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Text: Amos 8:4-10
For the love of money is the root of all evil.
Greedy are opposed to God (vss 4-6)
- Priorities consumed by greed
- Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn?
- New moon was the first of the month. The first day of the month was set aside for the Lord, just like the first of everything. That’s how to make the Lord the priority is just put him first.
- Luke 16:13 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
- 1 Timothy 6:9 But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 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.
- Not that they are rich or are poor, but they that WILL BE rich FALL… The priority is money.
- Jesus Christ would come into the temple in Jerusalem and say, You’ve made my Father’s house a den of thieves.
- Rest is consumed by greed
- …and the sabbath that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?
- Then every seventh day set aside as a day of rest is consumed. One day out of the week set aside for a day of rest for Israel was too much to ask.
- Covetous people are fundamentally discontent people. There is no rest.
- The definition of discontentment, covetousness.
- Covetousness can’t be satisfied by the thing that you’re coveting.
- Ecclesiastes 5:10 He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.
- Compassion is consumed by greed
- That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes…
- Cheapest of labor because I’ve got a lifestyle to keep up.
- People become a commodity.
- Prosperity gospel where a preacher makes a congregation his customers.
- Morals are consumed by greed
- …yea and sell the refuse of the wheat
- They would say pile up the trash and repackage it as product. Why? Because I’ve got a lifestyle to keep up with.
- Instruction and application to you 2800 years later is this:
- If your first priority is the dollar, you’re opposed to God Almighty.
- If you’ve consumed God’s prescription for rest with the almighty dollar, you’re opposed to the Lord.
- If money is why you hate certain people, God stands in opposition to you.
- If money is your god, there is no boundaries to your morals. Judas Iscariot.
God remembers greed (vs 7)
- …I will never forget any of their works.
- There are no cold cases with God.
- We believe time is the great justifier of sin. The further we are removed from an event, the better we are. The less we remember about our sin, the less God remembers about it. This is Israel’s belief.
- Romans 2:12, 16 For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; … 16 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
- Revelation 20:11-15
- David said and Paul quoted it in Romans, Blessed is he whose sin is covered
- Colossians 1:14 In whom (Jesus Christ) we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
Consequences of Israel’s greed (vss 8-10)
- The land will reject Israel
- Shall not the land tremble for this…
- And every one mourn that dwelleth therein?
- It shall rise up wholly as a flood, and it shall be cast out and drowned… See 9:5-6
- God will use the land against Israel because they would not take care of His land.
- Leviticus 18:24-29
- Deuteronomy 9:4-5 Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee. 5 Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
- The Lord will reject Israel
- Darkness. Why? The love of money.
- Mourning as the loss of an only child. Why? The love of money.
- Discomfort. Why? The love of money.
- End is bitterness. Why? The love of money.
- Proverbs 11:28 He that trusteth in his riches shall fall…
- 1 Timothy 6:9 But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 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.
- 1 Timothy 6:17 Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; 18 That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; 19 Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.
