Would you turn back to Genesis
chapter 19? While you're turning there, the
subject for tonight is the doctrine of the church. And I'm not talking
about the doctrine the church believes, but what is this thing
of church? What IS the doctrine of the church? What does the Bible have to say
about this thing called the church? And also this Wednesday night,
I've been preaching through Mark on Wednesday nights, and we're
dealing with the passage on the Lord's table. And I know that
generally we have the Lord's table the last Sunday or the
first Sunday, first Sunday of every Sunday night of the month,
but preaching on the Lord's table, it just seemed like we ought
to have the Lord's table. So we're going to have that Wednesday
as well. Verse 16, And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand,
these angels, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand
of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful unto him. I've entitled this message merciful. Merciful. This is the first time
this word is used in the scripture. Merciful. Now Lot was a saved
man. There's no question about that.
I'm going to read a passage from second Peter. You don't need
to turn there. I'll read it to you. You can
turn if you want, but in second Peter chapter two, beginning
in verse six and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah
into ashes, condemn them with an overthrow. Making them an
example unto those that should after live ungodly and delivered
just lot. Now that doesn't mean just lot,
that means righteous lot. Justified lot. Vexed with the
filthy conversation of the wicked for that righteous man. That's God's description of lot. I sure would like for him to
describe me that way, wouldn't you? that righteous man dwelling among
them and seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to
day with their unlawful deeds. Lot's name means covering. Covering. Now he was one of the
elect, he was one that Christ died for, he's one that the Holy
Spirit had given spiritual life to, and he was one who had to
be saved. Look in verse 22 of chapter 19. The angels said to Lot, Haste
thee, escape thither, for I cannot do anything, I cannot do anything till thou
become hither. I can't destroy this city, The
wrath of God cannot come down on it until YOU are out. Lot is an individual who HAD
to be saved, but he seemed to cover all of that up by many
things. Now, the Holy Spirit has revealed
this scripture with regard to this man, Lot, not for everybody
You know, Lot has been used as the subject of how not to be.
Well, I wouldn't deny that, but look in the mirror and you'll
see Lot. Amen? Lot is given by God the Holy
Spirit to teach us of God's continual forgiveness. I want to know something
about that, don't you? continual forgiveness. Now, Lot is seen in his initial choice
of the well-watered plain and his not giving deference to Abraham,
he chose the well-watered plain, pitched his tent towards Sodom.
The scripture says in Genesis 13, 13, that the men of Sodom
were wicked and sinners exceedingly before the Lord. And yet Lot
pitched his tent towards Sodom. No question about the fact that
this man was a believer. Yet Lot pitched his tent towards
Sodom. And he ended up living there. Look at chapter 19, verse one.
And there came two angels to Sodom at even. Now we know why
they had come. They had come to destroy Sodom. And there came two angels to
Sodom at even, and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. Now, the fact
that he sat in the gate means he had some kind of civic responsibility
there. He could have been the mayor
of Sodom. I don't know, but he was a man of some standing in
Sodom. He sat in the gate. as a part
of the governing body or something like that. That's what that is
a reference to. And Lot, seeing them, he sees
these angels, he rose up to meet them. And he bowed himself with
his face toward the ground. Now, did he know they were angels?
Perhaps, I don't know, but he knew something about them that
made him bow down to them. He was afraid of them. I believe
he knew that these were actual angelic creatures. Verse two,
and he said, behold now, my lords, turn, I pray you, into your servant's
house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and you shall
rise up early, and go on your ways. Now he wanted them to stay
in his home. He didn't want them to be out
in Sodom at night, and I dare say it's because he knew what
went on in Sodom at night. Now, you've heard of Bourbon
Street and you've heard of Las Vegas and all the horrible things
that goes there. Those places were tame compared
to Sodom. I mean, people say we're at the
worst place we've ever been. No, we're not. No, we're not.
Sodom, it doesn't get worse than Sodom. Well, I guess it does.
It could, but Sodom was a bad place. And Lot didn't want these
angels out there at night because he knew the things that could
take place. And they said, nay, but we will abide in the street
all night. And he pressed upon them greatly.
And he said, no, stay, stay. He used every argument he could
come up with. And they turned in unto him and
entered into his house and he made them a feast and did bake
unleavened bread and they did eat. But, verse four, before
they lay down, The men of the city, even the men of Sodom,
compassed the house round about, both old and young, and all the
people from every quarter. Now that gives us some idea.
