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106 writes, they quickly forgot
his works, they did not wait for his counsel, but craved intensely
in the wilderness, and tempted God into the desert. So he gave
them their request, but sent a wasting disease among them.
Brothers and sisters, there's a parallel, there's a correlation. The more you forget about God,
his character, or his works, the easier it is for you to sin. the easier it is for you and
I to do our own thing. And so this passage calls us
to do the exact opposite through the example of our fathers and
mothers into the faith who went so astray. And that is to not
forget God, to not forget his word, to not forget his benefits.
And it's to that that we turn to now as we fellowship with
him in his word. So let me invite you, if you
would, turn in your Bibles to the book of Obadiah. And as well,
locate in your bulletin the notes. You can follow along and read
the quotes and take notes and hopefully learn this passage
a little more. We're going to be on Obadiah this week and next
week. Next week will be our last week
we're on this book. Then we're going to go into Peter sometime
after that. But for now, we're in 15 through
21, still the same text we've been on. We have studied it all,
actually 21a, except for verse 18. So this morning we'll be
focusing on verse 18 and the sixth and final benefit or blessing
that God gives his people in exile. This is indeed the word
of the Lord, brothers and sisters. Let me invite you to stand together
with me out of reverence and respect for the reading of his
word. Hear now the word of our King.
For 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. Because just as you drank on
my holy mountain, all the 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. And the house of Jacob will possess
their possessions. Then the house of Jacob will
be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame. But the house of Esau
will be a stubble. And they will set them on fire
and consume them, so that there will be no survivor of the house
of Esau. For the Lord has spoken. Then
those of the Negev will possess the mountain of Esau and those
of the Shephelah, the Philistine plain. Also, they will possess
the territory of Ephraim and the territory of Samaria, and
Benjamin will possess Gilead. And the exiles of this host of
the sons of Israel, who are among the Canaanites as far as the
Zarephath, and the exiles of Jerusalem, who are in the Sepharad,
will possess the cities of the Negev. The deliverers will ascend
Mount Zion to judge the mountain of Esau, and the kingdom will
be the Lord's. Thus far, the reading of God's
word. Let's pray together. Lord, what a privilege and delight
it is for us, your people, to now sit at your feet, and
by your grace and by the work, the enabling grace of the Spirit
of God, to remember you, to remember your deeds, to remember your
benefits and the graces that you give us in Christ. Bless
this time, O Lord. Bless it unto our growth in your
grace and the maturation of us, your people. I pray this in Jesus'
name. Amen. Amen. Please be seated. It was July 1941, Auschwitz,
Poland. The night before roll call, it
was discovered that one of the men from barracks 14 was missing.
He had escaped, evidently successfully. And so it was understood that
evening that 10 men out of barracks 14 would be sent to the starvation
bunker the next day. What's the starvation bunker?
The starvation bunker was the worst form of punishment that
any in Auschwitz could receive. It was a place where they sent
you with people, stripped of all clothing, no food, no water. And in the summer, as it was
here, it was even that much more brutal and more torturous. Chuck Holson describes it, first
quote, the prisoners had heard the stories from the starvation
bunker in the basement of Barracks 11. They said the condemned didn't
even look like human beings after a day or two. They frightened
even the guards. Their throats turned to paper,
the brains turned to fire, their intestines dried up and shriveled
like desiccated worms. That morning, roll call was announced,
and after the morning roll call, the rest of Auschwitz went to
their work detail, but barracks 14, the men of barracks 14, had
to stand beneath the scorching heat all day. They couldn't drink,
they couldn't eat, they couldn't relieve themselves, or at least
not anywhere else other than where they were. And in the evening
roll call, the commandant came out with the entire Auschwitz
in order, And he approached barracks 14 and began selecting men one
by one, the weakest to go die in the starvation bunker. And
when he had selected the 10, one of the 10 began screaming
and crying and begging for his life. Please, not me. I'm married. I've got a young wife, young
children. What will they do? What will they do? Well, from
the back of barracks 14 in formation, there was a commotion. It was
very obvious that one of the prisoners dared to approach the
commandant. The commandant allowed it. And
as he got close to the commandant, the commandant said, what would
this Polish pig want of me? Well, that Polish pig was Father
Colby. He was a priest, a man of God. And he was known in Auschwitz
as a servant of people. and is a man who was preaching
Jesus Christ and encouraging the prisoners. So the prisoners
knew him. He was beloved. And he approached
the commandant and in answer to the commandant's question,
what would he have? He said, I want to die for that prisoner
in the place of that prisoner. And the commandant said, why?
