Please turn in your Bibles to the book of 2 Peter. 2 Peter chapter 2. If you remember from last time,
the Apostle Peter has used the Old Testament prophets
and that nation of Israel, and he says that just as there
were false prophets and false teachers, and heresies in the
day of those Old Testament prophets, he said, there shall also be
the same in Peter's day and in our day. There will be more of
the same. And they will have these damnable
heresies." And after he says that, he reminds us in verse
3, saying, "...and through covetousness shall they with feigned words
make merchandise of you. But know this, their judgment
now of a long time lingers not, and their damnation slumbers
not." They will be met in their rebellion, their lies, their
heresies will be met with the sure and certain judgment of
God. And after he says that, he goes
back and he uses three illustrations that confirm that God will judge
not only sin, but sin as it is manifested in the form of these
false prophets and teachers speaking these untrue things about God. The first one he speaks of has
to do with the angels themselves. He said, don't think that God
will not deal with this in judgment. He dealt with the very angels
that fell, that followed after Satan and his lies, a third of
the angelic hosts. He says, for if God spared not
the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell and deliver
them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment."
In other words, if God did that to angels, will He not surely
do it to such as these? And then He gives the second
illustration. And he says, "...and he spared
not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher
of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the
ungodly." This is the example the history that Peter says men
and women are willfully blind for love, and would love to deny
it. And men even say, where is any
evidence of judgment? That there will be judgment.
And they deny this very judgment that has already come upon those
in the flood. And then the Apostle Peter also
reminds them and us of the judgment of God that fell on Sodom and
Gomorrah and the cities of the plain. Verse 6 says, "...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. God reigned judgment, a just,
sure judgment on all the inhabitants of the cities of the plain. And I want us to examine that
judgment closely this morning. Because in the midst of all that
destruction, there was a man that was delivered by God. Out of all that judgment, there
was a man that was rescued. And the amazing thing is, the
thing that we really need to take notice of, is that God spared
a man, a man who was a sinner like all the rest. It doesn't
say anything about Lot being a better man than all the rest. But it does show us The divine
record does tell us that God showed mercy, that He spared
this man lot. Why? Why? I'll tell you why. Because He
would. Because He determined to do so. For a reason known only to Himself. for a reason that is to be found
in Him alone. He displayed, He demonstrated
to this man sovereign mercy and grace. But the question also, and I
believe the question that the gospel itself answers, is how
did He do that? In other words, how did God deliver
this sinner from amongst all these sinners and still remain
consistent with His holy and just self? You see, in verse
9, the Apostle Peter says in that last part, that the Lord
knows how to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment To be
punished. He knows how. The Lord knows
how to deal with rebel sinners. He knows how to punish the guilty,
the wicked, the unbelieving. But isn't it amazing that before
Peter makes that statement, he's led by the Spirit of God in that
ninth verse to say, first of all, the Lord knoweth how to
deliver the godly out of temptations. Only the Lord knows how to do
that. Only the Lord God Himself knew
how to deliver sinners such as we are, and remain consistent
with His own perfect and holy self. So look back in verse 7
and 8. It says that He delivered just
Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked. For that righteous
man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous
soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds." Do you remember? The words that God asked Abraham,
or the words really that Abraham asked God concerning this very
situation. When God made known to Abraham
that He was going to destroy all the inhabitants of the cities
of the plains, something came to Abraham's mind. And that was that his own nephew
Lot and his family, they were living in one of those cities,
the city of Sodom. And so Abraham begins this conversation
with the Lord. He's left standing before the
Lord. And so Abraham raises up a question
that only a grace-given boldness could begin to ask. He says,
Lord, I know something about who You are, and I know that
You surely would not calls to perish with the wicked any of
the righteous. I know that you will do justly,
so if there are 50 righteous persons living in any of those
cities, would you destroy them with the wicked?" And the Lord
said, no. If there were 50 righteous people
in a city, I'd spare that city. And then he goes on. Abraham
narrows it down. He says, what about if there
were 40 righteous people? The Lord says, no, I wouldn't.
