Amos 4:4-5

Amos chapter 4 and verses 4 and 5, come to Bethel and transgress. At Gilgale multiply transgression. Bring your sacrifices every morning in your tithes after three years and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven and proclaim and publish the free offerings for this like if you, children of Israel, seth the Lord God. May God bless to us, is sacred and holy word this evening. An autopsy is performed by a coroner in order to discover the cause of death of an individual. It involves an examination, a dissection of the dead body, an examination of the various organs. of the body to see what condition they are in. By God’s direction, Amos here is going to dawn his medical cap and play coroner. He’s examining the religion of Israel and carefully diagnosing the cause of death. God has it all written down for us because it must be of importance for us to know, for us to ponder this evening. From his examination, his post-mortem, you can discover what is the cause of death in many churches and America today as well as we can draw a parallel to this. It would be wise to use preventive medicine to avoid what God finds repulsive in his sight in the Israelite worship that is mentioned here in this book. Amos is now turning his attention away from the ladies of Samaria, the tine or the cows of Bashan that we talked about in our last study, to the people of Israel as a whole. And it seems that he chooses a particular occasion to address the Northern Kingdom here. There appears to be a great pilgrim festival taking place where huge crowds are gathering at the worship centers of Bethel and Gilgap. You must envision the crowds, the cheerful voices, the jostling of the jostling of the people, they join in this religious celebration. It was a happy time, a joyous occasion, like any holiday, perhaps, celebration today. And yet Amos here is compelled by God to interrupt the fun, so to speak, and use this setting of this great gathering of people to deliver a rebuke. Come to Bethel and transgress. Come to Gilgau and transgress as well. His point will be that despite all their offerings, all their tithing, all their sacrifices, God is not pleased with their worship. His wrath is kindled against them. So let’s look at the autopsy here of Israel’s religion tonight. And the first thing I point out is this. Israel was guilty of worshipping outside of God’s ordained place. Now we read here about Bethel, and we read about Gilgap. The Israelites no doubt believed that they were engaging in. in solemn acts of worship at these two centers. With great care and precision, excuse me, with great care and precision, they probably have chosen these two sites for these worship centers or shrines that they have in which they would bring their sacrifices. Was it Bethel the place where the Lord appeared to Jacob in the Book of Jeacob? In the Book of Jehovah? Genesis and he had the ladder reaching up to heaven in his dream. There was the place where God’s altar once stood. Hadn’t God told Jacob, arise, go up to Bethel, and make there an altar under God. It was a sacred place. And wasn’t Gilgall the place where the covenant was renewed with Israel, with the Lord, and Joshua’s Day? These are two important places in Israel’s history. history? How could Amos declare go to Bethel or to Gilgall and transgressed then? How could a journey to such a holy place be sinful? How could it be repudiated by God? Was there no holy tradition at Bethel or Gilgast. Furthermore, wasn’t it wonderful that sacrifices were being made? That free offerings were being brought? That the things? the Israelites simply could not understand this. What Amos was complaining about, we could grasp that. Why would God be upset about this? But Amos here is certainly objecting to the place where these Israelites were making sacrifices. The worship site itself was indeed wrong. It was unscriptural. Even though the people want the Gilgale and the Bethel to worship and the services perhaps were conducted in the most solemn manner imaginable, something was wrong. Something was seriously wrong. Holding surfaces in places like Gilgale and Bethel meant going outside the place that God ordained worship to take place. And that was at Jerusalem where his temple stood in the southern kingdom of Judah. Jerusalem and nowhere else was the place where God wanted to be served in worship and the sacrifices brought at this time in history. His temple stood there. And so this is the choice place. place that they should have gone. Remember, Jeroboam, the first didn’t want to go down to the southern kingdom, lest the people be brought back together again and the nation be reunited. So he set up worship centers at Bethel and Gilgall early on in the history of the northern kingdom. But the offer sacrifices elsewhere was to engage in what we might call man-devised worship. It meant a violation of the Second Commandment which forbode you to worship God in any other manner than that which he has commanded in his word. Now what had God stipulated in his word precisely about this? Look with me at Deuteronomy Chapter 12, verses 2 to 6, if you would. Deuteronomy chapter 12 versus 2 to 6. Before they go into the land, But shortly they’re going to go in under Joshua. His Deuteronomy here is sort of a