Amos chapter 3 from verse 1 reads
as follows, Hear this word that the Lord hath spoken against
you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought
up from the land of Egypt, saying, You only have I known of all
the families of the earth. Therefore I will punish you for
all your iniquities. Can two walk together except
they be agreed? Will a lion roar in the forest
when he have no prey? Will a young lion cry out of
his den if he have taken nothing? Can a bird fall in a snare upon
the earth where no gin is for him? Shall one take up a snare
from the earth and have taken nothing at all? Shall a trumpet
be blown in the city and the people not be afraid? Shall there
be evil in a city and the Lord have not done it? Surely the
Lord God will do nothing but He revealeth His secret under
His servants the prophets. The lion hath roared, who will
not fear? The Lord God hath spoken, who
can but prophesy? Can two walk together except
they be agreed? Can two walk together except
they be agreed? That is the question which runs
through this whole book, this whole prophecy of Amos. It sits
behind it all the accounts of God's anger and judgement of
the nations and of Israel. And the promise at the end of
hope, deliverance and salvation is in the context of this question. Can two walk together except
they be agreed? Can you, Israel, can you, my
people, walk together except you be agreed? Can you walk with
me, the Lord God says, except you be agreed? It is a question
that we should ever be mindful of. not just regarding how we
walk with others, how we walk with our fellow believers, how
we walk in the church, how we walk with the friends and the
acquaintances which we may have in the world around us, not just
regarding how we walk with man, but regarding how we stand before a holy and an almighty
God, who by nature we have offended and angered because of our sin. How can two walk together except
they be agreed? You cannot walk with God except
you be agreed with him. You cannot. You cannot walk with
him. You can live in this world You
can say many things. You can make a professional faith.
You can speak of God. You can speak of his ways. You
can take of his truths. You can take of the things in
the Bible. You can attend church. You can
attend meetings. You can hear the gospel preached.
You can discuss the doctrine of the gospel. You can make a
show of worship, you can be baptised, you can take of the Lord's Supper,
you can do many, many things. But you cannot walk with God
except you and He be agreed. Everything else, anything else
is a sham, a show. A pretense. A charade of religion. A pretense to walk with God when
the heart is far from Him. Claiming what is not true. As Amos in verse 4 presents to us. Will a lion roar in the forest
when he hath no prey? Will a young lion cry out of
his den if he have taken nothing? He will not. What folly, what
foolishness! The lion roars when he's captured
the prey, when he has it, when it's real. Why roar? Why make claims of that which
is not there? Why would the young lion cry
out of his den when he's taken nothing in it? He'd be a liar,
he'd be a fool. But the lion roars in his triumph
when he has his prey. Then why, O Israel, why, O Church,
why, professing believer, do you claim to walk before God? Do you speak of Jesus Christ
and His Gospel? Do you tell others to believe
on Him, who you don't truly know, when He is not truly in your
heart? You are as a lion who roars,
who has no prey. You know about Him. You know
about his salvation, you know about his gospel, you can reason
it and discuss it, but you don't know him. You can argue about
election. You can argue about the sovereignty
of God. You can argue about the substitution
and the manner and the means of the substitution. You can
get your doctrine correct to the letter. To the letter. When there's no reality in the
heart. and how many there are in the
churches today who get their doctrine correct to the letter
and go no further. They can stand up and they can
debate, they can go into pulpits and they can preach their messages
and say it's like this and it's like that and none, the foolish
can't fault them. They say, but he knows so much,
he's got it all spelled out, but it's in the letter. And what's absent is the experience
to go with it. What's absent is the recounting
of those realities of God's work of grace in the heart, which
can only come forth from those who walk with God. It's one thing to know about
Him and His Gospel. It's another thing to have Christ
in you. In you, the hope of glory, to
know Him, to know His ways, to love Him. How many there are
who, as it were, go out and tell others that they are an associate,
a friend of royalty, of the Queen, of the Prince, of the King. And
because others don't know royalty, they can't game set. They say
so many things about them. So many things about Buckingham
Palace. So many things about this and that. Who could question
it? When they're impostors. They've
never been to the palace. They've never known the king,
the queen, the prince. They don't know. They're liars.
