Now, I'm sure that you've heard
of the rule of first mention. The rule of first mention. That is, if you want to know
the meaning of a word, then find out where that word
is first used in the scripture, and go to it, and see what meaning
is attached to it, see how it's used. Find out what it means
in that place. And generally speaking, that'll
be the meaning of that word throughout Scripture. So when you run across
it, you'll know what it means. Now, in the text that we read
a few minutes ago, we find for the first time of Scripture,
the word mercy. It's found in verse 19. And this is Lot who says, Behold,
now thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified
thy mercy, which thou hast shewed unto me in saving my life. Hebrew language means kindness,
or goodness, or good deed. It's very closely related to
the word merciful found in verse 16, about the middle of the verse
that says the Lord being merciful unto him. It's very closely related
to that word. It's a different word, but they're
closely related. that word merciful means compassionate
and pitiful. Now, the mercy of God is often
defined as God not giving us what we deserve. Grace is God
giving us what we do not deserve. Mercy, they say, is God not giving
us what we do deserve. That's a pretty But like when we search any other
word, like grace or mercy or whatever, the circumstances surrounding
its use reveals the true meaning of the word, and it reveals that
mercy, mercy is much, much more than a negative principle. God
not giving us what we deserve. Mercy is a positive determination,
an act of Almighty God. Not just a negative person, but
a positive determination, a positive act of Almighty God. And further in this text, we
learn that mercy is inseparably connected to grace. Did you notice
that in Lot's words, verse 19, Behold, now thy servant hath
found grace on thy side, and thou hast magnified thy mercy?
You see, it's grace first. It's grace first, and then it's
mercy. Grace always precedes mercy. Now, it's true that where you
find what? Where you find redeeming, sovereign
grace of God, you will also find God's mercy. They go together. But grace comes first, and then
mercy. The mercy of God flows from the
grace of God. And there's no saving mercy.
I'm talking about saving mercy. Now, there is such a thing as
common mercy. God's tender mercies are over
all his works, but when we talk about saving mercy, that's not
common, that's particular, it's definite, and it's effectual. And there is no saving mercy
apart from saving grace. They always, always go together. Both grace and mercy comes from
God to the object of grace and mercy, and he comes through,
they both come through the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no saving
grace, there is no saving mercy of God to any person, except
he come to them by, through, and in the Lord Jesus Christ.
That picture a little farther along in this book of Genesis
in Jacob, You remember when he fled from Esau, left his family,
and went out there to Bethel, and he made him a pillow of a
rock, and he went to sleep, and he had that dream, and he saw
that ladder that stood upon the earth and reached to the heaven,
and the angels of God ascending and descending on it. That's
all the blessings of God coming down and going back to God upon
that ladder. That ladder represents Christ.
That's the way the blessings of God come down. That's the
way the petitions of His people go up to Him. It's through Christ. If we ever get to Heaven, it'll
be because we ascended in Christ. For all grace and all mercy is
from God the Father, and it's all through the Lord Jesus Christ.
And Locke is very careful. He's very careful here in verse
19 to set that for him. You notice here, he said, Behold,
thou thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified
thy mercy, which thou hast shown. You see, it's God's grace, and
it's God's mercy. God's grace and God's mercy. Another thing we need to note
about the mercy of God. You know, when men show mercy,
sometimes we hear of someone on trial, and the case goes to
the jury, and the jury will find the person guilty of such a crime,
but they'll recommend mercy. And the judge, when he passes
sentence, sometimes he'll have mercy. He'll have mercy. When men have mercy, it is always
at the expense of justice. without exception. If the person
is guilty, then mercy is at the expense of justice. The punishment is set aside,
and the judge has mercy. But not so in the case of God.
Not so in...mercy is never, never shown at the expense of justice.
Justice is never compromised in order that God might show
mercy. That's why mercy is only to be
found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because in Him, God can honor
His justice and judgment and yet be merciful to people like
you and me. In the Lord Jesus Christ, mercy
and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. They're in total agreement. In
total agreement. And that's what Paul says at
that point in Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3, he says,
being justified freely by His grace through the redemption.
