Good evening, brethren. A delight to stand before you to share God's word. We are going to read quite a lengthy passage in Genesis chapter 19. Genesis chapter 19. I'm going to read from verse 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. And they called to Lord, where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them. Lord went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, and said, I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. 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. But they said, stand back. And they said, this fellow came to Sojen, and he has become the judge. Now we will deal worse with him than with them. When they pressed hard against the man lot and drew near to break the door down, but the men reached out their hands and brought lot into the house with them and shut the door. 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. 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, for we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against his people has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it. So Lord went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, up, get up out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city. But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting. As morning dawned, the angels urged Lord, saying, up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city. But he lingered. So the man seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hands, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. And as they brought him 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. And the Lord said to them, Oh, no, my Lords, behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life. But I cannot escape to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die. Behold, this city is near to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there. Is it not a little one? And my life will be saved. He said to him, behold, I grant you this favor also, but I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. Escape there quickly for I can do nothing till you arrive there Therefore the name of the city was God's or let us pray Our father we Come again to you The God that has been pleased to dwell with men We thank you for Jesus Christ your son and whom you sent, our great apostle, to come and accomplish a great work among humanity, to reveal you to us. But Lord, in the course of our walk with you, we are faced with many challenges and opposition. So Lord, as we come, we are asking you to feed us from your word so that we may have strength to go on in this walk of faith. Equip us, O Lord, from your word. Help us that we may understand the things that are going to be shared by your servant. But help your servant also, Lord, that he may stand as a faithful witness, preaching the things that you have laid upon his heart, which are written in your word. the things you want your people to hear, and nothing more. Oh Lord, we pray. Be with us in this evening, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Brethren, sometimes we sit and we are looking at our lives and we wonder, why we are weak, why we lack assurance or joy in this walk of faith. We find our salvation sometimes is not as exciting, finding ourselves spiritually sick. And maybe, like Peter, saying, I'm going back to my old profession, to my old vocation, to my old way of life. I'm going back fishing. We find ourselves sometimes even backsliding, discouraged, depressed, resentful. Sometimes we become elusive. We want to keep away from brethren, or those people that know us. And we can't understand why. So the last week we were together, I introduced a series of seminars that I intend to deal with regarding the primary enemies of humanity. The primary enemies humanity is faced with. So that we may know our enemies, and then know how to wage war and seek victory over them. We are always at war. Whether you care about it or not, we are at war. We consider the flesh, that is the human nature, whose inclinations and desires are opposed to the will of God because of sin, because of selfishness, the fallen nature which has sinful inclinations found within us. All human beings have this nature, and it is contrary to God's will. We learned the way that God has provided for victory over the desires of the flesh, which is basically that you live by the spirit. That is the way to have victory over the desires of the flesh. And we went into great detail looking at the practical ways of how we may live. Today, and the coming two Sundays, we shall deal with the second enemy, which is the world. What is the world? In the Bible, the word world, which is translated as world, the Greek word cosmos, also refers to the physical world that we see. But in this particular case, as the Lord says in 1 John 2, verse 15 to 17, He says, Do not love the world. He's not saying, Do not love that which I have created. He says, Do not love the world or anything in the world. And says, If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in them. For everything in the world And then he defines, he makes it distinct what this world is. The last of the flesh, the last of the eyes and the pride of life. These things come not from the father, but from the world. The world and its desires pass away. But whoever does the will of God lives forever. James also talks about the same. James goes further and presents this as an enemy. In fact, he