“Seek Ye Me, and Ye shall Live”

[Posted by permission. Bethel Strict Baptist Chapel.]

Sermon preached at Bethel Chapel, Luton, by Mr. B.A. Ramsbottom, on Lord’s day evening, 10th July, 2022

“For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye Me, and ye shall live”—Amos 5:4

There are many passages in the Word of God concerning the privilege of seeking the Lord. No doubt you can think of many, many such passages. “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near.” That is one. “It is time to seek the Lord.” That is another. “I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye Me in vain.” And then there is the well-known passage I read to you this evening in Luke chapter 11 (1-13): “Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” I am sure all of us are very familiar with these well-known parts of Scripture.

But beloved friends, this in the Book of Amos is completely different. Why is it different? For two reasons. This exhortation to seek the Lord is spoken to a most sinful, ungodly people. Amos was only a poor man. He was what today we would call a farmer. The Lord took him and commanded him to prophesy to Israel, especially to the ten northern tribes, and most of the Book of Amos is solemn complaint about the wickedness of the people, their forgetting God, their turning away from Him, their going after idols. So this exhortation, “Seek ye Me,” saith the Lord, is really a call to repentance. It is a call to Israel to turn from their wicked ways, to turn once more to the God of all mercy, to seek His forgiveness, to seek His help, to seek His deliverance. The whole point in this chapter: if they go on like they are going on, then they are going to be destroyed.

So in that sense, “Seek ye Me, and ye shall live,” because they were in a state of terrible death, and the only way they could avoid that terrible death would be by being brought through grace to turn to the Lord. That seems almost a foundation word that I read: “I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins” (verse 12). It is a solemn warning, a solemn call to a sinful people, the need for them to turn to the Lord, to beg His deliverance, otherwise nothing but destruction. And of course, as we read the Word of God, it was not too long after this that all the ten northern tribes were overrun by the Assyrians, and they were taken into captivity. Now that is one reason why this word in Amos 5, “Seek ye Me,” is so different from the many others we are well acquainted with, some I have quoted to you.

But the second reason why this is different from all the others: four times in those fourteen verses I read to you (Amos 5. 1-14), four times the Lord told His ancient people, “Seek ye the Lord.” There is no such thing as vain repetition in Scripture, or vain repetition with the Lord. But this fourfold repetition! And then there is a fifth confirmation in which they are told what they must not seek, what they have not got to seek, if there is to be any hope, any hope of forgiveness, any hope of deliverance.

“For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel.” Almighty God speaks to the whole house of Israel, this sinful house, this backsliding house, and He shows them the only ground of their hope, the only way of deliverance: “Seek ye Me, and ye shall live.” It is an exhortation, but there is a precious promise in it. The whole point about chapter 5: it is death, destruction, but this is the only way of life and liberty. “Ye shall live,” if enabled through grace to turn from their sins, to turn to the Lord.

Surely, beloved friends, this exhortation is needed today, because our country is like Israel of old, sunk in sin and iniquity. We older ones – what changes we have witnessed in our lifetime! The street I lived in, I could go from one house to another, and this one went to the Church of England, this one went to the General Baptists, and you could go right down the street, and you knew where everyone attended. But as we come to chapel, we see the crowds going out, and hardly ever do we see anyone wending his way to Zion with his face thitherward. May ours be the wonderful privilege of seeking the Lord, and especially in a gospel sense, seeking the Father in His well-beloved Son. This is a voice of authority. “Thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye Me, and ye shall live.”

Well then, before we go any further, a few words about these different exhortations to seek the Lord, and also the solemn warning, what they have not to seek. “For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye Me, and ye shall live.” Well then, first of all, the warning what they have not to seek, what Almighty God forbids them to seek. “Seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought” (verse 5). This is nothing to do with that sacred spot where Almighty God so gloriously revealed Himself to Jacob, and he called the name Bethel, the house of God. It has no connection with that at all. It certainly has no connection with our little chapel, Bethel. Bethel, Gilgal and Beer-sheba were three of the most favoured places mentioned in the Old Testament. But what was the matter? There had been a great change. They were the centres of wickedness. They were the centres of idolatry. Now Israel was plagued with idolatry, and this is a warning: they must seek the Lord if ever they wanted any hope, any deliverance, but they must flee from seeking these places of wickedness and sin and the worshipping of idols. “Seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.”

