Obadiah chapter 1, there's only one chapter. Verses 10-21 for a sermon I've entitled, The Day of Man and the Day of the Lord. Here's what it says. It's addressed to Edom. It says, because of the violence to your brother, Jacob, you will be covered with shame and you will be cut off forever. On the day that you stood aloof, on the day that strangers carried off his wealth, meaning Israel's, and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you too were as one of them. Do not gloat over your brother's day, the day of his misfortune. Do not rejoice over the sons of Judah in the day of their destruction. Yes, do not boast on the day of their distress. Do not enter the gates of my people in the day of their disaster. Yes, you, do not gloat at their calamity in the day of their disaster. Do not loot their wealth in the day of their disaster. Do not stand at the fork of the road to cut down their fugitives and do not imprison their survivors in the day of their distress. For the day of the Lord draws near on all the nations. As you have done, it will be done to you. Your dealings will return on your own head. Because just as you drank on my holy mountain, meaning taking what belonged to others, all nations will drink continually. They will drink and swallow and become as if they had never existed. But on Mount Zion, there will be those who escape, and it will be holy. The house of Jacob will possess their possessions. Then the house of Jacob will be like fire, and the house of Joseph like a flame. But the house of Esau will be like stubble, and they will set them on fire and consume them, so that there will be no survivors in the house of Esau, for the Lord has spoken." Then those in the Negev will possess the mountains of Esau. And those in the Shephelah, the Philistine plain, also possess the territory of Ephraim, the territory of Samaria, and Benjamin will possess Gilead. And the exiles of the host of the sons of Israel, who are among the Canaanites as far as Zarephath, the exiles of Jerusalem, who are in the Sepharad, will possess the cities of the Negev. The deliverers will ascend to Mount Zion to judge the mountain of Esau, and the kingdom will belong to the Lord. Anyone who follows the news, particularly economic news, knows that the nations of the East are rising while the nations of the West are in decline. I have a project for you kids this week. I want you to go home and look at some of the products in your house. Go around and find the manufacturer tag and see how many of them were made in the West, like in America or Canada or European countries, and how many were made in the East, like India and China and Taiwan and Japan. Not just toys and clothing, but increasingly electronics, computers, and cars are being made in the East. Doctors are coming from India, and engineers are coming from China. This is one of the questions that historians have given a lot of thought to. Why is it that nations rise and fall? How is it that one comes to a place of dominance, and once it's on the top, why can't it stay there? Why doesn't Rome still rule the world? Why did Spain collapse as a world power? How did the mighty British Empire, whose power spanned the globe, end up a second-rate nation who can barely keep Scotland within their fold? Paul Kennedy, in his book The Rise and Fall of Great Powers, argues that it has to do with military conflicts and economics. He said nations project their power according to their economic interests, but eventually the cost of these foreign wars drain the resources of the nation. And he says the United States is a case in point. Do you know right now we have troops in South Korea, Guam, Iceland, Spain, Germany, the former Yugoslavia, Turkey, Kyrgyzstan, and Saudi Arabia, and we're fighting two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Kennedy thinks that our decline is only a matter of time. Now some historians like Kennedy and Edward Gibbon before him used spatial analogies, the idea of rising and declining and falling. It's kind of as if you were on the ocean or a beach watching the waves come in and they lift up only to drop back down again. Others like Oswald Spengler used terms of human growth, nations are born. and they grow into youth, and middle age, and finally they decline when they're old. Some talk about it in terms of seasons, the spring of a nation, and summer, it's fall, and finally it's winter. President Reagan, if you remember after the disastrous economic years under Jimmy Carter, said it was morning in America again. But you know, the problem with all these analogies is they leave the idea that the rise and fall of nations is one that's natural and predictable. natural in that it happens to all nations and predictable in that it follows a set pattern. That's not the way the Bible presents human history. The Bible speaks of the rise and fall of nations in the terms of sin and righteousness and judgment. We saw that when we looked at the blessings and curses in Deuteronomy. Nations tend to rise when there's a basic honesty and a respect for law, strong families, and a just and sound economic system. But as the nations increase