(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Man, the title of my sermon tonight is The Worst of Both Worlds. The Worst of Both Worlds. And I'm preaching tonight about the biblical character Lot, and how Lot, as a saved child of God, he was not an unsaved man, he was not an unbeliever. The Bible calls him just Lot, or righteous Lot, and it says that that righteous man dwelling among them in Sodom vexed his righteous soul from day to day in seeing and hearing their evil deeds, but you'll see that Lot ended up totally destroying his life and losing everything and really getting the best of both worlds, or I'm sorry, the worst of both worlds. And what do I mean by that? What I mean by that is that life is often about trade-offs, right? Trade-offs where you have to sacrifice something in order to have something else. You know, for example, you might have to sacrifice some kind of an activity that you would have done on a Sunday so that you could go to church. You know, I remember when I was growing up, my dad loved to ride motorcycles, and he did some motocross racing, but he could never do any kind of professional motocross racing because it happened on a Sunday. And so he had to do that trade-off and say, you know what, I'm not going to race on Sunday, I'm not going to do this, this isn't going to work out. And so he sacrificed something that was just temporary and vain and worthless in the scheme of things for something that had eternal value, taking his family to church. You know, and of course his son would one day become a pastor partially because he brought his son to church on Sunday instead of going out and doing sports on Sunday. So the point is, life is often about trade-offs where you have to sacrifice one thing in order to get something else, okay? And whenever you commit sin, it's always going to be a trade-off, because whenever you sin, you're sacrificing something good. You know, God's going to punish you, or you're going to miss out on some blessing from God, you're going to miss out on some spiritual benefit in order to enjoy that sin. So sin is a trade-off in that sense. But what I want to show you is that for the Christian, when the saved child of God chooses that which is sinful and wrong and does not seek first the kingdom of God, not only do they miss out on whatever God would have blessed them with and all the good things they could have had, but they usually end up getting the worst of both worlds because the sin that they go after doesn't even really end up satisfying them anyway, and the worldly carnal goals that they have don't end up working out anyway. And Lot is a perfect example of this. So let's look at the life of Lot and see how sin does not pay if you're a Christian. Now look, if you're an unsaved person, sin might pay for you. I mean, you know, yeah, you might as well eat, drink, and be married because tomorrow you die, okay? And here's the thing, unsaved people can get away with a lot. You'll see some really super wicked unsaved people sometimes prosper and do well and live to a ripe old age. But here's the thing, their life is just a vapor in the scheme of things because they're going to burn in hell for all eternity. So they didn't really get away with anything. They didn't really get away with it. But what I'm saying is that unsaved people can sometimes get away with it in this life and not get what's coming to them until they reach hell, whereas Christians aren't going to hell, right? Once you're saved, you have eternal life. You shall not come into condemnation. You're passed from death to life. So there's no punishment in the next world for you. The punishment all happens in this life. And that's why the Bible says, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. Notice it doesn't say every human being he chasteneth. Is that what it says? No, it says, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourges every son whom he receiveth. So God will chastise and discipline his children, but many of the unsaved are without chastisement. The Bible says, if you be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are you bastards and not sons. So the Bible is saying the bastards of this world, they're without chastening many times. They're without chastisement. They can sometimes go out and party and do all the sinful things and get away with it. But when you're saved, you're not getting away with it because God will discipline his children. He scourges every son whom he receiveth, not just some of them. He will be chastened. So therefore, because we believe that Lot is saved, according to 2 Peter chapter 2, which clearly tells us that Lot is saved, because we believe that Lot is a saved man, is he going to be able to get away with a sinful life or a backslidden life? No. He's going to receive chastening from the Lord. It's not going to go well for him. He will not prosper. Can unsaved people prosper as ungodly people? Yes, they can. We see some of the bankers and politicians and they're just millionaires and they live to be 90 and whatever. But if you're saved, it's not happening for you. The only way for you to be blessed is to follow God if you're saved, is to follow his commandments and live a godly life. So let's see how this played out in the life of Lot. What was Lot's downfall? Where did it all start to go wrong for Lot? Look, Lot had every advantage in life. Before we jump into chapter 13, let's talk about who the character Lot is. Well, we probably all know who Abraham is, right? Abraham's one of the most famous characters in the Bible. God called Abraham, God chose Abraham, and he wanted to make him the father of many nations. And he wanted to make him specifically the father of a pattern nation that would be God's chosen people, the nation of Israel, right? And he's going to use them to be a light to the Gentiles. And of course, that didn't work out, so then we have the New Covenant, right? So Abraham is this godly man, he's the father of faith, the Bible has a lot of great things to say about him, and Abraham doesn't have a son. So therefore, being Abraham's nephew, you're going to get a lot of attention from Abraham because he doesn't have a son, okay? So basically, Abraham has sort of adopted Lot as a son, okay, because he's technically his nephew, but Lot's dad is no longer around, he's passed away. So basically, Abraham has taken him in and raised him pretty much as a son, so he gets to travel with Abraham, learn the wisdom of Abraham, learn the godliness of Abraham. So he really is privileged, I mean, I don't know about you, I'd love to get around Abraham for a while and learn from him and be mentored by a godly man like that, right? So this Lot had a lot of advantages in life. And here's the thing, Abraham, as he followed God, was greatly blessed by God. And Lot was also blessed by God. So if we start out the story here in Genesis 13, we see that both Abraham and Lot are very prosperous, I mean, they're doing very well. They have just great herds of cattle, they've got wealth, they've got servants, I mean, they're running successful businesses, these guys are prosperous, spiritually, they're on the right track, they're following the Lord, they're in God's will, they're saved, they're financially prospering, these guys are doing great, right? So let's pick up the story here in Genesis 13. It says in verse 5, and Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks and herds and