Blessed assurance, Jesus is my Lord. Blessed indeed is that sinner, saved by the grace of God, washed in the blood of Christ, robed in his righteousness, wearing the garments of God's salvation, born of his spirit, who can with joyful, confident faith sing blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine.

There is certainly an assurance, a confidence, a security, an ease of heart and soul which is both desirable among God's saints and honoring to our God. Assurance, a sense of security in Jesus Christ, of confidence in the grace of God, is something that every believer ought to seek and enjoy in this world. Every true believer ought to walk before God with confident assurance. Nothing is more blessed than that assurance that our sins are pardoned through the blood of Christ. Believers ought to be a people who live in that blessed, blessed assurance.

It is a great blessing indeed to be at ease in Zion if our ease is justified, if we are truly born of God. Does not our Savior say, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest? God's promise is this, his soul shall dwell at ease and his seed shall inherit the earth. To the righteous God says your soul shall dwell at ease. It is written of God's church, thine eyes shall see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation. Jacob shall return and be in rest and at ease and none shall make him afraid. The Lord God tells us plainly that as we stand in the ways and see and ask for the old paths, where is the good way and walk therein, you shall find rest unto your souls.

To have perfect quietness in Christ is indeed a privilege, a privilege that belongs only to God's elect and to God's elect only by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We that have believed, the scripture says, do enter into rest. That means, Merle, we have ceased from our own works as God did from His, and now we rest in Jesus Christ the Lord. Believers have found the finished work of Christ sufficient to give us rest at all times before God. We rest in Him.

the faithfulness and power of God, that's enough to give us comfort and ease and peace with regard to all things future, no matter what troubles may come. The precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is atonement sufficient to give us peace, to give us ease of heart and mind before God, regardless of what our sins have been in the past, what they are now, or what they may be in the future. communion and fellowship with God our Father, and with His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and with His blessed Spirit. These are things sufficient to give comfort to the believing heart in the midst of all times and all circumstances. It is truly a blessed, blessed thing to be at ease in Zion if our ease is justified.

So blessed a thing that it is something absolutely forbidden to the unbeliever. absolutely forbidden. It is an ease that is denied to the wicked. The wicked, the scripture tells us, are like the troubled sea which cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. No matter how religious they are, the wicked are like the troubled sea, the waters cast up mire and dirt. Of the wicked it may be said, thou shalt find no ease. Neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest, but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and a failing of eyes, and a sorrow of mind.

Now let me emphasize what I'm saying. Seek peace. Seek assurance. Seek that blessed rest of faith that's found in Jesus Christ. Assurance is a blessed, blessed thing. Let us therefore labor that we may enter into that rest. The kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. That means, James, if we're in his kingdom, we ought to walk before God in the peace and joy of righteousness in God's kingdom.

that man, that woman, that sinner who has obtained the righteousness of God in Christ by divine imputation, that righteousness which puts us in good standing with the Holy God, that righteousness which is sufficient to satisfy the demands of God and of our consciences, might well indeed walk before God with peace, the peace of God that passes understanding. The work of righteousness, we are told, shall be peace and the effect of righteousness, quietness, and assurance forever. In other words, if Bobby Estes possesses and walks before God in that righteousness which only God can give, which God gives in Christ, he walks before God and has reason to do so with quietness and assurance forever.

Oh, blessed then is that ease which is justified in Zion. But there is a peace, an ease of heart, a quietness of soul, a sense of spiritual security. That's an absolute curse, a curse that unless God stops you in it and saves you from it, will bring you to your everlasting destruction in hell. And that's what I want to talk to you about this morning. as plainly as I possibly can.

My text is found here in verse 1 of Amos chapter 6. Hold your Bibles open in the chapter. The peace spoken of here is the peace of those five foolish virgins described in our Lord's parable. It is the peace of the hypocrites. It is an ill-founded, unjustified peace. It is the ease and security of religion without Christ, of a name of life while death prevails. This peace, this ease spoken of here is spoken in this way. Woe unto them that are at ease in Zion.

I don't know that I have ever been more confident that God gave me a message for a specific occasion than this message. And why for this particular assembly, with those absent whom he would not have to hear it and those present whom he would have to hear it, I do not know. But this I know. God says to you and to me, woe unto them that are at ease. The word ease, if you have a marginal translation, is secure. Secure. Got it all sewed up. Everything's all right. I'm saved, sanctified, baptized in the Holy Ghost on my way to heaven and I know it for sure. Ease in Zion.

