In his sermon, Peter Allison explores the theme of self-deception, particularly in the context of Amos 5. Amos warns of the Lord's judgment, highlighting the wailing and sorrow that will accompany His passing through the land. The Israelites' misplaced desire for the day of the Lord is criticized as they are deceived into thinking it will benefit them, but Amos warns it will bring darkness, not light. Allison explains that self-deception occurs when individuals convince themselves of falsehoods, even about their beliefs. He uses biblical examples, such as the Israelites in the wilderness and New Testament references, to illustrate this concept. The sermon underscores that self-deception can lead to spiritual ruin, and the only remedy is repentance and turning to Jesus Christ, who alone can bring righteousness and justice. The Israelites' religious rituals are deemed insincere, as they fail to reflect genuine heart worship. Allison calls for true repentance, urging listeners to let justice and righteousness flow freely, achievable only through Christ's transformative power.

Amos chapter 5. I'd like to begin reading at verse 16. Amos 5 verse 16. Therefore the Lord God of hosts, the Lord says this, There shall be wailing in all streets, And they shall say in all the highways, Alas, alas! They shall call the farmer to mourning, And skillful lamenters to wailing.

In all vineyards there shall be wailing, For I will pass through you, says the Lord. Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord for what good is the day of the Lord to you? It will be darkness and not light It will be as though a man fled from a lion and a bear met him, Or as though he went into the house, leaned his hand on the wall, And a serpent bit him. Is not the day of the Lord darkness and not light? Is it not very dark, with no brightness in it?

I hate, I despise your feast days, and I do not savour your sacred assemblies. Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings? I will not accept them. Nor will I regard your fatted peace offerings. Take away from Me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments, but let justice run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.

Did you offer me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness 40 years, O house of Israel, you also carried Suketh your king and Chion your idols, the star of your gods which you made for yourselves. Therefore, I will send you into captivity beyond Damascus, says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts." May these commandments be our delight even when trouble and anguish overtake us. Heavenly Father, thank you for giving to us these commandments. Please open our eyes that we may understand them and give to us of your Holy Spirit that we may understand what only what the natural man cannot understand. Lord, may you be our teacher this morning.

And I pray that you would also sanctify my sinful lips to proclaim the gospel of your grace. In Jesus name, amen. Well, everyone knows, I think, what deception is. Deception is when someone, and let's give someone a name, let's call him Mr. Deceiver.

Deception is when Mr. Deceiver believes something, and let's make that specific this morning. Let's say that he believes there is milk in the refrigerator. So deception is when Mr. Deceiver believes there is milk in the refrigerator, but he intends to make Mr.

Naive believe that that is false, that there is no milk in the refrigerator. And he succeeds. And so Mr. Deceiver, who knows that there is milk in the refrigerator, gets Mr. Naive to believe that there is no milk in the refrigerator.

That's deception, isn't it? And I think every one of us knows what that is. Self-deception is when we do that to ourself. It's when we get ourselves to believe something that we know is not true. Now you might think, how in the world can you do that?

How can you do that? How can you get yourself to believe something that's not true? That's something of a paradox, apparent paradox, because in self-deception there's only one person, the Mr. Deceiver. And in self-deception, Mr.

Deceiver, knowing that there is milk in the refrigerator, persuades himself that there really isn't any milk in the refrigerator. And that really is puzzling. You think how could anybody do that? How could anybody succeed in making himself believe something which he at the same time knows isn't true? Some might say that this is impossible.

It's impossible. But the Bible says that it is possible. If the Bible says it is possible, then it's possible. It's not only possible, but we actually do it to ourselves. First, John one eight says if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.

And the truth is not in it. We get ourselves to believe something about ourselves that isn't true. Something that we know isn't true. James 1 says, if anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart. He thinks he's religious, he doesn't bridle his tongue, he's deceiving his own heart.

His religion is useless. And the message of Amos this morning is that if anyone thinks he is religious, but oppresses the poor and denies them justice in the courts, this one deceives himself and his religion is useless." The first judgment that Amos declared to the Israelites of the northern kingdom was the matter that we looked at in the last week, in the earlier part of the chapter, with the destruction of their armies, the annihilation of their armies. This was the first judgment that He gave when He took up this funeral dirt, this lamentation against Israel in the beginning of chapter 5. The virgin of Israel has fallen, will rise no more, there is no one to help her get up. And for thus says the Lord, the city that goes out by a thousand shall have a hundred left.

Ninety percent of their army will be destroyed. That which goes out by a hundred would have ten left. And this was marked off by a, Thus saith the Lord. If you notice that in the beginning of chapter 5 there, Thus saith the Lord, verse 3 and 1. Thus saith the Lord.

