Alright, in Amos chapter 5 we
continue beginning at verse 14. Now last time I entitled the
message, Seek the Lord and Live. That was spoken twice by the
prophet Amos in calling people, the people of this nation, this
rebellious nation that was perishing, this nation that God was about
to judge or is about to judge according to their sins, this
nation who was in idolatry and unbelief and rebellion. and would
fall and never rise again, he said. Back up here in verse 2
of chapter 5. She shall no more rise. There'll be none to raise her
up. And just like I said, that nation that he's speaking of
here, the nation Israel, is just like the whole world lying in
sin. This world is perishing. And
this world will not be saved. And the question is to these
individual Israelites, as Amos presents the gospel message and
the glory of God, And the question is to us today as the gospel
is preached, the gospel of God's grace in Christ. This world's
perishing. Do you want to perish with it? Do I want to perish
with it? Our only hope is to turn to the
Lord. Seek the Lord and live. Well,
here in verse 14, he says, seek good and not evil that you may
live. Now, as we go through this last
part of this chapter, I want you to consider several things.
And the first thing I believe lays the foundation for everything
else he's going to say. And really, if you think about
it, it's the foundation of the whole message of the Bible, the
whole message of the gospel. And that's this question. When
it says, seek good and not evil, now think about that. And when
it says in verse 15, hate the evil and love the good, the first
question we have to face is this, what is, exactly what is good
and evil in God's sight. What is good and what is evil
according to God's standard of law and holiness? Now, most people
would say, well, that's sort of a silly question. Everybody
knows what good and everybody knows what evil is. But the fact
is this, man by nature, and I believe this was expressed by our brother
Tim James one time in a message that he preached there. Man by
nature is spiritually dead and spiritually insane. Now that
may sound harsh, but it's so. You know what, you know insanity,
to be sane or to be insane, you know that's not a psychological
term, it's a legal term. And a person who's insane is
a person who doesn't really know the difference between right
and wrong. That's why when people try to get off of crimes that
they've committed, they'll plead insanity. Well, they didn't know
the difference between right and wrong or temporary insanity.
But that's what it is. Man by nature does not... We
know something about what the conscience teaches us. Romans
chapter 2 tells us that. There is the light of conscience.
We know something about what even nature teaches us. There
is the light of nature. We know something about what
society teaches us. There is that light too, the
light of law, you might call it. But when it comes to God's
absolute standard of what is good and what is evil, we're
as dark and blind and ignorant on that subject as a stick in
the mud. That's so. So what is good and
evil? Well, now, Israel had the law.
They had the Law of Moses. They had the priesthood. They
had the sacrifices. They had the altar. They had
the prophets. And so there was no excuse for
this nation not to know the reality of good and evil. Now, when it
says, seek good and not evil or hate the evil and love the
good, there is an application here, I believe, to what we mentioned
last week about their courts of justice, their civil courts.
And there was a perversion in their civil courts and in their
ways of justice, just like we see it in all mankind and in
all societies. You know, we'll all complain
about injustices that are done by civil authorities and officials
and things like that, taking bribes and all that. He mentions
that in the last section of Scripture. And there is an application that
anybody who is in a position of authority to administer justice,
a judge or an officer of the court or an officer of the law,
that that person should seek to be a moral, law-abiding person
who would seek good and not do evil. Now that's there. In fact,
the civil authority, the civil courts, and even the religious
courts of Israel was really set up to be a, you might say it
this way, a dim reflection of the character of God. And that's
what he said to them in the prophets, all the prophets said to them
that they were to act righteously and justly and to do right. You
remember we read in Matthew chapter 23 and verse 23 last time where
he told the Pharisees that you're so meticulous in your religious
activities, you'll tithe You'll bring sacrifices, you'll do all
this, but you don't care about justice, you don't care about
truth, you don't care about mercy, and you don't care about faith.
