The book of Amos, there's just
a few chapters. I'm going to just be bringing
one message out of this book. But there are several things
in the book of Amos that we're familiar with. I believe this
is the book where one of the indictments that the prophet
brought against the people of Israel as God was instructing
him and giving him the word of truth, he said, my people are
destroyed for lack of knowledge. So one of the things that we
see in the book of Amos, when he preached and prophesied to
the northern kingdom of Israel, now he was from the southern
kingdom, that's where he was born, and he really wasn't brought
up in the school of the prophets, he was a shepherd, he was a farmer,
but God called him to be a prophet, and equipped him with his word,
and I've got in your lesson here, like all the prophets of God,
if you could, If you could summarize, and I don't want to oversimplify,
but if you could summarize the message of the prophets of the
Old Testament, it goes something like this, and I've stated it
there in your lesson. It says, like all prophets of
God, Amos proclaimed God's judgment of wrath against the people for
their sins, and that includes us. We weren't there, but this
tells our story. God's wrath against our sins,
God must punish sinners to whom sin is imputed. And that's why
we say blessed are those to whom the Lord imputed, not iniquity.
And so Amos prophesied that while proclaiming the hope of sinners
who seek the Lord's grace, in the future promise of the Messiah,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's kind of like a summary
of their message. I mean, they said a lot of things.
There was a lot of problems in Israel and in Judah throughout
their history. And we could talk about all kinds
of things. Their unbelief. their immorality even, their
false religion which pervaded. Paul summarized the problem of
Israel in Romans chapter nine. And he said it this way, they
seek righteousness by their works. And that's the problem with all
people by nature. That's what we were before God
opened our eyes and showed us the depravity and the awful state
of people who seek righteousness by their works. And so God exposes
that and he brings his people to know it and understand it
and believe it, not to leave us in a sad state of despondency,
but to drive us to Christ. And that's what this is all about.
And so we have this graphic picture here of the fallen state of man
pictured in Israel, the Northern Kingdom, and the Southern Kingdom,
too. We don't ever want to forget that the whole Old Covenant was
given to a united people at Mount Sinai, and it was given to mainly
expose their sinfulness. and to show them the glory of
Christ, the promised Messiah, and how salvation's in Him. And
so we see this graphic picture in Amos. If you read all the
whole book, you see how awful it was in their day. We see how
awful it is in our day, don't we? And so all of that shows
the fallen state of all of us in our natural sin and depravity.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's more
than just words on a page. That's a reality that we experience
in this life as we fell in Adam and are born dead in trespasses
and sin. And so by nature we have no goodness,
by nature we have no power, by nature we have no desire to seek
the Lord and his salvation. Paul stated that in Romans 3.10,
you know, there's none righteous, none good, none that seek God,
they have no understanding. And human works and free will
religion won't help us. All that does is entrench us
in a fallen state of depravity. That's what human works and free
will does. And I put in here, no matter
how dedicated somebody is in that. I mean, you know people
who are in false religion who are just as sincere, just as
dedicated, just as sure of themselves, but their human works and free
will will do them no good. They don't have a free will.
Their will is subject to their nature. Their sinful human nature
is what I mean by that. And so, works won't cleanse us
from sin. Decisions won't cleanse us from
sin. It takes the blood of Christ
and his righteousness. Well, let's read the first three
verses of chapter five. Listen to Amos' prophecy. Hear
ye this word which I take up against you. I've got an indictment. It's like a prosecuting attorney.
And he says, even a lamentation. And you know what a lamentation
is, a lament? It's a sad story. It's a sad
reality. Oh, house of Israel, he says,
the virgin of Israel is fallen. And that's the way of talking
about how their spiritual fornication, spiritual adultery. And she shall
no more rise. There's no hope for her in the
law. No hope for her by her works. She is forsaken upon her land. There is none to raise her up,
see. For thus saith the Lord God,
the city that went out by a thousand shall leave in a hundred. In
other words, they were a multitude of people. It's only gonna dwindle
down. And that which went forth by
a hundred shall leave 10 to the house of Israel. And so there's
the sad state. So look at the next verses. For
thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, seek ye me and
you shall live. Seek ye me and you shall live.
