It is a good thing to be reminded
often that these types that we look
at in the Old Testament are just types. They're just types. My pastor told me one time, Brother
Henry Mahan, this has been probably 30 years ago, he said, do not
try to give them four legs and train them to walk. He said,
they're just pictures. They're just pictures. And take
them as pictures and then move on. Do not try to over-detail
the types. Don't try to over-detail the
types. They're set there as a picture. We understand their meaning from
the New Testament, what's plainly taught in the New Testament.
We don't go to the Old Testament types of the sacrifice of the
Lamb and then try to interpret the death of Christ. We go to
the death of Christ and come back and see the picture. That
makes clear the picture. But I fear sometimes when I'm
teaching you that your mind runs away from you and it goes over
to some far extreme with things. that really has no bearing on
what I'm teaching whatsoever. So just try, when we're going
through these types, just try to concentrate on what it is
I'm trying to teach you. Now, I want to talk to you tonight
about these awful things that came to pass in this cave between
Lot and his two daughters. And I titled the lesson, It Seemed
Like a Good Idea at the Time. Now, we pick up the story of Lot and
his two daughters going up out of Zoar, leaving Zoar. They left that little place that
God spared for him. The angels told him to run into
the mountains, but he didn't do that. He begged that he go
in to Zoar. Zoar means place of the little
ones, or little place. It was just a dot on the map
compared to Sodom and Gomorrah. But God saw fit to spare the
city and allow it to be a refuge for His elect. He granted Zoar
to be spared for His elect's sake. Now, we dwell in this world
as believers, but this world enjoys its freedoms right now
and enjoys its mercies and enjoys its grace for the elect's sake.
It's not a blessing to them. You can take all of the things
that concern this world, and what determines whether or not
those things are blessings is who they're for and who purposed
them and what their end is. Being rich is not necessary.
I've got rich friends who used to tell me I'd go down to hunt
with them, and when I'd go down to the cabin, they'd look at
me and say, boy, the Lord sure has blessed me. You know, I don't
have to work like these other men work, and I've got a lot
of time to do this. So did the folks in Sodom and
Gomorrah. Isn't that what it says? He gave three reasons.
I'm not going to give you all three of them, but one of them
was this, plentiness of bread. They had too much. Another one
was they had plenty of time. They had too much time on their
hands. But these things are not necessarily a blessing. But that's
where we find He spared Zoar. for his elect's sake. And I believe
that's a little known fact in our day, is that this world is
being kept in store. Peter said, this they're willingly
ignorant of. They say nothing's changed. What's
changed? It's the beginning. Nothing's
going to happen. You're like Chicken Little running around
shouting, the sky is falling, the sky is falling. Nothing's
falling, nothing's happening. Everything's going the same as
it has from the beginning. He said, here's what they're
willingly ignorant of. By the Word of God, this world was held
in store until such time as he decided to judge it. When he
did, he overflowed it with water. And now, this same world, by
the same Word, by the same God, is held in store under the fires
of judgment and the perdition of ungodly men. Why don't he
destroy it today? He may. The day ain't over. The
day ain't over. But I tell you this, if he don't,
it's for the elect's sake. Those days shall not be shortened
except for the elect's sake. It continues on in spite of the
evil that resides here for this great purpose. And those days
won't be shortened except for the reason I just gave you. Now
why did Lot want to leave Zohar? Why did he want to leave? They
couldn't hardly get him out of Sodom. They practically dragged
him out of Sodom, had taken him by the hand, had taken his daughters
by the hand, had taken his wife by the hand, and even at that,
his wife looked back, God turned her into a pillar of salt. And
now here's Lot and his two daughters, and he begged the Lord to spare
this city and let him turn into this city, and the Lord granted
him that. He turned into this city, and now he's leaving it.
