If you would, open your Bibles
to the Book of Amos. The Book of Amos, chapter 4.
Scott, I'm afraid I told you my text was verse 11. It's verse
12. As you're turning, take a moment
to find that. Let me express my gratitude for
your hospitality. You all have treated us like
kings, much better than we deserve. I kind of feel like I ought to
get out of town before you realize, you know. But your hospitality
is second to none. I thank you for it. I thank you
for your friendship. Your friendship means a great
deal to us, and especially your fellowship in the gospel from
the first day till now, how much it means to us. And we certainly
will continue to pray for you. The Lord will lead you and guide
you in this. matter of the building and as you continue to go forward.
I pray the Lord bless you in a very special way. Amos chapter
4. I have a very serious message
with a very serious title from the prophet Amos. Prepare to
meet thy God. Amos was a prophet in Israel
about 750 years or so before the birth of our Lord Jesus.
At that time, the nation Israel was prospering very, very richly. They had a time of peace in the
nation. The government was stable. The
economy was just booming. People had houses where they
lived in the winter and a different house they'd live in in the summer.
They had great estate. Some of those houses were made
out of ivory. But all that physical prosperity
was just a mirage. because there is no spiritual
prosperity in the land. Now, the nation was still very
religious, but their religion was idolatry. They still observed
the ceremonies and the laws and the traditions and the scripture,
but it was idolatry. They weren't worshiping the Lord,
and they thought that their religion must be just fine, because look
how the Lord's blessing them with all these material blessings.
And in the midst of this prosperity, God sent a prophet to all these
city folks. And the prophet that God sent
to them was a hillbilly from the south. Amos was an uneducated
farm boy from the southern part of Jerusalem. You make your own
application to that. I don't know how often God sends
a man from the south to go north and preach the gospel, but he
does it, doesn't he? And Amos, he came warning the people of
God's judgment against sin. but nobody listened to him. Nobody
listened to him because they were so prosperous materially,
they didn't think anything was wrong. And Amos warned them,
God's going to send judgments, and those judgments are going
to continue to increase in severity until you're destroyed. And the
people refused to listen. And you know why they refused
to hear God's prophet? They'd already left the Lord.
So they're not going to hear His prophet. Now, they still
observed all the ceremonies, This is what they'd done. They'd
made an idol out of the ceremony instead of worshipping the one
to whom the ceremony pointed. They worshipped the ceremony,
not the Lord. Their confidence was in the ceremony.
The rest was in the ceremony, not the Lord. And like I said,
they thought their religion must be wonderful. They're doing everything
just right. Look how the Lord's blessing us materially. And they
just didn't want to listen to this hillbilly Amos upset the
apple cart and mess up the good thing they had going. But absolutely,
without any surprise, the Lord did just exactly what he said
he was going to do. He sent plagues and they increased in severity
until the nation would be destroyed, but still the people refused
to hear and refused to repent. Look here at Amos 4, verse 6. And I also have given you cleanness
of teeth in all your cities, and wine of bread in all your
places. Yet have you not returned unto me, saith the Lord? And
also, I withholding the rain from you, when there were yet
three months to the harvest. And I caused it to rain upon
one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city. One piece
was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered.
So two or three cities wandered into one city to drink water,
but they were not satisfied. Yet have you not returned unto
me, saith the Lord. I smitten you with blasting and
mildew. When your gardens and your vineyards
and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmer worm
devoured them. Yet have you not returned unto
me, saith the Lord. I've sent among you the pestilence
after the manor of Egypt. Your young men have I slain with
the sword, and I've taken away your horses. And I've made the
stink of your camps to come up into your nostrils. Yet have
you not returned unto me, saith the Lord. I've overthrown some
of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you're as a
firebrand plucked out of the burning. Yet have you not returned
unto me, saith the Lord. And all these calamities were
sent by God to show the people this, to show us how helpless
we are and how dependent we are upon God for everything. Not
just our physical need, but how especially are we dependent upon
him to supply our spiritual yet they would not repent and turn
to the Lord. And that's our nature. So, verse
12, thus will I do unto thee, O Israel, and because I will
do thus unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. Prepare to meet thy God. Now
that was said to Israel in those days, and it's said to us this
morning. Prepare to meet thy God. In a
very few short days, each of us will meet God Almighty. It surprises me how quickly life
has passed. In a few short days, this life
will be over, and we'll stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
It is appointed unto man once to die, and after this, the judgment. So that's an appointment. that
we all must keep so prepared to meet thy God. My intention is not to frighten
you to death. I know that thought, to meet
God, is a frightening thought to a sinner. And outside of Christ,
it ought to be frightening. We ought to be frightened. It's
frightening because we know we cannot stand before God in our
so-called righteousness. Our righteousnesses will never
cover our sin and our shame. Our righteousness, our obedience
is just a tattered garment that's filthy and polluted with sin.