in power and wealth, the people tend to become proud and self-satisfied. They start to pursue ease and entertainment over work and discipline. And rather than avoiding self-indulgence, they give themselves to ever-increasing lust, going deeper and deeper into evil. That's exactly what's happening in America. And it's at the height of their arrogance and the depth of their sin that God intervenes to bring judgment upon a nation. Some natural disaster like a hurricane or an earthquake or plague or some military defeat or perhaps an economic collapse. The Bible sees God behind all these things. Amos asks the question, if calamity happens in the city, has not the Lord done it? Nebuchadnezzar learned the hard way that it's the Most High who rules over the affairs of men. That's what Obadiah is all about. It's a prophecy, a judgment against the nation of Edom for its general attitude of pride and self-sufficiency and a specific sin of hostility towards God's people Israel. We dealt with the first of those charges in last week's sermon. Today we want to continue by looking at the specific sin of hostility shown against Israel during a time when Israel was facing disaster. And in the text we find not only a list of Edom's sins against Israel but also promise that God would bring judgment against the enemies of Israel and ultimately vindicate his people. So today to help you understand God's dealings with nations and to assure you of our ultimate triumph as God's people We want to look at this portion of God's Word and we're going to pray and we'll get into the text. Our Father, I do pray that you give grace and mercy on a lot of other things on our mind right now. Some are tired, some are worn. Some just want to sit and veg out until they can go home, but Lord, your Word is going to be preached. We need to wake up. We need to hear what you have to say to us. I ask that you would help us. In Jesus' name, Amen. What do we see in the text? I see three things. First, the crimes of Edom. The crimes of Edom, that's found in verses 10 to 14. Secondly, the judgment of God. That's found in 15 to 16. And finally, the inheritance of Israel, and that's 17 to 21. So the crimes of Edom, the judgment of God, and the inheritance of Israel. By the way, once again, for those of you who weren't here last week, I want to remind you of who the Edomites were. And Esau were twins born to Rebecca and Isaac. By the way, did anyone catch it? I saw it on the BBC website yesterday. There were identical quadruplets born in Canada in this last week. Do you know what the odds are of that? And this was not fertility pills. Do you know what the odds of that happening naturally are? 1 in 13 million. Boy, if you are a young mom or have ever been a mom, you should be tired just hearing that. I recall, I was telling Colleen the other day, I remember when I was down at one of the malls, I think it was in White Bear Lake, or the one past Maplewood, I think it was. And when we were there, I saw this lady coming out and she was pushing, you know, babies in the seats, strollers, that sort. It's been a long time. And as she's pushing them along, she's got two brand new infant babies. They don't look like they're more than probably a few weeks old. And I thought, oh, this poor woman, how tired is she going to be? Right after that, her mom comes out. I'm assuming it's her mom. And there's another double stroller. And that's got little kids in it that are about 11, 12 months old, 13 at the most. And I went, oof. I'm not even Norwegian, but I know what that means. Well, these boys weren't identical, were they? They had very different personalities, very different looks, but more importantly, they had different relationships with God. Because before they were born, despite the fact that they were both sinners, God chose Jacob to be the object of his mercy, and he left Esau to go his own sinful way. That's why the Bible says, Jacob I have loved, and yet Esau I have hated. In God's sovereign grace, Jacob was elected, and Esau was rejected. But these families that came from them became two nations, Israel and Edom. And though they were related, and God always told the Israelites, do not despise the Edomite, for he is your brother, there was hostility between them. And the hostility of Edom against Israel found its fullest expression at a time when Israel was invaded and defeated, probably by Babylon. And at that time, Edom took advantage of the situation, inflicting even further harm on Israel. And it's for this that the prophecy of Obadiah was written. So what do we see in the text? The first thing is the crimes of Edom, and this is 10-14. After World War II, there was an international court in Nuremberg, Germany that was set up to try the Nazis for crimes against humanity. Jeff has a fascinating book by a man who was a German chaplain to those on trial at that time. The man was actually a Christian. He got an opportunity to witness to some of those guys, and did you know some of them became Christians a short time before they died? Evidently, the Puritans are right that there's nothing like knowing that you're going to be hung in a fourth