Genesis chapter 19. I don't know
where I'll stop reading that here. Let me see. Let me read down to 24. And there came two angels to
Sodom at evening, 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. 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 around, both old and young. I wrote out some things, when
I'm studying, oftentimes I'll write out beside a scripture,
something that hits me. And I wrote out beside this one,
sin never dies. Old, and you think when somebody
gets old, that it would die down, wouldn't it? Old and young, sin
never dies. They compassed the house round
about both old and young, all the people from every quarter.
And they called in the 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. Another translation is this,
that we may rake them. That's the translation of that,
that we may rake them. And Lot went out at the door
unto them and shut the door after him and said, I pray you, brethren,
do not so wickedly. Behold, now I have two daughters,
and I can't comprehend this, but 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. But therefore came they under
the shadow of my roof. And they said, stand back. And
they said, again, this one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will
need to 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, poured 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. And the men
said unto the Lord, hast thou here any besides son-in-law and
thy sons and thy daughters? And whatsoever thou hast in the
city, bring them out of this place. I tell you, the mercy
of God. He said, get your family together
and bring them with you. For we will destroy this place.
Because the cry of them is wax and gray before the face of the
Lord, they've done this sin in God's sight. And the Lord has
sent us to destroy it. Lot went out and spake unto his
sons-in-law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get
you out of this place, or the Lord will destroy this city.
But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in-law. And when
the morning arose, and 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 lot just lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand. Isn't
that us? Isn't this us? How many times you hear the gospel,
you hear the gospel, you hear the gospel, you get up and you
walk away and you walk away. And it's the mercy of God, he
grabs you. He says, you're mine, you're mine, you're coming out.
The men laid hold of his hand upon the hand of his wife and
upon the hand of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful unto
him. I mean, that's a message right there. They brought him
forth and set him without the city. 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,
oh, not so, my lord, I can't believe. It's amazing, sitting
there arguing with them. contending with them. Behold,
now thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and 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 unto. It's a little
one, let me escape there. Is it not a little one? You think
because it's a little one it's not as sinful? Is that what you
think? It was just as wretched. He said
unto him, see, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also,
that I'll 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 called Zor. The sun was risen upon the earth
when light entered into Zor. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom
and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities
and all the plain and all that happened to the cities that which
and that which grew up on the ground. Our Father, bless your
word that we've read. We pray that you'd be our teacher
this morning, that you'd instruct us, that you would enable us
to give unto you the glory due unto your name, that you would
enable me to rightly divide the word of truth. We look to thee
for all things. We look to thee this morning
especially for the spirit of worship, in the spirit of wisdom. In Christ's name we pray and
amen. I titled this lesson Gleanings
from Genesis 19. The one thing we need to remember
is that these things were written for our learning, not our amusement,
not our entertainment, our learning. Everything in the word of God
is written for our learning. In Genesis 19 here, we can see
the Lord's mercy to the righteous, and there's no way I'm gonna
cover all that I just read. There's so much, like just that
one verse, the Lord being merciful unto him, taking him by the hand
and taking him out of that place. That alone is such a picture
of the gospel. But we see that the righteous,
we'll see that the righteous cannot be destroyed with the
wicked. We can see that our testimony can be greatly diminished by
the company we keep. His sons-in-law, when they heard
him speak of the overthrow, they looked at him as one that mocked.
You serious? You serious? Is it going to burn
this place up? I mean, I'm sure the sun was
shining, and it was a beautiful day. You're telling us that God's
gonna burn this up. That's the way the world looks
at us. You tell them God's gonna burn this place up. And they
look at us as a people that mock, make fun. And then we'll see something
of the sin of looking back. And then last of all, and I don't
know if I'll make it down to there, but if not this week,
next time, God remembered Abraham and says, There in verse 29,
I didn't read on down to there, but he remembered Abraham and
sent Lot out of the overthrow. Now, first of all, God sent two
angels to deliver Lot from the overthrow and the execution of
judgment. It says in verse one, and there
came two angels to Sodom at evening. You know, there's no accidents
with God, evening. That just denotes the end. Christ has come in the end of
this world. When they went down there, it
was evening. It was their end. It was their end. But the one
thing I want to point out here is this. Angels are very real.
