Let's open our Bibles again to
Amos chapter 4. The title of the message is,
Prepare to meet thy God. This is a second very serious
message with a very serious title from the prophet Amos this morning.
Amos was the prophet in Israel about 750 years before the Lord
Jesus was born. At that time, the nation enjoyed
a time of great peace and prosperity. The government was stable. The
economy was booming. People were very well-to-do.
A lot of people had two homes, had a summer home and a winter
house. People were so rich, they built homes out of ivory and
had great estates. But all that prosperity in the
nation was just a mirage. There was no spiritual prosperity
in the land of Israel. Now, the nation was still very
religious, but their religion had turned idolatry. And unlike
other times in Israel's history, they hadn't begun to worship
Baal or other idols of the heathen nations around them. They still
observed all the ceremonies and sacraments and things, sacrifices
of the Old Testament in the name of the Lord Jehovah, but it was
still idolatry. And they thought that their religious
observance was all just fine since the Lord had blessed them
so much materially. And then God sent a prophet to
this urban, very successful people. And the prophet that God sent
was a hillbilly, a hayseed named Amos. Amos was an uneducated
farm boy from the south of Jerusalem. And he came and he warned Israel
of their sin. He warned of God's judgment against
sin. Nobody could take him seriously.
They didn't think he could be right because the Lord made them
so prosperous. Amos warned them that God would
send judgments and those judgments would increase and increase and
increase in severity until they were finally destroyed. But they
wouldn't listen, they wouldn't repent. And the reason the people
wouldn't listen, they wouldn't repent, they wouldn't hear his
message is the people had left the Lord. The nation had left
the worship of the Lord. Like I said, they still observed
all the ceremonies, but they made an idol out of the ceremony. They worshiped the ceremony,
not the Savior to whom the ceremony pointed. And they thought all
their observance of the ceremonies were just fine, and they didn't
want to listen to this hillbilly Amos upset the apple cart. So
the Lord did what he said he'd do. He sent them plagues and
increasingly severe plagues until the people, because they refused
to hear and repent. Look here at chapter four, verse
six. And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your
cities. I've given you one of bread in all your places. Yet
you've not returned unto me, saith the Lord. And also I've
withholding the rain from you when there were yet three months
to the harvest. I caused it to rain upon one
city and caused it not to rain upon another city. One piece
was rained upon and a piece whereupon it was rained not withered. So
two or three cities wandered into one city to drink water.
But they were not satisfied, there wasn't enough. Yet you've
not returned unto me, saith the Lord. I've 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, have taken away your horses, and I've made the stink
of your camps to come up under 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 were as a firebrand plucked
out of the burning. Yet have you not returned unto
me, saith the Lord? All these calamities were sent
by God to show the people how helpless they were. and how utterly
dependent they were upon God to supply all of our needs, yet
after every one of them, they refused to repent and turn to
the Lord. So, verse 12, therefore, thus
will I do unto thee, O Israel, and because I will do this unto
thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. Prepare to meet thy
God. Now that was said to Israel in
the days of Amos, and it's said to us today, Prepare to meet
your God. In a few short days, each one
of us is gonna meet God Almighty. This life will soon be over.
How quickly this life passes. And we'll stand before the judgment
seat of Christ. Hebrews 9 verse 27 tells us,
it's appointed unto men once to die, and after this, the judgment. And that's an appointment we
all must keep. We cannot avoid it. So prepare to meet thy God. Now
that's a frightening thought to a sinner, to hear that phrase,
prepare to meet thy God. It's frightening because we know
we cannot stand before God in our so-called righteousness.
