God's Plumbline in Revival — E.A. Johnston

Amos’s Warning to a Backslidden People

We are going to be in the book of Amos tonight, friends. You can turn in your Bibles there now. Amos was a fiery prophet of God who was sent by God to reprove and warn the wayward people of God. Amos calls Israel to account in regard to their idolatry and their unfaithfulness beneath the favors God had bestowed upon them.

Amos calls the backslidden people of God to repentance, but they continue to fail to heed the warnings and remedial judgments fall upon them. God rejects their hypocritical worship and sacrifices unless they repent.

As God dealt with the wayward Jews who refused to turn back to him in sincerity of heart, we see a forward picture of the American church in our day whose very spiritual condition mirrors the backslidden Jews of Amos' day.

The Plumb Line as God’s Holy Standard

God drops a plumb line in the midst of his people to show them where his standard is and that they need to return to it if they are to receive his favor and presence among them. What I want to explore this evening, friends, is God's plumb line in revival, and that's the title of my message tonight, God's Plumb Line in Revival.

For the church in America today will not experience a heaven-sent revival until she's willing to humble herself and turn from her wicked ways in repentance and turn back to the standard set forth in our Bibles, which is God's holy plumb line for his people.

We will be in chapter seven and verses seven through eight. Let me read this striking passage from God's word to us now. And may the spirit of the Lord be pleased to attend the reading of his holy word.

Thus he showed me, and behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumb line with a plumb line in his hand. And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, a plumb line. Then said the Lord, behold, I will set a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel.

I will not again pass by them anymore. Now there are several aspects to this text, friends, which I'd like to draw out for us this evening as they pertain to the subject of revival. Here in Amos chapter seven, we see God speaking to his wayward people who have departed from him and who are incorrigible in the refusal to repent and return to God according to his plumb line set before them.

I want to address four aspects from this book of Amos as it's set before us this evening. I will first list them and then elaborate more fully upon each head as we proceed. Number one, the people depart from God in sin.

Number two, God departs from his people by his withdrawn presence. Number three, God requires true repentance from them. And number four, God sends a judgment of increased severity upon them. Let's look at each of these one by one, friends.

Self-Indulgence and the People’s Departure from God

First, the people depart from God in sin. We see this especially in chapter six, which speaks of their life of ease and self-indulgence. In verse one of chapter six, we read, oh, 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. Then God speaks to his disobedient people through the prophet Amos and denounces their self-centered lifestyle built on pleasure seeking.

In verse four, we read, 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. We see here a picture of a self-indulgent people who must have the best of everything.

Beds of ivory are only good enough for them. They are living self-indulgent lives and are walking under the guise of being the people of God. But their hearts are far from the living God. They are confident in their safety and secure in their luxurious beds.

The church in America today must have the best of everything. It must have the most expensive sound systems, the most luxurious interiors, the most comfortable seats in the sanctuary. Money is no object in many churches today as long as the people of God are satisfied and happy.

But God rebuked the wayward Jews for their self-indulgent lives. And God is against the self-indulgent church in our day which is man-centered in every way from its man-centered gospel to its man-centered methodologies.

God is calling the church in America today to repent and return to Him. But she, like the stiff-necked Jews, refuses to repent and return. So we see here, friends, in this first aspect of our passage that the people depart from God.

God’s Withdrawn Presence and Entertainment-Driven Worship

Number two, notice the second aspect that God departs from His people. In chapter seven and verse eight, God declares, I will not again pass by them anymore. So the wayward people of God experience a judgment from God in His withdrawn presence from among them.

I will not again pass by them anymore. And that's exactly what's happened to the church in our day, friends. We are experiencing the withdrawn presence of God in our midst. Let me ask you a question. When was the last time you experienced the power of God in a meeting?

When was the last time you were melted down beneath the awful presence of the Almighty in church? God sent a terrible judgment upon the church in America today, friends. And that is, we are experiencing His withdrawn presence.

That's why so many churches have to have the best entertainment to amuse and occupy their congregations because God is not there. His presence is absent. So entertainment replaces the presence of God.

