Brother Mahan's statement to
you at least a hundred times that the Scriptures are full
of warnings lest we presume. But they're full of promises
lest we despair. We need both. We need the warnings
of Scripture. Just listen to a message by Brother
Bruce Crabtree. Mindy, listen to it also. Psalm 5, thou hatest all workers
of iniquity. There are probably very few people
in the world who would hear a message like that. God's people do. But we need both, don't we? We need the warnings and we need
the promises. So a good message from God's
Word would contain both. And both messages today do. There are warning signs out there
on the road that are there permanently. And we often don't pay attention
to them, do we? It's a speed limit. I didn't,
but you know, seriously, they're there for a reason. They're good.
It's good. to warn us of a dangerous curve
ahead or bridges ice when freezing. We just don't pay attention to
them sometimes until it's too late. Thank God for the warnings
and thank God for the promises. Thank God for His mercy and grace
to those who fall, who break those rules and He picks them
up. The story of Lot, we've been
in this chapter for some time now. It's just the way it turned
out. We must need it. I was talking
to Brother Greg Elmquist on the phone yesterday, and he told
me what he was dealing with. It's along these same lines.
Lot and his wife stand forever as memorials. Lot's wife was a pillar of salt. That is, she stood there for
a long time warning others. And he and Lot's wife, and Lot,
are memorials to God's justice. She is. Warnings. Don't look back against apostasy. And pillars of God's, a pillar
of God's mercy. Lot is a story of God's mercy
to great sinners. Great sinners. That's what Lot
was. And the end of this story, it
doesn't sound good, how it ended with Lot, but it did. God's Word
promises it. But look at verse 30 of Genesis
19. Lot went up out of Zoar. Remember,
he almost argued with the Lord, pleaded with the Lord to let
him go to Zoar. He said, it's just a little city.
It will be alright there. Well, a little city is just as
sinful as a big one. And if the gospel is not there,
it's a bad place, isn't it? And that's the only safety. You know that? The only refuge
is where God's Word is with God's people. Zoar, and he argued with
the Lord almost to let him go to Zoar. Well, he ended up leaving
there. He was afraid. And he went to a cave, a little
cave with his two daughters. Two daughters. Now, there's lessons
to learn in all of this. Number one, our carnal reasoning
or our fleshly reasoning, the reasons why we think, well, this
will give me security or that will give me security. Wrong.
There's only security, there's only refuge in God. And as I
said, with God's people. Why didn't Lot go back to Abraham? Why didn't he go back to Abraham? Was it pride? Was he so proud? You know, pride will bring us
to disgrace. If we don't humble ourselves
before the Lord, we'll do all manner of foolish
things. If we don't seek those who have
wisdom, we'll make a fool out of ourselves. And we will take
a great fall. We will. He definitely will. Abraham remembered Lot. Abraham
was praying for Lot. Was Lot praying for Abraham?
Apparently not. Apparently not. He didn't seek
him out. He didn't just seek out the man
he should have. And so he's brought very low.
Look what happens. And I want you to think about
this. Lessons that we learn here is that Our carnal reasoning
will get us in trouble. There's no refuge anywhere in
this earth with anyone in any place except where God is and
His people. And our pride will bring us into
disgrace if we don't humble ourselves. And think about this. It wasn't
too long ago that Lot had so much stuff that there wasn't
room in all the land to contain everything that he had. Now look
at him. He's in a cave with nothing. And how quickly riches make themselves
wings, the Scripture says. How quickly it's all brought
to naught. And think about this. Here's something. After so great
a salvation, Can a believer, can a child of God, after experiencing
such great mercy and such grace and seeing such miraculous deliverance
in their life, can they fall back into sin? Oh, my. You see, that's what this is
telling us. Part of it. My, my. The best of men, Scripture said. Man at his best state. You know,
there's not a wiser man in the Old Testament than Solomon, was
there? Look at what happened to him. And remember Lot's wife, our
Lord said, three of the most, what's the word, clearest, dire
warning in Scripture in three words. Remember Lot's wife. of
apostasy, someone who left the gospel, and Lot's a pillar of
misery. Matthew Henry said, we should
learn in Lot that what we bring upon ourselves when we forsake
the communion of the saints for any worldly pleasure or advantage,
and if we do, we'll beat ourselves with our own rod. In other words,
we'll end up whipping ourselves, saying, why, why, why? What was
I thinking? What was I thinking? That's what
Lot did. That's what he did. Let's look
at how sin abounds. You know the Scripture that says
where sin abounded? Where sin abounded? Thankfully,
it goes on. Grace did much more than that.
