All right, let's open our Bibles
again to Genesis 19. I titled the message this evening,
Delivering Mercy. Tonight I want us to see, first
of all, our need of God's mercy. And then I want us to see how
sure God's salvation is because of God's mercy. If the Lord will
be pleased to show us those two things. We're gonna leave here
tonight rejoicing, thankful to be a mercy beggar. Genesis 19
is a dark, dark chapter. It uncomfortably displays how despicable our sin nature
is. It's no holes barred displaying
the wretchedness of our nature. But that's a good backdrop, isn't
it? To display the glories of God's mercy. It's like the jeweler
putting his diamond on that black velvet cloth so you can see the
glory and beauty of the diamond. Man's nature's on display here.
Black, vile, wretched, so that we might see the glory of God's
mercy, his delivering mercy. Now the first thing I want us
to see is this. All mankind is in need of God's mercy. Verse
one. And there came two angels to
Sodom and Eve. 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 lord,
my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant's 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 on the street all night. And
he pressed upon them greatly. And they turned in unto him and
he entered into his house and he made them a feast and did
bake unleavened bread and they did eat. Now Lot had been living
in this city for some time. He knew how sinful the people
were in broad daylight. And he knew how it got a lot
worse at night. And that's why he pressed these
men. to stay with him. He said, you
come in, you stay with me tonight, you stay in here all night, and
now you get up early tomorrow morning and get out of here before
anybody sees you, before anybody is awake and sees that you're
there. In verse four, 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. Now all the
people are caught up in the sin of this city. They're young men
and old men. Rich men, poor men, men from
every quarter, from what we would call good neighborhoods, what
we call bad neighborhoods. Everybody was there surrounding
Lot's house. In verse five, they called unto
Lot and said unto him, where are the men which came into thee
this night? Bring them out unto us that we may know them. And
that word know, they don't want to just meet them. They don't
want to make their queens. That word know is the same word a
husband knowing. His wife, the men of the city
wanted to rape these men that came and were visitors in their
city. So not only is this homosexuality, it's violence. It's just violence. It's meanness. In verse six,
Lot went out at the door unto them and shut the door after
him. And he 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.
For therefore came they under the shadow of my roof. I'm the father of two daughters. I don't even know what to say
about this. I mean, I read everything I could read on it. I don't even
know what to say. There is absolutely no justification
whatsoever for what Lott did here. He's going to give his
daughters to this mob to spare these two men. I mean, what a
horrible father. I mean, can you imagine? What
a horrible man, just a horrible human being. I mean, who thinks
this way? You know, some of the writers
Suggest well, maybe a lot thought prostitution wasn't as bad as
homosexuality But brother seeing is seeing There's no excuse for
it. There's just no excuse for a
lot offering something so just so horrible in verse 9 they said
that men of the city said stand back and They said again this
one fellow came in to sojourn and he will needs to be a judge
Now we will deal worse with thee than with them And they pressed
sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door.
Here's what the men of the city are saying. Lot, you moved here
just a few years ago. I mean, you weren't born and
raised here. You sojourned here. You came here. And now for this
short time, you want to be the judge of us? We're going to do
what we want. We're going to do worse to you
than we are to them. It's just the violence of this
thing. In verse 10, the men put forth their hand and pulled 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. Now these angels, they saved
Lot's bacon. These men would have killed him
if the angels hadn't pulled him into the house. And then they
struck all those men out there with blindness. And even in their
blindness, they didn't quit. They were so bloodthirsty, they
wearied themselves to try to find the door. They wouldn't
quit. They just wanted to get their hands on these men. Now
I said all that because I wanted us to see the details of what's
going on here in Sodom. Because Sodom, the nature of
the people in Sodom is a picture of all men by nature. You and
I today have the same vile, sinful nature that the people of Sodom
had all those years ago. You and I are just as sinful
as those people of Sodom. We have no reason we can look
down our nose at them. Now homosexuality is what we
normally associate with Sodom and homosexuality is wrong. I
mean, just make no bones about it. I will not try to be politically
correct about this thing at all. We have to tell the truth. Now,
this is wrong. Homosexuality is a sin. Living
in that is wrong. But their sin is not worse than
our sin. Their nature is not worse than
my nature or your nature. When Scripture talks about homosexuality,
this is why this particular sin is used in scripture. It's used
as a picture of false religion. It's always used as a picture
of religion without Christ. You know, a homosexual relationship,
that relationship can exist, but that relationship cannot
produce life. It's utterly impossible. Now,
like the relationship of a husband and a wife can, the union of
a husband and wife can produce children. about homosexuality,
and that's a picture of false religion. You can go about all
the activity of false religion you want. You can have the relationship
with it if you want, but it's not gonna produce life. Life can only be had through
union with Christ. Life can only be given by the
gospel being preached and God taking his word as the seed that
gives life and planting it in the hearts of his people. Well,
that doesn't happen in false religion. They don't preach the
word. They don't preach the truth. So there can't be any life. That
is the purpose of homosexuality. It's not to say that homosexuality
is the greatest sin. It's a picture of false religion.
