Because this holy Lord is coming back. And He is holy. We are thankful that we are His, because when He comes back, not only will we be honored with His presence, but there will be judgment on this earth.
We are now in this life of Abraham. We have come to Genesis 18 and 19, the chapters in which the Lord rains fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah. We see the lives of Lot and Abraham contrasted in these two chapters.
This morning, I had some things on my heart and was wrestling before the Lord as to what to emphasize today. I was saying, “Lord, I just don’t know. Maybe it’s two parts.”
Then I got a call from my brother Kenny. It was about quarter to nine—or was it seven-thirty? See, I don’t even know where I was. I was so into the Lord this morning.
But anyway, he called me and shared some things with me. Then, when we got to the fellowship, he shared a few more things. Actually, there are things I feel need to be shared, and they helped clarify the burden that is on my heart this morning.
So the bottom line is that there are going to be two parts to this message, and it’s Kenny’s fault.
No, I am thankful for what the Lord shared through my brother. It really brought clarity to what I had been wrestling with in my heart this week.
As we have been sharing on the life of Abraham, we have been looking to learn who God is and to learn God’s ways. The Lord is coming soon, and in order to be prepared, we need to know who He is and learn His ways. Otherwise, our lives will not be changed, and we will continue to live as we have in the past—not really prepared for His very soon return.
Last time, as we were sharing from the life of Abraham, we saw that God was the Almighty God. Abraham had been in the land for ten years and still did not have the promised son. Sarah’s womb was still closed, and he had become quite discouraged.
After those ten years, his wife wanted to help out a little bit. She conceived the plan that if Abraham would take Hagar, the handmaid who had come from Egypt, he could have children through her. Well, this is one of the marvelous plans of man to help God.
Abraham agreed. He thought that was a good plan, and Ishmael was born as a result of man’s ways.
God did not speak to Abraham or appear to him for another thirteen years after that. I think that shows us the seriousness, brothers and sisters, of leaning to our own understanding—of trying to utilize the mind and the will of the flesh in order to accomplish the things of God.
Those thirteen years were not totally wasted, in that God disciplined Abraham. The discipline was, frankly, that there was no communication between him and the Lord. He left Abraham out there, so to speak, on his own. He could not really commune with God.
During that period, Abraham must have had to consider what was going on. God was not speaking to him anymore.
Finally, after thirteen years, when Abraham and his wife could absolutely no longer have children, God appeared to Abraham and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before Me.”
He said that because Abraham needed to see who God was. This period of discipline was so that Abraham would come to the full realization of Who God is. He said, “I am God Almighty.”
Brothers and sisters, in our lives before the Lord, there comes a point in the working of the Lord in your life and in my life when we have to come to the realization that He is God Almighty. He really does not need our help.
He wants us to cooperate with Him, to share His life, to live this life of grace, and to walk before Him. But He is the Initiator, and it is He, through His power, Who carries out His will on His earth. We are to cooperate with Him in that.
We are not to lean on our own understanding, but in all things we need to go to God and say, “God, what are You after? Is this Your way? I did have these thoughts, Lord, about what I should do to carry out Your will, but, Lord, is this what You want?”
Not only do I need to know Your will. They knew God’s will was for Abraham to have an heir, but they did not understand God’s ways. They did not understand that He was God Almighty and that He would do what He intended to do.
Out of this period of discipline, Abraham’s eyes were opened to see that God is God Almighty. He responded to the Lord.
The Lord said, “Look, I will give you an heir. Your seed will inherit this land.” That is still true today. “And not only that, I will be their God—the God of Israel. Your seed—that is My promise. We are going to enter into a covenant.”
That covenant would be sealed by circumcision on Abraham’s part. In other words, Abraham was not only to believe, but he needed to respond, and that response was in circumcision. Abraham, Ishmael, all the males in his family, and the servants all had to be circumcised.
Circumcision itself is a cutting off of the flesh.
Brothers and sisters, if we are going on with the Lord, we have to finally come to that place where we are circumcised in our hearts—where we no longer have any confidence in ourselves, where we tremble before the Lord before we take action.
We need to come to the place where there is no confidence in the flesh. Then God can work in your life. Until then, our life is so full of mixture.
But now Abraham sees that God is God Almighty. He humbles himself before God and is circumcised. He is ninety-nine years old.
