And there came two angels to
Sodom at evening, and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom, and Lot,
seeing them, rose up to meet them, and he bowed himself with
his face towards the ground. And he said, Behold now, my lords,
turn in, I pray you, into your servants' house, and tarry all
night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go
on your ways. And they said, Nay, but we will
abide in the street all night. And he pressed upon them greatly,
and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house. And
he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they
did eat. But before they lay down, the
men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house
round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter.
And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the
men which came in to thee this night? Bring them out unto us,
that we may know them. And Lot went out at the door
unto them, and shut the door after him, and said, I pray you,
brethren, do not so wickedly. Behold, now I have two daughters,
which I have not known man. Let me, I pray you, bring them
out unto you, And do ye to them as is good in your eyes, only
unto these men do nothing. For therefore came they under
the shadow of my roof. And they said, Stand back. And
they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will
needs be a judge. Now will we deal worse with thee
than with them. And they pressed sore upon the
man, even lot, and came near to break the door. But the men
put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and
shut the door. And they smote the men that were
at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great. So they wearied themselves to
find the door. And the men said unto Lot, Hast
thou here any besides, son-in-law, or thy sons, and thy daughters,
and whatsoever thou hast in this city? Bring them out of this
place. For we will destroy this place,
because the cry of them is waxing great before the face of the
Lord, and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it. And Lot went
out and spake unto his sons-in-law, which married his daughters,
and said, Up, get you out of this place, for the Lord will
destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked
unto his sons-in-law. And when the morning arose, Then
the angels hastened, the Lord saying, Arise, take your wife
and thy two daughters which are here, lest thou be consumed in
the iniquity of the city. And while he lingered, the men
laid hold upon his hand, upon the hand of his wife, and upon
the hand of his two daughters. the Lord being merciful unto
him, and they brought him forth and set him without the city.
And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad,
that he said, Escape for thy life, look not behind thee, neither
stay thou in all the plain, escape to the mountain, lest thou be
consumed. And Lot said unto them, O not
so, my lord. Behold now, thy servant hath
found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy,
which thou hast shown unto me in saving my life. And I cannot
escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I die.
Behold now, this city is near to flee into, and it is a little
one. O let me escape thither. Is it
not a little one? And my soul shall live. And he
said unto him, See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also,
that I will not overthrow this city for the which thou hast
spoken. Haste thee, escape thither, for
I cannot do anything till thou become thither. Therefore the
name of the city was Kozor. The sun was risen upon the earth
when Lot entered into Zorah. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom
and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities
and all the plain and all the inhabitants of the cities, and
that which grew upon the ground. But his wife looked back from
behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. And Abraham got up early
in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord.
And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land
of the plain, and beheld, and lo, the smoke of the country
went up as the smoke of a great furnace. And it came to pass,
when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that he remembered
Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when
he overthrew the cities which Lot dwelt. And Lot went up out
of Zorah, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him.
For he feared to dwell in Zorah, And he dwelt in a cave, he and
his two daughters. And the firstborn said unto the
young, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth
to come in to us after the manner of all the earth. Come and let
us make our father drink wine, and we will lay with him, that
we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink
wine that night, and the firstborn went in and lay with her father.
And he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose.
And it came to pass on the morrow that the firstborn said unto
the younger, Behold, I lay yesterday night with my father. Let us
make him drink wine this night also, and thou go thou in, and
lay with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. And they
made their father drink wine that night also. And the younger
arose and lay with him, and he perceived not when she lay down,
nor when she arose. Thus were both the daughters
of Lot with Chah by their father. And the firstborn bare a son,
and called his name Moab. The same is the father of the
Moabites unto this day. The younger she also bare a son,
and called his name Ben-Ammai. And the same is the father of
Ammon unto this day. I want to look at some things. We can't look at this
verse by verse, but I want to look at this chapter this morning. It gives a short history to you
and us of Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities here of these
plains. And there are several reasons I want to look at this
this morning, but here is two or three. And I think this is why we have
the history of this. Number one, the judgment of God
that fell upon these cities, upon Sodom and Gomorrah and all
the cities of the plains. The Bible tells us that this
happened to them for an example. An example. It was an example
to the world that was coming after them. You and I, in the
time that we live. Peter said this about this. He
said, the Lord turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and to
ashes, and He condemned them with an overthrow, making them
an example of those who should hereafter live ungodly." This
happens a lot. We do this as parents sometimes.
