the 19th chapter of Genesis.
I'm going to read this chapter. It's
a very interesting chapter. So if you find it, we'll read
it together. Genesis chapter 19. Beginning in verse 1. And there came two angels to
Sodom at evening, and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom, and Lot
seeing them, these two angels, rose up to meet them, and he
bowed himself with his face towards the ground. And he said, Behold,
now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, unto your servants' house,
and tarry all night, and wash your feet, And you shall rise
up early, and go on your ways. And they said, Nay, but we will
abide in the street all night. And he pressed upon them greatly,
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 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. They called unto Lot and said unto him, Who are the
men which came in to thee this night? Bring them out unto us,
that we may know them. And Lot went out at the door
unto them, and shut the door behind him, and said, I pray
you, brethren, do not so wickedly. Behold, now I have two daughters,
which have not known man. Let me, I pray you, bring them
out unto you, and do you to them as is good in your eyes. only
unto these men do nothing. For therefore they came they
under the shadow of my roof. And he said, Stand back. And
they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one
fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge. Now
will we deal worse with thee than with them. And they pressed
sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door.
But the men put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house
to them, and shut the door. And they smote the men that were
at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great.
So they worried themselves to find the door. And the men said
unto the Lord, Hast thou here any besides, son, and law, and
thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in thy
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 sons-in-laws, 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-in-laws. And when the morning arose, 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, 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.
And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad,
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, O not
so, my lord. Behold now, Thy servant hath
found grace in thy sight. Thou hast magnified thy mercy,
which thou hast shown 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 into, 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 them, See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also,
that I will not overthrow this city for which thou hast spoken. Haste thee, escape thither, for
I cannot do anything till thou become thither. Therefore the
name of the city was Causor. The sun was risen upon the earth
when Lot entered into Sorah. Then the Lord reigned 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 city. and all that grew up on the ground. But his wife looked behind, but
his wife looked back from behind her, and she became a pillar
of salt. 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 great furnace. 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 which Lot dwelt. And Lot went up out of Zor and
dwelt in the mountain and his two daughters with him. And he
feared to dwell in Zor, and he dwelt in a cave and his two daughters.
And the firstborn said unto the young, Our father is old, and
there is not a man in the earth to come into us after the manner
of all the earth. Come and let us make our father
drink wine. And we will lay with him, that
we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink
wine that night. And the firstborn went in and
lay with her father. And he perceived not when she
lay down, nor when she arose. And it came to pass on the morrow
that the firstborn said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesterday
night with our father. Let us make him drink wine this
night also. And go thou in and lie with him,
we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink
wine that night also, and the younger arose and lay with him.
And he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose.
Thus were both his daughters of Lot with Chav by their father. And the firstborn bore a son,
and called his name Moab, the same as the father of the Moabites
unto this day. And the younger She also bore
a son and called his name Ben-Ammon. The name is the father of the
children of Ammon to this day. Some people in the scriptures
that you and I find, and there's such examples to us to follow
them. Abraham was a good example for
us to follow. The Bible says that when he was
called by faith, he went out. He left his father's house and
all that he had and went out to a land that he should receive
an inheritance. What an example he is to follow.