It's given to show us unbelief is the worst sin. I don't know
if it's even right to actually quantify that. I'm sure this is true. Unbelief
is the greatest sin. Here's why I say that. The only
reason somebody will be damned is unbelief. Every other sin
would be forgiven. Unbelief is absolute refusal
to believe on and trust in Christ. That's the sin that damns people.
And you know, because of our sin nature, just like these men
were struck blind, We're blind by nature, aren't we? Spiritually.
So we can't see Christ. We can't see the way of life.
We can't see that the way of salvation comes not by our works,
but through faith in Christ. We can't see that. So we work
so hard and this is spinning our wheels and this thing of
false religion. We weary ourselves with all this
work, but we're not clean. We're not righteous. We don't
have any life. Righteousness can only come by faith in Christ. Righteousness can never come
by our works and we're blind and we can't see it and we weary
ourselves and by our works we never find salvation. We never
find life. We never find Christ. We're as
wretched and vile as these people of Sodom and we deserve to be
destroyed. I bet every person here would
say, I absolutely see why God would destroy the people of Sodom.
They deserved it. But unless God has done a work
of grace in our hearts, we'd be mighty slow to say, I do too.
We'd be mighty slow to say it. We deserve to be destroyed because
of our sin. And the only reason any son of
Adam will not be destroyed is God's delivery mercy. And that's
why my first point is this. I don't care who we are. All
of mankind is in desperate need of God's mercy. All right, number
two, we know all mankind needs mercy, but you know, believers
are in constant need of God's mercy. Look at second Peter chapter
two. We read this, this account, But
now let's read what Peter has to say about him in the New Testament.
2 Peter 2, verse 3. And through covetousness, shall
they with feigned words make merchandise of you, whose judgment
now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth
not, God's going to deal with them. 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 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 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. vexed with the filthy conversation
of the wicked for that righteous man dwelling among them and seeing
and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their
unlawful deeds. The Lord knoweth how to deliver
the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust until
the day of judgment to be punished." Now based on this account, we
know for sure, there's no doubt, Lot was a believer. Peter, under
inspiration of the Holy Spirit, gives us two examples, objects
of God's mercy that God delivered in the midst of his judgment
and justice. Noah was delivered from the flood
in the ark. Lot was delivered from Sodom
because God delivered him. Now everybody here knows Noah
acted in faith when he built an ark. Everybody knows that.
That was an act of faith, wasn't it? Noah is a preacher of righteousness.
While he was building that ark, he was telling people what he
was doing and why he was doing it. And by his example of faith,
he was a preacher of righteousness, saying there's salvation in this
ark. There's salvation in Christ. We can all see that in Noah,
can't we? I can't think of one blessed thing in scripture that
Lot did that was right. Far as I can tell, everything
Lot did, every time he was at a crossroads, every time he had
to make a decision, Lot went the wrong way every single time. I can't find one thing that Lot
did say, yeah, a believer would do that. But he was one. He was a believer. And the only
explanation for it is this. God was merciful to Lot. It's
the only explanation. And every time Lot made another
bad decision, God was merciful again. He kept being merciful
to Lot. Lot lived his life in such a
way that he fit right in with the people of Sodom. Remember
when the angels first came there in Genesis 19, where did they
find Lot? Sitting at the gate of the city. He wasn't just out
there sitting watching people go to and fro. What that means
is this. Lot was a political leader. In
that city, he was looked on as a leader. He fit right in. And
the only way Locke could fit in in that city is if he compromised. He had to compromise his religion.
