Turn with me to Galatians chapter 3. Galatians 3, as we are looking at some of the stories in the scripture, We've come to the story of Abraham, a man named Abram whose name was changed to Abraham. And I want to begin by just pointing out how much emphasis the Lord placed on the life of this man. The first 11 chapters of Genesis, you know, the book of Genesis is a fairly large book and the first 11 chapters of Genesis covers a span of about 1800 years. And then the next 14 chapters after that covers a span of only 100 years. the life of Abraham from the age of 75 to 175. His name is mentioned from the beginning of the Old Testament to the end of the New Testament.

And there's a reason for that. There's a reason for that. And that reason is because Abraham was a sinner against God That's who Abraham was. People think about Abraham. Well, let's talk about who Abraham was. Abraham was a sinner against God who God made a covenant with.

God made a covenant concerning him and his seed, which is Christ. Which is Christ. The covenant is Christ. The seed is Christ. And every soul in the covenant is every soul in Christ. And Galatians 3 right here tells us that. If you look at Galatians 3 verse 16, it says, Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. Which is Christ. Look at verse 26.

It says, for you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. And oh, what all that means. I'd love to just like stop and spend our Bible study talking about what faith in Christ is. It's not faith in man. It's not faith in man's works. It's not faith in religion. It's not faith in this and that and everything under the sun. It's one thing only, Christ Jesus, faith in Christ Jesus, Christ, Christ, Christ.

Verse 29 says, and if you be Christ's, Then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. So Abraham's seed is a representation of God's physical people, God's physical family, those in Christ who his covenant was made to. We're gonna look a little bit this morning at the life of Abraham and some of the people around him for both this Bible study and the morning message. And for this Bible study, the person we're gonna focus on connected with Abraham is his nephew Lot. So turn with me to Genesis chapter 11 now.

Genesis 11 verse 27, it says, now these are the generations of Terah. This man Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran, three boys. And Haran begat Lot. Verse 28 says, and Haran died. That is how Lot ended up with Abraham, his uncle. That's how he ended up with Abraham. Lot's father, Abraham's brother, died. Verse 29, and Abram and Nahor took them wives, The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, Sarah. Chapter 12, verse 1 says, Now the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee.

And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee. And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Abraham is a picture of Christ. That is speaking of Christ. Look at verse two again. I will make of thee a great nation. And I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curses thee, and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. That's Christ. And that is also a picture of God's people in Christ. That's Christ. And that's also a picture of God's people in Christ.

Read it again. Listen to it that way. Verse two, I will make of thee a great nation and I will bless thee and make thy name great. What's her name? Same as his name. And thou shalt be a blessing and I'll bless them that bless thee and curse him that curses thee. It's better for a millstone to hang around. someone's neck that hurts one of God's little ones. And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

Abraham is a representative of God's people. And that's what I want to focus on for most of this Bible study. We're going to see that God gave Abraham the token of circumcision. to picture God's election of a particular people. God elected a particular people and he gave that token of circumcision to show that in order for that particular people to receive God's favor, a cutting off of the flesh had to take place. Cutting off of the flesh had to take place. And a cutting off of the flesh was going to have to take place because man's flesh was sinful flesh. That's the reason why. Colossians chapter 2 says, that is the very thing that happened to Christ on the cross of Calvary. And we're not going to turn over there, but this is what it says. You know, the scripture says he came in the likeness of sinful flesh. And it says, he was cut off in the stead of his people.

So as a picture of God's elect people, Abraham was a sinner against God. He was a sinner against God, and the scripture doesn't hide that from us. You know, we have these Old Testament men built up high in our minds, you know, but thankfully, the scripture doesn't hide these things from us. It exposes their sin, and it exposed Abraham's sin immediately. First thing, immediately. Right here in chapter 12, the moment Abraham is mentioned, his sin is mentioned. Now, we're not gonna take the time to read it. You're welcome to read the end of chapter 12, but here's what happened.

They went down into Egypt, and Abraham told Sarah, let's lie and tell them that you're my sister, because you're very beautiful, and they're gonna kill me. They're gonna keep you. And that man, you know, He was willing to lie to him and he was willing to turn his wife over to him just to save his own skin. Sin, sin. Abraham was a sinner.

In chapter 13, Abraham and Lot had to part ways. And I hope, is this too much? You know, we're gonna read a lot in the next message, but anyway, hopefully this is clear. All right, Abraham and Lot had to part ways. Their herds were too big. Okay, the Lord had given them much. And Lot's herdmen started fighting with Abraham's herdmen, and Abraham told Lot, let's not do this.

You just pick where you want to go, and I'll go the other way. Look at chapter 13, verse 9. Abraham said, is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me. If thou wilt take the left hand, then I'll go to the right. Or if thou depart to the right hand, then I'll go to the left.