Where sin abounded. Sin knows no bounds. Man's sin
knows no bounds. There's no bounds to what man
will do, what we will do. except for the grace of God.
Lot's a just man. He's a righteous man. And look
what he did in this story. Unthinkable. Unthinkable. Read on with me. Verse 31. Firstborn
said unto the younger, Our father's old, not a man in the earth to
come in unto us after the manner of all the earth. Come, let us
make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him. that we
may preserve seed of our Father. And they made their father drink
wine that night. And the firstborn went in and
lay with her father, and he perceived not when she lay down nor when
she arose. It came to pass on the morrow,
the firstborn said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesterday night
with my father. Let us make him drink wine this
night also, and go thou in and lie with him, that we may preserve
seed of our father. And they made their father drink
wine that night also. And the younger arose and lay
with him, and he perceived not when she lay down nor when she
arose. And thus were both daughters
of Lot with child by their father." Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Well, as I said, sin knows no
bounds, even in us. What is to keep us from sinning. Who is to keep us from sinning? One hope. The grace of God and
Matthew, Henry again. I love that man. He said, What's
it going to take to bring a fellow like Lot out of Sodom? The sovereign
mercy and grace of God and a strong angel. A strong angel. That's the Holy Spirit of God.
People, if He doesn't keep us, we won't be kept. We won't be
kept. If He doesn't bring us out, lay
hold on us, have mercy, we're going to fall like everybody
else. Because there's an old man in us. We looked at it last
Sunday, didn't we? There's an old man in us, Romans
7, that cannot do what he would and cannot not do what he won't
do. An old man and Satan who knows
and appeals to that fellow. That's who the godless world
appeals to. Paul said in Romans 7, Who shall
deliver me from this old fellow? Who shall deliver me from this
old fellow in me? And who shall deliver me from
the evil one? And then he went on to say, I
thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Deliverer. God
sent a Deliverer. This story looks black. I mean, lots of terrible sin. It's just unthinkable. Oh, but
we're sinning now. Drunkenness and incest. Now,
as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 5, he was writing to the church.
You remember he said, I heard somebody told me that there's
something among you that's not even named among the Gentiles.
that a man should have his father's wife. Do you remember that? Unbelievable, isn't it? Do we
understand? You know, the Lord wrote these
stories on purpose, didn't He? He could have left that out. But you know, this really shows
us what we are by nature. There's no doubt about it. And
if everybody takes a good, honest look with Ian, you'll see that's
exactly the way it is with us by nature. And this story clearly
shows us salvation is 100% by the grace of God, isn't it? It
really is. It's by the mercy of God. We're
going to be saved by the mercy of God, by the grace of God.
