10/29/06 - Pentecost 21 - Amos 5:6-7,1-15

SO THAT YOU MAY LIVE
- Repent of your sins
- Rely on God's mercy

Would you look at the sermon text again with me? It’s the Old Testament lesson, Amos 5:6-7,10-15. I want you to look particularly at verse 14, the second to last verse in that reading. It says, “Seek good, not evil, that you may live.” Now, what does that mean? Seek good, not evil, so that you may live. Does that mean if we are consistent in trying to do good things and at the same time we try to stay away from the bad, we will be saved? No. The short answer is no. This passage is not saying that we will be saved if we do good things. Because it’s not talking about conversion, it’s not talking about coming to faith in Christ, it’s not talking about how we are saved. Because the Lord, here, is talking to believers. And if the Lord is talking to believers, they have already been saved, they have already been brought to faith, they have already been converted. So the Lord isn’t giving them a prescription on how to earn eternal life. What he is really saying here is: don’t throw eternal life away.
The book of Amos is filled with that kind of language. Language that calls believers to account and points out their sins. In fact, the entire book of Amos is really a long sermon against complacency - against being a lazy Christian. Amos was sent to preach to lack-luster believers in Israel, believers who were really throwing their salvation away. How? By not repenting of their sins. “I know how many are your offenses and how great your sins,” the Lord says. And in our sermon text itself we have a small sampling of the sins that the Lord points out to them. But it wasn’t necessarily the kinds of sins that they committed, and it wasn’t necessarily the amount of sins they committed. It was the fact that they neglected to repent of them.
We, too, are already believers. And so these words are also spoken to us. Unfortunately, we at times neglect to repent of our sins. I am guilty of that. I’ll commit sins that seem so minor at the time that it doesn’t even cross my mind to repent of them. A selfish thought that flashes through my head in a split second. A sharp tongue at an inappropriate moment. A careless use of my time. There are hundreds, thousands of things I do each day that are tainted with sin, but that I forget about immediately after I do them. I would imagine it’s the same for you. It’s just a matter of being aware of them. There are thoughts you think, words you say, actions you do that are not done to God’s glory. Sins that seem so minor at the time that you completely forget about them or don’t even know they are there in the first place.
But remember what the Lord says, “I know how many are your offenses and how great your sins.” The Lord knows every single sin you have ever committed because he is right there when it happens. He knows all those sins that you consider minor, he knows all those sins that have only shown themselves in your mind, he knows all those sins that you don’t even know about. And he knows how serious they are. The word “great” in the phrase, “how great your sins,” gives us a clear picture of how serious the Lord considers them. That word is normally used to describe large and powerful armies. Great armies that were too much for other nations to handle. Your sins, no matter how “minor” they may seem, are great sins in the eyes of the Lord. Sins that are large and powerful and dangerous. Why? Because “whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” And the Lord also says that “the soul who sins is the one who will die.” One sin corrupts your whole being. One sin means that you are not perfect like God demands. One sin condemns.
So do you see how important it is to repent of all your sins? Consider this: if you believe in Jesus as your Savior from sins, but you don’t repent of some of those sins - meaning that you either don’t admit that you’ve done them or you don’t care if you’ve done them, then in effect you’re saying you don’t need forgiveness for those sins. Repenting of sins is admitting that you need the Lord’s forgiveness. So if you have neglected to repent of sins you have neglected the forgiveness offered for them.
Please realize that this doesn’t mean you have to specify and describe every single sin that you’ve ever done before they’re forgiven. Remember, there are plenty of sins that we all do about which we have no idea. That’s why it’s always a good thing to pray the prayer David did in Psalm 19, “Who can discern his [own] errors? Forgive my hidden faults.” This is a legitimate way of repenting of your sins. Asking the Lord to forgive all of your faults even those that are hidden from your knowledge. And it is important to do that. Because as believers, people who already know about their salvation, we do not want to throw it away.
Repent of you sins, every day. “Perhaps the Lord God Almighty will have mercy.” Those are words right out of our text. Perhaps he will have mercy on you. In fact, he will have mercy on you because he wants you to repent of your sins. “‘For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone,’ declares the Sovereign Lord. ‘Repent and live!’” When you admit that you need forgiveness, he will give you forgiveness every time. No matter how many or how great your sins may be.
Just look at the situation of the city of Nineveh. The prophet Jonah went the city and told them that the Lord would destroy the city in 40 days. The people repented and said, “Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” Did he? Yes, of course he did. The Lord had mercy on the city and did not destroy it.
He will do the same for you. You can be sure that the Lord will have mercy. Look at the incredible mercy he has shown you already! Before you were brought to faith you were enemies of God, Scripture says. You did not want to follow him and were in a hopeless spiritual state. That is when God sent his Son for you. He watched him suffer and die on the cross for you. He abandoned him for you. That’s mercy: compassion when you least deserve it. Since he has shown you this amazing amount of mercy already, don’t you think he’ll gladly forgive you when you repent? That’s the whole reason he abandoned his Son on the cross in the first place! There is no reason to doubt God’s mercy for you because it has never failed before - and it never will.
There may have been a sin that you’ve committed in the past that seems so gross and so blatant and so great, that there is doubt in your mind if the Lord really will forgive it or not. Do not let Satan bring that baggage up again. Because the Lord has already forgiven that sin. Scripture promises “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Think of Peter, denying that he even knew who Jesus was. Was he forgiven? Yes. The Lord had mercy on him and forgave him all his sins. Think of Samson, disregarding the life he was supposed to lead as a Nazarite, turning his back on the command of God not to marry a foreigner, and trusting in his own strength rather than in the Lord. Was he forgiven? Yes. The Lord had mercy on him and forgave him all his sins. Think of David. Knowingly slept with a married woman. Knowingly murdered her husband. Knowingly lied about it. Was he forgiven? Yes. The Lord had mercy on him and forgave him all his sins. And it is no different with you. In his mercy the Lord forgives all your sins no matter how awful they may be.
He forgives you just like he forgave Peter and Samson and David because he wants to show mercy to the remnant of Joseph. Our text calls believers the “remnant of Joseph.” And that’s interesting because Joseph wasn’t in the line of the Savior. His brother Judah was Jesus’ forefather. In very few places of Scripture are believers referred to as descendants of Joseph. But you can see why. Joseph demonstrated the kind of faith that true believers had. He trusted in the Lord when he was sold as a slave. He didn’t lose faith when he was wrongly accused of rape and thrown into prison. And perhaps the most incredible thing: he forgave his brothers later on in life when he had the power to crush them. Joseph underwent a lot of pains and trials in his life. But through them all he relied on the mercy of the Lord. And so consider it an honor to be considered part of the remnant of Joseph. Because those are God’s people. Those are the ones he cares for. Those are the ones on whom he loves to show mercy.
I had you look at verse 14 at the beginning of the sermon, “Seek good, not evil, that you may live.” Do you understand that phrase now? The Lord is not talking about making a choice that leads to salvation. He’s talking to believers and warning them not to throw their salvation away. Seek good and not evil. How? Repent of the evil you do, admit that you can do nothing for his love, and rely on God’s mercy to forgive you. In this way you will not throw your free salvation away, but you will do what the very first words of our text tell us to do, “Seek the Lord and live.” Seek the Lord in his mercy. Only in him can we do good and only in him can the evil we commit be forgiven. By seeking the Lord you surely will live. Live here in peace throughout your life, and live there in heaven, with the entire remnant of Joseph, for eternity.
Amen.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead!” - 1 Peter 1:3