Everybody was involved in this, old, young people from every
quarter. What did they want? Verse five. And they called out unto Lot
and said unto him, where are the men which came into thee
this night? Bring them out unto us that we
may know them. This is a sampling of the extreme
wickedness of this city. They saw these angels come in
to Lot's house. And everybody, old and young,
men from every quarter, they came and said, bring them out
to us that we may know them. Homosexuality is a great sin. I don't want to be politically
correct here. Homosexuality is a great sin. It pictures false religion. It
can't produce life. Just like homosexuality cannot
produce life, false religion cannot produce spiritual life. But I also want us to remember
that the Lord said to Capernaum, Sodom will have it better on
judgment than you will. Don't miss that. Sodom, and we
see the extreme wickedness of this place just reading that
passage of scripture. But that person who rejects Jesus
Christ and his gospel, it'll be more tolerable for these people
of Sodom that were guilty of this sin than it will be for
that person who rejects the gospel. That's a very sobering thought,
isn't it? You see, unbelief, listen to
me, unbelief is the greatest sin. Homosexuality and every other
sin, fornication, adultery, theft, covetousness, every sin finds
this sin as its parent, unbelief. Verse 6, And Lot went out at the door
unto them, and shut the door behind after him. And he said,
I pray you, brethren, Do not so wickedly. I mean, he was scared
to death. We have these angels, and I've
heard people say, well, what Lot was trying to do was he was
trying to protect his ability to be a hospitable person, and
that's why he was doing this. But he comes out to these people,
he knew what they were about. And he said, I'm asking you,
please, don't do so wickedly. Behold, verse eight, 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." Now, was there anything
right about what Lot did at this time? No. No. Here's my daughters. They're
never no men, do whatever you want to with them, just don't
do anything to these men. Was Lot right in that? No, there
wasn't anything right about that. I've heard people say, well,
he was trying to be hospitable and that was so important. Well,
I'm not saying being hospitable is not important, but not to
bring your daughters out to this bunch, to let them do as they
wanted to do. He was terribly wrong. Verse nine, and they said, stand
back. And they said again, this one
fella came to sojourn and he will need to be a judge. I think
that's interesting. You know, the one commandment
that everybody loves is a misunderstanding of judge not. Judge not, don't
judge me. Who are you to judge me? And
that's what they were saying to Lot. Who are you? No, you've
come here to sojourn and now all of a sudden you're our judge. Now we will deal worse with thee
than with them. And they pressed upon the man,
even Lot, and came near to break the door. But, verse 10, the
men put forth their hand and pulled Lot into the house to
them and shut the door. You see, these men were angels.
Angels are very powerful. And the men of Sodom were no
match for these angels. Scripture says they're greater
in power and might, and indeed they are. And they, look what
it says in verse 11, and they smote the men that were at the
door of the house with blindness. You know, this was gonna be their
last night. They didn't know it yet, but this was gonna be
their last night, and they were never gonna see again. The angel smote
them with blindness, but look what it says next, so that they
wearied themselves to find the door. Even being struck with
blindness, they were still trying to get in. Their wicked lust
was insatiable. They were still gonna go after
these, even when they were blind. Now, what that lets me know is
judgment. Fear of judgment doesn't change
anybody. Fear of hell doesn't change anybody. I could make all these descriptions
of hell and how awful it is and how awful it'll be there for
you to spend eternity. You know what won't change you
a bit? It might scare you. You might think, I don't want
to go there. Well, neither do I. But that is not the point,
judgment, condemnation, doesn't stop anybody. And one of the
things that I think of hell, hell is gonna be a place where
everybody's gonna still have the same desires without the
ability to satisfy them. These men still were going, trying
to get into the door. Verse 12, And men said unto Lot,
hast thou any besides, son-in-law, thy sons, and thy daughters,
and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this
place, for we will destroy this place. We're gonna torch it.