says, those that love the world are enemies as well. Chapter 4 verse 4, you adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. So what is this world? This world is, as described in 1 John, it refers to the fallen and sinful systems or values and influences that are contrary to God's ways. Now, this is a collection of humanity's pursuits and desires, the collective mindset of humanity that is estranged from God, that has been lost, is no longer a friend of God. In the fall of Adam, in that scene, we were estranged from God. And from that time, collectively, we are seeking things that are contrary to God. And we see, therefore, that the world becomes a very formidable enemy that will tempt individuals with worldly pleasures, materialism, and the thinking that can lead us away from a relationship with the living God. But as we see here, the Holy Spirit has specifically warned that we should not love the world, And it is also telling us love of the world is enmity with God. We must carefully look at what God has to say concerning this. We shall learn some lessons from the family of Lord concerning interactions of believers with the world and the impact that it has on us. The family of Lot, we are going to look at Lot himself today. We are going to look at his wife next week, the Lord willing. And the next Sunday, we'll look at his daughters. We are shown examples of what we should avoid, and how we should live, and examples of what we should follow. And let us seek the help of the Lord to help us see the way of victory over the world. Now, brethren, every Christian is faced with these formidable enemies. And they wage war in a determined manner. They are determined to bring you and me down. And the more knowledgeable and alert we are, the more prepared for our walk of faith. This text spells out the choices Lot made and the consequences that followed. So Moses shows us God wants us to recognize our need of him. This is the purpose for Moses writing this story, that we may know our need of God and Be alert, be more prepared to walk this walk of faith rather than pursuing the attractions of the world. God wants us to have the right view of the world, to know that it is opposed to him and to our Christian walk. So he gives us examples in the Bible that we may learn from there. So what are we to learn from the life of Lord so as to overcome the world? We are going to focus on four lessons from the Bible that equip us to pursue victory against the world, for us to attain that spiritual sustenance and fulfillment. In the first place, the world can have an upper hand over believers. Christians can become worldly. Let us look at this man, Lord. The story that we read here, the state of affairs was not very encouraging. It was not very pleasant. God had purpose that he was going to destroy this town because of the great sin that was there. and we see Lord is all over that story and his actions or inaction and the things that he was saying are giving us an idea of what was in the heart of Lord. Lord was like many of us, a believer. He was converted. He was a new creation. He was born again. He was a justified child of God. He had faith in the promised seed, even Christ Jesus. He was one of us, expecting to go to the place where Jesus is. And the Holy Spirit testifies to this, that he had put a stamp of ownership on the Lord and confirms it for us in the Bible. In 2 Peter 2, verse 7 and verse 8, we see the Holy Spirit referring to Lord as a just and righteous man. Let us see that there is more evidence there in that passage I've just referred to. The text also tells us that Lot was vexed or provoked in his soul with the unlawful deeds that he saw when he looked around in Sodom. The sights of constant sin agitated his spirit. They disturbed him. They caused pain. He was grieving and hurting. As he witnessed the grievous sin, of Sodom. The Bible says his righteous soul was tormented. And his reaction can only be a work of the Holy Spirit. His reaction can only be a work of grace, because he was a Christian. He was a child of God. We see others that were grieved in their spirits concerning the scene that they saw in the Bible. We see the Lord Jesus Christ grieving over Jerusalem in Luke chapter 19 verse 41. As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it. Paul grieved over Israel. Romans chapter 9 verse 2 and verse 3. I have great sorrow and continue heaviness in my heart for my brethren my king's men according to the flesh. So the Lord never got used to sinful acts of the land. The Bible tells us he was vexed in his soul. Yet we see that there are people who claim to be Christians who are unmoved by the corruption of the human spirit around them. And to make matters worse, they joke about the scene that is going around. It is scandals. They are the first ones to post around in the WhatsApp groups. They are the ones who have breaking news concerning scandals and making fun of that, getting excited when they hear something in the church. Maybe at first they were outraged, but with time, it ceases to make any sense to them, doesn't touch them. Lot was compromised, but yet he was troubled concerning the sin that he saw around him. There are many Christians with faults and weaknesses and defects, but yet they are also true candidates of heaven, just like Lot. Observe, brethren, what was wrong early on in the life of Lot. In chapter 13, we are told that Lot messed up on the decisions that he