• An excellent servant of the Lord warns people of error.
• An excellent servant of the Lord is a skilled student of Scripture.
• An excellent servant of the Lord avoids the influence of unholy teaching.
• An excellent servant of the Lord disciplines himself in personal godliness.
• An excellent servant of the Lord is committed to hard work.
• An excellent servant of the Lord preaches and teaches with authority but makes the Bible his authority and not himself.
• An excellent servant of the Lord tries to be a model of spiritual virtue.
• An excellent servant of the Lord has a thoroughly Biblical ministry.
• An excellent servant of the Lord is fulfills his calling.
• An excellent servant of the Lord is absorbed in his work.
• An excellent servant of the Lord is progressing in spiritual growth.

      We saw Elijah as the surrendered servant.  We do know three things that are evident in this surrendered servant of God.

1. He was filled with a consuming passion for the glory of God.

2. He was profoundly convinced that he was only a servant.

3. Elijah was eagerly desirous to know and work out the plans of God.

      Yet Obadiah was a man of contrast.  He has some good points and yet his bad points corrupt his good ones.    1^st Corinthians 5:6

“Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?”

      There is a phrase in verse three that stands out to me.  It is “Now Obadiah feared the LORD greatly”.  Why is he working in the house of Ahab?  This would be like me working in an abortion clinic as a nurse.  Ahab is described in the Bible as the most wicked kings of Israel thus far. 

      Obadiah in reality did not fit the meaning of his name.  His name means, “serving Jehovah”.  But whom is he really serving?  In the previous message we saw that he was serving Ahab.  It seems that he was serving Ahab with his whole life and heart.  He was willing to give up the eternity for the temporal. 

      He had a deadly secret.  It is seem in his devotion.  The Bible tells us that Obadiah is a closet believer. He believes in God and fears Jehovah, but he isn't about to tell anyone.  F. B. Meyer in his book, “Elijah and the Secret of His Power” wrote this about Obadiah.  “There are scores of Obadiahs everywhere in the professing church. They know the right, and are secretly trying to do it; but they say as little about religion as they can. They never rebuke sin. They never confess their true colors. They find pretexts and excuses to satisfy the argument of an uneasy conscience. They are as nervous of being identified by declared Christians as Obadiah was of being identified as a follower of Jehovah when Elijah sent him to Ahab.”

      His Deeds tells us that when Jezebel began to exterminate the prophets of God, Obadiah took one hundred of them and hid them in caves. This was a deed that required great courage, effort and expense on the part of Obadiah. For this he is to be commended. If Jezebel had gotten wind of what he had done, he would have surely been killed.

      We saw Obadiah actively involved in service to Ahab. Basically, Obadiah is guilty of two great errors. First, the wrong people employ him. He is in a job that requires him to compromise his beliefs so that he can keep it. Secondly, he is engaged in the wrong activity. Notice that Ahab and Obadiah seem to have no concern for the starving people of the land. They are out looking for grass to feed some horses. That shows a lack of compassion. Obadiah's actions stand in marked contrast to those of Elijah. Obadiah was busy looking for grass to save a bunch of nags; Elijah was looking for God to save a nation.

      This brings us to this message.

III. SELFISH SERVICE OF OBADIAH

                                                Vs. 7-16

                  A.  Obadiah's Identification Of Elijah

                                                Vs. 7

“And as Obadiah was in the way, behold, Elijah met him: and he knew him, and fell on his face, and said, Art thou that my lord Elijah?”

      By his dress and by the fact that he had probably seen Elijah before, Obadiah recognizes the man of God when they meet in the way. Obadiah is quick to show reverence to the man of God, but of course, no one else is around to see it. That is always the way of the compromiser. A compromiser does not want others to see how he is trying to hedge his bets so to speak.  He is trying to stand on both sides of the fence.  Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of Britain, said that when you try standing in the middle of the road, you would get hit on both sides.

                  B.  Obadiah's Indictment Of Elijah

                                                Vs. 8-9

“And he answered him, I am: go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here. And he said, What have I sinned, that thou wouldest deliver thy servant into the hand of Ahab, to slay me?”

