Lot's Loss Culminated

If you got your Bible, turn with me to Genesis chapter 19. If you have not been with us over the last several weeks, then the good news about tonight is that what we talk about this evening is a culmination of everything up to this point. We bring everything to the tipping point to help you understand why the story of Lot is in the Bible, and why the details as they are are recorded in Scripture, so you understand exactly why this evening as we examine God's Word together.

And if you haven't been with us, we hope that maybe you'll either listen some way by way of downloading the sermons or getting them by way of CD that you might be cut up to speed as to what's going on. It's a fantastic study to look at Lot's life and to understand the loss that he went through and how we can escape that kind of loss, that we might understand the glory of the great God Jesus Christ our Lord. So it's Genesis chapter 19, but before we go there, I want to read to you a commentary on Lot's life and his family.

It's recorded very very familiar in 1st John chapter 2 verses 15 and 17. You know it well, you probably haven't memorized. Do not love the world nor the things in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away and also its lusts, but the one who does the will of God lives forever.

Now Lot's name is not there. His wife and daughter's names are not there. In fact, their names are not even in Genesis chapter 19, but their lives are there.

They loved the world. They loved everything that was in the world. The unfortunate thing about that is that the world's passing away.

And Lot for a time enjoyed the passing pleasures of sin. He did. We talked about this last week.

He enjoyed them for about 15 years. But then now in Genesis chapter 19, everything comes home to roost and it's not a pretty sight at all. And so it all began years ago for Lot.

His loss was initiated way back in Egypt when uncle Abraham took him down there. And he was able to see the the the the fertile fields in Egypt and the beauty of the city lights in Egypt. And that's where everything really began to ramp up for him.

And so as he had the opportunity to choose, he chose Sodom when he and then uncle Abraham had a little feud between his herdsmen and uncle Abraham's herdsmen. And so he chose the way of Sodom. Because in his heart he longed for Sodom.

So because he longed for it, he would look to Sodom. And that initiated the loss in Lot's life. But he didn't experience loss right away.

And that's the deceitfulness of sin. We think that we're going to do what we want to do and it's okay and there are no immediate consequences. And so we continue down that path.

So Lot would begin to lean towards Sodom and then live in Sodom. That would perpetuate his loss. That which was initiated now is perpetuated.

Although he has yet to experience it. Until the kings of the East raid Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities. Or those cities come against the kings of the East, excuse me.

And they get captured and taken away. And this is God's warning to Lot. But he doesn't pay attention.

Uncle Abraham hears of it, goes, rescues his nephew and the citizens of Sodom. And you would think that at that point Lot would begin to realize the error of his way, but he did not. And so once loss was initiated, then perpetuated, it now is escalated.

Because now he is living in Sodom. And now he is leading in Sodom. Because now he is one of the leading men in that city.

When you come to Genesis chapter 19. And that lot now, that loss now is escalated for him beyond measure. And because he, he loved the city of Sodom, he would linger in the city of Sodom.

And that loss today is culminated with the devastating tragedy of the sin with his daughters and Lot in a cave in the mountains around Zohar. It's a tragic story. It's a horrific story.

In fact, it's almost kind of embarrassing to even read it. But I'm going to because it's in the Scriptures. But when you read it, it kind of makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

And you wonder, why did God put this in the Bible? Why would God accentuate the sin of Lot and his daughters in the Bible? Well, tonight you're gonna know why. And it brings the whole story of Lot into focus. To understand why God spells out what he does with this man in his life.

Yes, he doesn't want you to live this life and lose in life. Of course not. He wants you to learn from this life so that you can overcome temptation, overcome compromise, and live a life that glorifies the Lord Jesus.

That's important. And hopefully over the last several weeks, you've learned a little bit about that. And you've grown in that area.

And you're able to take what we have shared with you from the Scriptures and apply them to your life. The next two weeks after this, we will go back and look at the conquest of compromise. How not to compromise based on Lot's life so that you can escape the loss that he experienced.

But let's conclude Genesis 19 looking at verses 30 down to verse 38. And let us lie with him that we may preserve our family through our father. So they made their father drink wine that night.

