We're reading this morning from Amos, chapter five. So turn in your Bibles to Amos, chapter five, please. We're going to read from verse four. Amos chapter 5 and verse 4. For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live. But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba. For Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to know. Seek the Lord, and ye shall live, lest ye break out like fire in the house of Jacob, and devour it, than there be none to quench it in Bethel. Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness from the earth, seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into morning, and maketh the day dark with night, and calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth, the Lord is his name, that strengtheneth the spoil against the strong, so that the spoil shall come against the fortress. They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly. Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat, ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them. Ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink the wine of them. For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins, they afflict the just. They take a bribe and they turn aside the poor from the gate from their right. Therefore, the prudent shall keep silence in that time, for it is an evil time. Seek good and not evil, that you may live And so the Lord God of hosts shall be with you as you have spoken. Hate the evil and love the good and establish judgment in the gate. It may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph. Amen. And God bless the reading from his inspired word. I said last week that there are three timeless themes running through the first half of this chapter. The theme of the sad lamenting prophet, the theme of the fallen church, and the theme of the exhorting God. Last week we looked at the prophet's lament in the first three verses, or the funeral song of the church. in verses 1 to 3. Israel had fallen. In the future, God had said, in these verses, there will be none to lift her up. She will not rise again. And this, of course, saddened the prophet. It always does. From Moses to Malachi and even into the New Testament. Christ in Revelation. The fall of God's people always saddens the prophet. Amos is no different than he laments Israel's fall and their current state. Now this morning I want to draw your attention to two things. God through Amos, his preacher, exhorts Israel to seek me. Seek me. And the two points are these. Number one, seek me in my way and live. And secondly, seek me in your practice. So firstly, seek me, says God. Seek me in my way and live. That's verses four to seven. Thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, seek ye me and you shall live. But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Bathsheba, for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to naught, nothing. Seek the Lord and you shall live. lest ye break out like a fire in the house of Jacob and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel. Ye who turn judgment to wormwood and leave off righteousness in the earth, seek me in my way and live." God is saying to these people in verse 7, turn. Ye who turn Verse 7, you who turn or twist judgment. That's the type of people he's speaking to. They twisted judgment or justice. And you leave off righteousness from the earth. You've nothing to do with righteousness in practice. You're not fair. And that type of people, God's saying to them, seek me and live. And the Word is an imperative command. Seek God and live. Inquire of God. It's a command. But, says God, verse 5, don't seek me in the way you have been all these years, Israel. By the things you do at Bethel and Gilgal and Beersheba, don't seek me in that way. Not at Bethel, not at Gilgal. Don't seek me in the way that you have been in these, your holiest of worship sites. I don't want you to seek me in that way. Seek me and live, but not at Bethel and Gilgal and Beersheba. See, God is saying here to these people, seek me and live, but he qualifies how they are to seek him. not in their old sham worship. The techniques were borrowed from paganism, Bethel, Gilgal and Bersheba. No, that's not acceptable, says God. You're not going to seek me in that way. You have to seek me, Israel, but not in the way that you have been doing. But if you don't seek me, you won't live. So God is telling them to seek him and stop their vain worship. Seek Him in His own way and not in their way. One commentator says, Israel had no shortage of religion. There were sacrifices and tithes and offerings. No doubt they took comfort in God's covenant promises and their own religious observances. the fact that they worshipped in Gilgal and Bethel, and it seems even to Beersheba, far away south of Jerusalem. When God had commanded them to worship in Jerusalem, that apparently did not trouble them. After all, they were sincere, or at least they did go to church sometimes. These people in Israel, they would go to worship God anywhere except where He told them. They would use the pagan methods, they would use every way to worship God except the way He told them. They were disobedient. Their worship and their seeking of God was not governed by God's Word. They were pretending to seek God, but