and they're open to the book
of Genesis chapter 19. I'd like for us to look this
morning, beginning with verse 13, where the angels say, for
we will destroy this place because the cry of them is waxen great
before the face of the Lord, and the Lord has set 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 Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife and thy
two daughters, which are here, lest thou be consumed in the
iniquity of the city. And in verse 16, and while he
lingered, while he lauded, while he trifled, 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. I've had a lingering throat problem
this week. I guess it's the same problem
most people have had. Hopefully I'll be able to last
through this message. I had many, many thoughts that
were going through my mind as I thought about this particular
text. I thought about those people
in Yugoslavia that were being run from their homes, running
for the borders. Thousands upon thousands left
their homes. Some of them were told that you
have five minutes, five minutes to get out of your house and
to flee. And they were running toward
neighboring countries. And I thought to myself, what
would it be like if the angels were to come to our house as
they came to Lott's home, and they were to say up, get you
up and get out of this city. Get away from this place. Judgment's
coming. We're gonna burn this place down.
God's gonna rain hell out of heaven on this place. Judgment
is coming. I wonder if we'd be like old
Lott. I wonder if we would linger behind and if we would be slow
in getting out. How long would it take us to
get out. As we look through our homes
and our possessions and as we begin to evaluate, well, what
is it that I need to take here and I have five minutes to get
out of this place, what do I need to take? What is it that I can
take with me out of this place? Because the place will be burned
to the ground by the time I come back. What can I take? Well,
I believe, as I said in my prayer, that the world has too big of
a grip on our hearts and upon our lives. It is true, beloved,
that we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain
that we can take nothing out. Therefore, with food and raiment,
let us therewith be content. But let's get, if we can, I wanted
to speak this morning on these words, and while he lingered,
I wanted to talk about Lot, because this has been so impressed upon
my mind, and I trust that the Lord will give us strength and
grace to be able to bring this message. Now, I believe that
with gracious violence, Lot was brought out of Sodom. Gracious
violence. Lot was brought out of Sodom,
and that is a picture of every sinner that is brought out of
sin, and brought out from under the condemnation of God is they're
brought out with a gracious violence. God lays hold of the sinner and
arrests him and draws him effectually out of the world and brings him
out from under the judgment of God, out of darkness unto light. Now, Lot made no jest of the
warning that was given as his son-in-laws did. Lot was a righteous
man. He believed God and he believed
the warning. And he did not jest about it as his son-in-laws did,
yet he lingered, he trifled, he did not make haste as the
case required. It would have been fatal to him
if the angels had not laid hold of his hand and brought him forth.
It would have been fatal to him and to his daughters And, of
course, we know what happened to his wife. But the Lord laid
hold of him and brought him forth. Now, beloved, it would have been
fatal to us if God would have said, now, I'm just going to
leave you and see what you're going to do. I'm going to give
you my Bible. I'm going to give you the word
of God and there will be a few preachers scattered around across
the country and I'm just going to leave it to you, though, whether
you want to go hear them preachers or whether you want to believe
anything they tell you or not or whether you ever flee from
the wrath to come. I'm just going to leave it all
to you and see what you do with it. Now, my friend, if that was
the case, every one of us, it would have been fatal to every
one of us. The Lord Jesus said in John chapter
5 verse 40, that you will not come to me that you might have
life. You won't come to me that you might have life. By an act
of your own will, you'll just stay under the wrath of God until
you finally die and perish and the sentence of God is carried
out upon you for all eternity. But now beloved, listen, it is
said the Lord was merciful unto him. The Lord being merciful
unto him. The Lord knows how to deliver
the godly out of trial, out of test. And the Lord knew how to
deliver just lot. But it said that it was merciful
to him. Now let me say that the salvation
of the most righteous man on earth must be attributed to God's
sovereign mercy. We are saved by grace. If anybody
here is saved, you're saved by sovereign mercy. God's mercy. God is free to bestow mercy upon
whom he will. And the Bible says the Lord is
merciful to whomever He will be merciful, to whom He chooses
to be merciful, to whom He purposes to be merciful. God will be merciful
unto them. But I'm here to tell you it doesn't
make any difference who you are or where you came from if you
are saved. If you are a child of God, it's
because God has been merciful unto you as He was to Lot. laid
hold of you and affectionately drew you unto himself and delivered
you from the damnation that was brought upon you because of your
sin and because of your rebellion and want of faith and love toward
Christ our Lord. Now, my friend, this morning,
I want us to think about this. If God had not brought us forth,
we never would have come. We never would have come out.
