The discussions in this episode center around Amos and the profound lessons it offers. As we journey through its chapters, we reflect on the nature of true worship and the significance of the ‘Day of the Lord.’ Dr. McGee illuminates the need for genuine faith over mere ritualistic practices. Listeners from different walks of life share their testimonies, emphasizing the global and personal impact of God’s word. This episode extends the invitation to reflect on one’s life and faith in the light of biblical truth.
The foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellence.
SPEAKER 03 :
Dr. J. Vernon McGee often said that our faith is in the book, the blood of Jesus and the blessed hope of his soon return. In this study on Through the Bible, we’re going to explore that blessed hope in the most unlikely places. It’s the Old Testament book of Amos is where we’re heading. I’m Steve Schwetz, holding open the doors of the Bible bus as you hop aboard. And in just a moment, we’re going to begin Amos chapter 5, beginning in verse 18. Now, you might be thinking that the highway that we’re traveling on through Amos has a lot of potholes in it. Well, if so, you’re going to appreciate this travel warning from Dr. McGee.
SPEAKER 01 :
I recognize that this is a little bumpy ride that we’re going over right now. That is, the highway is, AMOS is not being easy on us at all. And he happens to be one of God’s great prophets. And as we’ve indicated before, it’s been interesting that the liberal has been attracted to him because he dealt with so many issues that were social problems in his day. But when he dealt with them, he said that if they didn’t correct them, that there’d be judgment. Now, the liberal never tells that. And I believe that that type of philosophy pervades our entire contemporary culture today, that our expression is, take it easy. Our expression is, have a good day. Our expression today is, you should be happy as a Christian.
SPEAKER 03 :
As you open your copy of God’s Word, let’s visit with a fellow listener who writes from this time behind bars in Beaumont, Texas. His letter is a little longer than our usual one, but I think you’re going to enjoy it. Every night at 1 a.m., I listen to you on the radio. I haven’t missed a program in three and a half years. I have a neighbor who is not a Christian, but who stays up at night like I do to listen. He got interested in your study in the last few chapters of Daniel. Because of our security status, we stay in solitary cells 23 hours a day and can’t go to church or participate in any Christian events. If it wasn’t for Bible teaching programs like yours, the brothers in faith in here would have a horrible time trying to stay focused on the truth. If I had money to help with the support of the Bible bus, I would do so because of your program’s value to us. You say that you value a man’s prayer, so that is what our band of Christian brothers is doing in support. Keep up the good work and keep telling us about other brothers and sisters around the world who are joining the family. We’ll keep praying for God’s word to go into the whole world. May God bless you all. Wasn’t that a great letter? And you know, we really do value the prayers of all of our listeners, and we are so grateful for your presence on the Bible bus with us. And by the way, Through the Bible sends free resources to prisons and prisoners to help brothers and sisters like this grow in their walk with the Lord. Another brother, this one named Alan in Washington, D.C., wrote this. I wanted to tell you how important through the Bible and Dr. J. Vernon McGee are to God’s work in my life. Every morning, I drive to work at 5.30 a.m., and I get to hear Dr. McGee unpack some scriptures, and my faith grows. This is a major part of me learning how to live a godly life. I’m almost 25 years old and was born again a year and a half ago at Virginia Tech. Since then, I have been on fire for Jesus Christ and hungry for good influences. Every day I’m in God’s word. I learn something that makes me give up a little more sin in my life. Thank God that his grace is enough for me. May God bless you all. Wow, I love what he said about the word continuing to root out sin. So thanks for sharing with us, Alan. And Jeff from Missouri tells us this. I would love to get some Bible bus passes to hand out. I’ve been on the Bible bus for quite some time now, and it has changed my life. Getting God’s Word daily is a difference maker. Along with having joined the World Prayer Team, I am so thankful for the opportunity to be a part of what Dr. McKee has started in reaching the world with God’s Word. Well, don’t you love hearing how these three men are growing in Christ and learning what it means to walk with Jesus every day? And by the way, we did send Jeff a pack of those Bible bus cards. And if you’d like your pack as well, you can call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE and we’ll send them out to you. Now, like these gentlemen, we’d love to know how our time in God’s Word is impacting your life. Would you send us a quick note in the feedback section of our app or write to us at Box 7100? Pasadena, California, 91109. In Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1. Or send an email to BibleBus at ttb.org or call and leave a message at 1-800-65-BIBLE. We love to hear how God’s working in your life. And maybe we’ll even share your story with our listening family in an upcoming study. Let’s pray for one another as we begin. Gracious Heavenly Father, we are so grateful for the gospel of Jesus. that transforms us into new creatures. And Lord, we surrender our lives to you and ask that your word would bear much fruit in us and give us ears to hear now. In Jesus’ name, amen. Now let’s dive into Amos 5, verse 18 on Through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
