Will you turn with me this evening to the prophecy of Amos. The prophecy of Amos. Now Amos is the third of the minor prophets. So after Daniel you find Hosea, and then Joel, and then Amos. And we shall read from Amos chapter four, and from verse six. Amos chapter four. And from verse six, where the Lord says, by his servant the prophet unto the people of Israel, and I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places, yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest, and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city. One peace was rained upon, and the peace whereupon it rained not withered. So two or three cities wandered unto one city to drink water, but they were not satisfied. Yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord? I have smitten you with blasting and milled you, when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased. The palmer worm devoured them, yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. I have sent among you the pestilence after the manna of Egypt. Your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses. And I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils, yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning, yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. Therefore, thus will I do unto thee, O Israel, and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. For lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name. Well, we turn this evening to this prophecy of Amos. As we have said, he was one of the minor prophets. That does not mean that he was minor in his importance, or in his character, but that he was minor in the fact that the content of his prophecy, as recorded, is much briefer than other of the prophets. Well, Amos was an interesting character. His name means burden, and he was a humble man. He was a man of farming stock, a herdsman by profession, of a place called Tekoa, south of Bethlehem. And he was called out of his humble roots to preach the word of God unto Israel, but to preach the word of God in a day of great iniquity, in a day of great departure from the Lord, a day of abounding sin and shamelessness in Israel. And he was called to preach a message that many would not care to hear. He was called to preach a message of judgment to come. A message that would by no means make him a popular man. And so maybe we could put ourselves in Amos' shoes this evening and ask, what would you do? If the Lord called you to preach a message that you knew the world did not want to hear, if the Lord laid upon your heart a burdensome message of judgment that would not win the favor of the people, what would you do? Maybe the temptation would be to water that message down, to make it palatable so that it would be received and so that you would have a following and a gathering. Sadly, many do that with the gospel today. They water down so that sin is rarely ever mentioned, so that all they speak of, though it is a wonderful subject, is the love of God, but they never mention of sin and of judgment to come. Well, maybe then you would have that temptation. What should Amos do? Should he water down the message to be popular, or should he be faithful to the word that God had given him to preach? While we thank the Lord, this man was faithful to the message. But friends, isn't it a kinder thing to risk offence with the truth than to comfort people with a lie? Isn't it a far kinder thing to tell people what is true, though that might be solemn, and though they might not naturally want to hear it, rather than to comfort them with what you know to be a lie? Or sometimes the minister of the gospel is called to preach a message that perhaps he knows will not be very palatable to many. Perhaps he knows will not be all that well received by some. A message that will divide. After all, the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and of spirit. What should he do then when he comes to such a message? Should he water it down to be palatable, or should he be faithful to the truth? Well, he must be faithful to the truth. There are times when the preacher has a text, and the tone of the text is joy, and it's wonderful to bring. It's so wonderful to bring that to the people of God. There are texts like we had this morning that are filled with the wonderful sound of comfort and encouragement, and they are a delight on the preacher's heart. But then there are texts that are heavy, texts that call for solemnity, texts that call for us to be serious with our souls and serious with God. And then the preacher might feel like the prophet of old who said to Jeroboam's wife, I am sent to thee with heavy tidings. Amos was a man of heavy tidings. He had to challenge Israel for their great sinfulness. In chapter 4 and verse 1, he calls them kine of Bashan, that word meaning cows, to show how beastly they were in their sin against God. He shows them that God would, in his holiness, take you away with hooks. That is the picture of putting a hook in the nose of a cow to drive it and to pull it in the direction that you please. And why did he have to speak so sternly to them? Well, because their attitude is shown to us there in verse four. They say, come to Bethel and transgress. At Gilgal, multiply transgression and bring your sacrifices every morning and your tithes after three years and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven and proclaim and publish the free offerings for this liketh you. See, they had a false kind of religion, doing things that God did not prescribe, and they were shameless in their transgression, shameless in their sin. Doesn't that remind us, perhaps, of our own nation today? such abounding iniquity, such shamelessness in sin against God. For them, the passage that we read from verse six, Amos recounts for them, through the word of God, the judgments that they had already known, the things that God had sent to them with the intent that it should bring them to repentance, that it should alarm them that they might come back to God, these merciful chastisements, and yet they had not heeded a single one of