And there are so many like this in the churches who don't know
Christ. They can talk about him because
the Bible tells them about him. They can talk about where he
lives, because the Bible tells you where he lives. They can
talk about when he came, because the Bible tells us when he came.
They can talk about what he did at the cross, because the Bible
tells us what he did at the cross. They can talk about penal substitution,
because the Bible talks about it. But they don't know him.
And he never told them about it. And he never made it known
to them. They got it all from the Bible
in the letter, or all from the books and the writings of men.
but they never heard his voice and there is no true agreement
in their heart, in their mind with him. They have a pretense
to walk with God when their hearts are far from him. They are lions
roaring in the forest making a great show when they have no
prey. No prey. Is that you? Is that you? Well, there is a
man called Amos who was sent to a people to tell them such
things, to ask them such things, to ask of that people can two
walk together except they be green. to declare unto that people
that God is furious with their pretext, furious with their taking
His name in vain, with their claim to be His, their claim
to love Him when it's all in the letter and they do not know
Him, furious with that people. He was sent to these people to
tell them that the Lion, the Almighty God, hath roared, and
will you not fear? The Lord God has spoken and I
cannot but prophesy. He will judge you for your iniquities. He will punish you for your iniquities.
You claim to be his and you're not. You're worse than those
in their sins who know him not at all. You take his name in
vain. He was sent with a bold message,
a plain message, a cut-in message, a search-in message unto a people
who, when they heard it, would have put him to death. And the man that God sent with
this message, Amos, was a nothing. There was nothing about him,
no qualifications, no learning, no grandeur. No great upbringing. There was nothing about him to
add weight or authority to his message. When he comes preaching
this message, those who heard it would have said, who are you? Who are you? Just a herdsman. What do you know to come telling
us these things? Who made you a prophet? Who do
you think you are? You come unto us in chapter one
and say the Lord will roar from Zion and utter his voice from
Jerusalem. Who are you to say these things
to us? He was a nothing. He was a nothing. But he was a nothing because
God was the one who spake. And he would not have this people.
who had heard many others in the letter, and who were used
to following those with great names and great learning, hear
another, and take what he says because of who he is, and of
what he had, and what learning he had, and not hear the one
who sent him. God will be heard. It's he who
speaks, and his message which is to be heard, not the man. So God sent them a nothing, a
herdsman, to prophesy, to preach. And in this case, to preach against
Israel. He's not going to be gladly received,
is he? And if I were to prophesy against
Israel today, the professing church, if I was to prophesy
against them, if I was to prophesy against you, perhaps, then I
wouldn't be gladly received either, would I? But Amos did as he was
bid, and preached what he must preach, for he feared God, not
man. And the same is true today. Who
must I follow, God or man? Who must I fear, you or my Lord? Who must I offend? God or you? The preacher must preach what
God lays upon his heart. Amos' name means burden bearer. He bore a burden. He bore this
burden concerning the state of his people. And to preach like
that is to carry a burden indeed. To go before a people like this,
burdened over their sin, and with a message of condemnation,
a message of warning, a message that sounds an alarm, to drive
them to repentance, to cause them to cry out unto God for
mercy, a message that sounds an alarm, is to carry a burden
indeed. You can't go with this message
freely and easily. But when God lays it upon your
back and says, go and preach, you must preach. We see what Amos was sent to
preach as he opens up in the first chapter. Verse three, thus
saith the Lord, for three transgressions of Damascus and for four, I will
not turn away the punishment thereof, because they are fresh
Gilead with fresh instruments of iron. but I will send a fire
into the house of Hazael, which shall devour the palaces of Ben-Hadad. I will break also the bar of
Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Avon, and him
that holdeth the scepter from the house of Eden. And the people
of Syria shall go into captivity into Kheer, and serve the Lord.
