Let me read, I'm going to read about 30 verses.
I think it's important. It's always important to read
the Word of God. Genesis 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, Nay, but we will
abide in the street all night. And he pressed upon them greatly,
and they turned in unto him and entered into his house, and he
made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did
eat. But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the
men of Sodom, compassed the house round, 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 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 be a judge. Now will we deal worse with thee
than with them. 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 to 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 heard any besides son-in-law, and thy
sons, and thy daughters, 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 hath sent us to destroy it. And Lot went
out and spake unto his sons-in-law, which married his daughters.
and said, Up, get you out of this place, for the Lord will
destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked
unto his sons-in-law. And when the morning arose, then
the angels hastened lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife and thy
two daughters which are here, lest thou be consumed in the
iniquity of the city. And while he lingered, the men
laid hold upon his hand, upon the hand of his wife, and upon
the hand of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful unto
him. And they brought him forth and set him without the city.
And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad,
and 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 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, 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 do anything till
thou be come hither to your safe." I can't do anything to your safe
lot. Therefore, the name of the city
was called Zoar. 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 he sent Lot out of the midst
of the overthrow." when he remembered Abraham. And Lot went up out of the 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." Now, the message, or the title of the
message, is Lessons Learned from the Life of Lot. The scripture
tells us that these things are written for our example. Some
to follow and some not. Some not to follow. And Lot is
an example for us not to follow. And a lot of things that he did. We are going to learn. We're
going to see. We'll see in verse 14 how a believer's
testimony can be destroyed. In verse 16, we'll see how the
Lord is merciful. He'll not forsake his own. He
will not forsake his own. No man, the Lord says, will pluck
him out of my father's hand, even a lot. We'll see in verse 17 through
20 how much unbelief is still in those who believe. It says
he lingered. He lingered. He still lingered.
After they told him it was going to be destroyed, he lingered
there. And then we'll see in verse 22 that the righteous cannot
be punished with the wicked. It can't be. The righteous cannot
be punished with the wicked. And we'll see in verse 26, don't
look back. Don't look back. And then last
of all, we'll see in verse 29, God remembered Abraham and delivered
Lot. And this is a beautiful picture.
A beautiful picture. Of Christ. God remembers Christ and delivers
us. God looks at his son and forgives us. You. That are forgiven. Are forgiven
for Christ's sake. God remembered Abraham. And he
delivered life. The first thing he did was go
to Abraham before he went down there to Sothom. He said, shall
God hide this from Abraham? Let's look at this for a little
while. Have a look at Lot. Lot was Abraham's nephew. Lot
left with Abraham when he left Ur of the Chaldees. It's evident
that Lot believed the same gospel Abraham believed. He learned
the gospel from Abraham. And I have no doubt, Lot learned
the gospel from Abraham. And he believed it. How do I
know he believed it? Let me read to you out of 2 Peter. Listen to this, out of 2 Peter,
chapter 2. It says in verse 4, let me start
reading verse 4. For if God spared not the angels
that sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into
chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment, and spared not
the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth person and creature
of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the
ungodly, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes,
condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those
that after should live ungodly, and delivered Just Lot. Just Lot. Now, if the only thing
we knew about Lot was what Moses wrote over here, you wouldn't
think he was just, would you? Not at all. But it says here, and delivered
Just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked for
that righteous man. And boy, is it ever evident that
his righteousness came from somebody else? It sure didn't come from
him. That's evident. For that righteous man dwelling
among them, and 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 temptation. Lot was a just man. He was justified
by grace through faith in Christ, just as we are now. The Word of God tells us, as
I read here, that he's a just man. And it's evident that the
justification of our souls has nothing to do with us. It has
everything to do with God in Christ. It has everything to
do with Christ doing what he did on my behalf, as my mediator,
as my substitute. I'm justified in Christ. I'm
sure not justified because of anything I did. or can do or
will do. Lot is a just man, he sure is,
in Christ. Just. Justification is something
that happened between God and Christ on our behalf. And this just man made a bad
choice. And I want you to listen to this,
especially you young people. You listen. Choices. All choices have consequences. And sometimes, even though, listen,
even though God can forgive me of all my sins, sometimes the
scars, the consequences can last a lifetime. They can last a lifetime. But all choices have consequences. Don't forget that. Well, you'll
see that as we go through here. He made a bad choice, a terrible
choice. He looked when he was with Abraham, and
Abraham said, whatever you choose, I'll just take what's left. And
he looked over at the well-watered plains of Jordan, and it got
him. It got him. He fell into the
trap of looking, lusting, and taking. He fell into the trap
of the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride
of life. That still is, you know. That's
still there. It's still there. Adam chose,
and look at the consequence of it. Look at the consequences.
