Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with number 44 in your hardback temple, 44. And can
it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood? Let's
all sing together. Let's all stand. And can it be that I should gain
an interest in the Savior's blood? Died He for me who caused His
pain? ? For me, who Him to death pursued
? Amazing love, how can it be ? That Thou, my God, shouldst
die for me ? Amazing love, how can it be That Thou, my God,
shouldst die for me. He left His Father's throne above
So free, so infinite His grace Emptied Himself of all but love
and bled for his own helpless race. Amazing love, how can it
be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Amazing love, how can it be that
Thou, my God, shouldst die for me? No condemnation now I dread,
I am my Lord's and He is mine. Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine. Amazing love, how can it be that
thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Amazing love, how can it
be that thou, my God, shouldst die Please be seated. Good evening. Grace is the answer
to that question, isn't it? How could he have died for me?
All of grace. Let's turn in our Bibles to Psalm
18 for our call to worship Psalm 18. The print in my Bible is very,
very small on the introduction of this psalm, but I want to
read it. A psalm of David, the servant
of the Lord, who spake unto the Lord the words of this psalm
in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all of his
enemies and from the hand of Saul. And he said, I will love
thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress
and my deliverer, my God, my strength, in whom I will trust,
my buckler and the horn of my salvation and my high tower. I will call upon the Lord. who
is worthy to be praised. So shall I be saved from my enemies.
The sorrows of death come past me and the floods of ungodly
men made me afraid. The sorrows of hell come past
me about and the snares of death prevented me. In my distress,
I called upon the Lord and cried unto my God and he heard my voice
out of his temple. And my cry came before him. even
into his ears. Then the earth shook and trembled
and the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken because
he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of
his nostrils and fire out of his mouth devoured, coals were
kindled by it. I bowed, I'm sorry, he bowed
the heavens also and came down and darkness was under his feet. And he rode upon the cherub and
did fly, yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind. He made
darkness his secret place. His pavilion round about him
were dark waters and thick clouds of the sky. And at the brightness
that was before him, his thick clouds passed, hailstorm, stones,
and coals of fire. The Lord also thundered in the
heavens, and the highest gave his voice, hailstones and coals
of fire. Yea, he sent out his arrows and
scattered them, and he shot out lightnings and discomfited them. Then the channels of water were
seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at
thy rebuke. O Lord, at the blast of the breath
of thy nostrils. He sent from above, he took me,
and he drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong
enemy and from them which hated me, for they were too strong
for me. Let's pray together. Our gracious and merciful Heavenly
Father, What hope and comfort we have in knowing that you delivered
David from his enemies. Most encouraging and most comforting
is to know that thy dear son, the son of David, our savior,
was delivered from the grave. The Lord you brought him forth.
And the hope that we have that you would do the same for us
is the assurance that you did it for him. Lord, we might be
found in him tonight or that you would send your spirit and
power and comfort us for truly our enemies are too strong for
us. And we are in need of thee. We thank you Lord for the demonstration
of your mercy toward us and giving Jennifer a good report today.
Lord, we pray for your hand of strength and healing to continue
to be on her. We thank you for the plans that
you've put into our hearts for this weekend. And Lord, we ask
that you would attend every service and every scripture reading and
every song and that you would be glorified and honored and
that your people would be saved and Lord that Christ would be
glorified. We pray for the men that are
coming to preach to us and ask Lord that you would confirm to
their hearts the messages that you'd have them to speak. That
you would enable them when they stand. And we pray Lord that
you would give us ears to hear. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Jennifer had a meeting with the
doctor today, and they did scans. And it looks as if the treatments
that she's been receiving have helped with her tumors. And so
we're very, very thankful. You know, something like this,
you break yourself for the worse. And the Lord was pleased. give us a good report today.
So thank you for your prayers. And we're just overwhelmed with
gratefulness and joy. So, Tom, we're gonna sing 233. Okay, let's stand together. Just the first three verses,
number 233. Depth of mercy, can there be? Mercy still reserved for me. Can my God His wrath forbear? me the chief of sinners spared. I have long withstood his grace,
long provoked him to his face, would not hearken to his calls,
grieved him by a thousand falls. ? Now incline me to repent ?
