That is our hope that the Lord will speak to our hearts and show us that all our salvation is in the person and the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he will give us eyes to see and hearts to believe on Christ. If he blesses us with that, we'll leave here at peace with God. We'll leave here comforted, knowing that whatever other trials and troubles we might have in this world, we can say, it is well with my soul. It's well with my soul.

latter part of your Old Testament, there's several smaller prophets. We call them the minor prophets, not because they're minor in meaning, it's the Word of God, but because they're smaller, they're short books. If you'll look in your Bible and find the book of Amos, sometimes it's hard to find those little prophets, but take a moment and and find with me, if you will, the prophet Amos. We're going to be looking at some verses in Amos chapter five this morning.

Can you imagine the horror of being chased by a lion? only to run smack dab into the arms of a bear. Can you imagine what it would be like to run from that lion and think that you found safety in a house, only to lean your hand on the wall inside that house to catch your breath and be bitten by a venomous, deadly serpent. This is the picture that the Lord Jesus paints for us of those who plan and prepare for the day of the Lord, only to discover in that day that all their hopes were misplaced. Instead of a day of salvation and rejoicing, it will be for them a day of damnation and lamenting.

I don't want that to happen to me. I long for the day when the Lord returns. But I also know that I have religious friends who will speak very fondly of the second coming of Christ and the eternal establishment of God's kingdom and their hope for heaven. That our hopes would be misplaced that we might hear those most dreaded words that God could ever speak to any soul after they stand before him and say, but Lord, we've done many wonderful works in thy name. And to have God say to them, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. to have the God of glory turn you away from that place that you thought you were going to go. You were running all your life from a lion, but you ran smack dab into the arms of a bear. You thought you could take rest in a house, but were bitten by a serpent. to be weighed in the balance of God's scale and to be found wanting.

Many warnings to that. And faith always holds oneself suspect, and faith always heeds the warnings of God, and faith never takes lightly these things, we say, oh Lord, don't let me, don't let me in my fleeing from the lion be taken over by a bear. There is a way, the Bible says, that seems right unto man. The way that seems right unto man is that we would be able to buy our way into heaven, that we would be able to barter with God, that we would be able to purchase our salvation by our works or by our will. or by our wisdom, that we could make some contribution to the hope of our salvation. But in the end, that way leads to death. This is the picture that our Lord is giving to us.

You have your Bibles open to Amos chapter five. Look at verse 18. Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord. You speak very fondly and very firmly about your hope of salvation in the day in which the Lord Jesus returns, the day in which he sends his angels with the sickle of his wrath and separates the wheat from the tares, the sheep from the goats. Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord. To what end is it for you? The day of the Lord is going to be darkness, not light. It's going to be a day of judgment. It's going to be a day of wrath. It's going to be a day of lamenting, not a day of rejoicing. And here's why.

You are like a man. That's the meaning here, as if a man. You are like a man who did flee from a lion and a bear met him. or you went into the house in fleeing from that lion and leaned your hand on the wall. You can just picture a man catching his breath and feeling like, okay, I've been delivered and he's run into a false church thinking he's safe there only to have a venomous serpent bite him.

Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness and not light, even very dark and no brightness in it? Now the Lord's gonna speak to those that he's describing. I hate, I despise your feast days. He's speaking to religious people like the Pharisees we considered in the first hour of John chapter 8. Very religious, very committed, very outwardly moral people that were practicing their faith, if you will. These were Israelites that were doing it in the name of Jehovah. Much like so many today who claim to be Christian, who attend churches much like this one in appearance, not in substance, I hope, and who offer to God those things that they hope will earn them some merit and some favor with God.

And God says, I hate, I despise your feast days. I will not smell your solemn assemblies. Though you offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them. Neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beast. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs. For I will not hear the melody of thy vials. All your singing and all of your worship and all of your pretended devotion are an offense to me.

What made them offensive? Verse 24. but let judgment run down as waters and righteousness as a mighty stream. Here's the only way the day of the Lord is not going to be a day of darkness and a day of wrath, is if you put away your religious works and let judgment roll down from heaven. Now there's only one time that judgment ever rolled down from heaven. That happened At Mount Calvary, when the Son of God, the sinless Savior, our substitute, bore in His body all the sins of all of God's people. He didn't die for everybody, He didn't die for part of our sins, He died for all the sins of all of God's people.

