The Vision of Obadiah Thus saith
the Lord God concerning Edom, We have heard a rumor from the
Lord, and an ambassador is sent among the heathen. Arise, ye,
and let us rise up against her in battle. Behold, I have made
thee small among the heathen, thou art greatly despised. The
pride of thine heart hath deceived thee. Thou that dwellest in the
cluster of the rock whose habitation is that saith 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, this
will I bring thee down, saith the Lord. If thieves come to
thee, if robbers by night, how are they cut off? Would they
have not stolen till they had enough? If the grave-gatherers
came to thee, would they not leave some grapes? How are the
things of Esau searched out? How are his hidden things sought
up. 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 unto thee. There
is none understanding in him. Shall I not in that day, saith
the Lord, even destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding
out of the Mount of Esau? Thy mighty men, O demons, shall
be dismayed. to the end that every one of
the Mount of Esau may be cut off by slaughter. For by thy
violence against thy brother Jacob, shame shall cover thee,
and thou shalt be cut off for ever. In the day that thou stoodest
on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away
captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast
lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them. But thou
shouldest not looked on the day of thy brother in the day that
thou became a stranger, neither shouldst thou have rejoiced over
the children of Judah in the day of their destruction, neither
shouldst thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress. Thou
shouldst not have entered into the gate of my people in the
day of their calamity. Yea, thou shouldst 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. Neither
shouldest thou have stood in the crossway that cut off those
of his that did escape, neither delivered up those of his that
did remain in the day of distress. For the day of the Lord is near
upon all the heathen, as thou hast done it. It shall be done
unto thee, thy reward shall return upon thine own hand." That means
whatever you sow, what you go reap. For as ye 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. But upon Mount Zion shall be
deliverance, and there shall be holiness, and the house of
Jacob shall possess their possessions, and the house of Jacob shall
be afire, and the house of Joseph aflame, and the house of Esau
for 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 they of the south shall possess
the mount of Esau, they of the plain the Philistines, and they
shall possess the fields of Ephraim, and the fields of Samaria, and
Benjamin shall possess Gilead. And the captivity of this host
of the children of Israel shall possess that of the Canaanites
even under Zarephath, and the captivity of Jerusalem, which
is of our family, shall possess the cities of the south, and
Saviour shall come upon Mount Zion to judge the Mount of Esau,
and the kingdoms shall be the Lord's." Our Father, in the blessed, glorious
name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we come and with humbleness and fear and
trembling into your holy presence. Lord, realizing that we're in
the presence of God, we're in the presence of a God who is
thrice holy, that even the Seraphims and the Cherubims cover their
face in your sight. And cry day and night, holy,
holy, holy. So Lord, we come cautiously We come, dear Lord, with our
need. We come with our weaknesses and our inabilities. But there's no inability in you.
There's no weakness in you. There's no shortness in you. There's no lack of strength or
power in you. So, Lord, meet with us tonight.
Do for us what only You can do. Have mercy upon the people that
we've mentioned tonight. We pray that you'd continue to
bless Brother Darrell. Strengthen his body. Pray for
Pam and Brad that you'd strengthen her body. Encourage them in their
hearts. Pray for Bill and Dorotha. Lord,
they have afflictions. Bill has an awful affliction.
We ask that you'd encourage him and strengthen him in his heart.
May his body be made whole as it seemeth good in your sight.
Have mercy upon our children and our grandchildren. We ask these things in Christ's
name. Amen. Amen. All right. Let's look together here in Obadiah. There's only 21 verses in this
book. It's the shortest book in the Old Testament. As Jude
is in the New Testament, Jude has 25 verses. This has 21. And though it's a prophecy against
Edom, what it is, what happens here is the title's exactly right.