The scripture says in Hebrews 1.14, are they not all ministering
spirits sent forth to minister, to serve, and to help? to protect
them who shall be heirs of salvation? Over in 2 Kings, there was a
young man with Elisha and they were in this city and the city
was besieged by the king of Syria. You go over and read in 2 Kings
chapter six, read that chapter when you get time. And that young
man was afraid. The city was surrounded by the
army of Syria, and he was afraid. And Elisha prayed, he said, Lord,
I pray thee, open his eyes, open this young man's eyes that he
may see. And the Lord opened the eyes
of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was
full of horses and chariots of fire round about. Elisha. That's very real. That's very
real. It says in Psalm 91, 11, for
he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all
thy ways. Now, the first application of
that is to Jesus Christ. But what applies to the head
applies to the body. If it applies to Christ, it applies
to me in Christ, us in Christ. Listen to this, Matthew 18, 10.
We can't turn to these, we won't have time. But listen to this. Take heed that you despise not
one of these little ones. For I say unto you that in heaven,
their angels, their angels do always behold the face of my
Father which is in heaven. He said, you be careful that
you don't despise any of these little ones because they're angels. Do always behold the face of
my Father which is in heaven. And if he says to one of them,
take care of this problem, take care of this person, they're
in trouble, trouble. And in the book of Revelation,
when you read it, they are used, angels are used to execute judgment. And there's something else I
wanna point out here. Sodom and Gomorrah had great privileges.
They lived there in the well-watered plains of Jordan. Look over in
Luke 17. Luke 17. In Luke 17, let me, I'll give
you the verse when I get there. Look in verse 26, in Luke 17,
verse 26. And as it was in the days of
Noah, so shall it also be in the days of the Son of Man. They
did eat, they drank, they married wives. They were given in marriage
until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came
and destroyed them all. Likewise, also, as it was in
the days of Lot, They did eat, they drank, they bought, they
sold, they planted, they built, it is prosperous. Prosperous. But the same day that lot went
out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and
destroyed them all. As I said, these things are written for
our learning. And here our Lord reaches back to this time when
God burned Sodom and Gomorrah to the ground. But he says, as
it is in that day. Well, it just feels like we're
living again in that day. It does to me with what's going
on. They ate, they did eat, they
drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built it.
They had great privileges, great privileges. They even had a believer among
them, a lot. And I told you the last time,
I have no doubt Lot spoke to them of God. No doubt he spoke
to them of the gospel. There's no way that righteous
man was there all that time and not tell the truth. He told them
the truth. But instead of giving thanks
to God for their blessings, they serve the lust of their
flesh. They serve the lust of their flesh. They thank themselves. There's like that rich man says,
so thou hast much good. What am I going to do? We're
so blessed. What are we going to do? And
rich man said, I tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to
tear down my barns and build bigger ones. So I have more places
to store stuff. Stuff. My mother said to me here,
we're talking not too long ago, we're talking about, dividing things up. They made
me the executor of the wheel. And she said, this is nothing
but just stuff. That's all it is. She said, just
stuff. And that's all it is. It's just
stuff. I'm going to tear down my barns and build bigger ones
so I can have a bigger place to put my stuff. Wouldn't it
have been something if that rich man, or even like here in Sodom,
if he'd have just said, so thou hast much good. God has blessed
you. Where can we send the gospel? How can we be a blessing to others?
Instead it was, how can I bless myself more? That's their attitude. I read to you Romans 1, you can
go home and read it again, but it fits this place. It fits Sodom
and it fits our day. They worshiped and served the
creature more than the creator. Is that not our day? We worship
athletes. From Crownel Lab, we worship
athletes. This country worships athletes. And what they call
movie stars, they worship them. No one has an excuse for not
knowing God. No one. We can look at creation. We can look in the mirror. and
see the handiwork of God. There is enough in creation that
a person can look at and cause that person to seek, now listen,
to seek the creator. There's enough that we look at. Look over in Psalm 19. In Psalm 19, listen, the heavens declare the glory
of God every day. Absolutely every day the heavens
declare God's glory and the firmament shows his handiwork. Day unto
day utter a speech and night unto night showeth knowledge.
What is the speech and what is the knowledge that it shows?
Listen, that God is. That God is. And no one has an
excuse for not seeking the God that is. No one. He's saying right here in Psalm
19, day unto day utter speech. Every day utters that God is,
it screams. When the sun rises in the morning,
that's that hot burning sun that gives us light and warmth. Every
day that sun is screaming, God is. It just screams it, God is. And
it gives knowledge, knowledge that God is. And there's no speech
nor language. There is no place on this earth
where their voice is not heard. That's why no one, no one will
have an excuse for not seeking the Lord. No one. Says their
line has gone out through all the earth and their words, words to the end of the world. No one has an excuse for not
seeking God. Now there's something else we
learn here. Sin must be dealt with. It says in verse 13, for
we will destroy this place because the cry of them, the wickedness
of them is waxing great before the face of the Lord. David,
you know, in Psalm 51, David said, "'Against thee and thee only
have I sinned "'and done this evil in thy sight.'" Right in
your face. That's right in your face. And
it's saying here that they have, out of all that God has, the
blessings, the advantages that they have had, they did all this wickedness
right in God's face. right in his face. He said, the
cries waxen great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord
has sent us to destroy this place. Sin cannot go unpunished. It
is written in Numbers 32, 23, but if you will not do so, behold,
you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find
you out. You know, the scripture says,
some men's sins have gone on before them, and some men's sins
follow after. The believer's sins, my sins,
all my sins, all your sins, you who believe, they've gone on
before us. They've already been dealt with.
