The Plumb Line

Until the little lady with the raspy voice says, Where's the beef? Where's the beef? American culture is just like that bun with a hamburger on it about the size of a quarter. You know, all kinds of froth and very little substance. And the worst offender of all is the professing Christian church.

The worst offender at offering people a great big lovely bun with a shriveled excuse for a hamburger inside. Hamburger inside is the professing Christian church. And then the voice of the little old lady becomes in fact the voice of God.

And he says, Where's the beef? You say you have living bread for the world. Where is it? You say you have the power to change lives. Where is it? You say you're the one place where the forgotten, rejected, outcasts of this world can find acceptance.

Where? You say Jesus died for your sins and rose from the grave and is now alive and lives in your midst. Where is it? And when God begins to say to the people who claim to be his church, his kingdom, his royal priesthood on this earth, when God begins to say, Where's the beef? The laughing stops. And we're talking about divine judgment.

Reading from Luke chapter 12 verse 48, Everyone to whom much is given, of him will much be required. And of him to whom men commit much, they will demand the more. Skipping over to Luke 13 verse 6, And he told them this parable.

A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, Lo, these three years I have come seeking fruit on this tree, and I find none. Cut it down.

Why should it use up the ground? And he answered him, Let it alone serve, this year also, till I dig about it and put on manure. And if it bears fruit next year, well and good. But if not, you can cut it down.

Now the more we have of God's word and spirit, the more we've tasted God's mercy, the more clearly we've heard the call of the Lord to obedience, the more justified God is in expecting fruit. Not the fruit that appeals to other people and impresses other people, but the fruit that pleases and satisfies God. And when God comes to us looking for fruit, again and again, three, four, five, ten times, trying to find some fruit, and we're busy producing gorgeous leaves, but no fruit, we come to a point where judgment begins.

Reading from the Book of Amos, chapter 7, verse 1, Thus the Lord showed me, Behold, he was forming locusts in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth, and lo, it was the latter growth after the king's mowings. Now before I go on here, let me just say there are two kinds of judgment. There is the judgment which is when God just kind of backs off and allows us to live with our own devices.

The judgment of abandonment, spiritual death. See, when God backs away and says, Have it your way, you're not a burger king, you're in hell. The other kind of judgment is when God, instead of withdrawing, comes near.

He comes near and he draws a line and he says, Everything on this side of the line stays, and everything on that side of the line goes. Another example before we go on. The people in the wilderness were dancing around a golden calf while Moses is up on the top of Sinai.

God sees this and he's determined to abandon them, consume them in his wrath. Moses, under the spirit really of the Christ, begins to intercede. Please, you know, spare your people, don't do it.

And so, you know, it's the spirit of the Lord moving Moses to say this. And so the Lord, instead of consuming Israel, comes down into its midst with a second kind of judgment. He comes down into the midst of Israel through Moses and draws a line.

And you remember, Moses comes down and he says, Everyone who's on the Lord's side, get on this side of the line. Stand here with me. Now you and I haven't been dancing around a golden calf.

We've been tiptoeing around a great big hamburger bun with nothing inside. We've been given much and we've produced very little, individually and corporately. Who of us can deny this? And so we, along with thousands of others like us, are moving into a time of judgment.

Judgment, remember, begins at the house of God. You know, the Christians like to talk about the rapture, how everybody's going to get judged. But long before anybody else gets touched, we get touched.

And so we read in Amos chapter 7, Thus the Lord God showed me. Behold, he was forming locusts in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth. And lo, it was the latter growth after the king's mowings.

Now God is forming locusts, and not just two or three or four or five hundred, but millions of locusts, so many locusts that you can't see the sky. It's just like night as they come swooping in. They land, and when they go, everything green is gone with them.

When they had finished eating the grass of the land, I said, O Lord God, forgive I beseech thee. How can Jacob stand? He is so small. How can this little nation of Israel make it? It's such a tiny nation and so weak.

And the Lord repented concerning this. He said, It shall not be. Then the Lord showed me.

Behold, the Lord was calling for a judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep and was eating up the land. Then I said, O Lord God, cease I beseech thee. How can Jacob stand? He is so small.

The Lord repented concerning this. This also shall not be, said the Lord God. He showed me, and behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand, a string with a weight on it to make sure the wall is absolutely straight.

The Lord said to me, Amos, what do you see? And I said, A plumb line. Then the Lord said, Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel. I will never again pass them by.

The high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword. So God spares Israel the first kind of judgment. He's not going to destroy it with a plague of locusts.

He's not going to destroy it with a plague of fire. Instead, he comes in with a plumb line. Now the plumb line obviously is used to build, but he builds only with living stones that line up with the plumb line.

Behold, I have set a plumb line in the midst of my people, and I shall never again pass them by, meaning I'll never again let them get away with a crooked wall or a fruitless tree. The straight wall will stand, but the crooked wall comes down. The tree that bears fruit will stand, but the tree that bears no fruit comes down.

And so for 750 years, the plumb line in the midst of Israel was made up of God's prophets, beginning with Amos in about 721 B.C., and running all the way through to the last of the prophets, John the Baptist. And so we read in Matthew 3, verse 1. In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, A voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord. Prepare the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight, right tight with the plumb line.

Now John wore a garment of camel's hair, and a leather girdle was around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. Then went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan.