night, meaning in a couple of weeks, to clear your mind for thinking. And even these hardened Men of sin, some of them cracked, some of them broke when they saw the offer of mercy and forgiveness that was available in Jesus. By the way, Herman Goering did not. He remained proud and defiant and unrepentant to the end. And he thought he cheated the executioners because he committed suicide before they could hang him. But of course, he's in hell today and he cheated nobody of his sentence. As I said, They were on trial for crimes against humanity, much of it directed against the Jews. Edom is on trial before God, according to Obadiah, and he gives a list of specific charges against the nation. The first is this, cruelty against their brother. Cruelty against their brother. Now, some commentators say that the charge is unbrotherliness-less. Unbrotherliness-less. That's not easy to say, is it? By the way, when I put it in my computer and spit it back out, I said, no, that's not right. But, you know, the problem with that term, though, I agree with James Boyce, is it's really weak. It's kind of watered down. It's like not being nice, or being unkind, or unneighborly. But that's really not the image we have here. Obadiah says of the judgment that's coming, it's because of the violence done to Jacob in verse 10. It's not just violence, but violence done by people who are related to the Israelites. It's like being sold a lemon car by your uncle. Or having your cousin rob your house, or worse yet, having your own father molest you if you're a girl. There's something particularly wicked when the evil comes from those you ought to be able to trust. I certainly can't help but think, by the way, of Cain and Abel on this occasion. Where's your brother, Cain? How do I know? I'm a brother's keeper. The Bible says that if anyone who's a Christian does not take care of his own, especially his own household, he's worse than an unbeliever, and he's denied the faith. Well, what about those who actually not only neglect, but actually hurt family members? Jesus said that one of the things that would characterize the last days is that people would be without natural affections, meaning the normal love that family members would have for each other would just evaporate. Isn't that what's happening in our culture today? Read the papers! Read the local papers! What is it, a mossy kid, or whatever his name was? Stabbed his own mother! And stabbed and murdered another woman! We're living in a day in our culture where the parents abuse the children in such wicked ways and the children rise up and murder their own parents. He says, because of the violence done to your brother Jacob, God says, you will be covered with shame and cut off forever. Now the second thing you see in their sins was an indifference towards Israel's suffering. Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan. You remember that? There was a certain man who was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. And as he was going, he was way late. Some robbers came out and they beat him and they robbed him and they left him dead. And it just so happened that past that way a priest came and he looked down, saw the man and stepped over on the other side, didn't want to get involved. And a Levite who was a teacher in Israel came after him and looked and saw him and did the same thing. And a Samaritan then came, somebody who would normally be despised by the Jews, and he had compassion on the man. Minded his wounds, wrapped him up, put him on his own donkey, brought him to the innkeeper, gave him to the innkeeper and said, look, you take care of him, I'll pay you this amount, anything else that costs more, when I come back I'll reimburse you for it. And Jesus asked, well, which one's the neighbor in this case? Well, you know, that's the attitude Jesus wants us to have towards people who are in pain. Like this good Samaritan, but that's not the attitude that the Edomites had. Look what it says of them in verse 11. It says, on the day that you stood aloof, that means apart, On the day that strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates and lots were cast for Jerusalem, you too were like one of them. Israel was invaded, Jerusalem was being sacked, and rather than feeling bad, the Edomites were cheering. It's like the Arabs that were in Jordan who cheered when the Twin Towers went down. All the glee in the streets of Amman. Now that's something particularly wicked. But then we also find some specific actions and attitudes that they had. Look in verse 12, it says, Do not gloat over your brother's day, the day of his misfortune. Do not rejoice over the sons of Judah in the day of their destruction. Yet, yes, do not boast in the day of their distress. Gloating and rejoicing and boasting at another's disaster. I think of the religious leaders who are sitting at the feet of Jesus, mocking and taunting and spitting on him. feeling quite satisfied in what they thought was a victory over Christ. You know, folks, there's something really sick about people who stand outside of state penitentiaries and cheer when people are electrocuted. That