210606 Obadiah: Dominion Belongs to Christ

INTRODUCTION

A couple of years ago I had the privilege of serving as the grand jury foreman here in Columbia County, it was a fascinating and emotionally difficult task that I looked forward to and dreaded every week...

The District Attorney told us during orientation that information was selectively passed on to the grand jury so that they could successfully charge defendants with a crime. We wouldn’t hear all the facts but just what was enough for us to return a true-bill so the defendant could be indicted.

Every case was relatively easy to see why the county was pursuing charges. All of them involved alcohol, narcotics or plain stupidity or a mixture of all of the above and clearly the law had been broken… However, there was one case we rejected...

It involved two brothers that had gotten drunk and beaten each other up pretty badly. They brought the responding officer in and we asked him some questions but the DA wouldn’t allow him to respond to all our questions. He was pretty tight lipped about some of the circumstances of this particular case, we just couldn’t get it out of him. Even one of brothers was brought in and he didn’t want to press charges. We were kind of thinking, “this is just a case of a couple of knuckleheads beating themselves up...” Some of us who have had brothers where this was kind of a regular occurence and we just didn’t think there was anything here.

Clearly, these guys had sorted things out so the grand jury kept asking the DA, “well can’t you tell us anything here to make us actually be able to indict them because this is a no go.” But he couldn’t tell us anything more and I was loathe to say well, “let’s just take his word...” that’s not how justice works. We look at all the evidence and if there is enough to charge we do but there wasn’t. So we did not return a true-bill we rejected it. And when it was all sorted out and charges were not brought then he could finally tell us… that these two had had multiple fights. They were constantly damaging property and frightening the neighbors and were just ridiculously violent with each other…

We were pretty frustrated because we wanted to serve justice but their case was to flimsy on its on grounds and circumstances but combined with other outstanding instances of violence it totally would have changed the grand jury’s response. These two needed justice. They needed to cool it at county and get their mind right and the county had failed to bring sufficient evidence so they got away with it… Pretty frustrating...

I mention this story for a couple of reasons… The first reason is that human justice failed but that is not the case with God. When Christ returns there will be perfect justice on the earth and this will be a thing of the past. The second reason is that some of us learned to scrap and fight because we had brothers. That conflict is real... Proverbs 17:17 says that a friend loves at all times and a brother is born for adversity. Boy, is that true. Brothers fight. Sometimes very violently but still they come back together because they are family and the conflicts come back all the time. That is shown graphically in the Bible over hundreds of years between the descendants of Jacob and Esau.

Who were Jacob and Esau… These two boys were twins and were the only children of Isaac and Rebekah. Genesis 25 tells us that Rebekah was barren and couldn’t have kiddos and her husband prayed and God blessed them with a pregnancy, but the babies wouldn’t hold still. Some of us have seen pregnant ladies bellies that are just going every which way as the little kiddos squirms and grows and stretches but it must have been pretty bad in Rebekah’s case because she sought professional help.

Rebekah inquired of the Lord why these two couldn’t take it easy for a minute and the Lord said that Genesis 25:23 | 23 The Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb; And two peoples will be separated from your body; And one people shall be stronger than the other; And the older shall serve the younger.”

This one prophecy set a terrible chain of events in motion that began when the two infants were born.

Esau was born first, red and hairy all over like he was wearing a garment but he was closely followed by his twin Jacob who had a hold of Esau’s foot. You can imagine the surprise of the midwives when they saw that!

Well they grew up quite differently. Esau was a man of the fields that loved hunting - he was his dad’s favorite and Jacob was his mothers favorite… The Bible tells us that Jacob was a complete man. The NASB renders this word peaceful. Jacob may have been peaceful but he had an eye for details and like many twins probably resented the fact that Primogeniture - the rights of the first born had passed on to Esau…

You all probably remember the story of these two so I will cut to a summary. Esau had come out of the field from hunting one day and was very hungry and Jacob had cooked up some stew and Esau wanted it. It was red… maybe it would reinvigorate him. So Jacob said, “sure you can have it… for the birthright....”