They were dealt with at Calvary. They were dealt with in the Lord
Jesus Christ. All my sins have gone on before me, and they've
already been dealt with. But all those who wind up lost, their sins are coming after them. When they stand before God, when
life's over, when they die, and they finally stand before God,
their whole life is gonna slam right into them. It is literally
gonna slam right into them. Every idle thought, every idle
word, is gonna slam right into them. And then they gotta deal
with it. And they gotta deal with God,
who will by no means clear the guilty. It's gotta be dealt with. The scripture says in Ezekiel
18, 20, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. No one gets away with sin. You see somebody that's done
something, you say, man, he got away with murder. Men can't even get away with
an idle thought. God said, that's going to be
brought into judgment. He said, every secret thing of the heart
is going to be brought into judgment. It's got to be dealt with. It's
going to be dealt with. And then another thing we see
here is this, the righteous cannot be punished with the wicked.
God's going to deal with sin. God's going to deal with this
world, but the righteous are not going to suffer with the
wicked. He says in verse 22, haste thee, escape thither, for
I cannot do anything till thou become thither, till you get
out of this city. Therefore the name of the city
that he was wanting to go to was called Zor, but that angel
says, I can't do anything until you're safe. Do you like that? Brother, that's so comforting
to me when I read this portion of scripture and that angel says,
we have come to destroy this place, but we can't do anything
until you are safe. I'm not worried about this world
falling apart. When I was 18 years old and I
was working as an apprentice machinist, There was this thing
that had spread through the plant where I was working, of Armageddon.
I mean, it went like wildfire. They was reading this book, I
think it was written by Hal Lindsey, The Late Great Planet Earth.
But they were, that, I mean, it went through that place like
wildfire. And people were leaving work.
I mean, men were leaving work, especially this one guy who was
kind of the ringleader of it. And they was going over to this
man's pastor's house. They was coming back saved. Everyone
was coming back saved. It didn't last long, but they
all come back saved. But they was scared to death.
They sang Armageddon. You know, the end of time and
going through the tribulation. Do you ever think about that?
I mean, I got caught up in it. You ever think about that? It
doesn't even cross my mind. It doesn't cross my mind, because
I tell you why. In Christ, I'm safe. I'm safe. I don't have to deal with all
that. Whatever it is, I don't even know what all that's gonna
happen at the end. I don't know all that, what's gonna happen.
I know how God saves sinners. I know how God saves sinners. Henry said one time, people talk
about being all-Millennials, pre-Millennials. Henry said he
was a pan-Millennials. He said, it's all gonna pan out
in the end. I don't know how all that's going
to happen. I've spent too much time here,
but they talk about the rapture of the church, they're caught
up in the rapture of the church, and they show all these planes
crashing, like that many people saved. All these planes crashing
and cars crashing. However, religion, whatever's
popular with religion, whichever way it's going, you go the other
way. You go the other way. If the popularity of religion
is going to the left, you go to the right. Because I can assure
you it's not what they say it is. It's a diversion. It's a satanic tactic. You keep
your eyes on Christ. Paul said, I press toward the
mark for the prize of the icon of God in Christ Jesus. We keep,
he's the mark. I'm not gonna get caught up in
all this things and revelations that we can't even comprehend.
But I can comprehend this. God's given me an understanding
of how I can be a just, how God can be a just God and save me. I can understand that because
God's given me an understanding. but the righteous are not gonna
be punished with the wicked. Now listen to Revelation 7 verse
three, listen to this. Hurt not the earth. This is the
Lord speaking to the angels who are gonna execute judgment. Hurt
not the earth, neither the sea nor the trees, till we have sealed
the servants of our God in their foreheads. Don't you hurt the
earth? Don't you hurt the sea? Don't
you touch the trees until we have saved, until all of God's
children are saved. And then when God does take the
church out, then this place will be done with. It'll be done with. And it's not because there's
nothing punishable in them, but that Jesus Christ was punished
in their stead. I mean, I know there are things
punishable in me, but in Christ, I'm righteous. In Christ, I have
no sin. In Christ, it has already been
dealt with. And as I pointed out there back
in verse 12, mercy is extended to Lot's family. Well, this just
jumped out at me this morning. I scribbled this in here. Mercy
extended to Lot's family. Bring your family. Bring your
family to hear the gospel. If they'll come, if they'll come.
