Let's turn to Genesis chapter
13. Genesis 13. We're going to look next hour
at one of our popular stories. We're going to look at Lot's
deliverance out of Sodom. At this hour, I want to just
look at something else about Lot. Too much to learn from Lot not
to preach two messages on this. Have you ever heard somebody
say that since I'm saved by the sovereign free grace of God,
it does not matter how I live in this world. Well, every child
of God is indeed saved by the free and sovereign grace of God. That's a fact. No doubt about
that. God chose His people. Christ
redeemed His people. The Spirit regenerates us. We're
kept by God. We'll be resurrected by God.
We'll be glorified by God. A to Z, salvation is of the Lord. And it's all of grace. But how
we live in this world does matter. How a believer lives in this
world does matter. All we have to do to see that
is look at Lot. That's all we have to do is look
at Lot. In Lot, this is Abraham's nephew. In Lot, God shows us a believer,
true believer. This man is righteous in the
Lord Jesus Christ, saved by God, called by God. Christ is his
surety, his righteousness, his holiness. So here's a true believer. But this man makes a poor choice
a poor decision in his life. And because of that poor choice
he made, he himself and everybody around him suffered because of
it. There were sad consequences because of it. And here's what
I want us to see in this. The way a believer lives in this
world, absolutely in no way, in no way, Does it change the
fact that he's righteous in the Lord Jesus Christ? It doesn't
alter that, change that at all. God's grace is everlasting, eternal
grace. His covenant is eternal. His
redemption is eternal. Our righteousness is eternal.
It does not alter that. It will not change that one bit.
But the believer's life in this world will certainly affect him
and everybody in his house and everybody around him. He certainly
will. Our subject is a poor choice,
sad consequences. Genesis 13, verse 7. There was
a strife between the herdmen of Abraham's cattle and the herdmen
of Lot's cattle. And the Canaanite and the Perizzite
dwelled then in the land. Now, Abraham and Lot were both
true believers. Both believers. And the Canaanite
and the Perizzite were their ungodly neighbors. They were
not believers. And so Abraham, to prevent the
ungodly, to prevent the worldly from bringing a reproach on God's
name, Abraham quickly, quickly went to Lot. And he offered him
a very gracious and a very loving proposal. Listen to this, verse
8, And Abram said unto Lot, Now that's Abraham's the uncle, Lot's
the nephew. This is the older saying this
to the younger. And he said, Let there be no
strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen
and thy herdmen, for we be brethren. We're brethren, not just the
same father and mother. We're God's children. We're the
same spiritual family. is not the whole land before
thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee,
from me. If thou wilt take the left hand,
then I will go to the right. Or if thou depart to the right
hand, then I'll go to the left." That was a very gracious proposal.
But instead of returning this choice to Abraham, instead of
turning this back to his elder, to the man that had ministered
the gospel to him, to the man that he owed everything to spiritually,
his spiritual father, instead of turning that choice back to
him and saying, no, let's don't separate. You come up with something
else. Let's do what you want to do
and we'll whatever. But instead of doing that, Lot
makes a choice. And it's a very poor choice.
And it's a choice that reveals much about Lot. Verse 10, And
Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that
it was well watered everywhere. Before the LORD destroyed Sodom
and Gomorrah, it was as the garden of the LORD. It was like the
garden of Eden, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto
Zoar. Then Lot chose him all the plain
of Jordan, And Lot journeyed east. Remember what going east
represents? Going away from God. He journeyed
east. And they separated themselves
the one from the other. Abraham dwelled in the land of
Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched
his tent toward Sodom. But the men of Sodom were wicked
and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. And we'll see Lot's choice here. And then we're going to see the
consequences of it. And then we're going to learn
a couple of lessons from it. First of all, let's look at this
poor choice. Lot was a believer. He's a believer. But he made a poor choice here
because he made his decision based on sight rather than faith. He made it by sight rather than
by faith. Lot lifted up his eyes. He lifted up his eyes and he
looked. What did he see? He saw this
large, well-watered plain like the Garden of Eden. And when
Lot looked up and he saw that, he saw something else. In his
mind's eye, Lot saw himself thriving in business. That's going to be good for business.
