The Snare of Success

Transcription of the ninth episode of the Studies in the book of Amos brought to you by Pastor Rusty Tardo.

You can listen here.

“We're looking at chapter 6.

Amos chapter 6. I've titled the message tonight, Snared by Success. Snared by success.

You know success can ruin you.

Somebody once said that success has ruined more people than failure. It's not failure that's our greatest enemy or our most deadly foe.

It's actually success that we need to watch out for.

Because it destroys you and you don't know it's destroying you. You think God's blessing you.

While in fact, you're deteriorating spiritually and morally and ethically. And money, wealth, riches, possessions are eating your soul away. So it really is a very dangerous, deadly, potentially deadly adversary.

Amos chapter 6, let's read the chapter.

Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations to whom the house of Israel came. Pass ye unto Calna, and see.

And from thence go ye to Hamath, the great.

Then go down to Gath, of the Philistines.

Be they better than these kingdoms?

Or their border greater than your border?

“Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seed of violence to come near, that lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall, that chant to the sound of the vial, and invent to themselves instruments of music, like David, that drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments. But they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. Therefore, now shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretch themselves shall be removed.

The Lord God has sworn by himself, saith the Lord, the God of hosts, I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and hate his palaces.

Therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is therein.

And it shall come to pass, if there remain ten men in one house, that they shall die. And a man's uncle shall take him up, and he that burneth him to bring out the bones out of the house, and shall say unto him that is by the sides of the house, is there yet any with thee?

And he shall say, No.

Then shall he say, Hold thy tongue, for we may not make mention of the name of the Lord. For behold, the Lord commandeth, and he will smite the great house with the breeches, and the little house with clefts.

Shall horses run upon the rock? Will one plow there with oxen?

For ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock. Ye which rejoice in a thing of not, which say, have we not taken to us horns by our own strength? But behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith the Lord, the God of hosts, and they shall afflict you from the entering in of Hameth unto the river of the wilderness.

The Lord's address once more to the people of Israel. Actually, chapter 6 is the last part of the second section of the book of Amos.

If you remember, when we first started this study in the book of Amos, I divided the book up into three sections. It falls very naturally into three very clearly marked sections. Chapters 1 and 2 contain the series of eight pronouncements against Judah, against Israel, and against six of the foreign nations that were there, that immediately surrounded them, their heathen neighbors.

That was chapters 1 and 2.

That was the first section.

The second section was chapters 3 through 6.

And chapter 6 is the last chapter of this section, where Amos has actually pronounced judgments. He has preached sermons of judgment against Israel because of their sins. And he repeatedly catalogs their sins and announces those sins over and over to them and tells them, this is why God is judging you.

This is why God is going to destroy you.

And then after this, the last section of the book, chapter seven through nine, we begin a series of five visions that Amos saw and the prophetic messages that they conveyed in those visions. So, this chapter, we've called the snare of success, because it illustrates the fact that wealth, prosperity, money, security and the things of this world, they do have certain inherent dangers that can corrupt and destroy, it can even destroy good men. Good people can be turned into bad people because of the influence of wealth.

More than once, good men or good women, people who started out good, have been corrupted by the influence of success, fame, money, possessions, things.

This is something that is very important for us to remember because our society is so materialistic. Everything you see today is geared towards the material, to owning, buying, possessing, acquiring, having, hoarding, having money.

Television, radio, newspapers, the media, movies, everything aggrandizes the wealthy, successful business man or business woman, the person who's famous, the person who's the model, or the Hollywood star, or the rock star, or whatever. The person who has made their mark in society, made a lot of money, that live in the gigantic mansions on the hill, and press the button on their portion, the gates open up, and they drive up the long driveway to their 15 room mansion. And that's success in the eyes of America.

Man, you have made it.

You've arrived. That's what life is all about.

Now, that's what we Americans have been brainwashed to think.

But that's what life is about. That's the goal in life, to arrive there, to drive fancy European automobiles, to wear all designer clothes, to never buy things off the rack. Who would shop at Kmart or Walmart when you should shop at famous designers and have thousand dollar suits and things like that, eat only the finest caviar, and so on.

We, unfortunately, even in the church, have to a large degree adopted the world's philosophy, the world's view of success.

Even in the church, people think that the church should be a show place of wealth and success and prosperity.

Not merely functional, but a show place.

Of course, if they think that, they don't come here and sit in the metal chair.

We don't have any statues anyway, I guess.

I don't believe God wants his people to be failures.

I don't want anyone to think that there's some virtue in lacking or having need.

That's certainly not what we believe.

You know better than that.

But I don't want anyone either to fall into the snare of success, the snare of success, because there can be a snare in worldly success.

Israel was successful, very successful. Israel was wealthy.