Now hold that thought because that's what the lesson's about.
Seek Christ and live. And he says in verse five, but
seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, or pass unto Beersheba. You know, there were three places
that Jeroboam, the king of the northern kingdom, the king of
Israel, established for people in the northern kingdom to go
and worship. But they turned them into places of idolatry.
And they were going against the word of God, who said it was
in Jerusalem at the temple, that men and women were to worship.
Well, Jeroboam, he was a good politician. He didn't want them
to go to Jerusalem, down there to the southern kingdom, thinking
that that's the only place they could go. So he established other
places of worship. And it was idolatry. So that's
what he's saying here, don't go there. Remember when Christ
spoke to the woman at the well? He said, you say that in, she
said, you say here's where we're to worship. We say that's in
Samaria. And Christ told her, he said,
well, You don't know what you worship. And Jerusalem, the temple
of God, where he established under the old covenant, was the
place to worship God collectively, corporately, through the high
priest on the day of atonement and the like. But Jeroboam set
up these other places, and he says in verse five, for Gilgal
shall surely go into captivity and Bethel shall come to naught,
nothing. That's the sad state of things,
and he says in verse six, seek the Lord and you shall live.
So here's the second time that phrase comes up. Seek the Lord,
lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and that's,
you know, the house of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, and devour
it and there be none to quench it in Bethel. Now, the house
of Joseph is an indication of the northern kingdom, is what
that is. But he says, all that's gonna
bring you is death and destruction. Seek the Lord and live. You know,
that's a command. Seek the Lord and live. Seek
Christ and live. But, now we come to this, you
know, and what he, we know, we know that, and God says this,
he said, all who seek me with the whole heart shall find me.
There has never been in the history of mankind, and there never will
be a person who truly sought the Lord, His way, in His Word. And to seek the Lord is to seek
Him in His Word, not as we think Him to be, not as people just
tell us of Him, but to seek Him in His Word. And if we seek Him
in His Word, we're gonna seek Him in Christ, because this Word
speaks of Christ. Again, the glory of his person,
the power of his finished work. To seek the Lord is to seek the
forgiveness of sin on a just ground. That's why the old publican
in Luke chapter 18 said, Lord be merciful, be propitious to
me the sinner. That's what it is to seek the
Lord. To seek the Lord is to seek righteousness, a right relationship
with God on a just ground. And of course that leads us to
what Paul wrote in Romans 9 and 10. Israel sought righteousness
by works of the law, but they didn't find it because it's impossible
for any sinner to find righteousness in their works. But they find
it in Christ. He says those who seek righteousness
by works of the law, they don't know God's glory, they don't
know his justice, they don't know what righteousness really
is. and they go about trying to establish their own righteousness,
but he says, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth, and we know that's his righteousness
that God has charged to our account, imputed to us, and that's what
it is. To seek the Lord is to seek Christ,
and to seek Christ is to seek righteousness by God-given faith
in him. But doesn't God's word tell us
that man by nature of our own wills, of our own desires, will
not seek the Lord? Doesn't the word of God say that?
In several places. And I've got in your lesson here
several passages of scripture. I could have put a lot more concerning
the spiritual death and depravity of all of us by nature. I think
about Jeremiah 13, 23, I've got quoted here. Can the Ethiopian
change his skin? or the leopard his spots? Then
may you also do good that are accustomed to do evil? Bible
says it's a good thing to seek the Lord. But how can we, in
our fallen sinful nature, seek good, seek the Lord? We can't. We can't change what we are.
