I invite you to turn with me
again to the book of Obadiah. Obadiah is the shortest book
in the Old Testament, just one chapter. And like Joel, he's kind of a
mysterious character. You don't, in other places, read
much about Obadiah. You will find Isaiah and Jeremiah
and some of these men mentioned, but not Obadiah. Not Job. He's kind of a mysterious man. He was a farmer. Brother Don
called him a prophet and overalls. Maybe that's what he was. But
he tended cattle, had a little farm, raised some olive trees,
different things. His name means laborer or servant
of God. And when you study Obadiah, it's like he just suddenly out
of nowhere appears. He steps into time. He says what God gave him to
say, and then he steps out of time, and he's gone. And I thought about that. That's the story of every messenger
of God, isn't it? He's out here going about his
business. Nobody knows who he is. He's just another man, another
grasshopper. He's nobody. He was a farmer. He's out there
and he's bibbed over all his tending sheep and got a stash
and he's walking around. But then God calls him and gives him something to say.
And he says it and then he's done. He's gone. Gone. God has arranged the time for
him to speak and gather the people for him to hear. That's what God does. That's
how God works. It do us well to think about
it. God selects a man, Paul, Peter, Luke, These men weren't seeking to
be preachers. They weren't attending the pharisaical
church of the law. They weren't doing it. They weren't
going to seminary, Russell. They were just men. They were
fishing. And the Lord looked at him and
he said, follow me. And they followed him. He said, I'll make you fishers
of men. God calls a man, and then he,
unbeknownst to this man he calls, he's over here arranging a people
for him to hear. They're gonna hear him, they're
gonna hear what he has to say. And then God arranges his providence
to where their paths cross. Now that's what's going on in
all of the prophets, that's what's going on throughout the New Testament,
and that's what's going on in the church today. God has arranged these things. And so we speak what God has
called us to speak, and then we disappear from among the living. But how do we know that man speaking
to us is of God? How did they know that Obadiah
was sent of God? How'd they know he was a prophet?
Well, first of all, because of what he's saying is in harmony
with the rest of the word of God. I'm telling you, there's thousands
out here, thousands out here, who are standing up this morning
saying, I'm a preacher, I'm a pastor, God sent me, I'm God's servant.
I sit here to preach to you. But they're not in harmony with
the word of God. If you're not in harmony with
the word of God, God didn't send you. He doesn't, He doesn't say
one thing about Isaiah and then say something different over
here in the book of Jeremiah. He says the same thing. Listen to this. This is in the
book of Isaiah. He said, to the law and to the
testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it is
because there is no light in them. How do we know if a man's sin
of God? He preaches the word of God. He won't find Acts 2.38 and try
to build a church on it. I preach to this congregation,
verse by verse, all the way through the book of Genesis, all the
way through the book of Exodus. Except for Mark, every other
book in the New Testament, we went verse by verse through those
things. And I've showed you where this
gospel that I preach is the message from the garden. And it's the
message at the last day that this earth will stand, and everything
in between. Secondly, how do I know this
man's sin of God? Because God has arranged for
you and him to cross paths. That's right. You wouldn't be
hearing me. God's not under any... I used
to have this old preacher when I was in Armenian religion, and
he'd say, God's only obligated to call you one time. God's not
obligated to even speak to you one time, let alone call you. If God arranges for you and his
minister to meet, and he brings you together, and this man stands
and he's in harmony with the word of God, you better count
that the greatest privilege of your life. Because without it,
you're going to hell. You're not going to get in your
closet with the Bible and figure it out. That's not what God said. Go ye into all the world and
pass out Bibles and whoever figures it out, he'll be saved. That's
not what God said. He said you go into all the world
and preach the gospel. And he that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved. And he that believeth not shall
be damned. That's what God said. And this is what's going on here
in the book of Obadiah. God is purposed to speak and
he's arranged a meeting between his prophet and this world. And that's what's going on here
this morning. He has a word, he's purposed
for me to preach and for you to hear. And like Obadiah, I
have a word of judgment and wrath and destruction for some. and
a word of love and salvation, peace and grace for others. By the language of the prophet,
it appears that they could both hear him, both Edom and Israel. Listen to this scripture. Paul
said, God maketh manifest the saber of his knowledge by us,
in every place. 2 Corinthians 2.14. Now listen
to this. He arranged for him to speak,
and that is, message had a sweet savor to God of Christ and them
that are saved. We're talking about how God looks
at it. How God considers His gospel
when it's preached in harmony with His testimony. Preached
in harmony with this book. And God looks at it, and it's
a sweet savor unto him in them that are saved, and in them that
perish. It's still a sweet savor to him,
because the gospel is the gospel. To the one, we're the savor of
death unto death, and to other, the savor of life unto life.
