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

Alright, keep your finger here in 2 Peter 2. We're coming right back to it. And flip if you would to Acts chapter 16. I just want to make a real quick point before we really get into the meat of the sermon here. I'm sure everyone here realizes this already and has experienced this, but after a person is born again, when you get saved, and as a New Testament believer we have something special that's been given unto us. The Bible says that the comforter, Jesus Christ promised the comforter to come after he's departed and that when we're saved, we believe here that the Holy Spirit resides within us. We have the Holy Ghost that comes and fills us and literally takes place in our heart and provides us with guidance and some prompting and brings to the words of God to our remembrance and will help lead and direct our paths, but we have to be open to, of course, to receiving the Spirit. The Spirit does not control us and just, whether we want to or not, we're going to walk in the Spirit. That's not the way it works. We have a guidance or a prompting. Now, it's not something that you're going to be hearing audible words and you're going to be hearing the Word of God tell you something different than what's in the Bible or something like that, you know, this goofy mysticism type stuff, but the Holy Ghost is real and the Holy Ghost is there to prompt you and to warn you and to kind of lead you and direct you and help you to know right from wrong. Now, I'm very careful not to preach on, you know, following your feelings, right, because we need to follow the Word of God. We know that this is true and sometimes you could even confuse your own feelings out of your own heart with something that's from God. People have a tendency to do that quite frequently, actually, and the way that we discern the difference is by knowing what's in the Bible. God's not going to do anything or say anything or make you feel anything contradictory to what's in Scripture, so if there's anything that's contradictory to what's written in God's Word, then it's not of God. I mean, if you have this feeling or this urge and, you know, God's just telling me to go whatever, get into some sin or something, it's not God telling you to do that, okay? It's whatever you're feeling, whatever that impulse is, whatever that urge is, it's coming out of your own heart. It's not coming out of God. Here in Acts chapter 16, we just see a reality is just one quick example of the guidance of the Spirit. Look at verse number six. Bob reads, Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, after they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered them not. And they, passing by Mysia, came down to Troas, and a vision appeared to Paul in the night. There stood a man in Macedonia and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia and help us. And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the Gospel unto them. So this is, you know, in the book of Acts, the apostles are going out and the disciples are going out and they're preaching the Gospel to everybody and they're going on mission trips and they're going out and basically going where the Spirit is leading them to go to in the various cities and the areas where God is directing them, this is where I want you to preach the Gospel. Now God, you know, the overall command is to preach the Gospel to every creature. So they're endeavoring to do this, but as they're doing this, the Spirit is guiding them and leading them. No, you know, and it's not very specific on how, right? When we see this in the Bible, we don't see exactly how, but generally what happens in my experience has been, you know, God opens up doors and he closes doors and basically makes things where it's like, okay, okay, well, we're just going to go over here then instead of over there. And these are things that the Spirit can lead and guide and direct in. And we need to be sensitive to the Spirit, but go back if you would to 2 Peter chapter 2. And this is just kind of a real general rough overview of the Heaven and the Spirit. And again, it's nothing earth shattering. We should all know this by now. I think everyone in this room is already aware of this and knows this and has experienced the guidance of the Holy Spirit in your life. But there's another thing that the Spirit will do, and that's more what I'm going to be focusing on this morning, is help deter you from situations where something wrong or sinful is going on that you should not be a part of. And it's like a warning. It's kind of like your conscience kicking in, but it's something that the Holy Ghost is saying, this isn't right, you shouldn't be here. You know, if you were to step foot in one of these Pentecostal churches and all of a sudden people start getting up and they're rolling on the floor and speaking in tongues, you start seeing these demon possessions going on, the Holy Ghost is going to be, if you're saved, the Holy Ghost is going to be prompt to you saying, get out of here. This is not right. These people are not of God. Okay, and that's something that you will experience from the Holy Ghost. And look at 2 Peter chapter 2, starting in verse number 6. The Bible reads, And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, and them them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly, and delivered just lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked. For that righteous man, dwelling among them in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to deliver the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. Lot was a saved man. That's why it calls him just. When it says and delivered just lot, it doesn't mean only lot. It