I got all these cattle. That's going to be good for God.
I can make a good living there. And Lot looked up and he said,
he saw something else. He saw, I can provide very well
for my wife and my kids there. Now that in itself is not too
bad. A man wants to provide for his wife and children, that's
a good thing. But you know what was not in Sodom? There was no
altar of God in Sodom. There was no place to worship
in Sodom. There was no place where he could
go week in and week out with his family and worship God. That was not in Sodom. And what
else was not in Sodom was, there was no man like Abraham there,
through whom God would minister to Lot, preach the gospel to
Lot, minister to him and his family. There was no... God's
preacher wasn't in that place. And something else that wasn't
in that place, there wasn't a single fellow believer in Sodom that
he could fellowship with, that he could get encouragement from,
that he could call and could come and visit on a weekly basis
and see from day to day that could encourage him. They weren't
there. They weren't there. But you know who was there? Verse
13, the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. Exceedingly. Now look over at
2 Peter 2. 2 Peter 2, or I can just read
this to you, but you probably want to look at it. 2 Peter 2.
Now these men were wicked men, exceedingly wicked. But it wasn't
like Lot went down there because he wanted to be wicked with them.
It wasn't like he went down there because he wanted to run wild
and sin and be evil and wicked with those men. He didn't like
it and he didn't condone it. In fact, look here at 2 Peter
2, 7, it says, the second part there says that Lot was vexed
with the filthy conversation of the wicked, the filthy conduct
of the wicked. And it says there, it says, for
that righteous man, that's who he was, righteous in the Lord
Jesus Christ, righteous in his dealings with men, that righteous
man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing. in seeing and hearing,
vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful
deeds. Their unlawful deeds. And yet
Lot still chose to turn his back on God, turn his back on the
house of God, turn his back on his brethren, turn his back on
the preaching of the gospel, and go down there and live in
Sodom. Why? Why? Even after Abraham, God
sent kings into Sodom and took Sodom captive. And took Lot captive. And took all Lot's riches. And
Abraham went down there with 300 of his faithful men and conquered
those kings. God gave him the victory. And
he saved Lot out from them. And you know what Lot did? He
turned right around and went back to Sodom and rebuilt his
wealth in Sodom. Why did he do all that? Why did
he just insist on being inside of them? Just one reason. That
well-watered plain he saw. The economy was good there. Business
was good there. He could make a living there.
He could provide for his family there. That's why he went down
there. Abraham endured as seeing him who is invisible. Lot set
his heart upon things he could see in the earth. Abraham was
willing to take the less land, less fertile, and raise his family
by God's altar. Lot chose the great plain and
the rich and the fertile land, even though it meant raising
his daughters amongst reprobate sodomites who were wicked before
the Lord. That was a poor choice, wasn't
it? That was a poor choice. Now, in case anybody believes
that a believer's life doesn't matter, The choices he makes
and the things he does in life don't matter. Let's look at the
consequences of Lot, Lot's choice. Turn to Genesis 19. Now at this
point, this will be our text next hour, Genesis 19. But at
this point now, Lot has been in Sodom for over 20 years. He's
been down there for 20 years. He's been away from God's altar,
been without communion with God. And we read through there that
the Lord constantly appeared to Abraham. And he kept communion
with Abraham, and kept having communion with Abraham, and building
Abraham up in his spirit, and subduing his flesh, and all that,
the whole time. But not a one word of him having
any, of the Lord having any communion with Lot whatsoever. So what's
the consequences of that going to be? Well, here's the first
consequence. Lot was extremely weak spiritually. He was weak
in spiritual discernment because he was cut off from God. He cut himself off from God and
from his house and from the gospel. The Lord sent two angels down
there to Sodom. Verse 1, There came two angels
to Sodom that evening, and light set in the gate of Sodom. And
Light, seeing them, rose up to meet them, and he bowed himself
with his face toward the ground. They appeared to be some men
of importance. They were strange men or what
have you. And Light saw them. He bowed down his head to the
ground, and he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you,
into your servants' house. and tarry all night, and wash
your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your way."