Let me now my sin lament ? Now my foul revolt deplore ? We believe
and sin no more Please be seated. Let's open our Bibles together
to 2 Peter, 2 Peter 2. And we'll read verses seven and
nine. Seven through nine, I'm sorry. And delivered just Lot, vexed
with the filthy conversations of the wicked. For that righteous
man dwelleth among them in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous
soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. The Lord knoweth
how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve
the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished." I'm certain that there's not
a sinner who's not interested in being delivered from their
temptations. And if we didn't have this passage
of Scripture, we'd be hard-pressed to see that Lot was even a believer. But the Lord calls him here just
Lot and he calls him righteous Lot. And in spite of all of the
things that we read about Lot in the Old Testament, the Lord
had mercy upon him and delivered him out of Sodom before destroying
that city. I'm encouraged by that because
I'm afraid when I look at my life, I'm hard-pressed to find
any evidence of me being a believer and yet the Lord knows how to
deliver the godly out of temptations and that's my hope, that he would
deliver me. And I know that's your hope.
And it's not just the temptations as they relate to the enticements
to sin. Even in those temptations, there's
already sin involved, isn't there? Our temptations are filled with
unbelief and sin. The Lord made that clear when
he likened lust to adultery. And he said, you've heard it
said of old that if you take your neighbor's wife, you're
guilty of adultery. But I say unto you, if you have
lust in your heart toward a woman, you've already committed adultery.
We know that there's sin in that. He said the same thing about
anger and murder, didn't he? If you have aught in your heart
toward your brother without a cause, you've already killed him, you've
murdered him in your heart. So this matter of sin is a heart
problem. It's a heart problem. And it's
always there. It never goes away, but the child
of God wants to be restrained. It would be ludicrous to think
that lust is the same as adultery in the sense that it's, you know,
the consequences that come and the shame that it gives to our
lives and to the Lord. It would be ludicrous to think
that that anger toward a man would
be the same as murder in terms of the consequences. So we want
these sins of the heart to be restrained, don't we? We don't
want them to be carried out in our behavior. Does that make
us any less a sinner? No, not before God. Everything
about us is sinful. But here's the thing, the Lord
delivered just Lot from his temptations. And that's my hope, that he would
restrain me. and that he would keep these
things and cause me to be delivered. As we read in Psalm 18, David
is rejoicing that the Lord delivered him from his enemies. And what great hope we have in
knowing that that's what our God does for his children. He
didn't deliver anybody else that was in Sodom. They were destroyed
by his wrath and by his judgment. The child of God is interested
in being delivered, none of those other people. Even when the Lord
told Lot to go into the city and get anyone else from his
family and warned them that destruction's coming, he went to his future
son-in-laws And they laughed at him. They thought he was joking.
They thought he was jesting. They weren't concerned about
the wrath of God. Lot was. And Lot believed what
these messengers told him. So to be delivered, the word
temptation is used in the Bible more than just the enticement
to sin. the trials and troubles that
we are tempted with. That's what James was talking
about when he said, count it all joy, my brethren, when you
fall into divers temptations, knowing that the trine of your
faith worketh patience. And patience, when it is complete,
makes you perfect and entire, lacking in nothing. And so to
be delivered from temptations, yes, it is to be delivered from
the enticement of sin that's in our hearts. but it's for God
to deliver us from our trials and from our troubles. And I
would say that the deliverance in those things has to do with
sin as well. Because what is it in our trials
and in our tribulations that God sends, that he tells us to
count it all joy? And what is it in those that
trouble us the most? Is it not our fear? Is it not
our unbelief? Is it not our attempting to take
circumstances into our own hands and fix the problem? Is that
not rooted in sin? So when we pray, Lord, deliver
us from evil. And the Lord made it clear that
that's how we're to pray. Yes, deliver us from the enticements
to sin and Lord, don't let me carry them out. and point me
to Christ. But when you send in your good
and merciful and loving providence trials and troubles, Lord, deliver
me. Deliver me from my unbelief.