That's in the Lord Jesus Christ, whom God hath set forth to be
a propitiation, an atonement, a mercy seat. That's why Christ
came. Why Christ came, that God's justice
might be upheld, and yet God could be a just God and a savior. And He might show mercy. That
He might show mercy. And one more thing before we
get into this text, I want to point out to you, Lot said, Thou
hast magnified thy mercy. He says to God, you've magnified
your mercy, you've magnified it, you've made it large, you've
made it great. What are we talking about? Well,
in Lot's deliverance, just like the deliverance of every sinner
whom God saves, The largeness and the greatness of God's mercy
in Christ is set forth, and it's magnified. It's magnified to
the praise and the honor and the glory of God's great name. That's God's greater glory, is
it not? That's what he said to Moses
when Moses said, He said, I'll be gracious to
whom I will be gracious, and I'll show mercy on whom I will
show mercy. God has, we benefit from God's
mercy, but God is glorified in showing mercy. Now, for the remainder of our
time this morning, I want us to look at a portion of this
chapter. I'm not going to try to cover
everything here. I want us to be able to see what's
contained here about this thing of mercy and what we can learn
about how the mercy of God is magnified in the deliverance
of Lot out of Sodom. Lot's deliverance out of Sodom
is typical of all who are delivered from the power of sin, Satan. They're delivered from the combination
of the law. eternal wrath and punishment
of God for the gifts seen. And the first thing I want us
to look at is this. I want us to see the experience
of mercy, that it begins with a message. The experience of
mercy begins with a message. In that message, we have mercy
magnified in its decree. Now, the Lord has sent two men,
two angels, to Sodom, sent them to Lot. And he sent them with
a message. They came to Lot and they delivered
a message to Lot. It's in verse 12, the men sent
up to Lot. Have you here any besides? Do you have son-in-law, sons,
daughters? Whatsoever you have in the city,
bring them out of this place. 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." You see, the message they brought
to life essentially consisted of three parts. These angels told Lot, they said,
gather your family, get your family together, get out of this
place. The Lord has judged this place
because of sin, second line. And in his judgment, he's determined
to destroy it, that he sent us to destroy this place. And you see what a dark, dark
background we have here in this message of God's judgment, of
God's wrath against sin. but it's a background upon which
his mercy is going to be displayed. God has judged and God has decreed
that this city is going to be destroyed, and yet he's determined
that he's going to show mercy. Beloved, it's very similar when
God sends a preacher of the gospel The messenger of the gospel,
that messenger begins by setting forth our ruined condition and
the certainty of destruction. That's where we've got to start,
our condition. By one man sin entered into the
world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men
for all have sinned. And God is going to punish sin,
the soul that sinneth it shall surely die. We've already been pronounced
guilty and judgment's already been passed upon us, and our
only hope, the only hope we have of escaping the judgment and
wrath of Almighty God against sin and sinners is the mercy
of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Well, is there a place of escape?
Yes, there is a place of escape, and that place is Christ himself. Lead to Christ. Run to Christ. Set your heart upon Christ. Believe
in him, and you shall escape. For whosoever believeth in the
Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. And that's the only way. because there's none other name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." So mercy is magnified in its
decree. And then the second thing we
learn in this text is this, that the messengers, and I ask you
to note this very carefully, the messengers came to Sodom,
they delivered their message to Lot. They delivered their message
to one person in that whole city. Here we have mercy magnified
in its object. Mercy magnified in its object. God's going to have mercy on
a lot. And somebody might come back
and say, well, I understand that, but Watts was already saved,
wasn't he? That's my point exactly. He was already saved, and God's
going to have mercy on him. Let me ask you something. Were
you saved? When were you saved? I'll tell you when I was saved. before God ever made this world
and floated it in space, and the mind and purpose of Almighty
God when He chose me and entered into covenant with His Son for
me. I saved that. I saved when the Lord Jesus Christ
became incarnate and took upon Himself flesh and blood, and
was made under the law. and rendered obedient to the
law, establishing a righteousness, the very righteousness of God,
every single thing that the law demanded for righteousness, Christ
obeyed and fulfilled. And that taking my sin upon him,
he was made sin for me, and he bore the judgment and wrath of
Almighty God against sin in my room and in my stead, and he
satisfied the justice of God against sin. It pleased and satisfied
the Lord to bring him in my room and in my stand. And he died,
and he was buried, and God being satisfied, He raised him from
the dead. Just like on the day of Atonement
back in old time, when that fifth man took that goat, that scapegoat,
buried all the sins of all Israel, and let it into a land not inhabited,
and released it never to be seen again. And that fifth man came
back. And so Christ, when He put our sin away, He came out
of the grave. Came out of the grave. And then
I'm saved when God called me and revealed Christ to me. Did
a work of grace in my heart. Gave me life. Created a new heart
and new spirit within me. Revealed Christ to me. One day I'm going to be saved.