Colby wasn't stupid, he knew what was important. So he said,
because I'm an old man, I'm weak, and I probably won't last the
month. That's exactly what needed to be said. So the commandant
said, yes. So Father Colby and the nine
other men were sent into the starvation bunker. Colson finishes
the story with these words, As the hours and days passed, however,
the camp became aware of something extraordinarily happening in
the death cell. Past prisoners had spent their
dying days howling, attacking one another, clawing the walls
in a frenzy of despair. But now, coming from the death
box, those outside heard the faint words of singing. For this time, the prisoners
had a shepherd to gently lead them through the shadows of the
valley of death, pointing them to the great shepherd." Brothers
and sisters, in the face of trial and tragedy, the valley of weeping
really can become a spring. We see that. So it was amongst
God's people in 586 BC when they first went into exile. that valley,
that horrible, horrible valley, a tragedy that defies imagination,
more than just World War II. Think of an entire nation being
overturned and exiled. And yet, as I've shared with
you, I've got a quote there, I'm not gonna read it, it's Tidwell.
He has eight ways in which God's people flourished in the exile.
God's people didn't go there to die. They didn't go there
to shrivel on the vine. God's people went into exile
and they thrived in their suffering. They soared in their trial. And we ask ourselves, what's
to explain this? This is not natural. This is
extraordinary. What's to explain how God's people
in 586 didn't curse God and die? Well, the answer is amongst the
people of God in 586 walked a shepherd and his name was Obadiah. And this man came and he shared
the word of God. Obviously the explanation for
it is God. But God did that through means, and the means was through
his shepherds, not just Obadiah. We've seen six or seven different
prophets ministering in this time to God's people. And the
ministry specifically of the first responder, which was Obadiah,
586, he was the first responder to God's people. He immediately
got their minds and their focus set where it needed to be. Off
of their sin, off of the wickedness of the nation, and on to God. And so we've seen six blessings,
six, as I've titled it here, consolations. that Obadiah as
a shepherd gave God's people during this time. And this morning,
or we've seen five, this morning we're going to look at a sixth.
Thus far we've seen that God promised them in this time of
suffering, relief and the storms of life, they were to dwell in
the eye of the storm. Deliverance in trouble. You have
the list there. Notice a sixth one. To them finally
belong ultimate victory. Incredible. Notice with me 18. Then the house of Jacob will
be afire and the house of Joseph aflame. But the house of Esau
will be as stubble, and they, Jacob and Joseph, God's people,
will set them on fire and consume them, so that there will be no
survivor of the house of Esau, for the Lord has spoken." This
prophecy is a positive and negative. Positively, it's describing the
victory, the ultimate victory that God's people are going to
have over the foe. But negatively, it also is describing the condemnation
and death and the wiping out of existence, the nation of Esau. And this is in true form because
as we saw last week in verse 17, remember how Obadiah is using
the Abrahamic covenant as the basis upon which to encourage
God's people. The language in verse 17, they
will possess their possessions, is always used of two promises
of the Abrahamic covenant. Thus it follows that verse 18,
as he references two more promises in his mind, clearly he is basing
this upon Abraham, the promise God gave to Abraham. Well, what
two promises are here? Well, the first one is found
in Genesis 12.2. God says, I will bless you. God
promises to bless his people. Do you understand what that means?
If you and I go out and we invest in the stock market and we get
back a generous return, we might say, God blessed me. But if a
lot of people got that, that's not blessing. That's normal.
Statistically speaking, I remember a guy saying, in summary, the
way that they're going to plant a church is they're going to
call out 200,000 people with the promise that 200 people will
come because that's the statistics. And so I asked him, why would
you plant a church that way? And he said, because God's blessing
it. Well, brothers and sisters, the Mormons use that technique
and they get the same exact results. That's not blessing, that's normal.