I know that I cannot stand before God in my goodness because there's
none good. No, not one. I know I can't meet
God and fight against Him and expect to win because God is
the God of hosts. He has all power. He's not going
to be defeated or outsmarted by a pipsqueak like me. Yet,
there is such a thing as being prepared to meet God. Simeon
was prepared, wasn't he? You think of the joy in which
he spoke. Lord, now let thy servant depart
in peace. According to your word, I can
depart in peace and go meet God face to face, because mine eyes
have seen thy salvation." There was peace and joy there, wasn't
there? The Apostle Paul was prepared. He said, I'm now ready to be
offered. The time of my departure is at hand, and I don't dread
it. I've got joy about it. For I
know whom I have believed. I'm persuaded. I'm confident.
He's able to keep that which I've committed unto him against
that day. I have joy about this. He said, if I depart, I'll be
far better, because I'll be with Christ. So there is such a thing
as being prepared to meet God, isn't there? Well, here's my
question. How can I be prepared to meet
God? Number one, let me give you four
or five things. Number one, how can I be prepared
to meet God? Number one, seek the Lord, the
Savior. Look at chapter five, verse four.
For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, seek ye
me, and ye shall live. Now this, he says, seek the Lord.
That word Lord is in all capital letters. Whenever you see that
in scripture, it means Jehovah, the name Jehovah, God, my Savior. That's who we're to seek. Now
don't seek the religion now. Seek the Lord. Seek the Lord
who's the Savior of sinners. Don't seek God's favor by doing
right. Seek the Lord who saves sinners
who can't do anything right. Seek the Lord who's the Savior
of helpless, hopeless sinners and seeking as you are the helpless,
hopeless sinner. Seek the Lord. If you seek Christ,
you'll have life. That's what he says here. Look
over 1 John 5. John says the same thing. You
seek the Lord. When you find Him, you believe
Him, you'll have life. 1 John 5, verse 11. And this is the record. that
God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His
Son. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Now seek
the Lord. Seek the Son. If you have Him,
you have life. Now we know all of us must meet
God in judgment. Then wouldn't it be wise to seek
an advocate who could speak for us? You know, if I was summoned
into a court of law, when I had a job one time, I spent some
time in court. Unfortunately, having to sue
people wouldn't pay us, you know, their bill. And I spent a little
bit of time in court, and I realized when we were there, our attorney
was earning his keep. He knew how to speak to the judge. He knew how to maneuver and work
things so that things would turn out right. Well, if I was summoned
into a court of law, I wouldn't go by myself. I'd bring an advocate
to go with me, someone who knows how to speak to the judge, who
knows what to do. Well, we know, we've already
seen now, we must meet God face to face. Then we ought to be
seeking an advocate who can speak for us, shouldn't we? If you're
still there in 1 John, look at chapter 2. John says, my little children,
these things write I unto you, that you sin not. And if any
man sin, when any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous. What an advocate. This advocate
has never one time lost a case, because every case he takes is
innocent, not guilty. Now, we're guilty in ourselves,
aren't we? We're guilty in Adam, we're guilty
in ourselves, but our advocate is Jesus Christ the righteous.
Our advocate is the Savior who makes His people innocent in
Him. This advocate has never lost
a case. Look here at verse 2. Here's
why. And He is the propitiation of our sins. And not for ours
only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Christ our advocate
wins every case because He's our propitiation. He has perfect
blood to plead before the Father that cleanses His people from
all of their sin. Our advocate is Jesus Christ
the righteous. He pleads His righteousness to
make His people righteous and accepted in Him. What an advocate. Now, I like a sure thing. Do
you like a sure thing? I copied this from Brother Henry. I'm a big... a Kentucky basketball
fan. And if we would go to a game,
I go to a game that they play the Sisters of the Poor or something.
I want to see it win by 80. I can't stand to see it. I mean,
I just can't stand it. If it's close, I just can't stand
it. So when they play on television,
I record it. And I look at the score. And
I say, did they win? OK, I'll watch it. If they lost,
I hit Delete because I can't stand it. I love a sure thing. Now, if I feel that way about
something as insignificant as Kentucky basketball, how I desire a sure salvation
for myself. This advocate that will never
lose a case, would you like him to be your advocate? You wonder,
will he take my case? I just got one question for you.
