Well, good evening. I just want to read the first three verses of that again, but this time in the NIV.
It's a very, as we saw, it's a great picture, Amos chapter 8.
And these two translations, the ESV and the NIV, get different bits more helpfully than others.
So let me just read the first three verses and then I'll pray and then we'll have a look at it together.
This is what the sovereign Lord showed me, a basket of ripe fruit.
What do you see, Amos? He asked, a basket of ripe fruit.
I answered, then the Lord said to me, the time is ripe for my people Israel.
I will spare them no longer.
And that day, declares the sovereign Lord, the songs in the temple will turn to wailing.
Many, many bodies flung everywhere.
Silence.
Father God, we come here tonight, the end of a busy weekend, at the end of a busy day.
Father, with Monday crouching at the door, so many things that we could think about in this time.
But Lord, we pray you would send your spirit, that our minds would focus on what you're saying, that our ears would be open to your voice.
That our hearts would be soft.
Father, that we would benefit from this time.
And that we would see the real treasure trove of your word.
And that we might hear you.
And leave here loving Jesus more.
Father, help us.
We pray it in Jesus' name.
Amen.
So we're in Amos chapter 8.
It's our penultimate sermon in Amos.
Some of you will be mortified by that.
Some of you will be absolutely delighted.
For me, it's been a real joy.
I think we've started to see an area of the Bible that we seldom go into.
And my hope is that Amos will be a friend.
A friend who tells us hard truths about what life is like and what we need to be.
That he may go back on the shelf for a while.
But we'll have learned lots about him and understood his message perhaps a little bit more.
So next time he comes up in our personal devotions or in years to come where he's a sermon series,
we might be reacquainted with him and learn to love him more.
And it's been a very difficult book, if we're honest.
It's not been happy stuff.
It's been predominantly dark.
But don't worry.
Because Neil's going to make it all better next week.
So tonight the big message is when the room runs out,
when the room for repentance runs out.
And Amos has been dark.
It's been very, very dark.
It just seems like week after week on a dark winter's evening,
we've been trawling through judgment after judgment after judgment.
And there's been very little good news.
That really Israel is in God's crosshairs.
And it's been pretty mortifying to those that heard Amos the first time.
And pretty mortifying to us as we've gone through it again and again and again.
It's very easy, isn't it, as we've read it, to think,
well, Israel, why don't you just wake up?
Why don't you change your ways?
We can spend so long looking at them and what they've done wrong
and completely miss what God's been saying to us through this book.
Got to be very careful of deflection, of looking down on them
and missing what's going on in our own lives as far as this is going.
It's very easy, isn't it, to see the speck in Israel's eye
and totally miss the plank that is totally obscuring our vision
of what's really going on.
And it's been quite repetitive.
I'm sure we've got that.
Amos has been hitting the same things over and over again.
One day I'll remember my water.
It's been hitting exactly the same things,
that there's almost been a tediousness about it.
But just think how Amos feels.
He's been bringing the same stuff to the same people
day in, day out, week in, week out.
We come to chapter 8 and nothing's really changed.
He's preached a load of times to a load of people
and nothing's really altered.
Amos, as I'm sure we know, is from the south.
He's from Judah.
He comes from Tekoa.
That's just down near Bethlehem.
He's a mixed farmer who keeps both sheep.
We learn in chapter 1, verse 1.
And last week we learned that he also does sycamore fig trees.
He grows and looks after them.
And he comes to Israel during a time of great affluence.
Things are going great.
It's boom time in Israel.
Victories won.
Territory gained.
Bollinger flowing.
Caviar heaped high on the Bellinis.
This is a really good time in Israel.
And Amos is sent by God.
And he comes and he bursts their bubble.
Though prosperous on the outside, he says,
they are rotten on the inside.
The upper class are swinging from the chandeliers,
but the lower class are dying in the gutter.
It's a picture of exploitation.
It's a picture of utter chaos.
And the fabric of society is completely disintegrating around them.
And Amos comes speaking the roars of God in judgment
to his fickle and faithless people.
