Okay, 1 through 11, Genesis 19,
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. 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, insisted, and they turned in unto him, and entered
into his house, and he made them a feast. did bake unleavened
bread, and they did eat. But before they lay down, the
men of the city, the men of Sodom, compassed, surrounded the house,
both old and young, all the people from every corner. 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, or behind 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. unto these men do nothing. For therefore came they unto
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,
the angels, put forth their hand and pulled Lot into the house
to them and shut to the door. And the angels 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."
Now go over to Luke chapter 17. This is a message of dire warning
to the world on the edge of judgment, and yet a message of mercy and
grace to God's people. Luke 17, our Lord forewarns us
of these days, these very last of the last days, so clear. He
said, as in the days of Noah, or that is just like the days
of Noah, and as is as in the days of Lot, or just like. Things are going to be just the
same as they were in that day in the last day. Verse 28, he
says, Likewise also, as in the days of Noah, as it was in the
days of Lot. They did eat, they drank, they
bought, they sold, they planted, they built it. Does that tell
you there's prosperity? Very plain. But the same day
that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from
heaven and destroyed them all. Fire and brimstone is nothing
more laughable to this modern generation, is it? About a preacher
standing up and preaching of fire and brimstone and a God
who is going to destroy people. Who said that? Jesus Christ. The one they say is gentle Jesus,
meek and mild. Well, he said in verse 30, even
thus shall it be in the days when the Son of Man is revealed. In 2 Peter, go over to 2 Peter,
this is spoken of. many times because it's so relevant
and so necessary. It's a dire warning. Our Lord,
in great mercy, has forewarned everyone to flee. Remember John preached, who had
forewarned you to flee from the wrath of God? Paul told the Ephesians,
I cease not to warn you day and night with tears. Preaching repentance
toward God, which you don't hear today, because the God you're
preaching is not a God to be feared. He's not holy. He's not
just. He's not one you repent to. He loves you so much and
loves everyone so much and loves sodomites and everybody, no matter
how they live. He just loves them all. And everybody's
going to be OK if they just let him have his way, you know. But Scripture warns us, tells
us to repent, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord
Jesus Christ. But 2 Peter 3, Peter says, verse
10, "...the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night,
in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, like
Sodom did. The elements shall melt with
a fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein
shall be burned up, just like Sodom." Seeing them, he says,
that all these things shall be dissolved. What manner of persons
ought you to be? Serious. All holy, godly, or
heavenly conversation of life and godliness. Looking forward.
Hasting the coming of the day of God. Looking forward to, and
looking into, and anticipating, and studying, and preparing yourself
for that day where the heavens on fire shall be dissolved, and
the elements shall melt with the fervent heat. Peter said,
this is not some cunningly devised fable. This is the Word of God.
Go back to chapter 2 of 2 Peter. He mentions Lot here. Chapter
2, he says in verse 6, right after Noah again, so he turned
the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemning them with
an overthrow. Condemned them. Make an example
out of those that after should live ungodly. Delivered just
Lot. This man who God called just.
He was justified before God. Accepted by God. He was vexed,
it says. Lot was vexed with the filthy
conversation of the wicked. For that righteous man, the Lord
calls Lot just. He calls him righteous. He says
he was vexed with all around him. and seeing and hearing vexed
his righteous soul day to day with their unlawful deeds. Are
you just? Are you righteous? Does God consider
you righteous? Will God spare you? Has God laid
hold of you, been merciful unto you to pull you out of this,
to save you from this untoward generation? This is the message. It's not a Bible statement. This
is a message from God. How do you know? Are you? Like
Lot? How do you know? There are many
ways. Go back to Genesis 19. Back to Genesis 19. The first
way you know is God sends His angel to you. God sends His angels,
His messengers with His message like He did Lot. And with the
Word of God and delivers His people like Lot. laying hold
of them. But look at verse 29. Here's
a key verse. Oh, I love this. Verse 29, it
came to pass when God destroyed the cities of the plain that
God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out. God remembered Abraham, his covenant
head, the one that he chose to be the head of his people in
whom his seed would be blessed, in whom God promised to show
mercy, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham for lots. And he pulled a lot out because
he promised Abraham. Now, who does Abraham represent?