summary of all the law of God. The second law, if you would. Ye shall utterly destroy all the places where in the nations which ye shall possess serve their gods upon the high mountains, upon the hills, and under every green tree. He shall overthrow their altars and break their pillars and break their pillars. and burn their groves with fire and you shall you down the graven images of their gods and destroy the names of them out of that place. You shall not do so under the Lord your God. But under the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there even under his habitation shall you seek and thither thither. Thither shall thou come. And thither, you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices and your ties and your heave offerings of your hand and your vows and your free will offerings and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks. And of course we know that that place was Jerusalem. As it was pointed out to David, that that was where the site of the temple was to be placed. which was built then later by Solomon his son. Because of this law, sacrificing somewhere else was an abomination to the Lord. It was a great sin. Remember in chapter 1 and verse 2, what did we read about the Lord? He utters his voice from Jerusalem. That’s the place he chose to dwell. So Israel was guilty of worshipping outside of God’s ordained place. That’s the first thing that stands out here. The second thing is this. Israel was guilty of worshipping God in the wrong manner. I focus your attention on the word leaven in these verses and the words proclaim and publish with regard to their offerings, free offerings, and so forth. The sad thing is even if these Israelites had journeyed all the way to Jerusalem, their worship would be rejected for other reasons if they worshipped according to what we read in this text of scripture. These people were diligent about bringing all sorts of sacrifices and offerings, but not in the manner that God prescribed. The first thing here, it was unlawful to offer leavened bread in the burn offerings according to the law. Leviticus 2.11. Ye shall burn no leaven nor any honey and any offering of the Lord made by fire. Now you might say, well, why is this? Well, we have to remember that these sacrifices in some way or another are portraying the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Leaven indicates corruption. Remember what we read in 1.1 Corinthians 5.8, Paul speaks of the leaven of malice and wickedness. Sacrifices here being symbolic of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. And Christ is holy, and he is separate. from this vile world, not tainted with any sin. There was no malice or wickedness associated with him and therefore no leaven must be offered with these sacrifices. For it spoils the picture that portrays Christ in these offerings. Now, there was one place in Lviticus 713 where leavened bread was allowed, and that was with the Thanksgiving offering. But this bread was waived before the Lord. It was never placed on the altar. It was never burnt. And therefore, that was all right. And God makes that one exception. The Israelites here seem to be offering leavened bread as a common practice with their sacrifices. Contrary to God’s word. Perhaps they felt that yeast bread, and proved what God had commanded, maybe it tasted better, and the priest perhaps liked that better than the unrisen leaven bread, the flat bread. But it was violating God’s prescribed manner of worship. Secondly, when it came to their free will offerings, they were proclaiming and publishing their giving. some way or another they were bragging about their gifts. There was some type of public notification of their gift, of their giving. They drew attention to their offerings. It appears that they were more interested in being given the praise of men than really giving anything to God. You see the direction their worship is taking here. They do whatever they want to do, and they disregard what God’s word says. Yes, they were offering sacrifices, and they were bringing gifts, but according to their own regulations, according to their own ideas. And what pleased them? They weren’t seeking God. They were seeking praise from one another. The praise of Amen. And this is the problem they had. It was a way, your giving was a way of self-importance of pride. Look who I am. Look how much I gave. And this is why God tells them here, seek not Bethel, seek the Lord in chapter 5 verses 5 and 6 of this book. He ends this section by saying, for this likeeth you, or we might maybe, if I could phrase this maybe in more modern English, you love to do it this way. You delight in doing it like this. So Israel was guilty of worshipping in the wrong manner. Thirdly, Israel was guilty of attempting to worship without a sense of sin. It’s clear from Amos 4 here. There’s one glaring omission in all the offerings that we read about here in this section. What’s missing here? Well, there’s thanks offerings, their free will offerings. There’s even the tithe. I don’t read about any sin offering. No doubt. It’s because they had no real sense of their sinfulness in the need of forgiveness. American evangelist once met a woman who fit this kind of category. She wanted some of his attention, so she asked