What is righteousness? What is a truly righteous person
like? Our Lord Jesus declares, except
your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of
heaven. Without righteousness, Without
perfect righteousness, salvation is an impossibility. Without
righteousness, without perfect righteousness, you cannot be
saved. What then is a righteous man? Were I to ask you to give me
an example of one, just one righteous man, I wonder who you might name. Abraham, David, Paul, John the
Baptist. And you would be right, those
were righteous men. But if you'll open your Bible
to 2 Peter chapter 2, I want to show you God's portrayal of
a righteous man. As we look at this portrayal
God gives of a righteous man, I hope it becomes obvious to
you that righteousness before God is not at all like what men
call righteousness. Righteousness before God is not
even similar to what most religious people consider righteousness
before God. And this righteousness that he
describes in this man has nothing to do with things by which men
and women think to make themselves righteous. Righteousness is something
God gives to men, something God imputes to men. Righteousness
is something God imparts to sinners when he saves them by his grace.
And in both the giving of righteousness in justification and the giving
of righteousness and in sanctification, Christ alone is our righteousness. His obedience is the righteousness
of God laid to our charge. And his nature, his righteous
nature, is that divine nature of which we are made partakers
in the new birth. All God's people in this world,
Every believer, I've called every one of your
names before God in preparing this message, every one of you.
And it's my prayer that God will give you right now faith in Christ. If right now, if right now, you
believe on the Son of God, every believer, you included, every
child of God in this world, is righteous. Perfectly righteous. Completely righteous. God calls
us saints. Saints. Isn't it amazing how
the writers of the New Testament, writing by divine inspiration,
write to men and women they never knew. People they never knew. They knew nothing about their
personal lives. knew nothing about their day-by-day
behavior. But they write to these men and
women who profess faith in Christ, and upon the basis of their professed
faith, they write to them as saints. Saints of God. You know what the word saint
means? Holy one. These who believe are God's holy
ones in the earth. You who believe are God's holy
ones in the earth, not by something you do, but by God's gift of
grace in Christ Jesus the Lord. And yet God's saints are often
vilified as wicked men and women, the ungodly of this world. Those
who do not know our God and do not know us, those who have no
regard for the gospel of God's grace or the things of God, constantly
try to appease their consciences by trying to smear the name and
character of God's people in this world. That kind of slander
is hard to bear. It's to be expected, though,
from wicked men. Men attempt to cover their hypocrisy
by pretending that others are hypocrites. They attempt to cover
their ungodliness by attempting to make others appear ungodly.
But sometimes God's saints are vilified by other saints. God forgive us for partaking
of such slander. God's saints ought never be vilified
by one another. Rather, as many women are looked
upon in Christ Jesus, they are to be looked upon as Christ the
Lord. There sits David Coleman. When
I see him, when I think of him, when I speak of him, I'll only
see him, think of him and speak of him as he is in Christ, God's
saint, holy and righteous. Mm. God, teach me. to practice what I know to be
so. Of all men in history who have
been unjustly maligned by those who ought to know better, by
those who ought to highly esteem them, one man stands out in an
extraordinary way. I can think of no one in the
Bible and no one in history who has been so unjustly vilified
by both believers and preachers and theologians as this man who's
described for us by the Lord God in 2 Peter chapter 2. God the Holy Spirit speaks here
of Abraham's nephew, God's servant, our brother, whom God the Holy
Spirit calls Just Lot. lot. Now let's begin by reading
in 2 Peter chapter 2 and verse 7 about this man lot and read
what God says about this remarkable man and ask God the Holy Spirit
to teach us what he intends for us to learn from it. God 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. The Lord knoweth how to deliver
the godly." Now, this is how God describes Lot. Just, righteous
man, righteous soul, godly. That's how God describes him.