Jacob ever loved, and Esau ever hated. Edom is Esau. Jacob is Israel. And there was
enmity between those two children. It started in their mother's
womb. And God made charge as to what
was going to happen between the two of them. But all the things
that were written before time were written for our learning,
for our admonition, that we, through the comfort of the Scriptures,
might have hope. And there's a lot of people in
the Old Testament named Obadiah. Obadiah, I don't seem to bear
any relationship to him, but his name means servant of the
Lord, worshiper of the Lord. And as a true worshiper, you
notice that he didn't say who his daddy was, didn't say where
he was from. He just started preaching the
vision of Obadiah. All the rest of them said, you
know, they was in this King's time, that King's time, the son
of this one, the son of that one, the son of another, and
they're told what he did. Like Amos, you know, he was a herdsman
of Tekoa. But here, Obadiah, he don't say
nothing about himself. He just gets up, gives his prophecy,
preaches his message, delivers his message. 21 verses takes
what? five minutes to read it, and
then here we are. He sits back down, says what
he's got to say, and he's done. Boy, it'd be good if all of us
done that. And so Obadiah, what he does
in the first nine verses, and we read to you, he declares God's
judgment upon Edom or upon Esau. They were proud. They thought
themselves secure, thought themselves were invincible. that God determined
wrath upon him and meant to destroy him. And then in verses 10 through
14, we see that God's justice in judging them because they
rejoiced so at the suffering of Israel. They rejoiced at the
calamity of Israel. And then Proverbs is saying,
you know, Reuven, rejoice not at the failure of your enemy.
And Moses said, you know, if you rejoice at another man's
calamity, That's a bad thing. That's a horrible thing, to not
have pity when you see somebody in trouble, not have pity when
you see somebody being hurt, not have pity when you see the
enemies coming. And these people did not have
pity. In fact, they rejoiced in it. They went in there and
helped in their calamity, stole their substance when they were
taken captive, came in and actually mocked them and rejoiced in their
fall. And God's going to judge them
for that. And then in verses 15 and 16, God's judgment upon
Edom or upon Esau. Nebuchadnezzar Cyrus came in
and crushed them, slaughtered them. And Edom, that now, Esau,
has no place in history whatsoever. It's gone. No more Edomites. No more Edomites. And then in
chapter 7, verse 17 through 21, he talks about the house of Esau,
how that Jacob and Joseph was going to be aflame and devoured,
and that God was going to raise up and secure the salvation of
all of Israel. The Esau, the house of Jacob.
And I tell you, there's something going on beside all of this,
and this is obvious to me, and I'm sure it's obvious to you.
that there's always been an enmity between God and the devil. There's
always been enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed
of the serpent. There's going to be, you know,
serpents always there. He was there when the woman brought
forth her man-child, the divine, when he first came out in Revelation,
do you remember? And he came and deceived Eve,
thought that he would destroy the Messiah, destroy the Christ.
But I tell you, the Lord Jesus Christ crushes his head, though
he may bruise the Lord Jesus' head. But that's where we're
at here. And you know, God said, I have loved you, Jacob. I've
loved Jacob. Were any of you loved us? Was
not Esau Jacob's brother? Yes, the Lord said, yes, yes,
I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau. And I'm going to lay his mountain
waste, I'm going to lay his heritage waste. And then you remember
very well, Romans 9, verse 11, where it says, "...the children,
not yet being born, having done neither good nor evil, that the
purpose of God, according to election, might stand, not of
works, but of him that calleth." It was said unto the elder, you're
going to serve the youngest. And then John jumps up and says,
well, that's unrighteous. Who art thou, O man, that replies
against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, Why did you make me thus? Hath not the potter
power over the clay to make the same lump, one a vessel of honor,
another a vessel of dishonor? Has he not got the right to do
that? And remember now, Esau, when
we talk about Edom here, we're talking about Esau. When we talk
about the house of Jacob or Israel, we're talking about Jacob. And
I'll tell you what, all the way through history, And it will
be this way until the Lord comes again. The serpent hates and
persecutes and prosecutes and hates the woman's seed. And that
seed is Christ and His church, Christ and His elect. And eventually,
one of these days, God will put him down and bind him and put
him in that bottomless pit. And he ain't coming out again. There are seven things, seven
things here that that we can look at here, that this is in
the book of Obadiah, that's very easy for us to follow. First
of all, the first thing is, is that the purpose of God cannot
be hindered, cannot be frustrated. Can't do it. Before they were
born, God declared that He hated Esau and He loved Jacob. They
both became nations. Do you remember when Jacob and
Esau met there at the river and Jacob was scared to death that
Esau was going to slaughter him? And he sent one band, and he
sent another band. And then when they met there
at the river, Jacob offered him some. He said,
I got enough. And he let him go. But they become a great nation
in Esau. And Jacob became a great nation.