him to pray for her. And she said this, I am a great sinner. And then she added, I’m a Christian, but sometimes I fall very dreadfully. Please pray for me. And the American evangelist suspected that much of this was pure hypocrisy on her part. So he looked at her rather sternly and used her own words against her. And he said, Madam, I will pray for you. For truly, you are a great sinner. And she was aghast. And she said, what do you mean? I’ve never done anything very wrong. And much religion is like that. There is the religious ritual. But no one’s confessing sin. There is no one who sees themselves as vile sinners in the eyes of God. They think they will be acceptable in God’s sight as they are. The outward religious person is the last to admit there’s anything dreadfully wrong with them. All you have to do is look at the Pharisees in the New Testament. Look at the Pharisee that goes to the temple to pray. Does he confess his sin? Is he like the publican? God, be merciful to me a sinner? No. I thank you, God. I’m not like all these other people around here, especially like this publican over here. Because look what I do. I do all these things. You should accept me because I’m a righteous person. In this situation, religion becomes in a cloak. for their sin. People hide behind it in order to look pious. This was what going on in Amos’ day, and things haven’t changed very much since. Fourthly, Israel was guilty of mixing religion with moral corruption. The worst thing about Israel’s religion was this great gap between their religious fervor and their actual daily lives. Oh, they were busy, bring their sacrifices and so forth. But how were they living their lives? What have we already discovered from this book? They lay down beside the altars on garments taken and pledge. They drink their ill-gotten wine, according to chapter 2 and verse 8. They engage in religious prostitution. They made a great point of being pious, but under the cover of piety, they went about their wickedness. Look with me at chapter 8 of the book of Amos in verses 4 to 7 here. Hear this, O ye, ye that swallow up the needy even to make the poor of the land to fail, saying, when will the new moon be gone? That we may sell corn and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the effus small and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit. Oh, there’s real religious people for you. Cheating people. Verse 6. That we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of shoes, yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat. Put some chaff in with the wheat, add the weight. Sort of like when you buy meat at the store you, they sort of wet it down, you know, and you get your meat. And there’s water as weight. So you can see here, these people are not, these people are not religious people as far as their actual daily lives were concerned. Let’s say godly people. They had all the outward trimmings of religion, but nothing of the godliness that should be associated with it. We read about the father and son, being involved with the same young woman sexually in chapter 2 and verse 7. A violation of Leviticus 18. bribes were paid the judges to pervert justice chapter 2 and verse 6. And thus Amos saw the social injustice, the large-scale corruption, the widespread moral decay, but these people continue to bring their offerings and their tithes and so forth all the time to these religious centers. Sing their worship songs and practice their religion. This is the kind of religion that ungodly people want. The appearance of righteousness, a halo of piety, if you would, and yet be allowed to live like the devil the rest of the week. Now we know that there was similar corruption in the days of our Lord Jesus Christ with regard to the scribes and the Pharisees. The scribes carefully develop all these rules and regulations regarding worship. They were meticulous about the details of, you know, keeping the law with regard to washings and cleansings and Sabbath keeping regulations and even tiny seeds make sure you tithe. Make sure you count all the seeds. Give them. God is 10th and so forth. And yet, these are the very people who wanted to do away with Christ. They were capable of carrying out their murderous designs and their religious duties all at the same time, and they didn’t seemed to think there was anything wrong. They didn’t even imagine anything was possibly wrong. Remember how careful they were not to defile themselves when they turned Jesus over to Pilot? They didn’t want to go into Pilate’s palace because they would defile themselves. Then they wouldn’t be able to eat the Passover. So he had to come out to meet with them, remember? But all the time, they’re betraying Christ. They’re putting an innocent man to death, crucifying him for no reason whatsoever because they could not find any sin. They could not establish any wrongdoing in the Savior. And yet they don’t seem to see any connection between how they were living and their religion. No disconnection here at least. This was a very shallow external religion that these Israelites had. And of course, God’s saw right through it all as he always does. So here is the autopsy of Israel’s religion. If we dissect it, if we look at it carefully, all the different sections of