Returning to Genesis 18, before
we start, I'm going to read an outstanding article by Pastor Scott Richardson from
time to time. I'll just read some of these
bulletins that I get in the mail. These are just outstanding. He's
coming out of Mark 8, verse 36, and he lost his own soul. is the end of that verse, the
quote. Scott writes, You and I will never fully understand
what it means to lose one's soul until we pass through the valley
of death and wake up in eternity. Then, and not until then, shall
we know the value of the soul. The value of all things will
change greatly in that day. The hour is coming when money,
Banknotes, bonds will be worth no more than waste paper. The
day is coming when our diamonds, silver, gold will be as the dust
in the streets. The day will dawn when houses,
lands will be as worthless as a child's worn out toy. In that
day, the fame, honor, and glory of this world will be worth no
more than faded flowers and withered grass. In that day, a man will
be willing to trade all that he knows and can imagine for
the privilege of hearing one gospel sermon, one hour of prayer,
or one verse of scripture. In that day, a man will be willing
to trade all the world for one grain of faith. He will curse
the day he was born. Oh, in that day of God's wrath,
what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" I thought that
was very well written. Genesis 18, and I'm not going
to read the whole thing, but the story is Abraham is petitioning
on behalf of Lot. The Lord has heard the exceeding
cries of wickedness that's coming out of Sodom and Gomorrah and
He's going to send two angels and they're going to destroy
it. verse 20 of Genesis 18. And the Lord said, because the
cry of Solomon Gamor is great and because their sin is very
grievous, I will go down now and see whether they have done
all together according to the cry of it, which is come unto
me. And if not, I will know. And the men, that was the angels
that were speaking with Abraham in the previous portion of this
chapter, the men turned their faces from thence and went towards
Sodom. But Abraham stood yet before
the Lord. And Abraham drew near and said,
Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Now he's talking
about Lot, who we know in the New Testament calls him righteous.
It's a whole other lesson that Lot did have, he had basically
no testimony. And Don Fortner in an article
or message on this made a comment that whenever we mingle and continue
to mingle with the world, it doesn't get from us, we get from
it. And he said Lot's a perfect example
because all the years that Lot was there, There was nothing. Nobody was converted. Lot, as you remember, he looked
with his eyes and said, I want to take that place, that land.
And then Abraham said, whatever you take, I'll take the other.
And Don's comment was, no matter how hard we try or how strong
we think we are, the more we mingle with the world, we are
in the world, but with the believers not of the world. And we can't
lose our salvation. It's impossible. But I guess
the question is, would we want to live like Lot? Yes, he's righteous. Yes, the Lord saved him by his
grace. But he had no testimony. If you read the story, we won't
read the whole story, but when the homosexuals wanted those
two men, the angels, when they wanted to have their way with
them, Lot said, take my daughters, they're virgins, take them and
do whatever you want with them, but leave these men alone. Now
I'm thinking, is the dad? So the man didn't have much of
a testimony. So that's the story as we're coming upon it. And
Abraham said, will you destroy the righteous with the wicked?
He's sending these two men and they're going to destroy it.
And we know that they did destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. But Abraham's
saying, Verse 24, peradventure there be 50, Abraham says, 50
righteous people within the city. Will you destroy and not spare
the place for 50 righteous that are therein? And in verse 26,
and the Lord said, if I find in Sodom 50 righteous within
the city, I will not spare, then I will spare all the place for
their sakes, the righteous sakes. And in Abraham answered and said
behold now I have taken it upon me to speak unto the Lord which
am but dust and ashes Peradventure there shall lack five of the
fifty Will you destroy the city for the lack of five and he said
if there be found forty and five I will not destroy it and In
verse 29 Abraham said unto him yet again peradventure there
be forty found there He said I will not destroy it for forty
sakes Verse 30, and he said, Abraham said unto the Lord, O
let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak, peradventure there
shall be thirty. He said, I won't destroy it for
thirty. Verse 31, and he said, Behold now, I have taken it upon
me to speak unto the Lord, peradventure there be twenty. Verse 32, if there be ten. And the Lord said, if there's
ten righteous, I won't destroy. Our text is verse 25. Abraham says that be far from
thee he's speaking to the Lord to do after this manner to slay
the righteous with the wicked and That the righteous should
be as the wicked that be far from thee and Abraham says because
Shall not the judge of all the earth that is our Lord God shall
he not? do right Shall he not do right
now If you would look ahead at chapter 19 and verse 15, a continuation,
the Lord sends those two angels in, meets them at the gate of
the city, brings them into His home. The men of that city want to
have their way with these other men. Lots pleading that they
would not do so. The angels finally just pull
Lot in the door because they're about ready to break the door
down. If you read this, the whole chapter, chapter 19, their sins
are so grievous and lusts are so filled with themselves that
they're getting ready to break in the door. The angels pull
Lot back and blind everybody. And so they're groping around.