should be a very somber, reflective moment, even if the guy deserved it. And Israel did not deserve what the Edomites were giving them. Obadiah goes on in verse 12 to say, do not enter the gates of my people in the day of their disaster. Yes, you do not gloat over their calamity in the day of their disaster, do not loot their wealth in the day of their disaster, do not stand at the fork of the road and cut down their fugitives, and do not imprison survivors in the day of their destruction. You understand what's going on here? The Babylonians had taken Jerusalem, and the Edomites went in afterwards. It's like a lion killing an animal, wounding it. And then the vultures coming down to pick clean the bones. The Edomites were like the vultures. And by the way, what happens when you have natural disasters? Or collapses? People loot. They have to bring in the National Guard. Evidently, not only are we murderers in our hearts, but we're actually thieves as well. In the UN, they used UN African soldiers as peacekeepers in the last few months. They bring them in and what do they do? They rape the women. They stole the local produce of the people. And notice that the few Israelites who did escape, the Edomites, were waiting for them on the highways just to cut them down, to cut down their fugitives and sell them off into slavery. That reminds me of a World War II video that I have at home, the series World at War. They were interviewing a Jewish survivor, a Polish Jew from the Holocaust, and she talked about the people in her small Polish village, and they were being made to stand out in the street, and the Nazis were going to pick out the Jews, find them. And they couldn't necessarily tell by looking at them who were Jews, but she said she had a neighbor girl who had been a friend of hers who stepped back and said, Das Juden, das Juden, there's a Jew, there's one! You know, some of the Frenchmen helped save Jews, but a lot more of them turned them into the Gestapo. Do you know, in Holland, I was listening to Israel National Radio a couple of months ago, and they were talking about those Gentiles who helped Jews. And in Holland, there were quite a few of them. And they asked, well, what was the background of the people who did it? Were they religious? Irreligious? And he said, well, there were some atheists, but mostly it was religious people. Well, then he purged, or wanted to figure out a little further, he said, well, was it Catholic or Protestant? He said, well, there were different groups and whatnot. But he said the largest group was really the Calvinists. They more than anyone else saved Jews in Holland. You know why? Because it matters whether you believe God is sovereign, and nothing will happen to you, including what the Nazis will do, unless your God has ordained it. Theology matters, folks. So the picture we have is Israel is a wounded animal and Edom is some hyena attacking and dragging them away. But in the next section we find the judgment of God. 15 to 16. This is what it says. The day of the Lord draws near on all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you. Your dealings will return on your own head. You know in that first section you found the word day ten times. It was a day of disaster, day of misfortune, day of distress, day of destruction. I think it's important that we understand that these woes that came upon Israel came upon them for their sins. God had told them, if you sin, if you go after idolatry, I will bring these judgments. He did exactly what he said he would do. But Edom, instead of rejoicing, should have kept silent and thought about their own sins and what they deserved. Isn't that what Jesus said we're supposed to do in times of disaster? They came to Him and said, well what about that tower that fell on those people in Siloam? I bet they were more wicked than others, huh? Jesus said, do you think they were any more wicked than anybody else? No, I tell you, unless you repent, something like that's gonna happen to you. What I'm saying is because of the way we've dishonored God, because of the way we've mistreated other people, we deserve 100 ton bricks or bridges to drop and fall and land us in a river. But nobody believes that. Not even in the churches do people believe that. Eden didn't believe this. They didn't see any reason to repent or give up their pride and self-sufficiency, so God reminds them that their day, like the day of all Gentiles, is coming, the day that the Bible calls the Day of the Lord. The Day of the Lord is a term that's used in both an immediate and an ultimate sense. It's a day when God is going to intervene directly into history, and to bring judgment upon the wicked and deliverance for his people. In the immediate sense, Edom's going to be judged, but there's an ultimate point of judgment, and that comes when Christ returns. And here Obadiah is pointing to that final day when he says that it's going to draw near on all the nations. But here's the question, how can it draw near if that happened, that prophecy was made 2,500 years ago, Jesus still hasn't come and he may be another thousand years and coming? How can that be