He moves on in verse 6 to Gaza, for 3 transgressions of Gaza
and for 4 I will not turn away the punishment thereof. Verse
9, for 3 transgressions of Tyrus and for 4 I will not turn away
the punishment thereof. Verse 11, Edom. Verse 13, Ammon. Chapter 2 and verse 1, for 3
transgressions of Moab. And for four I will not turn
away the punishment thereof." And then in verse four, for three
transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away
the punishment thereof. Because they have despised the
law of the Lord, and have not kept his commandments, and their
lies caused them to err, after the which their fathers have
walked, but I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour
the palaces of Jerusalem. Thus saith the Lord for free
transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away
the punishment thereof, because they sold the righteous for silver,
and the poor for a pair of shoes, that pant after the dust of the
earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the
meek, And a man and his father will go in unto the same maid
to profane my holy name. And they lay themselves down
upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the
wine of the condemned in the house of their God. So he reaches
Israel. Judah, then Israel. These judgments
begin with Damascus, with Gaza, with Tyre, with Edom, Ammon,
Moab but they come in and to Judah and Israel they funnel
down and to God's people they start with the other nations
round about and how the Israelites may have looked and heard when
they heard of the judgment of God upon the nations round about
and said in their pious pride well rightly so What are they
but Gentiles and dorks? How they've sinned, how the Lord
should be angry. But with what horror they must
have heard the Lord's judgment come down upon them. And what
hypocrisy to rejoice in the judgment of those around them, with whom
they'd consorted, with whom they'd agreed, with whom they'd wandered
off from their God to go and to serve and to live with the
nations round about. They'd taken the gods of the
nations round about, of the Moabites, of the Ammonites. They'd made
marriages with the nations round about when God told them not
to marry the other nations. They'd taken off the thinking
and the ways and the pleasures and the riches of the nations
round about when they claimed to be gods. They turned from
their god. And they'd been adulterous in
going off after these other nations. And that's why God comes upon
these nations in judgment. Because these nations had defiled
his own people and led them astray. But his fury is with his own
who should have known better. Those who should have walked
in agreement with him, when they actually walked in agreement
with the world around them. Why is he furious with them?
Why does this judgment funnel in on them? Because they don't
walk with God. they'd mixed with the world. They knew God's ways, they knew
God's law, they'd have talked about it, they'd have talked
about their worship of God, but they mixed it up with the world
and the world's religion and the world's goals. And they bring
upon themselves the judgement and fury of God. You can't mess
around with God and you can't take his things and defile them
and think that you can mess around and God's love will still be
on you. You must search deep in your
heart if you're truly his and you mix his ways with the ways
of the world, then he'll chastise you and rebuke you but bring
you back in the end. But if you've heard his gospel
and live a life that's in this world and not walking in agreement
with him and his ways, you must ask yourself seriously Have I
ever truly known him? Or is it just a profession? Because
if it's just a pretense, if it's just taking his name in vain,
if it's just a profession and you haven't possessed Christ's
love in your heart, then in the end the same judgment that comes
upon the heathen nations will come upon you. The lion have
roared, who will not fear? Don't play about with God. And don't play about with his
gospel or his name. Don't take his gospel and publish
it and tell it to others whilst dallying with the trifles of
this world and the filth and the sin of this world and think
that you are gods. God sent his son to deliver his
people from sin, not to leave them wallowing in it. And only
the most shameful wallow in sin and claim the blessing and the
blood of Christ to cover them. They say, let us sin that grace
may abound. Let us sin that grace may abound.
Oh, we believe in grace. Let's do as we like because God
will love us still. Paul, when he preached of justification
by faith for low, when he preached of the grace of God, when he
preached of deliverance from the law, said, Shall we then
continue to sin? Shall we sin that grace may abound? Is that the conclusion that we
reach from these things? God forbid. Romans 6 verse 1, what shall
we say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that
are dead to sin live any longer therein? And yet so many take
the gospel and take salvation by grace and think that that
covers them. For their wanton mixing of law
and grace, their wanton mixing of the world and the things of
God, their wanton mixing of sin and righteousness. Don't play
the fool with the things of God and the gospel. Don't take it
to suit your own selfish desires and to use the gospel and grace
as an occasion for the flesh. As Paul says in Galatians, you
stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free, but
use not these things as an occasion for the flesh. Brethren, you've
been called unto liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion
to the flesh. but by love serve one another.
