In Peter Allison's sermon titled 'God's Messenger's Resisted', he discusses the biblical conflict between the prophet Amos and Amaziah, a priest of Bethel. Allison highlights how Amaziah accused Amos of conspiring against King Jeroboam and distorting God's message for personal gain. The sermon draws parallels between the state church of Amos's time and modern-day churches that are influenced by civil authority, emphasizing the danger of such a relationship. Amos is portrayed as a reluctant yet faithful messenger who responds to God's calling, despite the risks and opposition he faces. Allison urges believers to receive God's word with humility and repentance, even when it challenges personal comfort or societal norms. He warns against attacking the messenger or distorting the message, advocating for a genuine engagement with the Gospel. The sermon concludes with a prayer for courage and faithfulness among church leaders and believers, particularly those facing persecution.

Please turn to Amos chapter 7 and beginning at verse 10. And beginning at verse 10. Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam the 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 shall surely be led away captive from their own land.

Then Amaziah said to Amos, go you seer, flee to the land of Judah. There eat bread and there prophesy, but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is the royal residence. Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, nor was I a son of a prophet, but I was a sheep-breeder and a tender of sycamore fruit. Then the Lord took me as I followed 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 spout against the house of Isaac. Therefore thus says the Lord, Your wife shall be a harlot in the city. Your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword. Your land will be divided by the survey line. You shall die in a defiled land.

And Israel shall surely be led away captive from His own land. Great peace have all those who love His law, and nothing causes them to stumble. Heavenly Father, Heavenly Father, please open our hearts this morning to Your Word. We know that by nature we do not open to You like a sun opens to a flower apart from Your grace. So we ask this morning that You give us spiritual ears to hear what your Spirit says to your church.

We ask that you give us understanding of what we hear. And we ask that you give us a gospel obedience to Your message. And I pray that You would sanctify my lips, that from a vessel of clay, Your Word and Your truth might be brought to us. In Jesus' name, Amen. What's sometimes said of preachers that if everyone loves your preaching, you might not be preaching the Gospel in all of its fullness.

It might be true sometimes. There's an element of truth in that. But what is true is that Unbelievers will attack faithful preaching. They will attack faithful preaching by attacking the messenger. If you don't like the message, attack the messenger.

And they will attack faithful preaching by distorting the message. If you make a caricature of it, you can more easily mock it and make fun of it. And they will attack the preaching by denying and ignoring that it is the Word of God, ignoring the message. And this text is that we've read, Amos is attacked by an unbelieving listener who happens to be one of the leaders in the church of His day. Amaziah, the priest, attacks Amos, the preacher.

Who was Amaziah? We don't know much about him other than that he was a priest of Bethel. He was a priest of Bethel. The altar at Bethel, you remember, was part of that false religion, and it constituted idolatrous worship. When the kingdoms separated, the first Jeroboam, not this Jeroboam, this is the second Jeroboam, the first Jeroboam realized that if he was going to preserve the loyalty of the people to him, which was a problem right off the bat, that he needed to have places for Israel to worship in their own land and not have to go down to Jerusalem.

And it was right at that time then that he instituted Andalitris worship. He set up altars in Bethel and in Dan and in other places. And he made these calves and he said, this is what delivered you out of the land of Egypt. He revised history. And you remember at that time, all the Bible-believing, many of the Bible-believing priests fled.

And they went down to Jerusalem where they could serve and worship the true God, and not these idols that Jeroboam set up at Bethel and other places. But he not only set up these shrines in high places, but He made priests from every class of people who weren't of the sons of Levi. God had commanded the priests to come from the tribe of Levi. Jeroboam ordained priests from anybody that was willing to take his paycheck in exchange for loyalty. He ordained a feast, just like Israel, but he did it just like down in Judah, on the fifteenth day of the eighth month.

And he offered sacrifices on an altar, sacrificing to the calves that he had made. He changed the feasts from the day that God had appointed them to a day of His own choosing. And He installed priests at all the high places that He made. This is all recounted in 1 Kings 12. You can read what he did there.

And so Amaziah is a descendant, because this is a little bit later. He's a descendant of this system that Jeroboam instituted. He's a priest of Bethel, which means he's a false priest. He's a heretic priest. This is a political religion.