Blessing is where something extraordinarily happens. God says, I'm going
to bless you in this land, the state of sin and mystery. You're
going to grow. You're going to flourish. You're
going to prosper in ways that goes above and beyond expectation. That's the first promise. The
second promise was, that's germane here, is Genesis 12 of 3b. The one who curses you, I will
curse. And both of those are being worked
out in verse 18. In fact, brothers and sisters,
both of those have been worked out throughout history. Do you
remember the first, Exile 722? Think back with me there. Isaiah
describes this, it's the opposite side of the same coin, blessing
and cursing. Blessing, victory for God's people,
and condemnation for the wicked. In Isaiah, God chose to discipline
his people with the Assyrians, and they went nuts, they went
crazy. You could read it in Isaiah chapter 10. They got arrogant
and proud and they began exalting themselves, not above the northern
kingdom, but above God. Who's your God? Your God's a
nobody. And it went on and on. So they went way too far. And
so God says at the end of Isaiah 10, using the metaphor of a forest,
he says this, behold, the Lord, the God of hosts will lop off
the boughs of Assyria with a terrible crash. In other words, God is
gonna devastate. If they were a forest, there will be complete
and total devastation. with a terrible crash. Those
who are tall in stature will be cut down, and those who are
lofty will be abased. And He will cut down the thickets
of the forest with an iron axe, and Lebanon will fall by the
Mighty One." So, this forest, labeled Assyria, because of their
rebellion, would be decimated, wiped off the face of the earth.
But this is where we get Isaiah 11.1. Then," we always read this
around Christmas time, "'a shoot will spring from the stem of
Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.'" Prior
to this, God pictured God's people also as a forest. And the Assyrians
would devastate that forest, so much so that there would be
total devastation except for one stump. There'd be one stump,
and there'd be life in that stump. Yet God would bring forth a root,
a branch, which we know is Jesus. And that Jesus, his kingdom,
would grow and eventually, and we're still waiting for that,
encompass the entire world. What we mean by that is the new
heavens, the new earth, that's where it's going. Where the entire
earth, once again, will be the dwelling place of God. That's
what that's talking about. Brothers and sisters, it's that
promise we see portrayed throughout the Old Testament into the new,
and we still see it even today being worked out. And that's
exactly what was being worked out in Obadiah's day. The focus
of verse 18 is not the destruction of Edom or Esau. That was 15
through 16. He's already dealt with that.
The focus, the emphasis of verse 17 is not the condemnation of
the Edomites or the destruction of the Edomites. The focus of
verse 17 is the victory that God would bring to pass amongst
his people. A victory which is above and
beyond all that we could ever imagine. Brothers and sisters,
I want you to realize it's this victory that serves as the basis
for movies in Hollywood, great movies. I mean, what do we like
about movies? Well, what makes a great movie
is good wins out in the end, but in the course of that movie,
it doesn't look like it. It looks like there's no way
these people are going to survive. I mean, this is the worst thing
that could ever happen to any individual is this thing. But
then it's overcome in a way that we can't even imagine. And in
the end, good wins out, right? That's what makes for a great
movie. Brothers and sisters, do you understand? That's the
kingdom of God. Father Colby, from all outward
appearances, when he walked into that cell, looked like a loser. looked like, no doubt he was
pitiful. No doubt the Germans mocked and
laughed and giggled and made fun. But do you understand that
in a couple days, Father Colby was standing in the presence
of Christ, having exchanged the sword with a wreath of victory. You
realize that? And that those German soldiers,
unless God saved them in a few short years, how long is 70 years?
Short, a few short years, they would be suffering in hell. Brothers and sisters, we look
at that situation, we say, give me the fate of Father Colby every
day. Wouldn't we? Lord, that's what
I want in my life. But understand, brothers and
sisters, we don't have that victory. We don't enjoy that victory.
In fact, the more dark it becomes, the greater we praise and celebrate
the victory of God. And that's what's going on here.
