You turn to Amos chapter 4. It's the portion of scripture that we'll be looking at this morning. I'm breaking from our regular series in Mark to address the subject of the coronavirus today. The whole world is is full of discussion and advice about how we can protect ourselves and different things. There are many predictions about how widespread and how fatal it might be. Frankly, there's much that's unknown. While I'm very thankful for a lot of good work that is being done by those in the scientific community and some of our leaders, there is one grand omission. that ought to stand out to us as Christians in this whole matter. Although there are some leaders, though not very many, who have mentioned God and have called for prayer, there are very few that have called for repentance. Almost non-existent. The typical way of looking at these things is they just happen at random. The religious look at God as one who he can turn to for comfort and help in such times, which of course is true, but never seem to look at him as a God who sent this virus and other afflictions that we have in this world to punish our society for our sins. Such a view is seen as backward and even barbaric. And even the very few who recognize that God does punish sin in such ways will always be quick to point out that, as is the case of Job or the man born blind in scripture, our afflictions are not always a response to our personal sin. That is certainly true, but it doesn't negate the fact that in the case when we're not dealing with individuals, but when it comes to God sending affliction to nations or to the whole world, we're hard pressed to find any single example in scripture where it is not on account of their sin, on account of God punishing them for their sins. When it falls upon a whole nation or the whole world, It's because of God's response to sin. What's more, if we who are afflicted are in rebellion against God, then even as individuals, we have no reason to think that we're not being punished on account of our sins, on account of our defiance. Since there is so little true acknowledgement of God when it comes to coronavirus, I as a Christian minister want to do my small part to fill in the gap. I especially want to do this for you, the community to which God has called me to minister. To you, it is my duty to speak the truth of God's holy word. I have selected Amos 4.1 through 5.15. There were lots and lots of passages that I could have chosen that would present many of the same things, but I have chosen that for our scripture reading related to this subject. Amos was writing to people who are a lot like us, a nation in which God was once served, but that had largely rejected him. I mentioned to you before that in Nova Scotia, that in the former, not too long ago, consensus that was done, there were 85, over 85% of the people here are baptized in Nova Scotia. You wouldn't know that from looking at their lives. More recently, it's dropped to 80% because many of them did not continue to baptize their children or others have come in, but still it's very high. Amos was writing to people then like this. like much of the world today. People that had known and been brought up even with the truth of God and yet had rejected it. What we see across our world from North America to North Africa, from Russia to the UK. People that have had the privilege and benefit of God's word in their history. The coronavirus of course is affecting the whole world. regardless of whether it's a nation like ours that's departing from the Lord or a nation like China that is slowly coming to the Lord. We don't think of China that way a lot of times because we see their present rulers who persecute the Christians. There's a body of people there who are Christians. They're growing very, very rapidly while we here are turning away from God. This is how God's judgment was against Israel in a time of the Assyrian Empire and the Babylonian Empire. If you read Isaiah or Jeremiah or other prophets, they often go through and show the judgment is falling on not only Israel. and Judah, but also on their neighbors, their unbelieving neighbors who are around them. Some of them who had privileges in the past, like the sons of Lot, nations that came from them, or Edom came from Esau. Some of the other nations that didn't have that, the Philistines, different ones that were around them. The judgment that fell on those days fell on God's people, as well as those who are outside the covenant, And it was an expression of God's wrath on all of them together for their sins. Indeed, as I have often reminded you recently, there's a sense in which we are all apostates from the grace of God. Because in the time of Noah, the whole world was reduced to one family that knew the grace of God. We all come from one family that knew the grace of God. And along the way, over the years, somewhere our ancestors have rejected God and turned away from Him. And now we have all kinds of idolatry, false religion, unbelief, atheism, agnosticism, all sorts of things. And yet we have many who still profess the name of the Lord all over the world, and that number is still growing. So listen now as I read to you from God's holy word, Amos chapter 4, and I'll begin in verse 1, and I want to read through to chapter 5, verse 15. Here's the word of God. Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, bring wine, let us drink. The Lord God has sworn by his holiness, behold, the day shall come upon you when he will take you away with fishhooks. and your posterity with fishhooks. You will go out through broken walls, each one straight ahead of her, and you will be cast into harmony, says the Lord. Come to Bethel and transgress. At Gilgal, multiply transgression. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days. Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven. Proclaim and announce the freewill offerings. For this you love, you children of Israel, says the Lord God. Also I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you have not returned to me, says the Lord. I also withheld rain from you when there were still three months to the harvest. I made it rain on one city. I withheld rain from another city. One part was rained upon, and where it did not rain, the part withered. So two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water, but they were not satisfied. Yet you have not returned to me, says the Lord. I blasted you with blight and mildew. When your gardens increased, your vineyards, your fig trees, and your olive trees, the locusts devoured them. Yet, you have not returned to me, says the Lord. I send among you a plague out to the manor of Egypt. Your young men I killed with a sword, along with your captive horses. I made the stench of your camps come up into your nostrils. Yet, you have not returned to me, says the Lord. I overthrow some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you are like a firebrand plucked from the burning. Yet, you have not returned to me, says the Lord. Therefore, thus will I do to you, O Israel, because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel. For behold, he who forms mountains and creates the wind, he who declares to man what his thought is and makes the morning darkness, who treads the high places of the earth, the Lord God of hosts is his name. Hear the word which I take up against you, a lamentation, O house of Israel. The virgin of Israel has fallen. She will rise no more. She lies forsaken on her land. There is no one to raise her up. For thus says the Lord God, the city that goes out by a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which goes out by a hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel. For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel, seek me and live, but do not seek Bethel. nor enter Gilgal, nor pass over to Beersheba. For Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nothing. Seek the Lord and live, lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it with no one to quench it in Bethel. You who turn justice to wormwood and lay righteousness to rest in the earth. He made the Pleiades and Orion. He turns the shadow of death into morning and makes the day dark as night. He calls for waters of the sea and pours them out on the face of the earth. The Lord is his name. He rains ruin upon the strong so that fury comes upon the fortress. They hate the one who rebukes in the gate and they abhor the one who speaks uprightly. Therefore, because you tread down the poor and take grain taxes from him, though you have built houses hewn of stone, yet you shall not dwell in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink wine from them. For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins, afflicting the just and taking bribes, diverting the poor from justice at the gate. Therefore, the prudent keep silent at that time, for it is an evil time. Seek good and not evil that you may live. So the Lord God of hosts will be with you as you have spoken. Hate evil, love good, establish justice in the gate. It may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. And may the Lord add his blessing to the reading of his holy and infallible word. This passage that we just read makes me think of a verse in the New Testament, Romans 11, 22, where the Lord speaks about cutting some of his people off because of their unbelief. Paul, reflecting on this, says, Therefore, consider the goodness and severity of God on those who fell, severity, but toward you, goodness. If you continue in his goodness, otherwise you will be cut off. Cut off. That's the final consequence of unbelief for covenant people. We need to, as Romans 11.22 says, consider the goodness and severity of the Lord as we consider God and the coronavirus this morning. So we will proceed in this way. First, we'll consider the severity of the Lord. Then we will consider the goodness of the Lord. And then we will look at how we should respond to the coronavirus before the Lord. So first, consider the severity of the Lord when we see coronavirus. We're told in Amos 4 that God sent one calamity after another to his people. Look at the catalog of troubles that God sent to them. In 4, 6 through 8, he sent cleanness of teeth It's not talking about dental hygiene. It's talking about a lack of food. They didn't have enough to eat. In 4, 7 through 8, he withheld the rain, causing many people to thirst. So they had to go to other cities to find water. In 4 and 9, he says, I blasted you with blight and mildew. He goes on to speak about locusts as well. In 410, he says, I sent among you a plague after the manor of Egypt. Your young men I killed with a sword. These were not light afflictions. People died in these afflictions. And in 411, he even says, I overthrew some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. Note well, these afflictions and judgments are not described as things that just randomly happen. that just like, oh, wow, look what happened. Oh, you know, there was a famine. It didn't rain. The Lord testifies that he sent these troubles in every case