The Biblical text says that Esau despised his birthright and sold it to Jacob for a bowl of soup.

Well, a number of years passed and Esau married foreign women and was showing his true colors - Genesis 26 tells us Esau brought grief to his folks through this. I wonder if it was at that time that Rebekah remembered the words of the Lord....“Two nations are in your womb; And two peoples will be separated from your body; And one people shall be stronger than the other; And the older shall serve the younger”

So she made sure it happened. She ordered Jacob to deceive his father for the blessing in Genesis 27. They did and Esau was so enraged he spoke of killing Jacob. So Jacob fled for twenty years and when he came back he had one thing on his mind… Seeing Esau...

When he returned he sent gifts before him to Esau and bowed before him and humbled himself, you will remember that he was limping as he went because he had fought all night with the Lord and even received a new name, he was limping and coming humbly before Esau and they were reunited, they embraced, they hugged and they cried. Twenty years is a long time... That is one of the few recorded instances of these two getting along. The rest of the biblical text is replete, full, crammed with illustrations of the descendants of these two not getting along. MAP

You all probably remember that Jacob had thirteen kiddos. Twelve boys and a girl and the sons went on to form the twelve tribes of Israel and they spent 430 years in Egypt. What you may not remember is that Esau also had sons, five of them who went on to inhabit an arid land south and east of Israel the land of Edom...

These two people groups were in almost constant conflict and today we are going to hear about some of how God has chosen to use these two unique people groups to demonstrate two aspects of His character. His justice and His mercy.

INTRODUCTION SLIDE

We are going to be in Obadiah today. Shortest book in the Old Testament. Obadiah is fascinating because in it God describes His coming judgment on Edom. As we have already seen Edom’s history is intricately interwoven with the story of Israel and was used to accomplish God’s purpose of showing the difference in how He treats the covenant people of God and how He treats others. This is the perfect format to graphically illustrate His justice and mercy.

Lets go to prayer before we begin...

PRAYER

Father God, if we had not seen how compassionately You have cared for and treated Israel over millennia we would have not concept of Your grace and mercy. If we couldn’t see the contrast of Edom we would not know the depth of wrath that we deserve but restrain… You are compassionate and longsuffering truly. You have afforded us a rare opportunity today to get to understand two paradoxical aspects of Your character. How You can be both the just and justifier of unrighteous people that deserve Your wrath.

Today, Lord I pray that we would come to grips with the mystery of how You can love Jacob and hate Esau. How both are needed to demonstrate Your righteousness. Please guide this message. Please help it to be understandable and affirming in our mind that You are good and You are sovereign and passionately interested in Your chosen ones. Help us to understand this aspect of Your character. Make our hearts soft to the movement of Your Spirit and invigorate us by reminding us of who You are. You are God, be ours today, amen.

SERMON

Again, today we are studying Obadiah… You may be asking why were going out of the Biblical order and the reason is relatively simple… We want to do this chronologically. We went through the historical records of the Pentateuch and the accounts of the Monarchies, we did the Wisdom Literature and then we did the Major prophets… Now we are working in chronological order through the Minor Prophets. Our overall goal has been to see where Christ is reflected in the text. Obadiah is our earliest Minor Prophet and you get a sense of why these books are called the Minor Prophets because it is so short. Obadiah is just one chapter…

Obadiah seems to have been written sometime in the time frame of 845 B.C. Around the time of Elijah, Ahab and Jezebel… Not much is know about Obadiah whose name means, Servant of God, so we can jump into the text right away but there is one main point that I want to establish that seems to run through the Bible and is apparent here today and it is from Jesus’ own brother who shared the same name as Esau’s brother Jacob. Here is the main point…

MAIN POINT

James 4:6b “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

This is very apparent in God’s dealings with mankind but it is distilled, condensed, concentrated in the contrast in how He deals with Israel and Edom. So that’s the main point… God is opposed to the arrogance the haughtiness and conceit of Edom. He will destroy Edom but Israel He will preserve...