We're dead to the law, but we're not antinomian, we're not lawless
and we're not full of sin. We're dead to the law that we
might serve the living God, that we might bring forth fruit unto
righteousness, not mix God's ways with the world's ways. If we mix it, then the judgment
will come upon us. As Paul makes plain in Romans
1 and 2, God's wrath and anger with sin is against all nations,
Jew and Gentile alike. His judgment comes down upon
all, religious or irreligious, Moab, Ammonite or Israelite. It doesn't matter what your profession
is, sin is sin and judgment is judgment. What you need is the
reality of the blood of Christ shed for you and sprinkled in
your heart. And if it's really there, then
you will not walk in agreement with this world, with its ways,
with its religion, with its fashions and pleasures, with its thinking
and morality. You will hate these things. and love the things of God, the
things of Jesus Christ. We may think that God's judgment
is something far off, something that won't come upon us now.
But the reality is that throughout history God has sent forth judgment
in this world. The world acts like it's immune. Like it's in power, like it's
in control. Empires rise up and they think
they can do what they like and in a moment God destroys them
and brings them to nothing. Where is Rome now? Where is Alexander
the Great now? Where is Egypt of old now? Where
is the Third Reich now? Where is the USSR now? And where
will America and these other nations today be tomorrow? who
shake their fist in God's face. I read just recently that the
doctors in this country are worried of the growing resistance in
the people in our land, in our bodies, to antibiotics. So needful for the treatment
of so many illnesses, so needful when we undergo operations. They're
worried that in 10 to 20 years, we could all be dying from infections
which come upon us when we have routine operations, that it could
be absolutely disastrous. And so they should be worried
because God can take things away in a moment. Many of the medical
advances and blessings that have been granted unto Britain as
a nation and the world around us were granted to believers,
to Christian scientists, to Christians in the medical profession, who
served God and loved God and God blessed them with their various
discoveries and sent blessing upon the land when his name was
honored and his gospel was preached. Well, those generations and those
people have gone and those who have followed and taken of the
blessings and the prosperity which they brought in, have turned
from their gods. And God is not mocked, and God
can in a moment take all these things away and send judgment
upon a land and bring it to its knees. And so often we see it. So often. And here, in Amos,
Israel, though it claimed to follow God, had gone off with
all the nations round about, and here God sends his judgment.
Don't take my name and claim to be mine when your heart is
far from me. Can two walk together except
they be agreed? They cannot. They cannot. And oh, the divisions we see
when that agreement is missing. How we see those nations in the
early chapters rebuked by God. Each nation different from the
other. Each nation divided from the
other. The world was scattered like
the Tower of Babel into different tongues and different nations.
All divided. How the nations are divided.
And how often we see the professing people of God, the professing
Church, divided. No agreement. One views things
this way, another views things that way. One speaks of this
baptism, another speaks of that baptism. One speaks of this way
of gathering, another speaks of that way of gathering. One
speaks of singing psalms early, another speaks of hymns. One
speaks of communion in this manner, another speaks of it in that
manner. One speaks of election, another goes against it. One
speaks of the sovereignty of God, one speaks of the responsibility
of man. All divided. Divided. One takes over scripture and
preaches what it says, another says it means something else.
And they argue and divide at the meaning. Division. Schism. How can two walk together, except
they be agreed? We see them not walking together
and we see the lack of agreement in the professing churches because
only the agreement in the gospel as brought in by God and His
Spirit as a reality of life, only that can bring agreement. Even if you get the words on
the page right, if that reality is not there, you'll have strife. Two people can believe the same
things on paper but in one there is the life of God and in one
it's just head knowledge and there'll be strife. But worse
than these things, worse than these disagreements amongst men
is that disagreement that exists between man and God. between man and God, between
you and me and God. Despite the words, the appearances,
are we truly walking with Him? There is no agreement between
false religion and God, between false Gospels and God. There is no agreement between
that new man declared to be Pope in Rome and God. God is against him. He has another
gospel. He is not agreed. There is no
agreement between so many and God. They've taken his word and
ripped it up and discarded it and turned a blind eye to it.
They will not receive a love of the truth. But what of you? Is there agreement between you
and God? Or is your religion, your worship,
your profession just a show? Is it an appearance before men?
