It's time. Well, it's good to see you all out this morning. Remember those who requested prayer. Sharon's feeling some better. She's got that horrible either RSV or the big virus that's blowing her out. It starts in your head, and it lasts about a week, and then it goes to your chest, and lasts another week, and goes to your stomach. So that's a bad feeling.

I apologize for the light back there. This was a tremendous, huge senior moment. Wednesday night, I took the lid off that thing, thinking, well, on a Thursday, I'm going to fix it. So I got out and fixed it. It did not enter my mind until I walked in this morning and saw that I had to fix it. So that was a five-day senior moment. I'm going to try to write it down and try to remember it now so I can get it fixed.

Sherry's not feeling well. I remember there was others who requested prayer also. Broker's family lost a loved one. I can't think of a name.

He's got a handout, a new hymn, an old hymn that we haven't ever sung before, to the tune of the church's one foundation, called Chosen, found in the city of Trinity,

It's not that I did choose Thee, O Lord, that could not be!
This I would still refuse Thee,
Hast Thou not chosen me?
Thou from the sin that me was found praise the lord and taught my only life.
The world has turned from me to heavenly glorified.
My heart was turned before thee, your light and grace I thirst this lonely night.

If you have your Bibles, turn with me to Amos chapter 3. After Scripture, your prayer will sing in number 45.

Amos chapter 3. The title of my message this morning is, No, They Can't. I'm just going to read one verse of Scripture. Verse 3. Can two walk together? except they be agreed.

Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we are thankful for your electing grace. But we know that we would never have chosen this. Our mind and heart were darkened from birth. With our mind, we are at ease. We had no interest in the things of God. Yet, we carried on in some religious manner, knowing that someday there would be a reckoning and inventing a God who would fit our thinking.

And we are thankful that our career was halted stopped in its tracks by the gospel of your sovereign grace. Showing us, revealing to us, opening up our minds and hearts to the fact that there was nothing in us, about us, or what could come from us or of us that could ever recommend us to you. It reached down and plucked us from the miry clay and set our feet on the solid rock, Christ Jesus.

We thank you. We praise you. We know, indeed, has thou not chosen us, we would have never chosen thee. Father, we ask today for those who are sick, going through trials and We're thankful that Ray and Richard are back on the reservation. We pray for those who are going through this RSV and these viruses that are going around. We ask Lord to help for them. We pray for those who are away from us that you watch over them and bring them safely home to us.

We ask this day that you might be pleased to cause us to worship you. Remove that which would inhibit us and cause us to fall on our face before thee in thanksgiving and praise for all that you have done. Thou art God. There is none else. There is none beside thee, none like unto thee. We know you declare the end from the beginning. You purpose it and it shall stand. You speak it and it shall come to pass.

We bow in gratitude that this world is not a place of uncontrolled circumstance. But it is your place that you are working out every day according to your predestinated purpose. Help us to bow and be full of thanksgiving and have a calm heart and be at peace knowing that you are in control. Help us now to worship you. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.

And number 45, the service of God to the Master Proclaimed. His kingdom is glorious He rules over all He is nigh, His presence we have The great congregation, His triumph shall seem A striving salvation to Jesus They all cried aloud and honored the Son. The praises of Jesus the angels proclaimed, for out of their faces they worshipped the Lamb. and wisdom and mind, all honor and bliss filled with angels above, and thanks they are ceaseless and infinite above.

Father, again we come in the name of Jesus Christ, our great and majestic Savior, who, having purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high and ever living to make intercession for his people. We praise you for giving him this great, unspeakable, and glorious gift to your people, and with him freely giving them all things. Help us now to worship you in this manner, we pray.

¶. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ The thing about the truth in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is it's never without result. In the matter of the truth, you either believe it or you don't. But it still remains the truth whether you believe it or you don't. There used to be a popular bumper sticker back in the 70s that said, God said it, and I believe it, and that makes it so. But the fact is that God said it makes it so whether you believe it or not. And the gospel always does its business. It will soften your heart or harden your heart, but it never leaves you indifferent. When you hear the truth of the gospel, you will bow to Jesus Christ or you will rebel against him, and that's just the way it is.