that he sent these troubles. This is something that many Christians today do not want to acknowledge. They want to say that trouble just happens or that Satan is the ultimate cause of these things. But as here, And in all places, the Bible constantly testifies that God is the one who sends affliction. Sometimes he uses Satan even as his agent, but he is the one. Back in Amos 3.6, the principle is clearly laid down. If there is calamity in a city, will not the Lord have done it? Any calamity in a city, will not the Lord have done it? And in 5.9, it says that the one whose name is the Lord, that he reigns ruin upon the strong so that fury comes upon the fortress. That God is the one who sent our afflictions is the consistent teaching of his word from Genesis, where we have the great flood that God sent to Revelation, where we have the fall of Jerusalem and Babylon. know that this is just as true today as it ever was. Do we have coronavirus? God is the one that sent it. Other agents may have been involved. Wicked men, careless men. There's all kinds of different theories. Satan, various ways. But ultimately, it came into the world because God sent it in the world. And it came into the world at this time because God sent it into the world at this time. To use God's way of speaking here in Amos chapter four, we could say that God would say, I sent coronavirus so that many of you fell sick and died, but you did not return to me. This is true of famines and floods and all things of this nature. Hearing that God afflicts us naturally raises the question, why? Why would a good God afflict people with things like this? We're told that the Lord afflicts us because he's good, because of his wrath against sin. You can see this throughout the passage that we read in Amos. Chapter four opens with God's condemnation of oppression and drunkenness of the women in Israel. Hear this, you cows of Bashan, not a very flattering way to speak of them, who are on the mountain of Samaria, that's of course the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel that was in rebellion against God, God's people in rebellion, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, bring wine, let us drink. Now I tell you, when women who are by nature nurturers and more compassionate and gentle than men are doing these things, you know that things have gone bad in that society. Do I need to point out that this is certainly the case in our society? We find drug and alcohol abuse, not only among men, but very much among women. We find child abuse. and even murder, increasing murder even of unborn children. If the women are doing these things, you can be sure that that society is in a very bad way, that they are in rebellion against God. In verse two, the Lord swears that he will punish such a society. The Lord God has sworn by his holiness, behold, the day shall come upon you when he will take you away with fishhooks and your posterity with fishhooks. That's talking about, of course, the coming captivity when Israel would be brought under judgment of the Assyrian Empire and virtually wiped out. We're going to say more about that later. But in 4, 4 through 5, he speaks of the disgust that he has with their religion. They were still being religious. They were still bringing their sacrifices and their tithes, but it was obvious that they were not coming to God in sincerity because they were continuing to oppress the poor. They were continuing in their drunkenness. Their worship was just an empty show, more for their own entertainment or to manipulate God to get things that they wanted than that they might come to God, that they might live as his people. He blasphemed even more for their sins in 5.11-13, accusing them of treading down the poor and afflicting the just and taking bribes. He says that he knows their manifold transgressions and he describes the whole time as an evil time. Truly his wrath and fury were upon them for their sins. The Bible teaches us that God's wrath is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. We are told that he is angry with the wicked every day. So you see that he has very good reason for being angry with us and with our world. It is because he is good and holy and has no use for wickedness and murder and evil and rebellion against him. It has never been a part of his glorious character, and it never will be a part of his glorious character. He will never allow such things to go unpunished. He will never allow them to stand without retribution because he is holy. and just and good and does not delight in sin. We say that if he was good, he would not be against us for our wickedness. But that's a foolish way for us to speak. In the Bible, we're taught that his glory and righteousness and goodness are seen in punishing sinners just as they deserve, something that he will do at the end of the world. And that brings us to a third way that his severity is shown in our text. His severity is also shown all the more in our text and that the punishments that he initially inflicts on us are shown to be only a foretaste of the judgment that will come at the end if we don't repent. Okay, so these judgments that we've seen are only harbingers of greater judgment to come. Present judgments in our world, only a little thing compared to what's coming. The list of punishments that we saw in Amos 4 is overshadowed by a much greater punishment in chapter five. Chapter five, verse two, he speaks of the people of Israel as fallen with no one to raise them up. In other words, it's a punishment from