Because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the
Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it. And Lot went out and spake unto
his sons-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 sons-in-law. He is not. We don't believe that. Now, these men were unbelievers,
and they didn't take anything Lot said seriously. They took
him as just mocking. You're not even worth listening
to. Verse 15, 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. while he lingered. He was reluctant to leave. Even after giving these warnings
from angels that the Lord is gonna torch that place, that
very day, he lingered. Now that word means he was reluctant
to leave. Now what this is a reminder to
us of is the power and the stupidity of the flesh. He still had this
sinful flesh. He still saw things in Sodom
that were attractive to his flesh. His wealth was there. He was
a wealthy man. He was going to lose everything. And the scripture
says he actually lingered. He lingered. Now, before somebody
gets too hard on him, how much lingering have you done? Come
on, be honest. How much lingering have you done? While he lingered, reluctant
to leave, the men laid hold upon his hand. There's some strength
there, isn't there? They laid hold upon his hand
and upon the hand of his wife and upon the hand of his two
daughters. And here's why the Lord being merciful. Mercy. Full. mercy full, full of mercy. Now, what I thought about when
I thought about this lot lingering, he's reluctant to leave. Maybe
he's trying to figure out ways. Maybe he could stay there and
be safe. I don't know what all was going on in his mind, but
the scripture says the angels laid hold of him. and they pulled
him out of the place. Did they fly? I don't know, but
they pulled him out of the place and set him down, the Lord being
merciful to him. Now here's the scripture that
came to my mind when I thought about this. No man can come to
me except the Father which has sent me draw him. And that word draw means drag. Lot was dragged out of Sodom. The Lord being merciful to him. Let me ask you a question. Do
you want dragged out or would you rather stay? I want the Lord
to drag me out, don't you? Lay hold of my hand and bring
me out just like he did Lot. Look in verse 17, we're not gonna
talk much about this. And it came to pass when they
brought them out forth, then 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 remained true
to character. And Lot said unto him, oh, not
so, my lord. I don't want to go to the mountain.
Even then, he's still wrong. Behold, verse 19, now thy servant
hath found grace in thy sight. Thou has magnified thy mercy,
which thou showed unto me in saving my life. There we have
the beautiful words of grace and mercy. And the Lord understood. The Lord's given me grace. He's given me what I do not deserve. He's shown mercy to me. He is
not giving me what I do deserve. That's grace and mercy. Grace,
God giving you what you positively do not deserve. Mercy, God not giving you what
you positively do deserve. That's how Lot was saved. Grace
and mercy. Yet, even in spite of all that,
he says, I can't escape to the mountain unless some evil take
me and I die. Now, wait a minute, Lot. Didn't the angels just pull
you out? What's this all about? I don't
want to go to the mountains. I want to go to this little city,
Zohar. I like city life. Behold, now this city is near
to flee into thee. It's a little one. Oh, let me
escape thither. Is it not a little one? And my soul shall live.
I don't want to go to the mountain. And he said unto him, see, I've
accepted thee concerning this thing also. Now that word accept
does not mean I've, okay. He says I've forgiven thee concerning
this also. That's the word translated forgiven. Now what I see with regard to
Lot, and me and you, and everybody else, is someone who needs to be continually
forgiven. Continually. Non-stop. Everything Lot did was wrong. Know anybody else like that? Everything Lot did was wrong. And yet the Lord continually
forgave him. Why? Because he is merciful. Now this is the character of
the living God. Merciful. Full. God's mercy. That's His character. You read in Exodus 34, verses 6 and
7 when the Lord discloses Himself to Moses and proclaims His name
before Moses and tells him who He is. He says, The Lord, the
Lord God. Merciful. First thing he says,
and gracious, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for
thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, that
will by no means clear the guilty. Now the only way you can understand
that is the gospel. He's merciful, forgiving, and
he refuses to clear the guilty. That can only be understood in
light of the gospel. Now this is God's character,
merciful. As a matter of fact, Micah 317
says he delighteth in mercy. He receives pleasure from showing
mercy to people like Lot. and me and you. That is His character. Now God is eternal. You know
what that means? That means with God there is
no yesterday and there's no tomorrow. Everything is in the present. There's never a sequence of events
with Him. He is the eternal God and the
scripture says in Psalm 103, verse 17, His mercy is from everlasting
to everlasting. That means it's eternal. It's
eternal. What Lot experienced was eternal
mercy. Come thou fount of every blessing
to my heart to sing thy praise. Streams of mercy never ceasing
call for songs of loudest praise. His mercy is eternal. Psalm 103