Now, Lot did not want to leave his goods and his substance behind
him. maybe waiting on his son-in-laws
to come, maybe this was one of the reasons why, that he lingered,
he didn't want to leave everything, and you and I wouldn't want to
leave everything either. And you know that song that we
just sang a few minutes ago, that we leave all and follow
the Lord? And certainly, we hesitate to leave all. We hesitate to
turn our backs on the things of this world and the things
of time and the things of sense. And if any man becomes a loyal
follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, and if he chooses to turn his
back upon the world and upon the things of this world and
to follow Christ, regardless of whatever the cost is, Certainly,
a man does that by the grace of God. He does it only because
God has so revealed himself that that individual is able to love
Christ supremely and able to leave all and to follow Christ. Now, he was so amazed, I believe,
and filled with horror and trembling at the thought of what judgments
were coming on this city, that he was in a stupor. Don't you
think he was? He was probably in a stupor, and he was impotent
to stir himself or to move. He was impotent to do it. He
didn't have any power to stir himself up, to move. He just
lauded and lingered and trifled about this situation. Now, the
Word of God, which was written, it was written for our learning
and for our admonition. It contains an example, I believe,
of what we should avoid as well as examples that we should follow. Don't you believe so? I believe
the Word of God is for that purpose. It's for our admonition, for
our learning, and it gives us examples that we ought to avoid,
as well as the ones we ought to follow. Lot is a beacon, I
believe, to the whole Church of God in this world. His character
is set before us in these two words. He lingered. Now this
was a symptom that I believe was rooted in his past choices. It was rooted in his way of life. It was a sign, it was an indication
of something that was out of place in his life. I realize
all of the human aspects of it, but I say that it was rooted
in his character, it was rooted in the fact that he had made
choices in his life that were wrong and he was in a stupor,
he had been in a stupor I think for a long time. Anybody that
would have lived in Sodom and Gomorrah sure the Bible says
that his soul was vexed day by day with the filthy conversation
of the wicked and he was tired, fed up, clear to the chin with
all of this wickedness and stuff in the city but anybody that
would have stayed in there like old Lot He was in a stupor a
long time before the angels ever come to his house. Now I want
us to look at Lot a little bit this morning. Who is this man
who lingered? Well, this man that lingered
was the nephew of faithful Abraham. Abraham's nephew. He was a relative
of the father of the faithful. He was the relative of that one
who was the friend of God. Now, when did he linger? Well,
the very morning that Sodom was to be destroyed. That's when
he showed his true character. Now, where did he linger? Well,
within the walls. of that wicked Sodom itself. That's where he did his lingering.
And before whom did he linger? Under the eyes of the two angels
who were sent to bring him out of the city. Even then he lingered. Now isn't that something? That
here's this man and he's lingering and these angels are right here,
beckoning him to get out of the city. that the city's going to
be destroyed, you're going to be caught up in the iniquity
of this city and be judged just like they are. Get out of here!
And yet he lingered right in the presence of these angels.
Now these words are solemn and I believe they're full of food
for thought to each one of us. I trust these words will sound
in our ears and make us think. Make us think, how much of a
grip does this world really have on my heart? Now, the Lord Jesus
tells us in Luke 17 and verse 32 to remember Lot's wife. And
the voice of the preacher today bids you to remember Lot, to
think about old Lot. He lingered, he lordered, he
trifled. Well, let me in this message
try to show you a few things this morning. what Lot was himself. I think this is very important.
And what the text tells you of him, what reasons may account
for his lingering, and what was the effect of his lingering.
Now if you're a real Christian and want to live a holy life
in this world, I asked you this morning to pay attention to what
we have to say. If you really are a child of
God, blood-bought, If you're owned by Christ, lock, stock,
and barrel, sold out to Him, I want you to listen to what
we have to say here today. And let it be a settled principle
in our hearts and minds that if we would walk with God and
if we would follow holiness in this world, we must not follow
the example of old lot. Whatever our days bring, whatever
our time brings, to us, whatever happens in our city or in our
homes, whatever comes, we must not linger. We must be about
the business of our God and we must be sober and vigilant because
our adversary the devil goes about seeking whomever he may
devour. Well, number one, what was lot?
