The Justice of God’s Judgement Part 1

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Justice of God’s Judgement Part 1. He will be reading out of Amos 3:1-15.

We forget what God has done for us. And our focus is no longer glorifying God with our lives, but it is about meeting what we want as our needs. We become selfish. And then as a result of that, we begin to go down a path of sinfulness.

Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders with Hopeworth Having Radio broadcast. Thank you for tuning in today. And we want you to join us as we continue our study in the book of Amos. We’re in Amos chapter 3, verses 1 through 15.

We’re learning about the justice of God’s judgment. Many times we see judgment in a negative light. But I want you to see how Amos shows the people of God that God’s judgment is just. And so let’s get our Bibles.

Let’s get a notepad and let’s start learning together in this passage. Well, the Bible says that there is no other name under heaven given among men by where we must be saved. And the name of Christ is a name above every name.

And the Bible tells us one day, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. The question is not will I bow and will I surrender to Christ and will I confess Him as Lord of lords? The question is when?

When will I confess Him? Those who confess Him now, those who confess Him as their Lord and Savior now have eternal life in Jesus Christ. Those who wait at the judgment seat to confess Jesus as Lord, the Bible says that they will be cast out into the eternal lake of fire, separated from God forever and ever, never to ever.

to experience His grace and His mercy and His love and forgiveness in their life. The most urgent need upon every heart is to confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior right now. Never wait to call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, because the Bible tells us that today is the day of salvation.

We just never know what the next moment, not just the next day will bring, but what will the next moment bring? Therefore it is essential that we are prepared and that we are ready and that we know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior.

Certainly God’s people can save men to that, and we can know that when we have received Christ in our hearts. that we can take great inspiration and comfort and support from that great passage of Scripture that we read earlier in Romans chapter 8 in verse 31, which said that if God is for us, who can be against us?

But when we come to our text this morning in Amos chapter 3, Amos the prophet inverts that very truth, helping us to understand just the opposite that if God is against us, who can be for us? Much to consider and much to think about this imposing pronouncement that starts in this section of Amos and calls for God’s people to hear the judgment that the Lord has spoken to them.

You will note in verse 1 of chapter 3, hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you. We can listen, but not always hear. We may not really pay attention to what is being said. Perhaps some in this auditorium this morning are listening, but they’re fiddling.

They’re not really focused on what is being said. It might be their phone that is distracting them. It may be other matters that they have to deal with today that have got them distracted from what God wants to say to them in this moment.

As we evaluate Amos chapter 3 this morning, this section contains the truths and the teaching reminding us of the past. of complacency in our spiritual life. And how easy it is to become arrogant because we think we’re okay with God, and therefore it’s not necessary for us to continually to live a life that is in alliance and allegiance to Jesus Christ.

We are reminded in this section of the gulf that exists between what we profess and who we truly are. For there are many who profess faith. There are many who profess to be something, but the bottom line is that inwardly they are far from God.

Jesus reminded the Pharisees that on the outside, they looked great. On the outside, their lives were reflecting, if you would, a purity. A commitment, but Jesus said on the inside, your heart is far from God.

God is more concerned and focused on our hearts and who we are on the inside than what we project to others. Relationship with God is priority. More important than any rule. It’s more important than any law.

It’s more important than anything that we might consider, any activity, any ceremony, any ritual. What’s most important is a relationship with Jesus Christ. And when we come to our texts, the children of Israel had become complacent and thinking that because they were the children of Israel, that they were automatically okay with God, and Amos reminds them that they’re not.

So he teaches us about the justice of God’s judgment. And there are three aspects of God’s judgment that we must reflect upon this morning, and that is first, the fairness of God’s judgment. Second of all, the inevitability of God’s judgment and the comprehensiveness of God’s judgment.

So let’s look at God’s judgment in relation to its fairness. And that’s what I would submit unto you first, is that God’s judgment is fair. Again, we come back to our text in chapter 3 and verse 1. God, hear this word, that the Lord has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought to you.

brought up from the land of Egypt saying, you only have I know of all the families of the earth. Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. Amos is reminding his hearers that the judgment of God is just.

First one is not simply an introduction to the judgment of God, but it is an important part of the message that he is sending to us. This is a direct message from God. Hear this word that the Lord has spoken.

Over and over Amos keeps reiterating this. Just jump over to chapter four. Hear this word and then we come to chapter five. Hear this word. Amos the prophet has had God reveal to him the message that he is to give to the people.

It was not a message of comfort and encouragement and hang in there, but it was a message to shake them, to call them out of their complacency, to get them out of their comfort zone, to bring them to total surrender to God Almighty.

God’s judgment not only is a warning to those who have no saving faith in Christ, but it is a warning to all of God’s people that in light of our backsliding and in light of our worldliness and in light of our idolatry that we have a responsibility to hear what God has said and to turn our hearts fully to Him.