And God Almighty took the sword of His justice This is when judgment poured down. God took the sword of his justice. It pleased God to bruise him. It was God that put the Lord Jesus to death. And he took that very sword of justice and he sheathed it in the heart of his own darling son. And God shed his blood. And it was the blood of our substitute. It was the blood of our sin bearer that satisfied God's justice. That's when judgment came down.

You see, the Lord is speaking to those who think that they're going to satisfy God's justice with something that they do. Some religious behavior, some activity, some sacrifice that they make, some self atonement that they produce. And God says, You're like a man who has run from a lion into the arms of a bear. How would you rather die? By a lion or a bear? That ain't much of a choice. See, it doesn't matter. These men were very religious in nature. Verse 24, let judgment run down as waters and righteousness as a mighty stream. Left to ourselves, we will, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, We will think that our righteousness is somehow meritorious. We will not know that our best deeds, the best thing that we can ever produce, if the Lord Jesus Christ doesn't take our good works and present them in his righteousness before God, the best thing that we ever did will send us to hell.

not knowing that our righteousness is as filthy rags before God, and being ignorant of the righteousness of God, we will go about trying to establish our own righteousness. We'll do it. That's just what we do.

Brothers and sisters, believers, those of you that know, that have been taught of God, that you have no righteousness outside of Christ. Just like in the first hour we were talking about how we have eyes to see through faith that God has given us, and yet how many times we lose sight of what we know is true. Temporary that sight is, how, how, you know, we just get little glimpses here and there, don't we?

And the same thing's true of our faith. We know that we're not saved by works. We know that we're saved by grace. And yet there's something in us that gravitates toward trying to atone for our sins. There's something in us that when the conviction of sin comes, we think we can fix it rather than run into Christ. We run to the bear. The bear is the law, by the way, in this picture. The bear is the law. And we think, I can do something about this. I can make things better. can make up for this or I can I can become better and do better

and Paul said his strength is made perfect in my weakness Isaiah put it like this in Isaiah chapter 31 he said they that wait upon the Lord they that look to Christ they that trust in the Lord shall renew their strength and that word renew doesn't mean we'll add Christ to our strength that word renew means actually you look it up it means to exchange exchange change get rid of one take another they that wait upon the Lord will exchange their strength for his strength And then they will mount up with wings as eagles, and then they will run and not be weary, and then they will walk and not faint.

But how many times we try to pull ourselves up? It's running to the bear. Now, the unbeliever will run to the bear and feel safe, not knowing that that bear is going to kill him in the end. It's the law of God. that executes the justice of God, the judgment of God, let judgment roll down, let righteousness be established.

Why did God slay his own son on Calvary's cross? The law demanded it. The law of God required it. When God saw sin on his only son, When the Bible says in Isaiah 53, it pleased the Lord to bruise him, that word please doesn't mean it made him happy. It mean that it was necessary, it was required of God's nature, of God's holiness, of God's justice to put his own son to death.

Now, if God Almighty did that to Christ when he saw sin on him, what's he gonna do to us? The law can do nothing but kill. The law can do nothing but slay. The law can do nothing but require justice. And that's what the Lord Jesus accomplished at Calvary's cross. He satisfied God's justice.

So we don't run from the lion into the arms of the bear. The bear's gonna kill us just like the lion would. We don't flee into a false house and have a serpent to bite us. The unbeliever will do that. You know, so many things are true when I say this. The difference between a believer and unbeliever is we often do the same thing, but the believer is able by God's grace to recognize that the unbeliever can't see it. And you can apply that to many things that are different between the believer and the unbeliever. The believer sees it. Yes, Lord, I see that. I do that. Whereas the unbeliever will run to it and feel safe, feel completely content, experience no conviction about it. As a matter of fact, they will be emboldened.

Well, I've made a covenant with death. In hell, I'm in agreement. When the overflowing scourge of God comes, it's not gonna overcome me. I'm good. This is who the Lord's saying. When he says, you talk fondly about the day of judgment as if you look forward to that day, but it's going to be a day of darkness. You've run from the lion right into the bear and your end will be the same.