The priests were appointed by the civil magistrate. Did you notice that? In this case, the king appointed the priests like Amaziah. And these priests were subservient, of course, to the one who made them priests. That's in the nature of things.

We always serve the one who gives to us the authority that we are using. So this was an incorporated church, a state incorporated church. It was not a true church. It was, we might call it, a state church. Much like many of our churches today that are civilly incorporated.

When you incorporate, and we looked at this last week, I guess, even, A corporation is a creature of the state. It exists by the authority and will of the state. It exists for the good of the state. And if the state deems that it's no longer in its best interest to have that entity, that legal entity called a corporation, then it can cause that corporation to cease to exist. That corporation is subservient to the commands of the civil magistrate because that entity, that incorporated church, exists by the authority of the civil magistrate.

That's what you say when you incorporate. And this was a state church. A state incorporated church. So it wasn't a true church. This church received its authority from the civil magistrate.

It existed by the authority of the civil magistrate. And it existed at the pleasure of the civil magistrate. And so it was answerable to the civil magistrate. And so who does Amaziah run to when he doesn't like the message? He runs to his master.

The King, Jeroboam. See, the true church serves Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the King and the only King in His church. And those who are His messengers answer to Him and to Him alone. And when there's trouble, they run to Him.

Because He's the one who called them. He's the one who sent them. He's the one who gives them their authority to go. But in a state church, truth and error is defined not by the Word of God, but by the state, by the civil magistrate. I call the civil magistrate represents all of the various and sundry octopus of what we would call civil government.

With its many tentacles. I lump that together as the civil magistrate. See, according in a state church, truth is anything that commends and supports the state. Heresy is anything that criticizes the civil magistrate. And I saw this really graphically illustrated in a rather way that shocked me at the time, was a number of years ago, and the CEO of the company I worked for at that time, defined good and evil in terms of what was good for the company, and what was not good for the company.

In this case, he was talking about the Olympics in China, and in his view, the Dalai Lama was therefore evil, and China was therefore good, because that was how the corporate interests were aligned. And that's the way it is in a state church. Truth and error is defined by the state. Good and evil is defined by what is good for the state, and evil is what is not good for the state's continuing in power. And so treason then is redefined to be the support of the person or the civil magistrate, even when they are in violation of the law.

See, in a godly society, an oath of office is taken to God in support of the truth, in support of the Constitution, let's say. Not some particular person. Not the government itself as an entity. You see, when we take membership vows in this church, we don't take vows to a person. It's to the government, It's to the Scriptures as they are understood.

It's to the government of the church as it's defined in the Scriptures. And when those Scriptures are departed from, then we don't blindly follow them. You see, that's one reason why we don't believe churches should be incorporated, because it subverts who their master is, and where the definition of right and wrong come from. So Amaziah was a heretic priest. He claimed to worship God, but he practiced a false religion, a political religion.

He was part of a state church. And so he redefined what was treason. He did not receive and treat God's Word as the Word of God. He didn't receive God's Word as it came through Amos as the Word of God. His first words to the king was that Amos has conspired against you.

See, if he was receiving Amos' words as the Word of God, he would have said to the king, Jeroboam, God is opposing you. That would have been true. He came and said, Amos is conspiring against you. He didn't receive the Word of God as God's Word. He received it as the words of men.

Paul commended the Thessalonians for receiving His preaching as the Word of God. He said, for this reason, we also thank God without ceasing, because when you receive the Word of God, which you heard from us... In other words, they heard Paul's voice speaking, but they recognized that what he was saying was consistent with what the Scriptures said, that he was a messenger that God had sent, that God had ordained, that God had called, and so they received it as God's Word. He said, because you received the Word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the words of men, but as it is in truth. As it really is, the Word of God.

Which also effectively works in those who believe. And that's why we have to search the Scriptures. Don't take what I say, go to the Scriptures. Is what is being said consistent with what the Scriptures say? If it is, it's the Word of God.

Amaziah not only didn't receive God's Word as the Word of God, but he also supports another kingdom. He's working in a state church, a state incorporated church, and he's supporting another kingdom. See, there are two kingdoms in this world. And they are, brothers and sisters, opposed to each other. They are not compatible.