means he was just. It delivers the just man lot. And why was he just? How was he justified? I mean, he was a sinner. He was living in Sodom. He wasn't doing, he really wasn't doing anything right. We could look at all the examples of why Lot is a really poor example of a believer. But the reason why he was justified is because he was a believer. He did believe on the Lord. And that's all that is required for our salvation as it was, you know, Romans 4 clearly explains Abraham believed God, it was counted on him for righteousness. Guess what? Lot believed God, and it was counted on him for righteousness also. That's why he's referred to as just. But what happened, even though he was a very worldly or carnal believer, he still had his soul vexed. And why was his soul vexed? Because he could see the wickedness of what people were doing, and he knew that it was wrong. And he was being vexed in his soul of things that were going on. And the title of my sermon this morning is, Is Your Soul Vexed? Because it ought to be with a lot of things that are going on today. What was Lot vexed by? He was vexed by, it says here, the filthy conversation of the wicked. Now, I brought this up in sermons past, but just in case you weren't here for that or you've forgotten, that word conversation in the King James Bible is not just referring to what people say with their mouth. We typically use that word now. This is an example of a word that's changed meaning slightly over time. It's not radically different. It's not any, you know, some completely different word. I'm not trying to redefine words for you, but conversation, the way we use it today, is when you talk with somebody. Oh, I had a conversation with this person. But conversation in the King James Bible is more than that. It's actually the way that you behave and the way that you act and the way that you present yourself in public around other people is your conversation. So that includes the way that you speak. That includes the conversations you have with your mouth. But it's more broad in scope than that. It actually goes to the things that you do and your activities. Lot was vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked, the sodomites. Not only the things that they talked about, the things that they said, but the things that they did out in public. He was vexed by that. He would see it from day to day. He would see the sodomites, you know, holding hands or kissing or whatever it is that they were doing that was filthy in the sight of God and it bothered him. His soul was vexed. Well, we live in an era today that's getting ever more close to being just like Sodom and Gomorrah were. And these things are being done in public and I ask you this morning, is your soul vexed when you see the filthiness, when you see the wickedness? Because if it's not, then you have a problem. Your soul ought to be vexed. Are you vexed by anything? There's reasons why people no longer are vexed and the first one is they get desensitized by the world. So I'm going to go through a few things here that can cause your soul to stop being vexed. When it ought to be. It's a good thing for your soul to be vexed. It's a good thing to feel that uncomfortableness, that prompting saying, this is wrong, this is weird, this is wicked, I don't have anything to do with this, I don't even want to look on this stuff. That's a good thing. You want to keep that. One is being just desensitized by the world. There are means now that were unavailable before technologically to really pump information and imagery into your head on a mass scale. And it's real interesting the way it works too because everybody's seeing the same thing. I don't believe it would work as effectively if everyone was seeing like different things but the fact that everyone's seeing the same thing, everyone could talk about the same thing and be collectively kind of thinking on the same things that are being pushed into your brain of just things that are wicked and sinful and disgusting and with the mass communications and the mass media, you can take one event, put one filthy thing, Hollywood will create a whole bunch of perverted wicked images but there's only so many that people are watching. There's only so many TV channels, there's only so many movies that come out, there's only so much of this and I could think back to events in my life where I've seen things that were groundbreaking and how far they pushed the line in their wickedness. And these things stick out and it's something that everybody's talking about when it happens. When nudity is being shown on public TV for example. The first time certain curse words are used on television. The first time a sodomite, you know, kissed somebody on television. The first time these things happen which are vile and filthy and disgusting, it's had a mass impact on a huge amount of people. See, Sodom was localized to Sodom. It's one city or a couple cities that's right down in that narrow region and that got out of control to the point where God rained fire and brimstone because there's no other solution for it but then just to burn them all with with hellfire. And by the way, as we already read in 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 6, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them and in sample unto them that after should live ungodly. That story of Sodom and Gomorrah, that was Old Testament. Yeah, that was an example for believers today in the New Testament to realize this is what God does with the perverted in wickedness and this is what he thinks about it today. Nothing has changed. It's still an abomination. It's still wickedness and it's still according in God's eyes worthy of the death penalty. But