Introduction
Good morning. Today, we turn to Amos, Chapter 8. The theme of this chapter is: The end has come for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer. These are weighty words. The end has come for Israel, meaning their time is up. God will no longer forgive them.
He asked me, “What do you see, Amos?” “A basket of ripe fruit,” I answered. Then the Lord said to me, “The end has come for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer. (Amos 8:2)
Today, we must grasp a crucial learning method: focusing on the key points. I have observed that many people miss the point. Conversations with them are like talking at cross-purposes. On the surface, it seems lively, but they are not on the same page. The problem is a failure to grasp the key point, which inevitably hinders learning. Effective learners acquire knowledge, not just reflect on themselves. It is impossible to learn well if you are preoccupied with your own thoughts while others are speaking. Only a fool would do that. Learning is difficult because people insist on injecting their own ideas. In learning Chinese, a self-invented character is a mistake. Similarly, in English, a self-invented word is also a mistake. In accounting, a self-invented concept is not found in textbooks. Therefore, learning means acquiring the knowledge of others.
Confusion in learning arises from not absorbing the knowledge of others, but dwelling on one's own ideas. A mind half-filled with the knowledge of others and half with one's own thinking is bound to be confused. Whether we are reading Amos or progressing from Genesis to Revelation, we are not inventing anything. I once heard a renowned pastor preach on Hebrews. After the first chapter, I was puzzled because he hardly addressed the content of Hebrews, focusing instead on his own ideas—general revelation, special revelation—which were not the subject of Hebrews. He missed what Hebrews actually covered, focusing on what it did not. Following such a person will not lead to effective learning.
Among us, I will certainly correct this bad habit of ineffective learning. Learning means acquiring the knowledge of others. We should echo what others say. For example, do not question why traditional Chinese medicine uses observation, listening, questioning, and palpation. These are simply methods for diagnostic differentiation and treatment. Studying Chinese medicine inevitably involves learning these. The liver governs the sinews, meaning any sinew problems relate to the liver. Opening to the eyes means eye problems are also related to the liver. There is no why here; just learn it well, and you will become an expert. That is learning. However, many people, after studying, accumulate a pile of their own theories. I have noticed that some among us, in learning pastoral care, end up developing their own methods. How can that be effective?
The theme of this chapter, The end has come for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer, is found in Amos 8:2. Why is this the theme? Because the entire chapter revolves around it. The details might seem scattered, and it took considerable effort for me to identify this theme. If you do not put in the work, you will not find it. I diligently and painstakingly sought to understand what Amos was trying to tell me, not what I wanted to tell Amos. We are readers of the Bible, not writers. It would be remarkable if you could fully understand the writings of the Apostle Paul.
I. God Has Repeatedly Forgiven Israel
In fact, God has not only repeatedly forgiven Israel, but also repeatedly forgives us. Yet, we repeatedly sin until one day God draws a line. At that point, there is no more worrying about learning, all problems are solved. There will be no more feverishness; instead, only coldness. The legs stretch out, the eyes close—but not in a good way. Today, reflect deeply. Write down all the discipline, foolish deeds, and offenses against God you have experienced over the years. See if you have changed. In reality, change is not easy.
The value system within a person tells them what is advantageous and what is not. There will always be a scale in the heart. The question is: is that scale your own, or God's? If it is a scale you have created, God will repeatedly forgive you until the end comes, and He will forgive no more. People stubbornly resist God. God repeatedly forgives us. The wise learn from this and deeply reflect on themselves. The foolish, however, only learn to ask me to pray for them. Once they are well, they revert to their old ways, with no reverence, ordering Jesus to heal them, even complaining that the healing is too slow. They only want quick healing, questioning why they are not healed sooner if the prayer is slightly longer. People are like this, using the blood of Jesus as a rag. But would you dare do that? How many such things have we done today?
A wise person, once they know God, will continually strive to dismantle their worldly logic, because failure to do so brings suffering. How much suffering must one endure before repenting? I tell you all, I also learn from God. If you repeatedly do the same thing, you will suffer more. That is normal. After all, you are the one suffering; I will wait and see. Today, I implore you once more: when suffering comes, reflect deeply on yourself. If it happens to me, I will reflect as well.
I do not have many strengths. The first is that I understand what others are trying to tell me when I learn from them. I do not create my own ideas. Some think that Chinese Mingding Destiny is my own creation. It is not. I simply organized God's word into a framework, then delved step by step, as if laying down a plumb line. That is not my invention, but the system of the Apostle Paul and Jesus Christ. The second strength is that I particularly like to reflect on myself, constantly asking if I have done things correctly. Unlike some who always believe they are the embodiment of truth, I often feel I have not done things right. Recently, my colleagues asked why I always frown. I am pondering where I have gone wrong, but the more I ponder, the more troubled I become. This is no exaggeration.