And they were baptized by him in the river Jordan. But when John the Baptist saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Where's the beef? Produce fruits that befit repentance. Don't say just because, you know, don't say we have Abraham as our father.

Don't say I belong to a church. Do not presume to say to yourself we have Abraham as our father. For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.

Even now, the axe is laid to the root of the trees. And every tree, every tree, every tree, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. At this point, the plumb line switches from John the Baptist the last of the prophets to Jesus the Messiah, the firstborn of the new creation, God the Son, the living word.

And so John goes on to say, I baptize you with water for repentance. But he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

So far we all agree and we hear this and love to hear it. And somehow or other we miss this next verse which says, His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather the wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. And so Jesus comes to bring good news to the poor, sight to the blind, deliverance to the captives, to baptize us in the Holy Spirit.

But the ultimate purpose of his coming, never forget this, is to clear the threshing floor. So that over here we put the wheat and over here in the fire, the chaff. The plumb line of God in our midst today is the Spirit of Jesus.

He is here. And he is here indeed as our Savior, as our friend, as our healer, as our guide. But also he is here as the plumb line of God.

And he sees right into our hearts and he knows exactly what we're thinking and what we're doing and where we are. And he says to the Father on our behalf, Father, give this big tree one more year while I dig around it and fertilize it and do everything I can to help it. If it bears fruit, well and good.

If not, you can cut it down. Now the plumb line of the Lord in our midst is measuring us and calling us to repentance and to get on the right side of the line in three areas of our lives. First, the plumb line of the Lord is in our midst, the Spirit of Jesus, to measure whether we are in fact living by faith.

Living by faith to the point where we're producing the fruits of faith. The fruits of faith are deeds of obedience. And we read in Matthew 7, 21, Jesus is speaking, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

On that day many will come to me and say, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? And I will declare to them, where's the beef? I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty, you gave me no drink. I was a stranger, you didn't welcome me.

I was naked, you didn't clothe me. I was sick, I was in prison, you didn't come to me. I never knew you, depart from me, you evildoers.

The fruits of faith are deeds of obedience. Obedience to very simple, clear, unmistakable commands that Jesus gives us. And the reason we don't perform those deeds of obedience is because we're scared that if we do, we'll go broke, we'll lose our friends, or we'll get killed.

And Jesus says, trust me. Do what I say and trust me. I will be with you.

You're going to be all right. Things might be a little different from the way you anticipated, but you'll be all right. Do what I tell you and trust me.

I'm looking for the fruits of faith. Deeds, deeds, deeds. Now, don't misunderstand.

We are saved by grace through the blood of the Lamb. No question about it. But if we have received that salvation, we better be producing the fruits of faith.

Otherwise, it's doubtful that we've really let it come in and take over our lives. Secondary where the Lord comes in as a palm line to measure us is to see whether we are in fact practicing love. The command for love comes again and again.

Love your enemies, love your neighbor, love one another, he commands. Love one another to the point, love your enemy and love your neighbor to the point where you are producing the fruit of love and the fruits of love, again, are deeds. This time, deeds of mercy.

And so we read in Luke 10, 25, And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said to him, What is written in the law? How do you read? And he answered, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. And he said to him, You are right. You've answered right.

Do this and you will live. But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor? Jesus replied, A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho who fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance, a priest was going down that road.

When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Now the priest was a lovely, great, big, beautiful hamburger bun. Where's the beef? Well, I'm on my way to the meeting there.

You know, I just want to get the check out and get this book for the printers. I want to do this and I want to do that. So likewise, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

This was a middle-sized hamburger bun with nothing inside. You know, who's very, very busy checking out other people's doctrines and behavior and attitudes and ways. But somehow or other, he has no substance.

He can't see what God is calling him to do in that given moment. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was. When he saw him, he had compassion on him and did something about it.

Went to him, bound up his wounds, pouring him oil and wine. Then he set him on his own beast and took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day, he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, take care of him.

Whatever you spend more, I will repay you when I come back. Which of these three do you think proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers? He said, the one who showed mercy. Jesus said to him, go and do likewise.

And so the plumb line comes down into our midst and measures us, individually and corporately. To see whether we are, in fact, producing the fruits of mercy. Day in and day out, consistently, steadily, reliably, not just spurts of great sacrifice and love followed by long periods of total barrenness and self-centeredness.

But day in and day out, deeds of mercy. He's calling us to this. And the final area of our lives that the plumb line is measuring us about right now is to see whether we are given over, truly, to the worship of God.

Given over to the worship of God to the point where we are producing the fruits of worship. And the fruits of worship are holy lives. Lives that hallow God's name.

Lives that are consumed with God. If whatever form or posture or act or method of worship we use, anything is, God is an equibler. He doesn't care whether we're lying flat on our face or standing with our hands up or shouting or weeping.

It's all right. But what he's looking for is the fruits of worship. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

How can we pray that prayer day after day and not do it? How can we mean that and not hallow God's name in our life? So am I hallowing God's name in the way I use my time, in the way I handle my money, in the way I speak, in the way I think? He showed me. Behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. And the Lord said to me, Amos, what do you see? And I said, a plumb line.

Then the Lord said, Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel. I will never again pass them by. The high places of Isaac shall be made desolate and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste.

And I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with a sword. Father, give the fig tree one more year. While I dig around it, fertilize it, do everything I can to help it.

If it bears fruit, well and good. But if not, you can cut it down. Let's just take some time of silence.