Furthermore, we look at our big churches and our big programs and think that we have arrived at a measure of perfection. We honor some of our leaders within the Church who have great influence in the world. The world and its leaders view them as great leaders, but they lead the Church down the path to destruction, because they do not rest upon God.

In addition, we place great hope in apologetics, the defense of the gospel against attack. However, our hope does not rest upon good arguments. It rests upon God, Who, by His Holy Spirit, overcomes attacks on the truth and convinces unbelievers of the truth when proclaimed. We also follow leaders with winsome personalities with dynamic and forceful presentations. We find them appealing to the eye and minds. That causes us to rely upon man and not God.

Then, in addition, we use various gimmicks to build the Church. Advertising and promotion has become a sta-ple of the failing Church, instead of seeking God's face to build the body of Christ. In vain, do many false preachers proclaim a false gospel. They leave out crucial elements and present part for the whole. Who would not want to go to heaven instead of hell, especially when they do not realize the full import of the gospel? We look at the vast numbers of those who come and believe that message and we say, "Oh, look at the goodness and blessing of God. Look at the millions and the multitudes that believing." Sadly, they have not believed the truth.

Again, the false leaders point to the excitement of their meetings and the expressions of emotion. However, the presence of either one does not evidence the presence of God. We have a false sense of God's presence. False pastors give messages filled with generalities, which lack the full truth by conforming them to the world's de-sires. They hope that the world will find them appealing and exciting.

All of these examples exhibit reliance upon an imitation power. Results look attractive, but they do not rest upon God and the power of the Holy Spirit. They rely upon false foundations, which produce false results. We must remember what God said to Zechariah, when he faced a difficult time. Several years after Amos, Jerusa-lem lay in ruins, and Zechariah began to rebuild it. From a human standpoint, he faced an insurmountable task. God assured him with this promise, "It is not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit saith the Lord."

We need, once again, to restore in our day the dignity of the Holy Spirit. We have set Him aside. We have re-sisted Him. We have refused to listen to His voice. Consequently, we have relied upon an imitation power. That described the day of Amos. Sadly, it describes our day as well.

Third, these false prophets in Amos' day rebelled against God with intentional perversity. They deliberately pursued after that which opposed God. The spiritual failure of the people came as a direct result of the evil lead-ership of their prophets and priests. They worshiped idols made by their hands from wood and stone. They mixed it with a feigned worship of God, complete with sacrifices and celebrations of feast days. They attempted to mix the worship of God with satisfaction of their own fleshly desires, the pursuit of materialism. Their plural-istic worship made God only one God among many others, contrary to God's command to worship Him only.

In our day, we have some similar circumstances. Let me just mention a few. We, too, have rampant sin in our day even within the professing church. We have immorality. Worse than that, we have amorality, no morality. Nothing is moral or sacred anymore. We have pastors, preachers, and leaders who fail to tell us the truth. They preach soft, easy messages to try to encourage us to think that all is well and everything is peaceful and good. They do not tell us the truth. They do not encourage us to examine ourselves in the light of God's word to see if we obey His demands upon us. We have a false sense of security in that we say, "Oh, once saved, always saved."

A false sense of security in a falsely presented gospel has led many to believe that they do not need to make any changes in their lives. Others rely upon a misleading view of freedom in Christ, which permits them to live as they please. Very similar to the day of Amos, we have rebelled against God with an intentional perversity. The false leaders fail to encourage believers to pursue after God alone.

The Church today replays the conditions of Amos' day, fostered by false prophets, pastors, and teachers. We rest upon a false peace. We rely upon an imitation power. These occur because we have rebelled against God with intentional perversity.

Stephen in his defense as recorded in described the false spiritual leaders of his day. Just before they stoned him, he told them that they resembled their past leaders. He said, "You always resist the Holy Spirit. You do not listen. You refuse to follow after God."

Paul in his letters warned of a similar sin: "Don't grieve the Holy Spirit." In his letter to the Church at Thessa-lonica, he said, "Don't quench the Holy Spirit."

The words of Stephen and Paul clearly describe what happened, not only in his day, but also in Amos' day and ours, too. They and we have resisted the Holy Spirit. We have thrown cold water on His works and extinguished the fires of the Holy Spirit. We have offended Him with our sinful rebellion. As a result, we have a false sense of peace and power, because we have deliberately rebelled against God.

We must heed these warnings as well as those recorded in the book of Amos. We must take them for our day as well and realize that we stand upon the brink of judgment ourselves. We must examine to see whether we might be at ease, contented, satisfied, and apathetic instead of experiencing the true peace of God. We must restore, once again, the dignity of the person of the Holy Spirit of God.

If it is wrong to call the works of the Holy Spirit the works of satan-which it is-it is also equally sinful to call the works of satan the works of the Holy Spirit. That describes our plight. We call the works of men the works of the Holy Spirit. To experience once again the glorious manifest presence of God by His Holy Spirit, we must repent of our sin and return to the pursuit of God. We must turn from our false ways and trust God to work in us that which He has promised to do.