Satan today is capable of desensitizing you because the more you allow yourself to to be exposed to the filth and the wickedness, the more you're going to think, the less you're going to think it's that big of a deal. The first time you hear about something or see something that's really shocking. Man, I've never seen that. I've never seen a man, you know, kiss another man before. It's just, oh man, the first thing you see, it's like, oh, that's gross, it's disgusting, I can't believe they did that. The image is burning in my head. I don't want to see that anymore. And then you know what they do? They do it again. And then they do it again. And then you get to the point where I wish they wouldn't do that. Right? It's just not as severe of a reaction. It's not as as like turning your stuff. It's still, yeah, I don't want to see that. But the more you see the thing is, it's because you're allowing yourself to do that. You keep coming back. You're like a dog returning to your vomit again. You just, you just, I know, I know this show's got these these side of my character. I love this show. I hate that character. I hate when they show that person, but I love everything else about it. Don't put that wickedness in front of your face. You know, there's there's stuff there. I mean, I don't care what I don't care if it's a television program. I don't care if it's a movie. I don't care if it's Facebook. I don't care what it is that you get into. If you got people, you got things that are popping up that you ought not to be looking at, get rid of it. You don't want to be desensitized to this filth and wickedness and garbage that's out there. Now hopefully sodomy disgusts everyone here. That's a pretty far gone, depraved sin that that ought to be revolting to anybody who witnesses anything even close to that. But there's a lot more sins that we ought to be vexed by. That shouldn't be the only one. That should really turn your stomach. You should be vexed by many sins. I mean, really, really, we should be vexed by all sin. Anything that's contrary to God's Word. Anything where God said, does say to the Lord, and people are doing opposite. We should be vexed by that. That's something that should bother us. It should trouble us. An example that comes to my mind easily when I think about these things is what about people that take the Lord's name in vain? It's one of the Ten Commandments. And if you don't know what that means, when you say it doesn't mean, you know, when people put two words together that are Bible words, like God and damn, okay? That's not even necessarily, depending on the context, a curse word. If I say God damned Sodom and Gomorrah, that's a true statement, and I am not using that flippantly or anything like that, and there's nothing wrong with that, okay? But taking the Lord's name in vain is when you just use it flippantly, when you use it in a meaningless manner. When you hurt yourself, you go, oh God! But you're not really talking to God. Or when something bad happens, you're like, Jesus Christ! And you're not talking about Jesus Christ. That's taking the Lord's name in vain. That is using it in a way that has nothing to do with giving God reverence and respect and actually talking to the Lord. I mean, think about how silly it would be if instead of Jesus, you just inserted some other name. Oh, John! You hurt yourself, right? I mean, it's these people look at you like, what are you talking about? Like, why are you so stupid? But when you insert Jesus, everyone knows it's just fine, and no one has a problem with that. I don't know about you, but that vexes my soul. I hate, you know, I love God. I love Jesus. I have a lot of respect for His name and, you know, being my Savior and the reverence and the holiness of God and the amount of respect that I have for Him, I don't like people just toss around His name. I hate to hear that. And you know what? If it all possible, I'm not going to subject myself to that either. I'm not going to just consciously turn on programs or put things in front of my face, in front of my eyes, where I know they're going to be using the Lord's name in vain just because I want to see something else. Well, I wish they wouldn't do that, but I'm going to watch it anyways. You're desensitizing yourself. It's bad enough that you hear these things all the time just out in the world, but there's not there's not much you can do about that. People are going to talk the way that they talk, and there's things that you have to do out in public in general. I mean, you can't just go and hide from the whole world, but we don't want to consciously be desensitizing ourselves to these things and these sins. We need to have the proper perspective and outlook on the sins, and we ought to make sure, you know, if your soul is in vexed by some of these things, then maybe you are desensitized. 1 John chapter 2 verse 15, real common passage. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved 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 pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. We're not supposed to be loving the worldly things, and you know the things of this world are not the things of God, and you could be sure that the things of this world that is put out there by the world is going to be full of sin and wickedness and blasphemy and you know, using the Lord's name in vain and things like that. And to be honest with you, as far as that goes, I try to stay so far away from that, I don't even like using the euphemisms. You know, people say, instead of saying, Oh my God, they'll say, OMG. It's like, really? What's the difference? I mean, you're saying letters of your meaning. The meaning is exactly the same thing. I mean, you want to use an acronym, but is that really just hiding the taking the Lord's name in vain? And I appreciate when people are trying to change their habits, especially if they've been used to talk in a certain way and you try to change things, but even saying things like, Oh my gosh, it's like, well, what is gosh? You know, we ought to be careful with the words that we use. And I'm not, and look, I'm not just trying to condemn you or anything. And I'm not trying to make something into a sin that isn't clearly a sin from the Bible. Because if you say, Oh my gosh, you're not taking the Lord's name in vain. You're not. Okay. I don't believe that because that's, that's not the name of the Lord. But it's kind of, it's like, it's so close, like why even do that? I think if we're going to, if we're going to go through an effort of changing our speech and stuff, let's just change it as far, you know, get as far removed from it as possible. So no one even thinks that you might've said, Oh my God, right? Like this, let's stay away from all appearance of evil. Now, and again, I mean, that's, take that for what it's worth, but that's the way that I try to look at things and just in my own personal life, try to stay as far away from these sins so that I'm not getting desensitized to it. Because again, that's a problem. You get so close to that line, right? You just change a couple of letters. I don't want to be that close to that line. I just stay away from it, right? Just be as far back. And I think that's just a wise bit of information for you to chew on there. What's another reason why people might not be vexed in their soul? Well, besides being desensitized to sin, and all these things kind of go together, they're kind of intermingled. Turn, if you would, to Psalm 101. Oftentimes we don't have enough hatred for sin. Our perspective on sin is not the way it ought to be. This mentality of, well, like with lying, and we go through this when we go out soul-wading. Well, everybody lies. Well, that makes it seem not that big of a deal anymore because everybody doesn't. Something that everybody's guilty of, well, it's not that big of a deal. Yeah, we all do that. Yeah, it's no big deal. But it is a big deal. And that's the point when we go out soul-wading and try to show people, look, it is a big deal to God. It may not be a big deal to you. It may not be a big deal to your neighbor. It may not be a big deal to anyone you talk to. But when lies come out of your mouth, guess what? It's a big deal unto the Lord that said not to bear false witness to one who created hell where the flames of hell are sparked by the wrath of God. Lying means a big deal. God hates lying. Proverbs chapter 6, you know, these things, these six things the Lord ate at the seven are an abomination unto Him. Lying is mentioned twice. And we throw that around today like it's not that big of a deal. And maybe you even catch yourself telling a lie, oh, it's not that big of a deal. I mean, look at politics these days. It's just expected that they're going to lie. And you know what? Another desensitization. They lie. Yeah, okay, well, what else is new? We ought to hate that and not stand for that and say, I'm not going to be voting for... I'm not going to be putting faith in somebody that's just this known liar and just expect lies of them and just say that's okay and that's acceptable. It ought to vex your soul. Psalm 101, look at verse number one. I will sing of mercy and judgment unto thee, O Lord, will I sing. I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. Oh, when without coming to me, I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. This is the attitude we ought to have. I'm going to do what's right, God. I'm going to walk within my house with a perfect heart. I'm going to be act and behave wisely. How am I going to do that? Look at verse three. I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes. That's you consciously having a choice of what you are going to put in front of your eyes. Are you going to put wickedness in front of your eyes because of some sinful pleasure that you get out of it? I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes. Look at this. I hate the work of them that turn aside. It shall not cleave to me. You don't want to be caught in sin yourself. You ought to hate the sin. Now I have anything to do with the sin because the more of a soft spot that you have for the sin, the more likely it is to stick to you and to cleave unto you. I hate it. I don't have anything to do with it. You're going to keep it at a good enough distance so that that sin like leaven doesn't just sneak into your life. Verse four, a froward heart shall depart from me. I will not know a wicked person. But how many people today do know wicked people? How many people today know wicked people even just through television, through movies, through media, through these images that you see? You know wicked people. Look at People magazine. It's full of wicked people. Look at any and I don't even know that magazine is still around anymore. Any of these magazines that promote the whores and whoremongers of Hollywood. And you want to know everything about them. Well, David wouldn't know them. I'm not going to know a wicked person. Not only in my personal life, but just in general. I don't want to know these people. I want to know everything about their lives and know everything about how wicked they are. I'm not going to know a wicked person. Verse five, who so privily slandereth his neighbor? Him will I cut off. So the person who's just slandering, spreading rumors, going behind people's back and back biting and gossiping and talking about their neighbor, talking about, you know what? I