SPEAKER 01 :
Now, I come today to the fifth chapter of Amos. I put in it verse 18. Now, this is the chapter in which we have labeled it, Israel will be punished in the future for her iniquity. And he spoke in the last chapter, Israel has been punished in the past for her iniquity. Now, we’ve been looking in these first verses that God pleads with them to seek him so that judgment could be averted again and again. He repeated, you remember that invitation, seek the Lord, seek him. And again and again, he made his appeal to them. Now, in this last section here, he gives them the warning of approaching judgment. Because you see, some of them had become very pious. And in verse 18, I read, “…woe unto you that desire…” The day of the Lord, to what end is it for you? The day of the Lord is darkness and not light. Again, we have that expression, the day of the Lord. Joel is one of the first of the writing prophets, and he’s the one that introduces that subject. And every one of the prophets after him has something to say about it. And we need to be very careful because I’m sure many of us always thought the day of the Lord was the millennium. I’ll be very frank with you. I was taught that at the beginning, that the day of the Lord was the millennium. Well, Joel was very careful. And Amos now, who is the prophet in the northern kingdom, as Joel was in the southern kingdom, to make clear that the day of the Lord is not like its darkness. In other words, the day of the Lord begins with judgment and moves on to the coming of Christ to the earth to establish his kingdom down here upon this earth. Now, there are a great many commentators, and I say a great many, I don’t have too many on Joel, but I have several that feel like that the people were becoming rather cynical and they are really ridiculing the day of the Lord. Now, I don’t see that here at all. In fact, I don’t see how that interpretation could possibly be true. I see it on the opposite side, that a great many of these people became very pious and You see, they were going through the ritual, the Mosaic ritual, but they were also worshipping idols. In other words, it was just religion to them. That is all that churchgoing is to a great many people today. There’s nothing vital, nothing real, there’s no reality to go through a ritual. And that’s the reason so many Church services are so dead, and I mean dead, is because of the fact that you have there nothing in the world but a ritual that you’re going through. Now, it may be beautiful. It may appeal to your eyes. It may appeal to your ears. But does it change your life? Is it transforming? Is it something that you take out with you into the marketplace that you can live by? There are a great many people, and I want you to hear this very carefully, and I’m saying it very carefully today. There are a great many people who are very pious today among those that are premillennial and pre-trium. We say, oh, if the Lord would only come. Well, do you really want him to come? Or are you using the rapture of the church as sort of an escape mechanism It is to get you out of your trouble down here. It’s to deliver you from your trouble. It’s like the fellow that I tell you about when I was in seminary. When we were studying Hebrew and we’d come out from the dining room of the evening and he’d look up. We had a hard Hebrew lesson for the next day as well as a Greek lesson. And he would say, oh, if the Lord would only come tonight. Well, what was he after? He didn’t want to stay Hebrew. And I never shall forget when he graduated, he was to graduate one night. He was to get married the next night and then go on his honeymoon. And I never shall forget the night before graduation. He came out and he looked up and he says, I sure hope the Lord won’t be coming now for several days. Well, my friend, may I say to you, I’m afraid a great many of us look at the rapture like that. This man Amos said, you pious folk are just going through the religious ritual and you’re worshiping idols. The day of the Lord is not something that you ought to desire because it’s not light. It is a day of darkness and not light at all. You go through a great tribulation period when the day of the Lord comes. What you want to do is to jump into the millennium. Now, let me be very careful and say something. For those of us today who believe the church will not go through the great tribulation period, my friends, some of us are going to think we got into it after we get to heaven. You know why? Will you listen to what Paul had to say? Now, I’m reading 2 Corinthians 5, verse 9. He says, “…wherefore we labor, that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” This is the Bema. This is not the great white throne at all. Here is where Christians come. For what reasons? that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Is this salvation? No. Paul says there’s no other foundation any man can lay, but you can build on that. And you can build with wood, hay, and stubble. You can build with gold and silver, precious stone. But every man’s work, not his salvation, not his persons, Every man’s work shall be tested by fire. Now, if any man’s work survives the