which they don't recover. You know how many of the judgments of God, they come through a land and then the people recover. Well, he's saying this one that's coming in the future, you will not recover. And in 5.3, he says that only a tenth of them will survive. Amos 5.3, for thus says the Lord God, the city that goes out by a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which goes out by a hundred shall have ten left to a house. Think of this, a situation where 1%, not where 1% or 10% of us perish, that would be pretty bad if every 10th person here were to fall under, to be destroyed by judgment, that would be pretty serious, if everyone in 10, but it is the opposite. It would be that only one out of 10 survive. which is literally what happened when the Assyrian Empire came against Israel. The only place that stood in the end, the only city that stood was in Judah, at Jerusalem, because God in his mercy protected them. And there were some Israelites that, one in 10, that remained in the land. So this judgment, And Amos 5, two through three was a literal judgment that fell on Jerusalem. It's already happened. But it is also to us a picture of the eternal judgment that will fall on the world at the last day. It is to be, it will be to be fallen, never to rise again. As Jesus said in Matthew 25, 46, and these will go away into what kind of punishment? Everlasting punishment. You can't rise out of that. You can't come and repent. It's over when that judgment comes. There's no remedy. Everlasting punishment is just as it sounds. Punishment that will never end. Whatever punishments and sufferings we have in this world are only a small taste of that judgment to come. When we experience something like coronavirus, we need to recognize that the judgment to come, far worse. It's clear in our text that the much lighter punishments and afflictions we have in this world should awaken us to see the severity of God and to come to the realization that if we do not repent, then we will be utterly and entirely cut off from God's comfortable presence to suffer what we deserve for our sins forever. In these ways, the severity of God is revealed in our text. To review, it is he who sends the troubles that we have in this world. They don't come from anywhere else. He does it because of our sin. And these troubles are but a foretaste of the final judgment to come that will be far greater than anything we experienced in this world. That's why it's not a good idea to say that you've been through hell when you're here. You're mocking the real hell. It's inappropriate to say that. We haven't been through hell at all. Not here. Having seen this, we are now ready to turn to a happier subject. Consider the goodness of the Lord. See that the afflictions we experience now are meant by God to turn us back to Him. to our gracious God. There's a refrain that is repeated after each of the five afflictions in Amos 4, 6 through 11 that makes this purpose clear. It's a sad refrain, but it makes the purpose of those afflictions clear, what they ought to have done if we had responded as we should, if Israel had responded. With each one, the Lord says, I did this and that, but you did not return to me. Over and over, he says that after each one. I gave you cleanness of teeth, verse six, but you have not returned to me. I withheld rain from you, but you have not returned to me, verse eight. I blasted you with blight and mildew, but you have not returned to me, verse nine. I sent a plague and killed your young men with a sword, that's verse 10, but you have not returned to me. I overthrew some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, verse 11, but you have not returned to me. Afflictions like coronavirus or hurricanes or famines or devastating wars are sent by God graciously to get our attention. They show us His wrath against sin to wake us up so that we'll return to Him, so that the judgment doesn't come at the last day and we go, oh, we never knew that God was displeased with us. He shows us so that we can respond and we can deal with our sin. They alert us to the fact that He is the Lord and that He is the judge and that He is the coming judge, that we might prepare for it. What does Amos 4.11 say? Prepare to meet your God, O Israel. Prepare to meet your God, that's the message. It's a gracious call of God. I tell you, if there were no afflictions such as we experience in this world, we would be much worse than we are now. Not one of us would have ever come to Christ. We would have never seen that we are sinners. If there were no afflictions, if everything was just perfect and paradise here, we would go on in our sin and more and more offend God. We could not have gone on in our We could have gone on in our ignorant bliss and then grown more and more offensive to Him for the day of judgment. We know this because this is what the situation was very much before the flood. I mean, there were some affliction, but if you look at the time before the flood, God didn't punish them very much at all with temporal judgments. He kind of let them go. And they did go. They had smooth conditions. They lived for nearly a thousand years. And God let their wickedness grow up until the whole earth was filled with it. Nobody but Noah was with God. And then he sent a flood from which there was no repentance. It was a picture of final judgment. When the door in the ark was closed, There was no repentance. We should be very glad for the fact that since the flood, the Lord has continually restrained us with many light