near? I like the way James Boyce explained it. He gave an illustration. He said, suppose you have a pastor who's up front. He's preaching. He's got a pulpit. And he puts his Bible down. But when he puts it down, he puts it right kind of on the edge. And he doesn't even notice it. And it's kind of tottering. And by the way, everybody looking there, looking this way, notices everything. You know, there would be something I'm completely unaware of. Fly on my nose or something. Oh, look at that. Everybody sees that. But let's suppose the Bible's kind of like that. And the guy's up there preaching and sometimes he's up there and really moving and seems to rock more. Other times he's quiet and seems to not move hardly at all. But it could fall at any time, couldn't it? That's the way it is with the judgment of God. There's times in history like World War II, or the invasion of the Muslims in Europe, where it seems like now's the moment, and it's rocking back and forth. There's other times where things are going smooth and easy. No one considers the judgment of God, but it's just there on the edge, and it can fall at any point. I want you to notice here God's exacting judgment. He says, as you have done to others, it's going to be done to you. Your dealings will return on your own head because you drank on my holy mountain. All the nations will drink continually. They'll drink and swallow and become as if they never existed. Meaning they're going to drink the cup of God's wrath. It's what they call Lex Talionis. Which is the eye for an eye. The law of retribution. A lady I worked with, her name was Kathy Anderson. What? This woman always dressed in black. That's one of the reasons why I have this aversion to being dressed in black. Black makeup, black dress, black hair. Worked with her at one of the restaurants I was at. The weird thing about her is whenever she entered the room, I kid you not, the temperature dropped 11 degrees. When I first met her, I don't even know if I was a Christian at the time, something was weird about her. She rang up an $800 phone bill talking to a psychic on the company's phone. At the time I was playing in a band and she was supposed to get us some band equipment and she kept telling us about this guy she knew in North Dakota, Fargo, North Dakota. His name was Bryce Tobar and he had this place where he sold musical instruments, music shop. We got the literature from it. I heard when he would call her, and stuff like that. But it didn't come, it didn't come, it didn't come. We're supposed to get this. It didn't come. I got more and more frustrated. I started to wonder about what's legit and what's not. So I called the directory up in Fargo, North Dakota and got the name of this place. Gave her the name of this place. There's no place by that name. I gave her the name of the person. There's no one by that name. And I remember one time I was working and she was at home and she called me. Oh, you know, this stuff is coming in. It got sent back, blah, blah, blah. She was a compulsive liar. And I said, yeah, whatever. I hung up the phone and I walked away, and as I walked away I said to someone, I said, Bryce tow bar, what's a tow bar? Isn't that something you use to pull a car with? And all of a sudden the phone rings. They said, Doug, it's for you. I go and I pick up the phone, and she says, and it's not something you use to pull a car with. And she hung up. That's a freak you out. You know what I remember most about Kathy Anderson? The only Bible verse she knew was this one. Whatever you do to others, it'll come back on your own head. And I thought, Kathy, do you have any idea what that means for you? There's a man in the Bible, the book of Judges, his name is Adonai Bezek. He was a cruel man. He used to cut off kings' thumbs and their big toe. You can't hardly walk without a big toe and you can't do anything without your thumb. And he used to eat scraps underneath his table, like dogs. Well, when the Israelites invaded, they captured him. You know what they did to him? They cut off his thumbs and cut off his big toes. And listen to what Adonai Bezek said, 70 kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off used to gather scraps from under my table. As I have done, so the Lord has repaid me. It makes me wonder and tremble at what God has in store for those by way of punishment in hell. The Bible says the judgment will be without mercy for those who have shown no mercy. Folks, maybe we need to take just a minute to say something about the judgment of God. We live in an age when pastors put a strong emphasis on the love of God while they de-emphasize or even ignore altogether the holiness, the justice, and the wrath of God. And yet, what I'm telling you is the gospel cannot be understood or properly preached without these concepts. What is holiness? Or it refers to God being unlike or separate from all others, particular in moral purity. Habakkuk speaking to God said, your eyes are too pure to approve evil. You cannot even look upon wickedness. You know, some people have allergies. Chris and George, she's terribly allergic and reacts severely to petroleum