A Grievous & Threatening Cry: The Danger of Unacceptable Worship (Part 3)
Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 38:47
0 ratings
· 6 viewsFiles
Notes
Transcript
In our text this morning we are continuing to look at the Woe oracles of the prophet Amos. Amos’ uses of the word “Woe” is very significant and it has set the tone for this series of messages.
“Woe”- a grievous an threatening cry by the prophets. A warning of danger and death.
This is what Amos is doing for the people of Israel. He is crying out, he is warning them. And there is a threat behind his words. WOE! If you don’t heed my words there is death and destruction headed your way.
Amos is crying WOE to the people of Israel so they will turn from their sin and return to the Lord.
We must seriously consider the woes or warnings over sin in our own lives.
What woes or warnings do we need to understand this morning in order to turn from our sin and return to the Lord?
Woe to those who believe that privileged position will result in preferential treatment (vv. 18-20)
Woe to those who believe that privileged position will result in preferential treatment (vv. 18-20)
Woe to those who compartmentalize their faith (vv. 21-24)
Woe to those who compartmentalize their faith (vv. 21-24)
Woe to those who contaminate their worship (vv. 25-27)
Woe to those who contaminate their worship (vv. 25-27)
Woe to those who contaminate their worship and thus offer unacceptable worship to the Lord.
Did you know that God says there is such a thing as acceptable and unacceptable worship? Did you know that not just any worship will due if we want to bring glory to God?
Offering God unacceptable worship is one of the most dangerous things you can do.
For this reason God has a message for us from the prophet Amos this morning. We must carefully examine the quality of our worship and determine if it is acceptable in God sight.
If we are guilty of offering God unacceptable worship Amos has one word for us, WOE!
How can we carefully examine the quality of our worship? What standard does God use to judge whether or not our worship is acceptable in His sight?
I want to look at four characteristics of unacceptable worship this morning.
I. God hates hypocritical worship (vv. 21-24)
I. God hates hypocritical worship (vv. 21-24)
Before we begin describing unacceptable worship, or worship that God hates we need to start with a definition of what worship is in the first place.
Let me share with you a definition of worship from one of our missionaries. Scott Williquette has an excellent workshop that he teaches on worship. In his notes he defines worship this way:
Worship is the right response to biblical revelation about God and therefore has two parts: a presentation of biblical truth about God and an appropriate response to God based upon that truth.
Our English word “Worship” comes from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning “worthship.” Thus, worship is essentially ascribing “worth” to God.
When we are confronted with biblical revelation about God we worship God by responding to the revelation with an appropriate level of worth.
Psalm 95:1–7 (ESV)
Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
For (because) the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.
The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.
Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
For (because) he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.
“Genuine worship is the natural and proper response to the revelation of the holy Lord God of glory. It will bring about reverential fear, confession, sacrifice, praise and commitment.” —Allen Ross
“Worship is a spiritual response to God as a result of understanding spiritual truth about God.” —Scott Aniol
“Worship is our innermost being responding with praise for all that God is through our attitudes, actions, thoughts and words, based on the truth of God as He has revealed Himself.” —John MacArthur
Last week we thought about the idea of compartmentalized faith. That means we begin to live our lives according to two different sets of rules. We try to have things both ways. How? By compartmentalizing our faith. On Sundays we live according one set of rules—God’s rules. But, come Monday we follow a very different set of rules—the world’s.
Another way of saying that is that these Israelites were offering God hypocritical worship. God does not accept the worship of Himself in the right way but with a sinful life.
“I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them.
Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.
But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
During the week these wealthy elites were oppressing the poor and crushing the needy. They hated those who actually seek to uphold justice in the legal system or speak truth in the courts. This was the content of their lives during the week. And then would come to the day of worship and they would celebrate all of the religious festivals, and offer all of the correct offerings, and even sings songs of worship. But God hated it all. Why? Because they were hypocrites.
God says to this kind of worship! WOE!! Warning, danger, death.
Why? Remember our definition of worship?
Worship is the right response to biblical revelation about God.
So what was the response to the biblical revelation these Israelites had about God? They knew so much about God!
“Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”
For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought, who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth— the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!
He who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the Lord is his name;
who makes destruction flash forth against the strong, so that destruction comes upon the fortress.
What is the right response to this biblical revelation about God? Repentant, humble and contrite hearts. Holiness, reverential fear, honor, awe, majesty!
You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts! Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth!
Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.
What was the response of the Israelites of Amos’ day?
They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks the truth.
