A Basket of Overipe Fruit: The Serious Nature of Sin
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There are many times in our lives when we underestimate the seriousness of a situation.
Illustration: There is a YouTube channel I like to watch called “Just Rolled In.” It is a series of short clips that auto mechanics send in about the dumb stuff they find when doing repairs on people’s vehicles. I have seen dozens of clips of people’s vehicles that have totally destroyed their engines because they have failed to do something simple like change the oil. People will bring in brand new cars with 30-40K miles and they have never done an oil change. The amazing thing is what the oil looks like when they take the engine apart.
I do a lot of cooking on my outdoor grill. One of the features of my grill is at the bottom of the grill is a funnel that drains all of the grease and fat drips off of the food while cooking. It drains all of that into a square container. Now imagine you cook for a summer season and collect all of the drippings and then you let them solidify into one giant gelatinous blob. That is what the oil looked like in a car that went 30K miles without getting an oil change.
And the drives of the car might be thinking something like, “What’s the big deal if I drive another day without getting the oil changed? It’s not going to make that much of a difference!” They don’t understand the seriousness of their situation. They don’t understand the consequences that will ensue.
Sometimes, we are a lot like these irresponsible car owners. We don’t take things as seriously as we ought to. Especially when it comes to sin.
We don’t take sin as seriously as God does! That is our problem.
Examples:
All of the numerous reasons I have heard over the years for why people can’t be at church. Sports, sleep, time, expense, hunting... “It’s no big deal.”
Believers that easily ignore the daily disciplines of spiritual growth. We get so busy that we have no time for bible reading, prayer, meditation, or reflection. And we think, “It’s no big deal.”
Carelessly allowing ourselves to participate in the lusts of this world.
For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you.
The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers.
You destroy those who speak lies; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
How do we know we don’t take sin seriously enough?
Unbelievers: How could a loving God send people to hell?
There is an underlying supposition to this kind of a statement. The erroneous way of thinking that undergirds this question is this, “I am a good person.” I haven’t done anything that bad. I don’t deserve hell. And why do we think this way? Because we don’t understand just how serious our sin is to God.
For those who have begun to understand the full weight of their sin their hearts change from “how could a loving God send people to hell” to “how is it possible that a righteous and just God shows grace to anyone? None of us deserve his mercy, we all deserve his just judgement!”
Believers: We betray our casual attitude towards sin by our lackluster attempts to kill sin in our daily lives.
If, then, sin will be always acting, if we be not always mortifying, we are lost creatures. He that stands still and suffers his enemies to double blows upon him without resistance, will undoubtedly be conquered in the issue. If sin be subtle, watchful, strong, and always at work in the business of killing our souls, and we be slothful, negligent, foolish, in proceeding to the ruin thereof, can we expect a comfortable event? There is not a day but sin foils or is foiled, prevails or is prevailed on; and it will be so whilst we live in this world.
Sin sets its strength against every act of holiness, and against every degree we grow to. Let not that man think he makes any progress in holiness who walks not over the bellies of his lusts. He who does not kill sin in this way takes no steps towards his journey's end. He who finds not opposition from it, and who sets not himself in every particular to its mortification, is at peace with it, not dying to it.
Men are galled with the guilt of a sin that has prevailed over them; they instantly promise to themselves and God that they will do so no more; they watch over themselves, and pray for a season, until this heat waxes cold, and the sense of sin is worn off: and so mortification goes also, and sin returns to its former dominion.
This was the problem that the prophet Amos faced. The Northern Kingdom of Israel would not take their sin seriously enough to change! They thought that their sin was “no big deal.”
Several weeks ago we began the visions section of Amos. Beginning in Amos 7 and continuing on to Amos 9 God showed the prophet five visions. We looked at three of those five visions in Amos 7 as we reflected on the difficult nature of ministering to others.
In Amos 8 God sent Amos a fourth vision to show the people of Israel just how seriously God takes sin.
God wanted the Israelites to understand and see sin and all of its consequences as He sees it.
If we are to kill sin in our lives, then we must see sin as God sees it. We must understand just how serious sin is and look to change.
How do take sin as seriously as God?
Amos give us three statements from the Lord that reveal exact how seriously God takes our sin.
I. God will never overlook sin (vv. 1-3)
I. God will never overlook sin (vv. 1-3)
Justice:
In order to drive home the end of sin God showed Amos a fourth vision. This fourth vision and its intended meaning are nothing less than shocking and abhorrent. Our reaction to this vision I think reveals just how different our view and God’s view of sin really are.
What is this fourth vision?
This is what the Lord God showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit.