don't want to have anything to do with them. I'm going to cut them off. Him that's in a high look and a proud heart will not I suffer. Who's David surrounding himself with? Not the proud, not the wicked, not the backbiters, not the whisperers. Verse six, mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land that they may dwell with me. He that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me. He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house. He that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight. And there we get down to the lying. I'm not going to stand for it. That's what David's saying. I'm going to walk in a wise way. I'm not going to stay when I know that there's just a liar when there's no life, not going to tarry in my sight. I don't want to listen to anything they have to say. I'm not going to be friends with the wicked. I'm not going to know these people. I will early destroy all the wicked of the land that I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the Lord. You've got to have a proper hatred of sin in order to have this type of an attitude that David had, in order to behave yourself wisely, in order to walk within your house with a perfect heart. When you don't have the proper perspective on sin, your soul is not going to be very vexed by it. It's not going to bother you that much when you don't hate it properly. Another reason people's souls end up not being vexed is because you have too many of your own sins. And this is what's going to happen when you don't have the right hatred for sin. You're not necessarily in it yourself. You allow yourself to be surrounded by it. And you allow yourself to become desensitized by it. The next step is you're in it. Why? Because it's not that big of a deal anymore. You don't have as much respect for God's Word anymore. It's become something that's just accepted and acceptable. That is a progression of sin. You start off thinking, oh, I would never do that. But the more you just keep feeding the flesh, the stronger the flesh is going to get and you're going to wind up being in your own sins. 1 Thessalonians, Chapter 5. Please turn there if you would. 1 Thessalonians, Chapter 5. You are not going to be vexed by sin when you're doing the exact same thing. When you're guilty of the same exact things, the sins that you have in your life, they're not going to be as troublesome. They ought to be troublesome to you. And if your heart's right and you're trying to do what's right and you're trying to confess and to forsake your sins, you can still be in sin and it'll still bother you. But when you get to the point to where you like what you're doing, you like your sin, it's going to stop vexing you. And the Bible calls that quenching the spirit. Remember I talked about at the beginning, we have the spirit that's supposed to be guiding you and the spirit's going to be prompting you, the spirit's going to be letting you know when these situations come up and will take part also in vexing your soul. Look at verse 19 of 1 Thessalonians, Chapter 5. The Bible reads, Quench not the spirit. Despise not prophesying. Prove all things. Hold fast to that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil. I have personal experience with this quenching of the spirit. I wasn't mean to quench, right? If you have a fire and you throw water on it and it goes out, that's quenching it. When you're real thirsty and you get that nice big drink, it quenches your thirst, right? It puts it out. Well, the Bible's saying, don't put out the fire of the spirit that's burning inside of you that's telling you, hey, this is wrong or telling you, this is what you should be doing, right? You ought not to be quenching the spirit. Why? Because we are capable of quenching the spirit. It is totally possible. The spirit is subject unto us. We are ultimately in control. God's spirit does not come and take control of us as robots. We ultimately have the final say so. So we have the capability of quenching the spirit. In my own personal life, I did this when after I got saved when I was 20 years old, I knew that getting drunk was a sin for a very long time. That is not something that is very hard to see in the Bible. Even before I was saved, I knew it was wrong. I knew it was wrong. I knew it was a sin. I knew it was something I wasn't supposed to do. But you know what? I like doing it. And after I got saved, it didn't bother me before I got saved. I just like to do it and whatever. You know, I mean, it was. You know, I had heard or I knew the Bible says wrong, but it didn't matter to me because I didn't have respect for God's word because I didn't even believe it. But after I got saved, it did matter to me. And it did bother me. But you know what? After a while. That that that prompting and the vexation and in what I felt and then oh man, I feel so bad. Why did I do that? I can't believe I did that. It goes away. When you're consciously choosing, I don't want to listen to that. Stop bothering me. Stop bothering me. Stop bothering me. I want to do this. You can quench that spirit and reduce that to where, I mean, there'd be nights on end I could go out and not have a problem even after I was saved. It wasn't always that way. I had a problem for a long time. But after a while, you quench that spirit. And many people get to the point where then they despise the prophesying too. Maybe you're still going to church. Maybe you're hearing things and oh man, why is the preacher talking about alcohol? Why is he pointing out to me? Well, you know, what was he got against me, huh? And you hate the preaching of God's word instead of humbling yourself and accepting it and saying, I need correction. I need to do what's right. Let's