Please turn your Bibles to the prophecy of Amos. Amos chapter 7, as we continue our series in this book, and subsequent to this, as we're getting closer to the end of this portion, we'll then look at the prophecy of Hosea. But Amos chapter 7, I'll begin reading at verse 10, and continue through chapter 8 verse 3. Let's give careful attention to the reading of God's most holy and infallible word. Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos has said, Jeroboam shall die by the sword and Israel must go into exile away from his land. And Amaziah said to Amos, O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there, but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is a king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom. Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, nor a prophet's son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. But the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, Go, prophesy to my people Israel. Now therefore hear the word of the LORD. You say, Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not preach against the house of Isaac. Therefore thus says the LORD. Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided up with a measuring line. You yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land. This is what the Lord God showed me. Behold, a basket of summer fruit. 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. May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of his holy and infallible word. Now, you've all heard the expression, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. There's a certain stubbornness that we sometimes see in animals. We use the expression stubborn as a mule. Even not that long ago in seeing the epic movie, though it took incredible amounts of liberty, The Ten Commandments movie with Charlton Heston, there was one scene where the Israelites are leaving Egypt, and seated in the middle of all of this was this mule. And they were trying their hardest to push it. And it was humorous to watch, but it was so typical of what people are sometimes like. Stubborn. Unable and unwilling to hear what they need to hear. We do this in our everyday life. Your doctor says you need to cut back on the sweets or on the fats or on this kind of food or that kind of food. Oh, but I love my donuts. Cut back on caffeine because you have high blood pressure. But my coffee. Gotta have my coffee. And on and on it goes. And so we understand that sometimes we're just stubborn and there's only certain things that we want to hear and other things that we don't. But unfortunately with God's people, there are certain things from God's Word that we love to hear and other parts that we don't. And that was Israel's problem. And we come to a point in this prophecy of Amos where we're introduced to a priest at Bethel. who simply does not want to hear the bad news. And unfortunately, that is a picture, not just a picture, but a perfect example of what many who call themselves Christians act like today. Don't preach the doom and gloom. Don't preach about sin. It'll just make people feel bad. Well, we are actually in the midst of the last section of Amos, and even within this last section, part of a section that really started at the beginning of this chapter. And in many respects, we could have taken chapter 7 verse 1 through chapter 8 verse 3 as one simple sermon, but I think that there is much that we see in this interaction between Amos and Amaziah. that helps us as a church today, helps us as Christians understand our place and also understand the place of ministers of God's Word. Thus, what I hope this morning to show you by God's grace is simply this, that God's heralds must faithfully bring His Word to His stubborn people. God's heralds must faithfully bring his word to his stubborn people. We're going to look at this under two headings. First of all, the calling of Amos, and then secondly, the message of Amos. So first of all, the calling of Amos. Look again at verse 10. Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam, king of Israel, saying, Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words." Now, who is this Amaziah the priest? Now, doing a search in your Bible app and so forth or online, you'll come up with a couple of different Amaziahs, including kings of Judah. not this Amaziah. In fact, this Amaziah, this is the only place he's mentioned. So there's not much known except for the fact that we know that he's a priest at Bethel. Now that's significant because Bethel was a high place set up by the northern tribes of Israel. It became a false worship center. So it is more than likely that Amaziah, this priest up in Bethel, was not even a Levite. The text doesn't say that definitively. He could have been. It's possible. But considering that the first Jeroboam, not the Jeroboam named here, but the first Jeroboam, when the kingdom divided after Solomon, appointed priests. He just appointed them. And likely, this Amaziah was just simply a political appointment of some kind. Well, he brings a message to the king, King Jeroboam II. He sends word to him. Now, this King Jeroboam is really the last notable king in the dynasty of Jehu. Jehu is mentioned a lot during the time of Elijah and Elisha. But Jeroboam descends from him, and there is another king after Jeroboam, Zechariah, not the prophet. That gives us the prophecy of Zechariah. But Jeroboam becomes the last notable king because his son, Zechariah, ends up being assassinated. And it really just goes downhill from there. And so the message to this last notable king of this particular dynasty is that Amos has conspired against you. And of course, as we've seen, none of that's actually true. Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. Now that last portion, that part is true. You see, Amaziah did not want to hear the bad news. He certainly didn't want Jeroboam to hear the bad news, and so he twists it in such a way to indicate that what Amos is doing is conspiring against you, O king. In many respects, that's what the ancient church had to deal with. Accusations of cannibalism. If you eat my flesh and drink my blood, accusations of incest because we're to love our brother, false accusations against to make them look bad or make them look like they are the most evil contemptible type of person. How dare one conspire against the king? The land cannot bear his words." That part is true. That is something that was predicted back in Deuteronomy. Something that was somewhat predicted through the prayer of Solomon and the dedication of the temple. You see, we come then to the summary of Amos' message. Jeroboam, this is verse 11, Jeroboam shall die by the sword and Israel must go into exile away from the land. Whether or not Amos in the fullness of his ministry actually said that Jeroboam must die by the sword is not that clear, but we certainly know what has already been stated is that Israel will go into exile. But even for the sake of argument, if Amos in his public ministry actually did say Jeroboam will die by the sword, Even if he did say that, he did so under the command of God. And as such, he needed to say it. Israel would go in to exile. But then we get this brief interaction between Amaziah and Amos. And it is interesting that as we have this interaction, it's not between Jeroboam the king and Amos, but this priest, this so-called priest. Amaziah says to Amos in verse 12, O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there, but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is a king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom. Now, when Amaziah addresses Amos as seer, that's actually not a sarcastic comment. Nor is it even necessarily intended to be an insulting comment. But it does seem to illustrate that Amaziah recognized that Amos was indeed a prophet. He just didn't want to listen. He didn't want to hear this. Everything's hunky-dory here in the northern tribes. People are sleeping on beds of ivory. They've got wine by the bowlful. Everybody's happy. We don't need to hear any of this. The rest of the message, though, does seem to be a bit of an insult. As simply put, it's Amaziah saying to Amos, go back from where you came. Just go back. We don't need you here. Go prophesy back in Judah where you came from. We're doing just fine without you having to come up here. After all, Amos, they've got me. I'm the priest at Bethel. Flee to Judah. So obviously, Amaziah knew enough about Amos. He knew enough. He tells him to go eat bread there and prophesy there. The idea is simply that Amaziah is saying, go make your living back home. We don't need no foreign missionaries here. In fact, don't come to Bethel again. Now this is ironic, because the name Bethel itself means house of God. And in a city and in a town that has become a high place, though a false one, that bears God's name and bears the name House of God. God's word is not welcome in a place named House of God? How sad, how pathetic. And so we deal with this kind of thing in churches today. We talk about the churches being the house of God and whatever people put their stress on the building itself regardless. How sad it is when people who gather together into the house of God do not want to hear the whole counsel of God. They're stubborn. They're like Amaziah and the rest of the Israelites of his day. This house of God, this Bethel, somehow has become the king's sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom. Notice where Amaziah's allegiances are. To the king, Jeroboam II, and also to his job as a priest in this temple of the kingdom. Notice that it's not even the temple of God, it's the temple of the kingdom. What is it that they are actually worshiping? Given what is happening with many people this weekend, unfortunately what many churches so-called are doing even today in their worship services are honoring men as opposed to honoring God. This is not in any way to diminish the sacrifice that these men have made for the sake of our country, but who do we honor in the house of God? God alone is to receive the glory, not a kingdom, not men. Men are to worship God. But now notice Amos' response. Then Amos answered, this is verse 14, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet nor a prophet's son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs." There is