They are completely incompatible to each other. They are in fact at war with each other. That's what Psalm 2 tells us. The kingdoms of this world are conspiring together to overthrow Messiah's reign. The kingdoms of this world are at war with Christ.

And they're at war with every institution through which He reigns. And He reigns through the family, the church and the state. I think we also looked at that last week too, in God's providence. These institutions through which Christ rules. All this other kingdom, Satan's kingdom, is at war with Christ and all the institutions that He has ordained and through which He rules.

Parents, preachers, and civil magistrates. You see, the Gospel of the Kingdom, and that's how the Bible calls it, the Gospel of the Kingdom, is opposed to the kingdoms of this world. In fact, it defeats the kingdoms of this world. The Gospel of the Kingdom defeated the Roman Empire in the first three centuries after Christ's ascension. It defeated the strongest and mightiest Kingdom in this world.

That was the significance of that vision that Daniel had. You remember that statue that had these different parts in it? Gold head and silver chest, shoulders, and that bronze torso and iron legs and the feet of iron and clay. Those were representing kingdoms of the world. The kingdoms of the world that are conspiring together to overthrow Christ's reign.

Remember that stone that's cut without hands from the mountain comes down and crushes that statue. It obliterates it. It blows away. It's gone. That was the picture that God gave to Daniel of the defeat of all the kingdoms of the earth that conspire together against Christ.

But they are at war. And this war is not fought by swords of steel, but it was the sword of the spirit that defeated the sword of steel in the Roman Empire. It's the word of God as it's proclaimed. As it's faithfully proclaimed, God works through it to defeat His enemies and those who are opposed to Him. You see, the gospel of the kingdom is treason to the kingdom of this world.

There can only be one king. You can't have two captains on a ship. You can't have two kings in a kingdom. You can't have two sovereign kings on the earth. One of them isn't sovereign.

It can only be one sovereign. And the Word of God destroys all other kingdoms. And so those who are false preachers realize that the Gospel, who are working for another kingdom, they realize that the Gospel of Christ's kingdom is an attack on their kingdom. That's why they call it treason. Amos has conspired now.

Amos, he said, had conspired against Jeroboam. You see, the fact that Amaziah called the truth of God's Word treason reveals that He was fighting for another kingdom. You can put this into a different context. If a good parent, a godly parent, not a perfect one, but a godly parent, gives a series of rules and directions to their children for their own goods so that they are trained in righteousness. A rebellious child will understand those boundaries and those prohibitions and tacking them as being anti-child.

They say, they're opposing me. They're against me. They don't like me. You see, The rebellious child sees the commands of a godly parent as being opposed to them. And so this kingdom that's opposed to Christ sees the message that God sent as being opposed to them personally.

Instead of recognizing that it was a message of grace, God is revealing to them His will for them as the sovereign over heaven and earth. As the judge of all the earth, His message is a message of mercy, to repent and to turn to Him and to be saved. He calls all the ends of the earth to look to Him and to be saved, for there is no other. But Amaziah didn't see this message that way. He didn't see it as a message of grace, Offering repentance.

He didn't see it as a message offering salvation, a message that was good for him. A message that was given for his own good, for his own benefit. No, he saw it as treason. Something that was bad for their country and bad for Him. Because He saw it was an attack upon His autonomy.

An attack upon His sovereign. See, the Word of God is powerful. As Hebrews says, it's sharper than a two-edged sword dividing a sundered soul and spirit even to joints and marrow. And it's what? It's a discerner.

It's a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And this message that Amos brought brought out the thoughts and the intents of Amazigh's heart. It revealed what side he was really fighting for, whose side he was on. He claimed to be a priest of God. He performed religious services and probably spoke God's name, but it was in vain.

He wasn't a priest of the Most High God. He was a priest of a false God, a state God, a state religion, in a state incorporated church that was threatened by the gospel message of truth. It was threatened by the true sovereign. And they were right in that one point. The gospel message was a threat to their kingdom.

Because the gospel of God's kingdom, of Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords, is that all other kingdoms will be defeated. Christ will reign until He has put every enemy under His feet. So they were right. Amaziah was right on that. This was an attack against His state church and against His little sovereign that He served.

