An Intimation of Hell

Father, thank you for your word. Thank you that you are a God who speaks.

We ask, Father, that you help us to be able to hear your word, to listen to your word.

We ask, Father, that your word would come into our lives in such a way that we will be free

and that we will bear much fruit in this world to your glory.

And this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.

Please be seated.

In the early days of, for the first three or four years of our marriage,

my wife and I always lived in a house with other people,

sort of a bit of a, I guess almost like a bit of a move-in type house before there was a move-in,

but we'd live in a poor type of area, live with some other Christian couples

and maybe at least try to pray with each other and do a few things in the neighborhood.

And in one of these cases, it was a house, there was us, Louise and myself, I think we had one or two kids.

There was another couple with a kid, I think, one kid, one child.

And I think there were two single people.

And the four of us came to the conclusion that the other married couple,

that there was just some really unacceptable behavior going on.

And we had to ask them to leave.

And from my point of view, regrettably, it was unanimous amongst three of the four of us

that I should be one to have the conversation with the other couple.

And so I prayed about it and asked the guy out for coffee.

And, you know, there's no way to hope that, by the way, you should move out of the house.

We'll just naturally come up in conversation.

So we sat down, and I can still remember, I sat down and I looked at him and said,

I almost said his name, call him Bob.

Bob, four of us think you have to move out, you and your wife and your child.

I mean, I don't know, there's just, I couldn't think of any, you just had to get right to the topic.

And you couldn't sort of beat around the bush or anything.

Sometimes with awkward conversations, you have to do that.

And so I guess, although I have sort of led you into it,

the text today is an intimation, a harbinger, a hint, a pointer to the reality of hell.

That's what Amos 8 is amongst other things.

It's an Old Testament text which lays the groundwork and points to the Christian doctrine of the reality of hell.

And that's a very, very, very, very, very, very, very unpopular topic in Canada, even amongst churches.

And so that's what we're going to look at.

So if you have your Bibles, open them up and we'll look at Amos 8.

And the text begins in a way that doesn't make it look like it's talking about hell at all.

In fact, it begins in a very, very, very odd way.

And just before we start reading Amos 8,

I mean, one of the things that people might say,

in fact, often it happens when Christians try to talk about how the Bible,

in this particular case, it's not really the doctrine of hell,

but it points to the reality of hell.

And it points to the doctrine that will be developed in the New Testament,

not the Old Testament, but in the New Testament.

And so people say, well, George, you know, you're just taking things out of context.

The Bible doesn't really teach this.

Like, George, it's all just filled with poetic imagery.

And here's the thing.

Here's the way the book of Amos is structured,

just so you understand that this isn't just something which is,

you know, George just has this, he's anal.

And, you know, he's getting really old, and he's getting more and more grumpy.

And so he just wants to talk about an anal grumpy thing.

It's not like that at all.

The way Amos is set up, there's three different parts.

The first two chapters is one part.

And it's very interesting.

It's a series of eight poems, or oracles.

And it talks about some besetting or main sins

of the six nations that surround Israel and Judah.

And then it talks about the sins of Israel and Judah.

So it's a general picture of how God is judge of both Israel, Judah, and all the nations.

And then in chapters three, four, five, and six, it's the second section.

It's a bit of a different literary structure, a bit of back and forward.

And some people comment that it's almost as if somebody's making a legal brief

and trying to say to Israel,

these are the things that are going on in your nation,

which are really, really, really wrong.

And it means that you're under God's judgment because of it.

And they're grouped around three types of things.

In chapters three, four, five, and six,

it's grouped around economic and political oppression and injustice.

And it's not just an anti-capitalist rant.

It's not just about government.

It's everything.

It's talking about how at the level of the culture,

at the level of government,

at the level of religious and spiritual institutions,

at the level of business,

and at the level of just private behavior,

that there's economic oppression and injustice that's going on

that God hates.

He hates it.

It goes completely against him.

And the second category of sins is false religion.

And the third category of sins is that their habit,

their ever-deepening habit of telling God to shut up,

to silence God.

And that's what goes on in chapters three, four, five, and six.

And in the third section of the book of Amos,

seven, eight, and nine,

it's organized around five visions.

And the visions are sort of talked about.

And chapter seven had three of them.

Chapter eight is all around the fourth vision.

And chapter nine, the first part of it,

is around the fifth vision.

So that's the context.

