Seek Me So That You May Live
First B Jackson
2025-10-26

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Before we go forward any further, I avoid preaching from the Old Testament. Have you all noticed? Okay. Yes. I had a I had a professor in seminary who was my preaching professor.

I put the class off as long as I could because I did not want to do this. I mean, that, sorry. Didn't want to take that class and I it's, you know, years, it was the last couple years of my seminary experience and had been an intern here before I took the first class, I think, maybe and when I was in there, he he wrote the book that we were using and his book was called Preaching with Balance and one of the things he said was, never do a sermon that's more than five sermons long and never do a series that's more than five sermons long, you'll lose their attention and I've been doing a New Testament series for thirteen years. So, didn't listen to him on that. He also preaching with balance.

He says, it should be a mix of New Testament and Old Testament. I do believe that I've preached the Old Testament about 3% of the sermons that's up in here. Primarily, I mentioned the Old Testament every time it comes up in the New Testament. So, the way that the New Testament uses Old Testament is what I can feel more, what I can feel more comfortable about because admittedly, I am a student of Koine Greek and I feel like I understand the grammar of Greek and I share that understanding with y'all and I feel fairly confident from that position that I actually there's more understanding. I have not studied Hebrew, biblical Hebrew at all.

I have the tools to do it. You know, I have the tools and I trust the writers of commentaries and stuff but I don't usually do that. So, I have done some preaching of even the minor prophets. I've touched upon em and this is what I mentioned when I said unhindered and I said, I think I might start on the minor prophets and several reached out, several people reached out and said, do it. Please do it and so I was like, I'm praying through it.

I've been praying the past couple of weeks. So, let me do this. I am approaching this with some fear and trembling, okay? Because I know that we live in the age of grace, right? We live in a time that is post crucifixion, resurrection, and during the active session where Jesus is seated at the right hand of the father and he has given his comforter, his spirit, and the Holy Spirit is very active in our lives if we're believers and in the world.

He's actively going before us into places and he's acting in a different way than he did in the Old Testament. So, since the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, it's a very different age than the day that the prophets, the minor prophets, and the major prophets. Just the difference is the length of their books. Right? So, but it's a very different age that we live in.

So for me, it's hard to articulate clearly to an open room of people who are on all different levels of understanding, on all different levels of faith, and on all different levels of obedience even if they're of the same faith and so, I don't want for misunderstanding to create a problem. I I don't want to be the bottleneck. Like, God has so much to say and then I'm not able to express that. So, I want to clearly express what I do express. So, I also think it's a real danger if you take the Old Testament prophets and then you place that immediately upon yourself like I am the one who speaks for God.

I can say I'm the one who speaks for God as long as I'm saying what the Bible says but I think that the way that God moves is he's still active. I'm not father, son, and holy book. I'm father, son, and Holy Spirit. I believe that he's still active. Don't get me wrong but there is a possibility.

Another thing, cherry picking. Cherry picking of a verse here and there is what people do in an argument and we are to be unified and so what we would hope is that we would bend our lives in accordance with scripture and not bend scripture in accordance with our lives. So, cherry picking, for those who have a cause, tend to go to the places that support their cause in the Bible. There are a lot of examples of this. I don't think I have to go into it at length because we virtually ignore Leviticus except for the places where it helps us in a cultural argument, right?

And there are plenty of folks who are trying to change the range of meaning on words in the New Testament so that it can open up a little further than the word says, right? So, there's danger on the right and the left. I'm not here to do a political commentary. The the prophets are but I'm not. I would tell you what the Bible is really really clear on.

The Bible is clear that we are all sinners. All of sin fall short of the glory of God. We are all sinners. I have talked to someone this week but do not does not believe that they are able to sin anymore. So, that's strange and I know that that's strange but the Bible is clear that we are all sinners.

