So we'll be reading Genesis 19, verses one through 29, and then along with that also just one verse from 2 Timothy. Hear now the word of our God. These two angels that come here had just met with Abraham, and Abraham had pleaded with them not to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for the sake of his nephew and relative there, Lot, who lived there. So we read in Genesis 19 in verse one, now 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 he bowed himself with his face toward the ground. And he said, here now, my lords, please turn in to your servants' house and spend the night and wash your feet. Then you may rise early and go on your way. And they said, no, but we will spend the night in the open square. But he insisted strongly So they turned unto him and entered his house. He made them a feast and baked them leavened bread, and they ate. Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter surrounded the house. And they called to Lot and said to him, where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them carnally. So Lot went out to them through the doorway, shut the door behind him and said, please, my brethren, do not do so wickedly. See now, I have two daughters who have not known a man. Please let me bring them out to you. You may do to them as you wish. Only do nothing to these men, since this is the reason they've come under the shadow of my roof. And they said, stand back. And then they said, this one came in to sojourn and he keeps acting as a judge. Now we will deal worse with you than with them. So they pressed hard against the man Lot and came near to break down the door. But the men reached out their hands and pulled Lot into the house with them and shut the door. And they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they became weary trying to find the door. Then the men said to Lot, have you anyone else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, whomever you have in this city, take them out of this place, for we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it." So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, get up, get out of this place, for the Lord will destroy this city. But to his sons-in-law, he seemed to be joking. When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city. And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife's hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful to him. And they brought him out and set him outside the city. So it came to pass When they had brought them outside, then he said, escape for your life. Do not look behind you, nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed. Then Lot said to them, please no, my lords. Indeed, now your servants found favor in your sight. You've increased your mercy, which you've shown me, by saving my life. But I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil overtake me and I die. Ceto, this city is near enough to flee to. It's a little one. Please, let me escape there. Is it not a little one? And my soul shall live.' And he said to him, see, I have favored you concerning this thing also, in that I will not overthrow this city for which you have spoken. Hurry, escape there. For I cannot do anything until you arrive there. Therefore, the name of the city was called Zohar. The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zohar. Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of the heavens. So he overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities and what grew on the ground. But his wife looked back behind him and she became a pillar of salt. And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord. Then he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the plain. And he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land, which went up like 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 had dwelt. And then in the New Testament, we turn 2 Timothy 2, verse 19. 2 Timothy 2, verse 19, Timothy had just gotten done describing the problem of some of the teachers in that church, some of the false teachers. And people were wondering if they were also unbelievers because they listened to these former elders and teachers. And verse 19, the apostle tells them, Nevertheless, the solid foundation of God stands. Having this seal, the Lord knows those who are his. And let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. Amen, my God. Add his blessing to the reading of his gospel today. Let's pray. Father, we need your grace as we look at your scriptures, old and new, teaching us this reality of the nature of your relationship to humans, of the nature of our relationship with you. Oh, Father, help us to know, to learn better how to live in relationship with you and how to understand and properly interpret what is going on in the scripture as well as in the world around us and in our own lives. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Well, congregation, there's a sermon outline in the bulletin to follow along. Brothers and sisters, amid all the trials of our lives, we often comfort one another with the truth that God can do anything. He is almighty. He has a plan, and he will take care of us no matter what. But sometimes there are Bible passages that comfort us in a different way. They do not comfort us with the things that God can do, but they actually comfort us with the things that God cannot do. We come across some scriptures today that do that very thing. When we look at this Bible teaching of the perseverance of the saints, of his people, we understand that part of that includes how we are preserved And when God's people, whether it's in the Old Testament or the New Testament or down through history, even today, when, as the theme says in our sermon outline, when God's people, when his saints fall into sin, God cannot allow them to totally fall from faith and grace. When the saints fall into sin, God cannot allow them to totally fall from faith and grace. We see that happening in Genesis 19. We see the doctrine described and defended in 2 Timothy, and we'll look at several other scriptures as well. And so