Amaziah covered this in a concern for the land. You notice that's the safety of the people. It's the good of the people. The land is not able to bear His words. We call that national security today.

Amos is a threat to national security. This has become the catch word for any time the government wants to do something that isn't right. And they need to hide it from the people because it would expose their evil hand. They say, well, it's a matter of national security. We can't give you that.

We can't release this. We can't tell you that because it's national security. The good of the land can't bear this if we were to let you know what we're doing. Because of national security today, the good of the land, people can be convicted of crimes without showing any evidence. Did you know that?

Jeroboam's descendants here can take people into court and tell the judge, Well, we can't show you the evidence because of national security. The land can't bear it if the truth was to be declared. So we can't tell you. We can't bring any evidence. But we're telling you that they're guilty of this crime that we've made up.

And we can't even tell you what crime they're guilty of because national security. But Judge, we want you to convict this person of this crime and sentence them to prison anyways. All in the interest of national security. You think I'm being facetious, I'm not. That is the reality.

That is what people are facing today. Courts that don't have to present any evidence because of national security. And that's how Amaziah couches his concerns. The land isn't able to endure these words. It would be harmful to the country for Amos's message to be heard.

We have to stop it. We have to gag it. Amaziah also distorts the message. Remember, if you don't like the message, you attack the messenger, and you distort the message. He distorts the message.

He comes and says, Amos had said, Jeroboam shall die by the sword. Well, that's not what Amos said. Amos didn't say Jeroboam would die by the sword. Amos said God would rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword. The house of Jeroboam.

He didn't say Jeroboam would die. He said God would come against His house. So he twists the message to make it more urgent. But it's twisted. It's not what it's distorted.

People will distort the message because a true message is unassailable. You can't convict the truth of being wrong. The truth is by definition not wrong. And a true message is unassailable to the extent that it's true. But if you distort the message, you can then attack the distorted message.

So Amaziah distorts the message. He says Jeroboam would die, and Israel shall be led away captive. He doesn't change it completely, He just changes it subtly so that it says something a little bit different. You leave enough truth in the message to be credible. You mix it with sufficient error in such a subtle way to change entirely the message while having a lot of truth in it.

People can also distort the message when their own thinking is distorted and they're not able to understand the message. They can distort a message that's not understood correctly. Amaziah attacks the messenger here, and he says to Amos, go, you seer. It's a prophet. Go, flee to the land of Judah.

There eat bread and there do your prophesying. Never do your prophesying. He slandered Amazigh to the king by having him say something that he didn't say, but he also assumes Amos to be like himself. Somebody who is simply there preaching for the paycheck. Preaching for the paycheck.

God condemned those people who were simply doing something for a piece of bread. And that's what he assumes Amos is doing. Amos has just come up here because it's maybe a better land, a wealthier land than where he was from down in Toccoa, down south, down near the Gulf of Aquaba. And he assumes that Amos, like himself, is just doing this because this is a way to eat. And this is just the easiest way to do it and the only thing that he can find to do.

And so he imports onto Amos what he himself is. And we often do that. We assume in other people we'll think the way we think. We assume about other people what's true about ourself very often. Because we don't often have any other basis.

So he assumes that Amos is just another false prophet like he is who just picked the wrong place to come and prophesy a message. And so he says, you go back to your own land. And you go prophesy down there. And go earn your bread down there. But not here.

And then we see Amos' response. The response of a faithful messenger to attack. He establishes his motive. I'm not here because I'm a professional prophet. That's where that famous line comes from.

I'm not a prophet nor the son of a prophet. He was talking about, I didn't go to seminary because I thought this would be a nice occupation. I didn't go to the school of the prophets because I was interested in this type of line of work. And I thought it would be a nice way to make a living. I was no prophet.

I was no prophet. I wasn't the son of a prophet. That wasn't my calling. That's not why I'm here. That's not my motive.

I'm not just here to earn a living. I was earning a living just fine back home. I was a sheep breeder. I was a shepherd. I was a tender of sycamore fruit.

I had a business. I had an income. That's where my family is. That's where I live. I had no reason to come up here.

I came up here because God called me. He said, Amos, go. And I went. I didn't come here because I thought this would be a nice place to live. Because I liked your weather and I liked your government and I liked your rules and your security and whatnot.

