“Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your masters, 'Bring wine, let us drink...Come to Bethel and transgress, at Gilgal multiply transgression; bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three years. Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, proclaim and announce the freewill offerings; for this you love, You children of Israel! Says the Lord”(Amos 4:1-5)
The Lord reproves false worship, the worship that doesn't obey the gospel and live uprightly. They claim God in name, but they defile Him in their actions and doctrines, teaching things they ought not, for the love of pleasure. This isn't the saint who repents; this is the sinner who claims Christ, and yet WILL NOT leave sin. They will be destroyed, because Christ must be obeyed on His terms. We can't make up our own religion, even if we're happy, and call it God's.
What options do we have? Repent and believe the gospel, bring forth works fitting of repentance, and express your faith in the church, as God has said. Paul said he, “declared first to those in damascus and in Jerusalem, and throughout all the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent, turn t God, and o works befitting repentance” (Acts 26:20). He didn't call us to “come to Christ”, and then live godlessly, making up our own rules as to what holiness is. Following Christ is living His way, and the more adamantly and uncompromisingly we do this, the better off we are. We are not playing with fire, living near the world, but we pursue the Lord Jesus Christ and obtain powerful grace to fight and mortify sin. Romans 8:13 says, “For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live”.
The sinner that comes to Christ will be saved, and whoever believes upon Him, by the Spirit, to put down the flesh, will taste the victory of true worship and will escape the wrath that's coming on hypocrites. God won't hold them guiltless who take His name in vain! We must follow Him His way, being DEAD to all attempts to earn His favor, and being DEAD to our old way of life. He says, “For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, known this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin my be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin” (Rom 6:5-6).
We are not ashamed of the gospel, nor are we going to compromise it to appease anyone – not our flesh or anyone else's. We are following Christ by His power and living by His commands. We have compassion on sinners, for we all sin more than we desire, and yet we have been made WILLING to obey, willing to live godly, and we see obedience as the only reasonable option; it is not a drudgery, but a proper course of actions. Paul says, “And in this I give advice: it is to your advantage not only to be doing what you began and were desiring to do a year ago; but now you also must complete the doing of it; that as there was a reading to desire it, so there also may be a completion out of what you have” (2 Cor 8:10-11). This is not something that we must do ourselves; obedience is God's gift by the mercy of the cross. He says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom 12:1).
Don't think, “I go to church... occasionally... I give... a little... and I don't do all the things that I once did. But, I will still live my life my way, on my terms, and be safe”. He says, “An adversary shall be all around the land; he shall sap your strength from you, and your palaces shall be plundered”. He says, “As a shepherd takes from the mouth of a lion two legs or a piece of an ear, so shall the children of Israel be taken out who dwell in Samaria – in the corner of a bed and on the edge of a couch!” He says, “in the day I punish Israel for their transgressions, I will also visit destruction on the altars of Bethel; and the horns of the altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground. I will destroy the winter house along with the summer house; the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end, says the Lord” (Amos 3:10-15).
Make sure your worship is biblical, that you are in the mold of Scripture, and that what God calls holy conduct and saved living manifests itself in you. Noah built the ark according to God's specifications, and he was saved. God said, “Make yourself an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch. And this is how you shall make it...” (Gen 6:14-15). Likewise, this is how you and I live life: we believe what He says until what He says is manifested in our lives and thoughts. He says, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith” (Rom 12:2-3).
We believe the truth unto love, and God tests what we know by the fruit it brings forth, proclaiming humility and holiness as the fruits of grace.
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