Amos 4:10-5:5 – Prepare to Meet Thy God

SPEAKER 03 : 0:03

The foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:17

Welcome to Through the Bible. I’m your host, Steve Schwetz, and I’m so glad that you’re here as our study in the Old Testament book of Amos continues. Before we begin, though, Dr. McGee has recorded a quick introduction based on a simple homespun quotation that seeks to explain the very profound truth of election. Let’s listen now.

SPEAKER 01 : 0:37

And it’s one of the best that I think I’ve seen on this particular subject is And it’s a quotation that goes back to Aunt Jane of Kentucky by Eliza Calvert Hall, written in 1898. And there’s always been, and is today, a great discussion about predestination and free will. And there’s quite a group that have centered on the doctrine of election. And they make a great deal of that today and the sovereignty of God. And that’s fine if they wouldn’t hold it out of proportion to other scripture. And that’s the reason I want to share this with you. And it’s very homely and very down to earth. Here we go. It says, how much peace in a quilt is like living a life? Many a time, I’ve sat and listened to Parson Page preaching about predestination and free will. And I’ve said to myself, if I could just get up there in the pulpit with one of my quilts, I could make life a heap plainer than Parson’s making it with his big words. You see, to make a quilt, you start out with just so much calico. You don’t go to the store and pick it out and buy it, but the neighbors give you a piece here and a piece there, and you’ll find you have a piece left over every time you cut out a dress and you just take whatever happens to come. That’s predestination. But when it comes to cutting the quilt, why, you’re free to choose your own pattern. You give the same kind of pieces to two persons, and one will make a nine-patch quilt, and the other one will make a wild goose chase. There’ll be two quilts made of the same kind of pieces, but just as different as can be. That’s the way of living. The Lord sends us the pieces. We can cut them out and put them together pretty much to suit ourselves. There’s a heap more in the cutting out and the serving than there is in the calico. And may I say to you, that’s about as nice way of explaining it as I found recently.

SPEAKER 02 : 3:18

Well, I’m certainly excited to get started in our study. It’s a wonderful section of scripture. One that Dr. McGee tells us contains one of the most majestic and awe-inspiring statements about God that we’ll find in the Bible. So let’s ask the Lord to guide us. Our gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for this time to gather and study your word together. Quiet our hearts as well as our minds so that we can focus on the lessons that you have for us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Now let’s dive into Amos chapter 4 on Through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