What we call our righteousnesses, they'll never cover our sin and
our shame. Our righteousnesses are just
tattered garments that are filthy, polluted with sin. I know I can't
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, contend
against him to avoid the judgment. Because verse 13 tells me the
God whom I must meet, he says there at the end, the Lord, the
God of hosts is his name. I may not know everything that
is entailed by the name the God of hosts, but I know this, the
God of hosts can't be defeated by a pipsqueak like me. So it's
scary to think, prepare to meet thy God. Yet there is such a
thing as being prepared to meet God. Simeon was prepared, wasn't
he? There he was, an old man going
about his service in the temple. Mary and Joseph brought the Savior
in, eight days old. Simeon saw him. He said, now
let thy servant depart. in peace. He's prepared, let
me depart in peace. I can depart and go meet God
because mine eyes have seen the Savior according to thy word. He was prepared. The Apostle
Paul was prepared, wasn't he? He said, I'm not ready to be
offered. The time of my departure is at hand and I got joy about
it because I know whom I believe. I'm persuaded, I'm so confident. He's able to keep that which
I've committed unto him against that day. If I depart, Paul said,
it'd be far better, because I'm gonna be with Christ. So there
is such a thing as being prepared to meet God in him. God warns
us here in his word that we must meet him. And then he gives us
space to repent. So in this space to repent that
God's given us, how can I prepare to meet God? Well, first of all,
we prepare to meet God by seeking the Lord, the Savior. Look at
Amos 5 verse 4. For thus saith the Lord unto
the house of Israel, seek ye me and ye shall live. Now seek the Lord. That Lord
is in all capital letters means Jehovah. Seek Jehovah. God, my savior. I don't seek
religion now. Don't seek religious activity.
Seek the Lord. Don't seek to gain God's favor
by doing some right things. No, you seek the Lord. Don't
seek the Lord hoping to please Him because you are seeking Him.
You seek the Lord because He's the Savior of helpless, hopeless
sinners. Seek the Savior. Look at 1 John
5. John backs up here when Amos
says, if you seek Christ, you'll live. Because if you have Christ,
you have life. 1 John 5 verse 11. And this is the record that God
has 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. So seek the son in him you have
life. Seek the Lord who's the savior
of sinners. Now, the Lord just told us we
must all meet God in judgment. Well, wouldn't it be wise then
to seek an advocate, one who could go for us and speak for
us? I know if I received a summons to court of law, I wouldn't go
without an attorney. I wouldn't go without an advocate,
somebody that knew how to speak, somebody that knew how to operate
in this arena, somebody to speak for me. And I'd stay silent and
let my attorney speak. Well, we must all appear before
the judgment seat of Christ. Then seek an advocate. Look back
at 1 John 2. Then seek an advocate. Seek the Lord, the Savior, to
be our advocate. 1 John 2, verse 1. My little children, these things
write I unto you that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And this advocate, Jesus Christ
the righteous, has never one time lost a case. Not one. Because every case he takes is
an innocent person. Now we're guilty in ourselves,
aren't we? Guilty in Adam, we're guilty in ourselves. But our
advocate is who? It's the Savior, Jehovah. He
makes his people innocent in him. This advocate's never lost
a case because he makes his people righteous. And this advocate
never loses a case because he always has perfect blood to plead
before the father. Look at verse two. And he is
the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also
for the sins of the whole world. And you know that word propitiation
is mercy seat. He's covers the sin of his people
with his blood. Our advocate wins every case
by pleading his blood to pay the sin debt of his people. He
wins every case by pleading his righteousness to make his people
righteous. That's a pretty good advocate,
isn't it? That's the advocate I want. Well, you may wonder,
will this advocate take my case? Will he? Let me ask you a question. Are you guilty? If you're guilty,
he'll take your case. Are you poor and needy and you
have nothing to pay? This advocate will take your
case. And you want proof? Who did he
die for? He died for the ungodly. He died
for us while we were yet what? Sinners. This man will take the
case of sinners. Who did he come to call to repentance?
Not the righteous, but sinners. Are you a sinner? That's the
question. If you are, then seek the Lord. He'll take your case,
and you'll live. Seek the Lord, the Savior of
sinners. Look back in our text, Amos chapter
five. Second, how can I prepare to
meet God? Seek the Lord who purges sin. Verse six, he says, Amos
chapter five. Seek the Lord and you shall live,
lest he break out fire in the house of Joseph and devour it,
and there be none to quench it in Bethel. Now we know if we're
gonna stand before God and be accepted, we can't have any sin,
can we? And throughout the scripture,
how is sin purged? Sin is purged through the blood
of the burnt offering. The fire that Amos is talking
about here is fire in the house of Joseph, fire in the house
of the favored son. That's the fire of God's wrath
that was poured out on his son, his only begotten son, Christ
our substitute. Look at Hebrews chapter nine.