tents, and the land was not able to bear them that they might dwell together, for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together. So it's not just Abraham who has a lot of substance, Lot has a lot of substance too, you guys are both wealthy men. And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelt then in the land. So basically, they've got cattle and their herdmen are fighting over resources, because you've got just mass herds of cattle, where there's only so much good grazing land or watering holes, and so they're both fighting with each other about who's got first dibs on this, that, or the other resource. And then there's also the Canaanites and the Perizzites that they're sharing the land with. And Abram said it a lot, let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen, for we be brethren. He's saying, I don't want this to be a bone of contention here, but it's just that we can't coexist. Our businesses are too big, our flocks are too big, we have too many servants, and I don't want this to cause bad blood in the family. I think it's better if we just go our separate ways and we can just peacefully exist separately and still get along. We can get together at Thanksgiving and Christmas and have a good time. But this day in, day out with the herdmen and the two competing operations is just not going to work. So he tells them in verse 9, is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me. If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right. Or if thou depart to the right hand, then I'll go to the left. And this is Abraham really being very generous because he's really the senior partner here, and yet he's giving Lot the first choice. He's putting other people first, and he says, you know, you choose what you want. Verse 10, and Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as thou comest unto Zoar. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east, and they separated themselves the one from the other. Abraham dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. Now if you're reading up to this point, you would think everything's fine if you've never heard of Sodom. You would just think, okay, fine, you know, they're going to go their separate ways. He's picking a place that has a good watering hole and good grass and good everything, right? Well watered. It's like the Garden of Eden, for crying out loud. But here's the problem. Verse 13 is the problem. But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord. So everybody's a sinner. Yeah, but they were sinners before the Lord exceedingly, exceedingly sinful. They weren't just sinners. They were exceedingly sinful. And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, and then he begins to bless Abraham. So there's a little bit of an implication there that once they're separated, you know, Abram can be a little more blessed because Lot is not a good guy to have around, is what we're starting to understand about Lot, because we see right away, first of all, that he's selfish in his choices. Notice this phrase, and this is a good way to remember it. Look what the Bible says in verse 11, then Lot chose him. So notice that little reflexive pronoun thrown in there, right? Because it could have just said, then Lot chose this piece of land. But it puts that little pronoun in there, Lot chose for himself. He chose him, right? And so he chose a choice that was all based on what's good for him. He's not thinking about Abraham. Abraham's thinking about him. Abraham is selfless. Lot is more selfish here. Also Lot doesn't mind pitching his tent towards Sodom. Even though they're wicked, even though they're sinful, he's gravitating toward that. He's going a different direction. So because he's going a worldly, sinful direction, selfish, and pointing himself toward wickedness, he's on that path toward being backslidden, you know, Abraham is better off without him. So he gets a little bit more blessing as soon as Lot's gone, because that's a symbol of the fact that he's a little better off without Lot, okay? Now let's stop at this point. This is very important to realize in the story right here, that Lot's decision here is based on economics. He chooses what's best for his cattle, which would represent finances, right? Because back then, wealth isn't measured in your stock portfolio, but rather in how many rams and how many lambs and how many goats and how many cows. Think about when he wants to tell us how rich Job was. What does it tell us? You know, this was his flock of this animal, this was his flock of that animal. So he's choosing to sacrifice spiritually by pointing his tent toward Sodom, getting right next to a super wicked area in order to financially prosper, okay? Instead of, you know, getting far away from sin and maybe having a little bit less wealth. I mean, he's already got a lot of wealth here, okay? So let's see how this works out for Lot. You know, Lot's making a decision that disregards the spiritual condition of himself and his family and that's based on economic advantage, prospering physically. So how is this going to end up? Life's about trade-offs, right? So is he going to end up, you know, sacrificing spiritually but doing great financially? Let's see how well Lot ends up doing financially, or is he going to end up getting the worst of both worlds? Look what the Bible says in Genesis 14. In Genesis 14, just go to the next chapter, the first warning for Lot comes because we see Lot go through something bad right away, okay? So here's Lot, he pitched his tent toward Sodom, he's living over there amongst the sin and worldliness, he's being selfish, he's all about material gain. He's distanced from the godly influence in his life and he's going a carnal sinful direction. And what happens is, Sodom and Gomorrah end up getting into a war with some other cities. So you have these city-states fighting each other, five kings against four kings, you know, these different coalitions of city-states fighting each other. And Sodom and Gomorrah get defeated and they get taken as captives and all their wealth and all their persons and everything get taken into captivity. And because Lot is just right there with Sodom, what happens? He ends up getting kidnapped as well. So look at verse 11, they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and their vittles and went their way. And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelled in Sodom and his goods and departed. And there came one that had escaped and told Abram the Hebrew, for he dwelt in the plain of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eschol and brother of Anor, and these were confederate with Abram. And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, 318, and pursued them unto Dan. So Abram's a pretty bad dude, in addition to being the father of faith. Because he just, like, starts opening up cabinets of weapons and just starts arming his employees, okay? Just, you know, just picture that, right? He's got his 318, it's like, all right, shut down the factory. And obviously it's not a factory, but, you know, all right, shut down the herding operation. He gets his 318 workers, and he's just arming them. They've all been trained how to fight, you know, because they've probably already had to defend themselves, because this is kind of a Wild West, as it were. You've got these different city-states. It talks about how Abram is confederate with Mamre