The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations
and to reserve the unjust under the day of judgment to be punished. God brought Lot out of Sodom,
and when he did, he turned his wife into a pillar of salt. Now, I'll tell you what inspired
me in preparing this message and the one for tonight on Lot's
wife. While I was in California, a
friend of mine Asked me a question. He'd heard someone say that when
Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt, salt is referred to
in scripture as a preservative that was God's way of preserving
her by his grace. No, no. I never heard tell such
a thing. I said to him, I said, that won't
wash. That won't wash. The scriptures won't bear that
out. And you need to learn here early. This is a young man who does
some preaching. I said, learn early. interpret scripture in
its context. Don't ever violate the scripture
by making it say something you want it to say just to appear
clever. Don't violate the scripture by
making it say what it obviously does not say. When God turned
Lot's wife into a pillar of salt, he preserved her under the judgment
of that great day and symbolically showed her being preserved as
such. Here God the Holy Spirit identifies Lot as a truly righteous
man, a Godly man. One who lived among wicked men
and in their midst vexed his righteous soul from day to day
with their unlawful deeds. Now you're all familiar with
the story of Abraham and Lot. You'll remember that back in
Genesis chapter 13 they parted company because there was a strife
between Abraham's herdsmen and Lot's herdsmen. Not a strife
between Abraham and Lot, a strife between their herdsmen. And they
parted company, very amicably, on good terms. Abraham, being
the magnanimous man he was, he said to Lot, you choose what
portion of land you will, and I'll go the other way and take
land in the other direction. And they did this to prevent
the continued strife between their herdsmen. And Lot looked
towards Sodom. and the well-watered plains that
were like the land of Egypt. And he pitched his tent towards
Sodom. After Lot had been in Sodom for
about 14 years, the kings of the plain were taken captive
along with the inhabitants of Sodom. Lot and his family were
taken into captivity, but not for long. Abraham, his uncle,
raised an army of 300 of his servants, and went to deliver
the kings of the plain. And when he did, Lot and his
family were delivered, and they continued to dwell in Sodom until
God sent the angels to Sodom to destroy it, as we read about
in Genesis chapter 19. He sent those angels to destroy
the wicked cities of the plain and all their inhabitants, except
for just Lot. his wife, and his two daughters. They were delivered from the
city's destruction by the direct intervention of God Almighty.
Then, after being delivered from the city's, being delivered from
the impending judgment of God, Lot was twice enticed by his
daughters into drunkenness and incest. As a result, They bore
children who became cursed nations, the cursed nation of Moab and
the cursed nation of Ammon. And yet this is how God, the
Holy Spirit, inspired this man, Peter, to describe Lot. Read
our text again. God delivered just Lot, vexed
with the filthy conversation of the wicked. For that righteous
man dwelling among them, dwelling among the wicked, in seeing and
hearing, seeing and hearing these wicked people among whom he lived,
vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful
deeds. The Lord knoweth how to deliver
the godly out of temptations. The Lord knows. how to deliver
the godly out of temptations. Fact is, Ron, we won't ever deliver
ourselves. Rather, we play with the temptations. Like Lot, our flesh loves Sodom. Like Lot, we prefer to dwell
in Sodom. That's our nature. I wish it
weren't so, but it's so. That's just the way it is. But
the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations,
and he always does. And he knows how to reserve the
unjust under the day of judgment to be punished. Now, I want to show you seven
things with regard to this man, Lot, as God describes him. Seven
lessons that I pray, God, the Holy Spirit will seal to our
hearts. Here's the first one. Brother
Lot was a righteous man. A truly righteous man. It's not
something we have to guess about. We don't have to surmise it for
ourselves. We don't have to say, well, now, considering all these
things, it looks as though Lot must have been a really fine
fellow. He was a righteous man. Our text
plainly calls him that righteous man. He was not righteous by
nature. No other man is. Lot was just
like Bill Raleigh and Don Fortner. He was born a son of Adam. Just
like us, men with sinful hearts, sinful natures, sinful dispositions,
a sinful life. He was a corrupt son of Adam,
utterly depraved by nature, just like you and me. Dead in trespasses
and in sins, that's the way we come into this world. Went astray
from the womb, speaking lies, just like all other men. That's
the nature of humanity. Yet, he was a man made righteous
by the grace of God. truly a righteous man. He was
righteous in exactly the same way, to exactly the same degree,
and in exactly the same sense as any other believer who is
made righteous by God. I'll say more than that. He is
righteous in the same way, to the same degree, in the same
sense as Jesus Christ himself as the God-man mediator is righteous. He is the Lord our righteousness.