Deliver me from the fears that would grip my heart and cause
me, Lord, to find my hope and my rest in Christ. And there's
the hope that we have, that our God shows a difference. between his children, between
the Egyptians and the Israelites, he makes a difference. And he
is the one that maketh us to differ. And that's what we see
in Genesis chapter 19, when the Lord is delivering Lot, he's
making a distinction between Lot and all the unbelievers who
are going to be subjects of his judgment and wrath. And so the
child of God is always saying, Lord, deliver me, help me, save
me. And here's the promise that we
have in God's word. Let's read it again. In verse nine, the Lord knoweth
how to deliver the godly out of their temptations. He knows
how to deliver it. When we look at the life of Lot,
we see some things. If you'll turn with me to Genesis
chapter 19. When we look at Lot's life and
the experiences surrounding how it is that the Lord delivered
him, we see some things that are encouraging and hopeful to
us that by the same means that he used to deliver Lot, he'll
use those means to deliver us. You know, Lot, chapter 19 says,
and there came two angels to Sodom and even, and Lot sat at
the gate of Sodom. Now, That's an Old Testament
reference to Lot being one of the elders of Sodom. The men
who sat in the gate were the governing officials of the city.
And so Lot was very invested in Sodom. We see Lot's unbelief when Abraham
first gave him the option of choosing, and Lot said, I'm going
down into the city. I feel safe there, I feel comfortable. There's business opportunities
and all of these things and the Lord allowed him to go. And now
he's become one of the leaders of the city of Sodom. He's invested
in this place. And we see that in his story
because he lingered in Sodom, didn't he? And the Lord had to
take him by the hand and draw him out. Is there not some lingering on
our part? And the Lord sends his angels
to deliver us. Part of us is invested in this
world, aren't we? We've got things to lose in this
world if we're going to be delivered. And there's part of us that is
attracted to the things of this world. And yet, without any help
on Lot's part, God did it all. God did everything in bringing
Lot out. And there's my hope that the
Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation. Even
when they are lingering in Sodom, even when they are sitting at
the gate, invested in the world, the Lord's not going to leave
them there. He's not going to allow them
to remain. And he won't allow you and me. What an encouraging truth. The
Lord knows how to deliver the godly. the just men, those who
are just in Christ, those who are righteous in Christ, those
who are in Christ, and he will deliver us. He will deliver us
from all trials and all troubles and all temptations. Now, the fact that the Lord tells
us that Lot's soul was vexed from day to day, This is, again, a description
of a believer living in this world. Part of us vested in this world
and yet at the very same time the soul of the just and the
righteous are vexed by what they see in this world and more so
by what they see in themselves. Who did that? Who did that for
you? Why is the world not bothered
by the rebellion against God in this
world? Why is the world not bothered
by their own sin like you are? One answer to that question,
the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit. That's the difference. God gives
to us in the new birth, the Spirit of God. And the Spirit of God
is the one who convicts us of our sin and shows us our unbelief. It is the Spirit of God that
brings conviction and comfort. It is the Spirit of God that
reveals to us what the world cannot see and the righteous
soul of God's children is vexed day by day. The scripture says we rejoice
with trembling and so we rejoice in Christ and we are free in
Christ and we rest in Christ and at the same time there's
a vexing of the soul, there's a trembling, there's an old man
that never leaves us. That's what Paul was talking
about in Romans chapter 7 when he said, O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? That's
what Job was talking about after hearing the gospel and he said,
O behold, I am vile. Daniel said, When the Lord revealed
himself to Daniel and spoke to Daniel, Daniel said, my comeliness,
my beauty and my strength and those things that I thought were
of virtue and value have been turned into corruption. It's
what happens when God makes you to be a sinner, doesn't he? He
vexes your soul with the wickedness of the world and of your own
heart. And that's a blessing. Is this not the means by which
God knows how to deliver the righteous from temptations? If
we didn't have the Spirit of God, we wouldn't be delivered.
