Essex Remembrancer Amos 6:1 Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations… I. THE STATE CONDEMNED. God's threatenings had been declared against the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, but the people confided in their fortifications and external advantages, or in their profession of being the people of God; thus they carelessly indulged themselves, and were heedless about consequences, though destruction impended over them. The application of the passage to the conduct of many under the means of grace is natural and easy. The state of mind condemned is — 1. Expressive of careless indifference. 2. It is expressive of false security.The persons warned in the text were regarding themselves as secure on false and uncertain grounds. So many are now found perverting the doctrines of the Gospel, and promising to themselves security in such per version. Or they pretend that they arc waiting for God's time, when He will afford them necessary help. They make their moral inability, or in other words, their unwillingness to receive Christ and His Gospel an excuse for their continued disobedience, and attribute their rebellion and unbelief to the want of God's help, rather than to the state of their own hearts, to the love of sin, and to their unwillingness to yield submission to the Saviour's authority. Others make their moral conduct a ground of hope. Their honesty, their kindness to their neighbours, and the propriety of their general deportment are substituted for faith in Christ, and a cordial reception of His Gospel. 3. It is expressive of a state of sloth. Many professors are thus at ease. Once they were anxious, inquiring, full of apparent desire after the favour of God and the blessings of salvation, and of activity 'in the Saviour's cause. But their zeal, activity, and ardour have passed away. They are slumbering and sleeping. II. MARK THE PLACE WHERE THIS STATE OF MIND IS EXERCISED. If slothfulness and indifference are unseemly in other spheres, are they less so in Zion, in the house, in the Church of God? If they are injurious to our temporal concerns... are they less so to our spiritual and eternal interests? Restricting the term "in Zion" to the place where God is worshipped, to His sanctuary, we remark — 1. That in Zion the law of God is declared. Its purity, its justice, its spiritual character and extensive requirements are set forth. In Zion we are shown the harmony of the law with the Gospel, while it becomes the means of preparing us to receive salvation. 2. In Zion the Gospel is proclaimed. Here the most constant theme is salvation through the Saviour s blood. Here Jesus is evidently set forth as crucified among us. Can you be at ease in Zion, cold and insensible, with the Cross in view, and indifferent to the Saviour's voice addressing us therefrom? 3. Zion is the special residence of Christ. Jesus is now represented as King in Zion, as the Ruler and Head of His Church. III. THE DANGER TO WHICH THIS STATE OF MIND EXPOSES. 1. How opposed to all spiritual improvement. 2. How expressive of contempt for spiritual blessings. 3. How ruinous to our eternal interests. (Essex Remembrancer.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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! |
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