In fact, at this point in her history, she probably was more prosperous than any of her surrounding neighbors. She probably had more money, more wealth, more military might than any of her neighbors. They basked, literally basked, in luxury and in ease.

They were a nation of honor and fame.

That's what verse 1 speaks about.

The latter part of verse 1, where it speaks of those named chief of the nations to who the house of Israel come.

I mean, they were visited regularly by the chiefest men of all nations.

They were always visited by royalty, and kings and ambassadors always sent over there to bring gifts to Samaria and so forth.

They were a city of prestige. They were a city, a nation of renown.

Jeroboam II, the king, his military exploits were known throughout that part of the world because he had made the nation secure from all of their neighbors.

They were very secure.

They had a very large, well-equipped army, well-trained.

Samaria itself sat on a hill and was well-defended. High walls, big towers, powerful armies. In fact, the city was considered impregnable.

They didn't think anyone could take Samaria. And besides all of these things they had going for them, they were wealthy, they were prospering, they were religious. And that's something that they consider, listen, we are Jews, we're God's covenant people, we are religious, we go to church, they attended their worship services.

Never mind the fact that they were worshiping calves.

That's something that they managed to overlook.

But they were religious.

They went to the assemblies. They paid their vows.

They made their offerings. They offered up the sacrifices, and made their tithes, and sang the songs. They went through all the religious motions.

And they really felt good about themselves.

They felt real good about their religion. Of course, in the sight of God, they were abominable.

They were filthy.

In the sight of God, they were lax spiritually.

They were negligent. Sure, they maintained many of the rituals of Judaism, but they had incorporated calf worship into it. And a number of other atrocious acts that God considered nothing less than apostasy because of the immorality and so forth involved in many of the religious acts they had adopted from their neighbors.

Now, I've divided chapter 6 into two sections.

Verses 1 through 6, I've called the sins of success because these are the sins that the successful Israelites fell into in the catalog of sins that Amos denounces. The sins of success, verses 1 through 6, and then the ruin, the riches, their riches would bring upon them.

That's verses 7 through 14.

But before we get into this, I want to read another passage to you from over in 1 Timothy.

I know you'll be familiar with this.

1 Timothy chapter 6, I want to show you something that the New Testament has to say also about the perils, the snares, the potential snares of success.

Let me read a few verses here.

1 Timothy 6, beginning in verse 3.

If any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, He is proud, knowing nothing but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmising, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth.

Now listen to this.

I'm in 1 Timothy 6.5.

Supposing that gain is godliness.

It was an interesting footnote in my Tyndale commentary.

I thought it was real interesting.

It said that money was always the chief concern of false prophets. That's one characteristic of a false prophet. Money, money, money, money.

What did he talk about? Money, money, money.

Give, give, give.

Make your vows.

Pay your vows.

Let me tell you something.

I saw that guy on TV the other night.

And I can tell you this with all sincerity and no malice, or I've got no axe to grind, but I'll tell you, anybody who sends money to that fella has no spiritual discernment whatsoever. They have the spiritual discernment of a termite if they send money to that guy.

It's sad, but he is blatant in his appeal for money. He has one message, pay.

Pay, pay, pay.

And then God is obligated to do something for you.

That kind of a message is going to bring judgment on his head.

I'll tell you right now to bring judgment on his head.

I would fear to be in his shoes, honestly and truly. I would fear to be in his shoes to tell wicked people that if you'll just send money, God will bless you irregardless of your spiritual condition, irregardless of the life you live. Can you imagine telling Americans, give money and God will bless you?

What kind of a message is that? You think Amos would have told the people of Israel that?

Now, America today and Israel in Amos' day were identical. Spiritually, they were in identical positions. Can you imagine Amos driving around with a bumper sticker on his car that says, smile, God loves you?

Hello.

Let me tell you something.

God was going to judge Israel.

He was going to destroy Israel.

They were at the brink of total extinction because they were going to be extinguished as a nation. Shortly after Amos' prophecy, they were invaded by Assyria never to exist again as an independent nation. The northern kingdom was extinguished and doesn't exist even today.

There is no more divided nation, no more northern kingdom, southern kingdom.

There's just Israel today.

The northern kingdom was extinguished as a nation. Do you think telling people, smile, God loves you, is the right message for a nation that is about to fall under judgment? Do you think telling them to pay their vows and the Lord will bless them, just make a vow to God?

We just read in Amos chapter 5.

He says, I don't want your vows.

I don't want your ties, your offerings. I don't want your sacrifices.

What does he want?

Judgment, justice, obedience, righteousness.

That's what he wants.

You can't tell wicked people, pay your vows and God's obligated to bless you.

That's not true at all.

That's a lie.

That's a devil's lie.

What should they be saying?

Repent of your sins, turn from your wicked ways, turn from your selfish living. You see, a materialistic society thinks about one thing, money. Money is the only thing on their mind, and to them, the way to succeed is money.