The Bible is clear that we all stand in need of a capital S savior, Jesus. We cannot do it for ourselves. The Bible is clear that forgiveness is available through humble agreement with God about our own sin individually Many times, we take that as individually and I think that that's reasonable but a lot of the use in scripture are y'alls and so the minor prophets are speaking to a group of people or peoples and so there is something about the collective that there is collective or cultural sin too and so, that's something that humble agreement with God about our own sin individually is good to spread that out. We are all as a body of Christ drawn into. We're called out of every other affiliation into Christ and we continue forth as the Ecclesia, the called out ones who are called in one family and we need to be pulling each other together in accordance with that.

So, the history book speak of Jesus looking forward to him. The law book speak of righteousness and looking forward to Jesus. The prophets preach both of those and preach towards Jesus and there's none like him. There's no one who seeks after God without Christ. So, this is where we pick up on my slides.

Thanks, Josh. It's not clicky clicking at the moment but there we go. So, we're covering the book of Amos. We're only going to make it about halfway through today and I would love to finish it in one day but I don't think that's what I'm going to do. Collection of the sayings of Amos but I'm going to start right here in the New Testament again.

So, Paul in first Corinthians in the first 10 verses of chapter 10 says, now, this is the wilderness generation. This is how these people were and he's calling back to the forefathers of the Israelites and he says, this happened in the wilderness. This God took him out of Egypt by his miraculous hand provided for him all along the way and they still turned their backs on him over and over and over again. Now, these things happen to them as an example for us and they were written down for our instruction. We can learn about how our flesh operates.

Now, I mentioned, the Holy Spirit is very very active and those of you who believe in Jesus, you have the Holy Spirit working in your life and you can sow to the spirit like Paul says and you can do things that are spiritual and be obedient but you also have the possibility with this walking around man, this human aspect, this flesh that we have that if you pay attention to the Old Testament and you see all the ways that they messed up, you'll see that those are the same ways that you have the possibility of messing up yourself and so, they're written for our instruction. Upon those whom the ends of the ages has come. Paul was there at the beginning of the age of grace right after the, you know, crucifixion, resurrection of Jesus and so when it opens this up and we are in the midst of it. There are a lot of y'all that say, we're in the absolute last. It couldn't get any worse than this.

So, we're in the latter days of it and that's a possibility but we are definitely in the middle of the age of grace. He has opened up the year of the Lord's favor and has not closed it off with yet the vengeance vengeance of our God. So, first Corinthians 10, they were written down for our instruction. Romans, he says, basically, the same thing. Whatever was written in the former days, he's speaking of the law, the history, and the prophets was for our instruction that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope.

God's mercy is on display throughout the Old Testament despite the difficulties that the people of God went through from disobedience usually and I love this. We usually use verse five as a benediction at the very end of the sermon but here it is. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant all of y'all to live in such harmony with one another in accord with Jesus Christ that together all of y'all may with one voice glorify the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, welcome one another just as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God. Don't be divided.

Be unified. Come together. Alright. First Peter, no, second Peter, sorry. First, second Peter one.

It says, know this first of all, there's no prophecy of scripture becomes a matter of someone's own interpretation. Think about that for just a second. In the age that we live in with the internet. That's all it seems to be. A prophecy that's obscure seems only to be a matter of someone's own interpretation.

If we're sitting in a Bible study and I look around and say, what does that mean to you? That's not what I want to know. I want to know what it means. What does it mean? That's what we're after.

No prophecy was ever made by an act of human will. It's the word of God. Men were moved by the Holy Spirit and they spoke from God. So, it in a way, it doesn't really matter how we feel about it. It matters what it says, okay?

So, the book of Amos, here we go. We'll get as far as we can. I'm trying to catch up to the first service, okay? This is what it's about in two words, social injustice. We hear a lot of the news about social justice these days and I think that there's a political response on one side to say, that's not true.

They just need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. And the other side I I shouldn't even get into it. Let me let the scripture get into it. Here we go. Amos, he starts off.

He's a sheep herder from Tocoa. I'm not from Tocoa, Georgia. He's a sheep herder from Tocoa which is in Judah which is the Southern kingdom after the divided kingdom. The kingdoms have been divided now. The United Kingdom under David and you know, Saul and David and Solomon has split one hundred and fifty years before and so now, there's Israel in the North and Judah in the South and Amos is a southern boy from Tekoa.

