The verse I've chosen to speak
from in Amos is Amos chapter three and verse three. I've been preaching through the
minor prophets, hoping to make you aware of their message. Most of the time when we quote
Old Testament scriptures, we'll go back to the book of Moses,
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy. We'll go there and quote those
scriptures from Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Isaiah. But we very seldom go to the
minor prophets. And the minor prophets were the
basis of a lot of the preaching in the New Testament. If you
read through the book of Acts and follow their references,
you'll see that a lot of the time they were preaching from
these what commentators call the minor prophets or the lesser
prophets. And I'm doing this to make you
aware of their message and aware that God has a people in every
age. Not just our age, not just since
Christ came to the earth, but from the beginning of time. God
has a people in every age and in every nation. And He was then
as He is now calling out His elect, preserving them through
His judgments upon this world and His wrath upon mankind. What was their message? Well,
their message was salvation in Christ to the glory of God. That
was their message. There is no other message. To
Him give all the prophets witness, all of them. You mean even Daniel? Even Daniel. Even Jonah? Even Jonah. All the prophets
gave witness to him. Now Amos, Brother Fortner said,
was a prophet in overalls. He was a farmer. He was a herdsman. He tended cattle and sheep. He
had a little olive orchard, I guess you would call it, or grove.
And he had olives there. He was a farmer. He was a farmer. He was a herdsman. And he was
a simple man. He was a plain, hard-working
man. A man who made his living by
the sweat of his brow and with his hands. He wasn't a politician. He wasn't even what we would
think in our generation to be a religious man. We get our ideas of that, don't
we? What should a pastor look like? What should he sound like?
Somebody told me at one time, you don't look like a pastor.
Well, what's a pastor look like? I don't know. This one looked like a farmer
in overalls. That's what he was. He just didn't appear to be God's
ambassador. You look at him and you say,
God's ambassador. Where'd he get that from? He
got that from God. That's where he got it from.
God did choose him, and God did equip him, and he sent him up
north where the religious men was, where the religious crowd
was, where the political crowd was, where the well-known were,
and the well-versed and well-educated. He sent this prophet in overhauls
up there and he said, thus saith the Lord. And they couldn't do
a thing about it. Not a thing about it. And at
this particular time, Israel was a wealthy, prosperous kingdom
under Jeroboam II. It was a prosperous kingdom.
Everybody was at ease. Everything was going along just
smooth as silk. They were all going about enjoying
their music and even inventing new instruments of music. They were marrying and giving
in marriage. They were building, the scripture
said, winter houses and summer houses. They were laying up on
beds of ivory. Things are pretty good in this
country, but I don't have no ivory bed. They were laying on
beds of ivory. But life as it was then is a
whole lot like it is right now. And most of these people profess
to know God. They profess to be walking with
God. They profess to worship God. In chapter
5 and verse 18, he indicates that they talked about the day
of the Lord. That final day, that great day.
That day when he would appear, the day of the Lord, they said,
and they talked about it. Men still talk about it. They
talk about it in funerals. Boy, he got it made now. Yeah,
I know he was drunk, and I know he lived like the devil, and
I know he didn't attend church, but boy, he got it made now.
The day of the Lord, the day of the Lord, relish in it. Look forward to it. He's not
in pain anymore. Listen to him. Close your eyes
sometime at a funeral and just listen. You'll be amazed at what
they're saying. They were still offering their
sacrifices, still going to church, still
celebrating those final days, still practicing religion. But
the religion had become an ungodly amalgamation of heathen idolatry
and ceremonial feasts. He talks about them selling out
the poor for a little bit of silver. Selling the souls of their children. So much so that God sent his
prophet to bring them a declaration of his judgment. And that prophet
in overhauls went up north He went up where the big wigs were
and he walked into that big synagogue up there and this is what he
said, the party's over. It's over. These days of ease
and these days of bliss, they're over. It's over. And most men and women
live in an imaginary world where everything's good if you look
at it that way. Isn't that what they tell you?
