The fellowship, it's always good
to be able to gather with God's children, with His children. What a responsibility and what
a privilege to be able to do this. Turn to Genesis chapter 19. Genesis
chapter 19. I'm going to read 30 verses.
And we are going to look at the life of Lot and see if we can't learn some
things. We'll read this and I'll lead
in prayer. I'm not used to not looking up
and seeing a clock. I looked up to see a clock and it's not
there. Okay. Chapter 19. 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 servants' house, and tarry
all night, and wash your feet, and you shall rise up early and
go on your ways. And they said, No, but we will
abide in the street all night. And he pressed upon them greatly,
and they turned in unto him, and he 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, 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 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 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 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 poured lot into the house unto them,
and shut to 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 Lot, Hast thou here any besides son-in-law, and thy
sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city?
Bring them out of this place, for we will destroy this place,
because the cry of them is waxing great before the face of the
Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it. And Lot went out,
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, then the angels hastened a 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, 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, and hath magnified thy mercy, which
thou hast shown me, in saving my life. And I cannot escape
to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I die. Behold, now
this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one. Oh, let
me escape there. Is it not a little one? And my
soul shall live. And he said unto him, See, I
have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will
not overthrow this city for the which thou hast spoken. Haste
thee, escape thither, for I cannot. You can mark this in your Bible.
I've underlined this in my Bible here. I cannot do anything till
thou become hither, till you're safe. until you're safe. Therefore the name of the city
was called Zor. The sun was risen up, the sun
was risen upon the earth when Lot 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 the inhabitants of the cities and
that which grew up on the ground. But his wife looked back from
behind him 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 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. For he
feared to dwell in Zor, and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two
daughters. Let us pray. Our Father, thank
you for your word. Teach us this morning by thy
spirit. Instruct us out of thy word. Lord, let us be instructed. Enable us to hear thy voice.
Forgive us our sins, Father, for Christ's sake. I pray that
you'd enable me to preach the gospel in the power of your spirit.
Lord, no man sufficient for these things. I look to thee this morning
for help. We look to Thee this morning,
Father, for the ability to hear. Bless us with Thy presence. Oh,
make Thy presence known this morning. In Christ's name we
pray, and amen. There's some very important lessons
that we can learn from this chapter. The Scripture says that these
sayings were written for our examples. Some are written as
examples to follow. And some are written as examples
not to follow. You know, Paul said in Philippians
2, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Follow
that example. He sets forth Christ in Philippians
2 as our example. Let's follow that example. But
here it's, don't follow this one. Don't follow this one. Now
what we're going to see here, and I'm going to give you a few
verses here, then we'll get into it. In verse 14, we'll see how
a believer's testimony can be destroyed. It can be destroyed. And then verse 16, we'll see
how the Lord is merciful. He'll not forsake His own. He
will not forsake the work of His hands. God won't do that. He'll not do it. No matter how
much I may stumble, or fall, God will not fail me. God will
not forsake the work of His hands. And we'll see in verses 17 through
20 how much unbelief is still in us. The angels came and they
said, we're going to destroy this place. And it says, and
Lot lingered. He lingered. And then we'll see
in verse 22 that the righteous cannot be punished with the wicked. That can't happen. That is an
impossibility. They cannot be punished with
the wicked. And then we'll see in verse 26, the Lord says, don't
look back. Don't look back. I have nothing
to look back to. I have everything to look forward
to. Salvation is looking unto Jesus. It's looking unto Christ
crucified. That's what salvation is, looking
to Him. And you'll see in verse 29, God remembered Abraham and
he delivered Lot. And this is a beautiful picture.
A beautiful picture of Christ. Of Christ. You and I are forgiven. And don't ever forget this. We
are forgiven for Christ's sake. That's why God's forgiven me.
For Christ's sake. Now let's look at Lot. Lot was
Abraham's nephew. Lot left with Abraham when he
left Ur of the Chaldeans. Lot believed the same gospel.