it, this is what stands out. Now, what are the practical implications of this text? Could I tell you tonight, you can come to church and transgress? You can sin, even when you’re going through the acts of worship. in the house of God a rather scary and startling thought. These Israelites were faithful in their observance of their regular forms of religious worship and all the while they are still transgressing. Your worship can be offensive to God in several ways, and we’ve pointed some of those out. You can have this outward form of godliness and yet religion doesn’t really affect your daily life. Look with me at Isaiah chapter 1 verses 11 of 17 because here’s what God tells the Israelites. And I find it rather startling some of the things he says here in this section of scripture. Isaiah 1, verses 11 to 17. What purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me, saith the Lord? I am full of burn offerings of rams and the fat of fed beast, and I delight not in the blood of bullocks or of land. ams of he goats. You’re bringing all these sacrifices to me. I don’t find any the light in them. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts? What do you doing, trampling into my courts? Bring no more vain oblations. Incenses and abomination to be. The new moons and the Sabbaths. the calling of assemblies. I cannot away with. It is iniquity. Even the solemn meeting. Oh, you’re gathering, but it’s sinful what you’re doing. I’m not pleased with it. Your new moons and your appointed feast, my soul, hateeth. They are trouble unto me. I am weary to bear them. And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine. from you. Yay, when you make your prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. Wash you. Make you clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do well. Seek judgment. Relieve the oppressed. Judge the fatherless. Plead for the widow. This is what the Lord says. You’re coming, you’re worshipping. I’m not at all. Please look at your life. Every act of worship, whether it be prayer, whether it be praise, whether it be offering, whether it be hearing of the Word of God, can weary God because of the mixed life that you have. Oh, you’re outwardly religious, but you’re wickedly sinful each day that you live. God says in verse 16 of Isaiah 1, put away the evil doings from before mine eyes. Cease to do evil. You want to come before me? Break off. your sins because otherwise all your worship is worthless. It’s sinful in mine eyes. God, as we said before, hates religion that’s used as a cloak for doing evil, for sinful activities. Paul talks about this in the New Testament. Not to use our freedom as a cloak for a sin. It’s important for you to come to church with clean hands with a heart that has confessed your sin that you want to be acceptable in God’s sight. Obedience to God’s word is always better than sacrifice. Remember what Samuel told Saul? To obey the Lord is better than bringing all these sacrifices you’re talking about. You should have listened to what God said and slaughtered all these animals. Booking and speaking pious on Sunday, when Monday through Saturday, you’re being disobedient angers God. Learn to do well. There are seven days in a week. Let’s looking at all seven days. Not just Sundays and what happens on the Lord’s Day. Come to church and transgress. Let us confess our wickedness. Let us seek forgiveness from the Lord Jesus. Let’s not play church. Let’s be serious about worship. Your worship can also be offensive to God if you attempt to change the precepts of God when it comes to worship. There is what the Bible talks about is biblically ordained worship. We should only do in worship what God says to do in His Word. We’re not to add to it. We’re not to take away from it. This is called the Regulative Principle, that God regulates how we are to worship him. Gilgal and Bethel were sites where Israel’s golden calf worship took place. God specifically commanded not to use idols when it came to worship. Even if you would say, well, these idols are portraying Jehovah. It doesn’t matter. God says not to use them. And so here they are paying reverence to these idols. God said no leaven in your burnt offerings, and yet they used leaven. The Bible is cast aside. Whatever ideas they wanted, they injected into their worship and made it part of their regular worship. There’s always a danger of attempting to worship God according to your own ways and your own ideas. Who cares what God says, I’m going to do it this way, and you ought to be happy with it? That seems to be the attitude of people when it comes to worship. The new theology denies Bible truths, and this is coming from the pulpit today, how can such worship be pleasing to God? How can a religious assembly deny Christ’s blood atonement? the literal resurrection or salvation by grace, and claim to be truly worshipping God. They are not. It’s absolute mockery. They’ve set up their own golden calves. How can religious assembly promote puppet ministries, Christian magicians, karate for Christ, so-called healings and that gibberish called tongues, in the place of the exposition of the word of God, and please God. God. I’ve told you this before. My family once went to Raina’s family reunion down south at a remote campsite