Now, before this, these same two angels, along with the Lord,
the Son of God Himself, they appeared in bodily form as men,
as men, to Abraham. They appeared to Abraham. And
Abraham invited them into his house, just like Lot did. And
those men and the Lord turned right into Abraham's house, and
they ate with him, and they dined with him, and they revealed themselves
to Abraham, and Abraham had spiritual discernment, and he communed
with them, and the Lord even told him what he was going to
do in Sodom. But now look, when Lot tells him to ask them to
come to his house and to visit with him, he doesn't know they're
angels of the Lord, he just thinks they're men. But look what happens.
That was a nice thing for him to do. They invite them in, wash
their feet, provide a meal for them. These were strangers. But
now look what they did when he asked them to come in. Verse
2 says, And they said, No, we will abide in the street all
night. Now that's being cut off, brethren. That's being cut off from communion
with God, is what that is. And he pressed them greatly and
he finally got them to come in and he gave them a feast and
unleavened bread and washed their feet and all that. But they still
didn't reveal themselves to Lot. He still didn't know who they
were. Now, at that time, he had invited those men into his home
to protect those men of Sodom from the men of Sodom. to protect
these men that came, these strangers, from the men of Sodom. Now look
at verse 4. But before they lay down, the men of the city, even
the men of Sodom, come past the house round, both old and young,
all the people from every quarter. And they called unto Lot, said
unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? Bring
them out unto us, that we may know them. These men had legalized
homosexuality in Sodom. It was widely practiced, widely
condoned in Sodom. And this is the point it had
come to. All men, young and old, had gathered from every corner
in that city. And they wanted, like, to bring
those men out there because they wanted to have their way with
those men. They wanted to have their way
with those men. And now, if Lot had spiritual discernment to
know this is the Lord's angels, These are the Lord's men. Wouldn't
he have turned to them and said, beseech the Lord, I pray to the
Lord, save us, do something. I don't have strength to do anything
here. But that's not what Lot did. Lot, in his own strength,
in his fleshly strength, in his fleshly wisdom, in his fleshly
understanding said, I'll take care of this situation. That's
a weak man. Spiritually weak. Look here,
verse 6. Light went out at the door unto
them, and he shut the door after him. See how weak he's become? His flesh is strong. But spiritually,
this man is... He almost doesn't exist. He's
an inward man. So starved from having the gospel.
He's been feeding the flesh, been feeding his outer man, and
starving that inward man. Now look. Then look at this.
Now Lot does rightly. This is right. But you see how
weak he is in discernment. This is a right thing to say.
He condemns those men for their wicked deeds. Look here, verse
7. And he said, I pray you, brethren,
do not so wickedly. Don't do this very awful wicked
thing you want to do. But then, as if it's more righteous
or less wicked than these men, He offers another solution. Verse
8, Behold, now I have two daughters which have not known man. Let
me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as
is good in your eyes. Only unto these men do nothing,
for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof. You see
how weak this man is? See how weak he is? Lot's life
had become defined by compromise. His life was defined by compromise. And brethren, now, at last, He's
willing to compromise to prostitute His own two virgin daughters
in order to compromise with these wicked men. What does that tell
you? What does that tell you? What
does that tell us about how important it is in our life to stand fast
in the faith of the gospel? If you compromise with this world,
you compromise the Gospel, you compromise holiness and righteousness. If you compromise the Word of
God with this world, it's going to cost you everything dearest
to you. Everything. Everything. We must
have the consistent preaching of the Gospel. We must walk after
the Lord. We must obey His Word. And it
don't matter much about anything else. It really does not. Now
here's the second consequence of Lot's choice. Lot had absolutely
no respect among those wicked men of Sodom. They didn't respect
him. Look at verse 9. They said, this
one, he came in to sojourn. He just came in here for a little
while, and didn't you know what he did? He planted his roots
here and built him a big old house here, and he's been doing
business here for over 20 years. You've been living right here
with us, right here shoulder to shoulder with us, right here
in this same land, condoning everything we do by your presence
here with us. Now, he will need to be a judge
of us. This man's gonna judge us. Now
will we deal worse with thee than with them, they say. You
see, if you compromise the gospel, and you live like worldly men,
and look like worldly men, and talk like worldly men, and try
to fit in with worldly men, and try to be a friend of the world,
God says you're either going to hate Christ and love them,
or love Christ and hate them. But you can't do both. You can't
be a friend of God and a friend of the world. But if you do that,
this world will act like they respect you. This world will
act like you got their respect. But the first time that you speak
the truth about their sin, this is what they're going to say.
