Lot

Intro

Ron has been preaching on Abram later known as Abraham these past two weeks, and it’s been amazing to see how simple Abraham’s faith was and how he was blessed because of it.

Now as Ron and I continue to mention, when we read about these biblical characters we begin to realize that they are people just like you and I, and they had their flaws and yet God used them and God blessed them because they were faithful.

That being said I want to point this out as we continue through these old testament characters, Faith is the common theme. Adam and Eve were kicked out because they were unfaithful to God’s command and gave into the devil, Cain was jealous of Able’s faith and how God loved him for it, Enoch was faithful and did not die but was taken to heaven, by Noah’s faith he built and entered into the Ark, Abraham had faith that he would be made the father of many nations even at the ripe young age of 100, he then also was willing to offer his promised son Isaac at the alter in faith that God could bring him back from the dead.

It was these people that God used, people who feared him and had faith in him. and it’s when we fear the lord and put our faith in him that he is going to use us. Now why do I include fearing the Lord? Because believing is insufficient if we do not live out our faith. When we fear the Lord it causes us not only to believe but to be righteous.

Noah had faith and because he feared the Lord’s promised destruction for man he built the ark. and was counted as righteous. Cain believed but he didn’t fear the Lord and so he killed Abel and was punished. Abraham had faith in the Lord and feared, like Noah, and he feared the results of not obeying God and so he was willing to go as far as offer his promised son Isaac, and God accounted it to him as righteousness, that’s what we read in James 2:21-24

James 2:21–24 ESV

21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

Now as we know Abraham was still flawed he had a child with his wife Sarah’s servant but he still had faith in the Lord. And that’s what I want you to begin to notice, Ron and I aren’t preaching that we need to be perfect, you aren’t perfect and you will never be perfect in this lifetime, neither were these people perfect. All we need is to have faith and to fear the Lord.

The History of Lot and Abraham

Now with that in mind, I want us to talk about Lot today. The Story of Lot is found within the story of Abraham. You see Abraham had a brother by the name of Haran who had a son named Lot, Haran however died and Lot lived with his uncle Abraham and grandfather. Now God called Abraham to leave his fathers home to go to the land that God would show him, and in faith Abraham left home, and Lot went with him.

Now they traveled together for awhile and God had abundantly blessed them both and the amount of livestock each had became so numerous that they could graze the same fields anymore, and so Abraham and Lot decided that it would be best for them to separate in hopes of preserving their bond. And so Abraham told Lot to pick between the lands before them and whichever one Lot picked Abraham would take the other.

And Lot checked out the land and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered and was like the garden of the Lord and so he took that one, right that’s what we do when we get first pick we take the one that looks nicer. and Lot found himself settled in the Jordan Valley in a town called Sodom, a city which you may be familiar with. and we read in Genesis 13:12-13

Genesis 13:12–13 ESV

12 Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom. 13 Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.

Now there’s no reason for us to believe that Lot knew the condition of Sodom before he settled there. However as he would find out the people there were wicked.

Lot Lives in Sodom

Lot was a righteous man, he feared the Lord however he lived in an evil and wicked place and it wasn’t easy for him. Open your bibles to 2 Peter 2:7-8

2 Peter 2:7–8 ESV

7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard);

Lot a righteous man was living in a place that was evil to the core, and it tormented his righteous soul. Now you may ask why didn’t Lot leave? God had not yet called him to leave, and if he would have left before the fate of Sodom occured then God wouldn’t have been able to use the story of Lot as an example of how he rescues us from unrighteousness. Lot had to endure so that God could show his power by rescuing him from destruction, the same as he did for Noah.

and that’s exactly what happens, Lot remained in torment living in the wicked city of Sodom, until God decided he was going to destroy the city. God went to Abraham and told him that he planned on destroying Sodom and Gomorrah because they were evil. Now Abraham new that Lot had settled in Sodom and so he pleads with God and says, Genesis 18:23

Genesis 18:23 (ESV)

23 Then Abraham drew near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?”

and so Abraham begins to bargain with God saying if you find 50 righteous people in the city will you still destroy the just with the unjust, and God says if there are 50 righteous in the city I won’t destroy it, and Abraham must have thought to himself, well what if theirs not 50 and so he says to God again, well what if there’s only 45, and God again says if there’s 45 I wont destroy the city, and this goes on with Abraham saying well what about 40, and what about 30, and what about 20, what if there are only 10, and God agreed that if there were 10 righteous people in the city he would not destroy it.