For he said, we're not as many which corrupt the word of God.
We don't corrupt the word of God, we simply state it, we read
it, we teach it. And as of sincerity and as of
God and the sight of God, speak we in Christ. Message of these 23 verses declare
a twofold message to his hearers, God's judgment upon Edom. And
secondly, he declares the sure and certain salvation of Israel. Now Israel's a nation, but as
I said a few minutes ago, it's also a man's name. Jacob's name. And that's why they're called
the children of Israel. Not the children of the nation,
but the children of Israel, Jacob. Sons of Jacob, sometimes he calls
them. Now, he uses these names to symbolize
or to identify God's elect. That's why I wanted to read Romans
9 to you before the message. Edom is the offspring of Esau. That's where they come from.
Go back and study it, you'll see that's where Edom come from.
They were the offspring of Esau. Israel is the offspring of Jacob. Not physically. I read it to
you in Romans 9 a while ago. The children of the flesh, these
are not the children of God. I'm talking about spiritually,
we're identified with Jacob. That's how he identifies. He
said, that's why I separated Jacob. That's why I chose Jacob.
That's why I love Jacob. That the purpose of God according
to election might stand. Here's my elect. When I talk
to Jacob, I'm talking to all my elect. And then secondly, he declares
the sure and salvation, certain salvation of Israel. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. There is in every nation, every
kindred, every tribe under heaven, those who are identified with
Jacob and those who are identified with Esau. Now with these things
in mind, I've got several things I want you to see in the message
here of God's servant. First of all, that God has an
eternal purpose of grace for which all things were created
and for which all things are being preserved and arranged
and brought to pass. He worketh all things after the
counsel of his own will. Everything that is, God's working. He's moving. He's moving. We like to grab one thing and
say, here's what God's purpose. Don't dump one of them thousand-piece
puzzles out on the floor and pick up a piece and look at it
and say, I've got the picture of the puzzle in my head. No,
you don't. You ain't got a clue. You ain't
got a clue. Now maybe after six or eight
hundred of them put together, you'll get some idea of what's
going on, but you still don't know until the last piece of
that puzzle goes in place. That's the way it is in society.
He worketh, he worketh, he's working here and he's working
there. That's what Christ said, I work hither and my Father works.
He's working, everything's working out here. All things work together
like gears in a clock. You look in there and this gear's
going this way and this one's going this way and that little
thing going back and forth. He worketh all things. All things
work together for our good, for our good. That God's working,
his purpose of grace in this world. That's what's going on. God has an eternal purpose of
grace for which all things were created, and for which all things
are being preserved and brought to pass. In Romans 9, 18, the
Holy Ghost tells us, therefore hath he mercy on whom he will
have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. And yet, men and women cry out
against God. God's unjust. That's not fair. That's what they used to tell
me when I tried to preach to them. That's not fair. That violates man's rights. I
can't imagine. That'd be like going down here
to the toughest prison there is in the country and talking
to them about rights. They don't have any rights. They
forfeited those rights when they transgressed the law. But above and beyond that, this
is God speaking. And who are we to reply against
God? My soul just... He said, you
come into the auditorium to hear. Be ready to hear. And don't offer
the sacrifice of fools. They don't consider that they
do wrong with their much talking. They want to talk, talk, talk,
talk, talk, talk, talk. They don't want to hear. Be more ready
to hear than to offer the sacrifice of food. Come here prepared to
hear. There'll be plenty of time to
talk about it later on. Right now, just listen. Just
listen. That's not the potter power over
the clay. We're talking about God. Talking
about God. You going to call God unjust
if he takes the foundation out from under the United States
and makes it a part of China? You going to say God's unjust
in that? Who are thou that replies against God? God's going to do
what he will because he's God. He's God. You wouldn't understand
it if he told you. What he told Nicodemus. Nicodemus
explained it to me. He said, you don't even understand
what I told you in worldly terms. What would you do if I told you
in eternal terms? And I want you to understand
this. And this is from the language of scripture. I read it to you
a while ago. What if God, willing to show his wrath and made his
power known, endured with much long-suffering 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
unto glory. And I want you to understand
this from that. This is the language of God's
Spirit. All who perish under the judgment of God perish because
of their own obstinate willful rebellion and unbelief. They
fit themselves for destruction. God doesn't make you sin, you
sin. God's not the author of sin.