them. In verse six it speaks of cleanness of teeth, and that's a reference to starvation. They had no food in their teeth because they didn't eat at all. There was a famine, there was want of bread, and yet ye have not returned unto me. There was the withholding of the rain, and yet ye have not returned unto me. There was the smiting with blasting and mildew, when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, Yet ye have not returned unto me. I have sent among you pestilence after the manor of Egypt, yet ye have not returned unto me. I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, yet ye have not returned unto me, saith the Lord. chastisement after chastisement, neglected by these careless sinners against God. And now we come to our text for tonight there in verse 12, and Israel are in the last chance saloon. And the Lord says to them through Amos, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. God is coming in his judgment because you have offended him, because you have neglected his calls to repent. Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. This is a text that we can apply, not just to Israel of old, but to every single one of us. And so we must be serious with our own souls tonight. The word of God comes to you and to me. Prepare to meet thy God. There is nothing more important in all the world than this command. Something that you should, if you are wise, face up to now while you may. Prepare to meet thy God. There is no one here tonight who can dare to say that this word of God does not apply to me. Every single one of us find ourselves here in this text. Prepare to meet thy God. And so as we look at this text for a while this evening, I'd like us to ask questions of this command. Now if we come with the right spirit, it's a healthy thing to ask questions of the Word of God and thereby draw out what is contained here. And so I have three questions to ask of this text. Firstly, why? Why prepare to meet thy God? Secondly, how? How do we prepare to meet with God? And thirdly, when? When should we prepare to meet with God? Why? How? And when? Firstly then friends, why? This command comes to us as it came to Israel in Amos' day, prepare to meet thy God. But why should we? Why should we prepare to meet with God? I can imagine many in the world giving that as their first question when faced with this command. But why? Why should it matter to me? Why should I be concerned with this? So what of it? I am quite content with the way that my life is. I am quite happy with my day to day. What need do I have to prepare? Things are going quite well for me, thank you. Why do I need to bother myself and trouble myself? You worry too much. You are too strict with your religion. Why should I prepare? Well, let me give you some reasons as to why, why you must prepare to meet with God. The first reason I give you is because this meeting with God, it is certain. It is certain. For every single one of us, we have an appointment with our Creator. We have a date, as it were, set in the diary that cannot be changed, that cannot be postponed, that cannot be cancelled or in any way put off, but that will certainly come. Prepare to meet thy God. There is not a single one of us here tonight who will not one eternal day meet with God. We, all of us, must come before the Almighty God. We, all of us, must be before Him. In fact, we can go so far as to say that it is the only future event that is certain to us. We don't know what tomorrow will bring. We don't even know that we will make it home safely tonight. But this one thing we know without doubt, we must and we will meet with God. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 10 says, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done. whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. We must appear before the judgment seat of Christ. There is not a single person who will escape it. Everyone who has ever lived has met with God. Everyone who now presently lives will meet with God. Anyone who will go on to live will one day meet with God. It is appointed unto man once to die and then to meet with God. And it is perhaps the greatest lie of the devil that he has convinced so many that this is not true. What grieves us most about the bill that is being put through our parliament at the moment to legalise assisted dying? There are many things about it that grieve us. But what does it show? How can people support that? How can people think that is a kind thing to do? The only reason they can think that's a kindness is if they believe death is the end. The devil has convinced them that death is the end. But would that we could shake the whole world awake and show them death is by no means the end. Death is but the beginning of eternity and death will usher them to meet with God. all of time marches us closer to a meeting with God. And it will be a personal meeting with God. You yourself must stand before this holy God. You yourself will one day come before God Almighty. Can I ask you tonight, do you believe this to be true? Do you believe this to be true? If you would go on in your sin so carelessly against an almighty God, shouldn't you first be absolutely certain that you're never going to have to meet this God? Shouldn't you be sure, as sure as can be, that this appointment is not true, that this text is a lie? How can you go on in your sin if there is any even vague doubt that maybe what I say to you tonight might be the truth? Prepare to meet thy God. My friends, all of us, we live in time. But eternity is the main stage of our existence. What we live here is but a small drop in the ocean with what is to come. Prepare to meet thy God. And you must prepare to meet thy God because you will meet him. And maybe all your life long up till now you have done your level best not to meet Him. You have tried so hard to put off the gospel. You have tried to reject and shut your ears to the preaching of this truth. You have been so deliberate in your rejection of His mercy. So deliberate in your pursuit of sin because you will have anything else but to meet with