And the firstborn went in and lay with her father. And he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. On the following day, the firstborn said to the younger, Behold, I lay last night with my father.

Let us make him drink wine tonight also. Then you go in and lie with him that we may preserve our family through our father. So they made their father drink wine that night also.

And the younger arose and lay with him. And he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father.

The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. As for the younger, she also bore a son and called his name Ben-Ami.

He is the father of the sons of Ammon to this day. The tragic consequences of our transgressions. This is a story on how Lot's loss is culminated.

Let's begin by looking at Lot and the tragic consequences of his life. One thing about Lot is that he was horrible at making wise choices. You know, as a father, you have to make decisions.

You got to make choices. And I would trust that you would make wise ones. Lot did not do that.

He was constantly making bad choices. It began with Uncle Abraham. When Abraham said, choose which way you're going to go.

To the left or the right? I'll go the opposite way. But when he looked towards Sodom and saw the fertile fields of Sodom, they were like Egypt. They were like the garden of the Lord in Eden.

Boy, that's what he wanted. He walked by sight, not by faith. And whenever you walk by sight, not by faith, whenever you walk by what you see, you're always going to make a wrong decision nine times out of ten.

It's going to happen. And that's exactly what Lot did. But he continued to make bad choices.

And when he desired to leave his uncle Abraham, the fellowship of the saint, to fellowship with the Sodomites, it was the beginning of tremendous problems for him. But he would forfeit being with the godly to live with the ungodly. What kind of choice is that? But that's a choice he made.

Maybe he thought that, you know, I'm a righteous man and I can go to Sodom and I can live for God in Sodom. Maybe that was his plan. I don't know.

It didn't say that was his plan, but maybe that's what he was thinking. Remember, he never called on the name of the Lord like Abraham did. He never built an altar like Abraham did.

And he was with uncle Abraham when he called on the Lord and he built the altar. So he had a good example there. He could have done that in Sodom.

Could you imagine Lot building an altar to God in Sodom? Or maybe even outside the city. That would have been a great testimony, but he never did that. And the Bible never records that he called on the name of the Lord.

In other words, he never sought wisdom from God. He just made decisions based on what his eyes could see. He walked by sight, not by faith.

And the Bible says in Hebrews 11 that without faith it's impossible to please God. You can't please God without faith because faith is believing in what God has said. And if I believe in what God has said, I'll do what he says and follow him.

That pleases God. But if I don't believe in what he says, I'm going to follow my eyes, follow my heart, and do the things that I want to do. You know, a very familiar verse.

You know the verses. I'm just going to read them to you and I'm sure you know them even by heart. Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. You know those verses? Sure you do.

Okay. It says, very simply, trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths smooth.

Right? Most of us know Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. But how many of us know Proverbs 3, 5, 7, and 8? Not very many, right? We know we're to trust in the Lord with all our heart. We know we're not to lean on our own understanding. In other words, don't depend on what you see.

But trust in God. Believe in what he says. In all your ways acknowledge him.

He'll make your paths smooth. He'll make your paths straight. He'll make them obstacle free.

But listen to what verse 7 says. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil.

What evil? The evil of leaning on your own understanding. It is evil to lean on your own understanding. Fear the Lord.

That's what it means to trust in the Lord. To believe in what he says. With all your heart.

Turn away from evil. Don't lean on what you think is right. Lean on what you know is right.

Because God said it was right. Then he says, It will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones. Healing to your body and refreshment to your bones.

In other words, there's going to be a semblance of peace. A semblance of tranquility about your life. Because you have trusted in the Lord your God.

And feared his name. Let me ask you a question. Do you think Lot had peace in his life? Answer, no.

2 Peter chapter 2 tells us that he was tormented day and night in his soul. While he lived in Sodom. Now the unique thing about that is he did nothing about it.

He was tormented in his soul day and night. But he still stayed there. That's what baffles my mind.

If you're that tormented. If you're that beat up in your soul. If you're that upset in your soul.

Get out of there. Move. Do something different.

But he didn't do that. He stayed. And maybe it was the pressure of his wife.

