The Day of Judgment — Aaron Dunlop

We have looked at verses 1 to 14. I don't have an outline in front of me, but you have the outline there. There should be some left, I hope. The first two verses are the introduction. The first verse is the introduction.

Verse 2 to verse 9, inclusive, deals with the judgment prepared in the ungodly, deals with the sin of the people in their heart, deals with their pride, their conceit, their confidence, their confederacy, and so forth.

Then verses 10 down through 14 deals with why they are being judged. They are not only being judged because of what they are in their hearts, they are being judged because of what they did to Israel. So one follows on from the other, and they were judged because of their inhumanity to their brother.

They were standing on the opposite side. As we said last week, verse 14 brings us to the conclusive idea of the hatred of Edom against Israel. We have looked that they marauded them, they mocked them.

Verse 14 then we come to the murder of them. They stood in the crossway, cut off those that did escape. Their mockery and the marauding of the people of God and the place of God was only the intent of their heart.

We saw last week the mockery of God's people and the malice against God's people and the malice against anyone is in the heart murder. The law of God is a spiritual law and it is murder in the heart and Edom manifested that murder in their heart.

Obadiah’s Judgment on Edom

But in verse 14 we come to the conclusive and the Lord is coming now to the climax of his prophecy and he says in verse 14 Neither shouldest thou have stood in the crossway to cut off those that did escape, neither shouldest thou have delivered up those of his that did remain in the day of distress.

They cut off the life of some and they cut off the hope from others. The Lord says in verse 15 then For the day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen as I have done it shall be done unto thee. Thy reward shall return upon thine own head for as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain so shall the heathen drink continually.

Yea, they shall drink, they shall swallow down, they shall be as though they had not been. The verses that we want to look at tonight are verses 15 and 16 and all that we have considered up to this date in the book of Obadiah brings us to the climax of man's sin, in particular Edom's sin against Israel but in general and by application it brings us to the climax of man's sin and it brings us in verse 15 to the end of God's long suffering against sin.

Judgment is now prescribed for the ungodly. I think that's the heading that you have in this section of the book verses 15 and 16 Judgment prescribed for the ungodly. It comes a time when the long suffering of God ceases.

It comes a time when the long suffering of God can go no further and judgment is revealed and wrath is revealed. There comes a time when the mercy of God is exhausted, a point beyond which the mercy of God cannot go and will not go.

The Lord said in Genesis chapter 6 verse 3, My spirit shall not always strive with man. The word strive here is a word that means to contend or to judge. For this reason the Jews interpreted this verse that the Lord meant that he was no longer going to judge them, he was no longer going to condemn the Jews because they were sinners.

But such an interpretation by the Jews goes against the entirety of scripture. Such an interpretation is against the justice of God as we have already seen. God said, My spirit shall not always strive with man.

He meant that he would no longer keep up the process of contending. He would no longer keep up the process of convicting. He would no longer keep up the process of condemning the sin in man and of men.

The sun had set on the day of mercy and the night of judgment was about to be ushered in. This is the testimony of scripture. This is what the Bible teaches us. Although he is a God of mercy and we hold him up as a God of mercy and plead with men to come to him as a God of mercy and grace.

A God whose arms are stretched out still to the ungodly. There comes a time even with God where his mercy is exhausted, where his mercy can go no further and wrath is revealed and judgment is revealed.

After all the warnings and after all the instructions and the invitations, God will as a just judgment on the unbelieving and on the impenitent individual, he will withdraw his spirit. He will withdraw his spirit.

I have a second cousin who lives in Northern Ireland and she heard Dr. Kearns preaching, I think it must have been around 1979. The Lord spoke to her heart with a conviction that she was almost convinced to be a Christian.

She spoke to Dr. Kearns with tears and yet she did not accept Christ as her Savior. For years when she heard the gospel, she felt as though God had abandoned her. And when she would have come, to use her words, she felt as though God had given up working with her, that God had left off striving with her.

And this verse would have come to her mind, my spirit shall not always strive with man. So I remember the day in the middle 80's when she came and she accepted Christ with a joy and with an exuberance, having recognized that God's spirit was still striving with her.

My friend, there comes a time and there may well be a time in your existence on this earth when the spirit of God ceases to strive with you. When you have heard the gospel for so often, you have rejected the gospel, you have turned from the gospel and you have molded whatever you think of the gospel into your own little idea of the gospel.

And you hold on to that carcass of Christianity and the spirit of the Lord leaves you in your sin to die there. His mercy for you, my spirit shall not always strive with man. Genesis 6 with the universal flood, we saw this on a universal level in the antediluverant world.