Now we come to Genesis 18 and 19. Let us turn to Genesis 18.
This chapter is about the Lord’s coming judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah. I mentioned earlier that God is a God of judgment.
Now, brothers and sisters, we know God is a God of grace. It was through His grace that God offered His only begotten Son on your and my behalf, that He might be the sin-bearer in our lives.
He bore your sins on Calvary’s cross. He died on your behalf and took your place, because all who sin deserve to die. But He took that punishment upon Himself, and that is grace.
We can receive God’s righteousness when we receive His Son, because His Son is righteous. That is the righteousness we have—the righteousness we receive from God as a gift. It is His Son, Jesus Christ, when we accept Him into our lives.
Earlier, our sister, during the time of the table, mentioned the Scripture that says if we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved.
If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord,
and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised Him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved.
That is the free gift of God to all who believe. It is grace.
But there is also judgment. God is not only a God of grace, but a God of judgment.
We remember that in the days of Noah, He said that the sins of the whole earth had come before Him. Man was evil; even his thoughts were evil. There was no righteousness. God was going to destroy not only mankind, but the whole earth.
There was a great flood, as we know, and only Noah and his family were saved, for they were put in an ark provided by God. In typology, that ark is Jesus Christ.
The coming judgment is coming upon this earth. The only way to be saved from that judgment—from the great white throne judgment—is because we are safe in the ark. We are safe in Jesus Christ.
Judgments are all along the way:
At the end of the millennium, all those who are not Christians will come before the great white throne. The Lord will open the book of life and see whether their name is there.
Brothers and sisters, we are thankful that, as Christians, we will not have to go to the great white throne judgment, because it is a judgment of life. We have already received eternal life.
Therefore, we will not be judged on the basis of life or death. But we will be judged at the judgment seat of Christ by what we have done. Have we entered in and used the grace of God that has been given to us to serve Him and His purposes? That is the judgment seat of Christ.
Let me say it another way: what God begins with His grace, He finishes with His judgment.
His judgment, if you really think about it, is grace. Through judgment, God brings to fruition all that He has on His heart. Through judgment, evil is finally destroyed and taken out of the picture.
Think of judgment like this: it is the great housecleaning of God.
When He cleans house—you know, us brothers, there is a word we fear every early spring. Our wives come and say, “It’s time to do a little spring cleaning.”
It sounds so innocent. It is not innocent.
When she says it is time to do spring cleaning, what she is really saying is, “You and I, we are going to do the spring cleaning.”
You know how it goes, brothers. Usually your wife cleans up things, and things are pretty straight. But when you do spring cleaning, man, you have to pull out the furniture, dust everything behind the furniture, and even dust on top of the refrigerator.
You dust places you have forgotten about. You do the blinds and the drapes. You clean the floors. You may have to polish and wax the floor. Then comes the great one: you have to clean the windows. Oh, what a task.
That is what God is doing through judgment. He is cleaning everything.
Judgment is necessary in order to bring in His kingdom. He is going to clean house first. Praise the Lord.
We perceive judgment as a bad thing, and if we are on the receiving end of judgment, it can be pretty disheartening. But it is to finally clean up everything. That is what judgment does in God’s eyes.
God is also a God of vengeance. Now, vengeance is a tough word for us, because Scripture says:
Vengeance belongeth unto Me;
I will recompense, saith the Lord.
He tells us not to have a vengeful heart. It is wrong for us because we are flawed. We cannot exercise vengeance righteously, but God can.
His vengeance is righteous and is done righteously. Vengeance ultimately destroys the devil and all his work. It is the Lord’s vengeance that does it.
Let us begin to read Genesis 18. We will read the first three verses.
And the Lord appeared unto him by the oaks of Mamre,
as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;
and he lifted up his eyes and looked,
and, lo, three men stood over against him:
and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door,
and bowed himself to the earth,
and said, My lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight,
pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant.
These three men were on a mission. One of them happened to be the Lord Himself, and He had two angels with Him.
Abraham said:
Let now a little water be fetched,
and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree:
and I will fetch a morsel of bread,
and strengthen ye your hearts;
after that ye shall pass on:
forasmuch as ye are come to your servant.
Abraham hastened to the tent and had Sarah make three measures of meal and cakes. Abraham ran to the herd, took a tender calf, and prepared it for them. He took butter and milk and set it before them. Then he stood by them under the tree.