Well, what about if there were 30 righteous people in the city? No, I wouldn't. Well, what about
if there were 20 righteous people in the cities? And he goes all
the way down to asking him, what about if there were 10 righteous
people in the city? And the Lord said, no. But there
wasn't ten righteous people in all those cities. But there was
one man. And Lot is a picture and a type
undoubtedly of a believing sinner. A believing sinner. And not only
that, but I believe that he well may be a type also of the Lord's
true people. as the hour approaches the second
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ." As a matter of fact, Christ uses
him as such an illustration, uses that time and that situation. Saying in Luke's Gospel in chapter
17, he says, "...likewise also as it was in the days of Lot, They did eat, they drank, they
bought, they sold, they planted, they built it. What was going
on in Lot's day? What was going on in the city
of Sodom? Business as usual. Business as usual. Everybody
was busy. Everybody was doing things. They
were building, they were buying, they were selling, they were
planting, they were doing all these things. They ate and they
drank. But the same day that lot went
out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and
destroyed them all. Now listen to this, even thus,
shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed." He uses
Lot, he uses this judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah, he uses these
things to show us the state in which it will be and is just
prior to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and how He will
come, just as He says, as a thief in the night, and it will be
a shocker. It will be a total surprise to
almost everybody in this world. except one people. And they're
described as the righteous. And so, God tells the psalmists
and everyone who preaches the gospel, He says to tell those
who are unable to believe the truth, say ye to the righteous. It's going to be well with them.
It's going to be well with them. because they live and they look
in anticipation of the One who is coming. And there are some
things here that we have to understand. If we really understand what
God is using all these things to teach us, He teaches all of
us something about what it is to be right in the sight of God
using this man by the name of Lot. And there's one thing that
is totally, completely, evidently true about him. Lot was righteous
in God's sight. I remember years ago, I read
this verse in a circumstance that I, even at that hour, I
didn't even know what I was talking about. But I do remember this. I remember that a lady who was
visiting came to that little assembly there and she questioned
me on that verse. A little Methodist lady. She said, I just don't see how
in the world that it can say that Lot was righteous. And I
didn't know hardly anything then, but I did know this much. I know
if God said it, He was righteous. And that's the very first thing
that you have to see about Lot if we have understanding. We're
not left to guess or debate it or wonder it. Lot was righteous
before God. He says so in several ways in
this one text of Scripture. In verse 7, Peter, by the Spirit
of God, calls him Just Lot. Just Lot. And then again in verse
8, he calls him, that righteous man. And he calls him also, speaks
of his righteous soul. And he puts him in another group.
And who is that? The godly. The godly. Now, that's pretty amazing because
I've heard of people say things like this. I really have. I heard
a lady say this one time. She said, you can just look at
people. She said, I can look at a person
and tell whether or not they're godly. I wonder what she would have
thought of Lot. Wonder what she would have thought of in the
environment that he lived in. But this is what this says. It
says that Lot was a righteous man. And it says that in the
light of this, that which is said like in Ecclesiastes, for
there is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and
sinneth not. That means Lot too. Or as Paul
says in Romans 3, as it is written, there is none righteous, no,
not one. What's he talking about there?
He's talking about in yourselves, in myself. We are none just in
ourselves before God. We're none righteous in our own
self or by anything we do before God. That hasn't changed that. What we are called and counted
in and by ourselves before God, that doesn't change. That word
is still true. There is not one of us in ourselves
righteous. Not one. There is not one of
us in anything we do that can become righteous in ourselves. And so here is a man who is in
the same state that we all are, described as just all these inhabitants
of Sodom as those who live ungodly. Well, didn't Lot live that way? Wasn't he a fallen son of Adam
just like you and I are? Wasn't He, by all biblical descriptions,
a sinner found among those who are described as all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God? Had not original sin tainted
Himself in that He fell in Adam, all sinned in Him? Absolutely. But God gives us an example here. And He uses this man a lot. He
uses this man-lot in the midst of this ungodly place. He gives us this example that
we might know how any sinner is just, how any sinner is truly
righteous, and how any sinner is truly godly. And I sure am thankful of something.
I'm thankful that he uses Lot. And immediately with Lot, we
know that it was not anything in him or done by him. He's sitting there, a sinner
in a bunch of sinners. You might wonder about Lot. Well, his very choice in being
there may well reveal that he was a sinner. When his Uncle
Abraham told him to choose whatever one he wanted, what did he choose?
He looked out and he saw the cities, the plains well watered.
He said, that's what I want. He didn't say, Uncle Abraham,
that's the best country you take yet. No. And we might find out
something about him in that he had so little influence with
his sons-in-law that when he told them and warned them, they
laughed at him. And you could go on and on and
on. But God uses him to show us that the only way, the only
way a sinner can ever be just in his sight is to be declared
by God to be such. But even that causes a problem.
