God's Plumb Line and Revival
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God’s Plumb Line
God’s Plumb Line
Thus He showed me, and behold, the Lord was standing by a vertical wall with a plumb line in His hand.
The Lord said to me, “What do you see, Amos?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said,
“Behold I am about to put a plumb line
In the midst of My people Israel.
I will spare them no longer.
God was going to destroy Judah because they had turned away from Him. Amos petitioned on behalf of Judah and God gave Amos a solution. The solution was the plumb line. So what is God’s plumb line? It is the word of God. The Lord wanted His people to return to Him by returning to His word. If they chose not to then destruction of Judah was inevitable.
God’s plumb line for our life is the Bible. The principles and commandments in scripture are not suggestions for us to follow. They are commandments that have consequences. When you adhere to the Scripture the consequences are intimacy with God. When we choose to disregard the scripture the consequence is destruction. Our choices have consequences whether good or bad.
Understand that our salvation is not based on our behavior but our intimacy with God is! The reason is because adherence to the Scripture is a demonstration of faith and love for God. Jesus said in John 14:23
Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.
Our sin is not a behavior problem, it is a love problem. That is why the first commandment says Exodus 20:1-3
Then God spoke all these words, saying,
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
“You shall have no other gods before Me.
When we commit sin we always violate the first commandment. This is because we choose sin over God. This demonstrates that your desire for sin is greater than your love for God. John 3:19
“This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.
God takes our love for him seriously. He cautioned the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2:4-7
‘But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.
‘Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent.
‘Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.’
God cautioned the church at Ephesus to return to their first love. They had allowed legalistic orthodoxy to squash their love for one another. They had focused so much on the purity of the church that they had disregarded love for one another. Jesus commands them to remain vigilant on purity, but return to love for one another.
So what happens when we get out of line with God’s plumb line. It is then that we need personal revival.
God’s Revival
God’s Revival
God’s revival begins in the heart of a person. This happens through repentance. Repentance is more than just confessing your sin. Repentance is allowing God to take away the desire for your sin and replace it with Himself. We see this illustrated with King Asa in 2 Chronicles 15:1-15
Now the Spirit of God came on Azariah the son of Oded,
and he went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: the Lord is with you when you are with Him. And if you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.
“For many days Israel was without the true God and without a teaching priest and without law.
“But in their distress they turned to the Lord God of Israel, and they sought Him, and He let them find Him.
“In those times there was no peace to him who went out or to him who came in, for many disturbances afflicted all the inhabitants of the lands.
“Nation was crushed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every kind of distress.
“But you, be strong and do not lose courage, for there is reward for your work.”
Now when Asa heard these words and the prophecy which Azariah the son of Oded the prophet spoke, he took courage and removed the abominable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities which he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim. He then restored the altar of the Lord which was in front of the porch of the Lord.
He gathered all Judah and Benjamin and those from Ephraim, Manasseh and Simeon who resided with them, for many defected to him from Israel when they saw that the Lord his God was with him.
So they assembled at Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa’s reign.
They sacrificed to the Lord that day 700 oxen and 7,000 sheep from the spoil they had brought.
They entered into the covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and soul;
and whoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel should be put to death, whether small or great, man or woman.
Moreover, they made an oath to the Lord with a loud voice, with shouting, with trumpets and with horns.
All Judah rejoiced concerning the oath, for they had sworn with their whole heart and had sought Him earnestly, and He let them find Him. So the Lord gave them rest on every side.
We see here that the nation of Israel had turned away from God. God subsequently took peace away from them and allowed them to suffer tribulation and troubled them with every kind of distress. God allowed this for the purpose of getting their attention so they would return to Him.
God gave the instructions when He said the Lord is with you when you are with Him. And if you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.
It is pretty simple. If you are with God, He is with you. When we seek Him He will allow us to find Him. If we forsake Him, He will forsake us.
Be with the Lord
Be with the Lord
We must be with the Lord. So what does this mean? John 15:4-11
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.
“I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
“If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.
“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
“My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.
“Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.
“If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
“These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
Seek the Lord
Seek the Lord
Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
What this means is to seek the principles of God and set your mind on those things. It is when we do these that we can affect the will of God here on earth. Just like we pray in the Lord’s prayer, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Forsake the Lord
Forsake the Lord
For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing to be wise, they became fools,
and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.
For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
When we forsake the Lord, He will give us what we want. He will turn us over to the lusts of our hearts.
the word revival is two words in the Greek. “re” means again and “vival” means to live. So revival means to live again. God does this in two ways. He does it in salvation. He causes the dead unregenerate soul to com to life. This is why we call it “born again” That which was dead had a re-birth.
God also does it when we fall away from Him. The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin so that we can repent of that sin. That area of our life that was dead in sin becomes alive again in Christ through repentance.