Obadiah comes and says, brothers and sisters, to you belongs a
promise. You think this is dark, and it
is. You think this is horrible, and it is. But joy comes in the
morning. You're gonna prove victorious
over Edom, so much so, you're gonna wipe them off the face
of the earth. You're gonna decimate this people. The victory that
is ours in Christ. Amazing. Now, I'd love to take
this, run with it, and then go on to our next point, but this
verse, verse 18, raises a couple issues that we can't afford to
ignore, especially if you're gonna share this with loved ones.
And maybe you're even struggling with it right now. This passage
makes it very clear, at least from appearance, that God's people
would exterminate the Edomites. That's an atrocity. They would
wipe them off the face of the earth. At least that's what it
looks like, doesn't it? There will be no survivor of
the house of Esau. Because my people will be a flame
and a fire, and they will consume them. Historically, we've got a problem
with this verse. And the historical problem is, it never happened.
God's people never exterminated the Edomites. They never did.
Now, during the Maccabean Revolt, they did attack the Edomites,
and they did prove victorious. But they didn't wipe them off
the face of the earth, not like this. Not in any way like this. In
fact, we know, historically, when the Edomites would be wiped
off the face of the earth, and that was 70 AD, when Rome destroyed
them. So it wasn't God's people who
wiped them off the face of the earth, it was the Romans. Well, how do we explain this
verse then? And how do we explain what appears to be something
that today, if you shared in the context of non-believers,
you'd blush. How many Christians here are
proud of the Crusades? People claiming Christ, wiping
out children, women, the infirmed, the Crusades. This raises the question of the
Holy War, and I want to address that with you briefly, and we
have to because it's addressed here. The Holy War, in God's
word, God's people during the conquest were called by God to
conquer the peoples of Palestine and wipe them off the face of
the earth. That's known as the Holy War.
Okay, now understand a couple things. First and foremost, the
Holy War commands were for a specific time and a specific people concerning
another specific people and time. So you cannot take those verses
and run with them saying, that's the justification for us to go
kill the infidel. You can't do that. That's taking
those verses out of context. Furthermore, it's interesting
to note in scripture that nowhere outside of the holy war passages
does God's word call us to take up arms to advance God's kingdom.
Nowhere. In fact, it's just the opposite.
When God's people's backs were against the Red Sea, the Egyptians
were attacking them. There are 2.5 million people
with their backs against the Red Sea. They could easily have
mounted an attack or at least attempted it. But instead, we
read God saying, the Lord will fight for you while you keep
silent. God didn't say, go and attack and wipe out the Egyptians.
God said, I'll take care of the Egyptians. You trust me. Proverbs
20, 22, do not say, I will repay evil. Wait for the Lord. He will
save you. Wait on God. Don't take matters
into your own hands ever. Proverbs 20, 22. Listen to the exhortation of
David when he and God's people were the object of attack. This
is what David wrote. Psalm 37, the wicked spies upon
the righteous and seeks to kill them. What should we do? David's a soldier, a warrior,
let's go and attack? No. The Lord will not leave him
in his hand or let him be condemned when he is judged. Therefore,
wait for the Lord, keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit
the land. When the wicked are cut off,
you will see it. David says, don't attack, trust
God. Now, does this mean that we should
be pacifists? Absolutely not. Romans 13 is
very clear. The civil government has a sword
for a purpose, to punish evildoers. That doesn't mean, that's not
pacifism, brothers and sisters. This is saying that God's kingdom
is never to be advanced through force or arms. That's what this
is saying. And thus, when David was being
chased around by a mad lunatic for a couple years named Saul,
and they had two opportunities to kill him, what did David do?
He trusted his soul to a faithful creator in doing what is right.
God's kingdom, brothers and sisters, and this is the qualification,
God's kingdom is not advanced through violence. Period. It never has been. It never will
be. Well, what about the conquest?
The conquest, we're dealing with a theocracy. And we can address
that at some other point. But God's kingdom is not advanced
through force, at least us, force of arms. Zechariah 4, that's
when God's people are back in the promised land after the exile.
They're back in Palestine, and they're trying to rebuild the
city walls. And the Gentile population, the Samaritans, were coming out
and forced to attack them and threatening them. We read the
God telling Zerubbabel, this is the word of Lord to Zerubbabel,
saying, not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says
the Lord of hosts. Now that didn't stop them from
posting sentries around the city to protect when the Gentiles
attacked. So again, we're not pacifists
here. It's the recognition that God's kingdom is not advanced
through taking up of arms. And thus we see in John 18, Christ
told Pilate specifically, my kingdom is not of this world.