I'm not just taking this out of some type of context.

It's not a proof text.

Because I'm getting really old.

And, you know, maybe you think I'm anal and I'm getting grumpy.

And I probably am getting grumpy as I get older.

You can pray about that for me.

Nobody should want to get grumpier and grumpier as they get older, by the way.

And so here's the context.

And now after all this, you're going to go,

George, the beginning seems lame after that long introduction.

But it's important.

Listen to it.

Verse one.

In the first half of verse two.

This is what the Lord God showed me.

Right?

It's a vision.

Behold.

In other words, look.

Okay?

Whoa, look, look, look.

Okay?

A basket of summer fruit.

Lame, right?

After all that introduction.

A basket of summer fruit.

And God said, Amos, what do you see?

And I said, a basket of summer fruit.

And then we'll get to what the Lord says in a moment.

So here's the first thing about it.

The vision is something which actually, if anything, it's not, most people would see that.

Here's the thing about that.

I was thinking about that all this week.

Barbara Allen, she really likes it that two or three times a year we have special bulletin covers.

God bless her.

And I don't mind it.

One of them is Christmas.

One of them is Easter.

And the other one is Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving.

And so every Thanksgiving we have a special bulletin cover.

And in fact, a basket of summer fruit might very well be our bulletin cover.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if in churches in North America, on Thanksgiving Sunday, many of them have bulletin covers with baskets of summer fruit.

All of the nice produce, the fruit and the vegetables of the year, nice big basket, tasteful display.

In fact, many churches, when we used to have a church building, we would actually have, you know, pumpkins and fruit and all and all up at the front to decorate it for Thanksgiving Sunday.

So on one hand, it's a very, very innocuous image.

But this sort of, it's just a minor, I don't know, do I have points, Andrew?

You do.

Okay, so this is a very, very minor point, but it's really an important one to keep remembering, is that the Bible reports and interprets.

That's what the Bible is.

The Bible reports or records and it interprets.

And both parts of it's important.

The Bible tells us the things that God has done, how he created the world, how he delivered Egypt, how he made a covenant, how he, you know, destroys the Tower of Babel, how he sends Jesus.

And there's all these things that the Bible records God doing, but the Bible also interprets it.

Because as we know, it's very, very hard just from seeing something to be able to interpret what on earth it means.

And so we have this sort of surprising vision, a basket of like the end of the harvest and here's all of the harvest and it's really bountiful.

And it's a surprising vision.

Because it's easy to look at this and say, oh, it's a good thing.

It's going to be a hopeful vision.

It's filled with fruit and veggies.

But now it takes a very, very sudden and surprising turn.

And if you read verses, we'll read all of verse 2 and we'll read verse 3 again.

So we'll read verse 2 again.

And he said, Amos, what do you see?

And I said, a basket of summer fruit.

Then the Lord said to me, the end has come upon my people Israel.

I will never again pass by them.

The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day, declares the Lord God.

So many dead bodies.

They are thrown everywhere.

Silence.

Now partly, I didn't know this before I looked up, although the Bible, many of your Bibles have a little note that may be helpful.

In Hebrew, there's a bit of a play on words.

And the word in Hebrew for summer fruit and the word in Hebrew for the end are two different words.

But in spoken Hebrew, they sound the same.

So then in a conversation, you'd have to know from the context whether or not it's referring to summer fruit or the end.

And if it was written, you wouldn't have to know.

You would just know it by looking at it.

But spoken, it's a play on words.

And it's a very, very interesting vision because it's, I mean, with the play on words, it's a little bit, I guess, like how a comedian in his or her diatribe, they'll take a word out of one of the stories to segue into their next story or joke.

And then they'll take a word or a phrase from that to move into their next thing.

And that's, in a sense, what Amos is doing, what God is doing through the vision and through the interpretation.

But it's very, very interesting because, you see, it's partly the vision is dealing with the gap between Israel's self-perception and self-assessment and the reality.

And Israel really was very much in the year 750 BC or 740 BC.

It really was very much like Canada today.

It was a country where there's lots of different spiritualities, where there's still a type of formal religion.

It was a country that was very, very prosperous.

And it was a country that was very, very safe.

But it was safe and prosperous primarily by accident, just like Canada is.

I hope I don't offend you, but Canada is safe by accident.

If we had a border with Russia, we would have a very different country.

I mean, our military would be five times bigger, just to put it quite bluntly.