And we saw in week one, and we tried to repeat it,
that there's a combination code to Amos.
Can anyone tell me what the combination code is?
Good, Graham, you can stay another week.
The rest of you, we'll see.
8351.
And it stands for eight oracles of judgment.
That was week one.
Where we had six for the surrounding nations,
one for Judah,
and then Israel has been the target from then on.
The six nations are done for war crimes.
Judah is done for having the law,
but disobeying it.
And Israel is done for two major sins,
social injustice and hypocritical worship.
We then had three sermons of rebuke.
That was Mike Fernandez giving us Amos 3,
where it was very bleak,
but there was the hope of a remnant,
like the hind legs of a deer being rescued from a lion.
Then we had Ian take us through Amos chapter 4,
and again there was a little sprinkling of hope in there.
And then in chapter 5,
Amos is almost conducting Israel's funeral,
as they look to the future of this unrepentant people.
Then Graham helped us and did the second of the woes,
which comes at the end of those sermons of rebuke,
and then we have five visions of judgment.
That was John Shearer last week.
He gave us the first three.
And so today we come to the fourth vision of judgment.
The fourth vision of judgment,
and it's going to take up the whole of chapter 8.
And then Neil next week will give us
the last of the visions of judgment,
and then what we've all been waiting for,
ever since the introduction of Sermon 1 in chapter 1,
this wonderful oracle of salvation,
which is this beautiful building in the midst of a very dark
and dangerous town called Amos.
And so, we're ready to begin.
I love a legal drama.
I'm a big fan.
I love The Good Wife.
I'm a fan of suits.
I really like law and order.
I love all things to do with legal things.
I think if pastoral ministry doesn't work out,
I try and be some kind of legal secretary or something.
I love the films,
A Few Good Men,
and The Firm with a very young Tom Cruise.
And I enjoyed Aaron Brockovich,
and The Pelican Brief.
I even enjoyed Legally Blonde 1 and 2.
I love novels with a legal theme.
I'm a massive fan of To Kill a Mockingbird.
Although I haven't got round to reading the second one yet.
Has anyone read it?
Set a Watchman, the sequel?
Has anyone read it?
No?
Perhaps we could all read it together.
I like The Count of Monte Cristo.
I even quite enjoyed A Tale of Two Cities.
I did a university dissertation on crime and punishment by Dostoevsky.
My favourite Shakespeare is The Merchant of Venice,
which is very legal.
I like legal things.
And what I like about them is the whole genre is about parry and riposte.
Prosecution versus defence.
That kind of backward and forward arm wrestle,
as they try to outmaneuver each other,
as they try to get one up.
And in the midst of this,
there's plea bargaining and suing and counter-suing
and class actions and settlements
and pre-trial hearings.
I bet it's not really like that.
That's just how I imagine it.
But it's all against the clock.
Because when the time runs out,
you get these immortal words,
we're going to trial.
We're going to trial.
The time's run out.
It's time that we're going to meet in a courtroom
and we're going to put this right once and for all.
Chapter 8 of Amos is kind of like that moment.
That moment's been reached.
That God looks at his people and says,
we're going to trial.
I've given you seven chapters of repeated warnings
in order to try and shock you into repentance.
But you've not listened.
So the date is set.
The subpoena is issued.
The summons is in the post.
And so chapter 8 marks the turning point in Amos.
Chapters 1 to 7 have seen a succession of charges,
accusations and evidence presented
to try and get Israel to change their ways.
But in chapter 8, God says the clock's run out.
This is going on.
It's time to get our wigs on.
It's time to get a jury.
It's trying to get that little hammer thing.
This is court in session.
Israel will be defending themselves.
But their case is shot through from the start.
And so Israel's trial arrives with certainty.
God summons Israel to appear in his court.
And he does it in the most bizarre way
with the most bizarre vision.
God shows Amos a basket of ripe fruit
or literally a basket of summer fruits.
And you might think that's a good thing.
Oh, it must be so refreshing.
Oh, it must be time for Wimbledon
if we're getting the summer fruits out.