the Amorite. You know, he's got to have his coalitions with other tribes and things, because of the fact that this is kind of a Wild West, and you've got to watch your back and protect what's yours, or you're going to get raided by enemy tribes and so forth. So his men are, you know, he's trained them to be tough. He's trained them how to fight. He's trained them in weapons. And so now he arms them all. So I mean, he didn't be like, all right, we've got to make some weapons. He had a stockpile of, you know, arsenal for 318 people just ready to roll, right? So he basically, you know, he arms his trained servants, born in his own house, 318, so he pulls out, you know, his 318 weapons that already exist, all right? So he wasn't exactly a gun control guy, you know what I mean? He had the weapons. So he arms up all of his guys, and they go out and they go fight against, you know, kings with armies of these city-states that are more sophisticated, but he's got his kind of guerrilla warfare shock troops, you know, that were trained by him personally, okay? And he divided himself against them, he and his servants by night, so he's breaking up into small groups and he's going to go ambush them. He and his servants by night had smote them and pursued them unto Hobah. He's got them on the run, which is on the left hand of Damascus, and he brought back all the goods and also brought again his brother Lot and his goods and the women also and the people. So he follows and he routes the enemy, he recovers the goods, he recovers the persons. Verse 17, and the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Kedorlaomer and of the kings that were with him at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king's dale. And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine, and he was the priest of the Most High God. So of course we have this juxtaposition of these two characters. On one hand we've got the king of Sodom, and on the other hand we've got Melchizedek, the priest of the Most High God. You really couldn't get any further apart between the king of Sodom and the king of Salem. Salem meaning peace, the Bible tells us. Salem, remember, tells us in Hebrews chapter 7, Melchizedek, first being by interpretation king of righteousness and also king of peace because his name means, Melchizedek means king of righteousness, that's what Hebrews 7 tells us. And then king of Salem means king of peace. And then later, this place Salem is going to become Jerusalem. It's basically two cities merged into one, of Jebus and Salem, and it's going to be Jerusalem. So basically, the king of Sodom comes forth, Melchizedek comes forth and blesses him, blessed be Abram of the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be the Most High God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand, and he gave him tithes of all. And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, give me the persons and take the goods to thyself. Now the king of Sodom here represents the devil, Melchizedek, of course, Jesus Christ. So notice how Jesus Christ receives from Abram the tithe, right? Abraham gives to Melchizedek tithes of all, and this is of course talked a lot about in Hebrews chapter 7 once again, how Abram gave him tithes. Well, the king of Sodom is the exact opposite. Basically the king of Salem comes and he brings the bread and wine, which represents of course the future communion of the Lord's Supper, breaking the bread, which is a picture of Christ's broken body, the wine representing the blood of Christ, and he brings forth bread and wine, and then he receives tithes from Abraham. So he actually blesses him, he blesses him spiritually, get this now, he blesses him but he actually takes something from him materially. You see that? He takes something from him. Abram gives him money. He gives him wealth. He gives him something materially, but what does Abraham receive in return from Melchizedek? He receives what? A spiritual blessing. The king of Sodom is the exact opposite. The king of Sodom comes up and says, hey, take all the stuff. The king of Sodom comes up and wants to give him material goods, right? Exact opposite. He's giving him all the material goods. So watch out for these prosperity preachers. Oh, you know, God's going to give you all this wealth and the health and wealth, prosperity, gospel. You know, the devil wants to offer you all these carnal worldly material things, okay? Christ actually asked you to sacrifice, okay? But he comes up and says, you take all the goods, Abram, because remember, this is his stuff. This is the king of Sodom stuff. Because the foreign invader came in, they kidnapped Lot, they kidnapped the Sodom people. I hesitate to say Sodomites because we're not sure if they've become fully reprobates yet, okay? They might just be like maybe the U.S. is right now where they're like on their way to, you know, turning into a total Sodom. So we don't know how far down that road they are. But basically, you know, the men of Sodom and Lot and all these people have been kidnapped and all their stuff was kidnapped. Abram recovers all the stuff and he's ready to give it back to its rightful owners. But the king of Sodom says to him, no, no, no, just keep the stuff. Like, give me the persons and he says, you know, keep the goods. Take the goods unto thee. Verse 21, give me the person, take the goods to thyself. And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up my hand unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread even to a shoe latchet and that I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich, save only that which the young men have eaten and the portion of the men which went with me, Einor, Eshcol, Amri, let them take their portion. So basically, here's what he says. He says, look, I don't want any of your stuff. And I feel like he's being a little rude here. And I think this kind of shows that Abram realized that the men of Sodom were wicked sinners before the Lord exceedingly. Whether they'd gone all the way to the reprobate level that we see in Genesis 18 and 19, where they're total homos and everything else, we know that even in chapter 13, they're wicked. They're very sinful people. And so Abram doesn't like these people because he's not being nice to them. Abraham's a very polite guy. If you see how Abraham deals with people in other chapters, he's very polite, very respectful. He's always treating people very well. This is a little caustic. I'm not even going to take a shoelace from you, buddy, because you're going to try to say that you made Abraham rich. I mean, that's a pretty adversarial caustic answer. So you can tell that Abram is not into helping out the king of Sodom. He only did this for Lot. He wouldn't have thought that, oh, Sodom needs help. Let me get in there. He's only doing it because his nephew needed help. So he gets in there. He defeats the enemy. But in the process of helping Lot, he ends up helping the men of Sodom as well. And so they're offering him stuff. And he says, I'm not going to take anything. I don't even want anything that you have. Your money pairs with you. He says, except I'm just going to take what other people need because that guy that he was confederate with, give that guy his portion of the spoil. The guys that were with me, yeah, let's give them their days, wages, and their food, and whatever they need. But he said, I'm not taking anything. I don't want