Our righteousness is Christ. His righteousness. But more than
that, our righteousness is Christ himself. His name is Jehovah's
Atenu, the Lord our righteousness. How is it that the Lord Jesus
made this man Lot righteous? How does he make sinners like
you and me righteous? Lot was made righteous by the
obedience of Christ, his surety, before ever Lot was born. But
Mother Dawn, the Lord Jesus didn't come into the world for more
than 2,000 years after Lot died. How could he be made righteous
by what Christ did before he was born? Christ is the Lamb
of God who was slain from the foundation of the world, and
the slaying of the Lamb is the culmination of the Lamb's obedience
as our Redeemer. So that Lot stood before God
from eternity, accepted in the Beloved, righteous, just like
all God's elect. He was made righteous by our
Lord Jesus, having imputed his righteousness to him. Now, I
won't argue with folks who won't argue about it, but as best I
can grasp it, the teaching of Scripture with regard to imputed
righteousness is just this. It is not that God imputes righteousness
to us in court. Our righteousness is an everlasting,
eternal righteousness in Christ the Lord. But the sinner, when
he's given faith in Christ, has righteousness imputed to his
guilty conscience so that he now knows himself free from sin,
washed in the blood of Christ, being made the righteousness
of God in his Son. So righteousness is made by Christ
obeying God for us. We obey God When he did, we were
in him. Just as Levi paid tithes in the
loins of Abraham, God's people obeyed God perfectly in Christ
Jesus, our representative, our federal head, our covenant surety,
and our substitute. And he imputes that righteousness
to us, giving us faith in Christ Jesus. The sinner believes and
his heart, his conscience is sprinkled from dead works to
serve the living and true God by the precious blood of Christ.
And the sinner is made righteous, having the righteous nature of
Christ imparted to him in regeneration, in sanctification. So when a
person is born again, he's made a new creature in Jesus Christ. made a new creature in Christ,
and we're told plainly that that one who is born of God can not
sin. He can not sin. He's born of God. But Brother
Don, we sin all the time. That's the thing that's born
of the devil. That's the wicked thing that's in us. That's flesh. That's Adam. We live before God
in Christ, one with Christ. Christ lives in us, the hope
of glory, and we're righteous before God. made righteous perfectly
in Christ Jesus the Lord. And the sinner being made righteous
by God, by God's grace, by the gift of God's grace, so that
grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. The sinner made righteous is
made righteous this way and only this way, and is also one who
walks before God living in righteousness. God's saints are by no means
perfect in this world. Perfect in Christ, not in themselves. Not one of God's saints makes
any pretense at perfection or anything like perfection. Not
one of God's saints makes any pretense at holiness or anything
like holiness in himself. Not one of them. Oh, but Brother
Don, I know people who do all the time. I'm talking about God's
saints. I'm not talking about folks you know. I'm talking about God's
saints. Several years ago, I told you
I was sitting in Grand Rapids, Michigan with a bunch of preachers,
and they were wanting to give me a rough time. I don't
take that real well, but they were treating me pretty good
and talking about their progressive sanctification, progressive holiness,
I finally looked at the fellow who was talking the most, and
I said, you seem to be chief spokesman here. I want to ask
you a question. You told me you were saved 10
years ago. Are you more holy now than you
were 10 years ago? And I want you to know everybody
in that crowded restaurant got quiet. I mean, it was quiet. Everybody wanted to hear that
fellow's answer. They'd been listening to him yak the whole
time. And he paused for a second, looked shocked, and he said,
Well, honestly, I'd have to say I am. And I looked at him, I
said, well, honestly, you or I, one, don't know God. One of
us don't know God, and he proved that he didn't. No, no, God's
saints know better. We know that there's nothing
good in us, nothing good in this flesh, nothing good about us.
But in the tenor of their lives, all believers live in righteousness.
You see, grace makes me ingracious. Those who walk in the spirit,
those who live by faith in Christ, no longer live according to the
lust of the flesh. They just don't. They just don't. In the habit of their lives,
they live as godly men and women in a crooked and perverse generation.