And Christ our Savior, when He endured that fire of God's wrath
against the sin of His people, our sin was purged, gone forever. Hebrews 9 verse 27, I quoted
this verse a minute ago. And as it is appointed unto man
once to die, but after this the judgment. Because that's true,
verse 28. So Christ was once offered to
bear the sins of many. And unto them that look for him
shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Christ is going to appear the
second time without sin because his sacrifice purged away the
sin of his people. So you seek the Lord as a sinner
who needs your sin purged, put away through the sacrifice of
another. Thirdly, back in our text, Amos chapter five, how
can I prepare to meet God? by seeking the Lord as your only
hope. You seek the Lord like he's the
only one that's got the power to save you and help a sinner
like you. Verse eight, seek him that maketh
the seven stars in Orion and turneth the shadow of death in
the morning and maketh the day dark with night that calleth
for the waters of the sea and poureth them out upon the face
of the earth. The Lord is his name. That's who we're to seek.
Seek the Lord who has the power to create the stars and put all
those stars in their constellations. You know, God made all those
stars. He just spoke. And there they were. There they
were, just because he spoke. And he put them all in their
place. And wherever it is he put them, that's exactly where
they are right now. And some of them make shapes
and things, I suppose, but wherever it is they're at, that's where
he put them. But you men have been able to
look at those stars. They've been able to navigate by those
stars since the beginning of time, just like we can today.
From the beginning of time, men have been able to look at the
stars and they can tell the time and the seasons by seeing the
stars, by where God puts them. That's been going on for 6,000
years. Who did all that? Who had the
power and the wisdom to do all that? God did. Now seek that God. Seek that
Lord to be your Savior. I love to think about Amos. Remember,
Amos, he's a country boy. He's just keeping herds in the
field night and day. Look over here at chapter seven.
This is what he tells us. That's all he was. He was just
a sheep herder. In verse 14 of chapter seven,
Then answered Amos and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither
was I a prophet's son, but I was a 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. Amos wasn't a prophet. His father
wasn't a prophet. He didn't have any formal training
as a prophet. You know the only qualification
he had to be a prophet? God took him. And God said, you
go prophesy. That's his qualification as a
prophet. But all that time he was a herdman. I like to think about Amos. Here
he is. He's watching the herds night
and day. He's out there in the field. And for years, Eric, he
looked at those stars. For years, he just looked at
them. He could tell the times and the seasons and things. And
one day, God called him to be a prophet. And he said, here,
you got an illustration. This is what he'd seen all these
years. You preach to people where you're at. He used this as an
illustration power of the Lord to save. This Jehovah who made
the stars, who put them all in their places, in their constellations,
He's got the power to save sinners. He's the only one. There's power
in His blood to cleanse sinners from all of their sin. Look at
2 Corinthians chapter 4. We were talking about this last
night. Who can understand God speaking
and creating the world. I sure am glad he did it. I believe
it. I believe it. You think that
took power, didn't it? You know why I'm so glad to hear
that? That God just spoke this world into existence. He didn't
take something that was already there and make it into the world.
It's not like Plato. No, he spoke from created the
world from nothing. I'm so thankful to know that
because the same power that it took to speak and create the
world is the same power that it takes to give life to a dead
sinner. 2 Corinthians 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. For God who said let there be
light. 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. You seek the Lord in his power
to save. You seek the Lord, not as one
of many different options, not as a fallback option. You seek
the Lord as the only one who has the power to save a sinner
like you. A man has devised many different
ways for a sinner to be saved. But they're all foolish. Not
one of them works. And they don't work because they
all depend on the creature in some way. That's not how God
saves sinners. God saves sinners in wisdom.