If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting
that I might not be delivered up to the Jews. But as it is,
my kingdom is not of this realm. Jesus is very clear. If my kingdom
were a civil kingdom, a civil government on this earth, there'd
be bloodshed right now. But because my kingdom is not
of this realm, my servant's job will be to trust me. They're
not going to attack. And thus we read of Christ and
his ministry saying, repeating what is said in the Old Testament
and then to the New. But I say to you here, you who
hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless
those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. And so
outside the holy war passages, the rest of scripture tells us
God's kingdom is advanced via the working of the spirit of
God by and with his word in the hearts of man. That's how his
kingdom's advanced. God saves, God extends his kingdom
one soul at a time. So there's no other verses outside
of the holy war except verses like the one before us this morning.
And the house of Jacob will be a fire, the house of Joseph,
the northern kingdom, a flame. The house of Esau will be the
stubble and they, God's people, will set them on fire and consume
them so that there will be no survivor of the house of Esau.
Now hear this. What we have here is not a command.
It's an observation. So there are verses, there are
many verses like this, throughout the Old Testament, dotting the
pages of scripture, saying so and so will be victorious over
so and so. But that's not a command, that's a description of something
that's going to take place. He is not commanding God's people
to take up arms and attack Esau. He's saying, hey, in chains,
going in, I'm in exile. Guess what? You will be victorious
over those people. I guarantee it. That's what the
message is here. You will be victorious. Well,
then how do we explain this? That brings us to the second
question, which is sort of like the first, basically. How then
do we understand this passage? How is it that God's people would
set the Edomites on fire and consume them? The answer is vicariously. Important word, vicariously. Well, indeed God's kingdom is
not advanced by his people taking up arms. Brothers and sisters,
God's kingdom is advancing and at times God topples kingdoms,
civil kingdoms. At times God destroys bad people. God does. So while it's not our
job, God does do that. God's not a pacifist. God does
destroy and depose and tear down and condemn. And when this occurs,
brothers and sisters, our job as God's peoples and followers
are not to blush or to make excuses for God, as if God's done something
wrong. Our job is to give the hearty
amen, hallelujah, to the glory and praise of God. You follow
that? That is how God's people would
prove victorious. over the Edomites. They give
the amen to God's destruction. For example, let me give you
an example. Psalm 52, five through seven. This is one of many. When
David received the news that Doag the Edomite, remember Doag
the Edomite, this worthless dog? I remember his name because it
sounds like dog. Doag the dog, this wicked, wicked
man who for money wiped out the priests. hacked them to pieces
for money. The gentile mercenaries wouldn't
do it, but Doag did it for money. This is what David wrote when
he heard, when word got to David, that Doag slaughtered the priests. This is what we read, but God
will break you down forever. He will snatch you up and tear
you away from your tent and uproot you from the land of the living."
Pause and wonder, Salah. And the righteous will see and
fear and will laugh at him. Now the word for laugh at him
carries the idea not of ha ha ha, it's praise God, celebration. saying, behold, the man who would
not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his
riches and was strong in his evil desire. Dr. Godfrey, in our Bible study this
last year, when we were going through the Psalms, addressed
this. First of all, what a great series. I highly recommend it.
But what a masterful use of the Psalm. In response, he paused
and said, there was much rejoicing. in Europe and America when news
of the death of Hitler was announced. Were they wrong? There was much rejoicing when
Osama bin Laden was killed and news spread. Was it wrong to
rejoice over the death of such a monster? If you did, then you
were giving the amen to God's taking care of these monsters.
No different from what we see here. Now, that's a far cry from
saying, I'm so grateful someone's in hell suffering. That's different.