The vision that God shows the prophet Amos in 8:1-3 is a somber warning for coming destruction. In v. 1 the Lord shows the prophet a vision, “a basket of summer fruit.”
And he said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass by them.
In v. 2 the Lord uses the previous introduction formula in his vision by stating, “Amos, what do you see?” and the prophet answers correctly that he sees a “basket of summer fruit.”
Picture of overripe fruit.
The picture behind the vision is identified in the word, “summer fruit” (קָ֑יִץ). The idea of this word is the produce that is gathered in a summer harvest. “Ripe fruit” (qāyiṣ) was ‘summer fruit’ or ‘end-of- the-year fruit’—the last fruit of the season, fully ripened, with a short edible life.”[1] Fur and Yates give the summer fruit the idea of “over-ripe” fruit[2]
[1]Donald R. Sunukjian, “Amos,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 1447.
[2] Fuhr, Al; Yates, Gary. The Message of the Twelve (p. 140). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
The contribution of this picture is made plain in the later part of v. 2, “The end has come upon my people Israel.”
Amos 8:2 (ESV)
And he said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass by them.
The Hebrew word for “end” (קֵּץ֙) sounds like the Hebrew word for “summer fruit” (קָ֑יִץ). The Lord is using word play to make the connection between the summer fruit that is fully ripened or even over ripened and the end for the nation of Israel. Just like the summer fruit had a short-edible life cycle so too does Israel have a very short amount of time before God’s judgement comes. “Israel was ripe for a dreadful harvest; her end had come. There would be no stay of execution, no last-minute reprieve. The Lord would spare them no longer.”[1]
[1]Sunukjian, 1447.
Amos 8:2 (ESV)
And he said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass by them.
Notice also the parallelism between the two phrases at the end of v. 2. “I will never again pass by them” is in parallel with “The end has come upon my people Israel.” God would no longer be longsuffering. He would no longer delay His justice for Israel’s sins.
God makes three statements in Amos 8 that show the serious nature of sin. And in each statement we find this idea of something that God will never allow to happen. Here in v. 2 God promises to never again pass by them. What doest this mean? God will never overlook anyone’s sin. He may delay his just judgement for a time, but the righteous holy just God of the universe says there is an end that comes for everyone who stubbornly refuses to turn away from their sin and seek forgiveness. For the one that continually and for a prolonged period of time refuses to repent, they will eventually meet an end.
And what will that end look like? What did it look like for the Northern Kingdom of Israel?
The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,” declares the Lord God. “So many dead bodies!” “They are thrown everywhere!” “Silence!”
V. 3 describes the fierceness of the justice of God. The songs of the temple that would normally be filled with joy and worship will instead become piercing wails in that day. And what will be the cause of such wailing? The dead bodies of the people of Israel. And not just dead bodies but a multitude of dead bodies, “So many dead bodes!” that will be thrown everywhere!
Perhaps there is even a grotesque connection between the over-ripe fruit in the basket and the dead bodies that will surely bloat and “ripen” after they are thrown haphazardly everywhere!
This is shocking! This is abhorrent! And what are we tempted to think? How could God do something like this? And that reveals the deceptive and sick nature of our hearts. We don’t think about sin the same way that God does! We are too cavalier in our thoughts about our sin! Our thoughts on sin are light and flippant! We think our sin is “no big deal!”
The message of the prophet Amos is meant to shock us awake and cause us to see reality as God reveals to us in His Word. Sin is serious! God will never overlook sin. That ought to cause us to wake up from our slumber and pay attention.
What would the response be one day of these Israelites when God’s judgement comes?
Amos 8:3 (ESV)
The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,” declares the Lord God. “So many dead bodies!” “They are thrown everywhere!” “Silence!”
What is the ONLY response to such a sight? “Silence!” The Hebrew word here is hash which sounds like our word for “HUSH!” Silence!
On May 26, 2022, the Uvalde Leader-News, in Uvalde Texas printed an entire front page as a solid black graphic marked only by the date—May 24, 2022.
This was in response to the horrific school shooting where a madman shot and killed 19 elementary school students and two adults. The comment on the front-page graphic was, “sometimes there are no words.”
In the face of such destruction sometimes silence is the only appropriate response.
Amos 8:3 (ESV)
The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,” declares the Lord God. “So many dead bodies!” “They are thrown everywhere!” “Silence!”
The message of God through the prophet Amos could be stated as, “Morn and wail, for God will spare his judgement no longer.”
Grace:
We see the justice side of God’s holy character. He promises Israel, “I will never pass by them again!” God will never overlook sin. It is exactly what everyone one of us deserve. What about the grace that God offers?