Have you been brought up in it? Have you been brought to attend
and you dare not go back because of the shame it would bring?
You know there's nothing within, you know the reality's missing,
but you said so many things that your pride prevents you owning
up and saying, but there's something you've got, my friend, that I
haven't. I know that I must be born again. I know that Christ must be in
me. I know that there must be an
experience of the conviction of sin. I know that there must
be a knowledge and an awareness of the presence of God and I
know those things are missing but I can't possibly admit before
others well forget about others and think about where you are
before God because you can hide from others and you can put on
a pretense before others and you can fool them to the last
of your days. But you won't fool God who searches
the heart. And you can't hide from His eyes. He has seven eyes that go searching
throughout through this world as Revelation tells us. He sees
all. And in the end you will stand
before Him and answer to Him. And a pretense and a profession
and a show won't answer for much. How can you walk with God when
your heart is far from Him? Professions of faith are worthless
if your heart is fixed on this world. If when you get up in
the morning your thoughts are on this, that and the other but
never on God, where's your heart? You walk with Him if you're agreed
with Him. If you're of one mind, one heart,
what He desires, you desire. What He wills, you will. What
He loves, you love. People speak of knowing the will
of God. Well, if you're His, you're walking
in Him, with Him. You soon know the will of someone
who you're bound to, wed to, one with. If you're married to
someone and you love someone, Increasingly you know them, you
know their thoughts, you know their ways, you know what they
like. Increasingly you find yourself in situations where you know
what they're thinking in response to something without even asking
them because you know them. It's not a mystery to you. You
don't go out of a situation and have to ask them, well what did
you think? And it comes as a total surprise. You begin to know what
they will think because you're one with them and you love them. You're united. And as you walk
with God, you know what his will is. It's not a total mystery. You're of one mind. Can two walk
together except they be agreed? Having asked this question, having
declared God's anger at the state of Israel and the nations round
about. God, through Amos, calls this
people to seek Him. In chapter 5, verse 4, we read,
For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye
me, and ye shall live, but seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal,
and pass not to Beersheba. For Gilgal shall surely go into
captivity, and Bethel shall come to naught. Seek the Lord, and
ye shall live, lest ye break out like fire in the house of
Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel.
This seeking of God must be real. not a seeking of the world and
the things around, and not a seeking of the church and of religion
itself. You may have a love for the gathering
of the saints, you may have a love for the church, you may enjoy
going to the meetings, you may like singing the hymns, you may
enjoy reading the Bible, but these things in themselves aren't
enough. Don't seek the church. Don't
simply seek to be gathered in it. Don't seek religion for itself. Seek the Lord. It must be real
how God despises hypocrisy, the coming into his presence when
the heart is far from him. That's serving him out of duty. Because that's what you do. Because
every Sunday morning you come into His presence, every Sunday
morning you gather. He despises it. He's looking
for the heart that comes because it longs to be with Him, that
longs to hear Him, that longs to hear His voice in the Gospel,
that loves Christ and seeks Him. He hates that outward appearance
which is done to be seen of others. The works and the will of man. says in verse 18 of chapter 5,
Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord. To what end
is it for you? The day of the Lord is darkness
and not light. And he then goes on to reject
the feasts, the sacrifices and the worship of Israel here because
he knew it was all outward, all a show. They said they desired
the day of the Lord. They said they desired the worship
of God. They said that they longed to
offer up their feasts and be with him when they didn't. And
there are those who speak of their desire to gather on the
Lord's day, the day of the Lord, to gather and to keep the Sabbath,
to gather and to worship God, when they don't. It's all outward. They like the outward appearance,
they like the routine, they like that calmness. There can be an
appeal in religion to the separation and the difference that there
appears with the gathering of God's church. There can be an
appeal to go in and stepping aside from the things of this