afflictions by comparison, that we might return to him. But even when we don't return to him, These afflictions still restrain sin and keep this world from being as bad as it would otherwise be. In this way, things like coronavirus are a mercy from God, a true expression of his goodness in preserving our world from being what it would be without these things. You know what children are like if they're given everything they want. Terrible situation. Look at how he pleads with us to come to him in the time of our affliction. Okay, Amos 4, 4. For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel, seek me and live. Oh, what a beautiful call. What a beautiful promise. He doesn't say that we have to do some great work of righteousness. He says we come and seek him. that we might live. He's our salvation. Those who have done so much to provoke him to anger and who have been so stubborn under his corrections that he has sent, he says, seek me and live. Those who, just like our world, suffering coronavirus, many other things, refusing to return to God, hardening ourselves and acting as if there is no God, still he says to such people, seek me. and live. But notice the warning with Amos 6, 5. But do not seek Bethel. What's that talking about? That's the place where they worship God in their own way, instead of according to His gospel, instead of what He had appointed for them. That was the place where God was falsely worshipped. There is plenty of false and hypocritical worship that goes on today. Worship that is not according to God's commandments. Worship that is full of ritual, but not of seeking the living God as our Savior from sin, that we might walk with Him through His saving work. God has no use for empty religion. Such religion only seeks God that the coronavirus might end. But what is needed is that we seek Him that we might henceforth live as His children in the grace and communion and fellowship of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Verse 6 repeats this gracious call again. Seek me and live. That's what coronavirus should lead us to do, to find life with God. Look at how the Lord promises to be gracious to us if only we will come to him. This is so marvelous, people. Look at it. Everything here comes to a climax and the wonderful promise in 6, 14 through 15, that the Lord himself will save us. if we will but come to Him. Yes, indeed, we cannot save ourselves. He is the one who does the saving. If you had to save yourself, you'd despair. No way you could do it. But look at these beautiful words from our intensely gracious God. 614, seek good and not evil that you may live. So the Lord God of hosts will be with you. As you have spoken, hate evil, love good, establish justice in the gate. It may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. What does it say? Be done with evil. Be done with walking without God, with walking away from him. Leave it to come to God so that he will leave all that evil and come to God so that he will be with you. that maybe that he will be gracious to you. That's not meant to be taken as a well, you might and you might not kind of a statement. It's almost a kind of a sarcasm, for he is known. to always be gracious to those that truly turn to Him with humility for grace. How freely and how fully He embraces them and unleashes His divine energy to bless them in their walk with Him. You come to God and you say, Lord, I want to walk with You. I want to do Your will. I want to serve You. I'm leaving evil. I'm coming to walk with You. He's going to pour out grace on you. He's going to give you his salvation, how freely his mercy flows to provide for their sin, that they might be forgiven and to supply them with his spirit, that they might be transformed to walk in his way. All of the that Moses gave testifies of that. Here is cleansing for you. Here is blood atonement for you, for the forgiveness of your sins. Come to me and I will bless you. I will wash you. I will cleanse you. I will save you. I will circumcise your heart. Now that Jesus has come into the world, this grace has been shown all the more in its beautiful fullness. We have now seen how the severity of God demanded that our sin be punished, and yet how the goodness of God laid that punishment upon our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who became flesh for us. It may be that the Lord will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. He did that for the remnant of Joseph that returned to him, to those who returned to him. It may indeed be that he will be gracious. We have seen just how gracious he is with Christ on the cross and with the Holy Spirit poured out on us to restore us to God. Consider the goodness of God, our gracious, welcoming Lord and Savior. How then should we respond to the coronavirus? First, in the face of coronavirus, let us see both the severity and goodness of God that I've just spoken about. Coronavirus is a reminder to us that God is opposed to the way that we live in this world. It's a reminder to us that we need to return to the Lord lest something much worse come upon us. Coronavirus is a reminder of the goodness of God, that though he might have punished us with a final punishment from which we could never escape, he has not done so yet. His call is still extended to all who will seek him and live. He has sent this virus in his goodness that we might come to him and live, not just survive the virus. But that we might come to him, that we might stand through Christ our Redeemer on the day of judgment is those who have