God. But one day you will not be able to put it off anymore. One day you will be ushered to meet with God. Why must you prepare? Why? Because it is certain. Another thing I offer is why should you prepare? Because, well, because of who you are going to meet. Who you are going to meet. Prepare to meet thy God. Does that ring a solemn alarm bell in your heart? It should. And when it says prepare to meet thy God, it does not mean that there is a multiplicity of gods and you're just going to meet your chosen one. No, he is thy God by nature. Thy God because he has created you. Thy God because he is the one with whom you have to do. He is thy God because like it or lump it, you are inextricably linked to him. He is thy God in that sense. He is God over all, sovereign, who rules you by right, the God with whom you have to do. And he is a God who is a holy God, a holy God. Look at chapter four in verse two. The Lord God hath sworn by his holiness. we all must one day meet with a God who is pure and perfectly holy, who is a purer eyes than to behold evil, who cannot countenance iniquity, but who despises it with a pure and a perfect hatred, a God of holiness, a God whose laws are right and true, but whose laws you have broken. A God whose mercy has been ample, but whose mercy you have refused. A holy God, whose holiness is like a pure fire devouring everything before it. This is the God you will meet. You must meet this God also, and this God is a just God. A just God. If God were not just, he would not be God. And those people who profess to love the Lord, but who preach a gospel that God will love sinners into heaven, they do not have a God at all, for they neglect justice. I've used the illustration before, and forgive me if you've heard me say it, but what if our king tomorrow said, well, I wish to be a far more loving king than I've been up to date, and so fling open the prison doors. Let everybody out. Royal pardon for everybody, no matter what. Would you say, ah, now there's a loving king. What a wonderful ruler we have. Or would you say, but what about justice? But what about justice? Aren't they there by deserving? They've broken the law. They deserve the punishment. And do you not see, friends, how we can't create for ourselves a God who will just love everybody into heaven? Because what about justice? He's given man law. Man has broken that law. God, if he is God, must see that punishment is given. That that sinner is brought to justice. He is a just God whom you will meet. Are you prepared to meet a just God? but he is also an omniscient God. And now that word might sound large, but it means simply that he is a God that knows everything. He knows everything with a perfect knowledge. He knows all about all. He would say to Israel in chapter five and verse 12, I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins. I know them. You might try and hide them from yourself. You might try and hide them from others, but I, I know them. They are not hidden from me. My all-seeing eye does see it. I have searched thee and known thee. I know your sin, O Israel. Are you ready to meet with a God who knows you better than you know yourself? who knows every word in your tongue, every thought in your heart, every sin hidden in the dark recess of your soul, prepare to meet thy God. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, for our God is a consuming fire. What must it be to meet him? And this God, friends, you and I, we are going to meet him. Why should we prepare? Well, further, because of what will happen when we do meet him. For we read in the word of God that it is appointed unto men once to die, and after that, the judgment. After that, the judgment. Every single one of us will be judged by Christ. We will appear before him at his judgment seat, and our lives will be weighed in the balance. We will be judged not according to comparison with others, but judged according to God's holy law. Romans chapter 14 and verse 10. But why dost thou judge thy brother? Or why dost thou set at naught thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. so then every one of us shall give account of himself to God." Would that I could wake you up with those words. Every one of us will give an account of himself to God. And as he sees that account, as our sins are perfectly known to him, There will be no contending with him. There will be no arguing with his verdict. We will fall before him. We will bow the knee to him. And when our lives are found to be wanting, when we are found to be guilty, there will be no recourse left. but eternal punishment in outer darkness for our sin, banished from the presence of God in all his grace and in all his mercy, and it will be misery without mercy forever and forever. Prepare to meet thy God. Why else should we prepare to meet our God? We should prepare because by nature We are unprepared. We are not ready for this appointment. We're not ready to meet with him. We have perhaps been, as Israel, ignoring his chastisements and his warnings up until this day. We have turned a deaf ear to all that God has proclaimed to us up until now. Israel were careless of their sin, and they were carefree in their sin. They say in their great iniquity in chapter four and verse one, bring and let us drink, come to Bethel and transgress. See how careless they were. Oh, they were not ready to meet with God, not as they were. And so I ask you tonight, with great love for your heart, and not because I relish these things, but because I must be faithful to God's word. Friend, are you ready? As you sit here tonight, are you ready? Are you prepared to meet with God? Someone once asked Winston Churchill if he was ready to meet with God. Now there are many great quotes from that man, but this is not one of them. And he said in reply, I am ready to meet my maker. Whether my maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter. What arrogance, what great wickedness in the face of an almighty God. Is that your attitude? Is that your attitude to God? Are you prepared to meet with him? Are you at peace with him? Are you