Let's turn in our Bibles to the book of Amos, chapter 5. Amos, chapter 5. Titled this message, Seek Me and Live. Seek Me and Live.

I wanted to read that passage in Matthew chapter six, particularly for the conclusion of what our Lord is telling us. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these other things to be added unto you. How caught up we become in seeking so many other things. And yet we know that what the Lord What the Lord requires and what he commands, he also provides.

He tells us in the book of Philippians that it is God that works in us, causing us to will and to do of his good pleasure. The desire and the ability to seek the Lord is the evidence that the Lord has called us. He puts in our hearts a desire to seek him. And he gives us the faith and his spirit, the ability to seek him.

We've come here tonight in hopes of being able to seek the Lord. We read how many times where the Lord tells us to look. The children of Israel in the wilderness were being bitten by by venomous snakes, and Moses made a brazen serpent and put it up on a pole, a clear picture of the Lord Jesus being made sin for us. And sinners will look. They look, and they live. If anyone was bit, and they looked, they lived.

Our Lord tells us to come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. What a labor this world and this body and our sin is for the child of God. And so the Lord calls us to come, come. The outward call of the gospel is made to all men and all men are equally responsible. But unless the Lord gives an inward call, unless he makes that call effectual and irresistible, we'll not seek him, and we'll not come, and we'll not look, and we'll not believe.

But the fact that we do believe, the fact that we do seek him, the fact that we are able to look is the evidence that God has worked in us, causing us to will and to do of his good pleasure, we would not. We'd be just like the rest of the world. We would just ignore these things. And we would seek the things that the Gentiles seek. And that would be our only seeking. We seek those things enough as it is.

What a blessing it is. when the Holy Spirit convicts us of that and shows us that what we really need, what we really need is to see Christ. Look at our text in Amos chapter 5. Remember Amos' name translated means burden, burden. We've skipped a couple of chapters here from the last time we were in Amos last Wednesday night, because Amos is declaring words of judgment against not only the enemies of Israel, but against Judah and Israel themselves. And then in chapter 5, he issues this command. And so this command comes to us. And the believers heard it then, and we hear it now.

Look at verse four of Amos chapter five. For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel. This is God Almighty speaking, and he speaks effectually to the house of Israel, to the people of God. God commands all men everywhere to repent. As we saw Sunday, creation and conscience requires that a man believes the revelation that God's made to him, but he takes the creator and turns him into a creature and denies the very revelation. But here's what happens for Israel when the Lord speaks.

Seek ye me. and you shall live. I love that word shall. Not you might live, you shall live. But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba, for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity and Bethel shall come to naught. Now the prophecy was that Jerusalem was going to be overcome and it was gonna be destroyed. Don't run over to this city or that city because they're all gonna be, they're all gonna be taken. Verse six, seek the Lord, seek the Lord and you shall live. Lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph and devour it and there be none to quench it in Bethel.

You remember the parable our Lord told about a wealthy man that was making a great feast for his friends. And he sent his servants out into the community to bid them to come. And one man said, I've bought, what was it? Five oxen. Another man said, I've married a wife. Another man said, I've acquired some land. And they all made excuses one after the other. And the man was wroth, the scripture says, at these people who would not come. They would not come. And then he says to the servants, go out into the highways and the hedges and compel them to come in.

Now, who lived in the highways and hedges? The homeless, the poor, the needy. You know, I used to think that seeking the Lord was a matter of commitment and that some people were just more committed than others. But I don't believe that now. I believe it's a matter of need. It's a matter of need. Those who need him will seek him. And for the homeless that live in the highways and hedges, for those who have nothing, to hear that the wealthy man who says to his servants, tell them that all things are ready. Tell them that all things are ready, that my house might be full. And what a gospel picture we have here. where the heavenly father sends his angels, his churches, his preachers, his people out into the highways and hedges and say to the needy, it's all ready. Everything's done. You don't have to bring anything. Just come like you are. Come just like you are. And his house was full. House was full.

Those who seek the Lord are those who were sought out by the Lord. He leaves the 99, he goes and he finds that lost sheep and he brings him back into the fold. And so the evidence of having been sought out by the Lord is that we seek him. that we desire Him.

I want us to look at these verses that we just read in Amos chapter 5 by asking just some very simple, common questions. I think they call it the five W's and the one H. What, who, when, where, why, and how. Let's just apply those words to this text and see if the Lord will give us a desire to seek him more, to seek him more.