made concerning his future. There was a time that he lived with Abraham, his uncle, a godly man. He lived in a godly home. They pursued righteousness, they pursued faith. When Abraham was given the promise and told, go to a land which I will show you. Going into uncertainty, they don't know where they are going, but they are trusting God. He was there. And he experienced many things in the home of Abraham. In the course of time, they became wealthy. Abraham became very wealthy, and Lot became exceedingly wealthy as well, and they could not live together. And at that point, they needed to separate. In fact, Abraham suggests wanting to maintain unity and considering Lot better than himself Abraham tells Lord to choose where he wants to go and he says if you whatever you choose you will take and I'll take what you have not chosen and Immediately we see Lord Jumping to the occasion. What does he do? In Genesis chapter 13 verse 9 we see Lord give Abraham giving Lord the option and in chapter 13 verse 10, we see Lord raised his eyes, lifted his eyes and looked around, scanned the environment and we are told he saw the plains of Jordan near Sodom which were rich and fertile and well watered It was good land Farmers desire such land for cattle full of pastures Because he had large flocks and herds The Bible tells us that he saw that to be the fitting place for his requirements This is the land that he chose to dwell in The problem is not because the land was beautiful The problem is that Lord, first of all, he did not even consult God. He on his own started out making decisions and he made the decision. Worldly concerns, temporal benefits were uppermost in his mind. That is what was in his heart. And he needed to go to a land where he was going to have opportunities for growth. How many of us make decisions like Lord? We are concerned with earthly concerns and God is not in the picture. Here, Lord lifted his eyes and scanned the land. There was no reliance at all on God for guidance. He chose by sight and not by faith. We are able to tell this because later on Abraham was also, after Lord had left, God appeared to him and told him to lift his eyes and look to the north, look to the east, look to the west and to the south. And he says, all this land that you see, I will give to you. meaning even the land that Lord had chosen was given to the man that gave the opportunity to the young man. You can both rely on God and be successful, even be wealthy. But then we see a lot He goes to Setonia, the town of Sodom. And we are taught there, the men of Sodom were wicked. Those that were going to be his neighbors were wicked. This is the problem. But that did not bother him. In fact, this knowledge was known to him. before he even went, because they knew that the land had been occupied by other tribes as well. That is why it was difficult for their animals to coexist, because there were other people that existed in the land. The Bible says, the men of Sodom were wicked. And unfortunately for Lot, it did not bother him. His concern was, like many of us, I'm getting a powerful once-in-a-lifetime job opportunity, once-in-a-lifetime contract, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get married. Whether it glorifies God or not is of no concern to me. After all, I will only do it for a few years to raise money for retirement. I must make me happy. I must show myself some self love. I must treat me well. The pasture was rich, the land was good, and it was well watered. It made perfect sense. He considered not only what would help him in this life. He only considered what what was going to help him in his life in this life. He forgot the serious business of eternity. And this was not a good beginning for him. But Lord, the next time that we read about him, after this incident in chapter 13, the next time that we read about him, he pitched his tent toward Sodom there at first, But the next time, in chapter 14 and verse 12, we are told, he dwelt in Sodom. How did he get there? We don't see God compelling him. We don't see God commanding him. There was no war. Without compulsion, without being forced, he went even further. God had taught them to live in tents, to dwell in tents. He was dwelling in tents outside of Sodom, but he decided he needed concrete. He needed a solid foundation. So he moved and went to dwell near the town square. That is what we are told in chapter 19. When we were reading in the town square, in the streets of Sodom, that is where he was. He was in the thick of things. He was in the king, in the town, in the city. the bustling city. He abandoned the nomadic life of his uncle and his tents. He forsook the outskirts of the city and moved into a ward house near the town square. Why he did this, we do not know. We are not taught. We don't know. We can speculate. Maybe he was influenced by his wife Maybe his daughters wanted to be in the city where they could find men to get married to. Maybe they thought, well, why are we living on our own? Let's go and mix with the people. Let us not isolate ourselves. Let us go and socialize. We do not know. But what we know is that he was not commanded by God. And he made that decision. But Lord, did this even after he suffered some affliction you know there was a war that came up and he was taken hostage with his family and Abraham panicked and organized himself taking a great risk to go and rescue Lord but we see after being rescued where did he