anything. I don't want your wealth. So he doesn't accept. Now right here, what we see is this should be kind of a wake-up call for Lot. Here I am hanging around with wicked, ungodly people. They end up getting punished and judged. And then I get judged. I get kidnapped. I get punished. They're wicked. Uncle Abraham has to bail me out. The godly man bails me out from the mess that the sinners got me into. And then he sees how Abraham treats the king of Sodom and how he doesn't want the wealth. He's saying, I don't want your wealth, king of Sodom. And what's Lot's problem? What does Lot want? He wants that wealth. He wants to be in that proximity of Sodom. He wants the wealth. He wants the money. He wants to succeed financially. Abram says, I don't need it. You know, he's, hey, in fact, let me just tithe over here to Christ and let Christ bless me. This is the blessing of God. The blessing of Christ on my life, I don't need to sacrifice spiritually in order to gain carnally. I don't want to make that trade-off. He doesn't want to take something from the king of Sodom and become Sodom's buddy. He doesn't want to be Sodom's friend, okay? He doesn't even want there to be any kind of a connection there. He wasn't doing it for them. But this should have been a warning for Lot, but Lot doesn't heed the warning, so of course things get way worse. Let's jump to chapter 19, where we see the ultimate doom and downfall of Lot, okay? So things keep getting worse in Sodom. The Bible says evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. And so we know that by the time we get to chapter 18 of Genesis, that Sodom is just so bad, so evil, so wicked, so reprobate that God's going to completely wipe out the city of Sodom. It might have been that bad back in chapter 13, we don't know, but we know it's that bad in chapter 18. And he's going to destroy Sodom, and in chapter 19 is where we actually see the execution of that, okay? So he sends two angels to Sodom, and part of the purpose of these two angels going to Sodom is to pull Lot out, because Abraham has interceded for Lot. He already bailed him out in chapter 14, but Abraham has prayed to God and interceded for Lot and asked God not to destroy the city for the sake of the righteous people that are in the city, and he's referring to Lot. Now God's not going to back off from destroying Sodom, because it's too wicked. There's not enough righteous people to justify not destroying it. They couldn't even find 10 righteous people in it. So instead, he's going to honor the spirit of what Abram wanted by getting Lot out, because that's really what Lot cares about, or what Abraham cares about. Abraham's not going to cry about Sodom being destroyed. He's just worried about Lot. So God, because he respects Abraham's wish there in his prayer, he's going to send his two angels to get Lot out of Sodom. They're also there for another reason, but one of the reasons they're there is to remove Lot. So look at verse 1 of chapter 19, and there came two angels to Sodom at even, and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom, and Lot, seeing them, rose up to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face to the ground, and he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant's house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early and go on your ways. And they said, Nay, but we will abide in the street all night. And he pressed upon them greatly, and they turned in on him. So I mean, he has to really talk these guys into coming over to his house. He's saying, you don't want to sleep outside. You don't want to lodge in the street. You don't want to stay outside, because he knows what a filthy, wicked place he's at. You don't know this neighborhood like I do. You don't want to stay outside. Because he doesn't realize that these are angels of the Lord. He just thinks that these are just two ordinary guys. And so he feels bad for these guys what's going to happen to them if they stay outside. So he says, Come on in. They turned in unto him, and entered into his house, and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat. But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round both old and young, all the people from every quarter. And they called on Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came into thee this night? Bring them out unto us, that we may know them. And this isn't like, hey, we just want to meet these guys. They want to know them like Adam knew Eve. They want to do something very wicked and abominable to them. And it says, Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him. So you kind of get this picture of him kind of slipping out the door, shutting the door after him. Come on, guys. Come on. You guys don't want to, you know, you don't want to do this. So he's trying to reason with these guys. Of course, he hasn't read Romans 1, because Romans 1 is not going to be written for a couple thousand more years. But in about 2,000 years, you know, Romans 1 is going to be written that they're implacable. Okay. And then he would have known, hey, let's just stay inside, lock the door, right? Hide your kids, hide your wife, you know. And hide your husbands, right? And then, so basically, Lot went out the door after them, he shut the door after him, and said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly, behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man. Let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes. Only unto these men do nothing, for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof. Now, you can see here that Lot doesn't care much about his family. Okay. But here, this is kind of a weird scenario. And let me just explain this a little bit, because a lot of people struggle with this passage, because it's kind of strange that he makes this offer, isn't it? Now, obviously, what he's offering here is wrong. What he's doing here is totally wrong. And it shows that he doesn't have the proper love for his daughters, does he? He doesn't love his kids like he should. There's no question about that. He's an unloving father. But we kind of already knew that because of the fact that he put his own financial prosperity over their spiritual well-being by enrolling them in the Sodom Unified School District. Okay. So basically, we see this ungodly, unloving, wicked act here of offering them. But let me just kind of explain to you where he's coming from, even though it's totally wrong. I'm not justifying, because it's super wicked. But let me just explain to you what's going through his mind or where he's coming from here in this passage, because it's similar to what happens in Judges 19 when they throw the concubine out the door, which, you know, he didn't love the concubine either, okay? Because if you love people, you're not going to throw them into this situation. But what's going through his mind, I believe, is that, you know what, at least it's less perverted than this man-on-man act that they're trying to do, which is even sicker. And I'm not saying that his logic is right here, because he shouldn't have offered them anything, okay? So don't misquote me on that. But what I'm saying here, because if you look at what he actually says, I'm just showing you what's going on in his backslidden mind, his wrong mind. He says to them, nay, my brethren, he says, verse 17, I said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. Behold, I have two daughters