If you want something, you buy it.

You earn enough to buy it.

And if you want something from God, you buy that too. You see, money to them, money is the one thing that controls everything.

You buy from God by giving gifts to God, and then God will give something to you.

But that's not the way it works, is it?

The whole idea, the whole concept of seed faith and so forth, that's foreign to the Bible.

God's not obligated to us. We give because we want to give, because we love the Lord, because it's all His.

And then He does promise He'll bless when we give from a good heart.

He does bless. He will bless.

I was reading back here in 1 Timothy.

Let me go back over here. 1 Timothy chapter 6.

He says, From such withdraw thyself, withdraw from those who think that gain is godliness. But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that we can carry nothing out.

And having food and raiment, let us therewith be content. But they that will be rich, those who drive, who push, who determine, that's what their goal in life is, to be rich. They that will be rich fall into temptation and the snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.

For the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

But thou, O man of God, flee these things.

Flee what?

The love of money.

The pursuit of worldly success. Flee those things and follow righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.

That's God's desire, not to be snared by success.

Now on the other hand, if we'll seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, what does he say he'll do?

He'll give you all those things.

The things others are stealing and lying and cheating and conniving and all those things to get, he says, I'll just give them to you if your heart's right. If you'll just seek first the kingdom, I'll just give them to you because your heart's not on them.

He'll just bless you with them.

You know, in all of these years, between Amos' day and the present, mankind has not changed.

The same indictments that God made against Israel, I believe, could be accurately made against the United States today.

We're guilty of the same sins against God, the same crimes against God.

And here's something that we can't help but consider. If God did not spare Israel for their sins, His covenant people, they were the natural olive tree, according to Romans 11. If God did not spare them, then how dare we believe He will spare America when we have had more light, more grace, and yet our sins are multiplied, multiplied worse than Israel.

And we're not even the natural olive tree.

We're the wild olive tree that's been grafted in. Now, if God didn't spare them, how dare we think He'll spare our own nation from judgment.

But we're in a similar position that Israel was.

Israel was basking in its prosperity, in its security.

The rest of the world was in turmoil. They were in peace. They had just come off of several military victories.

Jeroboam II had made their borders secure.

They were really proud of themselves.

They were supreme in technology.

Their soldiers were the best trained in the world.

They thought they were on top of the world, that God surely was blessing them. That's where we are right now. That's where our country is right now.

We're perched the same place they were, on the brink of judgment. Now here he begins to catalog their sins. Beginning in chapter 6, verse 1, the first sin that he mentions, the snare of success, the first snare of success, is spiritual apathy.

Amos 6, verse 1, Woe to them that are at ease in Zion. Now being at ease in Zion doesn't merely depict someone who is physically relaxing, physically idle, but here what it really is pointing to is a spiritual condition, spiritual indifference, spiritual lukewarmness, coldness, apathy, a lack of concern about their moral condition, about their spiritual condition. And it refers to their own contentment with things the way they are.

They like things the way they are, spiritually. The people actually had developed a certain spiritual cockiness about them, almost a recklessness. I don't know if you've ever experienced witnessing to people who were spiritually cocky, and yet they were totally ignorant, spiritually.

But they believed they belonged to the one true church.

And so they really were cocky, in a reckless sort of way, and had no idea what they were talking about.

“If you've ever talked to cult members, if you've ever witnessed to Jehovah Witnesses or Mormons, they have a cockiness about them, and yet they're totally ignorant of the Word of God.

Totally ignorant of their own spiritual condition.

They don't realize they're lost.

They're going to hell.

They don't even believe in hell.

But they're cocky, because they think that they've really got it.

You know, the hardest people in the world to witness to, to get across to, are those who think they have the truth.

They're not really open to your message, because they think they've got the truth.

They think they're living the truth.

Well, I'm a member of Thus and Soa Church.

You know, they're Mormons, or Roman Catholics, or Jehovah Witnesses, or you name it.

You know, they think that belonging to these groups makes them right with God.

So they have a cockiness born of ignorance.

That's the way Israel was.

They had a spiritual cockiness, but it was a cockiness born of ignorance.

Ignorance to their own spiritual condition, their own spiritual peril.

They were blind.

They actually thought God was for them.

God was on their side.

God was blessing them.

They're the hardest of all to get across to.

And the idea of their being at ease in Zion, listen to this, they had a religion that they were comfortable with. They had a religion that they were comfortable with. It didn't make them uncomfortable to participate in their religion.

It didn't condemn their activities. It didn't condemn their sins. It didn't condemn their greed.

They were contented with it because it provided them with an outlet for all of their religious urges. They could go, they could sacrifice, they could worship, they could sing the songs, and they could still walk out the door and be just as wicked as they ever were. And they actually felt good about themselves.

