Alright, it's that passage that
Brother Aaron just read in Amos chapter 6. I want you to look
at it with me. Now, the actual title of my message
is as follows. The awful sin of presumption
and the great grace of assurance. But because I feel sorry for
Brother Ron Trademan having to put all that on a label, The
working title is The Awful Sin of Presumption. We'll just leave
it at that. And the reason I decided to do that is this passage, Amos
chapter 6, is mostly, well, it's really all about the awful sin
of presumption. There's not much said in the
text here about the great grace of assurance. But I want to assure
you that tonight I want to emphasize the positive here. Because I
want you to understand that these things that the Lord brings to
us here are for our good. They're examples for us. They're
warnings to us that we not fall into the awful sin of presumption. That's why I read over here in
Psalm 19 to open the service tonight. And when the psalmist
prayed in Psalm 19 and verse 13, he says, Keep back thy servant
also from presumptuous sins, and let them not have dominion
over me. Then shall I be upright, and
to be upright is to stand before God in Christ by His grace. That's
what it is to be upright. It is to have the motive of obedience
and assurance. but it's by the grace of God. And then he says, and I shall
be innocent. And the King James says, the
great transgression. And you know, whenever you see
language like that, people automatically go to thinking about one sin.
You know, it's like the unpardonable sin. Everybody thinks of one
sin and, you know, preachers use that to scare people half
to death, you know, have I committed? It's not literally, it's much
transgression. And in the sense of what he's
talking about there is what Paul wrote in Romans 5 and verse 20,
where sin abounded, which literally means to overflow me like a flood,
grace did much more abound. And that's the key. So let's
go to Amos chapter 6, the awful sin of presumption. And I really
believe this is so appropriate to open the new year, because
number one, we don't want to be presumptuous before God. And
then number two, we want to have assurance. I want to have assurance,
but I want to have the right kind of assurance. And so let
me start this way. Let me just define presumption.
Now there are people who believe and promote the idea that any
type of assurance is presumption. I've heard that from various
groups and preachers, and therefore they promote doubt. as humility. In other words, if you have really
any assurance at all, that means you're proud and you're not humble.
But that is not scriptural. It is not scriptural. Let me
give you another name for doubt in the scripture, unbelief. That's another name for doubt,
unbelief. Somebody says, well, I'm just
not sure about whether this is true. God says He saves sinners,
and I'm a sinner, but I'm just not sure He'll save me. You know,
that kind of reasoning. Well, what is presumption? Now
presumption, listen to this very carefully. Presumption is any
hope or expectation of salvation or blessing from God or favor
from God that's based upon a ground that dishonors God, a ground
that denies God, any ground that is not consistent with the Word
of God. That's what presumption is. This
is what he means when he says in verse 1 here, "...Woe to them
that are at ease in Zion." They think they're safe. They have
this feeling of safety. and peace and blessedness, but
it's not based upon God's Word. Now, what is assurance? Godly
assurance. Let's put it that way. Godly
assurance is the hope and expectation of salvation, blessedness and
favor with God that is based upon that which, grounded upon
that which honors God, glorifies Him. And of course, we know from
the Word of God that that which honors and glorifies Him in the
salvation of sinners is to be in Christ. To be in Christ is
everything. So, therefore, if my expectation,
if my hope, if my assurance, my confidence, put it that way,
if my confidence is in Christ Jesus, that's godly assurance,
that's honoring to God. You see what I'm saying? That's
what Paul meant when he wrote in Philippians chapter 3 and
verse 3 when he said, we are the circumcision which worship
God in spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus. Now I've told you
that before, that word rejoice there in the original is the
same exact word that he uses that is translated glory in Galatians
6, 14 where he says, God forbid that I should glory save in the
cross of Jesus Christ. So in other words, one of the
evidences of the new birth, the work of the Holy Spirit upon
the heart, is that we rejoice in Christ Jesus, we glory in
Christ, we have confidence in Christ. There's where my assurance
is. that Christ died for my sins,
that Christ's blood is sufficient to forgive me of all my sins,
that His righteousness imputed is sufficient to grant me an
eternal, unchangeable, right standing before God wherein I'm
accepted in the beloved and I glory in the cross. I don't glory in
anything else. I don't have confidence in anything else. To save me,
to keep me saved, to bless me, to gain me reward in heaven,
or to keep me there." Now here, Amos is delivering God's message
to a presumptuous people. They have a hope, they have a
peace, they have a feeling of safety, but it's based upon the
wrong ground. It's based upon grounds that
dishonor God. Let's look at each verse here.
