Ready Or Not Part 2

Luke 17:26-30 "And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: 27 They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.

28 Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; 29 but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed."

Last week we talked about the characteristics of Noah's day that caused God to finally send the Great Flood.

Now today I want to talk about Lot.

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Jesus was one day asked by His disciples what the signs would be of His return to the earth.

He responded with several general signs, like earthquakes, famines, diseases, false Christ's and false prophets, all appearing and happening with increased frequency and intensity.

Most of these general signs are conditions in nature.

But then Jesus brought up Noah, and Abraham's nephew, Lot, which pointed to conditions in men's hearts.

He said that.....the societies in which Noah and Lot lived would bear striking similarities to the state of the world when He returns to earth.

Now, remember last time we saw that in Noah's day before the Great Flood there was:

Widespread apostasy,

Extreme wickedness,

Pervasive violence, and

Universal apathy toward God and His call to repent.

Now, what about Lot's day?

Jesus said, "As it was in the days of Lot, so shall it be..."

Again, we go to Genesis for the answer.

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First, Genesis gives us a biographical sketch of Lot.

Lot was the nephew of the great Patriarch, Abraham.

When God called Abraham out of his hometown--Ur of the Chaldees--Lot went with him.

Gen. 12:5 "Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan."

The Bible tells us that, as they travelled, both men increased in riches with multiplied cattle, servants, and children.

Because of all this increase, a problem ultimately arose between the two. Scripture says,

"Now the land was not able to support them, that they might dwell together, for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together. 7 And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock."

In light of this problem of strife, Abraham offered a solution:

8 So Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no strife between you and me, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen; for we are brethren. 9 Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left.”

Now here we see the graciousness of Abraham.

It was he who God had called to Canaan.

Lot was essentially just tagging along.

Yet Abraham gave Lot the choice of where he wanted to go, when he himself should have had first rights.

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Now, what happens next is very important to the story, and to what Jesus was driving at when he mentioned Lot.

The Bible says that Lot, "lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well-watered everywhere like the garden of The Lord."

Now, what Lot saw was the beautiful land that surrounded the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Sodom was a rich city, but it was also very corrupt.

The Prophet Ezekiel describes Sodom like this:

Ezek. 16:49 "Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy."

Sodom was so prosperous that the people lived in luxurious idleness.

And they were very proud over their prosperity.

And on top of that, they were insensitive to the needs of the poor, so they were very selfish.

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Now, a lot of the defenders of homosexuality like to point to these passages and say,

"See! Sodom wasn't judged for homosexuality, it was judged for being selfish, and proud, and lazy!"

But they ignore the very next verse that says,

50 "AND they...committed abomination before Me; therefore I took them away as I saw fit."

The word "abomination" is NOT used here to describe the sins of pride, idleness, or insensitivity.

It's ADDED TO THE LIST already given.

It says, "AND they committed abominations."

Verse 50 is referring to Sodom's widespread, socially sanctioned homosexuality.

So, one of the signs that will mark the soon return of Christ is widespread, socially sanctioned homosexuality.

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Now, something else we notice in Lot's story clues us in to another characteristic of last days society before the return of Christ:

It will be a time of great testing for the righteous.

Jesus warned in His prophetic discourse on the Last Days that,

"False Christ's and false prophets will rise and show great wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect!" (Matt.24:24)

And we see an example of this by what happened to Lot.

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First, we see that...

I. Lot had a fatal weakness:

Lot was sight-driven, not wisdom driven.

If he'd been wisdom-driven, he'd have never chosen to move toward Sodom, because the Bible says:

"The men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against The Lord" (13:13).

Lot had a family, a wife, a righteous uncle, and a relationship with God to protect.

Yet he made dangerous choices based on what he SAW and WANTED, rather than God's WILL and WAY.

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If you'll remember last week we talked about how "the sons of God (the descendants of righteous Seth), had the same fatal weakness.

They 'SAW' that the daughters of men (the godless descendants of Cain) were beautiful...

And they CHOSE them, against the counsel of God, to their own demise.

The descendants of Seth SAW and they TOOK.

Likewise, Lot SAW and he TOOK.

So....Lot had a FATAL WEAKNESS.

