Discipline makes your britches fit
Posted on April 9, 2007
Filed Under Matt Clifton, Sermons
by Matt Clifton
There was big trouble in little Israel. Seems God’s chosen people had gotten a little too big for their britches, as the old saying goes. The prophet Amos was delivering a message from God, and things weren’t looking too good.
“Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light. As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?” ““ Amos 5:18-20.
Many in Israel apparently spoke of looking forward to the “day of the Lord,” when God would exercise judgment. Verse 18 lets us know right off, though, that those Israelites eager for this day might have a surprise coming!
But wait a minute. “Didn’t God make promises to our fathers?” the Jews might have thought. Weren’t they the children of Abraham? What was the deal with this warning to Israel? What did they do? Amos tells us what they’ve done.
“Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes; That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father will go in unto the same maid, to profane my holy name: And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god.” ““ Amos 2:6-8.
“They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly. Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them. For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.” ““ Amos 5:10-12.
Israel might remind you here of a “spoiled child.” We all knew someone growing up that seemed to “have it all.” Their parents gave them everything they could ask for, and yet they took it for granted, did foolish things and shamed their parents.
That parent might sit that child down and say, “Look, we’ve given you everything we can, why won’t you obey us?” Sometimes they might just let it slide, hoping the child will turn around on their own. But eventually, if order and respect is going to be returned, the parents will have to discipline that child. Put their foot down, and help them squeeze back into their right-sized pants.
In Amos 2:9-11, just after naming some of these things Israel has done to go astray, God reminds them of what He has done for them.
“Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath. Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite. And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel? saith the LORD.” ““ Amos 2:9-11.
So God recounts what He has done for them. And yet, even in the face of the way God has given them His very protection and presence, holding their hand through the wilderness and guiding them in an intimate and personal way, not only did they sin against God’s law, but they also made a big show of being pure and obedient worshippers! All the while going about doing these things, they were offering their sacrifices and all, thinking perhaps God would turn His head and ignore the other stuff! But that wasn’t the case. God was fed up with their vain worship.
“I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.” ““ Amos 5:21-24.
They even worshipped idols, and because of all this, Amos 5:27 says God would send them into captivity.
There was big trouble in Israel, all right. And how sad it is when those considered elect by God make a show of worshipping, and then practice injustice and fail to exhibit righteousness. Do they think the Father’s back is turned?
THE CHURCH IS TEMPTED THE SAME WAY
Isn’t that temptation alive and well for God’s elect today? Under the Old Covenant, Israel was God’s chosen people. Under the New, the church is the elect. And so we have the same temptation today as Israel had.
How tempting it is””knowing the way of God and understanding how He desires us to worship Him””to think that worship alone will get us by.
How tempting it is to sit among the assembly of the saints on the Lord’s day, to partake of the Lord’s supper, to give of our means, to sing praises to God with our voices, lifting His name to the roof”¦and then spend the rest of the week lockstep with the world, averting our eyes from the practice of evil, sidestepping the poor, ignoring the plague of injustice we see from day to day, or perhaps even participating in it. All the while being sure that our weekly visit to worship services has made us safe for another six days.
Ah, but that safety we seek in religious observance is no safety at all, if it doesn’t come from the heart, and if it doesn’t play itself out in our daily lives! This is the message of Amos, and it was the message of Jesus Christ, as well.
But sometimes we find ourselves in the sandals of the priest and the Levite in the story of the Good Samaritan, Luke 10:30-37. The priest and the Levite were of course bound to fulfill their duties at the temple, but they failed to practice the personal righteousness that God calls for. They left that man by the side of the road, beaten, naked and half dead.
On our way from Sunday to Sunday, there are six days in between. Do we fully see the danger in passing by those in need as we travel from worship time to worship time, like the priest and the Levite?
Jesus told the Pharisees in Luke 11:42 that they “tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass by justice and the love of God.” These you ought to have done, He said, without leaving the others undone.
What a trap that lies spread open for the church, if she says “Lord, Lord” on Sunday, then lives like the world for the next six days.
What a dangerous time for the church, if as God’s elect, we become like spoiled children, outgrowing our britches. While God reminded Israel of the way He brought them out of Egypt, we could well be reminded how He brought us out of certain and eternal death, out of the consequences of sin, and into His Son, where there is salvation. We might well be reminded that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, John 3:16. We might well be brought into remembrance that we’ve been bought with a price, 1 Cor. 6:19-20, and that very price was the blood of our precious Savior, Acts 20:28.
HOPE FOR ISRAEL
But even in the face of the message of God’s judgment, there was hope on the horizon for Israel. I remember hearing older men speaking of disciplining unruly children: “Where there’s a belt, there’s hope!” Sometimes children get so far out of line, that strong discipline is needed.
Israel’s hope was ever present in the fact that God still loved them enough to discipline them. Israel’s hope was ever present in the fact that God still offered safety for those who would turn back to Him. Even in the midst of the pronouncement of certain judgment for national Israel, an option still was open for grace for a remnant that would obey Him!
“Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken. Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.” ““ Amos 5:14-15
Even further than that, hope was ever present that God would fulfill His promises for a Messiah.
“Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the LORD.
For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.
All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.
In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:
That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the LORD that doeth this.
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.
And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God. ““ Amos 9:8-15.
After all the discipline, after all the “stuffing Israel back into its britches,” God promised to bring His people back out of captivity. We know from reading Ezra and Nehemiah that what God promised, He fulfilled. What a wonderful day that must have been in Jerusalem when, after 70 years of being disciplined through the captivity, Ezra, who had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel once again statutes and judgments, Ezra 7:10, stood to read the book of the Law, and all the people who had returned from the exile stood when he opened, Nehemiah 8:5. Then Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people said, “Amen, amen,” and worshipped God. Even greater it was that they sought to do what was written in that book.
Finally, for the time being, they were back in their britches.
GOD DISCIPLINES HIS CHURCH
But what about the church? What happens to us when we find ourselves getting a little too tight in the overalls?
He has promised us discipline, as well.
“And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.” Hebrews 12:5-8.
How does this discipline occur? When does it happen? What does it look like? We’re not told specifically. But we are told that as children of God, if we are children, He will discipline us. We can expect it. But this is a good thing! It means we are loved.
Now, a spoiled child certainly doesn’t consider it love when he gets what he’s got coming to him. Not at first, any way. I don’t know if I was a spoiled child. I was accused a time or two. But I do know that no whipping I ever got did any good. At least not from my perspective. But now that I’m older, I am so thankful for those times of discipline from my earthly father. And they surely did some good.
And this is the way it is with the Christian toward our heavenly Father. Sometimes we find ourselves out of line. Sometimes we find ourselves relying on our status as His children to avoid doing what we ought to do, and relying on our religious practices to get us by. And sometimes we get disciplined, and we don’t like it.
But for this discipline, we should be thankful.
“Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” ““ Hebrews 12:9-11.
We, as the elect of God, are precious and loved by our Father. And because He loves us, He disciplines us. And because we receive discipline, we know that we are sons!
But woe to us if we attempt to rely on our elect status without practicing righteousness. Like Amos told Israel of old, let us seek good and not evil, that we may live, and the Lord God of Hosts will be with us.
“Let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
And let us all stay in our correctly-sized britches.
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