He saw in visions concerning Israel. Israel is a Northern kingdom. He's a southern boy ministering in the North. And in the days of Jeroboam, son of Joash, Jeroboam was king in Israel at the same time that Uzziah was king in Judah. So, this is two years before the earthquake.

They all knew when that was. So, Amos the man of Southern Boy in Yankee territory. Sorry, that's just the way I have to think about it. I'm a southern boy ministering here. Y'all call it the West but it is North.

Native of Judah, prophesying in Israel. So, what how do we cotton to people who are telling us what to do that ain't from around here? It don't matter where you are. You don't like that. We don't like outsiders coming in, outside agitators coming in, telling us how things ought to be.

So, native of Judah prophesying in Israel, this is the way it comes down. Judah is down here. Jerusalem is in Judah. Bethel is the temple that was set up in Israel and Jerusalem has its issues. Bethel has its other issues.

He is from Judah but he's telling Israel how it ought to be. He's a sheep herder and a sycamore fig farmer as chapter seven tells us. So, he's just man minding his own business. He says, I'll tell you about more about that next week. During the reign of Jeroboam the second, like I said, Northern Kingdom, that's Israel and he was a military guy and an economy guy and so, the Kingdom Of Israel was thriving at the time that this prophecy was made and it was war chest and it was military might and it was it was a time of very very prominent economy.

So, that's the time. During also the reign of Uzziah in the Southern Kingdom which means that that puts it into the similar time frame of Isaiah. If you remember the sixth chapter of Isaiah where he says, in the year, the second year, the Uzziah was king, whatever Isaiah saw this vision. So, Isaiah's ministering in Judah at the same time that Amos is ministering in Israel because both of these kings began as co regents. We can put it somewhere between six seven sixty seven, seven fifty three before Christ.

That's pretty narrow range considering those two thousand seven hundred years ago. Assyria is on the rise but it's not mentioned by name. Now, I say a series on the rise. I had a professor in seminary, Bob Doctor Beyer and Beyer said that Israel and Judah, Israel even in a United Kingdom was kind of they were kind of mice and they were surrounded by big cats. Okay?

So, Assyria is the big cat that's growing bigger and fatter and stronger above them and Egypt was the big cat south of them. So, this is what it looks like on the map. Assyria is up there beyond Syria. It's never named. Assyria is never named.

It's just where it is. Like, it's beyond Damascus. It's Assyria and then Egypt is down off the map on the other side. Here we go. He said, the Lord roars from Zion.

So, this is Amos speaking at for God. The Lord roars from Zion and from Jerusalem, he utters his voice and the shepherd's pasture grounds mourn and the Summit of Carmel dries up. It's poetic. He's got poetic. It's a collection of his sayings.

So, it's this these things of these writings of and the speeches of Amos happen over the course of probably years but they're compiled into one minor prophet book, nine chapters long. The Lord roars from Zion. Why do the people of Israel care if the Lord is roaring from Judah? They don't. They don't want to hear this.

Oracles against the nations is how he starts off. Now, this is a great rhetorical device. That's just there for me. I know y'all can't read it. That little part.

Initially, he starts off with oracles against seven nations and then one more and so, in Amos one three, he starts and he goes halfway through chapter two. So, it's really seven plus one is eight nations but here we go. The characteristics of each of these oracles and they are poetic and they are true and so, there is an announcement of judgement because this is a prophet of the Lord who's saying, this far and no further, you've done this and I'm announcing your judgment and I'm announcing why. He'll tell us why in pink and then, the nature of the punishment or the judgment is next and so, Amos, southern boy, preaching up north says this, the people of Israel probably are enjoying the first part of what he has to say, okay? The first seven at least.

This is what the Lord says for three offenses to Damascus and for four, I will not revoke its punishment. That's the announcement. It's going to happen. You've already passed the threshold. This is coming to pass.

No doubt about it. Now, we've covered one of the books of Jonah back, I think, couple months ago when Van preached. Van preached the book of Jonah. That one happened previous to this and this one I think is next. Chronologically, this is what the Lord says for three offenses of Damascus and for four, I will not revoke its punishment because they thrashed Gilead with iron sledges.