They had fulfilled their religious obligations by attending worship, by paying their vows, offering up a few sacrifices, giving their tithe, singing a few songs, carrying a religious scroll around.

They felt real good about it.

They had a religion that they were comfortable with.

It didn't make them uncomfortable one bit.

And being that they were Jews, they still held to many of the aspects of their Jewish worship.

They were very proud of that fact.

They were still God's covenant people.

They could leave that church assembly, go right back out in the world, lie, steal, oppress the poor, judge unrighteous judgment, and feel like they were doing all right, that God was blessing.

There was no depth whatsoever, no depth whatsoever in their understanding, in their hearts.

You follow what I'm saying?

They had a religion they were comfortable with.

You know what Americans want today?

A religion they can be comfortable with.

I was reading the latest issue of Ministries magazine. It's a magazine that's distributed to ministers, pastors all over the United States and different parts of the world. And one article in there dealt with how to have a big baby boomer church, they call it, because, you know, a lot of us are in the baby boomer generation, and it spoke of how to build these big mega churches and really reach out to the baby boomers, and some of the points that they made.

This is a magazine going out to pastors.

Some of the points they made would make you want to weep, I'll tell you the truth.

One thing they said was, never preach over 20 minutes, because baby boomers are busy.

I mean, they just have a little bit of time to cram God into their busy schedules, but they don't want to be tied up in church and don't give them anything theological.

Keep a little how-to, inspirational, short and snappy, snappy little title, and they'll like that and inspire them. Your message should be inspirational, full of humor and personal anecdotes, and let them leave feeling good.

They want a religion they can be comfortable with, just like Israel.

And they say, if you do that, you can build a big church.

I don't know what kind of church it will be, but it will be big.

Well, I guess when I closed the magazine, I realized I'm not going to attract too many baby boomers if that's the case, because we do too many things wrong for the baby boomer generation, I guess.

But you see the point.

They wanted a religion they could be comfortable with.

Israel was heading for ruin. Israel was perched on the brink of judgment.

Israel was going to hell.

And yet, they were at ease in Zion.

They were comfortable with their religion.

They liked things the way it was.

That's where America is.

That's where a lot of church people are.

They're actually going to hell.

Never have repented of their sins.

Never have abandoned this world.

They still love sin.

They're going to hell, but they're content with their religion the way it is.

Here's a second snare of success that Amos mentions. They grossly overestimated their strength. That's also in verse 1, where he says, Woe to them that are at ease in Zion and trust in the mountain of Samaria. They trust in the mountain of Samaria, which speaks of Samaria, the fortress, the city on a hill, high, lofty, walled, many, many towers, well armored, well protected, considered impregnable.

Their security was in their military strength. Their security was in the fact that they were religious.

Not that they knew God, but that they knew about God.

You see, they were religious people.

They had a misplaced trust, a misplaced faith.

They weren't really trusting in God. They were trusting in Samaria. That's what verse 1 says.

They trusted in the mountain of Samaria. Their trust was in their huge, walled city, in their military might, and their generals, and their captains, and their government, and leaders, and so forth. Their recent military successes made them even more confident.

Verse 2, notice what Amos tells them.

Pass ye unto Calna, and see, and from there go to Hamath, the great, and then go down the gath of the Philistines. Be they better than these kingdoms, or the border greater than your border? You know what he's saying?

All of these cities were once mighty, capital, prospering, successful cities.

Just like you are.

Just like Samaria.

All of them were once powerful, and all once considered impregnable.

But now, every one of them had been conquered. Every one of them had fallen from their once lofty position.

And that's why Amos was pointing them out.

He said, you better look around.

All of these mighty nations, all of these mighty cities, they all failed.

You better than they are.

They were all heathen nations.

You're worse than they are.

You know, at that point, Israel had become more heathen than the heathens.

Amos says, they all fell.

What makes you think you won't?

How will you escape if they didn't escape?

But they boasted in their own strength.

The strength of their armaments, the size of their army. You know, just think back a few months like Saddam Hussein shook his fist in the face of the whole western world and literally defied the world.

He took Kuwait, took his fist in the face of the world, and said, it's mine, I dare you to come try and take it away from me.

I've got the fourth largest army in the world.

The fourth largest.

And he did.

And they did.

They came and took it away from him.

And the last time I read statistics, these are probably outdated now, it's probably worse than this, but the last time I read, Saddam Hussein's army is now considered the 118th largest army in the world.

From the fourth to the 118th.

Today, it's probably the 4,000th largest because it keeps falling as his troops keep dissolving and even turning against him.

The point is, you can't look at yourself for trust, your own army, your own navy, your own military might, your own successes, past successes.

We have to ask ourselves, where is our trust?

Where is our confidence?

Is it really in God?