Are you guilty? If you are, He'll take your case. He'll make you righteous. He'll
wash you from all of your sin in His blood. Do you want proof
of that? Who did Christ die for? He died
for the ungodly. He died for us, Paul said, while
we were yet sinners. That's who He died for. He died
for the guilty. Who did our Savior say He came
to call to repentance? Not the righteous, but sinners. Are you a sinner? Then you seek
the Lord as a sinner. He'll take your case and you'll
live. Second, back in our text, Amos
chapter 5. How can I be prepared to meet
God? Seek the Lord who purges sin.
Look at verse 6. 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." Now
we know, or we certainly ought to know from reading the scripture,
that if we're going to stand before God, we can't have any
sin. And throughout scripture, sin
is purged by the blood of the burnt offering. Brother Don talked
to us yesterday about purging sin so that it's gone. Sins purged
by the burnt offering. Well, the fire that Amos talks
about here, it's fire in the house of Joseph, isn't it? Blue
Joseph, the favorite son. This is a picture of redemption
in Christ Jesus, the Son of God. The fire of God's wrath was poured
out upon Christ, the Son of God, at Calvary. And when our Savior
endured that fire, the fire of God's wrath against the sin of
His people, our sin was purged, gone forever. Normally, the fire
consumes the sacrifice, doesn't it? The fire burns till the sacrifice
is gone. In the case of the sacrifice
of our Savior, the fire went out, but never consumed the sacrifice. You know why the fire went out?
Sin was gone. There is no more sin left to
fuel the fire of God's wrath against sin. He purged us from
our sin by His sacrifice. Now you seek the Lord as a sinner
who needs your sin to be purged, put away. Thirdly, how can I
be prepared to meet God? By seeking the Savior, seeking
the Lord as your only hope. Don't seek Him as a backup plan. Don't seek Him as someone who
can help. You seek the Lord as your only hope. You seek Him
as the only one who has the power to save a sinner like you. Look
here at verse 8. Seek him that maketh the seven
stars, and Orian, and turneth the shadow of death into the
morning, and maketh the day dark like night, that calleth for
the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the
earth. The Lord is his name. Seek the Lord who has the power
to create all of creation. He created the stars, the constellations,
and put them all in their place. God spoke, and the stars appeared. And he put them in their place.
And however long ago that was, they've stayed right there ever
since. He put the constellations. I
suppose some of them make shapes or whatever. I don't know. But
men have been able to look at those stars, and they've been
able to navigate by them in the deep seas from the time man first
went there. The season, you can tell the
seasons by telling the way of the stars. Men have been able
to do that forever. Well, who made all that work so wondrously?
Who has the power to do that? Who has the wisdom to do that?
Only God. Now Amos knew that. Look in chapter
7 of Amos. Amos, remember, he was a country
boy. And his occupation all the time growing up had been keeping
herds in the field by night and day. Look here at chapter 7,
verse 14. Then answered Amos and said to
Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son, but I
was an herdman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit. And the Lord
took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said unto me, go
prophesy unto my people Israel. Now Amos is pointing out he didn't
get any special training from men in order to be a prophet.
God called him and God made him a prophet. God gave him the message
and he sent him with the message to preach. And that's how all
of God's preachers are made, that exact same way. But I like
to think about old Amos. There he is, he's sitting out
there at Nice. whatever a shepherd does all day, you know. He's
got the sheep all, you know, there at night. And he's sitting
there, just watching over the sheep. He's looking up at the
sky. He sees those stars. I mean, you just think all those
years he sat and looked at those constellations and the stars.
And then the Lord comes and makes him a prophet. And now he's got
an illustration to use, doesn't he? This is what he's learned
over the course of his life. And Amos saw those constellations,
they turn. Well, God turns them. God turns
the earth. God's the one that turns the
night to day and the day to night. God's the one that calls the
waters of the sea to rise up in evaporation and humidity and
gather together up in the clouds and fall back down to water the
whole earth. God does that. That's the power
and the wisdom of the Creator. The Lord is His name, Amos says. That's the very one we're to
seek. The one who has all power to create and hold all things
together. That's the one we're to seek
as our Savior. You seek the Lord who has the
power to save sinners. He's the only one who has the
power to save. He's the only one with blood
to offer. It's His blood. We sing that song, there's power
in the blood. There's power in the blood of
Christ to cleanse from all sin. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter
4. I like to think about the creation. I read that story of
creation frequently. You think of the power that it
took for God to speak. And creation just appeared. He
didn't take matter and reform it into something else. There
was nothing there. And by God just speaking, it
appeared. God said, let there be light.