The Lord Jesus Christ, our covenant. That's the Bible. So few know
that, but you know that. And isn't that good news? The
mercies of the covenant God. God who cannot lie, promised
to Christ that all who come to me by you, I will spare them.
I will pull them out. The covenant is that God looks
at Christ and remembers His people in mercy and grace. What does
it take to save us? No less than it took to save
Lot out of Sodom. It takes the mercy of God and
the power of His angel to lay hold of us. Nothing less will
save us. The mercy of God and the power
of His angel, the Holy Spirit of God, to bring us out. All
right? Now, look at our text. And this is how you can know
you're like Lot, that the Lord has indeed been merciful. Verse 1, There came two angels
to Sodom at evening. Every word is significant. The
day is almost over. God sent his angels. Our Lord
keeps calling them the last days, doesn't he? The last day. Peter tells us, don't be ignorant
of this one thing. A day is as a thousand years. A thousand years as a day. Two
days is what? Two thousand years. The days.
The last days. Two days. Six days. The Lord
created the heavens and the earth. On the seventh, he rested. It was over. Be not ignorant
of that. The last day. The evening. It's
almost over. The evening. Lot sat in the gate
of Sodom. That's a key word there. That's
what I've entitled this message. Sitting in the gate of Sodom.
Why was Lot sitting in the gate? Well, Peter told us he was vexed
with all that he heard and saw around him. And he's sitting
in the gate, and I can't help but believe that Lot is looking
out the gate, wanting out. Thinking, Lord, come get me out
of this place. Huh? Just like we did. Just like
all of God's people did. Sitting in the gate. He's not
wanting out because of his troubles. Everybody wants out because of
their troubles. People commit suicide because
of their troubles. That's not why God's people want
out of this world. They want out because of sin. They want sin out of them, and
they want to be out of this sinful place. And they want to be in
a place wherein dwelleth righteousness. They want to be with their God.
Lot is in the gate looking out. He's on the inside looking out.
He wants out. Lord, get me out of here and
get it out of me. Why is Lot in Sodom? He chose
that place. And if the Lord hadn't chosen
him, he wouldn't be delivered, would he? That's why we preach
this message of sovereign grace. Lot made a choice, and he chose
Sodom over traveling with his uncle Abraham with the people
of God, worshiping God. He chose Sodom because he wanted
to be rich and increase with goods. But God, rich in mercy,
chose that. And He made him vexed with where
he was and why he was there. Made him want out. That's the
mercy of God. Scripture says God puts the world
in the people's heart, in the world's heart. He puts the world
in their heart. But God, in mercy, takes the
world out of our hearts with love for it. Oh, I know, we still
have much of it in there, but He, in mercy and grace, vexes
us, causes us to be vexed with this world, and most especially
with this man inside of us. He sat in the gate, like the
people spoken of in Hebrews 11, it says they were mindful of
another country. They were looking for a city
whose builder and maker is God. Wherefore, God is not ashamed
to be called their God. And they looked for it and said
if they had been mindful of that place, they would have had opportunity
to go back. But no, the day that says such
things, say, we're looking for a better place. Whom have I but He in heaven? Whom have I on earth besides
Him? That's what they say. And that's why a lot was sitting
in the gate. We come here, we sit at the gate.
Christ is the gate. The narrow gate, the straight
gate. And we sit in the gate. Morning
out. He saw two men come to Him. He
didn't know they were angels. They looked like men. Just like
the men on the road to Emmaus when the Lord came to them to
preach to them. They didn't know He was the Lord.
He had veiled himself. He disguised himself. But they
knew this was somebody sent from God. And Lot did too. They were just men, yes, but
he esteemed them as sent from God and therefore angels. The word angel means a messenger.
A sent one. One who has been sent by God
with a message of mercy and grace to help you. To save you. And he esteemed them so highly,
look at it, he rose up to meet them. He rose up in respect,
in honor. He didn't sit there. He rose
up. And then they came and he bowed
down to them. Now that's taking it a little too far. Taking it
too far. John did on the Isle of Patmos,
didn't he? He bowed down to that angel. But he was so thankful.
