OK, let's get back into the book of Amos and we will continue through chapter five and go on into chapter six this evening. Now, one of the things that we never want for leave ourselves, or, or forget, and that is not leave ourselves out of the book of Amos because it is written to Israel and Israel was, was the, was the covenant people. They were the ones that were redeemed out of Egypt. And they were the type of what today is the church of God in Galatians six and verse 16, we are called the Israel of GodWe are not called that by name in, in Romans, the ninth, 10th and 11th chapters, but it is certainly brought out in, in Romans, the ninth chapter that the salvation goes to the elect and the elect are not those who are physically descended from Abraham, but those who are chosen of God to be spiritual Sons of Abraham. And as I mentioned to you before that, the book of Amos is to those covenant people and we are the spiritual covenant people and therefore, we cannot leave ourselves out of it. And as I mentioned to you once before that, I believe that this book is written to the end time church. It is detailing the general condition, spiritual and physical conditions within the nation of Israel today. And the reason is to warn the church not to allow themselves to fall into the same condition that the that the nation is in now, it could come into the church. There is just no doubt about it if we are surrounded by it and we are attracted by it. And I think the numbers of people are going to be attracted by it. They're going to fail to take the heat and they are going to be caught in it. And I think I can say that with confidence because of what it says in Luke 21 you know where Jesus warned verses 34 through 36 to watch and pray always. And he, he mentioned there about being overcome by surfeit, surfeiting and drunkenness and just being distracted by the conditions that are in the world. We were just beginning to get into the section that began in verse 21. And up until this point, Amos was looking at a people who were quite religious. He saw very clearly that they professed that they had salvation, but they exhibited a total lack of evidence that they really were possessors of salvation. And so their profession was not credible, at least from his perspective. So they had as far as he was concerned, groundless confidence and their confidence as we can see very clearly in the New Testament was in their natural descent from Abraham, rather than a spiritual descent from Abraham. Now, beginning in verse 21 this section concentrates on Gilgal, remember the three cities, Bethel, Beersheba and Gilgal. Each one of them was the site of a shrine. Each one had something to do with religion, but a little bit different perspective at each one of the places, Bethel of course means the house of God. And it was there that, that Jacob had encountered God and it was there that Jacob's life took a very sudden and dramatic change. And so Bethel became associated with meeting God and being transformed as a result of that, meet with God. Now that's what should have happened to the people. However, they were not transformed after their pilgrimage to, to Bethel, they went back and they were totally unchanged. It was business as usual. And so the, the p pilgrimage to Bethel made no difference in their life. And there was beer, Sheba, and this was the place associated with Abraham Isaac and Jacob. And it had to do with God saying I will be with you, meaning that he would be walking with them in their life. And it was also associated with Joseph. And it's so very clear that God was with Joseph. We quoted you some scriptures from out of the book of, of Genesis, regardless of whether Joseph was in prison, or working for Potiphar or being elevated to the second highest position in the nation God was with him regardless of circumstance. However, the question to Amos was, was the pilgrimage to, to Bethel and, or to Beersheba showing any of the fruits of God being with these people. Well, the answer to him was, was no, was God really walking with them? And again, he could not see any evidence, wouldn't it show in their life? Could their claim be real that they were walking with God? Well, he says, no, there is no reality there on Gilgal, the association is with possession of the land. Well, that has much to do with, with you and me in regard to possession of an eternal inheritance in the kingdom of God. Now, do we really have eternal inheritance in the Kingdom of God? Is there fruit to show that we do? How can a person be sure that they have eternal possession? I mean, right now, is it possible to be sure that, that we have it? Well, the answer to that is yes, it is possible because there will be evidence that will be shown and we will see that Amos details, that evidence and it's very similar to what we saw in the other two sections that they did not show the evidence that he felt ought to be there. OK. Verse 21. He says, I hate this is God speaking. I despise your feast days and I do not savor your sacred assemblies. And though you offer me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them. Nor will I regard your fatted peace offerings. Take away from me, the noise of your songs for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instrument but let justice run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream. Did you offer me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness? 40 years? Oh House of Israel. You also carry sick with your king and child, your your idol, the star of your God, which you made for yourselves. And therefore, I will send you into captivity beyond Damascus says the Lord whose name is the God of hopes. I think that you would agree that that God is indicating that they had a wealth of religion, festival, sacrifice, music. Does that sound like religious services? Certainly it does. There is also an indication that they took these, these things very seriously almost as if they were commanded by law. Is it possible that some of these people were keeping these things on God's Holy days? Well, I really think not from what we see in that section, we will possibly mention that as we, as we go back over it. And from what we know that, that jeroboam the first did and that he inserted holy days that were different from the ones that were celebrated in Jerusalem because he did not want the people to go down to Jerusalem. So they had different holy days. But whatever the holy days were, they religiously kept them, they, they were zealous about their pursuit of what, what God they were worshiping. They were wholehearted and I think that they were sincere, but it's very evident that they did not impress God positively. But you have to ask the question if there is a religious zeal and