They can't find the door. And then he says, you, if you have
any family, if you have any family, verse 11, they smote the angels,
so they smote the men that were at the door of the house with
blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves
to find the door. And the men, those two, that were with Lot,
said unto Lot, Hast thou any here besides son-in-laws, or
thy sons, or thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city,
bring them out of this place." Basically, if you've got anybody
that you know, you go tell them that we're going to just wipe
this place out. We're going to kill everybody, if you know anybody. And of course, you read this,
you're thinking, I'm going to go tell my mom, I'm going to
go tell my dad, I'm going to go tell my brother-in-law, I'm
going to tell people. Another sad story of Lot's life. For we will destroy, verse 13,
this place, because the cry of them is wax and grape before
the face of the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.
Lot went out, and he spake to his sons-in-laws, which married
his daughters, and he said, Get up out of this place, for the
Lord will destroy this city. But because he didn't have any
testament, now obviously people don't believe the gospel anyway.
But here he is living amongst all this degradation. And it said, they said, but he
seemed as one that mocked unto his son-in-laws. So you could take it as, yes,
they don't believe the gospel and et cetera, et cetera. But
you can also take it that lot had a horrible testimony because,
you know, he looked like more like the world than he probably
did. Believer and so he says get out the Lord's gonna destroy
his place. Yeah, right Verse 13 and when the morning arose
then the angels hastened lot saying arise take thy wife that
two daughters Which are here lest I'll be consumed in the
iniquity of the city Verse 16 and while he lingered lot What
are you lingering for me? He lingered the man laid hold
on his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand
of the two daughters, and the Lord being merciful unto him,
and they brought him forth and sent him without the city." That's
as far as we're going to go right now. We see the sparing of Lot's life
in this situation here. And not only is this deliverance
of lot a solid picture of how God freely and fully redeems
sinners, because in verse 16, as he lingered, God had to take
those men took hold of his hand and they got him out. And you
and I have absolutely no power. We linger. sin, the pleasures
of sin for a season. We linger here, we linger there,
we linger all these things, and God has to lay hold of us. So we could preach free, sovereign
mercy from this lesson and from this text right here, very easily. But I want us to look at something
else that I hope will comfort you and just knock your socks
off. Because I told Melinda there's
just so much here that I don't know, I hope it comes together
well because I was so excited once and I was listening to a
message the other day and I couldn't, I had all this information, didn't
know which direction to go and I was listening to the message.
I told Bruce, I was listening to the message and one preacher
just made a comment about Lot, and then he went on to preach
something else, and as soon as he did, I'm like, I know exactly where I'm
gonna go. This shows, in Lot's deliverance, what I want to bring
forth this evening, is that God does all that he does in this
earth for his people. For his people. God has no concern,
okay, and I've thought about this long and hard, and we're
gonna look at other scriptures, Everything that God does in this earth,
this situation here, He does on purpose only for His elect. God has no concern for the reprobate. There's no concern for the reprobate.
We know from the Scriptures, I believe it's Ezekiel, that
God does not delight in the destruction of the wicked. He doesn't take
pleasure in the destruction of the wicked. They get, as if God
does not do anything for us, we get what we deserve. But He
does not delight in the destruction of the wicked. Yet God's mercy
and His grace and His concern is only for His sheep. And I've read articles of people
talking about God's general benevolence, His general mercy. It's not in
here. It's not in there, Bruce. Not
mercy. Mercy is very particular. You
say His goodness is over His creation. The reason why His
goodness is over His creation is because His elect are in the
creation. And somebody says, well, the New Testament says,
and we're not going to go there, it says God sends the rain on
the just and the unjust. Well, He sends the rain for the
unjust because the just are here. You can talk about general mercy
or general benevolence all you want to, but the scriptures is
very plain that all that God does, he does for his people.