first we're gonna look at what is it that God does to preserve his saints, and then secondly, why he preserves his saints. What does God do to preserve his saints? First thing we want to look at. We confessed a number of these truths a minute ago when we read Article 7 of the Canons of Dorothy, the fifth point there on the perseverance of the saints. It started, and I put some of those words in bold to help us out, these falls, these falls into sin that last several weeks ago, we looked at this reality that Christians can fall into serious sins. And when that happens, God preserves us in them. And the rest of that Article 7 there is really one scripture verse, one scripture paraphrase after another. You can look those up, you can search them at home or I'll refer to some of those along the way. They're all examples of ways that God renews us when we backslide or slide back into sin. We're gonna walk through a few of these examples. God does renew us when we fall into very serious sins, but as we've said before, it's important for us to always remind ourselves of this fact. Romans 6 tells us this as well, that the fact that God renews us and forgives us for our sin is not an excuse that a Christian uses to say, okay, well, I can just go sin anyway and then I'll get more grace from God. Romans 6 verse 2 says, God forbid, if you ever think that, that's the proof of an unbeliever. How can we who died to sin in Christ go and live any longer in it? So the comfort we receive that God will preserve us is not an excuse to keep on sinning. But what does God do to preserve his saints when they fall into sin? Well, one thing he does is he preserves our regeneration, our new birth. That's one example of a thing that he preserves us from. You can look at 1 Peter 1, verse 23. You can turn there in the scriptures, or you can look at the bottom of the handout, because it's quoted there, on the very bottom of our handout, because it is the scripture that answers the error that is still taught today, that's listed here as error eight, There are people who say that since people who say they're Christians sometimes fall into serious sins, then that means they've lost their salvation and they have to get saved all over again. And this happens many times in a person's life. You could be a Christian today, be an unbeliever tomorrow, and then be a Christian on Thursday, and then be an unbeliever later that day or the next day, and go on and on. Hundreds of times in some people's life, it could happen. This is taught and believed by many. Well, is that what the Bible says? If that were to be true, well, how would you ever know where you were in that process. How would you ever know for sure whether you were saved? And if you were sure, how is it that you know that you're sure? Are you gonna be basing your assurance, your confidence that I'm safe today, I wasn't yesterday, but I'm safe today, because, well, you're doing a better job today. You're gonna be looking at how many good works you've been doing, how sad you've been about your sin, how many times you've prayed. You're gonna be looking at things that you have done or I have done. You'll be measuring that to get confidence that I know if I'm a Christian today. But our confidence is in Christ Jesus alone. Because it is in Christ, it's a rock-solid confidence that we have. In order for us ever to really truly believe, 1 Peter says it happens because God's Word is implanted into your soul like a seed that it describes is a, you've been born again by a seed that's not corruptible, that doesn't perish, but it's incorruptible. A seed that will never perish. Maybe you've had trouble keeping plants alive in the garden or in your house. But if the seed is still strong and healthy down there, even though there might be a time where it looks like it's withering, or this time of year we see a lot of trees that look dead and bare, but the seed, the roots, are still alive deep down. And in time, with the right amount of sun and water, we will see them blossom again. And so while it is true that Christians go through seasons where we might fall into sin, that does not mean we're that day not a Christian at all. We might not be behaving like a Christian, but we've not lost our salvation because the only way we get saved with true faith is, the Bible says, with a faith that is a seed that cannot be lost, that cannot perish. That is what the Bible teaches us there in 1 Peter. is one way God preserves us, by saving us in such a way that you're absolutely saved. Another way God preserves us is by preserving our repentance. He preserves our repentance. In Acts chapter 5, in Acts 5, Peter is preaching. He's preaching that Jesus is the Messiah who would come. I think this is by 5 verse 30 or 31, somewhere in there. And he says, the Messiah Christ would come to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. Well, the repentance he's talking about there isn't the first repentance when somebody says, I've just learned who Jesus is. and I've been a fool all my life long, I put my faith and trust in the Lord Jesus. No, the repentance that he's giving is giving to people who had just crucified Jesus. They'd grown up in the faith, they'd been members of God's covenant, faithful church goers, but they had not believed in who the true Messiah was. They had slidden back in their faith. And the true believers among that congregation God's elect were given repentance by God, who began a good work in them and is faithful to complete it until the return of Christ, as Philippians 1 verse 6 declares. So when you and I are able to repent, not just at the beginning, but all our life long, we daily repent, turn from sin and back towards God, that is a gift that God is preserving us with. Another way God preserves you and me is that we seek forgiveness. When we are preserved by God, even in our sin, we're going to seek forgiveness. That's how you know if a person says, I didn't do anything wrong, and never seeks forgiveness, and they fall into serious sin, well, that's the sign of someone who never did have true faith. Think of King David, who