The story of Sodom and Gomorrah
is a story that I've come to learn that's recalled again and
again and again throughout the Word of God. It's used in all
kinds of different ways. You can find it in Isaiah chapter
3 where he talks about the ruin, absolute ruin of natural Israel. Isaiah likens them unto the people
of Sodom. You can find it again in Ezekiel
chapter 16 just before he gets to talk about the Israel being
the baby cast out in the wilderness and unwanted and all those things. He describes their condition
like unto the condition of those in Sodom. You can find it in
Zephaniah. You can find it in Matthew and
Luke and you can find it just throughout, just numerous places
throughout the New Testament. So the story of Sodom and Gomorrah
is a story recalled in the Word of God time and again. Now that
tells me this, there's a lesson here to be learned. There's a
lesson here to be learned. There's a lot to be learned or
he wouldn't keep recalling it and bringing it to our attention.
And the thing that most people associate, if you mention Sodom
and Gomorrah, the first thing that comes to their mind is these
men and women going after strange flesh. Men with men, women with
women. You know it and I know it. You
think about Sodom, boom, comes right to your mind. In fact,
that's what they call the act, if I'm not mistaken. That's the
legal term for it, is sodomy. And while it is true that such
things are a definite sign of reprobation over in Romans chapter
1 where he talks about reprobation, he talks about giving them over
to themselves to dishonor themselves with one another. But what Paul
plainly teaches there in Romans chapter 1 is that these things
are a result of false religion. We have false religion just flourishes
in our country right now. And from the flourishing of it,
we're beginning to see the ends of it. And so pedophilia and
all of these acts, all of these acts of fornication and lasciviousness
and all of these just unspeakable acts are beginning to be normal
in our society. They hold positions on the TV
and famous actors and famous people and politicians and all
sorts of people do these things. But what Paul
says here in Romans 1 is that because they refuse to give God
the glory that He deserves. Now, God doesn't give all men
a light equally. Some men only have. These natives,
I don't know the reasons why. I can't explain to you the reasons
why. These things are in the hand
of God, and I'm convinced that He's just and right in His dealings. But I don't understand them.
I don't understand why we have light right here. And ten miles
from here, they don't have any. I can't explain that to you.
I can't explain to you why grace churches crop up on this end
of the country and out on this end of the country and in the
middle there's nothing. I don't understand that. I don't understand
it. I don't understand how a place
like London, England could have so much light for 150 years and
all of a sudden it just disappeared like somebody snuffed out the
candle. I don't understand those things, but some people only
have the light of conscience, and some people only have the
light of creation, but they don't even want that. They deny those
things. They deny that conscience. They
deny that light of creation. Creation necessitates a Creator. There's no way that chance, if
you just look at the order of the universe, you can understand. You'd be a fool to believe that
chance rules these things. It's too precise. It's too exact. The seasons and the planets and
the rotations and all the things that are necessary for this place
to exist. You have to be a fool to believe
that Mother Nature takes care of those things. These things
are controlled of God. But they didn't want that. They
didn't want to give God the glory for that. And their conscience
told them that these things were wrong that they did, but they
insisted on doing them anyway. And what little bit they did
hear about the Lord, they decided they didn't want that either.
They didn't want that. They'd heard some stories about
the Jews. They'd heard these things. I
mean, these things have been going on since the beginning
of time. Why would man even offer a sacrifice if he didn't know
something about a sacrifice? He didn't just up one day and
say, well, I think I'll kill a pig. He heard that. It's been passed down since the
beginning. It's been passed down since the
Garden, since the days of Abel and Cain and all down through
time. These things are passed down.
And I'm not saying that they've heard the Gospel, but they've
heard that. And they didn't even want that
life. They didn't want anything to do with that. And so, he says
they did not want to retain God in their memory. They didn't
want this to glorify God as God. So they changed the glory of
God. They become vain in their imaginations and their foolish
heart was darkened. And they changed the glory of
the incorruptible God like unto corruptible man. And then they
just went down the hill. Birds. four-footed beast and
creeping thing. Wherefore, it says, God gave
them up. Gave them up to uncleanness through
the lust of their own hearts to dishonor their bodies between
themselves. Changed the truth of God into
a lie and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator
who is blessed forever. And for this cause God gave them
up to vile affection. Do you see what I'm saying? These
things come about in any society where that society despises and
hates the things of God, but accepts and practices false religion. This is going to be the end of
it. Not immediately. It doesn't happen immediately.