Jacob and Esau, they both became great nations. Israel and Edom.
And that's the way it's going to be. The elder is going to
serve the younger. And that's the way it's going to be until
time shall cease to be. And that's just a declaration
of God's purpose to assure us, to tell us, and make us understand
that His Jacob, blessed is the people who has the God of Jacob
as their God, the God of electing grace, the God of choice, the
God of power, the God that takes you and gets a hold of you, the
God that puts you down and changes your walk. The God that calls
you a worm. And then He also identifies with
you when He's on the cross and says, I'm a worm and no man.
The God of Jacob who says, fear not, I am with thee. I have named
thee. I have loved thee. That's the
God that He has talking about. And beloved, everything in this
world is going to serve God's people and God's going to use... This world is made just for us. So we can get to enjoy what God
blesses us with. And I tell you, beloved, there
ain't nobody and nobody gonna be able to defeat God's purpose. Egypt couldn't defeat God's purpose
when God sent Moses down there. They tried to defeat God's purpose.
Didn't they do it? Egypt tried to defeat God's purpose,
not letting Israel go through. Didn't they do it? God's going to win. He's already won. People just
don't know it yet. We read the back of the book.
And I'll tell you, people may abuse us, mistreat us, and persecute
us in God's people in this world like Esau did Jacob. And they
may hurt our bodies. They may hurt our feelings. They
may even hurt our reputations. But they cannot hurt our relationship
with God under no circumstances. They can't do that. And I'll
bless His name for that. And then secondly, not only will
the purpose of our God never be hindered or frustrated, the
enmity that's between the serpent and toward the sea of the woman
will never, ever stop as long as the world stands. There's
going to be this battle between God and Satan, between Christ
and the serpent, between Christ and His church, and the evil
that's in this world. You know, even before Esau and
Jacob were born, they had this enmity. They had it in the womb.
And before Obadiah ever existed. It began before these two boys
were born, while they were still in their mother's womb. And you
can follow history. It's the first two sons that
were born that were named in the Scriptures. It says Cain,
through his brother Abel, were for his deeds for Esau. That's
the first thing. That's the enmity that we're
seeing here. And that Babylon against Israel. Hal Herod, because
he wanted to destroy the king that was born in Bethlehem, sent
people, says, you know, I'll tell you what, if I can't find
him, go down there and find everybody that's two years old and under,
male child, and kill them. And he sent men down there to
take women, babies out of their arms, two years old, and slay
them, trying to kill the Lord Jesus Christ, who was born king
over Israel. Can you imagine how often Satan
and the powers of darkness in this sea of the serpent has tried
to stop the Lord Jesus Christ? He said, I've got him when I
got him on the cross. But oh no, when Christ said it's finished,
he crushed his head, beloved, and he crushed it good that day.
And I tell you, beloved, how about the enmity of the Jews
against Paul? Oh, how they hated him. and the
enmity of this religious world against God and the kingdom of
God. This religious world despises God. I was reading an article
the other day, and you can look it up, you can Google it yourself
and find it. But how our government, in the
last three or four years, has made an out-and-out assault on
the Bible and on Christians. Got a list of things that they've
done. See, you can teach sex education in school to 8, 9,
10, 11, 12 years old, but you can't teach them the Bible. You can teach them to disrespect
their parents, but you can't teach them morality. You can teach them evolution,
but you can't mention nothing about God making it. You think this world ain't upside
down and it ain't against us? It's against us. And beloved,
and I'm telling you something, they can't win. They can't win. Paul, when he was in prison,
he said, I'm bound. I am bound. I'm a prisoner of
Jesus Christ. But he says, you know what? The
Word of God's not bound. I may be, but God's Word ain't.