He had to compromise his values. He had to compromise his conduct.
He had to keep his mouth shut when things he saw bothered him.
That's the only way he could fit in with those people. And
doing compromising like that, just saying, well, you know,
Locke compromised to get along. Well, all right. But in doing
that, it affected him. It affected his mind to where
he'd offer his daughters to that group. I mean, I saw a man do
that. All right. You and me ain't buddies
anymore. That's probably very self-righteous
and judgmental on my part, but now I got a problem with that.
That came about because his compromise, it affected his way of thinking.
We need to remember that. God help us, the same thing doesn't
happen to us. That we compromise with the world so much, that
affect our thinking like that. I know this, that happened, because
look at verse 12. And the man said unto Lot, hast
thou here any besides, son-in-law, and thy sons, and thy daughters,
and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this
place. For we will destroy this place,
because the cry of them is waxing great before the face of the
Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it. And Lot went out
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. This is so sad. But he seemed
as one that mocked unto his sons-in-law. Lot told his sons-in-law, get
out of this place. God's going to destroy this place.
And they thought Lot was pulling a big old joke on them. Apparently,
they never heard Lot talk about the Lord. They never heard Lot
talk about how he trusted in the Lord. They never heard Lot
talk about how the things of this city, the way people are
doing things vexed his righteous soul. They never saw Lot lead
his family in worship. They never saw him take his family
to the public worship service. They never saw him gather his
family together and lead them in prayer. Let's bow before the
Lord. God is so great. Let's bow before
the Lord in prayer. What they saw was Lot living
like everybody else in Sovereign. They didn't see any difference. Now I'm not picking on Lot at
all. Here's why I'm pointing that
out. Every one of us is just as guilty as Lot. Every one of
us. Think how worldly we all still
are. Think how often we keep our mouth
shut just to avoid trouble. We just get along, you know,
to avoid trouble. I had a boss one time, actually
told me this. Man acted so honest and upright
on Sunday, but he actually told me this. There's no place for
that Monday through Saturday when you're running a business.
Most dishonest man I ever met in my life. That spirit's in every one of
us, isn't it? Every one of us. Believers included. Just do whatever it takes to
get ahead. That's a believer. I'm talking
about believers here now. This is, you know, God saves
us by His grace. We're sinners saved by grace.
We never rise above that, do we? And we live our lives here
below in constant need of God's mercy. in constant need of forgiveness,
in constant need for God to keep us by his mercy. No matter how
long the believer lives, we will never ever get to the point.
Now, I don't need God as much as I used to. You know, a big
the real evidence of growing in grace, it's realizing I need
God more than I ever realized before. That's growing in grace. Now listen, salvation does not
depend upon our conduct. We can't earn it by our works.
We can't lose it by our works. We can't keep it by our works.
Salvation is by God's grace and his grace alone. Salvation is
through faith in Christ without our works at any time in any
way. Paul wrote a whole book, book
of Romans to tell us that very truth. Salvation by faith without
works. But that does not mean the believer's
conduct is unimportant. Our conduct is very important. You think about the believer's
conduct. Here's a person who says, I believe
Christ. I love Christ. I'm publicly identifying
with him, with his gospel, with who he is, he says in his word.
Well, my conduct reflects on that Savior. I said He saved
me by His grace. I say He's taken up residence
in my heart. He's my King. He's my Shepherd. He's my Savior.
Well, my conduct reflects on Him. Does my conduct make anybody
else want to know Him? Want to come to Him? Does my
conduct make anybody else think? This thing might be real. What
he's talking about, that might be real. There might be a work
in His arm. I'll tell you something else
about our conduct. It makes us able to tell others about Christ
and to lead them to Christ. Lot's conduct made it so he couldn't
do that. His sons-in-law thought he was
mocking him. I remember Bob Coffey, my mentor,
he was my mentor as a preacher, as a teacher, as an elder, and
as a father. And he told me this early on when Holly was real,
real little. Bob knows children. I mean, he knows children. And
this is the way he told me. He said, he can pick them out.