What is the Lord telling us to do, he's saying pursue, pursue, look to me. You remember when John the Baptist, he had a lot of men following him, people following him, until the Lord Jesus showed up and John pointed to Christ and said, behold, the Lamb of God. He must increase, I must decrease. I'm a voice crying in the wilderness. He's the word of God. And there was a disciple of John by the name of Andrew. And Andrew went up to the Lord Jesus and the Lord Jesus asked him, what seek ye? What seek ye? What are you seeking, Andrew? And Andrew said, Master, where abideth thou? Where do you dwell? And the Lord said, come and see. And Andrew came. Andrew sought the Lord and, of course, became one of the 12 disciples. And as soon as Andrew realized who had sought him and who he was seeking, he went and got his brother Simon. And so the disciples began to follow after Christ and seek him.

Left to ourselves, we'll seek a lot of things. We'll seek validation. We'll seek purpose. We'll seek pleasure. will seek peace. Amen. Scripture says in Romans chapter 3 verse 11, there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They have all together gone out of the way. By nature we won't seek God. We might seek the idol that we've created in our own minds in hopes to be able to avert eternal judgment and make it into heaven. We might seek the God of man-made free will religion, but to seek God, the Lord has told us here, seek ye me and you shall live.

To seek God, God has to do a work of grace in hearts we're we're so much like those Athenians in Acts chapter 17 Paul said this about them he said he said the Athenians and the strangers spend their time in nothing else but to tell new things they just want to tell and hear something new yeah that's the way some of us were in religion We're like those pagans in Athens, worshiping the gods of Greek mythology, always listening to hear and to tell something new, something new. Seeking maybe some validation for ourselves, seeking seeking some hope of salvation, but not seeking the God who is.

The Lord says under the house of Israel, seek ye me and you shall live. Left to ourselves, we will seek physical life over spiritual life. We will seek pleasure over true joy. We will seek healing of our bodies over the forgiveness of our sin and the wholeness of our soul. We will seek temporary happiness rather than eternal holiness. We'll seek all the things that the Gentiles seek. Don't worry about these things, the Lord said. Those things the Gentiles seek. You seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. All these other things will be evident to you. The Lord will give you what you need.

David said, Lord, feed me with the bread that's convenient for me. Lord, don't make me so rich that I forget my need for you and don't make me so poor that I'm tempted to beg. Lord, just give me my daily bread. Give me what's required, what I need. Lord, you know my needs. And that's what our Lord is telling us there in Matthew chapter six. You're so much more important than the birds of the air and the flowers of the field. Your heavenly father knows what you have need of. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

Now we can't seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness without seeking Christ, who is the king and who is the righteousness of the kingdom. we will seek earthly possessions, the natural man does. He finds his sense of security and purpose in what he owns and has no treasure laid up in heaven and no hope of eternal salvation. What are we to do were to seek the Lord. That's what we are to do. And who is to do it? Here's the second question. Who is to do it? For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, the house of Israel, ye. The Lord didn't say, if you're one of God's elect, then seek me. No, he said, you seek me. And if you will to seek me, you desire to seek me, and you're able to seek me out and find me, you seek me with all your heart, you will find me. There's the only evidence that you need, that you belong to the Lord.

The world's not interested in seeking him. No man seeketh after God at any time. The only evidence that I have I can't look into the Lamb's Book of Life and find my name. I can't look into the secret counsel of God's heart and know that he elected me according to his own will and pleasure before time ever began in the covenant of grace. I can't do that. But I can hear what God says, and I can say, oh Lord, that's what I want. And the fact that he makes me to desire it and he makes me to do it, he makes me to do it, is the evidence. It's the evidence. Faith is the evidence of salvation. It's what we're talking about. Seeking the Lord is just faith. It's looking, it's believing, it's setting our affections on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

So who seeks? Who's doing the seeking? All the children of Israel, all the people of God, they will seek Him. And who is it that they seek? Well, look, for thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, seek ye me. Seek ye me.

I was thinking, why do we come here? And I want to preface what I want to say by confessing. Let me just do that. Confessing. I'll let you sort out your own motives, but I'll confess to you that my motives are never pure. And the more I look at my motives, the more impure they are. I want to be able to come to this place with no thoughts of anything other than hearing from God, worshiping Him, having the Lord open the windows of heaven, having Him make Himself known, having Him speak to my heart. That's why we come. And yet, we're so easily distracted, aren't we? And we so easily lose sight of why we're here and what we come here for.