it was in their own ways. But God says, seek me not in your own ways, what you've been doing. Not at Bethel, and the Hebrew word is future tents. Not at Gilgal. Gilgal is going to go into captivity, he says to them. And the word means it's going to be destroyed. And Bethel is going to come to naught, to nothing. And the Hebrew word naught there means exert oneself in vain. Don't go to Bethel anymore in the future tense, in the future Israel. Your worship is going to be destroyed. And it all comes to naught. You are exerting yourself in vain. You have to seek me, my people, says God. Imperative command, you must seek me and you shall live, but not in your old ways. In my way, in the way I command you. So what's the teaching? Seeking God, this imperative command, seeking God in our own ways, is just exerting ourselves in vain. And it doesn't bring life, because God doesn't want it. But seek God in His way and live. If we want to live, and that is the opposite of die, then we must seek God in His way. not be like Israel and seek God in a multitude of ways that they had invented and borrowed from pagan religion. I give you another quote. Like the nominal Christians of today, whose discernible devotion to the Lord extends to a rather sporadic attendance at Sunday services and a coin in the plate, The Israels had adopted an easy religion that provided enough to their way of thinking to insure themselves against any potential wrath of God in the next life, without interfering very much with what they wanted to do with their lives in this world. They could feel good about themselves and their relationship to God, and it cost them little. Simply outward religious observance that would never challenge their hearts and minds with the radical claims which in actual fact are made by God's Word. God's Word does make radical claims, especially as to how God's people worship and seek Him. God says, seek ye me and live, but not in your ways. Seek me in my way, and live. That's the first point. We're going to the second one now. Seek me in your practice. Now that's verses 7 right down to 15. I'm not going to read them all again. I'm going to read the last two verses. Verses 14 and 15. Where God says to them, Seek good and not evil, that ye may live. And so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you as you have spoken. hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate. And it may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. Seek me, God is saying, seek me in your practice and live. Verses 7 to 15, God's telling them three main things. I'm going to emphasize the third thing, I'll skim over the first two. There are three things about those who must seek God in their practice. And the first thing is they must seek the great God. That's verse eight. Seek him that maketh the seven stars of Orion and turneth the shadow of death into morning and maketh the day night or the day dark with night and cause the waters of the sea upon the earth. A description of a great God. That's who God's people are to seek. The One that made the constellation Orion. There are seven main stars in Orion. Three in the belt and two at the top and two at the bottom. Seek Him that turns death into morning and day into darkness. The One that controls the sea, the verse says. The God that can do what He wants. The God that made the stars. The God who controls nature. The Lord, L-O-R-D in capitals. The self-existent Jehovah God. That's who God's people are to seek. Seek the great God. The second thing in this section is, seek the great God who knows your sins. That's verse 12. For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins. They afflict the just, they take a bribe, they turn aside the poor from the gate from their right. God wants these people who sin that he knows to seek him. He knows their manifold transgressions. Their manifold lawlessness, the word means. He knows their mighty sins, their vast, countless, powerful disobedience, the Hebrew word means. They afflicted the just, they took bribes, they disregarded the poor, they left off righteousness, they didn't do what was right, they had no sense of justice. Verse 7. They hated those that rebuked them. Verse 10. See it says there, they hate him that rebuketh and negate. That's the place of judgment. And they abhor him that speaketh uprightly. They hear of those that rebuke them, and they abhor the person who speaks upright, who says when things are wrong. They abhor that type of person. They abhor the black and white type of person. And all these things that they have done, they're sins. But God knows all their sins. He knows their manifold transgressions. And yet He wants these very people to seek Him in His way. Not to seek Him in a profession. They already made a profession of being God's people. But He wanted them to seek Him in their practice. And that's verses 14 and 15. Seek good, do not evil, that you may live. Verse 15, hate the evil and love the good. Establish judgment in the gate. Practical things. There's other practical things I'm just emphasizing. Verses 14 and 15. In practice they were to seek God. Because in practice they had sinned. They were to seek good. That's an active verb. Not evil. That's passive. And God will be with you. Verse 14. But then you go to verse 15. Hate the