Or is it in our military, our superior weaponry? Is it in our banks, our banking system, our government, our social security?

Is it in our favorite politician or our insurance policy?

Is it in our doctor, our lawyer?

Is it in ourselves?

Is our faith, our trust in our own skills, our own abilities, our own knowledge or whatever? If our faith is not totally in Christ, then our trust is just as misplaced as Israel's was. Now, here's yet a third snare of success.

Now, the first one we see, the first one is that of spiritual apathy.

People get successful, they become spiritually apathetic.

Now, listen, those things, you've witnessed that with your own eyes.

Perhaps you've experienced it.

People become successful, they become prosperous, things start going their way, and you know what?

They're not pressing in towards God much anymore.

They don't really have that urgency. Nothing's driving them to their knees to seek God in prayer.

They're successful.

They're prospering.

Things are going their way.

The first snare of success, the very first, is apathy, spiritual apathy.

So make sure we see that one.

The second one is misplaced trust, because as a person becomes successful, just like Israel, as they become successful, more and more their confidence is in their things, in their possessions, their own wealth, their own skill, their own knowledge, their own ability to amass wealth.

More and more, their eyes get off of Christ, off of the Word, off of the promises, off of God, and more and more onto the security of this world.

That's where they find their security, in this world.

But here's the third thing, a third snare of success. These are very real snares, and they're real for us today.

The third one is, they put far away the evil day.

That's verse 3.

Notice this.

Ye that put far away the evil day and cause the seed of violence to come near.

Now, what does that mean?

Well, it has a double significance, actually.

First, they put far from their minds the thought of any approaching judgment.

They don't want to think about that.

Whereas at one time, in their own heart and in their own mind, there was the knowledge that judgment is going to fall soon.

But now that they're prospering in this world, now that things are going their way, now that they're amassing a fortune, now that they're prospering and successful, they don't want to think about judgment coming.

They're enjoying this too much.

Hello.

Now they're buying, they're acquiring, they're growing, they're expanding, they're prospering, they're succeeding. Now they don't want to even think about judgment.

Somebody starts talking about judgment is going to fall, and this nation is for its sins.

They say, man, don't come around here with all that.

I don't want to hear that. Don't you know that God is blessing us?

Look at how He's blessing the work of my hands.

Look at what's going on in my life.

You follow what I'm saying?

Look at how my business is growing.

Look at how I'm accumulating.

Look how I'm succeeding.

Look at this car I drive. Look how many camels I have out here.

So the thought of the evil day coming, the day of judgment, the day of reckoning, they don't want to think about that.

That's something they don't even want to allow.

Allow that to enter their mind.

Put that far away.

So they'll put the thought far away from them.

It's just like how some people don't want to think about death.

Have you ever tried to witness to someone and you talk to them about, you know, well, if you died today, where do you think you'd spend eternity?

Die?

Man, I don't want to talk about that. I don't want to think about death.

I want to think about dying.

Get out of here with all those kind of stuff.

They put away from them any thought of one day having to give an account, of giving a reckoning to anyone.

They don't want to think about that.

So that's where Israel was.

But it also has another significance.

And that significance, we would say, that they put the fact of the Lord's coming in righteousness, the Lord's coming even in rapture.

They put that far into the future.

Notice, you put far away those things.

You put it far away from you. No, no, that's not going to be any time soon. Man, that's probably a thousand years away, before the Lord comes, before the trumpet blows, before a rapture or anything.

No, no, no.

That's not any time soon.

That's escapist theology.

You people are just so spiritually minded, you know earthly good.

That's far, far, far in the future.

I know you've probably bumped into folks like that, who put off any idea of the coming of the Lord into a far, far, far future thing.

And because they put those things far off, they consider them to be yet a long way off, they continue in their own paths of unrighteousness, including the violent oppression of the poor.

That's what the latter part of verse 3 says.

You cause the seed of violence to come near. While you put off the thought of any judgment coming upon you, you put that far off.

But you bring violence yourself upon the others right away, upon the poor. You yourself are committing acts of violent judgment upon others.

You bring that near.

You see the play on words that Amos actually uses here. So, in other words, the evil day is far off for them, but it's near for those that they oppress and rob and cheat and kill because they themselves are doing the violence.

That, too, is one of the snares of success.

That's putting away from your mind the thought of God coming in judgment, God coming to cause you to give a reckoning, putting far off the thought of accountability. People who are succeeding, prospering in life and so forth, they don't want to think about that. They put it far away.

That, too, is a snare of success.

Here's another one, yet a fourth one.

Decadent luxury and self-indulgence.

Amos 6, verse 4.

Amos 6, 4.

That lie upon beds of ivory and stretch themselves upon their couches and eat the lambs out of the flock and the calves out of the midst of the stall.