And Lot lifted up his eyes, and behold, all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. That's where the plain of Jordan was. That's what he was looking at. even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as thou comest unto Zoar. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan, and Lot 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 it is famously known what their exceedingly wicked sin was. The men of Sodom were Sodomites, homosexuals. Now, God hates all sin. Man likes to pick his sin. There are some sins man likes, doesn't even consider it to be a sin. God hates all sin. Man likes to categorize sin, something as being a little sin or a great sin. To God, sin is sin. God puts lying right next to murder. Read it in the New Testament, you know. Sin is sin. Don't condone any of it. Don't excuse any of it. Sin is sin. God hates all sin.

There's a reason for that. Every sin against God's command is not just a physical rebellion. but it represents a spiritual rebellion. And that spiritual rebellion is very great. And I'll just tell you, this will be a little side note, when it comes, because, you know, here we are, we're talking about this subject right here.

When it comes to these sexual sins that are mentioned in the scripture, fornication, all right, just a man and a woman coming together, fornication, is saying, I don't need a covenant for union. I don't need your covenant. God made a covenant to join his people to Christ into union with Christ. And just plain fornication is saying, I can make my own union without a covenant.

That's false religion. I can make my own union with God, my own union with Christ. That's false religion. That's what it represents. That's not true. We can't make our own union with God. That's not true. And God won't have it. He will not have it. And God will deal with it.

You know, he came to save sinners. We're all sinners in the flesh. We're only going to be sinners. But just so we know, physical sin brings physical consequences. Just so we know. Physical rebellion. brings out like I have, you know, children. They're going to be my children until the day they die. But physical rebellion brings a physical consequence. They're not going to lose their DNA. They're not going to lose their, you know, standing as my children.

But anyway, all right, so fornication says I don't need a covenant for you. Adultery is fornication where at least one of the two is already married. That is denying the covenant. That is leaving it. That is forsaking it for another. That is leaving your first love for another. This is why God hates divorce. Why does God hate divorce? Why does God say you can't divorce? It's because of what it spiritually represents. It all comes back to what it spiritually represents. He said, I'll never leave you. I'll never leave you. And because of the covenant of God's grace, he said, you'll never leave me.

Somebody hears that and says, I've divorced. Somebody else cries, I've murdered. Well, I've lied and done every bit of that in my heart. If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Are you a sinner? We have an advocate with the Father. But this is what it represents, okay? And homosexuality is included with those and it even stands out above all of those being condemned by God. And here's the reason why.

It's a union that can't produce life. There's no life in it. There is no life in it. It is not a possibility. It is a dead union. The God-ordained, God-blessed covenant marriage union between a man and a woman produces life. It produces life. That is a union unto life. And so it is a spiritual picture. This is why God blessed it. It's a spiritual picture of Christ and his bride, the church.

All right, so that's why this sin of Sodom was so condemned by God, and it brought judgment to the whole city. And that's what God came down here to do, and that's what he did in chapter 18. All right, turn with me over to chapter 18. Chapter 18, verse 16, right here the Lord came to Abraham and Sarah. He came with two angels, and if you look at verse 16, the men rose up from thence and looked toward Sodom, and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way.

And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him. And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me, and if not, I will know. And the men turned their faces from thence and went toward Sodom. Those two angels went toward Sodom.

But Abraham stood yet before the Lord, and Abraham drew near and said, Will thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Lord, you're going to destroy the whole city, the whole city. Are you going to destroy the righteous people also, the righteous with the wicked?

Verse 24. Her adventure, there be 50 righteous within the city. Wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the 50 righteous that are therein? Lord, would you please spare the city and not destroy it if there are 50 righteous people in it? Verse 25, that be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked, and that the righteous should be as the wicked that be far from thee. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?

Verse 26, and the Lord said, if I find in Sodom 50 righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes. Abraham got to thinking, there may not be 50. So in verse 28, he said, what if it's 45? The Lord said, I'll spare the whole city if there are 45 righteous people in it. Verse 29, Abraham said, what about 40? The Lord said, okay. Verse 30, he said, what if it's 30? The Lord said, that's fine. Verse 31, he said, what about 20? The Lord said, yes, I'll spare it. Verse 32, Abraham said, what if there are only 10? The end of verse 32, the Lord said, I will not destroy it for 10's sake.

And we know that the Lord did destroy it. So what that tells us is there were none righteous, no, not one. And you can just take out the word Sodom and put the word Kingsport right there. You know, false religion is called the great whore, you know that? This is a spiritual, this has spiritual meaning.

Abraham himself in his own flesh was not righteous. He was not righteous. Chapter 15 tells us that it said, Abraham believed God and that God-given faith was counted to him for righteousness. God counted him, made him to be righteousness. How? By giving him faith in Christ. Abraham saw his day and was glad.