go? He went back to Sodom. How do we know? Because he is in Sodom in chapter 19. After chapter 14, this is what happens to many of us, dear brethren. Wrong choices. We are not honestly seeking for God's guidance. Even when we are praying for certain things, we've made up our minds. when we are making certain major decisions, especially in pursuit of things that will please us in this life, things that are attractive in this life, things that will make us appear great, things that will make people point fingers and say, do you know him? That's the one. Have you seen what he has, what he has achieved? This is not far-fetched, dear friends, dear brethren. What criteria do you use for choosing a life partner, a wife or a husband? Is it their glamorous figure or his wit and fun? You don't care about their spiritual condition or their fear of God. That's none of your business. You can marry them. There are many people who are married to unbelievers. A friend of mine was saying she was under pressure, being told, if of whoever who man believers, You are sponsored. Why are you refusing to get married? Is that your thinking? The decisions that you make at that point will determine your happiness for the rest of your life. That's the case with marriage. What kind of person you will be will be determined by that decision that you make at the point of getting married for the rest of your life. Whether you remain with that husband, that wife, or not, your life will be determined by that decision. Do you seek God? Do you seek the counsel of godly men and women around you? Are you honest? Or are you looking at the fact that, oh, you know, the stories that we hear about unbelievers who say they choose to marry intelligent men or intelligent women so that they can have intelligent children. Or they look for well-built men, beautiful women so that they can have model children. Is that your thinking? For some reason, In the secrecy of your heart, you comfort yourself that God will change them at some point. The Bible tells us wisely in 2 Corinthians 6, verse 14, do not be unequally yoked. What about your calling? Station in life or profession? What criteria do you use? What have you committed yourself to? Is it something, what are you contemplating going into? What considerations do you make? Is it the company car that is everything? Or benefits, vacations, to the exclusion of concerns for your immortal soul? Will your business succeed? whatever the case, whatever happens, whatever you have to compromise. Do you do these things without engagements with Christ? Do you consider what time you are going to have to be able to devote to your Christian life? Or you just accept the responsibility We will cross the bridge when we get there. Remember what happened with Lord. What about settling? Even just settling, where do you settle? Look at Lord. What happened? Was he concerned about his soul? Accessibility to church? Are there believers where you are found or where you have decided to go? Is there some spiritual engagement in your life where you are settling? Or are you banking on the doctrine of eternal security? The Lord will keep me whatever happens. Yes, Jesus said we are his sheep. We will never perish. But he never assured assurance of faith and the joy of salvation. If we get compromised, and the pain that we experience in most most cases comes as a result of this, we should not be too confident of ourselves. Proclaiming proclaiming I shall never be moved. Let him who thinks he stands, take it. The second issue, the second lesson here is that the world can only compromise our work. We see the evidence of compromise in the life of Lot. Chapter 19, verse 13, we see there, Lot knew about the awful condition of the city in which he was. We are told that the cry of its abominations had become great before the Lord. He knew about this. What did he do about it? But also Lord knew about the fear of judgment that was coming, that was about to come. And they tell him the Lord has sent us to destroy it. Imminent judgment is there coming. And the Lord knew from his history that God is a faithful God. He will do that which he has promised. He will keep his word. These words that have been spoken by these men will come to pass. Lord also saw the angels, in fact, protected him, so to speak, from the men. He was aware of the danger that was there and even went to tell his sons-in-law about the danger and then he comes back. Something strange happens in this passage. In verse 15, at daybreak, the angels urged the Lord, Get up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city. But He hesitated. He hesitated. This place is corrupt. You have been tormented all your life. Your soul has been tormented in this place. God is bringing judgment upon it and he wants you to go out and he hesitated. His heart was still there. He was hoping God might change his mind and not destroy this. Maybe he was concerned about his wealth, his great wealth. All his wealth was going to go. But what does that tell us? His heart was taken up by the things that he possessed. Is that what the Bible tells us? The pride of the things you own. The world. He loved the world. He was taken up. He was compromised. Well, there is still hope with the Lord. He could have forsaken that way, but he had to be grabbed and taken out because the Bible tells us God was gracious to him. That is what the Bible tells us there. Because of the Lord's compassion