How should we proceed? How can we please God and walk in His will? What have we done wrong in the past? Recently, I have been considering how to improve our pastoral system, because there is still much room for improvement. Even if we have done things correctly, there is still room for improvement. I am planning how to improve our ministry, thinking so hard that my brain is swelling and buzzing. Some think that answers come with a snap of the fingers, but that only produces tofu or, worse, excrement—how foul! Learning is not so easy, nor is seeking God as simple as snapping one's fingers.
God has repeatedly forgiven Israel, and what Israel lacks are these two strengths of mine. The first is learning God's word, not one's own. Do not act according to your own ideas, then think you are learning God's word. The second strength is constantly reflecting on where you have gone wrong. It is easy to know where you have gone wrong: feverishness and foulness are sure signs. The life of a fool is miserable. From a young age, there is a distinction between fools and wise men—this is Mingding Destiny. Today, I ask God that all among us learn a good lesson. Even if it means suffering for a few more days, it does not matter. Who told you to be so stubborn and rebellious?
Do not wait until God says the end has come for His people Israel, and when your end comes, He will no longer forgive. Everyone must remember: this is my summary of experience. God has repeatedly forgiven us. Some get skin diseases, others have finger pain one moment and face blindness the next. All sorts of problems arise, but they forget after they pass. The garbage inside is never removed. Today I speak painstakingly, and you may even detect a hint of sarcasm, but it is not sarcasm, but fact. Those who say they cannot control themselves will truly lose control when Israel's end comes.
Today, we must begin to learn and reflect, reflecting on where we went wrong in the past, and correcting it. The things that you think are reasonable in your mind are garbage that causes you suffering. Do not force God to draw a line for you; I cannot stop it. How many more lessons must we learn? Do not approach with the mindset of helping God; you cannot help Him. It is good enough to grow in Jesus Christ. In fact, not only does God not need help, but I also do not need help here. If you come to help, you are coming to cause trouble. This is offensive to God. God repeatedly forgives you. Have you reflected?
II. Israel Still Repeatedly Offends God
Israel still repeatedly offends God, but I believe you are not that bad.
Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land, saying, “When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat?”—skimping on the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales, buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat. (Amos 8:4-6)
After doing wrong, they worship the golden calf, pointing to it and saying it is the God of Israel who brought them out of Egypt. This is offensive to God. Because people are filled with worldly logic, and that worldly logic is for making money. When profiteers see the poor, they think they are a bargain. They quickly bring them in to work themselves to death. If they do not work, they are whipped. They also crush the needy, exploiting them until they are skin and bones. They do not care, because every penny spent on these people eats into their profits. How wicked. For the sake of worldly wealth, all things are for their own core interests. The poor and needy are not considered. I remember watching a film called The White-Haired Girl years ago. The actor who played Huang Shiren was so convincing, so evil, that people would rush up and beat him if they saw him on the street.
People are like that, without compassion. If this happened in China, God would want to intervene. If it happened among the Israelites, God would certainly intervene. Going to the Festival of Tabernacles, keeping the Passover, even when observing the festivals, they are thinking about getting it over with as quickly as possible. We do not have the Festival of Tabernacles or Passover now, only the Lord's Day. Sometimes our sermons last more than an hour, and some people are always checking their watches, even raising their arms with watches to signal me to stop preaching. Others complain about when the Sabbath will be over, as if the Sabbath ends as soon as I finish preaching. In fact, the Sabbath does not end with the sermon; there are still prayer meetings and classes afterward. We will catch you and force-feed you the word of God no matter what.
People have their own core interests. If that core interest is not God, it will affect their core interests, affecting their family's earning potential. They are thinking about how to sell the moldy wheat at home. Even knowing that eating moldy wheat will kill people, they still sell it, because the buyers do not know. If they die from eating it, so be it. This is what the Israelites are thinking. A house is half-renovated, a project is half-finished. Where is the time to think about what God is saying? Now that the end is near, there is no need to worry about these things. The house does not need renovation, the moldy wheat does not need selling, and there is nowhere to spend the money from selling it. Because a line has been drawn for you. People are like that, repeatedly offending God. Living life means that if you have a good life, others have a bad life. If you earn money, others do not. So it is all about money and living life, and the result is the whole worldly logic system. Someone asked Yang Bailao. If he had money, he would be just like Huang Shiren. It is not Yang Bailao who is pitiful, but the worldly logic inside Yang Bailao and Huang Shiren that is pitiful. This is despising God.