The ease spoken of here is a carnal ease. A fleshless security. It's not the confidence of a person who is pardoned, but rather it is the ease of a hardened wretch who has learned to despise the death chamber. He's lived so long on death row that as he looks at the death chamber, he just learned to harden his heart against it, and it doesn't even quiver when he anticipates it. It's not the assurance of one who is built upon the rock, whose house is steady, built on the rock by the hand of God, but rather it is the assurance of a drunk whose house in the midst of a terrible storm or earthquake is about to totter from its sandy foundation, and he's so stupefied he doesn't even know what's going on and doesn't have sense enough to care. It's the ease, not of a soul calm and at peace with God, but rather the ease of a madman who doesn't have enough sense to know he's in danger.

You know, nights ago, I was up late, couldn't sleep, didn't feel like studying anymore, turned the TV on, saw one of those old war movies. Some of y'all may have seen it. I don't even remember what it was now. But Second World War, the American soldiers had to take a place, and Germans were occupying a nuthouse. And, man, there was shelling, gunfire going on, folks getting killed all around them, machine guns popping everywhere, and folks sitting there just partying. Just having a good time.

How come? Why, they were at ease. Not sensible ease, not well-founded ease, but the ease of a madman. The ease of someone who was absolutely unaware of the circumstances they were in. I don't doubt for a moment that there are some here deluded by such a curse of carnal security. Secure and at ease in Zion, though you have absolutely no knowledge of Zion's God.

I therefore will speak as plainly as I can to your soul. May God enable me by his grace to speak to your heart. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee life.

Now look at verses one through six of this sixth chapter of Amos, and hear how God himself by his prophet identifies five specific things. which give men and women a sense of security and ease among his people, though they do not know him. Indeed, these are the very things that fill the hearts of men and women with a false ease and security in religion in every age.

Number one is presumption. Look at verse one. Woe to them that are at ease in Zion and trust in the mountain of Samaria. which are namesheets of the nations to whom the house of Israel came. You come to the house of God week after week and leave just like you came, in proud presumption, because you're religious. Because you're religious, you presume that you're righteous. Because you gather with God's saints and sing the songs of Zion, you presume that you're one of God's saints and numbered among the people of Zion. Because you walk in the company of God's elect, you presume you're one of God's elect. You say to yourself, my mountain stands firm. I'll not be moved. Everything's all right with me. Everything's all right with me.

Presumption. You're an absolute fool if you presume everything's well when nothing's well. If you presume that because you have religion, you have Christ. If you presume that because you behave better than other folks do, then you have God's favor. You're an absolute fool if you presume upon the salvation of your soul.

The second thing mentioned is in verse three. It's procrastination. Here is how the procrastinator is described. You are those that put far away the day of evil. You have any question about what he's talking about? Now, I know I'm a sinner. I know that God's going to punish sin. I know that judgment's coming. I know that men and women, when they die, will spend eternity either in heaven or in hell, but man, those things are a long ways off. Judgment day is sure, but it's not soon. Judgment day is coming, but not right now.

Often like Felix, you tremble at the preaching of the gospel, tremble at the hearing of righteousness and judgment, tremble at the hearing of the Word of God declared plainly and clearly, but often like Felix, you said as you tremble before the Word of God, go your way, I'll call for you at a more convenient season. But a more convenient season hasn't yet come. Procrastination is a snare by which Satan has carried many to hell. The old serpent of hell is some more deceiver. Lindsay talked about it this morning, how he deceives, deceives, deceives. When the gospel is preached and begins to prick your heart, Satan says, you've got plenty of time. You don't have to be in any hurry. The Lord will always be merciful. The door will always be open. God will always be gracious. And then after a while, the word comes and your heart's pricked and the fiend of hell hisses at you and says it's too late. It's too late for you. No point in you even paying attention now. It's all too late.

Procrastination. He put away from you the evil day. I've watched people all my life as a pastor, and I've been pastoring most of it for 30 years. I've been watching people, young and old. Every time you have the notion that you've got cancer, it's just horrifying. Every time you... My dad's got cancer. I better go check up. My mom died of a heart attack. I better go check up. Oh, how quickly things happen. One of your friends gets killed in a car wreck. Somebody else gets shot down the street. And for just a brief minute, you think, well, man, I may be close to eternity. And then you, just like cattle out in the field, just go about eating your grass and go on. Look up for a minute and forget it.