Okay, Damascus is not a part of Israel. It's not a part of of Judah. It's actually part of Syria and they did something wrong in the Lord's eyes and so he's going to send fire upon him, consume their citadels, break down the gate of the bar, eliminate every inhabitant of the Valley Of Avon. All of these things are specific punishments for specifically for Damascus and Israel was probably saying, yeah. Get em God.

Gaza. This is what the Lord says for three offenses of Gaza and for four, I will not revoke its punishment because they led into exile an entire population to turn them over to Edom. Edom, almost always the bad guys when we see Edom pop up. It's the line of Esau. They're never mentioned in a favorable light.

God does say that the gospel is for the Edomites. He does say that but Old Testament operating differently because they led into exile an entire population, turned them over to the bad guys. I'm going send fire, consume the citadels, eliminate every inhabitant from Ashdod which is in Gajah. As well as him who holds a scepter from Ashkelon and will direct my power against Echron and remnant of the Philistines will perish, says the Lord God. I could go into maps but I think you get the point.

Second, Gaza. Third, Tire. We see tire a lot in the New Testament. It's always, almost always in a favorable light. It says, oh, those bad people attire and then Jesus does something great there and then, Paul goes through and there's something great that happens there.

So, in the New Testament, that's a gospel center because we see the Lord's judgment against Tyre here for three offenses of Tyre and for four. So, three offenses and for four is just a it's a rhetorical device too. Three offenses would have been plenty but even they went beyond that. Because they turned over an entire population over to the bad guys. Again, they didn't remember the covenant of brotherhood.

They didn't go by what they said they would go to. They revoked themselves, pulled themselves back from promises made in treaties that they had signed or whatever they that they had made. So, I'll send fire on the Wall Of Tyre and I will consume her citadels and then the fourth one, Edom. These are the bad guys. And already we know it.

This is what the Lord says for three offenses of Edom and for four, I will not revoke his punishment because he pursued his brother with the sword. Now, Esau and Jacob, that story goes way way back and he, Esau did go after Jacob, you know, and Edom stifled his compassion. He was brutal. His anger also tore continually and he maintained his fury forever and because he did that, his people did that. It was Hatfields and McCoys all the way for Misal forward.

They were, they became the bad guys. They became the adversaries. So, I will send upon fire upon Teman and I will consume the citadels of Batra. Fourth one, and you know, Israel listening to his southern accent and proclaiming doom and gloom on their enemies, they're probably saying, okay, I kind of like this guy. I don't mind the accent so much.

He's down with Gaza. Yeah, absolutely. Down with Edom. Oh, yeah. No problem.

Hammond, how about Ammon? That's where the Walmart is. Closest Walmart to hear for visitors is in Ammon, you'd Ammon, Idaho. But this is what the Lord says. For three offenses of the sons of Ammon and for four, I will not revoke its punishment because oh my goodness.

They ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead and ordered to enlarge their borders. They did not care about the women of Gilead. They did not care about the babies. They were brutal and so I'm going to kindle a fire in the Wall Of Rabbath and it will consume our citadels, war cries on the day of battle amid a storm. Do you know any Ammonites?

You don't. God erased them. Their king will go into exile and he and his princess together, says the Lord. He goes from Ammon to Moab. This is what the Lord says for three offenses of Moab and for four, I will not revoke its punishment because he burned the bones of the king of Edom.

When I see that, I'm like, I don't really know what that means or if that's but it was a big deal. You're not supposed to do that that was the reason and then, this is what I'm going do. Send a fire upon Moab. It'll consume the citadels. They'll die amid the panic.

It's a rhetorical device and he's getting them. He's reeling them in. Six nations and then, we've got the announcement. We've got the reason. Amos deals with these six outer kingdoms first and if you're looking at a map and I should have put one up there, it's like, this one, this one, this one, this one, and then the next circle is a little closer.

