God's saints are often vilified
by wicked men. The ungodly of this world who
do not know our God, His Christ, or the gospel of His grace, try
to appease their own consciences by trying to convince themselves
and to convince others that God's people are really just wicked
hypocrites. that kind of slander, hard as
it is to endure, is expected from wicked men. But sometimes
God's people are vilified by one another, as terribly vilified
as they are by the ungodly. How horrible as that is, it does
happen. May God forgive us of that evil
and keep us from participating in it. We need grace constantly
to bridle our tongues, to control our thoughts and our tongues.
Now of all men in history who have been unjustly maligned by
those who ought to have esteemed them, One man stands out in my
mind above all the others. I can think of no one other than
our Lord Jesus Christ, who has been so unjustly and so universally
misrepresented as Abraham's nephew, God's servant and our brother,
whom the Holy Spirit distinctly calls Just Lot. And I want us to look at this
man, Lot, this morning. Turn with me, if you will, first
to Genesis chapter 19. Lot has been constantly repudiated
as an evil man. I have read this week I can't
tell you how many various men speaking about Lot and his character. The men I have read are men who
are faithful to the word of God, faithful to the scriptures. Yet
almost all of them, in fact, all of them, there weren't any
exceptions, all of them, presented Lot as a man who was saved, who
was righteous, But you could tell as they wrote, by the way
they wrote, they weren't real comfortable in saying that. And
if it hadn't been stated in the scriptures that he was a righteous
man, they would never have considered him to be such. Theologians,
commentators, and preachers throughout history have presented Lot in
a very bad way. In fact, the ancient Jewish writers
denounce him as a vile reprobate. And most don't treat him much
better. I have to confess, through ignorance I have myself been
guilty of misrepresenting this man. Today I want us to see what
God the Holy Spirit tells us about this remarkable righteous
man. I chose my words deliberately.
Brother Lott was a remarkable righteous man. He was a remarkable
righteous man. Let's begin in Genesis 19 and
verse 15. May God the Holy Spirit teach
us what he intends us to learn from this man's life. When the
morning arose, then the angels hastened lot, saying, Arise,
take thy 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, 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
set him without the city. Now let's see how God the Holy
Spirit explains this. Turn to 2 Peter 2. 2 Peter 2. What we have in Genesis 13 through
19, where the Lord speaks concerning Lot and him going down to Sodom
and Sodom's destruction, does not tell us the whole story.
We see there the strife between Abraham's herdsmen and Lot's
herdsmen. We see Lot going down to Sodom. We see Lot's visitation
by these three angels from God who have been sent to deliver
him out of the city before destroying the city. Here in 2 Peter 2,
we see God's description of this man to whom the Lord was merciful. Verse 7, God delivered just Lot. Just Lot. That's not written
by accident or mistake, it's written on purpose, because Lot
was a just man. Vexed with the filthy conversation
of the wicked, he was not one of them. For that righteous man,
just in case you missed what I meant when I said just, that
righteous man dwelling among those wicked men, in seeing and
hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful
deeds. The Lord knoweth how to deliver
the godly out of temptation and to reserve the unjust unto the
day of judgment to be punished. We too much looking on the outward
appearance think we know what's inside a man. I said, we, because I am chiefly
guilty. We, too much looking on the outward
appearance, think we know what's inside a man. We don't. If all we had to go on is what
is judged by Lot's outward appearance, even as it is given in the book
of God, we would misjudge the man entirely if we didn't have
the completed story in 2 Peter 2. Here in 2 Peter, the Holy
Spirit identifies this man Lot. as a truly righteous, godly man,
who lived among wicked men, and in their midst, while he lived
among them, vexed his righteous soul, not occasionally, but from
day to day with their ungodly deeds. Now you're all familiar
with the story of Abraham and Lot. You'll remember they parted
company when strife arose between their herdsmen. But do not imagine
they parted company in bitterness. They did not part company as
foes, but rather as friends and brothers. The reason they parted
company was to put an end to the strife not between Lot and
Abraham, but between their herdsmen. Abraham, being a man of magnanimous
character, says to his younger men, his nephew Lot, you choose
the plains of the east. You choose that which is the
best choice part of the land. Look at Genesis chapter 13. Genesis
13, verse 10. Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld
all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere
before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden
of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zohar. Then Lot chose them all the plain
of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east, and they separated themselves
one from the other. Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan,
and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent
toward Sodom. But the men of Sodom were wicked
sinners before the Lord exceedingly." Some 14 years or more later,
when the kings of the plain were taken captive along with the
inhabitants and possessions of Sodom. Lot and his family were
taken captive as well. They lost their possessions.