No. The Lord called me. And He sent me to prophesy to these people in another land. That's why I came. He establishes His call is from the Lord.

It's not of His own making. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't because the Lord called me. I was like Amos, I didn't choose this calling when I was in high school and think, well, this is how I'm going to make a living. Just the opposite, I had another job when the Lord called me. He was against my will, but He made me willing.

And He brought me into this. And this is what Amos is saying. The Lord took me as I followed the flock and the Lord said, Go prophesy to My people. Now therefore, as a true prophet of the Lord, as a true messenger of the Lord, He brings a message that is unfavorable. Unfavorable message.

He establishes his motive, he establishes his call, and then he returns to why he was there, which is to bring God's message. He preaches the truth, even when it's not in his best interest to do so. Here's Amaziah, the state priest, the priest of the state religion, telling him to Leave, get out of here. The king doesn't want him. His message isn't popular.

It's against national security. And Amos comes right back with, now therefore hear, Amaziah, hear the word of the Lord. You've said don't prophesy against Israel and don't spout against the house of Isaac. Therefore, thus says the Lord." And this here is the mark of a true messenger of God, that He brings an unfavorable message, even at the cost, at the risk of His life. When God sent a prophet to denounce the first Jeroboam for this false altar that he had put up.

Jeroboam's response was to point at him and say, seize him, kill him. And Amos would reasonably expect nothing else from this second Jeroboam. For this message that he's given that is contrary to this false kingdom, this kingdom of the world. And Amos' message is, Your wife, Amaziah, shall be a harlot in the city." That's a hard message to hear. But I would say it's a harder message to give.

Your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword." That's a hard message to hear, but it's a harder message to give. Your land shall be divided by survey line. You shall die in a defiled land, and Israel shall surely be led away captive from his own land." Nobody wants to be the bearer of bad news. Nobody wants to be the bearer of bad news to those who are in authority, to those who consider your message to be treason, to be a conspiracy against the king, to be worthy of death. And yet Amos, as a faithful messenger of the Lord, brings that hard message.

He brings the true message. And He doesn't adulterate it in any way. He doesn't withhold part of the message because it will be received in an unfavorable way because it won't be popular with His hearers. He's saying they're going to be slaves. Their wives and their children and their daughters will be ravished.

Their land will be divided, be sold off, piece carved up and given to other people. And they're going to die in a defiled, in a faraway land. You're going to be let away captive. And this shows who he's a messenger of. He's a messenger of the living God.

He's a messenger of the truth. He's a messenger of Christ and a herald of His Kingdom. We can ask this morning, how do we receive God's message? How do we receive the Word of God? Do we receive it humbly, as the Thessalonians did, as the Word of God.

Do we receive it whether or not it's comfortable for us? Whether or not it's saying something good about us? Maybe it's telling us that our lifestyle has to change. Maybe our job has to change. Maybe our focus is wrong.

How do we receive the Word of God when it is uncomfortable for us to hear? Do we attack the messenger? Do we distort the message and make a caricature of it so that we can dismiss it? Or do we receive it as a word of God, humbly, and repent, like the Ninevites did. May God give us His grace, that we receive His Word with humility and repentance where it is necessary.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your Word, and we thank you for faithful messengers who are not afraid of the state church, who are not afraid of the state church, who are not afraid of the threats upon their life, who are not afraid to be faithful witnesses for your truth and for the gospel of your kingdom. We ask, Lord, for Your blessing upon all, especially the faithful messengers of Your Word in our land and in other lands, and in China. Lord, we remember the early rain church and their pastor who has been imprisoned and their elders and the other churches like theirs? We do not know Lord how many, but You do. We ask for Your strength and Your grace for these ministers, for their families, for their churches, for these people.

And Lord, we pray the same of ourselves. For we know how easy it is to be silent in the face of opposition, in the face of authority that is opposed to you. We ask, Lord, for Your grace to be bold and also for Your grace to be humble in receiving Your Word as it comes to us, as it pinches our life, where it steps on our toes, where it offends our sensibilities. Father, may You grant us grace to change our sensibilities, to change our thinking, to change our lives where your word calls us to do so. We ask these things In Jesus' name, Amen.