You've lost sight of the whole purpose of the law to expose
our sins and drive you to seek salvation and righteousness in
life by the Messiah who was promised. You've forgotten that. And that's
reflected in the ways you deal with individuals in the law.
Injustice. You'll commit injustices. You'll
take bribes. You're there to line your own
pockets. You'll oppress the poor. All
of those things, you see. How you treat your brother is
a reflection on how you think about God. So it does apply to
their courts of justice. It does apply to their treatment
of others. But ultimately, and here's where
we have to come to if we're going to understand the purpose of
the law given to this nation which they were breaking. Ultimately,
to seek good and to hate evil is to seek the Lord. Now, ultimately,
to seek good is to seek the Lord, the Lord God of Israel. The covenant
keeping God. The God of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob. The God who saves sinners who
are not good in themselves. The God who has mercy, justifies
the ungodly. For I'll tell you, if you're
seeking ultimate good in anything less than seeking the Lord Jesus
Christ, you're not seeking good. You need to understand that.
Seek Christ. Seek salvation by God's grace
in and by Him. And before we jump into these
scriptures, I want you to turn to 1 John chapter 3. Now that
was established early on by the example of Cain and Abel. What is good? What is evil in
the sight of God according to His standard? And what I'm telling
you is this, understand as we read through these scriptures,
God's standard of good, God's standard of righteousness is
in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why it's foolish for
men and women, for us to compare ourselves with ourselves. Somebody
said that one time, you know, an individual say this all the
time, say, well, I may not be perfect, but I'm not as bad as. and they'll pick somebody they're
not as bad as. They say, well, I've not done everything perfectly,
but I haven't done anything that's bad enough to deserve hell. Now,
have we ever done anything bad enough to deserve hell? Now,
if we say no, you don't know the standard of God. Isn't that
right? You see, how do I compare to
Christ? If we talk about morality or
just goodness, if we talk about truth or if we talk about love,
how do I compare to Christ? Well, the fact of the matter
is I'm not even on the scale. How about you? I don't compare
at all. My love and my pitiful attempts
at love, and let me tell you something, they are pitiful.
And they're fraught and bothered and contaminated with self-love.
They're not even to compare with Christ divine, unconditional
love towards a sinner like me. And so we don't even compare.
But look here, here's how God sets this up. He talks about
loving one another and He says in verse 12 of 1 John 3, He says,
"...not as Cain..." Now you know what Cain did. Cain, who was
of that wicked one. Cain was motivated and inspired
by the devil. "...and slew his brother." Now,
Murder is a heinous sin. Isn't that right? But Cain's
problem in this area of good and evil was before he murdered
Abel. And here's the proof. And wherefore
slew he him? Why did Cain slay Why did Cain
murder Abel? That's wherefore slew him. Why
did Cain murder Abel? Here's why. Because his own works
were evil. Now, what was his works? What
do you know from Genesis chapter 4 that were the works of Cain?
Well, he had a terrible personality. He was just mean to everybody
he saw. You read that in Genesis chapter 4? In fact, here's what
you know about Cain from Genesis chapter 4. He was a farmer. He
was a hard-working farmer. And he brought the best that
he had worked for to present in thanksgiving to God. In other
words, he brought the works of his hands seeking to be accepted
with God. Now, that's his works. And God
says, those works are evil. You say, well, wasn't Cain sincere
enough? I believe he was, but you'll
have to ask Cain about that. That's an impossible question
for you to judge. All you know is what the Bible
tells you about Cain. And Cain brought the works of
his hand seeking to be accepted before God. That's an evil thing
according to God's standard. Why? Because, let me tell you
why it's evil. It dishonors God. That's number
one. It dishonors every attribute
of God's character. You see, every attribute of God's
character is honored and revealed in salvation by His grace through
the person and work of Christ. In fact, the Bible tells us,
and we read this last week in the first set of scriptures,
that God swore an oath that he would save his people from their
sins by Jesus Christ. That means God engaged himself
behind that promise. So for me to seek salvation by
my works is to deny what God promised and ultimately to deny
God himself. It's a reproach to God. It's an insult to God. That's
right. That's why it's evil. Secondly,
it's evil because it denies the person and work of Christ. What
did Christ come to this world to do? To save His people from
their sins by His obedience unto death, by His works, not mine,
not yours. And for me to think that I could
be saved and be accepted before God based on my works is to stack
my works in comparison to Christ. In fact, it's to deny His works
at all. And thirdly, it's evil because
it's self-righteous. It's a sinner who thinks more
highly of himself than he ought. Thinking that I could ever do
anything to please God as a sinner. It's impossible. The Bible says
without faith it's impossible to please God. And that's the
fourth reason it's evil. It's the product of unbelief.