He will not destroy the city because there was one righteous
there. And you can talk about the rain
on the just and the unjust. Just talk to Noah. It rained
on the just and it rained on the unjust. An old preacher, excuse me, an
old believer years and years ago is no longer with us. An
old believer once told me, and I thought about it, and I thought,
you know how you hear stuff and you just sit it on the shelf
and say, well, it was probably 20-something, way over 20-something
years ago, and it has borne out to be true. An old believer once
told me that God often supplies the needs of His sheep by the
hands of the goats. You want to know why you're working
where you're working and it's not shut down? Because you need to feed your
family, you need to... And I know you've heard me say
this before, everybody has, but I love to tell the story about
Betty, Betty Seaball. As long as I knew Betty when
she was working, every year, The shoe factory, if it wasn't
the last floor-shim shoe factory in the country, it was real close.
And as long as we knew her, every year it was going to close. It
was in the paper. Are they going to close this
year? Are they going to close next year? Every year. And this
went on for 10, 15 years. And when Betty retired, it shut
down. Betty goes, well, I go, the Lord
kept that open because He will not destroy the righteous with
the wicked." Now, we're going to look at some scriptures and
see this passage, this, "...shall not the judge of all the earth
do right? This then is right." It's right
because God does it Himself, and it's right by declaration
of the sure word of grace. He says here, "...shall not the
judge of the earth do right?" When God does it, it has to be
right. And secondly, because it's in this book for you and
I, for His people, it's got to be right, because this is the
sure word of prophecy. So we're going to look at some
scriptures, about three or four, and there's a whole bunch more,
but I just thought I would pick these. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 3. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. And again,
this is my opinion, that's one thing, but let's see if we can
back this up with scripture. that what He does that shall
not the judge of the earth do right, and it's right for Him
to do with us as He will, but He does all things for His people.
He does all things for His people. It doesn't mean that we're not
going to have difficult times, we're not going to have struggles,
we're not going to get cancer like other unbelievers. That
doesn't mean any of that. But all that He does, He does for
His glory and for His people. That's who He's concerned with.
And this illustration, this chapter in Genesis shows that beyond
a shadow of a doubt. God was not going to destroy
that city because Righteous there was a righteous person there
1st Corinthians chapter 3 look with me at verse 20 starting
verse 20 and again the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise That
they are vain Therefore let no man glory in men for all things
are yours He's talking to the believers at Corinth and therefore
to you and I All believers, for all things are yours, whether
Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death,
or things present, or things to come, all are yours, and you
are Christ, and Christ is God's. All things are yours. Whether it's Paul, your boss,
whether it's the preacher, whether it's Apollos or Cephas, or the
world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to
come, all are yours. All are yours,
good, bad, hard, easy, food, raiment, salvation, protection,
all the uphill battles that we're ever going to face, all the downhill
tranquility. All are yours. Turn to Romans chapter 8. We
know this one. Turn back. And verse 28. And we know, and
we have to be reminded, we have to be reminded that, shall not
the judge of the earth do right? And it's right that he does all
he does for his people. And we know that all things,
all things. That situation that happened
the other day, I was sitting there with the pickup truck.
The guy follows us outside. It was over. It was over. We're not going to buy it. You're
not going to play the game, so we're not going to buy it. So
he's walking out after us. And in the day, as I thought
about it, I thought, I wasted two hours of my time. I said,
this is what I can do. You can and you can't. And I
thought, well, he just wasted, so if he calls, I'm not going
to be around the bush, this is it or not. And I thought, wait
a minute, I'm going to preach tonight. Whatever that experience
was, hard, easy, long, boring, frustrating, all things work
together for good. To everybody? Never has. Never has. People say, oh, that was for
good. Yeah, but if the person you're talking to is a believer...
No. All things work together for
good to them that love God, incidentally to them who are the called according
to His purpose. All things. Define all things
if you want to. I don't know what... I mean,
define it. It is what it is. It's all things.