My, my. Our Lord says all manner of sin
shall be forgiven. Thank the Lord. Because He says
that we're guilty of all of it. Guilty, if not actually, we are
in fault. And the Lord holds men accountable
for their thoughts, doesn't He? Several things to learn here
from this terrible sin. Number one, the best of men are
men at best. The best of men are men at best. First, Noah. This is not the
first time this happened. Noah. Right after he's one of
eight people on planet Earth saved by the grace and mercy
of God, you find him lying in his tent, drunk. Terrible. Terrible. But he walks. And now lots. And the best of
men. Our men at best can and will
commit all manner of sin, but for the restraining grace of
God. The best woman in here would be out on the street as a harlot
if it weren't for the restraining grace of God. Right? Number two, here's another thing
to learn. Our own desires and our own wants and so forth will
often lead to justified bad means. Both of his daughters, said,
they tried to reason, well, there are no men. There are no seed
of Abraham. They learned this from Lot, from
Abraham. The seed of Abraham, not Mary. And they saw what their sisters
who married men in Sodom, what happened to them. So they said,
well, there are no believing men here. There are no seed of
Abraham. So here's what we'll do. You don't take matters into your
hands. That's what Sarah did, didn't she? You know what Sarah
did? Well, the Lord must mean for
us to do this. Abraham, here, you go in to Hagar
and raise up seed. Wait on the Lord. Wait on the
Lord. And both of these girls were
desperate to be mothers, I guess, and they reasoned among themselves,
God must mean for us to do this. No, if you'll wait, you'll see
what He's going to do. So if we don't wait on the Lord,
if we take matters into our own hands, we'll fall into great
sin and bring great troubles on ourselves. Why do you think
the Scripture says so often, wait, wait? How many times have
we wanted something so bad, and we're just not going to rest
until we get it? And often the Lord allows us to get it. I tell
you nearly every time I've done this, it ends up being a grief
to me. It ends up being a grief to me. Here's another thing to learn.
Our children are born with our sinful nature. And they usually
emulate our worst traits. They usually emulate our worst
traits. That ought to make us real careful,
shouldn't it? the example we set. Lot was vexed
inside him, yet he stayed there too long and should have taken
his family out of there. And so he seemed as one that
mocks to his sons-in-law and apparently his daughters. And
they picked up all the habits of the sodomite. They didn't
see anything wrong with this apparently. Something so against
God's law and against holiness. They thought, there's nothing
wrong with this. Things that are normal today
in our society, we need to instruct our kids that it's not normal. God forbids it. God forbids it. And you're going to bring great
grief on yourself and your family and others. Here's another thing
to learn. You can get out of Sodom and
get out of the world, but you can't get it out of you. You can't get it out of you.
And you can run to the hills and get in a little cave to get
away from temptations, and you're not going to get away from them.
Why? Because you're right here. And again, Matthew Henry said,
a great warning here is the great dangers, while there are in the
world out there, there's a great, terrible, lurking danger within
our own bosom. And when we're alone is when
often the greatest temptations of all come upon us. Is it not
so? When we're alone. When we're
alone. Beware. He said watch. Pray without
ceasing, didn't He? Pray without ceasing. Drunkenness
is a terrible thing. It's a dangerous sin, whether
it be wine or drugs or whatever. Even Paul said, just be sober,
meaning don't be intoxicated with anything, be it food or
drink anyone or possessions and so forth. People can be so overcome
with the things of this world that they lose good sense. Making
money and so on. Didn't he say that? Be sober.
Don't be intoxicated, overcome with the things of this world.
You'll do crazy, foolish things. But here's actual drunkenness.
Drinking wine. It's not forbidden in Scripture.
You know that. Our Lord did. And they called Him a winebibber.
Nothing could have been further from the truth. No one was more
moderate in all things than our Lord. But it wasn't forbidden,
but it's warned against in Scripture so often. It's warned again. Drunkenness because of the terrible
dangers. And Proverbs 23, you can read
it for yourself, dire warnings about it. And because it leads
into all manner of sin. Matthew, Henry again. Brother
Gabe and I agree that he's one of the best on the Old Testament.
We just love him. Love him. The Lord gave that
man such great wisdom. But he said this, and how true
it is. He said, a drunken man will do
things without reluctance, without a thought. Things that he wouldn't
think of doing. Things that he would shrink in
horror over when he's sober. Well, and another thing, there's
a danger, we can be in danger of being led into the greatest
temptations of evil from our dearest relatives and friends.