This one, this one, this one, and then, their immediate, now the people of Israel just love hearing all that he said so far because he's proclaiming death to the outsiders, to the others, to the people who are not on our team. So, Israel's probably lapping this up and then, he gets a little closer to home. Judah, oh, there's a divide between these kingdoms. There is a divide. It's a 150 years old since they have divided.

Let me remind you, The United Kingdom, you know, Saul wasn't a great king. David was a good king, had some problems. Solomon's a good king, had some problems. When The United Kingdom divides, there are no good kings in the Northern Kingdom. Period.

None. Nobody thinks that there were. As far as God is concerned, there were no good kings. Now, in the book of the Chronicles, in the book of the Kings, it says, there were no good kings in the Northern Kingdom. Now, he's had great military might.

He had a great economy. He had great things going on politically speaking but it was not good in God's eyes. In Israel, that's in Israel, Jeroboam, that's what I'm talking about. Now, they're listening to Amos and they say, oh, he's going to get on Judah. Yeah, good riddance.

Bethel is every bit as good as Jerusalem. This is what the Lord says for three offenses of Judah and for four, I will not revoke its punishment but because they rejected the law of the Lord, they had it and they rejected it and Israel knew that Judah had had it and rejected it. They didn't see it so much in themselves but they saw it in their split brethren over there and Judah has not kept his statutes and their lies have led them astray and those which their follow fathers followed after just like the wilderness generation. They kept on being that way. So, I'm going to send a fire upon Judah and it will consume the citadels of Jerusalem.

Did that come to pass? It did. Multiple times but it did in the near future for them. So far, so good for Israel. Well, maybe Amos is not so bad.

But then, you know, seven's a perfect number. He surely is going to stop at seven but he ends the eight oracles with judgement for Israel and he ends it with a blast that's three times as long and a lot more intense and more specific. So, if y'all came this morning and you were hoping to get a little pericopy from the New Testament like I usually do, This is a lot. Five and a half chapter or you know, five chapters, four and a half chapters of this. Here begins the oracle against Israel.

These are the people he's talking to, okay? He said everything about them in a concentric circle, a little bit closer, a little bit closer, and now, here it is. This is what the Lord says for three offenses of Israel and for four, I will not revoke its punishment because they sell the righteous for money. They're more concerned about the almighty shekel than they are about people. And the needy for a pair of sandals, take advantage of the poor.

These people trample the head of the helpless down to the dust of the earth. They also divert the way of the humble and don't get me started. He says, a man and his father resort to the same girl, immorality. So as to profane my holy name, These are supposed to be my people and they are acting outside of the character of God and on garments seized as pledges. This is about debt, credit, debt.

On garments seized as pledges, they stretched out behind every altar beside every altar and in the house of God, they drink the wine of those who have been fined. This is about oppressing the poor. And then, God gives them an explan explanatory note that's a little more. He didn't do that for any of the other nations. I think he's just building up by.

He was proclaiming judgment on the other nations. No doubt but when he gets to them, he says, think about it. It was I who destroyed the Amorite before you, who led you into your land, though his height was like the height of cedars and he was as strong as the oaks. I also destroyed his fruit above and his roots below, cut him off and it was I who brought you out of the land of Egypt and I led you into the wilderness for forty years. I led you by, you know, pillar of cloud and pillar of fire and cloud by day so that you might take possession of a promised land, the land of the Amorite.

So, he gives that explanatory note. So, I'm the one that did this and you answered it with sin. So, his reason, he goes on after the explanatory note. Then, I raised up some of your sons to be prophets and we see that to proclaim thus saith the Lord and we've seen that with the major prophets and the minor prophets. Then, I raised up some of your sons to be prophets and some of your young men to be Nazarites, people who are consecrated to the Lord's use.

Is not this so? Is this not so? You sons of Israel declares the Lord? And it absolutely was so. But y'all made the Nazarites drink wine.

And you commanded the prophet saying, you shall not prophecy. We don't want to hear what you have to say and we are going to put down that rebuke. We don't want to hear it. By the end of this book, the king's second right hand man is going to say, you can't share this word with the king. We don't want to hear what you have to say.