SPEAKER 01 : 3:50

Our friends, we come back today to the fourth chapter of Amos. And as we left off last time here at the 10th verse, we want to pick up there today. And I’d like to remind you that God is telling them that in the past he has sent to them certain judgments. And these judgments were actually a warning to them of the more severe judgment which was to come. And that, as we shall see, was the captivity, the final captivity of the nation in the north. And they were never to return as a northern kingdom again. They would drift back just as the southern kingdom did during the time of the Babylonian captivity after the 70 years had expired. And actually, percentage-wise, very few really returned back to the land. Now, we are seeing here some of these judgments that God sent upon them, and they did not turn to him at all. We might just mention them again, beginning with the first one, which was back in verse 6. And you can identify them because the same expression is used, “…yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.” In other words, God says, I sent this as a warning so you’d turn back to me, but it made no impression upon you at all. Now, the first was, of course, famine. And he said, I’ve given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities. Well, that doesn’t mean that the Lord had caused some man to invent a new mouthwash or a new toothpaste. But actually, their teeth were clean because they hadn’t been able to eat anything. In other words, they were in a famine. And that famine should have turned them to God, but it did not. And the second one is mentioned in verse 8. where there is the drought and it only rained in certain places. And he speaks of the fact that in three cities it would only rain in one and all the citizens in one city would go over to the city that had rain in order to fill up a gallon jug or a wineskin and bring it home because they didn’t have any water. And I have been in that same predicament. And the people who listen to us in Dallas, Texas, will recall quite a few years ago that there was a drought in Texas. And that was what caused my dad to leave. A three years drought came to West Texas when I was a boy. Well, this drought dried up the water supply for Dallas, and they had to draw from the Red River into which the oil had been placed. And I want to tell you that I have never tasted drinking water that was as bad as that. And many people that had relatives and friends in little towns round about would take a five-gallon jug over to visit Aunt Sarah or Aunt Kate or Uncle Will and get the jug filled up, and then they would come home with it. That was the way they got water. Well, that wasn’t new. That’s what they did back there. Now, that was a warning from God to these people, but they paid no attention to it whatsoever. Then the third statement that you find repeated is in verse 9. He says, “…I have smitten you with blight.” And milled you when your gardens and your vineyards, your fig trees, your olive trees increased. The palmer worm devoured them. And again, it refers to the locusts. There was a locust plague. Yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. Now, since he was contemporary with Hosea, This man here may be referring back to that plague of locusts that we saw at that time. But that would be speculation, of course, on my part. But the locust plague was that. And he says, “…yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.” Now again in verse 10, “…I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt.” Your young man have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses, and I have made the stench of your camps to come up into your nostrils. Yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.” Now, what was the stench? Well, that was the dead animals. They couldn’t haul them away fast enough because they were dying of the plague. And yet they didn’t return unto the Lord at all. Now we have the next plague given here, and it’s in verse 11. He says, “…I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were like a firebrand plucked out of the burning, yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.” Now, actually, there are those that think this here is sort of a summation of the other plagues. Well, frankly, I rather doubt that. What I think was taking place at this time, in fact, I know was taking place, and you’ll find that gives a background to the book of Jonah, because he was a prophet in the north, yet he was sent up to Nineveh. And at this time, the Assyrian was making forays down in the kingdom of the north and would strike here and there and the other place and would take the entire community wherever it was into captivity. Now, God was just permitting the Assyrian like a bird to peck. here and there. And then they didn’t get the warning. They at least didn’t accept it. And they continued on in their evil way. Now, in verse 12, we read, “…therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel.” And because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. Now, he doesn’t tell them here what he’s going to do. He says here, I’m going to do this unto you. And because I will do this unto thee. Well, of all things, it’s going to be a surprise. And it was the Assyrian captivity. That is, Assyria came down upon them suddenly and took them away into captivity. In other words, they just did not believe God. And the interesting thing is here, though, that he goes beyond these judgments and says, Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. Because when Assyria came down, They didn’t take all the people into captivity. They left a few, as we shall see in the next chapter, but many of them were slain. And that means that they were to meet God in death. And that is something that every individual will have to do, is to meet God in death. Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. And that is something that is a message to every individual today. a friend of mine that God had dealt with very definitely because of the sin that was in his life. He told me the story and how God had dealt with him. And the judgment that had come upon him was rather severe. It was something that a man can bear, but it certainly was severe. And I was sympathizing with him about it, naturally. And he said to me, he says, McGee, that’s not the thing that disturbs me, the judgment that has come upon me. He said, I yet have to stand before God. And he says, I trembled. Well, I said, you know, Vernon McGee’s going to have to stand before God. And I said, if I stood there as I am, I’d be frightened to death. But I’m not going to stand there as Vernon McGee. I’m in Christ. And God is going to see Christ. And I’ve been made acceptable in the beloved. And he said to me, he said, yes, that’s the only comfort that I have today for the life that I’ve lived. Well, my friend, that’s a message for many of you listening in today. Prepare to meet thy God. Suppose right this moment. You went into the presence of God, and some of you will be going there shortly, including the