But over time, this is going to be the end. This is where
it's headed. This is where it's headed. And then in Romans chapter
2, Paul takes that light That he's shining on them Gentiles,
and he turns it right around to the Jew, and he shines it
on them. And here's his opening statement in chapter 2. He said,
Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that
judgest. For wherein thou judgest another,
thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest doest the same
things. You've got a greater light. You've
got a greater light. But you don't walk in it. And
therefore, God gave them up. He gave them up. And this story
is used time and again to describe the condition of natural Israel,
the condition of this world in general, and the dangers of those
who creep into churches. You can read about it over in
Jude. He selects several examples there, and out of those examples,
he reaches up and plucks Sodom and Gomorrah. Peter tells you
the same thing. These people that come in preaching
lies, who compromise the glory of God, who think it not an ungodly
act to change the Word of God and change things to suit man
and compromise the message of grace. He warns them. He warns
them and he points to Sodom and Gomorrah and he said, that's
your end right there. That's your end. And the Jews time and
time again, everything I'm seeing in this country, It tells me
that this country is almost in the same condition of ancient
Rome to whom Paul was writing that letter. And it wasn't long
after that God overthrew it. The greatest, most powerful nation,
God turned that thing upside down. But tonight I want us to view
this story in its whole. Now we may come back, there is
a message In fact, the New Testament, he titles the message, he said,
remember Lot's wife. There's a whole message right
there. Winston and I was talking about that statement that the
angel told Lot, get thee up, get into the mountain. There's
a message all by itself. There's lots of messages throughout
this. But tonight, I just want us to look at the overall picture.
I read for you the story. I'm going to talk to you about
the story as it relates to Christ. And so that's what I want to
do tonight. I want to take that story as
a whole in which God demonstrates His glory in the deliverance
of His own and destroys the rest. Now I want to begin this way
that Sodom and Gomorrah is a picture of this world. You say that's
a little harsh. I don't think it is. I don't
think it is. I think it's pretty accurate.
In Luke chapter 17, the Lord talked to His disciples about
His second coming. Now, here's the thing you have
to understand. He was teaching His disciples
these things, but they weren't getting it. There would come
a day when they did get it. But right now, He's just teaching
them. He's just telling them these things. There's going to
come a time when God pours His Spirit out on them, and when
He does, Boom! They get it. They got it. They
remember. They recalled all those things.
They recalled that Mount of Transfiguration. And I guarantee you, they recalled
this date here that I'm reading to you. But back then, they just
kind of scratched their head and they didn't understand. Even
after he died, they walked down that road. Peter said, I give
up. I'm going fishing. He could not
understand or perceive what had taken place. But there came a
day when he did. When he did. And I know lots
of times I came into church and sat down and listened to the
gospel preached and I didn't understand it. But come day when
I did. And I can look back now, I can
look back 30 years ago and recall messages and I understand exactly
what he was preaching. Exactly. But the Lord was talking
to his disciples about his second coming. And the fact that it would not
be in humiliation and obscurity like his first appearance, but
in power and great glory. He said, as the lightning shineth
from one end of heaven to the other. That's how my coming is
going to be. Just that quick. That storm hit a while ago. We
got a pretty good storm roll through here. And I was standing
over by the front door. Not a good place to be in a storm.