Might even have to be ten times bigger than what we currently have.

We really, in a sense, it's just because we have these really friendly, very prosperous neighbors to the south that we have a lot of our prosperity.

And we definitely have all of our safety.

And in Israel, it was the same thing at the time.

It was a very, very prosperous country and very safe.

And their safety really had to do just because of the fact that it came during several decades where there were internal problems in two big empires that were nearby.

That kept them preoccupied with each other and kept them worried about getting out of their own boundaries, lest the other one engage in a war.

And that was going to come to the end some 20 years or so after the writing of Amos, when in fact Assyria arose triumphant.

And in 722, maybe about 20 years after the writing of Amos, the northern nation, the nation of Israel, is invaded by Assyria.

And it's completely destroyed.

And there's no Jewish people left from that kingdom.

The people that Amos is speaking to, objectively, historically, some 20 years after the writing of Amos, ceased to exist.

After the Assyrian invasion.

So their self-perception is, and I think I talked about this last week, but this is true by coincidence.

I had to go to Vancouver and back this week for some denominational business.

And I was getting on the plane on Thursday.

And there's this young woman way up ahead.

And she had looked like she had like a two-year-old and a four-year-old.

And it looks like she was trying to get a two-year-old and a four-year-old by herself into a plane.

And so the whole lineup to get into the plane stops while she's trying to wrestle the kids, put them in the seats, get stuff up on bins.

And I'm just standing there holding my stuff.

And I'm in first class.

And I just look around.

And, oh, there's Beverly, the Supreme Court Justice of Canada, beside me with her husband, Frank.

Oh, sort of neat.

They're just sitting there working.

But here's the thing, right?

If you, I've said this before, how would, how, if when the Supreme Court meets, when the cabinet meets, when the mayor meets,

what is their perception of themselves spiritually and economically?

They would see us as being on the right path, things to still work on, as us being a prosperous nation, that things are going well.

It's a basket of summer fruit.

And God uses this vision to try to puncture by this wordplay to make them realize that their self-perception and self-assessment is completely different than the reality.

that, in fact, they're under God's judgment.

And so there's this very, very powerful image.

Nothing will ruin a yoga class more than God showing up.

Nothing will ruin the worship in many cathedrals than God showing up.

And one of the things we have to pray for ourselves is that if God shows up, it wouldn't ruin our day.

In fact, actually, I mean, I don't know what's going on in our hearts, but even the way that the Anglican worship is structured following the Book of Common Prayer,

it's that the model is in the first part of the service is that Jesus gathers his people.

And then God speaks to us by his word.

Then we enter into holy communion as we remember Jesus' death upon the cross and his mighty resurrection and the Lord's Supper that he instituted.

And then the Holy Spirit leads us out.

The whole way of the structure of the service is hopefully that we understand that it's Jesus who gathers us,

that God speaks to us, that we remember and receive grace as we partake of communion and think about Jesus,

and then the Holy Spirit leads us out.

But that's what happens here in verses 2 and 3 is that they're in worship and God shows up,

and it means wailing and death.

Because for many cathedrals and churches, the worst thing that could happen would be that God shows up.

Now, some of us might say, George, isn't this a little bit unfair of God?

Like, it seems a bit extreme.

It seems a little bit anal.

In fact, George, it seems really anal.

Not just a little bit, but a lot.

Well, remember, that's why I said at the beginning, you know,

here's how the book of Amos is structured of the three sections.

And the three visions that we looked at last week are also this God bearing witness to his people,

God speaking to his people about what's going on.

And the text itself helps us to remember these primary things that Amos,

that God has been speaking to Israel throughout all of Amos.

And it goes immediately into a time of remembering us.

If our reaction is, well, God shows up and it leads to all of this death and wailing,

and surely that seems a bit extreme.

Immediately, Amos, I mean, God, interpreting this vision.

Look at verses 4 to 6.

Hear this, you who trample on the needy,

and bring the poor of the land to an end.

Just actually pause here before we go any further.

The word for needy here, it's a very, very good word.

It could also be translated as weakling or underdog or powerless person.

And so needy is, you know, if you think about it, they're all good words.

Needy is a very, very good word.

Like some of you might say, George, I don't run Google.

I'm not a deputy minister in the government.

I'm not the Supreme Court, the head of the Supreme Court of Canada.

I'm not in Justin Trudeau's cabinet.