Paul said we are always victorious. always victorious, and a sweet savor unto God in them that perish and in them that are saved. When the gospel is preached, it's a savor of life to some and a savor of death to others. And Paul says, I'm not sufficient for these things, and no man is. That's why our job has nothing to do with the results of the gospel. As a minister of the gospel, our job is singular and absolute. We're to preach it and leave all the rest to God.

Amos here makes this statement. Amos was a prophet during the time of Jeremiah and Isaiah also. When Judah and Israel were in a great state of idolatry, and the prophets were hated because they went against these idols and told them to worship the true and living God.

And Amos is addressing this idolatry of religion here when he says, can two walk together except they be agreed? And he's talking about walking with God or walking with idols. Elijah confronted this on the mountain of Mount Carmel about the mixture of false and true worship. He did so in a narrow and dogmatic language. The principle of right and wrong, the principle of error and truth.

1 Kings 18 reports that Elijah came unto all the people and said, How long, halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him. And the response of the people revealed that such an exclusive view of God and the manner in which he was worshipped did not set well with them. Their response was, and the people answered him not a word. They didn't need just one religion. They preferred a pantheon. The price they paid for their willing vacillation was the business end of Elijah's cutlass. 800 died that day.

Paul required dogmatism when preaching the gospel, saying, even and even things without the life-giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is pipe or harp? For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to understand, how shall it be known what is spoken? For ye shall speak into the air.

Our Lord said in Matthew 5.37, but let your communication be yea, yea, or nay, nay. For whatsoever is more than these cometh to evil.

Elijah was declaring that it's right to serve the God who is worthy of worship, and it is evil to serve and worship any other deity. And it is impossible to be right worshiping both. How long shall you halt between two opinions? If God be the Lord, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him. Can two walk together, except they be agreed.

Those who want to incorporate all forms of religion together prefer the notion that there is a power in diversity, that no religion is innately wrong and all gods and religions have some positive value.

The god of purpose, for example, was really good to have around at the hospital. or the funeral hall, or in wartime, or any time you couldn't come up with an explanation for something, or when you needed someone to blame for something outside the limits of your human control. The purposeless God, made of stone, who must be carried about by you, whose attributes simply are a mirror to your own, who exists and acts by permission of the human will, was good for carnal worship because you could do anything you felt like doing in the name of your God.

Elijah made it simple and this is the case today as it was then. It's either one or the other. There can be but one God and he alone is to be worshipped according to scripture. When John on the Isle of Patmos bowed down to the angel, I'm not like you, I'm just a man. Worship God. Worship God.

There's an old adage that says they can't hang you for your thoughts. Well, that day on Mount Carmel, 800 preachers were sliced and diced for their opinions because they refused to worship the true and living God. False worship here will cost you your soul. Make no bones about it.

Carnal worship is part of the sinful baggage that we carry into this world at birth. We must worship. We are made to worship. Adam was created to worship. All our faculties have been to worship. It is what we must and will do. And because we were ruined in the fall by our father Adam, we come into this world with a self-manufactured, self-promoting notion of God. Our imaginations are deity production lines, and the product that is rendered is a god or an idol amenable to our human proclivities.

Now we don't, in Western civilization, generally openly worship stone gods or gods made of wood, though the manufactured trinkets of religion do garnish our lines and make us feel as if we are parading our faith. I don't know whether you get Facebook or not, but the ads, a lot of ads today, a great number of ads have sweatshirts and t-shirts with little crosses on them or little crowns of thorns on them. And people are advertising supposedly their faith. When I see a trout attached to the trunk lid of a car, how can I help but think that the driver's a Christian? Because that's supposed to be a Christian symbol. I like it with the little cross at their eye, because I think the cartoons I used to watch when I was a kid when somebody got knocked out, they had a plus sign across their eyes. So I think that must be an anesthetized Christian, maybe, that has that little symbol on their collar.