      Elijah sends Obadiah to tell Ahab that he has returned. Obadiah knows where Ahab is, he is his servant and so he should go to find him. However, he responds by pointing his finger at Elijah and accuses Elijah of trying to get him killed. You see, his reverence to the prophet in verse 7 really meant nothing. I have been called “Brother Walls or Pastor Walls” to my face but when my back is turned, it is roast preacher for lunch.  Some of the people who have done this have seen their children go down the wrong path.  This falls in the realm of Psalm 15:1.

“Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.”

      If you look into the primary interpretation of this passage, you will find it means to do physical harm to God’s anointed.  David would not harm Saul because he knew that Saul was God’s anointed king of Israel for that time.  But the applications go much deeper than this.  Pastors should remember that they are called of God just as the kings were but they are to be servants also.  Some preachers have forgotten this.  They think that they are untouchable so to speak. 

      This is a very incomplete list of some of the offenses committed by this developing class of “Untouchables” here in the United States: 

• Acts of adultery by famous televangelists and Christian celebrities
• Diversion of tax-exempt funds given for the preaching of the Gospel, to be used instead to pay off mistresses and such
• Prayer requests thrown out in the garbage unread, after donations have been extracted from the letters. 
• Converts sent to Roman Catholic churches and other churches, which openly deny evangelical doctrines. 
• Wild prophetic speculations, including date setting for the Second Coming of Christ, exposing evangelical religion to ridicule and contempt when the predictions fail to come true
• False claims to receiving direct revelations from God, when the preacher is only quoting from the notes of the heretical Study Bibles. 
• Bizarre false teaching, such as that there are nine persons of the Trinity, that Christ was not God, that all men are gods, that Christ went to Hell and was born again there, etc. 
• Bullying and intimidation of church members and followers 
• Teaching that to be born again is to recover one's lost self-esteem, or that it can be achieved in a mechanical manner by repeating a few words or coming forward in a meeting, with no conviction of the Holy Spirit.
• High-pressure, unethical fund raising tactics, and waste of funds to purchase ostentatious luxury items for the preacher

      These sins are not just committed by preachers of other groups than fundamental and Independent Baptists either.  I have seen and heard of the same in fundamental and Independent Baptists churches also. 

      Is this command from the Lord valid today?  Yes, it is.  The command, "Touch not the Lord's Anointed" is for today. In 2^nd Corinthians 11:19-20, Paul warns against religious leaders who would take advantage of believers: “For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise.  For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face.”

      Today, among some preachers, it is considered a mark of distinction that they are able to bring their followers into bondage, devour them, take of them, exalt themselves, and smite or abuse their followers. They brag about this sort of thing in their preacher's meetings, and conduct pastor's schools to teach others how to do it and get away with it. But notice what Paul calls such men - he calls them Fools! In the context, it is clear that he is not talking about laymen abusing preachers, although that is also wrong. Here he is talking about preachers who abuse and misuse laymen, and according to Paul, such preachers are fools.

      Touch a pastor’s reputation that has not done wrong is just as wrong as doing physical harm to the pastor.  Yet, people do it every day and don’t fear the Lord as they do it. 

      Obadiah did not fear God really.   His accusation in verse 9 revealed the true character of his heart. He had no respect for the man of God, his mission of the Word of God at all. The same is true for those who place themselves and the world before the Lord. They have no respect for the things of God, regardless of what they may say. Those who love the Lord will honor Him actively obeying Him and responding in faith and not doubt. When a person responds to the command of God with doubt, accusation and resistance, it reveals that they are not in love with the God they claim to serve. It proves that there is a problem in their heart.

                  C.  Obadiah's Indifference Toward Elijah

                                                Vs. 9-14

“And he said, What have I sinned, that thou wouldest deliver thy servant into the hand of Ahab, to slay me?  As the LORD thy God liveth, there is no nation or kingdom, whither my lord hath not sent to seek thee: and when they said, He is not there; he took an oath of the kingdom and nation, that they found thee not.  And now thou sayest, Go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here.  And it shall come to pass, as soon as I am gone from thee, that the Spirit of the LORD shall carry thee whither I know not; and so when I come and tell Ahab, and he cannot find thee, he shall slay me: but I thy servant fear the LORD from my youth.  Was it not told my lord what I did when Jezebel slew the prophets of the LORD, how I hid an hundred men of the LORD’S prophets by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water?  And now thou sayest, Go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here: and he shall slay me.”