He says, "...woe to them that are ease in Zion and trust in
the mountain of Samaria." Now he's talking both to the northern
kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah." This is one
of the few times that Amos addresses both kingdoms. Here's Zion. That's in Jerusalem. That's where
the temple is. And he says, they're at ease
there. They have a rest there. And then those who trust in the
mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations to
whom the house of Israel came, Here he's showing by exposing
their presumption that their security and their safety and
their confidence is false. It's the false security of unbelievers. It's the carnally secure. It's
the religiously secure. It's these people who believed
they were safe and secure in their kingdoms, in their religion,
who imagined in themselves that they were saved, that they were
blessed of God, and that they pleased God. And these were also
people who enjoyed their carnal pleasures in a way that was sinful
and selfish and self-fulfilling. They were at ease. And I'll tell
you a good parallel scripture to this, and you read this on
your own sometime. It's the book of Luke chapter
12. Verse 16 through 21. Now that's the little story that
the Lord gave his disciples about the rich man who spent his life
accumulating all of this stuff and in his ease. And you remember
he came to himself and he said, well, what am I going to do now?
You know, I've filled up my barns. Oh, I've got an idea. I'll build
bigger barns and I'll get more stuff to fill the bigger barn.
He's at ease. And then it says, Thou fool,
this night thy soul shall be required of thee. So that's a
good parallel story to this right here. This is the way Israel
is in Amos' day. I'll tell you what, it's a good
commentary on our own nation, isn't it? People at ease in their
carnal pleasures, at ease in their religion, in the religion
of works, in the religion of free willism. It's a good commentary
on our day to day. And this is a presumption. This
is a false security. This is, as the Lord said as
He concluded the Sermon on the Mount, this is the house built
on sand. The house may look beautiful,
and it may be well built in the eyes of men, but it's built,
it's founded upon sand, and when the rains come and the winds
descend on it, it'll fall. And great will be the fall thereof.
Because it's built on the sand. It's not built on the rock Christ
Jesus. You see, that's the only rock
that'll stand. That's the only way that we can
stand without falling, to be built upon Christ. You know,
I often, on our television program, I'll often quote my favorite
hymn. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. Do I really believe that all
other ground is sinking sand? Well, I'll tell you what, if
I'm looking to anything or anyone but Christ and Him crucified
and risen again, that means I don't believe all other ground is sinking
sand. You understand what I'm saying? This assurance of salvation,
blessedness, is not presumption. It's not pride if it's a sinner
who's begging for and seeking mercy at the mercy seat. That's
right. You believe God will save you?
He'll save any sinner who comes to him begging for mercy. Christ
said, come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and
I'll give you rest. Are you labored and heavy laden?
Labored down with sin and religion? But now if not, then it's presumption
and unbelief, self-righteousness and pride. And it's clear that
these people here that Amos is preaching to had forsaken the
law, the Word of God. You see, the law of God exposes
our sinfulness and brings us in humility to repentance in
Christ and drives us to Christ for all salvation. Now, you see,
look at this again. Woe to them that are at ease,
where? In Zion and in the mountain of
Samaria. That's bad. That's presumption.
But now let me tell you something. Blessed are all who are at ease
in Christ, who rest in Him. Nothing wrong, and you know,
he talks about them in their carnal pleasures. You know, there's
nothing wrong with enjoying the things of this world in a godly
way, fruits of our labor to the glory and praise of Christ, but
we can't have any assurance or any confidence in them. Look
at verse 2. He says, "...pass you unto Calni."
That was one of the great cities that was in the land of Shinar. And it was a bigger city and
a greater city than Samaria, than Zion, and it fell. He says, look at that, pass you
into that city and see. This is history, you see. That's
what he's doing. He's reminding them of cities that were greater
in stature, in wealth, in military power than what they ever even
thought about. And it's gone now. He says, and
from this go ye to Hamath the Great, a city in Assyria. He
says, then go down to Gath of the Philistines. You remember
Goliath was from Gath. That was one of the capital cities
of the Philistine Empire. Now he says, be they better than
these kingdoms? Are you better than them? Do
you think you deserve God's blessings and God's favor any more than
these cities who suffered destruction under the wrath of God? or their
border greater than your border? Do you think that your borders
are any stronger than their border? Do you think you deserve better?