I don't know, this thing just draws me like a magnet, I want
to look. And I went over to the front
door and I was looking out and this big bolt of lightning hit
and that thing looked like it went to the other end of the
planet. It took off toward Magnolia and it just, I couldn't see the
end of it. I mean there's 20 miles, that
thing went 20 miles before you could blink an eye. Now, he said,
that's how my coming is going to be, in power and glory like
that lightning. Pow! That's it. It's over. In
a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, winds it up. And every
eye is going to see Him. Like that lightning. So shall
also the Son of Man be in His day. And then here in Luke 17,
verse 25, but he said, First, he must suffer many things and
be rejected of this generation. Now just bear with me, I'm laying
a foundation here. He's not just talking about those
who lived in that day. He's not just talking about his
rejection of the Jews who turned him over to the Romans and put
in their vote to put him up on the cross. That's inclusive in
the statement, but that's not the whole statement. He's talking
about every generation from His first appearance until His end
appearance. He's talking about His second
coming. That's what He's talking about
here, His second coming. And sometimes He calls this a
day, and sometimes He refers to it as a season, and sometimes
as a dispensation, but in all things He refers to it as the
last time. So whether it's 100,000 years
or 10 more days, I don't know how long it's going to be, but
we're living in the last days. In the last days. And he must
be rejected of every generation, and he will be. He'll be rejected. And to describe this rejection
and this time, he uses two events from the past. Noah and the days
preceding the flood. As it was in the days of Noah,
so shall it be also in the coming of the Son of Man, and then of
Lot in the days preceding his deliverance." Listen to this,
verse 28. Likewise, also, as it was in
the days of Lot, they did eat, drank, they bought, they sold,
they planted, they built it. But the same day that Lot went
out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and
destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the
day when the Son of Man is revealed." Now what I'm saying to you is
this. Sodom and Gomorrah is a picture by the Lord's own declaration.
It's a picture of this present evil world. And it will continue
to picture it right up to the end. They're going to do the
same things that they did in Sodom. Sodomy was not the only
thing that went on in Sodom. They built homes. They did all
kinds of things. They did work. They built it.
They had a great city. Offered all kinds of things to
people. It's a picture of this present
evil world. And in the days that preceded
the flood, God testified of the great wickedness of man. He didn't
say men. He said man. And He said that
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And likewise in Sodom and Gomorrah,
there was not a righteous man to be found. Abraham just kept
bargaining. And he said, if you'll permit
me, I'm just going to say one more. If I could find 40, will
you spare them? Lord, I know I'm nobody. But
if you'll just let me speak one more time. If I can find 30,
will you spare the city? If I can find 20? If I only got
down to 10 and the Lord just walked away. Walked away. You're
not going to find any. Any. There's only one righteous
man there, and that righteousness was imputed to him. It wasn't
his. It was his because it was charged to him, but it wasn't
of his doing. Not a righteous man, except for
one. And that righteousness was imputed.
This ungodly place that the Almighty had determined to burn into ashes
is a picture of this world. Peter said this world, this present
world, he said, here's what men are ignorant of. God said he
was going to destroy the old world with a flood. And he sent
him a preacher and that preacher preached 120 years and then God
covered it up. He flooded it. He buried them. They all perished exactly the
way he said they would. His hand is what stayed those
proud waves and held those oceans back. It was his own will that
kept those drops from coming down. It was his own will that
suppressed the springs of the earth. And he held that in his
hand and preserved it to that day. But when that day came,
he covered it up exactly the way he said he did. Now, he said,
the world which now is, is reserved unto fire. Isn't that what he
said? That's exactly what he's telling
in life. As it was in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah, so shall
it be when Christ comes back. This world is preserved right
now, held in store, preserved of God. This world ain't going
to fall to pieces. This world is going to keep right
on going until that day that He's determined. And then God
is going to burn it up. You can read about it over in
2 Peter. It's a picture of this present
evil world. And this ungodly place that the
Almighty has determined to burn into ashes is a picture of this
world. This world is a place that appeals. Olat set up there on the mountain.
It appeals to the appetites of men. Abraham said, you say north,
I'll go south. You go east, I'll go west. I
don't care. You choose where you want to
go. And Olat looked down on the plain. Look down on that well-watered
plain. It appealed to the appetites
of the natural man. He said, that's where I'm going,
right down there. Abraham said, go. Go ahead. It's a place that appeals to
the appetites of men. It offers them riches and ease
of life. You can read about it over in
Isaiah. Or Ezekiel, I mean. In Ezekiel 16, he talks about
what was their problem. They had plentiness of bread.
They had too much. All they want to do is lay around,
kick their feet up, watch westerns. It offers them riches and ease
of life. It offers them comfort and pleasure.
It offers them recognition and honor. It offers them authority
and a station to suit it. Listen to how Satan tempted our
great representative. He said the devil taketh him
up on an exceeding high mountain. and showed him all the kingdoms
of the world and the glory of those kingdoms. And then he came
over and put his arm around him and softly whispered in his ear.