No man or woman in himself or herself is righteous. No man or woman has a self-righteousness. All have sinned. You are looking at a sinner, and I'm looking at a bunch of sinners. All have sinned. And therefore, the judgment of God is going to come down on all. It's going to. And we're gonna close this Bible study by seeing the only hope that any sinner has of being delivered and spared from the wrath to come, all right?

Look with me at Genesis 19, verse one. It says, there came two angels to Sodom. That's the two angels that left the Lord. And there came two angels to Sodom at even, and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom, And Lot, seeing them, rose up to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground. Now look at verse 12.

And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides son-in-law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place, For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxing great before the face of the Lord. And the Lord hath sent us to destroy it. And Lot went out and spake unto his son's-in-law, which married his daughters, and said, up, get you out of this place, for the Lord will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his son.

And when the morning arose, then 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 while he lingered, did he just get up and start running? No. Lot lingered. While he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand and upon the hand of his wife and upon the hand of his two daughters, The Lord being merciful unto him. And they brought him forth and set him without the city. Now I'm telling you, that is mercy. Okay, what did Lot do? Lingered. That means he didn't go anywhere. He sat right there. He didn't move a muscle.

And the man laid hold on his hand, the hand of his wife, the hand of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful to him. And they brought him forth and set him out of that city. That is the definition and example of what God's mercy is. You want to know what God's mercy is? That's it. That's God doing something for a sinner in spite of that sinner, not with the help of the sinner, not with the permission of the sinner. That's God doing something in spite of the sinner. And that's what election does. How many people they do it for? Four. How many was in the city? It was great. That's what election does for a sinner, and that is what the election leads to. It leads to the mercy and grace of God's deliverance.

Verse 17 says, And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth, that he said, Escape for thy life, look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain, escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed. And Lot said unto them, Oh, not so my Lord. No, I don't want to do that. You run to the mountain. This is the child of God. Run to, who's the mountain? Christ is the mountain. What does the child of God naturally want to do?

No, I've got another way I'd like to go. Verse 19, behold now thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy which thou hast showed unto me in saving my life, and I cannot escape to the mountain lest some evil take me and I die.

Behold now this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one. Oh, let me escape thither. Is it not a little one, and my soul shall live? And he said unto him, See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow this city for the which thou hast spoken. Haste thee, escape there. You go there. or I cannot do anything till thou become thither.

Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar. The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities and all the plain and all the inhabitants of the cities and that which grew upon the ground. And that's what God's going to do this entire world. He's going to deliver his people, and this is what he's going to do this entire world.

Verse 26, but his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. And that right there is its own message for its own time. And I'm just going to tell you, everybody, you know, condemns Lot's wife, and maybe she was. I don't know her eternal state. The Lord knows them that are his. I don't know if she was saved or law, we'll leave it in God, we'll find out one day.

And the warning is, flee to Christ. Judgment's coming, flee to Christ. But I'm going to tell you, I will go ahead and tell you, that is probably one of the greatest pictures of the gospel I've ever seen in my life. We have before and we could again take a whole message to show you how God condemned the stone of man. He said, I'm going to take that stony heart out of your flesh. You're hard, you're stony people.

And we could look at how God has said, do not offer a sacrifice without salt. You better put salt on it. I will not accept it unless it's seasoned with salt. He said, you are the salt of the earth. Salt is savory. You want to make it good? Put salt on it. Salt is a preserver. You want to preserve it? You want to keep it? Put salt on it. And God did not deliver those son-in-laws. They were left there. The physical brimstone of God rained down on Lot's son-in-laws with everybody else, but he delivered four people out of there. And his wife did what every single soul in this room has done, looked back. You ever looked back?

Oh no, I wouldn't do that. Okay, you just did. There's not a soul in this room who's better than Lot's wife. I can't believe she made it as far as she did. Every soul in this room has rebelled against God and rebelled against His covenant and rebelled against His mercy. Lot was doing it the whole time. And that woman turned, her heart went back, just like the flesh is prone to do. Lord, we feel it. But God, she turned and started running back into that city of judgment. But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved her. Salt. You're not doing it. You're preserved. You're kept in spite of you. You are not gonna enter back into the judgment of God.

Now that was a side note. Here's the end of the Bible study. Verse 27, and Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord and he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the plain And beheld, and lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace. Now watch verse 29. Now really watch this.

And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham. and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt. Lot was spared because God remembered Abraham. Why was Lot spared? For Abraham's sake. And again, like we started this, Abraham is a picture of Christ. He's a picture of Christ.

All of God's people were delivered from the wrath to come. Why? Some good in them, no lot proved that. Why? One reason only, for Christ's sake. God remembered Christ. To him be all the glory for that, okay? Amen. Now I've gone way over. We gotta have a quick turnaround. All right, you're dismissed.