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Second, we see that...

II. Lot was in a DEADLY DRIFT away from God

The Bible says that, once Lot chose the land where Sodom was, he "pitched his tent even as far as Sodom."

He didn't immediately move into Sodom; but he walked around the edges.

Notice: Lot didn't pitch his tent toward Canaan, toward his uncle Abraham, toward the Promised Land of God.

He pitched it facing Sodom.

When he woke up in the morning, Lot saw Sodom.

When he went to bed at night, his eyes beheld the lights of Sodom.

Abraham and Canaan, and everything that was righteous Lot put behind him.

And the fatal drift progressed...

We see that Lot moved from the edges of Sodom into Sodom, and finally into a place of leadership in Sodom.

When God sent His angels to bring judgment on the city, we read,

"Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening and Lot was sitting in the GATE of Sodom" (19:1).

Somewhere along the way, Lot and his family had decided to pull up their tent and move into the city where they bought a house and planted their lives in Sodom.

Any reservations they may have had about this wicked city had faded with time.

They had gradually became desensitized to the evil they saw.

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"Maybe it's not so bad after all," they mused.

"We'll move in among them, we just won't become like them," they rationalized.

"After all, there's great money to be made in Sodom. It's a very rich city," they reasoned.

"We'll be okay. We're strong. In fact, we'll convert the people from the error of their ways!"

So they moved in and, because of his riches and personal ambitions, Lot was finally asked to serve in the city government.

That's why we find him at the gate of the city.

In Bible times, the elders of a city would gather at the gates where decisions were made.

The gates were sort of the City Council Hall of those times.

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Catch this now: Lot progressed from living on the outskirts of Sodom, to living in Sodom, to helping rule Sodom.

So we see the same mingling with the ungodly, the same compromise of faith in Lot that we saw in the Sons of God of Noah's time.

And because of Lot's FATAL WEAKNESS and DEADLY DRIFT, he ended up in a TERRIBLE TRAP.

Peter tells us, "(for that righteous man Lot, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)" (2 Pet. 2:8).

Thinking he was getting ahead in the world, Lot opened him and his family up to living in a moral cesspool that tortured his soul and, we see later, corrupted his children.

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So, another SIGN to look for prior to Jesus' return will be:

A society that is so pervasively wicked and seductive that ONLY THOSE BELIEVERS THAT STICK LIKE GLUE TO GOD AND HIS WORD will survive and remain pure.

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The good news is that Abraham successfully avoided Sodom and went on to possess the land!

In the last days you will either be a compromised Lot, or an obedient Abraham!

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A third and final sign I want to point out is that, just as in the days of Noah,

Sodom was taken by total surprise when judgment fell.

No one that woke up that final morning in Sodom knew what was coming.

They brushed their teeth, got ready for work, sent the kids off to school, and said to themselves, "It's a beautiful day outside."

Meanwhile, if you had looked just over the horizon, you'd have seen Lot, his wife, their two daughters, and two strangers running toward the mountains.

Then...fiery judgment fell.

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Jesus painted a graphic picture of the same kind of SURPRISE FACTOR that will entail His return. He said:

Luke 17:34-35 "I tell you, in that night there will be two men in one bed: the one will be taken and the other will be left. 35 Two women will be grinding together: the one will be taken and the other left. 36 Two men will be in the field: the one will be taken and the other left."

People will be asleep as usual, working as usual...going about normal life as usual, and Christ will come.

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So, let's sum all this up.

Based on Noah and Lot, some key signs to look for prior to Jesus' return will be:

Widespread apostasy as people depart from the Christian faith.

Pervasive, increasingly depraved wickedness in men.

Widespread, increasingly pervasive violence.

Widespread apathy toward the warnings of God.

Widespread, socially sanctioned sexual perversion.

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The good news is that, for those who know Christ, we have great promises!

"Greater is He that is in you..." (1 John 4:4)

"If God be for us, who can be against us." (Ro.8:31)

"We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us!" (Ro.8:37)

And, "When you see all these things coming to pass, lift up your heads, your redemption draws nigh!" (Matt.24:33)

The same God that kept Abraham, and that delivered Lot before judgment fell, is the God that will keep His own until the end!"