This kind of worship is unacceptable to God. He hates it!
“I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
Is this the kind of worship you are offering to God?
Take a moment to ponder you actions this past week? Are you harboring sin in you life? Are you assuming that God will accept your worship this morning even though you are living in known sin? If so, friend, Woe to you. Repent! For God hates hypocritical worship!
Let’s look at the second characteristic of unacceptable worship.
II. God despises heartless worship (v. 25)
II. God despises heartless worship (v. 25)
God is not interested in external obedience to religious ceremony. God wants your heart. He wants you to love Him with all of your heart and your worship should flow out of a heart of love for the Lord.
“Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
This is a notoriously difficult verse to understand. Amos asks a rhetorical question here in v. 25.
Did you bring to me sacrifices and offering during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
There are two possible ways to answer this question.
You could answer this with a positive YES. And that makes sense for if we read the account of the wilderness wandering in the OT there were definite times when the nation of Israel offered sacrifices and offerings during the wilderness wanderings.
If Amos expects a YES answer to his rhetorical question, then the meaning of v. 25 is tied into v. 26. In v. 26 Amos calls out the Northern Kingdom for its idolatrous worship.
So the idea of these two verses would be something like- Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness? Yes you did, sure, but now you are practicing idolatry. Essentially Amos would be preaching against their syncretistic or mixed worship. God rejects their worship as unacceptable because it is mixed. God is a jealous God and will share his glory with no other.
The second possibility for this text is to answer Amos’ question with a negative NO.
Did you bring to me sacrifices and offering during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? Answer, NO you did not.
How can we answer with a NO if Israel did indeed offer sacrifices and burnt offerings during their wilderness wanderings?
For the greatest part of that time sacrifice was very much neglected, because of the unsettledness of their state; after the second year, the passover was not kept till they came into Canaan, and other institutions were in like manner intermitted
So while the Israelites offered some sacrifices and offerings, the majority of the prescribed forms of worship were not observed until after they were settled in the land.
“Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land you are to inhabit, which I am giving you, and you offer to the Lord from the herd or from the flock a food offering or a burnt offering or a sacrifice, to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering or at your appointed feasts, to make a pleasing aroma to the Lord,
So what is Amos’ point?
“Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
If the answer is NO, what point is Amos driving at?
During the forty years of wilderness wanderings God maintained a relationship with His people. And clearly that relationship was maintained without the full suite of religious sacrifices and offerings taking place. So, religious ceremony alone does not guarantee acceptable worship.
Friends, you can dress the part, you can be in a church every time the doors are open, you can participate in various ministries in the church, you can do all of the right activities of worship and that doesn’t guarantee your worship will be acceptable to God.
Clearly, these Israelites were going through the motions and yet God despised their worship. What was missing?
For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.
But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’
But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.
They did not obey. God wanted a loving relationship with His people. I will be there God and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.
But, they didn’t listen. Why? Because they had hearts of stone, not hearts of flesh. They didn’t obey God because they didn’t love God. Do you remember what Jesus said?
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
The Jews of Amos’ day were offering God heartless worship, and it was detestable in God’s eyes.
One of the greatest texts that shows the dangers of heartless worship is Malachi 1.
“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. But you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’
Honor- root idea is that of weightiness or heaviness. Something that is important is often thought of as a weighty matter. We use the idiom- it is no light matter! To think of God this way means we show God a high degree of respect or reverence.
Fear- the idea of reverence, a feeling of profound respect for someone!
Illustration: God gives us a vivid word picture to help us understand the kind of worship He is looking for. He gives us the illustration of a father. A son ought to show honor to his father.
Malachi’s point is this God desires the honor due a father and the respect / fear due a master. He wants the reverence due to His name- He is the Lord Almighty!
And yet what were the priests of Malachi’s day offering God instead?
Malachi 1:6 (ESV)
“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. But you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’
Instead of honor and respect the priests were despising His name!
Despise- to think lightly of something! to significantly undervalue someone, “to accord little worth”
How? Their lack of reverence was displayed through their WORSHIP!
By offering polluted food upon my altar. But you say, ‘How have we polluted you?’ By saying that the Lord’s table may be despised.
Attitude of their heart- v. 7 “By saying that the Lord’s table may be despised.”
In what way did the priests despise or treat lightly the Lord’s altar and its sacrifices?
When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? says the Lord of hosts.
The Hebrew word for governor refers to a low level politician.
