SERMON: AS IT WAS IN THE DAYS OF LOT: PART II

Sermon: By :Pastor Hal Mayer Part II.

This is very serious my friends. We must continually find in God our strength. Please don’t make the same mistake as Lot. You cannot expect that your sins will be hidden forever. You cannot hide your true character forever. At some point, it will be revealed. I know from my own experience how important it is to keep my inner life directed toward God. It is vital that we place ourselves away from as much temptation as possible, especially concentrated temptation. It will still come, but you can learn to hate sin so much that you will not fall into it. May God have mercy on your soul, and the souls of your family. Find a genuine experience with Jesus. Don’t just go for outward appearances. We need revival and reformation internally. It is vital that we prepare for the crisis that is surely coming upon us very soon. Make sure your private life is hid with God in Christ (Colossians 3:3).

The men of the city rushed at Lot and threatened him, “Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door.” They would have torn Lot in pieces had he not been rescued by the angels. Note that they accused Lot of being judgmental. After all, he had accused them of being wicked.

Now think about what this is telling us. It reveals that the homosexual movement will do what they have to do to get their way. And they get angry when they are told that they are sinning. Radical homosexuals are often belligerent, disrespectful, and forceful. Those who are pressing for gay marriage today, for instance, are often of the same mind. Remember that Jesus said that as it was in the days of Lot, so shall it be in the days of the Son of Man. So we can learn from this exactly the mind and the attitude of the homosexual movement today. The political order is being manipulated so that alternative homosexual lifestyles are legally accepted. Schools are being pressured to teach a curriculum that openly supports a homosexual-friendly philosophy.

A new orthodoxy is being pushed on our homes, schools and even our churches, in opposition to the created order that God ordained for the good of the human family. And if you think or act as if homosexuality is a sin, at least in some places, you can be thrown in jail.

Swedish Pastor Arrested

British street preacher Jailed

Militant homosexuals hate the Bible because the bible condemns their claims and their behavior as wicked, just as Lot did. They claim that God made them that way, in spite of the fact that the Bible, God’s unerring word, says the exact opposite.

Large cities today are good examples of this. Often there are gay pride marches and parades, and other forms of demonstration. But homosexual rights groups demand that laws be enacted to protect their lifestyle, not only from violence or discrimination, but even from opposing speech. Laws are being enacted around the world in some places authorizing a legal form of marriage for same-sex couples.

Same-sex Marriage Law in Argentina.

More on Same-sex Marriage in Argentina

Same-sex Marriage Law in the Netherlands.

Same-sex Marriage Law in Sweden

Same-Sex Marriage Law in Massachusetts

Same-Sex Marriage in Canada

Same-sex Marriage in the United States

Businesses are pressured to accept gay-friendly policies. Anti-discrimination laws often force small and large companies to adjust the way they hire or terminate employees. And the list goes on and on. Even schools are subject to “tolerance training.” This means that the curriculums in the schools are not just neutral, but actively teach that a homosexual lifestyle is an acceptable alternative. Children are taught that some boys and girls have two daddies or two mommies and that they should think of this as normal. Some churches are ordaining openly gay clergy and are blessing same-sex marriages.

Ordination of Gay Clergy

Blessing of Same-sex Marriage

By the way, a true Christian loves all sinners, including and perhaps especially those caught in the homosexual trap. It is the sin, not the sinner that is condemned in scripture. We are to love the sinner and treat them with respect, courtesy and kindness.

But such realities do not change the word of God. By pitching his tent toward Sodom, Lot had placed himself where he would inevitably run into a crisis. Because of his compromise, he eventually got cornered, and the seriousness of his choice became obvious.

Lot was now in danger. He would be killed by the men of the city. They had no regard for life. When he remonstrated with them, they accused him of being judgmental. This is normal carnal behavior. They do this because they want to pressure their opponent to stop opposing them and let them do what they want. They don’t want to face the fact that what they want to do is wrong and that they will one day be judged by the God of heaven. In fact, they recognize that it is wrong by their very accusation. But they don’t want to feel condemned for their wrongdoing. In other words, they are stifling the work of the Holy Spirit to bring conviction to their hearts. If you do this, eventually you will pass the point of God’s forbearance when your heart is so hard and so pitched toward Sodom that you can no longer respond to the Holy Spirit. This is what happened in Sodom, and it is what is going to happen to the large cities and the whole world at the end of time.