He wasn't married when he moved towards Sodom. When he leaned towards Sodom. Somewhere between leaning and living in Sodom he found a wife.

And maybe it was the pressure of his wife to stay in Sodom. Maybe she pressured him. And she said, honey, I'm not leaving this city.

I love this place. My family is here. I love it here.

I'm not leaving. And he felt the pressure to stay. I don't know.

And then he had kids. He had two daughters. And the daughters are somewhere around 14 to 16 years of age in this story.

They're middle teenage years. And so he's got these daughters. And they want to stay.

They don't want to leave. And Lot's feeling the pressure of his wife and feeling the pressure of his kids. And so he stays.

Even though his soul is tormented day and night. And he's the righteous one. His wife wasn't righteous and his daughters are not righteous.

The Bible didn't tell us that they are. So we assume that they're not based on what Scripture says. And the only way we know Lot is because Peter tells us he was.

And so you would think that the righteous man would lead his unrighteous wife. His unrighteous children in the ways of righteousness. You'd think that, right? You'd hope that.

But evidently, he did not do that. And that's a wake-up call for all of us, right? As fathers, as men. To lead our families.

To be sensitive to the Spirit's leading. To know exactly what decisions we should make based on what the Word of the Lord says. But not Lot.

He didn't do that. He was tormented in his soul. Look what the text says.

Lot went up from Zoar and stayed in the mountains and his two daughters with him. For he was afraid to stay in Zoar. They stayed in a cave.

He and his two daughters. Now the ironic thing about that is that last week when they were escaping the city. And the angel said, flee to the mountains.

He said, can I go to Zoar instead of the mountains? If I go to the mountains, I'll be swept away in the devastation. When God said that he wouldn't be. But he wanted to go to Zoar.

And the angels granted him that request. Go, hurry. For we won't do anything until you arrive in Zoar.

But now, now he's afraid to stay in Zoar. Why? Why would he be afraid to stay there? Is he afraid that maybe somehow God's going to destroy the city? God promised he wasn't going to destroy Zoar. So why would he be afraid of that? What's he afraid of? Is he afraid that the citizens of Zoar are going to blame him for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah? That he was the only survivor? And maybe they'll blame him.

I don't know. But why was he afraid? God had given him the desire of his heart. But sent a barrenness to his soul.

Psalm 106.15. I told you about that last week. He was now barren in his soul. He got to go where he wanted to go.

But now, he's even afraid to stay there. So he flees to the mountains. Never asking God what to do.

You'd think right now is a chance for him to really begin to repent. He has seen his wife be turned into a pillar of salt. He is now a widow.

You'd think now that after the devastation of losing his wife, he'd wake up and say, You know what? I got to repent. I got to get it right with the living God. I've been in error.

I've been in sin. No repentance. No confession.

No altar building. No calling upon the name of the Lord. Nothing.

And you would think that there would be a trigger in his life to turn him around to do that. But Scripture records nothing. And so because he was afraid, he would flee Zohar and go to the mountains.

Go to a cave in the mountains. Now think about this. He's been living in Sodom, the luxury city of Sodom, for 15 years.

Probably in a beautiful home. Went from Sodom to Zohar. Living the city life.

And now, he's living in a cave. What are you doing, Lot? You're living in a cave with your daughters. And pray tell, where did they get the wine? I mean, did they bring it with them? I mean, come on.

Did they want it so bad they had to drag the wine out of the city with them? Because they knew they had to drink something. So let's take the wine. Got to have that with us.

You know? I'm trying to figure out where they got the wine. Did they find it in a cave someplace? Did they buy it on the way? But they had it. And so here he is, leaving the luxury of Sodom.

Zohar, fleeing to the mountains because he's afraid. Have you ever noticed that we make decisions more out of fear than out of faith? You ever notice that? Look back at this week and the decisions that you've made. I've come to realize that we make decisions based on fear.

Based on our finances. Based on our future. Based on our friends.

Based on our family. More so than based on the faith of God's word. We make decisions based on our foes, our enemies.

We make decisions more so on everything else around us instead of what God wants us to make our decisions on. What has he already said? There was no need for Lot to be afraid in Zohar. No need.