You have to see the good in everything. Why? There's not good in everything.
Well, there's good in people. The Lord said there's none good,
no not one. None good but God. But we want
to look at everything and see the good. You want to see good? Good died on the cross. Good came into this world through
the womb of a virgin and lived under the law and kept the law
and every jot and tittle fulfilled the will of God and ascended
back into glory. And seated right now at the right
hand of God. That's good. You wanna see good?
There it is. There it is. Don't really matter what you
believe as long as you believe something. My sister told me that one time.
I was talking to her about my nephew and said, well, at least
he's doing something. You got hope in that? They live in an imaginary world. And there's a church on every
corner. And everybody believes in Jesus and holds that name
as if it were a good luck charm. They were all rejoicing in the
day of the Lord. Now listen to this, Amos 5 verse
18. Woe unto you that desire the
day of the Lord. To what end is it to you? What's this got to do with you? I don't know how many times I've
heard ungodly men and women at funerals try to soothe the pain
of a spouse or a family member who had no interest in God at
all by talking about all this peace and happiness and contentment
in heaven. That's what they were doing.
And the Lord said, what's this day got to do with you? The day of the Lord, Amos said,
to you is darkness and not light. He goes on to describe it like
one that ran from a lion right into a bear. He was fleeing a lion, ran through
the bushes, boom, right head on into a grizzly bear. It describes it as one, this
is talking about their rejoicing over the day of the Lord. He
said it's like running into a house for shelter and then saying,
whew, lean your hand over on the wall and a serpent bite you. It's darkness to you. If you don't know him, it is. If you're not in agreement with
him, it is. And yet, and I'm telling you,
there's nothing more dangerous or poisoning to your soul than
false religion or a false profession. And yet this is the environment
in which God's people are born. We're all raised that way. We
all come into the world that way. We didn't know any better. Didn't know any better. All of
our concepts of God were born in false religion. False religions
penetrated every crevice there is in our society. The schools,
the politics, everything, all of it, it's infiltrated. It's
all we hear. The whole time we're being raised,
this is all we hear, all we hear. It just sticks on us like flies
on flypaper. And as a prophet like Amos or
even a preacher like myself, I've got nothing good from God
to offer you except what he gives me to offer. And that message always begins
the same, God is angry with the wicked. Men are not basically good with
a few bad apples, but none righteous. Let that sink in a little bit.
Well, you ain't talking about me. I'm talking about especially
you. Especially you. And especially me. Ain't nothing
righteous. And Paul knew they were going
to get to it. That's why he said, no, not one. Not one. And to this people in the midst
of these judgment, God asked this question. They're saying
we're walking with God, we know God, we're rejoicing in God,
we're looking forward to that day, we're rejoicing in that
day, and we're bringing in our tithes, and we're doing this,
and we're doing that, and we're keeping the ceremonies, and we're
still offering the lambs. Now, yes, we've mixed a little
bit into it because this society's a little different than it was
under Moses, so now we're gonna bow down to Moloch and we're
gonna build some groves on the mountain. We're gonna change
a few things, but basically we're still worshiping God. You can't
walk with God in disagreement with him. It can't be done. That's what God sent Amos to
tell him. You'll agree with God or you'll
go to hell. Just that simple. And that's my message to you
today, agreement with God. This world's full of religion.