I'm going to be saved. One day, except the Lord come
first, I'm going to lay this body down. You are too. Body
and soul are going to be separated. And the body is going to return
to the dust in the song of God who gave it. But I'm telling
you, For those of you who know and believe the Lord Jesus Christ
in the appointed time, our Lord is going to raise that body from
the dead, from the grave, and body and soul and spirit are
going to be joined together, and we're going to forever be
with the Lord and conform to His image. Then salvation will
be complete. Is the Lord going to have mercy
on Lot? Yes, he is. Is Lot already saved? Yes, he
is. That's why the Lord is going
to have mercy on him. He can't perish under judgment. He can't
perish under the judgment of God. He's simply been laid on
the substitute. On the substitute. And it wasn't
for any good he'd found in Lot. He got to look pretty hard to
find any good in Lot. In fact, if it wasn't for a New
Testament which very clearly says that Lot was a just man,
we might even have trouble believing that he was sane. But being made an object of grace,
mercy is determined upon him. He can't perish with the wicked.
Because God in grace singled him out and chose him long before. Made him an object of mercy.
object of mercy. He does that to all his people.
All his people he does. He did it to the Apostle Paul. Let me read you a couple of verses
from 1 Timothy, chapter 1. 1 Timothy 1. Verse 12. 1 Timothy 1.12. The Apostle Paul
writes, He said, And I thank Christ Jesus
our Lord, who hath enabled me, for he counted me faithful, putting
me into the ministry, who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor,
and injurious. But I obtained mercy. I obtained mercy. Well, I was all those things
the Lord. But I obtained mercy. Why? because God had determined that
I should be an object of mercy. An object of mercy. How about
you? Then the next thing, back in
our text, the next thing we see is mercy is magnified in its
method. In its method. And the first
thing I want you to notice here is that we have an example of
man left to his own free will. You see, When these angels told
Lot this, told him to gather his family, verse 14, Lot went
out and spake to his sons-in-law, which made his daughters. And
he said, I'm getting you out of this place. The Lord's going
to destroy this city. Well, there they are. Let's see
what they do with their free will now. What did they do? He seemed as
one that mocked them to his sons-in-law. They just made fun of him. You know, this old man's gone
crazy. Talk about God going to destroy this place. And that's what men will do in
our day. You deliver the message of God's wrath against sin. deliver the message of God's
sovereign grace and mercy to them. Like they said of our Lord,
he's got a devil. He's gone mad. Even Lot himself kind of dragged his feet here. The angels pressed the message
home and urged Lot to make haste, and you'd thought that he'd done
just that, that he'd made haste and hurried out of that place,
but he lingered. Look at verse 15, When the morning arose, then
the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take your wife and your
two daughters which are here, lest thou be consumed in the
iniquity of the city. And he's warned, and he's urged, and he lingers. That's just what men do, isn't
it? Just what men by nature do. You know, when I get ready, I'll
do something. But now right now, I've got a
few things I want to do yet before I settle down and walk straight
and narrow. Listen, the message of God's
judgment against sin and the certainty of destruction to come
and a warning to escape is not sufficient of itself to deliver
any person. You can tell people about all
of this. You can tell them of God's wrath against them. You
can tell them of judgment that's already been decreed. It won't cause them to move. It may scare them, He was scared
a lot. It may cause him to do something. Locke went to warn his sons-in-law
and his daughters. But it didn't cause Locke to
seek safety. He lingered. Judgment is about
to fall. And he lingered. And beloved, listen. A lot left
alone at this point. God left him alone right there.