Because this is what God says. He says, He that justifieth the
wicked, and he that condemneth the just, they both are an abomination
to the Lord." Well, isn't God being guilty
of doing just exactly what He says is an abomination to Him? Isn't God calling a man who undoubtedly
in himself is unjust who undoubtedly in himself is unrighteous, isn't
God guilty of doing just exactly what He says? No. Why? Because He is looking at
law. He's viewing Lot, this One who
is a just God and a Savior. He's looking at Lot, viewing
Lot, dealing with Lot, and counting Him as He is in His Son, Jesus
Christ. That's why Christ is called by
the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah, the Lord our righteousness. You
and I could never stand one iota of a second before the thrice
holy God, and by any claim, such as the claims they make in Matthew
7 about what we've done, we never for one iota of a second stand
in His presence. And yet here is a man who is
a sinner. And he's living in a wicked place. You know what
makes a place wicked? Oh, that's a wicked place. You
know why it's wicked? Because wicked sinners live in
it. And yet here he is. And God delivers
him. And God rescues him. And God
Himself calls him righteous. Just. And this is an example
that answers that question that Job asked, which is what I call
an eternal question. He said, how should man be just
with God? How shall man be just with God?
How can Lot be just with God? Well, Lot found out through this
uncle. Famous uncle. We know about Uncle
Abraham. That the only way that any sinner
can be just before God, the only way that any man can be righteous,
is for God to justify him. Now, I know in our day, there's
a lot that passes for Christianity wherein men say, we believe in
justification by faith. But do you know what they mean
by that most of the time? They mean that they are justified
by God based on their act of faith. No. Not my act of faith that justifies. It wasn't Lot's act of faith,
was it? Do you see acts of faith justifying
him? No. To be justified, if we know
anything about the biblical definition of that word, means to be declared
righteous by God Himself in another, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so God can look down on Lot
living in this wicked place, and see Him in His Son through
His bloodshed, through His life laid down, and count Him righteous
just like He did His uncle. Abraham believed God. Abraham
believed in the Lord, and he counted it unto him for righteousness. What is believing? No. The one
he believed on. You see, Abraham is described
in Scripture, in the New Testament, as the father of all them that
believe. And of all that could be said
about Abraham so many times, so many things he did, so many
things he witnessed, The thing that is described about him in
about four places in the New Testament is this, Abraham believed
God. You ask the question, Lot, are
you a righteous man? And what are you talking about?
Are you talking about me and myself, or are you talking about
my standing before God? And that's where it all gets
mixed up oftentimes. Because righteousness has been
reduced in our day to pure morality or moral codes and things of
that nature, when in truth it has to do with our standing before
God. Are you righteous, love? I am
in the promised one. You see, Lot and Abraham, they
look to the coming One. They look to that promised seed,
which was not Isaac, by the way, but the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He's the Father. Abraham is of
all them that believe, of all these spiritual children. And
evidently, by the grace of God, one of them turns out to be his
own nephew. Every once in a while, somebody
will ask me, where are you from? I'm from right here. I'm from
right here. Well, you're here, you're trying
to preach and pastor among your own people, so to speak. Do you
have any of your family come to the service? Absolutely! Where better could I be? Who
better could Abraham have spoken to concerning the truth as it
is in Christ Jesus, and told him of the promised one as God
would have had him to do? Who better than his own nephew? I want the Lord to save my family.
I want the Lord to save my friends. I want Him to save all His people,
and I pray that some of them will be found among that people.
He has a people. right after Lot had to be rescued. He got kidnapped. And Uncle Abraham
had to go and rescue him. And it was from that rescue that
Abraham met that famous Melchizedek, who had neither beginning nor
end. And Abraham worshipped him. I'll just give you my opinion
on that. I believe that was the pre-incarnate
Christ. Because he would have never allowed
worship otherwise. He worshipped him. He paid tithes
to him, it says. He honored him as God. And Abraham
undoubtedly, if Lot was not with him, Abraham undoubtedly told
him what God had said to him, how God had delivered him from
the idolatry of Ur of the Chaldees, how He had in sovereign grace
called him out and brought him out and showed mercy to him. And they believed. But with the
heart, man believeth unto righteousness." They believed God. And they believed
that covenant promise concerning that seed which the Apostle says
is Christ. Turn over to Romans chapter 3.