world and to gather and to hear in the scriptures and praising
God. But the outward things are nothing. And these, in Israel
in that day, may have spoke of desiring the day of the Lord,
may have spoke of being with him, may have spoke of his presence,
But for them it was darkness, not light. They knew not God. It was all darkness, it was all
just outward. There was no light, there was
no revelation, there was no reality in it. They didn't truly come
unto God, they didn't see a thing. They thought all was well. when
in reality God was furious with their hypocrisy. So he says to
them in chapter 6, Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and
trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the
nations, to whom the house of Israel came. Are you at ease
in Zion? Do you come and go, and all is
well, and you're saved by grace? You've made the profession. Oh,
God loves you. when in reality if you looked
a bit deeper and examined your motives and where your heart
truly is, your heart set on this world, oh you love a God that
loves you whilst you love this world. That God suits you. It suits you to worship a God
of grace who lets you indulge your sin in this world. It irritates
you to think of a God that might not like those sins. Oh, that's
legalism, is it? How easy it is to take things
that are real. How easy it is to take true errors,
like legalism, like will worship, like works worship, and apply
those labels to that which it is not. And to take the grace
of God and apply it as a sort of cover to your sin that you
indulge in. Now the grace and the blood of
Christ in the Gospel does cover the believer from every sin,
but the believer covered by that grace does not walk therein. He turns from it, and he turns
to worship and to serve the living God. And those who indulge their
sin, those who sin that grace may abound, have never never
known that grace. Woe to them that are at ease
in Zion. In chapter 7 as Amos moves on
he speaks of a plumb line. He showed me and behold the Lord
stood upon a wall made by a plumb line with a plumb line in his
hand and the Lord said unto me Amos what seest thou? And I said
a plumb line. Then said the Lord, Behold, I
will set a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel. I
will not again pass by them anymore. And the high places of Isaac
shall be desolate and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste.
I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword. God's
long suffering, but he has a plumb line. And he won't let things
go on, unwatched, unchecked forever. You can't take his name in vain
and think that you can go on like that forever. But he will
come in judgment and in the alarm of his gospel, if you're his,
he'll sound a note of rebuke and chastisement. If you're not
his, he'll make it known that you are naked yet, that you are
darkness within, that all you have is a sham, a profession,
that you know him not. and that you should get on your
knees and seek Him before it's too late. There's a judgment
and a plumb line. And that judgment comes down,
as we see in the early chapters, upon the nations who walk not
before God, who are not agreed with Him. And it will come down
upon the false professor. But for God's true people, it
came down in judgement, in justice, upon another. Because Amos, as
with all the prophets, is not just sent with a message of God's
wrath. God's wrath against the sin of
men. God's wrath against the hypocrisy of men. God's wrath
against the hypocritical worship of men who take his name in vain
and know not him. But ultimately he comes with
a message of the gospel, that says God's own have been justified. Judgment has fallen. Justice
has been exacted. The price has been paid, but
not by you. Though you deserve to pay it,
not by you. I've sent one to pay the price. I've offered up a sacrifice. I've shed blood. I've poured
out my wrath and my justice. upon that sacrifice, and I have
answered every transgression. I've set my love upon you that
you might be spared. Yes, God comes upon His people,
His own in judgment, but He comes upon them in His Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He takes their hypocrisy, He
takes their vainness, He takes their vanity, He takes their
adultery as they dabble with this world and its ways and its
religion. He takes their idolatry. He takes
their taking off His name in vain. He takes every sin, every
breaking off His law, every despising of His name, every turning aside
from Him and His grace. He takes it all. And He takes
it and places it upon his own son, as his wrath burns against
him and their sin, as his wrath burns against that sacrifice
because of their sin. Chapter 80 speaks of this. It shall come to pass in that
day, saith the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down
at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day. and I
will turn your feasts into mourning and your songs into lamentation.