evil. Another active verb. You're to actively hate the evil. God's people. And love good. And the third thing is, you're to establish judgment in the gate. Now, the gate in the Old Testament times, the gate of the city or town was the place of authority where the elders met to judge right and wrong. Establish judgment in the gate. Judge between things that are wrong and right, black and white, because they weren't doing that. God saying, if you change your practice, Just maybe I will save a remnant of you. Verse 15. If you change your way and your attitudes towards good and evil and start having a sense of justice, right and wrong. Start seeking God, not in profession, but in practice. It's all very practical. Seek the good. What does it mean to seek the good? Well, let's keep it in its context, of course. Seeking good in this context would be simply the reverse of their sins in verses 7 to 13. Instead of having manifold transgressions, seeking good would be putting away your manifold transgressions, putting away your mighty sins, honoring the just instead of despising the just, refusing bribes, regarding the poor, being righteous in their way, loving those who rebuke them, and loving the person that speaks up rightly. That would be seeking the good. And actively, God says, actively hate the evil. Evil is any wrongdoing against God. Because God is good. That's one of his attributes. And anything therefore that is against God is evil. Sin is evil. And then God says to them, be just, judge rightly. Seek God in your practice, children of Israel. So let me summarize the two points before we apply. God's saying to these people, seek me in my way and live. Not your way, not Bethel, not all those pagan things you've introduced. Seek me in my way and live, and secondly, seek me in your practice and you will live. Do good, hate evil, be righteous. The message to Israel is simply repent, isn't it? That's the message of the chapter. turn from your sin to God. Turn from your false worship, which is sin, according to Amos 4.4. Seek me in my own way. Repudiate your man-made worship, which is sin, and seek God. Turn from your sins, chapter 5, verses 7 to 13, and do good, that's simply repentance of sin, isn't it? and hate evil, love good, and repent of your compromise with sin and evil. And stop being grey in your judgment. Be black and white. Establish justice in the gate. Repent of your lack of judgment and justice in the gate. I conclude, and then I conclude I apply the message. What does this have to say to us? Well, it's all very applicable, isn't it, and practical. It's the same message to God's people today. Seek God and His way and live. Not in our own way, not in the heathen way, the ways of the world. Don't seek God in the way of compromise like they were. They were multi-faith at their worship sites in Israel. Don't seek God in compromised, multi-faith stance in that way. It's not the way to seek God. Don't seek God in traditional ideas, even of what a convert is. A raised hand, a parted prayer. Seek God and worship God in the way that he has led down. Scripture commands and teaches what way God is to be worshipped. We don't need to add to it or take away from it. Scripture defines what worship of Jehovah is. Not the norm, not the Pentecostals, not the charismatic movement, they don't define what worship is. Not the liberals, and not the world's pop and rock bands, they do not define what worship is. God defines what worship is in his own word. He tells his people to seek him not in their own way, but in his way. And if we want to seek God, we'd better do it his way. Because all the rest is vain. It's a waste of energy. That's where Israel went wrong. They were doing their own thing. Borrowing from all the religions around them. Borrowing from the world. Introducing pagan techniques in their worship. And then they were calling it worship. God says, you're wasting your energy. And that's where Western Christianity is also wrong. Because Israel was wrong. Doing their own thing. Doing the world's thing. Doing the multi-faith compromise thing. Calling it worship and unity. The dying church of the Western world needs to learn the message of Amos. As Israel needed to learn the message of Amos. Don't seek God at Bethel and Yilgal. In other words, don't seek God with your own inventions. Seek God in his way and live, and seek God in your practice. How do you seek God in practice, practically? Repentance of sin, and actively doing good, actively hating evil, and establishing justice, black and white, right and wrong. Knowing what is right and wrong and not making excuses about it. That's what God wanted from his people. He didn't get it. That's why they were destroyed. But it is practical, men and women. Do you and I love and do the good? Do you hate evil? Do you know what's right and wrong? Are you just? Do you see clearly right and wrong things? Evil is any words or any behavior that leads people away from the truth in God. When you hear of Edwin Putz, the so-called evangelical Christian counselor in Lisbon. When you hear of him attending Lisbon's Diwali festival, a pagan Hindu religious festival, and when you hear of him dancing to the Hindu worship music, And hailing it in the newspaper is a great success. With a poster behind him saying Happy