If the Spirit of God did not strive with us. John chapter 16, verse 8, the
Lord said, It's expedient for you that I go away, for if I
go not away, the Comforter will not come. But when he comes,
and I've misquoted this verse several times over the years,
I've said that he will convict the world of sin. The word in
the scriptures is he will reprove the world of sin. And we know
that by the word world there, he's talking about his people,
his children that are in the world. And that word reprove
means to convince. That's what it means. Don't misinterpret a guilty conscience
to the conviction of sin. The unbeliever can experience
a guilty conscience. An unbeliever can be convicted
of bad behavior. But only the Holy Spirit at work
in the hearts of God's people reproves them of sin and convinces
them that they are sinners. That's a work of the Spirit of
God. The world doesn't know anything about that. You talk to an unbeliever
about sin and they, oh yeah, their conscience has convicted
them of things that they've done wrong and they will, you know,
tell you. I've never met a person who said,
well, I've never sinned. Maybe there's somebody like that
in the world but Men have conscience. They have the law of God written
on their heart from birth. They know when they do wrong.
But to be reproved of sin, to be convinced of sin, that's the
work of the Spirit of God. That's to know that everything
about you is sinful, that you have no righteousness, and that
everything about you falls short of the glory of God. That's the
Spirit of God. And so the first thing that we
see about Lot and the Lord delivering him from temptation is the work
of the Spirit of God in his heart, vexing his righteous soul with
the wicked. And we saw that in Peter. He
saw it, he experienced it, he heard it. Is this not the first thing the
Lord does? and he gives us his Spirit. You
see, that's why regeneration, a sovereign work of God's free
grace imparting life into a dead sinner's heart, comes, yes, at
the same time as faith, chronologically they come together, Regeneration
and faith happen at the same time. But in an order of reason, if you will, one must
precede the other. We must receive the Spirit of
God. We must, that's what the Lord
said to Nicodemus. Nicodemus, the spirit's like
the wind, you don't know when he's coming or where, you've
got to be born of this, except a man be born of the spirit,
he cannot see the kingdom of God. So this new birth given
to us by the Holy Spirit is the means by which the Lord knows
how to deliver the godly from their temptations. Oh God, thank
you for your Holy Spirit. Thank you and Lord give me more
of your Spirit and forgive me for having grieved your Spirit
and for having quenched the Spirit. The Bible talks about grieving
the Spirit of God and quenching the Spirit of God and yet you
can't make him go away. You can grieve him temporarily,
you can quench him for a period of time but he's persistent. He's not gonna let that. He's
not gonna let that happen. Why? Because the Lord knows how
to deliver the godly from temptations. And the means by which he does
that is the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. And so we
continue to ask the Lord. The Lord said, if you being evil
know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more
your heavenly father? who's not evil and who loves
you so much more than you could ever love your own children,
will give his spirit to them who ask him. Lord, give us your
spirit. Lord, bless us with your Holy
Spirit. Forgive me for not responding
to him as I ought. And that's what David prayed
in Psalm 51, take not thy spirit from me. It was the Holy Spirit. Yes,
it was Nathan that said to David, thou art the man, but it was
the Spirit of God that used the words of that messenger to break
David's heart and to convict him of his sin and to bring him
back to Christ. And that's why David said, Lord,
if you take your spirit from me, there's no way I'm going
to be delivered from my temptations. I must have the Holy Spirit. Second thing, the means by which the Lord delivers
the godly. from their temptations is what
we were just talking about, prayer. Prayer. Now, prayer is an expression of faith. There is nothing to be proud
of in prayer. There's nothing to be self-righteous
about in prayer. Prayer is just the opposite.
Prayer by its very nature is the absence of works and the
absence of righteousness. It is the dependent one crying
out for mercy and asking the Lord to deliver them. You know,
being delivered is not the reward for prayer, it's that God sets
the heart to pray and causes us to rejoice in his work of
grace in answering that prayer. Turn with me to Psalm 34. Psalm
34. I'm interested. in being delivered from my temptations,
whatever they might be in whatever form they might come in. And
if I'm gonna be delivered, God's gonna have to do it. And this
is the very things that he did for Lot is what he does for all
of his children. Look at Psalm 34 at verse 17. The righteous cry, the Lord and
the Lord heareth and delivered them out of all their troubles.
