The end on that great song, singing
with the church's ransom throng, Christ is all, sung by 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands and
thousands, that's over 100 million. Can you imagine the strength
of that song where everyone who sings it believes it? I've entitled the message for
this morning, God brings good out of evil. Only he does that, only he can
do that, and he always does that. God brings good out of evil. read the account of Lot and his
two daughters. Presumably, they're the same
two daughters that we read of in verse 8 of the same chapter. Behold, now I have two daughters,
which have not known man. Let me, I pray you, bring them
out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes, only
unto these men do nothing. For therefore came they under
the shadow of my roof. You reckon they had issues? Of course. Of course. Now, the Bible is not family
friendly. It's just not. This is a sordid story. of a
highly dysfunctional family. Now, somebody may think, well,
why preach on something like this? Because you've got to admit,
I bet while I was reading that passage of scripture, someone's
going, oh, this is creepy. Why preach on this? Because it's
in the Bible. And it's placed there for our
good and his glory and it's given to reveal the gospel. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable for doctrine, for proof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect,
throughly furnished unto all good works and such is this. Now we know from the testimony
of 2 Peter 2, that Lot was a believer. He was a saved man. He's described
as a righteous man with a righteous soul. Lot was a believer. I love Lot. I'm thankful for
Lot. There's so much to learn from
this man. Now, I have heard people say
that his daughters could not have been believers because they
did such things. That's very foolish. That's very
foolish. As unclean and sinful and sordid
as this is, a believer can commit any sin, an unbeliever does,
but the sin against the Holy Spirit. Very foolish to say a
believer would not do this. A believer shouldn't do this,
I agree with that. But to say a believer wouldn't, you speak
ignorantly of yourself if you make a statement such as that. And as I've already hinted at
from what their father did in offering them to the men of Sodom,
you can see where these two women would have issues, to say the
least, But let me point this about these two women. They didn't
look back. Their mother did. Remember that? And turned into a pillar of salt.
We considered that last week. These two women did not look
back. So it could be that they, like
Lot, were righteous women. They were. saved women. I don't know that, but that's
a pretty good testimony, the fact that they did not look back. Look in verse 30, and Lot went
up out of Zoar and dwelt in the mountain. Now remember the Lord
told him to flee to the mountains, And he said, I can't do that.
I mean, everything Lot did was wrong. He said, what about this
little city of Zoar? Let me go there. And the Lord
allowed him to do it. Well, for some reason, he feels
the need to leave Zoar. I don't know what happened. Something
happened. And Lot went up out of Zoar and
dwelt in the mountain, he and his two daughters with him, for
he feared to dwell in Zoar. And he dwelt in a cave, he and
his two daughters. And the firstborn said unto the
younger, our father is old. And look what said next. There
is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner
of all the earth. Evidently, they thought every
man had been destroyed in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
They thought no one was left but their father. There's not
a man in the earth other than him. Verse 32, come, let us make
our father drink wine. And we will lie with him that
we may preserve seed of our father. Now. Some have suggested that
they were hoping the Messiah, the promised seed, would come
through this. I don't know. Don't know if that's
the case. They certainly believe that their
father was the last man on the earth, but notice they want to
preserve that which is already there. They wanted to preserve
life. Isn't that what religion does, preserve life that's already
there? The gospel gives new life that was not there before. But
what they were doing was evil. There's no justification of it.
They might have had their thoughts and that this is the only thing
to do. It was wrong. It was sin. It
was evil. It was incest. There's nothing
right about it. But here they go trying to preserve
the seed of their father. Verse 33, and they made their
father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and
lay with her father. And he was so drunk, he didn't
know when she lay down, and he didn't know when she rose. It's
almost as if he didn't even know what happened. He was so intoxicated. That may be the case. I don't
know, but it happened. And it came to pass on the morrow
that the firstborn said to the younger, behold, I lay, yes or
not, with my father. Let us make him drink wine this
night also, and go thou in and lie with him, that we may preserve
the seed of our father. And they made their father drink
wine that night also, and the younger arose and lay with him,
and he wasn't even aware of it. He perceived not when she lay
down, nor when she arose. I don't think Lot would have
participated in this if he knew what was going on. I feel sure
he wouldn't have, but he was so intoxicated, he didn't know
what was going on. And this took place. Verse 36,
thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father,
this horrible act of incest. And the firstborn bare son and
called his name Moab, the same as the father of the Moabites.