There came a point when the final perversity of man, God could stick no longer and so he destroyed irrevocable destruction. When we come to Obadiah 15 and 16, this is exactly what we are speaking about.

When the sun of God's mercy sets and the darkness of God's judgment comes in upon the world. The Edomites had seen the mercy of God and the blessing from the hand of God. They were Esau's descendants and as we have seen to a certain extent children of the covenant, they had the mark of the covenant.

They were circumcised like the Israelites. They knew the blessings that God had promised to Abraham and Esau was blessed by God. I want us to know this and understand this that Esau as an individual and Edom as a nation knew the blessings of God.

This is why I believe, this is one text I would come to to defend the doctrine of common grace because God has a grace and a mercy that is common to all men and particular to some. In Genesis chapter 27 verse 38 and 39, Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing, my father?

Bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice and wept. And Isaac, his father, answered and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be as the fatness of the earth and of the dew of heaven from above.

The Lord blessed Esau, albeit with a temporal blessing. The Lord blessed him. And he had the privilege of the gospel. He had the privilege of knowing the promises, the spiritual blessings that he had swore to, that he had sold to his brother.

He had all those privileges and he sold them to his brother. So when we come to Obadiah 15 and the judgment of God, the day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen. This is spoken specifically to Edom but generally to all the heathen.

The Three Aspects of Divine Judgment

There are three aspects of this judgment in verses 15 and 16 that are very instructive and which are demonstrative of the final judgment of God on this earth. If you take Obadiah to be one of the earlier prophets, which I do, Obadiah was the first to mention this concept of the day of the Lord.

And it is seen here in verses 15 and 16. There is a dual aspect of the day of the Lord in the Old and New Testament, a day of judgment for the ungodly and a day of restoration for the godly. You'll see here in verse 15, for the day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen and he delineates certain aspects of this day of the Lord that we are going to look at in due course.

But in verse 17 he comes on to speak of the other side of the coin, if you like, of this day of the Lord. And he says, but upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance and there shall be holiness and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.

So while the day of the Lord, as we are going to see, is a day of judgment on the ungodly and the other side of that coin, and simultaneously it is a day of restoration and restoring and deliverance of God's people.

We will see this when we come to the end, that great eschatological day of the Lord, when the Lord will wind up this earth, he will judge the ungodly, he will deliver his people. Two sides of the same coin.

I want us to see in verses 15 and 16, there are three aspects of judgment that I want us to understand. We are going to look at one of them tonight, but let me give you an overview of these three verses.

There are three aspects of judgment. Very interesting in these two verses. We have here, in my opinion, one of the fullest accounts of the judgment of God compacted into these two verses. We have first of all, as we are going to see tonight, the event of the judgment of God.

It is the day of the Lord. That is the event itself. It is the day of the Lord. We have then, secondly, the law by which this judgment is going to be dispensed. How is this judgment, or what is the law, what is the decree by which this judgment is going to be meted out?

The Lord says, as ye have done, it shall be done unto you. The law of retribution. It is, to use a New Testament word or phrase, the eye for an eye concept. That which you sow, you shall also reap. It is, in theological jargon, called the lex talionis, or the jus talionis.

The law of retribution. That which you sow, you will reap. That which you do, the Lord will punish you with it. We are going to see that in due course. And then we have, thirdly, the description of this great judgment.

Verse 16. As ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually. Yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been. Here we have a description, a very vivid description, as we are going to bring out next week, hopefully, or the week following.

A very vivid description of this judgment of God. The drinking of the cup of God's wrath. Now these three concepts, the day of the Lord, the law of retribution, and the cup of God's wrath, are three aspects of judgment that you will find throughout scripture.

God's wrath, in verse 16, is very, very interesting. You will know, I am not going to deal with it tonight, but you will remember that Christ, in the garden of Gethsemane, said, Let this cup pass from me.

When Christ got to Calvary, he drank the cup of God's wrath. These are three aspects in themselves provide an enormous insight into the judgment of God. And the three separate concepts are spread throughout the scriptures of the Old and New Testament.

The coming of the Lord and the final judgment of God on the ungodly is characterized in these three components. But I want us to look tonight at the day of judgment. The day of judgment. It is this event, the day of the Lord.

The Day of the Lord as God’s Judgment Against Sin

The phrase, the day of the Lord, is primarily a theological idea. I say that in contradistinction to the eschatological idea. Many people think of the day of the Lord as the last great day of the Lord.