Paul said, Be ye followers of me, as I am also of Christ Jesus. So we have good examples to follow
in the Scripture. But Lot is more of an example
to avoid. He seems to be a beacon, a flashing
yellow light, a caution light for us not to follow Him. We're
told here this amazing little statement concerning Him that
often I have read and considered the condition, the circumstances
that this man was in, the danger. And the Scripture says here in
the 16th verse that He lingered, He delayed. He hesitated. And what makes
this so amazing here that this was the very morning that Sodom
and Gomorrah was to be destroyed. Just a few minutes later, it
was to be destroyed. And he was right in the midst
of this city, the very walls of the city of Sodom. He was
here. And yet he lingered. And he lingered
right in the voice of these warnings where they kept saying, up, get
you out of this place for the Lord will destroy this city. That's amazing. When we read
the little phrase, he lingered. Lot hesitated to leave. He delayed to leave. This portion of Lot's history
is very concerning. It's very awakening. And the
last portion The scripture that I read to you, his history here
is very, very heart-wrenching. He goes off the scene, and he's
in a cave with his two daughters, and they're with child. And he has these grandchildren
by his own daughters. And for the first time in all
the Bible, we read of this awful sin of incest. And it's from
this man, Lot, who lingered. And that's what I want you to
think about with me today. This man who lingered. What was this man? I think we
ought to begin right there with looking at what this man was. If I told you this morning that
we had this one chapter in the Bible or two chapters in the
Old Testament that told us anything about this man, and this is all
we knew about him, then you and I would probably conclude that
this was a lost man. That this man had no interest
in God, he was an unconverted man, an unjustified man, an unrighteous
man. But we go over to the New Testament
and we find out what kind of a man this was. And this is why
He's so important as an example to us, as a beacon to us not
to follow Him. If He was a mere lost man, then
we can understand Him lingering. But He wasn't a lost man. He
wasn't an unbeliever. I want you to hold this chapter
and look at what the Apostle Peter says about this man. Look over in 2 Peter chapter
2 and look in verse 5. 2 Peter chapter 2 and verse 5. Look here at what Peter says
about Him. Look in verse 5, 2 Peter chapter 2. This is speaking of
the judgment of God coming on the old world. In verse 5, God
spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person,
a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the
world of the ungodly. and turning the cities of Sodom
and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making
them an example unto those that after should live ungodly, and
he delivered just Lot." Now that word doesn't mean he delivered
Lot only. This word describes his standing
before God, his character. What kind of a man was he? He
was a just man. a just man, vexed with a filthy
conversation of the wicked. For that righteous man dwelling
among them, and seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from
day to day with their unlawful deeds." Now, what's the first
thing we find out about this man? He was a man of faith. You say, Bruce, how do you get
that? Because he was justified. How is a man justified? When
the Holy Spirit says he's a just man, that means he's just before
God. How is a man justified except
by faith? The just shall live by faith. He was a man who was a believer.
He was justified from all his sins as he stood before God. And something else is said about
him. He's called here a righteous
man. that righteous man. How is a
man made righteous? Not by what he does, not by what
he abstains from doing, but he's a believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Abraham believed God and it was
counted to him for righteousness. And when the scripture calls
Lot a righteous man, you can bet that he heard the gospel
from his father Abraham. Just as Abraham was a believer,
Lot was a believer. He had the righteousness of Jesus
Christ imputed to him. David said, Blessed is the man
to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without work. So he was a righteous
man. He was a justified man and a
righteous man. But secondly, here he gives evidence
of the grace of God that was in his heart. Look what he said
in verse 7. Just Lot, he was vexed with a
filthy conversation of the ungodly. He was vexed with the words and
with the actions of the ungodly. His soul was pained because of
it. Now brothers and sisters, I earnestly
believe that if a man in his heart of hearts and his spirit
is He sighs because of his own sin and because of the sins of
society. That is a gracious man. He's
got the grace of God in his heart if he truly sighs over sin. Paul
said, I have this continuous sorrow in my heart for my brethren
that are lost. If you have this sorrow in your
heart as this man here had, because of men's sins, then there's the
grace of God that's there. David said it like this, I beheld
the transgressors and I was grieved because they kept not thy word. Does it grieve you over sin in
society? Do you sigh over the sin in your
family? Do you sigh over your own sin?
Well, this man was grieved. He was a gracious man. He had
the grace of God in his heart. But furthermore, he goes on to
say there in verse 8, not only was he grieved once, but it says
he vexed his righteous soul from day to day. Every day he was vexed. You know, some people, they get
shocked by sin, they see, but they get over it. You know, they
get hardened to it. Sin is a hardening thing. It
can harden a man's heart to see it every day. You that work in
the shops around here, you know how it is in the shops. You know
the filthy actions and using God's name in vain and how it
can vex you. But don't it have a tendency
after a while to harden you and it don't bother you and you're
as bad? But this man was vexed day after day. He never got used
to it. It vexed his soul and to me that
shows that he was a righteous man. You know anybody can cry
out against sin, can't they? But it was more than him just
crying out against it. He had a heart that hated it.
He had a heart that was vexed because of it. So that tells
us he was a man that had the true grace of God in his heart.