That's what the Bible teaches. And what are we as we are naturally
born? We're sinful, we're depraved,
we're dead. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. And he said, no man can come
to me except the Father which has sent me draw him. So we won't
seek the Lord. We can't seek the Lord of our
own nature, sinful nature. And then look at John 6, 44.
I just quote a part of it. No man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me draw him and I will raise him
up at the last day. In order to seek the Lord, God
must draw a person. And we'll talk about how he draws
them in just a moment. But he does it by invincible
sovereign grace, doesn't he? Powerful grace. And then I've
mentioned this passage, Romans 3, 10 through 12. As it is written,
there's none righteous, no not one. That's a statement of all
of us by nature. That's not just certain people
in the world that we look at and determine, well, they're
just scoundrels, you know. We're better than them. We can't
look back at the people of Israel that Amos is prophesying to and
say, well, we would be better. Because we would. Even if we
put our minds and our efforts to religion, we couldn't be better. In fact, the Bible teaches that
a person that does that is really kind of worse off. Remember when
he talked about the Pharisees and their proselytizing, going
about trying to get Gentiles in to be Jews? He said, you make
them two-fold more the child of hell than you are. There's
none righteous, there's none that understand it. That's the
natural man. There's none that seeketh after
God. This is man by nature of his
own will. None that seeketh after God.
They're all gone out of the way, the way of God, the way of grace.
They are together become unprofitable, there's none that doeth good,
no, not one. And then 1 Corinthians 2, 14, the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness to
him, neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned.
And so all of these verses, plus so many more, this passage in
Amos chapter five, It's not describing a group of people that we can
point our fingers at and say, those dirty, rotten scoundrels,
but I'm better. No. Right here, when he describes
these people, that's me and you in our sinful state before God
brought us in the new birth to believe the gospel, to seek the
Lord. So think about that. If left
to ourselves, our own powers and will, we will not seek the
Lord. So then why does God command us to do what we cannot and will
not do? Now that's a question people
ask, don't they? They think it's unfair for God to do that. Now
Paul answers that in Romans 9, and I'm not gonna go over there
right now, but the reason God commands us to do that, it's
because, and I'm gonna read this right from the lesson, because
I want you to see this, and you can look at it and consider it.
I'm not up here just to read to you, but I want you to see
this, and then we'll talk about it. Because it is God's purpose,
to glorify himself in bringing all whom he chose to save before
the foundation of the world, all whom he sent Christ to redeem,
it's God's glory and God's purpose for them to seek him and to find
him. And all whom God chose to save
before the foundation of the world, and that's his elect,
will not of their own free will or their own volition, but they
will, by his power and grace, seek him. And they'll find him. And they'll do that by the power
of the Holy Spirit under the preaching of the gospel. Remember
Christ said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And
then he says, and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast
out. Now think about that. John 6, 44. I quote that verse
on TV all the time. But he says, he says, him that
cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. But who are they who
come to him? Well, he said it in the first
line of that verse. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And just because we of our own
natural abilities or natural wills, will not seek Him, does
not negate the fact that all whom the Father gave to Christ
will come to Him. The question is, how will they
come to Him? They'll come to Him by the power
of God's grace in giving them a new heart, new life, and the
new birth to the praise of the glory of God's grace so that
it is set up so that they cannot even boast of their decision. Can't do it. God forbid that
I should glory saving the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. You
ask most people today about salvation. Are you saved? And most people,
I know when I was in false religion, we would all go back to a time
where under a preacher begging us to walk an aisle, we made
a decision. And that's what that is, that's
glorying in what we do or decide. But God has set it up so that
we can't do that if we know Him. Lord God, think about it. You're
believers. You wouldn't be believers if
God hadn't acted first in power by His sovereign will. And that's
what the Bible's all about, salvations of the Lord. It's by his sovereign
power, it's by his sovereign will. And all who come to him, he will
no wise cast out. When were these seekers given
to him? Christ said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. Now when were these seekers given
to him? Well, they were given to him before the world began
in sovereign electing grace. And I've got a line of scriptures
there that you can refer people to. But all who do seek him find
out that he's already given them life. If you seek the Lord truly,
you're gonna find salvation in Christ, but you're gonna find
out that he sought you first. Where there's a seeking sinner,
there's a seeking Savior. And he doesn't seek his people
because he doesn't know where they are. He knows exactly where
we are. He knows his sheep, and he calls
them into the fold. And how does he bring us to seek
him? He gives us spiritual life, knowledge,
a new heart, new will and desire. He changes our will. He makes
us willing in the day of his power. And so that's why he commands
sinners who will not seek him by nature to seek him and live. Now, how are we to react to that? People say, well, the idea that
when they hear about election, And then they go about and they
say, well, it doesn't matter what I do if I'm elected, you know,
blah, blah. You're trying to play God, friend, and you can't
do that. You're trying to put your head
into God's world and God's mind, and that's an impossibility.