Now you wouldn't know it by anything. If Moses hadn't wrote this, you'd
never believe Lot was the same man. You wouldn't do it. But
Lot believed the same gospel. He learned the gospel. I have
no doubt he learned the gospel. From Abraham. Abraham taught
him the gospel. God taught him the gospel. Now
how do I know that? Turn over to 2 Peter. Turn over
to 2 Peter chapter 2. 2 Peter chapter 2. Let me read
you something here. Let's look in verse 6. He says here, "...and turning
the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with
an overthrow, making them an example..." As I said, these
things are written for example. "...making them an example unto
those that after should live ungodly, and delivered What's
that say? Just Lot. Just Lot. "...vexed with the 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." God tells us here, the Holy Spirit
tells us through Peter, that Lot was a just man, that he was
a righteous man. He was justified through the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. God justified him. Justification
has to do with between God and Christ on my behalf. It has nothing
to do with what I'm doing, or what I can do, or what I quit
doing. I'm justified through the righteousness,
the blood, the grace of God Almighty. That's how a lot was justified.
The law will justify the exact same way you and I are justified.
Every saint that will be in glory is justified the same way. I'm
talking about the first one God saved or the last one God saved.
It will be through the blood and the righteousness of Jesus
Christ. That's how we're justified. But
this just man, this righteous man made a bad choice. You remember the story of him
and Abraham and their husband started to, they started to fight
around with each other and Abraham said, we be brethren, we're not
gonna fight like this. He said, Lot, you go where you
wanna go. You lift up your eyes and you
go where you wanna go and I'll take what's left. I'll go the
other direction. And it says that Lot looked over the well,
water, plains, and Jordan. And that's where he went. That's
where he went. He made a bad choice, and all
choices, and this is something I want to emphasize, all choices
have consequences, don't they? They all do. God can forgive
me and has forgiven me. If I'm saved, if I'm born of
God, I've been forgiven of all my sins. Did you hit we sing
that song? Did you hear what Jesus said
to me? They're all taken away He can forgive me of all my sins,
but some choices that I made Will have a lifelong consequence
David David's a good example when he sinned with Bathsheba
The prophet said, you're not going to die. God's put your
sins away. But guess what? The sword is
not going to leave your house. It's never going to leave your
house. God can forgive me, but sometimes the consequences last
a lifetime. They just do. And here it did
with Lot. He fell into the same trap, looking,
lusting, and taking. That's exactly what happened.
He looked at the well water plains of Jordan. He didn't look what's
best for me spiritually. He looked at what was best for
him and no doubt his family and he said, I'll take that. I'll
take the lower 40. And that's what he did. That's
exactly what Eve did. She looked. She looked. She lusted. Adam did the same
thing. And then they took. Now look what happened. Now look
at the consequences of the fall. Look at the human race. You know
all that came from a choice that Adam made? All the devastation we see, all
the sin we see, all the trouble we see came from that one decision
of Adam to disobey God. Lot went towards Sodom and he
finally ended up in Sodom. That's where he finally ended
up. And his choice affected his whole family. It affected his
whole family. Our choices always have consequences. And listen, they always, always
affect somebody else. We never sin alone. Never. Never sin alone. Look at verse 14. I told you
it destroyed his testimony. In verse 14, back here in chapter
19, let's go back here. And Lot went out and spake unto
his sons-in-laws. That's what the angel said. If
you've got anybody here, any more family. And it says that
he had sons and daughters, sons-in-laws that were living... It's hard
to say how big that family was. It's hard to say how big it is.
They had big families back then. And Lot went out and spake unto
his sons-in-law, which married his daughters. And he said, Up,
get you out of this place, for the Lord will destroy this city.
But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in-law. They laughed
at him. They laughed at him. Because
of his company with the ungodly. Because of his everyday conduct
with them. No place to worship with his
family. He left. Abraham was the head
of that family. And Abraham conducted worship.