come to him. Second, in the face of coronavirus, let us confess our sins to God, repent and be restored to our gracious, welcoming God. That is what we should do as individuals. who know ourselves to be sinners. And that is what all the nations of this world should do as nations. We should confess that these troubles are here because we have turned away from the living God. Such things would not be here if we were not sinners as a people, as a nation, as a world. Most people in our world, even professing Christians, do not want to see any association, as I mentioned before, with coronavirus in our sin. I do not mean to say that those who get it, who contract the virus, are sinners more than those who don't. We're not talking about individuals here. In some cases, they may have gotten it because they have turned from God. And if you turn from God and you get it, it should humble you and cause you to repent. But God sends these things to those who follow him as well to test them and to strengthen them through their sufferings and that they might honor his name. But when things like coronavirus come upon this world or upon this nation, the nations of this world, especially when we are, in fact, living in gross defiance of the living God, it's unquestionable that it's sent because of our sin and that we need to return to God. That's the call, that's the message. So let us turn from our sin and come to our gracious Savior that we might live and then we shall live. and let us confess the sin of our nation as much as we are able, and plead with God to have mercy on us. As God's people, we're the ones who are the priests here, who acknowledge that we have sinned in this world, and who confess our sins. The world's not gonna do that, but we are the ones who are to do that as members of the world. Yes, we can plead for relief, and we should, But much more importantly, let us plead for mercy that will lead us to repentance and restoration with God. What a terrible thing if these things happen and we don't return to the Lord. Third, in the face of coronavirus, let us urge those around us to repent, our family and our friends, and again, even our nation as we have opportunity. People are afraid, but their fear is in the wrong place. They should not so much fear coronavirus as the Lord who sent it in his wrath. The virus will be gone soon enough, but the Lord who sent it will remain forever. We need to help people see that it is the Lord who sent it to show us his wrath against our sin so that they might learn to fear him. All that we might turn to him to restore us to himself by his saving work. Do as Amos did. Do not let coronavirus and such troubles use these things to point our neighbors to the grace and salvation of God, our gracious God, to whom we all ought to return. Fourth, in the face of coronavirus, let us be prudent, but not anxious or bitter. When God sends such judgments upon us, we should not tempt God by carelessly exposing ourselves to the virus or acting like we're somehow immune to it. We should take reasonable measures to protect ourselves and to practice good hygiene so that we do not contract it. But at the same time, we should recognize fully that if the Lord wants us to be sick or to be very sick, or even to die from coronavirus. That is his decision. We are here for him. We are not here for ourselves. So if he wants us to serve him with a virus, or if this is how he wants us to die, we need not be afraid. Unless we're not reconciled with him, then we should be very afraid until we do reconcile with him. But if we've put ourselves in his hands for salvation through his son, death only means that we depart to be with Christ in glory. which is far better than staying here. I can assure you of that. If my work for God is done here, it doesn't matter if I'm five or 50 or 95. What reason do I have to stay on here if God is ready for me to go there? He will look after whatever I leave behind. I can't look after anything without his help. If there are things I look after, he'll look after them if I go away. He uses us to serve others. There's absolutely no place for fear if we realize that we are here for God and not for ourselves. Yes, he commands us to cherish life and to seek to preserve life, but equally he commands us not to ever be anxious about our lives or their preservation. If you're struggling with fear, that's something to repent of and to bring to Him that you might be delivered from it by His grace. We all have sins. Some people have to battle with lust. Some people have to battle with fear and anxiety. Some people have to battle with other things. We all have various things, but He came to save us from our sin and worry and fear are sins just as drunkenness and pride are sins. If you're bitter about these afflictions, you need to repent of that, too. Some people grow bitter toward God or toward the affliction itself. They say, oh, I'm not bitter toward God, but oh, all this trouble that I'm having with this. No, we need to repent of that, too. Some of us struggle more with that. We all have different kinds of behavior that are brought out in times of affliction, and it's a sanctifying opportunity for us. Fifth, in the face of coronavirus, let us see that we do not wrongly judge one another. as believers. Some of us will be more oriented toward taking measures to protect ourselves, and others will be more relaxed about that. Of course, we should not put other people in danger by our own carelessness, and there may be a rightness in rebuking a brother who is manifesting