Our dearest relatives and friends. Black light. Well, this is a
dark scene, isn't it? It's terrible, isn't it? What's
going to come out of all this? What's going to come out of all
this? Can you imagine the shame and the confusion a little while
later after both those daughters had children and they're still
living alone in the lot there he is and looks at what he's
done and them? Can you imagine? They're all
filled with shame. That's a bad scene and a sad
scene. What's God's purpose in all this?
Last Sunday we looked at why does the Lord allow sin? Why
does He allow believers to sin? Why does He allow us to continue
to sin when it can stop? Why not? Why? And we looked at
this. We said this. Number one is to
show us what we are. Number two, to show us that if
any man sins, we have an advocate with a partner. And we will.
And these things are written. Remember what John said? These
things are written. Little children, I write unto
you that you sin not. Don't do it. This is the beginning.
This is the first book in the Word of God, and it shows all
manner of sin. Beginning with the flood, God
looked down, all manner of sin. And Noah, right after that, and
Lot now. And God shows us in the very
beginning what we're all capable of. So He warns us. Look, here's
a story. Here's what you'll do, but by
my grace and by my mercy. Here's what you'll do. So take
warning, He says. The warning signs it. Thank God
for the warning. But then we do and we fall. Now
what? Thank God for the promises. This
is a faithful Savior and worthy of all acceptation. Worth hearing. If you're a sinner, you need
to hear this. This is good news. Christ came. God sent His Son into this world. Why? To save sinners. To save helpless sinners. To
save no good sinners. To save the likes of Lot. To
save them. They can't save themselves. He's
the one that laid hold of Lot. The Lord's the one that laid
hold of Lot. The Lord's the one that spoke to Noah. The Lord's
the one that Adam and Eve spoke to them. I said, where are you
now, Adam? Look at you. What have you done, Eve? Huh? He's the one that Dealt with
Satan. He's the one. The Lord Jesus
Christ. What's God's purpose in this particular story, though?
Look at verse 36 through 38. They were both daughters of Lot
with child by their father, and the firstborn bare a son and
called his name Moab. Same as the father of Moabites
unto this day. The younger, she bare a son,
called his name Benamim. The same is the father of the
children of Ammonites, to this day, the Moabites and Ammonites.
They became bitter enemies of Israel. And sin, you know the Moabites
and the Ammonites and the Perizzites and the Hittites and all those
ites and the Philistines and all that. You can look at every
story and what they represent are sins. The people of the world, the
sins in us and all these things that we struggle with, that we're
going to fight with all the days of our life. They're our bitter
enemies. Thank God we know it. Thank God
there's a struggle. Thank the Lord. There's a new
man in there who battles with and struggles with who's an enemy
of these things and they're to him. Until you were born again,
until you were made a new creature and cried, there was no enemy.
He wasn't an enemy. He was a friend. Thank the Lord. But go to Matthew 1 with me. Matthew 1, the first Gospel. In the beginning there in Genesis
is this story, one of the first stories, and it tells us about
the Moabites. In Matthew 1, the Moabites, they
were heathen. They were related, but they were
not the seed of Jacob. Okay? They were not counted in
the... Alright? But God has a people. out of
every tribe, kindred, nation and tongue. And out of this terrible
scene, look at what happened. Matthew 1, verse 3, Judas begat
Phares and Zarah of Tamar. Anybody know that story? Judas' wife died. Jude. Jude. One of the sons of Jacob. He's
Judah. His wife died. He went to a harlot. Do you know who it was? It was
his daughter-in-law, Tamar, who dressed up and thought she'd
never get married, dressed up like a harlot, and he went into
her, not knowing. Keep going. Horrible, isn't it? Salmon, verse
5, begat Boaz. Now this is in the line of our
Lord. Salmon begat Boaz of Rahab. Do you know who Rahab is? You know who Rahab was? Harlot. Rahab the harp. And Rahab, Boaz
begat Obed of Ruth, and Obed begat Jesse, Jesse begat David.