Why is he leaving? Why is he leaving? Why didn't
he just pitch his tent there and stay there? He pleaded for
their preservation. He stood there and saw great
light. He saw God's judgment. He saw
this world's evil overturned. God overturned those two great
cities and the plains. Why would he want to leave? Well,
it says in verse 30 why he wanted to leave. He was afraid. He was
afraid. Isn't that what it says? He was
afraid. He feared to dwell in Zoar. What made him afraid? Well, I
believe he feared two things. I believe, first of all, he feared
their influence. The people in Zoar was no different
from the people in Sodom. This was all one big community
down here in the plains. One big community. And they were
all guilty of the same things. All guilty of the same things.
Now there was a time when the ungodly acts and behavior of
the sodomites had no effect on him at all. He dwelt right in
the midst of them. Sat at the gate. Had authority
in the cities. Took part in their elections.
Worked in the city. Raised a family in the city.
Allowed his daughters to take husbands of that people. Didn't
bother him at all. It was so common in Sodom and
Gomorrah and throughout those cities that what they practiced
seemed tolerable. It seemed everybody else was
doing it. It was just the common behavior. You know, we make a big deal. I don't know of anything churches
make a bigger deal out of than this. A preacher comes to preach
for them, and we used to have committees in our churches and
we examined preaching. Boy, we'd put him on the spot
and just fire things at him. And our big cannon was, how many
times have you been married? Boy, if he said twice, he was
out of here. He was gone. He was gone. Well, Paul, in preaching
to these heathens over in Greece and these places, it was common
for them to have 15, 20, or 100 wives. They had all kinds of
wives. He had to preach the gospel to
these people and then teach them right things. He had to teach
them what marriage was all about. Marriage has to do with one wife
because marriage symbolizes Christ and His church. That's what he
had to teach them. He had to teach them the foundations of
marriage, what this marriage was about. And I know he had
his hands full. He did. But it was common for
them is the point I'm trying to make with you. It didn't seem
unusual to them at all to have 50 wives. Everybody had multiple
wives. There was a lot of things that
they practiced in Greece and Rome and these places. Rome was
one of the most immoral places on earth. I mean, they just practiced
all kinds of things in Rome if you've ever watched any of the
documentaries about them. And the artifacts that they dug
up and the pictures that they had on those artifacts and the
history recorded about it is one of the most immoral places
there was. But it seemed normal to them
because everybody did it. Everybody did. Well, now, you
know, he didn't, back then he didn't think too much about it
because it was common in the city, but now, things are different. Now his eyes have been opened. Now his eyes have been opened. And it seems to me that he But he viewed those things in
the same light that at one time that our educated leaders do
today and called that ungodly evil that they practiced an alternative
lifestyle. Now that's how men deal with
it today. But he didn't any longer look
at those things the way he used to. He'd seen the judgment of
God. He saw the severity of it. God
burnt that place. Abraham, it says, rose up the
next morning and looked down there and there wasn't anything
left but smoke. All he could see was smoke and
ashes down in the valley. He saw the totality of it. He
saw the certainty of it. He saw how quick, unavoidable
it was. There was no avoiding this judgment.