It's full of churchgoers. And for the most part, they're
in agreement with one another. Catholics can find common ground
with Protestants. They sure can. Read their basic
laws and things, their basic rules and regulations, what they
believe. There's a lot of common ground between them and Protestants. They might disagree about baptism
and church government and whether to have a single pastor or presbytery,
but they all believe that Christ died for all men and that you
and your faith is what makes the difference. That's what makes
his blood effectual. Really. God values your faith
higher than the death of his son. That sounds like some of the
joke I've been hearing on TV. These men all believe in free
will and they preach of work salvation. They all celebrate
Christmas and Easter. They got a lot of common ground
that they agree on, but they don't agree with God. Now let me give you just a few
things to consider this morning. First of all, let's consider
the picture. He's talking about two walking
together. One person decides he's going
to go to a certain destination, maybe to receive something or
to transport something, and he sets a time of departure and
he makes preparations for it and he chooses his route And
so he gets on the highway that's going to take him there and away
he goes. He's going down the road. At the same time, another also
decides he's going somewhere and he basically does just like
the first man. And he gets on the highway and
suddenly they meet. They meet. Their paths cross. One introduces himself to the
other. They each one talk about some things to one another, and
then a decision is reached as to whether or not they can walk
together. Will they then walk together
or just exchange some pleasantries and each one go their way? Well,
it depends on an agreement based on their decision. Try to picture these two in your
mind. One going one direction, the other going the opposite
way. One traveling in hope of a reward, the other one going
to receive an inheritance. One going being intimidated,
the other going in love freely. The one traveling on hearsay
and the other has a book under his arm showing him the way,
declaring to him the way. One traveling in fear of losing
his reward, the other one rejoicing as if the inheritance was already
in his hand. This is the picture the prophet
sets before the people. Can two walk together except
they be agreed? And then secondly, here's the
reality. Everybody in this world's on a journey. That's what this
life is. You're on a journey. The voice
of religion has set before them the promise of reward and they
chase after it. Anybody in here other than me
old enough to remember the little rascals? You remember the little cart
and the goat was on it and when they wanted to go they had a
pole there with a carrot on it and they'd put the pole down
and that carrot come right down in front of that goat and he'd
walk trying to get that carrot and pull the wagon. That's what
religion does. That's what Satan does. He dangles
that reward out there and you just, boy, you're just trying
to get it. You're just following that. You'll do anything he tells
you to do. He wants you to pause, he just pulls the pole up. Let
you sit there for a little bit and then he puts the pole back
down and away you go. It set before them the promise
of reward. It set before them a place of
unequaled treasure and blessing. All they gotta do is keep to
the plan. Keep to the plan. Keep their
nose to the grindstone. Do the best they can. Do all
you can do to keep the law. And then in that day, you'll
reap the benefit. You sure will. Hundreds of thousands of them,
all going the same way, the course of this world. In Ephesians chapter
2, that's what Paul said being dead in trespasses and sins was.
They're all going according to the course of this world. They're
on the broad road that leads to destruction. And they're singing
and shouting and believing. Believing they're walking with
God. And then a strange thing happened. Providentially, God
crosses their path with a preacher. The last thing in the world that
they ever thought they'd have to deal with. This man pulls out a Bible and
he begins in the word of God to show them the evil of their
ways. Your ways are not my ways. That's
what the Lord said. They're your ways, they're not
mine. And then they might even get
a little angry. I was. First time I heard the
gospel, I got mad. That man offended me. He acted
like I didn't know anything. You know what I found out? I
didn't. But oh, that hurts your pride,
don't it? Who is this person? What right
has he to sit in judgment on my religion, on my motives? He don't know me. Talking about my destination
and my way. But he's got open before him
a great book, a book inspired by God called The Word of God. And that word can determine even
the intent of your heart, even your thoughts before you think
them. And he opens that book and he
shows to them God's testimony. He shows me in 1 John 5, 9 that
if we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. It's not so much the man who's
telling me as it is that book that he's showing me from. And
showing me that what he's telling me is the truth. If we receive the witness of
men, the witness of God is greater. And this is the witness of God,
which he's testified of his son. You don't take this book and
slam it down and say, I told you you need to give up cigarettes.
Who cares? Who cares? Give me one. They're
pretty good. You don't take this book and
start trying to line up everybody in your sense of morality. The only thing you're gonna show
them in this book is God's son, period. That's it. Well, what about a
holy walk? They get in tune with him, they'll
have a walk. Is that right? I don't have to
come in here and stick my finger in your face and tell you you're
doing, you're drinking too much. You already know it. If you are,
I don't need to tell you. You're not coming to church enough.