God never said he was going to destroy that city. There was no need for him to flee to the mountains now, but at least now he's doing what God originally said. Hey, listen.

If he would have went to the mountains in the first place, do you think that maybe his wife would still be with him? Think about that. If he would not have appealed to the angels to go to Zohar instead of the mountains, maybe his wife would still be with him, and maybe that's what he's thinking. I don't know what he's thinking.

Who knows what this guy's thinking? I know what he's not thinking. He's not thinking, Lord, please give me wisdom. He's not thinking, Lord, what do you want me to do next? He's not even calling upon the name of the Lord.

He's just doing his own thing out of fear. And that's always dangerous. It's always dangerous to make decisions out of fear, and that's what he did.

Every one of us needs to make our decisions based on the faith that God has given to us in his word. What does his word say? You know, the Bible says, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Psalm 119, 105.

Psalm 119, 64 tells us that I delight in thy law, O Lord. Thy testimonies are my counselors. The testimonies of God are our counselors.

Our Lord is called counselor in Isaiah 9, verse number 6, right? He is the ultimate counselor. He gives us his word to counsel us because he wants us to know how to make the right choices. He wants us to know what to do.

He doesn't say, well, you know what, my will is like a puzzle. Hopefully you get it figured out before you die. God doesn't like that.

God says, I've given you my word. It tells you my will. It tells you my desire.

It tells you what I want for you. Read it, study it, live it, follow it. How many decisions have you made this week or the last week or the last month based on fear? Based on your family? You ever make decisions based on your family? Not because it's really what God said, but because your family's pressuring you? Ever made a decision because of your enemy, your foes? They're pressuring you, so you make the wrong decision based on what they have said or what they have done? You must always rely upon God as word.

That's why the Bible says, great peace have those who love thy law and nothing causes them to stumble. Psalm 119, 165. Lot didn't have any peace.

He was stumbling all over the place because he didn't love what God said. Do you? I would hope you do. Because if you do, great peace you will have.

Not just peace, but great peace. And oh, Lot needed peace because he had none in his soul because he lived in the city of sin. And although his soul was tormented, he stayed.

And God was working in his heart, but he did not listen. He did not follow. That's not what he wanted to do.

You know, whenever you live in a place that God has not granted you permission to live, it's always going to be dangerous. God never directed him to the cave in the mountains around Zoar. At first he did, but all that's changed now.

Things have changed. We just can't go back and say, okay, now I'm going to do what you say, Lord. It's like the guy who marries the girl and he marries the wrong one.

And after a year or two he says, you know, I think I'm going to go back and marry the other one because this one's not the right one. I should have listened to the Lord two years ago. So I'll leave her and marry her because that was the way God wanted me to go in the first place.

You can't do that. It doesn't work now. Too late.

It's over. You had your chance. It's done.

You know? The will of God now is the one you're with. You can't now divorce her, leave her, annul the marriage because you think, well, maybe if I was with the other one, I'd be a lot happier now. I'm going back the other way.

And that's like a lot's doing. I'd have been a lot happier if I'd have done what God said from the very beginning. I didn't do that.

I went to Zohar and said, well, now I'm afraid. Well, better go and do what God said and everything will be okay. It wasn't okay because he didn't do what God said the first time.

So a lot's decision making is horrible. And as men, we have to make wise choices. We're responsible for our family, responsible for our wives, our kids, to lead them in the right way.

That they might know true righteousness, true holiness. Because you see, Lot's inability to lead affected how his daughters made decisions, especially in the cave. He never led them to trust in God.

He never led them to wait upon the Lord. He never led them to say, you know what, let's pray about what to do next. Let's ask the Lord for wisdom.

He didn't do that. That's nowhere recorded anywhere in scripture. And by virtue of the fact that his wife and his daughters were unable to follow what God would say in his word, then you know you have a problem because dad didn't lead, husband didn't lead in the right way.

Lot has no one to blame here but himself. No one. Oh, we can say, well, yeah, if he would have married a better woman, things would have been different.

If he had a boy instead of girls, maybe things would have been different. No, no, that's not the case. No one here to blame but Lot himself.