And then verse 6 – almost in the exact same words, this solemn exhortation, “Seek the Lord.” “Seek the Lord, and ye shall live; lest He break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel.”

And then verse 8, the next repetition of this exhortation to seek the Lord, and this is put in a completely different way, an entirely different way. “Seek Him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night.” We read in a few places about the seven stars. In the Book of Job they are called Pleiades, a constellation. Orion was another constellation. What is the significance of it coming in here, a little bit strangely, differently? Well, two things really. These who followed idols made so much about studying the stars and worshipping the stars and having their lives governed by the stars. Now they had to turn away from that. But the second thing. This One whom they had to seek, the whole thrust of it is this: it is the God who is almighty, the God who is greater than all the nations round about, the almighty Creator, He who in creation “spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.”

“Seek Him that maketh the seven stars and Orion.” I do not know whether any of you children have ever possessed a telescope, and dabbled a little bit trying to study the stars. You would be able to see things your natural eye just cannot make out. You would be able to take notice of things you did not notice before. If people explain to you, you know which star is which. I remember years ago we were in Coventry, and a cousin of my wife had a telescope and he became really involved in studying the stars, and he let us have a look at it. It was amazing what we could see, and especially he pointed out the seven stars, and he said, “If you look carefully there, you will see Pleiades, and there you can make them out, Pleiades, the seven stars.” But the whole point here is the One we have to seek, in providence or in grace, is the almighty God, the God who created all things, the God who maintains them. The Lord was directing their hearts another way, a better way. But how beautifully we have it under the gospel:

“He turns our eyes another way, 

To Jesus and His blood.”

“Seek Him that maketh the seven stars and Orion,” and that little confirmation of it: “The Lord is His name” – the Lord, the almighty God. “The Lord is His name.”

And then the final exhortation to seek the Lord, we have in verse 14, and again it is put a little bit differently. “Seek good, and not evil,” and again that repetition: “that ye may live.” But they were not seeking good; they were seeking evil. There needs to be a change. There needs to be a deliverance. “Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you.” That is a lovely promise: “So the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you.”

Well then, what a subject here, the exhortation of Almighty God to seek Him, to be turned from seeking anything else, and if it was needful then, how needful today! So now just a few things on seeking the Lord. It is a wonderful privilege, but it is something you and I cannot do by nature. How true it is what we sing:

“Our seeking Thy face was all of Thy grace;

Thy Spirit must have, and shall have all the praise.”

If you long to seek the Lord, ask Him to help you. Ask that the dear Holy Spirit might enable you. The point is this: before we really seek the Lord, the Lord must give us a sense of need. At first, it may be when we are only children. We are not sure what we do need, what we do not need, but we need something. By nature everybody is seeking something, everybody needs something. Happiness – the whole world is seeking after happiness, failing to find it. It does not know where it is to be found. A resting place – O what a wonderful thing it is to find a resting place, and the world would like a resting place, but the world does not know the secret where to look for it, where to find it. That word must ever stand: “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him” – the secret of true happiness, the secret of finding true rest, the secret of so many things – and the secret of the Lord is only found with those who are brought to fear Him. Can you remember what comes next? “And He will shew them His covenant” – the glories of the covenant of grace. That is something worth seeking. He will show those who fear His name a personal interest in that everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure.

“For thus saith the Lord … Seek ye Me, and ye shall live.” So at the beginning especially there is a seeking the Lord, seeking His salvation, seeking it in Christ, seeking to be made ready, seeking to be forgiven, seeking to be cleansed in His precious blood. And the promise is, “Seek ye Me, and ye shall live.” So really it implies that those who seek shall find, but it is the promise of life. “Seek ye Me, and ye shall live.”

Where are you going to seek the Lord? You will have to seek Him in prayer. You will have to seek Him in His Word, in the Bible, in the Scriptures. You will have to seek Him on the throne of grace that He has provided, where He has promised – as He enables you to come boldly, with humble confidence, seeking His face, to the throne of grace, the place of prayer – He says, there you will find mercy. That is our great need, because like these characters in the Book of Amos, we are unworthy, we are sinful, we have fallen, we have come short. It is, “Mercy O Lord, mercy I need. ‘O God, be merciful to me!’”