That's a common scriptural way of exposing our sinfulness, isn't
it? It's a common scriptural way
of showing us that salvation and blessedness from God is neither
something we deserve or earn. Have you ever looked at any group
of people or any one individual and said, well, that person deserves
God's wrath. There are people who do deserve
God's wrath. Here's the key. Do I think I
deserve any better? That's the key. And the answer
is no. So then, what's the answer? What
is the issue here of presumption and assurance? Well, here's the
issue. What I am, if I'm If I'm blessed of God, if I'm forgiven
of all my sins, if I'm justified before a holy God, I'll tell
you exactly how it plays out. By the grace of God, I am what
I am. It's grace. That's it. He didn't look down and he said,
well, well, old Bill, he deserves better than what so-and-so. No,
sir. If God gave me what I deserved or what I earned, it would be
destruction just like these cities. we're no better off. Salvation
is all of grace. Do you imagine that you'll escape
God's judgment because you're an American, or because you work
hard, or because you're baptized, or because you're a member of
such and such church? If that's your assurance, you're
involved in the awful sin of presumption. That's right. My
friend, the only plea we'll have before a holy God is Christ's
blood. Christ's righteousness. Christ
died for me. That's it. That's it. Look at
verse 3. He says, "...ye that put far
away the evil day, and caused the seed of violence to come
near." What he's talking about here, God's giving them a warning.
The judgment of God's coming. This nation's going to be destroyed.
He said that back in chapter 5. Israel's going to be destroyed,
she'll never rise again, he said. Two times. He said she'll never
rise again. Now do you want to be destroyed
with her? And here's what they do. This is what men do today.
It's what men and women do today. They put it out of their minds
and they simply ignore it. Ye that put far away the evil
day. Oh, that's not coming. And if
it does come, it's not coming anytime soon. That's what they
say. and calls the seed of violence
to come near." In other words, what they're doing, what he means
by calls the seed of violence to come near, he means that you're
heaping up judgment against yourself. When you put it out of your mind
and shoot it off sometime in the future and say, well, I don't
have to worry about that now, you see, all you're doing is
just indicting yourself. You're just bringing judgment
upon yourself. And God's not going to ignore
it, you see. He commands all men everywhere to repent because
he's appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness
by that man whom he hath ordained in that he hath given assurance
unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead. So
look at verse 4, he says, those who lie upon beds of ivory and
stretch themselves upon their couches, what a picture this
is. He says, and eat the lambs out
of the flock and the calves out of the midst of the stall He
says that chant to the sound of the vial, that was an instrument,
like a stringed instrument, like a harp. And they invent to themselves
instruments of music like David. And he says that drink wine in
bowls. Now the bowls that he's talking
about there are the huge bowls that they used to pour the sacrificial
blood out upon the altar. And what he's talking about is
religious exercise. He said, and anoint themselves
with the chief ointments, the best perfumes. No cheap stuff
here now. And he says, but they're not
grieved for the affliction. If you look in your concordance,
it probably has the word breach. The affliction or the breach
of Joseph. Joseph being a name for the northern
kingdom. What's he talking about? Here's
the people. They're in the height of their
own personal glory and they enjoy the best that this life has to
offer but they do it in a way that doesn't honor God. They
do it in a way that's self-fulfilling. They do it in a way of pride
and blasphemy, just like when he talks about here they create
instruments and they invent instruments and music like David. What does
he mean by that? Well, he's talking about David
the psalmist, the sweet psalmist of Israel. Now, when David grabbed
an instrument, and wrote a psalm and sung that psalm by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit. What was his goal? His goal was
to honor God. His goal was to worship. His
goal was to point sinners to Christ. Read the messianic psalms. That's kind of like a misnomer
because just about all of them are messianic in some way or
another because every psalm points sinners to Christ for salvation.
But why are they doing it? Not really to worship, not really
to point sinners to Christ, not really in humility. I'll tell
you exactly why they're doing it. They're doing it to entertain
themselves. That's why they're doing it.
And I'll tell you what, there's a lot of that going around in
religion, isn't there? It's not worship. It's not preaching
the truth. It's entertainment. It's activity. It's not worship. It's not preaching
the gospel of Christ. And that's what's going on here.
And these bowls, as I said, they were large bowls usually used
for sacrificial purposes out of which the blood of the sacrifice
was sprinkled. It was used for the glory of
God. They weren't using it for the glory of God here. They're
using it for their self-indulgence, to get drunk. But they haven't
grieved over the affliction, the breach, the sin, the ruin
of Joseph. There's no sorrow over sin, no
mourning, no humility, no seeking mercy and grace from God, no
repentance, no broken contrite hearts. That's the problem. Again, that sounds like our country,
sounds like our world, doesn't it? no hunger and thirst for
righteousness, for truth, no desire for God's Word, no peace
and comfort in Christ. It's only ease in Zion. But look
at verse 7. He says, Therefore now shall
they go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet
of them that stretch themselves shall be removed. They're going
to be in bondage. and their banqueting is going
to stop, the Lord God hath sworn by himself. You remember that?