fell into serious sin. God preserved him by sending him church discipline. He sent his prophet, Nathan, to confront him with the word of God. And David humbled himself. He saw that God was preserving his soul and he sought forgiveness. He wrote Psalm 51. And he says, have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin, For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is always before me." When God is preserving us, we are asking him for forgiveness and seeking his mercy. Another thing that happens in your life and mine when God is preserving us is that we experience the favor and smile of God. We experience the favor of God. Towards the end of Article 7 we said we, after we've got this forgiveness from the blood of the mediator, we again experience the favor of a reconciled God and through faith adore his mercies. That should really surprise us. That's what's amazing about amazing grace. When a Christian falls into serious sin and Jesus has to leave all the other 99 sheep to run after that one, We know this isn't the first time He rescued us. Surely, God has every right to lecture us, to show us how terribly wicked and ungrateful you have been. And He does have plenty of stern words and rebuke for us, and He shows us clear steps we need to change in His word of repentance to avoid falling in this way in the future When he does that, he always does it from a place of grace and love. Psalm 30 puts it this way, another psalm King David wrote of praying for forgiveness and the blessing of forgiveness. He talks about when he was in sin and under the, not the smile of God, but the frown of God because he was living in sin for a season. And he says in Psalm 30 verse five, but God's anger is for a moment. His favor is for life. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. Really, all of Psalm 30 is really behind the scenes of most of these things we confessed in ways God preserves us. So how can you and I respond when we learn this fact, that God preserves me, that he preserves me, not just through the valley of the shadow of death, but through the valley of the shadow of my sin? That's what the Bible's telling us today. God does not only preserve me through the valley of the shadow of death, But what's more often the case, right? Not death and tragedy and super sickness and all those things that we all face, but far more often, he also is preserving us through the valley of the shadow of our sin and the spiritual death and reality that we're in danger of. He preserves us so that we can turn and we do turn to him for mercy and forgiveness. Psalm 30 describes the response we should give. Psalm 30 verse 4 says, sing praise to the Lord, you saints of his. give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name. That psalm says God is angry. God is angry with His people when they sin, but His anger when it's towards His people is not the anger that sends them to hell, it's the anger that drives them to repentance and forgiveness and sends us to Christ. It's an anger that's for a moment, but a favor that's for life. It's an anger that brings weeping for the night, but joy comes in the morning. And so the end of the psalm ends with this joyful worship says you've turned my mourning into dancing you've put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness so that my glory may sing praise to you and not be silent oh lord my god i'll give thanks to you forever so dear congregation look again if you would at the article 7 that we confessed each of these examples How God preserves Christians when they fall into sin is true, not just for Christians in general, for you. Examine your heart today to see if any of these are there, and plead with God to bring them back in more fullness if they're like a seed in the wintertime. Way deep down it's there, but on the outward, it seems like it's practically dead. the plant of your life. Do you adore God's mercies? Do you desire to diligently work out your salvation with fear and trembling? Do you seek forgiveness through the blood of the mediator? Do you have a godly sorrow for your sins? If you're God's child, those things are evidence that God is preserving you today. As we read in 2 Timothy 2, verse 19, There's the perfect blend of God's absolute eternal election and his sovereign plan and our human responsibility. We don't have to pick and choose. God holds them together in the same verse. 2 Timothy 2, verse 19. The solid foundation of God stands. It doesn't change. It doesn't change his mind. God doesn't elect you one day and unelect you the next day. If He has to leave the 99 to go grab you as you're sliding off the edge of the cliff, He does. The Lord knows those who are His. He knows who belongs to Him. And let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. God knows who are His. He saved them, and that doesn't change. And those whom He saved depart, turn away from sin. And when we fall into sin, the Lord knows who are His, and He pulls us back, and we start fighting against that sin again. God, that's some of the ways that God preserves us. But why? That's the second thing we want to look at, why? Why does God preserve his saints? What do we look at from the scriptures today, Old and New Testaments, and some of the things that you might even know and think in your own experience, why is it that God would preserve me? Will you notice, and we should know this also from our own experience, when we started to recite Article 8, we said, well, here's one reason he doesn't, this isn't the right reason, he doesn't preserve me because in consequence of my own merits, because I deserve it, or because I'm strong. Sadly, many people teach that. They teach basically, this was the Armenian teaching is still around today. I came across a document that was written shortly after this document and by the Armenians and it's their response to this. And almost every line is a direct quotation of all of these little errors that are interacted with. I didn't get the point at all, sadly. But you see, error two reminds us of this problem. It is not like God gives every Christian, y'all