The angels “put forth their hand, and pulled Lot in the house to them, and shut to the door.” They rescued Lot and saved his life. Imagine Lot, not realizing who these men were, hearing the door open behind him, and suddenly being grabbed by arms so strong that they could not be human, and whisked to safety inside his house. The men outside lunged at the door to prevent it from being closed. But they are suddenly struck with blindness. Perhaps the angels flashed their divine light in their eyes temporarily blinding them. They were confused and groped around in their darkness trying to find the door. The Bible says that they wearied themselves in doing so (verse 11). Finally, they dispersed.

They were spiritually blind. They had spurned the heavenly messages and now they spurned the heavenly messengers, and their spiritual night was irreversible. They were so blinded by their hardness of heart that they would never find their way to salvation. They wearied themselves looking for the next excitement, the next thrill, the next chance to vent their passions. They would never turn back. Blinding them was a fitting symbol of the condition of their hearts.

Meanwhile, Lot cautiously looked out the window to see what is going on, and he noticed the men of the city blindly walking around, running into each other and stumbling around. It suddenly occurred to him that his two guests were not ordinary men as he had thought. He realized that he is in the presence of heavenly angels. He is awestruck, dumbfounded and confused. What was the reason for their visit? He sensed, perhaps, that they had not come on a friendly visit to Sodom. Something very grave must be about to happen.

The angels didn’t wait for him to sort out his thoughts. The angels told Lot their mission. ““We will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the Lord; and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it.” Genesis 13:13. They said, “Hast thou here any besides? Son in law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place.” That’s verse 12.

Lot was stunned and paralyzed. The angels’ message was devastating. It was so serious that Lot didn’t know what to think. He was bewildered. Perhaps it occurred to him that he did not have time to sell his home, or his cattle, sheep, goats and other stock. But he was like a man who had just had his eyes opened, and the enormity of the crisis was overwhelming. What would happen to him? What would happen to his family? How would he survive? How will he make a living? Would he be able to take anything with him? His greatest concern was his daughters who were married to those worldly men. Could he convince them to leave Sodom with him?

These are the thoughts and feelings you will have when you are faced with the immediate crisis at the end of time if, like Lot, you have not prepared. Lot had no chance to think and plan, he could only react.

In great fear and haste, Lot, a newly appointed prophet, went out into the night with the last warning, a type of the loud cry, for his children. He went from one family to another of his sons-in-law that married his daughters and tried to explain to them what the angels had told him. He urged them to “come out of her my people.” “Up, get you out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city.” verse 14. He explained to them that destruction was coming very soon, and that they didn’t have time to pack their belongings. They would just have to leave.

“What has gotten into you Lot?” they asked. “Have you gone mad? Nothing is going to happen to Sodom, especially the way you describe. Your religion has made you a fanatic, Lot. Why are you trying to scare us? God, if there is one, is a loving God. He won’t do anything like that. There is no such thing as a judgment. Stop trying to be sensational. You must be dreaming bad dreams. Go away and come back when you aren’t so over-excited.”

But Lot kept insisting that his prophecy was true and that they had no time. He pled with them and cried tears of anguish as he begged and pleaded. “If you don’t do anything else I say, please do this,” he begged. Lot told them about the angels and the blindness they had inflicted on the men of the city, hoping this would convince them of the truth of his words. But they just brushed it off as trickery.

As Lot continued to insist, they mocked him all the more. “What have you been smoking Lot?” You are having hallucinations. Maybe you should go sleep it off. There has never been any fire come down from heaven, and it isn’t going to happen now. You and your superstitions…”

Lot’s married daughters were influenced by their husbands. “We’re well off here Dad, we shouldn’t leave now,” they said. “After all, there is no evidence of danger. Everything is just as it always has been. It can’t be that Sodom is going to be destroyed, especially tomorrow.”