They asked, “Where is Sarah thy wife?” Abraham answered, “Behold, in the tent.” Then the Lord said, “I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son.”
Let us go to verse 14:
Is anything too hard for the Lord?
At the time appointed I will return unto thee,
according to the time of life,
and Sarah shall have a son.
The Lord was on a mission here. We will see in a moment that His mission was to see about Sodom and Gomorrah. But while He was on this mission, He stopped by His friend Abraham’s.
I think this is amazing. The Lord had already perceived what was going on in Sodom and Gomorrah, and He was preparing to rain judgment upon it. Yet He stopped by Abraham’s house on the way, with these two angels of destruction.
What did He do? He said, “Abraham, you are going to have a child. Sarah is going to have a child.”
The Lord had already told them they were going to have a child, and this was not very long afterward. But what I think is so interesting here is the mercy and grace of God to Abraham.
He knew Abraham had waited so long, and now he was still waiting a little longer. So the Lord stopped and gave Abraham reassurance. He stopped to let Abraham know that assuredly he would have this child.
Sarah was still laughing a little bit, saying, “I am old. How can I have a baby?” The Lord challenged her. She said, “No, I did not laugh, Lord.” He said, “Oh yes, you did.”
It does not seem to be a serious rebuke, but the Lord was saying, “Sarah, it is not a laughing matter. You will have a child.”
For those who have been recently saved, the Lord is gracious. He wants you to know that you are safe. If you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth, you are safe.
There is reassurance—assurance from God. When somebody accepts the Lord Jesus Christ, He forgives them. He is the substitute for their sin, but He immediately presents them before the Father at the throne and says, “Father, this one has accepted Me as their Lord and Savior. Will You accept them?”
The Father looks at His Son and says, “Because they have accepted You and Your sacrifice on Calvary’s cross, I accept them. They are now family.”
Brothers and sisters, we often use that word because we are family. We are family because of the Elder Son, Jesus Christ. God has brought us into the family. It is His grace.
God, on the way to such serious business, stopped by Abraham’s place to reassure him and give him assurance. For those who have been recently saved, may God give you that assurance, because it is a strength you need. It is difficult to live the Christian life when you are not totally assured.
Let us go to verse 16.
And the men rose up from thence,
and looked toward Sodom:
and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way.
And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that which I do;
seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation,
and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?
For I have known him,
to the end that he may command his children and his household after him,
that they may keep the way of the Lord.
God had this in His heart. He knew He was going to have to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. He is sovereign; He can do what He wants. He does not need man’s counsel.
But here God condescends and says, “Shall I hide this from Abraham?” The Lord says, “I know him.”
This knowing is not just a casual knowing. He really knew Abraham. He knew Abraham’s heart. He knew Abraham’s heart toward Him, even though Abraham had failed many times.
God knew that Abraham really had a heart for Him, and God wanted to share His heart with Abraham.
Have you experienced this? God knows you. If your heart is really toward the Lord and for the Lord, there come times in your life when the Lord has things on His heart that He wants to share with you.
Oh, may we beware of our cold and callous hearts before the Lord. He has things He wants to share with us.
The Lord said:
The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great,
and, because their sin is very grievous,
I will go down now,
and see whether they have done altogether
according to the cry of it, which is come unto Me;
and if not, I will know.
The men turned and went toward Sodom, but Abraham stood yet before the Lord.
Abraham drew near and said:
Wilt Thou consume the righteous with the wicked?
Peradventure there are fifty righteous within the city:
wilt Thou consume and not spare the place
for the fifty righteous that are therein?
That be far from Thee to do after this manner,
to slay the righteous with the wicked,
that so the righteous should be as the wicked;
that be far from Thee:
shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?
Boy, Abraham is stepping out on shaky ground. The Lord shared His heart with him, and Abraham had this tremendous burden. He knew the people in Sodom and Gomorrah were vile, but he also knew that his nephew Lot and his family were there.
Yet Abraham did not come to the Lord and say, “Lord, my nephew is in that city. I would appreciate it if You would save it for his sake.” He did not approach the Lord on that basis.
The Lord said that unless you hate father and mother, you cannot be His disciple. That is a difficult word, but what the Lord is really saying is that you cannot put family before Him.