I will judge these things. Now for those outside of Christ,
these things will come in judgment upon them, but for those in Christ,
that judgment came upon Him. When the sun went down at noon,
and when the earth was darkened in the clear day because at noon
God laid upon his son the sins of his people and made him to
be sin for them and the light of the sun in this world was
taken away because the light of the son of God was obscured
by the filth of their corruption which God judged in him. He took it away, justice was
exacted. And when he took it away, the
light shone again. Oh, the hope that there lies
in Christ for his own. Behind all this judgment and
anger in this book is this hope, the fact that God for his own
laid that judgment upon another. laid it upon Christ who was laid
upon the altar for them. In chapter 9 we see, I saw the Lord
standing upon the altar, Christ was laid upon the altar for his
own, and the fury we see here, The fury we see in these words
recorded, the fury of God, the depths of his anger against that
sin, and that depth of anger, and that which he poured out
upon his son, demonstrates the love he had for his own. The love he had for that bride
that went off as an adulteress, with other men, strange men,
other nations, other ways. The love he had for that one
for whom he must suffer. Do you realise the depths of
God's anger against sin? Do you think that God would slay
his own son except that his fury against sin is so great that
he had to judge it? Oh, the burden! that Christ bore. The burden of sin, the burden
of God's wrath against him, the burden he bore. He was a burden
bearer indeed. Amos by name was a figure of
him. But Christ was the burden bearer
for his people. He bore the burden of their sin. He bore the burden of Israel's
sin, because he loved Israel. He loved his own. What a burden! What fury was poured out upon
him! But what salvation there is in
the end. Chapter 9 concludes from verse
11 with this tremendous account of the consequences, the fruit
of Christ's death. In that day will I raise up the
tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof. and I will raise up his ruins,
and I will build it as in the days of old, that they may possess
the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen which are called
by my name, saith the Lord that doeth this. Behold, the days
come, saith the Lord, that the ploughman shall overtake the
reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed, and the
mountain shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt,
And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel. And they
shall build the waste cities and inhabit them. And they shall
plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof. They shall also
make gardens and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them
upon their land. And they shall no more be pulled
up out of their land which I have given them. Sayeth the Lord thy
God." Oh, what a hope. And this hope is brought in because
Christ died for sinners. Christ died for his own to reconcile
them unto God. It's this death which brings
these two divided parties together as one. How can two walk together
except they be agreed? God agreed his people with himself. They came together. in agreement
in Christ at the cross. It's this death which makes peace. It's this death which makes these
two walk together, of one mind, of one heart. It's this death,
as Ephesians 2 tells us, which united Jews and Gentiles together
in Christ. All sinners As Romans 2 tells
us, all sinners, all proven to be sinners, but in Christ, all
those who were washed in the blood of Christ, in the blood
of the Lamb of God, all these of Jews and Gentiles, once divided
one from the other, men and women divided one from the other, they're
brought together, they walk together, they're agreed, those who were
once enemies made one in Christ. made one with each other, and
made one with Him. Oh, what a death that can take
such a people from the four corners of this world, such enemies,
Jews and Gentiles, and make them to be one in Christ, and make
them all to be one with God in Christ. Oh what agreement! Are you in that agreement? Do you know that agreement? Has
God come unto you in his gospel, you who are so far off, you who
were a rebel against God, you who despised him, you who rejected
him, you who hated him and his people, you who maybe professed
and made a profession when your heart loved this world. Oh, can
you speak of hearing that gospel and being brought upon your knees
before God to say, yes, Lord, I'm a sinner. Yes, Lord, thou
art just to judge me and send me to hell if thou wilt. But
oh Lord, I thank and praise you for that blood that washed me
clean. I thank and praise Thee for free
grace, for the sovereignty of God in choosing me when I chose
not Thee. I thank Thee for a free justification,
for a death which made me to be the righteousness of God in
Christ even though I was utterly unrighteous. I thank Thee for
the Spirit of God which entered into me and quickened me unto
life. I thank Thee for Thy righteous ways, and I love for Thy people.
I thank Thee that it is Thou that buildest Thy church, not
me, not man. I thank Thee for that love which
was shed upon Thy people, shed abroad in their hearts, placed
upon them from before the foundation of this world. I love Thee, Lord. I love Thy ways. I agree with
all that Thou hast said. Thou art the way, the truth,
and the life. Can you speak of him in that
way? Can you speak of his gospel that
it's true? Come see a man who told me all
things whatsoever I am. Come see a man who knows me inside
out. Come see a man who laid down
his life for me. It's true he rose again and I
rose again in him. It's true he washed my sins away. God said he would. God said he
has and now I know it for real for myself. It's true. Can you
say it from your heart knowing the reality of it? Can you? For how can two walk together
except they be agreed? How can two walk together except
they be agreed? Oh, man.