They lost everything, including liberty, but not for long. Abraham,
who loved Lot. Abraham, who interceded for Lot,
speaking of him in Genesis 18 as a righteous man. You remember how he prayed? He
said, Lord, if there's just one righteous in the city, will you
spare the city? For one righteous man, I'll spare
it. He spoke of him as a righteous
man. Abraham took 300 men and delivered Lot, the kings, and
the people of Sodom from the hands of their enemies. And Lot
continued to dwell in Sodom until the day that God sent his messengers
to destroy that wicked city and all the inhabitants of it and
to deliver Lot and his two daughters from the city. After they were
delivered from the cities of destruction, by the direct intervention
of God Almighty, we are told, the Lord being merciful to them. Why were they brought out? Why
did God bring that man out of that city? Why did God save him? Why did God deliver him when
he destroyed everybody else? The Lord being merciful to him. That's all. It reads much like
what we read in Genesis 6, 8. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. And because Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord, he believed God and was saved by God's grace. The Lord being merciful to Lot,
he believed God and was delivered out of Sodom. After being delivered
from the cities and from the impending judgment of God that
was upon them, Lot was twice enticed by his daughters into
a drunken stupor. They too were delivered, but
only physically. They enticed their father into
a drunken stupor. And both of them became pregnant
by their father in that horrible record of incest. And Lot became
the sire of two cursed nations, Moab and Ammon. And yet, this
is how the Holy Spirit inspires the Apostle Peter to describe
him. Just Lot, that righteous man. Why? What lessons are to be learned
from this man? Why has the Spirit of God caused this man's life
to be written in such broad letters, in such a broad way, to be so
commonly remembered, but remembered not for those things that we
would normally associate with godliness and faith and uprightness,
but rather remembered for evil? And now, why does He describe
him for us as this just and righteous man? Let me show you seven lessons
to be learned from this man's life. Number one, learn this
lesson and learn it well. Brother Lott was a righteous
man. His name means covering and covered
he was. His sin was covered with the
sin atoning blood of Jesus Christ. His naked soul was covered with
the perfect robe of Christ's righteousness. He had taken refuge
under the wings of the Almighty, and he was covered with his feathers
as a hen covers her chickens. Now this is not something we
have to guess about, something we have to surmise for ourselves.
The Holy Spirit tells us plainly that he was a righteous man.
Now obviously he was not naturally righteous any more than anyone
else. Obviously there's nothing written of him in the scriptures
which we would look at and say now there, there's what Lot did
to make himself righteous. Lot was a man who was made righteous. Locke was a man who was made
righteous. Hear me my friends, you must
be made righteous by a work of God Almighty or you will never
be righteous. A profession of religion will
not make you righteous. A repeating of the sinner's prayer,
as they call it, will not make you righteous. Joining the church
will not make you righteous. Making a decision for Jesus will
not make you righteous. You must be made righteous by
a work of God Almighty. Lot was made righteous by the
imputation of Christ's righteousness to him in exactly the same way
that Abraham was made righteous, in exactly the same way you are
made righteous who now believe, and he was made righteous in
exactly the same fullness as Abraham and you who now believe. Turn to Romans chapter 5. Let
me show you what Paul says about being made righteous. We are made righteous by divine
imputation. If you should have a tremendous
load of debt, and someone goes and assumes responsibility for
your debt, and the note is transferred from you to another, Debt is legally, justly imputed
to that man. And now, your record is clean.