not get ourselves in a position where we're quenching the spirit and that vexation is gone as a result. The last point I have on why we may lose that vexation is just through sheer ignorance of God's word where you may never have had it to begin with. You have to know what sin is, what God's law is in order to know what's sinful and what's not. My wife's a perfect example of this. She grew up not in a Christian home at all and had no teaching or understanding at all the Bible. So after she got saved, there were some things that she had never heard before was wrong and never the way she was brought up had no clue that certain things were wrong or a sin. And it wasn't until she actually heard it then she realized, Oh, this is a sin. Oh, this is wrong. And turn to Romans chapter 7. Now, God doesn't accept ignorance as just an excuse either. God's still gonna hold you responsible, you're still responsible for your actions and the burdens on us to know, especially as a believer, you believe in God's word, the burdens on you to read God's word and to know what it says. Look at Romans chapter 7 verse number 5. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law, for I had not known lust, except the law had said, thou shalt not covet. Saying without the law, we don't even know what is sin and what's not. We need to make sure that we are knowing for ourselves what sin is, what's right and what's wrong by reading the Bible and by coming to church and it's hearing things expounded and hearing the application of God's law and say, wow, I didn't even realize that that's what you know. You could read, thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. But maybe you don't know exactly what that means and you just need a little bit of help understanding it and getting the application. Well, when you do this and when you say this and when you say that and when you say this, oh, that's what that means. But ignorance is a reason. It's not an excuse. Ignorance is a reason why you may not have the proper vexation. You might say, oh, I didn't even realize this. I mean, there's some things I hear people say, I didn't even realize that was a sin. I didn't even know that that was wrong. Well, when you find out that it's wrong, it ought to vex your soul and you ought to get the proper, you know, adjustment in your mind, renewing your mind to be thinking correctly about things and to start to hate these things and have nothing to do with them so that you don't get caught up in those sins yourself. So, these are a lot of reasons, but the second point is, well, what are you going to do about it? What are you going to do about it? Maybe you have a problem with your soul not being vexed. What are you going to do about it? 2 Peter chapter 2, where we started off. Remember what it said? Here's a verse in verse 8 talking about Lot. The Bible says, For that righteous man, dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. Now, I started off telling you about the Holy Spirit and its prompting and the way that it can move in your life, and I didn't make this clear before because I'm making the point now. Lot wasn't a New Testament believer. He didn't have the Holy Ghost residing in him. Now, I do believe, and there's plenty of examples where the Holy Ghost will vex our soul and will lead us and tell us, hey, this isn't right. You need to get out of here. This is sinful. You shouldn't even be looking at this, bringing God's word to your remembrance and helping to lead and to guide you and instruct you. But what we see with Lot here is that it says in verse 8, That righteous man, and there's some common dwelling among them and some prepositional phrases, that righteous man vexed his righteous soul. From did Lot vex his own soul? Why? Because he had the choice of where he's going to live. Lot did not have to stay in Sodom. Lot was saved. He knew wickedness when he saw it, but you know what? He cared more about the money and the finances than he cared about being right with God. That's what drove him. That's why he did what he did. Note, Lot is the one that's vexing his own soul. He put himself in that situation. He's the one that didn't do anything about it. He wasn't the soul winner, which is obvious, because if he was, then God would have destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. You know, there was a point for the Sodomites to get saved before they got completely rejected and turned over to a reprobate mind. And especially before the entire city became that way. We know that Lot was not a soul winner because if he was, he would have gotten a few people saved. And when Abraham was pleading with God, think about this, and let this sink down on the impact one person can have. One person. Lot could have prevented an entire city from being destroyed. He could have. Had he done what he was supposed to be doing, had he been a soul winner, had he been preaching the Lord to these people, and you know what, had he been preaching the Lord, if they all would have rejected him, he probably would have gotten out of there anyways because he was actually doing something and just being rejected, rejected, rejected, fine, I'm going to get out of here. And he wouldn't have been in that situation to begin with. But had he been soul winning and gotten to them before they got turned over to the reprobate mind, the whole city could have been spared. But he wasn't a soul winner. He didn't leave. He decided, yeah, I know what, I'm not going to try to win people to cry. I'm going to let them do what they're going to do, and I'm going to live my life. Well, he did that, and it got extremely bad and perverted. It got so bad where he knew when the angels came that they shouldn't even be