And to this day in the younger, she also bare son and called
his name The son is the same as the father of the children
of Ammon unto this day. What a sordid, sinful, unclean
event. And here is the fruit of their
sin, the Moabites and the Ammonites. And they would prove to be a
thorn in the side of Israel for centuries to come. Now you read
where the children of Israel at one point through Balaam's
advice began to intermarry with the Moabites. And what happened? God sent a plague and killed
24,000 people. Now these nations always proved to be a thorn in
the side of the Israelites. Now in this sad, sordid, sinful
event, we have one of the most striking displays of God's goodness. How? You know who came through this
incestuous relationship? Ruth the Moabitess. You know who she was? The grandmother
of King David. Do you know the Christ came through
this relationship? God. brings good out of evil. You know, through Ruth, we learned
something about the kinsman redeemer. I've lost everything, and I can't
get it back. But you know what? A kinsman
redeemer can get it back. And he's got to be near a kin.
Christ is bone of our bones and flesh of our flesh. He's gotta
have the right to redeem. Christ has the right because
of who he is. But he's gotta have the ability
to redeem. Oh, Christ has the ability. He's gotta have the
willingness to redeem. Christ has the willingness to
redeem. What good came out of this sordid event? David, when King should be going
out to battle, was hanging out on a rooftop, not performing
his responsibilities. And he spies one of his mighty
men of valor's wife bathing on a rooftop. And through a horrible abuse
of power, and amazing unfaithfulness to a man that was so faithful
to him, he sent for this woman Bathsheba. And they committed
adultery. And she became with child to
that. And David, the man after God's
own heart, tried to cover it up. He sent in for Uriah. He got him drunk, tried to get
him to go in and lay with his wife. He would think the baby
was his. When that didn't work, he had
this man go to the heat of the battle and told Joab, when we
get him there, y'all pull back and let him get killed. And that's
exactly what happened. David committed cold-blooded,
premeditated murder. in order to cover up his own
sin. What a horrible, horrible event. And the Lord told him, the sword's
never gonna depart from your house because of what you've
done. The scripture says, the thing
David did displeased the Lord. And indeed it did. And if you
look at his kids from that time forward, in his family with his
own children, there was rape, there was incest, there was some
of them attempting to murder David. That is the fruit of David's
sin. What a horrible, wicked, no excuse,
evil thing. Who comes out of this union between
David and Bathsheba? King Solomon. The Christ of God comes through
this union. God, and only God, brings good
out of evil. Well, I feel comforted because
of my sin then. God brings good out of evil. No. No. You see, your sin, you're not
able to blame God's sovereignty. Well, I'm a victim of God's sovereignty.
Ain't no victims of God's sovereignty. If you sin, you did what you
wanted to do. Fully, freely, you did what you wanted to do. But thank God, God is totally
sovereign over the free and uncoerced actions of men. And he and only
he can bring good out of evil. Now, I'm responsible for my sin.
I can't say, well, God allowed it to happen. God purposed it.
No, I only. and responsible for my own sins. As a matter of fact, if I don't
take that position, my sin's all my fault, I've never asked
for mercy. It's only when your sin is all your fault that you
ask for mercy. And bless God, there's never
been anybody who ever asked for mercy that God turned down. You remember the story of Joseph,
his brothers, were insanely jealous of him. And I understand why.
I mean, Jacob made such a shameless difference between him and everybody
else. He made him the coat of many collars. He was the favorite
son. And his brothers were jealous.
I understand it. I would have been jealous, too.
And you think of his dreams. He said, let me tell you a dream
I had, fellas. I dreamed that you fellas were going to be bound
to me. And I dream that even the sun and the moon and the
stars are going to be bowing down to me. You reckon we're
going to deal with this dreamer. And you understand their hatred
of him. But you know what they did? They
took their brother. They were going to kill him.
And Judah talked them out of it. And they sold him as a slave,
knowing their dad loved him so. They sold him to the Midianites
as a slave. And they took him down to Egypt,
and they told They took his coat of many colors that his dad had
made for him and didn't make them. And they slew a lamb, put
blood on it, and said, is this your son's coat? Well, how cold-blooded? They told their daddy, your favorite's
been killed. He's dead. So Joseph goes down
to Egypt, sold into Potiphar's home. And as a slave, the Lord
prospers what he does. I mean, everything he did, the
Lord prospered it. But Potiphar's wife, she liked
David. And she kept trying to tempt
him, come lay with me, come lay with me. And he wouldn't do it.
He said, how can I sin so against God? And so she got mad. And she accused him of this Hebrew
that you brought in. He's came in and mocked me. And
she accused him of sexual assault. Well, he didn't do it. How horrible
that this woman wickedly accused him of something he didn't do
and willingly had him thrown into prison. And there he lays
in prison. I wonder how many times he thought,
how did I get here? There he is. And the Lord prospers
him in prison. Whatever's done, he was the doer
of it, the scripture says. The Lord blessed him in that.