That's not what we're saying. But to rejoice that God removed
a monster, or to rejoice that God deposed a horrible king,
or toppled a horrible kingdom, a monstrous kingdom? Brothers
and sisters, that's what David's saying. Rejoice! God's people,
when they hear about Doag's overthrow, they're going to rejoice! Because
God took care of our enemy. And brothers and sisters, that's
exactly what's going on here. Would you look with me again
at verse 18? The house of Jacob will be afire, the house of Joseph
aflame. Esau will be stubble, and they
will set them on fire and consume them. Well notice, who's the
they? It doesn't give Joseph and Jacob. We don't know. The
implication is it's Joseph and Jacob, but how will they set
them on fire? Well, guess what? There's one
other time in this passage that this verse describes God's people
overthrowing Edom, and that's verse 21. Look with me there. The deliverers, who are the house
of Jacob, the house of Joseph, verse 17, those who escape, the
deliverers will ascend Mount Zion to judge the mountain of
Esau. Brothers and sisters, that's
how they're gonna wipe them off. They're gonna be partakers in
the judgment of God against Edom. Well, what does that mean? How
would they participate? The same way that we're gonna
participate in God's judgment of the world. We're gonna say
amen or hallelujah. You go, really? Or better yet,
you say, that sounds like a stretch. Well, brothers and sisters, it's
not a stretch. That's the teaching of scripture
when it comes to the end days. Did you know that? I want you
to look at two verses with me. 1 Corinthians 6, would you turn
there? 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse
2. To a people who are struggling
with lawsuits against one another, Paul rebukes them. And in verse
2 he says, or do you not know that the saints will judge the
world? And if the world is judged by
you, are you not a competent to constitute the smallest law
courts? Do you not know that we, God's
people, will judge angels? How much more matters of this
life? Wait a second. The Bible is emphatic
and clear. God is the only one who will
judge on the last day. And you can look that up. You've
got my notes, James 4, 1 Thessalonians, Romans 12, and then a footnote
that gives you a whole bunch more verses. God is the judge. The scriptures say over and over,
leave judgment to God. God is the judge. Not man. So how and what way do we understand
a verse like this? And it's the only of its kind
where it says, we're gonna judge the world. We're gonna judge
angels. When you just read this verse,
it sounds like there's gonna be a court of appeals. All God's
people, well, wait a second, they're gonna be judged too on
the last judgment. How's that gonna work? Don't know, but we can presume
this. All God's people are gonna sit behind a bench at some point,
and the world's gonna come right before us. Our neighbors who
are mean, and we're gonna say, go to hell. Right? We're going to be the judge.
We're going to condemn. And then angels. And we're going
to judge them, too. Is that what this verse is saying?
Well, we've got to let Scripture interpret Scripture. And when
we do that, go to Revelation 19. We see one more time where God's
people are active in the judgment of the world. Would you notice
it? Revelation 19, verse 1. After
these things, Christ's judgments. Look at the context. After these things, I heard,
as it were, a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven. Someday,
brothers and sisters, you and I will be a part of this multitude."
This is describing the future, which is describing you and I
there. So John, when he saw this, he
may have saw you. Saw? Seen? He may have seen you
in this vision. Think about that. You're going
to be there. if you're in Christ. I saw this multitude in heaven
saying to the judgment of Christ, hallelujah, salvation and glory
and power belong to our God because his judgments are true and righteous. That is how we will participate
in the last judgment. We will participate not by doing
the judging. It's very clear in scripture,
God does the judging. God casts into the lake of fire,
not us, But our judgment will be, Amen, God. Hallelujah. Your judgment, God, is righteous
and true altogether. Richard Baxter wrote, They shall
not only judge the world in Christ their head, by way of communion
with him, by their works compared with those of the ungodly, or
by way of testimony against them. Yes, Lord, I share the gospel that did not know
you. They shall be assessors of Jesus
Christ the judge, giving their voice against them, consenting
to his judgment as just, and saying, Amen to the doom pronounced
against all the ungodly. All right, that's the footnote.