And when the debt has been paid, when it has been cancelled, his
payment of the debt is legally, justly imputed to you. It's a
legal term. Look here in Romans chapter 5,
verse 12. Wherefore, Since we're saved by the atoning
blood of Christ, by his righteousness, this is the explanation. As by
one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and
so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned. When Adam
sinned in the garden, he was our representative before God. Like it or not, that's the way
it is. God made him so. And what he did, we did in him
as our representative. And when he died before the law,
he was dead at court, dead at the bar of justice. We died in
him. And we all are born in a state
of death. both spiritual death and dead
at law under the sentence of eternal death until God Almighty
is pleased to do something for us. Look at verse 18. Therefore,
Romans 5.18. Therefore, since that's how we
got in the mess we're in, as by the offense of one, by one
man's transgression, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. Everybody who was represented
by Adam, that doesn't mean all the angels in heaven, they weren't
there. It's talking about all the human race, those for whom
Adam was a representative. Judgment came upon all of us
to condemnation. Even so, by the righteousness
of one, another Adam, another representative man. The free
gift came upon all men, not everybody universally, not everybody in
the human race, but all men represented by that one man in this next
covenant, in the covenant of grace. The free gift came upon
all men under justification of life. Look at verse 19. For as
by one man's disobedience many, quite literally, the many, the
many represented by him were made sinners, so by the obedience
of Christ, the one, shall many, the many, the many represented
by him be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound. That is, the law came to expose
your sin, to aggravate your sin, to aggravate your guilt, to expose
it and make you know it. But where sin abounded, bless
God, grace did much more abound. Now watch this. That as sin hath
reigned unto death, Even so might grace reign, get it now, through
righteousness. Not yours, God's. Not righteousness
you accomplished, righteousness God accomplished. Righteousness
given to sinners through the sacrifice of God's darling Son
on the grounds of justice satisfied. Grace comes to you on the grounds
of this righteousness brought in unto eternal life by Jesus
Christ our Lord. There is no other way for a sinner
to get righteousness before God except by divine imputation.
Our sins were imputed to our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. When he was made to be sin for
us, He stood before God Almighty totally responsible for the debt
he incurred as I shall lift it. And he suffered all the wrath
of God to the full satisfaction of justice. And when he had satisfied
justice by the sacrifice of himself, he cried, it is finished. He
bowed his head. He said, Father, into thy hands
I commend my spirit. He bowed his head and gave up
the ghost as a triumphant sacrifice. And when he died, we were justified. And his righteousness is imputed
to us in exactly the same way as our sin is imputed to him.
So that now, you and I, believing on him, stand before God Almighty. Oh, bless my soul, the Lord God
Almighty. We stand before him. totally
responsible for perfect righteousness and God Almighty on the grounds
of righteousness through his mighty grace will bring us at
last into heaven's glory because we fully deserve it as fully
as our Savior deserved his wrath when he was made to be seen Lot
was made righteous also by the new birth, in regeneration, made
righteous experimentally, when the righteousness of Christ was
imparted to him, when he was made to be a partaker of the
divine nature, when he was made a new creature in Christ. As
a child of God, being taught of God by the grace of God that
bring us salvation, Lot learned by experience to live soberly,
righteously, and godly in Sodom and among the Sodomites. Now
God's saints are by no means perfect. None imagine such a
thing. No believer, no man, no woman
who's ever experienced God's grace will make any pretense
of personal righteousness and sinlessness. Believers know the
evil of their hearts and the evil of their lives and acknowledge
it. Yet in the tenor of their lives,
all believers live in righteousness. Grace makes men gracious. Those
who walk in the Spirit, that is those who live by faith in
Christ, no longer live according to the lust of the flesh. In
the habit of their lives, believers live as godly men and women in
a crooked and perverse generation. Turn to Galatians 5. Brother
Lindsay will be getting to this in a couple of weeks, but I'll
give you a foretaste. Galatians 5, verse 16. Paul is urging the Galatians
to stay free from the bondage of the law. If you walk after
the flesh, you're going to fulfill the lust of the flesh. What's
he talking about? If you live by law, you're going
to fulfill the lust of the flesh. Tell me, you who have experienced
such legal bondage in religious custom, is it not true? If you live by principle of law,
all you will do is fulfill the lust of the flesh. So Paul says
in verse 16, this I say then, walk in the Spirit. What's he
talking about? Walk in the Spirit. Oh, pray
all the time, read your Bible 12 hours out of 24, go to church
5 times a week, double tithe on everything you have, and just
walk close to God. It'll be alright. Walk in the
Spirit. This is what that means. Believe
on the Son of God. Trust Christ. Walk like Enoch
walked with God, trusting his Son. Walk in the Spirit and you
probably won't fulfill the lust of the flesh. Walk in the Spirit
and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Verse 22.