And so the Lord tells us, look at verse five in our text. He tells us, seek ye me and you shall live, but seek not Bethel. You see, here's where the motives get somewhat distracting. What was Bethel? Well, Bethel was that place where when Jacob was fleeing from Esau and he had that dream, of the ladder going up into heaven and the angels ascending and descending upon the ladder. And he woke up and he called that place Bethel, the house of God, the house of God. God had revealed himself there in Bethel. How many churches today are called Bethel, the house of God? And we know that heaven is the eternal Bethel. Heaven is the eternal house of God. It's where he is.

But the Lord's telling us something here in this next verse, brethren. He's saying, seek ye me. Don't seek Bethel. Don't just look to be going to church. And don't just look to be getting into heaven. You know, that will be, that'll be taken care of. He told Abraham, he said, I am thy shield and I am thine exceeding great reward. Oh, we seek the hand of God. We delight in the blessings of God. But let us not forget that the blessings of God, the grace of God, the salvation of God comes with him. He said, seek ye me. Don't seek Bethel. Don't just, you know, making church attendance a habit, an obligation, looking for an avenue to escape eternal judgment and make it into the eternal glory of God. Seek ye me. Don't seek Bethel. Bethel will come, the house of God will come.

And he says, enter not into Gilgal. Now, what was Gilgal? Well, when Joshua, after Moses died on the east side of the Jordan, Joshua brought the children of Israel across the Jordan River, which was miraculously dried up. And the first place they camped on the west of the Jordan before God destroyed Jericho was Gilgal. They had just entered into the promised land. And Gilgal held a very significant historical event for the children of Israel because this is where God began the work of conquering that land that he had promised, the land of milk and honey for the children of Israel. And they would often look back to the successes of Gilgal

And the Lord said, don't run to Gilgal. Don't go to Bethel. Don't go back to your past successes or your past memories. Don't try to live off of yesterday's grace or yesterday's manna. It will grow worms. Seek ye me. Give us this day our daily bread. You see what I'm saying about our motives?

come together. Lord, I don't want to, I don't want to just seek the house of God. I want to seek God. I don't want to just seek the The Gilgal means a rolling wheel. I don't want to just seek the past experiences of graces as wonderful as they were. Lord, I need a fresh measure. I need to seek the Lord anew. I need to know you afresh right now when I come to the Lord in worship and in prayer and when I go to God's word.

And that's what Beersheba I think is a picture of there. Sheba, you remember the seven sons of Sheba that attacked, that in the book of Acts, they were overcome with demons. Well, Sheba means seven and Bir means well. And so Bir Sheba was the southernmost point of the promised land. How many times we read in the Old Testament from Dan to Bir Sheba? from Dan to Beersheba. Dan was the most northern part of the promised land and Beersheba was the most southern.

But Beersheba is where Isaac dug wells and provided water for his sheep. And what is that a picture of? Well, seven's the number of perfection and we know that the word of God is perfect and complete within itself. Jeff and I were talking about this Sunday, I think it was, Jeff. But God is beyond our comprehension. The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which have been revealed belong to us and to our children. And such a small portion of the fullness of God he has revealed to us.

for all eternity, for all eternity. He will continue to reveal more and more of his glory and more and more of his grace to us, and we'll never comprehend the fullness of God. He's infinite. That's the I am that we were talking about Sunday, and that's what inspired this conversation between me and Jeff. And I brought up a quote from Charles Spurgeon, a point that I wanted to make. that Charles Spurgeon said, had God given us more revelation of himself than he did give us in his word, it would have been to our destruction. And the point being that the revelation of God's word is perfect. Even if the other revelations that God gave us were true, he gave us exactly what we need. exactly what we need, no more.

I think about what the Lord said, or what Paul said in Hebrews when he said, he's talking about the mercy seat. He said, there's so much to be said about this, but you can't bear it right now. You can't bear it. And the Lord said that to the disciples. I have much more to say to you, but you can't bear it. There's so much more of God, that we're not capable of bearing in our current state.

Beersheba, seven wells, the well being the water of God's word, perfect as it is revealed to us. We have the full revelation of what we need of God given to us in his word. And we rejoice when the Lord opens his word, opens our hearts, and reveals himself to us by his word. And yet, what does the Lord say here? Seek ye me. Don't go to Bethel. Don't just go to church or look for a way to get to heaven. Don't go to Gilgal. Don't just look for your past successes and yesterday's manna. Don't go to Beersheba. Don't seek Beersheba.