This judgment came in an instant. As soon as he turned into Zohar,
the fire fell and that place went up in smoke. sudden and
irresistible. But for the grace of God and
the hand of God's ministers, he had perished with the rest
of them. Though Zoar was a tiny city, it was filled with the
same kind of people that populated Sodom. Now, ain't that what we
experience when God begins? We're out here and we're just
sowing our wild oats and going our way. Never had two thoughts
about religion, and we're drinking all we want to drink, and carousing,
and doing everything we want to do out in the world, and all
of a sudden, God begins to trouble that heart. Something happens. He brings about something in
your life and begins to put a trouble, begins to intercede and stop. He just intervenes and stops
that flow of life with something, some kind of a trouble. And then
that trouble, and you begin to seek a little bit, and you begin
to look on the things that you're doing and see a little bit of
evil in the things that you're doing, and so you leave that
crowd to another crowd. Now, these are not church-going
folks. These are just good folks. They're good, honest businessmen
and friends of yours that keep their nose to the grindstone
and earn a living. And so you want to leave these
carousers and go over here with these guys. But you go over there
with them and it don't take you very long to find out they've
got the same temperament as them folks. They just hide it better. They just hide it better. And
that's what he found out. He woke up in Zoar and the sun
come up, the light come up, and he looked around and those people
did the same thing that the folks down in Sodom was doing. And
he feared the influence. God smoked that city because
of these things. What's to keep him from smoking
Zoar? He feared that influence. Now he knew something about that
influence and how it influenced his life, influenced the things
that he did. His whole life, his son's-in-law
laying back there in ashes, and his wife standing out there as
a pillar of salt, and his two daughters don't know up from
down. And here he stands in Zoar, and he's surrounded by the same
folks. And I believe God puts His fear
into men. I'm not talking about You know,
God's been saving us from the foundation of the world. He has
His elect from the time they're born and arranges His providence
and such. He's been saving you since you
came out of your mother's womb. Now, I'm not talking about that
time of regeneration. I'm talking about the hand of
God in your life. I don't know if you've ever studied
it, but there's prevenient grace that goes before grace. This
man was down there sitting at the gate of Sodom, and Abraham
had already redeemed him from the hand of the enemy. Abraham
was up on the mountain interceding for him. He didn't know anything
about those things. That's provenient grace. That's
grace going before grace. That's what that is. God sent
two ministers down to him. Call them angels or men or whatever
you want to call them, angels, that's fine with me, that's all
angels are, ministering spirits, they're ministering. To minister
to those who shall be heirs of salvation, that's okay with me.
He sent two angels down there. Whatever, he sent two people,
two beings down there to him to warn him and get him out of
that city. Same way he does us. Same way. All of these things,
prevenient grace. But now he's got a little more
light and he looks around and he's seeing more and more and
more. But what he's seeing is justice
and judgment and terror and evil. That's all he can see. He hasn't
seen any grace yet. He hasn't seen any grace. Oh,
I believe he stood there and thought about the mercy of God
that brought him out of that city, but real saving grace. No, he hasn't seen this yet.
He hadn't seen it. You know, the fact that we enjoy
a free society, we've got a lifestyle far more appealing than the rest
of this world, does not mean that we're exempt from God's
righteous condemnation. Judas, Judas Iscariot, sat at the table. We just had
the Lord's table. He sat at the table and the Lord
went right down the line and handed him the bread and handed
him the wine. And he ate the bread and drank
the wine, same as everybody else. And he was blessed with holding
a bag. Every last one of them apostles
thought highly of Judas because the Lord trusted him to carry
that bag. but holding an office, and because we enjoy some of
the means and things of God, doesn't mean that you're not
under the condemnation of God. And these outward blessings and
things don't mean that you're not under the condemnation of
God. I want you to listen to this verse, and listen to it
closely, in John 3, verse 36. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." It abideth on him. And those
whom God has been pleased to quicken in Christ and quicken
by His Spirit, All had their conversation, Paul said, their
tenor of life, whatever you want to call it, their behavior. That
word, I believe, the best word to substitute for that word conversation
is behavior. All had our behavior, our conduct
in times past, in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children
of wrath. Ain't that what they said? But
they were religious. They were children of wrath.
Huh? Even as others. And because I
have a clear mind, good health, prosperity of life does not necessarily
make me an object of mercy. The rich young ruler was prosperous.
He was religious, influential, and had a good name. But he was
a child of wrath. The wrath of God abided on him. And every day Lot lived in Zoar
was a testimony against them. Here's another reason. He was
a testimony. Every day he stood there, he
was the only man come out of Sodom. And he was a testimony
of the wrath of God against them. Every day he stood in Zoar. Don't you know those folks in
Zoar didn't just ignore him, they talked to him. Tell us what
happened down there. He doesn't say that in the Scripture.