His prophecy is you don't want to hear what I have to say. So, here's the oracle against Israel going into the nature of the judgment against and behold, I'm making a rut in the ground beneath you. It's just as a wagon makes a rut when it's filled with sheaves. Refuge will be lost from the swift. There's not anywhere you can hide.

The strong will not strengthen his power nor the warrior save his life. The one who grasped the bow will not stand his ground. The swift of foot will not escape nor will the one who rides the horse save his life. Even the bravest among the warriors will flee naked on that day, declares the Lord. He's saying, your military might means nothing to me.

So, what was Israel's problem? According to what he has preached, it's bribes. You thwart justice. You have backdoor meetings to decide what's going to happen in the open. Bribes.

Putting your thumb on the scales of justice so that it will go your way. Cheating the system, basically. Pledges. Pledges lies is what it comes down to. The pledges of saying what you're to do and not doing it, so breaking your vows, pledging to do something that you don't do.

Immorality, rampant, immorality. So, I mentioned the temple at Bethel, the temple at Bethel that they thought was everybody as good as that one in Jerusalem. Since they had gone after other gods, they, this is crazy but it's true. You look it back up. I think it's in kings.

I think it's in kings. Second kings. I don't know. It's in kings. Anyway, they put up two golden caps.

Two golden idols because one in the desert wasn't enough. In Bethel, they put up two golden calves. And with those gods, they also added other gods. They had gods of war and sex and weather. Like, they're all in the same temple that's supposed to be the temple of the only one and living God and they had profaned the temple by bringing other gods into it.

So, immorality is one thing but they also oppress the poor and if you get right down to it, God's grace was answered with sin. He brought them miraculously out of Egypt. He actually took him into Egypt and made them into a real people that he could rescue, okay? If you're trying to take notes, I just looked over at Diane with her little pencil. I apologize.

This is just the way it is. Sorry. It's gonna be Amos in two sermons. So, God's indictment speech is this, you only have unknown. This is where he starts that in chapter three.

You only have unknown among the nations. If you get, if you get this, it'll be helpful. You only have unknown. When when he started out his plan to save the world, would you save the world? I mean, we're not God but how would you save the world?

He started with one man and his family. He said to Abraham, listen, I know how you've been raised and I know what you've been taught. You leave that behind. He was calling him out like he's calling us out, right? From our affiliations and everything else.

You leave the land that you know and you go into a place that I'll show you and the people that you bless, I'll bless and he wanted to bless the other people through Abraham. That's his whole point. If you're trying to save a world and you start with one guy, with one family, with one nation, that's what that's why he chose them. They weren't just just chosen people. Okay, good to be good to be God's people.

He chose them to carry forward his message of goodness and grace. So, there's a rhetorical whammy that's coming in a series of pretty easy questions but the last question we're going to get to is the key one and here we are in chapter three. Hear this word which lord has spoken against you sons of Israel, against the entire family which he brought up from the land of Egypt. You only have I known among all the families of the earth. I started with you.

Therefore, I'm going to punish you for all of your wrongdoing. Y'all ought to know better. The rest of the folks don't know better. The two people walk together unless they have agreed? Can two walk together unless they be agreed?

Does a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey? Does a young lion growl from his den unless he has captured something? No. No. No.

Does a bird fall into a trap on the ground where there's no device in it? No. Does a trap spring up from the earth when it captures nothing at all? No. If a trumpet is blown in the city, will the people not tremble?

No, they will. If a disaster occurs in the city, has the Lord not brought it about? That's a tough one but yeah, that's no. It's that's right. Lord has lord has brought it about.

Certainly, the Lord God does nothing unless he reveals his secret plan to his servants, the prophets. This is one that we're listening to. Actually, I say this was fear and trepidation but as long as I'm sticking to what the Bible says, I'm doing this too. As long, I think somebody says, do you have spiritual authority? I'm like, I know I do as long as I'm saying what it says because it had, God has authority.

Authority scripture is real but if I stick to what God has said in the now and Amos is sticking to what he was saying through him to his servants, the prophets. A lion has roared. You've heard the roar. Who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken.