When the children are unruly and they are influencing the
other children, we make an example out of them. We correct them.
This happens in our law enforcement with prosecutors. They catch
a criminal and they say, we're going to make an example out
of this man that others will see and take heed. And that's
the first reason you and I should be interested, everybody should
be interested in this because God punished them. He destroyed
them to make them an example. But another reason that I'm interested
in this this morning and sharing this with you Because our Lord
said, when He mentioned this incident at Lot's day, He said,
as it was in the days of Lot, so shall it be in the last days,
the days of the coming of the Son of Man. And some of the things
that took place here, you and I can see in our day. And he
said that's the way it would be. The attitude of the people,
and I want to see that in a minute, some of the different classes
of the people here, and the judgment that fell. He said these things
are the same way it's going to be in the last day. And the third
reason I'm interested in this is for this reason too. A child
of God was in this place. Lot was down here. Abraham's
nephew was right in the midst of this city. Do you remember
how he got here? The choice that he made? He looked
on the well-watered plains, and he pitched his tent toward Sodom,
and then the very next chapter we read that he dwelt in Sodom.
He was here when the Lord came to destroy this place, and we're
told what happened. We're told of the last hours
of this city, what some of the people were doing there. It's
amazing when you and I read about so many people in the Scripture,
and the Scripture tells us what took place in the last hours
of their life. Remember Abel? We have what took place in the
last hours of his life. Achan? Remember Achan, the fellow
that stole the golden wedge and the Babylonian storm? We're told
the very last minutes of his life, what happened to him. David,
remember David? Last words of King David. We
have Jacob, when Jacob sat up in his bed and called all of
his sons and blessed them, and gathered his feet up there in
his bed and died. All kinds of... Judas, remember
Judas? Two thieves on the cross. All these people. And here's
the saddest thing, and I want you to turn with this, because
this is linked here with our lesson. Turn to 1 Kings, old
Genesis chapter 19, and turn to 1 Kings chapter 11. We're
told something else here about another man. in his last days
upon this earth when he was old. And this is one of the saddest
stories. And I want you to see this because it's linked here
to our study in the book of Genesis. It's amazing how these things
link together sometimes. But look at this. This is one
of the saddest stories. In chapter 11, look in verse
Look in verse 11, verse 1, 1 Kings chapter 11, look at verse 1.
But King Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughters
of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians,
Hittites, of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the
children of Israel. Ye shall not go into them, neither shall
they come into you, for surely they will turn away your heart
after their gods. Solomon claimed to them in love. And he had seven hundred wives,
princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned
away his heart. Now look at this. For it came
to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his
heart after other gods." Ain't that the saddest thing that you
ever read? I tell you, you never get too old to err, do you? In
his old age, and you never get too wise to do foolish things. Solomon was probably the wisest
man up to this time that there ever was. And yet, look what
he did in his old age. He's the preacher, the son of
David, the king of Israel. And his wives turned away his
heart after other gods, and his heart was not perfect with the
Lord his God, as was David his father. For Solomon went after
Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Malchah,
the abomination of the Ammonites. And Solomon did evil in the sight
of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord, as did David
his father. Then did Solomon build that high
place. He built the place for worship,
for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is
before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children
of Ammon. Now did you notice this? Remember
Lot's two sons by incest? Remember who they were? Moab
and Ammon? Those were two sons of Sodom
by his daughter, and they became rather large nations. And here
they are 1,000 years later, and it's the descendants of these
two children that are idolaters. They commit abomination in the
eyes of the Lord. And here's this man Solomon.