I may not finish this message because I just can't talk as
fast as I need to to finish this. But whatever I don't get this
week, I'll get it next week. And so what was lot? Now this
is very important, a very important point. Because, you know, many
people do not understand who this man was and they don't understand
what he was. Many who do not read and who
are uninformed As to the scriptures, they would say of this man, Lot
was a bad man. He was a wicked man. He was a
perverted man. He was a perverted creature and
an unconverted man, an unbeliever, a whirling sinner. Well, as we
often do when we try to judge other people, we would be mistaken
about Lot. We would wonder how this man
could have had a relationship with God. How this man could
have been a believer. How this man could have feared
God. How this man could have walked with God and ever had
any sort of communion with God Almighty. We would have wondered
about that. But you see, people wonder about us sometimes. What
would people think if they had come around last week whenever
you in anger uttered the words that you uttered? What would
people think if they would have happened to have been in a certain
place when you were there and they saw your conduct and your
action? What would they have thought?
Would they have thought, well, there's a child of God, there's
a believer, there's a Christian, or would they have thought, well,
that fellow's just like the world, he's just like everybody in the
world, he's an unconverted man, he never had the true grace of
God revealed to his heart, he doesn't know anything about salvation,
he's Charlie, not a child of God. But, beloved, isn't it wonderful
that God knows those that are His? God knows those that are
His. Now, I believe that a lot that
God knew Him. I believe He did. I believe He
was acquainted with this man. But anyway, you'd say, well,
Ed, it wasn't any wonder that he lingered like he did and that
he was so fond of the place where he lived because he was an unconverted
man. But you mark what I say. Lot
was nothing of the kind. Lot was a true believer. He was
a converted person. He was a real child of God. He
was a justified soul. He was a righteous man. positionally
before God, he was a righteous man. Now beloved, our state doesn't
always speak of our position. Our state oftentimes in this
life and every one of you that have been in the way of the Lord
for any length of time will agree with what I'm saying. You know
that your state Other words, what you say sometimes in anger,
what you say and how you act and how you conduct yourself
in the world isn't always a true picture of how you stand before
God. We stand before God because we're
in Christ Jesus. We stand before God in Him, we're
accepted in the Beloved One, we have a right standing before
God. And as Jesus is, so are we before
God. And we have a standing of perfection
before God, being just as if we had never committed a sin.
This is our position before God, but our state in this body of
flesh is not always the same as that. Other words, people
by looking at us can't always tell that we're children of God. They can't always tell. And if
they knew us, if they stayed around us, maybe for a long length
of time, maybe they would suspect that there's something different
about us. But many times, right on the
surface, we do not declare that we are the sons of God. Beloved,
now are we the sons of God. We're told in the book of 1 John,
doth not he appear what we shall be, but we know when he shall
appear we'll be like him, because we shall see him as he is. Do
any of you have the grace of God in your heart? You would
say yes, and I say so did Lot. The Lord had the grace of God
in his heart. Do you have the hope, the sweet hope of salvation
in your soul? The sweet hope of salvation.
The old primitive Baptists, they had a lot to say about a sweet
hope. A sweet hope. Well, bless God, it is a sweet
hope. It's wonderful to have that sweet hope of salvation
in your soul. And I believe that old lot had
that sweet hope of salvation, so Lot did too. This is not my
private opinion, and it's not a fancy of my own, it's not a
notion that is unsupported by the Word of God, and I do not
want you to believe it merely because I say it, but the Holy
Spirit in 2 Peter chapter 2, and if you have your Bible, and
want to turn there, I wish you would. 2 Peter chapter 2, and
you ought to become familiar with these verses. I'd like to
read something to you here, beginning with verse 5. and spared not
the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, 2 Peter chapter
2, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the
world of the ungodly, and then turning the cities of Sodom and
Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making
them an example unto those that after should live ungodly." What
a statement of scripture, making them an example. Here God, as
it were, pouring out this wrath, pouring out these hot coals upon
Sodom and Gomorrah, pouring out hell upon Sodom and Gomorrah. as it were, broiling these people
until, as one old prophet said, the fat run out their ears, the
melted fat and the meat cooked off of their bones. God making
these people an example of those that should after live ungodly. God, as it were, destroying them. Now, yesterday I understand that
in the capital here that there was several that showed up that
were uh... for the gay rights movement march
or whatever they had down there and they estimated there was
going to be five hundred people that were going to attend this
i don't know how many there were there really not that interested
but i will tell you this that we're living in a day and time
whenever the people that support these kind of gay rights and
are in favor of same-sex marriages and these particular ideas that
are being espoused in our day and time that men are born with
a different brain and that people have different chemical makeups
that make them like they are and so on and so forth, they
ought to read what the Word of God says. They ought to read
that God on one occasion, that God on one occasion that he burnt
down these cities because these people were wicked and God judged
them to be wicked and God brought his judgment down upon them and
made them an example unto those that would afterward live ungodly. If you're going to live, and
God says this is ungodly living. These people were practicing
sodomites. These people were homosexuals
and lesbians, and the city was run over with them, and God brought
His judgment upon them, making them an example unto those that
should afterwards live this ungodly way of life. Now, I realize that
that's unpopular in our day and time for a preacher to say that,
But I believe this to be true. I do not believe that homosexuality
and lesbianism is due to some chemical malfunction in the brain. I believe it is wickedness and
it's a moral weakness in those people. Now that's what I believe.