That's not what's going on here.
But,
this is a very clear and present warning to Israel.
The agricultural calendar of Israel
runs September to August.
And it's full.
It's not like here where we have some times called winter
where the ground's too hard to plant anything.
They have a very rigorous agricultural cycle.
It starts in September and November
where you harvest olive oil and olives.
In November and December,
you sow wheat and barley.
In January and March,
you're planting and harvesting chickpeas,
melons and cucumbers.
In April,
you pull the flax to make rope and other things.
In April,
you harvest the barley that you planted.
In June,
you harvest the wheat you planted.
In June and July,
you prune back your vines
because it's grape time.
And in August,
at the end of the year,
you have summer fruits.
Figs and pomegranates and berries.
And so when God says,
what do you see?
And Amos says,
I see a basket of summer fruit.
No one's in any doubt what that means.
It means the season's over.
It means the period's finished.
He had all this time to repent
and now it's over.
We've come to the end of the cycle.
We've come to the end of the line.
The space for grace,
the room for repentance,
the terminus of time has arrived.
There's also,
and again,
I take the commentators for this.
There's also a wordplay going on.
The word for summer fruits
is the word quiet
and the word for end is quick.
But I think in the northern
territory of Israel,
they shorten vowels
so it kind of sounds like quick and quick.
So the fact that they see
a basket of summer fruits,
a basket of the end
is really what's going on.
I think the NIV gets the closest with,
I saw a basket of ripe fruit
and Israel is ripe for repentance.
That seems to me to be quite alarming to a people.
What do you see about our judgment?
Well, it's like the end,
a big basket of the end coming.
I guess it's a bit like James 5.5.
You have fattened yourself
for the day of slaughter.
You are ripe.
You're full of iniquity
and it's time to be judged.
You're at the zenith of your rebellion.
You've been caught red-handed
and you must be judged.
And so this is not a nice vision.
This is a vision of the room
for repentance running out.
And so at the end of verse 2,
God says,
I will not pass by them.
I will spare them no longer.
I will never again pass by them.
And this would send shockwaves
if you were an Israelite
because you're looking back to a time.
You're looking back to a time of Passover
where God definitively did pass by.
That on the eve of the Exodus,
God was coming to Egypt to judge Egypt.
And the only safe place to be
would to be found in the shelter
and security that God offered
sheltering under the blood
of a firstborn lamb.
And so when God judged,
his people were safe,
but now his people are told,
I won't pass by.
There's no means of escape.
The space for grace,
the room for repentance
has run out.
There's no shelter,
no refuge,
no sanctuary.
God is coming.
And he's coming to judge.
Terrifying vision.
The future is not bright.
It is very bleak
and it's not orange.
It is crimson red.
And these summer fruits
would be particularly associated
with Sokot,
the feast of tabernacles.
The time at the end
of that agricultural calendar
where everyone would gather
in the temple,
bring their produce
and celebrate for seven days
God's goodness to them.
They would joyfully remember
the fact that they'd had a harvest
and that they would pray
and rejoice expectantly
at God's faithfulness
that next year
there would be another harvest.
So here in verse three,
when they're gathered
in the temple,
normally to sing
these songs of joy,
see what it says,
the songs in the temple
will turn to wailing.
Harvest festival
will no longer be
a joyous occasion.
And what is expected
to be joy in the future
is actually deafening silence
because
there is no future
for Israel.
The celebration of life
and fruitfulness
and abundance
turns to a terrifying picture
of death and destruction
and decimation.
Many, many bodies
flung everywhere
and
silence.
An ominous warning,
the clock
is ticking.
God is saying,
I've given you
countless opportunities
and yet you've carried on.
You've been like
that stiff-necked people
this morning.
You would not change.
I was pulling on the reins
and yet your trajectory
was set.
God has spoken
to his people
of judgment
for seven chapters
through Amos,
trying to shock them
into a response
of seeking mercy,
repenting of sin
and pleading for forgiveness.
They haven't moved
a muscle.
Did the sun
that melts the wax
has hardened their hearts?