And he goes to this hill, they call it there in verse 7, the
hill that is before Jerusalem, and he builds them these beautiful
high places for them to come there and worship their false
god. That's sad, isn't it? That's
so sad. If you probably don't, if you've
not read references on this hill that is before Jerusalem, and
you don't know anything about the history of it, you probably
don't know, but look at this, what hill this is. But I bet
when I mentioned it to you, when I mentioned the name of this
hill, you'd probably know it. You know what this hill is? If
you went out of the temple on the east side of Jerusalem, and
you went down through the valley of Kedron, and you went up the
hill, you know what that hill was? Mount Olives. Mount Olives. Our Lord Jesus spent a lot of
time here on this very mountain. This is such a blessing when
I read this and thought of this, because you remember our Lord
teaching, especially the last days on this earth. He went into
the temple there at Jerusalem, and He talked. And of the night
when He finished teaching, He went out of Jerusalem, out the
East Gate, and went down through this valley at Kidron, and up
on top of this mountain, Mount Olives. Remember what He did
there? He spent all night in prayer.
On Mount Olive's sacred brow, Jesus spent the night in prayer.
Mount Olive's sacred brow was a place of idolatry. It was a
place where Solomon had built these high places for them to
worship their idols. Not when Christ is there is nothing.
That's what He does, isn't it? He comes to us where sin has
began and reigned. Abominations and idolatry. And He comes to us and what does
He do? He turns it into a place of worship.
A place of devotion. It was on the night that our
Lord was there in the upper room with His disciples, His apostles.
And He gave them the bread and said, this is my body. And He
gave them the wine and said, drink all of it. And they sang
a hymn. And remember where they went to? They went out and went
up to Mount Olive. That's where they went to. And
there in Mount Olive was a garden. the Garden of Gethsemane. And
the Lord won a stone's throw from those disciples. And He
bowed down there and sweat, as it were, great drops of blood.
And He says, Father, not My will, but Thy will be done. And when
our Lord raised from the dead, remember where He ascended? He
reached His hands out to bless His disciples and He ascended
up to heaven. That was on Mount Olive. So here
this place is. Here's where this sin, this incest
started, and a thousand years later, here's Solomon, a child
of God, building these idolatrous high places for them to worship.
But here comes the Son of God, and He cleanses the place. Isn't
He a wonderful Savior? Ain't He done that to some of
you? Took even your sin and your darkness and your idolatry, and
He's put a devotion in your heart, a reverence in your heart, a
prayer in your heart, worship. Our Lord Jesus Christ. He turns
a place of idolatry into a place of worship. But you know it's
amazing, and I guess if you and I had the understanding, I imagine
every scripture in the Old Testament is just a road to Christ. If
you followed it far enough, Tommy, you're going to find Christ in
it, aren't you? Because they all lead to Him. I remember Brother
Henry, I think it was, telling about this young preacher. He
got up and preached the message from the Old Testament. He sat
down and one of the older preachers said, you didn't preach Christ. He didn't preach Christ. He said
the text didn't mention it. He said you need to study it
some more. You need to go back and look at it again. All of
these scriptures. He testified and He preached
to His disciples on the road to Emmaus. In all the Scriptures,
the thanks concern Himself. Okay, look back over in our text
this morning. Here's what I want to say, and
we have to deal with it. This is sad. It's so sad that
we look at these things as we come to them. But there's three
categories of people here in Solomon. That's the first thing
I want to look at. Look at the people. And I want
to put them in three different categories. And the first category
is this. And our Lord Jesus mentioned
this day. And He mentioned a group of people
that lived in this day. And the first people that I think
about when I think of this place is these people. What kind of
people lived in Sodom and Gomorrah? What kind of people did the Lord
destroy when He destroyed this place? Well, first of all, there
was a whole bunch of just common folks there. If you walk through
some of those neighborhoods, you'd say, well, I feel right
at home here. These people are just like me. The Lord said they
were that way. They ate, they drank, they married,
they gave in marriage, they worked, they built it, they planted.