And that's the way it is. God's Word is going to do its
work. And just as long as the world
stands, there's going to be that enmity of the seed of the serpent
and the seed of the woman. And that's why, you know, they
said, Rejoice, O heavens, and ye that dwell in him! Woe to
the inhabitants of the earth, and woe to them of the sea! For
the devil is come down unto you having great wrath, because he
knows he hath but a short time. God lets him come and puts him
on a leash, and he's got him on a leash, but he lets him come,
and just for a short time before Christ comes, he turns him loose
on this world. And I tell you what, it's an
awful, awful thing when that happens. And this enmity that
men have against God, against Christ, against His people, the
fact is that our way and belief of salvation is diametrically
opposed to one another. They think they can be saved
by their words, saved without God. And they hate and despise
those who are saved by free grace alone, trusting Christ alone,
looking to Christ alone for redemption and righteousness. And if you
think this is imaginary, all you've got to do is look around
you. Just look around you. Look around you. How many preachers
do you know? I mean famous preachers. on television, got a big audience,
isn't that? They mock and make fun of election
and depravity. They make fun. Billy Graham and
that fellow that run that crystal cathedral that finally went bankrupt,
that's the good news that that thing went bankrupt. But they
both said that there's a different way to get to God other than
Jesus Christ. If you don't believe me, look
it up, listen to them, tell it. There's another way that there's
people who are sincere seekers. And because they're sincere seekers,
they may never heard the name of Jesus Christ, but God will
save them because they're sincerely seeking to God. When our Lord
Jesus Christ Himself says that no man come unto the Father but
by me, and if a man can get to God other than Jesus Christ,
why in the world did God send His Son into this world? Why
in the world would we go over to another country and start
preaching the gospel to them, if they can be saved without
Jesus Christ? Don't ever tell anybody about
Him anymore then. Don't even tell your wife, your
mother, your sons and your daughters or any neighbor about Him, because
if they are sincere, God don't save them anyway. Oh, there's enmity, deep-seated
enmity. Am I being too hard? And, oh, beloved, I tell you,
this is the third thing. What destroys all who perish
under the wrath of God is the deceiving pride of their own
hearts. Look what he said here in verse three. The deceiving
pride of their own hearts. He said in verse three, the pride
of thine heart hath deceived thee. The pride of your heart
hath deceived you. Ain't that what deceives us?
Ain't that what deceives people? The pride of their heart? Thou
that dwells in the clefts of the rock." Man, we're in the
rock. Not only are we in the rock, but we're way up high up
here too. Our habitation's way up there.
And he says in his heart, who in the world's going to humble
me? Who's going to bring me down? Who's going to humble me? I'm
so powerful. I'm so mighty. I'm so good. I'm
so glorious. I'm secure. I've got my works. I've got my... James gave me
one here that says, God, you make the choice and God makes
the change. They got that exactly backwards. Cart before the horse,
upside down. God makes the change. And then
God makes the choice. And when He makes the change
in the choice, then you'll change and be glad He made the change
in the choice. Then look what he says, and not
only that, he says, watch this, in verse 4, though you exalt
yourself as the eagle, you fly way up there like that eagle, and you set your nest among the
stars. Oh my goodness. And I said, where he at? I said,
you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to bring you down.
And ain't nobody went so high. that God didn't bring them down.
That's why Jeremiah said, the heart is deceitful above all
things and desperately weak. And I tell you, this Esau represents
all men and all women and all people who despise the Lord Jesus
Christ, and they really presume to think that they will get into
heaven by their own will, their own works, their own goodness.