Their hearts are hard.
And I wonder,
friends,
we must be very careful.
We must be very careful
about continuing
to ignore God's challenge
and warning in our lives.
Seven chapters,
God has been on
at these people
about this.
This is wrong
in your life.
The way you treat
the poor is wrong.
The way you come
to the temple
is wrong.
He's been putting
his finger
where they're going wrong
and they've carried
on regardless.
And rather than
just look at Israel
and go,
goodness,
what a slow bunch
of people.
What about us?
That in our own lives
we read God's word,
we hear God's word,
we walk with God,
but he puts
his finger
on areas of our lives
that are not right.
God's word,
and this is a stark
warning that you
continue to ignore
him at your peril.
While he's still
speaking to you
about it,
there's hope,
but the room
for repentance
is not infinite.
Is it a behavior
we're entrenched
in,
an attitude
we're clinging to,
a past hurt
that you can't let go,
a sin you're feeding
and not fighting?
God has been
on their case
for ages.
He has been
so gracious
in flagging
their sin
up to them.
And yet they've
gone,
carried on.
They've ignored him.
They thought
they were getting
away with it.
They thought
just because judgment
was delayed
it would never come
and God says
in chapter 8,
no,
it's coming.
The room
for repentance
is ended
in your life
as you continue
to ignore
what God is saying
as I continue
to ignore
what God is
challenging me on.
We're doing
serious damage
to our relationship
with Jesus,
our effectiveness
in God's kingdom
and we may
even be storing
up trouble.
We read
repeatedly
in 1 John,
didn't we,
that anyone
who continues
to sin
neither loves
God nor
has seen
him.
And I wonder
how true
that is
in our lives.
Will a day
come where
God stops
challenging us
to us
and he
gives us
over to us?
He does it
in Romans 1
and I pray
that he would
never do it
in our lives
so our
conscience is
seared
and we no
longer bother.
the gospel
knows nothing
of cheap grace.
It doesn't.
Jesus didn't
die for us
so we could
continue regardless
and have him
like an insurance
policy that we
can slap on the
desk at the end
and say,
well,
that the great
love God has
shown us
must invoke
a response.
Faith in the
past,
what Jesus
has done,
gives us
infinite hope
for the future
which must
encourage us
to pursue
holiness in the
present.
Or else we're
just playing
at it.
And so
Israel's trial
has arrived.
Israel's trial
is here
but it's
not going to
go well
because the
trial itself
is a
formality.
This would
be the worst
courtroom drama
anyone's ever
conceived.
From the
opening credits
everyone knows
how it's going
to go.
No one in
the jury
is sitting
on the edge
of their
seat waiting
for the
next bit
of evidence
no one
in the
public
gallery
is even
dreaming
of
acquittal.
And so
in verses
4 to 6
we get
the charges
read out,
the indictments
read out.
These are
not new
crimes.
These have
been the
very things
that God
has been
on that
case about
since chapter
2.
God even
uses the
same
imagery,
these twin
sisters of
social injustice
and hypocritical
worship.
Look what's
mentioned.
Verse 4
trampling
on the
needy.
People going
to the
cash machine
to get
their
hundreds
out and
not even
going around
the beggar
on their
way to do it
but just
walking over
the top
of it.
Keeping
to oppress
them.
Keeping
them down
in the
gutter.
Doing
away with
the poor.
It's not
bothering.
Leaving
them to
their own
devices.
No
charity.
No
social
justice.
And
them
exterminating
themselves
because
they
can't
survive.
The
dishonest
trading is
unbelievable.
Look
halfway down
verse 5
there.
Skimping
on the
measure,
boosting
the price,
cheating
with dishonest
scales and
mixing in
the sweepings,
the chaff of
the wheat.
That is
quadruple
extortion,
right?
That is
not giving
people what
they pay
for,
asking them
to pay
too much,
measuring it
on scales
that are
stacked in
the vendor's
favour,
and what
they're paying
for isn't
even the
real deal
anyway.
It's just
the sweepings
off the
factory floor.
