We're gonna look at the book
of Obadiah, but I also want you to turn to Romans chapter nine,
because I'll be going over there in just a moment. But the title
of the message is Christ the Destroyer of Pride. Christ the
Destroyer of Pride. You know, you can hear all kinds
of old sayings about this issue of pride. This Book of Obadiah
is a prime example of the fact that pride goes before the fall,
things like that. It's men and women's pride and
it comes in the form of self-righteousness that keeps sinners from coming
to Christ in unbelief because by nature we think too highly
of ourselves. And you remember when Christ
told his disciples, he that exalts himself shall be brought down
and he that is brought down shall be raised up. That's the issue
of the gospel. In the gospel, when the Holy
Spirit convinces us of sin and of righteousness and of judgment,
he brings us down to understand that we are such a sinful people,
fallen in Adam, spiritually dead and depraved. And the only way
that we can be saved is by his free sovereign grace conditioned
on Christ, who accomplished all that was required, is required,
for our salvation. Well, we see a picture of that
in these few verses of the book of Obadiah. Obadiah was a prophet
of God, and his main message was to pronounce judgment on
the nation of Edom. Look at verse one of Obadiah.
He says, the vision of Obadiah, now anytime you see a vision
there, that's the word of God brought to this prophet. Thus
saith the Lord God concerning Edom. We have heard a rumor,
now that's an announcement. It's not a rumor like we think
of rumors, you know, gossip or anything like that. But it's an announcement, a pronouncement. concerning, we have heard a pronouncement
from the Lord, and it says, and an ambassador is sent among the
heathen, that's talking about Edom, and he says, arise ye and
let us rise up against her in battle. And so this is a pronouncement
of judgment, and he says in verse two, behold, I have made thee
small among the heathen, thou art greatly despised. Now, Edom,
if you know the history of it, this nation, small nation of
Edom, it goes back to Jacob and Esau. And look over at Romans
chapter nine. You know, you're very familiar
with this passage. And Jacob, you know his descendants
was the nation Israel, physically. And of course, Jacob in the Bible
came to be a representative, a symbol of the true Israel of
God, the people of God. And spiritually speaking, we
who believe the gospel, we're sons of Jacob in that sense.
And you remember, I love that verse in Malachi 3, 6, where
it says, I am the Lord, I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. And if you think about the life
of Jacob, you know how he started out. You know, Jacob was a sinful
man, just like all of us. He didn't deserve God's love,
and yet God here in Romans chapter nine, if you'll look at it, look
at verse 10, talking about Rebekah, Isaac and Rebekah, who was Jacob
and Esau's father and mother, says, not only this, but when
Rebekah also had conceived by one, even our father Isaac, for
the children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, Now this is plain language, isn't it, in Scripture? In other
words, what's going to be said here is not based upon Jacob
doing good and Esau doing evil, or vice versa. So he says, neither
having done good or evil, that the purpose of God according
to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. So what's the point of all this?
It's to show us what we're gonna be talking about later on in
the book of Jonah. Salvation is of the Lord. It's
conditioned on Christ. It's based upon Christ doing
good. We do evil in the sight of God,
even at our best. And it says in verse 12 of Romans
9, it was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger,
Now this is God's sovereign purpose because under the law of Moses,
the younger was to serve the elder. But God said this is my
sovereign will and he's proven a point and it's a point that
all of us need to think about and understand by the grace of
God. He says in verse 13, as it is written, Jacob have I loved
and Esau have I hated. Now that doesn't mean Jacob have
I loved and Esau have I loved less. Preachers will tell you
that, but that's not what that word means. This hatred is not
an emotional sinful hatred like ours is. And that's why we're
told to love our neighbors ourselves, not to hate anybody. We're told
to hate every false way. But this is God's just wrath
judgment against sin. And the thing about it is, if
we understand the Bible, which God has brought us to do, both
Jacob and Esau deserved and earned God's hatred. But God chose to
love Jacob. Why? Well, he told us that the
purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works. And
he says in verse 14, what shall we say then? Now here's what
people do. You read that and you say, well,
that's unfair. That's not right. And of course the Bible would
hit you with this. Who do you think you are? This
is God's work. Do you want to debate with God? I think in one of the books I
wrote, I put a little thing in there where one of the old poets,
and I don't think he was a Christian, but he said this and he's right.
