Wed Apr 15

Listen up, little ones

Listen for the words that remind you of fire.

Reading

Obadiah 1:18—Everlasting Burning

Optional Reading

2 Thess 1:9-12

Keys for kids

• We exist to be with God (cf. WSC Q&A1).
• We must burn with holiness to be with God.
• Holiness burns everlastingly to consume sin.

Questions

1. Why do we exist?
2. What do we need to be with God?
3. What will our everlasting burning of holiness mean for sin?

Notes

(See Saturday for authors.)

We exist to be with God. Fellowship was the whole reason God created us "in the image of God" (cf. Ge. 1:27), and fellowship is the glorious purpose for which God is recreating his saints in the image of Christ (cf. Col. 1:15). As we have seen in Obadiah, holiness is the sole criterion of fellowship with God. As Jonathan Edwards once preached, "Holiness is a most beautiful and lovely thing. ... Tis almost too high a beauty for any creatures to be adorned with; it makes the soul a little, sweet and delightful image of the blessed Jehovah" (Jonathan Edwards, "Miscellanies," in the Works of Jonathan Edwards, 13:163).

But being with God means we must "dwell with everlasting burnings" (Is. 33:14). This is impossible unless we, like God, burn everlastingly. This burning is the Spirit's grace of holiness. In the Day when Christ returns to be "glorified in his saints" (2 Th. 1:10), "they shall burn" yet shall not be consumed (Ob. 1:18; cf. Ex. 3:2). According to Obadiah, this everlasting fire of holiness will forever and utterly consume temptations to sin, sin itself, and sin's effects. Praise God for this Gospel hope to burn everlastingly with him!

Swedish Method questions

Praise

Psalm 99a, 2a

Prayer

1. Pray God's Spirit to burn brightly in you with holy love for Christ and hatred for sin.
2. Pray for change in you from last Lord’s Day’s sermons.
3. Pray for a member of our church, for your family, and for a non-Christian friend/family member.