I. Obadiah 1-4 The Lord’s Pledge against Edom

Please open your Bibles if you have not already done so to Obadiah… In verse 1 we hear that the Lord is stirring up wicked nations to destroy wicked Edom.

I.a. Obadiah 1 A Call to Battle

1 The vision of Obadiah. Thus says the Lord God concerning Edom— We have heard a report from the Lord, And an envoy has been sent among the nations saying, “Arise and let us go against her for battle”—

This vision is not up for interpretation. 2 Peter 1:20-21 …no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, 21 for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

God is communicating through His servant a specific message. A message of destruction against the Edomites. All the nations will be brought against her and in verse 2 we hear why… Edom’s heart is arrogant… Again God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble… verse 2

I.b. Obadiah 2-3 Edom to be degraded because of pride A.P.1

2 “Behold, I will make you small among the nations; You are greatly despised. 3 “The arrogance of your heart has deceived you, You who live in the clefts of the rock, In the loftiness of your dwelling place, Who say in your heart, ‘Who will bring me down to earth?’

So, why was Edom proud? She lived in an impenetrable wilderness MAP and through cleverness and cunning had figured out how to survive and thrive out in one of the driest, most arid places on earth.

Water is incredibly scarce in that region which makes it astonishing that Esau’s descendants were able to prosper there...

Do you recall the sermon on Numbers back in January… Remember when Moses whacked the rock, contrary to God’s command? The people were desperate for water and Moses was fed up. He struck the rock and water came out... but then they continued on their journey to the promised land. They approached Edom’s territory in Numbers 20 and begged to be allowed to pass through it...

Edom wouldn’t allow it. Edom is proud, arrogant, inhospitable… All things that are contrary to God’s will… verse 4

APPLICATION POINT

So here is our first application point that I already alluded to in the Main Point. True humility is the opposite of pride… Pride is a self-centeredness that is not just about thinking good things about yourself but also focusing on yourself in any capacity to the exclusion of others. Real humility focuses on others with primacy given to Christ. Do you struggle with self-centeredness, entitlement, pride, a lack of love for others? I get it… we are ugly, we are pitiful, hypocritical, damaged… If you struggle with these things look to Christ.

Remember what He has done for you, remember what You are now in Him… You have been made new, you have a new identity. You are no longer dead, rebellious, ignorant and hateful of God. You have been given the greatest of great gifts not because you were good but because of God’s kindness. Because of what God has done for you, you have been made new. Keep that in view and you will have a love for others. If you remember Christ on the cross for your sins it gets a lot easier to be compassionate towards others… If you remember that you deserved nothing but eternal darkness and aloneness and destruction you will have a pity toward those that are going there.

True humility is the opposite the thing that God despises. What does God hate. He hates pride…Proverbs 6:16–19 | 16 There are six things which the Lord hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: 17 Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood, 18 A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that run rapidly to evil, 19 A false witness who utters lies, And one who spreads strife among brothers.

Esau’s descendents have all these in spades and because of that He will bring Edom down verse 4

I.c. Obadiah 4 The Lord will bring Edom down

4 “Though you build high like the eagle, Though you set your nest among the stars, From there I will bring you down,” declares the Lord.

There is very unique verbiage here which I will allude to just briefly. Because I want to make a connection that I think is worth your follow up.

Edom’s pride at its excellent ability to build out in the wilderness is going to make its downfall the more apparent.

Its pride is the problem. Pride has been a major problem from the beginning. That is what led to satan’s fall. For your follow up I would suggest writing in your margin Isaiah 14. This passage is directed toward the king of Babylon but it has noticeable parallels to satan’s sin and the excessive pride that he demonstrated....

II. Obadiah 5-10 The Lord’s Promise to Destroy Edom

Pride is the problem and because ultimately pride is striving against the Lord the Lord is going to promise to destroy Edom… Verse 5.