Imagine having even a low level political leader over to your house for dinner and before you cook him the meal you show him the animal that you will butcher and prepare for him. And then you lead out from the barn a sheep that is blind in both eyes, it’s lame and can only hobble around on the ground, and it so sick that it is coughing and wheezing, maybe its lost a significant amount of weight and it is just skin and bones. What do you think the governor of the land would think? Would you ever even consider offering that kind of animal to someone in the position of leadership?
If you would never offer that kind of animal to your governor, what makes you think that God would accept you?
And now entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us. With such a gift from your hand, will he show favor to any of you? says the Lord of hosts.
There is a direct connection between your love for God and the way you offer worship to God.
The priests were despising the name of Almighty God by being careless in their worship. They were thinking lightly about God. They were undervaluing God, they were according him little worth. What does that say about their love for God?
Do we every offer God this kind of worship?
Remember our definition of worship!
Worship is the right response to biblical revelation about God and therefore has two parts: a presentation of biblical truth about God and an appropriate response to God based upon that truth.
What God deserves is our honor and our fear. He is weighty and our response to Him ought to be equally weighty.
How often do we sing hymns of praise to God and our mouths are moving, but our minds and our hearts are a million miles away.
How many times I have seen people sitting under the preaching of God’s word and their ears are dull, their eyes are heavy, and their hearts are hard to the truth? That is heartless worship friends. Kids- doodling. Adults- sleeping, passive listening
How often do we gather in God’s presence with no real desire to grasp His greatness, submit to His authority, or conform to His image?
How much do we prepare ourselves for Sunday’s worship? Stay up late, sleep in as much as possible. Rush to the service with no thought of preparing our hearts to worship God. Psalms of Ascent.
What does God think of this kind of worship?
Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand.
Why?
For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts.
God’s name is great! He is the Lord of hosts. He deserves our right response that accords with His GREATNESS! He deserves our love, and our affection, and our awe!
God hates it when we go through the motions of worship.
There is a direct connection between your love for God and the way you offer worship to God.
Do you offer God heartless worship? If so Amos has a word for you, WOE!
Let’s look at the third characteristic of unacceptable worship.
III. God detests idolatrous worship (v. 26)
III. God detests idolatrous worship (v. 26)
God hates any worship where he is not the chief end. He is a jealous God and will not share any of His glory with another.
You shall take up Sikkuth your king, and Kiyyun your star-god—your images that you made for yourselves,
So while there was some of the nation of Israel that loved God and wholeheartedly followed Him during the wilderness wanderings, once the nation reached the promise land and settled in place and had everything their hearts could need their obedience and loyalty to God quickly faded.
“Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the Lord, “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.
Israel was holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of his harvest. All who ate of it incurred guilt; disaster came upon them, declares the Lord.”
Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the clans of the house of Israel.
Thus says the Lord: “What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?
They did not say, ‘Where is the Lord who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that none passes through, where no man dwells?’
And I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things. But when you came in, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination.
The priests did not say, ‘Where is the Lord?’ Those who handle the law did not know me; the shepherds transgressed against me; the prophets prophesied by Baal and went after things that do not profit.
This is what the forefathers of these Jews had done. Now by the time Amos is preaching to the divided Northern kingdom of Israel they had all but abandoned God.
You shall take up Sikkuth your king, and Kiyyun your star-god—your images that you made for yourselves,
Sikkuth (סִכּוּת) was most likely the Assyrian war god Adar also called Sakkut.
Kiyyun (כִּיּוּן) was most likely the Assyrian astral deity they called Kaiwan, otherwise know as Saturn—your star god.
Amos, Obadiah, Jonah Exile (5:27)
The spelling of these names as Sikkut and Kiyyun probably is the result of substituting the vowels of the Hebrew word šiqqûṣ, “abomination,” in the names of the two astral deities. This was the prophet’s way of ridiculing these pagan gods.
Any worship that is direct to anyone or anything other than the God of the Bible is an abomination. This point is abundantly clear in our Bibles.
(for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),
For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.
No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons.
“You shall have no other gods before me.
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,
Friends do you offer to God idolatrous worship?
Idols come in all shapes and sizes. Some in our world today still bow down to statues and carvings. Others worship the god of sports—Superbowl Sunday, other worship the god of materialism, hobbies, leisure, self… the list goes on and on.
I was convicted by a quote from Oswald Chambers this week,
“Beware of anything that competes with loyalty to Jesus Christ.” —Oswald Chambers
What is it in your life that competes with your loyalty for Christ? Has that become and idol to you?
Do you offer God idolatrous worship? If so Amos has a word for you, WOE!