And this is where we will begin reading in Genesis 19:1-3

Genesis 19:1–3 ESV

1 The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face to the earth 2 and said, “My lords, please turn aside to your servant’s house and spend the night and wash your feet. Then you may rise up early and go on your way.” They said, “No; we will spend the night in the town square.” 3 But he pressed them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house. And he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

Lot is a God fearing and faithful man, and when he sees the two angels he wanted to take care of them, Lot knew the wickedness of Sodom and didn’t want to take the risk of having them stay in the town square, so he took them to his home and treated them as the highest guest. However, Lot was right to be fearful Genesis 19:4-11

Genesis 19:4–11 ESV

4 But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house. 5 And they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.” 6 Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, 7 and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. 8 Behold, I have two daughters who have not known any man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.” 9 But they said, “Stand back!” And they said, “This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.” Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and drew near to break the door down. 10 But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them and shut the door. 11 And they struck with blindness the men who were at the entrance of the house, both small and great, so that they wore themselves out groping for the door.

Now there are a few things I want to discuss here, the first is Lot’s reverence for God’s angels. Lot put the angels over everything else even his own desires, because he knew they carried with them the will of God. and He feared what would come if he allowed the men of the city to have sex with the angels.

and so he does something which was unthinkable. He offered his daughters, Now when initially writing this sermon I considered ignoring this verse, however I think there are a lot of people who are turned away from the faith because of it. After-all how could Lot do something so Evil and yet he was considered righteous.

So I want to start by first saying that Lot was not a perfect man, he didn’t know what God’s will was, but he knew that at all cost God’s messengers were to be taken care of, and Lot was willing to sacrifice his daughters for their sake, not because he wanted to but because he felt it to be the only way to protect the angels.

And let me mention that in the same way that Abraham had faith that God would be with Isaac when he was called to sacrifice him, Lot also had faith that God would be with his daughters. and in the same way that God rescued Isaac and told Abraham to stop the angels rescued Lot’s daughters and Lot himself. Lot must have felt inexpressible relief that God would rescue him and his daughters.

He was willing to sacrifice everything for God, and God rescued him. Now it’s still a hard story to read, but I want us to understand that Lot didn’t do these things because he was evil but because he had faith that God would rescue them. Lot acted upon his limited knowledge and God rescued through his infinite knowledge.

And then as we see the men weren’t interested in his daughters and they turned to him instead. and the angels saved him

and as we continue I find the rest of the story to be even more fascinating, Genesis 19:12-14

Genesis 19:12–14 ESV

12 Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone you have in the city, bring them out of the place. 13 For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.” 14 So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, “Up! Get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting.

Lot was given the option to bring some with him to be saved, and he went to his future sons-in-laws, and tried to convince them to turn from the wicked city and be saved with him, and they thought it was a joke, they didn’t believe that the city would be destroyed.

Now that sounds a lot like the people of today, the world is coming to an end, it’s going to be destroyed, and when we go to people and try to tell them that the only way to be saved is by putting their faith in Jesus, they laugh and think that we are foolish for having faith. and when we read the next section there’s something I want us to notice about Lot, Genesis 19:15-17

Genesis 19:15–17 ESV

15 As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.” 16 But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. 17 And as they brought them out, one said, “Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.”

Why did Lot linger? was it because he didn’t want to leave? or maybe he didn’t want to leave behind his wealth? what was the reason? and this is what I’d like to suggest, even though the people of Sodom were wicked Lot’s desire was that they would repent and turn from their ways and be saved, even though they were wicked he wanted them to share in his salvation. However the city was far to corrupt and God knew that and so the angels forced him to leave the city issuing the command, leave and don’t look back.

but as we read in Genesis 19:23-26

Genesis 19:23–26 ESV

23 The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. 24 Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. 25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. 26 But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

Conclusion

There is a lot for us to take from this story, and this may be one of the most foretelling stories of the bible, what I mean by that is that the story of Sodom and Gomorrah and how the righteous Lot was saved from the cities wickedness is often used to describe the end times. We are living in the end times church.

Just like Lot we are facing the trials of living in a wicked world. and we should continue to try to bring as many people to salvation that we possibly can because we don’t know when the world will be destroyed with fire.

But we all have family and friends who don’t know the Lord, Have faith that God will be with you when you share the gospel with them. you might fail, you might be laughed at, but God will see your faith. and I think we would all be surprised to see how many people are really open to learning more about Christ.

When we turn to the Lord we are walking out of Sodom, we are choosing to look faithfully. However Lot’s wife looked back, she looked at what she was leaving behind rather than what God had laid before her, and we know what happens when we desire to go back to our wicked ways, we perish with the world.

and So I strongly encourage you keep the faith, and follow the Lord don’t look back at the sinful life you are leaving behind but live a new life in Christ, bringing glory to his name in everything that you do!