      In these verses, Obadiah begins to offer up one excuse after another as to why he cannot do what Elijah is telling him to do. These excuses reveal the hypocrisy that is hiding in his heart. We must remember that no matter how hard we may try to hide it, what is on the inside of us will eventually make its way to the surface of our lives.

                        Luke 6:45

“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.”

                        Matthew 15:17-20

“Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught?  But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:  These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.”

      We will dissect this man's excuses and see if they hold water.

                        1. We see his personal fears in verses 9, 12, 14.

      His first objection is that if he does this thing, he will be put to death for it. Apparently, he does not believe that God has the ability to protect him from Ahab.

                  Matthew 10:28

“And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

      If you ever come to the place where you start to believe that God cannot take care of you, you need to check up. It may be that you have stopped trusting God and have started looking to other sources to meet your needs. This is always an indication of sin in the heart.

                        2. We see his pathetic faithlessness in verse 10 through 12.

      He tells Elijah that Ahab has looked for him in every country around Israel. He has made the kings of those lands take and oath that they do not know where he is. He even questions the faithfulness of God in verse 12. He has been so indoctrinated into Baalism that he has come to believe that God is no better than Baal. He doesn't even believe that God will honor His own Word. He has no faith in God, God's Word or God's man. He has been brought to a place where his faith is shattered.

      When we reach this place in our spiritual lives, we are in serious trouble. When adopt the idea that God is unable to do what He has promised and we lose faith in Him and His Word, that is a sure sign that we are out of God's will and need to repent and seek His face.

                        3. We see his past fruit in verse 13.

      In this verse, he takes the position that he is too good for the job Elijah is suggesting. After all, why would God or the prophet risk losing a man with his connections? Doesn't God think that Obadiah has done enough already? Obadiah seems to be living on his past works. Maybe he feels that being right with God and serving God in the past is enough to make up for being backslidden today.

      When you come to the place in your spiritual life where you have to look back at what you used to do, instead of being able to see what you are currently doing, you are in deep spiritual trouble. You hear things like, "I worked in Bible School for years, now it's time for someone else to do it." Or, "I taught that class for a long time, I need a break." Or, "I used to go to church”; “I used to serve God”; “I used to be faithful." The “used to do” Christians are nothing less than hypocrites.  We need to find something for today to do today for the Lord.  We don't need to fall into the trap that claimed Obadiah. Serve God in the here and now, not the then and when. Paul's fear is that he would become a "castaway".

                  1^st Corinthians 9:27

“But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”

                  D.  Obadiah's Indulgence Of Elijah  Vs. 15-16

“And Elijah said, As the LORD of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, I will surely shew myself unto him to day. So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him: and Ahab went to meet Elijah.”

      At Elijah's insistence, Obadiah reluctantly agrees to go find Ahab and tell him the news. As Obadiah walks away, he is never heard from again. Did Ahab kill him, as he feared? It is most likely that this did not happen.  Ahab hates Elijah that he mostly forgot Obadiah.  Most likely, he simply faded back into the woodwork and continued to live his live of compromise and disobedience. His was a life that could have been greatly used of the Lord, but because of his reluctance, his lack of faith and his compromise with the world, he was a man who never amounted to much for the glory of God.  

Conclusion: Later in this same chapter, Elijah is all alone when he confronts Ahab and the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. If Obadiah had been all he claimed to be, he would have been right there with the man of God.

      Let give this final observation from the life of Obadiah. You had better watch those people who have to tell you that they love the Lord. If they have to tell you it is usually because they cannot show you. Usually those who boast the loudest about their love for God, His church and His work are those who do the least. You know what I'm talking about. People say they love their church and don't come on Sunday night or Wednesday. You watch them. If they love the church, they won't have to tell you, you will see it in their attendance. If they love the Lord, they won't have to tell you, they'll show you by the life they live. I wonder if your walk matches your talk?

      Church contains two types of people.  There "pillars" whose participation holds the up and makes it function.  And there are "caterpillars" that crawl in and out each week, making not contribution at all.

      It should be our desire to like Elijah but not like Obadiah.