One's faith possibly questioned who wore a miniature likeness of a person suffering capital punishment on a Roman gibbet dangling from their ears or a chain around their neck. How can anyone doubt the veracity of the faith of someone who has a picture of a model, handsome, Caucasian, red-bearded, blue-eyed guy with a circular aura of light around his head hanging in a prominent place in their living room wall? Surely a bobblehead Jesus or Mary perpetually nodding up and down on the dashboard of your car is indicative of true faith.

Men have cooked up a God who is willing to accept them on the grounds of their exalted, sacred opinion of what a God ought to be, and they can rest assured that there is a church somewhere that will receive them on that basis. A church that worships a God like you. invented that accepts you and approves you, conditioned on what you are and what you think. Such a God is one to whom we reveal ourselves, give our hearts to accept into our lives, and deem him acceptable merely by our association with him. We say thy things about him, sing his praises, say that he blesses us that we do. We are blessing ourselves because this God is ultimately dependent on us if anything is to get done in His definitive, derived domain.

In our text, Amos makes it clear that in order to walk with God, the true God, you must agree with Him. You must agree with Him. True God does not wait for you to reveal yourself to Him. He must reveal Himself to you or you will never know Him. The secret things belong to God. And that which is revealed belongs to us and our children when we do all the works of this book. Our Lord made it plain to those who thought they worshipped God, who mocked His preaching and mocked John the Baptist's preaching, He lifted his eyes to heaven and was thankful to God.

In Matthew 11, 25 through 27, our Lord said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast revealed these things unto the babes and hid them from the wise and the prudent. For even so it seemed good in thy sight. You mean it's good for God to hide the gospel from somebody? The Lord said it was. He thanked God for doing it. and so forth seem good in thy sight. For no man knoweth the Father, but the Son. And no man knoweth the Son, but the Father. He to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him.

That's how it is. This revelation of Him is singularly, and it's found only in one place. We don't see Him in the side of a building. We don't see Him in the Egg McMuffin. We don't see Him in the We don't see Him in the sky, we see Him right here in this book and this book alone. So in order for you to see God, to walk with Him and to agree with God, you've got to do it by this book. Because this is the revelation we have of Him. He will be on the true record that He gives of Himself in His Word. This is the clarion call of this day. One that needs to be saved. is that you can not know God apart from His Word.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and full of truth.

But in religion, the clarion call is that you can believe that the Bible is the Word of God and yet leave out what doesn't fit your sensitive politics or schemes. You can believe the Bible, but not word for word. Mark it down. I've said it many times. I'll say it again one more time. If you can look at any portion of this book and say, I don't believe it, then you're an unbeliever. Because believers believe the book. This is what we have. We don't have anything else. We don't go by feelings, or sentimentality, or actions. We go by what the book says. This is our rule, and our practice, this book is. And it teaches us of one thing, and that is Jesus Christ.

those who believe that you can take some of it and leave the other, and the spouse says things do not walk with God, why? Because they don't agree with it. See how simple that is? Can two walk together except they be agreed? Except they be agreed? The word of God is very clear on this matter.

And as I was researching this passage of scripture and working on this message, I realized that I had put down about a hundred different Bible references here. And I don't want to keep you here until three or four o'clock this afternoon just on this message, so I'll try to be a little succinct. The fact is you can't know God apart from Jesus Christ. You can't know Jesus Christ apart from his words. You can't know his word apart from it being preached to you by someone God has called. That's not to absolve this person. But this office, as minister of the gospel, that office is worthwhile. The person ain't worth a hoot.

I'm going to be gone here for a long. I'm getting old. You can see. I used to have red hair. Don't have red hair no more. I'll be out of here for a long. Somebody else will do this. Because men are nothing. They're just pieces of clay. That's all they are. Paul said, I'm nothing. Apollo's nothing. We just plant some seed. God's the one that gives the increase. We don't have anything to do with that.