I'm reading between the lines. But he was in Zoar. Two cities
went up in flames. These people aren't just going
to stand around like nothing happened. They asked him questions
and he gave them answers. The God of all glory come down
there. Sent two ministers down. Took
me by the hand. Led me out. My wife is standing
out there right now. A pillar of salt out in that
wilderness. My two daughters here. Probably smelled like smoke,
both of them. And him, too. God destroyed that
outfit. Well, how long does it take for
a man to... Why did he do it? And he told them. Well, I do
that. Huh? Now, I've got to look at
this man every day, and he's a judgment against me. He's a
judgment. You get that in your own house,
don't you? Huh? Every day. You know why? You're
a testimony. to their condemnation. You get
it in your house, I get it in mine, you get it in yours. Every
day. Every day. You get it out here
where you work, you get it with your friends, you're a living
testimony against them. Judgment's coming. Judgment's
coming. And so Lot went up to the mountains,
he left Zoar, and he hid himself in a It is ever the goal of ignorant
men who desire to separate themselves from the evil of this world to
do so by isolating themselves to the population. Now ain't
that what they want to do? That's the whole reason behind
Christian schools and Christian sports and Christian campgrounds
and Christian clubs and weight rooms and all this kind of foolishness.
They're trying to separate themselves from this evil world. When our
Lord prayed for us, He didn't pray that God take us out of
the world, but that He keep us from the evil one who rules this
world. You're still part of the world.
If He didn't want you to be a part of the world, you wouldn't be
a part of it. He'd just take you. He'd just take you. But
there's a world around us, and it is indeed a danger to us.
But the real danger is the world that's in us. See, he was running
to the mountain in a cave to get away from these things, but
those things ran with him because those things were in his heart.
He just didn't realize it yet. The world is the world because
of what's in their hearts. That's what makes it the world,
as he called it. And not to make light of the
seriousness of their sins, but had that society been reformed,
from those sexual practices, their hearts would have just
chose something else. It would have just done something
else. It would have left off those
evil practices, those sexual things that they did and they
would have went over here and built a golden cave or put a big snake
on a pyramid like they got down, old Kukulkan down there in the
Yucatan and worship a feathered serpent. That evil heart, it
just goes where it needs to go. There's nothing wrong with sex.
Sex is natural and ordained of God. Listen to what the Scriptures
say. Marriage is honorable in all
and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
Man defiles everything he touches. He defiles alcohol. There's nothing
wrong with alcohol. Man's what defiles alcohol. His
evil heart don't know how to handle it. It will abuse it if
left to himself. There's nothing wrong with drugs.
I guarantee you when you're laying in that bed in pain, them drugs
look good. They look good to you. Nothing
wrong with sex. Nothing wrong with work. Nothing
wrong with religion. But man gets in it and pollutes
it. When I'm standing up here talking
about religion, I'm not talking about true religion like James
talks about. I'm talking about worldly religion.
I'm talking about idolatry. Heathen paganism is what it is. And anything and everything that
is, man has contaminated by his evil heart. Out of the heart,
Christ said, proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication,
thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things, He said,
that defile the man. The world was in his heart. And
everywhere he pled, He took the world with him. That's what we
do. We try to run from God. And then
we see the evil of this world and we try to separate ourselves
from the world. But you can't do it because what
makes them the world makes you a sinner. Same thing. It's this evil heart. You can't
escape the world because it's in you. In Adam all die. As is the earthy, such are they
also that are earthy. Death, he said, passed upon all
men for all their sin. We bear the image of the earthy,
Paul said, and flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of
God. Corruption cannot inherit incorruption. This corruptible
must put on incorruption. This mortal must put on immortality. And when that is done, and then
only, then shall death be swallowed up in victory. Until then, you
ain't going to outrun it. It's in you. Paul just cried
once he found out what he was and what was in him. He cried
and he said, Oh, wretched man that I am. Not that I was. He wasn't half as wretched then
as he saw himself now. Huh? He saw sin in every prayer
he prayed. He saw sin in every nickel he
gave. Every day, every hour he labored,
he saw sin in it. He saw himself a sinner. A sinner. I remember out in Illinois years
ago, I went out there and preached for a little group After the
meeting, I should have suspected the man's name was John Gill.