The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace. Not the work of the
spirit. The fruit of the spirit. Not
works you produce by the spirit. The fruit of the spirit. We've
been having blackberries. It's called fruit. We go out
there and pick them. And Shelby fixes blackberry cobblers.
Oh, they're good. Starting to get grapes. It's
called fruit. Fruit. The fruit of the spirit
is love, joy, and peace. Long-suffering, gentleness, goodness. Faith. No, faith is not a work
of the flesh, it's the fruit of the spirit. Neatness, temperance. Against such there is no law,
and they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the
affections and lust. Brother Lott was just such a
man. He walked in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit calls him a just
and righteous man, a godly man. He was a sinner with shamefully
sinful weaknesses, inconsistencies and failures, and he would be
the first to tell you so. But Lot was a righteous man.
Righteous because Jesus Christ was made unto him. Jehovah said,
Kid and you, the Lord our righteousness. Now here's the second lesson.
Lot was a righteous man who lived in a terribly evil society. The Sodomites were indescribably
wicked, perverse people. Their lives were filthy. We're
told that Lot vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their
ungodly deeds. He was vexed with the filthy
conversation, the filthy matter of life of the wicked who lived
around him in Sodom. He lived among filthy men who
openly practiced the most vile filth of homosexuality. I'll
say no more about that because no more needs to be said. Words
cannot be found with which to describe it, at least not words
I want to use in public. It is a perverse, moral, decadent
evil. Folks say, well, people are born
that way. As if that excuses it. You're
born adulterous, too. That doesn't excuse it. You're
born murderous, too. That doesn't excuse it. But the
fact is, homosexuality is not that which men can't avoid. It is a perversity of character
they choose. Because it is the reflection
of divine judgment. It is that which is the result
of God's judgment upon men who worship themselves. It is the
result of free will works religion. Read the first chapter of Romans
and see. But here we see Lot. A truly righteous man. And truly
he is a righteous man. who lives alone in righteousness
among a wicked people. People talk about peer pressure.
Peer pressure. You young people, peer pressure. Ain't nothing on this earth except
the lust of your flesh. That's all. That's all. Oh, but
we want to be accepted. You know, you'll be smart to
find out it's a whole heap better to be accepted of God than to
be accepted of your peers. Peer pressure. Peer pressure.
And nothing on this earth except pride and rebellion. No excuse
for it. None at all. Lot did not know
in all his surroundings, in all his environment, One godly man. Not one. He didn't just work
with them, he lived with them. Ungodly all the time. Filthy
all the time. And all the while, he walked
with God. That's a righteous man. That's
a righteous man. Third lot was a man who endured
great trouble and sorrow all the days of his life. Faith in Christ, righteousness
and godliness do not exempt believers from trouble or sorrow. In the world you shall have tribulation
and much of it comes by your own choices and your own deeds. My dear friend, Brother Harry
Graham, now with the Lord, he used to tell me things I'm beginning
to learn. It's amazing how you start paying attention 35 years
later. I was sitting on his hearth one
night trying to understand some things he's teaching me from
the Scriptures. And he said, now son, let me tell you something. Sometimes the way God deals with
His children is He gives us what we think we want. and makes us
live with it. He was right. God gave Lot what
he thought he wanted and made him live with it. Once he moved to Sodom, he could
not extricate himself from that place, though he grew to despise
it. I'm beginning to learn, I hope
I'm learning, to quit trying to tell folks what they ought
to do. If I tell Lindsey Campbell to
do something and he does it, I'm responsible for the consequences. I hear preachers, especially
young fellows whose ears are still wet, and they'll say, well,
you ought to do this, you ought to do that. Maybe you ought to wait a little
while before you tell somebody that. This ought to wait a little while.