Abraham had learned enough lessons from the Lord to realize that God was righteous. Abraham had been dealt with pretty sternly at times, but through that discipline he had learned that God was righteous.
Looking back over his life, Abraham had to say, “Everything that God has done in my life was right.” He had learned those lessons.
So he approached God based on what he knew of the Lord: “Lord, You are a righteous God. You are the Judge, but You are a righteous Judge. It would not be right if You destroyed the righteous with the wicked.” So he interceded on their behalf.
The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous, I will not destroy it.”
Abraham said, “What if there are forty-five?” The Lord said, “Forty-five.”
Then Abraham went to forty. “Lord, what about forty?” The Lord said, “I will do it for forty’s sake. I will not destroy it.”
Abraham took a big leap. Instead of going by fives, he went by tens: “Lord, what if there are only thirty righteous people? Will You spare the city?”
The Lord said, “Sure.”
Abraham said, “Lord, do not get perturbed with me, but I have one more request. If there are only ten…” He already had his nephew and his two daughters there.
The Lord said, “If there are only ten righteous in that city, I will save the whole city. I will spare My judgment.”
What mercy. Do you see how merciful God is? How merciful He has been through all these centuries, wanting His will to be done, wanting the earth to be purified, wanting the bride to be made ready—and He has been merciful.
He has put up with all our sins. He has put up with the evil of this world, and He has even put up with Satan. He has done it for our sakes.
Anybody here who is a Christian, I believe that somewhere along the line it was the prayers of some saints that helped bring you to the Lord. It may have been your father, your mother, your aunt, your uncle, or some relative praying and interceding on your behalf.
The Lord is a merciful God and very patient. I think it is amazing that He would save a whole city for the sake of ten.
There were five cities in that plain, of which Sodom was the largest and the key city. Really, He was going to destroy all five.
What has happened in Abraham’s relationship with the Lord? Abraham has become an intercessor.
God wanted Abraham to be an intercessor. God wanted Abraham to come before Him and intercede on behalf of those people in Sodom and Gomorrah.
He wants a vessel that will intercede in these hours in which He is waiting—interceding for the lost, interceding for the deceived, interceding for His plan and for what He is going to do, standing with Him.
He is looking for an intercessor on the earth who will stand for Him and His will—not only His will, but His ways.
That is what Abraham did. He said, “You are the Judge of all the earth, and judgment is Your right.” He stood for that. But he also said, “Lord, You are righteous. That is Your way. Your ways are righteous, and I stand on Your righteousness.”
Through that little intercession, brothers and sisters, we learn something. God has shown us something of Himself. He is the Judge, He is righteous, and He will judge righteously.
All the principalities and powers knew that God was going to judge Sodom and Gomorrah, but they also saw that He was a righteous Judge.
What is the application of this particular part of Scripture? I believe at least some of it is this: we are living in the end days.
A lot of folks think that what is around the corner is heaven—the New Jerusalem. But that is not the case. What is around the corner is the kingdom of God: a thousand-year millennium period and the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Christ will come on this earth physically and reign as King over the whole earth for a thousand years. He will judge in righteousness.
That is the age of which the Bible speaks. The wolf will lie down with the lamb, the snake’s venom will no longer have any effect, and there will be peace. The nations will turn their weapons into plowshares.
That is the utopia. That is the kingdom in which God will reign and rule on this earth. This earth, as it is today, will have God’s kingdom brought upon it for a thousand years.
That is what is around the corner. When I say around the corner, I mean it. It is like the next step you take, the next corner you turn. His kingdom will be here, and we need to be prepared for that kingdom.
The Lord today is looking for an intercessor. That is why the Lord Jesus was so angry at those in the temple with their money changers and worldly ways. He said:
It is written,
My house shall be called a house of prayer:
but ye make it a den of robbers.
The King was there, and He wanted an intercessor, but it was not there.
Thank God there were a few, though—Anna and Simeon, as our brother shared last week—who were diligently looking for the Lord’s return.
Today, He is looking for an intercessor who will stand with Him. In the Old Testament, that intercessor was usually an individual. But today, who is to be His intercessor? Who is the vessel of intercession that the Lord is looking to stand with Him on this earth as a testimony, to stand with Him for His will and His ways?
It is the church. That is His vessel. That is to be His intercessor, His house of prayer. That is what we are to be.