We're done with the footnote. All this is to say, brothers
and sisters, God's people's job was not to wipe out a people
group. God's people's job is not to raise the sword and attack
people who don't believe in Jesus. Our job is not to take a gun
and say, repent or you'll die. Our job is to rely upon God to
work by and with his heart and with his word in the hearts of
people as he saves them and advances kingdom one heart at a time. That's our job. Thus our job
is to pray and to proclaim and to speak and to serve. It's God's
job. to bring to pass his will for
his kingdom as well as for the civil realm. So what's the message
here? The message here, brothers and
sisters, now let's get back to it. So we dealt with that Holy
War issue. What's the message? The message
is thirdly, or sixthly, as God's people go in chains to exile,
having witnessed such an atrocity, no doubt hurting and aching within
them, Obadiah the shepherd came alongside them and said, listen,
in the end you win. In the end you are victorious. In the end, like Father Colby,
you will stand with Jesus Christ and you will be in a glorified
state. and you will know him and you
will spend the rest of eternity in a place of felicity and joy
with no sin, no sorrow, no sadness, no sickness, no death, no tears. Brothers and sisters, in the
end, we win. And the darker our road simply
tells the world, the greater is the glory. For God Almighty
can even overcome this cancer or this tragedy. Our God reigns. Brothers and
sisters, that's the sixth and final message that Obadiah gave
in this section of consolation to his people. And that is because
they are the beloved of God, to them belong ultimate victory.
Calvin wrote of this, why did God with so much severity punish
the Edomians? Because he intended by this example
to show how much he loved his church. Why is it that God condemns
so harshly those who do not know Him? Because He loves us. And
He shows the wages of sin thereby. So our victory this day, brothers
and sisters, is not to be delivered out of, but to be delivered in. Where we pass through the valley
of weeping, it becomes a spring, though nothing's changed around
us. Is that possible? I mean, think
of the context one more time as I wrap this up. God's people
are at the lowest of lows. Are you there today? Have you
been there recently? If you haven't been there, you
will. This world is very harsh, and
it eats people up. And when you're at the lowest
of lows, is it possible to be in that place and rejoice in
the Lord always? It was in David's life, and he
was a sinner. Romans 7, read it. Paul wrote,
we are afflicted in every way. Remember a word afflicted means
pressured. We have so much pressure, thalipsis,
it's the pressure needed to burst a grape. So much pressure upon
us, we can barely stand, but we're not crushed. Perplexed, we don't understand
what God's doing. Wait a second, God promised a
blessing? How does this fit into that promise
of blessing? How does cancer fit in? How does the loss of
a child? How does the loss of your health? How does this fit
in? We're perplexed, but not despairing. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
in that furnace of flaming fire, they were being persecuted, but
there was a fourth man with them, right? They were not forsaken,
struck down. How many times has the church
been struck down? Has Satan sought to destroy God's
work on this world? But not destroyed. Never to succeed. Brothers and sisters, you can
go through the valley of the shadow of death and go through
it and it becomes a spring. You can. It doesn't have to be
doom and gloom. How? If you haven't seen it,
if you haven't deduced it by now, brothers and sisters, it's
simply by waiting on the Lord. You understand that? It's waiting on Him. If these
promises that we've just looked at the last three or four weeks
mean nothing to you, then of course you're going to flounder
in the valley of the shadow of death. But if these promises
mean the world to you, If you make much of God, if you glorify
God in His name, then these promises mean more to you than your life. And so during the valley of the
shadow of death, these promises lift the burdened saint, because
for him, God is all that there is. God is all that we want. Well, how does that come to pass?
By waiting on the Lord, in fair weather, mending the sails, waiting. on the Lord. Habakkuk 3, I'll
read this and close with a summary. Habakkuk was also sent as a pastor
to walk amongst God's people in 605 BC. So the same people
who Obadiah is ministering to will receive the ministry of
Habakkuk. And this is what we learn from
Habakkuk. Habakkuk 3.16, God just revealed to Habakkuk the
horror, the atrocity that was coming to his people. And Habakkuk
wrote, I heard and my inward parts trembled. At the sound,
my lips quivered. Decay enters my bones. Notice that he doesn't say entered.
He currently is in the process where his bones or he feeling
like his bones were exploding inside of him. And in my place,
I trembled because I must wait quietly for the day of distress
for the people to arise who will invade us. This is fascinating.