Children whose parents on Sunday say they believe the gospel,
and Monday through Saturday don't live it. And their children think,
there's nothing to this. This is not real. Their conduct
makes it so they They can't lead their children to Christ. Their
children won't listen to them. They lost their credibility.
Isn't that a good way to put it? They lost their credibility
to tell others about Christ. That's what Lot did. Now, Lot
didn't lose his salvation, did he? Peter described him as just
Lot, as a righteous man. He didn't lose his salvation.
But sadly, he was of no use. He was not useful in God's church
here on earth. And that's a crime chain. It's
a crime chain. The believer's conduct matters.
It matters. And we won't lose our salvation,
but also don't forget this, the consequences to our actions,
consequences to this very day because of lots of actions. And
the only reason, we're the same way, We're the exact same way.
And the only reason, in our sin, our rebellion, in our ignorance,
in our trying to turn away from Christ, the only reason God don't
let us go is God's merciful. He keeps being merciful. He keeps
being merciful. He keeps being merciful. He keeps
being merciful to his people. Never, because we finally learned
to be better than somebody else. It's always because of God saving,
keeping mercy. All right, number three, God's
mercy is delivering mercy. We talk about God's mercy. Brother,
this means something. Verse 15. And when the morning
arose, then the angels hasten lot saying, arise, take thy wife
and my two daughters, which are here, thus thou be consumed in
the iniquity of the city. And while he lingered, The men
laid hold upon his hand and upon the hand of his wife and upon
the hand of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful unto
him. And they brought him forth and
set him without the city. This is the first time the word
merciful is used in the Bible and it's delivering mercy. These
angels told Lot, no, we're going to destroy this city and we're
gonna do it right now. And Lot believed him. He believed they
were going to do that. And he still lingered. Can you
explain that? I can. This heart of flesh. He lingered in that place he
knew was going to be destroyed. He had to linger because there
was still a peel to his flesh inside him. Lot chose the well
water plain and he still liked it. I mean well water plain is
better than dry mountain. He liked being a political figure.
He liked being somebody in that town. He liked the riches and
the creature comforts that he accumulated in that town. Lot
was a righteous man, yet he was hesitant to give up the sinful
things of this flesh and the sinful ways of this world. Even
though Peter said it vexed his righteous soul every day, he
still lingered. He was still hesitant to let
it go. Again, I'm not being hard on Lot. I'm just pointing this
out because every honest person here will say, I'm just like
you. By God's grace, I've got a righteous
nature that vexes my soul. God's given me a heart, a new
heart that believes and trusts Christ completely. That loves
Him, that wants Him and Him only. And the flesh. I got that nature
too, it's still alive and well in me. That nature of the flesh
is still drawn to this world and this world's still sweet
to that nature of flesh just as much as it ever was. And that's why we need mercy
all the days of our life. Well, thank God he's rich in
mercy in me. And his mercy is delivering mercy. Even though
a lot lingered, Even though Lot insulted the Lord by lingering,
even though there's still so much flesh and so much sin in
Lot, the Lord delivered him anyway. Now that's mercy. God not giving
us what we deserve by our works and by our nature because God
is merciful. And the angels didn't tell Lot
to leave. They said, now shoo on now, run
on. They laid hold on him. And it must have been with some
force because they picked him up, they picked up his wife,
they picked up his daughters, and they took them out of the
city. I mean, did the angels fly? I
don't know, but I know this. He laid hold on him, and next
thing Lot knew, he and his family outside the city. That was with
some force, wasn't it? Forcibly removing him and bringing
him to a place of safety. That's mercy. That's God's delivering
mercy. Brother Fortner calls it the
violence of grace. The violence of grace. God's
mercy moves people, lays hold upon them and moves them from
one place to another place. In the violence of grace, God
moves his people from Adam to Christ. He moves us from self
to trusting in Christ. He moves us from this kingdom
of darkness into the kingdom of his dear son. Now salvation
is of the Lord. It's of the Lord's choosing,
it's of the Lord's doing, it's of the Lord's application. Salvation
is of the Lord, of his mercy. You know why we're not consumed?