which have not known man. Let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do you to them as is good in your eyes. Only unto these men do nothing, for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof. And, you know, I wanted to show you something that isn't there, because I was thinking of Judges 19. And in Judges 19, what the guy says is, do not unto them so vile a thing. You know, that's how he justifies why they're going to send out the concubine and the, because he said, don't do something so vile. It's so vile what you want to do. And of course, it's just ridiculous to try to placate these people, to try to, you know, and to just sacrifice your family. But you know what this goes to show is just when you go down a road of seeking after the world's prosperity, carnal things, money, the love of money, you know, it takes you to a real dark place. This is a dark story. This is one of the darkest stories in the Bible, Genesis 19 and Judges 19. It's like a contest, which one can get weirder, you know, and I, you know, I, that's a hard question to answer. Which, which stories weirder, you know, they both end up in a horrible place. Both of those stories, okay. I think this one wins ultimately, but anyway, so it says here, you know, behold, now I have these two daughters. They said, verse nine, stand back. And they said again, this one fellow came into sojourn and he will need to be, oh, you judging me. Isn't that what all these bunch of queers say? Oh, stop judging. Oh man, this Christian is so judgmental. He came into sojourn, he will need to be a judge. Now will we deal worse with thee than with them? And they press sore upon the man, even a lot and came near to break the door. Look, this shows you that what they're doing isn't a loving act because they said, we're going to do worse to you than what we were going to do to them. So were they going to do something good or bad to those two men? Even by their own admission, we want to do something bad because they said, now we're going to do worse. You look, you don't just go straight, you have bad and then you have worse. You don't go from good to worse. You go from bad to worse. So they're basically saying, hey, we're going to do worse to you. So this is, oh, well, who cares who they love? They just love each other. No, they don't. They're bad. What they do is bad. It's just, it's just bad, badder and baddest. All right. Also known as worse. Okay. And so they, I mean, they, they attack, they, they physically assault, now look, this has got to be a low point for Lot because look, God could have just immediately rescued Lot. He could have just immediately like, like while this conference, as soon as they're like stand back, you know, the angels could just open the door, grab Lot, pull him inside. You know what they're going to do in a minute anyway, but God actually allows Lot to basically just get a little bit of a glimpse of what could happen to him. You know, now thank God Lot is saved and preserved from actually being assaulted by them. But you know what? They start to attack him and imagine that terrifying moment. He doesn't know he's going to be rescued. Like, you know, if you've ever been through a traumatic experience, sometimes looking back, it's not as bad because you know that you're going to be okay. You know, let's say you're in a horrible car accident or you get beaten or assaulted in some way, you know, you know that it all turned out okay, so you can kind of smile about it and laugh. But man, at the time you don't know how it's going to end up. Who's ever been in a situation where you thought, this is it, I'm about to die. I'm dying. I've, I've had a few times when I felt that way. I'm like, this is, this is how I die. You know, that's, I've said those exact words in my mind like, so this is how I die. All right. But you don't know how it's going to look. That's, that's, get in the moment with Lot here. He's surrounded by a crowd of sodomites and they begin to assault him. They slam him into the door. They're starting to rough him up and what's coming next, it's a shame even to speak of, right? So they slam him into the door and begin to attack him. And it was at that moment, the meme on Facebook said that he believed the reprobate doctrine at that moment. You know, he's like an old IFB guy and at that moment Romans one clicked with him. Of course, Romans one wasn't around, but anyway, he gets slammed into the door and assaulted. And this is a horrifying, terrifying moment. It's probably one of the worst moments in his life. He's got some other pretty bad moments coming up, but this is one of the worst moments in his life when he thinks this is it, I'm done, game over, right? So they assault him and they almost, in fact, they shove him into the door so hard that they almost break the door, okay? Because an angry crowd, I mean, there's just a lot of power behind that many people. And so they come near to break the door, but the men put forth their hand and pulled Lot into the house to them and shut the door. So God, in his mercy, rescues Lot from this untoward fate that he almost suffers, right? So he gets pulled in to the house and they smote the men, so the angels here, they have a supernatural power and basically they smite them with blindness. So basically all of a sudden the angels swing open the door. How are these two angels going to defeat this giant mob? Well, they smite them with blindness and they grab Lot and they pull him in and basically, so all the sodomites are just blinded, they can't see anything. And this is what cracks me up, they wearied themselves to find their houses, they wearied themselves to get home, they wearied themselves to, no, they wearied themselves to find the door. So these guys are so implacable, they're still going after that strange flesh that they seek. Okay, but there's a spiritual application here. Jesus is the door. He can't find him. Oh, we've got to get these people saved. Hey, they are so blinded, they'll wearie themselves to find the door. They can't find it. God has blinded their eyes, God has hardened their heart, God has darkened their understanding. See Romans 1 and John chapter 12 around verse 39. So anyway, you know, the man said unto Lot, and remember these men are God's two angels, we know that from chapter 18, hast thou here any besides, son-in-law, thy sons and thy daughters and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place, for we will destroy this place because the cry of them is waxing great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it. And Lot went out and spake unto his sons-in-law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place, for the Lord will destroy this city. Oh, man, that's a good one. They think it's a joke. No, sir, the end is here, y'all, whatever, right? They think it's a joke. He seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in-law. They think it's a joke. They think he's kidding. No, seriously, God, we don't believe in God. Evolution, the big bang, we're gnostic, we're gaitheists and phagnostics. So basically they're like, ah, we don't, you know, we don't believe in that. So they think it's a joke. And you know what? The symbolism here is that if you're a backslidden Christian, you're a joke unto the world. And when you try to witness to them, they're going to take it as a joke. Because basically, if you think about it, he's telling them how to be saved, not