I don't believe God. That's what Cain was saying.
God says that I should bring the blood of a lamb to represent
and symbolize my faith in the promised Messiah, the Lamb of
God, which will come and take away the sin of the world. God
says that I should bring the blood, admitting that I'm a sinner
and cannot earn or deserve any salvation or blessings from God.
And Cain, essentially, when he brought the works of his hands,
he's saying God's a liar. I don't believe him. I've got
a better way. That's evil. So look at 1 John
3, 12, "...nod as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew
his brother." And why did Cain slay Abel? Because his own works
were evil and his brother's righteous. Abel's works were righteous or
good, you could say. Why? What was so good about Abel's?
My friend, it was the blood. What did God say? He said, when
I see the blood, I'll pass over you. Why? Because that blood
typifies the blood of his son. So when you go back here, now
go back to Amos 5, he says, seek good and not evil. Ultimately,
yes, we're to do our best to be moral people, to seek ultimate
goodness, to be like Christ. But my friend, if we don't rest
in Christ and plead His blood and righteousness for all salvation,
there is no goodness about us. No goodness at all. That's what
he's talking about. Look at it, verse 14, seek good
and not evil. that you may live. Sin deserves
death. Righteousness demands life. Where
will you find righteousness? Where will I find righteousness?
Only in Christ. And he says, and so the Lord,
the God of hosts, that's the invincible God, who cannot be
defeated, who cannot lie. He says, the Lord, the covenant-keeping
God, shall be with you as you have spoken. You seek Christ.
Seek His forgiveness by His blood, justified by His righteousness,
and God will be with you, for you, as you have spoken. He says, hate the evil and love
the good. I'll tell you what, you know,
when people talk about hating sin, sometimes it's almost laughable. It's really sad. But I've heard
people say, oh, I just hate sin and I love holiness. Now, I'm
going to tell you something. We all need to be honest with
ourselves. And I'll be honest with you from
the pulpit right here tonight. The only way that I can know
for sure that I do hate evil and love good is as I trust in
and rest in and plead Christ. I'm serious. There are a lot
of things that are evil that I have to struggle over. And
if I really hated them, I wouldn't have to struggle over. Did you
know that? You believe that? Why is it such
a struggle? Because of that nature of sin.
And the Spirit of God who indwells us, who inspires us to love good,
we have a struggle, we have a warfare, you say. And that's why. So he says, hate the evil and
love the good. Hate everything that dishonors
God. Hate everything that denies Christ. The psalmist said that I love
God's way and I hate every false way. He says establish judgment
in the gate. That's the gate of the cities
where they would sit in judgment and decide court cases. And it
had to do with entrance into the city like Jerusalem. And
that's so and they should have been honest judges in every way. But ultimately this applies to
our salvation. If you want to talk about establishing
judgment with God, who is the judge of all and who judges according
to truth, again, look to Christ. That's where judgment is ultimately
found. That's where God's going to judge
the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained
and that He hath given assurance unto all men and that He hath
raised Him from the dead. You see, if I stand before God
at the gate of judgment in Christ, I don't have anything to fear.