Decadent luxury and self-indulgence. This speaks of those who spend a fortune on fine furnishings. They don't, they wouldn't hesitate to spend, you know, when people are rich, they don't hesitate to spend tens of thousands of dollars on furnishings.

My wife was just telling me the other day about a fellow who went to the furniture store with $75,000 cash in a brown paper bag.

$75,000 cash to just furnish his house, to just buy furniture for his house.

And now that he and his wife are divorcing, he's just going to give it all to her, you know, because he's got no use for all that.

And what's $75,000 anyway for a little furniture?

You think about the decadent luxury of the wealthy.

They think nothing of spending tens of thousands on things like that.

Now, I'll tell you what, all the furniture I've ever bought, most of it's come out the newspaper, secondhand.

Unless I've bought sofas, I'd rather buy sofas and beds at the store.

But I can't imagine spending the kind of money people spend on things like that.

It's just...

But here's what the rich do, and this is one of the great snares of the rich. They think nothing of spending hundreds of thousands, tens of thousands, or thousands, whatever, on themselves.

But the thought of giving, the thought of sharing, those who are needing, that thought never comes into their mind.

Now, they can spend ten thousand on their furnishings, but if they can give another guy who has a need over here twenty bucks, they think they've really done something. You read just a little further down over here in verse 6, and you see how while they pamper themselves, they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.

You remember who Joseph was?

You know the twelve patriarchs, the twelve sons of Isaac. Joseph was one of them who his brothers sold into slavery.

Their own brothers sold him off, didn't even consider who he was, twelve sons of Israel rather, sold him off into slavery.

Well, listen, this is what he's saying to them. You pamper yourselves with luxury and self-indulgence, but your own brother who has a need, you don't even care.

You're not even concerned about your own brother, your own sister, your own neighbor or whatever.

They pamper themselves.

This is one of the snares of success.

They pamper themselves with the very finest things, the finest furnishings that the world has to offer.

They'll buy only the best.

Money becomes no object, not when it comes to their own pleasure or their own wants, their own desires. They'll eat only the finest, choicest delicacies.

Notice what he says here in verse 4.

They eat the lambs of the flock and the calves out of the midst of the stall.

You're talking grain-fed, stall-fed cattle here, the ones that are not allowed to exercise and put any muscle on them so that the meat becomes tough.

They are raised right there in the stall so that meat is the most tender.

They are only raised on the finest grains.

They're not out there eating hay and all that kind of stuff.

They just eat grains so that that's fat-choice meat. They're talking delicacy.

These people like to pamper themselves.

You know, the modern equivalent would be the caviar crowd, I suppose.

But Amos is saying, you guys, he's not talking to the hamburger crowd over here.

He's talking about stall-fed cattle.

This was a group that lived a pampered, self-indulgent, wasteful, wanton, wicked lifestyle.

That's who he's talking about.

In other words, they lived the American dream.

The good life, that's what the Americans would call it today, the good life.

Actually, it was an evil life in God's eyes, a very evil life, because you can't justify self-indulgence.

You can't justify this kind of overindulgence just for the sake of their own gratification or just to impress others.

They wanted to impress others with their wealth and their success and so forth, especially when there was so much need around them because they oppressed the poor.

So right next to all of this great luxury was squalor.

But they didn't care about the affliction of Joseph.

They could care less about their neighbors who lacked.

They were concerned only about one thing.

That was living the good life as far as they were concerned.

And, you know, that's the lifestyle that Hollywood presents to us as the American dream. That's the good life.

I mean, living that way.

It's sad that Christians also are being influenced along those same lines.

That's a snare, a very real present snare of success.

Luxury, self-indulgence, pampering yourself to the point where people, where men become effeminate.

I mean, they become so pampered that they actually become effeminate.

“The next thing you know, their fingers are covered with jewelry, and there's all those little necklaces and chains around their wrists, and their nails are finely manicured, and they wouldn't dare do anything that would chip a nail.

The men, they actually become effeminate.

That's the fact.

You, I know it may seem funny, but it's a fact.

The males, the males become very effeminate.

Their hair is, it's always so well-groomed that there's never a hair out of place. Their clothes are always, I mean, the finest, the very finest clothing.

I mean, if they pay a thousand or so for a suit, no problem.

It becomes a snare, you know, where they begin putting on these airs.

All right, here's another one, another snare of success.

Now, you're going to like this one. Maybe you won't.

Verse five, better read it.

That chant to the sound of the vial and invent to themselves instruments of music like David.

What does this refer to?

A preoccupation with idleness and worldly music.

That's right.

That's exactly what Amos is saying.

A preoccupation with idleness and worldly music.

In fact, the word chant right here says they chant to the sound of the vial.

It means to prattle.

Sing idle songs is the way it's translated in another version.

They sing idle songs. Just those little dippy songs that don't mean anything, that have no real message or meaning behind them.

