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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.
War with our foes: The World (Learning from Lots wife) - Part 1
Series War with our foes
Learning from Lot
| Sermon ID | 8623728207644 |
| Duration | 48:45 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Genesis 19 |
| Language | English |
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