THE CREEPING OF SIN - LESSONS FROM LOT'S LIFE

Scripture Reading Genesis 13:5-13

I there is an example in the Old Testament of a wordly a Christian - it would be a Lot.

When Lot chose the land to the East when Abraham went the opposite direction, no one could blame him.

Genesis 13:10 says the land he chose looked like the Garden of Eden itself. The pastures were green and fertile; there were plenty of places of water and shade.

The problem was that it stretched out toward two cities that were well known for their wickedness, Sodom and Gomorrah.

Genesis 13:13 says:

Genesis 13:13 KJV

But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.

But that didn’t concern Lot; he liked the vibe of the cities, so he chose the land toward Sodom.

Lot not only lived near Sodom; he eventually became a leader in Sodom. Though it seems that Lot never went along with the worst wickedness in Sodom and kept most of his major morals intact, it’s also clear from Genesis 19 that he made many small compromises in order to be accepted in Sodom.

Most tragically, Lot kept his mouth shut about his identity as God’s servant and his faith in God. And in the end, Sodom was destroyed and Lot was saved, by the skin of his teeth - but in the end he lost everything, including his wife, and his two daughters had their intellect compromised and the morals corrupted.

I don’t want to just make it to heaven barely and lose everyone around me. I don’t want to make it by the skin of my teeth. I want to make a difference in the here and now and not just get people to think I’m hip, I’m nice, and I’m a good guy, but that there is something they see in me that is different, holy, reverent before God. I want to see God use me in such a way and I want you to be successful in the same manner.

There are four life-saving lessons we can learn from Lot about the reality of sin and its consequences.

I. Beware of the creeping of sin in your life.

Beware of the progressive effect of sin.

Most Christians don’t intend to become like Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot never intended to make Sodom his home, and he certainly didn’t intend to be included in its judgment. But many Christians, like Lot, are so attracted to the world that they make their home as close to it as possible. They end up identifying as much with the world as they do with the people of God.

A. The Creeping of loving the things of the world

B. The Creeping of loving their philosophies

C. The Creeping of honoring their traditions

D. The Creeping of the accepting of their sin

Can I tell you Believers, you may have never heard this before, but for you and I to accept their sin is sin.

We must not become comfortable with sin. It should betray our conscience.

Ephesians 5:10–12 (KJV)

Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.

For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.

Charles Spurgeon used to say, “If you’re going to be saved, be saved 100 percent.”

The most miserable person in the world is the half-committed Christian, who is just enough in the world to be miserable in God and just enough into God that they are miserable in the world. Your heart is filled with salt, and not in a good way: you feel dry and lifeless everywhere.

The worst thing to do is to try to straddle two opinions. You can’t keep trying to walk along with your feet in both worlds. You have to make up your mind: Who do you really want to be? Where do you want to belong? If it’s with the world, go there 100 percent. If it’s with God, go with him 100 percent.

II. You cannot drift into godliness

Living for Jesus in this world will always feel like an uphill battle, because you are going against the current, and everything in the world will pull you in the other direction. If you are not actively fighting, you are drifting the wrong way, like Lot to Sodom.

To go with Jesus, you have to swim against the current, and that takes effort. Jesus said in

Matthew 7:13–14 KJV

Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

If you’re drifting, you’re not actively seeking to know God and his Word. It’s not that you reject the Bible; you just give all your time to Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram reels, Netflix binging, and video games. You spend all your time on your phone, staring at life in Sodom. What’s left over for spiritual growth is middling.

You’ll never drift into spiritual maturity. It takes daily, focused effort. To become what no one else is becoming, you have to do what no one is doing.

You’ll never drift into spiritual maturity. It takes daily, focused effort. To become what no one else is becoming, you have to do what no one is doing. Click To Tweet

III. There is a coming judgment

For years God had warned Sodom and Gomorrah about the coming judgment, and everyone brushed it off as unreal and went back to partying. But God makes no empty promises, and so one day, judgment came.

The greatest judgment God can send to His people is to let them have their own way and not interfere.

Warren W. Wiersbe

God tells us he is slow in executing judgment to give people space to repent, but don’t confuse his slowness with his absence.

Hebrews 9:27 KJV

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

If only every man and woman in the world today realized that he or she had to stand before God in the judgment it would be a very different world.

Authentic Christianity (3), 258

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Jonathan Edwards, the 18th-century American theologian, said, regarding Jesus’ teaching on hell:

Imagine yourself cast into a fiery oven, glowing with heat. … And imagine that your body was going to lie there for a quarter of an hour, full of fire, inside and out—feeling every fiber of it the whole time. What horror would you feel at the entrance of such a furnace! And how long would that quarter of an hour seem to you! … But what if you knew you must lie there, enduring that torment in its fullness for 24 hours? … But wouldn’t your heart sink if you knew you must bear it forever and ever?

The greatest hypocrisy of all time is saying you believe in heaven and hell and not doing everything you can to keep those you care about from going there.

IV. Become an Abraham to the Lots in your life

When Lot hesitated while fleeing Sodom, “the angels seized his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters and rushed them to safety outside the city, for the LORD was merciful”

Genesis 19:16 KJV

And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the LORD being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city.

Why did God have the angels do this for Lot?

Genesis 19:29 KJV

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 the which Lot dwelt.

God heard the prayer, the request, the petition of Abraham. God didn’t save Lot because of Lot. He saved Lot and his family because Abraham had prayed for them.

Lot didn’t deserve rescue because of his own merit and his own usefulness to God - as a matter of fact the argument could be met that as a result of him living on trouble came as the result - the Moabites and the Ammonites.

But know this, Love was rescued because somewhere there was a man who loved him and prayed for him, and, for Abraham’s sake, God saved Lot. He sent his angels to literally pull Lot out of Sodom to safety.

We must become prayer warriors for our generation

We have a responsibility before God, our loved ones, and our people to pray faithfully and continually for God to keep those we know and love not just safe but faithful.

And think about this, we can pray for others with even more power than Abraham did!

Abraham’s prayer was like a negotiation: Lord, would you spare the city for 50 righteous people? How about 40? 30? 20? When Abraham finally got to 10, he just gave up. He couldn’t even find 10 righteous people in the city.

You and I need look no farther than one. That one righteous one is not ourselves or our loved one. There is one righteous - is the Lord Jesus Christ.

He is so altogether perfect and lovely that God says we can pray in his name, and, for his sake, God hears our prayers. Our friends, our siblings, our parents—whoever it is on whom we have set our love—if we carry their names to God, he hears us.

Jesus did this for you: He prayed for you, and he came after you. Now, it’s your turn to do this for others.