He said, your arms are too short to box with God. That's true,
isn't it? Remember when Job was complaining
and God came to him in a vision, he said, now Job, you want to
debate with me? All right, let's settle something first. Where
were you when I formed the earth? Where were you when I did all
of these, when I put Leviathan in the sea? Because you see,
you're not on any plane or level with God. And so that's why down
here, look at verse 20, when he says, nay, but old man, who
art thou that replyest against God, that you dispute with God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? So back up
here when he says, he says in verse 14, he says, what shall
we say then? Is there unrighteousness, unjustness
with God? And he says, God forbid. And
you know what I tell people to do when they argue against God's
sovereignty, God's election of grace? I tell them to do this. I said, number one, go to Romans
nine and read the objections because that's the objections
that we naturally bring. Well, what do we do about that?
Well, it's that verse, what is it in Proverbs chapter three,
I think it is. It says this, trust in the Lord
and lean not to your own understanding. In other words, when I read things
like this and in my natural pride, and that's what it is, I argue
with God, or I say, what should I do? God knows what's best. God never makes a mistake. God
does that which is right. Trust in the Lord, and don't
lean to your own understanding. But here's the whole point, look
at verse 15. For he saith to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. Now doesn't God have that right?
Well, you bet he does. You wouldn't be here at all if
not for him. And so he says, so then, verse 16, and here's
the bottom line. So then it's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
There it is. That's the gospel, how God saves
sinners by his sovereign mercy conditioned on Christ. And that's
our only hope. Now back here in the book of
Obadiah, the reason I wanted to read all that is the tension
that existed between Jacob and Esau began at their birth. You remember that you talk about
how Esau came out of the womb first and Jacob had a hold of
his heel. And so, and you know the story
of Jacob and Esau, we're not gonna go into all that. But the
fact was God chose Jacob. and not Esau, and it wasn't for
anything in Jacob that God chose him. Wasn't for any foreseen
goodness in Jacob. Jacob was a sinner. In fact,
if you look at their lives, if you just looked at the history
of their lives, you would probably say Esau was a better man than
Jacob. He was a man's man, you know,
the hunter. He was his father's favorite.
I've heard preachers say Jacob was a mama's boy, I don't know.
But his mother really did take care of him in that way. But
anyway, this Jacob represents the elect of God, who are brought
to Christ by the power of God. Esau represents the non-elect
who live and die in their sins, that's what it is. Well out of
Jacob came the nation Israel, out of Esau came the nation of
the Edomites, and they were a small nation, insignificant really,
But you know that's what God says, he chose Jacob. And people
who hate the doctrine of election, they'll go to that Romans 9 passage
and they'll say, well now that's not talking about individual
people, that's talking about nations. Well, correct me if
I'm wrong, aren't nations made up of individuals? So what they'd
be saying is there's more than one here in this thing. Nations
are made up of people. And so the quarrel between Jacob
and Esau had affected their descendants, the Israelites, the national
Israelites, and the Edomites. They were enemies, there was
tension, and they've been that way for about 1,000 years. And one of the most glaring instances
of this is when the children of Israel were brought out of
Egypt with Moses, The Edomites, they forbade the children of
Israel to cross their land during the Exodus. And you can read
about that in Numbers chapter 20. But there were all kinds
of things. They were Israel's enemies. And
that tension between Jacob and Esau existed there. All right,
and so Obadiah was sent to pronounce God's judgment on this nation,
Edom. Now look at verses three and
four. He says, the pride of thine heart hath deceived thee. Now
there's the pride, Edom's pride. Now we've all got pride. We're
proud sinners. Any sinner who seeks salvation
based upon his works or her works, You know, that's evil pride,
that's self-righteousness. Well, this nation, Edom, was
proud. The pride of thine heart hath
deceived thee. Thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose
habitation is high, that sayeth in his heart, who shall bring
me down to the ground? Though thou exalt thyself as
the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence
will I bring thee down, saith the Lord." Edom was a small nation,
but they lived in a place that was like a fortress. It had cliffs
and partitions that would seal them off. And they proudly thought
they were indestructible. And that's what they're saying,
and that's why I say, as in Proverbs 16, 18, pride goes before destruction
and a haughty spirit before a fall. And so what we have here in Edom,
and think about this, look at verse three again, the pride
of thy heart hath deceived thee. Deceptive pride is the problem. And we see that in all of us
by nature, isn't it? You think about it, the highest
degree of deceptive pride is in what people today and back
then, unbelievers, call salvation. What they call faith, what they
call righteousness and grace, because to them, it's a system
where God gives them help to help themselves. God just gives
me a leg up, a jump start, you might say. There are a few who
probably say, well, that's all of man. But most people say,
well, I was saved by the help of God. No, God didn't get my
help in this thing of salvation. He sent salvation in the personal
work of his son. And it wasn't conditioned on
me or my decision. In fact, if God had left me to
myself, my decision would have always remained the wrong decision.