You already know that. I don't have to tell you that.
You get in tune with Christ and you be in tune with God and your
walk will be just as straight as it can be. You won't have
a problem. From this book of books, he shows
me the fall of man, the nature of all Adam's sons and daughters.
He shows me that it's utterly impossible for any man to save
himself by keeping the law. None that understandeth, none
that seeketh after God, all gone astray, together become unprofitable. The way of peace they've not
known, no fear of God before their eyes. Now, my friend, salvation is
to be reconciled to God. This is what Amos was preaching,
reconciliation, coming into agreement with God. David got on God's
side in the psalm concerning his own sin. He said, I've said
these things about me coming forth from the womb speaking
lies. I've said these things about my sin that you might be
clear when you judge. Judge who? Judge Him. Justified in what you said. Coming
into agreement with God. And this reconciliation is a
two-fold work. First of all, my standing with
God must be established. I'm a sinner, and God hates all
the workers of iniquity. That's what He says. To have any standing before God,
my sins must be paid for. They have to be paid for. Now
you better get this idea out of your head that God takes an
eraser and just clears your account. Sin has to be paid for. God's
justice has to be satisfied. God is a righteous God and he's
not gonna save anybody apart from being righteous. God said to Moses, he showed
him his glory, he said, I keep mercy for thousands, forgiving,
iniquity, transgression, and sin, but he said, Moses, you
better know this, I will by no means clear the guilty. Sin has
to be paid for. Cursed is everyone. You want
to try to keep the law? Listen to this. Cursed is everyone
who continueth not in all things written in the book of the law
to do. You better get you some sheep and pin them up and build
an altar and a tabernacle, hang a veil in it, get a high priest,
and bring that lamb to the Lord if you're going to do all things. And it has to be a continual
thing from the time you're born to the time you die. God will not and cannot simply
excuse sin or ignore sin or act like it never happened. We do
that with our children. He's just too sweet and too cute,
I can't thank him. I'll give you a little time,
you'll thank him. That's not how God operates.
He chastises every son. You without chastisement, you're
a bastard and not a son. That's what the Lord said. Sin has to be paid for. Scripture
said every transgression and disobedience must receive a just
recompense of reward. Whatever the crime, the recompense
is, it's equal. And this is why hell is eternal,
because we cannot compensate God for our sins, not the least
of our sins. No amount of suffering on our
part can satisfy God's justice. He's God and we're men. And inclusive with this is the
matter of our righteousness. God is perfectly, infinitely,
divinely righteous, and we're hopelessly continuous sinners.
Everything we do, say, and think is full of sin. Isaiah went to
this extreme, and he did it through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost.
He said, we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses
are as filthy bags. He tells us in Romans 3, for
all our advantages, we're no better than the heathen. He said,
because I before proved both Jew and Gentile, they're all
under sin. And on this point of righteousness,
God's perfectly clear, we're all as an unclean thing. If we're to walk with God, we
must be reconciled to God. Now listen to this, Colossians
1.20. And having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him,
that is, by Christ, to reconcile all things to himself, by him
I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven.
And you, you, he said. that were sometime alienated,
enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. What Christ accomplished
for you enables him to present you before
the Father, listen, Unblameable. Holy. Not one offense to the
holy character of God. And unblameable, and not only
that, unreprovable. You couldn't be any better if
you wanted to. You're perfect in Him. Now that's our reconciliation
to the Father. But this is just one side of
the coin. God's not going to reconcile you to himself and
then leave you to yourselves and to your ungodly and worldly
ideas about him and his character. God declares not only what he
demands of the sinner, but of its accomplishment in his son. And so in doing so, he reveals
his love and his mercy and his kindness and the salvation which
he accomplished by his son. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
chapter five. I'll try to wrap this up. Paul talks about his hope in
this chapter. He said if this earthly house
or this tabernacle be dissolved, he's got a building in heaven
not made with hands. And he comes down here to 2 Corinthians
5, he said he preached in fear, understanding that he had to
stand before Him. This holy God and His Son, you're
gonna have to stand before Him. And he says in verse 14, 2 Corinthians
5, for the love of Christ constraineth us because, here's why, Because
we thus judge, that is, we thus understand, that if one died
for all, then all were dead. And that he died for all, that
they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto
him which died for them and rose again. Verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
chosen in him, made provision for in him, brought
to hope in him, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. What passed away? What old things passed away?