Romans chapter 3, where the Apostle Paul is the first and chief one
to use by the Spirit of God Abraham as an example. Romans 3 and verse 21. After he said that by the deeds
of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for
by the law is the knowledge of sin, he says, but now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus
Christ unto all and upon all them that believe. Well, there
is no difference. Jew or Gentile, young or old,
living in Abraham's day or this day, whenever it is, God's people
are all bought to believe the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. being or having been justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. If you don't have any other verse
in your Bible marked, you ought to have that verse marked. It
is actually having been justified. What does that mean? Declared
righteous. By who? Mama? Your Sunday school
teacher? Your best friend? Old Reverend
so-and-so? No. By God Himself. By an act of the only free will
there is in this universe. By an act of God Himself. Having been justified freely. That word is also used in another
place when it speaks of how they treated Christ and accused Christ
and crucified Him. It says there, without a cause. Having been justified without
any cause in us, freely, by His grace, Now, when he says, by
His grace, that means that there can be absolutely, positively,
at no point, any boasting by us. We cannot offer up anything that
we have done, felt, abstained from, And that's what everybody
does by nature. Can God accept you? Well, sure
He will. I accepted Him. He's not up for acceptance. Or
surely, I've been a Christian since I walked down the aisle
in that revival meeting when I was five years old. Couldn't
even spell my name. I'm going to tell you in our
day, the wickedest people, and they're not all preachers, but
the wickedest, most vile people that there are in this world
are these individuals who take in these religious circumstances
these small children and try by one way or another to convince
them that they're fit for heaven. That's some mean people. Give
me the drunks and the druggies. Anything but a person who will
lie to a small child and tell them they're a child of God when
they don't know anything about the gospel at all. Just so they
can say, we have so many professions of faith. That's the vilest of the vile. No, justified freely by His grace,
total unmerited favor, but not at the expense of justice. Because
He says, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. It's the only way. Sin has to
be paid for. God has to be honored. Justice
has to be satisfied. You see, to be a just man, you
have to be a justified man, and there is no justification without
justice. And I've said it, I'll say it
one more time, if there's an attribute of God in our day and
time, that is the most violated one, it's His justice. Because men and women will say
this, preachers, terrible, they'll say this, well, we believe Christ
died for everybody. Well, do you believe anybody's
going to go to hell? Well, sure! If God has sent His Son to die for every
single person in this world, and one of them goes to hell,
eternity will cry out to God, Injustice! Injustice! Christ said, I lay down my life
for the sheep, and I'm going to bring them. I give to them
eternal life, and they'll never perish. through the redemption, whom
God has set forth a propitiation through faith in His blood to
declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are
passed through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at
this time, His righteousness." Whose righteousness? God. God. He's right to forgive sin
in and through and by The death of His Son. That He might be
just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. That's
not complicated. It's contradictory. You say,
what do you mean contradictory? I mean it's contradictory to
our natural fallen way of thinking. and contradictory to our natural
way of what we are told by religion in this world. Then Paul continues
in chapter 4 of Romans. What shall we say then that Abraham
our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if
Abraham were justified by words, he would have therefore whereof
to glory, but not before God. For what saith the Scripture,
Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness."
He looked to that promised one. He looked to the one that God
had told him would come through him in this lineage so that in
Abraham all the families of the earth would be blessed. He looked
to the coming Christ. These in Peter's day, they believed
in the Christ that was come. And we believe in the Christ
who has come and who is coming again. For what saith the Scripture,
Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace,
but of death. You can sing about building your
mansion in glory all you want to. You can talk about the fact
that we've preached in your name, we've done many wonderful works
in your name, we've cast out devils in your name. You can
do that all you want to. And you'll get the reward for
it. And since the reward for sin
is hell, that's what you'll get for it. Do you want what you
work for? What God gives is a perfect gift.
Do you want to stand before God as a sinner that you are? Or
be found in Christ Jesus? But to him that worketh not.
Somebody says, well, there they go, they're down on good works. Now, I'm not down on good works. Although I know there's only
one truly good one. One truly good one. But the good
works that Paul describes in Ephesians and other places, those
works are the works of those who do so because God has saved
them. Those who know that it is not
of works lest any man should boast. He says, "...but to him
that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly."