And he said, I give you all of this if you fall down and worship
me. It's over. That's what this world offers.
You can have it. You can have it if you want it. Now, we've got example after
example If that's what's holding you back, Satan will give it
to you. He'll let you have it. He'll let you have it. This world
appeals to the evil appetites of man. If man were not evil,
this world would hold no attraction to him. Did you know that? This
world held absolutely no attraction to the Lord Jesus Christ. He
didn't build a house. He didn't pitch a tent. He didn't
provide Himself with a coat. He didn't want part or lot of
any of it. Lord, how are we going to pay
our taxes? We're going to go down there by the ocean and grab
that fish. It's got a coin in its mouth. You take it down and
give it to Caesar. There wasn't anything in this
world that held an attraction to Him. No attraction to Him
whatsoever. In 1 John 2, John tells us this,
Love not the world. Don't love the world. You were
born loving the world. Now, if God has taken up His
abode in your heart, that love has been shattered, hasn't it?
If it hadn't, you've got a problem. You've got a problem. Love not
the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any
man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him."
Now, that's what John said. For all that's in the world,
the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride
of life is not of the Father, it's of the world. Listen to this. Demas hath forsaken
me. What was his problem? He loved
this present world. He left an apostle. He left the
churches. He left the grace of God and
the gospel because he loved this present world. The world walks in darkness, spiritual
blindness. In Ecclesiastes chapter 9, Solomon
said, ìThe heart of the sons of men is full of evil.î Now
listen to this statement. And madness is in their heart
while they live. Madness. And after that, they
go to the dead. Now, brethren, it's madness to
live in this world and ignore the Word of the living God. But
yet men do it. Huh? It's madness to live in
this world any way you please and not expect the consequence. It's madness to follow after
and desire lies over the truth of God, but men do it every day.
Listen to these verses over here in Isaiah chapter 30. He said, Go write it before them
in a table like the tables of the law. Go write it down so
they can read it. Write it in a book that it may
be for the time to come forever and ever that this is a rebellious
people Lying children, children that will not hear the law of
the Lord, which say to the seers, see not. And to the prophets,
prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things,
prophesy deceits. Get you out of the way. Now listen
to this. Isn't this rage like yesterday's
headline? Get you out of the way. Turn
aside out of the path. Cause the Holy One of Israel
to cease. Don't preach Christ to us no
more. That's what he said. Preach smooth things. Don't talk
to me about my sin. Don't worry me about that. 4 or 5 Sunday told me, said,
man, you got me to thinking and I didn't take the supper. I said,
I preached that message because I wanted you to think. We spend
too much time not thinking. We just do things because, well,
it's Wednesday, I guess I'll go to church. Boy, if you waited
that long, you're in trouble. You ain't going to get anything.
You prepare yourself before you come in here. He said, who commanded
you to come into my courts? Ain't that what the Lord said?
We need to think about it, pray about it, prepare our hearts
to come in here. And then the Lord. Then we can
expect the blessing from the Lord. Oh, don't preach Christ
to us anymore. Don't worry us with those things.
Don't frighten us with those things. Don't warn us about that. Get you out of the way. Turn
aside, out of the path. Cause the Holy One of Israel
to cease before us. Don't preach Christ as the only
way to God. Don't preach man's total depravity. Don't preach religion as the
whore riding around on Satan's back. Don't preach Christ the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.
Get out of the way. Just move over a little. Get
out of that path. Get away from the gospel. Quit
preaching the Holy One of Israel. Why, he said, because you despise
the Word. That's why. You despise the Word. Because you trust in oppression
and perverseness. and stand upon it and rest in
these things. Now listen to what he tells them.
This iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling
out of the high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant. Walking around that great wall,
like that wall of Nineveh, and there's a breach up there, there's
a big swelling place, and this thing's hanging out. It's going
to fall. It's going to take you away.
Take you away. Why? Because you despise the
Word. It's madness. I'm telling you, it's madness
to imagine myself in my own strength, in my own will, in my own character,
in my own nature, to climb up out of this pit, to climb up
out of this world and present myself unto God in such a fashion
that He would want to embrace me. That's madness. It's madness. But that's what they teach you.