They were just common people just like you and I. We felt
right at home. You know, sometimes when we think
of Sodom and Gomorrah, all we think about is abominations,
don't we? But there were some common, everyday
people lived there in Sodom and Gomorrah. And the second thing
is this, and I want you to turn to this when you look over in
Ezekiel chapter 16. Look in Ezekiel chapter 16, and
look in verse 49. This tells us something else
about the kind of people that were there in Sodom. Look in
verse 49, Ezekiel chapter 16. Here's another group of people.
We can put these in this category. In Ezekiel chapter 16 and verse
49, Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom. What was
the sin of Sodom? Pride, pride, inordinate self-esteem,
thinking too highly of oneself, exalting oneself over others,
elite, aloft, everyone that is Proud in heart is abomination
to the Lord. Pride goeth before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before thought. Proud people live there. And
secondly, look at this. Fullness of bread. They had more
than they could ever eat. These plain of Jordan. The reason
that Lot loved them so well. They're so rich and well watered.
Boy, the vegetables, the fruits that these plains produced was
amazing. They had more than they could
eat. All kinds of food that they could eat. Access of food. And
look what else about them. An abundance of idleness was
in her. All kinds of free time. And they
become lazy. They become slothful. And they
yielded to this temptation. I'm just going to sit down and
do nothing. What are you going to do today? I'm just going to
sit in my recliner. All day? All day. What are you going to
do tomorrow? I'm going to sit in my recliner. All day long.
What are you going to do the day after tomorrow? I'm going
to sit in my... What are you doing in your life? I just lay
around and do nothing. That's what they did. That's
what they did. Lethargic. Lazy. and did not
redeem the tithe. And look what else. Here's something
else. Verse 49, look at this. And in her and in her daughters,
neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. They lived to themselves. Their
life was all about them. What I want, what I'm doing.
You know there's a hungry fellow over there. I know that. You've got plenty of food, abundance
of food, but you won't give it to him. You've got time to take
it to him, time to have it, but you won't do it. If a man sees
his brother have need and shut up his bowels of compassion,
how dwells the love of God in him? These people were living
to themselves. Have you ever seen a time in
your day that so many people are living to themselves? You
know why our generation is so miserable? It's all about me.
It's all about me. And if things don't go to please
me, then I'm angry and I'm upset. Idleness, pride, abundance of
food, and no compassion, thinking about oneself. And look in verse
50. And they were haughty. They were
haughty. This seems to me, when I see
this Word, it seems to be the effects of pride. What happens
to pride when it's unchecked? It leads to a haughty attitude.
You can see it in a person's actions, in a person's attitude.
One of the things that scares me about pride, and boy, I bet
every one of us this morning just alike, we all have trouble
with it, don't we? I tell you, feel it, Tommy, bubbling in your
heart. It's there. I often tell people,
two of my greatest sins that I seemingly cannot rid myself
of is pride and unbelief. And one of the things that scares
me about it, I know what happens if it gets out. And everybody
will see it. A haughty, haughty attitude. They were haughty, and look at
this. This shows you that it's the effect of pride. And they
committed abomination before the Lord. See what it is? A proud
heart, and it manifests itself in a haughty attitude, and then
when people get haughty, They commit abomination, outward and
open and profane sin. Somebody said this, to sin is
bad enough, but to sin with arrogance is worse. To commit an open and
profane sin is bad, but to do it and not be embarrassed about
it is worse. And that was the sin of Solomon. They could sin and not be embarrassed
about it. Listen to Isaiah chapter 3 verse
9. The show of their countenance doeth witness against them, and
they declare their sin as Sodom. How did Sodom declare their sins?
Openly. They didn't care who saw them.
They flaunted it. They were proud of it. They committed
it openly, and they were happy about it. They weren't embarrassed
about it. Listen to this. Were they ashamed when they committed
abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed,
neither could they blush. Therefore shall they fall among
them that fall, and in the time of their visitation they shall
be cast down, saith the Lord. So there we have their sins.
And this sin, this last sin here, that they committed with a haughty
attitude, That's what we often hear today as homosexuals, sodomy. And in Romans chapter 1, we're
told of their sin, and here's what he says over there. God
gave them up to vile affection, for even the women changed the
natural use unto that which is contrary or against nature, likewise
also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their
lust one to another, men with men working that which is unseemly."