II.a. Obadiah 5-6 Edom Completely Ransacked

5 “If thieves came to you, If robbers by night— CHANGE TONE.... O how you will be ruined!— Would they not steal only until they had enough? If grape gatherers came to you, Would they not leave some gleanings? 6 “O how Esau will be ransacked, And his hidden treasures searched out!

Here the Lord, says that nothing will be left. It won’t be like a raid or a robbery but truly nothing will be left. The nations will completely pillage Edom. There will be nothing left. They will lie to Edom in order to take everything from her… Verse 7

II.b. Obadiah 7 Edom Deceived by Allies

7 “All the men allied with you Will send you forth to the border, And the men at peace with you Will deceive you and overpower you. They who eat your bread Will set an ambush for you. (There is no understanding in him.)

Edom will be deceived, lied to by her allies, primarily the Babylonians, which eventually came against Edom… We don’t have abundant time to get in to it here but Jeremiah the prophet also prophesied about this destruction in Jeremiah 27:2-7.... which also uniquely validates the historical account of Daniel 5. I will leave that up to you to follow up on Jeremiah 27 and Daniel 5… Anyway in verse 8 we hear about the extent of the destruction… Eventually, all of Edom will be destroyed...

II.c. Obadiah 8-10 All of Edom destroyed A.P.2

8 “Will I not on that day,” declares the Lord, “Destroy wise men from Edom And understanding from the mountain of Esau? 9 “Then your mighty men will be dismayed, O Teman, So that everyone may be cut off from the mountain of Esau by slaughter. 10 “Because of violence to your brother Jacob, You will be covered with shame, And you will be cut off forever.

The Lord’s condemnation includes interesting verbiage here that I will allude to for the sake of adding color to our understanding… He says that He will destroy wise men from Edom.... Who were the wise men of Edom, well you may be more familiar with them than you think… In the Greek translation of the Hebrew Text in Genesis 36:33 we hear about one of the descendents of Esau… Jobab which the Septuagint translates as Job… You remember Job, right?

Job is rarely mentioned in the Bible except primarily in the book that bears his name. It is one of the oldest if not the oldest book of the Bible and he was a descendent of Esau, Job was a king in fact Genesis 36 tells us… We remember the story right.... God had allowed satan to come against Job and when his health, wealth and family were taken from him his friends showed up to comfort him… Eliphaz the Temanite was one of them, he was also mentioned in Genesis 36:4 who was one of Esau’s sons… These friends of Job were very wise, very philosophical and very wrong in their understanding of God. They didn’t have true wisdom.

APPLICATION POINT

What is true wisdom? Well, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom Proverbs tells us… These guys, these friends of Job spewed their best ideas of God without understanding of who He really is, they didn’t fear him… They didn’t know His character.... True wisdom is having an accurate understanding of God’s character and fearing His power and might.

I engage with people, daily, that do not have a good understanding of who God really is and who they are in relation to Him. They will freely talk about God just like Job’s friends but they don’t know Him… They don’t know His character… They have a bad theology which impacts the rest of their life and will impact their afterlife…

If you want to know someone you got to spend time with them. Do you want to have a good theology? A good understanding of who God is then you got to be putting in the time, that is going to return amazing benefits to you over your life.

Practically, some of live like we don’t believe that, we say, Oh... I don’t have time for that. I don’t have time to be studying or reading God’s word… I need to keep up with facebook or the news or my games or whatever… Proverbs 1:7 says the the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge but fools despise wisdom and instruction… Not my words... but so applicable here.

If time in God’s word is a chore, you don’t get it… If it is a hassle and not a pleasure then considerable time in prayer is needed because a heart change is needed… The world is blinding you and you are deceived and your effectiveness is in jeopardy… To know God you got to spend time with Him. True wisdom was lacking in Edom because they didn’t know Him.

III. Obadiah 11-14 Edom’s Wrongs against Judah

Because they didn’t know God they were opposed to Judah… Our third outline heading tells us about three major sins of Edom against Judah first off they were inhospitable....

III.a. Obadiah 11 Edom's Inhospitality toward Judah

11 “On the day that you stood aloof, On the day that strangers carried off his wealth, And foreigners entered his gate And cast lots for Jerusalem— You too were as one of them.