Quadruple
exploitation.
Quadruple
extortion.
And not
just trading
commodities,
but trading
people.
Buying the
poor with
silver,
taking
advantage of
people's
destitution,
buying them
as slaves
to ease
the comfort
of your
own lives,
but doing
nothing for
them.
Even
using a
pair of
sandals.
What a
way to look
on the
poor,
to think,
oh,
buy these
with my
spare pair
of Birkenstocks,
come,
come and
be my
slaves.
social
injustice
woven into
the very
fabric of
Israelite
society.
This makes
the subprime
mortgage look
almost ethical.
Yet now
the God
whose heart
beats
specially for
the widow,
orphan,
and stranger,
that God
who defines
what pure
and faultless
religion is,
is going to
roll up
its sleeves
and weigh
into this
iniquitous
inequality.
See,
also there's
hypocritical
worship at
the beginning
of verse
five.
When will
the new
moon be
over that
we may
sell grain
and the
Sabbath be
ended that
we may
market wheat?
People
sitting in
church,
not listening,
not taking
part,
but thinking,
when can I
start earning
money again?
This whole
religion thing
has become an
incredible
inconvenience.
It's halting
my commerce.
stopping me
getting my
produce to
market.
Utterly
distracted,
utterly
duplicitous.
Yes,
we're there
in body,
but our
mind is
thinking of
the marketplace.
It's a
real grave
warning,
isn't it,
to sitting
in church,
but just
totally
consumed
with Monday
morning.
Totally
consumed
with this
and that,
being here
to feed
our spirits,
but thinking
it all about
shopping and
selling.
That's what
these people
are doing.
I'm sure
that there's
many husbands
in here
who will
have that
occasion where
your wife is
speaking and
you've zoned
out.
Quite often
she's telling
you really
important stuff
and you've
totally missed
it.
I wonder
how many
times we've
been in
church and
God has
been speaking
to us and
we've totally
missed it
because we're
thinking about
the Grand
Prix or
that meeting
or that
legal drama
we were
watching.
I'm sure
that's what's
going on
here.
The church
attendance has
become a
chore.
Doing the
religious thing
has become a
real inconvenience
and really
dented profits.
God brings
charges and
Israel is not
looking good.
There's no
excuse,
no mitigating
circumstances,
no legal loophole,
no technicality.
The charges
are read out
and the
defense attorney
stays seated.
No questions,
your honor,
they say.
And this is
what we've
seen.
These twin
themes of
social injustice
and hypocritical
worship are
one thing.
Jesus says
the most
important thing
is to love
God with
all your
heart,
soul,
mind and
strength
and to
love your
neighbor as
yourself.
You fail
to do this
one and you
start not
doing that
one.
The two
are connected.
this is the
most one-sided
court hearing
in history
proceeding at
a pace as
God prepares
to give his
verdict and
here it
comes.
Verse 7,
the Lord has
sworn by the
pride of
Jacob.
In Amos,
God has
sworn two
oaths already.
In chapter
4, he
swore by his
holiness.
In chapter
6, he
swore by
himself.
And in
chapter 8,
he swears
by the
pride of
Jacob.
And that's
very interesting
because what
is God
swearing by?
He's swearing
by that
which is
immutable,
that that
does not
change.
He says
God's
holiness,
it will
not change,
so my
oath is
pure.
Because
swearing by
my holiness,
my holiness
won't change,
so therefore
my vow
won't change.
In chapter
6, the
Lord does
not change,
so when he
swears by
himself.
It's that
same
immutability
that his
vow will
not be
broken,
but see
what he's
done here.
I swear
by the
pride of
Jacob,
they've
got to
the point
where their
pride will
not be
quelled,
where they
cannot be
humbled.
He's
using a
destructive
trade in
their lives
and saying
you're so
stiff-necked
you won't
change,
therefore
it's
worthy of
an oath.
I swear
by the
very thing
I'm judging
you for
because I
know you
will not
change.
the sun
has hardened
the clay,
their arteries
have become
so clogged
and calloused
with themselves
that they
have no
time for
God.