He's the one. And he led his family into the tragic consequences of their transgressions. He's the leader.

He's responsible. So let's look at these two girls and what takes place as a result of Lot's inability to lead his family and to provide direction for them. It says in verse 31, the firstborn said to the younger, so the firstborn girl is leading the younger girl, which is usually what happens.

It says, our father is old and there is no man on earth to come into us after the manner of the earth. Come, let us make our father drink wine. Let us lie with him that we may preserve our family through our father.

I want you to notice something. What she does is she's going to rationalize her sinful behavior. There is no man.

No man. Really? Didn't he just come from Zohar? I'm sure Zohar was a city filled with men. But in their mind, they're going to rationalize everything.

There is no man for us to latch onto to continue the family name, the family line. So the only way it's going to happen is if our father fathers our children. That's it.

And so she's going to rationalize her sin by convincing her younger sister as to what to do and to engage in this sin. She would rationalize her sin and then once they rationalized their sin, they strategized about their sin. Once they strategized how it was going to happen, then they organized their sinful behavior.

Once it was organized, it was mobilized. And once it was mobilized, it was finalized. And once it was finalized, it would always be penalized.

That's the way it works. But is it not true that we look for ways to rationalize the things we do? There's no man around. It's like the young lady says, you know, if I go to the mission field, I might not ever get married.

If I stay in this church, I might not ever find a man. I might not ever get married. Really? Are you that limited in your belief in an almighty God that you would think, well, if I go to the mission field, I might not get married.

If I stay in this church, I might not get married. If I go to this school, I might not ever get married. Really? I got it this way.

If God wants you married, you're going to get married. If God doesn't want you married, guess what? You're not going to be married. So trust in the Lord and trust what He's going to do.

And by the way, when you do find the right one, He'll be the right one at the right time. God will always bring them at the right time at the right place for you. But we always lean on our own understanding.

Well, if I do this and go here, I might not find the perfect husband. I better go to a, quote, Christian school to find a Christian man. Really? You think that you have to go to a Christian school to find a Christian man to get married? Is that how limited you are in your faith in the living God? But that's what we think.

Instead of just leaning on God, trusting in Him, believing in what His Word says, following what He says, and being faithful where I'm at right now, faithful where I'm at right now, doing what God has asked me to do, pleasing His name, glorifying His name, letting God take care of all the peripherals. And yes, your husband is on the peripheral. God will bring him to you when He wants to.

And yet what happens is we find ourselves settling. Do you know how many women I've counseled over the years who have settled? They settled. They figured, well, you know, I better marry this guy and then nobody else is going to come along.

Better latch on to this guy. I know he's not the guy I really wanted, but he'll do for now. So they latch on to that guy and about two years in, they're like, oh, what did I get myself into now? I thought he would lead a little bit better than he did.

I thought he'd be a little bit more spiritual than he was. I thought he'd be a little bit more committed than he actually was. He's not committed.

He's not spiritual. He doesn't even love the Lord. What am I doing? Too late now.

You settled. Settled. Because there might not be another man.

Instead of waiting upon the Lord. So they rationalize. There's no man.

What are we going to do? We're all alone in a cave. We're going to be here forever. We're going to rot in a cave.

We got to have children because barrenness in those days was a reproach, right? If you were a young woman in those days, the beauty of your life was to bear children. That was it. That was everything.

And they lived to bear children. To carry on the family name. That motivated them.

That's why they were betrothed at such young ages. That's why they had children at such young ages because this is what they lived for. So they had huge families because they lived to bear and raise children.

And they don't want to go through life with this reproach of not having children. So they strategize. How can we do this? We'll get our father drunk.

Okay? Now, I don't know how much wine they brought from Zoar or how that all worked together, but they had a plan. Once we get him drunk, we'll lie with him. We'll conceive.

Have children. So the older went to the younger. I did it.

It worked for me. It worked for you, too. We'll get him drunk again.

Now, Lot, come on, dude. You got to wake up, man. I mean, fool me once, okay.

But two days in a row? You have got to be kidding me. This man is so lost in his sin, he can't even see straight. This man is way out to lunch.