and all these people there. And when it came to Sunday worship, they decided that they were going to have a puppet play and they weren’t even going to read the Word of God. They weren’t going to have any like a regular worship service. I said, well, if you’re not going to have a regular worship, when I don’t have a regular worship, I’m not even, I’m not coming. My family and I are not going to. to be here. I strongly disagreed. Finally, after much reluctance, by the way, they said, okay, you can bring a brief message. We’ll give you 15 minutes. Now, today, I would have said, we’ll save your 15 minutes. We’re going to go. But at the time, being younger, at the time, I said, okay, and I crammed as much as I could in those 15 minutes that I could give them from the word of God. I figured I only got 15 minutes and they’re going to hear it. Not long ago, there was a church around this area which was going to have a mock arms control negotiation in place of the regular worship service. Where the young people of the church were going to represent the world powers and have a summit meeting there. On to the guise of worship. Come to church where this is what we’re going to do. My friends, we can’t be substituting all these things in the place of the worship. they caught as commanded, you’re going to church and transgressing. So you can come to church and transgress. Don’t think you can’t. You can. Secondly, secret giving is the best way to please God. Israel was guilty of polishing and proclaiming their gifts and, you know, the boast about it. Look how much I’m giving. Christ has warned you take him. key that you do not your righteous acts before men to be seen of them. Do it in secret, he says. You know, keep your right hand from knowing what your left hand is doing. Don’t publish it. No blowing of the trumpets before you give out, you know, money into the poor and so forth. Don’t make a big, you know, big to do about this, to draw attention to yourself, to gloat within yourself. What a good person I am, how much I gave. And I want everybody to know. how much I gave. Christ says you take precautions to keep it secrets. You find churches today that don’t take Christ’s words seriously. They will publish the actual amount that the members give to the church. There are churches which often display your name if you give so much money. Maybe even have a little plaque on the wall. Maybe they just put it in the church bulletin board, on the church bulletin board. But this is nothing but self-glorification. The problem today is that the churches are using worldly means of gaining financial help or support. The public acknowledgement of gifts is the way in which the money keeps flowing, see. Because people want to have their name up there in lights too. They want their name highlighted. Look how much they gave. I’m up there with the elite list. The believer is to give in secret by faith and trust that God will reward him later. Don’t tell anybody. Just give. Faithless approach to giving wants everybody to know so you get your reward now. Christ says, secret giving. Don’t make a big splash about it. Secret giving is the best way to please God. Lastly, religion which ignores the Church of Jesus Christ is wrong. Now these people up in the Northern King, to decide they would just cut out the temple worship where God had placed his his temple, his place of worship where he was going to dwell in a special way with the people. We’ll just, we’ll just open up our own centers. We’ll do what we want up here in the north. This assumes new forms today, but the same idea is found today, where the church becomes really secondary to some religious organization that has been developed that bypasses the church and becomes sort of a parent church situation. And we’re told, oh, on Judgment Day, we’re not going to be asked what church we belong to, but whether we love Jesus Christ. I don’t know what we’re going to be asked on the day of judgment, and neither to you. But I can tell you this much. The scripture says not to forsake the assembly. of yourselves together with the people of God. And that’s obedience. And I know obedience is going to be required of us as we stand before God. He’s going to ask whether you’ve been obedient to his work. We’re going to be judged according to our works. Thankfully, we as the people of God have forgiveness and our names are in the book of life and so forth. The King of Kings is not unmoved by the mutiny that takes place that bypasses the church which he has built. Any group or individual that ignores the church and building any type of religious organization is really moving in the wrong direction and away from the biblical design. All actions, all religious organizations ought to be under some guise of a local assembly, under the eldership, under the eldership, so that someone is oversell seeing them with regard to their doctrine and practice. They have to be answered with somebody. You can’t just direct your golden calf somewhere and start worshiping God and think this is okay. When God has said, this is the place where I want you to worship, there at Jerusalem, at my temple. We do it today, too, with these so-called improved organizations that bypass the church. Well, let us close with the word of prayer tonight.