It's all things. And you struggle with this and
I struggle with this. But the beauty of it is, is step back
and just thank the Lord that whatever, you know, He's doing
it to protect and to help and to grow us in grace. And He's
the judge of the earth and He's doing right. But He's doing it
as our Heavenly Father. When you attach this to His long-suffering
and His care for you and me, that know Him, everything is
working together for good. And it doesn't mean that we bypass
the difficulties, the trials, the sicknesses, or the deaths,
or the cancers, or the illnesses. But in it and through it, all
things are for you. All things are for you. Any definition has at its core,
its base, its foundation, good. the good of the elect, and the
glory of His name. And that's all according to His
purpose, is what we're told here in Romans 8.28. Turn to 2 Peter
3. 2 Peter 3, a verse that a lot
of the free willers and Armenians like to take and stretch it and
twist it and everything, but look at how comforting this passage
is. 2 Peter 3 and verse 9. 2nd Peter chapter 3 verse 9,
but are the Lord is not slack concerning his promise if he's
promised something He's not he's gonna fulfill it as some men
count slackness But our Lord is not our Lord is long-suffering
to us word not Willing that any should perish but that all should
come to repentance It's long-suffering and he's for you. I Well, people
say, well, see, that means, see, he's everybody's nobody's going
to perish. He's not willing that any should
perish. He's long suffering to us for who's us for it. OK, well,
let's keep it in context. Turn back a page to the first
verse of the of the chapter. Simon, Peter, a servant and apostle
of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained like precious faith
with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior, Jesus
Christ. He's not talking to unbelievers. because God's not for them, He's
against them. He says, The Lord is not slack
concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering
to usward. All things are for you. You think
about how many times you sinned or you complained or you got
your eyes off Christ today, like me, and we should be annihilated
just like that. We should be as Sodom and Gomorrah,
but He's longsuffering. And He's not willing that any
should perish, just like Lot. He's not going to perish with
the wicked. But that all should come to repentance. All should
come to repentance. Long-suffering in grace. He's
long-suffering in providence, in procedural purpose to us. And by the way, none shall perish.
No sheep shall perish. We have His Word. Fourthly, turn to Matthew chapter
13. Matthew chapter 13. This to me
illustrates very clearly, like this passage in Genesis, that
everything that God does, He does for His people, and He does
on purpose. Matthew chapter 13. You're familiar with this parable
of the tares and the wheat. Matthew chapter 13, and starting
in verse 24, Another parable put Christ forth
to them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a man which
sows good seed in his field, but while men slept, his enemy
came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But
when the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, then
appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder
came and said unto him, Sir, did not thou sow good seed in
thy field from whence comes then hath it tares? And he said unto
them, An enemy has done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt
thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay, lest
while you gather up the tares, you root up also the wheat with
them." What's the concern? The concern is you don't touch
them because you might hurt the wheat. He'd care less about the
tares. Let them both grow together until
the harvest and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers
gather you together the first of tares bind them up and burn
them But gather the wheat and put it in the barn and if you
we want an explanation for this parable we jump down To verse
36 and then Jesus sent the multitude away He went into the house and
his disciples came and said declare unto us The parable of the tares
in the field and he answered and said unto them he that sows
the good seed is the son of man The field is the world The good
seed are the children of the kingdom, but the tears are the
children of the wicked one That's it's two religions Cain and Abel
grace and works It's always been that way By his own interpretation
Who's he concerned with the tears You leave everything alone. You
just keep preaching the gospel. You just keep feeding. You just
keep working and whatever, cultivating. God's people will hear. They'll
confess. They'll desire to follow the
Lord in baptism and follow with believers. They'll desire to
grow. They'll desire to be like their Lord. But his concern is,
don't get in there lest you root them up. Who? Who's he concerned
with? The wheat. That's who he's concerned
with. And look at verse 38. The field is the world, the good
seed are the children of the kingdom, but the tares are the
children of the wicked one. The tares and the wheat. Whether it's one righteous. How
long is the gospel going to be here? I don't know. When's this world
going to end? When that last elect is called
home. Then it's over. Then it's over. All that goes on in this garden
bed that we call the world is for the help, the care, and the
growth and grace of His people, which are here called wheat. Turn to Matthew 24. Matthew 24. And look with me at verse 22. If you don't think the Lord is... He's concerned about His people.