He is so far gone spiritually, he has no discernment whatsoever. And wine, evidently, was a weakness of his. And his daughters knew that.

And they played on that, knowing they could get him drunk, knowing they could lay with him, knowing that they could conceive through him, and everything would be okay. And that's exactly what they did. Isn't that amazing? What a horrific story.

But you know, even though they were out of Sodom, Sodom was still in them. Even though they weren't physically in Sodom, everything they learned over those last 14, 15, 16 years was a part of their life. They had lived in an environment that controlled the way they thought, controlled the way they dealt with sin, controlled the way they dealt with life, controlled the way they functioned in life.

This is what happens when you live in the world and live like the world. And their father allowed them to live in that environment and to continue to soak in all the evils of that environment without leading them in the way of righteousness. And so, therefore, they were enamored with Sodom.

Although they did not live in Sodom, Sodom lived in them. You know, as parents, we have a huge responsibility with our children, don't we? I was going through some of my notes from a while back, and I realized that 18 years ago this month, U.S. News and World Report came out with an article, 18 years ago this month, way before smartphones ever truly took off like they have. And there was an article written about how media has affected our teenagers.

This was 18 years ago. Ironically, last month, there was an article written in the New York Times Magazine about now how smartphones have affected our college students in such a way that at this day and age, the anxiety level is out of control in college students. Anxiety and depression are the most troublesome issues with college students.

And they trace it all back to social media and smartphones. It's a fascinating article written by people who are not believers, by the way. They trace it all back to there.

But I was reading, I went back and re-read the article that was written 18 years ago. Listen to what it says about how media, not social media, just media in general has affected our teenagers. It said this, In 1979, so now this is 20 years before the article written in 1999, okay? In 1979, 6% of children had televisions in their bedrooms.

Today, in 1999, 77% of teenagers have TVs in their rooms. Now, you don't need TVs in your rooms today, right? You got smartphones. You don't have to have TV.

You can watch TV on your phone. You can watch TV when you drive your car. You can watch TV wherever you go.

It's on your phone, see? But this article was written 18 years ago saying that now, 20 years ago, 6% had TVs. Now 77% have TVs. If you translate that now to today, another 18 years later, how many teenagers actually have smartphones in their rooms? All of them do.

Virtually very few don't anymore. So it says, A Kaiser Family Foundation survey released last November, that would have been 19 years ago now, reveals that kids ages 2 to 18 spend merely 5 1⁄2 hours a day outside of school with some type of media influence. Five hours a day, outside of school, some type of media influence.

Today, it would be outside of school and in school with media influence, right? Because your smartphones are with you. And almost three hours of that is spent with TV in the bedroom of the 8 to 18-year-olds. 21% have computers, 65% have television sets, and 61% have no parental control over their viewing or playing habits.

This was almost 20 years ago. 61% of teenagers have no parental control over what they view every day. Now, how many parents have control of what their students view today on their smartphones? When with a click of a button, you can see anything, anywhere, anytime.

How many parents have actual control over their children in those areas? When those smartphones they sleep with, right? They're everywhere. And the whole article goes on to say these words, The problem with so much media influence is that it isolates children to their own little worlds. The media do not offer two-way communication, and cyber chats don't develop communication skills.

Parents should be concerned if their kids want to spend more time with these electronic marvels than with their friends. Well, what would they say today? I mean, even when friends go out, they walk down the mall, all of them on their phones, in some kind of isolation from one another, even though they're together, they're isolated one from another. And then they sit down at their restaurant, all on their phones, although they're together, all isolated one from another.

And the whole point of the article was that, look, we need to get our children to be able to communicate face-to-face, one-on-one, building relationships with other people, or it's going to come back to haunt us. And it has. It has.

Why? Because it's that constant intake of the world, and it's the media, and it's influenced our lives. And the more we let the world influence our lives, the more we're going to think like the world, we're going to talk like the world, we're going to act like the world. The world's going to be in us, more so than us being in the world.

And for the daughters of Lot, Sodom was in them, entrenched in them, ingrained in them. So they could rationalize their sin, they could strategize about their sin, they could organize their sin, they could mobilize their sin, they could enact their sin, not ever realizing the penalty of their sin. Because, after all, who thinks of the consequences of sin when they're sinning? None of us.