Turn to Galatians chapter Chapter 5 for a minute. Galatians chapter
5. Look at verse 16. This I say then, walk in the
Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And he
describes the various lusts of the flesh. Then in verse 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance. He doesn't say these are the
works of a person who walks in the Spirit. He says this is the
fruit of the Spirit. This is what God, the Holy Spirit,
produces within. This is what God, the Holy Spirit,
performs within the believer. He causes us to walk in this
world with love, joy, and peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance, and against such there is no
law. And they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with
the affections and lust. We, believing on the Son of God,
Took our sales right where he took us when he died and nailed
the flesh to the cross Believing on the Son of God have crucified
the flesh with Christ Jesus the Lord Brother lot was just such
a man Peter calls him. No God the Holy Spirit calls
him a just man a righteous man a godly man He was a sinner with
shamefully sinful weaknesses, inconsistencies and failures. Kind of like Mark Water. That's just right. That's just
right. A sinner with shameful inconsistencies. Shameful weaknesses. Shameful
failures. That's what you expect from sinners.
That's what you expect from sinners. And we shouldn't be too hard
when we see it. But Lot was a righteous man.
Righteous because Jesus Christ was made unto him righteousness. Because Jesus Christ was and
is to him Jehovah's Atenu, the Lord our righteousness. Now second,
here's the second thing. Lot was a righteous man who lived
in a terribly evil society. The Sodomites, among whom Lot
lived, in terrible society, worked and raised his family with them.
They were a people whose lives were beyond wicked and abominable. Their lives were filthy. We're
told that Lot vexed was vexed with the filthy conversation,
the filthy manner of life of the wicked who lived around him
in Sodom. This man, Lot, lived among filthy
men who openly practiced and promoted with violence, as homosexuals
always do, who openly practiced and promoted with violence homosexuality
and all the various perversities it spawns. I can't find words
adequate to denounce this form of wickedness, at least not words
I can use in public. And I won't waste your time talking
about it here. I mention it in this context
only to give emphasis to Lott's godly character. This man, Lott,
lived in a society more perverse with this gross perversity than
you and I can imagine. Now, we we have this horrible
evil thrown in our face every day with every form of media
in all parts of society. It's thrown in our face all the
time. Don't ever. Don't ever imagine this is all
right. It's not all right and not all
right. It's the practice of damned men,
reprobate under the curse of God. And it will always be just
that, nothing else. But I've said that to say this,
he is a truly righteous man who lives alone in righteousness
among ungodly men. Can you imagine what it'd be
like to spend your life in this world as a believer with not
another one around. Nobody to go to and expect a
little help. Nobody who could give you any
insight into the things of God. Nobody who could understand the
struggles of your soul. Nobody who had any aspiration
for heaven and God and eternal life and Christ the Redeemer.
Nobody with whom you could share your inmost desires and your
inmost frustrations. To live among ungodly men without
a single, single, single help in this world toward God. Not many could do it. not many. He is truly a righteous
man who lives for God in a godless world. The filthy men of Sodom
didn't corrupt this righteous man. He persevered in the way
of faith and righteousness. Here's the third thing. Lot was
a righteous man who endured great troubles, great sorrows, great
trials, great temptations all the days of his life. Our Lord
said in the world, you shall have tribulation. Frequently,
our trials and troubles and tribulations and sorrows. As believers come
as a direct result of our own rebellious, sinful conduct. My
dear brother, Harry Graham. whom I've mentioned from this
pulpit many times, used to say to me, Don, sometimes the way
God chastens his children and corrects their sin is to give
us what we think we want and then make us experience and live
with the consequences of our disobedience. And I've lived long enough to
find out Harry was right. Sometimes God will give you what
you think you want and force you to live with it. Force you to live with it. Certainly,
that was Lot's case. Once he moved to Sodom, he couldn't
leave. He said, well, he wouldn't leave.
He wouldn't because he couldn't. He couldn't leave. He couldn't
extricate himself from that place, even when the angels came. and
said, Lot, haste, escape for thy life. Even after he had warned
his sons-in-law and warned the neighbors around him, judgments
coming, God's about to destroy this city. Even then, Lot lingered. And they took him by the hand
and pulled him out of the city. Why couldn't he leave? I don't
know. He grew to despise the place. He vexed his righteous
soul every day with the ungodly behavior of men around him. But
he couldn't extricate himself from Sodom. There was something
holding him in that abominable place which he couldn't leave
till God brought him out and destroyed the city. What are you saying, Brother
Don? Be warned. Be warned, oh, my soul. Be warned,
my brothers and sisters, everything we do, every choice we make,
be it good or bad, has its consequences on us and on those we influence. I hope you don't tire of me using
it to illustrate what I'm saying, but I don't know a better way
to illustrate it. When Faith got to be a young
lady, 12, 13, 14 years old, she'd go out with friends. And I'd
say to her, probably just about every time she left the house
until she married, don't ever forget who you are and whose
you are. Because everything you say and
do reflects on Don Fortner and Shelby Fortner. and Grace Baptist
Church, and the gospel of God's grace, and our God and Savior. Don't forget who you are and
whose you are. Now hear me, children of God.