Why are you sons of Jacob not consumed? Because the Lord's
merciful. Look at John chapter six. This
is not the only time we read about this. violence of grace. You know,
by nature, we know this. We cannot, we will not, and we
cannot come to Christ. Do you know what God does for
his people? He forcibly moves us and puts us in Christ. John
6, verse 44. No man can come to me. Ain't
no point in trying to talk people into walking an aisle and making
a decision and telling them to do something and that's gonna
make them saved. Our Lord says, no man can come
to me. Man in the flesh does not have
the ability to come to Christ. He doesn't have the capacity
to, he's dead. No man can come to me except the Father, which
has sent me, draw him. And I'll raise him up at the
last day. You know what that word draw
means? It doesn't mean, well, I'm gonna
try to draw you down the aisle. I'm gonna try to draw you to
make a decision. for Christ. The word means to drag. That's what it means, to drag.
To drag from one place to another place. God drags his, forcibly,
drags his people to his son. And when we get there, we're
mighty glad. Aren't we mighty glad? That is
delivering mercy. And Lord does that for his people
continually, continually. Scripture tells us love, not
the world. And we linger. Our new heart
hates it, yet somehow we find ourselves lingering. Oh, we love
the gospel of God's grace. Oh, we love, we'd love to meet
together with God's people and worship him, hear his gospel,
preach, read his word. And our flesh is constantly trying
to bring us back into captivity to the law for constant trying
to leave, trying to leave Christ, trying to turn our back on him,
and God is merciful. He constantly turns us back to
Christ. See, that's why I say repentance
is not a one-time thing. It's a constant thing. The Lord
in his delivering mercy, constantly turning us back to Christ. And
you know what? The character of God demands
that he do it. Here's the fourth thing. God's
mercy is the result of God's justice satisfied. Back in our
text, Genesis 19, verse 17. It came to pass, when
they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, escape for thy
life, look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain. Escape
to the mountain, lest thou be consumed. And Lot said unto them,
oh, not so, my lord. Behold, now thy servant hath
found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy.
which thou showed 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's a little
one. Oh, let me escape thither. Isn't
it a little one? Can't you overlook this little
one? If I can escape there, my soul shall live. And he said
unto him, see, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also.
Thou will not overthrow this city for the which thou hast
spoken. Haste thee. Escaped thither, for I cannot
do anything till thou become thither. Therefore, the name
of that city was called Zoar. And the angel told Lot, escape
to the mountain. And Lot said, oh, I don't want to leave the
plain. I want to stay here in this plain. There's another little
city over here. It's just a little one. Can't
you just ignore this little one and let me live over here in
the corner? And the angel said, I've accepted you concerning
this. Now it doesn't mean I've accepted your decision here in
the way we use the word accepted. You know what the word means,
the Hebrew word? It means to bear with. It means
to carry. You know what the angel's telling
the Lord? I'm putting up with you. I'm putting up with you.
The word also means to forgive and to pardon. This is wrong,
but Lord, I'm forgiving you. I'm pardoning your sins. And
it's because of the sacrifice of Christ. The angel told Lot,
I'm going to destroy this place. Now Lot, you get out of here,
you get out of here and you'll be delivered. And the reason
God showers his people with his mercy that way over and over
and over and over and over again is the sacrifice of God's son. The angel said, I cannot destroy
this place as long as you're in it. Lot, I can't destroy you.
God cannot do wrong. He can't destroy the righteous
with the wicked. The Lord could not, even God couldn't destroy
that place. If it meant a lot would be destroyed
in it. It wouldn't be just. He had to take him out of that
place. And that's the very reason God forgives our sin over and
over and over again. This is why God puts up with
us over and over and over again. This is why his mercies are new
every morning. Because God, the righteous judge,
cannot destroy His people. Not if you already killed Christ
as our substitute for our sin. It wouldn't be just to punish
two people, to kill two people for the same sin. God won't do
it. His justice will not allow Him
to kill Christ for your sin and then kill you too. He can't do
it. And I find that so comforting.
My salvation is based both on the mercy of God and the justice
of God. God's character is to be merciful. So his mercy demands my salvation,
and God's justice does not contradict it. God's justice also demands
my salvation. Abraham Ashton, the judge of
all the earth, do you write? You bet your boots he will. If
Christ died for my sin, God's justice demands my salvation. If it's right for God to save
me, he will. His justice demands my salvation.