I don't have anything to hide from. I don't have anything to
be ashamed of. I'm washed in His blood and clothed
in His righteousness. I stand before God in His Son
in whom He's well pleased. What do I have to be ashamed
of in Him? You see what I'm saying? It says
here in verse 15, it may be that the Lord God of hosts will be
gracious unto the remnant of Joseph. Now when he says it may
be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious, he's not saying
in that statement, the construction of the statement is not such,
well, I don't know if God will save you or not. He might, he
might not. That's not what he's saying there.
And that's the way a lot of people take that. You see, the Bible
teaches us that if you look to Christ and rest in Him, God will
save you. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. What is it to call upon His name?
We'll go back to Abel. That's the first example of a
sinner calling upon the name of the Lord. He brought the blood.
There's assurance of salvation. What this is, it's a statement
of humility. And in the original language,
the construction is such that what he's saying here is, I don't
deserve it, and I haven't earned it, but the Lord God of hosts
will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. Now, Joseph was Amos'
way of referring to the northern kingdom, and what he's saying
now, this nation, this northern kingdom, it's going to perish,
but there's a remnant. There's a remnant out of this
nation. It's a remnant that God chose before the foundation of
the world. It's a remnant that He justified
in His Son. It's a remnant that His Son would
come and die for on the cross. And it's a remnant who are called
out by the Holy Spirit in the new birth to believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ and repent of their dead works. This thing of goodness,
I'll tell you, the world has it twisted, don't they? It reminds
me of Matthew 19, when the rich young man came to Christ. It
says in verse 16, And behold, one came and said unto him, Good
master, what good things shall I do that I may have eternal
life? Remember how our Lord responded
to the man? He said unto him, Why callest
thou me good? There is none good but one, and
that is God. But if you will enter into life,
keep the commandments. What's he telling him? Well,
first of all, he's not denying his own goodness. He's simply
saying, he called him good master. That was a term that could be
applied to any teacher. It certainly wasn't a term that
would indicate deity. And so Christ is saying, well,
if you don't think that I'm the Messiah, God in human flesh,
then why are you calling me good? Because according to God's standard
of goodness, there's none good. No, not one. There's none good
but God. But let me tell you, if you want
to get into heaven by your goodness, let me tell you how good you're
going to have to be. You're a debtor to do the whole
law. Galatians 3.10 says, Cursed is everyone that continueth not
in what? Anybody know? All things written
in the book of the law to do. You're going to have to keep
it all. And the Bible teaches us plainly
that we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans
3 and verse 10, as it is written, there's none righteous, no not
one. Doesn't say there's none moral.
Doesn't say there's none religious. It says there's none righteous,
no not one. Talking about man by nature. It says there's none
that understandeth. Understand what? God's standard
of good and evil, God's way of salvation by grace in Christ.
Man doesn't know that on his own. That's not of his own free
will and his own intelligence. That has to be revealed by God.
He says there's none that seeketh after God. He didn't say there's
none who seeketh after a God. He says there's none who seeketh
after God. They are all gone out of the
way. What way? God's way. Man has devised his
own way. It's a way that seems right unto
a man, but the end thereof leads to destruction. He says they're
all together become unprofitable. There's none that doeth good,
no not one. The Bible says in Jeremiah 13,
23, can the Ethiopian change his skin? You know what he's
talking about there? That's how the Ethiopian's born. How's man
born? Born dead in trespasses and sin.
Well, can the Ethiopian change his skin? Can the leopard change
his spots? Then may you also do good that
are accustomed to do evil. That's what we are by nature.
By nature, we think our deeds are good. The Bible tells us
in John chapter 3 and verse 19 that that's why men by nature
hate the light because it exposes that our deeds are evil, the
ones that we think so highly of. That which is highly esteemed
among men is an abomination unto God. So what is it to seek good? What is it to love good? It's
not just seeking to be moral. It's not just seeking to be righteous. It's resting in Christ. For Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe. And
let me say this, when we really seek to be like Christ, we are
seeking good, but we know salvation is not by our works. Salvation
is by the grace of God in Christ. So what he does now in the rest
of this chapter, and we'll just read through it here. First of
all, in the beginning of verse 16, he says now, in light of
that standard, of ultimate good, that standard of goodness and
evil that's set forth by God, which is only in Christ and by
His grace, here's what's going to happen to all who reject the
God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Lord of
the Covenant, the God of all grace, all who reject Christ.