That's what the Word of God teaches. And I stand here this morning
to tell you that God made them an example. He made them an example. There wouldn't have been any
reason. Why did not God destroy some of the other heathen cities
at that time? He did. He destroyed Sodom and
Gomorrah because He would make them an example. Okay? And look
at verse 7. He delivered just a lot. Just
a lot. He delivered, it didn't mean
that he delivered just Lot alone, because he delivered Lot, he
delivered his two daughters, and he delivered his wife, if
she had, of course she was from Sodom, she was from Sodom, her
name was Edith, and she grew up, I guess, in Sodom, and Lot
married her there, and maybe that's one of the reasons why
he was so headstrong on staying there, He'd had a lot of trouble
there, and Abraham had one time to go fetch his goods back from
some robbers. He'd had all kinds of problems,
but nevertheless, it didn't say here he delivered just a lot,
but it means he delivered a justified man, a just man, a righteous
man, a man whose sins had been forgiven, a man who stood before
God just as if he had never committed a sin. He delivered just lot. Vexed a man who was tormented
daily with the filthy behavior of those wicked people in that
city. And what it means really is that
he was just absolutely sick of it. He had lived around, he saw
it, and he witnessed what was going on and he was sick of it. Sick of it to his soul. And I'll
tell you why he was sick of it to his soul. Because he had the
grace of God in him. Because the Lord had done a work
in him. that he had a principle of righteousness in his soul
and he was uh... outwardly he was uh... uh... just a weak sinner like we all
are but inside he had something and that something that he had
inside made him different and made him feel different about
what was going on around him And I'll tell you what, you can
live in this world and yet not be of this world. And it's one
thing for a ship to be in the water and for the water to be
then in the ship. When the water gets in the ship,
it's a different story. And I'm here to tell you this
morning that we all gotta live in this world, and we live in
this world but we're not happy with what we see in this world. We're not satisfied with it,
and this world is a painful place to the true people of God. We
look upon it, we see the wickedness, and just like old lot, we're
bothered with it, and we're disturbed about it, and we're uncomfortable
around it, and we don't like to see it. And we don't like
for it to be all just painted on the billboards and brought
into our homes on the television screen. We don't like that. We're
against that. But nevertheless, it's a true
state of affairs. But Lott's soul was vexed. with this now beloved if a man
lives in this world and he can live in it and he enjoys these
and looks upon with pleasure these unfruitful works of righteous
unrighteousness and if he sees all of this wickedness and he
feels the same way about the world does then that individual
is a whirling and he never had a change inside of him If you
have had a change that's been wrought in you, if you're a new
creature in Christ, then when you look upon this stuff, you'll
be disturbed about it like old Just Lot was. And verse 8, for
that righteous man, that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing
and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their
unlawful deeds. with their unlawful deeds. So
I'm showing you that Lot was a just man, and I'm showing you
that he was a righteous man that was dwelling here in Sodom. And so I want you to believe
this morning that he was indeed a Christian, that he was a righteous
man. He's called this just man, this
righteous man. a man whose soul was vexed with
the filthy conversation. He lived in a wicked place, seeing
and hearing, yet was not wicked himself, as the Sodomites were. Now beloved to be a Daniel in
Babylon, and Obadiah in Ahab's house, and Abijah a saint in
Nero's court, a righteous man in Sodom, a man must have the
grace of God. Without grace, it would be impossible
for a man to live in those circumstances. Here was a man who was grieved
and pained and hurt at the sight of sin. Nothing will account
for this but the grace of God, brethren. Many a man is shocked
and startled at the first sight of wickedness and yet becomes
at last so accustomed to see it that he views it with comparative
unconcern. And that's one of the dangers
of living too close in this world to sin, is that we get to the
place where we get hardened. And at first it disturbed us.