The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart." Where'd
that broken heart come from? Came from him, didn't it? So
faith and a broken heart and crying out is all his work of
grace in the heart. And this is the means by which
the Lord delivers the godly out of their temptations. They cry,
he hears and he delivers them. He's going to make them cry.
He's going to make them cry. and saveth such as of a contrite
heart. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all." I remind you, when the Lord delivers
his children from temptations, he's talking about not just the
enticement to sin, all those sin is involved, even in the
trials and troubles that he puts us in, isn't it? He delivers
them. He may not deliver us from our
circumstances but he will deliver us from the unbelief and the
fear and the, well, just leave it at that, the unbelief and
fear that attend those circumstances when we cry unto him. When the Lord was praying and
if he prayed, my goodness, how much more you and I need to pray
in the Garden of Gethsemane. And he came back and found those
disciples asleep and he woke them up. And what did he say
to them? Watch. Watch and pray that you
enter not into temptation for the Spirit Indeed, it's willing,
but the flesh is weak. Prayer is the expression of a
weak flesh. There's nothing in prayer, as
I said, to be proud of. When our Lord taught us in that
model of prayer to pray, the last thing he said was, pray
like this, Lord deliver us, deliver us from evil, lead us not into
temptation." Oh, how important this means of prayer is in being
delivered. The Lord would set our hearts
to pray. He said, well, what evidence
do you have that Lot prayed? Well, his righteous soul was
vexed. I assume that means that he found
himself crying out for help. But it's not just our prayers
for ourselves. It's the prayers of others, the
entire chapter 18 before we get to chapter 19 in Genesis. You
know that story. Who's praying? Abraham's praying. Who's he praying for? He's praying
for Lot. Praying for Lot. Lord, if there'd be 50 men and
40 men and 30 men, 10. The Lord said, if I find 10 righteous
men, I'll not destroy the city. Abraham is interceding for Lot
in prayer. Let us never underestimate the
importance of praying for one another. Praying for our children,
praying for each other, praying for me. I pray for you. It's,
the Lord's going to deliver us. He's going to use the means of
prayer to do it, just as he uses the means of his Holy Spirit.
And he's going to set the heart to pray. And I love the story
over there in Daniel. I think it's in Daniel chapter
10. Turn to me, I want to show you
a couple of verses in Daniel 10. Well, I thought I made a note to what
those verses were, but let me just tell you the story. You
already know it. Daniel prayed for three weeks that the Lord
would deliver the children of Israel from Babylon. And after several verses, the
Lord speaks to Daniel. And he says to Daniel, he says,
Daniel, from the day in which you set your heart to pray, I
heard thee and I have come now to answer your prayer. What do we see in that? You know,
in 1 Thessalonians chapter five, we looked at this passage recently
and I was so comforted to hear or to realize that it didn't
mean what I always thought it meant. when the Lord said to
pray without ceasing. You know, every time I looked
at that verse, I thought, I've never prayed without ceasing.
Do you just be in a constant spirit of prayer all the time?
But that's not what that means. It said, don't quit praying.
Don't quit praying. I mean, I would love to be in
a spirit of prayer all the time. But what the Lord's saying is,
keep asking. And the verb tense of, if you
knock, the door will be open. If you ask, you'll receive. And
if you seek, you'll find. The verb tense is a continuation.
If you continue knocking, the door will be open unto you. If
you continue seeking, you will find. If you continue asking,
it will be given unto you. But why does the Lord give us
that? Well, you and I have all prayed half-hearted prayers where
we just said something and we didn't, you know, and, you know,
our hearts weren't contrite. We weren't serious about praying. We just offered up a half-hearted
prayer. And the Lord will, when the Lord
sets the heart to pray, he causes us to pray without ceasing. He
causes us to continue knocking and asking, And as he did with
Daniel for three weeks before he came, what is the Lord doing? He's trying our faith. He's trying
our faith. He said, are you serious about
this? And he's teaching us through
prayer and preparing us through that time of prayer for the answer
that he's going to give. So Abraham kept praying. He kept interceding. So God uses
the means of prayer, uses our prayers for ourselves, puts it
in our hearts to pray. He uses the prayers of others.