Let’s look at the fourth characteristic of unacceptable worship.
IV. God rejects creative worship (3:14; 4:4-5; 5:5)
IV. God rejects creative worship (3:14; 4:4-5; 5:5)
What do I mean by creative worship?
Several weeks ago Pastor Jason preached and he flipped the order of service. He preached first, and then we did the songs, the offering, and other elements of worship. He was creative in his worship. Does God reject this? That is not what I am mean when I talk about creative worship.
In this Woe, Amos is talking about people who choose to worship God according to their own imagination and devices.
The Westminster Confession of Faith of 1646, The Second London Baptist Confession of 1689 and The Philadelphia Baptist Confession of 1742 each state,
“The acceptable way of worshiping the true God is instituted by Himself, and so limited by His own revealed will, that He may not be worshiped according to the imagination and devices of men, nor the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representations, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scriptures.”
This is what we call the regulative principle of worship.
“The regulative principle states that true worship is determined by what God has commanded (regulated) in His Word; that the Bible is the only source of directives regarding Christian worship. To worship God truly is to worship Him in the manner which He Himself has prescribed.” —Scott Williquette
Woe to “user-friendly” worship!
There is such a thing as unauthorized worship-
Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them.
And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.
Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.’ ” And Aaron held his peace.
And Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aaron, and said to them, “Come near; carry your brothers away from the front of the sanctuary and out of the camp.”
So they came near and carried them in their coats out of the camp, as Moses had said.
And Moses said to Aaron and to Eleazar and Ithamar his sons, “Do not let the hair of your heads hang loose, and do not tear your clothes, lest you die, and wrath come upon all the congregation; but let your brothers, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning that the Lord has kindled.
“Their worship was creative and they died for it. So abominable was their sin that God promised to kill Aaron and his other sons if they mourned. These young priests did not worship idols or false gods. They attempted to worship the true God substituting God’s prescribed ways of worship with their own. It is not clear what made their offering unauthorized. Maybe they used coals from some place other than the altar thus violating Leviticus 16.12. Maybe they made this offering at the wrong time of day violating Exodus 30.7-9. The biblical text simply states that they offered the Lord unauthorized fire and God killed them.” — Scott Williquette
How were the Israelites of Amos’ day offering creative worship?
“that on the day I punish Israel for his transgressions, I will punish the altars of Bethel, and the horns of the altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground.
“Come to Bethel, and transgress; to Gilgal, and multiply transgression; bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days;
offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them; for so you love to do, O people of Israel!” declares the Lord God.
but do not seek Bethel, and do not enter into Gilgal or cross over to Beersheba; for Gilgal shall surely go into exile, and Bethel shall come to nothing.”
What is significant about Bethel and Gilgal?
These locations were places of false worship. These are man-made ways and methods of worshiping the Lord. By going to these shrines they were not worshiping the Lord, they were doing what they thought was best.
God is holy and He tells us how He desires to be worshiped. We cannot substitute, add, or subtract from what the Scriptures prescribe for godly worship. That will never work.
In every dispensation God tells us exactly how He wants to be worshiped.
Exodus 25-31 demonstrates how explicit God was about the place, tools, and people connected to worship under the Mosaic Law. (Scott Williquette)
Ex. 25.8-9 — the Tabernacle must follow God’s pattern exactly.
Ex 25.10-22 — the Ark of the Covenant must be just what God commands.
Ex 25.23-40 — the Table and Lampstand must follow an assigned pattern.
All of Ex 26 describes the Tabernacle’s exact dimensions and accoutrements.
Ex 27.1-8 — describes the Alter in detail
Ex 27.9-19 — describes the Courtyard in detail.
Ex 27.20-21 — even the Lampstand oil is described.
All of Ex 28 describes the Priestly garments (they couldn’t wear just anything).
All of Ex 29 describes the consecration of the priests.
Ex 30.1-10 — describes the Alter of Incense
Ex 30.11-16 — the Atonement Money is described
Ex 30.17-38 — the Wash Basin, Anointing Oil, and Incense are described. Notice how specific and exacting God’s instructions were when it came to the making and using of the incense.
And it is not just in the OT where God describes in exacting detail how he wants to be worshiped. We are given specific instruction in the NT for how we as a church ought to worship God.