You're doing the same thing. What right do you have to judge
me? And honestly, what right did Lot have to judge him? Spiritually,
what Lot had done was the equivalent of what these men were doing
carnally speaking. He had gone after the lust of
man. He'd gone in his own lust, he'd
gone after a man himself. He was serving a man himself.
He was worshipping a man himself and turning his back on God.
That's the spiritual equivalency of homosexuality. That's exactly
what he'd done. So what right did he have to
judge him? And then look at this. The worldly wicked man, he has
more respect for the man of faith who stands fast in the faith.
He's got more respect for him than for the man who compromises
the gospel. You hear what I said? Even a
wicked man has more respect for a man who stands fast in the
faith than for the man who compromises the gospel. They said, we're
going to deal worse with you than we're going to deal with
those men. You're worse than those fellas, they said. You
see that? He had no respect among them.
Alright, here's the third consequence. By the choice to live inside
them, Lot lost the respect of his whole family. He lost the
respect of his whole family. Verse 13. The angels said, we're
going to destroy this place because the cry of them is waxing great
before the face of the Lord and the Lord has sent us to destroy
it. But now be sure to get this, all his life Lot had taught his
family that obeying the word of the Lord just wasn't all that
important. Now Lot would have never said
those words to his family. You and I wouldn't say those
words to our family. But that's exactly what Lot had
taught them by living in Sodom. That's exactly what he taught
them by living by his actions. By his actions. He chose the
riches of Sodom over the riches of God. That's what he taught
them. And now, Lot's thoughts on the
importance of obeying the Word of God have radically been changed
by the Lord. You talk about practical religion,
this is as practical as it gets right now. Lot knows now, if
he don't obey the Lord, he's fixing to die in Sodom. I wish
we could just see how practical it is. It's just that practical
all the time. You don't obey the Lord, you're
going to die. It's just that simple. He sees that now. And
he understands that now. And his thoughts on how really
important it is to obey the Word of the Lord have changed. So
he takes off in the middle of the night. In the middle of the
night, he runs to his son-in-law's house, and he beats on their
door, and they come to the door. And the Scripture says this,
he said, Verse 4, Get you out of this place, the Lord's about
to destroy this city. He's begging his son-in-laws
and his daughters, Get up, get dressed, whatever you do, come
on, we got to get out of here. That's what I'm doing to you
every single time I'm preaching this gospel. That's what I'm
saying to you every time I'm preaching this gospel. That's
what he was saying to him. Look at this. But he seemed as
one that mocked unto his sons-in-law. He lived his whole life right
there inside him. And so his son-in-laws thought
he was joking. They thought he was playing a
joke on them. Brethren, we hear these messages
about leading our children and teaching our children by example.
These are the messages God uses to rebuke me the most. When I'm
preparing messages like this, you talk about being laid low.