And it is something in the future. It is something in prophecy. It is something in the revelation or the prophets. And it is all out there in the nebulous prophecy that we cannot understand. But I want us to understand that this concept of the day of the Lord is primarily a theological concept.

It is and it refers to the judgment of God against sin. It is the judgment of God against sin. It is not only eschatological. There are not only details about something of the last great day of the Lord that we can take out of this.

It is primarily speaking of the judgment of God against sin. And in that sense and for that reason I say it is primarily a theological concept. Don't think of it as something out in the future. Think of it as something that is judging sin in the heart.

The day of the Lord is so called because God who has up to this point with Edom and as we have seen, Edom over the years had been belligerent to Israel. Edom had pillaged the land. They had robbed them.

They had been arrogant and proud. They had destroyed them in verse 14. They had cut them off. They had cut off hope from them. The Lord had in many respects kept back in silence. He had been as it were an onlooker on Edom.

But now the day of the Lord it is called so because God who was an onlooker is now going to enter in to time. He is going to reveal himself. He is going to show himself and his power to Edom. He is going to destroy Edom and Edom is going to know that it is God who is doing this.

It is therefore called the day of the Lord. The destruction that the Edomites had exacted on Jerusalem was referred to in Psalm 137 verse 7 as the day of Jerusalem because in that day Jerusalem was uncovered.

In that day Jerusalem was exposed. In that day Jerusalem was destroyed and so the psalmist referred to it as the day of Jerusalem. There are two aspects of the day of the Lord in relation to the judgment of God against the ungodly that are very instructive and they are if I can put it this way two sides of the one coin.

Two aspects of the one judgment. Number one God's conquest against ungodliness and number two ungodliness conquered by God. Okay it is the same thing only looking at it from two different angles. Conquest against ungodliness and ungodliness conquered by God.

God’s Conquest Against Ungodliness

To use the scripture and all I am going to do tonight is bring scripture together from the prophets and give you an overview of the day of the Lord as the prophets prophesied concerning it and the aggregate of the scriptural testimony especially in the prophets.

The very instructive concept of the day of the Lord is the day of visitation. It was no ordinary day of battle as God talks about here in Obadiah verse 15 is the day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen.

This is no ordinary day of battle. Edom had been in battle. Edom knew what it was to be in battle. They had mighty men. They had wise men. They were an astute nation. They were a military nation. But God here says the day of the Lord the day of my visitation the day of my hostility against you is near.

The Lord of hosts whose Amos chapter 4 verse 13 refers to it. The God of hosts is going to come. He is going to show himself and this title the God of hosts is a military term. In the context of Amos 4 verse 13 it is referring to the Lord as the commander and chief of his creation.

There is some dispute among scholars whether the God of hosts is referring to what the host actually refers to. Is it the people of God? Is it the angelic host? Or is it the creation? There are other ideas.

But in the context of Amos 4 verse 13 when the Lord says the God of hosts is going to come it is his creation. He is the commander and chief of all his creation. That includes the host of angels. That includes everything in this created universe is going to come against ungodliness.

When the God of heaven steps out against sin on the great and terrible day of the Lord my friend all of creation will know it. All of creation will know it. This is in the extent of the day of the Lord.

The Lord uses his creation in the days of Joel. Remember the plague of Lopus and in the days of Pharaoh in Egypt the Lord used his creation. He is in that sense then the God of hosts. The commander and chief of all that he has created.

He is going to step out. He is going to step out and lead his creation as an army against sin and ungodliness. The term used in scripture to describe the day of the Lord characterizes it as a day of conquest then.

When the Lord of hosts steps out. This is certainly how the prophets understood it. The prophet Joel spoke of the day of the Lord as the destruction from the Almighty. As a destruction from the Almighty.

Joel 1 .15 When all ungodliness is destroyed and the ungodly themselves are destroyed. And the Lord here is speaking to Edom in particular. But this day of the Lord against the nations that had pillaged Jerusalem.

The Lord yes had lifted the heads from Jerusalem. He had let the other nations come in. He had let the other nations have their way with Israel. God was now going to come in and judge them for their sin and their wickedness and their cruelty against Israel.

This is a conquest of God then. This is a military operation of God against sin and ungodliness. Not only is it a conquest against ungodliness but it is ungodliness conquered by God. That is the inevitable.

If God has a conquest against ungodliness, ungodliness will be conquered. We saw this morning that nothing God does feels. Nothing God does is He disappointed in. My friend if God has risen against sin.

If God has spoken to you about sin in the life. Let me find a rabbit trail here. But if God has spoken to you about sin in the life. He will deal with it. Unbeliever if God has convicted you of sin and of judgment.