still offending against him with whom you will soon meet? Friends, how will you meet him as you are? How can you dare to meet him as you are, still in your sin? How can you dare to meet him, still so careless about your soul? How can you dare to meet him, still so indifferent to his gospel. How can you dare to meet him, still rejecting his mercy as it is offered to you in Christ? You are walking on in your sin, and yet you are hoping after all to get to heaven. How? How can that be so? Friends, we read in Hebrews chapter 10, he that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses of how much sore a punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace. Are you prepared to meet with God? Why should we prepare? I say further under this, we should prepare because God is merciful. That is why we should prepare. And that comes out even in our text. This is a command that is laden with mercy. You may prepare. You may. God issues this command because you may prepare. He tells you to prepare because it is yet possible to prepare. You still have time and opportunity. God forewarns out of infinite mercy because he does not relish the punishment of sinners, because he delights to show mercy, and because he is long-suffering. And so he has given that we should have time and opportunity to prepare. The longsuffering of God is glorious. Friends, if God delighted in the destruction of sinners, why would he command them to prepare? Why would he issue this warning a fourth time? Why would he stave off that judgment they deserved? He does so because he's merciful. He does so because he's willing. And, oh, he is ever so ready to save, and he is ever so ready to receive sinners. Yet unto him, though they have rejected his chastisements all along, though hitherto ye have not returned unto me, yet still, still I tell you, there's time yet to prepare. And because God is merciful, you should prepare to meet him, because you can, because you may. You must then prepare, prepare to meet thy God. Friends, there is nothing more important than this. And if I should yet please men by watering down the gospel, I should not be a servant of Christ. I tell you the truth because the truth is worth knowing at all costs and because you must prepare to meet thy God. Why take up your time with the trifles of this world? Why are you so distracted with idle matters of today when you are yet to meet with God and you stand now unprepared? Oh, my friend, do you see? Prepare to meet thy God. I urge you, with all the love in my heart for your soul, have dealings with Christ now before he has dealings with you then. Prepare to meet thy God. Why? But let us see secondly, how? And I hope, I hope that is the question rising up in your hearts. But how may I, how may I prepare to meet him? Well, before we come to that, there are several reasons, several means of which that men do sometimes take that we should not use. How should we prepare? Well, there are some who think that this command has a sense of irony to it. The Lord is saying, prepare to meet thy God in the sense of gather your armies, gather your strength, come to me in the battle if you will. See what might you have to fight with me. Do not dare to imagine you can do battle with God. Do not dare to imagine that you will contend with him on that day. Prepare to meet thy God, but not in battle. Friend, put down the weapons of your warfare. Seek peace now. Do not prepare with contention, but also do not prepare by good works. Good works cannot atone for the bad things that we do. Good works cannot outweigh our bad and give us favor with God. And why not? Well, because a just God, as we've mentioned, must punish our bad, irregardless of any good. It wouldn't fly with a judge, would it, if you were convicted of bank robbery and the book was against you, and you said, but what about all the charitable deeds I'd done? There's no judge in the land that would countenance that. What does it matter? You broke the law. and your good works, they can count for nothing because you've broken the law. But also, your good works are no use trusting in because our good is as equally bad as our bad. The word of God tells us that our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. So do not trust in your good works. Do not prepare by adding what you think to be good works. Another thing I say, and I ask you not to misunderstand me when I say this, but do not try to prepare by a religious life. Do not imagine that you can get religious in character and that that will be enough. Do you not think that your association with church attendance will carry for anything? The Lord sees through hypocrisy in religion. He did so in chapter five and verse 21. He said, I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them. Neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. You see, there was a religious people, but what good did it do them when it was done in such hypocrisy? All religion itself will not save you. How then can you prepare to meet thy God? Well, we didn't have time to read on, but if we had done, we would come to one of the most wonderful verses in this prophecy. Because Amos says in chapter five and verse four, thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, seek ye me and ye shall live. Seek ye me and ye shall live. How do you prepare? Prepare by seeking God. Prepare by seeking God. Seek the Lord. Call upon his name. Seek him in repentance and in faith in Christ alone. Seek his forgiveness. Confess your sin to him and through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement on Calvary, seek the forgiveness of your sins. Seek his pardon upon the grounds of Christ acting for you in the gospel. And that pardon, friends, can satisfy the justice of God and is legally binding in heaven. Seek his mercy as he extends it to lost sinners like you and like me. Seek peace with God. through Christ Jesus, who can remove the offense that you have committed, who can take it away by a substitutionary sacrifice. Seek reconciliation with God. Seek peace with Him. Acquaint now thyself with Him and be at peace. Seek to be reconciled. I beseech you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. Seek, then, an interest in the Saviour. Seek Christ. Reach out to Him. with what faith your heart can muster. Lay hold of Him, because He is the Savior of the world. He is the one able and willing to save you. He came on a mission of mercy. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And He died on the cross so that He might take your place and bear your punishment, so that the wrath of the God whom you soon will meet can fall on Him instead, and can come on Christ instead of you. What does he say? Seek ye me and ye shall live. Do you see the promise attached to that? What a merciful God he is. The God who will meet you in judgment first wants to meet you in mercy and he calls you to come to him tonight to seek him and to have a meeting with him prior now. Meet him in Christ Jesus. Put your faith in him and in him alone. Seek ye me, says this wonderful and holy God. Seek him with all sincerity. Seek him with an earnest heart and seek him with unabated energy. Do not stop seeking until you say, I have found him whom my soul loveth. I have found that pearl of great price. Our dear pastor took the text in the open air yesterday. It is time to seek the Lord. Friends, if it is not time now, whenever will it be? It is time to seek the Lord. That is how you prepare. What a wonderful result there is if you do seek Him now. What a salvation there is to be had in Christ that the judgment that we fear and dread can pass over. Just as it was for Israel in the days of their bondage in Egypt, that when the angel of death saw the blood that they sheltered under, it passed over. And that can be your case. If you will trust in Christ with all your heart, that judgment of that great day, it will pass over. And why will it pass over? Because it has already fallen on Christ. Those storm clouds have broken, and they have broken on Calvary. Oh, do you see then, friends, how much you need the Lord Jesus? But do you see then, friends, How gracious he is and how much he desires your salvation. He says to you, though you have offended him and goaded him time and again with your sin, he says to you, seek ye me and ye shall live. Well, that then for the why, that then for the how. Let us conclude by asking the question, when? When should you prepare to meet with God? When? I say firstly, not tomorrow, not tomorrow. Don't put it off to tomorrow. You might meet with God before you meet with tomorrow. There are many I fear now in hell because of that one word, tomorrow. Do not put it off. We do not know what a day may bring forth. We cannot boast of tomorrow. We do not know when we will be ushered into that presence of almighty God to meet with him. The Lord Jesus Christ spoke that parable, didn't he, of the one who gathered up in his barns and had plenty and was going to take his ease. But what did the Lord say to him? Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Friends, I ask you solemnly, what if those words are to be said of you? This night, my soul is required of thee. Oh, do not put it off to tomorrow. We do not know what a day may bring forth, and if you've followed anything of the news this week, what has it taught you but this? We cannot boast of tomorrow. I know that there are some here who love to follow the football. And maybe you heard this week of that tragic death of that well-known footballer. There he was. A young man, younger than me. A man in his peak, really, we could say. Full physical fitness, an athlete. He was at the top of his game. So few who try to be a footballer actually make it, and he had done. And so few who do make it actually win high accolades, but he had done. Even this year with his club, he'd won the league. He went off to internationals and he won the cup with his country too. He had everything. He was then on his summer break, and what did he do on his summer break? He married his childhood sweetheart. And then 10 days later, as he was preparing to go back and meet with his teammates again. That terrible and tragic car crash, and instead he met with God. You cannot boast of tomorrow. What does his life teach you? But that you must prepare now to meet with God. Or if you didn't hear about that, maybe you heard about the flash floods in America. There were those young people camping. What a good time they were having. And in a moment, swept away. So many still lost and unaccounted for. Prepare to meet thy God when, I say, Now, now, we're going to meet with God. Frail man, his days are as grass. We cannot boast of tomorrow, but what do we know? We know that now is the day of salvation. Now God will hear if you call upon him. Now you may find mercy in Christ, so do not delay. Do not put it off. Do not hesitate for a moment. Now you are able to prepare. Now Christ is able to save, willing to save. So before this day is done, friends, you may have your meeting with God. So don't you think it is the best and highest of wisdoms to prepare now? Don't you think to put it off is foolishness? Friends, if when you meet with God and you are still unprepared, who will you have to blame? Who will you have to blame but yourself? Prepare to meet thy God. Why? Because this is certain for you and for me. How? Seek ye me and ye shall live. When? Now is the day of salvation. Will you not take these things to heart? How can you go on ignoring them? How can you put your head on the pillow again when you must meet with God ere long? How can we sum up what we have said tonight? Romans 11 and verse 22, behold therefore the goodness and severity of God. Deuteronomy 30 and verse 19, I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live. Oh, my friends, such a word lies heavy on my heart, and I do not relish the preaching of it. But I must be honest and I must be faithful to the truth. The Word of God says to me, and it says to you, prepare to meet thy God. Or will you not take this to heart? Will you not allow this text to ring the alarm bell in your heart? And will you not tonight be wise and prepare and seek him that ye may live? Amen.