yet it doesn't impress God. What good is it? Well, I think the answer to that is self evident. It's no good at all. But we know historically that these people did not turn from what they were doing, they continued to go in the direction that they had always, let's say, quote unquote gone in and that the preaching of Amos, at least at that time had no apparent effect in turning the people away from the direction that they were going in and yet all their sincerity and all their wholeheartedness, all of the zeal did not profit them. It actually produced an animosity in the God that they were supposed to be worshiping. Ok. Now, where did it fail? And where it failed has something to do with the answer to whether or not we can know whether we now possess eternal inheritance in the kingdom of God. I mean, right here and now, well, I mentioned this to you the last time that there is a play on words here that, that Amos is actually making a pun on the name Gilgal. The answer you see is in verse 24 or let's say the beginning of the answer, the skeleton of it, say the word. But that directly connects it with what proce precedes it. It is put in, in opposition to what precedes it. They were not doing this but let justice run down like water. Now what was missing in their, in their religiosity was justice. We'll get to that in just a little bitso that we can define what, what Amos meant by justice. Justice was missing. Now, the word Gil Gal appears in that sentence. It's in the words of my translation, run down your Bible may, may have role. Now, this is mentioned in Joshua five and verse nine, that Gilgal got its name from the circumcision that took place as they were entering into the land out of the wilderness. They encamped at Gilgal and there Joshua ordered the circumcision of all of the males born after they got into the wilderness. You know, those all of those males who were not circumcised while they were either in Egypt or in the wilderness. And so God then said that on this occasion, that is the circumcision, I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt and thus Gilgal was named, rolled away. See that's what it means in English, rolled away. The reproach of Egypt was rolled away through the circumcision. OK? Now you gotta think about that, that circumcision indicates repentance when a person repents his sins are rolled away and the reproach of those sins are rolled away. God is one who says, he circumcises the heart. You see, he rolls away as it were the hardness of heart. OK? Now, there he says, let justice roll down like water. OK? Now what he was saying is this, that all of their religiosity, all of these pilgrimages to the shrine, all of the festivities, all of the songs, you know, all of the stringed instruments, all of the wholeheartedness, all of the costliness of the sacrifices that none of that was going anywhere in a practical way. It was entertainment. I do not know how else to put it. It had no practical outlet to it. They went to Gilgal to get religious and when they returned home, they left it behind. You see, it stayed there at yoga. The pilgrims rolled into Gilgal if we can put it, put it that way. But justice did not roll back into the cities and towns and villages and countrysides that they came from. It did not roll back into life. Ok. Now, look at verse 22 in verse 21 I hate, I despise your feast days and I do not savor your sacred assemblies. And though you offer me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them. You might recall back in Ephesians five and it's around verse one or two. Paul talks about the sacrifice of our life being a sweet savor to God. It's though a fragrant odor is, is assembling uh ascending before God and he loves it. You see, he smells it and it looks good and he appreciates the sacrifice of our lives, but he does not appreciate the sacrifice that these people are making. So obviously, their sacrifice to him is a stench. Their religion stank. Well, that's, that's quite a contrast to what you see in other parts of the Bible. Whenever Noah got off the arc, you can read this in Genesis eight in verse 21. 1 of the first things that he did was, was offer a sacrifice to God. And it says so plainly in there that the odor was well pleasing to God, meaning that it was accepted before him and he acknowledged the religion if I can put it that way of Noah, that he rejected the religion of these people. So Noah's religion as represented in the sacrifice that ascended before God was acceptable and well pleasing these people offered the same kind of sacrifices and God hated it. Now, you have to, I think come to the logical conclusion that though they were offering the same sacrifices, there was a difference and the difference must have been in the people. It was not the sacrifice, it was the difference between Noah and the people of Amos's Day. OK. Now what is justice? Now back in, in verse seven of this same chapter, he mentioned justice here Amos 57. He says, you who turn justice to Wormwood. And in verse 15, this is connected to the same basic section section. He says, hate evil, love, good, establish justice in the gate. Now, there is a connection there between hating evil and loving good that, that establishes justice in the gate. Now, these people were turning justice into wormwood just the opposite of what was supposed to be done. Now, connecting that with verse 15, then you have to come to the obvious conclusion that loving evil and hating good produces wormwood rather than justice, but hating evil and loving good, just the opposite produces justice. Ok? Loving, loving good then leads to the establishment of justice. Now we can begin to arrive at a, at a decision as to what justice is that he's talking the kind of justice that he is talking about here and he is not directly talking about justice in the courts that would be involved, but it is not directly involved. It is a secondary issue. He is talking about right behavior in relation to people. We'll show that a little bit clearer here in our justice in this sense is being fair. Now, courts are supposed to be fair and evenhanded in the administration of the law. We, we recognize that. But what about, let's say in more practical aspects of our relationships with people in our homes, on the streets, in business. You see, I in the world of commerce shouldn't the average citizen be just as interested in justice there as in justice in the courts. Now, what is he talking about here? What he's talking about is the golden rule. Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. Everybody wants to be treated fairly, everybody wants to be treated well good. They want to be pleased by others. When a person does that, he is loving good. He is hating evil. It is not fair to treat people evil. See, it is not justice to treat people evilly. It is fair. It is justice to treat people in the same way that you would like to be treated with respect, with honesty, with integrity, with fairness. Now in chapter six and in verse 12, which we will eventually get to tonight, he shows something else here. Do horses run on rocks. There is one plow there with oxen yet you have turned justice into gall or into wormwood, a poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood. Now, those two phrases there regarding justice are connected. It is a common Hebrew way of emphasizing something. The fruit of righteousness is justice. Justice is something that is produced by righteousness. We're getting to the root here of, of a major portion of their problem with God. OK. Back to chapter five again, in verse seven, you who turn justice to wormwood and lay righteousness to rest in the earth. Now, righteousness and justice are not exactly the same things we just saw in chapter six and verse 12, that justice was produced by righteousness. It is the fruit. It is an effect of righteousness. Now, we define justice as being something that is done in a practical way. You see, it is fair treatment, not just in courts, but is fair treatment and fair dealing in every aspect of life, but it is the fruit of righteousness. Now, verse seven, that last phrase and lay righteousness to rest in the earth gives us an indication of what righteousness is. It isLet me, let me explain something here. The picture that he is drawing here in regard to righteousness on that last phrase of verse seven is as though it is something that is thrown down. Now, the my new King James kind of softens it by saying it was laid to rest. The righteousness is laid to rest the Hebrew though is a little bit stronger. It's that it really is better that righteousness is thrown down. OK. Now, what he is telling you here is he is describing righteousness as though it was a standard, a flag, a banner, something of that nature that is thrown to the earth. OK? Now, what are we talking about here when we put it into the moral and spiritual thing, justice is correct. Moral practice. It is the practical application, righteousness is the cultivation. You see cultivation means the attending at something in order to produce growth, you know, like the ground is cultivated in order for seeds to germinate and produce fruit, righteousness is the cultivation of correct moral principle. You see it is the principle upon which justice is founded. OK. Now it becomes very clear when you add to this Psalm 119 in verse 172 thy commandments are righteousness. Ok? Now what was he saying there in Amos 75? And in verse seven, he was saying that the standards are being thrown to the ground. You see the commandments, all of the moral principles upon which a nation should operate. They were not being cultivated instead some kind of species code of living, apart from the word of God, the Torah, the law of God, the teaching of God, those things were thrown aside and instead what they were doing was practicing what we would call today a situation ethic. You see where a person allows his conscience to be his guide or whatever happened, to feel good at the moment seemed right at the moment. But you see the right moral principles were not being cultivated. And as a result, there was no justice. People were not being treated fairly, business practices were corrupt, ethical values were just thrown out the window. It was practically anything goes. You see, you get yours while the getting is good. You know, that's what was going on. Ok. Now, what good was it for them to go to Gilgal and sing and maybe dance? Have a good time. Leave the place emotionally lifted, having enjoyed it to the hilt. But then go back home and it was the same old way of life as you see. Just like in Bethel, there was no transformation, just like in Beersheba, they gave every evidence that, that God was not with them because there was no repentance, there was no change taking place in these people's lives. So justice is outward in practice. It's fairness, it's doing unto others as you would have others do unto you. Now, we tend to think of that in terms of, of maybe just in terms of law, you can't stop there. It has to do with such things as being neat orderly. Have you ever seen the sides of our roads, garbage dumps? Is that fair? I wonder how much it costs us every year to clean up the sides of the highways. It means being considerate such things as, as the, the attitude you drive in and the conduct in which you drive in. Maybe there is no law of God directly involved in your driving. But is not it fair? Isn't it justice to be considerate of others? Certainly, it has to do with being thoughtful. It has to do with being gracious. It has to do with being tactful and discreet. It begins to envelop all of these things that have to do with doing unto others as you would have others do unto you. Because they are all founded on the righteous principles of God's law that once those things stop being cultivated in order that they might grow, then justice begins to leap and there is no fairness. And so justice is outward, righteousness is inward. And that righteousness, of course means what is right with God, you see all thy commandments are righteousness. And so if there is righteousness with God, then what Amos is saying that about the flow right into practice in society. And so there is the probe that these people do not have eternal inheritance of the land because their contact with God is not producing justice in the streets. They aren't walking with God. They haven't been transformed by God. I saw an interesting little cliche in this regard. Let's go to, to Jeremiah seven connected to a scripture, what we are reading about in Amos, I I it just kept getting repeated generation after generation. And finally, it just got to the place, you know where the land could not stand it any longer and it, the land vomited the inherit the inhabitants out in Jeremiah. We see a picture just at a later date. I if Amos was prophesying about 760 62 BC. Jeremiah came along between roughly 625 BC. That was about 100 and 40 years later. And he lasted of course until Judah went into captivity. But in Jeremiah seven and in verse 11, notice this complaint that God has, has this house, meaning the temple in Jerusalem, which is called by name, become a den of thieves in your eyes. Behold, I even I have seen it says the Lord. Ok, now what is a den of thieves? What is AD if you think of it in terms in terms of an animal, that's where the animal lives. That's where he goes for peace and security. He gets away from his enemies there and that's where he has his little family or whatever. Well, a den of thieves would be a place where