There's a lot right there. There is ungodly lot in himself,
there is godly lot in Christ Jesus. His faith is counted for righteousness,
even as David also described it, the blessedness of the man
unto whom God imputes righteousness without works, saying, Blessed
are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin." That's the blessing. You ever see all
these bumper stickers and signs and nameplates and all that just
say, blessed? How are you today, my friend?
Boy, I'm blessed. Blessed. These are the blessed. Blessed is that person to whom
the Lord does not impute or charge or hold to His account His sins. That's lot. Blessed is that person
to whom the Lord imputes, or accounts, or charges to his account
righteousness without worth, even the very righteousness of
God in Christ." Lot was righteous. God said he was, and God could
truthfully say that he was, because He had made him the very righteousness
of God in Christ. But not only was he righteous,
he was also vexed. He was vexed in his soul. It says that he vexed his righteous
soul with the filthy conversation of the wicked. Now, do you ever
wonder why Lot was sitting out there in the city gate He's sitting outside the city
gate when he sees these two men coming. He's like a believer. He's in the world, but he's not
of the world. And he vexed his righteous soul. That word vexed means sore distressed. It means to work down, way down. Why was he vexed and the others
weren't? They seem very happy about things. Lot didn't seem so happy about
things. The believer, I can't think of
my word, but the believer seems in himself to be a contradiction.
He's the happiest, most miserable person in the world. There's Lot. He vexed his righteous
soul with a filthy conversation of the wicked. Because all who
are born of God's Spirit find the Spirit of God in them against
all that is contrary to and against God and His Word." How many times have I heard somebody
say, well, I don't see anything wrong with fill-in-the-blank. I can believe them. I don't see
anything wrong with that. I don't doubt it. You see, blind
sinners don't see anything wrong with anything except God, His
way, and His Word. As a matter of fact, in our day,
it's considered unchristian to be vexed about anything. What distressed Lot? What vexed
him? Well, surely all their, as we
say in the South, all their cussing, and all their immoral conduct,
and all their godless activities, and certainly all of their homosexual
alternate lifestyles. You did get that when we read
that, what they were wanting to do with those two men, did
you not? They were wanting to engage in
a homosexual act with those two men, those two angels that appeared. So vile and so bad and so vexing
the lot that he offered them his own daughters. That wasn't
good, was it? It was good compared to what
they wanted to do with these two angels. He was vexed with
all that. Every word, every deed, every
activity in Sodom that Lot knew to be contrary to God's law vexed
him. And likewise, all believers today,
when wrong is called right and right is called wrong, do not
these things in our society vex you? Can you listen to the news,
read the paper, and not be vexed? But I'll tell you this. I truly
believe that the thing that vexed him most was the idolatry of
Sodom. You say, how do you know there
was idolatry? Well, just go back and read in
Romans 1 and see what idolatry is the by-product of. And then see what is the by-product
of idolatry. Idolatry rises up out of rejected
light and truth. And out of idolatry comes and
follows blatant wickedness. Paul says in Romans 1, "...and
for this cause God gave them over to a reprobate mind." What we're witnessing in every
corner of this earth evidently right now is simply the product
of truth, God, gospel rejection. And I'm going to tell you this,
it always precedes sure, soon judgment. It's coming. But I can promise you this, there
will not one righteous soul perish. And there is not one righteous
soul apart from those that are made righteous by God's grace
in Christ. Lot saw their temples. He heard
their religious talk about their gods. He saw how contrary it
was to Jehovah God, and it distressed his righteous soul. And I hate to hear about the
immorality, the wickedness of this age. I do. It makes me sick
on my stomach. But I'll tell you what I hate
to hear worse. I hate to hear all this blasphemy against God. I hate to hear all these lies
told about God. Smile. God loves you. Did He love those people outside
of the ark when they were destroyed in the flood? That would have
been a cute bumper sticker on the back of the ark, wouldn't
it? Is it the only hope of rescue floated away? Smile. God loves
you. That's a lie. If God loves in
that way, He's got a funny way of showing it. No. God only loves those that are
in Christ. And He's loved them with an everlasting
love. Or they say, well, Christ died
for everybody. Sickens me, because I know that's
not what this book says. How can a whole generation of
people be deceived into the general acceptance of something so anti-biblical? No. He lays down his life for the
sheep. Call His name Jesus, for He shall
save His people from their sins." Why fight against that? I want
to be one of His people. And to hear the work of Christ,
the greatest work by the greatest Being that's ever been on this
earth, so defiled and brought down and made to nothing, reduced