And when I was driving around, and I knew where I was going
to go, and boy, I'll tell you, work was... It was easy today. Man, it was easy. I couldn't
wait to get home and finish the outlining and everything, but
I had it all up here. It was just I wanted to get done. And
in every bump that I had, it was a couple of phone calls,
a couple of frustrating things happened, but I realized that He was doing
what He was doing for me. And He's doing what He's doing
for you. Now, if that doesn't, I mean,
that's like a hedge around you. And I forgot, I was going to
bring a passage, and Linda and I were talking about this last night,
and she said, what did God say about Job? He had a hedge about
him. Satan goes, I can't touch him. And he says, alright, well,
I'll just let you do this and let you do that, but you can't
take his life. What about Job's friends? What about all these
others? He said, no, you have a hedge
about, not the whole world, not the whole, Job's, the whole generation
of people, the multitude of people in the time of Job. He gives his angels charge and
leave over his people. You know, I know what the world
says about guardian angels. But you know what? It's like
I told everybody Sunday, don't let what the world says about
this book that's perverted and wrong and rested to their destruction,
don't let that rob you of the joy. John 3.16, I get so sick
of people misunderstanding it and telling that lie. Well, John
3.16, God loves everybody. But I'm not going to let them
rob me of the beauty of John 3.16, you know what I'm saying?
And the guardian angels, I know what people say about them, but
he's got them for his people. He's got them for his people.
Matthew 24, look at verse 22. And except those days should
be shortened, there should no flesh... He's talking about the
destruction of all things. Verse 21, for then shall be great
tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world to
this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should
be shortened, there should no flesh be saved, but for the elect's
sake, those days shall be shortened. Hmm? He does everything for His
elect. Now, turn to Isaiah 43, and we'll
close. If this, and I know you better
than this, and I know how sinful you are and how sinful I am,
but understanding this truth will not lead you to pride. Just like understanding the Gospel,
it will lead you to fall on your face and cry and laugh with joy
and sorrow, mixed emotions, because you know and I know that none
of us are worthy of His redemption. None of us are worthy to even
understand this scriptural teaching. But in Christ, all things are
yours, all things are His people. If we're haughty about it, we
don't understand the Gospel, we don't understand this book.
We don't use the doctrine as a battering ram to beat people
over the head. Tell them what you know about
who you know. Look at Isaiah 43. If this doesn't
say the same thing that we've been talking about this whole
lesson, Isaiah 43 we got to start in verse 1. We'll just go verse
1 through 7 But now thus saith the Lord that created thee o
Jacob and he that formed thee o Israel. He's talking to his
elect Fear not for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy
name thou art mine When you pass through the waters, I'll be with
you. I And through the rivers, they'll
not overflow you. When you walk through the fire,
thou shall not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. Why? For I am the Lord thy God. Not everybody's God, the sheep.
The Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. And I look at these next couple
of verses. I gave Egypt for your ransom. Ethiopia and Seba for
thee the Lord's got to take out some people to make room for
you in employment You get food to get raiment to get a position
He's gonna do it he's gonna do it Verse 4, Since thou was precious
in my sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee, therefore
will I give men for thee, and people for thy life. Now, I'm
not going to expound on that. I don't have to, isn't it? Is
that plain? It's just a bare-naked Word of God. It is what it is. He says, I gave men for thee,
and people for thy life. Fear not, for I am with thee.
I will bring thy seed from the east and gather thee from the
west. I will say to the north, give up, and to the south, give
not back. Bring my sons from far and my
daughters from the ends of the earth, even every one that is
called by my name. For I have created him for my
glory. I have formed him. Yea, I have
made him. He will not destroy the righteous
with the wicked because we're His personal, redemptive possession. To do so would be to call into
question His very character and His very nature. It's not going
to happen. So I tell you and I encourage
myself and encourage you to rest Rest, you weary people of God,
upon the soft and tender shoulder of Him who loves you and will
keep you evermore." Amen and Amen. Matt, would you close us
please?