Shameful. Shameful. Shameful acts of what
the Bible calls, from here on out, sodomy. The sodomy act. God never made one homosexual.
Do you know that? He's never made one. God made
me. No, God didn't make you this way. But I tell you what God
does. He gives a lot of men up to that abomination. And it always
starts with sinning against the law, doesn't it? When they knew
God, they glorified Him not as God. Neither were they thankful.
But became vain in their imagination, their foolish hearts was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. And when God
begins to give men up to that, I'm telling you, it's not a pretty
thing. We've got this generation trying our best to tell us that
there's nothing wrong with the sin of homosexuality. And they're
trying to tell us that they're such kind and tender people.
Well, look in Lot's day. Look in Lot's day. They came
here and was ready to drag these two men out and rape them. And
when Lot tried to stop them, they said, we're going to deal
worse with you. And they were going to whip him. They were
going to break the door down. And look here, look here what
this is. It's just lust out of control,
that's all it is. And when the angel slowed them
with blindness, what did they do? Did that stop them? Did they
say, we better get out of here? They wearied themselves to find
the door, still trying to get in the house. God gave them up
to vile affections, and we see that there. When this vile act is committed
by one who's no longer ashamed of it, then that's a good sign
of reprobation. To commit a secret sin like this
and to be ashamed of it and hide it and to keep it in the closet,
that's bad enough. But boy, when they declare it,
open and brag about it, that's an awful sign of reprobation.
That's the sin. That was the sin of Sodom. It wasn't just the abomination
of homosexuality, men with men and women with women, but it
was pride and foolishness of bread and all this time that
they wasted. That's the first thing I want
to look at. Here's the second thing I want to look at. Three
things I want to look at in this chapter. I want to look at this
for a few minutes. Let's look at Lot. this child
of God that was down in Sodom. And you know, if it wasn't for
the New Testament, you and I may think, well, I don't think he
was a child of God. But you know he was. He was a
child of God. The Scripture calls him a righteous
man. And you know how he was righteous?
He's righteous, Tommy, the same way Abraham was righteous. He
didn't have a righteousness that he had worked out. Abraham believed
God. Lot did too. And the Lord had
righteousness given to him just like Abraham did. He believed
in the Lord Jesus Christ, he believed in the Son of God, and
he was justified by faith in the Son of God. He had the Spirit
of Christ in his heart. He was a child of God. The Scripture
says this about him also, and you see he had a good heart.
Listen to this. This righteous man, in dwelling
among them, vexed his soul. Vexed his soul. Every day, the Holy Spirit said,
day by day, He vexed his soul with their unlawful deeds. Now,
if you are around evil and sin long enough, we sort of get hardened
to it, don't we? You go on a new job or you have
to spend a day with fishing among a bunch of guys you don't know
and boy, they are using some bad language. And boy, you cringe
every time you hear it. But if you spend a month or so
around them, You sort of get used to it, don't you? You know,
Lot never did. He never did. He vexed his righteous soul from
day to day. He was a good man. He was a righteous
man, a child of God. But this man had become so vexed
and so entrapped and snared that he did not and he would not flee
out of this city. And here's one of the most amazing
statements that's found in chapter 19 and verse 16. Look at this. This is one of the most amazing
statements. And while he lingered, he paused, he hesitated, he questioned. Now, if you read the context
again there, and you see what these angels were saying, get
out of this place. The Lord sent us to destroy this
place. We're going to destroy this place. And you can hear
the urgency in their voice. Don't hesitate! Get out of here!
Flee!" And the look on their countenance, everything showed,
boy, this is a serious time. The Lord's about to destroy this
place. Get out of here now! Save yourselves from this place!
And what did He do? He lingered. He lingered. That's one of the most amazing
statements I think that I've read. that when a man knew that
a place was about to be destroyed, and yet he lingered. He would not leave. He would
not leave. And you can see the correlation
between this decision that he had made earlier and his now
lingering. You remember the decision. We
looked at it all the way back in chapter 13 when we were studying
there, when Abraham and Lot had the division, the herdsmen had
the division among them. And Abraham come to Lot and he
said, Lot, you know, we can't have this division. We're brother.