It was also given with a very gracious offer to repent and live. Well, this second judgment that picks up here in verse 16 also begins, it's also marked off, with a declaration of, thus says the Lord as well. But it also has a therefore, a therefore. Meaning it is looking back to what came before, which specifically is the sins that are given in verses 12 and 13 and earlier, but especially 11 and 12. You tread down the poor.

You take grain taxes from them. You afflict the just, you take bribes, you divert justice from the poor in the gates, and the prudent keeps silent and God says, therefore, because of these sins, Therefore, there will be wailing in the streets. Therefore, your nation will be a nation of mourning. Not just a household here and a household there. Not just a city block here or a city block there.

But there will be whaling in all the streets. There will be whaling in all the highways. Even the farmers will be whaling. They are people who are outside of the immediate cities. They will be wailing because they won't have any crops.

Their crops will fail. The skillful lamenters, the professional mourners, the people that you hired to come in and put on a big show, they will be wailing as well. For real. In all the vineyards, there will be wailing. Why?

Because God would pass through their land. That's why. God would pass through their land. And remember when God, what other land God said that he would pass through? Remember, we're getting, we're almost there.

So reading through the book of Exodus, maybe in a week or two. In Exodus 12, we read of another land that God passed through. And in verse 12, He says, God said, for I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. I am Jehovah." And what do we read happened when God did that?

Well, There was a great wailing when God did that. It came to pass at midnight that the Lord struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne, So the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon and all the firstborn of the livestock, and so Pharaoh arose in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians and what? There was a great wailing. There was not a house where there was not one dead. When God passes through the land in judgments, you can't ignore it.

You can't pretend it's nothing. Maybe you tried that when you were little. If you had parents that spanked you, you might think, well, I'll show them this is nothing. When God passes through a land, nobody acts like it's nothing. There is a great wailing.

Every knee bows. Every tongue confesses, willingly or unwillingly. This is, Amos reminds them, the Lord God of hosts. The Lord God of hosts. The hosts of heaven are His.

He commands them. The hosts of all the earth, He commands them. Amos says, woe. Woe to you who desire this day. There were people apparently who desired the day of the Lord as if it was something to be welcomed.

Bring it on, they said. It can't get here fast enough. They're wanting it. They're desiring it. And Amos says, whoa, whoa to you.

This wasn't something to be welcomed. You see, they had deceived themselves. It's not a day to be desired. But they had deceived themselves into thinking that it was something to be desired. That it would, They had thought that it would bring judgment on God's enemies, and that it would remove all the problems from the land, but that God would preserve them.

And Amos says, no, no, I'm sorry to disabuse you of that notion, but what good is the day of the Lord to you? It's going to be darkness and not light. And then he gives a rather poignant illustration to illustrate what that day would be like. It would be as though a man fled from a lion, so you get attacked by a lion and you're able to escape. Only to have a bear meet you.

Being attacked by a lion is not an everyday occurrence. Even I think if you live in Africa, I've lived there, but I know people that have and they didn't get attacked by lions every day. It would be something that you would remember. David had his herd attacked by a lion and he remembered it when he's recounting to Saul who he is. This is something that he talks about.

If it was something that happened all the time, he wouldn't have thought to mention it. Getting attacked by a lion is not an everyday occurrence. But Amos is saying, you'll be like the person that gets attacked by a lion and you escape only to be attacked by a bear as soon as you escape the lion. It's like being struck by lightning twice. You see, God is the Lord of hosts.

And He directs not only the hosts of heaven, not only the spiritual hosts, the armies of heaven, but He also directs all the affairs of men on earth and of animals. It's His voice that makes the deer give birth. It's His voice that brings the lion and the bear and directs them in their courses. And so Amos is saying, you may think that you've escaped one judgment from God, but you haven't. God is sovereign over everything.

And they misunderstood their deliverance from all the judgments that had happened that Amos describes in chapter 4 where God had sent cleanliness of teeth, famine, and he blasted the crops with mildew and their young people died and so on. They thought they had survived all these things, and God's saying, no, not at all. It's as if God spared them one judgment so that there would be people for a subsequent judgment. And they were simply the objects of His wrath. The only reason He spared them is to have more objects for His wrath for the next judgment.

They thought that their religious exercises would please God. But they were deceived about this as well. God said to them, I despise your feast days. I hate. I despise them.

They're not pleasing at all. That's a. That's a critical word, savor. A savor is an aroma. Thirty-seven times in the Pentateuch, God describes the sacrifices of His people as a sweet smelling savor, or a sweet aroma.