There's only one thing that you can call yours and that's your
sin. That's yours, that belongs to you. Scripture uses that,
your sins. You're seeing, they belong to
you. That's where they come from. And that's who's going to get
blind. You're not, God's not going to send you to hell because
you're Adam's child. He's going to send you to hell
for your own unbelief. And it's not God's purpose that
causes men to go to hell. It's their own unbelief. Christ
will tell you that. If you go over and read it, they fit themselves for destruction
and God endures them and uses them just like he did Esau. Esau
sold his birthright. That wasn't just that he'd be
heir of his daddy's possessions. That had to do with him being
the spiritual leader of his family. That had to do with the covenant
of God. That had to do with the blessings
of God. And he sold it for a bowl of deer soup. That's how much it meant to him. They fit themselves for destruction. And everything that goes on in
this world is a carrying out of God's eternal purpose of grace.
And believers know this. And they don't, James said, as
a believer, he said, don't talk like the world, don't tell me
I'm gonna go here and I'm gonna stay two years and I'm gonna
work this job and I'm gonna pay my bills and then I'm gonna go
over here and I'm gonna do, he said, you say if the Lord will,
I'll go here and tarry. You don't know what you're gonna
do, huh? It's a carrying out of God's
eternal purpose of grace. Believers know that and they
rejoice in that. God has an eternal purpose of
grace in His Son and in those He chose in His Son. And everything
that is, is arranged around this. And then secondly,
The enmity, the hostility and warfare between the seed of the
serpent and the seed of the woman will never cease as long as this
world goes on. It'll never cease. I've showed
you this over and over in all the prophets and the ministry
of the apostles and even in the garden where it all began. We
saw it manifest between Cain and Abel, between Noah and the
rest of the world, between Babylon and Israel. And so on, on and
on and on it goes. It's a never-ceasing, unabated,
and ever-increasing hostility toward Christ. And who's behind
it? That old great dragon, Satan
himself. What is this enmity? What makes
them despise God's Israel? Esau demonstrated that. He didn't hope in God, or God's
covenant, or God's power, or God's salvation. He traded it
all for a little bit of soup. His hope was in his flesh. He
was a mighty hunter. He was a man's man. Esau. His hope was in his flesh. It
was in his lineage. I'm the rightful heir. And it was in the law. The law
said, the firstborn. The firstborn. But God said,
I'm gonna reverse this. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. Esau's gonna serve Jacob. He
told his mama that before they was ever born. What is this enmity? It's a deep-seated
hatred of all those who presume that they can save themselves
and who despise the very idea of the grace of God. And then thirdly, Obadiah assures
Edom that God's judgment of them is gonna be without mercy. You
reject Christ. You sell out to the world. There is no mercy. There is no
mercy. There remaineth, Paul said, no
more sacrifice for sin. You reject Christ, this is it. This is it. There is no other
way to God. Well, you preach your way, I'll
preach mine. They're just one way. I love it when somebody tells
me, well, you're just one way. Thank you. Thank you, that's
what I'm trying to do, one way. Christ said, I am the way. Now there's a way that seemeth
right unto a man, but the end thereof is destruction. He tells us that twice. Oh my soul, listen to this. As you have drunk upon my holy
mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually. Yea, they
shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though
they had not been. That's God's judgment on Edom. Now watch this. In a natural
sense, I'm talking about those natural people. Here's this prophet
in Oros. Nobody. God gives him this message.
