Amos - The God Of Justice - Preach The Word

THE GOD OF JUSTICE
David Legge
Chinese dress everywhere he went. Now not even the Chinese believed that this was
acceptable for a white man, they thought that a white man's dignity rested in his strict
adherence to British dress. So Taylor's actions not only deeply shocked the British
people at home, but it was shocking to the Chinese. He had gone native, and as far as
the British were concerned he had lost all credibility, he lost some financial support,
and it even went to the extent of him being labelled a traitor to the Empire - but he
did it all to win Chinamen and women for Christ!
Now listen, the lesson is this: Amos was thought a traitor, and often when we walk
with God, and we hear from God, and we speak for God, it will upset the status quo
politically and even ecclesiastically. You see, Amaziah the state priest, he wanted to
conserve the past, and he was motivated by self-interest. He was good living for a
living, and he was lining his pockets of the people of God. He had a position, and he
wanted to preserve the past because of that - but Amos, he was motivated by Godinterest,
and he wanted to preserve the future. Can I ask you, Christian tonight: what
are you interested in conserving and preserving? Is it the future?
Amos wasn't perturbed, he told the false priest - we haven't got time to read it - 'God
has told me to preach, I must obey, and as for you Amaziah, you will pay for your
compromise and your sins because your wife will become a harlot and your family will
die by the sword' - that's what he said! Now, after the first two visions, the vision of
the plague of locusts and the devouring fire, Amos interceded for the people and the
Lord relented. But you will note that Amos does not intercede after this third vision of
the plumbline - the reason being: the nation had clearly been measured and found
wanting, and it was too late! What an awful thing for the nation to be too late to be
saved from judgement! Maybe you're here tonight and you don't realise how serious it
is to be weighed and found wanting in the eyes of the holy God of heaven. If you're
here tonight and you're still in your sin, you need to be warned that you're lost, you're
condemned already, and you need to repent and flee to the cross of Jesus Christ! This
is an awful thing to individually be in such a state - and I believe there are men and
women in Ulster tonight who are walking in shoe leather, and it's too late for them
because they heard God's voice at one time, and they resisted the Holy Spirit, and
God has left them.
It's an awful thing for a nation. God is patient, we have seen that this week. He
speaks again and again to the conscience of a nation. He allows things to go wrong,
He brings a nation low and even to its knees - and if that nation still ignores God,
what does He do? He raises a foreign nation, a power, to execute His will. For
northern Israel He rose up the Assyrians. For southern Judah He rose up the
Babylonians. Who is He raising up today for the United Kingdom, for Western Europe?
Is it a war of terror? Amos refers eleven times in his book to 'the LORD God' - that is,
the Sovereign Ruler over all things. God was in control, God was dealing with the
nation - He's dealing with our nation! Benjamin Franklin was not a believer, but he
said it well at the Constitutional Convention of the United States, he spoke: 'I have
lived, Sir, a long time. The longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this
truth: that God governs in the affairs of men' - the LORD God.
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