These are the messages God uses to rebuke us right here. This
is the strong meat that we have a little trouble gnawing on. And a person that's young in
the faith, he may not understand how important it is to lead by
example. And he hears a message like that,
he'll say something like, I don't want to hear messages teaching
me that how I live is important. I'm not going to listen to that.
I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to, whatever he
does, you know, he takes his stance on it. He's young in the
faith. And I didn't say a young person. He might be old, but
he's young in the faith. But if he's a child of God, eventually
God's going to correct that. God's going to teach him that
that's not right. And He's going to bring him around
like He did Lot here, and teach him it is important to obey the
Word of the Lord. But you see, if he's lived his
whole life taking this stance that that don't matter, and he's
led his children into error that way, he's going to find it's
near impossible to lead them out. Near impossible to lead
them out. It's far more difficult to lead
someone out of temptation if we're the ones who led them into
the temptation. God changed Lot's mind about
this, but now his family could not hear his words because of
his actions. Alright, here's the fourth consequence.
Lot's own affection for his earthly riches made him hesitate to leave
Sodom. Look at verse 15, In the morning
the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife and thy
two daughters which are here, lest thou be consumed in the
iniquity of the city. And he lingered. You know what
that word lingered means? He waited. Now if God told you
You're standing here and this building right here is burning
down and it's crumbling down and God tells you, you get out
of this building or you're fixing to burn up. Would you wait? Would you stop, look around and
say, but I just got so much here I love. That's what Lot did. That's what Lot did. Brethren,
we make all these different kinds of excuses. We justify ourselves
for our sin and our rebellion. But you know what the truth of
it is? The one thing that keeps us from quickly, quickly, quickly
obeying the Word of the Lord is our affection for the earthy,
our affection for the things of this world. That's right. You know well as I do, I can't
think of a concrete example right now, but there's so many things
in life that you know that's right, but it's not in your best
interest. Not going to be best for your
pocketbook. Not going to be best for your
family. Whatever it is. And you're not quick to obey
the word of the Lord because you got affection for that pocketbook. And you got affection for those
children and the things they have and all that stuff. Isn't
that true? Isn't that true? Alright, here's the fifth sad
consequence of living in Sodom. Lot's faith. Not only his spiritual
discernment, but his faith was very, very weak. Now, even after
the angels brought him out of Sodom, even after they bring
him out, he did not believe God enough to go to where the men
of God told him to go. Look at this, verse 19. Listen
to this double-mindedness now. Listen to this contradiction.
He says, verse 19, Behold now, thy servant hath found grace
in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy to me, he said. which
thou hast shewed unto me in saving my life. I cannot escape to the
mountain lest some evil take me and I die." What? What? You see how weak his faith
is? All right, now thirdly, what
lessons do we learn from Lot? What lessons do we learn from
Lot? Well, first of all, here's the first lesson. You and I will
never be used of God. We'll never be used of God for
the good of men's souls in our own house, in our own community,
in His church, anywhere at all. We won't be used for the good
of men's souls if we live in opposition to God and the Word
that He's delivered to us through His preachers. We will not be
used of God. Perhaps like thought, you know,
I can go down there in Sodom Because once we have our mind
made up because of the lust of our flesh, we're going to quickly
try to get spiritual and justify it all. And make it out to be
for the glory of God in some way. That's just what we do.
And I'm sure a lot thought, I can go to Sodom, and I can bear witness
of my Lord in Sodom, and I might be able to do some good down
there. I guarantee you he thought that. There's a lot of folks
that God will give them a heart, He'll give them some understanding,
maybe even truly save them. And they'll say, you know, if
I stay in this false church where they're preaching man and preaching
up man and preaching God down and preaching man's works instead
of God's works, if I stay here and bear witness of Christ, I
might just be able to do a little good here. Or they say, I'm going
to take that job, I'm going to move there, I'm going to go to
that place, and I bet I can bear witness to them down there, and
I can do some good down there. Somebody will hear the Word of
God telling them this is the way, walk in it, and say, I'm
not going to do that, I reject that, I'm not going to do that.