We talked about that last time. How God has engaged himself,
his honor, his glory to fulfill this threat. Now when God makes
a threat, it's not an empty threat. It's not an empty threat. I hope
you parents aren't engaged in the business of empty threats. But I read this a long time ago
when I was raising my boys, me and Debbie were raising them,
and I heard a guy say, he said, you know, a lot of times we'll
look at our children when they, you know, you get kind of tired
of saying no all the time. And you look at your children
and you say, now I'm going to give you three times and on the
third time I'm going to whip you. And the fellow said, now
you know what you've just taught your children? You've taught
them to disobey you twice. You say, it's okay to disobey
me twice, but not three times. So the first two end up being
empty threats, don't they? But when God makes a threat,
He didn't say, now Israel... Now God is long-suffering, don't
get me wrong. He is long-suffering, but it's
still not an empty threat. When God says, I'm going to take
away your banqueting, I'm going to put you in captivity, not
only is He true to that threat, He's going to bring it about.
But look at it again. Verse 8, the Lord God has sworn
by Himself. He's engaged His honor in this. It would, listen, it would deny
and dishonor God for Him not to carry this out. And he says,
sayeth the Lord, the God of hosts, the God who's invincible. That's
what that means. Literally, God of hosts means
the God of a great army. Means he can't be defeated. Can't
be stopped. And here's what he says, I abhor.
That means I hate the excellency of Jacob. What is the excellency
of Jacob? It's what they glory in. Well, what are they glorying
in? They're glorying in their own
works. They're glorying in their own efforts. They're glorying
in their cities, in their armies, in their beautiful houses and
buildings, their ivory palaces, all of that. They're glorying
in those things. They're not glorying in the Lord. The Bible
says, let he that gloryeth glory in this, that he knows me and
understands that I'm the Lord. Glory in the Lord. They glory
in the flesh, you see. As I said before, Paul in Galatians
6, verse 14, he said, God forbid that I should glory save in the
cross. He says, I hate his palaces.
He says, therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is
therein. And what's he showing here? He's
showing here that judgment from God is as sure as God himself. But now let me give you the positive
of that. from God is as sure as God himself
to every sinner who flees to Christ. Isn't that right? Every
sinner who pleads his blood, every sinner who comes before
God in his righteousness, salvation, justification is as sure as God
himself. Because God has sworn by himself
not only to destroy the wicked, but to save his people by his
grace through Christ. And that's where our assurance
is. Well, look at verse 9. He says,
And it shall come to pass, if there remain ten men in one house,
that they shall die, all of them. This is going to be a complete
destruction. Judgment will be thorough. None will escape. He says, A man's uncle shall
take him up, and he that burneth him, to bring out the bones out
of the house, and shall say unto him that is by the sides of the
house, Is there yet any with thee? And he shall say, No. Then
shall he say, Hold thy tongue, for we may not make mention of
the name of the Lord." Talking about burning bodies here instead
of burying them. Why would they burn bodies? That
wasn't a common practice in Israel, they buried them. Why would they
burn them? Well, there's two things suggested.
Number one, that the devastation of the judgment is so quick that
they just don't have time to do it. But the second thing is,
is that the devastation is so widespread that disease comes
from the dead, and therefore they have no choice but to burn
the bodies. But look at this one line here.
This is interesting here. Here they are searching around,
trying to burn them, trying to cleanse it with fire, And then
they said, Then shall he say, Hold thy tongue, for we may not
make mention of the name of the Lord. What does he mean? Well,
he's simply saying this. Before this devastation, before
this judgment came, they boasted presumptuously in his name. We're the people of God. We're
the circumcision. We're Abraham's seed. We have
Moses. But now, instead of boasting
in the Lord, they cringe in fear at the mention of His name. What
does that remind you of? It reminds me of the fall. Before
the fall, Adam and Eve had sweet communion with God. Sweet blessing
from God. But after the fall, what did
Adam and Eve do? They ran and they hid from God. They cringed in fear because
of their shame, trying to hide... And that's the picture here.
You see, their boast in the Lord before was presumption. Wasn't
in the Lord, wasn't for His glory, wasn't because of grace in Christ. And now that the judgment of
God has come upon them, now they run like Adam and Eve in their
sin, cringing in fear from the Lord. And so it's useless to
cry out to the Lord, they're saying, for deliverance at this
time, the day of mercy's over. My friend, listen to me. And
this is a good, you know, we talk about New Year's resolutions,
this ought to be a year-in and year-out thing here. Now is the
day of salvation. Now is the day of salvation.