Look at it, verse 16. He says, therefore the Lord,
the Lord God of hosts, that same Lord who saves by grace, The
Lord said thus, wailing shall be in all the streets, lamenting,
sorrow, cries of sorrow, and they shall say in all the highways,
alas, alas, and they shall call the husbandman. You know what
a husbandman is, that's a farmer. Perhaps Amos used this analogy
because he himself was a farmer. He says they're going to call,
that means they're going to hire farmers to mourn for them. That
refers to the common practice back then that when you had a
funeral, you'd hire mourners. That sounds a little strange,
but that's what they would do. They'd hire mourners to come
and cry and wail. And it says they're going to
call farmers to mourn. Now, why are they going to do
that? It says, "...and such as are skillful of lamentation to
wailing." What he's saying here is that the professional mourners,
they'll be spread out because there'll be so much mourning,
you won't be able to find a real professional mourner. You'll
have to hire the farmers to come in and mourn for you. It'll be
so scarce. There'll be so much mourning
to do. He says in verse 17, "...and in all the vineyards shall be
wailing." and I will pass through thee, saith the Lord." He's going
to pass through in judgment. I quoted it earlier. What did
God say to Israel before they left Egypt? When I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. Here he says, I'm going to pass
through thee. That's judgment. That's wrath.
I don't want God to pass through me. I want him to pass over me. You see what I'm saying? And
the only way he's going to pass over me or you is when he sees
the blood, when he sees Christ. Look at verse 18. He says, Woe
unto you that desire the day of the Lord. He says, To what
end or to what purpose is it for you? The day of the Lord
is darkness and not light, as if a man did flee from a lion.
You're running from a lion and a bear met him. You run from
one danger and you run into another. No safety. He says, "...or went
into the house, the place of safety, the place of refuge.
And you leaned your hand upon the wall and a serpent, a poisonous
snake, bit you. No safety there." Verse 20, "...shall
not the day of the Lord be darkness and not light, even very dark
and no brightness in it." You see, in their religious efforts,
they still long for the day of the Lord. You remember what he
said? You remember back in chapters 1 and 2 when he went around the
borders of Israel? And he pronounced judgment upon
all their enemies, and you could just see the scene there. While he was going around the
border, pronouncing judgment for sin upon all the enemies
of Israel, you could just see the Israelites saying, oh yeah,
they deserve it. Get them, God. And then all of
a sudden, at the end of that whole construction, he hones
right in, he bullseyes right in on Israel, and he says, well,
guess what, folks? You're getting it too. Do you
think that you're any better than those who deserve judgment
outside of your city walls, your country borders? You see, when
they desired the day of the Lord here, they didn't know what they
were asking for. They sought judgment against enemies for
sin and reward for themselves for their obedience. But they
weren't seeking good. They weren't seeking true justice
and mercy and grace and truth and faith. And what he says,
you're going to end up worse than you could ever imagine.
You're going to run from a lion and think you're safe and you're
going to turn around and meet a bear. You're going to run into
your house and close your doors and shut your windows and you
think you're safe from the wrath, you're going to just, you're
going to take a deep breath, lean your hand against the wall
and you're going to be bitten by a poisonous snake. There's
no safety from the wrath of God but in Christ. That's his point. So look at the rest of the chapter.