So I should have suspected something. But I went to his house for a
meal, and at the house he said, we've just done a very conclusive
study. Boy, we went into this thing
to see if God ever called a saint after the time He saved him,
if He ever referred to him again as a sinner. And he said, we
did this study. And he said, it ain't in there.
He never does. And it took me so much by shock
that I was just standing there. And Bob Coffey, Henry's son-in-law,
was standing there. And we were just looking at each
other trying to think of something that he said. And while I was
running that through my mind, I had old Carter Brown was with
me. Carter hadn't been saved about three or four months. And
Carter said, well, what about this one? He said, this is a
faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. He said,
that's the man who wrote half the New Testament. Well, what
are you going to do with that? He said, well, we might have
missed one. And that's the way men are. That's the way men are. This world was in his heart and
everywhere he fled he took the world with him. Corruption cannot
inherit incorruption. Now, here in the cave, high on the
mountain, Lot found safety. And this is the heart of what
I want to talk to you about tonight. The reconciliation of God's elect
out of this world is not accomplished in a single isolated act. Just
get that out of your head. Get it out of your head. It is
a lifelong work of grace. That's what it is. Quit trying
to pin it down. Quit trying to pin it. Just believe.
That's what he says to do. And he'll have to put that in
you. He'll have to give you the ability
to do that. You can't even do that on your
own. And there was a prevenient grace,
I told you that, that went before him. All these things. So now he runs to this little
isolated refuge from those he fears. He saw an ungodliness
in them. He sees God's enmity and wrath
toward them. He sees the end of those who
continue with them. They land down there in ashes,
mold. And he sees their potential. in their attitude and conduct
toward God's angels that He sent down. They wanted them to come
out so they could lay with them. I'll tell you, when the Lord
first opened my eyes to grace, I stood up in a bunch of Arminians
and started preaching grace, and you've never seen such...
I didn't even know those folks were capable of that kind of
hatred. For two years, every day that
I went into that place, they hugged on me and cried and kissed
me and told me what a good person I was and how they loved me.
And I stood up and preached grace one time and did that stumbling
and bumbling around. I'm telling you, it was unbelievable
how much enmity man has for grace. He hates it. He hates it. I believe he saw that in these
people. I believe he saw that enmity, don't you? He started
telling them what he believed took place down there, and he
saw that enmity, and he feared to stay in that place, and so
he left it. Now he runs up here and hides in a cave. He hides
in the mountain. He hides himself in this cave,
and he gets feeling pretty good about this cave. This cave, I believe, represents
the refuge of religion. Why do I think that? Let me give
you several reasons. It seemed to be a place of safety.
You ran back there, there wasn't one way in, one way out. Wasn't
like it out there in that tent. Wasn't like it down in Zoar where
there's all around you. Now you're back in this cave.
He's got the safety of that mountain all around him. Just this one
little hole out there that he has to watch. Now ain't that
what sinners believe when they fall into religion? They just
got this one thing they got to keep their eye on. Huh? Just got this one thing. Boy,
if I can keep myself from the bottle, I'm going to be alright.
No, you ain't going to be alright. You'd be better off probably
with the bottle. It was a place of safety. It
was high up. Only one way in and out. And
secondly, it was handy. It was already there. Huh? A man starts to see some things
and he looks around. There's a church on every corner.
They're handy. Here they are. Like the harlot. She knows what corner to go.
She knows where those young men are going to be. She goes right
out on the corner. Puts on their dress. Winks at
them. Come on in. It's already there. It's handy. He didn't have to
do anything. He didn't have to do anything.
Just walking. It was natural. Seemed to be
a place God had prepared for him to take refuge in. And then
fourthly, he didn't have any light. Except what a man made
on his own. That's the only light in a cave.