I was listening to somebody recently, and they were so enthusiastic about something that they had learned in the Bible. It didn't have anything to do with Christ. It was a video I was watching. And I thought, you know, I can do that. I can get caught up in seeking things about God in Scripture and miss Him. And miss Him. This is what our Lord's telling us, brethren. Seek ye Me and you shall live. The world is seeking everything but God. God by his spirit has caused us to will and to do of his good pleasure. He's given us a desire and an ability to seek him.

But in our seeking, in our seeking, there's so many, there's so many fleshly motives and there's so many, there's so many worldly interests and concerns and, and, and, you know, the Lord's saying, don't, Don't just seek to understand the Bible. Don't just seek to know some biblical truths and doctrine. Don't just seek ye me. You know how often we're reminded, we don't believe in the sovereignty of God. We believe in a God who's sovereign. There's a big difference. You can be a Calvinist and know the Bible inside and out and know a lot of things that are true. But here's what the Lord's saying to his people. Here's what he's saying to his children. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these other things will be added unto you. All these other things.

Lord, I get caught up in seeking so many things. so many substitutes, so many counterfeits, so many interests and concerns that occupy my thoughts, and so many needs that I think will meet my need. Or if I could just have a little more of this, or a little more of that, or if this could change, or that could change, then no. The Lord's saying, seek ye me. Seek ye me, and then you shall live.

When do we seek Him? 2 Chronicles 15 verse 4 says, when they in their trouble did turn unto the Lord, the Lord God of Israel, and sought Him, He was found of them. This goes back to what I was trying to say earlier. It's not a matter of commitment in seeking the Lord. It's a matter of need. When they were in trouble and sought the Lord, God of Israel, then he was found of them. It's always a need that causes us to seek the Lord.

I love our Wednesday night crowd. I look at you as my brothers and sisters as the most needy people in our church. And what a blessing it is. What a blessing it is to be needy, to be poor. We have been given some understanding of our need. Our need for grace, our need for forgiveness, our need for God, our need to know Him.

Turn with me to Isaiah chapter 55, Isaiah chapter 55. The third W, when, when do we seek the Lord? We seek him in our time of trouble. And sometimes that means physical trouble. Sometimes it means emotional trouble, family trouble, financial trouble. But those troubles come and go. Those troubles eventually go away. The one trouble that the child of God always has is the trouble of their own flesh, the trouble of their own sin, the trouble of their own unbelief. And that trouble never goes away, it only deepens as we grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ. We see more and more of our need, more and more of the trouble of our own sin.

Look at Isaiah chapter 55, verse six.

Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God and he will abundantly pardon."

Now yes, is that a promise to one who is who is far out of the way into the world and far from God, yeah, yeah it is. But does that same truth apply to you and me right now? In our trouble, in our wickedness, in our unbelief, in our, yes. And for the wicked to forsake his way, that's repentance. The unrighteous man, his thoughts. How many of our thoughts are seeking everything but God? Let the unrighteous man forsake his thoughts and let him return them to the Lord. How many times the Lord brings us back to him? Every day, every day. When do we seek him? Right now.

Lord, we're in trouble. I've got an urgent need. Be like someone coming to you in your home and telling you that, well, look at, go back with me to our text, Amos chapter five. Verse six, seek the Lord and you shall live. Lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph and devour it and there be none to quench it in Bethel. You're sitting there comfortably in your home and someone, the fireman breaks through your front door and tells you that the house is on fire and you need to get out. And you look around, you don't see any fire. The fire's on the other end of the house. The neighbors have called the fire department. Your house is ablaze. But you don't know it yet. And you sit there comfortably and say to the fireman, well, how much more time do I have before I have to get up and leave? No. No. Right now, when do we seek him? right now. Today is the day of salvation. Now is the accepted time.

And here's another promise from Isaiah 45. Listen to this. I have not said to Jacob, seek me in Bain. I have not said to Jacob, seek me in Bain. No one has ever sought the Lord where he has not been found. Seek for me with all of your heart and you will find me. You will find me.

Where do we seek him? Seek him in his word. The volume of the book it is written of him. The Lord has revealed himself and his work of redemption and the hope of our salvation in all that he did to bear our sins in his body upon the tree and put them away by the sacrifice of himself. He is revealed by his resurrection, how the father is satisfied with what he's accomplished. He's revealed by his ascension, how that we have an advocate with the father, seated at the right hand of the majesty on high, interceding on our behalf. All that he is and all that he has done is revealed in his word.