Death. Separation from God. That's the
consequences of what Adam did. Of that one disobedience. One
act of disobedience. Look what this one choice, this
one choice of looking toward the well-watered plains of Jordan,
that one choice led to this mess in his life. One choice. And he went toward Sodom, and
he finally ended up in Sodom. He finally ended up there. And
his choice affected His whole family. Did you notice that the sons-in-laws
and stuff didn't leave? He had some family that God burned
up there in Sodom. Our choices, as I said, always
have consequences. They always affect someone else.
Not just us. Look in verse 14. Here in chapter
19. Verse 14. And Lot went out, and he spake
unto his sons-in-law, which married his daughters, and said, Up,
get you out of this place, for the Lord will destroy this city.
But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in-law." They just laughed it off. And I had no doubt. Because over
the years, the company that he kept with the ungodly, his everyday
conduct among them, no place to worship with his family, he
neglected to worship in the way of the godly, and his testimony
to them became as one that mocked. These things are written for
our example. And then it says in verse 16,
He lingered. They told him what was going
to happen. They said, up and get out. They lingered. Flee, I can tell you this morning,
flee the wrath to come. I promise you, there'll be some
that's going to linger. This is like, well, but he lingered. He lingered. After being told
the city would be destroyed, he lingered. His attachments
to whomever and whatever still had too much grip on Him. He
that loves mother, father, sister, brother more than me is not worthy
of me. And you'd be shocked. You'd be
shocked how much grip that still has a hold of us. It's amazing
how tight that still has a hold of us. Every now and then God
will try one here and here, and you see it. You realize, you
realize, these things have a stronger grip on you than you think they
do. This is why sinners, left to
themselves, will not come to Christ. They will not come to
Him for life. Because these things have too
much of a grip on them. They cannot let it go. They cannot
let it go. Remember that rich young ruler?
Remember him? He came to the Lord, what must
I do to inherit eternal life? Keep the commandments and all
this? He said, I do this. I do this. I've done all this
from my youth up. I'm going to go sell all you
have, give it to the poor, and come follow me. Be committed
to me. Follow me." And it says he went away sorrowful because
he was very rich. He didn't realize how much of his
riches had a hold of him. But the Lord showed. He revealed how tightly those
things get a hold of us. They get a hold of us a lot more
tightly than you think. If we are to be saved, we must
let it all go. It all has to go, lock, stock
and barrel. It all has to go. But though
He linger, here is God's mercy. Here is God's mercy to sinners.