There's no salvation in man's religion. Look at it, verse 21. He says, I hate, I despise your
feast days. These are worship days that were
prescribed by the law of Moses. But they weren't keeping them
right. He says, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
You remember back in the Old Testament, many times the sacrifices
that were burned, the burned offerings, the smoke that went
up, and then you can think about the smoke that went up in the
brazen altar, and all of that was, it was described as being
accepted of God as it typified and symbolized Christ and His
sacrifice and His high priestly work and His prayers for His
people as a sweet-smelling savor unto God. And what he's saying
here is that your solemn assemblies, your worship, your praising is
not a sweet-smelling savor unto God, it's a stench in his nostrils. He says in verse 22, though you
offer me burnt offerings and your meat or meal offerings,
those are the thank offerings, I will not accept them. You know,
people would look at this and see what they were doing, they
say, boy, those folks are doing good, but God says, I hate them.
It's evil to him. He says, neither will I regard
the peace offerings of your faithful beasts, those conciliatory offerings
that typified the blood of Christ, that brought God and sinners
together. He said, I won't even regard them. I won't even take
notice of them. He says in verse 23, he says,
take thou away from me the noise of thy song. I don't even want
to hear your hymns. That's what he's saying. For I will not hear the melody
of thy vows." What's wrong? Well, I've said it before. It's
religion, but there's no truth. There's ceremony, but there's
no grace. It's motions, but there's no
heart. Remember Christ said, they draw
nigh to me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. And
here's the main issue. Here's the main issue. It's symbolic,
picturesque, beautiful to the eye, but there's no Christ. No Christ. And God hates it. He will not accept it. He will
not take notice of it in blessing and salvation. Look at verse
24. Here's two things here. He says,
"...but let judgment run down as waters." and righteousness
as a mighty stream." Judgment run down as waters. You know,
I think it's Isaiah chapter 42 when he talks about Christ, the
coming of Christ who is God's elect, the elect Messiah. And one of the things he says
there, he says he's going to bring judgment to the Gentiles. Now,
how's he going to bring judgment to the Gentiles? You know how?
What he means there, he's going to preach the gospel to the Gentiles.
Because in the gospel, that's where you find judgment. The
judgment of God against my sin, I find in the gospel. Christ
was made sin for me. Christ who knew no sin, that
I might be made the righteousness of God in Him. We read it in
1 Peter chapter 2. He bore our sins in His own body
on the tree. He died as a substitute for His
people. By His stripes we were healed. That's judgment. And then he
says, righteousness as a mighty stream. How do we obtain righteousness? By believing in the Lord Jesus
Christ, submitting to His righteousness. as our only hope before God.
By singing from the heart, my hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. By singing from the heart and
in true Holy Spirit conviction that I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name, on Christ the solid rock
I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.
Do you really believe that all other ground is sinking sand?
I do. I was talking to a fellow today,
and he said, you know, he said, I kept hearing religion, then
I finally got under the truth of the preaching of Christ and
His sovereign grace. But he said, I was still looking
for something within myself to give me assurance, looking for
that sparkle, he said. How many years did some of you
all spend looking for that sparkle? You may have found that sparkle,
but pretty soon it sparkled out, didn't it? That's what it does. You see, my hope's not built
on a sparkle. It's built on Christ. And whether
I'm sparkling or not, He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.
And there's my assurance. I can tell you one thing about
it right now. Whether I sparkle or whether I'm flitting out,
He's my only hope of salvation and righteousness in life. I
have no other. I have no other. Look at it,
he says in verse 25, "...have you offered unto me sacrifices
and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?"
And they did. But he says in verse 26, "...but
you have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Kiah in your
images." That's idolatry. "...the star of your God which
you made to yourselves." What he's talking about there is that
they claim to believe in and trust and worship the true and
living God, but they had their little religious amulets and
things that they... visual aids. In other words,
what he's telling me is you can't serve the true God and keep your
idols. You just won't do. So in verse 27, he says, therefore,
will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, beyond as far
as you can see. And he saith the Lord, whose
name is the God of hosts. The picture here is of a people
who perish as a people because they reject the true and living
God. They reject His grace, they reject His Christ, and they'll
perish in the captivity, the captivity and bondage of sin.
and Satan and the curse of the law. There is no hope. There
is no good. Only evil without Christ. All right.