You can't make them come. Locke couldn't make his sons-in-laws
leave Sodom. But he went and told them, didn't
he? He did go tell them. He went and told them. And then here's something else
we see. Judgment is sure in the Lord, in verse 24. Then the Lord
rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord
out of heaven. He burned that place up as an
example. Judgment is sure. It's from heaven. It is real. And it's going to happen. Turn over
to 2 Peter. 2 Peter chapter 3. 2 Peter chapter 3, look in verse
3. Knowing this first, that there
shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lust
and saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the
fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the
beginning of creation. You keep saying, you keep saying
that Christ is coming. You keep saying that God's gonna
destroy this world. Where is it at? You've been saying
that for 6,000 years. For this they willingly are ignorant
of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the
earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the
world that then was being overflowed with water perished. They're
ignorant. They willingly ignore the fact that God destroyed this
earth one time before with a flood. They willingly ignore that. But
the heavens and the earth, which are now by the same word, are
kept in store, reserved, that's what's going
on right now, God's reserved this place, unto fire against
the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. Now look over in verse 11, or
down to verse 11, seeing then, that all these things shall be
dissolved. This is for me and you, okay?
This is for me and you who believe the gospel. Seeing then that
all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought
you to be in all holy conversation and godliness? Looking for and
hastening unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens,
being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat. Does that scare you? Does that
make you afraid? Nevertheless, we, according to
his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells
righteousness. It doesn't scare you. It's so.
And I stand and I preach and I say it and tell it. And the
world out there says you're crazy. That's been said for 6,000 years
and things are still going. but you're willingly ignorant. God did destroy this world one
time, and he's gonna do it again. But it doesn't scare you. Not
if you believe the gospel, it doesn't. It doesn't make you
afraid, because you know that you're not gonna be a part of
it. Your judgment passed on Christ. And this judgment is a just judgment. I cannot I cannot understand the eternal
punishment of the wicked. I can't grasp the never-ending
punishment of the wicked. I can't grasp that. But I do
know this, it's just. It's a just punishment. It's
right. It's right. And then it's final. It's final. As the tree falls,
scripture says, so shall it lie. There'll be no change. When Jesus
Christ says, depart from me, it's final. No do-overs. No do-overs. No, what do you call it, golf
mulligans? You hit a bad shot and you get
a mulligan. That's because two bad players playing together.
And they let each other have mulligans because they're so
bad. But there's no do-overs, no mulligans. When the Lord says depart, you
gotta depart. It's final. And there is a time
when the iniquity of a person or a people is full and judgment
falls. I was trying to find the scripture
this morning and I just couldn't find it. But the Lord says, He's
speaking of a people and He says when their iniquity is full,
when it's full. then judgment's gonna fall on
them. And then here's a word to the
righteous. A word to the righteous. Don't look back. Don't look back. That's what he says in verse
17. Escape for thy life, look not behind thee. Don't you stay
in the plain, don't look back. But he says his wife looked back. There's nothing to look back
to, is there? You know, salvation is this,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, Hebrews
12.2. That's salvation, looking unto Jesus. Paul said, brethren, I count
not myself to have arrived there in Philippians 3, or myself to
have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those
things which are behind. Don't live in the past. We learn
by experience. Experience produces knowledge. But we don't live in the past. We live in Christ and look into
Christ. Everything we have, now listen,
everything we have is in front of us. You can't run a race looking
behind you. The finish line's not behind
you, it's in front of you. And Christ is the finish line.
He's the finish line. Here's the lesson. Shun every
appearance of evil. Be careful of the company you
keep. It says in 1 Corinthians 15, be not deceived. Evil communications
corrupt good manners. They do. Lot's witness became
as one that mocked. And don't look back. As I said,
I know that we learn from our experiences. But we don't live
upon our experiences, do we? We live upon Jesus Christ, not
experience. And the righteous will not be
destroyed with the wicked. These are lessons we can glean,
that we can glean from Genesis 19. There's a lot there to glean
from. And I didn't make it to Abraham, but it says, God remembered
Abraham and delivered Lot. Well, there's a picture of Christ.
Maybe Lord willing, we can deal with that next time. All right.