The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Bible says that. Romans chapter three, the quote from I think Psalms 36, there's no fear of God before their eyes. Jeremiah chapter two verse 18 says, my fear is not in thee, or your fear is not in me, thus saith the Lord of hosts." Men by nature, apart from the saving grace of God, have no fear of God. They have no fear of God. They've made a God, they've fashioned a God that's altogether as themselves. They think that God is some sort of doting grandfather in heaven that's just going to overlook things or pat them on the head. He's certainly not going to send me to hell.

Men by nature do not fear God. And the fact that they would run to the law only proves that they have no fear of God, that they somehow would be able to to bribe God or somehow would be able to buy from God salvation. Proves that they have no real fear of God. So if man has no fear of God, then why is it that men are so religious? Why is it that they're so religious? Who are they afraid of?

In Acts chapter 17, I think I brought this out last Sunday, when Paul was walking around Athens and he was observing their statues, Greek mythology, statues everywhere, all the Greek gods and goddesses in Athens. And then he noticed that there was a statue, perhaps just a pedestal, I don't know, with nothing on it, of the unknown God. And Paul goes to Mars Hill where the philosophers meet every day and they pool their ignorance and they debate whether Stoicism or Epicureanism is the right way. And Paul said, I noticed that you people are altogether too superstitious. You're too superstitious. You have all these gods, and you have one that's an unknown god, the god you don't know, the one I'm gonna preach to you. You don't know him, but I'm gonna preach him to you.

That word superstitious is made up of two words in the original language. It's very simple, fear and devil. Fear and devil. Why is it that men are so religious? Why is it that they're so superstitious?

Now you may have forgotten your art lessons in school, but you can look it up online. I would encourage you to. And some of you may be very familiar with what I'm about to say. But in the 16th century, Michelangelo was commissioned by the Pope of Rome. to portray the last day of judgment. And it's on the wall behind the altar in the Sistine Chapel. It takes up 2,000 square feet. It took him, I think, five years to do it. Look that picture up. It is a perfect physical description of why men are religious. and why the Catholic Church represents that Babylonian religion in Christendom, at least, so aptly. People being cast into hell in that, I mean, it's a scary, scary picture that Michelangelo did. It's the fear of the devil why people are religious. They have no fear of God. They just don't want to go to hell. They just don't want to go to hell. That's why men are religious.

And so the devil is portrayed in the Bible. And by the way, Paul said to those Athenians, you are too superstitious. Now I've heard preachers talk about the devil as if you know, they had him under his foot, under their foot and his neck and he had no... The devil's a real being and he's a whole lot stronger than me and you. And I'm not suggesting in any way that we act toward him as if he's nobody. But religion is based on being too superstitious.

And so the devil is portrayed in God's Word as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Men are running from the devil is what they're doing. They're running from hell. They're running from eternal judgment. And they're running right into the arms of the law, thinking that somehow I can do something to atone for my own sins and make things right so that I don't have to worry about that. I can make a covenant with death. And with hell, I am in agreement, Isaiah chapter 28. That's why men are religious. They're not religious because they fear God. They're religious because they fear the devil.

but to run from the devil into the law is going to make the day of judgment not a day of light and a day of salvation, it's gonna make it a day of wrath. The bear will kill you just as fast as the lion will. And to run into a house of worship and put your hand on the wall and catch your breath from the devil that you've been running from all week and to be stung by a serpent, that's Satan himself. That's the message that's being preached in so many churches.

Turn with me to Hebrews chapter two. What are we to think about the devil? Hebrews chapter two. Verse 14, Hebrews 2 verse 14. For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he, the Lord Jesus, also himself likewise took part of the same. He was born of a woman, born under the law to redeem them who were cursed by the law. That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

All men through fear of death are subject to the bondage of the law. And what the Lord Jesus did was he fulfilled the law. He satisfied justice, let justice come down. And now what prophet Amos said in Isaiah, in Amos chapter five, he said, you're looking for this day of judgment because you think you're already, you've done your part, you're prepared. And it's gonna be a day of wrath. And you're gonna hear God say, depart from me, you workers of iniquity, I never knew you.

No brethren, we run to Christ. He's the only one that can defeat the devil. He's conquered him. Judgment's been satisfied. The devil's been defeated.

We don't go through religious activity out of fear of death. The true fear of God is the reason for our worship. We fear standing in the presence of God without the Lord Jesus as our advocate, as our righteousness before God. And we would never lower God to the standard of thinking that we could appease him by our law keeping.