You want light in a cave, you got to make it yourself. Because
there ain't none in there. And then fifthly, because the
only thing, the only people that live in a cave are bloodthirsty
flying rodents and beasts of prey. Grizzly bears in there,
and there's bats. That's all you're going to find
in these caves. Man runs to religion as a refuge, ignorant of its
darkness, ignorant of its dangers, and ignorant of its residents.
And he moves in. and begins to make himself at
home. He's found him a safe place to live. He's isolated from the
world. He can come and go as he sees
fit. And I cannot help but sometimes it's as though I'm misunderstood,
and so I repeat this all the time, and I want you to hear
me and hear me as clear as I know how to say it. Religion is a
place without light. There is no light. None. None. It's a dark hole
in the earth where man tries to live in the glow of an artificial
light. It's just an artificial light.
Light is in Christ. Light is in the gospel. Light
is in God's children by regeneration. And that's the only place you
can find light. The only place you can find it. Religion is
nothing more than paganism and idolatry and darkness. Our Lord
looked at those Pharisees and they lived as clean a life and
as pure a life. They put our fundamentalist and
holiness people to shame. They didn't just pay tithes on
what was left over. They gave tithes of everything
they had. Everything. They kept the feast
days. They kept them. They were there
all the time. They were fervent in these ceremonies
and things. Our Lord said they're blind leaders
of the blind. He didn't say they had a little
light. He said they didn't have any.
They're blind. And so was the folks that was
following them. Listen to Isaiah. I'm reading this from Isaiah
chapter 8, verse 19. When they shall say unto you,
seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that
peep and mutter. Should not a people seek unto
their God for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony,
if they speak not according to this word, it's because there
is no light in them. You see, spiritual revelation
is of God. It's according to the purpose
of God. All men don't have it. All men don't have it. Some folks
don't have a lot and some a little. Where He gives light, He gives
light. If He spared not His Son, He's not going to spare any light
to you. He's going to give you light. You want to know about
God, and you're one of God's, He's going to teach you who He
is. No ifs, ands, and buts about it. But to them, it's because
there's no light in them. And He said they should look
unto the earth, and behold, trouble and darkness. dimness of anguish,
and they shall be driven to darkness. The God of this world blinds
the eyes of them that believe not. He blinds them. He takes away the light. He doesn't
add light. He takes it away. Lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them. Just
blind leaders of the blind. The light shineth in darkness,
our Lord said, but the darkness comprehended it not. And all
outside the cave was illuminated, but deep in that cavern was just
the glowing embers of a man-made fire. Now that's where he went.
That's where he went. And living up there in the cave
of religion, walking in the light of their depraved heart, these
two daughters began to get ideas. And the idea behind this incestuous
act of Lot's two daughters was to preserve their father's seed. To preserve life. Now, O.L.R. Shelton, I don't know if you
all know who that is. He was a famous preacher from
days gone by. But O.L.R. used to say, hang
on now, we're going to jump a creek. God doesn't save men to preserve
life. I need to say that again, though.
God doesn't save men to preserve life. Salvation is not the desperate
act of God to save man from annihilation. Salvation is the eternal purpose
of God to save a people for the glory of His name. God created
man to bear His image. That image, though born partly
by the first Adam, cannot stand complete until man appears in
the second Adam. Only the second Adam bore His
image. This image far surpasses the
garden. The garden was but a means to
the end. That image that manifests the
image of God must manifest grace, and mercy, and love, and long-suffering,
and kindness, none of which could be done apart from the Father.
The garden was just a means to an end. His whole name must be engraved
upon the man and in his being who bears his image, else the
whole purpose of God in His creation is defeated. God has in these last days, listen
to what Paul tells us, spoken unto us by His Son, whom He has
appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds,
who being the brightness of His glory, And the express image
of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His
power, when He by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right
hand of the Majesty on high." That's that image. Born in Him. Exalted. Raised up. How do we
wear that name? In Him. In Him. And one day we'll wear it for
real. We'll wear it for real. Be just like Him. Now this is
what God predestinated from the beginning. You can read about
it in Romans 8, you can read about it in Ephesians chapter
1, you can read about it twice there. This predestination to
be conformed to the image of His Son. God has saved us. Listen to what
Paul says. I could read you 50 scriptures.