He was so grateful. He was so respectful. He esteemed
these men. Lot esteemed these men so highly
for their work's sake, as sent by God, that he bowed his face
to the ground. Oh, thank you, Lord. And he maybe
hugged their feet. He thought, oh, how beautiful
are the feet of these men who have been sent to me, of all
people. But we're not to esteem men too
highly, and we are to esteem them highly for their work's
sake, but not too highly so as to worship them, because that
just means But verse 2 says, Lot said, Behold now, my Lord,
turn in, I pray you, into your servant's house and tarry all
night and wash your feet and rise up early and go on your
ways. And they said, No, we will abide in the street all night.
But Lot pressed upon them greatly. Oh, please stay with me. Don't
leave. Does that sound familiar? Again,
in Luke 24, when the Lord appeared to the disciples, he made as
though he would pass on. Don't leave, they said. Please
don't leave. We need to hear more of what
you have to say. Don't leave. Stay here. The Lord
will try our importunity. The Lord will try our seriousness. The Lord will try just how important
this is to us, how vital this is to us. Like prayer. It's not
a one-time thing. It's a lifelong, everyday thing.
It's a constant calling. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord is not... You called way back then, No,
call and call and call and call. So they were importunates. Please stay. They were needed. And they did. They did. These angels of God went in to
Lot's house. He didn't forget to entertain
strangers. And he entertained angels unaware. And he made them a feast. Made
them a feast. Baked. Anybody ever baked bread? Lot didn't have a bread machine.
It took a while, didn't it? Preparation and hard work and
nothing. It would work to him as a joy,
a labor of love for them. Nothing too great for these messengers
of the Lord. And they did eat unleavened bread. Oh, my. It's all so significant. Before they lay down, Sodom,
the city of Sodom. You know what Sodom means? A burnt place. That's what the
very name means. Burnt. It was predestined. It was destined to be burnt up. Gamara means a heap, a pile of
worthless stuff. That describes this whole world.
Sodom and Gamara. But Sodom, the men of Sodom,
encompassed the house, surrounded the house. Old, look at that,
look at it. Verse 4, old and young, all the people from everywhere. We preach the Scriptures clearly
declares the total depravity of mankind. Old, young, all the
people. upon every quarter. God looked down upon the sons
of men, Psalm 14, to see if there were any that did understand. Understand what? The holiness
of God. The Word of God. What they are
before God. Their date of Christ. He said,
there's none. There's none that seeketh God.
None that called to Him. He said there's none good. No,
not one. Genesis 6, God looked down upon
the sons of men and said they were all together to come. Felt
that the imagination of their hearts was only evil from their
youth. Continue. This is not a doctrine. This is the truth. How do we
know it? We know ourselves. We know it
by experience. We know it by experience. We
know what lurks in here. No different than Saturday night. And except for the grace, the
restraining grace of God, except for the mercy of God keeping
us from it, we'd be just like them. In fact, such were some
of you. Like Locke. But we've been pulled,
like Locke, as a brand from the learning. That's right. Starting with me. This is not
a doctrine. This is truth. Old and young. Old and young. It doesn't take us long to realize
our children are depraved and sinners. Sinners. And if God
doesn't have mercy on them, they'll turn out to be a rapist, a murderer,
a thief, a harlot. He is rich in mercy, rich in
mercy to all who call upon Him, ready to pardon. But for the
sovereign grace of God, we'd perish with Sodom, wouldn't we? We'd be just like them. You know
what these men were doing, the people. You know what they were
saying when they said, send out these men. Men. It says the men. Doesn't it make it plain that
these were men? Mostly, they were saying, send
out these men that we may know them, that we may sexually know
them, like Adam knew his wife Eve. And Romans 1 says, are we in the last days or what?