The reading of Scripture (1 Tim 4:13; Luke 4:16-20; Acts 13:14-15)
The preaching and teaching of Scripture (1 Cor 1:17-2:4; Tim 4:13; 2 Tim 4:2; Acts 20:7-11)
Corporate prayer (Acts 2:41-42; 1 Tim 2:1-3)
Skilled and God-focused corporate music and singing (Col 3:16; Eph. 5:19; Ps 100:1-2; 150:1-6)
The Presence of Human Emotion In Worship (Scott Williquette)
Human beings are emotional creatures, and unless worship involves both the intellect and the emotions, it is not worship.
“It is not sufficient to utter the praise of God with our tongues, if they do not proceed from the heart.”
“Outward worship without inward is but the carcase of worship.”
At the same time, we must recognize that not all emotions are the same. Throughout church history, Christian leaders have sought to highlight the difference by distinguishing between “affections” and “passions.”
Passions are feelings in the body sparked by external stimuli, like shock, surprise, sudden terror, excitement, and sexual arousal.
They are “surface-level feelings that are merely physical, chemical responses to some sort of stimulus.” They are not wrong, but they should not be allowed to control us.
Illustration: Passion 2024- 20 min straight of a song that contained 5 or 6 words repeated over and over. Goal was to create surface-level feelings that are merely physical, chemical responses to some sort of stimulus. This is the mentality that says, if I don’t get goose pimples down my arms when I am singing in worship then it is not really worship. Igniting that kind of response, of passions only is shallow. Anything can do that- a Hollywood movie can do that. That should not be the defining characteristic of true worship!
Affections, on the other hand, involve the mind. They are deep responses of the will to processed information; feelings like love, joy, fear, and indignation. Affections are not merely surface level physical responses, but “arise as a result of some sort of cognitive understanding of truth.”
Jonathan Edwards referred to our highest affections as “holy affections” because they involve the positive response of the believer’s will to what his mind has learned about God from His revelation. Holy affections include feelings of desire and love for God, hope in God, joy in God, reverent fear of God, gratitude to God, grief, anger, and disgust over sin, and so on. In his book, The Religious Affections, Jonathan Edwards states that “true religion, in great part, consists in holy affections.”
This is certainly consistent with the biblical definition of worship delineated earlier. As believers understand truth about God they respond with their entire person—their understanding, wills and affections. They mourn over sin and delight and rejoice in the Lord and His goodness (Ps 1.2; 43.4; 95.1; 112.1). If we are going to worship God in a way that pleases Him, our worship services must never aim to stoke men’s passions. Rather, they should seek to reveal God, His person and works, in such a way as to engage men’s mind and cultivate holy affections within him.
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,
What other affections does Paul list? forgiveness, love, peace, thankfulness...
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
The other quote that bears mentioning in regards to our music is this…
Allen Ross...
“Believers down through the centuries have been trying to appreciate and develop proper and meaningful worship practices. . . . At the heart of this effort is the need for believers to recapture the vision of the exalted and holy Lord of glory, that is, the sublime;
“For to the degree that worshippers apprehend the glory of the Lord, their worship will be purified of base instincts and elevated to the level of true spiritual worship.” —Allen Ross
Unfortunately, almost everything in our nature and in our world pulls us back from that; and without a good knowledge of the biblical revelation on the subject, worship becomes routine, centered on people and performances, and secularized. . . .
Sacrificial giving to the Lord’s work (1 Cor 16:1-2; 2 Cor 9:6-7)
The regular observance of the Lord’s Supper and Baptism (Matt 28:18-19; Acts 2:41-42; 1 Cor 11:23-26)
Baptismal service coming up in March sometime.
Spiritual fellowship around the things of Christ (Acts 2:41-42)
The exercise of spiritual gifts in ministry to others (Rom 12:6-8; 1 Cor 12; 1 Pet 4:10-11)
Church discipline when appropriate (Matt 18:15-17; 1 Cor 5:1-5)
“Many today are clamoring for creativity in worship, but creativity must be controlled by biblical revelation.” —Scott Williquette
Is this the kind of worship that you are offering to God? Are you offering creative worship? If so Amos has a word for you, WOE!
There is such a thing as unacceptable worship!
We look at four characteristics of unacceptable worship this morning.
God hates hypocritical worship
God despises heartless worship
God detests idolatrous worship
God rejects creative worship
Woe to those who offer God unacceptable worship.
Listen to the last verse of Amos 5
These Israelites were contaminating their worship. And for that reason God sends them this WOE this warning...
and I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.
It is not too late. God sent this WOE 30-40 years before this exile took place. He was giving his people a chance to repent He was giving his people a chance to change their worship, to offer God right acceptable worship.
And that is His plea to you this morning.
Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.