I would challenge us all, brothers and sisters: in our life with the Lord, just as God turned Abraham into an intercessor, He wants to make us intercessors.
That is why we gather on Wednesday night for intercessory prayer. Most of the time, the prayers are not individual, other than praying for the sick and the problems in our midst.
But we are really looking to the Lord concerning His will upon this earth, concerning His gospel, concerning His soon return, and concerning the saints being ready. Those have been the subjects on our heart recently as we have been before the Lord in intercession.
If we are going to grow spiritually, there has to come that place in your life where you become a true intercessor—not just for yourself and your family, but for God, for His purpose, and for what He is doing.
We live in the most critical hour in the history of this universe, when things are going to greatly change.
Christ will be King of the earth. All government will be under His rule and authority. Righteousness will reign on this earth, and there will be peace. There will not be fighting and wars.
Even creation itself will be altered. The wildness in animals will be taken away.
I dare say even the humidity might leave. Praise the Lord.
I do not know how many adjustments He is going to make to the weather, but I could do with a little less humidity. Maybe more humility. Amen.
Abraham became an intercessor. That is a great thing that happened in Abraham’s life at this point.
The Lord is looking for that corporate vessel of intercession. One reason, brothers and sisters, the Lord has not returned yet is because He is waiting for the intercessor to pray His prayers.
It is amazing. The Lord has delayed because we are not ready, but He has also delayed because we have not been praying. He is still looking for that intercessor.
If you read the history of the Old Testament, He always raises up an intercessor. I do not remember which book it was in where the Lord said, “I looked for an intercessor, and I could not find one.” He is always looking for that intercessor.
Let us get to Genesis 19. I will just get started this morning, and we will stop and continue later.
And the two angels came to Sodom at even;
and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom:
and Lot saw them, and rose up to meet them;
and he bowed himself with his face to the earth;
and he said, Behold now, my lords,
turn in, I pray you, into your servant’s house,
and tarry all night, and wash your feet,
and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways.
The angels said, “No; but we will abide in the street all night.” But Lot pressed upon them greatly, and they entered his house. He made them a feast.
Before they were able to go to sleep, the men of the city of Sodom surrounded the house—old and young, from every quarter of the city. They called to Lot and said, “Where are the men who came in to thee this night? Bring them out unto us, that we may know them.”
The word sodomy is named after this city, so we know what was on the minds of these men.
Lot went out to the door and said, “Do not touch these men. I have two daughters who have not known man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you would like. But do not touch these men under my roof.”
The men said, “Stand back,” and they pressed upon the door and nearly broke it in. But the angels put forth their hands, pulled Lot into the house, shut the door, and smote the men at the door with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the door.
The angels said to Lot, “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. Get them out of here.”
They said:
For we will destroy this place,
because the cry of them is waxed great
before the face of the Lord;
and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it.
Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law. They had not yet married his daughters in our terms, but in those days engagement meant they were married. He said, “You need to get out of this place. The Lord is going to destroy it.”
But it seemed to his sons-in-law as though he mocked. They did not receive it.
When morning arose, 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.
Listen to this: “While he lingered.”
Imagine that. While he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, the hand of his wife, and the hands of his two daughters. The Lord was merciful to him, brought him forth, and put him outside the city.
Then they said:
Escape for thy life;
look not behind thee,
neither stay thou in all the Plain;
escape to the mountain,
lest thou be consumed.
Listen to Lot’s words again:
Oh, not so, my lord:
behold now, thy servant hath found favor in thy sight,
and thou hast magnified thy lovingkindness,
which thou hast showed unto me in saving my life;
and I cannot escape to the mountain,
lest evil overtake me, and I die.
Abraham stood in the place where he had stood before the Lord, looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward the land of the plain, and saw the smoke of the country going up as the smoke of a furnace.
And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the Plain,
that God remembered Abraham,
and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow,
when He overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt.
Lot went up out of Zoar and dwelt in the mountain, he and his two daughters. He feared to dwell in Zoar, so he dwelt in a cave with his two daughters.
Here we see Lot in the impending judgment, and Lot’s reaction to the judgment.
I want to take a moment before we stop and contrast Abraham and Lot.
If you read this story, you should become aware that Abraham represents a spiritual Christian. He had failed, and he had been under the disciplining hand of the Lord. But he responded to the Lord, listened to the Lord, learned the Lord, and learned His ways.