start off with the same thing. You've got a spiritual gas tank that's full. And now that's enough spiritual power for you to fight against sin all your life. And your job is to use that the rest of your lives. And you're never gonna run out, you're never gonna fail as long as you stay connected. But of course, that still puts you and me in the driver's seat. Why would somebody think, as humans, we have to be in the driver's seat? Well, the basic description there in error two, the motivation, the assumption behind so much of the false teaching about God's plan but man's responsibility, is that no matter what, you have to preserve the freedom of the human will, my own personal freedom and ability to choose or reject God. As one Reformed Christian said when he was in a conversation with a Christian friend who was arguing with him basically about this point, and he said, no, no, no, I have my own free will to take that spiritual energy that God's given me and I have to make use of it. And if I don't, and I won't be saved, but if I do, I will be saved. And you said, congratulations, you've just become the author of your salvation. Because you say, even though people will say, oh no, I'm saved by Jesus, I'm saved by grace, but then if you go on to say, I stay saved by my use of that grace, and you fall into sin, and we all fall into various sins, well then what do you do with that problem? And if you do end up getting saved, why is it? It's because of your use of the, how much is in the gas tank. It's because of your cooperation. That's exactly what is taught. It's up to us, up to our cooperation, but that's exactly what is rejected in the Bible. God is a jealous God, the Bible is playing. He will not share his glory with another. The scripture quoted here at the end of this paragraph two here is 1 Corinthians 1, verse eight, that says God, not our free will, it's God who confirms us to the end. God's the one who saves us and God's the one who keeps us saved all the way to the end. Salvation is a gift of God from beginning to end. Or you can think of the illustration of Genesis that we read. That entire story. There's a lot in there. A lot we can talk about what's going on, the homosexuality and all the unbelief and ungodliness and Sodom and Gomorrah. But look at who Lot is and how he was preserved. God preserved Lot. God showed great patience even when he was preserving Lot. Did you notice that along the way? Maybe some details of the story you didn't quite remember. Lot is such a selfish, ungrateful servant that he whines about having to run to the mountains to escape. I mean, God's gonna destroy this whole city, but he said he's not gonna destroy you. Isn't that good enough, Lot? No, I don't wanna go there, I wanna go there. But God is merciful even in that. Lot's daughters married unbelievers. But why wouldn't they? Lot set that up and planned that unknowingly because of his sin years earlier. When he wanted to leave Abraham and they could choose anywhere to live, he chose to live close to this particular very large civilization in Sodom and Gomorrah, which was known for being a very ungodly place. Well, who were his little girls going to grow up to find to marry in such a place? The kind of guys they ended up marrying, of course. And now Lot does name the name of Christ. He does depart from iniquity eventually, but his family is very weak and immature spiritually, facing the consequences of his past sins, even if they may be saved. And he himself is very compromised. He's so afraid of the unbelievers banging at the door that instead of letting them homosexually rape his houseguests, that's what they wanted to do. He says, no, no, no, here, take my two daughters instead. But why is that the next step? Why is that the appropriate answer to that problem? And then Lot goes in to his sons-in-law and pleads with them, obey this message from the Lord. We've got to leave. And they laugh at him. They think he's joking. They know Lot is no man of conviction. They're not going to believe some doom and gloom prophecy from some strangers. The biblical history of Sodom and Gomorrah and Lot's family. is proven also by what Jesus taught in the parable of the sower and the seed. So you see, Lot was saved, could not be by his own strength, even in the process of being saved, he was very weak. It is God who had to save him and confirm him to the end. And we see that also with Jesus describing how we come to faith in Matthew 13, in the parable of the sower and the seeds. The other error listed on our handout, error number seven, says that the faith of any two people on any given Sunday in a pew is no different on that day, even if years later, Joe proves to be a Christian, and Sally proves to run away from God, run away from the church, and where life demonstrates that she never had true faith. But on that day, back then, when they were both sitting in the pew next to each other, the Arminian teaching would say, no, they were both Christians. There was no false, no pretend faith, no hypocrisy. They were both genuinely, actually Christians on that day. But that is rejected by Jesus. He says when he throws the seed out on the ground, there's four different types of soil. And only one of them is described of true believers, where the seed goes down and bears fruit, takes root and bears fruit, various types of fruit, but it's true believer. All the other three are people who have a fading enthusiasm for Jesus. Some, it fades right away. Others, it fades when the pleasures of this world come or the trials of life come. But all three of those soils are described as people who had never believed in the Lord Jesus Christ truly. And so, as 1 John 2, verse 19 says, they went out from us because they truly were never one of us. We see that in the case of Lot, don't we? Lot's sons-in-law. They lived in the household of a believer, though he was definitely a sinner, Lot. But they lived in his house, but they rejected the word of God. You see, in the case of Lot's own wife, Lot's wife. She started the journey with Lot. So she appeared to be better than her sons-in-law. She