He perished. He didn't linger there until
judgment fell, until the fire fell. Ah, but bless God, mercy is more
than a declaration of escape possible. It's more than saying, now, listen,
God will if you will. That won't do anybody any good. You see, the problem with that
is, you won't. Just like Lot, you'll linger. Bless God, mercy doesn't depend
on the strength of the flesh. It doesn't depend on man's unaided
will. It's not of him that willeth.
It's not of him that runneth. It's of God that showeth mercy. And therefore, the mercy of God
is an actual deliverance from judgment and wrath. And it's
accomplished by invincible power. Verse 16, Lot lingered. He lingered But the man laid hold upon his
hand, and 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 sent him out of that city." Now, that's mercy. That's more than a negative principle,
isn't it? That's a positive determination
and act. God's going to be merciful to
Lot, and he brought him out of that city, and he set him out
of it. "...took them by the hand, Just like a father or a mother
who sees their house is on fire, grabs their children by the hand
and rushes them to safety. So the Lord our God sent his
messengers and they take Glock and his family by the hand and
they bring them out of their city. That's mercy. That's the method of God's mercy. It doesn't depend on man's will
or man's worth or man's word. It depends on God's power. I'll tell you something else.
Mercy is magnified in its means. In its means. The means whereby
we're made recipients of mercy is faith. Faith. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Faith is evidenced by action. Now listen, verse 17 says, It
came to pass when they brought them forth abroad, that he said,
Escape for your life, and look not behind you, neither stay
thou in all the plain. Escape to the mountain, lest
thou be consumed. He was exhorted to escape for
his life, and so are we. Now, look not behind you, Look
not behind him. Don't hold Sodom in your heart. You see, we've got, we've put our hand to the plan. There ain't no turning back. You can't follow Christ and hold
on to the world. Don't look back. Don't look back. You can't claim to believe in
Christ and yet live in sin and then obedience to Satan. That's
an evidence that you never left Sodom, not in your heart. That's
why I've had that problem. She looked back. What'd she look
back for? Well, she never left Sodom. Her
heart's still in Sodom. I don't know what her heart was
set on particularly. Maybe it was her daughters and her sons-in-law
that she'd left. Maybe she had some grandchildren
there. Maybe she liked that house. A lot better than that tent she
used to live in. Maybe she liked what? City living! I don't know what it was, but
she never left. She never left in her heart.
She looked back. And then the second thing is,
stay not in all the playing. Now, don't want her in the way. We must not rest in self. We
must not rest in the wealth, and that's staying in the playing. Life still has some problems
here. But don't be too worried on life, because we do too. We do too. This is not as bad
as looking back, but it's still bad. What's he talking about
here? Love, not the world. Love, not the world. You know,
John wrote about that, if you want to look at it, just a couple
of verses in 1 John, chapter 2. 1 John, chapter 2, verse 15,
love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not any.
For all that's in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father. that is of the world. And then the third thing that
Lot was told to do was escape to the mountain. Escape to the
mountain. Now, we must not settle down
short of the refuge. Don't stop short of the refuge. Christ is our refuge. He's our
high fortress. He's our hiding place. He's our
shield. We must not stop short of Him.
We must get to Him. Lot's faith was weak. Just quite honestly, in this
instance, Lot is a poor example of faith. If you want a good example of faith,
we're going to look at Abraham. If you want a good example of
mercy, you're going to look at Lot. So Lot's faith was weak.
But it's still faith. It's still faith. Weak faith is still faith. He said in the last part of verse
19, he said, I cannot escape to the mountain unless some eagle
take me and I die. That's just weak faith. Why didn't
he think he could escape to the mountain? Why do you think some
evil was going to overtake him in the mountain and kill him
after God had delivered him from sorrow? He's looking at the flesh and
not at the Lord. He's looking to his own works
and not God's mercy. And he was afraid. What was going
to happen to him? Well, if you go back and read
the first part of this chapter, you find out those two angels
protected him from the men of Sodom. Couldn't they also protect
him in the mountain? Yes, they could. His faith's the problem. But
still, still, the Lord regards faith. His faith may be weak,
but it's still faith. Lot wanted to flee to a city
that was nearby. He says it's a little one. In verse 21, 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. God gave him what he asked for,
allowed him to go to that city of Scutum, to the mountain. Glock's request that he be allowed
to go to that city served for that city to be spared God's
judgment at that time, because God determined not to destroy
it at that particular time. So God's purpose was a caught
mistake. But also, the command eventually was obeyed Because
Lot eventually, you know where he went right shortly? He went
to the mountain. Look at verse 30. Lot went up
out of Zohar and dwelt in the mountain with two dogs. That's
where he was told in the first place. The Lord allowed him to
go to that little city and he went down there. And then fire
and brimstone fell on the cities of the plain and destroyed it.