thieves go for companionship, fellowship and security. We said you've turned the temple into a den of THS you know what was happening here, little bit of a play on words here that these people were going to the temple to pray and then they left the temple and they prayed on the people. They went to the temple and pr a wide and then they left the temple and pr e wide. That's what Amos is saying here. No justice. Well, that's the way it was with Gilgal. Ok, back to Amos five. So it, it begins to become abundantly clear that God is looking for people who will turn their energies to him. You see, they will turn their energies to him abundantly and perpetuate all the time. The end of verse 24 you know, let justice run down like water and righteousness, like a mighty stream, like a a mountain stream rushing from, you know, the cold waters of a glacier on the top, melting away, meaning abundantly and perpetually running, never running dry. So we could let righteousness and justice do that. It is the responsibility of God's people. Always to cultivate, cultivate, write principle in order that justice can flow or roll down. That's the responsibility of the church to make sure that we are teaching the people right principle that we are cultivating right principle in order that justice, fairness, equity, doing unto others as you would have others do unto you. So that there will be right, social and moral practice. Otherwise religion is pointless. And that's why God was rejecting this. It was an exercise in futility. Now, the Gil Galleons, they kept their religion in a box and the box was in Gilgal. So they went up and they came back, but the religion stayed there in yoga and it did not come back into society. So verse 24 is actually an appeal to these people to repent. But let justice run down. He's giving them an opportunity. If you'll repent, we do not want to ever get too far from the idea that's running through here. He is, he is introducing the day of the Lord. It is going to come on these people. Now let's go back to verse 22 and pick up something there, actually something that is missing and this will give you some sort of an idea of what was wrong. It really begins to clarify it though. You offer me burnt offerings and your grain offerings. I will not accept them nor will I regard your faded peace offerings. Can you see anything that's missing there? Anybody have an idea. Right? There is no mention of the sin offering. Now that teaches us something, the absence of the sin offering indicates that they were not in contact with God. Because if God had been there in their lives, he surely would have pointed out to them where they were wrong and they would have repented. No, it's entirely possible. I do not think that it's going to be too accusative to say, but even the offerings that they were making should have brought them into contact with God. If they were done with any kind of a of an insight into the reality of God. Because what does the burn offering teach you and me? It teaches complete total devotion to the Creator. He completely burned up, completely devoted to God. What does the cereal offering see, the grain offering, the meal offering, the meat offering is, it's called in, in the old King James. It teaches you total dedication and service of man, sacrificing yourself there. And then the peace offering, it talks about fellowship upward to God and outward to man. Because God, the priest and the man and the person giving, the offering all shared in a common meal. So here was fellowship that was going up to God and also out to our fellow mankind. Now, surely if they had understood those things, it would have resulted in contact with God if they had followed through with what the commandments were teaching them. But you can see they were not devoted to God in the keeping of the first four commandments. They were not devoted to fellow man in the keeping of the sixth commandment. They were not in true fellowship with either God or man as shown in the peace offering. And therefore, they could not see their sins. They were not viewing the holiness of God and comparing themselves to it. If they had, they would have seen that they needed to make change. But instead they were judging themselves against other men. And as a result, there was no need of repentance. So again, you see their religious, their religion was pointless. I will not accept them. Ok. Now, in verse 25 did you offer me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness? 40 years? Oas of Israel. Now, I am sure that as that question was asked, when Amos stood there in Samaria, they shook their heads. Yes. And maybe some of the bolder of them said yes, out loud because Israel did offer sacrifice in the wilderness. But there must have been more to Amos's question there more than just appears on the surface. Now, think about this was Amos just willing to make a straight swap here that if these people would give up their religion for a right epic, that everything would be all right. No, II, I do not think that that is really what he had in mind. Israel did sacrifice in the wilderness. But is this all they did or was there more connected to the sacrifices than just that, you know, Mount Sinai? I do not want you to think of just the mountain. I want you to think of what happened at Mount Sinai. That was not just a casual stop on the way toward the promised land. What happened at Mount Sinai was the climax of the Exodus. The exodus was not the climax. What happened at Mount Sinai was the climax. Now pass over was the moment and the means of their redemption. See what happened at Passover. They killed a lamb and they put the blood on their door post. And the effect of that was that when the death angel passed through and slew the first born everywhere, the blood was the people were spared. God was saving, he was redeeming, he was buying back his people. And so Passover was the moment and the means of their redemption being kept safe by the blood of the lamb. Now back to verse 25 did Israel sacrifice in the wilderness. Yes, they did. Now what Amos is reconfirming is that sacrifice the offering of blood. The shedding of blood is a foundational necessity for a relationship with God. They were sacrificing. But is that all that they did? Now see he is implying here that the Israelites and Amos Day were sacrificing but something was missing. Now that's the importance of Mount Sinai because Mount Sinai added the other portion of the equation, redemption by the blood of a lamb, all by itself is not sufficient to secure salvation. Mount Cyan, I adds the other factor, Israel came there after being redeemed, they heard the law, they assented to the law. The law was given to show the pattern of life, those principles of righteousness, the