products. Even a whiff or a hint can make her react. God is that way towards sin. He has zero tolerance for it. God is not only holy, but he's also just. He not only hates sin, but because of his righteous character and love of justice that flows from his very nature, he must punish sin. In Nahum, God says, I will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. How does his wrath figure into the equation? Well, God's wrath is his holiness and justice flashing forth in wrath. An illustration might help. The ancient Greeks had something that was known as Greek fire. It terrorized the Arabs and all who came against them. They would use it on ships in particular. They don't know exactly what it was, but they're thinking it was made from calcium phosphide. Calcium phosphide is made by heating lime and bones and charcoal together. It was put into a catapult, this mixture, or it was put onto an arrow on a very large crossbow mounted on a ship. And what they would do is they would launch this thing over and when it hit the water, the calcium phosphide would mix with it and turn into calcium phosphine and it would just explode the moment it got wet and burn whatever was in its path. Well, that's what I'm suggesting God's holiness is. It's like a mixture between, or His wrath is a mixture between His holiness and justice. That when it comes into contact with human sin, it explodes into a wrath of flame. And doesn't the Bible say that our God is a consuming fire? But the good news is, the gospel is that Jesus took upon himself the wrath of God for the sins of his people. The holiness and justice of God came into contact with our sins laid upon Christ, and God's burning wrath was aimed at Jesus, and he absorbed that wrath that we so richly deserve. Paul emphasizes this amazing grace in Romans 5, 6 when he says, yet still helpless at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one would hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for a particularly good man someone might even dare to die. But God demonstrated his love for us, and while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than having been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him." What I'm asking is this, how then can any church preach the gospel if they don't mention holiness, justice, sin, and wrath? What I'm telling you folks is they're not preaching the gospel and if they're not preaching the gospel they have no right to call themselves churches. God did not establish the church to help you navigate your way through a middle class American lifestyle. He established the church to be the pillar and support of the truth and to proclaim the gospel to all nations. There's a judgment coming and it's going to fall on the church too. The third thing I see in the text, and this goes a little quicker, is the inheritance of Israel. Israel is battered and beaten down, Edom is high and self-secure, but it's not going to remain that way, for though they're under judgment now and disaster has overtaken them, so Edom might gloat at the present time, but notice what he says in verse 17, but on Mount Zion there will be those who escape, and it will be holy, and the house of Jacob will possess their possessions. The house of Jacob will be like fire and the house of Joseph a flame, but the house of Esau will be stubble so that there will be no survivors in the house of Esau, for the Lord has spoken." Israel won't be completely destroyed. God has always preserved a remnant. He will do so. And they will regain what they've lost and God will make them so strong that they will destroy the Edomites and then leave no survivors. Let's go on and see what it says. It says, "...then those of the Negev," that's the southernmost part of Israel, "...will possess the mountains of Esau." and those on the Shephelah, that's the center part, the Philistine plain. Also they will possess the territory of Ephraim, the territory of Samaria. Benjamin will possess Gilead, and the exiles of the host of Israel and among the Canaanites of Zarephath, that's way up in Lebanon, and the exiles of Jerusalem will possess the cities of the Negev. The deliverers will ascend Mount Zion to the Judge, the mountain of Esau, and the kingdom will belong to the Lord. The reason I call this last section the Inheritance is because this is what It says Israel will receive after the day of the Lord. And see, this is great news for Israel. Not only will Edom and all the nations be judged, but God will vindicate Israel so that they'll receive the promised land, the land that was promised to Abraham and his descendants. Now, folks, when does this fulfillment take place? I'm going to give you five possibilities. I'll go through these quick. The first possibility is that this prophecy was fulfilled during the time of Nehemiah. Remember that people went off to exile under Nebuchadnezzar through this event, and 70 years later they came back. But the reason I don't think that's the case is because when they came back they were weak and they were still under a foreign power. That's not the image that we have here. Second possibility is that it took place during the time