanor, and their very inner being should be consistent with this reality. It is a grotesque form of unbelief and a mockery of God to think that we can escape the wrath coming upon all human sin and disobedience by holding “solemn” worship, by presenting offerings to God, and by singing to God – while all the while we have no concern for issues of justice, and no commitment to increasing our own personal righteousness.
Application: So the application of this “SOLEMN WARNING” is principally to people within the church, people who claim to know God and claim to care about God but who are hypocritical. The warning is this: we will not escape the same general condemnation, calamity, and destruction that comes upon impenitent sinners on the Day of the Lord if we simply hide behind “churchly” behaviors and trust in them, while remaining in impenitence and commitment to selfishness and sin. The warning is to people who are aware that the day and hour is coming, but who refuse to participate in the life of repentance and faith that properly prepares us for His coming.
This is an important warning for people within the church – for our sinful nature is such that it would prefer to throw God a few scraps, perhaps even of our “fattened animals,” and to sing piously before Him, with the thought that we will be able to make the money back with the prevailing injustice, and that once we have finished our song to God we can go back to our partying and revelry – which is what we are really interested in. And the fact is, often we are so eager to get to the things that really interest us that we even forego showing up for worship – and arrogantly think that our “general piousness,” our former acts of worship and offering, surely more than make up for any indiscretions or omissions on our part. But none of this is of faith, or proper repentance, or heedful of God’s Word. And because this kind of smug over-confidence is a grievous temptation for Christians, and if indulged can leave us outside of the marriage feast, God provides us this solemn warning.
Transition: And it is important for us to hear and heed the warning, for Amos makes clear that:
II. There Will Be No Escape On The Day Of The Lord For Those Who Refuse To Repent
Text: “Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! Why would you have the day of the LORD? It is darkness, and not light, as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him.”
A. Because Of Impenitence, The Day Will Indeed Be Dark And Gloomy
Text: “Is not the day of the LORD darkness, and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?”
B. So Let Us Take Care To Heed The Warning: Let Us Repent, Cling To God’s Gracious Forgiveness And Mercy, And Bear The Fruit He Desires
Text: “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
Statement: This is what Jesus’ parable urges upon us, the preparedness for His coming that He desires. It will be too late to effect such changes in our lives at the moment of His return – the unwise virgins had no remedy for their lack of preparedness. So the warning of Amos and of Jesus is also implicit against that peculiar human “optimism” that somehow we can fly by the seat of our pants and somehow make do with our own resourcefulness and determination at the last minute. This simply will not work – no matter how convinced we are that it will.
Application: Rather, the preparedness urged upon us is illustrated in the Epistle Lesson – living in confession of our sins, and genuine repentance, and the joy of knowing what Jesus has done for us, that we are saved solely and completely by His grace, mercy, and love. Our preparedness is being focused upon the promises of God regarding the salvation that Jesus will bring on the Last Day. In this way we are weaned away from our love of the things of this world, and the sin required to gain them and the sin involved in enjoying them. Rather, in repentance and faith we will be compelled to love what God loves, and to commit our resources and our being to them – to justice and righteousness!
Conclusion: Again, we don’t particularly like warnings, but we should heed the stark Word of Jesus: “and the door was shut.” We might want to think that it will always be open, but this is not the case. In fact, Jesus warns that the door will not be re-opened for anyone on the Last Day.
But if we do not like the warnings, we can always take up the encouragements, the call to repentance and faith, and the renewing power of God’s Word so that we are moved to real and genuine love. This is God’s will for us; may He grant each of us such blessedness and joy. Amen.
Votum: And the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds in the true faith, which is in Christ Jesus, even unto life everlasting, Amen.