O to be enabled to seek the Lord. Do not take it for granted that you are seeking Him. Never forget that word: “Ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart.” There are a few here this evening who could tell you what it means to seek the Lord with your whole heart. You will not be half-hearted. Can I put it simply? There may be things happening in the world. Men might be landing on the moon for the first time; the papers might be full of it. It does not mean anything to you. There is one thing needful. It has been engraven deeply on your heart.

“I must have Christ as All in all, 

Or sink in ruin, guilt, and thrall.”

That is the urgency of it. That is the reality. When we look back, those of us who trust we have found the Lord, we were earnest, we were sincere in those days, and often we have to feel now, “Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me; when His candle shined upon my head,” when there was more light shining in my heart, shining upon my pathway, because, “the days of darkness … shall be many.”

“Seek ye Me, and ye shall live.” So a few things. Seeking Christ as your only hope, as your foundation, as the only Mediator between your soul and God, as the only way in which you can come before the Lord, the only way you can be prepared, made ready, the only way you can find acceptance.

“Seek ye Me, and ye shall live.” Seek the Saviour’s love, an interest in that love which passeth knowledge. Seek the Lord in that glorious righteousness which is “unto all and upon all them that believe.” Because we have no righteousness of our own. Seek the Lord Jesus at Calvary, in the glories of the cross, in His precious, sin-atoning blood that cleanseth from all sin. O seek His forgiveness. Seek Him to do everything for you, to save you, to be everything to you, to deliver you. Seek Him in His death and in His glorious resurrection. Seek Him at the right hand of God as “with heaven and earth at His command, He waits to answer prayer,” as He is “able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him.”

There are so many things we need, so many things we must seek. These are the vital things in the beginning, but as we go on, as we grow older, difficulties come, problems, perplexities, sorrows, bereavements, all these other things. But they are all bound up with the dear Saviour – to seek His help, to seek His comfort, to seek that He might be with you, to seek that He will help you through, bring you through, to seek that He will deliver you, to seek that He will uphold you, to seek that He will “supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” O there are so many things treasured up in Christ for unworthy sinners, and what a privilege to be able to seek them! I do not find that anyone anywhere in holy Scripture is forbidden to seek the Lord. O but the privilege of being a finder!

“Seek ye Me, and ye shall live.” Well, I said that in the chapter the Lord was thinking especially of the dying condition they were all in. This was the only way they could live, to repent of it, to flee from it. But in its fullest sense – “Seek ye Me, and ye shall live” –

“Eternal life, at His request, 

To every saint is given;

Safety on earth, and, after death, 

The plenitude of heaven.”

He says to these seeking souls, “Because I live, ye shall live also.” He says to these seeking souls, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die.” O the promises of eternal life – life begun in the soul here below, life which shall endure to all eternity! “That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” What a prospect! There is heaven in the text, heaven at last. “The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne … shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”

“Seek ye Me, and ye shall live.” Most of you know the name of J.C. Philpot. What a minister he was! Let us be clear: oftentimes he was extremely cutting; oftentimes, he could be extremely severe. But Philpot made this statement on one occasion. He said there is one thing that Satan can never do, and what is that? Satan can never blot out from the Word of God that Scripture, “Seek, and ye shall find.”

“Seek ye Me, and ye shall live.”

Ye poor afflicted souls, give ear,

Who seek the Lord, but fear His frown; 

What things ye ask in fervent prayer, 

Believing, Christ will send them down.

If sin is loathsome to thy heart,

And shows a most ill-favoured face; 

If guilt affords thee fearful smart,

It flows from Jesus’ love and grace.

A feast is now prepared for thee, 

In spite of all thy unbelief;

A feast of mercy, sweetly free 

For sinners and the sinners’ chief.

Take courage, then; ask and believe, 

Expecting mercy from the Lord;

The promise runs, “Ask and receive,” 

And Christ is faithful to His word.

O Lord, increase my feeble faith, 

And give my straitened bosom room 

To credit what thy promise saith, 

And wait till Thy salvation come.

J. Berridge