to a work that's only effectual if somebody accepts it. That's awful. That's vexing to
anybody who truly believes. To hear God reduced down to a
pygmy or to a midget God whose hands are tied, that just vexes
my soul. All these church signs. You drive
by and it just, cold chill runs over my body. Grace factory outlet. Yes, not far from here. Grace
factory outlet. What comes into your mind? Factory outlet. Slightly blemished,
slightly irregular, low cost. Grace is free. True grace. It's the grace of God. All that
is said about Jesus that is so contrary to the Lord Jesus Christ,
All these things around us in this world are to those who are
not of this world most distressing. That the glory of God is not
magnified. I'll tell you why I'm here this
morning. Not just to preach. I want to hear us sing about,
great is the faithfulness of our God. I want to hear us read
His Word. I want to hear us sing that praise
that glorifies God, because He is worthy of being glorified. But even such vexing is the grace
of God. What if it didn't vex us? What
if we were still out joining in with the whole world in this
same line? Just following along with it. If we were vexed by these things,
it's the grace of God. It's the grace of God. But I'll
tell you what, there's another thing about Olat. He was delivered. He was delivered. It says in
verse 7, "...he delivered just Lot." He delivered him from being
condemned with them first, and He then delivered him from being
destroyed with them. And He did not suffer the judgment
of the wicked. I love it when Paul says, "...we
shall be saved from wrath through Him." That doesn't mean there's not
wrath. It means we shall be saved from wrath through Him. God has
not appointed us to destruction. We shall be saved from wrath
through Him. Why? How? Because our wrath,
the wrath we deserve, fell on our substitute. Not only was Lot delivered, so
are all of God's elect. All who are made righteous in
Christ. All who are justified freely by His grace through that
redeeming blood. All who are made godly into beloved. Because the Lord knows how. When
the devil assaults me, that's kind of what I have to offer
up to him. How can you be saved? How can you be a Christian? The
Lord knows how. In Christ crucified. In Christ
crucified. Paul says, Grace be to you and
peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who
gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this
present evil world according to the will of God and our Father. To the Romans. He that spared
not His only Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall
He not with Him also freely give us all things? To the Corinthians,
who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver, in
whom we trust that He will yet deliver us also. And then it
says in Job, He shall deliver you in six troubles, yea, in
seven. There shall no evil touch you."
7 is all that number of completions. So what does that mean? He'll
deliver us from all our troubles. We'll either, in our afflictions,
be healed or made totally well. We'll be made totally well. We'll
either have deliverance from our trial, or more grace to be
sustained through Him. He's going to deliver the righteous. And then He finally and completely
delivers them. Every one of them. All His people,
from all their troubles, from all this vileness, from all this
God-hating world. Just think about this. There
was a righteous man inside. May have only been one, but there
was one. He's not trying to save the world,
but I want to be one of those he saves. He said he didn't die for everybody,
but I'm praying that I'm one he died for, because that's my
only hope. Did you notice what it says?
How does this describe Noah in the midst of that coming judgment
and flood? Did it say, Noah, the art builder? Or Noah, the man that made a
mistake and got drunk? No. It says, Noah, a preacher
of righteousness. A preacher of the gospel, as
Paul said, wherein the righteousness of God is revealed. If you ever are righteous, me,
God will have to make us so. If we ever find out about Him,
it will be through that gospel wherein the righteousness of
God is revealed. His righteousness, as it has
to do with His character, His righteousness as it has to do
with what He requires, and His righteousness as it has to do
with what He gives. Romans 5, Paul called it, the
gift of righteousness. God help us. May we be found
among those who believe on Christ in the midst of this Sodom. Father, this day we give you
thanks and praise for the goodness and mercy of your salvation that
you give to men and women in Christ Jesus. We know that you
have purposed to give that salvation to a people that you chose in
Christ before the world began. We have no way of looking in
that registry book, in the Lamb's Book of Life, wherein their names
were written before the foundation of the world. And so we take
our place in the description of those you saved. We delight
in the fact that you died for the ungodly, that you came into
this world to save sinners, that you suffered the just for the
unjust in order to bring them to God, that you made Christ
to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him. May we be counted among your
justified ones, and therefore also as your believing ones.
For we ask it and we pray that in all you might get glory to
yourself. We pray in Christ's name, Amen.