some debate about this clause, especially this first initial response by Amos, partly because the grammar of the Hebrew is a bit ambiguous. But all said and done, it seems that the context helps us to realize that what the ESV has is probably accurate. I was no prophet, nor a prophet's son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs." And the interesting thing is, is what we see Amos doing is very much what we see many ministers of the gospel doing today. Recognizing that they had their life planned out. They were going to be a businessman. or a professor of some institution, or a teacher, when suddenly they receive and understand that they are called by God to serve as a herald. And as the Apostle Paul testifies of himself, woe is me if I don't preach the gospel. You see, Amos had this compulsion. He had his life planned out. He was a herdsman. He tended the sycamore trees with the figs that would come off of them. That was his life, and he was probably good at it. But God called him from that. Called him from his home in Judah to go into the northern tribes, to go to the false worship center and prophesy. The simple thing that Amos is doing is saying, I'm not a professional prophet here. I don't do this for the sake of money, for the sake of attention. I don't do this because I have words of comfort, but I simply have God's Word, and I must present it as He gives it. Notice what he says in verse 15, but the Lord took me from following the flock and the Lord said to me, go prophesy to my people Israel. And today ministers of the gospel, especially those of us, even like myself, who look at this as a quote, second career, recognize that God has taken us out of what we were once doing and caused us to become ministers of the gospel because of that inward call, that sense, that compulsion by the spirit, go and proclaim to his people. He was called by God. go preach to my people. That's the calling of Amos. That's the calling of all the prophets. That's the calling of the Apostles of Christ, capital A, Apostles. That's the calling of every minister of the gospel who takes it seriously. And yes, it's true. There are some men who decide on their own, well, God's calling me to the pastorate. I'm gonna go be a minister. Yet they seem to be the only ones who recognize this call. There is a sense of inward call, yes, but there is also the external call. The church needs to call a man to be their minister. Does he manifest the gifts necessary? Even the man who is called is ultimately and truly gifted by God to proclaim the good news. Those who have no calling from a church, or a church says, we don't think you have the gifts. And such a man goes and says, well, they don't know what they're talking about. I'm just going to go do it anyway. That's not a true herald of God. As Paul says in Romans chapter 10, and we understand this, how will they believe unless they hear? And how will they hear unless somebody preaches? And how will they preach unless? Someone is sent. Men do not send themselves. God sends them, and He uses the instrumentality of the Church to do so. Amos was sent by God. And those ministers of the Gospel who are faithful to the Word are sent by God through the Church to proclaim to His people. That's our calling. But if they are sent by God, and if the church recognizes those gifts, and if the man is indeed called and has the gifts requisite to be a minister of the gospel, that means something. That means that we as a church, we as a body, we as sheep, cannot be like Amaziah. We need to heed the message even when it's bad news. No one likes to be told that they're sinning. No one. But oh, brothers and sisters, how badly we need to hear it sometimes. Yes, it makes us uncomfortable. Yes, it's hard and we hear, we're sympathetic to Amaziah in one point. Why do we always have to hear how bad we are? It's because we are. And in fact, it's worse than you think. But here's the part that Amaziah missed. And in this sense, this would have been great to have this as one longer sermon, beginning with chapter 7, verse 1. Because part of Amos' message was judgment to come, but those first two visions, in verses 1-6, God relented. It seems that Amaziah missed that part somewhere along the way. And the fact that God relented means that God is merciful to wicked sinners such as ourselves. You see, Amos was a preacher of the whole counsel of God. We talk almost mockingly of those fire and brimstone ministers, those Bible thumpers, those pulpit thumpers that predict doom and gloom because of sin. But there's an equal danger of just looking at the good and the graciousness of God and His love. God is love. He just wants to wrap you in a warm fuzzy blanket and say, there, there, it's all going to be okay. Now I realize I'm being a bit facetious and sarcastic with that, but those are the two extremes. Guess what? Both need to be preached. God's hatred of sin. Because unless we have a clear understanding of His hatred of sin, we will never have a clear understanding of His love and grace. The gospel is good news precisely because of the bad news. And because Amaziah and the rest of the Israelites of his day wanted to