In fact, I would challenge you to check your references, check several different versions, and see how they translate this verse right here, verse 5, because I'll tell you what, every one that I checked, every reference, they all said the same thing.

It speaks of a generation of people who are preoccupied with songs, preoccupied with music, music of idleness and nothingness.

That's literally what it means.

People who sit around singing songs of idleness and nothingness, because they've got nothing else to do. They're just a self-indulgent, pampered people.

Hello.

You know, sometimes we tend to think that a lot of the little songs, they're not spiritual songs, they're not Christian songs, but they're not really bad. I mean, they're not singing about killing your mother and murdering your neighbor and robbing the store and raping the girl next door and things like that.

They're pretty just decent old regular tunes, you know, just worldly songs, but nothing nasty or filthy or vulgar.

But that's exactly the kind of songs God condemns right here in Amos 6 and verse 5.

Because when people are pampered, when they're pampered to the point of luxury, they've got nothing to do but idle away the time with self-indulgence and nothingness, songs, little trite songs and sayings and things that mean nothing. They're certainly not speaking here of songs of worship and praise, songs of worth, songs of value. But these are those little trite tunes that capture the mind and actually divert one's attention away from what's important and from what's eternal.

They're little distractions.

They just take the mind away from what's really important and what's eternal. And many times the philosophies behind these little songs are actually demonic, diabolical, humanistic, devilish.

You know, you think about it.

Whatever wastes your time, wastes your life.

Because time is the stuff that life is made of.

And whatever it is that just will preoccupy your mind, your thoughts, your attention, and get it away from things eternal, things that matter, things that are important. And it captures the imagination so that a person spends their time, energy, efforts with all of these things that just distract them.

It actually robs your very life.

They steal your life.

Because time is the stuff life is made of.

And you notice something else.

They invent to themselves instruments of music like David. It points to the fact that they try to justify their little tunes and their little songs, saying, well, David himself was a musician.

David, the great king of Israel, the one after God's own heart, he was a musician.

But there's a vast difference. David's songs ministered to the Lord.

David's songs were songs of the heart, songs of love, worship, adoration, songs of repentance, songs of value, songs that said something.

They were not songs of nothing like these are. Songs of idleness, the songs of idle minds who sing about worldly things, who do not glorify Christ. That's what's being condemned here in these passages.

Now listen to me, brothers and sisters.

Never before, of course, this is the only generation I've ever lived in.

This, you know, my memories go back into the 60s and somewhat into the 50s.

But this is a generation that is certainly fascinated and preoccupied with music.

It is a nation, a generation preoccupied with music, to the point that people will think nothing of spending thousands of dollars for music equipment to have in their homes or even in their automobiles.

They don't think anything.

You know, when I look for a radio, I want some AMFM and a tape player.

Bless God. Give me a couple of speakers and I'm happy. But man, these guys have to have thousands of dollars worth of equipment.

I can't appreciate all that.

I really can.

I guess I don't have the ear fart, but it's a fascination, a preoccupation with music that this generation possesses.

It's something that we better all consider, because some of the songs that maybe we allow ourselves to sing, some of the music we allow ourselves to listen to, is it songs of nothingness?

Is it the songs?

Is it those who chant and prattle to the sounds of the violin?

You know, it's just people who are singing along with all this old noise.

It says nothing. It doesn't draw you to Christ.

It doesn't bring you into worship.

It doesn't bring you into adoration.

It doesn't bring you into repentance.

Songs of idleness.

All right.

Let's look at a sixth snare of success.

Not just self-indulgence, we spoke about that earlier, but overindulgence, verse 6.

Overindulgence.

That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments.

That drink wine in bowls.

In other words, a glass isn't big enough. Don't give them a mug, don't give them a glass, give them a bowl.

And it also is a reference, even to the irreverent use of sacred vessels.

Because the same word that's translated, bols here, is also used in other places to speak of sacred vessels.

So that it could even refer to the fact that they took vessels that were meant for sacred use, the use in the temple and so forth. They took those things and were using them for their own profane celebrations. That they were an irreverent crowd, a drunken crowd, a reveling crowd, and so on.

He goes on and says in verse 6, And they anoint themselves with the chief ointments.

They're worried about anointing themselves.

They're worried about feeding and drinking and so forth.

And they have no concern about the lack or the need or the poverty of others because they are not grieved, the latter part of verse 6 says, They are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.

Now, these very same indictments that were leveled against Israel can also be leveled against the United States today.

These people were just overindulgent.

They just pampered themselves with luxury.

It wasn't enough just to have things.

They had to have more.

They had to have bigger.

They had to have greater. They had to have newer.

They had to have finer. They had to outdo others.

And all the while, they had no concern about the lack or the poverty of those that they themselves even afflicted.