He was a believer in the Lord, the Son of God, a true believer. And what does this tell us, first
of all, then, about this man? What does it tell us about a
believer? When we see the lot and the condition this man was
in and how he lingered, doesn't that tell us that a believer,
a man can be a believer, a child of God in how many blemishes? in his heart, can fall into many
errors in his life, just like this man did yours. If I could
prove to you that he was an unbeliever, he wouldn't be an example unto
us this morning, but this man was a believer. He was a righteous
man, a just man. And when we consider All that
this man knew, and all that was going to take place
this very day, this word becomes a wonder to
us. He hesitated. He lingered. What did he know? Well, look back over at our text
again. Look back over at the 19th chapter again from the book
of Genesis. Look what this man knew. In verse 13, 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. Well,
he knew the great sin of this city. He had experienced it personally. These men, old and young from
every quarter, had come to his house to try to take these two
angels in the farm of men out from their house that they may
know them in a sexual way. And he said, don't do this wickedness. Lot knew the wickedness of this
city, and here are these angels for witness to what he already
knew. And yet in the face of that,
he lingered. He hesitated to leave the city. He heard these warnings, this
cry over and over again in his ear repeated, we will destroy
this place. The Lord has sent us to destroy
this place. He said, get out of here lest
thou be consumed in the iniquity of this city. And yet he lingered. He hesitated. Don't you think
that's somewhat amazing when we consider what he knew? when
he hears the warnings in his ear over and over again, and
yet he lingered. Lot believed these angels. He
absolutely believed them because we're told in verse 14 that he
went to his son's-in-law and he told them up, get out of this
place because the Lord will destroy it, and yet he lingered. He saw
the anxious faces of these angels hastening him and grabbing him
by the arm, and yet he lingered. He delayed. He halted. In the
face of clear and present danger, he halted. I made a point of
that because I want to, just for a few minutes, trace this
man's history to see if we can find What made this man finally
linger? How come Him here? How come Him
with such a heart that in the face of this warning, in the
face of all He knew, made Him linger? I want to go back over
to the 13th chapter with you right quick and look at this.
And this gives us just a little bit of history, essential history
about this man. Look over here in the 15th chapter
and look here in verse 5. Look in verse 5 of the 13th chapter. And Lot also, which went with
Abraham, he had flocks. Abraham had great flocks. Lot
had great flocks, and herds, and tents. And the land was not
able to bear them, that they might dwell together, for their
substance was great, so that they could not dwell together.
And there was a strife between the herdsmen of Abraham's cattle
and the herdsmen of Lot's cattle. And the Canaanites and Perizzites
dwelt then in the land. And Abram said unto Lot, Let
there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between
my herdsmen and thy herdsmen, for we be brethren. 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. If thou depart to the right hand,
that I will go to the left. 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, even as the garden
of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as you go into Zor. Then
Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east,
and they separated themselves one from another. Abraham dwelt
in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain,
and pitched his tent toward Sodom. But the men of Sodom were wicked
and sinners before the Lord exceeded." Now, if we'll be honest about
it, I think there's a direct correlation. between the choice that Lot made
when he lifted up his eyes and saw the well-watered plains and
he says, I'm going to choose that. I want the well-watered
plains. That's where I want to feed my
cattle. That's where I want to settle down. There's a correlation
between this choice that he made and finally him lingering. This is where his trouble began,
by this choice that this man made. He lifted up his eyes and
saw the well-watered plains, and he deliberately and willingly
chose those plains. And I think the Holy Spirit,
on purpose, puts this portion of Scripture here that said,
but the men of Sodom were wicked. wicked before the Lord. This choice was clearly made
by sight and not by faith. Faith would have considered more
than the well-watered plains. Faith would have said this, better
is a dry morsel and quietness therewith than that house full
of sacrifices with strife. He made a choice by the sight
of his eyes and not by the faith of his heart. That was the choice
that he made. Listen to this. Godliness with
contentment is great gain. That's the language of faith.
The language of the eye is I'm not satisfied. I've got silver,
I've got gold, but that don't satisfy me. He made the choice
by the sight of his eye and not by the faith of his heart. That's
the first bad thing concerning his choice. Do we ever read that
Abraham or that Lot prayed before he made this choice? I bet he
didn't, do you? I bet if he'd have earnestly
sought the Lord, he'd have never made this choice. Have you ever
had choices that you have to make in your life? And you pray
about it, but you're not honest because you've done got your
mind made up what you want to do. Oh, how many of us have did
that? I don't know if he did that or
not. I doubt if he even did that. I doubt seriously if he sought
counsel from Abraham. I doubt seriously if he said,
Abraham, I'm thinking about pitching my tent towards Solomon. Because
if he had, Abraham would surely advise them, those are wicked
men. Don't do that. That's a bad choice. He was taken with the sight of
his eyes. And what are we told about that?