I heard a man, Herman, was at the house yesterday afternoon,
we was watching the news, and a fellow was talking about a
woman he knew and worked with for years and years in the White
House. And the woman died. And this is what he said, they
say this, people say this all the time. He said, I know she's
up there in heaven now looking down on us. Where do people come up with
that stuff? Where do they come up from? You reckon anybody in
heaven other than God is looking down on us? The only person you've
got to be concerned about looking at you is God Himself and what
He sees when He looks. Does He see you or does He see
Christ? Does He see a wicked heart or
a new heart? Does He see a self-willed, self-righteous
hypocrite or does He see somebody who's casted themselves entirely
on the Lord Jesus Christ? Huh? And they'll say, well, I'm
secure. Who's going to bring me down? And then, fourthly, let us be
reminded of this real quick. Edom here as a nation, oh, the
influence of evil. Oh, my. Oh, we're reminded once
more of the influence of evil. This nation followed the example
of their father Esau. And guess where they followed
him to? They followed him right straight into hell. And merititudes
and multitudes will perish following examples of others. And I'll
tell you, and here's something, now, you know, I don't want to,
you know, we want to set a good example. We really do. People
say, I'd rather watch a sermon than listen to one. Well, I wouldn't,
because I ain't never seen a good sermon. I've heard a lot of good,
but I've never seen one. You understand what I'm saying? We all, by God's grace, don't
want to offend. We want to be gracious. We want
to be kind. We want to be loving. We want
to set examples. We want to be generous. We want
to be happy. We want to be joyful when we're
around the world and not act a fool. We want those things. But God ain't never saved one
person by an example. He never even saved sinners by
the example of Jesus Christ. He saves sinners by the blood,
death, and righteousness of Christ. Men are not saved by examples.
They're saved by Jesus Christ, no matter how good an example
you live. You've got to look at his detector, his detector,
and you may have some converted, some not. Scott Richardson, some
converted, some not. This thing's a mystery. It's
in God's hands. And if I thought for one minute
that the way I acted and lived would actually cause my children
to be saved, my goodness, I'd be around them all the time.
I'd just be acting, oh, it's a psychotic. But they got to
know me as their father. They got to know me as their
grandfather. Not their best friend. But if somebody can tell them
the truth and pray for them. And that's going to be, the people
who is trying to follow the example of Christ are going to wind up
in hell. Ain't that right? And oh beloved, and then let
me share fifthly, all who suffer the wrath, the judgment of God,
perish at the judgment of God because of their own sins. Because
of their own sins. You know, God's disposed in this
world just exactly the way he always intended to. He loved
Esau, Jacob, with an everlasting love, and he hated Esau. He hated
him. And then people say to God, why
do you find fault? Who has resisted his will? Well,
I ask you this, who hasn't resisted his will? Who didn't resist his
will until they were made willing in the day of his power. And
who hasn't found fault? And then Paul comes back and
says, go ahead and find fault. Go ahead. Now, you know, if he's
going to do his will in this useless for us not to resist
it, because he's going to accomplish it anyway. Nay, but O man, who
art thou replaced against God? He said, what if God willing
to show his wrath and to make his power known, endeared with
much longsuffering, the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction,
and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the
vessels of mercy which he aforeprepared, both of them fitted and prepared
under glory, even us in the alcohol, not the Jews only, but the Gentiles.
Vessels of wrath will never become a vessel of mercy, and a vessel
of mercy will never become a vessel of wrath. Can't be done. No more than a sheep can become
a goat, a goat can become a sheep. God done this. And listen, I'll
preach on this one of these Sunday nights, or Wednesday nights,
on reprobation. Do you know that there's a reprobation
in this world? God judiciously says, these people
will not, dare not, have anything to do with me, so I'll just reprobate
them right from the first start. They hated me generation after
generation after generation after generation. My grandmother and grandfather
had 12 or 13 kids, a bunch of kids, not one of them, not one
of them would pray. I witnessed, I don't know how
many of them, when they were way up in years, I hate them
to pray. I don't need God. My brother witnessed him enough
times that he says, I don't want to hear no more. You got your
way, I got mine. Witness to my dad just a little
while before he died, and he says, oh, don't worry about it,
D.B., me and Jesus got this thing worked out. Now tell me, would
God be just to damn that generation for the way they acted toward
Him? And who made the difference? My neck was just as stiff and
your neck was just as stiff. Your heart was just as hard.