And the
judgment is
seismic.
I will
not forget
says God.
Chapter 2
verse 7
he says
I will
not
relent.
The
God
disposed
to
casting
sin
into the
sea of
forgetfulness
that is
his nature
is so
provoked
by his
people
that he
says I'm
going to
write
these
sins
indelibly
on my
eternal
memory.
So
heinous,
so
persistent,
so
habitual,
has this
sin
become?
Will not
the land
tremble
for this
and all
who live
in it
mourn?
that's a
very ominous
verse
considering
where we
started in
chapter 1
verse 1
two years
before the
earthquake.
And here
he's talking
about the
earth
trembling
as he
judges his
people.
And the
Nile is
symbolized,
the hydrological
cycle of the
Nile where it
floods.
and then
the flood
waters
dissipate
but leave
nothing.
Even
mentioning
the
Nile is
haunting
geography
for God's
people because
the Nile is
synonymous for
Egypt and
Egypt is
synonymous
with slavery
and bad
times.
It's kind of
like talking
about
Bannockburn
for English
people or
talking about
Glencoe if
you're from
the McDonald's
clan.
worse God
says I'm
going to
judge you.
I'm going to
judge you but
this time not
sending you to
Egypt.
And then
rescuing you
after 400
years like we
were looking at
this morning.
I'm going to
judge you and
it's going to
be Assyria.
And return is
not going to
be on the
cards.
Worse than
that it'll
be like
de-creation.
Halfway through
verse 9 the
God who said
let there be
light now
says I'm
going to
bring darkness.
I'm going to
undo all that
I did at the
beginning.
It's going to
be a complete
reversal.
Day to
night feasting
to mourning
singing to
weeping plush
garments to
sackcloth shaved
heads.
I will make
you mourn as
for a first
born.
only son.
It will be
bitterness
everywhere.
This is a
verdict of
pure catastrophe
and absolute
horror.
It's a vision
of national
torment and
universal loss
that God
rains down on
a stubborn
heart-hearted
entrenched
people that
have dulled
their ears to
his voice and
seared their
hearts to their
own sin.
And see God
is intimately
involved in
verse 9.
Who is the
protagonist of
this judgment?
Well it's God.
I will.
God is there.
He is so
enraged by
their sin that
he says I'm
coming and I'm
coming to judge
and I'm going
to be at the
forefront.
That as Hebrew
says it is a
terrible thing to
fall into the
hands of the
living God.
Well Israel are
going to learn
just how terrible
it is.
in chapter 4
God has said
prepare to
meet your
God.
In chapter 5
he talks about
it all going
bad because
God is going
to pass through
their midst.
And in chapter
8 he's here
and it's national
and it's total
and it's final.
That's not even
the worst bit.
The worst bit
comes as he lays
out the punishment.
Verse 11
God will send
a famine.
Not a physical
famine.
We're not going
to be phoning
Bono and Bob
Geldof and
trying to get
Band-Aid back
together.
It's going to be
a spiritual famine
a famine of
God's word.
God declares
that I will send
a famine through
the land not a
famine of food
or a thirst for
water but a
famine of hearing
God's word.
God has
declared it but
Israel has
incited it because
in chapter 2
they've told the
prophets to shut
up the people
that were bringing
God's word.
The Nazarites who
were to be a
pillar of God's
word are the
ones that are
told to drink up
your wine and
don't worry too
much about your
vows.
And now God
has given them
what they wanted.
A famine of
hearing God's
word.
God is going
to stop
roaring.
He's going to
stop speaking.
God's word is
going to disappear
from the land.
God will
withhold his
life-giving,
life-changing,
life-granting
word from his
people because
they've had so
much of it and
they've done
nothing.
And the picture
is horrendous of
people staggering
from sea to sea,
wandering from
north to east,
searching for the
word of the
Lord, but they
will not find
it.
it's like
the walker,
the hiker,
being lost in
the highlands,
but the mobile
phone signals
out, the map
has blown
away, the
tent is ripped,
the sleeping
bag's wet,
the fog has
descended,
and the
blizzards come
in.