God has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. That
purpose, that image. The goal of religion is to procreate
more of the same, to proselyte. That's what he told the Jews.
He said, you encompassed sea and earth to make one proselyte
like unto yourself. And when you made him, what have
you done? You made him twofold more the
child of hell than you are. They preserved their father's
seed. And the purpose of God is to create anew, to manifest
in them the glory of His name. God does everything He does for
His name's sake. The Gospel is not a fire escape.
And though while He did save Lot from the flames, and if He
saves you, He'll save you from the flames, but that's not the
reason He did it. That's not why He did it. God
saves sinners for His glory. And where there is no glory,
there is no salvation. Everything about us, around us,
has been created and arranged so that no flesh of glory in
His presence. Now, desperate to see life continue,
desperate to see their Father's seed preserved, worldly religion
is willing to compromise the character of the Heavenly Father
to bring about their end. Isn't that what that's all about?
They want to see more. They want to see that seed. They want to see people. They want that church filled
with people. And so they compromise. Man's
nature is not interested in a change. It just wants to continue on
as it is. Now isn't that what man really
wants? He just wants to live on like he is. And so that religion, she intoxicates
her unsuspecting victim And then that drunken stupor performs
her ungodly fornication. Now I know you think I'm just
making these things up because it fits a type. I want to read
this to you. Revelation chapter 17 verse 2.
It's stated many times in the book of Revelation. But I want
you to listen to this. I'm just going to read a part
of the verse. He says in verse 2, "...the kings of the earth
have committed fornication with her," talking about the great
whore, Babylon. That's religion. "...the kings
of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the inhabitants
of the earth," are you with me? "...have been made drunk with
the wine of her fornication." Now, isn't that what took place
in the cave? That's exactly what took place in the cave. He wasn't
even aware of what happened. He didn't know when she laid
down. He didn't know when she got up. The next day, got him
drunk again. Laid with him and he didn't know
when she laid down and he didn't know when she got up. That's
what religion does. You think it's doing you good.
They get you in a drunken stupor. I'm talking spiritual language
now. They get you in a drunken stupor and they perform their
fornication and you don't even know what's going on. You're
just a victim. Just a victim. They climb into
bed, into the bed of their father Adam in total ignorance that
from his seed can only be produced the enemies of God. Moabites, Amorites. Enemies of God from that day
to the end of time. enemies of God. But the good
news, the good news in all of this that comes to those who,
Paul said, those of you who at one time were far off, he talked
to the Gentiles, he talked to these Moabites, he talked to
these Amorites and Hittites and all the otherites, the good news
to those who were far off but had been made nigh by the cross
in God's own time He'll bring even the Moabitish woman. Ain't that what Ruth was? Huh? The Moabitish woman to glean
in the Master's field and pick up handfuls of purpose. He'll
go to the gate and in strict justice, redeem her unto Himself. I'm reading from Ruth chapter
4, verse 9. The kinsman, Redeemer Boaz, said
to all that were gathered to hear, Ye are witnesses this day
that I have bought all that was a limulex, and all that was chylons,
and all that was melons of the hand of Naomi. Moreover, Ruth
the Moabitess, the wife of Melon, have I purchased to be my wife,
to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance. God takes
men even in the drunken stupor who've been taken advantage of
by the great whore and he reaches down in that cesspool of iniquity
and takes them for himself. That's the story of the gospel.
And I don't know how many times it's illustrated throughout this
book and every time I read it I just get goosebumps thinking
about what kind of a mess God reached down and saved me out
of. and what I'd be capable of if he lifts his hand. Nothing,
nothing that you see or ever read in this book or seen in
the paper, you've got as much potential to that as any other
man, but by the grace of God, just by the grace of God.