outside. Oh, no, no. He basically persuaded them just to come and stay inside of his house because he knew how wicked everybody was in that city, yet he still lived there. He still resided there. He still decided, well, this is where I'm going to be. This is my home. He didn't leave. He stayed all the way until he basically had to be drug out of there. I mean, even after the angels told him they're going to destroy the place, he still tarried. He still was kind of hanging around. That was a lot. But even through all of that, he was vexed by what was going on. But he's a good example of someone that is not doing anything about it. You know, the word vexed means troubled, right? Your soul, your spirit is troubled. Man, I want to see this. When that's going on, fix the problem. Get out of the well-watered plains lot. Do you care about the desensitization that's going on, or do you love the world and the worldly pleasures too much? The thing about that, that was one of the reasons why people get their soul stops being vexed because they're being desensitized. Does it matter to you? Are you going to get that out of your life? Are you going to try to make sure that you're not setting any wicked thing before your eyes? Turn to Genesis chapter 13. Genesis 13. Are you going to hate the sin enough to say that you will set no wicked thing before your eyes like King David did, or are you going to care more about the well-watered plains of Jordan like Lot did? Genesis 13, verse number 10, by reason 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. So prior to God's fire and brimstone coming down, hey, Sodom and Gomorrah was a beautiful place. Well-watered, great for food, very prosperous, very wealthy, great land to live in as far as the physical resources go and as far as the wealth that was available. Verse 11, 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 towards Sodom. But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. So even at this point, they're wicked and they're sinners exceedingly. They're already extremely sinful, but what does Lot do? He looks at it. He points his tent towards it. He desensitizes himself to it as just putting that in the forefront of his mind and thinking about the things, oh, I'm not actually, I mean, these people are wicked sinners. I'm not gonna go and be a part of Sodom. I'm just gonna look at it every day. I'm just gonna look at that well-watered plain. I'm just gonna go look at the wealth. I'm gonna look at all these other things that are attractive about Sodom and pretty soon the wickedness is downplayed in his mind enough for him to actually move and be in Sodom and just be living among the Sodomites. Not a proper hatred of the sin. Are you gonna be wise and receive correction from the Word of God so that you don't quench the Spirit? Remember, one of the ways you could stop the vexation of your soul is by quenching your spirit. Proverbs 28, 13 says, He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Turn, if you will, to 2 Corinthians 7. 2 Corinthians 7. And that's some good news, by the way. I'm gonna read that again. Proverbs 28, 13. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper. What are you doing when you're covering? You're hiding it. You're hiding your sins, right? You've got your guilty sins. You've got your sins that you like to do. You don't hate it. You like it and you're just trying to hide it. You're trying to cover it up. You're not gonna prosper. That's not gonna go well with you. Why? Because God sees what you're doing and God can see that the sins you're in. But whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Praise God, we have a merciful God. He says, I know you've screwed up. I know you've sinned, but when you confess and forsake him, confess him unto God. Let him know, God, I've sinned. I've sinned. I'm sorry. I'm not gonna do that anymore. I'm gonna get that out of my life. God can have mercy on you. Praise God, it's great to have a loving father like that, that even though we deserve to have a lot more happiness, a lot more punishment, that he will have mercy. 2 Corinthians 7, verse number 8. For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent. For I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season. Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance. For ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance and salvation, not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. For behold this self's same thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sword. Look at this, verse 11. Ye sorrowed after a godly sword, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge, in all things you have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter. This is where we want to end up. You don't want to be despising the prophesying, despising the preaching, not willing to receive correction, not being grieved at your own sins, but receiving the correction and repenting and getting right with God. When you're in sin, it's a good thing to feel bad about it. It's a very good thing to feel bad about it. When you stop feeling bad for your sins, you're in trouble. Much less motivation to get right with God when you don't care about it. You don't even think it's that big of a deal. But when you get sorry after a godly manner, and you have that godly sorrow, man, everything can turn around. As the result, he's saying, look, the boss of Paul was even starting to say, and this is what he's saying in 2 Corinthians 7, he's saying, you know, that first letter he wrote unto him was pretty harsh. He's saying, when I wrote that, he's like, I almost was, you know, repented that I even wrote it. Like, I might have, I felt like I might have gone a little bit