He will bring it to pass. God has spoken to you about judgment and of righteousness. And He has warned you about this punishment of God against sin. This day of the Lord. God will deal with it. And as I have said it before you can either deal with it in Christ.

You can either put your sins and lay your sins upon Christ. You can either accept the sacrifice of Christ for your sins upon Calvary. Or you can deal with your judgment yourself. You can bear the judgment of God yourself in hell for all eternity.

They are the only two options that God gives us to deal with the judgment and the wrath of God against sin. But He will deal with it. He will deal with it. This ungodliness conquered by God on the day of the Lord is in nature.

The Irresistible Power of Divine Judgment

The hand of God in judgment is overpowering. You can understand that if you have come to Christ. You remember when the Lord overpowered you. He brought you by His grace to Himself. He did a work in your heart believer.

As we saw this morning that was radical. He overpowered you and He made you willing in the day of His power. Judgment the same token is overpowering. Since the day of the Lord was a day in which the Lord took control of His creation.

And we are speaking here of the day of the Lord as a time when the Lord enters into time. God judged Israel. And God judged Adam in other times. And God brought destruction against Adam in other times and against Israel.

But not every destruction of God was a day of the Lord. Not every punishment of God against sin is a day of the Lord. We are speaking here about those times which are particular. Those times which are radical.

Those times which are decisive. Those times when creation and the powers of God are manifested in a special way. And God steps into time. It is called the day of the Lord. It is called the day of the Lord.

Decisive. Conclusive. Definite. Entering into time by God. It is overpowering. Amos chapter 2 verse 14. This day of the Lord is described. And Amos says, Therefore the flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, neither shall the mighty deliver himself.

Those who think they are strong. And even here had men who were strong. Mighty men. Wise men. And God says the strength is going to perish from the swift. So overpowering. So irresistible. It is this day that the strength is going to perish from them.

It paints a picture of utter helplessness on the part of man to save himself. And regardless of the ability of man, God comes in and he overpowers them. And as chapter 2 verse 15 says,. Neither shall he stand that handleth the bow, and he that is swift of foot shall not deliver himself, neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself.

You get the picture here? When the Lord comes in and the city is destroyed, those who are on horseback will not be able to deliver themselves. Those who have the bow, those mighty men of armor will not be able to deliver themselves.

Because God is overpowering and his judgment is irresistible. It is irresistible. Joel's description of the day is of irresistible destruction. Also in chapter 2 verse 3, he gives a before and after description.

He says, Before is as a garden of Eden, and behind a desolate wilderness. Before them, before the judgment of God. As God goes out in judgment, before is a paradise of Eden. And he so perishes the land that behind him is as a desolate wilderness.

He is overpowered. He has destroyed everything in his path. His ways are irresistible. It is this day of the Lord, my friend, will be total in its extent. Flowing from this irresistible nature of the day of the Lord is the fact that the extent of the day of the Lord is destruction in totality.

Destruction in totality. There was nowhere and nobody was going to escape. There was nowhere for them to go. Nobody was going to escape. Amos makes this clear in chapter 6 verse 11 when he spoke of the great house and the little house.

Those of the little house, those of the great house. Those men who are in mansions and those men who are in peasants living in the dust. And there is a term used here, a literary device called Merismus.

And by using this literary device he says those of great stature and those of no stature. He gives the two poles. He gives the two ends, the two extremes. And by giving the two extremes he includes all of what goes between.

The Lord does this when he says I am the Alpha and the Omega. I am the beginning and the end. When the Lord says I am the Alpha and Omega he means he is all. He is everything. And when Amos says in chapter 6 verse 11 about those of the great house, the rich, and those of the poor house, the poor, he means all.

This judgment my friend is total destruction. Not only is it irresistible but it is imminent in timing. The Lord is near upon all the heathen. And although there is no reference made to the exact timing or to the longevity of the day of the Lord there is great stress laid on the imminence.

It is a near day. It is a near day. Amos addressed this issue in the vision of the basket of summer fruits. He says in chapter 8 verses 1 and 2, Thus saith the Lord, Thus hath the Lord showed unto me, and behold a basket of summer fruits.

And he said, Amos, what sayest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruits. Then said the Lord unto me, The end is come upon my people Israel. Amos gets this vision of the basket of summer fruits already harvested, already cut off for judgment.

They are harvesting and already cut off. We have seen this in the prophets before this idea where they are using the prophetic perfect. They are speaking of it that the Lord has already done it. Now for instance, Behold I have made thee small among the heathen.

