Where Sin Abounds Grace Much More Abounds

The point: Not content with the measure of grace that would satisfy his own conscience that he was a Christian, not content with a measure of grace that would enable him to be a good testimony to his family and his friends, but thi…

Compares the qualitative sameness but quantitative difference between children and grown men to illustrate that while God's grace is qualitatively the same, there is quantitative growth and development in grace.

when you ought to be teachers, you have need that someone teach you again the very ABCs. You are like little children when you ought to be grown men. Well, you see, what do children and grown men have in common? Well, qualitatively, they have this in common. They have human life. But quantitatively, there is a greater development of that life in the adult than there is in the child, intellectually, physically, and should be, of course, emotionally and spiritually, and in every other way. So when Scripture says, when you ought to be teachers, you have need that someone teach you again the very ...

16:30 - 17:29 Read in full sermon

The point: Not content with the measure of grace that would satisfy his own conscience that he was a Christian, not content with a measure of grace that would enable him to be a good testimony to his family and his friends, but thi…

Uses Paul's statement 'this one thing I do, forgetting the things that are behind, I press toward the mark' as an example of a man not content with small measures of grace, but longing to abound in it.

who said this, who dared to pray, God, make me as holy as a redeemed sinner can be this side of heaven. You see, not content with the measure of grace that would satisfy his own conscience that he was a Christian, not content with a measure of grace that would enable him to be a good testimony to his family and his friends, but this was his holy passion. Make me as holy as a redeemed sinner can possibly be this side of heaven. There was a man who longed for grace. He was not content with the great quantities of the grace of God. The Apostle Paul is a picture of this. As an old man about to hav...

17:32 - 18:31 Read in full sermon

The point: Not content with the measure of grace that would satisfy his own conscience that he was a Christian, not content with a measure of grace that would enable him to be a good testimony to his family and his friends, but thi…

Explains that Obadiah's name, 'servant of Jehovah,' indicates he had godly parents whose ambition was for him to serve God, even amidst national apostasy.

His name would indicate that he had godly parents. His name means servant of Jehovah.

18:49 - 18:55 Read in full sermon

The point: Take courage, parents. It is possible to rear a godly seed in dark days.

Cites John Newton as an example of God's amazing grace in breaking into the lives of adults with profligate lives, contrasting it with the more common pattern of early piety leading to eminent usefulness.

As one reads Christian biography, at times he is struck with the amazing grace of God in breaking into the lives of adults, who've had nothing but spiritual barrenness and ignorance and the worst kind of profligate lives prior to their conversion. Men like John Newton. But I would say that for the most part, those who've been most eminently useful in the kingdom of Christ are those who were brought early in life to the feet of the Savior.

20:31 - 21:02 Read in full sermon

The point: Take courage, parents. It is possible to rear a godly seed in dark days.

Recounts counseling young Christian couples who question the rightness of bearing children in a dark world, using Obadiah's story as an encouragement that godly seed can be raised.

Sometimes when I'm counseling with young Christian couples contemplating marriage and we talk about this whole matter of children and the biblical perspective on children, I've had them at times dead earnest and with a troubled look say, Pastor, is it right? Is it right to bear children and bring them into a world like this? Is it right?

21:51 - 22:11 Read in full sermon

The point: Take instruction, young people, who have godly heritages. There is no greater blessing life can afford than to have the privilege of parents who have no higher ambition, but no lower ambition, than that you be servants o…

Compares Obadiah's parents making their ambition for him obvious through his name to modern parents, asking if their children clearly know their highest ambition is for them to be servants of Jehovah.

And who let you know that that's their ambition. See, it's one thing, parents, to have that ambition hidden away in your heart. These parents weren't content. They stuck it on his name. He couldn't forget it. Every time he'd turn around, people'd say, hey, what's your name? Obadiah. Oh, servant of Jehovah.

23:27 - 23:46 Read in full sermon

The point: Oh, parents, is it just as obvious to your children that that's your ambition for them? Is it?

Shares his personal experience of his parents making it obvious their only ambition for him was to be a servant of Jehovah, and how he initially disliked it but later thanked God for it when called to preach.

They were just downright sour on it. And I didn't like it.

24:58 - 25:02 Read in full sermon

The point: We say that we fear the Lord and do not long to preserve the pure preaching of the word of God. We are deceiving ourselves of all the things that this man Obadiah could have done. Why does he focus his efforts upon hidin…

Uses the practical challenge of feeding 100 preachers daily to emphasize the immense effort and risk Obadiah undertook to preserve the pure preaching of God's Word.