too far. He says, but I don't repent. No, he says, actually, it's a good thing. He says, because the letter that he wrote, it made them sorry, and it's not that he just wanted them to feel bad. And it's not that when I preach on sin, I don't want you to feel bad. It's not that I just want you to feel bad. It's not like I'm up here trying to just make you feel horrible, just for the sake of feeling horrible. But here's the thing, if I can make you feel bad to the point to where I realize that what I'm doing is wrong in the sight of God, and I'm sorry about that, and now I'm going to change what I'm doing, I'm not going to do that anymore because it's wicked in the sight of God, then that's a good thing. Even though you have to go through that sorrow, it's worth it in the long run. It's just, it's the same way. I don't like inflicting pain on my children. I don't like taking out the stick and spanking their butts, okay? That's not fun. It's not that I want to see them cry. I don't like to see my children just in pain. I don't like that. But I know that the result of that is going to change their behavior and start to do the right things. And obviously it's what God has prescribed for us to do, but it's for the benefit of the result, of what's going to happen. And the preaching ought to be the same way and you hear God's word. You ought to be sorry for what you've done in order to do what's right. In order to clear yourselves, like they did, the Corinthians did, this matter. And then be fired up. Have indignation. Get the fear of God. Have vehement desire. Have zeal to do what's right and to stay away from that wickedness and be approved in whatever matter that you have with your own sin. So what are you going to do about it? Are you going to study up on the Bible so you're not ignorant and you know what things should be vexing you? 1 Timothy 2 15 says, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. We need to have a heart like Job had. Job chapter 13 verse number 23 reads, how many are mine iniquities and sins? Make me to know my transgression and my sin. Job had a heart where he wanted to know what was wrong with him. He wanted to know what his sins were. And in order to stay ahead of the curve and to stay right with God and to not have to face this, you know, the punishment for our own sins, you know, the chastising of the Lord, we should be going to God and saying, God, let me know what my sin is. Let me know what my transgression is. I want to know what they are because I want to be right with you. Having that type of a heart and that type of an attitude. When we rebel against God, we actually vex the Holy Ghost. So you're not, we should be the ones being vexed when we're seeing wrong and we're doing wrong. But when we get rebellious against God, and I'll just read this for you. You don't have to turn there. Isaiah 63 verse eight says, for he said, surely they are my people, children that will not lie. So he was their savior and all their affliction he was afflicted and the angel of his presence saved them in his love and in his pity. He redeemed them and he bare them and carried them all the days of old. But they rebelled. So he's saying, I did all this great stuff for my children. I redeemed them. I carried them in days of old. I have pity towards them. But they rebelled and vexed his Holy Spirit. Therefore, he was turned to be their enemy and he fought against them. We have a merciful and loving father. We ought to appreciate that. We ought to want to know when we're crossing God and not doing what's right. We ought to want to have that vexation when we're doing wrong. Because on the flip side, when we get rebellious and we decide not to have anything to do with that, we're going to end up vexing the Holy Spirit and as a result of that, see, God's not going to just let himself be troubled. He's going to say, okay, you're troubling me. Now I'm going to do something about it. See, when you get troubled, you ought to be doing something about it. God will always do something about it when you trouble him. So the Bible says here, therefore he was turned to be their enemy and he fought against them. There's a lot of things that are troubling in this world and just because there's a lot of things, we shouldn't just let ourselves just get desensitized. They say, well, what are you going to do? Let's renew ourselves daily in our mind through the Word of God into what should be bothering us, what sins, all sins, but what is it that's going on around us that we don't really think is that big of a deal anymore? And let's change our attitudes and change our minds to have the proper outlook and the vexation's a good thing in order to prompt you to do something. You shouldn't just be vexed all the time. It should be a prompting to change something in your life so that you're not continuing to be vexed. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for teaching from your Word, dear Lord. I pray that you'll please help us all to identify the areas in our own personal lives where we're lacking, where we're failing, dear Lord, where we've maybe gotten complacent with our own sins. Lord, help us to have the proper outlook and to know and understand that all sin is a big deal and that we shouldn't just be flipping about anything that we do or dismissive of it, dear Lord, but that we would attack each one individually and have the right attitude, have the right godly sorrow, dear Lord, that will lead us to repentance. We pray for your mercy in dealing with us and help us all to identify these problems. Lord, show us our own iniquities. Help us to know where we are failing, that we can do what's right. And it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.