That's what the Bible teaches. And so salvation by human efforts
or human decision is a deceptive thing. And I think about Jeremiah
17, nine, the heart is deceitful, desperately wicked. Who can know
it? That's the problem. And so when God in the new birth,
what does God do? He brings us down. He brings
us to repentance, faith in Christ and repentance of dead works,
where we see that our only way of salvation and righteousness
before God is Christ alone, by the sovereign will and power
and grace of God. And he brings us into what the
Bible calls a sorrowful, contrite spirit that God accepts because
it's his work. God accepts his own work. And
what is his work? A sinner saved by grace, Ephesians
2.10. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, not because of good works, but unto good works. But any person who believes that
salvation is solely their decision, that they make the difference,
that's deceptive pride. And here's this Edom, these people,
small nation, they deceived themselves into thinking that they were
immune from destruction. And God's judgment and power
to bring Edom down and destroy them shows that this is the destiny
of every sinner who lives and dies in unbelief. Think about
that. You know how the scripture says
that knowing the terror of the Lord We do persuade men, we're
preaching the gospel to sinners, sinners preaching to sinners,
and we know the terror of the Lord. We know the absolute, utter
terror of a sinner standing before God without Christ, without being
washed in his blood and clothed in his righteousness. Now go
back and look at verse five here of Obadiah. If thieves came to
thee, if robbers by night, how art thou cut off? Would they
not have stolen till they had enough? If the grape gatherers
came to thee, would they not leave some grapes? Verse six
says, how are the things of Esau searched out? How are his hidden
things sought up? Now, what he's talking about,
if a thief comes, generally speaking, he steals what he wants and then
he leaves the rest. If the grape gatherers come,
they get the grapes they want, but they leave a few grapes behind.
The point that he's making here is that when destruction comes
to Eden, there's not gonna be anything left. It's all gone. Wiped clean, wiped off the face
of the earth. So look at verse seven. He says,
all the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the
border. The men that were at peace with thee have deceived
thee. and prevailed against thee. They that eat thy bread have
laid a wound under thee. There is none understanding in
him. What he's talking about there is their alliances. They
had in the past, in their history, they had allied themselves in
a confederacy against Israel with other heathen nations. So
they thought that these people were on their side. But God's
saying here through Obadiah, nope, they're deceiving you. They're gonna rise up against
you. They're gonna be God's instrument of judgment against you. You
think you're all right, you can sit down and eat bread with them
like you're okay. But he said, it's coming. And
they're gonna turn against you. So in the rest of these verses,
verse eight through 16, he says, shall I not in that day sayeth
the Lord, even destroy the wise men out of Edom, understanding
out of the Mount of Esau? Even the wisest of men in that
nation will not be able to guide them away from this. And I think
about 1 Corinthians 2 where it talks about the wise, 1 Corinthians
1 and 2, the wise and the prudent and those who are worldly wise,
religiously wise, but not in the wisdom of God. They may be
wise in a lot of ways, but they can't show you the way of salvation,
the way of righteousness, because that's in Christ. Verse nine,
and thy mighty men, O Timon, that was a city in Edom, shall
be dismayed to the end that every one of the Mount of Eden may
be cut off by slaughter. Your strongest people will not
be able to deliver you. So the wise and the strong won't
be able to deliver you. Well, what does God say in Jeremiah
nine? Let not the wise man glory in
his wisdom. Let not the mighty man glory
in their mind. or the rich man in his riches but glory in this
that he knoweth the Lord the God who saves sinners by grace
that no flesh should glory in his presence that pride see and
so he says for thy violence against thy brother Jacob shall shame
shall cover thee and thou shalt be cut off forever. The reason
God's bringing judgment on is their treatment of his chosen
people under the old covenant. And that's a lesson. You know,
those in all generations who stand in opposition to Christ
and his church Unless the Lord intervenes to do something to
bring them down off their pride and turn them towards God and
against themselves, take sides with God against themselves,
they'll perish, just like Edom. Verse 11, in the day that thou
stood on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried
away captive his forces, foreigners entered into the gates and cast
lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them. When other
nations attacked Israel, Edom rejoiced. They rejoiced. They made fun of them, in fact.
Verse 12, but thou shouldest not have looked on the day of
thy brother in the day that he became a stranger, neither shouldest
thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their
destruction, neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the
day of distress. You know, it's like you look
at your enemy and you say, ha ha, look what happened to you.