law was given to show a pattern of life for the redeem. So on the one side, there is red law and obedience and these two are harmonious, they cannot be separated. Did Israel sacrifice in the wilderness? Yes, they did. But was that all they did is the unasked question. Now, if we would go back to Exodus 29 we are not going to do that. But there God is telling Israel beginning in verse 43 that he is going to dwell in the Tabernacle and specifically the Holy of Holies is going to be his home. That's where he's going to live. Now, what is in the holy of hos. It's important to understand this symbolism, the most important piece or instrument, furniture, whatever you want to call it, that was inside the Holy of Holies was the mercy seat. The mercy seat was nothing more than a chest, had a lid on the top of it. The lid was the seat when you opened up the lid and you looked what was inside the ark, what would you have seen? You had have seen the two tables of stone. It's as if God was sitting on his law and that was the basis of his judgment. Whenever a person sins, he begins to separate himself from communion and fellowship with God. It's as though the relationship you see is being broken, the person is no longer permitted as it were to come into the Holy of Holies there. Now, what means has God provided to heal the broken relationship in order that the fellowship can continue? Ok, Laviticus, 60 excuse me, Leviticus, 16, the Day of Atonement. One time a year, the curtain was drawn back and the high priest went into the Holy of Holies with blood and that blood was then sprinkled on the mercy seat. And the intention of that symbol of that ritual. That ceremony was to show the people that their transgressions of that basic law was healed, covered by the blood. And so the redeemed were once again in fellowship with God. So you see, there are two parts, two absolutely essential parts to the maintenance of the fellowship with God, to the maintenance of the walk together to the maintenance of the contact with God that produces transformation, blood for redemption, blood for the covering of transgressions and law symbolizing moral obedience in order to maintain the correct relationship with God. Now in Leviticus 19 2, the law is permanent. We're not going to be turning to it. It is God's nature that is spelled out in precepts so that we can understand it more clearly obedience. So that law is a perpetual requirement with blood available to cover the occasional transgressions. Now turn with me to first John in first John chapter two and then verse one, my little children see here is the New Testament, application, not application but explanation or whatever of what I just explained. My little children, these things I write to you that you may not send and if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ, the righteous and he himself is the propitiation. I think it was Mr Flynn gave this definition, the appeasing force for our sins, not ours only, but also for the whole world. So on the one hand, we have blood to pay for the transgressions, but we have law to spell out for us. The perpetual requirement of obedience to God. God wants sacrifice and obedience, not a religious game these people were playing as far as God was concerned was nothing more than a game. A purely ceremonial religion will never safeguard the truth. That's what they had. It was all ceremony and sincerity, but truth had gone by the boards. Now, back to Amos five and verse 26 you also carried Siku, your king and chun your idols, the star of your gods, which you made for yourselves. Amos is really sticking the sword right in them. There he is accusing them of being equally punctilious with pagan idols as they were in making sacrifices to God. Ok? Now, he's telling you there what they were actually worshiping at Bethel Beersheba and Gilgal. That's what they were worshiping was not the God, the Creator. It was this sicko and child gods that they made for themselves. God said they had exchanged the Creator God for man made deities. So the ritual of the shine shrine was completely divorced from the truth. So it's no wonder that that God would not accept God will not be mocked. We can't fool Him. He will not accept that kind of worship. Ok? The evidence of true religion. This is how you know, whether or not you have eternal inheritance of the land, whether you have eternal life. The evidence of true religion is that it will reach out and it will touch and it will purify every area of life because God is faithful in correcting in mercy, his children, and he will correct his children with great pain if they will not turn because he loves them. But if we are really in contact with the true God, change will take place when God is in a person's life. He makes a difference now that takes place gradually because we grow. And so the evidence of true holiness is obedience to his word. So there is two factors involved in knowing whether you have eternal life. Number one, are you covered by the blood of Jesus Christ? And number two, are you obeying God to the best of your understanding? Oh, none of us ever obey to the extent of our knowledge because our knowledge is always outrunning our ability. It's always that our knowledge, the knowledge comes first and the ability to do it comes later. And so that always puts us on a little bit of a guilt trip because we know we are not living up to what we know. But I'll tell you that kind of guilt is not wrong. It's only when we become neurotic about it. If it was not for guilt, we wouldn't change. Guilt is good and do not let anybody tell you that it is not good. Guilt makes us change. It's only when guilt becomes neurotic that it becomes bad and destructive. Today, they are trying to take the guilt out of everything. Well, I'll tell you that's a sure sign of complacency. A anything goes no need to feel guilty. Live it up. Why have any hang ups about things and when God's around, he's going to make you feel guilty. And when you stop to think about it, this was a major factor in, in why they killed Christ. They could not stand to be in his presence, he made them feel guilty because he was moral, he was righteous and they did not like. Ok. Chapter six, a little bit of a preface here, as we go into this, one of the major problems that we have to overcome in Bible study is our, our failure to see a pattern or an overall so whole in a book. And partly this is because even the way we preach a very seldom in a sermon, do we go through a whole book most of the time, what we are doing is we are just extracting a verse here and extracting two or three verses there. And we are by we, I mean, the ministry, we are stringing things together by topic or subject rather than what we are doing here in going through