He conducted worship. And a lot left that. He left
that. He neglected the worship and
way of the godly. And his testimony became dead. They had no respect for him at
all. His sons-in-law laughed at him. What he had to say had no weight
to it whatsoever. None. And if you'll note in verse 16, It says here, he lingered. He lingered. The angel just told,
if I told you the house was on fire, if I told you this building
was on fire, but you just sat there and you just lingered because
you really, really don't You really don't believe me. I don't
smell any smoke. The alarm hasn't gone off. I
don't smell any smoke. I don't see any fire. And this
man, God sent two angels down there and he lingered. Lingered. After being told that the city
is going to be destroyed, he lingered. His attachments, now
listen. Because this, I see this in me. I see it in me. His attachments
to whomever and whatever had a death grip on Him. He's having a hard time just
let it go. God's about to take it. Let it
go. Let it go. This is why sinners left to themselves
will not come to the Lord Jesus Christ. even after telling them the house
is on fire. They can't let it go. Can't let
it go. And Lot, when they told him that,
and told him they were going to take him out, he just kept
lingering, lingering. Remember that rich young ruler?
Came to the Lord, Master, follow you wherever, wherever you're
going. I said, I'll follow you everywhere. The Lord told him,
he said, the foxes have holes and the birds have nests, but
I don't have any place. The Son of Man has no place to lay his
head. And you want to follow me? Go sell all that you have and
come follow me. What happened? The Scripture
says he went away very sorrowful because he was very rich. If you and I are to be saved,
we have to let it go. Seriously, we have to let it
go. Now notice here in verse, I want
you to see sovereign mercy here. Mercy is shown though he lingered. In verse 16 it says, the Lord
being merciful unto him. You know why you're here this
morning? You know why you're here believing the gospel? You
know why you're not lingering out there somewhere else? You
know why? Because the Lord's merciful to
you. He brought you. He brought you. He's merciful to you. If any
of us wind up in glory, it will be because the Lord is merciful
unto us. He's merciful to me. Merciful
is called, I'll tell you another way to call it is fetching grace.
Fetching, go fetch him. That's what they do to angels.
They went down to Sodom to fetch one of God's children and take him out of that place before they burned it up. That's
called fetching grace. Fetching grace. We sing the song,
Depth of Mercy. Can there be mercy still reserved
for me? Can there? When I look at my life, since
I've believed the gospel, Depth of mercy can there be?
Mercy still reserved for me, my soul. If it were not for the mercy
of God, we would die with the ungodly. If they did not, this
is how much, this is how much, this is sad, this is sad, this
is how much sin and unbelief is still in us. If they did not,
grab him by the hand. And his wife and those two daughters,
they would have stayed right there and burned up. If it were not for the mercy
of God, we would die with the rest of the ungodly. How true
is this Psalm? Psalm 23. Surely goodness and
mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Hedged about by the mercy of
God. You're driving down the road,
the mercy of God's following you. You go into your house,
you go to bed at night, the mercy of God's encamped about you.
You get up in the morning, the mercy of God surrounds you. You
came here this morning, the mercy of God, I'm telling you, the
mercy of God is all over you. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me on the trail of His sheep all the days of my life,
even while in Sodom. Those angels taking Lot and his
family by the hand and taking them out was an act of mercy. They didn't deserve it. Have
we read anything yet about Lot that deserved the mercy of God?
If we deserved it, it wouldn't be mercy, it'd be a debt that
God owes me. It wouldn't be mercy. They took
him by the hand and they said, come on, Lot. I tell you what, you better hope
God violates your will. You better hope He does. Someone said this, they said,
God saved me against my will with my full consent. That's
about the way it is, isn't it? God saved me against my will
with my full consent. It's the Lord's mercy that led
him out with Abraham. It was the Lord's mercy that
revealed the gospel to him. And it's the Lord's mercy that
brought him out of Sodom. It's the Lord's mercy. Now in verse 17-20 we can see
how much unbelief is still in him and still in us, all of us.
They say to him, escape for thy life. Don't look behind you when
you leave. Flee the wrath to come. Are we
not told that? Do we not stand when we preach
to tell? Men and women, flee the wrath
to come. Flee to Christ from the wrath to come. He's the safe
haven. Jesus Christ is the safe haven.
He's the place of safety for sinners. And don't look back. Don't look
back. I know an older gentleman that
I talk to often. Every time I talk to this man,
he's looking back. It never stops. I wish I hadn't
done this. I should have done that. I should
have done this. Stop it. I said that to him one time.