Romans 1 says, the reason for this, the reason it's widespread,
the reason just before the Lord is going to destroy the planet,
when it's so prevalent, Romans 1 says they changed the glory
of God. They glorified Him not as God,
neither were thankful, became vain in their imagination. God
loves men. Their foolish heart was darkened,
so God gave them up to uncleanness. through the lust of their own
hearts, to dishonor their bodies between themselves. Homosexuality
is no worse than any other sin. In fact, when the Lord mentions
all the sins there in 1 Corinthians 6, I believe it is, he says,
such worsome beauty. There's no worse than. But from
Scripture, it clearly tells us that most who are in that have
been given over to. Given over to. It's the reason
you don't hear of many. You may not hear of any that
have been saved out of that. But I go on to say it says they
changed the truth of God into a lie. This all comes about because
of false religion. It all comes about because preachers
start preaching lies about God and about man. And so people, that's what it
says, they've changed the truth of God, who He is, His Word,
what He's like, into a lie. Worshipped and served the creature,
man, free will of man, Mary, more than the Creator who's blessed
forever for this cause. God gave them up with a vile
affection, even their women. He says it's so vile that even
the women changed to natural use, men burning in their lust
toward men. It's very plain to you from Scripture,
isn't it very plain? As in the days of life, so shall
the coming of the Son of Man be. Now, we all think this. Are there more now than there
used to be? No. Not necessarily. There are more people on planet
earth. And in Genesis 6, before the flood, it says, because the
whole earth had corrupted His way. The whole earth. When the whole earth is full
of it. But listen to this. It says in our text here, look
at Verse 13, the angel said, We will destroy this place because
the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the Lord.
In the face of the Lord. Their cry. In other words, it's
an open declaration in the face of God, insisting on their rights
to sin in any way we want them. Like Isaiah 3 says, they declare
their sin. Used to be covered. Used to be
in the closet, per se. Used to be it was a shame that
nobody would admit it, you know. But now, they're even proud of
it. It's not just homosexuality.
It's everything. They declare their sin inside
them. So God says, okay, it's about
over. Shake your fist in My face. And
my fist is coming down. Now, here's something we
need to learn. We learned from Abraham, I hope,
who interceded for Sodom. Listen to Lot. Lot went out,
verse 6, at the door unto them, shut the door behind him and
said, I pray you, I beg you, brethren, Don't do this. Don't do this. I pray you, brethren. I beseech
you, brethren. Don't do this. Brethren, brethren,
I want to learn from Lot, don't you? I want to learn to seek
mercy for the chief of sinners. Why? Because I've been shown mercy. I've been shown mercy. I want
to pray for and intercede for sinners. Don't you? I do. The Lord to the merciful. He'll show himself merciful. Now look at this, what Lot did. Verse 8. This is both horrible
and wonderful. We've looked at this before many
times. He said, Behold, I have two daughters which have not
known man. Let me, I pray you, bring them
out unto you and do to them as good as in your eyes. These men
do nothing. They came under the shadow of
my roof. There's two things to learn from this. Number one,
Lot was in Sodom and not with Abraham. And so his judgment
is just bad. You get out from under the sound
of the Word with the people of God. You mingle with the people
of this world and you're judging the people. Backward. You'll start thinking like that.
Lots of daughters, you know what they did. It's in the same chapter.
They hadn't been out of Sodom very long at all. You know what
they did. Where'd they get that from? Sodom. You know, we were born in this
Sodom, this world, this perverted world. If we mingle amongst them
too long, if we're out from under the sound of the truth, we'll
become like them. We'll think like they do. This
is terrible to think of. A lot could even think of it.
Matthew Henry said, we're often made to choose the lesser of
two evils, aren't we? We're often made to choose the
lesser of two evils. Like when you vote for a president
or something. But he said, two sins? Don't choose either. Between
two sins, don't choose either. But he did. But here's another
way to look at this, and we've looked at this too. And our Lord said, if any man
loved father or mother, son or daughter more than Me, he cannot
be My disciple. Lot was so protective of these
men, so thankful for these men, these angels of mercy, he said,
take my daughters But don't take these down. And there's a real sense in which
we need to say that. Take anything and everyone that
is dear to me, but don't take the gospel from me. Don't take
away... David said, take not thine Holy
Spirit from me. So that's all I know about that. They said, stand back. Said, this fellow came into sojourn. They recognized Lot was different.
They did. They did. Though later he seemed
like one that mocked. Yet, they said, he's not like
us. Thankfully. Thankfully. Because he was vexed. They weren't.
He wasn't with them, was he? He wasn't out there with them.
He was just sitting in the gate, alone. I said, this fellow, he
came to sojourn. He's going to be our judge now.