But you're going to hear it through a preacher that God has called. Paul made that clear in Romans chapter 10 when he said, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how shall they call on him in whom they've not believed? And how shall they believe on him in whom they've not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? Whereas the scripture says, and he quotes Isaiah 52, 7, how beautiful upon the mountains are the things that bring good tallys, good things, public salvation.

So then, remarkably and wondrously and not able to be fully explained on any level, faith comes by hearing. and hear him by the word of God. That's how it happens. That's how it happens.

Anyone who disagrees with God does not walk with God. Since he has revealed himself by his word, you must agree with him with what he says in his word concerning himself. God's sheep do not disagree with their shepherd. The fact is that you and I will agree or disagree with what God has said.

Men and women cannot be confused about one thing. They can't. Yet it takes two things to be confused. Takes two. One thing, you either believe it or you don't. You're either in or you're out. That's the one thing. It's just one thing. And that one thing is God is true and all men are liars.

What has God said about Himself? God has said He's absolutely sovereign. And what has He said about Himself? Surely any passage in Scripture, anywhere from Genesis to Revelation, where God is subject to his creature. Where his will is subject to his creature. It simply ain't there.

When the idolaters told David and showed him the fancy god that they had created made out of silver and gold, it was beautiful. You've seen some of these gods that they erect. They're gorgeous. Beautiful sculpture. It had eyes and ears and a nose and a mouth and feet and hands and all those things that men have, because that's the God they create. It's always after their own image. But they said, David, see our God. Where is your God? David said, our God's in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Whatsoever he hath pleased.

And can Ezra learn that? He said, God does according to His will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay His hand or say unto Him, What doest thou? Isaiah wrote of God that He declares the end from the beginning. What does that mean? Before this thing ends, God declared how it would end and then started it. Already had the end. How it's going to end? How it's going to end? Jesus Christ is going to come again. He's going to take His church to Himself and destroy this whole universe and remake it all again. That's how it's going to end.

Well, how's that going to come to pass? God is going to create an earth. And He's going to make man out of the dirt of the earth. He's going to tell him to populate the earth. And that man's going to sin. And that's going to plunge the whole world into sin. And God's going to carry out history all the way through, all the way through. And out of this fallen race, He's elected people to save. He's going to save them by the blood of Jesus Christ. All that's going to come down to that, that Jesus Christ is glorified in His saints when He comes again. That's how it's going to end. Why? It wasn't ever, because that's what He decided from the beginning. He purposes it, and it shall stand. He speaks, and it shall come to pass. There's no question about that. No question whatsoever.

He will show mercy on whom He will show mercy. He is God. Do you know He creates the wicked for the day of evil? What it says in Proverbs. That can't be right. Yeah it is. That's what God says. Do you believe that? That God creates wicked men to destroy them? The Bible says there are many that are ordained to this condemnation. There are many that stumble at the Word of God because they're appointed to it. That's what the Scriptures say. You say, well that just doesn't feel right. I don't care. This is what God says about Himself.

Can two walk together except they be agreed? What if God, what could you say if God did this? willing to show his wrath and make his paradigm, endured with much long-suffering the vessels he has fitted to destroy, that he might show mercy to those whom he's ordained to salvage." What if God does that? Say, well, I don't like it. It doesn't matter. Best you agree with God, because he's God, and you're not. That's what God says about himself. Do you agree? What do you stand on now?

What does God say about His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ? He says He's full of glory. He says He's the way that God speaks to people in this world. He's the Word made flesh that dwells among us. He's the language of God, the way God speaks. God at the Sunday Times and in diverse manners in the past spoke through the Father's by the prophets, but in these last days they've spoken to us in son. That's the language of Jesus, of God Almighty. It's Jesus Christ. This book's about Him. It's about Him. God says His Son is glorified. When He had purged our sins, He sat down on the right hand of the Father for grace. He said twice, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. You hear Him. You hear Him.