They should have been standing by to defend their northern neighbors and relatives but that is not what they did they exhibited joy over Judah’s destruction… verse 12

III.b. Obadiah 12 Edom Rejoiced over Judah

12 “Do not gloat over your brother’s day, The day of his misfortune. And do not rejoice over the sons of Judah In the day of their destruction; Yes, do not boast In the day of their distress.

I searched in vain for an English word to describe what takes place here. But fortunately, there are a plethora of other languages that have words that better describe certain situations. Edom exhibited something the German’s called Shaddenfroida - which means to take pleasure from another’s misfortune… That is exactly what the Edomites were doing… And the Jews knew it… Psalm 137:7 shows the Jews pleading with God with an imprecatory psalm begging for justice for what the Edomites did to them...

Psalm 137:7 Remember, O Lord, against the sons of Edom The day of Jerusalem, Who said, “Raze it, raze it To its very foundation.”

Edom’s sins were inhospitality, Schadenfreude, and looting their relatives… verse 13

III.c. Obadiah 13-14 Edom Looted Judah

13 “Do not enter the gate of My people In the day of their disaster. Yes, you, do not gloat over their calamity In the day of their disaster. And do not loot their wealth In the day of their disaster. 14 “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.

Such bad blood. Such injustice. SHAKE HEAD… Classic humanity… Failure to do what is right has been with us from the beginning.... It is common in our day to suggest that a change is needed. We need new politicians, new laws, better wages and then people will be good no, no, no...

Part of having a good theology is having a good doctrine of who man is in relation to God. Man doesn’t do good. Man didn’t do good when they could visit with God face to face in the garden of Eden. They didn’t do good when they had no law in Noah’s day. They didn’t do good when they had law in the time of Moses. They didn’t do good when they didn’t have a king.... They didn’t do good when they did have a king. They didn’t do good when governments got more democratic. They won’t do good when all the Christians are raptured. They won’t do good when satan will be removed during the millennial reign. Mankind is sick. We got a big problem that only God can solve and He has solved it through Christ… To have true justice we need the Lord to return and establish justice in the earth… That is what we are waiting for…

IV. Obadiah 15-21 The Coming Day of the Lord

The coming Day of the Lord when all injustice will be removed and the Dominion of Christ will be established… Verse 15 - Justice for all nations...

IV.a. Obadiah 15-16 A Day of Judgment on All Nations

15 “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. 16 “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.

The day of the Lord is mentioned multiple times perhaps most significantly in the Prophetic genre. It is foreshadowed and anticipated multiple times in the Old Testament and it is described as a day of wailing, destruction and doom. IMAGE A day of cruelty, with fury and burning anger (Is 13). A day when every man’s heart will melt and their hands will fall limp. Terror, pain, anguish like the misery of a woman in labor… a day when their faces will be aflame. It is a day of extermination and punishment. The arrogance of the proud will be ended. Humanity will be scarcer than pure gold… The heavens and earth will both shake. Is that not terrifying?

Believer, think of what you have been saved from. Think of those that have rejected Christ and pity them… Pity those that will spend eternity in agony. Open your eyes to the coming judgment and fear the Lord! Believe Him! Open your mouth and testify of the goodness of God that is freely offered now. Grace is available now but will not be available always… Folks, get serious about your evangelism, spread the good news of salvation from the penalty of death because there will be those that will fully drink of the wrath of God and their will be those that are saved from it.

Isaiah 51:22–23 | Thus says your Lord, the Lord, even your God Who contends for His people, “Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of reeling, The chalice of My anger; You will never drink it again. “I will put it into the hand of your tormentors, Who have said to you, ‘Lie down that we may walk over you.’ You have even made your back like the ground And like the street for those who walk over it.”

Eventually Jacob will be delivered but Esau will be fully destroyed. Israel and Edom are set as opposites… Opposites to demonstrate God’s plan for His people and His plan for everyone else… Jacob’s descendents will be spared but everyone else will be destroyed.