Turn your radio on. Turn your TV on. Man's heart
is full of evil and he lives out his days in madness. And
after that, he goes to the dead. He goes the way of the world
condemned of God. The second death, he calls it.
Outer darkness, weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth. Where the
worm dieth not. where the thirst is never quenched
nor a tormented soul put to ease. Just a memory, Rothbarnard said,
like a bloodhound that chases you through eternity, crying,
son, remember. You remember? You remember that
night you sat in that little church and that man stood up
and told you the truth. He said, come by without money
and without price. Come and get it. It's free. It's
sovereign. It's grace. Come and get it.
Come and get it. What holds you back? But you
wouldn't have it. Now you can remember. Now you
can remember. Well, why didn't a lot flee the
city? Pretty obvious to us. I mean,
this place is full of wank, idolatry, and immorality, and uncleanness,
Why couldn't he see the corruption? Why didn't he flee the city?
Why was he so bent on living there? Same reason we are. Because those awful habits and
ways are the norm. They're the norm. They're not
the exception. They're the norm. A man looks around, he sees everybody
doing something, he accepts it as normal. I used to tell my
dad, I want to go to the picture show. He said, no, you can't
go. I mean, he wasn't against us going to the movies. I didn't
do that work for the money, and I just expected him to throw
money on me. He was trying to teach me. He
said, no. I said, well, everybody's doing
it. Anything I wanted to do, I'd
always tell him, well, everybody's doing it. Everybody's doing it.
That's what makes it seem right. Man sees religion abounding everywhere,
everywhere accepted, everywhere approved, everywhere flourishing.
Even the news media talks about it in a good way and accepts
it. We live in a world of sin, but
sinners don't stand out because they look like everybody else.
Huh? I don't stand out. Adam hid among
the trees of the garden. He blended into his surroundings
and camouflaged himself among others just like himself. That's
what we do. We just blend in. Man will not
believe the truth when he hears it because he compares what he
hears to what he sees and what he feels. And he says, well,
that don't seem right. That don't seem right. Old Locke,
when he heard the truth, he went out and preached to his sons-in-law,
and he started urging them, and he got excited. Now, all of a
sudden, now he sees the difference, and he begins to plead and to
beg, and to, up, get you up, come on, let's go, let's get
out of this, God's going to wipe this place out. And they just
looked at him like somebody had mocked. Well, yesterday you wasn't
preaching this. What happened to you? What did
you do, get religion? Huh? Seemed like one. Ain't that
what happens? Man lives his life any way he
wants to. The Lord saves him. The Lord
gives him a message. He changes his heart and then
he starts talking to his relatives and they say, I know you. You
ain't fooling me. I know you. I know you. Mine
feel sorry for me. They pat me on the back. They
feel sorry for me. Do you really believe that what
you're doing and saying is right and everybody else in the world
is mad? Absolutely. Absolutely. I do. John said, and we know
that we are God in the whole world, life and wickedness. Only the grace of God can teach
a man that and mean it. It's a picture of this world
and a picture of how it will continue to be until the Lord
returns to destroy it. But if it be so bad, so ungodly,
so wicked, if it be so filled with evil and darkness and iniquity,
why won't God just burn it up now? What's he waiting on? He's
got somebody inside of him. That angel told him, he said,
I can't do anything until you're out of here. He didn't say, I
won't. He said, I can't. Boy, you plead
that, can't you? Huh? That's what Abraham did. Abraham pleaded. He pleaded the
person of God. He pleaded his own character.
I ain't got anything else to plead. Got anything else to plead. But God had somebody there. And
that's my second point I want to talk to you about. God chose
Sodom and Gomorrah to demonstrate His sovereign grace in the salvation
of His elect. It says, God has chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise, and the weak things
of the world to confound the things which are mighty, and
base things of the world, and things which are despised hath
God chosen. Yea, and things which are not
to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory
in His sight. I'm telling you, when He brought
Lot out of Sodom, nobody questioned that his salvation was by grace. There's not a question about
it. In Romans 8, verse 20, it said,
For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but
by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. Sodom is allowed to continue
in this blatant disregard for God because God has a vessel
of mercy aforeprepared unto glory. And He's going to call him out.