That God
says you are
lost, but I'm
going to withhold
from you my
word, which is
the only thing
that will bring
you back.
God says
thirst.
The results
are devastating.
First 13, the
lovely women and
the strong young
men will faint
because of
thirst.
If you go into
a pub in
Edinburgh, there's
two groups of
people that will
be well hydrated.
There'll be
strong young men
who have the
money and the
lovely young
women who will
be the recipients
of many drinks.
thirst.
And here, they're
thirsty.
So, total is
this judgment.
The lions now
stopped roaring.
The lion, he
was roaring in
chapter 1, verse
1, is now
prowling in the
shadows.
It is a
catastrophic
judgment.
Idolatry exposed.
What's going on
in verse 14 is
the sin of
Samaria.
I think it's a
reference to the
worship of the
God.
God as
Asherah, this
fertility God.
And I think it's
come round about
that they've been
worshipping this
fertility God in
secret who
legitimates all
their high living
and luxurious
life.
And this God
who was supposed
to bring fertility
has only actually
ripened them for
judgment.
No more
harvest.
They will fall
never to rise
again.
total.
My people are
like a basket of
ripe fruit.
They're ripe for
judgment.
Their sin has
remained unrepented
of.
It's going to be
catastrophic earthquake
and everything's
going to be
different.
And they'll fall
and never get up.
What a thoroughly
depressing evening,
right?
A lot of you are
thinking I should have
just stayed.
antiques,
roadshow and
songs of praise
would have done
me tonight
rather than
come and
listen to this.
It's heavy.
However,
before we give
up,
I think there
is hope.
Hope,
not from this
passage.
This passage is
devoid of hope,
but as those
that know the
end of the
story,
I think we
can read
hope into
it.
That way in
the shower on
Monday morning,
we might not
just be tempted
to just stay
there.
We stand
here this
evening as
those not
just given
the written
word of
God,
but those
given the
living word
of God.
That we're
not here
suffering a
famine of
God's word,
we have an
abundance,
a full
disclosure of
God's word
in the Lord
Jesus.
We are not
famished,
we are privy
to God's
word in all
its fullness.
But I think
it's even
better,
because as I've
read this this
week,
I realize I'm
not actually
that different
to Israel,
I want to
condemn them,
but they're
kind of as
sinful and as
rebellious and
hard-hearted as
me.
But this is
the truth,
that God
sent his
son,
the living
word,
to take all
of this
judgment on
himself that
I might have
life,
that I might
never suffer
these consequences.
God himself
was the one
who mourned
as for an
only son.
Jesus was
the one who's
hair was
ripped out
as he went
to the cross
that I
deserved,
because I
too have
hypocritically
worshipped God
and continued
in my sin
and repented.
He was a
young man
who cried
out in
thirst from
the cross.
He was the
one for whom
the son really
did go down
at noon
as he died
for my sin
on that
terrible
and awful
hell.
He was
the one
who shed
his blood
so that God
would not
say,
I will no
longer pass
by,
but he was
the one who
said,
if you
shelter under
my blood,
I will pass
by.
And you
can be one
whom
condemnation is
not a part of
your life
because you
are in
Christ Jesus.
And so
while this is
bad news for
Israel,
I think,
I hope,
it only paints
a bleak
dark black
ground so
that the
jewel,
the precious
cornerstone
of Jesus
Christ might
shine all
the more.
Because we
deserve this
and we get
that.
We deserve
this judgment
but we get
that life.
And so
three quick
things.
As we sum
up.
Response
time is
finite.
We see
that so
clearly in
this chapter.
They had
seven chapters
to repent.
There was
space for
grace but
now it's
run out.
And yes,
the Assyrians
won't come
for a while
but they're
coming.
They won't
turn back.
And this is
important for
us.
I don't care
how long
we've been
coming to
church.
If we have
not come to
Jesus in
repentance and
faith,
these guys
went to
church all
the time
but it
made no
difference to
them.