I don't imagine this city was any different than the others
there. And when Lot saw what God did to them, he thought,
surely he's going to get this one next. I've got to get out
of here now. So he wound up going to the mountain anyway. You know, if the Lord tells us
to do faith, faith, it's believing God. It's believing God. God told Abraham, said, you're
going to have a seed. You're going to have a seed born of
Sarah, and your seed's going to be like the stars in the sky.
You know what that old man did? He believed God, even though
he was almost 100 years old when God told him that. And Sarah
was 90 past the age of marriage. He believed God. He believed God. Oh, listen, beloved, listen. Please understand, I much prefer
strong faith to weak faith, but it's not the strength of our
faith that saves. It's the object of our faith.
It's Christ that saves. And if any person has even weak
faith, they're blessed. They're blessed. I'll give you a couple more quick
points, because I'll just mention them and quit here. God's mercy
is magnified by confession of those who experience it. That's
what Locke's doing here. That verse we read, verse 19,
Behold, now thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and
thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast shown unto me,
and saved in my life. Well, I'm telling you, beloved,
God magnified His mercy. He magnified His mercy when He
saved me. I don't know about you, but when
He saved me, He saved a real sinner. A real sinner. Like Brother Dale
was talking about in the Bible study, are you condemnable? Oh, yes, we are. We are. Will we be condemned? No, sir. No, sir. Because God condemned
His Son in our revenge stand. Now, who's going to lay anything
to the charge of God's command? It's not going to happen. And I'm
telling you, I'm telling you, mercy is magnified by confession.
Wait till you hear what he's saying! God in mercy saved me. Like those verses in Titus 3
that we love to quote, not by works of righteousness which
I've done, but according to his mercy he saved me. by the washing
of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, which He
shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior." And then finally, mercy is magnified,
and it's sure outcome, it's sure outcome. Look at verse
29. It came to pass when God destroyed
the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and he sent Lot out of the midst
of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities into which Lot dwelt. Now listen to me. The objects of mercy are delivered
from eternal womb for Christ's sake. God remembered his son and sent
his adopted sons out of the elder girl. The angels are the weepers. And
they separate the tares and the wheat. Is that not what our Lord
said? And the tares are gathered together
and burned. But the wheat is gathered into
my barn. And he does it for Christ's sake.
He remembers Christ. It's Christ that died. He ain't whose brother is an
evil. Who is evil? The right hand of God. Also make
a better session for us. And if, or when, anything, we
have an advocate, Jesus Christ, the righteous, he is the propitiation,
the mercy, the authority for our sins. God remembers him and delivers
us in mercy. God's mercy has magnified it.
Thou hast magnified thy mercy. He did it all. He did it all. Father, we thank you that you've
purposed from all eternity to be gracious and merciful unto
a people, that in order to do so, you sent
your Son into this world to satisfy every precept and every demand
of the law in their room and in their stand. And Lord, by his doing and dying,
the law is satisfied. Justice can find no fault in
it. The ransom has been paid, and
therefore the prisoner is delivered from going down to the pit. And
Lord, we do confess that it is all of Thy mercy, all of Thy
grace. Our Father, we pray this morning
that this word might go forth in the power of Thy Spirit that
it might be a blessing to those who've already experienced your
mercy. And for me, those here who are
yet to experience it, that you would reveal it unto them. Reveal
Christ to them, and take them by the hand, even as your angels
took Lot and his family by the hand, and lead them out. Lead
them out of that city. Lead them to Christ. Remember
him, and deliver us. his name, Satan, for his glory.
Amen.