speaker. We may not be around too much longer. We do hope to finish this program, that is, the five-year program, and we finish this year. Then after that, I’m not asking the Lord for more time, although I’d like to have it, but I did want to finish the five-year program. But suppose that in the next few minutes you were to be in God’s presence, What about it, friend? This life has passed. Things down here that were important are no longer important. I can tell you that. This life down here has now become meaningless as to any purpose because you’re out of it. You’re through. You’re finished. And you’re in God’s presence now. You maybe lived to please people, tried to keep up with the Joneses. But that’s ended now. You’re in his presence. How are you going to stand before him? Don’t you know that you can’t stand in your own strength, your own life, your own character? You and I haven’t anything to offer to him at all. We are bankrupt there. We’re dead in trespasses and sins. And now we stand before him. The only way that you and I can stand there is in Christ. He was delivered for our offenses, raised for our justification, that you and I might stand before him justified. Why? Because we are such nice, good little folk. We are not. We’re sinners. We stand before him because he was delivered for our offenses. He paid the penalty. Now, we stand before him in the righteousness of Christ. And that, my friends, the only basis that we can stand before him. This is a tremendous passage. Say again, do you mind me saying that Amos is one of the great preachers? I can’t think of a greater preacher than this man. And he was from the country. He was a country boy. Now listen to him in verse 13. For lo, he that formeth the mountains, and created the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, who maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name. This is one of the most majestic things One of the most awe-inspiring statements that you will find anywhere. And it presents him here as the omnipotent, the omniscient, and the omnipresent God. He is the creator. He is the omnipotent God. He has all power. He formed the mountains and created the wind and declareth unto man what is his thought. He is omniscient. He knows your thought afar off. And then he is omnipresent. It says he treadeth upon the high places of the earth. No matter where you go, even if you go to the moon, you didn’t get away from him, friends, and you cannot escape him. He knows you today. He is the omniscient, the omnipotent God. And he knows all about you. You and I have been able to keep up a pretty good front, haven’t we? We’ve made our neighbors think we’re pretty nice folk. We’ve made the church members think that we’re decent. We’ve made everybody around us with whom we work think that we are all right. We may even make our wives think that we’re very fine fellas, but you know up yonder in heaven how the thing is? The psalmist, if you’ll recall when we were in the Psalms, in Psalm 90, verse 8, “…thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins, in the light of thy countenance.” May I say to you that God knows you, and he knows me today. There’s no use playing church anymore. There’s no use keeping up the front, my friend. You just well go to him and turn yourself in. The FBI may not be on to you, and the police may not yet have caught up with you. But God already knows. I remember, and I can still hear Dr. Chaffer saying in class, relative to this verse, thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. He said, secret sin on earth is open scandal in heaven. He knows all about you. And he knew all about this nation and about these people. Now we come to chapter 5 here. And in chapter 5, Israel will be punished in the future for her iniquity. Now, will you listen to this as we begin in these first verses here? God pleads with them to seek him so that judgment could be averted. Now, it is true that there seemed to be a finality at the end of the last chapter, but that was what God had done in the past. They were warning. And as long as he did not bring that final stroke of judgment, which was their captivity, then there was hope for them. Now, will you listen to him in verse 1 of chapter 5? Hear this word. which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel.” Now, this is a dirge that he’s taking up. It’s as it were, he’s singing a funeral song. It’s a very sad one now. And he speaks like this, and now it’s with tenderness. “‘The virgin of Israel is fallen.'” She shall no more rise. She is forsaken upon her land. There is none to raise her up. Now, you remember that when Hosea began his prophecy, he had an experience in the home. He’d married a harlot. And now God sent him out to speak to the nation. And he’s saying to the northern kingdom, you’re a harlot, but God still loves you. Now here, Amos says, you were a virgin. God espoused you to himself. That’s the picture of every believer today. Paul said to the Corinthians, he says, I espoused you as a chaste virgin to Christ. And when we came to him, our sins are all forgiven and we start new with him. But how about it, friend? How’s it been going the past few years? Have you done what Israel did? Have you played the harlot, turned away from him? and have been led astray into the world and into the things of the flesh. And as the devil put a ring in your nose and leading you around like a pig that has a ring in his snout that’s being led around. A great many even Christians are like that today. This is a sad funeral dirge, you see. The virgin of Israel is fallen. She shall no more rise. She is forsaken upon her land. There’s none to raise her up. For thus saith the Lord God, the city that went out by a thousand shall leave a hundred. You see why he said, prepare to meet your God. Look at the number that are to be slain. And that which went forth by a hundred shall leave ten to the house of Israel. And those are the ones that will be left back in the land. And then the great company, a percentage of them were slain. Now, listen to him. This is, as it were, a last call to the nation. Verse 4, For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live. The invitation is still open. The word had gone out. 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 nothing. And by the way, you can’t find Bethel today. I’ve had two different spots pointed out to me by guides back there, and I’m not sure just where it is. The location, you can pretty well know that is the area. But to be able to pinpoint it seems to be a problem. And did you notice? He told them not to even go as far south as Beersheba. But when he talks about the two, Gilgal and Bethel, are coming to nothing, he doesn’t mention Beersheba. Why? Because Beersheba will go in captivity over a hundred years later when the southern kingdom goes into captivity. But now Gilgal and Bethel will come to nothing. They go into captivity. Now we have to leave off there today. We’ll pick right up there next time. Verse 6 of chapter 5. Until then, may God richly bless you, my beloved.