What exactly do people live by? Some rely on money—life is impossible without it. Others live by the word of God. But if you are living by the word of God, you should take your time and compare whose life is better. Why do I believe in God and Jesus the way I do today, while others believe in their own way? It is because I know I am not capable, but I know my God is. I want to live by my God. That is why I can let go of anything at any time. Even when my job is almost gone, I still prioritize serving God; this is not an exaggeration. It is good to rely on God. Relying on myself is so tiring. Later, I developed the habit of trusting in God because I live by every word that comes from the mouth of God. That is why I lead everyone to read the Bible, and everyone thinks it’s well-explained.
Money cannot solve problems, nor can power. Even the most powerful king can't avoid a plane crash. I think the reason people worship idols is because idol worship does not prevent people from loving the world. But worshiping the living and true God, He certainly will not allow you to love this world. For example, someone might pray to Guan Gong before robbing a bank, asking for success; the police station might also pray, asking for success in catching criminals. As a result, the two teams end up fighting each other. If you come to Jesus to pray, asking God to ensure a successful bank robbery, you might be arrested by the police before you even finish speaking. So, you must understand that what God wants is not what we want. God wants us to have eternal life, not these things of this life. The logic of this life is often deadly.
> Will not the land tremble for this, and everyone mourn who dwells in it, and all of it rise like the Nile, and be tossed about and sink again like the river of Egypt? (Amos 8:8)
The Israelites lived in such a state that the land trembled, shaking like water, showing how dirty the things in their hearts were. Our brothers and sisters must now come out of the worldly system of logic. Otherwise, how much sin will you endure before you repent? You have experienced a lot already. If you do not repent now, there will truly be no way out.
## Three. God will never forget all their deeds.
> The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: “Surely I will never forget any of their deeds. (Amos 8:7)
Actually, if you come to me with the logic of this life, it will not work even if I pray for you. Sometimes, there is a period when I stop serving because I know it is better not to pray, as praying will make the problem worse. This situation is very common. Initially, I fervently prayed to serve you, but at a certain point, the word of God came to me, saying not to serve him anymore because God wants him to repent. Your illness comes from God. I cannot work against God; I cannot solve the problems God puts on you. So, in the end, you must repent and examine what is in our minds.
Recently, I have been teaching young pastors how to make plans and reflect. There are so few of us who truly reflect; we simply do not know how to reflect. Many write a lot, but few are truly reflecting. Reflection means thinking about where you did not do well. Writing about what you did well is not reflection. Think about where you did not do well and then carefully consider how to do things right. When we do things, we all think we are doing them right, but the events that follow prove that what we did was wrong because our minds are filled with filth. It is the same as the worldly logic system of the Israelites—either indulging the flesh or loving the world.
We do not know how to reflect; our reflections are just big, empty words. Using my own example, after I cook and eat, I think about what I did not do right, what took a little too much time, and how I can improve next time. That is reflection. When you do not know how to learn, reflect on what you cannot figure out and then constantly ponder how to figure it out. There will definitely be things you cannot figure out, but it is through constant reflection that people become smarter. People who do not reflect, who are often self-righteous and think they are doing everything right, will definitely become dull. In the end, they will be judged as foolish. We do something wrong, and then we bring many retributions upon ourselves, various kinds of illnesses, and we still do not reflect. Instead, you urge me to cut the nonsense and pray in the spirit quickly. Not only that, but you also teach me how I should serve him. Should I listen to him teach me how to serve him?
God will never forget because God repeatedly gives you signals, but you just do not repent. By the time you want to repent, the opportunity is gone. Look at what you are thinking in your head, your heart is the size of a peanut, and your brain is the size of a walnut. I say that is not an exaggeration at all; do not be upset when you hear me say that. If you hear this and reflect on yourself, realizing that it is really true, that is still a good thing. Whether it is what God does to you or what you do to God, God will never forget. At the end, when you stand before God, God will open the books and tell you everything. You forget, but God does not forget. Your memory is inaccurate, but God’s memory is very accurate.
When the day of God’s judgment comes, people are powerless to reverse it. Therefore, we must write ourselves a beautiful resume before God. The path that people have walked cannot be rewritten. The things we care about are seen as extremely low by people, but in God’s eyes, they are simply appalling. Think about what we are after? Recently, I have been deeply moved in my ministry. Today, you must know that God will never forget, even if you forget, God will not forget. Do not treat God as a servant to be played with. Have reverence for God and know for sure that one day God will draw a line under certain people. Have a reverent heart towards God and do not offend God repeatedly.