such behavior, but just as we are not to judge each other about food and drink, where one person abstains from meat, another person freely eats meat, one person abstains from alcohol, another person drinks alcohol, so we're not to judge one another about our methods of washing doorknobs, or wearing masks, or not wearing masks, or whatever it is. We are servants of God, and each of us is to answer to him. We will not all see things the same way, and God's call to us is clear. You don't have to see such things the same way. His call is that we love one another and bear patiently with one another. Six, in the face of coronavirus, let us be merciful to others. We should look for ways to show kindness for the honor of Jesus who poured himself out for us. People around us are sick. We ought to serve them as we find them in need. Are they quarantined? Then let us offer to pick things up for them that they might need. Perhaps you can volunteer, if it becomes necessary, to deliver food or to help people, to help out at the hospital. It's very sad to me that people felt like they had to hoard toilet paper because they might be quarantined and not be able to get toilet paper. Does that mean they have no community, that they have no friends, no neighbor, no relatives that they can say, hey, I'm quarantined, could you drop some toilet paper off at my front door? You know, it's a sad thing. We wanna be a community that is operating where we're helping each other in those things, where we're caring about one another, where we're showing mercy to each other. Yes, with our network of friends and with one another in the church, we show our allegiance there first, but also with unbelievers that are around us. If we see someone in need, we go out of our way to help them, even if it means that we need to expose ourselves. to the virus. We can do this in a responsible way in serving our neighbor. What if the crisis overwhelms our hospitals? What should we as Christians do then? We should do as Cyprian did in the early church, even to our enemies. I love this illustration. Philip Schaff tells us the beautiful story. During the persecution, so the Christians were being persecuted, understand. All the people were coming against them and persecuting them. And he says, during the persecution under Gallus in 252 AD, When the pestilence raged in Carthage and the heathens threw out their dead and sick upon the streets, ran away from them for fear of contagion, and cursed the Christians as the supposed authors of the plague, Cyprian assembled his congregation and exhorted them to love their enemies. Whereupon all went to work, the rich with their money, the poor with their hands, and rested not till the dead were buried, the sick cared for, and the city saved from desolation. That's how we are to live with our neighbors. What a difference it makes for us to see the hand of God in coronavirus. We should see his hand in all things, and then we can fulfill our true purpose, which is to live for his glory and honor. Yes, we see his severity against our sin, but that only enhances our perception of his goodness, which we see in his gracious saving work, where he bore that ultimate severity in order to save us from our sin. Let God never be able to say of any of us, I sent you coronavirus and you did not return to me. Coronavirus and whatever affliction comes our way can be a great blessing if it turns us to the Lord, not in an empty, superficial way, but as those who come to him that we might be saved by him in order that we might live in communion with him as his servants forever. Please stand and let's ask God to bless us in this time of affliction in our world. Gracious Heavenly Father, we come to You confessing that we are sinners, and so is our whole world, Lord. The whole world is defiant and in rebellion against You. And but for Your hand of saving grace, Lord, we would all be in that defiance and rebellion. It is only by Your grace that we have been delivered. And Lord, I pray that as we are part of this world that is under this really quite light affliction compared to many that have been in the world before, that Lord, we would respond to you in it. and that we would help people around us to see the hand of God. Lord, this message is not given to people today. People think that there's no reason to fear God. They think that you're just someone to cry on when we have trouble. They don't see you as a God who is a God of holiness and justice and judgment. The cross makes no sense to them, really, because they don't understand it as a place where Jesus bore your wrath. and bore the curse for our sake. Father, we pray then that you would help us to make use of the opportunity that we have to glorify you, whether we have wellness or whether we have sickness, whether we have affliction in the world or whether we're relatively free of affliction. We pray, Lord, that we would bring honor and glory to your name. We thank you, Lord, that if we do come to you and we do cast ourselves on you, That you will help us Lord you will take us and you will transform us and you will save us and you will wash us from all of our sin Jesus Christ has paid that penalty and we can have absolute full and free forgiveness and Justification and you give us your spirit to sanctify us so that we can walk with you So that when we sin we can be convicted of that sin and repent of it and go on serving you So that we can serve our neighbors so that we can do things that that we would never do apart from your work in us. Oh, Lord, there's so much for us to do, so much for us to grow in, and we pray, Lord, that your gracious hand would be upon us. And Father, that we would see, even in this passage of Amos, how full it is of grace, Lord. That here you are, all the way through, pleading with your people to seek you and live, and giving the wonderful promise that the Lord will be gracious to you if you come to Him. Father, for all the things that we've done, all of our stubbornness, truly, You are a God of outstanding mercy and grace. Father, help us then to be full of praise and thanksgiving to you for your goodness to us that is manifested both in trouble and in times of prosperity. Lord, thank you for all that you have done. Bless us as we come now to commune with you at the table. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated. Let's prepare to come to the Lord's table. I say when it comes to suffering, what a marvelous thing it is to have such a gracious God who welcomes sinners. Yes, indeed, he is the one who afflicts us and he is the one who makes or it makes, I should say, our suffering even worse to know that it's sent by his hand. And it makes it worse still when we realize that we deserve every bit of it and that there's a whole lot more judgment that is yet to come apart from repentance. But how comforting it is when we see that though he is angry with us and justly so, he is so gracious that he calls us to come to him. and repentance for forgiveness and that to procure that forgiveness, he sent his only son, the son of God, came and bore not merely the suffering that we face in this world, but the eternal pains of hell that many will face on the day of judgment. And that whoever believes in him, he said, will not perish, but have everlasting life. I say, what a gracious, welcoming God he is. He justly requires such severe punishment, and he will never pretend otherwise. But he is so gracious that he takes that punishment upon himself, that sinners like us can be pardoned. At this table, we who have trusted in him are called to remember what he did, what he suffered, in order that we might be pardoned and accepted. He tells us that he wishes to be remembered. We come to this table as the one who has sacrificed for us. Listen to the words of institution from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 22. When the hour had come, He sat down and the 12 apostles with him. Then he said to them, with fervent desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. Then he took the cup and gave thanks and said, take this and divide it among yourselves. For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. And he took bread, gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Likewise, he also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you. There is the word of the Lord concerning the institution of this sacrament. Consider that this is the prince of life, the son of God, who gave life and being to all creation, here himself bearing the pain of eternal punishment for us. What wondrous love is this for my soul that caused the Lord of bliss To bear the dreadful curse for my soul. That's what he has done for us. Here are sufferings. Become whatever sufferings we have in this world. Become in contrast very easy. And very light. And very purposeful. For by them. We honor him. If you have seen that the Lord is gracious, if you have trusted in the provision that he has made through his son and have come to him and have confessed him, and if you have continued under the care and fellowship of his church as a professing member, then you are welcome to come and partake. If you do not see that he is gracious or if you have not come to him believing, and I urge you to look at how gracious he is and to believe. And if you believe but have not yet come to profess your faith before the elders or who oversee his church, or if you've drifted away from membership in the care of the church, I urge you to rectify that. But you who are looking to him and are united with his people, come and join us with gladness as we remember him and look to him for ongoing grace that we might live. Let's ask him for that grace. Gracious Heavenly Father, we praise you for the bread and the wine that is on this table. that you have told us represents the body and blood of Jesus offered on the cross for our sins. We praise you, O Lord, that when we partake of this bread and wine, that you feed us with Christ. We pray, O Lord, that you would indeed bless us, Lord, that we would be strengthened to serve you. Father, we cannot save ourselves. We're reminded that when we see what Jesus did, who among us could have ever provided such a sacrifice? We pray, therefore, Lord, that you would be pleased to bless us as we come. You would cause us, Lord, to know rich fellowship with you that brings life and comfort to us in the forgiveness of sins and in the walk that we have with you. Thank you so much, Lord, for what you have done. We don't deserve the least of your mercies. Oh, Lord, bless us. Bless the bread and the wine here. and cause your face to shine on us, Lord, that we may walk with you. Your invitation is so free and so, so pure, so kind. And we thank you, O Lord, that that you welcome sinners that put themselves in your hands for salvation. Here we are, Lord, with thanksgiving in Jesus name. Amen. May the God of all grace who has called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus. After you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. To him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.