Like, I don't run a business.

I don't do any of these things.

And so it's easy for us to hear.

In fact, I've heard Amos preached,

where it just merely becomes an anti-capitalist rant.

In other words, the text is for other people to listen to rather than us.

But here's the question for each of us before we go any further.

How do we treat, or how in our history have we treated, weak people who can't do anything against us if we're mean to them?

Like in your office or in your class, is there a socially, or in your family,

is there a socially awkward person that nobody likes,

and people either talk about them behind their back,

or even to their face, do things that are mean and laugh at them?

And when that happens, do you rise to their defense?

Or do you let it happen?

When there's a chance at a party,

or at lunch,

do you make a point to seek out that socially awkward, weak person to sit with them?

Or are you worried that if you identify too closely

with the socially awkward, weak person,

it will affect your status?

Do you trample on

the weak?

Do I?

When I point to you,

I have three fingers pointing back at myself.

I'm not trying to say I'm somehow exempt.

Like in a moment,

I'm just going to talk about honesty.

Do we, when we try to

tell about what's going on

in the office,

or in school, or some other way,

do we exaggerate,

do we hide the popular person's faults,

or exaggerate what they've done in a good way?

Do we exaggerate our own

accomplishments,

and try to hide the things that we've done that are wrong?

Are we honest about that?

When we have a yard sale,

or we want to try to sell something on Kijiji,

do we misrepresent what we put on Kijiji,

and say,

oh yeah, it's lightly used,

it's only three years old,

and we don't tell them

that it actually came from a home daycare

with 20 completely and utterly out of control kids

who jumped on it?

In other words,

are we dishonest?

Because you know what?

Come on,

this is really worth it.

We should get at least another 50,

you know, 20,

10 bucks,

at least another 10 bucks.

Are we dishonest for just a couple of dollars?

And it's going to talk in a moment

about being in church

and thinking about other things.

And I'm not going to say that,

George,

you don't have to worry about that.

You're up there trying to remember your sermon.

You don't know what it's like to listen to you.

Good grief,

to listen to you,

to listen to you,

to listen to you.

George,

no wonder my mind is wandering.

You know,

I go to other services

and Bible studies

and other types of things

where other people are leading,

so I understand that it can be really hard.

But what does our mind drift to?

Often what our mind drifts to

reveals our idols.

And if our mind is always drifting,

if we're in a meeting

and our mind is drifting to

that mean thing

that somebody said to us

and how we want to get them back,

if our mind drifts

to some pornographic images

or adultery,

if it drifts to

imagining that we're really great in sports

or in singing

or in business,

like,

what our minds drift to

help to reveal to us

what our idols are.

like,

when you're in a business meeting

at work,

does your mind drift

to what the Bible says?

And I'm not trying to be hard on us.

I'm just trying to help us

to understand

how easy it is

when we hear the Bible

to think that the Bible

is talking about other people,

not about ourselves.

Listen to verses 4 through 6.

Hear this,

you who trample on the needy

and bring the poor of the land

to an end,

saying,

when will the new moon be over,

that's a religious festival,

that we may sell grain?

You know,

that's in other words,

they're in a church service

and the Sabbath

that we may offer wheat for sale.

They're in church,

they're in a religious festival,

all they're thinking of

is making money.

Their bodies are there,

their minds and their hearts

are somewhere else.

And then it even gets worse,

that we may make the effa small

and the shuckle great

and deal deceitfully

with false balances,

that we may buy the poor

for silver

and the needy

for a pair of sandals

and sell the chaff

of the wheat.

So the text is talking about us.

And it's trying to touch

our own hearts.

So remember that the vision

is a vision of summer fruit

and he uses the vision

of the summer fruit

to talk about the end.

And the end is that

God actually shows up.

He actually shows up

and he shows up

in the middle of worship.

It ruins worship.

And as I said,

as we get deeper

into the interpretation,

we see that it's a hint,

a rumor,

a pointing to the doctrine of hell.

And some of you might say,

well, George, okay.

I mean, that was probably true

about those moral things.

And you are probably right

that I do tend to look at this

and think,

well, I don't do anything

with deceitful false balances,

so I don't have to worry

about this.

Text doesn't really refer to me.

And gosh,

I sure hope that mean guy Trump

is listening to this text

because it'll really nail him

right between the eyes

like is what I want,

is where our mind starts to go.