Now, who can do anything but prophesy? Who can do anything but agree with this, right? So, Amos, then the next chapter, I'm going through this quickly, sorry. Amos calls the pampered women. I'm going to say that again, Amos.

Amos said it. Ray is just repeating what Amos said. There's judgment against the pampered women of Israel and he calls them cows of Bashan. Cows of Bashan. Bashan is a very very fruitful place with thick, good grass and so these cows were very ample and the women were oppressing the poor and his judgment because of their oppression of the poor was the captors would drag them away.

I'm going to throw in Proverbs 22 here. Don't rob the poor because he's poor. Very easy to pick on. Don't crush the needy one at the gate for the Lord will plead their case. They don't usually do well in the earth courts but the Lord is pleading the case for the poor and he'll take the life of those who take advantage or rob them.

So, he goes on through chapter four. He's a little sarcastic. God is sarcastic. Or Amos at least is sarcastic. He's speaking for God but go ahead and bring your offerings.

Famine, drought, and plague he mentions and then he's got a conclusion and we're going go through it. Consider this, famine, drought, and plagues are all God's redemptive efforts. He's trying to reach them because they're trusting in their things and in their might and in their strength and in their wherewithal and famine, drought, and plague was bringing them to see him for who he is. So, let's just go into it. Chapter five, I'm only going halfway through here.

So, here, this word which I'm taking up for you as a song of mourning house of Israel. She has fallen and she will not rise again, the virgin, Israel. She lies unnoticed on her land. There's no one to raise her up. For this is what the Lord God says, the city which goes forth a thousand strong will have a 100 left, 90 gone.

And the one who goes forth with a 100 strong will have 10 left, 90% gone. For this is what the Lord says to the house of Israel. Seek me so that you may live. I actually leapt about this high in the first service and stomped my foot. I did not mean to but this is the point, okay?

Of the whole book of Amos, this is the point. Seek me so that you may live. We sang a song in the first service this morning that said that people will drink the rain and then they will thank the cloud. Not the creation, it's creator that needs to get the credit. Seek after me so that you may live but don't resort to Bethel where you've got that temple.

Don't resort to Gilgal. Don't come on over here and don't cross over to Beersheba. All of those are supposed to be holy places for Gilgal will certainly go into captivity. I've already said that. Bethel will come to nothing and he says it again.

Seek the Lord so that you may live. Seek the Lord so that you may live. Twice he said that same exact thing or he'll break through like a fire. He'll have to. You can humble yourself before him and you'll be there with him.

I'm I'm mentioning it in my business things we we know. Humble agreement with God about our sin is what brings about repentance. It's what brings about redemption. It's what brings about forgiveness. Seek the Lord that you may live or he'll break through like fire, house of Joseph.

It will consume with no one to extinguish it for Bethel. For those who turn justice, justice into wormwood and throw righteousness to the earth. I'll come back to those two words but he's saying you're trampling on justice and you're trampling on eousness. It means nothing to you. Greed is king right now.

So, he who made the pleadings on Orion, the those both constellations and they're out there with stars and he changes deep darkness into morning. He's the one that brings the sun up every morning who also darkens day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea. He's portraying God as almighty God, creator of all. Pours them out on the surface of the earth. This is the Lord that you're supposed to be seeking.

Seek the one who is almighty. This is his name. It's he who makes destruction flash among the strong so that destruction comes upon their fortress. You can be strong but you're not to be stronger than him. Now, they hate him who rebukes in the gate.

It'll go on to say, Uzziah's right hand man is like, please don't, please don't bring that message here. We don't want to hear that. They hate him who rebukes in the gate. They despise one who speaks with integrity. I'll say right now that if you speak out against either political side, you will be quieted.

Right? You will have people say, I don't want hear any of that. I don't want to ever hear any of that. They hate the one who is rebuking them. The Bible should be our lens, and we should be able to call balls and strikes on both sides.

I'm not for one side and against the other. I'm against both sides. Okay? Just flatly. And they despise him who speaks with integrity.