The Lord was able to give Abraham a vision of Christ, the city that was to come, and God’s eternal purpose. But Abraham was still living in a tent up on the mountain.
He was still a stranger and a sojourner. That sums up Abraham’s life in the land. He was a stranger and a sojourner. He had no roots there. He was still moving around in a tent.
He was not looking to build a home there and put his roots down. He was up on the mountain.
Lot, it is pretty obvious, represents a worldly Christian.
You remember when Lot was separated from Abraham. The Lord promised Abraham the whole land, and Abraham said, “Fine, Lord.” Then Lot’s herdsmen and Abraham’s herdsmen got into disputes because there was not enough land where they were to support all the cattle and sheep.
Abraham said to Lot, “You can go anywhere you want to.”
Lot made a choice. He looked over the plain that we just talked about. It was lush. It was a lush valley down there. It was fertile, and I am sure, with no doubt in my mind, Lot was thinking, “What a place to settle down. It has all the provision I need. It is a lush land, a fertile land. The cattle can feed there. I can raise crops there. It is just going to be a marvelous place. I can settle down.”
You see what was happening in Lot’s heart. He had gone out with Abraham, but unfortunately he did not have the vision Abraham had. Because of that, his life was not that stable as a Christian.
When he was given the opportunity to choose between continuing to be a stranger and a sojourner, he decided—even though it was not final yet—that he was going to be a dweller, not a sojourner.
That was the critical choice, and he made that choice because he was a compromised Christian. That is what my brother shared with me. Lot compromised his Christian life at the very point he made the choice that he was going to go after the things of the world rather than the things of God.
Interestingly enough, if you read a few chapters earlier, in the beginning Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom. He did not go to Sodom at first. He got close. He got down in the plain and had his tent there.
At that point he was still trying to be a sojourner, but he was caught. Obviously, he was sucked in, because in this chapter he has a house in Sodom. He had moved into Sodom, this very evil city.
You can see how evil it was when all the men gathered around and wanted the angels. They even refused his daughters because they wanted the angels so badly. It was an evil place.
If you read 2 Peter, strangely enough, it says Lot was a righteous man who was grieved by the evil things he saw and heard there.
But brothers and sisters, as a worldly Christian, his heart was probably pricked, but he never acted on his conscience before God. He never repented and said, “Lord, I am in the wrong place.” The world had its grip on him.
He delighted in the things of the city and the life of the city. He moved in, and he became a dweller there.
Not only that, we find him sitting in the gate. In those days, the business of the city was carried on by the elders of the city at the gate. That is where they conducted business and made contracts with one another.
Lot had become somebody in that place. I said Abraham—Lot. I do not know why I like Abraham. Lot had really become embodied as a politician, probably.
But we find him in the gate. He was part of the life of the city. He had become part of it. He was at home there.
Yet his conscience would occasionally prick him. When he saw the evil that was there, it would really get him. He himself did not participate in all those evils, but he was fascinated by the life of that city and what it did.
He continued to make his choices, and he was getting sucked deeper and deeper into the world. He had compromised his Christian life.
Think about what he had done. It is amazing.
Because he was in the city, those two angels came into the city and were put in danger. Because Lot had compromised his Christian life, he was willing to give up his two daughters.
Can you imagine that? It is hard for me to fathom. But he was willing to give up his two daughters because he had compromised his Christian life.
He was no longer a stranger and a sojourner in the world, but a part of it. He began to think like the world, and the world got into Lot.
Abraham is doing okay. He is up on the mountain. Remind us of that.
Then Lot went to his sons-in-law-to-be and said, “The Lord is going to judge this place. You need to come with us. We are going to leave.”
But it said that when he talked to them, it seemed as if he was mocking them. Why was this? Lot had no testimony.
Whoever hears this tape is going to have a fun time, I can tell that. I do not know why I keep saying Abraham. Lot had no testimony.
He was just like them. He was living like the people of the city. So when he came and said, “The Lord has told me that judgment is coming and we have to escape,” they laughed at him.
They looked at his life. They certainly did not believe he was a Christian. Even though he said he knew God, his life gave no indication that he was a Christian. He was just like they were.
His words meant nothing to them. They carried no authority and no power. He was a weak Christian.
Though God had spoken with him, his words could carry no weight. We see why: the next morning, when the angels said, “It is time to go,” he lingered.