We're brother. And what you do, I want you to
look to the north, south, and east, and west, and you choose
out which direction you want to go. If you go to the right
hand, I'll go to the left. You go north, I'll go south.
And Lot looked at those well-watered plains. Remember that? He looked
at those well-watered plains. Nothing was said about him praying
about that. Nothing was said about he sought
the Lord earnestly. You know what? If he had sought
the Lord earnestly, he had never pitched his tent to where he
did, because he pitched his tent toward Sodom. And the second
thing about that was he made a decision by sight and not by
faith. When he saw the well-watered
plain, he said, that's what I want. And he never asked this question,
how will this affect me and how will this affect my family? You
think he asked that? And I just about bet you, to
the breaking of his heart, when he was up there in that cave
with his daughters, and everything that took place there, I just
wonder if he didn't look back at that place and he put his
finger right on the time when he made this choice, he made
this decision. He looked and saw those well-watered
plains. I just wonder if he did. I've done bad, haven't you? I
was talking with a young man this week, and man, he's in trouble.
A young man in trouble. And he came to me and he said,
you know, you told me something one time and I never forgot it.
He said, you told me, be careful the choices you make. You're
young, you're a teenager, but be careful of the choices you
make. Be careful of the decision right now because it will affect
you the rest of your life. And he said, I'm in trouble.
And I remember what you told me. He said, I wish I'd have
listened to what you told me. I was talking with a lady just
this past weekend. And young woman, fine lady. I think she knows the Lord. But
she said she was moving. She had a job. And she was moving
from where she lived. And she was moving a few hours
away. But the gospel is not preached
there. The gospel is not preached there. And her pastors talked
to her about it. And she doesn't have to move. She's got a good job now. But
she just wants a better job, she said. She wants a different
job. And I really think she knows
the Lord. But you just watch. You just watch. There's coming
a time, it may be six months, it may be a year, it may be six
years, when her soul is burdened, not having a gospel preacher
to sit under, not having the Lord's people to fellowship with,
and her soul will become grieved and trouble will come, and she
will probably do just like Lot did. She'll take her finger and
she'll put it right back there on that time. There is where
I went wrong. There is the decision that I
made. When Locke looked out over that
well water plain, could he have ever dreamed that that one decision
he made would wind him up in a cave, living in incest with
his two daughters, drunk? He'd have been horrified to think
that, wouldn't he? But that's the consequences of some of the
choices that can be made in this life. Somebody said, well, a
true believer does not have to worry. He does not have to fear. He will never perish. Boy, I
am thankful for that, aren't you? I believe that. You and
I believe that. I give unto them eternal life
and they shall never perish. That is so. We rejoice in that. But I tell you this, brothers
and sisters, the Lord is a beacon to us, isn't He? He is a flashing
red light to say this, a child of God may never perish and He
shall not. But boy, he may come to spiritual
poverty. He may expose his loved ones
to all kinds of danger. He may lose his testimony, and
at last his soul be filled with alarm and anxiety and regret
over that decision. That decision. That's sad, too,
ain't it? Sort of a sad lesson, but that's
it. That's it. That's for us. Here's
some encouraging things. Thirdly is this. This encourages
me. The Lord may suffer his children
to fall. The steps of a good man are ordered
by the Lord, and though he fall, though he fall. A righteous man
falleth seven times, but he'll never fall away. He'll never
fall away. He shall not utterly be cast
down. Why? Because I'll uphold him. The Lord upholds him with His
right hand. Abraham fell. He lied. He fell. Noah fell. Got drunk. David fell. Peter fell. But not a one of
them fell away. Not a one of them fell away. If you read here again in our
passage, You'll see here the depths in verses 16, verse 22. You'll see the depths of long-suffering
and mercy that our Lord will go to before He'll even think
about losing one of His. He drug Lot out of this place.