Are you going to judge us? We're going to deal worse with
you. And they tried to break the door down to get to him.
You know, if you reprove anyone of sin, if you reprove this world
of sin, you're going to be threatened. You're going to be ridiculed.
You're going to be persecuted. You're going to become a prey. That's what it says in Isaiah
59. It talks about judgment way backward. It says that those that depart
from evil make themselves a prey. That is, they're the ones that
people are after. You know, judgment, it says,
is backwards. Isaiah said this too. They called good evil and
evil good. Sweet, bitter and bittersweet.
It does look so backward today that the message they call love
today is hate. In other words, they're talking
to God and haters. Men and women are sinning with
a high hand in the face of God. God's angry with the wicked every
day. God hateth all workers of iniquity. That's what Scripture
said. Then you've got these false prophets like this George Myers
standing up saying, God's not mad at you. No, God's not mad
at you. The Scripture talks about those
that won't chasten their children, hate their children, love themselves,
hate their children. And here the point is, we preach
and they say, repent, repent, repent. God is angry. God will
judge. This is what the Scriptures say,
repent. And they call that hate. They say we're hate mongers.
They're preaching hate. No, in love to men's souls, you
warn them, don't you? If somebody's perishing in a
burning building, if you don't care anything about them, you
won't tell them, will you? You won't cry, jump. You won't say, get
out, will you? If you don't love them, you won't
warn them. But if you love them, If you love men's souls, you'll
tell them the truth. Paul said, I'll become your enemy
because I'll tell you the truth. No, Paul loved them. But the
message of love to men's souls is repent. And they call that
hate. The message is turn from your iniquity. God will have
mercy to the chief of sinners, but turn. He won't save you in
your sin, he'll save you from it. Turn. And they say, you're
a hate monger. No. See how backward it is? Backward. You're judging us? Who are you
to judge us? I'm not judging you. I'm no better
than you. Lot wasn't saying he was better
than them, was he? Lot wasn't saying I'm holier than thou.
Lot believed he was just like them in many ways. He was there.
Lot knew why he was saved and in, and the mercy of God had
nothing to do. with his righteousness. He wouldn't
have called himself righteous, would he? But look at this in
closing. Verse 10, the men put forth their
hand and pulled Lot into the house with them. They put forth their hand. You
know, we're saved by the right hand of God. The power of God. He's made bare His holy arm.
What saved us? Who saved us? The hand of God.
The Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel of His power. Laying
hold of us, if He hadn't. And bringing us into the house. Into the house of God. I was
glad when they said unto me, is it nothing to you, all ye
that pass by Sodomites? No, it's nothing. God's not in
that little brown building. What's in that tent? God is.
Mercy is. Salvation is. And such were some
of us. But God stopped our wild careers
and said, Come thou and all thy house, like he said to Noah,
into the ark, into the house of God, with us, the angels of
mercy. And they smoked. Look what they
did to the men outside. Smoked them with blindness. Isaiah 6. The Lord sent Isaiah
with a message. It started out, holy, holy, holy. Remember that? The message of
Isaiah 6. I saw the Lord high and lifted
up, and His train filled the temple. And the cherubs shouted,
what? They declared who God is. What
did they say? Holy! Holy! Holy! The whole earth is full of His
what? Glory! And the doors shook, and the
earth trembled. This is the God of the Bible.
And Isaiah said, Isaiah, one of the finest men on earth, says,
Woe is me! I'm undone! I'm a man of unclean
lips, and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.
And God said, sent his angel and said, get a coal from the
altar, put it on his lips. And he said, here, let me put
this part. And he said, go tell people. Go tell them. Tell them
what, Lord, Isaiah? Say, behold thy God. Tell them,
holy, holy, holy. And he said, but they won't hear
you. I'm going to blind their minds. Didn't it? You know the text? Isaiah said,
no blinder minds. And they won't believe it, no
man tells them. They'll see it. They're blinded.
And they'll weary themselves in their sin to get to the door
of iniquity. Not to the door of Christ. Not
to the door of this Christ. But, you see, this was us. This is us, but for the mercy
of God. What does it take to save a sinner
out of Sodom? The mercy of God, the power of
His angel, the command of God, the hand of God. Thank God for
sovereign mercy.