If Christ died as my sacrifice. So both God's justice and his
mercy demand my salvation. If I can phrase it this way,
you tell you what that means. My salvation is double sure. Both the mercy and the justice
of God demands it. The whole character of God, every
attribute of God demands the salvation of his people. Now
just take a deep breath and let your heart rest. If Christ is
your Savior, even God can't destroy you. His justice will not allow
it. I'll tell you another reason
God could not destroy righteous lot along with Sodom. God promised
Abraham he wouldn't do it. And God can't lie. Abraham made
intercession for the righteous in Sodom, and God said, all right,
I won't destroy him. Look at verse 27. 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. He remembered his promise to
Abraham. and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when
he overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt." You see the picture
here? If Christ the Savior is making
intercession for you, God cannot destroy you. It would violate
His covenant. It would violate His promise
to His Son. Oh, there's such peace of heart here. I hope we
just go home just riding on clouds of air. There's salvation for
God. God's mercy, His justice, and
the intercession of Christ. If Christ is interceding for
you, God cannot destroy you. Oh, that just causes me such
rest. I don't know anybody more wound
up tight than me. And that even just makes me relax. All right, here's the last thing
quickly. I want you to see where mercy
is found. Verse 23. The sun was risen upon the earth,
when Lot entered into Zoar. 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 upon the ground.
But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a
pillar of salt. Now mercy and salvation is found
in looking to Christ. And looking to Christ simply
means this, it doesn't mean seeing something with your eyes. Looking
to Christ means depending upon Christ. It means trusting Christ. It means looking to Christ because
we long for Him. It's looking to Christ because
our desire is to be found in Him. It's to be with Him where
He is and our desire is to be found in Him. Not have Him own
righteousness, which is of law, but that which is through faith
in Christ. Well, Lot's wife looked back. And I always wondered about
it. I thought, boy, oh, boy, oh,
boy. I know me. I'd look back. Not because I wanted to be in
Sodom. I just, what does that look like? Well, it's not that
she looked back out of idle curiosity. She looked back because she longed
for those things. She looked back from there because
that's where she trusted. and she was turned into a pillar
of salt. Now quickly look at Luke chapter 17. I'll show you
how this applies to you and me. Our Lord did it for us and made
it plain and obvious. Luke chapter 17, verse 26. Here's Noah and Lot again. And as it was in the days of
Noah, So shall it be also in the days of the son of man when
Christ returns. They did eat and drank. They
married wives. They were given in marriage until
the day they were just living their normal life, going by the
normal daily activities until the day that Noah entered into
the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise,
also as it was in the days of Lot, they did eat, they drank,
they bought, they sold, they planted, they built it. They
went going through all the daily activities of life. But the same
day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone
from heaven and destroyed them all. Now thus shall it be when
the Son of Man is revealed." We're just gonna be going about
our everyday activities. And in that day, when Christ
returns, he which shall be upon the housetop and the stuffs in
the house, let him not come down and take it away. And he that's
in the field, let him likewise not return back. Don't keep looking
to the stuff. Don't keep looking and trusting
in the things of this life. Remember Lot's wife. This is the warning to you and
me. Look to Christ and keep looking to Him. Look to Christ and don't
look back to trust in your works. Don't look back to the trust
in the ways of this world. Look to Christ and keep looking
to Christ. I didn't preach this whole message
on mercy and leave you with something to do. Look to Christ and keep
looking to Christ. If God's been merciful to you,
you will. By his mercy, you will keep looking
to Christ. He'll see to it. I hope that's
a blessing to you. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for your mercy. How we thank you all through
your word. You show us by picture, by statement, that salvation
is by mercy. It's not by our works, not something
we deserve, but because of your mercy. Father, how we thank you
for your mercy and your grace to sinners that's accomplished
in justice because of the sacrifice of Christ our Savior. Father, human language can't
express our thanksgiving, our awe, to think that the Son of
God came in the flesh to suffer and die for the likes of sinful
men and women like us here tonight. So He'd make it right for you
to be merciful and deliver us. Father, we're thankful. And oh,
how I pray that you'd give us the faith to believe in and trust
in and rest in the Lord Jesus Christ, to find our joy, our
happiness, our hope, our peace in Him. It is in His precious
name. For His glory and His sake, we
pray. All right, I see.