Or guess what? We wouldn't be sinning. But because we're not thinking of the consequences, we engage in the sin. That's exactly what they did.

Outside of that, they had a father that did not teach them to trust the Lord. They had a father that was willing to compromise their purity with the men of Sodom, earlier in Genesis 19, when the men came to have sex with the angels. Remember that? And he offered up his daughters.

What kind of righteous father does that? Lot. He did. He did it.

But where did he learn that? Where did he learn to compromise the purity of his family? Abraham. He was willing to compromise the purity of Sarah, way back in Genesis 12. And then later again, in the book of Genesis, he would do the same thing.

He was willing to compromise the purity of his family for his own safety. So Lot learned that. Remember what you do in moderation, your children do in excess? Here's that example.

What Abraham did in moderation, his nephew's children would learn from their father, Lot, and do in excess by committing incest with their father. What a horrific story. But why does God give us all this? Why? Here it is.

You ready? Both the daughters were richhired by their father. The firstborn boor's son called his name Moab. Know what Moab means? From my father.

So she named her son to accentuate her sin. From my father. Second son, Ben-Ami, of my people, or son of my people.

Again, daughter number two, publicize, accentuates their sin. They name their boys to capitalize on their sinful behavior so everyone will know how they conceived. Why does God do that? Because the fascinating thing about this story is that the most famous of all Moabites is a woman by the name of Ruth.

And Ruth married a man by the name of Boaz who was from the tribe of Judah. And they had a son. And that son's name was Obed.

And Obed had a son. His name was Jesse. And Jesse had a son.

His name, King David. And King David's greater son, Jesus Christ, will reign on the throne of his father David. From Lot, his incestuous relationship with his oldest daughter, comes the Messiah.

That's why the story's here. The story's not about the girls. You don't even know their names.

The story's not even about Lot. The story's about Jesus Christ, our Lord. Because every story in the Bible is about Christ and his glory.

The Lord puts us in there so that we would understand the amazing grace of God. Because although Lot's loss, once initiated, then perpetuated, then escalated, then culminated, was all dominated by the decree of a sovereign God that would overrule his sinful lifestyle to bring about the Savior of the world. To save people from sin, such as incest, sodomy, lying, cheating, whatever.

Because he's the Savior of the world. So God puts all this in here to bring us to this one point that says, You know what? My sovereignty rules over all. Our Father is in heaven.

He does whatever he pleases. Your sin is never bigger than God. Your sin never disrupts the decree of God.

Your sin never deters the plan of God. It just doesn't. It can't.

That would make you more powerful than God. God has it all under control. He is orchestrating.

He is using the evil acts of men to praise his glorious name. He is using every sinful act, every evil person, every vile individual to bring about his glory. Because everything is about Christ.

And everything in the Scripture points us to the Bible. It points us to the Lord himself. The Moabites, the Ammonites were always at war against Israel.

Always. In fact, it says in the book of Zephaniah, second chapter, the eighth verse, I have heard the taunting of Moab and the revilings of the sons of Ammon, with which they have taunted my people and become arrogant against their territory. Therefore, as I live, declares the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, surely Moab will be like Sodom and the sons of Ammon like Gomorrah, excuse me, a place possessed by nettles and salt pits and a perpetual desolation.

God says, I will destroy them. I will. And the remnant of my people will plunder them and the remainder of my nation will inherit them.

God says, I have a plan for them. But I'm going to take one Moabite. She's going to marry one from the tribe of Judah, Boaz.

And from them will come the Messiah to show you that my grace is greater than your sin, that my sovereignty rules over all and nobody can thwart my plans. Oh, by the way, on top of that, just in case you didn't know this, one of the daughters of Ammon was Naima who married Solomon, the mother of Rehoboam, king of Judah. So the grace of God is evident in both of these boys and their line because God is in control.

So what do we learn from this? Give me three things in three minutes. Well, sort of. Always beware of compromise.

Always beware of compromise. It will haunt you. It will haunt you until you repent, until you turn.