First time you saw and heard some of this language that's
on television or that you heard at school, this language, it
disturbed you, it bothered you. But then you got accustomed to
it. First thing you know, it no longer
bothered you, no longer disturbs you anymore. You become, as it
were, your conscience becomes calloused. And this is one of
the dangers, and I believe that this is what happened to old
Lot there in the city of Sodom and Gomorrah. And so this is
especially true in our day. We're no longer shocked. We're
no longer disturbed. We're no longer bothered. And
now, I was reading the other day or yesterday, I believe it
was, where they, in the Methodist group somewhere out east in Illinois,
they were trying a preacher because he had performed a same-sex marriage. And they were trying this man
and And they said that he, and he told them, he said, well,
if you don't want me to be a minister to everybody, then I won't be
one to anybody. And of course his attitude about
it was, and he got to the place apparently where he thought that
was all right, where it was okay to do that and perform those
marriages. And so we're no longer shocked,
we're no longer vexed, we're utterly indifferent. And I say
shame on us. Shame on us. Why do I say that? Because God hadn't changed His
mind about it. He hadn't changed His mind about
it. Sin is sin in God's sight. Judgment is coming upon sin. God must punish sinners. And
he'll have to apologize, as old brother Barnard did to Sodom
and Gomorrah, if he don't judge this generation of wicked folk. God will judge this generation. He will. It's his peculiar work,
but he's going to bring judgment on this generation. Shame on
us if we become so tolerant of sin that we now look upon it
with some degree of favor. We believe that God still sees
it just like it is. Sin is the mother of death. Sin is what nailed our Lord Jesus
Christ to the cross. Sin, regardless of what you think
about it, is the rape of God, is what it is. Sin is going to
bring down the judgment of God upon your soul for all eternity
unless you flee to the Lord Jesus Christ and trust Him. Don't get
to the place where you're not shocked about S-I-N because God's
going to judge sinners, and you, because you live in sin and die
in sin, will go to hell. Well, Lot was a better man. He
was a better man than many in our day and time, but yet he
still was one who laundered and did not leave as he ought to. He had to be taken out by the
hand of the angels. Now, I think maybe, you know,
the time's pretty well gotten away and I think I'm just going
to stop right there this morning. I believe we've said enough for
this morning and I'll take this up next week and go ahead and
finish it up at that time. But do remember that Locke was
a Christian. And in spite of everything that
you might think of him and what others might think of him, he
was indeed a believer, a just man, a righteous man. And I hope
that we see somewhat of the attitude that we should take in this world
and be asking yourself this week, What kind of a grip has this
old world got on me? I mean, have I changed in my
outlook? Have I changed in my heart? Have
I changed to the point where that I now look upon sin in a
way that I didn't used to look on it? Have I got to a place
where I've kind of accepted things as they are and got to a place
where I just kind of keep my mouth shut, I don't say anything
against sin and against the ways of wicked people in this world?
Am I in a stupor? Am I in a stupor? I think that's
a good question we need to ask ourself. And I've asked that
God would revive my heart. Revive my own heart. And I'm
asking God to revive your heart. and draw your heart to himself.
And once again, that the fire of God would fall into our souls
and we become alive about the truth of the word of God. That
God will build a fire under all of us and we become more zealous
in standing where we ought to stand in this sin-hardened world. Our Father, we're grateful that
we're able this morning to be here. We ask that you'll bless
Lord, what has been said, that is according to your word, and
there be a soul here today lost, undone, without the knowledge
of Christ. May they flee to him, Lord, lest
the fires of the last day consume them. God deliver, God be merciful. And I do pray today for those
many thousands of souls that are fleeing for their life. over
in Europe. I pray, O God, that you'll be
merciful unto those that are thy children, thy people there,
and that you'll keep them and preserve them and bring them,
my Father, great comfort to their souls, even as they're suffering
the loss of their earthly goods and the deprivation of their
homes. O God, be merciful unto them. We pray in Jesus' name,
for his sake. Amen.