He delivers it to him. Probably left him to scorn. But in a natural sense, Nebuchadnezzar
swept down and he destroyed a big portion of Edom. And then Cyrus
the King came. And all he left behind of Edom
was a little remnant. And then the Maccabees came and
they destroyed the remnant. And when the Romans came into
power, Edom was as though it had never been. They were gone. In a spiritual
sense, you think about what that means. Oh, my soul. What happened to them? What caused
all this? Verse three, look at that. The pride of thine heart hath
deceived thee. Verse seven, the men that were
at peace with you have deceived you. He tells us later on they'll
come crying, peace, peace, where there is no peace. Verse 14, you took sides with
the enemies of God. You had a place to go, but you
said, you know, these are my relatives. These are my grandchildren. I
need to go over here with them. You took sides with the enemies
of God. They didn't just sit there and
say, well, I think I'll just take sides with the enemies of
God. No. It was for other reasons. But the bottom line is they took
sides with the enemies of God. They all felt safe. When Obadiah
preached to Israel, it was a time when Israel was flourishing.
Everybody had plenty. You go through here and read
and you'll find out that they had summer houses and winter
houses and they had laid upon ivory beds. Israel was at ease. They all felt safe, they lived
in the mountains and fortified caves of the earth. Verse three,
who shall bring me down to the ground? Verse four, I will bring
thee down, saith the Lord. What are you saying, preacher?
I'm saying either believe it or not shall be damned, that's
what I'm saying. It might take a lot of forms,
it might take a lot of different fashions and reasons and everything
else, but he that believeth not shall be damned. He that believeth not the Son,
listen, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. Well, how do you know, preacher,
how do you know if the wrath of God abides on a man. Now, you remember what Ephesians
2 says, right? We were by nature children of
what? Wrath, even as others. Well, how do I know if the wrath
of God abides on a man? Because he has no interest in
the things of God. He's not interested in God. He's
not interested in his church. He's not interested in the ministry.
He's not interested in the word of God, in prayer, or anything
else. He's interested in himself. Mine. You don't believe babies are
depraved? What's the first word they learn?
Mine. Mine. hearts in the world. He has no
interest in the means of God. He ignores them on a regular
basis. God said forsake not the assembling
of yourselves together as the manner of some is. What do they
do? Ignore it. He don't really mean anything. He don't. Ask Edom if he meant
something. He has no interest in the means
of God. He ignores them on a regular
basis. His interests are all of this world. His time, his
money, his service, his energy, all given to the things of this
world. Indifference. Almost a sluggish lethargy toward
worship. He doesn't come prepared to worship.
He's just fulfilling a ceremony. Well, we need to go to church
on Sunday. Boy, I hope that ain't why you're here. Unbelief, constant doubt, rejection
of God's gospel and his word. The wrath of God abideth on him. It abideth on him. And then think about this. As is the judgment of Edom, So
is the absolute certainty of the everlasting salvation of
God's elect. Just as certain as their curse
was is the salvation of God's elect. God never pictures his
saving relationship to men as universal. Now you think about
that. He likens them to his heirs.
Is the term heir a universal term? No. It has to do with the
rightful heirs. What else does he call his adopted
children? Is that a universal term? No. No. He calls them his sons. Do you call every young people
over at school your son? He calls them his elect, his
chosen, his sheep, his bride. You think about a bride, is that
a universal term? Oh, sweetheart, I love you just
like I do all the other women in the world. Yeah, you try that
on. You try that on. But that's what men are saying
to God. There's no universality in any
of the terms that he used to describe his elect. Yeah, but
you say the scripture says whosoever will. Whosoever will is not a
universal term. It just means whosoever will. I don't know why people fight
you over the will of man. It's not of him that willeth. We say man got a will. He'll
be made willing in the day of God power. I'm not saying he
doesn't have a will. I'm just saying it ain't free. I love what old Barnard used
to say. He said, God saves men against their will with their
full consent. And that's exactly what he does.
