The author is God, via his servant and prophet Amos. God’s people had fallen away from the purpose God had for their lives, and they had gone after the gods of this world to worship them, instead. They were full of injustice, and they refused to walk in the righteousness of God. They hated being told that they were not living right and that they needed to repent of their sins and to obey God. And they persecuted those who were living righteously before God, in the power of God (see Amos 5:1-20).
Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord:
“I hate, I despise your feasts,
and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
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.
But let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. (Amos 5:21-24 ESV)
And this parallels over to what I have witnessed with regard to many who are professing faith in Jesus Christ here in America. The gospel message which is permeating the American church is an altered and diluted half-truth gospel message being taught from Scriptures taken out of context and made to say what they do not say if taught in the appropriate context. And it is loaded with false grace messages which permit the sinner to continue in his sin while assuring him forgiveness of all sin and heaven when he dies.
Rarely do I hear messages taught which teach that we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin and to self) and follow (obey) the Lord as part of believing faith which saves (Luke 9:23-26). Even though some do still teach the importance of repentance (forsaking of our sin) and obedience to our Lord and to his commandments, it is often being shared more as something we should do, but not as something that if we do not do will hinder our ability to have salvation from sin and eternal life with God.
And so we have many people giving lip service to the Lord living worldly lives, still making sin their practice, who are not walking in obedience to the Lord and to his commands, in practice. A lot of them are like the church in Laodicea, neither on fire for the Lord nor totally against him, but lukewarm. Many go through the motions of religious practice but their lives are not much different from those who make no professions of faith in Jesus Christ. So they blend right in with the world and with the trappings of the world.
They may be faithful attendees of religious services, but many of these services are market-driven and not Holy Spirit led. For they cater to the world in order to attract the world to their gatherings so that they can grow in numbers. And they are being run just like businesses, following after business marketing models and schemes for how to draw in large crowds of people from the world. So they don’t operate as the biblical body of Christ with each part doing its work. For the many are just spectators.
And they often end up singing songs which make people feel good and not ones which confront them with their sins and which call them to repentance and to walks of obedience to the Lord, as do some of the old hymns we used to sing. And a lot of these songs are all about what God does for us but now about what he requires of us, and so some of them are very surface level and give their whole congregation promises that God gives only to his faithful ones who are not walking in sin but who are obeying his commands.
And so God is not in many of these assemblies, and he is not in their songs nor in their preachers’ sermons, for these are businesses being run like businesses being marketed to the world, and their goal is to attract the world to their gatherings. So they compromise with the world in order to win the world to their gatherings. And so they also alter the truth of the gospel to make it more agreeable to human flesh and less offensive to the ungodly. But they are giving so many people a false hope of eternity with God.
So, we need to get back to God’s original design for his church, for the body of believers in Jesus Christ who have been crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. And we need to be exhorting and encouraging one another and speaking the truth in love to one another daily so that none of us is led astray by the deceitfulness of sin and so none of us will end up in hell on the promise of heaven.
[Romans 12:1-8; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31; 1 Corinthians 14:1-5; Galatians 6:1; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:1-16; Ephesians 5:15-21; Ephesians 6:10-20; Philippians 2:1-8; Colossians 3:12-16; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:13; Hebrews 10:23-25; James 5:19-20]
For Jesus said that not everyone who says to him, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God the Father in heaven. Many will stand before the Lord on the day of judgment claiming him as Lord and claiming all that they did in his name, and he is going to say to them: “I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness.” Why? Because they did not deny self, and die daily to sin, and walk in obedience to the Lord’s commands, in practice, but they did their own thing.
[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-21; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]
Just a Closer Walk with Thee
Hymn lyrics by Anonymous/Unknown
Music by American Melody
“For indeed He was crucified because of weakness, yet He lives because of the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, yet we will live with Him because of the power of God directed toward you” (2 Co. 13:4 NASB).
I am weak, but Thou art strong;
Jesus, keep me from all wrong;
I’ll be satisfied as long
As I walk, let me walk close to Thee.
Through this world of toil and snares,
If I falter, Lord, who cares?
Who with me my burden shares?
None but Thee, dear Lord, none but Thee.
When my feeble life is o’er,
Time for me will be no more;
Guide me gently, safely o’er
To Thy kingdom shore, to Thy shore.
Just a closer walk with Thee,
Grant it, Jesus, is my plea,
Daily walking close to Thee,
Let it be, dear Lord, let it be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6Ks49apflE
Caution: This link may contain ads
No comments:
Post a Comment