verse eight says he is plenteous in mercy. Plenteous. You know the best, I think, illustration
I could think of to talk about God being plenteous in mercy
is there in 2 Samuel chapter nine where David says, is there
any yet of the house of Saul, my enemies, that I can show the
kindness of God to for Jonathan's sake. God says, is there any of the
house of fallen Adam that I can show kindness to for Christ's
sake? That's the only reason needed,
it's the only reason accepted. and you'll remember that there
was a servant, Ziba, Ziba, I don't know how to pronounce his name,
I've heard it differently. Somebody says, y'all don't know, well,
it's a dead language, nobody knows. Nobody speaks Hebrew today,
but whatever his name was, he said, yeah, there's one. There's
one left of the house of Saul, but he's worthless. He's lame
in both of his feet, he became lame through a fall, and he can't
do anything for you. There's nothing this man can
do for you. He can't work for you. He can't fight your battles. All he can be is carried. That's it. His name's Mephibosheth, which
means shameful thing. What a name. What a name. You know what David said? Fetch him. Fetch him, fetch him grace, fetch
him. And he's brought in and David
said, I will surely show you kindness. That's the kindness
of God, it's your kindness. And the reason's not found in
you, for Jonathan's sake. Mercy for Christ's sake. Now, this thing of the Lord being
continually merciful is the ground of me being forgiven. He doesn't
forgive me because I asked him. He doesn't forgive me because
I confessed my sins. He doesn't forgive me because
I'm sorry. Now, I ought to ask him and how
sorry I ought to be, but that's not his reason for forgiveness.
He doesn't forgive me because I confessed him. He forgives
me because He's merciful, for Christ's sake. He is merciful. Psalm 51, verse one, have mercy
upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness. That's the
same word, according to thy mercy. Have mercy upon me, O God, not
because of my promises to do better, not because of my confession,
not because of anything in me. Do it for thy lovingkindness. according to the multitude of
thy mercies blot out my transgressions. Now would you turn with me for
a moment to Numbers 14. Numbers 14. Now this is after
the Lord has promised the children of Israel entrance
into the promised land. And they sent spies into the
land to check it out. And the spies come back with
this message. Everything the Lord said about
the land is true. It is indeed a land that flows
with milk and honey, but we can't take it. I mean, there's giants
in the land. We were like grasshoppers compared
to them. And all the people begin to weep
and said, would to God we'd never left Egypt. We should have never
left. We were better off in Egypt.
And let's make a captain and go back to Egypt. And then Caleb
and Joshua said, no, we can take this land. It's the Lord's for
us. And they said, stone them, stone them. They would not believe. Now, Numbers chapter 14, picking
up in verse 11. And the Lord said unto Moses,
how long? Numbers 14, 11. And the Lord
said unto Moses, how long will this people provoke me? How long
will it be ere they believe me? For all the signs which I've
showed among them, I will smite them with the pestilence and disinherit them. And I will
make of thee a greater nation, a mightier than they. I'll just
get rid of them with some kind of disease, and we'll start all
over, Moses. Now, look at Moses' prayer for
them. Now, this was a continual thing with the children of Israel.
They're always getting into something like this, always unbelieving. You know, every time Moses prayed
for somebody, Lord heard him. I think, you know, if there was
a man I wanted to pray for me, I'd want Moses praying for me.
And he's a type of Christ, is why this is so powerful. He's
a type of Christ. Listen, if Christ prays for you, you've got a maid. Peter, I've
prayed for thee. What else is needed? Well, Moses
is praying for these people. Moses said to the Lord, now I
want us to notice his arguments with the Lord. And Moses said
unto the Lord, now if you disinherit them, if you smite them with
a pestilence and just get rid of them, then the Egyptians shall
hear. For thou broughtest up this people,
and thy might from among them. The Egyptians are gonna hear
about this. And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this
land, for they have heard that thou, Lord, art among the people,
and that thou, Lord, art seen face to face, and that thy cloud
standeth over them, and that thou goest before them by daytime
in a pillar of cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night. Now
if you kill them, all this people is one man, Then the nations
which have heard of the fame of thee will speak, saying, because
the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land." They
were just too bad. Even he couldn't get them in. That's what they'll be saying.
He couldn't get them in. because the Lord was not able
to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them,
therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness." That's what
they're going to say. They're going to say these people
were so bad you couldn't even save them. Verse 17, I beseech thee, let the power
of my Lord be great, according as thou has spoken saying, and
reminds him of what he said in Exodus 34. And that's the only
way to approach the Lord, remind him of what he said in his word.