Here's what I would tell you. Are you a sinner? Do you realize
that you have no hope of salvation by your works or your will? Do
you know that you're in need of a righteousness that you cannot
produce, and there's only one who produced one, and that's
the Son of God incarnate, the Lord Jesus Christ, and He's the
only way of salvation, the only way of forgiveness, the only
way of righteousness? Seek Him. And all who do, He
will not cast out. And all who do are God's elect.
And all who do find out that they were chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world, marked out by God for this salvation. And what a glorious salvation
it is. Now let's go back to the text. Look at verse seven. He
says, you who turn judgment to wormwood and leave off righteousness
in the earth, anybody who seeks righteousness and justice by
their works or by their will, they pervert. To turn it into
wormwood means they pervert it. I'm sure that it was common in
Israel, as it's common in our day, for there to be crooked
judges and magistrates who judge civil matters crookedly for their
own good. And that's true. And I'm sure
that was a problem in Israel. It's a problem in every society.
Again, that's just the greedy nature of men who have power. You know, you've heard the saying,
absolute power corrupts absolutely. And we all complain about our
government officials, how a man or a woman goes into Congress
poor and they come out rich. Well, how do they do that? Well,
you can figure it. But the main issue here is false
religion. Because any sinner who seeks
salvation by their works is turning judgment into wormwood and leaving
off righteousness in the earth because they're seeking something
that doesn't exist. And so he says in verse 8, seek
him that maketh the seven stars in Orion and turneth the shadow
of death into the morning who maketh the day darkened with
night, and that calleth for the waters of the sea, that poureth
them out upon the face of the earth. The Lord is his name,
that's the Lord of salvation, salvations of the Lord. Verse
nine, that strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so
that the spoiled shall come against the fortress. Now what is all
that telling us in metaphorical language? God is sovereign. God is the author of salvation. He sent His Son to be the author
and the finisher of our faith. It's all of God. It's all in
God and not in us. And so, we're witnesses to this. We go God's way. I want to seek
the Lord His way, not my own way. When we seek the Lord our
own way, the Bible says, as we read in Romans 3, They've all
gone out of the way. And there is a way that seems
right unto a man, but it leads to destruction. It's the broad
way. But I want to seek the Lord God's way. And that's to seek
him in his word. We were talking about this yesterday,
talking to somebody who's in religion, claiming to be a Christian. The first thing I want to ask
him is, have you really read and studied the Bible? Not just
certain verses, like John 3, 16, which is a great verse, I
love to preach it, love to read it, take comfort in it. But have
you really read and studied the Bible? What it says about God? What it says, I know when I,
I told y'all last week, about the man asked me what I learned
in seminary. and how I learned that I can
read my Bible, I can study the languages, I can criticize it,
interpret it, write about it, and still not know Christ. It's because of our sinful attitude
that we bring to it. And you know, when that verse
over in Jeremiah 13, can the Ethiopian change his skin or
the leopard his spots? Then may you also do good that
are accustomed to do evil. Some Hebrew scholars say that
word accustomed means to be taught. And think about what we were
taught from our youth up in false religion. We were taught God
loves everybody, Christ died for everybody, and salvation's
conditioned on you. And so when you do get serious
in religion and start to read the Bible, you bring all of that
junk with you. And you read the Bible through
those dark glasses with no light. And anytime you see the word
all and every and world, you interpret it as being everybody
with access, That's not the way to study the Bible. You know,
if a person, you know, we talk about study the Bible with a
clean slate, be nice if we could do that, but you know we can't
do it. It takes the power of God to wipe away the junk, what
Paul called dumb, and show us truth in his word. So have you
ever really studied the Bible, what it says? When you read Romans
3, 10 through 20, do you relegate that to other people or do you
see yourself there? When you read Amos chapter five
and other passages, do you see that's talking about you by nature?