The judgment was coming, but his heart was still with the world. He lingered.
He had compromised his life to the world, and the world had its grip on him. He could not get out of his own accord. He could not make the choice to leave. The angels had to pull Lot, his two daughters, and his wife by the hand and drag them out of the city.
On the way out, Lot’s wife disobeyed. She looked back, and she turned into a pillar of salt.
She became the land she loved so much. She loved the world so much that she became the world. Can I say it any other way?
Look at what Lot lost because of his compromised Christian life. He lost everything he had. He lost all his cattle. He lost his house. He lost his money—whatever money they had in those days.
The only thing he came out with was his two daughters and his wife, and he lost his wife.
It was because Lot made that choice to quit being a sojourner on this earth and to be a dweller. He compromised his Christian life.
It was not a sudden process. It happened over a number of years. I do not know how many, but more and more the world had its grip on him until he could not escape it. Only the angels could deliver him.
Brothers and sisters, I have to say this. I am going to share more on this next time because of what our brothers shared at the conference: this matter of the Lord’s parousia, His coming back in two phases.
First, He comes as a thief, and some Christians will go up to be with Him at the throne. Secondly, there is the sound of the trumpet, and we all arise in the Lord.
You know what? He has to pull us out.
That is the picture I am left with. If we are those who wait until the sound of the trumpet, we are the ones He had to pull out.
If we are not taken when He comes from the throne to the cloud the first time, in that first phase of parousia, then we miss something.
But everything that we have on this earth, brothers and sisters, will be burned. Everything that we have at the time of rapture will be gone. All the things we love so much, all the things we cherish, all the things that hold us down to this earth—they are gone.
Lot lost all the things that were precious to him except his two daughters. It was because he compromised his life.
My brother shared this Scripture with me this morning, and I would like to end with it: 1 Corinthians 3:15. Let me start with verse 10.
According to the grace of God which was given unto me,
as a wise master builder I laid a foundation;
and another buildeth thereon.
But let each man take heed how he buildeth thereon.
For other foundation can no man lay
than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
But if any man buildeth on the foundation
gold, silver, costly stones,
wood, hay, stubble;
each man’s work shall be made manifest:
for the day shall declare it,
because it is revealed in fire;
and the fire itself shall prove each man’s work
of what sort it is.
Gold, silver, and precious stones: Abraham’s life. Wood, hay, and stubble: Lot’s life.
This is talking about the judgment seat of Christ.
If any man’s work shall abide
which he built thereon,
he shall receive a reward.
If any man’s work shall be burned,
he shall suffer loss:
but he himself shall be saved;
yet so as through fire.
God was merciful to Lot. He is the example of a life of wood, hay, and stubble. Yet God saved him as by fire.
Now, brothers and sisters, I have to challenge my own heart today and all of our hearts, that we really consider how much we have invested in this earth and in this world, and how much it means to us—and how much the Lord means to us.
It is very interesting. When Cain killed his brother Abel, the Lord cursed him and said, “You will be a vagabond the rest of the days of your life.”
Cain disobeyed the Lord. He was rebellious. He would not listen to the Lord, and he immediately went out, married a wife, and built a city. That should tell us something.
The sons of Cain became those skilled in music and art, and all the things we tend to value—education and the things of this earth. Brothers and sisters, these things are not necessarily evil in themselves.
But if this is what our life is taken up with—the houses we own, the land we have, the kingdoms we have built, the arts, the education—we can get wrapped up in any of these things.
It steals our heart, and we find ourselves no longer tent dwellers but house dwellers; no longer sojourners on this earth, but dwellers.
The Lord wants sojourners.
I hope you young people can receive what I have to say, because the time is short. Do not get caught up in the things of this world.
Lord, we come to Thee today. Lord, I am so grateful that even with Lot, You spared him. Only he and the two daughters were saved at the end, but You did spare him because he was Yours.
Now, Lord, we are Yours. But You deserve more at the end than just wood, hay, and stubble to be offered up out of our lives.
Lord, I pray that You will touch our hearts concerning this matter. You have charged us that we can be in the world, but not of it. Lord, may it be so in our hearts and lives.
Lord, I also want to pray that You will raise up that intercessor vessel that You need for this hour—to prepare Your people, to prepare the way of the Lord, and to prepare the way of the kingdom.
Lord, have the intercessor You have always needed. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.