## Four. The day of the end for the people of Israel is coming.
The day of the end sounds terrifying.
> “In that day,” declares the Lord God, “the songs of the temple shall become wailings, and many dead bodies shall be everywhere, silently cast out.” (Amos 8:3)
Mournful music is played in the temple because there are many corpses of the people of Israel lying in the temple, all killed by foreigners brought by God. God will raise up a nation to attack them; that is the end. God’s judgment of His people is always through unbelieving foreigners, who are the sword, rod, and whip in God’s hand. Do not wait until the day of the end comes; then it will be completely destroyed. Corpses are thrown everywhere. It is foolish to devour the poor and make the needy fail. You hope the day of God will pass quickly so you can go home and make money, but in the end, you become a corpse. At that time, you will not need to make money anymore, and you will not have a fever anymore; you will only stink.
> “And on that day,” declares the Lord God, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. (Amos 8:9)
Such a day is very tragic.
> 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 for an only son, and the end of it like a bitter day.” (Amos 8:10)
In fact, this kind of suffering is not just on the day of the Lord. When we sin and offend God, our hearts are already bitter enough. God will send a little demon to torment you, and even then, you are still stiff-necked and unrepentant. When I see such things happen, my heart aches like it is being cut by a knife.
> “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “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. (Amos 8:11)
You will be so thirsty that nothing will work; you will just feel uncomfortable inside. It is very easy for God to make you feel hungry and your throat parched. Often people come to me for prayer because their throat is dry and their mouth feels uncomfortably dry. That is how it will be at that time; you will not have done anything, but you will just feel uncomfortably dry.
> They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it. In that day the lovely virgins and the young men shall faint for thirst. (Amos 8:12-13)
At that time, being beautiful will be useless. Will taking selfies quench your thirst? Your lips will be dry, and you will still be taking selfies with handsome young boys and posting them on Douyin. Even with beauty filters, you cannot hide your pale lips. Do not think that posting on Douyin will solve the problem. On the day of the end, people are powerless to reverse it; this is the work of God. Today, everyone must have a reverent heart towards God. Those who fear God will lack no good thing; they will lack neither money nor thirst. They will not only be satisfied and healthy but also joyful because our God intends to give us such a life.
## Five. At that time, the Israelites will seek the word of the Lord but will not find it.
> Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “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, seeking the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it. (Amos 8:11-12)
The word of God is not always to be found; it would be good if it always were. If you repeatedly sin and offend God, you will not find it. Why do people living in a worldly system of logic still seek the word of God? Because they are desperately thirsty and really cannot solve the problem. So, once that moment arrives, even if Jesus stands next to you and prays for you, it will not work. Christian, you must know that you are a priest of the eternal God. If you imitate old Eli and his two sons, even if you pray and offer sacrifices, you will never be able to atone for your sins.
If you cannot find the word of God, you will be completely unable to understand, and your entire mind will be filled with the worldly system of logic. This is what Amos chapter 8 is talking about. At that time, you really will not find it; it will not work. Because we have received grace from God again and again and then forgotten. Then we sin and receive punishment, and we pray and seek again and receive grace, but there will always be a time when we do not receive it, and then it will truly be deserved, and there will be nothing to be done.
Recently, I have been a little bit sorrowful in my heart, seeing people being made miserable by the worldly system of logic. A person who knows God and once trusted in God abandons God; what a sad day it will be in the future. At that time, he will surely not find God. If you are clear about this, remove the worldly system of logic inside together with me. Living is not by your work, nor by your money, but by the word of God. If a person’s inside is filled with the worldly system of logic, even if it is only 10%, he will pay a heavy price for that 10%. Without holiness, no one can see the Lord. Carrying the worldly system of logic, it is impossible to stand before God. Start repenting today and see what we have inside that should be removed.
The Israelites are not stupid; they may be smarter than the Chinese, but this intelligence cannot resist the worldly system of logic. We must fear God while we are alive. Do not be temperamental, and do not say that you would rather fight for honor than eat steamed buns. Fighting for honor is useless; what is inside people is really too dirty. Therefore, the words they speak are foolish.
Today, you must repent. After listening to Amos chapter 8, you must learn to study and reflect. It is precisely because we did not reflect enough in the past that we have become so foolish now. If we still do not reflect, we will become even more foolish in the future. No matter how much you experience, it will be useless. It is best to write down every experience with God. Do not wait until the seas run dry and the stones are ground to powder, until you are old and decrepit and powerless to reverse it. It is very simple to reflect often. When we feel uncomfortable inside because of worldly things, we know without thinking that it must be worldly. God has already given you signals, but people still go their own way. After listening to this, are you a little more awake?