Or is it always somebody else that you look at and say, oh,
they're real sinners, you know? You understand what I'm saying
about that? Well, look at verse 10. They hate him that rebuketh in
the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly. For
as much, therefore, as your treading is upon the poor, and you take
from him the burdens of wheat, you have built houses of hewn
stone, but you shall not dwell in them. You have planted pleasant
vineyards, but you shall not drink wine of them. Now this
shows the case of wicked judges taking people for their money
and stuff like that. And that's there, and it's wrong. But apply that to false religion
too. Verse 12, for I know your manifold
transgressions and your mighty sins. They afflict the just,
they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from
their right, and therefore the prudent shall keep silent in
that time, for it's an evil time. Now here's the point of those
verses. People don't want to listen to prophets and preachers
who tell them the truth. about their sinfulness and about
their depravity. Whether it's the immorality of
being a wicked or a crooked judge or magistrate, a thief and a
robber, or whether it's a false preacher preaching a false gospel
and the people listening to him, they hate God's prophets. And
Christ said that, didn't he? The light men hate because they
love, their deeds are evil. Christ said, marvel not when
men hateth you, they hated me before they hated you. All of
that, men persecute all of that. So the preachers who spoke peace
when there was no peace, they wanted to get rid of Amos, just
like they wanted to get rid of, stop, they wanted to tell him,
go back to the southern kingdom where you belong. And so here's
what Amos says, look at verse 14. Seek good and not evil that
you may live. Now he's not setting this up
in such a way to say, well, you can seek him in your deadness
and therefore earn life by your seeking. That's not what he's
saying or not. Seek the good and not evil that you may live.
Again, seek it in Christ. And so the God of hosts shall
be with you as you have spoken, hate the evil, love the good,
and establish judgment in the gate. That's all gospel language
too, isn't it? Think about it. Establish judgment
in the gate. Do you know what I'm doing up
here this morning? I'm establishing judgment in the gate. because
I'm preaching the gospel of God's grace in Christ. Now, if I was
preaching a false gospel, I would be perverting judgment. The gate
is where they all went to be judged. And so, in essence, we're
not here to be judged, but we're here to hear the gospel by which
we measure ourselves And he says, and listen to this, the Lord
God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph. I
always love that in the Old Testament when he talks about the remnant.
Because you know who he's talking about there. A remnant according
to the election of grace. We're gonna get into that a little
bit when we get into the book of Obadiah. Because Obadiah was
prophesying against the Edomites. And they were descendants of
Esau. and takes you back to Romans 9. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated, and all of that. We'll see that when we get there.
But this is the issue. God has a remnant of people out
of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. So he says, And it's
a remnant according to the election of grace, and he says, therefore
the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord saith, wailing shall be
in all the streets, and they shall say in all the highways,
alas, alas, that's like saying, woe is me, and they shall call
the husbandman to mourning, and such as we are skillful of lamentation
and wailing, and in all vineyards shall be wailing, and I will
pass through these, saith the Lord. So the point is, seek the
Lord and live, fail to seek him and die in your sins. That's
the bottom line, isn't it? Okay.