This is the plan where it's here. Obadiah must wait for tragedy
so that he might wait on the Lord. He goes on. Though the fig tree should not
blossom and there be no fruit on the vine, this is the tragedy
he's waiting for. Though the yield of the olive should fail
and the fields produce no food, starvation, famine, disease,
sickness, death. Though the flock should be cut
off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls, that's
warfare. That's how they get cut off. A superior army comes
through and takes them. Yet I will exalt in the Lord. I will rejoice in the God of
my salvation. Brothers and sisters, exalt in
the Lord. Pray that God gives you the grace
to learn to exalt in Him. Pray that God gives you the grace
to do that. And you do it in fair weather.
If you don't do it now, you play the way you practice. That's
a sports, what's the word, rule. If you practice poorly, you'll
play poorly. Brothers and sisters, if in good days we don't train
well, when the trial comes, we will falter. If in the good days
we spend our times lapping up the ease and diving into pleasures
and softening things, come the trial, we won't be ready. We
will not be ready. So our call today is to pray,
oh God, give us the grace to learn to wait on you. To wait on God to do what? Let's summarize now. One. Though
a category, not a five, or a four, or I'm sorry, a five that'll
wipe off a city, or a six that'll wipe off a state, or a seven
that'll wipe off a continent, or eight that'll wipe off a world,
or nine that'll wipe off a solar system. Category 10 hurricane
is coming to this universe. It is big enough to wipe away
the universe. But in Christ, we're in the eye
of the storm. All is peace. Secondly, the second
consolation is God has promised to deliver us not from trouble.
Remember the big list I gave you when we looked at this? Daniel
was not spared the lion's den. He was delivered not from it,
but in it. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, not from it, in
it. Moses and God's people, not from it, but in the Red Sea.
On and on and on it goes. God has promised to always be
with us. always go with us and therefore always to deliver us,
not from, but in. Thirdly, it comes with a commitment
on the part of God as it relates to our maturation. God is not
through with us yet. And in through all things, we
trust that Lord is perfecting us and preparing us for glory. Fourthly, the glorious promise
of the Lord of the inheritance is ours. That inheritance is
the new heaven, ultimately the new heavens and the new earth.
that will come at the second coming of Jesus Christ, which
is our hope. Fifthly, our glorious reunion. You know those loved
ones you just saw murdered at the hands of the Babylonians?
You're gonna see them in glory. You know that loved one you just
lost to cancer? If in Christ, you're gonna see
him in glory. You will lose nothing who gain Christ. In fact, you
who gain Christ gain a whole much more than just your loved
ones, but a whole kingdom. And lastly, ultimate victory. We will be a part of the throng
on the right hand of Christ's throne, who upon the judgment,
the declaration of judgment, where the world and the angels
will be cast into the lake of fire, we will be saying hallelujah
for the Lord our God reigns. Hallelujah. His judgments are
just and righteous. Family of God, I just, I'm not
a prophet, but God's word says it. I just prophesied to you
through the word of God. Someday you, you will be there
giving the amen to God's triumph. May God give us the grace, in
light of these glorious truths, and the Savior who goes with
us, to wait upon the Lord. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for the privilege that we've had to look at these six consolations
that you give your people. Lord, you know how difficult
it is to live in a corporeal existence, so fleshly, so bound
to this earth. governed by hunger pangs, and
the cycle of the month or the week, sleep cycles, and all kinds
of cycles, and Lord, therefore, to be people who are so bound
to this earth. Because of that, God, it's so
easy to get caught up in things that are passing. God, we pray, grant that your spirit would
give us all a greater hope and a greater passion and a greater
vision, a clearer vision of what is ours in you this day. And
so in our valleys of the shadow of death, God, would you make
it a spring. Not by anything we do, but simply
by manifesting the glory, the presence of our Savior, who's
promised always to be with us. So Lord, give us the grace to
live this life of faith, this day, this week, this life, we
pray. Amen.
Ultimate Victory
Series Obadiah
While God's kingdom and its work is not advanced through the taking up of arms, the does not mean God is not at war against evil and wicked men such that He ordains their violent downfall! This occurs not to cause us to blush or apologize for God's providence, rather it occurs so that we can say "Amen" to God's justice!
| Sermon ID | 715181330445 |
| Duration | 49:33 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | Obadiah 15-21 |
| Language | English |
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