Our Lord said of Himself, My sheep hear My voice and they follow Me. I know them by name. I call them by name. They'll not follow another. They follow Me. And I give unto them eternal life. No man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand. My Father which gave them to Thee is greater than no man is able to pluck them out of My hand. That's the Lord Jesus Christ as He's described over and over again through Scripture. Where do you stand? Do you know that in Jesus Christ is the God we know? He's the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. For Scripture says in Christ dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily, in a body. And the result of that is because of who He is and what He's done for His people that we are complete in Him. That's what God says about His Son. What do you stand on that?

Can two walk together except they be agreed? What does God say about His Holy Spirit? God says His Holy Spirit is God. Jesus Christ, in John 14, 15, and 16, when He talked about Him leaving this world and going to the cross and being buried and resurrected and ascended to the right hand of the Father, He said, I'm going to leave you a paraplete. Someone to come alongside you, a comforter, a spirit, the spirit. And the Lord said, it's my spirit. He said, I'm gonna send the spirit to you. And when I come to you, when I come to you, what does he say about his spirit? He says his spirit's gonna reveal Christ to me, gonna reveal, that's his message.

When the Holy Spirit comes, he will convince men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin, because they believe not in me. Of righteousness, because I killed my father. Of judgment, because the prince of this world has been cast down. The Holy Spirit will not glorify himself. That's what the scripture says. People talk about, what does the Holy Spirit mean? I doubt it very much. I just do. Because you glorify the Spirit, the Spirit will not glorify himself. If there really is a Holy Spirit meeting, you know who's going to get glorified? Jesus Christ. He will glorify me, Christ said. He will not glorify himself.

I saw somebody's kinfolk, or somebody's kinfolk, and we knew they was having a snake handling. No, it was Kathy Robinson's kinfolk, wasn't it? Having a snake handling over in Wayne. They were advertising The people that come to church aren't afraid of snakes. They won't have a snake in them. And they'll tell you, boy, that's the Holy Ghost. No, it ain't. No, it ain't. If you ever meet the Spirit of God, you're going to meet Him because He's opened this Word to you, and He's going to make you fall down and worship the Lord Jesus Christ.

What does God say about you? Well, there's some good in everybody. No, there ain't. There's none good, no, not one. There's none that doeth righteousness, the scriptures say. That's quoted from Psalm 14, repeated again in Romans chapter 3. Psalm 14, God looked down from heaven and saw humanity and said that there was none good. They're all together filthy. There was none that seeketh out of him that none to do with righteousness whatsoever? None. How many has none? There's none. Not any. Not any.

What does God say about us? He said our heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Who can know it? Who can know it? Can a man who's born a woman be just with God?

Isaiah 64, the righteous Isaiah, who was indeed a prophet like no other, when he looked at himself, he said, all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, as filthy, minstrel rags. There's a purpose in saying that, because when a woman goes through her menses, She delivers blood to her uterus, but if there's no ovum there, united with the spermatozoa attached to the inside of her uterus, there's no life, and the blood flows out. That's why she has her period. So, all our righteousness has no life. But also, it's condemnation under the law. A woman who had her menses was cast out of the calf until she was done. And everything she sat on, she had to wash her clothes, she had to wash the couch herself, and she had to have a blood sacrifice offered for her in order for her to come back in the camp. That's what our righteousness is. Our righteousness must be atoned for. Our righteousness casts us outside the camp. That's our righteousness, isn't it? That's what the Lord says about us. No question there.

We come forth from the womb as soon as we're born speaking lines. We drink iniquity like water. We're impotent. That means we have no potency and no potential. Impotent. Halt. lame, diseased, leprous, vile, like a maggot living on a pile of manure. That's us. That's what God says about us. Where do you stand on that? Do you agree with God?

What does God say about how He saves sinners? We just sang about it this morning. He chooses them, those whom He will save. He said that to His disciples. He said, if you are of the world, the world will love you. But you're not of the world because I've chosen you out of the world. I've chosen you out of the world. And that's why the world hates you. And I asked this question, I've read that many times, and then I said, well, how does the world know? How does the world know that God chose us? God chose His people to salvage. Ain't but one way they can know. If you tell them. That's the only way they can know. And if you tell them, they'll hate you. You can count on that.