of the Maccabees and John Hyrcanus. Between the close of the Old Testament and the opening of the New Testament, there's 400 years. And the Maccabees rose to power at that time as guerrilla fighters and they overthrew the Greek domination and they established an independent state for a while. One of the things that they did was they destroyed that temple that was up in Samaria. And that's why the Samaritans, one of the reasons they hated the Jews, and they also subjugated the people of Edom and forced circumcision on them and forced them to conform to Jewish laws. Now, I think it's a greater possibility that this is what it's talking about, but I don't think that's the case because the territory that's promised them was not realized at that time. And notice that this takes place after the Day of the Lord, the time when He will judge all nations at its future event. Well, then does it speak of the modern nation of Israel? No, because they still don't possess these areas. Samaria, which is promised to them, is the area of what's called the West Bank today. That's run now by the Palestinians. The ancient area of the Philistines is what is today the Gaza Strip. That also is possessed by the Philistines. Zarephath is up in Lebanon. Besides that, Israel is presently under God's judgment for rejecting a Messiah. They do not have a divine right to that land at this point. Did you know that? Well, perhaps it's just a figurative way of speaking of the Church. Many commentators will say it this way. They'll say, well, look, the New Testament writers apply many of these promises made to Israel to the Church in the New Testament, and they assume that means the Church is Israel. They just replace them. So when they read promises like this, they say, well, it says Israel, the house of Jacob, the house of Joseph, but though it says Israel, it doesn't mean Israel, it actually means a church. I got a question. What warrant do we have for taking it in that way when we look in the book of Obadiah? If it's a literal Israel and a literal Edom, why do we suddenly make it a figurative one when it comes to the end? Gentiles don't become Jews. Paul saw himself as a Jew to his dying day, and he always made a distinction between Jews and Gentiles, those who have the law and those who are outside of the law. The church is not Israel, I don't believe. Paul says that there's been a partial hardening of Israel in order to bring in the Gentiles. Romans chapter 11. He said, and Ephesians said, we are Gentiles, we Gentiles who are excluded from the commonwealth of Israel. We are strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. Now in Christ Jesus, we who are far off have been brought near. And I think that's a good way to think of this. I think this is very helpful. The idea of a commonwealth. The British Commonwealth is quite a few nations, and it's the nations that were formerly colonies of Britain. Now, if you are from the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean, not far from the little island that we're praying for, are you English? If you were born? Part of the native population? No. No. But are you British? Yes. Did you know if you were born in the British Virgin Islands, you can run as a member of Parliament in England? Gentiles are not Jews, but they have been brought into this Jewish commonwealth and they've become partakers of the promises of the covenant with equal citizenship with Jewish believers who are the natural branches. God has a Jewish people, he has a Gentile people, and they've become one in the church. Now why do I bring this up? Because I think that's what this is talking about. It refers to ethnic Israel who will finally receive her inheritance when Christ returns. That's why it says it's the remnant. that Obadiah speaks of. The remnant that Paul says will be saved when the Deliverer comes from Zion, Romans 11.27. The ultimate fulfillment comes when Christ comes at the hour of Israel's greatest need and they cry out for the Messiah and much to their shock, who's going to show up? It's going to be Jesus. Listen to what it says in connection with Edom in Isaiah 63 as we finish up here. It says, who is this who comes from Edom? Can you guess what they're talking about? With garments of glowing colors from Basra, that's one of the cities. This one is majestic in his apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength. It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Why is your apparel red? Someone's asking this person. And your garment like the one who treads on the winepress. It says, well, I've trodden the wine trough alone, and from the peoples there was no man with me. In other words, there's no human person to help. I also trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath, meaning his wrath upon Edom. And the lifeblood, their lifeblood, is sprinkled on my garment. In other words, their blood, staining them. And I'm stained, all my raiment. For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and my year of redemption has come. I looked and there was no one to help. And I think this refers to Israel. And I was astonished and there was no one