The Mother Of All Sins
Introduction
We are playing “Bible Trivia” tonight! When you think you have the answer indicate it by raising your hand. Here we go! Question number one: How many books in the Bible have only one chapter?
Question number two: What are the names of those one chapter books?
The answer is that there are 5 one-chapter books in the Bible. They are Obadiah, Philemon, 2 John, 3 John and Jude. Very good! It is those 5 one-chapter books we’re going to be looking at on these Sunday nights. And from them, we’re going to be discovering some timeless truths … some life- changing truths and you will not want to miss a single message!
We are going to begin tonight with the only one-chapter book in the Old Testament. So let’s do this, open your Bible to the Table of Contents and hopefully it has the books of the Bible listed alphabetically. They will make this a little easier. Go to the letter “O” where you will find the name “Obadiah” - The shortest book in the Old Testament. Find the page number and turn there.
These 5 one-chapter books are similar to Emails on the internet: they get to the point! Better than a long letter is an Email! No long stories. No chasing rabbits. No rambling. Just the facts! They get to the point.
Well, God has 5 Emails for us throughout the Bible. The tragedy is that they are often overlooked. So on these Sunday nights, beginning with the book of Obadiah, we’re thinking under the general heading of Email.Com.
The name “Obadiah” means “servant of the LORD.” And it is through this “servant of the LORD” we learn about The Mother of All Sins. Obadiah 1:1-4
Verse 1, “Thus says the Lord GOD concerning Edom ..” So .. who was Edom and the Edomites? That sounds like a good name for a musical group: Edom and the Edomites. Well … to better understand the book of Obadiah .. by way of introduction .. let’s think for a moment about ..
I. The Setting Of Obadiah
To learn who Edom was we’ve got to go back to the book of Genesis 36.1, “Now this is the genealogy of Esau, who is Edom.” Vv.8-9, “So Esau dwelt in Mount Seir. Esau is Edom. And this is the genealogy of Esau the father of the Edomites in Mount Seir (the area south of the Dead Sea).”
Twice we’re told that Esau is Edom. So, the Edomites were the descendants of Esau. Now that raises another question, who was Esau? Genesis 25.21-23, “Now Isaac pleaded with the LORD for his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD granted his plea, and Rebekah his wife conceived. But the children struggled together within her; and she said, ‘If all is well, why am I this way.’ So she went to inquire of the LORD. And the LORD said to her, ‘Two nations are in your womb, two peoples shall be separated from your body; One people shall be stronger than the other, and the oldest shall serve the younger.’
Verses 25-26 read, “And the first came out red. He was like a hairy garment all over; so they called his name Esau. Afterward his brother came out, and his hand took hold of Esau’s heel; so his name was called Jacob.” Now let me stop there and say that Esau and Jacob did go on and become the Fathers of two nations. Esau became the Father of the Edomites and Jacob became the Father of the Israelites. God eventually changed Jacob’s name to Israel (Gen 35) which means “God strives.”
Now, note that verses 27-34 state, “So the boys grew. And Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field; but Jacob was a mild man, dwelling in tents. And Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob. Now Jacob cook a stew; and Esau came in from the field, and he was weary. And Esau said to Jacob, ‘Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary.’ Therefore his name was called Edom (red). But Jacob said, ‘Sell me your birthright as of this day.’ And Esau said, ‘Look, I am about to die; so what profit shall this birthright be to me?’ Then Jacob said, ‘Swear to me as of this day.’ So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils; then he ate and drank, arose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.”
So, that gives you some insight about Esau, the Father of the Edomites who dwelt in the land of Edom. That was the setting of Obadiah.
II. The Sin Of The Edomites
Obadiah 1:3 reads, “The pride of your heart has deceived you, You who dwell in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; You who say in your heart, ‘Who will bring me down the ground?” Though you exalt yourself as high as the eagle, and though you set your nest among the stars, From there I will bring you down, ‘ says the LORD.”
It is from this Email from God … we find “The Mother of All Sins.” And beginning here in verse 3 … think with me first about ..
The Arrogance of Edom.
Look at verse 3, “The pride in your heart has deceived you.” Just put it down: P R I D E is the Mother of All Sins! Think about it, it was pride that made the Devil the Devil. It was pride that sprung up in Heaven and resulted in Lucifer being cast out!
The prophet Ezekiel tells us that Lucifer was perfect in all his ways “until iniquity was found in him.” And that iniquity was pride! It is pride that swells the chest and shrinks the heart! No wonder Proverbs 6 tells us that God hates pride because it brought Satan and Sin into the world which resulted in His Son “bearing our sin upon the tree.”