And then go home and start trying to minister to their children. It's impossible to expect folks
to listen to us if our example contradicts our doctrine. Not one person in Lot's family
believed God. Not one person in Sodom believed
God. Lot almost lost his own soul.
God didn't use him. God didn't use him. You see,
there's the thing. We can't do anything. We can
do no good whatsoever unless God bless the Word to the hearts
of His people and call them by His irresistible grace. That's
the only way you and I can do any spiritual good whatsoever.
But God's not going to do that with a man who's walking directly
contrary to God. He don't have to use that man.
He can bring that man back in line, and give that man a true
heart for God, and send that man forth and use that man. And
in fact, when God's called you out, and when God's quickened
you, and made you alive, and He sanctified you out of darkness
into light, and He's given you His Word, and set you in faith,
and set you to be strong for the Gospel, and made you to stand
with His people, under the sound of His gospel, and to be separated
out from among them, God's already using you to bear witness to
Christ. Because that bears witness, God did that work. God did that
work. And that's God's way. He doesn't
say, go in there and stay among them. He says, come out from
among them and be separate. And that's what He does in His
people. That's what He does in His people. Alright, now here's
the next thing. I got one more thing. Whatever
you do, If it's a little bitty tiny decision or it's a big old
great decision. If it's a massively important
decision or it just seems like it's seemingly unimportant. No
matter what the decision is. No matter what the decision is.
Don't ever make that decision by sight rather than by faith. Don't ever make a decision for
carnal profit at the expense of spiritual profit. Don't ever
do that. Don't ever do that. When you
make a decision in life, any decision in life, it doesn't
matter what it is, here's the thing to always remember. Always remember this. Christ
said, Seek ye first the kingdom of God. Seek ye first the kingdom
of God. Seek ye first His righteousness. That means seek Christ's glory,
Christ's honor, and seek what He says is right to do. You don't have to guess. It's
right here. Anything and everything that you have a question about
is right here. We don't have to guess about it. It's right
here. And he says, in all these things, your food, your clothing,
your house, everything that you think that you're responsible
and you have to go out and get or it won't be got, God said,
all that lesser junk, He will provide it. He will provide it. You ask yourself these questions.
Number one, what will bring God the glory? What will bring God
my Savior all the glory before everybody and bring no reproach
on His name? That's the number one question.
What's going to give Him the glory? Number two, what's going
to promote His kingdom and His gospel? God left me on this earth
to promote His gospel with my presence, with my time, with
my money, with my sweat, with everything I am. That's what
He left me here for. He didn't put you here to be
like a pig in a pig lot and just eat slop and get as fat as you
can get. That's not why He left a believer here. He left us here
for one reason. to further His gospel as He's
calling His people out by it. That's our purpose. Same purpose
for which Christ came is the purpose for which the believers
in this world to save His people. That's our only purpose. Can
you imagine Christ saying, I don't have time today to deal with
the cross and to deal with the gospel. I'm going to go out.
I got today, I got to go over here and make some money. If
I don't, I'm not going to be able to eat. Can you imagine the Lord Jesus
saying that when He walked this earth? He said, I must be about
my Father's business. That's my business. And that's
my business. That's your business. Number
three, what's going to be best for my brethren? For the believer? For God's people? For Christ's
people? For those He purchased with His
blood? What's going to be best for them? For His church? That's the third thing to ask.
Number four, what will be best for my own family? What's going
to be best for my sons and daughters? Whether they believe God or whether
God might be calling them out. Are those around me that God's
calling out? What's going to be best for them? And whatever the answer is, do
that first. Do that first. Don't even give a second thought
about, well, this is going to take my job away. This is going
to take that away. This is going to take... So?