And there was light. God said, let the dry land appear,
and it appeared. God said, let the trees and the
grass and the plants appear. They appeared. God said, let
the animals appear. They appeared. That's power,
isn't it? You know it takes the exact same
power to speak and give life to a dead sinner. 2 Corinthians
chapter 4, verse 5. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus'
sake. For God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Now you seek the Lord who's got
the power to save. He's got the power to cleanse
you from your sin. He's got the power to give you
faith and life in the new birth. And this I can promise you, if
He speaks, you'll live. Now you seek the Lord as the
only one who's got the power to save you, and the only one
who has the wisdom to save you and to make you righteous. Your
man has devised so many ways to save a sinner. Man has devised
so many ways to make a sinner righteous. But not one of them
work. And you want me to tell you why?
Because all of them depend upon the creature in some way. And
we fail. everything we try to do. But
God saves in wisdom. What wisdom to save sinners through
a perfect substitute that enables God to be both just and justifier. Now that's wisdom, divine wisdom. What wisdom to save sinners through
a representative? Not through their obedience,
but through the obedience of their representative, so that
God can make them righteous, not in their obedience, but in
the obedience of another, the obedience of His Son. Now you
seek such a wise salvation, because that salvation can never fail.
Seek that Savior and your soul shall live. This goes right along with what
I was just saying. How can I be prepared to meet God? Seek God's
way of salvation. Don't seek man's way now. Seek
God's way of salvation. Back in our text, Amos chapter
5, verse 14. Seek good and not evil, that
ye may live. And so the Lord, the God of hosts,
shall be with you, even as ye have spoken. Amos says, seek
good. And what he means there is seek
God. Seek the Lord. There's none good but God. Just
find out what God says in his word and bow to it. Submit to
it. There's a dear brother there
in Ashland and he said, I spent all this time reading the Old
Testament, reading the law and reading how I was supposed to
do good and false prophets he's going to listen to, telling him
how he's supposed to do good. He said every once in a while,
on the radio or on the television, it may have been Brother Henry,
I'm not sure, but he kept hearing about this matter of grace. And
he'd read it and said, boy, sure sounds like the Bible's talking
about grace, doesn't it? Sure sounds like it. I just don't
know. He said, I fought that and fought
that and fought that. And I finally surrendered. Find
out what God said in His Word and surrender to it. You want
to know who God is? Find out what He says about Himself.
That's who He is. Seek God. Don't seek evil. Evil is anything that has to
do with man. Evil is not just all the horrible
corruption and sin and filth of this world. Evil is anything
that has to do with man. Our hearts are only evil. Well,
then find out what man says and reject it. Run from it. Because
it's wrong. It's going to be wrong every
time. Reject religion that has anything to do with our flesh
in any way. Because if anything is depending
upon our flesh, it'll fail. Seek salvation that has everything
to do with Christ and nothing to do with you. No input from
you whatsoever. If God enables you to find that
and find Him, your soul will live. Now, I believe I've told
you this before, but I'm going to say it again. Like Brother
Clay said, Janet and I grew up under the sound of the gospel.
And if I had a nickel for every time Brother Henry told me to
look to Christ, I'd be a wealthy man. I think if you just tell me where
he is, I'll look. He told me to seek the Lord,
and I, in some foolishness, I don't know what you call what I was
doing. It wasn't seeking the Lord. And you may think that. You may think, I've looked for
the Lord. I don't see him. I've sought
the Lord, and I haven't found him. It just seems like it's
no use. Well, let me give you an illustration.
Long time ago, there was a farmer and his wife. This wife, she
knew the Lord. She loved the Lord. She worshiped
him. But her husband, he was a good farmer, but he had no
use for religion. He had no use for the Lord. Every
Sunday, his wife would encourage him to come to service with her.
He wouldn't go. Often, she would encourage her
husband, why don't you seek the Lord? He wouldn't do it. One
day, the farmer, he went out and he sold his entire crop for
the whole year. Sold it to one man. Got him a
pile of money. That's the only payment he's
going to receive for the entire year, everything he's got. Put
it in his wallet. Farmers work just like a woman,
or housework's never done, a farmer's work's never done. He had to
do a few things before he went to town. And you know what he
did? He lost his wallet. And he started
looking for it, he looked everywhere for it. Couldn't find it. He
ran back into the house, his wife's there in the kitchen.