Where Hillary Clinton,

$156 million

from a few donors

to get access.

I mean,

we can think about

how these things

affect the politicians

and others

and not think about

how it affects us.

But George,

isn't a lot of it

just poetry?

Like George,

I mean,

in a few moments

it's going to talk

about the moon,

I mean,

the sun going dark

and the rivers rising.

I mean,

George,

you're going to try to,

you're trying to take something

which is really fundamentally

just a poetic text

and try to make it look

like it talks about

something real like hell

because George,

I think you're talking about

as if something like hell

really exists

and George,

this is poetry

that we're talking about.

This is poetry

that we're talking about.

Well,

oh actually,

I missed a point.

Andrew,

could you put up

the second point?

Sort of a bit out of order

but I still want to put it here.

Meeting God

is inevitable.

Meeting God

is inevitable.

It's one of the constant messages

of all the book of Amos.

It's inevitable.

But let's look at this

imagery language here.

It's going to come up

right away in verses

7 through 10.

The Lord has sworn

by the pride of Jacob,

surely I will never forget

any of their deeds.

Shall not the land

tremble on this account

and everyone mourn

who dwells in it

and all of it rise

like the Nile

and be tossed about

and sink again

like the Nile of Egypt

and on that day

declares the Lord,

I will make the sun

go down at noon

and darken the earth

and broad daylight.

I will turn your feasts

into mourning

and all your songs

into lamentation.

I will bring sackcloth

on every waist

and baldness

on every head.

I will make it

like the mourning,

M-O-U-R-N,

mourning,

for an only son

and the end of it

like a bitter day.

The end of it

like a bitter day.

The hard part

for us to understand

this text

and obviously

on one hand

there's something

poetic about it

but it's more

than just poetry.

It's trying to communicate

to us something

which our culture

helps to,

in a sense,

program us

to not to be able

to hear.

Andrew,

if you could put up

the next thing.

I am a creature

living in creation

with a creator.

But we think

of ourselves

as being masters

or gods

who live

in a self-made

or technologically

made world.

That's how we think

of ourselves.

But we're not.

We're not.

We aren't masters

or gods

with small g's.

who live

in a world

of our creation.

When I was coming

home in the plane

yesterday

there was this guy

who was really,

really grumpy.

I heard him

talking to the poor

women who were serving.

He was really grumpy,

really aggressive

because he wanted

to go to the bathroom

and they were still

serving food

to other people.

And you could see

that he thought

that everything

in the plane

and all of their

work habits

and even other people

being able to get

their coke

or their tomato juice

should all revolve

around his particular

needs when he had

to meet them.

But, you know,

there's a system,

there's fairness,

there's other people,

it doesn't work that way.

But in our lives,

you know,

we tend to think of like

that all of it is like

there's a room like this,

well, we can rent this room

and this is a self-made room.

But we forget the fact

that we are creatures.

We really are.

We were born.

We will die.

We live in a created order.

We're dependent upon

the planet hurling around

the sun at a certain speed

and turning on its axis

at a certain speed

and we're dependent

on gravity

and we're dependent

on an environment

and we're dependent

on everything.

We are just completely

and utterly,

we cannot exist

apart from a created order.

And that created order

has a creator.

And that's who we really are

and we find it

profoundly uncomfortable

to be reminded

that we had a beginning

and that we will have an end.

We find it profoundly uncomfortable

to be reminded

that we're creatures

and that there is in fact

a creator.

We find it very,

very uncomfortable

and unsettling.

And even if we can

take it in church,

it's so easy for us

to go out and walk

and begin to live

as if that's not the case.

There is no creator

and it's not a created order.

That we are somehow

masters of our destiny,

masters of our fate,

masters of the universe

and we're part of Canada

and if the water doesn't work,

the electricity doesn't work,

it's somebody else's fault

and maybe I should even

be able to sue them

and get some money back

for the discomfort

that it's caused me

because we believe

we've made it,

we control it,

we're masters,

but we're not.

We're not.

The Bible

is more realistic

about human existence

than Hollywood

or universities

or our culture

that maintains us

in illusions

of what the world

is like

and what we are like

in existence.

And so what we see

in this text

is like in Genesis

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1 and 2,

God creates human beings

and he makes the entire,

everything that exists,

he makes everything that exists,

he makes human beings

alone as ones

who bear God's image

and they have a special role

to tend the earth

as stewards

for the glory of God

and in fellowship with God,

in fellowship with God

as his stewards

to tend the planet.