spiritually, but physically. Get out of the city, be saved from hellfire. And God rained literal hellfire on Sodom and Gomorrah, because he says that they suffered the vengeance of eternal fire. He rained fire and brimstone. He rained hellfire on Sodom and Gomorrah. So the picture is escaping hell, okay? And so Lot's trying to tell his friends how to escape hell. He's trying to tell his family how to escape hell. But he's so backslidden, he's so worldly, he's been so sinful, he's ruined his testimony that when he tries to witness to them, he's a joke unto them. And you know what? I guarantee you, if you're living a worldly, sinful, backslidden life, and you try to witness to people that know you, you're going to be a joke to them. They're not going to take it seriously. But if you've been living and modeling a good Christian life, they're going to take you seriously. They're going to listen to you. That's one of the important things of having good testimony with the people that you know. So when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot. So Lot is kind of dilly-dallying. He's trying to pack things, and he's trying to talk his sons-in-law. He's trying to talk to people, and they're like, no, sorry, that ship has sailed. We got to go. So they hasten them, arise, take with thee thy wife and thy two daughters which are here, which by the way implies that there are other daughters that are not there. So I believe he had more daughters, because he said I have these two daughters that are not laying with a man. And then we have the sons-in-law, which imply married daughters, and the fact that it says the daughters which are here as opposed to the daughters which are not here. So I think he's saying, you know, look, you don't have time. This ship has sailed. They're not listening. They think you're a joke. You got to just grab who you can. Grab your wife and your two kids that are here, and you got to get out of here. And while he lingered, the man laid hold upon his hand, verse 16, and upon the hand of his wife and upon the hand of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful unto him, and they brought him forth and set him without the city. So basically, if you think about it, the angels each have two hands, right? So one of them grabs Lot. One of them grabs, you know, Lot's wife with the other hand, and then the other one grabs a daughter with each hand. So their hands are full, grabbing these four people and dragging them out of the city. And of course, Jesus used this as an illustration in Luke chapter 17 about the rapture, about how it's going to be like it was in the days of Lot when Jesus comes, because in Matthew 24, it talks about how Jesus is going to send his angels to gather the elect. So here we have the angels, you know, grabbing Lot and pulling him out of Sodom, which is a picture of that. So he drags them out of there, and it came to pass, verse 17, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life, look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain. Escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed. And Lot said, Okay, let's go, run. No, Lot's like, Not so, my Lord. He's like, What? What in the world? Behold, now thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast showed unto me in saving my life, and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil overtake me and I die. So basically, what's he saying here? He's gotten a little soft, hanging around with the sodomites, he got soft. Now he can't even go camping. You know what I mean? He's like, Oh, you know, I can't go to the mountain. I don't want to go up there. I might die or something. How about this? Here's Lot's idea. How about this? Why don't you just spare one little suburb of San Francisco? Okay, and basically, I'll just go there. That way I can continue my urban lifestyle. I don't want to go to the wilderness. I don't want to go camping. So I want to stay urban. So what about this little suburb? And he says in verse number 20, Behold, now this city is near to flee unto, and it's a little one. Oh, let me escape thither. Oh, by the way, did I mention it's a little one, right? Is it not a little one? And my soul shall live. Now here's what we have to understand. According to Jude, what does the Bible say in the book of Jude? Because we got to use the New Testament to interpret the Old Testament, right? Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh, are set forth for the example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Was it just Sodom that was involved? No, it was Gomorrah. Was it just Sodom and Gomorrah? No, it was Admah, it was Zeboam, and it was Zoar. All of these cities are involved. So basically, this little city Zoar was just as wicked as Sodom. But it's just a little one though. Man, wipe them all out. You know, I mean, when I read this story, I was just reading this story in my Bible reading this week, which is where the sermon came from. I was reading the story in my Bible reading, and I'm just thinking to myself, man, if you leave that little city, that little cell, those bunch, they're going to recruit and pervert and multiply and that cancer, look, when you get operated on, let's just remove all the cancer. Well, what about this little tumor? Is it not a little one? You know, we're going to take out the big tumor, but what about this little cancerous tumor? Is it not a little one? Folks, this is cancer. God's performing surgery, and he's saying just leave a little bit of the cancer in the body. It's going to spread. It needs to all be wiped out. Now, you know, I believe that God did wipe out Zoar as well, okay, thank God, but, you know, other cells sprung up, and, you know, the cancer came back, right, and we're infected in the United States of America with this cancer, but anyway, it says here, and God's going to perform surgery someday, amen, but he said, oh, it's just a little one, and he said unto him, see, I've accepted thee concerning this thing also that I will not overthrow this city for the which thou has spoken. In case thee escaped thither, for I cannot do anything till thou come thither, therefore the name of the city was called Zoar. Now, you say, well, wait a minute, it looks like God didn't destroy it, you know, because God's listening to him, right? Well, yeah, it's hard to say because here's the thing. He goes into Zoar, but when he gets there, he starts getting scared because here's the thing, even though God, and look, as a backslidden Christian, you know, we've talked about a lot of his problems spiritually. One of his things is he doesn't believe God here because if God told him, think about this, if God told him, I've accepted thee concerning this thing, I'm not going to overthrow Zoar for your sake. Shouldn't he just take it to the bank? Shouldn't he just sleep like a baby at the hotel Zoar and just, I mean, he should pretty much just go to sleep in Zoar and just think, I'm fine. God just told me he's not going to wipe out Zoar, but because he lacks faith, okay, and when you get backslidden and you get away from the Lord, you know what I mean? You start having doubts in God's word and lacking faith and things like that, so you're not trusting God like you should. So what does the Bible say? Of course, the sun was risen upon the earth when law entered into Zoar. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah, brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven, and he overthrew those cities and all the plain and all the inhabitants of the cities and that which grew upon the ground. But his wife looked back from behind him and she became a pillar of salt. Jesus memorialized this in the New Testament with that short little verse, Remember Lot's wife. She left her heart in San Francisco and Abraham got up, verse 27, early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord and he looked towards Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the plain and beheld and lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace and it came to pass when God destroyed the cities of the plain that God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt. Now here's why I'm saying that it's possible that God destroyed Zoar. Because when we read verses 23 through 29, it's kind of a big overview. We're kind of leaving Lot because we were kind of like with Lot and going through the story from Lot's perspective, right? But then all of a sudden we kind of back up and get it from Abraham's perspective, okay? In verses 23 through 29, you know, Abraham gets up early in the morning and he looks and it's just kind of the overview of God wipes out all the cities, Abraham looked over. It's sort of like telling you where, how everything ended up. This city got destroyed. Oh, by the way, Lot's wife looked back. She turned into a pillar of salt and blah, you know, he's just basically like giving an overview. You see what I'm saying? But then we get to verse 30, we come back to Lot and it says in verse 30, Lot and Lot went up out of Zoar and dwelt in the mountain with his and his two daughters with him for he feared to dwell in Zoar and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters. So basically he ends up saying, you know what? This was stupid to want to be in Zoar while the city right next to it's getting wiped out. He sees the fire and the brimstone and you know what this was like, you can only imagine just fire and brimstone, like little meteorites or whatever you want to picture, fire, lava, like a volcano exploding or whatever, just fire, brimstone, raining. He's a little too close for comfort here and he's not trusting God's promise that said, I'm not going to overthrow Zoar. So he basically just says, I'm getting out of here. So it's, I think it's likely based on the verbiage of the overview and the verbiage in the book of Jude, it's possible that because Lot has second thoughts as soon as he gets to Zoar and says, forget this, I'm going to the mountain, that God basically at that point just said, oh good, now I can just wipe out Zoar cause that was my original plan anyway. So that's what I think that maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part. That's what I like to think happened. And I think that if you study the text that it's there, okay. So now we see Lot hit rock bottom and this is, by the way, this is the end of the line for Lot. Lot doesn't have any stories later in the Bible where he gets redeemed or anything. I mean, this is the end of Lot's story. I mean, it's been a pretty interesting ride with Lot, hasn't it? It's been an interesting saga going through the twists and turns with Lot. Here's where Lot ends up and I'm going to show you how Lot ends up pretty much the worst way you could possibly end up no matter how you look at it, okay? And Lot went up out of Zoar, he dwelt in the mountain, verse 31, and the firstborn, he's dwelling with his two daughters, the firstborn said to the younger, our father's old and there's not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth. So this is more support for Zoar having been destroyed because they, for sure, they think it's destroyed because they're not saying, well, we got to go down to Zoar and find a boyfriend. They're basically thinking to themselves, Zoar's toast too. So that, you know, that maybe they know that that happened or maybe they're just guessing, who knows? But they say there's not a man in the earth. So they don't think that just Sodom and Gomorrah got destroyed. They actually think the whole world's been wiped out, all right? So they basically think it's the end of the world. Now, you can see how they could think that. I mean, think about this. What if you are in – you know, you're in Phoenix, Arizona and Phoenix just gets completely wiped out and everywhere you look, you're in some cave and the whole world's just wiped out and you just look out, it's just smoke and burnt and as far as the eye can see, you don't necessarily know this is a local event, you know? You might think like, hey, we didn't take care of global warming in time and I mean, Greta was right. You know, how dare us, you know, it's just like, wow, right? You're going to think like, wow, you know, Al Gore was a little late on it but no, so stupid. That was a joke. But anyway, they're like, the whole world's wiped out, there's not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth. Come, let's make our father drink wine and we will lie with him that we may preserve seed of our father. Super perverted, super wicked but what do you expect from these girls who dad's been out making money and sending them to the Sodom Unified School District to be brainwashed in the public fool system and they're being taught perversion from kindergarten and first grade and second grade. They're getting taught all this perversion, ungodly, wickedness, filth. It's very likely that Lot's the only saved person even in his family. He didn't get anybody saved. He's such a bad soul winner, he didn't get anybody saved in the whole city, not even his own family did he get saved, okay? And so his daughters are perverted, they're weirdos and they end up doing this sick thing and he ends up becoming basically the father of his own grandchildren, to put it mildly. And this is where Moab and Ammon come from and so forth. But here's the point that I want to make. This is the close of the sermon. I want to just leave you with this one thought. Everything that I've said so far in the sermon, just kind of teaching you the story and showing you the scripture, is kind of just building up to this point that I want to leave. It's all about the point that I'm about to give right now, all right? So everything else was just leading up to this truth. This is what I want to get across to you tonight. At the beginning of the story, he chose financial success, he chose carnal prosperity. Does he end up prosperous? Let me ask you this, how many herds of cattle does he have in that cave with him? How many rams does he have? How many sheep does he have in that cave? Think about it. Now you say, well, good night, how can you think of money at a time like this? He's been perverted, he's been abused in his sleep, he's been a drunkard, he's a laughing stock, he's a fool. No one is naming their kid Lot today. And I guarantee you that if Lot were some warrior in the Bible, if instead of King David, it was King Lot, Lot and Goliath, if Lot got swallowed by the whale, you know, people would name their kid Lot, right? They don't name them Lot because Lot is a disgrace. You can't think about Lot without associating him with all this just wickedness and perversion and just a total loser. I mean, look how he became a total loser. Now of course we know he became a loser spiritually. Of course we know that just he's an embarrassment and a shame and a laughing stock. Who in the world wants their family to