IV.b. Obadiah 17-18 Jacob to be Delivered, Esau Destroyed

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. 18 “Then the house of Jacob will be a fire And the house of Joseph a flame; But the house of Esau will be as 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.

I think this is pretty clear but we are going to hear some unique and specific phrases in our last verses as we begin wrapping up this message. Verse 19 describes Israel restored with Christ as King

IV.c. Obadiah 19-21 Israel Restored with Christ as King

19 Then those of the Negev MAP (THIS IS IN THE TERRITORY OF JUDAH) will possess the mountain of Esau, And those of the Shephelah the Philistine plain; Also, possess the territory of Ephraim and the territory of Samaria, And Benjamin will possess Gilead. 20 And the exiles of this host of the sons of Israel, Who are among the Canaanites as far as Zarephath, And the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad Will possess the cities of the Negev.

I love this language because it shows how complete God’s restoration will be… Finally, Abraham’s descendents will own all that they are to own… the last verse though is very intriguing verse 21

21 The deliverers will ascend Mount Zion To judge the mountain of Esau, And the kingdom will be the Lord’s.

Who are the deliverers? Who are these that will go up to Jerusalem and judge Esau… Who is that???

Well, we talked a couple of weeks ago of job responsibilities in the hereafter - we won’t be sitting on a cloud strumming harps or even ukulele’s - we will be working and worshipping as we were meant to. I mentioned how David had once diligently served as a king over Israel and God has graciously promised that David will reign once more in the Millennial kingdom under Christ. That will happen.

Well, we also have a very brief allusion to that same concept here in verse 21. Those that lived by faith during their mortal lives continue in the same line of work later on. REREAD verse 21

21 The deliverers will ascend Mount Zion To judge the mountain of Esau,

Who is this? Is it us? There is some cause to think so… First Corinthians 6 says that the saints will judge the world and angels… So is this us? Maybe? But I might suggest that a slightly different possibility is more accurate… Verse 21 says that the Deliverers will ascend Mount Zion to Judge… There will be deliverers who judge. Judges 3 discusses the deliverance that the Judges of Israel took part in half a millennium before this prophecy took place. They delivered Israel from the nations that surrounded them, Moab, Ammon etc and they judged Israel. They are given a role, like David that is very similar to what they did during their life. So what are you doing now? Are you serving the Lord with all your heart? You will serve Him in a similar capacity in the hereafter… You will serve King Jesus just like He made you to serve.

APPLICATION POINT

Believer, take comfort that the Lord made You intentionally. He is using all of life to mold and shape you into who He wants you to be.

We can take comfort from the fact that God uses all things to work together for good to those who love God.

Those that love the Lord will serve Him in perpetuity and He alone will be Sovereign. Injustice will end and He will retain dominion forever. Oh, we can praise Him for that, can’t we. We can praise Him for His grace to the humble and we can praise Him for the just recompense that the proud will receive.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, I would just like to summarize how God used this unique relationship between Israel and Edom to take place to graphically illustrate the difference between those He has chosen and all others.

Turn with me if you would to Romans 9… Verse 9...

Romans 9:9-24 | 9 For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.” 10 And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; 11 for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, 12 it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 Just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” 14 What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! 15 For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.” 18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.

CONCLUSION

God allows injustice to demonstrate His justice… Jacob and Esau, Israel and Edom were allowed to clash to demonstrate the difference in how He treats people, which allows Him to uniquely display two aspects of His holy character - Mercy and Justice. Verse 19

19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” 20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? 21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? 22 What if God..... CHANGE TONE although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? 23 And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.

CONCLUSION

Believer, you have been saved not because you were great or nice or good or kind or worthy… You deserve death and judgement just as much as everyone else but God separated you, chose you, called you out so that He could illustrate His graciousness upon you and His justice on those that have freely chosen to reject Him. God has chosen this method to demonstrate His character and it is through this process that He will be most glorified.

Unbeliever...

Please stand and I will close us in prayer...

PRAYER