Stop it. If you hadn't have done this,
And you hadn't done that which you said you wish you hadn't
done, you'd be so self-righteous right now, it'd be hard to stand
here and talk to you. If you and I could see from the standpoint that God
sees, we wouldn't change a thing in our lives. Even the most rotten
things that we would to God we'd never done. Because we'd be so self-righteous. He tells him here, he says, don't
look back. Just keep looking forward. You
go, you do what you've just been instructed to do. Go and do it. Don't look back. Once having
put your hands to the plow, the Scripture says, don't look back.
Paul said, forgetting. Oh, if we could just do this. Forgetting those things which
are behind. We're so prone to look back and say, what about
this situation? What about... forget it. My salvation
in Christ is now. It's right now. And tomorrow
it'll be now. Salvation is always present.
I'm not looking back to a time or a place. I'm looking to Him. He's the mark. Paul says, forgetting
those things which are behind and pressing toward the mark
of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. You can't
cross the finish line looking back. You ever seen anybody do
that? That'd be weird, wouldn't it?
See somebody cross the finish line looking back? Be like that
movie I watch, Little Big Man. I don't know if anybody ever
watched that. That Indian runs backwards and he does everything
backwards. He ran backwards and everything he did was backwards.
We don't look back. We don't go back. Don't go back. And the Lord instructed him.
This is why I was talking about it so much, unbelief. He's instructed
by these angels. The Lord's instructed them to
tell him this. Flee to the mountain. Get out of the valley. Flee to the mountain. He's directed
to a place to flee to. The mountain. It's a place of
safety because it's a place the Lord's provided. Flee to the
mountain. It's a place of God's choosing.
Is that not Christ? Flee to Christ. I tell you what, it's been nearly
40 years now since I heard and believed the gospel. And I flee
to Christ right now as much as I did then. David said in the Psalm, I flee
unto thee to hide me. I flee unto thee to hide me. But notice what he does. He prays
to be allowed to flee to a little city. They were just sent to deliver
this man, told him where to flee to for safety, and here he stands,
Still saying, let me do this. Let me take my family. He doesn't
want to go to the mountains. He wants to take his family to
a little city. He's afraid that if he flees
to the mountains, some evil will overtake him. Not if God told
you to flee there. He still wanted to go to a city
where he felt safe. What makes you feel safe? David
said, thou only makest me to dwell in safety. Now you go ahead
and lock your doors, go ahead and take your safety procedures,
but I'm telling you the truth, based on God's word, the only
safety we really have is God. Thou only makest me to dwell
in safety. And David had his armies at his
command. And he figured his family would
like living in the little town better than living in the mountains. He that loves mother, father,
sister, brother more than me, Christ said, he's not worthy
of me. And listen to this one. Except
you lose your life, you'll find it. But if you don't lose your
life, If you find your life, he's talking about this earthly
life, you're going to lose it. But if you lose it, for Christ's
sake, he said, then you find it. Then you find it. So there he stands saying, let
me go to this little city, let me just go. And to think, this
man was saved. This man, this is a just man. God says, flee to Christ for
refuge. Don't go somewhere else. Don't
look anywhere else. Go to Him. You know, he went
to Zohar, that little city, but you know where he ended up? In
verse 30? In the mountains. He ended up
where God told him to go in the first place. Boy, if we could
just learn, if we could just learn to do what the Lord says
to do. And here's good news. Verse 22,
the righteous cannot be punished with the wicked. The angel said,
I cannot do anything till thou become thither. I cannot bring
down wrath, brimstone, fire, and burn this place up until
you lot are delivered. Can't do it. Can't do it. This world, now you listen, this
world is preserved right now for the elect's sake. God still
has a people here. God still has some people that
He's calling out. There are some people for whom
Jesus Christ died that must be saved. They must hear the gospel
and they must be brought into the fold. Other sheep I have
which are not of this fold, them I must bring in. I must do it. You can't do anything here until
you're safe in the shepherd's fold. Until you're safe. Look over in Revelation chapter
7. I'll start winding this down. Revelation chapter 7. I'm going
to read the first three verses. In Revelation 7, And after these
things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth,
holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not
blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw
another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of
the living God. And he cried with a loud voice
to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and
the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, Neither the sea, nor the
trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their
foreheads." Until all God's children taken care of. All of them. The righteous cannot
be punished with the wicked. Now listen to me. God will chasten
those whom He loves. He never punishes them. My punishment
was put on Christ at Calvary's Cross. When God puts me through
a heavy trial, if I go through a fiery trial, if I go through
a heavy chastening, that's exactly what it is. It's a chastening.