A lot compromised. Compromise is family, is testimony, everything. You've got to be aware of compromise.

Next week we'll talk to you about how to conquer compromise, how not to engage in a compromising lifestyle. But you've got to be aware of it. And then you also need to behold the consequences of compromise.

They're devastating. Devastating. They're destructive.

They're disastrous. There is a way we're seen with writing to a man, but the ends thereof are always the ways of death, never the ways of life. Proverbs 14, 12.

There is a way we're seen with writing to a man, but the ends thereof are always the ways of death. And it doesn't always mean that you just die physically, but there is that death-like existence that people experience because they are so barren and dry. They are so out of sorts because their life, for all practical purposes, is just a place of existence.

There's no true life that's there. Because they wanted to follow the wrong way. The consequences are horrible.

So once you are aware of compromise and behold the consequences of compromise, you must always believe in the Christ and what He says. You must always believe in His cleansing. Only Christ can cleanse you from your sin.

Only Christ. Only Christ can wash you clean. Oh, if Lot would have cried out to the living God when he was in Sodom, when his soul was tormented, maybe he would have moved his family and things would have changed.

Probably so. Or maybe after his wife died and realized his need to cry out to God and be cleansed from his sin and lead his daughters in the ways of righteousness, maybe things would have changed. Maybe so.

We don't know. What we do know is what happened, as recorded in Scripture, in the beautiful grace of God. And because of who He is and what He does, He is the only one that can cleanse us from our sins.

It's by the washing of regeneration, it's by the renewing of His Spirit that a person is born again. There's nothing that you can do to work or earn your way to heaven. It is the grace of Almighty God.

You need to believe in His cleansing. You need to believe, believe in His calling. If He's called you to His kingdom, you need to make sure and certain His calling and choosing you.

2 Peter 1, verse number 10, Peter says, make certain of God's calling and God's choosing of you. Make sure you know that you've been cleansed and you've been called by God. Paul would say in 2 Timothy 1, verse number 9, we are called with a holy calling.

The most precious thing in all the world is to be called by God into His glorious kingdom. All of us, at times, wait for a certain call. Maybe it's the call of the birth of a child.

Maybe it's the call of the doctor's report. Maybe it's the call of the job increase, pay raise. Whatever the call may be, there are times we anticipate and wait for a call.

But there is no greater call in all the world than to be called by the living God to be a part of His glorious kingdom and to be cleansed from all of your sin. That's why we rejoice in the fact that He's called us and chosen us to be a part of His glorious kingdom. And on top of that, not just believe in His cleansing and His calling, believe in His coming again.

This story is about the coming of the Messiah. Believe it or not, it's all about the coming of the Messiah. We took you from Genesis chapter 12 to Genesis chapter 19 to tell you that Jesus is coming.

He's already come. He's coming again. But it's all about the arrival of the one who can transform your life from all of its filth, all of its sin, and transform it into something beautiful for His glorious kingdom.

Messiah's coming. And the Lord wants you to know, in spite of the horrific sin of Genesis 19, that He has overcome all that. And He defeated sin at Calvary.

He defeated Satan at Calvary. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. And I trust that you know Him as your Savior and Lord.

I trust you know Him, and you serve Him, and you honor Him. Let me pray with you. Father, we thank You for tonight and a chance to be in Your Word.

Truly, Lord, it's convicting to read about the things that Lot did and said, the way he acted. As fathers, as husbands, we realize the error of our way and how much we need to follow Your Word and serve You. Our prayer is that we'd grow in our walk with You.

We will not follow Lot's life, but truly follow our Lord and the beauty of Your kingdom. The story of Lot culminates with the beauty of Your sovereignty and that You rule over all. Our sin is never bigger than our God and the grace that He bestows.

We thank You, Lord, that we could be here tonight and learn about this beautiful ending to a tragic life. But it shows us that You always have the last word and that You're in complete control of everything, even our lives. Let those who are here tonight don't leave discouraged, but leave encouraged.

All they have to do is to fall on their knees before the living God, repent of their sin, give their life to You, and serve You fully with all their hearts. And You will honor those who honor You. We thank You, Lord, for our time.

In Jesus' name, amen.