Don't forget who you are and whose you are. Every choice we
make, everything we do, every word we speak has its consequences,
good or bad. on people we influence as well
as ourselves. You will say, well, I'm not responsible
for other people. Oh, yes, you are. Oh, yes, you
are. That's it's Casey and his younger
brother. And you're responsible for every influence you have
on him. That's it's Cody and his brothers and sister. And
you're responsible for the influence you have on them. You're responsible. Well, I didn't choose that. God
did, and you're not going to change it. You're not going to
change it. Fourth, Lot was a righteous man
for whose sake wicked, cursed people, men and women, reprobate
under the sentence of divine judgment. A righteous man for
whose sake wicked men and wicked women were preserved from destruction
and given space for repentance. When the kings of the plain and
the sodomites were carried away into captivity, they were delivered
from their captors for only one reason, Lot was with them. Abraham would not have gone down
there to deliver the kings of the plains. He went to deliver
Lot. They just happened to be in the
baggage. When the angels came to destroy the city, The angel
said to Lot, I cannot destroy this place until I get you out
of this place. Because Lot lived among them,
the Sodomites were temporarily preserved from everlasting damnation. They were given space for repentance
and kept alive on this earth, kept out of hell because Lot
lived beside them. If they'd only known who Lot
was, and what mercies they enjoyed because of him. They would have
thanked him every day they lived for living among them. As long
as Lot was there, they were spared. As long as Lot was there, they
had space for repentance. As long as Lot was there, they
were out of hell. So it is today. Turn to 2 Peter
chapter 3. 2 Peter chapter 3. If I had a penny for every time
some babbling freewheeler spit this verse of scripture at me,
I'd have several pennies. Because they don't have any idea
what to say. 2 Peter 3, verse 9. God spares the world. How many times have you heard
somebody say, if God doesn't judge this world, he owes Sodom
and Gomorrah an apology. This has got to happen. Why does
God let things go? God can't let things go on any
longer. Oh things can get a lot worse than this. Hang on They
get a lot worse than this Why does God spare the world? Why
does God spare the reprobate? Why why does God spare the wicked? Look at verse 9 second Peter
3 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count
slackness But as long suffering to us words Not long-suffering
to all men. God's not long-suffering with
all men. Man's iniquity treasures up wrath
to the day of wrath. God's not long-suffering with
him. God's long-suffering to his elect. Long-suffering toward
us. Not willing that any should perish. Any of his redeemed. Any of his
chosen. But that all should come to repentance. Now, how do you know that's talking
about just God's elect? because Peter specifies to usward. And he is talking about God's
will to save his people. And if God were willing that
all come to repentance, every man in the world, you know what
would happen? Every person in the world will come to repentance.
God says, I do all my pleasure. God has his way everywhere all
the time. If God were willing that all
should repent, all would repent. But God is willing that all his
elect, every redeemed sinner, come to repentance and that none
perish. Now we know this is God's longsuffering because in verse
15, Peter says, and account that the longsuffering of our Lord
is salvation. God's longsuffering. Longsuffering. He preserved Adam in the garden
after the fall. because there's a chosen seed
in Adam's loins who must be saved. He preserved Noah and his family
when there was nothing but evil on this earth because he preserved
in Noah and his seed, a chosen seed who must be saved. God Almighty
preserved humanity to this point because some of his elect have
not yet been called. And when Christ has called out
the last of his elect, then the end comes. This is God's long
suffering to us. God deals in providential goodness
with wicked men because of his mercy and grace upon chosen men. Number five. Lot was a righteous man. Whose
life was absolutely ruled by God. absolutely ruled by God
for his spiritual and everlasting good, and for the spiritual everlasting
good of every chosen sinner, for the glory of God in the accomplishment
of his purpose. I can't spend much time here,
but if ever there was a man, if ever there was a man whose
life is a commentary on Psalm 76 10, it is lot. Surely the wrath of man shall
praise thee, and the remainder of wrath wilt thou restrain.