It don't matter. Well, that's being fanatical
now. No, you're being like light. I'm telling you what Abraham
would have told you. God will see to it you provided
for it. God gave His only begotten Son. Christ came and laid down
His blood and purchased His people and bought His people. And God
freely, freely, freely gave us eternal life. He gave us righteousness. He gave us holiness. He's preserving
us. He's keeping us. He's doing it all through the
blood of His only begotten Son. God says, now you can be certain
that I'll freely give you a piece of bread and a board to put over your
head so you don't get rained on. He that spared not his own
son, but delivered him up freely for us all, how shall he not
with him freely give us all things? What about what's best for my
own self, though, preacher? When you gave that list of things
there to think about, you didn't say anything about me. Don't
I need to concern about what's best for me? When the call came
in the very beginning for the glory of God, to prevent the
world from approaching God's name, to keep peace with His
brethren, to provide for Lot and not even giving the least
consideration for himself whatsoever. Abraham said, don't let there
be a strife between us. Here's all the land. You choose
whatever you want. I'll take whatever's left. So Lot took what he wanted and
Abraham ended up with less and smaller. Well, you see a man
can't get ahead in this world doing like that. That proves
right there, man, he can't prosper living his life like that. Well,
let's just see. Look at Genesis 13, 14. And the Lord said unto Abram,
after that lot was separated from him. And the Lord said unto
Abram, after that lot was separated from him, after the lot had lifted
up his eyes, the Lord said, Abraham, now you lift up now thine eyes. And you look from the place where
thou art, northward, southward, and eastward, and westward. For
all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it. And to thy seed forever, not
unto seeds, but unto thy seed, which is Christ. I'm giving it
to him forever. And I will make thy seed as the
dust of the earth. so that if a man can number the
dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise,
he said, walk through the land in the length of it and in the
breadth of it. Go out there and measure it for
yourself, Abraham, for I will give freely it unto thee. And then Abraham removed his
tent, not his house, Not his concrete foundation. Not his
bricks and his stones of permanence. He removed his little temporary
tent. And he came and he dwelt in the
plane of memory. He came and he dwelt in the plane
of strength. He came and he dwelt in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Which is in Hebron. In association. He came and dwelt in His strength,
in Christ His strength, which is in association with the Lord
God Almighty. Never to be broken. And He built
there an altar unto the Lord. He worshipped the Lord. A little
bit different than London, isn't it? A little bit different. Abraham
looked for a city which hath the foundation, whose builder
and maker is God. And God gave him that, And God
gave him all things. All things. And you know what
he says to you, believer? You're a joiner with Christ.
Christ inherited all things. And he says to us, all things
are yours. They're yours. Believe God. Camp out. I didn't say put down
a concrete foundation. Camp out. Where God's gospel
is preached. until the day we leave this temporary
dwelling place and go to that city with foundations. Camp out
there. Don't move. God will bless it. I promise you. Lot ended up stripped
of all his riches. He sought the city that man built
and the riches of man. And God took all his riches away
from him and burnt that city. He saved him. Man builds on this
foundation, wood, hay, and stubble. God's going to burn it all up.
He'll save that man, but He's going to save him by fire. And
it cost him a lot. Abraham believed God. And it
was a much more pleasurable journey to that heavenly city. Believe God. Obey Him. Amen. Alright brethren, we'll try not
to be as long in our next message. I didn't realize that I was going
so long, but you know when you're preaching the gospel and it just
don't matter. It just don't matter. We sit and
watch these movies and things and don't even think about time. When you're hearing a good gospel
message, you don't think about time either. Alright, let's stand
together. Father, we thank You. We pray
that You make us like Abraham. Oh, our brother Lot, thank You, Lord,
that You saved him. Thank You that You used him to
show us what not to do. Lord, we pray You make us like
Abraham. Make us follow Christ. Make us
stay right on Him, right with His people, always in communion
with Him, always dwelling in our strength, in a close association
in communion with God. Don't let us get swallowed up
going after the riches of this world. We ask it, Lord, for your
glory, for your honor, for the good of your church and your
brethren, the good of our families, for the good of those you're
calling out. Lord, we thank you. In Christ's name, amen.