He said, honey, have you seen my wallet? She said, no, I haven't. And
she watched him. He went back out, she watched
him through the window. He tore that barnyard upside down. He
tore the barn upside down. He was in a panic looking for
that wallet. And oh, he finally found it.
Oh, he was so happy. He took that and he ran straight
to the bank and deposited that money in the bank. He was so
relieved. Their life was going to depend upon it. How are they
going to pay their bills and anything to eat if he didn't find that
wallet? Well, the next Sunday, his wife didn't say a word. The
next Sunday, she was getting ready to go to service. And she
said, honey, she said, why don't you come to service with me?
And he said, no, I'm not going to go. And she said, Darling,
why won't you seek the Lord? He said, matter of fact, I have
sought the Lord and I can't find Him. So what's the use? I just
keep doing what I'm doing. And she said, my darling, if
you'd seek the Lord like you looked for your wallet the other
day, you'd find Him. And you know she's exactly right.
She's exactly right. If you seek the Lord like your
life depends upon it, you'll find Him. And that's not just
an illustration, our God said that. In the very day you seek
me with all your heart, you'll find me. That's so. Now I want to leave you with
something I pray will be very comforting and encouraging to
your heart. I don't want you to think of
this phrase, prepare to meet thy God, as a frightening thing.
Now if you're in the flesh, you're depending upon the flesh, you're
depending upon your own righteousness and your own obedience to be
good enough, you ought to be scared to death because there's
no hope there. But I want us to see this phrase,
prepare to meet thy God in joy and thanksgiving. Look what Amos
says here. Amos chapter 4 verse 12. At the
end of the verse he says, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel, O
Israel. And to spiritual history, I say,
prepare to meet thy God. It is my prayer that there are
some here this morning who, as of yet, have not believed on
the Savior. But you will. That's my prayer. That God has
a people He's chosen. He's brought you here. Maybe
you haven't seen the Lord yet. You haven't sought the Lord yet.
But if God chose you, you will. You will see Him. You will believe
on Him. He will give you life. You just don't know it yet. And
to you, I say, to you who are seeking, to you who are so lost,
I say to you, prepare to meet thy God. He's coming. He's coming to reveal himself
to you through the preaching of the gospel. It's no accident
that you're here. You're here to hear the gospel.
God's going to send you a servant, one of his servants. It may be
a hillbilly like Amos. It may be a educated man like
the Apostle Paul. But God's going to send a servant
to preach the gospel to you. I know who he sent to this town
to preach the gospel. I know it. I'm thoroughly convinced
God's got a people in this area. You know why I think that? God
sent his servant here. He sent his servant here to feed
his sheep, to preach to his people. And you know, who the servant
is really isn't the issue at all. The issue is the message. The issue is the Savior. The Savior who we preach is the
issue. I told Kevin this this morning,
this is my heart's prayer, that you not hear me this morning,
but that you hear the Savior. I honestly don't care if you
forget me two seconds after I walk out the door, but I want your
heart to be taken up in such love with the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's my prayer for you. Now
you prepare to meet God, thy God. He's coming to reveal himself
to spiritual Israel and to the believer. Some of you have been
around a long time. You love the Lord. You just look
forward to those times. You gather together to hear his
gospel preached. You enjoy sitting down to read
his word. By this time, you've utterly
wore those pages of the Psalms out in your Bible. Oh, you love
to hear the Savior. But you're so tired. You're tired
of the journey. The flesh is beat down. You've
found those days where there's no pleasure in them. I say to you, prepare to meet
thy God. The sweetest words that can be
whispered to a dying saint are prepare to meet thy God. All's
well. All's well. You're going to close
your eyes and immediately open them in glory. You prepare to
leave this world of sin and awaken in a world of holiness and perfection. You prepare to leave this body
of death behind and enjoy an eternal, perfect life of righteousness. You prepare to leave this place
of faith that just sees through a glass darkly, and you prepare
to meet thy God, to behold the Savior face to face. prepared
to meet thy God. And until then, until then, now
there's something left for us to do. There must be Christ hathn't
returned. Until then, may God make us faithful
to preach his word and faithful to seek him and look to him until
he returns. Lord bless you.