Thirty-seven times. God says these sacrifices, the sacrifices of His people are a sweet aroma to Him. You shall burn the whole ram on the altar. It is a burnt offering to the Lord. It is a sweet aroma, an offering made by fire to the Lord." Now that's a very interesting statement, isn't it?

Because anyone that's ever burned flesh knows that the very last thing you would say about burning flesh is that it's a sweet aroma. It's one of the most horrific stenches to most people. Yet God described this sacrifice offered from a believing heart in obedience and in faith to Him, He describes that as a sweet aroma. And yet God is saying here, their assemblies, their sacred assemblies, their congregations, their worship services, He didn't find them to be pleasant. Their music may have sounded very wonderful.

But God didn't like it. In fact, He says it's a noise. It's a noise. It's an irritating noise. Like when a child has one of those gazoos and just goes on and on and on, or bang, bang, bang.

It's irritating after a while. Younger parents tolerate it, older ones less so. But To God, He said, this is what your beautiful music that you think sounds like, it's an irritating noise. I don't like it. It's not a pleasant aroma.

I won't accept your burnt offerings and your grain offerings. I don't regard your fatted peace offerings. Take away from me the noise of your songs. I won't hear the melody of your instruments." They gloried in the sins of their fathers. Did you offer in verse 25, did you offer me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness?

Forty years, O house of Israel? No. We might have thought that the answer is yes, but this answer is no. Apparently not. Apparently not.

And Stephen quotes this very passage in his defense when he was being executed. He said in Acts 7, He said, This is He who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to Him on Mount Sinai and with our fathers, the one who received the living oracles to give us, whom our fathers would not obey. These people that Amos is referring to. Stephen refers to them as people who would not obey, but rejected. And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, saying to Aaron, make us gods to go before us.

For this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. And they made a calf in those days, Stephen said, and they offered sacrifices to the idol, and they rejoiced in the works of their own hands. And God turned and gave them up to the worship of the hosts of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets." And then he quotes this passage from Amos. "'Did you offer me slaughtered animals and sacrifices during forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel. You also took up the tabernacle of Molech and the star of your God Rephan, images which you made to worship, and I will carry you away beyond Babylon." That's how Stephen translates this.

I will carry you into captivity beyond Damascus. Damascus was further north, but it was in that fertile crescent. And when people went from the land of Persia, today Iran, Iraq, Nineveh, Babylon, they came down to the north like that and so God is saying we'll take you captive beyond Damascus and Stephen says take them captive into Babylon. But he says they didn't obey the Lord. They offered sacrifices to Molech, to demons, to Satan.

Molech being one of the high level demons in Satan's kingdom. They offered sacrifices there and they did not offer sacrifices for those years in the wilderness. And Stephen was saying that those Jews in his day were the same way. Amos is saying, you're still the same way in his day. You see, how do people deceive themselves?

How do they believe something and not believe it at the same time. Well, there are three things I'd like to point out about this self-deception, this paradox of self-deception. The The self deceiver is like anyone else who purposely out to deceive people. They know the truth. They know the truth that their heart worship is important.

They know the truth that their heart worship is important. Why do they know? Because God has told them. They know that God wants worship from our heart. God said in the days of Noah, the wickedness of man was great in the earth and every intent and thought of their heart was wrong.

Sarah laughed in her heart when God said that she would have a son. And the Lord asked Abraham, Why did Sarah laugh? And when she tried to deny it, the Lord said, No, but you did laugh. But see, Sarah laughed where? In her heart.

She didn't even laugh out loud. She laughed in her heart. But God said, You laughed and God knew it. In Exodus 25, God said, Speak to the children of Israel that they bring me an offering from everyone who gives it willingly with his heart. Leviticus 19 says, You shall not hate your brother in your heart.

The Viticus 26 says if you confess, if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers with their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to me and that they have also walked contrary to me and I've walked contrary to them and brought their land into the hand of the enemies. And if their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they accept their guilt, it's the heart that the Lord is seeking. The Lord desires, David said, truth in the inward parts in the heart. Deuteronomy 4, take heed to yourself and diligently keep yourself, Moses said, lest you depart from your heart in all the days of your life. But if you will seek the Lord and your God and you will find him, if you seek him with all of your heart and your soul.

After the giving of the law, God said to Moses, oh, that they had a heart, such a heart in them that they would fear Me and keep My commandments, that it may be well with them and their children forever. Deuteronomy 6.5, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. Sometimes people have the idea that the Old Testament is an external religion, and that in the New Testament it's a matter of the heart, but nothing could be farther. God is concerned with our heart and He always has been. And His people have always worshiped Him in spirit and in truth with all of their heart.