He's going to save him. He's not doing these things. He's
not preserving Sodom out of respect for them. That's what this world
wants you to believe. That's what they want to talk
about. They want to talk about, well, God so loved the world,
talking about every individual. He wasn't concerned with every
individual in Sodom. He was concerned with one. What's
going on in our day? disasters, calamities, global
catastrophes, wars, rumors. What's going on? What's going
on? In Ephesians chapter 1, the Lord
said, "...in that dispensation of the fullness of Christ." Here's
what's been going on. It's been going on since the
beginning. And it's going to have its culmination at its second
coming. But He's gathering all things, all things which are
in Christ. That's what He's doing. He's
gathering them to Himself. It's a picture of this world.
It's a place kept in store, reserved under fire. Peter said this also
about it. He said, For the Lord knoweth
how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and reserve the
unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. That's 2 Peter
2.9. But then Sodom and Gomorrah was
a place where the child of God resided, who had already been
delivered from the hands of the King of Nations. He resided down
there, but he'd already been redeemed. Abraham redeemed him,
didn't he? Took those men and went up there
to that King of Nations and redeemed him and brought him back and
put him back in Sodom. He didn't realize that. He didn't
even think about that. Old Beaver, the king of Sodom,
he came out of his hiding place when he heard Abraham won the
battle and he ran out to meet him and dressed like a king with
all the dignity of a coward. How come he didn't go with him?
He had as much at stake, if not more, than Abraham had. Where
was he? Huh? He's hiding down there.
He's a coward. But he puts on his kingly suit
and he runs out to meet Abraham, the victor. And he runs up to
him and he starts talking to him like he's somebody. And he
said, now here's what we're going to do. You just keep the loot
and give me the people. Huh? Don't you know Abraham looked
at him and said, don't you know that I just whooped the man that
whooped you? Don't you understand that? Don't you understand that
I own you? I've got Sodom trailing along
behind me back here. They belong to me. And you're
going to come out and start dictating to me what you're going to do?
Now that's the folly, I'm telling you, that's the folly of men
and women trying to make Jesus or accept Jesus as their person.
They come up and start dictating, here's what I'm going to do.
No, just shut up. Just come and bow down before
Him. He's King. You've already been defeated.
You've already lost whatever inheritance you had. It's gone. You've done folly. You're not
in a place to dictate. You're in a place to beg. And
old Abraham looked at him and he said, I did this. I did this
in the name of the living God. And he said, me and him has an
agreement. And my agreement is that I ain't going to take nothing
from you, not from a shoelace to a thread. I don't want anything
that belongs to you, because you're going to run back down
like the coward you are, and the braggart you are, and the
evil man that you are. And as soon as you get back down
to Sodom, you're going to say, I made old Abraham rich. And
that's exactly what the sinner would do. If he could just get
a hangnail involved in the salvation of his soul, he'd brag on it
for eternity. Ain't gonna happen. Old Beaver
had only his life, that's all he had, and that just for a little
while. Man, there's nothing to give and no authority to give
it. He got no honor, no recognition, no kingdom. And Beaver's not
free to reign anymore. He's defeated, bankrupt, beggar.
Abraham conquered old Cheddar Laomer. He ruled the kingdom. Listen to this, on Romans chapter
14. He said in verse 7, He said,
For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live
unto the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the Lord. For
whether we live, therefore die, we are the Lord's. For to this
end Christ both died and rose and revived, that He might be
Lord both of the dead and the living. He was Lord of Lot, and
He was Lord of Bera. He was Lord over every man that
followed behind Him. He conquered them all. That's
what happened. When God raised Him up and said
He made His right hand, He gave Him a name above every name.
And every knee is going to bow. Every tongue is going to come.
Even the cowards that ran and hid, they're all going to bow
before Him. Satan and hell are going to bow
before Him. Say, He's Lord. He's Lord. And He's going to
do it to the glory of God. Without a compromise of God's
name. And then old Lot stayed in Sodom, though he had been
delivered from the hands of his enemy, and his redemption had
already been accomplished. And there are two ways of looking
at what happened next. First, that having taken him
from the enemy and reconciled him to himself, he lived as a
just man with an imputed righteousness in an unclean world until God
calls him out for the final time, calls him up out of that grave.