live in their complacency, wanted to live in their comforts, they didn't want to hear the doom and gloom. They just liked all the good stuff. All the things we receive from God. Look at us. Aren't we blessed? Name it and claim it. His task was to prophesy the whole counsel of God. But because the Israelites were taking advantage of God's grace, they were trampling underfoot his covenant promises. What hope could they have? Nothing apart from God's grace could save them or help them. Well, in many respects, I've already started delving into our second point, the message of Amos. Notice verse 16. This is Amos still speaking to Amaziah. Now therefore hear the word of the Lord. You say, do not prophesy against Israel and do not preach against the house of Isaac. You see, oftentimes the words of God's herald is in stark contrast to the words of the world. Our world today is telling faithful ministers of the gospel, don't preach sin. Don't preach against sin. Because what they do out there, that's natural. It's genetic. It's a part of who they are. They were born that way. It's unloving. It's restrictive and oppressive to tell people they can't marry who they want. We could go on and on with this. You say, do not prophesy against Israel. But the sad part of this, it is not just the world that does this today. It becomes men, and in some cases women, behind the pulpit saying these things. Oh, this is a safe place for anybody to worship. When we fail to recognize that a sinner apart from God's grace is not safe in the presence of God. It is only because of the love of God. It is only because of the sacrifice of Christ Jesus our Lord and His shed blood which cleanses you who have faith that you're allowed even into His presence. That's why it's safe. Not because of you, but because of Christ. But the world doesn't want to hear that. And those, there are sadly Christians who don't want to hear that. And so we substitute the word brokenness instead of the word sin. As if our brokenness is just something to be affixed as opposed to sin, which needs atonement. That is the problem of much of the church today. Shying away from the reality of having to preach sin. And brothers and sisters, I take no delight in having to do that. But if I don't, how will you not see your need of Christ? It is intended to cause us to flee to Christ, the one who can cover our sin, the one who can wash us. Thus we preach the whole counsel of God, and part of that gracious side is that you who truly come to Him with a broken and contrite heart, you who recognize your sinfulness, the filthiness and odiousness of our sin, as the divines put it, Christ will welcome you. And God will clothe you in His righteousness. And as a result, when you come on the Lord's Day to worship in His presence, it is a safe place for you. That's the full counsel of God. That's what makes God's grace so incredibly amazing. and why you and I should never stop proclaiming the praises of Him who has given His Son on our behalf. And see, Amaziah, he missed that portion. He only heard the sin and the doom and the gloom and the judgment. We don't want that here. Nope. No. Amaziah missed that. He missed the fact that God relented. The world, and even sometimes the church, they forget that God has relented. He is long-suffering, He is patient, and He does this. He waits, He waits, He waits, calling men to repent. But just as it was in Amos' day, there will come a time when time is up. And judgment comes. And so we preach the whole counsel of God in order that men may turn from their sinful ways and rely upon Christ alone as he's offered to us in the gospel. That's the message. And then what Amos does, he goes back and he pronounces further judgment. In verse 17, therefore thus says the Lord, probably speaking to Amaziah directly, but this of course applied to the whole of the northern tribe. And these words are uncomfortable. Your wife shall be a prostitute. Your sons and your daughters will fall by the sword. And your land will be divided up with a measuring line. You yourself will die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go into exile away from the land of Israel. That's the judgment pronounced from living in sin. That's what will happen to those who refuse to repent and heed God's words. There is coming a clear and unhindered judgment. It is so bad that the description of what takes place to family members is graphic and repulsive. But so bad will it be that that's what will happen. In the case of the wife, out of necessity. Now this is description, not necessarily of being literal, but of it being so bad that people will do anything just to survive. But it won't matter. The land, the thing promised by God to God's covenant people will be divided up. And then Amos goes into his fourth vision. Remember that the first three began at chapter one. The first two visions we see in verse three, that the Lord relented and it shall not be. In verse six with the second vision, the Lord relented and this also shall not be. But the third vision with the plumb line, no such relenting. Then we're interrupted by this account between Amaziah and Amos, and then we come to the fourth