Lot was alarmed at the response from his children. Well after midnight, with tears streaming down his face, Lot trudged sorrowfully back to his home, his heart full of anxiety and anguish, not knowing what do to. His thoughts raced as he thought back over his life and the poor choices he had made. He sensed that he was about to lose everything, losing all his possessions in a moment, including at least some of his children and grandchildren. This was terrifying. How could his children turn from the warning? There was no more time to help them see their danger. There was nothing he could do.

With tears and anguish, Lot told the angels how he had failed to convince his daughters and their families to come with him. He was devastated. They listened patiently and then told Lot it was time to go. “Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.” verse 15.

Lot did not want to go. His home was there in Sodom. His family was there, and all his possessions were there. How could he leave? Lot did not understand the depth of iniquity and the sinfulness of the vile practices in the city of Sodom. He didn’t realize that God’s judgments were necessary, in order to check sin in others. It is in mercy to others who have not passed the limit of divine forbearance that God meets out His judgments on the hardened, unrepentant and irretrievable.

Lot’s wife refused to leave Sodom without her children. They weren’t willing to leave Sodom, so why should she? Moreover, it was hard for Lot to let go of all his wealth that had been gained over a lifetime of labor. He certainly had a luxurious home. Would he have to go live in a cave? Paralyzed by terror, grief and shock, devastated by certain loss, he lingered. The angels watched as he fiddled around and wasted time, obviously not anxious to leave.

Finally, knowing that the time was almost at hand for the destruction of Sodom, they took Lot, his wife and two daughters, and perhaps with some protests from Lot’s wife, pulled them along to the gate of the city, and pushed them out. Imagine what it must have felt like to be dragged out side the city and then sternly told to flee. It was almost offensive to Lot and his wife. You know what it is like to have someone put pressure on you to make a spiritual decision when you don’t really want to. The scripture says, that the Lord was being merciful to him. Sometimes, my friend, God sends someone to warn you. They may even put spiritual pressure on you. You may be offended and think they are being judgmental. You may balk at what they say. But think about it. God may be saving you from certain destruction. Sometimes we are unhappy and unsettled with things that happen to us which we cannot control. They are forced on us, so to speak. We may grumble and complain and may even become bitter, but in reality, they are also blessings of God’s mercy.

When the angels set Lot outside the city, they turned as if to go back to Sodom to do their work of destruction. It was still dark, though the dawn was lighting up the eastern horizon. Waiting outside the city was another divine being in the form of a man. This was none other than the Lord Himself. Its true! Where did I get that from? It is right there in verse 17. Listen carefully to the exact wording. “And it came to pass, when they (the two angels) had brought them forth abroad, that he said (He who? The One who came down from Abraham after the angels), ‘Escape for thy life; said Jesus, ‘look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.’” This urgent and strident command was to be unquestioningly followed. Divine retribution was only waiting for the four fugitives to reach safety before a firestorm would destroy the city.

Why do you think this story is in the Bible? Do you think that the Lord’s instruction to Lot is also for us today? Perhaps many of us think that Christ’s strong counsel to Lot is not applicable today. But it is. We must also escape with our lives! We cannot look back, for if we do we will again be ensnared in the very sins we left behind. Looking back today means that we are backsliding into the very sins over which we gained the victory, and we are consumed by their hold on us.

Jesus told Lot to escape from the city into the mountain. The word “escape” implies extreme urgency. In other words, His powerful command was not intended to convey that Lot could take his time. If we are to escape with our spiritual lives, we cannot linger in the city either. You cannot live according to the Bible if you are not willing to escape. You are to get out, and stay out! And not look back to your former life. It may be difficult. You may have to change the way you live. You may have to rethink your schedule and live more simply, but it will be worth it. Lot had no choice but to do what Jesus said if he was to survive. But those words were put there in the Bible for us too. We too must do what Jesus said if we are going to survive.

Lot refused to go to the mountain. Verses 18 & 19 say that “Lot said unto them, Oh, not so, my Lord… I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I die.” Did Lot think that God could not look after him in the mountain? Lot had been in the country for many years before coming to Sodom. He was familiar with country life. But now, after many years in the city, he was afraid and incapable of living off the land. Lot had been crippled by the city, and now he objected to fleeing to the mountains. City life had ruined his faith in God. Friends, for those who have not followed God’s counsel and learned how to live off the land, they will find it very difficult to conceive of fleeing to the mountains in the time of trouble.