You can look at it that way, and I believe it's true. I believe
we are. I believe we stay in this world,
and who knows? One of these days when we can
know as we are known, and we don't live in this fog of ignorance
that we live in down here, one of these days we're going to
look back and we're going to see just how much our daily life
was affected by the habits of this world. You're going to look
back and see. Now, that's what happened when
he brought him out of there, and that's what's going to happen
when God takes us out of here. All of those things are true.
Peter said, "...the Lord is not slack concerning His promise,
as some men count slackless. But as longsuffering to us we're
not willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance,
and all will." But it's also true that God sent His ministers
to warn His chosen to flee out of Sodom because God had determined
to burn it up. Turn away from it. Let go of
it. Come ye out from amongst them. Be ye separate, saith the
Lord. God having a hold. A hold. Listen to this. God's
ministers came down there and preached to Him and He didn't
move. He didn't do it. He lingered. He lingered. He had a lot at stake. He had
deep roots inside him. He was a member of the town council,
an alderman or something. And there he sat out there at
the gate in all of his wreckage. Everything he had was vested
inside him. And the man said, ìGodís going
to burn it up! Come on!î And he lingered. And the man took it by the hand,
didnít he? I canít do that physically, but I can do it spiritually.
And I attempt to every time I stand up there to preach, take you
by the hand and say, come on. Get out. Get out. Leave it. Drop it. Run. Run for the mountain. Run. Run. Get you up. Get out of here.
Let go of it. Oh, I took him by the hand. And
here's the last thing, and I'll be very quick. The ministers of God pulled Lot
in with them and smote the rest with blindness. And He left them
to wander the rest of their time with no light to see. No light
to see. Their end was near. They didn't
think it was. They thought they were going
to live forever. But God smote them with blindness.
They couldn't see. They just wandered around. Judgment
in a matter of hours. Nobody to preach to. And that
was morning. Morning's about to dawn. Not
full light, but not really darkness. Ain't that what happens when
God calls us out? We're still in a fog, ain't we?
We can't answer a question. Just can't do it. Just read it,
look at it, look at it, look at it. Just can't figure it out.
And somebody tells you what it is. Somebody's been on this way
for a while. He stands up and he tells you
what it is. That's it! That's it! That's
it. Man had him by the hand. It wasn't
daylight. It wasn't dark. It was just twilight. Just twilight. And he took him
along. He took him along. He led him
along. We got to be led for a while. Eventually, God's going to mature
us and He's going to establish us. That's what Paul said. You're
going to grow in grace and you're going to be established. And
when you are, then you're able to teach others. But you don't
start teaching when you're a baby. You start teaching down the road
a little bit. He took them by the hand. Until then they have
to be led. They have to be shown. They have
to be guided. So he took them by the hand and he led them down.
And he turned in at Zoar. I love this. I'm a word fanatic
anyway. I looked up the word Zoar. It
means place of the little ones. It means to be brought low. God
found him at the gate in authority. Big uppity up and sought him.
and brought him down to Zoar. And he took his place there with
the little one. And listen to this. When he entered into Zoar,
the sun come up. I'll tell you when the sun is
going to come up. Peter said, he said, you do well. He talked about the prophecy
of the scripture and not trying to build a church on passages
isolated all by themselves by private interpretation. You don't
take it and privately interpret all things in the scripture,
not hinge on what this one verse says. We read these things, we
compare spiritual things with spiritual. And he said, but you've
got a more sure word of prophecy, and when you learn how to read
it, you do well to take heed unto it until the day dawn. That's
what's going on here in Zohar. When God brings a man down and
leads him by the hand to Zohar, and he takes his place with the
little ones, submissive, brought down low. He told his disciples,
he said, when you become as one of these little ones, except
you become as one of these little ones, you're not even going to
enter into the kingdom of God. You're going to take your place
in Zohar as the little ones. And then the song is going to
come up. You're going to see what you can't hardly believe.
You're going to see the destruction of this world. You're going to
see the judgment of this world. You're going to watch the smoke
rise up. He's going to convince you of
sin, of righteousness, and what? Judgment. Oh, He watched the
sun come up. That's what I titled the message
this evening. Watching the sun come up in Zoar. May God give us the grace to
do just that. Just take me down to the place
of the little ones and let me sit in there and learn.