started to obey, but she longed for the fine things and the pleasures of this world, and she was not willing to let them go. I want to go back. I don't want to serve God, even in the city, much less the mountain. So she turned back. They were specifically commanded not to. She turned back immediately. God judges her. She's turned into a pillar of salt. And by her sin, we notice she's not being preserved by God. She's not have true faith, even though Lot did. She rebelled and she was lost. God did not preserve her, but left her to her own strength. She willingly traded the grace of God for the freedom of this world. which is really a slavery, to sin, to the things and experiences of this world, and she died. Jesus said in Luke 17, remember Lot's wife, Luke 17, verse 32. He makes it plain, she was not a believer. Remember Lot's wife, he goes on to say, she sought to save her life, but she lost it. But if you lose your life for the sake of the gospel, it will be preserved. And so what is it that could possibly save you or me? Why is it that God could possibly keep us saved? It cannot be because of our own merits or strengths to use the gas in the gas tank, if you will, as we confess. With respect to ourselves, when you think of how far we can fall from grace, will we turn back? Will we turn back someday? Will we perish in our backsliding? As concerned to our own ability, it's not only possible that we would fall, but it is undoubtedly going to happen that we will go to hell. But then it goes on to say, with respect to God, it is utterly impossible. See the gospel truth there. In the sermon outline, I said, why is it that God preserves the saints? And then I have their hint, think the Trinity. The Trinity is behind the rest of the answer there in Article 8. It refers to God being the Father, refers to the Son, Christ, and to the work of the Holy Spirit. It's interesting. One of the hardest to explain Bible doctrines, most mysterious, who God is as one being, three persons, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, is also one of the most relevant and practical and encouraging to us. It's all proof of why God cannot fail to preserve us. We saw it back in Genesis, even. We maybe didn't notice it at first, but look at it again in Genesis 19. In Genesis 19, verse 16, it says, Lot is lingering, very different from Abraham, who gets up early in the morning to obey God, Lot is, He knows this is the day I'm supposed to leave, but he's lingering. And so the angels have to grab him by the hand and his wife and his daughters and take him out of town. Literally drag them out of the house. And it says the Lord is being merciful to him there in Genesis 19 verse 16. The word mercy used there is the word to describe God's covenant promise. It's mercy that depends upon a sacrifice, the blood of the lamb, the Lord Jesus who would be offered on the mercy seat in the tabernacle in the temple and ultimately in heaven above for us. That mercy is applied to the hearts of God's people through the Holy Spirit, moving the saints to trust in God's promises. We see that same mercy, that same triune God in the end of the story. In verse 29, at the end of it all, it says, God has destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, but he remembered his covenant to Abraham, and that's why he saved Lot. Not because Lot was so good, but because of his covenant to Abraham. What was that one about? Galatians 3 tells us it was about Jesus. Jesus would come as a great, great, great grandson of Abraham. and he would be the seed and him, all the nations of the earth would be blessed. How do you get among those people who are blessed? How do you become in the family of Jesus through the Holy Spirit of adoption? And so we see the Trinity at work. Why does God preserve his saints even when we fall into serious sins? Whether it's David or Lot or prodigal sons and daughters throughout history, If God left you and me to our own strength to persevere, we would undoubtedly fail. But with God, it is utterly impossible. He's already chosen us as his elect from eternity past, as Ephesians 1, verse three tells us. And God doesn't change his mind. He doesn't unelect his people. He casts his vote and he sticks with his choice. Imagine that. Even Lot, even you, even me. He does that because He's chosen us, not just in generic, but He's chosen us in Christ Jesus. And so we have received all the obedience Jesus did. Our sins have been fully paid for on the cross of Jesus. If that's the way He chose us, now if He would lose us, then that means something was incomplete in Jesus' blood on the cross. Something was incomplete in Jesus' obedience that is given to you. But Jesus said, it is finished. It is almost finished. and the Holy Spirit has sealed us, God cannot obliterate the unfailing power and love he has shown to us. And so you may have never thought you'd ever hear a sermon about what God cannot do. You certainly may never have thought it would be a good thing to learn what God can't do. But it is a gospel fact and a glorious and comforting truth. What is it that God cannot do? He cannot fail. He cannot fail to preserve his saints. He cannot fail to preserve those he's planned to save and those he's actually saved through Jesus's blood and those he's sealed with the fruits of the Holy Spirit. If God failed to preserve us, he would fail us and he would fail to be himself the true God. And so, dear congregation, praise God for being God and for being our God and the preserver of our souls. Amen. Let's stand and pray. Father, how we thank and praise you for who you are. What a joy it is to be the recipient of this unending grace which it is so impossible for it to ever be removed from us and though we often go through seasons where it feels like you are far from us help us to realize oh lord you are near to draw near to you with loving your mercy seeking your forgiveness departing from iniquity give us that strength oh lord and help us to trust in you even better We pray as Jesus taught us, saying, our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen. Please be seated.