Is it with respect and love and honor or is it with venom and disrespect and animosity? His attitude to the prophets is a revelation that he feared the Lord. For at risk to his own life, when Jezebel sets out to have all the prophets of God slain, he hides them and he uses them in good sense so that he doesn't put all his eggs in one basket. He puts fifty in one cave here and figures if she tracks those down, at least we'll have fifty more left in the cave over here.

33:25 - 33:54 Read in full sermon

The point: Maintaining a blameless conscience before God. The Apostle Paul said in Acts 24, 16, herein do I exercise myself. The Greek word is strong. I put myself under rigorous discipline to have always a conscience void of offen…

Quotes Acts 24:16 where Paul states he exercises himself to have a blameless conscience, illustrating the rigorous discipline required for this spiritual state.

Maintaining a blameless conscience before God. The Apostle Paul said in Acts 24, 16, herein do I exercise myself. The Greek word is strong. I put myself under rigorous discipline to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward man.

38:20 - 38:42 Read in full sermon

The point: If all that we hear and the truth to which we are exposed is not producing in us a good conscience, then we're hearing in vain.

Uses the metaphor of a conscience being 'razor sharp' and 'gleaming' from the honing influence of God's Word, contrasting it with a conscience 'eroded by rust and acid' from unconfessed sin.

A conscience kept razor sharp by the honing influence of the word of God and yet a conscience that is gleaming. A conscience that isn't being eroded by the rust and acid of unconfessed sin and hidden truces with sin and uncleanness and rebellion and pride and the other sins that will cause the conscience to smart. Here's a man who fears the Lord greatly, which indicates you see, that he had not gotten a good conscience by cauterizing and I have somebody say, oh my conscience doesn't bother me about this, bother me about that. Well, it's a shame that it doesn't.

39:19 - 39:59 Read in full sermon

The point: Whenever you find it difficult to believe the promises, don't try to pump up faith in the promises. You need to fix your gaze afresh upon the promiser.

Cites Abraham's full persuasion in God's ability to perform His promises as an example of confidence in God's word being rooted in confidence in God's character.

As the Lord of hosts liveth, remember who he is, Obadiah. Now, this is what he says. And remembering who his God was, he found it then relatively easy to believe and rest in what he had said. Isn't that the simple categorical teaching of Hebrews 11, 6? Without faith it is impossible to please him, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is. Says of Abraham, he was fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able to perform. His confidence in the word of the Lord was rooted in his confidence in the character of the God who gave that word. And so it is with us. Whenever you find it ...

46:42 - 47:34 Read in full sermon

The point: Whenever you find it difficult to believe the promises, don't try to pump up faith in the promises. You need to fix your gaze afresh upon the promiser.

Uses Jesus' teaching in Matthew 6, directing His people to look at birds and sparrows, to illustrate how He points them back to the heart of the Promiser when they doubt His promises.

That's what you need to do. Who is he that has spoken this word? Isn't that what Jesus did in Matthew 6 and in other places? He says to his people, knowing that they doubt the promises that God would supply all the needs, what does he do? He directs them back to the heart of the promiser. He says, look, to the birds. God takes care of them. Are you not of much more value than they? Look into the heart of the promiser.

47:37 - 48:00 Read in full sermon

The point: That place where you work, it's in Ahab's court, isn't it? All the cursing and the foul language and the filthy stories. You fellas and girls, your high school's in Ahab's court. Are you an Obadiah?

Compares finding a Christian unexpectedly in an office place to Obadiah's hidden godliness, suggesting that God has many 'Obadiahs' serving as light and salt in dark places, even if unrecorded.

And I don't like the commentators who say, yeah, there were 7,000 who hadn't bowed the knee to Baal, but where were they? Well, maybe they were in places just like Obadiah, studying to be quiet, doing their own thing, living to the glory of God in the midst of that darkness. Who says that there has to be a record of all the saints who live godly in an ungodly age? Haven't you been terribly surprised at times to find a Christian turn up in the office places?

51:51 - 52:18 Read in full sermon

The point: That place where you work, it's in Ahab's court, isn't it? All the cursing and the foul language and the filthy stories. You fellas and girls, your high school's in Ahab's court. Are you an Obadiah?

Compares Israel's descent into idolatry and jettisoning of God's standards to the spiritual decline in America's national life, setting the context for believers to be 'Obadiahs' in their own 'Ahab's courts'.

You see, there was a time in Israel when godliness reigned, and no matter what your occupation was or where you moved, you felt the effects of the godliness that came down from the throne of a man like Josiah or a man like David. There was a time in our own national life when there was such spiritual heat generated that in many areas there was a great overflow of Christian principle into business operations, into government, into almost every strata of our national life. But just as Israel had descended to the place where idolatry and Baal worship had permeated her entire national life, and wi...

53:23 - 54:10 Read in full sermon