Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20100502.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Amos: Heeding The Word Of The God Of The Whole World
Part III: The Mammoth Need For God's People To Cleave To Scripture
(Amos 2:4-5 et al.)
  1. Introduction
    1. As a Church body, we have often highlighted our need to uphold the Scriptures in both thought and deed.
    2. This focus can be lost by a preoccupation with life's cares and lusts, but any drift from focusing on God's Word comes at an astonishing cost in terms of God's severe discipline as well as intrinsic spiritual health.
    3. In the broad context of God's pronouncement of judgment against Judah in Amos 2:4-5, we see how necessary it is to be vigilant in cleaving to God's Word at all times, so we view the passage for edification:
  2. The Mammoth Need For God's People To Cleave To Scripture, Amos 2:4-5 et al.
    1. After pronouncing judgment on the nations surrounding His people in the Southern Kingdom of Judah and the Northern Kingdom of Israel, God had His prophet, Amos, begin to direct His pronouncements of judgment against His own people, starting with the Southern Kingdom of Judah, Amos 1:3-2:3; 2:4a.
    2. We learn from Amos 2:4, 5 that God planned to judge Judah by sending an invading army to overcome it and to devour its palaces in Jerusalem with fire similar to how He planned to judge the surrounding nations of Damascus, Philistia, Tyre, Edom, Ammon and Moab (Amos 1:4, 7, 10, 12, 14a and 2:2a).
    3. However, Judah's named sin dealt with rejecting God's Word and its resulting apostasy unlike the extensive physical abuses noted of these other nations (as follows): (1) God would judge Damascus for abusively driving threshing sledges over Hebrews captured in Gilead (Amos 1:3); (2) He would judge Philistia for delivering captured Hebrews to the Edomite slave market for money, an especially cruel enterprise in view of Edom's notorious hatred of Hebrews (Amos 1:6, 11); (3) God would judge Tyre for breaking a brotherly treaty with Israel who trusted in Tyre's friendship (Amos 1:9); (4) He would judge Edom for its perpetual and cruel hatred of relative nations Israel and Judah (Amos 1:11); (5) the Lord would judge Ammon for brutalizing pregnant Hebrew women to demoralize the Hebrew people (Amos 1:13) and (6) He would judge Moab for defiling the bones of the king of relative nation Edom (Amos 2:1).
    4. So, on the surface, God's judgment of burning Judah's palaces similar to His planned judgment on these other more brutal nations might seem too severe! However, a study of Judah's sin and its effects shows how heinous and inherently disastrous her failure to cleave to God's Word actually was, Am. 2:4b-5 et al.:
      1. Judah's sin had begun by a rejection of God's Law, a rejection of His Word, Amos 2:4b NIV, ESV.
      2. Due to this rejection, Judah had not obeyed the Law, and that had activated God's discipline in accord with the Mosaic Covenant God held His people accountable to heed, Amos 2:4c; Deut. 28:15-25.
      3. Rejecting Scripture, not obeying it and experiencing God's discipline causes a vacuum for fulfillment, so spiritually blind Judah turned to what ended up being the deceitful idols of the forefathers, foolishly trying to fill the vacuum left by a loss of divine blessing, Amos 2:4d; B. K. C., O. T., p. 1430-1431.
    5. Viewing other Scriptures explains in fuller detail the dreadful plight of Judah (as follows):
      1. People reject Scripture if they look to worldly cares and lusts or if teachers fail to teach them the Word so that their listeners have inadvertently focused on their cares and lusts, 2 Timothy 4:1-2, 3a.
      2. Such worldliness brings discontent with true Bible teaching, so worldly hearers heap up to themselves religious teachers who spice up their teaching with worldly lust appeals, 2 Tim. 4:3b; Isaiah 8:19-22a.
      3. However, as the hearer no longer tolerates straight Bible exposition, he then turns to "myths," to stories that mix Bible truth with fiction in search of fulfillment in his spirit, 2 Timothy 4:4; cf. William Hendriksen, Exposition of The Pastoral Epistles (NTC), 1974, p. 312, 58-59. (Isaiah 8:21-22a)
      4. Yet, half-truths do not nurture, but in time only disillusion, so the hearer ends up dismayed, Isa. 8:22b.
    6. The antidote for such a tragic end is for Christians today [and for Judah in Amos's era] to cleave to, heed and for teachers to expound Scripture for God's blessing, 2 Tim. 4:1-2; Isaiah 8:20 with Isaiah 9:1-2, 6.
Lesson: Failure for God's people to cleave to pure Scripture exposition not only brings discipline due to a failure in their accountability to heed God, but it intrinsically harmfully scars their spirits!

Application: May we CLEAVE to Scripture (1) BOTH due to our ACCOUNTABILITY to GOD to OBEY it (2) AS WELL as our INTRINSIC NEED for SCRIPTURE INTAKE for HEALTHY SPIRITS!