Acts 17:30 (ESV)
The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
Romans 2:4 (ESV)
Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.
as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
How can Amos 8:1-3 be true and Psalm 103:10-12 be true at the same time? Why in one text do we see that God will never overlook sin, and then in another text it says that God does not repay us according to our iniquities?
This is God’s grace!
Colossians 2:13–14 (ESV)
And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,
by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
God never overlooks our sin! Instead He forgives us all our trespasses. He cancels all of our debt. But God doesn’t overlook our sin, or sweep it under a rug. That would make Him unjust and unrighteous. That goes against the very nature of our holy God! Instead, so that we can be forgiven and our dept can be canceled, God takes our sin and nails it to the arms and the feet of our Savior! He set aside our sin by nailing it to the cross of Calvary!
Friends, you cannot overcome your sin apart from God’s grace! Amos is preaching a message of judgement and hellfire. He is trying to get people to wake up before its too late. But, the message of judgement alone will never free you from the power of sin. Only God’s grace is able to do that!
Friend, if you don’t know Jesus, if you have never had your sins forgiven by receiving Christ- then it is imperative for you to be saved today! You need your sin debt forgiven and canceled. God can do it for you, He has already provided sufficient payment in the blood of his only Son. All you need to do is cry out to God to save you. Ask God for the forgiving debt canceling power of the cross of Jesus Christ. Believe that God can and will save you through His Son Jesus Christ. Be saved today!
Christians, those of you who are dabbling in sin. You are have once again gone back to your old slave master of sin and you are stuck in its woes, I invite you to participate in God’s grace this morning. Turn back from your sin before it is too late. Don’t be like the Israelites whose bloated bodies were scattered everywhere like over-ripened fruit because they wouldn’t listen to the warning of God! Repent, confess, humble yourself. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. He will forgive you of all your sin and cleanse you of all your unrighteousness.
Take sin as seriously as God. How do we do that? How do we see sin this way? First, we must understand that God does not overlook sin. Second, we must understand that:
II. God will never forget sin (vv. 4-7)
II. God will never forget sin (vv. 4-7)
Justice:
After Amos gives the people of Israel a gimps into the future judgement that is coming because of their sin, he again lays out the charges why why such a judgement is on the way.
Hear this, you who trample on the needy and bring the poor of the land to an end,
This has been a consistent message throughout the prophet’s preaching. They trampled the poor and needy. They brought them to an end. Recall what the Lord said in v. 2, “The end has come upon my people Israel.” So, God says, because you have brought the poor and needy to an end I will surly bring an end upon you.
saying, “When will the new moon be over, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may offer wheat for sale, that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great and deal deceitfully with false balances,
Notice the basic attitude of the people towards worship no less! “When will the new moon and the Sabbath be over!” According to the law the merchants would close their shops and restrict themselves from participating in the buying and selling of goods. But that was all surface and external actions. God knows the true motives of their hearts.
Hurry up and get this worship service over with! I have things to do!
Amos, Obadiah, Jonah Specific Charges (8:5b–6)
Those who focus intently on what they will do after worship is over are not apt to be engaged in true worship and enter into “the joy of these festive occasions.”
Friends, when you gather for worship what is on your heart? Is it truly to worship the Lord, or is it waiting impatiently to get on with the rest of your weekend? God knows the true motives of our hearts.
But the merchants didn’t just care about selling things, they wanted to sell in such a way to take advantage of the poor and needy people to make themselves rich. They would “make the ephah small and the shekel great.”
In other words they wanted to decrease the amount of grain they would give the customer, while increasing the price.
Does that sound familiar to some of the recent inflation practices by some companies? Back in April of 2022, Frito-Lay decided to decrease the number of chips in a bag of Doritos by five chips, yet sell the product at the same price.
How could the merchants get away with such practices? by dealing deceitfully with false balances. They would cheat the buys with rigged scales!
Amos, Obadiah, Jonah Specific Charges (8:5b–6)
They counted nothing sacred, not worship days, not honesty, and not fellow human beings. Their god was profit, and they willingly sacrificed everything for it.
It get’s worse!
that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals and sell the chaff of the wheat?”
The greedy practices of the merchants often resulted in the poor trading their possessions and property to pay their debts, and even to sell the people themselves into slavery. They considered the poor as of no more value than a pair of sandals. They would even sell the chaff, that is the trash with the good grain. Not only would they cheat and take advantage of, but then they would sell garbage food to the desperately hungry poor and needy all to increase their own profit margin.
Amos 8:7 (ESV)
The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: “Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.
The Lord again swears himself to action by means of an oath. He has already sworn by his holiness (4:2) and by himself (6:8), now He swears by the pride of Jacob. Normally, when you swear an oath, you swear by something immovable or unalterable. Thus God swears’ by his holiness or his own name. Here, perhaps in sad irony, God swears by the stubborn unalterable pride of Jacob.