And in Deuteronomy 8, he said, You shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these 40 years in the wilderness to humble and test you and to know what was in your heart. And in Deuteronomy 8, it says, when your heart is lifted up and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt and you say in your heart my power and my might of hand gave this to me you don't have to say it out loud God God knows what we think in our heart and that's what he's seeking Those who worship him with all their heart. And now Israel. What does the Lord your God require of you but to fear the Lord your God? To walk in his ways and to love him and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart. You see circumcision wasn't just an external thing. It was signifying what baptism signifies, the inward cleansing of our heart. Deuteronomy 11, take heed to yourselves as your heart be deceived and you turn aside and worship other gods. Deuteronomy 30, and the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul that you may live.

And if you obey the voice of the Lord your God to keep His commandments and his statutes which are written in the book of the law. And if you turn to the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul, that the Lord will bring you back from captivity and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord has scattered you. You see, the self-deceived person knows. They know. They are responsible.

But The self-deceived person holds an erroneous belief about their beliefs. You see, the self-deceived person not only purposes to hide the true belief about himself that makes him uncomfortable, but he also purposes to hide his hiding of that belief from himself. You see the self-deceived person believes something, but through a deliberate process of rationalization, of self-deception, successfully hides that belief and convinces himself that belief is not true and that he doesn't hold it. And so over time, he becomes completely unaware of both the true but uncomfortable belief about himself, but he also becomes unaware of the fact that he intended to hide that belief. It's like going to sleep.

You can purpose and intend to go to sleep, can't you? Maybe if you've lied sleepless on a night, you've tried to go to sleep. You've purposed to go to sleep. But once you successfully go to sleep, Not only are you unaware, you're also unaware of your purpose to go to sleep. In that sense, the self-deceiver is like someone who puts their own eyes out.

They have to see to do it, but once they've put their own eyes out, they can no longer see what they have done. And this is why apostasy is always a gradual process. It's gradual. Conversion can happen in a moment. People can be changed in an instant like Paul.

But apostasy takes time to reach the point of being self-deceived about the truth that one once knew. It takes time to completely hide a truth that one believes and to be completely unaware, not only of the truth that they have hidden, but also to become unaware of their hiding of that truth. Of their suppressing of that truth. That's a process. It takes a while.

And then thirdly, the self-deceived have to rationalize away the evidence that's brought to them by others. Because you see the truth is everywhere around the self-deceived person. So they have to continually rationalize that evidence away. See, self-deception is not just pretending ignorance. It's not just being an obvious hypocrite, knowing you believe something, but saying something else.

Self-deception is actually believing that you don't believe that truth. And believing and hiding from yourself the fact that you have intended to suppress and hide that truth. What's the solution to self-deception? It's repentance. Let justice run down like water.

But let justice run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream. Let it flow unobstructed, unimpeded, undiverted. Of course, we aren't just and we can't do justly. We are not righteous. And we can't on our own let righteousness flow like a mighty stream.

But Amos says That's what needs to happen. And that can only happen through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ alone is the just and righteous One. And He alone can enable us to let righteousness flow as a mighty stream. He alone can bring righteousness and justice to our land and to ourselves.

Because remember, our nation is just composed of what we all as individuals do. This is actually the same message that Isaiah had brought to these people a little bit later. That they were self-deceived. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear.

Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves. Make yourselves clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil.

Learn to do good. Seek justice. Rebuke the oppressor. Defend the fatherless. Plead for the widow.

That was Isaiah's message. Turn and repent. And begin doing the things that you weren't doing. That God wants obedience from the heart. And that comes when we confess our sins.

When we uncover that which we're seeking to hide and confess that to Jesus Christ. God brings light. He makes us righteous. Samuel said to Saul those famous words, Has the Lord as great a delight in burnt offering and in sacrifices as in obeying, as in obeying the voice of the Lord. Behold, it's better to obey than to sacrifice, and to heed, to listen than the fat of rams." You see, God alone has the power to bring light where there is no light, to bring truth where there is darkness and lies.

And He does. He does. When we confess to Him. Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. Believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and you will be saved.

Praise the Lord for so great a salvation. For so great a salvation. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your justice and your righteousness. Righteousness that is not native to us, but you have imputed to us in Christ We thank you for your servants the prophets that you send to warn us for we need warned And we need to hear Lord of your wrath We need to hear of the danger of deceiving ourselves by our many acts of outward worship when our heart does not believe and is self-deceived. Father, may you quicken us, make us alive and renew our hearts and restore to us the joy of your salvation.

We ask this in