Well, my old standing in Adam. I was judged in Adam, condemned
in Adam, had no hope in Adam. Had no ability to do anything
about it. That all passed away. Because
now my standing's in Christ. And that standing was before
Adam ever fell. My old standing in Adam passed
away. That unavoidable curse in Adam
has no application to me. I'm perfectly righteous in Christ.
I'm justified in Christ. I have an inheritance in Christ.
God himself has predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will.
all of our inabilities of mind and heart. No man can of himself
believe. Those Jews said, how can we work the works of
God? And Christ said, to believe on
me, that is the work of God. That is the work of God. That
old inability's taken away. God give me faith. He give me
the ability. He made us meet to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light. Old concepts of God. Not burdened
with that anymore. I know who God is. And all things are of God, he
said, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and
hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. Now watch
this. To wit, that God was in Christ
reconciling the world. Not every person in the world,
but the world as it had to do with that old Jewish prejudice
that thought only the Jews were gonna be saved. This reconciliation reaches into
every nation, tribe, kindred, and tongue under heaven. Go ye
into all the world and preach the gospel, he said. You can
start at Jerusalem, but this is where you're headed. God was in Christ reconciling
the world unto himself. Now watch this, not charging
their trespasses unto them. and hath committed unto us the
word of reconciliation. God has brought us into harmony
with himself, into full agreement with himself, in the whole matter of salvation. Now then, verse 20, we are ambassadors
for Christ. As though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you and Christ did, be ye reconciled to God. God was reconciled in Christ,
now you're gonna be reconciled to God. You're gonna come know
who he is and why and rejoice in it. You're gonna get on his
side in this whole thing. I pray you, and Christ did, be
ye reconciled to God. And if you'll let me add this,
on this basis, verse 21, for, because he hath made him to be
sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Well, I don't believe that, preacher.
then you're not reconciled to God. That's all that is. Believers are reconciled to God.
They're on God's side, they believe God. Somebody told me that word
made don't mean made back when it was written. So I took my
dictionary, I've got one that'll take that word through the ages
and I went all the way back to the 1600s and I looked at what
that word meant. They had advertisements, they
had Signs, they had newsletters from the king and all this kind
of stuff. You know what maid meant back then? Same thing it
means now. Maid. Maid. Can two walk together except
they be agreed? There's only one way to walk
with God and that is by faith in and on the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no other way. John said if we walk in the light,
now listen to this, as he is the light, you walk in that truth. If we walk in the light as he
is the light, now watch this, we have fellowship one with another.
We can walk together. And the blood of Jesus Christ
his son cleanseth us from all sin. Well, what are you saying, preacher?
I'm saying get on God's side. Be you reconciled to God. Christ has already reconciled
us, presented us to God, justified. Be you reconciled to that. And
how, and why, and who? Be you reconciled. There is no,
I'm telling you, you go on practicing religion without Christ and you'll
see what'll happen. God's not in it. God's not in
it and it'll end in disaster. And you might, like those Jews,
you might live in ease, lay on your ivory beds for a little
while, but judgment's coming. And boy, it did. He sent Nebuchadnezzar
down there. And like a storm, he went through
Jerusalem. He tore it down, all the buildings,
burned them with fire, destroyed them, ground them into powder,
and took away all the furnishings out of the temple, and took them
back up and put them in the house of Baal. Judgment's coming. Be you reconciled to God. Oh, that God would do that for
Christ's sake.