Read on, and David begat Solomon of who? The wife of Uriah, Bathsheba. The story of Lot, like every
story in the Scriptures, tells us that every one of us come from the
seed of Adam and were sinners, born dead and trespassing sin. Well, God became flesh. The second
Adam from above took upon himself the likeness of sinful flesh,
but without sin. Was born, not took the nature
of angel, but the seed of Abraham, though without sin, not the actual
seed, but became a man. tempted at all points, like as
we are, came down here to be a substitute for sinner. And
the Scripture says he was numbered with the transgressors. He was
numbered. Prove it. His family tree. This
was his family tree. You and I wouldn't put these
people in our family tree. We wouldn't list. Who was your
mother? Well, she was a harlot. Huh? We wouldn't do that with
him. Barak, that was his mother. Everybody
rejected him because his mother was a harlot. And we wouldn't
do that. Well, the Lord did to show us
that's who he came for. And to show us that out of man's
greatest sin, sin abounded. Grace did much more, man. Because
our Lord was numbered with the transgressors. Lot is numbered
with the righteous. Rahab is numbered with the righteous.
She's in Christ. Tamar is numbered with the righteous.
She's in Christ. Judah is numbered with the righteous. That's the line of the tribe
of Judah. Bathsheba, and on and on it goes.
Mary Magdalene. What's our hope? Jesus Christ
came in this world to save sinners. They were in Him. The hope of
sinners. Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. And
grace is a person. Oh my, and he has a people out
of every tribe, kindred, nation, and tongue, Ruth the Moabitess. Ruth the Moabitess. There had
to be some Moabites. Because Ruth has to come. You
see? Ruth has to come. And when Lot,
you know, this was horrible what happened here. Nothing worse
could have happened. And they're sitting around thinking this
is the worst thing that could possibly happen. Why did we do this? There's
a Scripture that Isaiah, on behalf of his people, says, Lord, why
hast Thou made us to depart from Thy ways? He's not blaming the
Lord, but what he's saying is, Lord, You could have stopped
us. Why did You stop me? He's not
blaming the Lord. He's not excusing his sin. What
he's saying here, and what happened here, Brother John, is for that
reason where sin abounded, Could it be any worse than this? No, it can't. Yes, it can. Go to Calvary and look hanging
on that cross where every single human being took the Son of God
and put Him on the cross. Nothing worse could happen, could
it? What came out of that? Nothing better. Nothing better
could have happened. Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. Man's exceeding sinfulness shows
God's exceeding mercy. God's great grace. What about
Lot, though? Well, his sin left him miserable.
And that's a warning, does it? He brought great troubles on
himself and his family, and that's a constant reminder to us little
children. Don't do it. Look, look, warnings
all the way through it. Look, look. The consequences
are terrible. But Lot was saved by the sovereign
mercy and grace of God. In the end, Lot is right now. Lot. For a long time, Lot was
sat in misery and confusion and in darkness, wondering what's
going to happen. And boy, it wasn't long that
he's sitting at the right hand of God. He's taken out of the
cave and sitting beside the majesty on high with angels and light. Saints in Light sitting right
there, right beside Noah, right beside Adam and Eve, holy, unblameable,
unreprovable in God's sight. A just man. A righteous man.
Why? Why? Because God justified him. Because Christ died. That's why. That's why. Right now, he's sitting
there or he's standing with the rest of the saints, robed in
white, that just man. And when God wrote the Hall of
Faith in Hebrews 11, well, Lot's not in there, but he's in James
where he says, that just man, that just man. And Peter, oh
my, what's our hope? Same as Lot. Oh, mate, we learn these lessons
from the beginning so that our sins don't break out in the end. See? God's so good, isn't He? To warn us. So good. And so good
that when we don't heed those warnings, oh, His mercy endures
forever. Thank the Lord.