Therefore, you read chapter 6, verse 7.

Notice the very first word in this verse.

Chapter 6, verse 7, therefore.

Now, that changes the whole tone of the passage.

All along, he's been listing their sins.

He's been saying these are the snares of success, overindulgence.

You know successful people, Jim? They tend to be overindulgent.

They drink too much.

They talk too much because they're so full of themselves.

They party too much.

They stay up too late because they can't sleep at night.

Most of the time, they're insomniacs.

They take too much medicine because they're hypochondriacs or whatever.

You know, they're always worried about dying, putting far off the way of judgment.

Everything is overdone, overindulgence. They eat too much.

They pamper themselves. You follow what I'm saying?

Overindulgence.

Therefore, and here it comes.

Therefore, shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed.

You wanted to be first.

You wanted to be preeminent.

You wanted to be chief.

All right, you'll be the first to go captive.

That's what he says.

Your judgment will fall first.

It will fall on you first.

The Lord God has sworn by himself.

Now, here's where God takes a solemn oath by His own name.

Sayeth the Lord, the God of hosts, I abhor the excellency of Jacob.

All of your finery, all of your wealth, all of your success, God says, I hate it.

You think I've given it to you? I hate it.

I despise it. I hate his palaces.

You think I'm impressed with all these fine edifices you've built?

These fine homes, these fine buildings, these fine furnishings?

I hate it, he says.

I hate it. Therefore, will I deliver up the city with all that is therein. I'll destroy it all.

I'm going to destroy you.

I'm going to destroy every bit of it.

He says in verse 9, it will come to pass if there remain 10 men in one house, they'll all die.

Not only will they be destroyed by war, by the Assyrian armies who would come in and afflict them horribly, but what war does not kill, the plague will kill.

That's what he speaks of here in verse 9.

The plague will kill what the war leaves.

And verse 10, a man's uncle will take him up, and he that burneth him to bring out the bones out of his house.

You know what he's saying here?

Now, this is something that was rarely done in Israel, but it was done on rare occasions.

There would be so many dead that there wouldn't be enough people to bury them.

And you know burial was always the Jewish custom.

They considered it a horrible thing if the dead weren't buried.

But this death is going to be so widespread.

Bodies will be everywhere, not only from the war, but then from the plague that will decimate the rest, that the only thing that could possibly be done, there would be so few stragglers remaining. The only thing they could possibly do is to gather the corpses and burn them.

And that's exactly what he's referring to here in these verses.

That's the kind of end they will come to, a disgraceful end for the Jew. They considered that a horrible judgment that their bodies would be left out to perish or rot or decay or burn rather than be buried.

And the idea of them not speaking in the name of the Lord, he says, verse 10, Hold thy tongue.

We may not make mention of the name of the Lord.

The whole idea is there.

Well, you're still alive.

Well, you can thank God for that. He said, man, don't mention God's name, because if he knows I'm still here, he's going to kill me.

He knows I'm still alive.

That's the idea.

That's what Amos is saying.

The person, the one who does survive knows that he just barely escaped and he just thinks that God overlooked him.

And if you don't mention God's name, if God knows I'm here, he's going to kill me, too.

Just like everybody else has been destroyed.

Verse 11, For behold, the Lord commandeth, and he will smite the great house with breeches and the little house with clefts.

Judgment, judgment, judgment, on all.

Then he asks a rather silly question.

Will horses run upon the rock?

The idea is on the craggy cliffs.

Do you see horses running up those cliffs?

Of course not.

Do you plow up there with the oxen?

Of course not.

You don't do that.

That's foolish.

He says, well, you've turned judgment into gall, and you've turned the fruit of righteousness into hemlock. You shouldn't do that either.

And therefore, you which rejoice in a thing of nothing, which say, have we not taken us horns by our own strength, the horns meaning power, strength, glory, and so forth.

He says, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith the Lord, the God of hosts, and they shall afflict you from the entering in of Hameth unto the river of the wilderness.

There'll be no escape.

From top to bottom, from side to side, Assyria would afflict and destroy.

And that's exactly what happened.

Judgment.

Because of this catalog of sins, the sins of success, the snares of success, because of this catalog of sins, Amos says, therefore, judgment.

As we said, America is today perched in the same place.

So let us be sure that we avoid these same potential snares of success.

Well, Father, bless the Word to our hearts tonight, we pray. Help us, Lord, to see, to understand, to perceive these truths. Help them to find, Lord, place in our own understanding that we might realize why these things can be a snare, whether it's self-indulgence, idleness, the foolishness of nothing music or whatever.

Let these things, Father, register in our hearts and minds, and let these warnings deliver us. Let them serve as warnings to deliver us from the judgments that befell Israel.

And, Father, we ask it in Jesus' name, Amen.

Amen.

Praise God.

Let's stand.”