As Amos is teaching us, he reminds the people of God that this is the whole family, not just parts of it, but the whole family. You remember that the nation of Israel has been divided into two kingdoms.

There’s the northern, the southern kingdoms, and so it’s all inclusive. All of God’s people stand before God and they have a responsibility to respond to the judgment that is upon them. He takes them back and he reminds them of what God has done for them.

Look at verse 1, I brought up from the land of Egypt, meaning this family, these people that God had brought out of the land of Egypt, a land of slavery, a land of where they were not able to live in the freedom of God and worshiping God.

They had experienced as a people such a resurrection in life, and yet they were not living it out in their daily life. Rather than being full of gratefulness and worship to God, they had forgotten from whence they came.

That is at the heart that leads us down a path that is disordering to God. We forget who we are in Christ, and we forget what God has done for us. And our focus is no longer glorifying God with our lives, but it is about meeting what we want as our need.

or what we want to see happen in our life. We become selfish. And then as a result of that, we begin to covet and we begin to go down a path of sinfulness when really God is saying, go back to your roots and go back to your foundation and go back to understanding who you are, your identity in Christ and remembering what great things the Lord has done.

This Exodus that is brought to the attention of the people of God has a rich history for the nation of Israel. The exited event is central in the Old Testament and points to a greater Exodus that is eventually accomplished by Christ on the cross and vindicated by his resurrection.

As we think about how God has pulled us out of the myri clay, set our feet on the solid rock. As we think about what he has done in showing kindness and grace and mercy, calling us out of darkness into light, reaching out to us and bringing us to the point of salvation, illuminating our minds that we might understand the gospel that our hearts may be receptive to his truth and that we might believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

It’s easy for you and I to find fault with the world and to look down on others. But can we be honest this morning that there go I, were it not for the grace of God in my life? Whatever anger you may want to express, towards the injustices of this world or the frustrations that you see, never forget, that’s where you could have been.

Had God not stepped into your life and you responded. But as God is helping the people of Israel to understand all that He has done for them, and yet they have still been apathetic and they have still not made Him number one in their life.

He is helping them to grasp the fairness of His judgment that is to come upon them, for not only did He bring them out of the land of Egypt, but would you note in verse 2, He says, you only have I know of all the families of the earth.

You only have I know. It means more than just a acknowledgement that he was aware of their existence. But it’s the idea of intimacy. It’s a word of relationship and covenant. And it’s a connection that’s deeper than just a surface understanding of each other.

And that’s why when God says to them, you only have I known. He is saying that I have made a covenant with you and I have intimately known you, that I have shown you my favor. I have shown you my loving kindness.

I have shown you my grace. And that’s why the next statement in verse two stands out to us. Therefore, I will punish you for all your iniquities. Remember that when God brings judgment, it’s not that he is bringing it upon us in a fit of anger.

His judgment is always fair. It’s not like the justice of man or the anger of man. You and I are witnessing across our country that an incident might happen. And there may be injustices within those incidents.

And all of a sudden people just react out of anger and they start looting and burning. This is the anger and unrighteousness of man. But the judgment of God is in contrast to that. After hundreds of years of patience and love and grace and showing kindness to the people of God, he finally says to them and sends the message to them, I will punish you for your iniquities.

Now, God is going to reverse. the Exodus. He called them out of slavery. He called them out of darkness. He called them out of exile. And now he is sending them back. He is bringing judgment upon them.

Now, when we see the judgment of God, do not think that somehow he is reversing his covenant. No. He is not reversing his covenant. I want you to take your Bible and go to Psalm 89, if you will, this morning.

Just go there with me, because this is an important passage that you should highlight in your life, because there are times that the judgment of God will come upon a nation or a people or even a person.

And what hope is there in the midst of this judgment that is upon us? Psalm 89, verse 32. helps us to understand the context of God’s judgment upon His people so that we can continue to be comforted.

Verse 32 of chapter 89, then I will punish their transgressions with the rod and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my loving kindness I will not utterly take from Him, nor allow my faithfulness to fail.

My covenant I will not break, nor alter the word that has gone out of my lips. You may be under the judgment of God, and a nation may be under a judgment of God, and a people may be under the judgment of God, but God has not forsaken us in the midst of that judgment.

But just the opposite, His judgment is showing His love and His grace and His kindness to us. When we see the judgment of God, it is no difference than when a parent disciplines their child. The Bible says if you love your children that you will discipline your children.

There are many times that our children get off track, amen? Or sometimes they go in a direction or they behave in a way or their attitude is in a way that is not honoring and respectful to the family.

Every morning when I used to drop my children off, I would say to them, don’t shame the name of Jesus and don’t shame the name of the Sanders family, right? And that’s important that that being instilled in the heart of children, that they understand that they must live up to the name of God, and they must live up to the family name that their grandparents have built and their great grandparents have built.

built and on down the line that there is a heritage that they must live up to. But when that is dishonored, whether it’s the name of God or the name of the family, there must be discipline, right? There must be correction.