The eyes never satisfied with seeing. Never satisfied. One thing that rules this evil
world, John tells us, and what is it? The lust of the eyes. Lot thought of his worldly profit. He thought of ease. And he forgot
the true need of his soul. And he forgot the true need of
his family. And I'm just saying there's a
correlation between the choice that he made to pitch his tent
toward Sodom and finally linger. We make choices every day, don't
we? Every day of our life we make choices. And you know, you
and I should be very prayerful before we make choices. Choices
can lead to devastation down the road, not only for ourselves,
but for our family and for those who love us. I watched this morning,
and I've watched so many weekends. We have some friends and neighbors,
a young couple with children, and I noticed this morning they
had all their toys loaded on their little trailer. And this
has happened so many times. I've watched them on the Lord's
Day as they take off to play, take off to play. They profess
Christ. And I'm not here to judge that.
But I am here to judge the choices they make, or anybody makes,
to load up their toys on the Lord's Day and public worship. If men are hindered by the providence
of God, that's one thing, isn't it? But deliberately choose to
neglect the means that God has chosen to bless us and to keep
us and edify us. I'm telling you such deliberate
choices can lead to trouble down the road. I often think of Mary and Martha. When Martha came to the Lord
Jesus and she said, Mary is sitting at your feet, and you are in
the Word, and I need help serving, cooking, washing. And you know
what the Lord told Martha? He said, Martha, you are cumbered
about many things, but Mary has chosen that good part which shall
not be taken away from her. In other words, He said, Martha,
the things that you are cumbered about, the things that you are
doing, that you're so interested in and has burdened your soul
with, you're going to lose these things. This house, the utensils,
the cooking, you're going to lose all of that. Mary has chosen
the Word, to hear the Word and to meditate in the Word, to feed
her precious soul. These things will not be taken
from her. I think personally, Got caught
up with the sight of his eyes. He saw the well-watered plains.
He saw the high grass for his cattle. And he said, that's what
I want. I want the ease. And he pitched
his tent towards Sodom. But you know something, brothers
and sisters? In the end, he lost that all. He lost all of that. He lost
his cattle, his servants, and even his family for the most
part. He lingered. And I'm just saying the thing
that caused him to linger was this choice that he made. And
one choice led to another bad choice because in chapter 14
and look in verse 12. Look in chapter 14 and look in
verse 12. This is where these armies came against Sodom and
took Lot and the men of Sodom captive and robbed them. Verse
12, And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom. See that? He pitched his tent
toward Sodom, but here we find him sometime later that he lived
in Sodom. Well, that happens, doesn't it?
We hear the old adage, we tell one lie to cover up another lie.
It seems like when we start making wrong choices that it leads to
other bad choices, then to other bad choices. I don't know why
this man moved into Sodom. It may have been his wife. Some even suggested that he married
a woman from there. I doubt that. I think he had
a wife before he moved in there. Maybe she liked the nightlife. Maybe she liked the lights of
the city. Maybe his daughters liked that light. I don't think he moved there
out of necessity. I don't think he moved there
because he needed more finances. This was a wealthy man. I think
it was another bad choice that he made to move in to this city. I bet you Abraham wasn't surprised
at all when he found out that this great army had come against
Sodom and took his grandson captive. I just about bet you Abraham
said that. Don't surprise me at all. You
see your children, you see your loved ones making bad choices.
Don't you worry about them? Aren't you concerned about them?
Because you see, boy, this is potential trouble. You kids are
going to get yourself in trouble. Your neighbors are going to get
yourself in trouble. I'm standing up here, Abraham
said. I see what you're doing and I
see the trouble you're ready to get yourself into. And when
they come and took him captive and kidnapped him and took all
the goods, Abraham said, I'm not surprised at all. I'm not
surprised at all. Notice these things about lost
choices. It became a burden to Abraham.