a Bible study. Now, the bad effect of this is that we tend to look at the Bible as isolated bits and pieces rather than a whole. We also tend to look at individual books this way as well. So we ex we, we learn a verse or two out of the book of Amos. Almost everybody knows Amos 37. You see an N and so that might be the only thing we remember in Amos is one isolated verse. And so we tend to look, you see at the whole Bible is nothing more than isolated verses, but it was not written that way. The Bible was written in an unusual way different from what most men would do. But each book has a flow to it. It has a story that it's telling and it is, once you begin to see it, they are very logically beautifully organized and, and put together, I think partly one of the reasons we have trouble with this is, is because it was translated from another language into English. And it is a language that is no longer used. And so its cadences and the way things, its reasoning processes are different from ours. And so we have difficulty in a way, even though we are reading English, it's, it's almost like reading another language. Well, there are reasons now was the prophet was Amos conscious of of having a message from God. I think he was. Now, wouldn't you think that a man conscious of having a message would also be striving to put things in order that would make that message have as powerful an impact as possible? I, I think that he would, he wouldn't want it to be there that he would be a man driven to make his point as clear as he possibly could because he would want to get the totality of the truth that had been entrusted to him out to these people so that they would have an opportunity to repent. OK. Now, what we are going to do here is we are going to go back just a little bit in Amos, we are not going to go into a great deal of detail, we are going to go back far enough. Well as, as far as we need to, because chapter six is the end of a section, not the end of a book, but it is the conclusion. It's the climax of this section. This section began back in chapter threewe are going to go back a little bit further than that because even at the end of the first section, he was beginning to lay the groundwork for the next section. So back in chapter two, well, actually let's go all the way back to the beginning from the beginning, chapter one, up until chapter two. And in verse three, he began laying the groundwork by showing the sins of the nations surrounding Israel. And he undoubtedly got the Israelites attention by doing that because they could begin to ha ha ha ha ha. You know, they could point you see at these terrible heathens who are out there doing these, these awful things. Well, then beginning in chapter two and in verse three or four there and on up to chapter three, and in verse eight, he shows Israel sense and we find that in principle, they are exactly the same as the heathen sins. In actual practice, it was somewhat different, but in reality, it was based on the same principle of sin. So now he should have them by the neck and they are beginning to get angry if they are understanding at all what he's saying that they are no better than the heathen. In fact, they are worse off than the heathen because these are the redeemed of God. They are the covenant people and they should know better. OK. And in chapter three, and in verse nine, three, verse 15, shorten this down a little bit. That's the introduction to the theme, or we might say the characteristic theme of this section and that is an invading foe is coming, an invading foe is coming. Now he shows in verse 11 what it's being caused by, by actually, verses nine through 11, we see tumults oppression, they do not know what to do, right? They store up violence and robbery in their palaces. We see social problems. In verse 12, he talks about personal problems in verses 13 through 15, he talks about the religious conditions. See that's where the first mention of Bethel came in verse 14. He talks about the altar. Then beginning in chapter four, he moves a little bit further into the, to the heart of the problem. He begins to show that the inner motivation of self pleasing, they only wanted to please themselves, made them what they were socially and personally and religiously that what we see on the outside was being generated from the inside and what it was that they wanted was to please themselves. And then he went on to show that what they were socially personally and reg religiously was exposing them to the God's wholehearted opposition. Ok. Now each of these last two sections. Chapter three, verses 14 and 15, in chapter four, verses four and five climaxed on the question of religion that L yoga and Beersheba. Ok. Now, what could be more incredible to a religious people and to tell them that it was their religion that was earning them God's hearty disapproval that wouldn't go oo over very well. Ok. Now, in chapter four, beginning in verse six through 13, Amos explains, explains that any religion that is organized for pleasing the self is going to be defective toward God because there is no, there will be no repentance and toward man that is, there will be no justice. Ok. Now he expounds on that a little further in chapter five verses 77 through 15 and then also verse 24. OK. Now we are up to chapter six. Chapter six. He moves toward the conclusion about the incoming foe. And in chapter six, we are going to see what the real real problem is. The, what we are seeing is, is Amos moving from the outside in it's really cleverly written. See, he began all the way outside of Israel. Then the next step was to move inside the borders and show the, the social and personal conditions and religious conditions within the nation. And he showed that they were the same as the heathen. Then he takes one step inside the people. And he says your problem is that all of these things, society the justice system, business, commerce, banking, education, everything is built on the basis of pleasing the self. Now he's going to take one step further inside and he's going to show him where the real problem is. Now, we know of course, that it has something to do with God. And once you see the answer, it, it's so plain and it's something that, of course, we need to examine ourselves about too. This is written to the, to the covenant people. So chapter six is the final reminder for this section of the fearful significance of religious error. And what was their error? Very important to you and me? Ok. Now let's go back to the book of Romans in chapter 10. It's a verse that I mean, mentioned in the sermon last Sabbath or at least referred to it in Romans 10 in verses one through three. Paul writes brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved where I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. It's important, not according to knowledge. Were they being ignorant of God's righteousness? Remember, we were talking about the standards not being cultivated. Were they being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submit to the righteousness of God? Ok. Israel was and is zealous religiously or zealously religious. That's, that's better. Ok. Now, their error in Amos's Day, it's I do not think it's so much that todaybut I, I would have to say that this is, this is part of religion in America. But their error was that they isolated two components that are indeed necessary for religion, but they isolated them away. And they made a religion based on these two things. They acted as if nothing else mattered. Ok. Now those two factors are sincerity. Do they have a zeal for God and ceremony? They attended the services? They went through the ritual, they did the sacrifice, they went through the motions. Now, we saw from chapter five that they had, they had the sacrifices down pretty well. They were probably about 99% correct. They were doing the burn offering, the meal offering and they were doing the peace offering and they undoubtedly were doing it right. I do not think that we should doubt their sincerity because here is the Bible telling that the Israelites in Paul's Day were zealously religious. And I think that Paul was implying that they were sincere. The Apostle Paul said that about himself in Philippians. The third chapter, you know where he said that I was a Hebrew of the Hebrews and as far as the law concerned, he was righteous. He was a zealous man. And I think his fellow Pharisees were the same way. And so were the sad you see in, in, in their way as well. We look back in Amos's Day, the indication is those people were flocking to the shrines. We look in the United States and we find a fairly religious people, many churches not as well attended as they used to be. Nonetheless, there is a great deal of religion. Now, let's go to John, the fourth chapter John for in verse 23. Now let's go to verse 21. Jesus said to her, the woman at the well, believe me, the hour is coming. When you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father, you worship you what you do not know. I think we could say the same thing for the Israelite. Their worship is not according to knowledge, they are not cultivating the righteousness of God. You worship what you do not know. We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming. And now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth where the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth. OK? Now, the truth part of it is very evident to us, at least in, in terms of understanding what that is. Spirit can mean two basic things here that is we worship Him by through by means of the spirit of God that our worship of Him is spiritual. It would also include though the aspect of sincerity, having to do with the heart, the enthusiasm, the zeal. We say that team has spirit. See, we are saying at least basically, or at least partially what Jesus is intending there that those who worship God are going to have to do it in sincerity with enthusiasm and zeal by the, by the spirit of God by means of it and truth. Ok. Now, Psalm 51 putting pieces together here and it almost looks to me by the clock that I'm not going to get to Israel's real, real problem. I'll let you study that. And by the time you come back next week, we will see if you have the answer. Ok? In Psalm 51 and verse 16, David, at the end of his prayer says, for you do not desire sacrifice or else I would give it. Now, we know that God commanded the sacrifices. What, what's the problem? These people were giving sacrifices? And God was not pleased with them. You do not desire sacrifice or else I would give it. You do not delight in burnt offerings. Well, yes, he does. But let's understand David's point. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. Well, there is that word spirit again, a broken and contrite heart. These o God, you will not despise and yet he despised their sacrifices. You're beginning to see it's not the sacrifices themselves. It's what is, what's in the heart of the people. Ok? Now, these people in Amos's Day made an end in the ceremonies rather than the ceremonies, merely being a means. They should have gone through the ceremonies. It was part of the ritual, it was part of obedience to God. But what good is a sacrifice? If the person making the sacrifice is a stench in God's nostril, the sacrifice cannot make up for what the person is. It is acceptable to God only with the understanding, correct, understanding truth of what the ceremony is intended for and the person has adjusted his life to meet God's approval. Now, let's go back to the book of Galatians in Galatians three and in verse 24 Galatians 324. Therefore, the law was our tutor or schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. He's talking about the sacrificial law. See, this was the, this was the purpose, this was the end toward which the law was pointed. They made an end of the sacrifice. It was intended by God to be a means to produce something it should have produced. As David said, a contrite spirit, it should have produced wholehearted obedience to God. It should have produced justice fairness, doing unto unto others as you would have others do unto you. It should have produced those things. It was a schoolmaster, a tutor. It was supposed to teach them how to be Christ like that. We might be justified by faith. No, it, it was not doing that. Ok. Now their religion did not arise from what God is. See, that's spelled out in words, in the law, it tells us what God is and that's foundational. You cannot take that away, you take away the law of God and you remove the cultivation of righteousness. And so those people had no justice because there was no righteousness, there was nothing inward to provide right guidance in order for there to be justice. Now, the true religion is based on what God is and the law spells that out, neither did their religion take into account what man is and what man can be. See, they used people to their own ends to please themselves. Those who had the power to do so, they took advantage. They were not doing unto others, they were doing to others before the others did it to them. You see, because they took away the righteousness of God as described by the law, they had no guidance. They were not cultivating right principle. And so their religion was not based on what God is or what man is. You see a creation of God or what man could be. He can be very God. Their religion was based on the same thing that their social system and their personal life was based on, they were pleasing themselves. Give