As Lot fled to the city of Zoar, no doubt he wondered what would happen to him. When the little family reached the gates of the city, the sun had finally risen above the horizon.

Sodom was starting to stir. Lot’s daughters and sons-in-law looked up at the sky just as the sun was coming above the horizon. “Yea, poor old Lot,” they must have thought. “Confused and deranged by his silly religion, he got himself all worked up over nothing. It won’t be long before he comes back, and we’ll see what he has to say about all his doomsday predictions.”

But as these kinds of thoughts passed through their minds, suddenly there was a terrible roar as balls of fire and brimstone suddenly fell out of the sky. Within seconds the whole city was ablaze. Burning sulfur cut through their homes in an instant. They had no chance to escape. Their screams and dying moans could not be heard above the horrible roar of blazing fire.

Lot’s wife’s heart was still emotionally pitched toward Sodom, and when she heard the sound of the fire and brimstone she looked back to see what was happening to all her possessions and her earthly friends and family. Instantly she became a pillar of salt. This illustrates the pathetic quality of her soul. You know what salt tastes like by itself. It is dry and bitter. Lot’s wife had a soul that was dry and bitter like salt. Her disobedience cost her life.

It must have been hard for Lot to not look back when he heard the noise. But he restrained himself, no doubt with great self-discipline. When he saw what happened to his wife, he knew that he dare not disobey. This is the way it always is with God’s word. He means what He says. He does not speak idly. You can count on God’s word to be fulfilled, including judgments on the disobedient. Many people today don’t want to think about the judgments on those that disobey God’s word. They think that God so loves that He forgives and will not destroy the wicked. Yet his character is also just, for He knows when nations, cities and individuals have passed the point of no return, and the Holy Spirit can no longer reach their hearts. That is the time when He puts an end to their rebellion as a merciful warning to others.

God’s word is absolutely clear. He will cause judgments and destruction to come upon those in total rebellion to His law. It is out of love, not passion or selfish anger. Today, God’s judgments are falling in modest power. They are restrained. Yet the time is coming when the large cities will be destroyed. Listen to this important statement.

“God is withdrawing His Spirit from the wicked cities, which have become as the cities of the antediluvian world and as Sodom and Gomorrah… Costly mansions, marvels of architectural skill, will be destroyed without a moment’s notice when the Lord sees that the owners have passed the boundaries of forgiveness. The destruction by fire of the stately buildings, supposed to be fireproof, is an illustration of how in a short time earth’s architecture will lie in ruins. That’s Last Day Events, page 112.

Here is another one from Country Living, page 7. “I am bidden to declare the message that cities full of transgression, and sinful in the extreme, will be destroyed by earthquakes, by fire, by flood. All the world will be warned that there is a God who will display His authority as God. His unseen agencies will cause destruction, devastation, and death. All the accumulated riches will be as nothingness…”

Lot could not stay in Zoar. He feared to live there too, for that city was nearly as wicked as Sodom. So he ended up fleeing to the mountain anyway, living in a cave with his two daughters.

Even after leaving Sodom, Lot’s life was not holy. He was made drunk by his daughters who then had an incestuous relationship with him. He became the father of his grandchildren. He had not trained them to discern spiritual things. They could not see that their plan was evil because they had been surrounded all those years by the wicked city of Sodom where incest was common.

The lesson Lot learned should not be lost on us. We are to see in this tragic story a powerful admonition for us. Friends, we have to face the fact that today the whole world is much the same as it was in Sodom. We are near the end. How much longer will God forebear and suffer the wickedness to continue.

Today, God is waiting for a people that will represent him with full maturity of character. The world needs shining examples of men and women who are fully yielded to His overcoming power in their lives. You are His representatives to the world. They will hate you because your life is a reproof to theirs. Yet, that is the only way that God can finish His work on earth. He must have a mature group of Christians that overcome all sin by the grace and power of Jesus, and who live in the ungodly world around them according to God’s plan. Please my friend, make sure you are among that number. God bless you.