It is a perfect verb but it hasn't yet happened. But the Lord uses the perfect tense and to speak of the certainty of it. It is as though it had already happened. This basket of summer fruits that Amos saw in chapter 8 for judgment and already harvested is a picture of the imminency.

It was so imminent that the prophet sees it as already having happened. So in vivid language of the ripe harvest. And the Lord has already put in the sickle. You get the image again of a harvest that is ripe.

And the Lord has already put in the sickle. He has already started to harvest it. The day of the Lord is near. It is near upon all the heathen. And so imminent was this day of the Lord that it was upon the people of the land before they knew it.

Before they knew it. And the preacher and the prophet preached chapter 3 verse 14. This warning and the preaching of the prophet. You have not returned unto me saith the Lord. You have listened to the preaching.

You have heard the word preached. You have not returned unto me saith the Lord. Therefore prepare to meet thy God. Therefore judgment is coming. Prepare to meet thy God. The day of opportunity is over.

When the prophet said in Hosea 4 .12 prepare to meet thy God. He was not telling the people to get ready and repent. He was saying the day of opportunity is over. Prepare to meet thy God. So imminent is the day of the Lord that this concept has been carried over into the New Testament.

This concept of the day of the Lord coming as a thief in the night. The Old Testament prophets warned in the Old Testament of the imminence of this day of the Lord. It is near. It is about to come. It is prophesied as though it already happened.

And this is the same that 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 10 spoke of. It comes as a thief in the night. This is why I say that we need to think of the day of the Lord primarily as a theological concept. Not an eschatological.

Not looking off to some future day. Not looking off as though it is going to happen in the future. The day of the Lord is imminent. The judgment of God upon your sin, unbeliever. The judgment of God upon your sin is imminent.

It can happen any moment. Any moment. God's judgment of sin in your life, unbeliever. God's judgment of sin in your life and for your life and for your sin is only held off by His mercy. The day of the Lord is near.

The day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen. It is referred to by Malachi in chapter 4 verse 5 as the great and dreadful day. Other days were a type. Other days were days of the Lord, yes, but they were only a type of that great and final day, that great and terrible, that great and dreadful day.

This distinguishes it, this aspect of its terribleness and dreadfulness and conclusiveness for all the world. It distinguishes it from all of the days of the Lord that went previously. All the characteristics of the previous days of the Lord.

All the characteristics of those previous times when God entered into time in decisive judgment will be seen on that great and terrible day. Creation of God will convulse. The heavens of God will come down and the ungodly will cry to God for the mountains and the rocks to fall on them.

My friend, the day of the Lord is near and it's a day that is terrible and dreadful. It is final. It is decisive. It was in the days of Noah, cataclysmic and God will wipe out. He will wipe out the ungodly.

The Certainty of Judgment and the Invitation of Grace

In Amos chapter 5 verse 15. Hate the evil and love the good and establish judgment in the gate. It may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph. Speaking here in the context of this judgment and day of the Lord.

Speaking here in the context of God dealing with sin. Chapter 5 verse 15. Says it may be that the Lord of hosts will be gracious and the it may be of invitation is not an expression of doubt but an expression of certain confidence.

This is not a carnal, hopeless seeking but a seeking that is unto salvation. And when the Lord says it may be. He is giving that invitation. He is giving that opportunity if you like for men to repent.

And God says it is not that if you repent I may help you. God says if you repent I will. All that come unto me I will in no wise cast out. And so this it may be is not an uncertainty. It is not a hopelessness.

It is a certain confidence that if we come the Lord will. God says I will in that day and I will deliver. Today we are living in a day of grace. We are living in a day of grace. While he says that the judgment of the Lord is near.

The day of the Lord is near. Yet he holds out hope today for all who will come. Come unto me all you that labour under heavy laden and I will give you rest. If any man thirst let him come unto me. It is the invitation of the gospel.

My friend I can speak of the judgment of God tonight as a certainty. As a certainty because the Bible speaks of it as a certainty. But I can speak of the grace of God also as a certainty. And I speak of the invitation of Christ tonight as a certainty because the invitation of Christ is a certainty.

Whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely. God holds out tonight the offer of the gospel to unconverted men and women because the day of the Lord. God will judge in that day. He will destroy.

Before him is the paradise of Eden. Behind him is a terrible picture of the judgment of God. But as Peter says in the last days there shall be mockers there shall be scoffers and they will say where is the promise of his coming?

For since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were in their ungodly state. Do not desire God. But God holds out mercy. It is a terrible day the day of the Lord. I trust tonight that each one of us will be prepared for that day.

We will examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith that we will seek the Lord's face. Let's bow in prayer.