You know, I thought, I mean, how many people in this world
have a believer praying for them? Out of the billions of people
in this world, what a difference. Pray for your children, pray
for your loved ones, pray for one another. It's a rare thing
to have a believer going before the throne of grace and interceding
for them. That's a rare thing and yet the
Lord has purposed it. Watch and pray that you enter
not into temptations. God uses the prayers. I've thought
about Eunice and Lois, you know, they prayed for for Timothy and
Paul reminded Timothy of what his mother and grandmother taught
him and how they prayed for him and interceded for them and taught
him the scriptures. And was this not the means that
the Lord used to deliver the godly out of temptations? Most
importantly, It's not just our prayers for each other and it's
not our prayers for, I mean, for ourselves or our prayers
for one another. It is the intercessory of the Lord Jesus Christ praying
for us. Peter, before the cock crows,
you're going to deny me three times, but be of good cheer.
I've prayed for you. Is that not what made the difference
between Peter and Judas? Did Peter and Judas not do the
same thing that night? And yet the Lord prayed for Peter.
He didn't pray for Judas. We have the Lord Jesus Christ
seated at the right hand of God, interceding for us. What hope,
what comfort. His prayers are always answered,
aren't they? The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations. The means by which he does that
is his Holy Spirit and this spirit of prayer that he puts in our
hearts for ourselves, for one another, and that expresses itself
perfectly in the heart and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ as our
intercessor. Father, I pray not for the world,
I pray for them which thou has given me out of the world, John
17. I pray that they be with me and
they see my glory. Is there any way for that prayer
to go unanswered? No, no. This is how the Lord delivers
the godly from their temptations. Thirdly, we see in Genesis chapter
19, if you'd like to turn back with me there, The Lord does this. This is,
you know, it's talking to a brother. As a matter of fact, Tia, your
pastor, I was talking to him yesterday, Fred, and we were
talking, he was talking about someone that he knew that was
promoting progressive sanctification. And really, that's a works-based
doctrine, isn't it? That we can somehow work our
way into becoming less sinful and there's nothing, there's
no works involved in what the Lord does to deliver the godly
out of temptation, it's his work. It's his work that sent us the
Spirit of God. It's his work that sets the heart to pray.
It's his work that causes us to pray for one another. And
it's his work that the Lord Jesus Christ is so perfect and faithful
in praying for us. We're not, this is all God's
doing. And we rejoice because we're
the ones who need to be delivered from temptation. What is another
means that the Lord used to deliver Lot from the temptations and
from the destruction that would come against Sodom? Well, he
sent two messengers, didn't he? He sent two messengers and the
Lord's going to deliver me and you, he's going to send messenger.
He's going to send someone with the word from God. Faith comes
by hearing and hearing comes by the Word of God. What a blessing
it is to have someone speak to us, whether it be a preacher
or a brother, a sister in Christ, reminding us what the Lord has
said and what He's done. And two, by the mouth of two
witnesses shall a thing be confirmed. This message that God sends is
not a strange message, it's not a unique message, it's a message
that all of God's people agree on. When the Lord sent the disciples
out to preach the gospel, he sent them out two by two. Why? We're not looking for just some
odd revelation given to us by some wide-eyed prophet, we're
looking for God's Word. And when he sends his Word, he
always confirms it with two witnesses. And then when we go to the book
of Revelation and we find that the two witnesses of God lie
dead in the street of Jerusalem, what is that a reference to? Well, it's the Holy Spirit and
the Word of God. Those are the two witnesses.