Did He not? And what did He say? I cannot
destroy this place. You cannot or you will not. Both. I tell you, there's no depths
that you and I know of. We can't reach the depths of
what the Lord Jesus Christ will go through to save His people. His name shall be called Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sin. And what did
He put Himself through to save His people from their sin? One sheep. I'm talking about
just one of them. Let's reduce it down to one of
them. If a fellow has a hundred sheep and he loses one of them,
will he not leave the ninety and nine there in that safe place
and go after that one until he finds it? We're not talking about
just a number no man can number. We're talking about just one.
Will the Lord lose just one of His sheep? The agony? The shame, the blood of His cross
tells us the depths of what our Master will go through to save
His people. What are these blood drops along
the way that mark out the mountain tracks? They're shed for one
who has gone astray. Just one? Just one. Or the shepherd
can bring him back. The Lord ain't going to lose
one of His people. And what about when He comes
to us? Not only when He redeemed us there at the cross, what about
when He comes to us in our lost state? Dead in trespasses and
sins, and we're stubborn and ignorant when He calls us, aren't
we? I can understand the wrong some
writer when he said, I have long withstood thy grace. I have long
provoked you to your face. Would not hearken to your calls,
grieved you by a thousand falls. But did that stop him? Did that
stop him? He goes after that one sheep
until he finds it. Never gives up. Why? Because
it's his. It's his. Then after he saves
us, after he saves us, we're perfect then, aren't we? Never
grieved him then, do we? He can just turn us loose and
let us go then, for we're so trustworthy. No, we're not. We
just stumble and fall. But what does He do? He makes
intercession for us. He brings us off from the condemnation. I come not to destroy men's lives. I come to save men's lives. He may chasten His people sore,
and He'll do it. He may let them experience the
misery and the bitterness of their backsliding. But I'll tell
you this much, He'll never destroy them. He'll never destroy them. Not a one of them. He cannot. He will not, and He cannot. What
about His Word, if He did? If He just destroyed one, what
about His Word? What about His promises? What
about His decrees? He can't go against these things.
He can't go against His nature. He can't go against His Word.
And He will not. He will not. And I love this
scripture. Somebody mentioned this one when
we were in chapter 18 the other day. when he says here in verse 29,
And it came to pass when God destroyed the cities of the plain,
that God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of
the earth. And if God did that for Abraham
and saved Lot as it were for Abraham's sake, would God not
do that for his son? When his son said, My father,
I will, that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am.
You think the father is going to forget that request? I don't
think he is. The children of Israel have it
said, and grieve the Lord because they said, the Lord has forgotten
me. The Lord has forsaken me and
he has forgotten me. And you know what the Lord said
to them? He said, can a woman forget her suckling child? That she'll not have mercy upon
the son of her womb? Then He said, she may, but I'll
never forget you. Ain't that what He said? I'll
never forget you. And then He made this wonderful
statement. He said, I've graven you upon the palms of My hand. Come here and look. Come here
and look. He told His disciples, put your finger in these nail
prints of My hand. And if you've got eyes to see,
you'll see your name there. You'll see yourself there. I've
graven you on the palms of My hand. And can you imagine if
God lost one of His elect children? When He looked at the wounds
on His Son's hands, He was reminded of that one. Why, His heart would
break to pieces. It ceased to be God. It'll never
happen. It'll never happen. And if we
see nothing else here with Lot, that's what this teaches us.
What extremes, what depths will the Lord go to before He'll allow
one of His children to perish? It'll never happen. It'll never
happen. And lastly is this. Lastly is this. It's found here
in verse 26 of our text, the 19th chapter. In verse 17, the angels, either
the Lord or one of these angels, that said here, and came to pass
when they had brought them forth, they said, escape for your life
and look not behind them. And then here in verse 26, but
his wife looked back from behind him and she became a pillar of
salt. The Lord mentions this in the
17th chapter of Luke. He mentions Lot's wife. And he tells us, remember Lot's
wife. Sodom and Gomorrah, in the Lord's
judgment, they're beacons. Lot's a beacon to us. And now
the Lord says his wife is a beacon to us too. Remember Lot's wife. If you'll study closely the 17th
chapter of Luke, what our Lord was teaching there was the necessity
of being saved. And the urgency of it all, when
we read that sometimes, we get so tied up on what time is that? What period in history is that?
