Amos 5:18-27 – Why Religion is Useless
Religion is a cancer
“I have been to church so much when I was at school that it was enough to cover the rest of my life.”
… Australia is a religious country.
… how many … have a false confidence before God
The Day of the Lord
God’s people … a sense of expectation and excitement
… terror to the hearts of those who are God’s enemies
Verse 18, 20 … will be darkness not light.
Why God will judge them as his enemies?
Verse 21-23.
“I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me.
Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them.
Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them.
Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.”
= Religious acts that were done without any life changing heart driven repentance.
V 24 … empty religious acts will never stop the justice of God achieving its purposes.
Though your lives are filled with religion, your hearts are hardened towards God and obedience to his word.
For us today
1) Warning # 1
Truth God gives us can be turned to lie.
… baptism and the Lord’s supper
2) Warning # 2
If you are simply going through the motions and not allowing God’s word to transform your actions, then God hates your religion with a passion.
3) Warning #3
Evidence that we really want to live for God is seen in our hearts desire for righteous living and that desire being worked out in reality.
4) Real hope for the day of the Lord
1 Thess 5:1-11
1 Peter 1:3-5 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”
Hebrews 4:16 … approach the throne of Grace with confidence
Empty religious practice does not bring God’s favour but it brings God’s judgement