And he Saw some of his buddies, fellow prisoners, and they were
sad. They'd dreamed some dreams. And they told him what the dreams
were, the butler and the baker. And he told them what would happen.
The butler's going to be restored back to a position of favor.
The baker, he was going to have his head cut off. And that's
exactly what happened. But you know how much they remembered
about it? That butler, he got restored. Joseph told them what
was going to happen. He forgot plumb about it. Just
forgot about it. Joseph sits, nothing changed.
Here I am in prison. The scripture says his feet hurt
with fetters of iron. Mistreated, but there he was
in prison. And Pharaoh has a dream. Perhaps you remember the dream,
two skinny cows ate two fat cows, seven skinny cows ate seven fat
cows. And seven skinny ears of corn
ate seven fat ears of corn. And he didn't know what it meant.
And Butler remembered Joseph. He said, I remember. And he had
Joseph sent out. Joseph comes before the pharaoh. The pharaoh gives the dreams.
He tells them what they mean. There's going to be seven years
of plenty, food galore, and seven years of famine. They're going
to eat up all of those seven years of plenty. And so Joseph
is put in store. He's made the head of Egypt to
make sure they can save enough food to save them during those
seven years of famine. And oh, how wisely Joseph oversaw
everything that was taking place. And they made tons of money and
food and Everything's going good. Well, his brothers back in where
they were in Israel, they started getting hungry. Their famine
was there too. And they, they went down to Egypt to buy food. And they were brought before
Joseph. You see, if you were going to get food, you had to
get it from Joseph, or you wouldn't get any at all. And they look
at Joseph. They have no idea who he is. But he knew who they were. He knew who they were. Now there
were several things that took place, but turn to Genesis 45. This is when he finally made
himself known. Then Joseph, Genesis 45. Then
Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by,
and he cried, cause every man to go out for me. And there stood
no man with him while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. What must have been going through
their minds? And he wept aloud, the Egyptians
in the house of Pharaoh heard, and Joseph said unto his brethren,
I'm Joseph. Doth my father yet live? Well,
I know what was going through the brother's mind, because his
brethren couldn't answer him, because they were troubled at
his presence. They thought, time of reckoning. He's getting us,
and we had it coming. And Joseph said to his brethren,
come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said,
I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. He didn't
act like it didn't happen. Yeah, it happened. You remember
exactly what took place. You sold me as a slave. into
Egypt. Now, therefore, be not grieved
nor angry with yourselves that you sold me hither, for God did
send me before you to preserve life." You see, what they did
was evil, but God did it for good, didn't He? For these two years hath the
famine been in the land, and yet there are five years in which
there shall neither be earing nor harvest. And God sent me
before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth and to save your
lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent
me hither, but God. And he has made me a father to
Pharaoh and Lord of all his house. and a Ruth about all the land
of Egypt." Well, a few years later, Genesis chapter 50, verse 15, and when Joseph's brethren
saw that their father was dead, Jacob had died now. They said, Joseph, provincial,
hate us and will certainly require us all the evil which we did
unto him. Now that Jacob's gone, we don't
have a buffer. He's gonna get us. So shall ye say unto Joseph,
forgive, I pray thee, now the trespass of thy brethren and
their sin, for they did unto thee evil, and now we pray thee,
forgive the trespass of the servants of God of thy father. You know,
I don't believe Jacob ever told him that. I think they're lying.
Jacob said, your dad said, forgive him, after he's already dead.
Forgive him. Maybe he did tell him that, but
I don't know. And Joseph wept when they spake
unto him, and his brethren also went and fell down before his
face. And they said, behold, we be thy servants. And Joseph
said unto them, fear not, for mine got the place of God. But
as for you, you thought evil against me, but God meant it
unto good. to bring to pass as it is this
day to save much people alive. You meant it for evil. God meant
it for good. Let's go to another scene. Adam and Eve have been placed
in the Garden of Eden with everything their heart could possibly wish
for. What a life they had without
a sinful nature to deal with. God gives one commandment, that
one tree, that one fruit, do not eat it. In the day you do,
and this is very important, he didn't say if you do, He said,
when you do, thou shalt surely die. To sin against God when
they were in such a blessed state, just having that one commandment
when they had every other tree of the garden, just that one.