me that old time religion. It was good enough for daddy. It's good enough for me. Ok. Now, the central theme of chapter six is retribution, getting paid back, earning their reward. And it is based on the eye for an eye principle. Now, many fail to understand this. They think that an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is cruel and barbaric and inhuman. And so they reject it, the brethren. It is a Godly system. It's what God gave to the Israelites. It is his system of justice. Now, since they have no justice in the land, God's going to pay them back, there is going to be retribution to them the way or in equal measure to the way they have treated others. Now, I bring this to your attention because God, if He is not merciful can use the same system against us because again, remember we are the covenant people. And if there is anybody who should know it's us, know the truth of God. Let's go back to Exodus 21 in Exodus 21 and verse 23. Let's go back to verse 21 so that we can get a little bit better of the context. 22. If men fight and hurt a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely yet no lasting harm follows. He shall surely be punished accordingly as the woman's husband imposes on him and he shall pay as the judges determine it's important. But if any lasting harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth, for tooth, hand, for hand, foot, for foot, burn for burn wound, for wound, stripe, for stripe. Ok. This is something coming from God it is the way to administer justice in the courts. I want you to notice that, that this is his court justice system. And let's go to Leviticus 24 and verse 19, if a man causes disfigurement of his neighbor as he has done, so shall it be done to him? Fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth, for tooth as he has caused disfigurement of a man. So shall it be done to him? And it goes on then they are about animals. Deuteronomy 19 and in Deuteronomy 19 and in verse 16, if a false witness rises against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing, then both men in the controversy shall stand before the Lord before the priests and the judges who serve in those days and the judges shall make diligent inquiry. And indeed, if the witness is a false witness who has testified falsely against his brother, then you shall do to him as he thought to have done to his brother. So shall you put away the evil person from among you? And OK, verse 20 those who remain shall hear in fear and hereafter they shall not again commit such evil among you. Your eye shall not pity but life for life. Eye for eye tooth, for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. OK. Now this is the basis for rendering court decisions or judgments. It is the safeguard of equal handed, even justice, Eye for eye tooth for tooth. What it is saying is that crime and punishment must be equally balanced. Now, it is wrong to think that they literally gouged a person's eye out if that person indeed caused the loss of an eye in another person. That is not what they did. If somebody caused a person to break his leg, they did not put that person's leg over a stump and then whack it with, with a baseball bat and break his leg. He did not do that kind of thing. They do basically the same things as we do in our courts. The judge made a decision based upon damage done that was equal to the damage done. That is he find the person or he sentenced the person, he caused that person to have to pay a price or to be interred or whatever it was that they did, the person who was injured was compensated equal to what the judge felt the injury was worth. Now, let's go back to Matthew. And uh, I think that we will finish up here at least for this week in Matthew five as Jesus mentions the eye for an eye principle in Matthew five. And in verse 38 he says, you have heard that it was said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth that I tell you not to resist an evil person, but whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other other to him also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic. Let him have your cloak also. And while we do not need to go any further there, now some think that Jesus was doing away with the eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth principle. No, he was not. Look back in chapter five and verse 17, do not think that I came to destroy the law and the prophets, we just read out of the law, the eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth principle. Jesus was not coming to do away with that principle of even handed justice. What he was doing here was correcting an abuse whereby the principle, the eye for an eye principle was being advocated as a means of settling personal disputes, you know, within a relationship. In other words, they were not going to court, they were taking justice into their own hands. Sometimes we become frustrated with the court system. And I think the court system today is a frustrating factor in our lives. We think that so frequently people get off far too easily than they should. And what happens when people become frustrated enough, they begin to take justice into their own hands and they begin to inflict injury on one another apart from the courts, that's what he was correcting. No, you should not do that. He is saying that you should use the means that God has provided to do it within the court system. Is what Jesus is advocating here. The eye for an eye principle is for the court system. It is not something for you and me to take into our own hands and render a decision. And now one more factor here. And that is this, that this principle is just that it does not mean that a judge could not be merciful by evaluating circumstances and saying that because of thus and such. And so and so I render the following decision you see, which may be more liberal than we would like it to be. Remember, I mentioned God in relation to the eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth principle that he could use it against us. Yes, he could. That as a judge, he has basically decided to be merciful because of our ignorance. He has taken it into consideration because he could require our death spiritually, but he has not. And he has allowed the blood of Jesus Christ and our ignorance and considering the circumstance as a judge, he has decided to forego the eye for an eye and extend mercy though he has given the same liberty to judges in the lab. But nonetheless, the principle of judging as its foundation in equal justice as provided by equal payment for damage done. And that is called the Eye for an Eye or I think the Romans called it the lex talionis, but God had it first, it came from him
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