SPEAKER 02 : 22:34

Well, Bethel and Gilgal paid no attention to God’s invitation, and they perished. So let’s not make the same mistake. God is still saying, seek me and live. The question is, how will you answer? Well, for more information about what it means to live for God, just click on How Can I Know God in our app or at ttb.org. There you’re going to find some free resources to help you understand why this is the most important decision that you’ll ever make and why you shouldn’t put it off another day. Or call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE and we’ll send you a couple by mail. And if you’re enjoying our study in Amos and you want to go deeper or expand your personal study of the Bible, we’ve got an entire online library of resources over at ttb.org, including Dr. McGee’s popular booklet, One Hour in Romans. You want to know more about your faith? Or you want to be able to explain it better to someone else? One hour in Romans is your answer. Dr. McGee teaches us about our relationship with God and then answers tough questions like, how come I keep sinning even when I don’t want to? Or how does the Holy Spirit help me live a life that pleases God? What does it mean to live by faith? So if you’re serious about your faith, why don’t you download your free copy today? Again, download One Hour in Romans at ttb.org. And if we can’t help you find it or any other resource by Dr. McGee, call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE. Again, that’s 1-800-65-BIBLE. Are you growing in your relationship with the Lord because of our time together in His Word? Why don’t you tell us about it? Notes like this one from a young listener in Maryland encourage all of us at Through the Bible to not only keep going in our work, but also in our own personal study of the Bible. I just want you all to know that I love your program. I’m 17 years old, graduating from high school. I’ve been homeschooled my whole life and my seven brothers and sisters along with me. I’ve actually been going through a really hard time recently where I’ve had many different doubts concerning God and his existence. But in many ways, God has turned me around. And one way he did this was by leading me to Dr. McGee’s study in Daniel. Thank you for sharing God’s truth with me and the world. It is really making a difference in my life. Well, isn’t that great? A whole new generation, remember she’s 17, is hearing God’s Word and responding. Do you have a story maybe to share about what God is doing in your life through our time together? You know we’d love to hear about it. Just click on Feedback in our app. You can also email us at BibleBus at ttb.org or send a note to Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. or in Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1. You can even call and leave a message at 1-800-65-BIBLE. Our study in Amos continues. I’m Steve Schwetz, and I’ll meet you back here as the Bible bus rolls along.

SPEAKER 03 : 25:27

All to him I owe. Sin had left the prison safe. He washed it white as snow.

SPEAKER 02 : 25:45

Our story on the Bible Bus today is just one step in a five-year journey through the entire Word of God. Come along for the ride, and you’ll study both the Old Testament and New Testament, discovering God’s great redemption story. Is this your story too?