And we fall,

we desire to be like gods,

and to not acknowledge

that God is God

and that he is the creator

and it bends us,

it twists us,

the theological word

is that we become fallen

and it affects

all of the created order

and all of this language

of the sun and the moon,

on one hand it is poetic,

but it's poetic

to communicate

this important truth

that when human beings

who are made

to be in fellowship

with God

and under God

to be stewards

of the created order

that when God judges

human beings,

all creation mourns

because we are creatures

in a created order

and as part of that created order

comes under God's judgment,

all of creation mourns.

And it's here

that we see

some of these

intimations of hell.

Just look back

to verse 2,

the end of verse 2.

The end has come

upon my people Israel.

I will never again

pass by them.

Look at

verse 7,

the very last bit.

I will never forget

any of their deeds.

Look at verse 10,

the last words,

and the end of it

like a bitter day.

And jumping ahead,

the very last words

of verse 12.

They shall run to and fro

to seek the word of the Lord,

but they shall not find it.

And the very last verse

of the whole section,

verse 14,

the very final words,

they shall fall

and never rise again.

Some people still think

that God's not fair.

I'm going to deal with that

in a second,

but in fact,

partly what this is describing

is what can only happen

if God exists

and we inevitably meet him.

And part of what we see here

is that God, in fact,

is very fair.

we human beings

don't need justice from God.

It's our arrogance

to think that we need

justice from God.

We need mercy.

I mean, we do need

his justice.

That's at the center

of the whole moral order.

We don't want God's justice

to crumble

and all of a sudden

moral orders to crumble,

but we need mercy.

But look at verses 11 and 12.

We see here, in a sense,

the justice of God,

the fairness of God.

Behold, the days are coming,

declares the Lord God,

when I will send a famine

on the land.

George, this doesn't sound

very fair.

When I will send a famine

on the land,

not a famine of bread

nor a thirst for water,

but of hearing the words

of the Lord.

They shall wander

from sea to sea

and from north to east.

They shall run to and fro

to seek the word of the Lord,

but they shall not find it.

Now, here's the interesting thing

about this text

is it isn't that God

stops speaking

or that he takes

his word away,

but the time comes

when people can no longer hear.

You see,

all the way through

the book of Amos,

God keeps reminding people

that they have developed

habits and a culture,

both personal habits

and cultural habits,

to tell God to be silent.

God be silent,

God be silent,

God be silent,

God be quiet,

God don't speak,

God I don't want to listen,

God be silent.

And at some point in time,

God gives us

what we have desired

from him,

only to discover

that it's ruinous for us.

And it's a very,

very tragic image.

Imagine a Star Trek episode

to maybe be able

to get the weight of it.

And in a Star Trek episode,

some of the crew

go down to this ship

and they don't realize

that as they go down

to the ship,

they've done something

to transgress

the ancient masters

who built the ship

100,000 years ago

or whatever.

And a strange delusion

comes upon them.

And in this strange delusion,

they're not allowed

to leave the ship.

But the ship,

every day,

every morning,

there's food

that's set up for them

in a large hall,

which they know where it is

and they go into it

all of the time.

They pass through it constantly.

And in that,

every day,

there's an entire

Chinese buffet.

There's an entire

Indian food buffet.

There's an entire

Caribbean food buffet.

There's an entire

North American carnivore buffet.

There's an entire

vegan buffet.

And it's all set out there.

And yet,

the people on the

Star Trek ship

trying to figure out

what's going on

with this crew

and they're watching the crew

and the crew are standing

right in the midst

of all of these buffets

and saying,

we're starving to death.

There's nothing here to eat.

And in the

Star Trek

Enterprise,

they're saying,

we can't let these people

back onto our ship.

There is a strange

delusion

and illness

that they are

surrounded by food

and yet believe

that there's no food there

and they're starving

to death.

They say

to the Enterprise,

we're dying of thirst.

and the Enterprise looks

and there's goblets

of water

and pitchers of water

and of beer

and of wine

and of Coke

and of everything

all around them.

And it's a strange

delusion.

You see,

here's the thing

about the justice of God

in all of this.

What would it be like

for those of us

who don't really love

the truth

to meet God

who is only truth?

What is it like

for us

who sometimes

are a bit dishonest

to meet

the being

who is pure

honesty?