and his house. A lot probably said, and you've
heard people say this, well, my choices ain't bothering nobody
but myself. Like they're an island, you know, out here, and they're
just, they don't affect anybody. No man's an island, is he? Especially
the children of God. They're not islands. The body
of Christ has such union about it Paul said, if one member suffers,
all the members suffer with it. If you see one child of God get
himself into trouble, it grieves your heart. It burdens your heart. You remember when Abraham was
talking to the Lord, talking to the Son of God who had taken
himself this form of a man and was talking with Abraham about
destroying Sodom. The Lord had no idea that was
going on. And here Abraham was pleading with the Lord to spare
them. If you find 50, if you find 20,
if you find 10, will you spare them? Abraham was worried sick
about his nephew and his family, wasn't he? And after the fire
had fell, Abraham got up early the next morning. I imagine he
laid in his bed and was thanking the Lord. Please be merciful. You think you slept much that
night? Haven't you stayed awake sometimes, almost all night,
where your heart burned about some loved one? The Bible says
here in these passages that he got up early, very early the
next morning, and looked out over the city of the plain. Choices not only affect you,
choices affect those who love you truly in their hearts. We
ought to consider that, shouldn't we? We ought to consider that. The book of Hebrews chapter 13
and verse 17 says, Obey them that have the rule over you and
submit yourself, for they watch for your souls, as they that
must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief,
for that's unprofitable for you. Secondly, this choice not only
affected his immediate family, Abraham, those who loved him,
but it's amazing how this choice affected nations. Locke could
not have known when he looked at those well-watered plains
and said, I'll choose them, that that choice would eventually
lead to the disturbance The upheaval of so many nations. He had these two grandchildren,
the Moabites and the Ammonites. Those were enemies of the Jews
down through history. They fought with each other.
They hated each other. They caused Israel more trouble
than any other nation. The Ammonites were a wicked,
mean people. Affected nation. How little do
we know, brothers and sisters, about the choices we make in
our life, how far-reaching those choices may be. We think, well, I'm a nobody.
It don't matter what I do. How do you know that? How do
you know that? Spurgeon made the statement one
time. He said, I've been so tempted sometimes just to quit. And just
to give up. He said, just to give up. He
said, I get so tired. I get so weary. He said, I've
been tempted just to give up. He said, one thing that sometimes
is like a gold in me that spurs me on. He said, what if I quit? What if I just give up and quit?
He said, it would affect the world. He wasn't bragging. He wasn't telling what a great
man I am, but he was saying he was known all over the world. His sermons were published everywhere. And he said, if I quit, what
would that do? What ripple effect would that
have? Well, we're no Spurgeons. But there's nobody here this
morning that if you got yourself in deep trouble, but it would
have a drastic effect upon people in your life. That's what his choice had upon
these nations, whole nations. Thirdly, boy, what a devastation
effect, devastating effect it had upon him. A devastating effect. He goes off the scene And we
never hear anything else about Him. Nothing about Him. He lives out His life, as far
as we know, in alarm. In alarm. He hears these angels, get out
of this place. God's going to destroy this place.
He pleads for this little city of Zor. Thank Him, the Lord will
spare it. He gets over there, but He keeps
you in this alarm in His mind. And He says, I've got to get
out of here. He may destroy this city next. So out of this alarm
and concern, He flees up to the mountains. He's a restless man
the rest of His life, as far as we know. And you know He had
the opportunity. This man had the opportunity.
You can almost see it in the providence of God. When these
Soldiers came down and took him, kidnapped him and his family
and others. And Abraham had to go deliver
him and deliver his goods and bring him back. Abraham didn't
stay in Sodom. He said, I'm not going to take
a shoe latch from you. And he went back to his family
and his cattle and settled down. But Lot stayed there in Sodom.
Why didn't he take this opportunity to get out of that place and
say, Abraham, I'm going to move back with you. We'll work this
out. But you know, sometimes this
is what choices do. They get people in such a state,
in such a place, that in your mind you think, I can't get out
of it. I just can't get out of it. There's no way to get out
of it. I tell you, some of us have been there, haven't we?
And we've seen other people there. I've had people come to me and
say, Bruce, I need some advice. Here's where I'm at. What do
I need to do? And you know what I tell them?
I have no idea how you can get out of this. I don't know how
you can get out of this. You made this choice. You did
this. I see no way that you can get
out of it. You made your bed. And that's
what bad choices sometimes does. And you see the correlation between
this choice and this man finally lingering. Someone will say this, and it's
true. Thank God it's true. A believer is safe. One man said, a believer never
has to fear. If he's one of Christ, he'll
never perish. I say, thank God for that. Thank
God for that. That's so true, isn't it? He'll
never perish. And we need to remember this.