You deserve that. Well, what do we deserve? You
think about that. Verse 13, thou shouldest not
have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their
calamity. Yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction
in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their
substance in the day of their calamity. Once Judah and Jerusalem
and all of them were destroyed, they entered in and took what
they could get. Neither, verse 14, shouldst thou
have stood in the crossway to cut off those of his that did
escape, neither shouldst thou have delivered up those of his
that did remain in the day of destruction. See, all this, Edom,
showing their hatred for not only the people of Israel, but
for Israel's God. And that's the way it is of those
who persecute God's church, Christ's church. They're not just showing
their hatred and their opposition to us as the people of God, they're
showing their opposition to the Lord. I can't remember what preacher
it was years ago, I heard him say this, he said, you know,
when you kick one of Christ's children, he feels the pain.
And that's just a metaphorical way of saying that you're not
just attacking the people of God, you're attacking God. To
no avail, obviously. Verse 15, for the day of the
Lord is near upon all the heathen. The day of the Lord is the day
of the judgment. As thou hast done, it shall be
done unto thee. What a statement. You're gonna get what you deserve.
What you've earned. Now, aren't we so thankful that in our salvation, In Christ,
by the grace of God, we're not getting what we deserve or what
we've earned. We're getting his sovereign grace
and mercy. Oh, if God were to ever give
me what I've earned and what I deserve, it'd be terrible. And so he says in verse 16, for
as you have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the heathen
drink continually. They shall drink, and they shall
swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been.
completely gone. But now verse 17 and on, Obadiah,
like all prophets of God, when they announced the destruction
of judgment that comes based upon the sins of the heathen,
he always points to the salvation that God provides in and by His
grace through Christ, the promised Messiah. And he says in verse
17, but upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance. escape. And there shall be holiness set
apart by God. That's what that means. And the
house of Jacob shall possess their possessions. What you have,
Edom, the house of Jacob is going to get. Now, before you go any further
on this, understand, did Jacob or Israel deserve or earn anything
better than what Edom got? And the answer's no. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated, that the purpose of God according to election might
stand. God's sovereign choice. And it
was to show, you know, anytime the Bible talks about election
in line with salvation, eternal salvation, it's called the election
of grace. for no reason in ourselves. And
so he says in verse 18, and the house of Jacob shall be a fire
and the house of Joseph a flame and the house of Esau for stubble.
You've heard that old saying that, you know, people get together
and they said they don't mix. And he said, it's like, like
she's the match and he's the can of gasoline or something
like that. Well, that's what this is. He's going to, Jacob's
going to light your fire and you're the stubble. And they
shall kindle in them and devour them, and there shall not be
any remaining of the house of Esau, for the Lord hath spoken
it. And he doesn't go back. And they of the south shall possess
the mount of Esau, and they of the plain, the Philistines, and
they shall possess the field of Ephraim, the fields of Samaria,
and Benjamin shall possess Gilead. See, all this is gonna go to
Israel. You can read in Psalm 2, where it talks about Christ,
having the heathen for his possession. And because he possesses it,
it'll be our possession. All the good things will come
to the people of God. and that'll be the blessings
of eternal life and glory. Verse 20, the captivity of this
host of the children of Israel shall possess that of the Canaanites,
even unto Zarephath, and captivity of Jerusalem, which is Sepharad,
shall possess the cities of the south. See, they're gonna take
these things. And then look at verse 21. He says, and saviors
shall come upon Mount Zion to judge the Mount of Esau, and
the kingdom shall be the Lord's. Well, that word saviors is plural,
and it means deliverers. And he's talking about those
whom God appointed to be deliverers of Israel. You can think about
David and Solomon, people like that. Some people believe that
this is referring to Zerubbabel. You remember Zerubbabel and Nehemiah
and Joshua who led the people back out of the captivity of
Babylon and led them to rebuild the temple in the city? And there
could be an application of this. But do you know what the ultimate
application of this? It's gospel witnesses, saviors. Now, preachers who preach the
gospel. Now, preachers aren't saviors
in the sense that we can save people. There's only one true
savior. But we're saviors in the sense
that we point sinners to that one true savior. You understand
that? And that's what he's talking
about in the type and picture here. the apostles, the prophets,
the pastors, the teachers, the evangelists, the witnesses, we're
gonna talk a little bit about today. They point sinners to
Christ, who is the one and only Savior, who said, I am the way,
the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by
me. And that's the true Savior of
spiritual Israel, okay.