vision. He sees a basket of summer fruit. Now you might think, what does this have to do with anything? Well, there are a couple of things. For one thing, the summer fruit that is in the basket is fruit that is ripe and has been picked at just the right time. So in one sense, what Amos is saying is, is that at just the right time, the nation of Israel will be ripe for the picking of the judgment of God against them. But there's something else here that unfortunately the English translation just simply cannot catch. is that the word for summer fruit that is used here actually sounds and looks very much like the word end that we see in verse 1. The end has come upon my people Israel. So what Amos is doing is making a play on words. Something that our English can't quite catch. It's to really get their attention. They are both ripe for the picking, and when they are picked, it will be the end. And notice what takes place. The songs of the temple, that is, the temple at Bethel, shall become wailings. Songs of joy and jubilee will turn into laments and wails because of God's judgment. Notice one thing further. I will never again pass them by at the end of verse one. You see, that's an expression that is in direct contrast to what we see in the Passover. God passed over them. But now what God is saying is that He will no longer pass over them. He will no longer pass by them. The judgment shall surely fall upon them. And as a result, their worship, as they set it up, gone. Their joy in themselves Their strength, their religion, gone. It turns to mourning. And so drastic, we see these final words in verse three. So many dead bodies, they are thrown everywhere. Silence. Silence. At the thought of so many dead bodies strewn about, Many of us have seen the grotesque images of the concentration camps when places like Auschwitz and others were liberated from the Nazis in 1944 and 45, toward the end of the war. And some of the films released that were captured of what the Germans did to the Jews. That's the image that's being pictured here. And all of us need to understand that as gruesome as that is, to see dead bodies strewn about, that this is a result here in Amos' time, a result of God's judgment against his people. And the physical aspect an exile, of being killed by the sword, all of these things pales in comparison of the eternal judgment of God against sin and sinners who do not repent. And see, we know this. We know that God takes such sin seriously because in order to save sinners like you and me, he had to pour his wrath out upon his Son in our place in order to save us. God could not just simply wink and say, that's okay. Justice had to take place. And for God to demonstrate justice, one of two things has to happen. Either you face God's wrath, or a substitute faces it in your place. And this is where the whole counsel of God comes into play. Because as gruesome as it sounds to see dead bodies everywhere, That is nothing compared to enduring the full wrath of God. And see, as gruesome as a form of execution crucifixion may have been, that was nothing compared to the fact that Christ bore the full wrath of his Father in our place. It paled in comparison. And to know what it is that Christ endured on the cross for our sake, it would take us an eternity in hell for us to have a taste of that. And the reason why that is the case, it's because that's how you're redeemed. That's how Christ is your substitute. That's the beauty of the gospel. Does that make your heart long for Christ? It should. Does it cause your heart to leap, to desire to come into His presence, to worship Him and adore Him and thank Him and praise Him? Because all that we read here that would fall upon Israel is that which you and I deserve. But God relented, and He redeems His people through the blood of His Son, and He clothes you in His perfect righteousness, you who trust in Christ. And if there are any here today who don't know Christ in this fashion, who don't recognize what is coming, heed the words of Amos. Understand that judgment will come, and you will be judged for your own sins. But if you put your faith in Christ, you fall before Him in adoration, in helplessness, repentant of your sin, know for certain that you will be saved. from that coming judgment. Not only will you be saved from that coming judgment, but you will spend eternity in the presence of God and see Christ face to face in all his glory, in all his beauty, in all his excellency. And you will be made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God to all eternity. That's what awaits you. You who are Christians long for that day. Those of you who are not, I urge you, repent and turn to Christ. Flee to Him. and he will indeed save you." That is a message of Amos. That is the message of any true minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ that preaches the whole counsel of God. Doom and gloom will come. But it will either fall upon you, or for you who have faith, that judgment falls on Christ. That's the hope that we have. That's the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that's what every true minister of the gospel needs to preach. Let's pray.