Lot was a man who lived his life, at least when these angels came
there, and before, and the grief and the alarm, and probably died
that way. But brothers and sisters, listen,
he's in heaven with Christ today. Because we've fallen, because
we've made an awful error in our life, because we've brought
ourselves into greed, doesn't mean we've lost our salvation. The Lord Jesus said, I've given
to them eternal life, and they shall never perish. If every
time we got ourselves in a mess, we had to be concerned and worried,
well, now I'm lost. That'd be a burden we couldn't
bear, wouldn't it? You see where this man was. You see him lingering. But he was a saved man. You can call it whatever you
want to call it. My dad was a Freeway Baptist
preacher and he went around making fun of the old preacher there
in town that used to say, once in grace, always in grace. And
my dad hated that saying so much. But you can call it whatever
you want to call it. But when the Lord Jesus Christ
gives a man life, he'll never take it back. When he washes
him, he's clean. When he justifies him, he'll
never become unjustified. When he clothes him with his
righteousness, that righteousness cannot be spotted by his falls
and felons. That righteousness is a man in
heaven. So this man was saved. He was
saved. But he got himself in trouble.
Man, he got himself in trouble. I don't want to make such a choice
and get myself in such a place that I have to live out my life
like this man did. Do you? I don't. And if we get so presumptuous
to thinking, well, I can just do it. The Lord will take care
of me. I'll do this anyway. The Lord will watch over me.
That's presumption. David said, Lord, deliver me from presumptuous
sins. Well, I tell you, simple lifestyle,
being in the fear of the Lord all the day long, praying about
everything, that's the way to live as a Christian. If we fall
into sin, if we fall into these places like this man did, out
of no fault of our own, it's much easier than it is to face
a guilty conscience. and say, I'm the problem. I'm
the cause. I lingered because the choice
that I made. You know this man did no good. We read where he did no good.
You can't find one good that this man did down in Sodom. He
wasn't an influence over anybody. He lost his influence. If he
ever had any Christian influence, he lost it. I'm not here this morning to
tell you that if you'll be a faithful Christian, you'll walk close
to the Lord, you'll be a follower of God as dear child, you'll
be careful and your faithfulness some way translates into you
having all this influence that people are going to love you
and they're going to listen to you and your neighbors are going
to be saved and your children. I'm not going there with that. David had a wicked Absalom, didn't
he? David was a man out of God's
own heart. Holy Samuel, the prophet, had
two sons of Bilal. Noah was a preacher of righteousness
and how many out of all the world's population entered that ark with
him? Seven beside him. I'm not telling
you that being faithful to the Lord and careful and sober and
diligent will translate into having all this influence. The
world may hate you still. But we can't help but see the
correlation between this man's actions and his choices and him
losing his influence. He lingered. He went to his sons-in-law
and they mocked him. They mocked him. They had no
confidence in him at all. And you know he didn't help.
He didn't help by lingering. He said, the Lord's going to
destroy this place. Then why aren't you out of here?
Can't you see His Son's in law? What are you still doing here?
Do you believe it? You don't even believe what you're
saying. And they mocked Him. They mocked Him. He did no good as far as we know.
He brought no glory to God in His life and in His testimony. And it goes back to this choice
that he made. As far as spiritual things are
concerned, the world never knew a lot. Sodom and Gomorrah had
no idea that he was even there. He lingered. He lingered. What about his dear daughters?
What about his daughters? He took two out with him. But
he had more. He had two virgins that lived
there in his house. And he had sons-in-law, so he
must have had more daughters. And maybe more sons. That may
have been why his wife looked back. Where's my daughters? Where's my sons? Where's my son-in-law? She looked back. He did his family
no good by lingering. Did them no good. I don't want to reach the time
and place, brothers and sisters, in my life that by my choices, by what I've
done, by what I've said, my actions, my attitude, And because of that,
I lose influence over other people. That they look at me and say,
he tells us and he warns us, but he don't even believe in
himself. Isn't that sort of, and I don't mean this to rebuke
you or anybody else, but isn't that sort of where we're at today? The church. I told you about
the folks I seen leave this morning. Aren't we, aren't we, and boy
they got these fingers pointing back at me. You know, aren't
we sort of storing up, taking to ourselves all of these things? And sometimes when our neighbors
look at us and the world looks at us and say, you really believe
what you're telling me? You believe that you're going
to heaven to be with Jesus Christ, the Son of God? And that's a
wonderful place? That's what you're looking for,
His coming? What's all these cattle that
you've got here? What you've got here worried
about all this grass? You know, living around these
wicked men. Boy, he mixed with wicked men
when there was no reason to do it to them. No reason to do it
whatsoever. But the choice, the choice. I
just wanted to stress to you this morning, brothers and sisters,
it's important. It's important. As children of
God, it's important to make the right choices. Make the choices that's going
to be for God's glory, Make the choices that's going to be good
for your soul. Make long-term choices. And you know what I'm saying,
don't you? You know what I'm saying. That's the choices that
you make. God bless this message. Let us
pray.