Diwali, although you're not allowed to say Happy Christmas, but Happy Diwali is all right. It's all over the paper when you hear that. Do you hear it? Or is it just another opinion? What a multi-faith witness by an evangelical Christian. What an evil witness. Because it tells people that it's okay for evangelical Christians to attend and take part in the worship of pagan religious festivals. when the very Bible in 1st Corinthians condemns that very practice. The very thing that some evangelicals so-called are doing and thinking that it's alright, the Bible condemns in 1st Corinthians. Chapter 10 verses 19 through 21. This is just a wee section. The Corinthians, you see, were like that, some of them, that professed faith. They wanted still to be able to attend the feasts in the Hindu, or not Hindu, in the pagan temples. The apostle writes to them, he says, it's alright to eat meat that's been offered to idols, but not to go into the feasts in the pagan temples. I read to you from 1 Corinthians chapter 10, 19 to 21. What say I then? That the idol is anything? Or that which is offered to idols is anything? But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, that word is demons, plural, and not to God. And I would not that you should have fellowship with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot be partakers off the Lord's table and the table of demons. You can't do it. You can't go to their religious worship and then come back to the Lord's table. That's forbidden. You can't partake in religious festivals that are pagan. It is evil and in direct contradiction to the Bible. But let me ask you, and this is the important thing, you see, do you hate that? I'm not saying do you hate Hindus? We're not allowed to hate people. Or do you hate Edwin Poots? That's wrong. But the act, the witness, the evil act, the bad witness. Does it lead people, does that witness in this newspaper, does that lead people to the true God? No. Does it make people think, my, Jesus is the only way to heaven? Not at all. It makes people think that there's many gods and if there's only one God there's many ways and they all lead to God and all the religions really should all get together and have a good wee backslap. And that's evil. It's evil because it's not true. The most evil thing in the world is to pollute the only true gospel that can save. Because that damns, that damns people to mislead them in that area. We are to actively hate evil and love the good. We are to seek God in our practice, doing good hating evil. When you hear of evangelical Christians, so-called evangelical Christians, twisting and denying the main doctrine of the gospel, the atonement of Jesus Christ, His blood was shed atoning for our sins on the cross. When you hear evangelicals denying that, do you hate it? Do you hate people who say they're Christians, yet denying the very main doctrine that saves? I pray you do. Because your attitude to things like that, to evil, tells you the truth about your own heart. Because if you think that that's just another point of view, then you've got a relativistic view of truth like Israel had. You just think it's all kind of grey, it's not black and white. If you don't hate evil, you've no sense of justice, right and wrong, good and evil. Everything must be grey and not black and white. You need to repent if you don't see things in black and white, good and evil. That's what God said to them. You need to start establishing justice, righteousness in the gate. And they didn't. And that was one of the sins that destroyed them. When you hear about that great, famous, charismatic preacher, It's on the God TV all the time and has his own wee channel. Going over to Kenya just recently to preach. What's his name, David? Can't remember? Don't worry. David just told me about it this morning. Benny Hinn. Over to Kenya. He took millions. of pounds worth of money of the Christians over there. Prosperity gospel. Some people were taking out loans of thousands of pounds to give to him because they expect that God will multiply that by a hundred because that's what he teaches. Leaving the hotel, not even paying his bills. Running up great big bills and then flying back to America. Oh, the pastors over there can pay for it. Is that a good witness for Christ? It's evil. Pure evil. A work of destruction. But when you hear that, do you hate it? Have you the sense of justice? Two points we've covered. Seek God and His way and live. Nothing to do with Bethel and human inventions. Seek him in his way and seek God in practice. Do and love good. Hate evil. And know the difference between right and wrong. Amos was a sad prophet because of a fallen church. God was exhorting his people to seek him and live in his way and to seek him in practice. And the true Christian is sad when they see a fallen church in the Western world. A true Christian seeks God biblically. And a true Christian, when they seek God, it makes a difference or is seen in their life, in their attitudes towards good and evil and justice. Seek good and not evil that you may live. And so the Lord of hosts shall be with you as you have spoken. Hate the evil and love the good, and establish judgment or justice in the gate. It may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph. Seek God. Amen. Thank you.