He makes them willing in the day of his power. Whosoever will is not a term
specifying universality. It simply means whosoever will. But you say it's for all who
believe. Well, who's going to believe?
Huh? In a divine union, He quickened
us together with Christ, raised us up with Him, seated us with
Him in glory, that in the ages to come, He might show. the exceeding riches of his grace,
and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are
you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is
the gift of God. Who believes? Those that God
gives his gift of faith. Those in whom God reveals his
son. This is the work of God, he said,
that you believe in him whom the Father has sent. This is
God's work in you. God enabling you, making you
meet to be partakers of the inheritance of saints and life. And God has
a people, and God symbolizes these people in Jacob, or Israel. The prince, Jacob, have I loved. And he loves us and made provision
for us through his son. And he tells us this, in Mount
Zion shall be deliverance. No ifs, ands, and buts, in Zion
shall be deliverance. He tells us back in Psalm 2,
I put my son on my holy hill of Zion. He's the deliverer. And in Mount Zion shall be deliverance. There shall be deliverance because
God has ordained a deliverer. God appointed him, Psalm 33,
19, to deliver our soul from death. God appointed him, Psalm
91, verse three, to deliver us from the snare of the fowler. And he gave himself for our sins
that he might deliver us from this present evil world according
to the will of God and our father. You see, Peter said, the Lord
knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to reserve
the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. That's what the word of God teaches.
There shall be upon Mount Zion deliverance because God has appointed
a deliverer. And then if you look at the very
last verse of Obadiah, Obadiah verse 21. He tells us, and saviors
shall come upon Mount Zion, to judge the Mount of Esau, and
the kingdom shall be the Lord's. Now, if you wanna study it at
home after a while, in Nehemiah chapter nine, verse 27, it says,
therefore thou deliverest them, into the hands of their enemies,
who vexed them. And in the time of their trouble,
when they cried unto thee, thou heardest them from heaven, and
according to thy abundant mercies, thou gavest them saviors, who
saved them out of the hand of their enemies. Now that scripture
in Nehemiah in particular is talking about the judges, Gideon
and Samson and so on. He gave them men to make clear
the word of God and the way of God and the promises of God.
But in Obadiah, he's talking about the last days, and I believe
he's referring to preachers in the last days. Men sent of God
as instruments of salvation and showing to men the way of salvation
and the purpose through whom salvation is. And they cry to the people, as
Peter said, to save themselves from this untoward generation. And God calls them saviors because
they speak of his, that they're in his stead, beseeching
men to be reconciled to God. He speaks of them as saviors
because they publish salvation. He calls them saviors because
they are themselves a means ordained of God unto salvation. Well,
you say, where does it say that? In 2 Thessalonians 2, 13, 14.
I thank God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. For he hath from the beginning From the beginning
He saved you through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth, whereunto He called you by our gospel to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. God hath from the beginning chosen
us. And these men are here said to
appear in Mount Zion or the church in the latter days And wouldn't
that just be something to see, that work? But we have. We have. There's some seated right over
here. There's one seated right there.
There's another one seated right over there. We've seen this work.
We've seen the effect of God's saviors on men. Preacher, you really want somebody
going around calling you a savior? Not really. Not really. Paul just wanted to be called
Paul. But he knew what he was. And he told you over and over
and over what he was. Not for his glory, but for the
glory of God. He sent saviors. He didn't just
let man go off to himself. He didn't let men just go their
own ways and think whatever they wanted to think. He sent them
somebody to tell them the truth. And then he gave them the ability
to hear. And he gave them the will to
obey. And he gave them a heart to love. And a submission and
a determination. And they'll never leave him.
Now if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in
him. But we're not of them that draw back. We're of them that
believe to the saving of the soul. Oh, thank God. Thank God for his word. for his
means, for his purpose, for his providence. Thank God.