We don't run from the lion to the bear. There's no salvation there. We don't run to Mount Sinai, we run to Mount Calvary.

I remind you, remember Elijah, when he was on Mount Carmel, he was so bold. I was there 800 prophets of Baal. That's when the fire came down from heaven and consumed the altar and the prophet had all the prophets of Baal killed. Oh boy, he was riding high.

Then God sent a storm. And then one woman, one woman, her name was Jezebel. And Elijah in all of his boldness and all of his courage was afraid of Jezebel. And what did he do? The Bible says that he ran from Mount Carmel to Mount Horeb. That's a long way. Mount Horeb is Mount Sinai. It's the mountain of the law. And Elijah hid himself in a cave.

I wonder if that was the same cave that Moses was put in. Because that's the same mountain Moses was on. God put him in the cleft of a rock. He covered up. God sent a fire. He wasn't in the fire. God sent an earthquake, rent the rocks. God sent a mighty worship wind. No, God wasn't. Still small voice. Still small voice.

But in that story, God says to Elijah, the prophet, the prophet of God, he's a believer. Elijah, what are you doing here? What are you doing here? In your fear, why did you run back to Mount Sinai? Why'd you go to the law? God in his mercy brought him out of that experience and spoke to his heart as I hope that the Lord will speak to you and to me every time we're tempted, every time we're tempted to fix our sin problem with the law. The unbeliever can run to the law and find comfort and peace. God by his grace will not allow his children to find peace at Mount Horeb. I've got to go to Calvary. The only time justice ever came down, the only time righteousness was ever established was not at Mount Horeb, not at Mount Sinai, it was at Mount Calvary. That's where I've got to go. I can't run from the devil into the arms of a bear. I can't go to a works gospel and think that somehow I can catch my breath when the walls are full of venomous serpents that are gonna put me to death. I can't long for the day of judgment thinking that God's gonna reward me for something that I did. I've got to have Christ.

The Lord Jesus is pictured in so many ways in the Bible. But just a couple. You remember Samson, the strong man. And he was a judge of Israel. And Samson, one day, killed a lion with his bare hands. And then he came back sometime later, and in the lion, I guess the other animals had eaten the lion out or it decayed or whatever, but there was a beehive inside the carcass of the lion. And Samson got honey out of that beehive. And then later he gives this riddle. He says, if you want to understand my strength, you got to solve this riddle. And the riddle went like this. Out of the eater comes meat and out of the strong comes sweet. Now the Lord Jesus is our strong man. And what he did at Calvary's cross is he slew that lion. And he's saying to us, out of the eater comes meat, except you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, for my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is your drink indeed. Out of the eater comes meat, and out of the strong Oh, Satan's a lot stronger than we are. Comes sweet. Comes the honey of God's word. We flee to Christ in that.

John in Revelation chapter 5 is taken into heaven. And there's a scroll in heaven. It's the Lamb's book of life. And it's sealed with seven seals, and no man in heaven or on earth was found worthy to unlock the seals of the scroll." And John begins to weep because he knows if the scroll's not open and the names are not written, no one's going to be saved. And the angel says to John, John, weep not, for the lion of the tribe of Judah, not this lion, that men run from, but the Lion of God, the King of kings, hath prevailed. The Lion of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed, and he is able to open the scrolls and reveal the names.

Brethren, we don't run. from the fear of the devil into the arms of the bear to try to save ourselves with our law keeping. We run to Christ. He's the only one able to read the names in the book of life. He's the only righteousness we have before God. He's the only one that ever satisfied God's holy justice.

By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. A man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. You that desire the day of the Lord, To what end is it for you if you're like one running from the devil to the law or going into a place that promotes a works gospel only be stung by a serpent of death?

No, come to that place where judgment flows down. Come to that place where righteousness is established Flee to Christ. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. I'll give you rest. My yoke is easy. My burden is light.

Why is his yoke easy? Because he's already carried the full weight of God's justice. That's why his burden is light. He's the law keeper. We get in yoke with him. And in him is our life. And then, then we have reason to hope in truth, not with a false hope, but in truth for that day of the Lord, when he shall come and take us to be with him in glory.

The day of the Lord then will be light, not darkness. Our Heavenly Father, bless your word. Lord, go with us in the power of your spirit and cause us to remember the things that you have said. We ask it in Christ's name, amen.

2.32 in the hardback temple, let's stand together.