Amos - The God Of Justice - Preach The Word

THE GOD OF JUSTICE
David Legge
sins of sexual immorality, Paul says, that were not even named among Gentile
unbelievers! Yet they were tolerated, the sins were tolerated in the church - but look
for God's judgement, listen: 'Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the
bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats
and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this reason many
are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we
would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we
may not be condemned with the world'.
Do you see it? Is it true that there is little difference in many quarters today between
the church and the world? Can I tell you better than that? At times the church, and
those who name the name of Christ, are worse! That's the way it was in Amos' day,
and I am fearful that that is the way it is rapidly becoming in our day. In verses 6
through to 16 the prophet names the sins of Israel, let's look at them quickly. One,
the first is found in verse 6, the latter part of it, and the start of verse 7: 'because
they sell the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of sandals. They pant after
the dust of the earth which is on the head of the poor'. They are accused of bribery
and greed. I don't know most of you people here, but could it be said of Christians
today that their business dealings are straight up? That the taxman is paid up and not
diddled? That we keep our word in our transactions? Are our business ethics superior
to that of those around us? As an employer, how do you treat your employee? As an
employee, how do you treat your boss? God's people in Amos' day, there was no
difference between them and the world - is that where we're heading?
Not only were they accused of bribery and greed, but we see in verse 7, the latter
part: 'they pervert the way of the humble. A man and his father go in to the same
girl'. They were guilty of adultery and sexual sin, fathers and sons were visiting the
same prostitutes. Surely the sexual ethics of the church and professing believers is to
be higher than that of the world? You would expect fathers to be better in the
examples to their sons than this! We heard this morning from a serving police officer,
and it was reported on the BBC just in June past, that last year in Northern Ireland
men spent half a million pounds a week on prostitutes. We heard this morning that
there are at least 88 brothels in Northern Ireland, which means that there is more
demand for prostitution in Northern Ireland than any other nation state in Europe!
And you're sitting there maybe saying: 'But Christians...!?' - wait till I tell you:
Christians, at least professing ones. 'No!', you say, 'That can't be!'. Well, even if
they're not visiting those type of establishments, Internet pornography is at epidemic
proportions. It is the secret sin of the evangelical church, and we're afraid to name it.
It's rife, and 57% of pastors in the United States testify that porn addiction is the
most sexually damaging issue in their congregation! If you've got a problem here
tonight with that, I sympathise with you greatly, but you need to get help, and you
need to repent, and you need to renounce it - and none of us are 6 feet above
contradiction, any of us could fall in any of these areas, but the church needs to be
cleansed! God's people have got to the stage where we're no different than the world!
Are our sexual ethics any different? Well, I preached in an evangelical church not that
long ago - it would have been considered conservative, maybe even fundamentalist of
a kind - and I preached on Romans chapter 1 about God's view on homosexuality, and
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