© 2026 Don Pinson / (To download, right-click on the gray play bar and select “Save Audio As”)

The message of judgment for sins has always been unpopular with those who want to run their own lives.  It still is.  But the fact remains:  No matter how much we try to put off or forget judgment, it will still occur, right on schedule—both in this world and the next. Judgment for rebellion is no pleasant thought when the Judge is a just God who keeps a very detailed, specific record of every thought and every action we’ve ever known.  The prophet Amos warned the northern kingdom of Israel that impending doom was near.  He had cried out,

“Woe to them that are at ease in Zion…that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat 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…That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of music…That drink wine in bowls, and…are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive…The Lord GOD hath sworn by himself…therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is therein…For, behold, the LORD …will smite the great house with breaches…for ye have turned judgment into gall…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…”

(Amos 6: 1-14)

But Israel scoffed at Amos’ words.  In spite of increasing disease and frightful storms, the nation still didn’t really think these were “the beginning of sorrows”.  They thought “somebody will get a handle on this economy…someone will come up with a cure for this rampant disease.”  (Sounds like our sexually transmitted diseases, like AIDS, doesn’t it?)  “After all,” they said, “this Amos-guy doesn’t even have a college degree!  What could he know about judgment from God?”

But Amos faithfully kept trying to warn them.  He cried against their refusal to consider their Godly heritage.  He warned them that God was saying to them:

© 2026 Don Pinson (To download, right-click on the gray play bar and select “Save Audio As”)

Charles Spurgeon, the great English preacher, gave us a measuring stick by which we could determine if our churches were healthy.  He called it a “Grace-ometer.”  Here’s what he said:

“The condition of the church may be very accurately gauged by its prayer meetings.  So is the prayer meeting a grace-ometer, and from it we judge the amount of divine working among a people.  If God be near a church, it must pray.  And if He be not there, one of the first tokens of His absence will be a slothfulness in prayer.”

(The Metropolitan Tabernacle, 1873 edition)

According to Spurgeon’s “Grace-ometer”, I’m afraid 98% of our churches would have to admit the Lord is mostly absent!  Any discerning believer will admit that the church in America is far from what Jesus died to make her.  And likewise, the truth is:  As the church goes, so goes the nation.  A culture is always the mirror of the state of the church in a nation.  And while there are some healthy churches—most of which are unknown to the national eye—we cannot deny the obvious.  Our culture reflects the confusion we now see in the church.  More and more churches are trying to redefine marriage so as to “broaden” the “narrow way” into the church.  This confusion is the fruit of a deeper symptom of a diseased church: That is, the desertion of the Bible as absolute truth.  Only 28% of the churches in America now believe that (Recent Barna-Wallbuilders Survey).  And when you give up the Bible as the standard of truth, you give yourself to the whims of man’s shifting standards; and confusion, chaos, and death are the result.  The Bible calls that way, the way of the fool.  Proverbs 1:7 says,