What is it like

for us

who occasionally

like to trample

on the weak

and be unjust

to meet

pure

justice?

What is it like

for us

who desire

to have

some other God

any God

but the living God

to finally be

in the presence

of God himself

inescapably

in his presence

undeniably

in his presence

undeniably

in the presence

of that which is just

is perfectly true

perfectly beautiful

perfectly pure

perfectly himself

and if we have

developed

deep habits

of wanting

anything other

than that

to be

inescapably

in his presence

will lead

to our wailing.

We have worshipped

the uncreator

and we are

finally faced

because we believe

that we are

a self-made

person

and we are

finally

brutally

conscious

that we are

in the presence

of the creator

and all our

desires

to believe

in uncreation

or a master

of our being

our own universe

are revealed

to be complete

delusions.

If God

meets us

and God

is who he is

then to be

in his presence

inescapably

and purely

but by grace

will lead

to our wailing.

He can't

stop being

who he is.

And if all

of our life

we have said

to God

be silent

how can we

complain

if all of a

sudden

we no longer

can hear him

at all?

and the text

shows this

tragedy

of they keep

going

looking

everywhere

to hear

the voice

of God

but where

do they

go?

They go

to idols

look at

verses 13

and 14

in that day

the lovely

virgins

and the

young men

shall faint

for thirst

those who

swear by

the guilt

of Amaria

and say

as your

God lives

Odan

and as

the way

of Beersheba

lives

they go

everywhere

other than

to God

as they

die

and they

shall fall

and never

rise again.

This can

be pretty

stark

and I

mean on

one hand

for us

as Christians

it's just

a matter

for us

to be

gripped

by this.

The full

doctrine of

hell will

be discussed

and developed

in the

New Testament

especially

from the

words of

Jesus

but here's

some things

lots of

points

just in a

couple of

things

over the

last few

minutes

here's the

thing

within

the

text.

God

confronts

to

connect.

If you

could put

that up

Andrew

please

God

confronts

to

connect

and I'm

not just

saying that

because I

want to

say it

next week

you'll see

that after

eight and a

half chapters

of God

constantly

telling people

of their

danger

that their

self-perception

is completely

and utterly

at odds

of their

real need

the final

few verses

of the

book of

Amos

give the

possibility

of

redemption.