for him, the man grabbed his hand, his wife's hand, and the hands of his two daughters and took them out. The world has taken charge. In the third place, the world not only promises much and delivers very little, but it also claims those that are around us. It will take us, Christians will be taken up by the world, but not only them, but those that they love as well, those that are around them. Let us see something here that happened. Lord has ceased to have a testimony, a witness in this city. How do they refer to him? They refer to him despising this fellow in verse 9. This fellow came to sojourn here and he will need to be a judge. First of all, just the audacity of these men to come and say, bring them out. We want to sleep with them. Tells you that they did not regard Lord. They did not consider him much. He was compromised. They did not fear. They did not see him as a witness. They were not feeling condemned in his presence. What about his family? He went out to go and warn his son's-in-law in verse 14. But the Bible tells us that his sons-in-law thought he was joking. I mean, if they considered him as a righteous man and as a Christian, and he's telling them about the impending judgment, he has just come from a place where the whole city has been struck blind and they wearied themselves. So there was word that had gone round that this is what happened when the city wanted to take hold of the men in Lord's house. There was a story that had gone round and the sons-in-law must have heard. But they considered Lord a joker. And what about his wife? She left the city with him in his company. She had lived with him. We are going to have a detailed study of her life next week, but she did not go far. His influence had been lost. I wonder whether he was even having family worship with his family. His children, we are told later on, his daughters, they did the devil's work and brought him down. led to incest. But we also do not see much about him written, for example, concerning his death. It is the custom of the Bible writers to write something about how prominent people died. We know very little about Lord after his flight from Sodom. And all we know is these negative things that we have seen. Even when he was being taken out, he starts pleading that he may, he negotiated that he doesn't go to the hills. He loved city life. He wanted to be in the city again. If it had not been for the account in Peter, many of us would not have known that he was born again, that he's going to heaven. There would have been a dark cloud. As many of us might find ourselves where people are not too sure. They see signs of Christianity. They see you are not involved in terrible things and you complain about sinners, but yet, They can't be sure whether you are born again. They'll be saying, yeah, he goes to church, but is he born again? I'm not too sure. And in the last place, despite all these things that we have seen, the gloomy picture, yet there is a better way. That is a selfless way. The Lord has provided a way. We see a better way in the life of Abraham to start with. In the choices that Abraham was making, he committed to God. It was God who comes to him, tells him, look up. And in obedience, he looks up. In obedience, he goes, follows what God has said, even if it doesn't make sense to him, even if it looks dangerous. Even if it presents a situation of uncertainty for the future, God told him, go to a land which I'll show you. That is uncertainty. And Abraham was not concerned about, he was a rich man. He had wealth. He had Lamborghinis. He was not counting these GXs that we are fighting over in this country. He had great wealth. Abraham even had an army, a military. He was a great man, but he was not taken up. His heart was not taken up. He was ready to give up these things. He was ready to surrender them. And in fact, he surrendered them. The promise that was made to him of the land never happened here on earth. What he was looking forward to is a heavenly Jerusalem. He wasn't consumed with the earthly things. And this is the better way, dear brethren. I hope you are not one of those who think you can get ahead on your own by being shrewd, by trampling others, helping yourself, disregarding God's word, and thinking that you will achieve somehow that you will work out your way to heaven by your own calculating ways doesn't happen that way the Lord has provided a way the Lord has provided a way of security in the Lord Jesus Christ the Christ that Lord trusted he needed to walk with him and know him and love him invest in knowing him invest in saving him praying to him reading his word, embracing the knowledge of Christ, that we may know how we may live in this life. He could have waited for guidance from the Lord and avoided many troubles. Maybe because of this kind of decision making, that is why he married a wife, that we read about only negative things. You only Remember Lord's wife in a negative light. Dear brethren, the Lord has provided us a way. Do not love the world. Trust in God. Walk in his faith. We must be ready to walk with him. Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. You started off by faith. Continue by faith. May the Lord be gracious to us as we think about these things. so that we are not limited and consigned to people that are disregarded without the savor of salt, the light which has been snuffed up. Let us pray that the Lord will help us as we consider these things.