Let me show you. Turn to Matthew chapter 1. Matthew
chapter 1. I told you in the beginning that
Lot's drunken incestuous act with his firstborn daughter was
the beginning of that cursed race of people called Moabites. Did you ever notice in reading
through the book of God that when the children of Israel came
near the land of Moab, God put the Moabites under special protection. God put the Moabites under special
protection. Turn back to Deuteronomy 2. Hold your hands here, Matthew
1. Turn back to Deuteronomy 2. Don't you see this? God commanded Moses and Israel
not to distress the Moabites. They were sent in to destroy
everybody else, but not the Moabites. Look in chapter 2, verse 9 of
Deuteronomy. And when we passed by from our brethren, the children
of Esau, which dwelt in Seir, through the way of the plain
from Elath and from Ezon-Geber, we turned and passed by the way
of the wilderness of Moab. Now watch this. And the Lord
said unto me, distress not the Moabites, neither contend with
them in battle, for I will not give thee their land for possession,
because I have given our unto the children of Lot for possession. Why did God preserve the Moabites? Why did God especially protect
the Moabites? Here in Matthew chapter 1, verse
1. The book of the generation of
Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Verse 5. And Salmon begat Buz, and Rakeb
and Buz begat Obed of Ruth. Obed begat Jesse and Jesse begat
David the king and David the king begat Solomon of her that
had been the wife of Uriah Verse 16 and Jacob begat Joseph the
husband of Mary of whom was born Jesus Who is called the Christ? Now back up to verse 5 There's
a lady by the name of Ruth Naomi found her down to the land
of Moab, when her husband took her and her sons down to Moab,
fleeing from Bethlehem Judah in a time of great trouble. And
there Limelech and her boys died, but Ruth had married one of her
sons. And Ruth comes back to Bethlehem Judah with Naomi and
marries a fellow by the name of Boaz, out of whom comes the
Son of God, our Savior. Had it not been for Lot's horrible
deed, his horrible deed after God brought him out of Sodom,
Ruth would never have been born. Our Savior would never have come
into the world. We could never have been redeemed
and God's purpose of grace would have fallen to the ground and
that could not happen. That could not happen. For we
know that all things, oh, what a broad word. Isn't that wonderful,
Burroughs? All things. All things. But you've got to limit that.
How are you going to do that? All things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are thee called according
to his purpose. for whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. And
what God purposed, God performs. Blessed be his name. Nothing
comes to pass but that which God has purposed and brings to
pass for our good and his glory. Oh, for grace to trust him. All
right, here's the sixth thing. Lot was a righteous man who vexed
his righteous soul from day to day with the ungodly deeds of
the people among whom he lived. The exact word here translated
vexed is only used one other time in scripture. In Acts chapter
7, it's translated oppressed. It's one of those words that
has many, many, many shades of meaning. In order to get some
idea of the strength of this word, let me give you some of
them. Vexed means oppressed. Tormented. Distressed. Sick. Miserable. Pained. Exhausted. Worn down with toil. A lot vexed
his righteous soul, oppressed, tormented, distressed, sickened,
made miserable, pained, exhausted, wore down with toil his soul
with the deeds of those ungodly men around him. That pretty well describes how
I live in this world. How about you? Are you vexed in your soul with
this reprobate age? I'm fairly certain that those
things that vex us today are the very things that vex Lot
in Sodom. Lot was vexed with the idolatrous religion of Sodom.
He knew, as Paul later wrote in Romans chapter one, that sodomy,
this horrible degrading dehumanizing, vile, filth is the direct result of
will-worship, the direct result of idolatrous religion. Read
through the Old Testament, read the whole history of the Old
Testament. Everywhere idolatry ruled, sodomy grew. And as soon
as the worship of God was established in the land, sodomites were driven
out of the land. God tells us plainly that the
religion of idolatry, the religion of Babylon, the religion of will
worship, always, always produces ungodliness. I got a note from
Brother Daniel Parks. You may have gotten it some day
this week. I forgot what it was. And he
gave some statistics in St. Croix where he ministers. Most
everybody practices some form of legalistic religion, some
form of law works religion. There are lots of Adventists
and other folks who teach you under the law, got to keep the
Sabbath and all that stuff. They're always promoting legality. And
he gave some statistics. Do you know that their murder
rate On that little island is four times what it is in the
United States. Four. But everybody goes to church.