Is that the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70? Or is that in the
last days that you and I live in? We get so tied up on those
things, we forget the message. And what the Lord Jesus was teaching
us in Luke 17 was not only the necessity for being saved, but
the urgency of it. And here's the way he begins.
He says, As it was in the days of Lot, so shall it be in the
days of the Son of Man. What is the days of the Son of
Man? The days of the Son of Man. Well,
that's the day from Calvary right on down to now. Paul Mahan said
it was the year of the Lord. The acceptable year of the Lord.
And he said that simply means the Lord is receiving people.
The acceptable year. The Lord's receiving people.
Today is the day of salvation. Now is the accepted time. Christ
is saving sinners. That's what he's teaching. He's
saving sinners. But then he said in the next verse, the same day
that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained far from the Lord out
of heaven, even thus shall it be when the Son of Man is revealed."
And what he's saying there in these two verses, he said, these
are the days of the Son of Man. I'm saving sinner, but there's
going to come a day. When the Son of Man is revealed
in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God. And
what he's teaching there is the urgency of being saved. And then
he goes on in the very next verse and he says this. He says this. He teaches us and warns us of
not letting stuff, don't let stuff, hinder you from coming
to Christ. Here's what he says. In the very
next verse, he which shall be upon the housetop, let him not
come down to get his stuff out of his house. He that is in the field, let
him not return back. Don't say, don't say, boy, it's
urgent that I should be saved, but I'm up here on top of the
house and I've got to go downstairs and pack my suitcase. The Lord
said, here's how urgent it is. You don't have time. You don't
have time. And then he turns right around
in the very next verse, verse 32, and says, remember Lot's
wife. What happened to Lot's wife?
Well, she was starting to flee out of the city. She was following
Lot and his two daughters. But her heart was back there
in Sodom. What was back there in Sodom? But probably her daughters. Maybe her son. And her stuff. And her stuff. And what did she
do? Our Master said she looked back.
And He knows because He was there. The Lord Jesus was there. The
Son of God was there when she looked back. He said, don't you
look back. And she looked back. And she
turned to a pill of salt. And here she set forth an example. How urgent is it? How urgent
is it that we be saved? How urgent is it that we close
with Jesus Christ? We don't even have time to go
pack our stuff. Flee! Flee! Remember Lot's wife. That's
what he's teaching. And the Lord says in the very
next verse, listen to this, and he sort of explains all this.
Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose his life. Whosoever shall seek to save
his life. What is our life? What is it? What's he talking about if a
man seeks to save his life? You know what our life is in
the sense that our Master is talking about. It's anything
that keeps us from closing with Jesus Christ. If a man seeks his own life,
and I'm going to save it, he's going to lose it. It may be an open and profane
sin, but it's mine. It's my life. I'm going to hang
on to it. It may be a family member. It
may be a friend. I've married a wife, and she's
my life, and I can't come. I ain't going to lose my life. I bought five yokes of oxen,
and that's my life, and I can't leave them. I bought a piece
of ground, and that's my life. What is our life? Anything that
will keep us from Christ, from closing with Him. And the Lord
says, if you hang on to that, you hang on to that, and that's
where your heart is. And instead of fleeing to me,
you're looking back at that, you're going to lose all. You're
going to lose yourself. You're going to lose that, and
you're going to lose yourself. Then he went on in the very next
verse, and he said, But whosoever shall lose his life for my sake
and the gospel's sake, he'll save his life. What things were gained to me,
those I counted lost for Christ. I counted everything lost for
Him, that I may be found in Him, not having my own righteousness.
I wish we could get this message through to this world, don't
you? I wish we could get it through to some of the people that come
here, some of the lost people that come here. The urgency of
being saved, flee to Christ, remember Lot's wife. Remember
Lot's wife. Well, I hope that was a blessing
to you. Let's pray.