We see the very same thing with the Jews in Amos' day. In chapter six and verse five, it speaks of their hypocritical worship services, which are centered in entertainment. 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 of the affliction of Joseph.

In other words, they had no concern for the interests of the church of God or the nation. The nation was in distress for it had been invaded, but the people of God are drunk on their pleasures and indifferent to the needs of the nation.

Whether the nation sinks or swims, it matters little to them as long as they can have their pleasures. So too today in America, the nation is in distress. Violence abounds in the land. Perversion reigns in high places and is promoted throughout the entire country.

The land is flowed over with a stinking wretched smell of filth and sin. Yet the people of God are oblivious to it as long as they are not impacted personally. As long as they can indulge themselves, they are fine with the status quo.

Buddha's God departed from his backslidden people. So too God has departed from his backslidden church and our day friends. Don't deny it, it's true. Number three, this third aspect is seen in that God requires true repentance from them.

True Repentance and Returning to God’s Standard

He sets up a plumb line in their midst and declares his holy standard for them to return to it in straightness of practical living for they are missing the mark as they are in their backslidden condition.

And that's what sin is friends. It's like an arrow that misses the mark. Sin is missing the mark, the standard of God's law, missing the standard of God's law. So the prophet Amos calls the wayward people of God to return to God.

We see the standard necessary from the proceeding book of Joel whereby God relates how his people should return to him. In Joel chapter one and verses 13 and 14, we read, gird yourselves and lament ye priests, how ye ministers of the altar come, lie all night in sackcloth.

Ye ministers of my God, for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholding from the house of your God. Sanctify fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God and cry unto the Lord.

So God is calling the disobedient Jews back to him in repentance. And God today is calling his wayward church to repentance. But why, why won't she return? Why will she not repent? I believe it's because of her pride and self-sufficiency.

We have a very proud self-sufficient church today and many men in ministry are out of touch with the heart of a holy God. And God did not accept the hypocritical worship of the sin-loving Jews. And God does not accept the hypocritical worship of many of our sin-loving churches today.

So there's a call to repentance. Next, we see this fourth aspect, friends, from our passage whereby God sends a judgment of increased severity to them for the refusal to return to him. Look at Amos 8 and verse 11.

The Famine of Hearing God’s Word

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread nor thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. There was a time when the Jews had plenty of prophets preaching to them the words of God and the people of God had abundant opportunities of hearing the word of God.

But God not only removes his presence from his people because of their sin and refusal to return to him, he sends them a increased judgment, a more severe one upon them, a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.

Is this not the case in America today, friends? How many believers do I meet and hear who complain they cannot find a true gospel church in their town that preaches truth and holds up God's standard? We live in a day, friends, of a famine in the land.

Though our churches are lavish on the outside, they are spiritually impoverished on the inside for the lack of preaching the great doctrines of the gospel which are ruin, redemption, repentance, and regeneration.

Myself know many believers who wander from church to church in search of truth. In verse 12 of Amos chapter eight, it says of the Jews, and they shall wander from sea to sea and from the north even to the east.

They shall run to and fro to seek the words of the Lord and shall not find it. And that's the sad case in our country today, friends. Yes, there are some Bible-believing churches and some God-called men in the pulpits, but they're few and far between.

Mostly it's just entertainment and playing church on Sunday morning. So our passage in Amos speaks of how a holy God deals with a wayward people. In his mercy, he sends judgments upon them for them to return to him in a love relationship.

But in chapter four of Amos, we hear the astonished heart of God as he cries out and laments. Yet, have they not returned unto me? The remedial judgments of God upon a sin of people, if they are unheeded, become the increased judgments of God upon them.

A Final Call to Revival and Return

The withdrawn presence and the withdrawn word. Oh, what a tragic picture of a backslidden people and a decayed nation. This is a call for the people of God to return to the God of the Bible. Our nation lies in ruin.

Our government is anti-God and there is a spirit of Antichrist in the land. How desperately, friends, we need a revival. Will the church fall on her knees and return to her God? Time is running out. Heaven help us all.

Let us pray.