God

is

confronting

us

to

connect

he's

not

confronting

us

to

disconnect

but to

get our

attention

that we

might call

out to

him

in

mercy

and in

the

text

there's

two

places

where it

also

points

to this

possibility

of

mercy

if you

could

turn

to

verse

seven

verse

seven

the

Lord

is

sworn

by

the

pride

of

Jacob

surely

I

will

never

forget

any

of

their

deeds

he

doesn't

say

he

won't

forgive

he

says

he

won't

forget

there's

a whole

other

sermon

on this

but

you

know

for

most

of

us

the

way

we

live

our

lives

is

forgetting

the

wrong

things

that

we've

done

and

hoping

that

others

forget

and

we

live

remembering

the wrong

things of

our enemies

or those

who displease

us

and we

desire

that

everybody

remember

those bad

things

that

they've

done

and we

don't

realize

that we're

treating

ourselves

and others

to very

different

standards

and for

many of

us

when we

go to

make an

apology

we don't

actually

make

apologies

what we

do is

make a

long list

of excuses

to show

that there's

actually

nothing

that we

ever did

that was

wrong

and needs

any

forgiveness

and we're

deeply

confused

but this

text

says

that God

won't

forget

he can't

forget

he knows

all things

but it

doesn't say

he won't

forgive

there's

this

if

we're

attentive

in this

subtle thing

it'll become

more clear

next week

there's

this

chance

we can

call out

to God

for mercy

and there's

other

another

thing

in this

text

which also

points

at an

even

deeper

truth

the fact

that God

in fact

will provide

a means

by which

we can be

reconciled to

him

and it

comes

and it

and it

comes in

listen to

it

again

and on

that day

declares

the Lord

God

I will

make

the sun

go down

at noon

and darken

the earth

and broad

daylight

I will

turn your

feasts

into mourning

and all

your songs

into lamentation

I will bring

sackcloth

and every

waist

and baldness

on every

head

I will

make it

like the

morning

for an

only

sun

and the

end

of it

like a

bitter

day

we

Christians

know

that some

750 years

or 760

years after

the writing

of this

text

there was

a day

when God

the son

of God

walked

to his

execution

and he

paused

and said

to the

woman

do not

mourn

for me

and we

know

that there

was a

day

where there

was like

the

morning

as if

the death

of an

only

sun

when the

sky

went dark

for three

hours

and where

the earth

trembled

and there

were

earthquakes

at the

moment

of his

death

it was

a bitter

day

a day

of mourning

and a

day

of sack

cloth

the same

text

which hints

at the

reality

of hell

but opens

the door

that the

God who

does not

forget

can yet

still

forgive

and have

mercy

on his

people

because he

does not

confront

to disconnect

but he

confronts

to connect

the same

text points

to that

day

in Golgotha

when God

the son

of God

will pay

the price

that you

and I

cannot pay

and offer

a sacrifice

that we

could never

offer

ourselves

and bear

in himself

that which

we did

that was

wrong

so that

God's

forgiveness

might be

available to

all who

put their

trust

in him

and so

if you're

a guest

here

or a

seeker

here

if you

walk away

from here

thinking

that I

think

that I'm

more honest

than other

people

or more

truthful

than other

people

and that

to become

part of

church of

the messiah

church of

the messiah

is that

collective

known as

people who

are only

honest

who only

listen to

God

that is

not the

case

we are

to be

people who

are gripped

by Amos

8

and recognize

that we

need God's

mercy

and have

received his

full total

and complete

mercy

in the person

of his son

and what he

did for us

on the cross

that I stand

before God

not trumpeting

my honesty

or my ability

to listen to

him

but I

humbly

and with

gratitude

stand

saying he

has stood

in my place

in my place

condemned

he stood

and the

righteousness

I stand

with before

you now

father

is not

something

that I

have earned

or accomplished

but I am

clothed

in the perfect

life of

Jesus

when he

offered his

life in

exchange for

mine

and it

is by

grace we

stand

it's God's

grace

that allows

us

to look

at those

things in

our lives

that we

have done

that are

wrong

knowing that

we can

look at

them

and begin

to deal

with them

because

Jesus knew

about that

and died

for that

too

it's as

we're

gripped by

the gospel

and we

understand

the forgiveness

offered to us

in Jesus

that we

can begin

to understand

our need

to forgive

others

that we

might be

free

it's

because of

what he

did for

us on

the cross

that we

can begin

to listen

to those

texts in

the bible

that so

terrify us

when they

talk about

money

or sex

or how to

use our

power

or how to

care for

the poor

or the

weak

or the

needy

and they

can so

terrify us

and we

can understand

because the

gospel that

God loves us

so much

that he

in the

person of

his son

died to

deal with

all that

there is

within us

which is

unjust

and dishonest

he did

all of

that for

us

and so

we can

have the

courage

to understand

that when

we listen

to his

instruction

it is

for our

good

and for

the good

of our

society

and if you

could put up

the next

to last

slide

I think

I missed

God

service

number six

God does

not offer

to forget

he offers

to forgive

and then

number seven

here's the

thing about

listening to

the Bible

I can

listen to

another

person

without

agreeing

with

them

I

cannot

listen

to

God

without

agreeing

with

him

please

stand

Andrew

could you

put up

the final

point

please

here's

a prayer

sort of

in

closing

I'll

just

say it

and then

I'll

invite you

to join

with me

in saying

it

in a

moment

dear

Lord

please

make me

a

disciple

of

Jesus

gripped

by

the

gospel

who

listens

to

your

word

and

lives

a

just

and

honest

life

for

your

glory

that's

what the

text is

pushing us

to

not to

become

proud

and conceited

about how

honest

we are

how good

we are

at listening

to God

but as

his word

convicts us

to be able

to confess

to God

God

there's

whole areas

of my

life

I didn't

realize

I was

shut

I don't

realize

Lord

that I

can't

read your

Bible

because all

I do

is think

about how

it

applies

to

Clinton

or how

it

applies

to

Trump

and I

never

think

about how

it

applies

to me

or I

think

how it

applies

to my

brother-in-law

or my

dad

but I

don't

think

how

Lord

I

didn't

realize

I

don't

listen

to

you

and as

we're

gripped

by the

gospel

as that

becomes

the basis

on which

we stand

we have

begin to

get freed

up to

have

self

examination

and then

call out

to God

for his

help to

amend

our

lives

because

who

doesn't