The real
difference is
made by
trusting the
Lord Jesus
that he took
our judgment
for us.
But also,
we can so
easily go out
from this
into Monday
morning.
We can so
easily go and
hang out with
friends and
colleagues and
relatives.
ourselves.
But the
clock is
ticking for
them in a
very real
way.
Because Jesus
is coming
back and
their life
is slipping
away.
And their
only hope is
to respond to
this living
word.
Response
time is
finite.
And true
life comes
through God's
word.
That's why
when God
takes his
word away,
famine and
death is the
only option.
that we
know about
the living
word by
reading the
written word.
And so if
we have no
access to
this, we
have no hope
of meeting
Jesus.
And so
true life
comes through
this living
word.
Are we
obsessed with
this book?
Not because
we like
reading words
on a page,
but we like
meeting the
God who
perfectly
reveals himself
in it.
And as I
was telling
the students
yesterday,
it's the
most glorious
virtuous circle.
As we were
reading in
1 Peter 2,
crave the
pure spiritual
milk of
God's word.
How do you
build up a
craving?
How do you
become addicted
to God's
word?
Well,
exposing yourself
to it all
the time.
That as we
learn of God,
we learn how
lovely and
beautiful and
majestic and
glorious he
is.
We see his
plan in
fulfilled and
gloriously
accomplished in
Jesus,
which makes
us love him
more,
which makes
us want to
read more
of him,
which makes
us understand
him better,
which makes
us love
Jesus more,
which makes
us want to
read more
of God's
word.
The reason
we all
struggle so
much with
Bible study
and daily
devotions is
because we
don't do
Bible study
and daily
devotions.
But if we
start,
we'll get a
real taste
for it.
We'll get a
real craving.
We'll become
obsessed with
what God has
done.
And then I
guess connected
to that,
substitutes for
God's word
bring death.
Israel does
a lot of
church,
it does a
lot of
religious
activity.
But it's
not done
them any
good because
God's word
is ignored.
God's truth
is sidelined.
As you look
through church
history,
there's been
many occasions
where God's
word has been
sidelined,
where the
sacraments
have taken
into stage,
where spiritual
gifts,
where the
traditions of
man,
war,
where the
type of
worship music
where social
justice has
taken center
stage.
Let's be
clear, a lot
of that is
really good
stuff.
But if it's
not driven
by God's
word, it's
not doing
us any
good.
And so
the main
thing is that
the main
thing remains
the main
thing.
And this
is the main
thing and
that's going
to drive and
bear all this
fruit and
bring real
significance.
But if this
isn't the
first brick in
the war,
if it's
not God's
word we're
coming to
that is
shaping our
lives and
giving us
life, then
we're in just
as much danger
as Israel
found themselves
in.
So chapter
eight is
dark.
The beginning
of chapter
nine is
dark.
But by the
time we leave
next week,
we'll be
skipping off
into the
day as we
see Jesus
so clearly.
Let me
pray.
Father God,
as we go
out into
this week,
Father,
would you
keep our
feet pointed
towards what
is good?
Father,
would you
keep our
hearts soft?
Would you
keep our
minds fixed
on things
above?
Would you
keep our
ears open
to your
voice that
we might be
responsive to
all that you're
calling us
to?
And
Father,
that our
eyes might
be fixed
with laser
precision on
your son
Jesus.
Father,
we confess
we're just
like Israel,
prone to
the same
selfishness.
Father,
prone to
the same
just going
through the
motions and
trying to
keep up
appearances.
But we're
so thankful
for what we
read in
your written
word of
your living
word,
the Lord
Jesus
coming,
taking the
judgment we
deserve so
that we
might have
life.
And Lord,
even more,
you've given
us your
spirit that we
might be
shaped and
molded.
That we
might be
those that
because of
Jesus uphold
the rights
and the needs
of poor
people and
have every
hope of
worshipping you
in spirit
and in
truth.
So Lord,
bless these
things to
us.
Send us
off into
this week to
be dangerous
and different
for Jesus,
we pray.
In his
holy name.
Amen.