Paul gave thanks for God's electing grace in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 13. He said, We are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, beloved to the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of spirit and belief in the truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians chapter 1. God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ according as he has chosen us in him. before the foundation of the world, that we should behold Him without blame, before Him in love, having predestinated us through the adoption of children by Jesus Christ Himself, through the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He has accepted us in the Beloved. In the Beloved. He hath not chosen me, Christ said. I have chosen you and ordained you. You shall bring forth fruit, and your fruit shall remain. Shall remain. We know all things work together for good to them that love God and to them are called according to His purpose. Why? God has predestinated His people to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. That He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate. Whom He predestinated, He may also call to whom He called, whom He also glorified. Whom He also glorified.

What shall we say of these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? Who can be against us? He says that He has fully accepted those who are in Jesus Christ. Fully accepted.

Became like them to save them it says in Hebrews chapter 2 verse 11. He said He has saved His people by satisfying His justice and wrath through the life and death of Jesus Christ. No sacrifice offered under the old covenant ever put away a sin. But this man, after he offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down with the right hand of God. For one sacrifice he has perfected forever them that are sanctified. So much so that God will remember their sins no more and there will never be a need of another sacrifice. Never be a need of another.

He says that he has saved his people by satisfying his justice in Israel. He says that human hands, human mind, and human will and human works had nothing to do with the salvation of a man's soul. He said that in his book. Born not of the will of the flesh, not of blood, but born of God.

God says that he gives faith to people. by grace. That means you didn't deserve it, you didn't merit it, you didn't want it, you didn't ask for it. God gave it to you by His grace. He bestowed grace upon you by grace you're saved through faith. And that faith is not of yourself. It's the work of God. It's the gift of God, not of works lest any man should brag and say I have faith. I worked it up on myself. I had a spark in me. And somehow it got found, and I turned into a faithful person.

No, if you have faith, it's from God gifted you with faith. And this word gift is an interesting little word. If it's really a gift, if it's given, then it's got. If it's given, didn't say he offered it. Doesn't say he put it on the table and said, if you want it, take it. Said he'd give it to you. What God gives, people get. People get.

How does faith come? We've already talked about it through the preaching of the Word of God. That's how we're born again. Of His own will begat He us with the Word of Truth. That's how He begat us with the Word of Truth. We're born, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, even by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. And this is the Word of God, which by the Gospel is preached unto you according to the Word of God.

God says that this preaching carries with it spiritual life. My words, Christ said, they are spirit and they are life. Further still, God says that all whom he teaches comes to the Lord Jesus Christ. They shall all learn from the Father and all that has learned from the Father comes to Jesus Christ. That's the Word of God.

Not only that, but they will come willingly. Why? Because the Word of God says, thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. He said, well, I'm not willing. Well, if he's after you, he's going to get you. You know, like old B.B. Coley would say, he's going to jiggle your willer. He'll jiggle your willer real good.

God says that his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is made to be all and everything to his elect. That everything he requires of his elect is in his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He says that in his word. Christ is all and in all.

God says that he alone keeps and sustains his people. How are we kept? How are we kept? I know I don't keep myself. I do a pretty poor job, but I did. And I go, I think it was B.B. Caldwell was up in New York one time, he was running down the street in New York, this old drunk coming out of the alley, carrying a brown bag with a wine bottle in it. He said, are you Preacher Caldwell? B.B. said, yes, I am. He says, you saved me a long, long ago. B.B. Caldwell says, looks like something long ago. You can't keep this here, if you know anything about this here.

Peter said we're kept with the power of God. By the power of God. Who's able to keep us from falling and present us falling as before. The presence of his Lord.

Here's what I know about you right now. If you've been listening to what I said and you've heard the word of God. You either agree or you don't. It's that simple.

Father, bless us to understand. Pray Christ's name.