We were reminded Sunday from Romans chapter 1 how creation speaks of his glory, conscience reveals to man's knowledge that there is a God, but conscience and creation are not sufficient. They are not a sufficient revelation for us to know how to be made right with this God. I've used this example before. Someone on a desert island who's never had any exposure whatsoever to any sort of civilization finds a watch washed up on the ship, on the shore, picks it up, and immediately comes to the conclusion that somewhere in the world there is a watchmaker. It'd be obvious. Somebody had to make this thing. Who that person is, what they're like, what they love and what they hate, And what kind of personality they have and what their affections are, we'd have no clue of those sort of things. All they would know is that there's a watchmaker. And so it is with creation and so it is with conscience. We need the revelation of God's word to know who he is, what he's done, what he's like, how to approach him, what he's accomplished for us.

And so where do we seek him? We seek him in his word. We seek him in prayer. We come before the throne of grace boldly to find help in our time of need. We are a needy, sinful people, and God has called us to seek him in prayer. And how, as we grow in grace, we find ourselves praying more often than we ever did before. Not that we have anything to boast in in our prayers, but oh, how the Lord moves our hearts to lift things to Him every day. Oh, Lord, help me. We seek Him in public worship. We've come here to seek the Lord. We seek Him in private worship. We seek Him in the fellowship of believers as we fellowship with one another. and we see how the Lord is working with you and you see how the Lord's working with me and how God has dealt with it, how the Lord's dealt with this. We seek him in providence, not that we're looking for an event to match up to a scripture, but we look at the events of the world and we see the hand of God. Might we be reminded every day what we're seeing? Wanna know what God's doing in the world? Just read the newspaper, watch the news, just look around, that's what God's doing.

What a blessing it is when the Lord enables us. I was talking to a brother today on the phone, you know, and some of the troubles he's going through, another state, and he said, He said, as difficult as this is, I know that God sent it. And I know that it's for my good. And I know that ultimately it will be to his glory. It's hard right now, but I know those things for sure. What a blessing it is to see the hand of God in all the trials and troubles of life. That's where we seek him.

Seek him in his word. We seek him at the throne of grace. We seek him in worship. We seek him in fellowship. We seek him in his providential workings of this world. How do we seek him? Deuteronomy 4.29, thou shalt seek the Lord thy God and thou shalt find him if thou shalt seek him with all thine heart and with all thy soul. That's a work of grace. Not that our hearts and minds and souls are pure of any distractions as we're seeking the Lord, but Lord, this is, I've got to have you. I've got to have you, Lord. This is not a curiosity seeking. When Bartimaeus was up in that tree, He wasn't seeking the Lord, he was just curious. He had heard some stories and he was just curious. But the Lord saw him and sought him and called him, Zacchaeus come down, I must go to your house today. And from that moment on, Zacchaeus sought the Lord. Sought him. God gives us a heart of faith. That's what faith does. Faith is always seeking the Lord. It's always seeking him.

Proverbs chapter eight, verse 17 says, those that seek me early shall find me. The Lord Jesus tells us, knock, it will be opened. Ask, it will be given. Seek, and you shall find. And that word knock, and that word ask, and that word seek, in the original language is a continual action. Keep knocking, keep asking, keep seeking. It will be opened. I believe that's what the Lord means when he says, you seek me with all of your heart. People that seek Him half-heartedly, oh, they'll just say, well, Lord, you offer one prayer, it doesn't happen, so, well, they give up. But when God gives faith to seek Him, it never stops. Continue, continue seeking Him.

And finally, why do we seek Him? Why do we seek Him? Go back to our text and we'll look here. For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, verse four of Amos five, seek me and you shall live. I already hear the people of the world saying they're living the life, you know. Living life to its fullest, you know, enjoying it. No. No, what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Lord, I need, I need life. I need real life. In him is life. And the life was the light of men. I am the way, the truth, and the life. Lord, I have physical life, and I'm thankful for it, and I pray that you'll help me in it. But spiritual life is what I need. Spiritual life. Eternal life. Life without end. That's what I need.

Seek ye me, and ye shall live. Don't seek Bethel. Don't seek Gilgal. Don't seek Beersheba. Seek ye me. Our Heavenly Father, as you have commanded and called, Lord, we trust that you will make us able to seek Thee and to continue seeking Thee with all of our hearts that we might find Thee. We ask it in Christ's name, amen.

252, 352, 352.