look like this? Oh, these are my two sons born of my daughters. I mean, it's just, it's so weird. It's so sick. It's such a humiliation, embarrassment, just horrible. But you say, well, you know, he sacrificed spiritually that he might prosper financially. No, he got the worst of both worlds. What's the title of the sermon? The worst of both worlds. If you're a Christian and you try to have what the world has to offer, you know what you end up with? The worst of both worlds. If you seek the kingdom of God, if you hunger and thirst after righteousness, you will be filled. If you as a Christian seek after the things of God, you will be filled. If you seek, you'll find. If you ask, you'll receive. If you knock, it'll be opened. But if you as a Christian seek after what the world has to offer, you're going to end up with neither. You're not going to say, well, you know, I'm going to sacrifice the things, I'm going to sacrifice church and reading my Bible and living godly life and raising my family for God. I'm going to sacrifice that. I just want to enjoy what the world has to offer. That's not an option for you. Now if you're a hell bound, unsaved sinner, that's an option for you. Go out and enjoy what the world has to offer and eat, drink, and be merry and tomorrow you die but it's going to come way quicker than you think, eternity's long. But if you're saved, you don't understand the two choices, my friend. There's not this choice of just wining and dining and living the fun life versus, you know, a Christian life where I make sacrifices and I go to church instead of partying. Those aren't the choices. The choices are serve God, make the sacrifices, love God, work for God, serve God, or lose everything or worst of both worlds or fail at trying to be worldly, fail at trying to succeed in what the world has to offer. Look a lot ended up with nothing. Well, you know, it's just my herds, my herds are going to do better in the well watered place. I know Sodom's there, but you know, my herds, how's your herd doing now, Lot? Your herd is literally toast, right? His herd has been burned to a crisp. Okay, his herd, he's got some blackened, he's got some blackened filet mignon down there for him. He's got some cajun blackened meats down there for him down in the valley of Sodom, but you know what, how much money did he end up with? No money, no herds, no dignity, spiritually a joke, and you know what, I believe Lot's in heaven right now because the Bible says he's a just man, he's a righteous man. It's not that he didn't believe on the Lord. It's not that he didn't call upon the name of the Lord, but you know what? I guarantee you he's not up there with a bunch of rewards. He's going to be sweeping the floor in the millennium. He's not going to be ruling and reigning, okay? He, you know, he's going to be there by grace. He's going to be there, but you know what? And he got, but you say, well, how dare Lot be there? I don't think Lot should be there. I don't, hasn't Lot been through enough? Are you serious? Don't you have a heart? If you're sitting in your seat right now thinking, well, I don't think Lot should be in heaven. Well, you shouldn't even be in heaven. I shouldn't be in heaven. None of us should be in heaven. That's why it's called grace. Amen. But let me say this. You just are not a very empathetic person if you actually don't want Lot in heaven. I mean, look, Lot has been through enough, okay? And you know, if nobody wants Lot in their kingdom, in the millennium, you know what? I'll take him in my kingdom, you know what I mean? I'll rehabilitate him, you know, and you know why? I wouldn't mind hanging around with Lot in the millennium because you know what? I bet he feels exactly the same way about the sodomites as I do. I think we, I think he and I, and look, I don't think he's going to be a high ranking guy. I think he's going to be at the bottom, but you know what? I'll take him in my kingdom. You know, whatever God, whatever God chooses to reward me with, if God chooses to put me over this town or that town or whatever town I'm in, you know, when we're picking teams up in heaven, you know, I'll take Lot, you know, cause I'll bet Lot and I are going to, you know, on the first day of the company meeting in the millennium, I'm going to look at Lot and I'm going to be like, I'm thinking the same. I think we're both thinking the same thing about, about the first hundred days in office, about what we, what we need to take care of. Are you thinking what I'm thinking about? You know, I mean, I'm glad Lot's going to heaven. You know what? I'm glad he's going to heaven. But you know what? I don't envy his life. Man, what a life. It's like a worst nightmare of a life. I mean, out of all the Bible characters, if you pick like, well, I definitely don't want to be that guy, Lot would have to be pretty high on the list as like most despicable destiny. Like, like out of all the ways you could end up, like, like, you know, would you rather be Lot or I don't care what, I'll be the other character. This is literally the last character you want to be in Bible virtually as far as saved people. So thank God for heaven. Thank God for his grace. He's going to be there and I'm not going to shy away from him, you know, I'm okay with him because I think he's, by now he's learned his lesson, you know, 4,000 years later. Good night. So anyway, uh, don't be deceived by the world because guess what they say, Oh, you can't have it both ways. Here's the thing. There's only one way for you to be blessed. There's only one way for you to be happy. There's only one way for things to go well for you. If you're saved and that's to follow the Lord. Other people might find temporary happiness and sin because they're not saved, but when you're saved, it's not going to work out for you and it might work out for a little while. I'm sure a lot enjoyed some, some, some times of prosperity leading up to this, but what about the end? Is that how you want to end up? I don't care how fun it is. You don't want to end up the way you ended up. You don't want to wake up like that and you don't want to realize when you wake up one morning, you're in a cave and you don't have any money. You don't have any wealth. You don't have any prosperity, which we don't care about that, but you know what? That mattered to him. That was what his whole life was based on. It did matter to him. And then what? Well, at least he's got his wife. Nope. She turned into a pillar of salt. Well, he's got his daughters. He probably never wants to look at his daughters ever again. He probably wants to get as far away from his daughters as he can. I mean, you know, he's probably horrified by his daughters and disgusted by them. I don't even want to even think about how that must have felt for him. Don't be lot. Be nice to him when you get up there, but don't be him. All right. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord. Help us to heed these warnings. Help us be wise in how we live our life and not to be a lot. Help us to never pitch our tent towards Sodom. Help us to stay away from these exceedingly wicked, sinful places and help us not to turn on the TV and look at these Sodomites because that's pitching our tent towards Sodom. Help us not to do that, Lord, but to stay as far away from this stuff as we can and live a godly life that would honor and glorify you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.