fire, he’ll receive a reward. But suppose it doesn’t. Paul says he’ll be saved, but so as by fire. And that’s the reason I make the statement oftentimes that A great many people, they’re saved, I grant that, but they’re going to smell like they were bought at a fire sale when they get to heaven because everything they did down here, they did in the flesh. They did it for some earthly reason, for some present satisfaction. And I want to be very frank and say this to you today. That Vernon McGee, as he’s getting toward the sunset, I’m no longer on the young side, like to kid myself sometimes to think I might be. But I want to say this to you very candidly. I’m wondering how I’m going to come out up there. You say, oh, you have the through the Bible. And so many say, I’m going to get a great reward. You don’t know me like I know myself. If you did, you’d turn the radio off. Well, wait a minute. Don’t turn it off. Because if I knew you like you know yourself, I wouldn’t want to talk to you. You see friends. Our life that we’ve lived down here as believers is to be tested today. And it’s pious nonsense to run around today and pretend to be so interested in the coming of Christ. When some of us get to heaven, we’ll think we didn’t miss a great tribulation. Because notice what Paul said after he gave the statement that we’d all be tested at the bane of Christ. He says, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord. We persuade men. And I’m trying to persuade you today, friends, that when you appear in his presence, if you think that he’s going to pin the nice little Sunday school medal on you because you didn’t miss Sunday school for 15 years, I think you’re wrong. I don’t think that that’s going to come up. I think that the life that you live in your home, your witness in your business, your social life, your contact with the opposite sex, These are the things that are going to come before the judgment seat of Christ and the things that were done in the body down here. Do you want to go up there now? Have you got everything straightened out? Paul says, if we would judge ourselves, we’d not be judged. And that’s the reason today I’m trying to keep everything confessed up. I’m running short accounts with the Lord today. I’m confessing everything. You know why? Because if I don’t, he’s going to straighten it out up there someday. When you lost your temper and you gave a wrong witness, and today you gossiped and said something about a believer, do you think that when you get in the presence of Christ that he’s going to pat you on the back and say what a nice little fellow you are? He’s going to straighten that out. Things have to be made right in heaven, friends. And that’s the purpose of the judgment seat of Christ. And believe me, Amos is putting it on the line. He says, cut out this nonsense you desire, the day of the Lord. It’s not light. It’s darkness. There is a great tribulation you will go through. And there is… the judgment seat of Christ. And I don’t think it’s going to be as pleasant as some folk think it’s going to be. Now, verse 19, as if a man, this man here, Amos, and I have to say again how I admire him. He’s one of the most dramatic preachers that you have in the scripture. He uses figurative language. He uses the idiom of the earth. He draws his illustrations from nature and he makes striking statements. Now we’re coming to one and we’ve got quite a few more to follow. He says, “…as if a man did flee from a lion and a bear met him.” Here’s a man that’s out hunting or in the woods. It’s probably Amos had been. And there’s a lion down the trail back of him. And he starts around running in the opposite direction. And now he sees a bear coming toward him. In other words… When you say that you want the Lord to come and your motive is that you want to get out of your troubles down here, then it’s sort of like jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. I think that is our bromide that we use today. And now he’s got another, or leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. Well, suppose a man sees the lion coming and the bear from the opposite direction, and he takes out up over the hill, and he gets to his home, and he goes inside of his home, and it was made out of these rocks in that day, and he puts his hand up on the wall to sort of rest and get his breath. And here comes out a serpent and bit him. Well, it’d been better if the bear had got him or the lion had gotten him than to have the poison of the serpent in him. So he’s saying here, you better be very sure about the life that you’re living for God down here because salvation is not in jeopardy. Christ paid the penalty for your sins. But your sins as a believer, if they’re not dealt with down here, you don’t make them right. He’s going to make them right, friends. He has to do that. He’s holy and righteous and just. And heaven is a place where things are right. And therefore, you and I’ll have to be right when we get there. That is something a great many do not realize today. Now, verse 20, he says, Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it. You go through that period, and that was the period that is yet to come upon the nation Israel. It’s a period, actually, of judgment, and we’ll deal with it later in a more detailed fashion, but it’s labeled the day of the Lord. But that doesn’t end it, because in the day of the Lord, you have the second coming of Christ in the millennial kingdom here upon earth. Now, verse 21 says, He says, in speaking