Well, watch out to me! I wasn't living there, he was.
For some reason, he simply could not extricate himself from the
place. There was something holding him in that abominable place
which he couldn't leave until God destroyed the city and brought
him out. Now, I say all that for this.
Be warned, my brothers and sisters. Everything we do, every choice
we make, be it good or bad, has consequences upon us and upon
those we influence, either for good or bad. And I thought about
this a lot last night, earlier this morning. Should I say that exactly that
way? And I'm confident this is exactly the way I need to say
this. Lott made a bad choice early in his adult life for which he suffered until the
day he died. And as a result of his choice,
his wife, his sons-in-law, And his daughters perished under
the wrath of God. Now that's just fact. That's
just fact. Oh, but they weren't elect. They
perished as a result of what Lot did. His influence brought
them down to hell. Now if that doesn't strike your
ears and make you sit up and pay attention, I don't know what
will. His influence brought them down to hell. And yet, here's
the fourth lesson. Lot was a righteous man for whose
sake a wicked and cursed people were temporarily preserved from
destruction and given space for repentance. When the kings of
the plain and the sodomites were carried away into captivity,
they were delivered from their captors because Lot was among
them. You think Abraham would have
gone down there and got those fellas? He wasn't interested in those
fellas. His love was set on Lot. If only they had known who Lot
was and what mercies he enjoyed, they would have fallen down and
thanked him for living among them. But they didn't know. You
see, as long as Lot was there, they were spared. As long as
Lot was there, they had space for repentance. As long as Lot
was there, they weren't in hell. And so it is today. God spares
the world and holds back the flood of His utter wrath from
the ungodly for the sake of His elect. People like to talk about common
grace. There is nothing common about
the grace of God. Folks say, well, common grace
is the Lord sends his rain on the just and the unjust, causes
the sun to rise on the righteous and the wicked. Well, let's try
that the reverse way. When God sends famine and his
people get hungry, is that common wrath? Oh, no. No, no, no. God deals
with the world because His elect are in the world with long-suffering. And what God does in the world,
He does for His elect. The only reason that fellow over
yonder gets any rain on his crops is because God's raining on mine.
The only reason he gets the enjoyment of any sunshine is because God
Almighty is shining His sun on me. You understand that? Lot was the reason the Sodomites
weren't in hell. Lot was the reason they were
providentially protected. Lot was the reason they providentially
enjoyed the goodness of God in creation. God's long suffering,
though many imagine otherwise, is no indication that he will
not judge the wicked. God tolerates the ungodly and
spares them for a season only because he's determined to save
his elect. Now here's the fifth thing. Lot
was a righteous man whose life was absolutely ruled of God for
his everlasting spiritual good. The good of all God's elect. and the glory of God and the
accomplishment of our eternal salvation in Christ Jesus. Turn if you will to the book
of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter 2. I can't spend much time here
but I can't pass this over either. If ever there was a man who lived
upon the earth whose life was a commentary on Psalm 76.10,
its brother Lot. The psalmist said, Surely the
wrath of man shall praise thee. The remainder of wrath wilt thou
restrain. I told you at the beginning of my message that Lot bore two sons by incestuous union
with his daughters and his drunkenness. two sons who were cursed people,
Moabites and Ammonites. Did you ever notice, however,
that though they were a cursed people, the Moabites were under
special divine protection. When Israel was commanded to
destroy others, they were commanded to preserve Moab. Look at Deuteronomy
2, verse 8. when we passed by from my brethren,
the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir, through the way of the
plain from Elath, and from Ezeon-geber, returned and passed by the way
of the wilderness of Moab. And the Lord said to me, distress
not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle, for I will
not give thee their land for a possession, because I have
given our and to the children of Lot for a possession. Now
considering the origin of that nation, the wickedness of the
Moabites, and the destiny to which it was set, why do you
suppose God protected the Moabites? Turn to Matthew chapter 1, I'll
show you. Matthew chapter 1. The book of the generation of
Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Verse 5. And Solomon begat Boaz of Rakeb. And Boaz begat Abed of Ruth. And Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse
begat David the king, and David the king begat Solomon of her
that had been the wife of Uriah. Verse 16. And Jacob begat Joseph,
the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called
to Christ. The very thing which is most
abhorrent in all Lot's abhorrent deeds, was sovereignly overruled by
our God to accomplish His salvation and ours. A preacher explain how that can
be. I'd rather just sit down and worship God who did it, wouldn't
you? You see, had Lot not gone to
Sodom, He would not have been brought to such a low position.