Here is God's mercy to you and me who believe the gospel. Though
we linger, it says in verse 16, the Lord
being merciful unto him. And while he lingered, the men
laid hold on him. He's lingering, he's pondering,
he's deciding. And I know he's got family still
left there. And believe me, you don't just
cut that off just like you're going to walk away from it and
have no feelings. No. He's still got family. And he's
in this quandary. And they just laid a hold of
him. I pray God he laid a hold of us. I do. I pray he'd lay
a hold of us. And drag me out. I'm telling
you, he'd be better than burning with it. Drag me out. And it says, the Lord be merciful
unto him. He's merciful unto him. You better
hope God violates your will. You better hope he does. You
better hope God does not leave you to yourself. You better hope
he grabs ahold of you, drags you out. And that's what he did
to Lot. He grabbed Lot by the arms, and
his wife, and his two daughters that were left at home, and they
took him out of that city. That's mercy. That's mercy. He said he had to leave everything
behind. God burned everything up that was left behind. What
was left? What? What was left? Ashes. Ashes. Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust. Let's not linger around that
stuff. Let's follow on the know the Lord. Follow on the know
Him. Not linger around that stuff
and get caught up with it. The Lord being merciful unto
him, and they brought him forth and set him. It's almost like
they carried him, isn't it? It's like they just carried him
out there and set him down. The Lord being merciful unto
him. If any of us wind up in glory,
if we wind up at the feet of Christ and worship him in glory,
It will be because the Lord was merciful unto us, took us by
the arm, and led us out, brought us out. How many times did Israel
say, I wish we were back there in Egypt? Every time they met a hardship,
they'd say, if we'd have stayed back in Egypt, if you'd have
stayed back there, you'd have perished. God's going to lead His people
out. He's going to lead them out. He's going to take them
out. Depth of mercy, can there be?
Mercy still reserved for me. Can there be mercy still reserved
for a lot? If it were not for the mercy
of God, we would all die with the rest of the ungodly. We would. How true is this psalm now? Psalm
23. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life. How true is that psalm. Those angels taking Lot and his
family by the hand and taking them out was an act of mercy. It was an act of mercy. It was
the Lord's mercy that led him out with Abraham. It was the
Lord's mercy that kept him in Sodom. And it was the Lord's
mercy that brought him out of Sodom before he destroyed it. It says in verse 17 through 20,
listen to this. It came to pass when they brought
them forth abroad, took them out of that city, And he said,
escape for thy life. The angel said, escape for thy
life. Look not behind thee. Don't look back. Don't stay thou
in the plains. Escape to the mountain unless
you be consumed. And Lot said to him, Oh, no.
Can you believe this? This is us. Not so, my Lord. Behold, now thy servant hath
found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy.
which thou hast shown unto me and saved my life. I can't go
to the mountains. Let us go over to this city over here." Well,
that was your trouble to start with. You know where he ended up? What
did I read in verse 29? Or verse 30? A lot went out of
Zor and dwelt in the mountain. He ended up there anyway. God's
will is done, isn't it? God's will is done. He told him
to go to the mountain the first time. He said, let me go to that
city. He said, all right, go over there to that city. But he ended up in the
mountain where he told him to go. But no, they came and they delivered
him from Sodom, from the wrath of God, and he's afraid that
something's going to happen to him in the mountains, that a
wild beast is going to get him? You're more afraid of a beast than God? If God said go to the mountain,
go to the mountain. He's able to save Whether you're in a mountain
or a valley, it doesn't matter. The place doesn't matter. It
doesn't limit God's power. But no, I have no doubt he looked
at that city and he looked at his wife and his two daughters
and he thought, you know, I know them. They ain't going to like
it in the mountains. They're not going to like it
there. And he said, let me go to the city. We'll go over there.
That's just a little city. Just a little city. There's nothing
going on there. And when he got there, what was
he afraid of? He left that place and they were afraid they were going to kill him. I thought
about this. You reckon the reason he was
afraid that they would kill him was because he might have something
to do with that place burning up? But he got afraid of them. He
got afraid of them. And he got out of town. There's still so much unbelief.
So much unbelief. Flee the wrath to come. We are
told to flee to Christ from the wrath to come, and no place else.
No place. God said to him, Jesus said to
him, flee to the mountain. God says to us, flee to Christ. Flee to Christ. He's our safety. Christ is our safety from the
wrath of God. There is no other place to be
safe other than in Him. Thou only makest me to dwell
safely. And Christ is that safe haven.