Do you know what prides says to God? It says, “I don’t need You! I can manage life without You!” And that self-sufficient, arrogant attitude is what the Bible calls “pride” and God hates it! That was Esau’s downfall! That was Esau’s Achilles heel - arrogance!
Do you know how the writer of the NT book of Hebrews describes Esau in Hebrews 12? He describes him as a “profane” person. Hebrews 12.16, “…lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright.” And the word “profane” means to have no place for God in your life. A “profane” person was somebody who turned their back to the Temple.
You see, Esau was a man who put spiritual things behind him and material things before him. He sold his future for the present. He threw away the eternal for the temporal. May I ask you a question: have you turned your back to the Temple? Have you put spiritual things behind you and material things before you? Let me tell you something tonight: when you choose to turn your back on God .. it will always cost you! It will cost you now and it will cost you later! It will cost you peace. It will cost you joy. It will cost you God’s supernatural favor. It will cost you health. It always cost when you turn your back upon God.
Obadiah told Edom in verse 3, “The pride of your heart has deceived you.” When you say in your heart, “I don’t need God” .. you’re deceived! Pride in the heart of Edom deceived them and it will deceive you too! That’s what sin does .. it deceives .. especially pride! “The pride of your heart has deceived you ..”
But in what way? How did pride deceive the Edomites? Well .. we read in verse 3, “the pride of your heart has deceived you, You who dwell in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; You who say in your heart, ‘Who will bring me down to the ground?”
A group from our church was recently in the land of Edom. It is located East of the Dead Sea. Today, it is in the Hashimite Kingdom of Jordan. It’s capital was Sela (Petra). There, at Petra, you can see the “clefts of the rock” where they lived. Along the sides of very steep mountains, 200 feet straight up, were hewed out places where they lived and were buried. The only way to get to them was through a long narrow passage. What a fortress!
Genesis 36:8 tells us “So Esau dwelt in Mount Seir. Esau is Edom.” Mount Seir was in the hill country of Edom very much like Petra. They were isolated from the world and insulated from their enemies. They were self-sufficient .. so they thought. They had security, though it was actually a false sense of security! You talk about cocky! They didn’t need any help from anybody, including God!
“The pride of your heart has deceived you.” Pride says, “I can live without God.” Pride says, “I can do marriage without God! I can run my business without God! I can raise my children without God! I can get through school without God! I can do church without God! I can live life without God!”
Proverbs 16.5, “Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord; though they join forces, none will go unpunished.”
Now don’t think that you somehow learned pride; you inherited it from your father, Adam! I mean, you didn’t just pick it up along the way, you were born with it and I can prove it. Is there anybody here that had to teach your children to be selfish and self-centered? You see, they were born with pride in their heart.
You say, “How did pride get into my heart?” The same way that a worm gets into an apple. If you have an apple and that apple has a worm hole in it, you would think, “I better be careful, there could be a worm in this apple,” and you would be absolutely wrong.
There is no worm in an apple with a worm hole. The hole isn’t there to let the worm in but to let the worm out. You say, “How did the worm get into the apple to start with?” It was born in the apple, that’s how. He was hatched inside the apple. You see, the egg of that worm was laid in the blossom of that apple. And afterwards, that blossom became an apple and that worm was on the inside and ate his way out. Pride was born in your heart like a worm that was born in the heart of an apple.
Proverbs 15.25, “The Lord will destroy the house of the pride.” 16.18, “Prides goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” 18.12, “Before destruction the heart of a man is haughty, and before honor is humility.”
Arrogance says, “I will live my life without God.” If you’re not careful .. pride will escort you to Hell. Now before we leave .. I want to say to you here tonight that are saved … you love the Lord and you’re striving to walk with Him: pride can rob you of God’s best.
Proverbs 13.10, “By prides comes only contention, but with the well advised is wisdom.” Behind every argument is pride. “By prides comes only contention …” The word “contention” refers to any kind of strife that divides and disrupts. Where there is any kind of strife that divides and disrupts … you can be sure that somewhere lurching in the shadows is P R I D E!
When you’re full of your self, the only thing you care about is yourself! Pride divides nations, it divides homes and it divides churches! No wonder we read in Prov 15.25, “The LORD will destroy the house of the proud.”
Now think with me for a minute. The terrain of Edom is a picture of their heart, right? “Though you exalt yourself .. whose habitation is high .. you set your nest among the stars.” The landscape of Edom was a picture of their heart that was filled with arrogance. Their heart was high and just as hard as the rocks in which they lived. I don’t know anything that robs us of God’s best any faster than a haughty heart added to a hardened heart!
Matthew 23.11-12, “But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. And who exalts himself will be abased (humbled), and he who humbles himself will be exalted (lifted up).”
You put it down - the way up, is down! James 4.6, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Saving Grace! Living Grace! Dying Grace!