It's not punishment. Punishment is what He did to
Christ. The righteous cannot be punished
with the wicked. That would be unjust. That would
be unjust. Christ, our surety, was punished
in our stead, and the law cannot and will not punish me twice
for the same sin. It will not punish Him and then
me. What do they call that, double jeopardy? Can't do it. Oh, if people just knew what
happened at Calvary. I told a man, I said, if you
just knew what happened at Calvary, the law was satisfied. Justice
was satisfied. And everyone for whom the law
and justice has been satisfied will be saved. God can't punish
them. It's over with. It's over with. Henry told a story one time,
you've probably heard it. He told a story one time of a
wagon train. He said it was going out west.
And as it was going out west, a prairie fire started. Lightning
had struck it. And it was burning. And there's
a little boy on that wagon and he became very afraid. And the wagon master told him
to circle the wagons and they burned a big patch of ground.
They burned it. And then they got the wagons
on that big burnt patch of ground. And that little boy was scared
as he saw the fire coming. And that wagon master said, don't
be afraid. Where the fire has burned once,
it can't burn again. You're standing on burnt ground.
Jesus Christ is burnt ground. I don't fear the wrath of God.
I don't have to fear the wrath of God. Jesus Christ took that and put
that away. I'm standing on burnt ground. As I said here again, I'm coming
back to this. Verse 26, he said to him, don't
look back. And Lot's wife looked back at
what happened to her. What was evident? It's evident
her heart was back there in Sodom. I know she had children back
there, I know that. And I know that had to be painful
to watch that city burn up and knowing her children were there
being burned up in it. I know that's painful. But the Lord said, don't look
back. You keep going forward. I have
members in my family that don't believe the gospel. I come from
a big family. Me and Vicki both come from a
big family. You put both our families together, there's over
a hundred people. I only know of probably one other
one in the family that believes the gospel, out of all of them.
Well, maybe two or three. There might be two or three that
believe the gospel. The vast majority of them have absolutely
nothing to do with the gospel. I pray for them, but I'm not
looking back. I'm going forward. And all I
can do is pray for them. That's all I can do. She wanted
to go back there. The scripture says, if the salt
has lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? We don't
salt salt. We use salt to salt food and
give it its flavor. We use it as a preservative,
but we never salt salt. I don't put salt on salt. And
he said, if the salt has lost It's savored. It's no good. It's
no good. What is surprising, here's what's
surprising and very sobering. This is very sobering. And I've seen this over the years
now. I've seen it. I've watched it. I've watched
people be faithful, profess to believe the gospel, give their
every service, And I watched him turn around, eventually,
and leave. And you say, what just happened?
Just totally leave it. But here's the good news. In
verse 29, I close with this. God remembered Abraham. God, it says, remembered Abraham.
Just as God remembered Abraham as His friend, His son, His servant,
His covenant with Him, just as He remembered Abraham and delivered
Lot, even so, God remembers Christ, His son, His servant, His covenant,
and has delivered us from the wrath to come. Us, us who believe
the gospel. and those who shall be brought
to faith. You and I, as I said in the beginning, are forgiven
for Christ's sake. For Christ's sake. Those are some lessons to learn,
aren't they? Those are some lessons there. These things are written
for our example. They're written for our example.
I hope we can learn from it. I hope I learn from it. I hope
I can read that chapter time and time again as life goes by
and not forget these lessons, not forget them. All right, Judith
Smith.