And what does the Lord swear? “Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.”
The Hebrew phrase for “surely I will never” has the idea of forever or an unending time going on into the future. For an unending time stretching on into the eternity future I will never forget any of their deeds! Wow!
Here is another indicator that we don’t see sin the same way God sees it. Most people would say something like, how can hell be forever? How can God punish someone in a lake of fire for all eternity? That seems harsh.
When we sin against and infinite eternal holy being, we incur for ourselves an eternal punishment. The God that dwells in every moment of time and in every area of space all at once. For an eternal being who is outside of time and space, our sins are forever before Him. God dwells in the moments and times of our worst offenses. He never forgets any of our deeds. They all must be accounted for.
But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. He will render to each one according to his works:
This is the justice and the righteousness of our holy, omniscient, omnipresent, eternal God.
What about His grace?
Grace:
God’s justice demands this of Him.
The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: “Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.
God’s grace extends this kindness to us however,
then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”
How is this possible?
Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,
waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.
For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
Romans 4:6–8 (ESV)
just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”
My friend there is great grace available for you because of Jesus! God shows grace to those who humble themselves and cry out unto Him.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits,
who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever.
He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.
Take sin as seriously as God. How do we do that? How do we see sin this way? First, we must understand that God does not overlook sin. Second, we must understand that God does not forget sin. Third, we must understand that:
III. God will never let anyone escape the judgment for sin (vv. 8-14)
III. God will never let anyone escape the judgment for sin (vv. 8-14)
Justice:
Sin inevitably brings God’s judgement. God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, but he will by no means clear the guilty. If you do not humble yourself and repent, then be sure that judgment is coming.
Shall not the land tremble on this account, and everyone mourn who dwells in it, and all of it rise like the Nile, and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?”
Just as the Nile would inevitably rise in flooding, just as unavoidable as that destruction would be so too was the judgement of God on the land and everyone in it.
“And on that day,” declares the Lord God, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.
I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.
Mourning for an only son- Pastor and wife who lost their daughter to suicide because of depression. “Unearthly sound” that came from his wife.
The judgement gets even more severe than that!
“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.
They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.
And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams, or by Urim, or by prophets.
Israel and Amaziah got their wish!
“But you made the Nazirites drink wine, and commanded the prophets, saying, ‘You shall not prophesy.’
And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there, but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”
Amos, Obadiah, Jonah A Fainting from Thirst for the Word of the Lord (8:13)
Worse than strong words of judgment from the Lord is no word from the Lord, an ominous and foreboding silence. To receive no word from God in response to cries for help meant that God had hidden his face from them, rejected and abandoned them to their enemies
“In that day the lovely virgins and the young men shall faint for thirst.
Amos 8:14 (ESV)
Those who swear by the Guilt of Samaria, and say, ‘As your god lives, O Dan,’ and, ‘As the Way of Beersheba lives,’ they shall fall, and never rise again.”
Their judgement was sure, God would never let them escape the judgement for their sin.
Grace:
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
How can this be? How can those who believe in Jesus not come into judgement? Are we right we we said God never lets anyone escape the judgment for sin or not? Does the Bible contradict itself?
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Friends, we must see sin as God see it! We must understand just how serious it is and turn from it! But our sin can never be overlooked, or forgotten about, or our judgement can never be escaped without the grace of God! Without God’s grace we are helpless and hopeless in our battle with sin.
“Such a man as opposes nothing to the seduction of sin and lust in his heart but fear of shame among men or hell from God, is sufficiently resolved to do the sin if there were no punishment attending it; which, what it differs from living in the practice of sin, I know not. Those who are Christ's, and are acted in their obedience upon gospel principles, have the death of Christ, the love of God, the detestable nature of sin, the preciousness of communion with God, a deep-grounded abhorrency of sin as sin, to oppose to any seduction of sin, to all the workings, strivings, fightings of lust in their hearts.”
“So did Joseph. "How shall I do this great evil," saith he, "and sin against the Lord?" my good and gracious God. And Paul, "The love of Christ constrains us;" and, "Having received these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all pollution of the flesh and spirit," 2 Cor. vii. 1. But now if a man be so under the power of his lust that he has nothing but law to oppose it withal, if he cannot fight against it with gospel weapons, but deals with it altogether with hell and judgment, which are the proper arms of the law, it is most evident that sin has possessed itself of his will and affections to a very great prevalency and conquest.”
Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,
so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Will you avail yourself of God’s grace today? Sinner won’t you come? Come to the Savior who is ready to forgive!