The Spirit of God takes the Word of God and speaks truth to the
hearts of God's people. And in that passage in Revelation,
it's talking about man-made religion. And the Spirit of God and the
Word of God is dead to them. They're lying in the streets
dead. And so, thankfully, Thankfully,
the Spirit of God and the Word of God is alive in the hearts
of God's people and he knows how to use these two witnesses
and the voice of his people and his preachers to deliver us from
our temptations. How many times we've listened
to a message and we've heard God's Word and we've Thank you,
Lord. I was so afraid and I was so
enticed and I was so concerned and worried about this and you've
delivered me again. What did you deliver? You sent
an angel. An angel is a messenger. You
sent an angel, a messenger from heaven to tell me what you said. And the other means is that God
gave Lot the grace to believe these men. He believed them. Look at chapter 19 of Genesis.
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, and he said, Behold, now My lords, turn
in, 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
way. And they said, nay, but we will abide in the streets
all night. Now here's another evidence of what are these messengers
from God saying to Lot? Are you serious about us coming
into your home? We'll just stay out here in the
street. Is that not exactly what our Lord did when he was walking
with those two disciples in Luke chapter 24 on the road to Emmaus? And he spoke to them about those
things concerning himself. And they got to their home in
Emmaus and the scripture says the Lord acted as if he would
go on. Okay, good talking to you guys.
I'm gonna continue my journey. What's the Lord doing? He's doing
the same thing he did for Lot. Are you serious about this? And Lot pleaded with them. Lot
said, oh no, no, no, don't stay in the streets, come in, come
in. And those disciples pleaded with
the Lord, oh no, come in and break bread with us. And it was
in the breaking of the bread. It was in the revealing of himself
in scripture by these witnesses. their eyes were open and they
beheld him and he immediately went away and what they say,
oh did not our hearts burn within us as he spake with us along
the way. But he won't reveal himself, the means by which he
causes us to be delivered from our temptations is to put in
our hearts an insistent need for him. It's some sort of casual
You know, thought or interest or religious idea. The Lord's
not gonna stop for that. What did he call Zot to do? Look
at verse three. And he pressed them greatly. He pressed them greatly. Oh,
these men are from God. No, you can't stay out in the
street. He insisted that they come in. That's what praying
without ceasing is. Lord, I can't get deliverance
until you come. Lord, until you cause your face
to shine, until you answer my prayer, until you deliver me. Lord, I've got no other means
by which to be delivered from my temptations." And he pressed
them greatly. And they turned in unto him and
entered into his house. And he made them a feast and
did break unleavened bread. And they did eat." Well, we know
who that unleavened bread is, don't we? Oh, that's what the
Lord does. When we insist and we pray, he's causing us. He's trying
our faith. The faith that's not tried is
not proven. But a faith that's tried is a faith that won't give
up until the Lord answers. Daniel, from the day that you
set your heart to pray, I heard you. But I didn't come for three
whole weeks. Why? Because you needed that
experience. You learned some things about
yourself in that time of prayer, didn't you? And you became more
and more dependent upon me in that time of prayer. And that
time of prayer proved your need. He calls them to receive these
messengers and he calls them to believe what they said. I mentioned it earlier, let's
read on. And before they laid 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 and said unto him, where 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 after him and said, I pray you, brethren,
do not do so wickedly. Behold, now I have two daughters
which have not known men. Please, let me, I pray you, bring
them out unto you and do you as to them as it is good in your
eyes. Only unto these men do nothing.
For therefore came they under the shadow of my roof. I don't
know what all that means or how a man could say that, but I think
it's supposed to say to us that Lot valued God's word more than
anything else. He needed to know that the Lord
was gonna deliver him from this temptation. That was the most
important thing to him. More than family, more than anything
else, he needed that. Is that not our greatest need?
To be delivered, to be saved, to be made right with God. Whatever
else might be, whatever else we love, whatever else might
be important to us, that is the one thing needful. The one thing
needful. they said, stand back, verse
9, and they said again, this one fellow came in to sojourn
and he will needs be a judge. He's talking about a lot. These men of the city said, you
came here as an outsider and you're judging us? Not what the world does. Yeah,
you gonna stand in judgment of us? Now we will 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 that they wearied themselves to find the door. Not only did
the Lord cause Lot to believe the message that he had sent.