How wicked. How wicked. Question. Could God have prevented that
from happening? Of course He could have. If you
don't believe that, you believe in a small g God, a pygmy God,
a God that is non-existent. Of course God could have prevented
that, but it was all a part of His glorious purpose. If they had not eaten of that
fruit, what would we know of the character of this glorious
God? What would we know of his grace? What would we know of his mercy? What would we know of his wisdom? You see, we could not really
know God apart from the cross. And the cross came through this
glorious event. This was not God's plan B. This is God's eternal purpose,
to glorify himself. Because God brings good out of
evil. That was a greatly wicked thing
that they did. You know, I have heard people
say that The only reason Adam did it was because he loved Eve
and he was going to go down with her. That might be the case,
but for some reason I doubt it. I don't want to glamorize what
Adam did in any way, but what Adam did was wicked. Now, we
can see a picture of the Lord willingly going down with us,
but there wasn't anything okay about Adam's sin. It was wicked. But what glory the Lord brought
through that. I want to close with this question. What is the most wicked event
to ever take place? You already know the answer to
that. The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Son of God is made flesh,
lives as the only sinless man, kept God's law perfectly, and
as Peter said on the day of Pentecost, he went about doing good. But men hated him. Why? Because men Me and you are
evil. That is the only explanation. Bad to the bone. Men, when they were allowed to
do what they wanted to do, hated God so much that when the Lord
let men do what they wanted to do, they nailed his son to a
tree. But God did only what God can
do. Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God. You have taken and with
wicked hands have crucified and slain him. That doesn't get you
off the hook for your sin. You can't blame God's sovereignty,
but thank God he was delivered by the determined counsel and
foreknowledge of God. Now here's what's going on here.
Christ was called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
And the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world came in time to
be slain for this purpose. to save sinners, to glorify His
Father, to completely make known all the character of the glorious
God. The most evil thing to ever take
place is the most infinitely glorious thing to ever take place. What was going on while Christ
was On the cross, God's will was being done. The full revelation of his character
is made known. You'd never know God apart from
the cross. The complete salvation of sinners
was taking place. Every sinner he died for was
saved. The way is open right now for
the chief of sinners. Because of this, I don't care
who you are, doesn't matter, anybody who comes to Him will
be received. Anybody. Everybody who does come
to Him is received. Oh, what a glorious Savior. Doesn't
matter how sinful, doesn't matter how evil, you're received for
Christ's sake. One last scripture, turn to Romans
8, 28. Verse 28. And we know. Don't you love the sureness of
that statement? We're not predicting. We're not
giving our opinion or offering up some kind of conjecture. We
know. I don't know that. I do, Paul
says. Every believer knows this. We know. He's acting as a spokesman
for every believer because we know the character of God. That's
why we know. This only goes with his character. And we know that
all things. Good things, bad things, indifferent
things, tragedy, success. Washing the dishes. Mundane things. All things. That covers all things. All things work together. That's so important. If you're
just looking at them as isolated events, it doesn't seem too good. All things work together. You see, God's so glorious that
he controls everything, and it's not hard to him. There's no sparrow that falls
to the ground without your heavenly father. Seemingly insignificant. All things work together. For what? For good. You see, God is good. And God
is good all the time. And whenever we say something
silly like, how could a good God let that happen? We're wrong
in saying that. Sitting in judgment on God. How
could God let that? Listen, you better be thankful
he's the one in control, not you. We'd really be in trouble
then. God is good all the time. And even when we don't understand
what he's doing, we still believe God is good all the time. All things. work together for
good. Doesn't it just, you know, when
I hear that, all the stuff that's stressing me out, I just all
of a sudden, I feel the tension leave my body. I wish it stayed
that way all the time. I wish I could bottle this, but
I can't, but it ought to be. All things work together for
good. To them that love God, to them
who are the called according to his purpose. Now, two descriptions
of these people for whom all things are working together for
their good. Number one, they love God. By his grace, I love God. I love his son. I love his spirit.
I love his attributes. I love his holiness. I love his
sovereignty. I love his power. I love his grace. I love everything
about him. And he is the only one of whom
that if I had the power to change him, I wouldn't do it. He's perfect. Who are these people that love
God? Well, here's why they love God, and they know this. They're
the ones who are the called according to his purpose. You see, God brings good out
of evil. He does what only he can do. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you. Accept our thanksgiving through
your son, but how grateful we are that you're God, that you're
good, that you do all things well. Lord, we, by your grace,
believe that. We're so ashamed of the unbelief
and the fear that we have of things other than you. Forgive
us. take away the fear of man, take
away the fear of circumstances, cause us to have that reverential
fear of thee who looks to thy son only and believes that whatever
you do is right. Oh, that we might be found in
Christ. We thank you and praise you that you bring good out of
our evil. We give thanks. Lord, we fear
you and we pray that we might be found in Christ and look to
him only. In his name we pray. Amen.