I think about Felix, to whom Paul preached. It says in Acts 24-25 that Paul
reasoned with Felix of righteousness, of temperance, and judgment to
come. Paul preached the gospel to this
man who was a political authority. And it said Felix trembled when
he heard Paul preach. But here's what he said, here
was his answer to Paul, he says, go thy way for this time when
I have a convenient season I'll call for thee and there's never
any record that Felix ever called for Paul again. There is no more
convenient season than right now to seek the Lord. There's
no more convenient season than now. Now is the day of salvation. Seek ye the Lord, Isaiah said,
while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he's near.
Look at verse 11 here. He says, For behold, the Lord
commandeth, and he will smite the great house with breeches,
and the little house with clefts. God's word is sure. No one will
escape. There's no security in the great
house, the rich. There's no security in the small
house of the poor. My friend, there's only security
in Christ. Whatever you're going through,
whatever your circumstances here on earth, you may feel good today,
you may be the picture of health, you may be one of the few whose
bank accounts has grown this year instead of dwindled. Doesn't
matter. There's only security in Christ.
There's only security in His blood. There's only security
in His righteousness. That's the great grace of assurance. Look at verse 12. He says, shall
horses run upon the rock? Now that's a physical absurdity. You don't run horses on the rock
because if you do, they're going to break their legs. So anybody
of any sense, a wise person knows, you can't do that. He says, will
one plow there with oxen? You're going to take the oxen
and plow through a rock? Well, that's another physical
absurdity. Anybody with any sense, a wise
person, knows that you can't take an ox and hook it up to
the plow and plow through a rock. Right? We've got sense enough
to know that. Well, now listen. But you've turned judgment into
gall, poison, bitterness, righteousness into bitterness, and the fruit
of righteousness into hemlock. That's poison. So what is the
judgment here that he's talking about, the righteousness he's
talking about? He's talking about God's grace in salvation. That's
what he's talking about. You've taken the good things
of God in His grace in Christ and you've turned them into bitterness.
That's like people today who claim to preach the gospel but
it's all wrapped up in the works and efforts of men rather than
in the glory of Christ. And you've taken the fruit of
righteousness, which is that obedience of grace and love and
gratitude, and you've turned that, instead of being fruit
unto God and redounding to His glory, you've turned it into
poison. You see, any time a sinner seeks salvation based upon his
works, that's what he's doing. He's taken obedience and turned
it into poison. Fruit unto death is what Paul
called it. So he says that's a... These
physical absurdities, we know better than that, but here's
a spiritual absurdity here. No sinner can be saved based
upon his own works. For by grace are you saved, through
faith, not of works. Through faith, that not of yourselves.
It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should bow.
There's nothing more absurd and impossible than a sinner seeking
and trying to be saved based upon their own works. That's
why Christ came into the world, to save sinners. And so he says
in verse 13, you which rejoice in a thing of naught. Now that's
what happens when people rejoice in religion, rejoice in their
own works, when they have confidence in their own efforts. They're
rejoicing, they're boasting, they're having security in something
that is really nothing. Paul said it this way in Philippians
chapter 3. He said, "...that which I thought
was gain I count but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
which is in Christ Jesus." Those who rejoice in a thing of naught,
which say, have we not taken to us horns by our strength,
indicative of the horns of the altar, Religion. Israel rejoiced in their great
gain, but it was really nothing. Israel proudly imagined that
what she gained was by her own strength, but it was nothing.
It was nothing. And so he says in verse 14, But
behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel,
God's instrument of judgment, against them, that nation that
would come down upon them, saith the Lord God of hosts, and they
shall afflict you from entering in of Hamath, that was in Assyria,
unto the river of the wilderness." In other words, your whole territory
is going to be overrun by this army of judgment coming down
upon you from God. No one will be safe. Both the
northern border and the southern border of Israel will be attacked
and be destroyed. You see, there's no eternal ease
in Zion or in Samaria, but only in Christ. And so, as we embark
upon this new year, let us examine ourselves to see whether we be
in the faith. What does that mean? That means
to see whether I'm in Christ. Somebody said, well, does that
mean we examine ourselves to see if we have enough faith?
Well, what is enough faith? I don't know the answer to that.
All I know is this, any faith that rests in Christ for mercy,
for salvation, for forgiveness, for righteousness, for life,
for glory is enough. How about that? That's the gift
of God.