Therefore, because you impose heavy rent on the poor and take a tribute of grain from them, though you've built houses of cut stone yet, you will not live in them and you've planted beautiful vineyards yet, you will not drink their wine. This is oncoming judgment and it says that because you're mistreating the poor, you built a great life for yourself, you're not going to have the great life that you planned for, that you built for. And if you fast forward in history, forty years, Assyria does. I spoiler alert. Okay.

Assyria does actually take them over and they don't live in those houses and they don't drink the wine from those vineyards. For I know your offenses are many and your sins are great and you're hostile to the righteous. You accept bribes, you turn away the poor from justice at the gate. Therefore, at such a time as this and that was in their day and in some ways it's in our day too. The prudent one wants to just keep quiet because it's just an evil time and every time that you speak up, it feels like you're just knocked down but therefore, at such a time, the prudent person keeps quiet because there's so much fear about that, the backlash because it's an evil time.

Seek good and not evil. It said, seek the Lord, seek the Lord, seek the Lord that you may live, seek the Lord that you may live. The Lord is his name, the almighty one. Seek good and not evil so that you may live. So, you know, I'm not one that repeats this all the time or hears this all the time, says this all the time but y'all know the the little refrain.

God is good. All the time and all the time, God is good. That's the truth. So, seek good and not evil so that you may live and so that the Lord God of armies be with you. Just as you have said, hate evil and love good and work at this.

Establish justice in the gate. Start at home. Don't lob insults for the eight nations around you. Don't not lob insults for the other side of the political aisle. Establish justice within your own gate.

Start there. Perhaps, the Lord God of armies will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. This sixteen and seventeen speaks of just horrible times. In the public square, it's like, oh no, oh no. Farmers are mourning, professional mourners have been striking up the band.

For the vineyards, there's mourning for the workers because I'm going to pass through the midst of you. And then this is a word. Woe to y'all who are longing for the day of the Lord. I know that you've been waiting for God to cast vengeance and justice on your enemies but you've been presuming upon his grace and mercy. What purpose will the day of the Lord actually be to you?

It's going to be darkness and not light. You're going be like a man who is running from a lion and is confronted by a bear or someone who goes home, leans your hand against the wall. Finally, I'm home and a snake bites him. Will the day of the Lord not be darkness instead of light, even gloom with no brightness in it? This is God that says, we're going to sing God be with you till we meet again right here in just a second.

I hate, I reject your festivals. I don't delight in your festive assemblies because they don't mean anything. Even though you offer up to me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, they're not from the heart. I'm not going to accept them. Won't even look at your peace offering of your fattened oxen.

Take away from me the noise of your songs. I'm not even going to listen to the sound of your harps. Verse 24 says, let justice roll out like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream. That's the other place I was gonna... When I have paper notes, it's always an issue.

Here it is. Justice is a standard of right, equitable relationships between people no matter what. It's treating everyone well or in the words of Jesus, do unto others as you would have them do unto you no matter who they are, no matter where they are, no matter what they look like or smell like. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Righteousness in Hebrew is tzedakah.

It refers to a standard of right and equitable relationships between people no matter what their social differences and then, righteousness or that was righteousness, excuse me, justice is Mishpat and that justice like Micah six eight says, you know, to love mercy and walk justly, it is referring to concrete actions that you can take to correct injustice and create righteousness. Both of these things should be prevailing in our lives. Dot. Dot. Next week, we'll continue.

For y'all who are visiting, I will pray for you. If you hold, pray for me. How about that? Can I pray before we we are going to sing God be with you till we meet again? The old Jim Reeves made it popular.

It's a good song. Lord God almighty, I pray that you would be with us that this good word of Amos that was something that was very hard to hear when they heard it the first time and for me, for the last few weeks, lord, has been hard for that my own soul needs. It's something my own life needs. Lord, to see the spiritual and seek after you so that I may live and reject the fleshly which is always been the same throughout all peoples at all times. So, Lord God almighty, may we sow to the spirit and not to the flesh.

I pray that a blessing for each one here present with us and every family and people they represent. In Jesus name, amen.