But in the midst of that correction, there’s never the denial of the parent to the child of their love, but just the opposite. That when the parent disciplines the child, it is out of a heart of love and grace that they are desiring that the child would come back in full commitment to their values, to their heritage.

God is not reversing His covenant when He judges a nation. or he judges a people, or he judges a person. It is within the judgment that he is revealing the covenant, and he is reminding them that they will emerge from this as a purged people, as a refined people, as a people who are fully devoted followers of Christ.

Hebrews 12, 11 says, now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful. You remember what it was like when your parents disciplined you, and how many times did they say, oh, this hurts me more than it hurts you?

And if you were like me, I was like, I don’t think I believe that, mom. But he says here, nevertheless, afterward it yields peaceable fruit of righteousness. To those who have been trained by it, when you are trained by chastening, and you are trained by discipline, and you are trained by understanding that there are consequences for your actions.

Oh, Pastor Mike, we don’t want to hurt the child. That’s why God gave extra muscles, gluteus maxis muscles. Don’t worry about it. Oh, we hate to take away their devices. Oh, my friends, buy them every device, so that you have leverage on your child forever, amen.

God disciplines us, not because he doesn’t care about you. His judgment is always fair, but he desires peaceable fruit of righteousness in your heart, and he is training you out of his kindness and grace.

Amos reminds God’s people that The Exodus that they experienced is part of God reminding them how far they’ve gone off track. This Exodus lies at the heart of the Old Testament history. We look into the Bible and we remember that Adam and Eve were disciplined because they disobeyed God and they were, if you will, kicked out of paradise.

You remember that Cain wandered in the land of Nod. You remember that Jacob and his sons ended up in Egypt. You remember when we come to the book of Daniel that a nation had so rejected God and that Daniel was a righteous young man who was trying to live for God.

But God allowed Nebuchadnezzar to take over in Daniel chapter one and verse one and two. Over and over again, God uses the Exodus as a center point to remind the people that He is The second thing that I want you to learn this morning is that God’s judgment is inevitable.

In verse three through eight, we are going through a series of questions, rhetorical questions, forcing each and every one of us to answer them to understand what God is saying. Look at verse three, can two walk together unless they are agree?

No. No. No. When Amos uses this, can two walk together, it’s the idea in the Hebrew, can they continue to walk? Can they continue to be in a relationship unless they agree? That’s what we’re experiencing in our nation.

We’re experiencing division because all of a sudden what used to unite us as a nation relating to our commitment to the Constitution, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and on down all the wonderful things about the Constitution that mean so much to us.

Now, all that’s been turned on its head. And there’s a group that doesn’t believe in the Constitution and there’s a group that does believe in the Constitution. Can two walk together unless they agree?

If you’re in partnership with a business with someone, how can you be in partnership with them if you don’t have the same values, if you don’t have the same vision and the same ideals? How can a husband and wife walk together in a relationship if they don’t have the same principles that they embrace?

They may be different in personalities. They may be different in preferences. But they’ve got to have that rock solid foundation of faith to walk together. I remember a young lady came to me one time and she wanted me to officiate her wedding.

And she wasn’t a Christian and she wanted to marry a Christian. And she was very upset with me when I said, that’s not going to work. And I shall be responsible. And I won’t officiate because the Bible says and teaches us that we’re not to be unequally yoke.

And that is not only true spiritually, but that’s true in every aspect of our life. And here’s the point. How can a people claiming that they love God, but yet they live their lives opposite of what God expects?

And how can they walk with God? And how can they live for God? And yet their heart is far from God. That is only gonna lead to the inevitable judgment of God. Will a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey?

Will a young lion cry out of his den if he has caught nothing? Will a bird fall into the snare of the earth where there is no trap for it? Again over and over these questions are causing us to thank and reminding us that as believers, if we choose to go opposite of what God has for us, it’s gonna inevitably lead to his judgment upon us.

We like to talk about the love of God rightly so, but we cannot forget about the holiness and justice of God and God judges sin and he will always judge sin and he would not be a holy God if he just looked over sin.

But remember our sin as believers has been judged on the cross through our Savior Jesus Christ. He took our judgment, but if we refuse to come to Christ, then our judgment will be in a place that is called hell.

And I pray today that if you do not know Christ that you would come to him, that you would receive him as your Lord and Savior, that you would trust him as your Savior and that you would recognize what Christ did for you on the cross and turn from your sin and believe in him.

Now make sure that you check out our Facebook page. Just go to Facebook, type in Hopeworth Having and there you will find our page like it. You’ll get a lot of information. You’ll get daily posts and updated material to help you as you are studying this scripture.

So we pray that this will be a blessing to you and we ask that you continue to remember that in Christ there is hope. worth having.