to uphold. So my own arm brought salvation to me, and my wrath upheld me. I trod down the people in my anger, and I made them drunk in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth." It's talking about Christ when he returns. Well folks, I'm going to give you some rock bottom truths as we finish. I'm going to give you three. This is the lessons I draw out of this text. Here's the first one. In the present age, God's people are often harassed and hated and persecuted. In the present age, God's people are often harassed and hated and persecuted. They're mocked in America, arrested in China, starved and hunted in Darfur. Paul was right when he quoted the Old Testament. He said, for your sake, we're being put to death all day long. We're like sheep before the slaughter. See, today it really can't be otherwise. The antagonism you feel from your non-Christian family members and friends and co-workers is because you don't belong to this world, you belong to God. And Paul saw it as one of the surest signs that he was doing what God wanted, that persecution was coming his way. You're not going to avoid it. Here's the second rock-bottom truth. There will come a time when God intervenes, and the day of the Lord finally arrives. But boy, that seems like a long time, doesn't it? And you know what, if you and I suffered injustice the way some Christians did, we'd think it felt even longer. But you remember that scene in the book of Revelation, when the martyrs are standing before the throne? And they cry out, and they say, how long, O Lord, holy and true, will you refrain from judging those who spilled our blood on the earth? I was told that they should rest just a little while until the further number of their brethren, the full number of the martyrs comes in. And then judgment would come. You know, it's really easy for us cozy Americans to sit and say, well, that's a wrong attitude to have. But you know, I listened to a guy who's from Croatia talk about having his family murdered in that, what went on in Serbia. He said, you don't know how reassuring it is to know that there's a judgment of God coming and that I don't have to worry because he'll balance the scales in the end. Here's the last truth. At that time, the day of the Lord, a great reverse will take place. God's enemies will be put down and God's people will be vindicated and they will receive their inheritance. Then we will say the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall rule forever and we will have part in it. For it's said to the Christ who purchased us with his blood that he purchased those from every tribe and tongue and nation And that you, Jesus, have made them to be a kingdom of priests to our God, and they will reign upon the earth. What I'm telling you folks is the kingdom of this world will fall, the kingdom of God will rise, the day of man will be over, the day of God will arrive. What I'm telling you is be ready, be waiting, live for this kingdom. See, because here's a problem. When I look around in the church, I see a lot of people living for everything but the kingdom. I gotta get my house, then I gotta get my bigger house, and my truck, and my four-wheeler, and my trophy, and my new hunting rifle, and my, and, and, and, and, and, and, and. You plan on staying here forever? You plan on taking that stuff with you? Then what in the world are you doing investing everything here? It's going to end up ashes, nothing else. You can't take anything with you, but you can send as much ahead as you want by investing in the things that matter to God. And on Judgment Day, you will have shown yourself to be a very, very, very wise person. But oh, how we need God's grace today, then. We need God's grace. We need to grant it. Our father, our nation is a nation where it seems like almost all the seeds have fallen among the thorns. The deceitfulness of riches, the cares of this world, and the desire for other things have choked amounts so it doesn't produce any fruit. The churches are filled with entertainers and clowns. And very seldom is the word of God preached. Father, you've always had your true church, you've always had a remnant in Israel, those that you've preserved by your grace. Preserve us. Make us be faithful to preach your word as it is. Lord, we don't need the purpose-driven life, we need the truth found in Obadiah. You alone can establish us in that truth. You alone can make us to love your kingdom more than anything in the world. And so what I'm asking is that you wake up your true church in America. If you have to bring persecution, then do so. Because it's better that we be persecuted and live for Christ than we have ease and go to hell. I pray that you would raise up pastors who would actually teach the text as it is, not as people would have it to be. And that you would raise up people in the church who demand that their pastors teach the word of God line upon line, line upon line. and then that you bring the blessing that comes when your word is taught. Thank you for preserving us these last four and a half years. Preserve us until Christ returns. For it is in his name we ask these things. Amen.