But he often delivers the godly from temptations by thwarting,
by thwarting the efforts of this world to draw us away. And aren't you glad? How many
times you've seen in your own experience where God did something
with another person or with your circumstances or with the situation
to deliver you from your temptations. He's Lord over the living, that's
us, and he's Lord over the dead, that's them. And the wrath of
man shall praise him and the remainder of wrath, that which
he can't use for his glory, he will restrain. Oh Lord, turn
by your power and you blind them, Lord change my, take it away,
you know, deliver me. Whatever it takes. And the men said unto Lot, verse
12, hast thou here any beside Son-in-law, my sons and my daughters,
whatever thou hast in the city, bring them out to 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 has sent us
to destroy it. And Lot went out, spake unto
his sons-in-laws, which were to be obviously from the context. His daughters had never known
a man. and that they were engaged to these young men, 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, sons-in-law. They don't believe it. Lot believed. You believe it,
don't you? You believe everything God said
and you believe there's a day coming when God's going to destroy
this world with fire. He's going to destroy this whole
world the same way he destroyed Sodom, he's going to rain fire
from heaven and more than anything else, you've got to be delivered
from that wrath and from that judgment. 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
with 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. And Lot being merciful, and the
Lord, I'm sorry, being merciful unto him, they brought him forth
and set him without the city." Aren't you thankful? The means
by which the Lord delivers the godly from temptations is that
he will take us by the hand even when we linger, even when we
When part of us is attracted to and find safety and security
in the things of this world, he will take us by the hand and
lead us out. What a blessing. What a merciful
God. And he would not just leave us
to ourselves. Well, if you want to linger,
I'll just leave you here. Oh no, Lord. If I'm lingering,
take me out by my hand." No credit to Lot for anything
that the Lord did to deliver him from the destruction that was
coming. God knows how to deliver the godly from temptations, aren't
you glad? Aren't you glad? 1st Samuel chapter 7. Children
of Israel had gone 20 years without the ark and the Lord had put
it in their hearts to be grieved over that. What did he use to
do that? The surrounding of the Philistines.
The Philistines had them under their control and they were abusing
them and And they went to Samuel and Samuel said this, he said,
forsake Balaam and Asherah, forsake your gods and serve the Lord
God only. And the Lord gave them grace
to do that. They burned their idols. And they said to Samuel, they
said, pray to the Lord, our God for us. And Samuel did, he interceded
for him. That we might be delivered from
these Philistines. Lord, we've got to be delivered.
This enemy is too strong for us. And after Samuel had prayed,
the scripture says that the Lord discomfited, put the Philistines
in disarray, turned them on themselves, destroyed the Philistines, And
Samuel took a large stone and set it up and called the stone
Ebenezer. Ebenezer. As a testimony of God's
strength, Ebenezer translated means the stone of strength. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
is that stone. He is our strength and his grace
is sufficient for us. and his grace is manifested in
our weakness. Paul said, when I'm weak, then
I'm strong. He said that God's strength is
made perfect in my weakness. So here we are, brethren, we're
just like Lot, aren't we? We linger, we're attracted to
things of Sodom. Oh, we must be delivered. The
Lord sends his spirit, puts our hearts to pray, sends messengers,
gives us the truth, puts faith in our hearts to believe what
they say and even when we linger, he draws
us out and he calls it Ebenezer, the Lord Jesus Christ. You know
there's going to come a day for each one of us when we're going to leave this
world And there's gonna be a part of every one of us. I've seen
it happen enough. You have too. There's gonna be
something in our flesh that's going to linger. That's going
to resist that moment of truth when the Lord takes us. But you
know what he's gonna do? He's gonna take us by the hand. He's gonna take us by the hand.
he's going to take those angels, those messengers, and he's going
to usher us into his glory and into his presence. He's going
to deliver us before judgment comes, before fire comes, before
this world is consumed and all that's in this world. He's going
to take us home and he's going to do it and he's going to get
all the glory for it. He knows how to deliver the godly
from their temptations. Amen. Amen. Tom, we're gonna sing 17 in the hard back tenor.
Let's stand together.