Your back was just as straight. Your self-righteousness was just
as strong. What made the difference? Vessels of mercy have pared before
for His glory. And we ain't said, why did you
make me like this? We say, Lord, blessed be Your
name. Blessed be Your holy name. Thanks be unto You. Under you
and you only be glory. You did this. You made the difference. You made the choice. You broke
my heart. You broke my knees. You brought
me down. And oh, I thank you that you
brought me down. Oh, bless your name that you
took my neck and you put your hand on it and put me on my knees. Oh, my. But I tell you, God does
not do anything arbitrary. And men by nature by their own
obstinate and willful rejection and unbelief. You see, Esau,
here's the thing about it, Esau sold his birthright for a bowl
of potty, ain't that what it said? And that birthright has more
to do than just being the firstborn. That's to say, you got the right
over the family, you got the right to the inheritance, you
got the right to the spiritual power in the house, You're the
head of the whole house. You've got the spiritual power.
That birthright, with it goes everything. I mean, you're the
head of the whole thing. And he says, listen, what good
is that going to do me if I die? Give me yours. You can have my
birthright. Esau understood what that birthright
meant. Esau didn't care. And that's
how multitudes and multitudes are selling their souls for a
bowl of beans. I heard Paul May ask them one
time for a bowl of beans, a six-pack of Budweiser, and a ticket to
NASCAR. That's what he said. I heard
him say that one time. Losing their souls over a bowl
of beans, a six-pack of Budweiser, and a ticket to go see NASCAR
race. That's understandable. Not anything
wrong with that car, not anything wrong with beer, not anything
wrong with me. But to give your soul up for it, that's something
else. And oh, beloved, in the everlasting
salvation of God's elect is an absolute matter of certainty.
Look what it said here in verse 17. Oh, after Jesus brought Esau
down and said, Oh my, I'm going to make you, I'm going to destroy
you. And then he says, but up on Mount
Zion shall be deliverance. Oh my. And there shall be holiness.
And the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions. The
house of Jacob is us. God's elect, God's Israel. And
he says, we're going to get all of our possessions. All of them. And we're going to be a fire
in the hands of God's house to make stubble of this world and
all that's in it. And then you go down to verse
21. Look what he said. And Saviour shall come upon Mount
Zion to judge the Mount of Esau. And the kingdoms, the kingdoms
shall be the Lord's. Every kingdom. Ain't that what
Revelation says? The kingdoms of this world are
become the kingdoms of our Lord, of His Christ. And He shall reign
forever and ever and ever. Oh my, that's the day that Christ
sits upon His throne, comes in His glory, and all of us will
go in and give Him what He fought for us and paid for us. And then
last of all, and this is so, the only hope, the only hope
for a sinner, proud, rebellious sinner, is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the only hope for Jacob. That's the only hope for you.
If you're a sinner, you don't know God, you don't know Christ,
the only hope for you is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. That's
the only hope for you. The God of Jacob is the only
hope for you. Somebody said, it won't take
you long to get through overdying, just one chapter. I wish I had
an overdying to preach every service. God, help us. Oh, help us. Help us to walk and live and
be committed and throw ourselves, all that we are, into the lot
and give ourselves away to our Lord Jesus Christ. Because the
hour is fast approaching that if you don't know Him, it's just
going to get worse and worse Oh, we've got to cast our life.
We've got to throw in with Him. We've got to give our whole self
to Him. We've got to. He gave all for
us. Just all that He had, He gave
for us. All that He is, He gave for us.
All that made Him who He is, He gave for us. Here, Lord, I give myself away,
it is all that I can do.