The evil day won't come. God will destroy the wicked suddenly without warning. It's written over and over and over and over again. Sheva and I were driving home a few weeks ago from Lexington in God's good providence. We were just a couple of minutes late getting away. Just a couple of minutes earlier. We'd been coming around 34. And those dead folks on the highway out there would have been us. Just a couple of minutes earlier.

Well, I want you to understand. There is indeed but a breadth between you and God. One of these days you're going to stand before God, and you're going to be judged out of this book. God's going to lay righteousness to the line. He's going to drop a plummet that you can't measure up to. And that plummet is absolute righteousness! Absolute. Absolute perfection. Absolute satisfaction. And you can't think of anything.

The third thing with which the Lord God charges these who are at ease in Zion and falsely so is perverseness. Look at verse three again. They cause the seat of violence to come near. And the seat of violence here is not Not the violence of cowboys and Indians, that's not what we're talking about. Not even the violence of war, though that certainly is included. It's the violence of perversity. The violence of corruption. The violence of that foaming depravity and oozing sore of corruption, that canker in your heart! You cause violence to come here.

Many who find their place in the assembly of God's saints every Sunday morning, spend their lives walking in the counsel of the ungodly, standing in the way of sinners, and sitting in the seat of the scornful. Here you sit this morning, saying, blessed is yours, Jesus is mine. I wonder where you were last night and what you were thinking. Huh? Oh, preacher, you know, you know it doesn't matter how fellow lives as long as he believes in Jesus. I had a fellow actually told me that the other day. I said, don't blame him. You know, I've got this thing. I can do what I want to. Those are words. I can do what I want to. Everything's all right. After all, I believe in the Lord. And it's no wonder fools believe those kind of things.

I heard Jerry Falwell sitting on national television discussing this thing of homosexuality. And some homosexual said, well, I believe in the Lord Jesus. You're telling me I'm not safe? And Falwell said, oh no, if you believe in Jesus, you're safe. Oh, it's so hideously, hideously, hideously sad. You listen to me. You listen to me. I don't care what you pretend to believe. If you walk in the course of perversity, bring your perversity near everyone around you. I'm telling you, you don't know God. You've never experienced his grace. You love to imagine that Christ is your savior. but you refuse to bow to him as your sovereign. You bring the violence of hell home with you every day. Bring it into the house of God every Sunday. By your pretense of religion, you deceive yourself, dishonor the name of Christ, and lead everyone around you, everyone influenced by you, by your hand to dishonor, to ungodliness, and ultimately to hell.

I've corresponded for several years with a young man. He got in trouble, went to prison. Got out of prison. Got a gal pregnant. Broke parole. He's back in prison now. I've corresponded with him for a long time, on a fairly regular basis. Right after he got thrown back in prison, he wrote to me and he said, he said, Brother Dahms, you send me some good literatures. I can't stand these Armenians down here. That's what he said. I wrote him back. And I said, would you please keep your mouth shut? Don't tell anybody you're identified with me, Jesus Christ, or the gospel of God's grace until you experience it.

Why? How could you do that? How can you dare say such a thing to a man? Because this book speaks so plainly. It speaks so plainly. You who are secure and at ease in Zion, Convinced by some hellish delusion that you're a child of God and yet walk in The course of violence and bring the seat of violence near You must hear God speak whoa unto them that are at ease in Zion Look at verse 4 the Lord charges such with pleasure Here, Amos describes those of whom the apostle speaks when he says their God is their belly. These men and women who are indeed lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, they are self-serving, self-indulgent worldlings who wear the name of Christ but only wear his name. They don't know anything at all about his character.

Look at how he describes them. They're such as lie upon beds of ivory, stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock and the calves out of the midst of the stalls. Now, I read that, and I thought somebody would read that text of Scripture. He may read it this morning and say, well, what can be wrong with that? Some folks read it and say, well, now there you go. Rich folks are all going to hell. No. There's nothing wrong with lying on ivory beds if you've got one. There's nothing wrong with stretching yourself on a comfortable couch if you have one. As a matter of fact, it's kindly foolish to sleep on a dirt floor in the barn if you've got an ivory bed in the house. That's not what we're talking about. There's nothing wrong with eating the calves out of a plentiful herd or eating the lambs out of a bountiful flock if those things you have. As a matter of fact, it's kindly foolish to eat molded bread when you've got a barn full. It's just foolish.