for God now, I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not take delight in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meal offerings, I will not accept them, neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take away from me the noise of thy songs, for I will not hear the melody of thine hearts. Now, here is the thing that he’s saying that we have been repeating here. Back of these people going through the ritual were lives of that were dishonest, and we’re going to see the three national sins that that nation was guilty of. And it’s the sins that have destroyed all nations, and they’re sins that’ll destroy our nation. But God’s people need to recognize that their faith must be real, and faith is not fake or fable. It’s reality. It’s laying hold of a person. And believing is not deceiving. A great many people say, well, if you believe why it’s because you’re blind, it’s a blind faith. Well, if it’s a blind faith, forget it, because God doesn’t accept that. Faith has to have an effect upon the life. Faith without works is dead, James says. And that a living faith will produce that. And that we’ve been saved to produce good works, Paul says. All of this is important. Now, these people, they were living lives of sin. They were engaged in idolatry. And yet they were going through all of this. And God says, I despise it. I have no use for it. Have you ever stopped to think that many of the song services that we think are so enthusiastic, you know, a group of people singing, their heart not in it, but a big mouth is in it. Do you think maybe God has accepted it? What do you suppose he would think if he came to my church or your church? What would be his viewpoint? Well, we better not deal with that. Now he says, But let justice run down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream. Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch. And Chion, your images, the star of your God, which ye made to yourselves. Now, apparently, the people in the wilderness, they went through a ritual. But when they would meet these heathen people, why, they wanted to take on their gods. And you find the worship of Moloch was where children were put in the arms of a red-hot idol and made a sacrifice. And the screams of those children were terrible. But that was the human sacrifice. Now, God says, you can come to church on Sunday and go through the ritual of believing in me. But when you are worshiping Moloch during the week, When you are worshiping this idol of covetousness, when you go out after the almighty dollar, it was like Cardinal Woolsey, remember? When Henry VIII took away from him Hampton Court and was about to do away with him. Fortunately for Cardinal Woolsey, he died a natural death, but he wouldn’t have had he lived. And on his deathbed, he said, “…if I had only served my God like I’ve served my King.” And a great many Christians… They’ll have to say that on their deathbed. I have served the God of Moloch down here. I have served the idol of covetousness. I’ve served the idol of sin down here, the things of the flesh. I’ve worshipped those things. And I have not served my God. Now, friends, I don’t care how sweet the music is going to be and what nice words the preacher will say at your funeral. But you and I are going to stand at the judgment seat of Christ. And I want to be very frank with you. That disturbs me somewhat. I want things straightened out down here as far as I’m concerned. Now, listen to him here. He says, verse 27, Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, that is, beyond Syria, saith the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts. Now, you see, Israel is to be punished in the future. What will be this? They’re to go into captivity. And they’re to go into captivity beyond Damascus. And beyond Damascus was Nineveh. The Assyrian would take them into captivity. Now, next time we come to another one of these very wonderful chapters, chapter 6. And this is another one of the great judgment chapters. So until next time, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
SPEAKER 03 :
Did you hear what Dr. McGee just said? A wonderful chapter about judgment? Well, it’s true. When we see God’s wonderful character, we know that he can’t put up with sin. So God, rich in mercy, warns people to turn around. And we’ll hear more as the Bible bus continues down this stretch of road in Amos. Until then, if we can help you find a Bible study resource to deepen your knowledge and love of God’s word, well… Call us, 1-800-65-BIBLE is the number. Or visit the website anytime over at ttb.org. Now, one resource that I highly recommend is our digital book, Briefing the Bible. I keep it on my iPad for quick reference. And it contains all of Dr. McGee’s notes and outlines, as well as charts and other study materials for every book that we study in our five-year journey through God’s entire Word. And it’s free. You can download it at ttb.org. And we’ve even got you covered if you want to receive an abbreviated softcover copy by mail. Call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE and we’ll send it out right away. Again, if you’d like to be in touch, visit ttb.org or call 1-800-65-BIBLE or send a note through the feedback section of our app. I’m Steve Schwetz praying that God blesses and keeps you until we meet around His Word again. We’re grateful for our committed listening family who faithfully pray and invest in Through the Bible as we together take the whole word to the whole world.