He's it. And don't look back. Don't look
back. There's a man I know. He's up
in years now. Every time I talk to him, it's
always looking back. Always looking back. He said, don't look back. Paul
said, once have you put your hand to the plow, don't look
back. He said this, Paul said, forgetting those things which
are behind and reaching forth to those things which are before.
What's before? Christ. Christ. Eternity with Him. Everything you and I have is
before us. It's before us. Look ahead. Paul said he pressed toward the
mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Keep pressing toward that mark. And you can't, I tell you what,
you cannot run a race looking back, can you? You can't run,
well, you don't even know where the finish line is to keep that
up. Everything is in front. Christ
is in front. We run to Him. We flee to Him.
He's the mark. He's the mark. God says flee to Christ for refuge. Don't go somewhere else. Don't
look to anyone else or someplace else. Look to Him. Plead to the
one God directs you to plead to. And you'll be safe. You'll
be safe. And then, verse 22. In verse 22, Haste thee, escape
thither, for I cannot do anything till thou become there. The angel
said, I can't destroy this city until you are delivered from
it. I'm telling you the truth. This world is preserved right
now because you are still in it. The wrath of God cannot fall
on this world and destroy it right now as long as you are
in it. Hosea said, I can't do anything. That angel said, I can't do anything
until you are saved. Isn't that beautiful? Isn't that
comforting? What do we worry about? What in the world do we have
to worry about? Nothing can happen until you
are safe, safe in the shepherd's fold. We sing that song. I'm not worried about this world
coming unglued. Nothing can happen until you
and I are safe. until we finally go home. Let that ring in our ears. I
cannot do anything till thou be come thither. This world is preserved for the
sake of the elect. The righteous cannot be punished
with the wicked. Even Lot. Even Lot. He went down there and he just...
What a mess. What a mess. Testimony became
as though he were mocking. But yet he's called just Lot.
And they couldn't do a thing to that wicked city. And reading
that, you... Boy, could you just... Boy, the
wickedness of that place. The vileness of that place. That
angel couldn't do anything to it until he was safe. The righteous cannot be punished
with the wicked. That would be unjust. Because Jesus Christ
was punished for the righteous. Those who are righteous in Him.
He's punished in our stead. And that's not going to happen
twice now. It's not going to happen twice. Christ our surety,
Christ our substitute, was punished in our place. Therefore, we can't
be punished. We can't be punished. Chastened!
We can be chastened, but not punished. Don't look back. Forget those
things which are behind. Lot's wife looked back. I think
she looked back with regret, and no doubt she looked back
with family back there. And her heart just went back
there. But she did what God said don't do. And she turned to a
pillar of salt. And if the salt has lost its
saltiness, it's good for nothing but to be cast out into the field. And in closing, God, in verse
29, remembered Abraham. God remembered Abraham. Just as God remembered Abraham
as his friend, as his son, as his servant, that
covenant he made with him, he delivered life, Even so, God
remembers Christ, His Son, His servant. Behold, my servant,
there in Isaiah 42, my elect, my servant shall not fail. The covenant that God made with
Him before the world was concerning me and you, He sent the Gospel our way. He
sent His Son to redeem us. And then He sent the Gospel.
He sent a preacher. And He's called us out. Get out
of the city. I'm going to burn it up. I'm
going to burn this world up. Let them laugh. Let them laugh. Let them make fun. Let them think
we're crazy. God's going to burn this world
up. It's going to be burned up. But before that happens, Everyone
he's made a covenant with in Christ, everyone whom the Son
represents, is going to be saved. Not one will perish, not even
a lot. God remembered Christ. And for
Christ's sake, He's forgiven you. For Christ's sake, He's
called you. For Christ's sake, He's loved
you. For Christ's sake, You're going
to be delivered. You're going to be in glory.
You're going to enjoy a new heaven, new earth for Christ's sake. These are lessons learned from
the life of Lot. We need to learn them. We need
to learn them. Don't look back, just keep going
toward Him. Just keep looking to Him and moving toward Him.
Because God's going to burn all this up. Alright.