What wisdom for God to save sinners through a substitute, through
the sacrifice of a substitute that lets God be both just and
justifier. Now, that's wisdom. What wisdom
to save men, to save sinners through a representative. Now
God can make sinners righteous in Christ our representative,
not through any works of our own. That's wisdom. Such a wise salvation as that
can never fail. Now you seek that Savior who
saves in both power and wisdom. Fourthly, how can I prepare to
meet God? by seeking God's way of salvation. Look back in our text, Amos 5
verse 14. Seek good and not evil, that
ye may live. And so the Lord, the God of hosts,
shall be with you as ye have spoken. Now seek good. Now what does that mean, seek
good? It means seek God. Because there's none good but
God, right? Seek God. I told you this in
the class this morning. Take God's word and find out
what he says in it and believe it. Just keep searching it and
begging God to show you what that means to reveal that to
you until he reveals it to you and then you believe it. Just
find out what God's word says and submit to it. I don't care
if it crosses everything you've always been taught or everything
you've always heard. You find out what God's word
says and you submit to it. God says you'll live. But I don't
seek evil. Well, what's evil? Is it going
out in the bars and brothels and all the horrible places in
this world? No, not just that. Evil is anything to do with man. The thoughts of man's hearts
on evil continually. So you find out what man says
and reject it. Just reject any religion, reject
any way of salvation that has anything to do with the flesh
at all. because it's evil. Seek salvation
that has everything to do with Christ and nothing to do with
you. That's how you'll be prepared
to meet God. All right. Preacher, you told me seek the
Lord. Can you tell me how to do that? Can anybody tell me
how to seek the Lord? Because I've sought him. I've
come here week after week. You know, I think about him through
the week. I read his word through the week. I pray through the
week. I've sought him. I haven't found him. It seems
like it's no use. I might as well just quit, hadn't
I? Let me give you an illustration I heard recently. How to seek
the Lord. There was a farmer and his wife.
The wife, she loved the Lord. She loved the worship of the
Lord. She loved his word. She loved to go to the surface
and then hear the gospel preached. Her husband didn't have a use
for it. She would invite him often to the service. He never
would go. She'd encourage him often, honey, seek the Lord.
He wouldn't do it. He had no use for it. Well, one
day his farmer, he was out working in his farm and he had his crop. He built it up all year. He harvested
all the crop. He sold his entire crop for the
year to one man. One man came and paid one check
for the entire crop. He's not going to earn another
penny the rest of this year. That check is all his earnings for
the year. It was a good-sized check. Put it in his wallet,
put it in his pocket. Went back about, you know, tending
the animals and doing some things before he had a chance to go
to the bank. Farmer lost his wallet. Oh, he looked everywhere
for it. He couldn't find it. He went
in, his wife's there cooking, you know, in the kitchen. He
said, honey, have you seen my wallet? That's how men do. Honey, have
you seen my wallet? No, I haven't seen it. That man went out in
a panic. He tore the barn apart. He tore
the barnyard apart in an absolute panic until he found his wallet. He found it. Oh, so relieved. They got money to eat on all
year. The next Sunday rolled around, the wife asked her husband,
honey, why don't you go to service with me? He said, no, I'm not
going. I'm going to stay here. I'm not going. She said, honey,
why don't you seek the Lord? Why don't you seek him? He said,
well, I'll tell you what, he got mad about it. He said, matter
of fact, I have sought the Lord. Can't find him. He hadn't revealed
himself to me. It's just a waste of time. What's
the use of going down there to hear that preacher? She put her
hat on. On the way out the door, she
said, honey, if you'd seek the Lord, like you sought for your
wallet the other day, you'd find him. And you know, she's exactly
right. If you seek the Lord, like your
life depends upon it, you'll find him. And the day that you
seek the Lord with all your heart, God said you'll find him. Now
you seek him. You prepare to meet thy God by
seeking the Lord. And like I said, I know when
you think of this phrase, prepare to meet thy God, it's a frightening
thing, don't we? And it is frightening to those
who are in the flesh, to those who are depending on their own
righteousness and those who are depending upon their own obedience
to be good enough, those who are hoping the good outweighs
the bad, hoping that'll be good enough. It's frightening to hear
prepare to meet thy God. I want to give you this. This
will be a blessing to you, I think. I want us to see this phrase.
Prepare to meet thy God with joy and thanksgiving and confidence. Amos says, prepare to meet thy
God, O Israel. Now I know that nation Israel,
I know, I understand who they are. They're, all they are, God's
dealings with the nation Israel in the Old Testament. It's just
a picture of how he's going to deal with spiritual Israel, how
he's going to save his people. He's going to redeem his people
from the curse of the law, from the curse of sin. So to spiritual
Israel, like Amos of old, I say to you, prepare to meet thy God,
O Israel. There are some here this morning,
I look at all your faces, I have your names and your faces
on my heart in my study every day. I know you. I know all of you. And there's
some here this morning who have not yet believed on the Lord
Jesus Christ. But you will. I know you will. Because before the foundation
of the world, God chose you. And he's going to reveal himself
to you. Now, you don't know it yet, but you will. And to you
who have not yet believed on the name of the Lord, I say to
you, you prepare to meet thy God. He's coming. I don't know when, but he's coming
to reveal himself to you through the preaching of the gospel,
through the preaching of his word. God's going to send you
a servant. That's what he's going to do.