Everybody has a profession of faith. Everybody's been saved
two, three, four times. Everybody is good! And religious
legality, will, works, religion, always promotes ungodliness.
In the name of promoting holiness, it always promotes ungodliness.
But the lot was vexed by the utter immorality of the society
in which he lived. He was weary, worn out, pained,
sick, exhausted with the evil around him. How evil is this
thing? How evil is this thing? I feel I just got to be playing
with you. Did you notice? that Lot tried
to sacrifice his daughters to those perverted devils, his daughter, his virgin daughters,
please take them, rape them, and murder them. Don't do this
evil thing. This evil thing. I have no doubt
but a lot was vexed by the impending wrath of God upon his family. His daughters, his sons-in-law,
his neighbors, the world around him, who thought he spoke foolishly
to them when he spoke to them about deliverance. Who thought
he spoke foolishly to them. when he told them of the certainty
of God's impending judgment, who thought he talked like a
madman when he said God's fixing to destroy the city. And lots had compassion upon
him. He was vexed. Here are people
dear to me. Dear to me. Who laugh in God's
face. people dear to me who despise
God's grace, people dear to me who will not hear God's word,
people dear to me about to perish under the wrath of God, and he
vexed his soul. I'm sure also that he was vexed
by the indifference of professed believers. I don't have any idea
how many there were who professed to believe God. I'm certain that
his wife did. Apparently, his sons-in-law and
daughters gave some credibility to profess faith in Christ. Apparently,
his daughters who left Sodom with him did. But all were indifferent
to all things concerning God, his grace and his mercy. They were all people who looked
at Lott and said, well, that has always been a little odd. He's always been out of step.
We've always thought he was a little strange, a little too strict
in his religion, but now he's gone too far. He's telling us
God's fixing to destroy this whole city and everybody in it.
Poor man, he popped a cork. That's exactly how they looked
at it. And I'm certain that Brother Lott was vexed, perhaps above
everything else, with the sin, callousness, and indifference
in his own heart. He was in Sodom. He knew God
was about to destroy the city. He knew the city would be rightly
and justly destroyed. And yet Lot lingered in the city. He knew he must leave, but he
just couldn't. He knew he must leave, but there
was just too much love for that city still in Lot. You mean he
loved Sodom? I don't know. I know he had at
least two daughters. He just couldn't leave. Two sons-in-laws, he just couldn't
leave. Knowing that they deserved God's
wrath and were about to experience it. And knowing that it was right. And knowing it was commanded
of God to leave. He couldn't do what he knew he
must do. Oh my God. how that fixes me. I know that in my flesh dwells
no good thing. The will's present with me, but
how to perform that which is good I find not. But let me tell you one more
thing about Lord. And I'll send you all my hope.
with these seven lessons burning in your heart, driving you to
Christ. Lot was a righteous man. Delivered
from sin and sorrow and death and hell and the wrath of God. By free grace. Delivered by the hand of God,
delivered by God stepping in and bringing him out of the city.
Delivered from himself, delivered from Lot, or delivered from Sodom,
and delivered from hell. And so it is with every sinner
saved by God's grace. Delivered from sins, curse, and
condemnation. from the curse of the law by
God's grace and redemption by the blood of Christ. Delivered
from sin's dominion and death by God the Holy Spirit in sovereign
regeneration, giving us life and faith in Christ. And soon,
soon we shall be delivered at last from all the evil consequences
of sin. by God's free grace in death
and the resurrection. Death. The death of this body
for the believer. Is just quick deliverance, deliverance
at last. As for me, I will behold thy
face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awaken thy likeness. And God, I beg you, don't let
me be satisfied until I awake in the likeness of my Redeemer. Let me not be satisfied with
anything here, with myself, with anything I do. Let me be satisfied
with nothing except Christ the Savior. Take heart, my friends. The Lord knows how to deliver
the righteous, the godly out of temptation. And I warn you
who foolishly imagine that God will overlook your sin. He also
knows how to reserve the unjust under the day of judgment to
be punished. If you would be righteous, if
you would Be just before God. Trust the Lord Jesus Christ. Who is of God made to sinners. Righteousness and sanctification. And redemption. Oh. God give you grace to trust his
son. Amen.