But what on earth is he talking about? The sin described here is the sin of living for the riches and pleasures of this world. Multitudes are at ease among God's saints, secure in Zion, though they live only for themselves. Now, you know your name. You may not own it, but you know it. You don't live for Christ, you live for the world. You don't live to serve, but you live to be served. Somebody said God made us to use things and serve people. We serve things and use people. And that's just about right.

You don't seek the welfare of others, you seek your own welfare and happiness. Most extravagant, self-indulgent, self-serving people I know think they're the most sacrificial, the most devoted, and the most ill-served. Isn't that amazing? Those who do the least presume they do the most. Those who are least caring about other people grumble that most folks don't care about them.

They want to be happy. get so tired of hearing folks, I'm not happy anymore. Man says, I'm not happy, I'm going to leave my family. Woman says, I'm not happy, I'm going to leave my husband. Well, la-dee-dah! Who gives a flip about your happiness? Who said this world was made for you to be happy? Nuts!

I mean, we live in a world... I told my daughter all the time she was growing up outside these four walls, the whole world's absolutely bedbugging, saying crazy, and it's getting worse. If he works all the time, you two fix him to get married? You and Nancy fix him to get married? Man, your happiness got nothing to do with your commitment. Nothing at all. Nothing.

Somebody, something happens, you have to take care of that. That young man is an invalid the rest of his life, and he doesn't know you from beans. Well, I'm not happy. What's that got to do with anything? What's that got to do with anything? Don't change any responsibilities.

Two things are almost always, always manifest in self-serving men and women. Those who are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. They live only to gratify their pleasures. Look at verses 5 and 6. In verse 5, they chant to the sound of the vial and invent themselves instruments of music like David. What does that mean? Well, they think life is one big party thrown just for them. That's what it is. They're careless and carefree.

Anything gets in the way of their happiness, anybody gets in the way of their happiness, any responsibility gets in the way of their happiness, anything, anything that stands between them and their pleasure, they'll kiss it goodbye in a heartbeat. But there it is inside. Look at verse 6. They drink wine in bowls, not in glasses, in bowls. They anoint themselves with cheap ointments. They got to have the best of everything. Lavish everything they can get upon themselves. Everything that might give them a little pleasure, a little temporary gratification.

Do the words of God's prophet describe you? You who are at ease in Zion but have no concern for the word of God, the truth of God, the will of God, the glory of God? No more concern do you have for those things than for the size of a Chinaman's dog. And yet you comfort yourself with the idea that everything will be all right when you die.

There's one last thing mentioned in verse 6, and that's painlessness. They are not greed for the affliction of Joseph. There are multitudes, many found in Zion, among God's people, at ease and secure in religion without Christ. because they know nothing of the affliction of soul which is common to all the Lord's people, to all who walk in Joseph's steps.

Some of you are at ease, secure in your delusions, secure without Christ, secure because nothing bothers you, nothing disturbs you. And Rex, that man, that woman, who's not disturbed by anything doesn't know God. Just doesn't know God. You've never been disturbed by your sin. You've never been disturbed by your guilt, by your depravity, by the corruption of your heart. You wonder why you can't find anything that is enthusiastic about this business of Christianity? Because you've never been disturbed by needing a Savior. You don't know what you are. You've never been disturbed by any warfare, any conflict in your own soul.

You don't know anything about the grieving affliction of Joseph, which causes a man to hate himself, to despise what he is. to long for righteousness He can't perform, to long for obedience He can't give, to long for humility He can't muster, to long to honor a God whom He loves but can't love as He would. You don't know anything about it. You had no pain from the Father's chastening rod. Don't know anything about it. Nothing.

And I'll tell you why. because you're bastards and not sons. Is that what the book says, Lindsay? That's what it says. That's what it says. Oh, you may have stumped your toe a time or two, had a headache a time or two, and thought, oh, poor me, nobody ever suffered like I do. But what it is to have a tormented mind, a crushed heart, a broken spirit, you know nothing

Woe to them that are at ease in Zion. Oh may God be pleased to stir up your ease and give you unrest until he makes you flee to Jesus Christ his Son and find rest for your soul.

Let us therefore labor that we may enter into that rest. Amen.