And that's what he does. He reminds him, you said this,
the Lord is long suffering and of great mercy. Forgiving iniquity
and transgression, by no means clearing the guilty. Visiting
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and
fourth generation. Now here's what he reminds him
of. You're merciful. This is who you are, forgiven
because of who you are. And forgive them because you
don't clear the guilty and you've justified them. That's why you
forgive them because they have no guilt. You put their sin away. I'm not talking about anything
they've done. I'm talking about what you've
done. You have put their sin away. Look in verse 19, pardon,
I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people, according unto
the greatness of thy mercy. There's the argument. Pardon
them according to the greatness of thy mercy. And as thou has
forgiven this people from Egypt, even until now, same ground of
forgiveness. It's never changed. Pardon them
the same way you pardoned them the first time, for Christ's
sake. That ground never changes. And the Lord said, I pardoned
according to thy word. Now the Lord says they're forgiven
because I've forgiven them. You described this, but I've
forgiven them as I always have through the blood of Christ,
according to your word, according to your intercession. And that
just lets us know of the intercession of Christ. Now this thing of
his, Mercyfulness. Oh, I hope we can get a hold
of that thought. He is merciful. Now let me close
up by saying some things that we have because he is merciful. Number one, the reason for forgiveness is
because he is merciful. It cannot be exhausted. And the reason it can't be exhausted,
it's for Christ's sake. You know, we sing that hymn,
dear dying land by precious blood shall never lose its power till
all the ransomed church of God be saved to sin no more. I don't
think so. That power will be going on and
on eternally. There's not a time when it stops.
I don't know if the writer of the hymn meant bad when he said
that, but that's not a good statement. The power of his blood is eternal. That's why God's people, like
Lot, he will continually forgive and have mercy on. The reason
for our regeneration is his mercy. Psalm 119 verse eight, quicken
me, give me life according to thy loving kindness. That's the same word, according
to thy being full of mercy. That's my reason for asking,
quicken me, give me life because that you're full of mercy. The reason we are preserved and
persevere is He is merciful. Listen to the scripture from
Isaiah 54, 10. For the mountain shall depart
and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart
from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed
from thee, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. Oh, the sure mercy of the Lord. David spoke of it when he spoke
his dying words, although my house be not so with God, yet
hath he made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things
and sure. And this is all my salvation
and all my desire. You know, Locklear said, amen.
Me too. Me too, David. That is me too. There's a scripture in Psalm
94, 18, where David said, when I said my foot slipped, have
you ever been in the midst of a fall and knew you couldn't
hold yourself and you're going down slip on the ice? Maybe you're going down. Um,
David said, When I said, my foot slippeth, thy mercy, O Lord,
held me up. I'm fallen, and there's no preventing
me from crashing. Even then, thy mercy held me
up. held me up. The expectation of Lot's perfection,
and mine and yours, is because of his mercy. Now I expect to
be perfected. Listen to what David said in
Psalm 138, 6. The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me. How
you know, David? Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever. Forsake not the work of thy hands.
I'm the work of thy hands. I'm sure not the work of my own
hands. If I'm saved, it's the work of your hands. Don't forsake
the work of your hands. But why did he expect to be perfected? Because the Lord's mercy endures
forever. Now let's close by looking at
Psalm 25. John read that. I thought, I'm
glad he's reading that. Psalm 25. Verse six. Here's our plea. Remember, O Lord, thy tender
mercies, and thy loving kindnesses, for they have been ever of old. You know, if you know God, you
know He's eternal. You might not understand what all that
means, but you know He's eternal. And you know everything about
Him is eternal. And His mercies and His loving
kindnesses have been ever of old. They're eternal. Verse seven,
remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions. according to thy mercy. Remember thou me for thy goodness
sake. Oh Lord. Lot lingers. The angels laid
hold of his hand and brought him out. The Lord being merciful
to him. Should not that be the description
of every one of us? Merciful people. Blessed are the merciful. for they shall obtain mercy. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you that you are a merciful God for
Christ's sake. Lord, how we thank you that you
delight in mercy. How we thank you for your continual
mercy to people like Lot and us. And Lord, we ask in Christ's
name, because of your mercy, that you would cause us to be
merciful men and women. for Christ's sake, in his blessed
name we pray, amen.