It may be a hayseed like Amos, or it may be a wise, educated
city fellow like Paul, but God's going to send a servant. And
the servant's not the issue. The message is the issue. It
can be an uneducated guy like Amos or a very educated man like
Paul. The clay pot's not the issue.
The water of life in the pot's the issue. God's going to send
you a servant. to preach the gospel to you and
God's gonna make you hear it. You prepare yourself for a life-altering,
life-giving experience. You prepare to meet your God. You prepare to meet your Savior. He's gonna reveal himself to
spiritual Israel through what we're doing right now, through
preaching the word. You prepare to meet your God. I expect you to believe. I really do. I just, I expect
you to believe this. God said it. Why wouldn't you
believe it? I expect you to believe it. You will. And to those believers
been around for a while. Some of you been around a good
while, haven't you? You've been hearing the gospel a long time
and you love the Lord. You love, you loved his word. You love to hear his gospel preached.
You love to meet together and worship and sing the songs and
be together. You love the Lord. And you've
been around a while. I say to you, prepare to meet
thy God. The sweetest words that can be
whispered to a dying saint is you prepare to meet your God.
All's well, you prepare to meet thy God. You prepare to leave
this world of sin and ugliness and defilement and prepare to
enter into a world of perfect holiness, perfect glory, perfect
beauty. You prepare to leave this body
of death and you prepare to enter a body of life, eternal life
of righteousness with Christ. You prepare to leave this world
of faith that sees through a glass darkly. You love the Lord, don't
you? You love the gospel. You know
the gospel. But there's so much we don't know. We see through
a glass darkly. You prepare to leave this place
of seeing through a glass darkly, and you prepare to meet thy God,
to awake in glory, to open your eyes in glory, and behold the
face of the Lord Jesus Christ, your Savior, saying, welcome. Welcome, my faithful servant.
Welcome my faithful son and daughter to meet the Savior, not seen
through a glass darkly, but face to face. You prepare to meet
your God. And until then, it is my earnest
prayer that God will grant us the heart of faith to continually
prepare to meet our God by urgently seeking the Lord Jesus Christ
to meet here week after week after week, not because this
is our religious habit, not because we live in a Bible belt and folks
go to church on Sunday, but to urgently seek the Lord
Jesus Christ, to seek a word from him, to seek a vision from
him, to seek faith from him that we might lay hold on life eternal. Seeking You'll live. Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, we humbly bow before you and
we're so thankful for your word. How thankful we are that you've
given us your word. You've preserved it through the
years and you've given it to us this morning to open and to
read. We're thankful in your word that
you tell us the truth. The truth about who you are and
who we are. The truth that you're coming
to judge sin. You're thankful for your goodness
that you give space to repent. That you continue to allow this
world to spin in space, to continue to allow babies to be born, men
and women to live and to die and to keep replenishing this
earth for this purpose. To call out your people, to give
your people space to repent. to that appointed time that you
send your spirit to give them life and faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Father, we're so thankful. And
I pray that you bless your word this morning, that you bless
it to your glory, to the glory of your name, that you bless
it to the hearts of these old believers who have stood so many
years for the gospel, that you bless it to their hearts and
cause it to be a comfort and encouragement to them. And Father,
I pray you bless your word to those younger believers who are
now taking up the mantle and going on to serve thee. Father,
cause it to be an encouragement, a strengthening of their resolve
to follow thee, to seek thee, to serve thee. And bless your
word, Father, to the hearts of the ones here who don't know
you. Father, implant your word in their hearts. as a seed that
would give life and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Bless
your word to call your people to repentance and faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And how thankful we are to know
that you won't allow your word to return into you void. Bless
us for Christ's sake, Father, we pray. See us and hear us only
in the beloved, our Lord Jesus Christ. It's for his sake and
his glory we pray and give thanks.