Moab would never have existed. Ruth would never have been born.
Our Lord Jesus Christ would never have come into the world. We
would never have been redeemed and God's purpose of grace would
never have been accomplished. But such ifs can never be. God's purpose is sure. Now, understand the meaning of
these words. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. And to those who would say preaching
such doctrine will cause a man to love licentiousness I say,
when you get an opportunity, you talk to Brother Lott about
that. He understood something of God's
grace to him. And his soul was overwhelmed
by it, for he vexed his righteous soul from day to day with the
ungodliness around him. Now look at verse, the sixth
thing. Lott, this righteous man, was
vexed. Vexed in his righteous soul.
Vexed from day to day with the ungodly deeds of the people among
whom he lived. This word vexed is an unusual
word. This form of it is only used
one of the time in the New Testament. In Acts 7, it's translated oppressed. But that doesn't quite do it.
It has many shades of meaning. It means oppressed, tormented,
distressed, sick, miserable, pained, exhausted, worn out with toil. When I was a boy, my mother used
to say to me, and say with good reason, just about as often as
the sun rose in the mornings, I am sick and tired of you. That's the word. Lot's righteous
soul was sick and tired every day. I think I understand. Lot was vexed with the idolatrous
religion of Sodom. He understood that what he saw
in those men, in their behavior, was the result of the stumps
and rocks and heavenly bodies and animals they worshipped and
called God. Brother Lott was vexed with the
utter immorality of the society in which he lived. Vexed. Not the haughty, self-righteous,
come not near me, I'm holier than thou kind of thing people
imagine. No, no, no, no. He was vexed
with the ungodliness around him. Not because he was afraid of
being corrupted by it, But because he beheld it as that which is
contrary to everything God reveals about himself. And because he
beheld it as that which was but the forerunner of eternal damnation. For the lot was vexed, I have
no question, with the impending wrath of God upon his neighbors. Or if he was so upset with them,
he must have wanted them to go to hell. No. No. Not a righteous man. Not a righteous
man. Our Lord wept over Jerusalem
because they repented not. Our Lord beheld that rich young
ruler who went away and He beheld him with sorrow because that
man walked away from Him. Lot was vexed in his soul by
the indifference of the people he cared so much about. I don't
know how many among his family or friends professed to believe
his God, but I'm certain there were some because his wife did.
I'm certain there were some because his daughters did. They went
out with him. But as Lot went to tell them what God was about
to do, The scripture says, he seemed to his sons-in-law as
one who mocked. I know what that is. The old man's lost his mind.
He's just gotten to be a religious fanatic. He doesn't know what's
going on. Oh, Brother Don, you're too serious. Brother Don, you
take things too serious. It's not that bad. Not that bad. Things aren't really that way.
I've been preaching to some of you most of your lives and seen
to you as one who mocks. So I would never say that. Every
day you refuse to hear God's Word and refuse to bow to His
Son, you mock His Word.